Top Chef Tuesdays: S08 E11

Join me on my blog for Top Chef Tuesdays, as I recap the highlights? 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.

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Hey y'all!

It's Paula Deen and she wants the chefs to deep fry! Yeeee-haw. I have to admit, I think she's a very sweet lady but how can you not mock the whole Paula Deen persona. She cracks me up.

I'm getting tired of seeing Richard with that damn nitrogen tank. Come on now boy, move on, you are not a one-trick pony. Though I really like the idea of deep-fried mayonaisse. Pretty cool.

I thought Tiffany, who's from BEAUMONT, Texas, y'all, would make some delicious fried chicken alongside the fried pickles (neato!) but the Paula & Padma didn't go for it. They didn't like Dale's flavorless steak/egg wrapped oyster (yuck) and Paula thought Carla's hushpuppies looked like spitballs... awesome.

Paula loved Antonia's fried avocado and shrimp so much that she would have won if it wasn't for a technicality of not plating two dishes. That must just burn. It was neck in neck for first place with Mike's fried chicken oysters and Richard's fried bacon with mayo. Mike won the challenge and I was mad.

Mike, who stole Richard's idea, won the Quickfire and Richard had every right to be angry. It didn't even seem like a dish that Mike would have come up with on his own either. The ladies spoke about it later that it was bad chef etiquette and Antonia is correct about the "chef law", you just don't steal people's ideas. I bet Richard will be guarding this stuff now. Trust no one Richard.

The chef's are presented with the Elimination challenge of feeding 300 people for a benefit using Gulf Coast seafood. The chefs have to pick past eliminated chefs to be their sous chefs and complete the challenge.

I laugh when Tiffany picks Marcel the "white shrimp". So perfect. Richard, of course, picks Fabi'oh', yay! Poor Carla, she picks Tre, thinking he has some southern cooking experience and he looks at her with a 'deer in the headlights' expression as she rattles of some southern foods. Apparently, he's a city boy and hasn't even eaten much less prepared southern foods.

Antonia, Richard and Mike make the Top 3. Antonia's crabcakes was complex and delicate. Mike's grit crusted shrimp were sublime but it was Richard's fried fish and grits that won the trip. Didn't you just want to high-5 Richard when he said he's taking Fabi'oh' along with his family on the trip? So sweet. I'm liking Richard more. Wondering if Fabi'oh' brings his pet turtle with him? :)

I'm not overly suprised to see Dale as one of the bottom 3 since he himself says "I make asian food!" but, Carla and Tiffany? Them southern girls put the south to shame. Y'all, Beaumont, Texas is not happy with Tiffany.

Carla doused her fried grouper with hot sauce and mustard. Tiffany's overcooked shrimp and sauce on it make people gag. I still can't get the image of Paula Deen saying she was looking forward to sucking the head. eww. Bad, bad visual.

I was shocked, SHOCKED, that Dale went home for his amperjack stew that had raw potatoes. I know there was mention of "flavour warfare" as there was too much mustard on the crouton and the fish was lost in the stew but please, please tell me, how Beaumont, Texas Tiffany keeps flying under the radar?