Top Chef - S5E3 Postmortem

We have a contender for weepiest departure ever.

Not to come down too hard on Richard. He seemed like a nice fellow. But you can't combine graham crackers, sliced bananas, melted chocolate and marshmallow fluff and expect to stick around, regardless of the conditions.

And speaking of the conditions... well... I suppose there will always be episodes like this. *sigh*

Rankings most likely on Monday... maybe Tuesday due to the holiday (depends on how late we get back Sunday night).

Have a great T-Day, everybody!

Comments

[Ally]

Last week Padma spit out her food. Apparently next week there will be another spitting incident. Somehow a new tag line has emerged (“you can leave the kitchen”, “someone has to leave the kitchen”). The losing team has to clean up while the winners go to a concert. (What is this, Hell’s Kitchen? Is Tom going to start screaming at them next week?) Even worse, the food is dull. When Ariane is congratulated just for cooking a moist turkey breast...maybe the food really is bad enough to be spit out?

[Vega]

I was so excited to see Grant Achatz as the guest judge for this episode. He had quite a bit of insight, I thought.

[Ed T.]

Ally wrote: "When Ariane is congratulated just for cooking a moist turkey breast... maybe the food really is bad..."
Based on my experience with catered dinners, turkey tends to be dry - like cardboard. Add in the 'twists' given to the cheftestants, and I would say that producing a moist turkey breast is pretty danged impressive.

Of course, since Ariane is a caterer by trade, one would hope she would be able to pull something like this off.

~EdT.

[Jason]

Overall, I found the episode to be a disappointment. We gain no real insight into the real contenders (except for maybe Jeff, who continues to have issues with timing/etc.). Seems to me at this point in the season it's more about whittling down the field than wowing us with food.

That said, no problem with the elimination. Nothing that the chef did (keeping their name out of this until we know Dom has seen the ep) really looked impressive. Here's hoping for a better show next week, and a clearer idea of who the frontrunners for this season truly are.

[David M]

"Of course, since Ariane is a caterer by trade, one would hope she would be able to pull something like this off."

Ariane is NOT a caterer by trade, she's the executive chef/owner of her own retaraunt in New Jersey.

The twists thrown in this week were kind of prohibitive and unnecessary, I thought. No kitchen, toaster ovens, microwaves, cooking for 60 people in the rain... well, the food is going to suffer no matter who's cooking.

But hey - a contender for Top Chef has 3 hours to cook S'mores and can't get it right? Come on!

But the oddest thing about the episode IMO - why was no winner selected from the winning team? Who won the elimination challenge??

[canasian]

Well, Bravo lists Radhika and Hosea as the official winners of the challenge. I don't know what Hosea made, but Radhika made the vegan stuffing that everyone loved so much. I'll have to watch the episode again, because I don't even know if they mentioned Hosea this week (very happy for both of them, but I still just am not a fan of Radhika, despite the fact that she currently has 1/3 of possible wins.) I guess Hosea is going to be a stronger Ryan, alternating good weeks and bad weeks, but on a much higher level than Ryan did, of course.

[Allison]

I wish Richard had a better fate. While I'm basically a home-based cook, I'm quite familiar with riders from my college days when I was responsible for delivering said items to rock stars. It pushed me to continue to grow as a cook.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[lon]

Shows my lack of knowledge. I can guess at what a "rider" is, but I would like more info. Where did the term come from? Explain how it works, please canasian or whomever.

[Skillet Doux]

"Shows my lack of knowledge. I can guess at what a "rider" is, but I would like more info. Where did the term come from? Explain how it works, please canasian or whomever."

There's probably a more technical definition, but it's basically an addendum tacked onto a contract. In the case of bands and musical performers, most will have a standard rider that they tack onto the end of the contract they sign with the promoter or venue putting on the show. In addition to reasonable stuff that the venue needs to provide to the performers and crew, the rider is where all of those infamously ridiculous prima donna requests go, the most famous of which is probably the Van Halen "no green M&Ms" demand. (Though that's widely misunderstood... at an earlier show on the tour, a crew member was injured because the venue promoter didn't follow some important equipment specification put into their rider, so they added the M&Ms thing as a test to see if the venue had carefully read the rider. If they came into the dressing room and the green M&Ms hadn't been sorted out of the bowl, they knew they had to watch all of the equipment very carefully.)

[DaveP]

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Overall, this was a crappy episode with too many gimmicks, product placements and "curveballs". The only standouts were the guest judges.

First, I was very happy to see Grant Achatz and until I heard about the cancer, was very puzzled as to why he wasn't part of the Chicago TC judges. And the Foo Fighters, while not exactly my favorite band, are definitely foodies. Read LeeAnne's blog for a taste of their love of bacon and other tidbits. :)

I was happy enough to see Richard go. At least he protected Jeff, who's quickly becoming a favorite after being annoying w/his mugging in ep 1 (and the opening credits). Euro-duo are still strong as are Leah and Gene. Ariane made good turkey... yay. Okay, it was under adverse conditions, but still, she won't be around long, I predict.

[canasian]

"Though that's widely misunderstood... at an earlier show on the tour, a crew member was injured because the venue promoter didn't follow some important equipment specification put into their rider, so they added the M&Ms thing as a test to see if the venue had carefully read the rider. If they came into the dressing room and the green M&Ms hadn't been sorted out of the bowl, they knew they had to watch all of the equipment very carefully."

Okay, that's the funniest story I've ever heard. Anyway, I forgot to mention how much I loved the quickfire. I know some people thought it was gimmicky and hard to watch, but I think it is a very important skill, not only for a chef but also for a home cook, to be able to take whatever they have on hand - leftover tukey, for instance - into something that's creative and totally different from what it originally was. It's also very possible in a catering situation(a skill that The Magical Elves have apparently decided is a requirement for the Top Chef winner to have) that the host of the event could call and say "I want a soup added to the menu." You already have the shopping done, so you need to steal ingredients from the pre-existing dishes to make this soup.

[lon]

Ok. Thanks. Rider probably came from having the additional info "ride" along or on the back of the original document. Sorry to take word time from a cooking blog, but there's enough "new" terms for me as is when all the name for techniques and food types thrown in.

Do some of the contestants make up names for their sauces and preparations?

[Ed T.]

"Ariane is NOT a caterer by trade, she's the executive chef/owner of her own retaraunt[sic] in New Jersey."

Oops... you are correct. My bad.

~EdT.

[Ed T.]

"Ariane is NOT a caterer by trade, she's the executive chef/owner of her own retaraunt[sic] in New Jersey.

Oops... you are correct. My bad."

Then, I watched a rerun, where about 20 min in (during the sequence discussing assignments in front of the arena), Ariane is in front of the Confess-o-Cam, lamenting about how nobody trusts her. She says something on the order of "Since I have done catering before, I know what I'm doing".

Therefore, I will give myself credit for being partly correct.

~EdT.

[canasian]

I didn't notice how tear-filled Richard's exit was until I re-watched the episode today (probably because I won't really care about people leaving for another three weeks), but I think he definitely comes in second to Joey from New York in season three.

[Dan]

I was sorry to see Richard go, but not surprised. He has been consistently one of the weakest chefs in terms of both conception as well as execution.

That being said, he was pleasant and attractive.

I'm actually somewhat surprised by how emotional some of these folks get - at this point, they've got to know that there is really no chance in hell that they are going to win, and that it's only a matter of time. Perhaps they are just banking on the suck factor that allowed Lisa to progress to the finale last season. Or perhaps it is only the editing that makes it so obvious to the viewers who the weak links are.

[Alex]

The thing that bothered me the most was the cheesy stuff about the band not being home for Thanksgiving. Didn't they shoot this in August? Even on his blog Tom kept up the charade about them missing their families and everything. You're not going to get me to feel bad for rock stars getting awesome free food back stage.

But props to everybody involved for acting ability, I guess.

Also, I loved Eugene making the grill. My idea when I first saw the challenge was less subtle: I noticed a tree in the background and thought they should light it on fire and do some roasting.

[Kevin Devine]

When I saw that they were cooking outside with microwaves and the like, my first thought was, "Do they sell hibachis at that grocery store?" I am glad Gene made a grill, it made sense and can easily be done within budget because a small grill and charcoal could run maybe $30. Gene seemed to be someone who was an easy out, but I think he'll make it to Restaurant Wars now.