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Top Chef All-Stars
apskip:
TC8, EP. 12
The 5 remaining chefs arrived in Nassau, the Bahamas for some new challenges. This episode was scheduled for 4 months after the prior one, so the chefs were effectively restarting their competition. The Quickfire was unique in that there were 5 competitions for $10,000 each. The chefs arrived to see the winners of their Top Chef season waiting for them and no doubt assumed they were there to serve as their sous chefs. However, in a twist the competition was TC8 chef against their season winner in each contest:
Antonia vs. Season 4 Stephanie
Carla vs. Season 5 Hosea
Mike Isabella vs. Season 6 Mike Voltaggio
Richard vs. Season 4 Stephanie (same dish as against Antonia)
Tiffany vs. Season 7 Kevin
The Quickfire Judges were Eric Ripert, Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi. This was outdoors and the only kitchen equipment available was fryers and flat-tops. The dishes based on ingredients that were specifcally selected for each pairing were:
Antonia - roasted veal, leeks, almond puree w/ sauteed mushrooms, raisins
Stephanie - veal scallopini w/ tapenade, poached egg
Carla - jollof rice, harissa lamb w/ peppers, onions, lime
Hosea - braised lamb in red chili broth w/ olives, mint, goat cheese + rosemary polenta
Mike I. - cashew dusted spiced duck breast w/ duck legs + mushroom jus
Mike V. - duck breast w/ duck leg in bacon vinaigrette, burnt leek and coffee pesto
Richard - seared veal loin + braised veal cap w/ raisins, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, mushrooms
Stephanie - see above
Tiffany - pork stew w/ potatoes, peppers, citrus, allspice
Kevin - barbecued pork w/ cilantro, celery, shaved onions, citrus salad
Comments during tasting and the result of each pairing were:
Antonia vs. Stephanie - $10K to Stephanie
Carla vs. Hosea - $10K to Hosea
Mike I. vs. Mike V. - $10K to Mike I.
Richard vs. Stephanie - $10K to Richard
Tiffany vs. Kevin - $10k to Tiffany
I found the wins by Mike I. and Tiffany unexpected. The food put up by Hosea, both Mikes, Richard, Tiffany and Kevin was really good. The food by Carla had undercooked rice and by Antonia was medioce at best.
The Elimination Challenge started in a designated Top Chef - Bahamas kitchen, probably in their hotel, the Atlantis. They were to cook for Bahamas royalty. Anyone who knows much about the Bahamas, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly British Commonwealth), knows it is independent but ruled by a Governor-General, who would not be royalty. Its only ties to royalty would be weak ones to Queen Elizabeth II. I doubted that she would be participating in a Top Chef episode, so I expected it would be for the holder of an honorary royal title. The producers apparently thought that the King of Junkanoo was a hereditary title, but they founnd otherwise when meeting him. Chefs prepped for 2.5 hours a menu developed with available ingredients. The prepped items were then taken to the Twin Brothers Seafood and Steakhouse where a Mardi Gras type celebration with about 45 people was in progress outside. The chefs were introduced to the King of Junkanoo, Percy Francis. They then had 1 hour to cook for him, the celebrators and the judges..
On entering the kitchen both Tiffany and Antonia attempted to get the fryer up to temperature. The fryer oil immediately started smoking and one bin caught fire. The chefs were evacuated without their food, the fire department was called and their chemical sprays promptly ruined all the food. I ask you if you think that Top Chef producers and Tom Colicchio were in cahoots to pose another deliberate obstacle. I think it's possible, but nobody who knows would ever admit it. The chefs had to return to prep again, with a major delay. That caused Antonia to rethink her dish totally and Richard quite a bit. Chefs were exhausted and that undoubtedly led to atypical mistakes. The final dishes were:
Antonia - crispy shrimp + grits w/ cilantro, pickled vegetables
Carla - fried pork medallions w/ sweet potato puree, apple sauce, apple chip
Mike I. - sous vide chicken, mushrooms, yams, lobster sauce, lobster hash
Richard - roasted lamb loin + malted braised leg wrapped in turnip canneloni w/ pickled turnip, mustard
Tiffany - roasted spiced pork tenderloin, dirty rice, curried slaw, tomato jam
Comments on the dishes included:
Antonia - shrimp overcooked, meat had no flavor
Carla - apple chips too sweet, meat raw
Mike I. - lobster nicely cooked, chicken meat dry, Gail disliked sauce, Eric said "it came together"
Richard - lamb, mustard , turnip simple but it worked; Eric said delicate but not pungent
Tiffany - wanted to see something more sophisticated; grape tomato jam excellent
Carla discovered toward the end of cooking time that her pork was undercooked. She tried hard to fix it, but her plates for the judges were variable.The Judges' Table comments while sampling each meal included:
about Antonia - meat in the grits was a huge mistake; no sauce for her cannelloni; shrimp overcooked
about Carla - Gail's pork was raw; Tom's was undercooked; Eric's was perfect; this variability was unacceptable
about Mike I. - sauce was the star; chicken breast meat dry
about Richard - lambs nicely cooked; turnip too soft
about Tiffany - not exciting, middle of the road
"The King" finished his meal and commentary with "it's better in the Bahamas," a deserved product placement.
