- The chefs must cook exotic Ethiopian cuisine for the quickfire, and for the elimination are tasked with creating a dish based on one of the foreign embassies in D.C. Chefs, ambassadors and dignitaries representing each country join in the judging.—Bravo Publicity
- The day after Andrea went home and the great pea puree mystery took place, Alex says he had no idea Ed had a puree, too. Ed says he's not angry, just confused over what really happened to it.
Tiffany tells us she was about to get married in Costa Rica when she came out for the show. She's ready to win a challenge, having put up a big O-fer so far.
Quickfire Challenge Padma greets them with Top Chef Master winner Marcus Samuelsson. Padma sets them up with Ethiopian food, apparently very prevalent in D.C. They have to make a dish inspired by Ethiopian cuisine. He tells them it's known for a spice called berbere and a spongy pancake bread and spicy stews. Winner gets immunity.
They start cooking. Alex goes for beef tongue and snags a pressure cooker right out of Kelly's grasp. She says he gets aggressive in the kitchen. Kevin is still steamed over the pea puree and thinks Alex is the weakest chef there, making it up as he goes.
Angelo worked an Ethiopian concept restaurant in NYC.
Kenny and Ed also have some experience with it.
Kelly confesses to never having eaten Ethiopian food and Amanda doesn't know what spices go together.
Kevin made braised chicken with chickpeas and cucumber mint salad. Stephen made stew with lamb meatballs and yogurt sauce. Alex made beef and lamb tongue stew with cabbage and potatoes. Kelly made leg of lamb with roasted cauliflower. Amanda made stewed goat. Kenny made duo of lamb. meat loaf and rib eye with curry. Marcus likes the deep flavors. Angelo busts out the Ethiopian food name with his berbere-spiced doro wat chicken with egg. "You're sure you're not born in Ethiopia?" Marcus asks.
Ed made stewed lamb and beef tripe with cauliflower. Tiffany made beef goulash.
Marcus ID's his least favorites: Kevin's dish was "too shy," Stephen's was "interesting" but the meatballs weren't juicy, Alex's stew was too dry.
Faves: Amanda, Angelo and Tiffany.
The winner is: Tiffany.
She's psyched to win her first quickfire. Ed is psyched she beat Angelo.
Elimination Challenge Padma and Marcus bring in a giant chalkboard with a map of the world on it and nine countries highlighted.
They'll be creating a dish inspired by the flavors of one of the countries. They're making 100 portions and serving diplomats, ambassadors and dignitaries. Kenny feels good about all the options.
They won't have use of a kitchen on-site, just chafing dishes. Angelo hopes he doesn't get Brasil.
They draw knives to determine order. Tiffany gets 1. She takes Mexico. Kelly takes Italy. Amanda takes France. Kenny takes Thailand. Alex takes Spain. Angelo takes Japan. Kevin takes India. Ed takes China and that leaves Stephen with Brasil.
They shop with a $200 budget.
Kenny tells us he had cancer and had four surgeries so he's used to fighting.
Kevin says he doesn't know anything about Indian cuisine, but he decides to make his own curry.
Back at the kitchen, they have two hours to prep and cook.
Kelly opts for a cold dish of beef carpaccio. Ed mentions he's dated Chinese women in the past so he knows the cuisine. Stephen marinates his flank steak in coffee and peppers.
Kenny watches Stephen and wonders how he's going to get his food hot on-site. Tiffany makes tamales.
Alex is making braised veal and a menu he calls "very, very difficult." At one point, he trips over the kitchen mat and bites the dust. Ed calls him a "spazz" with no technique.
Tom stops by. Tiffany tells him she's irked by tamales with not enough meat.
Kevin expects his Indian food will be extra-scrutinized by Padma.
They all race to finish.
At day's end, they head back to the townhouse. Kevin talks to his kid and pregnant wife. Kelly gets a care package from her husband with stuffed animals, candy, pictures and booze.
The next day, they head to the Meridian House.
They only have 30 minutes to set up. Amanda is concerned that her beef is dry. She cuts it smaller. Stephen also deals with heating up his rice, which gets overcooked as he adds stock. Tiffany is behind everyone as she does last minute chopping.
The guests arrive. Kevin is sure to tell the diners he made stewed chicken with curry and not curried chicken.
Padma introduces a guest judge, Jose Andres, a DC restaurateur from Spain.
For China, Ed serves tea-smoked duck breast with pot stickers. For Spain, Alex serves braised veal cheeks, jamon torta with olive and tomato salad. For Brasil, Stephen serves flank steak in chimichurri sauce with black beans and rice. For Italy, Kelly serves beef carpaccio, spring vegetable salad and Parmesan.
For India, Kevin serves stewed chicken with leeks, parsnip puree and cucumber mango salad and crispy fried lentils.
The judges dig in. Gail appreciates that Kelly simplified her dish based on the location. A guy from the Italian Embassy says her dish represents Italy better than he does.
Jose Andres doesn't think Ed represented China well, but a dude from the Chinese Embassy says it's very authentic and good.
Padma likes Kevin's lentils and salad.
Tom notices Stephen's poorly cooked rice.
Jose doesn't think Alex's torta works, Marcus says it needs more focus and Gail says it's muted.
For France, Amanda made beef bourguignon with pommes forchette and horseradish mousse. She doesn't feel like it represents France the way she wanted it to. "I want to crawl under the table and cry."
For Japan, Angelo serves sashimi of tuna ribbons with candied wasabi and soy infusion.
For Mexico, Tiffany serves chicken tamales with queso fresco and tomatillo sauce.
For Thailand, Kenny made a cold salad with tamarind-braised pork with rice noodle salad and Thai green curry.
Gail doesn't understand why Amanda cut her meat so small. Some guests find it dry. Tom thinks Angelo's dish is nice, but the flavor covers up the fish.
Jose thinks Tiffany's dish looks like Mexico. The guests rave about it.
The judges also like Kenny's green curry salad. Amanda tells Angelo she's going home unless someone else's is terrible.
(Our quickie segment shows Angelo putting Saran Wrap on the toilet one night. He prevents Alex from using it, saving it for tipsy Stephen, who finds it just as funny as Angelo does when it sprays all over him.)
In the stew room, Padma comes for Kelly, Kevin and Tiffany with the best dishes.
Tom tells Tiffany her dish was delicious. Kevin says again he knows nothing about Indian food, but Tom says he stewed the chicken well and knew to put a cooling flavor in with it. Jose says he layered it well.
Jose says he just came back from Venice and she honored its food.
Jose announces the winner: Tiffany, who suddenly goes 2 for 2. She gets $10,000 as a bonus surprise. "My wedding is paid for, so I'm really excited to see what my fiance is going to say."
They're also matching the $10,000 in her name to a DC charity.
Tiffany breaks the bad news: Alex, Stephen and Ed.
On the chopping block.
Gail immediately starts in on Stephen's rice and says his sauce wasn't chimichurri (which is Argentinian). Tom tells him he's there for not cooking his food properly.
Jose tells Alex his food was like "a little nightmare." Alex says he couldn't edit himself. Tom says his meat was dried out and the sauce was watery.
Jose says there was no sweet and sour in Ed's dish and Tom says he needed to render the duck fat out. Ed knows exactly what he did wrong.
Walking back in to the stew room, Alex jokingly announces that Ed is going home.
The judges discuss. Gail says Ed's dish was disappointing because it sounded delicious. Tom thinks it lacked salt. Jose says Alex's techniques, ingredients and presentation all fell short.
Kevin is surprised Ed is on the bottom because he's a strong chef. Ed's irked to be there with Alex.
Padma wraps it up as a tough decision.
Verdict time. Tom recaps their sins, saying their problems were technique. "Alex, we didn't see cooking skill at all," he says.
The knife packer is: Stephen.
"It was an honor to be a part of the process, thank you very much," he tells them. "I'm disappointed of my fatal errors, to go home on cooking techniques is probably the hardest thing. I really enjoyed being on Top Chef, just the overall experience of it. People don't know hard and how intense this competition is until they come here.... but somebody's got to go and tonight I was the guy who fell short."
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