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" This week on Top Chef: Angelo makes love to his short ribs and wins \u2014 a lot: both challenges, a Toyota, a trip to Cape Canaveral, and a copy of Anthony Bourdain&amp;#039;s newest book; Tiffany freezes her mussels and goes home; and Eric Ripert and Bourdain duke it out at the judges&amp;#039; table. In this edition of our weekly Top Chef recaps, Ripert talks to us about Wednesday&amp;#039;s episode and how he really feels about Bourdain. ESQUIRE: This week the chefs had to make meals that could be sent into space, where apparently they like spice. What would you have made for the astronauts?  ERIC RIPERT: Maybe something like a chicken paella. I&amp;#039;d make it spicy, it&amp;#039;s easy to package, and you can keep a lot of the texture of the dish.  ESQ: Do French kids like astronaut ice cream as much as American kids do? ER: I never knew about it. Someone told me yesterday, making a joke, and I didn&amp;#039;t understand the joke. I don&amp;#039;t know what it is. I&amp;#039;m very ignorant about it. ESQ: Anthony Bourdain gave you a pretty hard time last night. Are you guys friends? ER: Yes, very good friends. Actually, on Monday night at 9:00 is going to be the 100th episode of No Reservations. And we spent a week together in Paris. So Anthony and I are very good friends and we have this very playful relationship. Sometimes I&amp;#039;m the bad guy, sometimes he&amp;#039;s the bad guy. Last night, I became the bad guy. ESQ: He did call you &amp;quot;The Ripper.&amp;quot; Do you have any other nicknames? ER: The silver fox. ESQ: You said that your favorite dish was from Kelly. What was your favorite thing about her dish? ER: It was extremely simple in presentation. Almost overly simple. It was very deceiving. Until you taste it, you believe that&amp;#039;s going to be the most boring dish of the night, and then she really, really put it together very well. Her cooking was very precise, the flavors were exciting, and she showed technique. She definitely created a beautiful dish.  ESQ: Do you think if Tiffany had managed to get the mussels on her plate that she would have stayed? ER: No. I think on that challenge she was in the bottom for sure. For my taste. None of the dishes were bad, but she was the weakest of all of them. And her dish was, in terms of presentation, not very precise. It was kind of rustic, actually. And in terms of flavor, it was also rustic. The other ones were definitely complex and refined.  ESQ: Angelo won the Quickfire and the Elimination challenge after being in the bottom the last two weeks. What do you think of his cooking overall? ER: Well since the beginning of the season he has definitely proven that he is talented and he has done a lot of very good dishes. At one point he was almost on the verge of being eliminated. He got saved by the mediocrity of Alex. But he&amp;#039;s one of the most talented cooks of the season. There&amp;#039;s no doubt.  ESQ: He said he made love to his short ribs. Would you say that you&amp;#039;ve ever made love to food? ER: No. You don&amp;#039;t make love. You put love, but you don&amp;#039;t make love. It was slightly disturbing, right? ESQ: Yes. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a8355/top-chef-season-7-episode-12-090210/>