So the remaining five Top Chef: Miami contestants finally get to enjoy New York City after last week's tease that stranded them in New Jersey until they could cook their way to the Big Apple.

Spoilers for the next course.

Hung was once again annoying Dale to no end with his culinary confidence and non-team player attitude for the Quickfire Challenge, which had the chefs re-create within 25 minutes a Le Cirque seabass dish for owner Sirio Maccioni. Pfft, no problem for anyone classically trained like Hung. And sure enough, he killed it, knowing how to use a French mandoline to slice potato strips to wrap the fish and creating the bed of creamy leeks upon which everything would rest.

And even though recent winner Casey's dish tasted great, this time Hung's technical skills and training gave him the edge and the win. Poor Sara miscalculated her time and undercooked the fish, while Dale forgot his seasonings and Brian's was just sloppily executed.

Okay, I understand that Hung can come off as arrogant ... maybe because he is. But if you think of him as a smaller, scrawnier, Vietnamese wrestler, you kind of understand that trash talking and boasting is a way of pumping himself up. At least he's not lazy or just squeaking by with mediocre dishes that are just a hair above the worst ... but more on that later.

The Elimination Challenge was pretty scary. Not only does it determine the Final Four going to Aspen, but it also took place at the French Culinary Institute, would be judged by the deans and consisted of very simple ingredients: yellow onion, russet potato and chicken. Simple ingredients mean that the contestants have to not only exhibit creativity, but also use their know-how to create something sublime to the palate. At this point, it looks like the biggest threat to Hung's knowledge and technique is Casey's palate and execution.

As the Quickfire winner, Hung would serve first and also got an extra 30 minutes to prepare. He needed it too, because he was pulling out his bag of tricks, or at least his vacuum-sealed bag for sous vide chicken -- which basically allowed his bird to be poached in its own juices and butter. The other chefs joined him in the kitchen for the final two hours.

Here's a rundown on how the dishes were received:

Hung - The sous vide chicken was accompanied by pommes dauphines (sort of a mashed potato-y thing in choux pastry), a light salad and crisped chicken skin. You know, everything sounds delicious, but just give me the skin with the truffle oil and I'd be good. The judges were happy with the presentation, flavors and execution -- except for the potatoes, which should have been puffier. Bad on Hung to try to blame his fallen pommes on the fact that no one helped him plate when he asked. Not only has he done the same, but really, he should have timed it better so that it'd go out right whether he had help or not.

Sara - Her fricasseed Jamaican chicken lacked the flavor the judges expected and was inconsistently cooked -- some of it was rubbery and some was raw. And really? Did she really have to make another couscous? This time it was an Israeli couscous risotto. Overall, the concept was too ambitious for her skill level.

Dale - Even he commented that his chicken duet was a "stupid idea." He wanted two different sauces to contrast two pieces of chicken, but hey, maybe forgetting one of the sauces was a boneheaded move. His presentation was also pretty bad. I can do better, and that's sad.

Brian - Instead of trying to be too fancy, he opted for rustic -- a peasant pie with chicken and pheasant sausage topped by fluffy mashed potatoes tinged bright green with ramps -- these wild oniony things. Despite the big, bold and yummy flavors, the pheasant overpowered the chicken just a bit too much and the style of cooking wasn't as refined as the judges would have liked.

Casey - She got marks for her execution and flavor, but criticized for her word choice. She called her dish a coq au vin -- even though there was not coq, a rooster, preferably an old one. Despite this, her braised chicken was perfection as were her whipped potatoes, ramps and asparagus.

In the end, all of Hung's work paid off yet again since he won, thus becoming the first chef this season to advance to the finals. I must say that if Hung has a downfall, it would be either 1) exhaustion from his efforts or 2) his arrogance making him forget that he's not performing for an audience (which he did during his extra 30 minutes with his knife skills), but there to just create the best possible food.

And it was deja vu for Sara when undercooked meat and poor execution got her the boot. Someday she'll get that Jamaican cheese farm she's been wanting. She wasn't my favorite, but I think it was past time for Dale to have gone. Once again, he was thisclose to elimination, and frankly, I'm not certain what tipped the judges in his favor. He's consistently shown a haphazard mindset in the kitchen. Last week, he forgot how many airline meals he was supposed to make. The dude needs to focus.

How do you feel about Sara leaving instead of Dale? Are the four finalists worthy?

Comments

It wasn't really a big issue for me that Sara went this week instead of Dale. I don't think she would have pulled off the big win. And it won't be Dale or Brian either.

Hung and Casey are deserving finalists, but it just won't be the same without Tre.

lessgreen | Sep 20, 2007 6:05:00 AM | #

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What kept Dale?
It's the same thing that's kept Hung around since day two (he actually did perform on day one). That's the fact that he has a lot more TV appeal (being a somewhat flamboyant and personable gay man) then Sara, who is really just a much lesser interesting version of Elia from last season.

If the standard your applying to Dale was applied to all the chefs consistantly, Hung would have gone home a long time ago as most of his dishes have been forgetable, many showed lack of creativity and technique (the latin dish he made and the Bertolli Pasta challenge come to mind).

For whatever reason, this show is more concerned with controversy then with cooking. How else to explain Tre and Lia's departures for one failing, or Sam's last season or Lee Anne from the first season.

It's seemed to me pretty clear for quite a while that they are arranging for the final 2 to be Hung and Casey with Casey being the winner (1st ever female)

sac | Sep 20, 2007 6:51:56 AM | #

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You have to laugh at Hung's two-sidedness, what he says on the one-on-one camera inserts, and what he says and does in the kitchen. And for him to say he's repping all immigrants - yeah, right: it's all about Hung and Hung alone. His love and care for his fellow man is nil.

Dale hit it on the head about Hung: he's a good technical chef but what he lacks is discipline and humility - disclipline within his creations and humility in admiting what works and doesn't, because if he lost a challenge last night then you would've heard, "They didn't understand the dish -- they were confused."

Sara going home was the right decision. This is not the first time she's served up a dish raw. That just cannot happen.

For Brian to survive is beyond comprehension.

Casey's the golden chef and the success story - whether she makes it to the final two or not - this season. She's shown growth and consistency.

Sam | Sep 20, 2007 7:05:02 AM | #

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I think you're a bit hung up on Hung. He's really not all the great, I agree with the earlier posters, that if it weren't for his arrogance and personality, he'd have been gone long ago.

It was really annoying when he blamed the potatoes on no one helping him plate. First of all, he had 30 extra minutes on everyone else. Secondly, all season in the interviews he's made snide comments about people helping other people plate, because this is a competition and he's out to win it.

The only time I did respect Hung's competitiveness was last night when he wouldn't reveal how he cooked the quickfire dish. Something like that can actually make the difference in a competition. To give it a more academic setting, helping someone plate is like editing their paper, telling them how to cook the fish would be writing it for them.

Brian | Sep 20, 2007 8:45:20 AM | #

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Quote:
"The only time I did respect Hung's competitiveness was last night when he wouldn't reveal how he cooked the quickfire dish. Something like that can actually make the difference in a competition."

Brian, I agree with that statement. It's not team competition anymore, and Hung is the perfect foil in any story. In every season of Top Chef they have had a Hung - he's the guy with talent and great potential if it wasn't for his excessive arrogance. He's actually the guy in the competition who adds the heat and forces others to truly compete and he's the threat to overcome. And that's good television. Unfortunately, as human beings go, he's void of any decency. Yet - it's television and that's what we want.

Sam Again | Sep 20, 2007 9:35:22 AM | #

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We saw Hung helping Sara plate last night, so it's unfair for any of us to pretend that he's only out for himself and never helps his fellow contestants. And he told Casey he'd need her help plating "in 5 minutes" (suggesting that he had everything carefully timed and was counting on having help) and she told him she wasn't going to be able to do it -- so he had to go to Plan B to get his pommes dauphine out. It's still ultimately his fault, but he had a plan and it got screwed up.

Ryan | Sep 20, 2007 11:58:30 AM | #

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In past epsiodes, Hung has neglected to help others, and in his confessionals, he's stated that he's in it for himself. He's disregarded the other chefs all season long, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he wouldn't have help. (Although Casey really COULDn't help because she was busy.) He had an extra half an hour - to not have time is really his own fault.

fredric | Sep 20, 2007 12:41:35 PM | #

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I've never made pommes dauphine, so I could be wrong, but if it's a fluffy dish that deflates over time, and the issue the judges had with it was that it was too deflated, that suggests to me that too much time elapsed between cooking it and serving it. It's a timing issue, not a time issue. "He had an extra half hour" is nice sleight of hand, but it just doesn't apply here. Hung needed an extra pair of hands to cut down on the time the plates spent sitting in the kitchen. Period. He should have made sure ahead of time that he'd have help plating, and he probably should have planned a menu without such a sensitive dish, but compared to cheftestants who undercooked chicken or forgot to sauce their plates, his mistakes this week were pretty small.

Ryan | Sep 20, 2007 2:03:09 PM | #

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Hung is this year's Steven and/or Marcel. And did I hear Padma correctly when she said,"One of you are going to Aspen and one of you are going home"? I are very surprised that this slipped through an edit.

BarbL | Sep 20, 2007 2:24:03 PM | #

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In cooking timing is a critical element. Hung was asking for help at a time when the others were in the thick of their dish preparation. They could not leave their dishes to help hung at that moment. But it sounded like a cop out when he blamed his only failing on the lack of help from the other contestant. I agree that the judging did not seem fair: Sara was critisized for poor execution and ambitious concept. Dale was faulted execution and lack of concept. The one thing that I did not like of Sara was her denial of poor craftsmanship in this and other shows, whereas Dale fessed up his stupidity.

Manchez | Sep 20, 2007 9:00:38 PM | #

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| Nov 15, 2007 3:25:06 AM | #

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| Nov 15, 2007 3:25:15 AM | #

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