By Kim
Quickfire Challenge. Guest judge is Grant Achatz, who is a superstar in the culinary world, particularly known for molecular gastronomy. He's also a cancer survivor. Cheftestants pick a knife with a number, and the number corresponds to a page in the Top Chef cookbook. The challenge is to put their own spin on their assigned recipe in one hour. Halfway through the challenge, Padma drama queens into the kitchen and tells everyone that they need to stop making what they were working on and transform their ingredients into a soup. After sampling the soups, Achatz is impressed by Jamie's complex chickpea soup, Leah's transformation of her original recipe (tuna tartare with white asparagus) into a chilled soup, and Daniel's ham and egg soup. The winner is Leah. I obviously can't judge flavor, but I was impressed that she managed to turn tuna tartare into a soup, even though based on the descriptions I would have liked the other two soups better. Leah gets immunity for the Elimination Challenge.
The Elimination Challenge is to divide into two teams and cook a Thanksgiving feast for the Foo Fighters and their entourage (over sixty people including many vegetarians) while incorporating their likes and dislikes. The winning team gets to watch the Foo Fighters concert and the losing team will have to clean up, and one member of the losing team will be eliminated.
The cheftestants travel to Rochester, New York (my hometown!) where they discover that their kitchen is outside; all the cooking needs to be done in microwaves and toaster ovens, with no refrigerators. The first team (chosen by Leah) goes by Team Sexy Pants and consists of Leah, Jamie, Hosea, Stefan, Fabio, Melissa, and Radhika. The second team (the leftovers) goes by Team Cougar and consists of Jeff, Richard, Alex, Ariane, Carla, Daniel, and Eugene. I can't believe they went shopping in Rochester and didn't shop at Wegmans, which started there. That is a bunch of horseshit.
After eating a LOT of food, the Foo Fighters crown Team Sexy Pants the winners, mostly due to their tasty vegan stuffing and superior desserts. Team Cougar has to clean up and then also report for Judges' Table. Ariane is told that her turkey was perfect, and Eugene's smoked pork (on a MacGyvered grill) was good too. Jeff's dishes (spoon bread and pumpkin mousse) were unsuccessful, but he took on a leadership role on the team that might have contributed to that. Daniel's potatoes were undercooked. Richard tried to make chocolate-banana s'mores, but they weren't warm and the vanilla crème topping looked like spit. The saliva sends him over the top, and Richard is told to pack his knives and go.
It's the morning after the last elimination, and Fabio is still riding the high of his win. He knows, however, that it won't last long, since they have the round coming up. Ariane realizes that her problem in the last elimination was that her food was too sweet. She interviews that she thinks her nerves are getting the best of her, and she knows that since she's been in the bottom two for both Elimination Challenges so far, the other cheftestants are questioning her skills. So, she needs to pull it together. Richard says that at this point, they've been able to get to know one another a little bit, despite being competitors. He reveals that Jeff is nicknamed Don Johnson, which is a terrible nickname, because he looks nothing like Don Johnson. Surfer Boy might be more appropriate, if a little on the nose. Richard adds that Fabio is the cute Italian, and Leah is fun and flirty with a nice rack. It kind of cracks me up that he knows about as much about these people as we, the viewers, do at this point.
The cheftestants arrive at the kitchen for the Quickfire Challenge. Padma welcomes them to "Thanksgiving" (this was filmed in July) and introduces the guest judge, Grant Achatz, who (Jamie tells us) is a superstar in the culinary world, particularly known for molecular gastronomy. Hosea lets us know that Achatz is also a cancer survivor. The cheftestants pick a knife with a number. The numbers puzzle them all, because they seem to be fairly random integers like 188 and 91. Padma explains that the number corresponds to a page in the Top Chef cookbook. Available in stores now! Not to get all foodie, but I kind of feel like the whole point of this show is to demonstrate that good cooks can cook something edible and palatable given a few ingredients and some other constraints. Other than maybe the finals and Restaurant Wars, I can't think of a lot of recipes I would want to try to recreate from this show. And even if I did, I would want to try to put my own twist on it. Then again, I consider recipes to be starting points, and I know others who follow them to the last detail, so I'm sure the cookbook sold just fine.
Anyway, the challenge is to put their own spin on their assigned recipe in one hour. Jeff has a pork and apple salad recipe created by Howie, and feels that since they are both from Miami, it should be a breeze. Also, I note that Jeff is the chef at the Dilido Beach Club, and that is just one typo away from being not safe for basic cable. Melissa gets CJ and Tre's recipe from the frozen food challenge, and since she's not planning on freezing and reheating her recipe, that does seem a little unfair. Then again, she's supposed to put her own twist on it. Leah gets Hung's tuna tartare with white asparagus. She's not too worried, since she's worked with those flavors before and tartare, by definition, doesn't really require cooking so much as prepping.
Halfway through the challenge, Padma drama queens into the kitchen and tells everyone that they need to stop making what they were working on and transform their ingredients into a soup. All of the cheftestants say "soup" about a hundred times while Padma explains the rules, adding that the sponsor will be providing boxes of broth. Oh, I use that stuff all of the time. I cook rice in it, I use it to make pan sauces. I'm way too lazy to make my own stock most of the time, and those boxed stocks are awesome, especially if you can find one without a ton of sodium. Anyway, Daniel is trying to figure out how to transform his ham and egg dish into soup. That does seem tough. The ham, fine, but the eggs? And not have it be egg drop soup? Leah is also worried about transforming her tuna tartare into a soup, and I feel her pain. It's one thing if she just had to make a soup with tuna, which would be difficult enough, but she doesn't have enough time to do chowder or stew and she also has to use the olives and asparagus. She decides that she needs to create a chilled soup, since the tuna is uncooked. She adds that she hates white asparagus. Carla has Lia's olive-oil poached shrimp. Is every recipe in that cookbook from the third season? Carla thinks you can judge a chef by their soup. As she preps her ingredients, she talks to the camera like it's her own cooking show. She might be confused and think that she's actually on The Food Network Star. Carla concludes by saying that every recipe has to have love in it. I'm not sure in which aisle to find that in my local grocery store. Jamie is psyched, because she loves making soups. She was assigned Miguel's deconstructed falafel, and she knows that she can do this because she's worked with Middle Eastern flavors many times.
Richard was assigned Sara M's chiles rellenos, so he's trying to use the same flavors but create his own Mexican soup. Padma announces that there are five minutes, and everyone starts plating (bowling?) and ladling like mad. Richard says that he knew he should add some lime juice to his soup, but in the mad rush, he ran out of time to do so.
The judges begin sampling. Stefan has made Thai green curry bisque with shrimp and scallop dumplings. Sounds good, but green soup is a little weird to look at. Achatz likes the broth. Ariane transformed a rack of lamb, and made diced lamb, eggplant, roasted red pepper and couscous soup. Achatz thinks the lamb might be overcooked. Daniel had the ham and egg dish, which he transformed into a cheesy ham soup with a poached egg, which actually looks delicious. Padma has never had ham and egg soup, and she bleats, "I like ham and egg soup."She's totally high right now. Richard made the Mexican soup, which Achatz says needs acid. D'oh! That lime juice would have been acidic! Melissa had a linguine dish, so she transformed it into an Italian wedding soup. It looks like canned soup to me, and Achatz is not impressed. Fabio took a trout and salmon duo and turned it into a mushroom and asparagus soup with trout and salmon. Achatz thinks the flavors are flat. I feel bad for the people who had seafood dishes. I mean, what's more difficult to make into a soup -- lamb or trout? Carla presents her shrimp, tomato, and coriander soup, which Achatz likes very much. Leah then presents her chilled asparagus soup with tuna tartare. Achatz recognizes that white asparagus is not an easy ingredient, and Leah confesses that she hates it. Achatz likes her soup anyway. Jamie took her falafel recipe and made a chickpea soup with some pickled chiles and cilantro-mint yogurt. Jamie confesses that she thinks she did a really good job. I do too, based on description and visuals alone. I mean, it's not like I can taste it or anything.
Achatz reassembles the cheftestants to reveal the winner. Overall, he was impressed with how they handled a difficult situation. He enjoyed Jamie's "well-balanced" chickpea soup, the way that Leah worked with the white asparagus, and Daniel's "hearty, rustic" ham and egg soup. The winner is Leah. Jamie looks disappointed. I think she really thought she had it. Leah is informed that she has immunity for the Elimination Challenge. Interesting that they didn't name the chefs who were the least successful this time. I wonder if it was due to time constraints or if they didn't even film that discussion or even have that discussion.
Man, Padma's shirt is some kind of ugly this week. It's a purple gauzy shirt with bright flowers all over it. Yeesh. Anyway, the cheftestants are told that, for their Elimination Challenge, they will divide into two teams to cook a Thanksgiving meal for a special client. And since Leah won, she gets to pick her teammates. It's not even a schoolyard pick -- she just picks the six "best" chefs to be on her team. I put best in quotation marks because they haven't really had enough challenges yet to know who the best are, I don't think. If the best chefs could be determined three episode in, this season could be three episodes long. Leah chooses Jamie, Hosea, Stefan, Fabio, Melissa, and Radhika. That makes the other team Jeff, Richard, Alex, Ariane, Carla, Daniel, and Eugene. Fabio interviews that he's psyched to have a united Europe (him and Stefan) to cook an American meal (Thanksgiving). Various cheftestants wonder who their client will be, including Daniel wondering if it might be Donald Trump, since he's "the powerfulest man in New York." Well, A) that's not a word and B) he's really not and C) he's got his own far inferior reality show to worry about. Padma plays a tape of the client, which is no surprise if you saw any preview of this season or this episode -- the Foo Fighters! Dave Grohl explains that they love the show and watch it a lot, so they're participating in a challenge. Alex interviews that chefs want to be rock stars, so they are psyched to cook for a rock star. That's...an interesting way of making this challenge seem semi-relevant to the culinary world. Dave Grohl explains that, being on the road so much, they typically don't get to eat a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. The cheftestants must cook a Thanksgiving feast for the Foo Fighters and their entourage (over sixty people including many vegetarians) while incorporating their likes and dislikes. Padma explains that they'll travel to the Foo's concert venue (Rochester, NY) and then there's an obvious voiceover where Padma explains that the teams will get a copy of the Foo's rider, so they'll know that, for example, the band loves bacon and chocolate-covered frozen bananas. It seemed like this whole rider thing was going to be really important, and then it totally wasn't, so I'm not sure why they went to the trouble of adding that voiceover. Hosea interviews that, in Boulder, he's used to dealing with vegetarians, vegans, and people with food allergies, so it's no big deal. That's true. I've been to Boulder. They're a bunch of dirty hippies. And I mean that with the kindest of intentions. I usually love dirty hippies, even if they do smell bad and make me eat things like seitan. The winning team gets to watch the Foo Fighters concert and the losing team will have to clean up, and one member of the losing team will be eliminated.
The cheftestants travel to Rochester, New York (my hometown!) where they arrive at the building that I will always think of as the War Memorial, but is now called the Blue Cross Arena. Oh, the memories. I saw Huey Lewis and the News there, as well as the MTV Party to Go tour featuring Information Society, Tone Loc, and Milli Vanilli. The saddest part of that tale is that I had no idea Milli Vanilli was lip-synching. I was more disappointed that Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam didn't perform as advertised. Anyway, a roadie leads them into the arena, where the show is being put together. Fabio asks where the kitchen is, and the roadie leads them through a bunch of hallways and back outside, where they discover that their kitchen is outside; all the cooking needs to be done in microwaves and toaster ovens, with no refrigerators. They do have one burner per team. Alex reminds us that they need to cook a turkey, which is not an easy task in a toaster oven. The teams regroup, as they have fifteen minutes to plan their meal. Well, fifteen minutes to make changes now, but probably six hours on the drive up. Stefan promises to make two gravies, and Jamie points out that they only have one burner, kind of a key tool for gravy-makng. Stefan interviews that he's done catering for a long time and he knows how to adapt to weird cooking situations. Jamie keeps whining that they only have one burner; she has a point but she needs to be less grating about it.
Meanwhile, Jeff has really taken the lead on the other team, and he interviews that they know they are the underdogs in this competition. Alex interviews that Ariane will be cooking the turkey, and he's a little concerned about giving her the centerpiece of the meal, since she hasn't performed that well thus far. Ariane interviews that no one is acknowledging that she's done catering, so she knows how to deal with these types of situations. Well, maybe she needs to tell them that instead of just standing there and waiting for people to remember that about her. They discuss dessert, and come up with the idea of a s'more using bananas, since the Foos said that they like frozen chocolate-covered bananas. Since they don't have a freezer, Richard thinks, "Chocolate, banana -- I know! S'more!" That would not be my first thought, but then again, I'm not a top chef. I'm not even really a middle chef. I think I might qualify as a bottom chef. Is there something lower than that?
As the teams get ready to go shopping, Fabio interviews that if they can make a Thanksgiving meal under these conditions, anyone can do it. Yeah, except that everyone doesn't have the benefit of their culinary training and experience. So there's that. The teams arrive at Hegedorn's. I can't believe they went shopping in Rochester and didn't shop at Wegmans, which was founded there. That is a bunch of horseshit. I lived in Michigan for two years in my twenties and I am not even exaggerating when I say that part of the reason I wanted to move back to Upstate New York was Wegmans. It's the greatest grocery store of all time. I didn't realize it until I moved away and saw what passes for a grocery store in other parts of the country. I appreciate that the show is using a locally owned and operated store, and I understand that probably Wegmans refused to pay the product placement or whatever, but come on.
The two teams have an hour and $1200 to shop. The first team is Team Sexy Pants (Leah, Fabio, Hosea, Jamie, Melissa, Radhika, and Stefan). Even they don't know exactly how they came up with that name. The other team, Team Cougar, (after Ariane) stops to strategize before heading into the store. Alex explains that Ariane is a mom, and a little older, but she's hot and in shape. Thus, cougar. Also, overdone. Aren't we done with cougar yet? I mean, there will still be hotter older ladies, but can't they just be hotties? Ariane interviews that she's not quite sure what the cougar thing is all about. Alex decides to make macaroni and cheese. Ariane buys some different kinds of turkeys while being sure to mention the sponsor, Butterball. She adds that she's nervous because she needs to prove that she can cook after being in the bottom so many times. Do you guys get that Ariane has something to prove with her cooking? And she thinks so? And so does everyone else? Just checking. Everyone pays for the food and heads back to the arena to start cooking.
Once they arrive at the outdoor kitchen, the teams have three hours until they have to serve their clients. Eugene has the fucking genius idea to take one of the chafing dishes and rig up a makeshift grill so that he can barbecue some pork loin. He should win just for that idea, because no one else thinks of it, and it's brilliant. Here's the breakdown for Team Cougar: Ariane is making turkey, Jeff is making stuffing and a pumpkin parfait, Carla is making peach cobbler and dressings for their salad bar, Daniel is making roast potatoes, Eugene has the aforementioned pork loin, and Richard is making the s'mores. Richard knows that desserts are historically on this show where people get tripped up, but he's determined to make it work. I just don't know about the idea of making a dessert that is so ephemeral when you're serving buffet style. S'mores taste good for about two minutes after assembly, and then it's just a lot of coagulated sugar. Have you ever had a s'more that's been sitting around for a while? It's not good. We'll see.
Team Sexy Pants is working just as hard, although Stefan and Jamie are still butting heads a little bit. Stefan is making the turkey, Jamie is making some side salads (and it looks like a fresh corn salad, which is a great choice in July that would also work for Thanksgiving), Leah is making mashed potatoes, Radhika is doing a vegan stuffing, Melissa is doing sweet potatoes, Fabio is doing a pumpkin tiramisu, and Hosea is creating a fruit crisp. Hosea admits that his is not a complex dish, but it tastes good and will please a crowd.
Jeff is working on a pumpkin mousse as well as a savory bread pudding. He admits that it's a lot to take on, but he feels like he needs to do that to make up for some of the weaker members of his team. He doesn't name names, but then we are treated to a montage of people asking Ariane if she's put the turkey in yet, if the turkeys are cooking, and what's going on with the turkey. Ariane admits that she is trying hard not to get angry with their interruptions and inquisitions.
And then it starts raining. The cheftestants try to keep cooking as production tries to put up some pop-up tents. They didn't know it was about to rain? I mean, it looks like they were prepared for the possibility, but if you are outdoors in New York in the summer, you have to know that it might rain. I'm surprised that they didn't put up the tents before the cooking even started. Meanwhile, Fabio says that he's not going to let a little rain in his tiramisu make him go home. I think that's the Italian version of not letting it rain on your parade -- don't let it rain on your tiramisu. Daniel keeps yelling at his team to keep pushing, but admits that his potatoes aren't crisping like he had hoped, so the whole roasted potatoes dish is not working out. He and Eugene strategize and decide to microwave the remaining potatoes and mash them, since they are running out of time. The cheftestants realize they need to book it down into the serving area because any food that doesn't make it in there by the deadline can't be served. Carla explains that the members of her team all feel like they haven't been chosen. Well, they should feel that way, since they weren't. Regardless, they all have something to prove. Daniel says he was going to make his s'mores one tray at a time, except he's making them as everyone else is loading in, which makes no sense. He should make them after everyone goes through and gets their meals, right? I guess they're not sure if the diners are going to get all their food at once, or get entrees and then come back later for dessert. Eugene interviews that this is the hardest cooking experience he's ever had, and they somehow get it done in time.
The judges and the Foo Fighters roll in, and Hosea is impressed by the Foo's "rock star aura." It helps when the editors film you walking into a room in slow motion. That can make almost anyone look like a rock star. Dave Grohl's belt buckle doesn't hurt. Richard is still loving up on Tom Colicchio, even with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins right there. He has interesting taste.
Team Cougar serves first. Daniel tells the band members what he's serving up, including mashed potatoes (but much fancier than that except Daniel talks so quickly it's hard to hear what he says) and Jeff's spoonbread stuffing with figs, cranberries, walnuts, and onions. Alex is pleased to serve up his five-cheese macaroni and cheese with bacon. Dave Grohl is FIRED UP about the bacon, and asks for an extra helping. Ariane dishes out her roasted turkey with mushroom gravy. Eugene has the smoked pork loin. The band sits down to eat, and Dave can't believe he has to play tonight after eating all this. After eating, they all give their reactions. Dave and Taylor didn't like the stuffing, with Taylor adding that he doesn't need figs and stuff in his stuffing. I dig that the band is kind of like regular diners; I wouldn't want this perspective every week, but there are definitely weeks of this show where I watch it and think, "They're eating what? And why?" So it's nice to get that perspective once in a while. Taylor loved the mac and cheese, as did Dave. Taylor adds that the mashed potatoes are slightly uncooked. Chris Shiflett (guitar player for the Foo Fighters) likes the pork loin, and Dave gives extra points to the turkey, which was his favorite. Colicchio explains that Ariane has been on the chopping block a few times, and Dave asks if she redeemed herself. Colicchio admits that she kind of did, because the turkey was great. They don't even get into the fact that she cooked it in a toaster oven, which I think should earn extra points.
Dave decides that they should go back and get another plate of entrée dishes and then do all the desserts at once. So now it's Team Sexypants' turn to serve up their food. Leah serves up turkey with white turkey gravy, presumably made by Stefan. Radhika made a vegan cornbread stuffing that looks really good, even though I generally like some sausage or something in my stuffing. None of the other entrees really get much attention; sweet potatoes and a roasted corn salad are mentioned briefly, but that's it. Nate Mendel (bass player for the Foo Fighters) mentions the vegan stuffing as a standout, and his bandmates all agree. They even say that it was the best dish from either team so far. Dave liked the sweet potatoes because they burned the marshmallows, and he's adamant about how important that is. He likes burnt marshmallows almost as much as he likes bacon, apparently. Dave asks Tom how they cooked the turkey, and adds that the Cougars' turkey was definitely better.
The judges and the band decide to head back for desserts. The cheftestants were clearly waiting for a while for this moment. My favorite part is when Jeff has to tell Ariane to stop eating because the judges are heading back. I think it's really unprofessional to eat before the diners leave, but maybe that's just me. And maybe it had been a long time since they ate. I don't know. Anyway, Team Sexypants serves up a pumpkin tiramisu (by Fabio) and a peach and blueberry crisp with cinnamon cream (by Hosea). Dave tries speaking Italian with Fabio, and ends up calling the food disgusting. I don't think that was his intention.
The judges and the band head right over to Team Cougar to get the rest of the desserts. Jeff interviews that their hot food was no longer hot, but again, it's tough for me to have sympathy for that, since it was a buffet and they knew that going in. Carla dishes out her peach and cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. How in the hell did they keep ice cream frozen? Maybe they had coolers. Jeff hands out his fresh fruit salad and pumpkin mousse in the style of a parfait. Dave is really excited about the s'mores, which are bananas in between two graham crackers, topped with vanilla foam and chocolate ganache. It's not clear if there are marshmallows involved or not, although I think I see some inside the crackers there. The s'mores look really weird on the plate though, and maybe Richard should have finished them on the plate instead of on the tray.
The judges try Team Sexypants' desserts first. Gail likes the tiramisu, and Tom likes that Fabio married his Italian cuisine in making a tiramisu with the Thanksgiving tradition of using pumpkin. Gail summarizes that they all enjoyed that team's desserts. Now they try the desserts offered up by Team Cougar. Taylor tries the pumpkin mousse and immediately makes a face and drops his spoon, saying that he doesn't like it. Dave explains that he didn't like the consistency, because he didn't know whether to chew or swallow. That's a problem. Taylor sums it up by saying, "No more barf-aits." Dave asks, "Did someone offend the s'mores guy, because I think he spit on mine!" referring to the vanilla crème, which really does look like spit. Or frog's eggs.
Padma ask the band what they thought overall. They agree that one team didn't totally kill the other. The Cougar team's turkey was better, but Sexypants had better desserts and that awesome vegan stuffing. Taylor doesn't want the desserts to decide it, because he's not a dessert guy. Jamie is nervous watching the deliberations. Ariane gives her team a pep talk. Daniel interviews that he's ready to go to the concert; he's got his party hat and party underwear on. He has party underwear? That explains a lot about him. The judges and the band come back over to announce the winner. Padma says that it was really close. Jeff thinks it was neck-and-neck, and he hopes their turkey and pork loin will pull them over the top. After the break, Dave announces that Team Sexypants will be going to the concert. Padma reminds Team Cougar that they have to clean up, and one of them will be going home.
The Foo Fighters take off to get ready for the concert. Eugene thinks the whole thing was bullshit, and Ariane says that she's holding her head high because she's proud of what she cooked. Later, Team Sexypants get to attend the concert (where there is...moshing? Really? Still?). Melissa has an '80s dancing problem. She dances like Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club and I don't think it's in an ironic way. Meanwhile, Team Cougar is down in the basement cleaning up sadly. Ariane tries to rally them, but everyone is really quiet. Eugene interviews that he felt like a loser. Richard says that they don't even know why they lost yet, because they haven't faced the judges, so he hopes that they don't throw each other under the bus during judging.
So then we're supposed to believe that the teams watched the concert, drove back to New York, and then went to judging? So even if they made the cheftestants leave the concert early, they wouldn't get back to NYC until at least 3:00 AM or so. And everyone is wearing the same clothes so either they really did do the judging that night, or they made everyone put the same outfits back on. Team Sexypants enters the Stew Room and Team Cougar is not that psyched to see them; it's very much like on Survivor when one team gets a reward and then goes back to camp and is like, "Man, I am sick from all that good food!" Daniel even flips them off, although given the editing, that could have been about something else entirely.
All of Team Cougar reports to Judges' Table. Padma asks if they are surprised to be there, and Jeff says that they are, because he thought they did a good job of dealing with all of the curve balls. Colicchio doesn't want to hear about the curve balls, because the other team had the same conditions. Padma asks if there was a team leader, and Alex admits that it was Jeff. He has nothing but praise for Jeff. Richard piles onto the praise. They agree that the problem wasn't in organization, but in execution. Colicchio notices that Jeff seems pissed off, and Jeff says that he thinks his team gave their all, concluding, "They had a lot of heart, sir." When did this turn into a sports movie from the '80s? thing you know, they're going to start singing, "You're the best....around! Nothing's ever gonna keep you down!" while Stefan yells out, "Sweep the leg, Fabio!" Colicchio explains that this was not a blowout, and it was a tough call. Gail tells Ariane that her turkey was perfect. Colicchio tells Jeff that his spoon bread was dry and overcooked. Daniel's potatoes were undercooked and crunchy. Daniel explains that he had to improvise since his roasted potatoes weren't cooking. Colicchio says that they should have dumped the potatoes, but Daniel thinks they were needed to round out the menu.
The judges move on to discuss the desserts, since they kind of made the difference. Carla says that her cobbler wasn't what she hoped. She thought the crust was just okay and it may have been too sweet. Gail says that the idea of the cobbler was fine, and it was actually the pumpkin mousse with the berries that failed. Grant Achatz says that when reinterpreting a classic dish, you have to keep the essence of the original, and the s'mores didn't have burnt sugar and weren't gooey with warm chocolate. So he thinks it was a failed concept. Richard explains that he wanted to do frozen bananas, but couldn't, so he tried to create something with chocolate and bananas. Gail asks about the vanilla crème, and points out that after sitting so long, it fell and the band thought it looked like spit. Oops.
The cheftestants are excused so the judges can discuss. Grant thinks they should focus on the people who made desserts, which means Carla, Jeff, and Richard. Tom wants to revisit Daniel, since his potatoes were just terrible and he seemed to think he could sneak it by. Tom points out that Carla's dessert may not have been outstanding, but it was fine, and it was the least offensive. Jeff's dishes were not good across the board. The pumpkin dessert was just wrong, and the spoonbread was overcooked. However, Colicchio is impressed that Jeff emerged as a natural leader and his teammates supported him. Grant says that he would choose Jeff as a teammate based on that. They make Grant name the worst dish, and he says it was the s'mores because they tasted bad, and were a conceptual mess. Gail points out that they didn't think about the setting, which was a catering buffet. Colicchio says that you don't have to do everything on the rider, and "there's plenty of other things you can do with bananas." I think he just gave the bear community a new ringtone for their cell phones. So they have a decision.
Weird interstitial that I now realize is just put there so people like me who try to fast forward through the commercials have to stop and watch: Daniel eats a PBJ sandwich and drips peanut butter on the floor. Jamie gets grossed out and bitches at him, and he wonders if it's that time of the month. She looks tired, but he's a pig.
Team Cougar is back for the verdict. Colicchio tells Eugene his pork dish was awesome, so he can leave. Alex is also safe, as is Carla. This segment is not that tense since we know whom the potential eliminated cheftestants are. It is kind of nice to see Colicchio tell Ariane that she redeemed herself with this challenge. After the non-losers are excused, Richard, Jeff, and Daniel are left. Daniel gets dinged for his undercooked potatoes. Jeff took on too much, and his dishes suffered. Richard's s'mores suffered in both concept and execution. Finally, Padma tells Richard to pack his knives and go. Team Rainbow is getting decimated! Richard interviews tearily that he's looking forward to going home and continuing to learn and get better. He gives Jamie a big hug and tells her to kick ass. Everyone looks sad to see him go. Richard's final words are that he can hold his head up high because he competed with the best, and he knows his family will be proud. Aw. Bye, Richard! You were always amusing.
Kim plots world domination, one domain at a time, at her blog Fresh Hell. You can contact her at reedkim@gmail.com.
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