Top Chef California: Episode 3

By Jason Lee

December 14, 2015

When she told her sad story, you knew she was in trouble.

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Finally, Grayson has a lacquered pork belly and spiced carrot purée. Cat loves the flavors, while Richard praises the purée as fascinating and dynamic. Grayson is the top pick of the group and wins the round.

Next is Jeremy (pan roasted spot prawns with potato gnocchi) against Phillip (rib eye with rutabaga purée). Cat absolutely adores what Jeremy did with his prawn, and Tom says that the dish is “all about finesse,” with perfectly cooked prawns. Cat also likes Phillip’s flavors, but his sauce is a bit off-putting. Jeremy is the unanimous pick around the table, but Phillip appears safe.

Angelina puts her marinated mussels against Giselle’s quail and cucumber radish salad. No one likes Angelina’s mussels, which are dry. Tom even accuses her of “torturing” her ingredients. On the other hand, he likes Giselle’s sauce and says that her background flavors “keep it interesting.” By voice vote, it’s Giselle over out-matched Angelina.

While walking away from the judges, Angelina cannot help herself from releasing a stream of expletives, snarling that “this bitch f*ing beat me again. I’m like f***. She f***ing won.”

Kwame serves up what looks like an ice cream scoop of tuna salad. It turns out to be rock crab salad. Tom likes it, calling it playful and fun. Suzanne Coin (one of the guest judges) describes it as “deliciously slutty.” Sounds like a compliment to me.

Opposite him is Chad with an orange-lacquered lamb. Cat finds his lamb to be cooked perfectly.

With the table split 4-4, Tom casts the deciding vote in favor of Kwame.

Next is Isaac with a fennel-crusted halibut (which is overcooked, per Dana, and needs acid, per Tom) against Carl with a roasted chicken thigh with prosciutto (and a sauce that Tom likes, and chicken that reminds Cat of her mom’s home cooking). Although Cat casts her vote “definitely” in favor of Carl, who edges out Isaac by two votes.

Next is our all-female duo, with Karen frantically trying to get everything plated before service. She fails. One plate goes out without a piece of fish and lands in front of Padma. And of course, Padma - classy lady that she is - calls Karen out on it. “I - I just ran out of time,” she stammers.

Lucky for her, the diners absolutely love her seared rock cod with carrot orange puree. One diner declares that it’s one of the best dishes he’s had today. Cat calls her relish “to die for.” Marjorie is the clear bridesmaid with her roasted pork loin with potatoes. Tom criticizes the pork as dry and Dana compares it to “1960s nursery food.” By voice vote, Karen is the clear winner.




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Our shotgun marriage is next, as Jason offers marinated pork loin with steamed crudités (yeah, that’s right, he steamed the veggies you find in a Safeway veggie platter and offered it as a dish). Tom wants more flavor, while another diner says that Jason clearly did not feel comfortable cooking this dish and these flavors.

Frances receives an equally tough grilling for her ginger-glazed black cod with jicama relish and acorn squash. Tom calls it a “hodgepodge on a plate,” while another diner hates the skin on her cod.

None of the diners likes anything this pair has to offer. Only because they’re forced to choose a winner, they go down the line until it’s tied at four votes a piece. Tom casts a deciding vote in favor of Jason, but he doesn't look any happier than Frances, who’s up for elimination.

Back at Judges Table, Tom notes that although this didn’t seem like a tough challenge, it seemed to throw a lot of people off their game. The top dishes came from Karen (Tom loved her moist fish and salsa), Kwame (whose rock crab had tons of assertive flavor), and Jeremy (who cooked his prawns perfectly). Padma informs Karen that as she received no fish on her plate, she cannot win. Thus, the recipient of a barrel of Sanford wine and his own label is… Kwame! Wow, watch out for this guy. He saved his team from elimination last week and now he wins. We may have our first front-runner on our hands.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have Frances, Angelina, and Wesley. Wesley, we are told, didn’t check his seasoning, and Tom is particularly unhappy with his decision to focus on using stencils instead of flavor. Richard hated his use of sous vide.

Angelina failed to showcase her mussels. Tom notes that she made the elementary mistake of taking her mussels out of their shells, which dried out quickly.

Finally, Padma criticizes Frances’s use of too many ingredients on the plate. Tom thinks she should have spent her time seasoning her fish instead of trying to get acorn squash on the plate.

I guess that Wesley is headed home, as he made the biggest mistake by trying to sous vide his rib eye, but it’s Frances who’s packing her knives this week. She’s upset because she doesn’t feel like she had yet showcased her own style of cooking, but notes that this is simply another instance in which she’s had to fight and scrap to get to the top. She offers us her mantra: “Always hope. Just keep dreaming.”

She’ll do well to follow her own advice in Last Chance Kitchen.


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