Top Chef 1/31/19--"Music City USA" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: no Quickfire, but the Elimination challenge was to get into two teams and throw a party on a houseboat on the lake. Eddie got to pick teams, and took the extra person since there were an odd number of people left. He took the more introverted people who wanted a “classier” party. Adrienne spent most of the episode sick, and there was briefly some drama with a loss of power but in the end, it didn't affect much. Kelsey won, and her team got 79 votes out of 100 which is a pretty substantial landslide. Kelsey's oysters and her puppy chow party favors gave her the win. Meanwhile, Brian decided to get into the hot tub with his shoes on, to be “fun”, but then cooked his porchetta so poorly he was eliminated. (click for more)

On Last Chance Kitchen, Brian and Brandon had to make pig trotters, ears, and so forth. They both ended up making crispy pigs ears, but other things too. Brandon used the pig parts better, so he is moving on.

We recap the last episode, and I know this is instead of a “Previously On” montage, but this kind of feels fake. You know? Like the producers made them talk about it so they could do this. Everyone is tired, and there are eight left, which is where we'd usually do Restaurant Wars. Except we already did. It would be kind of epic if they did it again.

Also we're headed to Nashville. You'll notice that Nashville is not in Kentucky. So all that press about how great Kentucky is was all bullshit if they have to LEAVE Kentucky. Anyway, they head to the Grand Ole Opry, with a detour for Adrienne to barf on the side of the road. I did see a couple comments on the internet about how she seemed miraculously better once service was over but she's clearly still sick.

There are tables set up on stage at the Opry. Kelsey of course is a country music fan and is thrilled. The Quickfire is to make a dish for a “rising star” but they won't know who until it's over. Instead they have the riders. Actually that's not a bad challenge. You just get a list of foods the artist wants and you have to make something that fits the list. Everyone will grab a rider for a specific meal. Winner gets an advantage in the Elimination challenge.

30 minutes. David grabs all the eggs and gives four to Kelsey, but then tells Eric he can't spare anymore because he's making omelets. Eric has to pivot to oatmeal. It's a dirty trick but also legal so whatever. Michelle's making salad and grilled cheese croutons. Adrienne tells Justin she didn't take all the red meat, there's a strip steak back there. She still is not feeling well, and is really not thinking outside the box. Kelsey is making shakshuka, which is eggs simmered in tomato sauce with peppers. It's actually a really good breakfast. Lots of salads happening. David is making French omelets, which are very fiddly. Adrienne basically serves a slice of steak.

The “rising artist” is Hunter Hayes. Kelsey shrieks because Kelsey. David: omelet with goat cheese vinaigrette and zucchini, jicama and prosciutto salad. Eric: hot oatmeal with maple syrup, brown sugar, fresh fruit, and hydrated cranberry and raisin jam. Kelsey: shakshuka with tomatoes, eggs, and toast.

Sara: cauliflower salad with radishes, blueberries, and blackberries. Eddie: shaved vegetable salad with chicken, prosciutto, whole wheat croutons, crunchy potatoes, and endives. Michelle: grilled cheese salad with avocado buttermilk vinaigrette and charred jalapeno.

Justin: skirt steak salad with vegetables, kohlrabi, cremini mushrooms, carrots, spinach and crispy potatoes. Adrienne: seared filet mignon with Cajun spiced corn, roasted pepper puree, and fennel salad.

Bottoms are David, because the sauce was too overwhelming, and Eddie, because everything tasted the same. And Kelsey because he is “cautious” about acidic things. Whatever. Eric made light oatmeal, Sara had a great balance of savory and sweet, and Adrienne also had good balance. Adrienne wins. Hilarious because Adrienne basically said she did a really simple dish because she couldn't think of anything else. She lucked out and she knows it.

Elimination Challenge. Create a dish inspired by a music memory in your life. Two hours today, and two hours tomorrow. Adrienne gets an extra hour tomorrow as her prize. They'll be cooking for some people who created the Music City Food & Wine Festival, Jonathan Waxman, and the lead singer of Kings of Leon. Also some local chefs, who I guess aren't important enough to be named.

While shopping, people share their “music memories”. I put it in quotes because while I'm sure some people will have a great memory, some people are going to make something up to fit the dish they've decided on. Some people just don't have a music memory. It is what it is.

Two hours to cook today. Kelsey talks a lot so that's some foreshadowing. She's going to make Sunday supper that her husband loves. Sara's making jambalaya. David is freaking out his clams aren't opening fast enough.

Tom Time! And Graham. Eric discovers Tom used to live really near to where he did. OK Bravo has a playlist of the songs up on their website. That is pretty cool, actually. He's making steak. Justin has some purple gnocchi for “Purple Rain”. Michelle is making some fish, which has to do with the Beatles somehow. Tom bails. He never really does anything for very long on these visits. Time's up for today.

Everyone goes to the big suite or townhouse or whatever they're staying in. Mostly everyone is slightly emotional. It's a very personal challenge, and they've been been in the competition for a while so everyone is kind of homesick. Michelle tells us her dish reminds her of her father, who committed suicide when she was a teenager.

Adrienne is feeling a little better than yesterday, and she's loving the extra hour she's got. Justin wants an entirely purple plate. Eric is making concord grape juice and he really needs several hours. Eddie tells the kitchen the first dish he made for his wife was fish, and she doesn't like fish. Eric laughs “Classic Eddie!” It's true. David is making pork and clams, which is classic Portuguese. He helps Eric plate.

