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apskip:
TC8, ep. 10

This episode began with Paula Deen, proponent of Southern cooking with lots of frying, arrived as Guest Judge. She presented a Quickfire with $5000 prize to create thee best fried dish in 30 minutes. Frying is uncommon in haute cuisine, so these chefs were not typically not familiar with it, but they created with gusto. the dishes presented to Paula and Padma were these:
 
Antonia - fried avocado, shrimp + jalapeno, grilled corn, tomato, fried herbs
Carla- catfish w/ dijon mustard, hushpuppies, cole slaw w/ mayo, hot sauce, mint
Dale- fried steak wrapped egg yolk omelet w/ parsley tips, chives
Mike- fried chicken oysters w/ mustard gravy, oyster liquor
Richard- fried bacon w/ fried bacon, tomato, cucumber  
Tiffany- fried chiken wings and pickles, honey mustard sauce w/ cilantro + cumin salad
 
The losers group was Dale and Carla. Dale's flavors were way off. Carla's hushpuppies were "like spitballs." The winners' group was Richard and Mike with Antonia the winner if she had not been disqualified for failing to do a second plate for Padma. There was great controversy between Richard and Mike, as Mike had plagiarized Richard's recipe from having scanned his recipe book that morning. Antonia summarized that chefs do not steal other chefs' recipes or concepts even if what they were doing is "legal." Mike was legal but unethical. None of this might have mattered except that Mike won the $5,000 from Buitoni.
 
ELIMINATION CHALLENGE
Paula was joined by John Besh, winner of a James Beard Foundation Southeast award, who was replacing Anthony Bourdain. This challenge was to cook small plates of one Gulf Coast seafood dish for 300 people for the Greater New Orleans Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund benefit. Sous chef help was provided as 6 previously eliminated chefs were offered along with a specific protein:
 
Mike picked shrimp and Tiffani
Richard picked Fabio and the protein snapper came along with him
Tiffany picked white shrimp and Marcel (the chef nobody incluing her wanted) came with it
Carla picked Tre and grouper
Antonia picked crabs and got Spike
Dale picked amberjack and got Angelo
 
They had 15 minutes to plan, $200 and 30 minutes to buy at Restaurant Depot, 45 minutes and $500 to buy at Whole Foods, 2.5 hours to prep in thr top chef kitchen and 30 minutes to setup at the site. The dishes created were:
 
Antonia- blue crabcake, corn, jalapeno + andouille relish w/ crab broth
Carla-fried grouper w/ ham hock collard greens, chow-chow pico
Dale- blckened amberjack stew w/ andouille sausage + potatoes, ham, bell peppers, onions, Creole mustard crouton
Mike- grit-crusted Gulf shrimp , sour cream and chive potatoes, w/ pork + lobster sauce
Richard- crispy Gulf snapper w/ pulled pork, citrus grits
Tiffany- honey glazed shrimp, grits w/ jalapeno + cheese,shellfish sauce
 
Eminent guests also eating the dishes were Jonathon Waxman (Top Chef Masters 1 and 2), Carmen Gonzalez (TCM2) and David Burke (TCM2).
 
The comments by the judges while sampling were:
Mike- "nail on the head", wonderful, great flavors
Richard- it works, light great spices
Carla - too much hot sauce, too salty, "I didn't care for it"
Tiffany- Paula like heads on for sucking; "you don't taste the shrimp" due to the glaze, not a fan of honey glaze, overcooked
Dale-undecooked potato, mustard flavor overwhelming
Antonia - very delicate, great sauce, really like it
 
Those comments made it obvious that the winners' group would be Antonia, Richard and Mike and the losers' group would be Dale, Carla and Tiffany. My guess was that Carla's time was up. At Judges' Table John admired Antonia's use of a small amount of andouille sausage and Paula termed Mike's coating the shrimp with grits as "genius" and loved the potatoes too. So did he win twice? No, as the editors keep trying to have the judges comments in balance so the outcome is unpredictable. Richard was selected as the winner and he got a 6 night trip to Barbados with $5000 of airfare incuded. he sated that he would invite Fabio to join his family on that trip.
 
The losers' group was as I expected. Here were the judges' comments:
Carla- beautiful fish doused in hot sauce and mustard, "none of the others made sense together",
Dale- did not get the potatoes right in that batch, mustard on crouton part of major flavor competition but amberjack flavor was lost in the shuffle
Tiffany- did not cook shrimp, which were overcooked and mealy, way too sweet due to too much glaze; off the record, Marcel failed to cut the glaze
 
Dale was the chef eliminated. H and Carla both were in the bottom group for the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge.

kiki:
I can't believe that Mike is still in the game. He should have been eliminated a long time ago. In this episode he gave me a really bad impression, first by using Richard's idea in the quickfire and then relying on Tiffani in the elimination challenge (at least that's what I thought).

On another note, do you think the producers have decided that another woman has to win Top Chef?
We are down to top five and there are 3 women and 2 men and from those Mike & Tiffany should have been eliminated long ago and Carla is anything but consistent. So in my opinion the two contenters seem to be Antonia and Richard (strangely enough both fron season 4). 

apskip:
I agree wholeheatedly with Kikisak on Richard and Antonia finishing 1/2 or 2/1 becuase they are thee best and most consistent chefs. Carla was very lucky to survive the last two episodes and Kikisak is right about Mike Isabella. He does not belong in the Final 5. Neither does Tiffany.

Kikisak, I recommend that you change the spelling of your first reference to "relying on Tiffani". It was /season 1 chef Tiffani Faison that I am certain you mean, not season 7's Tiffany, who has no reason to help Mike.

kiki:
Thank you for the observation apskip. Ofcourse I meant Tiffani from season 1, I just hadn't noticed the slight variation in the spelling of the name.

apskip:
TC8, ep. 11
 
The 5 remaining chefs were asked to board the Miss Freedom ferry for an off-hours trip to Ellis Island, bringing their knives and minor equipment with them. They found a message indicarting that they were to take anything from the Miss Freedom snackbar as soon as a whistle sounded and "cook" until they arrived at Ellis Island and a second whistle sounded.  The only heating equipment was a small microwave oven. Their creations were:
 
Richard - hot dog and beef jerky sandwich w/ jalapeno, pork rinds, lettuce, apple
Tiffany - nachos w/ cheese, lettuce, tomato, banana pepper, sour cream; popcorn w/ candied mangos + pineapples
Mike - bread soup w/ cheddar cheese, sour cream, green chili, pork rinds
Carla - orange + papaya salad w/ carrot and rosemary juice
Antonia- grilled cheese w/ apples, raisin bread
 
The Guest Judge waiting on Ellis Island was Dan Barber, a proponent of using farm-fresh ingredients, quite a difference from what was happening in this Quickfire. He said that Tiffany's dish was "a throwaway" and Mike's could have "sunk a ship". He had better grades for Richard (tasty and creative), Antonia (smart grilling technique) and Carla (refreshing and innovative). Carla was the winner.
 
Padma then announced that the final Elimination Challenge in New York City was about to start. The chefs were greeted by close relatives, each of whom had a special book on their family history created by a genealogist from Ellis Island. Those relatives were:
Antonia - her mother
Carla - her husband (whom met through Match.com)
Mike - his mother (and the culinary heritage of his grandmother)
Richard - his wife (who he said was an athlete and is highly competitve)
Tiffany - her mother
 
I was ironic that Antonia, who had no respect whatever for Mike, discovered that they both have Antonacci ancestors way back, making them nth degree cousins. The challenge was to create food that reflects their ancestry. Their basic choices of types of food style were:
 
Antonia - Italian, risotto
Carla - Southern (originally as slaves), chowder
Mike - Italian, gnocchi
Richard - Irish/English, meat and potatoes
Tiffany - Southern, using okra (risky as Tom is known to hate it)
 
The winner would get a Toyota Highlander Hybrid SUV plus a guaranteed spot in the final 4. The chefs shopped for 30 minutes. They had 3 hours to cook. The meal was served to their relatives plus Gail, Tom, Padma and Dan. Where is Anthony Bourdain when you need him? The meals created the next day were:
 
Antonia - risotto w/ braised veal, rapini leaf (broccoli rabe to the layperson) + fava beans
Carla- braised pork shoulder, grits, corn in a broth, cheddar cheese biscuits
Mike- potato gnocchi w/ braised pork shank ragout, burratta cheese
Richard- short ribs, potatoes, fried bone marrow, corn puree and pickled glassworts (sea beans)
Tiffany- braised short ribs w/ mustard greens, stewed okra, oxtail marmalade
 
Comments while eating were:
about Mike - we've had a lot of problems with gnocchi on Top Chef, but this is great
about Antonia - packed with flavor
about Tiffany - Tom liked okra for first time, Padma called it "a crunchy nugget"
about Richard - "ALL right"
about Carla - shoulder of pork a great choice, passing the biscuits very family style
 
Carla's husband asked if there was ever a Top Chef season when nobody was eliminated at this stage, allowing 5 chefs to move on to the semifinals. The answer was no, but the mood was that every chef had done an exceptional job and that no elimination as the right thing to do. I predicted at this point that that was exactly what would happen. After all, Top Chef does not like to embarrass chefs around their loved ones.
 
The Judges Table discussion was very positive. HIghlights were:
Carla - broth and cheddar biscuits exceptional; Tom found the corn a little tough
Richard - Dan cited the power of roasted potatoes, tom said the flavors worked together
Antonia - Padma said risotto is tricky but this was excellent; Tom said that her self-confidence was self-evident
Tiffany - had converted Tom to liking excellently prepared okra  
Mike - gnocchi great, flavors rich, great balance
 
So, who won? It was Antonia that would drive away in the Highlander and secure the first place in the Bahamas. Next, Mike was given the Bahamas trip. Then Richard was given his pass. This left Tiffany and Carla, who had recently been at the bottom of elimination challenges. But Padma had good and appropriate news: both were also going to the Bahamas. It was a deserved feel-good ending to one of the great meals in the history of Top Chef.  

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