Top Chef 1/8/14--"Oui Si a Challenge" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: I’ve missed an episode! I was out of town and couldn’t get to the episode. Then when I got back the DVR had malfunctioned so I didn’t have it. Plus, weather and travel disasters so I just said forget it. Anyway, new episode on New Year’s Day. John Besh was heavily involved. For the Quickfire, everyone made crawfish etouffee and Shirley won immunity. The Elimination challenge was catering for some party, each chef making a dish that highlighted at least two different kinds of seafood. Before that, though, everyone got to go to John Besh’s house for dinner, which was fun and looked delicious. Stephanie won the day with her fried oyster. Carrie made fritters from her nice fresh fish which ruined it, so she was sent home. (click for more)

On Last Chance Kitchen, Carrie battled Louis with broccoli. Carrie got ballsy by making ravioli in half an hour, but it was not enough to overcome Louis’s broccoli three ways. Louis doesn’t have much farther to go to get back on the regular show.

OK, in stupid Nicholas news, he’s still bitter about the oven thing, so when Carlos asked to borrow his knife, first Nicholas bitched about how you shouldn’t do a crudo if you don’t have knives that are good enough, and then he made sure to mention how great he was that he lent Carlos the knife after all. Although, Carlos asked the last person he should ask for a favor. Later Nicholas fished his knife out of Carlos’s stuff and then got his panties in a wad because it wasn’t clean. How do you know he wasn’t going to clean it before you got so impatient? I’m not taking Nicholas’s side on this one, they’re equally annoying. Stupid. Now I’m done with this drama and it seems to be the only drama going down.

We open with Nicholas still bitching about Carlos, like, whatever dude. Stephanie is ready to go with the next challenge. They all troop into the kitchen to see Jacques Pepin. Nice. The Quickfire will force everyone to show off their technical skills. Each of them will make Jacques’s favorite dish: Dover sole, artichokes, and asparagus. They’ll watch him make it, then have 35 minutes to see if they recreate it. They have to do a bunch of stuff, like julienne vegetables, clean the fish, make a butter rose…stuff like that. Jacques pours himself a glass of wine before making them all run off to cook. Hee.

Nicholas whines that someone bought his restaurant and offered everyone their jobs back except him. Wah. Nina does not want to talk to anyone so she can focus. Carlos is self-taught so he seems to be the most worried about the techniques. Stephanie is failing at skinning her fish. With five minutes left Carlos is still cutting fish, but Nina’s burners are not even on. There is a lot of flailing.

So everyone made the same thing, it looks like. The differences have to do with how some people’s plates look like disasters and some of them don’t even have sauce. Brian didn’t have any sauce, Stephanie’s fish was undercooked. Carlos had no tomatoes. Shirley did really well, as did Nicholas. They are close, but one dish had everything come together at the right moment and that is Nicholas. Sigh. He has immunity.

Elimination challenge has to do with both French and Spanish cultures. Julian Serrano (a Spanish master) and Dominique Crenn (a French master) come out. There will be two teams, and they will make a five course meal. Each meal will highlight five “quintessential” ingredients found in both cuisines, only each team will do either French or Spanish style. Olives, almonds, chicken, mussels, and chocolate. Best team (overall meal) wins, someone from the losing team goes home. Nicholas, Shirley, and Stephanie make up the French team, and Nina, Carlos, and Brian are the Spanish team. They’ll have all day today with their coaches, and then they’ll cook tomorrow. I like this idea. They have the same ingredients but should make two different meals.

Dominique says something about cooking outside the box. Something about ice cream. Chocolate duck. Nests. Stephanie seems lost. Julian tells the Spanish team to keep it simple. He tells them not to do a bunch of stuff, because they should keep it to things they can do. It sounds kind of condescending, to be honest. Like he doesn’t think they can do anything complicated.

Cooking begins. Shirley is doing snapper crudo (with olives, I guess), Stephanie the mussels, both girls together on the chicken. Nicholas is doing something with chocolate and Cornish game hens, and almond dessert. Stephanie trusts him. Nina is making the olive course and almond gazpacho. Carlos has mussels. Brian has arroz con pollo and I think chocolate flan. Poor Stephanie doesn’t have a lot of confidence. Julian is micromanaging. Dominique is drinking.

Back at the house, Stephanie talks about how nervous she is while Carlos gets his phone call home to talk to his daughter. That’s about all from that scene.

Cooking time. Nicholas thinks Shirley and Stephanie are leaning on him to get them to win. Shirley is making olive oil ice cream with liquid nitrogen, which she has never used before, so she flails a bit. The diners and judges come in. Emeril is here.

First course is up. Shirley: snapper ceviche with dehydrated olives and ice cream. Nina: ensaladilla rusa with green olives, gulf shrimp, and potatoes. I think it’s basically potato salad with olives. Also isn’t ceviche South American? The ice cream is good but not with the fish. They do like the potatoes and olives.

Stephanie: pickled and poached mussels, crustacean jus and tomate (tomato sauce). Nina: ajo blanco with almonds, crab, and cherries. Ajo blanco is a white soup, served cold. They like the soup, but someone finds grit in the mussels. Flavors are good though.

