Top Chef All Stars Are In the Bahamas and Certifiable

This post is even later than usual because of a horrible week with a burned-out computer. I am NOT going to complain, though, but just say remember the Red Cross and all their efforts in Japan.

Welcome to my office hours. Clearly I’m not a Scientologist, because I believe that ALL the contestants on Top Chef could do with a little sit-down (or in Richard’s case a LIE-down) with a good shrink to work out their many issues. These have been prominently on display in the Top Chef kitchen and have seriously impacted each chef’s performance…for good and bad.

I’m dispensing with the blow-by-blow (mostly) for this week’s post. One reason is to talk about the psychological problems of these wacky chefs, but the other reason is because I found this episode to be a completely lackluster and rather dispiriting hour of television and not worth my time (but especially yours) to describe it in detail. They (not the chefs, but the producers AND the judges) seemed to devote SO LITTLE ENERGY to the actual challenges that I’m not going to dignify them by reporting on them minute by minute.

Take the Quickfire. (Please.) Each chef had to cook against the chef that won his or her season. It was so glossed over that I felt sorry that the chefs had to waste their (and our) energy thinking about it, much less DOING it. They were in an old ruin and they were told to cook a protein that Tom had picked. Again with the cooking in a dodgy environment with dicey sanitation.

The long-awaited return (if only by his immediate family) of Hosea amounted to almost nothing, but, in this case, it actually wasn’t his fault. He did say that this was an opportunity to prove to “the haters” that he deserved to win Top Chef.  But the whole challenge was so rushed and so irrelevant that we didn’t even CARE who won.

I had thought there would be an elimination in the Quickfire, which would have added a little vim to the situation, but, no. Each group cooked and one person in each group won $10,000. Then the former winners left and the current contestants stayed. Kind of dumb.

BTW, Tiffany beat Kevin; Hosea did beat Carla, but not because of anything HE did. Carla’s rice was completely undercooked; Richard beat Stephanie and Stephanie beat Antonia. (Richard actually allowed himself to enjoy the win. Good step in the right direction.) And Mike beat Mike Voltaggio. That was pretty big. And all the more pointless for Mike (V.) to have gone there.

But let’s move on to the psychological assessment of the chefs.

Carla described herself as someone “who gave her power away” in HER season of Top Chef, so this time she was super-conscious of cooking her own food, her own way. She had success in different challenges with this new attitude, but it’s worrying that she talks about this season being about Redemption. That says to me that if she doesn’t win, in HER mind she wasn’t redeemed and was, in fact, a failure.

I find it fascinating that the chefs don’t view the situation as simply their DISHES being failures. Instead they look at THEMSELVES as failures if their dishes fail. What’s that old saying? – You can hate the act, without hating the actor, so can’t a chef have a bad dish without being a bad chef?

Richard has been showing doubts from the beginning. He’s a minefield of psychological torment. He tells us at the beginning of the episode that he’s not only worried about losing another round of Top Chef, but also about missing the birth of his daughter, Embryo Gingerroot, Embry Lotus.

Right before the judges taste his food in the Elimination Challenge, Richard says, “It’s disgusting.” Tiffany asks who he’s talking to and he says himself. She says he should talk to someone. I take that as meaning a mental health professional, but she probably just means one of them.

Richard says later his dish might be awful in many different ways. Then in their (Bahamian) stew room, he says, “I hate everything I do.” He repeats that TO THE JUDGES, looking for their reassurance. He seems to have so little self esteem for whatever reason, which manifests itself as crushing doubt in everything he does. Obviously his food is an extension of that. That’s why he pushes and pushes himself for the need to prove that he’s not unworthy. That’s a heavy burden to carry with EVERY dish that he cooks.

Plus how can Richard win, if ALL he thinks about is losing? Hasn’t he ever read The Secret? Hasn’t he ever studied the law of attraction? Also, as we saw in the Ellis Island episode, he was so cowed by the opinion of his wife that it’s easy for him to become frozen by self-doubt and blow the whole thing. All of this in spite of his superior technical skills.

There must have been a female figure somewhere in his life that held great sway over him as he was developing emotionally. Someone needs to tell him it’s about HIM now. It’s all on HIS shoulders, win or lose, triumph or burn. It shouldn’t matter about pleasing people in his past (or present), who probably cannot be pleased all that easily. He needs to be able to rely on himself. Of course, this is probably all hooey, but I see the same patterns in Richard over and over and they seemed pretty clear in this episode.

