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Top Chef: Just Desserts
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The random choice (name out of a hat) approach might have worked if those earlier eliminated chefs were nearby in sequesterville. However, i think what the producers did was the fairest, to take the individual who had progressed farthest and bring them back.
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TC-JD1, ep. 5
The Guest Judge was Sherry Yard, Executive Pastry Chef for the Wolfgang Puck restaurants and a James Beard award winner. The Quickfire was to create a soufflé in 1 hour. The chefs used a variety of ingredients in their souffles, including lemon, fig and herbs, but several did garden variety chocolate souffles. Zac went against the grain with a frozen soufflé that didn't quite reach the level he desired.
Here are the souffles presented:
Danielle - Lemon & Lavender Soufflé with Blueberry Ginger Compote & Honey Ice Cream
Eric - Fig Soufflé with Brandy
Erika - Lemon-Basil Soufflé with White Chocolate Raspberry Sauce
Heather C. – Chocolate Souffle
Heather H. - Chocolate Raspberry Soufflé, Grand Marnier & Godiva Cream
Morgan – Gianduja Soufflé with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream & Raspberry Coulis
Yigit – Chocolate Soufflé with Passion Fruit & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Zac - Apple Crisp Soufflé Glacé
The 3 worst souffles were Erika, Heather H. and Zac. The 3 best were Morgan, Yigit and Danielle. The winner was Yigit due to excellent flavor and a significant rise.
Elimination Challenge
This task was to design an Edible Outfit based on a provided pair of high-heeled women’s high fashion shoes plus Two Couture Petits Fours accessories in 8 hours in the kitchen plus 2 hours setup. The competitors drew a number to determine which pair of shoes they received. $200 was provided to shop for 30 minutes at Albertsons (no doubt a new sponsor or maybe I missed it). Each competitor was given a mannequin or fashion model form to mold their ingredients to. With 3 hours left Johnny Iuzzini came to announce a “twist,” but it really wasn’t. The winner would get $20,000 cash. Heather C.’s turnips dried up overnight and had to be replaced with other ingredients. Eric had difficulty with his molding chocolate not sticking to his form. As the room was first available to the competitors, someone said that “it looked like a fashion show” because the audience looked like real fashion people. Why not, given the task? Heather C. needed help at the end and Morgan, who was done, gave her what little that time allowed. Zac stated that the many petits fours were not designed for a single bite experience and larger ones were not really petits fours. The judges clearly knew that too, as you will hear later.
The Edible Outfit titles were:
Ericka – Business woman to Fashionista
Zac – Burlesque Warrior
Eric – Flirty Homemaker
Heather C. – Vegetable Dress
Yigit – Ice Warrior Princess
Morgan – Little Black Dress and Clutch
Heather H. – Chocolate Dress
Danielle – Vegetable Dress
The petits fours creations presented were:
Danielle – Red Velvet Whoopie Pie "Purse", Roasted Banana Ice Cream Bonbon "Watch"
Eric - Cherry Cheesecake "Pendant" & Chocolate Cake & Banana “Clutch"
Erika - Raspberry Jelly & Pistachio Mousse "Earrings", Lemon Milk Chocolate Ganache & Apricot Jam "Purse"
Heather C. - Chocolate Caramel "Clutch" with Maldon Sea Salt Chambord Fleur De Lys "Hair Pin”
Heather H. - Lemon Curd Macaron "Purse", Almond Cake with Raspberry Cream & Passion Fruit Caviar "Brooch"
Morgan – Spiced Raspberry "Ruby Ring" Bonbon, Red Hot Cinnamon Macaron "Earring"
Yigit – Olive Oil & Citrus Cake "Brooch"; Raspberry & Pinot Noir Ice Cream "Hair Pin"
Zac – Chocolate Passion Fruit and Lemongrass Pasties, coconut/black tea and pineapple “Makeup Kit”
Judges’ comments during the eating phase were:
Ericka – petits fours too big but Gail liked it
Zac - Johnny said ganache had sandy texture; Sherry said crunch was really good
Eric - Danielle the judge did not like it
Heather C. – caramel was OK but could have used more salt
Morgan – red hot macarons interesting
Heather H. – had macarons too spicy
Danielle – too sweet, not enough acidity
Yigit – dress works really well, looks great, but flavors somewhat flat
Winners’Group was:
Yigit - delivered chocolate in a spectacular way
Morgan - had an amazing creative, technical, and flavor success.
