The third episode of Top Chef All-Stars brought us the always-special Mis En Place Relay Race, this time featuring four teams of four, Red (Antonia, Jamie, Casey and Dale L.), White (Dale T., Carla, Tiffani, and Marcel), Blue (Stephen, Tre, Blais and Spike), and Green (Angelo, Mike, Tiffany and Fabio), with teammates chosen by the order they entered the kitchen. The prep consisted of breaking down garlic, lamb and artichokes and then making a tasty dish using those ingredients, with the catch that the first team to finish the race would hit a button starting a 15 minute clock – the countdown to when all of the dishes would have to be done.
The first team to finish the prep was Team Green and Angelo organized the preparation of the dish (thyme and garlic lamb with tandoori-spiced yogurt), followed closely by Team Blue, shepherded by Blais (crispy lamb chop with raw, crispy and braised artichokes, served with a chili aioli). The third team to finish the race was the Red Team who set about making a cold dish (lamb carpaccio with crispy capers, and a salad of garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano and artichoke) and last was Team White (lamb carpaccio but serve theirs with artichoke chips and raw artichoke salad with garlic oil).
To Angelo’s surprise, the Blue Team won the Quickfire and $5,000 for each member.
The teams were then treated to dinner at four of New York’s finest restaurants, Má Pêche (Team Green), Marea (Team Blue), WD-50 (Team White), and Townhouse (Team Red) with the caveat that in the next day’s Elimination Challenge they would each have to cook a dish representative of that eatery – and that each team would compete against the other members of their team.
This was a great challenge and most of the chefs did very well. The top dishes included Angelo (turmeric-marinated fish with dill, cilantro (barf), salmon roe, chorizo and white chocolate), Tre (grilled swordfish, artichokes, mushroom panna cotta and basil oil), and Antonia (pea and carrot purees, topped with a seared scallop, pickled carrot and mint oil), but Dale Talde won the EC with a sunny-side-up egg dumpling with braised pork belly, and milk ramen with bacon, beef and pork. It looked really great and I’m sure it was delicious.
The bottom dishes were Fabio, Tiffani, Dale L. and Stephen and they sent home Dale L. and Stephen. The exit interviews were quite decent and even though I hated to see Dale Levitski go home, he was very gracious about it. I had started him rather low in the rankings and was moving him up, but perhaps my original assessment was correct. Stephen did better than expected, but he was due to go.
So, without further ado, here are my current rankings:
1. Angelo Sosa. Last week: No. 2.
Angelo’s continued strong showing in the Elimination Challenges moves him marginally ahead of Richard for top spot.
2. Richard Blais. Last week: No. 1.
Although he drove the winning team for the Quickfire Challenge, he did not show as strong in the EC, losing his restaurant to Tre.
3. Marcel Vigneron. Last week: No. 4.
With Tiffani’s slip in the EC, I have moved Marcel up one space, but I’m not yet convinced that he completely belongs here.
4. Tiffani Faison. Last week: No. 3.
She was so close to elimination that I had to bump her down at least one spot. She is a terrific chef, though, and I can’t see moving her any further.
5. Dale Talde. Last week: No. 6.
Dale’s win in the EC allows him to move up into the fifth spot. He is beginning to show a lot of grit and may make it far in the competition.
6. Jamie Lauren. Last week: No. 5.
Jamie moves down one spot, mostly due to Dale’s resurgence.
7. Casey Thompson. Last week: No. 11.
Casey makes a huge jump in the rankings. I think that I may have underestimated her versatility from the very beginning and she is probably getting up where she deserves to be.
8. Spike Mendelsohn. Last week: No. 8.
I’m keeping Spike at 8. He didn’t make a great showing, but didn’t embarrass himself either.
9. Antonia Lafaso. Last week: No. 13.
Producing one of the top four dishes moves Antonia all the way up to the 9th spot. I think she belongs more in the middle than the bottom.
10. Michael Isabella. Last week: No. 12.
Mike is showing fairly strong, but he still belongs middle to bottom in this group of extraordinary chefs.
11. Tre Wilcox. Last week: No. 14.
Tre takes a decent jump forward from his top four finish.
12. Carla Hall. Last week: No. 10.
Carla moves ahead of Tiffany this week, as she made a decent showing in the EC.
13. Tiffany Derry. Last week: No. 9.
Tiffany just isn’t impressing me like I thought she would.
14. Fabio Viviandi. Last week: No. 15.
Just hanging on, Fabio is consistently in the bottom and might well be the next elimination.
15. Dale Levitski. Last week: No. 7. Eliminated.
Dale is gone because his food was too sweet and didn’t really show the spark of creativity that was needed.
16. Stephen Asprinio. Last week: No. 16. Eliminated.
Stephen really lasted longer than he probably should have, but he exited very gracefully.
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