Top Chef Season 5 Mid-Term Assessment

Ariane – The worst to first chef. Ariane's a toughie, it goes without saying that she got off to a bad start and the question is can she slay the demons that plagued her early in the competition and braise her way to the final four. Something I noticed recently, on the Melting Pot challenge Ariane, who did an Middle Eastern dish, got called out on her limited world view or something like that, and in the next Quickfire, she did another Middle Eastern dish, presumably to redeem herself, unfortunately she got panned for it, but still good for her, especially since she can be perceives as risk averse.

My take on Ariane is that she is a talented chef, as evidenced by her wins on Top Chef and the favorable reviews of her restaurant, CulinAriane, but she needs a lot of validation. At first her fellow chefs were willing to pat the self-proclaimed “old lady” on the head and buck her up. Now that she is not just a contender, but a front runner, I wonder if the cheerleading will continue.

Ariane's food that I want to try: the cream cheese and bacon stuffed French toast (minus the bacon, I like to keep my sweet and savory separated, thank you very much) and the JaRadIane lamb.

Carla – Reality TV Gold! Season 5's Carla reminds me of Forrest Gump, any time something is going on Carla is there, which is great, because she gives great color commentary. My selfish wish is that Carla makes it to the Final 5, because I am afraid that when she goes all of the oxygen is going to leave the Top Chef Kitchen.

Carla's food that I want to try: the rustic apple pie and spicy broth and avocado salsa and the tortilla soup

Eugene – My early favorite despite the massive amount of body ink. Several of the current batch of chefs seem to have studied previous seasons of Top Chef and have formed a mental playbook that they are using to play the game: Be Creative, Create Interesting Dishes, Defend Your Dish and Demonstrate Leadership; and that is all fine, good and dandy, but somehow Execution, Sound Judgment and Common Sense (which is always implied) weren't included in the playbooks. To me Eugene is probably the worst offender, which is kinda sad, because I think the is better than what we have seen thus far. He is a darkhorse for the final four, and even that may be more wishful thinking, if he ends up leaving sooner, I hope that he leaves on a positive note and not that storm cloud that he has been under for the past couple of challenges.

Eugene's food that I want to try: the basmati macadamia nut tatziki and masala rubbed lamb, the Buffalo meatloaf roulade with smoked gouda fondue and his spicy pork stew with cilantro sour cream (without the cornstarch flavoring).

Fabio – First off, the Team Euro trash talking is annoying. Also, not too many are as skilled as Fabio at hilariously delivering expressing their sore loser sentiments. Of course, he is overplaying the Chef Boyardee accent, but like Carla, he gives great color commentary. I am thinking that one of my goals for 2009 should be to meet Fabio's grandmother and gather tips on cooking Italian and raising an evil six year old. Other than the pumpkin tiramisu, Fabio hasn't really wowed me with any of his dishes. I think he is a solid chef and hasn't made any major missteps, I am mildly annoyed that in the wedding challenge Team Blue did not make a dessert, especially since they were the last to serve, who cares if there are only one or two truly blue foods.

Fabio's food that I want to try: the pumpkin tiramisu and the "gray" mushroom polenta and duck breast.

Hosea – Truth be told Hosea has not figured prominently on my radar screen as a chef or as one-half of the tepid pairing with Leah (or is it Melissa??). However, he has some skills as illustrated by his winning the Twelve Days of Christmas and Name that Ingredient challenges, it would have been so awesome if Kathy Lee Epstein Johnson Gifford showed up to sing each ingredient, and oh yeah, I'm mildly embarrassed that I was able to write all of Kathy Lee's surnames from memory. Hosea is not the most inventive chef, but he is worth keeping an eye on.

Hosea's food that I want to try: the crispy Ahi roll with spicy ginger dipping sauce and the smoked pork loin, chipotle mashed potatoes, braised cabbage, apple jus.

