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.
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.
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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!
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