Top Chef All Stars Episode 6 Recap: “We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat”
Last night’s episode had the chefs boating out around Montauk area of Long Island to catch their own fish in place of their normal Quickfire challenge. They were warned that they would have to catch enough to feed 200 people on the beach, and that this would be another team challenge featuring a double elimination.
There were teams of three and Antonia Lofaso, Jaime Lauren, and Tiffani Faison unfortunately found themselves together once again– the memory of their last disastrous team challenge still fresh in their minds. Nice foreshadowing, Bravo!
Montauk Fish Flickr Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyctom
All the teams ended up catching plenty of fish, although you were worried for Marcel, Ricahrd Blais and Fabio for awhile. Last night’s episode had a lot of humor worked into it which my roommates and I greatly appreciated it. First of all, what the hell was Dale Tande’s deal with his fish? I get that he used to catch fish with his father as a boy and he wanted to make his dad proud and all, but the way he was obsessed with the fish that he caught was a little overboard. I tried defending him at first to my one roommate who immediately pointed out how over the top he was, but as the show went on I ended up agreeing with her. I mean, he called it the “catch of a lifetime”. I’m sorry Dale, but there were like multiple other fish being caught on your boat….enough to supposedly feed 200 people. Your fish was just not that special.
Another great moment from last night occurred when the chefs were talking about what creatures of the sea their teammates most resembled. Mike Isabella was compared to a Blowfish due to his flatulence (kinda gross), but my all-time favorite was Dale’s comparison of Angelo to a mermaid ahahaha and then Bravo’s shot of Angelo sitting on the boat, serenely gazing out to the sea in his metro-sexual sunglasses. And you can also imagine Angelo with a tail and long flowing hair discussing clams and textures of food with follow mer-people.
Once the challenge got underway, Antonia’s, Jaime’s and Tiffani F.’s team and Fabio’s, Richard’s and Marcel’s team both showed signs of struggle right away. Antonia decided not to involve herself in her teammates’ dishes and focused solely on hers alone which of course ended up putting her at a disadvantage since it was a team challenge and she essentially allowed the other two girls to make some pretty poor decisions. Richard and Marcel meanwhile decided to go with an intricate and over-the-top dish which ended up going against the whole beach-theme of this challenge. Fabio seemed to just blindly follow whatever Richard and Marcel decided and ended up being treated more like a sous-chef by the overly anal Richard Blaise. The ham-flavored foam addition, overcooked succotash, mismatched flavors ended up doing their one dish-producing team in and placed them in the bottom two along with Antonia, Tiffani F., and Jaime.
Carla Hall (one of my absolute favorites) produced the winning dish and secured a trip to Amsterdam. Her dish featured smoked bluefish lettuce wraps with pickled watermelon rind, shallots radish, and pumpernickel bagel croutons. It was supposed to be a throwback to the New York bagel and the judges were absolutely thrilled with her execution.
Tiffani F. and Jaime were the chefs sent home by the judges this episode– Jaime for her overly watered cucumber and watermelon broth and Tiffani F. for preparing the oh so fishy bluefish with the bloodline left in. I still am in awe over how Jaime I think prepared a total of two dishes to be judged???? and ended up lasting this long in the competition.
Next week’s episode looks to be as equally entertaining, featuring more drama and tension as the competition heats up (PS who knew Marcel was such a jerk??).