Top Chef, S13E11.

I have a new draft blog post on possible first-rounders Robert Tyler and Kyle Lewis up for Insiders.

So the remaining seven chefs are all acting like they’re going to miss Phillip … no, they’re not. I think they all made it clear they didn’t really like him, and how could you, given how he acted? Kwame says “I understood him,” after which Marjorie, the one honest soul there, says, “I didn’t.”

* Quickfire: They’re in Oakland and MC Hammer is here. (Where’s MC Slammer and Vanilla Sherbet?) I don’t see the point of having Hammer here, although at least he drops a “Go A’s, go Warriors, go Raiders” on us. The challenge is for the chefs to come up with their own rap names and create a dish that visually and conceptually expresses that name. Hammer says he made sure it “personified how hard I hit the stage.” Yeah, nothing says “hard” to me like “Help the Children.”

* It’s actually kind of painful to watch this. Kwame seems like the only chef there with any sense of rap culture at all, given the name he picks and what eventually happens during judging.

* Kwame says he did shows when he was a teenager and dropped a couple of mixtapes, when he had “a very short-lived rap career” where he’d give away food at the shows to get people to show up.

* Carl picks the name “Dr. Funky Fresh,” which would have sounded dated in 1988. Marjorie’s “Miss Punch-a-Lot” is almost as bad.

* The dishes: Karen (rap name: “Pink Dragon”) made a hot and sour soup with pork meatballs, shiitakes, and morels … Carl (I had to mute him rapping) made a beef tartare lettuce wrap … Amar (“Santana Lovah”) made a soy-glazed sea bass with dashi broth … Marjorie made a fried chicken sandwich with honey sriracha and marinated watermelon radish salad … Isaac (“Toups Legit”) made scallops with BBQ sauce and grits … Jeremy (“Spicy J-Rock 305” … what the fuck is that) made spicy dungeness crab in broth with grilled summer squash and halibut cheek … Kwame (“Baylish”) did a seafood broth with grilled lobster and dungeness crab.

* Kwame drops a few rhymes and at least sounds somewhat current – way better than Carl.

* Least favorites: Amar’s plate was just fish; the bread on Marjorie’s andwich just “sucked up the spices;” Kwame’s dish was fine but other plates were “simyular” to his yet better.

* Favorites: Carl, Isaac, and Karen. Hammer’s comments are kind of worthless and I truly don’t see why he would be a guest judge here. Why not invite Alison Barakat of Bakesale Betty’s and challenge everyone to make a fried chicken sandwich?

* The winner is Isaac, again, and he gets immunity.

* Elimination challenge: Guest judge Jonathan Waxman, who seems to pop up once a season here. Each chef must cook a dish from a specific place and time in history. The chefs get to pick off a globe that has at least ten options on it, so even the chef picking last gets a choice. Isaac picks the Viking age. Carl picks ancient Greece. Amar chooses Paris’s Belle Époque (roughly contemporary with our Gilded Age). Marjorie picks ancient India. Kwame takes the Han dynasty of Beijing. Jeremy chooses the Gold Rush in San Francisco. Karen, picking last, takes the Empire of Japan. No one wanted the Italian Renaissance?

* The chefs get two hours to research at the SF library … which does not make riveting television.

* The chefs go drinking at an old-fashioned kitsch tiki lounge. And suddenly Jeremy is banging the drums and giving us the metal horns. Honestly, I kind of wish his food read more “metal.” He’d be much more interesting.

* Amar gets to make classical French cuisine, which is a mixed blessing – I’m sure it’s food he knows, but it’s also food every chef who’s going to judge his food knows.

* Kwame’s dish has four ingredients: duck, eggplant, a duck “jus,” and lapsang souchong, a black tea that is dried by smoking it over burning pine wood. He goes to serve a “sample” to Tom/Jonathan and his duck is raw in the center. He says he roasted the duck for 16 minutes … is it just me or is that barely enough to get the duck to room temperature?

* Waxman’s enthusiasm is great, especially when Tom can seem a bit cantankerous in the kitchen and many guest judges don’t bring much personality at all. Also, Waxman agrees with me and says he would have chosen Italian Renaissance “in a heartbeat.” Of course, he did write a book on Italian cooking, so he may have a better handle on it than I do.

