Previously on “Top Chef”: Everyone had to do teams of three and do “food flights”, which is where you get three wines and match them up with all the same ingredients? Techniques? Whatever you want, I guess. Justin, Jennifer, and Sieger won that one, with eggs. Then the Elimination challenge asked the contestants to take classic Southern side dishes and make them into main courses. Sieger won by making smothered cabbage with pork belly. Brittany thought the steamer was on, realized it was not on, tried to cook her sausage and re-stuff it into collard greens, but it never happened and she was sent home. (click for more)
Last Chance Kitchen: Tom cooked Nina and Brittany a meal, and then told them to cook whatever. Brittany made panzanella but it was too dry so she was eliminated for good.
They posted LCK like eight hours early again, but only to Bravo +? Or something, it's not everywhere. Also this episode is airing half an hour earlier than usual. Why? Apparently because there's no episode of “What What Happens Live” today. So if you were looking for someone to blame for how late the show airs, it's Andy Cohen. One more reason to not like Andy Cohen.
Jennifer and Rhoda hang out and Jennifer says her arm is not getting better. She wants to stay, so she's just trying to tough it out.
When everyone walks into the Top Chef Kitchen, Justin has long pants on. Kristen makes a big face about it, and Justin says he choked. Kristen says she is proud of him for wearing jeans. Out of his comfort zone. Then she asks everyone if they feel “fortunate” to still be in it. You can hear the air quotes. Anyway, here is Fortune Feimster. Sherry is a fan, and also she thinks she herself is funny. The producers in confessional demand she be funny right now and she says “mm-mm, no” which is somehow funnier than if she tried a joke. Fortune is a spokesperson? for Comic Relief and their campaign to end childhood hunger. The Quickfire is to use your “improv cooking skills”. It sounds like do whatever random bullshit Kristen and Fortune come up with. Oh also here are some children. These idiots all guess famous chefs but no. There are three kids, they are all about 9 or 10 I think? They ask for favorite foods, favorite cities. They all love Christmas. So now they must feature “some” of these answers. Christmas in Colorado. Heh. Oh also “puffified”, which is because one of the kids said they love Cheetos puffs. Interpret these things as you like. Winner gets $10,000. Sieger announces to the general room that if he wins he's getting a vasectomy. Ha!
30 minutes to cook. Rhoda is making lamb, because she loved lamb at that age, and that's Colorado. Well, she loved goat, same thing. Shepherd's pie time. Sieger's mom made him eat regular “adult” food, so he's “going sweet for these little shits. Or, kids.” Jennifer says to him she's leaving because the running around is making her arm much worse. I'm not sure why she's telling Sieger, unless it's just that he happens to be the nearest contestant to a camera. The producers confirm she can just leave out the main doors. She's trying to make through Eliminations. Oscar doesn't have kids and he says his restaurant has like one high chair as a courtesy. He says his dish is called “Puff, Puff, Pass the Pizza”. He and Sieger are wildly inappropriate but it is kind of funny. Lots of puffy things, or whatever you can think of that a kid would like. Brandon named one of his kids Brandon and the other one is Kaden. Now there's a mini twin. Duyen yells to Laurence that she had a dream last night she had a six-month old baby. Weird. She would have a big family if she had the money. Sieger says he's about practicing, not about making kids, and someone finally calls him out that the kids are still here.
About halfway through, Kristen encourages the kids to fuck around some more (not with profanity though) and they all go to the pantry to pick out another random ingredient. Fortune wisely reminds them they do still have to eat whatever this ends up being. Now everyone has to also use corn nuts. I guess whatever the kids don't snack on right now. One of the kids gets an interview where she's like “This is Top Chef. They can handle a corn nut.” True. Nothing makes sense and people are doing shit like, mint leaves are like trees, pomegranate is like Christmas, who knows. Oscar has pizza pockets, it looks like, but they're leaking and time is tight.
