Top Chef

Originally aired on Wednesday, 10/18/2006 Episode Rating: **** (4 stars out of 5) Episode Overview: Our new chefs arrive and we get a tasting menu of their personalities cooking styles, and quirks as they complete their first challenges.
Episode Highlights:

• Fifteen new chefs arrive to compete in Season Two of "Top Chef."
• On the judging side, there are some familiar faces, with the return of Season One winner Harold Dieterle, but also a new host/judge, Padma Lakshmi.
• The first two challenges are served up and we have our first elimination.

Recap: We start "Top Chef's" Season Two with the usual get-to-know-you montage of the chefs arriving at their new digs:

• Elia Aboumrad - she is 23 years old, formally-trained, and is currently Assistant Chef at The Hotel in Vegas.
• Otto Borsich - he is self-taught, but is now a teacher at the Culinary Institute of Las Vegas. He's 46 years old.
• Marisa Churchill - she is 28 years old, trained at C.I.A., and is currently an Executive Pastry Chef. She also brought a bustier and says she'll use her sexuality when needed. Yawn.
• Cliff Crooks - he's also 28 years old, self-taught and is currently Executive Chef at Salute! in New York City.
• Carlos Fernandez - he's 36, and the co-owner/chef at his own restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
• Marcel Vigneron - villain alert! He's Season Two's Stephen Asprinio! He's got the tie, the coif, and the same frou frou/intellectual attitude towards food, describing his interests as being "avant garde" cooking and "molecular gastronomy." Yum! He also has the lethal combination of arrogance and the either total ignorance of or total lack of concern for effect of said arrogance on other people. If I have learned anything from lo these many hours of writing about reality television, it is that a near-delusional level of self-confidence can take you far, if only because the producers know the audience loves to hate you, and you are much less likely to self-destruct from self-doubt. He's 26, was educated at C.I.A. and is currently a Master Chef. He also wants to show people his knives.
• Betty Fraser - she's the self-taught owner of Grub restaurant in L.A. She's 44 years old and used to be an actress.
• Mia Gaines-Alt - she's 32, and owns an upscale BBQ restaurant in L.A.
• Ilan Hall - he's another young'un, only 24 years old, and has only been cooking for three years. He's currently a line cook in New York City, and, frankly, cute as a button, and so unless he does something egregiously evil, I will be shamelessly supporting him for the remainder of these recaps. Don't say I didn't warn you.
• Michael Midgley - he is 28 years old, a line cook in L.A. in Lodi, CA. According to the Bravo website, he is also "hysterically funny" and "alarmingly blatant." ("Alarmingly blatant"?) Much like the hottie waving her bustier around, I am perennially suspicious of people who are always touting their outsized personalities. Tedium alert!
• Josie Smith-Malave - she's 31, and a Sous Chef in Manhattan. She's also "outrageous" and "out-there" per her bio. Double yawn.
• Emily Sprissler - she is 30, and Master Chef at Nob Hill. She received her training at C.C.A.
• Suyai Steinhauer - she's 29, and says that she got into food in order to help her healing with her bulimia. She's currently chef and owner for a meal delivery service in New York.
• Sam Talbot - he is 28 (apparently the magic age for "Top Chef" this season), and was one of the youngest Executive Chefs ever in New York City. His bio refers to his being handsome twice and also helpfully lets us know that he was voted one of the ten sexiest chefs in New York. I would make some crack about how much better this must make his food taste, but since I've already said I'm going to be unapologetically rooting for Ilan simply for being adorable, I guess I have ceded the moral high ground. Harrumph.
• Frank Terzoli - he is 39 and Executive Chef at Heat.

And we are whisked off to the first Quickfire Challenge. New host Padma Lakshmi - who is, as hoped, a vast improvement over Katie Lee Joel - informs the chefs that once again, the winner of Quickfire Challenges will receive immunity in the Elimination Challenge. Harold Dieterle, winner of Season One of Top Chef, will be the guest judge for this episode, and I am torn between my sacred duties as a recapper to alert you to the fact that he is looking a little puffier than last season and my affection for him, which doesn't want to find any fault at all. Duty calls: he's puffy. Tom Colicchio, Chef/Owner of Craft Restaurants, is there as well, and lets the chefs know he is there to function as a judge, not a chef. Padma then lets the chefs know this Quickfire Challenge will both be quick and involve fire: they are to create a dish using the flambé technique. (To "flambé" means to douse with alcohol and set briefly alight.) Suyia is worried; she's never done flambé before. Michael, on the other hand, was shown literally playing with fire in his audition video, so this is right up his flaming alley. Elia struggles - she selected red wine as her fuel and its low alcohol content doesn't ignite. After tasting each dish, Harold declares that Elia, Suyia and Carlos had the weakest dishes, and Sam, Emily and Betty had the strongest. Sam is ultimately declared the winner due to his "flavor profile" and receives immunity for the elimination challenge. That evening, back at the chefs' quarters, the group relaxes with some wine and beer. Or, in Michael's case, many beers. He seems to get pretty lit, but, luckily, knowing his affection for flame, doesn't light anything on fire, merely stumbles around. The next day is the Elimination Challenge. Padma has the groups randomly separate into two groups. Each group will be getting a set of five ingredients. The chefs will each make a dish from the five ingredients, and then the other group will taste and judge them, voting two best and two worst. The Orange group is first to cook and first to be judged by the Black group, who get two hours of downtime while the dishes are prepared. The Orange Team opens their crates to reveal their secret ingredients: snails, potatoes, aritchokes, peanuts, and processed cheese. Were I a contestant, I would have already been lost. Suyia is right there with me, and offers up her struggles immediately to Tom C. who questions the wisdom of showing her weak hand so early in the competition. Elia is also struggling, showing a professional chef's disdain for the processed American cheese. The other members of the Orange group, Carlos, Michael, Marisa, Ilan, and Frank also have their challenges, but ultimately, everyone is prepared when the Black group comes in for the tasting. The Black group seems to feel uniformly that Suyia and Carlos are the two weakest entries. The top two are up for a little more debate, with Elia, Ilan and Frank being named initially. When Tom poses the question "Which would you pay $16 for?" it clarifies the top two for the group as Elia and Ilan. Next, it's the Black group's turn to cook. Their five ingredients are corn flakes, frogs' legs, chicken livers, eggplant and peanut butter. Mia is excited as frogs' legs are a family favorite, and so she is stoked about preparing them Southern-style. Marcel is also feeling confident (of course) with his frog leg lollipops. Betty isn't thrilled with the ingredients, but has a creative solution of making them into a liver-frog leg cake. The Orange group also has a relatively easy time with the decision as to the two top chefs for this challenge: Mia and Betty. There is some debate with the two worst. Most agree that Marcel's garlic was overpowering, but Elia feels strongly that he wasn't that bad. She's out-voted, though, and Marcel is in the bottom along with Otto. Now it's time for the best and the worst to meet with the judges. Of the four best - Mia, Betty, Elia and Ilan - Ilan is voted the best. That's my boy! Then it's time for the four worst. Suyia and Otto both cop to their failings, while Carlos and Marcel stand by their dishes. The weakness seems to sway the judges, and it's Suyia who's asked to pack her knives and go. And we have our first cut! Well, it's currently a crowded house, but the producers of "Top Chef" have done an admirable job of showing us the chefs' personalities and cooking style. This promises to be another entertaining season! -Leslie Seaton