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Top Chef Chicago Season 4
apskip:
For next week teams have to clean and chop a slab of beef, according to TV Guide.
TexasLady:
--- Quote from: apskip on May 22, 2008, 03:09:08 PM ---For next week teams have to clean and chop a slab of beef, according to TV Guide.
--- End quote ---
This ought to be instructive, we'll find out who can and who can't properly cut beef.
About Lisa, if she ever watched previous seasons and I doubt she has, she'd be a little more open to working with her fellow chefs. The final two always need someone to help prepare their finale dishes. If by some miracle that I don't see happening, no one would want to help her. (I recall that Stephan and Dave got drunk the night before they helped Stephanie.)
Butterscotch on anything doesn't appeal to me. :ascared
apskip:
Texas Lady, I am not positive but I believe you meant to say "Stephen and Dave were not interesting in helping Tiffani", the Top Chef 1 runner-up.
apskip:
Episode 12 with 5 Chefs Remaining(Antonia, Richard, and Stephanie from the "A" team and Spike and Lisa from the "B" team based on past performance)
Allen Brothers is a meat purveyor. The Quickfire starts with butchering meat for 20 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of cooking it. Guest Judge is Rick Tramonto, owner of Tramonto's Steak and Seafood restaurant as well as others. When the cooked meat was sliced for judging, his request of medium rare meat was met in my opinion by this:
Richard - I observe rare meat, Rick says inconsistent and undercooked
Spike - I observe rare meat, Rick applauds his superb butchering skill and his very good cooking of the meat
Antonia - I observe rare meat, Rick calls it perfect cooking
Lisa - I observe rare meat, no significant comment from Rick
Stephanie - I observe rare meat, Rick says butchering not good enough and undercooked
The winner is Spike who gets an advantage in the Elimination Challenge.
Elimination Challenge
This is a cookoff in Tramonto's Steak and Seafood where the 60 people reserved for that evening are going to be cooked by the Top Chefs (plus Lisa and Spike). There is one appetizer and one entree from each to go on the menu, created using only ingredients available in that kitchen(which is top of the line and probably not lacking for anything important) and cooking for 3 hours. Padma says that 3 special diners will join Gail, Rick, Tom and herself in evaluating those creations. The table where all those were at ordered tasting menus for all 6 of them(Tom was in the kitchen as the expeditor and got his own separately). This threw off the chefs, as 1/3 size portions had to be developed on short notice. I wonder if the Top Chefs really lasted the whole night until all 60 diners were done or whether they gave back control of the kitchen to its normal staff after the special table was served. Spike's advantage was to pick the 2 proteins exclusively for himself for both the appetizer and entree. He picked the tomahawk chops from the butchering and scallops, which were frozen. My wife said right at this point that this would be trouble for Spike since the last time he had that advantage he screwed it up. We'll see if it happens again.
The 3 special diners are introduced to the current Top Chefs. They are the winners of TC1, TC2, and TC3, Harold, Ilan and Hung. The menu looks good all the way around so this episode is going to be about execution:
Antonia - wild mushroom and artichoke salad w/ poached egg and bacon vinaigrette ; bone-in Rib-Eye Steak w potatoes gratin, shallots, roasted fennel, cipollini
Richard - Hamachi strips w nuggets of sweetbreads, radish, avocado, Yuzu; Beef Filet w/ potato puree, turnips, pickled Brussels sprouts and red wine
Stephanie -Sweetbreads, pine nuts, golden raisins, fennel; Beef Tenderloin, wild mushrooms, apple sauce
Spike - seared Scallops w/ hearts of palm and oyster mushrooms; tomahawk Chop w/ sweet potato puree, warm cipollini and Brussels sprouts
Lisa - grilled and chilled Shrimp, lemon zest and tomato on a crostini; New York Strip Steak w/ apple caramel sauce, peanut butter mushed potato
The judges find Antonia's appetizer lacking, but they love her steak. Richard's Hamachi is judged spectacular but his beef filet just average. Stephanie got high marks for both her dishes. Spike's scallops killed him with the judges; the unfreezing of them and the inherent non-uniformity of those scallops had led the other chefs to the conclusion that Spike made a big mistake in not turning them back once he saw the low quality of this ingredient. Tom was unhappy with Spike's tomahawk chop being too simple and Spike not doing much to improve it. Lisa's shrimp recipe was not effective cold. Peanut butter mashed potatoes was a questionable choice from the beginning.
At Judges Table, the comments were:
Antonia - no comment on app; a perfect steak
Richard - appetizier according to Gail "the single best dish of the evening"; his steak was undercooked
Stephanie - the sweetbreads app was great; the entree was very good
Spike - choice of scallops was terrible, dooming that dish to failure; his entree was really good
Lisa - cold shrimp should have been warm; Tom gives her a lecture on cooking meat evenly top and bottom
So, where does that leave us? Stephanie wins again(Richard's sharing of his victory and prize weeks ago seems to have energized her). Richard is "safe" and going to Puerto Rico for having the best appetizer. Antonia is "safe" and going because of her best entree.
Losers' table will be a battle between Lisa and Spike. For those of you that read my recaps, it will be no surprise that both of them are low-rated by me. I like Spike as a person better and hope that he gets to go to Puerto Rico with the Final 4. Spike was killed not just by the scallops but also by his relatively minimal effort put into the entree(possibly because he had to constantly drain the scallops before they were pan-ready, he didn't have much time for this). Lisa has a bad appetizer, but not as bad as Spike. She was criticized for putting all her effort in developing flavors but little into technique. Tom contends that more effort on technique is the best way to get better flavors. If you remember what my wife said above, it will be no surprise that Spike bites the dust. The only problem I now have with this is that Lisa thinks she deserves to be in Puerto Rico, which in my opinion she does not. Given her competition, it wil not take long for her elimination once there.
TexasLady:
--- Quote from: apskip on May 29, 2008, 08:20:23 AM ---Texas Lady, I am not positive but I believe you meant to say "Stephen and Dave were not interesting in helping Tiffani", the Top Chef 1 runner-up.
--- End quote ---
You're right. :tup: Thanks for the correction. :js:
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