Previously on “Top Chef”: we skipped the Quickfire to travel to Madison, and to visit several sites designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Elimination challenge asked chefs to pair up and make a duo of dishes showcasing “duality”. In general, it wasn't terribly exciting and there did seem to be a lot of mistakes. Rasika and Danny made two plates that looked identical but tasted wildly different, and were named the clear winners. Alisha and Kaleena both had big errors and they just kind of gave up and did their own thing. The judges didn't even pretend anyone else had done as poorly so they were eliminated without any deliberation. (click for more)
Last Chance Kitchen: Alisha, Kaleena, and Soo all had to pick out a plate and design a dish around it. Alisha, continuing a baffling trend in LCK, decided to make the dish that sent her home and redeem herself. Just like the last two times it was terrible and she was eliminated. Kaleena and Soo move on but it's not clear how that's going to work.
Everyone hangs around in the morning and talks about how Kristen and Buddha told them to get it together. Also they're already to the top ten. Well, at least one person is coming back. Maybe more than one eventually. Laura interviews that when she turned 15 and her sister was 16, her parents told them they were old enough to get an apartment and take care of their own bills. Seriously? That's not great? Kristen FaceTimes them and tells them to look out the window. It's farmer's market time. $100 to spend and at 10am they have to be on a roof somewhere. You must do that shopping before you find out exactly what the Quickfire is.
They will have 20 minutes to shop. Kmanpat and I went to the neighborhood farmer's market this past weekend only to discover it's 1.5 times as huge as it was, and there were maybe three stalls with produce. Granted it IS early April in Missouri, but there were so many craft people and food stalls, not just like, the honey guy and the ice cream people, but people who would have bought a food truck ten years ago and now are investing in a farmer's market booth to make breakfast tacos every Saturday. How am I going to buy all my fresh strawberries in a month if there aren't any produce booths? Anyway, these poor random people are getting bodied. Dan strolls with his cane because he doesn't run. Savannah claims her boyfriend has been making her do Quickfires. No one knows what to buy. Kevin says he and his girlfriend like to make shakshuka. Hmm. Amanda says there are a lot of Asian ingredients. Rasika buys brats. She has predicted a grocery swap.
Kristen greets them all on a rooftop with W. Kamau Bell (comedian, director, activist) and Tory Miller (chef). Kristen says something about the University of Wisconsin and the man who was the chef for the dorms. He also published a cookbook, including sauces. So the Quickfire is to get a card with a recipe for one of his sauces. They have the sauce ingredients here. So they have to pick a sauce and then pair that with something they bought at the market. Put your own spin on it.
Laura picks a sauce, doesn't like it, and dumps back on the table to get another one. They act like Dan got shafted by this but spoiler, nothing every comes of this drama and editing in shots of Dan every time they mention Laura's sauce, I see you editors. Kristen asks if anyone has a sauce they've never heard of before, and I think maybe four people raise their hands. Michelle has “raisin sauce”, which sounds like agrodolce, or sweet and sour. It says it's a “sweet vinegar-based sauce served with ham”. There is actually ham fat in the sauce. Winner gets $7500.
30 minutes to cook. There's a lot of editing. Danny has “cold horseradish sauce” which appears to be whipped cream and horseradish? I think he is using goat cheese. Michelle is making a frittata, and using the raisin sauce to cut the richness of the eggs. Charly has “creole sauce” but he seems ready to go. He talks about his mom's recipes and how he dreams she's talking to him about his success, even though she passed 15 years ago. Rasika has “Spanish sauce” which appears to be spicy tomato sauce. She also mentions shakshuka. She asks for a blender, and Savannah has one but it's dirty. It's got mustard sauce with peaches and Rasika is all, that works. Sure. Laura has herb sauce which is basically just herbs. She claims in confessional that she loves Middle Eastern food so much she married a Middle Eastern man. I guess? Manny has “figaro sauce” which is defined as “equal parts mayo and tomato puree with thyme and bay leaf served with fish”. Amanda has “egg sauce” which somehow has fish stock? Hardboiled eggs and you serve it with fish? She wishes for some citrus or acid, but she didn't buy anything and the sauce ingredients only had sweet pickles. Kevin has mushroom sauce so he can't make his shakshuka. He's making schnitzel with grilled peppers instead. Manny curses because his induction burner isn't working. When they call time, supposedly there is a crowd downstairs on the street cheering.
