Previously on “Top Chef”: the whole episode revolved around fishing. The contestants had to fish for their ingredients and then make two dishes with whatever they caught. Everyone caught something so there was no drama there. Sarah was playful and creative so she won with things like fish that reminded them of pastrami. I thought for a minute they would have a final five but in the end, Nick really screwed up his fish cakes and also his tacos and was sent home. (click for more)
You may be happy to know that Nick has a website where you can purchase Nick's 26 and it got slammed this past week with orders. I'm glad he's doing so well.
B-roll of the chefs in the airport. Damarr says he thought this season would be about cooking, but he's really grown as a chef. Evelyn talks about sacrifice, and she's already crying, which is maybe not a good sign. Often they do all the confessionals for an episode at the end of everything, after the cooking and judging. Sometimes someone has to talk about their challenge when they have just been eliminated. I am hoping that's not the case here. I mean I don't know what I hope because I like everyone who is left, you know? PS the green screen for these particular confessionals is hot garbage. I probably could do better on my phone. Sarah has gone through a lot. Buddha loves Tuscon? Sure.
Outside on the balcony of the hotel there's a party spread and a note from Padma to meet them somewhere tomorrow. Buddha tells us that they had a two-week break between the last challenge and now. He has spent his time studying Native American and Mexican cuisine, because this is a chef that studied Restaurant Wars before he came on the show. Buddha is smart about this show in a way that we all have screamed at the TV about.
Padma is waiting for everyone with Carlotta Flores, owner of the country's oldest Mexican restaurant. She hopes you did research! Ha. It's the last Quickfire this season. This restaurant is best known for it's carne seca, which is currently hanging in a cage well above the roof. No one knows about this particular dish except for Evelyn of course. They go up to the roof to try some, which looks like quality beef jerky. The Quickfire is to make a dish with carne seca, outside in the courtyard of the restaurant. Winner gets an advantage in the Elimination challenge.
30 minutes to cook. Evelyn is making grits. She says she was raised with carne seca, so her challenge is to be creative. Buddha says something about upside-down tostadas. Sarah reveals that her fiance got a deer last year, which they broke down and got a bunch of jerky from. Damarr has never worked with carne seca before, so he's going to try to stick with the procedure they said they use at the restaurant. Sarah thinks her dish is weird. Damarr has like, a half an avocado with grill marks and carne seca sauce. Buddha's tortillas aren't the right texture.
Sarah: carne seca gravy over polenta with soft egg, morels and blackberry salsa. Damarr: grilled avocado with carne seca vinaigrette, fried tortillas and grilled corn. Buddha: “upside down” tostada with carne seca, guajillo, chipotle and queso. It's basically the ingredients on a plate, covered with a flat fried tortilla. Evelyn: creamy grits with guajillo, carne seca and chayote relish. Interesting that both Evelyn and Sarah made grits. Polenta is grits, basically.
Overall it was pretty good. Buddha had a good dish but his tortilla was greasy. Damarr's dish was lacking texture. Sarah's dish was different and the flavors all went together. Evelyn also made a great dish, and the guest judge says she might start working with grits now. The winner is Sarah. She wants her chefs to taste Sarah's dish. Sarah has never won a Quickfire, for all that she won so many in Last Chance Kitchen.
Maria from Top Chef: Portland comes out. Aww. The Elimination challenge is about the desert? That's what Padma starts talking about anyway. The challenge is to make two dishes, one sweet and one savory. One dish must feature cactus, and one must feature chiltepin, which is the only pepper native to the US. This might be pretty hard. Maria is going to take them on a field trip so hopefully they can taste things. They will also get cactus and chiltepin there, and then “access to a fabulous pantry”. Three hours to cook. Sarah gets an extra half hour.
They head out to the desert to Mission Garden, which is a lovely garden. There is nopales and prickly pear fruit. There's a lot of fruit on the table, which is good if they have to make something sweet. They all try the pepper, and of all people Damarr is the one to start coughing and drinking water. He says that lots of peppers are fruity and hot, but this one has a front-of-the-mouth heat that's very quick. He's off guard I guess. Buddha of course has done his research. Sarah is almost distracted by all the other vegetables and fruits. I think they're collecting other ingredients too. Evelyn is the only one who has cooked with these ingredients, but she knows that the other contestants are going to be more creative because they've never seen any of this before. I mean that seems to be how Sarah won the Quickfire.
Time to start cooking. Sarah is using her extra time to mess around a little bit with her ingredients. She might candy some of the chiltepins? Sarah interviews about how her parents did a lot of stuff that she'd never know about otherwise, like keeping bees. In the end she is going to make chiltepin chimichurri and not put it in the sweet dish. Everyone else runs in and now it's very busy. Damarr says in confessional that he did research how to clean cactus, in that he watched a YouTube video. Heh. His plan is to make dishes he knows but substitute ingredients. So the chiltepin and prickly pear fruit will go into a barbecue sauce. Evelyn is making nopales rellenos. That sounds interesting. Buddha is making tom yum, because it showcases a pepper, so he can put chiltepin in there. Also cactus ice cream. Sarah is also making cactus ice cream, but as she goes to pour the base into the ice cream maker the bowl falls on top of her and all over the floor. She interviews that now she hates this machine. It is purely a situation where you have a disaster and you flip off the machine, the mess on the floor, and your shoes on the way out. Relatable. Anyway, now she's going to use liquid nitrogen to make her ice cream.
Tom Time! And Kristen. Damarr is making cake, and Tom is like, if it's as good as your carrot cake then fantastic. You know, the one that Tom said was the best carrot cake he ever had. Kristen welcomes Sarah back, and she shows them her pickled peppers. Tom asks if that's all she has, and she sort of hesitates and says that's all she needs. I hope after so many weeks on LCK Sarah is immune to Tom's shit stirring. Buddha has a great plan and Kristen says she remembers him from the first challenge. Evelyn is trying to be creative.
Damarr has maybe overcooked his beans. They were in a pressure cooker and changed very quickly. There isn't room for mistakes at this point. He purees them and adds some prickly pear, but now he's cleaning nopales with 20 minutes left so the dish feels complete and I think substantial.
Savory course first. Buddha: Mission Garden tom yum with turnip wrapped dumpling, calamari noodles and prawns. It looks like the bowl with the soup is nested in another bowl, in a bed of random branches and flowers. It's very pretty but I'm not sure what other purpose it has? But it's a lovely presentation. The chiltepin is in this dish. Sarah: lamb with chiltepin vinaigrette, grape salad and smoked yogurt. No one is talking because everyone is eating. Sarah's dish has many textures and they all blend together and are important. The grapes are amazing. Buddha's tom yum is elegant and layered and balanced.
Damarr is pressed for time because of the whole beans fiasco. Evelyn: nopal relleno with shrimp puree, raw nopal and marigold. Damarr: pork shoulder glazed in chiltepin barbecue sauce, pikliz with chiltepin, grilled nopales and red bean puree. Evelyn was creative but familiar. Padma could have used maybe a little more chiltepin. Tom wanted more chiltepin in Damarr's dish too. The sauce is good, but maybe all of his elements don't go together.
Sarah: cactus tart with saguaro flower ice cream and cactus caramel. Buddha: “cactus with cream”--cactus cake, cactus seed ice cream and prickly pear snow. Sarah's dish is delicious, although someone doesn't like that the ice cream melted. I mean they're eating outside in Tuscon. I'm not sure with the filming that they could have gotten non-melted ice cream at all. You can taste the flavors of the cactus in everything. Buddha's dessert is beautiful, the snow is a bright pink, but it maybe needs a little more flavor. Tom thinks this one is too cold. OK but you can't complain the liquid nitrogen made his dish too cold when Sarah also used liquid nitrogen and you complained hers melted. How does that work?
Before Evelyn and Damarr are even outside, Tom says Damarr crushed it. Damarr: prickly pear cake glazed with prickly pear topped with buttermilk cheese, saguaro and frozen mango. Evelyn: sour orange and sweet lime curd with saguaro pod meringue, prickly pear granita, basil flowers and quince. Damarr's cake itself is a nice subtle flavor, and Kristen says that she wants to keep eating it. Evelyn had a beautiful plate, and it's elegant.
Judges' Table. Tom says they knocked it out of the park. Evelyn made a fine-dining version of a relleno, and it felt like her but also like she was pushing herself. She wanted to do different versions of prickly pear, and she had wonderful textures and layers. Sarah admits that the lamb was just a vehicle for her flavors. Kristen says “I hate lamb (Sarah has a heart attack) but this was by far my favorite dish of the evening (Sarah is not recovered)” It was creative. Sarah tells the judges she is covered in ice cream. Tom knows she used liquid nitrogen, so he's not sure how it wasn't cold enough, and Sarah says she panicked. But she worked the ingredients in really well. Damarr was rushed making his savory dish, but his sauce was delicious. Gail tells him that every part of the dish felt a little separated. The pikliz was a great idea to showcase the chiltepin, but it was shredded so finely it got lost. But the cake was amazing and the textures all worked together. Buddha used the chiltepin in the most striking way. The tom yum was full of flavor and Kristen wants to learn how to make the dumplings. However his dessert could have used some more intensity. From a technical standpoint it was impressive.
No one knows if they are on the bottom or not. Everyone took inspiration and the food was very high quality. Buddha's tom yum was so creative and balanced, but his dessert needed more flavor. Evelyn made a nopal relleno and they are all glad she didn't play it safe. They don't mention her dessert, which I find interesting. Tom thinks Sarah's lamb is Michelin-quality. Her dessert needed a little work. Damarr pork didn't rise to the challenge, and Padma thinks he didn't go as deep in terms of exploring the chiltepin. But his cake was good, even though Padma thought Evelyn's dessert was the best of the evening. Back in the Stew Room Damarr says he almost doubled his friend group, and then Buddha says he quadrupled his. Heh.
The winner is Evelyn. Ah, so that's why she was crying. Tom has a spiel of how they have all grown as chefs and so forth, and someone isn't losing but they've gained so much. Damarr is eliminated. Aww. He's great but today I think he had the worst dish. But he's made some great food.
Next week: the finale. It's the usual set-up but I think they might be outside? No I think it's just some fun to have Eric Ripert cook for them. I will do my best to have this up, but it might not be possible. I know! But I will do my best.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment