S16.E02: Bourbon, Barrels and Burgoo

[dleighg]

2 minutes ago, PamelaMaeSnap said:

I commented "and by 'moved' we mean 'sold.'"

I *totally* missed that this was the reason. Thanks for expanding the story.

[CrazyInAlabama]

The Kentucky Chef Sara is such a jerk, she's tied with Brandon for my least favorite chefs, and of course, I'm ticked at Eddie Money too.    I think I need anger management for this show now. 

Edited December 15, 2018 by CrazyInAlabama

[HurricaneVal]

I vaguely recall that Top Chef had a deal with Schwan's for some frozen dinners.  I think I bought a few, they were tasty--and expensive.

[CrazyInAlabama]

They used to have a deal with Healthy Choice, for the winning chef that week to win some amount of money, and their dish would become an entree.    Kirsten Kish (spelling?) did a bowl that was a deconstructed pot pie, and it's still being sold without the Top Chef tie in listed.   

[spankydoll]

1 hour ago, HurricaneVal said:

I vaguely recall that Top Chef had a deal with Schwan's for some frozen dinners.  I think I bought a few, they were tasty--and expensive.

The Mr. and I have our fingers crossed for a Top Chef Hello Fresh service!

[HunterHunted]

10 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

as also disappointed that the challenge was set up with a white judge introducing the chefs including African American chefs to the regional cuisine.  The vast majority of the dishes are directly linked to African dishes the slaves brought over.  When the guest judge was explaining the name for hoecakes while using the polite euphemism of "they,"  I got upset.  I was pleasantly surprised that Bravo did keep in Eric talking about when he first had his dish in Ghana

2 hours ago, PamelaMaeSnap said:

I can't remember exactly how they phrased it but it was something along the lines of moving between Louisiana and Kentucky, and I commented "and by 'moved' we mean 'sold.'"

 

So yeah that whole exchange with Kelsey, Brandon, and Eric was so bizarrely hilarious.

Quote

“Traditionally, the gabon has, like, oranges.” Brandon asks, “Is that going too far outside what a Southern banana dessert is?” To which Kelsey replies, “I’m going to say this, and I don’t mean to sound this racist, but everything he’s doing is from Africa, which is the South.”

What's so racist about the truth?

[CrazyInAlabama]

Maybe they should get a spice company to sponsor the pantry, and have a huge selection.    It would mean great advertising for the company, and contestants wouldn't have to buy spices.     

[spankydoll]

2 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

The Kentucky Chef is such a jerk, she's tied with Brandon for my least favorite chefs, and of course, I'm ticked at Eddie Money too.    I think I need anger management for this show now. 

I was at one of the events and Miss Paducah just gets worse. She's full of it. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

How awful for you.    To be at an event like that, and have someone behaving badly.    Sara certainly doesn't make me want to stop at her restaurant if I'm in Paducah. 

Edited December 15, 2018 by CrazyInAlabama

[biakbiak]

24 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Maybe they should get a spice company to sponsor the pantry, and have a huge selection.    It would mean great advertising for the company, and contestants wouldn't have to buy spices.     

But they don’t want the contestants to have access to everything they want, that’s part of the competition. Though what they now have access to is leaps and bound from the first few seasons be that equipment and ingredients.

[Irlandesa]

12 hours ago, laprin said:

Eddie did not overspend intentionally and the team could have decided he had to make a sacrifice and did not. They bare some of the blame. Besides, ultimately the reasons given for the losing dishes were as much about poor technique (greasy and under seasoned stew, under cooked dough) as lacking anything due to missing ingredients.

I am wondering about the rules of shopping.  The way they talked, they made it seem like Eddie buying the lamb was a fait accompli.  I don't recall any talk of him possibly going with less lamb or selecting a different protein.  It made me think that once the items are rung up, they're technically bought and can't be removed from the cart. 

I also have a little sympathy for Natalie.  IIRC, they didn't know how hot the tent was going to be until after they had purchased their groceries for their pre-approved dishes.  Even with her crust mistake, Brandon's dish sounded worse with issues unrelated to ingredients. 

[biakbiak]

8 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

made me think that once the items are rung up, they're technically bought and can't be removed from the cart. 

They removed things that had already been wrong up, you can see them take back things from the other side of the cashier. I imagine Eddie only bought just enough lamb for his dishes. Most people we’re only giving up backup/extra stuff, the main problem was that there was a series of other mishaps that couldn’t be solved easily because they didn’t have enough back up.

Edited December 15, 2018 by biakbiak

[HappyDancex2]

Eddie isn’t all there.  It was edited like he felt bad but he didn’t do anything about it.  He knew the rack would be pricier.  He was able to add the packages up in his cart...that whole “quick math” comment was shady.  The more he knew he was going down the rabbit hole the more his brain tightened up and he did nothing to attempt to change his dish in the GROCERY store when he had the opportunity.  

[Yeah No]

16 hours ago, oldCJ said:

Both she and the chef eliminated last week don’t make being a chef their life, which makes me wonder why they thought Top Chef was a good choice for them. Natalie kept repeating how she hasn’t worked as a chef for ten months. Why would you think you were ready for this? And last week’s chef kept bragging about spending so much time with her family. 

The reason Natalie hadn't worked in 10 months before doing the show is because she took time off from her busy schedule after her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease to spend with her.  So I give her a pass for that.  I think that's evidence of how busy she must be as a chef, that she would have to stop working altogether to spend any significant time with family.  Also, Natalie herself suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, which can't be easy for a chef.  Prior to doing the show she was also involved in opening a restaurant, which takes a lot of work and dedication.  Based on her resume so far it seems pretty clear to me that she does make being a chef her life.  I'm sorry she messed up in this episode as I liked her a lot so far.  I'm keeping my eye on David as he seems pretty talented.

[LennieBriscoe]

 "Eddie Money." Genius. 

Lincolnesque beards on chefs? Not genius.  

Edited December 15, 2018 by LennieBriscoe

[PamelaMaeSnap]

I do wonder just how much back-story info the judges are privy to before making their eliminations ... when they asked who had felt their dishes were compromised by Eddie-gate, only Eric raised his hand, even though several others were as well ... and those others did mention it eventually to the judges but from what I recall not until they were being critiqued for something that was (directly or indirectly) caused by items they couldn't get.

If Pablo's downfall was the lack of spices, and he couldn't get the spices because that was one of the items that got dumped after the $540 lamb charge, then that may be why he wasn't auf'ed. The other two had, plain and simple, execution problems. 

In hindsight, I do think they made a point of eliminating someone for something where the WF incident did NOT contribute to the main problem (though the lack of lemons were an issue, I don't think the flavor was the kiss of death but rather the baking execution). I'm surprised they didn't have Brandon PYKAG because his dish seemed the worst, but I'm guessing he's either next on the block or they like him so much they're giving him a pass.

BTW ... does anyone know who knocked over Justin's tray of corn? As frustrated as he was, he seemed to rock the challenge.

Eric is definitely one of my favorites, partly because he's a "local" for me as a DC chef. 

[dleighg]

6 minutes ago, PamelaMaeSnap said:

BTW ... does anyone know who knocked over Justin's tray of corn? As frustrated as he was, he seemed to rock the challenge.

 

I *think* it was "one of those things" where it just collapsed in the refrigerator all by itself. Maybe it was balance precariously? I've certainly had things spontaneously fall because I was trying to stuff too much in the refrigerator.

[meep.meep]

He said that the shelf collapsed.  At that point, it was "make it work" time.

I did like how Nini finally shut down the other chef by making her say what she wanted to make so that then everyone else could settle on their dishes.

If you divide the $1500 evenly between 7 chefs, each should get about $215 to work with.  Lamb is expensive and I'm surprised that both teams weren't concerned about money.  It's not hard to set a lower budget for the dishes that aren't going to use meat, but a good team does that at the beginning.

 

17 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I vaguely recall that Top Chef had a deal with Schwan's for some frozen dinners.  I think I bought a few, they were tasty--and expensive.

You can still purchase Tre and CJ's lobster ravioli meal from Bertolli!

[carrps]

On 12/14/2018 at 6:15 AM, Ohiopirate02 said:

I was also disappointed that the challenge was set up with a white judge introducing the chefs including African American chefs to the regional cuisine.  The vast majority of the dishes are directly linked to African dishes the slaves brought over.  When the guest judge was explaining the name for hoecakes while using the polite euphemism of "they,"  I got upset.  I was pleasantly surprised that Bravo did keep in Eric talking about when he first had his dish in Ghana.  What really frustrates me about this is I know that Padma has read Michael Twitty's The Cooking Gene.  She posted a picture on Twitter of her reading it well before this season started filming.  I hope this is the last challenge where the producers want to pretend that Kentucky was not a slave state.  I don't know if I can watch anymore like this.

Thank you. Recently I found out that my three times great grandfather's farm outside Cincinnati was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Cincinnati is really close to Kentucky. Fairly or not it makes me think worse of Kentucky.  

Sad to hear Miss Paducah gets worse. She was seriously working my last nerve. I was so glad Nini stepped up and told her to just pick a dish already. Criminy.

[Charlesman]

Eddie "Money" has taken some heat, but, to be fair... the criticisms for almost all the dishes, and especially those on the bottom, were on poor technique and preparation. Yeah, Justin could have used more ingredients for his dish, but, Tom thought it was fine and he was safe. Eric wanted more blood orange, but, the judges though the dish was great how it was and he wasn't in danger.

But there was no fixing it in the grocery store for poorly made biscuits or underbaked food. 

Also, it is part of "the game" of Top Chef, dealing with the others in a team challenge. Actually, it's part of "the game" I don't usually like, and I'm glad they didn't do in this episode what I've seen done in the past. Sometimes, when the chefs have a team issue... for example, one obstinate teammate wants to just do something completely wrong, like used canned tomato sauce in his pasta dish, and the judges will ding the whole team for not stopping him and having him ruin the whole team's dining experience and being the reason they end up on the bottom... but... when a teammate gets talked out of doing something that might have won it for the team, like, adding more seasoning to a bland dish that became the reason they lost, the judges will ding that chef for "not standing up for what you think is right". So I'm glad that, in this episode, they took in the information about Eddie using up the bulk of the budget, but, seemed to fairly judge everyone for what they presented and how they made do with what they had.

 

All that said, yeah, Eddie deserves some heat. I wouldn't go so far as to say he should have been eliminated for it, and he's not "dead to me" or anything, but, he earned some shade.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 12/14/2018 at 5:33 PM, rwgrab said:

On 12/14/2018 at 11:15 AM, Mambo Queen said:

I would bet a lot of money that the reason for that was that Top Chef will soon be hopping on the Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, meal kit delivery service bandwagon.

Yes!  This was my exact thought.  Maybe the service isn't ready to roll out yet, but their big plan was to have it coincide with this episode.  The branded boxes?  The little Top Chef stationary for the recipe?  It has to be a meal kit thing.

 

On 12/14/2018 at 5:49 PM, biakbiak said:

For what it’s worth TC does have a relationship with Blue Apron, the last few seasons the winner has created meals for them.

I also assumed the Blue Apron connection and kept waiting for the episode to reveal it.   That's what I found odd.  Why didn't it happen?

 

On 12/14/2018 at 12:06 AM, Bastet said:

Did he have the butchers do something to it?  He was checking in on whether it was ready, so maybe that was just packaging it, but maybe it was something that meant he couldn't go back to the meat counter and exchange it because they couldn't just put the lamb back in the case.

I'm guessing because they had already frenched the chops.  As far as that goes, if he had gotten straight up rack of lamb it would have been cheaper, but less "refined" I suppose.  I love lamb myself so I hate frenched lamb chops because you get so much less meat.   He could have checked on the cost of frenched vs. standard beforehand, I assume, but he didn't.  It's probably been a long time since he paid retail for meat or any of his raw ingredients so I guess  he just wasn't thinking.

[biakbiak]

3 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

I'm guessing because they had already frenched the chops.  As far as that goes, if he had gotten straight up rack of lamb it would have been cheaper, but less "refined" I suppose. 

They didn’t french  most of the chops only the ones that were already in the case were frenched, most of what he bought were the full rack because all he was using was the loin and cut it off the bone (and discarded that part) when he got back to the kitchen. 

Edited December 16, 2018 by biakbiak

[rose711]

Lemons are cheap. They surely could have found room in the budget. 

Im interested in a few of the chefs, but I haven’t enjoyed any of the challenges.  Not sure how much I will keep watching.

[Vermicious Knid]

They showed 3 or 4 shopping carts that had to be abandoned because of the lamb. Looked like everyone but Eddie had to put things back. That $250 would have sure gone a longer way on more ingredients.

[mlp]

Quote

They showed 3 or 4 shopping carts that had to be abandoned because of the lamb. 

There was a LOT of stuff in those carts.  What that said to me is that none of the chefs were shopping smart.  They must have all just been throwing things in their carts in case they needed them or because they hadn't really thought through what they were going to make.  After they were forced to make choices, most of them were able to pull off decent dishes.  I did feel sorry for the guy who lacked spices.

Eddie was still at fault though.  He acts like a whipped puppy.  I wonder if working for Nick Elmi has sapped his self-confidence.  

[seltzer3]

Funny how Eddie is Nick Elmi's mentor.  Since Nick had the reputation of screwing his entire team (yeah I'm still bitter that poor Stephanie got eliminated), because he has immunity.  I guess apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I get that Eddie wasn't willing to budge on the lamb.  However, I noticed that he wasn't even willing to sacrifice the other ingredients that he was using for the lamb (like his vegetables or the spices.  That's pretty messed up.  If he was able to give those away, he probably could have chopped 100-150 from his budget, to give the rest of the team some breathing room.

I do feel for Natalie, because I'm not sure if the chefs knew they were cooking outside.  I wonder if she thought they were cooking inside a kitchen instead of 90 degree weather.  I think what she could have done was make a parfait, aka "deconstructed lemon meringue pie".  That's what a general trick for baking is.  If you screw up baking a cake or pie, make it into a "parfait" or "crumble".  Although I'm pretty sure that the judges would probably call her out for doing that.  And her cream she made melted.

Also, what did David do differently than Eddie?  I thought they both buy the same lamb parts, yet David didn't screw his team's budget?

Edited December 16, 2018 by seltzer3

[rhys]

Agree so much with above. Bravo left out so much & we viewers would sure like to know wtf happened re: vis a vis 2 lamb dishes & why the chefs were so willing to give up spices & lemons. Crikey. That makes no sense.

[snarktini]

I was wondering: Did the other team get to the meat counter first and clear out the other lamb, the less expensive option Eddie was planning on? They didn't show anything like that in the footage but it is the only thing that makes any sense. 

[FinnishViewer]

Quote

They removed things that had already been wrong up, you can see them take back things from the other side of the cashier. I imagine Eddie only bought just enough lamb for his dishes. Most people we’re only giving up backup/extra stuff, the main problem was that there was a series of other mishaps that couldn’t be solved easily because they didn’t have enough back up

I thought a large reason why they couldn't fix the problem was because the time to shop was also running out? Meaning they would not have had enough time to figure out, how much of the lamb they should return and then ring in the other stuff.

[Rai]

In this episode, I realized I'd been confusing David and Eddie for each other. Like, I thought they were one person. Now that I know better, I'm more comfortable with David clearly doing well in the first couple challenges. 

Eddie, however, is clearly Nick Elmi's boy. Talented, but a sad sack who screwed over his teammates. Oh, I know, it's not really a fair assessment. But it's entertainment, so I'm not going to be fair about it. :D

Still rooting for Eric and Nini. Still intrigued by Kelsey? Big Blond "Bama. I admit that Sara did get obnoxious though, sooooooooo...I mean, if she's talented, bring it on. I don't have to love your personality. But I'm liking the other chefs I named more.

Brandon can go home anytime he wants. He looks like his eyebrows have already bailed on him, so the rest can follow.

[carrps]

On 12/16/2018 at 9:46 AM, stewedsquash said:

The lemon pie dish did not look appealing on the plate and it didn't to me seem to be a play on the lemon dish that the distillery chef made. That looked to me to be a lemon chess pie (it was called disappearing or something wasn't it?) so the creamy filling she used didn't relate back to the original pie.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I Binged Padma and carnival and came up empty. What was the playful banter about her and carnivals from Tom?

He called it "invisible pie," and I wished they'd explained, because I had no real clue what he meant by that. I know they're time-limited, but it was unclear.

The carnival thing was just a joke between Tom and Padma.  I'm quite sure she's never worked in a carnival. :-)

[luna1122]

12 minutes ago, carrps said:

He called it "invisible pie," and I wished they'd explained, because I had no real clue what he meant by that. I know they're time-limited, but it was unclear.

The carnival thing was just a joke between Tom and Padma.  I'm quite sure she's never worked in a carnival. :-)

I've lived in Kentucky my entire life and I'd never heard of it, let alone tasted this supposedly Kentucky speciality, tho I do believe it's the same thing as 'transparent' pie, which is basically a chess pie, which is, you know, sugar and eggs. Or I could be wrong.

I've been to several distillery tours, but never to Maker's Mark, for some reason. It sure looked pretty.

Eddie reminds me of actor Patrick Fugit, who I find adorable, so I'm not hating on him the way I am apparently supposed to, because I'm shallow. So far, I really like Eric, Kelsey, justin and Nini, and I really liked Natalie, so i'm sad she's gone. The only contestant I flat out don't care for is Brandon.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, carrps said:

The carnival thing was just a joke between Tom and Padma.  I'm quite sure she's never worked in a carnival. :

Yeah it started at the table when they were eating and Tom said that the corn dog banana was like the best carnival food ever and Padma said if she knew carnival food was like that she would have joined a carnival years ago and then they called it back at Judges Table joking that she had that in her past.

Edited December 17, 2018 by biakbiak

[carrps]

2 hours ago, luna1122 said:

I've lived in Kentucky my entire life and I'd never heard of it, let alone tasted this supposedly Kentucky speciality, tho I do believe it's the same thing as 'transparent' pie, which is basically a chess pie, which is, you know, sugar and eggs. Or I could be wrong.

I've been to several distillery tours, but never to Maker's Mark, for some reason.

Transparent? Invisible? Heh, I'd never heard either term before. (Personal aside: folks like you are making feel better about Kentucky!)

I don't know that I've ever even drunk any Bourbon. I'm not a whiskey type (even though I'm close to 50% Scottish). An ex-bf tried to convert me into a Scotch drinker, but he finally took the glass away from me (apparently, I'd been grimacing) and told me I'm a waste of good Scotch.

[jpgr]

3 hours ago, luna1122 said:

Eddie reminds me of actor Patrick Fugit

YES! Thank you, I was trying to figure out who he reminded me of and this is exactly it!

[Yeah No]

5 hours ago, luna1122 said:

Eddie reminds me of actor Patrick Fugit, who I find adorable, so I'm not hating on him the way I am apparently supposed to, because I'm shallow. 

He reminds me a little of Jeremiah Raber from "Breaking Amish".

[hoosiermommy]

There were 4 full carts of things the black team had to abandon. Even if Eddie had been right in his estimate, they wouldn’t have had enough money to pay for that.

 

I am trying to decide if Brandon (aka “Pompous-dor”) is really arrogant or just has a complete lack of self-awareness.

[seltzer3]

In fairness, I did notice that Brandon stood up for Natalie during the trainwreck shopping spree.  He was telling people that she still has to have a dish to make, while everyone else sounded like they wanted her give up a lot of her ingredients.

[bad things are bad]

Quote

I've been to several distillery tours, but never to Maker's Mark, for some reason.

We did a couple last year, one being Woodford Reserve which is quite beautiful 

[theatremouse]

On 12/14/2018 at 2:49 PM, biakbiak said:

I wonder about the filming timeline for this episode because they made it seem like two days and I know it’s a fairly short flight between KY and NYC but that would be quite a tight schedule for Nilou to do the quickfire, fly to NYC, film the segment with Gail, and return in time for the challenge the next day at Maker’s Mark.

If she were on a private plane instead of a commercial flight, it'd be very easy.

[biakbiak]

4 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

If she were on a private plane instead of a commercial flight, it'd be very easy.

Even with private planes it’s still going to be a tight schedule given all the factors add in the fact that Gail must have given birth at most two or three days after filming her segment and I am still interested in the timeline.

[bluepiano]

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 2:50 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

I didn't realize Meyer Lemons aren't the same taste as regular lemons (I'm obviously not much of a cook), so Natalie should have opted for regular lemons instead, so combined with the unbaked crust, she does sound like a good choice to go home.    However, I really think it should have been a double elimination, with Brandon going bye-bye also.  

When the judges were critical of virtually every aspect of Brandon's dish I became fairly certain he wasn't going home. I saw the standard competition reality show fake-out. There has to be some element of suspense/surprise at the elimination announcement. So the most obvious one to be eliminated, based on the judges' comment usually isn't. Which leaves us, the viewers, thinking that the wrong person was eliminated. But all we know is what the judges tell us., and they could be exaggerating the faults in Brandon's dish.

[bitchin camaro]

On 12/17/2018 at 9:54 PM, hoosiermommy said:

 

 

I am trying to decide if Brandon (aka “Pompous-dor”) is really arrogant or just has a complete lack of self-awareness.

Probably a bit of both but also some really unfriendly editing. Although I thought I noticed when everyone else was super stoked about the $10k prize, he looked like he thought that was pocket change. (I’m probably wrong on that, but it was before he started to grow on me a little so I may have been overly critical. )

Edited December 19, 2018 by bitchin camaro

[Colorado David]

On 12/14/2018 at 9:42 PM, Irlandesa said:

I am wondering about the rules of shopping.  The way they talked, they made it seem like Eddie buying the lamb was a fait accompli.  I don't recall any talk of him possibly going with less lamb or selecting a different protein.  It made me think that once the items are rung up, they're technically bought and can't be removed from the cart. 

I also have a little sympathy for Natalie.  IIRC, they didn't know how hot the tent was going to be until after they had purchased their groceries for their pre-approved dishes.  Even with her crust mistake, Brandon's dish sounded worse with issues unrelated to ingredients. 

My gosh, this. As a chef, they carry around pens on their sleeves. Put a STUPID tiny calculator in there as well so you can keep a running total of your basket. You can even buy a digital watch that have calculators on them.