In the end, Jason, Michael and Patty just didn't live up to expectations. Aaron, Carrie and Shirley did though (GO PICKLEY!) and Carrie ended up *winning* with her Iowan Trinidadian Gumbo with Coconut, Green Mango, and Corn Crumble!
It may look odd, but it sounds AMAZING!!!
On to the main event- FOOD TRUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had 4 teams-
Green Team: Mediterranean Food- Stephanie Shirley, Sara, Louis
Red Team: Southern Food- Michael, Nina, Justin, Janie, Bene
Yellow Team: Taco Truck- Carrie, Carlos, Brian, Travis, Aaron
Blue Team: Surf Seafood- Jason, Patty, Bret, Nick
I will say, 5 people in a food truck is a bit nuts, I kinda wish they had done 5 teams instead. I also Love how Shirley talked about the food truck she has- hahaha!
I kinda felt bad for Bene. He was definitely getting ignored by everyone on his team, BUT sloppy joe? REALLY?!?! I mean, I love a good sloppy joe, but this is Top Chef and you have to be a bit more creative and upscale than that! I feel like his team could smell weakness and kept treating him like their help the rest of the challenge. Luckily he didn't have to explain himself at judge's table.
I am SURE everyone knew that Jason was making a very bad move wrapping everything ahead of time! Has he never seen the show? And Patty REALLY!!! Ugh I wish we could lose her- she's not on the same level as everyone, for sure the weakest chef.
In the end it was the Blue Team in the bottom (shocker) and the Yellow Team for the win!!!!!!!
Carrie hit it out of the park with her dough for the Beef and Pork Curry Empanadas with Watercress and Mango
And if you couldn't guess who was out, then you haven't watched enough Top Chef (although Patty was pretty bad too)
Ep 3: Commander's Palace: An elimination Quickfire challenge keeps the cheftestants on their toes this week as they make dishes with items on Dana Cowin’s worst “Food Trends” list. For the Elimination Challenge, the cheftestants are asked to replicate legacy dishes from the iconic Commander’s Palace menu. Joining the judges are Commander’s Palace current chef and alumni: Emeril Lagasse, Paul Prodhomme, and Tory McPhail.
I thought it was great that they gave the chefs all night to work on their gumbos. I was really hoping they wouldn't cheapen it by making it a more traditional 1 hour (or less) quick fire because gumbo deserves love. It also seems pretty hardcore to start a potentially all night QF right after the first elimination. Well played Top Chef: NOLA. I would like to add onto your statement - and I can't believe NOLA Chef Michael restarted his gumbo at 1:30am...and was one of the worst! I was shocked Aaron did not know the base for gumbo, where did you think you were coming sir?
ReplyDeleteWhen the guest judge, who seemed like a really cool old lady, announced she was so happy to see all the young chefs, and then specifically mentioned the women, I knew Pickely, with 4 out of 5 women cheftestants, was in good shape. Le Chefre (4 out of 6 men) and 51st State (5 out of 6 men) were not going to fare quick as well.
I love how you've set up the side panel. It's convenient to have team scores at the top and then be able to see the individual chefs ranked by points. I was thinking it might be nice to have the chefs listed under their team names by when they were picked in the draft as opposed to alphabetically. So for Le Chefre our list would be Carlos, Louis, Brian, Nina, Ramon, Michael, Stephanie. It would give a better idea of how we actually did with our picks and which picks were lucky (like our scooping up of Steph C as the final dreg).
Great job with the first two eliminated cheftestant captions! A perennial strong point on this blog that doesn't disappoint.
How are you going to be scoring the elimination QF? I think this has come up in at least one past season but I don't remember specifically how we scored it. I think the points should at least be escalated to a high stakes QF. Pretty high stakes to be going home if you lose. So winner would get +6 and the other top picks +4? And the losers? It seems like the actual chef who gets cut should lose more points than the other 2 (or however many) are in the bottom. What do y'all think?
My new cookbook, Momofuku, arrived today and it looks amazing! Perhaps I will try out a recipe when we get together later in the season!
So excited for how well Carrie is doing! I hope she keeps it up -- definitely a pleasant surprise for our team. :) Happy to get rid of Jason too, that guy just doesn't work hard enough for my taste. Plus, he could have spent weeks hovering at the bottom, stealing away all of Carrie's hard-earned points!
ReplyDeleteElimination QF Points: I think that whoever is eliminated get's -3. That is what every eliminated chef gets. HS is typically 2pts, but since it is a QF, maybe we reduce to 1pt.
ReplyDeleteWinner: 4
Top: 3
Bottom: -2
Eliminated:-3
What do you all think?
I like the way this is laid out...
ReplyDelete