The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Top Chef - Season 8, Episode 3

Previously on Top Chef: They have a weird way of doing the previouslies this season, which is brief glimpses of what happened, filtered through Monday Morning Quarterback interviews. In this case, it's a lot of shock over Jenc's revolt against the judges and her subsequent elimination. The rest of the chefs are surprised that she went home over useless Jamie's need to curb blood loss. Sixteen chefs remain. Who will be eliminated tonight?

Quickfire Challenge. The chefs are met in the Kitchen by Padma and guest judge David Chang. The challenge is an old favorite: The mise-en-place relay race. There's a new twist on it this time, which we'll get to in a second. First, the sixteen chefs are broken up into four teams of four. No kickball-style team picking this time; the chefs are simply broken into teams based on who they're standing near:

Angelo/Mike/Tiffany/Fabio
Dalet/Carla/Tiffani/Marcel
Antonia/Jamie/Casey/Dalel
Stephen/Tre/Richard/Spike

Now, to the twist. Instead of working on one ingredient at a time, all four team members must come up with a system of prepping three ingredients simultaneously. Not only that, but once David approves the prep work, the team must make a dish with their prepped ingredients. It is the quality of that dish -- rather than the time it takes to complete the prep work -- that will determine the winner. If that were all there was to it, there would be no incentive to hurry. So, whichever finishes the relay first presses a button that starts a fifteen-minute countdown. Whatever time is left on the clock when the trailing teams finish, that's the amount of time they have to cook. Good challenge design! There won't be any immunity given, but the winning team members get a $5000 chunk of cash. Whoops of joy grander than any ever given for immunity flood forward, especially from Carla. Hootie! Ready? Go!

The ingredients for prep are: Cleaning racks of lamb, peeling (and chopping) five hundred cloves of garlic, and stripping/chopping artichokes. Chef start hacking away at all of the food. Casey, in particular, has laser-like focus on the lamb. Dalel grins in interview about how she's never quite lived down the whole onion business. Fabio uses a large cutting board to crush masses of garlic at once. Smart. Mike's vast experience with Greek food puts him ahead on the lamb. Thanks to those two, it's really no contest after that. The Angelo/Tiffany/Mike/Fabio team easily finishes in the lead, and starts the countdown. The other teams go into a panic. The Stephen/Tre/Richard/Spike team finishes with twelve minutes on the clock. Two minutes later, the Antonia/Jamie/Casey/Dalel team finishes. When the Dalet/Carla/Tiffani/Marcel team finally finishes, there's only eight and a half minutes left. The latter two teams decide to go for lamb carpaccio, because it doesn't need to be cooked. Time winds down.

Padma and David go down the line. Dalet/Carla/Tiffani/Marcel have lamb carpaccio with artichoke chips, and artichoke salad with garlic oil. Stephen/Tre/Richard/Spike have a crispy lamb chop, with raw, crispy, and braised artichokes in a chili aioli. Padma approaches the Antonia/Jamie/Casey/Dalel team with a cheery "Hello, ladies!" Hahaha! That was entirely accidental, and she apologizes to Dalel, but everyone laughs at her gaffe, Dalel included. The team has made lamb carpaccio with crispy capers, garlic, a salad with artichokes, and some Reggiano cheese. The speedy Angelo/Tiffany/Mike/Fabio team has lamb cooked in garlic, with slivers of artichoke and dill salad. The whole thing is topped with a tandoori-spiced yogurt sauce that looks... Well, disgusting. It looks like regurgitated Pepto Bismol.

Results. First in the bottom two is Antonia/Jamie/Casey/Dalel, whose cheese and parsley overwhelmed everything else. Also in the bottom is Angelo/Tiffany/Mike/Fabio, whose thyme and dill overpowered the yogurt. It seems speed isn't prized over quality, in the kitchen as well as other rooms of the house. We know who that leaves in the top. Dalet/Carla/Tiffani/Marcel had a dish that seemed simple, but tasted complex. Stephen/Tre/Richard/Spike had wonderfully bold flavors. The winners of the challenge and the wad of cash is... Stephen/Tre/Richard/Spike. Needless to say, they're pleased as punch.

