Top Chef 2/28/19--"Holy Macau!" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: remember those gardens everyone planted? They all had to make something from their gardens for the Quickfire, which Justin won. Then each contestant had to come up with a dish that was a thank you to their mentor, who would also be at dinner. Also there was an auction but it was very boring. Sara won, and her food looks good, I just don't like Sara herself. Justin made a duo and plated his fish duo five minutes early, which ruined it, and then Tom hates duos so Justin was eliminated. (click for more)

Macau appears to be very fancy, or at least the spot they're putting everyone in. Eric is the first to arrive, and he's ready to go. Adrienne hasn't won anything by herself this season, only team wins. Everyone does seem to greet each other warmly. No Wendy Pepper-style shunning.

In the morning after they all arrive Graham shows up to tell them all he's got a restaurant here. Then it's time for a field trip to the market. Awesome. Macau has a ton of Portuguese influence, so it's slightly different from Hong Kong, which has British influence. Eric is reminded of markets in Ghana. Graham knows all the stuff, century eggs, durian, all of that. Kelsey is shown asking smart questions about how to cook something, but Graham is also sharing a lot of info. Kelsey is genre savvy, because she knows she'll either use all this knowledge in the future, or in the next 15 minutes.

They go up to some rooftop and Padma is there. Kelsey acts smug, but I think they all should have seen it coming. Right? Anyway, the Quickfire is to take 45 minutes and roughly US$25 to shop in the market and make something. They've already bought gum fish, cuttlefish, eel, sea snails, giant scallops, and razor clams, so they can use that. They draw knives for protein selection, which takes place without drama.

Now everyone has to shop without knowing the language. In addition to the fact that I'm not sure any of them can haggle properly. Sara brags that she studied some Cantonese, but curse words and “thank you” aren't going to help you shop. Michelle is going to try to make cuttlefish noodles, staple of several Iron Chef episodes. Kelsey buys white powder. She has the gum fish, and she wants to make it like some kind of crab claw dish she always makes. So I guess she sort of listened to Graham, in that he said they usually fry it, but then she's buying like, black bean paste, so that's not Southern? Kelsey bugs me like Sara does, although she does seem to be pulling it off. Her personality just rubs me the wrong way.

Eric is going to do something he's never done before, so let's hope that works. Sara is discovering her giant scallops are very firm already, and she freaks out because she's afraid if she cooks them they'll be hockey pucks. Kelsey throws away the fish heads, and then discovers she's bought cornstarch and not flour, but “Asian cultures fry everything in cornstarch” so she's glad. See that's what I'm talking about. I don't think that's necessarily true. Many stir-fries have a sauce that's thickened with cornstarch, but if you're deep frying things I think they're dredged in regular flour. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But Kelsey seems confident and I don't know that she knows? Michelle cut her cuttlefish into thin strips like pasta. Ah, so not Iron Chef style. I thought she was going to puree it and then you squeeze out noodles into boiling water. She and Eric discuss their dishes, because Eric's is a little chewy.

Michelle: cuttlefish noodles with Chinese beans, lotus root and fermented black beans. Eric: snails in black pepper and oyster sauce with citrus oil. Adrienne: razor clam and watermelon ceviche. This also has fried lotus root chips to eat them on. Sara: fresh scallops with celtuce, rose apples and fresh water chestnut. Celtuce is Chinese lettuce. Kelsey: fried gum fish with sweet and sour sauce.

Adrienne had a simple, great dish. Sara shaved everything very thin, so there wasn't much flavor. Kelsey “embraced” the market. Eric's snails were delicious but overcooked. Michelle got the perfect texture on her cuttlefish. The winner is Michelle. Yay!

