Top Chef 4/27/23--"Street Food Fight" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: everyone had to make a dish inspired by an emoji, which was dumb, because some of the emoji were food emoji and some were not. Buddha made a skull out of frozen coconut or whatever and he won. Then everyone had to make a dish that both sent a message (or had a message) and also could be eaten without utensils. So you can just make finger food if you want. Ali made a traditional dish, only meatless, with a good presentation, and he won. Dale tried to make mole, but his chicken was a weird texture. And honestly, the other people in the bottom were Victoire, who tried to make something from her native Africa, and Tom, who had a great idea but terrible execution. So Dale was eliminated. (click for more)

In Last Chance Kitchen, Dale and Sylwia had to make omelets in 15 minutes. Supposedly they didn't have to be traditional French omelets, but that's what Dale did. Sylwia made something more like a casserole, which sounded delicious, but the eggs were overcooked so she was out.

Last week's guest judge comes into the Stew Room to hang out. He happily accepts a beer and tells everyone he'd give any of them a job. Everyone should have fun. Amar says this will be his approach going forward.

The Quickfire involves a map today. Padma introduces chef Judy Joo. It is important to travel and learn about cultures, and they talk about street food. Each chef will make one “iconic” dish from one of the 16 different countries on this giant map. You can see what country each fake passport goes with, but not what food might be in there. Have fun but you need to be able to tell what the original food was.

Then they don't draw knives or anything, they just have to storm the map and hope they get what they want. Gabri wanted Canada, and he got Canada, which seems to be poutine. There is a little confusion here and there. Charbel has Japan, which seems to be takoyaki, fried batter with octopus, which he's never heard of. He starts making up a batter recipe. Victoire has Jamaica and jerk chicken, which she is quite pleased with. Nicole has China, and “egg waffles”, which I think are just waffles in a weird mold so they're bubble shaped. Sara is making empanadas, and she's making the dough from scratch. You'll remember her season was the one where they used I think waffle mix? Or frozen waffles maybe? And the opposite team started chanting about it and being assholes as if they wouldn't have done the same thing. Buddha is trying to make crepes from Vietnam. Tom got Indian food, which is going to screw him because I don't know if he knows what it is. And he has to feed it to Padma. Nicole is using a takoyaki pan to make round fritters, which is not an egg waffle, but if they don't have the right waffle iron I'm not sure how she was supposed to do this in the first place. Buddha has to adjust his batter last minute and says maybe he won't be able to serve anything. There does seem to be a lot of last minute flailing.

Gabri: poutine with parsnip fries, chicken gravy, crisp cheese, pancetta, and mushrooms. Tom: bhel puri with raw and sauteed vegetables on mushroom steak with chaat masala and cumin. I think bhel puri is puffed rice with sauce and maybe some vegetables? Ali: doner kebab with spiced sujuk and yogurt pomegranate sauce. Sujuk is a type of sausage. Buddha: banh xeo with pork, shrimp, bean sprouts, and coriander. These are very thin crispy crepes. Amar: breakfast arepa with fried egg, pork belly, bacon, and chorizo. Charbel: fried takoyaki with Japanese aioli. Sara: empanadas with ground beef, shallots, corn, and piquillo peppers. Nicole: maple and bacon bubble waffle bites. Victoire: jerk chicken with ginger, lemongrass, and pineapple.

There are a lot of very salty Canadians on the internet who are mad about Gabri's “poutine”. But the judges don't mention him at all. Charbel knows he's in the bottom, because he has never had takoyaki before so he knows it's wrong. Nicole made donut holes instead of light, airy waffles. Sara had dry filling and too much dough. There were some weird shots with Amar since Amar got arepas but he thought he might get empanadas, but I don't think he's that mad? Buddha had a technically difficult dish to make, but it was well done. Gabri almost deconstructed his poutine and it turned out really well. Tom's dish was well balanced. The winner is Buddha. Sure. He gets immunity again. He is very skilled but he is also kind of cocky.

For the Elimination Challenge, Padma says some puns and then apparently this is product placement for The Fast and the Furious movies. Why. This could have been the Quickfire and then make them come up with creative street food for Elimination. Instead there are dumb puns and some cameos from actors who couldn't be bothered to go to London to guest judge. I don't need previews for this movie, it's the same as all the other Fast and Furious movies. Everyone pretends to be a fan of this franchise.

Tomorrow they will compete in “the fastest Elimination Challenge in Top Chef history”: the mise en place race. Not everyone has done this before. They draw knives for teams. Red Team is Nicole, Buddha, and Victoire; Yellow Team is Ali, Tom, and Gabri; Green Team is Sara, Charbel, and Amar. The first part is three rounds of the mise en place race, and the second part is to make three dishes from your ingredients, in 30 minutes. The winning team will get to go to the movie premiere. That's all they get to know now.

