Previously
on “Top Chef”: the final Quickfire required catching your own
fish. The final three all managed to do this, and then we learned you
have to cook trout to well done. Joseph won, and his advantage was to
pick his sous chef and assign the others for the Elimination. Make a
vegetarian dish for a Food and Wine Classic event, cooked on a big
cauldron filled with coals. Joseph won again, with baby zucchini and
pesto. Hipster Joe went home, for fancy toast (ha). (click for more)
There's
a small recap of the season. I like this final two. Tom says cook
your hearts out and think about all your experiences. They go back to
the hotel. Joseph calls his boss (Tony Mantuano!) to ask advice. This
advice is exactly what you would expect. Don't change your dish once
you start. You've got what it takes. It's a nice pep talk. But
Adrienne doesn't have anyone to call? She interviews about her
parents pushing her but doesn't call anyone famous.
For
some reason Adrienne and Joseph take a gondola to the top of
somewhere to the Aspen Mountain Club. 11,000 feet, so we're still
dealing with high altitude. Tom says cook the best meal of your life.
Four course, head to head service. They draw knives to determine who
picks first, and Adrienne gets to pick sous chefs first. She takes
Chris (southern) and Carrie (just fun to work with and positive).
Joseph takes Hipster Joe (Italian/pasta) and then Fatima (also
Italian). Padma says something about special orders and then leaves.
I guess they can get some specialty stuff if they want. Spoiler: this
doesn't come up again so it doesn't matter.
Adrienne
seems pretty confident and is describing her menu she wrote for a
potential restaurant in New York. She's got a new technique cooking a
tuile so it looks like a net. Chris thinks Adrienne is just bringing
it harder. She's talking octopus, and Cheerwine, and sea urchin.
Joseph is doing pasta of course. I'm glad he took Fatima instead of
Bruce because boring. He's doing a dessert. Fatima interviews she
knows Hipster Joe is in love with Joseph but she loves Joseph the
most. At Whole Foods Joseph puts a cart in the aisle to be in the way
and then runs off. Heh. He buys a bunch of beef. Adrienne plans a
yuzu banana pudding so she doesn't have to bake. Joseph ends up about
$50 under budget, so he buys some of Adrienne's stuff for her. Aww.
Two
hours to prep today. Joseph is making “tonno vitellato”, which is
a play on a classic dish of poached veal with tuna mayonnaise, but
sexy. Adrienne plans spoon bread with uni, and octopus with grits.
She says she's had squid ink pasta a million times, so why not squid
ink grits? These dishes sound interesting. Carrie asks Adrienne a
million questions because she's never made grits before. Hipster Joe
makes pasta with some kind of fancy flour that's toasted? Called
grano arso. So they fire the fields before harvesting the wheat, and
somehow don't burn everything but get toasted wheat and the pasta is
a deep charcoal color. The Joes nerd out over the color. Adrienne
explains Cheerwine to Joseph. She says that if he's got a weakness,
it's that he's not a gambler, and she is. Joseph decides against
using muffin tins for his cake, because he doesn't want it to be
round. He's not making exactly whatever cake he's named in his dish,
which could backfire. It's supposed to be lemon and vanilla custard
and a pastry base, not a cake. But on the other hand, the name is
“Grandmother's cake” which is pretty vague. Adrienne is now
showing Chris (and Carrie too) how to make tuiles. Or at least
practice, because they're not really working. Fatima's cakes are too
bitter so she needs to make another batch. Still a lot of work for
tomorrow. Carrie doesn't want to pressure cook the octopus, even
though it's still a little chewy. At the last second Joseph remembers
he didn't press ricotta for tomorrow and he and Hipster Joe scramble
to get it done before time is up. I have the feeling if they'd gone
over by a few seconds Adrienne wouldn't have pushed it. It's been
that kind of season.
When
Joseph and Adrienne get back to the hotel they find Tom and Graham in
the kitchen, every surface covered in food. They're making dinner
which looks fantastic. Stuffed fish and lamb chops. I like the idea
that they're going to chat and just hang out. Tom casually mentions
that the fish has bones in it so don't send him home. Hee. He
speculates about when he would have tried out for Top Chef had it
existed when he was younger. That would have been fun, I think.
Sassy!Tom would be a great reality show personality. Graham tries to
find out if they're nervous about tomorrow. Duh, Graham. Have fun
with it and just cook.
In
the morning Adrienne finally gets to call someone, and she calls Eric
Ripert. Nice. She gets some advice for the tuile, and Eric tells her
how she's doing it wrong, but in his charming French way. She's ready
to fight with everything she has to win.
Four
hours until service. Lots of prep but no really frantic working.
Joseph hand-makes tortelloni, because when you're only serving nine
people you have time to do that. Ripert's advice was exactly what
Adrienne needed. Fatima pulls the cake she made and it's terrible.
