By Kim
Quickfire: Create a dish using rattlesnake, and it's judged by Johnny Hernandez, local restaurant owner. Dakota wins with beer-battered tempura rattlesnake and a zucchini-almond gazpacho and gets immunity. Beverly and Sarah are also named as having good dishes.
The cheftestants are split up into teams Pink and Green and have to cook for a young girl's quinceanera. Someone from the losing team will go home.
The Pink Team is Lindsay, Keith, Whitney, Chris Hollywood, Sarah, Nyesha, Ty-Lor. Keith makes the big mistake of buying pre-cooked shrimp (though no one argues with him in the store), which means that Lindsay can't do her ceviche, since the whole point of that dish is to let the acids in the citrus cook the shrimp. Lindsay and Sarah seem to take over the boss roles, and some of the others (Keith) aren't really happy about it.
The Green Team is Chris Moto, Richie, Paul, Grayson, Edward, Beverly, and Chuy. Chuy is the token Mexican (by his own admission) so he tastes everything and adjusts to his palate, since presumably most of the party guests will also be Mexican.
The judges are Padma, Tom, Hugh, and Johnny Hernandez.
Pink Team Food:
Ty-Lor: fire roasted summer fritter with avocado mousse, which Hugh dismisses as a hush puppy.
Keith and Lindsay: pork tenderloin huarache with pineapple salsa, and while the flavors are good, the judges found it difficult to eat due to presentation.
Nyesha: tilapia ceviche with crispy plantain chips and spiced popcorn. The judges like the flavors but not the texture of the fish.
Chris Hollywood: Choclo con chile, which is the judges' favorite.
Keith: chicken enchilada with salsa verde, and for some unknown reason he used a flour tortilla instead of a corn tortilla, although his flavors are good.
Ty-Lor: carne asada with pinto beans gets positive remarks.
Sarah and Lindsay: cochinita pibil, which doesn't get high marks from the judges, and is judged even worse for using store-bought tortillas.
Dakota: strawberry and pineapple layer cake, which has too much frosting.
Green Team Food:
Richie: tapioca chicharron with pork carnitas, which tasted authentic but wasn't crispy enough.
Paul: shrimp yuzu ceviche with corn salsa and yucca chips, which was Tom's favorite out of all the appetizers.
Edward: tomatillo gazpacho with watermelon, jicama, and pork rinds, which Hugh says was great.
Chris Moto: green chile, mushroom, and Oaxaca cheese empanadas and the judges like his seasoning and his dough.
Chuy: braised goat birria, cabbage, red peanut salsa and handmade queso fresco which the judges like, except for the stewed cabbage he added.
Beverly: beef short rib asada with pina kimchi, which the judges like.
Grayson: chicken in ancho pepita mole with pickled red onion, crema, and lime which gets the worst comments, because the sauce isn't quite right.
Heather: vanilla tres leches cake, which is all lopsided and sloppy but tastes good.
The Green Team wins. From the Pink Team, the judges ask to see Ty, Sarah, Lindsay, and Keith, who made the least favorite dishes. It comes out immediately that Keith bought the pre-cooked shrimp, and that Ty had to throw together the fritter appetizer to replace Lindsay's shrimp. The judges hated the execution on the fritter, and Ty admits that was his failure. The big problem with Sarah and Lindsay's dish was the store-bought tortilla. The judges wonder why Keith used flour tortillas for his enchilada, and Keith claims that is how he's always had them in his part of the country. He and Sarah get into it because she claims he should have used corn but she never spoke up about that during prep.
Ultimately, they eliminate Keith because even if he had used a corn tortilla for his enchilada, it was still soggy and not well-done. Aw. I liked that dude.
Finally, the play-in round is over and the real competition can begin. The play-in round was a good idea in terms of getting rid of some of the obvious dead weight; chefs that may have done good audition tapes but couldn't hack it in the time-pressured environment of the show. At least now we don't have to waste that first few rounds knowing who is obviously going home because they didn't plate their food or whatever. That said, I don't know that it needed to be two weeks. It wasn't enough time to get to know everyone anyway, so they might as well have zipped through it in one week and not even try to let us get to know anyone. That's my take, but when I'm not recapping a show, it always takes me like half the season to even start remembering people's names, so maybe I'm off track.
The cheftestants are living in their house in San Antonio, which looks really beautiful and pleasant. I've been to Dallas and Austin, but that's it for me and Texas, and I'd like to try San Antonio sometime. Anyway, enough of my travel career. Beverly has printed out a sheet of paper that says, "Congratulations Beverly Kim Clark!!!!! You have won Top Chef Season 9 and $125,000!!!!!" Even if I believed in that crap, she gets points deducted for excessive exclamation points. When I was trying to get pregnant, my doctor was all into vision boards and positive thinking and visualization. I wanted to get knocked up just so I didn't have to talk about it anymore. I also wanted to ask him if his vision board is what got him his amazing lake house and new boat, but I thought that would be crass, so I kept it to myself. Anyway, Beverly is already bugging me for that reason alone.
Keith is wearing shades indoors this morning, which is interesting. In case you forgot, Keith is an ex-con, so that's his storyline. Chris Moto (who's actually named Chris Jones but there are two guys named Chris and it's easier for me to remember Chris Moto) says that he's happy to have his buddy Richie Moto there with him, because he's realizing that his competition is really impressive.
Time for the Quickfire! The cheftestants enter the kitchen and find Padma and some dude standing to a giant aquarium full of snakes. No, thank you. There is also a small wooden box at each of their stations. And then a snake pops out! Not really, but they should have done at least one of them with the fake snakes in a can thing. Maybe at Beverly's station. Padma congratulates them for making it on the show, and Grayson interviews that she was the last person to make it past the bubble round, so winning the first Quickfire would redeem her, she feels.
Padma gives them the challenge: create a dish using rattlesnake. Dakota interviews that she has a major fear of snakes. Padma introduces their guest judge, local chef Johnny Hernandez, and Sarah explains via interview that he's known for cooking game meats. Johnny tells them that rattlesnake meat is delicate, and can take spices, but needs a gentle touch. That sounds like someone's Match.com profile. Padma tells them that their ingredient is in the boxes in front of them, like the show would take on the insurance liability of letting them handle live rattlesnakes. Padma makes a two-year-old joke by saying that she wants to see some motherfucking snakes on some motherfucking plates. I guess you can't let that opportunity pass by, even if it is old.
Time starts and everyone cautiously flips up the lids on their boxes to find...a snake fillet. Not live snakes, duh. No fake snakes popping out either, to my disappointment. Everyone rushes around gathering cookware and ingredients. Richie tries to fillet his snake but he's just massacring it. Sarah tries to give him some advice, and then interviews that she knows Richie from Chicago, and his style is whimsical, while her is just really clean and simple. Dakota still hates snakes, but she's decided to make a fritter. She explains that she's cooked weird stuff before, like barracuda, but never rattlesnake.
Chuy (the one whose mom used to cook squirrel and bunnies) is familiar with snake cookery, so he's not worried. Paul is from Texas, so he wants to have a good showing. Is there anyone who's like, "I don't really care how I do in this Quickfire because I have nothing to prove." I know we're still getting to know everyone, but these talking head segments do get a little repetitive. Beverly is worried that her rattlesnake is too chewy. She should have printed up a sign about it before she started cooking: "Delicious rattlesnake can be chewy!!!!!!" Chris Moto hopes that he and Richie will end up being first and second in the competition. They're bugging me already.
Time is up! Padma either has a giant ice pack taped to her shoulder under her shirt or that's some sort of fashion statement? I don't get it. Here are the dishes: Sarah made flash-fried rattlesnake in brown butter sauce. Beverly made rattlesnake nigiri with Thai basil aoli. Is she only going to cook Asian style food? Just asking. Chris Hollywood made rattlesnake Nicoise with olive oil pudding and olive panko. Olive oil pudding sounds disgusting. I don't want any oil in my pudding, thanks. Chris Moto made cumin-breaded rattlesnake with bacon. Of course he used bacon. Aren't we done with bacon now? Except for, like, breakfast time and possibly on top of my cheeseburger? He also has on regular glasses, then a bandanna tied around his floppy hair, and then sunglasses in his hair. Please eliminate one of those things.
Paul made BBQ rattlesnake with peaches, fried peanuts, and southeast Asian spices. I don't know about the peaches and BBQ but I guess it could work. Dakota made beer-battered tempura rattlesnake. Look, you put just about anything in a tempura batter and deep fry it, it's going to taste good. At least she added zucchini almond gazpacho, so there was some finesse to it. Keith made sweet corn rattlesnake griddle cake and beer-battered rattlesnake crudite. His dipping sauce is a tequila poblano queso fondue. In other words, cheese sauce with hot peppers. Padma really likes it. Nyesha made rattlesnake braised with tequila, citrus, and jalapeno.
Whew! Lots more to get through. Chuy made adobo-seasoned rattlesnake with pasilla balsamic BBQ sauce. It kind of looks like a steak. Richie made grilled jerk-seasoned rattlesnake with roasted corn. Oh, wait. That's it? I forgot that during the Quickfire, they don't always show everyone's dishes in this early round. Frankly, I'm not sure why they showed as many as they did.
Time for judging! Johnny, what did you think? He lays out his least favorites first. Paul had good color and technique, but the rattlesnake was lost in the dish. Richie's citrus flavors were too strong and he couldn't taste the rattlesnake. Nyesha overcooked the rattlesnake. And the favorites were: Beverly, who made an elegant dish and the rattlesnake was cooked well (so chewy was okay!), Dakota, whose dish was a good nod to Texas, and Sarah, whose dish was executed well and she showcased the rattlesnake well. And the winner of five grand and immunity is... Dakota! Aw, if only Beverly had put seven to ten more exclamation points in her sign!
Dakota doesn't have much time to bask in her victory as it's immediately time for the Elimination Challenge! The cheftestants draw knives that are either pink or green, and this divides them into two teams. Padma says they will be cooking for a very important event tomorrow, and there will be a winning team and a losing team. Someone from the losing team will go home. Shit just got REAL! Not really. It got real for these people in the play-in round, probably.
Padma introduces them to their client: a young girl named Blanca Flores. After letting them puzzle it out for a moment, Padma explains that tomorrow is Blanca's quinceanera. Chuy, resident Mexican, knows exactly what that is: a party for a fifteen-year-old girl that symbolizes her entrance into adulthood. Johnny and Padma explain that the judges and over a hundred guests will be expecting elegant Mexican cuisine, and that should include "a fabulous cake." They have thirty minutes to meet with Blanca and plan their menus.
Blanca meets with the Green Team (Chris Moto, Richie, Paul, Grayson, Edward, Beverly, and Chuy) first. Chuy ascertains that the food should not be incredibly spicy, but it should have the flavor of chile. Paul asks if she likes ceviche (she does) and Edward asks if she likes boys. Huh? That seemed out of left field. All I can guess is that everyone was rapid fire asking her if she liked this or that and he decided to break things up a little. Michelle asks if tres leches cake is her favorite, and Blanca says it is. We find out via an interview that Michelle started out as a pastry chef, so she's like a secret weapon for their team. Of course, we don't know if she was a GOOD pastry chef. Blanca adds that she wants goat, and Chuy is psyched because that's his best dish. His grandfather taught him to slaughter and cook goat. Did he grow up in 1880? Is he a time traveler?
Blanca moves over to meet with the Pink team (Lindsay, Keith, Whitney, Chris Hollywood, Sarah, Nyesha, Ty-Lor). Blanca tells Lindsay that her favorite Mexican dish is conchinita pibil. Lindsay interviews that she lived in Mexico for three years when she went with Michelle Bernstein to open a restaurant, and conchinita pibil was the first dish she fell in love with. So that's awesome for her, because she obviously knows how to cook it really well. Right? Nyesha asks about family dishes, and Blanca tells her about cabbage leaves with mincemeat inside and a consommé. Is that all one dish? Because that sounds weird. Like are the cabbage leaves with mincemeat inside the soup like a ravioli or something? Dunno.
Both teams confer briefly about what they will cook. Michelle seems to be taking the lead on the Green Team and Lindsey is doing it for Pink. They head to the store.
The teams split up with half going to Whole Foods and half going to a local Mexican market. Team Green seems to be communicating well and gathering ingredients quickly. Team Pink is in trouble because Lindsay tells us that they didn't really have a plan before hitting the store. Lindsay (at Whole Foods) and Nyesha (at the Mexican market) talk over the phone to determine which place has the better price for shrimp. The Mexican market is a dollar cheaper per pound, so Lindsay tells Nyesha to get it there, but make sure it's nice. At the seafood/meat counter, everyone is kind of talking amongst themselves and Keith says to the group that the shrimp is going to be cooked. Nyesha and Chris Hollywood both seem to think that's okay, although they might both be distracted with getting their own food too. Ty-Lor is standing there; even if he didn't hear Keith ask the question, he saw the shrimp in the shopping cart so he's on the hook too. Cooked shrimp is a horrible idea. How many times have people gone home on this show for food that wasn't cooked properly? And when you get the food pre-cooked, first you don't get to show your culinary expertise, and second, you are ceding control of how the shrimp is cooked. MAYBE, if you were mincing it up really small and making a paste or something out of it, I could see pre-cooked. But shrimp cooks in minutes so it's not like they will save a ton of time by using it either. It's a bad, bad idea and everyone who agreed to it is dumb or evil.
Dakota is making the cake for the Pink team, and she plans to use the recipe from a box (but not a mix presumably, since we see her buying flour). She has immunity so they all probably figured it was safest to stick her with the cake in case it's terrible. Beverly runs up to the meat counter and starts yelling about how her dish is the most important dish there and she knows everyone else has important things to do too but they can suck it. She doesn't say that last part, but that was really obnoxious. Although maybe she was being ignored and we just saw her last gasp. I don't know. I need a sign to explain it. With lots of exclamation points. After agreeing to the cooked shrimp, Ty-Lor also picks up some store-bought tortillas. They weren't even made fresh in the store; they're just packaged tortillas like you'd buy at any supermarket. Lindsay doesn't even blink when he says he's going to buy them. Shouldn't she know how to make a tortilla? Given her work with Michelle Bernstein? The shopping is done and everyone leaves their respective stores.
And it's back to the kitchen to start prep. The Pink Team finally figures out who's making what, and they are making a LOT of different dishes. Sarah and Lindsay, who are suddenly BFFs, head to the coolers to check out the shrimp, and discover that they are pre-cooked. Lindsay is really upset, and Sarah asks Chris Hollywood why they bought them pre-cooked. He totally throws Keith under the bus. Asshole. Sarah keeps asking Chris Hollywood what happened, and Chris says that Keith wouldn't let anyone else have a say in the shrimp, which is totally not what we saw happen. Now it could be editing, but it also could be that Chris Hollywood is an asshole. The season will show which is the case.
Lindsay finally goes to the source and asks Keith what he was thinking and Keith says that he didn't know how she was going to use the shrimp so he didn't think it would be a problem. That's a terrible excuse. I seriously cannot imagine a scenario where a professional chef would use pre-cooked shrimp in a cooking competition. Keith interviews that his decision might have been shaky, but one of the other chefs standing there should have said something. Lindsay and Sarah are being all mean girls, conferring in the corner and making snarky remarks, and now Keith feels like an asshole. Yes, he made a mistake but it wasn't done with malicious intent and Lindsay and Sarah are now on my list of assholes.
As time winds down, the Green Team brings their food to Chuy so that he can sample the sauces and seasoning and make sure it tastes authentically Mexican. As Tom pointed out in his blog, Mexico is a big country and has a huge variety of flavor palettes throughout. That said, it makes sense to have your team's food all taste similar, so you're not having one dish that doesn't fit with the others. Michelle is really concerned about finishing her cake; unlike Dakota on the other team, she doesn't have immunity. Time for prep is up and everyone heads home for the day.
Team Pink meets back at the house to talk about their service and execution. Keith has an idea about serving something, and Sarah just kind of goes, "Yeah, yeah." Keith says that it's supposed to be a team, so he's looking for feedback on his idea, not just someone to rubber stamp it now and then let him take the fall for it later. Keith seems really down in the dumps after the shrimp-saster today.
The day, the cheftestants rush into the kitchen at the party hall or restaurant or wherever they are, ready to cook. Green Team seems on point; they each know what they need to do and start doing it. Pink Team still has some residual tension from yesterday. Lindsay and Keith discuss how the pork should be sliced, and then Lindsay immediately runs over and tells Sarah what they're doing and that Keith screwed it up. Look, I get feeling like you're the most competent one on the team; I've certainly had that experience, where you feel like you're the only one who knows what to do. But as I've gotten older, I've realized that I'm usually wrong about that, and I need to stop being a control freak and let other people handle it, and it usually turns out fine. Lindsay and Sarah seem like control freaks, and they've found one another, and they're feeding off one another, and it's not good. It's not good because it's not fair to Keith, for one, but also the rest of the team is picking up on the tension (or so Nyesha says).
As time winds down, Michelle is trying to assemble her three-tiered cake, but it's really hot in the kitchen and presumably the frosting is melting and her cake starts leaning dangerously to one side. She pounds in some dowels to try to keep it upright. Everyone pitches in on Team Green to get their plates ready, and the chefs who are serving on the line take their places as the guests and judges begin to arrive.
Eighty-five shots of atmosphere later, Blanca is introduced and a mariachi band plays her in. Lindsay tells Sarah that she hopes the tortillas don't taste artificial. Maybe taste them and see? Blanca greets the judges and introduces her parents, and then says she's really looking forward to the food.
We start with passed appetizers. For the Pink Team, Ty-Lor made fire roasted summer fritter with avocado mousse. Blanca thinks the avocado doesn't add anything, and Tom adds that it's pretty dry. Hugh caps it off by calling it a hush puppy. Yeah, I'm obviously not from the South but I've never understood the glamour of the hush puppy. They are pretty bland. Keith and Lindsay made pork tenderloin huarache with pineapple salsa. The judges like the pork flavor, but Padma notes that, when she took a bite, the entire piece of pork was dragged into her mouth. So the pork WAS either too thick or not tender enough. Johnny notes that the team is struggling with both execution and presentation. Not good.
For the Green Team, Richie made tapioca chicharron with pork carnitas. Blanca notes that it's crispy but soggy in the middle, and the judges agree. Her family members, however, find it to be very authentic. Paul made shrimp yuzu ceviche with corn salsa and yucca chips, which Tom thinks is the best of all the appetizers they had, and had the best flavors.
Now it's time for the judges to hit the buffet line, but first we see some shots of people congratulating Blanca on both the occasion and how good the food looks. One teen boy has two loaded plates and can't wait to dig in. Neither can Blanca. I love that they found a teenaged girl who is cute and happy and loves to eat. The judges head for the Pink Team's line first. Nyesha made tilapia ceviche with crispy plantain chips and spiced popcorn. Tom looks a bit confused that she used tilapia. That does seem like an odd fish to use in ceviche; it's not like it has much flavor. Chris Hollywood made choclo con chile. Keith made chicken enchiladas with salsa verde. Sarah hands out the tortillas for Ty-Lor's dish, and admits to Padma that they are store-bought. Ty-Lor's dish is carne asada with pinto beans. And finally (at least up until dessert), Sarah and Lindsay made cochinita pibil.
The judges start with Nyesha's ceviche; Tom likes the flavors but finds the texture to be a little mealy. They move on to Keith's enchilada, and Hugh immediately points out that it was a mistake for Keith to use a flour tortilla, because it absorbed all the sauce and got doughy. Good point - enchiladas are one of the tortilla-based foods that you bake in sauce, and a flour tortilla would just get mushy. Tom liked the flavors, but Hugh thinks that Keith really made a burrito. Well, a wet burrito, but again even then, you usually add the sauce after baking (unless you like your burritos mushy). The judges don't like the texture of Sarah and Lindsay's dish, with Johnny wondering what cut of meat they even used. Tom has a bigger problem; he can't understand why they used store-bought tortillas, because they taste store-bought. Padma and Tom both like Ty-Lor's carne asada (although they don't seem to ding him for the store-bought tortillas). But their favorite is Chris Hollywood's corn dish.
Moving on to the Green Team. Blanca goes first and seems delighted with all the food. The judges arrive and Edward serves his tomatillo gazpacho with watermelon, jicama, and pork rinds. up is Chris Moto who made green chile, mushroom, and Oaxaca cheese empanadas. Chuy the Token Mexican made braised goat birria, cabbage, red peanut salsa and handmade queso fresco. Beverly made what she calls a Korean-Mexican fusion of beef short rib asada with pina kimchi. Tom notes that it sounds like a food truck, which I think is a compliment? Grayson made chicken in ancho pepita mole with pickled red onion, crema, and lime. The judges made excited noises, so they like the sound and smell of her dish, I guess, even though she also uses store-bought tortillas.
Tom likes Chris's empanadas, especially the dough, which was nice and light. Hugh enjoyed the flavors in Edward's gazpacho, although the pork rinds on top didn't seem necessary. Tom likes Chuy's goat, but no one can figure out why he added the cabbage. Well, as Chuy said, Blanca requested it. Well, she actually requested her grandmother's dish, and no one said Chuy had to make it, so I guess the judges are right. If he couldn't execute, he should have skipped it. The judges like Beverly's dish, and especially appreciate that they griddled the tortilla. Tom is disappointed in Grayson's dish, especially the mole, which they feel has too much cinnamon. Blanca agrees.
Overall, Tom thinks that everyone did a nice job, but Padma points out that they haven't had the cake yet. Dakota feels like she really listened to what Blanca asked for, and has created a colorful cake with strawberry and pineapple flavors. Michelle's cake is all kinds of lopsided and looks like a melted marshmallow. Everyone jokes about how it's leaning, and then there's a shot of the judges staring at it, puzzled and a little disturbed. Eh, as long as it tastes good, who cares?
After Blanca blows out candles on each cake, it's time for tasting. First they try Dakota's strawberry and pineapple layer cake. Blanca likes the filling but thinks it has too much frosting. Yes, it does. There's like an inch of hot pink frosting on that thing. Michelle made vanilla tres leches cake, which Blanca likes better, even if it was sloppy. Padma wishes Blanca a happy birthday, and then Blanca does a traditional dance with her dad. Beverly is crying. She's kind of a mess, isn't she? Maybe she should make a sign about making her dad proud or something.
Tom gathers everyone together and says that both teams did some good dishes, but one team pushed it a little further and made more authentic dishes. And that was the Green Team. They celebrate, and then Padma tells the Pink Team they'll see them at judges' table. Keith is anxious about going in front of the judges because he knows the shrimp thing will come up. As it should.
As they wait in the Stew Room, the cheftestants on the Pink Team talk about what's going to go down. Sarah asks if anyone didn't do as much work as the others, and without naming names, Keith says that he knows what she's thinking but they all agreed on what each person was going to do, and each person did his or her job. Okay, here's what I don't get: there is a cheftestant named Whitney on the Pink Team. And as far as I can tell, she didn't make a dish. Perhaps she helped with another dish, but when they were serving, her name never came up. What did she do? I find this very odd. I forgot she was even on the show until she showed up in a shot of the Pink Team as Padma told them they were headed to Judges' Table. So maybe that's who they were talking about? Sarah interviews that she's worried, since she took a leadership role, that she's going down with the ship.
Sarah tells Keith that she doesn't know how they ended up with pre-cooked shrimp, and Keith tells her to be careful about making excuses. Padma walks in and asks to see Ty-Lor, Sarah, Lindsay, and Keith. Once they arrive in front of the judges, Padma tells them that they made the least favorite dishes today. Tom tells them that they didn't do a bad job, but the other team did better. Padma adds that the cake on the Green Team was also better, but Dakota has immunity or else she would be there with them.
Padma asks Sarah to talk about what went wrong, and Sarah says that they didn't use their thirty-minute meal planning wisely, and Lindsay adds that no one stepped up to be the leader, so they should have assigned someone at that point. Hugh thinks that's a load of crap, as they've all worked in restaurants and are used to leading. Sarah starts listing off the dishes everyone planned to do, including Lindsay's shrimp cocktail. Oh, that was a devious way to get that information out there; I don't doubt for a minute that she knew exactly what she was doing. Tom points out that they didn't see any shrimp cocktail and Sarah says Lindsay decided against it because of the pre-cooked shrimp. Hugh is like, "What fool bought that?" Keith steps up and says he was thinking about price and saving time and made a mistake. Tom asks if he was shopping alone, and Keith says that he had a team with him. Hugh still thinks it was a dumb thing to do.
Tom wants to know what Lindsay did when she realized she couldn't make the shrimp and it turns out that she didn't actually do anything; Ty-Lor made his fritter instead. Johnny points out that the fritter was really bland and Ty tries to say that it was a last-minute decision and he only had thirty minutes to make it. Really? Because Lindsay decided not to make the shrimp on the first day, so didn't he have longer than that? Tom points out that the short lead-time isn't what made the fritter dry, and Ty agrees.
Padma wants to talk about the conchinita pibil. Sarah and Lindsay talk about which components they each made, but Hugh addresses the real problems of the dish, which were the store-bought tortillas. Padma moves on to address Keith's enchiladas. Keith claims that he's never had corn tortillas with an enchilada, always flour. Sarah speaks up and says that she grew up in Texas and always used corn tortillas. Padma wonders why she didn't speak up and Sarah claims that she didn't want to be bossy. Okay, but if you see someone doing something that is neither authentic nor upscale, you could just say, "Hey, I've always had corn tortillas in my enchiladas and I think that's what the judges will expect. Have you considered it?" Then Keith is free to say he wants to use flour or not, and you move on. It's not like she can only say, "Use corn or else!" Her point is moot. Keith tells her that she loves to drive the bus and hit people, which may not be fair, but I think Keith is pretty frustrated with Sarah and Lindsay's mean girl bullshit. Keith tells the judges that he knows it's an individual competition but they were a team. Sarah defends herself by saying that Keith wasn't talking to anyone during prep. Well, we know that's not true; we saw him talking to Lindsay about the pork, for example. Keith confirms to Tom that if Sarah or Lindsay had suggested corn tortillas, he would have used them. Well, that's easy to say now.
Back in the Stew Room, the bottom four report that the judges' critiques were harsh (not really) and that they said that if Dakota didn't have immunity, she'd be in there for her cake. Keith once again mentions that no one told him about the flour tortillas. He has a point in that it was a team challenge, but he shouldn't have to rely on other people to save his dish either. It would have been nice of someone to mention it to him, but that doesn't excuse his mistake. Same with the shrimp, for that matter. Someone should have told him not to buy it, but ultimately it's his own fault because he should have known better.
Back to the judges. Padma thinks the whole thing was a mess and each of them deserves to go home for one reason or another. Tom runs down the list of credentials each has, which are impressive, noting that not one of them is a bad chef. After listening to them bicker, Padma is surprised they put out any food at all. The judges are annoyed that they spent so much time floundering because they could have put that time into making better food.
The judges discuss Keith's enchilada. Johnny points out a few ways he could have made it more refined, but serving it sliced and putting something else on top besides melted cheese. It's true - his enchilada looks like the one I get at the hole-in-the-wall Mexican place. It's good, but I don't go there looking for upscale, and I would be disappointed if that's what I got at an upscale place. Hugh raises concerns that Keith doesn't know enough to avoid pre-cooked shrimp and doesn't understand what an enchilada is - is he really Top Chef material? They weren't impressed with Lindsay and Sarah's dish, because it lacked the requisite spices and flavors, and they're really surprised that Lindsay specifically didn't nail it. And as for Ty-Lor, they're disappointed that he couldn't pull something better off, even if he did have a short time frame. It was dry, too large, and flavorless. Like Finn on Glee. The judges agree on who's going home, and call the bottom four back in.
Once the cheftestants are back, Tom tells them that they seemed scattered and suffered from lack of leadership. Sarah should have suggested corn tortillas to Keith, and her dish wasn't great. Lindsay had the most experience with Mexican food, and yet her dish tasted inauthentic. Ty had a dry fritter. Keith has to take responsibility for his soggy enchilada. So who's going home? Padma tells Keith to pack his knives and go. On first viewing, I was really sad about this, but watching the episode more closely, he definitely had to be the one to go. Although I am still curious about what happened with Whitney.
Keith talks about how he is sad to go, but he's been down before and he knows there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone in the Stew Room seems genuinely sad to see him go, and he doesn't seem to harbor any ill will towards Lindsay and Sarah. Keith's final words are that dreams do come true, so he's got a good attitude about it. What Keith doesn't know is that he's about to face off against last week's winner, Andrew, for a chance to get back in the competition. If you're dying to find out who won, check out Bravo's website; I don't want to spoil anything.