Skillet Doux

Top Chef - S6E5 Postmortem

I would like to state for the record that I do NOT have the Magical Elves editing bay bugged.

(*razzafrazza* double elimination messin' up my streak!)

Apparently the kiss of death this season is making a mediocre dish and having absolutely no clue it's mediocre.

Like the cactus challenge, not so keen on the chuckwagon. Not because they were roughing it and cooking over an open flame. Because they had to plan and shop BEFORE finding out what their facilities were going to be like. Of all the BS twists Top Chef has pulled over the years, that -- for me -- is the big enchilada. "Plan to serve us high-end cuisine, but for all you know your tools are going to be a rock and a bic lighter!" I don't believe they'd done it since the beach challenge in season... two? And I can't say I'm very excited to see it return. When it comes to goofy challenges, there's goofy, and there's just plain stupid.

And yet, most everybody handles the situation with aplomb. Bravo, season six contestants!

After a couple of boring weeks for the rankings, next week should be interesting. Mike I. shows strong again. The Ashley some of us knew was in there finally makes an appearance. Bryan pulls down two eliminations in a row.

Hey, look! Laurine!!!

Discuss!

Top Chef - S6E4 Power Rankings

PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING!!!
There's a lot of sneaky intel out there, but I'm endeavoring to keep this blog a spoiler-free zone. This isn't just for the readers, but for me, too -- I don't want to know what happens! As such, anything that's already been broadcast or has been posted on the official Bravo site is fair game for discussion. I will, for example, discuss the preview of next week's show at the end of the post. But if you've heard rumors that one chef has been hosting a lot of dinner parties, or that another chef was spotted boarding a plane to an exotic locale, please keep them to yourself... thanks!

Gads, this episode was humbling for me and I wasn't even there.

My fears about the quickfire proved to be mostly unfounded, and I couldn't be more thrilled. If you have to kick somebody out on a quickfire, the second chance is the way to do it. Also, it's worth noting that Tom's blog revealed that the snails were cleaned and par-cooked, a process that would have taken too much time for the contestants. So that leveled the playing field quite a bit and allowed them to focus on their creative takes rather than snail technique. Most notable part of the QF? We didn't get a full description of the snail dishes that he felt were weakest, but he didn't seem that put off by them. If so, that means that a field of 14 cooked snails, and even with a 45 minute time limit, not a single person bombed. This is remarkable.

Not as remarkable, of course, as the incredible panel of judges assembled for the elimination challenge. This would've been impressive in the final episode, to say nothing of episode four. As I said in the postmortem, where the heck do you go from there? It certainly makes you wonder what they have in store for the end of the season.

The rankings are markedly unexciting this week. But before we dive in, allow me a moment to splash a liiiiiiiitle bit of cold water on everybody, and a little history for those who are newer to Top Chef:

In season one, the cream of the crop was definitely looking like Tiffani, Harold and Lee Anne, until everybody made lamb, Lee Anne unexpectedly got the axe and Dave snuck into the finals.

In season two, Sam, widely considered the favorite, didn't make the final episode while Ilan, considered by most to be the third-best chef in the competition at best took the whole thing.

In season three, Tre, considered by most to be one of two clear frontrunners, didn't make it past midseason in a surprise elimination, while Dale L. who looked like an also-ran suddenly found his mojo in the final third of the season and narrowly missed the win.

Season four was looking to most (the judges included, apparently) like a season-long coronation of Richard Blais, until he choked away the final (his words!). Meanwhile, Dale T., considered by many to be among the top three and a near lock for the finals, was a surprise elimination a few episodes away from the finals while Lisa, who didn't cook a great dish all season, just kept hanging around and hanging around and hanging around while one other person always bombed out, and she made the final meal.

Season five was similarly seen as a season-long coronation of Stefan to most, with Jamie as his only serious competition. But Jamie became a surprise midseason elimination, while the funny/lovable/awesome but -- for most of the season -- culinarily tame Carla suddenly caught fire in the last third of the season and gave everybody a two-person battle in the finals. Except that she and Stefan then choked in the final meal and Hosea -- who most considered along for the ride -- outcooked them both to win.

Point being, yes, Jennifer, Kevin and the Brothers V. seem to be establishing themselves as a solid top tier. And yes, they could all make the finals. But history suggests that probably won't be the case. Because we can't get enough of bad sports metaphors around here, that's why they play the games.

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Michael V. Quickfires 1 1 0 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 1 3 0 This top tier is making it really difficult to shuffle anybody around. Nobody's stumbling. Everybody continues to pull down wins. And I try not to shuffle the deck simply for the sake of doing so, especially when the four in question now all have four wins apiece. So at the risk of keeping things nice and boring, we're keeping the top for right where they are for the second week in a row. Should I have flip-flopped Mike V. and Jennifer? Well, she did get top mention in the quickfire. But then he's the one who took apart rabbits like R. Lee Ermey takes apart marines, and the mustard noodle that had everybody oohing and aahing was undoubtedly his work. His quickfire escargot lasagna looks like a fun little dish, even if is freaks out the pasta purist in me: "For pasta, blend flour, milk and egg yolks in a robot coupe. Place contents in a vacuum bag and cryovac until it becomes dough." Sounds practically metaphysical. But if I can get past the fact that he's making pasta dough in a food processor -- no small task, even if Italian isn't his thing -- it's hard not to get enthused about snails in veal stock, garlic, thyme, butter and parsley sandwiched between pasta with creamed chanterelles, brown butter and crushed hazelnuts. Plus, Tom called it out in his blog as one of the better dishes that didn't get airtime. So Michael stays right where he is for now.

2 Jennifer Quickfires 2 4 0 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 0 2 0 And he has three people breathing down his neck. Though I'm tempted to send Kevin or Bryan -- both of whom walked away with actual wins this week -- past Jennifer, she performed strongly enough that I'm not quite ready to pull that trigger. Another week like this from Kevin and Bryan though, and I might. Her QF pulled a lot of traditional flavors but really, really turned it up a notch, which is why she earned top mention, no doubt. She sautées chanterelles, grills ramps and blanches brussels sprout leaves, then tosses them all in -- get this -- foie fat. The snails are sautéed with preserved lemon, garlic and shallots and then the whole thing is sauced tableside with a sauce that's made by blending brown butter with yuzu and chicken stock to emulsify and topping with fresh chervil and tarragon. Drool. Meanwhile, it has been pointed out that neither snails nor sauce chasseur are seafood. And while this is true, it is also true that neither are meat (well, you've got rabbit bones in the chasseur, but -- nevermind). In any case, it's a baby step. Looks like next episode is a cowboy cookout, so I want to see a flatiron steak that rocks Colicchio's meat-lovin' world. THEN I'll call her Jennifer Norris.

3 Kevin Quickfires 1 2 0 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 1 2 0 Honestly, I'm not sure whether winning the quickfire was an award or not. When you're a chef and you have the opportunity of a lifetime, to be in the presence of a panel like that, would you rather eat with them or cook for them? I'm sure that's a difficult question to answer honestly, but I'd be curious to hear what Kevin would have to say. Anyway, Mattin notwithstanding, we get more evidence for the "bacon makes everything better" crowd (I agree... to a point), as Kevin's bacon jam seems to be what really wins over Boulud and Colicchio, the latter of whom admitted in his blog that upon returning to his kitchen, he immediately started working on his own version. This bacon jam has to be some seriously intense stuff. Though bacon fat jam may be more accurate, since as far as I can tell, it looks like he discards the cooked bacon. He renders the bacon in the oven, then removes it leaving the fat. He cooks onions in the fat until they're deep golden, adds brown sugar and chicken stock and pops it back in the oven to reduce way down. Then he adds more stock and reduces way down again. Then he seasons, adds more stock, blends, adds honey and reduces again, before finally mounting with butter. Yow.

4 Bryan Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 2 2 0 Bryan wins the elimination, the judges (thankfully) seeing through Michael I.'s treatise on teamwork. Tom says in his blog that it was clear which brain was behind the dish. Which frankly just means that he was paying attention. Two top filets of trout fused with transglutaminase activa RM and cooked sous vide with a deconstructed béarnaise thickened with xanthan gum? That doesn't exactly bear Michael Isabella's signature, even if he was on the same "let's ditch the traditional béarnaise" wavelength. Tom is once again so taken aback that I hope the culinary purists out there take note. MG has taken a beating from all kinds of critics and food nerds, but when the guy who developed a menu like Craft's is reacting so positively to Bryan's successes, that should tell you that when it's done intelligently and for the right reasons, great things can result. Anyway, I keep Bryan on the bottom of the top tier simply because the nature of his style is that it's more risky. If he makes the final showdown and can simply do his thing, my feeling right now is that he'll be on equal footing with the rest. But he also seems the most likely to flame out with a funky dish that misses the mark before then. Here's hoping that doesn't come to pass. I don't care if he does come across like an accountant in his interviews. The dude's fire is on the plate.

5 Michael I. Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 8 Eliminations 0 2 1 Yes, the guy has ridden the Voltaggio train for two weeks running and he can be a big ol' bed-wetting doody head, but let's give the guy some credit. He has knocked out a couple of rockin' dishes and the only blemish on his record is the Greek salad where it seemed clear -- as stupid as it was -- that he didn't even bother trying. Which doesn't mean the guy isn't his own worst enemy, but it doesn't mean he can't cook, either. And we saw more of the Episode 1 Michael I. this time, that being the guy who may not look top tier, but is technically sound and can bust out some impressive dishes. His QF was right out of his bag of tricks, sautéed snails over skordalia (a Greek potato and garlic puree) with a spring onion and ouzo broth. As he mentioned, it's a treatment evocative of the isle of Crete, from which Michael apparently is descended. Which, as somebody pointed out (wish I could recall where) lays to rest the question of whether or not he's a Cretean (ha!). Speaking of which, while I try not to dwell too much on the more controversial personalities here at the TCPR, and while I realize bringing this up again runs the risk of waking a sleeping giant, I was reflecting this week on some of Mike's more colorful statements of episodes past with the benefit of some time and a little B-roll this week of him screwing around with Jennifer. And the truth is that his misogynistic money quotes could plausibly be either unforgivably offensive or playful and totally self-aware, all depending on how familiar he is with the person he's referring to and the kind of rapport they have. It's all about context. And thankfully the TC editors are all about providing us with as much accurate context as is humanly possible. My money's still on him being kind of a jerk. But the point is, who knows?!? (P.S. Though I know I'll have nobody but myself to blame, please don't run off 75 consecutive comments about whether or not Mike I. is getting the villain edit or is actually a villain. Pleeeeeeease?)

6 Eli Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 2 0 Eli rounds out my little "just off the pace" tier, and I have him below Mike I. both because Mike had a strong-ish week and Eli got a little abuse, albeit unofficially. His QF was a little uninspired, but that's only when held against the competition. It still looked like a nice dish, with sautéed sunchokes and mushrooms and a brown butter, cream and banyuls vinegar sauce, topped with a little mint, tarragon and pea shoots. With his contribution to the elimination dish, the sauce Américaine, it's unclear to me whether he chose to ignore tradition, or was actually unaware of what the sauce traditionally is. What's not in dispute is that what he prepared isn't sauce Américaine. Describing it as "basically lobster bisque" strikes me as more than a little dubious, but if his intention was simply to try to hit on something that a non-food nerd would grasp, I suppose it isn't that ridiculous of a comparison. But still, the big departure from tradition -- even moreso than his addition of Sichuan peppercorns -- was cream. Which isn't a problem if it's good, but the judges seemed mildly annoyed by it. Or perhaps his mistake was not pushing the envelope far enough, so the judges were inclined to frame those differences as mistakes rather than reimaginings. In any case, deviating from the norm is good. Just make sure it works.

7 Ash Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 0 0 1 Now's the big drop. And really, the seven spot this week is a total puzzler. Ashley was here last week, but she was on the bottom of both challenges and was nearly eliminated. Robin didn't fare much better. I'm certainly not putting Ron or Laurine at the top of the MOTPers. So even though it means a three position jump, which seems absurd for a fellow who was on the chopping block, I'm going with the guy who seems to have screwed up the least over the past couple of episodes and give Ash his moment in the sun. Besides, he's my new hero for what he said about being on the bottom of Judges' Table: "It's painful because they're right." That Ash qualifies as the hot hand at the moment is a little ridiculous, but there it is. His QF was a snail and leek galette with chanterelles (must've been one beautiful box of chanterelles hanging out in Boulud's kitchen), bacon, juniper, pernod and thyme. In the elimination, even though he was technically on the bottom, I think you have to give him a pass. There were there because of Hector, and the truth is that his sauce may have been awful, and it may have been divine. Problem is, it was completely lost. All three of my MOTPers this week were on the chopping block. With Ash, at least, it wasn't his fault.

8 Ashley Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 0 0 2 Despite some not insignificant rough patches, and to the consternation of some, Ashley still strikes me as having the most potential among the MOTPers. That said, with a week like this, I can't just leave her at number seven. If the recipe is accurate -- though I have my doubts on this one -- it isn't hard to see how she ended up on the bottom of the quickfire. Snails, mirepoix, leeks, pernod, cream, butter. Doesn't scream excitement. Her foie amuse saved her bacon, and that was even simpler -- foie, pineapple, tarragon, oil, salt and butter. But with an amuse like that, it's all in the technique. Keep it simple, make it POP. Then, on the elimination, at least her instincts didn't lead her astray. Her culinary instincts, I mean. Her instinct to let Mattin run the show, yeah, that wasn't such a good one. What I find more troubling than her poussin problems, actually, was Tom's comment that her pasta was off. That should be her bread and butter. Okay, wrong starch. But you take my point. Then Mattin lies through his teeth about shooting down the asparagus veloute idea, and she just stands there and takes it. Admirable or stupid, I'm not sure which. But in any case, Ashley just looks frazzled. I don't see her going the full Jesse route just yet, but she needs to regroup. I'm keeping her as high as I am because I think she can turn it around. But otherwise, she could drop like a stone.

9 Robin Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 0 0 Hey, look... Robin!!! Aaaaaaand, she's nearly eliminated. Probably not the splash she wanted to make. Robin's another, like Ashley, where I feel like there's a decent cook in there trying to get out. The difference between her and Ashley is that Ashley's decent cook has, on a couple of occasions. I'd sure like to know what Tom and Boulud didn't like about her quickfire. It's interesting, I'll give it that. I have no idea what makes it "Bagels and Lox". Toasted slices of rye bread... oooooooooookay, bagel I guess. But can somebody tell me how snails poached in wine, citrus, coriander, caraway, and thyme, then paired with a saffron-citrus compound butter and a jam made with onion, shallot, leek, sherry vinegar, St. Germain liqueur, sugar and bay constitutes "lox"? Because I sure can't figure it out. Anyway, I'm guessing the judges thought it was a little busy. Just a stab in the dark. I have nothing to base this on other than my reading of the recipe. Similarly, her end of the frog legs meunière is called out for being -- natch -- a little busy. Sounds like she's trying to do a little too much.

10 Ron Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 1 0 I don't really feel like Ron is in imminent danger, but I just can't find anything to get excited about with him. His very first dish of the competition, at least, showed some life. Since then, it's been meh, meh, meh. His QF escargot Provencal was... predictable. And he had technical issues on the frog legs, overbreading and overcooking them. If he could show a little more style like he did in the first episode -- even if it's a little clunky -- I could move him into the middle of the pack. But for now, I feel like he's in limbo, not in immediate danger, but not really doing anything interesting either.

11 Laurine Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 13 Eliminations 0 0 1 Laurine is somewhat Ron-esque, except that she doesn't even have a distinctive dish to her name just yet. Well, that Moroccan lamb chop at the pool party didn't look too bad. But really, there's not much to go on here. Tom notes that the chefs were admonished not to trot out the ol' parsley, garlic and butter treatment for the snails. Then, she goes ahead and trots out parsley, garlic and butter. To be fair, it's at least an imaginative repackaging of the classic. They're in melted garlic butter with thyme, served atop a spinach risotto and drizzled with parsley oil. But it just looks like a clunker in this crowd. Then she overcooks lobster for the elimination, even if Eli's contribution to that failure might be suspect. Pasta salad momentum keeps her near the bottom. I want to see something out of her. Until then, she's near the basement...

12 Mattin Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 12 Eliminations 0 0 1 ...a spot reserved, this week, for Mattin. The Frenchman butchered French. That's not a good sign. Though I must say, I'm feeling a little vindicated since I've been relatively down on him since day one. (That bit last week where I said he might be safe in the French challenge? Yeah... just ignore that.) That he flat-out lied about nixing the asparagus veloute was low, but the judges were blissfully ignorant of that fact during shooting. What he did, however, was make a terrible veloute. That puts him in their crosshairs, and in imminent danger of dismissal.

13 Hector Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 0 1 2 This one totally bums me out. I really thought Hector had potential. And actually, I'll stand by that. I think he did. But you can't complain one bit about this elimination. Destroy a simple piece of meat like that in front of Tom Colicchio and you're toast. Sounds like Hector's pretty bummed about the elimination, too. I think that's the first time I've heard somebody come out and say that being eliminated when they were is going to hurt their career. I don't know if I buy that, though. Twice, the judges were unhappy with his steak. The first time, you could debate the propriety of tossing it in the fryer. This time, there was no doubt. But does anybody really think that's going to significantly reflect on what your experience would be like at his restaurant? He was on for a while. He showed some good stuff. He got his name out there. I suspect Hector'll be just fine.

14 Jesse Quickfires 0 1 3 Last Week: 14 Eliminations 0 0 2 Jesse, despite how much this competition crushed her, IS just fine. I got two more reports just this week that she's turning out some really good food at Abacrombie back in Baltimore. So she seems to have gotten past some of the paralyzing self-doubt she showed in her exit interview. What I didn't particularly like was her calling her elimination BS, as she didn't feel Robin's dish was an amuse. First off, I don't see the point in getting that pedantic about it. Whether or not Robin's tiny soup was an amuse is debatable. I've never heard anybody complain about the tiny glasses of liquids that so many of the masters turn out as amuses, and does the fact that it was in a tiny tureen rather than a tiny glass make the difference between survival and elimination? Not to hold out Rick Tramonto as an authority on the subject, but he is the only chef I know of who's devoted an entire cookbook (and a rather nice one, at that) to amuse, and he has plenty of amuse recipes that involve multiple (tiny) bites. Bottom line, if your food tastes the best, you win, and it didn't. Deal. And given that she basically pitched a tent on the chopping block starting with the very first elimination challenge and survived perhaps even a little longer than she should have, it seems to me that she's not in a position -- much as I would have liked to see her succeed -- to be too critical about the judging. Anyway, she sounds like one of those contestants who can turn out some tasty food on her own terms, but who just wasn't suited to the competition. She said she wants people to know that she doesn't suck this bad[ly], and I have it on good authority that she really doesn't. If you're in Baltimore, it sounds like Abacrombie is worth checking out.

And with that, it's back to the three ring circus!

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE FIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

The quickfire, at least, I can get behind, even if it is our second consecutive "unusual ingredient that many of you have probably never cooked with" quickfire. I don't have a lot of experience with cactus myself, so I'm not sure that I have much to say about this one. Except that Mattin has apparently never touched it. Strike one.

The elimination, meanwhile, is another survival challenge, with tiny workstations, blazing sun and a hot, difficult-to-control campfire. I don't mind the goofy and the zany with quickfires. I get a little prickly when the eliminations are so chaotic. But we'll see what happens. The kids are all right. Except for Mattin, who it appears might be attempting to sidestep the challenge entirely by making a ceviche and avoiding the open flame. Hardly seems sporting, and I doubt it'll go over well, if I'm reading this correctly. Strike two.

Y'know, I hadn't watched the preview videos until after I put Mattin in the basement, but now I'm feeling a little extra good about it. Which I guess means I'm already patting myself on the back based on what the TC editors have shown us in the previews.

What's WRONG with me?!?

Discuss!!!

Izote

Crema de Zanahoria con Chile Ancho	Dominic Armato

After the day's work was done, our mariscos lunch was happily digesting away and we were back on our own, thoughts naturally turned to dinner. My instinct, as previously mentioned, was to pick a street market and start chowing. And the idea of escaping the D.F. without sampling a taco al pastor seemed positively sacrilegious. But in deference to my traveling companion (who was warned he'd be thrown under the bus when it came time to post), we opted for a more refined affair that involved less walking. And I figured if we weren't going to take it to the streets, we might as well hit the other extreme. A short cab ride later, we were cruising into the ritzy Polanco neighborhood and stepping into Izote de Patricia Quintana.

Patricia Quintana, for many, will need no introduction. She's an ambassador of Mexican cuisine, once executive chef for the Mexican Ministry of Tourism, founder of a Mexican culinary institute and multiple cookbook author who specializes in creative, refined takes on Mexican classics. This is one of the big guns of Mexican cuisine. And though reviews from the usual spies were decidedly mixed, it seemed the perfect choice for this particular evening, when comfort was a precious commodity. The restaurant is, indeed, comfortable -- very bright and spartan, white tablecloths and simple patterned murals that evoke the colors of Mexican art (not that I'm an authority on Mexican art). It's casual, but refined and carefully put together with a minimal sense of style. The menu's rather extensive, pushing fifty items not including sides and desserts, and unless we struck them as locals (which I doubt), it wouldn't be a bad idea to brush up on your menu Spanish before heading in. Though I'm sure they'd be more than happy to translate, that's a lot of text to get through.

	Empanadas de Tinga	Dominic Armato

We kicked off dinner with the Empanadas de Tinga al jitornate con cebolla. I'm still unclear on what jitornate is (and would appreciate enlightenment... *ahem*... Solange), but the rest made enough sense to make an order of it. Tinga is shredded meat cooked with onions and a deep, intense sauce with chipotles, often served on tostadas with cheese and avocado. So what we received was really a repackaging of the classic, with the sweet, spicy meat inside a delightfully crisp and puffy shell, atop an avocado and onion salsa with a chunk of fresh cheese (seen in the background, topped with crushed dried chile pepper) for good measure. A very enjoyable dish, top to bottom, as much for the empanadas' exceptional texture as for the full flavor of the meat within. And a stunning-looking plate, to boot. This would become a theme.

Tamales de Queso	Dominic Armato

Our next dish, a collection of four tamales, tried to pretend it was rustic, appearing in an earthenware bowl, but it wasn't fooling anybody. Unfortunately, while perusing the menu I saw "Plato de Tamales" and missed the "de queso" which immediately followed, meaning that where I was expecting corn, I got cheese. Now I've nothing against cheese, and these were, indeed, quite cheesy. All but one of the quartet contained what was essentially a lump of gooey, melted cheese with a little accompanying component -- one with epazote (a distinctive Mexican herb), one with squash blossoms, and one with some manner of mushroom -- but the balance was so heavily shifted towards the cheese that, if blindfolded, it would have been difficult to distinguish one from the other. The fourth -- an actual corn tamale with chicken -- was moist and light and I loved it. For missing the queso, I take partial responsibility for my disappointment with this dish. But even so, I do wish the accompanying flavors had been more assertive. It could have taken simple cheese lust and made it something special.

	Crema de Elote	Dominic Armato

We followed our starters with a soup course, and though I was initially dismayed when my dining companion chose the one I had my eye on, I think my Plan B turned out to be a blessing in disguise. There was nothing wrong with his Crema de Elote, a creamy corn soup with a touch of chipotle and a lot of what I believe was nutmeg. But it lacked the intensely fresh corn flavor I'd hoped it might possess, and the spice -- nutmeg, not the chipotle -- was perhaps overly aggressive. The soup was more cream and spice than corn, and while tasty, it wasn't what I thought it could be. My soup, however, was excellent. The Crema de Zanahoria -- carrot soup -- was a special for the day, and hit the table a spectacular wash of orange surrounding a goat cheese-stuffed chipotle adorned with a handmade blue tortilla chip. Here, the focus was on the carrot, and the better for it. Sweet and intense, with just the right amount of spice and sourness granted by the accompaniments, it was an unusually excellent soup.

Mole Negro de Oaxaca	Dominic Armato

Having watched Rick Bayless take down the Top Chef Masters crown just two nights prior with a Oaxacan black mole that brought James Oseland, Gael Greene and Jay Rayner to their knees, there was no way I was passing on Quintana's version. Sadly, this was the one dish of the night that was flat-out disappointing. The mole was intense, yes, but rather than subtly blending all of the many ingredients, it was completely dominated by an odd sourness that not only rubbed me the wrong way, but completely subjugated all of the other flavors. What's more, the meat it adorned wasn't even the least bit enjoyable. The matchstick cuts of duck were tough, dry and almost flavorless, as though the overcooked scraps of other dishes had been chopped up and buried beneath the most pungent sauce in the house. While I don't suspect Quintana's kitchen of such excessive frugality, the fact remains that this was not an enjoyable dish. I can't speak to its authenticity, and my frame of reference for black mole is admittedly small, but I've always enjoyed it until this particular instance. A huge disappointment...

	Chile en Nogada	Dominic Armato

...that set me up for an absolute thrill. Chiles en Nogada is a dish that's long been on my must-try list, so I was positively tickled when I discovered that my visit happened to coincide with its rather narrow season. Chiles en Nogada is a holiday dish, made to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, and it's typically served only during the month of August and the first half of September. Doubling my excitement was the fellow at the concierge desk, who not only informed me of this fact (I thought we had arrived too early), but told me that it's a specialty of Patricia Quintana. And while I've never tasted a version other than hers, if he's correct, this is indeed a signature dish to hang your hat on. The chile in question is a poblano, which is stuffed with a picadillo made of pork, a mixture of spices including a healthy dose of cinnamon, and a number of Pueblan fruits that usually includes apple, pear and peach. This filling is potent stuff, simultaneously fruity and meaty with a dizzying mix of spices, and the chile that houses it is in a perfect state of limbo, cooked enough to coax out a little sweetness and make it a little tender, while still maintaining much of the raw green flavor and a hint of its original body and crispness. The walnut cream sauce, more of a paste in Quintana's version, is sweet and nutty, almost like a savory frosting, and the entire package -- served cold, by the way -- is buried under a handful of pomegranate seeds and a bit of fresh parsley. I was, quite simply, blown away. It's such a stunning dish, so striking and unusual, so full of vibrant flavors and so flatly contrary to what most people in the States believe constitutes Mexican cuisine. It flirts the sweet and savory divide, it plays with your expectations of texture and temperature, it's all wrapped up in a package that symbolically represents the flag of the nation whose independence it's celebrating, and all intellectual appeal aside, it's freaking delicious. If a typical version is half as good as this one, it's not hard to see why this dish is considered a national treasure. This dish was magical.

Really, Patricia Quintana could have served me five courses of chips and salsa leading up to that dish, and I would have left happy. But if I try to set my joy over the Chile en Nogada aside for a moment, I understand why reviews of Izote are so mixed. We really ran the gamut of good and bad, and I can see how dish selection could cause you to leave walking on a cloud or wondering what the heck this woman did to earn so much acclaim. If I were to go back (though that could only be after some serious exploration of the rest of the city), I wouldn't want to do so without first doing some serious research into which dishes thrill people and which don't. Some people call Izote grossly overrated. Some people call it a don't miss. I'm not sure that I'm in either camp. That is, unless it's between August 1st and September 16th and the Chile en Nogada is on the menu. For those six weeks, "don't miss" doesn't begin to cover it.

Izote de Patricia Quintana
Av. Presidente Masaryk 513
Col. Polanco
11560 Mexico City
55 / 5282-3262
Mon - Sat	1:00 PM - 12:30 AM
Sun	1:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Top Chef - S6E4 Postmortem

Guess we have our first bummer of the season.

I have to say, as freaked out as I was about this quickfire, that turned out pretty darn well. I'm done doubting this crew. That whole thing about a chuckwagon in the desert heat and sand next week? *pfffffffffffft* They'll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. (maybe)

Definitely bummed to see Hector go. He's by far the most interesting Latin chef we've seen on the show, and I was really hoping he'd go deep. But you butcher beef like that in any season, much less this one, and you're done. And like they said, it doesn't help that in chateaubriand he essentially got the belt high fastball down the heart of the plate and still blew it.

I'm a little surprised the producers brought such a murderer's row of chefs this early in the season. I mean, how the hell do you raise the bar on Boulud, Joho, Keller, Tourondel and Robuchon?

Season six continues to be awesome. Here's hoping they don't blow the streak with what looks like a really stupid challenge next week.

Discuss!

Fisher's

Shrimp Broth	Dominic Armato

This isn't exactly how I wanted to see Mexico.

Don't misunderstand, I couldn't have been more thrilled to head down to Mexico City, especially since it's the first time I've left the country in over two years -- the longest stretch I've gone stateside, I believe, since I was twelve years old. But a mere 29 hours on the ground, most of that eaten by work, doesn't exactly leave much time for exploration and culinary pursuits.

While shuttling from meeting to meeting in a subcompact with the windows rolled down, my head would suddenly be filled with the dizzying aroma of charred meats and hot tortillas griddled on the comals of the makeshift outdoor markets that inhabit even the smallest patches of bare ground, only to lose the scent as we'd turn another dusty corner and ride on. The street food of Mexico City is legendary. I wanted nothing more than to hop out at the first stop light and stuff myself full of as much as I could get my hands on until our hosts -- wondering what kind of insanity had touched their guest's head -- could catch up to me and usher me back to the car. Of course, they took us out to lunch. But it was more of a tease than a taste.

	Cebiche de Camarón	Dominic Armato

Mariscos seemed an odd choice of culinary genre for the landlocked Distrito Federal, but I'm a sucker for fish of any fashion so I would have found it difficult to object even if I'd thought it appropriate. The venue, as it turned out, was a chain called Fisher's with a couple dozen locations as far-flung as Miami, all sleek and modern and looking about as Mexican as a California Pizza Kitchen. Even the obligatory shrimp mascot, with his jaunty cap, looked unusually clean cut. But I've said before that I'm not anti-chain, just anti-junk, and anyplace that sends around carafes of soup before your napkin has even hit your lap is off on the right foot with me. They hand you a small glass and fill it with a heady, spiced shrimp broth and instruct you to squeeze in a little fresh lime from the pile in the center of the table before sipping as you peruse the menu. Take back the menu, leave the carafe and I'll consider myself a winner. Sadly, with a vocabulary limited to menu Spanish and whatever Sesame Street had taught me, I lacked the linguistic skills to pull off such a request with the wit necessary to make it anything less than grossly awkward. The menu would have to do.

Coctel de Pulpo	Dominic Armato

Stuck on shrimp after our soupy amuse, I started with a shrimp ceviche that found fresh, sweet shrimp in a very, very light liquid along with avocado, fried tortilla strips and diced green olives. It was surprisingly light, which is the polite way of saying it lacked oomph. Its freshness made it enjoyable, but my interest waned midway through the plate. My traveling companion fared far better with his cold seafood variant, scoring an octopus cocktail with chunks of cold seafood, onions, cilantro, avocado and the usual ketchupy sauce, but this one I found exceptional. Partly due to the fact that it wasn't a total ketchupy mess and partly due to the smoky dried chile flavor in the background that left a slow, lingering burn after each bite, it was one of the better versions of the genre I've tasted, and probably my favorite item of the day.

	Camarones a la Diabla	Dominic Armato

I scored only a fleeting taste of the Camarones a la Diabla, served hot in an earthenware bowl that reflected the earthiness of the dried chiles inside. It was intense stuff that cried out for acid -- which, come to think of it, was provided right there on the table. But with or without lime, I still thought it could have used a little more depth of flavor. I was completely unable to resist the Huachinango al Mojo de Ajo, even if it wasn't quite what I expected. The problem, I think, was my expectations and not its preparation. Where I anticipated a sauce to top my fried snapper, what I received was a pile of crumbly, fried garlic and a small side of mayonnaise. Not at all unwelcome, and for all I know entirely traditional, but not what I expected. I enjoyed it, even if I felt it was in need of some lubrication other than mayonnaise. It was fresh and crisply fried and whilst sucking the bones and seeking ever last morsel of flesh that I could extract from the beast, I looked up to see that my compatriots' plates had not only been cleaned but cleared as well. I was, indeed, too intent on my fish to notice.

Huachinango al Mojo de Ajo	Dominic Armato

But while the meal presented some enjoyable plates, I couldn't help but feel as though I was getting Mexican Lite -- a sanitized, gringo-friendly version of what I might find elsewhere in the city. I've no doubt Fisher's thrives on local clientele, but everything was a little too clean, a little too clinical, a little too... underpowered. Blindfold me, and it still felt like a chain, with very precise dishes that lacked oomph. And while this is a chain I'd be all too happy to have at home -- especially with its monstrous 100+ item menu covering just about every manner of Mexican seafood I could want -- I couldn't help but feel that this wasn't exactly representative of the nation's mariscos, but rather a sanitized, tourist-safe place that only hinted at what was waiting for me if I'd only hopped out of the car and took off running. Maybe next time.

Fisher's

www.fishers.com.mx

Horacio No. 232, esq. Taine

Chapultepec Morales

Deleg. Miguel Hidalgo

Mexico, D.F., C.P. 11570

55 31 62 86

55 31 05 67

Top Chef - S6E3 Power Rankings

PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING!!!
There's a lot of sneaky intel out there, but I'm endeavoring to keep this blog a spoiler-free zone. This isn't just for the readers, but for me, too -- I don't want to know what happens! As such, anything that's already been broadcast or has been posted on the official Bravo site is fair game for discussion. I will, for example, discuss the preview of next week's show at the end of the post. But if you've heard rumors that one chef has been hosting a lot of dinner parties, or that another chef was spotted boarding a plane to an exotic locale, please keep them to yourself... thanks!

Okay, it's official. I'm in love with the season six cast. The "we're going to drop you into an absurd pseudo-kitchen" challenge is a mainstay of Top Chef that I've come to accept as a frustrating necessity of the reality genre when I'm feeling charitable, and an infuriating annoyance when I'm not. At best, it's always been a wasted episode, IMHO. So what does the season six cast do? They rock the house, mostly turn out a great meal and actually make the process of watching them prepare it entertaining. These guys can't even crash and burn when they're supposed to.

So, yeah, couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised with the episode. And with that, plus an apology, I'm going to jump right into this week's rankings. I left for Seattle on Thursday and just returned early this morning, and as evidence of how busy the trip was, I'll merely point out that I was staying half a mile from Branzino (where Ashley is cooking) and didn't manage to get there. So I'm a little short on time for extensive editorializing this week. But I wanted to at least get the rankings up on Tuesday morning so there's some time for discussion.

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Michael V. Quickfires 1 1 0 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 1 2 0 I imagine there are many who feel that Jennifer's performance as Executive Chef should have earned her the nod, and we'll get to that, but I still can't justify kicking a guy out of the top spot for winning the elimination and getting the chefs to fawn over his dish like they did. His QF didn't make top, seemingly due to a slightly undercooked potato. But it's a slick-looking dish with kind of a Japanese feel that otherwise earned some nice praise. As for his elimination, I'm a little surprised that Colicchio seemed so floored by the idea of braising slab bacon. Seems like a natural line of thought given the ubiquity of braised pork belly, even if trying it with a cured rather than fresh product was a little risky. But even setting that aside, the judges just completely fawned over his flavors and there's no denying that he managed to put together a surprisingly composed-looking dish coming out of that kind of a kitchen. So he hangs onto the top spot...

2 Jennifer N. Quickfires 2 3 0 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 0 1 0 ...just barely. It's still early, but this is really looking like it could be a see-saw battle for the top spot the whole way. Put me squarely in the camp that thinks Jennifer deserved to stand up with the top group. In the end, it's a cooking challenge and the decision not to let her touch any food was outside of the box a little, so I could understand the judges not wanting to give her a win. But it certainly appears that she contributed as much as if not more than anybody else in the field, and it would have been nice to see her get an official shout-out. Though we know Tom did a walkthrough of the kitchen from some of the bonus video, we don't know how much of her organizational acumen he saw, so that may have contributed to the decision. Also, it's possible that the judges chose not to recognize the unofficial restructuring of the challenge that went on between the chefs, but more on that later. Before the elimination, she pulled down a quickfire win with a really elegant dish that, as Mark Peel noted, seemed almost classically French. Though it did work in some Asian flavors in the form of ginger and lemongrass. A silky-smooth potato sauce with Asian aromatics, duck fat, mussels and white wine? This recipe sings to me. I've not the least bit of doubt that it's a big winner. Oh, and for those keeping score, Jennifer's now made five consecutive seafood dishes. This can't go on much longer, can it?

3 Kevin Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 1 2 0 Even when he isn't winning or getting top mention, Kevin's food always looks good to me. Take his quickfire dish. It didn't receive any official notice from Peel. But you can't tell me that yam braised with bacon, thyme, lemon, demi-glace, tarragon and garlic that's then placed atop a yukon gold, cauliflower and duck fat sauce and served with cauliflower, asparagus and mushrooms doesn't sound fantastic. And the braised pork shoulder for which it appears he was primarily responsible missed out on an elimination win only because the judges were busy making lovey eyes with Michael V. Almost as important as the fact that he's made a habit of being at or near the top? The fact that he hasn't stumbled even the slightest bit. If I have to put my money on one person not to win, but just to make the finals? Right now I put it on Kevin.

4 Bryan Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 1 1 0 Not the slightest bit of movement in the top four. Exciting, I know. Unlike Kevin, Bryan seems like a bit of a riskier proposition so far, but his mistakes haven't been crippling and he's hit some soaring heights, so I'm keeping him right on the edge of what I consider the top tier right now. His creative take on vichyssoise, with parsnips, sunchokes, smoked salmon roe and fennel pollen earned some positive words if not top mention, ditto his elimination collaboration with Mattin, even if their strip loin with mushroom demi-glace and cauliflower gratin was kind of a snoozer. Basically, I see no reason to move him up or down this week.

5 Eli Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 0 2 0 Sneaking into the top of the second tier, a little surprisingly (even to me), is Eli. He had a little stumble with what Peel considered an overly-sweet quickfire (even if I'm intrigued by the fact that his yam puree contained ras el hanout and cilantro), but this is his second straight with top mention and all kinds of praise for his elimination dish, and I think he's earned his way to the top of the MOTP'ers. What's more, I like how he's earned his way to the top going both wacky and simple. His tuna tartare last week was kind of all over the map flavor-wise, and yet he made it work. While this week, his potato salad was nothing more than potatoes, onions, celery, hard-boiled eggs, mayo, mustard, vinegar, relish and sour cream. He's shown he can succeed by throwing some wild flavors, and he's shown he can succeed by dialing it back and making a simple classic something special. Even if his wonkier concoctions will get him into trouble now and again, I think this bodes well for him.

6 Hector Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 0 1 1 This week, Hector treads water. He doesn't pull down any mention, but I like the way he thinks. That potato trio in the quickfire had a couple of cool elements, most notably the sweet potato. It did make me think of Peruvian ceviche, and I like that he kind of turned convention on its head by flipping the dominant ingredient, braising the potato in fish sauce, soy, aji mirasol and garlic before topping with a touch of cilantro and fresh lime. As for the chili, it's impossible to say to what degree he or Robin was driving, but it looks like a pretty decent dish and Gail called it out as an unheralded success in her blog, so we know he continues to do good work since his little slip-up in episode one.

7 Ashley Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 0 1 Meanwhile, Ashley gives me the excuse I need to get her a little closer to where I suspect she really belongs. That gnocchi was an ambitious little quickfire dish, and not because it was gnocchi. While I don't particularly want to try it, 45 minutes doesn't strike me as unreasonable. But the rest of the dish didn't receive short shrift, including sautéed mushrooms, an arugula cream, freshly-made ricotta (not as daring as it sounds, but still impressive), and fried garlic chips. Now that's a lot to get done in 45 minutes, and she did it in top mention style despite losing her water to Preeti. The bread pudding she made with Ash -- well, it was bread pudding. But it was under difficult circumstances and it did the job. Let's just say that it's on the basis of the quickfire that she's a mover this week.

8 Michael I. Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 1 1 Michael continues to slide since his strong start, and even though I bet he comes back strong sooner rather than later, this week's near elimination drops him a few more notches. It's too bad his quickfire dish -- the potato "risotto" with peas, mint, lemon, mascarpone and crab -- didn't quite come together, because it looks like it has a lot of potential. That Greek shrimp salad, though? I'm of the opinion that he deserved every bit of abuse he got for a couple of reasons. First, there's much talk -- including from Mike V. himself -- that they were a team and they should have risen or fallen as a team. I say nuh-uh. The idea to split the field into teams of two was a great organizational idea, but that wasn't among the challenge's parameters. As far as I can see, Mike and Mike were a team in name only, completely parting ways in the kitchen and each doing his own dish, and as far as I'm concerned they should have been judged as such. Imagine you're judging and you have two contestants in an individual challenge who worked on their own dishes but say they should be judged as a unit simply because they declared themselves a team. Does it seem right to spare one of them the axe simply because of a completely arbitrary self-imposed designation that had nothing to do with the challenge's parameters? When we're down to five contestants, can two of them declare themselves teammates and both go to the finals if either one of them makes a great dish? It'd be stupid then, and it's no less stupid now just because the field is larger. It'd be different if they'd been assigned as teammates and the challenge was meant to involve division of responsibilities, or even if they'd actually worked on both dishes together, but as it stands, saying that Mike I. deserves credit for the "team's" pork belly is simply skirting responsibility for putting out a bad dish. As soon as they discovered that Mike I. was solely responsible for the salad and hadn't actually worked on the pork belly as they'd been led to believe, I think they did exactly the right thing by ignoring that "team" designation and judging Mike I. for what he actually cooked. And he's lucky he didn't get sent home for it. It's almost as uninspired as the pasta salad, and blowing off a "throwaway" dish simply because your "teammate" has your back with a good dish is cheap, cheap, cheap. He absolutely should have been called on it, and I'm glad the judges did it.

9 Robin Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 0 0 0 And with the ninth position, we leave the MOTP'ers and enter limbo. Robin is now the only contestant who hasn't received top or bottom mention for a single one of her dishes, so it only seems appropriate that she's almost exactly in the dead center of the rankings, but that's not why I have her here. She's actually put together some nice looking food, including this week's rustic potato hash (with champagne vinaigrette, pancetta lardons, frisee, fennel and fried egg) and her chili collaboration with Hector, but she still hasn't made a splash of any kind. Granted, that's tricky in this field. But as solid as she seems to be, it's hard to put her any higher unless she stands out somewhere. In any other season, I suspect she'd be near the top of the MOTP'ers. This season, however, she's still in hiding.

10 Ash Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 0 0 Ash, on the other hand, actually has made a small splash, but on the balance his dishes have looked less impressive to me than Robin's, so I'm exercising a little rankings discretion and keeping him one notch below her. If you want to know what I think of Ash passing off his failed ice cream as a custard, you need only know that my dessert for Iron Chef Peach -- which the judges loved -- was billed as Vanilla Lacquered Peach with Coconut Rum "Ice"... and for fear of incriminating myself, that's all I'm going to say about that. There's an important lesson there, though. If something doesn't quite turn out right, don't stammer, turn beet red and apologize. Sell it, baby. In any case, flub or no flub, it looks like a great dish, the sweet potatoes being scented with sage, cinnamon and star anise. I'm sure it didn't need to fully freeze to taste delicious. Then he makes a simple bread pudding with Ashley and, like Robin, we're still waiting for him to make a move up or down.

11 Ron Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 8 Eliminations 0 1 0 As with Ashley, I'm going to take some minor indicators as an excuse to put Ron closer to where I think he belongs. He has not given us anything noteworthy since his first dish of the competition, and today he makes one mediocre dish and one questionable (if tasty) call. The left half of his plate was, quite literally, nothing more than yellowtail, sweet potato, salt and pepper. That just isn't going to fly, and Peel called him on it. And though Ron thanked him for the portion of the dish he said he liked, when the judge identifies your vegetable on the side as his favorite part of the dish, that isn't a good thing. A totally flat and uninspired quickfire. It sounds like the clam chowder was well-prepared, but it's totally conventional and I, too, question the wisdom of serving that dish on a hot day. I thought it before Gail said it. It's not the dish's heat that's the problem. It's the cream.

12 Mattin Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 13 Eliminations 0 0 0 It's been said that Bryan identifying Mattin as "a solid cook" is a mark in his favor, but I say the opposite. If that's the best compliment Bryan can muster, I believe he just made my case for Mattin as embodying uninspired competence, and uninspired competence doesn't get you far in this crowd. His quickfire was, as Mark Peel noted, rather pretty. But it was cod poached in fish stock and set atop a red pepper puree with a few quenelles of plain mashed potatoes. That dish needs some interest that it just isn't getting. And then he was part of team filet in the elimination challenge, and I wasn't particularly thrilled to see Bryan working on that dish, much less Mattin, who hasn't shown anything the least bit interesting yet. As long as he doesn't screw up he might hang in there for a few more shows, but the neckerchief's days are numbered. I feel like my preseason prediction of midseason hanger-on is looking just about right at this point.

13 Laurine Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 12 Eliminations 0 0 1 I actually feel better (though not that much) about Laurine than I do about Mattine, but there's no forgiving that pasta salad and I have to ding her for it. If not for that, I'd probably have Laurine in limbo with Robin and Ash (though still below both of them). Though she hasn't gotten any attention, she's put together a couple of interesting dishes. I think she has some upside. Not that much, but it's there. We'll have to wait and see if she gets to show it before she's squeezed out by stronger competition.

14 Jesse Quickfires 0 1 2 Last Week: 14 Eliminations 0 0 2 I still think Jesse has shown more potential than Laurine, Mattin, Ron and maaaaaaaybe even Ash, but she just isn't getting it together. For those who referenced Stephanie's shaky start in season four, I'd like to point out that she'd won two elimination challenges by the end of episode three. I'm not so sure it's an apt comparison. I do agree that Jesse could make a move if she'd quit shooting herself in the foot. I'd love to comment on her quickfire soup, but something's clearly amiss with the recipe. Her "Sweet Potato Soup with Ginger, Brown Sugar, and Cayenne Pepper" officially contains neither ginger nor brown sugar. And I think she was riding the chowder champion's coattails in the elimination. So this opinion isn't based on this week's performance so much as what we've seen before and the fact that I keep hearing good things about her restaurant from friends back in Baltimore. But for the third week in a row, she was fortunate to skate by. If she can't turn it around and ends up in the same zip code as the chopping block next week, she's gone.

15 Preeti Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 15 Eliminations 0 0 2 As bad as Mike I's shrimp salad looked, you don't make a pasta salad like Preeti and Laurine did and survive. Let's review: farfalle, canned artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, onion, sun-dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning(!), broccoli florets, vinegar, dijon, honey, olive oil, lemon juice. Seriously?!? I can't say it any better than a friend of mine did over at LTHForum: "That pasta salad looks like a nice dish....if you want to be executive chef of the Whole Foods deli counter." And if anything, I think that's being kind. Really, when it comes down to it, Laurine was saved by her shame, while Preeti made the mistake of having none. Sending out a dish like that is borderline insulting. Even if you aren't convinced that pasta salad is a bad idea in the first place, you're competing in Top Chef and you couldn't do SOMEthing to make it look like it didn't come out of Cooking Light magazine? It somehow seems appropriate that Preeti seemed so obsessed with color in her dishes, as though she was more concerned with appearances than she was with creativity or flavor. It's also notable that we just NOW discover she's a recent culinary school grad. She says in this episode that 9/11 is what drove her to cook -- that she enrolled in culinary school "a few years" later. The program she did couldn't have been less than two years. By my rough count, that means she wasn't working in the field any earlier than late 2006 or early 2007, which would mean she's barely two years out of culinary school, which explains a lot. My feeling is that we didn't miss much by losing Preeti early on.

I'm not so sure we're going to be saying the same thing at the end of next week, though...

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE FOUR SPOILERS AHEAD

Daniel Boulud and Joel Robuchon in the same episode this early in the season? Yipes. No pressure, guys. Though I suppose it's good that at the very least they'll be judged by some serious chefs, because the structure of next week's challenges is downright frightening. Let's be absolutely clear about what's going to happen in next week's quickfire. Somebody is going home for how they handle snails. Now, I have nothing against snails. I dig escargot. I love abalone, and that's nothing more than a big ol' sea snail. But they're touchy little buggers, and really, who spends time cooking snails? I was already girding for a double elimination. With so little chaff left, it was almost assured that somebody promising -- one of the MOTP'ers who's done some neat stuff -- would be going home. But an elimination quickfire with snails as the protein? Nobody's safe. Except maybe Mattin, of all people. And all I know is that in the elimination preview video, I'm seeing an awful lot of chaff and NONE of this week's top three.

I have a very bad feeling about episode four.

Discuss!

Laiola

Rosemary Toasted Almonds	Dominic Armato

And now, some really excellent tapas.

I actually first hit Laiola back in January. I was in town to do some work with an old friend I hadn't seen in about ten years, and after knocking off work on my first day in town, discussion turned to where the crowd should go for some good wine and eats. Walkable, small plates, good Spanish wine -- everybody seemed to feel that Laiola fit the bill perfectly. The result? A dynamite meal. One of the best I'd had in some time. And here I was without a camera. No writeup for the blog. A tragedy.

I spent the next few months wondering if my enthusiasm for the place had been... enhanced... by the liberal amounts of wine that were flowing that evening. You know how it is. Hit just the right level of inebriation and suddenly everything tastes awesome. So when I was back in town a couple of weeks ago and was looking for a spot to grab dinner with another old friend, Laiola was the first place I thought of. I even warned her. I don't THINK it was the wine, but provided it wasn't, you're in for a great meal.

It wasn't the wine.

	Chickpea Croquetas	Dominic Armato

Laiola can lend the wrong impression at the outset, at least to chow nerds who pride themselves on digging out the hidden gems. It's Spanish small plates, it's a wine bar, it's kinda dark, it's kinda hip, they play great alternative tunes -- in other words, on first blush it'd be easy to mistake it for one of the hordes of restaurants that are cynically trying to capture the young and moneyed crowd with whatever cuisine happens to be trendy at the moment. And yes, to some degree they're doing the same thing that everybody else is right now. They're just doing it exceptionally well. I don't give a damn if it's trendy. Laiola served me some of the purest, most explosive flavors I've had all year.

Heirloom Tomato "Tomàquet"	Dominic Armato

The menu isn't straight-up traditional, but it also isn't going off in crazy directions simply for the sake of being different. They take a very thoughtful approach to Spanish-influenced small plates, working locally-available product into dishes that evoke the mother country. We started off with a bang, ordering one of the dishes that had made a major impression on me six months prior. The chickpea croquetas arrive, playfully arranged like mozzarella sticks stacked by a Lincoln Logs enthusiast, with a dollop of olive aioli casually plopped down on the side. They're pure, intense chickpea through and through, but the joy is in the texture, a baton with a light and crispy fried shell that encases a puree so smooth that it's almost like a volcanic, molten chickpea core. The first taste tells you that you should really let them cool a bit lest you risk injury, but you charge ahead and scald yourself anyway.

	Basque Pepper Shrimp	Dominic Armato

It being mid-August and all, we felt it would have been irresponsible not to order something with fresh tomatoes, so we fulfilled the obligation by going with the heirloom tomato tomàquet. It was little more than some heavily toasted, crusty bread topped with three massive slabs of tomato, olive oil, a touch of vinegar, shallot and fresh oregano. The tomatoes were absolutely stunning, and the kitchen was smart enough to send them out mostly unadulterated. Half the battle is knowing when to do less, and here they hit it on the head. Another relatively simple dish was the Basque pepper shrimp, essentially gambas al ajillo that included ribbons of the sweet and ever so slightly spicy piquillo peppers so popular in the Basque region. The shrimp were beautifully tender and sweet, and the oil avoided the acrid pungency that is too often a hallmark of the dish, instead achieving a mellow but no less garlicky depth of flavor that made it unusually compelling.

Grilled Baby Octopus	Dominic Armato

The grilled baby octopus made for a lovely little plate, with charred tentacles reaching up from a chaotically colorful pile of tomatoes, peppers and beans, all dressed with olive oil saturated with minced fresh herbs. (Basil and mint, perhaps? I was too busy enjoying it to pay careful attention.) In a rare moment of merely very good, I thought the octopi could have used a little more oomph -- of what nature I'm not certain. But they were perfectly tender with just enough char to bring some fire to the plate, and the focus of the dish, intentionally or otherwise, was the vegetables anyway, bright and crisp and tasting of sunshine.

	Fried Padrón Peppers	Dominic Armato

The simplest and yet one of the most enjoyable dishes of the evening was a pile of padrón peppers, which as far as I can tell had simply been fried and sprinkled with salt. Eating padrón peppers, apparently, is kind of like playing Russian roulette. Spanish roulette. Spanish Russian roulette, whatever. In any case, the peppers are mostly mild, a touch sweet and very green, reminiscent of a poblano to me. But your plate is strewn with little incognito firecrackers that are inexplicably far spicier than their brethren. Our server explained that this was not a freak occurrence, but rather one of the pepper's most endearing characteristics. Eating them was a bit of a game -- oh, that's nice... delicious... tasty... Woo! There's a hot one! But novelty aside, they really were delightful, possessing an almost snack-like quality that could motivate you to tear through a plate four times its size. The only potential knock is that they could have used a bit more salt, but that's being unkind. Besides which, I could have simply asked for some, but I was enjoying them too much to bother.

Pimentón Spiced Potatoes	Dominic Armato

The pimentón spiced potatoes, not a favorite of the evening but entirely worthy, were described as sort of like patatas bravas, but that doesn't really give you the angle. "One-note" may be a derogatory term when talking food, but here I'm not so sure it isn't a compliment. The note in question was pimentón, the smoky ground hot pepper which absolutely dominated the dish in almost every possible way. Potato wedges were fried and liberally dredged in the stuff, then served with an aioli that had been flavored with the same. Where the padrón peppers were spicy, green and vegetal, the potatoes brought a different kind of heat, smoky and earthy, spicy with both a hit of heat up front and a smoldering tail on the back end. Sophisticated, no, but very bold and rather enjoyable.

	Grilled Nectarines	Dominic Armato

It was at this point that we very nearly called it quits, and this turned out to be a close call. Feeling as though we wanted to try one more dish, not wanting a full savory item but not wanting to do dessert either, I spied an item on the menu that looked as though it might possess some of that end-of-meal vibe without having to go full-on sweets. This turned out to be one of my favorite dishes of the year. We received a nectarine, halved and grilled hot enough to get some blackened char on the face and soften the edges while still leaving the center fairly fresh. The well left by the missing pit was filled with a sherry and tarragon vinaigrette that had been sweetened with a touch of honey, and the fruit was paired with a nearly fist-sized scoop of a house-made goat cheese that had the characteristic pungency of a chèvre but much smoother and milder, and an impossibly light and fluffy texture -- almost as much air as cheese -- reminiscent of the kind of fresh ricotta you get in Italy when it's no more than a few hours old. Total showstopper, and I couldn't have wished for a better finish to the meal -- or any meal, really.

On Wednesday, I wrote about Iluna Basque, where everything seemed technically correct, but nothing had any pop. And I wasn't looking for a lesson in contrasts, but one found me. Laiola is everything Iluna Basque is not, where the flavors are big and vibrant and the ingredients are alive, no matter how simply prepared they may be. This kitchen has a great touch, squeezing every bit of flavor out of what they're working with and doing so with little touches here and there that make the dishes theirs. Who knows, I'm probably setting impossibly high expectations. But the fact remains that two of the best meals I've had over the past year have both been at Laiola, and I look forward to the third, whenever that may be.

Laiola
www.laiola.com
2031 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-346-5641
Sun - Thu	5:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Fri - Sat	5:00 PM - 11:00 PM

Top Chef - S6E3 Postmortem

"Pasta salad? Ohhhh, boy."
"Why 'oh boy'?"
"Nobody's impressed by pasta salad."

Especially when it's farfalle with broccoli, artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes. The centerpiece of every family picnic and pot luck meal you've ever been to. Oy.

So, Preeti's inability to grasp her mediocrity gets her the axe and we lose another bottom-of-the-rankings cheftestant (No, I do not expect this streak to continue). And Michael I. is a lucky, lucky man.

Speaking of which, how cool was that? I'm trying to decide whether to give him both a top AND a bottom on Monday, or treat it as though the bottom supplants the top. Well... not really trying to decide. But it's a fun question for a Top Chef first, anyway.

Meanwhile, Michael V. and Jennifer rock. *yawn*

Actually, the most impressive part of Jennifer's week was kicking ass and taking names in the kitchen. Freaking sweet.

And I have to say, for an episode that I was convinced was going to be one of those survival train wreck episodes, was that not a really impressive performance by the entire cast? I mean, seriously. No freaking out, no epic disasters... everybody just got it done, and for the most part they did it well. This season is seriously a joy to watch. They can't even flounder when they're supposed to.

Gotta get ready for a trip tomorrow... I'll save the rest for Monday.

Discuss!

Top Oddsmaker

So I'm clicking through some referral traffic, which I do (obsessively), and I come across this:

Top Chef Vegas Odds

So let me get this straight... I can win money handicapping Top Chef and NOBODY TOLD ME?!?!?

Look at my preseason and current top four (coincidentally, now Vegas' top four):

	Opening Line	Current
Michael V.	11/1	7/2
Jennifer C.	20/1	9/2
Kevin	8/1	5/1
Bryan	15/1	6/1

$100 on each at the outset of the season, and a win from any of the four would have earned me anywhere from $800 to $2000.

That's it. I'm going to Vegas before next season starts.

UPDATE : Ah, it's purely promotional (Wynn's Bookmaker Sets Odds On Top Chef Las Vegas Contestants). You're all off the hook. And my get rich quick scheme is dashed. (Thanks, Dave)

Iluna Basque

Prawns Cazuela	Dominic Armato

With this post, I may have doomed Mattin Noblia.

Only once before have I posted about a Top Chef contestant's restaurant, and she was eliminated that very night. Now, I'm not generally one to suggest that I wield such power -- especially since, y'know, the shows were taped months ago -- and yet, cosmic coincidences such as this cannot be ignored. Having spent so much time writing about it, clearly my connection to the show has crossed into the metaphysical realm. As you watch tonight's episode, do so with a mindful eye turned towards the Frenchman in the jaunty red neckerchief.

	Piquillo Peppers with Bacalao	Dominic Armato

Actually, "Frenchman" isn't really specific enough. Mattin is Basque, meaning that he hails from the Basque Region, a little crook in the neck of France where she meets Spain along the Atlantic ocean. It's a region known for its unique culture... about which I know very little, and as such I will avoid pretending that I do. But what I do know is that the French food of the Basque Region is heavily influenced by nearby Spain, often appearing more Spanish than French. This was the food of Noblia's youth, and after training in France, he came to the U.S. and opened his restaurant at an absurdly young age (23), and it remains open six years later, still in the same location in San Francisco's North Beach -- no small feat.

Shaved Potatoes with Herbs & Vinegar	Dominic Armato

So about a month and a half ago, when an old friend and I had the good forture to be in San Francisco at the same time, we decided it would be fun to do a little Top Chef scouting before the season started. Upon our arrival, it was immediately evident that Noblia can't be accused of gilding the lily. What he's opened is a small neighborhood wine and tapas bar, where most of the food comes on small plates and seems more influenced by his jaunts across the Spanish border while growing up. In many ways, this is rather refreshing. In a culinary world where so many young hotshots are trying to reinvent the wheel and... oh, gosh... trying out for cooking reality shows, it's kind of nice to hear that a 23-year-old started his career by keeping things simple. Mmmmmmm, perhaps a little too simple.

	Stuffed Calamari in Ink Sauce	Dominic Armato

We started by going straight to the piquillo peppers. Piquillo peppers are a specialty of the region. They're mostly sweet, just a touch spicy, fire engine red and seemingly in just about everything. Here, they were stuffed with sort of a bacalao brandade, and doused with a simple tomato sauce. The peppers were sweet, the fish was creamy, the tomatoes were fine... it was a good dish. And this would quickly become the theme for the evening. Up next were a pile of fried potatoes, cut thin and wide like popsicle sticks, doused in vinegar and salt, topped with crispy fried basil and served with a dipping sauce the nature of which I'm embarrassed I can't recall. There really wasn't enough of the basil to make an impact, and the sauce was smooth and creamy and a lovely complement, but the potatoes were fine. Not too crisp, but fresh, and made tart by what I assume was a splash of sherry vinegar. It was a good dish.

Shrimp and Potato Croquetas	Dominic Armato

Our next dish broke through the, "hey, it's okay" barrier, which is good because Noblia had listed it in his Top Chef bio as a specialty. Calamari are stuffed with shrimp, seared and served over spanish rice that's doused in a creamy squid ink sauce and topped in... surprise... piquillo peppers. Ours was positively volcanic when it arrived. Those bubbles you see may have been frozen in time by the camera, but they looked like a science experiment to the naked eye. This was a big flavor dish with very forward seafood flavor, only enhanced by the creamy, sweet and every so slightly grungy squid ink sauce, for which I'm always a sucker. A very good dish.

	Mussels with Parsley & Garlic Butter	Dominic Armato

Bringing us back down to our previous level of quiet restraint were the prawns cazuela, sweet and fresh and cooked in a lightly curried sauce, and I enjoyed them before taking a left turn into the mundane. I'd completely forgotten that we tried the shrimp and potato croquetas before discovering the photo this weekend, and now that I see them, I have absolutely no memory of consuming them, which means they must not have been particularly good or particularly bad. Mussels with parsley and garlic butter were similarly vanilla (figuratively, not literally), looking and tasting like every order of Escargots Bourguignons you've ever tried, but featuring a tender mussel in the center of every bite rather than a chewy snail.

Basque Pizza	Dominic Armato

The Basque pizza was downright mediocre, placing serrano ham and pungent etorki cheese atop an insipid little piece of bread that had the soul of something prepackaged. This was, to Noblia's credit, the only dish that was downright unfortunate. And though we had no business tasting even one more bite, we decided to finish the meal with another of his stated specialties, boudin noir with caramelized apples. The boudin noir was rather enjoyable, rich and dark and a little funky. And the hot, sweet, gooey caramelized apples made a great pair, only I could have used fewer of them. More sausage, less apple makes this a better dish. But the depth of the boudin noir made it one of the evening's better offerings.

	Boudin Noir with Caramelized Apples	Dominic Armato

Iluna Basque really did remind me of dining in Spain. It's been a while, but I remember that leisurely pace, sitting on the sidewalk, having a drink and getting a little bit to eat. North Beach, with its Italian population, even has a very European vibe to it in the summertime, which I've no doubt is partly what attracted Noblia to it. The problem is that while I wouldn't hesitate to drop in for a drink and a bite if I were in the neighborhood and looking to relax and waste some time, the food just isn't of a nature that would compel me to drive across town... or very far at all, really. It's almost all good. With the exception of the pizza, I couldn't fault it. But calamari aside, all of our dinner was ultimately forgettable, as evidenced by the fact that I even managed to forget about some of it in the ensuing month and a half. These weren't incredibly fresh, bold, big explosive flavors served on small plates. They were all... fine. And I don't mean to suggest for a moment that there's anything the least bit wrong with straight-up traditional tapas. I like that Noblia has created a casual little Euro-style neighborhood joint where you can get a glass of inexpensive wine and a decent bite to eat. But the truth is that for whatever reason, the flavors just didn't sing like they do at a great tapas place, and without exceptional flavor or some creative interest to hang my hat on, I just don't feel the least bit compelled in any way to return. Unless Noblia is stealthily capable of much more, I daresay the Top Chef judges will feel the same way after a few episodes.

Iluna Basque
www.ilunabasque.com
701 Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-402-0011
Sun - Thu	5:30 PM - 10:30 PM
Fri - Sat	5:30 PM - 11:30 PM