TOP CHEF ALL STARS Spoilers

[filkertom]

Just started watching last night's ep, and the Quickfire challenge is MAKING COOKIES FOR THE MUPPETS! Elmo, Telly, and COOKIE MONSTER COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE! Laughing my ass off over here. I'll watch the whole ep and then go behind the cut for more....

The Cookie challenge was hilarious. Running commentary from all three, and Cookie constantly saying, "Me can't handle pressure!" Several of the chefs noted they hadn't made cookies in years, if ever. Carla and Tiffany had great-looking cookies, but Antonia got in the top two with a cookie which (as Elmo noted) looked like a cow chip. Blais honestly choked on this one -- his ice cream "cookie" with zucchini (at Elmo's request) was just too out-there -- but got a moral victory anyway when Elmo gave his daughter a shout-out on national TV. Dale, who was mocked for putting potato chips in his cookie, won -- the salty-sweet combo impressed the judges.

No immunity from elimination at this stage of the game.

The Elimination challenge: leave your knives at the Top Chef kitchen. Schlep out to a huge Target store -- one of the ones with meat and produce -- in the middle of the night, and get everything you need to cook for 100 Target employees. As in, everything -- utensils, tables to cook at, place settings, all of it. Winner gets $25,000.

You have three hours.

Devilish challenge. The first thing you have to deal with is the lack of a proper stove.

Carla got badly bogged down with decor -- she kept looking for linens. She didn't get cooking until over 1-1/2 hours of the three were gone. She was rightly worried that her flavors would not develop.

Antonia rolled her eyes at everyone seeming to make soup. She was going for a soft egg dish which look really good.

Richard's, on the other hand, was (as Tony Bourdain said) "butt-ugly, but it tasted good."

Dale's was very clever -- using a steam iron to "press" grilled cheese sandwiches. I never learned that trick. And I DID NOT SEE THE OBVIOUS "IRON CHEF" JOKE UNTIL MING TSAI SAID IT. I AM ASHAMED.

Not looking good for Angelo. He took Mike's advice that his potato soup needed something, and I think he added too much salt.

-----

The stew-room vibe is amazing. Usually it's nervousness everywhere. This time... they've been up all night, the sun's coming up, and they're all numb.

Judges' Table: Dale, Antonia, Blais. Blais's two proteins went well together; Antonia's eggs came out perfect; and Dale's excellent tomato soup and audaciously grilled cheese sandwich won him $25K.

Now the bad news.

Carla's soup really needed a protein. (She'd been looking for salmon and couldn't find it.) Angelo's baked potato soup was both too salty and too rich. Tiffany's jambalaya didn't have the flavor it should have had, because of the packaged creole seasoning she used.

When Padma asked if any of them had final words before judging, Tiffany damn near broke down while telling them that in her home, Beaumont, TX, there weren't many chances to "dream big enough", and to thank the judges and the other chefs for the honor of working with them. As of this ep, I love Tiffany like I love Carla and Antonia.

It came down to Carla's dish being weak and Tiffany's being incomplete, but Angelo's being inedible. Bye-bye, Angelo.

-----

Back in the stew room, Mike was gaping. He couldn't believe it. I have more respect for him, mostly because of his obviously tight friendship with Angelo, but I have a hunch that, unless he wins outright, he's going home in the next two eps. He will not make the finals.

I am seeing Antonia and Blais in the finals pretty easily, with the other three running neck and neck for the third spot.

And now we are six.

Next week: Paula Deen, and the return of some of the losers.

Thoughts?

Comments

[skunktaur.livejournal.com]

I am jealous of you and your Top Chef show.

I love those kinds of shows, I learn new tips and tricks...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Well, I know you can watch it on Hulu, and there are also full episodes on the Bravo site, so you can watch it there. :) I'd also highly recommend the PBS shows that America's Test Kitchen has, America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country.

[skunktaur.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately most of those are region-locked. I'll have to work to spoof a different IP if I'm going to get Hulu to show anything to Europe.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Hmph. Well, try a torrent site -- that's where I get mine from. Unfortunately, I don't have any invitations available right now.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

This is when I say BitTorrent Is Your Friend. (If you don't have a legitimate way to obtain the show where you are, I'd say that you have at least a decent case for downloading it.)

ETA: Tom beat me to it. I *do* have invitations to several places, including the site where I got my copy last night at work. (It made a very difficult piece of work go noticeably less painfully.)

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I think you're right, Tom: Mike is definitely in the lower third of the remaining six chefs. And as lovable as Tiffany is, I'd put her in there with him.

Dale, on the other hand, is peaking at the right time. He's definitely grown since his original season, and could easily be in the finals. (I'm rooting for Blais, Carla, and Dale or Antonia.)

I admit to being a bit surprised that nobody used a George Foreman Grill(TM, Circle-R, etc.) to sear some meat, unless the quantities threw them. Or unless professional chefs either don't stoop to, or don't know (because they've never used) what it can do.

Coming into the home stretch -- and it's looking very, VERY interesting.

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

Best. Quickfire. Ever.

I normally can't stand Elmo, but that he said, "Hi," to Richard's girl was sweet. Richard should have made cookies, though, not ice-cream disks. (I can actually see zucchini working in a cookie, though. Zucchini, while not my favorite veggie, is wonderful for bread. With a little tweaking it should work in a cookie.)

As for the rest of the show, I was sort of nodding off through it. (It comes on at 11 here, which is past my bedtime.) Since they broke up the Fabio/Richard thing, now they're going with Mike/Angelo... only to break that up? The women all seem to get along.

Mike didn't seem as grating this week, but I still can't get over the 'gay' statement from last week.

Angelo definitely redeemed himself with this season.

I miss Fabio.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Agreed on pretty much all points. Elmo's grown on me the past year or so; the break point was a "behind-the-scenes" video he did with Ricky Gervais (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr9_5uZn6ds).

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

(I have to wait to watch the video because only one other person in the house is up.)

When Elmo first started as one of many monsters, I liked him. But that was before High School for me. After I had kids I found it very annoying that I couldn't turn on Sesame Street without seeing him for the entire episode. We watched the classic Sesame Street that we had on tape or Play With Me Sesame instead. I can handle him in small doses -- last night was a good amount.

[skunktaur.livejournal.com]

Wait what... did he just ask Elmo if he knew what necrophilia is? XD

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

Okay just watched it. *dies*

The other thing that's great about Elmo is the guy who voices Elmo. If you lined up 20 people and said, "One of these people voices Elmo." The last one I would pick would be the guy who actually does it. (And he's hilarious, too. I've seen quite a few interviews with him.)

[johnpatrickmcp.livejournal.com]

I can't belive that not one of them figured out to head to the camping section and grab some coleman stoves and those little green propane cans.

[johnpatrickmcp.livejournal.com]

I have a few invitation codes for demonoid.me that I never used send me a message and you are more than welcome to one of mine.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

or the housewares section for a couple hot plates.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

In fairness, the electric hot plates tend to be slow to heat to the right temperature and finicky as to what exactly the right temperature may be. But, definitely on the Coleman stoves -- fer cryin' out loud, they've got rotisseries back there!

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

"Dale's was very clever -- using a steam iron to "press" grilled cheese sandwiches."

That makes me wonder if he watched Benny and Joon recently. Or ever.

[janedit.livejournal.com]

Or Michael Keaton in Mr. Mom.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Possibly. He said on the show he'd learned how to do it in college because he never actually used his iron for ironing clothes.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Did the weather allow for cooking outdoors? There is NO WAY IN HELL that if I were on the production team for that show, I would allow them to chance cooking indoors with a propane stove.

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

It's probably an editing device more than anything else, but Richard Blaise is starting to truly irritate me. He is always certain not only that he is the best but that anyone else would have won if only they had asked his advice. I'm not saying he is not worthy, I'm just getting a little much to keep hearing him let us know.

Totally agree with you on the love for Tiffany, Carla and Antonia! :)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Possibly. Leslie and I agree that, for some reason, he seems more middle-of-the-pack than he should. Maybe he's holding back for the finale. He's still a damn machine when he gets going -- always has a plan, always paces himself well, always has solid offerings. Unfortunately, merely "solid" isn't enough to win it all.