By Arthur Perkins

Tonight was very interesting, with Top Chef 5 down to 5 chefs after the Elimination Challenge and Judges Table axed one. The Guest Judge was the fabulous Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin restaurant, generally regarded as the finest seafood chef in the U.S. and probably the world. During the Elimination Challenge as the competing chefs were having problems, Padma made the statement that Ripert is "the Top Chef." He has taken refined cuisine to the maximum, going for very subtle flavors and balance of ingredients.
 
We start with a Quickfire Challenge and this one is deceptively simple. There are 3 rounds and the bottom 2 chefs will be eliminated each round. Round one is 5 minutes to fillet 3 sardines. Jaime and Carla bit the dust. Leah did best and Stefan did really well. Round 2 was 5 minutes to fillet an arctic char. The best was Hosea and Stefan was close. Leah and Fabio were out. the final round was to filet a moving (although dead) eel. Seafood chef Hosea knew the pressure was on him but Stefan had huge experience in this from childhood. He won and gained a significant advantage in the elimination challenge.
 
The chefs were invited to lunch at Le Bernadin to be overseen by Eric Ripert. This is an obvious ploy, as any chefs that have ever watched earlier seasons of Top Chef know. The chefs have to bring their "A" game and observe very carefully and take either mental or actual notes. The meal is 6 courses, each one of fish. At the end, Tom Colicchio announces that, after Stefan picks the dish he wants, the others will draw knives for which dish they will get. The results are:
Fabio - Sourdough marinated Red Snapper w/ tomato basil consomme
Leah - Mahi Mahi w/ miso and matsutake mushroom sauce
Stefan - Lobster w/Hollandaise sauce and  asparagus
Carla - Old-basted Escobar w/ potato crisps in Bearnaise red wine sauce
Hosea - Za'apata Spiced Monkfish w/ black garlic
Jaime - Sauteed Black Bass w/ Serrano ham green peppercorn sauce and braised celery
 
The chefs then have 2 hours to prep and prepare, followed by staggered cooking of the dishes. The goal is to match the way Le Bernardin does it, so a "control" by a chef under Ripert's is the standard for comparison of the cooking of each cheftestant. late in the 2 hours Eric Ripert visits each one to offer counsel.
 
The actual cooking begins as the courses are cooked and served sequentially. Hosea knows that he has a problem with the consistency of the monkfish, but when he discovered it there is nothing he can do to fix it. Jaime is aware just before plating that there is nothing she can do about the celery being overcooked. Leah was not able to figure out the miso and added butter to compensate for her lack of understanding. The other 3 chefs had very minor problems with very nice dishes but not enough to keep them out of the Winner's Group, composed of Stefan, Fabio and Carla. The Loser's Group was Leah, Jaime and Hosea. Based on the comments occurring at the table where the judges sampled, those three were in jeopardy. So when the Winner's Group was announced, Hosea was kicking himself as a seafood chef who was not going to win a seafood cooking competition. Leah and Jaime were just scared about being sent home and each of them expected it would be themselves. Stefan wins and the prize is the latest Ripert book "End of the Line" plus a week's apprenticeship under Ripert to Le Bernardin, two unnamed other restaurants of his, and finally a trip to the Food and Wine Festival of Pebble Beach.
 
Next is the time for the Loser's group to talk and the judges to give some indication of what concerns them:
Leah - knew her miso flavor was too strong but did not know how to fix her miso sauce, ending up with adding butter. That was the wrong answer. Tom asked her if her giving up in the Quickfire Challenge was going to be repeated any time soon. What's she going to say? She has to sound committed to continuing.
Jaime - the braised celery was really bad but she could not fix it. Padma said if she could have sent the dish back she would have.
Hosea - the quality of the sauce was really good; his problem according to Tom was not letting the monkfish set long enough before slicing it. Hosea says he only had 1.5 minutes. Tom basically said that Hosea's planning should have allowed for much more time.
 
It was obvious that Hosea was going to stay and the battle was between Leah and Jaime. I was expecting Leah to be eliminated, but the decision was against Jaime. I suspect that the producers got into the act on this one because the "love story" between Leah and Hosea is good for show ratings. I don't think so. I find it obnoxious that they would behave like they did in the episode 10. it is interesting that Hosea is continuously knocking Leah for small faults in her cooking techniques.

(Photo courtesy of Bravo)

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