Previously on “Top Chef”: Gabe was the winner. Most people wanted Shota to win, especially after Gabe was accused of sexual harassment several times. This season is in Houston, which only makes me once again advocate for coming to St. Louis. We have too many weird regional foods but also a huge Bosnian population (excellent sausage) and plenty of Midwestern cuisine. Anyway, it's a new season. (click for more)
We begin with a serious montage about how hard it is to be a chef and how you need grit. Sure. People talk about their accomplishments, which are of course impressive. I think we are keeping the former contestants as judges, which is nice. I liked having them around because they know what it is like. Spoiler: this turned to not be true in that former contestants are around, but the contestants are back to serving a table full of restaurant owners instead of former contestants.
As everyone files into the kitchen, Padma is waiting for them with Dawn. She says they've never been to Houston before, which is actually true. The Texas season, they never went to Houston. Evelyn has eyes only for the knife block. Ashleigh describes her food as “Affrilachia”, which is spefically the combo of African-American and Appalachian. People raise their hands to show their James Beard nominations or whatever. Someone (I think Luke) has worked at Noma.
Everyone has to draw knives. The Quickfire will be a team challenge. They all match up, although it seems like there are both colors and numbers. So I'm not sure if it's all orange knives or all ones. Jackson says he had Covid a month ago and lost his sense of taste and smell. But he's not telling anyone. “God, does that make me a dick?!” He seems genuinely concerned. I laughed. You will have 30 minutes to make one dish as a team, and you will each get ten minutes before the person after you takes over. No speaking to your teammates. Everyone has to add something to the dish. The winning team gets immunity. So it is sorted by color, then.
Jae says her style is Korean and New Orleans, which is odd and not something people may have experience with. Ashleigh is making something basic so her team can build on it. Sarah says something about choose your own adventure. So the good thing is that the other team members can see you, even if they can't talk to you. So there won't be a situation where someone puts something in the oven and then no one knows it's there. (Spoiler: this is not true) Your teammates can see you put it in there. Damarr doesn't like that he's first because he has no control over the final dish. Leia spends a lot of time getting ingredients together. Rather than cook her food she says that there is a lot of Vietnamese food in Houston so she's making Vietnamese pork? I'm not arguing if that's true but it feels a little like pandering. I'm not sure what her food is but the way she said that in confessional makes it seem like Vietnamese is not her thing. Jo is making salsa verde and steak.
On the switch there isn't a ton of confusion except for Evelyn who doesn't know what the creamed corn is supposed to be. Luke is the third chef, and he's worried because Sam is “strolling” and not running around. He's also getting more ingredients. Robert drops a pan full of food on the ground. I think it was a pan? Anyway that part of the dish is gone.
The final contestants go in. Jackson is asking people about various meats on the grill because he doesn't know where his team's food is. How do you not know? Weren't you watching? Everyone has colored aprons and you only have to keep track of one person. He roasts some eggplant really quick. Luke really can't make anything he's made at Noma because you can't do that in ten minutes. But you need to put something of yourself. Nick talks about how Mississippi is bold. You can't change everything radically in the final ten minutes but you can't just plate either. In the end Luke doesn't plate anything. Like the plates are clean.
Brown Team (Jackson, Robert, Sarah): coal roasted eggplant, macadamia romesco, and serrano crème fraiche. So this is interesting, because they still aren't talking to each other, so Jackson has to guess that it's romesco sauce. Would they ding him if it's not? Sarah admits she pulled scallops and pork, so Jackson has to admit he couldn't find it. Oops. Red Team (Stephanie, Jae, Leia): Asian spiced pork chop, grilled corn salad, and tomato puree with fish sauce. Dawn asks weird questions about who cooked what and if they used any oil, because Stephanie assumed there was oil somewhere and Leia didn't use any.
Green Team (Nick, Evelyn, Damarr): seared New York strip with creamed corn and charred Brussels sprouts. That is all the screen time they get. Yellow Team (Buddha, Monique, Jo): Thai barbecue beef with salsa verde salad, charred scallions and fish sauce butter. Blue Team (Luke, Sam, Ashleigh): literally walk up and put down empty plates. Come on. Ashleigh describes how she made some fried cabbage, and Sam planned a stir fry. Luke admits he focused too much on putting his own spin on things.
Obviously Blue Team failed. The fucking irony of DAWN telling you that you need better time management? Red Team overcooked their pork and they didn't season it either. Yellow Team had a great salsa verde, Brown Team had a delicious dish and no one missed meat. I guess Green's lack of screen time was prophetic. Yellow Team wins immunity. Monique thinks this proves their skill to everyone else.
Elimination Challenge. Padma makes a “meat” pun and then Tom and Kristin Kish wheel a table full of meat into the kitchen. Leia says it's a moment but also she feels like she's about to get punched. Tom says it's season 19 and this will test your limits. You get the feeling that Tom enjoys this. Teams are the same as in the Quickfire. Sam says it's comeback time. Create three cohesive dishes highlighting beef. Choose a primal cut and break it down yourselves. 2 hours to prep and cook tomorrow. It's not clear if that two hours includes the butchery, but maybe it does. Each team must agree on a primal, so I guess you'll break it down and use the different parts. Also it's “teams” but since each person is responsible for a dish it's basically an individual challenge.
Yellow Team gets to pick first and then each team will choose who picks after them. They take ribs. Then they pick Blue Team next on the logic that they didn't even put up a dish during the Quickfire. Are they hoping they will not know what to pick? Or are they trying to be nice to them about it? Sam says he's good at butchering and he is “king of the beef”. They take loin. Brown picks chuck, Green takes sirloin (on the logic that the round must be braised and that takes time), Red is left with round. Kristin says her first challenge they had to collab on one single dish so this is great.
Everyone plans their dishes and how they're going to be cohesive. Blue plans on pepper in everything. Buddha tells the Yellow team he wants to make spotted dick with beef fat. Buddha is Australian so I'm not sure what is up with the British dessert but as his team points out, now is the time to take risks. True, they have immunity so why not? Jae and Leia both seem want to Asian food, and Stephanie does not really make Asian food. She talks about representing North Dakota by making steak and potatoes, but since the other two are making spring rolls and a rice dish she feels forced to put some Asian flavors in there. They kind of steamroll her but Stephanie also doesn't put up a big fight.
They actually let everyone go shopping themselves so we can have the frantic shopping segment at Whole Foods. Stephanie is still upset she can't make Italian but instead has to make Asian food. Leia out of nowhere interviews that she thinks she has a bladder infection and she feels terrible.
They all go home, and it says “apartments and clubroom” so I'm not sure if they're in an apartment building and they took over the club room or if they have the whole building. Some people are talking about their dishes. Leia has already gone to bed. In the morning she's up but still feverish. I'm shocked they let her participate with a fever. You know? They were all still masked at the store.
The chyron says they have 2.5 hours to cook, and I thought it was two hours, but maybe the extra 30 minutes is for breaking down the primal cuts. Buddha is still making spotted dick, and his team says if he nails it the judges will remember. Ashleigh thinks everyone is going to start with something raw, so she's got some peppers from home to use. Evelyn's dad has a ranch so she's used to breaking down beef. Jackson can't taste much. Jae says that in college, she watched Top Chef in the dorms all the time and said one day she'd be there. Robert is making gnocchi, and his pressure cooker isn't steaming yet and he's got to make it work. Stephanie is STILL complaining about not making what she wants. I get that this is mostly editing, because it's probably all the same sound bite from the same confessional, but we get it. Her team wanted to do Asian and she's trying to be a team player but she doesn't want to make Asian food. She thinks putting bok choy into her dish is enough. Probably not. Leia is making spring rolls and she says the beef is a little chewy, but she likes it. I'm not an expert on cuts of beef, but it feels like she doesn't really have the right cut but she's determined to make the dish she wants. Damarr is rendering fat from the steaks he has to coat some mushrooms. He says it's because Tom is always talking about using the whole animal, and that's probably true, so let's hope it works out. Nick's meat is maybe too dry, and he's worried about screwing it up. Robert didn't have enough time and he thinks his beef is not done. He blames the pressure cooker.
It feels like the table of diners is all chefs and not former contestants. There is slightly frantic plating from the Brown team. Everyone immediately starts eating when they are served, to make sure it's hot. Jackson: beef tartare with tonnato, capers, and crispy potatoes. Tonnato is a sauce made of tuna. Robert: braised pot roast with potato gnocchi, olive tapenade, and Parmesan cream. Sarah: tallow seared beef with eggplant puree, agrodolce shallots, and caperberry relish. Agrodolce is a sweet and sour Italian sauce. Padma says she's into this team. The tartare is ice cold, and the gnocchi is excellent. So many things could have gone wrong but nothing did. Sarah's components are all amazing.
Green Team is up next. Damarr: roasted rare sirloin with mushrooms, beef fat vinaigrette and sunchoke chips. Evelyn: grilled tri-tip, charred eggplant salad and chili jam. Nick: sirloin stew with fennel, sweet potato dumplings and charred vegetables. Damarr says it's cohesive because it goes from light to heavy. His dish is pretty basic. Gail hated the mushrooms because they were cold, and because they were cold all the beef fat had congealed. Evelyn had good eggplant but her meat wasn't cooked properly. The stew is dry because it's probably the wrong cut.
