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Top Chef: Just Desserts

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apskip:
TC-JD1, ep. 9 “Ben and Sylvia’s 61st”

The Guest Judge is Francois Payard, owner of Payard Patisserie and Bistro pastry shops worldwide. He once employed Morgan, who was not looking forward to this as he worked in Brazil and met and married a Brazilian woman at that time. The Quickfire is to create 4 chocolates which represent different stages of your life, with 2 hours to create. Those stages were:

Yigit – not stated as not relevant , moving from turkey to America, Buddhism, Golden Moment meeting current partner
Morgan – Culinary School, failed marriage, Top Chef, Golden Moment with son
Danielle – Family vacation in Hawaii, Niece, Baseball with her father, Golden Moment
Zac – Childhood with sister and brother-in-law, Best Friend, “South Pacific”, Golden Moment

The chocolates were:

Yigit – broken (none offered in this empty slot), Milk and dark chocolate ganache w/ apricot pâte de fruit, Coconut milk and chai tea bonbon, Almond praline + caramelized honey ganache
Morgan – Passion fruit + milk chocolate bonbon, bittersweet truffle - Acai rose water jelly on bittersweet ganache, mendiant, Green tea + white chocolate butter ganache
Danielle - Coconut ganache w/ pineapple jam, Milk chocolate w/ roasted banana filling, Milk chocolate w/ caramel corn + peanuts, Almond/marshmallow milk chocolate nougat
Zac – Peanut butter + wild blueberry milk chocolate bonbon, Rolled truffle w/ green tea + lemon, White chocolate w/ lemongrass, lime, ginger filling, Dark chocolate ganache w/ pretzel + feuilletine.

Francois stated that Yigit could not be judged, which I found appropriate. Zac’s chocolates were too sweet. Danielle had very good flavors. Morgan’s chocolates were too sweet, but otherwise was top notch and he won the Quickfire.

Elimination Challenge

Into the Top Chef kitchen walked an old man named Ben with a compelling story. 61 years ago he met a young lady who wanted company in the ocean while part of a group on the beach. He volunteered and they ended up “under the grand piano,” whatever that means. It is now time for their 61st wedding anniversary and they want the Top Chef candidates to handle the desserts for this occasion. So, you have to ask what was the twist going to be? It turns out that Ben’s last name is Weinstock and his wife is Sylvia Weinstock, proprietor of Sylvia Weinstock Cakes and already a Guest Judge for episode 3 above.
If you want to create fear in a pastry chef, just tell them that not only will they be judged by individuals at the pinnacle of their profession, but also they have to cater the desserts for a special occasion for a luminary.

Sylvia came to the set to show photos and indicate that she wore a grey dress (it looked blue in the photo) and carried pink roses. The reception was to be at the Beverly Hills home of friends of the Weinstocks. The chefs had 30 minutes and $200 to shop, then 10 hours to create and 2 hours to finish. During that finish everyone except Danielle was showing problems. Zac’s interface between top and bottom cake layers was piped with small pink roses, but not done well enough to hide everything it should have. Zac fell apart and so did his concept, proving too complex to execute and causing Zac to retreat and try Zac’s magic disco dust to solve all the problems. Yigit’s cake crumbled on attempting to serve it.

The final cake designs were:
Morgan – a grand piano filled with pink roses on top of a stark, simplistic cake; using butter cream, not fondant in honor of Sylvia’s criticism in episode 3
Danielle – a staircase of piano keys accompanied by roses on grey color icing; chocolate cake w/ sour cherry jam and buttercream
Yigit – a lemon cream cake and a chocolate mousse cake were falling apart
Zac – a caketastrophe of three brown cake layers joined by ice cream

The Judges’ Table included Payard, Hubert Keller, Gail and Johnny Iuzzini, although I bet one of them talked to Sylvia for her observations. Comments were:

Morgan – texture of yellow and chocolate cakes off
Danielle –cake moist, flavors excellent, grey color a poor choice for icing
Yigit – butter cream elegant, too competitive, overthought, cake fell apart on cutting
Zac – clearly a mess, layers of cream and genoise were good

Final judging comments were:
Yigit – need to learn the art of restraint
Morgan – played I too safe
Zac – too much Zac in the cake for this more formal occasion
Danielle – won $15,000.

