Skillet Doux

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Turkey	Dominic Armato

This year's turkey courtesy of Leslie Scudiere.

Top Chef Postmortem - Episode 3

We have a contender for weepiest departure ever.

Not to come down too hard on Richard. He seemed like a nice fellow. But you can't combine graham crackers, sliced bananas, melted chocolate and marshmallow fluff and expect to stick around, regardless of the conditions.

And speaking of the conditions... well... I suppose there will always be episodes like this. *sigh*

Rankings most likely on Monday... maybe Tuesday due to the holiday (depends on how late we get back Sunday night).

Have a great T-Day, everybody!

Top Chef Power Rankings - Episode 2

PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING!!!
There's a lot of sneaky intel out there, especially this season, but I'm endeavoring to keep this blog a spoiler-free zone. This isn't just for the readers, but for me, too -- I don't want to know what happens! As such, anything that's already been broadcast or has been posted on the official Bravo site is fair game for discussion, but if you've heard rumors that one chef has been hosting a lot of dinner parties, or that another chef was spotted boarding a plane to an exotic locale, please keep them to yourself... thanks!

Who are these people and what have they done with my Top Chef cast?!?

Fighting over who gets to do dessert? Did I miss something? For a couple of years now, we've been chiding the contestants for not having a dessert recipe or two up their sleeves. Now it's like they all studied up and when the first opportunity presented itself, they fell all over themselves trying to show they were prepared. Odd.

Odd week in general, really. One of the first things we learned is that the editors have finally figured out how plainly they've been telegraphing the results. Used to be you had a pretty good idea who was getting the axe within the first five minutes of the show. Nervous about how the number of chefs is dwindling? You should be. Feeling like you're finally hitting your stride and looking forward to today's challenge? Yeah, not so much. Thrilled to be bonding with this other chef who's totally making the competition tolerable? She's so gone. But did we hear anything from or about Jill this week? Not a peep.

This marked the second consecutive week we've seen a challenge that totally should have been in Chicago last season, and I was gratified to see nary a chef acting as though the hot dog was beneath him. To be fair, though, nobody actually presented a hot dog except for Jill, and she got hammered for not making her own. But even if the challenge was judged rather loosely and framed with a little superfluous window dressing, it was still a good one. Then we got another very free and open elimination challenge, though some chefs seemed to have issues working even within the context of New American, and Tom seemed to take their efforts rather personally. But his response to Fabio and Jill's dishes served to hammer home and old point. Fabio's Italian carpaccio wins while Jill's quiche is, according to his blog, too French for a New American challenge? Despite the dubious claim in his blog that carpaccio has been absorbed into American cuisine (in a substantively different manner than quiche?), this nicely demonstrates the old Top Chef truism that if you make great food, you can get away with stretching the very same rules that will be used to hammer you if you don't. To be clear, I have no issue with this approach to judging nor with their decisions this week. But it's instructive.

I'd like to briefly address one sentiment I see coming from a lot of bloggers/commenters this week. Between Fabio's carpaccio and Arianne's cherry surprise, we had a couple of very plain admissions from chefs that they were cooking dishes they serve in their restaurants. This seems to be rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, and I just don't understand why. First off, if you don't think every single chef on the show has done the same, sending out dishes -- primarily, even -- that are at least close variations on their tried and true, you're kidding yourself. Second, so what? When these chefs walk through the doors of Top Chef kitchen, are they supposed to forget every great idea they've ever had? Yeah, it's exciting when they come up with something totally on the fly, and sometimes they're forced to do so whether they want to or not. But this isn't Iron Chef. Their mandate is to express themselves through food and articulate their culinary style, not reinvent themselves the moment the competition starts. And to expect them to leave behind everything they've done and created is to ask them to abandon the very thing it is the purpose of the competition to discover. To best determine who is Top Chef, I want to see how these guys improvise and adapt and create, sure. And the challenges ensure that happens. But you can't deny them who they are, and their go-to and signature dishes are a large part of that equation. Don't deny them that.

Tough week to get a handle on the rankings. As is frequently the case this early in the season, we're left with more questions than answers. Aside from Stefan's quickfire stumble, last week's top three went into hiding, our number four had a Jekyll and Hyde week, a couple of contestants who previously looked weak made some noise, and the heart of the pack still failed to distinguish themselves in any meaningful manner. Plus, Lee Anne had the audacity not to post her blog by Sunday night, even after all of the nice things I said about her last week. Thankfully, I don't mind a little rankings volatility in the early part of the season. A couple more weeks and we should have a clearer picture of where everybody belongs.

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Stefan Quickfires 1 1 1 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 1 1 0 Tough call here, but I'm going to leave Stefan at the top for the time being. Admittedly, that quickfire seemed totally out of left field. I can't say I've tasted thyme sausage, cheddar cheese and tartar sauce together, and combinations that looked stranger on paper have turned out beautifully, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that one. On the other hand, his seared halibut with celery root tortellini, champagne sauce and dill oil is a sophisticated little dish that looks great on paper. It seemed to get an awful lot of love in the dining room -- including a direct contrast with Jill's quiche on the merits of cream sauces -- and I was surprised he missed top three. Donatella's assessment of his sausage notwithstanding, he still has two of the four wins out there, I like what I see of his recipes, and I have some minor misgivings about Fabio's performance this week, so I'm going to let him hang onto number one.

2 Fabio Quickfires 0 2 0 Last Week: 8 Eliminations 1 1 0 Fabio is one of the week's big movers, winning both the elimination and my respect with his impassioned declaration of love for hot dogs. We also learn that Stefan considers Fabio his strongest competition, though whether this is a matter of dispassionate assessment or man crush remains unknown. Fabio was on top of both challenges, and I've no doubt his dishes deserved the praise, but the fact that they were both built on others' work kept me from getting overly excited about them. First, you have his Mediterranean dog, which was essentially premade andouille sausage blended up and cut with a little extra pork. He did take the time to smoke the resultant Frankensausage, and the zucchini, goat cheese and sun dried tomato seemed like it could be a tasty if uninspiring angle, but still, that was basically somebody else's sausage. As for his elimination dish, I actually had less of a problem with it than many seem to. Yeah, it was a mostly conventional carpaccio, but the grilled lemon angle was a nice one that Gail loved, and a touch as simple as the spherical olives, if it's the right one, can make all the difference between rehashing a standard and giving it a fresh face. Of course, the spherical olive technique isn't nearly as new as Fabio would lead us to believe (nor is it his), which is fine. Chefs, like other artists, borrow all the time and even if they weren't new to the universe they appeared to be new to the bulk of the panel, which is all that matters for the purposes of this competition (see: Ilan Hall). But again, I'm a little concerned that what makes him stand out isn't his own creation. No foul here -- just mild concern about what this means for his future chances.

3 Jamie Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 1 0 My preseason favorite makes a little move in episode two and looks strong. Her quickfire dish, a bacon-wrapped hot dog with sherried onions and hot and sweet peppers, looks nice to me even if it escaped attention on the show, and then she demonstrates that she can work magic with simple ingredients by wowing the judges with a chilled corn soup. Of course, she then has to talk about how she "just want[s] to celebrate the season" (the culinary equivalent of "we just have to take it one game at a time"), but clichéd chefspeak aside, this is a great Top Chef dish. It's technically sound, a perfect choice for the challenge, evocative of a pure flavor that everybody loves, and yet with the touch of mint and drizzle of chile oil, she adds a couple of subtly creative touches that elevate it just a bit and make it hers. My conviction that we're going to see her in the finals remains firm.

