Contestants on last night's episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas were faced with the challenge of cooking for 'Chef of the Century Joel Robuchon. For the most part, the chefs managed to impress against all odds. For our gay ambassadors to the show, however, it was once again an unlucky night in Vegas.
For the Quickfire Challenge on episode 4 of Top Chef: Las Vegas, the chefs are tasked by legendary French chef Daniel Boulud to give a modern spin on the classic French dish of escargot. Somehow I just have to think these recipes are the least likely to get much traffic from aspiring chefs on Bravo's website, or maybe that's just the southern American in me screaming yuck!
Once again, Tom Colicchio announces the Quickfire will be a Las Vegas high stakes challenge -- but contestants' hopes are quickly dashed that someone will be walking away with another of those $15,000 casino chips. Instead, the chefs will be battling it out to win immunity for the best dish creator and -- gasp! -- sudden elimination for the worst. On hearing the news, the poor chefs look like they've just choked on a large plate of raw snails.
Unsurprisingly, chefs Jennifer, Mike I. and Kevin manage to shine once again with their escargot dishes -- all of which I'd rather flush than even look at. Yes, I have a thing against eating things that produce their own slime. Kevin walks away with the win and receives not only immunity, but also a full pass from the Elimination Challenge and a chance to eat the competing dishes with the judges. Talk about a lucky roll of the dice there! Speaking of Kevin, my gaydar goes off the map every time he steps on screen or opens his mouth. He just screams squishy, cute gay bear.
And I'm not the only one. I swear when Kevin walked into a room full of the other chefs in this episode, gay contestant Ash said "There she is." Plus, Kevin apparently has quite a large following of gay bears out there on the Net campaigning for him to come out of the closet. But, then again, Kevin has mentioned his wife on the show -- so maybe our gaydars are just all kinds of broken. Or, he's just very deeply in denial. Anyway, back to the show.
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While the level of cooking skill has been impressively high overall this season, the separation between the frontrunners and the rest of the pack just continues to grow wider every episode. Unfortunately, lesbian chef Ashley is definitely one of those straggling at the bottom of the pack. Once again, Ashley ends up at the bottom in the challenge along with perennial loser Jesse and uninspiring chef Robin.
To determine who is going to get booted from the first challenge of the day, Tom throws the three losing chefs back into the kitchen to create an amuse-bouche, putting their entire future at the mercy of a single bite of food. Ashley manages to squeak through by the skin of her teeth, but Jesse's constant lack of confidence and self-deprecation have finally caught up with her. She's out. The ladies side of the competition is starting to look very spare indeed. If it weren't for Jennifer's seemingly unstoppable force in the kitchen, it would almost seem like a shoo-in for the guys to take home the victory this season.
If a double elimination episode weren't enough to freak out the remaining contestants, the judges have another huge surprise for the chefs. Continuing in the French theme for the night, the contestants are informed they'll be cooking for legendary French chef Joel Robuchon. This is a guy so famous, so iconic, Tom Colicchio says he's nervous just to eat with the guy -- much less cook for him! Along with Robuchon, the contestants will also have to present their dishes to a room of some of the biggest names in the restaurant industry, including Hubert Keller, Jean Joho and Laurent Tourondel.
For the Elimination Challenge, the contestants are paired up by choosing knives matched with either a French sauce or traditional French protein. Thankfully, escargot is not included this time around, although frogs' legs aren't my idea of a fun thing to munch on either. What is it with frogs' legs lately? Hell's Kitchen also forced me to watch these being chopped up and fried this week and it's creepy! Here are the match-ups for the teams:
Ashley and Mattin: Poussin (young chicken) and sauce veloute
Bryan and Mike I.: Trout and sauce bÈarnaise
Eli and Laurine: Lobster and sauce Americane
Hector and Ash: Chateaubriand (thick steak) and sauce au poivre
Michael V. and Jennifer: Rabbite and sauce chasseur
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Naturally, Jennifer and Michael V. find themselves standing with the winners one more time when it comes to judge's panel. Michael V. is obviously one of the better chefs on this season, but Jennifer is seriously steamrolling everyone down one by one. She's a force to be reckoned with.
Bryan and Mike I. make up the other team chosen for the top dishes. Mike I., who honestly needs a serious ego check, tries to take more credit than he deserves (yet again) for the judge's favorite dish. But the judges aren't idiots and Bryan is granted the win.
On the bottom, Hector and gay chef Ash faces the judges for elimination over their painfully bad Chateaubriand and sauce au poivre. Sadly, sole remaining lesbian chef Ashley can't seem to break out of her losing streak and ends up being called for the losing teams as well, along with partner Mattin.
How sad is it when the French boy ends up in the bottom on a challenge to cook French cuisine? Frankly, I might have tossed him out just for being such an embarrassment to his own home country.
The judges, however, feel Hector and Ash's overcooked and badly butchered steak is just inexcusable. Even though Ash admittedly mucked up the sauce for the dish, Hector's failure to be able to properly cook a steak is too horrific to the judges and he is sent packing.
Another week down and once again the gay contestants on Top Chef: Las Vegas barely managed to scrape through to the next episode. Ash and Ashley need to get their butts in gear and start slamming some wins, or this season's rainbow team will shortly be only a colorful memory.
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