Episode 8 of Top Chef Canada Season 2 had the very popular Curtis Luk heading home. He was never formally trained and accomplished all his work through determination and talent. His humor will definitely be missed.
The quickfire challenge was a personal favorite: the chef skills competition. The chefs would compete in a number of rounds of exacting knife work and classic techniques. The first round had the contestants dicing shallots into 1/8-inch cuts. Xavier recounted that in his first years as a chef, he diced over 50 lbs. of shallots a week. Trista and Jonathan chefs were eliminated and the rest went on to the next part.
The second challenge was to French butcher a rack of lamb. This means to expose the rib bones ahead of the meat. Jimmy and Ryan were out this round. The third challenge was to peel grapes. David and Trevor were out this round.
The final challenge was to use their prepped ingredients from the previous rounds to create a finished dish. Xavier went with a Mediterranean style lamb while Carl went with a more contemporary feel. Carl was the winner for highlighting all the key ingredients. He won a 12-piece knife chef worth over $1000. That was certainly a far cry from the prizes on the Top Chef America.
The elimination challenge had the chefs cater the filming of an episode of Lost Girl. They would be cooking for the cast and crew, dealing with a number of food allergies. It was a team challenge with everyone working together. The chefs chose the theme of Mediterranean for the buffet.
The guest judge for this elimination challenge was renowned chef Michael Blackie.
Jonathan, David, Trevor and Carl were on the top. David was very animated in his cooking and was very engaging at the buffet. Jonathan was the winner for a pulled pork wrap. He had a vegetarian option and it allowed for
The chefs on the bottom were Jimmy, Xavier, Trista and Ryan. Jimmy had a soup that was overwhelming with truffle oil. If the Food Network competitions have taught chefs anything is to never serve judges truffle oil. With his disappointing performance last week, Jimmy was the clear choice and was sent home.
Next week has the chefs going camping in an extreme cooking challenge.
