Skillet Doux

The Deliciousness of 2008

Cemita Atomica at Cemitas Puebla	Dominic Armato

Ahhhh, always one of my favorite posts of the year. Not just because it's so much fun to remember the year's faves, but also because it's a reminder that Skillet Doux has been around for another year. My first official act as a food blog was to recap the 2005 year, making this my fourth year-in-review as Skillet Doux turns three.

2008 was a pretty damn good year from a food standpoint, which is kind of shocking considering how little I got out. I ceased traveling for work, I spent the year in a city with no relatives to watch the little guy, and I still had to struggle to whittle this year's list down to ten. Even more of a struggle was limiting myself to two entries from Grace Garden. I figured anything more would just be absurd.

At any rate, while no 2006, 2008 was a great food year. I tried a bunch of new things. I discovered awesomeness in unexpected places. Though my kitchen this year was mostly consumed with simple, day-to-day meals for the family, it did produce a couple moments of greatness. As always, the Deliciousness of 2008 isn't strictly a "best" list. Rather, these are the dishes I enjoyed the most, the dishes that taught me the most, and the dishes that will stick in my mind for years to come.

Clicking on the image provides a larger one, while clicking on the name of the dish links to the post that talked about it. And so, in no particular order, courtesy of random.org, The Deliciousness of 2008:

Dominic Armato Mushroom Fritters JFX Viaduct Farmers Market - Baltimore The JFX viaduct farmers market will definitely be near the top of the list of places I'll miss when we skip town in July. Even setting aside the scale and quality of the market, there's a great energy that I have yet to experience elsewhere. And while my exhilaration over returning to the market and the crisp spring morning may have made me unusually swoon-prone, there's no denying that the mushroom stand makes some wonderful snacks with their bounty. My favorite prepared foodstuff of the market, by a longshot, was the mushroom fritters with crumbled feta, mesclun greens, basil and a squirt of hot sauce. Hot out of the fryer, crisp on the outside, moist and tender on the inside, sitting atop just enough simple, fresh accompaniments to make them sing, they took me from happy to giddy.

Dominic Armato Steamed Whole Duck Stuffed with Sticky Rice Grace Garden - Baltimore The biggest food story of the year in my circles, by the widest of margins, was the discovery of Grace Garden -- an unassuming strip mall bastion of exceptional authentic Chinese cuisine in a town that desperately needed it. I'm so in love with the place and the people who run it that it's nearly impossible to pick favorites, but one of the dishes that was most striking to me came from one of our earliest visits. Chef Li saw fit to prepare a special dish for us -- a duck that had been completely deboned, stuffed with sticky rice, lotus seeds, bamboo, chunks of Chinese sausage as well as other light seasonings, then sealed tightly and steamed. As the duck cooks, the fat melts and saturates the rice, infusing it with an indescribably unctuous duck flavor, while the meat itself becomes impossibly sweet and tender. The duck fat shock hits you once when you first taste the dish, and again if you take some home and it has a chance to chill and congeal. Of course, as with great confit, there's no such thing as too much duck fat. But to write this off simply as a celebration of duck lipid is to sell Chef Li short. The underlying flavors, subtle though they may be, bring out the duck flavor and make a masterful dish out of something that, in other hands, could end up as little more than a pile of (tasty) goo.

Dominic Armato Kobe & Foie Slider Salt - Baltimore Getting me to overlook my annoyance with the overuse of the term "Kobe" is a feat in and of itself, but this dish was so much more. A friend described Jason Ambrose, owner and head chef of Salt, as a "flavor guy", and this dish was exactly the kind of thing she was talking about. Almost exactly a year after I sampled Daniel Boulud's famous DB Burger, I tasted what it should have been. Not that there was anything wrong with the DB Burger (other than the price), but where the DB burger only hinted at rich, meaty, truffled decadence, Jason Ambrose delivered it. The small patty was topped with an equally large slab of charred foie gras, placed on a small toasted bun and topped with a sweet onion compote and truffled aioli. It was lush and juicy and as much about the nose as the palate. Anybody who eats this with a knife and fork is missing out, big time. It may be a little messy but just pick the damn thing up and eat it. When it gets about halfway to your nose, a kind of primal, Homer Simpson drooling out the side of your mouth reaction ensues. If it doesn't, don't bother checking your pulse... just sign the organ donor line on the back of your driver's license and wait for the ambulance.

Dominic Armato Steamed Blue Crabs Hard Yacht Club - Baltimore Because of the disarray surrounding our arrival in 2007 and our forthcoming early summer departure in 2009, 2008 was my one big shot at crab season in Baltimore and I tried to make the best of it. I ate steamed blue crabs at a number of places, and never quite got around to posting about it, but the folks here take pride in this tradition and they should. Crusted with Old Bay, steamed and eaten with nothing more than maybe a touch of vinegar, this is the perfect example of enjoying the natural flavor of one of nature's greatest foodstuffs. Blue crabs may be a lot of work, but I'm a convert. They have a sweetness and an almost gnarly intensity (especially if you get into the mustard, which I love) that makes a lot of other breeds of crab taste like surimi. Few of my 2008 experiences were more satisfying than taking the last slug of beer as I surveyed a chaotic pile of chitinous carnage left in the wake of an evening of crab picking. Hard Yacht Club didn't actually have my favorite crabs. I preferred Mr. Bill's slightly mellower custom spice blend. But the whole experience -- sitting outside on a dock overlooking the water on a summer evening, ordering a sack of crabs that's delivered 20 minutes later by the guy who'd just fished them out of the Chesapeake, drinking beer and sucking Old Bay off your fingers as day turns into dusk turns into night -- this will be among my fondest memories of Baltimore.

Dominic Armato Fried Zucchini Blossoms Dom's Kicthen - Baltimore And so the first of our 2008 themes, battered and fried vegetables, emerges. I found a great source for perfect zucchini blossoms at the new farmers market in Harbor East, and over the course of two weeks this this past spring, I went a little nutty. I think I ended up consuming over 150 of them. Not all of them were fried, of course. Most of them made their way into ravioli. But the ravioli, as proud as I was of that recipe, couldn't match the ohmygod awesomeness of the freshly battered and fried blossoms. I borrowed a batter recipe from the Tornabenes, cooked up a huge batch, dusted them with a little coarse salt, and ate until I could eat no more. The crispy fried exterior acted like armor during the cooking process, causing the blossoms' innards to almost liquefy into zucchini blossom soup. That such a delicate floral flavor is best brought out in fried form, I'll never understand. But rather than doing mental backflips trying to determine why, I prefer to marvel, instead, at the wisdom of centuries of Italian cooks.

Dominic Armato Fish Noodles Grace Garden - Baltimore Enter the second of our 2008 themes, Grace Garden. As mentioned above, I opted to cap Grace Garden's participation in the Deliciousness of 2008 at two entries. If I spent too much time thinking about it, they'd probably end up dominating half the list. But as hard as it was making that cut down to two, and while I can't get enough of Chef Li's bolder dishes, the incredible technique and restraint that goes into his fish noodles astounds me. The noodles themselves are made of fish, which is reduced to some kind of seasoned paste and then extruded into a simmering broth to cook. How he achieves their delicate but firm bite, their unusual shape and texture and their wonderful flavor, I have no idea. But they're a technical marvel. Just as impressive, however, is the treatment they receive, tossed with slivered mushrooms, chives and Chinese sausage, and dressed with a light gingery sauce that's mellow and comforting. In every possible respect, this is a perfect dish, and its gentle countenance belies the remarkable skill that goes into its creation.

Dominic Armato Peruvian Ceviche Rinconcito Peruano - Baltimore 2008 was the year I rediscovered Peruvian, after my whirlwind tour of the country a few years back. This rediscovery was inspired and sustained by the proximity of a great little family run Peruvian place just a few blocks from home. Again, there are so many favorites, it's difficult to pick one. But the dish that I tell people they can't miss, the one that is always excellent, and the one that caught me a little off-guard the most was the fish ceviche. Fresh, light and spicy, the inclusion of corn, sweet potatoes and seaweed was an exciting departure from the other ceviches to which I'm accustomed. But what kept me coming back to the dish was simply the fact that the flavor was so clean and crisp. Almost everything Luz served me this year was wonderful, but this is the dish I'll miss the most.

Dominic Armato Kuy Teav Chha Kreoung Tek Trey Phem Phnom Penh - Cleveland 2008 was also the year, just barely, that I discovered Cambodian. Perhaps not like Columbus discovering America. More like your mother discovering text messaging. But it was new to me. It's tough for a completely new cuisine not to make an impact, and make an impact Phnom Penh did, putting together familiar southeast Asian ingredients and techniques in ways that were unfamiliar to me. The result was a whole new spin on one of my favorite culinary regions of the world, and a truly memorable meal. There were other dishes as delicious as the kuy teav, but none that were so unusual and striking to me. The dish combined the noodles and seasoned fish sauce of a Vietnamese bun dish, the peanuts and creamy coconut of a Thai curry, and the almost curry-like turmeric based kreoung that, for me, was reminiscent of Indian. It was three of my favorite cuisines in one, and at the same time, none of them, and it was delicious. From a meal that opened up a new door, this was the one that intrigued and delighted me the most.

