Previously
on “Top Chef”: we began the finale in Macau, in the local market.
Graham was here to help the contestants navigate and also to tell
everyone how he has a restaurant here. We did not go to his
restaurant. Obviously the Quickfire is to cook something with
ingredients from the market. Michelle won with cuttlefish noodles.
The Elimination Challenge asked the chefs to make a dish for a New
Year's party. It must include pork, because it's the Year of the Pig.
Also some eliminated contestants showed up with ingredients that
represent different ideals like health and happiness. So everyone had
to use whichever ingredients they got there also. Kelsey decided the
night before not to use pork belly in her dish, but it didn't hurt
her and her broth won. Adrienne made a canape, which sounded like it
probably tasted good, but the judges weren't impressed (and they
thought it was stingy) so she was eliminated. (click for more)
Eric
is trying not to worry about everything. Kelsey is proud of her smart
decisions. Michelle knows three chefs are going to the finale. I
think that's next week, after the premiere of Project Runway, so it's
going to be a busy night for me. If I can't get a full recap done
I'll try to throw up something with the basics.
As
they drive around, Sara claims this is the first time she's felt
nervous in this whole competition. Padma meets them at a temple, so I
guess they can desecrate it. The Quickfire challenge is to make
something with durian. Good. It tastes better than it smells. Kelsey
whines that she wants to throw it away. Winner gets an extra hour in
the Elimination Challenge.
30
minutes. Various comparisons of the smell to things like diapers.
Michelle is going to try to make ice cream? Sara decides she heard
Padma say once that curry can cover up bad flavors. Except that Padma
seemed to like the flavor? Eric is struggling to find ingredients.
Kelsey is also trying to cover up the flavors. Eric might have wasted
too much time. Sara and Kelsey continue to whine and make faces and
dumb noises. You guys should have suspected this was coming.
Michelle:
espuma of chilled durian, ice, and coconut cream with shrimp ceviche
and molho cru sauce. Espuma is foam, and molho cru is like a
chimichurri. Eric: tomato and celery salad with durian vinaigrette
and pickled sea bass. Sara: crispy skin bass, vadouvan and durian
curry with dinosaur plum. Kelsey: breakfast parfait of yogurt and
fruit.
Eric
had a good vinaigrette, but the tomato and celery diluted it. Kelsey
put too many other fruits in her dish. Sara had a good pairing and
apparently taught Padma something new. Michelle's dish had a great
balance of flavors and of savory and sweet. Michelle is the winner!
Good. It wouldn't be a great look if Sara whined about how gross
durian is and then she won. Michelle is thrilled.
The
Elimination Challenge involves Macanese food, which is a blend of
Portuguese, Chinese, Malay, and Indian. Now you have to look to your
own heritage (haven't they already done this) but make something with
Chinese ingredients. I feel like this happened last week, and well
before that. “Use local ingredients to make your own food and do a
fusion dish” isn't a terrible challenge, it's just that I feel like
they've fallen back on it so much this season. Maybe I'm mistaken
about how often they've done it. Serve 8 people and one person will
be eliminated. First they get to go to an authentic Macanese
restaurant. Michelle gets 3.5 hours to cook, and the other three will
get 2.5.
I
would be excited about this trip, but I'm not sure how it matters in
terms of this challenge. They don't have to replicate Macanese food.
They're supposed to make their own fusion. Anyway, when they get to
the restaurant, everyone has a family member there. Kelsey and Sara's
moms are here. Somehow Sara has met Kelsey's mom before. I don't'
know. Eric's sister and Michelle's mom. This food looks amazing.
Kelsey says the flavors are clean and simple? But layers and layers?
How can this food have many layers but also be simple? We all go
around the table to declare everyone's heritages. Eric is from Ghana,
but we knew that. Michelle is Italian and Mexican. Kelsey talks about
her grandmother and great-grandmother breaking glass
ceilings...because they ran the household? Are you telling me
Southern women didn't run the house? I have trouble believing that.
Anyway, I guess Kelsey and Sara's heritage is “Southern”. Well,
Sara has Jewish relatives.
The
moms (and Eric's sister) are going shopping too. So everyone talks to
their family member about their dish. Sara discusses matzo balls with
her mom. Specifically, putting soda water to make them lighter.
Michelle wants to make an Italian soup, but with beans. I know this
isn't helpful but my guess is it'll all change eventually based on
what's at the market. Kelsey talks crawfish boil. Eric and his sister
brainstorm substitutions for melon seeds. Or maybe just decide that's
something they have to have.
They
get to shop in a regular supermarket, not the local market. Sara's
mom apparently thought the shopping time limit was fake. There is a
lot of brainstorming and adjusting. And hoping you're guessing what
something is. Kelsey's mom had filled up a cart with stuff, and then
she lost it, so that's some drama. Since we went to commercial not
having found it, of course once we get back it's there.
In
the morning, Michelle admits to everyone else that this will be the
first time her mom will eat her restaurant food. She's always worked
for someone else, and her one restaurant is very casual. She cooked
for the family for a while, but she doesn't have her own restaurant.
