- In the second episode of "Top Chef: New York," the chef'testants find themselves at Tom's flagship restaurant, Craft. They are challenged to cook and serve lunch to real customers - who may be their biggest critics yet.
- Fifteen chefs remain. Ariane tries to recover from being on the chopping block. Stefan thinks Fabio is his biggest competition.
Quickfire Challenge
Padma introduces Donatella Arpaia, a New York restaurateur. They'll be cooking against an expert, Angelina D'Angelo of a famous hot dog stand. She wheels in a hot dog cart.
They have 45 minutes to make a signature hot dog, which many don't know how to do.
Fabio, who has no idea how to make a hot dog, goes with a sausage panini. Jill uses already-made hot dogs in her Asian-influenced dish. Radhika makes an Indian-inspired kebab dog.
On a non-food note, Padma is wearing what can only be described as an acid-washed jeans skirt with two pockets in front.
Jill immediately is questioned for not making her own dog. Eugene made a sushi hot dog. There's ground bone in Jamie's meat.
They finish with Angelina's dog.
Donatella announces Jill as a "major disappointment." Stefan's was not good.
She likes Radhika, Fabio and Hosea. Radhika gets immunity.
Elimination Challenge They'll be making a three course New American lunch menu and opening a restaurant, serving 50 people. They start calling courses in chaos until Jeff takes over and it seems to work itself out.
They have 30 minutes and $2,500 among them to buy ingredients at Whole Foods.
Hosea is making a crab appetizer, a version of something from his restaurant, but he has to settle for crab in a container and he can't test it.
Jill nabs ostrich eggs for a quiche, despite never having worked with them before.
They start cooking furiously.
The appetizer team is Fabio, Hosea, Jamie, Melissa and Leah. Stefan, Alex, Eugene, Jill and Jeff make up the entree group. Leaving Carla, Ariane, Richard, Daniel and Radhika for desserts.
Jill doesn't know how to open her ostrich egg and starts whacking it.
Tom drops in all chef'd out. He tells them they'll be cooking lunch at his restaurant, Craft, his flagship in NYC. He'll be there the whole time. All the diners are New York chefs who tried out for the show and did not make it. Hopefully bitterness will make the dishes taste better.
Back at the house, Fabio and Stefan bond European-style. Leah and Hosea pal around on a couch, nearly cuddling (as in voice over, Leah explains she has a boyfriend).
The next day it's off to Craft. They have two hours to prep. Jamie works on her cold corn soup, which Fabio thinks is simple. He's doing something with olives that doesn't translate very well. Hosea tries his crab and after some seasoning, feels OK about it.
Ariane asks her team to try her lemon meringue martini. Daniel thinks it's too sweet, but doesn't tell her. Some others do. "If I go under, you're all going to hear it," she says.
The failed contestants arrive and immediately start swapping CVs and critiquing the menus.
Tom will be expediting, which Carla finds pretty darn cool. Jamie is sure she'll be in the top three, and her soup draws raves.
Gail and others really don't like Hosea's crab. Leah's scallops are sandy. The judges are fascinated by whatever Fabio did to his olives with carpaccio.
Jill and her enormous headband send out her ostrich quiche. Donatella thinks it tastes like glue and goes for her wine.
Eugene's meatloaf sandwich presentation is bad. Stefan's ravioli goes over well. Jeff falls behind with his halibut. Alex's grilled pork tenderloin is panned.
The desserts go out. Radhika, with immunity, makes an avocado mousse which the judges describe as sweet guacamole. Padma takes a bite of Ariane's lemon meringue and...spits it into her napkin. That can't be good. Carla worries about her cheese with her tart, but Padma likes it, proclaiming it her favorite dessert.
At the end of service they watch Tom taste their food, quietly freaking out. The diners fill out comment cards. One says it's horrible, some say it's not good. A few imply they could have done better.
Tom comes out to join the judges and says it was "very disappointing."
Back in the stew room, Tom tells them he wasn't impressed by the food and they took American cuisine back 20 years.
Judges' Table Hosea, Carla, Ariane, Fabio, Jill and Jamie are called out.
Padma reiterates they were disappointed, but there were bright spots. Tom starts by calling Carla's pastry "excellent" and Padma agrees. Fabio thinks he's there because they didn't like his dish, but they clear that up. They're especially impressed with the "spherical olives." They also liked Jamie's cold corn puree. Fabio is the winner. He's so excited he celebrates in Italian.
Hosea is surprised to be there but Tom tells him his dish wasn't seasoned. Gail tells Ariane she didn't think hers was interesting. Padma mentions the napkin spitting. Tom tells Jill her ostrich egg quiche wasn't distinguished. Gail asks Jill and her headband what she'd do differently next time. Jill says the pressure of the time got to her and then babbles in what ends up sounding like word association.
Ariane goes back to the stew room, sure she's out. Tom can't believe Hosea thought he won. Gail thinks Jill's defense of her dish was the lamest they've ever had.
Padma says it's pretty clear. They bring them back out.
Tom reiterates what they said amongst themselves. Jill and the headband are out.
Jill is surprised it's her and not Ariane given that, at least, Padma swallowed hers. Back in the stew room, Ariane cries like she got cut. "The worst part about leaving like this is I didn't get to show off a dish that I'm 100 percent behind that I love, that I know I do well. I really regret that," Jill says.
Ariane sobs, saying she doesn't deserve to be there and Carla comforts her.
"Leaving Top Chef I'm going to take a little bit of time to figure out what part of the culinary field is going to fit best for me. This isn't the end of cooking, I'll always be cooking."
Next week: Thanksgiving dinner for the Foo Fighters, Gail saying something looks like spit on the plate and Tom telling someone they look pissed off.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content