Previously on “Top Chef”: the chefs had to cook with food from the farmers' market and proteins from Chipotle for some reason. Nick won because he seems to be very good at Quickfires and winning money. The Elimination Challenge asked the contestants to make food for the International Space Station. I'm not sure how much anyone stuck to the guidelines, but they're only going to be “inspired by” the dish so you know how it is. Buddha won by making a dessert that resembled the moon, although I still feel meringue is too crumbly. But sure. Jae was eliminated for making mushy meat and chewy barley. (click for more)
On Last Chance Kitchen, Sarah and Jae had to make dishes that were creamy, chewy, and crunchy. Jae decided her “chewy” would be shrimp, which seems like it shouldn't be chewy? Anyway, the remaining contestants came in to judge, but of course we couldn't let Sarah win outright (every single person voted for her) so she just got more time to cook in the real final challenge. But then she still won, so Sarah will be returning.
Everyone gets up in the morning to travel to Galveston. They all talk in the cars about how Sarah is back and she's talking about how she's spent so much time just doing Quickfires, basically. They end up on the beach, meeting Padma and Shota. Sarah says she's horrified. Heh. There is a big table set up with seafood. Including live crabs, one of which has just jumped off the table and is escaping. The Quickfire is to make a seafood tower. There's a lot of prep in those. You must make one hot and one cold shellfish dish, in 45 minutes.
Sarah misses LCK and how it's inside a building. They're all out on wooden tables in the sun. Buddha has sand everywhere. Lot of people bragging about how much seafood they cook and how great it is to be on the beach. Nick is sweating profusely. Sarah thinks everyone is doing raw oysters so she's going to cook hers. But she breaks her oyster knife in the process of shucking them. Nick I think was going to make tortillas, but he plans on this before he sees if there is a tortilla press around, which there is not. So he's got to switch to orzo, and he might not have enough time for it to cook. So much frantic plating.
Nick: oysters with watermelon mignonette, and orzo salad with grilled shrimp and mango chili vinaigrette. Ashleigh: gulf oysters with country ham and kanzuri barbecue sauce, and peel and eat jerk shrimp. Kanzuri is fermented chili paste. Buddha: jumbo shrimp and XO cocktail, and soft shell crab taco “yaki”. Damarr: gulf oyster with peach and tamari vinaigrette and Thai chili, and seared shrimp with shrimp and crab XO sauce. XO sauce is made from dried seafood and ham, and tamari is like soy sauce but without wheat. Sarah: dill pickled shrimp with togarashi and sesame, and hot buttered oyster with breadcrumb and peach relish. Evelyn: oysters with fish sauce vinaigrette, chili oil, and crispy shallots, and Thai Cajun boil with Thai chili butter and lime.
Buddha's dish was very creamy, and pretty heavy. Sarah's dish needed salt. Oof. Ashleigh's shrimp was full of flavor, and Nick's mignonette was the best oyster. And I guess the orzo was cooked. Evelyn put her own spin on everything. The winner is Evelyn. She gets an advantage.
For the Elimination challenge, Padma brings out Sheldon. Sheldon! I love Sheldon. Anyway, there is a “VIP family” coming to Galveston for a vacation and the reunion is important, etc. I mean it's a product placement vacation home but whatever. It's private chef time, but most of them seem to have that experience. Each of them will make a family style dish catered to a different family member. They all get folders, which is hilarious. Like spies. They will have to interpret the likes and dislikes and make enough food for 20 people. Oh and you have to cook at the house, which is obnoxious. Cramming six people into a home kitchen to make food for 20, where all the dishes have to be done at the same time. Evelyn's advantage is to get an extra 30 minutes, on top of the 2.5 hours everyone else gets. Then Padma tells them to go enjoy the city which is hilarious. They're not going to enjoy anything.
They all read the folders and I think try to guess who they have, and decide what they're going to make. There is some judgment, of course. Nick says he doesn't connect with this, as Buddha smugly declares this is his wife. Oohhhh, I see. Family members. He knows his wife's likes and dislikes. Sarah says it's probably her sister, because whenever her sister comes to her restaurants she asks the waiters if Sarah's sneaking mushrooms into her food, because she hates them. Sarah then tells everyone (and America) that it says she's allergic to mushrooms but she's totally not allergic. Ha! Nick has no idea. It's all over the place but he has no idea who it could be. Ashleigh's person doesn't want any pork. Damarr thinks it's his mentor, who is also his boss. Evelyn feels it's her dad, and they all laugh because he says he would eat eggs forever. Sarah reminds everyone that it might be their family members, but they need to be careful about still pleasing the judges. For example, she knows her sister would want a dish of their mom's, but it's not perfect and Sarah is not going to make it just to please her.
I guess there's no Whole Foods in Galveston. Ashleigh thinks it's her mom, so she's going to make seafood rice to impress her. Buddha is making pasta amatriciana, his wife's favorite. It's very simple, though, so it might not pan out. It's just pasta with guanciale, tomatoes, romano, and chilis. Also I think everyone else is making seafood. Nick still has no idea.
Everyone heads to a trolley tour, which is fun. Buddha thinks everyone waves at the trolley all the time, instead of spying TV cameras. Or being hired. They end up at a candy store? Nick buys so much chocolate. The apartments are very nice, although I was waiting for the family members to be there. Sarah talks about how this must be her sister and how her parents had a resort and restaurant in Jamaica. They always got into trouble. When a producer asks her what kind of trouble they got into, she says it's nothing they're going to put on Bravo. Heh. Buddha talks about his dish is the first thing he tasted that his wife cooked.
