'Top Chef' episode 2 recap

November 20, 1:31 PMTop Chef ExaminerMatt Wolf

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Fabio wins... Jill's gone

For the quickfire challenge, the contestants were told they'd be cooking a dish that New Yorkers spend $100 million on each year. That's when a hot dog cart was wheeled around the corner and into the kitchen. Angelina Deangelo from Dominick's Hot Dog Stand in Queens was there to cook a hot dog and show everyone how it's done. The top chefs had 45 minutes to make their own dogs, and would be judged by guest judge Donatella Arpaia. 

Radhika was judged the winner with her Indian-style Kabob Hot Dog with Cucumber, Onions and Tomato Jam. Hosea also impressed with his Bacon and Roast Pepper Sausage, out of all of them, that looked liked the one I'd want to eat. The comic highlight was provided by Stefan, whose globally-themed "World Dog" was not a hit, leading to his irate, inimitable, "Nothing wrong with my hot dog!"

For the elimination challenge, the chefs were told to separate into three groups of five - one group would cook five individual appetizers, another would cook five entrees, and another would cook five desserts. The meals would be cooked and served at Tom Colicchio's restaurant, Craft, for 50 New York chefs that had tried out for the show and not made it.

Then it was on to Whole Foods for shopping, and this is where two crucial mistakes were made. First, Hosea, a seafood expert from Jax Fish House in Boulder, decided that his appetizer course would be a cold crab salad. As it turned out however, Whole Foods did not have any fresh dungeness crab (What kind of Whole Foods doesn't have fresh crab meat?), and Hosea, instead of changing his dish, decided to go with canned crab meat. Then Jill, who was assigned a main course, saw an ostrich egg and whimsically decided to buy it and make a quiche. Randomly grabbing things at grocery stores and taking them home to experiment is a good way to go through life, it's really the only way to learn how to cook new things and expand your horizons. Probably not a good idea on a cooking competition reality show, however.

At Craft, we were first treated to some predictable mugging and snarkiness from the chefs who hadn't made the cut for the show, these were among the most painful non-Marcel moments in the history of Top Chef. Back in the kitchen, it was hard to tell who was having a good day and who wasn't. Hosea was confident (cut to Gail Simmons eating his crab salad: "I have a terrible, slimy feeling in my mouth"), Jill felt good about her "creative" dish (cut to Donatella taking a bite of Ostrich Egg Quiche: "It tastes like glue"), while everyone else remained calm and ambivalent, with the notable exception of Ariane . Her Lemon Meringue Martini dessert was a problem (too sweet) and she knew it.

We did get to see Fabio employ an interesting technique for his Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio, eventually judged the winner, involving the preparation of "spherical olives." For a cool video of world-renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adria demonstrating this technique, click here. The judges' favorite appetizer was Jamie's Chilled Sweet Corn Soup with Chili Oil and Mint. For dessert, the winner was Carla's Rustic Apple Pie Tart.

The three worst dishes at judges' table, predictably, were Hosea, Ariane and Jill. Jill seemed to get grilled hard by Tom and Gail, and her explanations for her dish were stammering at best. It seemed like her and Hosea (and I, for that matter) were resigned to the assumption that Ariane was definitely going home, Padma had even gone so far as to spit out Ariane's dessert into her napkin.

As the judges continued to debate though, I started to get the feeling that something else was happening. They really did not like Jill's inability to stand up for herself. It seemed like we were headed down one of those "maybe it's not really all about the food" debates. Still - even if it's not all about the food, wouldn't the judges keep Jill around anyway, since she's not only the best looking female contestant this year, but possibly ever? Nope. The chefs filed back in and Jill was told to leave.

As I watched the statuesque beauty pack her knives and leave the kitchen, I could only think one thing: that must have been some awful quiche.