I’m a little late to the party because I was making some Asian stirfry that relies heavily on soy sauce only to discover too late I do not have any soy sauce so I had to get creative. It’s weird tasting but not really bad. Red cabbage is good in almost anything.
Everyone is happy that Brother came and left in one episode and “the band is back together.” Eddie got a phone call home scene where he is Facetiming his son. This is often the kiss of death.
At the quickfire challenge, award-winning actress, Lena Waithe, is there as the guest judge. Apparently she is a Bravo fan. She was also on WWHL recently. She says that when she travels her day often wraps late and she eats the local late night fattening foods. The challenge is to make a Kentucky staple, the hot brown. Justin has hot browns on both menus at his two restaurants. He plans to win. A hot brown is an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and a delicate Mornay sauce. Yes, please. I will trade you some oddly seasoned red cabbage, onion, carrot and water chestnut stirfry with shrimp. Sara, who is from Kentucky has a hot brown on her menu too. It’s called the Hot Damn Hot Brown. This is going to be a slugfest. Sorry yankees, this is not your challenge.
Kelsey is making a croque madame that she discovered in Paris. It’s ham and cheese sandwich that is fried at some cafes and baked at others. It’s kind of a grilled cheese with ham and the cheese varies but all French cheese is good cheese. The madame version has a fried egg on top. When I go to Paris I eat my weight in croque monsieurs which is the same thing without the egg. They are in every single hole in the wall spot in Paris and they are delicious and cheap which is good because my hotel is a bit pricey.
Sara, DID NOT GET HER SECOND SANDWICH ON THE PLATE! The Kentucky chef is disqualified! Justin’s Kentucky Fried Hot Brown looks amazing. He had me at gouda. Eddie’s didn’t have enough bacon. Fatal mistake. Brian’s turkey was a bit dry. Lena is not a fan of white meat. That made me giggle. Brandon missed the whole concept and had vegetables in his like it was some sort of freaking health food. Kelsey didn’t meet the rules of the assignment which I believe was bread, turkey, sauce served in a skillet. She didn’t have a sauce which is like THE most important part of the sandwich.
Sara, Brian and Kelsey were on the bottom. Justin, Eddie, and Adrienne were the top three. Justin won the quickfire. Justin was very emotional about the win and hugged Lena who heaped on the praise.
For the elimination round, Chef Nancy Silverton arrives to announce it is a beef challenge they draw knives for their cuts of meat. They have entire sides of meat that need to be broken down so famous Italian butcher Dario Cecchini gives them a demonstration. Brian is particularly impressed by his credentials since he is a butcher. They don’t have much time at all to choose their ingredients. Just ten minutes in the pantry that includes some special local items this time, and half an hour and $100 in Whole Foods. The pantry shopping starts now so they have to decide in seconds what they will be serving a group of local farmers the next day.
Adrienne lives on a farm and wants to do a black and blue steak with local blue cheese and blackberries. She’s a pretty smart chef. Kentucky Sara on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have her head in the game despite her husband being a cattle rancher. She wants to make sausage but doesn’t know if she can? Has she given up after losing the quickfire? Get it together, homegirl! Eddie is also a huge fan of Dario and very excited to see his butchery. Justin has flank steak which isn’t a great cut. Two guys are doing steak tartare, Brandon and David. It’s a face off and David is more confident than Brandon.
The guys fangirl out as Dario butchers half a cow while yelling, “Carne!” They are mesmerized by this Italian dud. The chefs grab the cut of meat they drew and then have to butcher that down into portions. It’s quite a workout for some cuts. Brian is hacking up his prime rib. The guys doing tartares for this challenge are idiots. Eric’s cut is “the head” which will be beef cheeks and tongue. This will either win or lose, I don’t see middle ground here. Sara’s cut isn’t a lot of meat, that was her concern about making sausage. But she did it anyway. Eddie is doing a Polish dish that should be wrapped in cabbage but he is substituting local Kentucky romaine. I’m not chef but I don’t think those two things are interchangeable. Tom arrives to tell the tartare guys they are fucking up. Brandon especially he has New York Strip! Brian is doing a rosette of ribeye cap, with a raspberry vinaigrette.
Brandon is having trouble with his tartare and uses xanthan gum to thicken it. EW! He could be going home. He will be in the bottom for sure. He and David are up first with the head to head tartare dishes. They all hate Brandon’s dish for multiple reasons. David’s isn’t much better. I told you so!
Justin’s flank steak is up against Adrienne’s locally inspired black and blue steak. They both sound like winners to me. I was right. The locals love the black and blue.
Sara’s sausages didn’t come out well. I am not shocked. She is up against Brian’s ribeye that I imagine will be great. The sausage was a miss. Brian’s ribeye was not well received either.
Michelle’s braised beef chuck over grits is presented rather reluctantly. She better know how to make grits if she going to serve the to locals. Eddie brisket stuffed romaine leaf never sounded like a good idea to me. Surprisingly, they loved Eddie’s brisket both in English and in Italian. This will thrill Eddie. As for Michelle, Dario says her meat is try, and the Chef Nancy Silveron used the word “coagulated” when describing the grits. Oh my.
Eric is in trouble with his beef cheeks and knows going out they are not braised all the way. In defense of my man, he had a really difficult cut to work with in the time allowed. Kelsey’s shank dish over carrot and saffron grits looks amazing. I trust her grits are perfection. The judges hate that he made “tongue mousse” Oh Eric, you better hope you stay in the middle. The judges were not pleased with the grits because she said they had carrot and all they tasted was the saffron. The Italian guy said over all, speaking of the entire group, the challenge was to cherish the beef and he wished they had done more down to earth dishes focused on the beef without all of the other frou-frou stuff.
Judges Table
Tom says there were a lot of missed opportunities and the judges were disappointed over all. However, the top three were great and they were Justin, Adrienne and Eddie. Eddie won with the stuffed romaine. And he got a signed apron from Dario and he gets to work with Dario in his butcher shop in Tuscany for a week. He’s definitely going to cry. Brian looks like he is going to cry too.
To make matters worse, Brian is in the bottom with Sara and Brandon. I doubt he goes home though the other two had terrible dishes. Sara cries for screwing up a beef challenge considering she and her husband raise cows. Brandon has to be going, he’s arguing about there being too much grape seed oil with Tom when he said himself he put too much in. Then he blurts out that he used xanthan gum to thicken it! I think xanthan gum is one of those ingredients that keeps your product out of Whole Foods. Even I know better than this. The judges jaws drop. This is an easy decision.
Brandon is out.
Next week: The chefs go to Lake Cumberland, the houseboat capital of the world. And Captain Lee is there! YAY. Oh, and Captain Sandy is also there. They cook on a houseboat and the power goes out. Adrienne gets really sick. No! Adrienne is doing so well!
Y’all, I wrote a 1500 word recap and it took forever. Then I was ready to insert the photos and the photos would not no upload. Then I could not save. Then I finally realized that I was logged out because my hosting reps were doing some updates I requested. Then I got back in and there was on the fire 294 words. Thankfully I had the old window still open and was able to copy and past the other 1200 words. So for more typos than usual as soon as I got everything back I hit post to be sure I didn’t lose it all again.
#anxiety
Nice recap! I read ever word. I missed the first part of the show. Now I must go back to view it because of reading your post. Thanks much.
Before I watch it I might have to go to the grocery store. I am hungry for beef with cooked cabbage.
Hot browns are amazing, and definitely not diet food, lol. Now I’m craving one! That mornay sauce is the bomb. They are doing Kentucky proud this season!
So toast, tomato slices for acid, mornay sauce, bacon, turkey slices. Shoot, I am gonna try making this for dinner tomorrow. May have to use chicken breast instead.
I’m a local gal and really loving the Kentucky season. Know all the places they have been and spent a fair amount of my childhood at Lake Cumberland. Not sure where my family Hot Brown recipe took a turn but we always had both turkey and country ham (not ham, country ham, huge difference) on bread and really rich cheese sauce with fried bacon as a garnish. Sometimes sliced tomatoes, in season, were added. Yum, now I’m hungry.
Great recap, with all the problems you cranked it out in record time.
Sorry, TT, but a Yankee won this challenge. Just is from Minnesota like me!
Also I hated this challenge, but I appreciate that they were trying to honor the animal. It’s all too often people throw away meat like it didn’t come from something with a heart and feelings.
If the yankee was Justin, it’s okay. He lived in Atlanta for a while and went to culinary school here. Both of his restaurants are southern cuisine. I imagine he has roots in the south.
What parent tells his young child he’s going to kiss the shit out of him?!?
That caught my attention, too.
Bad, but better than “love you to death.” Especially for a child.
Kentucky is yankee. Fought for the Union and whatnot, though below the Mason-Dixon. They likes them some grits though. The whole history of the area And the surrounding Ohio and Mississippi river valleys is schizophrenic on the subject.
As a kid I lived in Lexington while my dad went to college at U of Kentucky. Absolutely beautiful country.
Eddie has gone from zero to hero. Love how emotional he is about his work. I felt so bad for Sara. She’s been too bossy in the past, but to see her have good ideas that she couldn’t execute was hard. When Brian says he can’t do x because he’s a butcher, then gets a butcher challenge, it’s looking like the emperor has no clothes.
With how poorly so many did and how the mark was completely missed, I wish they would have made everyone that wasn’t in top 3 recook and actaully honor the animal…make it a 2 part episode.
Next week looks crazy good. Now to watch LCK…and yes, I know, no posting about it 😉
Loving this season. This is one of the best season in a long time. Kentucky has never been on my travel list, but the food is making me change my mind. Justin’s hot brown made me want to try my hand at putting a Texas spin on it. Going to be nice and cold Saturday. I am thinking barbecue brisket, stead of turkey. I have left over from Hard Eight. Yep. That is what I am going to make.
In my opinion, Brandon has been cooking on borrowed time. Should have be gone before last night.
I agree about Brandon. I thought he should have been gone before this.
Someone please enlighten me on Tartare. Have you had it? Did you like it? It just has never sounded appealing to me.
I can’t help you with that. Just reading the word tartare makes me gag. I don’t think I could eat a meal if someone else was eating it at the table. Let us never speak of this again. #Gag
It is tasty if done correctly. Le Central in SF has a nice one.
I tried It once. It was ok, chilled with seasonings and onion, so it didn’t taste like raw meat. Probably wouldn’t have it again. It’s just not my thing.
I love raw fish, but the idea of raw steak is a big no for me. When I was a kid my dad used to make burgers or meatloaf and he would always pinch off a bit of the ground beef to eat raw. He said his mother used to tell him it would give him worms. Funny if my grandmother was still alive she would be like 135 years old. She’d be dead anyway I guess.
I had never heard of a Hot brown, being a Yankee and all. I think if it was sausage underneath I would love it, but the hot turkey? Not sure.
I love Eddie, hope he keeps winning.
My mom told me the same thing about worms from eating raw meat and raw cookie dough. Since childhood, I usually pinch off a bit of raw burger to eat with salt or Worcestershire sauce.
Steak tartare is usually served as a starter, not an entree. Even though I love it, I don’t relish a large potion of it.
Every now and then the forces of the universe ally for a magical crystalline moment of perfection.
It happened for Justin with Lena Waithe and in a huge way for Eddie.
It was sweet when Justin won and got to be the one to hug someone he admired. But for Eddie, that confluence was major. If anyone else had won, I think I would have cried. I did cry but for the good reasons. His admiration for Dario was genuine and touching and if the others think it over the top — Poopoo on you, then.
Watching Brian I am reminded again how often braggadocio covers up insecurity. I have done a 180 on him. Gone from wanting him gone to wanting him until the end.
Damn., but I want a Hot Brown. Never had one, I am going to have to make it myself I guess. Last meal before Keto perhaps?
The judges weren’t playing around! They were super harsh but if the dishes really were bad then that’s what they get.
Seemed like judges did not like any of the dishes and reluctantly settled on a top three. Felt badly that the owner of the cow was expecting meat on a bone and all she got was fou-fou. It’s kinda frustrating that the chefs do not seem to be listening to the challenges. After all of these seasons of TC you would think chefs would be better at the listening part …
That sausage made me gag and I have a cast iron stomach.
Loving Kentucky! May just have to visit some time.
PS ~ As always, great recap!
I don’t think I can watch this anymore. Saying the animal must have had a happy life and then proceed to kill it, butcher it and eat it? Is that how you justify it? I’m sure it would be much more happy if you didn’t eat him.
Honey if you can’t watch people eat meat, this is not the site for you. If you had read the commenting rules you would have known this. Please find a safe space,