Previously on “Top Chef”: Bailey returned from Last Chance Kitchen, and then contestants were paired up to learn dishes from various ethnic restaurants. Then they were supposed to put their own spin on things and serve a food festival. Bailey and Tristen won, by making olive caramel or something. Bailey almost lectured everyone else on being true to themselves but settled for kissing up to the guest judge. Kat and Corwin, two strong competitors, wanted to get salt cod but couldn't find it and used regular cod instead. They ended up making soggy fritters and were eliminated. (click for more)
In Last Chance Kitchen, Corwin and Kat had to do all their prep in the first ten minutes, without knowing what protein they would get. Tom of course gave them salt cod because he is a troll. Kat made a good salad and won.
Cesar draws on an orange with a sharpie. I don't know. Paula talks about how she and Massimo fought yesterday but she will have to leave it behind. She has to think about her kids and be a good example. She tells us her second son has a rare disorder, which seems like pretty heavy foreshadowing.
In the Top Chef Kitchen there are several bags of Chipotle. Also Susur Lee and his son. I remember watching him on Top Chef: Masters. Katianna is impressed. The Quickfire today involves how Susur and his son Jet are on social media making “gourmet” food out of like, frozen pizza or whatever. Kristen has all their Chipotle orders from yesterday. Ha! Tristen is like, is nothing sacred. Vinny knows he had a cheese quesadilla and chips, like a child. Oops. Now you have to make something new out of your order, except you can use real raw ingredients. Weak, Susur is over here using actual frozen pizzas, not flour and tomatoes. Anyway, because we are too nice, everyone has a basket with produce. Kristen claims Chipotle uses 53 different fresh ingredients. I guess but I still prefer Qdoba. Supposedly Vinny's order of a carnitas quesadilla, chips, and salsa, has 20 different ingredients. We are also claiming there are no can openers or freezers so those are off limits. OK why this extra brag? If the only ingredients I can use are the ones you give me from my order, then why would you give me something in a can? Or frozen? Why am I using a freezer?
Whatever, 30 minutes to make something. Probably gonna be a lot of salsa. Oh, raw meat. Huh. See, like Henry is making queso fundido, which seems pretty adjacent to what he probably ate. Katianna did not get any carbs, so no tortillas or rice. Vinny is making chilaquiles, but I'm not sure he has eggs. Massimo yells about secret menu tostadas. Shuai, because he is genre-savvy, is making an Asian rice bowl because he knows everyone else is going to make Mexican food. Lot of grilling vegetables straight on the fire. Tristen is making West African tomato curry? Obe ata? Tristen does seem to know what he's doing. Cesar makes a “Cesar salad” joke and then talks about how he grows plants in his apartment by putting grow lights under his bed and growing sprouts there. Heh. Bailey says some shit about the 53 ingredients because she is a terrible kiss-ass. Or a camera whore. Vinny says yeah well I only got 20 ingredients so fuck you guys. Tristen decides not to grill any of his meat because the grill is too crowded. He cuts up beef for tartare as he describes working for Marcus Samuelsson and how that was the first time he was able to call a Black man “Chef”. Lots of running around. Kristen shows up to announce five minutes left, say it smells good, and leave. Shuai may not have properly cooked rice.
Henry: queso fundido quesadilla, avocado sour cream mousse, and chipotle queso salsa. Massimo: grilled chicken thigh, avocado, grilled tomatoes, and cilantro puree. Cesar: grilled romaine, crema, roasted chipotle and juniper salsa, and torched avocado. Lana: marinated pork shoulder, avocado cream, corn succotash, and crispy tortilla. Paula: pork shoulder tostada, avocado crema, corn and serrano salsa. Tristen: steak tartare, obe ata sofrito, green harissa, crema, lime-cured corn. Vinny: grilled pork and roasted tomato chilaquiles. Katianna: grilled lettuce, chicken, and sofritas. Shuai: tortilla soup, strip steak, romaine, tomatillo, and cilantro salad. Bailey: grilled steak and sweet corn succotash.
Vinny had the worst dish. Not crispy enough or flavorful enough or melty enough cheese. Oof. Henry had basic filling, and Shuai did not cook his rice properly. Massimo's grilling the chicken made it “clean” tasting? I guess? Cesar had a good salad, and charred his avocado. Paula had good spice. Oh and a fourth, because Tristen did not make Mexican and not another version of whatever he ordered in the first place. The winner is Tristen. He curses and Massimo looks pissed off. He's going to spend it on a new Afro-Caribbean restaurant.
Elimination Challenge. Kristen makes a pickle joke, because she's in green. Tristen says he hates pickles. “Do you hate pickles more than figgy duff?” Yeah probably. Heh. Someone says “Damn, he's gonna win now.” Danny Garcia is here, who won last season. He does know Vinny for some reason. Kristen says they are going way back because pickling is one of the oldest methods of food preservation. Two teams of five to create a “five-course progressive pickle menu”. Oh there are restrictions on the courses. First course must have cornichons, second course a full sour pickle, third course is dill pickles, fourth course is spicy pickles, and the last course bread and butter pickles. Head to head with the other team on the same courses, and whichever team wins the most rounds wins. Someone from the winning team will win and someone from the losing team will be eliminated.
Tristen and Bailey both have immunity, so they will be team captains? Leaders? They get to pick out teams anyway, which nicely avoids people dodging Tristen because he hates pickles. Tristen takes Katianna, because he wants people who do “flavor-forward” cuisine, and Katianna has put pickled vegetables on basically everything. Bailey takes Lana. Katianna and Tristen discuss, and then take Shuai. Bailey takes Paula. Bailey has not explained herself yet. Tristen takes Cesar, and then Bailey takes Vinny. Tristen takes Henry, although there is some whispering about Massimo. Massimo is still smirking, and saying in voiceover that this is the first time he's ever been picked last for anything. I've paused it on him smirking and all the girls on his team making faces like “oh great, this guy”. 15 minutes to plan today, and then tomorrow they will have 90 minutes before the first course. Then each course has to be up 20 minutes after the one before. The CEO of the James Beard Foundation will be there too.
No one really fights a lot about which pickles they are taking. Briefly Tristen mentions that he does want spicy, but he'll take something else since he's immune. Lana reminds her team they all need to be on the same page. She feels they're adults and can manage emotions. Sure. Their order will be: Massimo, Vinny, Lana, Paula, Bailey. Bailey wants to do pasta. I guess so. The other team order is: Shuai, Tristen, Katianna, Henry, Cesar. Maybe Cesar is gonna do a dessert? It might backfire, but he says he wants to do it to say he pulled it off. So for bragging rights? I'm kind of excited about it.
Shopping is whatever, although Massimo says he's going to kiss up to Gail somehow, and Bailey is making horchata and splitting it with pickle juice. I think Cesar is going to make a curd? Oh, citrus curd, and then he says “cucumber sherbet”. Y'all I bought cucumber-flavored Lays potato chips from the Asian supermarket and I am obsessed. They were delicious. Tristen buys mackerel to pickle. Katianna buys tofu as a backup.
90 minutes to cook today? So they get another 90 tomorrow? That wasn't clear and I'm not sure why we didn't just say so. Tristen promises if they win, maybe he will like pickles a little more. Shuai and Massimo trash talk a little bit. Massimo won't say what he's making, except to say he's not going to lose on a French dish again. But they are both making steak tartare. Vinny and Tristen both have seafood, but Vinny interviews that when Tristen doesn't like the ingredients he has to work with, he does really well. Lana has scallops brined in pickle brine. Henry is making Korean barbecue. Cesar's tart is not citrus but pickle curd and mustard seed. I am fascinated. And dill ice cream. You guys know I would order this immediately because it is weird. Bailey is not even attempting dessert and she seems non-plussed about pickle curd. Lots of packing and letting things pickle overnight.
In the morning Massimo gets to call home. He knows his pride is his enemy. He talks to his kids and his ex-wife. He admits to her it's hard to do what other people want him to, and she laughs because I'm sure she's well aware.
Everyone unwraps their stuff and Lana says they need to stay a team. Tristen is burning pickles on purpose. Shuai jokes that if Massimo is classic, he is a tuxedo T-shirt. Heh. Bailey helps Massimo do something and he decides he needs some fried potatoes. But this means he puts a pot of oil on the stove and wanders off, and it boils over. They have a camera on it and it's not like a pot of water or milk where you can see it coming. It looks fine and then is on fire three seconds later. Someone yells to cover it, because if they set off the fire suppression system all the food in the kitchen will be ruined and have to be thrown out. Massimo does get it covered, and then he says he didn't strain the potatoes before putting them in oil, so it boiled over. Uh, sure I guess. Then he says “That's how you build a bomb” which is not true? Nothing exploded under pressure? A pot boiling over is a fire hazard but not a bomb. Several people basically roll their eyes at amateur hour over here.
The judges arrive, and Kristen says that they will vote on the head-to-head in the moment, so the teams will immediately know if they have won. People are being helpful plating everything. Massimo: fried pickled cannolo with L'Express steak tartare. L'Express is some restaurant Massimo is copying because he thinks Gail knows them and he's being a kiss-ass. Shuai: fried pickled mushrooms, steak tartare, and dijonnaise. He says it's like caviar on fried chicken. The mushroom is brined with the cornichon brine. Everyone gets to vote on their menus, and then Massimo wins 6-2. Bah. There was restraint. Gail tells Shuai his mushroom was delicious but the tartare could have been slightly better.
Someone in the back made a scoreboard where the teams can hang a cutout of a pickle on their side of the board if they win. I am sure that money could have been spent somewhere else. Vinny: pickle brined salmon rillettes, pickling spice gnocco fritto, pickled ginger, cucumber, and shallot. It is fish and whatever, covered with rounds of pickle and cucumber, alternating in a circle to make a pattern, and a fried circle of dough. Tristen: charred mackerel, celery root vichyssoise, cucumber and celeriac pickle jus lie, burnt pickles. Jus lie is thickened gravy. When they are voting, both Vinny and Tristen turn around which is funny. All the votes went to Tristen. Very inventive and balanced. Danny says the salmon is almost exactly what they used to do at the restaurant where he worked with Vinny...”but I think under-seasoned a bit.” Yikes. Tom is so impressed he says Tristen's dish is one of the best things he's ever had. And Tristen hates pickles!
Bailey has to ask Vinny how he's feeling instead of letting him have a minute. He says in confessional that he sucks but hopefully the rest of his team can bring it home. Henry did a bunch of fiddly garnishes yesterday, and today needs to finish his short ribs. It's said in a foreshadowing way. Katianna adds some tofu to her dish because she likes that texture. Lana: dill pickle seared scallop, grilled pickle relish, dill pickle beurre blanc, and fried capers. Katianna: roasted dilly cucumbers, dill pickle and clam vinaigrette, pickle brined poached potatoes, and cucumber seed porridge. Lana wins 7-1. The porridge muddied everything. Also that's where the tofu was so I'm wondering if that was foreshadowing too.
Katianna says if Bailey's team wins the next head-to-head, they've won everything. Oh you know they won't, it'll be a tie. Cut to Shuai saying he needs to clear out Katianna's shit, and then everything in the trash, and Henry saying that was his stuff. They show a shot of the trash can, as if we're going to be able to see what is happening. Shuai is horrified that he might have screwed them all over. Henry has eight minutes to figure what to do, because not only was that a bunch of work, but a bunch of it was pickles. He can't pickle anything in eight minutes. Plus no one has cucumbers left. The team is scrambling to scrounge up what they can. He does get plates out, but they look plain compared to Paula's plates. Paula: grilled octopus, spicy pickle chimichurri, braised pickled beets, and serrano peppers. Henry: bulgogi braised short rib, fermented collard greens, and spicy pickle foam. He says nothing about the garnishes and no one asks. In a twist I was not expecting, Paula does win 7-1 so Bailey's team did win without everything coming down to a tie. Huh.
So they still have to serve the last course, even though one team can't win. Henry is pissed because he thinks he lost it for the team. He says he cried in the bathroom like a civilized human. Nah, you gotta cry in the walk-in. Cesar has to do well so at least he won't be in danger. Bailey: ricotta filled pasta with pickle red wine beef ragu, bread and butter pickle giardiniera, Parmesan fonduta. She says “giard” and not “giardiniera” and I'm adding that to the list. Kristen asks why they ended with pasta and Bailey basically says “I've already done pastry and I want to do what I want”. Cesar: bread and butter pickle curd tart, and dill ice cream with bread and butter pickle gastrique. Cesar gets all the votes because it was delicious and weird. Tom vaguely tells Bailey she did fine but Cesar's dish is out of this world. Kristen points out the two dishes they loved the most were on the losing team.
Judges' Table. Tom says if they all stay at this level, the finale will be amazing. Tristen and Cesar had “exceptional” dishes, so they are clearly safe. Out of the winning team, the winner is Massimo. It was a great tartare and the pickle was everywhere. Massimo basically tells Gail he was trying to win her over and she's like I know, I felt it, it worked. Ugh, now he'll be insufferable about it. Tom says maybe better than L'Express. Tom don't do that. Massimo says his team worked together but what matters the most is *gasp* Tom gave him a complement. OK that was funny. Massimo gets both immunity and a spot at the James Beard Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change. There is no more explanation about what that is.
Loser gong. I wish. Henry admits the dish wasn't what he wanted, and he's basically telling them his stuff got thrown out, without saying who did it (and making it clear he didn't do it himself, I assume if he'd fucked up on his own he'd admit to it). Kristen is shocked his mise en place was “lost” because it ended up in the trash, and then Shuai admits to trying to clean up and accidentally throwing his stuff out. Henry describes what got thrown out, and the judges agree that they were missing the pickle flavor, so the missing garnishes explains that. However his short ribs could have been more tender. Kristen asks Katianna if she thought maybe her dish looked curdled? Katianna stumbles a bit and then says she wanted something smooth and creamy to counteract the pickles, but yeah it does look muddled. The porridge really just didn't work. Shuai had a good pickle but the tartare was sloppy.
Back in the Stew Room Lana asks Shuai if he's OK because he's very quiet. Were you not paying attention Lana? Of course he's not feeling great. Maybe she's trying to be nice but it kind of felt like “I demand you talk about your feelings now”. I guess the producers want him to, probably. Shuai thinks he screwed his teammate, and I'm thinking I heard some apologies in the moment but not any now? Actually I'm not sure what else he can do at this point if he already apologized. It's not like he shrugged and didn't show remorse. The judges think that if Henry had finished his dish, that team might have won. Shuai's dish was fine, so it seems to be between Henry and Katianna. So...Shuai gets no consequences of throwing out Henry's stuff? It's not that I need him to be punished for an accident, it just feels off. I don't know. Kristen says they get why the dish wasn't better, but at the end of the day that's what he gave them. Tom justifies it by saying if the short ribs were cooked better, he might have voted for Henry. Uh huh. Katianna reveals that the porridge looked curdled because she put that tofu in at the last minute. I told you guys that was foreshadowing. Massimo says it was delicious, while Tom is saying it tasted bad. But everything else was fine. Tom jokes that if only Shuai had thrown out the porridge instead. Oh ha ha. You guys better not penalize Henry for other people touching his stuff. Katianna's dish was maybe cucumber forward and not pickle forward. They do agree on that.
Shuai comes back out too, even though the judges agreed quickly he was not in danger. Tom says something about maybe you don't want to make a pickle dish? Because it's not what you would normally do? Now the dishes were completely ruined. Katianna is eliminated. Yeah they kind of had to, but it's sad because she is such a strong competitor. The porridge wasn't broken, but they didn't like it so she didn't correct them. She deserves to be here.
Next week: everyone goes to Niagara Falls, pizza party, the last immunity of the season, someone cuts up pineapple. Looks like some burnt crusts.
Last Chance Kitchen: Katianna is upset her dish didn't come across the way she wanted, but she thinks Bailey is much more confident now so something worked. Kat freaks out when she sees Katianna. She can't believe it. Kat tells Tom she and Katianna literally live across the street from each other. Time to battle.
Corwin wheels out a big table full of pickles of different random vegetables. Make a dish with three of the pickles on the table. Your opponent will pick out the pickles for you. Huh. Kat isn't going to be totally mean but she's also not going to help. She picks cocktail onions. Katianna gives Kat asparagus because Katianna doesn't like asparagus. Kat finds sweet banana peppers, so Katianna gives her cherry peppers. Kat gives her beets, since they are an aggressive color too. Kat gets green beans.
30 minutes to cook. Kat has asparagus, cherry peppers, and green beans. Katianna has cocktail onions, sweet banana peppers, and beets. Kat is thinking tempura and pickled shrimp? She's also cutting up celery root, to cook and puree as an anchor. Corwin tells them they were too nice to each other. That's true. Katianna vacuum seals some salmon with the pickled beet juice. Kat poaches some shrimp in brine. Katianna is making an aioli and she's putting pickles in everything. Kat makes some succotash.
Tom Time! Katianna says a bunch of stuff and Tom just kind of leaves. I guess he didn't have any comments. Tom is skeptical of “tempura pickled asparagus” but he doesn't make as much as a face as he usually does. Katianna is trying not to freak out that she's got too much pickle. Kat's shrimp are overcooked. She chops them up and puts them in the succotash, but I feel like she didn't have to serve them at all, right? Kat is questioning herself now but time is up.
Kat: pickled celery root puree, corn relish with broad bean pickle and cherry pepper pickles, shrimp, and tempura asparagus. Now the chyron said “green bean” earlier, not broad beans. Katianna: beet marinated salmon with pickled beets, gribiche tartar with onion pickle, pepper pickle and beet greens. They are both very good. Kat has a lot going on in what looks like a simple dish. Katianna had a ton of pickle flavor. There is one flaw, though, and that's Kat's shrimp. Nooooooo! She knows she should have left it off, and she storms out when she's eliminated. But I think she's mad at herself. Bye Kat, please be on the internet some more.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment