Previously
on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire asked chefs to come up with meals to
satisfy Gail's pregnancy cravings. Then the top two meals were
packaged up so they could take them to Gail to make at her apartment.
Smells suspiciously like a meal kit. David won immunity from that,
although they didn't tell them until after the Elimination challenge.
Then the contestants went to Maker's Mark to have a Kentucky feast
and then get into two teams to “reinterpret” those classic
dishes. Of course, one team did a great job and one team failed, but
at least the one chef actually from Kentucky was on the winning team
(although she didn't actually win). Nini won by making spoonbread
with etouffee. Eddie had to buy rack of lamb instead of lamb loin,
which caused him to go way over budget. Then his team got thrown off,
although the main complaints didn't all have to do with lacking
ingredients. Natalie's lemon curd didn't taste lemony enough, so
that's something that could have been solved with more money, but
her crust also was raw, which couldn't be blamed on anyone else. So
Natalie went from first to worst and was eliminated.(click for more)
On
Last Chance Kitchen, everyone had to cook some kind of lemon dish
with one single lemon per person. Carrie won again, and Brother Luck
was a close second. He made salmon tartare, and mixed lemon zest into
the tartare. This is important, because Jim also made salmon tartare,
but he had no zest in there. So in the end, Tom really missed the
zest and kept Natalie over Jim. So thankfully Natalie has another
chance.
The
next morning Nini is feeling overwhelmed after her win. Eddie
obviously still feels guilty about spending all his team's money. I'm
not sure why they didn't let him return any lamb. Brian shows some
emotion...by asking Brandon if that's his hair straightener. There is
some pompadour talk. Whatever.
In
the Top Chef kitchen we're pretending it's actually Christmas, when
you know it's the middle of June. Anyway, Padma is here with Brooke
and Blais in ugly Christmas sweaters. David has a man-crush on Blais.
Padma asks if they have family traditions. Blais does Elf on a Shelf,
because of course he does. Anyway, the Quickfire is 30 minutes to
cook “your best holiday dish”. However you will only have two
minutes to shop. I mean, whatever, I've seen dumber concepts. Also
there are presents? And you can only use the ingredients in your box?
So then why do you need two minutes to pick out a present?
OK
so really they aren't presents. They're just making everyone use
cardboard boxes covered in wrapping paper as shopping baskets.
Immediately people run for the shelves and start knocking stuff over
and breaking glass. Adrienne is thinking broccoli and cheese
casserole, which her family always has. Kevin starts panicking and
grabs several containers of flour for some reason. When time is up,
no one seems that happy. Oh also it's time for Dirty Santa. Padma
asks if they've heard of White Elephant. Several of the boys say
“Yankee Swap!” and get excited because their ingredients suck.
So
the “gift exchange” is eh. You can't take your own box though.
They're reading off ingredients but they're all pretty random. There
is plenty of stealing. Not everyone is happy with what they ended up
with, but that's how this works.
Kelsey
is mad because her box had asparagus, because it's not actually
December. No one has asparagus at the holidays. Sara tells us she's
the one Jew in Kentucky, so she's making something like chopped
liver. Justin is giving Kevin shit for having five kinds of flour but
no eggs or anything to make a dough. Brandon's box didn't have any
protein but David is adjusting. Nini is like, I didn't like Sara's
box but like, it reminds me of the first time I went to one of my
American friend's homes. Eddie ended up with chicken wings and a lot
of spices.
Brandon
(David's box): fire roasted chicken breast and red cabbage with
beurre rouge. Beurre rouge is just white sauce that has red wine.
Adrienne (Michelle's box): rosemary grilled shrimp with Israeli cous
cous and mushrooms. Sara (Kelsey's box): chopped liver, fried chicken
and fried eggs. Eddie (Nini's box): curried carrot and chicken with
black sesame, carrot top, and coconut. Brandon (Pablo's box): roasted
rib eye with grilled mushrooms, corn, fried potatoes, and achiote
sabayon. Achiote is annatto seed, and sabayon is like a loose custard
that is used as a sauce. Nini (Sara's box): cream cheese and pepper
jelly with walnuts, cranberry, sorghum syrup jelly.
Pablo
(Eddie's box): grilled pork T-bone with Asian slaw, pancetta, tomato
emulsion and potato rosti. A rosti is a potato pancake. David
(Brandon's box): leek carbonara with pancetta and morels. Justin
(Kevin's box): kimchi meatloaf with warmed spinach, bacon, and corn
salad. Michelle (Eric's box): strawberry ricotta hush puppy with
hazelnut crème fraiche. Kevin (Adrienne's box): grilled ribeye,
roasted red pepper romesco, mushroom ragu with pancetta and broccoli.
Kelsey (Brian's box): bacon wrapped asparagus. Eric (Justin's box):
gift wrapped roasted chicken with soubise, crispy oyster mushrooms
and broccoli slaw. Soubise is an onion sauce.
Eddie's
curry was muddled, and Justin's dish was salty. Blais, please don't
do that stupid thing Tom does and use the construction “the dish
ate salty”. It was salty. Just say it properly. Also Kelsey just
put like, asparagus and cubes of ham and said it was “bacon wrapped
asparagus”. In good news, Sara had a great play on chopped liver,
David was creative in using the leeks as pasta, and Nini was very
smart and her chutney was very flavorful. The winner is David. He
gets immunity again.
Padma
says they can go home and rest for the day. She has a “real”
present waiting for them. When they get to the house, everything is
decorated to the nines and Tom and Graham are there (in shirt sleeves
because it's still hot). They made dinner for everyone! Merry
Christmas! Guys we all know you didn't tape this in the winter time.
Also there's a special guest: Eric Ripert. Everyone freaks out. Padma
and Blais and Brooke show up at the door too. They all sit down to
dinner, which looks amazing. Kelsey's already said out loud that she
hopes there isn't a challenge coming. Everyone talks about their
Christmas traditions. Kevin gets an interview where he talks about
giving up a great job to go home to get married. Nini hasn't been
with her family for several years. She used to cook with her brother,
but he's passed. Aww.
And
then Padma is like, oh hey, is there something else missing? Can
anyone guess? Eric says “the thirteen desserts” and Tom smirks
about how convenient this is. Of course. The elimination challenge is
to make dessert. Two hours. Brian hasn't bothered to show up with a
dessert. The pantry is stocked but it'll probably be crowded. Eddie
says at least he got to have dinner with Eric Ripert. So the Thirteen
Desserts is actually a thing, but like half of them are dried fruit
or other simple things.
It
is pretty cramped in there. Also there is DEFINITELY a shot of
someone looking at a recipe book. David is so relieved to have
immunity. He asks if anyone has a can opener and someone replies
“Open it with your teeth, Immunity”. Heh. Michelle gets some
actual screen time to say she's confident. Kelsey is making biscotti
and macaron. Brandon's parents had a chocolate factory. Huh. Eric's
making a West African dessert that is like beignets. Brian has ended
up on shortbread biscuits. You should come to this show with at least
one dessert, come on. Pablo is making tarts? Tart pastry? It's risky
but he wants to take the risk. Nini borrows some gelatin sheets to
make cremeux which is a pudding. She hollers at the kitchen that they
better not touch the bowl in the freezer or she'll murder them.
Everyone reacts like they actually believe she'll kill them on TV.
Honestly people. Justin's making blue cheese mousse, which sounds
pretty good actually. Brian makes mostarda, which the chyron says is
fruit and mustard flavored syrup. Also, Bravo, leave your chryons on
screen for longer than three frames. Kelsey asks everyone not to open
the bottom oven. I guess her macarons are in there. Sara is using a
toaster oven, which isn't working. So she puts her stuff in the
bottom oven. Are we just assuming we can cram the ovens with like
three or four things? You know it doesn't work that way. Anyway,
Kelsey of course is pissed. OK so if it's so vital that no one touch
the oven, then why are you hogging the regular oven when you could
have been using a toaster oven? Then only your pan is in there and
you can leave it closed.
Tom
Time! One hour left. Adrienne is making almond dacquiose, “the most
French cake that you can get” she says. Eddie babbles about
strawberry shortcake. He's improvising, and Eric says the last time
he did that his son told him to quit. Hee. Nini admits she has pastry
experience, and they nod that she's very organized so of course.
Pablo's dough is probably not cold enough but he doesn't have time.
Kelsey's macarons have failed. Kevin's ricotta is too salty, but he
thinks with the cake and cherries it'll be fine. Tom tells everyone
it's a hot mess back there.
Eddie:
strawberry shortcake with almond streusel and fennel. Pablo: dark
chocolate, coffee, and black pepper ganache with raspberry sauce.
Brian: sweet and savory biscuit, dried fruit, jam, and pickled cocoa
nib with pistachio butter and sour cream. Nini: blackberry and lemon
vacherin. Vacherin is a type of cheese. David: banana cream cheese
trifle with macadamia nut and bacon streusel. Kevin: ricotta cake
with ricotta whipped cream and macerated cherries. Sara: “church
fold” biscuit with hibiscus and ginger infused fresh berries,
coconut “whooped” cream and macadamia nuts. “It's more fun when
you say 'whooped'”. Sigh. Kelsey: pot de crème with citrus
topping, lemon poppy seed and cream cheese whip. Adrienne: almond
dacquiose, whipped ganache, blood orange and red wine marmalade with
orange sorbet. Everyone looks irritated and I can't tell if it's
because the food is bad or they're just sick of dessert at this
point. Brandon: white chocolate mousse, caramel, blood orange,
candied orange zest with toasted pecan cake. Tom asks him which part
of the moose is in there, and Brandon takes entirely too long to get
it. Justin: bleu cheese mousse, crumbled goat cheese, chestnut and
bacon crumble. Michelle: warm baked chocolate with roasted cherries,
ginger, and hazelnuts. Eric: bofrot with crème anglaise, blackberry
and blueberry fluid gel and chocolate crumbs. If you Google “bofrot”
everything says Ghanian donuts.
