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Top Chef New York Season 5

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marigold:

Gail Simmons' Blog:

"Gail! Gail!"

If judges were allowed to keep in touch with cheftestants, I would have called Carla as soon as I watched this episode to thank her profusely for her hilarious and much appreciated shout-out! I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the couch when she called my name in her interview after having met Toby Young, the British writer who took my place while I got married. Although I was flattered that she missed me. I was also happy to hear that Toby's arrival prompted a challenge in which our chefs were free to cook without any limitations, serving family-style plates for the judges--and, as it turns out, a table of their fellow chefs--to critique. When I learned the parameters of the challenge, my hope was that the chefs would quit complaining about how they never get the opportunity to cook their own food, and instead turn out a table of great-tasting dishes.

No such luck.

I did feel some relief when a few of the dishes served that evening appeared to be worth eating: creative, appetizing, and appealing. I could almost taste the bright, harmonious flavors in Jamie's winning Seared Scallops with Fennel, Garlic, Oranges & Olives and Stefan's Duck Breast sounded as hearty and savory as the judges claimed it to be. I was thrilled at the description of Ariane's Skate Wing with Pineapple. It was an otherwise classic skate preparation, given an inventive spin with the addition of the caramelized pineapple, which I imagine lent a subtly sweet and tart flavor that melded exceptionally with the nuttiness of the brown butter. I was intrigued by the description of Leah's Seared Rouget Encrusted in Bread, but it seemed as though the judges were divided on its level of success.

What surprised me most was learning that several chefs chose to cook dishes they had made many times before, but which then proceeded to fail miserably. Radhika's Curried Crab Bisque and Melissa's Raw Tuna Tacos are two such examples. Carla's Scallops on top of Risotto with Gremolata appeared simple and relatively uninteresting, but the combination of flavors and ideas could have been excellent had she not made a mess of that overly garlicky Gremolata. She second-guessed herself in making the dish in the first place, even though her instincts told her to cook something vegetarian, and for some reason she was not be able to recover. Eugene, on the other hand, made a dish that truly did go out on a limb and I applaud him for the risk he took in attempting it. The idea of his Two Fish Swimming was dramatic and definitely caught everyone's attention. That said, it is at least the second time he has stretched himself far beyond his own capabilities and presented food which severely missed the mark (the new sushi he devised for my bridal shower comes to mind here). I agree with Tom wholeheartedly in that Eugene allows his enthusiasm for creative cooking to take him to a place where his skill cannot yet go. His dishes may have potential in theory, but they need to be articulated, honed, and fully thought through before they can be served as finished concepts. Perhaps his palate also should be called into question. Across the board, the judges and chefs who ate his dish felt his combination of tomato, basil, and daikon radish was a poor choice.

Eugene and Melissa may have been on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their poor reviews (one dish being dull and uninspired and the other overly complex), but both showed a lack of skill and thoughtfulness in execution. For this, they were both forced to leave. I do believe the challenge gave both of them, as well as the remaining contestants, a taste of what it is like to judge food from the other side of the table. For me, the most interesting part of this episode was witnessing how easy it was for them to criticize their peers' mistakes, how quick they all were to point out the minute details that made each dish sing or fall flat. Only time will tell if any of them are able to embrace the scrutiny and apply it to their own cooking.

Link to the blog: http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/5/blogs/index.php?blog=gail_simmons&article=2009/01/gail_gail#breadcrumbs

apskip:
Recap Top Chef 5 Episode 7
 
The Quickfire started off innocently enough. It was nicknamed the "Diet Dr. Pepper" challenge, no doubt for product placement because this had little to do with Dr. Pepper (except for one chef who had a can visible in the cooking area). It is to create a sweet treat without sugar. Guest Judge is Jean-Christophe Novelli who besides other qualifications is also a walking product placement for BRAVO's new show Chef Academy which is his creation. So the 11 chefs still in this competition scramble to make something worthy. Their choices were:
 
