Top Chef: Texas

[gfweb]

Ill miss Heather. I have nobody to despise now.

[Pierogi]

Who the hell braises rib-eyes????? For that matter, who the hell braises their stroganoff? I guess if you're trying to feed a huge family a "one-pot" meal, like The Evil Heather was espousing, you do, but really...? My stroganoff's done in the time it takes me to cook the egg noodles to go under it.

[Lisa Shock]

And, Heather also loses at Last Chance...

I'm glad that Nyesha still has the jacket, I don't think we really saw her full potential.

[GordonCooks]

Ding Dong the witch is dead....

[weinoo]

Hope the chefs have now learned - you don't buy steaks at Whole Foods.

I said to my wife two things as the show got under way:

1. Who buys rib eye for stroganoff?

2. Who buys steaks at Whole Foods?

The tipoff was at the very beginning of the show, when Beverly talked about karma...we knew it was over right then for the know-it-all.

[Florida]

Wow, if I was Whole Foods I would be reconsidering my sponsorship of TC. I don't think the judges could've possibly shit on the quality of their rib eyes anymore than they did.

[annabelle]

If I were Whole Foods, I'd be reconsidering who my beef supplier was rather than the getting pissed off that a bunch of world famous chefs pronounced their meat crap.

Go Beverly! I knew she'd get even with Heather with her zen-fu.

[gfweb]

From what I read about Whole Foods that may be the least of their problems.

http://gawker.com/5824287/read-a-disgruntled-whole-foods-employees-epic-resignation-letter

[Derek J]

How was braising the steak going to caramelize it? I thought that's why you sear meat before braising it. If I am an idiot with my cooking vocabulary, please someone correct me.

[IndyRob]

Can anyone give an update of what's going on at Last Chance Kitchen? We can't watch it in Canada.

Perhaps we should have a separate topic for Last Chance Kitchen. There's a spoiler aspect since even those who can watch it on the 'net may not do so immediately.

[annabelle]

How was braising the steak going to caramelize it? I thought that's why you sear meat before braising it. If I am an idiot with my cooking vocabulary, please someone correct me.

You do sear meat before braising. I don't have a clue what Heather was trying to accomplish with her take on her mother's crockpot meal of beef stroganoff. As Pierogi said, stroganoff is a quick cook, not a stewed piece of beef. Heather was using the wrong cut and the wrong method. Even her abandoned idea of the pressure cooker wasn't going to save that mess.

[David Ross]

For good or bad, I watched the "X Factor" last night on Fox and missed the latest Top Chef episode. For good or bad......

[annabelle]

For shame, Dave. Start a thread and then forget all about it, sounds like something I would do. No worries, though, it'll be on many more times so you can catch up.

[David Ross]

For good or bad, I watched the "X Factor" last night on Fox and missed the latest Top Chef episode. For good or bad......

For shame, Dave. Start a thread and then forget all about it, sounds like something I would do. No worries, though, it'll be on many more times so you can catch up.

Trust me, missing Top Chef for the sake of the "X Factor" wasn't intentional. Maybe I should have watched some forgotten history author debut a talk about Calvin Coolidge on C-SPAN. It would have been far more interesting than the latest television talent show. And.....as I discovered a few days later, something on C-SPAN would have been more intriguing than watching Heather shove that Stroganoff mess in front of the judges. Do you have a dog? Would you serve Heather's stroganoff to your best friend?

[IndyRob]

Well, a nathanm appearance with MC as the Quickfire prize was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know that he had won a barbecue competition.

[Jaymes]

I didn't know that either, and was sorta startled. Talk about cooking opposites. Mastering the very newest. Mastering the very oldest.

And I sure got tired of Ed's whining. That loss was nobody's fault but theirs. They lost sight of the goal. They weren't running a restaurant. It didn't make a bit of difference how quickly they could serve the 300 "customers" that in fact weren't customers at all. They never should have even considered compromising the product. If the line was slow, it would be easy to say, "Sorry, we're short-handed." No big whoop. They weren't being judged by how quickly they could sling out hash.

The important thing was to put the best food they could on the table for the judges.

[Slamdunkpro]

Well, a nathanm appearance with MC as the Quickfire prize was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know that he had won a barbecue competition.

He hasn't.

[IndyRob]

Well, a nathanm appearance with MC as the Quickfire prize was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know that he had won a barbecue competition.

He hasn't.

Well, I don't know. Wikipedia seems to think he has. Although elsewhere I did notice a reference to "...was on a team that..."

[Slamdunkpro]

Well, a nathanm appearance with MC as the Quickfire prize was a pleasant surprise. I didn't know that he had won a barbecue competition.

He hasn't.

Well, I don't know. Wikipedia seems to think he has. Although elsewhere I did notice a reference to "...was on a team that..."

Another reason one shouldn't put too much stock in Wikipedia....

He was at Memphis in May with David Cox's team in 1991 (Dave won the Grand Championship that year with ribs). Nathanm won an award in one of the side dish categories for pasta - that doesn't exactly make him a BBQ champion.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Slamdunkpro (log)

[annabelle]

I see Ed is getting the villian edit. Look for him to pack his knives and go next week after Restaurant Wars.

[David Ross]

I didn't know that either, and was sorta startled. Talk about cooking opposites. Mastering the very newest. Mastering the very oldest.

And I sure got tired of Ed's whining. That loss was nobody's fault but theirs. They lost sight of the goal. They weren't running a restaurant. It didn't make a bit of difference how quickly they could serve the 300 "customers" that in fact weren't customers at all. They never should have even considered compromising the product. If the line was slow, it would be easy to say, "Sorry, we're short-handed." No big whoop. They weren't being judged by how quickly they could sling out hash.

The important thing was to put the best food they could on the table for the judges.

I totally agree. I wanted to slap Ed up the side of the head with a barbecue mop. Just because they are down one person he uses the asinine excuse to pre-slice the brisket and put it covered, in a steam tray. It looked, and I'm sure tasted, like grey beef by-product that was leftover army rations. How was the loss of one cook any different than a real-life situation in a restaurant where a cook calls in sick or doesn't show up for the service shift? You improvise and make do. And in the case of slicing meat, it doesn't matter. He took all that time to ruin the brisket ahead of service when he simply could have waited, displayed the brisket on a cutting board for the diners and then cut to order. He sacrificed quality and time early on when he should have kept it for when he needed to use it--in the moment of service.

[Lupinus]

I didn't know that either, and was sorta startled. Talk about cooking opposites. Mastering the very newest. Mastering the very oldest.

And I sure got tired of Ed's whining. That loss was nobody's fault but theirs. They lost sight of the goal. They weren't running a restaurant. It didn't make a bit of difference how quickly they could serve the 300 "customers" that in fact weren't customers at all. They never should have even considered compromising the product. If the line was slow, it would be easy to say, "Sorry, we're short-handed." No big whoop. They weren't being judged by how quickly they could sling out hash.

The important thing was to put the best food they could on the table for the judges.

Didn't we all? Being short handed isn't an excuse to screw something up that is so easily avoided. Suck it up buttercup, your teammate got sick and needed medical attention. It happens.

[gfweb]

Right. But she's clearly a pain in the ass too.

[jsmeeker]

A BBQ episode while they were in Central Texas. Home to the best BBQ in the great state of Texas, and arguably the whole nation (or world). Central Texas BBQ is pretty specific. I'm a little surprised they picked chicken as one of the meats. The "Big Three" are brisket, pork ribs, and sausage, with brisket being the "king of meats". That's the one most identified with Texas BBQ and the one people in the know tend to judge a BBQ place by. Not chicken. Certainly not side dishes. Side dishes? Please... Give me really awesome brisket and you could feed me the worst cole slaw ever and I wouldn't give a crap and would not hold it against you in the slightest.

I cringed when the team that lost Heather pre-sliced their brisket. Such a terrible, but very common thing to do in a big catering situation. Real BBQ places slice it all to order. Even when there is a line out the door. They don't slice until you actually get to the counter and place your order. Who was it that said "I love BBQ. I like to throw stuff on a grill". ? NOT BBQ!!!

The Asian BBQ won? Yikes. That makes me sad. Maybe it was good.. But it's sad people couldn't try to do good Central Texas BBQ. THen again, few people can really do it really well.

It was good to see Nathan M. I don't know his history of being a BBQ champ, but I know he did a lot of research on the matter for the book. Pretty sure e did a tour through Central Texas. His book has quite a bit to say about the subject, too. Would have been nice to see some other BBQ experts there too. Like maybe someone form Kreuz or Smitty or Blacks in Lockhart. Aaron Franklin from Austin. Daniel Vaughn from the blog Full Custom Gospel BBQ.

[Jaymes]

I'm a little surprised they picked chicken as one of the meats. The "Big Three" are brisket, pork ribs, and sausage, with brisket being the "king of meats". That's the one most identified with Texas BBQ and the one people in the know tend to judge a BBQ place by. Not chicken. Certainly not side dishes. Side dishes? Please... Give me really awesome brisket and you could feed me the worst cole slaw ever and I wouldn't give a crap and would not hold it against you in the slightest.

I had the same thought about sausage but the main difference among the various BBQ sausages in Texas is in how it is made, not how it is cooked. The producers very well might not have wanted to tax the cheftestants with making sausage and didn't think there was much value in having them buy some, and then just throw it on the fire. Even I can do that. After all, if you start with a good premade sausage, there's not much to smoking it. They probably figured it was a better test of smoking skills to have them cook chicken.

And good smoked chicken is pretty dang tasty. When I lived in far NW Austin, I used to drive the hour or so over to Llano just to pick up a half-dozen of their smoked chickens.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Jaymes (log)