Padma
thanks them all for giving them beautiful food after a long day, and
they'll have judging tomorrow. The contestants head to the kitchen to
chug liquids, while the judges mention that Nini's dessert stood out
for being elegant, and Brian's dessert had terrible biscuits and
vinegar. Eddie's dessert was great with the fennel. Michelle didn't
have enough sweetness. Eric's dessert was also simple which was
great. Kevin did not hide the extra salt that he thought he was
doing. Eric says Kelsey's dessert is his favorite. Everything in
Brandon's dessert is mushy. Justin's cheese course ended up bland and
too complicated. Adrienne had a ton of skill, but her cream wasn't
the right consistency. Sara's biscuit isn't cooked properly. Pablo
needs something creamy. David's flavors are nice.
So
no one cleaned last night. The kitchen looks like shit. Everyone says
“Merry Christmas”. Sigh. Probably no one slept very well except
David.
Judges'
Table. Tom knows this was a hard challenge, both because it was a
surprise and because it's desserts. Kelsey, Nini, and Eddie were the
top three. Everyone is thrilled. Eddie didn't want to make something
really sweet, and strawberries and fennel really go well together.
The streusel had a good texture contrast. Nini's dessert was delicate
but complex in flavors. Kelsey admits she never made the biscotti
before. She also brings up the macarons, which, first of all she says
“macaroons” which is big cookies made of coconut so get it
together. Second, why bring them up when you know you're in the top
and no one got any macarons? Her textures were on point also. Eric
awards the win to Nini. Yay! She is so glad people will take her
seriously now.
Bottom
three are Kevin, Pablo, and Brian. Brian is like, I don't have a lot
of pastry experience. Yeah, they know. His fruit was very acidic, and
he admits he cooked his cocoa nibs in apple cider vinegar and sugar.
The fruit needed cheese, not pickled cocoa nibs. Pablo admits his
pastry was too dry. They subtitle him, for whatever reason, but it's
white letters that end up over his white chef's jacket. Get it
together, Bravo, honestly. His chocolate had seized and the
raspberries were not ripe. Ouch. Kevin wanted to cook down his fruit,
and he knows that it got too salty. So he says something about
butter? Tom tells him flat out he shouldn't have served it.
Everyone
in the bottom knows they messed up, but they didn't do anything about
it. Tom is of course personally offended that Kevin knew his fruit
was bad and served it anyway. Pablo made a lot of mistakes, but Eric
argues that it's not offensive. Not as much as Brian's, which was too
sour. Too much acid. But butter was not going to fix salty ricotta.
Kevin
is the loser. Aww. He's hoping to be a role model for his kids. He
knows he needs to evolve and not give up. He sounds pretty OK with
it.
Next
week: Restaurant Wars! Double elimination! I'm out of town so I'll
try my best. Looks like plenty of failing.
Last
Chance Kitchen: we're still pretending it's Christmas. Kevin is
excited to keep competing. He knows the veterans so he's a little
nervous. Brother Luck doesn't know what is going on with this kid,
he's goofy and has Run DMC glasses. Heh. Tom says it's time for
Christmas breakfast. Also there's plenty of ranch dressing mix. Sigh.
30
minutes. Kevin's going to make ranch waffles. His family normally
makes crepes so this is similar? No one laughs at Kevin's salt jokes.
Natalie makes latkes with the ranch. Carrie says she's going to make
a classic family breakfast. Brother Luck jokes “Fancy toast?”
Hee. She does seem to be making several things. Brother Luck makes a
frittata and a salad.
Tom
Time! Kevin admits he doesn't make waffles ever. He doesn't even know
how the waffle iron works. He says his waffle looks great, and Tom is
all “are you sure” so of course Kevin is not confident. He says
in Iowa a ranch waffle is gold. True. Natalie is also making a French
omelet, which means no color and very simple. Carrie has potatoes,
fancy toast, etc. Did she make a lot of fancy toast her season? It
seems to be a running gag. That sounds familiar. Brother Luck says
his frittata is too dark. I think it's fine but he is making another
one. Carrie has made a million things and everyone else has made a
single dish. Brother Luck gets his other frittata done.
Kevin:
ranch waffles, pancetta and maple compote with seven minute egg. I
guess a seven minute egg is boiled enough that you can peel it and it
holds its shape? It looks like a hard boiled egg. Natalie: omelette
with morel mushrooms, asparagus, pancetta and ranch potato pancake.
Tom is very talkative today, but there's a weird line about the latke
that is clearly dubbed in after the fact. Brother Luck: frittata with
truffle, asparagus, tomato and strawberry salad with ranch ricotta.
Carrie: ranch bacon and potatoes with blueberry sausage, soft
scrambled eggs and fancy toast. It's just toast with jam.
The
winner is Natalie. The omelette was perfect, and the latke added
texture. Second place is Brother Luck. Kevin's dish was almost too
salty, but his sauce was great and the egg was cooked really well.
Carrie's bacon and ranch was good but the sausage was weird. He liked
Kevin's slightly more. Aww! Tom says she should have made real fancy
toast. She can do it again. Natalie is thrilled she won and Brother
Luck is her next target.
P.S.
I AM going to recap Project Runway All-Stars, but it starts the day I
get back to town and I have plans that night, so it may be late. But
it will be happening.
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