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Top Chef Las Vegas Narrows It Down To Four

November 18, 2009 09:21:46 by DA Southern

Top Chef Las Vegas gives us an elite cooking competition from notable French Chef, Paul Bocuse. The remaining chefs will try to impress enough to stay yet another week. After the last couple of episodes, we can see that Jennifer is definitely on her last cooking legs. Unless she pulls herself from the tailspin she has been in and impresses the judges enough to stay on yet another week, we will have seen the last of her.

QuickFire Challenge

Host Padma Lakshmi met the chefs with guest judge, Gavin Kaysen, and gave them their Quickfire task of preparing Chicken Bocuse dish that will be a protein inside a protein inside a protein. The chefs were crazy in crazy in crazy as they prepared their wacky dishes and Jen knew she had to shine. All of the dishes were indeed loaded with protein and Jennifer was “Welcomed back” by Padma as it looked as though she stepped it up a bit.

Kevin’s catfish dish was not so well liked; Bryan did a winner; Eli was surprising but not memorable and Michael’s dish, believe it or not, was not well received by Padma and Gavin. Jennifer pulled a win out of her beef Brisket to give her a lift going into the final challenge in Las Vegas as Napa Valley was the next stop for the Top 4.

Elimination Challenge

The Top Chef version of fancy protein cooking was on tap as the chefs had to put out a protein and two garnishes for a guest panel of twelve influential judges.  The trick for them all was to try to figure what exactly the judges wanted because as Michael put it, “With theses judges, there is no dish that they won’t find something wrong with.”

It never seems as if there is enough time to cook and this time was no exception as they were given four hours to cook. Thomas Keller and Tom Colicchio greeted the chefs and you could see how nervous Kevin was as he said that His book literally changed my life.”

Finally the claws came out when Michael V said that “Kevin is good but he cooks the kind of food that I cook on my day off.” Tom came by check the chef’s progress and found that Jennifer seemed nervous; Kevin was doing something that he had not done and Eli needed to “Stay focused on the details.” Tom sweetened the pot when he announced that the winner of the challenge would not only find a place in the finale but would pull in a cool thirty thousand dollars.

The key in this challenge was not only fantastic dishes, but presentation was as equally important. Kevin was first out and his dish was not as elaborate from a presentation standpoint. The chefs, primarily Thomas Keller, thought that Kevin was indeed a “Quality chef” which was all that needed to be said. Michael V’s dish was a bit savaged by the chefs and it was a surprising turn of events for him. Bryan V’s dish, crusted leg of lamb, was a masterpiece in presentation and Thomas Keller said that the lamb was undercooked. Eli’s dish of lamb sausage was not well received at all and it was said that “None of us really enjoyed it” by one of the judges. Jennifer finished things up with a salmon dish and actually looked pretty nice from a presentation standpoint. The dish was called “Not well thought out” and it looks as if Jennifer was riding on the edge here.

Elimination Judges Table

All of the chefs were called in to confront the judges for the final four verdicts. Michael was quizzed first and was savaged a bit and was chastised for a bone that was found in one of the judges dish; Bryan’s dish was called better if he would have had more time; Kevin’s dish was called “Too simple”; Jennifer’s dish was called inconsistent and Eli’s dish was called “Undercooked and hard to swallow.”

The judges round-table had them thinking that Eli was a bit inconsistent as was Jennifer; Kevin’s dish was called too simple; Bryan’s dish was called a “Technical winner” and Michael was considered a wiz in the kitchen even if his dish was a bit off in some respects.

The winner of the challenge was announced as Kevin and he was shocked as he thought that he did not cook his best in the challenge. After Tom said that there were issues with all of their dishes, Padma announced to Eli that he was to pack his knifes and leave, giving Jennifer another chance to step it up.

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Photo Credit: Bravo

Related posts:

1. Top Chef Las Vegas: The Finale Is Set With Three In Napa Valley
2. Top Chef Las Vegas: Finally A Dessert Sends One Home
3. Top Chef Las Vegas: Arrogance Sinks A Chef
4. Top Chef Las Vegas Chefs Cook In A Small Kitchen
5. Top Chef Las Vegas: For One Chef The Magic Is Gone

Topics: Bravo Reality TV Shows, Top Chef |

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