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Top Chef All-Stars

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apskip:
I'm with you on Richard Blais being my favorite. He was beaten in his season (TC4) fair and square with Stephanie winning the last 3 elimination challenges. He is not only the best chef competing, but he is my Fan Favorite. However, at this point that gives him only about a 25% chance of winning given the stiff competition.

apskip:
TC8, ep.3

The Guest Judge was David Chang, owner/chef of the Momofuku chain of restaurants plus his flagship Ma Peche. The Quickfire was a team challenge with four teams of 4 competing in a mise-en-place relay race, then to cook the best dish in 15 or less minutes from the ingredients in their mise-en-place. The reward was $5000 for each member of the winning team, but no immunity. The mise-en-place was simultaneously peel artichokes, crush 400 cloves of garlic and debone a lamb roast. When these were completed for the first team, a 15 minute clock would start its countdown, the time within which all teams must finish the mise-en-place plus create and cook their dish. This was a highly sophisticated challenge. The biggest differentiator between the team was their approach to the garlic. Spike went with peeling them, placing them on a cutting board and using a second board to smash them open. Another team had Antonia attempting to peel each one separately. The mass quantity approach created about a 5minute minute advantage with the other 2 teams in between.

The teams were:
Green – Angelo, Tiffany, Mike I., Fabio
White – Antonia, Dale L. Jaime, Casey
Red – Dale T., Tiffani, Carla, Marcel
Blue – Spike, Richard, Stephen, Tre

The dishes created were:
White - Lamb carpaccio (raw), artichoke chips, artichoke salad, garlic oil
Blue – crispy lamb chop, artichoke 3 ways, aioli, garlic, lime juice, fish oil
Red – lamb carpaccio, capers, garlic, Reggiano (cheese), salad w/ artichoke
Green – cooked lamb w/ garlic, Tandoori spices, spiced yoghurt, slivers of artichoke, dill salad

The judging by David Chang rated in the losers’ group Red for poor persimmon and parsley flavors and Green for allowing thyme and dill to blow out the yoghurt flavor. The winners’ group was White for a new way to serve raw lamb and Blue for the bold flavors of their crispy lamb chop. The winners were the Blue team, Richard (who took charge), Spike, Fabio and Stephen. They won the $5000 each.

The Elimination Challenge provided an opportunity for the same teams to each go to a different cutting edge restaurant in New York City to enjoy the cuisine and recreate the style of its chef in a meal. The restaurants were:

David Chang’s Ma Peche – Green team
David Burke’s Townhouse – White team
Michael White’s Medea – Blue team
Wiley Dufresne’s wd50 – Red team (note – Marcel was in 7th heaven on the chance to be in Wiley’s kitchen and cook molecular gastronomy food)

This challenge pitted each of the chefs on a team against each other, with one judged in the winners’ group and one judged in the losers’ group. The judges were Kate Krader, restaurant editor at Food & wine magazine, Tom, Padma, Anthony Bourdain and the chef from each restaurant for the chefs cooking in that restaurant only. The judges shuttled between restaurants by taxi on a predetermined schedule. Their results would send 2 chef home, a rare double elimination. Here were the ingredients in the dishes created and prepared:

Tre – grilled swordfish, mushroom pannacotta, basil oil, braised artichoke
Stephen – coho salmon, black mission figs, broccoli rabini, fennel pollen
Spike – seared branzino caponata w/ spicy prosciutto vinaigrette
Richard – crudo of Spanish mackerel, braised veal shank, fennel mustarda

Fabio - roasted lamb, w/ hoisin BBQ plum sauce, corn tomato salad, lemongrass chevre, ricotta
Angelo – turmeric marinated fish, white chocolate, salmon roe, chorizo, dill, cilantro
Tiffany – crudo of summer flounder, pickled radish, peach puree
Mike I. – warm sockeye salmon, eggplant, marinated tomato, poached peach

Dale L. - roasted veal loin, peanuts, popcorn, French toast, corn, thyme caramel
Casey - coconut halibut “scallop”, ginger-carrot emulsion
Jaime – smoked tomato and onion soup, Heirloom tomato salad
Antonia – pea puree, carrot puree, seared scallop, pickled carrot

Tiffani – broken heirloom melons, tomato, powdered ham, taleggio
Marcel – Vadouran lamb, tzatziki, pickled red onion, anti flatbread
Carla – shrimp, grits and okra w/ poached shrimp
Dale T. – sunny side up egg dumpling, w/ braised pork bellies, milk ramen w/ beef, pork,

