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BRAVO has announced that it is starting to cast the second season of Top chef - Just Desserts.

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TOP CHEF – JUST DESSERTS 2
The second season of this series will premiere on August 24 . The judges remain essentially the same with Gail Simmons, Johnny Iuzzini, Dannielle Kyrillos and Hubert Keller.

Following are the 14 new "Top Chef Just Desserts" competitors:
• Amanda Rockman, 29 - Hometown: Katy, Texas - Resides in Chicago, Ill.
• Carlos Enriquez, 33 - Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif. -Resides in Las Vegas, Nev.
• Chris Hanmer, 33 - Hometown: Costa Mesa, Calif. - Resides in Las Vegas, Nev.
• Craig Poirier, 25 - Hometown: Derry, N.H. - Resides in Las Vegas, Nev.
• Katzie Guy-Hamilton, 24 - Hometown: Worcester, Mass. - Resides in New York, N.Y.
• Lina Biancamano, 37 - Hometown: Phoenix, Ariz. - Resides in Fort Worth, Texas
• Matthew Petersen, 32 - Hometown: Dublin, Pa. - Resides in Arlington, Va.
• Megan Ketover, 31 - Hometown/ Resides In: Cincinnati, Ohio
• Melissa Camacho, 30 - Hometown: Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Resides in New York, N.Y.
• Nelson Paz, 33 - Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina - Resides in Boston, Mass.
• Orlando Santos, 32 - Hometown: St. Croix, US Virgin Islands - Resides in Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Rebecca Masson, 39 - Hometown: Laramie, Wyo. -Resides in Houston, Texas
• Sally Camacho, 31 - Hometown/ Resides In: Los Angeles, Calif.
• Vanarin Kuch, 26 - Hometown/ Resides In: Houston, Texas
The winning chef will receive $100,000 furnished by KitchenAid, a feature in Food & Wine magazine and a showcase at the Annual Food & Wine Cayman Cookout. The chefs must face off in difficult and creative challenges, from fairytale showpieces and edible room decor to high-class gingerbread houses and carnival delights.  Celebrity guest judges include Beastie Boys' Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz, The Cast of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, renowned pastry chef Francois Payard and Iron Chef Cat Cora.

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TC-JD2, Ep. 1

14 pastry chefs arrived on Santa Monica pier to meet each other. Some already knew others in the group. The Quickfire started immediately with chefs pairing up into teams of 2. Their goal was to produce the most delicious possible soda fountain treat in 30 minutes. 5 of the teams had the non-creative banana split (disguised by a variety of names), one made Captain Crunch ice cream and one another a soda combination with a pickled cherry. Here were the creations presented:
Matthew/Katzie – chocolate egg cream w/ citrus, lemon, ile flottant
Amanda/Nelson – chocolate sponge cake, pickled cherries (which she was adamant were going to be fit into their final dish), pistachios
Carlos/Rebecca – Captain Crunch ice cream milkshake
Sally/Craig – breakfast banana milkshake
Megan/Orlando – feuilletine, bruleed bananas, chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup (which had a non-functional garnish that Johnny Iuzzini was unhappy about)
Vanarin/Melissa - micro cake, shattered banana carpaccio, white sauce
Lina/Chris – almond crispies, raspberry sauce, butter pecan ice cream

Judging was by Johnny Iuzzini and Gail Simmons. The 2 least favorite dishes of Johnny Iuzzini were Megan/Orlando and Lina/Chris. His 2 favorite were the Captain Crunch milkshake of Carlos/Rebecca and the cake and pickled cherries of Amanda/ Nelson. The winner was Amanda/Nelson and this made them exempt at the elimination challenge.

Elimination Challenge
The chefs pulled books out of a cupboard to get into teams of 3 with the same book and then Amanda and Nelson could assign themselves to one of the prior teams of 3. The challenge was to make a showpiece and 2 desserts for 150 people at a masked ball. The books were classic fairy tales and here are the individuals assigned to them:
Jack and the Beanstalk – Katzie, Craig, Megan
Goldilocks and the 3 Bears - Nelson, Rebecca, Orlando, Sally
Hansel and Gretel – Lina, Melissa, Vanarin
Little Red Riding Hood – Chris, Matthew, Amanda, Carlos
 
The judges were the same as for Top Chef-Just Desserts 1: Gail Simmons, Johnny Iuzzini, Hubert Keller, Dannielle Kyrillos. Teams had 6 hours to prep and 4 hours more before the ball. This suggests that there was a lot of work. That gave the 4-person teams an advantage that I will label as unfair.
The showpieces had to be done by those most experienced in showpieces, which are quite a specialty. Two of the showpieces (Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears) were clearly superior to the other two. The beanstalk was problematical, as the sugar had broken into pieces and was glued back in a way that looked OK from the front but lacking from the rear.

