'Top Chef: Las Vegas': Thomas Keller descends, scares the bejesus out of the chefs

 
The teasers for Wednesday night's episode of "Top Chef" revealed a nervous Kevin and a flustered Brian -- competitors that never seem to be fazed -- and then there was that (we now know erroneous) report from E! Online, swearing up and down that "a front-runner" would be booted.

But all's well in the "Top Chef" universe: The Final Four is intact, just as I (and everyone else with eyes) predicted so long ago. So congrats to Jennifer, Kevin and the Brothers Voltaggio.

Still, it could have gone very wrong. And it would have been Thomas Keller's fault.

The elimination challenge -- a mock version of the Bocuse d'Or, the culinary world's Olympic games -- was not, in my humble opinion, the most difficult challenge this group has faced. The chefs were instructed to make a protein and two fancy "garnishes" or sides. Their only restrictions were budget and a choice between either lamb or salmon as their protein.

But seeing Keller, America's most decorated chef, pop up in the kitchen to announce he'd be judging, well, everyone blanched. Indeed, each of the final five seemed to be crippled by visions of Keller waiting at the dinner table dancing in their heads. I think I actually saw Kevin blinking away tears when he revealed that Keller's "The French Laundry Cookbook" changed his life.

So how did they do? Not too well.

Live-blogging 'Top Chef: Las Vegas': That's one 'sad velvet painting' of a dish

Tonight's "Top Chef" redux is being written as a running commentary. So away we go:

The episode starts with Bryan missing his kid. Jennifer's missing last week's Mike I. Cabin fever is at an all-time high. But Jennifer, at least, gives us this hopeful line: "I should just stop worrying about everybody else and really just start worrying about myself." Is she finally going to pull it together and go back to making boys cry in the kitchen? Fingers crossed!

The Quickfire takes the remaining chefs to the Venetian, where they get a call from Padma, who is in a robe, and in bed. She wants some room service, and fast! So does her bedmate Nigella Lawson. (Eli offers that Nigella's a "legit" cook. Yes, thank you, Eli, and might I add she can also cook the pants off of you. Now go take a shower.)

Of course, the clashing Eli and Robin are put together to cook in the kitchen first. Eli's doing a corn beef reuben and a thousand island hollandaise. Nigella seems to be a fan of this, dubbing it perfect hangover food. Robin, as usual, takes on too much (well, too much for Robin). "Too much" being a blintz with goat cheese, pineapple and blueberries. No immediate comment from the ladies.

Next comes Kevin and Mike V., who is first pissed that Robin left the station he has to use a mess, so when she comes in, they butt heads. Because in every episode, someone has to butt heads with her. Me? I'm tired of seeing it. We get it, producers: No one likes Robin! Enough already! Mike V.'s Huevos Cubana seems to go over well with the Padma and Nigella. Kevin, who we didn't see at all because we had to watch Mike V. and Robin go at each other, cooked steak and eggs with various beautiful components. 

'Top Chef: Las Vegas': The rise and fall of Jennifer

What is going on with Jennifer? When this season of "Top Chef" started, she was a the blond dynamo from Eric Ripert's kitchen, boasting about making boys cry with her sergeant-general-style authority and wowing the judges with her sophisticated dishes.

But something -- and I haven't figured out exactly what yet -- happened to Jennifer over the course of the competition. She's retreated into her oversize chef's jacket, scared of messing up challenge after challenge. On Wednesday, she found herself on the bottom again next to two people she could easily trounce in better days.

So she didn't get the eggplant she wanted -- so what? That's hardly an excuse for making a dish that, to this viewer, looked like eggplant, some fennel and sliced tomato with some sauce. I'm not vegetarian (and I'm not too veggie friendly, as previously discussed), but even I know that I'd expect more if the contestants were given two hours to work.

There wasn't even a real curveball in this episode -- the chefs found out they'd be meat-free with two hours to go and not having prepped anything for the meaty dishes in their minds. They were working with clean slates.

