Top Chef Colorado Recap
Now That's a Lot of Schnitzel
By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower
January 17, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
After their camping expedition in the previous episode, all of the chefs are struggling to some degree. They have altitude sickness and effectively are dealing with flu-like symptoms (or hangover-like symptoms). Let’s just say that they ALL look rough.
We actually sort of hated that they had the chefs deal with the camping, because it just wasn’t necessary. Top Chef isn’t Survivor, and it isn’t The Amazing Race. These people are here to cook great food, and giving them challenges that can potentially make them ill doesn’t make sense, nor does it serve the competition. Let’s hope that the producers learn from this.
In fact, our feelings on this are justified when Lee Ann has to go to the hospital to be checked out. She had a rough first trimester in her pregnancy, and feels as though she simply cannot risk her baby for the sake of Top Chef. She’s not wrong, and it’s maddening that it should even be a conversation.
So, without Lee Ann, the chefs arrive for their Quickfire challenge. Padma informs them that Lee Ann is doing okay, probably to alleviate nerves and worries during the upcoming cooking competition.
Today’s guest Quickfire judge is our beloved Richard Blais, previous Top Chef All-Stars champion. He flips over a blackboard to reveal menus for each of the chefs. Every chef recognizes the dish they’ve been assigned, because it comes from their own menus at their restaurants (or catering businesses).
Apparently, all of these dishes require a significant amount of time to cook and develop – up to three days, in fact. So, today’s challenge is a nod to Buzzfeed’s tasty videos that instruct people on how to cook complicated dishes quickly. Our chefs will be taking their most complicated dishes and deconstructing them in a way that it could be converted to a Buzzfeed video with the simplified, approachable process to cooking it. The tough part? They have to complete the dishes in 30 minutes. The winner of the challenge will get both immunity and the chance to have their recipe featured in that Buzzfeed tasty video.
Adrienne, who normally loves making hushpuppies, is so frustrated she says she might cry. She just can’t get the mix right in this short amount of time. Mustache Joe gets the idea to make a gnocchi dumpling since there is no possible way to make gnocchi in a half hour. Sounds like an innovative plan that could work.
Chris is making pepper pot shrimp, and says that his daughters would think his competing to be in a Buzzfeed video would be very cool. He jokes that he doesn’t even know what a hashtag is.
Claudette runs out of time. Despite having all her components complete, she is unable to get them on the plate. Therefore, she won’t be competing here and automatically is on the bottom three (although being on the bottom three in a Quickfire isn’t particularly a big deal).
After tasting all of the dishes, Richard says that the bottom tier chefs are Claudette, who obviously wasn’t able to plate her creation. He also didn’t enjoy Adrienne’s hushpuppies, which isn’t surprising given her difficulties with the challenge. To her credit, after his comments, she tastes her dish herself, hopefully planning for the future and learning from the experience. Finally, Padma calls out Fatima, who made a chicken biryani that had been inspired by watching Padma’s cooking show when she was growing up. Yikes. Padma is annoyed that Fatima isn’t cooking flavorful Indian/Pakistani food as she had been with Western flavors in the previous challenge.
With the unpleasantries out of the way, Richard announces that his three favorites include Chris’s pepper pot shrimp, Brother’s paella, and Mustache Joe’s scallop and gnocchi dish. The winner, though, is the chef that made a restaurant-quality dish that any home cook could create themselves. This week, that chef happens to be Chris, whose daughters are sure to be impressed.
After the challenge is complete, Padma says that she thinks the chefs have been working really hard, so it’s time for a party. To that end, she welcomes celebrated German chef Keegan Gerhard, amazing pastry chef and owner of D Bar restaurant in Denver.
So, the chefs don’t really get to go to a party so much as they get to throw one. It will be a little German festival done Top Chef style. Keegan tells the group that German food goes way beyond pretzels, beer and mustard, and that he wants to see them elevate German food to a new level. Padma chimes in to let them know that they will also be creating their own version of a radler, which is beer mixed with a sparkling drink of some sort (like a soft drink or carbonated apple juice). Yuck. Keegan explains that it’s like a summer shandy, or a 50/50 mix of beer and some sort of fruit setup.
Mustache Joe: “Where I come from, if you order one of those, you get kicked in the nuts.”
Padma tells the chefs that they must pair their radler with their dish in order to create the ultimate German food experience for 200 diners.
On the plus side, Keegan is going to take the chefs on a “field trip” so that they can eat some authentic German food themselves.
First, the chefs are served some radler so that they can be thinking about how they want to prepare their own concoction. Chris doesn’t drink, so he has to ask his fellow chefs what the radler tastes like. He explains that he is an alcoholic with three years of sobriety under his belt. Once again, we find a challenge a little annoying, although we understand the importance of pairing drinks and meals. Still, if there is a chance a contestant is an alcoholic, it really hurts that person if your challenge forces them to confront that demon.
The fests do get to have an awesome feast featuring stuff like strudel, wurst and pork shanks. A lot of them will really be stepping outside of their comfort zone here.
Okay, so the chefs are going to the store, but the most important thing that we learn is that Brother Love’s parents were exotic dancers who travelled around Asia. His father was Mandingo: King of the Topless Go-Go Boys. No, really! That means that Brother shall henceforth be known as Son of Mandingo: King of the Topless Go-Go Boys!
Tanya is confident about cooking European cuisine, as she spent a lot of her younger years in Europe (especially France) learning about the food culture there.
Chris, meanwhile, has gone to a dark place after the radler request. He’s buying premade rolls and pretzels even as he knows it’s a terrible idea. He’s just thankful he has immunity today, because he is not at all in the right headspace.
During the cooking process, Mustache Joe realizes that he has taken on WAY too much with this dish. He struggles to get all the prep completed in a way that makes sense.
We visit Lee Anne in the hospital as she chats with her fiancé. Basically, she is suffering from dehydration and altitude sickness. Great job, Top Chef! She’s on an IV and has some medication to help get rid of the headache. Even though she wants very much to compete and win, she simply cannot put her body and her baby at risk. She will be withdrawing from the competition. All for a stupid outdoor camping challenge.
We actually know that Lee Ann’s baby is healthy and happy post-show. So, that’s good news.
As the chefs are setting up, a storm blows in, adding an extra element of challenge since they’re outdoors for this festival.
With regards to significant comments during the actual tasting process, Padma really doesn’t like Brother’s radler (with chai) and Keegan says that the egg roll just isn’t German. Tom agrees.
Good news comes for Chris as both Keegan and Padma enjoy his radler, which means that his fellow chefs did him a solid by helping him out with flavors since he can’t taste his own drink.
Fatima redeems herself with Padma with her delicious-looking dessert. Padma compliments her and tells her the chai flavors and spices go really well with the sweetness.
Mustache Joe’s radler is too sweet, and Keegan can’t taste the beer in it. Also, he described his sauce as a cheesy beer flavor, but Keegan thinks it is also on the sweet side and not as advertised. The German chef is confused by the dish, which is always a bad sign. (It’s a worse sign if Tom is confused by the dish.) The non-judge diners do seem to enjoy Mustache Joe’s concoctions, though.
It’s time for Judges’ Table, and Keegan is pleased with the German creations that he tasted. Today’s favorites were Claudette, Bruce and Tanya. The judges were impressed by Tanya’s pairing of her dish and her radler, while Claudette’s dish had great heat from Serrano and habanero ash. Bruce’s spaetzle was nicely cooked and truly demonstrated his signature style. The winner elevated a good foundation of German cuisine while combining it beautifully with a radler. Tanya is that chef, and she is utterly thrilled. She’s a quiet threat. She is getting a three-night trip to the BMW performance center/and thermal spa in Palm Springs.
Now, we have to deal with the bottom three. The judges call out Adrienne, Mustache Joe, and Brother Love. Mustache Joe admits that his day was difficult and that he tried to do too much. Keegan tells him he must be disciplined. Brother was happy with his roll, but the chefs didn’t believe his dish felt German at all, and the radler didn’t pair well. Adrienne admits that she needed more salt, which was the exact comment Tom made while tasting it (although they were generally quite complimentary of the dish).
We don’t believe Adrienne is at risk here. One of the boys is going home.
And in fact, it is Brother Love, aka Son of Mandingo, King of the Topless Go-Go Boys. The judges just really didn’t think he adhered to the rules of the challenge (although elements of his dish were tasty). He’ll be formidable in Last Chance Kitchen, and I don’t give Tu any chance in this first round against him.
Next episode will feature the “Top Chef Games,” and it looks like there will be some significant conflict. We’ll see what happens!