I’m not sure if Homer Simpson (or Rob Ford) would laugh or cry upon hearing the list of required ingredients in the first round. After all, donuts were on the list. Yes, for the appetizer round. That, along with flank steak, ramps (a vegetable similar to green onions, but has a stronger taste) and navel oranges were required to be in the course. While donuts are definitely weird, I wouldn’t say that putting together something based on these ingredients would be entirely difficult. What IS difficult is, of course, making it tasty enough NOT to be chopped.
What ramps look like
To me, the results were a little more on the mediocre side. The dishes were mostly steak salads (citrus glazed with toasted donuts, a warm salad with donut croutons and a “trio” of salads that included one with steak). Another contestant was criticized by one of the judges for throwing her steak back onto the grill after slicing, but they loved it nonetheless. On the negative side, one contestant was told that his steak was “overdone” (this is a matter of personal opinion, I think), while a second was told that his dish was sloppy and that everything looked like it was just thrown together (they especially disliked the fact that this chef threw out the bulbs of the ramps, which are the best part). This contestant was then chopped.
For round two, the main course, the required ingredients were octopus, iceberg lettuce, ketchup and puff rice cereal, ingredients that are more appetizer-like than an entrée. Sure enough, one of the chefs made a main course that was a bit appetizer-esque, a lettuce wrap with the octopus and cereal, while adding lentils and sausage. The ketchup was used to create a sauce. Judges liked the octopus and the sauce, but thought the lentils were undercooked (the chef claimed they were “al dente,” but there’s a difference between al dente and undercooked. Dried lentils usually need about 20-25 minutes to cook and he put them in too late). Another chef made stewed octopus with fennel and iceberg slaw and served it over quinoa. Unfortunately, she did not put enough quinoa and was told that it was “lost.” Another judge thought the tomato sauce was too “overpowering.” The remaining chef made an octopus ceviche (playing tribute to his Latin American heritage) with crunchy tortilla and though the judges loved his presentation, thought that the puff rice was just thrown on and that there could have been more lettuce. This chef, however, was not chopped. Instead, the “honour” went to the chef whose lentils with the undercooked lentils.
In the dessert round, the two finalists were required to use puff pastry, blackberries, pumpkin pie filling and shallots. While something can easily be thrown together with the first three ingredients, the shallots proved that one had to be creative. One chef made a pumpkin mousse with a blackberry reduction and shallot reduction, while the other made pumpkin turnovers with shallot and blackberry coulis (the judges loved his classic use of ingredients, including the egg wash over the pastry before baking). The chef who made the mousse was criticized for not properly using two of the ingredients (the blackberry reduction was merely “painted” onto the plate and a judge claimed that he could not taste the pumpkin), they also did not like the second chef’s use of pumpkin filling straight from the container. However, he was chopped because over all (including the first two courses), the other chef did a better job.
