Top Chef: Family Favorites

Top Chef: Miami
Channel: Bravo
Day/Time: Wednesday, 10/9c

While the episode started out very interesting with the seafood quickfire challenge, almost all the chefs stumbled with the family favorites. How snobby were the chefs when they stared at the plates in horror? I know some of them might not have eaten the dishes since they were from South Africa or Jamaica, but that wasn’t everyone. Did they not remember being a kid? I love the fancy food that they make and want to eat it all, but I also love sloppy joes! Also, I started to feel like I was the only person on the planet that had heard of chicken a la king. It’s cream of mushroom soup, peas, and chicken on toast or biscuits. Yum! It would have been a tough one to make healthy though.

Quickfire Challenge

The guest judge for the episode was Alfred Portale who owns the Gotham Bar and Grill. One contestant commented that he is a master of plating food, and sometimes his dishes are so pretty, you don’t want to eat them. He oversaw the Quickfire Challenge which featured Miami seafood, such as scallops, crayfish and conch. Each person had 30 seconds and a net to scoop out what they wanted from a huge task. Hung was up first, and appalled everyone with how much he was scooping out of the tank. I would have thought everyone would have done that so was it appalling that it happened or that it is Hung doing it? It was rude when he dropped the crayfish on the ground and just left the little guy there. Toss him back in for a few seconds before someone else takes him out to eat him. 😉 Well, I guess there was no hope for the crayfish either way.

I found it funny that Micah mentioned that she was looking forward to working with the conch since not a lot of people had any experience with it. Apparently she didn’t either since she couldn’t figure out the doohickey to get the shell opened. Others were able to use it, either from using it before or they figured it out. She started hitting the shells on the counter to get try to get it to open. What a loon. She ended up with hardly any fish in her conch salad due to wasting so much time trying to get the conch open. They only had 30 minutes to make their dish. I would have moved on with what else was taken out of the tank.

CJ made a pan roasted fruits de mer with shaved cauliflower and saffron paprika vinaigrette and olives. It looked like a compete mess to me, but the judge liked how all the complex flavors worked together. Tre’s dish of shellfish poached in fish stock, butter and chive oil with summer corn and grilled leek compote had the judge commenting about the lack of fish in the dish and the corn seemed to be the main focus. Tre did comment that he did not grab as much shellfish as anyone else. Someone noticed!

Afred said Sara M’s dish of cornmeal crusted conch with citrus butter mango and cilantro mignonette had good flavor, but was a little salty. He said Camille’s dish of crayfish and mussels in a hibiscus sauce and mussels crusted with tarragon was too overpowering since she used tea as a flavoring agent. It works well with other dishes, but shouldn’t be used with shellfish.

Hung called his dish, East/West, which was curry with heads and bellies of scallops and mussels with a crunchy crouton. Alfred commented that the bread was too big. He would have liked them smaller to dip into the curry. Off camera, Hung completely disagreed and said he didn’t know what he was talking about.

Howie made a ceviche of conch, scallops, crayfish and mussels with crispy plantain and greens. Afred said it was tasty and a very obvious choice to use those flavors to make the ceviche. I’m not sure if the last part was a compliment or not.

Brian called his dish, 3 Rivers, which had wine, butter, garlic, chives with clams, scallops, mussels and crawfish all mixed together in a bowl. Next to it, he had an oyster migonette, which had the oysters in the shell mixed with white wine. The third item was conch toast. Alfred liked how he went from raw to cooked on the plate.

Micah, Camille and Tre were the dishes that he liked the least. He liked Howie, Brian and CJ’s dishes the best. Brian ended up winning the quickfire since he managed to incorporate all of the shellfish in a yummy and very presentable way.

Elimination Challenge

The elimination challenge was to take an American classic dish and update it to a modern, healthier, low-cholesterol version that would be served to a local Elks club. Their ratings of the food would weigh in with the judge’s final decision. Each chef had to pick an American classic from the table of old classics on display:

  • Casey: sloppy joes and tater tots
  • CJ: tuna casserole
  • Lisa: franks and beans
  • Tre: chicken cordon bleu
  • Sara N: fish sticks with tartar sauce
  • Howie: pork chops and apple sauce
  • Micah: meatloaf and mashed potatoes
  • Camille – tacos
  • Dale: chicken and dumplings
  • Brian: stuffed cabbage
  • Sara M: chicken a la king
  • Hung: fried chicken and mac n cheese

They had $75 to spend at the fresh food market. They also had one hour to prep the day before and one hour at the Elks club to prepare their dish. Camille is looking for ingredients that doesn’t have too much salt. CJ is complaining that people are using cheese and hopes the judges notice. He has complained about people not really grilling in the last challenge. He seems to complain about people not sticking to the rules a lot, which is the judge’s job, not really his. Brian decided to stuff his cabbage dish with lobster, which others say is high in cholesterol. Good thing he has immunity. Lia is updating franks and beans with chicken beer sausage. Dale is updating chicken and dumplings. He bought rotisserie chicken and instant mashed potatoes to make his dumplings within the time limit. CJ does not approve of the instant mashed potatoes either. Shocker!

Micah complains about never eating American comfort food and how she didn’t grow up here, yet someone that went to high school with her in MA posted pictures from her yearbook. She acts like meatloaf is a foreign concept and looks down on the America’s taste palate. Nice! Hung said he thought all the comfort food was too filled with fatty stuff and looked disgusting.

I was wondering if everyone at the Elks club tried all the food or only some people tried some of it. It seemed like the chefs did not make that many dishes. One was shared at the judges’ table, but the Elk members had just one plate in front of them at a time, so I’m thinking that each chef served the judges’ table and one other table. I feel sorry for some of the Elk members that got stuck with some of the scary looking dishes created for them.

CJ’s tuna casserole dish ended up being a mess when he added the tuna. It was mushy, leaky and just gross to see. It didn’t have much flavor either and compared it to health food. One judge said it was a big green blob. The only thing that partially saved it was the flax seed on top to replace bread crumbs.


CJ – Tuna Casserole
Tuna Casserole with Whole Wheat Pasta & Yogurt Topped with Flax Seed Tuilie

Sara M’s chicken almost didn’t get cooked since Hung turned off the oven after he was done using it, and Sara didn’t check to see if it was on when she put her chicken in because it was hot from him just using it. She grilled the chicken on skewers, but separated everything out. It looked nothing like chicken a la king. Maybe if she had put the chicken in the mushroom sauce and put both on top of the couscous it would have looked somewhat like the dish.


Sara M – Chicken a la King
Chicken a la King with Puree of Mushroom Sauce, Couscous & Watercress Salad

The judges didn’t buy Lia’s excuse that she didn’t have time to make a sausage and just bought already prepared sausages at the market. Also, her lentils weren’t cooked all the way so they were very hard.


Lia – Frank and Beans
Grilled Chicken Sausage with Dijon Lentils, Carrots and Onions

The judges were complaining that they needed some serious wow after the first three courses of underwhelming food. Dale came out with his perogies, which I love so I wished I could have tasted this one. While he did use instant potatoes, it wasn’t to make potatoes, but to make the dough for the dumplings which he stuffed with the chicken. The judges were finally impressed with someone and the Elks loved it as well.


Dale – Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken Filled Potato Dumplings with Broccoli, Horseradish and Celery Root

In case anyone missed the friedness of chicken with Hung’s dish, he took a layer of skin, removed all the fat and made it into a chip that he stuck into the chicken breast. I had no idea if that was good at the time looking at the judges’ faces, but I guess it was a good idea.


Hung – Fried Chicken with Mac n Cheese
Skinless Chicken Marinated in Yogurt & Spices with Pasta & Vegetables

Micah’s reinvented meatloaf looked almost just like regular meatloaf cut into a circle. She said that Americans like ketchup baked on top of meatloaf so she made the red pepper sauce on top to take the place of that. The judges did not like her attitude of saying ‘[us] Americans’. They also found it inedible since it was so dry. Alfred said it had a very bad aftertaste that he couldn’t get past.


Micah – Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
Italian Style Meatloaf with Smashed Garlic Potato and Roasted Pepper SaucesThe judges were not impressed with Brian ignoring the low cholesterol rule and putting in a high cholesterol item like lobster in it. No clue if They liked it though. The judges were disappointed with Camille’s tacos since she didn’t do much besides replace the ground or shredded beef with low-fat beef and tuna. They found it too literal.


Brian – Stuffed Cabbage
Lobster and Shrimp Roll with Lobster Broth

Camille – Tacos
Beef & Chili Salsa Taco & Tuna Tomatillo Apple Taco

Casey’s sloppy joes were good but that was because she chose a high-fat meat so it didn’t actually meat the rules of the competition. She wasn’t called out in the bottom of the pack though. Probably because there were so many problems with so many dishes.


Casey – Sloppy Joes
Rib Eye Sloppy Joe’s with Butter Pickle & Apricot Compote

They thought both Joey’s vegetable lasagna and Tre’s chicken cordon bleu were okay. Not the worst they had that day.


Joey – Lasagna
Low Cholesterol Lasagna with Turkey Sausage, Eggplant & Mushroom

Tre – Chicken Cordon Bleu
Roast Chicken Cordon Bleu with Bluefoot Chanterelles, Asparagus & Parsnip Sauce

Howie came out and saved the day. They thought his dish was excellent. He reminded the judges of the dish it came from but was very sophisticated and healthy at the same time. The Elks members loved it too.


Howie – Porkchops & Applesauce
Fennel Crusted Pork Chops with Apple Fennel Salad & Sultana Raisin Emulsion

Winners & Losers

The top choices were Dale and Howie. Howie was finally at the top after being in the bottom two weeks in a row! They decided that Howie was the overall winner, even though they loved Dale’s dish too.

The bottom of the pack was Micah, CJ, Lia, Sara M and Brian. Brian was thrown since he was immune, but they wanted to point out that they were disappointed with his dishes. They recommended he should move away from seafood and use meat in the future since he has used seafood exclusively.

Micah scored the lowest with the Elks, which she just shrugged off. She described the dish she was shown as “ground beef with brown gravy. It is nothing I would eat,” with disgust on her face. I really think that did not help her at all. The judges were confused about what Lia did with her time and thought that was a winning dish. CJ’s tuna casserole with the flax seed crust did show the judges he understood the rules of the challenge, but the rest of it just didn’t have enough flavor to save it. The judges said Sara’s ingredients didn’t resemble the original at all besides the mushrooms. They thought Sara’s dish was a train wreck, but they kept saying Micah’s dish was “yuck”. Micah ends up being the one going home.

Source: Top Chef

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