So I haven’t exactly been religious with my Top Chef episode recaps – I posted a pretty long one here about the finale of Top Chef Masters and the premier of Top Chef Las Vegas. If you have missed the beginning of this season, don’t worry, you haven’t missed much…
Basically all that has transpired over the first few episodes is that a lot of mediocre food has been prepared, a lot of whining about gay rights has gone on, and there have been plenty of gimmicky challenges that don’t put enough emphasis on making awesome food. Oh yeah, and the most pierced, most tat covered folks have gone home. If I scared you off with that, you can feel free to tune back in. There, now you are all caught up!
Enough about the season thus far, and now for a recap of this week’s episode.
The guest judge for both the quick fire and elimination rounds was Fort Worth’s own Tim Love.
I love a celebrity chef who doesn’t take himself too seriously.
The quick fire challenge was to use cactus and other succulents as the central ingredient. I’ve never cooked with cactus, but I’m going to try. The cheftestants compared it to fresh okra, a bit slimy. I didn’t find that unappealing for some reason. I love pickled nopalitos, in fact I’ll be having some at La Fonda tomorrow. Prickly pear liqueur is a nice addition to boring cocktails, especially a mojito with gin instead of rum. Rum is gross – Real WASPS drink gin. Can I get tshirts made that say that? Next time you order a mojito, I dare you to order it with gin. You’ll thank me. But I digress…
The elimination challenge was to cook out on the campfire at a ranch using a very limited pantry and basic camp cooking tools (think lots of lodge cast iron, speckledy western dinnerware, crude knives and giant bbq tools instead of reasonably sized utensils. Steve and I were absolutely tickled by this. Because, like all white people, we love camping.
Aren’t we cute. Totally gaga for camping, and gaga for each other
This is where the episode really came off the rails, an overwhelming majority of the cheftestants opted to prepare SEAFOOD.
Seriously, seafood? In the blazing hot Nevada dusty desert? Seafood, for ranchers and cowboys? Honestly folks, seafood? Concept FAIL. The judges suffered through 4 different types of ceviche, really poorly grilled fish, really expertly grilled fish and some bbq’d shrimp that everyone agreed had spoiled. Not a single contestant grilled red meat, only one opted to use pork. I’m flabbergasted by this. Have these people never been to a bbq? Perhaps not. Allow me to school them on the basics of a cookout – don’t serve ceviche. (Generally I would advocate for not serving ceviche under any circumstances. I have both conceptual and moral objections to ceviche).
The winner was one of the indistinguishable brothers. I can’t keep track of their names, so I call them “young cocky brother & older more grounded brother”. Today it was the elder brother who came out on top. He made pork chops on a bed of polenta. It looked pretty tasty, but I was underwhelmed. I think he won by default because nearly everyone else sucked.
That’s my recap for this week. Here’s to hoping that it starts looking up from here on out.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Elizabeth…I was watching it too and couldn’t figure out why EVERYONE was cooking seafood…and seriously how many episodes in a row can someone make ceviche?! Sorry Matin, it was time for you to go home, even if you do add a lot of comic relief just by talking in your crazy slurred french accent! =)
If you ever come to visit the ‘Nooga, we’ve got the Lodge Cast Iron factory and outlet store here – sheer joy!!!
BTW – the captcha for this comment? “the foreplay”