Question: The ribs that were too salty, were they the same ones that were brined?
Real barbeque is not as difficult or time consuming as they make it out.
Brisket - 12 hours with the first 6 in the smoke and last 6 in foil. Just give me enough beer and a chair and I’ll stay up to keep the smoke going. Ribs - 4 hours slow and low but if they were lean (and the only reason to brine ribs is if they are really lean) its about an hour over smoke for flavor then on the grill. Similar for the chicken except maybe 45 min over smoke.
KC rub on pork ribs? Yeah it can be done and I did it once but only because I wanted to try it out and pork ribs is the only thing available. But KC rub was made for beef and if I were a KC chef I would have taken the brisket and used my rub on that chunk of cowmeat.
No other season has had the state give the production company so much money either. It’s just another form of product placement and significantly less annoying than the frozen pastas and microwave rices.
I disagree. It makes the competition and the cooking less interesting.
As others have noted in this thread, this week’s main challenge involved a cooking “technique” in which the main component is letting meat sit in a smoker or sit on a fire. This week’s show (apart from the quickfire) had basically none of the focus on technique and style that i expect from the show. During the whole challenge, we hardly saw any of the chefs do anything interesting. What we saw, for the most part, was people sweating over a large fire pit. Riveting stuff!
Is this the first season that they’ve openly hyped cars via contestants just “happening” to mention the full make and model of the vehicle they’re taking to Whole Foods/someone brought supplies for them in/etc? Or am I finally noticing it now when one of the contestants says something like, “So (judge name) pulls up with his Toyota Whatever stuffed full of wood! He had enough in there to blah blah blah and I couldn’t believe the car would hold that much?” I mean outside of the “whoever wins this QuickFire won’t get immunity, but will win a (new car model)” statements by Padma, but actual contestants saying the full name of the car in use and talking about its use to ferry them around or bring them things.
The contestants in past seasons have also spoken about “piling into the RAV4s for the trip to Whole Foods” and stuff like that.
I understand that the show is basically one big commercial. I can tune out that product placement bullshit. The difference with the focus on Texas cuisine is that it isn’t that interesting, and compromises the actual cooking and competition part of the show.
I’ll disagree slightly. A good BBQ isn’t too terribly difficult or time consuming. It’s like the food these chefs make on a regular basis. Good food is not terribly difficult to make. But making Michelin star quality restaurant food takes time and effort.
The guys who are taking their BBQ to competitions really are spending that kind of time and energy on their food, too.
The judge for this episode, Nathan Myhrvold, and his Microsoft team won last year’s Memphis in May BBQ world championships, and that is truly a noteworthy accomplishment.
At that level, it’s not just smoking the meat for several hours. The mix of spices, the choice of woods, the evenness of the heat, the design of the smoker, and other factors can affect the final result.
You’re probably selectively forgetting some of the truly awful sponsored challenges in earlier seasons (or even the godawful sponsored Twitter challenge this season).
When I said real barbeque, I meant cooking with long slow heat vs. quick grilling. I agree that taste profile is critical like when I point out that KC rub is meant for beef ribs so a good question is whether to use it on pork ribs or beef brisket but that is independent on physically cooking the meat. The smokers look like they had thermometers on them and the wood was precut.
Sigh. Looks like I need a six-pack and hunt up some beef ribs and get my homemade SmokeMaster 1000 out of hibernation.
Well, geez, the briskets in the smoker jumped off the merry-go-round and did a face plant in the dirt. The team members were talking about how good it was they had wrapped everything in foil first.
It seems to me that wrapping everything in foil contraindicates the whole idea of smoking the food! Not only that, the reaction of the meat juices with the heat and smoke forms the “bark” on the meat, a highly desirable effect. Wrap the stuff in foil, you’re steaming it!
~VOW
So was I. The serious Memphis in May contestants cook through the night, and they’re usually on site for days before the judging begins.
You can’t do pork BBQ (chopped or ribs) via quick grilling. At least, you can’t do it in a way any Memphis BBQ enthusiast won’t spot immediately.
And all the other stuff is true, too. The choice in wood, evenness of the heat, the exact temperature used, spice rubs, cuts of meat, etc. all have their effects on the outcome. The top competitors really aren’t just tossing meat on smoke for a few hours.
Maybe the Top Chef people didn’t have all those options or the producers opted not to go into all the details, but that doesn’t mean top BBQ doesn’t require a lot of effort.
The Salt Lick is considered one of the best BBQ joints in central Texas (though not usually THE best) for a reason. They take care to do all the little things right.
Well, they finally got to cook what they wanted to, thank God. They didn’t have to lasso their ingredients or serve the guests on horseback, either.
The loser was Ty-Lor. No surprise there. He was consistently weak and the only time he won it was as part of a team. The remaining three men are all decent, but they bob up and down like ducks on a rough sea. You have no idea how they are going to do week to week, and that is bad for this late in the competition. The same for the women. No one outstanding, and the worst of the lot may be this week’s winner, Beverly. Asian chick does beef short ribs with Asian sauce and spices. Really? For Restaurant Wars?
This is the weakest field I can recall in any Top Chef season. Ton C. clearly hates them all. I think the best chef left is the one running the table in Last Chance Kitchen. I hope she makes it through three more episodes.
I hate it when someone really weak manages to hang on. Bev just isn’t in the same league. I’ve never seen a professional chef that slow. It’s painful watching her cook.
She reminds me of a catering chef that isn’t used to cooking under pressure. They cook their stuff ahead and aren’t cooking with people waiting. Bev just doesn’t have a high gear.
I haven’t see anyone that would make week 7 in a regular Top Chef season. I’m very surprised because it was over a year since the last regular season. They should have been finding great chefs for this season while All Stars was filmed and Aired.
Looks like Sarah decided to take over Heather’s role in the “let’s be a bitch to Beverly” saga. Beverly does need to be more assertive.
I don’t think this version of Restaurant Wars was even close to fair. The girls had a huge advantage going second. Not only did they have an extra day to plan and refine their dishes, they also had the opportunity to see what worked or didn’t work during the guys’ effort. They need to go back to the simultaneous restaurants.
I said that out loud when they told the contestants the way it would work. The second team had a huge advantage. Also, even though the goal was to open a restaurant it appears the judges only cared about the food, not the service or the wait. If the guys had spent more time and effort on cooking and didn’t waste time on service they might have faired better.
We dropped our satellite service, so I haven’t seen the last few episodes of Top Chef: Chuckwagon, and I haven’t missed it a bit. A pretty good illustration of how sad this season is compared to previous is that I can’t even pull up a mental image of any of the chefs.
I feel sorry for Tom and Padma. It’s like somebody threw them over the shark.
I don’t much like Beverly, but I find it terrible how rude everyone is to her, especially when not in the kitchen. She’s not the best chef, but obviously she’s not the worst if she won the challenge. She’s not sabotaging anyone and so telling her she was undeserving of the win and constant belittling of her is too far. And I was starting to be on Team Sarah because of how mean her teammate was about her last week and her hospital visit, but now that she just seems like a hypocrite? Nope. I’m not particularly rooting for anyone this season.
Beverly is socially awkward, which might be partly why she isn’t particularly liked, but the feeling I get is that she is that way precisely because she has been bullied by people like Sarah and her ilk. Maybe it’s because she is thin and they are not. I don’t know, but she does seem to be a decent chef. She isn’t my favorite, but I’m not going to be too upset if she beats all these people being mean to her.
Lindsay surprised me, and not in a good way. Wow, what a shit she was. I move faster than her when I’m not even trying. I had thought she might be the quiet champ in the background, but not now.
I’m not enjoying this season as much as normal. I hope next season is better.
As others mentioned, I’m watching this season, but there’s no “wow” factor like there have been in other seasons. I think the Bravo elves have been concentrating too much on Texas, for one. Second, I’m not so sure that massive elimination/in the bubble thing was the way to go. Something, for me, was lost in the translation.
Beverly explained back toward the beginning that she’d been in an abusive relationship. Her demeanor is a reflection of that – if you want to dodge bullets, keep your head down and focus on your task, which is what she does. She’s in a sea of verbally assertive women who will get bitchy when the pressure mounts. I can’t see her winning this, but bravo to her for holding her own. Bravo, Beverly.