Top Chef:All Stars 4/2/20--"Strokes of Genius" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: no Quickfire, because everyone was split up into small groups and sent out to small restaurants to be inspired. The event was honoring Jonathan Gold, a restaurant reviewer. Mostly people ate at ethnic restaurants, and they did skim over some of them which was sad, but it was cool to see. Kevin won, because Kevin is amazing. Eric was once again on the bottom for making East African food that the judges didn't like, but in the end, Angelo was eliminated for making a sweet broth that wasn't a dessert. (click for more)

On Last Chance Kitchen, Hipster Joe and Angelo went to one of Tom's friend's restaurants and were asked to make a seafood dish. Hipster Joe made geoduck, which was cooked well, and Angelo made scrambled eggs with caviar, which you will notice is not really a seafood dish. So Hipster Joe survived.

Kevin says he's ready to come back, because he has more of his story to share. Stephanie is kind of upset, but Nini and Karen sort of commiserate with her. Karen acts like she got picked on her season, when I remember it slightly differently. She's kind of annoying and I think she rightfully got called out for only making Chinese food. But whatever. I'm not sure why Stephanie was in the bottom but we only heard from Karen.

Padma meets everyone with Randall Park and Ali Wong. Love it. Randall says he founded an Asian theater company, and they used to have a fried rice competition. Boss. The Quickfire is to make fried rice, in 30 minutes. There's a big table of random shit, and they have to use at least one thing from the table. Winner gets immunity.

It's a pretty big fight for ingredients, and you can see from some of the shots that someone left their knife roll on the floor. Nini says she grabbed watermelon but she's not quite sure why. Lee Anne tells us in confessional that the rice has to be a little bit crispy, with some color and texture, and it has to have the right seasoning. I used to make fried rice but since I'm impatient I would use fresh rice. But I knew exactly how to undercook it so it was the right texture. But I haven't made it in a while so I probably have forgotten. Karen tells Randall and Ali she's making nasi goreng, which is Indonesian and I feel she's not pronouncing it properly. But it could be I just don't like her. Randall tells Lee Anne he loves her restaurant and she freaks out. Hee. Ali warmly greets Nini, who is wearing the same glasses. She's pickling the watermelon she found. Eric has grabbed peanut butter, which is intriguing. Kevin has no idea what she's doing, so he's using hot dogs because if he doesn't win, then at least he's said “wiener” like 15 times. Heh. Eric says something about peanut butter and jelly fried rice, which is not where I thought he was going.

Kevin: “bachelor fried rice” with wieners, hot cheese puffs, and bourbon. Well that certainly sounds like something a college boy would throw together. Malarkey: fig and pomegranate forbidden rice with tempura frog legs, vadouvan curry. Vadouvan is apparently a French interpretation of Indian curry powder. So it sort of goes with frog legs? Eric: savory peanut butter and jelly fried rice with fried egg. Stephanie: Nashville fried frog legs, fried rice with slaw and red hots. I assume “Nashville fried” means like Nashville hot chicken. Nini: watermelon fried rice with yuzu, fish sauce, fried chili and shallots. Gregory: frog leg and salt cod fried rice, soft scrambled egg. Jamie: canned meat fried rice, Fresno chiles, scallions and whiskey barrel-aged fish sauce. “Canned meat” is really Spam, which they let Jamie and Ali say a bunch of times but I guess officially they have to use a more generic term in the chyron. Bryan: shrimp fried rice, rice porridge, fried rice pearls, with corn chip togarashi. Bryan is always so extra. Padma gives him shit for not really making fried rice. Karen: nasi goreng Indonesian fried rice with hot cheese puffs and egg. Sadly Padma says it really is like nasi goreng. Lee Anne: curried anchovy and beef fried rice with corn chips.

Ali says she was delighted because she has two small children and is used to eating kid food all the time. The bottom: Jamie's Spam overpowered everything with salt, Nini had a good idea but the pieces of watermelon were too big. The top: Kevin used the hot Cheetos and hot dogs well, Eric was inventive, Karen nailed nasi goreng. The winner is Kevin. Hee. Karen looks pissed, but so what.

