Previously on “Top Chef”: The Quickfire involved being a short-order cook, which was not successful for some people. Jamie won immunity for shrimp and grits. Then the contestants were asked to make a dish highlighting either coffee or beer. When they arrived onsite, they were paired up so each pair had to make a dish that highlighted both coffee and beer. Somehow Shota and Avishar won, even though it appeared they'd be a trainwreck. Brittany and Sasha didn't mesh their dishes properly, so Sasha was sent home. (click for more)
On Last Chance Kitchen, Roscoe and Sasha cooked with ingredients with thick skin? Because you need a thick skin to be on Top Chef? Sure. Sasha won with a chicken-fried oyster. Roscoe made a good dish but Sasha's was just better.
Brittany has survivor's remorse, since she is still in the competition but Sasha isn't. That's basically it for that segment.
Padma and Carrie greet the chefs for the Quickfire. Padma tells them how Carrie made a cake in the forest by burying a tin cup? I do remember her doing something weird like that. Somehow this makes her a perfect judge for judging dishes “inspired by”...layered gelato? Oh it's actually a dessert challenge. Padma was talking about layering flavors and I thought they got a sponsor they didn't actually want to use. But it looks like they have to make a layered dessert. At least 3 layers. It doesn't have to be gelato, but I guess you have to use whatever flavor layers you get? Spoiler: no one mentions the gelato again after this point. Winner gets immunity and $10,000. Padma keeps harping on how these gelatos are cooked for 45 minutes. But why do you cook them so long? I mean, it's a custard, basically, right? So they're always cooked. But after a certain point you're just keeping it warm so I'm not sure what the point is. Anyway, the contestants also get 45 minutes because that's how this show is.
Several shots of people saying the gelato tastes good. Sara is going to try to make cream puffs. Kiki wants to make peaches and sweet corn. Avishar already has the liquid nitrogen out, which makes sense. Don't trust the ice cream machine. He's making...I am not sure. Some Blais shit. Brittany is making a trifle which she is kind of freaking out about. Maria is going to fry balls of rice. I think most people are adjusting to not having even an hour. Not sure if you can make cream puffs in under an hour. Jamie is making brownies. Chris asks around for the smoker. Someone burns something on the stove. Oops. Maria's balls aren't frozen so she can't fry them. The cream puffs made it somehow? Kiki's cream that she put the sweet corn in isn't cool, so she can't whip it. So she makes some pie crust? Not sure how that's going to get done.
Brittany: rum gingerbread trifle with caramel apple and salted whipped cream. I think the gingerbread is cookies that are store-bought. Byron: goat cheese ice cream with fig and date jam, with brioche, walnuts, and pistachios. Dawn: parfait of toasted rice mousse, blackberry caramel, and black sesame crumble. Jamie: crispy burnt end brownie with toasted sesame seed, yuzu strawberry compote and chocolate gelato. Chris: hazelnut cake with smoked chanterelle pastry cream, pinot noir blueberry puree, and candied hazelnuts. When he's describing the dish, they cut the music at “smoked chanterelle pastry cream” as if it's terrible, but honestly that's the kind of shit I order just on principle. Also this dish is called “The Oregon Trail”. Kiki: peach pie twist: stewed peaches, shortbread crumb. The chyron only lists two things. Avishar: buckeye bonbon with brown butter and liquid graham cracker. Padma's making a weird face. Buckeyes are a candy that's basically peanut butter covered in chocolate. Maria: Puerto Rican arroz con leche with fried plantains, honey, and sea salt. It's a huge portion and they laugh about it. Arroz con leche is rice with milk, I think like rice pudding. Shota: smoked whipped yogurt with matcha miso crumbles and yuzu kiwi. Sara: matcha dusted cream puff with grilled strawberries, and whipped cream with miso.
In the bottom are Brittany (trifle was too sweet and she should have baked her own cookies), Kiki (the “shortbread crumb” was really unbaked pie dough), and Maria (they actually hate the big portion). Byron's goat cheese ice cream was another great layer of flavor. Avishar made a bonbon instead of flat layers. Sara managed to make cream puffs in 45 minutes. And the winner is Avishar. He's so thrilled. Also they're going to use his dish to “inspire” another layered gelato flavor.
Padma gets rid of Carrie and calls in Kwame and Gregory, who both walk in wearing fab coats. Today we're going to explore African food. They're going to all go downtown to visit some restaurants, and pay homage to these cuisines. Also the restaurant owners will be on the tasting panel. Dawn is thrilled that her style of food is being spotlighted. The groups split in two, half to go with Gregory and half to go with Kwame. Kwame immediately tells his group it's not a competition but they'd better fucking win. Heh.
