The fifth season of Bravo’s most delicious show, Top Chef, premiered last week to the delight of loyal foodie fans everywhere. For those not familiar with the show, viewers follow 17 professional chefs (or “cheftestants”) as they are challenged to display their cooking proficiency, restaurant management, teamwork and customer service. Each week, Top Chef’s cheftestants go through both quickfire and elimination challenges. The quickfires test the chefs’ basic skills; the elimination challenges require more creativity. Ultimately, one chef is sent home at the conclusion of each show until one champion remains.
To really get into this show, you have to get involved with the characters. I would suggest going to Hulu.com to view the 60-second bios of the contestants. I’ve already picked three of my favorites. Gene, the badass Hawaiian who worked his way from dishwasher to executive chef without any formal training, has two things going for him: underdog appeal and excessive tattoos. Hosea was originally going to be an engineer, but decided to follow his culinary passion — look for him to outsmart fellow contestants. However, the smartest may not necessarily prevail, so I’m making meathead Danny my third choice; he lists his main interests as “slicing, dicing, and tearin’ it up.” Last Wednesday, contestants were asked to create a unique dish inspired by one of the numerous ethnic neighborhoods of New York City, from Brighton Beach (Russian) to Chinatown. Shy, 21-year-old Patrick was eliminated for the lack of creativity and flavor in his Asian-inspired dish, and Finnish contestant Stefan’s take on Mediterranean cuisine emerged as the challenge winner.
If you’re still not convinced to tune in, keep in mind the plates upon plates of delectable gourmet food that are broadcast in high resolution every Wednesday evening at 10 p.m., conveniently (and dangerously) far from the dinner hour. Late night snack, anyone?
