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Top Chef Season 3
apskip:
There seems to be little interest in Top chef 3 commentary, but I will give this another week before I throw in the towel due to talking to myself.
EPISODE 5
Guest Judge is Maria Frumkin, owner/chef of French Bakery Cafe and Duo Restaurant.
Quickfire is to use Frozen Pie Crust in 90 minutes.
Hung makes a mousse of chocolate cream with bananas and spicy peanuts. When it is runny, he uses strawberries as a moat.
Joey does a trio of tarts: berry; roasted mango; warm apple compote
Lia does pork tenderloin plus aged gruyere salad
Howie does peach tart tatin with black pepper
Tre does fennel apple tart tatin
Dale does spinach and salmon en croute plus strawberry, pear and saffron tart
CJ does duck lollipop and duck tart
Brian does 4 tarts: vegetarian; seafood; chorizo; fruit with grand marnier
Sara M. does braised swiss chard and rabbit stew plus goat cheese, feta and fig tart
Casey and Sara N. are not mentioned.
Losers bracket is Lia, Dale(he is really surprised), and Hung(this time he keeps his mouth shut when criticized).
Winners bracket is Joey, Tre and Sara M. Immunity goes to Joey, who had the best flavors.
The Elimination Challenge is to cater a Latin Lunch for the cast and crew (20 people including the judges) on Star Island for Telemundo Telenovella "Dame Chocolate".
Contestants have $125 and 30 minutes to shop and 3 hours the next day to cook. Serving will be at the site buffet-style out of chafing dishes. Tom Colicchio comes in at the start of cooking time to throw in a pre-planned monkey wrench designed to test the nerves of the contestants - the lunch has been moved up by 1.5 hours and they now only have 1.5 hours to cook. Panic ensues and everyone starts moving in a much higher gear. Hung nearly whirls into Casey with a large knife. Tom talks to Howie about his pork(does Howie do anything else?) and tells the camera that if he were presented with this challenge he would switch from braising to roasting, which Howie is not doing. Dishes chosen were:
Joey - black bean stew with shrimp, lobster, chicken and chorizo
Lia - smoked rainbow trout plus polenta cakes
Howie - braised pork
Casey - mole-style coffe molasses sauce over chicken and rice; while cooking the rice she allowed it to boil over and she knew it was overcooked
Sara N. - avacado, shrimp, scallop ceviche
Hung - arroz con pollo
Dale - grilled poblano
Sara N. - Chilles rellenos
CJ - skirt steak, black beans, jicama
Tre - prawns with coconut sauce
Brian - don't know
At Judges Table Lia was criticized for not following a Latin theme. Also it was noted that her polenta was left on most plates.
Casey's overcooked rice was noted.
Joey's dish and Howie's excellent flavors were both singled out for praise. They end up in the Winner's Group. Howie wins a bottle of Argentinian wine form Frumkin and gives to to Joey, who stated that they would share it together that evening.
Loser's round composed of Lia and Casey was no surprise, but Hung was shocked to be there and Sara N. was the fourth. Casey's coffe flavor was judged as not Latin and tasting like cough syrup and her chicken was dry. Sara's fault was that the inclusion of scallops made in not a real ceviche. Note that Hung and Lia were double losers, so one of them was going to go home. I was rooting for this to be Hung, whose rice was dry and underseasoned, who was not safe with his knives, and who has been arrogant throughout, but he got lucky. Lia's failure to do Latin food and her poor polenta plus no doubt her poor Quickfire made her the eliminated contestant. Casey was upset because Lia and Casey had become close friends.
TexasLady:
--- Quote from: apskip on July 19, 2007, 08:17:14 AM ---There seems to be little interest in Top chef 3 commentary, but I will give this another week before I throw in the towel due to talking to myself.
--- End quote ---
Oh please don't stop. I'm reading!! I couldn't watch last night so I want to read your synopsis. You do a great job with the, I appreciate your perspective.
:-*
ETA: See? Read 355 times! You are being read, we just don't post and say anything.
TexasLady:
I watched this afternoon. Thanks for the great commentary. I was wondering if Howie knows how to make anything else other than pork myself. Hasn't he done this for every competition?
About Hung, from the first he has been arrogant, but he seemed to be so talented that he was in my top tier of chefs. He has steadily gone down and if he didn't cheat in the competition, with the oven being cooled down, it seemed to be pretty close.
Who would you rate as the top 3 most likely to be in the final competitions? I'm thinking Tre, Howie and possibly Joey.
apskip:
I would agree with Howie, Tre and Joey as the final three based on what we have seen to date. They have the most consistency in creating and executing good flavor dishes. Hung has been poorly rated for the past several weeks in a row, so it's clear that his self-image is unjustifed by his cooking performance. The women (Casey, Sara N., Sara M.) have all been in trouble recently and none has been a consistent high performer. The other men (CJ, Brian, Dale) and Hung have each had their turn in the sunshine, but none has done so more than once; any of them could stage a comeback.
TexasLady:
Hung has been a disappointment, he is arrogant and that has come to the judges attention and not in a good way. Marcel and Stephan have their character flaws, but both are excellent chefs, Hung seemed to heading down that path but he isn't up to their caliber but he thinks he is. Maybe if he calms down and concentrates, he can show us how good he really is.
None of the women have made much of an impression on me but we still have time to see if they can shine.
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