In last night’s episode of Bravo’s Top Chef, the winning team used a meat thermometer. While this is a rarity within the celebrity chef circle, at least based on what we see in the final cut, it’s the second time I’ve seen one used on Top Chef this season (both times the chefs became winners, and both times they were cooking lamb). Last night Quatre’s sous-chef Howie wielded the same sort of digital tip-sensitive thermometer that we use at home. He had the unsliced chops, on their side, and inserted the thermometer into the middle of the meat. (Of course, this week the cheftestants also had head judge Chef Tom Colicchio watching them in the kitchen.) While Howie’s former nemesis, Joey, called his chops, “Typical Howie, undercooked!” the judges said they were cooked beautifully and perfectly. They had ordered their chops rare.

For those of you interested in trying this at home, there is no simple answer for finding the correct temperature of perfect-rare and safe lamb chops. Some recipe sites I consulted recommended a temperature of 125 F-130 degrees for medium rare. However, according to USDA for beef, veal and lamb (steaks, roasts and chops), medium rare is at 145 °F and medium is 160 °F.

Hormel proposes the following:

“Traditional guidelines state that lamb cooked very rare, rare, medium rare, or medium should have an internal temperature ranging between 115ºF to 145°F. With increased concern over bacteria that may be present in the internal portions of lamb, it is now recommended that whole lamb cuts be cooked to a final internal temperature (after resting) of not less than 145°F.”

While Howie may have hit the right temperature to please the judges, no one knows what his magic thermometer reading actually was. Still, I’m glad to see a thermometer once again on the show, used correctly (i.e inserted into the thickest portion of the meat), and this time for more than a second.