The tough thing about Top Chef Masters, which was also clear from early on last season, is that there's no real drama. These are established professional chefs, with their own restaurants and books and monies. They are competing for charities, and they all seem genuinely happy for whomever wins. There's just not much at stake, besides making a nice meal for Kelly Choi and the judges and looking good on the teevee. Still, occasionally there is a little bit of drama, and last week's episode featured the terrifying tray of food left behind--which they showed in the ads for this season time and time again--and a bona fide reality tv bad guy. Plus, Rover's ever-so-charming, ever-so-French Chef in the Hat Thierry Rautureau! (See his tour of the restaurant above.) With that in mind, in preparation of tonight's new episode, let's do a quick and dirty recap (that is what I said) of last week's.
Unlike the first week's episode (in which Poppy's Jerry Traunfeld was sent to pack his knives), last week's episode featured all Top Chef Masters virgins. Along with Thierry were David Burke, Carmen Gonzalez, Monica Pope, and Marcus Samuelsson. Again, the five chefs are vying for two spots in the champions' round. Thierry's competing for local non-profit Food Lifeline, and he's French and cute from the get-go: "How much do I want to win? Who do I have to kill?" That's one upvote for you, friend.
Okay, it's time for the quickfire challenge, which is making "an extraordinary grilled cheese sandwich" for Kelly Choi in only twenty minutes. Run run run, cook cook cook. Thierry is using his secret ingredient of harissa and is making a sandwich that would make his mama proud. Monica doesn't have much formal training, which will no doubt become relevant later. David likes to break the Ten Commandments of cooking! Dangerous. Also dangerous: knives. Carmen cuts her middle finger pretty badly, but it ain't no thing--she just wraps her finger in a towel and keeps on grilled cheesin'.
And now we come to Marcus Samuelsson. Because he's got a Story: Orphaned in Ethiopia at age three, adopted and raised in Sweden, goes on to make it big cooking in New York City. Hey everybody, it's Chef Obama!
Okay, time for Kelly to try all the sandwiches. Bloody Carmen made an Italian baguette with manchego, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice. There's also a sad piece of tomato on the plate. Carmen can't read her, but Kelly says she likes her use of herbs. Next up is David, who made a triple-creme cheese with prosciutto, almonds, tomato, and rosemary on a baguette. And a whole bunch of little pickles! Marcus has gruyere and cheddar on bread of an indeterminate type, with gazpacho and a small salad. He says the dish is an immigrant story, like he is, and I am already groaning.
Time for Thierry, who plated his sandwich while telling it to "shine, shine, shine." It's tallegio (on the outside) and goat cheese (on the inside) with olives, harissa, and pear, along with a pine nut and arugula salad. He had never made that sandwich before, but it looked yummy, though Kelly wants more tallegio. Don't we all. Monica is nervous, but she made a Moroccan-inspired grilled cheese, with feta, dates, and farmer cheese on raisin-walnut bread and a little side salad. And so Monica wins. She gets $5K for her charity, Recipe for Success, and a to-be-named advantage in the elimination challenge. Marcus is straight-up pissed.
Now it's the elimination challenge. For whatever bullshit reason ("going Hollywood"), the chefs are catering Mekhi Phifer's birthday party. Carmen says she's a big fan. Mekhi says he wants them to cook soul food. Monica's advantage is that she gets first dibs on protein, and none of the other chefs can use her protein. Off to Whole Foods! Monica picks shrimp, but oh no, Thierry was gonna make gumbo. He'll have to go with a pork shoulder instead. David says he's not going to play it safe. Back in the kitchen, the chefs get two hours to prep and make most of their dishes tonight and the rest in two hours tomorrow. Marcus is complaining that because he was raised in Sweden, he's at a disadvantage, because he wasn't raised with soul food. So he decides to make racist food: BBQ chicken with mac and cheese and collard greens.
Carmen is making a yucca mash with bacon, and an oyster and hot sausage stew with corn. David is working on a sweet potato custard with crab, hush puppies, and pickled watermelon rind. He says that while it has "the flavors of the South," it's not a Southern dish, per se. Whatever that means. Monica is making shrimp and grits "mac-and-cheese style" with okra and sweet and sour tomato jam. She's feeling confident, since she's the only cheftestant from the South, and she cooks in the South (well, Texas, but close enough), like, literally next door to a soul food restaurant. So this better be good, Monica. Meanwhile, Thierry is making his pork shoulder with a Moroccan-style rub, farro with bacon, roast cauliflower, and a brussel sprout slaw. Everybody is packing up their food for tomorrow and goes home for the night. But oh noes! There is the forgotten tray of food on a shelf! Dunh dunh DUNNNNHHHH.
The next day, the chefs have two and half hours to cook before the big Mekhi Phifer Soul Food Ice Cream Cake Birthday Party. Turns out the missing tray of stew belongs to Carmen. She has to drive sixteen miles IN L.A. TRAFFIC all the way back to the other kitchen. David and Marcus don't want to help her out, but David ends up doing so, along with Monica and Thierry. They all work on her yucca mash, and Monica shucks some oysters. But Marcus is too busy complaining that he has to focus on his well thought-out dish, and the other chefs should focus on their own food because it's a competition.
Meanwhile, David, Thierry, and Monica have burned the yucca. Can things get any worse? Carmen is back from the kitchen and traffic and doesn't know what she's going to do with that burnt yucca. She finishes her stew, makes a cilantro salad, and that will have to be good enough. Time for the birthday pool party!
The judges tonight are Gail Simmons, James Oseland, and Jay Rayner. They don't seem wild about Monica's grits. Marcus is again talking about how great he is. They think his BBQ sauce is too aggressive, but his mac and cheese is scrumptious. Carmen serves up her last-minute stew. The judges enjoy the stew and appreciate that it's simple yet complex. David's dish is playful, but it doesn't seem like the judges entirely bought into it. Thierry is working on the judges, kissing the women's hands. His pork shoulder is tasty, but the cauliflower is overcooked. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEKHI PHIFER!
The party guests fill out their scorecards, and now it's time for critics' table. The judges were surprised by everything Carmen went through, but still loved her dish, yucca mash or no. James calls it "beautifully strong," but Jay wishes she made her own sausage. Still, she cooked from the heart, so she gets 11.5 stars from the judges, 4 from the diners, for a total of 15.5 stars. It's the high score of the night, and Kelly calls it "the most amazing comeback ever on Top Chef Masters."
The judges were excited by Thierry's use of farro and they loved his brussel sprout slaw. But James thinks his dish was too busy, and Gail says the items didn't balance each other. He gets 8 stars from the judges, 3 from the diners, so 11 stars total. David's dish was a little too baconlicious for James and no one else seems wild about it. He gets 7 stars from the judges and 3 from the diners, for a total of 10 stars. That's not enough, so David is out. Monica's shrimp were undercooked. Soul food FAIL. She gets 9.5 stars from the judges, 3.5 stars from the diners, for a total of 13 stars. That means Thierry is out too. The judges don't like Marcus' fussy greens, but loved the mac and cheese. Too bad the guy's a dick. He gets 10 stars from the judges, 4.5 from the diners, 14.5 stars total, so Monica is out. Carmen and Marcus win. Thierry comes back to Seattle, with his hat.
Tonight: Six chefs who were on Top Chef Masters last year compete again. No Maria Hines, but there will be yelling!
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