Top Chef Masters - S1E7 Postmortem

Does the mise en place race ever get old? I'm thinking no.

You got me, ScorchaRei... you trusted, I doubted... and I'm the Chicagoan! Anyway, I think it's safe to say that Bayless rocking non-Mexican for a near win is the big story this week. Maybe even bigger than Lo rocking again. That was some serious fawning from the critics. Impressive. Guess I know where my first stop is going to be next time I'm in NY.

Keller's dish looked awfully nice, and it would seem he wasn't on top only by virtue of the fact that he wasn't quite as strong as Lo and Bayless. Sad to see Tracht go. Of course, I'd be sad to see just about anybody go. Well... maybe except for the guy who almost did (he cooked his signature dish for the president, don't you know!). I'm trying to think... has a Top Chef contestant ever been eliminated for finishing too early? In any case, I imagine Chiarello will bounce back, which would make Smith the odds-on favorite for elimination next week.

It's kind of odd that we've flipped from weekly winners to weekly eliminations, now. On Top Chef, no big deal. They're all young turks. Somebody has to go. And when you have a crowd of masters, okay, so somebody rocks a little more than the rest that day. But when you're looking at lineups like these -- how do you single somebody out and say you no longer deserve to be here? Yow.

Looking forward to next week. Discuss!

Comments

[suzanne]

The dish that Art Smith made was very ... unappetizing. Maybe it would have looked good if the yolk had been a bit softer, but hard boiled ... yuck. In general, he doesn't irritate me the way he does some of you, but I really thought he should have been the one to go, not Suzanne.

I'm betting that our top 3 tonight will be the final three (I know, really going out on a limb there ;)).

[MCH]

how do you single somebody out and say you no longer deserve to be here?

You single out Art Smith and you say, "Art Smith, you no longer deserve to be here." After that, obviously, it gets tougher.

I mean, he seems like a really sweet, if insecure old dude, and I can definitely see how he could make a good tv chef. But having him there creating a dish that looked like an eight-year-old got the run of the kitchen, begging off of both chicken and oysters and then not separating his eggs properly, I mean, ugh. There's that old thing that if you want to see if someone's really a cook, you have them cook eggs. He blew it with eggs twice in one show, and badly.

[Karen]

What I really like about the competition is how good natured they are with each other. They are competitive, but not at the expense of another chef. I loved it when Micheal Chiarello said it was more important to impress his friend, Rich Bayless, over the judges.

[Skillet Doux]

"I loved it when Micheal Chiarello said it was more important to impress his friend, Rich Bayless, over the judges."

I liked that he had to pause to consider whether that was the right answer :-)

[Danielle]

I thought tonight would be the final episode–one big face-off. Can't say I have any appetite to watch four more weeks... it does seem distasteful to watch real top chefs squinch and compete down to the last one standing.

[Lou]

I think Art Smith is/will be around because he provides humor - rather than the drama the usual Top Cheftestants bring to the series. He is insecure and feels he has to shout out why he is qualified to be there. While Art Smith is open and out I found Chiarello's "limp-wrist" cheer-on in the QF possibly something that could throw him while separating the eggs. I would prefer it if Tracht was still around instead but timing is part of the challenges.

I think the competition for the charities is good and I like learning more from these chefs than from the usual shows. I am much more interested in getting to eat at Rick Bayless's restaurants now and will also get to Anita Lo's once it reopens. I have a better appreciation of Bayless and Keller from what I see here than I do from their TV shows.

[Lon]

Most of the seem to say they would do it again.

I think the opportunity to work with each other can not be downplayed. Most top performers in any field don't get the chance to work side by side that often. No one whose ego is so big he/she can't learn would enter a Top Chef event like this anyway, so this gives them a way to talk and socialize with like kind.

I feel the competition is with themselves anyway. No one wants to be "schooled" as Chiarello says. They want to show off to their peers and that's what I enjoy.

[Gilmore]

I am truly enjoying their awesome skills and great nature. Wish Art Smith had gone - wow did Gael Green blister his dish. At least he did not almost pass out when mentioning the president this week.
Bayliss not cooking Mexican was awesome. Would love to eat in his or Anita Lo's restaurants.
Ready for the next show already. I hate waiting a week.

[Gilmore]

And Jay Rayner torches Art's dish here -
http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-masters/blogs/jay-rayner/the-scotch-egg?page=0%2C0
and explains why he stayed.

[Dave_P]

I didn't get to comment last week, but I was going to say (along w/most everyone else, it turned out) that my pick for the top 3 were (in order) Hubert, Lo & Bayless. Those were 3 of the initial 4 I was rooting for in the first place (Wylie being the last who didnt' make it) so I'm pretty happy about the state of affairs, and at least last night, there was a clear division among those 3 and the rest. Hubert actually seemed nervous after he didn't get chosen for the top 2, but really, he was right up there.

Art Smith got handed another challenge in his wheelhouse and bombed. Seriously, how do you mess up chopped steak & a fried egg on top? Right, you stick the egg inside of an undercooked chopped lamb loaf. Unfortunately, someone else was a bit worse (and man, I felt bad for Tracht). Please, Art, go back cooking for Oprah & Obama and leave the rest of us alone (sorry, but the guy really irritates me).

I'm really not sure if Chiarello will bounce back or not, at least to the level that he'll need to compete w/the top 3 who just seem to be on a slightly higher level of mastery. Next week's catering tho, and who knows what silliness will happen then.

Oh, did Tom seem kinda... hesitant about the Mis en Place race? I don't think he was quite as strict as he would've been w/the regular TC crowd. I doubt he would've let a non-master (and peer) fish out pieces of yolk instead of starting over. Conversely, Hubert's onions looked amazingly well chopped, but he prolly could've gotten away with far less.

P.S. I highly recommend Jay Rayner's scathing diatribe on the Scotch Egg on Bravo's otherwise atrocious website. Pretty funny stuff about what he, as a Brit, thinks of the foodstuff. :) Too bad he's not staying on instead of Toby for TC6.

--
Dave

[Independent George]

Anybody else get the feeling that the entire field was a little relieved they didn't have to do an interpretation of Wylie Dufresne's signature dish?

[babyarm]

Tom probably didn't need to watch the egg yolk thing because any egg yolk in there is going to cause huge issues in whipping it anyways.

A few things

-Nobody said you had to use the same protein. Cooking for 20 or whatever is different than plating one dish. She should have gone with a different white fish. Well, that and managed the clock better.

-Art's dish looked god awful. A HUGE egg inside a lamb loaf. I guess looking up scotch eggs on the internet that might actually be normal, but sheeeeesh. And what did he use the store bought sausage for? Best moment was when he was tossing his fries and they flew out of his bowl, not one, every last fry.

Here's another thing. Put the 6 signature dishes on a menu as they were presented the first time through with no chef name behind it. Which ones are you interested in first?

The lobster stew probably wins out in the sea category.
The lamb probably wins out in the land category.

The way they were executed it would appear the rankings were:

Keller
Bayless
Lo
MC
ST
Art

Obviously Bayless and Lo found a way to make things more than what they were before, which with the Keller dish was phenomenal. Everyone's second dish seemed to fall in comparison in some way to the first.

[Gilmore]

Rick Bayless' staff set up a blog for him - www.root4rick.com

From it:
"Cooking that meal will live as one of my life’s highlights: amazing chefs making amazing food for each other. How lucky was I to be sitting at that table sharing those flavors, Michael’s great wine, engaging conversation?"

[SorchaRei]

Naturally, I was happy to see Rick decide not to do a Mexican twist on Michael's dish ;-)

One thing that's clear from her two appearances, is that Anita Lo is a ridiculously cerebral chef. A lot of times, that makes the food interesting and even good, but not great. What I'm so intrigued about with her is that she appears to use this highly intellectual approach to create awesome food. Like a lot of other people, I'm saying to myself, "The next time I'm in New York after she re-opens . . . "

I also couldn't help but be struck by the contrast between Lo and Smith. Both are pretty clear that they are somewhat intimidated, but she just owns it (sort of an Eeek! Cooking for THESE guys!?! response) and moves on, while he wallows in it and tries to over-compensate with the name-dropping. Of course, it's clear that her modesty sits on top of genius while his insecurity sits on top of competence.

Art certainly went wrong with his version of the dish, even though he often makes stuff I would not at all mind eating. I would really like to know what Suzanne's dish was like before it got cold. I suspect that the critic who said "this could easily have been a perfectly cooked piece of fish -- ten minutes ago" was right on the money. Fascinating to see timing be such a big deal. Loved her final comment about "-- with a different fish".

On the whole, loved this episode. I do wish they'd told us that the judges ate the original dishes, too. That made a lot more sense than "Here are some riffs on other people's dishes, but you get to eat them out of context."

[rf]

can anyone explain the logistics of why all the dishes aren't cold? How are they kept warm from 1-6? Is it all the same evening? Are they brought out almost simultaneously? Are they kept in the kitchen under warmers? It seems like things going cold would be the norm not the exception as it was the other night.

[SorchaRei]

On Top Chef 1, there was a extras video that showed how when dishes were served in succession, they staggered the start of the chefs so that they each had the same amount of time, but it ended at different times. In that case, the clock showed the amount of time until the first service, and the other chefs could add their stagger to see how much time they actually had.

Of course, the Bravotv site is so unsuable I can't find it to provide a link. However, I'm guessing that they were doing something like that here, and just not showing it to us. That would explain why people acted like Suzanne's dish had been sitting around for 10 minutes when the clock clearly showed about 2 minutes left when she was starting to plate.

[aaalex]

great answer, sorcharei, and thank you. i too was wondering about how they manage to keep the dishes warm. one thing about the anita lo comment. she clearly is someone who thinks. she showed herself to be very clever in the heats where she won for a great looking faux-scallop, but she's not "intellectual" like, say, wylie dufresne (or richard blais) is intellectual.it seems more, to me, that she's imaginative, that she follows an "image" through. more like a painter than a philosopher. to me, that's what makes her so cool. she doesn't futz around with toys. she cooks using traditional techniques, but that doesn't hamper her creativity at all. this is something she shares with keller, i think. i loved the way keller prepared that delightful plate of sweets for the girls in his heat's elimination challenge. you could clearly see a playful, and deep, imagination at work. not to put any of the other chefs down, but with keller and lo there's a kind of serious play at work that's really inspiring (to me at least).

also, in defense of art smith. he's obviously self-conscious and nervous. i think it must be a bit of a shock for him to find out how difficult it is to be cooking rather than judging. the top chef editors have played up his nervous name-dropping and his hyper antics, but the other chefs probably like him for a reason: he's a likable, out gay guy who can make fried chicken so good gael greene gives it 5/5. also, he does liven up the proceedings. much as i like anita lo (and really want to eat her food), if the final 6 were like her and keller, this show wouldn't be nearly as fun. i just wish they'd turn the art smith down to 6 or 7 rather than having it up at 10 all the time.

[Rabrab]

I'll add a mild defense of Art Smith as well, although I'm also getting tired of the name-dropping. But think back to how many times contestants who were caterers or private chefs were dismissed as not really belonging on the show, since they aren't really "chefs". My guess is that he's gotten that ever since he opened his restaurant. He's clearly aware that his restaurant experience is much less than the others.

[babyarm]

If Art survives the Vegan challenge then he deserves to stick around.

Rick should be real safe here.

[Dave F]

I've eaten at Annisa several times, and I'm so happy to see Anita doing so well. She isn't a gladhander -- when I've been there, in fact, I've never seen her leave the kitchen.

I'd recommend fans of Skillet Doux try Annisa, and opt for one of the tasting menus, which are varied and not too heavy. But don't expect Alinea-like flights of fancy. This is real food, and not trendy "fusion" -- the European and Asian influences are evident but not dwelled upon. There is the occasional misfire (in fact, I don't think I've ever liked every dish on the tasting menu) but overall it's a lovely, intimate experience.

[Susan]

I really am enjoying this version. I like drama a little bit, and behind the scenes learning about cooking a lot, so when watching my reality shows, (Top Chef and the like) I tend to try to tune out the drama queen, chest bumpers. Also, it is fun to see the chefs with such high level of experience get nervous faced with the long forgotten sous chef duties or the like. I was iffy about Bayless at first but really like him more each episode. Also, Lo is interesting. I was hoping S. Tracht would also keep going. It seems her desire to "not be late" overcame her "food needs to be great".