[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

[Photo: Barbara Nitke, © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

This week’s guest judge was the legendary Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin in New York. He’s incredibly talented and his standards are quite high!

The Quickfire Challenge was to perfectly filet unusual types of fish in a three-round challenge. Round 1 was Sardines. The two who were eliminated this round were Jamie & Carla. Round 2 was Arctic Char. The two eliminated this round were Leah (she just gave up!) and Fabio. The third round was Fresh Water Eel. Stefan smoked Hosea and won the challenge.

[Photo: Virginia Sherwood, © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

The chefs found out that they were all invited to be Chef Ripert’s guest at his restaurant the next day. They all sat down to try six of his signature seafood dishes. After they had finished, they were told that the food they had just tried was part of their Elimination Challenge. They each had to re-create as closely as possible, one of the six dishes.

Since Stefan won the Quickfire Challenge, he got to choose his dish. The rest had to draw knives to find out which dish they would create. Here are the dishes:

• Stefan: Baked Lobster with Asparagus & Hollandaise Sauce
• Fabio: Sourdough Encrusted Red Snapper with Tomato Basil Consomme
• Leah: Baked Mahi-Mahi with Miso & Matsutake Mushroom Sauce
• Carla: Oil-Poached Escolar with Potato Crisps in a Red Wine Bearnaise Sauce
• Hosea: Za’atar Spiced Monkfish with Black Garlic
• Jamie: Sauteed Black Bass & Braised Celery with Serrano Ham & Peppercorn Sauce

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[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Tonight on Top Chef, Fabio and Stefan react to having been in the bottom three last week. They are both starting to really feel the pressure, now that things are down to only six chefs. And even though Carla won last week’s challenge, she feels that she’s still not taken seriously:

World-famous chef Eric Ripert is the guest judge this week. So, he will judge a three-round fish filet challenge. OMG!! Leah is soooo bad at fileting fish! I wonder if she’ll be able to pull it out for this challenge.

For the Elimination Challenge, Chef Ripert will turn over the kitchen of his New York restaurant, Le Bernardin. I guess we’ll see whether the chefs can live up to his level of quality…

Be sure to watch Top Chef on Bravo, tonight at 10/9c.

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

On last night’s Top Chef New York, the guest judge was Chef Scott Conant, owner of Scarpetta Restaurant and a heavy hitter in the culinary world. For the Quickfire Challenge, Padma had the chefs write their names on a “Football Squares” chart. It turned out that the only variable they were choosing was the food group with which they were to combine Quaker Oats to create their dish. It was a tough challenge and these were the dishes they created:

• Stefan (Dairy): Banana Mousse with Quaker Oats & Oat-Almond Petit Four
• Fabio (Vegetables): Quaker Oat-Crusted Eggplant with Corn & Parmesan Salad
• Carla (Nuts & Grains): Pecan & Quaker Oat Crusted Tofu with Oatmeal & Lentil Salad
• Jamie (Fruit): Coconut & Quaker Oat-Crusted Shrimp, Nectarine Salsa & Avocado Crème Fraiche
• Hosea (Meat): Quaker Oat-Crusted Weiner Schnitzel with Warm Potato Salad & Mustard Sauce
• Leah (Seafood): Quaker Oat-Crusted Branzino & Mussels with Escarole & Bacon
• Jeff (Poultry): Quaker Oat-Crusted Chicken Paillard, Grits & Fried Zucchini

After tasting them all, the guest judge announced that the worst dishes were those of Leah, Jeff & Fabio. As for the best, he said it was Carla, Jamie & Stefan. The winner was Stefan. He’s won 5 challenges in a row now!

[Photo: Virginia Sherwood © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

For the Elimination Challenge, they were all given chef jackets with their names and the number 5 for Top Chef 5. When they went back to the kitchen, they were met with previous season all-stars against whom they would compete in the challenge.

[Photo: Virginia Sherwood © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

They each competed against an all-star and had to cook the food from the region of an NFL football team. (Talk about a convoluted way to tie in with the Super Bowl…) Any season 5 chef who lost their head-to-head challenge would go to judges’ table.

