Hugh and Mary Sue ended up on top in this battle, with Hugh taking top honors and $5,000 for his charity.
The Elimination Challenge seemed a bit easier, more simplistic. Seemed. The ten chefs had to create a ten course tasting menu, each responsible for one dish. The diners would be donating $100 each to the charity of the chef who created their favorite dish. So...diners pick the winner, but the critics pick the loser.
Seemed simple, but there were, of course, twists. After Naomi bludgeons the chefs into telling her their exact dishes so she could micromanage the whole shebang and everyone starts to cook, it's discovered that there is no running water. After they get used to that idea, sorta, Curtis comes in and tells them that their service will start 30 minutes earlier than planned. And sometime after that, he announces that there will be no additional servers for this challenge - the chefs have to do it all themselves.
During this whole time, bossy Naomi and nearly-as-bossy Hugh have a power struggle. I'm glad Hugh came back - he is quite entertaining.
After service, the chefs are all proud of themselves. However, only one can win, and of course one must be eliminated. Naomi and Suvir are called out first to face the critics, which this week includes Alan Sytsma of Grub Street. Suvir's chickpea chaat and Naomi's very simple celery veloute were the favorite dishes of the week, with Naomi coming out on top. Then the bad news: Mary Sue's ceviche was boring, as was John's risotto, and Celina's chocolate "puddin'" was grainy. While it seemed that grainy pudding was the worst fault, John was given the heave ho for his perfectly cooked but otherwise uninspired dish.
What did you think about this episode? Please leave a comment?
Posted on AllTopChef.com
4 comments:
Mary Sue's ceviche was criticized for masking the taste of the fish with pickled onions, and of course, Celina's "puddin" was grainy, but John's risotto had nothing wrong with it other than being safe. So why was he eliminated. For my money,I'd have sent Mary Sue home. If you can't taste the fish in a ceviche, your dish has failed.
Perhaps I need to see the extended judging video to get a better grasp on this.
Judging didn't seem to make much sense to me. They talked about how bad Mary Sue and Celina's dishes tasted, and ceviche was just as safe a choice for Mary Sue...so the perfectly cooked, good-tasting risotto is eliminated?
Yeah, I'd have to agree with MoHub on this one. I was dumbfounded that John was even up for elimination. I would have sent Celina packing as even the chefs in the kitchen were whispering that her pudding wasn't that good. Sorry Chef Tio, just want to be fair!
I finally watched the extended Critics' Table, and Oseland pulled a Colicchio and basically strong-armed the others into finding bad things about the risotto. He practically held a gun to the others' heads to make them find flaws in Currence's dish.
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