Thursday, May 20, 2010

Leg Men and Woman

6 left

Six Chefs left and they are getting crankier as it gets closer to the final episodes. This week's Quickfire is all about legs.

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Why? I don't know but as long as they are cooking for real live people I promised myself I wouldn't complain and a gold medal athlete using his legs is as good a tenuous connection as any when it comes to these Quickfires. But I wondered? How would they choose which leg they wanted? Draw straws? NO!

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AWESOME....Rugby Scrum. They all bum rushed the fridge like it was 4:20 on a Friday. That's right Susan, wiggle your way in there. With their proteins procured, cooking commences. One of the reasons I like watching these sorts of shows is the hope that I'll pick up some new technique or method that I can use in my own cooking. For instance...

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...beating the hell out of your crab legs with pot. Or....

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...praying to your refrigerator. Rick needs to pray, he picked out octopus (which, technically, don't have legs but this is a reality cooking show not a biology class) to try and cook within the 45 minute time limit.

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Meanwhile Susan is doing something golden and beautiful to some chicken legs. (My plate is cleared for landing for those luscious bird stems). Time is up and service to the Gold Medal Leggist begins. Can I just say, I love that the Quickfire is served away from the chefs and they have to watch via TV. It's prime bitch time.

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We start with Tony's Crab and Potato salad with 3 types of Coriander. Jay Rayner, who is also sitting in on the judging, feels it's under-dressed. Jason, who seems to actually know what he likes, likes the salad.

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Next is Susur's Indo roasted Leg of Lamb. This was also a pretty bold choice for a 45 minute Quickfire. Again Jason likes the flavors and the light sauce hand. Jay says the meatballs are cute. I suspect he says this because he knows it will get under the skin of the very serious Susur. Sadly we did not get to learn any good Chinese curse words.

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Susan's Cumin Cilantro Chicken with pickled tomatoes on quinoa & raisin pilaf. Not a plating masterpiece.

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Don't get mad at me, you plated it. It's not like it matters because both Jay and Jason love the tastes. Tasty and Ugly is always better than Pretty Dreck, at least in my house it is.

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Jonathan's Capellini with king crab, jalapeño and mint is up. This looks really good and pairing mint and jalapeño sounds interesting. Jay, who apparently has his own set of cranky pants, wants more crab in his pasta. Jason thinks it's a good carbo-loading meal for an athlete.

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Marcus gives us a Confit of Frog Legs with Curry Broth & Crab Rice. It's not pretty especially with the Brown Smear of Pretension. It's too rich for Jason and too overwhelming for Jay.

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Rick is last with his Egg in a Hole with Roasted Octopus & Béarnaise Sauce. Jason likes the clean plating of the dish but Jay can't help but express his dismay at the chewiness of the octopus.

So who wins the $5000 for their charity and an advantage in the Elimination Round?

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That's right, The Big Passion in a Little Package, Susan with her simply Delicious Ugly Chicken.

Next up: Tossing the Old Olive Around

8 comments:

Making Space said...

SUUUUUUUSAN!!!! I like mad Susan. I like happy Susan. I want all of her jewelry. Confession time: based on the photo I'm not actually sure I'd dive into that thing she cooked. But WOOHOO!!

Egg in a hole. I do that about five times a week. I wanna be on Top Chef. What.

Dani said...

Now I've that zztop song stuck in my head!

moi said...

"Brown smears of pretension." Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

Let's face it, they look like smears of baby poopie to me.

I dig Susan, both her food and her mega-cool personality. Her or Waxman for the win (because the dude makes no apologies for pasta or big hunks of meat).

Big Shamu said...

MS, you know you would eat that food and probably like the plate. You can't fool me.

Sorry Dani.

Moi I have never understood the the squiggles or smears aspect of plating. Is this particular smear a sauce that you should try and incorporate into the dish? The green bitlets are not helping in the Poo Identification aspect of the smear.

Making Space said...

Yeah you're right.

Poo Identification. haha

Sharon Rudd said...

What a peculiar challenge & guest for this QF. Can you think of another in TC history that was this much of a stretch? Guess I have my cranky pants on today too. Still, I'm delighted Susan took it. Though a little concerned her sloppy plating proclivities might still be her downfall . . .

Big Shamu said...

Susan's plating might be a disadvantage if she were up against someone who could plate a little more artistically but here's the thing, I see her biggest competitor being Susur. Susur's strength has not been his plating. Rick is good but he should have been much stronger than his showing in the Tailgate Challenge. As much as I love Jonathan, he can be up and down. I don't have much expectations for Marcus. So it might come down to flavor and out of the box creativity while exquisite plating won't be a deciding factor.

LaDivaCucina said...

Yeah, the smear me no likey. I, too thought that Jonathan's dish could have had more crab. The first crab dish Tony did looked divine.

Was a bit disappointed in Rick's octopus and thought he could have done a bit more incorporating it into the dish.

Susan's chicken looked good to me. She looks like she's fun to work with.