Top Chef: Honor the Fish

This week’s episode was all about Southern cooking. The guest judges were Paula Deen and Josh Besh. They actually carried the theme from the quickfire, where they had to fry up something for Paula, to the elimination challenge, where they had to cook using Southern seafood that benefited the fishermen affected by the oil spill. Even though Tiffany and Carla claimed to be the queens of Southern cooking, they both sucked during both challenges and Mike stole from Richard. Tacky! The overall theme of the episode was honoring the fish, which is what the losers of the elimination challenge didn’t do. Tiny tear for them.

Quickfire Challenge

Paula was the judge of the quickfire challenge where they had to fry up something in a deep fryer. She was looking for something unique and then she listed off all the thing she had fried up before, including macaroni and cheese, lasagna and balls of butter!?! The winner of this quickfire would get $5,000.


Dale
Fried Steak Wrapped Oyster with Egg Yolk Omelet, Parsley Tips & Chives

Dale was not thrilled with the challenge. He said he worked in a Chinese restaurant so he didn’t really do Southern cooking. I was thinking that doesn’t make him much of a Top Chef if you can’t do a bunch of different styles of cooking or can’t figure it out. Paula was not thrilled with Dale’s dish. She said he didn’t have any flavors that wowed her.


Carla
Catfish with Dijon Mustard, Huspuppies, Coleslaw with Mayo, Hot Sauce & Mint

Carla knew that her hushpuppies were too heavy, so she was surprised when Paula put them on the bottom of the list saying they were like spit balls.


Antonia
Fried Avocado, Shrimp & Jalapeno, Grilled Corn, Tomato & Fried Herbs

When the time was up for the challenge, Antonia realized she forgot to make a second plate of her food,which is part of the rules so each judge eats off their own plate. This was the saddest part of the competition since Paula told Antonia that she had the best dish, but she wanted to smack her cute butt for not following the rules. Since she didn’t, she was disqualified from winning and lost $5,000. Antonia was trying really hard not to cry at her own stupid mistake.


Richard
Fried Bacon with Fried Mayonnaise, Tomato & Cucumber

Paula loved the fried mayonnaise. She had never had it before. She thought it was out of this world. It wasn’t her favorite dish, even though her favorite dish was really one of Richard’s dishes too.


Mike
Fried Chicken Oysters with Mustard Gravy & Oyster Liquor

As usual, when the chefs were working on the challenge, Mike was smack talking making fun of whatever Richard was putting together since he was using liquid nitrogen in the process. He said, “At the end of the day, less is more and simpler is better.” I think what he meant to say was what was easiest was just stealing!  Just that morning, both Mike and Richard shown in the Top Chef house where Richard had two notebooks filled with ideas. He just wrote down various dishes that he envisioned, including pictures of what they would look like plated. Mike was amazed at the book. When Mike presented his dish to Paula, Richard was shocked when he heard one of the dishes he described that morning to Mike. Antonia picked up on it too since she was there for the entire notebook conversation. What was worse was that Paula picked Mike’s dish as the best one and Mike won $5,000 for Richard’s dish. Beyond tacky!

Elimination Challenge

The chefs had to make 300 dishes each for a benefit. Since they had to make so much food, they brought back some of the eliminated chefs to help, which actually didn’t thrill any of the remaining chefs. Each eliminated chef was holding a protein so they had to pick either who they wanted to work with or what protein they wanted.

Since Mike won, he got the choose first. He really wanted to work with the white shrimp that Marcel was holding, BUT Marcel was holding it so he picked the brown shrimp that Tiffani was holding. He thought she was a beast in the kitchen so she would do a lot of work for him, which is good since he’s lazy! Richard picked Fabio who was holding the snapper. Richard was worried about working with some of the other chefs that might be defeated from being eliminated. He felt that way about Angelo since even though he was talented, he was just defeated. He felt Fabio was a safe choice and an odd one since while they were shopping later, Fabio told Richard that he liked working with him since he reminded him of his ex wife. Richard wasn’t sure how to take that. Neither do I! Carla chose Tre holding the red grouper. Tiffany chose the white shrimp even though she really didn’t want to work with Marcel. Antonia had the best line by saying, “I’ll take Spike and his crabs.” That left Dale to work with Angelo holding the amberjack.

Carla was very disappointed when she started working with Tre since even though he lived in the South, he didn’t really know anything about Southern cooking. Tiffany was on the verge of killing Marcel who kept making suggestion after suggestion after suggestion to her while they were prepping. Even when she said she didn’t like that idea and do something else instead, he kept bringing it back up again and again. Oh I would kill him. Both Richard and Antonia noticed that Tiffani was doing most of Mike’s work, which left him a lot of time to blab and smack talk everyone.

Winners

Antonia has been in the top a lot recently and she was again this time around, but she didn’t get the overall prize. Mike was in the top again and hopefully this time it was his own dish idea (and not his sous chef Tiffani). At least he didn’t steal this dish idea from Richard. Finally, what seemed like some sort of redemption for Mike stealing the $5,000 away from Richard (and also from Antonia due to her own error), Richard was the overall winner of the challenge. He also won a trip to Barbados. Nice! Does that beat $5,000?


Antonia
Blue Crab Cake, Corn, Jalapeno & Andouille Relish with Crab Broth

John thought she had a great balance with the dish. The crab was quite delicate and he could actually taste it. He loved the smokiness that the andouille sausage added to it.


Mike
Grit-Crusted Gulf Shrimp, Sour Cream & Chive Potatoes with Pork & Lobster Sauce

Mike said his original idea (original–all on his own this time!) was shrimp and grits. He didn’t add any seasoning to it, but let it all come out in the sauce and the reduction of the sausage and the bacon. Paula loved that he cooked the shrimp with the grits.


Richard
Crispy Gulf Snapper with Pulled Pork & Citrus Grits

Richard had said the other side of the Gulf was his inspiration with Georgia and Florida. When John saw the menu item, he wasn’t sure what to think of the combination of the snapper with the pulled pork and citrus grits, but he thought it all worked together well. He thought Richard showed a lot of restraint in the dish.

Losers

What all the judges said when they tasted the dishes by the losers (Carla, Tiffany and Dale) was how they couldn’t taste the fish. It was all masked by something else. The judges were quite sad that they wanted to celebrate the beautiful seafood of the Gulf region, but these chefs ruined it by no one being able to taste the actual seafood.


Carla
Fried Grouper with Collard Greens & Chow-Chow Pico

Carla kept blabbing about how everyone would expect her to be the best at the Southern cooking, but maybe if she just concentrated on making her food like normal she would have been okay. I think she said it best when she said she cooked with her pride instead of her heart. Tom told her that she had a beautiful piece of fish, but it was doused in hot sauce and mustard, so that was all he could taste. Paula didn’t think the tomatoes, chow-chow or collard greens made any sense or complemented each other. Tom said she pretty much made chicken wings out of it. It wasn’t the worst dish though.


Tiffany
Honey Glazed Shrimp, Grits with Jalapeno & Cheese, Shellfish Sauce

Padma started the conversation with Tiffany by saying she picked Marcel. Tiffany corrected her by saying she picked the shrimp. This caused Tom to go into a fit of giggles. She did say that he helped her by cooking the shrimp. John said they were beautiful shrimp that were slightly overcooked so they became mealy. John did say that he knows she didn’t cook them, but Tiffany said it was still her dish. I do admire that she will take the fall for whatever Marcel might have done to her. Paula was excited when she saw the dish since the heads were still on the shrimp and she wanted to suck the head, but the sweetness of the glaze was too much for her. Tiffany had Marcel make a second batch of the glaze while they were at the benefit, but didn’t taste it. This happened right before the judges appeared. She didn’t tell this to them though since she didn’t want to blame her entire dish on Marcel. The main issue with the judges seemed to be the sweetness of the glaze, but it wasn’t enough to send her home.


Dale
Amberjack Stew with Andouille Sausage & Potatoes, Creole Mustard Crouton

That honor went to Dale. Dale liked the flavors of his stew, but while he was at the benefit, he knew it was not coming together like he had planned. He felt himself drowning and couldn’t get out of it. Some dishes ended up with undercooked potatoes. Also, the mustard on the crouton was so much, that it masked anything else in the dish, including the fish. John called it flavor warfare. Dale said they were making the soup in batches and some batches were not as good as other ones. He said he knew the potatoes were undercooked, but he felt the pressure to serve the judges. Tom said he could have asked them to wait. Tom said that the mustard was so overpowering that the only thing he could taste was the andouille sausage so it was like he was eating a hot dog. oops! The entire combination of the undercooked potatoes, overpowering mustard and not tasting the fish at all sent Dale home.

Questions

  1. Mike said that he had seen other people make the recipe that Richard had written down in his notebook and if he wanted to win the quickfire, then he should have made that dish. Do you think Mike stole the recipe from Richard? Is Mike just slimy in general?
  2. What did you think about the Southern cooking theme of the episode? Anything you wish was there that wasn’t? Carla was going to make cornbread, but it wasn’t coming out to her liking so she didn’t serve it. mmmm….cornbread
  3. Would you eat deep fried balls of butter or fried mayonnaise?
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