TC Season 4, Episode 1 Quickfire

Three things, before we get into the actual episode writeup.

First, I don't have a Tivo, or any kind of recording device. Everything you see in this post is based primarily on notes I made on a single watch-through as it was happening. That means I lost some details, and the impressions are pretty snap. I type very quickly so I kept up better than one might suspect, but I guarantee I missed things. I may try doing future episodes by watching more than one showing, but this one's running late as it is, so if I get vague about stuff, please forgive me. (A few details were filled in from official and blogger sources.)

Secondly, I was born and raised in Chicago. It is not where I live now, but it's where I'm from. So, on the one hand, I have the background with styles of cuisine and history of restaurants, have the Chicago pizza bias (see below), etc. but on the other hand, I haven't lived there for a while so my knowledge of current culinary hotspots is pretty much nil. I like to think it'll give me an interesting perspective. We'll see.

Thirdly... oh, this is a doozie. See, I don't like getting into religious wars, by which I do not mean debates on actual religion (though I don't like those, either), but also any X vs Y: Windows vs Mac (vs Unix), emacs vs vi, milk chocolate vs dark, and so forth. But... Chicago pizza vs New York is a big one, and it's going to be hard, because, yes, I've had both, and yes, I definitely prefer my hometown pizza, and yes, a lot of the people on the show are New Yorkers and are going to say things that make me want to rant. Nonetheless, I'm going to resolve to try to keep that out of my writeups. Luckily, they went straight to the pizza, so it may never even come up again, but I'd also ask that if anyone does comment here, they keep it to the level of "I prefer n style of pizza", and not dis on the other style, okay? Thanks.

Okay. Let's begin.

I always love the opening credits, but it takes me a few runs through to have any real thoughts about it.

My first thought is: Are they flying these poor people into Midway? I can't tell, because the editing never lingers on anything long enough, but I do notice that they're picking up their baggage at Continental, which a) makes it a little more likely and b) makes me feel a little bad for the contestants, to be honest. Midway's better than it used to be, but Continental isn't.

First impressions of some of the chefs:

Ryan: Stop bragging.
Nimma: She mentions she's Muslim, and I immediately wonder if her family is liberal or if she's an adult convert. It can be tough to be a professional woman and a good Muslim woman at the same time, so good on her for trying.
Mark: You hit one of my pet peeves with the phrase 'very unique'. Unique or not, no qualifiers, please. (Besides, all people are unique.)
Richard: I already love you for saying nice things about my hometown, and I'm still a little boggled you're the Designated Mad Scientist of the season, fauxhawk aside.
Stephanie: She's so pretty, and I hope more people notice that and her great smile than the few extra pounds she has on her. To be honest, I actually like to see chefs with a little extra weight, because I also think that means they're enjoying their art.
Zoi, Jennifer: The big shocker! Or, well, okay, more a bit of a surprise, but as you've no doubt heard by now, they're dating. I don't envy them dealing with the relationship in the context of a competition.

So, their first meeting is in Pizzeria Uno. Yeah, okay, it's iconic Chicago, but to be honest, I find it terribly overrated, as do a lot of other people I know. For good thin crust Chicago pizza, Rosati's or Aiello's is far better... deep dish is harder since some of the places I liked most are gone now, but I'm not really thrilled with Uno's deep dish. Maybe Giordano's, though they're better for their stuffed. Surprisingly, this doesn't tip me off as to the Quickfire, though in retrospect, I don't know why.

Here comes Chef Tom, and as he opens the door, he's smirking a smirk so wide that I'm deeply afraid for a moment he's going to turn into a South Park Canadian. But by the time he addresses the chefs, he's all Stern Daddy Tom. Anyhow, he and Padma welcome the chefs to Top Chef Season 4: Chicago (yay!), and then they go to the Quickfire which is to make an original and innovative sandwich.

No, of course it isn't. It's to make deep dish pizza.

A word about deep dish: although Chicago is widely known for it, those of us from the city consider it a class of its own. When I say "pizza", what I mean is "thin crust", which is thicker than NY but thinner than what you get most places in the Bay Area in California, and is cut square instead of pie-style. Deep dish is... bread with stuff on it. It's good, and obviously if you're doing a cooking show in Chicago you're going to do it, but it's not the only, or even the default, type of pizza in Chicago. I feel compelled to point this out because people seem to treat it as if it were. (And no one even ever seems to mention stuffed, which is the third of the Chicago trilogy. Oh, you'll find thick ('Sicilian') and pan (thicker than thick, not at the deep dish level), but those other three are the biggies, and 'thin' is the default.)

Deep dish pizza's tricky, but not impossible, for a Quickfire. As it appeared they had pre-made dough, it was merely a matter of rolling it out, shaping it, topping it, and baking it (that itself probably taking almost as long as the rest). Now, that still takes skill and style, and if you've never done deep dish, it's easy to overdo the dough (as you see later), but everyone should be able to do the basics, so it's the topping choices that are going to be the key here.

Some notes about what I caught in cooking:

Dale: my notes say he used some sort of pickled vegetable, shallots, kohlrabi, and some sort of hot sauce (was it sambal? I didn't catch it, but as he's Filipino I thought it might be). It sounds, well... odd. But the hot sauce idea was a very good one, and shallots is a nice choice. Later on, though, Dale ruins it all by doing his best Hung impression, mentioning how he was looking around and everyone else sucked (paraphrased). My notes actually read "Oh, hi Hung! Oh, no wait, it's Dale."

Valerie: "Meat and potatoes pizza" is all I caught, but that could be interesting... well, not sure about the potatoes part.

Nikki: Of course immediately disses the deep dish. I'm amused to see her result is puffed up like a... well, something very swollen, okay? It seemed karmic.

Mark: Okay, I'm not surprised he brought marmite, but eww. And he put it on pizza? Double eww. One more eww and he can start a web site.

Antonia: Says that as an Italian her pizza should be great, and certainly it sounds good, with prosciutto and heirloom tomatoes.

Richard: Peach. Sweet tea. Pizza. One of these things is not like the other.

Spike: AHA! I knew that wasn't his real name! Evangelos is a nice name, what's wrong with that? Anyhow, he does a Greek-influenced pizza, and while I'm iffy on feta on pizza, it sounds fairly good.

Lisa: Uses the words "Asian influence". I lose my place while recording this on my Buzzword Bingo card.

Andrew: Richard stole my pan! CURSES! Literal ones!

Why, why on earth were there not extras, just in case? WHY?

So, there they go, off to deliver their pizza to... Rocco DiSpirito! And the crowd goes wild! Or... confused. Because I thought he was from New York, but here he is in a house in Chicago. And he is from New York. He's just house-sitting, or something, I guess.

And in judging:

Richard: Peach taleggio, fennel sausage, sweet tea reduction. Still not convinced, even if Rocco liked it. (Besides, Rocco and I don't have the same taste in pizza.)
Someone I didn't catch: Escarole, ricotta, butternut squash. Um. Not convinced on this one, either.
Nikki: Does a 'white pie'. That's... not really very Chicagoan, but I guess it could be good, if you can find the rest of the pie in the seriously very swollen crust she presented.
Jennifer: Grapes, bacon, fontina, rosemary. Now, I admit my initial reaction was 'eww'. My second reaction was "grapes... on pizza... no...". But after thinking about it, that's actually a good grouping of ingredients, so maybe it wasn't bad.
Nimma: Onions with multiple mushrooms, and (ironically, it will turn out), nowhere near enough salt. Sound idea, bad execution.
Mark: Turns out it's a marmite molasses... that might improve it. Other ingredients are chicken (which I'm neutral on on pizza) and tomato sauce (which I tend to believe pizza should always have). Again, Rocco likes this, but... I'm still not convinced here, either. Boy's got some ideas, though.

Lisa, Nimma, Valerie, Manuel, Andrew, Stephanie, Nikki, and Zoi are sent to the back corner, for they were bad. Stephanie's proscuitto was overcooked. Nimma's pizza was dry, and the dried morels especially were not a good choice. (No one mentions salt.)

The other eight are the winners (look, I amazingly got all eight "losers" on the first watch-through, don't expect me to have typed all eight winners' names too). Rocco says he was confounded by Richard's description but was proven wrong about his expectations; Mark made marmite taste good. (I really, really don't think Rocco and I have the same taste in pizza.)

Post-judging, they're told the house they're in is their home during the season. Nice-looking place, too. Andrew brags at us, even though he was in the bottom (because he was BLEEPED OVER, MAN). Nimma is practically in tears over being in the bottom, and I already predict she is going home early, because if you can't take even one loss and some mild critiquing, you are really, really on the wrong show. She goes on to separate herself from the others, which I think is a little childish of her.

Next post: The Elimination Challenge!