Top Chef Masters Premiere is hugs and kisses all around

Top Chef Masters Episode 1 Photo: Bravo TV

Given the overall charitable theme of Top Chef Masters, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the show seems to be a lovefest for all involved. Judging from tonight’s premiere episode, the Top Chef spinoff supposedly pitting world renowned chefs against each other instead appears to be a hugs and kisses pep rally all around. While the show was light on the usual Bravo drama we’ve become accustomed to a la Real Housewives and prior Top Chef seasons, this episode did throw in some unusual twists and possibly one of the toughest elimination challenges in Top Chef history!

The four celebrated chefs competing in the first round of elimination tonight were Hubert Keller of Fleur De Lys in San Francisco, Christopher Lee of Aureole in New York City, Michael Schlow of Radius in Boston and Tim Love of The Lonesome Dove in Fort Worth.

Upon arrival, the chefs greeted each other very warmly and looked genuinely happy and excited to be in the Top Chef kitchen. Usually in Top Chef the contestants are very obviously sizing each other up, but here all four seemed to be very buddy-buddy from the get go. Like I said, it was hugs and kisses all around. Judging by his comments, the most intimidated chef seemed to be Tim Love, who doesn’t have the same kind of classic training as Keller, Lee and Schlow.

But that didn’t seem to matter given that the first quickfire challenge was to create a dessert that would impress four Girl Scouts. Clad in a green blouse to match the Girl Scouts, host Kelly Choi gave the chefs sixty minutes to make the most creative and delicious dessert possible.

This is where the fun began. Now it’s been a while since these four chefs have been under quickfire pressure and some fared better than others. It’s no surprise that Keller’s pastry background ultimately came through for him as he impressed the Girl Scouts with his chocolate swan and mouse dish, wowing with both creativity and taste.

The most surprising dish, and not in a good way, was Schlow’s chocolate brown mess. I can’t say that there was really a name to the dish as both his chocolate cake failed to rise and his honey almond ice cream refused to harden. All the girls were left with was a molten mess.

Watching the chefs witness their critiques from the Girl Scouts was very entertaining and charming, as the girls proved to be challenging critics, humbling these award winning chefs. The scores for the quickfire were: Keller 5 stars, Lee and Love with 3.5 stars each and Schlow with 2.5 stars.

For the elimination challenge, each chef had to create three dishes using only a hot plate and a microwave as cooking equipment. The added twist was that the cooking was to take place within the tiny confines of a college dorm room!

After shopping with a $150 budget, the chefs arrived at the kitchen to retrieve their ingredients. Unfortunately for Love, that meant frozen ingredients as he mistakenly placed his bags in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. Another rookie mistake that we have rarely seen from regular Top Chef!

Bouncing back quickly, Love improvised using the microwave defroster and putting together a pozole dish that could use the frozen produce. In one of the most memorable scenes I have ever witnessed on Top Chef, Keller faced another challenge in his quest to make the college staple (and my favorite comfort food!) macaroni and cheese. To cook the pasta just right, Keller chilled it in the shower with cold water and then proceeded to reheat it with the hot water from the shower, in what will be forever known as the “shower scene.”

In the end, all four chefs delivered a remarkable three course meal given the circumstances. Copping out a little bit in the first course, all four chefs chose to prepare dishes that required no cooking, each presenting some version of a seafood carpaccio. For the second dish, Schlow prepared a well received cabbage and smoked bacon soup while Keller made a somewhat controversial soup of carrot, petite peas and cinnamon. Love made a “football game” pozole, while Lee delivered a creamy risotto, that although Gael Greene deemed “not a risotto,” was still well flavored and deliciously creamy and cheesy.

Finally, the third course seemed to seal the deal for Keller as he presented a macaroni and cheese with prawns that impressed both critics and the college students, especially given his ingenious shower technique. While Schlow’s pork a la apicius was very flavorful, Greene argued that it was too overcooked. Love and Lee both suffered from problems with seasoning and meat temperature and texture in their skirt steak and pork chop entrees, respectively.

The “Critics Table” proved to be a bit anticlimactic as the critics Gael Greene, James Oseland and Jay Rayner seemed lavish on praise and very light on criticism. Maybe this is what has to be expected to keep the relationship balance between these master chefs and the critics? All three were very impressed with the ability for the chefs to work in such difficult circumstances and admired the creativity and ingenuity demonstrated. And given the democratic scoring process for Top Chef Masters, don’t expect as much bickering as Padma and the gang.

The scoring for this episode was as follows:

• Each chef can earn up to five stars from the quickfire challenge;
• Each chef can earn up to five stars from the college student diners in the elimination challenge, and five stars from each of the three critics for a total possible 20 stars; and,
• The chef with the most final stars wins the round and moves on to the championship round.

With a quickfire win and a universally praised macaroni and cheese dish, Keller won the challenge with a total of 20.5 points, beating Lee by 1.5 stars.

Overall, I’d say Top Chef Masters is a delight to watch for foodies who recognize the familiar faces of these highly esteemed chefs. It is entertaining to watch these chefs get thrown out of their element and have to work under strange and uncertain circumstances, i.e. cooking in a dorm college room! Nothing beats watching Hubert Keller in the “shower scene.” For those looking for high drama and bedroom shenanigans, it doesn’t seem like there will be much of that – better luck on Tuesdays with The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

What did you guys think? Was it all you hoped for? Or are we all just waiting for Top Chef Las Vegas…

For those without DVRs, catch re-runs on Thursday at 10:30am.

Winner Hubert Keller on the experience...

Chef Michael Schlow on the tough Top Chef Masters experience...