Eric Ripert: Fine nose indeed.

As we whittle away at the remaining contestants and home in on the end of Top Chef’s brief New York rendezvous, it’s become clear just how far we’ve come from that apple-peeling exercise on Governors Island and the daunting task of remembering 17 people’s names. Not that this season hasn’t had its highlights…but for fuck’s sake, where is our beautiful city? We’ve yet to see the Union Square Greenmarket. That said, last night’s Top Chef was nothing if not a field day for Eric Ripert fans. The honored Le Bernardin toque was there with Padma to greet our six chefs for the quickfire—a three-round fish fillet tournament (sponsored by the Ocean, now with more man-made pollution!).

For the first round, everyone had to fillet a sardine in five minutes, using an example by the Ripper for comparison. Carla and Jamie failed miserably, but not before Carla could adopt a sassy accent and charm Eric with her giant eyes. Arctic char was second, and Hosea, who works in a fish restaurant, owned it, while Fabio botched his example and Leah just plain gave up—another possible Top Chef first. This left Hosea and Stefan to battle it out over freshwater eel in the final round. Here we learned that Stefan has skinned many an eel; “It’s what we do in Germany.” Oh? We could’ve sworn that “what you do” in Germany is read Goethe and frolic in the nude. For his exemplary eel fillets, Stefan took the win.

The chefs then headed to Le Bernardin for lunch, where everyone except Jamie yoinked their pants over Eric and his food, as they feasted on a six-course tasting. Jamie’s “to be honest, I’m actually bored with this food—it doesn’t inspire me” claim was a little tough to swallow considering the context of the meal. C’mon, Jamie, you’re eating at Le Bernardin with the man himself! When the meal was over, it was revealed that much like last season’s Le Cirque elimination challenge, the chefs would have to replicate one of the dishes they ate.

After they picked their dishes, each chef was allotted two hours to figure out the recipe, at which point Ripert came around to taste and offer advice on how to fix their mistakes. The judges took their seats, with Colicchio mentioning the sheer intimidation that comes with cooking in such a storied kitchen as being a very real factor in the outcome of the challenge.

The plates came out side-by-side, giving the judges ample opportunity to nit-pick over the chefs’ various flaws. Though no one nailed it, Fabio’s snapper was a very close representation, as was Stefan’s lobster and Carla’s escolar. However, Leah, Hosea and Jamie all significantly misfired on their offerings. Leah was unable to figure out how the elements of her dish came together, and the result was an entrée marred by overpowering ginger. Jamie’s black bass was cooked well, but her celery had been reduced so much that it was compared to a salt lick. And Hosea brought shame to the Rosenberg name (and his pedigree) by botching the za’atar crust on his monkfish—to his credit, he did ace the sauce.

At the judges’ table, Fabio, Stefan and Carla were all praised for different aspects of their dishes, before Stefan was crowned the winner and invited by Ripert to stage at Le Bernardin for a week. That left Hosea, Leah and Jamie to defend themselves on the chopping block. Colicchio seemed to be pleased with Hosea’s explanation that he’d never worked with za’atar before, but knew exactly all of the mistakes he’d made. Leah fumbled her excuse and Tom took her to task for the quickfire challenge, flat-out asking her, “Do you want to give up?” Jamie too acknowledged her mistakes, but in the end, her ruined celery was deemed reason enough to send her home. Kind of a strange decision, if you ask us, since Hosea’s fish was botched and one would think that the protein on a plate is more important than its accompaniments. Either way, it seems nothing can stop the formidable love train that is the Leah/Hosea express.—Zachary Feldman

Next week: Fabio cuts himself, and Lidia Bastianich and Jacques Pepin rock it old-school!

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