The SLY Foodie

So it's on to Puerto Rico for the Top Chef finals with Richard, Stephanie, Antonia and Lisa. Spike got the boot on Wednesday for not choosing the freshest ingredients available. But before I get ahead of myself, let's recap from the very beginning...

The Quickfire round consisted of the cheftestants going to Allen Brothers to learn how to properly butcher a piece of tomahawk steak, then going back to the Top Chef kitchen to cook and serve it. It is a piece of long bone ribeye that weighs approximately 30-35 oz. Spike won the challenge, providing him a "significant" advantage in the Elimination challenge. The guest judge for this episode was Rick Tramonto, owner of Tramonto's Steak and Seafood in Chicago.

The Elimination round is where things became more interesting, because after all, we're dying to know who gets booted. The cheftestants were required to prepare a 2-course meal to serve at Tramonto's for that one night. Spike was able to choose his ingredients first (he chose frozen scallops of all things), prohibiting his fellow competitors from choosing the same things. I have to say that everyone's dishes looked good, of course, some looked better than others. But the highlight for me was to see Top Chef winners of seasons past play a part in judging. Ok, I was most excited to see Harold, but that's besides the point. I have to say though, that I think I would have liked to try all of the steak dishes (Stephanie's in particular). I'm not daring enough to try sweetbreads, so I can't really have the appetizers.

On to the judging... why won't they boot Lisa already?! She really should have gone four or five episodes ago, and she definitely needed to go after that fiasco of a dish she made for the Chicago PD recruits (How do you not cook shrimp properly?). She doesn't take criticism well at all, in fact, a lot of the cheftestants don't this season. But somehow, the judges were more irked at the fact that frozen scallops were used, and Spike's steak dish was not strong enough to save him from the boot. All in all though, Lisa needs to go. She just does.