4 Leah Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 0 1 0 Leah might as well have sat out this week. The only thing we learned about her -- that she prefers to be in relationships and is apparently going to cling to Hosea for the rest of the season and provide us with a painful plotline -- was totally unrelated to the food and kinda creepy to boot. But there's some interest to be found in her recipes, even if it isn't enough to have any substantial impact on the rankings. Her dog was pretty simple, beef and bacon with onion powder, garlic powder and paprika, but she gets the big thumbs up from me for busting out sriracha mayo -- one of my most beloved secret weapons, even on hot dogs -- with a little lime and fresh herbs as a topping. I see why it didn't earn praise, but I know and love this combination. It works. Her elimination is a little harder to get a handle on. While I'm not a big fan of the plating (it'd be right at home in some contexts, but stuck out like a sore thumb at Craft), I'm not so sure about Padma's '80s characterization. As to the food itself, she's taking seared scallops and Yukon potatoes, then dressing them with almost completely pure grapefruit and orange flavors, combined only with a little crème fraîche, lemon zest, pink peppercorn and chives. It's the kind of minimal ingredient approach that I've no doubt could be stunning in the right hands, I'm just not sure those hands are hers. We'll let her tread water this week.

5 Gene Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 0 1 0 Gene also maintains a low profile, but I'm dropping him below my other wallflower because of some reservations I have about his recipes this week. Last week's struck me as creative, but these strike me as maybe a touch gimmicky. His sausage (not his own) was stuffed with boursin, panko coated and deep fried, then wrapped in pita and dressed with a horseradish/soy ketchup and a bourbon/honey mustard. His elimination meatloaf, meanwhile, was done as a roulade and served with a mushroom ragout and creamy gouda sauce. I'm guessing the latter had some flavor appeal (search me on the first), but both just seem kind of unfocused to me. He's doing things, and I'm not sure why, and that makes me worry that there isn't really a good reason. But he's pushing unusual pairings, he's trying to stand out, he's already met with some success and he's a driven family man who worked his way up from the bottom and is giving every indication he's going to keep his head down and stay focused, so he has some things going for him.

6 Jeff Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 0 0 0 Two weeks in and we've barely heard a peep from Jeff (aside from a little bit of take charge this week that may or may not be meaningful down the road), but my gut is telling me this is a good thing. His dog was a lamb sausage seasoned with fennel, paprika, caraway, coriander and cumin, topped with champagne pickled cucumbers, sweet pickled hot peppers and onions, croutons, harissa ketchup and lemon mustard (not doctored prepared mustard -- dude made mustard). His elimination dish looked like a simple grilled chicken, but it was marinated with mustard and herbs, the corn bread was done with cheddar, scallions, sour cream and chorizo, and he worked in fried okra, an heirloom tomato chow chow and a buttery honey mustard chicken jus. If nothing else, the guy is humping. My gut tells me he isn't being bold enough to stand out in a massive crowd, but that this complexity and attention to detail will mean more when the numbers dwindle a bit and the judges can focus in more closely on the finer details of what every chef is doing. For now, he's stalking the pack.

7 Hosea Quickfires 0 2 0 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 0 0 1 Hosea takes a hit this week, and now I'm feeling unsure of what to make of him. On one hand, you have the executive chef of a successful Boulder restaurant who made a nice splash last week and followed it up with a top dog (sorry) that seemed to set the stage for more success. It wasn't the wildest one out there by any means, but his pork and bacon sausage with smoked paprika, garlic, poblanos, serranos and vinegar looked solid and earned him a top mention. And then he bumbles his way through the elimination, tanking a dish that should be squarely in his wheelhouse and narrowly avoiding the axe. It's just puzzling, really. What makes a seafood guy think canned crab will be okay? How does he miss basic seasoning issues that seem obvious to everybody else in the room? Having looked at his restaurant menu, I mentioned in the preseason rankings that I had concerns he might have a bit of a heavy handed approach to seafood that wouldn't play well in New York. The love thrown at last week's smoked fish and latkes temporarily allayed those concerns, but hearing this week's commentary and seeing his recipe, I'm back to my first gut reaction. Tom's right, those flavors should all work together. But even setting aside the canned crab issue, you have a crab salad that looks like it's half mango, it works in egg yolks and a lot of honey, and the citrus and vanilla are delivered in the form of a sugary syrup. Am I the only one who thinks that sounds less like he's dressing his crabmeat and more like he's smothering it?

8 Radhika Quickfires 1 1 1 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 0 0 0 Radhika's another one who started out strong and then stumbled her way through the finish -- the difference being that she had immunity and escaped pointed abuse. Her dog did, indeed, look really tasty. It was a lamb/pork/beef mixture with garlic and tandoori masala, topped with pickled cucumbers and capers, and dressed with a tomato jam made with tomato paste, cumin, mayonnaise and cream. To me, that definitely has winner written all over it. But her dessert is clumsy at best and bizarre at worst. Avocadoes whipped with butter, limes and a ton of powdered sugar? "Sweet guacamole" just about covers it. I did a little poking around to see if this dish might have had some Indian progenitor and couldn't find anything but, y'know, India's a big place, so I'd be curious to hear if I missed something. Setting aside the avocado, however, you have a chocolate wonton and chocolate milk with kahlua? I'm betting that immunity was the only thing keeping her out of the line of fire. The dog was a winner and I'll consider the possibility she consciously slacked on immunity, giving her a little bump, but I wonder if the lesson here is that no matter how much she wants to avoid being pigeon-holed as the "Indian contestant", it might be in her best interests to bleed that angle dry.

9 Carla Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 13 Eliminations 0 1 0 Some have said I'm being a little hard on Carla, and that may be true. I still haven't seen anything from her that I can get excited about, but she's starting to look a little stronger than the average caterer. One of last week's commenters pointed out that despite her bio, she does have some executive chef experience (his Google-Fu was stronger than mine, apparently). And she got a top mention in the elimination and some nice words from Donatella in the quickfire. And while I'm starting to think she might stick around for a little while, I'm not giving her any more of a bump than this. Her dog seemed like it was well-crafted, and the sausage worked in lamb and a couple of different chiles, but the toppings were basically sautéed onions and a quick sauerkraut. As for her dessert, I've no doubt that pastry was nice, but it was a textbook apple tart and it's hard to believe she couldn't come up with some way to work that cheese in. I don't see anything that leads me to believe she can go deep, but at the very least she's looking conventionally competent which goes a long way in the early stages, so I'm pulling her out of the basement.

10 Alex Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 0 0 0 Alex has been kind of a non-factor so far, and while I want to think he can bring more to the table than Carla and maybe even Radhika, he has yet to show it and his lackluster elimination dish didn't help. We didn't get to see Donatella's reaction to his dog, which was a basic pork and veal affair with poblanos and jalapenos. It's topped as well, but the recipe doesn't list them nor did we get to see them, so it's basically a mystery. He also chose to pair the dog with tortilla chips and a basic black bean dip, which strikes me as a poor choice. A completely separate chip and dip for a quickfire? If you want black beans in there, integrate them, man. Top the dog with them or stick them in the sausage itself! His elimination dish looks interesting, at least. He grills pork tenderloin and sauces it with a honey-sweetened roasted beet demi-glace. Too bad the judges seemed to think it sucked.

11 Richard Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 0 0 Richard continues to hold steady at 11 which, this far down the list, isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. For those who didn't catch it, if I recall the lingo from my days in SoCal, the "TJ" in his "TJ Dog" is referring to Tijuana, Mexico, a brisk walk from his home in San Diego. In that sense, his dog represents Mexico about as well as Tijuana does -- eschewing the depth of authentic Mexican cuisine and instead riffing on the booze tourist's Mexico through the judicious use of tequila and canned chipotles. I've no doubt it was munchable, but it strikes me as a missed opportunity. His dessert was similarly snacky, though I suspect less edible, growing more out of nostalgia than good sense. Chefs have successfully done creative things with PB&J (see: Grant Achatz' take), but when it comes to this version, I couldn't have put it better than "after school snack". His "grape gelato"? Store-bought vanilla blended with jars of concord grape jelly. No joke. Richard is rapidly emerging as the Top Chef Season Five Stoners' Choice. But the judges seemed to like the seasoning on his sliders last week, and satisfying the munchies can get you to the midpoint of the season, so I won't drop him just yet. One final note: while it was really an individual challenge despite the app/entree/dessert divisions, our cuddly West Coaster with dreamy blue eyes has already thrown his first teammate under the bus. Not that Ariane didn't deserve it.

12 Melissa Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 12 Eliminations 0 0 0 Melissa continues to play wallflower, getting almost no play of any kind, and traditionally speaking this can be read one of two ways. She's going to make a late move and the editors are waiting so she can suddenly make a big dramatic splash, or she just isn't doing anything particularly interesting. Looking at her recipes, I'm inclined to believe the latter. You'd think a Latin specialist would take a more sophisticated angle than a chicken "Tacodog". Powdered chiles in the sausage, candied red onions and basic tomato/avocado salsa look perfectly edible, but... yeah. And her grilled avocado and stone fruit salad just looks messy to me. She gets points for trying to do something interesting by grilling the avocado and caramelizing the fruit, but it's still avocado and fruit in a balsamic vinaigrette, and there's an awful lot of sugar going on, both granulated and brown. She's not screwing up, but she's not inspiring or working clean. I haven't seen anything to make me believe she's going to turn that trend around.

13 Danny Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 15 Eliminations 0 0 0 Yeah, he put together a good dessert, but I still haven't forgiven him for the Chinese chicken salad, so he stays in the basement for at least one more week. His pound cake actually looks kind of nice, done with ricotta, amaretto and pistachio dust. The strawberry "compote" is just simple syrup blended with strawberries and a little lemon juice, but it seemed to go over well, so it's difficult to criticize. I found his dog a little odd in that the sausage was primarily seasoned with his "sweet smoke" sauce, which is a nice way of saying he walked down the condiment table and mixed ketchup, mayo, mustard and sweet relish. The dog was topped with frizzled onions, and I'm trying to respect his claim that he wanted to stick with authentic NY dog flavors, but he's still in my doghouse. I'll get over it next week if he shows something.

14 Ariane Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 14 Eliminations 0 0 2 When somebody has a hard time getting her head in the right place and she narrowly avoids elimination, you wonder if it'll help her get her ass in gear, or if it'll further erode her confidence and destroy her. When it happens two weeks in a row, you wonder twice as much. But without a dramatic turnaround, she's gone gone gone, and probably should be already. If dessert isn't your thing, why did you choose it? If you're going to ask advice, why do you ignore it? And seriously, can we get over the self-pity? Last week, she at least was working creatively. But between a straightforward chicken and bacon sausage with spicy onion relish and a dessert that -- setting sweetness issues aside -- was plain cherries and plain lemon curd topped with plain meringue and plain Nilla Wafers, you have to think she's either scared to take any chances or just paralyzed. Either way, she's hanging on by a thread and I don't care what the universe says, Carla... she doesn't deserve to still be here.

15 Jill Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 0 1 That said, Jill didn't exactly make a strong case for sticking around. Her hot dog was a non-denominational generic Asian summer roll that substituted a tube steak for a traditional filling which, frankly (sorry), sounds like a disservice to both summer rolls and hot dogs. And I say this as an enthusiastic devotee of dogs that have been dragged through the garden! The ostrich thing, however, is just irritating. Egg size aside, it's quiche. Rice and pecan crust, okay, but it's still mushrooms, asparagus, gruyere and fontina. At a New American lunch. But between the show and her exit interview, it's clear Jill felt she was making a bold, creative move by using an ostrich egg. But really, Jill, big F-ing deal. I'm all for bold and creative (and Blais appreciated what he considered to be her moxie), but there's nothing more frustrating -- especially in the MG era -- than chefs who go out on a limb without a purpose in mind. Don't just feed us something crazy for the sake of feeding us something crazy. Do that on your own time. Save the wild and crazy ideas that work -- the ones that contribute to the dish rather than confusing or distracting from it -- for when you're feeding the public. I'm not saying you don't audible and run with something on the spur of the moment, I'm just saying you should at least know what you hope to accomplish by doing so other than being able to say you did. Jill essentially admitted that she used an ostrich egg to be able to say she used an ostrich egg. But did it have any implications whatsoever for her dish? I've never had an ostrich egg, and I've heard from different sources both that they're exactly the same as chicken eggs only bigger, and that they have a slightly different but very similar flavor. Jill, we know, had never tasted one. So depending on which story she heard, she was either buying an unusual ingredient that was exactly the same as the ingredient it was filling in for in every way but size and calling it a bold and creative move, or she was attempting to do something genuinely creative by adapting a classic to suit a core ingredient with a slightly different flavor, but was doing so without any clue as to what that flavor might be. Do either of those sound particularly smart to you? I think the judges came to the same conclusion, and I think that's why she got the axe over Ariane. Fortunately for Jill, this early exit is unlikely to have a negative impact on her career. As she explains in her exit interview, she doesn't particularly want to be a chef. She'd rather be either a food writer or a food stylist, the latter of which would allow her to prepare food exclusively for its ooh and aah factor and with total disregard for its flavor. Though that last bit may have been my words and not hers.

MINOR EPISODE THREE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Speaking of chefs who do crazy things with a purpose in mind, ladies and gentlemen, Grant Achatz! It's truly a shame that he couldn't make it on the show last season where he really belonged, but the guy obviously had more important things to deal with and it's a gift that he's here, working, and we're able to see him on the show, period. For those who haven't seen the preview, the chefs draw quickfire knives with seemingly random numbers, from the low 40s to the mid 160s. My guess? That's the temperature at which their dish must be served. If so, I love this challenge already, less for its utility than for its philosophy. Ingredients taste different at different temperatures. Hot is not always best, and there are a whole range of temperatures between "hot" and "cold" at which food can be served. And even though this'll probably just devolve into a hot dish / cold dish challenge, it will be very telling to see which chefs get it. Also, they'd better be careful. If they think they're going to impress Grant Achatz with some funky technique, they'd better know what they're doing. I've eaten at Alinea, and Achatz isn't just doing crazy for crazy's sake. He's one of the wackiest guys out there, but his wild techniques and presentations have real thought and purpose behind them. He won't be buffaloed because something's "cool". There's also some total curveball that's thrown at the contestants about 15 minutes into their prep time, but I have absolutely no idea what it could be.

The elimination challenge has all of the earmarks of something that's going to irritate me. Thrown outside at the last minute, cooking in terrible conditions? I understand the whole "you have to roll with the punches" thing, but c'mon. Somebody's going home who probably doesn't deserve it. At least not for what they did that day. Interestingly, the teaser seemed to clearly show who the bottom three are. I won't name them, but it'll be interesting to see if that's how it actually shakes out, or if this is more misdirection.

As always, looking forward to Wednesday.

My Readers Have Failed Me

Let me get this straight.

There's a restaurant in Baltimore that's casual but classy, serves an inexpensive menu full of homey but creative comfort food, is totally laid back and welcomes kids to the point that you can sit at a table next to a play area with a sofa, easel, tons of books and toys... and you guys didn't tell me???

