Is it just us, or is everyone meaner when Anthony Bourdain is around? It’s like all of the other judges feel the need to one-up his searing criticisms and outrageous metaphors. Don’t get us wrong—we love his colorful comments. We’ve just noticed that Tom is in rare form when Bourdain is next to him. Even Padma—dear, sweet Padma—acquires a bit of an edge when he’s around. We shudder to think what effect he might have had on Gail if she’d been around to judge this week.

With Bourdain leading the charge, things got brutal on this episode. Some of it was probably deserved. (We didn’t even want to look at Tall C.J.’s broccolini, his ultimate undoing, let alone eat it.) But the comparisons to prison food and references to the worst dish ever served on Top Chef felt a bit over-the-top. So, since everyone’s probably feeling a bit wounded at the moment, we though we’d bring a little positive energy to the table by pointing out the things we love about each contestant.

Dale: There are several things we love about Dale, not least among them the fact that he’s from Chicago. But first: Whew. That was a close one. We’ve noticed Dale’s not really a detail guy, but portioning for 17 diners instead of 18 was a fairly large oversight. It probably would have cost him the round if everyone else’s food hadn’t been so awful. What Dale does do well, though, is teamwork. We’re not yet sure if he’s a leader, but what we do know—and love—about him is that he’s a good teammate. He’s aware of what’s going on around him the kitchen, and when he sees someone in trouble, he swoops in to help—he’s SuperDale! We also love that when other chefs don’t take the same tack (not to name any names, Hung), he calls them out on it.

Finally, Colicchio and crew got it right. We were ready for Howie to pack his knives and go weeks ago.

But, oh, the irony! Poor Howie. When he finally decided to try to be a team player, his food tanked, and he had his worst night ever. So much for playing nice.

We don’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy, though. We just can’t get past the fact that he presented a big ol’ martini glass full of nothing during the Quickfire Challenge. You’re a chef, Howie. Your job is to feed people. And just how awful could it have been, anyway? Even Tall C.J. put on his best smile and served a dish he’d sweetened with … salt.

Now that we’re down to six chefs, things are going to get interesting. The challenges are tougher, and the stakes are higher. And that, of course, means it’s time to start making some predictions. Here are ours, in the order we think they’ll pack their knives and go.

Hung: Yeah, we like to play with our food too. But not when $100,000 is on the line. It’s bad enough that you’re buddies with evil Marcel from Season 2 and that you almost sliced Casey’s head off a couple of episodes back, but then you had to go and build a psychedelic Smurf village during last night’s Quickfire Challenge? Nobody cares what you do in your off-time, Hung, but the only mushrooms that belong in a kitchen are portabellas, oysters, shitakes … and, well, we’ll leave it at that. And what was up with that salmon mousse blob on a cucumber? It might go over well at the country club with Buffy and Mitzi, but Dana Cowin clearly was not amused.

Dale: Honestly, we’re torn as to whether Dale or Sara will go home first. Obviously, we’re pulling for Dale. But at this point, we’ve got to be realistic. While Dale’s early issues (presentation, namely) seem to have resolved themselves, a new Achilles heel has emerged: He’s too nice. He took one for the team last night when he swapped $11 worth of goat cheese for yogurt at the supermarket, and his dish suffered for it. We’re not asking you to go all Gordon Ramsay on us, but Dale, please, take a cue from Howie. Show some spine! If you don’t, you’ll only prove that old adage: Nice guys finish fifth.

Sara: Our favorite cheese maker has been the show’s biggest sleeper, only really coming into her own during the last few episodes. And now that her nemesis, Howie, is gone, she’s going to be able to focus even more on her food. She might not quite be Top Chef material, but everybody loves cheese.

Brian: Last night’s Spam triumph aside, Brian is bound to meet his match eventually with a challenge that forces him to cook something other than fish. Also, does anyone else feel that part of the reason Brian’s stuck around this long is because, well, he’s kinda cute? Don’t get us wrong—he’s no Sam Talbot. But he’s clearly emerging as the show’s token hottie (male hottie, that is—we don’t mean to take anything away from Casey) and it always seems that the final few contestants are among the most, uh, “marketable.”

Tall C.J.: Last night’s episode said it all. Where Howie buckled and threw in the towel, C.J. took a potentially devastating mistake (oops, that was salt!) in stride and moved on. He’s cool under pressure, people don’t hate him, and he turns out sophisticated dishes with relative consistency. Plus, he’s able to work in small spaces despite his freakish height.

