Episode 3 of Top Chef Masters gives us another clutch of four, all eager and nervous to compete. Bayless seems to be a little more nervous than the rest.
Perhaps with good reason. The chefs try and put their anxieties aside long enough to pull knives. Ludo Lefebvre, who apparently still suffers from Post Traumatic French Chef Disorder...
... seems to be having trouble wrapping his mind around the Quickfire.
I can't say I blame him, I wasn't a fan of this challenge back in Season Two and it's not wooing me now. The four colors chosen to create a dish are Red, Yellow, Orange and Green. The clock starts blinking and they all scurry off to be monochromatic as possible.
OR be as French as possible. Finally everyone's Starburst dishes are finished. Well, almost everyone's. Ludo forgot his tomatoes, then servers neglect to take out the sauce with his dish and Wilo gives his diners an extra of ring mold. Yes, even Master Chefs suffer vapor lock.
Meet our Quickfire diners. Food Stylist Chris Oliver, Cookbook Author Joanne Chenchuly (and yes, I'm sure I've spelled that wrong but all my searching came up empty on the correct spelling of her name, so Joanne, I apologize) and Food Photographer Christina Peters. Three women who care about the color, presentation, lighting and layout of food. I have to point out that Chris and Christina, in their respective professional capacities, try to make food LOOK as appetizing as possible but not necessarily taste as appetizing as possible. So again, an interesting choice of judges for tasting and looking at food.
Ludo's dish of Steak Tartare with Watermelon, Red Onions and Red Beet Gazpacho is served first. However since the waiter neglected the gazpacho, the photo above is how the dish looked naked. Nice huh? Our diners even tasted it without the gazpacho and seemed to be enjoying it. But Ludo really wanted that sauce.
Not nearly as clean or delicate in appearance and apparently not as tasty.
The color wheel rolls around to Cindy's Yellow Vegetable Curry over Corn Grits & Fried Corn Tortillas.
The diners seem to like the look and taste of Cindy's dish or as she says, "They didn't spit it out".
Rick gives the diners the second completely vegetarian dish of the challenge with his Roasted Vegetables, Mole Verde with Tomatillos, Green Chilies & Pumpkin Seeds. The diners claim it complex and tasty.
The final dish of the challenge is Wilo's Smoked Salmon Tartare with Coconut Milk & Tomato Paste Sauce, the naked version and....
...the armored version. Just how good is a dish to persuade food styling pros to ignore a metal ring in their food to eat up every bite AND...
...make a Frenchman pout?
Exactly four and half stars worth which gives Wilo the Quickfire win. He's going to need it. Why?
Up NextSomething Offal This Way Comes
8 comments:
I feel obliged to comment since you comment on my blog. LOL I read this blog faithfully although I have never ever watched Top Chef. I don't intend to start now since your commentary is surely better.
Offal? I can't wait. I think...
Shamu,
did ya whistle fer Uncle? Ain't them pig ears I see there a the end of this story?
Great narration. Got a good chuckle.
Thank you so much for the comment MS but don't say that too loud or the folks at Bravo might take offense.
Aunty, I'll leave the whistling to you considering your current negotiations with the aforementioned Uncle. Unless he'd like a big deep fried pig ear sammie.
Ludo was a mess!! He totally cracked me up and I thought Rick was pretty good humored throughout the challenge.
The judges are still brown-nosing...I noticed when they are actually eating the food at Universal they are tougher than when it comes time to judge, everything was "wonderful." (that's the word I remember Church Lady and Bucket Hat kept gushing....)
The "Masters" have it so much easier, I remember that during this challenge the past contestants really had to "sell it" Ludo was a trainwreck, he didn't even have his quesadillas ready let alone trying to "sell it!" I needed a valium just looking at him!
Ok, I know this is a bit snarky but for the food stylists, I have to say, I thought all their hair was terribly messy for TV and considering they take so much time for food shots, who did their freakin' hair? sheesh! (just sayin'! La Diva notices those sort of things!)
I actually feel bad for the Quickfire Diners. If you notice they don't even get a name crawler announcing who they were. I'm sure the makeup and hair crew were busy with Bucket Hat.
LOL!
LOL to LaDiva on the hair. They did look rather raggy, didn't they?
Anyway, the quick fire was a total snoozer, with the exception of watching Frenchie sweat. What a whiner.
Growing up, Offal R Us was the name of my household's culinary game, so I was looking forward to some interesting dishes. But, not so much. With the exception of the menudo (yum!), the other chefs went out of their way to mask their ingredients. Then again, how many of your average folk on the street are going to wax poetic over beef heart? Fine line to walk.
I'm with MS! I love your take on it much better than seeing the show. :)
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