Elimination challenge. Padma says they're going to the Getty Center, interpreting a work of art on their plate. They will draw knives to determine what art movement they will have to be inspired by. Some people will get the same movement and these are your direct competition. Sounds like groups of three, because she says one person will be up for the win, one will be safe, and one will be up for elimination. So to guarantee that you're safe, you only have to be better than one person. Since Kevin won, he can pick whatever group he wants. Malarkey says it doesn't matter what knife he draws, because he doesn't understand any kind of art. It just matters who is in his group, so he can beat them and be safe.

Eric, Karen, and Jen have “neoclassicism”; Bryan, Lisa, and Jamie have “baroque”; Malarkey, Nini, and Lee Anne have “renaissance”, and Melissa, Gregory, and Stephanie have “rococo”. This group challenge has allowed me to remember some of these people are actually still on this show. Kevin takes neoclassicism and Karen is irritated of course. I mean, when your group includes someone with immunity it does make your job harder. Jamie is worried about competing against Bryan. They will have “a tour”, then 3 hours to cook tomorrow on-site.

Melissa says she worked at the Getty for her first job. Cool. Everyone meets a guide who can explain whatever style they have, so they can at least learn what the characteristics are. Rococo is sinuous lines and curves, lots of flowers and leaves and some Japanese pieces. Paintings have muted colors and are “playful”. Stephanie is intimidated by Eric and Melissa. Renaissance is about lots of religious subjects and returning to these ideas. Nini immediately connects this to the rebirth of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. So she's going to make gumbo.

Jamie's shoes are the loudest shoes, and I kind of feel for him making that much noise in a museum when he can't really help it. Baroque style is very bold and huge paintings. Lots of bright colors. Bryan's wife is a graphic artist so he says she might kill him if he doesn't win. Heh. Lisa says there are a lot of angry animals. Neoclassicism is more dark, muted colors and clean lines. Karen complains she can't come up with a dish.

At Whole Foods everyone rushes the meat counter, as they do. Melissa is doing lobster wontons. Jen can't pronounce “neoclassicism” but said she's going to do a broth and then fish that stands out? Malarkey says something about halos, so he wants to make halibut in curry like a halo. In confessional, he says “Get it?” and does finger guns, and the editors put in a DING! And a halo around his head. Ha! Perfect. Karen says the phrase “noble simplicity”.

The kitchen they are in looks pretty nice. Lee Anne is making duck breast and duck egg, and several purees. She was inspired by Baby Jesus and Mary nursing him. OK, this is not relevant to this challenge, but there apparently is a subset of religious paintings that show Mary breastfeeding not only Jesus, but other saints. Sometimes she's like, shooting milk across the room. It's supposed to be honoring her motherly role or something. I swear this is a thing. Malarkey is worried because Lee Anne has a lot of prep, and if Malarkey thinks you have too much prep, then you really have too much prep. Nini is making gumbo. Lisa decided all the conflict in the paintings inspired her to make Jewish/Mexican brisket. Bryan is making red snapper, because the skin will give a pop of color. Stephanie is making tortellini with mortadella. She was inspired by all the female figures and their stomachs, which is hilarious because one of the origin legends of the shape says it's based off of Venus's navel. Gregory is making short ribs and miso, because of the Eastern influences. Karen makes a passive-aggressive comment about how little space she has.

Tom Time! And he's here with Ludo Lefebvre, who I quite enjoy. They find Malarkey, who knows Ludo from “The Taste”. I forgot about that show! That was the show with four judges, or mentors, or something, and each episode you had to make one bite of food. Like, there were designated spoons and it had to fit. Malarkey got replaced by Marcus Samuelsson, but I forgot about that show entirely. It was a pretty good show actually. Anyway, Malarkey describes his dish and Ludo says he's brave. Eric says neoclassicism is scaled back from rococo, which makes sense. He's making sure everything on the plate should be a painting and the placement of everything is very important. Jamie is making sous vide chicken. Chicken sent him home last time. Tom and Ludo bail.

Lee Anne seems to be first up, and she's really starting to freak out. The judges arrive to a fancy table in a gallery, with paintings displayed around. Tom says these challenges are usually pretty good, because there are fewer restrictions and people get creative. Lee Anne begs Jen for help. When time is called, she says this is the worst plate she's put up in forever, in terms of presentation.

