In last night’s 12th episode of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef: Texas,” Chef Lindsay Autry, who, until recently, was executive chef at The Omphoy, once again handily evaded elimination and landed among the five cheftestants that still stand in their quest for the title of “Top Chef.”
Perhaps the best moment in last night’s episode was when “Top Chef” head judge and nice-guy know-it-all Tom Colicchio was rendered speechless, but more on that later.
The episode began with six chefs out of the original 16 chef-finalists selected this past November: Lindsay, Sarah, Chris J, Grayson, Paul and Ed.
In the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs are divided into three teams of two: Lindsay and Sarah, Grayson and Chris J., and Paul and Ed.
Each team has 40 minutes to peel, de-vein and butterfly two pounds of shrimp; shuck a crate of corn; make a pound of perfect fresh fettuccini; and then conceive and prepare a dish highlighting those ingredients.
The judges: “Top Chef” show host Padma Lakshmi, Emeril Lagasse and guest-judge Cat Cora, who’s really there to plug a new Bravo TV reality show, but that’s another story.
Lindsay and Sarah are the first ones done peeling, de-veining, butterflying, shucking and pasta-making so they have more time to prepare their dish of fettuccini with corn milk, shrimp, tarragon and parsley.
When the other teams finish, Paul and Ed forget to incorporate shrimp in their dish, which therefore is disqualified.
Chris J. and Grayson’s dish is fettuccini with toasted corn, oil-poached shrimp, bacon and rosemary.
Of Lindsay’s and Sarah’s dish (Lindsay and Sarah shown far right as they stand before the judges tasting their dish), guest-judge Cora says, “The idea of corn milk was fantastic. Tarragon? I wouldn’t have used that herb because it’s overpowering. But it was a tasty dish and your pasta was beautiful.”
Chris J. and Grayson win.
For the Elimination Challenge, the two chefs in each team are told they now will compete against each other. That pits Lindsay against Sarah, who says “…the last thing I want to do is compete against Lindsay.”
The chefs have two hours to prep for a block party with 200 guests. The paired opponents choose a dish and each of them will make his/her own version of it. The block-party guests will decide which version is best.
Lindsay and Sarah decide to make meatballs with a vegetable salad, but each will take a different tack.
Chris J. and Grayson decide on chicken salad with a watermelon salad, and Paul and Ed choose Asian barbecue with pickled vegetables.
Again, each of them will come up with different takes on these dishes.
Either way, clearly the chefs have chosen dishes that aren’t too complicated and that might hold up at the alfresco block party, where it’s 100-plus degrees (“Top Chef: Texas” was pre-filmed months ago).
But, as usual, there’s a twist.
The chefs are then told they have to make healthy, low-fat version of the dishes they’ve chosen.
At the block party, two-hundred guests file in and Lakshmi, Colicchio, Lagasse and Cora are joined by Dana Cowen, editor of Food & Wine magazine.
Lindsay serves up Greek-style meatballs—with Greek yogurt used as a binder—and a quinoa and black-eye pea salad. Sarah’s take on meatballs and salad: Calabrese-style turkey meatballs with a salad of shaved fennel, baby squash and arugula.
Cora says Lindsay’s dish has “tons of flavor” and Cowen says it’s “really great” and “really original.”
The chicken-salad duo: Grayson makes prepared-to-order chicken salad sandwiches while Chris J. has made his—with tofu emulsion instead of mayo—in advance so his sandwiches are dry.
The Asian barbecue pair: Paul serves up turkey barbecue wrapped in lettuce leaves while Ed serves beef short-rib morsels atop steamed buns.
In the end, the dishes made by Lindsay, Grayson and Paul win. When the three chefs are summoned to the judges’ table, Colicchio asks Grayson why she chose chicken salad since she might be competing against dishes “that are potentially more exciting.”
Grayson, annoyed, says, “Like a meatball?”
Colicchio: “Right, or…” In what seems like the first time in nine seasons of “Top Chef,” Colicchio is rendered speechless.
Once again, the judges name Paul the overall winner, another confirmation that he’s the man to beat in “Top Chef: Texas.”
Of the three chefs with the weaker dishes—Chris J., Sarah and Ed—Chris J. is eliminated for his dry chicken-salad sandwiches, among other things.
So five chefs remain to battle out in next week’s episode of “Top Chef: Texas,” which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
Next week’s guest-judge: Pee Wee Herman.