Eric: he was inspired by Notorious B.I.G. Ribeye steak, eggs, Parmesan cheese sauce and concord grape jus. Straight out of “Big Poppa”. The steak is overcooked but it's seasoned well. Justin is happy with his dish, but he realizes he is missing a plate. It looks like he miscounted, because there's a plate on the counter. He tells the table he dropped a plate, and therefore is short and he can't win. Justin: New York strip with braised red cabbage, beet potato dumpling, and purple pearl onion. The sauce is really good, and everyone likes it.

Eddie: red snapper with edamame puree, puffed rice, charred green onion and bacon relish. It's missing texture and acidity and the puffed rice doesn't go. Michelle: red snapper with corn and fava ragout, citrus vinaigrette, and fennel onion puree. She says the smell of corn reminds her of her father, and she gets emotional and tells them about losing her father. You can see other diners also wiping their eyes. It's a great dish, and one of the chefs there says he'd like to hire her. Tom says it's the best dish they've had all season and the other diners laugh that they've always wanted to be there when he says that. Heh.

David has over-reduced his sauce. Oops. He tries to add butter in the hopes that it will counteract the saltiness. David: “pork and clams”, morels, clam salad, crispy potatoes, and pork tenderloin. The butter did not help because it's really salty. Tom can't tell what anything is and the mushrooms are soggy. Kelsey: chicken pot pie. OK this is not chicken pot pie. This is a ring of salad greens, chunks of chicken, and croutons, with gravy boats that the diners have to put on themselves. Very salty. Graham wipes his finger along the rim of the plate and comes up with salt. “Like a margarita.”

Sara: grouper with sassafras bone sauce, braised greens, and pumpkin seed pesto. It is very weird for her to say “I was inspired by the song 'Jambalaya' so I made file gumbo.” Right? It's not just me? The dish is one of her best, though. Adrienne: fruits de mer with summer vegetables and corn nage. Fruits de mer is various kinds of seafood. It mostly goes over well, I think, although Jonathan Waxman complains that the nage is supposed to be butter-infused broth and it's butter sauce? There's also a dumb “Nicki Minaj” joke. The contestants commiserate about how hard this was.

Judges' Table. The top three are Justin, Michelle, and Sara. Justin can't win, but they want to tell him that the meat was cooked really well and they loved his flavors. Michelle captured the spirit of the challenge, and everything on the plate made sense. Sara's dish looked simple but was very complex. Michelle wins, but I figured. She moved everyone at the table, and then the dish was good on top of that.

Eddie, Kelsey, and David are the bottom. Eddie actually did want his dish to be soft and creamy, which is why he butter poached his snapper. But he had two sauces, and the sauces were already creamy, so the whole thing had the same texture. David knows his sauce was salty, and then the clams were rubbery too. Oops. Kelsey claims she tasted her gravy a lot, and the only thing on her plate that was salty was the eggs. Tom says every single thing on the plate was salty, and the gravy too.

Jonathan Waxman says they have two people with too much salt, and one person who phoned it in. Eddie's story was fine, but it was oily and mushy. David's potatoes were delicious and that's the only good thing. Every component of Kelsey's dish was salty.

Is it worse to oversalt your dish? Or to half-ass the challenge? David is sent home. Really? Over Kelsey, when he had one component that was edible but Kelsey had none and also claimed that was pot pie? Garbage.

Next week: basketball for some reason, teams and trash talking, Sara and Adrienne get in a fight. It looks like Adrienne went too far, or at least that's what Sara is arguing.

Last Chance Kitchen: David is not surprised to see Brandon, because he is the “Ivan Drago” of the house. Tom gives him shit for fucking up the quintessential Portuguese dish pork and clams. There was like, clam salad, and Tom never figured out what it was. Or he did, but decided it was too weird. The table has random ingredients with no labels or anything. You must choose three items, one of which must be a meat.

30 minutes. David immediately finds scallops, and then identifies things by taste. He also grabs piquillo peppers and some kind of nut. Brandon is pretty sure he has mango puree, and some kind of ground meat, and possibly sunchokes. Oh, no, artichokes. David is now doubting he's got nuts. Well, too late. Brandon says “Brian, come over here and fix my hair” and Brian says, “I would but I...I hate you.” Hee!

Tom Time! Brandon fully admits he has no idea what meat he has. But he doesn't lose points for not knowing what he's cooking. He's making empanadas. David is making romesco sauce. Brandon does that thing where you chop herbs by rocking the knife back and forth really fast and the peanut gallery gives him shit for looking weird. He's got maybe five minutes left and he hasn't actually even made empanadas yet. He's just now rolling out the dough. Somehow he barely makes it. David is happy with his dish, and he gets done also.

David: scallops with romesco, cauliflower puree and apples. Tom tells him he did not pick nuts, he picked ground up sugar cookies. Oops. The scallops and peppers he got right though. Brandon: mystery meat empanada, curry, mango puree and kale chimichurri. The mystery meat is Spam, which apparently Brandon has never had before. Heh.

David's dish was good and he used that sugar cookie stuff well, despite not knowing what it was. Brandon made great empanadas at the last minute. David wins. Nice. He just did a better job of making a dish out of what ingredients he took. He's got two more rounds to go. Brandon is determined to make a name for himself.