No, this isn't a post about me or the various authors who have shown themselves to be less than mature on message boards recently, but the contestants on last night's episode of "Top Chef." The episode started out the way it usually did, contestants wake up at the loft, make conversation, and then head over to the Kenmore Pro kitchen for that week's Quickfire Challenge brought to you by the good people from Nestle. However, unlike other Quickfire Challenges, the chefs are stuck with Bitter Chocolate, and I have no idea what the other flavor was that they could use. Padma Lakshmi didn't inform us.
Anyway Sam, even though he's a diabetic, managed to prepare the winning dish, judged this week by Top Chef Eric Ripert from Le Bernardin, a restaurant so expensive that they charge your credit card $300 if you make a reservation for a group of more than three people. When I temped at Cartier back in the go-go 80's, my boss used to eat at Le Bernardin regularly. He knew the owners. That was over 20 years ago, and it's still one of the top restaurants in the city for seafood.
Cliff practically creamed himself when he found out who they would be cooking for. Ilan paired chicken livers (?) and chocolate in a truffle. Now whatever made him think that would taste good? Harold, the winner last season, tried to say that Foie Gras and chocolate are good together, but Harold, foie gras and chicken livers are two different animals. Elia whined when Chef Ripert criticized her dish, which I totally don't get. If she knew so much about food and was so knowledgeable, wouldn't she be doing more than just working as a room service chef at a hotel in Vegas?
The episode was swimmingly along reasonably well, when boom right about the midway point, the chefs done lost their mind. They decided to blow off steam by drinking and then two of them, Elia and Ilan decided to shave their heads, which led to the later reveal that some of those confessionals were taped long after the shaving occurred. Then things took a turn for the worse when someone came up with the fabu idea to try and shave Marcel's head. Cliff grabbed Marcel in a wrestling hold, pinning him down on the ground for several, long, uncomfortable minutes, as the other chefs looked on and did absolutely nothing. Not even Elia, Marcel's so-called friend, came to his rescue. They just sat around and filmed it, until Marcel pushed Cliff off or Cliff realized it wasn't funny anymore.
The next day, Tom Colicchio comes by the loft and sends Cliff packing. Cliff, at least, had the good grace to realize his mistake, and to humbly leave the competition, apologizing to Marcel on the way out.
Seriously, I couldn't believe that they could all have been so stupid. Marcel maybe an annoying immature jerk, but he didn't deserve to be treated like that. Cliff is twice his size and poundage, he could have seriously hurt Marcel without meaning too. It just goes to show you that perhaps the production team need to think of some ways to let the contestants blow off steam, so that incidents like this do not happen.
Clearly this group of chefs were highly competitive, and full of humongous egos, more so than I have ever seen on a reality show.
Thanks for reading!
EKM
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