Top Chef – Recap & Review – Last Supper

photo: bravo

Top Chef
Last Supper

Original Air Date: Mar 23, 2011

Ryan O – Two Cents Senior Reviewer
ryano@thetwocentscorp.com

Another episode in the Bahamas and one more to go after this. Another instance of Mike showing just how much he respects women in the kitchen (which is to say, very little). We do get Masaharu Morimoto (and Wolfgang Puck and Michelle Bernstein) who is awesome and the best. Hang in there, we’re almost done.

Quickfire
Wolfgang Puck is with Padma in the kitchen. There are ingredients from Quickfire Challenges in seasons past assembled in piles. The challenge is to assign a past Quickfire to another chef. Mike assigns canned goods to Antonia. She gives hot dogs to Richard. He gives Mike the one pot challenge. They have 45 minutes.

They’re cooking away when Padma walks into the kitchen and says she’s going to allow each of them to assign a “classic Top Chef twist” to each competitor. Richard assigns no utensils or hand tools to Mike. Antonia assigns cooking with one hand to Richard. Antonia gets the double-apron challenge of cooking with Carla as they’re tied together. Yay Carla!

Mike isn’t that affected. His chopping is done. He squeezes some citrus using the edge of a cabinet. He’s just waiting for his pork to braise in a pressure cooker. He’s just walking around annoying people. Richard is trying to slice limes with one hand. It doesn’t look like a lot of fun. Antonia and Carla seem to be making it work pretty well.

Here’s what they made.

Antonia: Curry coconut soup with shrimp, andouille sausage, peanuts, and fish sauce

Wolfgang Puck and Padma think the flavors are strong but balanced.

Richard: Hot dog on handmade roti bread with curry ketchup, mayo, and mint leaves

Wolfgang says his kids would love the dish.

Mike: Pork shoulder with black beans, chili paste, ginger, and cabbage salad

Wolfgang and Padma like the balance of flavors in this dish, too.

Wolfgang says Richard’s dish was perhaps a little too ketchupy but all in all, a very nice sandwich. Antonia’s soup was delicious if a little too concentrated. Mike’s pork could’ve been cooked a little more.

Mike is declared the winner. Yay. Woo.

They go to the Cloisters to meet some special guests. It’s Wolfgang, Michelle Bernstein, and Masaharu Morimoto. Morimoto, now THERE is a Top Chef. I’ve been a fan since he was on Iron Chef in Japan.

Mike describes Bernstein as one of the top women chefs in the country. Yeesh, Mike. Just say she’s one of the top chefs in the country. He doesn’t say that Morimoto is one of the best male chefs in the country.

Elimination Challenge
They have to cook each chef’s proverbial last meal. Mike picks Bernstein. He assigns Morimoto to Antonia and Puck to Richard. Yikes, this doesn’t seem all that fair.

Padma says there’s a surprise in an envelope that will be revealed later.

Each cheftestant talks with their assigned chef and it becomes clear just how unfair it is. Michelle wants fried chicken and biscuits. Morimoto wants miso and rice and such. Wolfgang wants spaetzle and strudel and goulash. On top of that, Michelle says her family didn’t make fried chicken at home while the other top want meals their mothers made. This sort of thing is okay for earlier in the season but handing out something this unbalanced at this point isn’t what I want to see.

Here’s what each chef made.

Antonia for Morimoto: Tuna sashimi with pickled daikon, mushrooms and eggplant, miso soup, and rice. It’s presented in a bento box.

Morimoto says the miso is a bit salty but he doesn’t dislike it. Gail says the tuna is way too spicy. The rice is very good. Tom really liked the eggplant but he doesn’t like that the dish isn’t subtle.

Mike for Michelle: Fried chicken with pea puree, egg yolk empanada with mustard gravy.

Wolfgang thinks it’s an elegant version of fried chicken. Michelle is a bit surprised that he put an egg in an empanada in place of the biscuit she wanted but she really likes it. Morimoto’s white meat is dry. Gail’s batter wasn’t crispy and slid off the chicken. Tom thought it was a nice dish. Michelle says it isn’t what she would’ve done but she loves it.

Richard for Wolfgang: Beef goulash, spaetzle with sour cream and apple strudel with taragon cream

Tom isn’t sure the onion should be there and wishes the dish were a little hotter. Gail thinks the strudel is outstanding. Michelle really loves that it’s a Richard dish. Wolfgang says his mother would’ve approved.

Michelle thought Mike was creative. Wolfgang says he was over-creative and that they wanted food like their mothers cooked (both he and Morimoto asked for dishes made by their moms).

Gail thought Antonia’s vegetables were delicate and beautiful. Morimoto appreciates that Antonia’s challenge was very difficult but he can’t say that she’s the best.

Wolfgang thought Richard did a fantastic job with the goulash. Gail thought Richard married what Wolfgang with his own modernism without messing with the dish.

The cheftestants walk in after dinner and Padma says that judges table is starting right now.

Judges Table
Only two will move on to the last episode.

Michelle says the chicken was supposed to be juicy with a crispy coating. It wasn’t juicy and the coating was falling off. Those two things kept it from being a perfect meal.

Wolfgang says the flavors in the goulash were right on but the spaetzle was tough.

Morimoto says the food was different than what he expected. The miso was a little salty but it was very interesting.

Tom says that Richard will be cooking in the finale.

Padma pulls out the envelope containing the twist. Antonia opens it. There’s one more challenge. They have 45 minutes to create one perfect bite for the judges.

Here’s what they made.
Antonia: Seared grouper in coconut lobster broth with a yam, apple, and dill pollen relish.
Mike: Tempura lobster over beef tartare with caramelized olives and chimichurri sauce

(Neither looks like a single bite.)

Morimoto says that grouper is a simple fish, which is why Antonia added flavors to it. He really wants a bigger piece so that he can keep eating it.

Michelle loved the crispy lobster on top but it didn’t wow her with its flavor, especially compared to Antonia’s, which really wowed her with its flavor. Gail hated the olive caramel on its own but together with everything else, it was really good. Morimoto says it’s difficult to make a decision since one was subtle while the other was very powerful.

Gail chooses Mike’s. Michelle chooses Mike’s. Morimoto chooses Antonia’s as does Padma. Melanie chooses Antonia’s. Tom chooses Mike’s. It’s a tie. Wolfgang liked them both and we don’t hear his final choice.

Mike and Antonia return to the table. Antonia is told to pack her knives. Mike is moving on. Blurgh.

At this point, I just want it to end. It feels like they been in the Bahamas for months. Also, it feels like the cooking peaked with the episode just before that where they cooked a dish based on their roots. Since then, they’ve dealt with a fire in the kitchen, wood fires on the beach that didn’t get hot enough, and an unbalanced elimination challenge. I really just want to see them cook with many fewer restrictions. I don’t want to see the Lakers and Celtics decide the NBA Finals with a game of HORSE.

What did you find to be tasty in this episode? Did you think anything was overdone? Give us your Two Cents below!