Top Chef 4/28/22--"Freedmen's Town" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: It was time for Restaurant Wars. Both spots seemed to be cohesive, with good food and no shots of servers forgetting what tables they were going to or backups in the kitchen. Matriarc went for Southern cuisine, lead by Ashleigh and Buddha doing front of house. No Nem did Southeast Asian, with Evelyn running the kitchen and Jackson doing front of house. Buddha admitted he watched previous seasons and took note of how to do things, and ended up with great service. Jackson wanted to serve family style and also two courses at once and then he didn't greet the judges or explain any dishes. Then he admitted to everyone he couldn't taste anything, which upset his team, as he waited until after judging. But in the end, he was sent home finally. I get that he's “a strong chef” but those front of house errors are the most basic errors. You gotta tell the judges who made what dish, come on. Ashleigh won for leading the other kitchen to victory. (click for more)

On Last Chance Kitchen, Tom and Gail demanded take-out, so Jackson and Sarah ran ghost kitchens and made three dishes each to drive out to whatever Airbnb Tom was pretending to live in. Sarah won again, which is pleasing.

Jae is disappointed because she thought her restaurant put out their best. But they still lost. She says every day is not a good day, but you always make progress.

In the morning, Padma greets everyone and introduces Nyesha, who was on the show the last time they were in Texas. Ashleigh is a huge fan. The Quickfire is going to be about vegetarian food. There is a huge display of produce in different colors. Each person is going to get one color. Heh. Evelyn immediately complains that she pulled black, which isn't even on the rainbow. Damarr gets green and Padma gives him shit for not looking happy enough. “I thought I had my happy face on.” Y'all Damarr has RBF don't make fun of him. Winner will get the last immunity of the season.

30 minutes to cook. It's a challenge to only use vegetables, blah blah. Jae is making gochujang with strawberries. Ashleigh is making curried cauliflower and other yellow things. Evelyn is discovering that “black” vegetables includes things like eggplant, which is technically purple on the outside but white inside. So she's not sure how she can make it dark. Damarr is making chermoula to go on broccoli steaks. Chermoula is parsley and cilantro with garlic. Buddha makes cauliflower and pickles and cheese. I think there are several colors of cauliflower that are in several different people's baskets. Luke is getting a lot of confessional time. He runs around and slams into Buddha. Nick interviews that he started a non-profit to get kids to eat vegetables. I think Luke tries to warm plates in the oven but Buddha won't let him in? Not sure what happened there.

Buddha (white): cauliflower and cheese with vadouvan and salted grapes. Vadouvan is a curry seasoning, and I'm not sure how a mix with cumin and turmeric can be white but sure. Luke (purple): roasted cauliflower with cabbage, purple potato puree and brown butter carrots. Ashleigh (yellow): curried vegetable puree with marinated curry vegetables. Damarr (green): harissa glazed broccoli with chermoula and avocado puree. Jae (red): strawberry gochujang glazed beets with walnut puree. Nick (orange): vegetable fried rice, kumquat and peach hot sauce with charred papayas and cauliflower. Evelyn (black): charred eggplant and black bean soup with dill yogurt and black radish crumble.

The chefs overall did really well today. Nick's orange ingredients didn't really go together as well as they could have. Ashleigh had plenty of yellow but it also wasn't cohesive. Buddha made an elegant dish and it was beautiful. Damarr had a clear vision for his dish and every ingredient supported the broccoli. Evelyn's soup was flavorful and had a great texture. Padma also goes out of her way to congratulate Luke for finally doing a good job. Kind of rude, but hilarious. The winner is Damarr. Nice.

For the Elimination Challenge, Dawn and Kwame walk out. Interesting. This is going to be about Juneteenth. Damarr says his restaurant usually celebrates with a BBQ. Dawn describes some of the history of the holiday, which is that after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, because it was 1863 someone had to physically travel to much of the country to spread the news. It took two more years for news to get to Texas. Many of the freed slaves moved to near Houston and created Freedman's Town. She says the food of this neighborhood is soul food. The challenge is to put on a fundraiser for 100 people, and your dish has to speak to your soul. So it doesn't have to be American “soul food” but it can be whatever makes you feel like home. Ashleigh knows every person has that dish that makes them feel like home. Padma does mention that they're charging people for this party, I guess to make sure they don't slack off. Two hours to prep and cook today, and another two hours tomorrow on-site. But before shopping they're all going to go to the site and meet up with the director of the non-profit.

They go to Bethel Church, which is a really beautiful space. They were only able to preserve the walls, so there is no roof. Instead it's just a big open space with stone benches and exterior walls. The whole back wall is just metal and clear and colored glass rectangles, and then I think there's more grass out back. You can tell the tour and history is really affecting the chefs. They go back to the church to have lunch which looks delicious. Nick has already decided to make his grandmother's salmon cake.

