We’re in Charleston! Great food city, beautiful downtown. I wish I had more work reasons to go there and catch a Riverdogs game (they have great food there). I’m glad Top Chef chose Charleston now before climate change pushes the city underwater.
One bit of self-promotion first – I posted my annual list of cookbook recommendations on Monday, and it includes the work of a few Top Chef alumni, including two past winners.
* Half of the sixteen chef-testants are returnees. We get Brooke, who lost to Kristen Kish in the strange live-elimination format. John Tesar is back. There’s Sheldon, who got to open two restaurants post-TC. Casey, who’s been on the show at least twice before, is back for more. Were they having trouble finding enough new chefs to compete?
* Katsuji’s back, and asks “Am I getting subtitles on Top Chef this year or not?” I don’t think he needs subtitles so much as he needs a cap on his ingredient count.
* The chefs are split into two groups of eight, so first the new chefs compete. We meet a few of them, including Jamie, who is immediately Neck-Tat Guy; and Jim, the Executive Chef of the state of Alabama, a big Star Trek and Buffy fan whose voice is even higher than mine.
* First (rookie) quickfire: Testing everything from knife skills, time management, presentation. The chefs get one hour to creating as many dishes as you want featuring … a chicken. The loser of group one will face the loser of group two and the loser of that gets eliminated.
* Alabama wants to make three dishes, including something with the skin and the innards, because when he was a kid he would often share a box of fried chicken livers with his dad.
* Gerald is smoking a chicken breast and talking about a soup that might include a 63-degree egg. I do not want a 63-degree egg any more than I want a 40-degree day.
* Padma asks Neck-Tat: “Are you tattooed everywhere?” He says, “Almost everywhere. 75%.” This makes me uncomfortable. Then he tells the confessional that his former boss used to call him Rodman and claims the ink is his defense mechanism against the corporate world. Sure thing, buddy. I don’t think the corporate world is fazed.
* The Italian-born Silvia Barban is making pasta without a rest period for the dough. If she pulls this off I’d say she’s an immediate favorite to get to the finals, because the judges always love fresh pasta dishes. It got both Nina and Sarah G to the final two in their seasons.
* Charleston-chef, Emily, says she’s been fired from a couple of jobs because of her attitude. During their visit to her station, she tells Tom & Padma “anyway stop talking.”
* Tesar says “Top Chef is all about the clock.” The eight vets are watching the rookies on TV in the stew room are all yelling at them to plate. They’re sort of rooting for everyone, and remembering what it was like to be in the rookies’ place.
* Silvia gets the first dish out – fresh tagliatelle with chicken ragout and crispy chicken skin, mascarpone, and orange.
* Neck-Tat burned his vegetables. That’s a rookie error.
* Gerald says his dish “doesn’t represent me as a chef.” Alabama says it’s “totally worrisome” that he only made livers after these grandiose plans for two or three dishes.
* Here comes the food. BJ made a chasseur-style thigh with mushrooms, bacon, liver, and pressure-cooker stock. … Jim (Alabama) made fried innards with aioli, butter lettuces, strawberry vinaigrette; Tom says “I wish we saw some more” … Emily made buttermilk/black pepper biscuits with fried chicken, thick bread and butter pickle, and slaw; plus an Asian BBQ wing with tamarind and chili glaze … Gerald made a smoked, buttermilk-poached chicken, chicken jus, wild mushrooms, and a vegetable fricasee; he tells Tom & Padma “it looks easier on television” … Jamie (Neck-Tat) made a pan-roasted breast and a stripped-down chicken grand-mère with glazed spring vegetables and crushed potatoes. … Sylva, who’s Haitian, made a paprika and chili-marinated buttermilk chicken with grated corn pudding. I thought this had the best presentation … Silvia’s second dish was a corn, jalapeno, heirloom tomato salad with balsamic-marinted chicken. I love how she pronounces the “h” in heirloom, and Padma praises her for two dishes … Annie made a pan-seared breast, with a panzanella and a black garlic jus. Tom scoffs at her and says it’s not a panzanella. The vets all feel bad for her as they watch her face fall.
* Favorites: Silvia’s pasta, where they loved hint of orange and the texture of the crisped skin; Emily’s chicken wings, which were simple with a lot of flavor; and Jim, whose livers had a lot of flavor, crunch, and acidity.
* Jim wins, and gets immunity. Already we have weirdness in the judging – Silvia made two dishes that the judges liked, one they loved, and managed to execute a fresh pasta dish in a very short period of time, while Jim made just one dish and wasted almost the entire bird and won.
* Least favorites: Annie’s chicken was nicely cooked, but her “panzanella” was sloppy and just “a bunch of croutons” according to Tom; Gerald, whose sauce was greasy because his quick stock appears to have emulsified; Neck-Tat, who killed his vegetables by overcooked. Tom says Gerald’s was the worst, so he’s up for elimination. Gerald says in confessional it’s the least favorite dish of his he’s ever cooked.
* Silvia says in confessional that she “always had a little crush on Sam” Talbot, from season 2, who’s also back.
* Graham Elliott is the new fourth judge for this season. The veterans’ challenge is to get creative with shrimp and grits, with thirty minutes to make their versions of this classic dish. Casey says grits can barely be done in that time. The only way I know to make polenta, which is essenitally yellow-corn grits, takes a minimum of 35.
* Brooke is using ground shrimp rather than sausage to wrap and cook a Scotch egg, which seems risky just because the traditional method means there’s plenty of fat in the ‘wrapper,’ while shrimp is so lean that a ground shrimp mixture could dry right out unless she’s adding fat to it.
* We got a lot of foreshadowing stuff here that ended up going nowhere. Katsuji’s scorching tomatoes and peppers on the burner but appears not to be paying attention. Sheldon’s hand blender doesn’t work. Amanda hasn’t been cooking in almost two years due to a back problem. Here’s a spoiler: None of them lost.
* And the food: Brooke did make that shrimp Scotch egg with grits, lemon fennel salad, and espelette … Sam made shrimp with coconut milk grits, blackened tomatoes, vinegar, chili, and maple syrup … Shirley made her “bowl of hug,” shrimp and grits with steamed egg custard made with shrimp stock, fresh corn, and bacon; Graham said it had “explosive” flavor and noticed touch of sesame at the end … Katsuji made adobo-style shrimp and grits, with fish stock, charred tomatoes and peppers; Padma said – who saw this coming – that Katsuji “could use a little editing” … Casey made coconut shrimp and grits with corn, smoked tomato sauce, peach and fennel salad; she cooked the shrimp and corn in coconut oil, and corn ended up the dominant flavor … Tesar made Korean shrimp and grits with faux kimchi … Amanda made head-on shrimp with tasso ham, pickled raisins, peaches, and kale chiffonade (why?) … Sheldon made dashi-poached shrimp and miso grits, yuzu miso broth, and pickled cabbage; the judges felt this was a little flat.
* Favorites: Amanda, Brooke, and Shirley. The judges praise Brooke’s technique, especially the perfect cooking of the egg at the heart of the dish. Tom said Shirley’s “gave you a hug after it slapped you.” The winner is Brooke, unsurprisingly, given the risk she took.
* She mentions in the confessional that there’s an “old wives’ tale” that whoever wins the first TC challenge has a better chance of winning the whole thing. I could look it up but I’m too lazy.
* Least favorites: Casey’s fell flat; it was tasty, but not at the level of others. Tesar’s dish didn’t seem to make much sense to the judges, and Tom couldn’t figure out what the kimchi was doing there. Katsuji didn’t include enough of his pickled vegetables to get them in every bite. Tesar is the bottom and has to face Gerald in an elimination quickfire.
* Tesar is 58. I don’t think he looks that old, and he doesn’t act that old. Katsuji advises him to mess with Gerald’s head, but to Tesar’s credit he doesn’t seem interested in that kind of gamesmanship.
* Gerald says – I think I got this right – that he used to live in his car when he and his wife were going through a separation because he couldn’t afford two residences, one for his wife and five kids and one for himself. I rewound this twice and still am not 100% sure if that was past tense.
* The elimination challenge takes place at Boone Hall Plantation, a working plantation that is also a sort of museum of slavery, with tours available for people to see the slave quarters. The main house reminded me of Django Unchained, but that was filmed in Louisiana.
* Padma explains that “since the 1950s it’s been open to visitors … to honor those who worked and toiled here.” Those were slaves. Just say the word. In fact, shout it. Don’t gloss over it as “work.” And maybe this wasn’t a great place for an episode.
* Elimination quickfire: Apparently this plantation is home to one of the world’s largest oyster festivals. Tesar and Gerald each have 20 minutes to make an oyster dish, and there’s a fire going for an oyster roast.