Kiki tells her car she wants to make her food, which is West African. She's won awards, but she felt she had to fight to have her own voice heard in a restaurant she owned. She's on this show to shed light on what it's like to be an African American woman in the restaurant industry. Kwame takes everyone to Akadi West African Food. The food looks delicious. The red stew especially. Kwame talks a little bit about how to make the “mother sauce” that is put on everything. Jamie says the fish reminds her of something her mother makes, and Kwame says they should make the dishes their own, but be inspired by what's here. Gabriel says he's embarrassed he hasn't been here yet but I don't think any of us are surprised.
Gregory and his group are at Yaad Style Jamaican Cuisine. They start with curried goat which is something I've always wanted to try. Gabe and Maria start whispering about how this is just like mole. They feel at home. Kiki is tearing up.
Second round for Kwame is Bake on the Run, which looks like a take-out only shack. Guyanese, I think. Kwame wanted to show the reach of the food. It looks like empanadas, or some kind of fried dough, stuffed with either Portuguese salt cod or Indian chickpeas. Brittany does not have tolerance for spicy food. But she's getting ideas. Nelson is Dominican and this reminds him of what he ate as a kid.
Gregory's group goes to Mathilde's Kitchen which looks like it's Haitian. Spicy cabbage pickle. Chris has experience with Haitian food but he doesn't make it much. But he still has confidence he can make it because he's a skilled chef.
The chyron says Day one: cook time 2 hours. Chris wants to do Haitian fish. Gabriel is making stew but using more Italian ingredients? But the technique Kwame described?
Tom Time! Brittany has some mackerel she's going to pickle, and then make some fritters like hush puppies. And she's going to put chilies in it. Dawn is making goat curry with braised goat. Kiki tells Tom this is emotional for her because this is the first time she's had food that felt like home. Her dish is one of the first dishes her dad taught her how to cook. Tom says it smells great.
Shota got inspired by the pickled cabbage and he's using some jerk seasoning. Japanese cuisine doesn't have a ton of spices, which is true in terms of heat. Everyone takes the last 5 minutes to pack up all their stuff, but it doesn't seem as frantic as it could have been.
In the morning Brittany gives herself a pep talk in the mirror while Chris mentions BLM and how he's proud to support it. One and a half hours to cook today. Dawn's making chili sauce. Kiki is mixing fufu and it's taking a while to make the volume she needs. I saw fufu was going viral on Tiktok or something? I don't know I don't have Tiktok. The judges come in, and the restaurant seems pretty full. Padma, Tom, Gail, Kwame, and Gregory are at one table, while the other All-Stars are at another table. Someone jokes they're at the kids' table. Heh. Brittany is worried her red stew will overwhelm the fish so she adds some coconut cream at the last second.
Byron: red stew marinated snapper with cassava cod fritter and escabeche. Escabeche is a type of pickle. Brittany: pickled mackerel with allspice fritter, red stew coconut sauce, and charred cucumber. Nelson: “Obe Ata Din Din”: braised chicken, jerk spice yucca, sweet plantains, and fava bean puree. Byron's stew is delicious and the pickles are great. Brittany muted her sauce and the fritter is tough. Nelson's dish tastes good, but Kwame says it tastes like what they've had before.
Jamie: crispy snapper, turmeric couscous, heirloom tomatoes, and pickles. Dawn: curried goat, crispy roti with fondant potatoes and green pepper sauce. Gabriel: “red stew” braised lamb shoulder with goat cheese mashed potatoes and suya spice dusted potato chips. Suya usually refers to a type of meat skewer that is flavored with a spice blend. He legit did the air quotes in front of the judges. Jamie's dish is delicious and it's got Vietnamese flavors. Dawn nailed her dish too. No one likes Gabriel's potatoes. Blais says, “I'll say what everyone's thinking: this dish is too white.” Ha! He cracks up both his table and the table behind them.
Chris: epis marinated red snapper with a crispy rice cake, twice fried plantains, mushroom and bean puree. Epis is a Haitian seasoning base. Sara: coconut rice porridge with jerk spice gravy, “pork floss” style salt cod, with peanuts and pikliz. Pork floss is dried meat that is stringy like floss and pikliz is a Haitian pickle relish. Kiki: beef saka-saka et fufu. Saka-saka is a stew with cassava leaves, I think. Chris tried to reinterpret his dish too much, and Tom says some components are too bitter. Sara's dish is creative and it all worked out. Kiki got a lot of flavor in the stew, but her fufu is cold and not cooked right.
Gabe: braised chicken with heirloom beans, plantain dumplings, and pikliz escabeche. Avishar: shrimp and grits with eggplant escabeche and taro. Avishar's dish is very him but it's also delicious. Gabe's dish is well-executed, but they don't seem to say a lot about anything else.
Maria: black-eyed pea crema with oxtail, masa plantain crumble and habanero avocado oil. Shota: black cod and cabbage with turmeric, clove, and allspice sauce. Shota's dish looks Japanese but it doesn't taste Japanese. Tom loves Maria's dish and he's sad it's the last one because he's full. The crema is amazing.
Judges' Table. Shota, Kiki, Dawn, Brittany, Chris, and Jamie get called up. Tom says it's great to see “young chefs” to embrace varied kinds of cuisine. The top three are Dawn, Jamie, and Shota. Jamie loved her dish. Everyone could tell that dish was really hers. Gail says it felt like she had been making the dish for years. Dawn admits she wanted to tell them to eat her dish by hand, but they got it. They also tell her they wished there was more green chili sauce because it was so good. Shota doesn't work with these flavors but he did a fantastic job. The winner is Dawn. She really showcased the flavors they were looking for. She's immediately emotional.
Kiki, Brittany, and Chris are the bottom. But not Gabriel sadly. Kiki knows her fufu was not right but she needed more time. She says this challenge really hit home because she's spent years cooking other people's food and she won't take it lightly if she's sent home. Brittany doesn't usually eat spicy food, but the judges tell her it could be flavorful instead. The yogurt and the red sauce competed with each other. Tom tells her it seems like she's not letting herself cook, which she agrees with, and then he's like “what do you like about cooking?” and there's a big pause. Eventually Brittany says she is learning this about herself, and she cooks with her head and not her heart. But it sounds very rehearsed. I guess they could have had multiple takes but her delivery makes it sound like she thought of a “safe” thing to say. Chris knows the ingredients, but lacked the technique. It was a collection of ingredients but not a dish and it wasn't Chris.
Kiki had technical issues, and her stew was delicious. But the fufu was half the dish. Brittany's food was bland, but it didn't need heat as much as it needed salt. Chris wanted to put everything he could think of on the plate, but he was not successful.
Tom knows it's hard to translate centuries of cooking, from an entire continent, but that's why it's a challenge. Brittany is sent home. I'm not shocked. She says the pressure was intense, and that she may have gone home but she can still win at this experience.
Next week: the great outdoors, picking fruit from the tree and cooking outside, Amar licks a plate.
Last Chance Kitchen: Brittany does remind us that she's been in the bottom a lot and it's only episode 3. Sasha shrieks when she sees her. Roscoe is beginning the peanut gallery. Gregory and Kwame are back tonight to...help Tom I guess. Today's challenge will be about how Sasha and Brittany interpret the one pot meal. They will each get one pot and that's their only cooking surface. It looks like a cast iron dutch oven with feet to hold it over a fire. They will have 30 minutes. I mean there are a ton of one pot recipes out there. The question is, will they use it as intended and built one cohesive dish? Or will it be like the last time I saw this challenge, where everyone cooked one component, cleaned the pot, and then made another component, so it was a plated dish with several parts.
Sasha has to really plan out her steps. Brittany wants to make a chowder. She tries to throw the corn cob in her pot but it falls on the floor. But then there's one in there so...? Sasha tries to both sear and render her chicken skin but also not make it dry.
Tom Time. Sasha has a cacciatore style dish with lots of mushrooms. Brittany is making seafood chowder so she's got potatoes and corn cooking right now. Gregory tells her to channel her nervous energy into her food. Good advice.
Brittany says she made cod because it cooks quickly. I love the freaking out over the time limit when I know there are plenty of dishes you can make in 30 minutes in one pot. I guess not to the level of this show. Sasha's sauce is very spicy so she puts raisins in her dish as the peanut gallery laughs at her. Tom asks Brittany if the potatoes are cooked and she says “that one was!” with her mouth full. Heh. They keep giving her shit and there is a Salt Bae reference. Sasha says the two dishes are very different so this is hard to judge.
Brittany: corn chowder with cod and crab. Everything is cooked and it's got good flavor. Tom likes that the cod is one big chunk. Sasha: chicken thigh cacciatore with red bell peppers, calabrian chilis, mushrooms and raisins. The flavors were well developed. You can taste each thing but they also blend into one dish.
Brittany put herself into the dish and Sasha had great flavor, and Sasha ends up winning. She says this is what she usually does. Brittany is happy for Sasha but she's sad she finally made something that's really “her” and that's when she went home. Tom promises Sasha that people excel in LCK all the time.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment