We’re down to nine chefs now, and I really think it’s anyone’s game at this point. Some chefs seem stronger than others, but week-to-week, anyone could win and anyone could go home.
Since I was so thoroughly snookered by the last episode’s editing magic (“oh no, the idiot diners are going to pick the wrong restaurant!”) I vowed to pay closer attention to editing manipulation this time around.
1. Antonia vs. Mike I.
Right off the bat, I wondered if Antonia was really talking about Mike I. being rude and abrasive after Restaurant Wars. He didn’t seem particularly obnoxious in the bit at the beginning when he was explaining why he thought Marcel was the right person to eliminate. I wonder if Antonia said those things at some other point in the competition and they edited them in here to create tension.
2. Interesting Quickfire (Carla: “‘Interesting.’ That’s the kiss of death.”)
I liked the idea of a challenge that focused on presentation, but I feel like not having the judges taste the dishes missed the point of food styling a bit. A lot of the chefs ended up creating food-based art projects and I just don’t think that’s something that would be served in a restaurant. The ultimate goal, to me, is to create a dish that looks like something people want to order and eat. You want people to see the plate pass in the dining room and say “ooh, what is that, it looks wonderful!” And I got a bit annoyed when guest judge Isaac Mizrahi started criticizing people for not making their plates look appetizing. It was not at all clear from the rules of the challenge that “appetizing” was a judging criterion. In fact, I suspect it wasn’t supposed to be, but it’s hard not to look at food and judge it on whether or not you want to eat it.
Marcel was probably grinding his teeth as he realized that he missed out on the one challenge where his awful Restaurant Wars dessert might actually have been appropriate!
3. Elimination Challenge — The Food You Want to Eat*
I actually enjoyed looking at the elimination challenge food more! A giant pile of mussels with crusty bread? Beautiful basil-oil minestrone with homemade foccacia? Polenta, fresh pasta, and more polenta? Drool. Hand me a spoon.
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* This is also the title of one of our favorite cookbooks, from former Top Chef judge Ted Allen.
4. Awww, Angelo
When I saw the awful plastic-vomit art piece that Angelo put out, and realized that he wrote “Crocadile” on the table instead of “Crocodile,” I just wanted to give him a hug and shield him from what was coming. He seemed so proud and happy and innocent. I could barely listen to Isaac and Padma criticize the poor guy!
5. The women knocked it out of the freaking park!
The antipasti dishes Antonia, Tiffany, and Carla served were all straightforward but they all looked and sounded mouthwatering. You could tell everyone at the table loved the antipasti course. That said, Antonia’s win felt a bit odd to me. Her dish seemed pretty easy to execute—or did I miss something? Did she make the bread herself? I was expecting to hear Tiffany’s name or Fabio’s for the win.
But I think it boiled down to whose dish everyone enjoyed the most, rather than whose dish seemed the most complicated to put together. And Antonia’s giant bowl of mussels definitely got my mouth watering. The next time I go home to Boston I’m getting a giant bag of fresh mussels and cooking them in white wine with shallots, parsley, and garlic, then serving crusty bread on the side. Yum.
6. Nooooo! Not Tre!!
I sort of saw Tre’s elimination coming. They showed too many clips of him talking about his experience with risotto, and in contrast to the gorgeous risotto that won him Season 3’s first challenge, the picture they showed of this dish just looked pale and clumpy. But I’m heartbroken to see him go. He’s a calm, collected presence in the kitchen and in the stew room, quietly funny, with a great laugh, and I’m still fantasizing about how I might be able to reproduce his Restaurant Wars pork shoulder with Corona sauce. But he gave one of the classiest exit interviews ever and it was nice to see how sad everyone else was to lose him as well. I hope the $20,000 he won in the stuffing Quickfire will be some consolation.
Isaac Mizrahi was one of the most annoying guests they’ve ever had on this show, and since one season they had the Real Housewives, that is saying a lot. Must we really pull every guest from other trash Bravo shows onto the one solid, good show they have? I swear, if Andy Cohen shows up as a guest judge one of these weeks I’m going to pitch a fit.
That said, my sadness at Tre going home was overshadowed by my relief that Dale squeaked by. I was worried, althought like you said, it was pretty clear from all of the Tre interviews that he was a goner. Why do the editors do that?
I completely agree about the quickfire. There’s a world of difference between ‘food as art’ that’s never meant to be eaten, and beautifully presented food that tastes great.
I was a little surprised by Antonia’s win as well, and initially agreed with whoever made the point that mussels are FRENCH, not Italian. But after further thought I realized that Italian food is SO regionally influenced that it’s entirely possible (and probable) that there are regions of Italy – particularly in the northwest, near to France – where Mussels are very much a part of the culinary experience. I also chalk her win up to the same thing that made Kevin from the Vegas season so good: Simple food executed perfectly. Because while mussels SEEM easy, they’re also very easy to mess up. Believe me, I once got a big bowl full of mussels that smelled like a barnyard.
I like Tre, but I think this was a good time for him to go, especially because I wasn’t ready to see dale go yet, and even though I can not stand Mike Isabella, I want him to stick around a little longer.
I’m sad to see Tre go, even though I suspected his time was running short. And like you said, just a few too many clips of him talking about his risotto skills. Not to mention the fact that his first question to the restaurant guy was whether they could do risotto. At first I thought Mike was going, b/c they seemed to like his dish least. But, as judges’ table went on, the tide really turned against Tre. I’m so relieved Dale’s still there, b/c he’s my favorite to win, and i think he deserves to win. But Tre’s such a joyous presence that he’ll be much missed.
@Kerry — OMG SO ANNOYING. Sorry for the all caps, but man, Mizrahi was really twitchy in this episode and I was so relieved when he didn’t guest judge the elimination round too. If they were trying to get me to watch “Imitation Project Runway Knockoff” — excuse me, “The Fashion Show” — they failed.
@Alotta Lettuce — The table was praising how Antonia got the fennel flavor into the dish, so I think you’re right that really excellent mussels can be trickier than they might seem. The first time I made them my broth basically tasted like wet onions!
@Chris — Dale is my favorite for the title too, but wow, he had a rough episode. He looked really burned out. I hope he can pull it together. I want my Blais-Carla-Dale finale!
I have never like Isaac Mizrahi as a television personality. But I did think the challenge was to create the most aesthetically pleasing dish you want to eat, even before judging started on the Quickfire. I don’t know why I interpreted it like that (Mr. Beagle didn’t), but I just kind of figured that even though tasting wasn’t involved, the result should at least be edible.
I loved that the women hit it out of the park. And I really don’t fault Antonia for cooking simple. That was the challenge — simple cooking that let’s the ingredients speak for themselves. That’s exactly what she did.
I have to say, when the women put their food on the table, I started drooling.
Maybe they should have done a two-stage Quickfire — only the 3 best-looking plates get tasted and the best of those 3 wins, or something like that. Although it might be hard to keep the food at the appropriate temperature.
I’m still fantasizing about my own bowl of mussels. I plan to use this recipe: http://www.ruthreichl.com/moules-marinieres.html
Ok so I was wondering why you hadn’t posted a recap of this episode yet, and it turns out I’m a dummy who missed it. ANYWAY.
Thoughts:
1) I agree with you entirely about Angelo! That was one of the worst looking things I have ever seen, and the poor dummy thought it was beautiful for some unknown reason. We were cringing while watching it!
2) That said, I thought Fabio’s quickfire thing looked AWFUL too, and I can’t believe he was in the top 3.
3) Agreed on the idiocy of a visual challenge without tasting. What’s the point?
4) I feel annoyed by all the complaining the chefs did re: Antonia’s win. Mussels are “simple” in that htey have few ingredients, but that’s the point: a simple dish must be executed perfectly or else it sucks. You can overcook mussels in like, 5 seconds. I hate this fetishizing of “difficult” dishes. The fewer elements you have in your dish, the less you have to hide behind–and clearly Antonia’s mussels were perfect.
5) I knew Tre was done with when he said he was going to make risotto. Such a finicky dish, and the wrong audience to make it for (i.e. very anal Italians).
6) On that note, I do feel like the pasta course people got the short end of the stick. These folks were always going to be anal about things like pasta and risotto, and you HAVE to do one of those for that course, you don’t have nearly the flex you do with an antipasto or meat course. People are ANAL about pasta being cooked just so, etc. Also, whereas cooking a piece of meat is something that all chefs should excel at, being really good at pasta is really a specialty thing–every chef should be able to make pasta, but not all of them do enough of that kind of cuisine to really master it. So it required specialty knowledge in a way that the other courses didn’t. So it didn’t surprise me that they crashed and burned. Also, the editing gods totally fooled me and made it sound like Mike I was going home, and I felt so bad for him (I know, I know, I am weird) because that would mean going home TWICE for something that he was supposedly a pro at. Dude does not do well when he’s in his comfort zone.
7) Thank god Dale didn’t go home, he is still my favourite (which still surprises me).
8) I made risotto last night partly inspired by their endless yammering on about what risotto is “supposed” to be like. Man it is HARD to get it right! We make risotto often, but we know we’re not doing it “properly”, i.e. it doesn’t end up with that perfect texture they were describing. And G and I are now obsessed with mastering it. I had a risotto with that perfect texture (creamy and not too thick, but where each grain of rice retained its shape) at my favourite neighbourhood Italian restaurant this past summer, and I still haven’t stopped talking about it. It was mindblowing. The “chef” at that restaurant is the owner’s Italian nonna, though, which is why. I need to get to nonna-level.
I agree with you about fetishizing difficulty when it comes to cooking. I tend to admire ambitious cooking and I think degree of difficulty is a fair tiebreaker when two dishes are equally enjoyable, but difficult should never trump delicious. I think that’s what Marcel just did not understand — a great chef focuses on flavor and using techniques to enhance the dining experience, instead of focusing on the techniques themselves.
I definitely see your point about the pasta course guys having the most difficult task. That said, they were specifically told that it was OK to use dried pasta. I get why none of them wanted to — they wanted to win, not to skate through by using an easier ingredient — but Mike and Dale made it a lot harder on themselves than they had to. Again, I think it’s an issue of fetishizing difficulty. They probably thought fresh pasta would push them closer to the winner’s circle simply because it’s more difficult.
Oh, and Fabio’s dish! I actually thought the little tuna rolls were visually interesting. But the writing on the plate and the sprinkling of lemon juice? Lame and pretentious.
Totally agreed re: the dry pasta thing. I sympathize with the chefs for wanting to really “impress” but there is definitely a lesson in there somewhere.
Also, I forgot to mention: Fabio’s polenta had me drooling. Polenta is anothing thing I’ve been trying to perfect lately, and I made a good one, but goddamn, the texture of that one looked incredible!