Ah, morning in Chicago. We open in the chefs' house as they get ready for another day of competition. Manny notes how quiet it is without Erik weeping in the far corner anymore, and then complains about how he misses his kids. This prompts Beasty to admit that she and Zoi have an emotional advantage in that they have the person they would miss the most right there in front of them. Evangelos is still convinced their lesbian lover alliance will somehow screw him over at some point, and wants one of the ladies out.

Time for the Quick Fire. Scar is waiting for them with Daniel Boulud, the chef/owner of multiple NYC restaurants, and the winner of a slew of cooking honors and awards. This guy isn't just another one of those douchebags with one restaurant none of us have ever heard of - he's the Real Thing. So the QF challenge is to create a vegetable plate that shows off at least 3 your knife skills and culinary techniques. Boulud reassures the chefs that he won't play favorites with Ryan and Richard, even though they had both worked in one of his restaurants before. Ryan tells us that he didn't like working for Boulud, because nothing beats being his Daddy's indentured servant.

I'm so glad I didn't bother taking a shower for this.

Nikki's worried that she won't do very well because she has poor knife skills. Honey, the lack of knife skills have nothing to do with you sucking giant donkey balls week after week. Lisa and Zoi are likewise worried, since neither one has the classical training this QF calls for. Lisa settles on peeling a cucumber in one big piece until she notices Dale is doing the exact same thing. So she gets intimidated and starts making some Easy Mac. On the cocky end of the spectrum are Richard and Evangelos. Richard snootily tells us he's not just going to show off his knife skills like some culinary school asshat - he's a CHEF. Evangelos meanwhile is trying to figure out how to fashion a squash into a miniature fedora.

Time for evaluations. Zoi's up first, and Boulud likes her paper-thin chiffonade. In the background, Twitch wipes repeatedly at his nose and thoughtfully runs his finger up and down the blade of his machete. Boulud and Scar both ooh and ahh over Dale's dish, which displays a wide variety of culinary techniques. They then get to Lisa, who has evidently adopted Erik's shitty presentation habits. It looks like a buffet for a pet rabbit, with messy stacks of greens and carrot sticks. Boulud laughs at her and calls it basic. I like this little man.

Richard's up next and he pompously babbles for a few moments. He's going to have to check his arrogance - a glance in the mirror should do it - before he ends up on my shit list. The presentation is pretty, and Boulud likes the different tastes and textures. Evangelos's dish likewise is given good reviews for its use of multiple techniques. On Manny's turn, he gets shot down for trying to pass something off as a technique that's actually more of a composition. Whatever the hell that means. Nikki is likewise criticized for grilling some zucchini without seasoning. That doesn't even have anything to do with the challenge - that's just being a sucky cook. Dumb bitch.

The bottom three - in order from crappiest to least crappy of the crappy it seems - are Nikki, Lisa, and Manny. The top three are Zoi, Dale, and Richard, with Dale predictably getting the win and immunity.

I look better in this headband than Hung would, right?

And now for the Elimination Challenge - the chefs must create a six-course dinner where each course is inspired by their favorite movies. While Lisa's at home poaching eggs on Friday nights, Antonia's sitting around watching "The Notebook" with her cats, so she's pumped for this one. Ryan, however, is not for he's only seen 2 movies in 3 years. Daddy just doesn't let him out of the slave labor kitchen for anything, you know. You ask him permission to go see "Transformers" and he'd throw hot oil in your face.

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Posted in Top Chef , Top Chef by LoLo at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Last Comment: melpadgett on Apr 9, 2008 11:31 AM.