Orange County Register

The Watcher is a lover of pork and pork-related products, so you could say I was in hog heaven (although I would never use such a dastardly pun) over Wednesday night’s episode of “Top Chef.”

But before we dissect the goings on at the Pork & Pinot challenge, let me brag that I have eaten braised pork shoulder at both Gordon Ramsay and Tom Colicchio restaurants. Tom, please pack your knives and go. Gordon’s was better.

Now back to our show: The Watcher has noted (some might even say whined) that the four Iron Chefs - Bryan Voltaggio, Kevin Gillespie, Jennifer Carroll and Michael Voltaggio - have completely dominated the season. So we were hopeful that the iron grip might be cracked when the episode began with large doses of Ash Fulk, Eli Kirshstein and Robin Leventhal.

Our hopes were raised further when guest judge Charlie Palmer chose Eli as the winner of the annoying, product-placed Quick Fire challenge.

Things got back to normal with the Elimination Challenge, where the nine remaining chefs were assigned cuts of pork and asked to create a dish to pair with a specific bottle of pinot noir. After the last of the wine was poured, the Iron Chefs were the judges’ top four picks, and Ash, Robin and Laurine Wickett had settled at the bottom.

After his fourth bottom finish in eight weeks, Ash was asked to leave - although the two survivors don’t figure to last more than two or three more episodes.

Kevin won the EC, his third, and left the Iron Chefs 8-for-8 on the season.

One of the Big Four might well be in peril next week, during the annual Restaurant Wars challenge. The teams seem fairly split, with the Voltaggio brothers, Robin and Eli on one team, Kevin, Jennifer, Laurine and Michael Isabella on the other.

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For an instant, I almost believed the judges of “Top Chef” were ready to divert from the season’s seemingly predestined path and deliver us an authentic shocker Wednesday night.

The judges had determined that either Ashley Merriman or Michael Voltaggio would be eliminated, and we viewers momentarily considered the improbable, before Padma Lakshmi brought us back to our senses with the news that Ashley would be packing her knives and going.

Michael V. belongs to the season’s dominant quartet, along with his brother Bryan, Kevin Gillespie and Jennifer Carroll - a group the Watcher had dubbed the Iron Chefs. The other three held up the group’s reputation, winning both challenges and taking up three of the four top-group slots.

That leaves the ryori no tetsujin with 5 QuickFire wins, 7 Elimination Challenge wins and 17 top-group placements. The other 13 contestants have combined for 2-0-10.  At this point, it would be a shame if the Big Four weren’t the Final Four.

Michael V.’s jeopardy did underscore what I like least about “Top Chef”: that chefs who show little creativity and “hide” in the challenges often outlast much better competitors who take risks. Wednesday, the person who should have gone home was Ash Fulk.

Ash did nothing to help his partner Michael V., and admitted that he was the weaker chef, yet was deemed not responsible for the partnership’s failed dish exactly because he did nothing.

The show’s questionable strategy of rewarding the inoffensive and weak reached its nadir last season, when Hosea Rosenberg limped his way to the finale and then won. Luckily, that seems unlikely to happen this season.

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Not surprisingly, Bravo has given “Top Chef” the green light for its seventh season.

The Emmy-nominated cooking competition continues to score well with the viewers - and it’s just about the only Bravo show you can watch without wanting to take a shower afterward.

The renewal comes with the announcement of a casting tour. I’m not sure how many contestants actually come out of these whistle-stops, but unless you get a call from the “Top Chef” casting director, this is going to be your shot.

The fun begins Oct. 18 at San Francisco’s new restaurant The Parlor. The closest casting event will be Nov. 15 at Tom Colicchio’s Craft Restaurant in Century City. Don’t be surprised if you bump into the Watcher, who will be wowing the judges with his duo of grilled cheese and Rice-A-Roni.

And yes, host Padma Lakshmi is pregnant. No word yet on how the timing of the season and the pregnancy will work out. Will she skip season seven, or will she join the ranks of expectant reality hosts such as Julie Chen and Heidi Klum?

“Top Chef” served up its best Elimination Challenge of the season Wednesday night, a task that was inventive yet free of gimmickry.

The result, of course, was familiar. The Iron Chefs dominated, and another hapless also-ran left - in this case Ron Duprat.

The challenge asked the chefs to “deconstruct” a classic dish that each contestant chose at random. It was a rare opportunity to see the chefs challenged both in imagination and technique, without asking them to cook over a flaming trash can or feed a room of kindergarteners.

Most of the chefs performed well, and the judges seemed to have a hard time settling on the top four. Ultimately, they chose three Iron Chefs - Kevin, Michael V. and Jennifer - and Ashley. The win went to Kevin for his undone chicken in mole negro, leaving the Big Four 6-for-6 in the ECs and 14-for-23 in top-group placements.

The bottom three seemed obvious: Ron and his not-very-deconstructed paella, Ash and his mashed-potato-free shepherd’s pie and Laurine with her soggy and nearly chipless fish and chips. (I did think Laurine had the hardest task. How do you deconstruct a french fry?)

The QuickFire was less interesting food-wise, but more interesting politically. The contestants ganged up on Robin, whom they thought should have left the previous episode rather than Mattin. All of the contestants but Robin wore Mattin’s signature red scarf to the challenge.

Robin turned the tables and won the QuickFire - the second QF in a row that an Iron Chef did not win. Eli fueled the anti-Robin sentiment by saying she used her personal cancer story to influence the judges. He expands on those comments on Bravo’s website.

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