The penultimate episode of “Top Chef” Season 21 is here. The Final Four! Only Danny, Laura, Dan and Savannah are left, and the whole crew – host, judges, cheftestants – has left Wisconsin and gone on a cruise through the Caribbean. Our man Dan Jacobs has to cook a lot better than he did in the last episode, when he just missed being eliminated. But the sun and sea air have everyone in a good mood (even judge Tom Colicchio). Here are my takeaways, coming in as hot as a cheese croquette. As always: beware, spoilers ahead!
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
1. It’s about positive self-talk. Sometime between leaving Wisconsin and getting on the boat, Savannah gets engaged and is feeling more confident of her cooking abilities than ever. The shift for her was her prize-winning squash-maple jelly dessert in the Elimination Challenge focused on Indigenous ingredients. Says Dan of his role this season: “I think of what it can do for Milwaukee, for the state of Wisconsin,” adding that he knows his food “needs to be really good. I need to be me – do me – and the rest will take care of itself.”
2. The “final” Quickfire Challenge is, fittingly, fish. We’re in the Caribbean, after all. Chef and lionfish hunter Helmi Smeulders helps explain what the cheftestants will be working with. Lionfish and (don’t groan) cheese. If you’ve ever seen photos of the lionfish, you’ll know that it’s one good-looking fish. However, it’s hard to ignore its 18 venomous spines. But they cook up real nice – firm and flaky, with a texture on par with grouper. So lionfish with cheese is the challenge and the chefs all go pretty light with their creations. Savannah makes a crudo with keshi-yena-like sauce (keshi-yena is a dish native to Curacao, in the Caribbean), gouda frico and chile oil. Danny’s dish is a croquette (flashbacks to the Cheese Festival) with gouda sauce and red cabbage slaw. Dan makes a lionfish tartare with orange and fresno aguachile and gouda frico. And Laura does a crudo with guava sauce and gouda crunch.
3. Dan proves he’s serious about winning. He pockets the Quickfire prize – his first and last (there won’t be a Quickfire in the final episode). The judges have nothing but good things to say about his tartare and he’s semi-redeemed himself for his poor showing in Episode 12.
4. The Elimination Challenge is also going to be fishy. The cheftestants have to prepare an eight-course fish menu, with each chef responsible for two courses. Each course features a different fish and preparation method. They will shop for their ingredients at the “floating market.” Food must be served raw, steamed, poached, fried, roasted, smoked, blackened or served as a mousse. The eight fish available to them: Atlantic salmon, black bass, red snapper, black grouper, dorade, sea bream, monkfish, rainbow trout and striped bass.
5. But first, we feast. Man, those cheftestants eat well. This time, they get a private meal prepared and served by Japanese “Iron Chef” Masaharu Morimoto, who describes himself as the ambassador of the fresh fish program for Holland America, the cruise line on which they are sailing. Before Morimoto leaves, Dan asks for his autograph, and the other cheftestants follow suit. “Iron Chef,” forever!
6. Dan wants snapper and Laura wants… snapper. For the most part the chefs agree on who will take which fish. There’s a minor kerfuffle when Dan and Laura both say they want grouper and snapper. Laura takes the grouper, leaving Dan with snapper, which is what he really wanted all along.
7. The cheftestants go snorkeling? It’s true, and Danny reveals that he likes nature “from a distance. This isn’t for me,” he says. Laura compares stingrays to “chefs in a competition – almost.” Hmm.
8. Let’s get this Elimination Challenge party started. I’ll say from the get-go Dan looks like a winner. He walks like a winner. He’s ready to roll. Here’s what they’re making:
Danny:
Sea bream mousse with green garlic spheres (that are inspired by Cantonese fish balls)
Smoked trout with pumpkin and plantain puree and smoked trout foam.
Laura:
Steamed black bass in banana leaves with recado negro
Roasted grouper with guajillo pepper glaze and pineapple broth
Savannah:
(Raw) Salmon futomaki roll, salmon tartare and creamy ginger dressing
Fried striped bass, pepper kosho and aji amarillo aioli
Dan:
Poached dorade with coconut and turmeric, yucca fritter, grilled pumpkin and chile-garlic crisp
Blackened snapper with butter poached potatoes, mandarin butter sauce and dill oil
9. The judges eat well, too. But they have mixed reactions to the cheftestants’ dishes. Colicchio thinks Savannah is playing it too safe, to which the other judges agree. He comments that the sauce on her futomaki dish is “too grainy;” Judge Gail Simmons says there’s “no juiciness” to the fish Savannah fried. Danny’s spheres go over really well, but his mousse does not. “Too much egg white and not enough fat,” says host Kristen Kish. Laura is criticized for her cooking technique: “What she explained was baking, not roasting,” says Colicchio. The judges like components of Dan’s dishes, but his poached fish isn’t poached correctly on Colicchio’s plate. The fried yucca (which we see Dan cooking twice…) is a “clunky, greasy thing in the middle of the bowl,” says Simmons. Colicchio speaks for the group: “It still feels like they’re afraid,” he says. Kish adds, They’re “cooking scared.”
10. So who’s gonna win this thing? I had my bets on Dan winning the Elimination Challenge, but it turns out to be Danny. He’s cleared to move on to the finals next week. Dan also advances to the finals. That leaves two scared looking cheftestants.
11. It’s time to go. Laura was eliminated before and fought he way back at “Last Chance Kitchen.” But she got the firm boot this week. Savannah is given another chance and heads on to the finals with Danny and Dan.
12. What comes next? Good question. They’re still on the ship, and some of the eliminated cheftestants from this season come back to help the cheftestants still competing. Beyond that, it’s a mystery. Kish had choked up telling the cheftestants: “Have fun with it! This is going to be the one time you’re going to be able to do it. It’s a fantastic moment that you are going to remember forever.”
And maybe so are we. Until next week – The Finals!!