The comments from the judges while dining were:
Tre- simple, delicious
Stephen – “head shop” taste, too much on the plate
Spike – the word caponata did not apply
Richard- beautiful and flavorful
Fabio – heavy, got lost in the forest (Bourdain vs. Fabio, round 2), too much on the plate
Angelo – creative, risk-taking, flavorful, innovative
Tiffani – tasty
Mike I. – like it particularly eggplant, solid
Dale L. – Veal w/ heavy sweetness
Casey – brilliant idea, beautifully cooked
Jaime – too simple, not creative
Antonia – assertive seasoning
Tiffani – lost control and put too much on the plate
Marcel – restrained, bland (so Marcel did not rise to the occasion cooking for his idol)
Carla – well prepared but safe, liquid nitrogen use not effective
Dale T. – loved it, broth excellent

Stephen commented that Italian food was right up his alley, since that is the cuisine he knew the best. Marcel noted that he has been accused of plagiarizing Wiley Dufresne’s dishes. Carla tried to use liquid nitrogen for the first time. Wiley stated that the philosophy of his restaurant is “playing with something familiar.”

The winners’ group was these chefs, with judging summary comments included:
Antonia – pea and carrot purees excellent
Angelo – white chocolate use was genius, exciting
Tre – fish perfectly done
Dale T. – used egg artfully, but with restraint
I found it surprising that Antonia was in this group instead of Casey based on the earlier judges’ dining comments. Dale T. was the winner.

The losers’ group was these chefs:
Stephen – put too much on the plate; expertise on Italian muffled by not cooking much recently
Tiffani – tried to do too much (as Marcel had observed, used every cutting edge technique she knew)
Fabio – Asian approach using peanut and oils overdone; heavy-handed
Dale L. – worked for kitsch w/ peanuts, popcorn and French toast, but putting veal on a breakfast plate is a sin; this “circus” was not good

There were chefs who were second place finishers in regular Top Chef seasons in this group, so a really good chef would be eliminated no matter what. Based on the judges’ comments, I projected that Fabio and Tiffani would be eliminated. However, as frequently happens, the editing of the episode attempted to misdirect the viewers. The actual eliminees were Stephen and Dale L. Stephen admitted that he was not up to the par of the other chefs due to a lot of time out of the kitchen ( I believe his real expertise is wines and front of the House). Dale stated “this is fair.” However, I think the producers may have intervened so that the Fabio versus Anthony Bourdain battle stays on camera for future episodes.

kiki:
For me this episode was a little boring. Too many chefs and too many dishes. I prefer it when at this stage they present dishes as a team. Also on Fabio, I agree that they are probably keeping him to continue the feud, his dish was not even visually good.

apskip:
TC8, ep.4

The Guest Judge is Tony Mantuano, owner/chef of Spiaggia in Chicago and a first-round winner in Top Chef Masters 2. He introduced the “holiday stuffing” challenge that one of the chefs stated was too easy. That chef was right, as Padma threw in this twist, that no knives or other kitchen implements (other than stoves, pans, bowls etc.) could be used. This was designed to test the creativity and inventiveness of the chef in working under difficult conditions. The prize made it worthwhile, as the winner would receive immunity in the elimination challenge plus $20,000 cash.  There was a nice product placement for Swanson’s Broth, which funded that prize.

Here are the dishes prepared and presented:

Angelo – not shown
Antonia – not shown
Carla – Thai inspired Vegetable Stuffing w/ black quinoa salad
Casey – mushrooms and crispy chicken livers, miso, mushroom dashi
Dale T. – Spanish influenced stuffing w/ crab, oysters, chili lemon aioli, grapes, olives
Fabio – polenta bread, vegetables, smoked bacon, grated Parmesan cheese
Jaime – stuffing crepinette w/ bacon, lemon oil, broth
Marcel – whole squab stuffed w/ raisins, broth, chevre, currants, Ras al Hanout gravy
Mike I. – not shown
Richard – pressure-cooked onion, red onion, pine nuts, cherries, nitrogen fried fennel
Spike – stuffed quail w/ raisins, herbs, port wine, apricot glaze
Tiffani – soy maple stuffing w/ quail, grilled mushrooms, quartered grapes
Tiffany – not shown
Tre – Southwestern stuffing w/ bacon, cheddar, bell pepper, chili powder

Tony rated the losing dishes as Carla’s (?), Tiffani (too sweet) and Casey (looked like a plated appetizer, not a stuffing). The best dishes were Marcel’s (great taste) and Tre (spicy but well-balanced). Tre was judged the winner.

