Previously on “Top Chef”: The Quickfire was product placement, but it did ask people to make a dessert and no one complained that they don't know any desserts. So that was something. Avishar won, because I think the “weirdo” edit he got the first episode may have been misleading. Then everyone had to be “inspired” by African cuisine, which was very fun to see. Dawn finally managed to finish her dish and she won. Brittany doesn't eat spicy food, but her dish didn't even have salt, so she was sent home. (click for more)
On Last Chance Kitchen, Sasha and Brittany made one pot meals. And they actually made one pot meals instead of cooking everything separately and just cleaning out the pot! Sasha won and stayed in the competition.
We skip the Stew Room which is nice because no one actually says anything important there anyway. Everyone wakes up early, as in, it's still dark outside. Oh, we're going to have the rehashing now. Kiki feels she needs more confidence because she should be on top. Gabe gets to call home and talk to his wife and kids. Aww.
Padma and Dale are here for the Quickfire. Padma talks about a well-stocked pantry, and there is a cabinet on the counter that is full of canned soup. Dale claims he keeps cream of mushroom soup on hand to cook with, but I am skeptical. Make a dish that “evokes a food memory”. But elevate it with canned soup. See the issue with this is, canned soup does not elevate anything. However it DOES evoke memories if your parents made comfort food with it. To me, using canned soup is true to the memory but doesn't elevate anything so how is this going to work? Don't get lazy and make a casserole. Winner gets immunity and $10,000.
30 minutes. There is a lot of running and near-misses. Kiki can't find collard greens so she'd making Swiss chard gratin instead. She's a planner, so having to make up shit on the fly bothers her. Somehow Shota is making chawanmushi with cream of mushroom soup. OK so that's how you do it. Maria brags you can't get more Mexican than her. Couple of people (Nelson and Gabe, I think) are using tomato soup and seafood. Avishar tells some story about how chicken tikka masala was created because some Karen complained to a chef that the tandoori chicken was dry, so he dumped some tomato soup on it. Maybe? I guess? I mean I also found that story on the internet so who knows. But it wouldn't be the first time a chef got pissed at an obnoxious customer and served them something as a “fuck you” and everyone loved it. Sara is making smoked mushroom stroganoff with spaetzle which sounds great. Chris is trying to keep it simple with grilled cheese. Shota's custards are not perfect.
Gabe: cod braised in charred cabbage with a spicy sofrito and charred fennel citrus onion salad. Apparently there is cream of chicken soup used to marinate the cod. Shota: cream of mushroom chawanmushi with crab salad. Dawn: chicken and rice fritter with cream of mushroom and garlic sauce. Jamie: Vietnamese shrimp tomato soup. Sara: smoked mushroom stroganoff with spaetzle. Byron: “Everyday is Thanksgiving”: poached chicken, cream of mushroom bread pudding with mirepoix and sage vinaigrette. Nelson: seared cod with applewood smoked bacon and tomato ginger sauce. Avishar: chicken toast masala. Sure. I guess there's a piece of toast instead of rice or naan? Kiki: Swiss chard with cream of mushroom soup and herb salad with peppers. Chris: grilled cheese panzanella with tomato soup vinaigrette and pickled shallots. Maria: cabbage salad with poached egg and tomato soup vinaigrette. Gabriel: grilled filet with with roasted delicata squash, chanterelles, miso, Madeira, and cream of mushroom pan sauce.
Not everyone shared their “food memory” so I'm assuming no one actually cares. Nelson's fish was overcooked. Shota's custard didn't set up, so it was very loose and there was a layer of liquid on the top of it that never blended. Kiki's gratin was undercooked so it ended up like a warm salad. On the top is Gabe (tasted like it cooked for longer than 30 minutes), Sara (the mushrooms reminded Dale of Thanksgiving), and Chris (great play on grilled cheese and tomato soup). Specifically they said Chris making a vinaigrette out of the soup was very creative, but Maria did the exact same thing. The winner is Chris. He of course is thrilled he won with grilled cheese.
Time for the Elimination Challenge. An hour outside of town is “The Fruit Loop”, which is a 35 mile drive through Oregon's largest fruit growing region. Tomorrow they'll go to an orchard to actually pick fruit to make things, and it must be savory. Somehow everything else will be onsite. As far as we can tell, Padma doesn't even tell them what kind of orchard it is, so they can't even know what fruit will be there. 3 hours to prep and cook.
By 7am they are up and in the cars, headed out. It's a gorgeous drive. When they walk in, there is a big lawn with stations set up. They're greeted by Carrie and Melissa, who says she wishes she could compete in this challenge. Byron is too genre-savvy so he knows something is up. Today's twist is that there are no vegetables in the pantry. Ooo, flashback to that museum challenge (I believe on the first All-Stars) where they let the winning team pick “carnivore” or “herbivore” and didn't tell them “carnivore” meant no produce. To make up for it, there's a big pile of all the fruits that will be ripe so everyone can taste everything before they run out to the orchard to collect fruit. That should prevent anyone grabbing something that ends up not tasting like they thought. Looks like some berries, apples, plums, and I think they said peaches.
The three hours includes picking. Plenty of running around and getting hit by fruit falling down because you ran into the tree. Sara hollers at Shota to make sure he gets some Akane apples. “Why, is it because I'm Japanese?” “Yes” “OK I'll get some”. Heh. Nelson's getting shin splints and he decides not to get peaches because they're too far away. Someone calls 30 seconds so I guess they put a time limit on that too. I think they should have just let them take as much time as they wanted. There's a mad dash for proteins and like, dairy and stuff. People for sure have bunches of green so I'm going to assume fresh herbs don't count as “vegetables”.
Byron kicks off his shoes and starts cooking in his socks. Dawn's making duck, while Maria is making albondigas, which are meatballs. Maria was going to make plum sauce, but she couldn't get any chiles so it's not going to be perfect. Gabe talks about mole and “orchard jus” which seems very complicated. He's also roasting plums.
Tom Time! Gabriel has oysters and I guess different sauces. Chris has scallops and herb salad. Yeah, make the best use of the only greens you have. Avishar is smoking cheese and tells Tom he is making “Ohiotto”. This is “Ohio” and “risotto” crammed together, which is the best he could do on the fly when Tom pressed him. Tom looks skeptical, and then when Avishar says he doesn't want to do risotto because he'll get in trouble like everyone else does, Tom says he can do risotto as long as he doesn't fuck it up. Well he doesn't curse but you know what I mean. Kiki's making chicken wings and grilled peaches. Tom makes faces at her because she's frying her wings and not grilling them. I guess today's secret requirement is to use the kettle grill/smoker combo they gave everyone.
I think Shota is pickling salmon. Jamie is making goat cheese polenta with pears and pork chops which sounds delicious. Gabriel gets stung by a bee, which makes me laugh. I still don't like him and it's funny. Nelson is trying to make lighter food so he's got scallops. He has a garden in Oakland where they teach kids about gardening which sounds great. The wind kicks up and Byron is annoyed because it's messing up his rolling the pasta. The judges arrive, and honestly they're outside in like a pavilion with a roof but no walls. You know that orchard rents that space out for weddings. Soon I can eat outside again. Outside on a nice day? So good. I do like how there are several shots of contestants trying each other's dishes and being helpful. Avishar freaks out because he failed so hard making rice for the first challenge.
Avishar: “Ohiotto”: sushi rice with apple, bacon, and cheddar. OK sushi rice isn't what you use to make risotto. But that does sound good. Gabe: smoked and glazed plums and orchard fruit jus with pork and chicken. Anyone know who we can yell at for these fucking white on white chyrons? As Padma dismisses the two chefs, Amar watches them closely, then when they're far enough away he says “I'm gonna do this real quick guys I'm sorry” and he licks Gabe's plate clean. It's weird (and Blais says that so you KNOW it's weird) but Tom says that's what happens when you throw twists like that. You'd never think of a fruit gravy but why not? You gotta use fruit right? It's amazing. Avishar's rice is somehow too underdone and mushy at the same time. The cheese is also puddled on the bottom, and Tom is asking “where's the fruit?”
Chris: seared scallop with peach butter, smoked and seared plums, pickled pink pearl apples and grapes. Shota: salmon nanban with sour apple sauce, duck fat crumbles, and plum salad. Nanban is a vinegar type sauce. Both are beautiful to look at. Chris did a really great job and the judges are glad to see it. Shota's fish was dry, but the fruit was delicious. Better if he had just not served the salmon at all.
Gabriel: Kumamoto oysters 3 ways with apples, peaches, and plums. Jamie: pepper pear sauce with grilled pork, polenta and poached pear with pickled grapes. The oysters are very cold and they're nice. No one says anything about spending three hours making toppings for oysters. Jamie is a little dated. Gail hates the goat cheese and Tom is bored.
Sara: grilled shrimp with quinoa, apples, plums, and peaches. And of course yogurt. Byron: filled pasta with tarragon, apples, and pears, with apple and pinot noir reduction, blue cheese, and pickled grapes. Sara had too many sauces and somehow Carrie got too much dill. Byron nailed the pasta, and Amar says it tastes like a deconstructed cheese plate.
Kiki is discovering her oil is cold because the sun is going down and it's windy. She's taking it out before it's done and hoping it'll carry over by the time it hits the judges. Uh oh. Kiki: apple glazed fried chicken, grilled and pickled peaches with creamy polenta. Nelson: seared scallop with apple Bearnaise, apple shallot relish, and sauteed pears. Tom's chicken is raw. Everyone's was raw. Blais says the fruit is great so she could have just grilled the chicken. Nelson's salad is all herbs and the garnishes don't really go together.
