Top Chef: Fusion Failure

Top Chef: Chicago
Restaurant Wars

Here is a quick run down on the two challenges:

  • Quickfire Challenge: Work a short order egg station
  • Elimination Challenge: Restaurant Wars

Quickfire Challenge

At 5:45am, Tom showed up at the house to wake up all the chefs saying he was taking them to a breakfast joint, but not to eat. They would be working the egg station. The place they went was Lou Mitchell’s, which has been around since the 1930s and is packed with people. The chefs commented about cooking eggs is hard and it needs to be done perfectly.

Each chef worked the station while the owner and the regular short order cook looked on to see how well they did on their station. Antonia seemed to do pretty well. Stephanie had problems with poaching an egg or finding the egg in the poaching pot. Richard had problems with the diner lingo that the waitresses used when calling out orders. Lisa burned most of the styrofoam of the to-go box she was preparing. Dale got overloaded when four orders came in at once. Not much was shown with Spike.

The owner narrowed down the winner between Antonia and Dale. Antonia was cool and calm back there. She said Dale also did a nice job. She chose Antonia as the one she would hire if she had to hire one of them.

Quickfire Challenge Winner: Antonia

She didn’t get immunity, but she would get an advantage during the elimination challenge.

Elimination Challenge

At the diner, Tom gave them an address to go and meet up with Padma. He was going to work a charity event, so he was not going to be around for the elimination challenge. They showed up in what looked like a renovated warehouse space with brick walls and hard wood floors. They found out that they were going to have restaurant wars. They were going to split up into two teams, with each team taking one side of the huge room. They would have 35 diners each. They had $1500 for food and $5000 to spend at Pier One for decor. As the winner of the quickfire, Antonia had the advantage of picking her team. She picked Richard and Stephanie, which was the best choice, I thought. That left Lisa, Spike and Dale on a team. It was the same teams as the wedding wars episode minus two people.

Dale, Lisa and Spike decided on the name Mai Buddha and they had Asian Fusion as their concept. It made sense since they all has Asian food backgrounds. Both Lisa and Dale wanted executive chef, so they flipped for it. Dale won. Antonia, Richard and Stephanie’s restaurant was called Warehouse Kitchen. Their concept was gastro pub food in an upscale atmosphere. Antonia was the executive chef for her team. Spike ran the front of the house for his team and Stephanie ran the front of house for her team.

Warehouse Kitchen Menu

1st Course

  • Beat & Goat Cheese Salad – Richard
  • Linguine & Clams – Stephanie

2nd Course

  • Trout with Cauliflower – Antonia
  • Lamb Leg & Loin – Antonia

3rd Course

  • Gorgonzola Cheesecake – Stephanie
  • Banana Scallops – Richard

Mai Buddha Menu

1st Course

  • Shrimp Laksa – Lisa
  • Pork & Pickled Plum Pot Stickers – Dale

2nd Course

  • Butterscotch Miso Scallops – Dale
  • Braised Short Ribs – Spike

3rd Course

  • Halo-Halo – Dale
  • Mango Sticky Rice – Lisa

About four hours before service, Anthony Bourdain walked in saying he would be the head judge filling in for Tom while he was out. He walked around the kitchen to get an idea of how everything was divided up and what the restaurant concepts were going to be. He said Antonia’s team were creating modest expectations with their menu, but that makes it easier to exceed those expectations. There weren’t a lot of risk taking going on though. On Dale’s team, they were taking a lot of risks, especially with saying it is Asian cuisine which encompasses a lot of different cuisines. He was worried they couldn’t be good at all of them. Before Anthony left them alone, he brought back four chefs where they could choose one to help them out. The four were Andrew, Mark, Nikki and Jen. Dale’s team chose Jen and Antonia’s team chose Nikki.

Lisa and Dale were horrible in the kitchen. They both were in bad moods when things didn’t go their way and they would take it out on each other. Dale had an issue with his avocado mousse was grey since one bad avocado got in the mix. He was trying to salvage it so it would look more green. Lisa found her rice off the burner and started yelling that it wasn’t done. Dale didn’t handle her freak out well by telling her to chill. They were both being very annoying. Over on the other team, they were doing quality testing on their dishes. They had the linguine and clams dish don and Nikki was tasting it. She kept finding grit in the clams, so Richard thoroughly washed them all again.

There was a definite difference of attitudes in the teams. Antonia said that no one on her team was making sure that they got credit for their dishes. They were all looking out for one another so that they all succeeded and they were all there the next day. On the other team, Lisa was having problems with her soup. She asked Dale to try it. He said he didn’t get any heat from it and it was too smoky. Spike tried it and said it was too sour and too smoky. To the camera, Spike said that Lisa should have asked him for his recipe for the soup, but he wasn’t going to go down for her dish being horrible.

Lisa then had problems with her sticky rice. They couldn’t find any at the store so they were improvising with something else. Dale offered a suggestion for making a pastry cream that could be folded into it. Lisa did that and it tasted good, but looked like mush. To the camera, she complained that she was forced into make the dish. I would think she could have come up with something else if she didn’t want to make that or when they couldn’t find sticky rice at the store.

Spike and Stephanie cleaned up very nicely when they were set as the host and hostess of their restaurants. The doors opened and the judges headed over to the Warehouse Kitchen restaurant first. The judges are Padma, Anthony, Ted Allen and guest judge Jose Andres who is the host of “Made in Spain.”

Warehouse Kitchen

1st Course


Richard
Beet Salad with Goat Cheese & Ras El Hanout Spices

Ted loved the goat cheese and Padma said it was delicious.


Stephanie
Linguine & Clams with Sausage & Horseradish Creme Fraiche

Anthony said it was better than he expected. Jose loved the texture of the linguine. Other diners loved it. One lady said she wasn’t a big meat eater, but thought the sausage added a good flavor to it.

2nd Course


Antonia
Trout with Cauliflower

Ted loved that the skin was left on. Jose was very impressed with the quality. One diner said the trout was the best thing.


Antonia
Lamb Loin & Braised Lamb Shank

Both Ted and Anthony loved the presentation. Anthony said the lamb was perfectly cooked.

3rd Course


Stephanie
Gorgonzola Cheesecake with Sweet Potato Puree & Concord Grape Sauce

Padma expected to hate it from the sound of it, but she loved it. Ted gave it points for difficulty and making gorgonzola savory.


Richard
Banana “Scallops” with Banana Guacamole & Chocolate Ice Cream

Anthony said he was not a fan of the smear on the plate underneath the ice cream. Ted agreed by saying especially not when it is brown. Jose loved the chocolate ice cream and found the cilantro a bold move. Anthony was not a fan of the cilantro.

Mai Buddha

The judges headed over to the other restaurant and Anthony said the purple napkins with the silver tablecloth made him feel like a Prince backup singer.

1st Course


Lisa
Spicy Coconut Shrimp Laksa

Tony said it was too smoky.


Dale
Pork & Pickled Plum Pot Stickers

Padma loved the pot stickers. Ted loved the char on them since that is never left on them.

2nd Course


Spike
Braised Short Ribs with Pickled Red Cabbage & Apple Basil Salad

Padma said she loves short ribs.


Dale
Butterscotch Miso Scallops, Spicy Eggplant & Pickled Long Beans

Ted said he was afraid of the dish when he read it had butterscotch sauce. Tony said it was like Willy Wonka. Tony said butterscotch by itself is almost too much. One of the diners didn’t know what she was eating since the flavors were so bizarre.

3rd Course


Dale
Halo-Halo with Cantaloupe, Coconut, Kiwi, Avocado & Candied Nuts

Tony said they did it right. Jose was writing down the name of the dessert since he thought it was a great idea for a dessert


Lisa
Mango Sticky Rice with Toasted Coconut

Padma called it an atrocity. Ted said the knife skills weren’t present and the presentation was uninspired. Tony said it was baby vomit with wood chips. I love Tony. His descriptions are classic.Winners

Antonia, Stephanie and Richard were picked as the winning team. Anthony said he was very impressed by the food and their performance. Tony told Richard that the beet salad was one of many smart decisions with the menu. Jose told Stephanie that the pasta in her dish was cooked perfectly and it was a successful dish. Ted said he loved the gorgonzola cheesecake and the concord grape sauce. They seemed to cut a lot out of the love fest since it jumped right to the overall winner on the team. Jose picked the one that he thought showed great team work and choosing the right concept. He chose Stephanie. She won a trip for two to Barcelona on a culinary tour.

Losers

Padma informed Dale, Lisa and Spike that the diners considered them the weaker team in the challenge. The diners filled out comment cards after their meals. Tony said they found some very unpleasant aspects of the meal. Tony was not a fan of the tablecloths and napkins. Spike said they all picked out the color scheme, even though he was the one in charge of the front of the house. Dale and Lisa didn’t look like they had anything to say about it by the looks on their faces when he said that. Tony said the front of the house looked very upscale and increased expectations. It would not be a place where one would expect to see a greasy dumpling.

Tony asked who came up with the butterscotch scallop dish. Dale said he did and Padma asked what he thought about it. He said he thought it was a little sweet to which she responded, “A little?” Jose said it was the one dish where nothing seemed to work. Tony was worried when he heard the words “butterscotch” and “scallops” together. He said it looked like a melted candybar.

Tony said the laksa was like putting his face in a campfire. Ted said the smoke overpowered every other flavor. Lisa said the way she was taught out to do laksa was to smoke it, but she admitted that she smoked it for too long. Tony asked who came up with the idea. Spike said he did, but his recipe was very different from Lisa’s recipe. Ted asked Dale where he was in the process as executive chef. He said he didn’t know laksa so he trusted those two to make it correctly. Tony said if he was executive chef, he should know what it tastes like.

Jose loved the short ribs. They were the best dish on the menu. They asked who did them. Dale raised his hand while Lisa pointed to Spike. It was Spike’s recipe that Dale and Lisa executed.

Tony told Lisa that the sticky rice was a pretty appalling dish. Lisa said the rice she wanted to use was not available, but so she made it a way she hadn’t made it before. Lisa said Dale found the rice. He argued about who grabbed the rice. It was a stupid argument, and earlier in the episode, it did show Dale grabbing the rice.

Jose said the lack of teamwork shown amongst them was amazing. Spike was laughing and Jose said that he was working the front of the house and he thinks he is in the clear because he wasn’t in the back. Tony asked Spike what he thought went wrong. He said there was a communication breakdown between Dale and Lisa. Dale said that if someone on his team says something smart to him, he waits until the end of service to deal with it. Tony disagreed saying he needs to take care of it as it comes up. Dale yelled at Lisa and she yelled back at him during the entire service, so I’m not even sure what Dale was talking about.

They were sent out. Tony said the entire team was working with cross-purposes the entire time. Jose said Spike played it smart by staying out of the way. Padma did say he did his job properly. Padma asked why Dale would go home. Ted said the scallop dish with the glopped on butterscotch. Tony said he fell down as a manager, a conceptualizer and as an executer. He pretty much failed as an executive chef. Ted said some of the more serious problems came from Lisa. Padma pointed out that Lisa has made sticky rice and laksa before, but she botched both of them this time around. Tony didn’t like Lisa’s body language with her arms crossed. He said she is not ready to take criticism from anyone.

They were called back in. Tony said they were all asked to step up and use skills that aren’t used in other challenges. He said with Dale, he failed at leadership. He feel down hard with the scallop dish. If he saw it was a dysfunctional group, he should have accounted for it. Lisa’s laksa was just too smoky. If she had made it before, she should have known how to make it. The rice pudding was awful. Tony told Spike it was a good day to be in the dining room. Dale was asked to pack his knives and go.

Since it came down to the executive chef, I really wish that Lisa had won the coin toss so she could have been the one going home. Dale had one bad dish, but bad a lot of bad leadership decisions. Lisa made multiple bad decisions and always has a horrible attitude. I can see why they sent Dale home, but really don’t want Lisa in the final four. I’d rather have Spike in there than her. Next time I hope she is the one gone so it is now Stephanie, Antonia, Richard and Spike.

Questions

  • The judges only look at how the chefs performed in the current challenge, but should they also consider how the chefs have performed throughout the competition when they make their decisions?
  • The judges also try to look at how the chefs cook only, but should they also take into account the chefs attitudes in their decisions?
  • Should Lisa have gone home due to making horrible dishes or was it correct to send Dale home because he failed as executive chef and made one horrible dish?

Photo Source: Top Chef

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