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apskip:
6 CHEFS COMPETE

We are left with Sharone, Lee, David, Mike, Whitney and Sheetal as the final 6. The Mystery box challenge will cut one of them. The ingredients are:
Venison
Blueberries
Bacon
Red Cabbage
Fingerling Potatoes
Brussels Sprouts
Red wine
Beet root
Quail Eggs

Graham indicated that the choices for using quail eggs are difficult: braising, searing, tartare. However, you have to do them precisely to avoid problems. The judges wouldl taste only the top 3 dishes based on their observations of technique in creation and the probability that the dish will succeed.

Sheetal produced a venison that came out  from pan searing relatively early and rested for a long time, which Ramsay identified as a key factor in who will succeed the balance of cooking time vs. resting time for optimal development of flavor and juices. On it was a red wine reduction sauce and accompanying it were creamed Brussels sprouts. Ramsay said it was chosen for one of the 3 because the venison looked like it was cooked perfectly.

The competition for him was Sharone and Whitney. Whitney had pan-seared venison with a berry sauce. Sharone had perfectly cooked his venison on teh bone, which got him into the group of 3 judged. However, he had very strange globs of things smeared all over his pale, so the on-venison part of his plate was scored at close to 0.  Ramsay said that Whitney's looked beautiful. In her first top result, Sheetal won this test and received choice of the key ingredients for the next cooking challenge, the Invention Test. The theme was desserts and the choice was between a range of honey products, a range of berries (straw, rasp, huckle, goose, etc.) and a range of vanilla products. She chose vanilla. that is the key ingredient all cooked with, but this challenge involved anything in the pantry. They had one hour to cook, except that Sheetal had 15 minutes more. All would be tested  and the lowest rated dish would send its creator home. Dishes presented were:

David - creme brulee (Ramsay told him after it was too late that he had chosen the most difficult way to cook it - oven with a water bath) with vanilla  orange mango coulis
Sheetal - plan was for vanilla sponge cake with vanilla custard, but her sponge cake did not bake thoroughly so she had an abbreviated dish that was clearly not acceptable
Sharone - it was supposed to be a Napoleon with 3 different types of nuts; actual was listed as a Mille-Feuille with zabaglione
Whitney - profiterole with Senegalese vanilla in Chantilly cream and flambeed bananas
Lee - Bourbon pan perdu (old dried bread) with vanilla
Mike - Poached Pear trifle w/ vanilla scented brandy

Comments on these were:
Mike- short on flavor (Ramsay); question "are there raw eggs in it?" (3 times from Joe) before Mike sheepishly admitted there were. Joe refused to even taste it.
Lee - this is dried bread (Joe)
Whitney, Sharone, David - "your dishes are stunning and you are safe"
Mike, Lee, Sheetal - "your dishes are inferior; one of you is going home right now"

The odd man out was Mike, who was severely criticized for running around the kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off.. Lee got a reprieve form a poor performance only because of Mike's raw egg component. Sheetal had wasted the advantage of her picking the key ingredient and getting 15 minutes more cooking time.

The next challenge was probably the best ever. This panel of judges was brought in for the battle of the final 5:

Jeffrey Steingarten, food editor, Vogue magazine
Tanya Steel. Editor, www.epicurious .com
Barbara Fairchild - Editor-in-chief, Bon Appetit

This was billed by Ramsay as a heavyweight panel of judges and indeed it is. The aspiring chefs recognized the the judges had previously tasted a better version of anything they could create.

I loved the next part, the chefs going on a fishing boat to catch their primary protein, which turned out based on where they were fishing was guaranteed to be a California sculpin or scorpion fish. It had poisonous tentacles on the outside, so they had to be careful in handling them. Cooking and judging were at the Ritz-Carlton. The dishes were:

Lee -sculpin in its own braising broth supplemented by carrots, shallots and fennel
Whitney - pan-seared culpin Italian style w/ tomato sauce
Sharone - sculpin liver and grilled sculpin w fennel
David - Sculpin cooked like lobster w/ yellow pepper, a touch of saffrom
Sheetal - Sculpin in sauce w/ cauliflower

None of the chefs got any significant feedback from the judges, but they did get some questions. Whitney was asked what type of tomatoes she used, with the implicit question of why they were not fresh (she had used canned and it was obvious to Jeffrey). There was also judges commentary to just themselves about too much garlic in her dish. Sharone was given the opportunity to describe his dish and he took what may have been dozens of minutes describing how he got to where he is before a very brief description of his dish(I hope he lost points for doing that). Jeffrey told Tanya and Barbara that Sharone's liver component of the dish tasted bad. He also encouraged Tanya and Barbara to try monkfish liver, which he claimed is the "foie gras of the sea."

The few comments the judges made among themselves indicated that there was no common ground in their thinking on the chefs. However, the process of totaling points will average that out. Each judge could give out up to 12 points, with 4 maximum to any chef. The results were:

David 11.5 ( almost perfect)
Lee 8
Whitney 5
Sharone 4
Sheetal between 5 and 8

This put David, Lee and Sheetal into the Final 4 and left Sharone to face-off with Whitney for the final spot. What will the deciding Pressure Test be? The judges made it as hard as possible, the most fiendishly difficult dessert to make: souffle, with each chef able to submit just one but create as many as they liked in 90 minutes.. As Ramsay said, you have to tinker with the components and test them out to see how they rise and hold that rise after 14 minutes of optimal baking. The edge here had to be with Whitney, the budding pastry chef (only Tracy appeared in the same level of affinity for baking desserts). Joe said that souffles are a combination of technical skill and nerves to let the right moment happen. It was quite a contrast in styles between Whitney and Sharone. he did as recommended and tested out a few as a learning experience before reaching 15 minutes left and having to go with his final 2 Chocolate Souflees with sea salt. Whitney had ignored the please of Ramsay to try something and learn first and she was rigidly focused on getting the ratios of ingredients as perfect as possible. With slightly more than 15 minutes left, she put hers in to bake. The Souflees with Orange Zest came out looking perfect but Ramsay warned her to powder sugar it and serve it so it did not fall within the next 90 seconds where that could happen. Sharone's came out looking good also. The judges sampled each and decided. Whitney was in fact perfect and Sharone's needed a few more minutes cooking time. So Sharone went home and Whitney to the final 4.
  

TexasLady:
Thanks apskip, another excellent recap! I haven't been able to watch as much of this as I'd like so it's helpful to read about this episode. Desserts always seem to separate the best from the ordinary.

joetraff:

--- Quote from: apskip on August 25, 2010, 03:37:43 PM ---14 CHEFS COMPETE

There was a competition to test creativity. All cooks were given the identical ingredients:

tomatoes
lemon
pork chop
cabbage
cream
parsley
bread
apples
cognac
cinnamon
chocolate

Whitney wins this and her reward is to pick a single ingredient from Chinese mushrooms, mandarin oranges and duck as a mandatory one for all to use. Whitney gets to pick for 5 minutes from the ingredient bins while all the others have only half that time. All dishes are supposed to be Chinese. Almost everyone used chicken and stir-fried, so the range of dishes is quite low.

Mike won this cookoff.

There was a competition to reduce the group from 14 to 12. Sheena and Avis were cut at this point.

Finally, there is a real competition involving food preparation for an entire meal. The remaining group of 12 was assembled to visit a Marine base near San Diego.  Mike was asked by Ramsay to pick a team of 6, so he chose Jake, Lee, Tony, Tracy and Sheetal . The other team was defined by who was left but included Whitney, Slim, Sharone, Faruq,  and Sharone who assumed leadership of this team. They had to pick a menu to feed about 400 Marines and their families, size out the quantities of ingredients involved, prep theose ingredients, have the finished food ready for serving and in most cases even serve it. Mike's team appeared to be losing to Jenna's teamon better menu and food quality but a critical mistake by Faruq in running out of potatoes and in running out of vegetables due to not prepping enough was made and Sharone's team lost to Mike's.  That gave Mike's team exemption from the "guess those ingredients" challenge, a favorite of Ramsay's over the entire run of Hell's Kitchen for good reason.  Excellent palate skills are extremely important for master chefs.

The product being tasted was Texas-style chili. The cooks went a bit further than normally happens in Hell's Kitchen, so I believe it is not a super-challenging one. Someone managed to guess the palate skills of the 6 competitors in fairly reverse order, so that the following contestant would win against his following contestant and could be released to the viewing platform where the other team already was.

First up was Whitney and she was phenomenal. She guessed onions, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, Jalapeno peppers, garlic, cilantro, oil, beans, beef salt and beef stock correctly for a total of 12 before making an error with chili powder.

Faruq got 9 including parsley. That released Whitney.

Jenna got 7. That released Faruq.

Slim got 8.

David got 8 including salt.

Sharone got 8, including cumin which released Slim, David and Sharone and eliminated Jenna.  

--- End quote ---
Your sharing is much appreciated.
Please keep us posted.

apskip:
SEMI-FINALS and FINALS

The first hour of this episode was the two competitions between Sheetal and David and between Whitney and Lee. The second hour was the final battle between the two winners of the above. The general belief was that if there was a dessert course (out of 3 courses) involved then Whitney the Pastry Princess would be able to beat anyone else as she would win that course plus one of the other two. We'll see if this logic hold up.

David vs. Sheetal
The judges invited the families of Sheetal and David to enter and ascend to the observation platform. The requested dishes, one from each judge and judged exclusively by him for the semi-finals were:

Joe Bastianich - veal Milanese the classic way it's made by Joe's mother
Graham Elliot Bowles - a perfect American apple pie
Gordon Ramsay - the perfect chowder (Sheetal complains that is too big an advantage for a New England chef, but is told there are no limits on what type of chowder)

The chefs had 2 hours to create, cook and plate; both worked on the pie first. David's crust was not working right, so he elected to jettison that approach and jam the crust into circular ramekins placing on top 11 slices of apple, and then cook his apple pie.

Sheetal's chowder used some lime juice and the shells of shrimp in the base. Sheetal used the concept of pounding the veal  thin then pan frying it. David took a risk and did his in the oven. Ramsay stated that it did not look like a chop and did not appear to be finished.

Ramsay was exhorting both to taste their food and then there was 20 minutes left. He told them timing is everything, obviously good advice but sometimes hard to determine what is good timing and what is not.

There was long conversation on David's controversial approach, but in the final analysis it's what on the plate that should matter.

For the pie, Sheetal used only Granny Smith apples. Graham praised hers beautiful, unadorned and simple. David had made not an apple pie but more like an apple cupcake.  Its only virtue was the crumble on top. Sheetal blew him away on this course.

Sheetal stuck with the classic method of pan frying veal Milanese. David started there but he finished in the oven. Joe judged and found David's superior. He won that course and the place in the finals and now went up to the observation deck.

Whitney vs. Lee
This one is going to be a fascinating battle. Whitney has gained the reputation of unbeatable on desserts even though she can be and has been beaten on other courses in the entire competition. The door opened and, among others, Lee's aged mother had been brought over from Israel to watch him compete. He is thrilled that his mother is there and at the end asked if she could taste his food that he is so proud of.

The judges reveal the courses for this battle:
Eggs Benedict
Chicken Parmesan
Cheesecake (automatic edge to Whitney)

Lee planned to use vanilla, rhubarb and butter in his cheesecake. Whitney was taking a huge risk by doing hers in the refrigerator on a No-Bake concept, with blackberries around the outside and graham cracker caramel topping.

For the eggs Benedict Whitney was planning on using Southern-style grit cakes rather than classic English muffin and adding Andouille sausage for more Southern style. Whitney had a malfunction an broke her egg at thew wrong time, necessitating a do-over. She has a swirl of hot water going and it took only 15 seconds to cook.  She barely got it sauced and plated.

The final judgment was that the grit cakes made that dish too heavy. Lee won that course.

Whitney easily won the chicken Parmesan course. The cheesecake will decide the outcome. Will Whitney's gamble pay off? As always, Whitney takes it the the wire in plating. Ramsay stated that both taste superb, but the winner is Whitney, who will next face David Miller in the finals.

David vs. Whitney
The finals are similar but not identical in concept as the chefs get to choose their own dishes for each of 3 courses.  David is viewed as taking abnormal risks in an effort to give himself maximum motivation. Whitney is younger but with a great talent for desserts and technical cooking. She will take risks but probably lesser ones. He tends to play to the audience while she is more controlled.  The first course will be :

David - Scallops Ceviche w/ pea puree
Whitney - Crispy corn Cake w/ shrimp, black-eyed pea puree w/ shrimp sauce

The second course will be:
David - Beef Wellington  w/ pulverized chanterelles (note- the judges were offended at how David took a fine ingredient and turned it into a pedestrian one)
Whitney - Buttermilk breast of chicken w/ creamed collard and turnip greens

The third course was:
David - Nectarine crepes suzettes
Whitney - White chocolate bread pudding w/ raspberry coulis and white chocolate sauce (note - midstream, Whitney had changed course and apparently went to a souffle concept but had not been able to deliver that so used a broken souflee for her bread pudding base

The judges kept their thoughts to themselves after providing some feedback to the chefs. David was questioned on his use of a the pea puree in what Ramsay considered to be an additional course rather than a complementary part of the appetizer course. The judges commented among themselves how sacraligious his handling of the chanterelle mushrooms was.Whitney was questioned on his diversion from her original plan to use most of a souflee concept.

The judges went out to meet the audience, but put the chefs on a special circular pedestal. They announced that the first master chef winner was Whitney. It was obviously very close. I think David lost it not on flavors but on attitude as exemplified by his clowning around with the audience. Ramsay and the judges had to ask him to cut it out and be as focused and concentrated as Whitney was.

So that's the end of Master Chef season 1. It was interesting to see what can be done with top-notch amateurs vs. the professionals seen in Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen. It looked like the best of the best amateurs could compete readily in Hell's Kitchen. I enjoyed it and will watch the next season when it appears.

TexasLady:
Thank you apskip for your excellent recap. It was an interesting concept and the contestants proved that an amateur can cook on a high level even with all the added pressure.  I hope the series returns.

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