Have things in the pharmaceutical industry gotten this bad? Merck managed to get Top Chef to hold an elimination challenge in honor of its cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin.
I was puzzled at the wording of last night’s second challenge, "creating a low-cholesterol update of an American family favorite." “Low-cholesterol” is a very ‘80s term: These days, nobody believes that the amount of cholesterol you eat (dietary cholesterol) is directly related to the amount of cholesterol in your blood (serum cholesterol). If you’re trying to lower your cholesterol, you’re better served by cutting back on all saturated fats and boosting your intake of fiber-rich fruits, vegetables and grain.
I became more suspicious when a commercial for Vytorin ran right after the challenge. And my suspicions were confirmed during the end-of-show credits where Merck/Vytorin was listed among the “promotional consideration furnished by” companies. (The Top Chef web page for the episode also has a pop-up ad reading “brought to you by Vytorin.”)
In fact neither the contestants nor the judges seemed to understand much about cholesterol. Casey was heard muttering about avoiding olive oil which, like all vegetable-derived foodstuffs, contains no cholesterol. Hung was under the impression that yogurt is healthier than buttermilk which is a by-product of the butter-making process and is about as low in fat as yogurt. They both contain about the same amount of cholesterol.
But the real scandal is that the judges called Brian onto the carpet solely because he used lobster as the protein in his dish. Lobster, they all acknowledged, is notoriously high in cholesterol. Except that it’s not.
100 grams of lobster (about 3.5 ounces) contains 72 mg of cholesterol. Lean sirloin (as in Micah’s “meatloaf”) contains 83 mg; lean boneless pork loin (Joey) contains 81 mg, and skinless white-meat chicken (Sara M., Hung) contains 85 mg.
If Brian hadn't had immunity, an even greater injustice might have been done.
Low-cholesterol or not, Micah’s dish earned her the boot. Which I regretted because last night’s episode revealed all sorts of tantalizing bits about her: she does push-ups, she recently brought her catering business and daughter to Boca Raton from Italy, she used to live in the Bahamas and she’s originally from South Africa where, shockingly, they don’t have fried chicken. I didn’t think there was a place on earth where they don’t have fried chicken.
Tre hung in background and Hung offended nearly everyone. He incurred Lia’s wrath when he left a defenseless crawfish on the floor during the quick-fire challenge. His reaction to the simplicity of most of his competitors’ seafood dishes was “Yes, simple, but my monkey can do that.” When guest judge Alfred Portale objected to the size of his croutons, Hung declared that Portale, one of the country’s very best chefs, “didn’t get it.”
Let’s hear it for Howie. Despite his sweaty, plodding manner, he wowed the judges with a pork-loin and apple-slaw dish that Padma said “really soared.” “Hitting on all cylinders,” commented Portale. It looked great, tasted great, was even low in fat. Too bad it was far from the lowest in cholesterol. That honor probably went to Joey’s forgettable vegetable lasagna.