She's trying again and she doesn't want to be the reason Joseph
doesn't win. Adrienne is making black-eyed peas, which are usually
cooked until mushy. So she's having Chris mash them with a fork to
mimic that. The judges arrive and toast the season, and there's a
last minute flurry of plating.
Adrienne:
spoon bread, sea urchin, buttermilk dashi, ham, caviar, covered in a
wheat tuile. The tuile covers the whole dish and is perfectly sized
to the bowl, and you have to break it in half to get to the rest of
the dish. Joseph: “tonno vitellato”--raw tuna with veal demi
aioli, smoked wagyu powder and capers. Everyone is very impressed.
Joseph's dish is simple and clean, but Graham says they've seen it
before. Adrienne's is more provocative and they haven't seen it
before. But both dishes are stunning and could fit at any fine dining
restaurant.
Adrienne
says Carrie nailed the grits. Joseph: “tortellini en brodo”--grano
arso tortellini, pig head, apple, black truffle, and braising liquid
broth. He describes them as river rocks. Adrienne: blackened octopus
with squid ink grits and fennel chow chow. Tom is just flabbergasted
at how good this food is. Joseph's dish is wonderful and everyone
raves about it. Tom wants more grits or a sauce or aioli or something
for Adrienne's octopus. It's a little dry.
Adrienne:
Cheerwine braised short rib, black-eyed peas with ham hock and
Cheerwine bone marrow bordelaise. Joseph: “manzo di
Colorado”--braised ribeye with asparagus cooked in their own juices
and smoked bone marrow sauce. He juiced the asparagus stems and then
added that to the roasted asparagus. The beef is overrested but the
asparagus is “magic”, Gail says. Adrienne shouldn't have smashed
the peas, because this dish is also dry. The ham hock is great,
though, and Tom thinks it's close.
Joseph:
“torta della nonna”--brown sugar cake, whipped ricotta, blueberry
thyme sauce and chocolate shards. Adrienne: banana pudding with yuzu,
banana spears and vanilla wafers with a pinch of turmeric. They
finally are done! They go back to the kitchen and drink champagne out
of plastic tubs. Joseph's cake ended up wonderful, but the ricotta
was a little heavy. Adrienne's pudding is beautiful (and the plating
is stunning) but maybe not banana-y enough.
Judges'
Table. Before that Adrienne and Joseph sit outside and give each
other compliments. The food was fantastic. Joseph's first course was
better than the original version of that dish, and it was delicious.
But Padma tells Adrienne that her first course was the best food
she's eaten all season. They tell her put it on a menu now, don't
change it, everyone will talk about it forever. Her second dish was a
perfect way to reinterpret Southern food, it just needed more fat or
sauce or something. They like the creativity though. Joseph's second
dish is something Gail says she'll never forget. The pasta was
beautiful, even if it looked like rocks, but the broth was rich in
flavor and perfectly seasoned.
Adrienne
wanted to play up black eyed peas and she's never had them when they
weren't falling apart and mushy. Tom mock yells at her that she's a
good enough chef to not overcook them. They fall apart because people
don't cook them properly. Joseph's asparagus was amazing as was his
sauce, but the meat was chewy. Joseph knows his cake wasn't Italian
or traditional. It was delicious, but Gail says the ricotta was maybe
not great. Adrienne's pudding needed more banana flavor. It looks
like she said “banana pudding” so they expected banana, but if
she'd said “yuzu pudding” they would have raved.
The
first course was amazing from everyone but Adrienne was more
creative. Second course, Joseph's pasta was so great I don't think
Adrienne can compete with it. Adrienne's ham hock was delicious, but
the peas were weird. Joseph's meat was not up to par, but the rest of
the dish was perfect. Neither one named their desserts properly.
Graham says that Joseph's cake is “the Hoobastank of desserts”
which is both nonsensical and hilarious. I guess because it has a
dumb name. Joseph's cake wasn't traditional (but it was homey), and
Adrienne's pudding had execution flaws and they wanted more banana
flavor (but it was striking).
Adrienne
and Joseph come back out and all the eliminated contestants are there
too, to clap and cheer. Tom starts talking about journeys and finding
your voice and how he loved watching their journeys. It's hard to
only name one winner. And that winner is Joseph! I'm good with either
one, really, because they were both great. “I'm actually standing
on top of a mountain and I just won fucking Top Chef”. Heh.
Adrienne is disappointed, but I think she'll do well. Gail gives her
a bunch of encouragement. Aww. I mean I'd eat at a fine dining
Southern restaurant. Joseph calls his wife and says “I just won Top
Chef” and she says “Shut up Joe!” Heh.
I
don't think there's a reunion (?) so that's it for this season!
Thanks for reading!
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