Zac – looked like a woman staying up all night dancing
Morgan won the $20,000 from Dawn Hand Extender.
The Losers’ Group was:
Heather C. – no evidence of pastry chef effort, lacked technique
Eric – dress looked horrible, petits fours too big
Danielle – no evidence of pastry chef effort (vegetables too easy), petits fours too big; accessories did not go with the dress
Both of the women were criticized for essentially limiting their efforts to "slicing and stringing vegetables" when a technically challenging sweet dish was obviously desired. Heather C. was eliminated from TC-JD for the second time and “last time.”
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TC-JD1, ep. 6
The Guest Judge was Michael Laiskonis, executive pastry chef of Le Bernardin (Eric Ripert’s world-class fish restaurant in New York City). The Quickfire was to incorporate a savory element into a dessert dish in one hour using only one pot and no blenders, mixers or ice cream machines. Since Zac wanted a sorbet, he had to use Liquid Nitrogen, which he had never tried before. The dishes presented were:
Danielle - Avocado w/ Candied Tomatoes, Basil Anglaise, Caramelized Corn
Eric - Couscous w/ Milk, Apricot, Fig Compote, Prosciutto
Ericka – Blue Cheese Milk Chocolate Soup
Heather H. - Sour Cream Corn Custard w/ Roasted Beet Berry Compote, Mascarpone Cream
Morgan – Sweet Potato Risotto w/ Golden Beet Sorbet +Ginger Infused Carrots
Yigit – Chocolate Cremeux w/ Bacon & Caramelized Foie Gras
Zac – Steamed Beet Cake w/ Sweet Goat Cheese Cream + Lemon Thyme Gremolata
The Losers’ group was Danielle, Eric and heather H. The Winner’s Group was Morgan, Yigit and Zac. Zac won immunity for the Elimination Challenge, but Gail offered him $1000 to give up that immunity and compete in a regular manner. He rejected that but accepted $5000, a much more appropriate sum for the risk involved, from Dawn Hand Extender.
Elimination Challenge
This was to create a dessert incorporating black and white colors and no others. The chefs had 30 minutes and $200 to shop for ingredients for 200 desserts at Albertsons. Then they had 4 hours to cook and 1 hour to set up. The event they were catering was a reception for the 128th anniversary of the Los Angeles Times.
The dishes presented were:
Danielle - Lemongrass + Ginger Truffle, Peppercorn Meringue, Chocolate Sandwich Cookie
Eric - Mississippi Mud Cake w/ Earl Grey Whipped Cream, Hot Fudge Sauce
Ericka – Lemon Poppy Seed Ice Cream w/ White Chocolate Pavè, Blackberry Crème Brûlè
Heather H. - Spicy Chocolate Gingerbread Torte w/ Frozen Crème Anglaise, Blackberry Compote
Morgan – Chocolate Date Cake, Banana Anise Cream, Coffee Kahlua Jelly
Yigit – Chocolate Cake w/ White Chocolate Mousse, Berry Compote, Almond Milk Ice Cream
Zac – Deep Fried Whoopie Pie w/ Passion Fruit Cream & Asian Pear infused w/ guanabana
Comments from the judges while eating were:
Ericka – her ice cream has a soapy flavor; she had too much non-black/white color
Yigit – a lot happening on that plate but individual components sound and it worked
Zac- really sweet; passion fruit flavor has not come through
Morgan – anise banana did a nice job of preventing it from too sweetness
Heather H. – gingerbread was not but she disregarded Johnny’s advice about red color from pomegranate and cranberry bleeding
Eric – his plating skills were clearly improved
Danielle – her dish looked like petits fours only; didn’t really meet “black and white only” requirement
The Judges Table comments were based on calling in the 3 women first. They were informed they had the least favorite black-and-white desserts. Individual comments were:
Heather H.– gingerbread flavor was really good but you did not attempt to meet the challenge of no other colors; it was harvesty
Ericka – ice cream didn’t taste right; blackberry flavors claimed were missing; no lemon taste
Danielle - 3 components didn’t go well together; did you eat your 1/2/3 in order and force diners to eat them the best way
The Winners’ Group was the four men. Commentary on their desserts was:
Zac – Whoopie Pie on Vacation fun and tasty; beautiful and creamy with great flavor; ice cream held up against the chocolate
Morgan – structural columns, cubes and blocks really interesting as a construction project and taste was delicious
Yigit – technically complex and great skill demonstrated
Eric – layering of textures great and organization of the layers masterful
Yigit got his first Elimination Challenge win.
