Top Chef California: Episode 10

By Jason Lee

February 8, 2016

#nerdchefs

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Jeremy again holds all food in order to get the judges’ dishes perfect. Next up for them is a roasted salmon with ratatouille from Phillip, and a roast chicken with polenta and wild mushroom ragout from Amar. “Wow, service is quick,” comments Tom. Yep, but at what cost?!?!?

Padma likes the salmon but doesn’t appreciate the ratatouille on top. Tom notes that the vegetables in the ratatouille are undercooked. As for the chicken, Padma wishes it had more ragout, to which Tom replies, “yes, it needs some sort of sauce.” He further notes that this is the second or third time that Amar has cooked a sous vide chicken breast. “It’s a little safe,” Padma agrees.

With that, the judges are up and heading over to Palate. Meanwhile, Jeremy, Phillip, and Amar are finally getting to work on the food for all the other tables, which have languished while the judges dined.

Over at Palate, Karen is very pleased with how service is going. She was worried that Isaac was disorganized in the beginning, but things are moving along. Out in the dining room, though, Marjorie is having a hard time getting diners in and out of the restaurant - the people who have finished eating are simply sitting at their tables, while the line outside grows longer. In a brilliant move, Marjorie goes over to a couple of tables and asks them to join her BY THE BAR for some sparkling wine to finish off lunch. The diners head over, and some hungry individuals take their place at the tables.

Wow, that was smooth by Marjorie. Super smooth.

Unfortunately, while Marjorie is in the back giving the new food orders from the new diners to the kitchen and grabbing a quick drink of water, the judges show up. Ughhhhh. That was Marjorie at her finest a minute ago, and now she comes off in the worst possible light. Acknowledging that, Marjorie tells them, “of course, the infamous ‘nobody at the host stand.’” Then she runs back to get the kitchen to fire four appetizers for the judges.

When next we see her, she’s got two dishes for the judges: a pork and bacon terrine from Carl, and her own marinated beet salad with pickled cauliflower and baby greens. Tom doesn’t have a positive word to say about the terrine, which leads my heart to sink to my stomach. He finds the texture off and the dish as a whole pretty under-seasoned. As for Marjorie’s salad, Gail likes the freshness of the beets, but Padma wonders whether Marjorie was smart in choosing a beet salad as her one dish for lunch. “It was certainly better than Carl’s terrine,” Tom says. UGHHHHHH.

Meanwhile, back at District LA, there is still a huge line of diners waiting to eat. In the kitchen, the chefs bicker amongst themselves as they rush to get food out. Jeremy notes that he has no actual food orders. “KWAME!?!?” he yells to the dining room.




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Marjorie comes back out to the judges with a grilled shank steak salad with carrots, dikon, and jicama from Karen, and a seafood stew from Isaac. Padma absolutely adores Karen’s steak salad, saying that she could eat it every day and be happy. Tom agrees that “it’s all there” in that dish. As for the stew, Tom likes the flavor and Gail notes that it was better than the salmon and chicken entrees over at District LA.

Summing things up, Tom says that while the appetizers at District LA were better, the entrees at Palate are “much stronger.”

“It’s no harm, no foul,” Bill (our guest judge) concludes, and Tom agrees. He notes that the chefs were probably more focused on executing and expediting food than making creative or daring dishes.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, Marjorie rejoins her Palate team members. Lunch service is over - for them. The dining room at District LA is still packed. In fact, as Palate wraps up and starts to prep for dinner service, a waiter comes over to tell Jeremy that they just seated people at six tables. They have new tickets waiting to be filled. Jeremy is stunned. He quickly realizes that by holding food for the other tables while the judges ate, their service is now severely backed up.

Phillip starts barking orders to the other chefs - the sooner lunch is over, the sooner dinner can start. Jeremy, the ostensible executive chef, snaps at him. Meanwhile, in the dining room, Kwame says that the line of diners outside the restaurant keeps growing every time he looks at it.

Thus, while the chefs at Palate are well on their way to turning out (hopefully) a good dinner service, the chefs at District LA bear expressions on their faces that remind me of the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, when all the characters look out into the horizon, dumbstruck by how much farther they have to go.

Mordor awaits.


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