Sara says her mom will come to her restaurant and tell the cooks
stuff isn't seasoned properly or whatever. Why is that not
surprising.
Michelle
is so thrilled to get her extra hour. She's making cioppino, which is
a seafood dish, like a clear/light tomato-based broth with seafood.
But she's putting corn and beans in it also, and I would assume local
seafood. Sara grinds up water crackers into a flour and then hopes
she can eyeball a dough. Eric is making fufu again, with local yams.
His dish (egusi stew) is supposed to have melon seeds, but he has
three kinds of pumpkin seeds instead. You grind them up and use them
for texture.
Tom
Time! Sara is making matzo balls and piri piri broth. Kelsey tells
them she's making a low country boil. Basically she made a shopping
list and then replaced everything. Michelle has local seafood, of
course. Eric is making fish balls.
Kelsey's
broth is very spicy. She's winging it and hoping everything will
work, even though she doesn't know what everything is. Sara's matzo
balls are huge, and Kelsey tells her not to cut them in half.
Michelle is freaking out, because she has eleven components. But I
think she gets done.
So
the family members don't get to eat everything. They just come out at
the right time. Michelle: “cioppino” seafood, beans, and chorizo.
Padma points out there's an empty seat for Michelle to join them.
This cioppino doesn't have broth, which I would think is half of the
point of cioppino. Michelle doesn't think of broth when she thinks of
cioppino. You know maybe it's nice for her to be here to explain
things like this. And admit she knows her dish is very rich. Once she
and her mom leave, the judges think it's a very good dish. Tom
doesn't think it's very Chinese. They do wish for a broth, although
Tom declares he doesn't care about broth, just that it's not Chinese.
Sara
pours broth into gravy boats, but she's slopping it everywhere. Sara:
chicken thighs with matzo balls and savory mushroom consomme. Sara
tells the table the soda water trick and Tom is all “oh of course”
because he knew that already. Hee. Sara then jokes they should just
tell her it's awesome and she won. Uh huh. Sadly they really love all
of it. Sara's mom tells her she should make it for Passover now.
Eric
wants to make his sister proud. Eric: egusi stew with panko fried
fufu dumpling and shrimp. He didn't worry about making fufu for the
second time because it's slightly different. Tom whines that the
shrimp was salty, and one of the other guest judges is like “I
drank some wine, I was OK with the salt” like Tom should just shut
up and drink some wine also. The other problem, that they all seem to
agree on, was that the seeds that Eric ground up didn't grind up
smoothly, or maybe they did but the texture was off-putting. Also he
used winter melon seeds, which are Asian, but are not meant to be
ground up and eaten.
Kelsey
thinks if she does a tableside pour, then everyone will think of a
low country boil. I guess? But as we know, Kelsey is a fan of calling
her dishes things that they do not really resemble. Like chicken pot
pie. Kelsey: low country boil with shrimp. The broth has a ton of
ingredients in it and is well spiced and well seasoned. There are a
lot of Asian flavors, but Padma thinks maybe it's too strong to have
a whole bowl.
Judges'
Table. Everyone took some risks, and brought creative food, but Padma
says there's one clear winner. The winner is Sara. Sigh. She blended
matzo ball soup with Chinese ingredients, and I think I suspected it
when no one would say anything bad about her dish earlier.
Someone
will be eliminated. Kelsey talks about her chart and replacing all
her ingredients with local ones. The broth was very intense, and
Padma thinks it was too salty. Tom has more praise and says he liked
it, because I guess this season is about people I don't personally
like making the finale. Eric's flavor was great but the texture was
gritty. It sounds like it's supposed to be, though. Tom complains
about the salty shrimp. Michelle took a lot of care with each item,
but Padma wanted broth. Some of the textures are too similar, but Tom
has praise for her too.
Do
you have anything else to say? Michelle says she knows what it's like
to go home, and she's learned a lot, but she has more. Eric knows
it's a risk to make Ghanaian food, but he's fine with going out with
something he's proud of. Kelsey says being on the show is the hardest
decision she's had to make, so she's glad to get to this point. Is
she just trying to guilt them? Like, “I left my newborn behind so
make this worth it and let me get to the finale”?
Kelsey's
dish was close to perfect, but her broth was overwhelming. Tom
defends it, without having anything bad to say. Michelle's dish was
very busy, and she didn't have an overwhelming Chinese feel. Eric's
seeds were a big problem, although his stew had a great flavor. Tom
didn't like the salty shrimp, but he says the stew was the best thing
he had tonight in terms of flavor.
Tom
says there are no losers, but there is one loser. And that is
Michelle. Garbage. She wasn't Chinese enough. But clearly Tom has
decided who he wants to win and he's going to make an excuse for
them. Michelle is ready for the future. Then Tom says only two people
are cooking in the finale.
Next
week: make a four course meal, obviously, somehow someone is being
eliminated? The usual.
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