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This week, the chefs are off to the Fruit Loop in the Gorge, where we get comments about the beauty of Oregon and also get to watch them run headlong into low-hanging orchard branches.
Before getting into the deets on Top Chef: Portland Episode 4, as I’m sure thousands of you noticed, I took my vaxxed ass on vacation, so the world missed out on WW’s pithy musings on Episode 3. That’s too bad too, because the chefs went on a li’l trip to Akadi, Bake on the Run, Mathilde’s Kitchen, and Yaad Style Jamaican Cuisine with Gregory Gourdet and Kwame Onwuachi of Season 13. It was a touching episode, seeing chefs relate their own cooking and heritage with the often overlooked flavors and techniques of West Africa and other foods from the African diaspora.
Ultimately, Brittanny Anderson, who copped to being afraid of spice and instead made a dish with no flavor, went home. And Dawn Burrell, the former Olympic track star who I’ve been dying to see get ahead in this race, grabbed a win.
With that out of the way, here’s what happened this week:
The Quickfire: It’s time for the Campbell’s Soup Quickfire™, sponsored by Campbell’s Soup!
The chefs must make an elevated food memory featuring Campbell’s Soup™. Rows of iconic red and white cans are unveiled, and at stake is immunity and $10,000, courtesy our friends at Campbell’s Soup™. This actually reminds me to add a couple cans of cream of mushroom from Campbell’s™ to my shopping list.
Cans be poppin’ and chefs be blending this humble ingredient into their dishes. I’m into Jamie’s use of tomato soup for a Bún Riêu (tomato and shrimp soup), but the winner is fancy French chef Chris, who comes down off his culinary high horse to make a grilled cheese panzanella with tomato vinaigrette. He’s taken hits for being too technical, so it’s good to see him relax into the competition.
The Main Challenge: For the main challenge, the gang drives out to Mt View Orchards in the Gorge. First, they must cook outside—a classic Top Chef trope—with fruit they harvest by hand. Secondly, they’re deprived of vegetables, meaning they must make savory dishes with only fruit and meat. Thirdly, here comes the Gorge winds and the late summer bees. So many bees.
Under the shadow of Mount Hood (“Oh, I know her!” I kept mumbling to myself when she made multiple cameos), the chefs have three hours to pick and prepare. Hometown hero Sara Hauman (Soter Vineyards) says she’s “gonna get wild” with sauces, while Gabriel Pascuzzi of Stacked Sandwiches and Mama Bird takes a demure approach with elaborate preparations for raw Kumamoto oysters.
Gabriel is stung by a bee, and Byron’s handmade pasta starts flapping in the wind while he tries to roll it out worse than me running without a bra.
Kiki chats with Tom about her plans, and he questions her decision to use the tabletop deep fryer for her chicken wings instead of the grill. Like any doomed reality show contestant, she sticks with her own vision. Flash forward to the end, where the sun goes down, the oil won’t heat up, and she decides the wings will surely come to temp while resting on the plate.
Avishar is also struggling with yet another attempt at rice, this time trying to make what he calls an Ohiotto, a portmanteau of his home state of Ohio with risotto, trying to dodge any critiques Tom might have if he actually called it a risotto. He’s got a big pot of mess.
Sara makes a grilled shrimp with quinoa, apples, plums and peaches, with one sauce made up of roasted plums, sesame oil, peanut butter and yogurt (of course). Gabriel makes three oysters, each with their own accoutrements, including a peach with fish sauce and balsamic vinegar, green apples with shoyu and a raw apple brunoise, and one with Italian plums.
At the judge’s table, Sara’s plate is criticized for having too many sauces and being too dill-heavy, but she’s safe. Padma calls Gabriel’s oysters “enchanting,” and he’s in the top with Gabe and Chris. Gabe wins after he expertly grills plums at a low temperature so they don’t turn into mush, glazes them and serves with an orchard fruit jus with pork and chicken. Noice.
Avishar, Kiki, and Nelson land on the bottom, the latter serving a “poor little scallop,” according to Top Chef Ambassador Gregory Gourdet. Each makes a super-underwhelming offering that could send them home, the judges agree, but it’s Kiki’s serving of 10 raw chicken wings that gets her the ax. Top Chef judges: OK with bee venom, but not salmonella.
Episode MVP: The bees. They kept it spicy for us, especially since Maria was deprived of her chiles.
Biggest bummer: I’m rooting for you, Avishar! Please stop screwing up rice.
Richard Blais hair watch: At the judge’s dinner, Blais’ hair was a controlled side swoop, unfazed by the Gorge winds. I need notes on what product he uses.