Quickfire Challenge: The cheftestants have to make room service breakfast for Padma and Nigella Lawson. The least favorite dishes belonged to Bryan, who made an egg and corn polenta with a vanilla sauce, with too much vanilla, and also Robin, who made bland blintzes. The top dishes belonged to Kevin, who did a play on steak and eggs, and Eli, who made a breakfast version of a Reuben. The winner is… Eli, of all people.
Elimination Challenge: Create a dish for 175 people inspired by one of the casinos on the Strip. They draw knives to choose casinos. Each cheftestant goes to visit their assigned casino to get inspired. Here's what each cheftestant made:
Jennifer had Excalibur and made New York strip with a red wine reduction, beets, truffles and herbs. She styled it to look like a sword in a stone.
Kevin had Mirage and made wild Alaskan sockeye salmon with Napa cabbage and cucumber.
Michael had New York, New York and made a boneless chicken wing confit with curry and a blue cheese disc.
Robin had the Bellagio and made a panna cotta. It was supposed to have a stained glass-like garnish, sort of like the Dale Chihuly sculpture in the casino, but it didn't work out due to the humidity, so she didn't put it on the plate.
Bryan had Mandalay Bay and made an escabeche of halibut with bouillabaisse consommé, parsley coulis and garlic chips. I had to look up escabeche, and it turns out it refers to fish that is either poached or fried and marinated in something acidic.
Eli had Circus, Circus and made a caramel apple peanut soup with popcorn and raspberry froth.
The top three are Kevin, Michael and Bryan, and the winner is Michael. I'm kind of annoyed by that, because he was so vocal last week about how the dish that won was too simple, and then he basically makes a creative dish in terms of preparation, perhaps, but the flavors were hot sauce and blue cheese. Maybe it's because I grew up in Western NY, but those flavors don't seem very inventive to me.
Robin, Jen and Eli are the bottom three. The judges think that Jen's dish is underseasoned and that her steak was too tough. No part of Robin's dish really worked out, and while her idea might have been good, the execution wasn't. Eli's soup was too grainy, and some of the judges didn't like the flavors either, Padma in particular. Finally, FINALLY, Robin is asked to pack her knives and go. I was especially nervous because there were rumors that one of the frontrunners would be going home this week, so once I saw the bottom three, I was sure that Jen was going. Jen was my early favorite and I really hope she pulls her shit together week and through the end. Because do I really want Michael to win? I could take Kevin or Bryan, I guess, but I'd love it if it were Jen.
It's morning in the casa, and Bryan is calling home to talk to his wife and young son. Oh no! Whenever someone calls home, it's such a bad sign. Now I'm all worried about Bryan. Anyway, he misses his family, although I'm sure that's not shocking to anyone.
Jennifer is on refrain number four hundred and seven about how she needs to stop worrying about everyone else and start cooking the kind of food that she knows that she can cook. This is getting a little old. She's been coasting for a few weeks now, and it's getting past the time when coasting is going to work out. What is her deal? And will she snap out of it before the finals?
Quickfire Challenge. The cheftestants head to the Venetian (another hotel on the strip) instead of their normal HQ and are directed to the kitchen. The phone rings, and it's Padma. They put her on speaker and she tells them that they're going to be making room service for her and her friend Nigella Lawson. Eli has to explain to us who Nigella Lawson is. Doesn't everyone know (or at least everyone that watched this show)? He compares her to Julia Child, which I don't think is quite right. For one thing, she's about a million times sexier (sorry, Julia). Anyway, Padma and Nigella are having breakfast in bed together, and thank God Mike I. is gone because you know he would have some sort of gross comment. Although obviously, that's what the producers want, or they wouldn't have the ladies in matching bathrobes, lying in two queen beds under the covers.
Anyway, the cheftestants have thirty minutes to prepare meals, and they're going to be staggered so that they cook and serve in pairs. Eli and Robin are going first. Eli is super focused, and seems to know exactly what he wants to make. Robin is, shocker, scattered and behind, and barely gets her dishes done in time. As she wheels her cart out, Mike takes over Robin's station and he's totally disgusted by how gross and messy that she left it, and he spends five of his precious thirty minutes cleaning. I'm not sure why he couldn't just knock all the food scraps on the floor and start cooking, and make Robin clean it up later, but then he wouldn't have anything to bitch about later, and you know how Michael loves to bitch about things.
Robin explains how far she had to push her cart, so on top of being frazzled by the cooking time, she's also sweaty and tired from pushing the cart. I know I love a sweaty, frazzled room server coming into my hotel room. Robin serves her dish to both ladies, and admits in an interview that she got stage fright in front of Nigella and Padma. Anyway, Robin made a blintz with goat cheese, caramelized pineapple, and blueberries. There's bacon in there also. The plate is kind of a mess with the food just heaped on top.
Eli pops in to serve his dish, and he explains that he's not a breakfast guy, so he made a fried egg Reuben Benedict with Thousand Island Hollandaise sauce. And while I am not a fan of some of those ingredients, it is a pretty brilliant idea, and it looks good. But man, do I hate Thousand Island dressing. It's so...orange. Nigella comments that it would be a great "hangover breakfast" and Eli agrees.
Kevin explains that he's not a big fan of room service. What's wrong with him? Who doesn't like room service? You pick up a phone and call and then your food shows up? And it's really overpriced and usually not that great and...okay, maybe he has a point. But still! The decadence of it all. Anyway, I'm not sure how this logically follows but since he doesn't like room service, Kevin has decided to make steak and eggs.
Meanwhile, Michael has a pan that is on fire on the stove, and Jen notices before he does. He doesn't seem alarmed that his pan was on fire. Not sure if he meant to do that, or he's so focused that he doesn't care, or what. He interviews that he's making a Cuban-inspired breakfast, but nothing is working out for him. So he's frustrated and that's been established. Robin runs in and tries to clean up her equipment, and Michael yells at her and says he'd prefer if she'd get out his way. Robin retorts that she was told to get her shit out of there. And while I understand that she's trying to help, she really could not have picked a worse time to do so. Like she could have yelled out, "Michael, do you need me to move my stuff?" and he probably would still have cursed at her but could have also said she should wait until he was done plating. She just has no social skills. Anyway, she grumbles about the inhumane treatment she's getting because she's a professional victim.
Michael is to serve his dish: huevos Cubana with banana puree, rice, bacon, and arugula salad. It looks freaking delicious. He tells them to break the egg and mix it with everything else on the plate, and I kind of hate it when a chef has to tell me how to eat their dish. Shouldn't I get to decide? Nigella makes some comment about how you can eat breakfast for any meal of the day and Michael interviews that they seem to like his food, which is ironic considering how much he struggled to get his plates out this time.
Kevin arrives with his dish and explains that he likes a hearty breakfast so he made a version of steak and eggs with crème fraiche, aged cheddar, and green onion. His dish looks awesome too. Man, I love breakfast food. I wish I could eat all these dishes. I had eggs cooked similarly the last time I was in New York City and we went out for brunch and they were SO AWESOME. And if there had been steak too? Forget about it.
The last group is Jennifer and Bryan. Jen says that she works in a hotel and does room service all the time. So she's decided to make creamed chipped beef, also known as shit on a shingle. Why? WHY WOULD SHE MAKE THAT? Or, deconstruct it or something, or use steak instead of chipped beef. Bryan is doing something with polenta, and he explains that even though there's no immunity, he still wants to make the best dish.
Jen walks in and serves her food; she interviews that Nigella looked at the plate like "What the fuck is this?" Well, she doesn't curse, but that's the gist. Jen explains that she grew up eating this dish and then EXPLAINS THAT IT'S CALLED SHIT ON A SHINGLE. Why? Does she want to fail? Why would you ever mention the word shit when talking about your food? Is she high? I get that she's kind of making a joke but it's still a horrible idea. Her dish also includes potatoes and tomatoes.
Bryan is the last chef to serve, and as he takes the top off his plate, Nigella comments that she smells vanilla. Bryan explains his dish: a four-minute egg with vanilla buerre fondue, crab, asparagus spears, and corn polenta. I don't know about the vanilla with eggs and corn and crab. That seems a little weird to me, especially if the vanilla is strong enough that you can smell it. After Bryan leaves, Nigella admits that the vanilla is throwing her off and if he had skipped it, the dish would be a winner.
The cheftestants return to Padma and Nigella's suite to find out their fates. The ladies have gotten dressed (or taken off their robes -- they were probably dressed the whole time). Nigella starts out with the losers: Bryan, because of the vanilla, and Robin, because her dish was too one-note. Robin admits that she wasn't proud of her dish. Why? Why admit that, other than to try to draw pity. Shut up, Robin.
The top cheftestants were Kevin, who made them a hearty breakfast that was also delicious, and Eli, who used some wit in constructing his Reuben Eggs Benedict. The ultimate winner's dish had "robustness," and that would be...Eli! Padma reminds him that there's no immunity, but he will be the only one from his season to have a recipe in the new Quickfire cookbook. So that's something.
Elimination Challenge: The cheftestants draw knives, and are each assigned a casino on the Strip. They must create a dish inspired by their assigned casino to serve 175 guests at a party of "Las Vegas's elite." Kevin interviews that it's a lot of people to serve without help. Padma bids them goodbye and tells them to explore their casino tonight, and get ready to serve their dish tomorrow.
Michael heads to his casino, New York, New York. He takes notes and also interviews that he wants to cook something that's a tribute to the firefighters of New York. Seriously, this must be the easiest casino. Make something New Yorkish. Not so tough.
Jennifer has Excalibur, the medieval-themed (super cheesy) casino, and goes to one of the jousting shows. It's kind of sad because the theater is half-empty and she's sitting all by herself; that seems like the kind of thing that would only be fun with a group of drunken friends and you could laugh about how corny the whole thing is while chowing down on a giant turkey leg. Despite eating a whole meal while she was there, Jen says that she lacks inspiration and doesn't know what to make. Again. Some more.
Bryan has Mandalay Bay, and he heads right for their giant shark exhibit. He reads the signs on the wall about sustainability and sustainable fishing practices, which gives him an idea for a dish. He's going to cook and eat a shark! Am I right? We'll find out. He does buy a stuffed shark for his son, so now I definitely think he's going home tonight.
Robin has never heard of her casino, the Bellagio. Never seen the famous fountains? Or seen Oceans 11? Anyway, she walks in and immediately notices the Dale Chihuly sculpture overhead. It's all colored stained glass. Robin interviews about how she wants to integrate art with food. She's totally talking to herself in the casino, saying that gelatin will be involved. I wish they had a reaction shot of a tourist wondering what the crazy lady is going on about.
Kevin visits the Mirage, which is designed to look like a tropical oasis. And it has dolphins! Kevin interviews that everyone thinks he's a redneck, but he's committed to a lot of food causes like slow food and organic food. Not sure what that has to do with his casino, but okay.
Eli has Circus, Circus, the scariest casino in town. Which is also totally not on the Strip, is it? Okay, I looked it up, and it is, but it's waaaaaaay down at the other end, away from all the nice casinos. Eli walks around and takes note of all the carnival games and circus food. I think this is the second easiest casino inspiration.
Back at their house, one of the Volts asks Eli if he saw the circus, and Eli says there's actually no circus at Circus, Circus. Someone (Bryan?) laughs that Eli is the whiniest dude ever. Eli goes on to complain that there's no restaurants or food at that casino. Um, didn't we just see him looking at a sign that advertised all manner of carny food? Michael points out that the point wasn't to get inspired by the food, but to get inspired by the scene. Eli continues to complain that the casino wasn't like a circus, and wasn't what he expected. It really is more like a carnival than a circus, but maybe he should adjust his expectations, no?
The day, the cheftestants arrive at their kitchen and have three and a half hours to cook. Wait, we didn't see them go shopping! How am I supposed to understand where the food came from
if we didn't see them pushing shopping carts around a store and arguing with the dude at the fish counter? Kevin interviews that he's making a salmon dish with vegetable slaw and tomato broth. How that ties in with the Mirage, I'm not entirely sure.Michael interviews that he's been cooking for half his life and would like to open his own restaurant, and he thinks winning this competition could help him achieve that. So his inspiration is New York, and he's been inspired by the chicken wing. Which is from Buffalo, not New York City, but whatever. He claims he's going to put his own twist on it.
Robin explains that she's making a dessert, a panna cotta, and then she's going to use sugar to make stained glass. Except she hasn't really done that before, and so she's not sure why she's trying to do it now, so close to the finals. What HAS Robin made before? Because it seems like every week, she's trying something new. And while I admire that in a home chef, in a competition, it seems like you might want to stick with what you know.
Jen has decided to base her dish around The Sword in the Stone, and so far I'm kind of with her. She's also making three different dishes with red wine in them, and I can kind of see that. She's working with her theme. She's still not sure how it's all going to come together, though. Sigh.
Eli had, you may remember, Circus, Circus. So he's making a caramel apple and peanut soup which sounds sickly sweet and terrible! And then he's putting pulverized popcorn on top? And he's totally using microwave popcorn. Oh, this sounds bad. And then because he doesn't have enough sweet stuff between the caramel and the apples, he's adding a whipped raspberry dome. I have quite the sweet tooth and that even grosses me out. Also, literal much? And is that really a dish? It sounds more like a snack for someone who's trying to contract diabetes.
Bryan is going with his whole sustainable fish idea, so he's making olive-oil-poached fish. Hey, there's something we've only seen like a million times already this season? Why not add a couple of scallops while you're at it? Eli interviews that he thinks Robin is lucky to still be there and he hopes her time is running out. But at least he's not making it personal. Everyone bundles up their food to transport to the party, and they head out.
The party is at the World Market Center, which has a sort of huge conference room on the top floor, and that's where the party is taking place. There's a beautiful view. The cheftestants have an hour to prep before the guests arrive. Michael is cooking chicken. Jen worries that her lack of focus is going to screw her over. You think? Like it has every other week? Robin's sugar did not travel well and it didn't set. It's almost like she didn't have any experience with making that sort of sugar. It kind of just looks like the top of a crème brulee -- I don't know why should couldn't use a kitchen torch to harden it more? I mean, it's worth a shot, since she decides to just ditch it anyway, and it was kind of the centerpiece of her dish and the thing that made it fit her theme.
The guests arrive, and I'm not sure if this is so much "the elite of Las Vegas" as "people they recruited off the street." Kevin tells some of the guests that he had The Mirage, so he thought about just putting a picture of his dish up and then filling the bowls with sand. I wish he had done something clever like that (although not serving bowls of sand, but something edible that looks like sand). At least then I might understand how his dish fits his theme.
The judges arrive at Jennifer's table first, and she has no food out. Oops. While she's desperately trying to plate some food, she explains that she had Excalibur and made New York strip with a red wine reduction, beets, truffles, and herbs. She styled it to look like a sword in a stone, and served bigger bites to fit with her theme. Toby has trouble biting into it, and Nigella has trouble cutting her steak. She finally picks it up with her fingers and comments that it's like eating a stone, so it must be kind of tough.
Kevin tells the judges that he had Mirage and made wild Alaskan sockeye salmon cured in salt and sugar with Napa cabbage and cucumber. He advises people to eat the fish and salad and then drink the broth last. Again, I hate when people tell me how to eat their food. Toby notes that it had a Thai flavor, and Tom thinks the broth is "just stunning."
Michael had New York, New York and made a boneless chicken wing confit with curry and fresh pepper juice and a blue cheese disc. He goes on about how chicken wings are something that firefighters like to eat. Oh....kay. Unlike other food? Nigella likes how crispy the skin is, and Padma likes the cold blue cheese, although Toby doesn't love the flavor. Here's my problem with this dish: he basically made a boneless chicken wing with blue cheese. It's not like the flavors were THAT inventive. You can't order a dozen wings in this part of the country without getting blue cheese, whether you want it or not. I would have been more impressed if he had paired chicken wings with something else cool.
Robin tells the judges that she had the Bellagio and made a panna cotta. It was supposed to have a stained glass-like garnish sort of like the Dale Chihuly sculpture in the casino, but it didn't work out due to the humidity, so she didn't put it on the plate. She shows them that part and Tom looks really annoyed with her. Nigella likes the smell of the dish, but she and Toby agree that the texture of the panna cotta is all wrong, and the sauce is too sweet. Padma and Nigella think her inspiration works, but Tom points out that she didn't serve the stained glass part, which was the main part.
Bryan had Mandalay Bay and made an escabeche of halibut with bouillabaisse consommé, pine nuts, parsley coulis, and garlic chips. I had to look up escabeche, and it turns out it refers to fish that is either poached or fried and marinated in something acidic. Padma thinks the "parsley fluid gel" sounded gross, but it tastes good. All of the judges love the flavors.
Eli had Circus, Circus and made a caramel apple peanut soup with popcorn and raspberry froth. I like a peanut soup, but I want it to be savory, not sweet. Nigella refuses to be the first to try the food, and after she takes one bite, she shakes her head. Tom thinks the soup was too grainy, and Nigella agrees. Toby likes that Eli went balls out, but he "gambled and lost."
Weird interstitial. The remaining cheftestants drink champagne and give a toast to the fact that they made it so far. BOOOO-RIIIIIIIIING! What happened to Kevin going down the waterslide? I liked those kind of interstitials.
In the Stew Room, Kevin jovially tries to start a conversation, but no one responds. Either they're annoyed with him, or they don't want to talk about it. Padma comes in and asks Kevin, Michael, and Bryan to join her. To the surprise of no one, they are the top three. Tom tells Kevin that the texture of his food was great, and Toby liked the broth the best. Nigella compliments Bryan's dish, which she calls "quiet and elegant." Tom tells Michael he reworked Buffalo wings. Really? How much did he rework them? The flavors were the same. There's not much time for praise, so Nigella quickly announces that the winner "performed the challenge perfectly," and that is...Michael. Bryan looks kind of pissed. Michael won a bottle of expensive wine and a trip to a vineyard.
Eli, Jennifer, and Robin have to go face the music. Padma asks Jennifer if she's surprised to be there. Jen admits that she didn't have a clear vision of what she wanted to do. Tom throws some history at her and explains that medieval cooks used a lot of spicing to cover up rotting meat. Yum! That's definitely a trait she would want to replicate. Anyway, Tom wishes she had taken her theme further. Nigella comments on how tough the meat was, and Toby agrees, and adds that there wasn't enough sauce.
Padma calls on Robin, and she babbles on in her usual way and admits that she
didn't nail the execution. Tom asks what happened with the glass. Robin says that she was waiting for the sugar to get hard, and she hadn't really done it before. Tom says she was working with two dishes she hadn't made before, if you include the panna cotta. Nigella explains that it should have "the quiver of a young courtesan's thigh." That's poetic. I thought she was going to say breast though. Tom asks if she's being unduly influenced by the other chefs, and Robin says she's envious of their knowledge.Moving on to Eli, Nigella says that the dish had clashing flavors and bad texture. Tom agrees that the texture ruined the dish. Eli goes on about how the soup was grainy and so he added white chocolate but he didn't have time to fix it. So there was more sweetness in there? Yuck. Tom and Nigella shake their heads sadly as Tom says that the chocolate just made it more grainy. Eli thinks his concept was good, but Tom says it doesn't matter, because the dish failed. Padma adds that she would never want to eat that dish again. Ouch.
The cheftestants are excused, and the judges talk. They were all disappointed by Jen's dish, and Nigella calls it "almost hostile." Tom explains that Jen started off really well and she's really shit the bed in the last few challenges. Toby thinks that Robin was so inspired that her ideas were larger than her technical ability. Tom and Nigella agree that panna cotta is really simple to make, so she should have at least gotten that part right. Padma didn't think her dish had flavor either. Nigella calls Eli's dish "a fiasco" and says that she would "rather eat sawdust." Tom can't get over how bad the textures were, and Nigella says that she really, really wanted to spit it back into the cup. Back in the Stew Room, Kevin talks about how complicated Eli's dish was, and how it was the kind of dish you'd have to make multiple times to figure out how to do it right.
The three losing cheftestants return to face the judges and find out their fates. Tom explains that the challenge was to be inspired by a casino. I'm still mystified how Kevin's dish fit that theme. Anyway, Tom says that Eli's dish was "sort of a mess" and "almost circus-like." Jen's dish was boring. Robin's dish didn't fit her stated inspiration, not to mention that it kind of sucked. Padma asks Robin to pack her knives and go. Eli refrains from jumping up in the air. Robin thanks the judges for the experience and in her closing remarks, says that she's happy that she made it this far. Her whole theory is that she overreached instead of cooking her own food. Okay. Let's go with that. Thank God she didn't make the finals.
Watch Robin's exclusive exit interview video and get a healthy alternative to the winning dish.
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