Last night, Top Chef aired its Thanksgiving-themed episode that featured a holiday meal for the Foo Fighters--and their entourage--as the Elimination Challenge. Grant Achatz, named Best Chef in the U.S. by the James Beard Foundation last year for his Chicago restaurant Alinea, was the guest judge for both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges.
When Padma Lakshmi told the cheftestants they need to "roll" with things before the Quickfire, she wasn't kidding: The Quickfire initially required the contestants to put their own spin on a previous Top Chef recipe (from the Top Chef cookbook, natch)--but then midway through the prep, Padma and Grant announced they changed their minds and wanted soup (enter Swanson's broths product placement), using the ingredients they were already using. As former Top Chef contestant Andrew Twittered last night, "Chicken broth and tartare...awesome."
For the Elimination Challenge, they were split into two teams (Team Sexy Pants and Team Cougar) and headed to Rochester, to cook for the Foo Fighters, who said they were fans of the show and they had their share of bad Thanksgiving dinners on the road. Taking into account a number of vegetarians and their concert rider (the Smoking Gun has an old one that says "REMEMBER CAULIFLOWER BLOWS"), the chefs also had to deal with a less-than-ideal cooking environment to make food for 60 people. The prize? Getting to see the Foo Fighters perform, while the losing team cleans up.
