Top Chef - S9E6 Postmortem

Anybody think playing it safe is going to be a good strategy going forward?

It seems clear that this season's field had two modes -- quickfire mode and elimination mode. One of them is starting to make Tom angry. You wouldn't like Tom when he's angry.

More on Monday... discuss!

Comments

[garik16]

Well this explains Whitney's edit.

Had Ed gone home when Heather won with his own cake recipe, it would've been pretty crazy.

Ty-Lor wasn't going home as soon as he was injured - I've yet to see any contestant injured during a competition eliminated in that same challenge - they've won the challenge, but never lost it.

Better challenge than last week, but still...yuck.

[Dreamboat]

Well, now I want a steak :)

Heather and Lindsey are really starting to irritate me. I think Lindsey screwed TyLor by firing the steaks too soon, but TyLor fell on his sword, no excuses. That showed class.

Too bad Whitney left because I would like to see another GA chef represent. I think that she just does not suit this type of competition.

[Independent George]

What I got out of tonight's episode makes me really appreciate Jenn at the AFB challenge in S6.

Heather is getting the villain edit, but my only problem with what she did is that she didn't try to step in and take control on the first day. The biggest difficulty in working on a large project with lots of people is getting things coordinated and distributing work so that everybody pulls their own weight.

There's a reason you pay for project managers in IT, even if all they seem to do is interrupt you when you're trying to get something done. It's because ass annoying as they can be, nothing gets done in an organized manner without them - which is exactly what happened here.

Again - contrast it to Jenn distributing work in a much more limited kitchen in S6.

[anne]

Remind me not to piss off Tom.

[Duffy]

Heather wins for a dessert on a borrowed recipe that Hugh didn't like when he ate it, and said he wasn't that impressed at judges' tale. His only justification was that "Someone had to win." I can understand a split vote for the winner when the judges are in agreement on the top three -- but with this many dishes to pick from, how did this dish make it into the final three with one "no" vote? Tom slapped Hugh down pretty fast when he complained during service. Is there a suggestion here that Hugh is not that assertive as a judge and is just following along?

[aaalex]

Well, it seems this is the postmortem whose comments should all begin with the word "Well" ... so, I've done my bit. Nice to see who the villain is: Heather, a terrible bossy boots who's not shown anything particularly adventurous as yet but has enough self-centered attitude to turn almost anyone off. In a way, I'm glad that's settled. It feels like the season only really starts once the elves have told you who to hate. I felt kind of sorry for Tylor but ... he doesn't seem long for this world. He was lucky to have a co-competitor who made ... raw potatoes in a au gratin? Few things I can think of more disgusting. And this even AFTER she was warned she was leaving herself with little time to accomplish her dish? When Tom said they"d made it easy to choose the loser, I thought: "Yeah, no kidding."

Getting harder to figure this group out. The only really consistent, interesting chef so far is Paul. Heather? Kind of underwhelming. Sarah? Ditto. Chris J? Ditto. By the time you get to Dom's bottom of this group, it feels like we're back to Season 5 levels of cooking but with none of the interesting personalities. Even though I hated the outcome of that season, God I miss Stefan, Carla and co. If season 8 was the height of cooking - better cooks up and down the board than in season 6 - it's become clear (to my taste, anyways) that season 5 is a one-off in terms of "entertaining" personalities. This season feels a little dull in comparison and it lacks the flash that made the bitterness of season 6 bearable. For the first time in 9 years, I found myself wondering if I'm not burned out on Top Chef. Season 8 being the absolute height, for me, maybe it was always going to be difficult loving this season. It started really well, though. And I really like Paul. So, I guess I'll go on watching.

Duffy: I don't think Hugh "didn't like" Heather's dessert. He said he found it not sweet enough, while Tom found it just right. It speaks to the mediocrity of the cooking, though, that a moist cake won the competition. Really? People were THAT impressed with the cake? How mediocre did everything else have to be for a cake to run away with a competition that was centered around the cooking of the steaks?

What saved this episode for me was the sauce challenge. Very cool seeing the chefs have to use the mother sauces creatively. I would have loved it if a little more time had been devoted to observing the steps each chef making the "mother" sauce, if only because there was some interesting disagreement about using or NOT using a roux in an espagnole. What's the deal with that? They're usually thickened with a roux and Dean Fearing seemed surprised that Paul hadn't thickened his espagnole with a roux and yet Paul's was one of the top three in the QF. So, in the end it didn't matter about the thickening. I ended up wondering why Fearing bothered to bring the roux up, twice!, if he wasn't really that fussed if the chefs used a roux or not.

Double elimination, next week. Great. But a question for Dom: you gonna be kinder and gentler to Chris C, now that he's won a QF?

[igor]

Strange tasks. The chefs rarely get to show their skills. How can they, when they have to serve 200 portions at once? This is turning into Kitchen Nightmares. And for this season, Hugh has been the better judge. Tom is judging things on his own personal tastes. Don't ever serve Tom vegetables without cooking the hell out of them, and serve him salty desserts without much sugar. Of course, desserts are judged differently when Gail is there--in that case, the more outrageous, the better. All these "restaurant" tasks and so few tasks that measure creativity.

[KinderJ]

Igor- I think it's important to remember that Tom was in considerable back pain when he judged this season. I am sure he did his best not to let it impact his judging, but I can imagine it shortened his temper considerably. He certainly seems much less forgiving and tolerant this season.

I also disagree about 'showing their skills.' Cooking 200 medium rare steaks and getting them all out at the same time would be a hell of a testament to the skill of the chef. The mark-on-the-grill/finish-in-the-oven strategy is one I have head is used in steak houses, but for considerably smaller quantities. I don't think it was inherently the wrong choice. I do think that Ty-Lor erred in not better trimming the steaks. Since all the steaks were different sizes, consistent internal temperature by a timed oven bake was impossible.

On gratin- I have yet to have a potato gratin in a restaurant that I thought was worth the money. It should be a gimmie of a dish, I love all the individual components. It still always comes out meh. Six hours to cook a gratin that was actively bad is staggering to me. I would have bet good money that Ty-Lor was gone for failing the core challenge of the EC (though he comported himself with immense class and dignity at judges table) but I think Tom got this right: If you cannot cook a gratin in six hours, you have no business on Top Chef. Harsh, but right.

[Bill G]

Was Bev unfairly singled out? It seemed a lot of people had plenty of time to do minimal work and she received compliments on the shrimp so I'm not sure what the complaint was. She had a task for the challenge and she did it well, was she supposed to be covering for other people? it looked like they already had too many people in on the steak process, and it appeared to me the chaos was mainly because of Heather and Lindsey.

[chrish]

The folks on the steak course should absolutely have had better communication on when to put them in the oven. Ty-Lor couldn't have put them in since he was still cooking steaks outside, but someone should have been responsible. Maybe in part Ty-Lor should have made sure someone inside was taking charge, but someone on that course should assertive enough to take charge anyway. Maybe it was up Heather and Lindsey since they were taking an overall leadership role, but it didn't seem that way from the footage. They seemed to be trying to rescue the steak course. If they were putting it in too early, there should have been someone on that course who would have said no, we have it under control.

I don't see how they could possibly have finished all 200 steaks on the grill to be served at close to the same time. Hugh's comment on his blog was why not do it as roast and then slice. Maybe sous vide and then blast would have helped with getting doneness exactly right, if there was enough time for that.

[rab01]

Bill -- Agreed. Bev was being singled out by Heather after the fact because she had told Tom that she was taking an expediter role and the preparation of the main course was screwed.

IG - And that's why, even though it's the patented Elves' villain edit, I am happy to go along and root against their annointed villain. Yes, Ty-Lor was chiefly responsible for the steaks but the part of the process that went really wrong was out of his hands and he literally was not around to talk through those issues the night before.

Heather and Lindsey failed badly as expediters and appeared to be making some terrible choices in the crucial moments. I can forgive messing up but I've got a problem with scapegoating to cover your own ass. (I also have a problem with Heather not crediting Edward at Judges' Table for the cake recipe. He was at risk and that might have helped keep him safe.)

[Nigel from Cameroon]

Meh. Too many Chefs for this style of challenge. One of them made butter. One made a garnish. And a recycled cake won. Unimpressive.

I liked Dean Fearing. His restaraunt at the Ritz in Dallas is awesome. And he actually works there...in the kitchen and circulating around the dining room.

Story-- I asked the sommelier at Fearing's recommend a bottle..he says "try Whateveritwas called...they make only 75 cases a year." Dean F drops by our table later and notes our wine choice and says "they make only 75 cases a year."

Training + attention to detail. Great experience.

[Independent George]

As far as catering challenges go, I didn't think this was that bad. These weren't canapes, it was an actual meal with the standard progression. Is it really that much harder for 13 cooks to serve 200 covers at once in a banquet, as opposed to 5-6 chefs serving 100 covers at once at in a large restaurant? Their facilities were designed specifically to do just that, and I don't think they were under any ridiculous budget restrictions.

3 of the 4 courses (gazpacho, carpaccio salad, cake) were served cold or room temperature. I plan on reviewing tape tonight, but it seems like most of the prep could & should have been done on the first day, with day 2 basically being an assembly line with a lot of extra labor available to help out.

The only course where timing and temperature would be an issue was the entree, and they completely blew it. I seem to recall Ed wanting to cook it on day 1 & warming it on day 2, with Whitney saying the prep was already complete and they just needed to shove it into the oven when they arrived. But if they did that, then they needed to time it to be able to portion & serve it with the steaks as they came out. That should have been obvious, but nobody seemed to think about how the plates would actually be assembled.

What's worse is they had an entire night to work out logistics for day 2, but didn't. If Heather wanted to expedite (and having completed the cake on day 1, it made perfect sense for her to do so), she should have spoken up that night. She still would have inevitibly ruffled feathers, but not so badly, I think, if she actually presented a logical case when they were all out of the kitchen and relaxed.

Looking back, I think it's perfectly legit to call Bev out on spending 2 days on poaching shrimp, except... what else was she supposed to do? If they planned & assigned another task for her to help out on, I doubt she would have taken that long. Likewise, once the gratin was in the oven, she should have been available to help out somewhere else... if she had someplace to go. Someone needed to take charge of the big picture from the start, and not two hours before service.

So, once again, in conclusion: Jennifer is awesome.

[nm]

Jen is undoubtedly awesome. I thought that Edward had sort of announced he was taking charge of things, and everyone said OK to that, and then he didn't take charge. This distresses me a bit, since I find him engaging, but I think he dropped the ball. Similarly, (from what we have been shown) Heather sure complained a lot about Bev, but never asked her to help out with anything besides the shrimp. Jen wouldn't have stood for any of that for 30 seconds.

[nomnomnom]

This was a "set the chefs up to fail" episode. I can't wait to see how they setup the "Take a chef to hunt: Featuring Tim Love" episode next week in the middle of June.

Make a rational argument at this point that the talent level is above Season 5. I dare you. At least season 5 gave you some people to cheer for. The vast majority are either nauseating (possible villain edit), or just plain dull.

Has the world run out of Tattooed semi-talented chefs working under big names to trot out?

[Independent George]

Were they really set up to fail? It seems to me all Bravo did was sell some rope. Anything that happened afterwards was entirely the choice of the chefs.

[rab01]

Would the food on this challenge have been better if it had been two teams each serving 100 covers and the judges?

[ally]

I think the picture of the main course (above) pretty much says it all. Blech!

I agree with nom3, the food is boring and the people are boring, at least as presented/edited/produced. Dom has found some interest in the recipes, maybe they should spend some airtime showing the ingredient list. It's probably more exciting than the cheftestants. So far the most interesting thing is watching Tom blow his lid.

I'm still thinking of Nyesha as a sleeper contestant.

Is this the first episode where Beverly didn't cry?

[chrish]

I don't think the challenge was unreasonable. The only major logistical issue truly related to the number of diners we saw were the steaks. If it is correct that they could have served a roast (is that a "steak" Colicchio might ask), then the challenge was perfectly reasonable, especially given that the courses were served in sequence, so that chefs from the other courses could have helped in plating any given course.

[Vncntdl]

Well, I like the idea that they are now giving out awesome prizes for the EC instead of the QF, but why oh why did they decide to give away a car on such a dull team challenge? It seemed ludicrous that the three chefs competing for a car had each just made one component of a dish with 2/3 other chefs, and that the winning chef used another contestant's recipe. What a wasted prize! I also don't understand why, in such a team challenge, they didn't speak to all the contestants and get feedback about what happened and what went wrong. Having said all this, it was an absolute no-brainer who got eliminated. (I knew she was going as soon as the other contestants expressed concerned that the potatoes were being left to cook the next day.)

[doktarr]

I agree that this was an odd challenge to give a car out for.

This was not a "set them up to fail" challenge. The only legitimately difficult part of the challenge was the timing on the steaks (and they failed badly there). They had good ingredients, a good kitchen, plenty of time to work, and three of four dishes were not time-sensitive. There's no reason those dishes could not have been knocked out of the park. They were somewhat limited (relative to a challenge like the AFB from S6) by having to create exactly four dishes in great quantity instead of smaller amounts of more dishes, because this means they have to coordinate more. Still, with three talented chefs pooling their effort, there's no reason something like the carpaccio couldn't have been awesome.

I don't feel like this is a particularly boring or untalented cast, or at least, I'm not willing to make that pronouncement at this point in the season.

[chrish]

Maybe the car prize was designed to be a counterweight, but other than that, there was no incentive to take charge of a dish. If a chef really made a dish his/her vision, that chef would be an obvious candidate for elimination if it didn't work out. Rather, the incentive was to really focus on perfecting your component, a la Beverly, who didn't do much interesting as far as I could tell, but executed perfectly and finished middle of the pack in this challenge.

[nomnomnom]

I think the challenge was somewhat unreasonable in that they were only asked to make 4 plates in that amount of time. There should have been plenty of time to double the servings presented as options and plate 120 instead of 200. Then they ask them to make 200 steaks to go out at temp at the same time. That's asking them to fail.

As it was there were so many components that amounted to nothing an amateur could not have pulled off.

I also expected a showdown of the top team for the car. I was shocked they handed it out for such a minimal achievement.

[Vncntdl]

"I also expected a showdown of the top team for the car. I was shocked they handed it out for such a minimal achievement"

Yeah, this is why it would it have been more interesting (and probably more dramatic) if they had solicited feedback from the contestants. Would Ed have mentioned that the dessert recipe was his own? Would someone else have mentioned the role Lindsay played in plating some of the steaks too early? Would Heather have mouthed off on Beverly? Would Dakota have expressed her view that Heather is a bully? Would any of this have effected who won? (It certainly wouldn't have effected who lost, that's for sure.) Golden opportunity wasted.

[Independent George]

Tom's blog is up, and he addresses the leadership vacuum:

This is why restaurant kitchens are not run by committee. There is a chef and there are sous-chefs. The chef oversees everything and makes sure the dishes cohere, that there is that point of view. It’s important to have that point of view. That’s the problem with these group challenges: the point of view gets lost. Further, there’s no one to whom everyone else must answer, to ensure that a plan of action runs smoothly. There is no one chef to whom all need to listen. Heather took heat from the others for assuming that role in order to keep things moving, because it needed to happen, but the other chefs were her competitors, not her employees, and they didn’t have to listen to her. Heather did not win because she took on a leadership role. She won for her excellent execution of the cake. We judges don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and didn’t know it was Ed’s recipe (I learned that by watching the episode this morning!), but it wouldn’t have mattered -- if it bothered him for her to make his recipe, he could have insisted on being the one to make it. And he might not have done as good a job -- who knows?

While I agree that it's an inherent flaw to group challenges, we've also seen great collaboration in previous seasons.

[TokenOmnivore]

@ nm - from what I remember, Ed just volunteered to be secretary during the menu-planning session.

The person that I was missing was Grayson. With immunity I was expecting her to take the "Jen" role. But it looks like she's currently in "menu development" instead of managing a restaurant, so I can see why Heather and Lesley jumped in to try to manage things. I'm surprised that Lesley wasn't at judge's table, or Heather for another top+bottom visit to judge's table. But with the kitchen dynamics hidden from the judges view their selections made more sense.

I wonder where things would be if some of the more creative cooks had been better able to edit themselves at the beginning. Namely Andrew and Keith. Being both creative and working well under time pressures seems to be rare. I think Paul's pulling it off, but is doing it in a quite fashion instead of flaunting it like Blais, the Voltaggios, Stephan, etc. And without the flash, I don't see other folks thinking 'hey, I've got to start stepping it up if I'm going to beat this guy at the end."

[Bart]

Two things come to mind as I reflect on this episode:

1. The judges were falling over themselves praising Nyesha's dish. I haven't read the TC blogs yet but it sounds like her sauce/butter was the one thing that kept that steak dish from being an abject disaster.

That is a heck of a good sign for her. Should give her a little boost in the rankings.

2. Tom, ouch! That was really, really harsh. Telling the three bottom chefs that they didn't belong, and then saying that the elimination was easy? If I was Whitney, I would have been irate, since Tom essentially said, "While the dishes were bad, yours was outstandingly horrible in comparison."

Look, it's a competition, but jeez. Shades of Simon Cowell there.

[ZRD]

I don't understand why Whitney won over EITHER of the other two; I think she should take some of the blame for the steak, and the other two items seem much more important somehow. I guess it is possible to win a with a dessert. Who knew?

[ZRD]

It's also very worth reading Tom's blog this week - he goes into a lot more detail about what he would have done differently than usual:
http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-9/blogs/tom-colicchio/a-lot-at-steak

[redpoint]

I think what it comes down to is that this is a lame challenge. Having dishes created by committee results in uninteresting dishes. A team challenge is fine if everyone creates their own dish, but challenges like this don't work if the aim is for viewers to see interesting food. This kind of challenge just tests logistics, which is not that fun to watch.

[Skillet Doux]

"This kind of challenge just tests logistics, which is not that fun to watch."

I think all of the fond memories above of Jenn's logistical performance at the air force base belie that notion.

Personally, even though my tastes run towards wanting to see individual performances, I don't think the challenge was lacking. Nor, even given their quickfire dishes in the very same episode, do I think the chefs were lacking. But their willingness to push themselves most certainly was, and I think the question is whether Tom's ire will be enough to get them to start cooking like they've shown they can.

[Anon Man]

I finally got a chance to watch this. I will say that about half way through, I really was hoping Tylor didn't get the boot. He has a minimal chance of winning, but he wasn't the one who flashed them early, so at some level he deserved a bit of a break. Tom's critique that grilling 200 steaks on the fly should have been attempted is legit, but it was Edward who flashed them early. I guess by splitting up the error (concept-Tylor, execution-Ed) that allowed them to split culpibility and avoid the axe. I've made a raw gratin before; it happens. But, I'm not a professional chef and let's just say there were a fair bit of leftovers.

[Genevieve]

I didn't see any signs of Heather bullying, just that she was trying to keep things moving in a tricky situation (e.g. when the other chefs aren't her employees and aren't doing as she suggests). There was something else she asked Beverly to do (pickling something?) and Beverly said no, she hadn't done it yet.

I couldn't believe that a compound butter was one of the top 3. Well, the butter and the sauce, but the butter got the mention. Is it harder than I think to make a good compound butter?

The cake got a lot of praise ("light as a feather" from a judge, "I want to marry this dessert" from a diner, and more), and looked delicious to me and not like a run-of-the-mill dessert. If only steak was eligible to win the challenge, that wouldn't be fair to half the contestants.

Agree on being glad that Ty didn't go out when he wasn't the one who flashed the steaks early.

[nomnomnom]

Jenn's contribution to that episode are something like a fish story. It just keeps expanding and expanding. Eventually it will overrun the universe and consume us all.

[Libster]

Here are dime and one penny comments

1. No one can catch Paul at this point, even though he didn't win the QF or the EC. He's still a light year away from someone catching up to him. He's been pretty much the leader the whole way in terms of what we see. Someone has to step up.

2. Did they not give the win to Nyesha because she only made the sauce and the butter? I mean it's pretty hard to give a win to someone based on that alone. I wish she did more. I wish a lot of the chefs did more.

3. While it's true if Ed wanted to make the cake using his recipe he should have, but Heather already used his recipe for the quincinara challenge. Same recipe different treatment. Ed should have done more but I can't fault him for not wanting to use his recipe which he gave to Heather a second time.

4. I like Ty-Lor Better now - showed lots of class, took on too much, admitted it and didn't throw anyone under the bus. Personally he seems like a great guy.

5. Lindsay jumped the gun because she was nervous, no sabotage, just that there was no communication. The fault of the steaks was a group effort and it would be hard to send anyone home on it.

6. Dakota is so hard on herself.

7. My problem with Heather is that she already had a plan to throw people under the bus if she was in the bottom. This is and should not be how a top chef acts.

8. I found the QF more fascinating than the EC this time.

9. I think Whitney just doesn't suit this type of competition. I feel bad that Tom gave her such a hard time because I do believe she is good, but not everyone is suited to this. Did anyone see Hugh's face during her elimination, it was heartbreaking. He knows she's better than that.

10. I want to see more creativity. That isn't happening this season; thus far. Those I think can bring it most ( Paul, Dakota, Chris Moto ) but stop with the safety, stop just trying to survive and do something damnit!

01. Absent lately from the comments is Matthew, I miss his comments. I know Carla isn't on the show, but he always had some very insightful things to say.

[Kevin]

Libster, agreed across the board.

Even without Carla on the show, during the quickfire I kept thinking, "If Carla was here, she'd be rocking this challenge right now."

From the edit and amount of praise at JT, it did seem like Nyesha would win. I'd put her alongside Beverly as one of the more interesting contestants right now from a trajectory point of view. Her food so far has generally been well-executed but too safe, yet her resume suggests she should be capable of creating much more creative/impressive food, and I get the same feeling as some other commenters here that she's could be a late-developing contestant (if she lasts that long).

I'm already cringing at the drama next week.

[Libster]

I just realized by viewing the plates on Top Chef at why Tom was so mad, even without looking at recipes.

First Course: Tomato-Watermelon Gazpacho, Poached Shrimp, Avocado Mousse - Yawn - Boring, we've seen some very similar things on Top Chef before. Nothing New ... move along

Second Course: New York Strip Carpaccio, Pistachio Vinaigrette, Mushroom “Bacon”, Red Onion - again nothing really to see here. and surely doesn't show that 3 people worked on this dish.

Third Course: Grilled Rib Eye, Creamy Potato Gratin, Braised Greens, Thyme Jus - Wait What? How many people worked on this and still couldn't get it right?

Fourth Course: “Right Side Up” Texas Peach Cake, Whipped Mascarpone, Pecan Streuse - A rehashed cake recipe with new flare, not impressed.

Do when need Bryan and Mike V. Jen C. And Kevin G to come in and train them on how to work as a team AND be creative at the same time?

Or are we mad that we just can't seem to recreate the magic of that seasons dream team.

[Duffy]

Remember that Jen taking over the kitchen was not the group plan. Mike Isabela's idea was that she was going to be a general helper of some sort, to wander around and fill in where needed.

As I recall, when she jumped in and took over, she so obviously knew what she was doing that everyone fell into line.

[nm]

Libster, I have the same reaction to Heather's looking for a scapegoat. But I remind myself how deceptive the editing can be, and I think that half the time she is saying these things after the judges have announced the bottom three. If so, then she's doing postmortem comment, not preparing who she's going to sacrifice if she's one of the ones on the bottom. We really have no way of knowing which it is from what we've been shown.

[Danielle]

I have hopes for this cast, still. I feel like they can do better than they're currently delivering.

Where in this season's posts and comments is the criticism of Heather criticizing Beverly for only cooking Asian food? I seem to have lost it. Anyway I agree. Ridiculous criticism; just made H. look ignorant.

[garik16]

@Danielle I actually don't find that comment from Heather problematic - given how frequent that type of critique IS on this show (Hung/Dale only does Asian, Jaime only cooks Scallops, etc.) - I suspect that multiple chefs make such comments as to their peers in the side interviews.

The editors then simply use the clip from the person who they want to look like a jerk. In this case, Heather.

And while it's a bit of a weak criticism(We're on episode 4 of the real episodes), it's not like it isn't true - Beverly has cooked only Asian versions essentially of dishes. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing (If you do Asian well, then it's all good!). But it's not like it hasn't been true.