May 21--Two of three Chicago home cooks survived the first round of "MasterChef," which aired Wednesday night.
Tommy Walton, a fashion design teacher who lives in the South Loop, and Dan Collado, a Wicker Park design engineer who also models for print fashion campaigns, cooked their way into the top 22. Eighteen hopefuls, including Lincoln Park blogger Nate Love, were sent home after making their signature dishes.
Two groups of 20 chefs cooked head to head to earn a spot in the "MasterChef" kitchen and a chance to win a cookbook deal and $250,000. Six of the chefs who failed to win their individual challenge had the opportunity to cook again to fill the remaining two spots in the kitchen.
In the two-hour premiere Wednesday, Walton got the most screen time of any Chicago contestant. Walton, who teaches at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, explained that he has worked in fashion for a long time and that he's a "regular guy from the South Side of Chicago who's made good."
Walton, who wore an asymmetrical blazer, cooked pork ballotine stuffed with fennel, zucchini and Granny Smith apples and looked like he was in trouble because he realized before plating the dish his pork was raw. He re-cooked the pork and yelled, "Oh, God, help" as time ticked off the clock.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, one of three judges this season, told Walton his pork was cooked perfectly and that "I'm amazed you got it cooked." New judge Christina Tosi, a New York pastry chef, told Walton it was a "really great effort."
When the judges conferred privately, though, they said that Walton's food was a mess. He won the apron, in part, because his competitor served undercooked vegetables.
In Love's round, he cooked lamb against three other competitors. Love, who runs the dining-fashion blog dapper-dining.com, wore a khaki sport coat as he made a porcini-mushroom-crusted rack of lamb with a cauliflower puree.
"Do you always cook this fancy?" Ramsay asked Love. Ramsay thought the flavor of the dish was good but the lamb was too rare. Love, 29, failed to earn an apron and then was not one of the six competitors picked to get a second chance to cook to make it to the next round.
In a phone interview with the Tribune on Thursday, Love said he was disappointed by the elimination and thought he deserved an apron for his lamb dish, which he said he has made several times at home.
"I personally prefer my lamb that way," Love said about the cook of the meat. Still, he's not bitter about the experience. "Just to get to that point was such a great accomplishment. You just have to keep things in perspective," Love said.
Collado's cook-off was not aired but he was shown winning a "MasterChef" apron to advance to the next round.
"MasterChef" airs on FOX at 7 p.m., Wednesdays.
