Top Chef 2 (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Host & judges

Permanent

• Tom Colicchio (Head Judge)
• Padma Lakshmi (Host)
• Gail Simmons (Judge)

Guest judges

• Harold Dieterle, Season 1 winner. (Ep.1 Quickfire & Elimination)
• Hiroshi Shima, sushi chef. (Ep.2 Quickfire)
• Ming Tsai, chef, restaurateur and television personality. (Ep.2 Elimination)
• Stephen Bugarelli, TGIF senior executive chef. (Ep.3 Elimination)
• Suzanne Goin, chef and restaurateur. (Ep.4 Quickfire & Elimination)
• Michelle Bernstein, chef and restaurateur. (Ep.5 Quickfire & Elimination)
• Anthony Bourdain, chef, author and television personality. (Ep.6 Elimination)
• Raphael Lunetta, chef and restaurateur. (Ep.7 Quickfire & Elimination)
• Kristen Woodward, mixologist. (Ep.8 Quickfire)
• Lee Hefter, chef. (Ep.8 Elimination)
• Ted Allen, author and television personality. (Ep.8 Elimination, Ep.9 Quickfire & Elimination)
• Mike Yakura, chef. (Ep.10 Quickfire & Elimination)
• Eric Ripert, chef and restaurateur (Ep.11 Quickfire & Elimination)
• Alan Wong, chef and restaurateur. (Ep.12 Elimination)

Contestants

• Ilan Hall, age 24, New York City, New York
• Marcel Vigneron, age 26, Las Vegas, Nevada

• Suyai Steinhauer, age 29, New York City, New York - episode 1
• Otto Borsich, age 46, Las Vegas, Nevada - episode 2
• Emily Sprissler, age 30, Las Vegas, Nevada - episode 3
• Marisa Churchill, age 28, San Francisco, California - episode 5
• Josie Smith-Malave, age 31, Brooklyn, New York - episode 5
• Carlos Fernandez, age 36, Fort Lauderdale, Florida - episode 6
• Frank Terzoli, age 49, San Diego, California - episode 7
• Mia Gaines-Alt, age 32, Oakdale, California - episode 8
• Betty Fraser, age 50, Los Angeles, California - episode 9
• Michael Midgley, age 28, Stockton, California - episode 10
• Cliff Crooks, age 28, West Caldwell, New Jersey - episode 11
• Elia L. Aboumrad, age 23, Las Vegas, Nevada - episode 12
• Sam Talbot, age 28, New York City, New York - episode 12

Elimination Challenge

Contestants with more than one win

• Ilan Hall, with two wins.
• Elia Aboumrad and Betty Fraser, both eliminated, with two wins.

Contestants with one win

• Michael Midgey, Sam Talbot, Frank Terzoli, all eliminated, each with one win.

Contestants with no win

• Marcel Vigneron, with no win.
• Otto Borsich, Marisa Churchill, Cliff Crooks, Carlos Fernandez, Mia Gaines-Alt, Josie Smith-Malave, Emily Sprissler, Suyai Steinhauer, all eliminated, all with no win.

Quickfire Challenge

Contestants with more than one win

• Sam Talbot (eliminated), with five wins.
• Cliff Crooks (eliminated), with four wins.
• Marcel Vigneron, with two wins.

Contestants with one win

• Ilan Hall, still in the competition, with one win.
• Carlos Fernandez, Mia Gaines-Alt, Michael Midgley and Frank Terzoli, the four of whom have been eliminated, all with one win.

Contestants with no win

• Elia Aboumrad, Otto Borsich, Marisa Churchill, Betty Fraser, Josie Smith-Malave, Emily Sprissler, and Suyai Steinhauer, all eliminated, all with no win.

Episodes

• Purple background means the chef won both the Elimination and Quickfire Challenge
• Green background means the chef won that episode's Elimination Challenge.
• Yellow background means the chef won that episode's Quickfire Challenge.
• Blue background and HIGH means the chef was close to winning the Elimination Challenge.
• Grey background and OUT means the chef lost that week's Elimination Challenge and was out of the competition.
• Orange background and QUIT means the chef voluntarily left the show.
• Deep Red background and DQ means the chef was disqualified and was asked to leave the show.
• Episode 2: Otto quit voluntarily before Lakshmi eliminated anyone, deciding that his misconduct over the unpaid lychees contributed the most to his team's loss.
• Episode 4: After allegations of cheating, the judges decided not to eliminate anyone.
• Episode 5: Josie and Marisa were both eliminated, who worked as a team in this challenge.
• Episode 6: There were 5 winners in the Quickfire Challenge. These winners did not compete in the Elimination Challenge.
• Episode 8: The black team (Cliff, Michael, Mia and Elia) lost the Elimination Challenge, but Cliff had immunity and could not be eliminated.
• Episode 8: Mia quit voluntarily before Lakshmi eliminated anyone, fearing Elia would be eliminated.
• Episode 9: Starting with this episode, Quickfire Challenge wins no longer confers immunity from losing the Elimination Challenge.
• Episode 9: Michael won the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges.
• Episode 10: Both Sam and Marcel won the Quickfire Challenge.
• Episode 10: There was no winning team in the Elimination Challenge. The bottom 3 was based on each chef's individual performance.
• Episode 11: Cliff was disqualified for aggressive contact towards Marcel after a joke to shave Marcel's head went too far. Despite this, however, the judges agreed he had the weakest dish of the elimination challenge and would have been eliminated anyway. Also, there was no winner, though Ilan was chosen as Top Dish on Bravo's website.
• Episode 12: There was no Quickfire Challenge. Two chefs were eliminated in the Elimination Challenge.
• Episode 13: Airs on Wednesday, January 31.

