Top Chef Charleston: Shrimp Boats and Hat Ladies

This week we start out going trawling for shrimp. The chefs are all worried about getting sea sick. I am loving all the pelicans. We didn’t get to see nearly enough of the shrimp boat. After no more than two minutes of boat fun, we are back to the dock for an outdoor quickfire. Any guesses what they are making?

It’s a sudden death quickfire. The bottom three will fight to stay in a second challenge. As soon as Tesar opens his mouth to say seafood salad ceviche style, I feel like he is going home. That was before he said he was going to make it extra spicy for Padama.  Sylva tries to use his forty dollar knife as a can opener. Bad idea. Shirley is fighting to keep her motion sickness pills down.  Sheldon is looking for the roe shrimp, He just needs to perfect ones for the judges.  Brooke is making clarified shrimp butter. After almost going home for the lack of three grains of salt last week, Casey is going for bold tropical flavors this time.

This judging is do or die. There are not many more days until the winner of Top Chef is crowned. There is not time left for mistakes.

Casey makes a cold grilled shrimp dish with lots of tropical fruit. Looks good to me. Sylva marinated his shrimp in spicy togarashi and orange juice and served it in coconut broth. Yum. This show always makes me hungry. It was very spicy and there may have been too many ingredients in the dish.  Shirley’s garlic shrimp with sea bean looks gross. The presentation was awful. Just brown blobs on a plate. She will be in the quickfire.  Brooke’s fried shrimp with clarified butter and a vinaigrette. It looks good to me but Padma asks what makes the sauce so sweet.  Sheldon served each of the judges a single roe fish that was poached them and put them on the hibachi with pine branches. Tesar’s ceviche is way too spicy. He will be going to the sudden death match.

Sheldon wins the  quickfire with his piney shrimps!  The bottom three are Casey, Shirley and Sylva. NO! Not Sylva!  Why does Tesar always seem to slide by?  Tom says that Casey’s dish as too salty. Casey can not win for losing with the salt. Sylva’s dish was also too salty. Shirley’s dish was just bad.

They have to make a dish with some of the by fish they caught today. That’s the fish that is good to eat, but isn’t what they were trying to catch. It’s only  30 minute challenge and everything is on the line. I do not want Sylva to go home! Casey and Shirley both pulled out some squid. Casey’s is tuff and she is wondering if Shirley’s is too. This is good news for Sylva!

Tom and Padma taste both squid dishes. Shirley’s looked and sounded better to me. Sylva used my favorite fish, red fish. He wins with me for that alone. add in some tarragon butter, red cabbage with fish sauce and champagne vinegar and I say he wins. His plating is lovely. I love me some red fish. I’m probably responsible for those years that they were over fished. Sorry. But they are back again now!

Casey goes home for chewy squid. I’m so glad that Sylva stayed. Long cry scene while Casey packs her knives.

The guy who invented the cronut is there to judge the chef’s brunch’s brunch dishes. And they need to be me mashups just like the cronut is kind of a croissant and also part donut.  YIKES. This sounds challenging.  Colicchio  says he used to serve a foisgraswaffle. I’m not sure how I feel about that. The chefs have $400 to spend at Whole Foods with literally no time to ponder an idea. This seems unreasonable.

Sylva comes up with an arctic char fritatta. Shirley is doing a dim sum with American breakfast food. Tesar is making octopus hash.

Shirley is making dumplings filled with cheeseburger filling to order for each diner. Sheldon is making chicken and waffles, only the chicken IS the waffle. Yeah, I don’t quite get it yet either. And he had a scene about missing his family just before this one. I’m just saying. Oh my. He is also using prepacked frozen waffles as a crumble. It’s been nice knowing you Sheldon. Brooke doesn’t seem to know what she is doing. It’s some sort of a yogurt parfait that has broth inside? It makes no sense to me at all.

The chefs are feeding a bunch of “hat ladies.” The south is full of women who wear fancy hats, particularly to church and definitely on Easter Sunday. There is also a volunteer group in Charleston made up of hat ladies who volunteer in the community. The service happens in waves of 20. Sylva’s egg dishes didn’t have time to cook so he didn’t serve the first twenty dishes. Dammit!

Up first is Shirley’s cheeseburger dumpling. Most of the judges like it. Tom said the meat was dry. Next the judges try Sheldon’s dish, which is no longer a fritatta but an egg scramble with salmon on top. It doesn’t go well. Brooke’s weird yogurt thing looks pretty but sounds gross. The judges are underwhelmed. Tesar’s octopus has now has a kim chi garnish. It sounds disgusting. The judges say that the best part of a hash is the crispiness. His is mushy. There is hope for Sylva after all.  Sheldon’s chicken waffles with seaweed butter is the clear winner.

The judges only liked Sheldon and Shirley. The judges rave about Sheldon’s umami butter. WTF? Shirley won? I guess her concept was closest to a mash up.

I’m not even going to give you the judges’ feedback because clearly it means nothing when it comes to their choices. They are arguing over whether Sylva should leave or if Brooke should. Tesar is clearly the preordained winner of this redemption season.  The female judges are fighting for Sylva but the guys seem to be overriding them in favor of Sylva going home.

The bastards win. I hope Sylva fights back on Last Chance Kitchen.