i am psyched to be back in the loop of watching this season.  i actually found myself looking forward to wednesday night to see what would happen.  weird.  also excited to see one of my favorite chefs, michelle bernstein, as the guest judge this week.  she works closely with the charity common threads as do i so i have been lucky to run into her at a number of events.  just a very sweet, and of course, talented, woman.

my trouble with quickfires was always the many many voices from little tiny people in my head that i would hear during the 30 minutes (from hell).  i just could never decide which to listen to, so i ended up with unfocused dishes from time to time.  happy to never participate in a real quickfire again.

the chefs this week were told to listen to two different voices, the angel and the devil, and create a duo.  each chef took the challenge a slightly different way.  some went with the healthy vs. unhealthy idea that padma sort of muttered right before the challenge began while others interpreted the challenge a bit differently.  it was too bad that bryan’s dish was not as good as it looked… i liked the idea and the direction he went with the angel white dessert and the dark chocolate devil side.  ash also seemed to reach a bit and was thus unsuccessful with the two custards.  it sucks to be called out on the bottom of a quickfire, but there is no real penalty, so quickfires are the time to try something daring.  laurine did just the opposite and did something too simple, which turned out to be not daring enough and found herself with the boys on the bottom.

then we come to the winner, robin.  she had been getting shit talked by all of the other chefs for the past couple challenges because they all believe she has been squeezing by and does not really deserve to be there any more.  i have to agree that her skill level is not that of many of the remaining chefs, but some of the comments are a bit harsh.  i think eli said something about her winning the quickfire because she played the cancer card… i would hope that was not the reason and that michelle really did like her dish the best.  either way, kind of makes him look like a bit of an ass.  doubt he cares.

on to the elimination.  deconstruction.  was excited to see that they created a challenge around this concept.  it is something that when executed properly can be a lot of fun.  but when a chef deconstructs just for the hell of it, maybe to make the dish look more dainty, it really does not work.  there were a number of times in the past seasons where chefs have gotten called out by tom and other judges for doing so when it just did not make any sense.  i remember during my first challenge against kiwi (mark) with the duck a l’orange… i looked over and kiwi was plating three little individual parts of the dish and i was very nervous at the time thinking it looked so much fancier than mine.  in the end, the deconstruction of that dish made no sense because the flavors did not come together right.  michelle describes it perfectly saying that it’s all about that perfect bite when you get each component together and suddenly you taste the classic flavor combination.

some of the dishes the chefs came up with were awesome looking, though.  no surprise that michael v. was able to pull something beautiful and delicious out for the deconstruction of a caesar salad (one of my favorite things to eat).  he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, like encapsulating the dressing, but what makes him great is that he uses various techniques in the right way and without over-killing the dish with ‘magic’ like some chefs do.  the result is great flavor and impressive presentation.  ashley continues to shine this week with her version of pot roast.  nothing too crazy with chemicals and such, but just perfectly cooked meat and great representation of all of the flavors in the classic.  for jen’s dish, i am sure it tasted awesome as most of her food seems to.  i was just brought back to the couple of times when i thought i was going home then ended up on the top… she sets her standards for herself very high which i really admire.

of course i was psyched kevin took home the win this week!  his dish was a little on the brown side like he said (my favorite color so did not bother me), but it sounded right on point.  great too, that he was able to show that he does in fact understand mole.

as for the bottom this week, there was such a drastic difference between the top dishes and those on the bottom.  the chefs who did well really understood the concept of deconstruction while the others fell short.  laurine i think gets it but she let her irritation with robin get in the way a bit and lost focus.  would have been cool to see something fun with the deconstruction of the chips rather than literally making chips.  for ash, his dish was just sort of a mess.  not cooking the lamb properly is tom’s biggest pet peeve it seems and his looked unevenly cooked even on tv.  then the whole leaving off of the potatoes was a huge no-no.  that is the best part of shepherd’s pie!!  i always love eating the crusty top.  then we come to ron.  seems like such a sweet guy who i am sure can make some delicious food when in the right element, but this was not it.  for sure does not understand deconstruction of a dish, but it seemed like he also does not really get paella.  the crispy rice is crucial, that is what makes it so tasty.  actually making me hungry just thinking about it.  bye ron and best of luck. looking forward to next week….