Thoughts on Top Chef: Chicago, 4/2/08

Not a full blown play by play, but I have to comment.

The Quickfire tonight was a great one - pure and simple, who can demonstrate techniques? The chefs had to make a vegetable platter with at least three different techniques. Nice. I think Dale deserved to win it, his vegan sashimi platter was really cool.

The Challenge was to make a dinner inspired by movies! Neat! Sorry, I didn't catch who was on each team.

The first course is inspired by Willy Wonka.

The second course is inspired by Good Morning, Vietnam.

The third course was inspired by Il Postino.

The fourth course is inspired by A Christmas Story.

The fifth course is inspired by Talk to Her.

The sixth course is inspired by Top Secret. They are making beef. I don't know how smart it is to make beef for a final course.

The Willy Wonka Course was infused with smoke again by Richard. That's going to lose it's novelty real quickly. Richard's little smoker broke, so they burned wood under the fish. Weird. Salmon with faux caviar, white chocolate and wasabi, and a fizzy drink. Very interesting.

The Good Morning Vietnam Course is a Summer Roll with black vermicelli, sea bass, and a couple other things. The little hunk o' swiss chard is off to the side. This was not a winner.

The Il Postino Course was fresh tortellini, along with some nice wine to go with. This got a mixed review, mostly positive.

The Christmas Story Course was very well received. Everyone seemed to love the carrot puree.

The Talk to Her Course was beautifully plated, but the flavor was not as good as it should have been.

The Top Secret Course was the beef one, and they did not serve too much of it, so it wasn't as heavy as I thought it was in danger of being. It was very well received, though the judges were not sure it said "Val Kilmer in a Cow Suit." That made me smile.

Coming out on top were Team Willy Wonka, and Team Top Secret, great book ends of the meal. I instantly want to try both dishes, and anything that is described as harmonious sounds so incredible. The Willy Wonka Team won, and Richard won the Challenge individually, and I think he deserved it.

Going back on the bottom were Team Talk to Her and Team Good Morning Vietnam. The judges had some pretty awful things to say about both dishes. When it came down to it, Team Talk to Her was safe, because their dish was pretty yummy, even though it didn't connect with the movie. Team Good Morning, Vietnam was the loser, because it was clear that they had the dish before deciding on the movie. In the end, Manuel went home over Spike, because he didn't show any initiative when Spike was obviously holding the reigns, and bringing the team in the wrong direction. Oh, Manuel, we hardly knew you.