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Top Chef - Just Desserts 2

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apskip:
TC-JD2, Ep. 7

This episode was jam-packed from start to finish. The Guest Judge was introduced for the Quickfire, Mark Israel. The chefs were told that the winner gets $10,000 but no immunity AND there will be an elimination of the worst chef in the Quickfire. Whoa! That got the attention of the chefs instantly. There are 2 hours to create the perfect donut. Here were the donuts presented:

Carlos – orange and lemon zest bombolinis w/ passion fruit cream   
Chris – citrus churro w/ raspberry jam
Katzie – cocoa beignet w/ date ganache
Matthew - ginger beignet w/ whipped caramel jivara cream
Megan – cake donut w/ honey cardamom glaze
Orlando – spiced banana beignet
Sally – expresso glazed donut w/ caramelized cashews

The best donuts as rated by the 3 judges present (Johnny had joined Mark and Gail) were those of Sally and Carlos. Carlos won because his texture was outstanding and the passion fruit flavor was really good. Considered for worst were:
Megan – too much glaze for the amount of dough
Matthew – too sweet, needed acidity
Orlando – no hint of the promised cardamom and  supposedly spiced donut 
Megan was eliminated.

The Elimination Challenge was a Chocolate Showdown. A random draw determined 2 teams of 3. The Red team was Katzie, Chris and Matthew, which I would regard as the less experienced team except for Chris. The Red team was Orlando, Sally and Carlos. There was 15 minutes to plan and 5 hours to cook, followed after an overnight lull by another 3 hours to cook. The focus for each team was allowing a Showpiece by Orlando and a Showpiece by Chris to take center stage. To accommodate that, Orlando’s dessert recipe had to be handled by Sally and Carlos and I commend Orlando for his willingness to delegate that to them so that he could exclusively concentrate on the Showpiece. Chris made his own Showpiece without help and also made a fairly simple dessert. Orlando made the remark while at work that “I like my showpieces like I like my men – tall.”

The judging team is Johnny, Gail, Dannielle and Wylie Dufresne. The Red team is doing a 15 minute finishing cooking and the Blue team will be dining with the judging and commenting. The dishes were:

Katzie – boca negra cake, mousse, jasmine, passion fruit curd, candied violets, whipped cream glacee
Chris – chocolate brioche, chocolate cream, vanilla ice cream, cocoa nib tuile
Matthew – chocolate tart w/ chiboust, caramel, compressed cherries, chocolate sorbet

The Blue team, especially Orlando, ripped the Red team’s dishes apart but the judges ignore it as posturing.

The teams switch and the Blue team is doing the 15 minute finish and the Red team eating.  The dishes were:

Orlando – puff pastry, milk chocolate mousse, mango coulis,
roasted cocoa nib sorbet
Sally – maniari caramel mousse, spiced caramel , passion fruit gelee
Carlos – caramelized cremeux, milk chocolate mousse , peanut butter mousse, caramelized banana

The Red team, especially Chris also ripped the Blue team’s dishes apart and it too was ignored. Both chris and Orlando were big talkers. Why did the producers bother with that absurd behavior? What did they expect?

The judges, as well as any TV viewer, found both showpieces compelling. They rated the Blue team as the winner, which excused Orlando, Sally and Carlos from Judges Table. Comments from the judges aimed at specific chefs were:
Chris – texture was unappealing; Johnny said there was something off
Katzie - not enough jasmine or curd to offset the overwhelming flavor of the boca negra cake
Matthew – tart was overwhelming in sweetness, not a distinguished dish

In the final commentary by the judges, here was what they said:
Katzie – boca negra cake too rich, lacked elegance and finesse
Matthew – lacked balance
Chris – not up to normal standard
 
It was Katzie sent home.

apskip:
TC-JD2, Ep. 8

The Quickfire Judge (staying on for later) was the famous Francois Payard. The challenge was to create an excellent pie with one hand tied behind the backs of the chefs in 1.5 hours. The winner would get $5,000. This meant that normal things like opening a bottle of water and peeling fruit was not possible. These were the pies presented:

Carlos – raspberry lemon meringue pie
Chris – banana cream pie w/ banana caramel
Matthew – disqualified for accidentally touching plate with his left hand; not sampled
Orlando – blueberry/raspberry/blackberry/strawberry pie
Sally – red plum and strawberry double-crusted pie w/ white chocolate chantilly

Payard judged that Sally (too tart, too much dough) and Chris (too much ?, not enough banana) were the worst. The best were Orlando and Carlos. Carlos won for his effective combination of lemon and raspberry flavors.

The Elimination Challenge was to create an upscale dessert for a Carnival being hosted by Food & Wine magazine Editor-in-Chief Dana Cowin for 170 guests at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens. The initial cooking time was 3 hours, with an additional 2 hours the next day. The chefs also had $400 and 30 minutes to shop for display equipment. Carlos had a macaroon at the end of the initial cooking time, but he failed to protect it overnight and it dried out, making it unservable. Carlos decided to substitute an angel food cake as something he could accomplish in the remaining time. Sally had a corn pudding in the blast freezer when the initial time ran out and had to reprocess it from a frozen state the following day. Chris hogged the Paco-Jet freezers so that nobody else could use them.

These were the desserts created:
Carlos – sesame angel food cake “burger”, churro “fries”, strawberry-lemon cake
Chris – funnel cake ice cream, sable Breton, strawberry funnel cake, mint foam
Matthew – fried caramel apple pie w/ apple carpaccio, vanilla ice cream
Orlando – candy apple flavor infused into a chocolate entremets, apple sorbet
Sally – white corn brown butter cake w/ corn pudding, peanut ice cream

The judges were Gail, Johnny, Francois and Hubert. Dana Cowin had input although she was not on the formal judging panel. Criticism of those desserts from the judges followed. The winners group was Matthew and Sally. Matthew won for having a balanced, clean and simple dessert. That left Orlando, Chris and Carlos in the losers’ group. Comments were:
Orlando – apple flavor overwhelmed by chocolate in the entremet; layers of the entremet not well executed
Carlos- angel food cake texture poor
Chris – agar jelly hard for guests to eat, too complicated, lacked refinement

While waiting for the final judgment, the chefs labeled Chris as Paco-Jet Man, Carlos as Nitro Man and Orlando as Chocolate Man.

Carlos was eliminated.

apskip:
TC-JD2, Ep. 9

The Guest Judge role was identified as Suzanne Goin was introduced. However, there was no Quickfire for her to judge as a diabolical Elimination Challenge started. It was a variation on the Top Chef 7 episode where the chefs were supposed to disguise their dishes so its appearance led to the conclusion that it was something different from what its taste indicated. IN this case, the pastry chefs had to disguise desserts to look like savory dishes from an iconic entrée from another country. The countries chosen were:
Chris – France
Orlando – Spain
Matthew – Italy
Sally – Cuba
The best iconic dishes were not immediately obvious to all the chefs, but here is where they wound up:
Chris – Beef Wellington (most would think this is a classic English dish, but Johnny researched it and determined that there was enough French background for this dish for it to be acceptable
Orlando – paella
Matthew –manicotti
Sally – Cuban sandwich

The chefs had 3 hours to cook day 1 and 2 additional hours day 2. Chris used purchased pastry dough to save time. Orlando cooked his rice in a rice cooker. Matthew was painstaking in putting stripes down the long dimension of his pasta. Sally tried to hedge her bets and make two different items so she could decide which one to finish later, but she eventually chose to do the Cuban sandwich. The detail work was painstaking to get the dishes to look authentic. The diners who were commenting were Suzanne Goin, Michael Cimarusti, John Sedlar and Soon Yoon. The judges included Iron Chef Cat Cora, Hubert Keller, Johnny Iuzzini and Gail Simmons.

The dishes presented were:
Chris – “Beef Wellington” (Chocolate Mousse, Raspberry Jam & Salted Caramel)
Orlando – “Paella” (Coconut Saffron Rice, Compressed Plums & Roasted Beets)
Matthew – “Manicotti” (Crème Fraiche Cake with Mascarpone-Ricotta Mousse, Strawberry Sauce & Basil Gelée)
Sally - “Cuban Sandwich with Potato Salad & Plantain Chips” (Cream Cheese Mousse, Passion Fruit Mustard and Strawberry Caramel)

Comments while dining led me to the conclusion that Chris and Sally were going to finish in the top while Orlando and Matthew were going to be on the bottom. Judges’ Table summary comments were:
Chris- beautiful, but questions about the pastry not being made in-house
Matthew – beautiful presentation; flavor variation lacking; he had promised Johnny tomato in the dish and did not deliver that
Orlando – use of fruit to mimic seafood was good; rice cooker did not give a paella type texture; technique lacking; taste lacking; his use of beets was questionable
Sally – “you fooled us all”; white mousse was a problem as it oozed out with minimal pressure; Asian potato salad was exquisite

The winner was Sally. Chris was excused to guarantee his place in the finale. It was between Matthew and Orlando on who would get the last spot in the finale. Matthew did and Orlando was sent home.

apskip:
TC-JD2, Finale

This was not structured the same as any prior Top Chef or Top Chef-Just Desserts finale. The 3 pastry chefs were stunned by the offer of help from these Meilleurs Ouvriers de France:
Jacques Torres (Mr. Chocolate)
Sebastien Canonne (co-founder of the French Pastry School in Chicago)
Stephane Treand, owner of The Art of Pastry

Those 3 were not assigned to any of the competing chefs, as they rotated and helped all of them within the 5 hour time frame of day 1. The next day there was 10 hours to cook but so much to do, so TC-JD2 provided 2 sous chefs from the eliminated ones. The first was assigned by random draw. Sally got Van (out at the 2nd episode), Chris got Rebecca (out at the 6th episode) and Matthew got Megan (out at the 7th episode). Then Sally got to pick Orlando, Chris got to pick Amanda and Matthew got to pick Carlos. Needless to say, the second round picks were better than the first round.

The Challenge was to create the following within those time frames:
A Showpiece
An entremets
A savoury bread
A bonbon
A plated dessert inspired by someone who has a close relationship to you
Chris and Matthew were each inspired by their wife and young child. Sally was inspired by her mother and sister. Sally designed a showpiece but left the much more experienced Orlando (in showpieces) execute it for her. Matthew and Chris did their own showpieces.

The dishes created were: 

Chris
Entremet: Chocolate Mousse, Vanilla Crémeux, Raspberry Jam
Bread: Brioche with Bacon Maple Butter
Bonbon: Coffee Infused Ganache, Caramel
Plated Dessert butter almond cake w/ mango sauce, banana ice cream

Matthew
Entremet: Hazelnut Dacquoise, Passion fruit Gelee
Bread: Focaccia with Olive Oil, Maldon Salt & Fresh Thyme
Bonbon: Key Lime Ganache, Speculoos
Plated Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookie, Raspberry Mousse, Pecan Praline, Ice Cream

Sally
Entremet: Chocolate Mousse, Mango Vanilla Cream, Caramel Cremeux, Lime, Almond Sponge
Bread: Parker House Roll with Bacon, Onions, Gruyère
Bonbon: Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate
Plated Dessert: White Chocolate Espresso Mousse, Chocolate Crémeux, Cashew Nougatine, Ice Cream

These restaurant industry notaries assisted the judges (Johnny Iuzzini, Gail Simmons, Dannyelle Kyrios, Hubert Keller):
Valerie Gordon, Valerie’s Confections
Ludo Lefebvre, Ludobites
Hasty Torres, Mrs. Chocolat
Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of French Pastry /School along with Sebastien Canonne
Jordan Kahn, owner of Red Medicine

The feedback on the showpieces was:
Chris – generally very good, except a few minor parts had fallen off
Sally – excellent, but was it really hers?
Matthew – generally very good
In a very crass moment while explaining his total package to the judges, Chris directly criticized Sally by making a reference to his own creation and execution of a showpiece. I think he was way off base there, since what was Sally supposed to use Orlando for? Orlando’s best use was to do the showpiece, where he has a history of being highly competitive with Chris. Some judges supported Sally on this, but some did not.

The rest of the presentations met a high standard of excellence. Chris apparently earned a slight edge based on flavors and having no obvious glitches. Sally was solid but not everything was the same high standard. Matthew did well but had less clean flavors.

The judges had to make a decision. I hoped it would a win for Sally, but that was not to be. Chris brought it home with his consistent performance and wide range of skills.

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