Time for New Year's. The guest judge today is Jowett Yu, who has a restaurant in Hong Kong. OK you couldn't get someone with a restaurant in the city you're actually in? Anyway, the Elimination Challenge is to cater a New Year's party for 200. also you'll have help which is eliminated contestants Brandon, Brian, Justin, Eddie, and David. Each one has a basket with ingredients representing some ideal: health, wealth, longevity, happiness, and togetherness. You must use every ingredient your sous chef has, and you are the only one who can use those ingredients. Michelle gets to pick first and then determine the order everyone else gets to pick. Heh. She takes David and “longevity”. Peaches, noodles, and peanuts. However, the real reason is because David is Portuguese. Yes but he got eliminated for trying to make basically the national dish and he failed. Hopefully this will work. Adrienne takes Brian (because Brian has ginger, and she wants to be the only one who can use it). Brian is “health”; broccoli, eggs, ginger. Sara takes Eddie and “happiness” (cauliflower, shrimp, walnuts), because she wants “happiness”. Kelsey takes Brandon (“wealth”; oranges, cashews, cabbage), which leaves Eric and Justin (“togetherness”; water chestnuts, coconut, lychee). You fools. Eric and Justin get along very well. Also you have to use pork because it's the Year of the Pig. 30 minutes at the market and then 4 hours to cook tomorrow.

Eric wants to make coconut curry, as it's a comfort food for him which reminds him of family and togetherness. That's a good thought process. It sounds like Adrienne is thinking about congee, which is rice porridge. Michelle is going to pickle the peaches. Kelsey...says something I can't make out, and I rewound several times. Pot likker? Black eyed peas, cornbread, and greens? I thought she was talking about Hoppin' John but I don't think I heard that and that involves rice, which I did not hear. I guess we'll see. Sara is going to make cauliflower grits and shrimp. She has never made cauliflower grits.

Michelle is familiar with Chinese New Year because she lives in San Francisco and has gone to the parade and everything. She wants to make some kind of dumplings, but with lettuce as the wrapper. Kelsey goes back to the same store she shopped at this morning, where she's left something the shopkeeper has saved for her. It's cute, although Kelsey's referring to this woman as “my little friend” is making me side-eye her. Maybe that's what it is, is that everything is fine on the surface, but the longer I think about it the more it feels like she's looking down on everyone here for not being white. I'm not saying she's a racist, but would she call a shopkeeper in Atlanta “my little friend”? My first instinct is to cringe. Anyway, she's currently bragging that Brandon has experience with Asian food, and no one knew it but her, so she's got a secret advantage. Adrienne is planning to have Brian braise some pork, and then charred broccoli and aioli for eggs. Somehow deconstructed pork fried rice. Michelle finds pork belly and sausages too for her dumplings.

When everyone gets back to the hotel, they find a note to go have dinner. I thought it would be Graham's restaurant, but it's a traditional meal. They all talk about their dishes, so that Adrienne can wonder if Sara's shrimp and grits will go over well with Chinese palates, and Kelsey can decide maybe she doesn't want to put pork belly on her dish, because Adrienne is doing that, and when two chefs do the same thing, one of them goes home. Yes but that could be Adrienne? I guess Kelsey isn't that confident.

Four hours for cooking. Eric is making braised pork shoulder and also crispy pig's ears. Michelle has noodles, which she is putting into her dumplings? Kelsey's lack of confidence is actually due to the fact that she thinks she can't beat Brian's meat cookery. She's going to braise it and then use the liquid. Also chop it up and put it in the “peas and grits”. That's what she called it. She's cooking dried black eyed peas, which are tricky and I wonder if they'll cook in time. Adrienne is making sticky rice cakes that you can pick up like a crostini, with all the stuff piled on top. Sara has a ton of shrimp to clean, but they're poaching them to order so they have a little time. Kelsey has Justin taste her black eyed peas, and he says don't let them cook any more because they're done. This is a problem because they'll keep cooking as they cool, so they may end up overcooked. She's got them in a sheet pan, out of the cooking liquid, so maybe they'll stop cooking.

Upstairs looks very pretty. Sara has decided to sear shrimp on a single burner. To order. Kelsey says her black eyed peas came out perfectly. She claims she's merging southern cuisine with Macau cuisine. The evening starts with a lion dance which is fun. Adrienne is really behind, still doing prep work she wanted to get done in the kitchen.

