10 reasons Stephanie is Chicago's 'Top Chef'
For Chicago chef Stephanie Izard, victory is so close, she can almost taste it.
(Bravo)
Izard is one of three contestants still in the running for the title of "Top Chef" on cable TV's Bravo network.
The winner of the reality-based cooking competition -- mostly filmed in Chicago -- will be crowned Wednesday.
The 31 year-old chef, the former owner of Scylla in Bucktown (now closed), has won over fans and judges alike with her positive attitude and superior culinary skills.
Here's why she's tops:
10. After four seasons (and three male winners), it's time for a woman to win.
9. She has the best personality of the remaining contestants. Lisa Fernandes has been such a witch all season (including last week's stunt in which she guilted her fellow contestants into congratulating her for placing third), we wouldn't be surprised if she baked a few kids into pies. Izard's other challenger, Richard Blais, should really be called Richard Blase. If there's a recipe for milquetoast, he'd be all over it.
8. She makes even sweetbreads (breaded and fried thymus glands from beef, lamb or pork) look tasty. Just imagine what she could do for head cheese!
7. Quickfire challenges are for chumps; winners excel in the elimination challenges. Yes, Izard has won just one quickfire challenge, preferring to show her stuff when it really counts: during the elimination rounds. She has won the elimination challenge five times, placed highly another five times and been in the bottom only three times.
6. She's no Gordon ("Hell's Kitchen") Ramsay. Izard always shows grace under pressure. After her sous chef Dale Talde accidentally left a whole tray of pork belly out all night in last week's show, she calmly swapped the pork belly dish for a salad topped with chicharron (the Latin American version of pork rinds).
"Not only does Steph's team [through no fault of her own] give us this jaw-dropping mistake; Steph and Dale then manage to power together through the adversity to produce a dinner that lands in the top two and pleases judges and partygoers alike," judge Ted Allen wrote in his blog for the show. "That, friends, is hot. That's keeping it together when something's gone deeply wrong, and turning it out. That is being a pro."
5. Who else are you going to call for that emergency wedding cake? In episode nine, Izard and her team had 14 hours to prepare a wedding reception for 125 people. Izard's four-tiered cake actually looked like the kind that takes a week to make.
4. She's faster. The girl can make mayonnaise from scratch with just a whisk and a bowl faster than most of us can using an electric mixer.
3. You gotta love a chef who knows how to pair food with beer and throw a tailgate party. In episode six, Izard earned high praise for her steamed mussels in a cilantro vinaigrette (served with Hoegaarden's signature white beer) and her grilled pork tenderloin (see recipe) scored a touchdown with Bears greats Richard Dent, William "The Refrigerator" Perry and Gale Sayers.
2. For the most part, her dishes, while still being finer dinner fare, are unpretentious. Unlike many of the recipes on "Top Chef," hers look like you could actually make them at home.
1. There can't be a better ending to "Top Chef: Chicago" than crowning a chef from Chicago as the winner. Besides, now that Alinea chef Grant Achatz has captured the 2008 James Beard Foundation award for outstanding chef, an Izard "Top Chef" would mean that the Second City is culinarily second to none (at least for a year, anyway).
And the major reason why Lisa Fernandes shouldn't win: Never mind her crappy attitude, the judges have hated just about everything she has cooked.
Cheer on Izard to victory in the "Top Chef: Chicago" finale at 9 p.m. Wednesday on Bravo.