Hey! How you durian? Whenever a cooking show goes to a country where durian is grown, we generally get an entire episode about it. Top Chef Kentucky is no different.For tonight’s quickfire, the final four Top Chefs must make a dish highlighting the world’s most disgusting smelling fruit. Jesus. It sound like China doesn’t even grow durian. They actually eat it on purpose.
I skipped the quickfire. I can’t do gross food challenges on reality shows. However, I did listen to the judging. I don’t think anyone expects to win this challenge and the one hour bonus hour for cooking during elimination. Somehow Michelle won when it seemed like the liked Sara’s the best.
TheThe Elimination Challenge
Tonight’s elimination challenge focuses on Macanese food. Because we all know the ins and outs of the foods indigenous to Macau right? I predict Kelsey will make biscuits and gravy, and Sara will make peas and hog jowls. Oh dear God. They are actually telling them to make a dish representative of their own heritage but with Chinese ingredients. I’m changing my guess to Hoppin’ John. The service is for eight people.
Easy Peasy Macanesey!
They are sent to a Macanese restaurant to learn something about the cuisine. When they get there, they are surprised by family members. All three girls moms are there. Eric’s sister has flown in. The food looks delicious. Stuffed crab, minchee (ground meat flavored with molasses and soy sauce), samosas.
Suddenly, Sara Bradley has some Jewish heritage. She’s going to make matzoh balls. It doesn’t sound like she has ever made them before. What better time to learn something new than during the most important elimination round of the season? Why rely on something you already know how to do well? Sigh.
Michelle Minori is going to make an Italian seafood soup with Mexican flavors and use it on a sauce on something.
Eric Adjepong goes to his Ghanaian roots and chooses to make Egusi. Egusi is a west African spinach stew with melon seeds.
Kelsey Barnard Clark wants to do some sort of Asian crab boil.
Thirty Minutes To Shop In a Foreign Grocery Store Is Insane!
Think how hard it is to find what you need when you are a grocery store you don’t usually shop at. Then, consider the store is in Macau, everything is in either Chinese or Portuguese and you really aren’t sure what to substitute for the things that you need! How can the do this in thirty minutes? I can’t get out of my regular store in thirty minutes if I am looking for ingredients for a new dish! These are Top Chef problems.
Kelsey’s mom has lost her shopping cart full of groceries. As Bethenny Frankel would say, “This is a Crisis.” They manage to find it in time and then all the family leaves. I wonder if they will be back for dinner though, because there are eight people to serve. Four judges and four family members? Yes! That is the plan.
Kitchen Drama
Sara tells Kelsey her broth is too spicy. Kelsey tells Sara her matzoh balls are not too big. I think they are both lying to each other.
Dinner Service
When Michelle brings out her cioppino with Mexican ingredients to the table, she is invited to join the judges for dinner. They asked Michelle to critique her dish. She says it needs acid. After she leaves, Tom says that she didn’t incorporate Chinese flavors. In the kitchen, Michelle tells her mom she is disappointed in her dish. She said the dish didn’t look pretty. Padma Lakshmi and another female judge said it needed a broth.
Up next is Sara with chicken thighs, matzoh balls and a mushroom consommé. Everyone raves about her matzoh balls. She is not going anywhere, and is possibly the winner. He mom says it was perfect too.
Eric served egusi stew with panko coated fufu and shrimp. This is the second time Eric has made fufu and Padma mentions that as if it is a bad thing. It is a staple of the Ghana menu so I don’t think it odd that it appears on a plate twice. But the judges haven’t cared for Eric since his spat with the judges. The judges didn’t like the stew. He used local pumpkin seeds and ground them and it sounds like he included the hull. It looks like we will have a female winner after all.
Kesley served a an Asian version of a low country boil. I can’t quite wrap my head around that, but I haven’t seen it yet. Tom loved it. The flavors were very local. Padma says that the broth is too strong with the green onion to have a whole bowl. Tom really liked it and that is all that matters. Sara probably beat her out this time though.
The Judges’ Table
Sara was named the clear winner. Michelle was eliminated. She didn’t incorporated Chinese flavors into her Italian/Mexican soup/sauce.
Next Week: It’s the finale. One more person goes before the final service. All three chefs are hungry to win!
If Sarah wins this I will need bail money. She used a boxed mix for God’s sake! She just squeaks by each time. I feel they are playing hometown girl favorite. Eric better win or I am going to call FOUL! He has been consistently amazing making such interesting food with such a history of where he comes from! I love that!!
If it isn’t him then it better be Kelsey!
But Eric deserves to WIN!!
He argued with Padmah about curry . Should have gone home
One can disagree with the judges.
Yes they can. He was not the first or last this season or prior seasons to stand by their food.
And the judges really seemed to dislike elements of his dish didn’t one of them say they had to spit out pieces? How do u not go home when the judges spit it out?
You have a penis. Tom gives bonus points for having a penis.
I think all three of them are great chefs. It will come down to what dishes they put out.
Eric or Kelsey…..please no Sara, she still rubs me the wrong way.
I enjoyed this episode, good episode,
Minchee sounds great, I never thought of adding molasses and soy to meat.
I think I will try to make it with my own spin, using garlic and ground turkey.
So glad that Eric is still on the show! Hopefully he makes it to the final 2.
I just recently tried Durian in Thailand. Just took a little bite and the smell and taste stayed with me all night. I can’t imagine people love it, I don’t get it. The texture is off putting as well.
I am dying to try durian, but I am too scared to buy it and bring it into my house. I also heard it smells like death. yum!
I expected these three to be at the end I like them all, so yay! ]
Take it from me you don’t want to try it.
It might be cheating but you can get durian wafer cookies and ice cream at some international markets. I don’t want to spend $20-35 on something just to try one bite. Maybe if I had a REALLY AWFUL neighbor I woke. It, take a bite and throw it in their garbage can.
So glad Kelsey is still in it for now. I really hope either Kelsey or Eric win the whole thing. Still don’t like Sara and the way she uses boxed ingredients. Don’t forget to go vote for Fan Favorite. It’s now down to Kelsey or Eric. Go Kelsey, this down home girl deserves to win both.
Sara had no matzo meal so she made it out of crackers.
I believe some people think she used a boxed instant matzo or something to make her matzo balls.
Not even close.
She made the whole thing from scratch.
I’m glad she decided NOT to cut the matzo balls in half that would have been disastrous.
But she did use boxed waffle mix….
That boxed waffle mix was one misstep in a long string of successes IMHO.
That “boxed waffle mix” was just FLOUR with the baking powder and baking soda added. It really wasn’t a big deal.
The person who made a big deal out of it used bottled hot sauce the very next week.
Preach! I’m not really understanding the dislike of Sara from the viewers! I find her to be genuine and also quite talented.
As for the boxed “waffle mix”, she was trying to save a few seconds. IMO a Top Chef should improvise and streamline things whenever possible. Besides, the waffles weren’t all-that anyway. It’s not like she won the challenge using box.
Anyway, I like Sara. I also like Kelsey. Eric is okay, but not my favorite.
Not a fan of Sara. This was the 2nd time she used boxed foods. She never a fan favorite. Ummm, I wonder why? Eric, Kelsey and Michelle to me was much better. Either Kelsey or Eric for the final two and I am happy. If country bumpkin Sara make through gate, I will be highly disappointed.
See, the challenge was to use things you can get in Macau to make a dish inspired from home. Since there was no matzoh in Macau she had to get creative.
BECAUSE THAT WAS THE POINT OF THE CHALLENGE.
The only matzo meal I’ve ever seen —even in kosher delis — is in a box. Only flour and salt is in the mix. So by using water crackers, Sara not only not use a mix, but was more creative. It’s odd she didn’t know about the soda water, though. But I agree with TT, I don’t think she ever made them. You let them sit in the fridge so they are easier to roll into balls. And they always expand. Some places serve one GIANT matzo ball instead of multiple smaller ones. The broth sure sounded delicious and it really met the challenge.
TT, you had me at –How you ‘durian’? hahaha thanks for that laugh.
Thanks. thought that went unnoticed. 🙂
The Easy Peasy Macanesey was good too.
TT: have you seen the Lisa Rinna video mocking the observance of Ash Wednesday? would love to know your thoughts
So glad Eric made it; I was worried when he described what he was making and mentioned how some can find the texture of the ground seeds offputting…why, oh why, would you risk something with a funky texture at this point?!
I, too, noticed that this is the first mention of Sara’s Jewish heritage.
As soon as Tom said Michelle didn’t fulfill the challenge, I knew she was done. That is a huge thing with him.
Sara’s jewish background was mentioned many episodes ago. might have been in one of the first two episodes
Odd that Michelle said during the Durian challenge that the goal was to highlight the item (while the other chefs tried to hide it). She did and she won. Then for the elimination challenge where the chefs were to incorporate Chinese components as their heritage she didn’t. That was the challenge! Her ingredients were typical American ingredients. Michelle, you knew better. You were a goner once we heard you describe your dish in the kitchen.
well, okay, Eric was a possible goner too once we heard that he incorporated seed shells in his dish. I could see his being sent home for serving something inedible.
I am generally not a fan of Sarah, but her Matzo Ball Soup did look delicious ~ even tho we JUST found out she was jewish. Both Kelsey and Eric also made yummy looking food. Padma always says something b*tchy to Eric, this time in the quickfire. I give him credit for not crumbling by her sniping remarks. I really hope it’s either Kelsey or Eric for the win. I’m giving the edge to Kelsey because Eric seems to very often have a slight misstep …. like the pumpkin seed shells in his dish… Yikes!
I would have loved to try Sara’s mushroom broth. I’m sorry to see Michelle go. I’d love to see Kelsey win. Can’t wait for finale! I’ll have to avoid your update because I can’t watch episodes until Saturday.
We’ll still be here. The few, the proud, the watchers of the handful of decent shows on Bravo. 🙂