Also known as “the claws come out.”

Miami Detour

As soon as I saw that Michelle Bernstein was going to be the guest judge on this episode of Top Chef, I knew there could be some tension since both Michelle and Andrea are chefs in Miami. Andrea starts the day in a “good place” but as soon as she sees Michelle she gets super tense and kind of bitter. Andrea says she’s not so sure if you sat down at Michelle’s restaurant and hers that one would be so much better than the other. I’m sorry to say, Andrea, that although I like Talula, it doesn’t make my top 10 list. Maybe it’s number 11.

Top 10 Restaurants I Miss Most From My Time in Miami In No Particular Order (with the caveat that I’ve been gone for almost 2 years so some of them might have changed)

• Michy’s
• Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink
• Graziano’s Restaurant
• Matsuri
• Su-Shin Izakaya
• Pacific Time
• Havana Harry’s
• Jaguar Ceviche Spoon Bar and Latam Grill
• Nemo Restaurant (brunch)
• Restaurant at the Setai (brunch)

Anyway, Andrea lets it get to her way too much. I’m thinking that in the one-on-one with the camera they may have been asking her some questions to get her to reveal some of that frustration to intensify the tension… but the tension is definitely real. You could even see Michelle giving Andrea the stink-eye in some clips.

Quickfire

It’s “weird protein” day in the Top Chef kitchen, although I hardly think that foie gras can really qualify as a protein they may not have worked with before. Duck balls and tongues and crocodile, yes. Amanda was so freaked out by the emu egg it was almost funny (ok, it was actually funny). The bait-and-switch then happened, maybe predictably, and everyone had to take the protein of their neighbor. Amanda was incredible relieved — and the fact that Kelly was then able to bring home with win — and the immunity — with a lovely omelet was awesome. Michelle was pretty harsh in some of the judging (Stephen’s frog legs were “insipid”?) and I don’t really think she needed to call out Andrea for overcooking the boar, especially if she actually liked the flavors.

Cold War

The concept of this challenge is great — not the fact that they had to create cold entrees, but they fact that they were judging each others’ dishes, selecting the worst to be up for elimination and the best to be up for the win. There’s a lot of tension around this which makes total sense to me. How can you be sure that the judging is on the food and not on the people? My feeling is that it would have been much more fair to not tell them who cooked which of the dishes (blind tasting and judging) but I betcha the Top Chef folks thought this would be more interesting. Group A cooked first (Amanda, Kevin, Kenny, Alex, and Ed) and Group B judged (Angelo, Tamesha, Andrea, Stephen, and Tiffany) and then they switched.

Do I think the judging was fair? Not having tasted the dishes it’s pretty tough to say. Kevin and Tiffany end up at the top. Kevin pulls off the win with his tuna and veal surf and turf, and I think he owes a lot to Tom C. for calling out his fellow competitors on their critique (not enough acid) by pointing out the acidic elements he tasted in the dish. So kudos to Tom for that. Tiffany’s tuna with the gazpacho underneath looked lovely and refreshing. One vote in that group for Angelo’s dish but the rest of the people vote for Tiffany… maybe a little gamesmanship there too but it really looks like Angelo overloaded the salmon with too much “stuff” on top.

Kenny and Tamesha end up on the bottom. I think Kenny’s lamb dish was not good maybe because he’s always trying to do too many different things (as evidenced by Michelle B. standing up for how muddled she found the dish) but I don’t necessarily believe he would have ended up in the bottom two if he wasn’t considered a front-runner candidate by the others. Tamesha’s on the other hand was clearly a disaster. I’m kind of wondering what happened with her scallops because she has shown in other episodes she knows how to cook. The rhubarb jus was actually pretty attractive along with the pickled rhubarb, but serving half-cooked half-raw scallop is… well… whoops. At least it gives the judges a real reason to send her home instead of Kenny.

[Can I just say that it is hilarious if somewhat inappropriate that the "cut scene" in the middle was about Ed saying how he's known Angelo from way back and they used to date the same chick, or rather, Ed  "used to bang Angelo's girlfriend"? You never know what tensions you're going to turn up when you throw a bunch of "strangers" together in a house. I wonder if Angelo knew about the two-timing girl before or he just found out when he watched this episode. DOH.]