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Recap Top Chef 5 Episode 8

Posted on 01/15/2009 by RealityWanted in Top Chef

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Top Chef 5

 by Arthur Perkins
 
I had a nice holiday break imposed by BRAVO's schedule of new episodes, so I was ready for this one. The Quickfire opens with season 3 winner Hung Huynh as the guest Quickfire-only judge. in his honor, Padma announces that the time limit is 15 minutes for prepare. Also there will be no fresh ingredients used for this challenge. Only canned and boxes ingredients from a huge pile on a large table can be used. So, one thing you can expect is Here Comes the Spam! The chefs work extra quickly and come up with these dishes:
 
Radhika - spicy red bean dip w/ grilled bread
Jaime - bruschetta w/ garbanzo beans, artichokes and smoked mussels
Carla - Asian salmon cake w/ fried green beans, and lemongraa-ginger mayo
Ariane - open face turkey spam sandwich w/gravy and cranberry-pineapple chutney
Leah - waffles w/ strawberries and sausage
Jeff - deep fried baby conch, coconut sauce, pina colada
Hosea - sweet pea soup w/spam, pork rinds and hearts of palm
Fabio -   artichoke and chili pepper mac and cheese
Stefan - baked bean soup w spam and grilled cheese and spam sandwich
 
Gaining the Worst category were Radhika, Leah and Jaime. A commonality was that there dishes were more like snacks to Hung. He expected a main dish.
In the Best category were Hosea, Stefan and Jeff. Hung judged Stefan's to be overall best, so Stefan wins immunity for the Elimination Challenge.
 
The Elimination Challenge is to create a fresh meal with seasonal ingredients for a family-style lunch with 16 diners. It is held at the Blue Hills at Stone Barn Food and Agricultural Center, a non-profit farm and educational center in Pocantico Hills NY. The guest judge for this is Dan Barber, the executive chef at the Blue Hills at Stone Barn restaurant which must be adjacent to the farm. It is one of the top restaurants in the U.S. and since I am slightly more than 60 minutes away I now want to eat there and check it out for myself.  The diners will be the farmers and their families and it is going to be a hot day with service on picnic tables outside. Teams will have 3 hours to cook.
 
Since there are 9 chefs left in the competition, the 3 teams of 3 concept was used. They were chosen by knife blade:
Team Pork - Radhika, Fabio, Jeff
Team Chicken - Jaime, Carla, Stefan
Team Lamb - Hosea, Leah, Ariane
 
Those look like fair teams to me. Some time was spent showing the conflicts between Jaime and Stefan on the menu development. Stefan has earned the reputation as the chef that nobody else wants to work with. He is a take-it-or-leave-it guy (and must be difficult to work for in a real restaurant as a result) and seems to enjoy any conflict. The biggest issue is that he has no stake in the outcome since he is immune. Jaime argues that he should pipe down and accept the ideas of those who can get eliminated, Jaime and Carla. It is not clear starting the cooking that they worked it all out, but at the end there is a statement that a satisfactory compromise was reached.
 
Teams go to the parts of the Farm that correspond to their key protein. Team Pork went to visit the pigs. Team Chicken went to the chicken coop. I don't recall any footage of going to see the sheep. In any event, when it is cooking time huge slabs of each of these proteins have been butchered earlier that day and are ready for the chefs to use. The biggest issue that happens is related to the choice of a roulade method of cooking for the baby lamb, Ariane's responsibility since she excelled at lamb in an earlier episode. That method requires careful tying of the rolls of lamb to make sure internal cooking is right. Ariane has never done this and does a poor job of it, so after saying "Ariane doesn't know how to tie a roast" Leah volunteers and also does a poor job but at least gets it done. Hosea was standing on the sidelines for this and he had the most experience in tying but failed to step up and help get it right. Also, Radhika was criticized by Fabio for accomplishing little in the first cooking hour taking 1 hour to shuck, grill and scrape kernels off for 10 ears of corn. Team chicken had a battle over how light the soup should be for a hot day. They did not consider the "ho soup" option which is what Tom Colicchio would have preferred; he also did not think heavy desserts were  a good idea in the heat. Ariane felt like the odd person out with the "lovebirds" Leah and Hosea who were doing a lot of flirting and cuddling but Hosea publicly states nothing more.
 
The menus were:
Team Pork
Radhika - grilled corn salad w/ bacon; vanilla and lavendar-scented creme brulee
Fabio- sausage, zucchini and eggplant ravioli w/ pesto sauce
Jeff-fried green tomatoes w/ tomato jelly; seared pork loin;
 
Team Chicken
Jaime - chicken ravioli soup (actually consomme)
Carla - nectarine and strawberry tartlet w/ thyme crème and lemon zest
Stefan - chicken cutlet w/ mizuna corn, tomato and onion salad; lemon herb roasted chicken w/ tomato salad
 
Team Lamb
Hosea - rosemary and garlic-roasted potatoes, Swiss chard
Leah - heirloom tomato salad; summer trifle w/vanilla cream and Grand Marnier lemon pound cake
Ariane - herb rubbed roasted duo of lamb, seared/roasted and leg of lamb
 
The judges go to Judges Table to confer. The consensus is that Team Chicken had the best results(and  in counterbalance my opinion is that they also used the simplest menu). Carla's dessert was praised and the other two teams' desserts were criticized as too heavy. Many individuals were criticized for various sins. The lamb was judged to be a mess, so somebody had the most responsibility for that.  Jeff cut away the fat and the bone on the pork and the judges found that pretty heretical; you just don't do that with that type of pork or lamb. Toby says, "the pesto is the big, bad wolf". Tom after viewing the size of pieces and the pounding being done by Ariane to the lamb stated that "Once you have a nice large piece of meat on the bone, you don't want to remove it". The winners were Team Chicken and all members of that team were judged winners with no one chef singled out. Carla was pleased to finally be an Elimination Challenge winner but she succeeds with desserts and I don't view her as a rounded chef.
 
The group called for Worst  was all of Team Pork and all of Team Lamb. It was pretty clear early on that the lamb was so miserable that that team would be taking the brunt of criticism. Dan said "this lamb is a mess. "However, Toby referred to "pork blunders". Radhika was criticized of accomplishing little in 3 hours. Judges wondered why she couldn't have made an extra dish or done something constructive. It is interesting that the catchphrase for this episode was "Honor the Protein." yet no team came close to that standard. The audience was polled on which team did best on that. 63% said Team Lamb, so that shows how much you can be an armchair quarterback for a food show.
 
Team Pork was excused at the beginning of the callback, so Radhika's sins were thought less critical than focusing on the most guilty team. Jeff got praise for his fried green tomato dish, so you knew to wasn't going to be him. Leah's dishes were OK but her failure to help Ariane on tying was thought to be a big negative. Padma made an argument about Ariane's past accomplishments, but Toby countered that judging is only on what you eat at that meal and no credits should be given for past performance. That was the nail in Ariane's coffin although I am sure Toby did not target it at her. But when they came right down to it, Ariane was eliminated. That is a tough ending for a multiple Elimination challenge winner.
 
Next week is Restaurant Wars. They can't be doing 4 teams of 2 because there isn't room, so I expect to see 2 teams of 4 chefs each.

 

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