My spin about Mike is that this Top Chef season for him has been about discovering family. At about the same time that he came to grips with the long-ago loss of his grandmother, he found out that Antonia was a distant cousin. Interesting. He had been avoiding cooking his grandmother’s Italian cuisine his entire career. By embracing it, he won a challenge AND began to appreciate his and Antonia’s common heritage. It was actually sweet (which is not a word you think of with Mike) that his feelings for Antonia instantly changed (and HERS for him) the minute he found out they were related.

Talking about Antonia, clearly she projects an image of strength and capability. She’s a single mother who really wants to be a great example to her daughter. But she seemed most affected when she learned about her MALE relatives at Ellis Island. She was impressed by how they came to America to make better lives for their families.

And it was interesting that in that challenge, she pretended to be a mid-century housewife preparing a meal to please her husband and the father of the family. Clearly, that’s NOT who she is at the moment, but that ideal seems to hold great sway for her.

Who am I missing? Oh, Tiffany. Actually, there’s not much grist for the mill in analyzing her. She’s straightforward and seems well-adjusted and basically wears her heart on her sleeve. She’s not conflicted and tortured about anything.  She does call herself an underdog, but she doesn’t really cook like it.

A few other observations about what went on in this episode:

The chefs were told that their Elimination Challenge would be a meal for Bahamian royalty. I don’t know which is dumber – that the chefs thought there WAS a King of the Bahamas or that the producers thought they could pull that off! (Obviously, they did.)

Eric Ripert, one of the guest judges, poured it on when he told the chefs that it was an honor that they were being included in such a prestigious event. Not ONE chef thought to say, what the hey are you talking about??! There IS no royalty in the Bahamas!!!

The chefs KNEW they were going to the Bahamas. You would have thought they would do a bit of reading up on the fact that it became fully independent in 1973. (It used to be a British colony and is still a member of the Commonwealth.) Did they really think Queen Elizabeth would come strolling in to participate in a Top Chef challenge or that Kate and Will would stop by? Dumb, dumb, dumb!

The most noteworthy king in the Bahamas is usually found under a limbo pole – Action, The Limbo King is his name.

So after the chefs spend a day planning a fancy schmancy meal for “royalty”, it turns out they’re cooking for the Bahamian equivalent of the Mummers.  Percy “Vola” Francis, the King of Junkanoo, is a jovial guy and very regal in his bearing, but you get the feeling it’s not a palace that he’s going home to. He explains that Junkanoo is “a celebration of life in the Bahamas” like Carnival or Mardi Gras. The chefs find out they’re cooking for all the gaily-garbed celebrants in a little tiny local restaurant.

Antonia actually says that this was not the king and queen she was expecting. WHICH KING AND QUEEN WAS SHE EXPECTING??! I really want to know.

Chaos ensues when the kitchen (and restaurant) has to be evacuated when a fire breaks out in a fryer. The kitchen is cleaned up and Tom tells the chefs that they will be cooking ALL over again and serving later that night. I’m getting the same cooking-till-you-drop feeling that happened at Target.

The thing that bothered me most about his episode, though, was what happened when the chefs served their food. The King, in half regalia, arrived in the restaurant with Tom, Gail, Eric and Padma. They ALL squeezed into a booth with very little elbow room. It was hot, they were sweaty, it was probably 2 in the morning or later and there was just no energy in the room. That’s kind of ironic, because these dancing folks were in the most beautiful, brilliantly colored feathered costumes. That’s another thing., NO WAY would they go out and eat in their costumes. Dumb again.

Eric is SQUISHED in the corner, Gail is melting between Tom and Eric and the King says he likes sweet food (unlike the judges, in the case of Carla’s dish). The only one who looks relaxed and cool is Padma. The other judges are a bit short as they say what they don’t like about all the dishes. I just hate the setting. I hate the WAY they’re doing the tasting. The conversation is stilted and I just want them to get out of there.

So what happens? Mike wins and Richard is the second one who’s safe, Who goes home? Carla. It could have been Tiffany or Carla, and I wish it hadn’t been Carla. But by the end, they didn’t make me care about any of them. I just wanted all of them to go home, fight off dehydration and get some sleep.  That’s what I intend to do. 

