Top Chef Masters Recap
By Jason Lee
May 3, 2010
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.
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