Twelve chefs remain, and this is finally a manageable amount, but just barely. Cliques have started to form, like Nina, Bene, and Travis, but with Bene eliminated, things are already falling apart. Nicholas is sick as a dog, which is one of the few things chefs can't be. A medic comes in and diagnoses Nick with Strep, telling him he shouldn't be around other people or food. Nicholas crawls under a blanket with some antibiotics.
So, now there are 11 chefs at the moment. For the Quickfire Challenge, Padma introduces jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and cook, Kermit Ruffins. The challenge is about improvisation, which has to do with jazz music. I would have thought the Reynolds Wrap challenge, where they had to work with secret ingredients that Padma's mom and Gail's mom threw in a basket for them, was about improvisation but no. Kermit Ruffins tells the chefs about grabbing frogs with a net and cooking them, true improv.
The chefs have stations featuring some of Kermit's favorite ingredients and cooking tools. The chefs will start cooking at one station, then play musical chairs to Kermit's trumpet and resume cooking at the station they land on when he stops. Musical stations, non-elimination style. Kermit says it's a lot like being in a jazz band and you have to trust your bandmates. But these chefs aren't friends, so the metaphor is weak.
The chefs dance around the stations, noticing that one of them has a microwave and they don't want it. The music stops and Shirley gets the microwave station, which also features bacon and tofu. She isn't phased, since her husband cooks everything in a microwave. Sara is at the duck station and is concerned that it takes a while to render duck. There's also chicken wings and quail and flounder for the chefs to use. Nina starts out on a French redfish dish, but won't finish it. Kermit starts playing the trumpet again and the chefs dance forward, nervously.
Travis lands at Nina's station and accuses her of going French with "all these Asian ingredients." Everything is an Asian ingredient to Travis. Some of the chefs yell across the stations to each other; Brian gets confused at the frog legs station. Louis is getting more and more anxious, wanting to finish two dishes he'll never see again now. Kermit plays, and the chefs are back at their original stations. They return to see how all the chefs have messed up their original visions. They keep it going, but Kermit picks up his trumpet again to announce it's party time.
The fourth station is a new one for everyone. Justin is upset to end up at the microwave station, when he had a good thing going before. Carlos lands at Nina and Travis's French station, calling it "very salty," and trying to fix it by adding cucumbers. This station is the final station, much to Justin's horror, as he ends up with a gross microwave salad.
Justin is up first, and he openly admits that he threw away a lot of the stuff happening. He made a cucumber salad with marinated tofu. Travis ends with an "Asian-inspired" steak and potatoes. Sara gets trout, Brian had duck and mussels with a clear direction, Patty presents some pork that Louis started and wanted to take credit for.
Nina winds up with a liver and a weird sauce. Stephanie has clams, Carlos presents the French dish from Nina and Travis. Shirley dressed up a shrimp that Patty prepped wrong. Louis offers some frog legs that went wrong. This challenge might have been "fun" but it's complete bullshit. No one should win for the dish they presented.
Kermit's least favorites are the frog legs Louis ended up with and the tofu Justin ended up with. Carlos gets credit for Nina's fish, and Brian gets Sara's duck. Patty's pork also goes over well. In the end, Brian wins for doing the most with what he found, and Sara is jealous.
Another loose metaphor presents the Elimination Challenge: just like musicians have to work together to make music, chefs must work together to make food. Yeah … anyway, the challenge is to create a "potluck-style" menu to serve at Kermit's restaurant for some of the best musicians in New Orleans. The chefs are allowed to pick their own "band members."
The blue team is Louis, Shirley, Sara and Justin. The green team is Nina, Carlos, Carrie and Stephanie. The gray team is Travis, Patty and Brian with maybe Nicholas if he isn't Strepping too badly. Travis is put out about this, of course. Kermit invites everyone out to hear some jazz and taste whatever he throws on the barbeque that night.
In the car, the teams brainstorm their menus and their ideas of whatever "potluck" means. Does it have to be cohesive? No one is sure. The gray team talks to Nick on the phone, who wonders if it's "picnic potluck" or "fancy dinner at your friend's house potluck." At least Nick seems to have a grasp on the terminology. Is the theme just … anything?
Travis is upset that he has to order food for Nick, who is telling him what he wants over the phone. Travis doesn't like helping his band members. After shopping, the chefs get ready to go out to the club. Nick gets ready to enjoy a nice game of Solitaire. He does not know that there will be people dancing with dogs at this club.
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The day, the physician comes in and tells Nick to stay hydrated but that he's good to cook. All 12 chefs return to the kitchen to figure out how they will define "potluck" alongside "menu." Sara says potlucks are comforting foods and a little indulgent. Someone should make a casserole, I guess. The blue team is going with big, bold flavors.
"Nicholas has decided to take on a lot of the prep list, which might not be the best idea but I have immunity so I'm not too worried about it," Brian says, not meaning any of that in relation to health and wellness. People are also wondering about Nick's "performance-enhancing drugs" that he got for his Strep.
The green team is making some fun, homey foods, including a microwave sponge cake. Someone points out that Nina is doing gnocchi again. Stephanie is working on artichokes, which she loves. Shirley is bossing everyone around because her voice cuts through the air the best.
The chefs take their food over to Kermit's restaurant to finish their dishes in 30 minutes. In the dining room, Kermit Ruffin is joined by a lot of big names in jazz that I would not recognize. They talk like musicians, with that frenetic excitement about specific moments, and lots of loud, active listening.
The blue team serves first, presenting Justin's hominy grits, Louis's grilled and pickled vegetables and Shirley and Sara's glazed beef. The grits are OK, with lots of butter, but the jazz musicians want even more seasoning. The pickled vegetables are good, and so is the beef. It's going well for the blue team, then all of a sudden Kermit starts playing the drums. It's only for a minute, though. What a kooky guy.
The musicians have some beer, then the gray team comes out. Brian and Travis did a fried chicken, Patty did a tomato watermelon salad, Nicholas created a barramundi fricassee, and Brian and Travis also made caramel glazed ribs. The musicians have beer, so they should like these dishes even more. But they say the fish is bland, the ribs taste burnt, and the watermelon was prepped wrong. It does not look good for Team Strep Throat.
The green team serves last, and their dishes probably look the best. Stephanie made a fried baby artichoke, Nina made gnocchetti, and Carrie and Carlos crafted a tiramisu. A giant tiramisu. These three dishes go over nicely, but the New Orleans natives are wishing this potluck were a bit heavier. The best part of the service is Tom trying to talk "jazz" with one of the musicians, saying they need to pick "who had the best set and who had the worst set." The silence after he tried that was just long enough.
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"When you mix food and music, you never know what can happen," Tom says weakly at Judges' Table. Aww, he's tired. They agree that they liked lots of things. The green team did well, and Nicholas watches the monitor skeptically. The blue team did well, but Shirley looks like she's about to collapse. The gray team had tasty grits but most of their food was bland and poorly prepped. Send sicko home! No one knows who is on top or who is on the bottom, really.
Padma calls the gray team up first, and the chefs clap for them tentatively. Nicholas walks in confident, but I know from the dining room conversations that Padma is changing her tune. Because jazz. The other teams analyze the way Padma said, "we'd like to see the gray team."
Tom breaks the news to the gray team that while there were some nice dishes on their menu, there were also some clunkers and they did not win tonight. Nicholas's smug grin is wiped clean off. Travis blames Nicholas for the menu concept. Nick accidentally gives Brian credit for the things that went well and takes credit for the over-cooked fish. Patty's salad also sucked and was too bland. The chilis did not make it to the plate, either, and that was clearly missing. They are excused.
"Congratulations, green team," Brian says, bitterly sending them in to see the judges. The dishes were all great. Stephanie's artichoke dish was a hit, as was Nina's gnocchi. The win goes to Stephanie, just barely over Nina and her gnocchi. Stephanie admits she has not won anything since "Most Improved" in high school basketball.
Back to the gray team and their loss, even though Travis's ribs had a bit too much rub, Nicholas's fish was dry and bland, while Patty's watermelon dish was cut poorly and also bland. The team faces the judges again, and Patty is already teary-eyed. She had every reason to be, as Patty is the one sent home. I wish she had thrown Nick under the bus a bit more, because he cut those watermelon. Hilariously, 100% of voting viewers think Janine will beat Patty in Last Chance Kitchen.
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