Fabio - granola and oat tart with eggless pastry cream and fresh berries
Jeff - frozen cherry and white fig yoghurt w/baklava spring roll
Eugene - mini blini burger w/ banana lumpias fries
Melissa - baked dessert burrito w/ Greek yoghurt sauce
Radhika - bread pudding w/ sauteed white peach and roasted cashews
Leah - crepe w/ whipped ricotta, strawberries and balsamic reduction
Stefan - sugar-free mousse de chocolate w/ cherries
Hosea - green figs and white peaches, brushed w/honey and balsamic
Ariane - whole wheat crepes w/ caramelized pears and toasted almonds
Jaime - ricotta, mascarpone, peach, nectarine and cherry Napoleon
Carla - baklava w/ chocolate disc and fried bananas
 
The worst dishes as judged byNovelli were Carla, Ariane and Jaime, none of whom is happy to be in this category. Carla's bananas were very bland. Ariane was lacking a twist with her pancake. The best dishes according to Novelli were Radhika, Leah and Jeff. The prize of Elimination Challenge immunity for winning the Quickfire went to Radhika. It was more valuable than most weeks as Tom announced that there would be 2 eliminations to make up for none last time. Padma announced that English food critic Toby Young would be joining the judges for the remainder of the season to replace Gail on her honoeymoon. The few who knew much about him indicated that they could expect harsh criticism from Toby. Eugene is shown in another product placement, for the T-Mobile Sidekick LX advanced cell phone.
 
The Elimination Challenge was quite simple. With 30 minutes to shop with $100, buy the ingredients and then prep 2 hours for a family-style meal for 12. There would be a focus group of foodies who would join the judges, who would taste blind (not knowing whose dish each one was). The chefs drew knives for Team A (cooking first) or Team B (cooking last):
 
Team A - Fabio, Hosea, Jaime, Eugene, Melissa
Team B - Stefan, Jeff, Leah, Ariane, Carla
 
Radhika then got the opportunity to choose which Team she wanted to cook with. She chose  team A, as it did not have Stefan and she does not like working with Stefan. Food by both teams is prepared at the Astor Center and served at Top Chef headquarters. They find out that Team B is the foodie focus group judging their dishes along with Padma, Tom, Jean-Christophe and Toby. What the team B judges did not know at that time was that there was closed circuit TV fed off a hidden camera that allowed (I would even say forced) Team A to watch them at the table and hear their criticisms. Here are the dishes from Team A:
 
Radhika - curried crab bisque w/lemon-scented crab salad (note: Toby made a comment here about the UN weapons inspectors looking in the wrong place when when would have found weapons of mass destruction here; Radhika can hear and see this remark and is mortified)
Hosea - bacon wrapped halibut w/roasted vegetables  in a beurre blanc sauce
Jaime - seared scallops w/ fennel, garlic, oranges and olives
Fabio - rack of lamb w/ cheese ravioli and mushroom sauce (note: Fabio knew he had failed to check them and they were undercooked when plated)
Eugene - crispy red snapper w/ tomato, basil and daikon fettucine
Melissa - ahi tuna crudo tacos (Toby called this cat food)
 
So team B now transitions from foodie focus group to prepare their dishes. After being briefly present at the table for the beginning round B for no food-related reason I can understand, when they return to the kitchen they see the closed-circuit TV hookup set up again in the kitchen and realize that all their remarks about Team A were heard by them and they can expect the same level of criticism by Team A judging their food. The dishes are:
 
Stefan - roasted duck and braised cabbage w/bread dumplings
Jeff - trio tapas (oysters, seared tuna, avocado sorbet and grilled peaches)
Ariane - skate wing w/pineapple and cauliflower puree
Leah -seared rouget encrusted bread w/fried beans in chorizo sauce
Carla - seared scallop on top of risotto w/gremolata topping
 
Tom stated that Team B produced the better group of dishes. The Best 3 were called by dish:
 
Skate
Duck
Scallop
 
The chefs associated with those dishes were Ariane, Stefan, and Jaime. The braised cabbage of Stefan was appreciated by many; he said that southern Germans in Austria would particularly appreciate it. Tom called it perfectly cooked and spot-on. Toby called it quintessentially German. Tom loved Jaime's combination of fennel, orange and olive flavors. Jean-Christophe called it refined and "a lovely recipe." Jean-Christophe summarized Ariane's dish as great. Jaime wins for the first time in elimination challenges.
 
Next we have a very inappropriate violation of the confidentiality of the blind tasting. The losing chefs are called out by NAME and not by DISH. In order to do that the judges had to have access to tapes from hidden camera somewhere. One thing that normally happens but couldn't this time was Tom's visit to to kitchen as the dishes were under preparation. He had to remain at the table for both Team A and for Team B. How could this happen? Why bother to publicize a blind tasting when it really isn't?
 
If you recall from recent episodes the two worst chefs still in are Melissa and Eugene. They are my picks for elimination before anything is known about how they did in this episode. I was not surprised when the worst 3 included both of them plus Carla. Two of those 3 will be eliminated.
 
Melissa said that that her dish was difficult. Tom said that it was not wow, Jean-Christophe was bland and it was overdressed. Toby said the dish stunk (bad odor). For Eugene, Jean-Christophe said that the fish was overcooked. Toby said flavors too mild and lacked punch. Carla said that taking the scallops off her dish would make it perfect. Toby said the gremolata was bad because the garlic overpowered it.
 
The Judges conferred and Toby prefers Eugene to be the one who stays. Tom was upset that Eugene does not honor ingredients. Toby says Carla lacks confidence and without it she will never be a really top chef. Tom's final comments were:
Eugene- wildly creative but can't control it
Melissa-lack of imagination and creativity
Carla - overthought and overworked it
 
The two eliminated chefs were Melissa and Eugene. No surprise there. I have to say that I like Toby Young. He is from the Howard Cosell "tell it like it is" school. You can count on him for honesty, with no sugar coating whatsoever.

marigold:

Next week on Top Chef New York

January 14, 2009

Episode Title:  DOWN ON THE FARM

It's time for the big city chefs to head to the country.

The remaining chef'testants must shop for the freshest of ingredients at Blue Hill Farm and then work with what they have to create a feast for the farm workers themselves.

Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City, serves as guest judge.

marigold:
An interesting article:

Top Chef 5: Conference Call with Melissa Harrison and Eugene Villiatora

Last night on Top Chef 5, both Eugene Villiatora and Melissa Harrison were sent home in a double elimination. New judge Toby Young joined the panel, and sending home two cheftestants reflected the new take-no-prisoners tone he seems to be striking.

Today, we talked with both Melissa and Eugene to get their take on the episode, this new judge, and their feelings about the show possibly being “rigged.”

In general it appears that hearing the real-time negative feedback from the diners as well as Toby Young was a pretty tough pill to swallow. Eugene did comment that he had initially thought the other chefs would use the chance to criticize their competitors to a more strategic end, but it appears they did feel like the criticism came from the diners' actual reactions as opposed to any kind of game play.

Both Melissa and Eugene seem to think that Toby's main contribution to Top Chef 5 is drama, with Melissa saying he was “hired to be harsh.” She hadn't heard of him prior to the show, so couldn't really form an opinion about his qualifications.

Eugene had some faint praise for him, saying the movie about his book (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People) was “all right” and joking that Toby's efforts during judging to keep Eugene in the competition did endear him to the chef a little. Overall, they both still seemed somewhat stung by the very critical comments, and do not appear to be big fans of this new judge.

Melissa also still seemed to be dealing with the harsh criticism from Tom Colicchio that she was suffering from a lack of imagination. She says that her creativity is something that she's known for, so for the judges – especially Tom, whose opinion holds a lot of weight for her – to not see this in her seemed very disheartening. When asked for some examples of the creativity she has to offer, she didn't give specifics, but did say she likes to always focus on “doing something different.”

They were both somewhat happy with their portrayal on the show. Melissa did ruefully joke that she would have liked her portrayal better had she won, but otherwise had no issues. Eugene laughed that he was glad the editors didn't make him look like an “a**hole” saying that role seems to be filled by another cheftestant. He was also glad to be on the show to demonstrate how well a chef who got his education on the job – rather than in culinary school – can do. He thinks the highly corporate world of the food biz is too focused on degrees and so was glad to provide an example of how successful you can be if you “put your head down and bust you're a**.”

Despite those positive elements, the two did seem to have some lingering bitterness towards the show, with Eugene calling it “rigged.” Eugene said he didn't want to say any names, but then noted specifically that since Padma had spit out someone's food (one assumes he means Ariane Duarte's), it seemed like that would be a much worse dish than anything they had served up.

Melissa agreed, saying that spitting out food is the “biggest criticism” a chef can receive and it seems like a greater offense. She seemed to be agreeing with Eugene that Ariane should have been sent home for that. I had forgotten at the time that it had appeared that Tom spit out Melissa's spicy habenero shrimp in the “Today Show” episode, so unfortunately I wasn't able to ask her to clarify what had actually happened if that wasn't the case.

As to their final dishes, they both still feel like there was merit to them, despite the criticism. Eugene clarified that daikon is something that is served warm in Asian cooking, and that if rinsed well, it actually “has no flavor” and so can be more adaptable than maybe some were expecting.

Melissa said the challenge for her was that she was pleased with her dish before sending it out, so it would have been hard for her to make any adjustments to it before getting the feedback. Eugene chimed in that Melissa was in a tough position; since he had gotten flak from the judges for trying to salvage his rice, had she made more of an effort to “save” her dish, who knows, he wondered, what kind of criticism she would have received?

As to their future plans after Top Chef 5, Melissa is going to be sous chef at a new Asian place in Boulder called Happy Noodle House. She says the restaurant management is more “family-esque” than corporate and is happily anticipating the opening at the beginning of February.

Eugene recently developed a menu for a casino restaurant, and interviewed for a spot as head chef at a new establishment at a high-end resort. He couldn't give any details, but folks in Las Vegas should keep an eye out for where this chef lands next.

Link to the article: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/top-chef/top-chef-5-conference-call-wit-25541.aspx

marigold:
From tvguide:

Top Chef's Melissa on the "Harshest Critique of My Career"

Cheftestant Melissa Harrison thought her seafood dish on this week's Top Chef was screaming creativity, but the judges — especially new addition Toby Young — found it to be quite the contrary. Young even went so far as to compare the dish to "cat food." Find out what Melissa thought of her unforgiving critique, Toby Young's one liners and more!

TVGuide.com: Why did you choose fish tacos for this week's challenge?
Melissa Harrison: I wanted to represent myself with a little Latin inspiration, and I thought it would be cute. I was trying to be creative, and apparently, Tom didn't think it was that creative. None of us were really impressed by anyone's dish that day. We tasted each others, and no one was carrying the torch home on that one. I do think Jamie's was the best and she deserved to win. Do I think I deserved to go home? No, but I'm home. But I have learned from my mistake and am really trying to think outside of the box.

TVGuide.com: What was it like watching Toby Young compare your dish to the taste of "cat food"?
Harrison: You kind of just want to punch him in the face, and I'm a really nice person. [Laughs] When he said that, it was like, "Wow dude, I thought you're supposed to be critiquing my food, not coming up with harsh little one-liners. Are you acting, or are you a judge?" It was the harshest critique of my career. I don't think any of us were a fan of Toby Young, but I respect him as a judge. He's a very qualified food critic in England and he did his job — but we all wished Gail was there.

TVGuide.com: How about Colicchio?
Harrison: I really respect Tom. He's a very talented person, and I think out of everyone, he's the most qualified to be judging our food because he's a chef and knows what it's like. But it was hard to hear when he told me he didn't think my dish was creative and original. It's still resonating with me. That's something I had always been proud of, but one day I will show him.

TVGuide.com: What was your experience like as a whole?
Harrison: Extraordinary. I made new friends and got to meet all these amazing chefs who ate my food. Words really can't describe what it's like to be on Top Chef. One moment you think you're going to puke, and the next moment you're fine. It's a constant rollercoaster of emotions. We even got to be rock stars one night when we won the Foo Fighters' challenge. It was just a crazy experience.

TVGuide.com: What's next?
Harrison: I'm opening a new restaurant the beginning of February called Happy Noodle House in Boulder, Colo., so I've been working hard on that and am really excited. It's my second restaurant opening. It's a little easier the second time around but it's not easy ever!

Link: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Chefs-Melissa-1001329.aspx

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