Elimination Challenge. Padma tells the chefs that they'll be staying in the same groups, but are no longer in teams. Now the cooperation must turn to competition. Each group will dine at a different New York restaurant. Then, the chefs must create a dish worthy of appearing on that restaurant's menu, both in quality and style. Each group will have a top performer that is up for the win, and each group will have a least impressive dish, whose chef will be up for elimination. And because we've still got a crapload of contestants to contend with, tonight will be a double elimination, so bring your A-Game, cakesniffers. Angelo/Tiffany/Mike/Fabio will be cooking at David's restaurant, ma peche (French/Vietnamese fusion). Antonia/Casey/Jamie/Dalel will be at townhouse (High-end American). Stephen/Tre/Richard/Spike will be at Marea (Italian). And that puts Dalet/Carla/Tiffani/Marcel at wd~50 (avant garde/molecular gastronomy).

In order to get a feel for the menus, each of the groups gets to dine at their respective restaurant as guests. Sweet. What follows is footage of each of the four meals, and while all look delicious (to the point that I'm kind of aching for the food even though I'm actively full right now), there's not much to write about. It's telling that people who wound up at restaurants that aren't really their style (Tiffany at French/Vietnamese fusion, Tre at Italian, Carla at avant garde/molecular gastronomy, etc.) are more tense and stressed. That night, the chefs plan their dishes. Dalet read somewhere that Wylie Dufresne (the chef at wd~50) loves him some eggs, and tries to come up with something in that area. Stephen obsesses over clothing.

The next day, the chefs go to their respective restaurants, and have two hours of prep time. I'm not sure if the chefs shopped for ingredients, are using the restaurants' supplies, or what. Cooking ensues. Antonia notes that dinner the night before had a theme of using a simple base, and then spinning off into interesting directions, so instead of doing something wacky, she starts with peas and carrots. Carla nervously works with liquid nitrogen. Time winds down. The judges get seated at Marea first. Joining Padma and Ptom are Anthony Bourdain and Kate Krader, who is the restaurant editor at Food & Wine. Naturally, the chef of each restaurant will also sit in at their own places. At Marea, it's a chef named Michael White. Let's get started!

Tre has grilled swordfish, with two preparations of artichoke, basil oil, and a mushroom panna cotta. Spike has seared branzino, with caponata and a spicy prosciutto vinaigrette. Richard has a crudo of Spanish mackerel, braised veal shank, and a fennel mostarda. Stephen has salmon with figs, a broccoli rapini, and fennel pollen. Tasting. Spike's fish skin is nice and crispy, but the caponata is disappointing. Richard and Tre did a nice job, but Stephen's fennel pollen is way too aggressive. Kate compliments the job everyone did, punctuating everything with a slight lisp.

LabRat: "She'll be a good character for Rachel Dratch in thirty years."

Off to ma peche. By the way, I've totally written down all of these restaurant names for the next time LabRat and I are in New York. I guess I'd better start squirreling those pennies away. Fabio has made roasted lamb, with hoisin plum barbecue sauce, a corn tomato salad, and lemongrass chevre ricotta. That's certainly fusiony. Tiffany has a crudo of summer flounder, with pickled radish and a peach puree. Mike has lightly cured, warm sockeye salmon, with eggplant, marinated tomatoes, and pickled peach. Angelo's got tumeric-marinated fish, with dill, cilantro, salmon roe, chorizo, and for an unexpected kick, white chocolate. Hmm. I don't know about that, although anything with salmon roe in it gets ten points added automatically. Tasting. Angelo gets great reviews on taste, and David approves of the style. Mike's is popular as well, but Fabio's is overly heavy and misses the style mark. Tiffany's is fine, but undistinctive.

townhouse. The chef here is David Burke. Dalel kicks off the service with roasted veal loin, with peanuts, popcorn, French toast, corn, and thyme caramel. Interesting. I don't know if that's a good "interesting" or a bad "interesting". Antonia has pea puree with carrot butter (DRINK!) and seared scallop with pickled carrot. Casey has seared halibut, shaped to look like a scallop, resting on tapioca "caviar", and a ginger-carrot emulsion. Jamie's dish is almost shockingly simple; she's made a smoked tomato and bacon soup, with an heirloom tomato salad. Yes, that is the quick lunch you pick up at Panera on your half hour lunch break. Good observation! Tasting. David finds Jamie's soup blah, both in flavor and style. Dalel's dish is a plate of sweet food with a piece of veal plopped on it. Casey's dish was smart and tasty. Antonia's is fairly salty, but would fit nicely on the menu.

