Top Chef:All Stars 4/30/20--"Pitch Perfect" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the chefs were asked to use flour to make a dish, but none of it was all-purpose standard wheat. I feel like this challenge would have been way harder 3 or 4 years ago, but no one had any trouble with it this time. Gregory won some money with pancakes. Then they paired up (self-selected teams) to make dishes for the LA Philharmonic, each with a pair of flavor profiles. So salty/sweet, bitter/umami, whatever. Double elimination. The previews acted like Lee Anne and Malarkey were going to crash and burn, but they were fine. Kevin and Melissa won, but I think we all expected them to. Karen and Nini didn't have umami but sweet, because they used fresh tomatoes and not roasted. So they were eliminated. (click for more)

On Last Chance Kitchen, Lisa, Nini, and Karen had to make a sweet and sour dish. Lisa did the worst in that challenge, so she was eliminated. Then Karen and Nini had to make family meal for Tom and the peanut gallery. Karen made whole fish, and Nini made chicken curry. Karen was better, so she is returning to the competition. Eh.

The other contestants go back to the house. Stephanie misses both Karen and Nini, but she hopes one of them will come back. Bryan was on the bottom, and he's not used to it. This is tough competition.

In the morning everyone heads back to the kitchen to find Padma and a giant wooden box. Padma mentions Last Chance Kitchen. We for sure see the clip where Karen gets offended that someone called them all girls. They bring Karen back in, which is not dramatic because they told us at the end of Last Chance Kitchen. Padma then introduces Danny Trejo, who apparently has a taco empire? Sure. Make tacos. In the giant wooden box (which Padma opens with a giant rope) there are machetes. This is your only knife. Winner gets immunity, and it's the last immunity.

30 minutes. Lee Anne is already making batter for fish tacos. Malarkey has a million things, and says “Asian” and then “Tijuana” in the same breath. He's got the mortar and pestle out. I think there are a lot of people making their own tortillas. Melissa is thrilled with her machete. I also hear like three people say they're making rockfish. Karen talks about how tired she is and how she's won Quickfires but never gotten immunity. Yawn. Kevin wants to make al pastor, which usually has pineapple. But he's using plantains instead. Bryan is somehow using this machete like a normal knife. Gregory's never made tortillas from scratch before, but he wants to. He's struggling.

Lee Anne: tequila, beer and masa battered fish taco with cheese crust tortilla. Gregory: fresh masa tortilla, tempura rockfish with dried chili and onion salsa. Melissa: five spice beer battered mahi mahi taco, mango, jicama, grilled nopales and guacamole. Nopales are cactus. Karen: fried rockfish taco with with kimchi sesame salsa, cilantro and Korean chili flake dough. Eric: rockfish chorizo taco with corn, mango and jicama salsa, charred leeks, topped with caviar. Stephanie: fresh masa corn tortilla with lamb, grilled cucumbers, cilantro cashews and crema with chipotle. Padma makes sure to mention this is the first non-fish taco. Bryan: miso wood roasted salmon taco with avocado, salmon caviar and green tomatilla salsa. Malarkey: Baja Asian street taco with tempura shrimp and mole. Kevin: mojo roasted pork taco with fried banana and smoked scallions.

Gregory made his taco salty. He knows. Eric used flour tortillas, and they were too big. Lee Anne had a great flavor, and Karen also had perfect flavor. Stephanie used lamb, which seems to have set her apart. The winner is Stephanie. Nice. Lee Anne looks glad, but Karen looks pissed. Of course.

Restaurant Wars is next week! But it begins this week. The guest judge is Stephanie Izard. Yay! Also Kevin Boehm. Both of them have opened multiple restaurants. So in order to compete in Restaurant Wars, you will need to succeed in the pitch. Make a concept and menu, a mood board, and one or two dishes to pitch your restaurant to the judges. They know many of the contestants have restaurants, so they want to see the “dream” restaurants. 3 hours to prep tomorrow and then pitch. The two best will be the two restaurants. And I guess that selects the executive chefs also.

Lee Anne has never had to pitch to investors before. Malarkey daydreams about restaurants. He wants to do Baja Asian like he did in the Quickfire. Everyone heads back to the mansion, where there are materials everywhere to make mood boards. Fabric swatches and wallpaper swatches and stuff like that. Eric wants to call his restaurant “Middle Passage”. Redemption for his finale. Karen says “modern vintage' which is so meaningless. She also wants dim sum, which seems like a giant pain in the ass for Restaurant Wars. Lee Anne wants modern Hawaiian, and she knows being the executive chef is a double edged sword. But she doesn't want to go home tomorrow.

Malarkey (I think) says they should go bowling, as if production didn't set it up for them. Everyone discusses how many restaurants they've opened. Malarkey says 19? A lot. Stephanie is a private chef so she's never pitched anything either.

