- This week, the chefs must use a deep fryer to impress the queen of southern cooking, Paula Deen. Deen is then joined by John Besh as a guest judge in the Elimination Challenge where the chefs provide the seafood at a charity event benefiting the fisherman of the Gulf region.—Anonymous
- Back in the stew room, even Tiffany admits she was shocked she didn't get sent home. Dale is feeling pretty smug (as usual) coming off his win.
Back at the town house.
Richard has two notebooks full of plans -- with pictures. Tiffany notes they're almost to the same point when she was eliminated in her season.
In the kitchen, they're greeted by Paula Deen. (She, Carla and Tiffany nearly have a cackle-off.)
Padma tells them this round is all about Southern cooking.
Quickfire Challenge They have to make something using a deep fryer.
"If you can eat it, you can fry it," Paula tells them. She's fried lasagna, even balls of butter. The winner gets $5,000.
Paula cautions them not to do calamari on top of a salad.
They have 30 minutes to cook.
Antonia goes for shrimp, but then also says the "s" word (salad). Mike I. borrows an idea from Richard's book and fries a part of a chicken kind of in the armpit called the oyster.
Richard wants to fry mayonnaise, with coffee and lime.
Carla breads fish but lets it sit too long and is disappointed. Tiffany goes for fried chicken wings. Fried mayonnaise, it's not.
Time's up.
Antonia realizes she forgot to plate a second plate -- she fried avocado and shrimp on a corn salad.
Dale fried an actual oyster wrapped in steak on an egg yolk omelette.
Richard's dish also includes fried bacon. Paula notices his hair looks just like hers. "It's one part duck fat, one part nitrogen," he says.
Carla is chagrined to see Paula over-chewing hers.
Richard notices Mike stole his dish from his notebook. Mike can tell Richard thinks he stole it, but doesn't care.
Paula announces the failures: Dale (lacked flavors that wowed her), Carla (hush puppies were like "spitballs").
Her favorite "hands-down" was Antonia's, but she's not eligible because she forgot to do two plates.
Mike and Richard's were her favorites.
Antonia's is near tears when Paula says she's out. The winner is: Mike. He says he's going to thank Richard for the "inspiration."
They welcome John Besh, of August in New Orleans.
Elimination Challenge
John and Paula are hosting a fundraiser to benefit the oil spill-affect Gulf region. They'll be cooking Southern style gulf seafood for 300 people.
And they get help. In walk Marcel, Tiffani, Angelo, Fabio and Spike, each bearing a seafood. Antonia worries about the baggage the eliminated chef's come with. Richard is sure Angelo's head isn't in the right place.
Mike goes for brown shrimp and Tiffani. Richard takes Fabio and snapper. Carla takes Tre and the red grouper. Tiffany wants to avoid Marcel, but wants his white shrimp. Antonia takes Spike "and his crabs." Dale takes Angelo and his giant fish.
They'll have two and a half hours to cook in the Top Chef kitchen tomorrow and 30 minutes to finish on site. They get 15 minutes to plan.
Mike is psyched to learn Tiffani lived in NoLa for two years. This is a help, because he thinks gumbo has potatoes in it.
Angelo thinks Dale is in Richard's head.
Carla is bummed to learn Tre grew up in the city and doesn't know country food. "Seriously? Can we take your NAACP card?" she says.
They head to restaurant depot with $200 to shop.
Richard marvels that he and Fabio are pals. "Fabio told me, 'I know why we get along so well, you remind me of my ex-wife.' I don't know what that means," Richard says.
Then it's on to Whole Foods with $500 each. Carla is determined to do fried fish properly.
Back at the townhouse. Carla is upset about her "spitballs."
With only six people left, half will be on the bottom and half on top. Antonia is smarting over Mike winning.
Richard doesn't really want to have much to do with Mike.
Antonia catches Tiffany and Carla up on Mike's thievery, saying the recipe -- right down to plating on an oyster shell - was not only in Richard's book but he and Mike just talked about it that morning. The ladies are aghast, and agree Mike broke "chef law."
Back in the kitchen, they start cooking.
Antonia is making a crab cake with crab bisque and something that involves a lot of Maker's Mark.
Carla won't let Tre near the collard greens since he bought some in a can.
Mike is in full Joisey heckle mode, shouting at everyone. Antonia think he's not doing much and letting Tiffany make his sauce.
Marcel suggests repeatedly that Tiffany use the shrimp heads in her sauce and keep at it until she finally tells him she's more worried about having enough shrimp. Dale is waiting for her to put Marcel in his place.
With time running out, they pack everything up. The nitrogen burbles unattended in the corner. Everyone packs up.
On-site, Dale worries about how much he has to get done.
Richard feels he's being risky with pulled pork and seafood on one plate.
Carla decides to leave out her cornbread since it didn't come out right.
The guests arrive. They're inundated.
Besh explains The Greater New Orleans Foundation gives money to fishermen and their families.
Mike has a grit-encrusted shrimp served over sour cream and chive potatoes with pork and lobster sauce. John and Paula like it.
Richard and Fabio race to get food out and have their first fight of the evening as the judges arrive.
Richard serves crispy gulf snapper with pulled pork and citrus grits, calling it a "surf and turf."
John admits he was concerned but it works.
Dale races to get his dish how he wants it. Angelo assures him it's fine.
Marcel tells Tiffany they ran out of their honey glaze. She tells him how to make more, but doesn't have time to taste it.
Carla is overwhelmed by the number of people but stays peppy.
She's serving fried grouper with collard greens and chow-chow pico.
Paula is disappointed in the collard greens. John thinks it's too salty and Tom says it has too much hot sauce. The diners think it's not their favorite.
Tiffany serves honey glazed shrimp with jalapeno and cheese grits with shellfish sauce. Paula and Tom don't love the sauce.
Dale vamps a bit for the judges as they scramble to plate.
He's serving Amberjack stew with andouille sausage and potatoes with creole mustard crouton. After he serves, he worries the potatoes aren't cooked all the way through. Padma immediately verifies this is the case. Tom and John say the crouton is overly mustardy.
Antonia made blue crab cake with corn, jalapeno and andouille relish with crab broth. She feels good about it. Tom raves about the sauce.
Everyone thanks their sous chefs. Fabio tells Richard to quit worrying.
Our quickie segment is Spike doing crowd recon. All he manages is to knock over some guest's wine. "Spike is an amazing sous chef, really bad spy," concludes Antonia.
In the stew room, Carla, Tiffany and Dale are particularly concerned.
Padma comes for Antonia, Richard and Mike -- proving the remaining three had cause to be concerned.
They're the favorites.
Besh compliments Richard for his restraint and combination. Paula loved coating shrimp with grits (Tiffani's idea).
Besh announces the winner is: Richard.
"Sorry, Mikey, this one is mine," he says.
He gets a trip to a Hilton in Barbados. He plans to invite Fabio to go with him and his family.
The remaining three go back out.
In the stew room, Antonia asks Mike to please not burp on her.
Carla, Tiffany and Dale face the music.
Tiffany says she didn't cook the shrimp and they tell her they were overcooked. She still takes credit.
Dale knows his potatoes weren't done. Tom says he should have had them wait. He mentions the over mustarding.
Tom says there was too much hot sauce and mustard on Carla's dish. Paula says the dish didn't go together.
Richard heard Marcel dissing Tiffany's dish as bland. When she comes back to the stew room she says Marcel neglected to dilute her sauce, but she didn't want to call him out.
The judges discuss.
They're irritated with Carla masking the grouper.
Tom didn't like the "sweet stuff" on the shrimp.
Verdict Time Tom recaps.
The knife packer is: Dale.
He's too choked up at first to give final thoughts. "It's tough, you're like right there -- so close."
The stew room is stunned again.
He says he proud of how he went through the whole experience. He says the first time he didn't like himself, but he's grown up a lot. "I know I'm leaving a better person, I'm leaving a better chef," he says.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content