As everyone stands around and I guess waits for production to tell them to start serving, Jennifer is standing, leaning on the wall, with two ice packs on her shoulder. Kristen asks if she needs to sit down or something, but she says she can stand. Brandon: Colorado vanilla ice cream with nutella, corn nut crunch, and maple syrup. The maple syrup is in individual squeeze bottles, and he says the “puff” is the liquid nitrogen used to freeze the ice cream. Sherry: puffified chicken with cheese rainbow grits and Christmas flavors. The grits are vaguely pink and not multicolored. One of the kids finds a sprig of rosemary, which Sherry says is like a tree. A different kid says “I thought you were trying to feed me a leaf!” and points accusingly. Heh. “Christmas flavors” are not explained. Duyen: ribeye with cheesy potatoes, corn nuts, and ketchup. Rhoda: potato souffle, lamb shepherd's pie, with ranch seasoning and corn nut crunch. The same kid that said the leaf comment says they can see the Christmas because it's like charcoal, and then asks “I wonder if that's the excuse for it being burnt?” Damn. Oscar: “Poof Poof Pass the Pizza Puff” (coward) with basil, ricotta cheese, and corn nuts. Laurence: sweet and sour fried chicken with puffed rice and corn nuts. It's thin sheets of rice paper that are fried so they're puffy and then broken into shards. Justin: chicken tenders with corn nuts, mountain of puffy potatoes with cheesy “snow” and turkey gravy. Sieger: peppermint and white chocolate crema catalana with corn nuts, puffed sorghum, strawberry, and pomegranate. The puffed sorghum looks like little popcorn bits. Crema catalana is like crème brulee, but with milk so it's a little lighter, and there are more spices in it. The sassy kid manages to fall off the platform, or her stool, or something. When she gets back up she says she blames Sieger. Anthony: turkey meatball soup, crème fraiche, and corn nuts. I guess the meatballs are puffy. Jonathan: puffified pizza with pita bread, andouille sausage, cheese “snow”, blueberries and grapes.
So in between shots of people serving, getting praise from the kids, or whatever, there are shots of everyone else looking pissed off. I'm not sure what vibe I'm supposed to be taking from this. No one thinks anyone else did good? Everyone is pissed at this challenge? I don't know. Fortune claims she felt like she was in Colorado the whole time. The kids are happy. Mostly. Rhoda was on the bottom, mostly because the kids didn't like lamb, but also Kristen says the mashed potatoes were soggy and not puffy enough (Rhoda had been going for a souffle feel). Oscar had greasy pizza, which he knew. Sherry's grits were too sweet. Weird. Brandon made good ice cream, and somehow the corn nuts worked really well. Sieger had “little tiny popcorns” and it was like Christmas. Jonathan's pizza was also in the top, I think because he made the closest thing to a kids' meal. Kristen says on the count of three they're gonna scream the winner, which is Brandon. Also $10,000 to Comic Relief.
Now it is time to slow things down for the Elimination challenge. The US National Whitewater Center is an outdoor center with a man-made whitewater river and I assume other river/rafting/water activities. How is this related to slowing down? You must made a dish showcasing dehydrated components. How is “dehydrated” related to “whitewater rafting”? Because dehydrated meals are lightweight and easy to carry when you're backpacking. We used to take those camping, you would get freeze dried pouches of like, hamburger helper, and you just add boiling water and wait five or ten minutes, and then you have dinner. It's not the greatest dinner, but it's easier to deal with than cooking over open flames. At least as good as a cheap frozen meal (if we had any left over after camping we'd eat them for quick lunches). I guess now chefs are embracing dehydration. Brandon (pretty sure) says his restaurant uses dehydration for making things crispy. However, Charlotte is humid, which could be a problem. Kristen says they don't have to make the whole dish out of dehydrated products, but they do need to be featured. Since this takes such a long time, you will get 75 minutes to pick out ingredients from the pantry and get started. Then while everything dehydrates, I guess overnight, they will have forced fun time at the Whitewater Center. Oscar asks if there's a lazy river. Heh. Tomorrow, 1.5 hours to cook at the Center. Jenn says she'll push through.
