Posted on 02/01/2012 by Gina in Top Chef
by Gina Scarpa
The chefs arrive in the Top Chef: Texas kitchen this week to find stacks and stacks of pancakes - the favorite food of guest judge Pee Wee Herman! Their Quickfire challenge is to whip up some pancakes in 20 minutes and use their imagination and creativity to take them to a new level. As Pee Wee makes his way around the room, he tells each cheftestant that their pancake is the best he's ever had. Ed's pancake ends up ACTUALLY being the best pancake he's ever had and he wins $5,000.
For this week's Elimination Challenge, everyone will have to create a family style lunch for Pee Wee and the judges, which sounds easy enough. Nope. They'll have to bike to the The Alamo with $100 in hand, find food to buy, and a restaurant to cook it in. It's tough to find out Pee Wee's taste since he likes spicy food, non-spicy food, American food, non-American food, I could go on but instead I'll just start singing "Connect the dots, la la la..." in my head because that makes about just as much sense. Everyone starts off at the Farmer's Market but quickly split up since only one chef can cook in a given restaurant at a time.
You would think that with all the restaurants in San Antonio, that two people wouldn't find themselves in the same place. But when Lindsay decides to leave Mad Hatter's for a few moments, Sarah showed up and took over the kitchen, forcing her to head somewhere else.
Once everyone arrives at The Alamo, they only have 15 minutes to reheat their food before serving it to the judges. There wasn't too much complaining going on and it seemed like each dish had at least one component that won the judges over. Paul's Thai chicken salad was a hit, especially considering the judges could choose to eat it with skin or no skin but Padma wishes there was more of a crunch element. Perhaps if he had incorporated that, he would've taken the win but instead, it goes to Lindsay, for her Stuffed Zucchini with Braised Beef Cheeks, Rice and Goat Cheese.
That leaves Ed, Sarah, and Grayson in the bottom group. Grayson's squash went over well, but the judges felt that her chicken was loaded up with too many things (spinach, eggs, bacon) and she was told to pack her knives. When she arrived at Last Chance Kitchen, she found out that she'd only have to make it through Bev to get back into the competition but in order to find out who won, you'll have to tune in next week!
Top Chef: Texas airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Bravo.
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
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