The judges were generally underwhelmed and disappointed by the food. They could make no allowances for the cicumstances, as the progress of TC8 required elimiinating somone. The better dishes were by the men. Mike was judged the winner and Richard was pronounced safe. The 3 women were the Losers' Group. Comments specifically directed to them were:
Carla - pork was undercooked or raw
Antonia - see above; serious technical mistake
Tiffany - nicely seasoned but wrong sauce
Carla was judged to have made the most serious mistakes and was eliminated.
apskip:
Some may wonder why Richard and Mike I. seem to be winning everything after an early season run by Antonia. There is a good reason. During a 4 month break in filming (September to January), Blais was working on a file of all the recipes he knew and Isabella was working hard to perfect his culinary skills. They simply want to win $200,000 more than the remaining women do.
I am going to predict that Tiffany is next out, that Richard finishes #1, Mike I. #2 and Antonia a distant #3. We will know on the April 6 finale, before Top Chef Masters 3 debuts late that evening.
kiki:
apskip I agree with your prediction. The final battle will be between Richard and Mike, unless of course Richard chokes up like the last time.
This last episode I thought it was really bad, almost boring, maybe because the fire ruined its flow.
Let's hope that the next one will be better, but it is almost as if the previous episode with the chefs going back to their routes was the culmination of the season.
apskip:
TC8, Ep. 13
This episode began at the Atlantis Hotel where the chefs were asked to pair up and provide a consistent plating of 100 identical dishes for lunch at the Bahamian Club. Mike chose Richard, which left Antonia with Tiffany. The Guest Judge was Lorena Garcia of the new NBC series "America's Next Best Restaurant' (blatant product placement since NBC owns BRAVO). There were 100 numbered plates for each team and Padma picked two from one chef pairing and Lorena two frm the other. The winning team would get a $5000 prize from ?latta Wines.
Antonia and Tiffany made beef tenderloin salad with cilantro, mint basil, and a chimichurri (Yum!) sauce . Tififfany had to begin plating amost immediately, as it was composed of 4 separate components that had to be assembled on each plate. Mike and Richard made fresh pasta, difficult to do in the one hour allotted, pork Bolognese with fresh macaroni and pecorino cheese. The women chose a simpler task and they were judged to have more consistent results. If the criterion were taste or originality, then the result may have been different. Mike and Richard were both quite upset by their loss of momentum.
The Elimination Challenge was to cook a dinner including conch on a remote island for celebration of the Nassau Yacht Club 80th annivsersary, for all Bahamian guests except for Tom, Padma, Gail and Lorena as Judges. The chefs had 3.5 hours to create the meal, cooked on wood-burning stoves. Once they arrived on the island they found beatiful fresh grouper, other seafood and spiny lobster as well as a variety of fresh produce. However, in the crate marked "conch" there was only snorkels. Each chef had to dive down to 8 to 10 feet to collect conch shells. Once onshore the hard work of extracting the conch meat began. Small hammers were provided, as that is what the local fisherman use. It was mentioned that Antonia had caught 10 conch to get the meat for what looked like about 15 plates. A staff of waiters arrived on the island and it was interesting that they alternated their shirts off-camera from black to white.
The dishes created by the chefs were:
Antonia - seared red snapper with conch tartare and lobster broth
Mike - banana-wrapped steamed grouper w/ braised pineapple and warm conch vinaigrette, vegetables on top
Richard - sweet potato linguine with conch and spiny lobster
Tiffany - cold conch ceviche over warm (but limited by serving delay) conch + coconut chowder, w/ sweet potatoes
Thr judges stated that all chefs did a good job, but who did best and worst?Tom found Antonia's fih overcooked; Padm found the dish too conventional. Lorena said Richard's lobster was undercooked. Gail was blown away by Mike's savory pineapple flavors; Tom liked the smokiness of the banana leaf. Gail commented on the unevenness of Tiffany's hot and cold components' temperature; Tom found it too sweet and felt the flavors didn't come together. Best turned out to be Mike, whose savory pinneapple was pronounced by Gail to be spectacular and whose flavors came together in a very positive way. Richard and Antonia had good dishes that kept them in the competition. The choice of cold over warm by Tiffany was criticized by the judges.
In the final analysis, Tiffany was the one to go home. That left Mike, Richard and Antonia to compete for the title and money.
kiki:
It's obvious from the last episodes that Mike is on fire, he won the last 3 elimination challenges. Also he arrived in Bahamas very well prepared, he obviously practiced a lot in the meantime.
I was surprised to hear that neither Antonia nor Tiffany had ever cooked a conch, unlike Mike and Richard who had tried it.
They knew they were going to the Bahamas so why didn't try to learn anything about conch that is very common there? And that was their downfall at the end.
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