Dominic Armato Berkshire Crispy Bacon with Halloumi and Pickled Tomato Lola - Cleveland The wait to put this on the Deliciousness of 2008 list has been a long one. I sampled this dish right after New Year's -- before I'd posted the Deliciousness of 2007, in fact -- and knew immediately that it would be on next year's list. The downside? It's long gone. Even worse, though I'm generally loathe to pick a singular favorite of the year, this is it. I loved this dish. Loved, loved, loved it. The crispy pork belly was topped with a wedge of pickled tomato, atop a slice of seared halloumi cheese, and dressed with a mint oil, slivered toasted almonds and a number of other small components. The result was simply explosive. It was bold and exciting and full of flavor with an unusual profile the likes of which I hadn't encountered. Every bite was a joy, and I'm sad that, most likely, I'll never have the chance to eat this one again. If every other dish he served me was tripe -- figuratively or literally -- this dish alone would have made me a Michael Symon fan. In 2008 I had three great meals at his restaurants, but this was the knockout dish that I'll be pining for.

Dominic Armato Miso Marinated Foie Gras Sea Saw - Scottsdale And our final theme of 2008 was foie gras. Only fitting, in the year the Chicago City Council came to their senses (even if neither of the foie dishes in question were, in fact, obtained in Chicago). While naming two foie dishes seems like the easy way out, both really were exceptional. On the strength of these two dishes, 2008 may have been the best year in foie I've ever had. While Salt's slider went the meaty, juicy route, Nobu Fukuda's miso marinated foie went the sweet route. The foie was marinated in miso, sake and mirin, then seared and sauced with peaches sautéed in foie butter. The miso turned the foie into even more of an umami bomb, but the subtle bite of the sake cut through and kept it from being pure richness. It was, as I put it in my post on Sea Saw, eyes rolling into the back of your head good. And after all of that sweet and creamy richness, the little bit of tart yamamomo was the perfect palate cleanser.

And that's ten. But I'm going to break the rules a bit this year and add a last-minute honorable mention. I had my list all set for publication, thinking I was in the clear on the morning of the 30th, but today's lunch forced me to add one more dish to this year's list.

Dominic Armato

Pierogi
Smak-Tak - Chicago
Confession time. I'm a food nerd who was born and raised in Chicago, and the first time I ever set foot in a Polish restaurant was today [pause for shame]. And now I've gone and started myself off with impossible standards. There's no link, because I haven't even had the chance to write about them yet, but we had lunch at one of LTH's newest darlings this afternoon, and it was one of my best meals of the year. At Smak-Tak, I expected simple, good and hearty. I got hearty, surprisingly complex, and absolutely outstanding. This was the kind of meal that forces you to reconsider using "meat and potatoes" as a pejorative. This was, undeniably, rib-sticking piles of protein and starch. But it was made with such care and bursting with so many flavors that it completely broadsided me, even though I was expecting good things. I could have named many of the dishes I sampled -- the Hungarian potato pancake stuffed with pork goulash, the subtle and smoky hunter's stew, the incredible chicken liver and onions special that's in the running for the best example of its genre I've ever tasted -- but I keep coming back to the humble pierogi, hearty yet light, filled with an assortment of meats, mushrooms, cheese, potatoes and sauerkraut and accompanied by a dollop of fresh sour cream. I finally understand why some people harbor such love for pierogi. These were not the leaden lumps to which I'm accustomed. The dough was pillowy soft, the fillings were full-flavored and beautifully seasoned, and the entire plate was slathered with butter. They were outstanding, and I'm ashamed to admit that I'm just getting acquainted with the bounty of my own backyard. Better late than never, I suppose.

And with that, I bring 2008 to a close -- a good food year that went out with a bang. 2009 already promises to be interesting. Very shortly, I may be moving to within an hour of Napa Valley. But we'll save that for next year.

Happy New Year's, everybody!

Phnom Penh

Kuy Teav Chha Kreoung Tek Trey Phem	Dominic Armato

It's a little absurd, really, that I know absolutely nothing about Khmer cuisine. I adore the foods of Thailand and Vietnam, and then there's Cambodia, sandwiched in between them with a little strip of ocean to the south and a little strip of Laos to the north. I've heard of Cambodian restaurants here and there, but they never seemed to attract much attention. Why Cambodian hasn't made the kind of inroads here as its wildly popular neighbors, I can't say. Perhaps the recent history of poverty, famine, genocidal dictators and massive political upheaval has something to do with it. Cambodia, understandably, has been more concerned with survival and stability than culinary ambassadorship over the past few decades. The exception, however, has been Cleveland's Phnom Penh, a restaurant that is mentioned frequently and lovingly in food nerd circles. It's been at the top of my Cleveland short list for a couple of years, I finally got there last week, and I wish I'd done so sooner.

	Salad Phnom Penh	Dominic Armato

Though the newer location near West Side Market is the one most frequently mentioned, I opted for the original spot off Jefferson Park. Our server told us they've been around for ten years, but I would have guessed 20 or 30. I'll call the room humble (some may consider "dingy" more accurate) and the winter chill, though blunted, didn't stop at the front door. But the temperature of the restaurant was contrasted by the warmth of its staff, friendly, enthusiastic and all smiles. Even if we had been familiar with the cuisine, we probably still would have solicited advice. The menu is enormous, with nearly a hundred items covering Cambodian, Vietnamese and a smattering of Thai, even before you count the combinatons and permutations of seasonings and proteins. As it was, we mostly put ourselves in the staff's capable hands, making a couple of starter selections and deferring on the rest, with the instruction to stick to Cambodian classics.

Nating	Dominic Armato

Right out of the gate, we knew we were in capable hands. Requesting a salad recommendation, our server steered us towards the house's special Salad Phnom Penh. It arrived, very finely shredded cabbage with some chicken, carrots, bean sprouts, slivered green bell peppers, fresh basil, ground peanut topping and a garlic dressing, and made a big impression. The flavor profile won't be unfamiliar to fans of Thai and Vietnamese. It's that same combination of salty, sweet and tart citrus with seemingly endless variations, this one being an unusually light and delicate take (lemon instead of lime, perhaps?). Delicate, actually, was the operative word here. The vegetables were shredded with the utmost precision, creating an exceptionally light and crisp texture, but more importantly, it let us know right away that whoever was manning the kitchen did so with a capable hand. The dressing was perfectly balanced -- entirely worthy of house special status.

	Samlaw Machou Phnom Penh	Dominic Armato

We moved on to our sole request of the evening, Nating. Crispy puffed rice cakes -- not unlike those that might be dropped into a Chinese sizzling rice soup -- arrived alongside a small bowl of a concoction meant to be spooned over them. The bowl contained tender ground pork in what I'd describe as a very mild tomato-based curry. Though it employed coconut milk, it did so in a very light fashion, lacking the creaminess I associate with many Thai coconut curries. The specific seasonings, I couldn't begin to deciper, mostly because I was too busy enjoying it. The subtle, round flavor of the sauce, the tenderness of the pork, the contrasting crispness of the rice -- this was in the running for favorite of the evening, though we're still unsure whether it was meant to be eaten with fingers or utensils.

Bayon	Dominic Armato

Cold weather means soup, and that gave us the opportunity to sample another Cambodian classic. Listed under the somewhat painfully titled "Fantasy Stew" section of the menu were two iterations of the Vietnamese-influenced samlaw machou, a sour Cambodian soup. Our server steered us towards the second version, prepared with pineapple, sliced celery, basil, shrimp and chicken. Though I can't speak for this specific preparation, pickled lime is apparently common for the dish. But the primary flavor in this bowl of tartness was tamarind. And while the paste of the pod is well-known, the soup was also seasoned with an herb that our server identified as tamarind leaves. In contrast to the previous two dishes, there was nothing subtle going on here. It was lip-puckering, warm and delicious, if not quite as keenly balanced as some similar Thai soups I've had.

	Stirred Beef and Shrimp Chili	Dominic Armato

The first of our entrees was the low point of the evening, though I suspect that was as much our fault as it was the kitchen's. In deference to a highly chile-sensitive member of our group, we ordered the bayon mild, and it was the wrong dish to do non-spicy. A Cambodian curry made with large chunks of zucchini and summer squash, it came across like a Thai pad prik king minus the prik -- sort of missing the point. In response, we asked the server to bring on the spicy, and she responded with house special stirred beef and jumbo shrimp chili with special fried rice. I'm not sure what makes the fried rice special. It was boilerplate carrot, peas and eggs. The beef and shrimp chili, however, was interesting. It was intense, sweet and saucy, striking me more like an Americanized Chinese dish. Chinese migrants have had a significant influence on Cambodian cuisine, and I wonder if this dish reflects those influences. But the spicy sweet also had a nice funky almost seafoody undertone. I understand that Cambodian frequently utilizes fermented fish paste. Perhaps that card was in play.

