Thought I’d bump this to comment on last week’s episode.
I had a bit of a problem with the winner. Obviously there’s the issue of a chef being so scattered she’d both forget her gumbo AND make the decision to drive 30 miles through downtown LA to retrieve it when she’s got 3 hours in total to prep. Best case scenario is you’ve lost half your prep time and if you’re a Top Chef Master you should be able to adapt on the fly like that and whip up something else with the ingredients available. Besides, if there are two chefs not only willing to slice a few yams for you but to (over) cook them, then surely there’d be chefs willing to throw you an extra ingredient or two.
But Top Chef judging has consistently been about what gets served and not what goes on in the kitchen (or so they claim) so let’s just ignore all that.
Fine. She served a gumbo. Only a gumbo. And given that, the only thing to judge on is that single dish.
So what was the main component of that dish? A sausage that she didn’t make herself. That threw it over the top for me.
The judges really gave her 4 stars for the one single dish produced of which the star ingredient was prepped by someone else?
I don’t get it. I don’t agree with it.
Oh and can I ask how long that gumbo sat out anyway? I’m thinking (hoping (praying)) that it was just for the initial car ride from one location to the other. So probably not more than two hours. But the editing made it seem as if this was left out overnight and I kept going crazy thinking why isn’t anyone discussing scrapping this dish solely because it’s no longer safe to eat?
I enjoyed tonights episode. The obvious close friendship between Wylie Dufresne and Graham Elliot Bowles makes this episode fun to watch. All the chefs were respectful and friendly towards Jonathan Waxman. He’s the old master from the 1980’s and 90’s. He reminds me a lot of Hubert Keller.
Ludo Lefebvre was an ass just like he was last season. He was whining because Rick Moonen got to make fish & chips. Rick’s known for high end fish. He probably doesn’t fry it that often. I seriously doubt that he’s ever made tarter sauce. That’s not exactly a dish that fits in a high-end restaurant.
I loved it when Rick put Ludo in his place. Ludo had to make Irish stew. Rick asked him why he didn’t make a similar French stew (lamb burgeon). That would let Ludo cook his specialty - French style. Instead, Ludo was just a whiny a-hole.
I did feel very bad for Mark Peel. The Top Chef production had a responsibility to make certain the ovens worked. Mark got screwed over and humiliated. He had to serve a dish that wasn’t even cooked. :mad:
This was the best episode this season!
Congratulations to Jonathan Waxman and Rick Moonen.
I have to agree with Graham Elliot Bowles. Kidneys are just nasty and full of piss. Graham showed his skills by working with an protein he personally dislikes. He made that classic dish superbly. Even though it’s something he wouldn’t like (I wouldn’t eat it either). That’s the mark of a real chef.
I notice they have actually changed this line on Masters… it is simply, “Please Pack your knives.” They have omitted “and go!” in the dismissive tone. Perhaps a deliberate softening and a deference of respect to the Masters.
But as far as the Catch Phrase I think that it is an important part of the show, curt and to the point, a definitive ending. I think Kelly does it much better and more sympathetically than Padma… Padma is beautiful… and ruthless.
I’m actually a little pissed that they took the “and go>” out with these celebrity chefs. Don’t want to hurt any of the fragile and cushy chefs egos… bahh… they treat these chefs with kidgloves. It’s like a week at club med for these primadonnas.
TC Masters is getting good. I like the chefs that reached the semi-finals. A nice mix of various styles. Rick is the fish guy, Susur the Asian chef, the old grizzled veteran is Jonathon etc. Susan Feniger is a street food specialist, but so far she’s done some fantastic restaurant dishes. Susan has a knack for creating incredible flavors.
It’s a shame seeing Jody go this week. I think she could have progressed pretty far, if a geoduck with a foreskin didn’t trip her up. LOL Bravo was pretty squeamish about showing the critter. Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs has some great scenes with them.
Jonathon sure gave me a scare. I was nervous he was done. Good thing the judges liked the duck tongues.
I’m puzzled why these Masters didn’t pressure cook the lamb. The chefs in last seasons Top Chef used pressure cookers a lot. Eli even blew one up. Pressure cooking is the only way to cook a tough meat (like lamb leg) quickly and get it tender.
My thought is that they had other things going on with the meat that pressure cooking wouldn’t have worked for. One was braising their goat, and the other was roasting I believe - probably for very specific goals on how they wanted their dish to taste.