Casey: That’s right, you heard it here: Season 3 will give us our first female Top Chef.

See what our friends at The Stew had to say about last night's show.

Let’s just get this out of the way: Nobody went home on last night’s episode of ‘Top Chef.’ That’s right. Padma didn’t ask anybody to pack their knives and go, and next week is going to be one big do-over. There. It’s done. Sorry if we just ruined it for all of you TiVoers out there, but there’s really no reason anyone should go through the suspense poor Dale had to go through only to find out it’s all for nothing.

While we think the ending was a cop out (hmm … perhaps because Howie was the obvious choice for knife-packing, with his awful, gummy risotto, but, of course, you can’t very well send The Villain home when the season’s barely halfway over … ) the episode did have some season highs.

Here’s one: Daniel Boulud as guest judge. Boulud clearly impresses the chefs more than any other guest judge this season. Even Hung is humbled. But Dale, whose sound bites are really starting to grow on us (and the producers, apparently) sums it up better than anyone: “Holy sh*t, it’s Daniel Boulud.”

While Boulud looks on, the chefs are told they’ll have 30 minutes to come up with a gourmet burger. It’s the first Quickfire Challenge we’ve seen in awhile that really forces the chefs to cook, and it’s appropriate that Boulud will judge a challenge focusing on gourmet burgers. This is going to be good.

But when the chefs are presented with menus from Red Robin, our hearts sink. For those unfamiliar with this restaurant chain (and if you don’t live in Schaumburg, Warrenville, Rockford, Lincolnshire or about a half-dozen other far-flung locales, it’s entirely possible that you are) it’s a “gourmet burger” establishment. How gourmet? Well, it places a grilled turkey burger in a section of the menu tagged “adventuresome.” It’s $8.29. And that same menu also features a starter called a Just-in-Quesadilla. Seriously.

The chefs feign interest as the Red Robin menu gets passed around, but it’s hard to believe that Daniel Boulud isn’t horrified, or at least wondering what the heck he’s gotten himself into. Fortunately, it turns out that the whole Red Robin thinh is just wildly gratuitous product placement—yes, more gratuitous than Glad or Toyota or even Coldstone—and it’s over quickly. Whew.

But then, in another odd turn of events, it suddenly seems like everyone is making a shrimp burger. Thankfully, we see Dale frying an egg. It’s a good move. He uses it to top a burger of ground, seared tuna, with asparagus, onion, mustard and soy, which he serves with a mirin and soy aioli. It gets a nod from Daniel. Continue reading "‘Top Chef’ Episode 8: Everybody wins!"
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Last night’s episode marked the point on a season of "Top Chef" at which no one can fly under the radar anymore, and, in a heartening twist for fans of local fave Dale Levitski, it also marked the night where Dale came into his own.

The guest judge for Episode 6 is one of the more recognizable names we’ve seen this season, Rocco DiSpirito. Except it’s not the Rocco DiSpirito we know from our … let’s see … maybe eighth or ninth favorite food-based reality show, “The Restaurant.” It’s kind of a futuristic, Ken doll-esque Rocco DiSpirito. Or maybe … did you ever go to Disneyland as a kid? Remember Futureland? Remember those plastic (There! We said it! Plastic!) futuremen standing around their futurekitchens? Yeah. That’s all we’re going to say about that.

This week’s Quickfire Challenge seems simple enough: The chefs will be put on the spot in a “culinary bee,” an elimination contest in which they have to identify various ingredients by sight or taste alone. Get one wrong, and it’s over. Get one right, and you survive to see another round. Fun! We could get into this.

Sadly, Dale stumbles quickly, mistaking taro root for water chestnuts, while some of the other chefs (ahem, Brian and Casey) skate through with no-brainers like kidney beans and bowtie pasta. (For the record, we think this is total B.S.—are kidney beans and things like taro root and daikon radish sprouts even remotely on the same level in terms of difficulty?) Others (ahem, Hung) get lucky—oatmeal, really? Oatmeal? Then they throw it all way when they get cocky and make careless errors, such as mistaking anise seed for celery seed before tasting it. In the end, it’s Casey versus Brian, and Casey hangs on with chayote and roasted red bell peppers while Brian falters on Asian eggplant.