Perhaps Tom is right: After lasting this long in the competition, some chefs get cabin fever and go batty. Jennifer's been sick; she's stuck in a house full of frat boys. But whatever her deal is, she needs to fix it fast. Kevin and Mike V. have got the right approach: All confidence, all the time. It's a competition after all. No guts, no glory. Increasingly, I'm thinking the end will be a Kevin-Mike V. showdown -- and I can think of nothing more exciting (unless Jennifer can Pull. It. Together.)

As for Robin and Mike I. ...

Bravo orders 'Top Chef' spinoff 'Just Desserts'

On the heels of news that Bravo had renewed "Top Chef Masters" for a second season, the network has ordered another "Top Chef" spinoff, the sweet-centered "Just Desserts."

The new series, which will pit pastry chefs against one another, will air sometime next year. 

Desserts have long been the weak point of "Top Chef's" entree-minded contestants, Bravo's executive VP and general manager, Frances Berwick, told Variety. "Their Achilles' heel is usually the desserts," she said. "As this has gone on, we've been thinking that it would be fun to do a 'Top Chef' with experienced pastry chefs. We've had a few pastry chefs on 'Top Chef,' but they haven't gone too far. It's just a different skill."

A host and judges for "Just Desserts" have not yet been named. Magical Elves will produce.

By adding a third edition of "Top Chef" to the schedule, Berwick said that Bravo hopes to have some sort of "Top Chef" presence on the network's schedule year-round. "We're finding people really love this franchise, and there seems to be no end to the interest in it," she said.

-- Denise Martin

'Top Chef: Las Vegas': 'Restaurant Wars' makes you sweat

Because for a second there, it looked as though one of the contestants in the Final Four might be going home. Didn't Jennifer's eyes look weepy during her interviews? No one was happy with Kevin's undercooked lamb, either. Can you imagine the horror of watching Robin, Laurine, Eli and Mike I. outlast one of those two?

Thankfully, it was just a close call. Dead Eyes went home for being, well, a pretty lifeless presence over the whole season. Before the season Tom Colicchio said that the "Las Vegas" competitors were the best the show has seen. I'd say we must have been weighing The Final Four's output heavily when he said that. I don't think they've been blown away by anyone outside of that group really.

But enough about my fears. I've discussed the Quickfire in detail already, so let's get to the night's highlight: Voltaggio vs. Voltaggio! 

Exclusive: Bravo renews 'Top Chef Masters' for Season 2

Get ready for another throwdown among culinary greats: Bravo has ordered a second season of "Top Chef Masters."

The first-season finale of the "Top Chef" spinoff drew 2.6 million viewers and averaged 2.2 million over its 10-episode run. Bravo said "Masters" ranks as the network's highest-rated reality competition series debut.

A Season 2 lineup of chef'testants has not been set, but host Kelly Choi and the show's three judges -- Gael Greene, James Oseland and Jay Rayner -- will be back.

New episodes are expected to debut some time in 2010.

Chicago's Rick "King of Mexican cuisine" Bayless was crowned the show's inaugural winner after defeating a lineup of top competitors including finalists Hubert Keller and Michael Chiarello.

-- Denise Martin

Related:

'Top Chef Masters': A chat with winner Rick Bayless
'Top Chef: Las Vegas' preview: Quick, what's scarier? Blindfolded chefs or Restaurant Wars
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'Top Chef: Las Vegas' preview: Quick, what's scarier: Blindfolded chefs or Restaurant Wars?

"Top Chef" fans, you are in for a treat. Bravo was kind enough to sneak me an advance look at tonight's Restaurant Wars episode, and you can expect shakeups galore. All of them for the better. Please note: What follows has minor spoilers. Proceed at your discretion.

Rick Moonen (you watched him implode and then make one of the greatest comebacks ever on "Top Chef Masters") is in to guest judge the series' first-ever tag-team cook-off. The remaining eight contestants will split into two teams, each which will be responsible for creating a single dish relay-race style -- only without communication and with blindfolds.

Each chef will get 10-minute chunks of time to cook. While the first chef is cooking, the other three must wait blindfolded -- the blindfold doesn't come off until it is that person's turn. No talking about the dish beforehand or otherwise.

