Top Chef Masters Recap

By Jason Lee

May 17, 2010

I'm not even 100% sure what I cooked.

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Susan is last with sea cucumber made two ways – marinated and fried – plus a kangaroo with juniper sauce. Andrew says that the plate has ADD but that he can’t stop eating it. Gael says that this is her first time eating sea cucumber not braised and that she loves it.

As the dinner ends, it’s hard to say who won or lost. There was so much going on, so much discussed, it really feels up for grabs. Meanwhile, the Masters all feel like crap. They sit around the table, just happy that it’s over. No one feels confident, they’re all thinking about things they could have done better.

They go before the table and each get snippets of criticism. James loved Rick’s French approach to the dish, but the chicken needed to be poached further. Jay really didn’t like that Tony didn’t have enough salt on his crustini, while James didn’t get enough goat leg. Jay wasn’t sure what the point was for Susur to use those vegetables in his plate. Gael was excited to try rare goat leg from Jody, but found it really inedible due to its toughness. Jay thought that Marcus put too many intense flavors in his dish. Jonathan overwhelmed Gael with his dish, and not in a good way. Jay thought that Susan did amazing things with the fried sea cucumber, but James thought there was too much on the plate.

It’s interesting how many Masters got knocked for having too many elements on the plate. I would suggest that it’s probably due to the fact that most of those proteins do not go well together, and the Masters had to invent ways for them to be paired in the same dish.




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The critics pick out Susur, Rick, Tony and Susan as the top. Susur was close to genius, according to Jay, and Rick was clean and elegant. He also calls Susan’s fried sea cucumber “a revelation.”

The top two Masters are revealed to be Susur and Rick. No surprise there. As Gael points out, the chefs that were able to pick their ingredients first were able to achieve a more elegant result. Rick gets 4 ½ stars from Gael, 4 from Jay, 4 ½ from James, and 3 ½ from the diners, for a total of 16 ½. Normally, that’s a really high score, but I’m expecting that Susur will top that.

Indeed, he gets 5 stars from Jay, 4 ½ from James, 5 from Gael and 4 ½ from the diners. That’s a total of 19 stars . . . meaning he was only ONE STAR away from a perfect score. Jeebus, this guy is amazing. The other Masters look at him with admiration, and Rick concludes that Susur is the man to beat.

Meanwhile, the depressed trio of Jody, Marcus and Jonathan come out. They have been selected as the bottom three. Jody’s goat leg, according to Gael, was too rare. Everything on Marcus’ plate, according to Jay, packed a punch and eating it was like “enduring 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.” Jonathan, according to Jay, had a bad day.

I think Jonathan is safe and I think Jody will probably going home, but I have my fingers and toes and eyes crossed that she stays. I’m a huge fan of hers, and I would hate for the first two people to go home in the Champions Round to be women.

Jonathan gets his scores first. He gets 3 stars from Gael, 3 ½ from Jay and 2 ½ from James. With 2 stars from the diners, he has 11 in total.

Marcus is next, getting 3 stars from James, 3 from Gael and 3 from Jay. With 2 ½ from the diners, he has 11 ½ and is safe. Sigh. I was hoping he’d go home.

So it’s either Jonathan or Jody. PLEASE LET IT BE JONATHAN. Jody gets 2 ½ stars from Jay, 2 ½ from James, 3 stars from Gael . . . so she needs 3 ½ to beat Jonathan. And she gets –

DAMMIT. DAMMIT. DAMMIT.

Jody only gets 2 ½ stars from the diners, for a total of 10 ½ to Jonathan’s 11. Argh. Jody is going home. As she hugs her fellow Masters goodbye, Susur tells her that he loves the way she cooks. I think that’s a huge compliment.

I’m certainly going to miss having Jody on the show. It’s now up to Susan, with her Professor Trelawney glasses, to hold the torch for the women on the show.


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