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Top Chef Masters
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The Champions Round has begun, with the first competitions between Hubert Keller, Anita Lo, Suzanne Tracht, Art Smith, Rick Bayless and Michael Chiarello. It was interesting to see the same camaraderie develop as from the chefs in each preliminary round. Art Smith says that he has been in the restaurant business directly for only 1.5 years while his competitors have been in it for decades. First was a Quickfire challenge, a relay race to complete 4 common kitchen tasks. Knives were drawn to determine the teams, which were Art/Michael/Suzanne vs. Hubert/Rick/Anita (note- when you have finished reading this post come back here and look at how the individuals on these teams fared in the elimination challenge; it's instructive). Teams were given 1 minute to decide who would do which task. Tom Colicchio, who you know as producer has been hovering throughout, was brought in to judge this.
The first task was to open 15 oysters, Suzanne vs. Hubert. It as close, with Suzanne finishing ahead.
The second task was to dice 4 large onions, Art vs. Hubert. Art kept the lead he started with.
Third was to cut up 5 chickens, Michael vs. Anita. Anita blitzed this and opened a big lead going into the final task.
The 4th task was to whip egg whites to a firmness that allows the bowl to be turned upside down for 5 seconds and not drip anything down. That requires excellent separation of the whites from the yolks first. Rick was quick and he brought the challenge victory to his team. For doing 2 tasks Hubert earned an advantage for the elimination challenge. The outcome was that the members of the winning team get 5 points each and the losers get 4 points each.
Moving right along, the master chefs are each asked to cook their own signature dishes for a friendly meal with the others. Anyone who has ever seen regular Top Chef knows what is coming. Somehow this will tie into the Elimination challenge although it is not clear exactly how. Those signature dishes are:
Hubert Keller- Lobster and truffle cappuccino with corn madeleine
Anita Lo - Seared sea scallops with potato puree and bacon, sea urchin and mustard greens
Rick Bayless - Rack of lamb and black pasilla chile with mission figs
Art Smith - Seared grouper with hearts of palm, trumpet mushrooms, and meyer lemon
Michael Chiarello - Fennel blasamic quail with mostrocotto mostrada, sauteed greens, and roasted apples
Suzanne Tracht - Chopped sirloin with green peppercorn sauce and fried egg
So these chefs cook these dishes and all enjoy eating them. Kelly Choi arrives, so they know something is up. She tells them that the Elimination Challenge is to improve on a dish of their colleagues, which if you think about it is pretty cheeky since these dishes have been developed decades ago and refined continuously. The guest judging will be by "incredibly influential" individuals. The normal regular judges are there.
Hubert's advantage is to pick the dish he wants to "improve." It is Anita's, so she gets to "improve" Hubert's dish. Knives are drawn and Rick gets Michael and vice-versa. Suzanne gets Art and vice-versa. The first task is 45 minutes and $300 to shop for ingredients at Whole Foods. The next morning cooking is for 2 hours. Then 13 plates of each dish are served. It will be to an illustrious group, one eliminated chef from each of the preliminary rounds:
Elizabeth Faulkner - who has comments selected for airing on just about every dish
Ludo Lefevbre
Michael Cimarusti
Christopher Lee
Mark Peel
Rick Moonen
You know that Kelly Choi got the 10th plate and Ttom Colicchio probably the 11th, but who got the other 2? This will have to be one of the mysteries of life.
The "improved" dishes are:
Hubert Keller - Seared scallop with cream of sea urchin over fingerling mashed potatoes.
Anita Lo - Corn chawanmushi, champagne gelee and lobster biscuit sandwich (she mockingly refers to it as "soup and sandwich")
Rick Bayless - Quail with parsnip and proscuitto stuffing over wild greens, cooked with pancetta
Art Smith - Ground lamb scotch egg, sweet potato fries, and tomato tart
Michael Chiarello - Rack of lamb stuffed with fig mostrada chick peas and fried rosemary
Suzanne Tracht - Roast grouper with gnocchi, peas, bacon, and parsnips.
Art is concerned about cooking the egg properly. Suzanne is understandably concerned that grouper is so touchy that it must be cooked perfectly to taste right. When it is served, the guest judges have a lot of criticism about the grouper being overcooked, possibly due to Suzanne finishing early.
Jay asks Michael if he cared more about what Rick Bayless thought than the critics thought. Michael agreed that it was how he thought about this. Art reiterated his fears about the egg. Throughout all of this Suzanne appeared remarkably low-key, even more that usual for her.
The final ratings(C for Chefs, O for James, R for Jay, and G for Gael) were:
Art - C 3 O2.5 R 2.5 G 3 Subtotal 11 Total 15
Anita - C 4.5 O 4.5 R 5 G 5 Subtotal 19 Total 24
Hubert -C 4 O 4 R 4.5 G 4 Subtotal 16.5 Total 21.5
Rick - C 4.5 O 5 R 4.5 G 4 Subtotal 18 Total 23
Michael -C 3 O 3.5 R 4 G 4 Subtotal 14.5 Total 18.5
Suzanne - C 3 O 2.5 R 2.5 G 2.5 Subtotal total 14.5
Anita has teh highest composite score, so Anita's charity SHARE gets another $10,000. Suzanne loses and is eliminated. She is told to "pack her knives and go." She has her regrets about not taking her time. She stated she would come back tomorrow and do the same dish - with another fish.
This is top-notch entertainment. Watching these chefs cook anything is a pleasure, with their signature dishes the pinnacle of their achievement. The "improved" versions were interesting even if not really improved. My only regret is that I was not invited to eat each of these fine dishes.
TexasLady:
--- Quote ---Anita - C 4.5 O 4.5 R 5 G 5 Subtotal 19 Total 24
Hubert -C 4 O 4 R 4.5 G 4 Subtotal 16.5 Total 21.5
Rick - C 4.5 O 5 R 4.5 G 4 Subtotal 18 Total 23
--- End quote ---
Final 3 perhaps??
This was a wonderful episode. I agree with you apskip, I wish we all could sample their food.
apskip:
I can't predict this beyond having stated that I hope Rick Bayless wins because I have learned the most by watching his Mexican food /cooking show.
I expected Suzanne Tracht to do very well and she is the first out. I don't think we can conclude that Michael Chiarello and Art Smith are any less worthy than Anita, Rick and Hubert. I think that just like in the Amazing Race the luck of the draw in the final episode will determine the winner, so it could be anyone who gets to the final 3 cookoff in 3 weeks.
TexasLady:
--- Quote from: apskip on July 30, 2009, 11:18:57 AM ---I can't predict this beyond having stated that I hope Rick Bayless wins because I have learned the most by watching his Mexican food /cooking show.
I expected Suzanne Tracht to do very well and she is the first out. I don't think we can conclude that Michael Chiarello and Art Smith are any less worthy than Anita, Rick and Hubert. I think that just like in thet amazing Race the luck of the draw in the final episode will determine the winner, so it could be anyone who gets to the final 3 cookoff in 3 weeks.
--- End quote ---
Finishing too early was her downfall. It occurred to me, they should stagger the star/finish time so that each one can get their food out when it's at its best.
Some of the challenges have been worse than others. Cooking in a dorm room was probably the toughest.
apskip:
It's round 2 of Top chef Masters Champions Rounds. We lost Suzanne Tracht last week. WHO will be next? At the beginning, Anita Lo lets slip that the prior round was 24 hours previous. This is nothing that any serious observer does not already know, but it is the first time I have seen it confirmed by a Top Chef contestant. The remaining master chefs enter the kitchen to note a large pile of French (or Freedom if you want to be arcane) Fries and Hamburgers. They presume correctly that the Quickfire challenge will be about hamburgers. Kelly tells them it's the Ultimate Gourmet Burger challenge to match TC3 Ep. 9. The cheftestants got 30 minutes while the master chefs are given one hour to cook, probably due to vastly higher expectations about their end products. I saw Waygu beef available for the chefs to use.
Here are the approaches taken:
Hubert- has a $5000 foie gras and Kobe beef burger in his restaurant due to pairing with Chateau Petrus 1995 wine, but elects to go with a simpler burger that is a big seller (1000 per day?) in his restaurant
Michael - a 2.5 pound burger that will feed multiple people
Rick- is going Mexican (what a surprise) with a rib-eyed burger with a side of 3 different guacamoles
Anita - cheese soup with burger bits is continuous trouble for her but she knows there is no turning back from what happened to others' scores that did not finish and serve something
Art - going for southern comfort food
The actual dishes are:
Rick - cheese fundido burger w/ 3 different guacamoles on the side
Art - Cornmeal Hoecake Burger w/ Fried Green Tomatillos, Coleslaw
Michael - "Hamburgese Enorme" with Truffle Manchego Potato Chips
Anita - cheddar cheese soup w/ burger bits, ketchup crouton and bacon fried onion rings
Hubert - Beef and Roquefort Cheeseburger with Caramelized Onions and rustic Yukon Gold Potatoes
The diners evaluating these burgers were Spike Mendelssohn (TC4 cheftestant), Morgan Spurlock (creator of the movie "Super Size Me") and Sang Yoon (chef owner of Father's Office which serves a lot of burgers in Santa Monica CA)
The Quickfire scores were:
Hubert 3
Art 3.5
Rick 4
Michael 4
Anita 1.5
Anita was in big trouble with 2.5 points to make up against each of the 2 leaders and 2 points against Art Smith!
Moving on to the Elimination Challenge, it was feeding the friends and family of singer/actress Zooey Deschanel. She is a true Vegan, with no meat, dairy, fish, eggs, glutens or soy allowed. What is left? Vegetables and fruits plus some gluten-free products apparently make up the majority of vegan ingredients. Zooey wants to enjoy something tasty without violating her dietary restrictions. That removes most potential ingredients these master chefs may have wanted to use and means that the dishes will be heavily constrained. Michael states "think of all the things you love to cook... and just say no...It's all about Nos. It's off-putting to say the least." Let's see how they do in this extremely difficult environment.
Here are the dishes the master chefs chose to make. Each one had to select one course of a 5 course meal finishing with desserts. Art volunteered for dessert although he has little expertise in that area. The other chefs were in the order of most refined (Hubert) to boldest (Rick) based on the strength of the resulting flavors. The dishes were:
Hubert Keller - White Gazpacho with Grapes and Vanilla Oil, Timbale of Avocado and Asparagus, Roasted Beet Salad
Anita Lo - Spicy Grilled Eggplant with Lentil Salad and Cashew Sauce
Michael Chairello - Quinoa Pasta with Salsa Verde and Gremolata, Tomatoes, Crispy Basil Leaf
Rick Bayless - Corn Tamales with Chile-Braised Beans, Braised Greens, and Glazed Mushrooms
Art Smith - Strawberry Champagne Soup, Strawberry Rice Ice Cream and Almond Brittle
Art elected to buy rice milk rice cream to make a strawberry variant of it. This drew strong criticism from the permanent judges, particularly James Oseland. He was praised for making almond brittle with no butter, which is very difficult. Anita's use of heavy oil for marinating the eggplant backfired on her, as did her heavy use of one color - brown. She serves the same dish succcessfully in her restaurant Anisa but combined with yoghurt to intensify the flavors. Michael found a gluten-free quinoa to use as the pasta that combined with a heavy tomato presence. Jay tried to nail him for using store-bought pasta, but Michael simply said that it would have been a poor priority for him to make what others make better. He was right and didn't get dinged for that. Rick and Hubert just seemed to roll on.
The Zooey group submitted their ratings below for the dishes (shown next to Z), James is O, Jay is R, and Gael is G:
Art Z 3 O 2.5 R 1.5 G 2 Subtotal 9 Total 12.5 these are awful scores, lowest ever given out on Top Chef Masters
Anita Z 1.5 O 2.5 R 3 G 3.5 Subtotal 11.5 Total 13 she overcame a 2 point Quickfire deficit with dishees rated 2.5 more
Rick Z 3.5 O 3.5 R 4 G 4 Subtotal 15 Total 19 another solid performance by Rick
Michael Z 4.5 O 4 R 4.5 G 5 Subtotal 17.5 Total 22 the winner
Hubert Z 4 O 4 R 3.5 G 4.5 Subtotal 16 Total 19
Michael wins another $10,000 for tthe Ole Foundation and Art Smith has to pack his knives and go home.
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