Top Chef Review: Super Serious Singaporean Semi-Finals

For the first time ever, the semi-finals are being held internationally in Singapore. Looking at all the shots of local street food is making me hungry! As the chefs reunite, they meet this episode’s guest judge, Singaporean chef KF Seetoh.

He takes them around a street food center where they sample local cuisine and observe how they are cooked. The chefs taste stir-fried noodle, Hainanese chicken rice, chili crab, and cuttlefish. At the end of the day they meet Padma who’s waiting to give them their quickfire challenge.

Using a wok as their cooking tool, the chefs are to create their own version of Singaporean street food. All the ingredients are local and to make things harder are all labeled in Chinese. For the first time ever as well the winner of the quickfire gets immunity during the elimination round and that means a spot in the final three.

Angelo appears to have the edge given his love affair with Asia, but the winner turns out to be Ed with his Chinese noodles with lobster, cockles, bean sprouts, and Chinese broccoli.

I am finally impressed with the chefs. I like that for the most part they were taken out of their comfort zone and thrown into an incredibly humid area on the other side of the world and made to cook food that is delicious in its original form. Admittedly I’m biased because I do love Asian street food.

The Asian cuisine theme continues in the elimination round as the chefs are to work as a team to present a cohesive Southeast Asian inspired menu to a party that Food and Wine Magazine’s Dana Cowin is hosting for eighty guests.

Originally they were only going to cook one dish each but after Tom’s strong suggestion, the chefs end up making two dishes instead. Ed takes a turn for the shady when he tells Tom that he was always planning to do two when previously the night before he kept saying he only wanted to do one. Despite the unexpected turn, they all create a great second dish.

The atmosphere in the kitchen is manic and intense. Kelly ends up cutting her finger and Kevin’s cockles takes forever to open. Ed, who didn’t bother me the entire season, is acting like a big sarcastic ass to annoy Angelo as much as possible.

There is some trouble with the wait staff but needless to say the judges were happy with all of the dishes. This is reflected during judges’ table when the criticisms were over small details. They felt that Angelo’s soup was too strong but his lamb tartare was perfect. The fish in Kelly’s cucumber soup was chopped weirdly but they loved the soup itself. Kevin’s tapioca congee could have used a crunch factor but was executed wonderfully. The rice in Ed’s dish should have been deep fried to bring out the rest of his duo of pork. His banana fritters rocked the socks off the judges and he wins the round.

My favorite dish was actually Kevin’s 63-degree farm egg, pearl tapioca and radish condiment. The tapioca looked so delicious and I thought his take on congee was very creative and different. So I’m actually glad that he makes it to the final three.

Kelly is sent home and Angelo breaks down in tears because he is so relieved to make it to the finale. I wish that she had stuck around instead of him, but I admit that he has made it more entertaining for me to watch. Just as the three finalists relax from judge’s table, Padma calls them back and then the episode ends.

I feel that we finally see the caliber of food that we should have seen all season. Even Tom said that this was the best food they’ve had since they began this competition. I guess it’s better later than none at all. Now I’m actually excited to see the finale in hopes that the three chefs continue cooking at this level. One more to go!

Season 7, Episode 13: Season Finale Part 1 (original air date September 8, 2010)

For more on Top Chef, click here. You can follow Poptimal on Twitter @poptimal.

Wednesdays at 10/9C, Bravo

Photographs courtesy of Bravo and Joan Leong.