Episode 11 Review and Rankings: Oh, Dale!

Top Chef All Stars, Episode 11


Southern Style!


In this episode, both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge followed the theme of Southern cooking, which cannot be construed as too narrow a topic for the program.  Sure, it favors some of the chefs more than others.  Most notably it favors Carla and Tiffany because they are from the South, but Richard lives in Atlanta, so he’s not completely disfavored either.  Antonia cooks a lot of comfort food, so one would assume that she could handle it without much difficulty.  The two disfavored chefs really are Mike and Dale.  Mike is from Jersey, while Dale cooks Asian.

The big hoopla of this particular episode is that for the QF Mike took one of Richard’s ideas and used it to cook the winning dish.  Although he stated during his interview that the dish was not original to Richard, footage strongly suggested that he had seen the idea in Richard’s notebook and that he followed the basic concepts to a tee.  This was confirmed not only by Richard, but by Antonia who had witnessed the conversation over the notebook.

Antonia stated that this was a major violation of “Chef Law” whatever that is.  I think what irked Richard the most was the obvious connection and the fact that Mike did not ask permission and refused to look him in the eyes.  Even if it wasn’t a violation of “Chef Law”, it must be considered sneaky and weaselly.  Mike said that he didn’t feel guilty about it, but his refusal to meet Richard’s eyes spoke more than his words.

Compounding the viewers’ angst over this grand theft was the fact that Antonia clearly made the best dish of the QF, but was disqualified because she failed to plate two dishes.  The violation was similar to Richard’s time violation in the first episode of the season.  In both cases, they might have won but for the error.

Dominick Armato asked the question as to who should have won the QF: Antonia, because she clearly had the best dish, Richard, because Mike won by making Richard’s dish – or Mike, for, well, making the winning dish.  Regardless of the theft of the idea, clearly Mike made the dish work and therefore deserved the win.  But in getting it, I fear that he may have lost the good will of the other contestants, most especially Richard, who is normally a very easy-going and helpful competitor.

The EC was another test of creativity in Southern Cooking and in chef stamina.  Eliminated competitors were brought back to be sous chefs for the remaining contestants, with the caveat that they each carried a protein, so the selectors were picking both a sous chef and a protein at the same time.  Mike, as winner, got to make the first pick.  He wanted the white shrimp, but did not want to work with Marcel, so he took Tiffani Faison and the brown shrimp, an excellent choice.  Padma left it to Mike to choose who went second and he picked Richard, all but acknowledging the theft of Richard’s recipe (he used the word “inspiration”).

Richard chose Fabio Vivandi with the red snapper.  He didn’t really care what protein he picked, as long as he had someone that he could work with.  (He even stated that he didn’t want to go with Angelo, because Angelo was probably still upset about his elimination.)  Carla picked Tre Wilcox with grouper on the assumption that since Tre was from the South, he would understand the cooking.  Tiffany Derry chose “the white shrimp”, then after a long pause added “and Marcel.”  She went for the ingredient, rather than the cook.  The next decision was easy, with Antonia taking crab and Spike, so Dale was left with Angelo and the amber jack fish.

It was a catering challenge, cooking for 300 people at a benefit for the Greater New Orleans Foundation, adding Louisiana chef John Besh as a second guest judge.  Once again, time constraints figured in to the competition, but sous chefs at least cut down on the burden.

For those who picked based upon the sous chef, Richard was the most successful with Fabio.  Tre, it turned out, is a city boy who doesn’t really understand Southern food, so Carla had to make do.

Those who chose based on protein had a mixed bag.  Mike choosing brown shimp worked not because of the protein, but because of Tiffani’s experience cooking in New Orleans.  She recommended coating the shrimp with grits, which was one of the positive comments Paula Deen had – and on top of that she virtually cooked his dish for him, ensuring a top placement.  On the other hand, Marcel virtually sank Tiffany Derry because of his failure to understand her sweet coating.

Antonia chose based on both the protein and her knowledge of Spike and both choices turned out well.  Dale had no choice with Angelo, but neither the protein nor Angelo hurt him – he just had a bad day.

Richard made a difficult decision right in the beginning by deciding to pair his red snapper with pulled pork.  It doesn’t sound like it would work, but his deft handling won him the challenge.  Antonia was a clear second place and Mike came in close behind.

Tiffany, Carla and Dale fell to the bottom.  Dale was eliminated partly because he had undercooked potatoes in his soup and partly because the taste of the fish was overwhelmed by the spices in the dish.  It’s really tough to see Dale go home because of that dish and it has created a lot of bad feelings among the serious viewers.  I’ve heard a lot of arguments in the past five days that the cumulative performance should be taken into account in the judging.  It is rather obvious that Tiffany Derry has been in the bottom for many weeks now, just holding on because someone managed to cook a dish worse than hers.  I’ve also heard various point systems brought forward as possible solutions to this problem.  I will be addressing one of those systems in an upcoming blog.

But Top Chef has been a sudden death game since the first season and we have all accepted that as we have obsessed about the show.  It’s not unlike playoff football (that would be the NFL, NOT the NCAA).  In those cases, a wild card team on a hot streak can easily knock off the favorite and no one thinks anything about it.  The champion is decided on the field.  The biggest difference between the two is that in the NFL, a team that does not win a single game (see Tiffany) would never make it to the playoffs.

Ah, well.  On with the rankings.

1.    Richard Blais.

I was a little surprised that Richard won this last episode, as the editing led me to believe that Antonia had it in the bag, but apparently, his balance of fish and pulled pork was exceptional and really pulled him through.

2.   Antonia Lafaso.

By finishing a solid second, Antonia did nothing to make me think that she should be moving down.  There are plenty of reasons to believe that she has elevated her game beyond her S4 level, which was strong enough to get her into the finals.

3.   Carla Hall.

Carla’s placement in the bottom because of her Southern cooking hasn’t made me think less of her at all.  In fact, given Mike Isabella’s theft of Richard’s recipe, I could not in good conscience put him ahead of her, despite the QF win and positive finish in the EC.

4.   Mike Isabella.

Mikey stays in the middle, except that the middle is now so close to the bottom, it looks like up to him.  Although I am not enthusiastic about his making the finals, I would rather see him than Tiffany.  It’s the only thing keeping him at fourth on my list.

5.   Tiffany Derry.

Well, this is just so sad.  She hasn’t done anything good for at least five episodes now – and even that wasn’t all that good.  She is the only one that clearly does not belong in this group.

Episode 10 Review and Rankings - Angelo gets the ax!

Top Chef All-Stars Episode Ten Rankings

Muppets Meet Target

This was one of those love ‘em/hate ‘em episodes for me.  Although I love the Muppets and certainly enjoyed their appearance, their role as judges kind of downgraded the Quickfire for me.  In fact, I think that there have been a number of very poor Quickfires this year and that takes away from the overall power of the show.  I’m not sure where the producers are trying to take Top Chef, but I’m not sure it is the direction that made it great in the first place.

However, that said, I thought that Padma was really adorable with the three Muppets and the Muppet mayhem during the cooking added to the fun.  While I have nothing against having a cookie challenge, I’m wondering about having it this late in the season.  To me, when you start to get down to eight competitors, the challenges should be commensurate with the skill level of the remaining chefs.  I felt a little bad for Richard, who was trying to impress his 2.5 year old daughter by wowing Elmo, but his ice cream cookie really wasn’t a cookie, as the Cookie Monster said.  Also on the bottom was Angelo, for producing a dry cookie.  Antonia, who also has a daughter, succeeded much better with her white chocolate chip cookie and finished second to Dale, who took some good-natured ribbing for combining chips, pretzels and chocolate.  There was no immunity, but Dale got $5,000 for his cookie.  (Please note that once again, the winners were from Season 4!)

During the show, I sort of wondered if the actors playing the Muppets actually tasted the food.  Did they stop filming, have the actors taste the cookies, and then go on?  They must have.  It’s a pity that we didn’t get to meet the actors.

The Elimination Challenge was worth $25,000, but they definitely made the chefs work for the money.  Sleep-deprived, the chefs were taken to a Target in New Jersey where they were given 3 hours to shop for everything they needed to cook a meal for 100 Target employees.  They had to get their own tables, cookware, and food, set up and cook.  Right away, we see Dale getting irons.  Antonia reveals that her strategy is to get everything to support her small kitchen then think about the dish she would make.

Surprisingly, Mike and Angelo decided to work together as a team to get all of the stuff for their kitchen, even though they each cooked their own dishes.  Tiffany, on her way through the store, found a hat to wear.  I’m not sure what was she doing in the clothing sales area, but it was striking and funky.  Richard would remark later about the hundred yard sprints, so it should be noted that this was an especially large Target store, which made the exercise more difficult.  Carla certainly lagged behind everyone and seemed to be a bit bewildered at what she was going to do.  All of the others had set up and started while Carla was still shopping.

To complicate matters, Carla opted to make a soup, which generally takes longer to cook in order to bring out the flavors and she could not decide on a protein, which simplified her dish even more.  In fact, it is surprising how many chefs chose to do soup.  In addition to Carla, Angelo, Tiffany, Mike and Dale also made soup.  To Dale’s credit, he balanced his tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches with seared ribeye.  The two who really got out of the soup zone were Richard who made pork tenderloin with green chilies, apples, braised pork ribs, and corn pancakes and Antonia who made Parmesan eggs on garlic crostini with almond, tomato, and apple salad.

The crucial moment of the episode occurred when Angelo had Mike taste his soup.  When Mike said, “It needs something,” a very tired Angelo decided to add salt AND bacon to the soup.  Just about everyone knows that bacon is salty, so Angelo should have added one or the other and then tasted before moving on.  But sometimes when people are tired, they make these kinds of mistakes.

The guest judge for this episode was the wonderful Ming Tsai.  Why was he guest judge?  Who knows?  Maybe he was just free at the right time.  As the judges tasted the food, several things became apparent.  1) Carla’s soup was flat, 2) Mikey should have told them that the coconut juice wasn’t fresh, 3) Richard’s dish looked terrible, but was delicious, 4) Antonia can always win over Anthony Bourdain with a runny egg, 5) canned, premixed spices killed Tiffany's “Jambalaya”, 6) Angelo’s potato soup with bacon was inedible because of the salt level, and 7) everyone was wowed by the fact that Dale used an iron to make his grilled cheese sandwiches.

Bourdain, of course, had to make reference to Dale’s dish as “Stoner Food”.  I’m not quite sure where he got this concept (college?), but he has used it several times this season regarding Dale’s cooking.  He even asked Tom Colicchio if Dale had been given a urine test.  I begin to wonder just how high Mr. Bourdain gets….  Just kidding.  After service, while the chefs were waiting to leave, the girls were all to be seen cuddling cute little stuffed Target dogs.  I thought it was bad enough that the product placement on this episode WAS the entire EC, but the stuffed dogs were just too much.  TOO MUCH! 

So, the top three were all Season 4 Alums:  Dale, Richard and Antonia, with Dale winning $25,000 because the dude can wield a mean iron.  But seriously, it was agreed that his food tasted the best, with Richard and Antonia very close behind.

The bottom three were Carla, Tiffany and Angelo, , with Mikey in the middle.

Carla’s problem was simply blandness and lack of a protein.  Her soup was edible and she was never in any real danger of going home.  Although Tiffany used way too much prepared spice mix which made her “Jambalaya” difficult to eat, the judges could nevertheless actually swallow it.  The key word came from Padma when discussing Angelo’s soup:  INEDIBLE.  That will send you home every time and Angelo was sent packing.

I thought it was really too bad that Angelo made such a serious mistake and failed to correct it.  Most home cooks know how to recognize over-salting and how to fix it (add more broth, remove contents and add some raw potato for a while, balance with sugar), but in his exhausted state Angelo just wasn’t thinking.  He stated in his exit interview that he had made “40 dishes back to back” referring to competing last season and this with only a brief break in between, but that isn’t entirely true.  After the main shooting of Season 7, there was a fairly long break before the finale.  Then after the finale, Angelo also had two and a half weeks to rest up before the start of Season 8.  I understand what he’s saying, but it isn’t strictly true.  Even so, I thought that he had a very classy exit interview.  I had problems with both Angelo and Fabio during their seasons, but I got to like them very much in Season 8.  Too bad they are both gone.

On the other hand, Tiffany remains after a really bad run at the bottom of the pack.  When the judges asked for comments before making their decision, Tiffany actually gave a concession speech with weeping and everything.  She appears ready, willing and able to depart.  It’s really amazing that she is still here.  She was much better last year.

Tom stated that this EC was a “test of will” and I think there can be some good arguments had as to whether this was an appropriate test at this stage of the game (when we really begin to expect there to be fine dining challenges) or if it was simply a terrible product placement episode.  For those who are disgusted with the product placement aspects of the show, this EC presents a powerful argument.

While most of us are delighted with an All-Star Season, there are some of us who are beginning to feel that Top Chef is plainly going downhill.  This always happens regarding any show with a long run, but TC was beloved because of the originality and difficulty of the challenges.  Product placement and guest stars were tolerated because the challenges were very inventive.  Much of the reason for great challenges was the behind-the-scenes work of Season 1 contestant Leanne Wong, who left as a producer several seasons ago.  I think we are beginning to miss her.

Is the show attempting to gain new viewers by dumbing down the contests and going overboard on product placement?  By having guest stars who aren’t the greatest judges of food?  I would say that TC is in danger of losing the core crowd and I hope that they work diligently to improve their “product” in the future.

All that being said, here are my rankings.  Enjoy!

1.    Richard Blais.

Blais just keeps chugging along, if not winning, then cooking solid dishes.  He is rock steady and still the odds-on favorite to win it all.

2.   Antonia Lafaso.

Antonia continues rock steady as well.  Solid dishes at or near the top.

3.    Dale Talde.

Yes, Dale is winning a lot, but he has also been on the bottom with some dreadful dishes.  He remains inconsistent.

4.   Carla Hall.

Like Dale, Carla has a consistency problem.  She might win it all, but she might just as easily do a face plant at any moment.

5.   Mike Isabella.

Mikey just keeps chugging along in the middle.  I don’t see him making the finale (see the four people above), but he hasn’t done consistently dreadful either.

6.   Tiffany Derry.

Although I enjoyed Tiffany last season, she is just holding on by a thread this year.  She has been consistently in the bottom and hasn’t won anything.  When it was announced that Angelo was going home, no one was more shocked than Tiffany.  As I said above, this is a deal way past due.

************************************

Next week, we see some of the eliminated chefs brought back to act as sous chefs for the survivors.  Fabio (teamed with Richard), Marcel (teamed with Tiffany – this might be the last gasp), plus Spike, Tiffani Faison, Tre and Angelo.  From the preview, I can’t tell who the last four are teamed up with.

At any rate, let’s hope it’s not another crash and burn episode like this one – and let’s hope that there is some creativity in the Elimination Challenge!