Previously on “Top Chef”: Kevin returned, and the Quickfire was to make two courses of “airline food”, which means it has to fit in the dish (so you could put it in an oven on an airplane) and also it can't be seasonal. Melissa won, so she got to pick out the dish she wanted to make for the Elimination challenge. Everyone went to Michael's Santa Monica, which is a very famous “California cuisine” restaurant. I had never heard of Michael McCarty but everyone else has. The chefs had to reimagine a classic dish from this restaurant, with most of them being 30 years old or older. Melissa won, again, but I would argue that since she picked a dish from last year's menu, updating it was extremely easy. But I'm not mad about her being in the finale. Malarkey had a snafu with serving (which was entirely not his fault), but it really threw him off. He seemed to be quitting, but then everyone told him not to, and then he was eliminated anyway. (click for more)
Tom's got a little video message stating they filmed the finale in October and November, and with thoughts for Italy during the pandemic.
Everyone wakes up very early in the morning to go to the airport. Oh, so that's why they already filmed. The timing here is very weird. I thought they filmed the main part of the show in June, and then you have to wait for the finale. So I didn't know how long they'd waited, and if they were able to get there. But they're trying to imply that the final five left LA and went directly to Italy with no gaps. But Tom said they filmed in the fall, and I thought they'd filmed in LA during the summer. Anyway, they get to go to the lounge and eat good food. You can get good food in airports, not in a lounge, but not everywhere. Plus airports are a weird place and sometimes you eat burgers at 9am. Man, first class with the little pods. I should have sprung for that when I went to England.
Everyone has been getting little interviews about how much they want to win. It's all the same. When they land in Italy Bryan rides his luggage across the floor. Heh. Stephanie is thrilled because she's never been to Italy. She's just grinning constantly. The confessional has one of the worst green screens in it, pretending they're in the wine cellar or something. I've seen better green screens on Zoom calls. They go out to a villa or a fancy hotel or whatever and it's beautiful. Outside on the balcony is a note from Padma saying to meet her tomorrow afternoon.
In the morning, Gregory says he doesn't feel great. He threw his back out and didn't sleep well. Bryan has cooked more challenges than anyone else on Top Chef (due to his competing on Masters). But he still hasn't won a Quickfire.
Padma greets everyone with Filippo Saporito. Everyone's got coats on so you know it's later in the year. Padma asks who is ready for happy hour. Aperitivo time. Simple sandwiches and cheese that you can eat one-handed because beer sponsor. Each station has different ingredients, from different regions of Italy (Northwest, Northeast, Central, South, Islands). Oh also you will be feeding 30 locals and winner gets $10,000. Melissa dreams of taking the money and having a Roman holiday with a scooter and a cute girl on the back.
45 minutes. Everyone just runs to a station and no one fights? Huh. Gregory is steaming clams. How are you going to eat those one handed? Melissa has mussels. I mean, I'd order steamed mussels at happy hour but I'm weird. She's going to steam them in beer and then pickle them. Stephanie is worried she's not moving fast enough. She's taking focaccia, spreading it with Gorgonzola, then putting some venison and then dredging it in hazelnut flour and frying them. Amazing. Kevin is making polenta? Some of these are not happy hour. Maybe happy hour is different in Italy than in America. Bryan was just going to make lamb chops but it's not exciting enough. Then he thought lamb scalloppini, but there aren't bread crumbs, so he's flailing. Now he's making tartare. Stephanie realizes she's only made 30 dishes, so she can't taste her food. No extras.
Gregory (The Islands): cuttlefish, plumped raisins, saffron, cooked in beer with crispy chickpeas. Bryan (Southern): lamb tartare, nduja, panzanella salad with sardine gremolata. Nduja is like spicy salami, but spreadable. Gremolata is parsley and garlic and lemon. Kevin (Northeastern): creamy polenta topped with prosciutto and radicchio agrodolce. Agrodolce is sweet and sour. Melissa (Central): beer steamed pickled mussels, topped with slaw. Stephanie (Northwestern): venison Gorgonzola en carozza with hazelnuts and orange mustarda. En carozza just means breaded.