Episode 1: Into the Fire

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a flambé dish in a limited amount of time. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
  • WINNER: Sam.
• Elimination Challenge: Prepare a dish using all the ingredients in a closed crate to be served to the other Top Chef contestants.
  • WINNER: Ilan. ELIMINATED: Suyai.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Harold Dieterle (Quickfire & Elimination Challenges).
• First aired October 18, 2006

Episode 2: Eastern Promise

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a sushi dish in a limited amount of time. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
  • WINNER: Cliff.
• Elimination Challenge: Contestants split into Team Vietnam and Team Korea to prepare two dishes using the flavors of the team's country to serve at a charity fundraiser.
  • WINNER: Team Vietnam and Betty. ELIMINATED: Otto.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Hiroshi Shima (Quickfire Challenge) and Ming Tsai (Elimination Challenge).
• First aired October 25, 2006
• Elimination Challenge Prize: A limited-edition Kyocera KT-300-HIP Kyotop 8.25" ceramic sashimi knife.
• Otto voluntarily withdrew from the show. As Team Korea loaded up their SUV with groceries, Marisa heard Otto say that the store cashier neglected to ring up a case of lychees. She later revealed this to Colicchio, who made Otto take them back to the store. Otto returned to complete the Elimination Challenge, but announced he was withdrawing from the competition during the "Judges' Table" segment.

Episode 3: Food for the People

• Quickfire Challenge: Create an original ice cream flavor and serve it at the Redondo Beach Seaside Lagoon. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
  • WINNER: Cliff.
• Elimination Challenge: Create a dish updating a "childhood classic" to be served to the firemen of South Pasdena.
  • WINNER: Betty. ELIMINATED: Emily.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Stephen Bugarelli (Elimination Challenge).
• First aired November 1, 2006
• Elimination Challenge Prize: The winning entrée will be featured nationwide on the menu of T.G.I. Friday's. (Note: Betty's winning dish has been placed on TGI Friday's menu but renamed "Tuscan Portobello Melt.")
• During this quickfire challenge, Betty suffered a dry ice burn that required medical attention.

Episode 4: Less is More

• Quickfire Challenge: Create an amuse bouche dish using $10 of ingredients from a vending machine. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
  • WINNER: Carlos.
• Elimination Challenge: Create a meal not to exceed 500 calories to serve at a camp for diabetic and overweight children.
  • WINNER: Team Black and Frank. ELIMINATED: None.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Suzanne Goin (Quickfire & Elimination Challenges).
• First aired November 8, 2006
• Elimination Challenge Prize: A cookbook written by Goin and an opportunity to collaborate on one of Goin's famed Sunday supper menus for her Lucques restaurant.
• At the judges' table, the losing teams made allegations regarding the "bending" or "breaking" of the rules in the elimination challenge by a member or members of the winning team. Sam stated that he saw people using squeeze bottles of olive oil excessively, but refused to name names. Mia stated that Betty had used sugar instead of Splenda; a claim that Betty herself later confirmed, explaining that she thought she had not violated the rules because her team would still be under the 500 calorie limit. However, the other contestants understood that the rules required that once the calorie calculations had been completed by the nutritionists, the recipes could not be further modified. As a result, Colicchio stated that all the contestants would remain "on probation" and no one was eliminated in this episode.

Episode 5: Social Service

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish using offal, the leftover parts of animals. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
  • WINNER: Sam.
• Elimination Challenge: Working in teams of two, create a six course lunch for Jennifer Coolidge and 60 of her guests using only ingredients already available in the kitchen.
  • WINNER: Ilan. ELIMINATED: Marisa and Josie.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Michelle Bernstein (Quickfire & Elimination Challenges).
• First aired November 15, 2006
• Elimination Challenge Prize: Opportunity to work with Bernstein at the Sagamore Hotel in Miami on the South Beach Food and Wine Festival.
• During deliberation, the judges could not determine whether Marisa or Josie was more responsible for the outcome of their dish. Because both claimed equal responsibility, the judges sent both home.

Episode 6: Thanksgiving

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish using three different canned foods. Prize: Skip the elimination challenge altogether.
  • WINNERS: Sam, Mia, Ilan, Cliff and Frank.
• Elimination Challenge: All five who did not win the Quickfire Challenge must work together to make a cutting edge Thanksgiving dinner for the judges and other Top Chef contestants, using the kitchens in the loft.
  • WINNER: Elia. ELIMINATED: Carlos.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Anthony Bourdain (Elimination Challenge).
• First aired November 22, 2006

Episode 7: The Raw And The Cooked

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a entrée using fresh ingredients from the Redondo Beach Farmers' Market without cooking of any kind by the contestants. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
  • WINNER: Marcel.
• Elimination Challenge: Prepare breakfast for athletes with the cooking environment and available tools not known to contestants until their arrival at the challenge. In the challenge, chefs cook for surfers at dawn on the beach using only a fire pit and basic kitchen tools.
  • WINNER: Elia. ELIMINATED: Frank.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Raphael Lunetta (Quickfire & Elimination challenge)
• First aired December 6, 2006

Episode 8: Holiday Spirit

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a Bailey's Irish Cream mix drink and an accompanying dish. Prize: Immunity from elimination.
  • WINNER: Cliff
• Elimination Challenge: Working in two teams of four, cater the Los Angeles magazine holiday party on the Warner Bros. movie lot.
  • WINNER: Team Orange and Sam. ELIMINATED: Mia
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Kristin Woodward (Quickfire Challenge only), Lee Hefter (Elimination Challenge only) and Ted Allen (standing in for Gail Simmons).
• Elimination Challenge prize: a 20-piece set of Global knives.
• Mia voluntarily withdrew from the competition during the judges' table segment, believing that she was saving Elia from elimination.
• Teaser advertisements for this episode showed a cameo of Season 1 contestant Stephen Asprinio, but he is not shown in the aired episode.
• Actor Nate Torrence had a cameo in this episode. He is one of the many party guests who go to Team Black's table.
• First aired December 13, 2006.

Episode 9: Seven

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish based on a color drawn from the knife block.
  • WINNER: Michael with Orange
• Elimination Challenge: Create a seven-course meal, with each course representing one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The sins were drawn from the block, but Michael, as the Quickfire winner, got to swap his his sin, Lust, for Marcel's Envy. Guest appearance by Debi Mazar.
  • WINNER: Michael with Envy. ELIMINATED: Betty with Sloth
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Ted Allen (standing in for Gail Simmons) and chef Robert Ivan
• First episode during Season 2 that immunity from elimination was not awarded to the quickfire challenge winner.
• The initial airing of the episode showed Marcel snapping at Betty and the other contestants subsequently refusing to help Marcel serve his course until he apologized to her, which he did. Subsequent airings deleted the scene of the contestants' refusal to assist Marcel, although his snapping at Betty and his apology remained.
• Michael was the first Top Chef contestant ever to win both the Quickfire Challenge and the Elimination Challenge in the same episode.
• First aired January 3, 2007

Episode 10: Unhappy Customers

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a snack using three Kraft Foods products: mayonnaise, barbecue sauce or Italian dressing.
  • WINNER: Sam and Marcel
• Elimination Challenge: Divided into two teams, the contestants must devise a concept, interior design and menu for a raw restaurant space. Sam and Marcel, as the Quickfire winners, chose their teams. Similar to Restaurant Wars of Season One.
  • WINNER: None (Marcel's dish was selected as the featured dish on Bravo's Web site). ELIMINATED: Michael
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Mike Yakura (Quickfire and Elimination Challenges)
• First aired Jan. 10, 2007

Episode 11: Sense and Sensuality

• Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish using Nestlé chocolatier products.
  • WINNER: Sam
• Elimination Challenge: Create a romantic 5-course menu for celebratory couples in Santa Barbara. Sam, as the Quickfire Challenge winner, was allowed to choose which course he wanted to execute and which proteins he was going to use. The remaining contestants were not allowed to use the same proteins that Sam chose. Sam elected to cook the first course and use lobster and scallops as his proteins.
  • WINNER: None (Ilan's dish was selected as the featured dish on Bravo's Web site). ELIMINATED: None. DISQUALIFIED: Cliff
• After the Elimination Challenge, the remaining contestants asked for a video camera. The video, as broadcast during the program, showed Elia talking about having always wanted to shave her head. Sam and Ilan say that if she does it, they will also. Ilan then proceeds to shave his head, Sam backs out, and Elia shaves hers. Elia is then shown mocking Marcel's unique hairstyle and Cliff is shown in a confessional saying that "then" they decided it would be fun to shave Marcel's head. The next segment of the video, as aired, showed Cliff grabbing a sleeping Marcel, wrestling him to the ground, with Ilan yelling in the background for Sam to come shave Marcel's head, and when Sam declines, Ilan calls for Elia. Marcel finally gets away from Cliff and storms out of the room. Sharp-eyed viewers, however, quickly noticed that during the segment where Marcel is leaving the room, Elia can seen kneeling down and doubled-over on the floor, still with all of her hair. This indicates that rather than the sequence of events being as how they were depicted during the show (shaving first, then going after Marcel), the events actually happened the other way around: The remaining contestants tried to shave Marcel's head, then after he got away from Cliff, Ilan and Elia shaved their heads, complete with Elia's mocking of Marcel. After reports of the altered timeline began appearing around the Internet, later rebroadcasts of the episode were further edited to crop Elia out of the frames where Marcel is shown storming out of the room. In spite of the cropping, the date and time stamp still appeared in their proper place in the corners of the frame, meaning that those were also re-edited in an apparent attempt to cover up the altered timeline.

• In an audio interview with Elia at Chow.com, Elia confirmed that the timeline was altered and the events were shown in reverse order. In a separate interview, however, Sam continued to speak as if the events had occurred in the order shown.
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Eric Ripert
• First aired January 17, 2007

Episode 12: Finale, Part 1

• Quickfire Challenge: None
• Elimination Challenge: Create two dishes based on classic Hawaiian dishes with a twist. Each chef must combine their signature style with traditional Hawaiian flavors and cuisine.
  • WINNER: Marcel & Ilan. ELIMINATED: Sam and Elia
• Judges: Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Alan Wong.
• First aired January 24, 2007.
• While the judges were deliberating, they stated that it was too difficult to find a dish that tasted bad, so instead of choosing two losers they decided to choose two winners.
• After the Elimination Challenge, but before judges' table, Ilan, Sam and Elia discussed how rude they felt Marcel had been in the kitchen during prep time. At that time, Ilan encouraged Elia to accuse Marcel of cheating in front of the judges. At the judges' table before the final decision was announced, Ilan spoke first, with Elia making the actual accusation, about their perception of Marcel's "cheating." However, neither Elia or Ilan offered any evidence. Colicchio bluntly responded to their accusations that kitchen behavior meant nothing to him, he was only concerned about the food.
• During this episode, it was revealed that Sam was voted Fan Favorite.

Episode 12: Finale, Part 2

• Elimination Challenge (based on previews): The two finalists, Ilan and Marcel, each prepare a five-course meal to be served to a table of eight luminaries from the culinary world. Ilan will cook at Donatoni's Restaurant assisted by former competitors Elia and Betty. Marcel will cook at Imari Restaurant assisted by former competitors Sam and Michael.
• Based on previews, Sam, Elia, Michael, Betty, Mia and Frank were all possible sous chefs. Elia, Michael and Betty chose to work with Ilan. Sam, Mia and Frank chose to work with Marcel. After each contestant stated who they wished to work with, Ilan and Marcel were each allowed to choose two chefs.
• On January 29th, for at least 15 minutes, an interview and profile article was posted about the winner of the second season. While it was pulled down shortly after fans found it, news of the gaffe - and the name of the winner - quickly made its way around the various message boards and blogs. On January 30th, in an apparent attempt to cover for their error, Food and Wine posted two articles, one featuring Ilan and one featuring Marcel, each written as if the subject had won, claiming that they'd had both versions ready to go for publication after the announcement was made. Many fans, however, were skeptical of the 2nd article, as the majority of the quotes seemed to be from previously published interviews, and there was no indication that the author of the article had actually spoken to the subject.

See also

• Top Chef
• Top Chef (Season 1)

Reviews

• Top Chef episode analysis - The Right Side of the Road

Contestant and judge sites

• Otto Borsich and Josie Smith-Malave The Art Institutes promotional site
• Marisa Churchill official web site
• Tom Colicchio - Craft Restaurant official web site
• Cliff Crooks - Saluté Restaurant official web site
• Carlos Fernandez official blog
• Carlos Fernandez - Hi-Life Café official web site
• Betty Fraser - Grub Restaurant official web site
• Betty Fraser - As You Like It catering official web site
• Padma Lakshmi official web site
• Josie Smith-Malave official web site
• Suyai Steinhauer - New York Fork personal chef official web site
• Frank Terzoli official web site
• Frank Terzoli - Scalini Restaurant official web site