Regular dining out has returned to our household. More after I've had a chance to sample a few more items.

Woodberry Kitchen

Bread and Butter	Dominic Armato

Midrange dining in Baltimore has been exceptionally good to us lately, not to mention more frequent. We've still had fewer opportunities in a year and half than we could on a week long vacation, but I call two nights out in three months progress. Our trip to Woodberry Kitchen actually predated my excursion to Salt, coming on the last day of August when grandma was visiting, available for toddler-sitting, and my ladylove and I were in the mood for something homey and comforting. What we got was exactly what we expected, just better than we expected.

	Warm Peaches with Olive Oil and Salt	Dominic Armato

Arguably still the new hotness in Baltimore, even a year after opening, the place was buzzing even for an early 6:00 reservation. It's a clever if unconventional space, a vertical ex-foundry turned rustic brick box with open kitchen, two story stack of firewood, decrepit farm implements and worn wooden tables that spill out onto a large patio when the weather permits. The open kitchen, seated in the shadow of a massive throwback letterboard menu, is centered on a wood-fired oven, and the staff is done up in retro-folksy attire, sporting denim or sewing circle floral print sundresses. It ends up coming across more high concept than genuinely homey, especially since the playlist is a little heavy on early '90s alternative, but it still works, making for a warm and comfortable atmosphere that stops short of striking a theme restaurant vibe. Our last minute reservation stuck us, ostensibly, in one of the less desirable locations -- at the end of the long L-shaped balcony lining two walls. But setting aside the temperature issues (we were toasty), I actually dug the vantage point, from which we could watch the bustle below. So we settled in and perused the menu.

Deviled Eggs with Chipped Ham	Dominic Armato

The scattershot structure of the menu has generated both appreciation and confusion. It's surprisingly large, encompassing small plates, tiny tastes, traditional appetizers and entrees, munchies and sides complete with special sections for oysters and flatbreads. Though some have found it overwhelming, I found myself a fan of the flexibility it offered, not to mention the easy excuse to try a couple of extra items (an excuse that would later prove to be my downfall). The items themselves are mostly very simple comfort foods, almost exclusively seasonal, with a few curveballs throw in here and there. Its intense focus on the bounty of the Chesapeake region has earned Woodberry Kitchen praise that utilizes all of the current culinary buzzwords -- local, sustainable, organic -- and while I don't for a moment wish to diminish the admirable work chef/owner Spike Gjerde has put into building a impressive stable of suppliers, I'll leave the greener discussion for the true champions of the movement. Speaking in all honesty, my interest in such matters begins and mostly ends with how they affect the deliciousness of what hits the table. And what hit our table was, indeed, delicious.

	Potted Pork	Dominic Armato

My little corner of Baltimore foodnerdia was abuzz this summer with the unscientific yet unshakeable feeling that this year's local peaches were, for reasons unknown, particularly lush and peachy. Having heard this, and being predisposed to the fruit, my ladylove couldn't pass on the übersimple peach starter, sliced and warmed in the oven before being drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Nothing to it, but undeniably delicious, and its very presence spoke to the spirit of the place. I started off simply myself, having spotted one of my weaknesses on the menu. A small snack plate of three deviled eggs scattered with bits of chipped ham were similarly minimal, and the eggs themselves were fresh and wonderful, though the tartness of the mustard in the seasoning was overly aggressive for my tastes.

Ham, Nectarine and Gouda Flatbread	Dominic Armato

That my first plate was labeled a snack entitled me, I thought, to an actual appetizer as well. While I miraculously managed to resist the pork belly, I was unable to avoid the beast in its entirety, opting for the potted pork. Is this a regional favorite? Though I'm not unfamiliar with the term, I believe this was the first time I'd actually encountered it on a menu. It's close enough to rillettes de porc, though, that I suppose it's largely a matter of semantics. In any case, I'm partial to pork fat, potted or otherwise, and was delighted to find this version accompanied by a good mustard, slivers of onion and a small assortment of breads and crackers. The variety of vehicles was a nice touch, and the texture of the pork was beautifully creamy and silky smooth. A part of me wished it had been a little more aggressively seasoned, but another part of me enjoyed the humble simplicity of it.

	Hanger Steak with Creamed Corn	Dominic Armato

No such semantic excuse applied to our after-appetizers-before-entrees course, but the wood oven downstairs beckoned, and my ladylove and I split a flatbread. This section of the menu was somewhat less conventional than the rest, and with options like house smoked coho salmon, marinated peaches, peppers and chervil; spinach, peter peppers, garlic and feta; and shrimp, local corn, poblanos and sungold tomatoes, this was one of the more intense menu negotiations in recent memory. We settled, however, on a pizza topped with ham, nectarines, gouda and basil, and were very happy with the result. It had the same salty/sweet fruity/meaty vibe of a classic Hawaiian, except... you know... good, and the nutty gouda played off both just right. Of course, wood fired pizza lives and dies by the quality of the bread, and while Woodberry wouldn't unseat the best dedicated pizza specialists, this specimen was good enough that if the flatbread section of the menu were spun off and expanded into its own restaurant, it would have my full support. Great flavor, nice chew, crisp in the right places with some lovely char, this was a really enjoyable pizza.

Lamb Shoulder with Blackberry Sauce	Dominic Armato

When it came to entrees, we were feeling meaty. I was feeling unusually so, and did something I rarely do, opting for a steak. My jaw and I were feeling saucy, so I went with the chewy and flavorful hanger steak, which was accompanied by some fresh arugula, a mix of roasted peppers and a dish of creamed corn. It was simply and beautifully done, a great piece of beef just ever so slightly seasoned with an extremely familiar spice I couldn't quite put my finger on (and that I'm sure will embarrass me when somebody points it out). The roasted peppers were, for all intents and purposes, totally naked, and the creamed corn was a rustic, chunky take that avoided the common trap of being a thick, creamy mess and instead kept the focus on the vegetable.

	Chocolate Cake	Dominic Armato

A few tastes of my ladylove's dish didn't do much to reward me for my break with convention. She followed my playbook in choosing the lamb shoulder with preserved eggplant, succotash and blackberry sauce, and if my steak was very good, hers was terrific. Much like the hanger steak, it started with a fantastic, intensely flavored piece of meat, perfectly cooked. Tender and sweet but encased with a caramelized crust, it sat atop an impossibly fresh pile of corn and lima beans, it was grounded by the eggplant puree, and highlighted by an intense but naturally sweet blackberry sauce. The downside to the seasonal menu, and a thought that pains me, is that we'll have bidden Baltimore farewell by the time this dish has the opportunity to come around again.

Peach and Berry Cobbler	Dominic Armato

Desserts took an eternity and a routine worthy of the Keystone Cops to arrive, though the difficulties were handled appropriately and politely by a manager. They were homey and hearty and exactly what the rest of the menu would lead you to expect. My ladylove's warm chocolate cake was rather conventional and didn't do much to stand out, but it would capably scratch the itch for any chocoholic even if it didn't send them home dreaming about an encore. I had better luck with my selection. I saved my peach fix for dessert, plowing through a warm peach and berry cobbler that was hot and gooey, crusty on the edges and topped with a cold scoop of ice cream. I had no business even attempting more food at that point, but managed to demolish it, nonetheless. Barely.

