I laughed so hard when I read Grub Street's "This is Top Chef not Top Scallop" headline this morning.

I don't if it's just me but there's something kind of depressing about the LV backdrop. You get an idea that these restaurants and LV are supposed to be about extravagance but they come off as big and empty and stocked with expensive ingredients. Of course, they are big and empty because they are shooting a tv show there but still, something seems off.

Again, Kevin puts some practical thought into his winning dish. I felt relieved for the vegetarians when his dish went out and confident that they would have something to tuck into after a series of leek scallops, beet slices gone wrong and missing ingredients. There's a time and a place for everything and I think Kevin puts a lot of thought into that.

I thought the chefs griping about cooking vegetarian was ridiculous and I was shocked at how boring the meals were.
it's 2009, not 1950. There are lots and lots of vegetarians out there (myself included), and that these chefs can't come up with anything better to cook for them speaks very poorly of them.

I agree with abigailm - I was really surprised how the chef seemed to be unable to comprehend a meal without meat. It really isnt' rocket science, and to think that people would either want to eat a) something that looked like meat or b) total rabbit food was ridiculous. I felt like some of the chefs though vegetarians literally eat only vegetables - no protein and no starch. That's just silly.

If you can't cook vegetables, then you can't cook in my book. Yes, I am a vegetarian and I have had to sit through many bad meals by omnis who have never tried making veggies into something more than just steamed blandness. Meat has so many things going for it (like fat) that you can eat raw fish and it'll taste good. Vegetables require more ingenuity, more care, and cooking chops to make them truly special. You'd think that in 2009 more chefs would at least know how to make a couple of top notch veggie meals. They're missing out on a whole kingdom of food to play with.

while i completely agree with the above sentiments on the merits and virtues of skillfully cooking veggies i have to defend veggies as special in their own right, cooked or raw. graciela, i mean that as a second to your opinion with my own spin not as disagreement or any disparagement.

a chef who can't cook veggies as anything but a second place side dish didn't really earn the culinary degree. i know meat focused chefs who spent entire semesters studying individually veggie groups who can really wow you with what you never thought a veggie could be or do!

i'm a vegetarian but my friends aren't. i cook fish and turkey for my girlfriend when she wants it. i know how because i figure if you want to be able to cook it's more than those meals you eat for yourself.

all this being said i have no idea what this show's all about i just thought it was an interesting read :)

I can't believe none of the chefs (I think that's correct?) even thought to include any kind of protein. The winning meal sounds delicious, but it's not in any way balanced. What about adding a side of green lentils? What about doing a vegetarian Ethiopian stew like miser wat? How about a vegetarian chili or thick soup? I think falafel and bean tacos/burritos are both very tasty, easy to prepare, and vegetarian.

graciela is right!

One of my favorite chefs (Gabrielle Hamilton) was recently talking about how it's easy to cook crowd-pleasing food with things like pork belly but that it takes more skill and thoughtfulness to make something mindblowing with leaner ingredients. I'd say the same is true of a vegetarian meal and definitely true of a vegan one.

Oh, and I'm an omni.

They were in a steak house, and no one thought about doing a meat and potatoes type meal with tofu or seitan. Weird.

I just can't understand how they all act like it's a shock that there is a veggie challenge. Have they not watched Top Chef before? Do they really think they'll make it through without a veggie challenge?

That said, Michael V is a prick. Just because Kevin's dish is not a work of art, doesn't mean it wasn't better. Oh, wait, I forgot. He has a Michelin star.

This challenge was more interesting when they used it on Top Chef Masters and had Zoe Deschanel. She was not only vegetarian, she was vegan and had dietary restrictions on wheat and soy!

I don't know what these people were thinking. Only one polenta and only one plate with lentils - I know they got a little desperate around the fridges, but did they forget that there are pantries? Quinoa, lentils, brown rice, squash, beans. Its like 6/7 of them forgot how to cook period, let alone for vegetarians.

No one thought - hey I was going to make a lamb chop with x, y, and z, why don't I shift the balance a little and add a marinated piece of tofu, seitan, mushrooms, portobellos etc instead of the meat? Also - Nuts and avocados would have been excellent, filling and flavorful with plenty of fat?!

