Noelle Myers recaps the 3rd episode of Top Chef New Orleans!

We start out Top Chef New Orleans this week, with a reminder that many of the chefs have family elsewhere.  Chef Louis has an adorable little boy!

When the chefs walked into the kitchen they were greeted by Padma, who introduced their guest judge for the week – Editor in Chief of Food and Wine Magazine, Dana Cowan.  They were also joined by Emeril who judged this week’s Quickfire Challenge.

For the Quckfire, the chefs had to create a dish that reinvented one of four food trends that Dana Cowan felt was past it’s prime.  The food trends were: bacon, kale (specifically salad and kale chips), eggs over everything, and smoked dishes.

The chefs drew knives to see which food trend they had to use.  Padma then told them it was an Elimination Quickfire!  One chef would receive  immunity, and one would be going home.

Four chefs drew the knife with egg on top.  Nicholas made quail eggs, scallops, truffle juice and duck egg vinaigrette.  Nina made the world’s smallest scotch egg, confit potatoes with leek and potato puree.  Carrie served a fun twist on an egg salad, and made soft boiled eggs with chili flakes and lemon zest over green beans.  Shirley stuck close to her heart, and made a rice congee with shirred egg, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Four chefs drew smoked knives.  Sara made tuna atataki with smoked arbol chili vinaigrette.  Michael made smoked oysters with strawberry mignonette.  Janine had some trouble getting her pork to cook, but just squeaks out a perfectly cooked roasted pork loin with chipotle smoked caramelized apples.  Louis serves smoked trout with lime and oil vinaigrette.

Five Chefs drew my personal favorite- BACON!  Benne made seared tuna in bacon, with honey, vinegar, jalapenos and corn.  Brian served bacon with scallop, ginger, honey and sugar snap peas.  Travis came up with bacon pho broth, with seared scallop, and sweet carrot puree with pho herbs.  Stephanie took a risk, and made pasta with the rendered bacon fat, filled with lightly candied bacon over flash fried sweet potatoes.  Carlos made bacon and halibut with apples, tomatoes and avocados with bacon vinaigrette.

The last four chefs to be judged, drew Kale.  Patty made a very simple but tasty, kale and toasted garlic, chili fakes and shaved Parmesan.  Justin steamed his kale in his kale steamed with lemon, anchovy syrup, Parmesan and rendered debouillet sausage.  Aaron went with an Asian flair with his fried kale dredged in soy, mirin, rice vinegar and yuzu sauce.  Brett completely ignored Dana Cowan’s admonition NOT to do a kale salad, and did kale juice and gazpacho with kale salad.

While being judged, Shirley noted that she felt quite confident in her dish.  She noticed that when Padma has liked a dish, she picked the dish up and ate more of it – cut to Padma doing just that with Shirley’s dish.  Shirley was right, as she, Stephanie and Nina were the judges favorites.  Shirley was the winner!

With his flagrant disregard for Dana Cowan’s instructions, Brett was solidly on the bottom.  Aaron joined him for his too salty kale, and Louis was also on the bottom due to no smoke flavor to be found in his dish.  Unfortunately it was Aaron that was sent home for his over seasoned dish.

For this week’s Elimination Challenge the chefs had to cook in the Commander’s Palace – one of the most lauded restaurants in New Orleans.  The chefs all got to sit down to dinner at the Commander’s Palace.  A few were able to relax, but most were more worried about what the actual challenge would be.  Fortunately, they did not have long to wait.  Tory McPhail, Executive Chef for Commander’s Palace came out to give them the details.

The chefs had to recreate the dishes they were served at dinner, and they had to recreate them exactly – flavor profile, technique, plating, everything!  They were assigned to work on a specific dish,  depending on which table they were sitting.  Travis, Nina, Michael and Bene had to recreate shrimp and tasso henicon.  Paul Prudhome created a black skillet seared trout that Janine, Louis, Carlos and Nicholas must duplicate.   Emeril also spent time as a chef at the Commander’s Palace, and he created Veal Chop Tchopitoulas (spell that five times fast!  Wheew!)  Patty, Shirley, Brett and Brian had to recreate this dish.  Finally, Sara, Stephanie, Carrie and Justin had to duplicate the strawberry trio – strawberry shortcake (over biscuits) strawberry cocktail, and a strawberry white chocolate beignet.

If recreating famous dishes wasn’t nerve wracking enough – The chefs were judged by both Paul Prudhome (cue awe inspired groans from those making the fish) and Emeril.  They will also be judged by  Tory McPhail, Executive Chef, Dana Cowan, the owners and proprietors of Commander’s Palace, as well as Tom, Padme and Hugh Acheson.  The head sous chef was making the dishes as well, so the judges would have a side by side comparison.

There was definitely some tension in the kitchen this week.  Michael proved to have a lack of manners (in my opinion) as he dumped a competitor’s components on the table after they were accidentally placed on a few of his plates.  There were definitely too many cooks in the kitchen, and there was not enough space.  Ingredients were misplaced, and tempers flared a little.  Everyone got their dishes out on time though, and the judging was just as intense as preparation.

In the end, the chefs who were the judge’s favorites were Stephanie – for her biscuit that Hugh said were better than the Commander’s Palace biscuit.  Justin – who perfectly executed each of the components on the dessert plate.  And Nina – who cooked her shrimp to perfection.  The home-town boy Justin took home the win this week.

Louis, Carlos and Brett were on the bottom.  The entire fish course was under-seasoned, and  Louis and Carlos both over cooked their fish.  Brett’s veal chop was not seared and was terribly overcooked.  The chefs on the bottom this week were there for basic cooking errors and it was decided that Brett would be going home this week.

Next week : Vietnamese Cuisine!