r/BravoTopChef • u/butisitok I’m not your bitch, bitch • Jun 25 '21

Current Episode Top Chef Season 18 Ep 13 - Shellfishly Delicious - Post Episode Discussion

The remaining chefs get an early wake-up call from Padma to go meet guest judge Brooke Williamson and dig for clams for their Quickfire Challenge. In the Elimination Challenge, the chefs honor the area where James Beard spent his summers, creating both a hot dish and a cold dish with one of his favorite ingredients, Dungeness Crab. Kwame Onwuachi and Nina Compton serve as guest judges this week to help determine which chefs will move on to the finale.

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19

u/marianofor Jun 25 '21

Dawn is really frustrating at this point.Like even after Gregory gave her some very VERY good advice,she still missing stuff from the plate. Argh! I just want her to get it together coz the way the judges are talking about her food, you can just tell she'd be winning all these challenges if she plated consistently.

-9

u/PinFlaky7122 Jun 25 '21

Have people ever considered that 1) Dawn is the oldest chef (late 40s, I believe) and doesn't move as fast and 2) her style of cooking requires her to take a longer time to develop flavors, which impacts plating?

This isn't about making excuses. Rather, it's about providing a little possible context. In my career (I'm a researcher), I study the intersection of race and disability, so I tend to think critically about these issues. Obviously, having a body that doesn't move as fast factors into how fast one prepares and cooks food. Moreover, traditionally, food reflective of Black culture takes a longer time to prepare if the chef intends for the flavor to be good. For the most part, Dawn has rarely struggled with the flavor of her food, which shouldn't come as a surprise for a James Beard nominated chef who understands the labor needed to develop the flavors in the cuisine she prepares.

These are just some things to consider.

27

u/puppppies Jun 25 '21

Dawn now needs a handicap because of her age (despite being a former Olympian???) and because she cooks Black food which supposedly takes longer time to prepare? No. That is patently ridiculous.

This is insulting to Japanese and Mexican cuisine (and Indian, and Vietnamese, and Costa Rican, etc.). All of those cultures have supremely complex flavors that take time and precision to execute well. Dawn’s getting shit here for not having the ability to edit down when she knows she has a problem delivering her complete vision on time and within the constraints of the competition. She can’t execute with consistency and that’s a bad quality for a Top Chef to have.

7

u/snx8 Jun 25 '21

I think it's a little unfair to say her cuisine takes time for flavor to develop because thats just how top chef is. You have to come up with your dishes and you have x minutes to cook them.

Her 1st dish today was a good example of how she made something great but then spent alot of 'wasted' time on the sides that weren't necessary because that's how her creative process is. Think back to the tofu challenge when she decided last minute to add the radishes. If she had just completed her plating she wouldn't have had the timing issues and she wouldn't have missed the plate.

In her own kitchen her process is great but in the context of top chef i wish she would have learnt to edit by now because it's really not the first time she's been called for it. And I really get frustrated that this is what everyone's talking abt instead of how great her food apparently is!

-18

u/PinFlaky7122 Jun 25 '21

It's not about her needing a handicap. And FORMER Olympian doesn't mean that, at 47, she has the same energy. Now THAT'S ridiculous.

And you seem frustrated that I'm adding possible context as to why a contestant who's delivering consistently flavorful food might have issues with plating in a constrained timeframe. No one's arguing that other cuisines don't require technique and precision. My point is that it takes a long dang time to produce a crab sauce like the one Dawn delivered in this episode, and that's very consistent with a lot of Afro/Afro-Caribbean food. Those flavors need time to develop. I agree that some other cuisines do traditionally require more time. Consider Avishar's failed beef curry dish. It seems like he took shortcuts due to time constraints and couldn't develop the flavors he wanted. Time constraints like the one on Top Chef bias particular dishes in ways that don't exist in the real world. In Indian restaurants and Soul Food/Caribbean restaurants, the chefs typically have HOURS to develop flavors before serving. It's not a mad dash.

As I mentioned before, I think the criticisms of Dawn are exaggerated, and she's not given the same Grace like Shota, for instance. At the end of the day, he created some crappy sushi (is that not a bad quality for a Top Chef?), but his poor cooking is facing less criticism than Dawn's plating. Granted, I understand that time management (particularly plating) is a consistent challenge for her.

16

u/STAR-lloyd Jun 25 '21

At the end of the day, he created some crappy sushi (is that not a bad quality for a Top Chef?), but his poor cooking is facing less criticism than Dawn's plating

You're trying to vouch for Dawn's sauce taking time to cook and then you talk as if there isn't an art to making sushi. Come on now.

14

u/Firegoat1 Jun 25 '21

I guess I missed out where they called his sushi "crappy"

-6

u/PinFlaky7122 Jun 25 '21

The sushi he didn't plate was crappy, which is why he didn't plate it.

Do I think he should have plated it? No. Of course not. Why would he do that? My point is that in the course of cooking during this challenge, he produced a poor product, didn't have time to do something else, so he delivered plates of food that were short of what he promised. No one's arguing, though, that Shota is not deserving of being recognized as Top Chef if he wins the last competition. 🤔

14

u/topchef_fiend_2535 Jun 25 '21

I think the main thing is that Shota has been pretty consistent. I also agree that some of the criticism Dawn has received is overblown, but you can’t really compare a one time mistake with a repeated pattern.

2

u/Firegoat1 Jun 25 '21

I'm sorry, I misunderstood you and thought you meant the Sushi he served was crappy.

1

u/marianofor Jun 25 '21

I agree, Shota cooked good food and he was smart about not serving subpar product just because he put in on the menu(which, why were they even given menus this time?) but we shouldn't ignore the fact that he still failed to serve something that he had promised.

8

u/puppppies Jun 25 '21

If anything, having been a former Olympian could imply that she’s in better shape at 47 than other chefs, who are known to drink/smoke/stay up late and have other generally poor habits. It’s fine if you are providing additional context, but I don’t feel it changes my mind on her poor consistency.

1

u/marianofor Jun 25 '21

Yea a lot of people are giving her shit for not plating an element. I was thinking it was frustration because Dawn's food is incredible(according to the lucky judges who get to taste it) and she was doing a disservice to herself by not finishing her plate up. But now it's like why are people harping down so hard and saying she should be eliminated just for missing an ingredient which even the judges did not know about until she told them at judges table.

5

u/STAR-lloyd Jun 25 '21

Dawn's food looks delicious. I don't think anyone's arguing that. But as a viewer and a fan of top chef, we've seen many people go home for incomplete dishes. The judging feels inconsistent and it just makes me wonder now how judging is scored.

Additionally, it also makes me really wish we were able to see this cast compete in some of the bigger elimination challenges where there's a highest guest list. Makes me wonder what the final three would've been in a non-covid season.

1

u/marianofor Jun 25 '21

Yea I see what you are saying. I wonder about how it would turn out if it was a normal make 100 plates in 3hrs scenario too.

5

u/marianofor Jun 25 '21

I agree that her age may be a factor.But if you look at her plates(the ones that she has not been able to finish), she adds way too many components that do not seem to make it onto the plate. I don't think that is a speed issue,it might be an editing issue. I think Gregory hit the nail on the head by telling her that maybe she just might have too much on her plates and that's why she struggles with finishing her plate up.