Top Chef pares down field
Top Chef Canada combines the slick production and cutthroat culinary challenges of its U.S. counterpart with a distinctly Canuck feel — chiefly in the form of some talented Canadian competitors, including Xavier Lacaze, executive chef at Calgary’s Muse restaurant — so it’s no wonder the show is back for a second season.
Each week, the National Post’s Rebecca Tucker speaks with the skilled chef who didn’t make the cut to Top Chef’s next round. Today 25-year-old Gabriell Cruz of Quatrefoil restaurant in Dundas, Ont. Question: What was it like when you found out the quick-fire was also an elimination challenge? Answer: In the first season of Top Chef Canada, the double elimination happened in the second episode. So I think a lot of us were thinking that it just wasn’t going to happen. And then it did! It was scary. Q: One of the things the judges said about your dish — a soup and sandwich — was that it seemed thrown together. Was that something you’d really eat at home? A: Yeah, I love that combination — a ton of prosciutto, some pickled onions — it’s definitely something I’d eat anytime. Q: When they announced that the challenge would be soup and sandwiches, did you already have an idea of what you’d be doing? A: No. It’s really hard to think on the fly like that. I had to look at what I was provided for a little bit before I thought, yeah, this is what I’m going to do. Q: Did you have an idea, while the judges were tasting, that your combination was going to send you home? A: There’s this thing Trevor and I did, at the tastings — we’d just look at each other with this look, like, that’s gonna be the one that sends me home. I always thought that my next dish was going to be my last dish. Q: Most chefs are very confident in their dishes and their menus, outside of a competition like this. A: It definitely makes you second-guess yourself. You’re thinking, well, if I keep it too simple — like a cucumber and tomato sandwich and a gazpacho — it’s not enough. But you don’t want to do too much because it could end up really badly. Q: That cucumber and tomato sandwich and gazpacho, that was another competitor’s dish . . . A: Yeah, it was . . . Q: Care to comment on that further? A: I just thought my sandwich was good. I thought I had given the judges something that would keep me in the game. Q: If there’s anything about your time on Top Chef you could change, what would it be? A: (laughs) Other than make a different soup and sandwich?