Top Chef Masters Recap
By Jason Lee
August 2, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
First of all, I must apologize to all my readers: I have let you down this week. As I always do, I faithfully transcribed most of the action that took place on this week's episode into my worn and dog-eared notebook, knowing that with the dawn of the next day, I would bend all of my writing abilities to the task of describing (in the most amusing and entertaining way possible) what took place.
Alas, my impending trip to Australia (I leave tonight, eek!) and the panicked and disorganized stuffing of attire into luggage (sometimes called "packing" by normal people) threw my belongings into what some might describe as "disarray." Thus, I am writing this from memory. Hopefully my agéd recollection doesn't prove to be too confounding.
But on to the episode!
I have been drooling over this episode for weeks. Though every "Master" that has thus far stepped through the doors of the Top Chef kitchen has accomplished resumés, the previous six episodes have proven that these remaining finalists are the chefs most adept at bending their years of experience and carefully developed skills to conquering the intentionally bewildering aspects of their respective challenges.
Now, things get good.
The show starts off with Kelly announcing the Quickfire Challenge. As one of the final episodes, I'm assuming that they're going to bring back one of the best and most memorable Quickfires the show has seen. I try to guess at what we'll see. I have my fingers crossed that it'll be the challenge where chefs have to taste a sauce and bet at how many ingredients they can name (seen last season, which Stefan won).
Nope, instead, the Masters are asked to draw knives. Immediately, I'm thinking RELAY RACE!!! And...I'm right! It's the mise en place relay race from Top Chef Season Four. The Masters will have to take turns shucking 15 oysters, dicing five onions, breaking down four chickens and whipping 15 egg whites into a foam that, when turned upside down, holds its shape for five seconds.
We have two teams: Salt and Pepper. I don't remember which team is which but on one side, we have the French master Hubert Kessler, Asian-fusion queen Anita Lo and Nuevo-Latino chef Rick Bayless. On the other side, we have LA American-cuisine chef Suzanne, Italian master Michael and Oprah's personal chef Art. This should be good.
Because there are only three chefs but four tasks, one Master will go twice. Our judge is none other than Tom Colicchio (Art, in particular, seems excited that everyone's favorite culinary bear is back) and when he blows his whistle, Suzanne and Hubert start shucking oysters. Michael remarks that Suzanne has this "jedi" focus and halfway through the task, she's ahead of French-master Hubert. He thinks "sacre bleu!" to himself and kicks into high gear. They finish the task in a dead heat.
Art and Hubert start dicing onions and Suzanne remarks that she remembers this task from Season 3 "when some girl diced onions for way too long." Oh Casey, your legacy lives on. In a stunning turn of events, southern chef Art schools Hubert by a whole onion and Michael starts breaking down his chicken.
Hubert finishes and Anita starts going to town on her chickens. She's insanely fast – she definitely reminds me of how fast Hung was going on the chicken part of this challenge in Season 3. Despite Michael's big head start, he and Anita finish at the same time and this whole thing will be decided by the egg-white whipping contest.
Rick and Art start whipping but Art, feeling the pressure, breaks a couple of his yolks and has to spend some time fishing them out of the bowl. Rick is nearly flawless and turns his bowl upside down with no fear. Rick brings home the win for Anita and Hubert, as they each get five stars for the Quickfire Challenge. Art, Michael and Suzanne get four stars.
Kelly strides in as if she's going to announce the Elimination Challenge but instead, says that they're going to get some time to get to know each other. They are to cook their Signature Dish for everyone to enjoy. The chefs stress out a little bit, particularly Anita, who says that she's always far more nervous cooking for other chefs than for critics.
She puts together a great looking scallop dish with pureed potatoes. Rick does a beef dish with figs. Suzanne does this scrumptious sirloin steak and fried egg dish. Hubert does an uber-French dish with cappuccino and lobster. Art makes seared grouper (strange for a Southern chef) and Michael makes this great Italian dish. The food looks absolutely amazing. I know that last season's chefs got to give some big name chefs their "last supper" but seriously, if I could have been at that table to eat all that food, I could have died happy.
Of course there has to be a twist. Top Chef would never let chefs get away with a simple, enjoyable meal. My guess is that the chefs will have to try and replicate each other's dish.
And yes, the very second the last bit of food is devoured, Kelly comes back in. She says that for the Elimination Challenge, they will draw knives to pair up, with the challenge being that they have to take the other chef's Signature Dish and improve on it with their own spin. Michael is aghast. "You have a dish that someone just poured their heart and soul into making and you want us to improve upon it? I don't even want to touch it."
Hubert, as the chef that did two tasks on the winning Quickfire team, gets to choose his dish to re-make. He chooses Anita, saying that her layering of flavors surprised and inspired him. What a compliment, wow. Thus, Anita has to do his dish.
Rick draws the first knife and Michael cries out from the back, "Not me, not me!" He says that because his Mexican flavors are not very good, and he doesn't want to try and do Rick's dish. Rick draws a knife with the number 1 on it. Art draws a knife with the number 2 and so does Suzanne. Everyone laughs. Michael is left with the remaining knife with the number 1 on it. Indeed, he's doing Rick's dish.
As the chefs head to Whole Foods to shop and then prep for the meal, they go over their dinner plans. What I'm amazed about is the fact that they truly understand how to approach this challenge. They're not getting caught up in trying to "replicate" the dish or keep the original flavors. Every Master is approaching the challenge with the mindset of "I'm going to do this dish in my own flavors, as if I were cooking it in my own restaurant." Thus, Anita is doing an Asian spin on Hubert's dish, Art is doing a southern spin on Suzanne's dish, etc.
The one snag here seems to be Michael. As a self-professed incompetent with Mexican flavors, he's really transforming Rick's original dish. Even Rick, who's absolutely respectful of every chef in the kitchen, says that other than the original ingredients of beef and figs, he can't recognize his dish at all.
And herein lies a great problem with the challenge: because only the Masters themselves know what the original dishes taste like, the Masters have free reign to remake the dishes however they like. I had originally been happy that this challenge forced the Masters out of their comfort zone – they wouldn't be able to cook any dish that they've had a chance to perfect in their own kitchens. They have to try something new.
Well, maybe not. I'm wondering if Michael has strayed so far from Rick's dish that he's gone back into his comfort zone. And if he does, none of the critics will know.
Dinner starts and the Masters will be serving the critics plus six "experienced diners." I immediately guess that the six other diners will be eliminated Masters from previous episodes. My boyfriend guesses that they will be serving themselves. Interesting thought...maybe this will ruin Michael (whom I'm starting to dislike).
But no, I'm right. The six diners are previous episode Masters including Elizabeth Faulkner and Ludo, the hot-headed French chef.
Art starts off with his remake of Suzanne's dish. It's a lamb steak with a Scotchish egg in the middle. The lamb is undercooked and the egg is overcooked.
Suzanne goes next and has seared grouper with some veggies. She'd finished cooking with about ten minutes to go and plated her dish with time to spare. As a result, when the food reaches the diners the fish is overcooked and somewhat cold. I'm really unhappy, she's one of my favorites in the season so far, with her understated panache and unboastful demeanor. I'm thinking that she'll probably go home.
Hubert Kessler goes next and his remake of Anita scallop and potato dish is well received. Anita goes next with Hubert's lobster dish and she draws rave reviews. I mean, really, really strong comments from everyone.
Rick goes next and everyone likes his dish very much. Michael goes next and most people agree that he's lacking some big, bold flavors with the lamb.
Back at critics table, it's clear that Anita and Rick are the favorites. Anita is praised strongly by Gael for being thoughtful in every aspect of the dish. Everyone appreciates the way Rick quietly channeled Michael's flavors, being respectful of the dish as a whole.
Obviously on the bottom are Art with his undercooked lamb and Suzanne for her cold grouper. I like Art a lot but I really, really, really have my fingers crossed that Suzanne gets saved and he goes home.
As expected, the critics announce that Anita and Rick are on top. Rick gets four and a half stars from James and Gael but only four stars from Jay for a total of 23 stars. That's the highest total we've seen so far on Top Chef Masters and will be hard to beat.
But beat it, Anita does. She gets four and a half stars from James and Jay plus a golden five star rating from Gael. She's won another $10,000 for her charity and she's safe.
Again, as expected, Michael and Hubert are in the middle with 18 and a half and 21 and a half stars respectively. That leaves Art and Suzanne on the bottom. One will go and neither one looks happy, albeit, it's obvious that both are more unhappy with their cooking than with being on the bottom.
Art gets two and a half stars from Jay and Gael but three stars from James. Suzanne will have to match those scores exactly to tie him for this round . . . but alas, my heart breaks and she gets a straight run of two and a half stars. Suzanne, the quiet and humble chef from Los Angeles will be going home.
All in all, this was a GREAT episode. I'm excited that we'll be able to follow this group of chefs to the finale instead of seeing new faces every week. Also, I'm incredibly impressed by the caliber of cooking. It's clear that these six chefs were Masters in every aspect of the word and I can't wait to see what they do next.