Omnivore - ‘Top Chef’ All-Stars: Restaurant wars

• Courtesy Bravo TV

My sincerest apologies for no “Top Chef” post last week. I know you all were crushed. What can I say? I was busy. The episode was uninspiring. The justice that was meted out though was magnificent, only rivaled by this week’s rapturous elimination. But I get ahead of myself.

There were many things to love about this week’s episode, and the first and second best, was the further glorification of Justo Thomas, the fish cutter at Le Bernadin. Thomas was the subject of a chapter in Anthony Bourdain’s recent book Medium Raw, extolled for his work ethic, super skills and indispensable position. As Bourdain said, if this guy takes a day off, three sous chefs are needed to complete his work. Bourdain has always been an effective and moving writer on the immigrant population that staffs so many of our country’s best restaurants, and I love that he was able to carry that through here. Watching these pseudo celebrities stare in awe at the skills of a dude who cuts fish was pretty damn satisfying to me.