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[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Tonight on Top Chef New York, the chefs will get in the spirit of the Super Bowl with a couple of seemingly football challenges. The Quickfire Challenge will have them playing Football Squares, Top Chef style. After the categories are revealed they find out that they have to find a way to create a tasty dish using Quaker oats and a food group. That’s a pretty tough challenge!

Then, in the Elimination Challenge we’ll get to see some of our favoirites from past seasons of Top Chef come back to challenge them. Hurray! Two of my all-time favorites, Andrew & Spike will be back tonight! And watch how the veterans will try their best to intimidate the current season of chefs. This is going to be fun!

Be sure to watch Top Chef on Bravo tonight at 10/9c.

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

[Photo: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

This week on Top Chef, the guest judge is a very prestigious chef and is the owner of Starr Restaurants, Stephen Starr. For the Quickfire Challenge, the cheftestants were tasked with creating a tasting item to present to Chef Starr as if he were a potential investor in their restaurant. They were given only 30 minutes to create their dish. The pressure was really on.

Here were the chefs’ dishes:

Carla: Cod Seared in Tomato Oil with Italian Salsa & Mache Green Salad
Hosea: Shrimp with Morel Mushroom Cream Sauce, Garlic Potato Puree & Poached Asparagus
Leah: Tempura Poussin with Dashi, Soy Sauce & Rice Wine Vinegar
Stefan: Fried White Asparagus with Trout, Asparagus Salad & White Asparagus Soup
Jeff: Grilled Salmon with Sunchoke & Artichoke Puree, Grilled Corn & Asparagus Salad
Radhika: Pan-Seared Cod, Butter Braised Corn, Spinach & Chorizo with Cream Sauce
Jamie: Chilean Sea Bass with Creamed Corn, Bacon, Peas & Garlic Scape
Fabio: Tuna & Swordfish Carpaccio, Roasted Vegetable Salad, Filet Mignon Sandwich

After tasting them all, Chef Starr said that his least favorites were the dishes by Jeff & Fabio. He announced his favorites were the dishes by Radhika & Leah. They were both made the team leaders for the Elimination Challenge, which was the traditional Restaurant Wars. These were the two teams:

Sahana: Radhika, Jamie, Carla & Jeff
Sunset Lounge: Leah, Hosea, Fabio & Stefan

The night before the Elimination Challenge, Leah & Hosea were lying together, snuggling and kissing on the couch. They both have a significant other back home and it seemed like behavior that would be way over the line… They both called it “flirting.” I think most people would call it much more than just flirting.
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[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Don’t miss tonight’s new episode of Top Chef. Now that the competition is half over, the chefs begin to realize that it’s just as much psychological warfare as it is being a good chef that will take them to the end. Tonight, it’s season 5 of Restaurant Wars. This is always a tough challenge and tonight will be no exception.

In this first spoiler clip, we see a bit of how last week Hosea and Leah were instrumental in having Ariane sent home. Wow! Things are getting tough!

For this week’s QuickFire Challenge, the chefs will create a “tasting” for a “potential investor” in their fictional restaurant. The two people who win the challenge will become the head of their restaurant’s team. Jamie says she doesn’t even want to win this challenge because the leaders for Restaurant Wars are usually the ones to go down.

Here we see that the chefs are under the gun to get everything perfect for the judges. And I think I’ve figured out that the judges take great pleasure in “torturing” the chefs during each season’s Restaurant Wars. See what I mean:

Be sure to watch Top Chef on Bravo tonight at 10/9c.

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

The chefs on Top Chef this week are starting get really annoyed with Stefan, but all that gets put aside when Padma announces the Quickfire Challenge. The chefs will have to use canned goods and will only have 15 minutes to prepare something really delicious. Needless to say, they weren’t happy about it at all. The guest judge, season 3 winner, Hung, was not at all sympathetic, since he’s the fastest chef ever on the show.

Here are the Quickfire Challenge dishes they created:

• Leah: Waffles with Strawberries and Sausage
• Stefan: Baked Bean Soup with Grilled Cheese & Spam Sandwich
• Fabio: Mac & Cheese with Roasted Artichoke & Chili Pepper
• Radhika: Spicy Red Bean Dip with Grilled Bread
• Hosea: Sweet Pea Soup with Spam, Onion Rings, Pork Rinds & Hearts of Palm
• Jeff: Deep Fried Baby Conch, coconut Sauce & Pina Colada
• Jamie: Buschetta With Garbanzo Beans, Artichoke & Smoked Mussels
• Ariane: Open-Faced Turkey spam Sandwich with Gravy & Cranberry-Pineapple Chutney
• Carla: Asian Salmon Cake with Fried Green Beans & Lemongrass-Ginger Mayo

After tasting everything, Hung said the three worst were Radhika, Leah & Jamie. He said the three best were those of Hosea, Stefan & Jeff. The winner of the Quickfire Challenge is Stefan. He was given immunity, much to the dismay of his fellow chefs.

[Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke, © 2008 NBC Universal, Inc.]

For the Elimination Challenge, they drew knives for their proteins and divided into teams. They had to fix a family-style meal, including dessert for 16 people using their protein and seasonal ingredients.

All night long, people were re-thinking their menus and when Jamie tried to make a change, Stefan refused to let her do it, even though he’s the one with immunity.

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[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Tomorrow on Top Chef, the chefs are faced with a Quickfire Challenge with season 3 winner Hung as the guest judge. The challenge is to use canned foods and create something wonderful in only 15 minutes - that’s brutal!

But first, we see that Stefan’s attitude is getting under the other chefs’ skin. Hosea decides that he’s going to gun for Stefan. So it’s on between the bald and the bald:

In this clip, the chefs express their dislike for the Quickfire ingredients. Hosea decides to use Spam to make a split-pea soup…I’m just glad I’m not tasting that:

Here, the chefs are taken out to a farm to cook for the farm hands. The chefs get steamed toward Stefan and the new permanent judge, Toby Young doesn’t mince his words:

[Photos: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

[Bravo Photo: Virginia Sherwood/© 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

After no one was sent home in the last episode of Top Chef New York, the chefs are on guard for the other shoe to drop.

For the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs met guest judge Jean-Christophe Novelli, a Michelin Star Chef. They were told they would have to create the ultimate “sweet treat”, but the catch is that they were not allowed to use sugar at all. They would have to create a sweet treat that wouldn’t taste like a diet treat at all.

Here are the treats they designed:

• Fabio: Granola & Oat Tart with Eggless Pasty Cream & Fresh Berries
• Jeff: Frozen Cherry & White Fig Yogurt with a Baklava Spring Roll
• Eugene: Mini Blini “Burger” with Banana Lumpias “Fries”
• Melissa: Baked Dessert Burrito with Greek Yogurt Sauce
• Radhika: Bread Pudding with Sauteed White Peach & Roasted Cashews
• Leah: Crepe with Whipped Ricotta, Strawberries & Balsamic Reduction
• Stefan: Sugar-Free Mousse de Chocolate with Cherries
• Hosea: Green Figs & White Peaches Brushed with Honey & Balsamic
• Ariane: Whole-Wheat Crepe with Caramelized Pears & Toasted Almonds
• Jaime: Ricotta, Mascarpone, Peach, Nectarine & Cherry Napoleon
• Carla: Baklava with a Chocolate Disc & Fried Bananas

The ones Chef Novelli liked the least were the desserts of Carla, Ariane & Jaime. His favorites were those of Radhika, Leah & Jeff. He declared Radhika the winner of the Quickfire Challenge. She got immunity from elimination in the next challenge.
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The Top Chef contestants are in for a serious challenge this week. They first have to do the traditional “name the ingredient” Quickfire Challenge. This challenge traditionally separates the discerning palates from the not-so-good ones. Here’s a preview of the Quickfire:

And who in the universe can possibly be as picky as a bride-to-be? Especially when she’s a culinary expert… The chefs have to cook for Top Chef judge Gail Simmons and her friends, for her bridal shower. And one of her closest friends, Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine Magazine Dana Cowin will be the guest judge…YIKES! Here’s a preview:

Be sure to watch Top Chef on Bravo tonight at 10/9c.