TOP CHEF Spoiler Thread
Last week, there was no ep. The week before was a grueling battle of creating dishes based on the chefs' cooking inspirations, which meant mostly in honor of their families. Heather, who had become more and more annoying over the past several weeks, managed to make herself no friends at all this time around as well, and when she overcooked her meat to the point that Emeril could not identify the cut (and guest judge Patti LaBelle identified it as "Bigfoot"), she took the fall. Nemesis Beverly was pleased.
(On Last Chance Kitchen, current champ Nyesha also defeated Heather, and showed great satisfaction at doing so.)
This week, they're at Le Cordon Blue Culinary Institute in Austin. Padma is there with Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, a genuine polymath and the lead author of Modernist Cuisine. The Quickfire Challenge is to show off your own knowledge of modernist cuisine -- winner gets immunity and a copy of the book, you have 45 minutes, ready, set, go.
Beverly is nervous as all hell, and actually sprays some of her dish onto Padma's dress. Chris J says this is right up his alley, and at the very least he wants to be in the top three (he is). Winner is Ty-Lor, with some watermelon accented with, among other things, olive oil and tapioca maltodextrin (which turns the olive oil into a powder until it's moistened again on the tongue).
Main challenge: much more traditional. Texas barbecue. They'll be cooking for about 300 people at Texas's best BBQ place, The Salt Lick. Chicken, beef brisket, pork spare ribs, and two sides. Cooking all night, for service tomorrow.
The chefs form three teams -- Sarah, Ed, Ty-Lor; Lindsay, Grayson, and Paul; and Beverly and the two Chrises fall together by default. Nobody wants to be with Beverly right now; Lindsay says she's been the downfall of the last two team challenges.
Shopping: Paul notices the other two teams going for cole slaw and baked beans, so he decides to use Asian ingredients -- miso, curry, fish sauce -- that will eventually taste like BBQ. I'm already worried.
They go to The Salt Lick, meet the owner Scott Roberts, and drool all over a huge firepit of smoking meats. Then they drive over to their set up, exact replicas of the pit in the restaurant.
My descriptive skills fail at this point. The Long Dark Night of the Barbecue includes three RVs, hundreds of pounds of protien, a whole lotta live oak, outrage at being told how to cook, fire alarms, lack of common sense, large fire-roasted whole garlic cloves, brisket collapsing into a smoker and extinguishing a fire, and Chris J. talking to beer-can chicken. When the sun comes up, the heat starts to intensify, and everyone is fading.
Tom shows up, asking what everyone's doing. Grayson confirms they're all exhausted, but it'll be worth it because their BBQ is "like sex in the mouth". Ooooookay. Tom tells the chefs that the winning team will get $15,000, which wakes everyone up a bit.
Chris J. extracts the beer cans from the chickens. Lindsay pronounces Paul's Asian BBQ "effin' delicious". Chris C. is worried about the ribs being too salty. Lindsay has trouble with the Brussels sprouts, because the fire's low and they don't have much time.
Sarah is having problems from the heat and smoke. She has hot and cold chills, feels light-headed, and looks awful. A medic from the show's crew calls 911, and Sarah leaves in an ambulance.
Tom tells Ty-Lor and Ed that they're on their own. Ed first wonders if Sarah's okay, is she dead, what? And then he says he would've pushed through it. Dude, you were both in the same heat and smoke, and you didn't physically collapse, and she did. You want a cookie? Jeez. Maybe it's just because I've been mostly (mostly) cured of displays of macho, but I'm a little tired of what-I-would-have-done riffs.
Blue Team (Grayson, Lindsay, Paul) -- Asian spare rib, chicken & brisket; charred Brussels sprouts & okra; watermelon salad. Lots of people, including the judges, love the meat. The watermelon salad also goes over well. But the Brussels sprouts are undercooked.
White Team (Beverly, Chris J., Chris C.) -- beer can chicken, dry rubbed and smoked brisket, Dr. Pepper glazed pork ribs. Chicken is very moist, but not much barbecue flavor. The beans aren't cooked, and the ribs are indeed too salty. Brisket is chewy, but the cole slaw is great.
Sarah comes back -- her BP and heart rate came down, and she thinks she's gonna be okay. There is tension between her and Ed -- he thinks he and Ty-Lor were going faster without her. After the food is served to the judges, Sarah starts overheating again and sits down. Ed says she showed up just long enough to plate her food and then leave again.
Red Team (Sarah, Ty-Lor, Ed) -- Texas chicken, KC style pork ribs, smoked brisket, poppy seed cole slaw, pinto beans. Chicken is tender and flavorful. Ribs taste very good, but are a bit chewy. The smoked brisket is also really good. Nathan says that the best BBQ places slice to order for a reason; I suspect extenuating circumstances (i.e., Sarah going to hospital, Ed and Ty-Lor having to basically hack the meat into edible portions quckly) will not help their case in the judging, but we'll see. More tension between Sarah and Ed.
Judges' Table: Blue Team wins -- everything was cooked right and tasted great.
Sarah's chicken was grilled, not really barbecued. Gail says Ty-Lor's ribs were overseasoned, oversalted. The orange mint in the cole slaw actually started to ferment. I was right -- Sarah's absence doesn't excuse the not-to-order slicing of the brisket.
Beverly's cole slaw was good, but not spectacular. Gail wishes it was less traditional. Chris J.'s beer can chicken was... grilled chicken. Chris C. did the spice rub and Dr. Pepper sauce; Tom says the ribs were so salty they were inedible. Beverly's beans were undercooked.
Tom wishes Ty-Lor didn't have immunity, because he'd be sent home. Sarah's chicken was better than Chris J.'s, but not by much. Any of them besides Ty-Lor could go home.
Chris C. does.
On Last Chance Kitchen: Chris C. vs. Nyesha. Challenge -- a blast from the past: cook with ingredients from a gas station. Go watch it, it's fun.
Next week: RESTAURANT WARS! And, from the preview, it looks as if both teams choke like crazy.
Thoughts?
This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1475932.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this time.
(On Last Chance Kitchen, current champ Nyesha also defeated Heather, and showed great satisfaction at doing so.)
This week, they're at Le Cordon Blue Culinary Institute in Austin. Padma is there with Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, a genuine polymath and the lead author of Modernist Cuisine. The Quickfire Challenge is to show off your own knowledge of modernist cuisine -- winner gets immunity and a copy of the book, you have 45 minutes, ready, set, go.
Beverly is nervous as all hell, and actually sprays some of her dish onto Padma's dress. Chris J says this is right up his alley, and at the very least he wants to be in the top three (he is). Winner is Ty-Lor, with some watermelon accented with, among other things, olive oil and tapioca maltodextrin (which turns the olive oil into a powder until it's moistened again on the tongue).
Main challenge: much more traditional. Texas barbecue. They'll be cooking for about 300 people at Texas's best BBQ place, The Salt Lick. Chicken, beef brisket, pork spare ribs, and two sides. Cooking all night, for service tomorrow.
The chefs form three teams -- Sarah, Ed, Ty-Lor; Lindsay, Grayson, and Paul; and Beverly and the two Chrises fall together by default. Nobody wants to be with Beverly right now; Lindsay says she's been the downfall of the last two team challenges.
Shopping: Paul notices the other two teams going for cole slaw and baked beans, so he decides to use Asian ingredients -- miso, curry, fish sauce -- that will eventually taste like BBQ. I'm already worried.
They go to The Salt Lick, meet the owner Scott Roberts, and drool all over a huge firepit of smoking meats. Then they drive over to their set up, exact replicas of the pit in the restaurant.
My descriptive skills fail at this point. The Long Dark Night of the Barbecue includes three RVs, hundreds of pounds of protien, a whole lotta live oak, outrage at being told how to cook, fire alarms, lack of common sense, large fire-roasted whole garlic cloves, brisket collapsing into a smoker and extinguishing a fire, and Chris J. talking to beer-can chicken. When the sun comes up, the heat starts to intensify, and everyone is fading.
Tom shows up, asking what everyone's doing. Grayson confirms they're all exhausted, but it'll be worth it because their BBQ is "like sex in the mouth". Ooooookay. Tom tells the chefs that the winning team will get $15,000, which wakes everyone up a bit.
Chris J. extracts the beer cans from the chickens. Lindsay pronounces Paul's Asian BBQ "effin' delicious". Chris C. is worried about the ribs being too salty. Lindsay has trouble with the Brussels sprouts, because the fire's low and they don't have much time.
Sarah is having problems from the heat and smoke. She has hot and cold chills, feels light-headed, and looks awful. A medic from the show's crew calls 911, and Sarah leaves in an ambulance.
Tom tells Ty-Lor and Ed that they're on their own. Ed first wonders if Sarah's okay, is she dead, what? And then he says he would've pushed through it. Dude, you were both in the same heat and smoke, and you didn't physically collapse, and she did. You want a cookie? Jeez. Maybe it's just because I've been mostly (mostly) cured of displays of macho, but I'm a little tired of what-I-would-have-done riffs.
Blue Team (Grayson, Lindsay, Paul) -- Asian spare rib, chicken & brisket; charred Brussels sprouts & okra; watermelon salad. Lots of people, including the judges, love the meat. The watermelon salad also goes over well. But the Brussels sprouts are undercooked.
White Team (Beverly, Chris J., Chris C.) -- beer can chicken, dry rubbed and smoked brisket, Dr. Pepper glazed pork ribs. Chicken is very moist, but not much barbecue flavor. The beans aren't cooked, and the ribs are indeed too salty. Brisket is chewy, but the cole slaw is great.
Sarah comes back -- her BP and heart rate came down, and she thinks she's gonna be okay. There is tension between her and Ed -- he thinks he and Ty-Lor were going faster without her. After the food is served to the judges, Sarah starts overheating again and sits down. Ed says she showed up just long enough to plate her food and then leave again.
Red Team (Sarah, Ty-Lor, Ed) -- Texas chicken, KC style pork ribs, smoked brisket, poppy seed cole slaw, pinto beans. Chicken is tender and flavorful. Ribs taste very good, but are a bit chewy. The smoked brisket is also really good. Nathan says that the best BBQ places slice to order for a reason; I suspect extenuating circumstances (i.e., Sarah going to hospital, Ed and Ty-Lor having to basically hack the meat into edible portions quckly) will not help their case in the judging, but we'll see. More tension between Sarah and Ed.
Judges' Table: Blue Team wins -- everything was cooked right and tasted great.
Sarah's chicken was grilled, not really barbecued. Gail says Ty-Lor's ribs were overseasoned, oversalted. The orange mint in the cole slaw actually started to ferment. I was right -- Sarah's absence doesn't excuse the not-to-order slicing of the brisket.
Beverly's cole slaw was good, but not spectacular. Gail wishes it was less traditional. Chris J.'s beer can chicken was... grilled chicken. Chris C. did the spice rub and Dr. Pepper sauce; Tom says the ribs were so salty they were inedible. Beverly's beans were undercooked.
Tom wishes Ty-Lor didn't have immunity, because he'd be sent home. Sarah's chicken was better than Chris J.'s, but not by much. Any of them besides Ty-Lor could go home.
Chris C. does.
On Last Chance Kitchen: Chris C. vs. Nyesha. Challenge -- a blast from the past: cook with ingredients from a gas station. Go watch it, it's fun.
Next week: RESTAURANT WARS! And, from the preview, it looks as if both teams choke like crazy.
Thoughts?
This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1475932.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this time.