Kuy Teav Chha Kreoung Tek Trey Phem	Dominic Armato

The star entree of the evening was the impressively titled kuy teav chha kreoung tek trey phem. From what little I can find online (and those conversant in Khmer, by all means, jump in) the chha refers to stir-fry, kreoung is a Cambodian seasoning paste akin to curry, kuy teav is a beef or pork noodle soup similar to pho, and the rest... no idea. But what I find curious is that Phnom Penh's kuy teav doesn't even remotely resemble any descriptions or photos of the dish I see elsewhere online. Noodles aside, this was in no way even remotely pho-like. It reminded me more of a Vietnamese bun dish, with topped fresh noodles and an accompanying fish sauce similar to nuoc cham. But then it took kind of a right turn. The noodles were topped with fried spring rolls, stir-fried onions, slivered basil and ground peanuts, all in a sauce of kreoung and coconut, the former deeply flavored and heavy on turmeric. The creamy coconut, turmeric-heavy curry and tart and salty fish sauce seem like an odd combination on paper, but it was a wonderful dish, vibrant and rounded at the same time. With elements reminiscent of Thai, Vietnamese and Indian all thrown together, it was precisely what I found so compelling about a wonderful introduction to Cambodian. The foods are clearly southeast Asian, and they employ familiar ingredients in familiar ways that are at times reminiscent of (or directly influenced by) the other cuisines of the region, but the dishes were nonetheless novel to me. I'm obviously in no position, after one meal, to be making any authoritative generalizations about Cambodian cuisine, but the dishes we tasted had a unique character that I'm anxious to learn more about. Sadly, this jaunt to Cleveland only afforded us one opportunity, but Phnom Penh is at the top of my list for our next visit.

Phnom Penh
www.ohiorestaurant.com
13124 Lorain Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44111
216-251-1230
Mon - Thu	11:00 AM - 9:30 PM
Fri - Sat	11:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Sun	3:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Deep Dish

Gino's East Sausage Supreme	Dominic Armato

Feels good to be home.

Merry Christmas

Pork Loin in the Style of Porchetta	Dominic Armato

I'm a sucker for a good Batali recipe. Especially when it's this festive.

Merry Christmas, everybody... some great eats this week. Posts soon!

Top Chef Postmortem - Episode 6

Couldn't find a photo of a Christmas present in the collection. And certainly not one, you know, sitting outside in 90 degree heat.

You know, people are going to call this a copout, but I really liked how they chose to handle this. The judges know these guys are better than this. Kick 'em all in the ass, send 'em home, bring 'em back and let them do whatever the hell they want to prove they belong.

And this conclusion was in no way influenced by the fact that my number one may have been the one to go. Honest. No, really. Though, incidentally, scallops are my favorite raw seafood (no lie!).

I also think we just found out why Lee Anne seems to have a bone to pick with Jamie. Anybody who uses scallops gets the evil eye. Three times in a row? Yikes.

Anyway, this thread will be the repository for TC discussion for a while. Since we're getting at least one week off for the holiday special (and I imagine two, since I can't see them airing a new episode on NYE), I'm going to wait until the Monday before the new episode to do the next rankings. Good time for a breather, anyway.

Maybe we'll even get back to some non-TC subjects for a while. God forbid I should write about anything else.

Discuss... I imagine folks have much to say. UPDATE : No blogs from Tom or Lee Anne out of the gate. Crud. Interestingly, though, Michelle Bernstein actually pegs Gene's as her least favorite, not Jamie's. Oh, those wily editors. I bet that recipe looks awesome and the temperature just killed it. We'll see. UPDATE II : BTW, I can't express how excited I am about the next episode. I don't believe we've ever gotten everybody's best shot midseason, and that's exactly what we're going to get. We've gotten it at the beginning, when everybody is getting their footing, and we've gotten it at the end, when we've already had a good chance to see what everybody can do. But this next one has to be one of the most illuminating episodes of TC we've ever seen. No excuses, show us what you can do or go home. Awesome. UPDATE III : Everybody ready for the ingredient list on Ariane's winner? Pureed cauliflower and potatoes with thyme, cream, salt and pepper. Beef tenderloin with parsley, garlic, lemon, salt, pepper. I'm sure it was tasty. Am I the only one snoring? (And incidentally, how did she not get disqualified for using the grill?) This can't go on much longer, can it? If it does, can I get off? UPDATE IV : Okay, I'm just going to throw this one out there. Anybody else want to consider the possibility that this season's problem is Ariane's success? On one hand, the judges are exhorting the contestants to stretch themselves and make interesting food. On the other, they're giving half the wins to one of the least interesting chefs out there. Do you think this fact has been lost on the contestants? I'm confident this crew is a lot better than they've shown. Like I've said, there's good stuff beneath the surface. But why should they stretch when they're being shown that the way to win is to play it safe? If the regular judges had given Ariane more than one of her wins, I might be inclined to put equal blame on their shoulders. UPDATE V : Lee Anne's blog is up, and bonus points go to Gilby for correctly calling that the decision not to eliminate anybody was made as soon as the extent of the fridge malfunction became known. Lee Anne also, interestingly, uses the phrase "broke down" in reference to the starcrossed fridge, but she's also quick to point out that it was overloaded with hot food -- something that anybody who's stuck even a single pot of stock in the fridge knows can be a problem. Other tidbits: Both of Fabio's dishes sucked, as did Ariane's deviled eggs (and not just because they were deviled eggs), and she felt Carla's was overcooked, one note and so oversalted it was enough to justify her being sent home. And perhaps most interestingly, much of the group was not very receptive to Tom's admonition. This is why Lee Anne's blog is the first I read (when it's up). UPDATE VI : Commenter Caulder below points out a nice bit of video sleuthing by Amuse-Biatch (sheesh... I take one episode to delay my research and somebody scoops me), wherein it is revealed that Cheyenne Jackson's rather supportive comment about Jamie's dish, expressing surprise that he -- not a scallop person -- enjoyed it, was edited to look like an outright criticism of the dish. This is why I read the recipes. UPDATE VII : Oh, and I just have to point this out because it's killing me:

"I got really frustrated because I know I cooked a great dish, and she was going to grumble that I used cornstarch. I think a lot of housewives and grandmothers use cornstarch to thicken their stews."

I'm thinking you should try that one at Judges' Table, Gene. Nothing says "I deserve to win Top Chef" like defending yourself by saying you cooked like a housewife. Brilliant.

Cauliflower Pasta

Cavatappi con Cavolfiore, Zafferano e Mente	Dominic Armato

Hey, we haven't had a good pasta recipe around these parts in a while!

Cauliflower has become my go-to pet pasta ingredient as of late. It's easy to prepare, it gets beautifully sweet when caramelized, it pairs perfectly with a chaotic, chunky pasta and it loves parmesan. The obsession started with an absurdly simple Batali recipe that's threatening to unseat Rigatoni all'Amatriciana as the official Armato/Scudiere household pasta and has persisted through a few spur of the moment variations, of which this is one of my favorites. Plus, bonus... what Italian word is more fun to say than cavolfiore?

---

Dominic Armato 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed 1/2 head cauliflower salt & pepper 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter 1 pinch saffron threads 1/4 C. chopped fresh mint, divided 1/2 lb. cavatappi grated parmesan

Cavatappi con Cavolfiore, Zafferano e Mente

Serves 2 as an entree, 3-4 as a primo

As always, first refer to the Ten Commandments of Dry Pasta for instructions on general pasta cookery.

While your water is coming to a boil, you can do all of your prep and start the cauliflower. Trim the cauliflower and break it into small florets, slicing larger ones into halves or quarters, giving it time to dry after washing. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and, when hot, toss in the garlic cloves. Cook the garlic cloves, turning as necessary, until they're light golden all over, then remove and discard them (or, if you're me, set them aside, salt and eat them). Immediately toss in the cauliflower, spread it evenly around the pan and for the next few minutes, resist the urge to play Chen Kenichi, practicing your pao action, and don't touch it. You want each piece to take a nice browned color on one side. When the underside of the cauliflower has started to brown nicely, toss well and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking for another ten minutes or so, tossing occasionally, until the cauliflower is browned all over and has started to soften. Rather than constantly stirring, try to leave it alone for a couple of minutes at a time so the cauliflower has time to develop its color. If it starts to burn, however, turn the heat down and take it off the fire, stirring constantly, to give it a moment to cool.

When the cauliflower has reached this point, drop your cavatappi in the water, turn the heat under the cauliflower down to low, and let it cook gently, tossing occasionally, for another 7-8 minutes.

When your pasta is just a couple of minutes away from being done, the cauliflower should be browned and tender, but maintain some texture. Shove the cauliflower to the edges of the pan and drop the butter into the middle. When the butter melts, add the saffron threads, stir the butter and let the saffron warm in the butter for a minute or two until your pasta is just about ready. Toss the cauliflower and saffron butter thoroughly and check and adjust your seasoning. Drain the pasta, add it to the cauliflower skillet and toss for a minute to combine and let the flavors come together. Just before serving, quickly chop the fresh mint, add two tablespoons to the pasta and toss.

Plate the pasta, top with a bit of the remaining mint and some parmesan cheese, and serve.

Top Chef Power Rankings - Episode 5

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!

"Leah and I have fun together. We flirt. But she's got a boyfriend that she lives with and I've got a girlfriend back in Boulder."

Yyyyyyyyyeah... not anymore.

Hopefully the realization that they'd pretty much written the epitaphs for their respective relationships struck them in between when the first few episodes were filmed and when they aired. Otherwise, I imagine the past few weeks weren't much fun.

And now that we've gotten the interpersonal BS out of the way, on to business. Hooray for the return of the taste off! And what a disappointment. Not the challenge itself, of course. Lee Anne did her always excellent work devising and preparing the challenge, not to mention the sauces and soups for it. But for lack of a better phrase, what a chickenshit collection of chefs. Four ingredients? Seriously? The best we got -- by a wide margin, no less -- was eight from Stefan when he tasted the green curry. I didn't even taste the damn curry, and I'll double that right now:

Coconut Milk, Thai Basil, Galangal, Thai Chiles, Lemongrass, Kaffir Lime Leaf, Fish Sauce, Garlic, Cilantro, Chicken, Onion, Carrot, Celery, Salt, Pepper, Vegetable Oil.

Off to check Lee Anne's ingredient list......... yup, I'm a winner, presuming they would have given me chicken bones for chicken or allowed me to be more specific. I'm guessing either these guys were scared to the point of timidity by the prospect of being embarrassed on television (certainly wouldn't be the first time the tasting challenge has made a chef look bad), or they were worried that Lee Anne worked in a few gotchas by omitting subtle ingredients that would commonly be used in those sauces, thereby ensuring they were actually tasting rather than guessing (she didn't, but she should have). At any rate, while the Name That Tune tournament format was fun, it wasn't quite as illuminating as previous iterations of the tasting challenge, so I don't know that it told us very much. Besides the fact that anybody with a little bit of culinary knowledge and enough taste buds to identify the names of the sauces could have won, that is. Collective fail.

Awesome elimination challenge, though, pretty much across the board. Buzz seems to be that most people considered this the best episode since the first. Lee Anne helpfully pointed out that this was the most straightforward elimination challenge since the first. I realize not every episode can be so, but do the math, guys. And most importantly for me, this elimination told us a lot of things about a lot of people. It's the first time that I feel like I came out of an episode with more answers than questions.

As touched on in the postmortem thread, however, and hotly debated in the comments that followed, I was flabbergasted by the judging. My surprise at the winner waned after reading about how little the judges knew of the genesis of the dish at the time they made their decision (something I'm normally aware of, but Tom's presence in the kitchen during service threw me), but what grew was my surprise over just how varied opinion is over who deserved to win. And in considering why different people felt that Ariane, Jamie or Radhika should have won, I started to see -- in no small part due to the late hour, I'm sure -- a metaphor for what it takes to win Top Chef in their contributions to that success. That they all played significant parts in the success of that dish and performed their roles well is without question. But in doing so, they embodied the three traits I've long considered the pillars of Top Chef success: technique, palate, and creativity. Ariane was technique, searing off and roasting the lamb just right, utilizing her tools and skills to bring the most out of the ingredient. Radhika was the palate, taking largely conventional flavor profiles but mixing and balancing the marinade and the raita that comprised much if not most of the flavor foundation of the dish just right. And Jamie was the creativity, coming up with the concept, making intelligent use of the tools (read: Radhika and Ariane) at her disposal, adding the touches that made the dish striking and unique, and driving the concept to the wire. And I wonder if the way people perceive the relative value of those attributes informs who they felt should have won that challenge. Of course, they're all essential. But speaking personally, while I don't mean to downplay the skill involved in preparing perfect protein, anybody can be trained to do technical things like cooking lamb. A good palate is an innate skill that you either have or you don't, but it can be honed, and perhaps more importantly it's expected, because if you don't have it you're in the wrong business. But the ability to create truly unique dishes that surprise and excite even the most experienced diners? That's a rare ability even among professional chefs, and it's what separates those who competently toil in obscurity from those who make names for themselves. During the first half of every Top Chef season, the judges are looking to determine who does and doesn't possess technique and a palate. Then, once the chaff has been removed, they redirect their attention to determining who possesses true creativity and an original, exciting, well-articulated style. That's who wins Top Chef, and that's who should have won this challenge.

This week's rankings are the first that are starting to feel truly coherent to me. There are a few wildcards out there, but for the most part I feel like I have a good grip on where all of these chefs stand. There's a long way to go, but the rankings are starting to look forward a lot more than they're looking back. As such, there are a few placements that I've no doubt will generate some dissent. But five episodes in, I'm starting to get a real feel for where these chefs are coming from, and I'm becoming less concerned with the scoreboard and more concerned with whether or not they've demonstrated the kind of traits they'll need to win. And so, with those three pillars of Top Chef success in mind, here are this week's rankings:

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 Jamie Quickfires 0 3 0 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 0 3 1 Yup, number one is back. As of the end of episode five, Jamie is the only one in whom I have complete confidence. To be sure, there are many true contenders and I'm not prepared to declare Jamie some kind of runaway favorite, but she's displaying a compelling style, she's executing cleanly, and if not for 15 more seconds on the clock with her egg last week, she has not been called out a single time for any problems with seasoning, flavoring... anything. But for that one gaffe of timing, she's been flawless, and that's remarkable. She doesn't have the wins, but she's displaying the big three (see above) with consistency and authority, and that's why she's frustrated. And while I'm a little surprised to find that I'm not that bothered by her recent attitude (I'm usually quite sensitive to bad attitudes), I'm forced to conclude that it's because I feel the same way she does. She's been the best, most consistent performer out there and it's crazy that she hasn't brought home a win yet. Barring some freakish disaster that gets her kicked off long before her time, that won't continue. She's going to start racking up wins, and the fact that she's still looking for the first may even help by making her a little more hungry. Just take that vadouvan and stick it in your back pocket, Jamie. It's good for one more shot before it'll start getting you into trouble. Save it for when you really need it.

2 Leah Quickfires 2 2 1 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 0 2 0 Leah may be a little high, here, but I'm not prepared to award the second spot to the folks who had serious upward momentum this week. That said, I'm not uncomfortable with Leah at number two... when she's performing, that is. Along with Stefan, as I mentioned last week, she's the one I see putting together the most compelling dishes. The problem is that she seems to alternate kicking ass and phoning it in. I'm reluctant to ding her for the sea bass, partly because it sounds as though the edit came across much harsher than reality, and partly because I get the (unconfirmed) feeling she was content to kind of sit back and let Fabio drive. But she's still the author of a few of the most compelling dishes I've seen so far, and my hunch is she'll step it up when it gets to crunch time, and is probably sharp enough to avoid trouble until then.

3 Stefan Quickfires 1 3 1 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 1 1 0 Like Leah, Stefan has made some of what I consider to be the most compelling dishes we've seen so far. I'm a touch more concerned about him and I'm leaving him below Leah for the moment because a couple of his slip-ups -- the world sausage and now the flat tomato terrine -- seem like they might implicate his palate. But he may have just gotten a little carried away with the world dog, and the terrine looks nice and somewhere (of course, now I can't find it) I recall the suggestion that it may have just needed some salt, so I'm not ringing the alarm bells, but I'm paying attention. Of course, the big story about Stefan this week is his emergence as the season's designated asshole, and yet I still find myself liking him. I guess it goes back to the adage that you'd better be able to back it up, and for the most part he has. Here's the thing. For multiple seasons now, we've been chiding chefs who don't speak up, who aren't assertive, who don't say something when they see disaster on the horizon. Stefan could certainly be doing it more delicately, but that's what he's doing, and what he's giving is mostly good advice. That Jeff got his sorbet out intact is great, but Stefan's caution, while overconfident, was smart. His assessment of Gene's deconstructed sushi concept? Dead on. Between the revelation that he's married and divorced the same woman twice and is currently wooing the house lesbian suggests that this good sense doesn't extend to women, but when he gets insistent about food, at least it's because he's thinking.

4 Jeff Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 0 1 1 I expect some will feel I have Jeff a little high here, but I've had a good feeling about Jeff from the start and he's put together two strong weeks in a row. I think he's found his footing and I expect that success to continue. Black Cherokee sorbet is one of my favorite secret weapons, so, you know, thanks for outing that one on national television, Jeff. Of course, I just blend the pulp with simple syrup and use it as a dish component, whereas Jeff does his with shallots, celery, tarragon, orange, cayenne, vinegar, hydrated basil seeds and fried celery leaves and makes a showstopping dish out of it, which is why he's an executive chef competing for $100,000 on television and I'm writing a food blog.

5 Radhika Quickfires 1 1 1 Last Week: 8 Eliminations 0 2 0 Radhika's certainly the trendy pick for dark horse right now, and she's growing on me as well, but I'm making this a cautious number five. There are those who feel this should have been her win and are hopping on the bandwagon, but I'd like to point out that while I'm sure she nailed the marinade and raita, they were both very, very straightforward, and this week's lamb aside, her two most notable dishes were the kabob dog and the vegan stuffing. That I've bumped her two spots has as much to do with what she's saying as what she's doing. It's easy to make fun of her for saying she doesn't want to be pigeonholed as the Indian chef while continuing to make Indian-influenced dishes, but some of the comments she made in this week's episode suggest that she's actually going about this in a smart manner. Specifically, she's made it clear that she has no problem using Indian flavors, but she wants to do so in more subtle, modern ways. It seems what she's truly concerned about is being pigeonholed as the traditional Indian chef, and that's wise. But if she can continue to bring Indian flavors to modern, creative dishes, that's a great route to the title.

6 Fabio Quickfires 0 2 1 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 1 3 0 Fabio's the one I'm having trouble with this week. Conventional wisdom is that he's one of the heavy favorites, and his record would seem to bear that out. But I look back at his body of work thus far and I have a hard time getting jazzed about much of it. He's been no less consistent than Radhika, Jeff, Stefan or Leah, but his peaks just don't grab me the way theirs do. More troubling, he seems prone to making dishes like the one his team made this week -- competent, unexciting, and just not as crisp as they could be. His winning dishes seem a little pedestrian at times, and his losing dishes just come across as lackluster. Melissa hasn't contributed much to this competition other than bangs, but her assessment of the sea bass was dead on. Cornmeal crusted fish over roasted corn and a corn puree may taste fine, but it's crying out for a little pizzazz and he's only managed that on one occasion. The bottom line is that when I look over everything he's made thus far and ask myself if any of it is worthy of the finals, with the possible exception of a carpaccio the success of which largely relied on a (very good and well-utilized) gimmick, I'm forced to answer no.

7 Hosea Quickfires 1 3 0 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 1 1 Hosea's the one who I feel probably has the most potential in either direction. He's kind of been all over the map. His dishes alternately seem mature and clumsy. He's done wild and sophisticated with his smoked fish trio in episode one. He's done simple and sophisticated with his gazpacho this week, a highly traditional soup topped with a highly nontraditional garnish of cucumber, bell pepper, watermelon, mint and lime. He's made dishes that the judges found well-balanced and flavorful, but he also seemed unable to see that there was a problem with his crab salad, much less explain what that problem might have been. I honestly don't know whether he's headed up or down, and neither would surprise me.

8 Ariane Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 3 3 2 And we come to what I imagine will be the most controversial placement this week. She's won a share of 60% of the elimination challenges, and I have her at number eight. I figured it was coming, and for the first time on Wednesday I was accused of anti-Ariane bias (it's okay, Gilby, I can take it... bring it on :-). To be fair, describing her team role this week as "glorified prep monkey" was perhaps a little over the top. And while I respect that she fought for those extra two minutes she needed, let me reiterate that she may very well have been saved from elimination by the other teams that pitched in to help plate, and an easy to miss clip in the episode shows she even received warning from Jamie that she wasn't leaving herself enough time. But let me state again, I like Ariane. Honest. With the exception of Jamie and maybe Jeff, there's nobody I'd be more happy to see bust out a wildly creative, stunningly executed finals-winning kind of dish next week. And I don't mean to overlook the skill involved in nailing your proteins. But as I said above, when we get to the later stages of the competition, the judges start seeking out what could be described as a mature artistic voice. They want a chef whose character is on the plate and whose technique and creativity separate him or her from the rest. People who love food as much as the Top Chef judges see it as an art, and there's nothing they want more than to discover the next distinctive artistic culinary voice. Think back on the previous Top Chef finalists, remember their final menus and consider, if you were shown those dishes without context and asked to identify which chef out of the entire field made them, whether you'd be able to do so. I'm betting you could do so with ease. Now review Ariane's dishes so far and consider whether you see a distinctive character and style or a random collection of sometimes solid dishes that could have been made by anybody. If this is a competition between concert pianists, she's done nothing more than hit the right notes, and hasn't even done that consistently. Everybody above her has stumbled as well, some of them more so, but all of them have already started articulating a very personal, distinctive and sometimes compelling style. Even last season's Antonia, who has drawn a lot of unfair comparisons for a lack of creativity (Ariane hasn't shown herself to be a fraction of the chef Antonia was), had established a sort of minimal, refined neo-European style at this point in the competition. Looking at Ariane's dishes so far, can anybody claim that she's articulating any kind of personal style at all? That's why I can't put her any higher, no matter how many challenges she wins.

9 Gene Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 1 2 1 Whoa, man, did Gene expose himself this week. Seriously, every nagging misgiving I had about him pretty much came to bear all at once. Where to even start with the problems? First, neo-sushi isn't new. There's nothing that somebody, somewhere hasn't tried to stuff inside rolled rice and nori, and I'm fairly confident that includes shrimp and beef. Not that there's anything wrong with trying (though his surf and turf maki idea just sounds clumsy and grossly ill-conceived to me), but you're not giving anybody a "new conception of sushi" here, Gene... get over yourself. Second, while I appreciate that sashimi in Korea sometimes is an assemble-your-own affair, "deconstructed" has become as dirty a word as "fusion". The moment you hear yourself say it, stop and tread very carefully. Third, Stefan was absolutely right, even if his criticism didn't need the gender specificity. Food nerds, except when it comes to certain traditional ethnic cuisines, don't want to assemble their own food. We already know how we cook. The whole point of the exercise is for us to see how you cook. Fourth, even if the DIY approach were appropriate someplace, that place is not an event like Gail's shower. Fifth, particularly if you've paid any attention to the history of this show, letting fried items sit is a baaaaaaaaad idea. Sixth, what kind of sushi chef tries to "save" botched rice rather than simply remaking it on site? And seventh, what kind of sushi chef makes rice the day before in the first place? Seriously, what a shockingly complete and total lack of good sense all around, which is a shame. I really like the guy, he's turned out a couple of interesting-looking dishes and he really looked like he might be able to bring some creativity. But that dish was so wrong in so many ways, if he couldn't see that train wreck coming, there's no hope for him. The trouble with fusion cuisines, even natural ones, is that you can come up with some wild, interesting stuff, but unless you work very intelligently and carefully and exercise some restraint, the failures can be shockingly bad. Creativity in food is a tricky thing. You need to make interesting, innovative choices, but they also have to be good choices and I'm not convinced that Gene can see the difference. I'm sure there are more good ideas in there, and he might make a little more noise before he gets the axe, but it's just a matter of time.

10 Hootie Quickfires 0 2 0 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 1 1 I feel similarly about Carla and Ariane, except that while I think Ariane might have the ability to step it up, I suspect we've already seen Carla's best. The fact that she was so enthusiastically behind the DYI sushi didn't help this impression. That said, her kookiness has definitely grown on me and I kinda hope she sticks around for a bit. She's going to have to speak up, though. There's a fine line between sticking up for yourself and throwing somebody else under the bus, and in a valiant attempt not to completely undercut Danny, she failed to look out for herself. She didn't have to call him out. When Padma expressed shock that she hadn't tasted the mushrooms on her salad, all it would have taken was something along the lines of, "By the time I saw they'd been added, they were already on most of the plates and there wouldn't have been time to re-plate, so I rolled with it," to defend herself and make it clear that Danny was the one at fault without being accusatory. I'm not one of those folks who believes you have to be cutthroat to win Top Chef. I like to think there's a classy path to victory. But that said, even if I thought she possessed the necessary skill, I think she might actually be too nice to win this thing.

11 Melissa Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 13 Eliminations 0 1 1 I give Melissa credit for being the only one on Team Blue to recognize that their dish needed some oomph... not enough to actually move her anywhere in the standings, but credit, nonetheless. And since she's gone back into full invisibility mode this episode, I'll take this space to address Team Blue's weak effort. As mentioned in last week's rankings, blue was the tough knife to pull. But there were better directions than the one they chose, and I wonder if their less than stellar effort was at least partly due to the fact that they were trying so hard to sell the dish. Deep water fish, blue corn, green and yellow sauces... they may have actually paid too much attention to the theme. Others have pointed out a blueberry dessert as an obvious choice, but given the surprising number of desserts we've already seen, it wouldn't surprise me if these guys have already exhausted their supply. What I wonder, however, is whether they even considered bleu cheese. Clearly representing the theme, elegant, versatile and the perfect centerpiece for a final course, sweet or savory. They could have had a lot of fun with that. Too bad.

12 Danny Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 12 Eliminations 0 0 2 I realize this is a topic that would have been better suited to episode one rather than Danny's departure, but since there seems to be so much debate over whether Guido or Goombah is the most proper politically incorrect term for his beefiness, I'd like to point out that last time I checked, Gagnon was a French surname. In any case, this elimination surprised precisely nobody and has been a long time coming, even just five episodes in. Some feel it should have been Gene (Danny included), and I don't think that's unreasonable, but in the end they both screwed up pretty badly. The difference is that one understood that he'd screwed up while the other continued to insist that the judges "didn't get" it. I almost wonder if Danny overstudied. He seemed to think that Gail has a thing for pickles. Did he watch a ton of TC tape and pick up something I didn't? And "stand up for your dish" has certainly been a common theme through the first four seasons, but you'd think he'd have the good sense to adapt to the situation and realize that in this scenario, at least, staunchly insisting that the sushi was a great dish was standing directly in the path of an oncoming bus. You're not going to win this one, Danny. Anyway, the guy wasn't without his successes, but he had to go and this was as good a time as any. I, for one, can do without his charisma or his splooge.

EPISODE SIX SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Another great quickfire this week! No haute cuisine here, but one-pot adaptations of holiday classics is a great test of skill and creativity. This is one of those challenges where it'll be telling to see who gets it and embraces the one-pot simplicity, and who sees it as a physical obstacle that has to be hurdled by shuttling ingredients in and out of the pot. The former will do well. The latter will get dinged for it. Even if they do a good job, my suspicion is that the judges will look unfavorably upon something that, while technically allowed, is sort of contrary to the spirit of the challenge. We'll see.

And then it's the holidays with my old nemesis, Martha. Though the truth is that, for reasons I can't explain, I feel much more warmly towards the ex-con iteration of the ultimate hostess. Or maybe it's just that I've now seen evil's true face and Martha's faux charm seems downright quaint in comparison. In any case, it looks like we're in for a roller coaster ride. I'm down on catering in general, but I like a good hors d'oeuvres challenge so this should be fun. Busted refrigeration gives me the jibblies, though. If it was truly an accident, it's really unfortunate. If it was an intentional curveball, that's downright nasty. But either way, such a disastrous and unpredictable occurrence will wreak some serious havoc. In a situation like that, nobody's safe. If any of my favorites get killed off because of something like that, I'll be pissed. Can we just axe Melissa after the quickfire and make the elimination an exhibition match? No? Damn.

Discuss!

Top Chef Postmortem - Episode 5

I'm going to sidestep commentary for the moment on this completely predictable and worthy elimination and concentrate on the real story of this episode.

I've been irritated by some losers. But I think that's the first time I've been irritated by a winner.

Seriously? C'mon. It's not Ariane's fault. I'm not going to hold it against her. But is that not the worst highway robbery of a challenge winner we've ever seen? Even setting aside the fact that she was a glorified prep monkey for this challenge, she's the one who nearly blew the dish and everybody in the kitchen had to pitch in to save her. Totally ridiculous.

Still sick. Lots of work. Talk amongst yourselves.

UPDATE : Okay, apparently Tom wasn't in the kitchen during the crunch and nobody bothered to tell the judges it was Jamie's dish. That makes it understandable. But no less irritating.

UPDATE II : Second real story of the episode. Hooooo, buddy, did Eugene expose himself. All fears realized.

UPDATE III : Okay, okay, as Gilby points out below, I'm being a little rough on Ariane. That's the frustration talking, and cooking perfect lamb is entirely worthy of praise. But I absolutely stand by my claim that she was the least worthy of the three, that she only did what any competent cook should be able to do, and that the intercession of some chefs who weren't even on her team may very well have saved her from elimination on this challenge (though, admittedly, the judges may have actually found no plate preferable to the "sushi" abomination). And the fact that she's won half of the elimination challenges thus far without putting together a single dish that was creative, sophisticated, well-executed and the product of her own brain -- well, it's nothing to hold against her, but I find it kind of maddening.

UPDATE IV : Starting now, using the word "splooge" to describe your dish's appearance is grounds for immediate elimination...... oh, hey, that worked out nicely!

Eggs

Eggs	Amanda Magnano

I realize this is a food blog, but the 25 members of the Veterans Committee who didn't vote for Ron Santo can go suck an egg. There... that makes this food-related, right?

Top Chef Power Rankings - Episode 4

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!

Pssssssst. Shauna! If we wanted to see who's the best caterer with their hands tied, we'd watch this show. If we wanted to see who's the best food television personality, we'd watch this show. But we're watching your show. Can we get back to seeing up-and-coming chefs showing off their skill, style and creativity in an attempt to win seed money for their restaurant/catering dreams? Kaythanksbye.

In truth, my annoyance with this week's elimination challenge has waned with time. I'm still not entirely comfortable with Top Chef making forays into the realm of some... other... shows, but at least I can appreciate the logic. Yes, once casting has finished their job, the competition is about your food, not your ability to mug for the camera (I'm looking at you, Danny). But at least the challenge wasn't framed as a television star casting call, but rather as an exercise in the blunt reality of working in high profile restaurants these days. Like it or not, today's best chefs are celebrities, and even if they don't seek fame, fame will seek them. You don't have to have a Food Network show and a book deal and a line of signature cookware, but if you aspire to the heights of the profession, it's probably a good idea to learn to be comfortable cooking on camera. And though timing, personality and knowing your audience all figured into the mix, in the end the chefs had to make a good dish. A number of chefs didn't finish in time or embarrassed themselves on camera, but the ones who found themselves on the chopping block were those who made bad food.

Once again, though, I totally dug the quickfire, even if far too many of the cheftestants were unclear on the concept. "One bite" is the phrase that's tossed around a lot, but that's an overly simplistic and narrow definition, I think. Yes, small is important, but it's as much about refinement and excitement as it is about physical size. Amuse bouche is a fun little tease. It's the one time that it's okay to be overly precious. Amuse needs to be small, it needs to be highly refined, it needs to be beautiful, and its flavors need to absolutely pop. The chefs were presented with a real-world challenge that asked them to produce something they should understand and be able to execute, and by putting amuse bouche in an atypical context -- breakfast -- they were given another avenue to express their creativity. Once again, the quickfire tells us more about our chefs' core cheffing abilities than the elimination.

And yet, we're still left with a large pack of chefs who have made a splash here and there but failed to firmly establish themselves as favorites. Reading around the 'net, it seems that most people see this as an indictment of this season's contestants. I think most people have short memories. The general consensus is that Richard and Stephanie had established themselves as highly talented heavy favorites very early on last season, and that's not completely untrue, but I think time has exaggerated the memory. In the first three episodes, Richard had a couple of really interesting winners, but also had a chicken soup and paella that were strongly criticized. It wasn't until episode four that he really broke out, and then he immediately followed that with the sous vide salmon fiasco that put him on the chopping block. Stephanie, meanwhile, got that first win with the great looking duck dish, but Rocco savaged her pizza, she survived a lousy crab salad in episode two because she was lucky enough to be on a team with the only two chefs who performed worse than her, and her episode three win was for a fruit crumble. Meanwhile, Antonia, Dale and even Mark looked very strong in the early running. Point being, as easy as it is to say in hindsight that we all knew they'd be there at the end, and while many of us did, in fact, have them at or near the top of our lists, I don't think it was the obvious call at the time that so many remember it to be. Don't misunderstand, I'm not yet convinced that this season's latter stages will have the same kind of heavyweight bout vibe of last season's, but it's early. I say give this season a few more weeks to develop before deciding it's populated by a bunch of hacks. There's good stuff beneath the surface. The kids can play. We've yet to see their best.

And precisely because we've yet to see their best, no number one again this week. Digging through this pack is still tricky. Nobody's really broken free, and the fact that they've been kneecapped in half of the eliminations so far doesn't help, but we're eight dishes in and if you look at the complete body of what they've made so far, it's possible to get a sense of where they're coming from, even if they haven't made it crystal clear for us just yet. So with this week's rankings, I'm starting to shift away from the week-to-week horserace that typifies the first quarter of the season, and look a little more at the big picture. By no means are we throwing out last week's rankings or ignoring this week's results, but having just done a review of each chef's performance thus far, I'm bumping them a notch or two based on the impression I'm left with. Incidentally, I'm up against multiple deadlines, leaving for an important trip at the end of the week and the sickness has just descended upon me, so forgive me if I breeze through some of the less interesting cheftestants this week. I hope to be myself again next week.

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

2 Leah Quickfires 2 2 1 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 0 2 0 She isn't doing much with the eliminations, but if she keeps winning quickfires I suppose she doesn't have to (for a while, anyway). Her fried quail egg with spicy tomato, bacon, parmesan and and fried sage was fairly straightforward but absolutely perfect from a technical and philosophical standpoint. She kept it compact and pretty. Working her herb in as a fried crisp on top made for both a great presentation and a textural contrast that might've been lost in a larger dish but pops in a single bite. And where Jamie used a slice of fresh tomato, Leah cooked tomato down until almost dry, intensifying the flavor so that the tiny bite would carry more oomph. Decisions like these may seem small, but they aren't made lightly and they separate the good from the great. In comparing the first quarter of this season to last, what struck me as the biggest difference was that last season had featured a few more wow dishes at this point -- the creative dishes that display an unusual level of sophistication. And yet, Leah's turned out two or three that, in my estimation at least, seem to fit that category. Dishes like the farotta with snapper and the asparagus soup with tuna would fit right into the finals. Even her scallop and apple dish, though she arrived at it by being slow with the knife, looked interesting and well-executed. We don't know how her seared duck with corn, blueberries and citrus sauce was received since the judges seemed more concerned with her lack of presence on camera, but in the pure tests of culinary skill she's turning out some impressive dishes. There's no breakaway performance here and she's not without stumbles. I'm keeping number one in my back pocket. But she's won two quickfires in a row and she's turned out a couple of the most impressive dishes. In this field, that earns her the not-number-one-highest-available-spot.

3 Jamie Quickfires 0 3 0 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 0 2 1 Unlike most, I do think Jamie was in real danger this week. Yes, her error was small compared to Melissa and Alex, but eliminations on Top Chef always have a logic to them -- even if that logic isn't always consistent from episode to episode -- and I started to worry when I could see the logic behind which they could separate her from the other two. Melissa grossly overspiced and brought her palate and judgment into question by insisting there was nothing wrong with the result. Alex made a decision so far disconnected from reality that his dish was dead in the water before he even started cooking it. Jamie's sin, slightly underestimating the time she needed, seems minor in comparison, and it is, but it produced what I would consider the worst consequence. If the host of the show goes rushing for water you might not be invited back, but capsaicin junkies will be intrigued and the rest of the audience might even be amused. If your crème brûlée doesn't set, it still looks pretty and the host probably won't say anything. But if the host balks at eating an undercooked egg or -- god forbid -- brings up the S word, you could have a full blown PR problem. I don't mean to suggest it would be warranted. I'm in the camp that resents having to pull teeth to get a raw egg with my sukiyaki, much less the accompanying visual assessment of how likely I am to sue. But raw egg hysteria is widespread, and the argument that in a live television context Jamie's mistake was potentially the most disastrous is, I think, a fair one. I'm less inclined to lend any weight to the criticisms of her attitude. It seemed clear to me that she was upset only with herself, she stepped right up and calmly took her lumps like a grownup at Judges' Table, and while it doesn't excuse her performance, I doubt anybody honestly believes that's how she would have reacted if she were really doing a live demo rather than a staged one. In any case, I can't justify leaving somebody at the top after landing on the chopping block, but with the given that she survived, she racked up another near win and this particular elimination hasn't done anything to change my opinion of her performance or her prospects.

4 Stefan Quickfires 1 2 1 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 1 1 0 Like just about everybody else in the top half, Stefan had a decent week but still hasn't gotten back to the expectations he set in the first episode. His amuse, the huevos rancheros served in the shell, was a perfect example of why amuse shouldn't be so narrowly defined as "one bite". Rocco had it absolutely right. It was more than one bite, but that was amuse in spirit. Like Leah, he went for intensity by going heavy on the yolk in his mix. The flavor profile wasn't anything special at all -- egg, cheddar, cream, salsa. But by poaching instead of scrambling and going with a beautiful presentation, he elevated it and made it special. And then he did a completely mundane minestrone (I smell a tactical decision not to do anything risky) and, apparently, didn't do much to sell it. But the reason I have him at number four isn't fading episode one glory. I still love what I've seen in some of his recipes. I see some neat ideas, nice pairings and interesting flavors in clean, well-articulated dishes. And even if we'd never seen episode one, I think I'd still feel that way. Incidentally, for all of those who want to run out and start topping eggs, it is a fun presentation, if a ton of work. For Iron Chef Egg, I did a spicy Asian egg salad trio that was served on little round toasts under eggshell caps (we tipped them slightly so you could see the food for the photo), and a souffle trio that I got to rise out of eggshells. Two dishes x three eggs x fifteen diners = 90 beheaded eggs. I gave up on the topper that Stefan used after about ten of them, and went to the sanding band on my Dremel. Worked shockingly well. It would sand through the shell while leaving the membrane intact, so I could then rinse away the eggshell powder before exposing the egg inside. I got perfectly smooth cuts in seconds and I got to cook with power tools. What's not to like?

5 Fabio Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 1 3 0 Am I the only one who rolled my eyes when Fabio expressed trepidation at this week's elimination? You could sit in front of the television blindfolded and still know that he's a natural for this. Fabio could be eliminated next week, and he would have already won Top Chef season five. If he wants it, he'll have his own show before the end of next year. But when it comes to actually winning the competition, I just can't put him any higher. He's made some smart moves and earned some praise, but I still haven't seen the kind of distinctive, sophisticated, confident dishes that he'll need to get past the middle part of the season. His amuse would have been fine if you like sweet breakfast and a milkshake (I don't). When it comes to the elimination, however, I greatly appreciate the need to stay simple, but there's simple fresh and interesting and there's simple boring. Sesame crusted tuna, roasted carrots and asparagus and balsamic reduction screams early '90s -- if not late '80s -- to me. Keep it simple, fine, but give it something. Just one little twist, one little unconventional ingredient, and you can make that dish fresh and interesting again. Maybe he's holding back, but as much as I like the guy -- he's impossible not to like -- he has yet to cook like a winner. He's had some success, he seems to be capable (atrocious plating aside) and my feeling is he'll probably be hanging around late, so I'm reluctantly putting him near the bottom of the top tier, but I do so with significant reservations.

6 Gene Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 1 2 0 If Gene had given me anything to go on at all this week, I would have left him above Fabio. Who knows? Maybe he did. But the editors didn't show us a thing. So to keep you abreast of what he's doing, his amuse was a one bit pork sausage and bacon sandwich on rye made with an over easy quail egg and bacon yamamomo vinaigrette. I'd like to know how the sausage, rye, egg and fruit blended, but even more, I'd like to know where the hell he got yamamomo. Yamamomo, or mountain peach (yama = mountain and momo = peach in Japanese), is a funky little stone fruit from China and Japan that looks kind of like a large, spherical raspberry and it has a really pleasant, clean sweet flavor. But while I've gotten them in American restaurants and I don't doubt they're obtainable by the general public, I don't think I've ever seen one in a store in the States. And in any case, it was a quickfire, so he couldn't have shopped for it. There's no way that's part of the TC pantry, and despite a lot of freeze framing, I couldn't spy them on the breakfast table. Did he bring some along? Can you buy canned yamamomo? Anyway, his elimination dish looks nice and I thought it was a pretty good choice. He did a tuna sashimi with snow pea shoot salad and daikon vinaigrette. It wasn't overly complicated, anybody can do it, but between the ingredients and spooning sizzling oil over the raw fish, it had some wow factor for your average viewer. Perhaps the judges thought it too complicated, or perhaps he just wasn't quite as strong as the top three. Or maybe they were also concerned about the fact that he didn't seem to know the difference between sushi and sashimi. Here's hoping he was just frazzled by the clock and couldn't get the answer out. In any case, with Gene, he's showing creativity, he's articulating a style, he's met with some success, and I think the questions with him is one of finesse. A lot of his dishes look kind of heavy handed, which could get old quickly. We'll see.

7 Jeff Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 1 1 I've been looking for an excuse to bump Jeff up, and making Kathie Lee's head explode seems as good as any. The fact that his sumac spiced malfouf roll with muhamara sauce put him on top pretty much blows the theory that Gene didn't make top three because his recipe was too complicated. There's a lot of stuff going on in that recipe, and I'd love to see how he got through the demo. This only further bolsters my impression that the guy is fast fast fast. Which doesn't help him unless he's also good, but it's interesting. It's hard to see what Kathie Lee found so offensive in that recipe, but it wasn't just a matter of spice, as some have suggested. When Ariane did her demo on Thursday morning, Jeff's dish came up, and Kathie Lee used the word "putrid" to describe it. No matter how fast and charming Jeff may have been during his demo, I can't believe the TC judges would have put him on top if his dish didn't also taste good, so I guess that tells us something about Kathie Lee's palate that I'm sure surprises exactly nobody. His loaded potato and yogurt sorbet with fruit skewer amuse looked fine, but man, this guy has got to learn to do less. You get the impression that it might finally be sinking in, and I just have this feeling that he's going to start to shine when it does. We'll see what he does next week.