Carlos: mussels a la romesco with crispy leeks. Stephanie and Shirley: chicken liver mousse with roasted chicken bouillon. Nicholas and Carlos are announcing all the courses; I wonder how they decided on that? The chicken dish is fantastic, although Julian doesn’t like the softness of the mousse. The mussels are good but the dish is more about the sauce than the mussels.

Stephanie tries to protest the corn silk nest but Nicholas refuses to listen, even though he has immunity. Boo. Brian and Carlos: pollo con arroz—chicken and saffron rice. Nicholas: Cornish game hen and spiced chocolate with corn silk nest. The chicken might be dry, Dominique says. Julian and Dominique also fight about the corn silk. Julian won’t even try it. The judges seem to roundly hate the corn silk. It does look weird.

Brian: flan de chocolate and strawberries. Nicholas: almond flan, plum, and dark cocoa. The almond flan doesn’t have good custard and needs to be a step up. The chocolate is maybe too sweet. As the judges discuss the meals, Tom points out that his most favorite and least favorite dishes are from the same team.

Commercial interlude: Julian and Dominique go back to check on their teams. There are high fives and then they leave. Pointless.

Stew Room. No video today! Hooray! I don’t like the video. Padma calls out the Spanish team. This is the winning team. Nina was so worried about her olive dish, but it was perfect. The soup was elegant also. The chicken turned out really well with the lemon Carlos put with it. Brian made a flan because Julian basically told them to. There is some laughter but they won so it’s not like Brian is going home. Nina is the winner! She breathes a sigh of relief.

Loser Gong. The olive oil ice cream was good but maybe didn’t go with the fish. The mussels were nice, and Padma raves about the chicken dish. Nicholas babbles about his chocolate sauce, but the judges didn’t taste anything he said was in it. Tom says it was their least favorite dish. But the almond custard didn’t work either. Tom points out to him that they just got done praising his teammates for how great their dishes were. Jacques goes there and asks if his team should be penalized for his mistakes or if he should resign. Nice. Nicholas just stands there while everyone stares at him and then says he thought he did well enough yesterday to earn immunity. I don’t know what I would do here. Clearly he should go home, but if you were on this show, would you fall on your sword? I don’t know. Tom just nods and Padma kicks them out.

Nicholas explains what happened as Stephanie interviews that she would totally have given up immunity so she can’t even look at him right now. I never fully believe people when they say stuff like that, but I don’t blame her one bit for being pissed. They can’t eliminate Nicholas, so they nitpick how Shirley’s ice cream was too sweet but the mussels were great but the croutons were soggy. Tom argues that Shirley did more work on the chicken dish than Stephanie did, even though the mousse was delicious. Shirley also interviews that she would give up immunity. As the judges announce they have a decision, they all agree they don’t like it and Tom says he’s still hoping Nicholas falls on his sword.

So they drag it out a REALLY long time to give Nicholas the chance to volunteer to go home, but he stays silent and Stephanie is eliminated. She says at least she knows she was a serious contender. Aww, she’s upset. She hugs Nicholas which is more than I would have done. I would have kicked him.

Next week: Roy Choi is pissed, Nina curses at pasta, Nicholas is mad but he’s losing cred for sucking.

Last Chance Kitchen: So the question is this. Last season Kristen was eliminated during Restaurant Wars, and most everyone agrees it was unfair. So then she got a second chance. This situation is clearly also unfair. Will Stephanie miraculously win all these battles and get a second chance? She’s pleased to see Louis but then Emeril comes out? They have history? Oh, because last season he was the one that kicked her out in the first episode. Right. Beignets. Make one sweet and one savory. 30 minutes. Louis does not know what he is doing because this is the one New Orleans food he didn’t practice. Stephanie knows she makes killer beignets but 30 minutes is insane. Louis is just putting stuff in a bowl, including baking powder because that will be more forgiving than yeast. Louis’s practice ones are great, but he’s worried the batter will change too much in the next five minutes. The peanut gallery now owns a shirt with Louis’s picture on it. He is shirtless, smoking a cigar. Hee. Stephanie is thinking about getting to the next challenge, not about the finale. Lots of running. Stephanie: white chocolate and cherry, and Andouille and corn. Louis: persimmon and pine nut, and crab and black garlic. Stephanie’s savory was delicious, but the sweet one was heavy. Louis’s had the reverse, the savory was heavy. The winner is Louis. Ooo. That’s not what I thought would happen. Also why did they bring Emeril?

Project Runway All Stars 12/19/13--"#Nina's Trending" summary

Previously on Project Runway: Time to design for QVC. The designers had to make a gown for the program director to wear to some party near the Oscars. Winner will have their dress sold, naturally. Viktor revealed to Elena and Seth Aaron (and the country) that he was HIV+. I’m not sure why it was now, but it happened. Zanna said green doesn’t sell magazine covers, and jewel-toned strapless gowns are boring. It’s not for a magazine, Zanna. Korto made a very simple maxi dress but with a bright orange skirt and she was the winner. She also made a dress that is very easy to manufacture, but it was pretty. Irina made a very complicated wedding dress, essentially, that fell apart on the runway. For once the judges actually took the dress falling apart into account and sent her home. I think other people had worse dresses but whatever. (click for more)

Alyssa makes everyone tell her how All-Stars is different from the regular show. Korto says she can take things better. Oh and the judges are nicer. HA because Nina is here. Yay! She plugs some blog or something, and bloggers. They will each pair up with a blogger to identify “a fashion trend” and design an outfit around it. Somehow everyone will predict the biggest trend for 2014 and then the bloggers are models so I’m glad to see they haven’t forgotten about the “real woman” challenge. But you know all these people left know how to handle that. The “twist” is it has to incorporate purple. Oh sorry, “The 2014 Pantone Color of the Year”, radiant orchid. There is a hilarious moment when Alyssa pauses before the reveal, and Elena says “Black?” in a really hopeful voice. Then Elena pretends she loves purple. Nina says the winner will get to shoot a video with her endorsing them, that will go on the front page of the fashion blog. Sure, that’s a good prize. Nina’s endorsement. Oh, and then Pantone will give them a bunch of stuff.

Everyone picks bloggers based on headshots. All the bloggers look like models so it’s not exciting. As the designers watch videos of the bloggers, they all seem like regular beauty/fashion bloggers…except Seth Aaron’s pick. As soon as she comes onscreen, I thought, “…did they plant a drag queen in there? Awesome!” Seth Aaron interviews that Gigi is transgender. So not quite the same. She’s still gorgeous though. All the bloggers come into the workroom and they discuss designs. Elena claims to be “the bright color queen”. Is she? For some reason I can’t decide if she is and I don’t feel like looking it up. I thought Gigi would be a twist but I don’t think it will affect Seth Aaron. Chris obsesses over not being able to find the right shade of green. Did Mood pull the purple color for them? It doesn’t look like it. I can’t believe they would make them hunt for it.

11 hours to work. Elena gets pissed about how everyone is using neoprene like she did three years ago. I guess in retaliation she’s using a handsaw to cut up fabric but it’s really loud. No one is happy. I don’t know if people are really trying to predict trends so much as they’re just trying to do cool stuff. But it does look like everyone has orchid. Viktor is making a jumpsuit and is worrying about being in the top. Elena is worried about Nina, because Nina hates her. Well, I don’t know if Nina hates her or Nina just won’t let her get away with anything. Seth Aaron tells Elena that Nina can smell fear. Probably.

Zanna time. Korto is making a white suit. Seth Aaron’s seaming looks nice, actually. But it’s bordering on a Star Trek uniform. Chris claims he hasn’t seen a “feminine trench” and Zanna immediately says “Burberry”. Hee. Viktor’s trend is “good girl gone bad” which doesn’t really seem like a trend. It’s not him? Or something. Elena’s coat is crazy. But it does look well made.

Model fittings. Korto’s blogger brought in shoes. Love it. Elena’s crazy coat is way too big. Viktor doesn’t like how his jumpsuit looks so with an hour left he’s decided to start over. I think he’s making a dress out of black neoprene, cutting holes to show the purple. He really doesn’t want to be in the bottom. I can’t tell if they’re showing him saying that all the time because he wins or because he’s out.

Runway day. Chris talks in confessional about what he has to do today, and flips off the camera. Hilarious. The models appear and Viktor’s model really likes his new dress. Lucky him. Hot makeup guy Scott. Viktor manages to break the zipper on the dress. At least it’s on his model already. Elena fixes it I think.

Georgina is gone AGAIN. Did she get sick or something? Christian is here. His hair looks mostly normal. Also Nina is back, of course. Also Francisco Costa. Why do we have two guest judges all the time now? Seth Aaron: black sheath dress, in neoprene I think. There are two stripes that start at her shoulders, then curve in to her waist and back out again, along with matching stripes in a belt. It looks good. Elena: black miniskirt and a gray and purple jacket. The jacket has a big peplum and a high crew neck. It looks really huge on her tiny model. The purple is in thin stripes over the light gray. I think it’s a cool jacket but the proportions are off. Viktor: black dress with a full skirt. The purple shows in holes he cut in the black. Over this is a white leather jacket. It’s really retro 50’s, like a girl wearing her boyfriend’s jacket after prom or something. Chris: army green lace trench dress. That is what Chris described it as. The front has a mullet hem and he left the lace at the hem so there’s a scalloped edge. It’s double breasted, with a belt, and then it’s green and gold lace. A lace trench coat. The purple is in a clutch. Korto: white pants and a white sleeveless top. The top has layers folded over with some purple tint to it. It looks fantastic. The layers are big, so it doesn’t look too busy, and the tint is not really obvious which is nice.

Viktor thought his motorcycle jacket would stay timeless, but Nina tells him it’s happening now so it doesn’t count. But the dress is cute. The color layer under the black is the only new thing. Elena’s jacket is all thin lines like a maze. The proportions are off, or maybe it should be a blazer. She succeeded on texture but everyone hates the way the jacket looks. Her blogger loves it though. Seth Aaron I guess made a trend out of sewing in panels. So the color is not appliqued on? That’s the trend? Sure. It’s the best showcase of the color but it certainly is not new. I think Nina is bored. When you get close to Korto’s top you can see that the purple is lining the folds. So as you look straight on at the top, you can see just a tint of the color, because it’s underneath the white. The one thing is they don’t like the shoes. Nina hates the bag and shoes but she loves the rest of it. Chris names his trend “new vintage Paris soft military”. Sigh. Isaac likes the dress more now that he knows what is going on. They don’t seem to like it that much. Nina says the lace looks like seaweed. Chris says “Thank you” in a flat, annoyed tone, and Nina replies “It’s not a compliment”. Hee. Chris explains that he does know it wasn’t a compliment.

Chris is kind of whiny about Nina but that was funny. Korto approached the challenge in a really smart way. She’s the only one who made pants. Elena’s jacket has a great texture but it’s too big for the model. Isaac wants her in the top but Alyssa and Nina make faces. Alyssa asks Nina to stay forever and I think she should. Seth Aaron made a very nice dress that they have seen too many times before. No one likes Viktor’s jacket. Chris put too many things in his trench, and then he was so proud of his purple clutch. But no one liked that he only put the color in the clutch and not the clothes.

Korto is the winner! She asks permission to skip. Hee. Seth Aaron is in. Elena is in. Viktor is out. So you kept him last week when he had that terrible puckery green dress but then he makes a decent dress and you send him home? Over a lace trench coat? Whatever. He loved everything he did and knows that plenty of women would love that leather jacket.

Next time: ready-to-wear. Elena tears something, Georgina actually shows up for once, Chris runs around. I’m not sure when this will air, but if it’s right after New Year’s I might be late in posting. I’m pretty sure it’s not on next week though so enjoy the break!

Top Chef 12/18/13--"Giving It the College Try" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire involved product placement, which is annoying but preferable to having the product placement in the Elimination challenge. Anyway, make something with coffee. Shirley won with coffee crusted tenderloin. Then everyone was supposed to make a dish they crave when they go “home”. The secret requirement today is “comfort food”. Nick made gnudi, the same way he makes them for his kids, and he got emotional about it. I think the judges remembered that because he won. Travis made biscuits and gravy, with jam, which might have been good if the biscuits were cooked. So he was sent home. (click for more)

On Last Chance Kitchen both Travis and Louis had to make Asian dishes, to mock Travis and his “Captain Vietnam” cockiness from previously. They both managed to do a really good job, but in the end Louis’s tripe won. So Louis has held on so far.

Nina says Travis was her escape, they would just talk about whatever, not competing. All her friends are gone. Now that there are only eight of them, it’s not enough to just not screw up.

Questlove is here for the Quickfire. He says he will go anywhere to try food. Today is a stop for…a marching band. Well maybe just drums. Oh, because drumsticks. UGH. That is a lame tie-in. It’s almost as bad as product placement. Almost. Whatever, anyway, drumsticks, and at least they have things other than chicken. Winner gets immunity.

30 minutes. It’s first come, first serve, and in the rush to not get stuck with giant turkey drumsticks a lot of things end up on the floor. Like Shirley. Nick tells us how he’s such a great human being that he helped Shirley instead of getting what he wanted and now he’s stuck with quail. Because Shirley took the duck that he wanted. Don’t brag about what a martyr you are, Nick. Stephanie got turkey which she dunks in the deep fryer and then onto the grill. Nina is going spicy as if that is a shock to anyone. Carrie took squab, and she is confident even though it will be easy to screw up. Justin feeds Nick’s martyrdom about being a good person and getting stuck with quail. He’s got a frog leg recipe, so he’s fine. The duck is overcooking. Brian is making…chicken soup? With the drumstick meat? Also goose shrinks down when you cook it. Carlos tries to cut the bones with a chef’s knife so they don’t stick out so much. It doesn’t look very successful. Nick is kind of obnoxious about Carlos and “self-taught” people. On the one hand, don’t be condescending. On the other hand, if culinary school will teach you not to dent your knives on cooked goose leg bones then I guess that’s good information.

Carrie: squab legs marinated in thyme, juniper, and cocoa powder, with fig mostarda. Brian: chicken soup, chicken skin crackling, with parsley and Thai basil. Shirley: crispy duck leg with Szechuan chili salt and mint. Nina: jerked guinea hen charred with juniper berries and scotch bonnet peppers. Stephanie: fried and grilled turkey leg with sriracha and sour cream buttermilk dressing. Nick: twice fried quail legs with sesame sauce rolled in gomaiso. The chyron says “quail eggs”, like, way to go Bravo. You correctly spelled “gomaiso”, which is unhulled sesame seeds and salt, but you couldn’t figure out “legs” vs. “eggs”. Justin: chicken drumettes with smoked aioli, herb salad and sorghum vinaigrette. Carlos: fried goose leg with cranberries and apple salad. Padma asks if he smashed the bones because she just got a shard of bone. Oops.

Nick’s quail was too salty, which I’d like to point out has nothing to do with getting quail instead of duck. Justin was not creative enough. Goose was overcooked, plus Carlos didn’t need to smash the bones. Clearly. High marks are Carrie (squab was cooked properly), Nina (also cooked properly and not spicy), and Brian (the skin was still crunchy like a drumstick). Carrie wins. Nina and Brian look pissed.

Elimination challenge: cook for freshman orientation at LSU. Hee. They have to feed lunch to 500 freshmen at the dining hall. The dining hall has all their supplies, which are the same supplies the food service always uses. So no fancy Whole Foods things. Winner gets a car. Giving the car away a little early, aren’t we? Tonight they’ll sleep in the dorms, as if this is a hardship for 8 people who have been living 4 to a room already for weeks.

As people are packing they talk about their college days which is random. Shirley wants to win the car to give to her mom. Brian is super excited about going to college and is babbling about keggers and whatever. To be fair, he’s responding to what I am sure is a producer-prompted question from Nick. But Shirley is realizing how annoying she must be when she talks all the time. High fives for the two perky student tour guides. They seem like every student tour guide ever. They get a tour, including to see the live tiger they keep as a mascot. That tiger looks bored. Justin makes a “revenge of the nerds” reference. They actually have to make their own beds, which is hilarious, but they all get single rooms so it’s not like it’s so terrible. Carrie doesn’t know how to make a bed.

Cooking time. As everyone runs around Nick says they need to talk about stations before anyone touches anything. Eight stations, eight chefs. They start hollering about who wants hot or cold stations. Shirley immediately claims the station with the wide flattop grill. Carrie doesn’t really want a cold station, but she recognizes she has immunity so she just sort of shrugs it off. The chefs also have to call ingredients, because there’s not really enough of any one thing for more than one person to use. So if someone wants to use asparagus, there won’t be enough for anyone else. Shirley is making fried rice. The drama begins when Carlos says he is going to make some type of seafood that needs the plancha, the giant grill that Shirley called. Shirley says she needs that for the fried rice. Someone offers that other hot stations have grill space, but Carlos says it’s too hard to work on. There’s a wood-burning oven, but he can’t use that either. Shirley interviews that Carlos’s true personality just came out. I think Shirley may have agreed to use the oven, but I think she should have stood her ground. She already called it.

There is a terrible commercial for some kind of sauce things starring Brooke and Josh. Josh’s mustache has gotten more obnoxious. That’s what I got from that. I think it’s for those kits that have two sauces, one to cook with and one to finish with? If so, this commercial is better than those ones where Rocco and Carla Hall are children with terrifying giant heads.

3 hours to cook. Nick says he marked his oven so he could use it throughout service. Shirley did end up using the wood-burning oven, so she’s changed her dish. Justin doesn’t want to “cook down” to people so he’s making shrimp and asparagus and cauliflower. Stephanie wants to make pimento grilled cheese and she’s having to use whatever random cheese she finds.

Tom time! Carlos tells Tom he’s going to cook his fish on the flattop and then put it in the oven. So he does need an oven? He didn’t mention that, I don’t think. Stupid. Shirley talks about her charred tomatoes and does not say anything about Carlos. Nina is trying to make corn puree, but they only have a regular-size cocktail blender. Not big enough for 500 people. Justin rolls his eyes at people’s boring food. Some food service people show up to help serve. Nick fills his oven with plates, to keep them warm, I guess. Doesn’t the dining hall have some other way to do that? I mean…I would assume they don’t keep an oven set aside to warm plates. Unless they just serve everything on cold plates; I guess that could be the situation.

As the freshmen show up there is a lot of running around, especially for Nina, who is trying to fry chicken on the fly. Brian has a huge line for food, while not one person wants Carrie’s broccoli. She says “It’s not my fault kids are stupid and don’t eat their broccoli.” Sigh. Carlos realizes that the oven is full of plates, and Nick couldn’t care less about Carlos’s needs. Now he has to cook the fish all the way through on his plancha that he got through whining, and it makes him behind. I know Nick said he marked the oven, so either he didn’t do that very clearly or Carlos decided that wasn’t important. Or possibly Carlos didn’t bother to check to see if there was a free oven. Nick was jerky earlier but I’m going to side with him on this one. Stephanie is trying to be consistent with her grilled cheese and soup, and decides to just go ahead and put the sandwich in the bowl (propped up on the side) because she figures everyone is going to dunk the sandwich anyway.

Gail and Emeril are here for judging. Shirley: roast beef with potato puree and fire-roasted tomato relish. Nina: fried chicken with sweet corn puree and pickled onions. Brian: shrimp cake and spinach with chipotle aioli. Gail and Padma go sit with some students, next to boys whom I’m sure were thrilled. The shrimp cake has big chunks which is good. Shirley did a great job too, so good for her. Nick: roasted pork, parmesan grits and bacon brown sugar gravy. Tom says it looks like cafeteria food but in a good way. Nina’s chicken breading is falling off, and her puree is bland. Nick’s food is also bland, but the gravy is OK.

Carrie: broccoli salad with herbed yogurt sauce and pita bread. Justin: marinated gulf shrimp, cauliflower, asparagus, and garlic puree. Justin’s dish tastes weird. Gail is bored with Carrie’s dish. Stephanie: spicy tomato soup with grilled pimento cheese sandwich. Tom and Emeril go over to Carlos’s station, but he is still grilling fish so he makes them wait. The shot of them eating Stephanie’s dish as they stand at the counter is funny. They’re just chilling, eating soup standing up and talking about how he’s slow. Tom harasses him and says they’re hungry, to which Carlos replies “They, ah…took my oven”. When asked by Tom he throws Nick under the bus. Well that was quick. Nina hears him and is shocked at how ”fucked up” it is that Carlos is saying Nick stole things. Carlos: seared tilapia with chile ancho and Mexican coleslaw. After all that the fish is good. Stephanie’s decision to put the sandwich in the soup has backfired because by the time everyone got back to eat it, it was soggy and falling apart. Nina’s falling behind too. Tom and Emeril go to Nick to stir shit up and tell him Carlos is blaming him for stuff. Nick wonders aloud how an oven he’s been using all day could be “stolen”. A good point.

Commercial interlude: Stephanie thinks she is secretly a lunch lady. Then everyone talks about hairnets.

Nina thinks this was the hardest service. Stephanie wants more wine. Nick brings up the oven, and Carlos rolls his eyes as if this has been blown out of proportion. You brought this on yourself, dude. Carlos’s defense? “I really need [sic] an oven.” Everyone else gangs up on him and says Carlos should have communicated that then, which he didn’t do. “But I didn’t say it in a mean way.” What? Insane. Nick lays it out: he used the oven to roast pork, then to warm plates. When Carlos came and asked to use it, he said no. Then Carlos told the judges that Nick “stole” the oven. This is petty, Nick says. Carlos apologizes and says his intention was not to throw Nick under the bus. Yes it was. Why else would you do that? I don’t buy his “I didn’t mean it” excuse. The video comes on and the judges liked Brian, and Shirley. Carlos gets nailed for taking too long, although the food was delicious. Stephanie hears her sandwich fell apart, and she looks upset. Justin had no seasoning, and Nina’s chicken fell apart. And there was a point where people were not getting corn puree. The judges slam Carrie for coasting on her immunity and making vegetables because she should be in the bottom. Oops.

Padma collects Shirley, Brian, and Carlos. Nick says “Dammit” quietly, and they put in a shot of Carlos grinning in a “Sorry dude” manner. Does that really go there? If so, don’t be an asshat. You’re not going to win because you took too long to serve. At least I hope that is the situation. Carlos only gets a small slap on the wrist for taking too long, as the judges are more interested in telling him how the fish was cooked well and the slaw was good. Brian had most students’ favorite dish. And somehow the spinach really worked. Shirley manages to tell the judges no one wanted the wood-burning oven, while not saying she got stuck with it or that Carlos stole her station through whining. I hope Carlos takes notes. Her roasted tomato relish was delicious and the meat was well cooked. The winner of the car is Shirley. Awesome. She’s so excited she’s jumping up and down.

Stephanie, Nina, and Justin have to face the music. Nina ran out of corn, and her server was serving chicken without waiting for more corn puree so her dish was incomplete. Gail thinks the corn was the worst part of the dish anyway, so the kids that only got chicken maybe got a better dish. Stephanie put cottage cheese in her sandwiches, in her quest to find whatever cheese she could. Plus the sandwich got soggy. Justin’s defense consists of “If I had made something simple and boring I could have crushed it but I did more work than everyone else.” Yeah…that argument doesn’t always work. They do gently let him down instead of nailing him for acting like he’s better than everyone. He was too “cheffy”.

Nina was inconsistent, and it’s a big deal that she ran out of corn. As the judges talk they realize she made several batches of varying quality. Justin’s food was consistently bland. Stephanie’s soup was fine but they get upset over the sandwich. This is one of those situations where if Stephanie had just said “grilled cheese sandwich” she might have been better off. Tom expects sharp cheddar in his pimento cheese, which she couldn’t find. Also she used cheeses that don’t melt.

Tom has one last chance to nail everyone for their screw-ups and make school-related comments. Justin is sent home. Tom says he cooked the worst dish, period. Justin says today proved he’s too stubborn to compromise his ingredients. Or season anything, apparently.

Next time: more serving large groups, more Carlos being unprepared. He needs a sushi knife, he asks Nick for one because he’s insane (Nick is the last person who’s going to help him), Nick refuses, Carlos is insulted. Duh, Carlos. Anyway, I think this episode is airing on New Year’s Day and I will be out of town, so I probably won’t have it up for a day or two.

Last Chance Kitchen: Justin wants to take it out on somebody. Sure. Louis is actually kind of surprised to see Justin “so early”. Justin is still convinced he’s better than everyone. Tom informs Justin that even though he is from here, he still failed at a lot of stuff. So he’ll have to make dishes based on ingredients from Louis’s home of Northern California. Louis will be using Louisiana ingredients. This seems unfair. Louis and everyone else have been using local ingredients this whole time. They probably studied up before coming out to be on the show. 30 minutes to cook. Louis ended up with crawfish, squash, corn, okra…looks like rabbit. Justin has sardines, quail, grapes, goat cheese. Crab. Nice. Louis knows he’s not shafted but he’d switch with Justin any day. Michael babbles about salt poaching or something dumb. Then he bugs Justin about why he got eliminated. Justin just says he didn’t get eliminated for sardines. Louis is going old-school French. Louis seems to be pretty on top of things. Justin reveals that he lived in California until he was 21 so this challenge “twist” is dumb on all levels. Justin knows he might have plated early. Louis is way behind and is still cooking in the last minute. Justin: grilled sardine with roasted corn and sherry vinaigrette. He did not use the crab or grapes in the box. Or avocado. Louis: redfish almandine with corn puree and crawfish sauce. He ignored peaches and rabbit. Louis’s sauce was delicious but a little spicy on the end. Justin got a good flavor from the grill and crunch from the vegetables. If Tom had to find one flaw, it would be the sardine was a little dry so Louis wins again. He is relieved because he thought Justin would be his biggest competition and now things will be easier. Justin is pissed because he thinks his sardine was perfect.

Project Runway All Stars 12/12/13--"As Sewn on TV" summary

Previously on Project Runway: Everyone has to design for Marge Simpson. This meant everyone pretending Marge is a real person, to the point that Chris said his design was based on the fact that Marge was just a housewife and wouldn’t want anything too sexy. And then Isaac got offended by that. Sigh. Anyway, Irina made a very pretty purple voluminous thing and won. Jeffrey’s dress was poorly made and everyone seems tired of his tortured artist shtick so he was eliminated. (click for more)

Down to six. Everyone is out somewhere where there is a helipad. Alyssa plugs QVC and says they’ll all be taking helicopters to the studio. Lots of freaking out. Also all the boys go in one copter and the girls in another for some reason. Wow, QVC has sweet offices. This week’s challenge is about “red carpet glamour”. Because QVC has a red carpet gala around the Oscars? Sure. Lisa Robertson, who is “QVC Program Director”, will wear the winning design. Not Alyssa? She must be able to sit and stand in it. Winner will have “a version” of the dress for sale on QVC. Everyone gets a tour and then they practice talking to the camera and presenting things. They mostly are OK at it except Elena. She kind of flails. They go to another studio and joke around for a bit before drawing. Chris wants a dramatic train. Those are hard to move in because everyone steps on the train. Isaac shows up in a hoodie and tells people to pull out all the stops. Well that was useful. Shopping is shopping. People want dramatic gowns and there seem to be a lot of mermaid silhouettes. Korto is doing orange to set herself apart from all the black.

10 hours to work. I know because Irina complains about the time. Chris has a one-up on “some” people because he’s done some gowns already this season. I don’t know who he’s talking about. Elena is doing all new things and it’s not working. She is at least self-aware enough to know she’s about to freak out. Korto is kind of eye-rolly about it because Elena is fine. Viktor lays all his fabric out on the floor. He interviews that something is bothering him and he needs to talk to someone about it. Seth Aaron agrees with this, that Viktor is off his game, but then nothing happens. Korto gives Seth Aaron crap about making multiple dresses. He is actually using the neoprene that Elena avoided. She didn’t want to do the same thing she always does.

OK, so now Viktor is talking about being a private person but he’s “living with something” and he’s not sure how people will take it. Is he HIV+? He takes Elena aside, and Seth Aaron, and they go into the lounge and he tells them he’s been HIV+ for seven years. Oh my God, I am a horrible bitch because my first response is “So?” and then my second response is “Why is he doing this now? What is he trying to gain from it?” I’m a terrible person. It just feels weird and shoehorned in here. At least when Mondo told everyone he’d just made a print about it. I don’t know why this is coming up during a red carpet challenge but there you go. He hasn’t told his family yet (well, now they know). Seth Aaron and Elena are supportive and of course won’t treat him different, because they wouldn’t anyway.

Zanna time. She says the gown must look as amazing in photos as it does on TV. “If I see one jewel-toned strapless gown in here, there’s gonna be trouble.” Hee. Cut to Chris saying that’s what he has. Oops. He is going to add some leather pieces. Viktor’s dress is shiny olive and Zanna is like, green doesn’t sell. I love green. Whatever, Zanna. Seth Aaron has a weird length, and Zanna actually talks him into leaving it a tea length? Or making it short? Something. No train. Elena is layering fabrics and Zanna loves her idea. Irina made a white dress so she must make it not look like a wedding dress. Korto has a very large amount of tiny pleats but she’s got a lot of work to do. Before Zanna leaves, she tells everyone this isn’t All-Star work and any of them could go home. Ouch.

Lots of really frantic working. Model fitting. Chris complains that his model’s ass is too big. Irina tears her dress. Now there’s a photo shoot? Zanna did it so they could see how the dress photographs. Most people’s look OK, but Korto’s orange is really bright and Viktor’s shiny green is laid bare so you can see all the puckering and mistakes. Korto doesn’t like the way her pleats look so it sounds like she’s scrapping it with 30 minutes to go. Simpler top and a beaded belt.

Runway day. Everyone seems to be freaking out. Viktor’s dress is really puckery. Hot makeup guy Scott. Final fittings go really well except for Irina, because of her fabric and how it’s splitting. But somehow everyone gets finished. Not everyone can walk easily, though, so we’ll see.

Georgina is gone AGAIN. Stupid. Mondo is here instead. Guest judges are Lisa from QVC, whom they met at the offices, and Elizabeth Moss. Alyssa says they’ll be considering photos as well as the runway. Chris: long dark blue gown, which was strapless with a sweetheart neckline. He’s put some black leather shoulders on it, so now there’s a keyhole but it’s still sleeveless. It’s a mermaid skirt, with tulle giving it volume. It’s pretty, and the skirt has that pleated/torn thing he used to do that gives texture. He’s the one that used to do that, right? It looks like even pleats but also like he’s sewn thin strips onto the skirt? Viktor: olive green satin gown, which is so long she looks like she’ll trip on it. There’s some vertical seaming and then two matching ruffles down the sides and some smaller ruffles at her hips. It doesn’t look good. Plus she’s walking on the bottom of the gown, basically. Seth Aaron: the fabric is a shiny silver with black stripes in it, to give it some pattern. The front is slit high in the middle, with a high neck and strong shoulders. The back has a big keyhole…but then it’s even worse than Viktor’s. He’s placed the fabric vertically, but with a solid panel over her butt so her ass looks huge. It looks like the width of the fabric panel, like it’s so stiff it’s just sticking out. Ugh. The front has the stripes in a chevron pattern so why isn’t the back like that?

Korto: the top is a simple V-neck with thin straps. I think she took the fabric and sewed it to the skirt, then twisted it to make straps. This is in beige/light gray, and then a sparkly belt and the orange in a flowy skirt. For the time she had, it looks great, but it’s also maybe not fancy enough. Also I think there are pockets. The back is asymmetrical. Elena: high crew neck, sleeveless, in a purple. It looks like purple with some black on top, a lace or something with stripes. The hips have some volume, but it looks nice. Interesting. Upon closer inspection the black makes small pieces, lined up in columns and rows, like dashes. I do like it. The back doesn’t have a train but it looks like she’s bustled it? Like when you see wedding gowns that have some ribbons or buttons to pull up the back of the train for the reception. Irina: mermaid dress in beige, so it doesn’t look too much like a wedding dress. The top looks corseted, with a plunging strapless neckline. The skirt has white flowers or something appliqued to the skirt. The train is huge. And then the model has trouble walking back up the stairs. It’s super dramatic but better for standing around for photos, I think.

When the models all come back out to the runway, everyone can see Irina’s skirt tore right along a seam. Oops. Seth Aaron totally loves his dress. Alyssa likes it, but Mondo points out the front of her skirt has a really weird shape. It stands away from her legs like wings. Isaac hates her ass. Plus the slit in the front is really high. Irina was going for “orchid plant” but everyone can see the tear. Irina whines “She tore it!”, like, way to blame your model. It’s kind of puckered but not as bad as Viktor. Lisa doesn’t think she could walk in it. Alyssa tells her that in the photos it really looks like a wedding dress. Elena wanted a texture on top of something shiny. That’s what she says. Isaac likes the textile, but he thinks the silhouette is dowdy. They don’t really like the back, where the skirt bunches and there is maybe a seam right under her butt. Korto wanted something free, plus to have pockets to put things in. It does look comfortable. The top is kind of bland but the orange is great. When Chris talks about his gown he leaves out the part about how all the leather is because of how Zanna said it was too boring. There are some leather details that don’t show up in the photos. Isaac loves the navy. Viktor has made a flattering dress, but it really does not photograph well, and the wings are weird. The judges argue about his dress, is the color good, are the wings good, whatever.

Chris had a very innovative gown, with a good mix of textiles, even though the picture wasn’t stunning. Seth Aaron took a risk, I guess, but it’s not flattering at all. At least people would talk about you. Korto’s dress is not as glamorous but it’s easy to move in and they like the orange. Oh, that was the top three. Huh. Irina made a wedding dress, dramatic, but falling apart and a wedding dress. Elena’s dress is not sexy but they at least like the fabric. Viktor had great ideas but it was boring and in an ugly puckery fabric.

Seth Aaron is in. The winner is Korto! Yay! She’s so happy. Chris is in. Viktor is in. What? That dress sucked. UGH. Fine. Irina is out. Huh? This is dumb. Fine. I bet she’s somewhere blaming her model for purposely tearing the dress. She’s already won once so she’s fine with going out.

Next week: Nina Garcia!! And she’s judging! She says something about seaweed to Chris, who says “Thank you” in a snippy tone, and she says back “It’s not a compliment.” I’m excited.