Pack your knives and GO!

Season 3 of Top Chef kicked off last night and boy was it a doozy. The cheftestants were treated to a nice lunch, but then were immediately thrown into a quickfire challenge. The challenge required them to create an amuse bouche out of the leftovers from lunch. Only through watching the first two seasons have I come to understand what this means. It seems that at least one of the contestants (Clay) was one of those people who did not know what it was either. He created a large granny apple with fruit inside. Now while that may have tasted good, it was not what the challenge was all about. So he was at the bottom when it came to judging the quickfire challenge.

Clay then needed to redeem himself in the elimination challenge. That challenge was a protein challenge, or as Chef Tom Colicchio explained, it was a Surf and Turf. This was going to be different because they had more exotic ingredients like Eel, Snake, Black Chicken, Geoduck, alligator, sea urchin and more. Clay served up Pan Seared Wild Boar Chop and Cornbread Dressing with Scorpion Fish. Just the name makes me NOT want to eat it. The judges ripped his meal to shreds and said that it was the least desirable dish there. They also ripped apart Howie because he didn't get his frog legs on the plate before the timer ran out. Therefore, he only served half his dish. However, it turns out that the judges loved what he did get on the plate, and wish they had the chance to try his frog legs. He even "talked back" to Anthony Bourdain when he asked Howie,"What is your major malfunction?". Howie fired back with a quote from one of Anthony's books and Anthony called him a Son of a Bitch. I don't think he was being mean because he actually looked like he was smiling. This move was probably what saved him in Anthony's eyes.

Clay was finally told to "Pack your knives and go". I am a little sad to see Clay go, but of the other cheftestants I didn't see anyone else that should go. Of course I would not have eaten ANY of those dishes due to the "exotic proteins" provided, but the judges seemed to enjoy most of them. I can't imagine how they can do the judging and just not get fat from everything they eat. I look at it and gain 5 pounds! LOL