This week, no gondolas, no ice blocks, no skiing, just one small gimmick and a lot of actual cooking.
* Sarah is going to get killed again for her comments in the confessionals, and some of that criticism is justified. Saying “this is how it was supposed to be” in reference to these three chefs in the finals is all kinds of wrong – Paul, sure, but I’m of the opinion that Edward was probably one of the three best chefs on the show this season, and that Nyesha was wronged with her early elimination. Winning the World Series doesn’t make you the best team, but it makes you the champions. Getting to the Top Chef final three doesn’t make you one of the three best chefs on the show, but it makes you a finalist. I just can’t buy some kind of predestination aspect to the show, or the idea that this proves that these chefs were the best.
* Then Sarah says of the Quickfire challenge, “Asian food is not my forte, thank god Beverly went home because she would have nailed it.” The red light means the camera’s on, Sarah.
* Quickfire challenge: Cooking with one of three Top Chef Masters contestants (including last season’s winner, Floyd Cardoz), make an Asian influenced dish – but you can’t talk to your teammate, and must trade off in the kitchen every ten minutes, with the experienced chef taking shifts one and three and the current contestants taking shifts two and four. That means the experienced chefs do the concept and most of the mise en place, leaving the contestants wasting time trying to figure out what the big idea was and what’s already been done. Wouldn’t one sentence, or ten seconds of talking, have made this a much more reasonable test of the contestants’ cooking skills rather than their powers of deduction?
* I was surprised to see how easygoing the experienced chefs were – we knew Floyd was like that, but Anita Lo and Takashi Yagihashi were also pretty low-key; other than having strong concepts and hoping their teammates would continue those visions, they seemed to have no qualms about playing second fiddle.
* Paul ends up making a sashimi with mirugai (giant clam) with a yuzu dashi sauce, fried white fish, cucumber, scallions … but adds too much Thai chili at the last moment and blows the dish. I got the strong sense he would have won the challenge (and the $20,000 prize) otherwise. “Ashamed Paul Qui” sounds like a meme waiting to happen.
(Side note: My wife thinks Austin Scarlett of Project Runway deserves his own meme, along the lines of “MEANWHILE … IN JAPAN.” If you’ve seen him on camera, you probably understand.)
* Lindsay probably had the toughest challenge, with Anita coming up with a “scallops three ways” dish that was nowhere near evident to Lindsay after the first switch. The concept was great – reflect three different Asian cuisines on one plate – but it seemed like Anita chose a concept that would work for one chef working start to finish, not for a challenge with three blind handoffs. Lindsay only does two of the three intended ways, and her Chinese sausage overpowers the delicate flavors of the scallop.
* Floyd makes a curry, but Sarah says she’s not comfortable with curry. These two worked together better than the other pairs – it looked like Floyd focused on the curry itself while Sarah went after the proteins, crab and a rice flour-dredged cod. Emeril thought their dish needed more acid, but Padma loved the amaranth greens, which apparently grow quite well in warm climates and reach harvest size in 30 days, so I need to track down some seeds. Anyway, Sarah wins, giving Floyd the quickfire win that escaped him during his Top Chef Masters run (even though he won the whole season).
* Elimination challenge: For 150 guests at a “fire and ice” cocktail party, each chef must make one dish and one cocktail, and the dish must contain at least one hot and one cold element. They do get bartenders to assemble the drinks, so the chefs only have to make sure the elements are ready.
* These chefs are so damn collegial in the kitchen it almost made me want Heather back. Almost.
* Sarah goes with a baked cannelloni, made from scratch (which she says is crazy, but really, that’s the kind of thing you have to do to win on this show), with a spiced sformato (a thick Italian custard) that’s frozen on an “anti-griddle” so it will melt and form a cold sauce over the warm pasta. Her cocktail contains gin, kumquats, and mango, which sounds great if you’re sitting on a Caribbean beach but doesn’t really sound like it works with pasta.
* By the way, is an anti-griddle powered by anti-matter? If an anti-griddle hits a griddle, will the universe collapse upon itself? I heard “anti-griddle” and felt like Lady Violet did when Downton got its first telephone. Hugh Acheson said in his blog post that no one touched the anti-griddle during his time on Top Chef Masters, and Sarah nearly cost herself a spot in the finals because the machine over-froze her sformato.
