Noelle Myers recaps the13th episode of Top Chef New Orleans!

From 19 to 4, the chefs numbers are steadily declining.  This week the Quickfire Challenge was a doozy.  The chefs walked into the kitchen to see Gail, Tom, and Padma waiting for them.  There was no immunity this week, but the prize for winning the Quickfire was a new 2014 Toyota Corolla.  There were two parts to the Challenge this week.  Gail and Tom each devised a challenge.  All four chefs had to compete in the first part, two were eliminated, and the remaining two faced off for the prize.

Gail’s challenge was first.  She wanted the chefs to create one perfect bite served on a cocktail fork.  It had to be be sweet, salty, sour and have a hint of spice.  The chefs had twenty minutes.  Carlos made a grilled mango wrapped shrimp with a chili glaze.  Nick made beef deckle with aged balsamic and purple potato chip.  Shirley made tataki style seared flank steak with black pepper cherry and crispy onion.  Nina made a shrimp escebeche with potato aioli and pickled shallots.  Gail thought everyone did a good job, but chose Carlos and Nick to move on to the next challenge.

For Tom’s round, he wanted the chefs to showcase either a red bell pepper or an eggplant.  Whoever got to the podium first got to choose which vegetable they wanted.  Nick won the race by a large margin and snagged the eggplant, leaving Carlos with the pepper.  Carlos wanted the eggplant so he had to rethink his dish.  Nick made roasted eggplant with sesame seed siracha tahini and chili threads.  Carlos kept it simple and made a fried red bell pepper soup, with fennel, basil and onion.  Again, both dishes were excellent, but the clean fresh flavors of Carlos soup edged him over the top as the winner.  Carlos was the proud owner of a 2014 Toyota Corolla.

Next, Chef Emeril Lagasse entered and explained the Elimination Challenge.  The chefs had to take everything they had experienced and learned in New Orleans and create a dish that left their mark on the city.  They served this dish at Emeril’s restaurant for him, the judges, and esteemed guest judges Grant Achatz, Andrew Carmellini, and Douglas Keane (Winner of the most recent Top Chef Masters).  The winning dish would be featured in ALL of Emeril’s New Orleans Restaurants.  The top three would move on to the Finale held in Maui.

Before the Challenge, the chefs were invited to dinner at Emeril’s flagship restaurant.  They were given the Chef’s Table, and Emeril himself cooked a decadent New Orleans dinner for them.

Tom and Emeril visited the chefs about halfway through their cooking time to ascertain what the chefs were preparing.  All too soon for the chefs, time was up and it was time to serve their dishes.

As her dishes went out, Nina realized she had forgotten to put one of the main elements on her dish.  She was very upset but went out to the judges with a smile all the same.  She served them speckled trout, roasted baby vegetables, and bbq sauce – a dish she was inspired to make at Emeril’s the night before.  Tom noticed the missing element because of their conversation in the kitchen earlier, and asked Nina about it.  She was honest and told them she forgot to put it on.  She went back to the kitchen fretting about the missing element, but out at the table the judges loved her dish even without the missing ricotta dumplings.

Nick served his dish next – charred cobia, roasted bass, and tuna confit with crispy rice and shrimp consommé.  All of the judges loved the flavor of the broth and thought the fish was cooked flawlessly, though on its own was under-seasoned.  Nick’s dishes have been under-seasoned each week.

Carlos made a twist on a traditional tamal.  His steamed seafood mousse tamal with saffron cream sauce and pickled okra was well received by the judges.  He traded out the traditional corn for seafood and served the tamal without its traditional banana leaf.

Shirley wanted to give the judges a sense of floating in the bayou while melding into the bays of China.  She worked in the Cajun Holy Trinity (Onion, Celery, and Bell Peppers) to pay homage to New Orleans.  The judges thought her seared black drum with zhenjaing black vinegar butter sauce, braised leek and mushroom really worked for this challenge.

At the judges table, the everyone was very pleased with all four dishes.  Nina was still panicking over her forgotten dumplings, but the judges assured her they loved the dish, possibly even more without the dumplings than they would have with them.  The judges only minor criticisms were that Nick’s fish was slightly under-seasoned and Carlos’ dish needed a touch more acid.

Padma announced that Nina and Shirley had their favorite dishes and would be moving on.  Shirley started to cry.  Tom hoped they were happy tears.  Shirley choked out that Top Chef helped her find her culinary voice and she was so happy to be cooking her food now.  She was very thankful to have found her voice and that others appreciated it.  She made the judges cry (me too!).  To top it off, Shirley was chosen the winner of the evening.

That left rivals Nick and Carlos on the bottom.  Nick once again squeaked by, and Carlos was sent to Last Chance Kitchen to face Louis.

Next week we will see who makes it to the finale in Maui from Last Chance Kitchen, and part one of the finale will include a double elimination.