Top Chef Season 5: Episode Two Wrapup

Desserts:

• Radhika - avocado mousse with chocolate wontons and a chocolate milk kahlua shot
• Daniel - ricotta pound cake with toasted pistachios and strawberry lemon coulis
• Ariane - lemon meringue martini with vanilla cookie crunch and cherry surprise
• Richard - sandwich of banana nut bread, peanut butter and banana brulee with grape gelato
• Carla - rustic apple tart with ginger peach tea, apple cider reduction and cheddar cheese

Since the Top Chef application process is a bit more picky than say, Hell's Kitchen, the dinner service is completed without a hitch (you know, except for some dishes that straight up taste bad). Oh, did I mention that all of the diners at Craft are applicants for Top Chef who didn't make it? And all of them are from NYC? And all of them are terribly BITTER?

Judge's Table:

Tom is disappointed in most of the dishes and call the top and bottom 3 before the judge's table. At the top are Carla's apple tart, Jamie's corn soup and Fabio's beef carpaccio. Fabio does a nice little song and dance routine defending his dish before the judges get to tell him they they loved it, and he wins.

Hosea, Ariane and Jill all make very clear mistakes. Hosea's idea is solid, but he serves crab from a can. Ariane serves a dessert she isn't sure about and that she knows is far too sweet (Padma spits it out!). Jill works with an ingredient she has never used before and does something boring with it! Her defense is "the worst" in the history of the judge's table, and she gets the axe. Ariane lives to cook another day (how many times am I going to end up writing that?), and even she can't believe she's sticking around.

Something about Ariane makes me think she would be more relieved to just get kicked off the show, which is not a good quality in a cheftestant.

Next Week:

The chefs prepare Thanksgiving dinner for the Foo Fighters! Dave Grohl is noted fan of Top Chef, so I'm eager to see if he throws a "monkey wrench" into their game. Also, at least one of the Foos is a vegetarian, so we'll see what kind of meatless Thanksgiving they can pull together for the rock stars. Here's hoping this episode will go "everlong." Ha!

One final note this week: Last week I presented the world with Top Chef Bingo, a fun and hilarious game you can play while you watch the show each week. This week, Bravotv.com has unleashed a new section of their site to give you ideas for throwing a Top Chef party, including...Top Chef Bingo! Now, I'm not accusing them of anything; let's just say that good minds think alike. And that my Bingo card is much funnier than theirs.