Renaissance team is up first. Nini: poached halibut, shrimp, crab over seafood gumbo and rice tuile. She explains her rebirth inspiration. Malarkey: “halo of halibut” roasted carrot, burnt farro, quinoa, beets, chili and olive. The halo effect is ruined by the use of a whole carrot with the greens and everything. It's not that it's too big, but that it makes a line across the “halo”. Maybe he wanted that, I don't know. Lee Anne: duck breast and egg, beet purees, black garlic sauce, bread and celery root puree with poached apples. Very colorful. She tells all of them she ran out of time. Nini's dish tasted great, but it's not visually impressive. Ludo likes Malarkey's dish better. Lee Anne's plating is more rococo than renaissance. Plus Ludo's duck is overcooked.

Baroque team is up next. Jamie runs out of time to put his jus on the plate. Bryan: red snapper, smoked sweet potato, celeriac veloute and parsley oil. Pops of color. Lisa is still maintaining the conflicts she saw in the paintings, which isn't an interpretation I've heard about this time period but sure. Lisa: chipotle braised brisket, dried fruit, habanero pickled red onions, tomato salsita with chiles and crispy carrots. Jamie: seared chicken breast with charred citrus gremolata, butternut squash, glazed vegetables and arugula puree. Ludo asks him about why he doesn't have jus, so he does tell them what happened. Bryan didn't represent the period, but it was a good dish. Lisa's dish looks “brunchy” although they like the interpretation. Jamie's dish was overcooked and Tom says it didn't taste like anything.

Rococo team all seems to involve broth poured tableside, but all of the dishes look very pretty. Stephanie: mortadella tortolloni with umami nage, grapes and horseradish soubise. Nage is a broth used for poaching, and soubise is a kind of Bechamel with onion. When she's describing being inspired by bellies, Padma grins at her like she gets the joke. Melissa: lobster wonton with shellfish consomme and charred allium oil, vegetables. She was inspired by luxury and nature. Gregory: miso braised short ribs, cauliflower puree and root vegetables. Tom says Stephanie's pasta is undercooked, and Gail couldn't taste the grapes. Melissa's dish was stunning to look at, and then Ludo says he would put it in his restaurant. Michelin star. Gregory's dish was delicious.

Last up is neoclassicism. Eric was inspired by the movement's rebellion against the rococo era, so he wanted to strip down his dish. Eric: poached halibut, peppercorn broth, buttermilk vinaigrette and pickled vegetables. Jen focused on one simple painting. Jen: seared red snapper, apple, radish and fennel relish with Tunisian pepper sauce. Karen says “noble simplicity” again and lack of color. Karen: braised chicken and chicories with brown butter, capers. It's all very brown. Kevin took the name of the movement literally and tried to bring old flavors into a new dish. Kevin: poached and grilled lamb loin with glazed carrots and feta carrot tops. Eric's dish was cooked well, and he probably had the best representation of the era, but he used xanthan gum to thicken some buttermilk and it did not turn out well. Gail is fascinated by it, though, and nothing else moved her. Karen's lacked flavor, and Kevin's sauce is bad. Like it's just a bad idea, I guess. Someone points out he has immunity and Tom says “Good for him.” Jen's dish was fine, but not really inspired by the art.

Judges' Table. Malarkey, Bryan, Melissa, and Eric are the tops. Malarkey had lots of colors and textures. He says the art helped him edit, and Tom is like yes keep editing. Melissa wanted opulence and nature. The broth was not overpowering and Ludo tells her his Michelin star comment. Bryan's dish was delicious and technically good, but they don't mention to him about how they said he didn't really fit the theme. Gail tells Eric his dish was the most exciting dish she ate all day. The winner is Melissa. Awesome. She hopes people start taking her more seriously.

Lee Anne, Stephanie, Jamie, and Karen are the bottom. Stephanie undercooked her pasta, and she immediately agrees. Plus if she'd served in a bowl and not on a plate, the pasta would have been surrounded by sauce. Stephanie says eating steaming hot pasta is so important, so I guess she's saying that her dish suffered because of the filming constraints. Jamie knows leaving off the jus was a big mistake. His chicken was overcooked, but at least the art inspiration was there. Lee Anne needed 10 more minutes to plate, and Tom says that he could see that because she had so much going on. So much so that it didn't really match the art movement she was supposed to be inspired by. Gail likes the concept, but the cooking suffered. Lee Anne didn't want to play it safe. Padma starts to talk to Karen, but she says before she gets to her dish, she wants to tell Kevin that it's good he has immunity because otherwise he'd be up there. Karen wanted something simple, but “simple” isn't exactly neoclassicism. It lacked flavor and Ludo says the chicken was dry.

