Top Chef – Deconstruction

So from last week’s previews, I got all excited about this week’s episode.  I mean, Penn & Teller, I love those guys!!  But it all just ended up being no so exciting. It wasn’t a bad episode, just blah…

• A good, old fashioned Quickfire…nothing at stake but immunity.  YEAH! 
• In the talking heads before the Quickfire, Robin just killed me. “I’m proud of what I have cooked so far.” Really?  REALLY!!  You served rancid seafood last week that tasted of chlorine!!  The entire meal of a disaster!!  But you know what, I still have to give her some credit cause she seemed to knock the Quickfire out of the park (although with a very safe dish).
• I’m with Eli though…WTF Robin…bringing up the cancer story??  Unnecessary!  I don’t think that had much to do with why she won, but just don’t bring it up!
• Did you see everyone’s face when Robin was announced as the winner?  Priceless.  So was the “smattering” of applause she got.  It just killed me.
• YEAH BACON – Kevin my man!!  Busting out a huge cube of it during the Angel / Devil themed Quickfire.  Very nice.  If I ever get back to Atlanta, I’m looking his restaurant up.  I think this was the only use of bacon all night (there may have been some pancetta used in a QF dish, but I just don’t count that as bacon).
• So they bring Penn & Teller in and they do the same balls with cups trick they’ve been doing for about 20 years…YAWN.  It was a decent set up for what the Elimination Challenge was, but still seemed like a little stretch.
• It was interesting seeing Jen all flustered over the EC.  Her talking head about how she’s classically trained to compose food rather than deconstruct was actually interesting.  At the same time, I think a true chef is a master of the ingredients and should be able to take anything down to it’s basics.
• Mike V’s Caesar Salad was very cool!!  I’ve had deconstructed Caesar before and this one looked great.
• YEAH PIG – Eli’s Pork Balls! I thought when his busted up pressure cooker blew, that there would have been more fall out.  He picked himself up and made an interesting dish. I’d love to get my mouth around one of his pork balls (BWAHAHAHAHA…LMAO at myself).
• YEAH PRODUCERS – very little Ashley this week   Although, again I need to prop her out as she put together a pot roast dish that even had my mouth watering (and had the appreciation of all the judges). 
• One last SHOUT OUT to Kevin for baggin’ the EC win.  Mole is such a pain to make (just ask mole expert Rick Bayless) and that on it’s own probably scored him the win. 
• Alas poor Ron.  It was time.  How is it that a man from an island country, now living in Florida, can’t cook a piece of fish???  Or get paella right?  Oh Ron.  I liked him, he seemed to have a tremendous personality, but now it’s time to cook and he just couldn’t keep up.

As always, Tom’s take…with more insight on the show’s production as well as the food.

And this week, Toby Young is blogging.  Read his version of things here.

Related Stories:

• December 3, 2009 -- Top Chef – Finale Part 1
• November 19, 2009 -- Top Chef – Culinary Olympics