Top Chef 3/20/25--"Brunch a la Boulud" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: We began “Top Chef: Destination Canada” which seemed to be a usual season of Top Chef. The Quickfire asked everyone to get in groups of three to make random dishes, and the winners got money. Immunity is only for Elimination Challenge wins. We had five regions of Canada, represented by five sets of ingredients, and each group had to pick one. It was a good challenge, honestly. Vinny won, which is fine because he seems to be a good chef but I find him annoying is all. Mimi screwed up all of her components of her dish and was sent home. (click for more)

In Last Chance Kitchen, apparently we liked the twist about Soo last season so much that we did it again this season, but with two people. Sam and Ying both battled Mimi to make dishes with vegetables. Sam and Mimi survived so I guess we're keeping two people around to battle eliminated contestants.

A bunch of contestants do yoga on the roof. Kat is very glad to have survived last week. Massimo is leading them which is fun. They also showed a shot of I think Henry painting a dish in a notebook. It looks great.

Gail is waiting with Kristen in the kitchen. She says when she heard about the Quickfire, she had to be here. Also Sarah Levy is here. She was Twila on Schitt's Creek. Zubair says his wife is gonna freak out. Kristen says it's time to get messy. Poutine time. Sure, let's get this out of the way. Corwin says he's never made poutine, and also he has no idea what's in that “sauce stuff”. It's gravy. It's just brown gravy, it's not complicated. Gail likes her poutine at 3am. So put your own spin on poutine, but it has to have “a starchy vegetable base, a sauce, and cheese, of course.” Winner gets $5000. There are going to be a lot of people on the internet yelling about how none of these dishes are poutine. I wonder how far you can take it before one of the judges declares it's no longer poutine. I mean at some point it becomes disco fries.

30 minutes to cook. Shuai says it's very difficult to reinvent dishes like this, because they're so iconic. Massimo says it's not possible to improve on poutine, but he is from Quebec so that tracks. Lots of different potatoes or yucca or whatever. Bailey is doing kimchi and mozzarella. Hmm. Massimo has decided to do a ballotine, which involves thinly sliced potatoes laid out on a sheet tray. He says it's cool because his name means “maximum” so he has to be extra. Henry is combining his gravy and cheese, and scallion pancakes with yucca? He says it's something his mom would make but she never used a recipe. Shuai is making fondant potatoes, which is where you cut potatoes into cylinders, brown both ends, and then simmer them in stock. Stock and butter? Everyone is fighting for fryer space. Kat is laughing at how her dish is not fancy. Paula wants to cover everything in gravy but it can't get too mushy. A whole lot of last minute plating.

Corwin: twice-cooked potato, caramelized onion sauce, cotija cheese, and chives. There is also browning, which is a Jamaican sauce. Kat: crispy potato, mushroom gravy, smoked soy, and cheese curds. It's cubes of potatoes but it looks like there might be fried mushrooms too. Shuai: soy sauce fondant potato and three cheese sauce. It looks like a slice of meatloaf in a pool of cheese sauce. When Gail asks if he was worried about cooking his potatoes in time, he says he practiced a lot at home. Yeah, because clearly he knew if they were going to be in Canada, they would have to make poutine at some point. Smart man. Katianna: potato “tostone”, fermented soybean and mushroom cream, buratta. “Tostone” just means it's a small potato that she smashed and I guess fried twice. Lana: sweet potato fries, gumbo gravy, and cheddar cheese curds. Paula: seco poutine with plantains, sofrito, and cotija cheese. Seco is an Ecuadorian meat stew. Massimo: potato roulade, sauce mornay, beef reduction. So remember he laid out those slices, it looks like they solidified into one sheet, which he then rolled and sliced. So now it has layers and a rose effect, then cheese sauce, and beef stock.

Vinny: potato in tomato gravy, Parmesan mousse, lemon oil, and basil. It's a blob completely covered in white sauce. I'm going to assume “tomato gravy” is just tomato sauce. Tristen: salchipapas with yucca fries, jeera and aji amarillo, paneer cheese, and fried kielbasa. Jeera is cumin seeds, aji amarillo is a type of pepper, and “salchipapas” is a street food that is basically fries topped with sausage or hot dogs and various sauces. So poutine without the cheese. Henry: scallion yucca pancake with Gruyere cheese sauce and chili oil. Zubair: poutine chaat with fingerling potatoes, mint, serrano and cilantro chutney, enoki mushrooms. Chaat is I think a collection of snacks, all of which have some kind of starch base, then sauces and vegetables, and something crunchy on top. Cesar: fried fingerling potatoes, roasted corn, cilantro mayo, cotija espuma, and poblano. Anya: poutine a la stroganoff with chanterelles, herbs, and sour cream. It's very green. Bailey: Korean shrimp arrabiata poutine with potatoes and mozzarella. Arrabiata is a spicy tomato sauce.

Overall a great challenge. Gail is very impressed. There were some failures. Henry had a cheesy and spicy sauce, but his pancake was spongy. Bailey had good fries but there was too much going on. Paula's seco was too wet. On the top: Massimo had the flavors of poutine but fancy. Kat had the most traditional dish but the mushrooms and smoked soy gave a great depth. Shuai cooked a perfect fondant potato. The winner is Shuai. Nice. The practice paid off. He says he's never won money in his life and he's taking his wife on vacation. Aww.

OK time for another “Canadian food tradition” that is not well known. Daniel Boulud comes in, and Kristen doesn't even bother to do a fake “this judge needs no introduction” thing where you talk about their accomplishments. He just walks in and everyone freaks out. The “tradition” has to do with sugar shacks. These used to be wooden sheds where the maple sap was boiled to make maple syrup. Apparently now they are big facilities where people come to do I guess Canadian activities and eat maple candy and they serve food. Lots of brunch or other things you can add maple syrup to. Two teams of seven to make a brunch menu. Each chef must make one dish, and every dish has to have a maple component. So there's no reason for teams but drama. Daniel says he likes souffle. Very hard to make to order. It doesn't sound like a buffet situation? But most brunches aren't seven courses? Two hours to cook tomorrow at Daniel's restaurant. Winner from the winning team, loser from the losing team, as per usual.

“Random” knife draw for teams. We don't immediately get team rosters, but I did get a good pause screen so I think Team 1 is Paula, Tristen, Corwin, Zubair, Lana, Shuai, and Cesar. Team 2 is Anya, Vinny, Massimo, Katianna, Kat, Henry, and Bailey. I can't tell if this is lopsided or not. Maybe. Team 1 (the Brown team) knows they need a good progression or everyone will be sick of maple by the end. So I guess it is a seven course plated meal. Team 2 (the Green team) wants at least one dessert at the end. Corwin wants to make chawanmushi, and promises he can make 30 perfect chawanmushi. That's a lot, but maybe he can. Vinny promises he can make a souffle. That's even trickier than chawanmushi, I feel like. Henry correctly points out in confessional that Vinny does have immunity, so if he fails he won't go home, but in a team challenge he could screw the rest of the team. Vinny's opinion is that Daniel said he likes souffle so they need to serve him souffle.

Each team gets $2500 at Whole Foods. It seems like both teams are making steak and eggs. Anya is making syrniki, which are pancakes with farmer's cheese. She loves maple syrup. She used to make birch syrup it sounds like. Bailey is making egg tarts. Like Portuguese egg tarts maybe? That would be good. Zubair used to be in corporate America, and then switched to cooking when he got fired, and tandoori fried chicken started his restaurant career. Lana reveals she's never done a maple cure for salmon, but usually a cure is salt and sugar, so she's just replacing the sugar with maple syrup.

No budget drama today, but as they pack up the cars, Kristen comes strolling into the parking garage like it's a fashion runway. Oh shit y'all. Actually it's just some product placement for the credit card, blah blah cash back or whatever. Bottom line is, everyone gets some extra money to go to St. Lawrence Market. $50 per team. Corwin is still suspicious, which is smart, because that $50 is for you to shop for the other team. You have to use whatever the other team buys in at least one dish. Winning team will get $35,000.

Lana doesn't want to screw the other team, but she also doesn't want to give them a layup. Her team all remembers Massimo is on the other team. Massimo is busy suggesting things like tripe or offal or live eels. I feel like tripe wouldn't be that bad? Vinny suggests a whole pizza, and Massimo loves it. That's some Chopped shit and I kind of like it also? St. Lawrence Market is one of those farmer's markets with lots of stalls with cool stuff. Brown team buys two cooked lasagnas. Zubair says there is $35,000 on the line so being nice to the other team is bullshit. Vinny spies the other team buying them pasta, so Green team follows through in buying cooked pizza, and then some candy. Massimo is a very loud person, so when the other team hears him laughing, they try to hide. Corwin is like, it's on now, so they buy truffle oil. I know truffle oil sounds fancy and not sabotage, but I feel like every chef who mentions truffle oil, does so to shit on how terrible it is. So it's just going to reek and cover everything.

First thing when they all get to Daniel's restaurant is to exchange foods. Brown team now has pizza and candy, specifically Red Hots and I think maybe caramel corn. Green team has white truffle oil and lasagna. Immediately Massimo says he'll reduce the lasagna for his sauce and Vinny thinks white truffle oil will go nicely in his souffle. They ask is that all? Whether or not those ideas will be successful, Green team is certainly winning the mind games part of this challenge. Shuai seems to be putting the pizza into his toad in the hole. Sure.

We get some menu lists, which I am going to skip in favor of writing down whatever the chyrons say during actual service. Brown team looks nicely “international”. Paula has taken some of the candy, which looks like gummy peaches, and somehow adding maple syrup will make meringue? Yeah, if that works. Also candy corn in crème anglaise. But she can't figure out what to do with the Red Hots. Green team's menu sounds very interesting. You will note both teams are doing maple cured salmon, steak and eggs, and fried chicken as three of their dishes. Bailey is making a maple tart, but also with honey and cornmeal in the filling. She says this provides grit for “texture” and it's delicious. Anya has brought pine cone jam from home. Massimo did use the lasagna to thicken a sauce, which is delicious according to Anya. Shuai is putting pizza between slices of toast for his toad in the hole, which...I'm not sure where the egg is coming into this dish but maybe it will make sense later. He says Tristen is making his bechamel, because of his having to do something with the pizza? They have to be a team. Bailey tells Massimo to plate first course, and then she starts cursing because her tart filling just broke. She says it's because the cornmeal sunk to the bottom, but I'm not sure how that makes the filling break. Like it looks split. Somehow she's got another batch mixing, but the first course is going out in like 15 minutes.

Judges arrive, and the men are doing that thing where you wear a suit and then expensive low-top sneakers with thick soles. I don't know if I like this trend but that's probably the last I will see of their shoes so whatever. Daniel jokes that he's been invited to his own restaurant. Sarah Levy tries to make small talk and asks Tom's favorite brunch dish. Tom hates brunch. Heh. Tristen finally claims the Red Hots for his jerk sauce. Shuai jokes that he's on Top Chef making pizza sandwiches.

So I thought maybe they'd do a head-to-head thing but it looks like they've served the first two courses from the Brown team at the same time. Lana: maple cured salmon, maple vinaigrette, Meyer lemon, everything bagel spice. Shuai: toad in a hole with maple togarashi-cured yolk, bechamel, miso maple butter, and pizza. It's a sandwich with a hole in the top piece of bread, and the egg yolk in the hole. Pizza is inside. The pizza is not bad, which I think is probably the best you can hope for. The salmon is subtle but Tom thinks more maple would be too sweet.

Corwin needs to get the chawanmushi into the oven right now. He has 25 minutes left so he's cutting it close. Cesar: poached lobster, curry biscuit, maple hollandaise. I will say, it's maybe one bite of lobster and a tiny biscuit you could probably also eat in one bite. Zubair: tandoori maple fried chicken, scallion corn cake, spicy maple butter, sweet maple yogurt. Chicken is delicious, but Cesar's biscuits are overworked.