I love bacon grease as much as the next girl, but is it really too much to suggest using flavored olive oil instead?

I wonder if Natalie Portman was a vegan when this was filmed (over the summer in Las Vegas), because I saw at least one of the chefs using butter. That's a no-no for vegans, but in the part that made it to air, she only said "vegetarian," not "vegan."

I think the seasonality had a lot to do with the lightness of the dishes. Remember the desert contest earlier? It was hot where they were, and even Kevin's dish of greens had everyone saying how "heavy" it was. I think the other chefs were trying to keep it light.

And as for the pantry: you'll notice that CraftSteak had all kinds of fresh mushrooms in the fridge, probably because mushrooms pair wonderfully with steak and chops. I would be more surprised if they had a regular stock of lentils, tofu, or seitan. (Which show was it where the contestant made seitan and wound up going home?)

Lots of them used mushrooms for protein, but they were trying to be original and different from each other as well. There are great vegetarian protein dishes like lentils, beans, mushroom soup, portobella parmigiano, and so on—but they're also the things that the judges usually brush off as "unoriginal" and "uninspired."

And that's assuming CraftSteak had lentils or other veggie protein sources in the pantry. Given the timeframe, they wouldn't have had time to prepare dry beans unless they "quick-soaked" them, which professional chefs usually won't do because they think it hurts the texture.

(I'm an omni but I ate mostly vegetarian for about a decade and still don't center my diet around meat.)

So, yeah, it was a tough challenge. Mike A. came out on bottom because even if he had cooked the leeks properly, who the hell wants to eat a leek cut like a scallop? I don't think you can clean the leeks that way, and if they had sand or grit in them—ugh! Thinking this was a good idea because it would look like a scallop was just dumb.

I'd have rather seen one of them serve a small cup of an intense french onion soup made with just water and onions (and a splash of oil) with herbs, an artfully composed salad, and a creative starch like parsnip chips or grissini. Technique and artistry goes a long way here.

There *were* lentils, because Eli used them. (A spoonful of them.)

I was also surprised that there were no eggs. And no cheese. (They obviously used dairy because someone -- one of the brothers? -- called for butter.) Overall, though, *most* of the meals looked insubstantial to me. Like it was a collection of side dishes.

I was thinking the same thing! Where was the cheese and beans? ...or at the very least, for the love of god, pasta?

Were there further restrictions than just vegetarian, or do they really think vegetarians eat ONLY vegetables?

I was under the impression that Natalie Portman has been vegan for more than a few weeks/months and therefore would have been vegan at the time of filming (despite the implication that butter was used in the challenge). But I think that Top Chef is afraid of the word vegan unless it's being used disparagingly. When Zooey Deschanel was on Masters, she never, ever said vegan; it was only the chefs afterward who said the word.

And, yes, mushrooms have a meaty texture, but they are not a protein. A tablespoon of lentils and four chickpeas seemed to be the only proteins used in any of the dishes. No wonder some of the chefs were complaining that their dishes wouldn't be satisfying!

I find it amusing that people here and elsewhere are wondering why the chefs didn't use tofu or seitan as a protein in their dishes. Weren't the chefs limited to what was on hand in the Craftsteak pantries/fridges? Tom Colicchio blogged that they had had a bunch of produce trucked in from Cali for the challenge, but something tells me that he doesn't keep tofu and seitan in stock IN A STEAKHOUSE, and probably didn't order any for this challenge.

Also, remember the first episode when the woman made (and got eliminated for) a chile relleno stuffed with seitan? And Kevin's comment on it was, "why would you use that stuff? It's yuck!" So even if it were on hand, I doubt any of the chefs would have used it. I doubt they think of it as a real food worth cooking with.

Tony Bourdain would have been an awesome guest judge for this episode. Maybe take the place of Toby, which would be a good thing for any episode really.

I didn't watch this episode. May not get a chance to catch it before the next real episode. So thanks for the recap. Looks like Kevin continues to be consistently strong.