"Top Chef" Sizzles in Chicago for Season Four

 

Bravo’s Top Chef: Season Four is based in Chicago and I couldn’t be happier. Not only are they showcasing my wonderful town, but two of the contestants and some of the judges hail from the Windy City, giving them national exposure.

 

Last year around this time, I went to a great little seafood restaurant in my ’hood for my birthday dinner. It was called Scylla and it was located walking distance from my house in a converted Bucktown cottage. It wasn’t very big so it was often hard to get a reservation, but the food was great. Named for a sea monster of Greek mythology, Scylla specialized in seafood, and was helmed by a young chef named Stephanie Izard.

 

Sometime around mid-summer 2007, I was surprised to hear Scylla would be closing. The place had been doing wonderfully and always got great reviews. My husband and I went there for dinner one last time in August, just before they closed. When we asked our waiter why they were shutting down, he said that the chef, Stephanie, wanted to take a break and travel, maybe relocate to Seattle or somewhere else, and he mentioned she was hoping to be chosen to be a contestant on Top Chef. Well, sure enough, on the season opener two weeks ago there was Stephanie as one of the contestants. So far, she’s doing pretty well, but more on that later.

 

The other Chicagoan contestant is (or was) Valerie. She’s currently a personal chef, but has worked at some of the top restaurants in Chicago along the way, including two, Spring and Hot Chocolate, that are a stone’s throw from Stephanie’s former Scylla. Stephanie, Valerie and fellow Season Four contestant Dale all worked together several years ago at Spring. Stephanie also worked at a Chicago spot called La Tache with Season Three finalist Dale Levitski, and they are still close friends

 

Each episode involves a “quickfire challenge,” a rapid one-on-one that pits each chef against all the others; and an elimination challenge that so far has involved pairs or teams.

 

Since the show is set in Chicago, it’s only appropriate that the first quickfire involved deep-dish pizza. The contestants were taken to the original Pizzeria Uno downtown, allegedly the birthplace of the Chicago deep dish. (Although as in many legends of this type there are some who dispute that and others who claim the distinction.)

 

While the contestants noshed and got to know each other, head judges Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi showed up to announce the first challenge. Each chef would have to make a deep-dish pizza, putting his or her own spin on it, and serve it at the “house” of first episode guest judge Rocco DiSpirito.

 

When the crew of chefs arrived at the house with their pizzas, Rocco greeted them at the door, and boy, did that house look familiar. Here in Chicago, many of the northside city houses built in the last 10 years look similar: all brick, tall-skinny boxes that fit on our standard city lots. Some are grander than others, and this one definitely is. After a little digging, I learned that it is about a mile and a half from where I live, in the neighborhood where I do most of my weekend shopping. I promise myself I’ll buzz by there the next time I go to the grocery store.

 

The pizzas the chef contestants made ranged from the traditional–sausage, mushrooms, tomato sauce--to the somewhat bizarre (peaches and a sweet tea sauce?). The judges selected their least and most favorites among the bunch. They also told the contestants that this house was NOT Rocco’s (no surprise, doesn’t he live in New York?) but is theirs for the duration of the competition.

 

The elimination challenge involved the chefs dividing into pairs for a head-to-head on classic dishes like Eggs Benedict, Shrimp Scampi, Chicken Piccata and lasagne. Nimma, the chef who got eliminated, served Shrimp Scampi that was so salty the judges could barely stomach it. Stephanie won this first elimination challenge with a spin on Duck L’Orange that was prepared in a spring roll style and looked phenomenal.

 

This week’s episode covered week two, and involved a quickfire where the chefs made a dish in which they were allowed only five ingredients, using things they found in the Green City Market that sets up in Lincoln Park from June through October. The elimination challenge involved teams having three hours to prep 200 appetizers for a fundraiser at Lincoln Park Zoo. Each team had an animal name and had to base their appetizers on ingredients found in that animal’s diet. Team Penguin had to use seafood; Team Lion, meats; Team Bear, veggies, and so on. One team made mushrooms that looked so ugly the team agreed not to serve them. But Nikki, the team member responsible for them, served them anyway, trying to doctor them up with cheese. It didn’t help.

 

The worst sin, however, were Valerie’s blinis. She had decided to make them in advance, feeling that they wouldn’t have the time nor the necessary set-up to make fresh blinis to order at the event. As even a casual cook would probably deduce, re-warming pancake-like foods will not go well. They’ll either turn out soggy or rubbery. They were soggy and the topping she put on them was not fully cooked. Crunchy rutabaga on a soggy pancake… not so great. Good-bye, Valerie.

 

Stephanie remains to carry the Chicago flag, and I’m reading rumors that she makes it pretty far. It’s got to be difficult having shot these episodes so long ago (they were in production throughout September and October of last year) to not be able to talk about what happened or to glow or whine about how far you did or didn’t get. But interviews I’ve seen done with Stephanie, Valerie and last season’s Dale don’t spill all the beans.

 

I’m just going to enjoy the ride and be proud of the locales and the locals that show up as the weeks progress. In the promos for next week, they reveal that Rick Bayless, head chef and owner of the fantastic Frontera Grill and Topolobompo Mexican restaurants, will be the guest judge. Rick lives around the corner from me and I walk my dog past his house all the time. My husband likes to yell “COOK, RICK, COOK” toward his yard whenever he walks by and for that I apologize. Boys will be boys, I’m afraid. Frontera and Topo occupy one large restaurant space downtown and are two of my all-time favorites. Frontera is the casual side of the house, and Topo is the white-tablecloth offering. Both offer fantastic and authentic Mexican cuisine and the best margaritas. Count on this week’s elimination challenge having a Mexican flair and for Rick to be a fair but exacting judge. Watch along with me and see my city shine.