A random draw created and Orange Team of 7 and a Yellow team of 7, meant to illustrate the colors of high-tech tennis balls. Teams were to cook at the National Tennis Center, site of the US Open tennis championship every September. They had 15 minutes to plan and then 30 minutes at Whole Foods to shop for ingredients. Angelo found when he went to use them that his mackerel had turned slimy. Carla cut her finger, but bandaged it up and kept on working, as if to demonstrate to Jaime how to suck it up. Spike “butchered the shrimp.”

The structure of this Culinary Tennis competition was to use the scoring of a single tennis game (love, 15, 30, 40) to have a team get to 4 wins first (which wins the game if you are playing tennis by modified rules). This meant a minimum of 4 points and a maximum of 7.

Teams had to decide the order in which they were going to present their players. Yellow used a lot of strategy in advance, but when the moment to decide which dish to present arrived, all their strategy seemed to be out the window and they looked totally disorganized. Orange had no strategy.

In the first  match, Orange used Fabio’s dish and Yellow after some delay sent with Casey’s (although Jaime’s was supposed to be the sacrificial lamb as “just some heated beans,” she had no guts and refused to put her dish up at all in this competition). Dishes:
Fabio – whole grain gnocchi w/ pork loin ragout, zucchini, caramelized fennel
Casey – grilled pork tenderloin salad, sugar snap peas, vinaigrette
Point to Fabio, Orange 15 Yellow Love

In the second match, Orange used Dale’s and Yellow finally put up Tiffani’s. Dishes:
Dale T. – edamame dumpling, spicy carrot froth, crispy soy nuts
Tiffani – Sashimi of black bass, avocado, ponzu vinaigrette
Point to Tiffani, Orange 15 Yellow 15

In the third match, Orange went with Marcel’s and Yellow with Angelo’s. Dishes
Marcel – cauliflower couscous, pomegranate sauce, golden raisins, yellowfin tuna
Angelo – tuna, yuzu gelee, red onion,
Point to Angelo, Orange 15 Yellow 30

In the fourth match Orange put up Antonia and Yellow Tiffany. Dishes:
Antonia – Divers Sea scallop, Indian lentil puree, mint dandelion greens, cilantro, chives
Tiffany – Spiced tuna w/ fennel, peppercorns, coriander seeds, lentil salad
Point to Antonia, Orange 30 Yellow 30

In the fifth match, Orange played their star Richard and Yellow countered with Spike, but Angelo and others appeared to be modifying his dish as it was plated:
Richard – “Thai bouleh” w/ lamb, herbs, yoghurt
Spike - tarragon tomato soup, olive oil, poached shrimp, tomatoes, pineapple, dill
Point to Richard, Orange 40 Yellow 30

The last match (as it turned out) was between Carla and Tre (Jaime wouldn’t present) with immunity, so he had nothing to lose:
Carla – African Groundnut soup, baked sweet potato, adzuki beans, peanuts
Tre – Coho salmon, parsnip puree, olive oil sauce w/ citrus, tomatoes and olives
Point to Carla, Orange won

Casey was livid at this point because Tre’s immunity meant that one of the other 3 Yellow losers (herself, Spike, Tiffany) would be eliminated. Her major wrath was focused on Jaime, who would have had to present if it went to a 7th point but avoided it by not presented for any of the first 6th. That meant that weak and undeserving Jaime would make it to the next episode for sure.

The judges called in the 4 Orange winners and awarded the individual win to Carla’s dish. Next they called in the 4 Yellow losing dishes and raked them over the coals. Their comments were:
Casey – up against a very tough competitor, this was a decent dish that just happened to lose
Tiffany – salad overdressed and with dish had no finish
Tre- salad overcooked; the judges’ least favorite dish
Spike – he complained that too many cooks spoiled the broth of his “soup”; the judges did not buy that, as he had the option of not presenting due to tampering and forcing Jaime to.

It was not clear whether it would be Tiffany or Spike eliminated, but Casey looked pretty safe. Spike got the ax.

DavidJunior:
I'm sorry, but I personally feel that the judges were right in sending Dale L. home over Fabio

and I also don't believe that strings were pulled to keep Fabio alive

I mean, popcorn, peanut butter, and french toast???? along with all the other crazy ingredients that were in there?  REALLY??

It's sort of like Eli's circus abomination from Season 6 v.2

and Steven was an overall weaker chef than the other three, with a weaker dish too

I believe that it was a totally fair decision

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