Surf & Turf, Masters Style

Our chefs are faced with the daunting task of creating a Surf and Turf dish with some very exotic proteins. Rick, who won the Quickfire, had the entire table to himself and went with the Monkfish liver and the Black Chicken. This challenge could be seen as playing right in Susur's wheelhouse. The same with Rick and his seafood repertoire, I would think all those surf offerings are things he's worked with before. Turns out that Rick and Susur think alike since they took the exact same proteins. As for the other chefs, it's a crap shoot.

Shopping Fill in the Blank
The Chef went to _______ _______ and had ______minutes and _______dollars to shop. _____ lost his cart while shopping. _______ told a story about eating rooster testicles. ____ claims to be in a fog where the ingredients are not talking. _____ does not have much faith in her dish, explaining her dish would make the cashier puke. ________ got a chair massage while still in ______ ______which seemed to piss _______. A double ________ salute was raised.

Everyone went back to the kitchen in the ________ provided Pimpmobiles.

The End.

Back in the kitchen, the proteins are not getting a whole lot of love.

Wrong show Susan but I like the way you think outside the pot.

The chefs continue to wrestle with their unfamiliar ingredients, trying to decide to the best way to deal with an unexpected texture or flavor. Apparently one thing they don't have to wrestle with are dirty pots and pans.

Background Spotting with Big Shamu

I love looking at all the little details (not involved with product pimpage) in shows like this. Sometimes you see maintenance guys working on a stove while a chef is trying to cook, you might catch someone making a face behind someone else's back, or you might see production PAs washing dishes.

Dishwashers are not what's got me curious. No, it's the rubber glove taped to the one guy's back? What the hell is that about? Maybe I'll text Andy my question on the next Watch What Happens.

Day One cooking is done, onto Day Two. Rick is using chemistry to fix his broken mousse. Tony is feeling a bit cramped from Susur's manic cooking methods. As for Obi Waxman?

He is struggling mightily. It's just not his style of cooking to use exotic products. He's putting stuff on the plate but he's not loving his dish. The Dark Side is definitely creeping over him. No matter, it's time to eat.

Among our diners for tonight's meal are Andrew Zimmern, famous for his TV shows Bizarre Foods and Bizarre World where he eats much more bizarre foods than he will be eating on Top Chef Masters. Don't be fooled by Andrew, he's done his time as a chef and apparently was top notch. He lives food, on the radio, on TV and in print. He knows his stuff.

Rick is up first.

Rick's Poached Black Chicken Mousse & Roulade, Monkfish Liver Torchon with Buttered Leeks. He generally gets good marks but James Oseland thinks he could have done without the leeks.

Tony's Crostino with Calamari in Zimino, and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Braised Goat Sauce. I had to google Zimino to try and get a handle about what we're talking about. Google further confused me. It looks like it refers to an Italian sauce consisting of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and some sort of greens (chard or spinach) and hot pepper that is used for braising seafood. Looks like that's what he braised the giant squid in. (True Italian cooks, feel free to clear my confusion). The crostino makes everyone happy but the lack of goat on the ravioli is immediately called out.

Susur yanks out the big guns by mixing French and Japanese cuisines with his Poached Monkfish Liver, Black Chicken Velouté and Black Chicken with Monkfish Liver with a Burned Butter Sauce. Right off the bat it's a much more elegant looking dish than some of the dishes Susur's done in the past....once you get past the clawed chicken foot. It seems to be hitting on all cylinders and his monkfish outshines Rick's preparation of the same product.

Jody follows Susur with her Sicilian Spiced Roast Goat, Geoduck & Chickpea Chowder and Homemade Harissa. She immediately gets pinged for the overly rare roast goat but her chowder receives nothing but praise.

Marcus presents his Geoduck and Kangaroo Sausage, Geoduck with Pearled Couscous and a Geoduck and Kangaroo Tartare. It looks like a hot mess. Or should I say Hot Mess Jr.?

Wow. Jonathan's Giant Squid Fritto Misto, Fried Duck Tongue, and Fideo with Duck Tongue.
Honestly? It looks like a big plate of fried road kill. Some of it gets praise but wow.

Last but not least, Susan and her slug. Marinated Sea Cucumber, Fried Sea Cucumber, and Kangaroo with Juniper Sauce. Her plate isn't much better in the plating and appearance department than the last two but her flavors and preparation seems to please the diners.

Back in the Stew Room, no one is looking forward to Judge's Table.

You know, at this point of the competition, the chefs seem to be going one of two ways when it comes to dealing with the judges, strongly defending almost to the point of telling the judges they are wrong or kinda sitting back and chanting the age old Top Chef mantra, It is what it is.

So the top four are Susur, Rick, Susan and Tony. As they pointed out in Judge's Table, Rick, Susur and Tony were the first three chefs to choose their proteins but Susan, by going last, got whatever was left and still ended up with the winners. The big winner?

Susur with another amazing score of 19 stars.

As for who is going home?

I know who I would have picked. It certainly wasn't who was sent home.

Yes, half of my Girl Power Team is sent packing which makes me sad. Jody has a sly wit and never say die attitude I very much enjoyed.

So tell me, do you think they sent the right chef home?

Wedding Wars

It must be tough finding challenges for Top Chef Masters. A challenge that works well on Top Chef doesn't always cross over successfully to Masters. Restaurant Wars is not really a big deal to chefs who have opened and closed more restaurants than your normal 8th place Top Chef finisher. However one challenge that appears to strike fear into the hearts of chefs everywhere is Wedding Wars. The most fearsome aspect of Wedding Wars? Working on teams? Nope. Long hours? Nah. The Bridezilla? Just send in Obi Waxman to calm her. No, what they really fear is...

...The Cake!

Carrying over their teams from the Quickfire, the chefs have 12 hours over two days to make the Bride's food and cake and the Groom's food and cake for 150 guests. Let's meet the happy couple.

The Blue Team, having won the Quickfire, get to choose whose food they want to cook. They choose the more adventurous food of the Bride. The Teams now get 45 minutes to find out what foods their customer likes and despises. Right off the bat, the Red Team realizes that the Groom is Jewish so the Pork Dish repertoire is tossed out of the kitchen. Carmen is suddenly at a disadvantage. Over on the Bride's side a whole ocean of shellfish sleep safer in their shells as the Bride pronounces them persona non grata despite Rick's best efforts to have them make an appearance. Not only does she shoot down the shellfish, she also takes the lamb off the table but I don't think that suggestion sunk deep enough for one chef.

We've all seen this type of look before. It's a look that says "I can change your mind about lamb". It's a gutsy look. Let's see if she has the chutzpha to back it up. As for the dreaded cake, the Groom goes Carrot and the Bride wants Bananas Foster. Carrot cake is kinda pedestrian but Bananas Foster is an interesting request. A flambé of bananas and rum served over ice cream is not your usual wedding dessert choice. It pretty much guarantees someone gets to run a dessert station for the night, making the dish upon request. Could be disastrous.

Shopping?

Yawn.

Back at the kitchen, the six hours of prep work begins. It's tough, each chef has to prep two courses and think about the cake.

Which Susan does not want to do.




The Blue Team is looking tasty on hors d'oeuvres while the Red Team...

...looks a bit safe. I'm actually kinda stoked to see what sort of hors d'oeuveres these master chefs come up with. The usual offerings we get from the Top Chef contestants run to the sad and doughy side and we hate that. Prep time is also revelation time. We learn that Susur and Jody have never made their respective dessert assignments of carrot cake and bananas foster.

And I have no idea what Marcus is doing to this tenderloin?

Just a side bar here, it cracks me up to no end that Master Chefs use slap choppers. Do you know just how often Bravo uses a chef's knife graphic in it's Top Chef and Top Chef Masters advertising? What next?

This guy as a judge?

So prep is done for the night and the chefs toddle off to what I'm sure are swanky digs to rest up for the next day's activities.

Jonathan and Marcus start things off right by facing off in their own personal Grilling Wars.

I know Obi Waxman likes to listen to the ingredients to guide him onto the path of Culinary Enlightenment....

...but I'm fairly certain this cake is not saying it wants to look like Ass.

(yes, capital A, Ass) But he's not concerned because he has faith in Jody's Banana Foster which is a good thing because Jody is getting a little tense watching Susur and his Land of Many Desserts.

So it's the Blue Team's Ass Cake and Bananas Foster versus the Red Team's Carrot Cake, Croque-em-bouche, an Upside Down Raisin Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce, and a kids dessert with chocolate sauce. Jody has a right to be worried.

Time to start passing the hors d'oeuvres.

Just by sight and description, I'd have to say the Blue Team gets the edge here. I know the Red Team went all seafood but it seems lackluster and messy. I know Jonathan got called out for his offering being bigger than one bite but overall the flavors on both teams get high marks.

Now...there was a lot of food. Each team apparently did a salad and many sides but much of that food was not shown nor reviewed by the critics. So we'll give a fly by to the main dishes and scoot to dessert. The Blue team had Jody's Rack of Lamb with Rosemary, Farro and Autumn Vegetables, Jonathan's Roast Chicken with Tarragon Velouté and Cauliflower Puree, and Rick's Seafood Grill on Sweet and Sour Eggplant. On the Red Team we had Marcus's Roast Beef Tenderloin with Grilled Onion Ragout and Pomegranate Sauce, Tony's Flaming Ouzo Shrimp and his Au Gratin Potatoes. Not shown are Carmen's Grilled Corn Salsa or Tony's Pasta dish. The winners in all this food? Jody's lamb, Jonathan's chicken, and Tony's shrimp and au gratin potatoes.

BEHOLD

The CAKE in all it's Assy Glory. Time to submit this puppy to Cake Wrecks. It didn't help that it was dry. But that's OK because Obi Waxman was right.

Jody's newborn efforts at Bananas Foster blew all of Susur's desserts right off the table. Finally the wedding event is over.

The Blue Girls are just a bit giddy to be done.

I have to say that this was some of the best food for a Wedding Wars challenge I've ever seen. The Bride and Groom should be very happy to have had such wonderful food. Still someone has to go home. The critics overall seem happy but point out the obvious cake disaster. Yet despite that, Susur's dessert heavy contributions and Carmen's lone Corn Salsa dish make the Groom's food seem uneven. Did Jody risk too much by giving the Bride something she didn't want?

NO! The Blue Team survives and moves on to the next Challenge. The winner overall?

That's right, Big Risk, Big Rewards Jody Adams. It's an amazing contrast between the two teams because the Groom's team gave him exactly what he wanted just not in the most exciting or the more finely executed way. Carmen in particular finds herself the Anti-Jody. Because her background is spicy and porky she just couldn't find a way to make a dish that made her mark. The critics seem to think she didn't work as hard as the rest of the team which I don't believe it's just that she chose to submit to the wishes of her client. In the end, she takes one for the team and is sent packing.

Next up: The Simpsons?

Tag, You're It

WELCOME to the CHAMPIONS ROUND

Time to start ratcheting up the stress. How best to do that? Just a little thing called The Blindfold Tag Team Challenge.

It's a nasty little thing the producers came up with during the most recent season of Top Chef. It's brilliantly simple. Two teams of 4 chefs. Each team produces just one dish that they all have a hand in making. Except they each take a turn producing the dish. No one can speak and the chefs waiting their turn must be blindfolded so they cannot see what the current chef is doing. Each chef gets ten minutes with the dish keeping in mind what the strengths of the team are and what they can accomplish in their allotted time. I LOVE THIS CHALLENGE.

The chefs? Not so much. Why? Because little details or weaknesses that you could hide in other challenges suddenly leap out into the glare of the spotlight. Like say....

...claustrophobia. Yes the Obi Wan of the Kitchen suffers from paralyzing claustrophobia. And they made him the anchor of their team so that means he waits the longest under the dark, constrictive blindfold. I personally wanted a Jonathan Cam because I thought for sure he was going to faint into a crumpled heap.

So the race begins. Really the first chef on your team is the most important (despite what Marcus may think about the anchor being the most important) because they have the most time. Yes they only have ten minutes but if they want to use a protein that takes longer than ten minutes to cook they have the best opportunity to get it started. The Red team ( Tony, Carmen, Susur and Marcus) choose Tony to go first. The Blue Team (Susan, Jody, Rick and Jonathan) have Susan set their team up.

Not surprisingly they pick similar product out of their assigned refrigerators. Scallops and mussels are on both their menus with Tony also taking some bass. The time flies by. The next two chefs are Jody and Carmen.

Jody, who not only admits to watching Top Chef but can recite the strategy that Jen used for her stint at this challenge, starts whipping up a sauce. Carmen starts preparing the bass. Your time is up, in flies Susur and Rick.

Each starts putting their own spin on the dish, adding flavor and setting up the anchor so they can easily finish and plate. Meanwhile...

...Jonathan still hasn't reached his Happy Place. Finally Jonathan is freed from his phobic bonds. Obi Wan is back and calmly assessing the dish before him.

His team watches in awe. Waiting for the...The Look.

The ingredients are speaking to him, the Force is flowing through him and all is calm. The dish whispers "I'm lonely, cuddle me in butter" and Obi Wan hears it's cries of loneliness and seeks to calm it fennel bitterness. He is Obi Wan

Master of the Kitchen.

Jay Raynor is our only judge for the Quickfire (Kelly still being full from her Grilled Cheese sandwich Quickfire sampling back in Episode 2). What does he think of the two dishes?

The Red Team has produced a Prosciutto Pan Seared Sea Bass and a Truffle Spiced Shellfish Broth. All the seafood components seem to be perfectly cooked. The bass sits on a bed of prosciutto that might be a tad under cooked. Jay likes the "herbiness" of the dish but is confused by the two component aspect. Is it one dish or two?

The Blue Team has a Mussel and Scallop Stew with Orange and Fennel. Again, Jay compliments the cooking of the seafood. He's a bit taken aback by the bitterness of the fennel. Is it too much or just right? Did Obi Waxman add enough butter to balance the fennel? Jay's not saying.

The Red Team comes on strong with 4 stars.

But the Force is with the Blue Team as they squeak by with that extra half star. Thank you Obi Waxman.

Next Up: Wedding Wars, Master Style