Top Chef (Season 6, Episode 9) – “Restaurant Wars”

Quickfire:

This week’s guest judge is Rick Moonen, chef/owner of RM Seafood. The challenge is about testing teamwork. It’s the first tag team cook-off. Knifes are drawn to determine teams, but as the knives are drawn they’re all blank with the exception of Jennifer’s whose knife says “1st choice” and Michael V.’s whose knife says “2nd Choice”. This means Jennifer and Michael get to pick the teams. Jennifer picks Kevin, Mike I., and Laurine, while Michael picks Bryan, Eli, and Robin. Each team will cook one dish in 40 minutes, but the chefs have to tag team in 10 minute intervals… the chefs not cooking will be blind folded and they can’t talk to each other.

The team that wins gets an advantage in the elimination challenge and they also get 10K in cash to divide. It’s a tough challenge but both teams seem to pull it together fairly well. The red team has a pan roasted NY strip with whipped miso avocado puree & pickled vegetables. The blue team does a pan seared sablefish with sautéed mushrooms, shiitake broth & radish salad. Rick picks the blue team as the winners.

Elimination:

It’s time for restaurant wars! Rick Moonen will be giving up his restaurant RM Seafood for the challenge. The restaurant has two different floors & two different kitchens. The blue team gets the advantage of picking the kitchen they want to work in. And this year, the teams will not be responsible for the décor. Too bad… I always thought it was an interesting part of restaurant wars, getting to see the teams put together the décor in the front of house. This time it will be about the entire experience… menu, quality, front of house, service, etc. Rick also states that his restaurant is a 100% sustainable restaurant and he wants the teams to carry that through when creating their menus. Padma goes on to tell the blue team it’s a high stakes challenge. They can let their 10K ride and if they win, they’ll each get 10K. The blue team decides to let it ride. The teams head off to shop and then head back to work on names. The red team names their restaurant ReVolt, while the blue team names theirs Mission.

The next day the teams arrive and they have 3 hours to get ready. Blue team heads upstairs to the fine dining, while red team will take the bottom floor which is more casual. And the cooking begins.

The Mission menu will be Asparagus & six minute egg, arctic char tartare, bouillabaisse consommé, seared trout, pork three ways, and lamb with carrot jam.

The ReVolt menu is chicken & calamari pasta, smoked arctic char, duo of beef, cod & billi-bi sauce, pear pithivier, and chocolate ganache.

Eli and Laurine head off to get dressed up and work the front of house. Times up and the restaurants start to fill up with guests.

The judges visit the red team first and most of the dishes appear to go over fairly well… the judges even make a few positive comments about Eli working the front of house.

Next is the blue team and the first comment Tom Colicchio makes is there are no desserts on the menu. Good or bad, it’s hard to say what he’s thinking. First course gets served, but the judges don’t seem all that thrilled. Then things get a little slow… there’s no explanation about the dishes (until the judges ask for it)… and more negative comments start rolling in. Not looking good for the blue team.

Its end of service and the comment cards start getting filled out.

On to judges table and Padma calls in the Revolt team members telling them they are the winners. Toms says it’s the best restaurant wars in 6 years. Rick says that Michael is the winner and gives him an autographed book, and Padma gives him a 10K chip. Michael says he wants to split it with his team mates. Good call Michael.

Time for the losing team to head in for judging. In my view it’s Laurine who’ll be packing her knives. The judges start asking questions. Laurine says she chose to work front of house. They each explain their dish, telling what they think worked or didn’t work. As expected, the judges seem to throw a little more negativity to Laurine and her poor job working front of house.

After the judges discuss everything they call the chefs back in and send Laurine packing.