And then there were five. This is where the competition gets interesting. I still think — and hope — it comes down to Mei and Gregory in the end, an outcome that has seemed inevitable since Episode 1.
The week kicks off with a ramen challenge. This could be a great idea, except it’s not. Rather than simply ask the contestants to create their own unique take on the Japanese noodle soup, Bravo makes them use ingredients Emerson students have scrounged from their dorm rooms: old pizza, random bits of cheese, old sushi, crusty half-jars of salsa. It’s gross and unappetizing, and it doesn’t tell us anything about their actual skills. I just hope no one gets food poisoning.
They are cooking for Andy Cohen, host of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens: Live,” and his former college roommate. Apparently back in the day (like, maybe yesterday) the two used to get baked and chow down. It’s no surprise that the people who wind up with the best ingredients make the best dishes. Melissa gets the cheese, and she does a kind of carbonara with chicken and Frito bits. Gregory gets bacon and Doritos, and he makes broth using the cast-off pizza. George — whose hair gel gets mocked and who has, somehow, never actually eaten ramen — makes a concoction with chili, hot dogs, chicken wings, and Spam that turns out Chef Boyardesque. Doug makes a chef salad pineapple coconut water sunflower seed ramen, and surprise, it is gross. So is Mei’s old-sushi ramen. Melissa wins.
Then the show does an about-face, signaled by the appearance of Jacques Pepin. He comes bearing wine. He pops the cork. “OK, that’s a nice sound,” he purrs with Gallic charm. Bravo, ridiculously, subtitles him. Then he tasks the contestants with making a dish that pays tribute to Julia Child. This is the opposite of the ramen challenge: It will tell us much about their grasp of classic technique.
Doug decides to take a risk and roast whole lobes of foie gras. If he pulls it off, it will be glorious — the perfect big, lusty dish, the kind of thing Julia Child would have loved. Tom looks excited to eat it.
Gregory is making coq au vin, cooking with butter and bacon, not at all his style.
George uses pressure cookers to braise veal shanks, which he serves with pomme puree.
Melissa is braising, too: short ribs, the traditional way. She thinks pressure cookers are cheating.
Mei is making duck a l’orange — “I’m pretty sure Julia would love it. It’s a modern interpretation of how I would make it.” She is confident, having staged at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Paris. Maybe too confident?
Dinner is at the lovely Herb Lyceum in Groton. Gregory serves his coq au vin. He studied abroad in France, it turns out, and his host mother used to make simple dishes like this. His has glazed carrots, fava beans, and snap peas. Hers did not. Joanne Chang is there, and she approves of the chicken’s tenderness. (Harvest’s Mary Dumont is also at the table, along with Barbara Lynch.) Jacques Pepin likes it, too. “Well seasoned,” he says: two words hard- and well-earned. It’s solid good cooking, says Tom. Gregory proves he can turn out traditional, classic European fare as well as the light, bright, inventive dishes infused with Asian flavors that he specializes in.
Then Mei serves her duck a l’orange with turnip puree, orange puree, and glazed vegetables. She’s put five-spice powder in there, too. Julia Child taught her that you have to cook with love, she says. And everyone loves her dish.
George and Melissa both wind up with nice vegetables and starch, but their meats need more braising. And Doug’s foie gras is a disaster, over-seared yet still nearly raw at the center.
It’s clear what should happen, and it does: Mei wins, for making a perfectly executed classic that also makes a personal statement. Doug goes home. His dish is all about the foie gras, and the foie gras is all wrong. You might be able to come back via Last Chance Kitchen, the judges remind him. They sound sad.
Next week: Because it’s just not tense enough with so few competitors left, the show brings in their family members and makes them all cook together.
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