We came away -- waddled away -- very impressed and anxious to return. We had a couple of misses, but they weren't so numerous or so significant that they detracted from a great meal. Though Gjerde's menu certainly isn't without its creative and unconventional touches, at heart this is very simple, honest food that's elevated just a touch and prepared exceptionally well. When you work as hard as he has to source great, fresh, seasonal ingredients, the best thing you can do is get out of their way, and that's precisely what he does. Woodberry Kitchen is warm, it's comfy, and between the size of the menu and its constant rotation, there's a lot to explore. It isn't so much an occasion restaurant as the kind of place where I'd love to have a standing reservation, returning on a regular basis and expecting a simple, satisfying meal every time. Just maybe not this big every time.

Woodberry Kitchen
www.woodberrykitchen.com
2010 Clipper Park Road, No. 126
Baltimore, MD 21211
410-464-8000
Sun - Thu	5:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Fri - Sat	5:00 PM - 11:00 PM

Potted Pork

Today's post is running just a wee bit late (a day at most), so here's a little taste to tide you over.

Top Chef Postmortem - Episode 2

"I'm not sure it explains why they'd be such difficult critics. Other chefs, I think, having been on the firing line themselves, tend to prefer to be supportive rather than critical."

Shows what I know.

Well, I had Ariane's banner halfway done when Jill got the dreaded PPYKAG (and then it took me 20 minutes to get a decent screenshot of Jill because she wouldn't keep her farking head still in the exit interview... but I digress). Going to be very curious to hear what the blogs have to say this week. My suspicion is this is one of those episodes where a lot of criticism was left on the editing room floor to maintain suspense. Somebody at the table -- don't remember who -- mentioned that the quiche tasted like glue, to general agreement.

Can't say I was terribly enthused about Jill, but I did think she'd hang on a little longer than this.

Thoughts?

In Defense of the McRib

The McRib	Photo Courtesy of Gary Wiviott

No, I didn't spend the three month layoff in Des Plaines, Illinois undergoing intense psychological reprogramming in a bunker beneath McDonald's HQ. But today, I'm going to stand up for the McRib. And not just for the McRib, but for that which the McRib represents, though we'll get to that later. This discussion starts with the discovery not only of the fact that I dig the crime against food pictured above, but that I'm far from alone... even among otherwise discerning food nerds.

With the most recent reintroduction of the sandwich to the Chicago market (are boneless pigs in season again?), an old thread over at LTH Forum, started two years ago by one Mr. Gary Wiviott in a moment of exasperation, was bumped back into action. Gary, you see, is a hardcore BBQ enthusiast, and not of the "slather a grilled chicken breast or boiled ribs with ketchup and liquid smoke and call it BBQ" variety. No, Gary's a true devotee of the low and slow method of turning meat into succulent, smoky bliss that is, along with jazz, one of the few true American art forms. As such, what surprised me about the thread wasn't Gary's violent reaction to the reappearance of his nemesis. Though he's able to maintain good humor about the subject, I've no doubt that on a deep, emotional level, Gary sees the McRib as an affront to all that is good and true in this twisted, cruel world. His reaction was (and is, every time the McRib resurfaces) entirely predictable, and the thread is certainly not lacking for like-minded individuals. Less expected, however, was the outpouring of self-loathing love for the meaty monstrosity that also followed.

	White Castle's Chicken Rings

I shouldn't have been that surprised. Except for the most hardcore fuelers and dogmatic natural organic cheerleaders -- and let's face it, those people are boring -- I don't know anybody who doesn't have some culinary skeletons in the closet. Scour your kitchen cabinets, try to remember what you demolished in your last alcohol-induced haze, search the dark recesses of your soul for that fatty, salty, megasweet, oveprocessed and mass marketed guilty pleasure you try to forget about until the craving strikes (or, more likely, its commercial airs), and try to tell me it's intrinsically better than what you see pictured above. I don't mean to suggest that there aren't those who are genuinely outraged by the McRib, nor that they shouldn't be, necessarily. We all pick our poisons and the McRib may not be yours. But presuming that we can all find common ground in loving certain highly offensive foodstuffs -- armed with the knowledge that the picture above could just as well be the thing you're embarrassed to admit you ate last week -- what is it about the McRib that is so inherently offensive to so many?

The answer, I think, is in the moniker Gary chose to attach to the object of his scorn: The McFib.

Personally, I find the McRib's lack of real food qualities to be rather endearing. But there was a level on which I could completely sympathize. I've been similarly afflicted by a burning hatred for The Olive Garden since first visiting them in high school. But when I reflect upon the true root of my scorn, I'm forced to admit that it has nothing to do with the food. It's terrible, sure, but... well... look up. I'm in no position to throw stones. Rather, what burns me every time I see an Olive Garden ad is that it's being presented as authentic Italian cuisine that's lovingly prepared by chefs who have trained in Tuscany. It's the lie that gets me. So for a hardcore 'cue nerd, what's not to hate about the McRib? It's a meat patty slathered in sauce. There's no smoke. There are no ribs. Hell, I'm not even entirely certain the thing is made of pork. Yet I've no doubt that over the next month, the River North McDonald's will sell more fake ribs than all of the south side BBQ shrines combined will sell real ones. For a huge segment of the population, the McRib IS BBQ. And that chaps Gary's ass.

The thing is, in this golden age of irony and self-awareness, it doesn't need to be this way. McDonald's could take a cue (no pun intended) from White Castle in embracing the McRib's fakeness. Why go through the pretense of making the patty vaguely rib-shaped? White Castle had the right idea with its Chicken Rings. If you're going to process something so thoroughly into oblivion that it can't possibly hope to resemble the original beast in any way, why not embrace the fakeitude and make it the most unnatural shape possible? I, for one, think they should stamp the McDonald's logo into the patty, shape it like the silhouette of a cartoon pig and call it the McVaguelyPorkish. All absurd questions of authenticity fully preempted, we'll be free to simply enjoy the sandwich for what it is: processed, fused meat paste in a sickly sweet sauce. It won't be any closer to actual BBQ, but it'll be honest. And perhaps more importantly, it will help us to be honest with ourselves. As food nerds, we can labor all day over the perfect Ragu alla Bolognese, we can scour the nation's strip malls in search of that undiscovered gem of an ethnic restaurant, we can travel thousands of miles for fleeting moments of gastronomic bliss unattainable at home... and then we can have a McRib. Without feeling guilty about it.

Top Chef Power Rankings - Episode 1

PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING!!!
There's a lot of sneaky intel out there, especially this season, but I'm endeavoring to keep this blog a spoiler-free zone. This isn't just for the readers, but for me, too -- I don't want to know what happens! As such, anything that's already been broadcast or has been posted on the official Bravo site is fair game for discussion, but if you've heard rumors that one chef has been hosting a lot of dinner parties, or that another chef was spotted boarding a plane to an exotic locale, please keep them to yourself... thanks!

Couldn't have been much happier with that start!

Strong field of competitors, great challenges, very little in the way of technical flubs (impressive for the first episode) and a cameo by my personal hero. Tom seems to feel we're in for a great season, and thus far I'm inclined to agree.

Speaking of Tom, it's widely believed that he is the one person the loss of whom the show couldn't survive. And while it's true that he'd probably be the most difficult to replace (unless Bourdain decided to clear his calendar), I'm increasingly of the opinion that the show's silent star is Lee Anne Wong, under whose direction the culinary challenges and setups -- the real substance of the show -- have become increasingly compelling, meaningful and less gimmicky with every passing season since she came on board. What we got this week were two perfect challenges. First, a elimination series following a natural progression from brute prep to refined prep to actual cooking, all centered on an ingredient that was a corny yet appropriate reference to the new setting. Eliminating somebody right off the bat was, indeed, a little harsh, but the structure of the quickfire made it less arbitrary, I thought. First, you could peel your way out of elimination. Failing that, you could chop your way out of elimination. Failing that, you could cook your way out of elimination. And if you couldn't do that, well, it's a little harder to write it off as a fluke, isn't it? Then the elimination challenge resurrects the great head-to-head format that kicked off last season, this time simultaneously introducing us to the city's ethnic neighborhoods. I'm sure this season will have its share of groaners, but you can't argue with this start.

It's looking like an interesting field this time around. As Lee Anne put it in her blog, there are no Marcels or Hungs or Blaises -- no wild, showy technicians who demand attention. It's almost a bit of a throwback to season one in that respect, where the cream of the crop were creative but restrained. It should make for a tight competition, and it also makes handicapping a little tougher than usual in the early going. For those who didn't read last season, the power rankings aren't strictly a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness. And so, without further ado, let's get to the rankings.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Stefan Quickfires 1 1 0 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 1 1 0 Well, that didn't take long. One episode and my preseason dark horse is already sitting atop the rankings with a rare double win. He proved the quickest with a paring knife in the quickfire, and then put together a nice Middle Eastern inspired dish for the elimination. His lamb chops with tabbouleh and hummus and beef skewer with onion didn't reinvent the wheel, but they were his own take on the region's flavors and they were crisply executed, garnering him the unanimous win. Plus, he showed that killer instinct, going for the sweep rather than accepting immunity and slacking off in the elimination. He'll have to get a little more creative to succeed in the later stages, but we're only one dish into this thing and he's already proven that he knows what he's doing. It also seems clear that he's the early favorite for editors' whipping boy (deserved or not, TBD), and here's hoping he continues to back up the brashness.

2 Gene Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 15 Eliminations 0 1 0 Gene made it clear in his intro video that he doesn't care to be underestimated, and while we have yet to get a clear sense of just how strong he is, he's already assured that he's going to be taken seriously. Padma certainly fell all over herself praising his dish, and I liked how he brought himself to the challenge he was assigned, working in macadamia nuts (Hawaiian) and crispy fried lamb fat (awesome). There are those who think he might've just gotten lucky, and it's certainly possible, but I think he showed us otherwise. What I liked most about him is that he had the misfortune to draw a cuisine he'd never prepared, but instead of wandering around the market with a dazed look like some of the other competitors who were out of their element, what did he do? He went to the prepared foods table and immediately started tasting. His first instinct wasn't to shoehorn Indian ingredients into his style, looking for whatever was most familiar, but rather to open himself to the cuisine and allow himself to be truly inspired by it. His bio was paper thin, but what he showed this week was talent and great instincts. We'll see if he keeps it up.

3 Leah Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 1 0 Leah got herself into trouble in the quickfire with a slow knife, but while those fundamentals are important, I'm reluctant to weigh them too heavily, especially when it afforded her the opportunity to present two excellent dishes. Her seared scallops with dried apples, vinegar and apple juice has no posted recipe, but it was well-received both by Tom and in the TC blogs. And the comments about her farro risotto with seared red snapper and piopini mushrooms -- which married fennel, guanciale, shrimp stock and mint in an earthy context(!) -- were so glowing that you're almost surprised she didn't get the win. Italian is definitely her thing, but her quickfire dish wasn't particularly so, and her elimination dish was Italian in a very modern, creative fashion (as you'd expect from somebody who's been working under Anne Burrell), so I'm not concerned about versatility at this point. She looks strong.

4 Hosea Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 0 0 0 Hosea was another of this week's fish out of water, but he knows fish, and he was fortunate to get a cuisine that hits the smoked and cured varieties pretty heavily. He was another chef who took inspiration from his neighborhood and made its flavors his own, turning out a creative trio that carried thematic ingredients across three different smoked fishes, but tailored them to each. The salmon got a potato latke, crème fraîche, caviar and dill oil, the turbot's latke worked in yellow beets, yellow beet syrup and pickled cabbage, and the trout received a red beet latke, red beet syrup and fresh apple preserves. His plate looked a little busy, and I keep waiting for the judges to sour on trios, but by all accounts he nailed it and just missed the top three.

5 Jamie Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 0 0 0 Jamie, like Stefan, took a very restrained approach with her ingredients, but put her mark on the dish nonetheless. "Deconstructed" is another word that's starting to get dangerous, but even if that's the word she used, I think "reconstructed" would have been more appropriate. She didn't take the elements of a Greek salad and scatter them all over the plate. Rather, she took those flavors, jumbled them up a bit and put them back together in her own way, resulting in a dish that was perfectly concise, just... different. She sliced cucumbers the long way on a mandoline and used quartered cherry tomatoes for textural interest, broke out the olives both into the dressing and into a puree that accented the fish, seared and butter-basted a bass fillet to take it beyond the "just a salad" phase, and worked in a smoky eggplant puree to ground it. Lee Anne called it "sophisticated and simple", and the flavor profile may have come across as simple, but some real thought and technique went into this dish. Another strong start.

6 Jeff Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 0 0 0 Give it three more weeks before I throw something at his winking mug while watching the intro, but setting aside the whole pretty boy annoyance for the moment, Jeff was one of the more interesting ones this week. He really struggled with time, which will absolutely destroy him if this is anything more than a fluke... but let me remind you that Stephanie was really rattled by the pressure in the first episode last season, and she did okay. Yes, she ended up nailing her first dish and Jeff didn't, but the point is that nerves can strike even the best contestants at the beginning. As long as he can quickly pull it together, he'll be fine. He also might want to try to do a little less. As mentioned in the preview, he's the only one who really seems to be coming from a fine dining background, and the recipe for his Cuban coffee tenderloin with plantains, black beans and rice may be the single longest, both in terms of individual ingredients and prepared components, of any I've ever seen on the Top Chef website. The dude -- and I use that term pointedly -- bit off a mighty big chunk. In any case, more ingredients doesn't equal better, but as much as there is going on, it looks awesome. What's more, Lee Anne, who apparently has some previous experience with him, seemed surprised that he struggled and feels that he's one of the stronger competitors, and I'm inclined to believe her. And let's not forget that he won his head-to-head despite these issues. Time will tell whether this was just a case of opening day nerves or a serious problem with pressure, but I'm inclined to think it's probably the former.

7 Alex Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 8 Eliminations 0 0 0 Alex fell into the category of "strong losers". He put together a very solid dish, he just had the misfortune of being paired up with the Hawaiian wonder. His lamb chops with curry ragout and basmati rice looks like a soulful little dish, and he did a really nice job of working the Indian flavors into his style. He's right that Indian and Latin have a natural affinity for one another, but he still handled that crossover in a rather elegant manner, merging the Indian and Latin spices into his curry, and choosing a crossover ingredient like mango for an accent that works naturally with both cuisines. He didn't get the win, but I like what I see.

8 Fabio Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 0 0 0 Fabio burned through the apples, finishing right behind Stefan, but his elimination dish looked a little lackluster. I'm giving him a little love here because he's the only loser to muster a split decision (even if Tom's vote was a bit of a reluctant one) and still got a few compliments from the panel. Coming into the competition, I was concerned his focus might be a little too narrow, and he's certainly shown that he can get outside of traditional Italian. I'm not convinced yet that he can do it well, given that I have a hard time reconciling the two halves of his plate, but the judges (and others) seem to feel there's promise here. My gut feeling is that we didn't get his best here.