* Paul makes a lobster stock, tearing claws off lobsters before killing them – I hear he also likes to twist the heads off live puppies, just for practice – using it as the base for a very elaborate dish with king crab, lemon ‘snow,’ and a Pan Am cocktail with kaffir lime, palm sugar, and rum.
* Lindsay, who says she’d pull a Ronnie Lott if she sliced her finger off while cooking today, goes with a halibut over a “fiery” celery root remoulade, tomato broth, tomato ice, and raw kale. I’m not sure if the kale was supposed to be raw, but I find raw kale totally inedible. Steam it, wilt it, saute it with cured pork, bake it, whatever, it’s all good, but raw kale has a very fibrous texture that I find really unpleasant.
* Judges’ table: Sarah gets dinged for the frozen mousse, and for the cocktail not working with the dish. The judges love her pasta, the cocktail on its own, and her overall ambition. Paul had some temperature issues, and Tom goes on about the arugula garnish, although I thought Paul’s comment (he wanted the fresh, peppery flavor) made sense, at least from a concept standpoint. Otherwise, he seemed to nail his dish in every way, yet again. Lindsay cooks her fish perfectly, but the raw kale costs her points and the dish overall was kind of boring (mostly per Tom).
* Tom tweeted right after the show about the arugula comments:
Arugulais what happens when you really don’t have anything negative to say
— Tom Colicchio (@tomcolicchio) February 23, 2012
* Paul wins the challenge, Lindsay goes home. It fits the general theme of Top Chef: You win for ambition, and you lose for failures in execution. Lindsay didn’t execute all that well (the raw kale, the supporting ingredients overpowering the flavor of the fish), and she showed the least ambition. Sarah failed to execute one major element, but her dish was much more ambitious than Lindsay’s.
* Sarah’s parting comment, that she knew it would be her versus Paul in the finals, will probably get even more criticism than her opening shots, but this one I understand: If you’re going through this competition, you envision yourself in the finals, and in this case, how could she envision herself facing anyone but Paul? Perhaps it’s not something you say on camera, but it is entirely logical to think that way.
* So, ignoring the fact that this challenge already happened several weeks ago, how dominant a favorite would Paul be against Sarah in the finals? It takes so little to cost a chef a challenge at this late stage that I hate to say he’s more than a 60/40 favorite, even though he’s owned most of this season.
I thought it was a bit bizarre that they let Sarah go back first-at that point Lindsey had to know she was toast, right?
Also, it’s not yet clear whether or not lobsters feel pain, so I suppose Paul is off the hook for that haha.
Remember that Richard Blaise lost during the finals to Stephanie Izzard (who is doing fantastically well in Chicago with Girl and the Goat), so even if Paul loses, i doubt anyone will think less of him.
I do wonder why Top Chef got rid of its 3 people in the finals format though.
I found it odd that Sarah moved on given she failed in what appeared to be 1 major component of her dish in that the sformato was too frozen and per Gail difficult to eat. I understand this had more risk but shouldn’t execution be held higher. Either way I’d be surprised if Paul doesn’t win but 1 slip up and he could just as easily lose.
With regard to your first point, does Sarah not remember that she lost two of the three challenges to Bev last week? She’s damn lucky she won the final challenge, because if last week’s episode had been judged cumulatively, she probably would have lost.
I’d like to know where to sign up to win 20k by making a dish (curry maybe?) that I know nothing about. Sarah grates on me, she gloats like a proud 7 year old, which is great if you’re, you know, 7.
I find Sarah to a loathsome person.
Had Paul been eliminated, I wouldn’t have watched the finals. As is, I’m rooting for Paul who is clearly heads and shoulders above Sarah as a cook. I think it’s funny, too, that Sarah gave Bev so much crap for always cooking “asian” food, while continuing to do the same thing with Italian food.
I miss the three chef finale though, I wonder why they did away with that.
This episode was so much more impressive then the previous episode. Glad to see that tweet from Tom since it did seem like he was going a bit overboard on the argula.
Thought it was interesting that Top Chef Producers had an Asian themed quickfire with all this discussion on if saying something is Asian food is being too broad…
I would’ve liked to see Paul, Ed, and Lindsay in a three way, winner-take-all final. I feel pretty strongly that they were the three strongest chefs we saw this season, although I would’ve liked to see what Nyesha could do in the actual winners bracket for a while longer.
I also find Sarah incredibly annoying. She can’t be entirely a victim of editing either, because she says something obnoxious in literally every single episode.
I think it would have been better to make the quickfire a 50-minute challenge and have the cheftestants take the 1,3,5 slots and the pros 2,4. That way it’s the people actually competing who decide what the protein is, etc.
I like head-to-head for the final which is how it worked in Season 1 (Harold over Tiffani) and Season 2 (Ilan over Marcel). Since they usually do a 3 or 4 course meal for the final, having three contestants makes it more difficult to judge the best (this guy had the better appetizer, but this gal had the better entree and this guy was consistently good). Head to head is much more equitable in my opinion.
But I HATE having past contestants as sous chefs. As Carla (Season 5 finalist) does, too, I’m sure. Of all the times it needs to be just one person doing everything, it’s the finale.
I don’t know why you can understand Sarah saying she always knew it would be her and Paul as the last two, but knock her for saying that she always knew it would be her, Paul and Lindsey in the last three. The same logic applies – adding Lindsey as the next most deserving. I think Ed and Nyesha were better than Lindsey, but not so much better that given Nyesha’s early exit and the relationships involved (Sarah’s friendship with Lindsey and the bad blood between her and Ed from the heat exhaustion episode) that this final three would be a huge surprise.
Paul is still a very strong favorite however, although I agree with not really liking the already eliminated contestants as sous chefs.
Aaron-
She didn’t say she knew it’d be Paul, Lindsey, and her in the final three. She said that it was the “right thing” or something along those lines. As if Beverly making the final 3 would have been “wrong”. That is wholly different from believing in yourself and acting under the mindset that you are going to the final. Maybe she just screwed up her phrasing, but given her other comments, about Bev and other things, there is plenty to criticize her about.
Hasn’t Tom learned? If you can’t say something bad about someone, say nothing at all.
Re: the Blais/Paul comparison. Stephanie (who won S4 that Blais was in) was every bit as good as Blais that season, winning 5 challenges and 2 quickfires (to Blais’ 4 and 3 respectively). Nobody has come even close to Paul this season, and I think him losing in the finale would probably be the biggest upset in this show’s history.
I agree with your first point, I think Nyesha and Beverly were better than Sarah and Lindsey and both were very unlucky to be eliminated. Ed was a better chef also but stumbled badly late in the game, having a string of poor results before being eliminated (I remind you, canned oysters).
I was happy to see Tom’s tweet about the arugula, he seemed to really hammer him on that minor detail, so much so that the final decision between Lindsey and Paul was so obvious it was a bit anti-climactic. At least they didn’t stretch it out.
Please Keith, no more Project Runway references, I have enough reality TV to watch.
If Sarah is Top Chef next week I am outta here. One thing about Top Chef is that they have consistently had very impressive winners, even the ones you didn’t expect. But this finale is so lopsided even if Paul gives them empty plates he has to win.
That was a real dick move by the producers to tell Sarah she was safe first and let Paul sweat it out, then to tell him later that he’d won.
Paul reminds me a lot of Blais in his season – incredible vision and execution, but prone to self-doubt. He out-thought himself out of $20k in the quickfire by not trusting himself and throwing in those Thai chili seeds.
My apologies for this completely off-topic post, but I felt the need to go to a “safe place”…
The other blog that I regularly follow is “Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle”, another lively forum where serious crossword solvers gather each day to read the thoughts of an expert and then banter back and forth with their own critiques. Like this group, it is almost alway both respectful and knowledgeable, and occasionally veers off onto equally interesting tangents. Just did the Sat 2/25 puzzle, and one of the clue/answer combos was:
One of Henderson’s record 1,406 (STOLENBASE)
All was well until another regular contributor (supposedly a college professor!) wrote: “RE: Rickey Henderson. How many of those stolen bases helped the team win a game? In today’s “Moneyball” (era) Rickey doesn’t really look all that great.”
AARGH, on so many levels…