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Here ya go Cindy L. -- the Top Chef Recap, hope you were watching last night!!

Last night's Top Chef featured the Elfman's favorite guest judge -- or as Fabio so eloquently put it, the "God of the French Chef"-- Eric Ripert, owner of New York City's Le Bernardin restaurant. He also owns 10 Arts in Philadelphia, named for its address on the Avenue of the Arts.

Anyway, Chef Ripert is always good for some laughs, even if it's at the expense of his super-Frenchy accent! Elfman still loves the way he used to pronounce former cheftestant Dale -- "Dell"!

Last night's show kicked off back at the players' apartment with Fabio stating again how he really wants to win, and Hosea proclaiming himself the last standing male American Chef in the competition.

The Very Frenchy Chef Eric Ripert

Then it was right to the QuickFire Challenge, where Padma introduced their esteemed guest judge Ripert to the ooohs and aaahs of the competitors. Hosea standing before Ripert admitted to being "as nervous as I've ever been!"

Since Ripert's speciality is cooking fish, the challenge involved a fish filleting tournament. Round one had the cheftestants slicing sardines, which are a rather small fish and proved quite difficult. Jaime's and Carla's skills were deemed the worst, so they were eliminated from the next round, which involved filleting Arctic Char.

Leah, whose track record with fish hasn't been so good, just gave up. Ripert was impressed with Hosea's, saying "very beautiful, great job." Not so much with Fabio's, "cut too much meat off with the head." Leah and Hosea were out of the competition.

Round Three brought on the freshwater eel -- or as I said EEEEWWWW!! Stefan was quite confident as he's been filleting eel all his life ... while Hosea looked lost, imitating whatever Stefan was doing. Chef Ripert praised Stefan's beautiful fillet, while marveling at his "clean station."
Hosea was not so good and his station was "more messy." Stefan easily won the challenge, giving him that all needed advantage in the Elimination Challenge.

The chefs were sent back to the apartment and, to everyone's delight, with an invitation to Le Bernardin as Ripert's guests for lunch the next day. The next morning, cheftestants excitedly got ready for their lunch date, c'mon guys, are you really this naive -- you know it's going to lead to the challenge ...

Anyway, upon arriving and being seated at Le Bernardin, along with Ripert, Padma, Toby Young and Tom Colicchio, the players were served six seafood dishes very distinct to the restaurant. Hmmm, I hope they're paying careful attention to those dishes ...

Le Bernardin, like Ripert, is primarily known for its fabulous seafood. The entrees included Red Snapper with Consomme, Mahi Mahi with Miso & Mushroom Sauce, Baked Lobster w/Hollandaise, Poached Escalar with potato crisps and red wine sauce, Za'atar (WTH? that's a new one for me) Spiced Monkfish with Black Garlic and Sauteed Black Bass w/Braised Celery. Mmmmmmm, sounds delicious!

(Side note: Some day the Elfman and I are going to try out Le Bernardin!)

Right after everyone's finished enjoying their meals, as I predicted, here comes the challenge: Each chef will be tasked to recreate one of these dishes as close as possible from scratch in the restaurant's kitchen. They will be given all the ingredients and will have to judge for themselves what goes where and how much.

Stefan's advantage for winning the QuickFire is that he gets to choose his dish, while the others draw knives. Stefan wisely chooses what is perceived to be the easiest dish to recreate -- the baked lobster. Here's what the rest got:

Carla - Escolar
Hosea - Monkfish
Fabio - Red Snapper
Leah - Mahi Mahi
Jaime - Black Bass

Fabio, of course, has something to say, admitting he's a little upset because "I do not have 30 years experience of Fabio Viviani preparing Eric Ripert food!"

The chefs then get 2 hours to prep and practice their dishes. Then they will cook for the judges.
Jaime asks Hosea to help her with her ham sauce.

Halfway through prep/cooking time, Chef Ripert shows up in the kitchen to critique. He tells the over confident Stefan that his asparagus should not be cooked, and Carla's dish needs more acidity, but the fish is cooked OK.

The judges are anxiously awaiting their dishes, sitting at a table in Le Bernardin, when Colicchio commented, "Just being in this kitchen is enough to scare the Chef Pants out of anybody!" Well done, Colicchio, you get the Quote of the Night!

Fabio's first out of the gate with his Red Snapper. The breading on the fish is deeemd overdone and too thick. Chef Ripert, however, is impressed. Colicchio calls it"a very good forgery."

Jaime's not as lucky with her Mahi Mahi. The judges note that the flavor is definitely different. Colicchio can only taste ginger, while Toby Young calls it "something I've never tasted before,." and not in a good way.

Stefan's baked lobster is very well received. Padma criticizes the sauce being too thick, but Ripert calls it "well seasoned" and says it's very close to the original.

Carla gets much needed help from her fellow chefs finishing her Escolar dish. Colicchio praises this, saying Carla did a "very good job." Ripert thinks it's not as crispy.

Hosea's Monkfish is up next and he's worried. Ripert describes the sauce as close, but not the fish. Tom complains that Hosea didn't let the fish before cutting it.

Jaime's Black Bass gets mixed reviews. Ripert calls the celery "hard core," while Colicchio deems the fish well-cooked. Young, however, just says it's "remarkably poor."

On to Judges Table:
The best are Carla, Stefan and Fabio. Carla's Hollandaise comes into question, Stefan's sauce was too thick and Fabio's bread is criticized. To which Fabio replies, "it's a honor to make this dish."

Sorry, Fabio, your sucking up didn't work -- Stefan easily wins again and gets a copy of Eric Ripert's new book "On The Line." http://www.amazon.com/Line-Eric-Ripert/dp/1579653693/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233936892&sr=8-1

Enter the worst -- Leah, Jamie and Hosea. Leah is immediately asked about her giving up during the QuickFire. Does she really want to be there?

Hosea was unlucky enough to have the least favorite dish. Colicchio brings up cutting the fish w/o letting it rest.

Padma tells Jaime she would have sent her dish back! Oh snap! Young claims that the burnt taste rendered the dish toxic. Jaime admits that the celery was oversalted.

Unbelievably, after all that was complained about Leah's dish and attitude -- Jaime's sent
packing!


Bye Bye Jaime :(

For more Top Chef visit http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef

Next week: It's Jacques Pepin and Lydia Bastianich (my sister's fave) stopping by the guest judge!

Sorry I'm so late, been a busy week for me and Eddie Idol -- he'll be posting Wednesday night's AI Update later today. Sometimes his real job gets in the way!