9 Jill Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 0 0 Even though Jill pulled out a unanimous win in her pairing, and got some praise from Gail, I'm not getting a good vibe from her first dish. Perhaps because it seems to come from the Bobby Flay school of big, brash, fried and crispy with Sauces!Sauces!Sauces! I'm not too concerned about slightly overcooking scallops. They're delicate, and it's her first time in a weird environment with strange timing issues. What does concern me is that her dish seemed more loud than anything, and I got the feeling that her win was more by default than merit. Gail may have had some nice things to say, but some of the comments in the blogs were... less than enthusiastic. Jury's out on Jill.

10 Radhika Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 0 0 0 Jill did, however, beat Radhika, who I'm also having trouble getting excited about, despite the fact that she's my hometown girl this season. As Blais points out in his blog (a very entertaining read, BTW), her apple chutney in the quickfire was a good call, giving her easy explosive flavor, even if she had to blow the skills challenges to get there. Her elimination dish is troubling to me, however. Tasty mush, no matter how tasty, generally isn't pleasant to eat, and Lee Anne says her dish was crying out for salt and acid. It looks and sounds to me like it was simply a weak submission, and while Jamaican may have been a bit of a curveball for her, it should have dovetailed nicely with Indian (a strength, even if she doesn't want it to define her), and there's really no excuse for basic conceptual problems like that when you have a big budget and all of the time in the world to make two plates (one for the judges, one for the camera). We'll see what she comes back with next week.

11 Richard Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 0 0 A common question throughout the Top Chef run, and certainly in this episode, is whether technical errors or conceptual errors are the greater sin. Depends on the situation to be sure, and especially in the early going I'm disinclined to read too much into a technical goof. So I would have gone easy on Richard for the overcooked lamb and put him a little higher were it not for the fact that I just don't find his recipe all that compelling. Sliders are getting tired (I know I just swooned over one last week, but you can be as trite as you like when you're that good), and I feel like it doesn't take much to give ground lamb some Greek seasoning and slap it on the grill. Plus, pasta salad... woo </sarcasm>. I do think we'll see better from Richard, but I'm not ready to put him any higher just yet.

12 Melissa Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 13 Eliminations 0 0 0 Melissa, in all of her self-proclaimed country mouseness, didn't give us much to go on this week. In her defense, she did draw Italian against one of New York's up and coming stars of modern Italian cuisine, which hardly seems fair. Them's the breaks, I suppose. She didn't totally embarrass herself, but her ribeye steak with tomato sauce and rolled zucchini seems a little clumsy and amateurish, and if you can't season steak and tomato sauce, there's no help for you. But we'll see what she brings in the coming weeks.

13 Carla Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 16 Eliminations 0 0 0 Carla seemed to fare marginally better than Melissa, so it might be a little unfair of me to put her a notch below, but they're pretty close and I suppose maybe I'm still suffering from a bit of caterer prejudice. Most people aren't sure what to make of the fact that she's apparently consulting her spirit guide when conceiving her menu. Personally, I'd just like to know what form her spirit guide takes so I can root for that animal as a theme ingredient. But setting aside the source of her inspiration, her trout and salmon cakes with beet slaw and dill sour cream seem a reasonable if unexciting submission, but the panel sends a lot of constructive criticism in her direction. Sounds like it didn't quite come together. More data needed to get a solid grasp on her.

14 Ariane Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 0 0 1 She totally blew the farro, and she earned her trip to the chopping block, but here's my take on it. Anybody can make a mistake like that, everybody will at some point in the show, and when they do, they just have to hope that somebody screws up worse. Ariane dodged a bullet, and though I wasn't sold on her going into the competition, I'm disinclined to read too much into this screw up, considering that as far as I can tell, her rack of lamb with farro risotto, dates, chickpeas, lamb jus and mango was otherwise very well received. It sure looks nice, with a yogurt, lemon, garlic and cardamom crust that used ground cous cous (a new one to me!) for crunch. I don't know how good she is, but she's better than this, and Tom seemed to know it. As long as she doesn't freak out and blow it, she'll move up before moving down. As a side note, the popular interpretation of her "Yeah, but I got books to look at" line is that she was saying she didn't need to visit New York's ethnic neighborhoods because she could just look up the recipes. It was certainly Tom's understanding. But while that's a ridiculous assertion if that is, indeed, what she meant, it strikes me that that exchange was heavily edited, and my initial impression was that she meant, as the owner of a small restaurant, that she's too busy going over the business' books to go gallivanting around Manhattan. If so, you'd think she would have corrected Tom's impression, but maybe she just let it go. If she was claiming that tasting time's tough to come by when you have a business to run, it's a little more understandable and a lot less ridiculous than the popular interpretation.

15 Danny Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 12 Eliminations 0 0 0 First impression, I like this guy. He seems like a softer, more jovial version of our previous beefy New Yorkers. But a Chinese chicken salad? Seriously? This is a guy who claims Asian as one of his specialties, yet when set loose in Chinatown the best he can do is a mediocre retread of a twenty year old faux Asian dish? The Chinese chicken salad was trite 15 years ago, Danny, and it needs at least another 15 before it's retro. To defend Danny a little bit, this wasn't precisely Puck's famous Chinois chicken salad. But the dish is so ubiquitous that I've no doubt at least 30 restaurants share this exact recipe simply by chance. There are only so many combinations and permutations of poached chicken, scallions, cilantro, carrots, fried wontons and ginger vinaigrette out there, and I'm pretty sure they've all been done. This performance does not bode well for Danny.

16 Patrick Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 17 Eliminations 0 0 1 Only slightly more insulting was Patrick's lame mirin basted salmon with sesame black noodles and steamed bok choy. If you don't know Asian (and clearly he doesn't), don't cite your Asian Cuisines class at the CIA as evidence of your comfort with the continent. Though I suppose that may explain why Patrick thought mirin and lemongrass were Chinese. When you cram so many wildly different cuisines (Asia's a big place!) into a crash course, I imagine things start to blur together. Also, Patrick chose the irritating strategy of acting as though he was struggling under some terrible constraints. They don't get any easier than this, Patrick. You had plenty of time and money to produce two plates, and the only requirement was that you be inspired by Chinatown. And please don't choose black rice noodles off a wall with hundreds of other noodle options, only to turn around and complain to the judges that you were hamstrung because you'd never worked with them before. Plus, Lee Anne informs us that he precooked and reheated his salmon. I'm being a little harsh. The guy was just trying to survive and he seems like a nice enough fellow, but sanitized faux Asian lite + poor execution + lack of accountability = episode one exit, and deservedly so.

17 Lauren Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 14 Eliminations 0 0 0 Yes, being sent home without even getting to see the Top Chef kitchen is a little harsh, but when you see fit to serve a spinach salad with apples, bacon, bleu cheese and balsamic vinaigrette, a hasty exit is probably only saving you from further embarrassment. I don't care how carefully it was prepared. You might as well serve the judges a ham and swiss on rye, which might actually be a better choice since it wouldn't be a salad, and we all know (all of us except for the contestants, apparently) what salads earn you on Top Chef, even when they aren't mind-numbingly boring: Scorn.

Two down, fourteen to go! We've already eliminated some chaff, and I'd say we have another 3-4 weeks to go before the eliminations start to get interesting, and another 4-6 weeks before we start to care about them. That time should give us the opportunity to get to know who the real contenders are, and a little more about them.

MINOR EPISODE 2 SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Looking at the previews for next week, we already have a pretty good idea of what the challenges will be. The quickfire has been laid bare, and I'm kind of digging the hot dog challenge. It's not a bad blank slate for a downscale challenge, and being a Chicagoan, I consider the hot dog to be a perfectly noble foodstuff, high falutin' elevation notwithstanding. This is a challenge that will show us which contestants are the open-minded food lovers, and which are the snobby elitists.

