Last night was the next to last episode of Top Chef Masters. It was a good one!
As they have done the entire season, they brought back a Quick Fire Challenge from the past and they saved the best (or hardest) for last - Blind Taste Test! Even the seasoned (pardon the pun) chefs were apprehensive about having to identify twenty items without seeing it. Hubert Keller even remarked that you experience food with your eyes first, so blind folding each cheftestant would hamstring them for sure. All of them were not all that confident.
Michael Chiarello went first.
I like the way they edit each person's turn to make it look like they are doing a bad or good job. That was fun.
In the end Michael identified the most products, seven! He couldn't identify Hoisin Sauce ("I have no idea what that is." he said) and, surprisingly neither could Anita Lo. So, he went into the Elimination Challenge with five stars! Hubert and Rick Bayless were tied for second and were awarded four stars and Anita Lo rounded out the group at three and a half stars.
The Elimination Challenge brought back past cheftestants; twelve in all. The "Masters" had to quickly interview and then, starting with Michael, pick a team of three sous chefs. They each picked one chef until all twelve were picked. Fabio from last season was picked first by Michael, of course. Their Italian sensibilities matched perfectly. Once the teams were picked, the task was to create a buffet for two hundred guests and they got down to planning menus.
From the beginning it was obvious that Michael, unlike the others, was going to dictate every move everyone made. He made the point that they were competing for $100K and he wasn't going rely on someone else getting the win for him. He was going to make sure everything got done exactly the way he wanted it. It made him look heavy-handed, while the others were more relaxed and delegated more of the responsibility to the other team members even to the point of taking menu suggestions from them. Hubert, who had Richard Blaze, Mr. Molecular Gastronomy, on his team, even allowed Blaze to make avocado ice cream using liquid nitrogen, a technique that Keller had no experience with. It was a hit!
At the beginning of the challenge Michael had a run in with hot head Dale Talde from Season 4. Michael, who had a question about who was using what refrigerator, called Talde young man when addressing him. Sacre bleu! Well, Talde gets all uppity with Michael and goes after him, yelling at him and almost calling him out. But Michael, the class act that he is, just takes it and lets the incident die down and the challenge continues.
On the day of the challenge the chefs get into the kitchen and start to cooking. In walks Kelly Choi and everyone knows something is up. Kelly informs the group that they have to pack up and move to a different location; a hotel. When they get there, they immediately are told that the buffet will be outdoors on a patio in full sun. Anita is floored by this decision as she has centered her buffet on a raw bar and she has no way to protect her food from the blazing sunlight. She's worried. On top of all of that, each chef had to chose one of their three sous chefs to let go. This forces each chef to jump in and do more to ensure the success of their dishes. Chiarello is the complainer in the group, Anita is the worry wort, but Rick and Hubert methodically go about their business to get the food out and looking great.
In the end, I have to give top honor to Hubert. He and his "staff" pulled off eighteen, yes eighteen dishes. Amazing output and each and every dish got high marks. Rick and his team also did a fabulous job putting out a Mexican feast that everyone loved. Michael, after all the drama and complaining and angst, had some good dishes, but on the main dish, swordfish, the judges didn't like it's "furry" quality that came about because his electric carving knife broke and the knife they used to cut the fish tore it rather than sliced it cleanly. Picky? Yes, but this is Top Chef MASTERs after all and these guys have been to the party once or twice, so the bar is set higher and for good reason. Anita, alas, succumbed to the heat and the sun and her buffet was not so successful.
Hubert wins the challenge by garnering five stars from each judge. An amazing accomplishment. He beat Rick Bayless by half a star. Michael came in third and Anita was sent home, setting up the finals for next week.
For the final, it looks like they are bringing back each season's winners, as well as Tom and Padma to do the judging. That should be awesome! I'm looking forward to it. Come back next week for the season ending wrap up!
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