Top Chef: Episode 3

Episode Guide

This week on Top Chef, the guest judge is Alfred Portale, a chef known for his exquisite plating.  His stature is already intimidating to the cheftestants, and when their Quickfire Challenge is revealed, many are quickly even more overwhelmed.  With a flourish, Padma unveils the key element in this challenge: an aquarium full of shellfish.

Each chef has thirty seconds to fish out their ingredients from the tank with a flimsy net.  Hung is first to go and his aggressive style irritates his colleagues, as does the fact that he drops (and leaves) a crawfish on the floor.

The chefs all take a turn.  Tre has some concerns with his haul - his net gave out and he wound up with much less than the other chefs.

Preparation begins.  Due to the nature of shellfish, what with having shells and all, just cleaning it properly takes quite a bit of time.  Nearly everyone therefore avoids the conch as the shell is quite difficult to open without the proper tools. Micah, who has worked with it before, though, persists, using anything she can to crack it open.

Some chefs are going the traditional route, like Howie who prepares a seviche and Brian - the seafood chef - wants to keep the preparation spare and simple.  Hung, on the other hand, thinks a simple take on shellfish is boring.

Padma and Alfred make the rounds. CJ's food is called out for good flavor, while Tre's concerns about quantity turn out to be well-founded - he's dinged for the low proportion of shellfish.  Micah's take on conch is a risk that doesn't take off, while Brian's efforts with it are successful.  Although Howie's dish wasn't inventive, it was tasty and intelligently put together.

Alfred announces the bottom three: Micah, Tre and Camille, whose tea-based flavor was too overpowering.

The top three are Howie, CJ and Brian, and Brian, the seafood chef, is relieved to maintain his professional reputation by winning the challenge and immunity.  Howie is happy just to have made it to the top three after hitting bottom.

Now, Padma tells them, they are going from the freshest ingredients to the stalest concepts.  She shows them the Elimination Challenge: two tables full of classic American family favorites, like mac and cheese, fried chicken, sloppy joes, and so on.  The challenge is to create an updated, healthier (lower-cholesterol) version of the dishes that will still please a traditional family.  They will then serve the dishes to two generations of families at the Elks Club.

The chefs now pick their dishes in the reverse order from how they got their shellfish.  CJ takes the tuna casserole, Lia selects the frank and beans, Howie chooses the pork chops and applesauce.  He's interested in the challenge because his father died of heart disease so he has an interest in the topic of lighter cooking.

He's not the only one interested in the challenge.  Dale is thrilled about the challenge because this is actually his cooking style - reinventing the American classics.  He's feeling confident enough about his take on chicken and dumplings that he buys a rotisserie chicken and boxed mashed potatoes, to the horror of CJ.

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