Top Chef All-Star Review: Killing Two Birds with One Episode

The TV gods have at last prevailed in granting a humble viewer her wish. It has taken six episodes but finally all is right in the Top Chef world.

There are twelve chefs left and two of them get sent home this week in a double elimination round. They are sent to Montauk Beach and split into four groups. Their challenge is to go fishing and cook whatever they catch for an end of summer beach party. The teams are – Antonia, Jamie, and Tiffany; Blais, Fabio, and Marcel; Dale, Carla and Tre; and lastly Angelo, Tiffany, and Mike Isabella.

At first the chefs have little luck in catching anything, but soon they all start catching some mighty big fish with Dale scoring the longest one at the end. According to Antonia he looked like he was giving birth – sweating and panting as he reeled in the catch. Despite all the bickering and left over hating carried from the previous episode, everyone appeared to have enjoyed the day at Montauk.

After fishing they make a quick stop at the farmers market for other ingredients. We see some budding bromances with Angelo and Mike as well as Blais and Fabio. Is this just a summer love?

The previous night, influenced by the bottle to drop his inhibitions even more, Marcel confronted Dale with his impersonation of a hard ass street thug. As he called Dale a little bleep complete with multiple hand gestures, poor Tre is seated right next to him completely silent. While we can’t know what Tre was thinking for sure, it was probably along the lines of shut up you punk.

The next day the chefs cook at a man-made outdoor beach with the Manhattan skyline across the river. Some groups decide to make separate dishes while others elect to do just one with each member contributing to it. It worked for Angelo, Tiffany and Mike but not for Marcel, Blais, and Fabio who end up at the bottom group with Jamie, Antonia, and Tiffani.

The guest judge in this episode was chef Kerry Heffernan who turned out to be Tom Colicchio’s fishing buddy.

Heffernan and the other judges felt that the men’s dish had too much going on and that the succotash was overcooked. Jamie’s food in the meantime was bland and watery while Tiffani’s was heavy-handed and fishy. Antonia was the only one in her group that made a good dish but her lack of constructive criticism didn’t help her teammates.

Jamie and Tiffani are asked to pack their knives and go, leaving the foam-loving Marcel another day to cook. Jamie’s poor performance throughout the entire season justified her exit in my book and Tiffani has had more misses than hits.

Carla ends up winning the challenge with her smoked blue fish lettuce wrap, pickled watermelon rind, radishes and bagel croutons. She also gets a trip to Amsterdam! Carla is genuinely thrilled that she’s won again after the insecurity she felt when she was on the show the first time. So how annoying was it for Marcel to kill her joy as soon as she enters the stew room?

The honor of biggest douche of the episode goes to Marcel with his wannabe gangster talk and crapping on people’s happiness. Even Tre, who might be one of the most level-headed contestants in the game admitted that the longer he got to know Marcel, the more he realized what an ass he was. But at least he can cook. Can’t get kicked off for just being a douche after all.

There is never a shortage of drama on Top Chef and there was plenty in this episode. The food? So so. But that’s okay because Jamie’s gone and all is right in the world.

Season 8, Episode 6: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat (originally aired January 12, 2011)

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Photographs courtesy of Bravo and Giovanni Rufino.