By Kim
Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish with two versions: an adult version and a baby-friendly puree. Padma makes it sound like her daughter is going to eat it, but her daughter is two months old and is definitely not eating solids yet, even purees. Sorry, my mom-logic is bursting through. Mine are starting solids shortly, so I've been doing a lot of research on this issue. Anyway, Padma is wearing a shirt with a weird breastplate. She's like Top Chef Mutant Ninja Turtle. The losers are Tim (overcooked lamb), Alex (puree was too herbaceous), Kevin (pool of blood under duck on plate) and Kelly (bland pork). The tops are Lynne's chicken breast with fruit compote, Tamesha's salmon and vegetable chowder, Angelo's fenugreek-infused broth with seared tuna, and Kenny's lightly spiced curried chicken with mango salad. One thing that annoyed me was that they didn't specify the age of the baby -- a 6-month-old would need a perfectly smooth puree, but a 9-month-old could handle some chunks. Okay, I am taking this challenge way too seriously. Anyway, the winner is Tamesha, mostly because she used licorice oil, and Kenny, because Padma just dug his food, I guess.
Elimination Challenge: Create breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes for the Hilton menus. They have to pair up and compete tournament-style, with two chefs going home at the end. The judges include Mike I., Spike and Brian Voltaggio from seasons. First round is breakfast, and the winners are (surprisingly) Amanda and Stephen, along with Tiffany and Tim, so they get to skip the second round. Alex and Ed struggle the most, running out of time to add Hollandaise sauce, and forgetting a pancake on one plate. Everyone else moves on to the second round, which is lunch.
Angelo (with Tamesha) and Kenny (with Kevin) in particular are steamed that they didn't win the first round and have to keep cooking, which comes off as quite arrogant. The winners for this round are Angelo and Tamesha and Alex and Ed. Kenny is PISSED!
The final three up for elimination are Kenny and Kevin, Kelly and Andrea, and Arnold and Lynne. To me, this competition was flawed, since you have two former challenge winners up for elimination and a lot of people we know are… marginal at best floating through. I don't want Kenny or Kelly or Andrea to leave yet! I'm not convinced about Arnold's cooking, but he's definitely entertaining, and this early on, that's worth something. Anyway, they have to cook dinner. Lynne and Arnold have a lot of conflicts while cooking, but the other teams seem okay. The other problem with this competition is that technically you have the three worst dishes being featured for judges' table, which seems kind of counterintuitive. I appreciate the producers' efforts towards making it easier to remember who cooked what, but I don't think this one worked. Maybe if it were an individual challenge, or a true bracket-style tournament or something. Anyway, here are the dishes:
Kenny and Kevin: braised beef short rib, squash, potato and carrot confit, and tempura horseradish. The judges disagree whether they could taste the horseradish, but agree that they liked the jus, though there could have been more of it.
Andrea and Kelly: Braised beef short rib, chevre-scented polenta, roasted shiitake mushrooms and citrus gremolata. The judges don't have much to say, but what they do say is positive.
Arnold and Lynne: Pineapple red curry mussels with squid ink pasta and focaccia. I'm starting to think that Arnold is a one-curry pony. The judges immediately notice that the pasta isn't cooked enough, which is ironic, because Lynne and Arnold had an argument over how long to cook it (he wanted longer than she did). They like the sauce, and the concept of the dish.
Judges' Table (Is the apostrophe new, or did I just not notice it before?): The winning team is Kelly and Andrea, due to their wonderful flavors. Lynne kind of throws Arnold under the bus, which doesn't make sense since it's a team competition, and if one goes down, they both go down. So then I'm all nervous that Kenny is going to get eliminated, especially because Arnold's hyperactivity is starting to bug me, but Lynne and Arnold get eliminated. Whew.
Man, did the producers make a good decision to film in DC in the spring, because every show has many, many shots of cherry blossoms and they are beautiful! Unlike DC in the summer, which is (I've heard) a swampy mess. I've only visited DC in the spring, and it was warm and pleasant. I know you were dying to know that information. Of course, it was twenty years ago, so now that I have kids, I should probably plan to go back at some point because HISTORY. Anyway.
It's morning in the townhouse, and various cheftestants are sleeping, eating, grooming, etc. Arnold is ironing his jeans. Wait, Arnold is ironing his jeans? WTF? Who irons jeans? And why? How wrinkly could they be? And it's not like you want a crease in them. And you're going to cook, so they may get food bits on them anyway. Did I just out myself as a slob? I had turkey chili for lunch and I won't lie -- there are a few tomato spots on my shirt. I promise to change if I leave the house. Anyway, Arnold feels good about winning the last challenge, of course. Andrea sips coffee and reflects on how she will miss Tracey, but also that she keeps ending up in the middle of the pack and wants to break out. Tim is bummed that he's been at the bottom a few times, but he knows that what's more important is how you finish in the competition. Of course, if you keep ending up on the bottom, your competition is going to be finished soon. And also, I can't really remember an eventual winner that was frequently in the bottom two. Once or twice, sure. But frequently? Naw.
The cheftestants skip down the stairs to the street to report for their Quickfire Challenge. They find Tom and Padma in the kitchen with no guest judge, and a bunch of baby toys strewn about. Tim knows they won't be cooking baby food. He says it in the tone that implies that cooking baby food is SO beneath him. Buckle up, Ponch, and prepare to slum it. Padma is wearing a shirt with this bizarre textured square on the front. It's sort of alligator-y looking, but just that square, so it kind of looks like a breastplate. I just accidentally typed "beastplate" which might be a better description. Anyway, it's weird and makes her look like a turtle.
Padma explains that she and Tom both had additions to their family recently; Tom has an eight-month-old daughter and she has a two-month-old daughter. So the challenge is to make a dish for Tom and Padma and also one for their babies. Okay, I don't mean to get pedantic on the producers, but unless it's 1970, Padma is not feeding her two-month-old solid food, even if it's pureed. The earliest anyone would recommend starting purees is four months, and most recommend waiting until closer to six. It's stupid and I know I'm one of the few that cares, but they could have just stuck in one line where Padma says, "that will satisfy my baby when she's ready for solids" or something. Whatever, no one cares and it's a stupid thing to complain about but it stuck in my craw for some reason.
Lynne is freaked out because she's never had a baby so she doesn't know what human beings like to eat. I mean, seriously. Who doesn't know what babies like? Mash up some foods. They are human beings, so they like what other humans like, except they don't have the means to chew things up very well, and their throats are smaller so you have to be careful you don't give them things that might get stuck, like a whole grape. Other than that, go to town. Padma says that it's a high-stakes quickfire, and she and Tom will each choose a winner to get $10,000. Alex says it would be nice to win the money to buy himself something nice, like a hooker and an eight-ball. Ba dump bum. Alex, you are not nearly as amusing as you think you are, and each week you seem more and more skeevy to me. Please stop that. Padma adds that no one will get immunity and they have forty-five minutes.
Alex says he's never fed a baby before, and he likes to practice making babies, but not baby food. GROSS. That could have been a semi-charming joke coming from someone else, but he is quickly becoming the Mike I. of this season for me. It doesn't help that, with his bald head, he kind of looks like a giant penis. Kevin had a kid, with one also on the way, so he thinks his roast duck with banana polenta will be a home run. I think the bananas are a good idea. Tamesha explains that she has a younger brother and she remembers giving him a lot of vegetables as a baby, so she's going to do vegetable chowder. Tamesha has a serious cold or allergies in her interview segments, to the point where her stuffy nose is kind of distracting. She also claims that you have to give babies plain food, which isn't true -- all the information I've read lately says not to be afraid to give your baby spices, though you obviously shouldn't overdo it with the hot sauce. If you're breastfeeding, it's not like your body filters out the spice anyway. I gave my babies oat cereal with apple pie spice because I tasted the cereal and man, it was like paste without any spices. They haven't complained yet. Of course, they can't talk, but believe me, they let me know when they don't like something.
Kelly wants to prove that you don't have to have kids to win the challenge, and her recipe involves pork with ginger and lemon juice. Ginger is a great choice; it settles stomachs naturally. Kenny reveals that his first wife died when his daughter was just over a year old, so he pretty much raised her, and used to cook her baby food. Aw. Stephen is critical of Kenny's baby food, since he's adding in diced apple, and Stephen thinks it's a choking hazard. Again, it depends on how old the baby is. Padma's would. Tom's might, but probably not, and if the dice is fine enough, it won't matter. Lynne, like Andrea, is sick of being in the middle of the pack, and wants to break out with her chicken and tropical fruits concoction. Angelo loves to educate his son, so he's making something layered. He knows it's risky but he wants to take chances and fail big if he fails. I like that attitude, but I have to say that I doubt a baby cares if their food is layered, especially since they don't feed themselves for a while so they don't even necessarily see the presentation of the food. But this isn't reality, so I guess thinking about presentation is probably a good idea. Although it would have been kind of awesome if they had included babies on the judging panel.
Tom and Padma arrive and call time. Kevin is frustrated because he didn't get all of his components on his plate. He kind of throws a mini-tantrum, which probably isn't smart in front of the judges. Kenny is up first, and he presents his curried chicken, mango salad, and confit of butternut squash and maitake mushrooms. I'm not sure how the baby dish fits with the grownup dish. He should have done mangoes for the baby food too.
Tim made sautéed lamb with mushrooms, shallots, and ginger. He essentially just pureed his food to make his baby food. Okay, I know I've been saying all along that babies can eat regular food, but that seems weird. Shallots? Lamb? I guess in other parts of the world, babies probably eat that. Kevin apologizes for his incomplete dish of pan-seared duck, baby carrots, and corn and banana puree. I don't know what didn't make it to the plate -- the polenta?
Kelly made roast pork loin with grilled peaches and ginger. Padma tries the baby food and spits out a lemon seed. Oops. Kelly realizes she goofed and takes it pretty well. I guess the straining step got skipped. Lynne made chicken with sweet potato and fruit compote, and jokes with the judges that all of her kids "have four legs." Ha ha, she's a spinster with lots of cats and dogs. I'm not sure why that was so funny.
Angelo made poached tuna with fenugreek broth, tomatoes, soy sauce, and honey. A couple of things seemed weird to me -- fenugreek is traditionally given to help nursing mothers produce more milk, but I didn't know you can give it to babies too. The second thing is that the dish contains honey, and it's generally advised not to give babies honey until they are a year old due to the risk of botulism. This recap is turning into a PSA, and I apologize, but I was surprised that no one mentioned those two things when talking about the dish. Tom notices the layers and Angelo says that there's "a little secret in the middle" but I don't think we ever find out what the secret is.
Alex made seared duck with spinach, basil, and mushroom. Why is duck such a popular protein in Quickfire challenges? Is it because it's easy to cook or something? Or that it's different and people feel like it shows that they are creative? Tamesha made salmon with vegetable chowder and lobster stock, Thai basil, and licorice oil. Tom is enchanted by the idea of licorice oil, which Tamesha made herself. We don't get to see what the other chefs made because, as I've said before, they started the season with way too many people.
Padma asks Tom to detail which dishes he found disappointing. Tom thought Tim overcooked the lamb, so his adult dish wasn't great. He also didn't like Alex's puree, because the dill was too strong and it was kind of watery. Padma didn't like Kevin's dish because there was a pool of blood sitting under the duck, and she thought Kelly's food was bland.
Now to the favorites. Tom liked Lynne's dish, which had good flavors and was well-seasoned, and he liked Tamesha's food because the puree had some texture and he loved the licorice oil. Padma liked Angelo's food because his baby food looked elegant and special. And that's what babies care about. They want to feel fancy while strapped into a high chair wearing a plastic bib. Sometimes I dress my guys in miniature tuxedos, top hats, and monocles. Just to add a little class to dinnertime. Padma also liked Kenny's food, because he made it flavorful but nothing that a baby couldn't handle. Okay, when did Padma become an expert on feeding babies? At least Tom has some experience in this area. They needed a guest judge on this one, I think. Or wait until season to do it. So who won? Tom chooses Tamesha. He really loved that licorice oil. Padma chooses Kenny's dish, who is happy because he wants to stay on the judges' minds. Tamesha interviews, "Holy shit balls. I won ten thousand smackaroos." That's the first sign of personality we've seen from Tamesha, and I like it.
With that out of the way, Padma introduces Beth Scott, who works in the restaurants for Hilton Hotels. Beth explains that Hilton is looking for a signature dish that is easy to execute, sophisticated, and will work for dining in the restaurant but also for room service. Padma explains that the chefs will have to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner dishes that meet these criteria, and the winner will have dish on the Hilton menu. Tom explains how the competition will work, and it's kind of confusing, so let's just explain as we go along, shall we? The upshot is that it's a tournament where they compete with a partner, and the team that is judged to have the worst dinner dish will go home. Yes, that means two cheftestants will be leaving. Thank God, because we need to whittle down these numbers. The cheftestants get to choose their own partners. Amanda and Stephen get stuck together because no one else wants to partner with them. Heh. So Amanda hopes that they will win and prove themselves.
They head to the store. Tiffany and Tim are paired up, and Tiffany interviews that she's a bit worried because Tim has been on the bottom a lot lately. She decides to take the lead on the food, so that if she goes home, it's because of her own mistake, not because Tim did something and she was along for the ride. Smart. And much easier to defend to the judges than, "I don't know, I just let him do whatever and hoped for the best." Judges like it when you stand behind your dish or at least can explain your rationale, and they don't like it when you coast or deflect blame.
Lynne and Arnold are teamed up. Lynne explains that she has a hard time being on a team because she's used to being the boss and she's trying not to be overbearing. Arnold interviews that he's cooked with Lynne before and he's hoping to make it 2.5 wins in a row for him so he can buy a Louis Vuitton bag. Well, it's nice to have goals. Kenny interviews that he ran a restaurant in a five-star hotel right after his wife died, and it helped him get his confidence back. Since he has that unique experience, he thinks he has the competition locked up. I feel like there are a few too many, "I'm totally going to win this challenge" clips of Arnold and Kenny, and since I've watched reality television before (just a few times), I know that's a bad sign. Alex and Ed are teamed up. Ed interviews that Alex is adamant that he can cook pancakes, and Ed is dubious about their sophistication, but he's letting it go. This is something the judges will hate; not standing up for what you know is right.
The cheftestants arrive back in the kitchen to find a panel of judges, including past cheftestants Mike I. (boo!), Bryan Voltaggio (yay!), and Spike (boo!). I could have lived my whole life not ever seeing Mike I. again. The other judges are Beth Scott, a chef named Nora (I would rewind to find out who she is, but she's barely in the episode, so let's move on), Padma, Tom, and Eric Ripert. Holy giant panel. Padma calls time and the teams get to cooking their breakfast dishes. The way this first round works is that two teams will be declared safe based on breakfast dishes. The remaining teams will have to continue on and cook lunch. And.... go!
Amanda and Stephen are making a Hollandaise sauce and they decide they'll know it's done when it tastes good. Yeesh. Hollandaise is a pretty fragile sauce and not something you just want to wing. Lynne is confident about their dish, because she makes it in her class all the time. It looks pretty messy, though. Tiffany has, as she stated earlier, taken the lead on their dish, a crab cake Benedict (which I would totally order and kind of want one right now), and she feels the pressure of Tim relying heavily on her. Andrea and Kelly want to win the breakfast round so that they can be declared safe and not have to cook any more. Ed interviews that their dish is very challenging (so probably not the best choice since Beth Scott said they need something that is easy to reproduce in their chain). Apparently, all of the components need to come together at the last minute, which seems like poor planning. Also, Alex's pancakes are looking quite... charred? And Ed disagrees with how Alex wants to plate the dish, thinking that it lacks finesse. In the end, they don't quite get all of their stuff on the plate, including the Hollandaise sauce they created. Oops.
Weird interstitial: Angelo and Tamesha flirt while cooking. Ed thinks he only likes her because she's young and green. Tamesha laughs in an interview that there's no way she'd get with Angelo. I feel like a rube mentioning this, but isn't he married? So that might be an obstacle.
Ed and Alex are first to serve their incomplete dish, which Alex thinks is good because it has "more components" than anyone else. Was I the only one who heard the Hilton lady say that they needed simple dishes that were also sophisticated? Anyway, they made prosciutto potato cake, egg with lemon pancake, and a Bellini cocktail. And they forgot to put a potato cake on one of the plates, and it's Ed's fault. Oops. They had it made, and he just forgot.
Angelo and Tamesha made an egg with bacon and cheddar broth. It looks really good, but kind of soupy? I don't know how many people want soup for breakfast. Bryan tastes it and pronounces the yolk to be overcooked, and Tom agrees.
Arnold and Lynne bring out their tortilla espanola with chorizo and bacon, olive-pear salad, and papas bravas. Arnold also has a plan for how they would plate if it was to-go. The judges like the flavors but think the textures are off in a way they can't pinpoint. Maybe the frozen cheese?
Kenny and Kevin made a poached egg on herb brioche, prosciutto, manchego, and Spanish olive tapenade. Kevin likes that it has a European influence. The judges think it's too soft with no texture, and too busy.
Amanda and Stephen made a poached egg, pancetta, potato rosti and grape ragout with Hollandaise. The plate looks kind of messy, but I like a messy breakfast, personally. Some of the judges like that the bacon isn't crispy, because it's different, but Padma has a very specific suggestion on how she would have cooked the pancetta.
Andrea and Kelly (Jesus, how many teams are there?) serve up a bacon-cheddar whole wheat waffle, a poached egg and mango, lime and mint yogurt smoothie. The judges find the waffle a bit dense and the smoothie is too sweet.
Tiffany and Tim made the aforementioned crab cake Benedict, asparagus, and bacon potato hash in Hollandaise. Yes, please. The judges find it well-executed but think they could have left out the potato hash.
Finally! It's time for a decision. The winners for this round are Amanda and Stephen, and Tim and Tiffany. Wow, Stephen actually won something! Tiffany is thrilled to finally come out on top as well. Padma tells everyone else to move on to lunch. After this round, two more teams will be called safe and the rest will go on to cook dinner, where one team will win and one will be eliminated. Here's the problem with the structure: a team that cooks two sucky dishes out of three is going to win. That makes no sense. Also, from a production standpoint, there were way too many dishes. They should have done a bracket-style tournament, with someone from the first round losers' pool going home, and one team ultimately winning. There are just way too many glamour shots; it feels like more than half of the episode is taken up with people serving dishes and there's not enough time to find out their thought processes in coming up with dishes, or hear enough about what the judges thought.
Kenny is "heated" because he claims that his cooking techniques and flavors were sound. Obviously not, dude. Get over yourself. Angelo is also "fuming." Man, the egos on these guys. "I didn't win in the first round and I know I deserved it because I am a great chef!" Arnold is worried about Lynne's vision for their lunch dish, because he thinks it might be too "quirky" for Hilton Hotels, but he's going with it. Alex is pissed that they didn't get all their food on the plate in the first round, so he's kind of taking over in this one to make sure that everything gets done. He's also making the bane of the Top Chef contestant's existence when it comes to protein: scallops.
Lunch time! Ed and Alex are up first again, and they made pan-roasted sea scallops with ricotta gnudi and broccoli rabe. The judges agree that the gnudi is good, although Bryan thinks they should have pureed the ricotta first for a smoother texture. I will admit that I didn't know what gnudi is, so I looked it up and the best description I found was that it's like ravioli without the pasta, just the filling. Sounds good to me!
Tamesha is a little worried that her dish made with Angelo is a little too simple but he is as confident as always, and she's trusting him. They made slivers of beef, jicama-Asian pear salad with mint, cilantro, and kimchi vinaigrette. It seems like that might be TOO sophisticated for the typical hotel visitor. Angelo says that it's easily transportable too. Mike I. wishes the dish had more texture, and Eric Ripert thinks it's too onion-y. Tom points out that you could roll it in a spring roll wrapper and make it portable.
Arnold and Lynne serve up "a take on a tuna salad" disguised as sushi: tuna cannelloni with forbidden rice salad and tomato vinaigrette. Arnold really wants to be safe so he doesn't have to stress out about dinner. Spike points out that it's not an easy dish to execute. Thank you! I was wondering when someone would mention that about many of these dishes.
Kenny and Kevin made a dish with all of the elements of hummus: chickpea pasta with tahini sauce and grilled chicken. The judges think that the chicken gets lost in the pasta, but Mike I. likes "the flavor profile." He's such a pretentious twit.
Andrea and Kelly made crispy-skin red snapper and panzanella salad with mustard vinaigrette. Andrea is concerned about serving fish to Eric Ripert, fish expert. Kelly admits that they didn't cook the beans themselves, due to time and budget. Budget? A bag of beans is like the cheapest thing there is. The judges agree that the fish is overcooked, and Eric says he wouldn't have sent it out at his restaurant. Tom is mad about the canned beans, because he thinks there was plenty of time. Don't you have to soak dried beans? For multiple hours? I wish Tom would let me in on how to cook dried beans in thirty minutes or less.
Padma is ready to announce who is safe based on the lunch round, and who will have to cook dinner. The teams that are safe are Angelo and Tamesha, and Alex and Ed. Wow. That puts Kenny in the bottom, and he does not look happy. So are Kelly, and Andrea. Angelo is really rooting for Kenny, his nemesis, to get eliminated. Andrea lists off her qualifications and can't believe she might have to go home this week.
They have sixty minutes to cook dinner. Kelly explains that she and Andrea are frustrated and bitter. That should translate well into food. Kenny is pissed, because he knows that he's hitting all of the elements "at the highest level." It does seem like they could have given some feedback at each level. I know they wouldn't have time to show all of it, but again, that's one of the flaws of this format. Arnold thinks that Lynne has a temper and is kind of immature with how she handles her anger, where as he wants to put everything behind him and get stuff done. Andrea and Kelly are trying to communicate well, but they are worried because they are making short ribs, and so are Kenny and Kevin. Kevin notices that Andrea and Kelly's ribs are boiling away so they might be tough.
Lynne explains that Arnold makes great curry and she makes good pasta, so that's what they're going with. She's also making focaccia, except Kevin turned her oven temperature down, so now she has to wait for it to heat up again, apparently. She's pissed. If I were going on this show, I would invest in a stack of Post-It notes and just label the hell out of everything. It seems like it would prevent a lot of problems and I don't know why Lynne, the INSTRUCTOR, wouldn't think of that. Or even just a piece of tape that says "Lynne's oven" on it. Lynne and Arnold argue about when to put the pasta on to cook. Arnold wants to do it right away, and Lynne wants to wait. She's worried that the pasta will be overcooked. They can't really compromise, because it's not like one can stay and one will be eliminated; if one screws up, they're both going home.
Kevin and Kenny work on their sauce. Kenny adds more horseradish without asking Kevin, and he thinks there's too much and wishes they had discussed it first. Andrea notices that Kenny and Kevin don't have enough jus on their plate, which is important with short ribs, so she thinks theirs will win. And... time.
Time for the final round! Kenny and Kevin are up first, and they serve braised beef short rib, squash, potato and carrot confit, and tempura horseradish. Beth Scott asks them about their concept, and Kevin says they wanted to offer up familiar ingredients to travelers. The judges like the flavors, although they disagree on whether they can taste the horseradish. Padma loves the jus but Nora thinks there wasn't enough of it.
Kelly and Andrea are up . Kelly thinks their dish is awesome, and if she goes home for this dish, the judges don't know what they're talking about. The dish is braised beef short rib, polenta, shiitake mushrooms, and citrus gremolata. The judges think it has good flavor, even if the polenta is a little stiff.
Arnold talks a mile a minute in his interview as he explains that he knows the judges will either think he's crazy to serve a plate of spaghetti, or they will think he's being more creative than his peers. Lynne and Arnold serve, and Arnold explains that the dish is pineapple red curry mussels with squid ink pasta and focaccia. It all looks kind of sad and brown and drowning in sauce. The judges immediately note that the pasta is undercooked. Would this travel well? Wouldn't the pasta soak up all the juice?
Back in the Stew Room, the final three teams talk to the other cheftestants about how they did. Padma comes in and calls all three teams out to talk to the judges. She explains that one team had the best dish of the day and one team will be eliminated. This is another problem. One team didn't have the best dish of the day. One team had two bad dishes, and then managed to make a better dish than the bottom two. So it's really like the third worst dish of the day. Bah.
Nora (who got like no screen time as the guest judge) explains that the winning team had the best flavors, and that was Kelly and Andrea. They are incredibly relieved. They get their dish on the Hilton menu, but they also get a trip to either Spain or Italy. This takes up so much time, but it's part of the product placement. It just stands out in an episode that felt rushed due to the volume of dishes presented.
So now the other two teams have to face the music. Lynne is asked if she was happy with the dish. Lynne says she was, but she thinks the pasta was undercooked. Arnold is like, "Girl, what?" She apparently never shared that observation with him. Arnold goes on and on about how awesome their dish was, and clearly it wasn't, or they would have won, so he might show a bit of self-awareness here. Lynne is a Grumpy Gus, going on and on about what was wrong with the dish. I'm not sure which approach is better.
Kenny and Kevin are asked why they didn't include more glaze, and Kenny says that they didn't want to add more sodium to the dish. Tom forces them to say whether they thought it had enough glaze, and Kenny says that he thought it did. Strike one. Eric asks about the flavor, and explains that he couldn't taste the horseradish. Strike two. Tom asks about their concept, and Kevin says that they thought guests would like it, it was delicious, and just made sense. I think they do have that on their sides; more people would order short ribs than black pasta with black mussels, generally. So no strike three.
Tom asks Arnold why their dish would win. Arnold says that it was creative, and if he were a judge, he would want to see an avant garde approach. Except when you're cooking for a general audience of travelers, and then maybe not so much.
The cheftestants are excused while the judges deliberate. Tom seems to kind of recognize that it would be weird to eliminate Kenny already when he says that they have to judge based on this one dish, not the dishes. Padma brings up my point, which is that mussels and pasta is a hard sell in a hotel restaurant. Ripert thinks having the pasta cooked properly would have made it a nearly perfect dish. Tom wanted more glaze on the short ribs, but that seems to be his only criticism. He and Eric discuss how the horseradish tempura could have been more successful.
Back in the Stew Room, Arnold is telling someone that he represented himself and his food. Kenny is bitching that he is supposed to be on the top, not the bottom. Oh, Kenny. I liked you before, but seriously? Shut it. Then Kevin and Amanda get in an argument. Kevin thinks you need to tell the judges how to eat your dish, and Amanda thinks that's arrogant. I kind of agree. I guess there are some restaurants where I would accept instruction on how to eat a dish, but in a hotel restaurant? Not so much.
The bottom two return to see the judges. Tom tells Lynne and Arnold they were outside the box, and made a delicious sauce but the pasta was undercooked. He tells Kenny and Kevin that they needed more glaze and didn't deliver the kick from the horseradish. They really fooled me here; I thought Kenny and Kevin were leaving. Instead, Padma tells Lynne and Arnold to pack their knives and go. Arnold delivers a nice speech about how honored he was to work with them while Lynne just shuffles out. Arnold interviews that he wishes Lynne had told him her problems before they faced the judges. Lynne interviews that she shouldn't have let a younger chef take the lead. Okay, there is seriously something left out here. Wasn't Lynne the one who wanted to wait to cook the pasta? And then it didn't cook long enough? Which the judges said was the only thing wrong with the dish? And Arnold made the sauce, which they praised to the heavens. So either Lynne is delusional or something happened that we didn't see. Or both.
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