Top Chef 5 Literally Takes A Bit Out Of New York
Posted by REALITY REHASH on November 12, 2008 under Bravo, Top Chef | 
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Top Chef has returned for its fifth season and they started it off with apples in the big apple: New York. With seventeen new contestants they were ready to start their culinary journey but wait! Only sixteen chef outfits are hanging in the kitchen so one must leave before the game even starts. That’s where the apples come in. For their first quickfire challenge the chefs must compete in three apple related challenges. In the first part the first nine to peal several apples would be safe, Stefan finished first and it gave him immunity for the first elimination challenge. For part two it was all about the dicing. Four more became safe leaving Leah, Radikha, Lauren and Patrick to compete to stay. After making a dish with their apples in two minutes it came down to pre-game friends Patrick and Lauren. With head chef Tom liking Patrick’s salad better that sent Lauren back to culinary school and the rest of the contestants into the kitchen!
But wait! The chopping block made an appearance before the chefs could move into their house. They each chose a knife and were paired up based upon a location in New York. The pairs would make a dish and compete against each other. The better of the two dishes would keep the chef safe while the cook of the lesser of the two would be up for elimination. With that said and done it was time to move in. Inside two distinct groups formed. The gays of the house formed the “rainbow” alliance while the two guys from Europe distanced themselves from the group. Stefan and Fabio, both from Europe, started complaining about American ways and even seemed to become rivals in a sense. Danny spoke up in confessional and didn’t seem to like either of them much, seems we may have a budding fight on our hands!
The next morning it was time to go shopping and the pairs had to visit their towns to get a taste of what they had to cook. Half of the rainbow alliance was competing against each other as Richard and Jamie headed to Astoria. In Brighton Beach Hosea and Carla tried to find some stuff to cook and Ariane and Stefan headed to Long Island City. Ariane didn’t really know what she was doing and seemed a bit confused in the store. Jeff and Fabio headed to Ozone Park to search for some Latin ingredients. Jeff said he’s from Miami, home of Latin food, so he seemed to have an advantage. He’d prove that wrong a bit later. Radhika and Jill searched in Queens while Leah and Melissa were in Little Italy. Being from the “country” Melisa felt a bit out of her element while Leah was right at home with the Italian choice. The last two pairs were Patrick and Daniel who headed to China Town while Alex and Eugene were in Little Italy.
Now that all the ingredients were purchased it was finally time for the chefs to get into the kitchen! They had two hours to complete their dish and everyone seemed to be doing well. The drama started towards the end though as Patrick’s black noodles didn’t conform to the way he wanted them. Jeff also had some time troubles and started platting his food with only a minute remaining. Ariane also had some issues as the food she was preparing wasn’t cooking as fast as she had hoped. In the end when the three judges, including fourth special guest judge, John-George. After all the dishes were tasted that left Ariane, Richard, Radhika, Fabio, Carla, Melissa, Patrick and Alex eligible to be eliminated. They were the lesser of the two dishes from their pairs while those not mentioned moved on and were safe. Most of the dishes had some slight remarks from the judges but otherwise they enjoyed all the food and said it was a great way to start the season.
After deliberating the judges were ready to select the winner of the round along with the first person eliminated from the game. The three chosen from the winning group to join the judges table were Eugene, Leah and Stefan. They felt Leah’s dish showed modern Italian food while Stefan’s food had a lot going on yet tasted well. Eugene was chosen simply because he didn’t know anything about the country he was cooking yet did so well. In the end Stefan was chosen as the first rounds winner. Padma mentioned that in all but one of the past seasons the winner of the first challenge also won the entire show so its kind of a big deal. Probably jinxed him now though. That left Ariane and Patrick to battle it out to stay as their dishes were the weakest. Ariane felt her dish would work well together but head chef Tom felt her dish was undercooked. Patrick’s dish wasn’t inspirational enough and they kept talking about his noodles. With those two in the bottom it was time to eliminate and Patrick’s time was up. He was bottom of the first elimination as well as this and that probably sent him home. The first two out were still students which shows they probably didn’t deserve to be there anyway.
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