Top Chef Boston Recap: Finale Part 2

By Jason Lee

February 9, 2015

Seriously? You're going to make me cook with ants?

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Fifth up is Greg’s pork and poblano pepper stew. He’s looking to incorporate poblano flavor into the dish in a variety of ways.

Lastly, the menu will end with a cheese dish prepared by Doug. He’s feeling confident about this one - he believes he can elevate queso by pairing it with other components.

The two hours end and Greg heads out to the dining room with his chilled guava soup with bay scallops, habanero, and roasted guava. The Mexican chefs rave about the fresh flavor and balance between spicy and sweet. Tom loves the texture of the soup and heat it leaves in his mouth. Richard, after Greg leaves, points out the high level of difficulty in making a sweet soup.

Mei, in my eyes, has somewhat redeemed herself for choosing to make guacamole - she forms the guacamole in the shape of a sushi roll. It looks incredibly cool. She fills the “roll” with xoconostle, and tops it with radish, serrano, and some fried tortilla chips. Padma appreciates the fact that Mei didn’t hide the flavor of avocado, but notes that at the end of the day, it’s essentially refined guacamole. A Mexican chef wishes that there’d been more xoconostle flavor. Mei leaves, and Tom turns to the group noting that while Mei had been creative with her guacamole, there was a lot more she could have done with the ingredient. “I think she left the door wide open to get knocked out by another chef,” he says.




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Doug comes out next with a tortilla español with an escamoles aioli. Richard Blais (who’s here in place of Gail) finds his use of aioli brilliant. The Mexican chefs, however, wish that more escamoles flavor had been present in the dish. Tom doesn’t like the texture of the dish, as the escamoles is similar to that of the potato in the dish, and thus he can’t tell where one ingredient ends and the other begins.

Feeling immense pressure after the “meh” reception her guacamole elicited, Mei’s feeling great about her huitlacoche agnolotti with roasted corn broth. One Mexican chef compliments her for really bringing the huitlacoche flavor forward. Tom loves the broth and deems it a “very well made” savory ravioli. Before she leaves, another of the Mexican chefs tells Mei that he loves the broth and would order her dish again. Padma notes that Mei’s pasta is one of the strongest dishes so far and Tom concurs.

Greg puts the final touches on his pork and poblano stew before bringing it out - he was worried that it lacked sufficient punch and adds more pepper. Upon tasting it, one Mexican chef proclaims that the dish has made him “very emotional” because of the authenticity in it. Richard loves the flavor of char that Greg incorporated, and Tom immensely enjoyed the earthiness of the dish.

As the closer, Doug comes out with smoked queso with spiced honey, squash chips, and charred pickles. Tom notes the difficulty of doing a “cheese platter,” he says that Doug approached it nicely. Richard says that it’s “far from being boring,” and loves the combination of queso with tomatillo.


Continued:       1       2       3       4       5

     


 
 

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