* The dishes: Carl made marinated mackerel and calamari with olives and grapes, seasoned with garum, an ancient Roman fish sauce that, as far as I know, no longer exists. (He probably used Asian fish sauce or colatura, a modern Italian descendant of garum.) It’s a big hit. Marjorie made a lamb kebab with heart jus, curried split peas, and paratha (an unleavened Indian flatbread). Padma likes the balance of spice/heat in the dish, but the paratha was too greasy. I’m wondering if Marjorie only fried it, rather than baking it partway and then frying it. Waxman says her lamb should have been cooked all the way through to be authentic.

* Isaac made a cumin- and mustard-seared venison with caramelized onion “grautr” (I assume this is grøt, a sort of porridge often made with barley) and pickled beets. There’s a great texture/flavor to venison. Kwame made a coriander-crusted duck with black sesame jus, lapsang souchong “cream” with silken tofu, and eggplant. Waxman loves the coriander. Tom says duck is nicely cooked, which is a nice comeback from the kitchen debacle. Of everything we saw in the elimination challenge, this is the dish I’d most want to eat.

* Jeremy made halibut with shellfish chowder. Tom says it’s not a chowder and is more like a sauce. Waxman says it’s not authentic at all, since miner food would likely have been rustic and hearty. Karen made soba noodles in a mushroom dashi with pickled mushrooms and wagyu beef. Padma says the broth more Chinese than Japanese. Waxman says she should have stopped with the clear broth, and Gail says she should have kept the dish simple.

* Amar made roasted squab with sweetbreads, foie gras, tourné vegetables, and a lot of truffle sauce. The sauce seems to be the key, and Tom says it’s a very concentrated sauce for only three hours of cooking time.

* Marjorie, Karen, Jeremy are on the bottom. The other four all did well.

* Kwame, Amar, and Carl were top three. Waxman loved Kwame’s sparseness and restraint. Amar showed off a lot of technique. Tom praises Carl’s dish, saying how every ingredient mattered. The winner is Amar. His dish may very well have been the best, but he also got the easiest challenge, cooking in a style any chef who went to culinary school or trained in a high-end restaurant would have learned.

* Karen’s dish had too many components, plus it wasn’t really authentic. Waxman said it’s a chef’s job to edit, and she didn’t. Marjorie’s lamb didn’t have enough char. Padma says the paratha got too crispy when Marjorie fried it. Jeremy’s dish didn’t have the flavor depth of a chowder; it was definitely not a miner’s chowder and was too fussy.

* Karen is sent home. How is it not Jeremy? I understand Karen’s dish wasn’t very authentic, but neither was Jeremy’s, plus it seems like hers tasted better.

* By the way, that’s easily the most emotional goodbye from other chefs we’ve seen this year. She’s struck me as a little glib on screen, but she must be much more genuine in person than I thought.

* LCK: Teppanyaki challenge. Ten minutes to prep, ten to cook and put on a show. We end up with the chefs doing shots of sake. It’s just so much more collegial in LCK than on the main show.

* Karen calls and audible and changes her dish to lobster fried rice when her omelet cooks a little too fast. She serves it with a quail egg, mushrooms, and asparagus. It looks very messy but like it has a zillion flavors. I would also eat this.

* Jason says he’s a “natural performer” and is into drag … with an actual character he’s named Sissy Chablis. He makese seared wagyu NY strip with shiitakes, asparagus, and quail egg, topped with “dancing” bonito flakes. It seems like his dish was a little better executed and he gave a little more entertainment, so he wins again, his fourth in a row.

* Rankings: Kwame, Marjorie, Amar, Carl, Isaac, Jeremy. How many chances can Jeremy get? Outside of his crudo dishes, he hasn’t really excelled, and he seems to be trending downward as the challenges progress and the competition gets better.

Comments

  1. Was stunned that Jeremy didn’t get sent home as well. Marjorie definitely screwed up the paratha- I remember seeing way too much oil in the pan, and thought she was going for a puri instead. (Parathas should be cooked with just enough fat to coat the pan so the bread doesn’t stick)

  2. Surprised you don’t have Isaac ranked higher. Is it just bc he seems to only succeed using “meats”

    • Very narrow range. And execution hasn’t been very good till the last 2-3 eps.

    • @nick there’s often–although not every season i don’t think–a chef similar to isaac. a terrific award winning chef who specializes in a cuisine but lacks a bit in technique. a few seasons ago there was carlos, whose restaurant in chicago was much feted but was sell taught. he often killed when he could cook mexican but was not for the aforementioned lack of technique and struggled when he stepped outside of his speciality. he made it to the final four but was finally eliminated (can’t recall what for). i think how long isaac last will depend on the challenges but i suspect he might fall around the same time.

