the fall of top scallop!

so i'm just going to get this out of the way - i predicted tats mcgee would take the whole enchilada, and, clearly, i was wrong. i accept defeat gracefully - which (no surprise) is more than i can really say for tats herself. but we'll get to that later.

last night was the much-anticipated (by me) eric ripert challenge. i confess, i have not eaten ripert's food. and i often think of him as a thicker, greyer, french version of bourdain. (they really look a lot alike, right?!) rob can't look him...it's the nose, and this from a guy who is often fascinated with noses. i don't mind the nose, but really what i love about ripert is his accent. it's better than french...it's fluffy and french. you have to hear him say "tony" sometime. it will truly break your heart.

so ripert...he's french, and he's known for seafood. the quickfire was great - a true test of chefly ability. the chefs had to break fish in a progressive challenge - the bottom two in each round being disqualified, and the top 4, then 2 continuing. the first fish was sardine - arguably harder than the second fish, arctic char. final fish was eel (eek!) i thought this was a great challenge - i would have been screwed...! carla and tats were out after the first round - mangled the sardines, as i would have. leah gave up during the char round. she bugs...whiny and defensive. italian lost it that round too, so the final 2 were hosea and the finn. naturally the finn won. he's clearly the one to beat...i might like to beat him (literally) with the eel, but whatever - good challenge, and his fish was beautiful.

so they then get to have lunch at le bernardin, and there are 6 chefs and 6 courses, so it's pretty obvious the challenge is going to be to recreate one of the dishes. because stefan won the quickfire, he gets to pick the dish he's making. everyone else draws knives. i won't go into each dish, but top 3 were carla (go DC!) the italian and the finn. oh finn...he won, and gets to stage with ripert in 3 restaurants - an absolutely top-notch prize.

bottom 3 were hosea, leah and tats. tats was ultimately sent home for over-salted braised celery, and kind of missing on the sauce. she was (typically) really annoying about it...she wasn't inspired, she didn't like the dish, she's bored by ripert's food (!!) she should have been booted for attitude alone. but i hated the editing just before she was eliminated. the judges sat at the table, and were kind of debating who (tats or leah) should go. the question posed - which was allegedly the determining factor was - is it better to know your mistakes and why you made them (tats) or to have no idea what you were doing? (leah) obviously there were other factors - or they threw that question in to make tat's inevitable ouster seem like a twist - but the fact of the matter is, that's a pretty key question, and i defy anyone to pick leah over tats in that scenario. i thought, btw that tats was my least favorite - until the very end when i turned to rob and said, "oooh, i hope it's leah!!" now i get to root either for carla or the italian to beat the finn. top finn?