Jamie - My current co-favorite despite the massive amount of body ink. Jamie swings for the fences which has landed her on both the top and the bottom of the quickfire and elimination challenges. She openly bemoans not winning a quickfire or elimination challenge and while some may find that unseemly, it's fine by me. Even the most secure people desire recognition and validation and her bellyaching, IMHO shows more insecurity and lack of reality show savvy, than character or personality shortcomings.

Jamie's food that I want to try: the chick pea soup, the baby “BLT” breakfast sandwich and the JaRadIane lamb.

Jeff – What a disappointment! He leads me on with this shallow and vain proclamation about requiring his staff to notify him when a hair is out of place, and then he does the old bait and switcheroo and turns out to be a decent and (seemingly) humble guy, grrrr! A time or two he has done the petulant and entitled white boy thing (think of the typical Tom Cruise character between 1981 and 1996) which I find strangely attractive, so he hasn't been a total bust. He and Jamie are my current favorites.

Um, let's see the food. As a chef, Jeff offers sophisticated fare and is to be commended for not dumbing down his food. We saw his thought process in conceptualizing his Twelve Days of Christmas Dish and that is a good thing and the editors should do more of that. He is a risk taker and as such has landed in both the bottom and the top groups. I think that he shares Eugene's tendency to show creativity and effort, for the sake of creativity and effort, the the two too much amuse bouche being a good example, but in Jeff's case he has the skills to back it up. Truth be told, I don't have a true hankering for any of Jeff''s food, lump me in with those unsophisticated palettes that he referred to in the Today Show episode. I am more impressed with his go big or go home attitude and the unique ingredients / dishes, I have never heard of haloumy and kassier cheese, malfouf rolls, muhamara sauce and using sumac as a spice (I wonder if I should have a calamine lotion chaser nearby).

Jeff's food that I want to try: the sumac spiced malfouf roll with muhamara sauce (to expand my horizons) and a lighter and less verjused version of the potato risotto with crispy bacon and brussel sprouts.

Leah – Leah has been a decent performer, winning a couple of quickfires. She has a funky attitude at times and is carrying on an uninteresting affair with Hosea, and since she and Hosea have significant others back home, they both will have some splainin' to do.

Leah's food that I want to try: the fried quail egg with spicy tomato and the braised Guinea hen (on a lighter less thick bread).

Melissa – One thing that I noticed is that this season's hirsute cheftestants are pretty good with pulling their hair back or wearing a scarf or other head covering (whatever happened to hair nets?) when cooking, Melissa is the notable exception. I keep expecting someone to find a peroxide hairstrand in their food. Her clueless defense of her dishes, makes her a member of the Top Chef Playbook Club (see the Eugene commentary).

Melissa's food that I want to try: the habanero blackened shrimp (I like spicy food, with a milder pepper) and possibly the Italian wedding soup (the recipe looks better than the picture).

Radhika – Radhika is the stealth chef. I think she has made the most interesting but accessible dishes. Radhika memorably said she doesn't want to be pigeon holed as an Indian chef , and thus far has done a few Indian or Indian-inspired dishes, but has produced just as many if not more non-Indian dishes. I am not 100% sure, but I don't thing that the restaurant she works in is an Indian restaurant. I don't think that Radhika should run away from doing Indian and she hasn't thus far, but as the field narrows that is when the mind games start among the cheftestants (perhaps Stefan has gotten a jumpstart on this sparking the Stefan is Satan comment) and I hope that Radhika can tune that out and listen to her own voice.

Rhadika / Radhika's food that I want to try: the curried white bean soup, the vegan cornbread stuffing (just to see what all the fuss is a bout), the JaRadIane lamb and the Belgian meatballs with chive mashed potatoes.

Stefan - OK, half of cheftestants interviewed called Stefan arrogant with one saying that she'd rather be teammates with Satan than Stefan. So I guess this means Stefan is... arrogant. And of course, it takes a special kind of arrogance to try to convert a lesbian, although he seems to have been momentarily distracted by Natasha Richardson's umm, voice. I really haven't found Stefan's dishes to be all that interesting, his strength seems to lie in presentation and execution.

Stefan's food that I want to try: the amuse bouche eggs and Celtic goulash with potato .