Previously on “Top Chef”: We said “meat raffle” was a thing, which just means for the Quickfire it was random draw for first dibs on proteins. Savannah made corned beef salad and was the winner. Remember that for later. Then we had to do a fish boil, which is where you boil fish on the beach and then throw kerosene on the fire for no reason other than people are drunk on the beach. Danny won, because he took care to make sure the fish cooked in something other than just salted water. Savannah cut herself, and ended up in the bottom, but “we will consider the Quickfire performance” is translating to “doing well in the Quickfire is basically immunity” because no one wanted to send Savannah home. Instead, Soo was sent home for being too disjointed. (click for more)
Last Chance Kitchen: Laura, Amanda, and Soo were forced to make one dish with all seven Quickfire themes in it. Who knows why. Soo lost, and I don't remember why but I'm sure it was something about how chaotic it was, or because Tom hates celery, or something. Laura and Amanda then had to make “a great plate of food”. Amanda tried to make gnocchi since she had leftover mashed potatoes from the first half of LCK, but they turned out gummy and clunky so Laura is going back into the competition.
A montage of people waking up and sharpening knives. Savannah reveals that her dad made her knives, which feels like a shady way to blame him for her cutting herself. The rest of the montage is people discussing how when they go home they will kiss and hug their significant others. Oh and Dan tried out for Top Chef “like 13 times”.
In the Top Chef Kitchen, Tom is actually cooking. Gail and Kristen fetch ingredients and narrate, I guess. Some kind of Asian stir fry with lobster. Kristen reveals that this is the first dish she's ever eaten that Tom cooked. She also says “As the kids would say, this fucks” which is hilarious. I love the vibe Kristen is bringing. Anyway, as people arrive, they slap a cloche on to hide the empty plate.
Savannah is genre savvy and is immediately counting how many stations are set up, to figure out how many people are coming back from LCK. Also there is a lone microphone. Manny asks if they are doing karaoke, and Tom is like “absolutely”. Laura walks back in, and I feel like I read that Dan and Manny weren't that thrilled but I think they are just like, big fake HIIII. Maybe they don't like her. She certainly thinks so.
Kristen asks who is ready to take on Tom, and Tom puts up his dukes while at least one person curses. He wants them to make the dish he made. With the empty plate. Do they have to taste the remnants? No, they have to get inside Tom's head. 24 Questions. Each of them can ask one question before time starts (Savannah figures out they are asking about the dish at this moment, heh), then they will have three more questions later. Tom will answer yes or no. Danny is terrified. They cannot actually taste the sauce but they can look at the empty plate and identify peppers and what looks like mint, I think.
This dish is not pasta, not soup, has fruit, has a protein, the protein is seafood, not a porridge. Why did Manny ask if it was a porridge, when he knows it's not a soup and he could narrow down the seafood? Who knows. Now everyone is irritated with Manny. $10,000 if you can win this.
30 minutes. Several people run up to the empty plate to spy red onions, cilantro, celery. Danny tries to find out what's in the fridge to narrow down the seafood, and then decides to ask if it's cioppino. Not a soup, genius. Anyway, no not cioppino. Dan asks if it's bouillabaisse. NOT A SOUP. These people did not go look at the plate. Dan does go up to the plate, and then hilariously grabs the mike they gave Tom and asks if this is Asian, then places the mike back on the table so Tom can answer. Yes, Asian. Laura thinks there is fish sauce, then wastes a question to confirm that. Savannah used to work in an Asian restaurant, so the smell of ginger and garlic cooked in a wok is seared into her brain. Notice she doesn't waste a question on this, she just gets to work. No coconut. Yes it was cooked with heat. I thought that was dumb, but I think Michelle was eliminating ceviche or some other raw seafood dish. Danny gets that there is lobster, and I'm not sure how he knew it was lobster or if he just got lucky with his guess.
What is happening is people are either not hearing or not listening to the questions. We just said it was cooked with heat, and then Savannah asks if it's cooked with acid. No, he just said heat. Lobster is the only protein from the sea. Great question. No tomato paste. No tomato at all. This screws Manny, who thought since it was sort of red there must have been tomato in it. There is something spicy, there is bok choy. Laura is seriously not paying attention, because she's about to ask if there is tomato. Savannah runs by and yells at her not to ask because there's no tomato. There is red pepper. Protein is not cold. Manny tries to ask if it's hot or cold, which is not a yes/no question. Are they really that frazzled during Quickfires? Or is this group of six just not smart? Savannah knows this is a stir fry, but she doesn't want to ask that question because it looks like at the moment she's the only one with a wok and she wants that advantage. She confirms that it is a salad. “Of sorts”. Danny wants to make sure it's tasty, if he doesn't get the dish right.
Tom goes to be nosy. Not only is Savannah genre savvy, but she says she never noticed that they had woks before. Is that true? This is the first time they've had woks available in the kitchen? Because that's honestly a great observation. No spring rolls. Laura puts the bok choy directly on the grill. When Tom goes back to Kristen and Gail, he confirms that this is the first time they have had woks in the kitchen. Manny uses up the last question asking if there is pineapple. No pineapple. Dan finally notices Savannah's wok and has the same realization. Or at least the realization that he should have used a wok.
Tom reveals a full plate. Various people celebrate various ingredients they got right. Somehow Danny got candied ginger. Sure. Michelle: marinated and poached lobster with herb salad. Manny: poached lobster, bok choy, lime juice, cilantro, parsley, ginger, and seafood stock. Tom was counting lime juice as fruit. Savannah: lobster stir fry with red Fresno chilis, bok choy and garlic, with fish sauce and soy sauce. Tom is like, there's no sauce in my dish, why did you think it needed sauce? And Savannah says she just assumed they ate all the sauce. Fair. Laura: blanched lobster with curry, Fresno chilis, garlic, parsley, and fish sauce. She smelled curry, because there were curry leaves. Dan: lobster stir fry with lemongrass, onions, ginger, bok choy, and cilantro. Danny: poached lobster and fennel curry with salad of bok choy, cilantro, and parsley.
They got a lot more than Gail expected. Savannah got the wok, so she got the texture right. Michelle's looked right, and Dan's also. Savannah is the winner. Nice. Laura's dish was too salty, and Manny had too much lime juice. Danny was way off, but it did taste good.
The Elimination Challenge involves food on tables. #wewantplates. You must make a dish that is plated directly on the table. Tom talks about fine dining places that do this, one has a table with “secret compartments”. Normally I am all about hipster bullshit but eating directly off the table everyone has been touching all night is not it. You can do sweet or savory, and you can wheel the table to your station and set things up, or you can come tableside and plate in front of the diners: Tom, Kristen, Gail, and guest judge Curtis Duffy (looks like crazy fine dining shit). Danny won last week so he will have an extra 30 minutes to cook.
Michelle would love to do a crawfish boil but she doesn't want to do something cliché. Maybe brunch. Manny wants to make risotto, which is probably not a good idea. Danny is thinking paella, which is also cooking rice but he then says “communal dining experience” which is paella. I think Savannah is doing the first course of a kaiseki meal, which is little bites but very seasonal and all related. Also presentation is very important in kaiseki so that works.
So apparently the cooking is divided into two days for some reason. Today they will all have two hours, and Danny's extra time will come tomorrow. Savannah has octopus that has to get cooked today. Manny claims making risotto is “swinging for the fences” which he needs to do after being too boring last week. Dan is smoking beets and making flatbread. So put a bunch of things and everyone gets flatbread to swipe through sauces and whatever. Also it won't need to be hot, which means he doesn't have to worry about timing as much as Manny does. Or about putting hot risotto on a cold table. Michelle has salmon and biscuits. Danny has purees and like several other people he says “the table is a canvas”. Laura has at least two ice creams. Michelle doesn't really plate anything. I mean she does barbecue. Dan's beets haven't cooked at all for whatever reason so he's freaking out. Savannah didn't use a pressure cooker, and so her octopus isn't tender. Dan gives up on roasted beets, and decides to sous vide them overnight. Can you do that? Isn't that using more time than everyone else? He doesn't have a lot of options, though, because without beets he basically is serving various purees.
Back at the apartment or hotel or whatever, they all draw and try to plan their plating. Manny reveals he used to play bass in an emo punk band. Heh. The drawing continues in the morning.
Danny gets a full two hours to cook today, while everyone else will only have 90 minutes. Danny has black rice wrapped in a towel to help it steam. He's got painter's tape on his table to plan. Everyone else comes back in, and Dan's beets are cooked so he's thrilled. Savannah chars her octopus and hopes it's not terrible. Dan cooks his flatbreads on the griddle because he doesn't want to mess with the oven. A timer goes off somewhere, and Dan yells to Danny to ask what is going on, and Danny is like “not now dude”. His rice is burnt. Plus it's already black rice. Danny is very carefully scooping the top layer of unburnt rice out of the pot, and muttering, “not going out like a fucking sucker, no chance”. Laura says she's full of energy.
The judges come in and it is very quiet in the kitchen. Someone rigged a camera in the ceiling to get shots of the tables. Danny's table has seafood paella in the middle, with black rice. Around this is a frame of various sauces making an abstract pattern. Not like, globs and stuff, but a thin layer with sharp edges he got with the painter's tape. Danny: paella with black rice and piquillo pepper puree, frame of black garlic, zucchini, and crème fraiche purees. It's beautiful, and the white space around the “frame” adds to the art. Kristen raves about the texture of the rice so I guess he successfully got rid of the burnt rice.
Manny is doing a lot at once, trying to cook the risotto and the seafood at the same time. Dan is getting artful, and here are the swoops and globs and smears you would expect. Like a Jackson Pollock painting. Green and red splatters with yellow flatbread and circles of beets. Dan: beet tartare with beet puree, fried kale and pumpkin seed puree, fried kale salad, candied pumpkin seeds, scallion powder, black garlic labneh with harissa oil, horseradish emulsion, “puffin”. It's a pita/English muffin hybrid. It's fun and Gail loves the bread. You can mix the sauces in different ways. Kristen makes a sandwich out of everything in her reach.