I love the scoring system they use for Masters, and I wish they’d use it for the regular competition. I also really like the judges. They always have really thoughtful points about the food.
I’m really enjoying this season and I think Susur is the one to beat.
I’m definitely enjoying this season. My only real complaint is that it seems like Susur is just head and shoulders ahead of the others when he’s really on his game, so it’s definitely his competition to lose.
I like all the remaining chefs with the possible exception of Marcus. He seems too overconfident and arrogant for his skill level. The episode before the last he was saying something like “To me it’s obvious that I should be last, because I’m the best. It’s better to have it all in your own hands.” Despite his cockyness, he’s not doing that great in the challenges overall. Obviously he’s a good chef, but he’s in a different league from Susur who was his team mate for that challenge.
So far I like Jonathan and Susur the best, though Susur seems to lack some social tact. I like Rick Moonen too, though not as much as I did in the first season.
I was most impressed by Susan Feniger in this episode considering her ingredients. Susur was very comfortable with his, while it’s not easy to make a sea cucumber appetizing. Jay Rainier called it his nightmare food, but found her dish a revelation. I wish we’d have seen the star ratings for Susan and Jonathan too.
I also think that Susur is the one to beat, but I think he was really sort of a jerk for ruining one of another chef’s ingredients and saying “Hey, this is Top Chef Masters, he should be able to rise to the occasion” rather than apologizing.
I was really hoping Marcus was going home. This is really Jody’s first mis-step. I though she had a good chance of making the top 3 before this.
I think the time constraints they set frequently limit the quality of what they get. I felt the challenge of the weird ingredients was challenge enough — at least give them time to cook them!
Top Chef Masters this season is still better than most of the regular Top Chef seasons, though not nearly as good as season 1 of Masters. I like the remaining chefs, but there’s no one I adore as much as I did Rick Bayless and Hubert Keller before. Jonathan has been looking very tired for the past several episodes, and will probably go home next.
I thought it was odd that they did the taste test with an odd number of people, and gave one person a free pass into the 2nd round. I’m also not a fan of how they organize the taste test. I would like to see each Chef have to name as many ingredients as they can in secret. They’d get 1 point for every correct answer, and 2 points deducted for every incorrect answer. Now you can do well just because your opponent failed without even having to name any ingredients.
Yeah, I agree. At the very least, you should have to name one ingredient the other missed before moving on. Although it would be fun to have them each taste a dozen items and name each one, that’s also more time consuming and it already seems like a bit of a marathon for them already (e.g. Jonathan’s exhausted appearance).
Yeah. I’m still pulling for “Obi Wan” Jonathan. All of the chefs seem to like him and hold him in such high regard. I like the others, even Marcus, who started out a bit over-confident. I was sad to see Susan leave, but her dishes didn’t seem to be as “refined” as the judges seem to like.
I did laugh when so many of the cheftestants were racing to the fish counter at Whole Foods, trying to beat Rick Bayless there. They all knew he’d be going for fish.
I thought Susur was being a whiny baby when he talked about the Greek gods not being his “culture”. Hey - this was 2500 years ago - it’s no one’s culture.
He’s been in the West for 20 years - you’d think he would’ve picked up some basic knowledge like Greek mythology and tailgating.
Jonathon really looks tired. I think he wouldn’t’ve been unhappy to go home.
Rick was on something, I swear.
Marcus seems like a rock. Even with the bad back, he just did his thing. I think he took the challenge in a direction no one expected.
I didn’t like the quickfire, either. It was the culinary equivilant of “Name That Tune” (I can name that tune in five notes!) That needs to be reworked, because the exercise of testing the palate is important.
Why are they fixated on challenges that are nothing more than catering gigs? Knowing how to par-cook things so they’ll hold in a hotel pan for hours without turning to mush and what ingredients work in that sort of time-delayed cooking is worlds different than what a master chef needs to know.
Susur does whine a little too much. I couldn’t believe his initial reaction to getting Dionysus. You’re a professional chef and you’re having trouble thinking up a dish featuring WINE? But eventually he came around. When he’s not whining, he’s pretty endearing.
I’m sure Susan’s dish was yummy, but it didn’t look all that pretty on the plate. When you have the goddess of beauty and love, I think you need something more visually appealing.
So far it’s working for him.