The desserts presented were:
Jack and the Beanstalk- bergamot cloud, whipped lemon ricotta, sweet pea sorbet, spiced golden syrup
  brown butter hazelnut cake, lemongrass stalk infused cream, passion fruit
Goldilocks and the 3 Bears-almond bar, fruits of the forest, honey ice cream
  Baby bear’s oatmeal porridge, hot Rainier cherries, basil syrup, cherry sorbet
Hansel and Gretel- butterscotch brioche, goat cheese mousse, smoked pineapple
  chocolate cloud, milk sherbet hibiscus apple seltzer
Little Red Riding Hood- rose scented bomboloni, coconut tapioca, red berry puree
  blackout sponge cake w/ cocoa nib nougatine, poached cherries, micro basil


The judges did their thing and considered the showpiece and each dessert. They found that the two top teams were Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood. Note that Rebecca continued to be a cherries specialist. The winner was Little Red Riding Hood.

That left the other 2 teams in the judging for the worst team. The judges found that the tastes and textures of the desserts of Jack and the Beanstalk and its showpiece were better. Pineapple was viewed as a poor choice for Hansel and Gretel, which also had no candy on the exterior of its house in the showpiece. However, the true purpose was to identify the chef being eliminated, which could have been from either team. One thing which was presumably not available to the judges was the tape of what during the prep and cooking time. Lina had made a decision during that period, but at Judges’ Table she disowned it (although the judges did not know that) she had lied before them). Without that information, the judges chose to eliminate Lina. 

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TC-JD2, Ep. 2

Guest chef Maria Braun, author of the book Cakemakers, posed a Quickfire challenge for the chefs, to create a sublime lemon dessert. Lemon is difficult for pastry chefs to work with. What the pastry chefs created were these dishes:

Amanda-caramel cremeux w/café dulce confit lemon segments
Carlos-lemon soup w/reverse spherical yoghurt, olive oil powder, honey, thyme
Chris-not shown
Craig-lemon sour cream pound cake w/ French meringue, coconut cream
Katzie-lemon crepe ribbons w/ egg yolk, butter emulsion, candied fennel seeds
Matthew- lemon vanilla creme w/mint puree, hazelnut sable
Megan- not shown
Melissa-lemon beignet w/ Thai basil sugar
Nelson- lemon pavlova w/ mango coulis
Orlando- coconut lemon cream cake, lemon curd, lemon fritters, chocolate
Rebecca-lemon meringue pie w/ blueberries, lemon + ginger syrup
Sally-lemon sour cream
Vanarin-lemon curd semifreddo w/ coconut brown butter streusel, blackberry compote
 

The 3 worst dishes were:
Nelson-- lemon and mango don’t go together
Orlando-lemon and chocolate don’t work together
Amanda-caramel and lemon don’t go together
The 3 best dishes were:
Katzie-bold
Matthew – lemon cake great
Carlos-balance of flavors and textures
The winner of immunity for the Elimination Challenge was Matthew.

Elimination Challenge
The orchestra of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall plus spouses were receiving 150 plates of special desserts of Top Chef-Just Desserts from each team. The chefs were organized by picks into 4 teams, with Matthew getting the extra person (who was Melissa so that wasn’t necessarily a plus). Those teams were:
Team Green – Rebecca picked Sally and Carlos
Team Blue- Amanda picked Katzie and Vanarin
Team Black- Orlando picked Nelson and Craig
Team Red- Matthew picked Chris, Megan and Melissa
 
Teams had 8.5 hours initially to create and cook, with each team member responsible for one tier of a 3-tier cake. Johnny Iuzzini went around tom Colicchio-style to check on how teams were doing. He found that the musical instrument decorations of the Blue Team were too small would not have the intended effect. The next day teams had an additional 4 hours to cook and decorate. When they arrived outside the hall, they discovered that the cakes were displayed outdoors in the heat, which also had an impact on the cakes.

The actual tiers of each cake were:
RED
Matthew-lemon pound cake, lemon daquoise, crème fraiche mousse, strawberry jam
Megan-yellow butter cake w/ honey caramel cream, preserves, mocha praline feullitine
Chris – chocolate sponge hazelnut cake, praline jam, vanilla cremeux
Melissa – cardamom sponge cake w/ ginger cream, strawberry jam
BLUE
Katzie – buttermilk cake w/ black currant jam, pistachio buttercream
Amanda – devil’s food cake w/ raspberry gelee, chocolate buttercream, praline feulletine
Vanarin- smoked salted caramel cake w/ pistachio buttercream
BLACK
Orlando- vanilla sponge soaked in chambord
Nelson-vanilla and lemon zest cake w/ pistachio buttercream + white chocolate pearls
Craig- Grandma’s chocolate cake w/ caramel + marshmallow buttercream
GREEN
Carlos- vanilla sponge cake, lemon cream + strawberries
Sally- devil’s food cake w/ chocolate buttercream, salted caramel, fresh raspberries
Rebecca- devil’s food cake w/ whipped caramel ganache, almond daquoise

One hilarious sidebar note was that Craig had named his chocolate cake Grandma’s and was asked by Maria Braun if it really was his grandmother’s recipe. Craig could have lied, but he just stated that it wasn’t. Sally during the wait for judging revealed that she had taught that recipe to Craig when she was his pastry chef instructor. Judges’ Table judged that the better teams were Red and Green. Black and Blue had the weaker cakes. Each member of those teams was assessed for maximum contribution to the chaos of their team’s cake. Vanarin won the prize (elimination) based on the issued with the musical instrument decorations and structural problems and flavor issues with his tier of the Blue team’s cake.

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TC-JD2, Ep. 3

This episode started with the introduction of Hugh Acheson, a Top Chef Masters 3 competitor. The Quickfire is to create a dessert to inspire the introduction of a new Extra Desserts chewing gum (product placement) flavor. Chefs create these desserts:

Amanda- coconut rum mousse, lemon-pineapple coulis, vanilla bean
Carlos-passion fruit gelee, coconut tapioca meringue
Chris- not shown
Craig- lemon mascarpone pancake/ cream + amaretto infused strawberries
Katzie- chocolate cream cookie, bitter chocolate cream, orange cheesecake
Matthew- oatmeal raisin cookie parfait
Megan- not shown
Melissa- white coffee cream roasted bananas, brown butter crumbs, passionfruit gelee
Nelson- black forest dessert
Orlando-not shown
Rebecca-raspberry panna cotta, w/ gingerbread crust
Sally-passion fruit pina colada

The worst 3 dishes were Rebecca (too busy on the plate, Matthew (way too sweet) and Melissa (coffee flavor not appropriate for gum).
The best 3 dishes were Nelson, Carlos and Craig. Craig was the winner of $25,000 and immunity for the Elimination Challenge.

Elimination Challenge

Teams were chosen by Craig and his pick for opposing team captain, Amanda:

Craig- Nelson, Sally, Orlando, Rebecca, Matthew
Amanda- Katzie, Carlos, Melissa, Chris, Megan 
The task of each team was to provide a dessert table for a party hosted by Lisa Vanderplunk of Housewives of Beverly Hills (nasty product placement) at her rechristened Villa Rosa (for one night only) restaurant. Her husband Ken Todd and dog Giggy came to answer questions from the chefs. Amanda’s team learned that the dog likes sweet treats and the favorite dessert of Lisa’s daughter Pandora. The teams were not told to do a Showpiece, but that was a logical thing to do in the circumstances. Teams had 6 hours to create and cook initially, then an extra 2 hours the next morning to continue that and set up.

Nelson was focusing on the creation of a lollipop. Craig’s team went bananas with dishes colored pink, apparently Craig’s favorite color and referred to by the judges as “the Big Pink Wow”.

The desserts for Amanda’s team were:
Amanda – champagne and raspberry gelee
Carlos- guava candies w/ pastry cigars
Katzie – pink macaroons filled w/ marscarpone
Melissa- white chocolate blondies w/ rose sauce
Megan- pink velvet almond cake
Chris was focused on the team showpiece. Someone even a treat for the dog.

The desserts for Craig’s team were:
Sally – chocolate raspberry tarte with lychee sorbet (which melted)
Nelson – passion fruit cheesecake lollipops with cotton candy
Craig – pink lemonade drink coated with sugar on the rim to counter its sour taste
Matthew- white chocolate cherry mousse w/ pistachio
Rebecca – chocolate beet cake, rhubarb rose crisp w/ crème fraiche sherbet
Orlando had the primary responsibility for the team showpiece.

Both teams had done an outstanding job, but someone had to be picked as the loser. Commentary was provided by:
Kyle Richards and Taylor Armstrong, colleagues on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
Pandora Todd-Vanderplunk
Ken Todd
Guest Judge Hugh Acheson
Regular judges Johnny Iuzzini, Gail Simmons and Hubert Keller
However, the decision on which team won and which lost was solely on Lisa’s shoulders. Her decision was that Amanda’s team (which she referred to as Chris’) won and Craig’s team lost.

That put the chefs of Craig’s team into Judges’ Table, but Craig personally had immunity. That was a good thing, as Hugh Acheson assured Craig that if he didn’t he would have been selected as the person eliminated. The judges quickly assured Matthew and Rebecca that their desserts were good enough to keep them out of consideration. That left Nelson, Orlando and Sally. They were criticized as follows:
Sally – sorbet melted; not much technical skill shown
Orlando – took a beautiful white table and cluttered it up with too many rose petals
Nelson- demonstrated low skill

The judges decided to send Nelson home.

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