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Top Chef Season 5, Episode 12: Apparently, there is a major disconnect between how old people and young people like their pigeon cooked
bravotv.com
Top Chef Season 5, Episode 12: Apparently, there is a major disconnect between how old people and young people like their pigeon cooked
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| bravotv.com |
We're getting close, y'all. Final Four is set.
Quickfire: Endearingly nerdy moleculo superchef Wylie Dufresne, known best for his mavericky NYC restaurant WD-50, loves eggs. "Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day," he said more than once. Padma called Dufresne an "egghead" and giggled airily. He challenged the five remaining chefs to whip up an impressive egg dish. (Thankfully, no one attempted to cook up the gag-inducing albumen bomb that is an ostrich egg, which led to cheftestant Jill's downfall early on.)
Fabio, who called Dufresne "Doo-frez-nay" instead of "Doo-frain," like Tim Robbins' character in The Shawshank Redemption, tried to impress the star chef by busting out some reverse-free-something-something chemical process to produce lychee soup in an empty eggshell. "Alginate?" Dufresne questioned when he learned Fabio geeked it up a bit. "Of course, " the Euro replied. What?! Hosea overdid it with a trio of Japanese bites that didn't work well together. Leah did a funky bacon egg and cheese deal that didn't impress, either. Came down to Carla, who incorporated spinach into egg whites for a "green eggs and ham" dish, and Stefan, who pulled some sort of yolky switcheroo that Dufresne found "clever." Carla, who is tearing it up as of late, ended up taking it by keeping her stuff simple.
Elimination: After eating what looked like a delicious meal at Top Chef Season 1 winner Harold Dieterle's Greenwich Village eatery Perilla, the chefs tackled Season 5's most interesting challenge yet — cooking a "Last Meal" for a random panel of food legends.
Fabio drew the charming Lidia Bastianich of Lidia's Italy. Hosea got James Beard Foundation prez Susan Ungaro. Stef landed ever-eloquent Swedish superstar Marcus Samuelsson. Leah got Dufresne, which did not bode well because he was steady hating on her Quickfire plate. And Carla? Carla got Jacques Pepin. I AM OBSESSED WITH JACQUES PEPIN. I could watch his soporific-to-everyone-else public TV show Fast Food My Way, which consists of him standing in his rustic country kitchen chopping vegetables and rambling on about things in his dizzyingly thick French accent, all day every day. He's got such a calm, warm, welcoming and kindly le grand-père demeanor. He's everything a venerable culinary legend should be — and the man rocks bow ties. Make me croque monsieur, Jacques! Sil vous plait.
Not surprisingly, these pillars of the food world all wanted something whole and simple to nosh on before they metaphorically kicked the bucket — dishes that are at once comforting and transporting, a la Anton Ego unexpectedly quantum-leaping back to his childhood as he tasted that first bite of Remy's Ratatouille.
Hosea, who got Ungaro's order of shrimp scampi and tomato provencal (a tomato half stuffed with breadcrumbs, herbs and cheese) drew criticisms for gussying up his old-French-lady side dish too much. Stefan, in a surprising move, grossly overcooked the salmon, which Swede Samuelsson asked for with roasted potatoes, spinach and dill. Leah struck out once again making eggs for the Egghead, crafting a watery benedict that everyone but watery-egg-loving Brit Toby Young disliked.
Here's where the odd squab squabble referenced in the headline of this post came into play. Pepin requested that Carla cooked him roasted squab with peas. At judges' table, Tom Colicchio mentioned that he thought the bird was overcooked, while Pepin found it stellar. Instead of chalking it up to a difference of opinion, Tom C. pointed out that there is a latent ideological difference between how older chefs and younger chefs like their squab cooked. I found this extremely dubious. Granted, I don't follow the game bird beat that closely, but this is the first I'm hearing of a generational gap impacting the way people view the temperature of pigeon. Can anyone better-versed than me in squabology comment on this? How about you, Jacques, in your bravotv.com Q&A?
Bravotv.com: Tom and Carla agreed that the squab was slightly overcooked. You said that you didn't mind. Tom then went into something about how old school and new school differ on the way they like it cooked. Do you agree with that?
I don't know if it's only older chefs or old school chefs. It's a question of personal preference or taste. It's a question of the fad or the fashion at that time. We used to roast a duck, which I still love. A roast duck you put in the oven for an hour at 400 degree and the skin is crispy and well done. You can do that at home. Many years ago this was the only way that duck was cooked. Now the only way you can have duck is with the breast rare and the leg is confit or whatever and it is kind of ridiculous because one is just after the other. All of a sudden you have the old style coming back new again and you have those types of things. It's more of a question of passion than anything else. It's a question of personal preferences. Sure, I could have had the squab slightly less cooked than it was, but it was quite well seared and satisfying and good.
I love that a) Bravo didn't really seem to copyedit Pepin's responses, so they read very sprawling and Frenchily; and b) he provides absolutely no insight into Tom C.'s squab comment by attributing it to personal preference, taste, fads, fashions AND passion. I LOVE JACQUES PEPIN.
Fabio, who was tasked with doing up roasted chicken and caramelized cippolini onions for Lidia, did something grotesque to his finger (they didn't show what) and ended up having to have it splinted and wrapped in the kitchen. ("I'll chop it off and sear it on the flat top," he replied with mega Italiano bluster after a medic asked if he needed to go to the hospital.) But the injury didn't keep him from winning the Elimination — Tom C. called his chicken "a dish that makes you," while Samuelsson pointed out that it was the only plate that he thought could go straight from judges' table onto a restaurant table. High praise.
Leah was told to her pack her knives and go. About time — she totally hasn't wanted to be there ever since she grossly sucked gross face with Hosebeast.
So we've finally got our Final Four — Stefan, Carla, Fabio and Hosea. Check back on Meal Ticket before next Wednesday's episode for what will easily be the most horrendously nerdy thing I've ever done — TOP CHEF POWER RANKINGS. Wait, don't go! I'm cool, seriously! I like rap!
OK, one more Jacques Pepin Q&A quote and I'm done:
Bravotv.com: Do you watch Top Chef?
Occasionally. I've seen a couple of them. I never know exactly when it's on. I tend to stay with the news or stuff like that. It's very rare that I look at things like that.
Jacques Pepin has no clue when Top Chef is even on. JACQUES PEPIN IS KILLING IT.
Hosebeast... love it.
I love when old people refer to watching tv as "looking" at it.
I'm with you on Jacques Pepin - he is the Mack! His show with Julia Child (RIP) was great, too. Hubert Keller's show sometimes follows Jacques' and it's pretty good too. I can't wait to see Eric Ripert's show. Gotta admit, Top Chef is killing it with the guest judges this season - maybe we'll see Hubert Keller at the finale. Or Grant Achaz, that would be cool. P.S. Are you going to ape Bravo's Top Chef power rankings? I hope so, because I don't understand them (making a dessert is +5?).
B: Couldn't agree more re: the guest judges this season. Good stuff. Achatz made an appearance in Episode 3, but he could definitely surface again somewhere. Looks like Emeril is the grand puba of the final four's New Orleans challenges. (Who else, right?) Re: the power rankings — not gonna get too complicated with it! Just going to rank my final four in order and then let people in the comments tell me how wrong I am. I've noticed a lot of different blogs doing weekly power rankings since Episode 1 — exhausting! Keeping it simple, Pepin-style. Look for the post tomorrow or Wednesday.
[...] Chef Season 5: Final Four power rankings! categories | Food TV, Top Chef As promised: After the jump, I rank the remaining four Season 5 contestants in descending order in terms of how [...]
[...] and fast policy regarding this — if they did, Stefan would’ve been eliminated for his extremely overcooked salmon in Episode 12 instead of Leah for her runny eggs. Last night, however, Hosea was clearly the best — and [...]
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