This season got off to a bit of a slow start, but now we’re really on a roll! (Pun very much intended.) I thought this was another strong episode — great Quickfire, fun elimination challenge, good food, and … DRAMA.
1. OYSTERS
I love oysters. I love them raw with mignonette sauces and I extra-love them fried. Our favorite neighborhood seafood restaurant does a fabulous fried oyster dish with spicy aioli. I was dying of envy when I watched the contestants slurp those delicious fresh oysters at Taylor Shellfish Farms.
I’m not sure if I liked the twist of making half of the chefs do a hot prep and the other half do a cold prep. I like both hot and cold oyster dishes, but why not just let everyone do what they want? Also, was that a plastic bag in the fryer next to Micah’s fried oysters?
2. Roller derby? Interesting Elimination.
For the elimination challenge, Padma and Emeril introduced the All-Stars from the Rat City Rollergirls. They all have vaguely food-themed nicknames, like Tempura Tantrum and Jalapeno Business. Our chefs paired up and each team picked a nickname to base their dish around. Bart took one for the team and agreed to work with Josie.
Speaking of Josie, last week I said I hoped she went next. Her screechy antics at the roller derby match didn’t change that wish. I was annoyed and I could mute the volume on my TV — I can’t imagine how irritating it was to sit with her for the entire game.
Oh, but according to Josie, her fellow contestants were being “boring” and ruining her experience by not being loud obnoxious drunks. My bad. Everyone else was clearly in the wrong.
Everything else is spoiler-y, so scroll through to the comments for the rest!
3. Micah’s first win!
It’s always hard to guess which dishes taste best just from the TV pictures, but I wanted to crawl through the screen and devour Micah’s oysters. Everything about them sounded fabulous.
4. Brooke and John pull out the win!
A strong Thai-flavored beef dish netted Brooke and John a team win. John seemed weirdly emotional working with Brooke – he kept thanking her for “getting him” and emphasizing how glad he was they were working together. He didn’t act that way working with Kuniko. I wonder what’s up with that? Is the perceived dislike for him in the house having an effect? Because he’s far from the most hated person in the house! (John, you probably owe Josie a Christmas card for that.)
5. Gee, do you think something might go wrong with Sheldon’s tempura?
Any time we see the contestants talking about how comfortable they are with a particular dish, it’s usually a prelude to an “ironic” bottom finish or elimination. And lo and behold, after many clips of Josh and Sheldon talking about how experienced Sheldon is with tempura, the tempura oil never gets hot enough and the soggy tempura lands his team on the bottom.
I like Sheldon and I was worried that the sub-par tempura might send him home – it sounded like he and Josh had a great concept and fell short on execution. But at Judge’s Table it quickly became clear that the worst dish of the night was Josie and Bart’s … whatever that was they made.
6. I think I’ve figured out what really bugs me about Josie.
Josie seems to care more about being a Reality TV Character than about making good food. She’s absolutely passionate about the Chef Josie routine – she’s Loud and Out There and Fun and Knows Who She Is, and boy does she want us viewers to know it too. But I haven’t seen her show even a fraction of that passion about the food that she cooks. At Judge’s Table she seems weirdly indifferent to the comments about her dishes. To be fair, maybe she’s trying to play it cool, or maybe she’s just been here before and knows Tom’s critiques aren’t the end of the world.
7. Aww, Bart!
Unsurprisingly, I was really rooting for Josie to go home. I think she and Bart shared equally in the dish’s main failing, which was a clumsy, not-thought-through concept. I’m not sure good seasoning would have saved that dish.
Alas, the classy, wonderfully dorky Belgian is going home. Adieu, Bart!
8. Last Chance Kitchen
Another week, another CJ win. Is it just me, or did his flavors sound really delicate and a bit fussy on this week’s episode? I wish I could get a better sense of why Tom’s responding to CJ’s cooking the way he is.
We’re down to the top 9 – I can’t wait for next week! In the meantime, let’s discuss crucial questions such as: Isn’t Hugh Acheson adorable? Is it ever a good idea to criticize a top team’s dish at Judge’s Table (ahem, JOSH)? And was anyone else alarmed by Stefan’s story about buying Season 9 to make Padma cutouts? (I assume he was joking. Oh, please, tell me he was joking.)
At this point I am honestly more annoyed by Josh (that’s gross handlebar mustache guy’s name, right?) than Josie. Dude comes on the show “famous” for pork and screws up every pork dish he’s made, makes consistently bad food that puts him in the bottom every week, and then tries a lame “CJ” move this week on his way out the door – WHY is he still there??
Josh has totally been coasting on “someone was just a little worse than I was” for the past several weeks. And yeah, what is with the CJ-ing? Maybe he was genuinely trying to understand why the jalapeno popper was a top finisher. But what did he expect Colicchio to say besides “It was on the top because it was delicious”? Sure, it wasn’t the most original concept, but if it was one of the top two dishes the judges must have enjoyed eating it.
Speaking personally, I would eat my weight in crab-stuffed fresh jalapeno poppers. And if concession stands sold food like that I’d buy a lot more concession food!