Corwin has a tray of chawanmushi that needs like, another minute, and he has two minutes. In the end he doesn't finish his plates, although it's not clear what that means. At least one bowl still has plastic wrap on it, and that's the one Daniel gets. I am convinced that any time someone doesn't finish their plates, the producers intercept the waiters and make them take the messed-up plates straight to the judges. I mean, they could have given that one to some rando. Corwin: rum maple tamarind glazed pork belly, chawanmushi with sesame seeds and scallions. Tristen: steak and eggs – maple jerk strip loin, dukkah and maple jus gras, rice grits. Jus gras is basically a pan sauce you make with drippings. Paula: maple peach french toast, candy corn crème anglaise, and peach gummy Italian meringue. Tristen did a great job, Paula's dish is sweet but satisfying and they like how she used the candy. Corwin's pork belly is maybe not cooked right. Gail says her chawanmushi is set nicely but she can see that Daniel's is not set at all. Also there's too much clove. Corwin thinks he just cost his team the win and he's ready to take responsibility.

Bailey managed to get more filling made, I guess. I think she has calmed down. Henry is worried about the deep fryer. He'd like fresh oil, ideally, but there certainly isn't time to change it out, and now he's committed. But it smells like farts. Kat: congee with maple bacon chili crisp and soy maple jammy egg. Katianna: maple cured salmon tartare with whipped silken tofu, housemade furikake, and daikon maple leaves. Furikake is a mix of seaweed and spices you sprinkle on rice. I think it's little cut out leaves of daikon. Sarah says she'd never order Kat's dish off a menu and it's delicious. The chili crisp balances all the sweetness. A good hangover dish, says Tom. Katianna's dish is light and good but it's a very subtle maple flavor compared to everything else.

Anya: syrniki with macerated strawberries, whipped maple syrup, and Siberian pine cone jam. It looks like a round cake but thick like a Japanese souffle pancake. Henry: fried chicken, polenta, chicken gravy, maple chili ginger honey. The syrniki are great and everyone is loving the uniqueness of pine cone jam. Henry's chicken gravy is good, but then Gail starts complaining she didn't get any gravy. Also Henry was right to be nervous about the oil, because it was too hot and the outside of the chicken is messed up. Also Daniel's chicken was dry, so the chicken was not great overall.

Bailey had to pull her tarts earlier than she wanted to. Vinny runs around with his souffles. There is some yelling but overall I think everything is done? In the dining room, Daniel reads the menu, discovers Vinny made a souffle, and laughs that he's a brown nose. Heh. Massimo: steak and eggs with wild spinach and maple lasagna bordelaise. The eggs look weird, and I think he cooked the whites, cut rounds out of the cooked whites so they're perfect circles, and then put the yolks back on top. Bordelaise is a red wine sauce. Vinny: maple and cheddar souffle with truffle oil. Bailey: maple tart with whipped yogurt, pine nuts, and maple brown sugar pineapple. Souffle is balanced and successful. Massimo's dish is good but it's lacking maple. Bailey's tarts are sweet and underbaked. It ended up being just sweet and didn't read as maple. Tom looks very cranky but later he says everything was good. Brown team did a better job of incorporating maple, but that's Corwin's team and his dish was the worst.

Judges' Table. Overall a very successful challenge. Brown team is up first. Kristen tells them they are the winners. Corwin looks extremely relieved. They used the maple in the best way. The winner is Zubair. It was balanced and flavorful and the maple really came through. That chicken is very important to Zubair and he's proud it gave him his first win.

Green team had some of their least favorite dishes. Henry and Bailey were the bottom. Henry wanted a play off General Tso's chicken. Tom asks about the oil, and he says it's the same oil that Zubair used, and I guess explains everything to Tom. He should have put more sauce. The outside was dry because of the oil probably being too hot. Bailey's tart didn't taste like maple. As she lists off ingredients, when Bailey gets to honey both Tom and Gail interrupt her and ask why both honey and maple? She says she was worried the tart wouldn't set. Tom says just put another egg in. The tart shell was too thick also, and we know Kristen's was underbaked.

Back in the Stew Room, Massimo tells Bailey she really pushed and persevered and the room cheers her with their wine. Sarah thought the tart would be full of maple flavor and there was nothing. It needed more time in the oven. No one is congratulating Henry for persevering. Tom is complaining about General Tso's chicken again, and Gail didn't get gravy, and the outside of the chicken was dry.

So only Henry and Bailey have to return for judgment. This is going to be a challenge and neither one of them had maple flavor. Bailey is eliminated. That tracks. She says “I just think that I didn't...cook the food that I really know” which doesn't make a lot of sense but sure. She doesn't do pastry every day, which I'm sure is true but I am pretty sure I remember her bragging that she started her restaurant's pastry program? Right?

Next week: Jamaican patties but you have to make your own dough, hockey, cold dishes, dining table on a hockey rink. Massimo has a messy station and I feel like he may be slamming into the table a bunch.

Last Chance Kitchen: Bailey kind of hit rock bottom, and she thinks it's crazy because she's watched the show before. Sometimes you yell “Why are you doing that!?!” at the TV and she was saying that to herself. It sounds like she's not actually an executive chef yet and she feels behind. When she gets to LCK there are people she doesn't recognize. Mimi says she and Bailey are the Bad Girls' Club. Like, they made a two person club and they were the first two out. Oof. Bailey asks Sam where he's from as if she's met him out in the real world. She is also simpering and talking back to Tom and it's slightly annoying.

Tom tells the other contestants about the maple syrup challenge and how Bailey's tart didn't have any maple flavor. So time to celebrate another Canadian ingredient. Bailey kind of leans sideways and says “Okurr” like Laganga and now it's actually annoying. This ingredient is Canadian bacon. The plate has a whole like, loin of what looks like raw pork covered in cornmeal. So if you are actually in Canada, they don't call it Canadian bacon but peameal bacon or back bacon. And it's actually pork loin covered in cornmeal. Mimi is also confused. Sam says he's had it, which he interviews that he's had one sandwich one time. He's the worst Canadian, in terms of experience with things Canada is known for. Heh. Tom has had enough brunch (Bailey chimes in “Me too, Tom” which is not as cute and funny as she thinks it is). Make a dinner entree with back bacon.

30 minutes to cook. Sam doesn't want to really make a big piece, in case it doesn't cook, so he's just gonna make a good sandwich with some nice sides. Mimi is making schnitzel and having PTSD from her elimination for overcooked pork. Bailey covers her bacon in smoked paprika and puts some thick slices on the grill. She's making butternut squash agrodolce. Mimi brags that she's glad she worked out before coming here so she could run around so much. She's making curried mayo. Bailey talks to herself. Sam uses maple syrup “to really represent Canada”. Bailey also has maple syrup for “redemption”. Redemption in LCK is very tricky. Sam grills some peppers.

Tom Time! He inspects Bailey's station but doesn't make comments. He doesn't make any comments for Sam either, but at least it's not his “...if you think that's a good idea then I guess so” face. Ying yells to make sure you finish your dish on time unlike her. Heh. Sam burns some bread. Bailey has “beautiful” grill marks on her pork, so she sprinkles it with some olive oil and puts it in the wood-burning oven for “extra crust”. What? I'm not sure that's a good idea. Bailey smirks in confessional that her dish looks like something she'd like to eat and is this real? Shut up, Bailey.

Mimi: schnitzel with curry aioli, watercress salad, and plum chutney. Sam: pork sandwich with maple chili aioli, sauteed peppers, and glazed carrots. Peppers on the sandwich, carrots on the side. Bailey: grilled peameal bacon with dill yogurt, and maple syrup squash agrodolce. Mimi's chutney is very nice and works with the pork, but the breading could be crispier. Sam's pork is cooked beautifully, and the carrots elevate the dish. But the bread is maybe overtoasted. Bailey got a good flavor on the pork. We do not hear anything bad about Bailey's because that's Tom's favorite. She demands a hug from Mimi and continues to be on my last nerve. Mimi is eliminated. Aww. Bailey demands a fist bump from Sam and acts like she's never seen LCK and didn't know she'd get a chef's coat. “I accomplished a lot today. I'm trying to show off that I can be resilient and also do it while being just like, a ray of sunshine, too, you know?” UGH. She tries to brag that there are fewer Top Chefs than people who have been in space. You're not that special, Bailey.