- Bravo's "Top Chef" returns for its sixth season with a delicious twist, taking the heated competition to Las Vegas. The 17 new chef'testants are in for a sweet surprise when they team up for their first challenge to create a dish based on their own signature vices. World-renowned chef Wolfgang Puck serves as guest judge.—Anonymous
- Welcome to Vegas! Let's get to know the contestants. They are:
Ash Fulk, 29 Hometown: Pleasant Hill, Calif.; Resides in New York City Ashley Merriman, 32 Center Sandwich, N.H.; Resides in Seattle, Wash. Bryan Voltaggio, 33 Hometown: Frederick, Md.; Resides in Urbana, Md. Eli Kirshtein, 25 Hometown/Resides in: Atlanta, Ga. Eve Aronoff, 40 Hometown/Resides in: Ann Arbor, Mich. Hector Santiago, 41 Hometown: San Juan, Puerto Rico; Resides in Atlanta, Ga. Jennifer Carroll, 33 Hometown/Resides in: Philadelphia, Pa. Jennifer Zavala, 31 Hometown: Cromwell, Conn.; Resides in Philadelphia, Pa. Jesse Sandlin, 30 Hometown/Resides in: Baltimore, Md. Kevin Gillespie, 26 Hometown/Resides in: Atlanta, Ga. Laurine Wickett, 38 Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.; Resides in San Francisco, Calif. Mattin Noblia, 29 Hometown: Biarritz, France; Resides in San Francisco, Calif. Michael Isabella, 34 Hometown: North Jersey; Resides in Washington, D.C. Michael Voltaggio, 30 Hometown: Frederick, Md.; Resides in Los Angeles, Calif. Preeti Mistry, 33 Hometown/Resides in: San Francisco, Calif. Robin Leventhal, 43 Hometown: Sun Valley, Idaho; Resides in Seattle, Wash. Ron Duprat, 40 Hometown: Mare Rouge, Haiti; Resides in Hollywood, Fla. and Naples, Fla.
Padma explains that luck will play a role like never before.
We get some chef bio time. Kevin ditched MIT to be a chef. He looks like a grizzly bear. We meet Ron as he walks into the house -- past the pool. The chefs meet and greet.
Eve is surprised she's the only chef from Michigan. She's awed by the palm trees. Mattin is a real life French person, with a French accent and everything. He even has a cute little red bandana-so French! Eli explains that he likes to cook because he's a "fat kid." Several of the chefs are from Atlanta and know each other.
Jesse isn't formally trained as a chef and works at Abercrombie fine foods. Jennifer Z. won't unpack because she's superstitious.
Jennifer C. says she can be "a frickin' bitch in the kitchen." Bryan is a 2009 James Beard award nominee.
Bryan bear hugs a dude who looks remarkably like him. His brother Michael, who's a 2006 Michelin star recipient. This is the first time they've lived together in 12 years. Michael knew Mike .I, who he opened a restaurant with in LA. Mike's intimidated.
They hop in Highlanders (brought to you by Toyota) and go to the M resort and casino. And it's Tom and Padma time! (Oh, we missed you during Top Chef Masters, you crazy kids.)
Hector, another James Beard award nominee, says Padma is more beautiful in person than she is on TV. Sadly, we must make his word for it.
And just like that, it's Quickfire time. They're in teams of four for the mise en place relay race. Padma tells them to expect twists and turns like no other season. And that's when some showgirls waltz in.
They draw poker chips for teams. Robin gets the only gold chip. She doesn't have to compete and she gets immunity for the elimination challenge. Welcome to Vegas!
The relay includes shucking 15 clams, peeling 30 prawns, cleaning up five lobsters and then butchering a chop. Preeti gets stuck shucking clams -- something she has never done before ("they're like oysters, right?" Um, sadly, no.)
And they're off. Immediately, it's clear the Preeti team is sunk.
Mattin is a devil with the lobsters as Ashley mangles them.
Bryan quickly shows the chop who's boss (as Preeti's still on clams) and Hector thinks he can catch up.
It's down to Hector and Bryan. Bryan's team wins, including Mattin, Jennifer C. and Jesse. But they're not finished. Along with Robin they'll be having a cook-off... for $15,000. Robin has the option of not competing and retaining her immunity. She keeps it.
For the cook-off, they have to use the ingredient they worked with in the relay and cook something in 30 minutes.
Michael V. watches his brother cook and explains he'll be rooting for him unless they're competing. Jennifer made a clam ceviche (which she pronounces without the accent on the end, isn't that special?)
Tom says Bryan and Mattin could have done better and both Jen and Jesse were good. Jen wins.
Elimination Challenge They'll be cooking a dish based on a vice. One person from each team will be up for the win and one will be up for elimination. The guest judge is Wolfgang Puck.
