Top Chef - S9E8 Power Rankings

Well, that was a much needed break!

Unfortunately, I'm going crazy now trying to get ready for this trip, so I'm kind of phoning it in tonight. Which means I'll probably end up writing 4000 words as usual, I'll just spend an hour obsessing over it rather than seven.

I won't say that quickfire was a throwaway. We got to see some good food from the chefs. But random changes midstream dictated by Twitter isn't terribly interesting to me. The elimination, however, may be the most notable we've had yet, if only because it had them working solo, cooking for small numbers with no real constraints. And what we saw was telling.

Incidentally, Patti's friend Nadine seemed like a sweet lady, and I hope she's okay. Even if she managed to remove all of the fried egg from Edward's dish, the egg mixed into Sarah's cabbage rolls, Heather's spaetzle and Ty-Lör's chicken coating could've sent her into anaphylaxis... but all snark aside, we really need to stop using the word "allergy" when we mean "aversion." All it does is make life more difficult for those who have actual food allergies.

Rankings, ho! With the week off, I'm rebooting a little bit, though as it turns out I didn't need to make as many large moves as I'd feared. The cream has started to rise, though the bottom half of the standings is still a big mess. In any case, here they are, with a little more gutcheck than previous weeks.

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 Paul Quickfires 2 3 1 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 1 2 0 It's nice to see that somebody's finally challenging Paul, but not enough to knock him out of the top spot. And his quickfire dish is another great example why. Bacon, asparagus, chorizo, blackberries, fennel, maitake mushrooms and clams. And somehow he finds a way to make it work. He's wildly creative, a killer technician, and he has a strikingly distinctive personal style. That's old-school TCPR trinity right there, for you newcomers.

2 Sarah Quickfires 0 2 1 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 2 3 1 But how awesome is it that somebody's finally nipping at his heels? She's had a couple of stumbles, most notably the whole cochinita pibil debacle from E3, but her successes have looked great and she seems to be picking up steam. Both dishes from this episode were exercises in restraint. Neither of them were flashy, but neither were they dull. There were nice creative touches around the edges of both, she nailed them from a technical standpoint, and she's putting out dishes that look like her food. There's that trinity again.

3 Edward Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 1 3 1 Edward's been a little less consistent than the two above, but in a season that's marked by inconsistency not only is it easier to stand out, but he's also been on a roll since his Judges' Table smackdown. He took that lesson to heart. But here's what I find really impressive. He worked some kind of voodoo on his elimination dish, because man, there is nothing exciting about that recipe. It reads like a bare bones bibimbap recipe, and yet he somehow managed to coax awesome out of next to nothing. His elimination dish was all finesse, and that speaks very well for him.

4 Beverly Quickfires 0 2 2 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 0 2 2 She's one of only two who are still winless (Chris J. being the other), but this is one of my reboot hunches. No longer teamed with her kryptonite, she seems to have recaptured her early season mojo, the spring's back in her step, and with Heather now gone entirely things are looking up for Beverly. Tom seemed really impressed with both of her dishes, and again... creativity, execution (Heather collaboration aside), distinctive personal style... there's that formula again. Incidentally, anybody sensing any Asian fatigue on the judging panel? Yeah, me neither.

5 Ty-Lör Quickfires 1 1 0 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 1 1 3 Season nine's reclamation project seems to have avoided the letdown and done well by himself since bouncing back strong. The recipe for his quickfire dish isn't even an outline, so there's not much to read there, but his elimination looks like a really nice twist on a childhood dish and it was well-received. Frying chicken tenders in duck fat is an obvious but effective way to elevate them a little bit, and pairing them with pickled peaches and honeycomb is to put a decidedly adult spin on them. I still don't know what kind of food this guy makes, but what he's been making recently has been good and that's good enough for the middle of the pack.

6 Lindsay Quickfires 1 2 0 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 0 1 Here's where things start to go off the rails a bit. I've decided to plunk Lindsay roughly in the middle because she hasn't done much that's particularly good, nor has she done much that's particularly bad. Her recipes look interesting at least, and maybe Emeril's comment about the butter overpowering her trout suggests that she's small errors away from hitting on some of these. She's also had a number of dishes ignored by the cameras, which makes it even tougher to get a bead on her. What I find interesting is that in the online interviews, when the chefs are asked who they think has a shot at winning, Lindsay's name comes up a lot. Are they seeing something about her food that we're not? Are the editors setting her up for a midseason charge? Curious.

7 Malibu Quickfires 0 2 1 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 1 1 2 THANK YOU. Every time I do the preseason rankings and there's a duplicate name, the first thing I do is pick which one I'm going to root for so I can hope the other is eliminated as quickly as possible. Chris C., I dub thee Malibu, and so shall you be until you or Chris -- now the one and only Chris -- is eliminated. Anyway, from here on down, it's pretty much a pick 'em scenario. They've all had some success, they've all had a lot of failure, and I don't have particularly high hopes for any of them. But at the moment, Malibu seems the least troubled of the three, this week's elimination notwithstanding. Though I don't expect him to contend, he seems like he might be a little editing away from putting out more good food than he has been. But even if he does, he still seems like a consummate middle-of-the-packer.

8 Chris Quickfires 0 0 2 Last Week: 8 Eliminations 0 2 2 Since this is a reboot week, I'm refraining from moving Chris above Malibu because of Malibu's JT encounter. That said, though I have Chris lower, I actually think he's more capable of turning it around and making a run. But as I said last week, I'm done with the couldawouldashoulda. The guy has some fabulous ideas. Problem is he can't seem to separate them from the bad ones, and now you throw execution mishaps into the mix. He badly oversalts his quickfire dish and then competently executes a dumb idea for his elimination. At least it isn't the dry cigar that's hard to eat, but a simple steak and vegetable dinner in miniature? I mean, really, who the f**k cares? Unless there's something that didn't come across in the edit (there's no recipe), he made a vanilla steak dinner, but small. Ho ho!

9 Grayson Quickfires 1 2 1 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 0 2 2 Glad I am that Grayson has given me the excuse I needed to drop her back to the bottom. It was killing me to put her a little higher every week. I let myself get too hung up on the scorecard and ignored everything I was looking at, but this week seems to have brought it sharply into focus. Those were two awful-looking dishes, the first because it just looked awful, and the second because of how embarrassingly inappropriate it was. I like Grayson, but top mentions and well-timed moves aside, she's made precisely one dish that looked like something I'd be in a hurry to eat, and she's on a three bottom streak. Pending turnaround, it's time to put her back in the basement, and the reboot combined with the Flintstones chop gives me all the excuse I need. Now watch her get a double win next week.

10 Heather Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 1 2 2 "I want to be on the bottom because it's my own stuff, that I did it, that I had control of everything on that plate. That's when I want to get sent home if it's not good enough." Be careful what you wish for! Though to be fair, Heather's said all the right things about her elimination. She screwed up, her dish was bad, she went home. No argument. At extended Judges' Table, they questioned her story about starting with a sear and shifting to a braise when that wasn't working, but no matter... the one point on which everybody's in agreement is that it was a bad dish. And since everybody who's left seems to be amiable, perhaps we can close the book on interpersonal drama for this season. Here's hoping.

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE NINE SPOILERS AHEAD

The quickfire is all about MG, which means if Chris doesn't shine you can stick a fork in him. Though I suppose it wouldn't surprise me to see him do too much. But this is a long topic I'm sure I'll have opportunity to get into next week. And then a 'cue challenge! I'm curious to see how this is going to play out. Real BBQ isn't something the uninitiated can just wade into. Having Sarah and Edward (Kentucky) on the same team hardly seems fair, but then down goes Sarah with heat exhaustion. Sounds like an anything could happen kind of episode.

Discuss!

Comments

[Anon Man]

Your Beverly-Grayson switheroo is giving me whiplsah. I'm not sold on Beverly at all. Otherwise, no real complaints. I think Grayson is something of a riddle. She seems to be completely capable, but not exactly creative. I'm not sure if it's her catering/hotel background or her midwest roots or what, but she seems to take some challenges completely literal. "Remind me of home"= giant steak. "Cook something with a chile pepper" = popper. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[Skillet Doux]

Anon Man... I know, that's why I normally hate to do something like that. That's the reboot for you. Basically, I feel like there's very, very little to separate 4-9 (and arguably, 3-9). Other than Lindsay, who hasn't done much of anything, they've all had some successes and some failures. So I'm trying to set aside the numbers are reposition a bit based on my gut assessment of how they stack up. Beverly's made a number of dishes that I can see competing in the late stages of the season. Grayson's made perhaps one. Which is why I have them on opposite ends of the "not the leaders" group.

[Bill G]

Is the "ho-ho" a Murakami reference?

[Skillet Doux]

Bill... uuuuuuuuhhhh, it is if it's funny!

(No, it isn't.)

[Bill G]

It is funny. It's hard to explain but in his latest novel (1Q84) "ho ho" pops up periodically. I thought you might have been sending a signal to the Murakami-philes.

[Skillet Doux]

I love a good obscure reference, but sadly no, that one was accidental :-)

[jackie]

Longtime Power Rankings reader, infrequent commenter. I just wanted to comment about your mention of Patti's "allergic to eggs" friend Nadine, above. It is possible to have a mild food allergy - my partner is mildly (i.e., not epi-pen level) allergic to both peanuts and eggs. He'll eat things like you mentioned above, where amount of egg is mixed into the recipe and your portion gets only a fraction of an egg, because he doesn't want to miss out. If it's too much, he'll get rash and/or stomach pain later. He wouldn't go eating a whole, visible fried egg as in Ed's bibimbap, though - recipe for trouble.

It's not "an aversion" - he is quite fussy about missing out on quiche and Peanut Butter M&Ms sometimes :) Just wanted to stand up for possible mild-allergy-havers out there!

Non-allergy related - I had such great hopes for Moto Chris, but now have given up on him entirely. Top 3 couldn't be clearer.

[Kyle]

I pretty much agree with the rankings as you have them. I'd even go as far to say that depending on when the LCK winner gets placed back into the competition, Nyesha could be as high as #6 as far as likelihood to make it to the finals. If the bottom 3 are the next 3 to go (which is a big if), I see her taking all of the consecutive wins and continuing to gain steam.

[Anon Man]

By the way, forgot to give you props for the egg nonsense. That was good stuff and I've already relayed that analysis to a colleague who found it equally amusing.

[KRK]

I like the reboot. Your rankings make sense.

I believe what you're referring to, jackie, is a food intolerance. Eating a food for which one has an intolerance has predictable, unpleasant-to-painful consequences "later" as you say, but isn't dangerous. A true food allergy is deadly serious and requires absolute avoidance. The more people blur the distinctions and claim an "allergy" while still being occasionally willing to eat a little of the food in question in exchange for mildly unpleasant consequences, the less seriously actual food allergies are viewed and the more likely food preparers are to be imprecise or even fudge about ingredients.

[Caulder]

I'm so amazingly pleased with your allergy/aversion comment. My four-year-old is extremely allergic to dairy. He's been hospitalized several times and had anaphylactic reactions. But when we tell people, friends even, we're met with, "oh me too, if I eat any I feel terrible," or, "I know what you mean, I'm allergic to gluten," when they're not. And living in West LA everyone says they're allergic to dairy, wheat, beef (not kidding), eggs, anything not organic, vaccines, and whatever the hell else Mother Jones mentions in passing. Both my wife and I were extremely happy to read a voice of common sense. Thanks!

[anne]

I am allergic to the prospect of a week with no power ranking. Have a good vacation, Dom. You'll be missed.

[Bart]

@KBK and Caulder, I think the problem is, if someone says "I have an intolerance to XX," it doesn't get taken seriously.

My mom has a shellfish allergy, but she also has an intolerance for certain gamey foods (duck comes to mind). The reaction is totally different at restaurants. At a hibachi place, the chef scrapped the entire table's order (there were 6 of us) when he realized some shrimp had been cooked with the other ingredients. The allergy was taken very seriously.

But if it had been the duck, he likely would have just picked it off her plate.

I mean, it's the difference between saying, "Oh, you're lactose allergic? We'll make sure you have alternative desserts" to "Lactose intolerant? Here, have this great heaping of ice cream cake. Oh, just take a tums later. Why are you getting so worked up?"

People are weird. I feel bad for those who have serious allergies, but I can also sympathize those with intolerances. I sort of blame other people for forcing the intolerance crowd to just say allergies instead. It's easier in a way.

[Independent George]

They are treated differently because I think they should be treated differently. An ingredient can be easily substituted out in the case of an aversion, but an allergy requires you to block off an entire area to avoid cross-contamination.

I am averse to Cilantro, lactose intolerant (like pretty much everyone not of northern European descent), and allergic to shellfish. Cilantro tastes awful to me, and I avoid it whenever possible. Milk gives me gas, and sometimes cramps, unless I take a pill beforehand. A plate of crabs put me in the emergency room when I was 14, and could easily kill me if I'm not careful.

I had to face all three when I had the baja tasting menu at Topolobampo. I ate the crema happily, accepting it as a small price to pay for deliciousness. I asked them to hold the cilantro when possible, which they gladly did for everything
except the ceviche (which managed to be excellent in spite of its presence). The shrimp dish was quickly switched out for another. Our server got a 25% tip, and everybody walked away happy.

[ally]

Is Bev the best Asian-food-emphasis cheftestant ever on TC? I believe she may be, although often just using say, ginger, enough to give someone like Heather conniptions. :) With Nyesha gone from the main competition, I think she's the MOPer to watch. Although I totally agree with your top 3.

I really wish you had just let the egg allergy comment slide ... sigh.

[KinderJ]

Love the rankings. Twitched slightly at the unintentional Murakami reference, as I just finished the book a few days ago. Hard to explain, as mentioned above, because the book does not, in fact, explain the "ho-ho"-ing. But it now slightly creeps me out. Moving swiftly along...

I really liked this QF for the reasons most people dislike it- the random twists. Usually I dislike the random twists because they are intended to cause competitors to fail, rather than challenge them. I liked it in this episode because they were not impossible twists and they let the contestants show off their creativity. Lots of interesting applications of harissa, I seem to recall.

Elimination challenge was superb. Really liked how you could feel the soul and the roots in so many of those dishes. Loved the format, loved the results. Not wading into the allergy debate as I am allergic to bees, not to a particular type of food.

[Joanna]

@ally, I like some of what Beverly has done so far, but I think I would rank Angelo and Dale Talde above her. She's put out a few good-looking dishes but I'm not convinced she has the consistency or instincts of the other two. I think she's in the right place in the rankings, though - can't imagine who I'd bump up over her at this point.

[Skillet Doux]

Jackie, Bart, Ally... I'm open to the suggestion that I'm coming from the wrong place, here.

To elaborate, I probably shouldn't make assumptions about Nadine. She's barely shown on a cooking reality show. And I certainly don't mean to impugn her character in general. But faux allergies are a annoyance and even arguably a problem on many levels, and when somebody sets a fried egg aside but eats the item it was sitting on, as well as multiple other items that were made with eggs, the eyebrows go up.

Also, to be clear, I think it behooves those serving foods to take completely seriously any requests to leave ingredients out for whatever reason. You either graciously do so, or politely explain that it wouldn't be practical for that particular dish and perhaps another selection would be a better way to go. As much as I take a dim view of those who falsely claim allergies, I take an even dimmer view of restaurants that don't take those requests 100% seriously, no matter what their suspicions may be.

Bart, I'm sympathetic to those who aren't taken seriously, and I understand the desire to use "allergic" as shorthand for "don't even think about not taking this seriously," but this is one of those situations where I don't see how two wrongs make a right.

[nm]

I have nothing to add to the allergy discussion, except that I'm glad to learn that I have an aversion to beets; I have always thought of it as an antipathy.

I have nothing much to add to the rankings, either, except that they strike me as being pretty much right.

[ally]

I sympathize with Nadine because I really fear the fine dining tasting menu that includes a fried egg. I just will not eat them. It's not "cool" though, and then you feel like an idiot. And she was on national TV. So while others are offended, I think she just meant to be polite instead of basically saying that she didn't like that component. Not going to get out of it gracefully with this crowd though!

[ally]

@Joanna, How could I have forgotten about Angelo? Shock horror!

I don't know about Dale Talde though, he of the dish that brought forth an unspeakable analogy from Anthony Bourdain. I honestly never really understand the Legend of Dale Talde.

[doktarr]

@ally:

"Is Bev the best Asian-food-emphasis cheftestant ever on TC?"

I wouldn't put her above Dale Talde or Angelo, both of whom I would consider Asian-food-emphasizers. And if we look at the whole franchise, there's Susur Lee, but that's cheating.

[Anon Man]

Personal Aversion/Intolerance/Allergy anecdote:

I have no known food allergies.
I probably have an aversion to mushrooms. I love them, but too many makes me a lit, um, uncomfortable.
But my biggest thing is bananas. I hate them. The smell makes me nauseous. I can't possibly be allergic to them, and I've eaten them without consequence, but the smell just puts me off. It's so bad, if my kid eats one, I have to leave the room. Totally non-life threatening and I would never claim allergy, but I just detest them and won't eat them.
Thank you for reading me unburden my food soul.

[anne]

Anon man,

I have the same thing with olives. They are of the devil to me. I feel sick if I'm in a room with them. Fortunately, my kid doesn't eat them.

Yours in empathy,
Anne