Previously on “Top Chef”: the judges showed up and decided to use buzzwords from Chipotle to force the contestants to make dishes. It was mostly not exciting. Dawn was declared the winner, for following the “criteria” the closest. Then the Elimination Challenge was to cook with tofu. Each contestant got assigned a firmness (medium, firm, extra firm) and they cooked head-to-head. Losers had a three-way battle using fried tofu and then a final two with soft tofu. Dawn cut herself and bled onto some of her plates, so she automatically lost that round. The final battle was Byron vs. Dawn and Byron lost. There was actually no winner this episode. (click for more)
In Last Chance Kitchen, it was time for the winner to return. Maybe. The first part was Sara vs. Byron to make a “bento box”. I put that in quotes because it was just a tray with tiny bowls on it. Byron won this round (ruining my theory that Sara was supposed to make a comeback). Then Byron had to earn his return by battling three of the remaining contestants. Each contestant picked ten ingredients to put in a box, and then Byron picked three out of the five to cook against with those ingredients. He had to win two contests and he only won one. So LCK is over and no one actually returned this time. Only Jamie was able to make it back earlier in the season.
I know the next couple weeks will be the final episodes but I might not be able to get them up right away. I'll do my best but it might be a day or two.
We start after Byron lost to Jamie. Huh. I thought they might show that contest on the regular show. Jamie is kind of sad since she had hoped Byron could make it back to the competition the way she did. So I hope that satisfies the internet people who were mad she wasn't perfect when she won. I swear any time women on this show are confident or aren't perfect good winners everyone is “disappointed” about how they must be bad people. Get over it. She is glad to be in the final five.
The Quickfire seems to involve a bunch of rooms? Doors? Padma forces them to “fill [her] in” on what happened to Byron. Dawn says the doors remind her of a peep show. There are many Top Chef spinoffs around the world, so this is “Top Chef: France”? It's a blind taste test. You will work in pairs to recreate a “five star” dish prepared by today's guest judge. But you can't see it. But there are only five, not six, so Brooke is going to be someone's partner. Hmm. Brooke was the best at Quickfires, so she's going to work with Dawn, who has the most individual wins this season. No one knows who has won the most at first. Maria and Jamie, and then Shota and Gabe are the other pairs. One team member waits outside while the other one tastes the dish, and then gets started. Then the second team member will take their turn, but you can't talk to each other here. You get 15 minutes each, and then at the end you get 5 minutes together to actually see the dish and try to fix it.
Shota, Jamie, and Brooke are up first. Meanwhile, Gabriel Rucker is off somewhere watching on a TV, and Padma joins him so they can discuss how wrong everyone is. It's his dish of grilled pigeon with roasted carrots, grilled pear marinade, carrot mustard puree, and gribiche. Gribiche is a French sauce made from hard boiled eggs, mustard, and oil. There's also pistachios. Pretty much everyone gets pigeon, carrots, and pears. Shota plans to prep everything but not start any cooking because he's afraid Gabe won't see a pan on the grill. But Brooke and Jamie want to get the carrots started. Shota seems to have grabbed a beef shank for some reason.
Time for the second round. Dawn seems to get almost everything but the sauce. See no one knows there's stuff on the stove, or who it belongs to either. Dawn is prepping carrots, not knowing Brooke already has started cooking them. She maybe figures it out? It looks like Maria just grabs one of the pans and Dawn assumes the other one is hers. Maria gets a squab and then stares at it because she has forgotten how to butcher it. I don't think anyone has figured out the sauce. Maria has some kind of sauce with butter and heavy cream that she's cooking the bird in.
Time to be able to see what is happening. Dawn has gotten so much of the dish that they seem in good shape. Brooke is pretty glad. There's a lot of frantic working and cursing at the end. Padma calls time and then brings out the guest judge. There are a lot of weird faces but Shota says they killed it. Brooke and Dawn seem to be in a good spot. Gabe figured out it was a gribiche. Everyone's plates are good, anyway. The winners are Dawn and Brooke (of course). I feel like they're the only ones who knew there was mustard.
Padma says to pack their knives, because tonight is something they've all been waiting for. Jamie: “We're going to the bar?!” Heh. Padma claims it is a night off. I am suspicious. No one gets a night off. Especially when the host of the show tells you directly you're getting a night off.
So they go back to the hotel and everyone has a big box with their name on it. Brooke and Kristin are there and tell them the boxes are care packages. They all have letters, which I guess they decided to read aloud in front of each other, so now everyone is crying. The only person who doesn't break down is Shota, who had the shortest letter, and he laughs that he has Asian parents. Gabe kind of wipes his eyes.
The Elimination Challenge is to use the ingredients in your care package to make something. You don't have to use everything. 2.5 hours to prep and cook. I'm assuming the family members were told what this was for, because like, there's fresh meat in the boxes and stuff. But Maria's box has chips and bean sprouts and whatever, and she thinks there's no way her wife knew what this box was for. But Gabe claims that his box has everything he needs to make a dish his mom has made for him. Jamie has matzo ball soup so maybe they didn't know? Maybe Gabe's family is too genre savvy.
