Top Chef: Padma in a Bikini

This episode featured Padma in a bikini, a boat captain that looked like Sammy Haggar and the chefs trying to cook on a deserted island. I think the freakiest part of it was everyone in the yacht club they were cooking for and the judges were wearing all white. It was like a cult!

Consistency

The episode started off with some cross-branding from NBC Universal, that owns both NBC and Bravo, by having the guest judge be Lorena Garcia who would be on NBC’s America’s Next Great Restaurant. The quickfire challenge would have the chefs pair up and create 100 identical dishes in one hour to test their consistency.

Mike and Richard teamed up and Antonia and Tiffany teamed up. The boys were going to do a pork bolognese with homemade macaroni. The girls were doing a seared steak over salad. Then the smack talking began. Mike told the camera that everyone saw him and Richard as the favorites and the girls knew that. Oh do they Mike? Who views you as a favorite? I thought it was only in his head that he was a favorite.Richard thought that teams that didn’t know what they were doing would pick a slice and serve dish. Antonia thought that making a pasta in an hour was difficult but she thought the plating of their dish was more difficult since it was four different components. Antonia was grilling the steak while Tiffany made the sauce and started plating. Mike said that if he had made the girl’s dish, he would have sent Richard to the store to get a six-pack of beer to celebrate the win after he did it all himself. They really sounded full of themselves so I was hoping the girls would win just because of that attitude.


Richard & Mike
Pork Bolognese with Fresh Macaroni & Pecorino Cheese

Presentation-wise, all the plates looked similar. Lorena wanted to know how they did the portions. They said they used a serving spoon and then gave all the plates a look over after that. Lorena said the flavors were there and she liked the kick from the spices.


Antonia & Tiffany
Beef Tenderloin Salad with Cilantro, Mint Basil & Chimichurri Sauce

Their plates were also consistent in presentation. Lorena saw the challenge with plating four different components. She said she noticed they picked a cold dish so it would be easier to be consistent in that way but saw the plating as more difficult compared to the boys. She picked their dish as the winning dish. The boys were really sour about it. Ha!

Deserted Island

The elimination challenge had the chefs going off to a deserted island where their only goal was to make a dish that incorporated the island’s favorite fish, conch. They would give cooking for a Nassau yacht club. Mike had done his homework on the Bahamas and had been practicing working with conch before the finals. Richard had done it too. Mike said he was cool, calm and collective about the challenge. Do you mean collected Mike?

When the chefs arrived at the beach, they found boxes of various kinds of product but the box labeled “conch” just had snorkeling gear. They would have to dive for their conch. Richard said he did not want to see Mike topless and we didn’t either. Richard said he was a hot mess trying to dive for the conch. Antonia said they were going to get sand in the food. It would be almost impossible to not do it. There was much banging on the shells to try to get the conch out. Mike knew that he had to boil it in the shell and it was easier to get out. Richard didn’t have that experience since he couldn’t get conch in the shell back home when he was practicing before the finals.

Richard decided he wanted to make linguine with clams, but use conch instead of clams. He saw the colors on the inside of the conch shell and thought of sweet potato so he decided to cut some sweet potato to make it look like linguine. Mike saw the food Antonia was making and thought she was making the same kind of food she always made, but she was masking the conch too much. He was trying to incorporate local flavors into his dish with local ingredients. He was cooking the fish in a banana leaf. He knew Elia got sent home for doing that, but he said what she did was elementary and he was making refined peasant food. Antonia was having problems getting her fire to stay lit with all the wind. Tiffany had an issue with plating her food too early so she was worried the soup that she was making would cool off too much and change the flavor of the soup.

Judging the Food

Overall, the judges thought the food was impressive and there was not one grain of sand in the dishes. Amazing!


Mike
Banana Leaf Wrapped Grouper, Braised Pineapple & Conch Vinaigrette

Mike’s fish was cooked very well. They loved the smokiness that the banana leaf added to it. Gail was obsessed with the braised pineapple that was savory rather than sweet. They liked the way he incorporated flavors that they wouldn’t have thought to incorporate, but the butter was unnecessary. It made it greasy. Mike said he wanted to use local flavors, but the butter was not a tropical flavor. He did task a risk and they were glad he did. He also used his conch in the most creative way so he was the overall winner again! Twice in a row for him in the finals. His head is going to be huge!


Richard
Sweet Potato Linguine with Conch & Spiny Lobster

They thought him making the linguine out of sweet potato was brilliant. They also loved how he used some different ingredients like mushrooms and fennel seed with the conch. Overall, it was a really well conceived dish, but some people received undercooked lobster so that is probably what made Mike the winner over his dish.


Antonia
Red Snapper with Conch Tartare & Lobster Nage

The ceviche gave the dish a great punch, but Tom did not like that the conch was cut so small that it got lost in the dish. It did have a great balance between sweetness and spiciness. Her dish was pretty conventional, but Antonia argued that she wanted people to look at a dish and know it is hers. She did please the natives of the Bahamas with her spices, but her dish didn’t highlight the conch as much as the judges wanted so she didn’t win.


Tiffany
Conch & Coconut Chowder with Sweet Potatoes & Conch Ceviche

Everyone loved the concept and the flavors. The major issue was the chowder was cold when it arrived to the table so having the cold ceviche on top of it made it even colder. Tom thought that the flavors didn’t haveĀ  enough chance to come together. It was also a little on the sweet side. Due to the flavors not completely coming together and it being served cold when it should have been hot made her the choice to pack her knives and go.

Questions

  1. Did you think Mike would make it this far? Is he turning it around finally after practicing really hard?
  2. Did you think the guys were being too catty at the beginning during the quickfire challenge?
  3. Were you freaked out by everyone wearing white in the yacht club including the judges?

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.