On last night's episode of Top Chef, Spike confirmed his maybe-sexist tendencies, Richard was all up in my Slashfood post, and contestants couldn't distinguish between low-quality and high-quality butter. Let's backtrack. The theme of the episode was "taste," and Blue Ginger's Ming Tsai guest judged. At first, I thought the theme seemed a bit lame for a show that obviously centers around taste during every episode, but I was quickly swayed when the show revealed my favorite Quickfire Challenge ever: the taste test. The theme also led to some of that heated Top Chef drama that I love. We'll get to that in a bit.
For the Quickfire Challenge, Padma and Ming Tsai blindfolded contestants and asked them to distinguish between high and low quality ingredients. The show flashed through the ingredients quickly, but I saw olive oil, syrup, butter, pork, bacon, chocolate, crab and sake. Apparently, it's much harder than it looks, and Stephanie (who is a strong chef on the show) lost with a disappointing 6/15 correct. Antonia (who you may remember is my favorite) won her first Quickfire with 12 correct. She raved beforehand about how this was her favorite Quickfire too, so I was especially proud.
For the Elimination Challenge, chefs prepared the first-course for a Meals on Wheels ball. They were divided into four teams: Fire, Air, Water and Earth (I kept waiting for Andrew to dress up as Captain Planet and sing the show's theme song, but sadly that moment never came). Now, I try to refrain from being too critical when I know that I could never do better, but it really surprised me that some teams conceptualized these themes so poorly. The Air Team for example, chose duck, which I always think of as rather heavy (don't worry, I get it -- ducks are birds).
The judges didn't seem to mind that choice so much however, instead choosing to pick on Water Team's sous-vide salmon (it had scales) and Earth Team's beef carpaccio (it was flavorless and not earthy enough). Though Richard probably had the most individual fault, there was no way he could leave the show this early. The judges instead defaulted to agreeing with guest reviews and sent away Zoi, who worked on some mushrooms for Earth Team. Jennifer (her girlfriend) was angered as we knew she would be.
And despite contention between Dale and Lisa, judges loved Fire Team's prawns with chili rub and smoked bacon. Lisa won the challenge for demanding an Asian-inspired dish (as opposed to the original plan of deviled eggs), and carrying it through.
Perhaps the best part of the episode came after Zoi left, when Spike tried to nail Antonia for forcing Earth Team into making beef carpaccio instead of the butternut squash soup that he had advocated. Antonia defended herself like a star, repeatedly telling Spike to stand by his dish. I personally found him extremely obnoxious, especially since earlier in the episode he said that, "unless you are going to take two women and strangle them, there comes a time when you gotta just go with it and do the best you can." Wow, and take off that hat, son. Dale, following Spike's lead, attacked Lisa for being pushy throughout the show, even though their dish won. The men on this show (Richard, Ryan, Mark excepted) are quite intimidated by the strong female personalities, and I can't wait to see the showdowns that come out of it.
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-10-2008 @ 2:50PM
Numb said...
Wow... Alanna I think you must be seeing a different show than I am. I don't think Spike comments had anything to do with sexism as I'm certain that he would have said all the same things if his team had been two males (assuming they acted as Antonia and Zoi did). Antonia basically did say she wasn't going to make a soup (or at the very least tried to belittle Spike for that opinion), so his rant at the end was slightly justified (not to say that he handled himself appropriately, just that he may have had a point). Don't get me wrong, Antonia is one of my favorites thus far as well, but frankly I think Spike *did* stand by his dish. It's not like he sabotaged the team's plate or even made excuses at judging other than making his brief comment about his preference. He disagreed with the concept but understood it was better to compromise for the sake of the team - something that the night's winner Lisa obviously couldn't get a handle on. As for the men being intimidated by strong females... Frankly I think that's absurd. The CHEFS are perhaps intimidated by other great CHEFS who they have to view as their competition and therefore have to be continually sizing each other up.
It's sad that there is already enough sexism in the world as is, I really don't think we need to go and search for it like this.
That being said, I still love your Top Chef posts Alanna, so don't think I'm trying to be too critical - just sharing my thoughts on the topic. :)
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4-10-2008 @ 2:53PM
Ariel said...
I'm so happy Zoi got kicked off.
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4-10-2008 @ 5:10PM
paul30306 said...
I was very glad to see Lisa win this one - she is the reason her team won - she had a problem with the plan and stuck to her guns and forced them into a winning dish - Dale was mad because she won a real prize for once - a trip to Italy - what did he do for the dish, pepper relish?? Lisa not only forced the winning dish, she did what they should all be trying for - she prepared her component of the dish in a manner/method that the Guest Judge had never seen before and he found it phenomenal. What do you want to bet that Ming Tsai consults with her for this method and begins to use it?
As for Spike – this was inevitable. Spike felt the same way about his team’s dish that Lisa did but he did not have the strength to force the change. He did not deserve any better than he got. As for Zoi leaving – they have been setting this up from the beginning – they felt it was time to kick up the tempers so they broke up the couple – something that should not have been allowed in the first place. Now we can have the usual temper tantrums for the remaining weeks. Spike, Zoi, and Jennifer aside Dale was the real idiot this night – sore loser or what.
Lastly, when with they begin to consider how well the dish matches the theme – duck for air??? Yes, it’s a bird, but it is primarily a water animal. Beef for earth?? The mushrooms were a good choice even if prepared badly (when will they learn that mushrooms always lose on this show?). A better choice would have been a dish comprised of root vegetables – this was a first course – they did not have to go with a heavy protein. I thought that the spice of the fire dish was a risk that paid off – they deserved the win. I feel the salmon sous-vide was an inspired choice, just badly executed. Richard remains because the producers like him – he is a great chef but scales in the food is inexcusable.
Ah well, we are almost down to eight – that is when the real show begins anyway – no way they can begin to show the work of 16 people in a one hour show.
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4-10-2008 @ 7:27PM
Sarita said...
I agree COMPLETELY with Alanna: Spike is sexist and I think homophobic who was totally threatened by the lesbian couple from the get go. Although it seemed predestined that Zoi would be thrown off (she's been in the bottom a few times), I think her skills must be excellent none-the-less (she has worked at this great San Francisco restaurant). And Dale is a first class jerk as well... insecure and mean. Hung was a jerk too, but never like these two. There is a whole female versus male element that I have not seen on the show before, so it makes that the producers chose chefs to work as binaries. I think you are right about Richard, paul30306, being saved because the producers like him. But he is cool and I think that he always produces interesting dishes.
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4-10-2008 @ 8:46PM
RobynT said...
I am glad I'm not the only one who hates Spike! I can definitely see the point that Antonia should've stepped back since she had immunity, but it's also definitely his fault for not arguing his view strongly enough.
As for Dale and Lisa, Lisa really struck me as a brat at first, but she turned out to be right so... I don't know if that means she argued so strongly because she knew she was right or she just got lucky. Yeah I don't know what was up with Dale flipping out at her. I still want to like Dale, but... he's definitely got a strike against him...
I think Richard is still good. I mean this was his first mess up right?
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4-10-2008 @ 10:51PM
Sara said...
I agree with what Tom said-- they weren't the losing team because they didn't do soup; they were the losing team because they made a bland dish.
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4-11-2008 @ 4:13AM
Bill G said...
After hearing Spike's tirade against Antonia, accusing her of absolutely refusing to make soup, I rewound to the planning footage and she totally said that if they decided to make soup she would make a damn good soup. Spike was all wishy-washy, saying that she'd made him doubt the soup idea, blah blah blah. Grow some stones, Spike!
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4-11-2008 @ 4:34AM
Bill G said...
A few comments about the menus.
When I think of earth and earthiness, I immediately think truffles. That carpaccio could've been elevated to great heights with a few drops of truffle oil and some shaved truffle. Would've been amazing with butternut squash soup, too.
I'm sure the fire dish tasted amazing, but it was basically grilled bacon-wrapped jalapeno shrimp, something I've seen on menus all over the place (at least in the SW USA). The Asian angle was an interesting touch, though. The fire dish came before earth, right? I wonder if the spiciness killed everyone's palates for the subsequent dishes?
Is there a better time to pull out the foams than with an air-themed dish? Or maybe a savory sabayon? Might be hard to do for 80, I suppose, but worth a shot.
Water-poached fish, nice idea, and a classic preparation for fish, if not salmon. Vanilla-parsnip sauce, though? Ugh. And maybe it's time to start using real caviar instead of the faux stuff.
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4-14-2008 @ 4:00AM
Bernie B said...
As for Dale, I think the editors did a decent job of portraying his frustration. Lisa was negative, whiny, and not coming off as a team player. Dale got bent having to lose to someone that (while I'm sure the Bacon was good) at the time felt as though she wasn't really contributing to the team. Lisa made the right decision, but I don't think I'd want to work with her in a kitchen either. Dale did go too far, but I can understand where the anger came from.
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