Top Chef - S7E12 Power Rankings

Will somebody please explain to me where these chefs have been all season?

Now do you wonder if it's just been a big season-long missed opportunity? Maybe it's just a fluke. But it sure was nice to see these guys cooking their hearts out and producing food that looked great.

I'm going to be pretty useless when it comes to intelligent commentary on the quickfire. The thing is, I don't know wine. I really don't know wine. And it's not for lack of respect and interest. It's just that you can read as much as you like, but the only way to really learn and understand wine is to drink a lot of it. And I just don't drink all that frequently. So while the food looked pretty good for the most part, even if some dishes looked a little more interesting than others, I couldn't tell you much about how it paired with the wine. Except that Kevin did, in fact, kind of screw himself.

And while I appreciate the idea of following the restrictions for freeze-drying, I'm really glad the judges didn't weigh them too heavily, particularly going into the finals. Just cook good food and try to maybe kind of half follow some of the recommendations. Good enough.

Incidentally, is this season all about really stiff dinner guests or what? Don't get me wrong, I went to nerd school. These are my peeps and I'll take NASA nerdy stiff over CIA creepy stiff any day. But I can't think of a season when we've seen so many people looking so uncomfortable on camera. End of meaningless tangent.

I went back and forth over whether to consider this a traditional Power Rankings, or more of a reset preview for the finals. Then I decided it probably wouldn't have much of an effect on where I placed everybody.

One quick side note is that the Power Rankings come to you this week from Mexico City. Which is great. Except that apparently the Bravo site and Hulu won't stream video to Mexico. So I apologize for being a little handicapped this week. No exit interviews, extended judges' table or episode 13 previews for me.

That said, on with it!

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Angelo Quickfires 4 7 1 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 2 4 2 And Angelo's brief two-week stint out of the top spot comes to a close. He and Ed were neck-and-neck going into this episode as far as I was concerned, and Tiffany's ouster sent him right back to the top. Not that it wasn't at least as much his doing. That's two creative, distinctive, great-looking dishes that he put out. No battles of attrition or TKOs here. They both looked like winners. The black salt seared foie was done with a fennel and thyme salad, and a white wine and butter based broth with cumin and basil. Asian influence, entirely contemporary. Ditto the short rib recipe, which has one of the funniest opening lines I think I've seen: "Don't season short ribs and grill." It's a braised short rib with horseradish crème fraîche, mushrooms and pea puree. Traditional enough. But the short ribs are done with soy, pineapple and ginger, the mushrooms are pickled with Japanese vinegar, and the short rib is topped with butter-toasted panko with candied ginger and juniper. That strikes me as a difficult set of flavors to pull together, but he does it to the tune of a win. The finals have tripped up far stronger favorites than Angelo so I'm reluctant to go into the realm of prediction, but you almost have to consider Singapore home field advantage for him, and if he performs like this I think he's the man to beat. So, since he appears to be once again operating at peak efficiency, I'm putting him back at the top going into the finals.

2 Ed Quickfires 2 3 3 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 2 5 2 Ed's quickfire wasn't exactly distinctive (and it was awfully similar to one or two of his previous entries), so I'm going to helpfully refer to it as "a dish," and leave it at that. But boy howdy, they weren't kidding when they said his elimination dish was busy. I felt like I had to stare at it for ten minutes to figure out what was going where. There are two types of lamb, marinated chops and seasoned ground lamb skewers on licorice, there are couscous fritters, there's an eggplant puree, there are cucumbers in yogurt, there's a stewed pepper and onion mixture, there's a lamb sauce with veal stock and harissa, there's a fennel salad, and each of these components is done with a small pantry's worth of various herbs and spices. Heck, even Ed seems to have lost track of everything in writing the recipe. There are instructions for preparing the components, and instructions for plating them, but a couple of the former are never mentioned in the latter. I couldn't even begin to break it all down in my head, but while Bourdain's cooking ability has been called into question (oftentimes by Bourdain himself), he's become an awfully well-travelled eater, so if he says it captures Morocco for him, I'm willing to believe it. Like just about everybody else who's left, I still feel like I'm not sold on Ed. Clearly, he's made some very good dishes. But as much as we've seen him, can anybody describe what he does, exactly? Versatility is a good thing in a competition like this, to be sure, but more than any of the other remaining contestants, I feel like I don't quite know what to expect from him if he reaches the finale. Still, he's been pretty darn strong for the past few weeks, and I can't see dropping him any lower, especially given the ongoing inconsistency displayed by the Kevin and Kelly.

3 Kevin Quickfires 1 5 4 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 1 4 5 Kevin is, by a not insubstantial margin, the least-winning contestant remaining. But I'm trying to look past the numbers and recognize that he and Kelly are on more equal footing than the numbers might suggest. I'm oversimplifying here, but at times Kevin's food seems to have imagination issues, while Kelly's seems to have flavor issues. But Kevin can come back from the break reloaded with great ideas for what is usually a pretty free-wheeling finals, while issues of taste seem likely to remain. So on that basis, I'm giving the nod to Kevin in this week's tough call. Unfortunately, neither of their offerings were exactly a big vote of confidence. It's tough to read too much into Kevin's quickfire, since he had issues with the pork belly and had to change gears at the last minute. And while his elimination dish looks nice, I find myself wishing he'd done just a little more with it at this stage, a sentiment reflected in the judges' comments as well. That said, this was clearly a solid dish and I'll be curious to see if the finals will bring some of the more creative fare that we've seen he can do at times. And though it's a tiny issue, and the break may render it a non-issue, he seems to have fallen into the bacon trap, and I wonder if he'll be called on it at some point. Jamie's use of scallops was downright restrained in comparison (though I always thought that criticism was a little ridiculous).

4 Kelly Quickfires 2 3 5 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 2 4 3 Kelly was a little up and down this week. Her quickfire was a miss, the blue cheese emulsion deemed overpowering, though trying to keep it from overpowering a dish sounds like the perfect reason to make an emulsion out of it. Again, an issue of taste, not of conception. It's too bad, because this actually looked like one of her more interesting dishes, with a blackberry thyme conserve and five spice on the boar. I'd love to know how it would have come out had it been in balance. The up, of course, was her elimination, which almost seemed to make Ripert weak in the knees. But it really doesn't get any more straight-up traditional than what she did. A salsa verde along with the barigoule? A modest creative stretch, perhaps, considering that it was made with capers, anchovies, lemons and parsley. These aren't exactly flavors foreign to Provence. Which, as we discover, is a place she's spent some significant time. Remember: comfort zone. So while I like Kelly a lot and think she's perfectly capable of walking away with the title if she's on her game, I have two areas of concern for her going into the finals. The first, as mentioned above, is one of taste. There have been an awful lot of times when her flavors seem to be out of balance -- overpowering ingredients, oversalting, etc. One or two instances you might excuse as simple errors, but it's been more than one or two instances. Still, there isn't much opportunity to screw up left. String a few good dishes together and she's done. Also, there's the issue of working in her comfort zone. She doesn't seem to have the range of some of the others, and whether she makes it to the finale and gets to cook her food and only her food may simply come down to whether the challenges of the penultimate episode push her outside of her box.

5 Tiffany Quickfires 2 3 2 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 2 8 1 Nobody's happy to see her go. She seemed like a swell gal. But looking at her elimination dish, it isn't hard to understand why. Seared halibut over rice, some sautéed vegetables and a canned Thai curry that's punched up with some fresh aromatics really shouldn't cut it at this stage. It's one of those dishes that looks sort of Thai without actually being Thai, which is a problem when the plain old actual Thai dish would have been better. It may still have been a perfectly tasty dish, but it's not hard to see how it came up short against this crowd. Though as I mentioned in the postmortem, I consider that a good thing. Tiffany's been surviving as the steady and consistent presence surrounded by chefs with wild ups and downs. And she was steady and consistent again. But she went down because, perhaps for the first time, everybody else was on their game. It's a little late, but this is the competition we should have had all season long. Tiffany's departure was symptomatic of that.

And we're off to Singapore! Once again, I'd love to discuss the previews for next episode, but I can't access them from here. So I'll simply say here's hoping that everybody continues to shine like they did this week. That would, at least, make for a lovely little finish to an otherwise less than stellar season.

Discuss!

Comments

[timothy]

Makes sense. If we are to form this week's rankings simply based on last week, I would say Kelly had the better week. Both of them bombed on the quickfire, but her elimination seemed to wow the judges more. I agree that it was close, though, and I can't argue with your logic regarding taste and imagination. I have problems seeing Ed ranked second, but I think I have been overly swayed by the fact that 1) he doesn't seem to have a discernible style and 2) his restaurant received such a scathing review in the NY Times. I know that last point is totally irrelevant to Top Chef, but it just allowed me to maintain my anti-Ed bias. I don't think he's a terrible chef, and he doesn't come across as a terrible guy, but I want the Top Chef winner to inspire me to eat his or her food. I would rather eat at Angelo, Kelly, and Kevin's places than Ed's. That said, the rankings make sense. We'll see how Singapore goes...

[Bart]

I want to place Ed below Kevin and Kelly, but I just can't. Ed's too solid. He's sort of like Hosea (but the big difference is if Ed wins, I won't be bitterly disappointed).

Actually, I think I'd be okay with any of the remaining chefs winning. While I'd like to see Angelo win, and while I think he's the most deserving, he's not that far above the rest.

I think this is the first season where I'm coming into the finale and I'm not rooting particularly hard for someone (e.g. Kevin Gillespie, Carla Hall, Richard Blais), but at the same time, I'm not rooting against someone (e.g. Hosea, Lisa from Season 4).

[Anon Man]

@Bart, were you really rooting for someone last season either? I mean either of the V brothers or Kevin G or Jennifer would have been a fine winner. Sure, I might have preferred one over the other, but I didn't hate any of them. I think the difference was that last time I was very excited about the finale, knowing that they all would provide fine dishes. This time, I just hope they don't bore me.

And, Dom, not to pick nits, but with the exception of Angelo, Kevin has exactly one less QF win and one less EC win than each of the other contestants. And, with Angelo, its still only one less EC win. I agree that he's the only one remaining who hasn't gone through a period where they looked like a world beater. Kelly, Angelo and to a lesser extent Ed, all looked like possible big winners at points during the season.

[Bob]

Anyone else see Iron Chef on Sunday with Ed and Blais as "sous chefs" to Cat Cora? It was hilarious - Blais made a typical Blais-ish dessert (that is, outrageous - liquid nitrogen and the like, and outrageously good, apparently - the judges went nuts) that Cora couldn't even describe for the judging panel (right, like she had anything to do with the dish). Ed did the bulk of the prep work, and Cora loses. Again. How in the world do they keep her on that show? They used to show the iron chefs' records, but stopped last year - probably because Cora has a losing record - totally embarrassing.

Local flavor - out here in SF, the chef at a highly-regarded Moroccan restaurant (who destroyed Cora in an IC) was apparently offered an IC slot and turned it down. Maybe just to be part of the "Next IC" competition - which probably draws higher ratings than the IC shows themselves.

Back to TC - is it just me, or are the contestants getting WAY more time for Quickfires than they did in the past? An hour? How does that meet the definition of "quick"? They get an hour on Iron Chef for FIVE dishes (true, avec deux sous). I liked the old days when they had 15 minutes, a roll of quarters, and a vending machine. Amazing to see what they could come up with under those constraints.

[Anon Man]

@bob, They usually do a 15 minute challenge or the like every season, but I don't remember one from this year. Of course, I also remember that we wildly blasted them for the Uncle Ben's instant rice challenge that Antonia won.

[rab01]

to follow on the QF topic -- can anyone remember a "make tasty food out of junk" quickfire this season? I don't remember any $5 supermarket aisles or vending machines or gas stations ....

As for the rankings, I think Kelly deserves 4th place but I think she might surprise us. She showed in her grabbing the ingredient list from a kung pao bottle that she can be a cerebral chef. She might prepare hard for the Singapore location and come ready with some very smart dishes in her back pocket.

[ATL_Paul]

I also spotted Ed on Iron Chef - asked my wife whether she though t that said anything about how he finishes in TC. After all, if he won TC, would he have time to do Iron Chef?

[Bart]

@Anon Man - I was definitely rooting for Kevin over the others, but that was strictly a personal preference. I had no problems with the idea of any of the Four Horsemen winning. All of them, I thought, equally deserved the title of Top Chef. I just happened to like Kevin most of all.

[Danny]

Bob, I agree with you about Cora. Whenever a Chef picks her as an opponent I say to myself, I guess they want to guarantee a win. I've always had one question about Iron Chef. It's obvious that the Chefs are told something about the secret ingredient in advance. Stadium kitchen doesn't have the same available items every week and it seems too coincidental that the ingredients that are there just happen to go well with the secret ingredient. Anybody know how it really works?

Dom, great rankings. Frankly, I think it is close to a 4 way tie although Singapore is a big advantage for Angelo.

[TxGriff]

Danny- I think the ICs and the opponent are given 3 (or some similar number of) possiblities for the secret ingredient in advance, which gives them time to come up with menu concepts and get ingredients together. I believe they don't find out which secret ingredient will be used until the day of. My fiance met Tre Wilcox a couple of years ago after he was on ICA with the Rathbun brothers, and Tre said that was more or less how the process was handled.

[Duffy]

On Iron Chef, I read someplace that contestants are supposedly given "up to three" possibilities in advance, which I think is nonsense. There may be a few winks and nods, but they have to know exactly what the ingredients are going to be to plan out the menus and order -- in advance -- all the special ingredients and cooking equipment. Notice that there is never any conference between chef and sous over menus -- and no searching for special items of either food or equipment -- everything needed -- including some really esoteric stuff -- is always right at hand. Equipment, special pans, torches, etc. are all out and on the counters, ready to go.

[Polybus]

I was also a Kevin fan during the Four Horsemen Season.

Unfortunately, only one of the cheftestants that I've rooted for has actually won - and that was Harold in Season One! It's been a long drought...

[rab01]

As to Iron Chef, there was a pretty good article about the backstage process but I cannot find the link anymore. If I remember correctly, the chefs are given up to 3 possibilities and the reason for it being open-ended is to allow for availability issues regarding the produce. The chefs meet off-camera with their sous to plan roles after the reveal of the ingredient and before the cooking-time starts.

The challengers do not select their opponents. The show does that for them and the rigmarole of selecting your competition is just a bit of show-business.

All pots (water, oil, etc) are brought up to temperature before the time starts. Also, the chefs recook certain portions of their meals immediately before the judges eat. If you don't finish a dish before the TV time is up, you can't serve it but it would be unfair to the person showing second if they were not allowed to cook a la minute.

[Danny]

Thanks TxGriff and Duffy. This makes a lot of sense. I completely forgot the esoteric, exotic equipment. It's hard to believe that they always have an ostrich egg and a power drill, or a "cold plate" every week of filming.

[Dreamboat]

After watching the previews for next week, I would kill to get some of those noodles that the hawker (sp?) made!! Just thinking about them make my mouth water!!

[lamelama22]

Thanks for the rankings!

I'm still rooting for Kelly tho ;)

As for the Kevin/Bacon vs Jamie/Scallops, I don't think it's a really comparable situation. Kevin uses bacon a lot, but as a secondary (or lower) component in his dishes. Jamie used scallops as the main ingredient of at least half her dishes. He's not serving bacon w/ a puree of something and a garnish, he's serving a protein w/ garnishes and a little bacon sprinkled on top. I don't remember seeing the other contestants and judges calling him out for repeatedly cooking the same main protein/component, like they did Jamie. I mean, she cooked scallops in practically every episode, right? "It's Top Chef, not Top Scallop!"

I miss Fabio's "It's Not Top X" comments. lol :)

[Bob]

I knew Iron Chef was "rigged" when Ming Tsai came on with an air compressor and proceeded to inflate a duck. The chefs never even speak to each other after "discovering" the secret ingredient. Gimmee a break.

Looking forward to Singapore, but with all due respect to Tony Bourdain, who calls it his favorite food city, I lived in Malaysia for six years, and many Singaporeans traveled north (Penang, mostly) just to eat. Then again, there's something to be said for eating at a local hawker stall without fear of catching a bug. Singapore's health inspectors are notoriously picky - Malaysia, um, not so much...

Most of these stalls are interesting because they feature one dish, and the same guy has been doing it for years, and has obviously perfected it. People will drive long distances for their favorite char kway teoh or curry mee that costs all of a buck or two.

Agree completely that Angelo has a distinct advantage - flavors and style - but Kevin did skewers at the ball park, and legions of stalls offer all sorts of food to be eaten off sticks. Fish balls, anyone? Kelly should have the most difficulty adjusting. Ed's Moroccan flourish suggests he's adaptable. Should be interesting.

Anyone know how far ahead they design these challenges? I can't help but think how perfect the challenges were last season for the high level of contestants. Can you imagine Kevin (that is, this season's version) or Kelly or really any of them - at a simulated Bocuse d'Or?

[Skillet Doux]

"As for the Kevin/Bacon vs Jamie/Scallops, I don't think it's a really comparable situation. Kevin uses bacon a lot, but as a secondary (or lower) component in his dishes. Jamie used scallops as the main ingredient of at least half her dishes."

"I mean, she cooked scallops in practically every episode, right?"

Wrong, though you're far from the only person who thinks so. She cooked 21 dishes on Top Chef. Of those 21, three (3) had scallops, and on one of those three the "primary-ness" of the scallop was debatable. The only reason it was at all notable is because she did those three dishes in the span of two episodes (even though for one of those dishes she explicitly stated she was trying to make up for the last episode and prove she did, indeed, know how to handle them), and -- more importantly -- Fabio had a cute one-liner about it.

Like I say, I thought that criticism was always a little ridiculous.

Kevin's actually done more dishes with bacon than Jamie did with scallops, though you're correct that much of it has been in a supporting role. It has been a very prominent ingredient for him as of late, however, which is why I mention it. And I stress that it's a little thing.

[Skillet Doux]

"Can you imagine Kevin (that is, this season's version) or Kelly or really any of them - at a simulated Bocuse d'Or?'

You don't have to imagine it. Kevin competed for the actual Bocuse d'Or. Well, the USA trials, anyway. He won best meat presentation.

[Danny]

Bob, the phrase "inflate a duck" is now stuck in my head for eternity. Thanks for the Malaysia info. I was only there once while performing on a clipper ship and the food was great. I'm mostly familiar with the stall food in Thailand and you are so right about the perfection of one dish. It reminds me of the dessert challenge where the judge said that even your grandmother can cook a pie and Dom's great comment about how of course she could...she concentrated on one dish.

[bryanD]

Good handicapping, Skilletdoux. Because the point this week is not who wins, but who goes, and Kelly and Kevin are both the ones found wanting by their own designs.

Kevin: occasional palate dyslexia; uneven temperament resulting in unfinished or incomplete dishes.

Kelly: occasional palate dyslexia.

Advantage: Kelly to advance.

[Bart]

Wait, this season's Kevin competed for the Bocuse? Kevin Sbraga?

[rab01]

from Dom's pre-season power rankings of Kevin:

"But the thing I keep coming back to is that it sounds like he made a pretty good showing at the 2008 USA trials for the Bocuse d'Or. Now, we can debate the merits of the competition, and the award he won was for presentation (meat, natch), but it takes an incredible amount of dedication to jump into that fray, and the fact that he was even on that stage says something. And with two or three years as Chef de Cuisine at the Ritz in Philadelphia and a stint as culinary director of Jose Garces' restaurant group, it isn't as though his resume is light."

[ally]

Wow I'd forgotten why Kevin was a pre-season favorite, and those credentials are surprising for Chef Grumpy. I don't sense in him the refinement in cooking, plating, or temperament that goes with his resume.

[Bart]

Hoo boy. He could be this year's Top Chef winner.

[lb]

"And while I appreciate the idea of following the restrictions for freeze-drying, I'm really glad the judges didn't weigh them too heavily, particularly going into the finals. Just cook good food and try to maybe kind of half follow some of the recommendations. Good enough."

Ok, I know I AM a space geek...but since I work with NASA and have had multiple opportunities to hear astronauts speak...one thing they all say is "Make the food spicy!" They trade chores for packets of hot sauce. I wish they had paid a bit more attention to that detail.

[rab01]

Re-reading Dom's pre-season rankings is pretty interesting in hindsight. His bottom of the pack are a really good set of calls and his 1 through 6 are pretty good too. (The only outliers are Amanda who out-performed her own hopes and Stephen who never found his groove.) It's 7 through 13 where the discrepancies appeared -- Kenny and Tiffany too low and Tracey too high. Well done, Dom!

Only the frankly eery prescience of last season's rankings could make this season's ranknings pale by comparison.

[nomnomnom]

Looks from the preview they are running mostly the same formula for the next to last week they always have.

Regional Cuisine QF followed by a mass plate EC which is loosely based on the regional cooking.

I also don't remember a Finals where 2 chefs were nearly totally written off like this. Usually at most one comes in like that. (Lisa, Fabio, Dale(?)) come to mind. Seems most everyone has totally given this to Angelo and Ed.

No radical "look" changes except it appears Kevin put on 20 pounds or so perhaps...We will see current season sous chefs next week. Perhaps without the drama of last year.

[gilmore]

Angelo's familiarity with Asian cuisine could be his achilles heel. Overconfident? Unprepared?

I keep going back to Ed's Chinese duck dish. He has a background in that style. The Chinese ambassador said it tasted authentic - although the guest judge did not. Ed also nailed Moroccan according to Bourdain. Not Asian, but he has some variety.

That said, I don't know who will win or go home tonight, but I think it will be between Angelo and Kelly.

[Duffy]

nomnomnom; Not really sure who/what you have been reading -- writing two chefs off?? Seems like most of us have it very nearly in a four way tie at this point, with Angelo somewhat ahead on early-earned points but now up in the air on later-demonstrated motivation. Isn't it still anybody's contest to win?? Or lose??

We'll know for sure shortly!

[Skillet Doux]

"And, Dom, not to pick nits, but with the exception of Angelo, Kevin has exactly one less QF win and one less EC win than each of the other contestants."

Very true. Which is one of the reasons I overlooked it. But when the win count is 6, 4, 4 and 2, if you're a pure numbers person (I'm not), somebody does kind of look like the odd man out.

"Not really sure who/what you have been reading -- writing two chefs off?? Seems like most of us have it very nearly in a four way tie at this point..."

My thought exactly. Who's writing two chefs off?

[Skillet Doux]

"As for the rankings, I think Kelly deserves 4th place but I think she might surprise us. She showed in her grabbing the ingredient list from a kung pao bottle that she can be a cerebral chef. She might prepare hard for the Singapore location and come ready with some very smart dishes in her back pocket."

An excellent point. One of her strengths is that she's been been very thoughtful. And a thoughtful contestant goes home during the break and figures out all kinds of ways to work Asian ingredients into her style.

And to clarify, despite that bottom ranking, I wouldn't be surprised one bit to see her win. It's anybody's game, and somebody has to be number four.