* Tesar brought truffles and busts them out for his dish. Apparently Top Chef allows contestants to bring a few ingredients with them. Other chefs are all “whoa,” but 1) truffles are the most cliché ingredient imaginable and I hate when judges give chefs credit for using them and 2) I doubt every contestant has the cash to buy a truffle or the access to ‘borrow’ one.
* Gerald only puts a couple of oysters on the fire, which looks like a rookie mistake, and when the first batch turn out to have little crabs in them (ew) he has to go cook a second batch. I had to look this up, but apparently these are called oyster pea crabs, and they’re both edible and considered a delicacy. Wikipedia linked to this 1913 NY Times article (PDF) about the little bugs, and a quick google search turned up this Delmarva Now story about them. I guess Gerald should have kept the crabs and used them?
* Tesar made an oyster “stew,” with cream-poached oysters, truffle butter, hot sauce, shaved truffle. He put the raw oyster in the bowl and poured the hot soup liquid over it to “poach” it, although that’s a stretch on the definition of poaching. Tom says “the oyster is totally raw.” … Gerald served roasted oysters with thai-style mignonette and tomato compote. He jokes that he “can’t do too much. I didn’t bring truffles.” I think the judges are underwhelmed by the concept – it’s a very basic preparation.
* They send Gerald home, saying his Thai flavors weren’t hot enough – that if you’re selling something as Thai, it should have some heat. I’d have preferred to lose Tesar and see someone new stick around longer; Tesar’s act wore thin last time around, and it’s not as if he made it to the finals like Brooke did.
Really glad to see the recaps back! Lord knows we need the distraction.
Not much for me to comment on yet other than that I’ve eaten at two of Sylva’s restaurants in Philly. One is a taco joint and the other was a high-end Indian. Both excellent and the guy’s got range.
Does Jim/Alabama look like the kid who played Alton Brown’s nephew on Good Eats all grown up? Maybe his nickname should be young AB.
The person who wins the first competition has gone on to win the whole thing 6 times in 13 seasons. That, of course, is close to 50%, so she’s right.
It’s also the case that nobody has ever been in the bottom three in Week 1 and then gone on to win the whole thing.
By win, is that the elimination challenge? I assume that is where the stat comes from, though Brooke was mentioning it in relation to the Quickfire win.
Sorry, yes. The various websites that track these things don’t seem to have Quickfire results.
Correction, they do have Quickfire results. Turns out that only one person has won the first Quickfire of the season AND has won the whole thing. That person is…Richard Blais.
Note that some seasons don’t have a Quickfire in the first episode and therefore don’t have a Quickfire winner.
I know they called this one a Quickfire, but with no elimination challenge in the episode and a chef eliminated off two Quickfires … maybe I’m lawyering here, but if someone wanted to argue this was a de facto elimination challenge, I think s/he would have a point.
If you look over the history of the first 13 seasons, the first Quickfire rarely fits the definition as it is used in other, non-premiere episodes. Sometimes they don’t have it at all. Sometimes they have three or four “winners.” And then there was the season (Texas, I think) where Tom cut someone before the first challenge was even finished.
So, I would say that the meaningful question is, “Is being named the ‘winner’ at the end of the first episode (Quickfire, regular challenge, etc.) meaningful?” And the evidence says that it is–contrary to the “chefs that burst out of the gate tend to flame out” narrative.
While I don’t love bringing back the experienced chefs, I know reality shows will do this in later seasons. (Even though I thought Top Chef was different)
My problem was with having a rookie take on an experienced chef in a quickfire elimination challenge right off the bat. Gerald was at a huge disadvantage, as any of the newbies would’ve been. It didn’t feel like a fair fight.
I don’t think they really had any other option. If it had been vet vs. vet, then the rookies would have had the unfair advantage of being immune in the first week. If it had been rook vs. rook, same problem.
Good to see Shirley and Brooke return, both of whom could/should have won their original seasons. Interesting that Sam, with “televised assault instigator” and “sexiest people alive” both on his resume, chose to highlight the latter. Alabama Jim is so small-town Alabama it hurts me (they are amongst my people).
I found it interesting that the rookies had an hour for their quickfire challenge and could do anything they wanted, while the vets were restricted to 30 minutes and given a specific dish to put their spin on. That speaks to the significant advantage that the producers realize the vets have over the rookies in terms of experience and familiarity with the challenges of cooking for this show in past seasons.
That will lessen as the season goes on but until then, we should expect the vets to put out better food than the rookies when they compete directly against one another.
I’m really disappointed that the producers choose to bring this in to play this season. It’s gimmicky for a show that has thus far minimized the gimmicks.
What has bothered me the last couple of seasons is that the rate of gimmickry has increased – like elimination quickfires – as the show is aging, which makes me wonder who’s calling those shots. Is Bravo demanding more of it? Are the ratings slipping to the point where the producers feel like they need to change the formula?
If Shirley keeps rolling out names for her dishes like “bowl of hug”‘ I’m gonna puke. Which is not the desired effect for a food show.
I’d presume the 63 degree egg is celsius, which is pretty much the perfect poaching temperature for a sous vide egg. Still ain’t nobody got nothing to say about a 40-degree day.
I would happily take a 40 degree day in January (or December) up here in Minnesota 🙂
Today is a high of 41, which means the coats can stay at home.
Damnit, this is the problem with not watching until several days later and only then reading this…someone else got to make that joke!
But you did get to Hollar back.
Add me to the list of eye-rollers at Jamie’s tattoo comments. Has he been in any kitchens other than his own? EVERYONE has ink.
Also, very bad call, IMO, having the elimination at a plantation. Too much chance for uncomfortable situations, like, I don’t know, hypothetically a white guy vs. a black guy and them being asked what it means for them to be there. Cringey.
Colicchio’s playing defense on the plantation issue right now on Twitter.
Just checked out Tom’s feed — he’s standing right in front of if, which I respect. I still believe it was a very awkward situation in which to place the contestants. I’d think if you’re going to tackle something this serious, you’d have a vignette of all the contestants walking around together checking out the history there, as opposed to “okay let’s get cooking but first, let’s talk about what it’s like for you to be here on a plantation”.
And poor Gail, stuck with “…but we’re here for the oysters!”
Keith, the #pizzagate stuff was amusing for about 24 hours. If you didn’t get your fill of bat shit crazy check out the story about the Philly’s pistachio vendor who was fired by Aramark for being a white nationalist. Her Twitter is a goldmine.
It got even less amusing, as a tinfoil Trumper went there with guns to “research”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/12/05/n-c-man-told-police-he-was-armed-to-save-children-and-left-comet-ping-ping-pong-when-he-didnt-find-any-there/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.7c83d75eb2e8
I saw that. They’re doing some kind of event to help the pizza place on Friday, which unfortunately is the day after we leave.
I don’t think the rookie/veteran split is a terrible idea – if anything, it helps cut down on those early season episodes where there’s just so many new faces it’s hard to keep track of (or care about) many of them. This way we’ll get to know the newbies a little bit sooner, hopefully.
I agree that constantly pitting them against the vets, especially in the early goings, is a little unfair.
About two years ago I went to a wedding at Boone Hall Plantation. It was kind of crazy seeing an episode filmed at a place I’d been, especially since its one of about two places outside of the downtown area that I’ve ever been to (the other being Holy City Brewery – the wife and I always hit up breweries when out of town). The ceremony was held on the very same deck where they did the cooking, and the reception was held in the hall where the judges were deliberating.
Also, it was equally crazy to attend a wedding at an actual plantation, riding in a golf cart from the parking lot behind the mansion, past the slave quarters, to the wedding location. We had a lot of the same feelings as the chefs. We also thought it would be really weird for our friends to watch that episode and hear the comments about a place where they were married. Really pretty location, though.
I’d have to think Brooke is the clear favorite at this point?
A) She nearly won in her season (and who knows what the outcome might have been had it not been for the weird finale format that year) and that performance would’ve very likely won her several of the last seasons (certainly over Nick and Jeremy I’d think).
B) Her execution is almost always flawless or close to it.
C) And she’s pretty creative.
It’s interesting her LA restaurants are well regarded but I don’t believe they’ve ever made Jonathan Gold’s Top 100 list or any other best of lists in LA, which surprises me a little based on her TC performances to date–certainly she’s one of the more talented chefs to appear on the show.
The whole plantation thing felt very weird and awkward. I don’t know anything about the venue beyond what was shown on the show, but it struck me more as historical re-enactment/borderline “fantasy slave camp” than it did museum. Perhaps this is off base, but their willingness to host a reality cooking television show and a wedding (as discussed above) gives me further pause.
Then you layer on the remarkably tone deaf discussion. “The work and toil…” No… as you said, these people were enslaved and forced to labor in inhumane conditions. That smacked of that textbook that referred to slaves as immigrants. Than the awkward questioning of the contestants. Ugh. Seriously?