Hey, what happened? RERUNS last night??? WTF???
Or the “Let Me Show You I’m REALLY Not An A-hole Show.”
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at a Quickfire.
I’m glad to finally see a traditional 3 course Italian meal EC. We haven’t seen a lot of Italian food except the pasta dishes Fabio cranks out. Michael Chiarello did some great Italian dishes in Masters. There’s a wide diversity in Italian cooking. It all depends on the region the person is from.
Antonio, Fabio, Angelo, and Mike I. should do well. I’m looking forward to seeing something interesting from them. Hopefully, not any clichéd Olive Garden dishes.
The pressure is really on Fabio. He’s run Italian restaurants since he was 18. If he doesn’t win it’s going to be pretty embarrassing.
Antonia rocked out the mussels! And Carla was right up there. As was Fabio, even if he displayed some sour grapes.
I’m pulling for Carla this season. I pulled for her during her season too, but noooo…
I thought Fabio had a good point. They should consider the difficulty of the dish and the flavors. If two dishes taste equally good, then they should consider the effort that went into it.
Steamed mussels are pretty hard to screw up. That’s cooking 101. I’ll have to trust the judges that it really topped that chicken catetori Fabio did. Fabio’s dish was a lot of work and somewhat risky. Fabio barely got it done within the limited cooking time. I do like Antonia and I’m glad she got the win.
I feel bad for Tre. I’m puzzle how he got praised for his Risotto in S3 and then sent home for it in All Stars. He cooked it the way he was trained. Were they more lenient in S3?
I’m very, very relieved that Mike I. dodged a bullet tonight. Man, that was too darn close. I like Mike and want to see him at least make the finals.
I was surprised to see Tre go, I thought it would be Mike. I’ve seen Tom bitch about stiff risotto before, though. It’s a peeve of his.
I also thought Fabio would win, and wasn’t really clear on why Antonio topped him, but I still think his cacciatore looked delicious.
I’m sensing that Carla, Fabio and Richard are getting the winner’s edits. I’m calling them as final 3.
That mussel broth must’ve been pretty good. I saw Tom soaking his garlic toast in the serving dish. I was surprised after that soup comment (“This is like minestrone you’d get in Wisconsin.”) that Carla was in the top, but I"m glad for her.
StG
I don’t remember exactly what he said, but didn’t he say he was changing it up a little from how he cooked it back in his season?
Yeah, I took that line as “It’s really good, but it’s not true Italian.” Which fits in with what Carla was saying about her food.
I was worried Dale was going to be sent home–they really hated his dish. He’s been so strong this season, though, that I want him to stick around a lot longer.
I think it totally should have been Dale who went home. Everyone HATED his dish, they seemed to be more ‘meh’ about Tre’s. Plus Tre is super hot and should stay as long as possible.
Dale had a piss-poor attitude about having to prepare Italian, and it showed in his results. I agree, he should have been packing his knives
I agree with you in general, but not for this particular challenge. First, Antonia randomly selected “antipasti” while Fabio got “secondi.” Antonia was making an appetizer while Fabio was making a main dish. In general, IMO appetizers are less complicated than main dishes, so this should not be held against her. Second, “keeping it simple” and “letting the ingredients speak for themselves” were mentioned numerous times in the lead-up to the challenge. So, simplicity was viewed as a virtue rather than a vice in this challenge, and I think Antonia embraced that and was rewarded for it.
I’m just stunned. Over salting food has always been the absolute cardinal sin on Top Chef. Over salt food and you are sent home. Dozens of chefs have been sent home for this. It’s one of Tom’s pet peeves.
I can’t believe Dale got away with this. It’s the first time I seriously wonder if the judging was influenced by something other than the food.
Fabio’sburger seemed ok based on the comments during from the diners. It wasn’t a traditional, boring burger, but it apparently had no flavor issues at all. Mixing various meats into a burger patty is pretty common. A lot of the up scale burger places (like Blais and Spikes) do this all the time and charge obscene amounts of money for them.
I lost a lot of respect for the show’s integrity tonight. Over salt your food to the point it’s inedible and you get a free pass? What happened to the “flavor” is what matters?
It’s four judges. We didn’t taste the food. And it’s edited to keep in interesting. The diners may have hated the burgers but we didn’t see it. (And I know they said at first that they liked it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started eating a burger, thought it was great, and then was sick of it halfway through.)
But I will say I’m said to see Fabio go home. I’m surprised he made it as far as he did, but I wish he could just stick around as a non-competing chef. He can make me a “booger” any day of the week.
ace-they pretty explicitly said during deliberations that burgers are 100% beef.
The trend these days is upscale burgers are often mixes of meat. Especially lamb and beef. Top Chef did a gourmet burger challenge a few seasons ago. I prefer a traditional all beef burger myself.
I am glad Carla won. So far All Stars has not featured a lot of fine dining like S6 (the Vegas season). That’s helped Carla and Antonia a lot. They are very good chefs, but their style is comfort food. It’ll be interesting to see how they do if the challenges shift to fine dining. At this point, I’m not sure they will. Next week they are taking over a store and cooking with whatever they find.
And for the Quickfire, they’re cooking for: Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Telly! (damn I’m OLD!)
I think the line from Jimmy Fallon at Judge’s Table was especially relevant. He said that the first bite was really good, the second was over salty, and the third was even worse. It seems that the cheesesteak had the right flavoring, it just had too much salt. Whereas Fabio’s burger was just completely wrong in numerous different ways. It didn’t really resemble a hamburger at all.
I seem to recall other examples of chefs being sent home for making a specific dish incorrectly, versus making the right dish poorly.
I’ll tell you what Dale’s main problem was: he used a “pretzel” roll for the cheesesteak. That’s what contributed to the over-saltiness. And oh yeah, he should have been sent packing. I really enjoyed seeing Jimmy Fallon (and his family) on this one, it made for a fun show. 
This is not to imply that I don’t like pretzels, mind you. Just noting that they’re usually quite salty. Now here’s a good way to use pretzels: a pretzel ice cream cone. Sweet and salty, great combination. Nothing to do with Top Chef, though.