Makes you wonder just what that tomato/cardamom sauce tasted like. I think she said at first she was going for a tomato chutney, the end result looked to be a pure liquid. To be the winning component in a Kobe beef dish that Toby said he was scarfing after the challenge was over, that had to be a sauce from hell.
I wish they’d get away from gimmicky stuff like cooking on Macy’s woks in a bedroom and team challenges and let the chefs just cook. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you can poach a quail egg in the radiator of an '83 Camaro, let them cook in a realistic setting.
Sure, but there were two different seared scallops in the quickfire. As much as I like Jen I liked Florence’s eyeroll at her daring choice of seared scallop. Like no one has ever done a seared scallop in a quickfire before.
For a real challenge they should just have an open cookoff, chef’s choice, but ban the following: ceviches, carpaccios, sous vide, foams, and seared scallops. Half the contestants would break down in tears.
They probably strained out the tomato juices and used those - I don’t have it on the DVR any longer or I’d see if the show broadcast any of the prep. I know that’s how Charlie Trotter does a fresh tomato soup recipe in one of his cookbooks.
I tend to agree with this – the challenges I’ve liked best have been the ones where they cook for more diverse events and customers, but still with a reasonable facsimile of a kitchen.
Or, if they’re going to be in a bad situation kitchen-wise, they need to be able to plan for it. It’s a good catering skill to be able to cook interesting dishes almost anywhere, but generally you get to ask what the venue has available before you show up, so “Surprise! It’s a mess hall with no stoves!” and “Surprise! It’s a home kitchen without enough electricity!” and “Surprise! It’s a firepit in the middle of the dessert!” don’t make for interesting challenges. They might if the chefs knew what they were getting into in advance and could show how awesome they could really be in limiting circumstances given a little time to plan, but as surprises, they’re just stupid and frustrating.
I suspect, though, that the reason we’re seeing a lot more of that this year is that these chefs are, on the whole, the best collection they’ve had, and if they let them cook in real kitchens every week, they’d have nobody making serious mistakes, and they’d be hard-pressed to find anybody for Toby to insult.
Oh, I don’t know, I think it’s pretty adventurous (the word she was assigned) to work with seafood, especially something as pungent as caviar, after spending the morning throwing up.
I think Bryan was genuinely worried that his brother was going to be sent home and wasn’t in the mood to talk about it. I don’t see how that’s arrogance.
OK not arrogant, but definitely snappish and rude. He could have just said: “He made blah blah with blah blah, let’s not speculate.” Instead of the: “Did you even try it? Then how can you judge?” that he did say.
Kevin was just trying to remember what they made, not passing judgment.
Somebody on TWOP suggested it might’ve been a case of strange editing. The contestants sit in that room for hours and you don’t really know what leads up to what. Besides, I’d guess the producers would jump at any chance to show Bryan do something interesting, anything interesting at all.
But judging from what we got to see, then I’d say that Bryan was a little feister than the situation called for, but it was fairly clear that he was just on the defense for the sake of his brother, which Kevin seemed to acknowledge as well.
I haven’t really been following the threads on Top Chef here, but is the consensus that Mike is a better chef than Brian? I find that hard to believe, unless I am getting them confused. Brian is the older borther right? I think he is clearly a better chef than Mike.
Michael is the one with the Michelin star and was a James Beard finalist. So he’s at least received more critical recognition than Bryan. Although it does seem that Bryan has produced better stuff on the show. And clearly critical recognition doesn’t necessarily translate to performance on this show - this week’s near-loss being a case in point. I think it kind of sucks that in these partner challenges, the one who takes the risks and is possibly the better chef ends up getting the boot. Since if their dish had fully failed, it would have been Michael who left instead of Ash.
I’m just bummed that Ashley’s gone. I really liked the way she didn’t weasel out in front of the judges (both here and with Mattin). Though it seems she’s still having fun at the house from her exit interview.
I think you can make an argument either way about which brother is better, but I find it hard to say that Bryan is clearly better than Mike. I mean, Mike has a Michelin star for God’s sake! Bryan has won three challenges; Mike just one, but he’s been in the top four times. Wikipedia, annoyingly, doesn’t seem to chart the Quickfires, but I believe that Mike has been more successful than Bryan in those.
I’d actually have been really surprised if that had happened. Neither the producers nor the judges are stupid – they can tell the difference between someone who took a chance and failed and someone who stood around and watched while a chance was taken on their behalf and neither did anything nor could have. Yeah, Michael gets the ‘almost thrown out’ edit, but if that team had actually lost, I don’t think Michael would have been sent packing.
The excellent skilletdoux.com does include Quickfires in their roundup, and it shows that as of last week, Bryan had won none, and only placed in the top once, while Michael has won one and placed in the top of two others.
You knew Ashley wasn’t going to break into that last group, but I was hoping she’d gain some confidence after doing well. I don’t think she did, which was too bad. And I agree this was another one of the bullshit challenges. I don’t care if these people can cook blindfolded unless that’s how they actually want to serve their food.
I was definitely hoping Mike I. was toast this round. He’s not just an ass, he reminds me of an ass I work with - which I don’t need on my weekend.
