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Top Chef – Recap & Review – Mississippi Mud Bugs
Top Chef
Mississippi Mud Bugs
Original Air Date: Jan 1, 2014
Ryan O – Associate Editor
ryano@thetwocentscorp.com
I hope everyone enjoyed their week off from the show and came back hungrier than ever for exciting cooking competition!
This week, there’s crawfish and then more seafood. Also, there’s no rancorous debate about what one calls those little critters. Let’s leave it like that, agreed?
Quickfire
John Besh is in the kitchen with Padma and a whole bunch of live crawfish/crayfish/tiny lobsters. The chefs have to make an etouffee with the crawfish. Etouffee is a dish with shellfish in a sauce served over (or “smothering”) rice.
They have 45 minutes.
Stephanie has a seafood allergy, which is specific to crustaceans that turn red when you boil them, like lobsters. She has an EpiPen and is wearing gloves during the challenge. Nicholas tastes her dish, doing his “little sister” a favor. Man, even when he does something nice, he’s condescending about it.
Here’s what they made.
Nina: Italian-style etouffee with pici pasta and tomato crawfish broth
Carrie: Spanish-style etouffee with crawfish broth, chickpeas, and almonds
Nicholas: Crawfish with shrimp mousse stuffed in Napa cabbage with brandy and corn
Shirley: Singapore chile crab etouffee with crawfish stock, cucumber, and egg
Brian: Etouffee with Gochujiang (a Chinese spice), corn, peppers, crab meat, crawfish, andouille, and pasta
Carlos: Soup with crawfish, guajillos (a chile pepper), garlic, corn, potatoes, and crispy chorizo
Stephanie: Crawfish bisque with Parisian gnocchi and poached crawfish
Bottom:
Carrie: muddled flavors, wine didn’t cook out
Nicholas: Corn was good but it wasn’t etouffee — he didn’t smother anything, like rice or pasta
Stephanie: More of a bisque or soup
Carlos: not an etouffee, again, he didn’t smother anything
Top:
Brian: made a great sauce
Nina: pasta was great and was coated perfectly by the excellent sauce
Shirley: excellent crawfish flavor in the broth
Shirley wins the quickfire! She wins immunity.
Elimination Challenge
The challenge is to create a dish highlighting two different types of seafood.
They have to serve 200 guests at Mardi Gras World.
But tonight, John Besh is cooking for them at his home, which everyone thoroughly enjoys.
Padma, Tom, John Besh, and Hugh are there to judge.
Here’s what they made.
Brian: Grilled swordfish, shrimp and sweet onion puree with fennel-daikon relish
John and Tom think it’s delicious.
Nicholas: Oyster leek soup, champagne emulsion, green apple yogurt, and cured amberjack
Hugh says the dish is technically sound but it’s not very exciting despite all of the components. Padma says it needs some acid.
Carrie: Flounder croquettes with oyster emulsion and pickled cucumbers
John Besh thinks the flavor is good. Tom thinks the croquette is good but he doesn’t understand why she made a croquette out of such a nice piece of fish.
Shirley: Tuna and amberjack ceviche with aged soy sauce, lime dressing, and toasted pecans
Hugh says the flavors are bright and good and the pecans added a great crunch.
Nina: Marinated wahoo with salsa verde, tonnato sauce, and pickled vegetables
John says the wahoo is seared perfectly. Tom says the flavors are great.
Carlos: Amberjack ceviche with rustic peach and shrimp salsa
Hugh says the fish is under-seasoned. Tom says the fish needed to be cut thicker.
Stephanie: Fried Louisiana oysters with tuna and pickled beech mushrooms
John says the acid is good. Tom thinks the oyster is good.
There’s a whole thing with Nicholas loaning Carlos his knife. Whatever. We can all agree this is a very boring season with chefs that aren’t as talented or as exciting as last season, right?
Judges Table
The screen pops up as the chefs stew. Tom says the dishes were good but he wanted to see more of the seafood. John Besh was surprised by how much ceviche there was. It was a bit of a safe way to go. Padma says Nina’s ceviche was the best. John says Shirley’s ceviche was good. Tom praises Brian’s dish. Hugh says Stephanie’s oyster was perfectly done. Tom says the aioli was good. John says Carlos’s salsa was good but there wasn’t enough fish. Tom says there were some conceptual issues. Tom wanted to see the fish in Carrie’s dish.
Stephanie, Nina, and Brian are on top.
Everyone agrees Stephanie really pulled off the fried oyster and the salad element was really good. Tom would’ve been happy with just a bowl of Brian’s sauce. Hugh loved Nina’s dish’s spiciness and that she used the wahoo.
Stephanie wins!
Nicholas, Carrie, and Carlos are on the bottom. (My guess is Carrie is going home.)
Padma says the croquette was perfectly executed but you couldn’t taste the fish. Tom says it didn’t highlight the fish.
Tom says the ratio of salsa to fish was too high. Hugh says he won the peach challenge but the fish became anonymous.
Nicholas was trying to highlight warm oyster. Hugh says there were issues with texture and acid. Tom says the dish “ate really soft,” which just sound awful. John says the oyster flavor came through but the amberjack felt just thrown in.
The chefs leave. Criticisms get rehashed. The chefs return.
Carrie is out.
Last Chance Kitchen
Louis vs. Carrie
The challenge is to make a dish using broccoli because of the plain, uninspired broccoli dish Carrie made at LSU two weeks ago.
Here’s what they made.
Carrie: Roasted broccoli raviolini with bagna cauda (a warm dip from Italy that’s sort of similar to fondue)
Louis: Scottish salmon, anchovy vierge (a French sauce made from tomatoes) with broccoli three ways
Tom says Louis’s dish was really flavorful and well-executed. Carrie’s dish was very good and well-seasoned.
Louis wins. Cooking the broccoli three ways elevated his dish in a broccoli challenge.
What did you find to be tasty in this episode? Did you think anything was overdone? Give us your Two Cents below!