In the Stew Room, everyone congratulates Melissa, while Kevin announces that he used his immunity to mess around with stuff. I guess experimenting because there's no risk. Karen complains in confessional that she'll be pissed if she goes home because Kevin had immunity. No, you'll go home because your dish wasn't good. You had three people in your group and you only beat one. That's on you. If Kevin had been in a different group you'd still be in the bottom. Plus there are plenty of people who went home because someone else had a shittier dish but was immune, and at least one of them is sitting in that room with you. Padma says some of the chefs got distracted by the art and forgot the cooking. Tom replies that that's why this is such a great challenge, because if you don't have the skills to pull off your dish, it's cartoonish. Lee Anne just kind of had a collection of ingredients. Too much going on. Jamie's chicken was too dry, and he needed the jus. It didn't come together. Karen's dish was muddled and heavy. Stephanie seems to be the best of the group, because they do say it had a ton of flavor. She just undercooked the pasta.

Tom tells the bottom four no one is going home for failing to make an artistic plate, they're going home for not having the culinary skills to make it a tasty plate. Jamie is sent home. Aww, I thought Karen had too many talking heads to not be going home. Tom reminds Jamie last time he was in Last Chance Kitchen, he won five in a row. He knows he screwed up the cooking. He's changed, and he says he's not comfortable with his new outlook on cooking yet.

Next week: Kelly Clarkson, vegetarian dishes, farmer's market, Jen gets pissed off about something, Lee Anne asks someone to salt and oil her dish and I guess that's what's wrong with it, because she and Malarkey get into it.

Last Chance Kitchen: Jamie is frustrated about going out so early. Hipster Joe is pretty cocky, because he thinks Jamie's LCK success was a long time ago. Tom asks Jamie why he thinks he's here, and Jamie says his dish was the last one tasted in his group and it was dry. So you're saying if they'd tasted it first it would have magically been moist? What? Tom brings out a chicken, because of course. One whole chicken, make whatever you want. Hipster Joe asks how much time they have, and Tom laughs at him and says they'll get there. How much time do you think you need? Jamie, are you faster than Hipster Joe? Of course! Jamie says he needs 25 minutes. Joe says 24, which is cheap. Tom says he thinks they can roast a whole chicken in 24 minutes and Joe and Jamie immediately jump on him and ask if he wants to get in on this. Heh. Anyway, they end up with 20 minutes. Now it's time to screw around with ingredients. And salt is included, you have to count it. Tom is squawking at people to encourage them to keep lowering the number. They end up with 7. I think one of those is the chicken.

I am not sure why, but the whole kitchen is dark. There are spotlights on the workstations, but they're running around getting ingredients in the dark. Angelo shows up so I'm glad the peanut gallery is still a thing. Jamie isn't concerned about time but cooking the chicken itself. Angelo asks questions. Hipster Joe is making liver and onions? Jamie is also using the liver. He wants to grill the chicken breast to prove he can. Hipster Joe is trying to make jus in 20 minutes.

Tom appears to bother everyone. Joe is making chicken thighs and liver and onions. He actually doesn't have onions, but leeks. Thankfully the thighs and liver only count as one ingredient. Leek tops in the jus, and bottoms braised down with butter. Tom gives Jamie shit about skinless chicken breast. Jamie has all his vegetables, and at first they think he still has one ingredient left to play with, but he never counted salt. He wishes he had some butter, but he was in a rush and didn't stop and think about what he was doing. Angelo and Tom joke around and Angelo laughs that he likes this side better. He's actually pretty good in terms of a commentator. Jamie has put his chicken breast in a fryer? Hmm.

Tom tastes Jamie's first, because he complained about being last during the show. And then Bravo puts up the chyron and photo for Joe's dish. GET IT TOGETHER. Stop bragging about how this show won an Emmy if you're going to fuck up something this simple. Jamie: grilled chicken breast, tomato and jalapeno sauce with sauteed livers. Joe: liver and chicken thighs with leeks, thyme and lemon.

Tom liked both dishes. Jamie admits he used breast because he wanted redemption. He managed not to overcook it, and the sauce was good. Joe managed to get a sauce together in that short time. He realized he could use both parts of the leek. Hipster Joe wins. Jamie's sauce was a little murky. He's over chicken. Tom tells Joe that there was actually a movement to make quick sauces like he just did. Like it was a real thing.