Luke comes right out and says he doesn't think they'll be on the bottom, which I include here because a statement like this is usually foreshadowing. Ashleigh: kitfo-- raw beef with egg yolk sauce and red rice crumble. Sam: roasted strip loin with Kampot peppercorn and bread salad. Luke: seaweed cured steak with mushrooms and black garlic shiitake puree. Ashleigh's dish is amazing and everyone loves it. Sam had a lot of pepper, and Gail says it blew out her palate but she loved it. Luke used a bunch of mushrooms but Kristin says there is no depth of flavor.
Stephanie fails to get any bok choy on her plates. Leia: top round steak summer rolls with peaches and tahini lime sauce. Stephanie: seared top round with sweet potato puree, oxtail demi-glace and crispy shallot. Someone asks about the bok choy (I guess they get menus) and she has to admit she forgot it. Jae: north Korean bibimbap—eye round with rice, vegetables, beef broth and soy marinated egg yolk. Padma asks a very pointed question about how they came up with the menu, and Leia lies that they were all inspired by Asian flavors. I mean whatever. Leia's tahini sauce wasn't good, and her summer rolls were maybe too big. Jae's dish was fine but the beef wasn't really there. Stephanie's dish didn't go with anything else, but we all knew that from the start.
Monique: beef tartare with nori, tamari onion jus and cured egg yolk. Jo: black garlic rubbed ribeye with kare-kare sauce and tomato cucumber relish. Buddha: spotted dick—suet pudding with beef fat caramel and miso ice cream. The tartare is very nice and the texture is good. Jo cooked her meat well. No one has a ton to say about dessert but that means it wasn't terrible. I'm not going to shit on it because full disclosure, I would feel compelled to order this in a restaurant.
Back in the Stew Room there are two big tables and a nice couch, and of course plenty of drinks. Stephanie admits she didn't get everything on her dish. Then they all go out to judging? I wish they'd go back to only calling like six people.
Judges' Table. Tom says this is a tough challenge. The best team was Brown. They seem surprised. When asked, they admit to being very surprised because there is so much talent in the room, it's not clear where they stand. Their team made a very cohesive menu. Robert had an elevated comfort dish and the gnocchi was great. He was the only one who “cooked that meat” and brought out the beef flavor. Jackson's tartare was delicious. Sarah had a ton of textures and it was very flavorful. Robert is the winner. He seems surprised, and he interviews that everyone is so talented he felt out of his depth.
Red team gets called forward as the bottom team. Stephanie finally admits that she wanted to do a filled dumpling or pasta, or at least stick to meat and potatoes. I'm not sure she really told her team this, but I also don't know that her team would have listened to her. She's already getting emotional. She doesn't know Asian cuisine. Padma asks if the bok choy had like an Asian vinaigrette or something, and it doesn't sound like it. She just ran out of time to get it on the plate. Jae made something she wasn't that familiar with. She had read about the North Korean dish and she's thought about it for a long time. I'm not sure why she didn't just do a Korean dish she's familiar with since that's what she does? Leia doesn't make summer rolls a lot. Kristin got a bite full of sinew so she had to spit it out. Oops. The rolls were too big and the sauce wasn't balanced. Leia is very matter-of-fact about how she owns her mistake. It feels extremely fake. Like she thinks if she tells the judges she knows she screwed up, then she'll be safe, but she actually doesn't think she screwed up at all.
Gail thinks no one on the Red team trusted themselves today. Stephanie doesn't make Asian food, Leia just put some stuff in a wrapper and called it a summer roll, and Jae was inspired by a Korean dish but the concept got watered down. The beef didn't shine in any of the dishes really. Tom thinks that Stephanie's dish, while not great, was the one that did the best at showcasing the beef. Jae had raw beef but it didn't taste like anything and then Padma says the rice was not cooked properly which seems like it is out of left field. Have they mentioned that at all? Leia's beef was arguably the worst part of her dish. It was an afterthought.
They call the Red team back out and Leia is sent home. She says she's put her life on hold for “the most prestigious” cooking competition and then she went home first. She knows it's on her and she made some rookie mistakes. Of course we will have Last Chance Kitchen. Hopefully she will get some antibiotics first.
This season: some kind of football challenge, alligator, space food? I don't know everything because my recording cut off but I'm sure it's all the same things we've had in every season.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment