Residents Rally for Booted Top Chef

Bar Pastoral’s Chrissy Camba may have been booted from Bravo’s Top Chef Seattle, but North Side fans aren’t taking the news lying down.

Camba, who lives in Lincoln Square and works at Lake View’s Bar Pastoral, was a competitor on Bravo’s Top Chef Seattle. Before her elimination on Wednesday, she was the lone Chicago chef on the show. 

But there’s a twist. Viewers now have a chance to bring one chef back to the competition, and Camba’s followers are buzzing with excitement. The chef is up against two others vying for a spot back in the race: Carla Pellegrino of Las Vegas and Jeffrey Jew of Washington D.C.

Even Bar Pastoral’s owner Greg O’Neill is helping to spread the word about Camba’s chances by posting messages all over social media to get his newest top chef back to Seattle.

“PLEASE HELP SAVE CHEF CHRISSY!” O’Neill wrote on Lake View Patch’s Facebook page. “Help bring fellow cheesy, Chef Chrissy Camba from Bar Pastoral, back on Top Chef!... Let’s all work together to Save Chef Chrissy!”

Viewers can vote Camba twice a day until Dec. 7 by texting “Chrissy” or the letter B to 27286 and by tweeting #savechefchrissy. There are similar texts and tweets to vote for the other chefs, available on Bravo’s website.

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Camba sailed through the first three challenges of the show, but for her last meal, the chef that's well-known for her charcuterie plates faced another type of challenge: the salad. Not just any salad, Camba was asked to recreate the Canlis Special Salad.

Canlis is one of the oldest fine dining restaurants in the Northwest, and contestants were asked to re-create dishes from its original 1950 menu. The Special Salad is the only item that's remained on the menu since the restaurant’s opening.

"I took a risk by taking the Special Salad, sometimes you fail at risks, it's very, very depressing," Camba said on the show.

Camba’s salad got poor reviews; judge Emeril Lagasse said it was overdressed with soggy croutons. Representatives from Canlis said the salad fell flat, but it was the most challenging mission to take on.

The chef ended up in the bottom four, with two chefs slated for elimination.

"Not knowing what the dressing was supposed to taste like, I did it to what I thought it should taste like and my interpretation wasn't how they saw it," Camba said in her last appeal to the judges.

Camba was sent home along with fellow chef Carla Pellegrino. 

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