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"Marcel's Quantum Kitchen"

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TexasLady:
i watched part of this, about midway through I lost interest although I meant to record it so I could see how cooking in the bike shop worked out. I will give the show another try though.

apskip:
MQK, Ep. 4

Marcel’s next catering assignment was the50th anniversary party of Steve Walden as a surfer and 45th in a surfing shop. His girlfriend appears to have made the arrangements and hired a party planner Antoinette.

His staff agreed that “Marcel is losing it” based on all the conflict at the prior catering assignment. He had lost the ability to make Jarrid, Devon and Robyn part of the team. Marcel and Robyn went surfing (and looked like neophytes) with Steve to demonstrate their worthiness. Marcel was looking for inspiration for the party menu and apparently found it, as many items were sea-based and they were also based on Hawaii where they learned Steve had spent part of his life. It was to be a Hawaiian luau.

The menu concepts that were developed were:
Tuna poke (marinated fish)
Spam poi with taro chips
Lomi lomi Amadai
Opihi (small shellfish) shell mimicked by edible version using cornstarch
short ribs cooked on mostly flat 500 degree rocks tableside, w/ pineapple saffron sauce
Fauxconut – coconut cream frozen in shape of a ball and powdered with cinnamon

For innovative architecture, Jarrid attempted to make a volcano work, but was not successful. That may have been good since Antoinette hated it: “it looks like elephant dung. However, Marcel had Plan B ready, so the guests ate the same food regardless of whether the volcano was in operation.

All guests appeared to have a good time, particularly Steve. Marcel was able to say in closing that “we worked like a team” and know that his staff really believed that and were with him, a radical changed from where they started this episode.

apskip:
MQK, Ep. 5
This episode the outgoing President of a volunteer organization supporting Engine Company 27 of the Los Angeles Fire Company has hired Marcel to cater a  reception honoring those volunteers . This time Marcel has a very decent real kitchen to work in. Marcel must work with party planner Sasha and the usual conflicts between Marcel and any party planner occur, this time over the plates. Marcel regards plates as part of his art and party planners do not like their normal decision making to be infringed. She does, however, on a fire table which is a propane pipe to be set down the middle of a table and produce fire.

Marcel, Jarrid, Devon and Robyn visited the firehouse to sample items that the firemen typically eat. From that they developed the menu based on their observations. Here it is:
Langoustine Cocktail under celery salad with 4 types of cocktail sauce (cocktail caviar, cocktail powder, and cocktail foam are the 3 I noted)
Four Alarm Chili - a deconstructed chili under beans and carrots, oxtail and ham hocks stuffed inside a meatball chili coquette, with a "heat tester" of four chili gel cubes (4 alarms of chilies- Alarm 1 Mild yellow bell peppers, Alarm 2 Hot green Serrano chilies, Alarm 3 Hotter red Thai burns chilies, Alarm 4 Hottest orange habaneros) with a milk and honey "cool-down" in a mini faux fire extinguisher
Apple Smoked Baby Back Ribs (apple butter gelatin bones, apple chips, popcorn, and black trumpet mushrooms, infused with an apple smoke under a cloche)
Carrot Cake (cream cheese snow, blackberry and white chocolate ambers, cinnamon stick twigs, carrot puree shaped flames with golden raisin caramel) – Robyn stated that this had 9 components, so it is a high risk dish.

Marcel wanted, as always, special plates and that created tension with party planner Sasha because she had not ordered what he asked for and time was short. He needed circular plates of a 11.5” diameter so that would fit under a cloche (think glass dome) and allow the ribs to be smoked. The plate and cloche then had to hold that smoke until time to serve. When this actually happened the party host got long-winded in his recognition speeches accompanying the awarding of 6 ceremonial fireman’s axes, so  Marcel had to resmoke multiple times. The plates arrived just in time.
 
Marcel asked Sasha to taste his lagoustine dish because at the time she came for a dry-run it was the only dish he had perfected. She was allergic to shrimp, but Jarrid convinced her to try the langoustines by stating they are like lobster (true).
The guests received “A Night to Remember,” as Marcel had taken fireman’s food to new heights.

apskip:
MQK, Ep. 6, Finale

Marcel has been catering a variety of private parties in the Los Angeles area, but to finish this series he and his team traveled to Detroit to visit Chrysler headquarters.  The executives associated with the Chrysler 200 want to throw a party for 30 at the Chrysler Museum honoring the graduates of its design school. The building Marcel and team visits has high security, which Marcel obliterated by peeking under a nearly closed pull-down door. For inspiration, Marcel was allowed to be the passenger of a 200 being driven on the Chrysler test track at 100 mph. The biggest problem logistically was that there were no burners or ovens in the Chrysler Museum, so improvisation was the name of the game.

Jarrid, Robyn and Devon were the support team before Sally was called in to help with a complex dessert and Marcel’s friend Katsuya was flown in to help with the fish course.

Marcel’s brainstorming session with his teams resulted in this menu:
Deep Dish Pizza Amuse Bouche – a high tech version with air pockets created to put inside a liquid mozzarella, tomatoes and basil
Langoustines
Cryo Rendering of Duck with Gnocchi (an advanced version with potatoes and alginate and olive oil combined with a carbonate to make it gel
Fish (Jarrid states that there is only one with the right implications for Chrysler – turbot, and it’s obvious that he is correct) – with making holes in the skin to render its fat via freezing at -30 degrees F to allow slower cooking
Dessert of Chocolate Tire Tracks – dark chocolate molded ganache with 5 additional components to make it hard to plate

Marcel was originally liaising through a low-level guy in the design shop, but unexpectedly a senior executive took his place as liaison. Andy came to sample Marcel’s food and make sure the risks involved were within reason. Andy tasted everything but the langoustines (allergic) but suggested that the dessert would be more true-to-life with 2 tracks instead of just one.

Marcel wanted to start the event with a whiz-bang opening. Jarrid found a toy-size hovercraft that could be perfect. Trials of it proved it tempermental, so Jarrid could not guarantee that it would be successful. Marcel elected to take the risk and it did succeed.     

The gnocchi was a different story. The production technique for the gnocchi was very complex and prone to poor results. Marcel had no choice but to go with it and one diner returned her gnocchi. This was the first time it had ever happened to Marcel on two seasons of Top Chef or this one of Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen. It was probably a good thing to keep his humility and desire to push the limits within some boundaries. 

I like Marcel, but he is difficult to take through much of this series, particularly in relating to his staff. They are employed but the relationship is overload to servant. He is pushing the envelope of molecular gastronomy and attempting risky stuff he would never have dared to do on Top Chef for fear of failure and elimination. As a caterer, his losses were to his reputation. I must say that if I were a party planner I would never want to work with Marcel. He is just too demanding.

This series was worth watching, but I might not watch a second series of Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen. Let’s see Richard Blais in the same role!

TexasLady:
Most likely if ratings were not that good there won't be a 2nd season. Marcel is hard to take in large doses, as part of a group he is bearable.

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