Previously on “Top Chef”: Apparently the way you do Restaurant Wars with an odd number of people is one team just gets an extra person. The smaller team said they were doing Korean and Mexican fusion, which sounds like a perfectly good, cohesive theme. The larger team said “let's be seafood and vegetable forward” which is not cohesive. And Michelle didn't serve the first judges' table properly. But somehow they had the better restaurant? And then Tom was like “oh smoked whitefish is perfect for your regional seafood concept” which is bullshit. That wasn't their concept, the concept was “everyone does their own thing, but just with seafood”. Whatever. Dan won with said smoked whitefish. The Korean/Mexican team I guess had a boring theme? Didn't do a good job with the theme? Who knows. The worst dish was the one the whole team worked on together, so since Kaleena was executive chef she was sent home. (click for more)
Last Chance Kitchen: Kaleena showed up and promptly quit. Tom faked respecting her (you all know damn well he was pissed) and then panicked because he didn't have a plan. Then Kevin panicked because there was no plan. In the end, Tom told Rasika to come back in, but she would have to win twice in a row to beat Kevin, while he would only have to win once because he already beat Rasika. They had to make one savory and one sweet dish to try and sell a restaurant concept. Rasika chose to cook her seafood for her curry separate from the sauce and Tom didn't like it. Not like he was going to go back on his decision to move Kevin on.
Everyone sits in the Stew Room talking about how hard Restaurant Wars is. Amanda says it's hard to push yourself. Manny feels guilty, but the others convince him that they could have gotten rid of two people so it's important that he wasn't also eliminated.
In the morning, as everyone gets dressed, we get a shot of Savannah's mirror, where she's got challenge ideas written directly on the mirror. Everyone drives to the kitchen, where there is a huge metal kiddie pool. And Kristen, Tom, and Gail standing in there in waders. The kiddie pool is half full of water and cranberries. Kristen reminds them there is no more immunity. Tom and Gail are going to taste the Quickfire challenges for the rest of their time in Milwaukee. Winners are still determined by Elimination challenge, but if you're on the bottom, your Quickfire performance will be taken into account.
Wisconsin makes the most cranberries than any other state. Just in case you were wondering, cranberries grow in dirt normally, you just flood the field to harvest. Quickfire is to make a cranberry dish. They can be hard to work with. Winner gets $10,000.
30 minutes. Everyone just scoops cranberries out of the pool. They are very tart, so no one works with them usually. Lots of making things up on the fly. Manny never had cranberries until Thanksgiving. Laura is using walnuts, and she says that's a risk. I mean...they're nuts. Danny is juicing cranberries and it's going very slowly. Plenty of frantic working and freaking out.
Laura: cranberry and walnut fesenjan with pork. Fesenjan is a stew. Manny: pork tenderloin with brandy and cranberry sabayon, roasted radicchio, cranberry and orange vinaigrette. Dan: salt and pepper scallops with cranberry red curry and herbs. Soo: beef carpaccio with beet, blackberry and cranberry chutney. Danny: cranberry-poached sea bass with cranberry panade. Panade is just wet bread crumbs. Amanda: corn and cranberry hoe cake with fried chicken and cranberry-maple sauce. Michelle: cranberry beet soup with seared foie gras and maple mascarpone. Savannah: seared scallop with cranberry-nori relish and cranberry hot sauce.
No one made dessert. Huh. Dan did a great job with unexpected flavors, Danny used cranberries in multiple ways, and Michelle mixed the richness of foie gras with the tartness of cranberries. The winner is Danny. He's looking at it like this dish may save him later. In the bottom is Laura (her sauce was sandy/gritty from the walnut), Manny (the sabayon wasn't great), and Amanda (not creative enough).
For the Elimination challenge, it's time to get back to the land. There are eleven federally-recognized tribes in the state. Two Native American chefs come out and talk a little bit about indigenous foods. This challenge is to make modern dishes with nothing but indigenous ingredients. No dairy, wheat flour, cane sugar, pork, beef, or chicken. No shopping, they'll give you a pantry. Three hours to cook tomorrow for several Native American chefs, but for today, it's time for a meal showcasing the dishes and ingredients.
Everyone goes back and has a meal of different salads and bison and they learn things like they use sumac for tartness, because there are no lemons. Tom and Gail and Kristen are back there too which is kind of nice. Laura asks what they usually have for breakfast. Lots of sound bites about how it's so important to learn about indigenous foods. Everyone has a list of what's in the pantry, and they're freaking out a little bit. Not even butter.
Back in the loft, people brainstorm while Manny cooks. They never said it had to be a cohesive meal but it does look like people are at least talking to each other. Savannah is making dessert again. Amanda went hunting last year, and she talks about it being spiritual. During dinner for some reason Soo says “I got beat” when talking about Korea, but he doesn't mean bullied, he means punishment. He also talks about coming to America, and then they discuss if their partners are also chefs. It's weird because I'm just trying to figure out who is getting the loser edit and not listening to what they're saying. Also I spent some time trying to decide what kind of sponsorship they were going to shoehorn in with Manny making dinner, but they didn't do anything.
Time to cook. Lots of frantic grabbing things in this restaurant pantry. Somehow no one gets hurt but people are yelling and asking for different things. Savannah is roasting squash for dessert. Amanda wanted venison but she ends up with elk instead. Danny finds elk caul fat and curses in joy. Laura claims to love this kind of cooking, and she's making tamales. Michelle is making rabbit in the pressure cooker. She's made rabbit before, but not in the pressure cooker. Soo has huitlacoche (corn fungus), which he isn't that familiar with but he's going to wing it. Dan is hacking some meat with a cleaver, and then he cuts up some sunflowers to cook like artichokes. Michelle gets the smoke gun out for mushrooms. Manny is worried about how double elimination is still on the table.
Tom Time! He's not in his chef whites today. Laura is freaking out a little bit due to being on the bottom in the Quickfire. She's making haroset in addition to her tamales. Haroset is chopped fruit and nuts that's usually served during Passover. Amanda is doing tataki, and Tom asks some pointed questions about the Quickfire just to freak her out. Tataki is a technique of searing meat but leaving the inside raw. Savannah admits she was inspired by what was left in the pantry. Soo is trying to make gnocchi out of wild rice.
Dan is trimming sunflower heads, and it's extra difficult for him because he's just tired. Soo's “gnocchi” aren't really staying together like he wants but there's like, 30 minutes left so he might not have time to do anything else. The judges arrive with several Native American chefs, and I'd like to point out they are going to have wine, so we're not going to forgo that. Michelle's rabbit is done, but she's shredded it and put it back in the oven to crisp up. Danny fries some rice in the deep fryer. Soo adds some duck eggs to his rice dough in the hopes he can get gnocchi out of it and it'll hold together. Amanda is making tortillas, and she wanted to give everyone two but it looks like she won't have enough time. Michelle's rabbit is now too dry. She's putting her soup or sauce or whatever on the plate now, in the hopes it won't be dry by the time it's served.
Michelle: acorn squash polenta cake, braised rabbit, smoked onion and mushrooms. Amanda: elk tataki tartare, confit mushrooms, pipian rojo, and duck fat tortilla. Pipian rojo is a red sauce made with pumpkin seeds. Michelle's cake is a little soft, and the rabbit is still dry but the flavors are pretty good. The salt maybe covers up the smoke flavor. Amanda's tortillas are weird, but Gail likes her mushrooms. The other judges can't seem to figure out what she meant to do or what the dish is supposed to be.
Danny doesn't like the caul fat now, it's chewy. But he can't do anything else at this point. Danny: pheasant crepinette with mole and roasted sunchokes. A crepinette is not a crepe but a sausage patty. Laura: duck tamal wrapped in mustard greens, with huckleberry sauce and haroset. Danny had a ton of flavor, maybe he was just trying to put a million things in there. Laura did the same and she had way too much happening. So much so that it's all muddied. I think Gail is particularly wondering about the haroset.
Soo tells us that the rice is overcooked enough that it's mushy and now it's holding together. Sure. Manny tells Savannah he mixed the wings with rice, and they subtitle it so I include this in case it's important later. Dan: sunflower choke with braised goose and aronia berry puree. Dan knows someone here and they banter a little bit. Soo: roasted butternut squash, huitlacoche puree, and wild rice gnocchi. Gail says “are you sure you want to say 'gnocchi'?” and he changes his answer to “dumplings”. Heh. His dish is actually pretty good, and it's actually simple. As long as he doesn't say “gnocchi”. Kristen can't believe this, but Dan's foam is actually important. They are impressed he put the work in to prepare the sunflower choke.
Manny: duck breast with braised mustard greens, wild rice cake, and ancho, guajillo, and plum sauce. Savannah: squash and maple jelly cake, with aronia berry, grape and plum jelly. Kristen curses about Savannah's dessert. Tom says she nailed it, and she let the dish tell her what to do. It ended up really dense and jelly-like so she went with it instead of trying to get it to be a fluffy light cake. Manny's rice cake is good but the duck is chewy. Kristen thinks it's just like all his other dishes he's served them. It's his style but is that boring?
Back in the Stew Room people know if they weren't perfect. Savannah says it's hard because there is a lot of “honor” and other emotions tied up in these foods. Michelle knows that at least her Quickfire was good.
Judges' Table. Savannah, Soo, and Dan are the top three. They are not surprised. Kristen tells Dan that his foam was actually necessary for once. Using the sunflowers in four ways was resourceful. Soo treated his ingredients really well, and treated his squash like a protein. Gail tells him that one of the judges took one bite of his wild rice dumplings and said that rice was harvested on her people's land. Savannah had a simplicity to her flavors. With everything together it was something new. The winner is Savannah. It's her first win. She took a big risk and it paid off. She will have an advantage for the next Elimination challenge.
The bottom three are Michelle, Amanda, and Laura. We are still acting like two of them might go home. Michelle dried out her rabbit. She put the jus on the cake for flavor but then it got soggy. Plus there was no smoke flavor. Amanda admits her sauce was too heavy, and it overpowered the elk. She said it was a tataki, which is seared briefly, but she also called it a tartare, which is completely raw, and then there was a tortilla to make a taco, so it was confusing. Laura's dish ended up being all soft, but at the same time there were like three dishes on the plate there. Kristen reminds them that the Quickfire is also going to be taken into consideration.
Laura put as many ingredients in her dish as she could, just to do it. Amanda covered up her elk. She had good intentions but it's not focused. Michelle had some kind of homey feeling, and she knew her execution was off. Back in the Stew Room, Michelle and Laura both claim if they go out they won't be sad, they'll be proud. Kristen says they're split on who to send home, and Tom reminds them they can send two people home. Michelle's Quickfire dish was amazing, so that should save her. No one disagrees. Laura's cranberry sauce was a weird texture because of the ground walnuts, and it coated everything. Amanda also made a bad cranberry sauce. It was just there, not integrated into the dish.
Laura and Amanda are both sent home. Michelle looks stunned, but she also had said earlier in confessional that she knew she did well in the Quickfire. Kristen made sure to say the Quickfire was important today. Both Amanda and Laura shake everyone's hands. Laura is pretty upset in confessional, although Amanda is crying as she says goodbye in the Stew Room.
Next week: “meat raffle”, some big Top Chef names, a fish boil. My recording cut out but they had a shot of Dan saying this was very physically demanding and there are a lot of people running around on the beach.
Last Chance Kitchen: so the YouTube has two episodes. I guess we're not wasting any time keeping extra people around. Amanda is focused on LCK and staying in the competition. Laura says the same thing. Kaleena has not returned for the peanut gallery. Kevin pretends to be surprised to see them. Listen, he's going to say that no matter what. No one mentions Kaleena. Anyway, Laura's dish had too much going on, and Amanda had too many ideas. Tom says they could have used editing, so you will have to work for your ingredients.
Time for the mise en place race! I love this. Kevin says this is a classic. There is a big table with a lot of ingredients on it. Each one has some prep you will have to do. The chefs will take one ingredient at a time, prep it, get checked by Tom, and then they can take something else. They must prep five ingredients, and there will be no repeats. That means if you are slow, and you get up there and someone's taken the oysters, too bad. Of course you will use all five ingredients in a dish. The chyron says “in the next challenge” so is that why there are two episodes? One for the race itself and one for the cooking? Tom says that whoever wins will get a great advantage, and you do not want to lose. Are you automatically eliminated, or just screwed?
Tom says there is no time on the clock, he just has a whistle. Laura takes sea bass (filet two sea bass) because she's thinking of proteins, and she can make a lot of different things with sea bass. Amanda took eggs (separate 18 eggs) because you can go savory or sweet. I wonder if she wanted to make like, an omelet, if she can recombine the eggs later during cooking, or if they have to stay separated. But she is thinking sweet so maybe it's fine. Kevin took chicken, and I'm not sure exactly what he was supposed to do. It looks like he has two chickens and he's breaking them down into parts. He's pretty quick at it, and he says in a previous job he had to break down ducks. He also knows he can cook chicken quickly, because they have no idea how much cooking time they will get. Yeah it's probably going to be based on what place you finish. Laura asks for a check, so everyone has to stop while Tom checks. She did not read the card that said she had to filet two sea bass and not just one. Oops. Amanda is done next and she's good. Then Kevin asks for a check, and Amanda has to stand one step away from the ingredient table. Heh.
Amanda takes lemons (I believe she must supreme 6 lemons). She is thinking dessert but she doesn't know how much time she'll have. Kevin grabbed corn, and he asks Rasika to look on the table to see how many ears he has to shuck (12) so he won't have to run back over. He counts in French (mmmm) and says he's in America and he didn't work with corn the whole time he was in the competition. I don't think 12 is enough to get up to the completely insane way the French language does large numbers. Look it up. Laura is finally done, and she takes kale (chiffonade three bunches). Kevin is taking all the corn kernels off the cob, which I will point out is not shucking. “Shucking” is just taking the husk off. Stripping the kernels is another step.
Regardless of what “shucking” means, Kevin is done next and takes mushrooms (looks like he's peeling them). Amanda is done and takes oranges (supreme 6 oranges). She had said she is good at supreming and wanted all the citrus. Laura takes pomegranates (de-seed three pomegranates). She's got a bowl of water out, which I think is one of the ways to do it. You get them under water, then break up the white pith. The pomegranate seeds sink and the pith floats and you can separate them.
Kevin is already done with mushrooms, and it looks like he also had to slice them. He takes onions, which is chop maybe six onions. His arms are tired. Amanda runs over and takes...cheese? Grate a quart of cheese. No one knows what the hell she is doing. Laura takes parsley and I assume she's chopping it.
Amanda actually pulls ahead of Kevin and takes limes (supreme six limes). So she has eggs, oranges, lemons, limes, and cheddar. Kevin takes garlic (peel four heads of garlic). Can I just say, I would like them to show exactly what the prep is for each item. I have no idea what the onions was and that bothers me. Anyway, Kevin has chicken, corn, mushrooms, onion, and garlic, so I'm sure he'll be fine. He's just smashing the cloves and loosening the peel. Laura takes bell peppers, and you know what? I think she didn't have to chop the parsley. I think she just stripped the leaves from the stems. Does she have to chop them? Who knows! Anyway Laura has sea bass, kale, pomegranate, parsley, and bell peppers.
It seems close in the end somehow. Tom is being annoying about it, but in the end Amanda wins. And then the episode ends. BOO. Just have normal episodes with endings and not cliffhangers! Anyway when we start the next episode Kevin and Laura frantically work, but Kevin beats her out.
So Amanda gets the most time to cook, as suspected. You can use the pantry. Amanda will get 30 minutes, Kevin will get 25, Laura gets 20. Tom is up front that this is a single elimination.
Amanda is going to make a cake of some kind. A sponge cake with the egg whites, then a sabayon using the yolks, and crispy cheese. Sure. She wants to push it because this is her last chance to prove herself. At least Kevin and Laura are using this time to think about what they're going to do. Kevin is going to make some stock for soup, so he's got his bones in a pan immediately. Amanda gets her egg yolks over a double boiler so she can whisk it. Laura is frantic but she's going to make a couple of sauces. Kevin puts butter and garlic under the chicken skin. Amanda is bruleeing some of her supremes. Laura puts her sea bass on the grill to char it.
Tom Time! Kevin is building flavors. Amanda put honey on her cheese, and she says that she knew no one else would go for desserts. Laura says she's grilling the fish and Tom acts shocked. Amanda says her cake is done. Hopefully it will get cold enough in the blast chiller so it won't break the sabayon. Kevin has three or four pots on the stove. Amanda soaks her cakes in syrup and citrus juice. I think everyone gets done.
Kevin: chicken thigh and breast with confit onion, roasted corn, chicken and mushroom bouillon. Laura: grilled sea bass with kale and tahini spread, yellow harissa, and olive tapenade. Amanda: citrus cake with pernod sabayon, cheddar cheese frico, and bruleed citrus. Kevin made french onion soup with chicken. Laura put her bell pepper into the harissa, which was a good way to use it, and the kale is in another sauce. Amanda used her ingredients pretty well. Tom says there is one flaw with one of the dishes, and that's how he's going to judge. Kevin overcooked his chicken. Aww. He says his heart is full of love. Bah, I could have had Laura go home. Tom says next week is the finale. Already? Whatever.
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