High Chef
Puckerbutt
Season 23
Episode 2
Editor’s Score
3 stars
***
High Chef heats issues up with a go to to PuckerButt farm and a progressively spicier Elimination problem.
Picture: Paul Cheney/Bravo
Let me begin off this recap with somewhat confession: I’ve not directly given PuckerButt impresario Ed Currie my cash. My associate makes sizzling sauces as a pastime, and each summer time we plant jalapeños, habaneros, banana peppers, ghost peppers, scorpion peppers, and, most lately, Carolina reapers, the pepper that Ed developed at his PuckerButt Pepper Firm. One time, we unintentionally pepper-sprayed the home by placing a second batch of peppers we had been cooking immediately into an already-hot pan, which you don’t need to do in an enclosed house. We opened each window, turned on each fan, and tied bandannas over our faces (we already had masks on), and we had been nonetheless coughing, choking, and crying for hours. It was not a very good time! However the sizzling sauce was scrumptious. Possibly we’ll begin promoting it at our native farmers’ market, get somewhat aspect hustle going. Very millennial conduct.
This week on High Chef, Ed and his pepper farm form the Elimination problem. It’s all about warmth, whereas the Quickfire is all about cool — that includes Talenti! Mei Lin, High Chef: Boston winner and Mike Voltaggio’s former sous chef, walks out into the big set kitchen carrying a tray of Talenti pints, and I’m upset within the contestants for not all instantly clocking that clearly they must use these candy treats of their first problem. High Chef hardly ever does snacks with out strings hooked up. For the Quickfire, the judges must make a savory dish impressed by the area hooked up to the gelato or sorbet they tasted — Mediterranean mint gelato, Southern butter pecan, and so forth. They’ll have entry within the pantry to elements from that area, and their savory dish will then have to pair effectively with the gelato or sorbet itself, which Mei and Kristen will style after their providing.
It’s an advanced premise, however I prefer it! It’s undoubtedly extra inventive than simply “make a dessert impressed by this dessert,” which is what I assumed the problem could be. The cooks appear to love it, too, with Laurence noting that the majority occasions cooks take into consideration how their dish may be paired with wine or one other alcohol however hardly ever with a dessert course. There are two cooks per gelato or sorbet taste, and so they’ll current their dishes on the similar time. In the course of the 30-minute prepare dinner, nobody actually has any points, so let’s simply dive into the dishes:
Alphonso Mango Sorbetto, India:
• Nana: Curried cauliflower steak with chunky tomato salsa and spinach.
• Jassi: Malani paneer tikka with kachumber salad and spice combine.
Caramel Cookie Crunch Gelato, Argentina:
• Sherry: Polenta-crusted grouper, kabocha crema, guava gastrique, Champagne grapes.
• Oscar: Polenta cachapa (Venezuelan pancakes), brown sugar and butter caramel, fresno chile, almonds, crispy-skin provolone.
Pacific Coast Pistachio Gelato, California:
• Laurence: Lamb börek (Turkish pastry) with apricot jam, pickled tomatillos, and pistachios.
• Anthony: Crispy artichoke with Mexican pipián sauce, candied apricot, and pistachio.
Southern Butter Pecan Gelato, the American South:
• Duyen: Pecan-crusted pork tenderloin with peach-and-grape discount, braised mustard greens.
• Brandon: Pork-loin medallion with peach mostarda and crispy mustard leaf.
Espresso Chocolate Chip Gelato, Colombia:
• Rhoda: Espresso- and chile-rubbed pork lamp chop with pan jus, tostones, and dragon-fruit salsa.
• Brittany: Espresso-spiced lamb tartare with crispy plantains, aïoli, pickled chiles.
Mediterranean Mint Chip Gelato, the Mediterranean:
• Jennifer: Marinated fennel salad, oranges, cured black olives, figs, feta cheese, chocolate, and lemon purée.
• Justin: Oven-roasted fennel, feta, roasted pine nuts, roasted figs, olives.
Madagascan Vanilla Bean Gelato, Madagascar:
• Jonathan: Charred eggplant, tamarind, miso-and-vanilla sauce, litchi, coconut.
• Sieger: Strawberry snapper with cracked coconut and uni.
It’s really cute that Justin and Jennifer each tried the Mediterranean mint gelato earlier than realizing the specs of the Quickfire after which find yourself making comparable dishes. I would like their like to endure eternally. And each of them are protected! The low dishes belong to Brittany, who didn’t get sufficient espresso taste into her tartare; Sieger, who added the vanilla gelato to his precise sauce and made it style muddy — an ice-cream sauce served with fish? Sieger, what the hell, man??? — and Duyen, whose pork was very underseasoned. Within the high are Oscar, singled out by Mei for his crispy fried cheese; Laurence, whose börek wasn’t pretty much as good as Kristen’s mother-in-law’s however was nonetheless scrumptious; and Nana, whose spiced cauliflower labored effectively with the mango sorbet. Laurence will get the win and $10,000 in money, bringing his whole to this point to $15,000, and I’m actually curious to see how far he can go along with these Turkish flavors. What can this man do with sumac, you already know?
Time for the Elimination problem! The cooks randomly divide into two groups, and so they’re tasked with working collectively to create a progressively spicier seven-course meal. On the Purple Workforce are Brandon, Nana, Laurence, Sherry, Duyen, Justin, and Jassi, and on the Inexperienced Workforce are Sieger, Rhoda, Brittany, Oscar, Jennifer, Anthony, and Jonathan. Mei takes the group to Ed’s farm to allow them to attempt a few of his peppers, and everybody will get redder and sweatier as they eat little slivers of cayenne, Scotch bonnet, Carolina reaper, and Pepper X peppers. (The latter is Ed’s newest evil experiment.) Justin saying he was hallucinating and “in one other dimension” after attempting the peppers received an amazing giggle out of me, particularly as he legitimately regarded just like the lone surviving soldier on a battlefield, glassy-eyed and bent over because the spices fucked together with his mind. I used to be somewhat unhappy nobody made a reference to The Simpsons’s “The Mysterious Voyage of Our Homer” and the Guatemalan Madness Pepper, however now I’m doing it, in order that’s that.
Because the teams begin planning their menus, we get some reliable friction at Entire Meals. In a traditional little bit of High Chef shadiness, Jonathan and Sherry wildly overspend, blowing the Purple Workforce’s finances and forcing the group to reevaluate all their purchases throughout checkout. Justin is the final to be rung up, and he will get $9 fewer than the $100 he ought to have had by the tip. That’s only one signal of the Purple Workforce’s lack of cohesion. Jossi insists that he prepare dinner vindaloo as the ultimate and hottest dish, however he additionally admits that he can’t deal with sizzling meals in any respect. Justin decides to do hen wings because the penultimate dish, which doesn’t actually work effectively inside the menu development. Brandon unexpectedly makes his opening dish so spicy that Sherry has to make her second-course chowder spicier, too. Nobody actually takes the management function within the Purple Workforce, whereas over on the Inexperienced Workforce, Rhoda steps up. Sure, she has immunity from profitable final week’s candy potato Elimination problem, however she doesn’t need to get complacent. She encourages the Inexperienced Workforce to all style their dishes on a regular basis and be sure that their meal development actually builds the warmth all through, which helps maintain the workforce disciplined and collaborative.
This all performs out throughout judging, which progresses with Purple and Inexperienced Workforce members presenting their programs on the similar time to judges, together with Ed, Mei, and Heatonist founder and CEO Noah Chaimberg. (Heatonist makes the Pepper X sizzling sauce and the official branded Scorching Ones sauces.) General, judging is extremely optimistic; in actual fact, the one actual ding on both workforce is the aforementioned points with the Purple Workforce.
First course:
• Inexperienced Workforce, Sieger: Kumamoto oyster with cucumber mignonette granita and inexperienced jalapeños.
• Purple Workforce, Brandon: Tuna tartare with jalapeño tomato jelly.
Second course:
• Inexperienced Workforce, Brittany: Poached shrimp and corn salad with pickled cayenne pepper.
• Purple Workforce, Sherry: Chilled seafood chowder with Fresno-chile granita.
Third course:
• Inexperienced Workforce, Jennifer: Pepper crab and Southern grits with Fresno-pepper mash.
• Purple Workforce, Duyen: Pork laab salad with puffed rice crackers and jalapeños.
Fourth course:
• Inexperienced Workforce, Jonathan: Seared snapper with habanero and mango emulsion.
• Purple Workforce, Laurence: Carolina-style Yuxiang eggplant with anchovy and basil pesto.
Fifth course:
• Inexperienced Workforce, Anthony: Grilled jerk lamb with pikliz, hoe cake, and cayenne-pepper mash.
• Purple Workforce, Nana: Marinated shito pink snapper with mild soup, fufu espuma, and okra salsa.
Sixth course:
• Inexperienced Workforce, Oscar: Pork al pastor, blue-corn huarache, salsa diabla, salsa criolla, and pickled pineapple.
• Purple Workforce, Justin: Shrimp-stuffed fried hen wing with habanero oil and yogurt ranch.
Seventh course:
• Inexperienced Workforce, Rhoda: Pepper-braised brief rib, chile-pickled pearl onions, blistered cayenne pepper.
• Purple Workforce, Jassi: Lamb vindaloo with flaky paratha, potato mash, yogurt, and lime shot.
Not one of the dishes blow out the judges’ palates, however they’re all gasping, fanning themselves, and wiping snot off their faces by the tip of the problem, which amused me. (Kristen amused herself by asking the judging panel, “Anybody’s butt puckering but?”) It’s a unanimous selection for the Purple Workforce to win, after which seemingly one other unanimous selection for Rhoda to win the Elimination problem, making her two for 2 to this point. They liked the smoky layers of her “taste explosion,” and although her management function within the workforce isn’t actually mentioned, it’s clear that her steerage gave the workforce focus. Over on the Inexperienced Workforce, poor protein cookery brings Justin, Nana, and Jassi all to the underside. Justin’s hen wing was flabby and never grilled sufficient, Nana’s snapper was inconsistently cooked (we noticed her wrestle with the sous-vide machine, and Tom says his fish was totally uncooked), and Jassi’s lamb was dry and difficult — and matched together with his not-nearly-hot-enough vindaloo, that will get Jassi despatched residence. He didn’t prepare dinner sufficient peppers into his vindaloo from the start, so his dish’s warmth wasn’t long-lasting, and braising the lamb as an alternative of roasting it gave the meat the fallacious texture. I appreciated Jassi’s character, and I feel his workforce let him down somewhat by no more aggressively tasting the vindaloo and difficult him to place extra pepper in it. Oh effectively. Since we gained’t see him once more in Final Probability Kitchen, goodbye to Jassi.
• The dishes I most wished to eat this episode: Each Mediterranean Quickfire dishes sounded good, and Jennifer’s crab grits regarded wonderful. Oscar’s Quickfire was additionally covetable, however I can’t study extra about frying provolone and the way straightforward it may be to do in my own residence. I already do that with halloumi; I can’t incorporate extra fried cheese into the combination. That’s too harmful for my well being.
• I most likely complained about this the final time Talenti merchandise had been featured on High Chef, nevertheless it bears repeating: The Talenti layered ice cream pints are a rip-off. There’s solely like, half as a lot ice cream as you’d usually get in there! And also you’re charging the identical quantity? Completely not. Shrinkflation!
• Re: commenters on final week’s recap saying that Jonathan and Brandon are extra annoying than the Voltaggios … How lately have you ever rewatched their unique season? As a result of Mike’s conduct particularly didn’t age effectively; he’s always sexist and ageist to different rivals. Jonathan and Brandon are loudmouths to this point, however they haven’t actively insulted or harassed anybody but. Nonetheless, I’ll hear no in poor health in opposition to Bryan Voltaggio, whom I need to see in The Traitors fort.
• How lengthy do we predict Nana will stick round? She pulled herself collectively on this episode and did higher with the Quickfire, however the inconsistent fish for her Elimination problem was worrying. Time administration within the kitchen is tough, and generally you dig your self right into a gap you’ll be able to’t get out of. Additionally, her conduct within the premiere wasn’t nice, however there have been so many occasions over High Chef’s run when cooks lose their mood with their servers, and I feel that’s approach worse than Nana dropping her mood with herself.
• If anybody can share some science that aligns with Ed’s declare that Indigenous communities ate extra peppers and subsequently had fewer cases of coronary heart illness and most cancers, I’d like to learn it. Not being shady; genuinely curious.
• Is anybody else watching Padma on America’s Culinary Cup? The collection is entertaining, if nonetheless figuring itself out.
• Subsequent week, the cooks prepare dinner with pure dyes and Tom says throughout judging, “I’m beginning to get grumpy.” Uh oh!
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