Danny: quick pickled cucumber salad with yogurt and sour cream horseradish sauce. Dan: diced grilled vegetable salad with fried bread and fried egg aioli with capers. He had tarter sauce. Savannah: salad with mustard and peach vinaigrette, poached egg, plums, peaches, and ground cherries. She wanted to lighten mustard sauce. Kevin: poached egg with tzigane rahmschnitzel. This is schnitzel in mushroom sauce. Charly: fingerling potato with honey and tomato chevre and roasted pepper creole sauce. Rasika: Spanish sauce Moroccan stew with bratwurst and jalapeno popcorn. Amanda: Thai salad with coconut egg sauce and sweet pickles. Michelle: spinach and feta baked egg with sweet and sour ground cherry, raisin, and ham sauce. Laura: fattoush salad with fried tomatoes, eggplant, and feta. Manny: farmer's market succotash with tomato sauce, rainbow trout, and kimchi.
Michelle's raisin sauce did not go with her dish, although they were good separately. Amanda had salty gloppy sauce. Kevin didn't have texture. Charly's creole sauce had a good kick. Laura had a balance between the sauce and using the market. Manny had a homey dish. The winner is Charly! He's going to spend it on his wedding.
Kristen introduces the Elimination challenge: a supper club. It just sounds like a restaurant? A fish fry? I don't know. Dan is grinning and it's clear that whatever is happening, he knows all about it and thinks he's going to use all his insider information to win. Kristen introduces a couple who owns a supper club. Of course Dan has been to one but I don't think anyone else raised their hand. We get a little bit more information, which is that a supper club has a set menu based on what day it is. Also I think you sit at communal tables. Time to draw knives for teams! Everyone is mad. One team is Amanda, Laura, Manny, Charly, and Danny, and so the other team is Dan, Kevin, Michelle, Rasika, and Savannah. The first team was all together for the first team challenge, except for Manny. Each team must make an “elevated” supper club menu. You must include: a relish tray, a fish dish, a chicken dish, a beef dish, and a dessert. But first they'll get to go to this couple's supper club to see how it works. Two hours to cook tomorrow, and $1000 for shopping. I only mention the shopping money in case one team goes over budget. There will be 40 guests in addition to the judges.
Harvey House is in a converted train station which looks cool. Amanda's team is Green Team, and then Dan's team is Purple Team. The relish tray looks like a tray of pickles, and also some dip or dips and deviled eggs. It could be raw veggies but it looks pickled. Dan says he wants to do the relish tray because that's what he has fond memories of. There's smoked trout dip in there, says Michelle. Maybe also chopped liver. Danny is taking the relish tray for the Green Team, and confirms that it is pickles. The other dishes are brought out, and it's technically family-style, in that there is one or two plates of each dish for the table. But like, the beef dish is just a two-inch thick slab of prime rib. It's family-style only because you couldn't eat that whole thing on your own. The chicken is chicken schnitzel, on a bed of mashed potatoes, and fish is fish and chips. Kevin wants to do beef, and he says some French words that I don't catch. His power bottom partner on the other team is also doing beef. Savannah wants to make fried chicken and put caviar on it. Michelle wants to do fish, but Rasika also had an idea. Rasika argues that she's made dessert already on this show, and she'd like to show something different. See that's why Rasika is a frontrunner. I'm not saying she can do no wrong, but she's looking at this show like a challenge and pushing herself every time. Kevin says he's made two desserts already, and after commercials Rasika is like “if you're OK with it because I have immunity” and Michelle immediately says “I was going to pitch a dessert idea”. Never trust a fight that doesn't actually happen before commercials. See, everyone is fine. Michelle isn't super thrilled but she's a team player. Dessert is grasshopper pie. Laura wants to make tres leches cake, and Manny says she's won Quickfires with dessert so why not.