Dawn: caramelized apple risotto with herbs and apple glazed duck with Macintosh apple olive oil puree. Maria: albondigas secas, braised in grape juice and red wine, with plum and bonito sauce. Ah, so apparently they classified chiles as vegetables, that's what she meant by how there were no chiles. Maria still managed to make something delicious and showcase the fruit. Dawn's puree was amazing.
Judges' Table. Kiki, Gabriel, Chris, Gabe, Nelson, and Avishar are called up. The top three are Gabriel, Chris, and Gabe. Hmm. Gabe wanted to showcase fruit as a centerpiece and put the rest in the sauce. Tom says it was the perfect link between summer and fall, with the spices he put in. Then he outs Amar and tells everyone he licked the plate. Gabriel was brave (had he fucked up it would have been foolish) to only serve them three oysters but he pulled it off because of his attention to detail. Chris made a beautiful dish that was packed with flavor. It was well balanced. The winner is Gabe. Nice.
Nelson, Kiki, and Avishar are the bottom three. Avishar says he used a lot of fruit in his dish, but he knows bacon is a strong flavor as well. The fruit flavor was lost and of course the rice was undercooked. Kiki describes her dish and they let her do it before telling her the chicken was raw. She's obviously shocked, and says she tested some chicken but she also fried it in two batches. Tom is not amused, but at least she's not denying it. You can tell she feels terrible. Nelson wanted to go bold on the sauces, and delicate everywhere else. But the Bearnaise sauce was so heavy it overloaded everything. He maybe tried to overcome the sweet fruit with herbs but it didn't work. Nelson admits he tried to be more classic, instead of cooking his food. Padma says of course they want him to cook his food, which is what they always say until your food doesn't fit the challenge or they think it's boring.
Avishar served raw rice, and the concept wasn't great. Gail seems to be saying even if the rice had been perfect, the bacon would have overwhelmed the apple which was supposed to be the point of the dish. Nelson had rosemary in his pears (I am pretty sure) and Padma hated it so much she couldn't eat the dish. Too mediciney of an aftertaste. He drowned the fruit in a sauce full of cream and Parmesan. But Kiki served raw chicken. And every single person had raw chicken, which is very unusual. Usually it's one or two people. Melissa says it would have been a middle of the road dish if the chicken was cooked.
Tom says these challenges are designed to fuck with you, and the only time you will be able to cook whatever you want is the finale. And you have to make it there first. Kiki is sent home. She gets it. She says she's never served raw chicken to anyone in her whole life and she just served ten judges raw chicken. She tried to be in control too much.
Next week: drive in movies, looks like grilling and concessions. Maybe a team challenge?
Last Chance Kitchen: Kiki hates to cook quickly and under the clock. She's so glad to be able to show more of who she is. The girls are shocked to see her, but also glad. Tom not only tells everyone the chicken was raw, but also reminds Kiki that she served them raw fufu. Today's challenge is to pick one protein from the table. Sasha has to pick first before knowing what they have to do. She picks yellowtail and Kiki picks scallops. 20 minutes to make raw dishes. Tom makes them wait for him to reveal this, because he enjoys torturing people. Kiki groans and says touche.
Brittany asks Sasha what she's doing and says she's going to make a raw dish. It'll be like, citrus sauce and crudo and avocado. Sasha also says Kiki is grabbing similar ingredients, but Kiki says she's planning ceviche. As they cut up fish and citrus, it sounds like they're making the same thing. Sasha says it's a crudo, but she's also marinating it in citrus, which is basically a ceviche right? Kiki is using tamarind to make tamarind hot pepper relish. Sounds great.
Tom Time! Kiki is hoping the tamarind breaks down in time. She already has the acid on the scallops. Tom rummages in the pile of ingredients Sasha has and just says “alright” and leaves. Nice. Kiki picks the seeds out of her peppers because she says with something as delicate as scallops, you have to watch that you don't overpower it with heat. With like 3 minutes left, Kiki is flailing and dropping equipment. Tom looks mortified. Kiki has maybe 2 minutes to make avocado crema, and she's asking why she's bothering. Sasha is not worried about prettiness but getting everything on the plate.
Kiki: scallop ceviche with peppered relish and tamarind. Sasha: citrus marinated yellowtail and avocado puree with calabrian chili oil. The avocado “puree” seems thick. Tom likes the balance in Kiki's dish, and Sasha did great with her avocado. Tom says there's one little mistake in one of the dishes, and that's Sasha. There's too much sauce. So Kiki is moving on! Sasha is bummed to be done in this competition. She's ready to get back to cooking. As soon as Tom leaves Kiki immediately goes over for hugs from the peanut gallery. She's super confident now.
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