TOP CHEF Spoilers
Dec. 18th, 2008 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomThey were filming this ep in summer, but today it's Christmas!
First, everybody was emotionally recovering from last week's intensity. Ariane is much more confident (and damn, it looks good on her); Eugene, Fabio and Stefan are suckin' it up; Hosea talks with his sister about their dad, diagnosed with cancer but at the time of filming doing well.
Quickfire Challenge: Kitchen Stadi- uh, the Top Chef Kitchen is all Yuletidy. The challenge is to create a holiday meal in 45 minutes using only one pot. Guest Judge is... Martha freakin' Stewart. (I am so pleased that, along the way, they show Ariane and Jamie are friends, even though they're top contenders right now. Actually, most of the chefs seem to get along well -- reminds me the glory days of Season 3.) Martha didn't like Jeff's potato risotto, Eugene's Korean stew (because it was thickened with cornstarch, and I agree with Eugene that lots of people thicken with cornstarch, especially when crunched for time), and Fabio's mushroom polenta. She did like Hosea's paella, Jamie's potato and kale stew with scallops, and Ariane's cauliflower puree with filet. Ariane wins. Jamie feels like she's never gonna win anything.
Elimination Challenge: The chefs are going to cater a holiday party for 250 people, for amFAR. To get them in the holiday mood, Padma calls in the Harlem Gospel Choir. To determine the theme of what they'll be cooking, the chefs draw numbered knives, each one corresponding to one of the Twelve Days Of Christmas. Lot o' fine singing going on, but it feels pretty gimmicky. Three hours to prep, one hour on location to prepare. Host is Natasha Richardson (excuse me while I have a major fanboy freakout, as I consider her one of the most beautiful women on the planet), also the guest judge along with semi-regular Michele Bernstein.
The chefs have a lot of trouble just with conceptualizing, basically making up their dishes on the fly while shopping at Whole Paycheck. Hosea (eleven pipers piping), Leah (three French hens) and Ariane (six geese a-laying) sound pretty confident, but they're about it. Prep prep prep. A lot of the dishes sound pretty decent, given the pressure to come up with anything. Hosea's smoked pork tenderloin end up smoking out the kitchen. Jeff (ten lords a-leaping) thinks everyone else's dishes are too simple, and he's determined make Tom and Padma notice that he's running rings around everyone else.
When they get to the kitchen... disaster. One of the fridges has been left open. All of the food in that fridge -- Hosea's pork, Radhika's duck -- all bad. The whole bunch start brainstorming and helping out. I love these guys. Whatever you think of their food, they are fuckin' pros.
Off to the Prince George Ballroom. The stress builds, although Radhika gets a whiff of her duck dish and thinks, This Is Gonna Work. Natasha Richardson in low-cut. Excuse me. Anyway. Ms. Richardson tells everyone to pin their AIDS ribbon by their favorite dish.
Bottom three are Eugene, Melissa, and Jamie. Jamie's scallops were lukewarm and slimy. Michele said she should've seared it; Tom said it shouldn't have been served raw, not without a much heavier marinade. All the judges got from Melissa's dish was blue cheese. Eugene's poisson cru had coconut, sweetness, and nothing else to make it taste like fish. He says the dreaded phrase, "I don't know why I'm here [at the losing end of Judges' Table]." The judges note that nobody's food was particularly great tonight, and Tom wants to talk to all of them, but Natasha also wants to let them know she loved how they pitched in together.
Tom goes back into the waiting room and gives them The Talk. You aren't gonna win with a deviled egg. The judges are looking for amazing food -- cook the food that got you onto Top Chef in the first place. And, in consideration of the holiday, and the monumental challenges they had to overcome, nobody goes home this week. Everybody takes it as a wake-up call.
To me, it's obviously settling down to Ariane, Stefan, Hosea, Leah, and Jeff. Of those, I think Ariane is actually the most vulnerable -- she's extremely talented, but not that imaginative. Jamie is so close sometimes, but she oscillates. I think Eugene and Melissa are going home soon.
Next week: The challenge looks great -- no limits. But the new judge is Toby Young. Oh joy -- a man whose career is built on being obnoxious about his failures. Sorry, we've just had eight years of that, thank you.
Thoughts?
First, everybody was emotionally recovering from last week's intensity. Ariane is much more confident (and damn, it looks good on her); Eugene, Fabio and Stefan are suckin' it up; Hosea talks with his sister about their dad, diagnosed with cancer but at the time of filming doing well.
Quickfire Challenge: Kitchen Stadi- uh, the Top Chef Kitchen is all Yuletidy. The challenge is to create a holiday meal in 45 minutes using only one pot. Guest Judge is... Martha freakin' Stewart. (I am so pleased that, along the way, they show Ariane and Jamie are friends, even though they're top contenders right now. Actually, most of the chefs seem to get along well -- reminds me the glory days of Season 3.) Martha didn't like Jeff's potato risotto, Eugene's Korean stew (because it was thickened with cornstarch, and I agree with Eugene that lots of people thicken with cornstarch, especially when crunched for time), and Fabio's mushroom polenta. She did like Hosea's paella, Jamie's potato and kale stew with scallops, and Ariane's cauliflower puree with filet. Ariane wins. Jamie feels like she's never gonna win anything.
Elimination Challenge: The chefs are going to cater a holiday party for 250 people, for amFAR. To get them in the holiday mood, Padma calls in the Harlem Gospel Choir. To determine the theme of what they'll be cooking, the chefs draw numbered knives, each one corresponding to one of the Twelve Days Of Christmas. Lot o' fine singing going on, but it feels pretty gimmicky. Three hours to prep, one hour on location to prepare. Host is Natasha Richardson (excuse me while I have a major fanboy freakout, as I consider her one of the most beautiful women on the planet), also the guest judge along with semi-regular Michele Bernstein.
The chefs have a lot of trouble just with conceptualizing, basically making up their dishes on the fly while shopping at Whole Paycheck. Hosea (eleven pipers piping), Leah (three French hens) and Ariane (six geese a-laying) sound pretty confident, but they're about it. Prep prep prep. A lot of the dishes sound pretty decent, given the pressure to come up with anything. Hosea's smoked pork tenderloin end up smoking out the kitchen. Jeff (ten lords a-leaping) thinks everyone else's dishes are too simple, and he's determined make Tom and Padma notice that he's running rings around everyone else.
When they get to the kitchen... disaster. One of the fridges has been left open. All of the food in that fridge -- Hosea's pork, Radhika's duck -- all bad. The whole bunch start brainstorming and helping out. I love these guys. Whatever you think of their food, they are fuckin' pros.
Off to the Prince George Ballroom. The stress builds, although Radhika gets a whiff of her duck dish and thinks, This Is Gonna Work. Natasha Richardson in low-cut. Excuse me. Anyway. Ms. Richardson tells everyone to pin their AIDS ribbon by their favorite dish.
- Stefan's chicken pot pie (12 drummers drumming) goes over well.
- As does Radhika's duck.
- Carla's braised chicken with duxelles and mushroom cap is too salty and one-note.
- Eugene's poisson cru (red snapper) with pineapple rings (5 golden rings, get it?) is too sweet.
- Fabio (9 ladies dancing) makes some "dancing" crab cake with sweet corn and roasted red pepper, chipotle, lime aioli & coleslaw. Doesn't go over well.
- Neither does Jamie's crudo of sea scallop (7 swans a-) swimming in vichyssoise with agrumato (olive-lemon oil).
- Melissa (8 maids a-milking) has NY strip and gorgonzola on a sourdough crostini with cranberry vinaigrette, but nobody tastes anything but the cheese.
- Leah has braised guinea hen with butternut squash purée over puff pastry. The judges comment on how the pastry dulls it down and dries it out.
- Ariane has six types of deviled eggs. They're good and all, but Tom in particular is almost offended that someone thinks they're going to win a Top Chef competition with a deviled egg.
- Hosea's smoked pork loin with chipotle mashed potatoes goes over well -- he gets a lot of ribbons. Leah gets jealous at the attention Hosea gets from the ladies.
- Jeff has a "mosh pit" going. His seared halloumi and kasseri cheese with roasted beets, pears, mint & spices seems to be Hosea's biggest competition.
Bottom three are Eugene, Melissa, and Jamie. Jamie's scallops were lukewarm and slimy. Michele said she should've seared it; Tom said it shouldn't have been served raw, not without a much heavier marinade. All the judges got from Melissa's dish was blue cheese. Eugene's poisson cru had coconut, sweetness, and nothing else to make it taste like fish. He says the dreaded phrase, "I don't know why I'm here [at the losing end of Judges' Table]." The judges note that nobody's food was particularly great tonight, and Tom wants to talk to all of them, but Natasha also wants to let them know she loved how they pitched in together.
Tom goes back into the waiting room and gives them The Talk. You aren't gonna win with a deviled egg. The judges are looking for amazing food -- cook the food that got you onto Top Chef in the first place. And, in consideration of the holiday, and the monumental challenges they had to overcome, nobody goes home this week. Everybody takes it as a wake-up call.
To me, it's obviously settling down to Ariane, Stefan, Hosea, Leah, and Jeff. Of those, I think Ariane is actually the most vulnerable -- she's extremely talented, but not that imaginative. Jamie is so close sometimes, but she oscillates. I think Eugene and Melissa are going home soon.
Next week: The challenge looks great -- no limits. But the new judge is Toby Young. Oh joy -- a man whose career is built on being obnoxious about his failures. Sorry, we've just had eight years of that, thank you.
Thoughts?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 02:24 pm (UTC)I agree wholeheartedly.
> ... they are fuckin' pros.
Agreed. Competition or not, that was very very classy.
> To me, it's obviously settling down ...
The other week, I picked a top-8 that included Hosea, Jeff, Leah, and Stefan. The others were Carla, Fabio, Jamie, and Radhika. Right now, I'm thinking the top five are those four and maybe Jamie or Fabio, depending on who melts down first. I agree that Ariane is probably not going to win the whole thing; I don't see a lot of creativity from her yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 02:42 pm (UTC)I actually expect Fabio to go home pretty soon -- both he and Eugene aim high, but somehow shoot themselves in the feet a lot. Melissa might hang on for awhile just by being middle-of-the-pack.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 02:49 pm (UTC)Nina Garcia'sPadma Lakshmi's socks off!(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 02:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 04:34 pm (UTC)Such a small tweak would have made all the difference in my case. What do you think?
Like Tom has said, "Sometimes all the difference between a good dish and a great dish is the seasoning..." :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 08:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 02:42 pm (UTC)I'm glad Tom had a talking to them, they haven't been bringing the "WOW"
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 02:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-18 08:04 pm (UTC)