We’re down to the “Magnificent 7″ and inching ever closer to the finale. Will I get my desired Blais-Carla-Dale matchup? (And what would be your dream finale?)
Everything will be in the comments this week because the Quickfire is too good to spoil even a little bit! If you haven’t seen the episode yet, seriously, do not scroll through to the comments.
1. Holy crap it’s Cookie Monster!!
According to my mother, when I was little, Cookie Monster was my hero and I would cheer when he came on screen. I’m not quite sure how a Muppet can judge a Quickfire, but I loved it. I was giggling like a madwoman as the Muppets heckled the chefs and as Dale tried to figure out how he could respond without swearing. Plus, a cookie Quickfire seemed like an awesome way to push the chefs into the dreaded pastry category.
I’m surprised Carla didn’t finish on top—I have to root for the former Girl Scout in the cookie challenge!—but Dale and Antonia both made delicious-looking cookies and I was psyched that Dale won. He needed the pick-me-up after two straight weeks in the Elimination Challenge bottom 3.
2. I’m glad the cash prize for the Elimination challenge was a big one because that? Was brutal. Brilliant, but brutal.
Who among us hasn’t at least briefly fantasized about running around Target and picking up all the cool cookware we could ever want? But the degree of difficulty for this challenge was way up there. I was exhausted just watching the chefs sprint all over the giant Target. And then they had to figure out how to cook for 100 people in roughly two hours using hot plates, Crock-Pots, grill pans, and whatever else they could utilize. AND most of them were cooking from 1:00-3:00 am. Even former party guy Tony Bourdain looked and sounded zoned out when he sat down to eat.
3. Carla, please don’t scare me like that!
Once again I was terrified that Carla was going home. She was still shopping for tablecloths when most of the other contestants were already cooking and she ended up serving a dish she wasn’t happy with. Were they told that table presentation would count? If so, I missed it. If not, Carla, what were you thinking?! (She was clearly wondering the same thing about herself in retrospect!)
4. Why did so many of the chefs make soup?
Just seconds before Antonia observed that everyone was making soup, I was sitting at home wondering, “why is everyone making a soup?” I’m sure it had a lot to do with the available cooking implements, the number of guests, and the allotted time. But I immediately knew that anyone who didn’t do soup (or, at least, not *just* soup) would have an advantage and I was pretty sure that Dale, Antonia, and Richard would be the top 3 even before they had served all the food.
5. Dale has his mojo back!
So glad to see Dale win the $25k after two rough weeks! I was a little bit sad for Antonia, whose wins haven’t seemed to come with prizes so far, but you can’t argue with a crispy grilled cheese and spicy tomato-bacon soup at 3am.
6. Aww, Angelo
The concept of Angelo’s soup sounded excellent, but the execution apparently fell really short. I am sad to see him go home—he was a serious contender for the title. I was sort of hoping they’d eliminate Tiffany, who just seems completely burned out and not all that happy to be in the competition any more. But the Judge’s Table discussion did a really good job of explaining why it was Angelo and not Tiffany: her dish was edible, his wasn’t.
And now, the week’s Big Question: did working with Mike I. sink Angelo? At first I thought teaming up to shop together seemed like a really smart idea, but the clips they showed seemed to show Angelo doing most of the running around after cooking started. Mike was also the one who told Angelo that his soup needed more oomph, which led to the Great Salt Disaster of 2011. In the end, though, I think Angelo was responsible for his own seasoning—Mike was probably right that the soup started out bland, and my guess is that Angelo overcompensated.
The Quickfire was amazing! I thought the muppets were hilarious. So much better than the spat of celebrity judges they’ve had! And the elimination challenge was intense. I felt sort of bad for Angelo (I’m not his biggest fan) and really think that Mike I. did him a disservice. When he tasted the soup, Mike just said “it’s missing something,” and Angelo asked, “does it need more salt?” and Mike just said again, “it needs something” without specifying if that something was salt. I don’t know if Angelo misheard him or made the poor decision that the something missing must be salt, but I thought Mike was less than helpful. Which is fine under normal circumstances but definitely not when Angelo ran all over Target on Mike’s behalf!
The second Angelo said he added more bacon and more salt, I knew where his dish was headed. I cringed.
Loved the quickfire! Though hearing the ingredients for Dale’s cookie, it was basically a knockoff of Momofuku’s compost cookies, but made w/ shortbread and topped with icing. Not as innovative but neither were anyone else’s for the matter (except Richard’s not-cookie!). Carla’s looked so yummy, I was still hoping for her to win this one!
Now I’m all Team Dale but I was surprised his relatively simple dish beat out Antonia’s. Was it karma, perhaps, for her winning the Italian challenge on such a simple dish over Fabio’s? I think so.
As soon as Angelo added the salt AND the bacon to the dish, I knew he was done. It seemed gross from the get-go anyway, but that was the killer. No shocker, though I was surprised at myself for even liking the guy a little bit at the end… can’t forget that terrible “crocAdile” mishap.
@Bookbag — Agreed on Mike I. not being all that helpful when Angelo asked what his soup needed. Maybe Mike didn’t know, but last episode he mentioned that he doesn’t think anyone should help their competitors with the cooking, so maybe he was being deliberately vague.
@Words and Steel — The judges really seem to be choosing the dish they enjoyed the most, rather than the most refined one or the most innovative one. I think that’s a good judging principle but I can’t blame Antonia if she feels a bit annoyed that she individually cooked 100+ perfect eggs and got beaten by a grilled cheese sandwich! Then again, like you said, she did win the Italian challenge with steamed mussels.
I immediately went and baked some chocolate chip cookies after seeing this Quickfire.
Agreed with your comments! LOVED Cookie Monster, and also felt terrible for the contestants (Carla especially!!!) with that challenge. Brutal. I hate when they make them cook in the middle of the night like that and they are clearly out of their minds exhausted. I think that’s what sunk Angelo–it was just a bad night, he was tired, he KNEW he was better than that, but we all crumble under pressure once or twice. As to the Mike I. thing, I am maybe naive but I never believe when this “sabotage” business comes up for anyone. I think he wasn’t super helpful, nor was he intentionally unhelpful. Angelo just had a bad night. Bummer, but even he seemed pretty graceful about it, because that’s just how the show works.
I loooooved the Sesame Street characters. The heckling was hilarious.
And yes, what was Carla thinking. Oh man I was on the edge of my seat watching her run around after everyone else was already cooking. You would think that she would notice she was the only one not cooking and that most of the other competitors had scrapped decor and she should too.
However, I did NOT appreciate Dale’s snide “Suzy homemaker” comment about the women. Sorry, but there are other phrases he could have used about the poor decision to decorate their tables. A demeaning and sexist comment like that does not endear me to him.
I’m leaning toward either a Richard, Dale, and Antonia lineup for the final three. Although you know I’m still rooting for Carla all the way.
Wow, somehow I missed your recap on last week’s episode until just now.
Can we talk about how freaking exhausted these people were? Just watching, at the end, they made me almost cry with their obvious fatigue. As someone who functions terribly when I get less than 7 hours of rest, my heart was breaking for them and their puffy eyes and quick tears!