Reactions to Top Chef All Stars Finale Part 3

When the three remaining cheftestants entered the kitchen for their next Quickfire Challenge, they were greeted by Wolfgang Puck. The challenge was to pick from seven classic Quickfire Challenges which occurred on previous seasons. Each chef would assign a challenge to another chef, and the results were:

Mike gave Antonia the canned food challenge.
Antonia gave Richard the hot dogs challenge.
Richard gave Mike the one pot challenge.

With 45 minutes to cook, the three chefs scrambled to get cooking. Antonia started on a curry coconut soup. Mike chose a pressure cooker for his one pot and made his version of pork and beans. Richard set about concocting a hot dog medley in a ketchup sauce on homemade bread.

Part way through the cooking, Padma entered and announced that there was another twist. Each chef had to assign to another chef one of three challenges: no utensils, one hand, and the three-armed apron trick with Carla as the other chef in the apron. Being a nice guy, Richard gave Mike the no utensils challenge rather than leaving Antonia dead in the water. Antonia gave Richard the one hand  challenge, leaving Antonia with Carla and the factory reject apron. Of course, since Mike is cooking in a pressure cooker, he doesn't need any utensils anyway. In the end, that may have given Mike the edge because he won and received $5,000.

For the Elimination Challenge, the group reconvened at The Cloisters where they met Masaharu Morimoto, Michelle Bernstein, and Wolfgang Puck. The challenge was to cook the "last supper" for each of the celebrity chefs. Since Mike won the Quickfire, he paired everyone up. Mike took Michelle Bernstein, then he gave Morimoto to Antonia and Richard got Wolfgang Puck. The last meals were like this:

Wofgang Puck - goulash, spaetzle, and apple strudel
Michelle Bernstein - fried chicken, biscuits & gravy
Masaharu Morimoto - miso soup, pickles, and sashimi

The chefs spent the night planning their meals, and then returned to the kitchen the next morning to cook for three hours. Antonia had chosen hamachi for the sashimi part of the meal, but the hamachi provided was bad, so she managed to find some less flavorful tuna in the walk-in. Richard, meanwhile, struggled with his pressure cooker. Mike, on a roll, didn't appear to have any trouble putting together his fine dining take on fried chicken and biscuits, opting for sous vide chicken and an egg yolk in an empanada replacing the biscuit.

Along with the three celebrity chefs, Tom, and Padma, the judging panel included Gail Simmons and Melanie Dunea, author of My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals. For Antonia's meal, the judges thought the miso was too salty and the chile on the tuna was too hot. Mike's chicken was deemed too dry, and Richard's spaetzel was served cold. Still, Richard was judged to be the best of the three.

For Antonia and Mike, a new twist was thrown in. Each chef had 45 minutes to make one bite for the judges which would determine who moved on and who went home. Mike went surf-and-turf with lobster tempura over beef tartare, while Antonia served seared grouper in coconut lobster sauce. The judges were split three to three between Mike and Antonia, leaving Wofgang Puck as the tie breaker. He went with Mike's dish, so Antonia was sent packing.

Should Mike have been allowed to move on, or was Antonia robbed? Who is going to win it all? Share your thoughts below.

Top Recipe - Top Chef All Stars Finale Part 2

Watch Top Chef Master Rick Moonen prepare Mike Isabella's winning grouper dish here.

Find a printable version of the recipe here.

Bravo Exit Interview - Tiffany Derry

Reactions to Top Chef All Stars Finale Part 2

In Episode 14: "Island Fever" the chefs crank out 100 plates for a Quickfire, and then do a deep dive for ingredients and cook on a deserted island for the Nassau Yacht Club. (Oh, and Padma's in a bikini.)

Is Mike Isabella growing on anyone?

Were you surprised by anything that happened in this episode?

Anyone want to go to The Bahamas?

Top Chef All Stars Finale Part 2 Previews

Only FOUR All-Stars are left standing and it’s a fight to the finish to claim the coveted title of "Top Chef," but it won’t be an easy road to the Finale as the cheftestants have to face the high stakes in the Bahamas. First roadblock? What happens when the cheftestants must physically fish for local Bahamian protein? And for the elimination round, the cheftestants must pair up to deliver a winning meal. When the pairs end up as girls vs. guys, it becomes one last battle-of-the-sexes before the Finale. Who will make it to the last three standing? Find out tonight 3/16 @ 10/9c on BRAVO’s Top Chef All-Stars.

Recap Roundup - Top Chef All-Stars Finale Part 1

Grub Street on haters gotta hate: "Hosea was happy to be there because he saw this as an opportunity to prove to "all the haters" that he did deserve to win. Considering it looked like he only beat Carla because her burners kept turning off, we're going to keep on hatin'. Sorry, Hosea!"

Max the Girl on Mike's competition in the Quickfire: "There’s no doubt that Mike has the biggest challenge, because he’s going against Goofus, the greatest chef in the history of Top Chef—just ask him. Goofus is sporting some sort of dorktastic Stephen Baldwin-meets-Justin-Bieber hairdo, but that doesn’t make him any less intimidating. Dude has skillz."

Fork in the Road on police escorts: "Later, a big SUV and police escort show up, and Mike gets a haunted look in his eyes. "Every time I get a police escort I'm on my way to jail," he says. This time, they're on their way to a restaurant where they're greeted by some local people dressed in bright plumage. 'I don't know if I should be happy or scared,' Tiffany says, but then Mike starts dancing so we choose the latter."

Cliffieland on the weekly psych-out: "But as the men with the fire-retardant do their work, back in the dining room there's another Blaise causing a different kind of meltdown. With this unexpected time to kill, Antonia is stressing again that her concept is too highbrow for the audience. And Richard, wishing to get into her head and do some psychological warfare, encourages her to go with her heart."

Carol Blymire on "royalty:" "For the Elimination Challenge, the cheftestants are told they'll be cooking for Bahamian royalty, and they kind of overreact like this is a really cool thing while I am trying not to yell at the TV that there's really not any royalty, per se, in the Bahamas, and that it's not like Prince Harry is going to come riding up the beach on his polo pony to eat their food."

Minxeats on fire in the hole!: "The chefs are more concerned with their food than their lives, but somehow none of them think to put their meat and produce away in the refrigerators and instead leave everything exposed on the countertops while they evacuate the premises. Meanwhile, the fire department arrives and spews foam on everything in sight, a la Marcel, and contaminates all and sundry."

Monkeys as Critics on the fake-out scene: "Richard likes to compare nuts to music. He says peanuts are rock & roll, walnuts are British rock, almonds are classical, hazelnuts are hippie nuts and pistachios are pop. He and Carla agree that brazil nuts suck."

A Just Recompense on being off: "Something is off here. Tom describes the dishes at the table – why not the chefs? It’s like this was filmed at another time and they faked eating or something. Something’s fishy. Speaking of fishy – in her Bravo blog, Gail claims they didn’t understand the King of Junkanoo wasn’t real royalty either, they never realized it was a regular guy until they sat down with him. And these are people who’ve traveled the world? What’s wrong with them? That’s pretty stupid."

My Monkey Could Do That on psych-outs: "Richard tells the judges he hates everything he does. Sigh. His seasoning was right on, but Tom wishes there was maybe one more flavor. Eric didn’t like the turnip and thought it was too soft. Richard promises to work on his 'vegetable cookery' if he makes it through this round. Today the winner is Mike. Sigh. He of course brags that beating Richard will screw with his head. Everything screws with Richard’s head. That’s not an achievement."

Buddy TV on the elimination dishes: "Carla gets called out for too-sweet apple chips, undercooked pork. Antonia has to explain her change in menu and her lack of pride. The judges don't like the shrimp and the pork, thinking the dish was odd. Tiffany's simplicity is a problem for the judges. The judges praise Mike for his dish, with only a little a little criticism for dry meat. Tom thinks Richard needed only one more ingredient, but otherwise they like it."

David Dust didn't do a recap this week, but he has some interesting "random" thoughts.

Don't forget to check out Creative Loafing's Top Chef Podcast!

Top Recipe - Top Chef All Stars Finale Part 1

Watch Chef Rick Moonen prepare Mike Isabella's winning chicken dish here.

The printable recipe can be found here.

Bravo Exit Interview - Carla Hall

Reactions to Top Chef All Stars Finale Part 1

The remaining cheftestants reconvened in the Bahamas for the beginning of the final elimination rounds. Carla, Richard, Antonia, Mike, and Tiffany arrived at an old fort on the island to get caught up on what's happened to them since New York. Then they headed into the fort where they saw the winners of their original seasons on Top Chef waiting for them. Padma explained that the cheftestants would have to go head-to-head in a cook-off with the winners of their respective seasons, and each winner would receive $10,000. To judge the competition, Padma and Tom were joined by Eric Ripert.

Everyone gathered around their makeshift cooking stations set up in the fort and dug into boxes filled with their theme ingredients. The players and proteins broke out like this:

Season Four - Richard and Antonia against Stephanie Izard using veal
Season Five - Carla against Hosea Rosenberg using lamb
Season Six - Mike against Michael Voltaggio using duck
Season Seven - Tiffany against Kevin Sbraga using pork

The chefs scrambled around in the tropical heat for 40 minutes and then tasting and judgment commenced. Tiffany's dish beat out Kevin's, but Hosea squeezed out a win against Carla. Mike beat out the formidable Michael Voltaggio. With a three-way competition, Antonia's dish was compared to Stephanie's first, with Stephanie getting the upper hand. However, when her dish was compared to Richard's, Richard ultimately won the round.

On to the Elimination Round, Padma explained that the chefs would have to cook a meal for Bahamian royalty. They went back to their plush digs at The Cove at the Atlantis to plot and plan. Then they were sent to the kitchen  for 2 1/2 hours of prep. When the cooking and packing was over, they received a police escort to the venue. Instead of arriving at a palace, however, the chefs were dropped off at Twin Brothers Seafood and Steakhouse where they were greeted by a Junkanoo street band and "The King of Junkanoo." He's royalty because he's called the king, get it? Oy!

Anyway, the chefs shoehorn themselves into the limited kitchen at Twin Brothers to put their dishes together. Not long into the one hour cooking time, one of the deep fryers began to smoke and eventually caught fire. Everyone was evacuated while the fire department put out the flames. With the food contaminated by the extinguishing chemicals, the chefs were forced to start all over.

Because of the set back, some of the chefs chose to change their dishes, including Antonia who decided  to drop her lamb dish for shrimp and grits, which was out of her comfort zone. Carla stuck with pork, but decided to deep fry it, which left the middle raw in spots.

With cooking finally over, the Junkaroo band members and the "King" sat down to enjoy the meal while Padma, Tom, Eric Ripert, and Gail Simmons ate and judged. They found fault with most of the dishes, but Mike's sous vide chicken with mushrooms, yams, and lobster hash was deemed the winner, mainly because of his lobster sauce. Richard's roasted lamb loin was also well received, although Eric found his turnip cannelloni too soft. Tiffany's pork tenderloin was called too simple and too dry, and Antonia's move to shrimp and grits was a failure because the stringy pulled pork she mixed in with the grits undermined the creamy texture. Carla's undercooked pork was the big failure of the night, however, with sweet potato and apple accompaniments that made it far too sweet for an entree. Carla was the first to get kicked off the island.

Should Carla have gotten the boot? Was Tiffany or Antonia more deserving of a plane ride home? Who might go all the way? Share your thoughts below.