Le Bernardin Wows; What I Was Worried About Before Going Plus A Menu Secret Revealed

I’ve been to a lot of great restaurants in different places, but I had never been lucky enough to go to Le Bernardin. That is until just a little bit ago. H(usband) and I were celebrating a big anniversary and I was really excited about going to this temple of great food for the first time. We had no problem making a reservation for a recent Friday night, which I hoped wasn’t a bad sign. The place WAS pretty full.

I was nervous about only one thing, well two, actually. I knew the food would be amazing, but would Le Bernardin be really formal and stuffy? And most of all, what would happen when I whipped out my camera? Would they hiss at me to put it away and look down their nose at me the rest of the night?

We got there a few minutes early and we were invited to wait just a minute for our table. I took that as an opportunity to chat up the Maitre D’ and ask him if the chef was in the house. In a heavily (French, of course) accent, he said no. I said, oh that was too bad, because I wanted to talk to him about voting Kenny off Top Chef. He (the maitre D’) said, “Oh Kenny went home?” I was worried I had ruined the show for him, but he said no and we discussed the in’s and out’s of Top Chef. That was a good start, I thought.

As we were being seated, we saw the sommelier taking pictures of one table of people with their camera. He couldn’t have been friendlier or nicer about it. So that was my second big worry down the drain before we even reached our table.

No menus yet, we first ordered a drink and were asked the type of water we wanted. I ALWAYS order New York’s finest. And I had a kir royale. Yummy. H had a glass of white wine.

The room itself is beautifully appointed, but more men's club than romantic getaway. It was very plush and comfortable and the only thing I wished was that the lights had been a little lower. Plus there were no tables in any discreet corners. It's definitely a place to see and to BE seen.

The menus came, which I always check out in advance. But I hadn’t realized there was no a la carte menu. Le Bernardin has 2 tasting menus and a prix fixe FOUR course menu. The four course menu had loads of choices, but you did have to order all 4 courses (which included dessert), whether you wanted to or not.

I’m not sure I feel about this. I remember a particularly mediocre place in Bermuda with a lovely view, but less lovely food. They made you order four courses of not very good food and it was more a chore than a delight.

Of course, when you order a multi-coursed TASTING menu, you know what you’re getting yourself into. You want to have the chef’s vision of the perfect progression of courses. Prix fixe menus offer more choice than that and I have no problem with them, but FOUR courses isn’t an option that everyone enjoys.

However, the French aren’t known for being democratic and certainly not in the kitchen, so if Chef Ripert wants to offer 4 courses, that’s his prerogative. Plus there WERE 12 choices in EACH of the first 3 savory courses, so really there was nothing to complain about.

The amuse from the kitchen was tiny squares of fried squid (I‘ve NEVER had it cut like that) with a wonderful aioli. (Don’t kill me if it was a tartar sauce, I actually can’t remember. The kir had just kicked in.)

First course:

H ordered the Sea Urchin - Sea Urchin Roe On A Bed Of Jalapeno – Wasabi Jam, Seaweed Salt, Wakama – Orange Scented Broth.

It did look like brains and had a firm texture, but no hint of rubberiness. It soaked up the salty broth beautifully. I didn’t get any hotness in my taste, but it seemed as if it had been grabbed right from the ocean.

I started with Pounded Tuna - Layers Of Thinly Pounded Yellowfin Tuna; Foie Gras And Toasted Baguette, Shaved Chives And Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Okay, THIS is what I’m talking about! This is the reason to come to Le Bernardin. The hearty fish is pounded thin, which is interesting. I liked the hearty texture and taste of tuna as a counterpoint to its delicate presentation. There was just a hint of the fatty richness of the foie gras and a very slight crispness in every bite from the baguette, which you couldn’t see, but you had this hint of.

I don’t know how shaving a chive is different from snipping it, but the tiny pieces of chives almost seemed as if they had been arranged with tweezers, they were so beautifully scattered around.

A whisper of olive oil enriched the dish and echoed the rich feel of the foie gras on the palate. Seriously, this was an artful dish that displayed all the best of Le Bernardin.

Course two started with H’s Langoustine – Seared Langoustine, Mache And Wild Mushroom Salad, Shaved Foie Gras, White Balsamic Vinaigrette.

The langoustine itself was so tender, moist and flavorful that anything else in the dish would have to be extraordinary to even notice it. I do love white balsamic vinegar. It lifts every dish to a new level and it did that with the “salad” ingredients and foie gras. I would call the salad more of a garnish rather than an accompaniment and that was just fine. It didn’t take anything away from the perfect langoustine and actually enhanced every bite.

My second course was Lobster - Warm Lobster Carpaccio; Hearts Of Palm, Orange Vinaigrette.

I adore hearts of palm and I was looking forward to this combination. This dish was the only one with a hint that a mere mortal, and not a god, had cooked it. The lobster was JUST on the wrong side of rubbery. Plus the flavor didn’t compare to the langoustines, which were so sweet. I loved the dressing and the snipped chives and the hearts of palm, of course, but both H and I agreed the langoustine won that round.

There was no question that I would order the Black Bass. Why? Because I loved baos – the little steamed buns. They are among my most favorite things.

Black Bass - Crispy Black Bass, Lup Cheong And Bean Sprout Risotto, Mini Steamed Buns, Hoisin-Plum Jus

The bass was so moist and tender, but it was quite meaty too. The skin was a super thin layer of divine crispiness. I also love hoisin sauce and I really liked the sweetness it gave the sauce. The buns were just right with a touch of the Chinese sausage (lup cheong) on top.

H had the Hiramasa - Seared Yellowtail King Fish, Truffle Risotto, Spring Vegetables, Black Truffle Emulsion.

It was a riot of truffles, both on the risotto and in the sauce. It was beautifully cooked, but I actually preferred the black bass and my cute baos. The risotto was so rich and full of that musky truffle taste that I actually thought they could have served it with less yellowtail. A few pieces would have done it.

I have to mention the sommelier. He was seriously good looking, REALLY cute.

This blurry picture doesn’t do him justice. I asked him for a red wine that would knock our socks off, a wine that would really grab us. He found us a wine that WAS a bit more than our budget, but it was fabulous and I will always remember it.

Plus to see him smile when we told him we liked it was (almost) worth the price of admission.

The whole staff was so friendly and down to earth and utterly professional. I asked the waiter, actually he was kind of the HEAD waiter type guy, if I could take the menu home. Not only did he say bien sur, he brought me the dinner and dessert menus in a nice big envelope. Oh, and when he showed us the dessert menu, he asked if we could guess what that was on the cover. I couldn’t. Can you? Look for the answer in the first comment to this post.

On to dessert. BTW, the pastry chef blogs here and here. One dessert was Tres Leches - Milk-Soaked Sponge, Roasted White Chocolate, Banana, Lemon, Coconut Sorbet

This is interesting. When I read the description of this dish, the lemon stood out. White chocolate, banana and…lemon? That’s not a common combination, but what it did was to ensure that the white chocolate wasn’t too sweet. It was inspired. Plus the coconut sorbet was a nice, exotic touch on a plate of very calm flavors.

I broke my usual no-chocolate in restaurants rule and we also ordered the Chocolate-Peanut dessert - Dark Chocolate Ganache, Salted Peanuts, Caramel, Lemon Purée, Peanut Powder, Praline-Citrus Sorbet.

The chocolate ganache tart was fantastic. How could it not be? But again, there was an out of ordinary lemon touch, which added such an interesting dimension. The salty and sweet combination really worked too. This was such a seriously thought-out dessert that it’s actually making my head spin thinking about it. You have sweet and sour; sweet and salty; chocolate and nut flavors together; nut and citrus. Wow!

The Petit Fours arrived and we actually left a couple. There was just no need to eat anything else.

The food, the kir royale, the wine (plus the cute guy serving it) and the service – all were nearly perfect. Oh, I did think the bread guy was a few steps behind in his game, but everything else was pretty superb.

One more thing…H, thank you for such a beautiful meal. To you, to us...

Top Chef DC - Cross Dressing, Frozen Food Purveyors And Baseball Food

Top Chef DC – Making Concessions

Inexplicably, the show starts with Ed wearing a bright yellow dress of Tiffany’s. Amanda wants to know if he’s wearing her undies too. Gross.

We hear Angelo talking about his early dreams of being a great chef. Amanda mocks him (to us) for talking to himself and being an Anthony Robbins follower.

Rick Moonen is in the kitchen with Padma. Tiffany hopes it will be a seafood challenge. Padma starts spouting cooking idioms. Angelo looks really confused.

Their Quickfire challenge is to create a dish based on a food idiom. Schwan’s Home Service will turn the winning recipe into a frozen meal. I never heard of Schwan’s Home Service before Top Chef. It makes me think of Schrafft’s and the awesome kitchen sink sundaes they used to have. That sounds a whole lot better than some frozen entrée.

Actually was that Schrafft’s or Jahn’s? This is bad when I’m busy thinking of my ice cream past rather than the Top Chefs in front of me. Plus do people REALLY order and eat that frozen stuff? If you’ve ever #1 HEARD of Schwan’s (before Top Chef), please tell me. And #2 if you’ve ever actually ordered from them, I’d love to hear about it.

Kelly thinks it’s time for Amanda to go home. Ed thinks she has no technique and is a slob. Angelo thinks she could be the dark horse. I don’t think so. Amanda thinks that Ed is crazy for making gnocchi in an hour. Tiffany is using canned beans. Isn’t that always a problem?

These are the idioms they had to use to create their dishes:

Kevin – Bring home the bacon

Amanda – The Big cheese

Kelly- Sour Grapes

Ed – Hot potato

Tiffany – Spill the beans

Angelo- Bigger fish to fry

When Rick is tasting his dish, Angelo goes into a rather elaborate explanation of how he coated his fish “in an ancient preparation of glutinous rice and water”. BUT he didn’t have any glutinous rice, so he used cornstarch.

Oh, does he mean the same thing that Wanchai Ferry uses in their frozen Chinese food that that moth-eaten Panda sells on television? SO what IS the biggie about that?

This was so ridiculously grandiose of Angelo. Oh, I wanted to give you a ruby from ancient India, but I didn’t have one, so I went to Claire’s and got you this red glass piece of crap necklace. Dumb! The point is that it’s not news to coat a fish with cornstarch before frying!!! Luckily, Rick couldn’t have seemed less interested in all of that.

Losers –

Kelly – the Brussels sprouts and concord grape purée didn’t go well together.

Amanda – her dish was “like a sledge hammer to the gut”, Rick says. She REALLY thought it was good.

Winners –

Kevin – Bacon 3 Ways: Bacon Purée, Chopped Bacon & Bacon Froth With A Poached Egg.

Angelo says there’s no way that could become a frozen meal. Good point, actually…although his dish does sound awesome. Rick says it had a “new level of lightness and balance”.

Ed – Herb & Roasted Garlic Gnocchi, Spring Vegetables & Mushroom Fricassee

Rick says the gnocchi was “well conceived. Everything on that plate was well thought out.”

The winner is Ed. Angelo tells us he can totally see Ed’s face on the packaging of the Schwan’s meal. “He kind of does look like a potato actually.” Hardy-har-har.

Elimination Challenge –

They have to create fine dining versions of ballpark food at DC’s baseball stadium.

Angelo: “I love baseball. I’m half Dominican, baseball’s in my blood. Until this day, I still want to be a professional baseball player.” What was all that stuff about wanting to be a chef his whole life?

They’re working as a team to serve 6 dishes. Amanda wants to do something cold with crab, but Kelly wants to make a crabcake, so she asks Amanda to change hers to fish. She agrees for some reason.

They go shopping and go back to the kitchen. They’re all making huge amounts of food. They have to serve 150 people. Amanda decides to make tuna tartare. WHY? AND she decides to make it the day before. Angelo tells her she can make it in a meat grinder.

Ed’s math is bit off. He says he making 3 shrimp and corn poppers per person, so he says he needs 550 pieces. Okay, NOT! So he’s actually going to make ONE HUNDRED more than he needs, because he can’t multiply.

That night they suddenly thinks about who is going to take the orders during service. That’s smart to have realized that. HOW WERE they going to do that? Angelo volunteers to take orders, which means others will be serving his dish, I guess.

They arrive at the beautiful ballpark and the cramped quarters of the concession stand. Angelo realizes it might not have been such a great idea to be the one taking orders. He tries to change the whole thing and get each chef to take orders, but the other chefs aren’t having any of it, especially Kevin. I don’t blame him or any of them. Angelo shouldn’t have volunteered.

Tom comes by with some players. They’re really large. The chefs don’t have time to chat. “You and your tree trunks, leave,” Amanda says (to us). Amanda notices her tuna tartare is grey from oxidation. Oh well, Angelo thinks.

Kevin asks Tiffany to taste his dish. She says she’s always going to be honest and not try to screw the other chefs. She says it needs salt. “Nobody is going home, because of me.” She’s a great gal. I think she’ll go far – her food can be great and she is creating some pretty great karma for herself.

The place is opening. Millions of people arrive all at once. Well, tens at least. The only dishes that are being ordered are Tiffany’s meatballs and Kelly’s crab cakes. “It shows that the concept is appropriate for where we are,” Kelly says.

The ball players like everything, even the tuna tartare. Wait, they don’t like whatever dish they’ve described as a chewed-up caterpillar.

The judges arrive. Padma’s baseball jersey is cute.

Amanda - Tuna Tartare

Rick Moonen says Amanda’s choice of serving raw fish at a baseball stadium takes some “baseballs”. Eric doesn’t like that the tartare ees so grey. Here’s a recipe for tuna tartare from Chef Ripert. Tom says the Amanda did a nice job on the vegetables. His critique of her dish isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Kelly - Crab Cake

Rick: It “has some good flavor. It showed off the flavor of the crab.” Padma finds it salty. Tom thinks it’s perfect if the aim is to get you to drink more beer.

Tiffany - Meatball Sandwich

Rick: ”Tiffany took the classic Italian sausage and brought it up to the next level. Eric: I find it a bit difficult to eat.“ Eric is definitely a white tablecloth and silverware kind of guy, so he worries about how messy things are. Rick replies, “You have to take charge...” in order to eat it.

Ed - Shrimp and Corn Fritters

Rick thinks he did a good job. Tom: “The corn is nice and sweet. That’s really good. ”

Kevin – Chicken Skewers

Kevin places the French fries on top to give a little crispy bite. That was a mistake. Eric says the chicken is moist, but he’s not a fan of soggy French fries. People are having a problem with the huge skewers he served it on, saying it could get dangerous.

Angelo - Pork Bun

Eric: It has “way too much bread”. Tom says hot dog rolls are too doughy. Rick says it’s spicy but has no finish. Tom says the bread kills the finish.

Kevin is worried because his dish didn’t get tons of orders and he thinks his execution was flawed.

There’s a senseless bit with Angelo on his bed talking on some red phone or other to his Russian “fiancée” (yeah sure – they’ve only met “a couple of times”).

Everybody is called into judges table. Padma asks how Angelo ended up running orders. There’s a bit of a scuff-up about how that happened. Tiffany (in odd patchwork, plaid shorts) doesn’t want them to think that Angelo was being a saint offering to do it. Kevin gets involved and finally Padma says let’s move on.

The top dishes were Ed’s and Tiffany’s.

Eric commends Ed on making a dish “that was not messy. It was easy to eat.” Ed is very diplomatic and just says COOL.

Tom, kind of mocking Eric I thought, says, Yes, Ed’s was a very “TIDY” dish, but that Tiffany’s was not, but it was delicious.

Tiffany laughs and says that if she eats a hamburger and juice isn’t coming out, she’s not enjoying it. Tom guffaws along with her. Rick says, “You had to wrestle it a little bit, but I found that the fun of it. “

The winner is Ed. Rick says as the winner he gets a copy of his book. Ed is diplomatic again and says “Awesome” without a hint of "What the HAY, what’s the rest of my prize?" THEN Padma announces that he’s also won a trip to Australia and will be staying at the Hilton Sydney. “Cool”, he says. He may have liked the book better, I can’t tell.

Tiffany and Ed get to leave.

As far as the other dishes: Tom says he liked that Amanda tried to do something different. Eric wasn’t happy with the dish. He says when the tartare oxidizes, it gives the impression that the fish ees not fresh.

Eric says Kevin’s fries became soggy and all the judges felt the dish lacked distinctive flavors.

They’re saying bad things about Kelly’s crab cakes now. I thought they liked it. Oh, they think the bacon was too thickly cut, so did Kelly, actually.

This is funny about Angelo. Tom says, “You have sandwich shop. The proportion of bread to everything that’s inside it is so important.“ I can attest to how good his sandwiches are, though, in his sandwich shop.

Padma says his bread was a problem and so was the fact that it was too sweet. They’re REALLY letting him have it. Angelo says he used napa cabbage to cut down on the sweetness. They say Napa cabbage is sweet.

The chefs go back to the stew room. Tom seems rather rambunctious in his criticisms of the various dishes. He’s actually mad about some of them.

The loser is…Amanda. Not a surprise, except that it took so long. Frankly, Stacie having a Caucasian mother seems a lot more enthralling than the prospect of future Top Chef episodes this season, their Emmy notwithstanding. I really think they lost a lot of verve when Kenny left.

Amanda is proud of what she accomplished, especially, she says, since she was the only sous chef that made it that far. I’m not sure why, but I don’t hate her. I kind of like her…now that she’s gone.