The cheftestants arrive in Alaska and face their first Quickfire: create a dish that highlights King crab. The winner is Sheldon for a take on miso soup with crab and pine-smoked asparagus. He wins some cash but no immunity.
Elimination Challenge: Create a dish using salmon and sourdough for the people of Juneau. They start out by preparing their dough; Lizzie is especially nervous because she has little experience baking in general and no experience with sourdough. The morning, they all get to go out on a boat and choose their salmon, complete with cleaning the fish. And here's what they served:
Brooke: sockeye salmon and seafood broth with mustard seed caviar and dill sourdough. The judges think the broth is tasty, and that she nailed the bread.
Sheldon: green tea and chive sourdough with smoked salmon and pea soup. Some of the judges don't like the bread, and that the salmon might be a little too smoky. They're also split on the soup.
Josh: roasted garlic sourdough soup with sockeye salmon and black olive croutons. The judges think the salmon is well-cooked and the soup is good, but they don't know if the two go together.
Lizzie: citrus and beet glazed salmon slider with poppy seed butter and pickles. Hugh points out that she has the best crust on her bread, but no one understands the glaze, which doesn't add a lot of flavor.
The locals voted on the winner, and the judges agreed: Brooke. She wins a trip to Costa Rica. And the judges decide to send Lizzie home because her salmon was underseasoned and her dish was too simple for this stage of the competition.
After Stefan's elimination, the final four lament his loss. Brooke gives him a backhanded compliment by saying she didn't realize how good-hearted and decent he was. Thanks, I guess? Sheldon can't believe how close he came to elimination. Josh reminds us that his wife is pregnant and due any day.
The boat arrives in Alaska and the cheftestants disembark. Sheldon tells us that he's going to wear a few extra pair of underwear to "keep the package warm." Now I'm thinking about Sheldon's bait and tackle, and I never wanted to think about that, ever.
The cheftestants find Padma waiting for them at a small food stand called Tracy's King Crab Shack. She is joined by Sean Brock, who's a big time Southern chef, and Josh's hero. Padma explains the Quickfire Challenge: Create a dish highlighting king crab. Sean says that his favorite dish is crab with butter, but that might be a little too simple for this challenge. They have thirty minutes, and the winner gets five grand.
Time starts and they all get busy stripping down layers of clothing and grabbing some crab. Lizzie loves that they're in this tiny shack in the shadow of this beautiful Alaskan mountain landscape, and she decides to make something rustic and filling. Brooke wants to make something delicate that highlights the buttery, briny flavors of the crab. She jokes that she won't have any crab to use in her dish because she keeps eating it. Josh wants to tip his hat to Sean's food by making succotash with, of course, bacon. Sheldon is still stinging from his near elimination, so he's trying to be creative and make something he's never done before. He's making miso soup from crab innards (ohhh...kay) and he's smoking some asparagus on pine needles. Won't that taste like a burnt Christmas tree? Josh runs into trouble because his butter sauce is breaking and he doesn't have time to fix it.
Time is up! Time to eat. Lizzie made crab frittata with cherry tomato, garlic oil and fried capers. Padma asks if she soaked the capers and Lizzie says she drained them. I don't use capers enough to know why that matters. Sheldon made King crab, Dungeness crab "miso", pine-smoked asparagus and charred corn. Sean wants to know about smoking with the pine and Sheldon says that he's seen it done before but never tried it himself. Padma says she likes the broth but it's a little thick.
Brooke made King crab, sweet corn and leek salad on toast with Dungeness crab butter. That sounds amazing. I would eat a million of those. Sean asks about the butter and Brooke says that she used the shells and meat of the Dungeness crab; Sean jokes that it's an expensive butter. Josh made butter poached King crab with succotash and bacon. Sean laughs that Josh had the balls to serve him succotash.
Sean is ready to give his impressions. He thought they did well, considering that they're cooking in a shack. The less successful dishes belonged to Lizzie, whose dish was slightly overcooked and had too many flavors overall, and Josh, whose bacon was unnecessary (thank you) and had a broken sauce. So glad that someone finally called out that you don't need to add bacon to everything. Sean liked Sheldon's dish, especially the creativity, and Brooke's dish which was easy but "flat-out delicious." And the winner is...Sheldon. That has to help with his confidence after the last elimination.
Padma moves right on to discuss the Elimination Challenge, which will highlight two of the biggest culinary attributes of Alaska. They have to create a dish using salmon and sourdough for the people of Juneau. Lizzie is a little panicked, because she doesn't make much bread, and has never really made sourdough. Padma reminds them that their diners will be really familiar with the ingredients, so the dishes had better be good and also unique.
The cheftestants head off to their new home, a beautiful bed and breakfast. As they explore, Sheldon pops out of a closet and scares the shit out of Brooke, which was hilarious. They enter the kitchen and find their sourdough starter, which is thirty years old (that's a good thing in sourdough terms). They all start baking in the bed and breakfast kitchen. Lizzie points out that there are so many things that can affect bread, and they have to mix their dough tonight and let it rise and proof overnight. They're all fascinated by how Sheldon kneads his bread. Josh is making two different breads. Lizzie is making rolls and she keeps asking everyone if she should make more dough, like anyone is going to give her an answer. Once the dough is mixed, they all have to sit around and wait for it to rise. They all just kind of sit and stare into space. I guess they've run out of things to talk about.
The morning, Sheldon plays the ukulele for everyone. I can't decide if that would be annoying or refreshing. Sheldon interviews that he started as a dishwasher and he can't believe he's nearly in the finals. Josh still hasn't heard from his wife, and she's two or three days past her due date, so obviously he has that on his mind.
Finally, the cheftestants get to take some action: they head to the docks to meet their boat and go get some salmon. They all don rain gear and wait as the salmon is hoisted out of the boat and onto the dock. They have to choose which type of salmon they want. Then they have to clean the fish right there on the docks. I don't know that I needed to see salmon innards in closeup, but thanks editors. Josh says this was the best part of his experience on the show so far. Lizzie is reminded again of her late father, because he used to take her fishing. I can't snark on her; when my mom died (and frankly still, now, many years later), everything reminds me of my mom. Lizzie gets emotional in an interview when she talks about how much her dad would have loved to see her on the show, and how much she misses him.
Now that the salmon have been procured, the cheftestants have three hours to prep and cook their food. Sheldon is using seafood broth as the base for his pea soup, even though he's never made pea soup before and it's not his style of food. That seems risky, but sometimes risks are rewarded on this show. Josh and Brooke comment on how fresh the fish is, and Josh doesn't think he's ever worked with fish this fresh. Meanwhile, Lizzie is working on a dish that combines many flavors. She thinks it will be amazing, but she's gotten in trouble before for having too many flavors in one dish so we'll see.
Tom visits the kitchen and hits up Josh first, who says his bread is in the oven. Tom asks if there's any news on the baby and Josh says his wife is dilated and having contractions, so Tom thinks the birth is imminent. Mmm, not really. I mean, it depends on how dilated and how frequent the contractions, but you can be dilated a few centimeters and having infrequent contractions for weeks before giving birth. Sheldon tells Tom he's going to make a pea soup, and Tom chuckles because that's the exact dish he said he'd make if he were in the competition.
Lizzie explains her dish to Tom, and he's happy to hear she's roasting the salmon whole. Tom wants to know if Brooke is surprised to make it this far, and Brooke says she knew she could compete. She's going to poach her salmon, and Tom wants to know why. Brooke doesn't really have a reason, and she's planning to do it to order instead of cooking it ahead of time. She doesn't have time to change her plan. They set up a lot of things in this episode that don't really come to fruition: Lizzie's anxiety about her bread, Brooke's potential salmon troubles. Sheldon is running into time constraints, but then he does just fine.
Time's up and the crowds arrive. Each cheftestant serves up a dish. Josh notes that this is the Alaskan version of a fish fry, and the setting is beautiful. There are actual bears in a nearby tree. Tom points it out to the other judges and then jokes that bears are his fanbase. It's funny because it's true.
The judges stop by Brooke's table first and Padma introduces them: Hugh Acheson, Tom Collichio, Ga
il Simmons, Sean Brock, and Emeril. Man, they all showed up for Alaska. Brooke serves sockeye salmon and seafood broth with mustard seed caviar and dill sourdough. Tom notes that Brooke's broth is really good and the mustard seeds add great flavor. Hugh agrees, but notes that they're not very appetizing to look at. Sean loves the broth too. Emeril thinks she nailed the bread, and Gail applauds the addition of dill. Sounds like Brooke might have this one in the bag.Sheldon made green tea and chive sourdough with smoked salmon and pea soup. Padma makes a sour face (no pun intended) when she tries the bread, and says that while she loves green tea and chive, she doesn't like them together. Yeah, that doesn't seem like a great combination. Emeril adds that his bread needed salt. Gail thought the salmon was cooked well but didn't like the charred flavor, and Padma agrees that it was smoky. Sean didn't like how Sheldon ground his tongs into the salmon when serving (that seems picky), but liked the soup. Hugh thought the soup was too thick and seemed like baby food. Yikes. The locals are shocked the Sheldon chose to cook the chum variety along with the sockeye, since no one eats it locally. I mean, look at the name. It sounds like what they use in Jaws to lure the shark.
Weird interstitial: Emeril tells the tale of how, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, his chef took his sourdough starter out of the fridge and kept it going while he was evacuated from the city, until they finally got back into the restaurant three months later. I hope he gave that guy a raise.
Josh made roasted garlic sourdough soup with sockeye salmon and black olive croutons. Hugh notes that the salmon is very well-cooked. Tom thinks the soup has a lot of flavor, but he's not sure how well it goes with the salmon, because it's got a strong garlic flavor. Emeril really likes the crunch of the croutons and Gail appreciates that Josh used the bread as a crouton instead of just giving them a hunk of bread on the side.
Lizzie made citrus and beet glazed salmon slider with poppy seed butter and pickles. She tells the judges that she didn't want to do soup since everyone else was. Gail likes the pickles and Hugh notes that she's the only one who got a good crust on her bread. Hugh doesn't understand the glaze, and Tom doesn't get why she didn't marinate the salmon in the glaze to give it more flavor. Emeril thinks her dish is too simple for this point in the competition. Padma's final word is that she loves the sourdough. We get it, Padma. You eat carbs. Congratulations.
The judges walk around and talk to some locals. One dude loved Brooke's bread, and another is pleased that Sheldon used chum salmon even though no one ever does that, ever. As the judges leave, someone yells out, "Bye bye Emeril, I love youuuuuuuu!" Really? EMERIL? Okay.
All four cheftestants head out to face the judges in front of a judges' table in the middle of the woods. Tom says that they all did a nice job cooking for two hundred people alone. He starts by telling Lizzie that her sourdough was great, and she showed real skill in how she created the rolls, and in how her salmon was cooked, but her salmon wasn't seasoned. Lizzie tells them all the seasoning she did. Padma asks if she tasted a slider before serving it. Lizzie says that she tasted all of the components, but Padma says that's not the same. Tom says you have to taste the completed dish, and Gail says that her roll was great, but it had a lot of bread and it overpowered the salmon. Sean thinks it was too simple.
Gail says Sheldon's dish didn't sound like his cooking, but the bread did. However, she's not sure the dish worked. Padma tells him that the locals use chum to feed the dogs, but they thought his dish was still good. That's a bit of a backhanded compliment, no? Sean wishes he'd been more careful with the smoke, because it gave the fish a bitter taste.
Moving on to Brooke, Gail says that the broth was great but her salmon was a little overcooked. Since Brooke was cooking to order (which Gail thinks was bold), that may not have been an issue for everyone. Brooke says she was flustered at the beginning and didn't hit her stride until after the judges left. Hugh says that they could tell she was flustered, which isn't good. Sean was crazy about both the bread and the broth.
Emeril tells Josh that he loves bread soup with garlic, and it was clever how he incorporated the bread. Hugh compliments the beautifully-cooked salmon, but says that the flavors got lost because the soup was overpowering. Josh thought he roasted the garlic slowly enough that it was mellow, but the judges obviously disagree. Tom says that Josh made a choice to put a ton of garlic in his soup, and then poached the salmon. Josh agrees that he didn't think enough about balancing the flavors.
Sean is ready to announce the winner, which both the judges and the locals loved, and that winner is Brooke. She wins a trip to Costa Rica AND she gets to be in the top three.
They send the cheftestants away to discuss who should go home. Josh says it's all about "who makes the less mistakes." I hope they don't count language usage because Josh makes the more mistakes there. Lizzie says she felt really rushed, and Sheldon thinks his green tea made no sense.
The judges discuss how they were really good dishes but they were all missing something. Tom thinks the cheftestants are not thinking through their dishes, and Padma points out that at this stage in the competition, the cheftestants need to be on their game. Gail agrees. Tom says that Josh's dish had balance issues, but Lizzie gave them a bland salmon sandwich. Sean says that the dish wasn't refined enough, but why is Sean suddenly such an expert on the show and when you need to do what to make the finals? Gail can't believe that Lizzie admitted to not tasting her dish, but has to give props to Lizzie for such an awesome sourdough. Padma thinks Sheldon had problems with both his salmon and his sourdough, and those two ingredients were the focus of the challenge. So who will it be?
Josh, Lizzie, and Sheldon return to face the music. Tom explains that the cheftestants were given everything to make some beautiful dishes, but they all lacked detail. Josh made great salmon, but his soup was overpowering. Lizzie's salmon wasn't seasoned. Sheldon had too much bitter, smoky flavor. So whose sin was the greatest? Padma tells Lizzie to pack her knives and go. Padma seems really, really sad to see Lizzie go. So now Brooke's the only lady left, and I think I'm rooting for her. Josh is a dick much of the time and Sheldon seems to be falling apart in this final stretch. Go Brooke!
Stop reading here if you don't want to know who won Last Chance Kitchen.
Lizzie and Kristen are tasked to create a dish using only a campfire for cooking. They both go with a fish stew, with Kristen doing an Asian cod and Lizzie going for salmon and leeks. Tom loves both dishes and specifically tells Lizzie that if she had made this dish in the Elimination Challenge, she would have won. In the end, he feels that Kristen's dish has more fully-developed flavors, and she continues on.
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