Top Chef: Seattle

[tifosi77]

Your post in the cooking thread made me think, tif:

Spoiler:

Imagine if Sheldon had taken scallops and bacon... at least 2 chefs used those ingredients... Hell, I would have taken bacon just to screw with Josh. (not that I would make it on Top Chef, much less make the final five, but I digress)

That's exactly what Mrs Tif said when Padma laid out the rules of the challenge.

Spoiler:

"I'd take bacon and watch Josh's head explode.":lol:

[columbia]

Spoiler:

I'd like to try that ultra-crispy pork belly....Sheldon should have also been ditched. His dish was weak.

[the wicked child]

Spoiler:

Back to back wins for Brooke. I'm bummed that Lizzie got sent home, but not tasting your dish together is unacceptable.

LCK

Spoiler:

4 in a row for Kristin. Unless Brooke somehow screws up next week, I am expecting her to be in the finale.

[tifosi77]

Spoiler:

I'd like to try that ultra-crispy pork belly....Sheldon should have also been ditched. His dish was weak.

I suggest you read Tom Colicchio's blog to see why that might not be such a good idea....

Spoiler:

Back to back wins for Brooke. I'm bummed that Lizzie got sent home, but not tasting your dish together is unacceptable.

Spoiler:

Going to disagree here....... I forget which judge said it, but it was a salmon and bread challenge; Sheldon screwed up both. To me that is a far greater sin than not seasoning your dish properly. I was seriously impressed with his Quickfire dish, but I would not have hesitated in sending him packing for the Elimination.

Sheldon has had the highest highs of this season; his concept and execution of Restaurant Wars was spectacular, and this most recent Quickfire were epic. But he's wildly inconsistent. I'm openly rooting for Brooke at this point, but wouldn't mind if Sheldon or Kristin won. (Let's not kid ourselves, they're the top three.) If pine-needle-smoked-asparagus Sheldon shows up in the final, however, it's game over for everyone else.

[the wicked child]

Not sure what we're disagreeing about.

Spoiler:

I didn't say that Sheldon shouldn't have been sent home... he would have been my choice... just said that it was unfortunate that Lizzie didn't taste her dish together. Hell, he used a fish that they feed to their dogs... even if some people enjoyed it, that is like you have a choice between a Rib-Eye and Round Steak and you cook the Round Steak...

[tifosi77]

Spoiler:

There are five species of salmon common in Alaska waters: Chum, Sockeye, Coho, King and Pink. I shook my head when he said he was using chum; we were in Alaska a couple years ago, and they are deeply anti-chum. Like, it was almost weird how much they don't like it. Mrs Tif said it wasn't fair to potentially hold that against Sheldon, cos how was he supposed to know prior to cooking? I said, "Yeah, it's not like he spent his entire morning in the presence of a fishing boat crew that might have been able to offer some insight if posed with the query, 'which of these do you like the best?'"

She doesn't like it when I talk like that.

[columbia]

Spoiler:

Brooke's dish seemed kind of meh and safe, but whatever...I've already established that I have a thing for her.

Regardless of the outcome, that salmon slider looked seriously delicious.


BTW: I've been to Sean Brock's Husk restaurant in Charleston. Review?

[tifosi77]

Ate early dinner yesterday at Hudson House, Brooke's restaurant in Redondo Beach.

Spoiler:

Meh. She wasn't there yet, which was to be expected (she probably doesn't arrive - if at all - until closer to dinner service). But we got there 20 minutes after opening and there was no floor staff on hand. The poor bartender lady was doing everything herself. Eventually, the chef even brought our food to our table. Mrs Tif regaled me with stories from her years working in restaurants when things like this would happen to her. She was not a fan, and the fact that bartender/server lady not only didn't mess anything up but was actually almost as good as a dedicated server meant that she got a nice fat tip at the end of the meal.

Started off with a cava and blood orange cocktail, which was basically a mimosa with Spanish sparkling wine and blood orange juice; very delicious. Then we had an olive and nut appie that should have been called "mixed nuts with a few olives scattered in for contrast". Also had charred edamame and ****, with soy and honey, which were okay. Then we split a shell-on vinegar shrimp dish that was pretty tasty. My palate naturally skews towards bitter-sour, so anything cooked in vinegar is going to be delicious to me. But as the dish cooled off, you could no longer eat the shells. Not the chef's fault, of course, but it made the last 3-4 shrimp kind of not fun to eat.

Topping the meal off, I got an incendiary hot ****. They're usually no hotter than a Bell pepper, but about 1 out of 1,000 of them can be like Thai chile hot. I got one of those. So it was an unpleasant end to the meal, but it hadn't been all that memorable in the first place.

[the wicked child]

Episode

Spoiler:

Not sure what Mustachio was thinking. You are one step from the finale... why would you try something that is impossible to do in the time frame? They want you to take risks, but that doesn't mean trying to defy reality. Sheldon not tasting his broth until the end was pretty silly as well. Happy with the decision in the end, but I wanted Josh gone long ago, so I'm definitely biased.

LCK

Spoiler:

Of course they didn't announce the winner again, but Josh was eliminated. Not surprised... as soon as I saw his clearly undercooked venison I knew he was done. Came down to Kristen vs. Lizzie (won save a chef over CJ). Whoever wins, I am happy with the final 3.

Note about the finale...

Spoiler:

However, looks like the finale will be 2 parts, so I guess someone goes home next week and the final 2 battle it out. That's good and all, but then next week isn't really the finale then, is it?

[tifosi77]

They've done the 2-parters in the past a couple different ways. They've done it where they eliminate a chef in pt1 and have a two-chef cook-off, and they've also done it where the first part focuses on the challenge and prep (the chefs usually get about 3-4 weeks to gear up for the final cook) and then the second part has service, tasting and judging.

Spoiler:

In the battle of conception vs execution, conception always loses.

When Josh said he was making a torchon and that it normally takes several days to make, I thought "Well, you could probably combine a couple steps into one day and get away with it...." Then I consulted a couple different cookbooks on ye shelf................. yeah, no. Two days, minimum. 99% of the 'cooking' with torchon is passive, allowing the foie to cure in the fridge, and then allowing it to set in the fridge after cooking. Each of those steps takes a minimum of 24 hours without the aid of something like LN2. (The actual cooking bit takes less than 2 minutes in softly boiling water)

[the wicked child]

Note: I'm just bitter because the final episode is going to fall while I'm on a business trip, so I probably won't get to see it for a few days.

[the wicked child]

Spoiler:

Took a different path than I expected, but Kristen v. Brooke for all the marbles.

[columbia]

This doesn't warrant a spoiler, but the level of cuisine this year has been exceptionally blaze.

[tifosi77]

The cuisine has been fire?



Got the final three I wanted, as well as the final two. Gonna be a fun final cook.

Spoiler:

Altho I did find it odd that in her downtime she was out carousing with one of the judges who sent her into the finale. I'm sure Roy Choi wouldn't pull any punches if her food sucked, but it looked a little bit interest conflicty to me.

[the wicked child]

Not sure if I like this format...

[the wicked child]

After seeing the whole episode... really don't like this format.

Spoiler:

I will probably rant more later, but for one, it made it way too obvious who was going to win. Even the round that Brooke won, she barely won. On top of that, when they go to a commercial so late in the episode, it's pretty damn obvious that Kristen is about to win. Totally ruins the suspense element, IMO.

[the wicked child]

Sleeping on it didn't help. So disappointing. I have no problem with the outcome, but the format ruined the whole thing for me. This better not be the new standard.

[columbia]

The best chef won.

I'll continue to watch this show, but that was not the best season.

[tifosi77]

After seeing the whole episode... really don't like this format.

Spoiler:

I will probably rant more later, but for one, it made it way too obvious who was going to win. Even the round that Brooke won, she barely won. On top of that, when they go to a commercial so late in the episode, it's pretty damn obvious that Kristen is about to win. Totally ruins the suspense element, IMO.

Absolutely agree, 100%.

Spoiler:

When they came back from the commercial break at the 42 minute mark and went into a 5-minute montage of the past Top Chef winners, I proclaimed to Mrs Tif that Kristin was the winner. There just wasn't enough time in the episode to do two more courses, despite Brooke saying during the third course that there were still two more to go after that. Not according to the clock, sweetie.

Stupid suspense-killing format. Made it feel too much like Iron Chef, and that's not a compliment.

That said..... Brooke totally shot herself in the foot. Did not deliver, at all. She was out-thought and out-chef'd. There hasn't been a bed pooping this bad on TC since Stefan's first go-around when he mailed in his finale performance and lost to a seafood cook.... from Denver.

[Hockeynut!]

Did anyone else notice that Josiah really got the shaft in the "past winners" segment? Most of the others got interviews, accolades, etc. For Josiah they showed his pic and listed his 2 businesses and that was it, lol. Maybe TC realizes they blew it on that one too.

[tifosi77]

The thing that got me was the disclaimer at the beginning of the credit roll. I've never noticed it before, so pardon my ignorance, but this message is shown at the end of the episode:
"Winning and elimination decisions were made by the judges in consultation with producers. Some elimination decisions were discussed with Bravo.”

Wtf?!

[the wicked child]

Yeah, that has been around as long as I can remember.

[jimjom]

Spoiler:

Just watched the finale last night. Didn't like the format. Seemed like a cross between Iron Chef America and Chopped, which dumbed down TC's status as a "legit" cooking show to me. I agree with Tif, when there was a deciding vote to be cast and the commercial break hit at the last quarter mark the writing was on the wall that Kristin was the winner. I have to go back and read recaps online because I forget how Sheldon was eliminated. This season really didn't do it for me not one of the top (no pun intended) seasons IMO