Quickfire Challenge: After sampling the Singaporean street food with a local expert, the cheftestants have to create their own version of street food using only a wok. And the winner gets immunity! I thought they said immunity was over for the season? Damn. It's like a billion degrees and a trillion percent humidity as they cook, and all of the ingredients are labeled in Cantonese. After the dishes are all sampled, the winner is… Ed. Whew! Everyone totally thought it would be Angelo, but he got way up in his head and over-thought the whole thing.
Elimination Challenge: Create a menu for an event hosted by Food and Wine editor Dana Cowin. They have to work as a team, and cook everything a la minute for 80 people. They each decide to do one dish and do it well, but then Ed decides to add another dish without telling anyone. When Colicchio comes in, he says that they should all plan a second dish, so the people without immunity are really stressed out.
The service is bumpy as there are communication issues with the servers, and the chefs are constantly having to clarify tickets. And here are the dishes:
Kelly: chilled cucumber-yogurt soup with bitter melon salad, which the judges really like, and seared prawns, spicy red coconut curry and crispy prawn heads, which the judges think is complex and of the place.
Kevin: clam chowder with flavors of Southeast Asia, which impresses the judges, and a farm egg with pearl tapioca and radish condiment, which the judges say is perfectly cooked, and a risk.
Angelo: spicy shrimp broth with ginger and prawn dumplings, which the judges find both comforting and sophisticated, and lamb tartare with rambutan ceviche and curry oil, which the judges think is imaginative and well-cooked.
Ed: sweet and sour pork with crispy rice, potato cakes and gai lan, which the judges call refined street food (a compliment), and banana fritters with red chile paste, and the judges can't contain their pleasure with that dish.
Judges' Table: The judges say that it's the best food they've had all season. After offering up compliments to everyone, the judges declare Ed the winner. Since he had immunity, that's pretty awesome. And the one to go home is… Kelly, mostly because her seared prawns were good, but not great, and the dish didn't stand out.
Kelly is the first chef that we see arrive in Singapore. She walks around and marvels at the sights, sounds, and smells, and claims that she's lucky to get to experience the culture. we see Ed, and I haven't mentioned this yet but it's bugged me every week -- Ed needs to stop shaving between his eyebrows. He clearly shaves and doesn't pluck because it's a totally straight line. I have a guy friend who used to do this, and I get that it's easier, but it looks really weird. I pointed it out to my husband and he thinks Ed should do more sculpting to avoid the straight line, but I think he should just suck it up and go to a waxer. Anyway, it looks weird. And now that you've seen it, you will never be able to unsee it. You're welcome!
Ed greets Kelly in some sort of food court area, and then Kevin shows up wearing a really dumb safari hat. It's nighttime. There is no need for that hat. Also, it looks like sit's about a billion degrees and crazy humid. My least favorite type of weather. I'll take a blizzard before that. Then Angelo shows up and hugs are exchanged all around. I wonder how long they had between the last challenge and this one? Kevin says that his wife is about to give birth, but I don't remember him saying how far along she was in any earlier challenges, so that doesn't help.
Colicchio shows up and welcomes them to Singapore. He introduces a dude named Seetoh, who is an expert in Singapore street food. Kelly knows who he is; she read his book. See? She prepared. Just keep that in mind later. Anyway, Seetoh explains that they're in an open air food market with tons of tiny stalls. We see some of the vendors, and the stalls are basically just big enough for the vendor to stand at a burner and cook, and that's it. Probably pretty efficient, but also really claustrophobic. Tom leaves the cheftestants with Seetoh to explore the market.
First, they go to an older gentleman who is frying noodles, and has been doing so for a long time. Angelo asks about the fish sauce, while Ed cracks jokes. They share a plate of noodles while standing up, which Seetoh explains is how to eat street food properly. Kelly interviews that there are a lot of different influences in every dish they try: Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, etc. Angelo interviews that, since the finals are in Singapore, he feels that it's his to lose, because Asian food and culture are his passion. I am shocked that he doesn't have an Asian wife. Doesn't he seem the type to specifically seek out an Asian woman?
Wait, I guess it's not nighttime. I totally thought it was. Seetoh takes them to another booth where they have plain poached chicken with rice, which he explains is like their national dish, their hamburger. Kevin is psyched to see some plain, basic food done well, as he feels that's his specialty.
They move on to a booth that serves chili crabs, which Seetoh explains will be messy. I'm more interested in the table behind them, where some people are drinking something out of half of a watermelon. Like you know those drinks they make in coconuts? It's like that, except half of a watermelon. Or maybe it's a food -- it's hard to see. Angelo says that the chili crabs are what he wanted to try in Singapore. Kevin loves it too, although they all agree it's spicy but also awesome.
Seetoh takes them to another stall where he speaks the local dialect, and explains that if you do, you get bigger portions. Ed interviews that he wants to beat Angelo, but he knows they are in Asia and Asian cuisine is Angelo's thing. Kelly interviews that most people would say that Angelo is her biggest competition, but she actually thinks it's Kevin, because they cook similar styles of food.
Seetoh leads the cheftestants to one last booth. And then Padma is standing there. The fun is over! Ed explains that he's totally jet lagged and they got no down time before the challenge. Padma explains the rules of the Quickfire Challenge: create their own version of Singapore street food using a wok. They can't use any other cooking device. Kevin winces, and explains in an interview that he doesn't know how to use a wok. The cheftestants are provided with a host of local ingredients, and then Padma drops the bomb that the winner will get immunity and go right to the finals. Damn. That kind of sucks, though. Right?
Time starts and the cheftestants run over to the ingredients to choose their dishes. The only problem is that the labels are in Cantonese, so they have to taste all of the spices etc. to figure out what they are. This takes some time, as you can imagine. Ed admits that he doesn't even know what all of the potential ingredients are, so he's steering clear of what he doesn't know. Angelo gives us a little lesson in wokery to show how experienced he is with the wok, in case you had any doubts. Ed admits that he knows Angelo is the expert, but he'd still like to beat him, if only to knock him down a peg going into the finals. Ed has a wok at home. I used to have one, until my roommate at the time decided to make a stir-fry and put oil in it to heat up and forgot about it, and started a fire. Bye bye, wok. That roommate? Angelo. I'm totally kidding. I would never live with Angelo.
Kelly's doing a seafood broth with noodles and Ed is doing a stir fry. Angelo is going to do chili crabs, and it seems dumb to me to make the exact dish they ate earlier, which was presumably prepared by an expert. Seems like you're just going to come off poorly by comparison. Angelo starts second-guessing himself and overthinking it. Kevin is making a curry or stew. Everyone is sweating like a pig. It is crazy hot there. Ugh. Kill me now with that heat. I would have killed myself or someone else. Padma calls five minutes left and they pretend like Angelo just decided to make frog legs instead of crab. I'm sure there was more time left than that when he made the decision, but we get the point that he switched at the last minute. And, time's up.
First up is Angelo with his chili frog legs with pineapple and rambutan salad. He tells them how to eat his dish, and I kind of hate when chefs do that. I'm all about usability, whether it's a computer interface or a meal. If I need instructions on how to do it, the creator didn't do a good job. It's so humid out that even Padma looks like shit. Her hair is all frizzed out. Angelo admits that he's used a wok a few times, but he doesn't bust out his wok lesson like he did in his interview earlier, thank God.
Kelly's dish is based on what she learned today, and it's Chinese noodles with lobster, cockles, bean sprouts and Chinese broccoli. Where's the Malaysian/Indian twist? I thought she was all multi-culti these days?
Kevin made seafood stew with lobster and cuttlefish and crispy shallots. Padma asks if he's ever used a wok before, and Kevin admits that he hasn't. Padma is PISSED! She's like, "What's wrong with you?" Kevin laughs, but Padma isn't playing. She reminds him that he knew they were coming to Singapore and the Top Chef title is on the line. Kevin's excuse is that he focused more on ingredients than technique, and he doesn't have a big burner at home. Come on. Doesn't he work in a restaurant? I have to imagine they have burners of all sizes there. I really thought this was foreshadowing Kevin's elimination, though.
Ed made stir-fry noodles with black pepper sauce, lobster, and gai-lan. I'm sure it tastes great, but his dish looks like reheated Chinese food. Padma is interested that he used two different kinds of noodles, and that Ed has used a wok before. Ed jokes that he likes to "wok it out" on the weekend.
So what did Seetoh think? He liked how Angelo used robust flavors and bits of pineapple. Kelly captures the essence of the ocean. Kevin did a good job capturing one of the dishes they ate on the food tour well. And he thinks Ed lifted up the street food flavors. So who won and has an automatic bid to the finals? It's...Ed! Angelo is pissed, and Ed is really happy that Angelo is pissed.
Padma introduces the Elimination Challenge, which is a team challenge. Angelo admits that he's annoyed at having to rely on others to try to get into the finals. The challenge is to cater a party hosted by Food and Wine editor Dana Cowin. They are supposed to work as a team to create a menu for eighty guests, and the food will be cooked a la minute. For eighty people. Damn.
The cheftestants return to their hotel to drink champagne and plan their menu. They get these giant books with lists of available ingredients. Each of them chooses a protein with little conflict, and then they discuss whether they think they will be expected to make more than one dish each. Since they have to cook each dish to order, none of them want to cook more than one dish. Ed, especially, says that he's only cooking one. That will be important later. Then they all stare at each other for like five minutes. I'm glad this episode went fifteen minutes longer than usual so that footage like that could be included.
The morning, they each plan out their dish and discuss what they're making. Ed steals some of the jam from breakfast claiming that he's going to use it as a glaze. Angelo jokes that Ed isn't taking this seriously since he has immunity. Ed interviews that he's actually taking the competition very seriously, and plans to take some risks since he has that kind of freedom, and kicking Angelo's ass. Please do so, Ed. It would tickle me to see Angelo eliminated before the final challenge.
The cheftestants head to the market to buy their ingredients. Kelly asks a vendor what the best spices would be for her fish head curry. Kevin points out in an interview that Kelly only cooked one Asian dish in the competition (and he leaves out how she had to look on a bottle of prepared sauce to find out the proper flavors), so she might be at a disadvantage. You'd think she would have studied up more, knowing they were going to Singapore.
While in the store, Ed finds some fritter ingredients, and discovers that the Singaporeans stuff it with plantains. It gives him an idea for a second dish, and he goes for it without telling the others his plan. Then he's kind of a dick to Angelo, bullying him. I get Ed's sense of humor; he reminds me a lot of the guys I grew up with, who will break your balls at every opportunity and you have to have a comeback, or you will be roadkill. But since Angelo's so lame, Ed kind of looks like a bully. Angelo interviews that he doesn't think Ed has the fire in his belly due to his immunity. Ed interviews that he had a learning disability growing up and was told he was an idiot, so his motivation is to show those people that they are wrong.
The cheftestants head to the kitchen to start prepping. Ed and Angelo clash immediately when Ed accuses Angelo of taking his pork, when Angelo has a pile of lamb instead. Angelo is FREAKING, talking to himself weirdly and trying to make sure his lamb is clean for the tartare he's planning. Ed seems to be having a good time, but is also cooking his ass off. Every time Ed cracks a joke, Angelo has to say something about how Ed's not taking it seriously. Okay, I was kind of down on Ed a minute ago, but I hope he does kick Angelo's ass, but at cooking and otherwise. Ed admits in an interview that he's trying to get in Angelo's head and get him eliminated from the competition, so at least his antics have a point.
Kelly thinks that her dish is going to have a lot of good flavor, and expresses her confidence. Meanwhile, Ed is removing the meat from his pork, and is pleased. He gives the bones to Kevin, for something. I guess his chowder? To flavor the stock? Anyway, it shows that while Ed is being a jerk to Angelo, he's not a jerk full stop.
Colicchio shows up and asks the cheftestants if they're really only planning on serving four dishes. No one says anything, until Ed says that he's been planning on doing two all along. Colicchio says that he really thinks that they need to do two dishes each. Ed is just like, "No problem. That was my plan." Everyone else is like, "SHIT!" Seriously, how would you pull another dish out of your ass? Kevin interviews that he's pissed that Ed was always planning another dish, since it would've made the rest of them look bad if Ed was the only one to do two. It was kind of a dick move not to say anything to anyone in the store. I get that Ed wants competitive advantage, but it is a team effort. Then again, the judges never make their decisions based on the type of competition anyway.
Kelly has trouble using a standard can opener on Asian cans. You'd think they would have the right kind of equipment, no? Guess not. I don't know why she wastes so much time with the can opener and doesn't just stab the can and cut it open with a knife. I guess that's probably pretty hard on your knives. She does eventually use her knife, and the stress levels are getting higher. Ed interviews that the others should have known that there would be a twist, like adding a second dish. He's not wrong.
Angelo notices a ton of blood on the floor, and realizes it's from Kelly's finger. She pulls on a rubber glove to keep the blood off her food, and the finger of the glove fills with blood quickly. GROSS. Kelly admits that the glove is hindering her abilities. She can't cut, and when it comes time to pack up, she has trouble with the wrap and the tape. Time runs out and presumably she gets everything done, but it looked pretty hairy (and bloody) there for a minute.
Weird interstitial. The cheftestants go to a place where you fish in artificial ponds. Kevin is too squeamish to put a worm on his hook, and then too squeamish to unhook it when he catches a prawn. Kelly does both for him.
The cheftestants arrive at the location for the party and start setting up. I notice that all of the grown-ups have on long pants but Angelo has on some stupid shorts. I get that it gets hot in the kitchen, but come on. He looks like Angus Young, but a million times less cool. Kelly explains in an interview that they haven't figured out how to expedite their food yet (i.e. who will read the order slips and make sure the right food gets cooked at the right time and get on the plates and out to the tables in a timely fashion), and they haven't met the wait staff. That won't be a problem, right? I mean, the wait staff. Surely they will all be professionals.
Kevin talks about his second dish, which includes a 63-degree egg. He explains that it's similar to a poached egg but infinitely more complicated. So why is he doing it again? Probably because he can use the sous vide and cook all of the eggs at the same time. Also, it sounds fancier. But he explains that if he's half a degree off, the whole dish is ruined. So that's no pressure.
Ed continues to pick and pick at Angelo. He interviews that he's really sarcastic and people often think he's being a douchebag. But then he admits that with Angelo, half the time he is being a douchebag. I get it. I do. Some people are so annoying that you can't help but be a jerk to them, no matter how many times you tell yourself that you won't get sucked in this time. But I wonder if Ed didn't have immunity, if he would have less time to focus on fucking with Angelo. But it's SO EASY. I see the temptation.
The wait staff shows up. They're like the Singaporean version of a TGIFriday's staff, with their striped shirts. Ed decides to be the one to talk to the wait staff. He finds one waiter to be the expediter and make sure that all of the dishes go out table by table. Angelo is happy that Ed volunteered to take the lead on the wait staff, since his dish won't send him home tonight.
The judges arrive and check out the menu. This doesn't look like much of a party. It kind of just looks like a restaurant. There are a bunch of separate tables and no one is mingling or anything. Back in the kitchen, Kevin's cockles aren't opening. I know that sounds like the opening line to a dirty joke, but it's for real. Ed has some time, so he helps out. He explains that he'll be a team player to a point.
The orders start coming in and Kevin calls them out. His cockles finally opened up, and that's still not a joke. Ed tries to call out another order but he can't read the writing on the slip. And then it seems like the expediter doesn't know what the fuck because Kevin is having to tell him which dishes go to which table. The wait staff is kind of a disaster already.
Meanwhile, the judges are all drinking wine and giggling about being in Singapore. The judges this week are Tom, Padma, Gail, Dana Cowin, and Seetoh. Their order comes in, so the chefs try to get their food all ready at the same time. In the end it doesn't matter, because the waiters are just standing there like dummies as Angelo yells at them to just go. He jokes (?) that they should just run the food themselves.
The first dish serves is Kelly's chilled cucumber-yogurt soup with bitter melon salad. Someone says that it has a lot of acid. Gail likes that it's cool, but has a bit of heat. Padma points out that she used Southeast Asian ingredients, and Seetoh really likes the whole concept of the dish. Tom looks kind of ambivalent, but we don't hear him say anything.
Kevin's clam chowder with flavors of Southeast Asia is , and everyone really likes it. They really have no complaints about it. It's kind of odd because even if everyone raved about a dish, the editors will usually stick in at least one criticism so that you aren't sure who is going home.
Angelo made a spicy shrimp broth with ginger and prawn dumplings. Dana finds it both comforting and complex, and Padma calls it refined. Seetoh can taste the prawns, and he thinks they were cooked well. Again, no criticism.
Back in the kitchen, things with the wait staff are still a mess. Kelly has to go over which dishes go to which tables with the waitress again and again. I don't think the chefs should have to worry about which tables are getting which dishes; they should just worry about how many plates they need to put out at a time. I've never worked on a line, but I've watched enough of these shows and read enough books to know that this wait staff is effed up, and it seems kind of mean for production to do that to the cheftestants at this important point. I get that it's probably realistic in some ways, but not for the finale.
The dish to come out is Angelo's lamb tartare with rambutan ceviche and curry oil. A few of the judges admit that they aren't big fans of tartare in general, but Angelo pulled it off. That's a coup.
, they sample Ed's sweet and sour pork with crispy rice and potato cakes and gai lan, and Dana can't help but go, "Mmmmmm" when she takes the first bite. Tom says it's the flavors he had in the market, but refined. Gail thinks he combined flavors from a lot of different Asian cultures, and Dana says she could eat a bottomless bowl of it. Now I kind of want to try it.
More kitchen hijinks. Kevin tries to read a slip and can't. Angelo gets in an argument with a waiter about the number of dishes. There's even one slip written in Chinese. At one point, Ed has to go out to the dining room and motion some of the staff back to pick up food. God knows what they are doing out there. I would fire all of them. Seriously.
Somehow, the judges get a chance to try Kevin's farm egg with pearl tapioca and radish condiment. Dana says that the egg is perfect, and Seetoh likes the flavors. Tom points out that Kevin took a risk with this dish, and it turned out good. It's kind of freaking me out how the judges like everything.
The dish up is Kelly's seared prawns, spicy red coconut curry and crispy prawn heads. Tom says that it's "a nice dish," but Gail is more effusive about the dish's complexity and flavor.
And then the judges try Ed's second dish, banana fritters with red chile paste. Tom can't contain a smile as he says he loves them, and Dana chimes in, like she was just waiting for someone else to say it first, "I love them! Oh my God, they are so good!" Gail says that she wants a mountain of them.
Some of the other diners are interviewed, and they love everything. Who is going home? Everything was good. Everything got good marks from the judges. It's a mystery. Kevin thinks anyone (but Ed) could go home, and Kelly knows that she's cooking outside of her comfort zone. In the dining room, Dana thanks everyone for coming and raises a glass to the chefs, who come out to accept the applause, which was apparently well deserved.
As they wait in the Stew Room, Kelly says that they did well as a team, and Ed points out that they were all just trying to get the food on the tables. Angelo doesn't think that the food looked like it was prepped and cooked as quickly as it was. Then Padma comes in and asks to see all of them.
First, the judges want to know what they think. Kelly says that they put together a cohesive menu and Angelo bullshits that he forgot he was competing and just felt like he was cooking with "a brigade" (oh no, Big Brother!) in his kitchen. Tom tells them that all of the food was really good, and only small details that they could even criticize. Tom thinks it was the best food that they've had all season.
Let's talk to Angelo first. He says that he wanted to try something new, and made a curried lamb dish, even though he's never done a lamb tartare before. For his second dish, Seetoh says that he brought the flavor of the prawns out well, but Tom thinks it was more of a sauce than a soup, and Padma found it a little too salty. Gail thinks that the flavors were almost too intense.
up is Kelly. Seetoh loved her soup, and says that it exploded in his mouth. Is he the female Asian judge on the original Iron Chef? Because she always used to say that and then giggle. Tom thinks that the fish was a little bit tough, though. Gail wanted the curry to have a little more heat, and Kelly laughs that she likes spicy food and often has to back off a bit, so that's what she did. Seetoh likes her guava apple salad, and found it refreshing. He plans to copy it.
Gail says that Ed had immunity and he still came out strong. She calls his food "taste-alicious." Where was this Ed all season? Didn't he kind of come out of nowhere? I never would have picked him for the frontrunner; maybe getting rid of Tiffany allowed him to focus more on his food and less on her? Seetoh thinks he could have deep-fried his rice cake. Tom thinks that his fritter was "the perfect stoner food." Gail pretends like she had a problem with them, but her problem was that she didn't get enough of them. Ha ha, Gail. You like to eat.
And finally, on to Kevin's food. Gail says that his chowder was elevated, but Seetoh wanted a little more heat. Tom thinks that the egg was a big risk, because it was all about execution, and it paid off. Seetoh wanted a little texture in the dish and Kevin nods.
The cheftestants are excused so that the judges can make a big decision. Once they get to the Stew Room, Kelly says that she thinks she's done. Angelo says that it's him, because the others cooked better food. Kelly reminds them that they all did well and didn't kill one another, but worked together. Sort of.
The judges are impressed that Ed didn't take the easy way out, having immunity. Gail adds that he put his own personality into the dishes, and it worked. Tom damns Kelly's shrimp by saying it was good but didn't stand out. Gail loved the guava salad, but Tom thinks she should have integrated it into the dish more. And they all agree that the fish in the soup wasn't good. Gail still thinks her soup was better than Angelo's, as it was too salty. However, Angelo's tartare was outstanding. They all think that Kevin's chowder was good, but his egg dish was "dreamy," although Tom thinks it was missing a few elements.
The cheftestants are back! To find out! Who is going home! I'm glad they don't have a lame rose ceremony or something on this show. So who is the winner this week? Seetoh says that all of the dishes were good, and they had to resort to microscopic details to pick a winner, and that is...Ed. Angelo looks stunned. Well, if he thought he was going to lose, who did he think would win? Ed thinks that he deserved the win, and he's happy that he beat Angelo at his own game.
So now there are three. Angelo's stupid shorts are still bugging me. They look like a diaper. Tom tells them that they all did an amazing job. Kelly put her twist on the food, but her texture was off. Kevin did two great dishes, but his egg dish could have used more texture. Angelo's first dish was salty, but his second dish was stunning. Tom wishes that they could all continue on, but someone has to go. And that someone is... Kelly. So it's an all-male finale.
Kelly cries, of course, and thanks the judges. She tells them that they have made her a better chef. Please tell me someone made an animated gif of Angelo's crying face. It rivals that one of Dawson crying on the creek. Anyway, Kelly is bummed that she got so close to the finals, but she packs her knives. And then the three bros hug each other and prepare emotionally to go into the finals. Padma comes in and asks to see the three of them back at Judges' Table. Even Ed. So shit is starting right now!
Watch the episode below, discuss it in our forums.
Want to immediately access TWoP content no matter where you are online? Download the free TWoP toolbar for your web browser. Already have a customized toolbar? Then just add our free toolbar app to get updated on our content as soon it's published.