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Top Chef Masters 3

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Bravo's "Top Chef Masters" returns with a brand new format and 12 new award-winning chefs hungry to compete for the title of "Top Chef Master" and win $100,000 for their charity. This season, the masters will no longer be judged on a scale, but in elimination style challenges just as the tried and true format of the original "Top Chef." In each episode, money will be at stake, with the winners of every quickfire challenge winning $5,000 and elimination challenges winning $10,000 for their designated charities. As previously announced, celebrity chef Curtis Stone will serve as the newly appointed host of the series along with returning judge and culinary expert, James Oseland, and new series judge, the legendary food critic and author, Ruth Reichl. The third season of "Top Chef Masters" premieres on Wednesday, April 6 at 11 p.m. ET/PT and will move to its regular time period on April 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Following are the 12 "Top Chef Masters" competing chefs:

- Hugh Acheson - Chef/ Partner: Five& Ten, The National, Gosford Wine - in Athens, GA and Empire State South, Atlanta, GA; Competing for Wholesome Wave Foundation

- Floyd Cardoz - Former Executive Chef/Partner- of Tabla and soon-to-be Executive Chef/Partner of a new Danny Meyer restaurant; Competing for Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund

- John Currence - City Grocery Restaurant Group, Oxford, MS Competing for No Kid Hungry

- Traci Des Jardins - Chef/Co-owner of Jardini�re, Mijita Cocina Mexicana and Public House and Manzanita, San Francisco, CA; Competing for La Cocina

- George Mendes - Chef/Co-Owner of ALDEA, Manhattan, NY; Competing for Charity: Water

- Mary Sue Milliken - Co-Chef/ Owner: Border Grill Restaurants and Truck, Los Angeles, CA; Competing for Share Our Strength

- Naomi Pomeroy - Owner: Beast in Portland, OR; Competing for Seed Savers Exchange

- Suvir Saran - Executive Chef: D�vi, New York, NY; Competing for Agricultural Stewardship Association

- John Rivera Sedlar - Owner: Playa, Los Angeles, CA; Competing for American Diabetes Association

- Alex Stratta - Executive Chef: Stratta, Las Vegas, NV; Competing for Faster Cures, part of the Milken Prostate Cancer Foundation

- Celina Tio - Chef/Owner: JULIAN Restaurant, Kansas City, MO, Competing for Harvesters

- Sue Zemanick - Executive Chef: Gautreau's, New Orleans, LA; Competing for the Louisiana SPCA

So, Curtis Stone replaces Kelly Choi ( a plus for viewers even though I liked her) and Ruth Reichl has repalced Jay Rayner and Gael Greene

some master entertainers and celebrity guest judges including: Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, pop/rock group Maroon 5 and pop sensation Kelis, among others. For a 30 second only sneak peek of the third season of "Top Chef Masters" go to: http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-masters/season-3/videos/for-culinary-glory

 

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TCM3 begins in 6 nights at a special 11 pm EDT one-time time slot after the Top Chef 8 Reunion next Wednesday night. After next week it will drop into the TC8 time slot at 10pm.

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TCM3

The new top Chef Masters 3 is very different from TCM1 and TCM2. The main difference is related to the long season with no break, which world-class chefs used to keep up with their restaurants. In TCM3 the format is what Top Chef’s format is, starting with 12 chefs and eliminating one each week to get to the final 2 or 3, depending on whether the finale will be one-episode or two-episode. What got lost in the translation is that there are no world-class chefs competing in TCM3. The chefs are all first-class, but nobody is world-class. The closest to that in my opinion is Traci des Jardins, who has one Guest Judge appearance (TC6-12) in her background. None of the rest of the chefs are so high-profile that I have heard of them. Well, that is about to change.

Here were the chefs competing in TCM3:
- Hugh Acheson - Chef/ Partner: Five& Ten, The National, Gosford Wine - in Athens, GA and Empire State South, Atlanta, GA; Competing for Wholesome Wave Foundation

- Floyd Cardoz - Former Executive Chef/Partner- of Tabla and soon-to-be Executive Chef/Partner of a new Danny Meyer restaurant; Competing for Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund

- John Currence - City Grocery Restaurant Group, Oxford, MS Competing for No Kid Hungry

- Traci Des Jardins - Chef/Co-owner of Jardinire, Mijita Cocina Mexicana and Public House and Manzanita, San Francisco, CA; Competing for La Cocina

- George Mendes - Chef/Co-Owner of ALDEA, Manhattan, NY; Competing for Charity: Water

- Mary Sue Milliken - Co-Chef/ Owner: Border Grill Restaurants and Truck, Los Angeles, CA; Competing for Share Our Strength

- Naomi Pomeroy - Owner: Beast in Portland, OR; Competing for Seed Savers Exchange

- Suvir Saran - Executive Chef: Davi, New York, NY; Competing for Agricultural Stewardship Association

- John Rivera Sedlar - Owner: Playa, Los Angeles, CA; Competing for American Diabetes Association

- Alex Stratta - Executive Chef: Stratta, Las Vegas, NV; Competing for Faster Cures, part of the Milken Prostate Cancer Foundation

- Celina Tio - Chef/Owner: JULIAN Restaurant, Kansas City, MO, Competing for Harvesters

- Sue Zemanick - Executive Chef: Gautreau's, New Orleans, LA; Competing for the Louisiana SPCA

I must state that when I see the list of restaurant experience, I would have to elevate both Sue Zemanick (Gautreau’s) and Floyd Cardoz (formerly Tabla and soon to be at a new Danny Meyer Restaurant)

Curtis Stone replaces Kelly Choi (a plus for viewers even though I liked her) and Ruth Reichl has replaced Jay Rayner and Gael Greene. James Osener remains as a Judge. Quickfire wins would result in $5k prize for the charity and elimination Challenge wins $10K to the charity. Total prize money was $100K for finishing first for TCM3 and a total of $250K in prize money over the episodes (at $15K per episode and 8 episodes left before the Finale those numbers do not appear to add up).


TCM3, Ep. 1

Osener and Reichl arrived to Judge the Quickfire. There were 15 mystery boxes and each chef would randomly pick one for pairing with the ingredient select by their adversary. It was one of those impossible challenges involving 2 very disparate main ingredients and 20 minutes was too much time pressure for some. Here were the dishes presented (or not) in competing pairings of 2 based on physical proximity(winner of each pair gets a *):

*Suvir – makes something out of corned beef with marshmallows
Tio – could not finish

*Traci – duet of salads with licorice and peanut butter
John – licorice, bacon and peanut butter hors d’oeuvres

*Mary Sue –cottage cheese and frogs’ legs
John – no cottage cheese sauce on the plate

*George - popcorn and chicken livers
Sue - unclear

*Floyd -cockles and marmite (vegetable spread from Australia)
Alex – marmite soup vs. cockles/leek soup

*Hugh - dragon fruit and sardines
Naomi - was not able to finish

Those considered for the Quickfire win were Mary sue vs. Traci. Traci won $5K for La Cocina.
The winners of these duos were Suvir, Traci, Mary Sue, George, Floyd and Hugh. Traci and Mary Sue were the two best. Traci’s salad duo won the $5K and immunity for the Elimination Challenge. All six of them were designated to be Team Red in Restaurant Wars, the first week Elimination Challenge. The three first-round non-presenters and other 3 losers were on Team Blue. Team Red named its restaurant Leela and Team Blue named its restaurant Mosaic. Both teams split their manpower 3/3 to Restaurant Depot and Whole Foods. Alex found some really large scallops but did not think they would pose a problem. Mary Sue decided to do cupcakes, but then back in the Top Chef Masters kitchen discovered that there was no unsweetened chocolate to use. She had to be extremely careful to prevent it from being overly sweet. There was then 2 hours to prep and 3 hours the next day to cook.

The dishes on the Mosaic menu were:
a sweet potato and peanut soup made by John C.
a vegetable fricassee made by Alex
John S. is making rack of lamb
Sue is making a halibut and scallops entrée.
a flourless chocolate cake by Naomi
a pistachio cake semi-freddo by Celina

The dishes on the Leela menu were:
Floyd is doing short ribs with oat risotto
George is doing a slow poached salmon
Traci is making a warm bread salad with Artichokes and burrata
Hugh is doing sea scallops.
Suvir is doing a berry and pear cobbler
Mary Sue is making chocolate cupcakes

One individual from each team had to serve as Front of House and typically they made a dessert. That would be Traci for Grey and Naomi for Blue. There were some issues regarding the FOH’s decisions on when and how quickly to sit the diners, who would be deciding the fate of each team, and whether to try a mass catering approach (Blue) or more of a normal restaurant approach (Grey). Curtis said that in his restaurant the FOH decision made by Naomi would have resulted in her being fired. Leela had serious problems in coordinating the flow of food to the kitchen, but it appears that Naomi was able to smooth those over with the diners, but not with the judges.

There were a number of comments about the food by the judges:
The lamb was beyond rare
Chocolate cupcakes were dry, too conservative and not innovative in any way
Split decision on oat risotto; some loved it and others did not
Sea scallops were beyond over-salted
Traci’s salad very good
berry cobbler excellent
Apple jicama salad still has store stickers left on some apples

The judges felt it was no contest for Grey, but the diners selected Blue instead. The winners for the episode were Naomi’s torte and Alex’s veal fricassee and Alex won the $10K.

That meant Red was going to have someone eliminated. The only two that the judges called back were Mary Sue (for conservative, boring, dry cupcakes and not trying anything innovative) and Hugh (dramatically oversalted scallops due to using Maldon, intense salt flakes that he did not think to make adjustments for. The body English on this decision made it seem that MarySue would be going home, but Hugh was eliminated instead. He had a sin of commission rather than omission (note – in regular Top Chef that normally carries the decision but not in TCM3). However, Mary Sue did win the Quickfire and I believe that created the decisive advantage for her to stay alive.
 

franxaverian:
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The person's eliminated was Hugh...Alex was the challenge's winner.

Quickfire dish: Create a dish head to head with ingredients in 2 mystery boxes 
Mary Sue v.s. John Currence - Frog legs & Cottage Cheese
*Mary Sue: Chilli cottage cheese cake  meuniere with frog legs
John C. : Buffalo Frog legs (Cottage cheese didn't make it to the plating)

Suvir v.s. Celina Tio: Corned beef and marshmallow
*Suvir: Corned Beef and marshmallow chaat
Celina Tio: Didn't make it to the plating

Hugh v.s. Naomi: Dragon fruit and Sardines
*Hugh: Pan-seared sardines with dragon fruit salad
Naomi: Didn't make it to the plating

George v.s. Sue : Popcorn and chicken livers
*George: not shown but got into winning group
Sue: not shown

Floyd v.s.: Cockles and Marmite
Alex: Cockles and leek soup with Marmite
*Floyd: Marmite Soup with cockles

Traci v.s. John S.: Peanut butter and Licorice
*Traci: Celery salad with peanut butter vinaigrette & Licorice and orange salad
John S.: Bacon licorice peanut butter Hors D'oeuvres

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franxvaerian,

You are quite right. I had a typo there. Also actually won the Elimination Challenge so it would be impossible for him to be eliminated. It was Hugh eliminated. Thanks for he good catch!

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