Michelle wants to put her biscuits in the oven for longer, but they have to cool so she doesn't have time. Manny is up next but his risotto is not where he wants it. He has some things on the table already, but he spreads the risotto tableside. Manny: squid ink risotto with crab, scallops, and shrimp, calabrian chili oil, sundried tomato puree, and pesto trapanese. The seafood is in little piles, like one scallop on top of the pesto. There are some spatters of oils or sauces or something, but someone says it looks like a mistake. He just kind of spreads the risotto in the empty spaces, but as he does it, you can tell it's very thick. It's dramatic because of the color, but the seafood is all overcooked and the chili oil is very spicy. The flavor of the risotto is fine, but it's way too thick.
Michelle's table has all the food packed into a rectangle that's maybe six inches by 12 inches. It's supposed to be a mosaic but she doesn't have time to make it more impressive. Michelle: cured salmon, salmon mousse, beet biscuits, pickled beets with capers, eggs with caviar, fig and bacon jam, seasoned potato chips. It looks fine, if I got this as a grazing board I wouldn't be mad. But to serve it on a four top looks silly. She admits she ran out of time. Kristen knows she does barbecue and crawfish boils, so not using the whole table is weird. The biscuits are undercooked and Tom thinks everything clashes. It doesn't feel like Michelle.
Savannah is frantically shucking oysters. The producers contrast this with Laura calmly painting sauces on her table and chill classical music. Savannah's table has individual servings of things, almost plated up, in a symmetrical arrangement. No swoops of sauce, just circles next to whatever you dip in it. In the center of the table is a pile of seaweed with the oysters on top. Savannah: kombu cured salmon nigiri with mustard green wasabi, shrimp tempura with yuzu salt and yuzu ponzu daikon gane, boiled and grilled octopus with wasabi, seared tuna with fennel pollen, coriander, and white pepper, with black garlic soy glaze, oyster with aji amarillo sauce, champagne gelee, and caviar. I was wrong, the soy glaze that goes with the tuna is a swipe with a slice of tuna on one end. Also I can't find any info on “gane” but I guess it's some kind of sauce. Very thoughtful and very clean. The octopus is over charred and clearly not cooked right. The tempura is greasy but the bites are arranged so you start at the end of the table and head toward the seaweed oyster tower, which is a nice touch.
Laura has the liquid nitrogen. So the table is lots of colorful swoops, with disks of ice cream. Then she spread some fruit in syrup, and something that's smoking from liquid nitrogen. Then over the swoops goes a very flat ring of filo dough. Laura: rose, sour cherry, pistachio, and honey sauces with clotted cream, sour cherry, and honey maraş, meringue, and baklava. I guess the meringue was what was smoking, and the ring is the baklava. Maraş is a specific style of ice cream that is chewy. When they show the whole table, everyone has their own section of sauces and ice cream and their own ring. It's delicious and everything has a distinct flavor.
Judges' Table. Overall, a very fun time. Laura, Danny, and Dan are the top three. They all went for it, but their food also had to be delicious. Every bite of Dan's dish was different, plus it was vegetarian. Danny's “frame” didn't look like sauce, and it sounds like the judges thought it was tape or something. Each sauce was good but all together they were also good. Laura's ice cream was amazing, and the filo rings were perfect and dramatic. Somehow Gail was moved. Laura is the winner. I can't really argue with that.
Michelle and Manny are called as the bottom. The judges tell Savannah that she is in the middle: a beautiful table with chewy octopus. She won the Quickfire, you see, which is being treated as immunity. Michelle wanted a mosaic but ran out of time. The potato chips were too thin, and the biscuits were not cooked. Gail says that since there were a bunch of sauces and different elements, it seemed like they should swipe the biscuits and get everything in one bite. Is that what Michelle wanted? No, she didn't think they would do that. Hmm. The presentation was not great. Manny's risotto tasted great but obviously the texture was bad. Plus all the seafood was overcooked. There was a lone pile of breadcrumbs in one corner, when every other pile had shrimp or scallops on it, so it was clearly a mistake.
Manny's dish had a lot of problems with execution, but Gail insists that some of the flavors were good. Tom thinks Michelle had too many ideas: brunch, mosaic, beets. OK “mosaic” isn't a flavor, Tom, so calm down. Both her “vehicles” for scooping things were not executed properly. She was too much in her head and it didn't work. In terms of the Quickfire, Michelle made a salad and didn't put a sauce (there was not supposed to be sauce), and Manny had good flavors. Didn't you guys say Manny's Quickfire had too much lime? Gail claims that the Elimination dishes aren't that close, so fuck considering the Quickfire. You had this rule for like two episodes! Don't even bother then!
Anyway, Tom says some nebulous bullshit and then Michelle is eliminated. Really? Manny overcooks all his seafood and ruins his risotto and has a worse Quickfire but he stays? I guess we only use Quickfires when it lets us keep people we want to keep.
Next week: blind taste test, time to move on to the finals after this. Whatever, I'm sure it will frustrate me.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment