Top Chef (Season 2)

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The second season of Top Chef began airing on Bravo on October 18, 2006. Padma Lakshmi took over as host, with Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons returning as judges. Filming began in Westwood, near UCLA in Los Angeles, on August 10, 2006. The number of contestants expanded from 12 to 15. The winning recipe from each week's episode is featured on Bravo's Top Chef website and prepared by Season 1 contestant Lee Anne Wong in a web video called The Wong Way to Cook.

Contents

[edit] Host & judges

[edit] Permanent

[edit] Guest judges

[edit] Contestants

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Eliminated or withdrawn from competition


Still competing (alphabetical order)

[edit] Elimination Challenge Win Tally

[edit] Contestants with more than one win

  • Elia Aboumrad, Betty Fraser & Ilan Hall, all with two wins.

[edit] Contestants with one win

  • Frank Terzoli (eliminated), with one win.
  • Sam Talbot, with one win.

[edit] Contestants with no win, and eliminated

  • Otto Borsich, Marisa Churchill, Carlos Fernandez, Josie Smith-Malave, Emily Sprissler, Mia Gaines-Alt & Suyai Steinhauer, all with no win.

[edit] Contestants with no win, and still competing

  • Cliff Crooks, Michael Midgley, & Marcel Vigneron, all with no win.

[edit] Episodes

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Each episode includes two challenges. The Quickfire Challenge is a short, simple challenge with a varying reward each week. The Elimination Challenge is a more complex challenge that determines who goes home. One or more guest judges join the show each week to evaluate both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges. Each week's elimination is announced in a segment called "Judges' Table."

For a summary table of Elimination Challenges (in development) see the Talk page

[edit] Episode 1: Into the Fire

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create a flambé dish in a limited amount of time. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
    • WINNER: Sam.
  • Elimination Challenge: Prepare a dish with strange ingredients to be served to the other Top Chef contestants.
    • WINNER: Ilan. ELIMINATED: Suyai.
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons; and Harold Dieterle (Quickfire & Elimination Challenges).
  • First aired October 18, 2006

[edit] Episode 2: Eastern Promise

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create a sushi dish in a limited amount of time. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
    • WINNER: Cliff.
  • Elimination Challenge: Contestants split into Team Vietnam and Team Korea; prepare two dishes using flavors of the team's country to serve at a charity fundraiser.
    • WINNER: Team Vietnam and Betty. ELIMINATED: Otto.
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons; and Hiroshi Shima (Quickfire Challenge); and Ming Tsai (Elimination Challenge).
  • First aired October 25, 2006
  • Elimination Challenge Prize: A limited-edition Kyocera KT-300-HIP Kyotop 8.25" ceramic sashimi knife[1].
  • Otto voluntarily resigned from the show. As Team Korea was bringing supplies back to the kitchen, Marisa heard Otto saying that they got a case of lychees without paying for them. She later revealed this to Colicchio, who made Otto take them back to the store. Otto returned to complete the Elimination Challenge, but announced he was leaving the competition during the "Judges' Table" segment.

[edit] Episode 3: Food for the People

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create an original ice cream flavor and serve it at the Redondo Seaside Lagoon. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
    • WINNER: Cliff.
  • Elimination Challenge: Create a dish updating a "childhood classic" that can be served to adults, then serve it at a fire house.
    • WINNER: Betty. ELIMINATED: Emily.
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons; and Stephen Bugarelli (Elimination Challenge).
  • First aired November 1, 2006
  • Elimination Challenge Prize: The winning entree will be featured on the menu of T.G.I. Friday's

[edit] Episode 4: Less is More

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create an amuse bouche dish using $10 of ingredients from a vending machine. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
    • WINNER: Carlos.
  • Elimination Challenge: Create a meal not to exceed 500 calories to serve at a camp for diabetic and overweight children.
    • WINNER: Team Black and Frank. ELIMINATED: None.
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons; and Suzanne Goin (Quickfire & Elimination Challenges).
  • First aired November 8, 2006
  • Elimination Challenge Prize: A cookbook from the featured guest judge and an opportunity to collaborate on a menu at the guest judge's restaurant.
  • Head Judge Tom Colicchio announced that no contestant would be eliminated in this episode. At the judges' table, the losing teams made allegations regarding the "bending" or "breaking" of the rules in the elimination challenge by a member or members of the winning team. As a result, Colicchio stated that all the contestants would remain "on probation."

[edit] Episode 5: Social Service

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish using offal, the leftover parts of animals. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
    • WINNER: Sam.
  • Elimination Challenge: Working in teams of two to create a six course lunch for Jennifer Coolidge and 60 of her guests using only ingredients already available in the kitchen.
    • WINNER: Ilan. ELIMINATED: Marisa and Josie.
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons; and Michelle Bernstein (Quickfire & Elimination Challenges).
  • First aired November 15, 2006
  • Elimination Challenge Prize: Opportunity to work with Bernstein at the Sagamore Hotel in Miami on the South Beach Food and Wine Festival.

[edit] Episode 6: Thanksgiving

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish using three different canned foods. Prize: Skip the elimination challenge altogether.
    • WINNERS: Sam, Mia, Ilan, Cliff, Frank.
  • Elimination Challenge: All five who did not win the Quickfire Challenge must work together to make a cutting edge Thanksgiving dinner for the judges and other Top Chef contestants, using the kitchen in the loft.
    • WINNER: Elia. ELIMINATED: Carlos.
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons; and Anthony Bourdain (Elimination Challenge).
  • First aired November 22, 2006

[edit] Episode 7: The Raw And The Cooked

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create a raw food entrée using fresh ingredients from the Redondo Beach Farmers' Market. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
    • WINNER: Marcel.
  • Elimination Challenge: Prepare breakfast for athletes. However, the cooking environment and available tools are unknown to contestants before their arrival at the challenge. Ended up cooking for surfers at dawn on the beach using only a fire pit and basic kitchen supplies.
    • WINNER: Elia. ELIMINATED: Frank.
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons; and Raphael Lunetta (Quickfire & Elimination challenge)
  • First aired: December 6, 2006

[edit] Episode 8: Shotgun Holiday Party

  • Quickfire Challenge: Create a Bailey's Irish Cream mix drink and accompanying dish. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
    • WINNER: Cliff
  • Elimination Challenge: Cater the Los Angeles magazine holiday party on the Warner Bros. movie lot.
    • WINNER: Team Orange and Sam, ELIMINATED: Mia
  • Judges: Tom Colicchio, Kristin Woodward and Ted Allen (standing in for Gail Simmons).
  • Elimination Challenge prize: a 20-piece set of Global knives.
  • Mia withdrew during the Judges' Table segment, believing that she was saving Elia from elimination.
  • Teaser advertisements for this episode had a cameo of season one contestant Stephen Asprinio, but he is not shown in the aired episode.
  • First aired December 13, 2006.

[edit] Episode 9: The Magnificent Seven

Scheduled to air on January 3, 2007

[edit] Episode 10: Reunion

Scheduled to air on January 10, 2007

[edit] Episode 11: Seduction in Santa Barbara

Scheduled to air on January 17, 2007

[edit] Episode 12: Finale, Part 1

Scheduled to air on January 24, 2007

[edit] Episode 12: Finale, Part 2

Scheduled to air on January 31, 2007

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Contestant and judge sites

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