Everyone has those home dehydrators that are basically plastic trays and fans. You can supposedly make your own with air filters and a box fan, although I don't think air filters are food safe. You don't need them to be that hot, but air circulation is key. Jonathan is thinking pavlova and lots of dried fruit. Duyen is making a bunch of powders. Brandon is also going dessert because you can add lots of dehydrated elements. I think he might be making fruit leather, but it might just be dried fruit. I wonder if anyone is going to leave their stuff in giant chunks and it doesn't dry in time? He is also making pavlova. Jonathan figures this out, says in confessional that if Brandon is doing a dessert, then he (Jonathan) is not doing that because Brandon will kick his ass, and then straight up asks him about it. Time for Jonathan to think of something more interesting. He's still going to dehydrate the meringue he's made, but now coming up with something for a savory dish. Rhoda is making adobo sauce, or at least drying components for that. She interviews that you're kind of stuck with whatever you dehydrate today. She used to work somewhere that made dehydrated squid ink to season fish, which sounds cool. Anthony says he was at a low point last week. Today he's making banga broth, so there's some paste that's a component that he's going to dry and use tomorrow. Banga broth is from Cameroon, and usually has palm nuts. Someone asks Sieger how it feels to have immunity. He says he forgot until just now. Oscar is dehydrating mole, and he is hoping to get a fruit leather type situation. Jenn is in a lot of pain but she has to power through, she feels. Laurence is dehydrating pomegranate molasses to break into shards, and Sherry has smoked kalamata olives that she hopes to make into a salt.
The Whitewater Center has a zipline and a climbing wall, in addition to the rafting. Sieger says it's nice to take your mind off the competition for a second. There is a shot of Anthony and Sherry on the climbing wall, with dramatic music, until they pull back and you can see they're maybe a foot off the ground. Jenn is just watching them, so at least they didn't make her do stuff. Rhoda is glad to just hang out with her new friends.
In the morning everyone is back to being serious. Duyen asks her car if anyone is “swinging for the fences”, and Laurence kind of is, but Rhoda says she just has fish and sauce. Rhoda won the first two elimination challenges, but then it hasn't been going well, so she's trying to get back into it. It's so easy to overthink this challenge. Sherry tells her car you have time to cook, but not really enough time to fix anything if you fuck up. Everyone agrees.
90 minutes to cook. There is a nice big kitchen so that's something. Everyone opens their dehydrators to find out if this worked. They all seem to be pleased with how things turned out. Laurence says his “pomegranate glass” tastes good, but is still a little soft. He thinks as it cools down outside the dehydrator it will crisp up. I don't know that it won't, I just put this here in case of foreshadowing. Brandon discovers his pavlova are too wet. In the shot of the tray, they look wet. It's too humid. He's panicking. He knows there's a dish here, he just has to get it together.
Oscar says his mole turned out like he wanted. He's got grits and lamb, and the mole sauce and also another sauce. Anthony is taking inspiration from a trip to Cameroon, and the ingredients there, lots of dried fish and stuff. Brandon busts out the malodextrin, and he's saying something about “moon rocks”? I guess this is something dehydrated. Also matcha muffins. Jonathan is crusting swordfish with dried strawberries and then smoking it. He makes a “Cheech and Chong” joke. Jenn is making whitefish dip and she says they use a lot of dehydrated things in there. Plus fresh focaccia. Sherry has a dehydrated tomato tuille and summertime cassoulet. I think Anthony is putting salt and sugar on some salmon like a dry cure.
Savannah from the Wisconsin season is here, along with some other restaurant owners. They think the key today will be to be restrained. Cut to Laurence saying he's making trail mix because of “being woodsy”. No one screams about running out of time.
Anthony: cured salmon with banga broth and dehydrated smoked oyster infused rice. The broth and herbs were dehydrated. Justin: grilled New York strip with XO sauce, marinated dehydrated mushrooms, citrus, fried leeks, and fried beef. Brandon: matcha cake with strawberries, yuzu meringue, pink peppercorn meringue, pineapple leather, and Thai basil. The “moon rocks” are chunks of hazelnut and brown butter. He asks everyone to eat that first for some reason. Anthony did a great job of the sauce, and the salmon is cooked very well. Justin's XO sauce is good but also maybe overpowering. Tom thinks there are too many thing happening. Gail knows Brandon was trying to show off. It's executed well, but maybe the flavor combination could be better. They also don't know why he said to eat the one part first, maybe to make sure they got it? Tom hates being told how to eat. Unless it would make the dish better if you knew to do it a certain way. I'm sure there was a time Tom wished for instructions, but I can see how he'd be mad that instructions were necessary in the first place.
Laurence asks Sherry to taste his vinaigrette, and he asks if it's the best vinaigrette ever? She immediately says “no, mine's better”. Rhoda sprinkles squid ink dust on monkfish and says she's going to sear her fish at the last second. “A little bit of dra-ma!” Heh. Oscar temps his lamb and discovers it's only at 60 degrees, while the oven is at 350. That's not good. So now he's freaking out it will be raw. It's back in the oven with the heat cranked.
Sherry: sea bass with summer cassoulet, smoked kalamata olive crumble, tomato skins, tomato and potato chip. Laurence: brassica salad with trail mix, creamy sesame dressing, and pomegranate glass. Jonathan: smoked swordfish with dehydrated strawberries, jicama and mandarin salsa, mizuna leaves and lime meringue sticks. They like Sherry's dish, and especially the olives. Laurence's salad is overdressed, and his pomegranate glass doesn't really go with the dish (although it tastes fine). Tom tries for a joke about how Laurence took his salad rafting and it got wet, but the setup for this joke takes too long. Jonathan's dish is good. They don't say anything bad but they don't seem to rave over it a ton, if that makes sense.
Oscar's timer has been going off for a long time, and now the lamb is overcooked. No option but to serve. As everyone is getting served, for some reason everyone clocks Rhoda's monkfish and that it “doesn't look right”. Before the chefs even get to the table (if the edit is correct), Tom has cut into the fish and declared it's raw or at least cooked so poorly he doesn't want to eat it. Oof. Rhoda: squid ink crusted roasted monkfish with squid ink adobo sauce, dehydrated broccoli and garlic chip. Gail asks her if the fish turned out how she wanted, and she talks about the sauce standing up to the fish. Sieger: spinach wrapped poached chicken and morel quenelle with consomme. All of the vegetables are “semi-dehydrated”, and the consomme was clarified the traditional way with a “raft”, ha ha. That is what it's called, but yeah. Oscar: lamb chop with yellow grits, asparagus, and variations of Mama's mole. Some mole is a leather, some is a powder. The monkfish is half raw and leaking liquid, which is breaking the sauce. It's also not “crusted” so much as it is “dusted” if that makes sense. Not enough squid ink powder for a full crust. The chips are good anyway. Sieger has a beautiful dish, but it tastes like raw vegetables. It feels like spa food, like a dish someone came up with for someone on a specific diet. He dehydrated everything and he shouldn't have. Oscar's grits are solidified and the lamb is overcooked. He plated the grits too early. The bits of mole are decent.
Jenn reveals she's on a steroid now so we'll see about her shoulder. Kristen keeps asking how she is, and it sounds like she's genuinely concerned. Jennifer: smoked catfish dip with dehydrated herbs, focaccia with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and dehydrated lemon. Duyen: coconut braised pork belly, radicchio, Thai basil chimichurri, and rice with dehydrated shrimp and aromatics. Jenn's dip is good and they like her confidence. Duyen had a delicious dish too.
