Have you seen a geoduck in real life? Just in
case you haven't and you didn't get a really good look at it during
the show, let me describe it for you: it's a little like a massive,
booger-coloured slug on steroids; sort of what might evolve if a
dirty grub species emerged from a radioactive swamp somewhere and
survived by eating small house pets.
If that's not enough to give you nightmares, just blanch it and
peel back a few layers of it's rubbery, diseased looking alien-like
skin; but be careful not to get sloshed in the face by it's fetid
black guts.
Feeling hungry yet?
So, Rob took a "protein" (I get
a spine shiver just calling it that) that could double as a monster
on one of those cheesy SyFy Network horror movies and turned it
into a winning dish for the QuickfireChallenge, and all I can say is, good for him. He
deserved the win just for having the guts to touch that thing. Oh,
the humanity.
Moving on to the Elimination Challenge, I feel
I must take this opportunity to comment on the excessive whining
and moaning that we've heard from some of the competitors about the
difficulty of preparing ethnic or regional foods that they're not
familiar with. At the risk of sounding like your bitchy high school
homeroom teacher--GET A GRIP KIDS.
Here's the deal: if you want to be truly competitive on this
show, you need to be fluent in the cuisines of many countries and
regions, or at the very least, be familiar with their basic dishes
and flavour profiles. There is NO EXCUSE for showing up unprepared.
The American version of Top Chef has been on the air for
years, so as a competitor you should have some idea of what types
of challenges you can expect. If you haven't seen it, then Google
the show and do some research.
Last week we had Andrea making excuses for her
poor performance because she had never been to the Prairies. Is
that why she couldn't prepare a properly cooked and seasoned steak
or a flavorful fruit crumble? Not buying it.
This week the offender was Dale, who pulled
India and Trinidad for his street food combo and then seemed to
suggest that the whole challenge was stupid because "I've never had
Trinidad (sic) food." Apparently he felt that by this point
in the competition, the challenges should all revolve around "fine
dining" and involve "pairing food with wine." All I can say is,
when we're casting Top Sommelier Canada we will definitely
call you, Dale. Until then, grab yourself a roti and for Pete's
sake, start practicing your curries.
And, to any chef thinking about trying out for season two of
Top Chef Canada, consider yourself
warned: your knowledge of the foods of different countries and
cultures will make you or break you in this competition. So, one
last time now: be prepared.
Okay class, lecture over. I'm off to try to reproduce Rob's
"Spanish-Canadian" sloppy Joes.
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Tags :
Hosts, Recap, Top Chef Canada, Thea Andrews, Episode 11