      @keith thank you again for doing these. they’re by far the best recaps and it’s really not even close. i often find myself checking your blog several times a day to see if you’ve posted a new one.

  3. This was the most enjoyable show of the year. I learned something about the older cuisines and most of the chefs had to go out of their comfort zone. Hope they stay away fro the gimmicks and keep to cooking.

  4. I was wishing for someone to name themselves Tasty Taste, Vanilla Sherbert or Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. Anything with “Ice” could have worked. Even just one FOABH reference! Maybe some of them are too young. Kudos for yours!

    Jeremy’s mistake did seem to be bigger than Karen’s and was very surprised she went. Did Marjorie need to make the paratha? She seemed to struggle with it and if she could have, should have left it off her dish. Isaac could be anywhere from 2nd to 5th, but there does seem to be big gap from 5th to Jeremy. Would you put Jason in LCK ahead of him?

    • I would, and I’d probably put him over Isaac. Isaac lacks range, and he lacks the technique that (nearly?) always wins on this show. I think Isaac is unelectable, so to speak.

  5. Were they not showing something about Karen and Jeremy’s dishes? Based off the on-air feedback, I thought it was a lock that Jeremy was going home, and in fact thought there was a better chance Marjorie was getting booted than Karen. It also felt like they were a little overly dedicated to the chefs cooking EXACTLY like their time periods rather than being inspired by them. As Isaac pointed out, there were a lot of things he was able to do that the Vikings weren’t.

    Out of curiosity, why Kwame over Marjorie right now? Feels like they’re the clear top two (although my DC bias might be showing), but she’s been much more consistent.

    • Just my opinion, but I think Marjorie executes, while Kwame innovates, and innovators tend to win. She’d be a more than worthy winner, of course.

  6. Keith, I have a daughter who is 10 months old. She is my first and I’m an old first time dad (46 years). Most of my friends either have no children or have teenage children and don’t remember when their children were less than a yr (eg, all a blur….) I have two questions. First, how old was your daughter when you introduce your daughter to cooking and baseball? Second, how did you introduce them to those items? You once said having a child is like having your heart outside your body is so very true. When my daughter loves something it brings me so much joy, and if she even has a slight cold, I worry and find it difficult to concentrate at work because my thoughts are always with her.

    Finally, I love your blog – thank you for keeping me informed and entertained.

    • My daughter has no interest in baseball or watching any team sports. Even the women’s world cup didn’t interest her. She’ll watch individual events like figure skating, but that’s it.

      As for cooking, she’s always been in the kitchen with me. When she was 2 or 3, she’d sit on the counter with me in the mornings and “make mommy’s coffee,” which mostly involved pressing buttons and sniffing the beans (“Smells coffee!”). So I think exposure was the key, and always trying to say yes when she asked to help.

  7. I think Karen vamped her way into that applause…

    Waxman is always a refreshing presence — I like the way he involves himself in the process when he’s there. That said, a little too dependent on authenticity as a judging factor…if the lamb tastes good medium rare, then so be it, to my mind.

    • I agree, I meant to write that – if she’d served the lamb well done, they might have eliminated her for serving inedible meat.

  8. Yeah, I think Jeremy probably should have gone home, rather than Karen – I think I mentioned here early in the season that I wanted to see him actually cook something before putting him too high in the rankings. I think it is much easier right now to put people in groups; Marjorie and Kwame are clearly the top group, with Amar, Carl, and Isaac as the next (I’d probably put Jason in this group as the LCK rep), and then Jeremy on the bottom. I think Carl is probably the most likely out of that middle group to win, and then probably Jason; Isaac does have his limitations, and you never know when Amar will sous vide another chicken breast.

    I think this episode made me a little more confused about how the end of the season would turn out, as I think this is the worst showing we’ve seen from Marjorie. I agree with Keith that Kwame’s ceiling is higher than Marjorie’s, and I’d been thinking that, if they were to meet in a final that was basically ‘Make your best 4-course meal’, Kwame would win if he was at the top of his game, but if Bad Kwame showed up, Marjorie would be very solid and take it. Bad Marjorie was a new development.

    I think if Jason comes back at this point I think he’ll be much stronger than before – it seems clear that he and Philip didn’t get along, and they’re at least editing down the amount of ‘bro-ing’ around in the house/cars etc. I also think Jason is much more comfortable now, I can’t imagine him saying anything about being into drag during his run on the main show.

    • One probably shouldn’t read too much into the chef’s current employment status when projecting a winner. But it is worth noting that last years winner, Mei, no longer worked at Ink. Obviously in retrospect because she’d won. I can’t recall if that was disclosed on the show or if I learned that via internet reading.

      That said Kwame has a new restaurant opening soon: http://www.theshawbijou.com

      and has been traveling around the country doing dinners with other contestants.

      If I remember currently Nicholas also had a new restaurant opening and had recently left his previous employment?

      Who knows of course, probably shouldn’t read to much into the status of Kwame’s restaurant. I do have a feeling we might get an emotional episode where the chefs family shows up and his dad appears finally giving his approval, etc.

    • You are correct on Nicholas. He was one of the least popular winners, at least among our little community here, yet his restaurant, Laurel, is considered the best restaurant in Philly, offering only an $85 prix fixe plus optional wine pairings. He’s planning to open a bar-restaurant next door by the end of the year.

    • Yes. It’s sometimes easy to forget great chefs aren’t always great top chef contestants (although obviously Nick won).

  9. Amar is consistently picking seemingly easy or safe or boring dishes, almost purposefully.

    He’s cooked tons of chicken, and at least once commented that some chef that he learned under said the best way to judge a chef was how they cooked chicken (or something to that effect), and now picked a time period which would probably be the easiest to cook but also the easiest to judge.

    I guess it is working, though he has been criticized in the past for cooking too much chicken. I just haven’t seen someone so often do things that would have a high bar for success because they are boring and safe.

    Also, I may have misread it, but it seemed like Marjorie was trying to research truly ‘ancient’ India food, didn’t find anything, and said ‘eff it, I’ll just cook a kebab’.

    The Top-4 of your rankings seem to be the clear 4 best; and Jason definitely seems like a new person in LCK.

  10. Loved this episode, I know it didn’t make for great TV at one point, but could have focused on what we think of cuisine X and what it was really like at that time. Either way, the dishes were super interesting because of the challenge (which seems to have borrowed a bit from the restaurant Next in Chicago).

    As for the top three… agree Kwame then Marjorie, but the third spot is wide open. Isaac has become the wild card over the last few weeks while at the same time Jeremy is trending down. Things are a bit wide open for that third spot.

  11. My interest in this season of TC has waned to the point that the last couple episodes have sat on my DVR unwatched. I’ve replaced watching TC with Vice’s online show, Chef’s Night Out.

    The Guerrilla Taco episode has a couple of familiar cameos including a much talked about contestant from TC13.

    https://munchies.vice.com/en/videos/chefs-night-out-wesley-avila-of-guerrilla-tacos

    • i’ve heard good things about chef’s night out–i believe andy greenwald and chris ryan were talking about it on their podcast–and i love guerilla tacos. i’ll often bike over when they post up in the arts district, so i’ll have to check the show!

    • @brendan, I’ve become a big fan of CNO. Perfect for bingeing – short (10-15min.) and dozens of episodes available. I like the episodes that feature some of the Baja guys, but watching TC alum, Leah Cohen, get ripping drunk is great TV.

      https://munchies.vice.com/en/videos/chefs-night-out-pig-khao

  12. Did anyone see what the other options were in terms of regions/time periods for the Elimination challenge?

  13. I figured Kwame was in trouble this week. After all, he got a hug from Padma for his rap – is elimination really that big a deal once that happened?

  14. I am not a fan of Jason. I sense he is the other side of the Philip coin – another narcissist except it has taken Jason much more time to reveal himself. The whole being watched while performing as a chef is taken too far for my taste. Speaking of Philip, he was being annoying as usual during LCK where it looked like he was explaining Teppanyaki to the other contestants. Philip – Shut up!

    OK, off to watch Chef’s Night Out.

  15. Marjorie, who may be the only TC contestant to ever volunteer to make desserts and/or bake when it wasn’t even required virtually every week finally got “caught” doing that. While I want a chef who can do it all, in reality, TC is never really looking for Top Baker, as she’s been called. Something like with Restaurant Wars, it made sense to make the bread. It adds to the whole experience. But with the plate of food she provided, it seemed the bread was an extra step. Maybe it was edited out, but something might have been wrong with her dish where she thought the bread was a necessary addition to her plate.

  16. My big beef with this season…if it’s a celebration of California then why is the finale taking place in Las Vegas?? And why is everyone so damn happy about that?!!

    • Generally the finale is in a different locale than the season, right? although usually its a more exotic international location, so at least for vegas represents a step down (but personally i tend to avoid it whenever possible).