Judges' Table. Tom says there are basic cooking problems tripping them up. Some of them. Anthony, Sherry, and Duyen are the top three. If you took the dehydrated components out, the dishes no longer work, so they really fulfilled the challenge. Sherry's dish had so much going on, but it all works together so well. It's a dish you would order over and order. Anthony's sauce paste had so many layers and it was a beautiful sauce. Tom points out that the cuisine he based that sauce on already uses a ton of dried components and ingredients, so it's the perfect time for that dish. Duyen explains how she put a ton of stuff in her rice, which was the star of the dish. The winner is Anthony. He immediately curses. He has learned to just stay the course.
Laurence, Rhoda, and Oscar are the bottom three. Someone curses about this too. Laurence thought he embraced the challenge, which he did, but the salad was overdressed and greasy. Tom says this is what he meant: it's not the “challenge” of dehydrated components that he screwed up, it's the basic skill of dressing a salad. Rhoda felt good about her dish, and she says she roasted it on the side with the squid ink. The judges expected it to be seared all over, and golden brown and crispy. So it was raw and spongy. Rhoda said she did cut a piece and it was fine. Huh. The sauce was also just kind of wet. The garlic chip was good but it didn't make a ton of sense. Oscar knows his lamb was overcooked. Also the grits were like scrambled eggs.
As everyone walks out, Kristen asks Jenn to stay there. She wants to know how Jenn is really doing. When they're cooking and moving, she says the adrenaline is high and she doesn't really feel it until she stops. Tom tells her she can quit if she wants, and promises when she wants to return she can return. It sounds like if she leaves and wants to return next season she has a guaranteed spot on the show. They don't want her to make things worse, and Tom also says she's bailed out of two Quickfires and they “can't let” her do that again. Yeah at some point she's only doing half the cooking of everyone else. Kristen says she can head back to the Stew Room and think about it, she doesn't have to tell them right this second. Oscar is telling the room it's hard when you come out of a chaotic moment and start overanalyzing what the judges are doing and if they're eating your whole dish.
Tom says an overdressed salad isn't as bad as overcooked lamb. Gail doesn't find Laurence's salad as “offensive” as either Oscar's dish or Rhoda's dish. Tom is mad about the lamb, but Gail is like, what do you do though? Just serve mole? The little rectangle of dehydrated mole is the only thing he has going for him right now. On the other hand, Rhoda claimed she tried her fish and it was good, so I think they're doubting her judgment right now. Plus she listed the things she dehydrated, and it sounds like no one got all of those flavors. Whose flaws were more severe, Oscar or Rhoda?
Jenn gets back to the Stew Room and pulls Justin over to the side to talk to him. She says they seem to want her to go, but they gave her a choice. She also says if she does leave for “self care” then they will 100% invite her back. He asks what her gut says, and she replies with “I don't know, I need you”. He has no idea how much pain she's in. Yeah, she's gonna have to make this choice on her own. Kristen confirms the judges know who they're eliminating, and then says to bring them back out, and then they can also discover what Jenn is going to do. I'm not sure if they will still eliminate someone if Jenn quits, or if they will just tell them “you'd be out if she wasn't quitting” to scare someone.
Jenn comes out with the bottom three and says she's going to stay. She's going to stay and push through. Huh. I mean it's her choice. Kristen says they're making it clear: the next time she sits out from any part of the competition, Quickfire or Elimination challenge, they will ask her to depart. She has to participate in everything. In confessional Jenn says if she had been in the bottom today, it would have been an easier choice. We flashback to the Stew Room, where Justin tells everyone what is happening, and it seems like everyone tells her it's too soon to leave. Anthony says to put her station next to his and “I got you”. A twin says they can each take an item off her prep list. Listen this is a very nice and heartwarming thing, but this is also a TV show and I would hate for her to do permanent damage just to stay. And also for everyone else to take on extra work. It's possible everyone is on board, but it's also possible at least one person doesn't want to help a competitor, or will help and then their own dish suffers, or something. And you can't really complain because you look like a jerk. Anyway, since Jenn is staying, Rhoda is eliminated. She's going to channel first and second Elimination Challenge Rhoda for LCK. She's already beaten all these people.
Next week: roasting whole pigs, real BBQ pitmasters, maybe some drama? A twin says they aren't taking the pork loin so maybe they're going to fight about it? Who knows.
Last Chance Kitchen: Rhoda did not plan to peak too early. Obviously. Nana is very shocked to see her. No one has ever won two individual challenges back to back. She says she won't be working with squid ink for a long time. Tom makes some comment about “other salty creatures” because there is an obvious table full of live crabs off to the side. Like they got a shot where one of them is already escaped and on the floor. Tom talks about Myrtle Beach (which is in South Carolina) and then reveals she crab soup. Nana has never had it, but she's riding a high. Tom says he used to go crabbing with his grandfather, and there's a great photo of I guess a seven year old Tom and his grandfather, but it could be current Tom and a small child. He says that the community around getting all this food and having a family meal is what brought him to cooking. I feel like someone told Tom to get vulnerable and tell personal stories to inspire everyone in LCK. Nana and Rhoda taste the soup, but for no reason the live crabs on the table are just...on the table, not in a bucket or a pot or anything. Just a stack on the table where they have obviously crawled over each other and fallen on the floor and are about to fall in the bowl of soup. The soup has heavy cream, crab roe, nutmeg, shallots. Chowder vibes. Make your own take on she crab soup, except it can't be soup.
30 minutes to cook. Brittany starts the Peanut Gallery. Nana says crab mac and cheese. She also says she feels like herself again. Rhoda says “Singaporean chili crab” so this should be a good battle if execution is on point. Rhoda grabs some live crabs and manages not to hurt herself. Well, not until she gets back to her station. In confessional she says one of them pinched her, so that one had to go. Heh. Nana is doing a lot of narration about what she's doing, like talking out loud to the room and not a voiceover dubbed in afterwards. She particularly says she's got her pot on for her pasta, which I thought they had water boiling already for stuff like this? You know when you watch cooking competitions, those pots that are steaming so you can get artful shots of the chefs with steam swirling, those are also boiling so no one has to wait for pots to boil when you don't have a lot of time. Maybe they thought 30 minutes would be enough time to boil a big pot of water for pasta. As Nana runs around, she puts a bowl on the edge of her station and it falls on the floor. I'm not sure what that was. Brittany tells her to calm down.
Tom Time! Rhoda talks to Tom, who seems shocked, and then snarky about how Rhoda's going to cook the crab in the broth she has and then Tom will have to pick it himself. Don't be lazy Tom. Rhoda interviews that Tom and his “Tom ways” will make you rethink your whole life. You pick your own crab when you eat chili crab, that is the point, thank you very much. But maybe she can add some already picked crab in the sauce so he won't be grumpy. Nana has roe and crab in her cheese sauce. Rhoda is worried Nana might be closer to what Tom is expecting. Nana at the last minute is frying crab claws?
Nana: crab mac and cheese. Tom would have liked it to all be baked together, but he gets the time crunch. Rhoda: Singaporean chili crab. She straight up tells Tom half the fun of chili crab is picking the crab yourself. Tom tells them he's been picking crab his whole life, but he does it weird, and then it's a crab picking tutorial from Tom. I'm not sure if I like this new “Tom is our friend” attitude in LCK. I like snarky!Tom, which this doesn't exclude, but I guess I don't know why Tom is suddenly full of personal heartfelt stories and I'm too jaded to not be suspicious. He was concerned there might be too much spice, but cooking the crab in the sauce meant you still taste the crab. He says he's going to take his time eating because both dishes are great. Successful in containing the essence of she crab soup, so the winner is the person who had more crab flavor, and that's Rhoda. Nana's dish is wonderful, it just doesn't have as much crab flavor. Rhoda says she flew too close to the sun the last couple of challenges and she needed to pull back. Nana is so glad she cooked her food, finally.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment