Top Chef All Stars: Fishing for Compliments but Finding Few
On last night's installment of Top Chef: All Stars, the cheftestants had to catch and prepare their own fish. While their deep-sea adventure was a leisurely change of pace from last week's drama, tensions were still bubbling under the surface.
The episode began with some left-over hostility from the Dim-Sum debacle of last week. Marcel - apparently drunk and sporting what appears to be some sort of tough guy affectation - confronts Dale over his winning the challenge unfairly. Despite his best efforts, Marcel's intimidation tactics are far funnier than they are actually threatening.
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The chefs arrive in the Top Chef kitchen to discover that instead of a quickfire challenge, they will instead drive straight to Montauk for a seafood-centric double elimination challenge whereupon they must catch their own fish. The chefs complete this task with differing levels of competence, but Antonia's reaction to catching her first fish - "screaming like a fourth grader" - was the best.
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After having caught their main ingredients, the cheftestants end up on Water Taxi Beach in Queens to prepare and serve their dishes. Continuing with the grumpy attitude she's shown all season long, Jamie lost no time with complaining about the sand, the sun, the heat…on a beach.
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Needless to say, the other chefs were not amused.
In the end, Carla's smoked blue fish with lettuce wrap, pickled watermelon rind, shallot radish and bagel croutons won the challenge, with Tom calling her dish "brilliant." Unfortunately for Carla, Marcel - puffy-haired storm cloud of bitterness that he is - decided to rain on her parade.
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