Top Chef Week 1

Greetings contestants! Hope you enjoyed Top Chef last night. Here's the episode recaplet from Television Without Pity:

Season Six! Vegas! Lights! Food! The new crop of cheftestants arrives and introduces themselves, and they include a James Beard nominee, a few restaurant owners, and a pair of brothers. The Quickfire Challenge is a mise-en-place relay race done in teams of four. Because they have 21 cheftestants, one person (Robin) draws a gold chip and doesn't have to compete, and she also gets immunity at Elimination. One team lets someone shuck clams who has never shucked clams before, so you can guess how that goes. It ends up coming down to a race between the blue team and black team, and the blue team wins by a hair.

Then the blue team finds out that they don't really win as a team; they now have to cook a dish featuring the ingredient they worked with in their leg. The winner gets a chip worth $15,000. After thirty minutes, Jen from Philly wins with a clam citrus ceviche dish.

Elimination Challenge. The chefs compete against their Quickfire teammates to cook a dish based on a vice. One chef from each of the four teams will be eligible to win and Wolfgang Puck is the guest judge.

First impressions of those that stood out: Mike I. is scared of women and overcompensates, Younger Brother Michael is not as cool or interesting as Older Brother Brian (though he thinks he's WAY cooler), Creole Haitian Ron has a cool accent, and Jen from Philly seems like a kickass take-no-prisoners type. Chubby comical Kevin wins the Elimination Challenge with an arctic char dish that really impresses the judges. Jen (not from Philly) is told to pack her knives and go after serving up an underseasoned chile relleno stuffed with flavorless clumpy seitan.

Overall, the season looks promising with a lot of talented chefs from around the country, and no small amount of drama. I know some people aren't going to like the twists and turns (like the $15K chip in the Quickfire), but I don't mind shaking things up a bit when it doesn't mess with the integrity of the contest and you feel like, in the end, the best chefs make it to the end. Welcome to Season Six!

Unfortunately, one chef had to pack her knives and go to that happy kitchen in the sky. The first chef eliminated belonged to.....

KM!

That's okay KM. The rules committee has officially decided that if there are extra names and your contestant has been voted off, you may take a mulligan for $0.50 to stay in the competition. With your mulligan, you have now gained Mattin Noblia as your new top chef! Good luck!

Tonight is the premiere of Project Runway. There are no extra contestants, so unfortunately, tomorrow, one of you will be OUT!!