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Episode Recap: Block Party
¡Hola! Tonight's episode started with a south of the border accent as Mexican gourmet chef Rick Bayless joined host Padma Lakshmi to watch the 14 remaining chefs go mano-a-mano in the Quickfire Challenge. Chef Rick is the owner of Chicago's Frontera Grill and its sister restaurant Topolobampo. He also has a line of food products, which I've previously purchased (perhaps at Whole Foods), and can personally say the Frontera brand salsas were muy bien.
Reinventing and creating an upscale taco was slightly more challenging than I thought it would be. As Chef Rick mentioned, they were served a lot of "street tacos". Erik seemed perplexed at dressing up simple foods and it showed in his end product. Though sounding like a flavorful combination, his chipotle braised chicken taco with avocado and pomegranate salsa was called a train wreck and was the least favorite dish. It sort of reminded me of the mashed potato soufflé from the first episode.
Ryan's taco had a pomegranate jicama salad, which also sounded good, but Chef Rick was not impressed with the paper wrapper as garnish. Lisa served a rare skirt steak, typically a tougher cut of meat that requires a longer cooking time, which was unchewable. I thought Manuel would get a mention for using cactus petals and chorizo with picante verde sauce.
Spike's ground pork with tomatillo sauce was said to have "super soul-satisfying flavor" and Andrew soared high with his duck breast with plantain jam and cotija cheese. Richard not only won immunity for offering shaved jicama as tortillas with avocado, papaya and cilantro stems, but also will have his dish featured on the menu at Topolobampo.
As the chefs split into two teams for the Elimination Challenge, Padma explained that they wouldn't be shopping for their ingredients. They were to go door-to-door and gather foods from the neighbors participating in their annual block party. The event corresponds with mealstogether.com, which I learned after looking it up is a site devoted to bringing families together at mealtime. With the hectic pace we tend to keep these days it seems like a great tool to help parents spend more time with their children.
The block party looked like a fun outing and the Red Team took some down time afterwards to shoot hoops and drink beer. Though neither team had a great showing, it was the Blue Team that squeaked by with the win.
Richard was criticized for serving paella with seafood and sausage but without a crunch it was more like a pilaf. (Perhaps he just didn't use the correct pan.) Amazingly, it was Stephanie's "Sexy Drink", made with lavender, citrus, mint, simple syrup and seltzer, and the mixed fruit crumble with cinnamon sugar wontons that gave her a second EC win.
In addition to Stephanie I really thought we would hear more raves about the women this week but there were none. Nikki was on the bottom a second week in a row, this time for macaroni and cheese, which she said was a signature dish. From the Red Team, I'm keeping an eye on Jennifer, who was neither positively nor negatively mentioned. Girlfriend Zoi was slammed for a pasta salad she never wanted to make.
Except for charming the neighbors, Ryan never got his groove on in this episode. He seemed to have thought out the logistics of transporting the components of his Waldorf salad individually, but having boiled the chicken it added unneeded water, there was no crunch, and white balsamic was substituted for mayonnaise.
Erik was told to pack his knives and go for the mini corn dogs that were probably crispy when he made them but became soggy while warm and covered during transit.
Spike was a master at charring the smores lollipops, which Padma dropped on Ted Allen's shoe, but he and Andrew we a little full of themselves as they copped an attitude toward the judges that showed they can't take criticism and don't play well with others.
Second Bites
• Have you made use of mealstogether.com, and if so, what benefits did you gain?
• Was Spike being competitive or heartless when steering Antonia away from a house he had visited but knew had a full pantry? (In the end, it didn't help.)
• What did Nikki say to Erik when she hugged him goodbye? It sounded like "Padma soufflé".
• The text poll wanted to know which would happen first: a female president or a female Top Chef. 85% chose the latter.
For more tasty treats about Top Chef, check out our Online Video Guide.
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Mar 27, 2008 2:42 AM
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I can't believe that these so called chefs don't take holding time for foods into consideration. Last week it was the bilini and this week it was the corn dogs. Even I knew the corn dogs weren't going to hold up.
A part of me wanted to see the Red team lose after watching them celebrating at the block party and then drinking beer will waiting for their turn at the judges table.
There was something about Eric that made me think he would do well in this competition and it hit me this morning that he looks alot like Michael Simon from Iron Chef America so I assumed he was a good cook.
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Mar 27, 2008 7:53 AM
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I love Top Chef but the blatant advertising is a little annoying. Like when Spike diliberately help of the bbq sauce for the camera. Come on!
Seriously have these chefs never considered transport? Or learn the lessons from the previous chefs? What's going on here. So far no one has wowed me yet.
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Mar 27, 2008 9:15 AM
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How funny was it that Manuel DIDN'T win the quickfire! LOL! Can you say, embarrassing?
Is it just me, or does anyone else think Andrew is a "tweaker?" I mean, really. I've never seen someone act like that unless they were on meth or something. Holy moly. But that duck taco thingie looked good.
I thought the losing team had the right idea for the type of food, but they just couldn't pull it off. The winning team tried for a little more upscale and nearly got bit in the tuckus, and if it wasn't for Stephanie's second winning dish, they'd have lost.
I think the reason Erik bought it was that he makes lobster corn dogs at his restaurant so he should have known they'd never hold up without going soggy. The pasta salad looked terrible, and according to Tom it was, but there really was no excuse for doing corn dogs knowing they wouldn't hold up. He should have done something else with the dogs, like maybe inject them with cheese or something. Anyway, I had a feeling that he'd be gone when they were interviewing him and he was bagging on Rick Bayliss. I thought, hmm, bitter much, and took that as a clue.
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Mar 27, 2008 9:27 AM
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Nikki said, "Papa Souffle" to him - which must have become Erik's nickname when he made that nacho-like mess in the 1st episode.
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Mar 27, 2008 9:31 AM
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You really have to wonder where they are getting some of these chefs. The quick fire was to create an upscale taco but many of them just created another type of taco. Corn dogs sitting around for any length of time is not going to be good. Of course they will go soft. A high school student in Home Ec knows that. For someone who makes them at his restaurant, Erik proved to be the worst of the bunch.
How much longer will Nikki be around? She is called out again by the judges for a lousy dish but lucks out once again this week by having another dish worse than hers. Last week it was the "Bear turd mushrooms" and this week she had the "Mac & cheese brick".
This year's contestants remind me of the level of chef talent that appear on Hell's Kitchen and that's not good.
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Mar 27, 2008 9:47 AM
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Ah, "Papa Souffle" sounds much better. I replayed that clip several and never got it. Thanks for the clarification. 
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Mar 27, 2008 9:52 AM
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Ðarclyte- I also thought Andrew has some sort of nervous energy about him that makes me think he may have had a drug problem in the past ( Not that all hyper people have drugs problems).
His talents sure do impress me though. In the very beginning i thought he was going to be there more for comical purposes like Mike(season 2) but boy does he come up with some high-end sounding dishes.
I am soooo ready for Nikki to be gone. I've not liked her since the first episode where she found it necessary to point out she was from Manhattan as opposed to NYC (like all the other NYC chefs). Plus, she consistently makes the worst dishes.
I didn't' really care either way with Erik. He just didn't seem like he was into this competition. I thought it appeared as though he thought a lot of the stuff was beneath him. Did he not watch the show before and realize there would be some quirkiness to it and not all fine dining?
by the way- I thought the taco challenge was fun. Who knew you could put duck in a taco? Although I do not really like Richard, I must admit his dish really represented the spirit of the challenge.
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Mar 27, 2008 11:05 AM
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What I couldn't believe was the chefs in the Quick Fire complaining that mexican food should not be made upscale, and that tacos could only be streetfood. How arrogant are these guys? You can definitely see the artistic arrogance coming out in several of these guys!
Is it just me, or does anyone else think Andrew is a "tweaker?"
LOL! I don't think that he is a "tweaker" but he sure does act like one at times! He must be super hyperactive or maybe a bit ADHD. I have never seen a "tweaker" function at Andrews level, so I think that it must be something else!
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Mar 27, 2008 11:16 AM
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I was happy to see Rick Bayless as the guest judge this week. His Mexican cookbooks are amazing, his shows on PBS were interesting, and I also thought his Frontiera sauces at the store were pretty good (especially the tomatillo one). But I am not sure that most of the cooks were really aware of who Rick Bayless is, and therefore didn't step up.
Ultimately most of the contestants blew the taco challenge because they were snobs, an unfortunately blemish that also marred one team's block party planning. They need to learn that once you start patronizing people or dumbing things down, you've already lost.
Duck taco ... I love duck in everything, so this sounded really good. And I thought the use of jicama as a taco shell was pretty cool. Have to try that some time.
Shopping in other peoples' pantries... remember "Door Knock Dinners?" Okay, so it must have been a bit unnerving to go into strangers houses to get your food, but most of us cook most days by seeing what is in the pantry, freezer, fridge and putting something together. At least I do and everyone I know who cooks does that ... so why did these chefs have so much trouble and why were they largely so unimaginative.
Did they actually have to use all the food they collected? Did they have to accept food they didn't want to cook. Erik said that he was given all these hot dogs and so he felt like he had to use them. So use your imagination and make something different with hot dogs that people wouldn't expect to be made from hot dogs. Or just grill up the hot dogs back at the kitchen and make some amazingly tasty but different toppings for them and serve them on a bun.
Zoi came off as a whiny person full of excuses. So what if she didn't want to make a pasta salad, that is what she was making, so she should do it well. She's a professional chef, I am sure that she has often in her career made food she had no interest in making for the small salary that most chefs get. This time she was making pasta salad for $100,000 and had access to an incredible pantry. I would have gone for something with Thai spices or some chiles because it apparently was going to be 90 degrees at the block party and chiles cool you down.
So far I think this is the worst of the four seasons of Top Chef. None of the cooks have engaged my interest. They don't seem to cook that well and are not imaginative. The editing of the show seems flat, maybe because the chefs are not that interesting. I hope it gets better soon.
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Mar 27, 2008 12:22 PM
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I felt this was a very weird episode. I couldn't figure out why the winner (I don't recall her name, there are still so many people left) won. She barely had any screen time, they didn't show her making anything and then when asked, it sounded like all she did was help on one dish and "conceptualize" another but it didn't sound like she prepared anything herself.
I really thought this was a very poorly edited episode. I get that they were trying to make it seem like the Red team was the winner only to have it switched up at the end but as a result, a lot of parts that they normally show and I enjoy watched were left on the cutting room floor. They didn't show Spike's (I think that's his name) taco in the quickfire challenge, even though it was singled out by Rick Bayless. They barely showed the person who won the quickfire. They didn't show the judges talking at all about the food before bringing out the chefs. They didn't talk about the ones they liked and why they liked them. Very poor editing/storytelling.
I was hoping either Nikki (that mac & cheese looked disgusting, my roommate said it looked like vomit) or Zoi (complaining because you didn't want to make it? How does that explain why you can't put together a good salad?) would go home.
Again, really bad episode.
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Mar 27, 2008 12:30 PM
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jacksie92 - totally agree about the blatant advertising. It really put me off.
Ranger99 - I agree that Andrew probably has ADHD or some nervous disorder. It seems hard to believe that he could function that well, but who knows? I remember learning about 'weekend alcoholics' who function well at work all week and don't touch a drop until Friday night. If people can do that, then Darclyte could be right about Andrew.
Erik's, Andrew's and Spike's attitudes all bugged me. And you're all right about chefs knowing about transferring food. I'm not a chef, and I know that! How ignorant can you be?
Glad Stephanie won. I like her, and I would really like to see a female win Top Chef.
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Mar 27, 2008 1:11 PM
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I don't have much to add to your thoughts. All good ones and what I agree with.
I'm sure the homeowners knew the chefs were coming into their homes for that food. To try to make us think otherwise was stupid. AND, the big thing for me is that the families all had this food because this is what they wanted to have fixed for their block party. I'm sure those home cooks would have done 100% better than these chefs did. I'd bet money on it.
So why couldn't he just have made up the batter, taken it with him to the block party, and fixed the corn dogs on site?
Anyway, my bigger question is about that sauce...Siracha???.....that you were all talking about a couple of weeks ago. I admittedly don't live in a huge town, but we have several large grocery stores, one in particular with a large selection of ethnic foods. I can't find it anywhere. Would that be an Asian or a Mexican sauce? I'm going to find me some, because you've all tweaked my interest and taste buds!
Wheezy, I've always said you should be on this show. You know you could put this latest crop of "chefs" to shame!!
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Mar 27, 2008 2:08 PM
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Sriracha is a sweet and spicy Thai sauce. In a word, it's awesome. Like, on everything, well almost everything as Casey showed us last season when she tried to put it with ice cream.
You should be able to find it at any Asian grocery story. I would even check out the nearest sushi restaurant and ask where they get theirs as I see it in a lot of sushi restaurants lately.
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Mar 27, 2008 2:33 PM
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A few random thoughts:
The duck in the duck taco sure looked tasty, all plump & juicy, best-looking thing on tonight's episode.
All three of the losing candidates were from San Francisco, am I right? I smell a right-wing conspiracy.
One other thing that shocks me back to reality is seeing the ages of all these contestants.....the abundance of 35 year olds and I say to myself "I'm 35, do I look that bad?". Holy smokes!!
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Mar 27, 2008 2:36 PM
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