Top Chef Tuesdays Wednesday: S08 E07

Join me on my blog for Top Chef Tuesdays, as I recap each episode. I'm aware that Top Chef All Stars has already been airing in the US and we Canadians are a couple (*ahem - maybe more than a couple) episodes behind. So please, all you folks who are ahead of the watching, please, no spoilers. I'm recaping in my own personal opinion and it is all in good fun. Please join me in the comments.

...

Sorry, under the weather. So lets make this a quick one!

QUICKFIRE! Portion 1 cod and fluke fish.

After the chefs watch Justo Thomas cut and portion 2 fish in under 8 minutes, they are given 2 extra minutes to do the same. Justo made it look SO easy. Fabi'oh' cuts his finger, Tiffani, who is a chef at a SEAFOOD restaurant, portioned it the wrong way and Antonia just apologized before they even looked at it. ha!

Marcel, Mike, Dale and Richard are the top 4 and are given the challenge to make a dish in 45 minutes for immunity. Richard is feeling lucky since he used to be the prestigious fish cook at McD's but it is Dale who wins the challenge with his 2 dishes.

RESTAURANT WARS!

Dale won immunity earlier so he is a team captain and he gets the honor in choosing who the team captain will be for the other team. He absolutely does not want Marcel on his team so he chose him as a captain. Good strategy! The teams get assembled and restaurants get named:

Etch: Marcel, Mike, Antonia, Angelo, Tiffani
Bodega: Dale, Richard, Tre, Fabi'oh', Carla

Just looking at the teams, I'm sure you can get a pretty good idea which team is the superior in terms of working together. As Fabi'oh' put it, his team is the marathon team where Etch are the sprinters. And it starts out with all sorts of trouble.

No one is listening to team captain Marcel but then I wouldn't either since he has no idea how to speak to people. Etch looks like a 2 cats caught in a hail storm, at odds, constant chaos and disorganized. Mike and Marcel squabbling like 2 children at recess doesn't help.

Head on over to Bodega where it so quiet you can hear a pin drop. Did you catch the ghost town music? I think I saw the tumbleweed next to the refrigerator.

Is there any doubt that Fabi'oh' can shmooze and entertain the front of the house? Not only that, he impressed the judges with the way he handled and commanded all his servers too. It was poetic! On the other hand, poor Tiffani, she just did not have a chance. She may be southern but hospitality isn't her shtick, you know what I'm talking about, y'all?

Bodega overwhelming gets the prize with about 80% of the diners preferring their restaurant. I loved the tuna in a can, great styling! Judge Anthony Bourdain called Dale's egg dish "stoner food at it's finest" and Fabi'oh's blueberry pie rocked it. However, Richard won the challenge and I all could think was that he was that annoying kid after an exam in school thinking he failed but then finds out he got 98% or something like that. roll my eyes.

That was the good, now for the bad and ugly. Etch is brought in and the fighting between Mike and Marcel starts up again. The judges thought their team was the perfect storm. They didn't think Tiffani worked well as front of the house, Angelo was as quiet as a mouse and didn't step in to help out his team and Marcel's fish was mushy and the dessert with foam was disliked by everyone.

The showdown at high noon had Marcel packing his knives before his 10 paces. Sorry cowboy. Better luck nextime.