Top Chef Masters Recap

By Jason Lee

June 15, 2010

Now -that- is the stance of a reality show winner.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
The three Masters bring in their first courses. Marcus remembers eating a lot of starches in his childhood, presenting a smoked char with sweet horseradish, shellfish broth and apples. Susur, like every Asian kid, remembers going to dim sum with his family, presenting steamed scallops with Cantonese black bean sauce and dim sum shrimp with crab croquettes. Rick recalls his times going “clamming” with his father, but strangely serves a glazed kushi OYSTER (not a clam) with sturgeon caviar, hamachi and a live sea scallop.

The panel digs into what looks like an AMAZING spread of food. According to the diners, Rick has displayed true artistry with his perfectly cooked oyster, Susur’s black bean sauce is absolutely amazing (“dim sum taken to the next level,” says Rick Bayless), and Marcus’s char is spectacular. Sounds like three hits.

Next up, for the “dish that made you want to become a chef,” Marcus recalls the time he cooked Thanksgiving dinner for his family, presenting a salt-cured duck, a foie gras ganache, sweet potato jam and some aged balsalmic. Susur remembers his first time eating Japanese food and presents tuna with wasabi mousse, pickled cucumber and artichoke, plus a charred sea bream. Rick has fond memories of when a neighbor cooked bacon and eggs for him, serving up a braised pork belly with a poached egg, truffles, gnocchi and turnip.

Only Marcus seems to have hit the mark here. The foie gras is roundly praised as “genius,” with Jay demanding that one of the chefs in the room explain to him how it was made, and Rick responding with, “I don’t know but I want this technique.”




Advertisement



Meanwhile, Susur’s tuna needed to be sliced thinner and with greater precision, while Rick’s gnocchi is chewy and his pork belly wasn’t braised long enough.

Finally, we have the dish that represents the Masters as they are today. Marcus wants to bring African cuisine into the fine dining world and serves berbere-flavored hamachi meatballs, a sea urchin froth and porcini mushroom couscous. Susur has a lamb Thailandaise with chang mai sausage, green curry and polenta. Rick is not doing fish (a surprise) and presents venison with matsutake mushrooms, pear butter and stuffed cipolini onions.

This time, it’s Susur and Rick that have impressed the crowd.

“Oh my god, wait til you taste it, it’s so good,” gushes Rick Bayless about Susur’s dish. He compliments the Chang Mai sausage, Tom loves the sauces, and Michael proclaims this dish to be his favorite that Susur has cooked.

As for Rick, his venison is perfectly cooked, Gail loves the pear butter, and Rick Bayless praises him for stretching outside his comfort zone.

Meanwhile, most people are perplexed by Marcus’ dish. Rick Bayless says that it has an odd texture, saying that it’s not his favorite dish, though admitting that this could be due to the fact that he doesn’t understand African cuisine.

It’s back to the critics table for the last time. Rick gets major kudos for his oyster from Jay, who calls it the best he’d ever had. James criticizes his gnocchi for being chewy in the second dish, while Jay complains that the pork belly hadn’t been braised long enough. They all loved his third dish, though.

For Susur, Gail loved his black bean sauce in his first dish, James knocks his tuna dish for being large and wieldy, but Gail absolutely adored the sausage in his third dish, saying that the layers of flavor showed different aspect of his personality.

Lastly, Gail was wowed by the broth in Marcus’ first dish, the ganache in his second dish is (again) roundly praised, but James questions the texture of the fish in his third dish.
There were a lot of highs and lows from each Master, but I’m thinking that Marcus has the edge. Sadly, if I had to guess, I’d say that Rick probably secured second place. I was pulling for Susur - but I’ll be happy if Rick doesn’t win.

The scores are ready to be read, and Susur goes first (which means he won’t win). He gets 4 ½ stars from Jay, 4 from Gail and 4 ½ from James. The diners gave him 4 stars for a total of 17. Sigh, that’s not enough to win. Nope.

Marcus gets 4 ½ stars from Gail, 4 stars from James and 5 stars from Jay. The diners gave him 4 stars, so he has 17 ½. Just half a star better than Susur.

So it’ll either be Marcus or Rick as the Top Chef Master. Rick gets 5 stars from James, but only 4 from Gail and 4 from Jay. He needs 5 stars from the diners to win . . . but he only gets 4! His total of 17 is not enough to win. Marcus has the title, and Rick and Susur tie for second.
It’s amazing how close this competition was – only half a star separated the winner from third place. I guess it just goes to show how good these Masters are. I’m sad that my favorites like Jody and Susan weren’t able to participate in the finale, but we nevertheless saw some great cooking.

Onto Top Chef DC!


Continued:       1       2

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.