Welcome back for Episode 3 friends! Let’s see what the cheftestants are up to this week!

 

We start this episode with Connie and Andrea commenting on Rebekah’s departure, and how they’re repping all the women in the industry as the only girls left in the competition. Darryl’s aware he needs to bring his A game, after the debacle last episode. Nice little profile on Steve here, where he talks about changing his outlook, and taking the competition a little more seriously. He says cooking saved him from rolling with the wrong crowd; at the end of high school, some of his friends were in jail, and he was in the kitchen. Love this.

 

 

Quickfire! Mark has put together a selection of 20 ingredients and the cheftestants are going to do a blind taste test. The winner is the person who guesses the most correctly in 5 minutes, and they will get immunity. Dale volunteers to go first, and makes sure to big up himself the whole way through. Dustin is a beast and knows a lot of the more obscure ingredients. Many cheftestants have a lot of trouble, so it’s very true, we eat with our eyes first. It seems the chefs that have cooked a lot with asian ingredients have the best palates. The loser is Francois, who only guessed one ingredient correctly. The winner is Chris, with 13/20 correct, and he’s super excited. Dale is shown again, basically saying that the challenge was rigged with a lot of asian ingredients, so it favoured certain chefs. Cry me a river, Dale.

 

The Elimination Challenge for this week is to create a vodka inspired tapas meal (this is called Zakuski, explained in a great article from Deb Perelmen of Smitten Kitchen). The cheftestants will be divided into two teams, and each team member will be responsible for one dish. Dan Aykroyd is the guest judge for this challenge, and has provided a ginormous supply of Crystal Head Vodka, which is produced in Canada and comes in scary skull jars, which reminds me of the ice bar in Red Square at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and my 30th birthday. Quick detour in photos:

 

 

Back to Top Chef Canada! Dishes will be served up at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), and then the chefs pick little Russian dolls to determine the teams which are:

 

Blue: Dale, Francois, Patrick, Dustin, Steve, Todd

Green: Rob, Connie, Andrea, Jamie, Darryl, Derek

 

As the winner of the Quickfire Challenge, Chris gets to choose his team and he picks Blue. Right away, Dale tries to force Chris to make a dessert, because he has immunity and won’t go home. WTF Dale! Your stock is dipping waaaay down here on Planet Byn. And also, why are these cheftestants so scared of dessert? Pavolva isn’t that hard to make! (Nevermind: Wikipedia confirms that while it’s named after a Russian ballet dancer, pavlova originated in Australia or New Zealand.)

 

Off we go to Loblaws, where Rob comments on how weak certain members of his team are, and how he hates team challenges, because he doesn’t want anyone to bring him down. Andrea is half Ukrainian, so she’s ready to bring it with sauerkraut. Steve is totally lost, so he’s going to make a potato salad (?).

 

Back in the kitchen, everyone on the Blue Team starts deferring to Dale, which certainly won’t help his ego issues. And here he goes talking again about how he thinks Chris should have manned up and done dessert. We also find out that Connie was a ballet dancer, which explains her discipline and intensity. Should we now refer to her as Black Swan?

 

We then get our token shot of the cheftestants relaxing in the loft, where this week they’re teaching Francois slang. Gangster.

 

Moving on, the cheftestants arrive at the AGO with 45 minutes to prep. Jamie and Darryl are basically portrayed as Tweedledee and Tweedledum at this point, while Connie, Rob and Andrea are super serious. Andrea’s talking about how you can’t be too confident, and for some reason I love this attitude on her, but hate it on Dale. I guess it’s a very fine line between being confident and cocky.

 

Our judges for this round are our regulars, Mark, Shereen and Thea, plus the guest judge Dan Aykroyd, as well as Anne Yarymowich, Executive Chef of the AGO. Blue Team serves first, and the judges love Francois’ potato crisp with creme fraiche and potato with caviar, Dustin’s pork tenderloin, and Todd’s dessert (yes!). They find Dale’s salmon unpleasant, Patrick’s trout underwhelming, Chris’ cabbage roll undercooked, and Steve’s potato salad bland. Green Team goes next, and the judges love Darryl’s borscht, Rob’s arctic char with potato latke, Connie’s chilled garlic smoked sausage, Jamie’s cabbage roll, Andrea’s sauerkraut.

 

In the supply closet, Steve is dancing around a box, which automatically makes me worried he’s going home. Thea comes in and calls Connie, Rob, Andrea and Darryl. They are the best! Mark thought Rob rocked his dish; it had a country feel, but was very sophisticated with a great presentation. Shereen says Andrea’s sauerkraut with three types of pork was perfectly cooked, and Dan loved the aroma, tenderness and flavour.  Connie’s taste combinations were perfect, Mark said she nailed it, and her dish highlighted the vodka the most. Everyone agreed it was nice to see Darryl step up.

 

The winner: Connie! YAY! She wins a trip to LA to hang out with the Aykroyds.

 

Chris, Patrick, Steve and Dale are called in to see the judges, and they have the worst dishes. Patrick’s fish was dry, and his presentation was disjointed.  Chris’ sausage was underwhelming, and his cabbage roll was loose and mealy inside. Steve’s dish had potential, but lacked flavour. Dale’s plate looked beautiful, but Shereen wasn’t happy with the taste. Since Chris has immunity, it’s really only between Patrick, Steve and Dale.

 

Going home: Steve 🙁 Noooooooo! Sucks! I’ll be stalking him at Origin this weekend.

 

Next time: Susur!

 

What did you think of this episode? Who are your favourite cheftestants three episodes in? Will Dustin have an advantage next week because he’s worked for Susur Lee? What’s your favourite Dan Aykroyd movie? I had to look him up on IMDB, but I’m going to go with My Girl, although he did play Britney Spears’ dad in Crossroads. Ha!