As Kevin put it: "This Quickfire might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You have nothing! Basically, you're going to take off your blindfold, you're going to run to a station, you're going to see a lot of mise en place and then decide what the next step is to create this dish. That's just ludicrous. It's crazy."

As a tease, I'll say that Jennifer goes first for her team, and she pulls cod and scallops, preps for an Asian-style sauce and heats a pot of olive oil. The plan she hopes her team will pick up on is to olive-oil poach the fish. On the other side, Eli begins grilling strip steaks and sautéing the mushrooms. Basic. He hopes his colleagues can go from there. 

He's also nervous about a certain teammate, second in line for the relay, whom he declares somewhere "East of Mars" in terms of style. (I realize that's a dead giveaway.)

'Top Chef: Las Vegas': Oh ye of little faith

Padma's reckless overuse of oversized accessories -- that belt with those boots! the hat! -- nearly distracted me entirely from watching Ash take nosedive after nosedive, even after last week's reprieve. But really, that hat! (Sadly, she had removed it for photographers and all we can see is the belt -- and without the boots. Meh.)

No surprise to see him go home, a judges' decision I suspect based not on his clammy cold pork, but on his lack of brains. Really. Ash is nice, but not too bright. His calling Mike V. the culinary world's Picasso, a man he'd gladly "wash paintbrushes" for, will go down as one of most entertaining and stupid moments in history. Halfway through Wednesday night's episode, he informs viewers that, oh, Mike I. had a really great idea -- Ash shouldn't do what he originally planned! Ash should serve cold pork! Just because! Of course, the pork is lackluster.

But what does him in, again, are those speeches. "Oh Charlie Palmer, I didn't mean to serve you cold pork. What I really wanted to give you was braised pork with cheesy polenta, a perfect pairing with the pinot!" Palmer's shock would have matched my own had I not fully expected Ash to say something that would reveal just how clueless he is.

You should have outlasted Robin, my friend. But then again, maybe not.

'Top Chef': Ash falls on his sword, but someone else goes home

Thank you, Ash, for giving me something to write about this week.

Had it not been for your strange outburst of Mike V. worship, I'd be rattling on about how it's no surprise to see Jennifer, Kevin and Bryan on top. Again. The only difference this week is that Mike V., who I maintain will be in the Final Four with the other three, found himself on the bottom -- and, really, through little fault of his own.

Something tells me that had his pancetta-wrapped halibut been cooked properly, had the power not gone out, had he been one of the few chefs to have his own stove-top burner, he would not have been on the bottom.

But he was, and so was his partner, Ash, who early in the challenge decided he was OK taking a backseat to the wonder of working next to the tanner of the Brothers Voltaggio. Mike V. is in fact the more creative and skilled chef of the two. But in a competition, no one could have predicted Ash to throw himself under the bus by proclaiming Mike V. the Picasso of the "Top Chef" kitchen.

Asked by Padma if he minded playing second fiddle to Mike, Ash replied: "It's sort of asking if you mind washing paintbrushes for Picasso, in my opinion. Frankly, I think Michael is amazing and I don't mind washing paintbrushes."

Whoa. Tom is floored, and not in a good way. Mike V. is humbled beyond all belief. At this point, I think "See ya, Ash! Nice knowing you." The episode even included a bit showing Ash deciding to set the dinner table while Mike V. was still cooking because Picasso over there had so fully taken control of the cooking. And yet, sending Ash home (this week) was not to be!

Bravo renews 'Top Chef' for Season 7, launches nationwide casting call

Bravo has ordered up another helping of  "Top Chef."

Renewal is hardly surprising: The sixth season, "Top Chef: Las Vegas," is averaging a strong 3.3-million viewers (2.3-million adults ages 18 to 49) on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

No word yet on a premiere date or the city in which the next season will take place.

In related news, Bravo also has set a Nov. 16 premiere date for "Chef Academy," a new reality series about  chef Jean Christophe Novelli, a Michelin and 5AA Rosette award winner, as he attempts to set up a culinary program in Los Angeles.

Casting for the new season of "Top Chef" will begin Oct. 18. More information on how to become a chef-testant after the jump: