Season 3 Casey made the mistake of calling her dish Coq au Vin. She heard about it big time from Tom - no rooster! But thee dish was still really good so they let it go.
You have to cook for the judges.
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I think it only comes into play when everything else about the dishes are equal. In Sams case, and really the rest of the chefs as well, the judges said it was the best meal theyâve ever had on TC. Sometimes it comes down to the little things.
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Finally got a chance to watch the 12/22 episode. The editing let you believe that someone else was going to be told PYKAG vs. who actually did. (No surprise there - the Elves are still playing their editing games.)
Katsuji is irritating, and Amanda is crazy-frantic. They can both go and Iâll be fine with it.
John Tesar is surprisingly much more calm and less likely to take Katsujiâs bait.
Caseyis doing pretty well, as is Brooke.
One of the newbies, Sylva, seems to have a good head on his shoulders and worked well with Jamie, another newbie.
The newbie from Charleston, Emily, almost tanked her own game by going along with everything that Brooke suggested. She lucked out.
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Whatâs up with the judges this season? Everything has to be super traditional all of a sudden? You canât make banh mi on brioche and you have to have mayo in your potato salad. OK, so maybe the potato salad was overcooked and overdressed and a bad version in general, bit it bugged me that they werenât open to non-mayo potato salad. Bummer that the birthday curse got Sylvia, I liked her. I would much rather not have mayo.
And the tomato tart that sent the other woman home - Tom keeps saying you canât make pastry in 2-1/2 hours. What? Itâs not croissants or a wedding cake - make the dough, make the filling while itâs chilling, it could bake for an hour and you should still have time to spare. She just needed to get it in the oven sooner, pie dough is not that long a process.
Still, I always enjoy the show. Tom cracked me up calling Brooke a âfreakshowâ for her radish dessert. I think the top few will be mostly veterans. Brooke and Shirley are on their games. It seems like John really has mellowed a bit, which is nice.
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I canât remember who PYKAG last week - help!
And Casey is doing pretty well to - for the most part
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Double post.
Sam.
I meant the week after Sam. The one where Brooke was on the bottom.
BJ, one of the newbies. I havenât yet watched the 12/29 show, so not sure about that one.
Thanks, Linda. I saw 12/29, so I, set there!
Whoops, sorry. LindaWhit is correct - it was BJ. I know the judges always say the eliminations are always based on that weekâs dish only - but itâs hard not to think that four challenges in a row of not cooking the protein correctly didnât factor into it.
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Anyone have insight on what âglandâ from the hog might have contributed the off or funky taste to Katsujiâs beans?
When buying a whole, cryovacced pork shoulder I have had the butcher ask me if I wanted him to remove a gland. He said it would be chewy and unpleasant, but nothing about an off taste. Itâs not the same one as in the head, but Iâm guessing similar. I once cooked a whole pig and made tamales from the head and they did indeed have an off taste. I was never sure why, perhaps it was this/these glands.
There is a single comment to this Serious Eats article about cooking a whole pigs head.
Search for âglandâ
I was curious about this while watching the episode also - I thought at first they were talking about anal glands .
Hereâs a blow by blow picture account of butchering a pigâs head:
https://yummybooks.wordpress.com/tag/pigs-head/
About three quarters of the way down the page there is a picture of the butcherâs hand on top of the glands - she says they look distinctly different (âbubblyâ) than the smooth meat - but I found them hard to distinguish myself.
According to this guy:
http://www.jasonprice.com/how_to_make_guanciale.html
the glands in question are âyellowish-grey lumpy massesâ and are lymph glands.
I guess Iâd need to read an actual book on charcuterie to identify the glands in question since I still donât quite get what they look like or what they are.
Jim is married to a woman? Mildly surprising. I like him, but I wonder if he would be doing as well if it was not a Southern season. Also surprised that so many chefs had not heard about Edna Lewis.
WTF was Brooke thinking with the lemon curd?
Silva is rubbing me the wrong way, I was hoping Jim would get the win.
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I just watched the 1/5/17 episode. Brooke was dangerously close to going home - I agree - lemon curd and blackberry puree in a savory dish? Nuh-uh.
I like Sylva - and thought his dish in the Elim Challenge was the one I would most want to try. @Babette, why does he bother you? Katsuji is always the one who bugs me. I think the person who was asked to PYKAG was the correct choice.
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Sylva seems haughty and condescending when he talks about other chefs food. Wasnât he the one telling Amanda how to cut cabbage as she rolled her eyes? What was so special about the vegetables under the fish?
To be fair, i thought it was funny when John was talking down on Sylvaâs biscuit vol-a-vent but the judges loved it.
When Katsuji first came onto Top Chef I thought he might be a joke. He is irritating but so unique as to be sort of fascinating.
I never got that from him. He seems affable and generous. But then, I really like Sylva. Are there specific examples?
That said, I take statements from chefs about other chefs wi a grain (unless irredeemably dickish) as producers are specifically asking proddding questions to get these comments. But Katsuji seems very much to be something of a windup merchant without a sense of when to stop. I donât dislike him, but I can see how heâs difficult. (I donât think I dislike anyone, but have those I like more, like a Shirley, Sylva, BrookeâŚ
Iâd happily eat or taste just about anything thoughâexcept for Katsujiâs beans from the BBQ challenge.
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