In the morning Maria says she's only going to put two wings per portion today. There's vegetables at the place to use. Shota has matsutake mushrooms and he's pureeing them, which no one does because they're hard to get. Maria doesn't want to use the octopus she has because it's intimidating. She hopes her sauce is amazing. Jamie is making brisket, somehow in 2.5 hours. Maria helps her use the pressure cooker. Shota has persimmons, which makes me jealous because my auntie has a persimmon tree, so at Christmas she has dried persimmons, and I didn't get any last year because I didn't go home. I think Gabe might be using everything in his box except for the bottle of mescal. He's making some kind of street food. Dawn gives him her ghost chilies because she doesn't want them. Dawn then finds a bug on the floor and freaks out. She's got a lot of foods her family makes at the holidays so she feels the pressure to honor them. Maria tells Jamie to cook her brisket a little longer.
All the judges arrive with that slo-mo perp walk. The All-Stars all commiserate about being at the end and missing their families. Maria is questioning her salad, does it need more? Less? What? But she decides to walk away. Maria: grilled wings with miso and ginger, bean sprout salad, and tequila cilantro vinaigrette. The sauce turned out good, but I think the complaint is that the wings weren't cooked in the sauce? Maybe she just put it on there and it didn't permeate the meat. The salad is bean sprouts and cabbage so it's watery and needs acid.
Jamie isn't super thrilled with her dish but she's out of time. Dawn helps her put sauce on and reminds her about some mushrooms. Jamie: thit kho braised brisket, caramelized Thai chili jus, pickled cucumber. I think thit kho is usually used to braise pork belly. The brisket is tender, but the rice is just there and I think it's cold. Tom says at some local restaurant he'd be fine but this is Top Chef.
Shota: miso marinated wagyu shoulder, matsutake puree, and persimmon salad. It's delicious and elegant.
Gabe: panuchos with braised pork, kale, and pickled red onion. Panuchos are like tostadas, but the tortillas are stuffed with beans. Dale thinks this is Gabe's best dish all season. It's elevated street food and it's successful.
Dawn is behind so she can't make her plates look as nice as she wants. Dawn: pork belly with pecan caramel, collards, sweet potato, and red eye gravy. A couple of plates don't have gravy on them. It's too bad, because the gravy is amazing.
Judges' Table. It's time for nitpicking. The top three dishes are Shota, Gabe, and Dawn. Shota was thinking about his dad, and Kristin says the dish inspired her. It showed the judges who he was as a cook. Gabe took a beloved street food and made high art. He worried that people might have pre-conceived notions, but Tom said he has no frame of reference for the dish and it was still great. Padma praises Dawn's dish and gravy but she does let her know that two plates didn't have gravy. They get on her about it, but they told her she was the top so she knows she's safe. Gabe wins. He feels like his grandmother is with him.
Maria thinks she shouldn't have made wings, but it's not the wings. The sauce was great, but the salad was terrible. Maria starts to explain about the watery bean sprouts, but Padma points out that she didn't need to use them. Maria wanted to because her wife put them in the box, and it screwed her. She's crying, and then Tom for some reason accuses her of feeling like her time is up. What? Where did that even come from. Kristin gets choked up and promises she's good enough. Jamie's dish had good brisket, but the rice was just there and held back the dish. There was a lack of sauce and a lack of bold flavors. Padma says she was checked out. I don't know if I agree with this. They both had problems, but I don't think those problems were due to them being checked out or wanting to quit. Everyone misses home.
Both Maria and Jamie are capable of more. Gail thinks Maria just tossed some boiled wings in some sauce. I guess she cooked them sous vide to get some flavors in? I mean they look charred. She overthought honoring her family and used the bean sprouts she should have left out. Jamie's dish was great meat over some boring rice and vegetables. It lacked imagination.
Tom says they've been tested in ways they've not been tested before. Someone just hit the wall. Padma tells Maria to pack her knives, and before we can even get in the music sting, Jamie is saying “I think she has more to give”. Maria immediately protests and literally starts walking away. Jamie got her second chance and she wants Maria to have one. Tom looks irritated, because I think he gets irritated at people quitting. It's just not as well known as, say, Jeff Probst's hatred of quitters because it so rarely happens. Maria and Jamie argue over who is going to get to leave. Eventually they flat out ask Jamie if she wants to quit, and she says she doesn't want to quit, “but I would quit for her”. Maria knows this sounds like a telenovela. Tom tells Maria she's going to do great things, and he tells Jamie she's going to regret it if she quits. Maria asks Jamie to let her pack her knives with grace. I think that finally gets through. Back in the Stew Room she makes sure they all know Jamie tried to quit and there are tears all round.
Next week: Tillamook I bet, using cheese five ways, Jamie is making cheddar and sea bass.
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