8 Radhika Quickfires 1 1 1 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 0 1 0 Radhika also received scant coverage this week, and what little coverage she did receive was to cover the fact that Rocco didn't cover her dish. Thanks, guys. That was a valuable use of screen time. She nailed size and presentation with her amuse, making a little potato cake with a marble-sized plain jane omelet with hollandaise. I'm thinking it lacked pop. Her elimination dish, on the other hand, certainly wasn't lacking for pop. Her sweet heat shrimp calls for a cup of garlic chili sauce, two cups of sweet chili sauce and curry powder. It looks like a bit of a mish mash, but I'm not comfortable passing judgment without tasting. Too bad she didn't finish on time, or we might have learned something about it. In any case, mostly due to a lack of information, I'm letting her tread water.

9 Hosea Quickfires 0 2 0 Last Week: 8 Eliminations 0 1 1 Ditto Hosea, for whom we got even less feedback than Radhika. His amuse was a sweet potato hash with fried quail egg, curried bacon, spinach and maple syrup. I can see that all working right up until I hit the maple syrup, which gives me pause, so I wonder if that's why we didn't hear more about it. His elimination dish was a crispy ahi roll with spicy ginger dipping sauce, which combined wasabi and sriracha and strikes me as muddy pseudo-Asian. Not that I have a problem with pseudo-Asian, but it tends to get overly busy and sweet and I suspect that's what happened here. Though I do like the idea of using crushed wasabi peas for texture. Anyway, as with Radhika, I'm going to punt on Hosea this week.

10 Ariane Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 13 Eliminations 2 2 2 She's won half of the elimination challenges on my scoreboard, but I can't put her higher than ten. You'd think this means I have something against the lady, but I swear, I don't. I kinda like her, actually. And unlike some, I'm not going to knock her salad. Yeah, it was taking the easy way out, but what's wrong with that? It was a smart move. Maybe not quite as smart as it seemed, since she didn't know she'd be cooking for the Today Show's fourth hour gaggle until after the fact, but still, simple, easily obtainable local product, tasty and a combination of flavors that, even if it's obvious to food nerds, is going to strike your average viewer as kind of interesting. Her cream cheese and bacon stuffed french toast with chile syrup even got a little nod from Rocco. So why can't I bring myself to put her any higher? I think it's because when she's winning, she's doing so by cooking turkey in a toaster oven and making a really, really simple salad -- skills that will be meaningless by the midpoint of the season. Meanwhile, what she's screwing up are the kind of fundamental cooking skills that she can't survive for long without. He failures speak more to me than her successes. And while the little bit of confidence she's managed to muster these past two weeks may very well allow her to flourish going forward, I'm not kicking her up until I see it. I don't care what the scoreboard says.

11 Carla Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 0 1 0 Add Carla to the list of people with a non-episode. Her amuse was just a small version of pancakes with fruit and strawberry syrup. She needed to either elevate it technically or creatively to stand out, and she did neither. One gets the impression she thought, "Hey, silver dollar pancakes are small," and then stopped thinking. The judges said her elimination dish tasted fine, but she didn't finish, and it was Tex Mex tortilla soup. She's not screwing up, and her flavors seem to be solid, and that will probably carry her for a little while. And again, it's nothing personal. I know she's rubbing some people the wrong way, but she seems like a sweetheart and while I'm not down with grand pronouncements about spirits and the universe, she's got a quirky kind of charm. But strictly from a competitive standpoint, while many are saying she deserves more respect than she's receiving, I just don't see what I'm supposed to be getting excited about. Competence in preparing pedestrian dishes?

12 Danny Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 14 Eliminations 0 0 1 Apparently Tex Wasabi is alive and well and on the set of Top Chef. I could almost get behind Danny's oafish but enthusiastic charm... right up until he pointed at the camera and said Baba Booey. While I've pretty much lost interest in watching him, I give him credit for knowing what he wants and not being afraid to admit it. That said, I'm sorry, Danny. The role of breakout personality this season has already been taken. The reason Danny's so close to the bottom was perfectly encapsulated in his amuse. Zucchini blossoms stuffed with bacon, potato, garlic and mushrooms and breaded and fried with corn flakes? Seriously, Danny? Zucchini blossoms are a delicacy, and a delicate one at that. I'm all for high brow / low brow fusion, but it has to actually work. I don't know how you can even taste a zucchini blossom with all of that going on, much less determine how it matches up. The reason Danny's not all the way in the basement, however, is perfectly encapsulated in his elimination dish. There's no recipe posted, but he did a ginger sweet soy marinated skirt steak with cabbage salad, and Padma, at least, seemed to like it. So even if he made an ass of himself and set off every smoke detector in the building in the process of making it, he seems to possess the ability to stumble his way through an edible dish every now and again...

13 Melissa Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 12 Eliminations 0 1 1 ...which is more than we can say for Melissa, who removed her magical cloak of Top Chef invisibility only to make a completely inedible dish and narrowly avoid elimination. There was absolutely a case for her elimination as well, and a lot of people -- Lee Anne included -- think she should have been the one to go. And it wasn't just a matter of too much heat or Tom's narrow palate (an accusation, BTW, that I think has been vastly overblown). Rocco called it inedible. Padma all but called it inedible. And Lee Anne pointed out that not only was it unfathomably hot (seriously... she blew out the entire panel), but that it was completely lacking acid and salt. Like Rocco, Lee Anne is convinced she's lying and there's no way she tasted her dish, or if she did, she has no tastebuds whatsoever. I think the judges would have liked to eliminate Melissa. The problem was that while she gave them a terrible dish to taste...

14 Alex Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 0 1 ...Alex didn't give them a dish at all. There's been a lot of muttering around the boards -- others didn't even finish making their dishes, so why were Melissa and Jamie, who completed problematic ones, put on the block when it seems all they would have had to do was say, "Oops! Couldn't finish in time!" to save their skins? The answer is that as part of the demo, everybody had a completed plate ready to swap out for tasting. Everybody, that is, except for Alex. For starters, this decision to make crème brûlée was absurd. We're not talking about underestimating the time you're going to need by a little. We're not talking about underestimating the time you're going to need by a lot. We're talking about a full-blown disconnect with reality. Unless you have a 30 foot long scarf, travel around in a flying police box and can alter the laws of time and space at your whim, you don't make a slow braised dish for a 15 minute quickfire, and you don't make crème brûlée when you have one hour. So not only was it not set properly due to a completely baffling choice, but Lee Anne points out that he forgot to take it out of the freezer, so he didn't even have a completed dish for the judges to taste. They were left with the little bit of hot custard he had at the demo table. How do you let that slide? And what was the incredible creative inspiration that got him so fired up he couldn't even tell the difference between one hour and four? Adding a little bit of rose water to a plain crème brûlée. Woo. Alex seemed like a really sweet fellow. And, good for him, he apparently has a new BFF waiting for him in the sequester house and a beautiful bride waiting for him back home. Maybe the anticipation of seeing both was simply too much for him. Whatever the reason, Alex's head clearly wasn't in this competition.

EPISODE FIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Huzzah! It's time for the culinary bee! With a twist! The chefs are paired? Any guesses? I'm stumped. Will one try to fool the other? Will they taste each other's dishes and attempt to identify the ingredients? It can't be the latter... I have no idea how you'd standardize that across pairs so that you could declare a winner. If we were at eight or sixteen remaining chefs, I might think playoff brackets. But I'm looking for thoughts, because I have no clue what they're planning. Or, you know, I could just wait two days and find out.

As for the elimination, it looks like we get a real honest-to-god straight up cooking elimination again, even if it's a team effort. The chefs cook for Gail's wedding shower, and do four courses based on the old "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" line. I've seen some complaints that we're getting another catering challenge, but it doesn't look like the group is THAT big to me. The chefs are working out of a real kitchen and the numbers look manageable, so in practice I think this is going to end up looking more like a large dinner party than a catered event. In any case, we even know the teams from the preview. I'm thinking Stefan, Jeff and Hosea doing something old look like the ones to beat. I might have put Leah, Fabio and Melissa up there, but they're being asked to do a blue dessert? That pretty much saddles them with blueberry, right? I suppose they could interpret it a little more broadly and do something with bleu cheese. In any case, that draw is looking like a severe handicap. I'm sure they'll pull through, but I'm not pegging them for the top. On the other end, I'm thinking Carla, Danny and Gene doing something new looks like the team that could be in trouble. Of course, the always misleading preview leads us to believe that Ariane has some serious problem cooking lamb, and we all know how much Top chef judges loooooove lamb that isn't cooked properly. So for the win, given that he’ll have a teammate with a strong personality who knows restraint and can reign him in a bit, I’m putting my money on respected team leader and prep beast Jeff. If that teams wins, I could also see it going to Stefan who, with his catering experience, could come out looking like the hero. I'm thinking it'll come down to whoever's fingerprints are on their dish concept. And I'm going to say that we lose either Carla or Danny this week, with an outside shot at ousting Ariane.

Here's hoping I'm healthy by Wednesday.