They have $150 and 30 minutes at Whole Foods then two hours to prep tomorrow.
Time to shop. Kevin's irritated Eli is buying every scallop. Bryan wants to win the first challenge since in three of the last five seasons that winner has won overall.
Ron talks about coming over from Haiti and being at sea for a long time without food and living off fish from the sea.
And they're off to Puck's restaurant Cut.
Preeti is excited to be cooking and not shucking clams.
Michael is playing off plastic surgery and working with a rack of lamb (rack, get it?) and two coconuts.
Laurine is making bacon donuts with Belgian beer sauce.
Jesse is making "tipsy" chicken, which is booze related. She's worried about her chicken breast being dry.
Hector is deep frying rib eye steak. Mike's appalled.
Kevin realizes his slow cooked, procrastination meal, is going too slow.
Eve neglects her seafood while tending to her sauce.
Robin runs out of time to get sauce on her plate and is glad for her immunity.
Serving time...and be prepared, most of the cheftestant's don't know the difference between a vice and a fault......
Mike's vice is hot temper and hot mouth and he made fish to look like the bar of soap his mom used to put in his mouth. Ashley's vice is red white and bourbon and cooked with chicken livers and red wine sauce. Hector's vice is cigars and he smoked his meat before deep frying it.
Wolfgang likes Eli's scallops, but did too much. They take exception to Hector deep frying steak. Gail likes Mike's fish.
The next team comes out. Bryan's vices are bourbon and cigars and he made a NY strip steak with a bourbon reduction. Mattin made buffalo rib eye. Jennifer introduces her halibut in whiskey, bourbon and scotch. Jesse also has whiskey reduction for her chicken Robin, says she's a bad Jew and loves pork. She did pork five ways (one of which didn't make it).
Gail likes Bryan's whole dish and Tom says his steak was perfectly cooked. Wolfgang objects to the puree. "It's like people think we need the steak and then some baby food with it," he says. (Oh Wolfie, how much better a judge you are than Toby!)
Gail loves Jen's halibut but Jesse's chicken was overcooked. Tom calls it dry. Wolfgang thought Mattin's meat was well-cooked but the dish didn't make sense.
The next team serves. Ash made poached halibut for procrastination and waited too long and only got half his sauce on. Jen made chile rellenos with seitan. Ron made jerk bass with collard greens. Laurine introduces her bold donut, bacon, beer sauce.
Wolfgang thinks there was too much going on with Ron's fish and Tom doesn't think it was a vice. Tom isn't a fan of Jen's relleno. Padma likes Laurine's sauce, but they don't like her donut.
The final team serves. Michael V. introduces his rack of lamb. Preeti made pork tenderloin with bourbon. Eve made shirmp and scallops in a curry cream sauce. Kevin presents his procrastination dish with artic char, spinning a lovely presentation about speeding up things that are usually cooked slow and vice versa.
Tom loves Kevin's fish. Wolfgang says Eve's is just OK. Tom totally gets Michael V.'s rack joke and Gail agrees he showed skill.
Wolfgang thinks they had bright stars and talented people and, like always, they had a few turkeys.
Ah, stew room, you old friend. The cheftestants critique themselves. Mike can't understand why anyone would cook with seitan. Preeti lays down on the floor. Eli resolves to do everything differently if he doesn't go home.
Padma asks for Ron, Mike I., Kevin and Jennifer C.
Judges's Table They're the winners. Wolfgang tells Jennifer her fish was cooked to perfection. Gail tells Ron his ideas were great. Wolfgang announces the winner, one dish that had what it takes to be a great dish in any restaurant: Kevin.
They head back to send out the losers: Hector, Jen Z, Jesse and Eve.
Tom critiques Hector for deep frying. Eve gets it for not enough flavors and Tom blasts her for not cooking her seafood properly. Gail calls Jen's dish "clunky" and hears about using seitan poorly. Jesse's worst fears are confirmed about her dry chicken.
They send them away. Tom thinks Jesse's was conceived well, she just made a cooking error, and she knew what it was. Wolfgang thought Hector had some imagination and Tom notes he was in a good group. Tom thought Jen's would have been terrible no matter what she used. "It's like a vegan bar midnight special," Padma says. In the stew room, Jen says at least she took a risk.
They deliver the news. Tom recaps their missteps.
And the knife packer is...Jen.
"I tried to do something different, it was bold, it showed I'm not afraid to do something new...Being on Top Chef, I put myself out there. Right now it feels like s---, but to even be doing something like this is pretty phenomenal...I think I'm more disappointed that I didn't get a chance to show my son what his mom could do, but I hope he's proud of me."
At least she doesn't have to repack!
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