Top Chef Episode 9

Last week on An Episode I Didn't Like:
An a Holiday themed episode, chefs had to split into two teams and cater some sort of event. There's no way they shot this a year ago, so I always wonder what it's like to have a Christmas-y event in August or whatever. Anyway, Mia sacrificed herself for Elia and Cliff showed that he's kind of an ass.

This week on Themes is the Theme of this Episode:
As it goes for most shows, a really good episode is usually followed by a not-so-good episode, which is followed by an excellent episode. I liked the beach episode from before and I hated the previous episode, so I was hoping I would like this one. I did really like it. Mostly because I really like themes based on colors.

Anyway, the Quickfire Challenge is to make a dish based on a color. Padma has hooched it up, by the way, and tells us that there will no longer be immunity for the Quickfire winner. Which slightly prompts me to wonder why have a Quickfire then? They should have some sort of reward. Speaking of which, they've been skimping on prizes. At the beginning of the show, the Elimination Challenge winner always got some sort of prize. Looks like some sponsors are getting a little lazy.

We find out that Michael had a tooth pulled recently and he feels pretty miserable. He makes it sound as if some dude just walked in, took him into the kitchen and pulled it there. I've had quite a few run-ins with the dentist since I went off to college, so although I should sympathize, I find it quite funny. The way it's swollen, it does look like it was slightly botched. Anyway, he says he wants to win immunity so he can take a nap. This is before we find out there won't be any immunity.

So they have to draw knives for colors and it goes something like this: Elia has white, Betty has green, Marcel has brown, Cliff has purple or black or something else indistinguishable to him, Sam has what he pretends is green but is actually yellow, Ilan has red, and Michael has orange.

Highlights of the Quickfire include Cliff being color-blind, which is awesome because it would be so easy for someone to give him an apple or something and say it's purple. He's smartly basing his dish off of eggplant, which somebody once told him was purple.

Betty tells us that she is focusing on making her dish as green as possible. She says that what she got from the challenge was that she had to make the dish green. She's done this before, and it's a bad plan, because when you focus on the aesthetics, you often lose what's most important.. the flavor.

Marcel has some coffee moat, which he makes a mess of and it ends up looking disgusting. Michael is using salmon and adding an orange glaze. He's also made carrot chips. Ilan's dish is extremely red. It's red to the point that all the reds on the dish are the same red.

Betty, Marcel, and Ilan are labeled the worst. Cliff, Sam, and Michael are the best. And Michael wins, which is awesome, except it's kinda funny because he wanted the immunity and has never won a Quickfire before, so to win the first time there's no immunity is pretty hilarious.

The Elimination Challenge is to make a seven course meal based on the seven deadly sins. Apparently Cliff is weirdly obsessed with the seven deadly sins, and he thinks this challenge is awesome. They draw knives and Sam gets Wrath, Michael gets Lust, Elia gets Pride, Ilan gets Gluttony, Cliff gets Greed, Betty gets Sloth, and Marcel gets Envy. As the Quickfire winner, Michael gets to switch with anyone he wants. He switches with Marcel. Marcel thinks it's a stupid move because Lust is easy to portray with food or something. Thinking back, though, I think it was a wise choice. Lust, I would think, would be best portrayed by some sort of sweet dish and it would have to evoke a sort of feeling that everyone associates with lust. Envy, however, can be more of a symbolic representation and has a wider variety of choices.

So there's a lot of Marcel-hating in this episode, which is fine, whatever. It shows that everyone is petty, pretty much besides Elia. At the moment, my favorites are Elia and Michael, believe it or not. Anyway, they get food and hardware and there's a lot of random blow-ups.

Ilan and Marcel are both doing desserts, which is both stupid and funny. They see it as a battle between the two of them and they forget the fact that maybe they'll both suck equally. Betty is making soups and serving them in wine glasses, which to me does not sound appetizing. All the food looks interesting, some kinda iffy and some kinda strange. Elia is making a big proud chicken. Ilan is making some overly decadent dessert that includes funnel cake. Marcel is using cherries.

By the way, at the same time that this is airing, the America's Next Top Model Mega-Marathon on VH1 is airing the episode of Cycle 4 where the girls had to get into coffins and portray the seven deadly sins. What a coincidence. And when it comes down to it, the fact that Kahlen's friend had just died, combined with the fact that they made Keenyah portray Gluttony, Top Model's version of the seven deadly sins beats out Top Chef's.

Anyway, I don't want to go through service and stuff. Basically, Marcel snaps at Betty and everybody freaks out about it. Ilan slams Marcel, which is funny but extremely stupid. It turns out that everybody loves Michael's dish and the judges are surprised that Michael actually made it.

Michael wins, taking the entire episode, all with a sore mouth heavy medication. Betty and Ilan both want Marcel to go, but in the end, Betty leaves because she made soup. Not only did she make soup.. she didn't make it well.

Next time on Top Chef:
As teams, they have to remodel and run a restaurant.

Until next time..