So then they all go out, to somewhere labeled “wine bar”, which looks like a sitting room someone set up in a garage somewhere. It's one of their usual completely empty rooms with no other customers but they are “out”. Amar says some people cannot handle this challenge. Charbel says on his season he used to do better in Quickfires than Eliminations. They eat pizza from somewhere and it's nice to see them all chat about their seasons and who didn't have what we consider a “classic” challenge.

Everyone is here today, Gail and Tom, and David Zibler who is a Top Chef Canada judge. We've also changed the chyrons to the FF font and the ingredients are from locations of the films. Sigh. Anyway, each round will have a protein, a fruit, and a vegetable. For Round 1: pit and fan four avocados (so peel, slice, and fan the slices so it looks nice), supreme eight oranges, filet two whole hamachi fish (including collar). When you think you have finished an ingredient, call for a judge, and Tom will stop the clock. Then everyone has to stop and wait to see if you've done it properly. Then you can move on to the next ingredient. If your team finishes first, you get first dibs on ingredients and you can pick something that only your team can use. Second place gets second pick, and third place gets whatever is left. You must use your ingredient in one of your three dishes.

We start, and it is nice to watch everyone work. Sara is very fast, because she got fast to prove her worth in kitchens. She's done before Tom even starts slicing avocados. Buddha and Tom finish together, and Tom has to redo some of his avocados. Amar had to work the line in Covid because they couldn't find people, so he's gotten back to doing prep. Ali is leaving a lot of pith on his oranges. Amar finishes quickly, and then Victoire. Nicole loves fish filleting. Gabri is last to start, but he is really flying through the fish. He can't catch up, though. Red team wins, so they pick hamachi. Green team wants the orange, which leaves Yellow team with avocados. Gabri gloats that they have left avocados to the Mexican. Hee.

Round Two. Peel and dice eight prickly pear fruits, clean and devein two dozen shrimp, and shell a cup's worth of peas. Gabri is of course blowing through prickly pears, while Nicole has gotten a vegetable peeler. Buddha tells her she's doing it wrong, which is obnoxious but he does have a point. It looks like if you slice the fruit in half you can scoop out the flesh? Nicole manages to get done first, followed by Gabri. Buddha actually peels two extra shrimp. Red team wins again, but this time Yellow team comes in second. Red team takes shrimp, because Buddha has decided to be strategic and claim all the proteins. I don't recall the rules stating that you could ONLY use the mise en place ingredients. Can't you bring in other proteins? Are you just assuming it will be hard to work in three fruits or something? Yellow team takes peas, so Green gets prickly pear.

Round Three. Pit two quarts of dates, brunoise half a cup's worth of red bell pepper, and French two racks of lamb. A brunoise is a very exact size of dice, and Frenching a rack of lamb means cleaning the bones. Yellow team has some conflict, because Ali and Tom have picked what they want, leaving Gabri with the lamb, which he has never done before. Yeah I don't know that right now is the time for Gabri to learn how to French lamb bones. Tom asks Gabri if he's happy, but I'm not sure what answer he is expecting. I heard him say he's never done it. You should have immediately been worried. Yellow team just cannot finish quickly ever, except for Tom comes from behind on the peppers. He is giving Gabri instructions, but Gabri doesn't understand them. Judge Tom comes around to snark about how Gabri is doing it wrong, but Gabri just reminds his team that he told them he'd never done this before. Contestant Tom does not stand up for his team. Green team actually gets first this time. Buddha easily finishes second, and Gabri is pissed. So Green team takes the lamb, Red team takes dates, so Yellow team gets bell pepper. So your three ingredients have to be the “star” of the dishes, which is why everyone was freaking out about proteins.

You have 30 minutes to make three dishes featuring your ingredients. Limited pantry access, although how limited is not clear. 30 minutes is the shortest Elimination time in history. Tom reveals that the only other proteins available are bacon and chorizo. Yellow team is cooking first (they staggered start times so your food doesn't have to sit). They have avocados, peas, and bell pepper. I wonder if you have to keep the avocados sliced and fanned, or if you can do something else with it. Gabri is flaming avocado halves, and Tom is frying...something. Some giant red things, chorizo maybe. Gabri falls and goes sprawling but he pops right back up. Ali is making spiced potatoes which he calls batata harra. It's just spiced potatoes, but it sounds good.

Red team has hamachi, shrimp, and dates. Buddha is making sticky toffee pudding, since he has immunity anyway. I think Nicole is trying to roast sweet potatoes. Victoire wisely is making tartare.

Green team has oranges, prickly pears, and lamb. They're all going to use lamb, so three lamb dishes. Amar is going to try to use all three ingredients, and Sara is also going to use oranges a bunch of different ways. Charbel opens an oven but a bunch of smoke comes out. Victoire was making some tuiles but they're burnt beyond repair.

Tom: roasted red pepper with smoked bell pepper and hazelnut puree, chorizo gremolata, feta cheese, and pickled veggies. Gremolata is usually chopped parsley and garlic. Ali: smashed peas with basil and mint, spiced potatoes, garlic, coriander, and chili. Gabri: charred avocado, red pepper, bacon, soy sauce vinaigrette, and avocado cream. They get some good reviews.

