Top Chef Charleston Recap: Episode 2
By Jason Lee
December 13, 2016
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But that's not all! There's more! For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs will be broken in to two groups - rookies vs. veterans, so good! - to serve a big, family-style meal. To provide even more inspiration, each team will be treated to a home-cooked meal at the house of local chef whose family has been in Charleston for generations. Tom is jealous. And he should be. This reminds me of the dinner Emeril cooked for the chefs in New Orleans. This should be an experience to remember for this set of chefs.
The rookies head over to the home of Carrie Morey, the founder of Callie's Hot Little Biscuit - a Charleston staple. She cooks them a huge dinner chock full of pork chops, slaw, squash casserole, tomato pie, and, of course, biscuits. The vets, meanwhile, are dining at the home of BJ Dennis, a personal chef and caterer from the city. His dishes have a decidedly more west African lean, with shrimp salad, eggplant stew, red rice, and gumbo.
Inspiration abounds in every bite. Shirley wants to do a take on an oyster dish that she ate growing up, Casey is going to do her spin on collard greens by not cooking them much at all, and Sheldon wants to play off of an eggplant dish that's cooked in Pilipino culture. You'll notice that all of those examples hail from the vet side of the kitchen. On the other side, with the rookies, they seem to be dead set on copying what they ate at Carrie's place - tomato pie, slaw, vegetable casserole, pork chops. Oh, except for biscuits. They're not gonna make biscuits. Realizing that this could be a glaring absence in a southern, family-style dish, the rookies do their part to pressure Jim, who has immunity, to take on biscuits. He's having none of it.
Before we know it, it's off to Whole Foods, where the rookies once again demonstrate that they're, well, rookies. While the veterans each have their own list of ingredients that they need to get in order to bring their menu together, the rookies seem to be winging it. By the time they gather at the checkout line, not only are they way over budget, but BJ (who's decided to make pork chops) has already rung up and paid for his pork loin, thus using up a huge portion of their money. The rookies argue amongst themselves for the bare necessities of what they'll need to complete their dish, while BJ annoyingly waives off any suggestion that he shoulder some of the blame for their predicament they're in.
The vets look on. Shirley notes that none of the rookies look happy and are all arguing amongst themselves, “but hey,” she concludes in deadpan fashion, “they're rookies.”
Amen.
Service begins the next day and the rookies are up first. They try to navigate the kitchen, figuring out who goes where. Annie gets started on her take on tomato pie - turning the pie into individual tarts, which is similar to something she's done before with green tomatoes. Meanwhile, Jamie (who's doing a vegetable casserole), vows that he will not burn his vegetables. This is going to be redemption for annihilating his vegetables in the first Quickfire.
Before we know it, the vets storm the kitchen, and things become even more hectic in that small space. Especially for the rookies. As their time runs out, BJ finds that his pork loin is woefully underdone, and finishes the pieces on the stove. Meanwhile, Jamie burns his broccoli.
D'oh!
Outside, the diners are brought in and ready to chow down. Along with Tom (who's, I kid you not, dressed like Colonel Sanders), Padma, Gail, and Frank, we have some notable chefs from the area, as well as the hosts from the previous night, Carrie and BJ.
The rookies bring out their dishes and the judges immediately note that there's no biscuit on the menu. “Guess I didn't inspire you to make biscuits,” Carrie comments. It's a “glaring omission,” adds Padma.
For the most part, the rookies' dishes are well received. Immunity-Jim serves not biscuits, but creole grits, which are well cooked and well-seasoned. Italian chef Silvia offers hoppin' john with farro, which is tasty but a bit over-seasoned and dry. Emily (who seems to get most of her face time with the camera by offering complaints about how things are going) has a pickled shrimp dish with cucumbers, which Tom loves. BJ salvaged his pork chops with peaches, but not entirely. Gail loves the acid in the dish but her pork chops were almost raw. So was the dough in Annie's tomato tart. Sylva has a Cornish hen with chow chow (a pickled relish), which is a hit with all the diners. Finally, Jamie has his summer squash casserole, absent broccoli, which is watery and not all that cohesive in terms of flavors.
In passing judgment, Tom declares that the rookies had a very nice meal with good spirit, just marred by a couple of misses here and there.
The vets don't make the same mistake. Their meal is, by and large, a resounding success. Shirley's pork and oyster stew is prepared perfectly. John Tesar bravely serves a rice and okra dish, even though Tom abhors okra, which everyone adores. Brooke serves corn biscuits that have great texture, but are not cooked all the way in the center. Amanda made an amazing whole-fish ceviche that has tons of flavor. Casey's collard greens are a huge hit, even though she took a risk in cooking them lightly. Padma adores Sheldon's eggplant dish. Katsuji's shrimp stew incorporated its flavors perfectly. And Sam's fried chicken is praised by the table.
There is no contest here. The vets clearly won the day, and they know it. When all the chefetants are brought before Judges' Table and the veterans are declared the winners, there is not even any feigning of surprise. They nailed their menu. Of all the dishes, Casey's “deceptively complex” collard greens, Frank's homey eggplant stew, and John's welcoming okra-and-rice dishes are named the top of the group. For her innovative and brave take, Casey is awarded the ultimate spoils.
I'm really impressed. If you'd asked any Top Chef fan who they thought would win this season, I doubt anyone would have picked Casey, Sheldon, or John. The fact that they had the three best dishes of the night really shows how deep this group of chefs is. This is gonna be a roller coaster of a season.
As for the rookies, Tom assures them that they didn't put together a bad meal - they simply went up against another team that “batted a thousand.” The three worst dishes, though, came from BJ, Annie, and Jamie. The pork chop that BJ served Gail was raw and thus unacceptable. Jamie's casserole was watery because his failure to strain the juices from his squash. And Annie's dish was all-but doomed from the start because there was no way she was going to be able to prepare pie dough and her tart in two hours.
While BJ committed the cardinal sin of serving undercooked meat, Annie's dish was a failure of both conception and execution, and thus, it's not really surprising when she's sent home. In her closing speech, Annie defiantly says that she's still confident in her skills, but notes that the Top Chef format really threw her off her game. The “atmosphere” of culinary competition is simply not her forte.
And that, dear girl, is why you're a rookie.