It’s crystal clear that “Top Chef” contestants are under stress this week as three out of the four remaining chefs are unable to recognize the voices of loved ones assigned to help them cook from behind a wall.
How is that possible?
The mystery sous chefs, whose voices were not muffled or distorted, were three spouses and a sister. The only contestant who recognized his wife’s voice was Sheldon Simeon, the Filipino chef from Hawaii who has yet to win an elimination challenge.
Everyone else is clueless including Orange County’s Shirley Chung. The fast-talking hyperactive chef from Newport Beach was flummoxed with her mystery partrner from the get go. She asks him if he can dice onions, and he responds: “I can try.”
She panics briefly. “I think I’m in trouble. This person doesn’t even know how to dice onion,” says the former chef at Twenty Eight in Irvine.
Will her husband, Jimmy Lee, help or hinder Chung as she attempts to make it to the finale in Mexico?
Let’s find out.
Quickfire Challenge: James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Solomonav reminds the four remaining chefs that good communication in the kitchen is essential.
So, to test their verbal skills, they must cook a dish, while instructing a sous chef to make the same dish.
The catch? The mystery person is next to them, but a wall separates them.
The duo presenting the most identical dishes – both in taste and look – wins $10,000 and a sous vide appliance.
Most of the chefs are in a fog when they initiate conversations with their mystery partner, except the affable Simeon. He recognizes his wife’s voice immediately.
“Hi hun,” he says as he instructs her to grab mushrooms.
He’s clearly ecstatic to see her, but he focuses on the challenge. “Knowing the skill set of my wife, I’m going to keep this super simple,” he says.
He then, encourages her: “You got this.”
Aw. He’s so darn sweet.
In the meantime, John Tesar, Brooke Williamson and Chung are so entrenched in the game, they have no idea who they are working with.
Tesar and Williamson are patient teachers; Chung is a drill sergeant.
She tells him to crack a few eggs. “No shells in the bowl,” she orders.
Jimmy smiles. This is par for the course. “That’s pretty much my life. She’ll tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Later on, the loving husband says his wife has the same wild energy she displays on camera. “Really hyper. Always going. There’s no in between.”
To spend more time with her, he says he drives her to and from work. What a guy!
Back in the kitchen, steady as rock Williamson is getting peeved at Chung for loudly barking orders at her cooking partner. She tells Chung to “keep it down.”
“I can’t think,” said Williamson, whose sister is her sous chef.
The competitive Chung ignores her request because too much is on the line to play nice at this point in the game.
The dishes: All the dishes come out surprisingly well. But, the real fun is seeing the expression on each chef’s face when they learn who their cooking partner is. When Chung sees her husband, she is genuinely shocked. She gives him a big hug.
“I’m glad I didn’t recognize your voice. Otherwise I’d be flustered,” Chung said.
They present soft scrambled eggs with brown butter and corn and crab ragout. The plates are nearly identical in taste and look; however, host Padma Lakshmi deems Jimmy’s dish better seasoned. When Solomonav asks Jimmy if he might cook more often now, he responds without hesitation “No.”
The winner: Simeon and his wife win with a six minute egg dish nailed perfectly.
But more importantly, each chef is ecstatic to have extra time to spend with their loved ones. Before the final challenge, Lakshmi cooks them a family style dinner at their Charleston home.
Elimination Challenge: The chefs are asked to create a dish that represents their journey in Charleston. A career-changing prize is at stake: a chance to cook at the James Beard House in New York.
“James Beard, for us chefs, is equivalent of Oscars,” Chung says.
For the first time all season, Chung is emotional after Lakshmi’s home cooked meal. She thinks about her support system. She’s made it this far incorporating elements from her Beijing roots. She devises a soulful Chinese Southern mashup dish: Oil poached grouper with a meat and bone herbal tea consomme, served with collard greens and cracklings.
Her journey, as it turns out, is a lesson in self revelation. She’s not cooking for accolades from the judges. She is cooking for love.
“I’m cooking for myself. And I’m cooking for my grandparents — everyone who has supported me through my entire journey. I’m going to cook my heart out,” she said.
Simeon is also inspired by his Filipino heritage and his love of Hawaii, where he runs a restaurant in Maui. He decides to make a very complicated noodle dish out of Carolina rice.
Williamson and Tesar, on the other hand, are playing it safe. No emotion.
She is making a meal incorporating ingredients from successful dishes she’s made this season: pork, radishes, poached eggs. Is it too literal?
Tesar hardly reflects, at all. He makes a simple but beautifully executed dish out of scallops — the same protein he cooked with his wife in the Quickfire.
Once again, he mentions how he’s come a long way since his “rage-aholic” days.
At the dining room table: The chefs are serving a star-studded crowd of James Beard award-winning chefs – Solomonav, Mary Sue Milliken, Sean Brock, Ken Oringer and Renee Erickson. The pressure is on.
The top dishes come from Chung and Simeon. Brock said the aromas of her dish were intoxicating. Judge Gail Simmons agrees: “This dish is such a perfect example of your ability to create connections between two worlds. The broth is so meaty and so Southern. But also the aromatics are so Chinese. I’m blown away.”
Head judge Tom Colicchio, who you want on your side at this point of the game, said: “This should be a signature dish of yours. This is really good cooking here.” Brock tells her to open a “Chinese soul food restaurant in Charleston.”
Williamson follows, and she’s not happy with her dish. The judges concur. The flavors of the garnishes are there, but she’s criticized for sous vide cooking the pork tenderloin, which sucked the juice out of the meat. The Coca-Cola marinade on the meat contributed to an overall cloyingly sweet dish.
After nearly messing up his noodle dish, Simeon recovers nicely. The dish is so good, Brock wants to “steal” his technique. He also gets Colicchio to eat okra, a food the head judge consistently says he hates.
Judges’ table: Simeon earns his first elimination challenge for his “insanely good” noodle dish. He will be cooking at the James Beard House. Simeon is thrilled. “I’m so stoked that I get to showcase the cuisine of Hawaii and my Filipino roots.”
Colicchio is thoroughly impressed by Simeon’s cooking: “At some point, you are going to take your place with some of America’s greatest chefs.”
Packing Knives: No matter how good you are the entire season, the creator of the worst dish nearly always goes home. And, the person who stumbled the most was Williamson. She is sent packing. It is shocking to see her go, but not surprising. She lost her way on the last two challenges.
Next week: Can Williamson pull an Amar Santana and fight her way back into the finale through “Last Chance Kitchen”? Find out next week.
Find out next week.
Contact the writer: nluna@scng.com
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