Goodbye, Micah
Boca Raton chef Micah Edelstein got the knife on last night's episode of Top Chef: Miami for her dry, terrible take on the good old American classic meatloaf and mashed potatoes. After the tears on last week's episode, we knew she'd be going home some time soon. (There are many more tears on the exit interviews, in case you're interested.) And so the second South Florida chef (after last week's elimination of Tantra's Sandee Birdsong) exits.
Edelstein wasn't too happy -- actually, none of the contestants were -- about the Elimination Challenge, which required them to pick a classic, fatty American dish and modernize it. Oh, yeah, and they had to keep the cholesterol in the dish at a minimum. Edelstein made a meatloaf with pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes and raisins and topped it with some mashed potatoes; it was by far the judges' least favorite dish. At the judges' table, she explained that she's from South Africa, and she's never had meatloaf. Which is interesting, because earlier this week some old high school photographs that surfaced on the web show that Edelstein went to high school in Bridgewater, Mass. Apparently she did junior high there too, and she's lived in the States since then. So she's managed to avoid eating meatloaf for at least 15 years. That takes a lot of skill. Also, isn't South African bobotie a meatloaf of sorts?
The good news is that Miami native Howie Kleinberg, formerly of The Food Gang, pulled himself out of the gutter -- he'd finished at the bottom in the last two episodes -- to win the Elimination Challenge with his updated version of pork chops and applesauce.
