Top Chef - Latin Lunch

Lia is sad that Camille left. Joey feels he needs to step up his game. He calls himself "the great wuss." Hung is still (annoyingly) confident about his kitchen skills. According to him, it's all about "finesse, style, grace and elegance" (all of this from the chef who is constantly running willy-nilly around the kitchen.)

It's time for the Quickfire. The guest judge is famed pastry chef/restaurant owner (Miami's Duo) Maria Frumkin. The challenge is all about timing. The chefs are going to work with the most time-saving culinary innovation of the 20th century - frozen pie crust. Dale's not happy about the pie crust after last weeks disaster. They can use the pie crust however they want in 90 minutes. Padma expects miracles. Hung loves banana cream pie - but decides to do a chocolate mousse. Dale's "jacked to make this Quickfire happen" so he can redeem himself after last week's debacle. Sara M. decides to tackle some rabbit. Joey confesses that he actually does have some pastry experience. Lia decides to stick with what she knows and goes for the savory. Howie chooses the "cooks desert" of tarts. Hung's mousse isn't setting. Tre expresses his femimine side with his dish and adds some heart and star-shaped pastry accents. Ha! Hung's pie ended up a tad runny, so he used strawberry slices along the sides to hide his mistake. Dale's confident he's made his 2 best dishes of the competition. Let's see what Maria has to say.

Hung's Banana, rum and chocolate (runny) pie with spicy peanuts seemed to get a lukewarm response. Howie did a peach tart tatin with black pepper and balsamic sabayon. Maria thought the balsamic was kind of strong. Joey did a trio of tarts (he told Maria he had very little pastry experience. Liar.) The trio included a berry cream tart with balsamic vinegar, roasted mango puree with rum and a warm apple compote (Joey said the dish was "an orgasm in your mouth." Okee-dokee then!) CJ did a duo (kiss ass!) of a duck lollipop and duck tart. Tre's fennel and apple tart tatin elicited a comment of "Pretty." Energetic Brian delivered a 4 course meal of tarts - a vegetarian tart with arugula pesto, a seafood tart with celeriac puree, a chorizo tart with pepper jack cheese and a fruit tart with Grand Marnier (can I marry you, Brian?) Sara did braised swiss chard and rabbit stew and a prosciutto wrapped rabbit with a veggie "cigar" and a goat cheese, feta and fig tart.  Lia whipped up a pork tenderloin with a artichoike and chorizo tart - which got the first bad review from Maria. Dale prepared a "summer picnic" of spinach and salmon en croute and a strawberry, pear and saffron tart. Maria found it "overwhelming". Maria now has to choose. Her 3 least favorites were Lia, Dale and (a shocked looking) Hung. Maria's 3 favorites were Tre, Sara and Joey (who she said had "a future in tarts".) The big winner is Joey, the "great wuss" no more.

It's time for the Elimiation Challlenge. The chefs are going to prepare a lunch of Latin cuisine for a group for whom time is money - the cast and crew of a telenovela called "Dame Chocolate" (and some other Telemundo employees. Ain't corporate synergy great?) The chefs have to prepare servings for 20 people. They are given $125 and 30 minutes to shop at Fresh Market. Lia decides to smoke rainbow trout. Casey, from Texas, decides to reinterpret a traditional mole with coffee instead of cocoa. Sara N. opts to make an avacado ceviche (I thought seafood was the main ingredient in ceviche....) She wants to make her own tortillas, but wisely got a back-up. Lia and Casey are becoming chums for life (for now...) As the challenge looms, the chefs ruminate on their strengths - Sara has catering experience, Hung speaks Spanish. With 3 hours to prepare, the kitchen is more civilized. Of course, that's got to change. Chef Tom comes in and announces that the cast and crew are breaking earlier, they now only have 90 miunutes to prepeare. Uh-oh. Naturally, chaos ensues. Tom checks in on the chefs. Howie refuses ti chanfe his methid of cooking his pork. Darn it, he's gonna braise it! Lia's making some adjustments. Casey could use some prep cooks. Sara N. is glad she bought the ready-made tortillas right about now. Hung's doing arroz con pollo. I'm kind of surpised at that one. Tom's concerned that Hung's running around with knives and almost sliced Casey. Casey's rice boiled over and got mushy. Uh-oh. The chefs are now  packed up and ready to go.

Sara M. was impressed with the Star Island set for the show. Lia said that serving the food buffet-style with hot plates was a "recipe for disaster" and was glad to be serving a cold dish. Esta tiempo de almuerzo. Sara N. is serving up shrimp and scallop avacadi ceviche with charred corn and pickled radish. Casey's dish is bacon-wrapped chicken with rice and molasses coffee glaze. CJ did a skirt steak with black beans and jicama slaw. Hung was dishing out his arroz con pollo with a lot of Spanish (I'm impressed - I thought his knowledge of the language lurked somewhere around the "Donde esta la biblioteca?"; but he commuincated quite well with the Telemundo crew.) Tre had the yummiest-sounding dish with jumbo prawns with jalapeno cilantro dumplings and lobster ceviche. Howie's braised pork was served with yucca and sour orange mojo (my tummy's rumbling now). Joey made a bean stew with lobster, shrimp, chicken and chorizo. Howie couldn't stay away from the stew - he loved it. Lia presented her smoked rainbow trout with polenta (Gail asked, "Polenta? Is that Latin?" Wench.) The crew looked pretty happy with their lunch - it's got to be better than craft services. Dale has prepared a grilled poblano pepper and braised chicken and a tortilla with fire-roasted corn and jalapeno. Sara M. made veggie chile rellenos and her own queso blanco - both of which got raves from the Telemundo crew. Howie's pork also got kudos. Hung "killed" the arroz con pollo. Sara N.'s ceviche was too much like guacamole. Lia's trout and Casey's faux-mole also got panned. Joey's full of confidence (especially because he's immune this week).

Judges' table. Joey's dish? Tom and Maria loved it. The trout polenta got mushy, Maria didn't like Casey's mole dish. Howie's pork is still raved about. Padma calls in Joey and Howie. They were the top 2. Timing seems to be Howie's achilles heel. Maria deems Howie the big winner and awards him with (what I'm sure is a great bottle of) Argentinian wine. Howie shares his prize with Joey. Awwww....Lia, Sara N. Casey and Hung are called before the judges. Hung's rice was dry and underseasoned. He's totally on the defensive. Casey's not surprised that she was called out - because of her rice. It seems her "mole" was more of the problem. Lia isn't entirely surprised that she's in front of the firing squad. Sara blamed her old California roomie for her choice of avacado ceviche. The judges seem to be getting tired of Hung's arrogance. Lia's meal was unappealing mush. They've made their decision. It's Lia who's packing her knives and leaving. Damn, I was so hoping to see her and Casey's relationship disintegrate as the season progressed. Oh well. I don't really have a favorite - I guess I'd have to go with Brian or Tre right now. I'm sure Hung will stick around, as he has seemed to fill the Stephen/Marcel role. Thanks for letting me fill in!