Previously on “Top Chef”: We started a brand new season, with a series of All Star judges (always good to see former contestants). Contestants were asked to cook with birds. I guess. Sara won, with a very confident dish. Roscoe dried out his duck and was the first to be sent to Last Chance Kitchen. (click for more)
We start with everyone toasting how they're not eliminated. Sara won both challenges so she feels she's got a target on her back. Dawn is upset even though she wasn't in the bottom. She ran out of time and didn't put any sauce on her dish, which was supposed to be a stew. It's a credit to her that what did make the plate was enough to keep her out of the bottom.
Quickfire time. When everyone comes in, Padma is standing in front of a fake diner counter. Carrie is here too, in addition to the judges they introduced last week. Padma tells everyone it's time to honor short-order cooks. Someone will call out an order, and the first two chefs to ring the bell in front of them get to cook their version of that dish. If you don't make it to the bell in time, you have to wait for another dish. One top and one bottom for each dish. 30 minutes, and immunity for the winner. Also you have to feed everyone, which means 8 servings.
Amar orders steak and eggs and like 4 bells go off. Padma declares Byron and Gabe the winners. Gabe does make steak and eggs, but for just for 2 people at a time. He's making adobo. Byron says this is in his wheelhouse. Padma asks Melissa what she wants, and she says one perfect bite of dim sum. No one rings their bells. Cowards. Finally Avishar and Shota ring their bells. Let's point out, the Indian and the Japanese men. Shota does admit he is tired of waiting around. Kwame wants shrimp and grits, and Jamie and Sara take that one. I haven't had shrimp and grits in a while. It's really weird how some people are cooking and some are just standing around.
Dale asks for Spam and kimchi fried rice. OK I like how we aren't sticking to traditional American breakfast. That one goes to Gabriel and Maria. Gabriel immediately interviews that he doesn't know why he hit the bell. Because you're thirsty to be on camera. Gregory wants fried eggs and veggie hash. Dawn and Sasha. Some of these dishes allow for a lot of creativity and some of them really don't. Carrie asks for fancy toast. Ha! The audacity. I love it. Brittany and Kiki, with Brittany hitting her bell multiple times. Hee. Shota is making mochi balls? I mean it's not Chinese but it sounds like good dim sum. Meanwhile the first pair has 5 minutes left. Of course Blais goes last, and of course he has the most complicated order. Not in terms of asking for weird shit, which would also be on brand, but because he wants corned beef hash, eggs over easy, hash browns, and Hollandaise. Even Padma rolls her eyes.
Byron: seared T-bone steak with chimichurri, over easy egg and potatoes with pickled shallots. Gabe: steak marinated in chipotle adobo, plantains and black garlic molasses glazed potatoes. Those both sound great. The judges declare Gabe the winner. It appears both Shota and Avishar have made balls. In the end Avishar doesn't finish all his plates. Shota: shrimp dumpling mochi with sweet soy green onion sauce. It looks like a red bean donut dumpling. You know the ones that are the size of donut holes and covered in sesame seeds. I gotta go to the Chinese bakery and get some. Avishar: butternut squash fritter with chili oil and sweet soy. And of course the one dish with no fritter goes to Melissa, the person who asked them to make dim sum. That's a dirty play honestly. Shota wins obviously.
Sara: shrimp and grits fritter. Jamie: creamy polenta, with Cajun gochujang shrimp. Jamie wins that match-up. Gabriel goes tearing across the kitchen because with 30 seconds left he is just now getting the kimchi. For the kimchi fried rice. Dude, you gotta put that in when you are frying it. Come on. Maria: fried rice with Spam, chipotle and chorizo. Gabriel: seared pineapple and Spam fried rice. And then Gabriel wins. Bah. With like a minute left, Sasha says she's just now realizing she was supposed to make fried eggs also, but her hash is great so she's fine. I doubt it but it is a Quickfire and not Elimination. And in the end it's true because Dawn doesn't get her eggs on the plate either. Sasha: sweet potato hash with preserved lemon crème fraiche and fennel salad. She admits she didn't hear the “fried egg” part of the order, and then Blais pipes up that her yogurt looks like a poached egg “and that's what we were going for”. No it's not you liar. Padma says “He's coaching you on how to answer” which is hilarious. I love the storyline of “Padma has to deal with Blais this season and by the second episode she's already tired of his shit”. Dawn: Yukon gold potato hash with kale and sweet peppers. She makes sure to tell everyone that HER eggs are perfectly fried and right over there. Sasha wins.
Carrie looks very excited for her toast. Brittany: mushroom au poivre toast on baguette with sherry and manchego cheese. Kiki: avocado toast with green harissa, goat cheese, and shaved radish. Brittany is declared the winner. Nelson only gets hollandaise on two plates, but it looks like Chris doesn't even get eggs on all the plates. Chris: over easy eggs, cheddar and black garlic hash, and hollandaise. Nelson: potato hash with cheddar, ground beef and pork. Blais says part of him wants to apologize, and Padma says he should. Chris wins.
The overall winner of the Quickfire ends up being Jamie. Padma asks how it feels to win, and Jamie babbles some sentences that are mostly sound effects. Padma looks confused, although it's clear she's happy to win, I mean come on. The judges all leave except for Amar and Dale.
Elimination Challenge. You will need to create a dish celebrating one of Portland's iconic brews: either coffee or beer. They will decide by drawing knives: Chris, Jamie, Sara, Maria, and I think Dawn, Avishar, and Sasha have coffee. Beer team is Byron, Shota (who is not happy), Gabriel, Brittany, Gabe, Kiki, and Nelson. They show a few people drawing knives but not everyone, and then when Padma asks who drew what it's all very brief crowd shots and I don't think they covered everyone. Hopefully that's right. 2.5 hours to prep and cook tomorrow. Also it's shopping time which is lame. I want to see running for items and leaving out like, one onion at a time to get under budget. Also I know they're showing shopping lists but I never care what exactly anyone is getting, and also the text on screen is not very big. Avishar says he doesn't cook with beer very much because he thinks it's heavy? Shota wants to make something pickled.
So when they go back to the hotel they go to the “clubhouse” and I wonder if they don't actually have a penthouse suite with lounge rooms. I wonder if they are just taking over the hotel's bar or public lounge or something. It looks like Kiki has her mask on still. I'm not sure but I still don't know why they didn't rent a house like they normally do. Also Sara reveals she has a lucky stuffed fish she kisses before each challenge. Sasha hangs out with different people depending on her mood and if she is up for shenanigans or a deep conversation. For example she and Brittany talk about how Sasha drank a lot during lockdown to self-medicate.
Challenge day. Tom is here to greet everyone, so of course they immediately get nervous. He divides them by whether they had coffee or beer, and then says this is now a team challenge. You will get a partner from the other team, and the two of you will make one dish featuring both coffee and beer and whatever the two of you bought yesterday. Each person has to have at least one distinct element because only one person is going home. So no double elimination, but if your dish is the worst they need something to decide who is more at fault, I guess. And then there's a free-for-all because Tom lets them pick their partners. Brittany immediately runs for Sasha. Shota's plan is to stand there with his hand up until someone gives him a high-five. That someone is Avishar, which may or may not be good. In the duel confessional, Avishar says he looked left and right, no one wants to pair with him, “and then I look down and I see Shota”. OK that was funny but also Shota isn't that short? Most people are trying to see what others bought to try to make matches. Dawn and Gabriel end up together because they can't find other partners and Dawn's not even pretending she's not pissed and Gabriel is sitting right next to her. The other pairs appear to be Kiki and Jamie, Byron and Chris, Maria and Nelson, and Gabe and Sara. They don't even show those last two pairs, I had to get that from process of elimination. So I am going to assume they are competent and middle of the pack.
Lot of brainstorming and mostly agreeing. Byron says he's giving up a lot of his ingredients but he did get mushrooms, which should go well with both coffee and beer. Gabriel bought ahi to pair with beer? But it won't go with coffee. Dawn's glad he's being agreeable in terms of going with her vision, but he is also explaining to her how to cook ribs and she knows how to cook ribs. Kiki is slightly worried since Jamie has immunity and if they make the worst dish she automatically goes home. But Jamie then tells her that if the judges don't like what they made, whatever component they don't like, Kiki should say Jamie made it. Aww! Maria is making chile rellenos. Nelson's thrilled to work with her because it feels like working with his mom. He had planned lobster Thermidor, which is lobster that's cooked, then you take it out of the shell and put a sauce with like, egg yolks and cognac or wine, then you put it back in the shells and top it with cheese and broil it. So they're just going to put the lobster in the chiles instead of the lobster shells. They're speaking Spanish to each other. Maria likens it to when you've been holding it for an hour and then you finally get to pee. Shota and Avishar are making lobster sunomono, I think Shota says. Sunomono is pickled cucumber salad. At first I thought that sounded weird but when we make sunomono for New Year's, Auntie Mae puts shrimp in it so this is probably not bad. They lucked out because Shota bought a stout, and coffee stout is a well-established combo. Shota's not drinking right now, because like Sasha he turned to alcohol when everything shut down and he had to close his restaurants. I think Sara is smoking yogurt? She and Gabe are just quietly working.
Dawn tells Gabriel what all is in her spice rub for the ribs, and when she gets to pepper he says “No pepper please! Pepper is strong and there's already pepper on the ribs and we have to shine the coffee and the beer.” OK so that sounds like he thinks they seasoned the ribs with salt and pepper and THEN the spice rub? I thought you put salt and pepper as part of the rub and you didn't put them on separately? Also you don't know how much pepper? Dawn is pissed. I kind of didn't like last week when she was mad about crispy fish skin but honestly Gabriel is mansplaining up a storm and he was already annoying last week with not shutting up about working for Tom. Dawn just ignores him. As he cuts watermelon he mumbles “what am I doing?” and Dawn gets in there with “Bossing me, that's what you're doing.” Gabriel says they are bossing each other which is hilarious. I know it's possible Dawn is also bossing him and they edited all of that out in order to sell us this “Gabriel is the woooorst” storyline. Please read that quote in the voice of Jean-Ralphio from “Parks and Rec”.
Avishar reveals he has two degrees in psychology and biology, right before he says he's somehow making compressed grapes with beer and he uses a CO2 canister. I thought he was making foam. Brittany's coffee crumble is bitter, but coffee is already bitter. Maybe they need more beer. Chris is making striped pasta, where one stripe is coffee. I hope he gets that done in time. The judges arrive and Tom tells them the twist he threw at everyone so they can all laugh and commiserate. Gail says both are great components but they're both bitter so you have to watch it. It also seems like Tom fully expects at least one team to just make whatever they were planning to make and serve a duo, even though he doesn't explicitly say that. Jamie interviews that the dish she's making with Kiki is better than what she was planning herself.
Jamie and Kiki: beer braised fried chicken, coffee stout glaze, butternut squash puree, roasted coffee. Avishar and Shota: lobster sunomono, double cream coffee and stout reduction, carbonated grapes, and furikake. Furikake is seaweed, sesame seeds, and maybe dried fish, that's combined in a powder you sprinkle on plain rice for flavoring. I need more of that too. I think this episode is reminding me to go to the international grocery store and stock up. The fried chicken is very crispy, and it is bitter but the puree helps with that. Padma doesn't like that the chicken was plated on top of the puree because now it's a mess. Yeah if you gave everyone wings you should keep part of it out of the puree for a handle right? I'd still eat it though. Somehow double cream sauce and a pickle work together, even though I didn't think it would. Also according to Tom now is the time to do weird shit like carbonated fruit. Kwame's contribution is to hold up his empty plate.
Brittany and Sasha: beer-marinated pork loin with beets, milk stout vinaigrette, coffee romesco, and coffee hazelnut crunch. They do reveal that this dish is components they had already planned to make that they felt would work together. Nelson and Maria: chile relleno a la Caribena with beer coconut curry lobster, pasilla negro sauce with coffee, and sweet potato puree. “A la Caribena” means Caribbean style. As I predicted, Nelson and Maria did very well. It's spicy but a lot of the panel don't mind that. Sasha and Brittany's dish very clearly is just some stuff that doesn't particularly go together. It needs some kind of sauce, the coffee crunch is bitter and the romesco is chalky and thick. Oof. Romesco sauce is supposed to be roasted tomatoes, garlic, and nuts. Not chalky.
Byron is worried about the pasta but he didn't speak up because he's afraid of stepping on Chris's toes. Gabe and Sara: pork tenderloin cured in espresso, smoked yogurt with hazelnut salsa macha, tortilla with stout and porter. Full disclosure I thought they were saying “salsa matcha” this whole time. Salsa macha is dried peppers, nuts, and oil. Byron and Chris: coffee and berbere spiced duck breast with mushroom and coffee tortellini, beer and miso foam, beer braised mushrooms. Berbere is a spice blend with warm spices and chilis. Gabe and Sara made great tortillas which everyone is impressed by. It's a great dish. Byron and Chris had a lot of beer flavor but the pasta is a fail. It's undercooked and too thick and Tom of course knows exactly how they fucked up (too much dry flour on the board when Chris rolled it out). Also the foam isn't a foam but at least it tastes good.
Gabriel and Dawn: coffee and beer braised pork rib glazed in sour beer with herb salad. And compressed watermelon, compressed with the sour beer. It's amazing. Gail loves that it looks like something simple but it has very complex flavors. The one thing is that it's pretty rich. Padma asks the All-Stars what it feels like to get twists like this, and everyone kind of chuckles. They just roll with it, come on. Overall it's a pretty successful challenge. Also I do love sour beer, and I am not a beer person. The sourness cuts the bitterness of the hops, so if that's a reason you don't drink beer it's worth a try. Very refreshing in the summer (why is sour thirst-quenching? Who knows ask lemonade).
Padma comes back to the Stew Room, and can I just say that I LOVE the return of the Stew Room and Padma collecting people without them knowing why? The past few seasons of having everyone come to Judges' Table and then just stand off to the side are just not the same. Anyway, Gabriel, Dawn, Sasha, Brittany, Avishar, Shota, Gabe, Sara, Chris, and Byron are called out. I think the people left know they're safe, because 10 people are headed for judging and only 4 are left, so there's no way those are the top and the 4 are the bottom.
Judges' Table. Tom starts by saying this might be the best collection of chefs they've had in 18 seasons. Jeez. Anyway, Gabriel and Dawn, Avishar and Shota, and Gabe and Sara are the top 3 teams. Gabriel and Dawn had a great pairing with the watermelon and the ribs, and everything was cooked so well. Avishar and Shota made a completely original dish with balance, and the bitterness was brought out perfectly. Gabe and Sara had sides and sauces that all made sense. Gabe's tortilla with beer was a great hit, and Sara admits this dish is better than what she would have made herself. Gail tells her this is the second dish she's made with yogurt that's put her in the top. Avishar and Shota are the winners. Kind of unexpected? Avishar last week was kind of a disaster? Shota labels them “Asian Sensation”. Aww.
Chris and Byron didn't make a foam, but then Chris says the pasta came out how he wanted which is probably not great. The pasta was brittle and also it could have had more filling. Sasha says she stands behind their dish. They do admit they just kind of combined their plans into one plate, and Padma says that's exactly how it felt. There isn't enough beer flavor, because the vinaigrette they made went to dress the beets instead of having a big puddle of it on the plate. So it wasn't that balanced.
Chris's pasta was the worst item of the day, but they did have both coffee and beer flavor. Overall Chris and Byron had a dish where things worked together. Sasha and Brittany executed their items, but their dish wasn't balanced and the items didn't go together. Well, and their romesco was chalky instead of smooth. The judges do agree there wasn't enough beer flavor which is Brittany's fault.
In the end Tom says something about challenges and then they send Sasha home. I guess the romesco and the coffee crunch were worse. She's upset to go home this early, but she knows she isn't a failure. Plus now Last Chance Kitchen.
Next week: West African food with Gregory and Kwame. That's about all I can get from the preview.
Last Chance Kitchen: Roscoe hated to be the first eliminated, obviously. And Sasha feels the same. Tom tries to sell Last Chance Kitchen, as if it needs selling? He says some stuff about needing a “thick skin” to be on this show. The table has proteins, produce, and nuts, all items with either a shell or thick skin. Make a dish with something from each of those three categories. Tom tells a story about why Portland is named Portland, the same as a city in Maine. It was a coin toss and it could have been Boston. Sasha gets to pick first (coin toss) and then they alternate. Sasha takes oysters, pistachios, and cherimoya, which is a big fruit about the size of a pomegranate with lots of seeds. Roscoe has clams, peanuts, and jackfruit, which is very spiky and kind of looks like durian. I don't know. Whoever wins gets to stay. You know the drill.
25 minutes. Sasha has never put these things together so she's worried a little bit. Both chefs get to work breaking down the produce, which is going to take a while. Sasha's going to fry the oysters and maybe puree the cherimoya. She says it's kind of a melon flavor. Texture is going to be key. Roscoe is going to do some Low Country boil stuff. He says peanuts are beans and you need to treat them as such. Hmm.
Tom Time! Roscoe is immediately nervous. Tom wants to know if Roscoe thought of his dish right away and Roscoe is like “fuck no”. Heh. Sasha describes her dish to Tom but he's got the poker face going and she has no idea if she's doing the right thing or not. There's some running around but it's not super frantic. Roscoe is thrilled with his plating. Sasha is proving herself.
Roscoe: peanut veloute with jackfruit fritters, clams, shiitake mushrooms. Sasha: chicken fried oyster with miso, cherimoya and green apple puree, toasted pistachios. Tom says they're both really good, and he's a little surprised but it's good. Roscoe kept his sauce from being too thick, and the jackfruit works well. Sasha got a good balance with her puree. Tom says Sasha's dish is outstanding. In fact, so outstanding she should make it again. Roscoe did a good job but it wasn't enough. He says the struggle is real. Sasha didn't know what happened in the start of the competition but she's awake now.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment