The title of this week’s episode, “Focus Group,” naturally has me incredibly intrigued–especially after last week’s total letdown with a non-elimination. That, along with the promise of a double knifing and a new judge meant that we were going to have quite a good episode in store for us, and happily, we weren’t disappointed:
(photo from Bravotv.com)
We first see Fabio making his “breakfast of champions”–SPAM and pork & beans, which is utterly hilarious to me for some reason. Eugene is pissed that he was on the bottom in the last challenge because he didn’t feel like he belonged there, and Melissa is very worried. Stefan is his confident self, and Jamie seems to believe that she is the only one there with “people” rooting for her. Right.
Quickfire time! Jean Christophe Novelli is our guest judge this week, and he is a Michelin-starred French pastry chef, so he means business. Padma rambles on about diets and Diet Dr. Pepper (they are the QF sponsor this week), but makes the point that they are to make a sugar-free dessert as all of the sugar in the pantry has been removed–what’s not obvious is that they are allowed to use items like yogurt, honey and even chocolate and they do not have to use Diet Dr. Pepper. It’s the oddest QF of the season, in my view.
Carla doesn’t want to be seen as the baker on the show, but she does love making desserts (which I feel is something to embrace, as it could give you an edge). Hosea’s using roasted figs (yum!) and this weird mixture that Stefan likens to barf, Carla’s working on a baklava, and Jaime bitches that she doesn’t make dessert at her restaurant. Because clearly, this competition is all about her and what she does.
Fabio’s cream does not go over well with Novelli (and he likens it to how Italy beat France in the World Cup two years ago–oh, Fabio!), but he is fortunately not called out as the worst of the bunch–that distinction goes to Carla (she wasn’t pleased because she wanted to make banana ice cream but the bananas didn’t have time to set up), Jamie, and Ariane (for over-whipping cream to the point that it almost looked like butter). Jeff, Leah (with a gorgeous strawberry napoleon with a balsamic reduction confection) and Radikah are the top 3, with Radikah’s bread pudding winning out and her gaining immunity. Happily, no cookbooks were offered in this episode.
On to the Elimination Challenge…sort of. Padma announces the new judge filling in for Gail: Toby Young, a UK “food critic” whose primary claim to fame is pissing off Graydon Carter (EIC of Vanity Fair) and writing a novel about it: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. If you want to read the gossip, you can find it all here. As Michael noted, it’s essentially like bringing the author of The Devil Wears Prada on as a permanent judge of Project Runway. To welcome him, Padma announces that they will be doing a blind tasting, and when Tom visits their loft in the next scene, we learn it’s because Tom wants this new judge to know the chefs food-first. They will be allowed to cook whatever they want, and they break into two groups to serve meals in shifts.
Group A is Fabio, Melissa (who is making fish tacos), Eugene, Jamie, Radikah and Hosea. They have two hours to prep in the Astor Place kitchen, and we see Radikah making a curried crab bisque (that apparently is a huge hit), Fabio making raviolis (with Italian accordions playing in the background), and Jamie making…oh wait…scallops and a fennel puree. Eugene is making daikan with a tomato basil sauce (which everyone is very confused by) with a fried red snapper. Melissa’s ahi tuna crudo tacos do not look altogether terribly appetizing, and unfortunately Fabio’s sous-vide lamb is a little too rare for his liking, which is a huge shame because the rest of his dish looks awesome.
We finally learn why the episode is entitled “Focus Group” after the break–the four judges are seated at a table, and there are five empty chairs in front of them. The five chefs in Group B enter the dining area and learn that they will be the “experts” Tom alluded to when explaining the dinner they would be serving. Waiters bring out Group A’s dishes which are all arranged family-style, and the chefs are all floored when they realize they will essentially be taking turns tasting their competitors’ food. Group A is then ushered back into the kitchen where a TV has been installed, and they realize they will be able to gauge all of the responses in real time to their food.
Awesome. And as Fabio says of the TV: “Live is ugly but television is even uglier.”
They love Jamie’s scallop (ugh), dislike Fabio’s lamb but love the sauce and the ravioli, and loathe Melissa’s taco, Eugene’s “dish” and Radikah’s bisque–Mr. Young calls it a “weapon of mass destruction” to which the only proper response is to quote Pam from season 3 of The Office: “Yay, freedom fries!” with a wary expression. It’s then Group B’s turn to take to the kitchen, and it’s been noted that this isn’t entirely fair, as they do have the advantage in that they know what dishes failed, which were successes, and what the judges’ perceptions were–in addition to knowing that their competitors will be judging them.
Group B has an interesting mix of dishes–Carla is also going the scallop route even though she wanted to do a vegetarian dish, so she’s layering it over pea risotto, Stefan is doing a classic German dish–dumplings, red cabbage and duck (all which look awesome, by the way), Ariane is making a fried skate wing (a kind of ugly-looking fish) with a pineapple and sage butter sauce with fried capers, Leah is making a fried fish dish that she’s never tried before, and Jeff is making a selection of three tapas–avacado sorbet, something wrapped in serrano ham (yum!) and something else that I can’t quite make out.
So now it’s Group A’s turn to judge (and Fabio is looking goood with his black T-shirt!) and Jamie, off the bat, starts criticizing Carla’s gremolata as being too strong and in her confessional decrees herself the winner of this challenge. Radikah hates Stefan’s dish, but Fabio is more gentle in saying that all three components come together very nicely. They all love Ariane’s dish, Toby Young makes a Tropic Thunder reference to Jeff’s dish much to Tom’s consternation, as he felt that Jeff’s tapas was just a collection of hors d’ouvres, and overall the group is deemed better than Group A’s.
Judges’ Table time! Padma asks, by dish, for Ariane, Stefan and Jamie (and we see a sneaky little smile on her face as her premature smugness is validated), and they are noted as the top three dishes. I have to say that I love that Ariane made an amazing dish that put her in the top 3–she’s my scrappy heroine this season, and I’m naturally rooting for either her or Stefan to take the win away from Jamie. Sadly, that is not to be as Jamie is deemed the winner and her reaction is to squeal “finally!!!” as opposed to, I don’t know, saying thank you. Whatever, Jamie. You finally won something–now shut up and make something other than scallops and fucking vegetable puree, please.
The bottom three are then called: Eugene, Melissa and Carla. Melissa and Eugene have both been consistently on the bottom for the past few weeks, but for different reasons–Melissa isn’t a terribly inspiring chef (when given no food limits, she makes tacos?) and Eugene is a little too creative, but without the culinary educational background to guide him to excellence. Carla, on the other hand, is one of the first chefs on this series to actually listen to the criticism given and offer a solution for what she could have done to make it better, seemingly unprompted. You can tell that Tom appreciates this–especially compared to the other two, who just stand by their dish and felt that “it wasn’t that bad.” So it’s of little surprise when Eugene and Melissa are told to pack their knives and go, and it’s bittersweet–Eugene showed so much promise in the premiere, but his lack of education sadly caught up with him.
Happily, next week looks like it could be scallop-free, at least with regards to the elimination challenge: hogs! Chickens! They’re on a farm! Hung is back!!!
As for Toby Young: the jury is still out. According to Tom’s blog from this episode, he started out pretty heavy on the pop culture references, but when he saw how serious this needed to be taken, he actually criticized the food “in earnest.” So we shall see.
