In an attempt to reveal both early nerves and early swagger, Chef Tom Colicchio kicks off the fifth season of Bravo's "Top Chef" (premieres 9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12) with a particularly brutal Quickfire Challenge (that will also result in one cheftestant being eliminated): Peel 15 apples using a paring knife! (Good luck not cutting your fingers off, kids.) The first group to finish without hacking up the apples is safe, and the bottom group must move on to a second, even more harrowing challenge.
Launching the whole season with an apple-peeling challenge feels a little uncreative and arbitrary. Do the judges really care about knife skills so much that they'd eliminate someone based on them in the first few minutes of the show? On the other hand, don't knife skills reflect, in part, how well a chef will handle the pressures of a chaotic kitchen?
Sure enough, the cockiest cheftestant finishes his apples with a snicker and a shrug, like he can't help it that he's surrounded by a herd of intolerable amateurs. This is exactly the attitude that we've seen in other winners, from Harold Dieterle to Hung Huynh. I'm willing to bet good money that this guy (to remain unnamed) will end up in the final five.
In contrast, the same cheftestants shown tripping over their own self-doubting words as the challenge began are struggling to finish their apples, and wind up moving on to the next round: Dice those apples into perfect, tiny little cubes -- or, for the trained culinary artists among you, brunoise them! And the third round? Make a quick entree that incorporates the apples you just diced. Well, at least even the worst slicers and dicers can still save their necks with a little smart cooking -- if they can keep their wits about them, that is.
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/review/2008/11/12/top_chef/
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