Top Chef Charleston Recap: Episode 10
By Jason Lee
February 7, 2017
Sylva is frustrated but has to set that aside to serve the judges next. He’s turned his raw frittatas into scrambled eggs, with a piece of arctic char on top . . . which looks fine, but not creative at all. Also, he tells the judges that his dish is a “arctic char frittata” when it’s clearly NOT a frittata. Ughh. Though Dominque finds the fish cooked well, Tom notes that the dish overall screams that things were going wrong in the kitchen.
But it’s not only Sylva. The plating strategy that Brooke wanted to employ is not working out at all, as the hibiscus sauce inside her matcha and chia seed yogurt parfait towers is leaking out all over the plate, including into her peanut butter crumbles. It’s one big peanut butter and jelly, matcha yogurt, hibiscus mess. Dominque can’t find any matcha flavor, and Tom notes that in light of the rapidly melting yogurt parfait towers, liquid nitrogen could have been Brooke’s friend.
John is next with an octopus hash scramble. The octopus, he believes, makes the dish whimsical (cause really, when does an octopus not bring whimsicality to things?). Tom grills John about what most people like best about hash (answer: the crispy bits). Those bits are noticeably lacking here. Gail appreciates John’s use of chorizo and octopus, which pair nicely, but wants more of the sour heat that he had tried to impart with his use of kimchi.
Finally, we have Sheldon, who’s totally pumped about his Korean fried chicken with seaweed butter and waffle crumble, which he’s sure is a winning dish. He’s right. Gail finds it weird to be dipping friend chicken in butter (who says southern food isn’t healthy?) but loves it here. Tom describes the dish as “cravable.” Can’t get much better than that.
At Judges Table, Tom notes that today was not the chefs’ best day, as the food overall was not nearly as creative as they were expecting. In the end, only two dishes worked well: those from Sheldon and Shirley. Tom loved Sheldon’s seaweed butter, and Gail appreciated the contrast between the soft butter and the crunchy chicken. As for Shirley, Padma thought her ode to cheeseburger flavors really worked, and Dom praises the amount of work that went into the dish (making the pot sticker dough, rolling out wrappers, cooking each batch to order).
Though Sheldon seems to have run away with the challenge, Shirley is surprisingly announced as the winner. She’s stunned. She was up for elimination in the Quickfire the day before, and now she’s on top (though, to be fair, Shirley is rarely ever good in the Quickfires).
As for the bottom three, John’s octopus hash lacked inspiration, though his eggs and octopus were well cooked. Brooke’s concept was not lunch-y in the least, and the hibiscus sauce totally overwhelmed the matcha flavor in the yogurt. The presentation was also, in Tom’s words, sloppy. Finally, Sylva’s execution of his dish was really lacking, with no frittata and overcooked eggs.
The deliberation over who should go home is hot and heated, with Padma saying that Brooke’s dish “angered” her because it was essentially a yogurt parfait with peanut butter brittle, with no attempt to even try to follow the directions of the challenge. Despite Brooke’s failure of conception, Tom is more perturbed by Sylva’s failure of execution, wondering how anyone can excuse overcooked eggs and fish.
What’s worse, Padma asks, not following the challenge or following the challenge and making a dish that tastes bad? As usual, Tom gets his way, and Sylva is sent home. He’s devastated and asserts that he’s as good as any of the remaining chefs in the competition - and he’s probably right. At this point, only he, Brooke, and Shirley have won two Elimination Challenges. He’s going to have to win a few more battles on Last Chance Kitchen if he has a hope of getting back in the thick of things. We’ll see if he can.
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