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Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 12 (spoilers)
The last episode before the finale. The final four.
Quickfire: Pies. The chefs have to make two pies, one sweet and one savory for Marc Thuet and his wife. David makes cipate with puff pastry and rabbit for his savory pie and peach and blueberry pie with mascarpone sour cream ice cream for his sweet pie. Trevor makes an apple bacon tart with walnut crust and blue cheese cream for his sweet pie and chanterelle, caramelized onion and foie pie for his savory. Carl makes a peach and blueberry pie for his sweet pie and a cheddar, ham and chanterelle pie with duck fat pastry for his savory. Jonathan makes an apple pie with sharp cheddar pastry for his sweet and a potato, caramelized leek and bacon pie with dill and bacon fat pastry for his savory pie.
The top: Carl and Trevor.
The bottom: David and Jonathan.
The winner: Carl, who wins a custom CaesarStone counter for either work or home, worth $5,000, and for the runner-up Trevor, $3,000 and his apple bacon pie featured at Milestones.
Elimination: The chefs have to create a fashion-inspired lunch dish. And they get a sous chef from season 1. They draw knives. Carl gets Rob. Trevor gets Francois, David get Connie who he knows because their restaurants are part of the Le Germain hotel group. Jonathan gets Dusty who he worked with at Susur. Lisa then announces that the winner will get $10,000.
There's a fashion show at the Shops at Don Mills where they are cooking, which reinforces the theme of the challenge. Jennifer McLagan is the guest judge.
Jonathan makes a dim sum trio with uni in a mussel shell, prawn dumpling and jicama roll. Trevor makes a potato-crusted lamb loin with ratatouille and porcini foam. Carl makes a crispy Euro bass salad with zucchini aioli and roasted red pepper coulis. David makes nori-wrapped beef tenderloin with wasabi pea butter, celery root with veal jus glazed shallot and chive puree.
Judging: Chef McLagan announces that the winner is Carl, who wins $10,000 and a place in the finale. Trevor is the next chef to make it to the finale. And it's between David and Jonathan for the last spot.
They liked David's look but not the food. They found Jonathan's food disappointing and didn't like the look either.
And David is sent home (probably for the chive puree) and Jonathan goes on to the finale.
Oh no, David! I had such hopes. Oh well, at least you won all that cash. I was pretty torn between who I thought/hoped would go home. I couldn't decide who I preferred because they're both great.
I thought the challenge was a bit lame for the last Elimination challenge. The fashion connection was tenuous at best. I wish the challenge had been more culinary-based, less gimmicky, so the chefs could show their stuff. A mystery basket (Chopped-style) challenge would have been great here. It was nice to see the chefs from season 1 again, though I would think they might be used in the finale instead. I thought the comment from Carl about making something that's never been seen before was funny. I'm pretty sure Sarah made a rye-bread-encrusted fish in the Top Chef Texas finale. And his frustration with the server was hilarious in a sad way. Why didn't the server just write it down? What kind of servers are they using? She didn't know what aioli is?
Looks like the finale is fraught with trouble. Good luck chefs!
Breakfast recommendations near Hotel Place d'Armes
I had been planning to check out a place called Claude Postel but I heard it has since closed and the replacement is not very good.
Food Network Star, Week 2 (SPOILER)
I'm watching it but just half-heartedly. I don't really like the TV personality chef thing anyway but got caught up in it last season. I'm already cringing on episode 2. Watching the presentations was really painful and I started fast-forwarding through them. It's the whole generation of people whose sole purpose is to be famous.
I watch reality TV - who doesn't these days - but I can only deal with shows like Top Chef and Project Runway, where the contestants have to demonstrate their skills. I can't stand these people who just want to be on TV. Food is just a vehicle to fame. I'm going to try and stick it out but a few more episodes of awkward presentations might be too painful for me.
Food Network Star, Week 2 (SPOILER)
Either way, what kind of person can call themselves a chef if they can't deal with chicken with the bone attached? Can you be taken seriously if you only work with hermetically sealed, sanitized, homogenized chicken breasts? If you're squeamish about where meat comes from?
Glad she's gone.
Top Chef Masters Season 4 July 25th
I hope they revamp the format. Last season was terrible. Chefs of this calibre bitching and demeaning themselves. The first two seasons were great - the chefs showed a lot of camaraderie and it was about the cooking. The last season was so depressing - watching respected chefs behave with such incivility. I hope the producers took a good look at how the show went and go back to a more dignified format.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 11 (spoilers)
I saw Connie, Francois, Rob and Dusty, I think.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 11 (spoilers)
The thing with Carl is that I don't think there were any major flaws in execution - they just didn't like it.
They may have not liked the sausage texture but it was a correct texture for a sausage, just not an Italian sausage. Same for the lamb. Leg of lamb may not be traditional Italian but they didn't have a problem with the flavour or cooking.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 11 (spoilers)
Getting close to the end. Only 5 chefs left.
Quickfire: Lisa announces that it's a high-stakes quickfire. Everybody groans. But apparently it's just a high-stakes prize, not an elimination quickfire. Fooled me with last week's promo. The guest judge is Keshia Chante and it's a Kraft dinner challenge. The chefs have to make 2 dishes. One dish has to be refined and one dish more homestyle. The winner gets $10,000. Xavier has never had KD before.
Trevor makes roasted garlic KD with mustard, broccoli and spicy sausage but he plates it two ways. Jonathan makes a stuffed tomato with KD, sausage, sundried tomatoes and olives for his everyday dish and a coconut curry KD for his refined dish. David makes grilled mac 'n cheese sandwich for his everyday dish and bacon-wrapped KD with scallop for his refined dish. Carl makes KD with lobster, dill and lemon for his everyday dish and fennel and KD bruschetta with tomato, tomatillo, bacon and cilantro. Xavier makes mac 'n cheese with whipped cream sauce with caramelized onion and for his refined dish, he makes cranberry and KD with roasted duck breast and caramelized fig.
On the bottom: Trevor and Jonathan.
On the top: David and Xavier.
And David wins $10,000.
Elimination: The chefs have to prepare a 6-course Italian feast for Lidia Bastianich. David draws Pesce, Xavier draws Primi, Carl gets Secondi, Trevor gets Dolce and Jonathan get Zuppa. The chefs also have work together to prepare an Antipasti course.
They are cooking at Fabbrica, McEwan's Italian restaurant. Guests are: Carlo Rota, Rick Campanelli, Lorenzo Loseto and Franco Stalteri.
For the antipasti: grilled and marinated octopus with cucumber; prosciutto grissini; beef and eggplant involtino; lemon-marinated artichokes and black olive flatbreads.
For the zuppa, Jonathan makes a deconstructed stacciatella with poached egg and parmesan in a tomato chicken broth.
For the primi, Xavier makes pappardelle with braised veal breast and radicchio.
For the pesce, David makes wood-fire roasted european sea bass and sea bream with fennel and radish.
For the secondi, Carl prepares leg of lamb with garlic and herbs, pork sausage with fennel, and chili with caramelized onion. He also prepared arugula, fennel and preserved lemon salad, and mushroom celery mousseline.
For the dolce, Trevor prepares lemon granita with Campari and tiramisu.
The top: David and Jonathan.
The bottom: Xavier, Trevor and Carl.
The winner is Jonathan and Xavier goes home.
As the winner, Jonathan wins a trip to New York. As the runner-up, David's dish will be featured at Milestones and $3,000.
Au revoir, Xavier. You had a good run but the judges hate too much salt. Someone else has to really screw up to beat that in the judges' minds.
David's really on a roll and Carl and Trevor are on a serious decline. Until recently, I would have definitely called Carl and Trevor as the front runners. Strange to see them in the bottom. Now they're sliding and David is rising. Maybe Jonathan, who has been relatively steady, will take it. It's getting down to the wire.
Next week, the chefs are getting some sous chefs in the form of last season's contestants.
Breakfast recommendations near Hotel Place d'Armes
We're staying at Hotel Place d'Armes on St Jacques Ouest and would appreciate some ideas for breakfast outside of our hotel. Ideally, we'd like a place close to the hotel with decent selection, good food and reasonable prices.
While price is not a huge concern, we don't want to spend too much for breakfast or else we would just have breakfast at the hotel. We'd prefer not to spend $15 for a coffee and a croissant but we don't want to have breakfast at McDonald's either.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 10 (spoilers)
I bet you would have impressed Marcus Samuelsson with your dessert if you had been there!
:)
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 10 (spoilers)
Yes. The editing is so predictable. Especially in the quickfire. If they show your dish, you're either in the top or bottom. If they don't show your dish, your in the middle. Come on, editors, can't we do better?
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 10 (spoilers)
So it's the Top Chef Alumni episode. Marcus Samuelsson (Top Chef Master) and Dale MacKay (Top Chef Canada) both appear in this episode.
Quickfire: Make a dish with kid-unfriendly ingredients for Dale MacKay's son Ayden. The chefs draw knives. Carl gets liver and asparagus. Trevor gets squid and brussel sprouts. Trista has rabbit and mushrooms. Jonathan gets lamb and artichoke. Xavier has mackerel and eggplant and David draws mussels and radish.
Carl makes liver parfait and jelly sandwich with tempura asparagus. Trevor makes fried calamari and brussel sprout slaw. Trista makes rabbit fingers with sauteed mushrooms and corn. Jonathan makes artichoke dip with chips and grilled lamb with honey mustard. David makes mussel and potato galette with tomato radish salad. Xavier make potato string wrapped mackerel with honey confit eggplant.
Xavier and Jonathan are on the bottom. Trevor and Carl are on the top. And the winner is Trevor, who wins Le Cruset cookware.
Elimination: The chefs have to cook a 6-course soul food dinner for Marcus Samuelsson, soul food being more about personal stories and life experiences, not Harlem soul food. The chefs all faint and pee their pants a little. Jonathan faints again. When resuscitated, he follows Marcus around muttering "We're not worthy" and "I love you" under his breath. Ok, none of that happened, I'm exaggerating a little bit.
Xavier does the first course which is Mediterranean vegetable terrine with beet reduction and olive sour cream, which represents his appreciation of Canada. Jonathan has the next course which is scampi consomme with scampi pierogi in memory of his grandmother's pierogies. Carl's dish is bacon-wrapped salmon with sunchokes, favas and beurre blanc but doesn't really relate to anything except that he's from salmon country, BC. Trista makes dumplings in chicken broth, poached chicken with curried carrot puree and fried chicken to represent the neighbourhood she grew up in. Marcus finds plastic in his dish. David serves grilled flank steak, cabbage roll with creme fraiche croquette and beet, apple, horseradish roulade from his Ukrainian roots. Trevor makes a peanut butter molten lava cake with banana ice cream and strawberry jam, inspired by his childhood meals of peanut butter banana sandwiches.
On the top: David, Jonathan and Xavier.
On the bottom: Trista, Carl and Trevor.
David is the winner of $5,000 and the ultimate compliment of Marcus wanting his recipe for the beet, horseradish, apple roulade.
Trista goes home, partially for leaving plastic on her chicken.
Ayden MacKay was kind of cute - a serious little man with freshly combed hair. I wonder if he actually got to choose or if Dale actually chose the dishes to win. Nice to see Dale again. I'm kind of enjoying the commercials in between, featuring former Top Chef Canada finalists. Interesting to find out that Lisa Ray is part Polish and grew up eating pierogies.
Good job David - finally getting it together when it counts. Weird to see Trevor and Carl on the bottom. The writing was on the wall for Trista when Marcus pulled out that strip of plastic wrap, although I think her food didn't do her any favours either. When I hear Indian and Caribbean, I expect rich, long-cooked flavours. I hate it when someone just makes a curry sauce and pours it over a piece of chicken, it's disappointing.
The preview for next week's episode is freaking me out a little. It might just be the editing but the announcement of a high-stakes quickfire and then two chefs conspicuously missing from the clips of the elimination challenge, one of whom I've been rooting for. Keeping my fingers crossed until next week.