It looks like Rocco DiSpirito is sticking around for the Elimination Challenge so he can creep us out some more. He does have some interesting info to share, however. Like, did you know the frozen meal market is worth about $8.6 billion a year? This bit of shocking news, of course, is the set-up for the night’s challenge: to create a quickly re-heatable frozen dinner based on frozen Bertolli products.

The chefs draw knives to pair up; with their partners, they’ll have 30 minutes and $100 to shop, two hours to cook and two hours to package their meals. At stake: two tickets to Italy for each member of the winning team—courtesy of Bertolli, natch.

Dale is paired with Casey, who we’re thinking might be a bit of a sleeper so far this season. There’s only one problem: She just won immunity, and immune chefs have been known to slack or try wacky dishes just because they can.

Dale admits he and Casey haven’t hung out much, but they “instantly, instantly clicked.” And it does look as if they’re genuinely having a good time working together. (Shh … don’t tell Lia, looks like Casey has a new BFF!) We can’t say the same for Howie and Sara M., whose passive-aggressive exchanges are interspersed with confessional-style shots of Howie saying things to the camera like, “I wouldn’t hire her to wash dishes in my kitchen.”

Joey and Hung are running a close second in the Team Most Likely to Spontaneously Combust category. There’s not as much open animosity, but it’s clear that Joey’s hard-headed, plodding mentality clashes badly with Hung’s hyper-driven tendency to dash about in small spaces brandishing sharp knives.

As the chefs get down to business, the love fest continues over at Casey and Dale’s counter, where Casey proudly declares that they’ve wisely chosen two ingredients that freeze well: pesto and meatballs. Yep, they sure do freeze well … but, pesto with … meatballs? We’re not convinced.

Before we jump into our weekly recap of local "Top Chef” contestant Dale Levitski’s performance on this week’s episode, let’s revisit a couple of our favorite quotes from the evening:

“There’s nothing better than a telenovela to get your appetite rolling.” – Gail

“It’s all about finesse, style, grace and elegance.” – Hung, who later almost accidentally slices Casey’s head off with a knife

Save for a few memorable quotes like these, last night’s episode of “Top Chef” was, not unlike Dale’s free-form tart from Episode 4, fairly underwhelming.

Shortly after the episode opens, we meet guest judge Maria Frumkin, pastry chef and owner of Duo restaurant and the French Bakery Cafe in Miami.

Then it’s on to a surprisingly uninspired Quickfire Challenge: The chefs must use their talent and their creativity to make an “ambitious, creative” dish using frozen pie crusts; they’ll have 90 minutes.

Frozen pie crusts? This is all the same producers who have given us gin, live shellfish and a half-eaten buffet table already this season can come up with? Zzzzz. Wake us up at the next Gladware commercial, please.

Dale, however, says he’s “absolutely jacked out of [his] mind” at the opportunity to redeem himself from last week’s pastry meltdown (or “dessert debacle,” as Padma calls it). He seems wildly confident … but when we hear the words “free-form tart” escape his lips, we start having scary Episode 4 flashbacks. No, Dale, no! Save yourself while you still can!

But he’s sure he’s going to nail this one; 90 minutes later, he reveals a “summer picnic en croute,” a medley of spinach with pastis, fennel, onion, pistachio and seared salmon layered with pear and rolled in a pie crust and baked. For dessert (why, Dale … why?) he presents a strawberry, pear and saffron tart with whipped vanilla goat cheese. Maria Frumkin finds it kind of overwhelming, and we don’t blame her. Heck, we got confused just now trying to recount everything that went into the summer picnic.

Much to Dale’s surprise, he ends up in the bottom three with Lia and Hung. Joey wins with a trio of tarts.

Next up, Elimination Challenge. The chefs have 30 minutes to shop and three hours to cook before they pack everything up in Gladware and head over to the set of “Dame Chocolate,” a popular Telemundo telenovela, to serve the cast.

Time for a little character development from the producers, in the form of cast bonding. Joey mentions that he and Howie have become pretty tight since “the incident.” Later, back at the Fountainbleau, Lia declares she and Casey are BFF (actually, she says “lifelong friends”).

Alliances declared, the chefs shop and head back to the GE Monogram Kitchen to start cooking. Everyone’s just getting started when Tom walks into the kitchen and announces that mealtime has been pushed up—the chefs now have 90 minutes hours to cook instead of three hours.

Hung runs around willy-nilly, as usual—except this time he has a knife in his hand. Howie curses up a storm. And sweats. Tre is in the zone. Dale walks through the shot a few times, looking pretty calm. Howie sweats some more.

