This was the first challenge in Bravo's Top Chef competition where everyone truly had to work together. The task was certainly the largest to date, though last week's restaurant design challenge was not at all easy. The quickfire and main challenges were combined, for this episode, though the chefs did not know that when they started out. If they had, things would have gone a little differently.
Upon arriving at the quickfire challenge, the chefs were introduced to Scott and Scott, a gay couple that would be having their commitment ceremony very soon. They were asked to create a wedding menu for 100 people with 5 courses, including an hors d'oeuvre that used prawns and a wedding cake, all on a $3,000 budget. "The Scotts" asked for something with an Asian flair. Everyone had imaginative ideas, though the other chefs criticized Dave's menu for being too simplistic. Dave, on the other hand, was the only one who had substantial catering experience and he had purposely designed his menu to be relatively simple and full of dishes that almost anyone would enjoy. In the end, the Scotts choose LeeAnne's menu (after her joke about being the only actual Asian competitor), which was as follows:
- Shrimp Toast with Scallop Mousse
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Salmon with Green Papaya Salad
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Seafood "Lover's Nest" with Vegetables
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Ginger-Scented White Cake with Passion Fruit Filling.
Once the menu was chosen, the chefs were told that they would be preparing it for the Scotts' reception in 16 hours.
After some general panic from the chefs, they tried to regroup and LeeAnne assigned dishes to everyone. The first thing that they decided to do was to use cake mix for the wedding cake, since none of them trusted their baking abilities. The team hit the grocery store to shop after much griping about how difficult it would be to work with grocery store products and prices for catering a party of this size. The difficulties weren't limited to the cash register, either. The woman at the fish counter only had sub-par fish and actually refused to sell it to Harold. No doubt her logic was that she would have no fish left to sell if he bought it all. It failed to occur to her that the fish would still be sold, apparently. Harold did get the fish, and everyone headed to the kitchen at the Hotel Monaco, where the reception was to be held.
They cooked through the night, deciding that it was better to be tired than rushed. Unfortunately, they were tired, rushed and falling asleep by the end of the day. Tom Coliccho, one of the judges, walked into the kitchen and spotted the cake mixes, but said little to the chefs about them after Tiffani tried to defend their decision to use them. When it came time to serve, the chefs realized that they didn't have enough appetizers, so Dave whipped up a tuna variation of his appetizer from the quickfire challenge, prawn bruschetta, just in the nick of time. Stephen spent quite a lot of time directing the front of the house and wine service, while the other chefs spent more time rushing around and panicking in the kitchen. The dishes often came out with problems, like being too greasy or too cold. One guest actually found egg shell in the wedding cake.
The whole project was overly ambitious and poorly handled. Tom Colicchio is absolutely right in pointing out that the chefs should have taken the time to, say, sleep instead of working all night. Time is no substitue for planning and the quality of their work would have been much higher if they were well rested - just ask any college student who has ever pulled an "all-nighter" during exam season.
When it came time for the judging, the dishes proved to be unmemorable, though they were received as well as could be expected by the guests, with the exepetion that Gail saw one guest actually walk out. The Scotts had a wonderful day despite any errors in the kitchen and commented that they enjoyed several of the dishes. The most popular dishes with the Seafood Lover's Nest, cooked by LeeAnne and the appetizer trio, prepared by Stephen.
The judges were very impressed by the way Stephen had directed the wait-staff to deliver the plates to the tables, but were not happy at all that Stephen was absent in the kitchen much of the time. Dave, the only one with catering experience, might have stretched himself a little thin in the kitchen trying to help out, but he did a great job and really rose to the occasion. LeeAnne didn't direct the team as well as she could have and Harold's dish - the salmon - was flavorless. No one said too much about Tiffani's preparation of the beef, except to not that it was "not stellar", but since she seemed to be primarily responsible for mixing the cake batter, the egg shells may have been her fault. As usual, she said that she knew there were problems in the dishes, but the judges called her out and told her to take more responsibility instead of waiting for things to fail.
In the end, since he had received a warning about his tendency to work the front of the house, Stephen was the one sent home. He left the viewers with a final promise to bring restaurants to a new level during his career, as he has dreams of becoming more of a restaurateur than a chef.
And then there were 4, but only three will go on to the finale in Las Vegas. To review:
Episode 1 recap
Episode 2 recap
Episode 3 recap
Episode 4 recap
Episode 5 recap
Episode 6 recap
Episode 7 recap
Episode 8 recap
Episode 9 recap
Reunion show recap
Finale part 1 recap
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