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Top Chef Season 3

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apskip:
EPISODE 6 starting with 10 contestants

Guest Judge is Rocco Dispirito, who shows up on Bertoli commercials during the show.

Quickfire is really interesting. It is a Culinary Bee. Items are presented to each contestant in turn. They have to look, taste, or touch it to identify the item. They have a nominal 5 seconds (really more like 10 seconds) to decide, but whatever they first say is their answer. The first round eliminates all but Howie, Brian, Hung and Casey. Hung goes out on 2nd round, Brian goes out on 4th round. Howie last to the 5th round but eggplant does him in. Casey wins by identifying roasted red bell pepper. She gets immunity for the Elimination Challenge.

The Elimination Challenge is comceptually simple but could prove difficult in execution. Bertoli frozen meal in the bag that are cookable in 10 minutes are the target. Create the equivalent Mediterranean dish by buying ingredients, cooking for 2 hours, then assembling for 1 hour, then heating at a remote location for 10 minutes. 15 meals are to be prepared and most will be offered as takeaway meals(although the contestants don't know this) after shoppers sample them. Knives are drawn to get 5 two-person teams:
Dale/Casey
Joey/Hung
Sarah M./Dale
Tre/CJ
Sara N./Brian

Dale/Casey choose meatballs as their protein, orechiette as their pasta, and add pesto and artichokes.
Joey/Hung go with tri-colored fusilli(Hung wanted penne), chicken, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.
Sara M./Howie elect shrimp with a pasta sauce created from scratch by that master of Italian cuisine Howie.
Sara N./Brian do chicken with rigatoni, olives and peppers.
Tre/CJ do chicken, black truffles and linguini.

At the final 2 minutes, Casey/Dale had time available and helped Sara N./Brian finish on time.
The prep was marked by dissention between Joey and Hung. Hung wanted to do a number of things, including Individual Quick Freezing, that would have led to an improved dish. Joey just ignored him because, as another master of Italian cuisine no upstart was going to teach him anything. The result was a dish that had mushy pasta because the sauce was absorbed into the pasta before freezing.
Similar dissention happened between Sara M. and Howie. Sara doesn't work very hard or fast and Howie had little respect for her efforts, so he pretty much ignored her.
The only team that did use the IQF technique was Tre/CJ, who explained that the one hour assembly time gave them the opportunity to do so by allowing time to unfreeze.
Casey/Dale sold their boxes first. Sara N./Brian were a close second.
Hung/Joey and Howie/Sara M. were the teams clearly in trouble. My fearless prediction at this point was that Sara M. would go home.

Padma noted during the serving period that Howie/Sara M. had two large blocks of not-unfrozen stuff in their cooker.

The competition for best was between Dale/Casey and Tre/CJ. CJ noted that he had not won anything yet. That changed tonight as Tre/CJ were the winners of an expenses paid trip for 2 each to Italy (coutesy of Bertoli).
Brian/Sara N. were noted to have a good dish.
The losers bracket was between Hung/Joey and Howie/Sara M. as both had terrible flavors for their dishes. Rocco referred to both as "depressingly bad."
Hung tried defended himself in a way that clearly marked Joey as a jerk. Tom was not happy about that.
Howie was asked why fusilli when Sara said she had wanted a different pasta but deferred for the first of many times to Howie. Howie answered that it had a shape that catches sauce.
Tom asked Sara what she contributed. She said she wanted a mirapois and tomato paste added. Howie said her real contributions were fennel. Tom's summary was that Sara's contributions were practically nonexistent.
Padma said that neither team could sell free food.
Joey was identified as difficult and bull-headed.

The big moment came and I was pretty sure from the editing that it would be Sara to go as she had the biggest negatives and no positives while tom's summary comments about Joey were mild. However, the decision surprised me as it was Joey selected to go home. He was very emotional on departure.

 

 

TexasLady:
Thanks again for another excellent recap!  :tup:

I was surprised at their decision, I thought it would be Sara, they even went to her before Padma announced the decision. She has never impressed me and Joey has done well in the past.

apskip:
EPISODE 7

Guest Judge is Govind Armstrong, a chef/owner of the Table8 restaurants in Miami and Los Angeles and author of the book "Small Knives, Big Nights."

An ice cream cart is on display to start the Quickfire, which is to create in 45 minutes a new flavor of ice cream. Govind cautions the contestants to "Keep it Simple." Based on what happens, he forgot to add the Stupid to the end.

As has become the editors' practice, only 4 out of 9 were shown here. Dale had flambeed peach with pecans and a topping. Howie had marinated mixed berries. Both of them were in the winners circle. Dale wins and discovers later that he gets a bye on the Elimination Challenge plus a meal at Table8 with Govind.

Casey had siracha sauce and poblano, a very strange set of ingredients. Hung had 7 different flavors in his. Govind found both to have violated his "simple" rule and classified them as Worst.

The producers of TopChef3, who I believe are Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, pull a nasty stunt next. They fake the entire group of contestants except for Dale into believing they are going to Miami Beach in the limo to have a night of downtime. When they arrive who do they find but Padma and Govind waiting for them. The Elimination Challenge starts immediately with most of the contestants dressed for a night out. This was definitely not appreciated. Knives are drawn for two teams:

Orange is CJ, Casey, Sara N. and Howie
Black is Tre, Hung, Sara M. and Brian

Teams have 15 minutes to plan, 30 minutes and $300 to shop, then 1.5 hours to cook before their mobile kitchen unit starts serving late night bar food at 146am. Menus are chosen as follows:

Orange Menu
Cuban Pork Sandwich with Plaintain Chips
Beef Sliders with Caramelized Onions
Quesadillas with Salsa
Spicy Ceviche Taco with Shrimp and Scallops
Milkshakes
Cafe con Leche

Black Menu
Teriyaki chicken Wings
Onion Rings
Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
Cheese Grits
Oysters on the Half Shell
Ceviche

CJ made the claim that he was a professional volleyball player for 3 years and that it ought to be possible to get similar teanwork among chef contestants. However, his team had an ongoing feud between Howie and Sara N. that he did nothing to solve and Casey appeared to stick her head in the sand about it. The end result was that Sara N. ignored advice from Howie that putting ice cubes in milkshakes was a terrible idea and complaints from Howie that her productivity on beef sliders was too low to allow them to keep up with the notoriously fickle late night bar crowd demand. In addition, both dishes had serious flavor issues. Casey had excellent flavor on the quesadillas.

The Black team had higher producitivity and better overall flavors and they won the competition. Tre was the winner of the Elimination Challenge with his cheese grits and bacon-wrapped shrimp. He won the above-mentioned book.

The Orange team was the losers. Casey and Sara N. both complained about being forced to compete in going-out attire.  The judges had some nasty comments for each of its members. Sara's burgers had insufficient salt. CJ failed to lead. Casey stayed in the corner and let others deal with the conflict when she might have been able to help solve the grill productivity problem if she had exposed herself to what was going on more. Howie was responsible for a lack of communication not just with Sara N. but with everyone who has been on a team with him. Sara claimed a personality conflict with Howie.

Tom summarized the situation by saying that both of Howie and Sara N. could not remain and the choice had to go to the one least endowed with skills for future tests. That was clearly Sara, who was eliminated.  

apskip:
EPISODE 8
Guest chef is acclaimed French chef/owner Daniel Boulud, who was written the book "Letters to a Chef" in addition to running multiple restaurants in the U.S.
Quickfire is to be inspired by the Red Robin Adventuresome Buger menu and create a burger recipe that is worthy of being on it. Contestants have 30 minutes.
Burger creations are:

Howie - black truffle with taleggio cheese
Sara M. - crab with citrus remoulade, orange and endive salad
Casey - patty melt with port-salut cheese and onions (she tried to be very basic)
Hung - shrimp with tempura flakes and shiitake bacon
Brian - shrimp, scallops, sea bass with sweet chili glaze
Tre - Surf and Turf Ciabatta Burger with horseradish sour cream
Dale - tuna and asparagus with fried egg, using soy aioli
CJ - scallop mousse and shrimp with tangerine

Losers are Sara and Tre.
Winners are Howie, CJ, Dale, and Hung. CJ is chosen as the best. However, Padma had announced before the quickfire that there would be no immunity for the entire reminder of the competition. Despite that, she tells CJ that he will get a valuable advantage. The Elimination Challenge will involve teams of 4 and he gets to pick his own team. He picks Tre, Brian and Casey (probably the best 3 available). That leaves Sara, Hung, Howie, and Dale for the other team.

Elimination Challenge - Restaurant War
Teams have 24 hours to get a new restaurant started from bare wood(they do have the kitchen equipment in place). They have to name their restaurants and state a concept. They have to choose a General Manager/Front of House, Head Chef, and 2 Sous Chefs. They have to choose decor and spend $2500 in 45 minutes to obtain it, then install whatever is needed. They have to train a wait staff that will arrive slightly before the diners. They have to plan a menu, order food for 30 diners with $700 at Fresh Market, and cook it to impress the judges.

CJ's team chooses Restaurant April and concept New American Contemporary. They elect Brian as GM, Tre as Head Chef and that leaves Casey and CJ as Sous Chefs. Their menu is:

Oyster with granita as amuse bouche
Corn and truffle custard with seared sea scallop
Grouper and shellfish with artichoke hearts
Wild Mushroom Gorgonzola with Crusted Beef Tenderloin and Smoked Potatoes
Mango lemongrass and sake sorbet
Apple tart tatin with brandy sauce and creme anglaise

The other team chooses The Garage and concept Contemporary American Bistro(sound about the same?). Dale has the most out front experience so he appoints himself GM. Sara appoints herself Head Chef, no doubt wanting it to not go to Howie. That leaves Hung and Howie as Sous Chefs. their menu is:

Tuna Tartare with egg vinaigrette
Wild mushroom risotto with foie gras and black truffles
Braised Lamb Shank with Potatoes
Crepe with dark chocolate and Grand Marnier sauce

Judges Table opened with the revelation that there was a secret blogger who attended both restaurants and who feedback was going to be important in addition to the judges. Decor went to Restaurant April, who had light airy choices(mostly thank you to Casey). Dale had chosen black tablecloths and walls and heavily scented candles for the tables. Those decisions were heavily criticized. On service, Brian had totally failed to perform for the first half of the meal. He asked for help and Casey was dispatched to help him out front, which calmed things down. Dale's service was OK. Food was generally unremarkable except for 3 dishes:

Hung's Tuna Tartare got rave reviews.
Tre's smoked potatoes were rated as "inedible". Tre admitted that the smoker got away from him.
Howie's risotto "tasted like mac and cheese" as he had added to the arborio rice. Howie said that he does a version of risotto different from anyone else's and does not depend solely on the creaminess coming from cooking the rice.

Sara was criticized for the heaviness of 2 of the dishes on the Garage menu. She and Howie defended those choices, but you could tell that the Judges did not agree with their judgment.

Neither team won, but I thought they would select Hung as the individual winner. He actually deserved it.
The loser's group was a fake-out. They called back Dale and Brian but they told them they were not being fired.
The entire 24 hour competition was going to be redone to get a more definitive result.
I think this was a predmeditated stunt by the producers. The reason I say that is that Daniel Boulud had 8 copies of his book ready for all contestants. Traditionally the Guest Judge only brings something for the one Winner.

apskip:
I just discovered that Anthony Bourdain, host of one of my favorite travel/food shows, is blogging for TopChef 3. He has a few pithy things to say about some of the remaining contestants. He thinks, as I do, that Hung was robbed of a deserved victory in Episode 7. He also predicts that Hung is the chef to beat, which I don't. He has nice things to say about CJ and Casey from Episode 6. He really rips into Tre for his menu item of Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Smoked Potatoes, indicating that is is wrong conceptually in several different ways and then poorly executed. He thinks Sara M. did a poor Head Chef job in allowing the menu choices that she did.

However, the main commentary is reserved for Howie's risotto after knocking the fundamental decision to use cream and cheese when none is called for:
 You shouldn't put cream in risotto, says Tom Collichio (correctly, BTW) but here, too, Howie Knows Best. He has come to learn, he suggests, since "becoming an executive chef" that risotto is better with cream. It's not. Of course, observant viewers and horrified Italians could CLEARLY see that Howie's risotto was sitting up like day old spackle. And while dumping on Howie, I should point out that anytime you see a cook loading up something as potentially simple and beautiful as risotto with too many "money" ingredients like black truffles AND foie gras AND wild mushrooms, you're seeing an insecure cook, temporarily bereft of ideas. Howie's dish was unimaginative (he's done risotto before), over-killed with the garnishes (pick one, numbnuts), completely inappropriate to the climate, location, season and the progression of the rest of the meal. It was also badly executed. His "defense" of eating heavy braised and stewed dishes out of season (cause he likes to) --particularly considering WHO he was talking to -- bordered on the unhinged.

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