Top Chef Masters Recap
By Jason Lee
May 3, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Competing for those all-too-important final spots are Jody Adams from Cambridge, MA, Maria Hines from Seattle, Rick Tramonto from Chicago, Debbie Gold from Kansas City, and Susur Lee from NYC. It’s a pretty eclectic group, with no signs of the bravado that marked some of the countenances of previous Master contestants.
Kelly enters and inquires as to how it feels for Rick to be on the other side of the table, seeing as how he guest judged in Season 4 (he was the chef who took Spike to town for using frozen scallops in his dish). Rick says that this experience won’t make him any more merciful in the future.
The Quickfire this week is from Season 1. The chefs must take a basket of gorgeous looking fruit and turn it into a delicious looking fruit platter. The dishes will be judged by Gail Simmons and a renowned food photographer who has worked on Top Chef in the past. This is a challenge that I remember well because I totally, absolutely disagreed that the pompous, arrogant, snide Stephen should have won. I think I threw something at the TV.
Anyways, Kelly announces that there’ll be a big twist to this QF. It’s a High Stakes QF, reminiscent of Top Chef: Las Vegas. Okay, okay, so what do they win? More money? A car?
Nope, even better. The winner of this QF gets an AUTOMATIC SPOT IN THE CHAMPIONS ROUND. Wow. I’m blown away. This QF now comes with insanely high stakes. Work a little magic with some fruit and you’re into the next round, nice and safe. The Masters are ready to get started.
As the cooking starts, most of the chefs seem to be doing “dishes” more than “platters.” This is resulting in products that are strangely lacking in color. Considering the bright and beautiful baskets that they started with, it seems strange to see all this grey and brown.
Jody serves up her dish first: a fig and walnut tart with pomegranate. The photographer says that the tart looks beautiful and Gail laments that the dough was not cooked all the way through.
Debbie goes next with a pecan tempura with stuffed fig and persimmon. The photographer says that there’s color on the plate but wishes that it looked more visually enticing. He says that the walnuts are beautiful (“they’re pecans,” Debbie corrects him) and Gail says that it was prepared very well with good technique.
Susur is next with an east-meets-west fruit plate with blueberries and thai basil. Susur is a strange man – if you can imagine a World of Warcraft nerd who works as a chef, that’s pretty much him. Though everyone clearly respects Susur and believes that he’s the man to beat, his plate is not great. The photographer and Gail both remark that compositionally the plate lacks focus.
Maria is next with a northwestern trio of apple soup, grilled fig and berries with a berry mousse. She was trying to put an appetizer, entrée and dessert on the dish, but it doesn’t translate. Gail has no idea why the elements are all on the same plate, though she does like that the chef did a nice brûlé on the figs (“they’re grilled,” corrects Maria).’
Lastly, we have Rick presenting fruit shooters, plus a Christian blessing card next to the food. Gail comments that the dish has a lot of pretty elements and the photographer likes that the plate is playful.
I’m guessing that Rick maybe wins this, though Debbie could have taken it if her tart had been cooked further. As for the scores, Maria gets 3 stars, Debbie gets 3 ½ stars, Susur gets 2 ½ stars (and is royally pissed), Jody gets 4 stars and Rick gets 3 ½ stars. Jody wins! She’s ecstatic about delivering $5,000 for her charity.
There’s still one more spot to dole out for the Champions Round and the challenge will be family dinners. The Masters must take comfort foods commonly used for dinner and make them modern. And who will they be serving? Why, the cast and crew of Modern Family, of course. It’s pretty appropriate.
Rick is thrilled with this challenge. He says that he watches the show every week with his kids and can’t wait to cook for everyone.
After a quick shopping expedition at Whole Foods, the chefs go back to the kitchen to prep for 90 minutes. It’s relatively uneventful, though Susur is providing some spice. Apparently, he called his wife to complain about his last place performance in the Quickfire and she told him “shut the h*ll up, I don’t want to listen to that bullsh*t. Go out and fight.” She’s awesome.
Other than that little “morale boosting talk,” the other drama comes from Debbie, who was trying to turn pork chops and applesauce modern by using pork belly. Unfortunately for her, the pressure cooker didn’t cook the pork belly enough and it’s still tough .
Oh well, time is up and the cooking must cease, which frustrates Jody.
“It’s like interrupted sex,” she says. “You cook for 90 minutes and then stop. By that time, how can you climax?”
Thank god this show is on cable.
The next morning, the Masters head back in to finish…climaxing. Debbie is taking some advice from Maria on how to rescue her pork: fry it. By the time the food is ready for the diners it looks like dog food. Seriously. Kibbles and bits. But you can forgive the appearance of a dish if it tastes good.
Maria goes up first, dishing out food to Gail Simmons, Jay Rayner and Gael Greene (we’re just missing James Oseland), as well as the cast of Modern Family. She has sockeye salmon with paprika potatoes with almond slivers and almond milk. Mmmmmmm, I love almond milk. They make boba so yummy. The diners seem to love the dish.
Susur is next, delivering a Southeast Asian version of comfort food with roast chicken and farce, plus curry polenta (for the vegetarians) served alongside a tomato jam and chili mint chutney. All the actors love it, though Gael wonders if the dish is too spicy for an entire family to enjoy.
Rick is next and is “OMG-ing” over the fact that he’s seeing the Modern Family actors in person. He has a truffled white bean dish with escarole and grilled sausage. The diners don’t seem to be finding much truffle flavor in the dish. One of the actors says that it’s very family, but not very modern.
Jody has braised chicken thighs with mushrooms, semolina gnocchi and an herb salad. It definitely looks like a home cooked meal. The actors like the food, though one says that she can only eat a little because it’s so rich. Gail says that it’s too salty and a little muddled.
Debbie has gone lighter than everyone else, providing a glazed pork loin with apple butter and a winter squash slaw. The diners find the dish a little too sweet, saying that they lose the flavor of the pork. Also, the pork is a little undercooked, making it hard to cut through. Looks like the dog food didn’t come through.
Now that the cast has finished eating all five dishes they are invited to score the Masters. I’m wondering if any of the actors is worried about how much they ate and how many extra weight will result from this challenge.
The Masters all gather in front of the critics before final scoring. It’s pretty much a firing squad. Rick lost the truffle flavor, Debbie’s apple butter and jus were too sweet in combination, Maria had great flavors and was very modern with her dish (she got off easy), Judy’s dish was oversalted, Susur maybe risked making his dish too spicy.
Despondent, the Masters walk back to the kitchen. Debbie wonders aloud if the judges know how hard it was to cook everything in the kitchen and then transport it to the set for service. Rick retorts that diners don’t care about how hard it was to cook something, they just want good food.
“That’s why we’re called ‘Masters,’” he says in a snide, superior tone. I don’t like him.
They Masters go back out for scoring and I’m guessing that Maria won this challenge. Surprisingly, there are no summations before the scores are announced. Maybe this episode ran overtime?
Jody gets 3 ½ stars from all judges, plus 4 from the diners for a total of 14 ½. Respectable score.
Debbie gets 3 stars from Gail, 2 ½ from Gael and 2 ½ from Jay, plus 2 ½ from the diners. 10 ½ total. Ouch.
Maria gets 3 ½ stars from Gael, 3 from Jay, and 3 ½ from Gail. Add in 3 ½ from the diners and she has 13 ½ total. That’s a lot lower than I thought she’d get. She’s behind Jody, but since Jody already has a spot, Maria is still in the running.
Rick gets 3 stars from Gael, 3 stars from Jay and 4 stars from Gail. The diners only give him 3 stars, so he comes in below Maria with 13 stars.
So it’s either Maria or Susur. Susur gets 5 stars from Gail, 5 stars from Gael, and 5 stars from Jay. HOLY COW. The diners give him 4 ½ stars, and so with 19 ½ stars out of a possible 20, Susur has the highest total of any Elimination Challenge in Top Chef: Masters history. WOW. I’m blown away. It certainly didn’t seem like the judges loved his dish as much as their scores indicated, but I chalk it up to editing.
Maria shakes Susur’s hand. There’s no shame in her losing to him – he would have beaten every other chef in any other Elimination Challenge with those scores. It’ll be interesting to see if he can keep it up in the Champions Round. Bring it on!