TOP CHEF – First Impressions
TELEVISION Outside it looks like fun in the sun but inside there is heat in the kitchen for 15 new chefs in the third season premiere of Top Chef Miami. You can only get a glimpse into the personalities of the newbies from early episodes so check out their profiles at the link to the Bravo website below for more info on them. The first place we see the new contestants is at the beautiful Casa Casuarina, the former home of Gianni Versace. It appears to be a nice social gathering until Padma and Tom announce that the first Quickfire Challenge is to make an amuse bouche from the array of appetizers they’ve been tasting. Many of the concoctions created looked scrumptious, with Micah the first to win and gaining immunity, serving Tuscan sushi with figs and balsamic dressing. Things didn’t look good for Clay, Dale and Tre, who were at the bottom of the QFC. Mississippi boy Clay gave early indications that he would have an uphill climb when he presented his unappealing fruit gazpacho that was more of a first course than a palate tickler.
Exotic surf & turf was on the menu for the Protein Elimination Challenge, requiring the TC wannabes to use items like rattle snake, buffalo rib eye, whole black chicken, razor clams, geoduck (pronounced gooey duck, which didn’t look very gooey) and alligator tail. This is one time where I certainly would not liked to have been a tasting judge. It was nice to see chef-author-world traveler Anthony Bourdain return as the guest judge, who I’m sure will eat anything. (And regarding the text message voting as to whether Chef Anthony or Chef Tom is the harder judge, I think Anthony won not so much because he’s harder than Tom, but that he just doesn’t censor what comes out of his mouth.)
Some of the dishes created included spider crab jambalaya, wild boar chops, frog leg lollipops, ostriche tartare and goeduck ceviche. Hung and Tre impressed the judges most, with Tre bouncing back nicely from the blundering QFC, dishing up his ostriche fillet and abalone to win the challenge plus a set of books from Bourdain. 
The bottom four included Brian, who was told his eel and snake dish was like eating bar food. Ouch! Howie, who didn’t complete plating his dish because of the clock (couldn’t he have just thrown the frogs legs on the dish?) cracked me up with his response on the time issue. When Bourdain asked “What’s your major malfunction,” Howie referenced one of his books and said Ecuadorian line cooks give it to you when it’s done. Way to do your homework! Reappearing from the QFC disaster were Dale, who served tough alligator tail and Clay, who was told his scorpion fish was inedible, had fundamental problems and ended up packing his knives and leaving.
Overall, the season three group looks very strong. It’s hard to tell who early favorites would be at this stage of the game, but keep your eyes on CJ (Chris), Tre, Sandee, Micah, and Hung. I’m glad to hear that CJ has survived testicular cancer, and standing at a cool 6’8” should give him a bird’s eye view on what the competition is slinging.
Top Chef cast: http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/cast/index.php
