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As an appetizer to season 3 of Top Chef, Bravo offered us a MFing cook-off! between the top four contestants from seasons 1 and 2. Well, sort of.
Lee Anne Wong, the third runner up from S1 is now a cooking producer for the show so she was replaced by sommelier Stephen.
Otherwise the top finishers were all there meaning Harold, Tiffani and Dave from S1 and Ilan, Marcel, Elia and Sam from S2.
They were cooking for charity and bragging rights so let the epic "smackdown" begin!
S1's charity was the Susan G. Komen Foundation and S2's charity was the very appropriate hunger and food related charity, supported in part by chefs and restaurants, Share Our Strength. The winning team's charity receives $20,000.
The competition starts with a quick fire challenge which Padma Lakshmi informs them will give the winning team a "meaningful advantage." The chefs have to each cook two eggs perfectly, deliciously and impressively with one hand tied behind their back. Well not actually tied - but held behind their back and covered with a giant oven mitt.
It was quickly clear that time away from the TV kitchen has not changed any of these contestants. Dave is still a bundle of nerves bringing the spicy. Tiffani is still convinced she's perfect and is bossy. Stephen is still arrogant and Harold is still intense. On team 2, Marcel remains an annoying foam purveyor. Ilan is still distracted. Elia still cooks quietly, simply and competently. And Sam is still low key.
Despite being most annoying dopplegangers from their respective seasons, their persnicketyness pays off and Stephen and Marcel are the individual winners (and thus team captains for the main challenge) for their perfect omelet and saffron foam eggs respectively. Chef Tom Colicchio declares S1 the overall winner. The meaningful advantage they win is that they will have $300 vs. $200 for food shopping for the main challenge.
The challenge is to prepare four dishes for a mystery group of judges (wanna take a wild guess as to who the judges will be?). Each team is to prepare four courses using scallops, lobster, duck, and Kobe beef. The head-to-head set up ends up pitting Dave vs. Elia with the scallops, Stephen vs. Marcel with the lobster, Harold vs. Ilan with the duck and Tiffani vs. Sam with the beef.
Stephen pushes his team to have a unified Mediterranean flavors theme throughout the dishes. Although this flummoxes Dave and his spicy comfort food style and goes against his belief that since they are in Miami the food should be "fun," he's down for the team and agrees. Stephen also, unsurprisingly, decides that they should use their extra $100 to buy matching wine flights for the courses.
Marcel is content to let everyone do their own thing and not force upon the team an orgy of foam and chemically altered molecular gastronomy. Left to their own devices, Ilan hangs out looking in the fridges and listening in on S1's planning until they walk away in disgust.
As they prepare their courses, we see further proof that no growing or changing has occurred for any of these characters since appearing on the show. Ilan is freaking out over ducks - apparently he does not know how to cook them Spanish-style. Marcel is shown rapping about the superiority of S2 and it is very, very wrong. Ilan "accidentally" knocks over Marcel's diced mango.
S1 is taking great delight in their trash talking about S2. Stephan accuses Ilan of being immature and unprofessional. Dave calls Marcel arrogant. Harrold calls Marcel immature and unprofessional.
While checking in on their progress, Chef Tom explains to Stephan how his wine strategy might backfire - what if the wine better compliments the competitor's dish? Stephan in his overconfidence in his superiority never considered this concept and seems a little rattled.
The judges are revealed and they are, ta-da, the contestants for S3 (which displeases and offends S1 and S2) and Tom, Padma, Gail Simmons from Food & Wine magazine and newly permanent judge Ted Allen from the now defunct Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Dave offers smoked scallops with Meyer lemon vinaigrette and olive tapenade. Elia has prepared, at Marcel's suggestion, a duo of hot and cold scallops - one seared with a marmalade and one a carpaccio with endive. The S3's, while enjoying Elia's searing and the marmalade, are not digging the
