Previously on "Top Chef": There was a blind taste test Quickfire, that somehow involved pairs and no communication. Byron almost made it back to the main competition, but he failed to win enough challenges to do so, and no one returned from Last Chance Kitchen. Brooke joined the contestants to make pairs for the Quickfire, and she and Dawn won, mostly because of Dawn's palate. The Elimination challenge was to cook with the contents of a care package your family sent to you. This seemed to hinge on whether or not your family is genre-savvy enough to send you actual cooking ingredients instead of junk food and booze. Gabe won, and I know he is a good chef, but his wife sent him bay leaves is what I'm saying. Maria lost, and briefly Jamie tried to quit in her place, but everyone talked her out of it. (click for more)
So the show recaps nothing of what actually happened, just Jamie trying to quit. After Maria leaves, Dawn gives Jamie a pep talk about how she deserves to be here. Padma then appears to tell everyone that they should get some sleep, because tomorrow is the last Quickfire, and then they're headed to the coast. Everyone cheers and gets excited.
They're up before 7am, hanging out. Shota says he used to really focus on the challenges, and not on his food. Gabe is homesick but he's excited he could win.
In the Top Chef kitchen there are a bunch of baskets and then a covered wagon. I mean, it's not big enough to be a real covered wagon. Shota immediately knows it's an Oregon Trail reference. Gregory is back for judging. Padma then talks about culinary trailblazer, Vitaly Paley. Gregory says that he laid the foundations for Portland's food scene. They talk a little bit about how it feels to be in the final 4, and Jamie points out that she, Dawn, and Gabe were a team during the first Quickfire. Oh yeah, they were. Huh. And then Shota. Anyway, the Quickfire is actually about the Oregon Trail. Gregory thinks these chefs played the game but I'm not sure all of them are old enough. I mean I played that game and I'm not young. As expected, you will make a dish using only ingredients a traveler would have had. So flour, lard, jerky, etc. The pantry is off limits.
30 minutes. There are things like fresh fish that you could have caught, and some vegetables that keep well. No bison though. I know those of you who played remember wasting bullets on trying to kill bison and then not being able to carry any of it back to the wagon. Shota is missing all of his Japanese ingredients, of course. But I think he's going to blend the beef jerky to use like salt. Jamie is using walnuts and maybe drinking some of the whiskey she got. Gabe says he loves camping. He conspicuously mentions he's been in the top on Quickfires but hasn't won yet. So I assume he's winning this one. Dawn is making a porridge? She and Gabe complain about how there's no real acid, because apparently what they did was carry around citric acid to make fake lemonade with? So they wouldn't get scurvy? I mean sure. Jamie's using dried cranberries for acid. She's also frying things so I'm not sure how they're allowed to use that? Shota interviews that he's less concerned about winning and more concerned about blocking Gabe from winning so he won't have any Quickfire wins. Then he laughs his Shota laugh and says "I'm such an asshole." I bet no one says anything about this, unlike when Sara said she didn't think Chris should have lasted longer than her and the internet was mad that she was a terrible person. The discourse is not the same. For what it's worth I think this is funny.
Jamie: pan-seared salmon with walnut pepper sauce. Shota: jerky cured salmon with parsnip and apricot puree. Dawn: "trail ride" porridge with fire roasted curry squash and hazelnut bacon relish. When Padma asks how she cooked the squash so quickly, she says it was with help from Shota, because he shoved her pan all the way to the back of the oven. I can't tell if she is mad about it or not. She is kind of laughing, but you can tell when she starts to explain she actually hesitates and looks over to Shota, like she's just realized what it's going to sound like. Fortunately Padma says it made the dish better, so everyone is able to laugh and Shota can say "I got you girl" or something. It just seemed so unnecessary to bring up, you know? Gabe: "campfire" trout with Oregon trail salsa macha.
Shota's salmon was a little dry, which might have been the curing with the jerky. Dawn put dried herring in her porridge, as in boiled the grain and fish together, so it was too fishy. Gabe's fish had a great use of the citric acid, and I think the judges could see how you could make that while camping. Jamie made a delicious dish and the fried parsnips were a great addition. My hesitation is that they showed Gabe asking if there was any plain oil, and Dawn says no just lard, but then Jamie used the deep fryer. So technically if there's no oil then did they fill the fryers with lard? Right? No one else seems to care I guess. The winner is Jamie. Oof for Gabe. She says she needed that boost of confidence.
Now it's time for Dale and Ed to wheel in a monitor. If you have been wondering how Top Chef could go to Oregon and completely ignore Tillamook Creamery, it's because they were saving it apparently. The monitor is so Massimo Bottura can call in to talk to everyone. He created a dish honoring Parmigiano, using it five different ways on one plate. Also they subtitle him and his accent is perfectly understandable so either subtitle everyone or no one. So the challenge is to do the same, but with Tillamook cheddar. A little more difficult because cheddar tends to get oily when it melts. It behaves differently from Parm. Ed also says to think about what else will go into the dish, because it can't just be five types of cheddar. Even though the dish they're supposed to be inspired by IS just five types of cheese on the plate. Whatever, anyway, 3 hours to cook tomorrow and serve the All-Stars and also the head of Tillamook. Jamie gets an extra 30 minutes because she won the Quickfire.
Time for a tour! You can tell the factory is set up for tours because they've got signage up about what different machines do. The tasting looks good. Tillamook is good cheese. Shota's slightly worried because of course Japanese cuisine doesn't really use cheddar. Jamie doesn't work with it a lot either. Gabe kind of doesn't want to make any protein so that nothing competes with the flavor. Shota has recovered and wants to make cheese dashi broth. He breaks a sign which is funny for some reason. Jamie might make a dumpling. I think Dawn has decided on Philly cheesesteak which sounds great.
They head for the hotel, and there's a balcony where they all go out and then see the conspicuous firepit and chairs on the beach for them to hang out. I know earlier I said they should have just gotten a house like they always do, instead of being in a hotel with other people, but apparently it's so everyone can have their own room. There's no way they can get a house with enough bedrooms. The contestants talk about how the show has changed their cooking. Dawn has faced some prejudice in real life so the praise she's gotten here has really helped.
Three hours to cook. Jamie has...sea bass. Sure? I mean, cheddar spaetzle is probably good. And Filet-o-Fish. Hmm. Dawn says she's never done this before, as if the rest of them have. Shota might name his dish "Cheesus Christ". Heh. Gabe says something about cheese oil, which to me feels like he's melting cheese until it separates and then using the oil? His dish is going to be roasted apples and cheddar, which is a great combo. He's also doing something with chemicals, so that the apples don't fall apart when he roasts them. I feel like he could have accomplished that with a different variety of apple. But he's a nerd, so. Apples roasted in cheese oil.
Tom Time! He jokes that he guesses everyone is making cheese. Dawn is also making cheddar oil to baste the steak in. Tom seems OK with this. He also gives Gabe shit for not making chili or mole. OK that's a good joke. Shota claims to enjoy being pushed out of his comfort zone. He's making manju, which I have only ever seen sweet. Usually it's a chewy mochi outside and bean paste in the middle. Like the outside of mochi ice cream but then with red bean paste and not ice cream in the center. Apparently you can make savory ones and he's got a dish full of little baggies of steamed cheddar manju. Tom looks a little skeptical but he might not known what all those words are. He for sure does not think Jamie's sea bass is a good idea, because she gets the "Sea bass! ...OK! Do you do a lot of sea bass and cheese dishes?" response. In confessional Tom says they're trying to push everyone out of their comfort zone.
Shota asks Gabe to taste his dish and Gabe asks for more cheese. I thought he was joking but they seem to be serious. Jamie likes it though. Gabe does have chili in a glaze for his apples. Honestly apples and cheddar sounds great. Dawn doesn't think her dish is heavy, but it does have 15 components. The judges arrive, with Nina, and sit down at a long table in the middle of a hallway. Like it's clearly part of the tour because there are display windows and placards to read. Jamie asks Dawn to taste her sauce and Dawn says it tastes like peanut butter for some reason. There's sesame paste in it. Shota realizes he has ten minutes left and he suddenly starts frantically working. He asks Jamie for help plating and it looks like he finishes in time.
Shota: tofu cheddar manju with cheddar dashi, smoked cheddar oil, cheddar tofu miso and cheddar tuile. It's delicious. Padma is just flabbergasted. Unique and purely Shota. If you asked everyone contestant on this show for the next ten years to do this challenge you would never get this dish.
Dawn is cooking her ribeye in the sous vide with whey in the bags. Somehow she's complaining that the water is too hot, and she can't just leave her steak in the water and leave. OK but why is the water too hot? You have a digital control on the machine. Why isn't it set to the right temperature? Gabe hopes his cheese will stay warm.
Gabe: cheddar oil roasted apples, white cheddar foam, cheese curds, apple bacon cheddar sauce, cheese and apple chip. The cheese curds are fried in masa, and the apples are roasted with chili. The apples are great and they're tart, which counters the cheese really well. Everyone seems to like it.
Dawn asks Jamie to help her plate. I guess both she and Shota assumed since Jamie got an extra half hour she's got time. While Jamie was willing to help Shota, she seems a lot more hesitant to help Dawn. I guess as time moves on she's more worried about her own dish. I think also Shota asked Jamie to put dumplings on the plate and Dawn is having Jamie slice her steak. In confessional Dawn is solemnly saying she knows she has time management problems and at this point it's not OK. I mean how many times has she left things off the plate? At least three. Right? Or four, I guess, because she's done it again.
OK so there's a sauce to be poured tableside, and Dawn is carrying a tray with all the little pitchers, and the waiters have to be called back to help her distribute. Dawn: cheese oil basted steak, cheese salte, cheddar gougere, extra sharp reserve cheese foam, soubise and cheddar sauce. I think "cheese salte" is cheese salt? A gougere is like a savory cream puff. Dale is pissed about how Dawn has failed to get complete plates again. Like he is heated. Blais says if you're going to be inspired by cheesesteak your dish better be at least as good as a cheesesteak. Nina has compared the technique shown by Shota and Gabe, and found Dawn's technique lacking a little bit. Ed says the sauce is grainy but he's gonna drink it.
Jamie now doesn't have time to thin out her sauce. She says in confessional that she spent too much time helping people. Jamie: sea bass with crispy cheddar, cheddar spaetzle, spiced cheese sauce, cheese broth bok choy and pickled cheese curds. She tells the table she wanted to counter heavy cheese with the lighter fish. The sauce doesn't make sense, the fish shouldn't be there, but it's bold and Gregory likes the crispy bits. It's a hard challenge.
Judges' Table. It's gonna be hard to judge this one. Padma says one dish did stand out above the rest, and that dish belongs to Shota. He also gets $10,000. He jokes that he's a little less broke now. Shota tells the judges he didn't really want to make that much Japanese food when he started because he didn't think others would understand it. Tom praises that he understood you could replace tofu with cheddar.
Padma promises the bottom three that they shouldn't be ashamed if they go home tonight. Gabe took a risk, because he didn't make something Mexican. And it was a great dish. Tom says the best part of the dish was the apple, and it was supposed to showcase cheese. But it was a great dish. Dawn had a great idea, but three of her five cheese techniques were sauces. Also someone didn't get a gougere. I can't tell from Dawn's reaction if she knew before or if this is the first time she's hearing about it. She claims she checked every plate, and she also says Jamie was helping her and Jamie pipes up that she checked also. A lot of people online are mad saying she threw Jamie under the bus here, but I mean, she said "I checked every plate" so I don't think she's saying it's Jamie's fault. If she was she'd say "I asked Jamie to put the gougeres on the plates". I mean if you watch the show you know what it looks like when people throw their teammates under the bus. Dale says the sauce was grainy also. Gail loved the gougere which is why it's too bad. See this is what happens. Dawn fucks up plating but the people who do get everything can't shut up about how amazing it is. Tom praises Jamie's spaetzle and the crispy bits. Her five techniques weren't amped enough. It was kind of crazy but her technique wasn't enough to compensate for how out there the ideas were.
Gabe's dish was solid but it was just not in balance. Not a cohesive dish but still a good dish. Ed is still raving about Dawn's food because it made him make more noises while he ate. Sure. Dale's still mad, because it's the final four and she's still not plating in time. Jamie's dish is too weird. Her fish was the best part of the dish, but it didn't go with any of the cheese. Ed is sad because he knows Jamie's Vietnamese food is amazing. She just got thrown by the cheese.
Tom says that the losing dish just lost sense of what cheddar is about? I mean I guess so. It just seems random. Jamie is eliminated. Yeah y'all are mad Dawn is still there but they did keep Chris for forever, and also I think the judges love her food too much. It's like when you watch "Chopped" and someone leaves out a basket ingredient but someone else just has a terrible dish so you can get away with it. What I am hoping is if it happens again next week, that they don't overlook it then. But I guess that's a big if. Anyway Padma says she wants to go visit Jamie at her own restaurant, and Jamie promises to get everyone drunk. She's not super upset but then again, she did try to quit last episode. "I'm out, bitches!"
Next week: clam digging, Dungeness crab which is delicious, Gabe forgets something this time. I thought next week was the finale but it's not!
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