By Kim
Quickfire Challenge: Guest judge Paula Deen asks them to create a deep-fried dish. The bottom two are Dale, whose flavors are bland, and Carla, whose hush puppies are heavy. Antonia had Paula's favorite dish but forgot to create two plates, so she's disqualified. Blais makes a dish that includes deep fried mayonnaise, but Mike totally steals an idea from Blais to make chicken "oysters" and then wins. Of course, Mike claims he didn't steal a thing, but what a dick. At least he didn't get immunity.
Elimination Challenge: Make Gulf Coast seafood for three hundred people, as part of a benefit for the Gulf Coast, after it was damaged by the oil spill. The previously eliminated cheftestants return, each holding a seafood protein, and the remaining cheftestants have to choose a person and an ingredient to work with. At the actual event, the sheer number of people overwhelms everyone, and some handle it better than others. Here are the results:
Mike worked with Tiffani to create grit-crusted Gulf shrimp, sour cream and chive potatoes with pork and lobster sauce. The judges like it, although it seemed like Tiffani did a lot of the work.
Blais worked with Fabio to make crispy Gulf snapper with pulled pork and citrus grits. The judges are surprised that the disparate elements actually work together.
Carla worked with Tre to make fried grouper with collard greens and chow-chow pico. The judges don't love the greens and think that the seasoning is off on the fish.
Tiffany worked with Marcel, and they butted heads while making honey-glazed shrimp, grits with jalapeno and cheese, and shellfish sauce. Some judges like the glaze okay, but others don't like it at all.
Dale worked with Angelo, and he gets totally frazzled while serving amberjack stew with andouille sausage and potatoes with a Creole mustard crouton. The potatoes aren't cooked through, and all of the judges agree that the crouton is way too strong and overpowers the dish.
Antonia worked with Spike to make a blue crab cake, corn, jalapeno and andouille relish with crab broth. The judges think that the crab is light and tasty.
The top three are Antonia, Blais and Mike, and the winner is Blais. That leaves Tiffany, Carla, and Dale as the bottom three. Dale lost the fish in his dish because the other ingredients (mustard, sausage) were so overpowering. Carla masked the flavor of the fish with hot sauce. Tiffany's glaze was too sweet, largely because she let Marcel make the glaze and didn't tell him to water it down. And then the judges send Dale home. DAMN. He knew he was going; he was just defeated the entire episode. But it shows that they're serious about judging based on that night's dish and nothing else. I can't say I'm super-sad that the finale is shaping up to be more female, but Dale is the Most Improved, for sure.
Read up on who's who among the All-Stars, discuss the episode in our forums, then see how to make Dale's winning ribeye grilled cheese from last week, below!
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Immediately after Angelo's elimination, everyone in the Stew Room was stunned. Mike, obviously. But even Tiffany admits that she was one hundred percent sure that she was going home. Dale comments that it was shocking to see Angelo leave, but the reality is that they all have to leave sometime, unless they win the whole thing. We really have gotten to the point this season where any elimination is shocking. I mean, I think Tiffany and Mike shouldn't make the finals, but it's tough to remember that this show is judged on the one dish the cheftestant makes for that day's challenge, and not the cheftestant's entire body of work. So one off day means that person is going home, which kind of sucks, but is also what makes the show exciting. Otherwise, the finals would be a foregone conclusion. Anyway, Dale also reminds us that he won both the Quickfire and the Elimination in the episode, so he's on a high right now. So he's probably safe this week, right? Because he's been doing so well? Oh, that totally doesn't matter in terms of judging? Yeah, I just said that.
Antonia, Mike, and Blais are hanging out in the apartment, and Blais shows them his planning notebook. He's taken a little reporter's notebook and written out various plans for dishes. He explains that he's filled up two of them since he's been on the show this time around, because while he is there for the experience, he also wants to win. Note that Mike flipped through the notebook and read some pages, at least that we saw, and Blais even explained one of the recipes step-by-step. Why did he do this? He probably couldn't help himself; he seems like the type who's always teaching and helping other people, even to his own detriment.
Mike notices that Tiffany is wearing makeup and looks fancier than usual and asks her if she has a date. She giggles that she thinks if she looks better, she will think better and perform better. She interviews that she's realized that she has to step up her game, and it's nice to see a rejuvenated Tiffany, as she's been barely skating by.
The cheftestants arrive at the kitchen and see Paula Deen waiting for them. They all recognize her and smile. How can you note smile when you see Paula Deen? You may not like her food, but she's always so happy and upbeat, even while she's irreparably clogging your arteries. Paula and Padma explain the Quickfire Challenge: make something in the deep fryer. Paula explains that she's deep fried mac and cheese, lasagna, and even butter, and she's looking for imaginative food. Time limit is thirty minutes and the winner gets $5,000.
Everyone runs to the pantry and grabs oil and ingredients. Dale explains that his flavor spectrum is like the exact opposite of Paula's, so he's taking oysters, wrapping them in beef, and breading them with flour. Antonia admits that she fries food more often than she should, and she has an idea for a fried shrimp salad. Mike explains that there's a piece of chicken that's known as the "chicken oyster," and he's going to fry that. Then he admits that he and Blais were talking about a similar recipe this morning, and Blais had it in his little book, and Mike's been thinking about it all day. Blais, in the meantime, has decided to fry some mayonnaise first. But he has to freeze it in ball form first. He admits it's "not a heart smart dish."
Carla knows that Southern food is her genre, but quickfires are not her best, because she gets all frazzled. She breads some fish, but she lets it sit too long before putting it in the fryer (that's a thing that happens?) and she thinks it's too bland, and definitely not what she was shooting for. Tiffany loves fish or chicken fry. I do too! In my part of the country anyway, lots of restaurants and organizations do takeout fish fries on Fridays during Lent. So that's coming right up! And they are great. Anyway, even though she's from the South, Tiffany doesn't really cook Southern food, but she grew up eating it, so she's familiar with it.
Mike thinks his dish is better than the others because it's more simple. And also, he stole the idea from Blais. Time is called and Antonia looks around and realizes that everyone else plated two dishes, one for each judge. And she only did one. Oops. Padma and Paula step up to Antonia first, and she explains that she made fried avocado, shrimp and jalapeno, grilled corn, tomato, and fried herbs. Paula lurves it.
They move on to Dale, who made fried steak-wrapped oyster with egg yolk omelet, parsley tips, and chives. It looks pretty good, but I think it needs a sauce. Seems like it would be kind of dry, and it would tie the disparate elements together. Blais made fried bacon with fried mayonnaise, tomato, and cucumber. Hmm. I'm not sure how I would feel about bacon with mayonnaise on top. I'm down with the fried mayonnaise, but maybe with something else. Paula jokes that her hair looks like Blais's when she wakes up in the morning and I think she's flirting with him.
Tiffany explains that she's from the South, so she made fried chicken and pickles, and honey mustard sauce with a cilantro and cumin salad. I think Paula should get Padma's job. Not that she needs the work, but she's so much more fun to watch and so much more into it. Carla made catfish with Dijon mustard, hushpuppies, coleslaw with mayo, hot sauce, and mint. So it's a fish fry. Not so creative, really. Carla knew her hushpuppies weren't great, and she feels bad about that.
Mike explains that he made chicken oysters, but he served them on an oyster half shell, and he also made a mustard gravy with oyster liquor. That mustard gravy looks like a pile of puke. I am interested in exactly how much of this recipe was inspired by Blais. Just the idea of chicken oysters? Serving them on the half shell? Serving them with mustard gravy and oyster liquor? I feel like that detail makes a difference. Anyway, Blais says to the camera that it's his dish, and Mike won't catch his eye, and Mike interviews that it's not Richard's dish, and it's been done before, and Blais should have made it himself if it's so great. Defensive much?
Now that the dishes have been tasted, Paula is ready to talk about her least favorite dishes. She tells Dale that his dish didn't have any flavors that popped. I'm telling you! A sauce would have helped! Paula goes on to tell Carla that her hush puppies tasted "like spit balls, kinda." See? She should totally be a permanent judge. She tells it like it is.
Some of Paula's favorites were Antonia's. In fact, she thought Antonia's dish was the best, hands down, and she's mad that Antonia didn't make two dishes. But because she didn't, Antonia is disqualified. So the top two are Richard, whose mayonnaise was "out of this world" and Mike, whose chicken oysters were had great presentation. But did they taste good? Blais points out that Mike stole his dish, so he's competing against himself.
Paula says flat out that Antonia was the winner, but since she can't win, the winner is Mike. Okay, here's why what Mike did sucks. It's not a terrible thing to use someone else's recipe or be inspired by someone else's recipe. It happens all the time. I'm sure if even happens all the time on this show. Maybe Angelo makes some crazy watermelon tuna concoction for a challenge, and Dale thinks it's cool, and he puts something on his menu at his own restaurant that is similar. Fine. I'm sure Blais isn't the first person who thought of taking a chicken oyster and serving it like a real oyster. That seems obvious. What is problematic is that Mike used a very similar recipe, the day after (approximately) it was discussed, in a competition against the guy who created it. What Mike did is legal (according to copyright laws and the show's own rules) definitely. But it's a dick move. And it's an even bigger dick move that he didn't immediately say to Paula, "You know what? I should share this win with Blais, because it really was his dish." Mike executed it well, and should get props for that. But he should have shared some of the glory (if not the money) with Blais, even if only to avoid the appearance of impropriety. But he doesn't, because he's a dick. If I had even started to soften on him this season, it's over. What an asshole.
Padma introduces their other guest judge for the Elimination Challenge: John Besh, and Blais explains that he's "the face of the modern New Orleans chef." Besh enters and explains that he belongs to a foundation that is trying to help Gulf Coast fishermen get their business back after the horrific oil spill last year. So the challenge is to cook Gulf Coast seafood for three hundred people at a fundraiser for the Gulf. Besh explains that they'll be getting some help too!
In walks the six previously eliminated cheftesants, each holding a tray of raw seafood. So each cheftestant gets to choose a protein, but they also have to (or get to) cook with the person holding that protein. Blais explains that, as a chef, he can cook whatever, so he's going to pick based on the chef. He says he's concerned about who to work with (shot of smiling Fabio) and who "might not be mentally fit right now" (shot of scowling Marcel). Blais thinks that Angelo just got eliminated, so he's got to be hurting.
Mike gets to pick first, because he won. He sees that Marcel has white shrimp, and he'd love to cook it, but he doesn't want to work with Marcel. So he chooses Tiffani and her brown shrimp. Mike gets to decide who goes , and to his credit, he chooses Blais and admits that Blais inspired his dish. That is a very loose interpretation of the word "inspired." Anyway, Blais chooses his hetero lifemate, Fabio, who has snapper. Carla takes Tre and red grouper. Tiffany really doesn't want to work with Marcel, but she really wants to make shrimp. She announces that she'll take the white shrimp. Awkward pause. Oh, and Marcel. Everyone laughs and Marcel tries to pretend like he was in on the joke, but he totally wasn't. Antonia takes "Spike and his crabs," (ha ha!) leaving Dale to take Angelo and his amberjack, which is enormous. He's basically carrying a whale around on a platter. And it looks as ridiculous as you might imagine.
Padma sets them loose to shop at Restaurant Depot and Whole Foods. They will have two and a half hours to cook in the kitchen and then another thirty minutes on site. They have fifteen minutes to plan before shopping begins. Antonia tells Spike that she wants to make crab cakes, and interviews that she and Spike have "a love/hate relationship" but that it's playful. I think that probably describes the majority of the relationships in Spike's life. Tiffani is basically telling Mike what to do, like coating the shrimp in grits, and that there are never potatoes in gumbo. Oh, how I wish he had served gumbo with potatoes to Paula Deen and John Besh. Damn you, Tiffani!
Blais and Mike are sitting to one another, not talking. In the bedroom, Antonia tells Tiffany and Carla how the dish was in Blais's notebook, and they were just talking about it this morning, and then Mike made it for the challenge. Apparently, it was a chicken oyster served on an oyster shell. Wow. That is really shitty. I mean, Mike could have made ANYTHING. He could have made fried chicken a million different ways. That is just shitty. I still don't think the show needs to intervene in any way, but Mike should be shunned. More than he already is.
The day, the cheftestants and their assistants run into the kitchen and start prepping. Dale is having a hard time with the amount of people in the kitchen, since it has doubled. Antonia wants to make a dish that will honor the seafood, so she's using a shit ton of Maker's Mark. I don't know. Maybe she wants to get everyone drunk so they don't remember the oil spill? Carla instructs Tre how to prep the collard greens, and interviews that he buys collard greens in a can, so she doesn't trust him with them at all. I wouldn't even buy collard greens in a can and I am as far from Southern as you can get. Well, not really. My grandmother's family is from South Carolina, but none of them cook.
Mike is running around heckling everyone. Antonia doesn't know why he would do that. Um, because he's feeling defensive because he knows he shouldn't have won the Quickfire? So he's deflecting by turning it on everyone else? Antonia thinks it might be because Tiffani is basically creating Mike's dish for him, so he doesn't have enough to do. Also valid.
So Antonia and Spike are getting along, and Mike and Tiffani are getting along. Tiffany and Marcel on the other hand. Dot dot dot. Marcel keeps telling Tiffany that she should keep some of the shrimp heads and cook them in the sauce to extract flavor. Tiffany kind of ignores him, so he keeps saying it. And keeps saying it. Over and over. Oh my GOD! I think he's right, culinarily speaking, but SHUT UP. Tiffany finally shuts him down and says that she's more worried about getting all of the ingredients prepped at this point. Dale interviews that, if anyone can put Marcel in his place, it's Tiffany. I do get the sense that Tiffany doesn't suffer fools. And good for her.
It's time to pack up and it is insanity in that kitchen. People are running everywhere. Someone left the liquid nitrogen open, so that is spilling out in great clouds of freeze. The racks are filled, and the cheftestants leave, and the aftermath is not pretty. I guess they don't have to clean up after themselves? That's kind of bullshit.
The cheftestants all arrive at the ballroom and have thirty minutes to prep before service. Dale is worried, because he feels like it's a lot of people for which to cook, and there's a lot he should have gotten done in their home kitchen, and he didn't. Blais knows he's taking a risk putting pulled pork and seafood on one plate, and he hopes the judges get where he's coming from. Mars? Isn't that usually where he's coming from? Carla was planning to make cornbread, but she can't get it to work, so she's not serving it. But she knows that her dish won't be quite up to par as a result, and she won't be redeemed.
The guests arrive, and it's time for service. Mike thinks he and Tiffani are doing well, even though they're the first table. Blais serves his grits, but calls it polenta, because he tells the guests that Fabio is Italian and only knows how to make polenta. I don't think that's a joke that will fly outside of chef circles. The judges arrive, and Besh explains to some others what his charity was been doing. They're paying mortgage bills and utility bills for the fishermen until their business rebounds. It sounds like a great charity that is really getting in there and helping out.
Time for service! First up is Mike, who worked with Tiffani to create grit-crusted Gulf shrimp, sour cream and chive potatoes with pork and lobster sauce. Besh thinks Mike hit the nail on the head, and Colicchio adds that the flavors are all there, and really clean. I'm interested in how much Mike did and how much Tiffani did. Mike seems like the type who would not even be ashamed that he didn't do much work, because if Tiffani was willing to do it, why should he bother?
Blais and Fabio are butting heads over something. Who knows what? But the end result is that they don't see the judges approach the table. Oops. Anyway, they eventually serve crispy Gulf snapper with pulled pork and citrus grits. Besh is surprised that the fish and meat worked together, and Colicchio likes that it's not really aggressively seasoned. Padma adds that it's pretty light.
I don't know what is going on with Dale and Angelo, but it's not good. They're not managing their output well, and so they have to actually suspend service for a while and regroup. Dale is reworking on the sauce, thickening it, adding more vegetables, etc. And if he's basically redoing the dish on the fly during the event - that's not good. Angelo tries to calm him down. Let's restate that. ANGELO is trying to calm him down. ANGELO. World class spaz. Oh, Dale.
Meanwhile, Tiffany runs out of her red pepper honey glaze, so she asks Marcel to whip up another batch so that she can concentrate on service. And then she starts serving Marcel's version without tasting it. Oh, dear. Serving without tasting never ends well for anyone.
Another person who is overwhelmed by service is Carla, who notes that the people just keep coming and keep coming. And then they judges are there! Carla explains that she worked with Tre to make fried grouper with collard greens and chow-chow pico. Paula doesn't like the collard greens, and Colicchio thinks there's too much hot sauce on the fish and Besh thinks the seasoning is off. Carla interviews that guests are coming back and saying that her dish was not their favorite. Oof.
Tiffany worked with Marcel, and they made honey-glazed shrimp, grits with jalapeno and cheese, and shellfish sauce. Besh thinks the glaze is okay, but it overpowers the flavor of the shrimp. Paula actually thinks the glaze is too sweet. Colicchio thought the shrimp was overcooked AND he didn't like the glaze. That doesn't sound good.
Dale tells the judges that he worked with Angelo to make amberjack stew with andouille sausage and potatoes with a Creole mustard crouton. Padma immediately notices that the potato is undercooked. Colicchio and Besh think the crouton has too much mustard and it completely overpowers the rest of the dish.
Antonia worked with Spike to make a blue crab cake, corn, jalapeno and andouille relish with crab broth. Besh points out how delicate the crab is, and yet you can still taste it. Colicchio says she made "a great sauce."
The judges are done, and Paula points out that it was a lot of pressure. Besh thinks that some did well and some really didn't. The cheftestants say goodbye to their sous chefs. Even Tiffany hugs Marcel. Fabio is still assuring Blais that his food was great and he doesn't need to worry. Carla is worried that she'll be sent home because she only made that dish due to pride and didn't cook from her heart.
Weird interstitial. Antonia sent Spike out to eavesdrop on the judges, but instead he flirted with ladies and broke a wine glass.
In the Stew Room, the cheftestants all agree that it was crazy. Carla and Tiffany are both bummed that they might go home on a Southern food challenge. Carla laments that her food wasn't fancy, and Tiffany says it doesn't matter if it had flavor. Padma breaks up the pity party by coming in and asking to see Blais, Antonia, and Mike.
Those three go out and face the judges. Padma tells them that they are the top three, and they are intensely relieved. Besh tells Blais that he would never think to marry seafood and pulled pork, and it was awesome. Mike talks about how he made his food and tried to give it lots of flavor. Paula Deen loves how he coated the shrimp with grits and Mike just nods like, "Yes, that was a genius move on my part," except for where it was Tiffani's idea. Food idea stealer. Besh tells Antonia that her dish had great balance, and the addition of sausage made it really special. So who is the winner? Besh says it was all wonderful, but the winning dish was the most balanced. Paula announces that the winner is Blais, who feels honored to be recognized by amazing Southern chefs. Padma tells him that he won a trip to the Barbados and money for airfare. Blais says he's going to invite Fabio to go with him and his family. Because he knows how to thank someone who contributed to your win. MIKE.
Back in the Stew Room, the top three have to send the bottom three out for judging. After the bottom three leave, Antonia tells Mike not to burp or fart on her, or flick a booger on her. Look, I love gross-out humor as much as the emotionally-stunted gal, but that is just gross. Especially because then Mike does burp, and he is a gross belcher. I like a nice clean belch. Loud and clear. He has one of those forced belches that is like millimeters away from a burp. Gross.
Dale, Carla, and Tiffany arrive in front of the judges. Tiffany says that Marcel cooked the shrimp and helped her out. Besh tells her that they were slightly overcooked, and he knows that she didn't cook them. Tiffany takes responsibility and says that regardless, it was her dish. Paula was excited to see that the heads remained on the shrimp, but the sweetness of the glaze confused the dish.
Moving on to Dale -- let's hear how he sucked, shall we? Colicchio says there were problems with raw potatoes. Dale knew, and explains that they were cooking the soup in batches, and the judges got a bad batch. Colicchio wonders why he didn't ask the judges to wait, and Dale says that he was so frazzled at that point that he didn't know what to do. Colicchio brings up the mustardy crouton and Besh says there were too many flavors competing, and you couldn't taste the amberjack. Dale just agrees.
Carla says she wanted to redo the fish because she failed earlier, and she felt a lot of pressure because everyone expected her to ace this challenge. Colicchio didn't understand why she doused such a beautiful fish in hot sauce and mustard. Paula thought none of the dish made any sense or complemented the other parts. Carla just says, "I get it." She does? Then why did she do it?
Back in the Stew Room, Blais says that Marcel was shit-talking Tiffany when she wasn't around, and saying that her dish was bland and he had a better idea that she didn't use. Mike laughs and says, "Of course he had a better idea." I'm glad that Marcel didn't get a ton of attention in this episode. I'm kind of surprised he came back at all. He seemed pretty bitter when he left. Anyway, the losers return to the Stew Room. Tiffany explains that she made a glaze and she explained to Marcel how to do it, but either she didn't tell him to dilute it, or she did and he just didn't do it. Either way, Tiffany knows that she is ultimately responsible.
The judges deliberate, starting with Dale. Paula says that she likes her potatoes done. How dare she? She adds that the fish was supposed to be the star and you couldn't taste it at all. Colicchio says he only tasted mustard and sausage, and it was like eating a hot dog. Moving on to Carla, Colicchio and Besh are both astounded that Carla took a beautiful grouper and masked the flavor with hot sauce and mustard. What is with mustard and seafood? That's not a flavor combination I normally eat. As for Tiffany, Colicchio wondered why there was so much sweet flavor on the shrimp. But they do have a decision, and we're about to hear it.
The three losers come out to learn who is going home. Colicchio gives his usual speech, starting with the fact that they were supposed to honor the fish, and they didn't. Dale buried the amberjack under a lot of spices. Tiffany overcooked her shrimp and put on a too-sweet glaze. Carla buried her grouper in hot sauce and mustard. So whose dish was the worst? It's...Dale. Holy shit. I really thought it would be Tiffany, and maybe Carla on the outside. Dale has been on a hot streak. In his exit interview, Dale actually cries. I am really proud of how Dale improved since he was on the first time. He even says that he didn't like himself very much the first time he was on, and he took it out on other people, but he knows he's a better person and a better chef now. And I know he did a pop-up version of his bodega concept recently. Good for him. Dale went from one of my least favorites to one of my favorites, and I really respect his abilities as a chef. And I'm mad that he went home before stupid, unoriginal Mike. Boo.