Top Chef: California – Season 13

[huiray]

Gail Simmon's blog on episode 5.

 

She devotes almost two entire paragraphs to the kerfuffle over Man-Bun's potato puree at Judges' Table and commented that he alienated the other chefs (plural); and that they (again, plural) readily spoke up against him (Phillip) and that the judges didn't even have to ask questions, the other chefs (plural) laid into him.

 

 

[Shelby]

Just watched last weeks epi.  

 

PLEASE tell me Angelina goes this week.  I'm sure she has talent....but she needs a few years of "seasoning" to get up to the level the others are on.

 

The quick fire challenge was irritating.  All the best date stories.  I can do without that.  And, milkshake guy...I need to go back and watch, but I swear when he first told the story he said he had his tonsils out???  Later he said teeth.....  must re-watch.  Or maybe I don't really care enough to re-watch lol.

 

Manbun--Potato sauce?  Whatever.

 

Still like Kwame and Isaac is a hoot.  And messy guy...he's not so irritating either.  I'd like Isaac's dirty rice recipe.

 

 

[Jaymes]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

 I'd like Isaac's dirty rice recipe.

 

 

Me, too. 

 

And Kwame's pickled shrimp salad. 

[huiray]

TC California episode 6 – Banannaise.

 

I can't say I particularly cared for this episode. Fish tacos n the QF - didn't grab me. But Angelina Bastidas not assembling her food on the plates  --- um, whut? They were right in front of her in front of the board...so strange that she couldn't start composing them on the plates just inches away...But yay! she lost the sudden-death and went away.

 

Ah, the beer pairings for the EC - that was why Man-Bun was poking the beer bottle opening up his nostril in the preview last week. One saw that lots of others were doing that too this week - sniffing the aroma of those weird concoctions the 4 judges threw together, besides tasting them. Of the dishes that resulted from this beer pairing --- the ones with that banana Tom-beer did seem to be the most difficult one, but Kwame Onwuachi did very well with it. Yes, he is definitely in the top tier of the current crop of cheftestants. Amar Santana does good with his Padma-beer, glad to finally see more of his cooking. Karen Akunowicz redeems herself from last week with thatRichard-beer and wins.  Maybe she could watch her complaining about certain others winning all the time, though.

 

Isaac's banannaise and crab saves him - it was hard to see him struggle this week, though.

Jason's pork & squid meatball – I wonder if he had kneaded it and "thrown it repeatedly" he might have changed their texture to something like the "springiness" (Cantonese: "song hou") that one achieves with Chinese/E/SE Asian type fishballs, meatballs, cuttlefish+fish balls, etc and if so whether it would have made a big difference in the dish. But maybe the very idea of pork+squid was repellent for the judges anyway? (Chinese fish/meat balls with cuttlefish in it are common in those cuisines) Certainly in Jason's case pork plus squid/cuttlefish is a common combination in Catalan food (and Spanish/Portuguese as well) and is not just "historical" I think; although it would be pork meatballs with squid/cuttlefish as another component in the dish (i.e. not incorporated INTO the meatball, I think?) Perhaps others more familiar with Catalan and Spanish/Portuguese cuisines could comment here.

Wesley True – alas, the Top Chef damnation of mangling the protein (overcooked lamb) and technical faults does him in and he leaves (over Jason, I would imagine). (Whereas Angelina Bastidas got away with rubbery shrimp in episode 4, versus "just corn" which Grayson Schmitz was dismissed for) I'm a little sorry to see him go.

 

LCK – I have slight misgivings about the subject being hamburgers as chosen by Tom Colicchio. Yes, chefs should be able to put together decent burgers; but I got a faint sense that Angelina Bastidas had an immediate edge - Tom C mentioned that she serves burgers in her restaurant, and the yellow flags went up... I checked afterwards and indeed at the restaurant where she^¶¶ was working then (Piripi, in Miami) there is what could be considered as a "signature" burger on the menu, which one might suppose she would have worked on to "perfect" while she was responsible for it. Still, Wesley True also had a burger on the menu at The Spence, where he^§§ had "just taken over"^††. I wonder if Grayson Schmitz even makes burgers in her professional work - according to her website she "...focuses on Italian and French inspired cuisines..." which aren't exactly where one turns to for burgers. Besides, she *did* lose time by having to grind the slab of intact pork belly she got (with less-than-ideal texture) and therefore less time to put everything together properly. Whatever. Angelina Bastidas did manage to make the superior burger and she got Grayson's TC coat. Too bad.

 

^¶¶ Bastidas was kicked out as EC from Piripi after just three months on the job. Interesting... }:-)  Here's the Eater report on this.

^§§ Wesley True joined The Optimist in August as EC - a "sustainable seafood" place. Eater report on this. 

^†† Remember that TC California was filmed during the summer, before True joined The Optimist and before Bastidas got kicked out of Piripi.

 

 

Some recaps of episode 6 from elsewhere:

http://www.eater.com/2016/1/15/10774198/top-chef-califoria-season-13-episode-6-recap 

http://www.ew.com/recap/top-chef-season-13-episode-6 

http://www.grubstreet.com/2016/01/top-chef-season-13-episode-6-recap.html 

 

[Shelby]

Not sad to see Angelina go.  Yeah, how could she miss putting the food on the plates?  

 

Wesley kind of grew on me so I was sorry to see him go.....but I think that was his butt that we had to see (no more of that please).

 

Yay for Karen!

 

Super glad Isaac didn't go.  I think he's a good chef and he's funny as hell.

 

 

[Lisa Shock]

I was glad to see Grayson knocked out of LCK, I am tired of her whining.

 

Overall, for me, this episode of TC was the one that finally cleared out all the dead wood. Now we'll get down to real competition.

[FrogPrincesse]

Do people truly believe that there was banana in Tom's wheat beer? That is hilariously funny, but it is also disturbing that they didn't do a better job of explaining things on the show. Wheat beers typically have esters in them that form during fermentation, and banana esters (amyl acetate) are absolutely typical of this style of beer. So it is a subtle banana flavor, not actual bananas.

 

It's a good thing they didn't give them a saison beer full of barnyard funk, because Mr Man Bun guy would for sure have used the excuse to incorporate dirty hay into his dish again...  But I digress.

 

By the way I tried the golden ale that Padma inspired at Stone Brewery last week and it is absolutely great. Fabulous beer with food, multi-layered, interesting. Stone did a really good job on that one.

Edited January 20, 2016 by FrogPrincesse
fix a typo (log)

[Shalmanese]

Wheat beers absolutely can have banana esters but it's possible even more banana flavoring was added to push the banana notes higher.

[FrogPrincesse]

Come on. Stone and Ballast Point don't add "flavoring" in their beers.  

 

I mean anything is possible, but I have my doubts...

 

 

Edited January 21, 2016 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Shalmanese]

5 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

Come on. Stone and Ballast Point don't add "flavoring" in their beers.  

 

I mean anything is possible, but I have my doubts...

 

 

 

Unless you show me a yeast that spontaneously produces ras al hanout esters, I'm going to presume that it was a flavoring added to the beer. Note I never said artificial flavor, I'm not saying the dissolved a bunch of banana candies into their beers. Just that through some method or another, the banana flavors in the beer could have been boosted.

[FrogPrincesse]

I felt that it was a missed occasion to talk about beer seriously. The flavor profile of each beer was mentioned but not the particular style (golden ale vs. wheat beer vs. stout etc) which would have been an important factor in a food-pairing challange. The whole thing seemed very superficial to me.

[huiray]

TC California episode 7.

 

I'm sorry that Jason was sent off, especially over man-bun. Glad Kwame survived, but from one's armchair his dish *looked* and sounded like the worst dish. That it tasted "good" (as shown by that snippet of Jeremy liking it) must have saved him.  Jason's "underseasoning" --- eh, it DOES depend on the judges' idea of "correct seasoning", and Tom Colicchio and his crew has consistently demonstrated over the years that he and his buddies like it SALTY, SALTY. Michael Voltaggio did say that it wasn't quite there, but did not have the strong reaction that Tom C had; but I wonder if Michael V.'s taste runs towards what most professional chefs' tastes are - that is, add salt, add salt, add salt. Various chefs over the seasons have got into trouble with Tom C. & Co. for "under-seasoning" - Kelly Liken, Nicholas Elmi spring immediately to mind. There are others. Yet these last named chefs are accomplished chefs in their own right, and Nicholas Elmi for one has had success with his food at his restaurant in Philly with both critics and the dining public finding no fault with his seasoning of his food, even declaring it perfectly seasoned. One also notes that several guest judges in the past have murmured at Tom C's table that their food was just fine, while Tom C and Padma Lakshmi et al were loudly bemoaning the lack of seasoning.

 

So in this regard man-bun HAD a point when he said to Tom C. and Michael V. that he was cooking for the judges' taste, not his own. Yes, he said it rather brashly - but he was not wrong; and IMO it is disingenuous of Tom C and Mike V to roll their eyes and pretend otherwise. What constitutes "good tasting food" depends on THEIR perception,** and that circles round again to the difference between restaurant food/professional chefs' tastes and the rest of the dining public/home cooking. BTW, I would suggest that folks do not laugh at "home cooking" - some of the best food you can get anywhere would be AT HOME, cooked by excellent cooks.

 

** I also remember when Richard Blais himself, now a judge, declared in one episode of one of his seasons that he needed to cook ONLY TO PLEASE THE JUDGES, and fuck the dining public even if they were eating in the place where that episode was taking place and where the food was being judged.

 

LCK: Angelina got kicked off by Jason - good. Let's see how far Jason gets.

 

Recaps from elsewhere:

http://www.grubstreet.com/2016/01/top-chef-season-13-episode-7-recap.html 

http://www.ew.com/recap/top-chef-season-13-episode-7 

http://www.eater.com/2016/1/22/10813566/top-chef-season-13-episode-5-the-big-ten 

 

[gfweb]

Padma needs to pack her  smug attitude and go.

[Lisa Shock]

This episode reminded me of beginning culinary school, in our very first class in the kitchen and the instructor shouting at a student, "There's no crying in the kitchen!" -The lesson being that the food was outside the realm of emotions; cooking was about the science of the ingredients and excess baggage needed to be left at the door. Learning correct execution was the key, good intentions don't always make a great plate of food and you can't cry to a customer and get forgiveness when you mess up a dish. 

 

Clearly several chefs were shaken by the challenge. Shaken enough to be thrown off their game. They forgot that they were in a televised cooking competition, not a group therapy session. All they needed to do was choose a dish and fish a cute story about it from some part of their past. Marjorie handled this perfectly, she was green, so she made a green dish. No deep psychoanalysis, just a simple declaratory sentence defining the concept.

 

Philip's attitude is grating, I think to a certain extent that he is refusing to accept that his food could be better. Some of his food on past episodes has clearly been bad, who here wants to stand behind his gummy mashed potatoes? I don't think Tom's dislike of them was idiosyncratic. IMO, we are seeing the Dunning-Kruger effect in action with him. His time is coming, very soon, much sooner than he himself can imagine...

 

I was sorry to see Jason go on this round. he clearly got upset by something and he wasn't focusing on the food. Hopefully, he have a good run in LCK.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Lisa Shock
spelling error (log)

[David Ross]

Haven't been following as closely this season, but I get a good vibe from Majorie and I like her dishes.

[Shelby]

I was scared....thought Isaac might pack up.  

 

I am glad I don't have to look at that beard anymore.

 

Marjorie sure is a strong contender.

 

Next week looks good.  I like the new restaurant wars format--everyone has to take a turn at everything.

[huiray]

TC California ep 8.

 

Best quote: "People who say we eat with our eyes first should be stabbed with a pork chop bone."  Thank you, Isaac Toups.

Having a QF where plating (in the Western idiom) is glorified like that was...sad. For me, anyway. Nevertheless, I thought Carl Dooley should have won, if that was the challenge.

 

The EC - BEEFSTEAK Dinner, chefs. I was puzzled by the cheftestants' choices, for the most part. Although Man-Bun is still as obnoxious as ever, he did deserve the win - if not anything else because he put out something that was tasty, well cooked, and fit the challenge. Which *had* been explained to them - no plates, eating with hands, no utensils, BEEFSTEAK DINNER, big hunks of meat (OK, plus fish, they were told to do that). NO MICRO GREENS nor tweezer food should have been obvious, and except for Carl no-one served beef? I guess either most of them had never heard of this dinner, or was unable to grasp the concept of ripping off hunks of meat with bare hands, or could not get away from being "Dainty-Fine-Dining-Cheffy-like". Kwame's shrimp - too salty, too mealy -- according to the judges -- and, perhaps, even though it was certainly eat-with-your-hands-food, perhaps just a little too fiddly? At least for those people? As for whether Isaac or Chad White should have gone home, for myself it was a toss-up. Isaac's sausage fit the bare-hands-etc parameters better, but tasted not so good; Chad's tuna with microgreens failed the parameters but tasted good...hmm. Eh, I'm OK with Isaac staying if not anything else because of the great quote he uttered in the QF. :-D 

 

The judges were sloshed, it seemed. Borderline obnoxious even. Ditto some of the guests, with lots of bro-ing going on, and the co-founder of the event and Tom Hanks' son laid it on a bit thick, perhaps. Hugh Acheson THROWING FOOD through the air - hey, they should have had a food fight as well. :-)

 

LCK - Chad gets a chance to re-do a dish that fit the parameters of the BEEFSTEAK Dinner. So he gets the head and cuts out the tongue, cheeks, eyeballs, etc ... and makes a burger. (Plus those cheeks)  Jason puts out a HUNK of meat, nicely done, nicely accompanied. Yes, his win was deserved.

 

P.s.: There was a somewhat unseemly aspect of it - that the event was dedicated to gluttony while supposedly being a benefit for food-needy folks. Ah, A-List Beautiful People and Marie Antoinette and cake.

[ElsieD]

Huiray, well said, on all counts.  We too thought the judges had had a few too many.  They acted like little kids in a sandbox except the kids would have acted with more decorum.

[blue_dolphin]

I just caught up on the last episode and the last 2 LCKs last night and agree with all your comments, @huiray, particularly the last one about the irony of that gluttony-centered event featuring rude behavior as a fund raiser for a food bank.  

 

The QF was so random, they might as well have picked a name out of a hat to award immunity.  And what a contrast to move from a QF where appearance was everything to the Beefsteak EC where appearance and plating mattered not at all, except as a negative!  

 

I was also mystified by their choices and lack of imagination. A bunch of catering kitchen box-thinkers!   I thought Kwame made a good choice with peel & eat shrimp but it didn't go over well.   I'm really not sure what sort of fish preparation would have suited this dinner. Particularly since they were sourcing food for 100 servings from the Whole Foods retail counters.  The so-called "stuffed" crab claws served at dim sum might be viewed as too dainty, even though they offer a bone-like handle and the eater gets to pull the crab meat out of the shell after eating the fried shrimp paste "filling."  There's a Chinese restaurant I go to that features lobster (huge ones) steamed with black bean sauce.  They're hacked up and heaped into a big bowl and we always end up using our hands to eat them.   Something like that would be my choice for a fish dish.  

 

Aside from Marjorie's suggestion of bread, I was disappointed that no one took the opportunity to craft sides that could be used to hold or dip into a sauce or scoop up the proteins.  Someone could have had fun with that.

 

  

[Shelby]

Yeah, even Marjorie's bread was too fiddly, I think.  When she said bread, I immediately thought of big, crusty --like French bread or something that people would rip chunks off and mop up juices with. 

 

I can't believe no one did ribs.  

[blue_dolphin]

I agree, @Shelby, I thought big loaves would have been the ticket. I gave Marjorie a pass as I realize big crusty loaves could have been hard to pull off in the given time frame and with unfamiliar ovens but she could have done some big loaves of focaccia or something like that.  Those rolls are another example of the catering kitchen mindset.  Nicely done, but nothing out of the box.

Also surprised by the lack of ribs.  I think the chefs were told that the meal was to be "decadent" and maybe they didn't think ribs fit that definition but I disagree!

 

Edited to add that I'm curious to see restaurant wars and whether we'll get to see any imagination there.

Edited February 1, 2016 by blue_dolphin (log)

[huiray]

34 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I'm really not sure what sort of fish preparation would have suited this dinner.

 

Here's what the L.A. Beefsteak Dinner 2013 was like. They had heaping platters of salmon, and according to the author of the article he still had bits of it in his beard afterwards. :-) 

[huiray]

Couple of recaps from elsewhere:

http://www.grubstreet.com/2016/01/top-chef-season-13-episode-8-recap.html 

http://www.eater.com/2016/1/29/10866706/top-chef-season-13-episode-8-jacques-la-merde 

 

[huiray]

Here are some pictures from Beefsteak 4 in LA (Jan 24, 2015, at Vibiana):

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cort-cass-attends-beefsteak-4-at-vibiana-cathedral-on-news-photo/462126932 

 

Chicago also has its version of the Beefsteak Dinner.

Website: http://thechicagobeefsteak.com/ 

2014 pictures: http://thechicagobeefsteak.com/pictures/ 

2015 pictures: http://thechicagobeefsteak.com/pictures2015/ 

 

Lots of alcohol and rowdy carousing all over and wherever.  Dainty futzy fish slices with microgreens - nah. Lamb chops with bone handles - yah. SLABS of beef done this way, that way, all of which does show cooking skills when done well - definitely.

Edited February 1, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Jaymes]

The first thing I thought of as the chefs were discussing the menu was that there is no dish on the planet more "manly" than big beef ribs.  Never mind just throwing food, the judges could have actually gone into battle with those big rib bones.

 

And regarding the fish...  When we lived in Alaska, because of my husband's job, we had to attend a great many formal parties and functions.  At every single one, on the hors d'oeuvres/buffet table, there were two whole fish - one salmon and one halibut.  Yes, they were served with small cocktail forks and the idea was that you scraped off as much as you wanted and put it on your plate, or on a cracker if it was being served as an appetizer.  But these two large whole fish were so ubiquitous that, as much as I love fish, I recall remarking to my husband that sometimes I felt like I was being entertained as though I were somebody's large house cat.

 

This is what that whole salmon looked like: 

 

http://www.moreys.com/product/whole-smoked-wild-keta-salmon/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2016 by Jaymes (log)