The question was who would be eliminated, not able to compete in the final 3. Zac was eliminated, so it will be Yigit, Morgan, and Danielle in the Final 3. Danielle did poorly at the beginning of TC-JD1, but she has been very steady in recent episodes. I predict Morgan will be the winner.

apskip:
TC-JD1, Ep. 10 Finale

So it has come down to a battle for primacy between Danielle, Yigit and Morgan. They were told that the assignment was to create and execute a 4 course progressive dessert tasting menu. They were given the night off but directed to go to a café. When they arrived there Johnny Iuzzini awaited them. He invited them to have some beverages and 3 really good desserts. They so were exceptional that the question of who made them came up. The answer was soon revealed, as Elizabeth Falkner (Citizen Cake), Sherry Yard (Spago) and Claudia Fleming (Gramercy Tavern, owned by Tom Colicchio and Danny Meyer), 3 world-class pastry chefs, appeared. They were going to be the sous chefs for Danielle, Yigit and Morgan. By drawing names from a fishbowl, the assignments of celebrity pastry chefs to competing pastry chefs were:

Danielle – Elizabeth Falkner
Yigit - Sherry Yard
Morgan – Claudia Fleming

The chefs had $400 and 45 minutes for ingredients, then 7 hours to cook, followed by finishing the following day. Danielle had Elizabeth shelling pistachios for an ice cream-based sampling of desserts. Morgan was using Primary Colors as his theme and involved the use of yoghurt beads made from combining sodium alginate with calcium carbonate. Yigit did not appear to have a theme, although he was also using alginates. On the second day the competing chefs returned for the finishing work, but their sous chefs were not there. In their place was all eliminated Top Chef-Just Desserts 1 chefs. Choices were made through a fishbowl draw, which could have been terrible news for Morgan since he had several of the others who did not like him as a result of their earlier interactions. He was praying that he did not draw Zac, but he did draw Heather Hurlbert, with whom he had a number a run-ins. Danielle drew Tania. Yigit drew Tim. The 5 other chefs not selected were allowed to be diners, lucky them!

The actual menus were:
Yigit #1 Cucumber Lime Sorbet w Straus Yogurt Caviar Pearl
         #2 Strawberry Sorbet + Lemongrass Ginger Ice Cream w/ Berry Meringue +
              Consommé
         #3 Muscovado Braised Pineapple + Coconut Cake 
         #4 Hazelnut Dacquoise, Milk Jam + Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Morgan #1 Passion Fruit Cannoli w/ Mango Carpaccio, Fluid Gel + Tarragon Jelly 
         #2 Blueberry Pavlova w/ Lemon Cream in Citrus Chamomile Broth + Pearls 
         #3 Manjari Soufflé Cake w/ Raspberry Sorbet + Cocoa Nib Paper
         #4 White Pepper Crème Brûlée, Black Pepper Baumkuchen + Blackberry Anise
               Macaron
Danielle #1 Hazelnut Cake w/ Spanish Goat Cheese + Fig Jam
          #2 Lemon Parfait, Pomelo + Tangerine Sorbet + Moscato Granita
          #3 Baked Alaska, Strawberry Sundae + Root Beer Float
          #4 Chocolate Pudding Cake w/ Pistachio Ice Cream

The judging panel was distinguished. In addition to the regular judges of Johnny Iuzzini, Gail Simmons, Danielle Kyrillos and Hubert Keller plus the 3 celebrity sous chefs, it included:
Ron Ben-Israel
Scott Wheatfill
Susan Feniger
Suzanne Goin
James Oseland

Judges’ comments during dining were:
Danielle #1 – the balance between her sweet and sour were good; this dish appeared simple but was really quite complex
Yigit #2 – contrast of lemongrass against the strawberry striking
Danielle #2 – really good
Morgan #2 – sauce worked
Morgan #3 – his soufflés were breaking, but Heather saved him as much as possible; there was at least one broken one served and it received “a mess” comments
Danielle #3 - Baked Alaska great
Danielle #4 – not elegant
Morgan #4 - Baumkuchen was a masterpiece

Judges’ Table comments were:
Danielle – beautiful use of lavender, ganache did not develop full flavor
Yigit – lovely, sophisticated and surprising, got multiple crunches, good hot/cold balance, ripe pineapple flavor excellent
Morgan – “you promised no more macaroons, but the one you did was excellent”, baumkuchen superb

Further comments were:
Danielle – progression or courses good; you showed a new level of sophistication
Yigit- showed mastery of several different techniques; you found your balance
Morgan – elements of brilliance and passion, but breakdown of soufflé unfortunate; you push yourself hard to obtain excellence.

The judges were not giving much away there, as is always the case in Top Chef finales. The winner was Yigit (he did have the fewest negative comments). Yigit won the package of prizes, including $125,000 and a Buick Regal, a feature in Food and Wine magazine and a spot at the Food and Wine Expo at Pebble Beach. Most importantly, he won the title of Top Chef – Just Desserts.

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