S20.E02: Rice, Rice Baby

[wingsabre]

On 3/17/2023 at 6:20 PM, susannot said:

How did she get it creamy when Dawn failed?

It also has to do with rice selection.  Black rice has a thicker husk, so the starch is not exposed to allow for agitation and creaming.

[SoCal Mema]

On 3/17/2023 at 1:32 PM, AriAu said:

Nice episode and really impressed with how many great (according to the judges in the moment) dishes there were...but it is still really hard to follow with soooo many chefs. Even with an extra 15 minutes we saw very little of most of the chefs other than Mr. 54 ingredient mole who will be gone soon enough. The dishes were really imaginative and well prepared and the 3 dishes in the bottom were not "bad dishes"-Dawn went home for a dish that in prior seasons might have let her skate by. 

I thought it was a weird to have rice be involved in a challenge spread over 2 days since I would think that the cool down time would hurt the rice and certainly wouldn't help. It's why there were so many congees and why Sarah was smart to use it is a rice cracker(ish) thing.

It did not seem like Dawn's heart was in this and given her timing issues, it is obvious that her head wasn't (and historically hadnt been) "in it" either....especially using a long cooking rice for her congee. Dawn's exit was similar to Jen Carroll in the first All Star season-a popular fan favorite and almost winner, with a good story and who had been adopted into the TC Family and who then flamed out quickly in the All Star season.....altho Dawn's lacked the yelling and the expletives! 

Big Sarah fan since she seems very real and genuine and makes a lot of food I would like to eat. It will be interesting to see how she does with the Euro/guest judges who are not familiar with some her flavors-I am not sure the guest judge knew what "everything bagel" flavoring meant and last week's judges had no idea whether it was a good pot liquor (or licker or likker) sauce or not.

By the way, Sarah is getting a very nice edit, at least so far-the pumping the breast milk discussion certainly humanizes her, as did the part about never having been to London or Paris...I hope it means she will go far.

I was not shocked by this because on the Pack Your Knife pod (IYKYK), Sarah from last season that she even had a little alliance among a few of the cheftestants to share money or products (l"you get onions, I will get lemons") so I was kinda glad that they showed it. Whether it's fair or not to all the cheftestants is another story (I say it's not and brings in a level of alliances and gamesmanship that TC has seemed to avoid, unlike others in the reality TV world), but it has been done in the past.

I think it’s a missed opportunity by the TC marketing team to not have given us some deeper background on the competing chefs.  It’s a little different with the American chefs because we see them compete on their shows.  But I have never seen a Top Chef Brazil, or Top Chef Canada, etc.  I would have loved an opportunity to get to know them a little better.

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by SoCal Mema

[Fostersmom]

On 3/16/2023 at 10:49 PM, blixie said:

I actually like Dawn, and her food, but I truly believe there are perfectly great chefs who simply aren't made for competition cooking shows, and Dawn is one of them, it seemed obvious she wasn't fully present for this and was probably only trying to keep a profile up for her restaurant opening.

I'm surprised so far Buddha is fading into the woodwork, in his season he was an International Chef with Michelin plating skills but all of Europe really caters to the pretty plating so he's not standing out on that level, and I'm not sure his flavors are enough to get him any higher than mid.

This was something super frustrating Dawn did her season, she would Voice Over about all the things she needed to do for dish to ensure it was executed correctly and then she....wouldn't do it. Here she did the same emphasized having to use a pressure cooker and then not using it until day 2. Lady open your place and cook food your way at your speed, I am sure it will be amazing.

My issue with Dawn is she tries to force the ingredient to work with her narrative instead of embracing  the ingredient and working with it first and foremost and if she can get it to work with her narrative great, if not, well so be it. Her timing issues are just tiresome. Its one thing if you having a timing issue here or there, I'm sure it happens to the best of chefs. But Dawn's timing seemed to be an issue each and every cook. 

As for Buddha, the less Buddha the better IMO. He's just so smug, I can't root for him, no matter how great his food can look. Instead I actively root for him to fail. 

[stewedsquash]

I don’t think Buddha is smug or snobby. I think he is confident (in today’s world an underrated and mocked trait), intelligent, a bit reserved in personality, kind of deadpan in delivery, has a sense of humor, absorbs an immense amount of “data” to reach a goal and will share knowledge with no hidden agenda. 
The only dish I am still thinking about and craving from this episode is May’s dessert. Do they still post TC recipes anywhere (thinking out loud)?
 

[jcbrown]

12 hours ago, stewedsquash said:

I don’t think Buddha is smug or snobby. I think he is confident (in today’s world an underrated and mocked trait), intelligent, a bit reserved in personality, kind of deadpan in delivery, has a sense of humor, absorbs an immense amount of “data” to reach a goal and will share knowledge with no hidden agenda. 
The only dish I am still thinking about and craving from this episode is May’s dessert. Do they still post TC recipes anywhere (thinking out loud)?
 

I agree about Buddha. I was impressed in his season when he said he had studied all prior seasons before coming on the show. I think he likes to excel and is willing to put in the work.

The only recipe I saw on Bravo's site was for the winning Ritz cracker amuse bouche. I did not look closely, however.

[susannot]

I also agree about Buddha.  I think he is a devoted, even almost obsessive, student of cuisine.  I'm trying to remember, but wasn't it when Tom said he was making biryani that Buddha said he could think of 50 biryani recipes off the top of his head?  (Something like that.) To me, that didn't come across as arrogant because--hey, I have zero doubts that it is true.

[South]

On 3/17/2023 at 2:19 PM, JTMacc99 said:

The phrase that came to my mind watching him so far is "he is a lot."

Sometimes you get that with super creative people. I feel pretty confident that he'll be in the middle of a lot of our Top Chef drama for as long as he lasts. 

I like Gabri, but he is indeed, a lot.  It’s like having a genial, excitable squirrel in the kitchen.  A lot.

[South]

On 3/19/2023 at 8:05 PM, Fostersmom said:

My issue with Dawn is she tries to force the ingredient to work with her narrative instead of embracing  the ingredient and working with it first and foremost and if she can get it to work with her narrative great, if not, well so be it. Her timing issues are just tiresome. Its one thing if you having a timing issue here or there, I'm sure it happens to the best of chefs. But Dawn's timing seemed to be an issue each and every cook. 

As for Buddha, the less Buddha the better IMO. He's just so smug, I can't root for him, no matter how great his food can look. Instead I actively root for him to fail. 

I agree about Dawn and her tendency to take an ingredient to the mat in an attempt to control what is only inherent.  I disagree about Buddha.  I think that his manner of speech sits quite formally in the ear.  Which may lead to him seeming smug.  But if I consider his exact words and inflection coming from, oh, I don’t know…Miley Cyrus (love her!), I don’t find anything snobby being thrown about.

[JTMacc99]

8 hours ago, South said:

I like Gabri, but he is indeed, a lot.  It’s like having a genial, excitable squirrel in the kitchen.  A lot.

And now in my head I have the squirrel scene from Christmas Vacation associated with Gabri in the kitchen. 

[HappyDancex2]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:46 AM, Fukui San said:

Oh God. With the episode title being what it is, it occurred to me that the Polish chef literally made Vanilla Rice. 

It’s a lesson to Stop.  Collaborate and listen.

[bravofan27]

Dawn's attitude I think is what got her eliminated. The other two dishes were also flawed-- the Poland chef, even though she was on the bottom, seemed pretty thrilled to have some good comments about her dish, and she was like, "Well, you kind of like it! Which is great, because Poland is just potatoes!" She had a nice personality and was vulnerable. Dawn, IMO, felt intimidated by the others and shut down. She wasn't even trying to stay.

Interesting, I grew up eating French, German, and Jewish inspired food, and I don't think we ever had rice unless we went to a Chinese restaurant. I remember having this southern style rice at an event Sean Brock was cooking at, and it was really thick and creamy-- maybe like congee, but I don't know enough about rice to say that for certain. In any case, it was gross, so gross that I still remember how much I didn't like it-- like they tried to recreate a grit recipe using rice. 

Does Dawn make Southern food or African Diaspora food? I would think with the latter she would rock rice dishes.

But again, I'm not an expert at all, and please correct me/ enlighten me as I'm eager to understand. 

Edited March 26, 2023 by bravofan27

[Sunnykm]

Love Bhudda. 

 

Dawn was a drag on her season and worse on this one.  My opinion is she is not trained.  She relies on her small list of recipes she has and tries to make the challenges fit into that form.  Her timing issues on her season were all ridiculous and this season her poor me attitude reflected her awareness of her lack of skills in this elite group.  Why she was picked to participate is a mystery to me.

[Ms.Lulu]

I like the whole cast, except maybe for the french Samuel, May and Amar. Potato girl. Ali, Charbel, Sara, Victoire, Begonia and Buddha are my favorites. Dawn is a perfectionist and seems to be a bit of a sourpuss.

From Wikipedia, on Dawn:

After retiring from her athletic career, Burrell turned to the food world, enrolling at the Art Institute of Houston to study culinary arts. Her first restaurant jobs included working for chef Tom Aikens in London and Monica Pope in Houston.She next went to work for Tyson Cole at the restaurant Uchi's Houston location, then became sous chef at Uchi’s sister restaurant in Austin, Uchiko.From there, Burrell became executive chef at Kulture, a Houston restaurant focused on dishes of the African diaspora, described as “global comfort” food. For her work at Kulture, Burrell was a semifinalist for a James Beard Foundation Award for “Best Chef: Texas” in 2020.

Edited April 3, 2023 by Ms.Lulu

[Vermicious Knid]

In her season she often didn't really prepare a recipe or have an idea of what to make. She'd buy ingredients and hope they would 'speak to her'.

[Rai]

I feel most chefs on this show do that. Being inspired by the ingredients is a common cooking philosophy expressed in fine dining and especially on Top Chef where they don't have access to recipes. If anything, when cheftestants say they're going to make something that's a signature technique or recipe for themselves, that's been depicted as more likely to fail rather than succeed on this show.

[BlackberryJam]

Dawn seemed very low energy. It seems to me more that there's something going on, physically or emotionally. But yeah, damn, I'd eat her food!

[SemiCharmedLife]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:22 PM, Msample said:

Was I the only one who did a double take when 56 ingredient risotto guy was able to use someone else’s leftover money in the grocery store ? Even if she’s cool with it, what about the other chefs ?

The editing monkeys did little to hide Dawns impending exit.

I have a question about the shopping:  Don't the chefs have a pantry that has all the basic spices and such?  If Gabri had to buy (or thought he had to buy) every spice he listed, it would really add up quickly.  He said the chef-testants didn't do the shopping in Top Chef Mexico, so he wasn't familiar with the process.  Maybe he bought ingredients that were already available to them?  

[Vermicious Knid]

Quote

Being inspired by the ingredients is a common cooking philosophy expressed in fine dining and especially on Top Chef where they don't have access to recipes.

Oh, to be sure. But most chefs are doing it once or twice and have some idea of where they're going. Dawn did it an excessive number of times. I seem to recall her just staring at her ingredients all laid out with a bewildered expression at one point. Shouldn't she have started thinking about it in the car on the way back? She appears to be an excellent chef otherwise, but for this type of competitive cooking you need to have time management and flexibility.