In the morning Eric is exhausted. He picked plants from the yard to put on his board. Kevin says that Bryan has a whole saucer glued to his board. Heh. Shopping. Kevin yells “Move it toots!” to Stephanie and she has a great look on her face. She wants a neighborhood hangout. Smoked fish dip and schnitzel. I love a good smoked trout dip. Kevin says “Country Captain” and then says it's like chicken curry? So apparently it's a chicken curry dish made in the South. Huh.

Three hours to work. Gregory has oxtail and also whole fish? It looks good. Karen is making something she's never made before. Lee Anne is salt curing egg yolks and mahi mahi. Melissa has been dreaming of a 20 seat place, but that won't work here. So she's thinking a bigger place and a lower price point. All of a sudden the judges wander into the kitchen to sit at a counter and stare at everyone. Kevin has opened restaurants before so he knows the kind of questions they'll ask.

Kevin's mood board is mostly greens, and succulents. “The Country Captain”, family style Southern. The dish is actually country captain: braised and roasted curry chicken with bread and butter pickles and hot chow chow. Mains would be on the menu and then relishes and pickles would rotate daily based on what was around. Fixed price per person at about $49. I'd pay that for good Southern food and fresh pickles. Kevin says it's a good price for the amount of food you'd get, which makes me think he's planning on huge portions. Or a lot of sides. It's a great dish and the presentation was very specific.

Eric is flailing and drops some stuff on the floor. Lee Anne helps him, because she knows what it's like to be in the weeds. Of course the judges are watching him be in the weeds. “Middle Passage”, food from the African Diaspora. Tamarind glazed duck with coriander green peppercorns, cardamom and collard greens. Also berbere shrimp with charred vegetable broth. Blues and coppers, sea and shackles. “Casual but still formal” service. This is a common trend now, where people want fine dining, but they don't want it to be stuffy. It's a fine line to walk. I've been to a place where I dropped over $50 on dinner, which was basically Southern BBQ. It was worth the money, but then I had to bus my own dishes, which I felt was too casual. But I've been to an omakase (Japanese chef's tasting) that was far more expensive, and we were all joking around and stuff. Service was very attentive in terms of refills and as soon as I finished a dish it was removed, but I never felt as if I was going to do something wrong, use the wrong utensil, anything like that. You know? The duck is very overcooked, and the “casual but still formal” didn't go over well at all. They think he doesn't know who he's cooking for.

Gregory's fish looks great. “Kann”, Haitian woodfired cuisine. He talks about how when he was little, there was a guy who would come around and sell sugar cane. Braised oxtail, sauteed plantains with caramel onions, marinated red snapper with cilantro, lime, garlic, ginger, rice and peas. Gail asks if everything is super authentic, and Gregory says that yes, there's room for seasonality. The oxtail is delicious. Padma seems excited about a restaurant that elevates Haitian food so more people can experience it.

Bryan is very calm. “Thatcher and the Rye”, mid Atlantic cuisine. Crab rolled in jicama with green apple, cucumber and dill pickle mignonette. Also game hen, sunflower seed risotto, shellfish broth. He wants this to be accessible and everyday, but his price point is $50-$65. Actually maybe on the East coast that's reasonable. I forget sometimes, living in the Midwest. The food is good, but it's not “accessible”. It's still fine dining.

Karen is presenting “Three Black Crows”, modern global dim sum “with Asian inspirations”. How are you going to have non-Asian dim sum exactly. Call it “small plates” like everyone else. Also she literally has a pair of chopsticks on her mood board. Foccacia dough scallion pancakes, dungeness crab salad, yuzu brown butter aioli. Also sweet potato dumplings in red curry with kaffir lime peanuts. Stephanie asks how the dumplings would be served, exactly, and Karen calls them gnocchi and says they'd be on the menu. Scallion pancakes would probably be pushed around in a cart. OK doesn't dim sum need carts? Come on. The dishes are good, but they're not Asian in any way. Tom thinks they're both a weird Italian-Chinese fusion and she should have pushed that. Also Tom wants to watch her try to push carts around during restaurant wars, because Sassy!Tom is here today. Agreed, I want her to fail at that.

Lee Anne presents “Hanai Mama”, modern Hawaiian. Salted egg curry mahi mahi bites, and coconut and mango beer braised pork belly. Tom is not feeling it. The pork is under seasoned, but the salted eggs are strong. The concept is not new. OK dim sum is not new. Mid Atlantic cuisine is not new. If her food is bad, then OK, but don't give me this bullshit about this is like so many other restaurants.

Stephanie has “Lucy C's”, modern elevated American comfort food. Smoked salmon pate with salt and vinegar potato chips. Also pork schnitzel, grilled lettuce puree, celeriac remoulade and Romano beans. She says she wanted these dishes because it should be a meal beyond what they can do at home. The pork is not great. Tom hates it, but they can't get rid of her because she has immunity. Someone jokes that she should have named her restaurant “Immunity” and Tom laughs a little too loudly.

Malarkey is babbling. “D2: Baja Asian Street”. I am pretty sure that's what that says. Mexican/Asian street fusion. He immediately says he wants to “entice the millennial” which is hilarious and also pure Malarkey. Shrimp and hamachi aguachile (like ceviche), and braised oxtail with gochujang mole. Not gonna lie, I'd order gochujang mole. Then he starts babbling about star crossed lovers and then explains the D2 is Donkey and Dragon from Shrek. Ha! Amazing. He wants it to be fun and a lower price point. Gail says she didn't taste the gochujang (which is Korean chili paste), but the idea of a gochujang mole is exactly his concept. It's very fun and aimed at the right people.

Melissa is up next. “Sabrina”, modern Asian Californian cuisine. Ahi tuna, Asian pear, fermented black beans, on a shiso leaf. Also corn agniolotti with Chinese lap cheong, XO sauce and yuzu. The pasta is elegant and understated and possibly the best dish today.

Kevin understood his concept, and Tom says he wants to see more of Melissa's food. She thought about her restaurant, while Gregory thought about his concept. Malarkey had the details down. Plus Malarkey is very entertaining.

Judges' Table. The tops are Gregory, Kevin, Malarkey, and Melissa. Gregory's oxtail was fantastic, and it was easy to see what his restaurant would be like, all the details. Kevin says his dish is a great example of what he's about, and they love how well cooked it was. Stephanie says he clearly thinks about every detail of the concept. Malarkey had perfect dishes for his concept. Melissa has Michelin level techniques. Kevin is a winner, and the other winner is Gregory. Nice.

Time for Eric, Lee Anne, and Stephanie. Uh oh. Stephanie has immunity. Stephanie also didn't really have a concept, and once she admits this she is excused. Eric is disappointed in himself. He wants casual and accessible, but his food is too upscale. He explains again that he wants the food to be upscale, but he doesn't want the service to be stuffy and too formal. I think they eventually get it. The duck was overcooked also. Lee Anne wanted big flavors, to make you feel like you were on vacation. The concept wasn't strong enough, but Lee Anne basically says that's what she's making right now in her restaurant.

Lee Anne's name and sentiment are good, but the food isn't expressing it and Lee Anne isn't expressing it well. The concept isn't working. Eric has been working on his concept for ages. Then the judges act like they don't know if he's serving fine dining or family style, which is stupid. You know it's not family style. He said it was fine dining style but not stuffy. Come on. Anyway, his food was not executed well either so there's that.

Tom says they're both good chefs, and they just had bad days today. Everyone has them. Eric is sent home. Y'all. You know I love Lee Anne but how many times is she going to be in the bottom and not be sent home? Plus the whole “I don't get how your restaurant works” argument seems fishy. He's ready to fight in LCK to get back.

Next week: Restaurant Wars! Drama of course, Karen spills a whole glass of wine (heh), Lee Anne seems particularly drama filled.

Last Chance Kitchen: Eric is ready to scrap and get back in the competition. He and Nini come in together, and Tom mentions that they are the only two from their season here. Eric had a great restaurant concept but his execution was terrible. Someone had a bite of duck, but it was all duck and peppercorns, so they couldn't even taste the shrimp. But Gail says the shrimp was too salty anyway. They both talk about executing someone else's vision, and how it can be easier. Of course everyone is wary. This is going to be about Tom's vision. He's going to pitch them a concept, and then they'll bring him a dish based on that. Coastal Italian seafood. Neither of them cooks Italian, so they'll have to wing it.

30 minutes. To tell Tom's vision. Nini is just going to find flavors in Italian cooking that she knows about, and go with that. She grabs some sea bream and I think is planning to keep it whole. Well, she cuts the heads off. Eric has clams and mussels and black cod. He's thinking seafood boil. He's juicing a bunch of stuff to save time, making his broth. Nini has bagna cauda that she's making into an aioli for her squash. Bagna cauda is normally a hot dip with garlic and anchovies, that you dip raw vegetables into.

Tom Time! The peanut gallery isn't here which is sad. Eric has fennel and rhubarb. Rhubarb isn't exactly Italian but it goes with fennel. He juiced the tomato and a bunch of stuff for a broth. He's got a giant wad of butter, and Tom slyly mentions that it's very interesting he's using butter and not olive oil. Eric mentions he wanted heavy cream but couldn't find it. You can just feel Tom's displeasure. Nini is frying her fish and then finish filleting it before serving? She keeps the spine on because she likes how it turns out. But how is it coastal Italian? She mentions her bagna cauda but she says something about it being broken, to make it better, I don't know. Eric is cooking his seafood and talking about how it has to be perfect. Nini is glad she's not burning anything so far. No major disasters.

Eric: clams, mussels and seared black cod in fennel, rhubarb, and tomato broth. With toast spread with anchovy paste and butter. Nini: seared sea bream with delicata squash and bagna cauda aioli. Tom says they both went to pretty iconic ideas. He liked that Eric juiced his vegetables to get the flavors in the short time he had, and there was a lot of acid but he like that. Nini's roasted fish was great, although bagna cauda is not from the right region. But neither of them know what they're doing so this was pretty good, considering. His favorite was Nini. Boo. Eric keeps getting shafted by this show.