When people start shopping, there is a montage of people saying “buy the cheapest”. They each have $200 to serve like 45 people, so it is for sure time to coordinate with your team and figure out if someone else is buying flour. Danny asks Laura about using some of her flour, and she says to just get another one. She's making both the cake and a grasshopper milk so a lot of ingredients. Manny is making carne asada, and the meat is most of his share of the money. Danny is putting North African flavors in his relish tray. Purple Team plans the order of putting stuff on the belt, but it's not really working because they are over. Savannah says she needs like five onions, and Dan makes a face, but she says onions are not the problem. True, onions are cheap. Eventually Rasika has her fish but then they decide she can't buy anything for her green chutney. So because she has immunity she has to get fucked over? You're going to end up the losing team and then what? It'll be one of the rest of you. Green team is doing better, but Laura is spending like twice as much as everyone else. It looks like Danny ends up having to give up some of his stuff, and he walks off pissed while Amanda apologizes. But no one asks Laura to put her alcohol back. There are no shots of Laura speaking and several of her not reacting to anything.
Time for cooking. Manny is giving all his vegetables to Danny so he can have pickles for the relish tray. If he goes down, the whole team goes down. Danny interviews that he ended up with about $75 instead of $200, because Laura spent it all. There are more shots of Laura not saying anything. Their team seems to have a good handle on what to make. Manny is making carne asada with salsa verde, so I'm not sure where his vegetables were going. Maybe just as a side. Dan is telling his team that people LOVE their supper clubs here, and I am already rolling my eyes. They're already trying to be impressive and not go home. I'm not sure how knowing people are obsessed with supper clubs is going to help your team win. He is doing a lot of yelling about what he is working on, but I don't know that the producers didn't tell him to do that. Rasika is making a different sauce, and it sounds like one of her sauces has some smoked fish that Dan bought. Michelle is also making a boozy dessert something. I don't know, my signal blipped.
Both Savannah and Amanda are making Japanese chicken katsu. Manny is putting his meat in the sous vide and then searing it. Charly talks about cooking his fish now because he doesn't want to run out of time. It is 35 minutes to service. He is demanding Laura help him, and she did agree to help but I doubt she thought it would be this soon. The judges arrive and look over the menus. So far so good. Danny's tahini dip is salty. Frantic plating starts. It looks like Charly is not plating family-style.
Danny: pickled vegetables, black garlic tahini, labneh with za'atar, smoked whitefish, and frena bread. Charly: epis-rubbed fried trout, coconut epis sauce, and preserved lemon pikliz. Epis is a flavor base used in Haiti. Kristen asks a very pointed question about the budget, and they admit it was tight. Danny would have liked more but he made it work. The tahini is salty, but the whitefish is great. The pickles are just fine. Some random woman says normally she never touches the relish tray. Charly's pikliz, which he had bragged was always spicy, is not hot. Tom says the fish is way overcooked.
Savannah suddenly needs pineapple for her dish so Michelle is giving hers up for the team. Or some of it anyway. Amanda: hot chicken katsu, Szechuan mala spice, apple miso mustard sauce, with red cabbage and sauerkraut relish. Manny: ancho-crusted New York strip loin, pommes puree, and cilantro, epazote, and Marcona almond salsa verde. Epazote is an herb. Amanda's sauce is great and the chicken is juicy. The salsa verde works, but the beef is chewy. Also someone made a comment about it being underdone.
Dan says his team is really helping him because there are stairs involved. It looks like a prep kitchen downstairs and a nice open kitchen upstairs. Laura: “four leches”--tres leches cake with brandy cherries and chocolate brandy cocktail. It's soggy and very sweet. The cake and the drink don't necessarily go together either. I'm calling it now: once the judges find out how much money Laura spent they're going to dump on her for wasting it, because it would be better with just the cake.
Rasika cooked her fish last minute, and specifically says in confessional that she did it so Tom wouldn't be mad her fish was dried out. Dan: crudites in “soil”, steak tartare, chicken liver mousse, pickled shallots, and fried seed toast. The “soil” thing is, you put the vegetables in dip, and then back into a breadcrumb mixture. Rasika: semolina fried snapper, peanut and jaggery dip, and smoked sturgeon herb sauce. Jaggery is palm sugar. They also weren't happy about the budget but they are less negative about it. Both dishes are lively. Gail is mad they didn't get enough vegetables to eat all the dip and “soil”, and they all joke that she could just use her hands. The fish is very salty, and the herb sauce is too. The peanut sauce is good though.
Savannah: chicken tonkatsu, white sturgeon caviar emulsion, and sweet pickled cabbage. When she said she puts caviar on fried chicken I was picturing caviar on fried chicken. Not a sauce with caviar in it. Kevin: beef tenderloin with sherry jus and confit potatoes. Kevin's beef is very raw. It's maybe not rested. The chicken is fine, but maybe doesn't need caviar. No one seems super excited but they don't hate it.
Michelle: coconut bread pudding with pineapple cream sauce. It's classic but Tom wants more pineapple. Of course. But it's not soggy.
Judges' Table. Green Team shows up without Amanda. There was a weird clip of her saying she wasn't feeling well, maybe something she ate. Apparently it was worse than she made it sound. The medics are checking her out. Purple Team is up first, and they are the winners. They are a little shocked. Dan's dips were clean and classic, and Tom says it was flawless. Savannah's chicken was really well done. Michelle made something classic and delicious. Tom complains about his lack of pineapple, and Michelle blames the budget. She and Tom talk over each other briefly, but it turns out Tom is just fine with that explanation. The winner today is Dan. That tracks.
Danny admits he wasn't happy with his dish, but Gail said it was a good start to the meal. He and Manny explain about how they ran out of money, and Manny gave up the vegetables he was going to roast so that Danny could have something to pickle. Laura has the audacity to nod about the budget and mention proteins. To be fair, no one has mentioned her overspending yet. Tom knows what's up, though, and as I predicted, he asks why she made two things if the budget was so tight. She says it's exciting, to get dessert and then a cocktail, but Kristen points out they couldn't buy vegetables. Tom says do one thing right, not two things OK. Manny tells the judges he cooked his beef sous vide, but it needed to be cooked longer. Less raw would have been less chewy. Charly admits he cooked his fish with 25 minutes to go. Kristen has a visible reaction of dismay. The sauce was good but the pikliz was not spicy. Charly admits that the last Quickfire, when Joe Flamm was there, he was coughing because of the spice, so he didn't want to get too spicy. Tom says he's overthinking. Do your thing. Kristen tells them Amanda had the best dish on their team.
Dan thanks his team for going up and down the stairs for him, which is sweet. Everyone tries to figure out the budget, and Laura seems to be in denial about how much money she spent. Didn't she look at the register? Come on. The Green Team didn't come together. Tom says Laura's dessert did have the flavors of the cocktail. Boo. She screwed her team. Also they are really pushing the storyline of “Laura doesn't care about anyone but herself”. She spilled on the floor and Dan fell, and they cut it like she didn't care. But Charly spilled first. Then they acted like discarding a sauce recipe was terrible, even though it wasn't against the rules. And now she wasted a ton of money. That one I do agree with. Charly's dish was at least edible technically. Tom wants to decide if overcooking fish or undercooking beef is worse. Gail says you can't eat a steak that's that raw.
Tom says at the end of this there will only be one person left, and you have to make sure it's you. Charly is eliminated. Well at least it's not the people Laura directly screwed over. He's not happy but he doesn't want to live with regrets.
Next week: someone from LCK comes in, Matty Matheson is here, apparently there is chaos.
Last Chance Kitchen: of course it's two episodes. Fine. Charly is ready to win. He went from winning the Quickfire to eliminated. Thank God soon either Soo will be out or be in the show and we don't have to listen to people say “oh who is this guy” every goddamn week. I don't know why your webshow has to have a “mid-season finale” or why you have to call it that but let's get this over with. Charly's fish was too overcooked. It was a supper club so today's challenge is “the breakfast club”. A literal breakfast club sandwich. Five layers, be creative.
30 minutes. Charly grabs skirt steak and NOT fish. He's looking for plantains to use instead of bread, but he only finds green bananas. He thinks they should work. While he's not making fish again, he IS making pikliz. Maybe he will just make it spicy and screw Tom. Charly high-fives the peanut gallery, while Kaleena is much quieter and says something about an open faced sandwich. I feel like a club sandwich can't be open-faced? Soo is very tired but he says he's discovered he thrives on this environment. To no one's surprise everyone is using eggs. Soo fries some pork and he also says orange marmalade. He also steams some eggs.
Tom Time! Soo has mornay sauce, and his egg and pork. Kaleena is making hollendaise sauce. The green bananas aren't as solid as plantains would be, in terms of holding together when smashed, but it should work. Tom tries Charly's pikliz, and then asks if they're habaneros or habanotos. Charly thinks Tom is trying to get in his head, which Tom laughs at. But also Tom did not react at all to the supposed spice. Soo is frying raisin bread, as an extra layer. Why? Who knows. Charly double fries his bananas. Kaleena is hoping her tomato relish will cut all the heavy layers of her dish. She is interviewing that she left everything behind for this show, which is heavy handed editing, I think.
Kaleena: toasted croissant with bacon, tomato chutney, poached egg, and chipotle hollendaise sauce. This is just fancy eggs Benedict. This is not a club sandwich. I'd still eat it but it's not a club sandwich. Charly: sandwich with fried plantains, grilled skirt steak, pikliz, avocado, and harissa cream sauce. At least there is a top banana layer (come on, Bravo, we all know it's bananas and not plantains). Soo: breakfast club with pork cutlet, eggs, fried raisin bread, orange marmalade, cheddar, and mornay sauce. It is absolutely enormous.
Kaleena seasoned everything, Charly was creative, pikliz was great, but steak was underseasoned. Soo had a ton of flavor, and Tom maybe wouldn't have put any bread at all. Tom's favorite was Kaleena. He even calls it an eggs Benedict! Not a club! Fine. Then they don't announce who is going home and I have to find the other video. Fuck you, Bravo. Anyway, this is because Tom decided they both will move on. So now it's a fuck you for wasting 13 minutes of my time. Make a fucking decision. It is literally your job.
So that Kaleena gets something out of winning, she will get an advantage in this next challenge, which supposedly a single person will actually win. She gets an extra five minutes to cook, which is forever when you only get 30 minutes normally. Make whatever you want, something you want to be known for, and it has to be one bite. Everyone complains about this restriction.
Kaleena gets to start and run around first. She points out that they just finished the last challenge, so their stations are a mess. She refuses to say out loud what she's doing, which is venison and mushrooms. Soo is worried this five minutes is giving him too many ideas. Charly is thinking Haitian pasta and smoked herring. Soo is going to make Caesar salad. Huh. Is that enough? Oh Charly is making pasta from scratch. He's not resting it before he rolls it out. I'm not sure that's going to work. Soo is now freaking out he's too safe. So he's got fish sauce and limes and miso and black garlic. The peanut gallery is yelling “Soigne, heard, chef” and shit like that.
Tom Time. Kaleena says she's trying to take her time. Soo is zhuzhing up his dressing. Tom doesn't say anything. He also doesn't say anything to Charly, who immediately starts talking back to him about it. Soo fries anchovies. Kaleena has some sweet potato and miso puree. She says this is simple but she listed like ten things in there. Soo's bite is missing something, and then decides he's going to use the smoke gun and smoke it. Sure.
Kaleena: grilled venison with miso sweet potato puree, mushrooms, daikon, and pear. It does fit on a spoon. Charly: espagueti with smoked herring, andouille sausage, and egg yolk sauce. It's fettuccine noodles and I guess it's a small enough portion for one bite. Soo: Caesar salad with black garlic and fish sauce dressing, fried anchovy, pecorino, and aged balsamic. It's a canape under a glass with smoke.
Everything is full of flavor. Kaleena has a lot going on, but it's all well seasoned and balanced. Charly's sauce is full of umami, as is Soo's dressing. And Tom isn't mad about the smoke. The one thing he wasn't crazy about was Charly's pasta. The flavors were great though. So Charly is out. He's glad he made it this far. Oh and then they're both coming back. GREAT. What is this bullshit. PICK ONE PERSON. Project Runway pulls this shit all the time and I hate it there too. Or did you just decide that Kaleena should have won, but then you did this dumbass “mystery” contestant for nothing so Soo has to make it? Wait, or are we going to open next week with how Amanda is actually really sick and dropping out?
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