It's a very nice vacation home. The kitchen is great but not for six people. Evelyn immediately gets working on the stuff she's got to use the stove for, because she knows that space is going to be in high demand. Once everyone gets in there it's very crowded. Sarah is making ahi tuna, and she says she's not used to it. She wants her sister to recognize it, but she also wants the judges to like it. Ashleigh has a million things everywhere. Damarr is trying not to get into his head. Nick has pasta with crab and shrimp. He still doesn't know who is coming from his family. Oh good, there is a grill outside to help the spacing.
The family members come in and immediately there are hugs all round. It's Nick's mom, just to solve that mystery. Evelyn is in tears. Damarr says the reason his mom and aunt aren't there, and his mentor and boss is, is because his mom is in a wheelchair and his aunt takes care of her. Aww. Sarah tells her sister she already apologized for whatever she might say. It's so much sibling energy. Nick is emotional. Finally the family go to another room so they can get back to work. Nick gives some good natured ribbing to Buddha about how they don't allow kissing in the kitchen. Ashleigh is searing calamari on the plancha, hoping it's not overcooked. Sarah's plating on the TV stand. She's worried her peanut sauce looks like shit, so she's moving the tuna around. It's challenging because it has to look good, but also because family style means you can't control how anyone eats it. Like portion wise.
The judges arrive and Padma is a gracious host but that is hardly surprising. Nick: seafood herb pasta, crab veloute, smoked pork crumble. Evelyn: crispy red snapper with sweet vinegar, sticky coconut rice and pickled chilis. Buddha: “marry me pasta” pasta amatriciana. Ashleigh: paella inspired heirloom rice with red shrimp and calamari. Damarr: herb bread-crusted red fish, little neck clams, white beans with 'nduja and pine nuts. Sarah: tuna tataki with crispy ramen noodles and peanut dressing. Tataki is seared and served with a citrus sauce.
Padma then tells the contestants they get to join them for dinner. They're all surprised but they were cooking for 20 and you can do math. Evelyn says she doesn't know how to be normal. Heh. Buddha's pasta is simple but it's very good, and he doesn't usually do rustic. I wish they'd had a big table, but everyone is just sitting wherever they find space in pairs. Evelyn's fish is fried really well, and the flavors are blending. Padma takes a bite of Ashleigh's squid and it's so undercooked she can't swallow it. Uh oh. The dish tastes good, but also it's not paella inspired and they're unhappy with that.
Damarr's dish is great with the lemon he put with it. It's satisfying and the beans are great. We find that Damarr's mother has written him a letter because she couldn't come. Aww. He really hopes he can help his mom out if he wins. Nick's dish is a little confusing. It feels like he took literally everything his mom said she liked and put it all on there together. Plus the pasta is overcooked. Sarah dares her sister to put a whole huge bite in her mouth. Her sister looks around and spies the camera, and stares at it as Sarah says “No one's watching”, sees the camera, then says “Oh”. Then they both start giggling. I'm not shocked this is how she interacts with her sister. Unfortunately the tuna is not quite seared right. Tom didn't get peanut sauce. Not that I think he didn't get any, but I guess it's not strong enough? Shota tells the rest of the judges she didn't slice it properly, she should have sliced against the grain. With the grain? Something. Meanwhile Sarah is sort of holding her hand in front of her sister as she eats the giant bite. The judges come over and everyone has to say goodbye.
Judges' Table. They're out on the patio and meanwhile it's storming. As Gail is talking the power goes out for a second. Plus the wind kicks up and Tom has to hold onto his hat. Tom just give up on the hat. Gail says “please hold for hurricane” as some lightning strikes just then. Wisely Padma says maybe they should go inside.
So now they're all in the living room. Evelyn, Buddha, and Damarr are the tops. Evelyn's dish had layers, and Sheldon loved the masa in the tempura batter. It looked great. Buddha did something simple without fancy garnishes or anything, and it was really rustic and delicious. Damarr made sensational beans, and the details really stood out. The winner is Buddha. It spoke to the challenge. As the winner he wins a vacation home stay and $10,000.
Nick was happy with his crab stock, but he knows the pasta was overcooked. The flavor was good, however. He tried to put everything his mom liked into his dish. Plus it said macaroni salad so people expected cool and creamy. Sarah tells the judges she struggled getting her bearings. She tells them about changing the plating last minute, and how that meant the peanut sauce wasn't on the fish. Oh, so Tom really did mean he didn't get any peanut sauce, not that it was bland. They all nod and exclaim that it totally makes sense. The tuna wasn't seared that well, plus she didn't cut along the right grain. Ashleigh had great rice but the squid was too raw. She had good components but that took away from it.
The Stew Room today is in a child's bedroom and Buddha immediately climbs up to a top bunk which made me laugh for some reason. Sarah's tuna was chewy and the peanut sauce would have helped. She admitted to screwing up the sauce. Nick's flavor was good, but everything was too soft and the flavors were jumbled together. Ashleigh's squid was inedible. She didn't check her food.
This is a real-life challenge. It comes down to details this late in the game. Ashleigh is eliminated. She's not surprised, because she knows undercooked seafood is a huge mistake. She interviews that she feels she's been hanging on by a thread for a while. But she's learned so much, and she's gotten critiqued like never before and she's been yearning for that.
Next week: fishing, whatever you catch is what you have to cook, I think they each have to make two dishes, lots of freaking out.
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