So everyone comes and takes samples, all in little tiny paper cups. Melissa's mussels are very good in terms of something to “open your stomach”. Stephanie had a good idea but apparently it's not executed well. Aww. Gregory managed to make something traditional. Kevin's agrodolce is good? I thought they were saying it was too sweet but it's good. Bryan put too many spices in.
Padma kicks everyone else out with pretty good Italian. Bryan had a lot of garlic. Bad for happy hour. Stephanie had a good idea but it didn't turn out well. Melissa's citrus was very nice. Kevin's aperativo was very Venice. Gregory also had some traditional flavors. The winner is Kevin. He thinks he has won $30,000 total this season, which is more than his annual salary some years.
Tom appears, very bundled up and with a leather fedora. For Elimination it's time to go hunting for white truffles. You guys, my sister went with people to the French Laundry, and one of the courses of the tasting menu was lobster mac n' cheese or whatever, and they paid the upcharge for white truffles. It wasn't cheap but they thought they'd just put some on there and call it a day. No, she has a solid 30 seconds of video where the server just shaved and shaved and buried the dish in truffles. At least half an inch. The challenge is to use white truffles in something. Three hours to prep and cook tomorrow, for a “festival” with 100 people and a Michelin starred chef. I put “festival” in quotes because I am sure a white truffle festival in Italy would have more than 100 people at it. But 100 is plenty of people. The hunting is just a bonus since it's truffle season and they couldn't pass this up.
So out in the woods, Tom is also joining them which is cool. Whole truffles are not impressive to look at. It's just lumps covered in dirt. The dogs are very good at finding truffles. They come back to the cars with about $3000 worth of truffles. Melissa says she has to be sure that the truffle is the star. Shopping is fun. It's a big supermarket, but of course you have to be able to read the labels of things. Gregory has worked with black truffles more often, but he's heard about a wild boar stew and he hopes that works. Melissa is trying to bridge Asian and Italian, and also not be eliminated this close to the end like last time. Gregory's back is still bothering him.
Stephanie calls home because it's her first wedding anniversary. They've given her a shitty burner phone. Not even a smart phone. Last night she rethought her whole dish and now she's making pasta.
The restaurant they're cooking in looks like a huge villa from the outside. Melissa is making Italian-inspired congee. Hmm. Bryan is braising veal shanks. He says it's going to be a simple dish. He never makes anything simple. Kevin is putting truffles in everything, all the sauces and in the sides and over the top, it sounds like. He's making meatballs, essentially, and when he bought meat it was all pre-packaged. Kevin didn't read the packages closely enough and ended up with pork, wild boar, and veal. Oops. But he has to go with it. Maybe it'll be fine. Stephanie jokes about being the coolest one here, but she can't keep a straight face. No, she's not the coolest, it's Bryan. Heh. I think she's making brown butter squash. Gregory has polenta and stew, and I think he says that he's folding truffles in the polenta. He needs to do well, but then he says he's thought his dish through very well but hopefully it goes well with truffles. Stephanie goes to cook her radicchio and it's very bitter. She doesn't like it but she feels “obligated” to keep it and she's hoping the rest of her dish is so umami that the bitterness will be a nice contrast. Also she puts a bunch of butter in there and plans to serve a small amount. Everyone heads outside to the piazza to set up. Palazzo? Whatever word. Plenty of last minute truffle shaving.
Bryan immediately asks about how to say things in Italian and I am sure this is how he flirts normally. He's charming, you saw with the mom camp. Kevin: polpette with chestnut honey, roasted onion, pecorino and white truffles. Polpette are meatballs. Gail asks him why he fried the polpette instead of braising, and he says he didn't want them to get salty. The judges say the spices compete with the truffles. It would be better with out the meatball.
