Top Chef: Texas, Episode 5 Recap

D Magazine’s Loren Means loves to watch Top Chef: Texas. Therefore, she volunteered to watch all of the episodes this season and write a recap. She’s reviewed episode one, two, three, and four. Today she reports on episode five which takes place in Dallas. Go, Loren.

Episode five of Top Chef begins with the 14 cheftestants headed for “Big D.”  Loaded into three SUVs are Heather, Edward, Chris J., Chuy, Ty, Chris C., Dakota, Whitney, Lindsey, Sarah, Nyesha, Grayson and (saving the best for last) Paul. Spirits are up, stories are being shared, and they are rolling down the barren highways of Texas when they encounter a roadblock. A state trooper directs the cars to the side of the road, where Padma and guest judge John Besh, chef/owner of Luke in San Antonio and August in New Orleans, stand on dry, cracked land ravaged by drought. I kept waiting for tumbleweed to blow by. Bravo should have arranged for that. It would have appropriately set the tone: a Quickfire in the arid lands of Texas.

Quickfire Challenge

The judges inform the chefs that there is a survival kit in the trunk of each SUV that contains supplies for a challenge that will test resourcefulness and inventiveness. The chefs run to the cars, pop the trunks, and are shocked to find survival kits there. Now, I don’t want to be one of those people who talks through movies saying things like “that would never happen” or “no one just rolls over afterwards and goes to sleep like that in real life” but c’mon, where was their luggage? How did the chefs not know there were survival kits in the back of their cars? Anyway, the chefs find inside a variety of canned foods, but no can openers or cutting boards and very few utensils. Chris J. runs to the nearby corn field, exclaiming “fresh is best.” The ground is literally cracked, and he’s hoping to find a moist husk with golden kernels inside. Aw, that’s cute.

Dallas here they come. Continue reading "Top Chef: Texas, Episode 5 Recap"