Bad Tipper Note......Just My 2 Cents (Canadian)
I've never heard of such a thing. Must be an American thing. Can't imagine that happening in Canada.
If they don't have money for a tip, how are they paying for those little cards?
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 9 (spoilers)
Glad to hear from you, Blueicus. We've missed your insights. Hope the opening is going well.
Chopped All-Stars Finale (5/6/2012) [SPOILERS]
Hmmm, interesting. I did wonder about that during the Chopped judges round when I noticed that Geoffrey was a judge and not a competitor. But then I promptly forgot about that.
That would make this Chopped Champions pretty old. The Next Iron Chef finished airing in December and obviously was filmed before that. So if this Chopped was filmed before Zakarian's season on NIC, it would have taken place maybe early to mid 2011? And they're just showing it now? Weird.
So maybe Symon has something against Burrell and judged her harshly during NIC? Nah, I still feel like she had it in for him.
Chopped All-Stars Finale (5/6/2012) [SPOILERS]
I've seen more than a few episodes of Chopped where they did not chop someone for missing an ingredient because another contestant's dish was bad and the offending chef made it through based on delicious food.
I'm not saying Anne Burrell just had a contrary opinion and that got him chopped. I'm saying I felt something in the way she expressed her opinion. There was something in her demeanor that suggested to me that she was not going to let him get away with it and she was going to try to convince the other judges.
Let's not forget that she can be pretty nasty. On the Next Iron Chef, she seemed nice enough until the last few episodes. She kept disparaging Elizabeth Faulkner's skills, saying she keeps making ice cream and did the stereotypical disdain-for-pastry-chefs thing. The chefs don't usually get so mean and catty at that level. At that level, the chefs are usually very supportive of each other. Seems to me that Anne Burrell is nice until she is threatened and then she becomes petulant and spiteful.
Chopped All-Stars Finale (5/6/2012) [SPOILERS]
I really liked Jeffrey on his season. A class act and he can cook!
Chopped All-Stars Finale (5/6/2012) [SPOILERS]
No she didn't but what were her chances of improving her image, realistically? You can't really hide the nasty. You can disguise it with makeup but eventually the ugly shows through. She said something about being cast as the villain in her season but she didn't do anything to dispel that image, did she? She was just as mean and obnoxious as she was on NFNS. And delusional. You beat Michael Symon? Boy, that is some serious self-delusion. And I wish she would stop going on about Middle Eastern food like nobody's ever eaten it before. She keeps talking like she's introducing the world (or at least North America) to Middle Eastern food. Again with the delusions. Ok, enough with the Penny hating for now. Let's consider the Michael Symon elimination.
Does anyone besides me think that Anne Burrell had something to do with Symon getting chopped? She disagreed when Amanda (I think) said it was ok to excuse his missing okra because the food was so good. It wouldn't be the first time that a chef got a pass even though they forgot one of the basket ingredients because the food was amazing. And Penny's crust fell off. I hate it when things are supposed to be crusted with something and the whole crust comes off as you try to eat it. Like a deep-fried pickle. Or a piece of fried chicken. I think that is a more egregious error.
Did Michael Symon have anything to do with Burrell's exit from the Next Iron Chef? Can't remember but maybe she's holding a grudge?
Tap Phong..
If you want the really fancy ones, you can order them from JB Prince in New York. They are pretty expensive but you will look good ; )
www.jbprince.com/knife-bags/knife-and-tool-carriers.asp?page=1
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 9 (spoilers)
I think the level of cooking was surprisingly high for a cooking-over-a-fire challenge. Usually, they can't control the heat and burn everything.
I think the order will be Xavier next, then either David or Trista. I hate to say it because I'm really liking David and his enthusiasm but he's inconsistent. I wish he'd get it together. I'm also thinking Carl, Trevor and Jonathan for the final three. Though David has been really good when he's on. The come-from-behind dark horse, maybe?
Bad Tipper Note......Just My 2 Cents (Canadian)
Two Canadian pennies are actually worth slightly more than two American pennies these days. And they're being discontinued so they might be worth even more in the long run. Maybe not such a bad tip after all.
Maple Yip Menu
I don't think you'll find a menu online. Half of the menu items are written on strips of coloured paper in Chinese only. If you can't read Chinese, you're going to need a friend to help you order the non-menu items.
I believe the steamed fish is a specialty and I like the shrimp cooked in Maggi sauce. You might have some luck looking at some of Charles Yu's posts on the specific dishes he recommends.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 9 (spoilers)
It's the camping episode and the vending machine Quickfire.
The Quickfire: The chefs have $10 to purchase items from a vending machine and create a sweet and salty snack for Spenny, of Kenny vs. Spenny fame. The chefs get pretzels, chips, ramen, nori, pork rinds, dried fruit, wasabi peas etc. and the use of the pantry.
Jonathan get jelly rolls, pretzels and marshmallows and makes a Thai jelly roll. David gets nori, dried fruit, ramen and ketchup chips and beef jerky and he makes ramen tempura-battered dried papaya and beef jerky nori rolls. Trevor get pretzels and pork rinds and makes pork rind batter chicken wing with pretzel mayo. Carl picks Reese's pieces, rice crispy squares and pork rinds and makes rice squares with peanut butter chocolate and pork rinds, Trista get Indian snacks, dried figs, licorice, bbq sticks and mooncakes and makes a pakora with dried fig, licorice-infused mustard. Ryan gets wasabi peas, corn chips, and marshmallows - we don't find out what Ryan made. We also don't get to see what Xavier got from the machine or what he made.
The bottom: David and Carl.
The top: Trevor and Trista. And the winner is Trevor. He wins an advantage for the Elimination round.
For the Elimination round, the chefs have to go camping and cook brunch for Roger Mooking, each chef featuring a wild game ingredient which they don't find out about until they get camping. Trevor's advantage is a good night's sleep in a luxury tent while the other chefs have to build their own tents and sleep on the ground.
Trista gets squab, David gets quail, Ryan get rabbit, Trevor gets pheasant, Carl gets duck, Xavier has partridge, Jonathan gets guinea hens.
Jonathan make rotisserie guinea hen with wild rice pancake, roasted tomato jam and curry. Trevor makes pheasant ragout with corn and mushrooms and a poached egg and tomato jam. Carl does duck two ways, with beans, kale and mushrooms and also a poached egg. Ryan also does a duo - wild mushroom rabbit ragout and potatoes, morels and leeks with rabbit loin. Xavier makes partridge two ways - roasted breast and foie gras stuffled leg with lentils. Trista makes smorgasbord squab with french toast, dandelion, corn and potatoes. As the storm gets closer, David serves quail stuffed with black trumpet mushrooms with cassoulet, shirred eggs and naan.
The top: Trevor, Trista, Carl and Jonathan.
The bottom, David, Ryan and Xavier.
The winner is Trista, who wins a Weber barbecue.
And Ryan goes home.
Good job, Trista! She's been in the middle and the bottom for so long, I was sure she was going home soon. And she looked lovely in her wedding pictures. I had a feeling Ryan's time was coming. He has been floundering the last few episodes. I love how Jonathan and David embrace the challenges. While others are uncomfortable, they throw themselves into the challenges. Even though the results are not always winners, their attitudes are definitely Top Chef worthy. Dodged a bullet there, Dave. Usually the guy with the improperly cooked protein gets sent home.
Where is the best Korean BBQ restaurant?
Sariwon is good. Yonge north of Steeles. Not all you can eat. Not cheap either but great food.
Yours Truly - new restaurant on Ossington
I don't quibble the price - it's a very good price for a 4-course meal in a restaurant of that calibre. And I don't have a problem with the quality of ingredients or the skill of preparation. For $45, the quality, quantity and preparation of the food is amazing. It's just the combination of flavours.
And I don't mention Per Se and Alinea because I'm comparing them to Yours Truly - I mention them because the chef has worked at those restaurants, along with a host of other extremely well-respected places. That is a very high pedigree in the chef world - he worked at Noma for god's sake! For a chef with that lineage, I guess I was expecting magic. For me the skill was there but the flavours didn't work for me.
I just mention Buca and Beast because those are the restaurants where I've most recently enjoyed really great meals - where the flavours really worked. I'm don't mean to compare them based on value/price range.
Yours Truly - new restaurant on Ossington
Just had dinner at Yours Truly for the first time. Considering the pedigree of the chef, I was very excited that I was finally going to get to try his food. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love the food, I didn't love my meal.
While the individual components were expertly prepared, I felt no connection between them. As Top Chef Canada judge Mark McEwan would say, the dishes were disjointed. There were some good flavours and excellent execution but I was ultimately disappointed. Having dined at Per Se, Alinea, wd-50 and the like, I was expecting a wow experience. What I got was perfectly prepared, not-so-wow food. I thought the fish was so perfectly cooked but the foam on top tasteless. i thought the duck was delicious and the brown butter yogurt sauce fantastic but not necessarily together. And so on.
I've had dinner at both Buca and Beast within the last month or so and I found the dishes at both restaurants to be more enjoyable. The execution was not as perfect but the dishes were more delicious and satisfying. Yours Truly has all the skill behind it to be a great restaurant but it isn't yet.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 8 (spoilers)
It's the catering challenge. But first we start with the Chef Skills Quickfire.
The challenges consists of 4 parts. The first round: the chefs must finely dice shallots. They must be done precisely and the 6 chefs who can chop the most shallots (by weight) move on to the next round. Carl, Xavier, David, Ryan, Jimmy and Trevor move on to the next round.
The next challenge is to French a rack of lamb. Mark McEwan is expecting a very precise level of butchering and rejects Carl's first attempt. Xavier, David, Carl and Trevor move on.
The third round finds the chefs peeling grapes. They all groan at this old school skill challenge. Only two can move on. And the two are Carl and Xavier.
The final round: Cook a dish with the prepped ingredients. Xavier goes Mediterranean: roasted rack of lamb with fig and grape couscous. Carl prepares grilled lamb chops with Madeira grape lamb jus, rosti, sauteed spinach with summer truffles on a shallot puree. And the winner is Carl. No immunity but he wins a Wustof knife set.
The Elimination challenge: Cater lunch for the cast and crew of Lost Girl. Guest judge is Chef Michael Blackie from Ottawa. Jimmy makes green minestrone soup with porcini and truffle oil and a green salad. Trevor makes a quinoa salad with walnuts, hazelnuts, cranberries and raisins as well as a tomato Caprese salad with garlic parmesan chips. Trista makes a seafood salad with artichoke and avocado as well as a yogurt rosewater panna cotta with pomegranate. David makes grilled polenta with red onion jam and mint-marinated cucumber, Moroccan roasted carrots, and grilled zucchini. Jonathan makes pulled pork lettuce wraps with a vegan option of tofu. Carl makes roasted chicken with ratatouille. Xavier makes chocolate mousse and also raspberry poached peaches. Ryan makes saffron glazed Arctic char with green goddess sauce.
The bottom: Ryan, Xavier, Trista and Jimmy.
The top: Carl, David, Jonathan and Trevor.
The winner is Jonathan. And Jimmy is out.
The divide is becoming clearer. I think this episode validates my personal picks to win, place or show. The guys who are consistently on the top are starting to really show their stuff. The in-between guys are showing their weaknesses.
Carl and Trevor have mostly been on top and have been consistently producing really great stuff. Jonathan and David have mostly either been on top or in the middle. I think they both have a good chance but are not as consistent.
On the bottom, Jimmy's immaturity showed. This challenge and the last one as well, Jimmy has shown that is he not ready. Why would you make a green salad? And after McEwan warned them to make Top Chef worthy dishes. And Ryan, why would you glaze the fish and also have a sauce? Seems redundant and there's a greater chance of having conflicting flavours between the glaze and the sauce.
And Trista and Xavier both split their focus by doing two dishes. I believe that not focusing on one thing has been the downfall of many a cheftestant.
Is it just me or is David totally adorable? This episode in particular, I thought he was just delightful - crazy but really likeable. If he keeps going the way he's been going, he might just be the dark horse in this race. For now, my money is on either Carl or Trevor.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 7 (spoilers)
The commentary has been one of my biggest peeves all along. I know I keep saying it but I'll say it again: the judges' comments are so lame compared to the judges in the US.
Mark McEwan just keeps saying stilted, non-constructive things. The dish is "pleasant". A "pleasant flavour profile". "bland" and "disjointed". These comments are not helpful. Tom, Gail, Hugh et al. provide insightful commentary. Their notes are helpful and thoughtful. "Pleasant" doesn't help anybody. I remember when Mark was a guest judge in the Top Chef Texas finale. His comments were the most meaningless. They were generic and lame. Ok, enough of my rant. I don't have any problems with McEwan's restaurants in general. I just think he needs to work on providing useful feedback instead of stilted, generic comments.
Blueicus, I'll miss seeing you on the show. I hope you'll continue to provide us with your wonderful thoughts and insights on this thread.
Top Chef Canada, Season 2, Episode 7 (spoilers)
So I'd like to start off by saying - I, along with Jimmy - love, love, love Richard Blais. I'd follow him around with a goofy grin if I lived in his town (Don't worry Richard, I'm not a real stalker!)
So the Quickfire finds the chefs choosing unlabelled cans of food which they have to transform into a delicious dish. They have to use at least 3 different canned items. Some of the items are pretty common - tomato sauce, sardines, broth, coconut milk, sausages - but there are some items that the chefs can't identify. Curtis cuts himself and bleeds like crazy.
On the top: Curtis' carrot pakora, olive oil poached salmon and cranberry foam; Ryan's grilled mackerel with Romesco; Trevor's slow baked salmon with curry broth.
On the bottom: Carl's eggs on cocotte with mystery sauce; David's Phiily-style rib eye chowder; Jonathan's curried fish noodles with black garlic-stuffed eggs.
The winner is Ryan and he gets immunity.
For the Elimination challenge, the chefs spin the wheel of deconstruction to select the classic dish they must re-interpret in a deconstructed manner.
Ryan - eggs Florentine, Curtis - tuna casserole, Trevor - spaghetti and meatballs, Xavier - quiche Lorraine, Jimmy - chicken pot pie, Trista - meatloaf, David - chicken noodle soup, Jonathan - strawberry cheesecake, Carl - chili.
Guests for this challenge, Johnny Reid and executive chef of Toca, Tom Brodi, and of course Richard Blais. Jimmy makes confit chicken and biscuit with mushroom froth and wasabi pea and regular pea ice cream. Ryan makes fried duck egg yolk with spinach sponge cake and hot sauce zabaglione. Jonathan makes cream cheese ice cream with reconstructed graham cracker. Carl makes a pork chili terrine, bean salad and cheese bread. David makes a redemption terrine so it's a chicken confit and vegetable terrine with pearl pasta. Trista makes a beef tartare with garlic chips. Curtis makes tuna canelloni and hot tuna salad with milk crouton. Xavier makes shortbread and bacon cylinders filled with scrambled egg mousse. Trevor makes duck meatball stuffed with tomato sauce and tagliatelle.
On the top: David, Xavier and Trevor.
On the bottom: Curtis, Jonathan and Jimmy.
The winner is Xavier and Curtis goes home.
Nooooooo!!!!! Curtis, you will be missed. Too bad you didn't get the cheesecake. You probably would have killed that one.
Jimmy's hero worship almost did him in. Hard to think clearly when you're in love. And what is that tattoo on his chest - flames? At first it looks like strange-looking chest hair peeping out of the top of his t-shirt.
Congratulations to Xavier for his first win and a special congratulations to David on his terrine redemption and for living up to his potential.
Where to go in Toronto for good Moroccan food?
One of the best Moroccan restaurants in town was near Eglinton West and Allen Road but the owner/chef decided to retire. They were Moroccan Jews so everything there was no pork or butter but it didn't matter because the food was amazing. Unfortunately, they're gone.
I think there's the Sultan's Tent but I don't think it's very good. I believe it's fusion and more focused on the belly dancing and theme rather than authentic Moroccan food.
I have yet to find a new Moroccan restaurant (they are scarce in Toronto) that can replace my former go-to place.