On the way to shop Buddha admits in confessional that he's never even cooked rice yet on the show, but he's going to make some curry. His grandmother showed him how to make it the last time he was home. Jae is going to make fish, which is interesting because I remember her saying she doesn't cook Asian food professionally, but she does cook fish. So maybe combining the two.

I like having shopping footage again. Luke is making his mom's meatloaf that she would always make for him when he came home from Europe. Ashleigh is making some crab rice and oyster gravy, which sounds amazing. I think Evelyn is making chorizo.

Two hours to cook today. Ashleigh is thrilled to be able to help with a fundraiser like this. Luke's mom had that rule that you have to always try everything at least once. Buddha feels his dad's with him always, but especially this time. His dad just passed so there's still some emotion. The week he passed, that's when they called Buddha to tell him he made the show. Jae says her mom used to debone fish for her when she was little. She wants to recreate baby food? Not exactly baby food, but that feeling when her mom would feed her? Sure. Damarr is making hoecakes. It's great storytelling. Lots of frantic working and planning to do lots of cooking tomorrow.

Day Two. It's the usual outdoor kitchens. Ashleigh is feeling confident because she's made this dish before. But she knows it's never easy. Buddha is eating like, a whole portion of curry because he hasn't had it in a while. There's some pressure on this challenge but I think he's pretty satisfied. Evelyn has hot pink dough with beets in it. Everyone is making something from their mom or grandmother. Evelyn wonders about how you can judge something like this, where everyone is cooking from the heart with something their family eats. Buddha is done supper early, while Damarr is way behind on hoecakes. Plus he's burnt some. He's frying them in cast iron skillets, but he can only do six at a time so it's not going well.

Everyone starts arriving. Damarr is out of batter. He's been throwing the burnt ones out, but he doesn't have enough batter to keep doing that and still serve hoecakes. After we come back from commercial he gets sort of on track and plans to schmooze it up to make up for it.

Nick: Nana's salmon cake with remoulade and Hoppin' John salad. They love that he took a traditional dish like Hoppin' John and made it into a condiment. It balances the salmon cakes. Jae: Mama Kim's flaked cod with Korean sweet potatoes, kimchi and shrimp bisque. The fish is perfectly cooked and the kimchi is delicious.

Evelyn: beet sope with chorizo, charred pineapple and salsa verde. Sopes are fried masa dough with things piled on top. They are blown away by beet sopes. It's the right amount of “cheffy”. Damarr: hoecakes and collard greens with smoked ham hock. It's a simple dish but it's put together so well. Tom makes a pointed comment that he doesn't see how they could send anyone home right now.

Ashleigh: low country crab rice and oyster gravy. This is the first dish that they don't rave about. There should be some crispy bits of crab? There's no texture, and the rice and gravy don't really go together. Luke: Mom's meatloaf “frikadeller style” with white cheddar mash and gravy glaze. Frikadelle are Danish meatballs that are flattened and pan-fried. Padma tells Tom he finally didn't screw up the Quickfire, even though the meatball is a little dense. It feels more authentic though.

Buddha: Grandma's curry—nasi lemak. He for some reason tells the judges he finished way early. Why. Each piece is great, but eaten all together something is missing. They let some politicians talk and applaud. Then all the judges get to meet up and talk about everything.

Judges' Table. Buddha says he immediately thought of the curry and knew that's what he would make. It was great but they wanted a little more heat. A minor complaint. Nick's Hoppin' John relish was delicious. Gail says the texture was a little off but the flavor was perfect. Luke's meatball was dense. Tom says he spoke about how the best part of the meatloaf was the crispy edges. But the style of meatball he chose to actually do is like Swedish meatballs, where you cook the meatballs in the gravy so they're not actually that crispy. So why not just make meatloaf? Why do Danish style or whatever? Luke says it might be hard to cut into sometimes, but there was hopefully enough sauce and creamy mashed potatoes to match that. OK but that's not answering the question. If you love crispy meatloaf, why deliberately simmer it in gravy? Tom is all, the best part of the meatloaf is the crust, yeah? And then they drop it. I'm not imagining things, right? Tom said “why did you make the meat soggy on purpose?” and Luke said “I thought the sauce would counteract if it was dense”.

Padma talks to Damarr, and she continues to harp on his facial expressions and I'm really uncomfortable with this for some reason. I think because it feels like she's demanding he smile, which I KNOW must have happened to her a million times, seeing as how she's an attractive woman. Or just a woman in general. Add into that the stereotype of the angry black man and she needs to just leave him be. Damarr shouldn't have to plaster a smile on his face to make people feel better. Anyway he did a great job and for once they don't have anything bad to say. Ashleigh's two components were great, but they didn't really go together. Maybe less gravy, or gravy on the side. There was no crispy texture. Evelyn immediately starts crying when they ask her about her sopes. Her food was delicious and the textures were on point. Kwame wishes it was bigger. Jae made something thoughtful and all the fermented flavors matched together. It's not exactly what her mother made, but it also incorporates her time in New Orleans where she learned to be a professional chef.