Michelle: pork lettuce wrap with cold noodle salad, peanuts two ways and pickled peach. The balance is great. Adrienne: fried sticky rice cake, hoisin braised pork belly, and roasted chili aioli. Tom wishes the portion was bigger and it had some depth, but “it's good”.

Eric: coconut curry, braised pork shoulder and crispy pork ears with lychee glaze and Thai chili. Padma says he was timid with the chili, in a disappointed mom way. And they play the failure scare chord so you will think it is very serious. Also maybe he should have put some rice in there to soak up the sauce. Sara: shrimp, cauliflower grits with poached walnuts and pork shank. Graham says it's really sour, and Tom responds with “yeah it's really tasty”. Also very Southern.

Kelsey: mushroom broth with peas, greens, orange rinds, Portuguese sausage, cashews, cilantro and chives. The judges like this one. They all trade, as Graham and Tom are together, and Padma and Jowett are together, so now they have to try all the other dishes. Pretty much similar comments, although Jowett and Padma think Sara's dish is salty, and then Adrienne burns the shit out of Padma's mouth because the rice cake is too hot.

Judges' Table. Tom tells the chefs they did a good job fusing their own backgrounds into the local cuisine. Kelsey and Michelle are the top two. Michelle's dumpling stuffing was balanced and she didn't overfill them. Tom thinks it's like a dish from a young Chinese chef who had traveled a bit. It looks simple but when you eat it, it's very complex, which is a facet of Chinese cuisine. Kelsey's dish was soulful, and very complicated. Tom goes on a tangent about not making food to look pretty? But to taste good? I guess that Kelsey's dish wasn't the prettiest, because greens and black eyed peas in broth isn't fancy looking. The winner is Kelsey. Now she is convinced she could win the whole thing.

Padma promises the bottom three that they had delicious food from everyone. Eric's curry needed some acidity. Padma says it was muddy and she couldn't pick out the different spices and ingredients. Eric says respectfully, he disagrees. You can have curries from wherever, and when you can't pick out exactly what is in the curry, but you still like it, that's the best curry. Because everyone and their mother makes a curry. Tom dryly says his mother never made a curry. Heh. Padma clarifies that she doesn't need to know what each thing is, but it needed complexity. And the lychee and water chestnut were lost. Sara's grits weren't rich enough, because cauliflower grits aren't as rich as regular grits. Sara just says maybe it needed a pound of butter. Sigh. The pork sauce was very strong, and salty. Adrienne had one bite of food, which was maybe too small. She says no, because the people in line didn't get what they thought they were going to get, they got something turned on it's head, and that's fun. Yes but in Chinese culture, you aren't supposed to clean your plate, because it implies your host didn't feed you enough. Not that everyone else had huge portions or anything, but to serve basically an amuse bouche is pretty counter to that idea. Also what does the volume of your dish have to do with people being surprised by your dish? Tom didn't get any ginger flavor (Adrienne insists it was everywhere) and the components didn't talk to each other.

Padma says Adrienne's components were fine, but it was predictable and didn't stand out. Tom says it was lacking flavor. No one liked Sara's broth, and Tom now doesn't like the cauliflower, although when he and Graham had her dish, he said it was really tasty. But clearly it was also salty, because he's not arguing with Padma that HE didn't think it was too salty. Graham didn't like the walnuts, and they were a required ingredient. Eric also didn't highlight the lychee or water chestnuts. It was all rich, and using more lychee, for example, would have helped balance the dish out.

Tom tells a bunch of chefs that celebrations revolve around food. Pretty sure they all know that, Tom. Adrienne is eliminated. The dish just didn't come together and then Tom says it wasn't generous. She's pissed, I think. She doesn't regret anything, though.

Next week: Quickfire with durian, loved ones (I assume), we talk about three people in the finale so I guess there are two episodes left? Great, so the premiere of Project Runway and the finale of Top Chef are on the same night.