Stephanie: squash and brown butter mezzaluna, porcini brodo, rosemary braised radicchio and white truffle. Mezzaluna are half-moon shaped filled pasta. Brodo is broth. Padma asks what the tart flavor is, and she repeats “braised radicchio”, which means it doesn't taste like it should. The radicchio is terrible, but at least the pasta was great. Gail points out that usually they want balance, but this time they want all truffle. Some sassy old lady tells Stephanie they're so used to pasta, “let's try something else”. Ouch. Stephanie also interviews that she should have been a big girl and not served the radicchio, and admitted it turned out terrible.
Gregory: wild boar with tomato, prunes, cocoa and white truffle polenta. The judges watch him grate truffles over the dish with a little bit of apprehension. I guess he's using a lot of truffle. Tom says the stew is fine but the polenta is a little runny. No one can taste any truffles because the rest of the dish is very strongly flavored.
Melissa: truffle congee, salami, fried garlic, parsley, quail egg and white truffle butter. She explains to Padma she didn't cook the truffle in the congee. Tom loved the quail egg and he liked how the congee was like risotto, essentially. Gail wants more truffle. The salami shouldn't be there, but otherwise it was great.
Bryan: braised veal shank ragu, chestnuts, white truffle and aerated potato. Potato foam, basically. It's very classic and the potato is perfect. Gail says this was the best truffle flavor. Traditional.
Back in the Stew Room, Stephanie compares her decision to make pasta in Italy to the idea of making Indian food for Padma. Kevin says this is the part where someone says they should all be proud they made it to the finals. He doesn't continue, which is weird. I totally thought he was going to say something like “but we all want to keep going from here” or “but someone has to be disappointed” or something. It makes him sound like he doesn't believe they should all be proud.
Judges' Table. Tom says overall they had good dishes, but not all of the dishes were good with truffles. Bryan and Melissa were the tops. Bryan's potatoes were the perfect vehicle for the truffles. And the veal was very classic. Melissa's congee was simple and let the truffles shine through. She was true to herself, although the salami was not a good idea. The winner is Melissa. Nice.
Gregory says the flavors in his dish were “representative” of his flavors and he knew he could do it. Tom says it was a great dish, but not for this challenge. It didn't match the truffles and drowned them out. It would have been perfect with black truffles, because those you can cook. Kevin also had too many flavors and overwhelmed the truffles. The meatballs were good, and the onions were good. But it was two different dishes, and only one works with truffles. Stephanie thinks she maybe made a Stephanie dish, but maybe not a truffle dish. Obviously the radicchio was terrible. But Padma does say the pasta was great. Stephanie tells them the menus were already written up, and she didn't want to not include it when it was on the menu description. Her dish got complicated, and that was before adding truffles. They tell her that she should have left the radicchio off, but it's not like she doesn't agree.
The judges are confused on what to do, because basically everyone in the bottom made the same mistake. They all failed the challenge by not making a dish that showcased truffles. So now the question is, how do you make a decision when everyone screwed up in the same way? Padma says she'd eat Stephanie's dish again, although Tom says the radicchio was as bad as the other two dishes. Gregory showcased wild boar, and he used the most truffles in his dish. Kevin's dish didn't come together, and Padma points out that mistake was not truffle-related. Gail points out that Kevin's dish was probably the one that the truffles went best with out of the bottom three.
Tom says you have to learn the rules before you break them. Basically. Everyone here tried to break the rules but one dish went to far and that's Gregory. WOW. I was not expecting that. I thought Stephanie, because if you remove “not showcasing truffles” from the equation, then she had terrible radicchio. Gregory's dish was perfectly fine. He interviews that you can't will things to happen. He has a few regrets but he knows he did well and he's learned a lot.
Next week: classic dishes, a giant wheel of Parmigiano, looks like some shenanigans making cheese.
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