Padma sends them all out so I guess there's no winner? It's going to be a hard decision on who to send home. OK now Padma does say there will be a winner. Jae's dish is unique, something new but instantly comforting. Damarr had just a simple dish, but it was familiar and done perfectly. So one of them will win. Luke's meatball was probably a failure. It was dense and not juicy like meatloaf. They had to cut the meatballs to eat them, meaning you had to put down the plates. It's a problem for an event where there are booths and you're supposed to walk around and eat. I guess frikadeller style is supposed to be crispy all around or whatever, but it was still a pain. Ashleigh had decent flavors, but the textures were all mushy together. She could have plated it differently and it would have been fine. Buddha's dish wasn't strong enough. It needed heat, even though all the parts were fine.

The winner today is Jae. Her eyes bug out and she seems very surprised. She's so proud to have won this challenge in particular. It was a great day of great food, but they do have to eliminate someone. Never get too far away from where you started, says Tom. Everyone put themselves out there, but there was just one dish that fell short. Luke is eliminated. Yeah, they harped on him a lot and he got so much confessional time this week. He's glad to have been here in the first place.

Next week: the farmer's market, make a dish for astronauts, Marcus Samuelsson is here.

Last Chance Kitchen: Luke says his confidence has gotten better and his mood is to learn from everything. So he's looking forward to this. Sarah knows everyone is probably shocked to see her, because she was eliminated so long ago. Tom says that Luke made a good dish but it just fell a little short. So we're going to go back to how they harped on Luke's seasoning all season. You can make anything you want today. It should be well-seasoned. Sarah is suspicious. Tom continues that your seasoning depends on the strength of your palate. Sarah figures it out here. It's the blind taste test. I love this challenge and I'm mad that they never made Jackson do this.

You will have 20 spices and herbs, and five minutes to identify as many as possible. Any spices you get right, you can use those in your dish. If you can't identify it correctly, you can't use it. After the taste test, 20 minutes to cook.

Sarah is up first, and they send Luke to the Stew Room. She says that sometimes spices don't bloom until you heat them, so the raw versions might be different or not as flavorful. She gets some wrong, but then gets on a roll with a bunch of stuff. Luke passes on a lot of things. It's really edited like Sarah killed it and then Luke failed, which is what actually happened. Luke only got five correct, while Sarah got ten. Wow. She interviews that this is important for her and Tom's relationship which is why she's here. Hee.

20 minutes to cook. Luke immediately grabs some cauliflower and a ton of butter. Did they say if they could use salt and pepper? Sarah has carrots. She says she has a bunch of herbs which makes her think carrots. Her pan with the carrots is directly on top of the coals in the wood-burning oven. Luke has kale too, so it's going to be kale with cauliflower puree and maybe some other vegetables. He asks Sarah for advice and she's like nah fam. The peanut gallery laughs and Monique is like “That's definitely going to make it on”. Sarah makes a pesto with her herbs, and then it needs something else so she adds some pickling liquid. But the liquid is hot still, so it mutes everything. She doesn't have any more herbs so she can't start over. Yikes. Luke makes a cream sauce and then breaks it with butter? He likes how broken sauces look? Sure. Jackson notices he hasn't opened the salt.

Tom Time! He asks the peanut gallery how they're doing and Jackson IMMEDIATELY snitches on Luke and how he hasn't used any salt yet. Tom shakes his head. Sarah also knows this, and she's hoping he forgets completely and she can still win because he's got no salt. She tells Tom she has oven-roasted carrots and pesto, and he seems unimpressed. She also claims to be using all her spices, which is not what she told the peanut gallery earlier. I'm pretty sure. Luke says he's making cauliflower, and then the peanut gallery tells him where the salt is. Sigh.

Tom tries to tell them they have 2.5 minutes left when they really have 3.5 minutes. Sarah yells at him for running a “sick rodeo” as Tom just kind of shrugs that he can't see very well. Yeah Luke found the salt but Sarah interviews that you can't salt at the end and expect everything to be seasoned.

Luke: roasted yellow and green cauliflower with cauliflower and kale puree. The sauce looks terrible, by the way. Like cloudy gravy with a thick layer of fat on top. Tom calls him out on not seasoning until the last minute, and Luke says he was running around a lot and didn't realize the salt was under his bench. Sarah: roasted carrots, herbed pesto with pickled carrots and candied almonds.

Tom asks Luke about his broken sauce, and he admits that's on purpose. The vegetables are nicely cooked though. Sarah has a lot going on, although the pesto is just fine. A little murky. The spices come through on them both. Sarah wins again. Luke's is too salty. I guess that's what happens when you salt just at the end? He interviews that he is still learning. Sarah knows that she won on a technicality. If he had salted properly he would have won. Tom tells her that next week is the challenge to get back in the competition. That seems early? They're down to six now, so eliminate one and then they go back to six? Or a double elimination? Who knows.