After a weeklong hiatus, we were hungry for our Dale Levitski fix—and boy did this week deliver. Our man Dale was front-and-center almost all night. But did he make the cut? Read on to find out.

Episode 4 gets off to an auspicious start when we learn that the Quickfire Challenge will focus on cocktail and food pairings. Dale consulted at posh cocktail lounge Stone Lotus, after all, and we know he has chops when it comes to mixology.

The chefs draw drinks, then they have 30 minutes to taste ’em and whip up a food pairing. Dale gets a Sapphire Sherry, which is basically four parts Bombay Sapphire to one part Pedro Ximenez, a super-sweet, raisiny dessert sherry. In other words, it’s pure alcohol. Aiming to “cut the heat of the booze,” Dale opts for a rich foie gras dish, searing the foie and topping it with candied parsnips and orange and a rice wine vinegar gastrique.

Jamie Walker, Bombay Sapphire’s global master mixologist and the guest judge for this Quickfire Challenge, declares it’s going to work before he even tastes it.

Then, the moment of truth: “It works.”

Jamie gives Padma’s glass a flirty clink. (Hey, she’s about to be a single gal again—nothing wrong with that.) Cheers, dahling!

Jamie continues his rounds, commenting, it seems, more on the chefs themselves than their dishes. He tells Tall C.J. he’s very tall: “Hello, you’re very tall.” When he gets to Joey’s dish, he proclaims it “too robust, too heavy, a little bit clumsy.” Hmm … not unlike Joey. Hung’s dish, he says, is “a little muddled.” Again, consider the source.

Tre, Casey and … Dale! … come out on top. But Casey bests Dale with her foie gras French toast. Alas, no immunity for our hometown mixologist.

On to the Elimination Challenge. The chefs must divide themselves into teams of three; each team will create one course, which must be a trio of the same ingredient. They’ll have two hours to cook in chef Barton G. Weiss’s kitchen for 10 members of the Chaine des Rotisseurs Dining Society, a group of folks who reputedly possess very well developed palates. (And, rather conveniently, a hoity-toity name to prevent people from calling their palates into question.)

Rather than accentuate burgeoning kitchen alliances by choosing teams, the chefs draw names. Dale winds up with Howie and Casey. But when Howie starts ranting and sweating and sputtering about menu choices, Dale makes a split-second decision and volunteers to move to the pastry team.

“I can futz a great dessert,” he proclaims. That’s the attitude, Dale! Go Team Pastry!

Since no one in the kitchen knows pastry all that well, Dale’s move appears altruistic. But as we watch Casey, Howie and Joey move toward a collective meltdown, we realize that this was actually a very shrewd move on Dale’s part.

Strategic moves, shifting allegiances, small-scale breakdowns. This is getting good. But wait—it’s time to break for a Bombay Sapphire ad. And to mix a quick martini. (Hey, why not? Let’s hear it for inspirational product placement! Now if only those Glad ads inspired us to take out the garbage during commercial breaks …)

After a couple of quick shots of the chefs puttering about back at the Fountainebleau and a lingering shot of a goodbye note from Sandee, who was sent packing last week, Episode 3 opens in the GE Monogram Kitchen.

In this week’s Quickfire Challenge, the chefs must “catch” shellfish from a murky tank in 30 seconds and prepare a dish using their haul in 30 minutes.

Crayfish go flying. Hung takes more than his fair share. Tre’s net gives out on him and he ends up with a rather sorry-looking catch.

Everyone seems to be talking about the conch—what they’ll do with it and how to work with it. Seems like a lot of work for a 30-minute challenge.

Dale sums it up nicely, if not eloquently: “We have half an hour to come up with a great shellfish dish, and I don’t really have time to dick around with a conch.”

Heh, heh. He said conch.

Micah proceeds to attack said conch with kitchen shears. Howie attempts the obvious: ceviche. Brian subscribes to a “less is more” approach, preparing a simple dish of steamed shellfish in white wine.

Dale whips up a spicy Italian sausage with tomato sauce, topped with a sunny egg. Though he incorporates scallops into the sausage, his is probably the farthest thing from a seafood dish that any of the 13 chefs present, and this worries us. (Not sticking to the parameters of the challenge cost Sandee last week, after all.) But this week’s guest judge, Alfred Portale, chef and owner of the Gotham Bar and Grill in New York, doesn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. He thinks it has good flavor.

Bottom three honors go to Camille (who?), Tre (surprising) and Micah (not surprising). Camille’s tea-heavy flavors are overpowering. Tre’s proportions are off. And Micah’s conch salad is just not right.

Brian’s simple preparation of steamed shellfish wins, giving him immunity.

Next up: Elimination Challenge. The chefs must update much-loved family dinner classics like tuna casserole and sloppy joes, creating modern, lower cholesterol meals for their guests. They have $75 and 30 minutes to shop before cooking for one hour, on location, for two generations of members at the Miami Elks Lodge.

Dale reminds us that his cooking style is based in reinventing classic dishes; we think this challenge should be a walk in the park for him. He plans to draw on his Russian-Lithuanian heritage to create a twist on chicken and dumplings. Instead of doughy dumplings, he’ll play on a Lithuanian dish of pierogi-like pockets filled with chicken.

Then we see him at the market with a box of instant potatoes in his hand.

It’s on. Local chef Dale Levitski came out with knives a-blazin’ in tonight’s “Top Chef” premiere. But did he make the first cut? Read on for a recap. But first, here it is by the numbers:

Mohawks: 2
“Gotta have passion” tattoos: 1
Glad commercials: 3
False testicles: 1
Arrogant, foul-mouthed New York chefs: 1
Chefs remaining: 14

SPOILER ALERT!

Here’s what went down:

Within minutes of arriving, the chefs are presented with their first quick-fire challenge: create an amuse bouche using only ingredients from the buffet they’ve been grazing while getting acquainted.

Our boy Dale whips up an amuse of beef tenderloin wrapped with blue cheese, grape and sliced radish. Apparently having a Chicago-inspired W.W.G.D. (What Would Grant Do?) moment, he presents it on an herbed utensil.

Kindly, Tom says nothing about the awkward sprig of rosemary wrapped around the fork. He does, however, proclaim Dale’s choice of blue cheese “a little too aggressive for a first bite.” Dale lands in the bottom three. He’s never really at risk, though: We knew the moment we saw Clay’s disaster-in-a-Granny-Smith-apple that the sweet but in-over-his-head Southerner would spare everyone else the humiliation of finishing last in the season’s first quick-fire challenge.

The gang heads off to check out their fabulous digs at the Fountainbleau. Ooh, ahh. Season 3 is set in Miami.

Next morning, everyone gathers in what we will likely refer to as the Kenmore Pro Kitchen several times throughout this season. But this is not the Kenmore Pro Kitchen. Someone has slipped in and replaced all of the Kenmore appliances with GE Monogram hardware.

In the GE Monogram Kitchen, the chefs learn that they will be working with exotic proteins—geoduck, black chicken, abalone, eel and the like. They’ll choose what they’ll work with based on the numbered knives they draw.

Dale draws knife No. 15. There are 15 contestants. Things do not look good for our hometown hero.

Are you ready, “Top Chef” fans? It’s almost time to settle in on the couch with a bowl of popcorn (we’ll take ours with white truffle oil and a nice, buttery chardonnay, if you don’t mind) and let the slicing and dicing begin. Season 3 kicks off at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

Though we’ll miss some of our favorite Season 2 personalities (especially Elroy Jetson, er, we mean Marcel), we’re excited to finally see some local representation on the show—namely, Dale Levitski, the 34-year-old hot shot who’s worked in more Chicago kitchens than we can count. Word is, Dale makes his mark in the first episode … we’re just not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

While you’re waiting for 9 p.m. to roll around, we’ve got two questions for you:

1. Have you read our interview with Dale yet? If not, what are you waiting for? He dishes on everything from taste-testing Season 2 champ Ilan’s food to proving himself in the “Top Chef” kitchen.

2. Mohawk, faux hawk, no hawk? Discuss.

Be sure to check back after the show for a recap and some lively discussion of the episode. We’ll be blogging—and keeping close tabs on Dale’s kitchen capers—every week this season.

Yes, sometimes it snows in April. (Hey, isn’t that Prince song from 1986?) And, yes, we’d rather it didn’t. But just in case the weather doesn’t break this weekend, we’ve got a solid backup plan: Park it in front of the big screen at the 23rd Annual Chicago Latino Film Festival. The 12-day fest boats a lineup of more than 100 shorts and features from around the world. Full schedule: latinoculturalcenter.org/Filmfest.