Final comments on the Losers’ Group were:
Ericka – one of your star components was bad; ice cream unappealing and flat; you forgot about flavor in an effort to overthink what you are doing.
Danielle – this is not the first time you are here; judges had a lot of issues with your dessert
Heather H. – you did not do the challenge but sabotaged yourself by fixing on what you wanted to do regardless of the challenge; not interesting to eat or inventive to look at
Ericka was eliminated because “her dessert did not measure up. The soapy taste to Ericka’s poppy seed ice cream was the main reason for her elimination. She had performed very well in early episodes, but had been slipping lately
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TC-JD1, ep. 7
We start this episode with half the original competitors remaining. Morgan, Zac, Yigit, Heather H., Danielle and Eric are left. I think the Final 3 will be Morgan, Yigit and Zac and I cannot predict which of them will prevail.
The Guest Judge is Nancy Silverton, pastry chef/co-owner of restaurant Campanile, baker/owner of LaBrea Bakery and owner of Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza, all in the Los Angeles area. The Quickfire is that Top chef classic, the Mis-en-place Relay Race, with these segments:
1. fill 12 heart shaped pastry shells, with the top neat
2. place 8 rose petal shaped pastry globs on a tray
3. whip egg whites to a consistency where when turned upside down the bowl will not release them
4. roll dough out to cover an entire countertop, fill it with cut and sugared apples, then close the result into a wreath of apple strudel
Teams are supposedly the result of a random draw that comes out with Team Diva Heather, Yigit and Zac as the RED team vs. Morgan, Danielle and Eric as the Black team. The pairings for each segment of the race were:
1. Heather vs. Danielle – Danielle achieved a large lead
2. Eric vs. Yigit – Yigit brought it back to near parity
3. Morgan vs. Zac – Morgan had a 4 second lead
4. Teams – RED team worked steadily while BLACK team had holes in their dough which had to be repaired; RED won
Gail had announced that there would be no more immunity for the remainder of TC-JD1 but there was a $3000 each prize for the RED team.
ELIMINATION CHALLENGE
The RED and BLACK teams stayed together for this competition, the equivalent of regular Top Chef Restaurant Wars. Each team got half of an empty bakery retail space with several waited tables each and was allowed to bake 3 items per person, one of which would be bread, for choice by a stream of customers. The Black team chose a name of Whisk Me Away for their space while RED chose Pastry Playland. They chose décor first and then the menu. The RED team did the opposite, which to me was a sounder approach. Teams then had the usual time and money at Albertson’s for ingredient shopping. They then had 2 hours to bake/create. RED had Yigit as Front-of-House (FOH), with Zac floating and Heather in the kitchen. Black chose Danielle as Front-of-House, with Eric with the customers and Morgan in the kitchen. The menus were:
RED – Heather H.
Frozen Key Lime Bar
Milk Chocolate Pudding Cup
Lemon Cream Tart
Yigit
Fraisier with Raspberry, Strawberry & Hibiscus Gelée
Chocolate Tart with Peanuts & Caramel
Margarita Sorbet
Zac
Caramel corn with bacon
Fennel Seed & Kalamata Brioche with White Truffle Butter
Donut with Wild Blueberry Jam, Lemon Verbena Milkshake
BLACK-Danielle
Ginger Ale Float with Raspberry & Tangerine Lime Sorbets
Pistachio Shortcake with Lemon Cream & Strawberries
Coffee Cream Pie with Hazelnut Brittle
Eric
Vanilla Malted Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Banana Loaf with Brown Butter Tangerine Icing
Morgan
Fried Lemon Pie & Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Pretzel Stick with Mustard
Chocolate Mousse Cake with a Crème Brûlée Center
Teams had 5 hours to prep and then 2 hours to finish cooking and setup in their retail space. Heather decided not to put the dough through a machine because she didn’t like the results; she hand rolled it for all 3 of her team instead, a major undertaking that may have left her short of time to do well on her own specific items.
