Previously on “Top Chef”: Cesar returned from Last Chance Kitchen, and immediately won the Quickfire. Both challenges were about Montreal, but they didn't even leave the Top Chef Kitchen to go to Whole Foods. They made a fake bodega with everything labeled in French, and everyone had to make something from convenience store foods, which is what Cesar won. The Elimination challenge was about rooftop gardens and seasons. Shuai won by making hot pot and having a personal story about it. There's a side plot about Tristen cooking with “narrative” and Massimo not, or being soulless or whatever. Which is why he didn't win, I guess. Cesar did poorly in the Elimination challenge but the judges told him that since he won the Quickfire, he was safe. Vinny ended up being eliminated for making “aggressive” consomme and not putting garnish on all of the plates. (click for more)
It's time to go to Calgary so we can justify calling this season “Destination Canada” instead of “Toronto”, which is basically what it was. We get a caravan of...two cars. Also there is no way they drove most of the way across the continent. It's a 32 hour drive. Come on, Bravo. Lana interviews that she's tired of being in the bottom because she's been giving them nice food in her opinion.
They end up at some plaza with Kristen, Tom, and Gail in jeans and leather jackets and boots, with fake “covered wagons” in a semicircle. This is officially the semifinals, and this location is the Calgary Olympic Plaza, where the medal ceremonies were during the 1988 Winter Olympics. Tom makes a snide comment that most of them weren't born yet, and Tristen and Shuai say they were born. Bailey says she was “negative five” because she thinks it's cute. Shut up, Bailey. We're going to spend two weeks here, and then the finals will be in Milan, Italy. Bailey freaks out because she makes Italian food, I guess. Shuai has never been to Italy, and then he asks the producers if he should grow a mustache. I don't know. Guest judge is Connie DeSousa, who was on the real Top Chef: Canada. Massimo says he met her once at a party he wasn't invited to. Yeah, that tracks.
The Quickfire involves the Calgary Stampede. Part of this is a pancake breakfast, since one of the founders wanted to promote chuck wagon races. So now everyone has a pancake breakfast. 45 minutes to make a pancake breakfast. Why so long? Because pancake breakfasts always feed a crowd, so you have to feed 50 people. Also of course Tom demands they be creative, and Gail demands they make handheld pancakes. No utensils to eat. Honestly I think Gail's demand throws them the most. $10,000 for the winner. Everyone yahoos and goes to work.
At least three people are making hoecakes, so pancakes made with cornmeal. Bailey is making savory Italian crepes again, but she spins it in confessional that it's because she doesn't know how to make hoecakes. Mushrooms and plum syrup? I guess. Massimo is making smoked bacon jam and he's cutting up peaches. Shuai is one of the people making hoecakes, but with cheddar and Chinese sausage. That sounds delicious. Lana brought hibiscus from home so she's going to use that. Shuai jokes with Massimo that he'd never make it as a cowboy. He's also planning to construct his hoecake so it's like a taco and nothing falls out. Meanwhile everyone is yahooing for no reason. Shuai thinks he sounds more like Mario than a cowboy. Tristen is making Venezuelan pancakes with cheese? He says he wants to differentiate himself from the other pancakes, but he's still making pancakes with cornmeal so I don't see how this is different. He then interviews that he's a “product of the world” which is a very pretentious thing to say. He's lived in a lot of countries over his lifetime and he's trying to meld them all. Cesar brulees some tomatoes. There's a lot of testing and screwing up the first pancakes. You have to get the grill to the right temperature, or at least learn how long to put the pancakes on the grill. Massimo hates the flattop so he's making tiny dollar pancakes on the two frying pans he has.
There are 50 random people in “country” outfits in this plaza. Bailey is very behind so she thinks she is compensating by “schmoozing”. She's making crepes to order. Sure. Shuai: cornmeal pancake with scrambled eggs, lap cheong, cheddar, and chili crisp avocado aioli. Lap cheong is the Chinese sausage. Massimo is squirting sauce everywhere for some reason. Massimo: buttermilk pancake with plum sauce, bacon marmalade, and peach puree. If Shuai's pancake was the size of a street taco, Massimo's is an amuse bouche. He spins it as they're going to eat a lot and he was thinking of them. Bailey: buckwheat crespelle with brown butter pecan, plum maple syrup, roasted mushroom, and spinach. Just call them crepes, Bailey, that's all crespelles are.
Lana: creamed corn hoecake with sausage, poached peaches, peach and white hibiscus syrup. The sausage patty she's given to production for glamour shots is very burnt. Cesar: XO pancake with basil and Chinese sausage, bruleed tomato, and candied mushrooms. Tristen: cachapa with cheese and berbere chorizo, charred pepper, and bacon syrup. We see various randos commenting on things, which is that everything is delicious but Lana's and Cesar's pancakes are not easy to eat.
Bailey had good pecans, and she did make something that was easy to eat with your hands. Shuai had “a nice hefty portion” according to Tom, and by putting cheese on one side of the pancake it got crispy. Tristen's roasted peppers were delicious, and he grated corn inside. The winner is Shuai. Nice. Cesar had good flavors but the pancake didn't go with the tomato. Massimo had two sauces, which didn't go together, and it was tiny. Lana had too much sausage compared to the size of the pancake. Kristen warns them to work harder at the Elimination challenge.
Guest judge is Denia Baltzer, who says they are going to represent the First Nations. It sounds like there is a big Native American presence at the Stampede. The Elimination challenge is to combine these two things: both the Stampede and the First Nations. You will make a dish with both beef and berries. Tristen says two cultures coming together is how he cooks. So is he going to crash and burn or something? Kristen tells the chefs it's going to be up to them to decide who gets which cut of beef, and then berries will be “random” knife block assignments. It's less “deciding” and more “people grabbing what they want and no negotiations”.
Tristen has flat iron steak and gooseberries, Cesar has ribeye and chokeberries, Lana has “NY striploin” and haskap berries (this seems to be honeysuckle?). Bailey has beef cheeks and Saskatoon berries (traditionally used in pemmican (you get dried deer meat and mix it with fat and berries)). Shuai has short ribs and black currants, and Massimo has beef tenderloin and elderberries. Denia is nicely giving everyone little blurbs about the berries they have, since some people have berries they've never heard of. $250 to shop at the Calgary Co-op, and two and a half hours to cook tomorrow. Since Shuai won the Elimination challenge last episode, he gets an extra 30 minutes. Then Kristen says after shopping they'll meet her at Class Clown for “a little bit of a treat”. No twist, she promises. Tristen doesn't know if his berry goes with his cut of beef.
Calgary Co-op just looks like Whole Foods, it's not like a little indie store. Bailey buys blue cheese because she says that makes sense to her. Also some sugar to balance it, in the form of a brulee on top of polenta. Tristen is making pemmican, even though he didn't have the berry that Denia was talking about. He says it's like beef jerky, but it's beef jerky and berries and fat and it's supposed to last a long time, so I think it's more like a protein bar. Tristen buys raisins and he's never made pemmican before but he wants to show that he respects the culture. Did we change the editing or something? Because Tristen's “international fusion” cuisine didn't feel so self-important at the beginning of the season. You can respect the culture without trying to make pemmican. Lana is making pommes Anna, which is thinly sliced potatoes, put in a dish and drowned in butter and baked. Bailey asks Shuai what he's making and then immediately walks away. Rude. He is thinking tart berries, black pepper, and beef. And some type of caramel.
So Class Clown is a burger joint, where Kristen is actually just hanging out and there is no twist. She says it's a great season. Lana reveals she staged at Kristen's restaurant way back when. Lana was like, fresh out of school, and very much out of her depth, so Kristen told her “OK you're not going to get the job but it's just because you don't have experience, so keep going”. That's such an encouraging message. Kristen jokes she's glad she wasn't a bitch. Heh. Burgers and cheese tater tots. Kristen says she would give them one piece of advice: you need to know where you want to go. Maybe not a ten year plan, but you have to know the next step. Tristen says you forge the path for the next person, “which is why I did this”. He's really focused on being an example for the next generation of chefs. I mean, sure, but your mentor is Marcus Samuelsson, and I don't think you're there yet.
Everyone goes back to the hotel (apartments?) and toasts top six. Bailey says something about not being nervous, but as we have seen, she did well in the Quickfire so they won't send her home. That's how it works now.
In the morning they drive out to the restaurant, which looks like a house but has a very nice kitchen. Everyone starts working, so I'm not sure how they're going to give Shuai more time. He's glad though because he's got short ribs and he can use the extra 30 minutes. He's also stuffing cabbage and making congee. Massimo wants to do “justice and honor” to the ingredients. Lana's berries are a little tart and they also stain everything. She's using them to glaze the beef, but first onto the grill to smoke a little bit. Tristen has gooseberries, which are very acidic but he thinks he can pickle them and they will work. Bailey talks about how she needs to get her beef cheeks going because they need time to break down collagen. I mean, you snatched that card before others could get it, so I'm not sure why you didn't think about this. I think she's going to try to braise the beef in the berry juice, only they don't have that much juice so she's adding pomegranate juice. Cesar is making rutabega pickles? He reveals he cooks with chokeberries all the time. Tristen says when Cesar starts pulling fruit out then you know you're fucked. Heh. They're very tannic and astringent, so he's adding sugar and blackberries.
Tristen says it's his first pemmican ever, as if everyone else has made pemmican. He's nervous, but he says that he's just trying to pay respect, and any time he is trying to pay respect to something, he feels more comfortable. Not more nervous because you don't want to offend? OK I know they have really ramped up Tristen's “I have a bigger cooking philosophy” storyline, ever since he shit on Massimo for not having narrative. He's got liquid nitrogen to make everything the same size, and then whipped beef fat. Massimo says “umeboshi” which is salted pickled plums. What this means is, he is making fruit leather from his berries. Umeboshi is a specific thing, though. It's not a style of fruit preservation, you know? I mean, they're preserved in a specific way, but it's also one fruit that is umeboshi. Also “a bit of sugar” is not very common. Anyway, he keeps talking about terroir and the inspiration of the soil, and leaning away from his “classic French food” he's been doing. He says this is deliberate to show love to the indigenous community. Hmm. Lana starts grilling her steaks, which are very thick. She just wants to get grill marks, then glaze them and put them in the oven. Bailey brulees her blue cheese, which means she cuts slices, sprinkles them with what looks like raw sugar, and then runs a blowtorch over the top of them. She says she likes a good Gorgonzola dolce, but it's not clear that she's purchased a Gorgonzola dolce.
The judges arrive and discuss that the Stampede was created in this room. Allegedly. Lana has three sauces, so her dish is “deceptively simple”. Massimo is roasting his tenderloin in olive oil, then resting it in clarified butter. He says he needs more fat to stand up to the berries, so he's hoping that the olive oil and butter will saturate the meat through osmosis. Shuai is loving that he has that extra time so the short ribs can cook.
Lana: grilled steak with pommes Anna, haskap berry condiment, and smoked haskap berry jus. The smoked sauce is very good, and the condiment has onion and garlic which is also nice. Maybe more berries and less other seasoning. The smoked jus has a bunch of sage and that is maybe too much. Tom says that the beef is over-rested. The potatoes are too dry and Gail thinks they were an afterthought. Oof.
Cesar is making cornbread with beef fat. Massimo is waiting until the last second to cut up his tenderloin. As he is plating, he moves a tray with all his fruit leather on it, and the pieces go flying. I think he still makes it? Massimo: tenderloin with umeboshi, pickled elderberry sauce, smoked kohlrabi, and elderberry soup puree. OK I know Massimo has an accent but he's also been mispronouncing “umeboshi” this whole time which is adding to my sideeye. You can't make an umeboshi in 2.5 hours without Japanese apricots and pickling liquid. In his decision to honor one culture he's offended another one. The dish is well balanced. Gail thinks it's a showstopper, and the beef turned out really well. Listen I'm not opposed to his dish or anything, but he needs to stop calling it “umeboshi”.
Tristen has really thin cuts so he's freaking out about the cook. Bailey says everything tastes good together. Bailey: Saskatoon braised beef cheek, creamy polenta, bruleed blue cheese, and roasted walnut. She got a lot of layers of flavors, but no one understands why the cheese is bruleed. She did get berry flavor into the beef, but the sauce doesn't have enough berry flavor. Kristen says at this point in the competition, “playing into the challenge” really matters, which is a hilarious thing to say. First of all, Bailey did well in the Quickfire so I know when you compare her to Lana you'll send Lana home first. Second, the judges ignore the challenge criteria all the time.
Cesar is just grilling his ribeye without doing a lot to it. Tristen plates his beef and then puts thin slices of pemmican on top like putting butter on a steak. Tristen: Alberta flat iron with kohlrabi, gooseberries, and bone marrow pemmican. Gail asks him why he went for the flat iron steak immediately, and he says that because he's promoting Afro-Caribbean cuisine, he always goes for secondary cuts. See, this is what I mean. We made sure to include the part about “I am promoting Afro-Caribbean cuisine” and not just “I like secondary cuts”. There is a lot of flavor in the dish, and the sour berries do cut the richness of the pemmican. Gail's beef is not cooked properly.
Shuai is thrilled his short ribs are good, although the biggest pieces aren't super tender. He says his mom would be proud, although she'd say it's not as good as hers and he's OK with that because they never will be. Real. He's wrapping the meat in cabbage leaves, so his plan is to chop everything up and make sure the less tender pieces are hidden. Cesar has several items with chokeberries. Cesar: grilled ribeye, chokeberry reduction, rutabaga cream, and bone marrow cornbread. The beef is cooked perfectly and well seasoned. They like the cornbread, but the reduction is too sweet. He added some sugar and I think blackberries, but they wanted a really tannic berry. Like having a big red wine with your steak.
Shuai says he isn't doing some of the advanced techniques that other chefs are doing, but his flavors should stand out. Shuai: Mama Wang's stuffed cabbage with braised short rib, wild rice congee, and black currant black pepper sauce. This is very homey and nostalgic. Denia says it reminds her of a dish her mom used to make that they called “Indian breakfast” and it takes her back. Tom says the cabbage is rich and so is the congee, but it's flavorful and he likes it. The blackcurrant is tart and he didn't mess with it.
Judges' Table. Outside in the backyard of the restaurant. Tom says overall good dishes, but some people were timid with the berries. Massimo, Shuai, and Tristen are the top three. Massimo freaks out and says this is the worst fucking part of his life, the silence before they get announced as the top. Maybe less of a dramatic pause?! Heh. Anyway, Massimo wanted to be creative and not French today. Tom says that roasting is French technique, and then Tristen is like “he basted it too I watched him”. Hee! The elderberries were beautiful and they loved the fruit leather. Everything else in the dish enhanced the beef and berries. Shuai really needed his extra 30 minutes. Denia tells him it's a dish her mom made and knowing that Shuai got this from his mom, he must be proud. Everyone did a fancy steakhouse dish and Shuai made stuffed cabbage rolls and rice porridge. Tristen made a tribute to gooseberries. The pemmican was wonderful, but Gail does tell him her meat was overcooked. But the combination of ingredients was great. The winner is Massimo. He says he cooked a dish from the heart and he won. I just need him to stop saying that fruit leather is umeboshi. Also I see you, producers, and this storyline of Tristen saying Massimo doesn't have heart or soul or whatever, and then Massimo literally says “I'm cooking from the heart” and he wins over Tristen. He's won an advantage for next Elimination challenge.
Loser Gong. See, but Bailey was in the top on the Quickfire so they're going to immediately decide she's safe. Bailey thinks her biggest struggle was getting the most flavor out of the berries. The beef did have berry flavor, but the brulee on the cheese didn't work because it was too sweet. Also the pomegranate juice in the sauce covered up the berry flavor. Lana says that her dish turned out how she wanted, but she's here, so. Her individual components were good, but together they didn't complement each other. I think is what they're saying. The sage in the jus wiped out the other flavors. The meat was over-rested and so it was not juicy. Cesar had great cornbread but his other flavors didn't work. Tom is especially offended that Cesar knows you put tannic red wines with beef, and he had tannic berries, and he put too much sugar in the sauce. Gail goes so far as to say the purpose of the berries is to be tannic.
Lana is frustrated because this is like the third time she's in the bottom, and she liked her dish. Bailey whines that her brulee was really yummy. Bailey's dish was out of balance and the blue cheese overpowered everything. Gail points out that she said she struggled with making sure she had enough berry flavor, but then she put a bunch of other stuff in her dish to cover it up. Cesar didn't balance his beef and the acidity of the berry. If he had left it alone, it would have been perfectly balanced. But he put too much sugar in the sauce. Lana had too much sage, and then Tom says the jus and the condiment were too similar in flavor. Gail points out she also over-rested her beef. Back in the Stew Room Bailey pretends she's worried that the Quickfire might not help her. As expected, Tom is busy pointing out that Bailey did well in the Quickfire, and both Lana and Cesar did not. Kristen says “I don't think the Quickfire saves either of them”, but it's not clear which two she's talking about. I would assume Lana and Cesar.
Even the top three come back out for this. Tom says no one made a bad dish, but everything you put on the plate has to have a purpose. One dish was just incomplete, but it was a good dish. Lana is eliminated. Yeah that tracks. Bailey did well in the Quickfire and Cesar came back from LCK. Lana is honored and she's proud of herself. She just got outcooked by incredible chefs.
Next week: driving up to the mountains, foraging, cooking over an open fire, I think maybe bugs?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment