This Top Chef recap is going to be quite the jolt since I’ve been watching the Jussie Smollett sentencing all day. Like really it took all day. But, once the sentence was handed down, all hell broke loose with Jussie. Read my real time recap here. Then, as I was doing set-ups the news was on in the background and I saw a seven year old girl in a Ukranian bombshell sing “Let it Go” in her language to everyone. It’s an emotional roller coaster over here.
The Quickfire
Anyway, on to the show. Chef Irma Galvan is the guest judge. She a local celebrity chef in Houston where queso is a really big deal. I feel like it is a big deal everywhere. The chefs have to put their own spin on queso and find something to pair with it rather than chips. Some of the chefs have never had queso! The dishes are presented so quickly I can’t even read them fast enough, let alone recap them. Jackson doesn’t even make queso. He’s definitely losing major points. He better do well in the elimination round. This is Evelyn’s quickfire to loose. Sam, Robert, and Jackson are in the bottom. Evelyn, Nick, Damarr are in the top. Dammar won!
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This episode is flying by! We are already at the elimination challenge fifteen minutes in! What are they going to do for the next hour? Maybe LCK is tacked on the end? Chef Chris Shepherd who is a Houston legend. Jo is very excited to see him since she is a Houston chef. The elimination challenge will be held in a high school football stadium. Because, COVID. They will compete in two teams of seven. One team is the Wildcats and the other is the Cougars. They have mascots and a coach for each team. The game is too complicated for my brain right now.
Elimination Challenge Planning The Menus
The Cougar team is doing all grains. Each person picks a grain. Jackson was last to pick and decides to do polenta. I don’t think that is a grain, it’s a pasta, right? But whatever. Jackson’s head is not in the game this week. SWIDT? 🙂 Oh Jackson is the one who can’t taste or smell. It’s utter chaos at the football field. My girl Evelyn was making rice noodle. I could tell when Tom and Padma were there they were already over cooked. She’s in trouble. She doesn’t have any back up noodles. Other people are giving her whatever they have left. Jo is worried about the flavor of her dish so she adds black garlic.
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Round One Budda versus Damarr. Budda has a middle eastern dish with grains and cucumbers. Damarr did “dirty farro” a play on dirty rice with chicken and chicken liver. Damarr won. Next it is Luke versus Ashley. Ashley did farro and quinoa. So far the teams are tied. This is really going way too fast to figure out all of the dishes. Each round is less than two minutes. Jae versus Robert. Robert’s mushroom taco (EW!) won. Next it is Jo’s barley conjee versus Stephanie’s a white rice dish. Jo wins. That black garlic was a hit.
Judges Table
Up next is Nick with his sweet potato and potlikker. That sounds stupid. Potlikker is the result of cooking greens, not potatoes. Oh now it made sense he made greens as well. And he has his own 26 spice blend. Now I want some! Monique made a caramel rice cake, it’s a desert. I want that too! This is a hard one! Nick won! It’s Sam versus Evelyn. Evelyn is basically serving left overs. Sam won. The final match up is Sarah versus Jackson. This will be hard. Sarah made a chickpea medley but she used canned and air puffed chickpeas so she didn’t cook much. Yep! Tom just called her out on it. Jackson did a polenta cake with blueberry compote. But remember he can’t smell or taste, so this could go either way. Jackson got all the votes.
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Dammar who had immunity won with his dirty farro and chicken livers. That’s two in a row. He already had immunity. It’s good to be Dammar right now. Sarah, Luke and Stephanie are in the bottom. I’ll be shocked if Sarah’s canned chickpeas don’t get her eliminated. Wow! Stephanie is going home for “broken rice.”
polenta is ground corn or cornmeal. closely related to grits.
Thanks for some reason I thought that was teeny tiny pasta balls, maybe there is something else like that or I just made it up.
You may be thinking of couscous, which looks like a grain, but it’s semolina.
Pastina.
Are you thinking of Pastina?
“Or I just made it up”. 😂😂 I also thought polenta was pasta.
Really enjoyed your recap because I watch this show but somehow I always miss some important stuff, like Dammarr winning both challenges! I love him 😁 not a huge fan of Jackson though
Acini di Pepe are the tiny round pasta balls.
Ah! Thanks.
This was a fun show – even though it was confusing at first.
The challenge was to make a carb heavy meal so that’s why many chose grains. The broken rice chef had 3 different meats that she prepared her beans with—- then she removed the meats and served just the beans with the broken rice.. That made no sense to me. She’s lucky chickpea chef’s dish was bad. When will the chefs learn that doing 3 versions of the same thing is not a good idea? they should focus on making one thing delicious.
I want the pot likker and caramel rice cake.
Oh— broken rice went home not chickpea 3 ways. Chick pea chef is very lucky that broken rice took the meat out of her beans. .
“I want the pot likker and caramel rice cake.” ARE WE THE SAME PERSON? 🙂
I still don’t know what “broken rice” means.
According to the internet: Broken rice is a traditionally cheaper grade of rice produced by damage in harvest, milling or transport. It is mainly used as a food industry ingredient in America and Europe, but is eaten in Southeast Asia. Broken rice is fragmented and there is nothing wrong with it.
I got the impression that she might have overcooked it and it kinda made a mess, but who knows! All I do know is, I would cook something like that and I’m no top chef!
Love Top Chef and so glad it’s back! I do think the right chef went home – she just wasn’t able to get her act together. I always feel like crying for the first one to go home, though. There seem to be some fantastic chefs this season and I’m looking forward to 1. actually remembering who is who 🙄 and 2. seeing what they are able to do when NOT in a team challenge!
broken rice isnt as pretty (or as tasty, imo) as whole long-grain rice.
I dont know how the chefs never get it that you never use canned beans, or beets, or whatever can easily be made fresh. If it takes too long, dont do it! Tom hates canned things.
Dammar’s back story is heartbreaking, I want him to do very well. I am so happy this show is back!
So wait, what y’all are telling is that she went to shop at WHOLE FUCKING FOODS, the Mecca of all grocery stores (except for places like E*A*T in NYC) and they managed to find shitty low grade rice in a store that has eleventy billion expensive kinds of rice? THAT ALONE should have sent her home. I thought it was some kind of cooking error.
I love Damarr and I’m so glad to see him doing as well as he’s doing. I don’t understand how broken rice got sent home over crappy canned chickpeas. Both dishes were bad but using canned beans & doing very little cooking should have been her ticket home.
I’m getting tired of the team challenges.
So are they.