S21.E03: Take It Cheesy

[xfuse]

15 hours ago, bravofan27 said:

Manny was trying to make a poutine, so he had an angle.

The moment he described his dish I'm sure every Canadian shouted "No, that's not poutine" at the tv. 

[Lovecat]

7 hours ago, AAEBoiler said:

...on Kristen. During Quickfire presentations, she seems to spin the dish immediately after it's plated in front of her. I dub it the Krispin ©️. 

I have noticed that maneuver, too, and find it delightful!  I will immediately integrate "the Krispin (c)" into my lexicon :)

[Rai]

@bravofan27 I was specifically told there would be no math.

[bravofan27]

Here is a study guide.

Easy to remember/have story arc:

Michelle: Pit Master, happy, super white teeth, wins

Manny: Mexican, really large man, overbite, likely to win if he can make Mexican food in the challenge; screwed if he can't

Kevin: Top Chef France, accent, cute, pastries

Charly: Haitian, sweet and thoughtful, can't season for shit

Dan: From Wisconsin, Kennedy's Disease, oldest contestant. 

Rasika: Cheerful, looks like an Indian Peter Pan, yoga and running, great with flavors, wins

Amanda: Queer bi-racial black Daria

Kaleena: Loves cheese, thinks she can win, kind of full of herself

Alisha, Laura, and Savannah all resemble each other, and none have done anything super great or outrageous that they have highlighted in editing. Laura- super serious, very conservative appearance and professional attitude. Savannah-- also very serious, few facial expressions, started the WIN CONSIN chant (I think), talks about how she makes Japanese food, and Alisha is the hardest to remember. She has something in front of her head, like a colorful scarf or bow, much of the time and wears glasses.

Danny: Dominican and PR, runs with Rasika, people pleaser

Valentine, David, and Kenny --> They Gone

No math

 

[Rai]

That is a helpful breakdown even when we differ in our assessments! Alisha and Savannah are the ones who have been confusing me the most, for sure.

Also, once Kaleena said it, I finally remember seeing her win her Chopped tournament. I don't think a former Chopped contestant has gone on to win Top Chef, but there's definitely a Chopped to Top Chef pipeline, so she might stick around for a while.

[kirklandia]

I remembered Kaleena from Beachside Brawl.
I cheered for her as a local Seattle chef (although Chicago has since claimed her) but I wasn't particularly enthusiastic.

Edited April 7 by kirklandia

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, Rai said:

Also, once Kaleena said it, I finally remember seeing her win her Chopped tournament.

I didn't see that, but I've seen her win two other shows on Food Network.  I liked her on both, so she joins Michelle as an early favorite here, but I like everyone so far (with the one exception, Hat Chef, dutifully dispatched in the first episode).  Watching some early season TC episodes semi-recently makes me appreciate all the more how that has become the norm on this show.

[dgpolo]

On 4/5/2024 at 5:17 AM, dleighg said:

Well how about Raiska's advantage from being the winner last week (I KNOW, she had immunity) was to pick her door first! Why even bother!

I turned to my daughter and said 'how is that an advantage?' unless you know what's behind the door it's pure luck on getting a 'good' ingredient. They should have let her go behind the doors and pick what she wanted or something.

[DEL901]

57 minutes ago, dgpolo said:

I turned to my daughter and said 'how is that an advantage?' unless you know what's behind the door it's pure luck on getting a 'good' ingredient. They should have let her go behind the doors and pick what she wanted or something.

Or you get to trade with someone.  

[bravofan27]

I don't remember if it was phrased as an advantage (it wasn't an advantage), but they needed someone to start the picking. 

[HappyDancex2]

Rasika to Manny in car “what’s your backup plan?”

Manny “I don’t have one”

…which would have been the foreshadowing moment except Tom was visibly put out with Kenny not putting aside relish for the judges plates.  I had to agree because it just showed a lack of focus in the context of this show.  He’s served cabbage cores to the judges already so he was on thin ice.

also, frying rice paper in the quick fire and the elimination challenge isn’t creative.  Those chips would have been rapidly soggifying LOL in heat and humidity and not the sturdiest foil to wet crab salad even on a good day.

[seacliffsal]

There were at least two contestants who complained that they hadn't won anything yet.  I was surprised because we aren't that far into the season.  Does everyone expect to win everything?

I was disappointed that so many decided to serve some form of fried cheese.  During the prep time the day before the event someone stated that it would be 100 degrees the next day so they were aware of the heat issue.  Heavy fried food on a really hot day?  I'm surprised that all of the attendees were there.  I know that food competition shows like to put conditions and challenges on the contestants, but I just like to watch good food being created.

Glad Michelle won as I've liked her from the beginning.  Liked Kenny, but I think it was his time to go.

[desertflower]

On 4/4/2024 at 9:14 AM, Msample said:

Man, I can’t imagine having to eat all those heavy cheese laden ( or mostly cheese laden, given the bottom 3 were called out for not featuring the cheese ) in that sweltering heat. 

I had a flashback watching this of the one day my family went to Disney World. It was almost 100 degrees and so crowded. Couldn’t find seating in the air conditioned restaurants so we ended up getting some mac and cheese from an outside place. The servings were so big and we were so hot none of us could finish it. My kids were actually asking to throw theirs away. It tasted good but it just wasn’t going well in that heat. We still joke about it. 

[desertflower]

Someone should’ve made some cheesy grits. I have a friend who makes it and oh my gosh, I could eat the whole pan. I can only imagine what some of these chefs could do with it. And yeah, as someone else said, some kind of play on a  grilled cheese sandwich would’ve been great.

[SemiCharmedLife]

Yes, I'm in agreement with many of you who were surprised that the chef-testants who made croquettes continued on after learning how many others were making them.  But, then again, one of those chefs did win.  🤷🏼‍♀️. I was hoping some of them would change their plans so the menu was more diverse.

Too bad Kenny's dish wasn't more delicious...it would have been a nice bite for a hot day.

[HappyDancex2]

I had a Duh moment where a friend of mine who is a top chef fan, is from Wisconsin and currently lives in Seattle.  Last time I visited her house I had a kcup of coffee that was amazing considering I don’t drink coffee.  It was cinnamon hazelnut.  She comes and visits me a couple of weeks ago and I ask her to bring some and I will buy a Keurig lol.  Brand?  Door County.

i excitedly text her and say “did you even realize it was door county coffee during the episode?…”. And she was like Um Yeah…I went to Door County and discovered it.  I lived in Wisconsin.

So in addition to cherries, they make some bitchin coffee.  Maybe a coffee challenge coming up!

[AriAu]

It sure seemed like a large number of the guests at the 1st ever Top Chef Cheese Festival were cheese makers or otherwise in the cheese biz...and its not hard to find them in America's Dairyland! This gave the guests choices a lot of credibility in my book!

The culinary coordinator for this season in Kristin's best pal, Stephanie Cmar and she did not do the cheftestants any favors with this challenge! Cheese....outdoors, in late summer....oy

 

Cheese curds are a truly delicacy/delight, but I don't think I've ever had them when they weren't battered and deep friend (or gloriously naked in all their squeeky goodness) so I thought using the curds in poutine was pretty smart, but obviously not well executed. 

 

Quote

I'm lovin Kristin as the host

It's funny, I really liked her in her season and on other shows (Fast Foodies was sneaky good) and I think she has a warm and welcoming persona, but she really falls short when compared to Padma-no gravitas, takes too much of a back seat to others, not the right balance of authority and empathy and not as funny (and to me, the tats are distracting....not an ink fan)....all of which can improve over time (I guess other than the ink).

Every cheftestant talks about how grueling it becomes as the season wears on so it will be compelling to see how Dan holds up. While I would like to see some dispensation for his condition, they have N E V E R taken those things into account. Even Lee Anne Wong, the culinary coordinator for many seasons didnt get a break when pregnant in the Colorado season.

[DEL901]

3 hours ago, AriAu said:

Cheese curds are a truly delicacy/delight, but I don't think I've ever had them when they weren't battered and deep friend (or gloriously naked in all their squeeky goodness) so I thought using the curds in poutine was pretty smart, but obviously not well executed. 

Poutine is made with cheese curds as the standard recipe…along with fries and gravy.   I’m Canadian but I’ve never had it since I hate gravy.   

[Trey]

17 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

Poutine is made with cheese curds as the standard recipe…along with fries and gravy.   I’m Canadian but I’ve never had it since I hate gravy.   

I am an old Canadian but I've only had poutine in the last year.  I don't care for it since apparently I don't like cheese curds, whereeas I love the fries and gravy.

[BlackberryJam]

20 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

I hate gravy.   

I support this and stand with you. 

[Yeah No]

13 hours ago, Trey said:

I am an old Canadian but I've only had poutine in the last year.  I don't care for it since apparently I don't like cheese curds, whereeas I love the fries and gravy.

I've had it a couple of times and both times I thought the cheese curds really did nothing for the dish.  In both cases they were virtually tasteless and the texture was in my opinion unpleasant.  Why not just use full-on cheese instead?  I can think of a few cheeses that would work really well with the fries and gravy.  I get it that this is the kind of dish people grow up with and would consider it a kind of a sacrilege to tamper with, but still.

Edited April 17 by Yeah No

[pasdetrois]

On 4/5/2024 at 8:48 AM, AAEBoiler said:

I was really surprised that there was absolutely no shelter for the chefs during this event. That must've been brutal.

And I didn't see the chefs guzzling water, which they should have been doing. I also noticed that Gail's skin was bright pink at the end of the day, despite the umbrella. Her face and neck were not, probably due to heavy TV makeup.

I wish they would reduce the chefs' patter with each other as they frantically cook. It's clearly required by production, and it sounds forced and trite. "What are you making?" "I'm making blah blah blah." "Nice."

The minute I saw the doors and cherries, I thought of our own Door County Cherry, whose name once drove me to explore Wisconsin cherries.

[dleighg]

1 hour ago, pasdetrois said:

I wish they would reduce the chefs' patter with each other as they frantically cook. It's clearly required by production, and it sounds forced and trite. "What are you making?" "I'm making blah blah blah." "Nice."

I get why they have to do it, but it is so damn fake.

[caitmcg]

4 hours ago, dleighg said:

I get why they have to do it, but it is so damn fake.

Especially the calling out of time, and time's up, when they're prepping for ECs, as if a random contestant is keeping the others on track. Just show us a close-up of the countdown clock the way they do when the rush is on to plate and serve.