Interstitial. Marcel finds it ironic to be working at wd~50, because... Well, you know.

wd~50. Wylie greets the rest of the judges, and everyone settles in. Dalet has done a spin on breakfast. He has a sunny-side-up egg dumpling, with braised pork belly, and milk ramen with bacon, beef, and pork. Tiffani has made vacuum-packed melon, with powdered ham and Taleggio. Well, she's certainly going for style points. Carla has tried to marry molecular gastronomy with her own comfort food background. She's got "grits" (aka shrimp-infused corn), with poached shrimp and okra chips on top. Marcel has made Vadouvan lamb, with tzatziki, pickled red onion and "anti" flatbread. That's flatbread that's been poofed up by air. So it's essentially...bread. Tasting. Tiffani's melon falls flat. Dalet's breakfast bowl is fantastic. Carla did a nice job, though her technique was a bit safe. Marcel's dish was timid, and the food was fairly bland.

Fret 'n sweat. Carla gleefully tells the other chefs about how she was gettin' down and using the circulator. Everyone cackles in delight. Padma enters, and summons Dalet, Angelo, Antonia, and Tre to Judges' Table. That's three Elimination Challenges in a row that Angelo has come out on top. That'd be impressive in a regular season, never mind All-Stars. Padma tells the top four that the individual winner will get a six-day trip to New Zealand. Nice! All of them are roundly complimented before Kate announces the big winner. Dalet. Yeah, I've got to say, that egg dumpling with the meat and the broth looked really good. The winning chefs are dismissed. Dalet's win is applauded back in the Kitchen, before he delivers the news that the judges would like to see Stephen, Fabio, Dalel, and Tiffani. As they go out, Dalet advises them to fight hard. "Fight hard, but not too hard," Carla amends. "Don't pull a Jenc!" adds what sounds like Antonia. Hehe.

The losing chefs trudge out to face the music. Fabio didn't have a good background in the restaurant's style, and as such, wound up attempting way too much. Stephen guesses that he put too many little components on the plate, and he's right. His dish came off tasting like a Bath & Body Works shop. Tiffani got seduced into throwing herself into weird techniques, rather than flavor. Dalel's plate made no sense. Deliberations. Dalel's plate was way too sweet. Stephen's fish was fine, but nothing else worked. Fabio used Asian ingredients, but he didn't use them well. Tiffani put a bad spin on Wylie's type of food. The judges reach a decision.

Elimination. Or eliminations, rather. The same criticisms are rehashed before the Padma announces the first elimination, which is a gimme: Stephen. We're not sure who the other one is going to be. Dalel. Please pack your knives, and go. Aw, damn. Frankly, although he's delightful and charming and fun, I feel like Fabio has kind of reached the limit of his talents. He's great at pasta, but not much else. In his final interview, Dalel admits that he's a little embarrassed. He's never been eliminated before; he just didn't win in the finals. Stephen seems kind of relieved to go, saying that he's more of a front-of-house guy now, and was up against a bunch of fiercely talented competitors. Well, that's nice. He probably wouldn't have been included had some other chefs agreed to take part this season, but he carried himself well in this go-round. Hilariously, when Stephen announces his elimination, there's dead silence, and when Dalel announces his, there are gasps of horror. We end on Dalel saying that he's enjoyed the experience again, and is more than willing to come back from Top Chef 16 - Seniors. Haha! So many contestants take everything uber-seriously; we need more funny guys like him in this joint.

Overall Grade: B