Nicole: tempura prawn and Thai coconut curry, with roasted sweet potato. It's just a round of sweet potato that the prawn is on top of, so it doesn't get soggy. Victoire: hamachi tartare with colatura di alici dressing, lemon, and dates. That dressing is an Italian fish sauce made from anchovies. Buddha: date cake with miso caramel, whipped cream, and pecan praline.

Sara: dukkah crusted lamb with honey and tahini, burnt orange yogurt, and orange gremolata. Charbel: seared lamb loin, carrot dijonnaise puree, and roasted carrots with honey glaze. Amar: harissa grilled lamb chops, brown butter, orange and sweet potato, with jalapeno prickly pear gastrique. Charbel is the only one to get a negative comment. Back in the Stew Room, Amar worries his team didn't understand the challenge.

Judges' Table. They make everyone come out again and I like only tops and bottoms coming out. Overall everyone did a good job with only thirty minutes. The Yellow team is the winning team! Tom's red peppers were vibrant and delicious. Ali didn't end up putting any protein in his dish, and it really worked out. Gabri had rich avocados and bacon, but it wasn't too rich and fatty somehow. So these three get to go to this movie premiere, which is whatever, and the overall winner is Tom.

Green team is the losing team. Very sad because I like all three of them! They're realizing maybe they didn't understand the challenge. The judges expected a lamb dish, an orange dish, and a prickly pear dish. Instead they mostly tried to include all the ingredients in each dish. Amar had good lamb chops, but the prickly pear was not highlighted. They wanted chunks and not just in a sauce. Charbel's dish was boring, and his carrots were not caramelized enough. He didn't have enough stuff on the plate for anything to not be perfect. Sara did use enough orange to count as featuring it. Tom straight up tells them it's between Charbel and Amar.

Back in the Stew Room, Gabri is icing his knee from when he fell, and Charbel is feeling his first time in the bottom. Charbel did feature the lamb, because there wasn't really anything else there. But the lamb was just there and boring. Amar didn't do any justice to prickly pear either, though.

This was a very specific challenge today. Charbel is eliminated. Boo. He has no regrets. Man, this was his first time in the bottom. He says at 25 this is where he is.

Next week: it's Restaurant War time! This year? None of this bullshit about designing and setting up decorations. They're getting a restaurant with an existing infrastructure, which is what they should have been doing this whole damn time. It means real waiters! Nicole is really freaking out.

Last Chance Kitchen: Charbel is not ready to go home. Dale says he likes Charbel, but he also has won 5 times in LCK. Tom says Charbel had the most boring dish, and he just maybe focused too much on cooking the lamb. So now Sylwia comes out with a big table full of tomatoes. Tom wants tomatoes three different ways. No tomato salad.

30 minutes to cook. They put up a chyron like Charbel is doing tomatoes 4-ways but one of the ways is peeling? Is that really a preparation? Tomato concasse, vinaigrette, blanched, and peeled. Concasse is a specific rough chop, peeled and seeded. Sure. No proteins, although he says he'll use some feta if he finds it. Sylwia tries to chat up Dale, who I think can't come up with a variety of tomatoes he likes so he says “I like you”. Sylwia chuckles and then says she'll tidy up where he dropped some stuff. Dale says his three ways are going to be stewed, sauced, and dried. The chyron clarifies this as tomato jam, oven roasted semi-dry tomatoes, and tomato butter sauce. Sylwia yells at Charbel because he's chopping onions and not tomatoes. She's a great peanut gallery. He is making sure to taste whatever varieties of tomatoes he wants to use, because sometimes they look great but aren't good. Dale breaks down some sea bass to use. Charbel is marinating some tomatoes, and he knows it's good, but is it too simple?

Tom Time! Charbel describes his dishes, and how he's not using any proteins or other vegetables. If it's highlighting tomatoes, then that's all that's going on the plate. Dale, meanwhile, has a bunch of stuff on his station. Dale claims Saskatchewan is “the breadbasket of the world” and this translates to the best tomatoes. Tom gives him some shit about how his tomatoes are better. Dale says he's getting all his stuff over to his station to make sure he can taste all the components and not forget anything. Charbel fist-bumps Sylwia and grabs some radishes. Dale has said a bunch of stuff about how the fish will be so nice with the sauces.

Charbel: tomato 4-ways: tomato concasse, blanched-marinated tomatoes, and tomato vinaigrette. The fourth way is I think just peeled with salt and olive oil. Dale: tomato 3-ways: tomato butter sauce, stewed tomato compote, and roasted semi-dry tomatoes with sea bass. Both of them had a second vegetable for crunch. They're similar somehow, and they both did a really great job with their flavors. The winner developed more tomato flavor in his dish, and that is Charbel. Woo! I like Dale but I really like Charbel. Dale is happy with his dish, and he thinks he would have won against someone else. He says he has a great life. Sylwia comes over and demands to taste his dish.