Marjorie and Karen are the final females... Annoying to me that the women are always the minority! What gives!!!
Quickfire- Create a visually stunning food out of total crap; the winner decided by Instagram ratings! This is innovative! Makes me think about Michael Voltaggio, does anyone else follow him on Insta? He's been posting tons of pic like this. Granted I bet his food tastes better than this stuff!
My favorites while watching were:
Chad
and Amar:
Phillip is insane. UGH can he please go!?!?! SO annoying- even Padma was not impressed! He is reminding me of Marcel! Does anyone else think so?
Elimination Challenge- Beefsteak charity event! This would be fun!!!! We should have a Beefsteak night! No utensils, no plates and no napkins!!!!
Team 1: Phillip, Amar and Jeremy
Team 2: Isaac, Marjorie and Chad
Team 3: Kwame, Karen and Carl
Everyone is so silly this week! I love the energy! I feel like this crew is more synced than past weeks. I like that Marjorie is making bread given the challenge, bread will make everything easier to eat. I also like the peel and eat shrimp idea- its the type of food you can't eat any other way but with your hands!
Did I miss them introducing Colin Hanks??? There were a lot of celebrities, but he was sitting right with the judges...
Team 1- feedback is that it was not messy and dirty enough. But the Lamb went over really well, unfortunately, due to the fact it was bone-in. The fish was cut too small and was not meaty enough.
Team 2- feedback is also too dainty! They did like the way the sausage looked but it was not seasoned eight and did not have enough fat. The bread went over pretty well though.
Team 3- feedback is that they liked the way the shrimp looked, but not so much with the taste. They loved having actual beef and thought that dipping it made it messy enough.
Everyone walked away confused about their presentation. I get it though- the Quickfire and Elimination were polar opposites and it's rare they do that. I think the chefs felt like there was going to be some kind of trick involved. They all played their plating "safe" and the food looked pretty. No team truly embraced the challenge.
Turns out the Quickfire winner is Karen! Wow, that was unexpected, but her plating was VERY pretty! If I had seen it on Instagram I think I might have been swayed!
Team 1 is the winner! Too bad Phillip had the only piece of meat with bone in it, it gave him the win, which means we're losing someone we all like!!!
Team 2 is on the bottom... Isaac's sausage looked good and met the challenge, but didn't have enough fat and flavor. Marjorie did good and everyone loved her bread. Chad with his micro-greens did not win over the judges- and his defensive attitude did not help.
Ultimately Chad has to pack his knives. Ugh, I liked Chad. I think he had more potential.
Next week- 2 part Restaurant Wars!!! It looks CRAZY!
Hell yeah we're in for Aspen food and wine festival!
ReplyDeleteI thought Amar's instagram plate was the best. Karen did do a great job with her colors. Phillip is a tool and painful to watch.
You make a good point about the polar opposite challenges this week. I had never heard of Beefsteak - love the idea - but I think it was clear that several/most of the chefs had never eaten there and it showed in their stylistic choices.
Fun and also extremely random to have Colin Hanks at judges table. It seemed like the judges were more tipsy than usual this week.
The two dishes from LCK were much better ideas as to what the chefs should have / could have done.
Two part restaurant wars...ahhh!! Should we try to get something going?
I know you don't have a lot of time on your hands but nice blog this week.
Nothing to add, I agree with both Kelly & Ben on everything.
ReplyDeleteIf I were given this beefsteak challenge, knowing what I know now, what would I have made? It seems like the judges would have really enjoyed like a whole suckling pig with an apple in its mouth on a tray. But would Padma REALLY have wanted to rip a slab of meat off a baby pig with her bare hands? I'm having trouble seeing it...
Nice blogging and comments.
ReplyDeleteYou know we're down to attend the Aspen Food and Wine fest at some point. Won't be this year though... Kinda a lot happening. But in the future for sure.
I really liked Amar's QF submission as well. It looks amazing and seemed to stand out from the rest. I wonder what it tasted like. All the Chef's thought Carl was a lock, but that obviously wasn't the case.
I see a little of Marcel in Phillip, but I think Phillip is worse. Marcell was a cocky dick in this world. Phillip is a cocky dick in a whole different world that he made up for himself somewhere along the way.
I got to eat at Red Bird in LA last month on a client dinner for Naked Juice. The food was awesome. We didn't eat in the cathedral though. The place was huge. In their regular building, they have a normal restaurant and bar. Then the 2nd floor is a lounge and event space. We were up on this 3rd floor balcony that sat 30 people at 2 big tables and then had its own little mini kitchen and bar. They were making apps for us in that little kitchen.
I asked the bar tender about the cathedral and he said they host wedding and special events and can seat up to 300. He didn't mentioned this Beef Steak dinner thing though.
They served our dinner family style and everything was really good. The best thing the served was kinda similar to a beef steak meal. They put a huge ribeye steak down for every 4 people. It had already been hut into some strips. We had utensils to eat it though. Really tasty.
Neal Fraser said "hi" at the end of our dinner (begrudgingly) which was kinda cool. He always seem to be a little awkward and pissed off though. Whatever, he made some great food that I didn't have to pay for.
Back to the pool. We need some bad weeks for le chefre for anyone else to have a chance. Like, all their chefs have to be on the losing restaurant wars team. Jeremy is a points beast right now. Killing it.
Our weekends are kinda booked out for this weekend and next weekend. Could anyone do a restaurant wars get together during the week?