Happy Thanksgiving! I’m coming out of food coma from all the eating today so this is going to be a short recap. Down to 15 chefs and these looked like really fun challenges. A chili pepper quickfire where you could win up to $20K based on the pepper you pick and a chili cookoff challenge where you have no time limit. I mean really, who wouldn’t want to try their hand at these? Sign me up!
For the quickfire the chefs had to make a dish using one of a variety of peppers that ranged in heat from mild to the alleged hottest pepper in the world, the ghost chili which clocks in at over 1 million Scoville units. The peppers also had a monetary value assigned to them which the winner of the challenge would take home in addition to immunity in the elimination challenge. Paul was the only one who dared to use the ghost chili and took home $20,000 when he won with his coconut soup.
It looked like the chefs had a really good time with the elimination challenge. They were divided up into 5 teams and had to make chili for some rodeo cowboys. The best part was they were given all the time they needed, basically until they had to serve the chili. I’m glad Top Chef gave them all night to make it since you need to let chili simmer a long time if it’s going to be any good. The chefs really took to the challenge too, with some working all night on their chili. The winning team, not surprisingly, had a Texan on it (also two Chicagoans) and made a chili con carne. It looked the best and most teams seemed to realize Texas chili doesn’t have beans. One team included beans which made me wonder if they were on the bottom but there was one other team which made a sweet chili with a mole base. Big risk when you’re feeding rodeo cowboys in Texas and, of course, they were the losers. Instead of the judges picking the chef to be eliminated the three team members were asked to create a dish using their losing chili, best two stayed. Richie failed and was sent home. Sad to see one of the Chicagoans lose but there was a 1 in 3 chance of that happening so the odds were against them. Two Chicagoans were on the winning team so it was a good and bad episode for us. Hopefully more good ones to come.
The Roaming GastroGnome 