New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Susur has a Tunisian fish soup with olives, capers, white wine and cumin. James likes the broth but feels that the whole dish is “holding back” a bit.

Rick presents a scallop, mussel and pancetta fisherman stew. It looks great but James is put off by the fact that there’s very little broth – an error that Rick was very aware of. He does compliment the scallops, however, saying that they’re cooked beautifully.

I guess that Marcus wins this and I’m right. Jonathan gets 3 stars, Rick gets 3 1/2 , Susur gets 4 and Marcus gets 4 ½. This is actually Marcus’ firs time winning anything and I’m glad that his charity won’t go home empty handed.

Kelly tells the Masters that they’ll get the night off to enjoy themselves before the Elimination Round. The Masters are relieved; they feel exhausted. Kelly gives them tickets to a special improv show by the famed LA troupe, The Groundlings. At this point, the Elimination challenge seems totally obvious to any fan of the show. We saw this challenge in Season 4; near the end of the show, the Groundlings will solicit adjectives and ingredients from the audience and the chefs will have to “improvise” dishes off of those suggestions.

And yep, that’s exactly how things pan out. The Masters seem surprised, but frankly, they really shouldn’t be. I sort of wonder what would have happened if Susan or Jody were still on the show – they both have professed to having watched past seasons of Top Chef and I know they would have seen this challenge coming from a mile away.

The Masters are each given four “improv” options, each with a color, feeling and ingredient. Marcus, as the winner of the QF, chooses first and he goes for violet, pleasure and salmon (I smile because I KNOW that Rick wanted the salmon option). Susur chooses next and gets chocolate, lust and peanut. Stupid Rick goes next with red, anger, and bacon. Finally, Jonathan gets stuck with the worst choice: burnt sienna, depressed and avocado.

I feel bad for Jonathan. I have NO idea what the hell I would do with those words. I’m also glad that Susur didn’t get the burnt sienna color because I’m pretty sure he would have no idea what that color looked like.

The Masters head over to Whole Foods and nothing much happens, except that Rick grosses me out by reaching over the plastic barrier to fondle the seafood. He’s trying to show the Whole Foods attendant which pieces of seafood he wants, but still…that’s gross.

The Masters head back to the kitchen where they will have a mere two and a half hours to cook. Again, the only drama comes from Rick who is trying to cook pork loin via sous vide, but loses 20 minutes of cooking time when his Ziploc bags of pork start to float to the surface. He swears, unappetizingly calling them “little turds,” and shoves heavy pans on top of the bags so that they’ll cook.

Before we know it, it’s time to eat. A team of critics made up of Gail, James, and Jay arrive, along with the cast of The Groundlings. Rick goes first, serving up a pork loin with oysters, bacon and a spicy kimchi cream. Gail loves the oysters, though one of the improve actresses cannot finish her pork due to the fact that it’s severely underdone. Jay comments that if you have the word “angry,” you really need to have some strong spice, and that he wishes this dish had more “slap.”

Marcus is next with a dish based off of “salmon, pleasure and violet.” He presents a confit of salmon with caviar shrimp and sake. I think the dish looks like a hot mess on a plate, but Marcus says his inspiration was Jackson Pollack. Kelly calls the salmon “perfect,” James loves the caviar and Gail ate the entire thing really fast. Seems like it was a hit.

Continued:       1       2       3