A few observations were made by the judges (Nancy Silverton, Hubert Keller, Johnny Iuzzini and Gail Simmons) as they entered the retail space. The display case that was prominent for each team was almost empty for RED. Danielle as FOH was fairly laid back and low energy, while Yigit was high energy. Zac joined Yigit in the front of the house while Eric was a roving ambassador talking to customers. This left negative Morgan, who had a bad day during the prep, and Heather H. in the kitchen. Morgan did get into a verbal altercation that almost came to blows by accusing Yigit of stealing two bags of lemons. Yigit parried that by pointing out that they lemons were in a box and he did not appreciate being accused. Heather was feeling the stress when Zac did something that caused her to tell him to shut up. They reached an impasse on this and moved on. After the judges came through, both teams received a number of “special requests” that appeared to be set up to test each teams’ ability to handle them, which was polite and determined to fill them (even at the expense in Morgan’s case of delaying finishing items slated to be sent to the judges. He responded to criticism of this by stating “I don’t care if the judges are coming. We need to beat Team Diva. I don’t work at the NO factory.”
Comments made by the judges during the eating phase:
Zac - doughnuts were no excellent fried food; lemon verbena milkshake was bland and flat; fennel brioche was tasty
Yigit - tart crust (note - from dough made by Heather) ruined an otherwise fine dish; margarita sorbet was elegant and refined; fraisier lacked the punch of strawberry
Heather - suffered from her own thick tart dough; lemon tart looked good but flavors and textures inferior; key lime bar had obvious finger prints and lack of key lime flavor; pudding just OK
Eric - chocolate chip cookies classic and tasty; classic stacked cake; malted milk balls had interesting flavor and texture; banana loaf concept better than its execution as Imean bananas, brown butter were not in the correct proportions
Danielle - pistachio shortcake was cool, tasty, delicate and served in an interesting way; coffee cream pie was sweet with insufficient coffee to have helped balance that sweetness; float refreshing and light with good flavors and unusual combination of sorbets
Morgan - pretzel OK but too much butter on outside; classic cake awesome, great texture of the mousse, flavorful, brulee center showed skill; fried pie OK with the lemon flavor really registering
The judges quizzed the pastry chefs/bakers of each team, with these observations:
Décor – the décor for Whisk Me Away was particularly appealing
Display case (vitrine) – this was nearly full for Whisk Me Away and almost empty for Pastry Playland
Front of House – Yigit got high marks; Danielle too laid back and low energy; she said that matched the food but Johnny told her that high energy service is always appropriate
Eric’s food – cookie nice, cream rich, banana loaf problems
Morgan’s food – highly sophisticated and wide ranging, particularly the cake
Danielle – there wasn’t enough coffee flavor present to offset the inherent sweetness of the dish
Yigit – pastry filling was great but dough was awful (Heather acknowledged that this was her work); great sorbet; fraisier so-so
Zac – doughnuts and brioche great; milkshake uninteresting
Heather – fingerprints were visible on key lime dish; also its key lime flavor was not enough to offset the chocolate flavor
The winning team was Whisk Me Away and each of them got $10,000. Pastry Playland’s defeat meant that one of Team Diva was going home. With the comments, it was obviously not going to be Zac and almost for sure not Yigit.
There were some additional comments at Judges’ Table with only Playful Playland present:
Zac – verbena milkshake bland; caramel corn inconsistent
Heather – lemon bar unpleasant and dough was a disaster
Yigit – pastry dough for tart bad (Heather’s responsibility); fraisier fell short
The final judgment was that Zac and Yigit made their mistakes, but the least skill was shown by Heather, who was eliminated.
The winning team was BLACK and each of them got $10,000. RED’s defeat meant that one of Team Diva was going home. With the comments, it was obviously not going to be Zac and almost for sure not Yigit. Heather H. was eliminated.
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TC-JD1, ep.8
The Guest Judge for this episode was Shimkin Li, an expert in design, art and baking. There are 5 chefs remaining. The Quickfire was to create an edible bouquet of flowers. The idea was to test artistry, not flavors. The cooking time was 3 hours. The winner would get no immunity but would get $5000.
The concepts presented were:
Zac – a chocolate arrangement on a bud vase
Danielle – fresh fruit to resemble flowers
Eric- a large white cake on a brioche mold, with edible flowers on top
Yigit – originally a glass vase, but his first try broke because of fragility and his second was inadvertently destroyed by Morgan; intricate leaves in edible bouquet
Morgan- bouquet of chocolate flowers, an opportunity to showcase pulled sugar technique
The dishes were:
Morgan- chocolate flowers w/ edible pulled sugar bow
Danielle – candied orange zest, sugar cookies, marshmallow hydrangeas
Yigit – tropical roses and leaves made of tempered cocoa butter + Luster Dust
Zac – chocolate disco flowers and leaves
Eric – giant cupcake with gum paste and butter cream flowers
Shimkin rated the 3 worst as Eric (base called for larger structure), Zac (piping) and Danielle (back of structure not finished and contrasting textures taken too far). She rated Morgan and Yigit as best. Morgan won the $5000.
