Previously on “Top Chef”: Restaurant Wars! Which
I always enjoy. The people who have been winning were on one team, but of
course that team crashed and burned. You can usually tell who will fail: either
one team is clearly dysfunctional, or they both look sort of OK and then the
“favorite” team will lose. Justin took over and was a jerk, but then Sara also
failed at the front-of-house stuff. According to most sources I read she really
should have made a ticket for the judges’ table, instead of just verbally
telling Justin they were ready to eat. I’ve never worked in a kitchen so I
don’t know. Anyway, in the end Sara was sent home for failing. Nick was a great
executive chef and made a delicious dish and won. The judges also said Travis
was better at FOH than Fabio, which I doubt. I mean, Fabio. (click for more)
On Last Chance Kitchen Louis handily defeated
Sara. They had to pick sous chefs and give them instructions while blindfolded.
Louis was a little bit more innovative.
Justin talks about how he was afraid he was about
to go home. Travis says he feels like one of the guys. Then he talks about how
he’s been ostracized and how once he had a chef pull him aside and tell him
gays weren’t allowed in the kitchen. Who does shit like that? Anyway, Travis
says he’s really happy to be here which means his days are probably numbered.
He’s made friendships that will last a lifetime. Oh yeah, he’s toast. Louis had
a confessional saying exactly that the episode he was eliminated.
Hubert Keller! Nice. Ugh, product placement
coffee. To be fair, it’s Dunkin Donuts coffee which is a thing people get crazy
over, so at least when Padma talks about how great it is, there will be plenty
of people who agree with her. They must make a dish using coffee. Winner gets
immunity plus $10,000. Stephanie says all her stuff is old and crappy.
30 minutes. At least when cooking with coffee
it’s not super important you have fancy brand-name coffee. Right? Plus no one
is using the brand name. Also not everyone is doing dessert which is nice.
Shirley wants a new air conditioner. Stephanie is making crepes and bacon jam
and something sweet potato which sounds delicious. I would order that. Carlos
tells us his wife makes the coffee for him, and talks about meeting her and
when they started dating. Hmm, but Travis already got screen time. People run
around and then Brian says he’s making risotto which is dumb. It’s a curse, but
he’s just won the last two Quickfires so he’s feeling cocky. Nina feels her
competition is Nick because he always thinks about everything. Carrie doesn’t
have time to make crepes so she’s going to simplify them somehow. I don’t know
how. Brian is out of time and is cursing a lot.
Travis: Alaskan sockeye salmon, coffee ponzu, and
coffee roasted eringi mushrooms. Carrie: coffee custard with candied coffee
beans and cocoa nibs. Brian: coffee risotto with Andouille sausage and sugar
snap peas. Carlos: coffee and macadamia sponge cake with mascarpone coffee
sauce. Nick: roasted sockeye salmon with hazelnut coffee caramel and hon-shimeh
mushrooms. Hon-shimen? I can’t read my TV. That’s two mushrooms varieties that
I’ve never heard of. I’m impressed. Shirley: coffee crusted tenderloin with
garlic puree and coffee brown butter sauce. Stephanie: sweet potato and goat
cheese coffee crepe with ham and bacon coffee jam. Holy crap that sounds
delicious. The judges are non-committal but psshh. Delicious.
Brian’s risotto didn’t taste like coffee, but
Hubert doesn’t say anything about uncooked rice so I guess that’s something.
Nick’s was unpleasant. Oo. Shirley’s pairing with garlic was great, and
Carrie’s custard was very nice and satisfying. Stephanie’s dish was surprising
but all came together. Yay! I’m glad because if I was out somewhere I would have
ordered that, and been really disappointed if it had sucked. Shirley is the
winner! She’s about to hyperventilate.
Padma introduces the Elimination Challenge by
saying going home is a good thing. Anthony Mackie comes out. He’s an actor that
was in 8 Mile? Sure. I didn’t see
that movie. He talks about the things he craves when he comes home after
working. Today’s challenge is to make the dish you crave when you go home. $275
to shop and 2 hours today to cook. Tomorrow, they’ll have an hour to get it
together. Leah Chase and her family will be there too (you’ll remember her from
a previous Quickfire). The main thing to know from shopping is that Justin
would use squirrel if he could, but that is not a thing they sell at Whole
Foods so he’s buying chicken thighs instead.
This is a nice challenge. It’s not necessarily
“Cook your heritage” or even “Cook your mom’s dishes” because it’s just
whatever you like to make at home. You could use one of your own recipes that
you like. I mean, my guess is the secret requirement today is “comforting”. But
that means different things to different people. “Comforting” to me is sticky
rice and seaweed. Actually I would make my mom’s baby back ribs recipe and
sauce. Probably, assuming I made it this far and didn’t choke, which is
unlikely.
Nina is making curry chicken which sounds great.
She’s busting whole coconuts for coconut water. Nick is making gnocchi, or
possibly gnudi. Stephanie throws her family under the bus and says they can’t
cook, so she’s making mussels which is what SHE makes for THEM. Carlos wants to
make some pork dish which normally takes six hours, so he has to bust out the
pressure cooker. Shirley kneads dough, which apparently shakes the whole table.
Stephanie asks her to try not to rock the table too much, and Shirley is like
“Sure, but my next motion is also annoying.” Hee. I think everyone survives.
Travis is making plum jam to go with biscuits and gravy. Oo…kay.
Tom time! Travis’s biscuits do not have
buttermilk. Tom makes his “Are you SURE?” face. Shirley is hand-making noodles
in a pork sauce. She tells Tom it’s like pasta Bolognese. Yum. Brian has steak
and potato salad, because his dad always grilled and then mom made the rest of
the meal. I hope it’s fancy. Lots of running around last minute.
Back at the house everyone smells something as
they come up the stairs. Emeril broke into their house to make them dinner!
Hee. The soup looks great. Brian reveals that his dad had three massive strokes
last year. Aww. He starts crying and his solution is to keep on talking really
fast to try to keep going. I like Brian. He’s kind of a spaz sometimes but that
was genuine. After Emeril leaves everyone picks out the three things they’d
pick if they had to only eat three things for the rest of their lives. Stephanie
picks out mussels, bread, and cheese, which sounds pretty good. Justin picks
champagne, caviar, and tacos. Heh.
Nina calls her grandmother. She’s feeling a
little homesick because of the challenge. Her grandmother would take care of
them when her parents were traveling. I wonder if that’s her grandmother’s
curried chicken. Probably. Nick feels guilty he missed his daughter’s first
steps and things like that because he was working. I always wonder about when
people say things like that. You know you feel guilty that you’re not at home
but you’re still here on the show. You chose to come on the show, you know? I
mean, not that I don’t think he feels guilty but if he really felt super guilty
he’d have stayed home, right?
One hour to prep. Justin has this one hour to
make rice and he is freaking out that it might not be perfect. Brian discovers
there is no grill of any kind, so he has to find a grill pan for his steaks.
Travis tells us he made “tester biscuits” yesterday and they were great, but
today he only has one shot. Shirley has immunity so she’s preparing to take
some risks. Travis’s biscuits look fantastic, but when you break them open it looks
raw. He freaks out, which seems to consist of putting his head on the counter
and looking pale. Leah Chase and the judges and guests arrive. Leah says she
came to the restaurant to be a waitress, but no one in the kitchen knew what
was going on so that’s how she ended up in the kitchen. Carrie is trying to
poach 13 eggs at once. Travis is covering the biscuits in gravy (as you do)
hoping they’ll cook.
Carlos: cochinita pibil with black beans, orange
pico de gallo, and corn tortilla. Brian: Korean BBQ New York strip with potato
salad. Travis: biscuits with maple sage sausage gravy and sour plum jam. I
don’t know if I like the idea of biscuits and gravy with jam also. The flavor
of the gravy is great but the biscuits are raw. The wrong group to serve crap
biscuits to. Carlos’s pork is delicious. Brian doesn’t have any charcoal
flavor. Hmm, another secret requirement.
Nick is freaking out that he will run out of time.
He cries in confessional, as we see footage of him crying while plating. Nick:
ricotta gnudi with pancetta, peas, lemon, and parmesan. He gets choked up
describing it. Shirley: Beijing noodles, fermented bean and pork sauce with pickled
radish. She gives it a name but I don’t know what she said. Stephanie: mussels with
spicy pickled peppers and tomatoes. And homemade focaccia. The gnudi are
perfect. I think the judges are moved by Nick’s emotion. Shirley did a great
job too. Tom loves the pickled peppers and mussel combination from Stephanie.
Justin is thrilled his rice turned out. Justin: Louisiana
rice with chicken thigh gravy, pickled mirliton and jalapeno. I think mirliton
is chayote. Carrie: creamed asparagus over toast and poached egg. Nina: curried
chicken with fried bakes. “Bakes” are just fried dough, so then “fried bakes”
seems redundant. Everyone raves over Carrie’s dish and the egg. Nina has great
flavors but it seems everyone wants some rice. Justin’s is a little dry. But I
think it still tastes good. It looks like everyone got praise except Travis,
and he even got some praise.
Commercial interlude: Anthony gives Tom shit
about…something involving “mechanically separated meat”. I have no idea what
just happened.
No one wants to go home on a challenge where they
cooked something so important to them. Video time. Everyone made delicious
dishes and cooked from the heart. Carlos, Nina, Stephanie, and Carrie get
praised. Stoned Padma makes a comeback when she says “I liked the mussels” in
that monotone she used to do all the time. They also say Travis’s gravy was
good but say nothing about the biscuits. Actually I think they say something
nice about everyone. Padma collects Nick, Stephanie, and Carlos. These are the
top three! Nick really doesn’t want to go home, but his dish was executed
perfectly and was from the heart. Stephanie and her boyfriend go “fishing” but
don’t catch fish, and Anthony gives Tom shit about that, so I guess the
commercial interlude was about fishing? Why do I feel so out of it? Basically I
think Anthony and Tom went fishing and Tom caught nothing so Anthony won’t let
him forget it. Stephanie cooked everything beautifully and the pickles were a
really interesting combination. Carlos had a delicious dish and they all wish they
had had more tortillas. Nick is the winner! Anthony tells him to relax.
Loser Gong for Travis, Brian, and Justin. Padma
says it was a difficult decision, and they had to nitpick. Brian knows the lack
of a grill hurt his dish, because he couldn’t get any charcoal flavor. There
wasn’t anything wrong with the dish, just that everyone wanted some charcoal
flavor. Travis knew his biscuits were undercooked. Tom wonders why he would
continue if he knew while making the biscuits they weren’t working. You can’t
scrap half your dish on the day of with one hour to go. Come on, Tom. Justin
says he craves his dish when other people make it, and they make it sound like
it’s not “his” specialty. It needed more gravy. It sounds like he plated too
early and the rice soaked up his gravy.
Padma wanted more chicken and less rice from
Justin. Brian’s steak wasn’t that memorable. Travis had crappy biscuits, and
they somehow think he should have not served biscuits. But you can’t just eat
gravy and jam.
Tom tells the bottom three that it’s hard to send
someone home for cooking something that reminds them of home. But then they
send Travis home so I guess it’s not that hard. He says this show tests you as
a person and he’s learned to be open about who he is.
Next week: college students, Carrie makes
broccoli, Carlos throws people under the bus.
Last Chance Kitchen: Travis says he’s better than
some people who are left, so he’s ready to go. Louis is here to beat Travis.
Tom makes fun of Travis’s random striped socks. Then he brings up “Captain
Vietnam” and basically tells Travis that he’s very cocky about Asian food. So
here are a bunch of Asian ingredients for you to cook with! Prove you’re not
full of crap! Heh. I’m entertained they didn’t have him make biscuits, but instead
called him on the more annoying cockiness. You must use at least three of these
proteins, plus shopping from the Hong Kong market. Louis reveals his wife is
Korean. Oo, battle of the Asian spouses! 45 minutes to cook. Travis tells the
peanut gallery he’s making bitter melon soup. It’s tricky but he’s pissed that
Tom thinks he’s “self-proclaimed”. Because he really does know what he’s doing.
Louis is putting tripe in the pressure cooker. Travis makes squid cakes.
Everyone laughs at Louis for some reason and he says they’re assholes. Michael
is still annoying even in the peanut gallery. Tom hovers and Travis has the
balls to tell Tom he’s making him nervous. But then he says he nailed it. Everyone
is confident. Travis: bitter melon soup with squid cakes. Louis: braised tripe,
dried shrimp and Chinese sausage with bamboo shoots and bok choy. Now, they
were supposed to use three of the proteins but I don’t know what other proteins
Travis used. Both dishes were really good and they both managed to develop the
flavors in under an hour. Travis’s soup wasn’t bitter and the squid was not
rubbery. Louis successfully made tripe and had lots of flavors. Louis is the winner.
Travis says he’s not angry because his dish was very hard to do and he pulled
it off. Louis says he’s worked hard enough that this would be a good payoff.
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