EPISODE 4
If you missed the July 4th episode, you missed nothing because there was no new episode. Tonight the Guest Judge is Jamie Walker from Bombay Sapphire Gin. The Quickfire is to create a dish that pairs up with a randomly selected cocktail. those selections are by drawing knives. There is 30 minutes allotted for creating, cooking and plating. What I find unusual here is that the editors only show about half the contestants darwing knives and about half presenting their dishes and having them evaluated. They were:
Joey - sea scallops and risotto to pair with roasted pineapple and vanilla martini
Howie - scallops and salad to pair with chili martini
Hung - salmon and sauce to pair with raspberry mint martini
CJ - caramelized watermelon and soup with ?
Dale - seasoned foie gras to pair with a lemon blanc?
Tre - Seared halibut to pair with sapphire sherry
Casey - baguette and foie gras with ?
The losers are Joey and Hung. Hung is getting predicatable. Whenever a Guest Judge criticizes anything about one of his Quickfire Creations, he immediately responds on camera that the Guest Judge just doesn't "get" his concept. Hung has obviously not read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and this tactic will catch up with him eventually in this competition.
The winners are Dale, Tre and Casey, with Casey being selected as the overall winner with immunity for the Elimination Challenge. This immediately becomes a problem when that is a competition of 4 teams of 3.
The Elimination Challenge is to use a trio of the same ingredients as one course of four at a special meal at Barton G's for 10 local Miami Chaines des Rotisseurs. Teams go through some redistribution. Howie and Joey are not pleased to end up with Casey who has elimination and they feel will be unmotivated to go for a team victory. Ingredient shopping bduget is $150 per team to feed 14 people; 30 minutes is allowed for shopping. The choices of ingredient are:
Hung, Brian, Lia - they go for Scallops initially but find them insufficient in either supply or price at the market and have to switch to Pink Shrimp
Howie, Joey, Casey - they plan on Duck but at the market they have to switch to Tuna
CJ, Tre, Sara N. - Beef with Truffles
Camille, Dale, Sara M. - Pineapple; Dale pretty much forces them to do a dessert for the last course even though this is risky with limited dessert experience for all of them.
During the cooking,Team 2 soy sauce becomes an issue twice. Howie apparently used too much, leaving Casey with not enough to properly season her dish. Tom comes by and comments to Howie that he is asking for trouble with the amount if soy in his dish.
Team 4's Sara had huge problems with a powder gel on her dish; she had to switch to what she called a semi-fredo, but that was not accepted by Tom as such.
The dishes were:
Trio of Shrimp- with Key West peach; olive oil poached with salad; with corn pudding
Trio of Tuna- tartare; served coriander crusted; cilantro salad and confit
Trio of Filet Mignon and Truffles - carpaccio with vianaigrette; butter braised tenderloin; black pepper braised tenderloin
Trio of Pineapple - upside down cake with ginger sabayon; tart; semifredo with blueberry sauce;
At Judges Table, there is an easy decision that Team 1 was the Winner. The individual winner was much more difficult, but it went to Lia. She was invited to the Hamptons to be a Guest chef for a charity event.
Losers Group was between Tuna and Dessert(Pineapple). Ted said that Team 4 and specifically Dale had jumped on a big sword by choosing pineapple. Dale defended himself by stating that dessert was a serious risk but that chefs have to take risks. Tom criticized the effort to try new techniques for the first time, such as the powder gel. He then criticized Howie and Joey for allowing Casey's very poor tasting dish to go out without tasting it; if they had they would have tried to fix it. Casey admitted that she had known with 1 hour to go that there was a taste issue but she had lost sight of it by the end and forgotten to do anything about it. She almost got to the point of giving up her immunity to prevent Howie or Joey from going home as a result of her screw-up.
When all the Losers Group feedback is evaluated by me, I think Camille and Sara of the Dessert team are in trouble. I predict Camille will be going home. The final decision is prefaced by "Pastry teams chose to do something they did not know how to do. Dale started it and it was a bad idea." However, Camille is the one to go home. Dale says he feels responsible for her elimination.