The Elimination Challenge was to cater a tea party for 60 people invited by Dana Cowin, Food & Wine editor-in-chief with the theme of Celebri-tea. It was to use a celebrity couple as the inspiration for a dessert served at a tea party. Two different desserts were to be created to each mirror a concept of one half of the couple. 100 portions must be prepared, with $300 and 30 minutes to shop at Albertson’s. The judges were Johnny Iuzzini, Danielle Kyrillos, Gail, Shimkin and Dana. The celebrity couples chosen were:
Danielle – Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter
Zac – Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards
Morgan – Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian
Yigit – Madonna and Guy Ritchie
Eric – Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham
The initial concepts were:
Danielle – Strawberry Oatmeal cookie w/ jalapeno
Zac – Spoonful of Sugar + pink
Morgan – citrus cake
Yigit – contrasting chocolates
Eric – brownie ganache
3 of the 5 chefs were using chocolate in their dishes, but Zac and Danielle had no chocolate planned for theirs. On arrival back in the Top Chef kitchen, Johnny Iuzzini came to throw them a huge twist. The bins normally overflowing with chocolate were marked “Temporarily Out of Stock” and he told the chefs to proceed without using any chocolate in their recipes.
Eric’s final dishes were:
Oprah – rosemary shortbread w/ apricot compote
Stedman – Pecan Shortbread w/ Caramel
Judges’ comments while eating were Oprah dessert messy and compote delicious.
Zac’s dishes were:
Julie -Pink Pavlova w/ Grapefruit Curd + Meringue, Mascarpone Cheesecake w/ Cap'N Crunch & Tarragon Sugar
Blake - Pink Pavlova w/ Grapefruit Curd & Meringue
Judges’ comments while eating were amazing and perfect.
Danielle’s dishes were:
Conan – Strawberry Jalapeňo Cake
Andy – Oatmeal Cookie with Buttercream + Orange Blossom Water
Judges’ comments while eating were leavening problem with cake due to wrong proportions, good range of flavors between cookie and icing.
Morgan’s dishes were:
Reggie – Almond Sponge w/ Apricot Coulis + Citrus Buttercream
Kim – Bittersweet Citrus Macaron
Judges comments while eating were macaron not one bite, but almond flavor amazing.
Yigit’s dishes were:
Madonna – Citrus Yogurt Cake w/ Baked Honey Flan, Brown Butter Sable w/ Dulce de Leche + Calvados Gelée
Guy – Brown Butter Sable w/ Dulce de Leche + Calvados Gelée
Judges comments while eating were bland, needs heat, great flavor, very sweet.
The Winners’ Group was Danielle, Zac and Morgan. Zac won the Elimination Challenge.
The Losers’ Group was Yigit and Eric. Both of them had great difficulty in refocusing from their original chocolate-based concepts to alternatives. Their end products both were substandard compared to anything they had done previously. The judges expressed great disappointment in the final products of Yigit and Eric. Eric was criticized for his shortbreads being of different thickness when he recommended placing one on top of the other. This was attributed to his baking skills not being used in this episode. Yigit was credited for attempting the concept (which they said Eric did not). However, Danielle Kyrillos ripped him apart for not knowing that Madonna does 3 hours of workouts every day and having a sloppy presentation that does not match Madonna’s tight body. I found this particular critique absurd, as I had no idea that Madonna does that and how would someone who spends most of their day in a pastry operation know petty details even of celebrities they admire. Danielle Kyrillos needs to get real! Johnny criticized Yigit for having a bland and boring honey mousse. That’s appropriate criticism.
The summary provided by Johnny was that Eric’s shortbreads were not appropriate for a tea party and Yigit’s desserts being substandard. Eric was eliminated by Gail’s admonition to “Please pack your tools and go.” Yigit stayed alive in this competition because his desserts were more creative, more elaborate, had more layers of flavor and he was more innovative in terms of the celebrity story. Eric stated that the Just Desserts competition had transformed him from a baker into a chef.
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