By Chuck
Guest judge Daniel Boulud presides over this round -- which starts with a Quickfire designed to showcase technique. Specifically, a vegetable plate. Nikki, Lisa and Manuel are the bottom three, while Zoi, Richard and Dale take the top slots. Dale wins with a vegan sashimi platter that highlights his impressive knife skills. Turns out Ryan and Richard have both worked at Daniel's restaurants. Guess which one liked it.
Movies provide the theme for Elimination -- a dinner hosted by de-thumbed movie critic Richard Roeper for multiple hat-wearer Aisha Tyler. Six courses, cooked in pairs, each based on the duo's favorite film. Knives are drawn by everyone except Dale, who gets to join any team he chooses, and bring with him a 33% increase in that team's competitive advantage. Oddly enough, the teams are split precisely along gender lines. Six same-sex teams of two, and…Dale. Dale chooses to work with the predictably random, knife-selected team of Andrew and Richard, transforming a competitive duo into a curious threesome.
Though the movie selection tends west, several groups incorporate Asian flavors. The judges are surprised by how good some of the dishes are, and the party guests like them even better. Richard, riffing on Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory , leads his team to victory with a controversial dish using salmon, wasabi, chocolate and celery. Lisa and Stephanie round out the top with New York strip/short rib potsticker a la Top Secret.
Zoi and Antonia choose Talk to Her, and end up in the bottom for (ironically enough) talking the talk but not walking the walk, but Spike and Manuel get the lowest score for sticking afterthought Good Morning, Vietnam to a run-of-the-mill summer roll. Spike drove the entire disappointing effort, but he's also dominated this season's talking-head time, and Manuel goes home for being, uh, a "follower."
As day breaks in Chicago, the cheftestants prepare themselves for another grueling Quickfire/Elimination combo. Things are quieter than they have been, says Manuel -- Erik is "a big guy with a big heart," and his absence can be felt around the house. Each elimination ratchets up the intensity, which is starting to take its toll. Manuel misses his sons something fierce, but he understands that it's all part of the game.
Jennifer's trying to be hyper-conscious of the uniqueness of her situation with Zoi -- as everyone talks about how much "they miss their boyfriend, or their girlfriend, or their kids" -- she and Zoi have each other to lean on, to talk to, to touch. She reiterates that she's trying to be as fair as she can, and that she's making an effort to keep some distance out of respect for the rest of the group. While thoughtful, I'm not sure how far that respect will go toward ameliorating the other people distanced from their support systems. It does feel like we're inching ever-so-slowly toward a situation in which, cards on table, we'll see Jennifer and Zoi's true colors -- I'll be let down if that moment never comes, since they've been setting us up for some fireworks since the first episode.
Spike, never without an opinion, professes his "love" for the girls and his belief that they complement each other wonderfully, but states that he's ready for one of them to go. Says he: "It is a competition, and having two people in the house that are kind of working together and understand each others thought process, it puts the rest of us at a slight disadvantage, and that's all it takes in this competition is a slight disadvantage." Wordy, but potentially valid -- if indeed that's how it plays out. Jennifer's gone to bat for Zoi in the talking-head segments, but the jury's still out about how things will go if the do compete against one another. Which I think I already said -- so, moving on, Spike's ubiquitous porkpie hat is getting a little tedious. It feels a bit forced, and in that way it's a nice encapsulation of his general persona.
Padma, rocking the cobalt blue yet again (looks like she's decided it her color of the season), introduces this week's guest judge by saying, "If you guys don't know who he is, you should just leave the kitchen now." It's Daniel Boulud, multiple restaurant owner, After Hours star, and extraordinary French chef, who's definitely one of the stars in the culinary firmament. I've never had the pleasure of dining at one of his establishments, but I gather he generally lives up to the hype. He also seems like a fairly genial fellow, although I'll bet he can be right nasty when provoked (or when he feels like it).
Asked by Padma what he believes is "the most important foundation for a chef," Daniel replies "without a good technique, I don't think you can accomplish great cooking." Hard to disagree with that. Technique provides the basis for this week's Quickfire -- each cheftestant must prepare a vegetable plate, with ingredients from the pantry and from an array of overfilled baskets scattered around the kitchen, that showcases at least three techniques "that you think will impress Daniel."
Finally -- a challenge that allows the chefs to strike out on their own with guidelines less stringent than those of the past few weeks. Not only do they have a wide range of ingredients from which to select, they have to decide what techniques to use, and even what qualifies as a "technique" in the first place. Lisa looks like she just smelled poo as she expresses nervousness about the challenge due to not being into "the classic training methods." Instead, she likes "to do things however I feel is the best for that moment," which comes off as a bit of a cop-out, especially since I don't think we've seen enough of her food to know if she can back her philosophy with talent. Cut to close-up of poo-smell face.
Daniel reveals that both Richard and Ryan have previously worked in his restaurants, but assures the assembled contingent that this fact will have no impact on his judging decisions. Ryan elaborates, saying he "spent a very short time at Daniel. It wasn't my style." No surprise there -- Ryan doesn't strike me as a technique freak, and so far, his style doesn't seem very stylish.
As the thirty minutes begin, Nikki also expresses concern that she's not adept at classical techniques, before announcing that she will blanch, grill, and make a quenelle. That doesn't seem overly impressive, but at least she's not making macaroni and cheese. Amidst lots of close-ups of slicing, dicing, and julienning, Manuel expresses confidence in his knife skills, intimidation by Daniel, and his decision to make a vinaigrette, supreme of lemon (which is apparently a fancy term for peeling and deseeding fruit) -- and that's only two techniques, but who's counting?
Richard explains that technique stretches far beyond knife skills, but they seem to be his focus, with what looks like a simple plate of well-shaped vegetables. Zoi, echoing the "I'm not classically trained" refrain that's punctuated this challenge so far, zeros in on radishes, asparagus, and assorted endive, which she combines into a salad with a poached egg. Lisa starts to rotate a cucumber as she removes the skin with a knife to make a thin wrapper, before looking to her left, seeing Dale doing the same thing and "whizzing through them like soft butter," and abandoning the idea. Segue to Dale, who is now doing what looks like the same thing to an avocado.
Spike, drawing on his training in France, decides to show off how creative he can be, which involves using a fun-looking device to make tiny scallion ribbons, which he places in an ice bath. End result: delicate scallion curls. Honestly, they look more interesting to make than to eat, but I have to assume he'll integrate them into something else.
Daniel and Padma start that walk-through with Zoi's shaved asparagus, poached egg, batons of green beans, and chiffonade of radicchio and frisee. Daniel, impressed by the "paper thin" chiffonade, and makes a point of showing it to Padma before they move along to Dale. He's created a vegan sashimi platter with daikon marinated in tobanjan (which I've never heard of before, and which is a spicy miso bean sauce used primarily in Korean cooking), tournee of avocado and cucumber. His platter is well composed -- served over ice, nicely architectural with bursts of color. Both Daniel and Padma are quite impressed, and Padma fingers the avocado to appreciate its beauty before chowing down.
While there are no cucumbers to be seen on Lisa's plate, there are plenty of other vegetables: blanched asparagus, batonettes of bell pepper, grilled zucchini, as well as a few unlisted garnishes, all accompanied by a poached egg. It looks thrown together, like separate garden plots on a plate. Daniel pronounces it "back to basics," which could be a compliment. I don't think it is.
Richard has also assembled a number of vegetables into separate mounds (eschewing the white platters for a long, dark plank, although they show everything on clear glass for the close up). He claims "restraint" as one of his techniques, sycophantically adding that he learned it from Daniel. For Richard, restraint takes the form of blanched mushrooms (tossed with truffle oil and yuzu -- yum), pickled beets, and sliced radishes with lime juice and scallions. It's a much more attractive composition that Lisa's, and Daniel appreciates "the different tastes and textures."
Spike's pulled together a Carpaccio of cucumber, tagliatello of asparagus, cucumber cup, and tournee of mushroom. It looks like the scallion curls perch atop some thinly sliced purple cabbage, but I can't tell -- most of the dishes appear to have several ingredients more than the ones mentioned in the official descriptions. "You definitely show the different skill of cutting and all that," says Daniel, but adds nothing about how the food tastes. Manuel plated blanched asparagus, brunois of yellow pepper, supremes of lemon, and endive with fennel fronds, as well as dots of bright pink beet vinaigrette. Daniel doesn't agree that the endive with fennel represents a technique -- it's really just a composition.
comes Nikki, with a blanched green bean and asparagus quenelle in an endive leaf, shaved fennel and radish salad, and a brick of grilled zucchini (which she apparently didn't think to season). "You will never, ever grill something without seasoning," pronounces Daniel, to which Nikki can only reply, "Thank you."
And that's we get to see before the winners and losers are announced. Generally speaking, Daniel wishes he had seen a bit more time given upfront to identifying a plan prior to execution. Nikki, not surprisingly, gets called out as the first of the worst. In addition to the sin of seasonless grilling, Daniel thought that "to just take a plain piece of endive and just use it as a boat, it's cute, but not well thought out. Are you listening, Manuel? But Lisa's the choice -- Daniel felt her mishmash of vegetables did not represent a "train of thought on the combination of all these techniques together." Man, that girl is a pro at looking sour. Now it's Manuel's turn -- according to Daniel, his plate was "level one technique," and it takes more than that to succeed in this competition.
In the good news department, Daniel liked Zoi's poached egg, "composed into a dish you could serve." Dale impressed him because "you made a plan, your knife skills are amazing, you really pushed it to what a chef should do." Finally, Richard gets a nod for "an amazing presentation," with Daniel mentioning specifically that "the mushrooms were very interestingly prepared." In the end, Daniel picks Dale as the winner -- with immunity -- for showing "something amazing," which feels especially good for Dale since he's been on the chopping block twice in a row.
This week's Elimination, thankfully, does not involve pre-prepping and transporting massive amounts of finger food. Rather, it's a movie-themed challenge in which the cheftestants will create a six-course dinner (inspired by their favorite films) hosted by telegenic Chicago movie critic Richard Roeper, who inherited the chair opposite Roger Ebert on At the Movies after Siskel passed away, and who now can no longer use the trademark thumb rating with his rotating guest hosts due to contractual disputes between very ill thumb trademark owner Ebert and whoever refused to pay enough for use of said thumb.
Anyway, Roeper's hosting the dinner for his friend Aisha Tyler, an actress/comedienne/author/etc. whose few appearances with Roeper on At the Movies conveys the impressions that she may be a friend with benefits. The cheftestants will be divided, via knife drawing, into teams of two -- except for Dale. Numbers on each knife designate which course each team will cook. As the drawing ensues, things divide precisely along gender lines. In order of courses, the teams are: Andrew and Richard; Spike and Manuel; Jennifer and Nikki; Ryan and Mark; Zoi and Antonia; and Lisa and Stephanie. Andrew and Richard together again -- wow, they couldn't have planned that one any better.
So what to do with Dale, the thirteenth wheel? He gets to choose any team he'd like to join, significantly increasing that team's competitive advantage. He barely bats an eye before choosing the first course, and "Richard." Not a peep about Andrew, so we know whom Dale thinks is the best. As does Antonia -- she thinks "his food tastes good, hands down," and sees her stiffest competition in the evening's openers. Dale rectifies his omission in a talking head bit, where he says he's "chomping at the bit" to work with Richard, and that he thinks Andrew is "equally creative." He thinks the three of them, as forward-thinking, progressive chefs, will make a good troika. Andrew's not so sure -- he's miffed that Dale's muscling in on his turf. I think Andrew's competitiveness with Richard has inspired a little man crush, and that Andrew's mostly upset that Dale's intruding on his time with Richard.
The threesome decides to find inspiration in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory for their first course, which gives them a lot of latitude in the creativity department. Richard explains (as he kicks his trusty red mini-smoker into action) that it's about "creating a gumball that tastes like a roast beef sandwich that turns into a blueberry pie." He's clearly the mastermind behind the choice and the de facto team leader -- it'd be pretty fantastic if they actually managed to recreate that gumball.
Spike and Manuel confer -- or, rather, try to find movies that match what they want to cook. Manuel mentions Like Water for Chocolate, since it's a Mexican movie, and he cooks Mexican food. I suppose that's a valid line of thinking when asked to create dishes inspired by your favorite film, but it's starting to feel like Manuel needs to move beyond the Mexican. Spike has no idea what Manuel's talking about, and neither do I when Manuel explains that he doesn't want to kill people on their mouth on their second course." That doesn't seem like something to aspire to in any course. Spike counters by suggesting Vietnamese food and, by extension, Good Morning, Vietnam, because nothing says delicious Vietnamese food like Robin Williams. Manuel goes along with Spike's vision of a summer roll, excited to learn something new and add his two cents in the process.
Jennifer (Jen from here on out -- it's shorter) and Nikki opt for Italian (Nikki needs to show some diversity as well), and they hit on Il Postino for their cinematic inspiration, which is a good choice for simple, rustic, romantic food. Jen suggests they "hold hands," which gets a bigger laugh from Nikki, but I did chuckle. They'll do pasta, which, if I ever find myself in one of Nikki's restaurants, I'm going to order, since that's clearly the part of her repertoire of which she is proudest. Nikki's got the dough, while Jen will shape the tortellini, a shape of pasta reputedly based on some Italian vixen's particularly alluring navel. No intel on the specific contours of Zoi's bellybutton, but Jen does again discuss the difficulty of competing with her lover. It's hard, y'all!
Speak of the devil, Zoi and Antonia are busy planning their filmic feast -- a lamb dish, inspired by the Spanish colors in Almodovar's Talk to Her, which is, according to Antonia, "about two very creative women, it just sort of represented us." Well, yes, but they spend most of the movie in a coma, so hopefully she didn't mean that too literally. Ryan, correctly guesses that Mark is from "New Zealand, New England" and that they'll have little in common when it comes to movies. When Ryan calls Dumb and Dumber "funny as shit," Mark counters with To Kill a Mockingbird, which is funny as shit, all the more so because Mark's completely earnest. Mark, looking a bit high, starts naming films, and Ryan (looking slightly like a male Janice Dickinson) stares at him like he's speaking Swahili. Mark mentions a film called Bad Boy Bubby -- according to IMDB, "male frontal nudity," "disturbing," "female nudity," "gas mask," and "dead cat" are just a few of the many plot keywords, so I desperately hope they choose that one.
No luck -- Ryan's thoughts turn to the holidays and "the kid that gets shot with the BB with his eye and they go get Asian food instead," and he's clearly entered some other zone, excitedly babbling nonsense and looking at Mark with crazy eyes (see, total Janice). Problem is, neither of them knows that the movie is called A Christmas Story, but Manuel helps them out. Mark claims that "everyone's seen it," but his befuddled air implies that he disproves his own argument. Lisa and Stephanie, together again on what should be, according the generally accepted flow of a meal, a dessert course, decide to go savory since they just collaborated on last week's cobbler, and neither of them are pastry chefs.
Lisa announces to the others that they are "doing beef and short ribs on the plate," and connects their beef dish to the classic dick-as-teat scene in Top Secret!, which, upon a brief glance at its packaging, looks to have a lot more to do with cows than I recall. Calling Lisa "strong and bold," Stephanie lets her take the reins, or whatever you use to steer cows, and lets slip that she hasn't ever seen the movie. With planning for each course complete, it's off to Whole Foods with $150 and half an hour to shop.
Dale peppers the fishmonger with instructions about a large piece of salmon, which will become smoked salmon with faux caviar made with tapioca pearls and a wasabi white chocolate sauce. Using chocolate is a smart move based on the movie at hand, but that sounds like a very strange combination of flavors. Andrew promises that their dish will inspire the guests to "culinarily crap in their pants," which is always fun at parties. Shopping for their summer roll ingredients, Manuel pushes for Chilean sea bass, while Spike would prefer a milder fish like tilapia -- but, says Spike, he understands that "as a chef, you have to compromise with your employees." Ouch. He quickly corrects himself ("uh, the people you work with") but it's too late. Hasn't he seen this? The Mexican will be bringing his roots with a chile rub for the fish.
The non-comatose women of Talk to Her will be preparing a rack of lamb with cauliflower saffron puree and romesco sauce. Lamb, to Antonia's chagrin, "is muy, muy expensive," and she and Zoi can only afford enough to mandate perfect cutting on their part. Whole Foods is, strangely enough, fresh out of duck, so Mark and Ryan end up with quail for their dish, which excites Mark based on quail's flavor potential, but which makes the connection to A Christmas Story a bit more tenuous. They also score some first of the season cranberries, so it balances out.
Night. Day of Elimination. Andrew shares his bright idea to serve the meal as an oompa-loompa "to make more of a connection. I wanted to show them what an oompa-loompa was," which is apparently a full-grown man walking around on his shod knees and speaking in a cartoon voice. Dale and Richard shoot him down in an extremely polite manner (the former calls it "kitschy," the latter "too tongue in cheek"), considering that Andrew's idea is nothing short of idiotic.
The challenge, to be conducted at a space called Gallery 37, commences with the usual runaround. Nikki leaves a pan of kale to concentrate on rolling the pasta dough; Richard, tired of "sitting in the backseat" on challenges, strides forth as a leader, taking full responsibility for the outcome of his team's dish. He and Andrew, on caviar duty, look like they're working quite well together. Spike, however, thinks their combination of ingredients is "something I would not want to imagine," yet he does feel they present a challenge to his summer roll with chili-rubbed Chilean sea bass and pickled Swiss chard. Eh, ugh.
Backing up a season, Mark and Ryan are working on a spring roll, for another Asian-inspired dish (sensible given that it's informed by a scene in an Asian restaurant). Lisa and Stephanie collaborate nicely for the second week running on a New York strip, with a braised short rib and apple potsticker and caramel sauce. The apple and the caramel are a nice way to bring in a sweet element to an otherwise savory dish, if they manage to pull it off. Antonia and Zoi decide to stop adding saffron to their cauliflower, choosing taste over achieving the vibrant yellow they had envisioned.
As the clock runs down and plating of the first dish begins, Richard's using the electric smoker on the salmon and covering each plate with saran wrap -- the same presentation trick he used in the first Elimination challenge. This time, the wrap will capture the smoke, releasing it when punctured at the table. While I don't love the idea of being served a dish wrapped in plastic, I'm sure it can be done elegantly, and so far everything about this dish is making me rather curious. Unfortunately, the trusty smoker gives up the ghost less than halfway through the plating, leaving the three gents to explore alternative methods of imparting smokiness to the salmon.
And explore they do -- lighting pieces of wood and holding it near the salmon (which burns the plastic wrap). Richard labels the results that the smoker would have delivered as a "bonus," and makes the executive decision to pull the plastic off and serve the dish without it. Padma -- in a bright blue dress (yes, that color again) that emphasizes her ample bosom -- and Colicchio lead the party to the dinner table, where Padma raises a glass in a toast to "Richard Roeper, Aisha Tyler, Chicago." Roeper, sitting to Daniel, is sporting an unfortunate choker -- something silver on a black string. Padma, Tom, Ted, and Daniel will be this week's four judges -- Gail must be involved in some other projects, because she really hasn't been around much.
Back in the kitchen, Andrew, Dale and Richard have hit upon a solution -- igniting a large block of wood and holding it under the salmon, which presumably creates the smoky flavor in a way that doesn't require the plastic. The effect won't be as dramatic, but it's impressive that they managed to work together toward a solution -- I'd have crumpled into a little ball.
As the guests receive their first dish of the evening, Richard takes the lead in explaining their choice of film and flavor -- "all about pure imagination." In addition to the salmon, which looks appetizing and well composed, they've made a "play on the fizzy lifting drink" with a pear and celery soda. As the guests tuck in, they all seem impressed with the salmon, which Colicchio thinks is "surprisingly good." Daniel feels that "all the combinations are so creative and maybe not predictably made to go together but very well-executed." Roeper loved Richard's connection of the dish to Willy Wonka, in particular the drink, while Ted appreciates the choice of an appropriate light course to start the meal -- and five teams have a tough act to follow.
Spike and Manuel's summer roll arrives , and by the looks of things, this dish will be a letdown -- first of all, based on Spike's cursory explanation, the connection of the dish and Good Morning, Vietnam is in name only. Plated atop a banana leaf, the summer roll includes black vermicelli, green apple, Chilean sea bass and Swiss chard, and is joined by a spoon of what looks like a chili sauce and a lump of chard leaves wrapped with ribbons of chard stem. The colors look flat, and the separate elements of the dish don't come together. Daniel immediately questions the inclusion of fish in the roll, and Ted thinks that "with the budget they had, they could have bought lobster, they could have bought crab," which would have made the roll feel more luxurious. Aisha Tyler finds the whole thing chewy, Colicchio hates the lump of chard on the plate, and Padma (taking a cue from an unidentified guest) labels the choice of film an uninspired afterthought.
The Il Postino pasta appears, with Nikki hoping it will "transport you to the hillsides of Italy." Jen describes their tortellini with cavolo nero (an Italian black cabbage), ricotta, pecorino, squash and peppercorn, which Colicchio (hesitating only slightly) calls "not great, it's good." Daniel thinks the women "didn't care much about the beautiful pretty shape of it," but Ted "prefers handmade pasta that didn't look like it was stamped out of a machine." Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but Richard sides with Ted and makes a good case for Nikki and Jen's execution, since Il Postino is all about the beauty of rustic simplicity. Roeper also thinks "it's better than all the experts have been saying so far," and Ted responds with his gayest look. They are, he admits, "being as nitpicky as possible," before concluding that the dish "is kind of one-note." The judges get paid to be nitpicky, but a plucky raven-haired guest admits that, for her, the dish had precisely the intended effect of summoning "the village and the sheep running around." Not a home run, perhaps, but Jen and Nikki should be safe.
Mark spoons simmering cranberries atop a spring roll as he expresses concern that the rolls may be dry, although he is confident that "all the flavors seem to gel well together." Yes, it's time for A Christmas Story -- Ryan, in his slightly A.D.D. way, explains the "duck at the Asian restaurant" inspiration behind their quail breast with carrot puree, cranberry chutney and quail spring rolls. In addition to a comely dish and an engaging explanation, Mark and Ryan have created something "really delicious," according to Padma, and Ted's "new favorite dish -- beautiful, sophisticated, complex." Roeper approves of the interpretation of the movie, Aisha loves the carrot puree, Padma continues to enthuse, and neither Daniel nor Colicchio utter a single word.
Antonia and Zoi's plating offers a glimpse of the cheftestants working together -- or at least a few of them. Richard helps with a "swoosh" of cauliflower and Mark helps Antonia slice the lamb. Zoi seems really nervous as she describes the inspiration they found in Talk to Her: "the women in the movie are very passionate women so we felt that this movie well-represented two strong females with a passion for what they do." Yawn. Antonia mentions the vibrant colors of Spain as we see the close up of their rack of lamb with saffron cauliflower puree, romesco and gramalata -- it's pretty, and the flavors sounds wonderful, but, as expected, not as colorful as the two women probably would have liked. Daniel and Colicchio immediately seize upon that, while Colicchio goes on to criticize the lamb as "too thin," saying he would have preferred a single chop as opposed to the two thin pieces of meat on the plate. Aisha thinks it "was fine, and tasted good, but I didn't feel anything transcendent about it." Not Almodovar-worthy.
While the final dish, according to Stephanie, may not be traditional, she and Lisa hope "to show Daniel that we know how to balance a dish, season it properly, and cook it properly, and hopefully he'll enjoy it." Lisa explains the Top Secret! cow connection, eliciting peals of laughter from Roeper, as Stephanie describes the dish -- which looks pretty amazing to me. They've added a reduction of the braising liquid (along with a bit of fresh apple juice) to the plate, and are saucing with a Vietnamese caramel, combining savory and sweet. My mouth is watering. As for first thoughts, Daniel comments that it is "very Asian, very well seasoned, I like the spiciness of it," and Colicchio agrees. Aisha Tyler, who's reputedly a pretty smart cookie, opines that "it feels original, it feels like it goes above and beyond just an iteration of a classic thing." Score! And with that, the party's over. Padma woodenly thanks Roeper and sends the guests on their way so the four judges can get down to judging.
Colicchio praises the first dish as "whimsical, fun," while Daniel likes the "thought process of combining many surprising flavors" and feels that it was "the most professionally-executed dish." Ted is even more impressed that they could accomplish all of that with "the subtlety and refinement of a first course." For Colicchio, the summer roll suffered from "the fishiness of the fish" (time to slap your employees into line, Spike), and the fact that "the garnish on the side just had no connection to the dish at all." The pasta gets a middling review from Colicchio, who enjoyed Mark and Ryan's evocation of A Christmas Story. Wresting control of the discussion cum monologue from Colicchio, Padma asks for feedback on the lamb, but Colicchio won't let go, panning the lack of "vibrant colors." Daniel manages to add that it wasn't very "fiery," and the comatose aspects on the movie suddenly seem appropriate. He also weighs in on the final dish, saying that Lisa and Stephanie "did a very good job of punching all these combinations of flavors," while Colicchio pronounces it "flawless."
Manuel's worries that their dish was "too simple," while Zoi feels confident in her effort, which everyone tasted and said was delicious. Uh, pasta salad, anyone? See y'all at the judges' table!
Padma summons Richard, Dale, Andrew, Lisa and Stephanie, and doesn't hesitate to offer her congratulations since there's no doubt that these are the winning teams. Hugs abound as Colicchio praises them not just for their dishes, but also for the connections they made to their chosen films. Nice to that the judges actually care about the "concept" of the challenge this time.
Daniel is curious who "decided to take the risk of putting chocolate in the first course," and Richard pipes up that it was his idea. It was such a big risk, confesses Richard, that he was worried his team would be on the losing end, which is such bullshit -- Richard clearly has the chops, intellectually and technically, to compete extremely well, but his self-congratulatory attitude masquerading as modesty is terribly annoying. He knows how good he is -- he doesn't have to be a dick about it, but show some confidence and lose the false humility. Daniel and Colicchio eat it up, though, with Colicchio loving "such a strange combination you just kind of look for ways not to like it," and Daniel adds that "the wasabi was the element to lift the dish" -- another Richard touch. Ted liked the faux caviar, so Andrew gets his share of the credit. "The right balance done with such precision," sums up Tom, and the judges move on to the Top Secret! team without a shred of interest in Dale's contribution.
Stephanie explains that the idea flowed from Lisa's idea for the caramel sauce. Ted confesses he was concerned ("the reduction sauce that was already on the plate was so delicious") that the addition of the caramel would "muck this up" with too much stuff, but everything ultimately was "so harmonious." Tom thought everything was excellent, particularly the beef -- "perfect medium-rare, seared nicely." Daniel gets the honor of choosing the winner, and, calling one of the dishes "perfectly executed," he chooses the Willy Wonka team, to no one's surprise (not even Richard's). In another unsurprising move, Daniel selects Richard as the overall victor of this week's challenge. It pains me to admit that the win was deserved, and that Richard does seem to cook at another level than many of his fellow contestants. I'd love to try his cooking, but I'm not sure I'd want him to join me at the table, especially after he offers that the experience taught him "to be confident in my palate." Puh-leese.
Meanwhile, the rest of the gang sites anxiously in the back room, lambasting Richard and his team for combining white chocolate, wasabi, and celery. Nikki calls it "light years away from the way I cook," Jen "would never think to do it," and Spike believes that "they don't go together." "That doesn't taste good, I promise," promises Zoi, and they all look a bit foolish and a lot insecure based on what just transpired at the table. "If this is what they want, then see ya later," continues Zoi, as Richard waltzes in, announces his win, and (nanny nanny boo boo) summons Zoi (along with Antonia, Spike, and Manuel) to enjoy a few minutes of humiliation as the auteurs of the worst (sorry, "least favorite") dishes of the evening.
It's ladies first as Antonia and Zoi are called upon to defend their lamb. Antonia, expressing surprise at her current situation, "thought that our lamb was cooked perfectly, I thought that our romseco was really nice, and that our gremolata was nice." "Nice" may be their biggest problem, actually, as Colicchio explains that the issues were largely ones of packaging and presentation -- the sales pitch about "passionate women and vibrant colors" wasn't effectively translated to the plate, even though, he concedes, "the lamb was cooked perfectly." When he asks bout the thinness of the chops, Zoi and Antonia launch into another sales pitch for their choice of film and food (while the colors may not have materialized, the two chops represented the two of them, as well as the two women in the film, it was a simple story -- all good points to emphasize). "We didn't express that as well as we should have," concedes Zoi, and Padma agrees, wishing "you had told us THIS." It would indeed be a bummer to get sent home for attaching the wrong marketing pitch to an otherwise solid effort.
"GOOD MORNING VIETNAM," yell-talks Padma. Spike gets off to a bad start when he explains that his choice of movie was dictated by "Vietnamese food, that's what I'm cooking presently right now" -- reasoning I can't imagine is going to impress anyone as smart or creative. He maintains that he and his employee -- er, Manuel -- collaborated on the ingredients in the roll, which "pretty much what classically goes into a summer, or fresh, roll." Not so fast, Professor Evangelos -- Ted points out that chard is not a typical summer roll ingredient, and wants to know more. Manuel explains that the chard was used as a pickle-like ingredient, as Tom maintains that the problem with the chard was its lack of connection to the dish -- he disliked the "little pile of Swiss chard off to the side that really had no relation, at all, to the summer roll."
Colicchio then inquires whether or not Spike and Manuel spent their entire budget -- they did, claims Spike, but I hope he's lying and that they both pocketed twenty bucks. "It seemed like all the other contestants had a different budget than you did," says Colicchio, explaining that he didn't see any value on the plate and chalking the summer roll up to "something you can find in a local neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant that you would pay eight bucks for an appetizer." Oh, snap. Manuel argues that they were trying to showcase the evolution of Vietnamese food as a global cuisine, but Colicchio brings him up short by wondering why, if that was the case, they served something "fairly typical." How about a fusion of Spike's Vietnamese expertise with Manuel's Mexican roots -- "weave it together; take what you know and use those flavors to make something different."
Manuel claims to view this challenge as an "opportunity for myself to learn something about Spike and what he does," and when Daniel wonders if it might be a little late for that, Manuel disagrees, saying he likes to learn every day. All well and good, but the judges hate it when someone cedes authority (well, they do when the end result is crap). "I don't play that way," answers Bro Spike to Padma's question of which one of them should go home, inspiring a row of annoyed looks from the judges, and they're all sent off to stew before the final decision is made. Beer in hand, Zoi returns to the " I can't compete with white chocolate and wasabi" conversation, emphatically stating "that's not me." Manuel's pretty certain that either he or Spike will be on their way, and I'm pretty certain with him -- as the judges offer their final assessments (Zoi and Antonia simply didn't match the story with the dish, while Spike and Manuel served a run-of-the-mill item), Manuel decides that it's he who will be leaving.
After explaining the challenge (again) and offering the general critique of each dish (for the umpteenth time), Colicchio tells Zoi and Antonia that they are safe. He also drops a precious nugget -- not only was the summer roll the least favorite dishes of the judges, it was the unanimous low-scorer among the other party guests, which has to hurt. Colicchio dings Spike for leading the team and botching "something that you are very comfortable working with," and faults Manuel for being "just happy to go along," an attitude devoid of the "drive and determination" that characterizes a Top Chef. Since neither was terribly forthcoming, adds Colicchio, the judges "had to make a decision in our own way." Uh, isn't that what they always do? In this case it probably means, "We let the producers tell us which one of you to kick to the curb," and the oracle Padma reveals that they selected Manuel. At least he'll get to go home and see his sons, and we'll have cocky Spike and his parade of hats around for at least one more week. Remember, around these parts it's better to lead a shitty effort than to follow it, especially if your partner has dominated the talking head segments to date. Manuel has plenty of kind, noble parting words for his fellow cheftestants, and the Top Chef experience, sentiments that contrast with the teasing promise of lots of yelling and tears week. Yay!