As for the elimination, the details are sketchy. We know it's high volume, so the caterers might have a leg up (I guess Carla probably lives to see episode three), but it's the mystery over the crowd that has me curious. We're told they'll be serving 50, that they'll be really, really tough critics, and Carla describes them as "jealous". I don't think it'll be a panel of previously eliminated contestants, first because they'd have to wrangle up nearly all of them, and second because it would be prohibitively expensive to fly them all in. I think it's possible that it'll be rejected New York area applicants, which would explain the jealousy line, but I'm not sure it explains why they'd be such difficult critics. Other chefs, I think, having been on the firing line themselves, tend to prefer to be supportive rather than critical. More likely, I'm thinking they've assembled a crowd of food bloggers/posters, and Carla's trotting out the tired, ignorant trope that we all just like to sit at home tearing chefs apart because we're malicious souls who are jealous that they can cook and we can't. But that can't be it. Surely, they would have invited me, right?

Right?

:-)

Discuss!

Salt

Foie Gras & Kobe Beef Slider	Dominic Armato

A few months ago, a thought occurred to me. Charm City Hounds has been such a great group, and we've hit some outstanding places, but while the bastard stepchild of Chowhound's Baltimore board was borne of the "combing the strip malls and back alleys in search of under-the-radar grub" philosophy -- one I lovingly embrace and strive to practice constantly -- why be dogmatic about it? There is, indeed, nothing like falling into a place like Grace Garden, feasting almost weekly with great company on outstanding ethnic cuisine, and then watching a previously unknown gem receive glowing write up after glowing write up from the mainstream press as word trickles out. But as much as discoveries like that drive us, ethnic holes-in-the-wall don't hold the monopoly on deliciousness. One thing I suppose I am dogmatic about is the belief that great grub exists at all price points and all levels of refinement, and delicious food deserves our respect independent of how much it costs or where we obtain it. So I figured, hey, just for kicks, why don't we see how everybody cleans up and I'll organize an outing to one of the swankier Baltimore eateries that have been languishing on my to-do list for months? And while I don't anticipate that this type of outing will (or should) become common for CCH, it turned out to be a good call.

	Scallop Ceviche	Dominic Armato

In truth, "swanky", even if applied relative to our usual haunts, doesn't really apply to Salt. I might be willing to concede "hip", what with the funky, creative menu, minimally high-concept name and chartreuse light fixtures. But the "Tavern" part of the restaurant's name, though usually relegated to a subtitle or omitted altogether, is no conceit. Though the brick row house just off Patterson Park now houses a rather sharp looking bar and midrange restaurant, at heart this is a cozy, welcoming neighborhood operation helmed and co-owned by the cheery and enthusiastic Jason Ambrose, who couldn't have been more accommodating when I threatened to descend upon him with 13 other food nerds for a special tasting menu that he'd have to devise for the evening. We set a price point, I asked him to show us what he could do, and he showed us a great time.

Foie Gras & Kobe Beef Slider	Dominic Armato

The first plate to land in front of us was a scallop ceviche, and a friend's classification of Ambrose as "a flavor guy" was immediately borne out. An obscenely fresh scallop was sliced and cured ever so slightly in an orange and lime dressing with onion, orange, cilantro, orange, Cusco corn, orange and orange. The intensity of the orange flavor -- entirely welcome -- shoved the needle from the sour over to the sweet end of the sweet/sour continuum, referencing the dish's Peruvian roots while taking a fresh angle. Though I enjoyed the dressing, what made the dish for me was just how lightly the scallop had been cured. It was just barely coaxed out of a completely raw state, succulent, cool and tender, and it maintained an extremely clean flavor that was more sashimi than ceviche.

	Cape May Fluke	Dominic Armato

The only place where we exerted any influence was with our second course, a staple of the regular menu and one of Ambrose's signature dishes, that was a happy concession to popular demand. Ambrose places a small Kobe beef patty on a miniature bun, tops it with a generous slab of seared foie gras, dresses it with truffle aioli and a sweet onion marmalade, and serves it alongside duck fat fries. And while I'm on record as a fierce opponent of the continued debasement of the term "Kobe Beef", if the dish is always this good, as far as I'm concerned Ambrose can call it whatever he damn well pleases. A brief flirtation with my flatware succumbed to a gut instinct that a slider should be grasped by the fingertips, no matter how gussied up. It's an approach I highly recommend. Not only is there something primal about sinking into something this rich and decadent, but it gives you an incredible noseful of beef, foie and truffle aroma that you'd only get a hint of otherwise. A year, almost to the day, since I tried the (in)famous DB Burger, I learned that when it comes to putting Kobe, foie and truffles on a bun, Daniel Boulud has nothing on Jason Ambrose. This is not hyperbole. This is a dynamite dish.

Steak 'n Eggs	Dominic Armato

Our third and fourth courses were notable in that they were both dishes that I would ordinarily regard with a certain level of suspicion, but which won me over nonetheless. I'm ordinarily not a fan of stacking seafoods. I think the results tend to get messy. But the Cape May Fluke worked in both oyster and lobster surprisingly well. The fish, tender and moist, was set atop a root vegetable and bacon hash, topped with an exceptionally crispy breaded and fried oyster, and dressed with lobster butter. I think it worked because the oyster and lobster (a very subtle flavor in the context of the dish), were treated as accents rather than costars. The crunch of the oyster kept the rest from becoming texturally bland, the butter nicely married root vegetable and fresh fish, and the dish only fell short of excellence, in my estimation, for want of a bit of brightness. I think a touch of acid would have made it pop, and even the tabasco in the oyster's marinade may have done the trick had it been a little more prominent. But the fact that I cared so much that it was thisclose speaks, I think, to its ingenuity. Even in its 95% state, I really enjoyed it.

	Ice Cream	Dominic Armato

I was a little dismayed, initially, to discover that our second beefy offering of the evening would be tenderloin. In most cases, I'm not a fan of tenderloin. I find its flavor underwhelming and its texture overvalued. But I can, on occasion, be won over, and this was one of those times. The Steak 'n Eggs was Ambrose's play on breakfast, incorporating all of the requisite elements into a creative dish that was undeniably dinner. He first added interest to the usually bland tenderloin by lightly smoking it, then seasoned and cooked it perfectly, topped it with a fried quail egg and an espresso demi-glace, and paired it with a blue cheese stuffed doughnut hole. Tenderloin needs to be dressed up, in my opinion, and rarely have I seen it done so creatively and skillfully. It's still filet, and I have my prejudices in that regard, but I was surprised by the extent to which I enjoyed it.

Cookie Jar	Dominic Armato

Our final course, "Childish Desserts", was skillfully prepared, if not nearly up to the enticing standards of the rest of the meal. Racks of ice cream cones lined our long table, featuring a very intense vanilla, light chocolate, and a dulce de leche that, sadly, I didn't have the chance to sample. Cookie jars contained an assortment of specimens, including some particularly nice macarons. But with the caveat that I'm one who would often elect to receive another savory course over dessert, I could have done without. It was a pleasantly sweet finish, to be sure, but my brain was stuck on the earlier courses and, quite frankly, still is. Our opportunities to get out for nice dinners have been precious few here in Baltimore, but Salt is, thus far, my favorite. There are seats at the bar, the kitchen's open pretty late and I hear the lamb stroganoff is awesome. I might have to sneak out a few times before we skip town.

Salt
www.salttavern.com
2127 E. Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-276-5480
Mon	5:00 PM - 10:00 PM	Bar closes at 11:00
Tue - Wed	5:00 PM - 10:00 PM	Bar closes at 12:00
Thu - Sat	5:00 PM - 11:00 PM	Bar closes at 1:00