The dessert masters have to whip up confections for reality royalty.
I love when a reality show doesn’t mess around and gets right into the action, such as with this week’s Top Chef: Just Desserts Quickfire Challenge. Gail and Top Chef Master Hugh Acheson (the one with the unibrow) come out to explain a display of Extra Dessert Flavor gum. The chefs will have to create their own dessert that will inspire a new flavor of the gum line. Each creation must have big flavor but be a bite size portion… like gum! Clever… sorta. The winner gets immunity, their flavor to be in the running for a public vote for the next produced gum and $25K. The prize purse suddenly gets hearts thumping and they all scatter like marbles in a pantry with one hour to cook.
Everyone completes on time and after tasting every delight, Hugh finds Rebecca, Melissa and Matt’s offerings to be not quite right. However, he loves Craig’s tiny strawberry pancake combo, Nelson’s entry and Carlos’ tapioca kiss. Craig shockingly wins the challenge and is then tasked with naming two team captains for the Elimination Challenge.
Craig appoints himself as a team leader and randomly appoints Amanda.
Craig selects Sally, Matt, Orlando, Nelson and Rebecca.
Amanda enlists Katzi, Chris, Carlos, Megan, and Melissa.
For the Elimination Challenge both teams discover they will need to create a dessert table for a celebrity… a Bravo celebrity (waaa…). It’s actually restaurateurs Lisa and Ken from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. To celebrate the anniversary of their restaurant Villa Rosa, they will throw a party including the winning dessert assortment and display presented by the winning JD team. Ken shows up with his breathing Muppet dog Giggy to brief the chefs on Lisa’s likes and preferences for desserts. Each team can make no more than six desserts to present on their table.
Craig is nervous to be leading but he’s staffed his side with mentor Sally and some strong personalities. He decides to make an upscale lemonade and support all the other baker’s needs. Did you know macaroons are the new cupcakes? Sally drops that piece of knowledge and proceeds to bake some up for her entry. Orlando creates the table display crafting some impressive blown sugar that looks like glass. The overall theme is blush pink and whimsical yet classy.
Amanda’s team starts a lot rockier. No one can decide on what to bake and there’s a lot of discord about an overall look and theme. Amanda steps up to create some order and delegate. Everyone looks eventually sorted except for Melissa, who still doesn’t get why she’s always last chosen for team competitions. Let’s see, she’s always vocally negative and in this challenge nothing cooks well for her. She’s behind and sweating fiercely. On day two, Amanda gets up feeling poorly so she gets Chris to do the actual panel presentation and works behind the scenes to get everyone on track and on time. They even do a special dog edible cookie for Giggy.
At the presentation space, the whole cast of RHoBH come out to sample the desserts. You have to wonder if there were buckets just off camera? Even with the tiny sample sizes, all that food looks like a year’s worth of dessert for that lot.
Team Craig’s floral piece ends up suffering from too many rose petal hands in the last minutes of presentation with Orlando going overboard and Rebecca fighting with him to pull back. Team Amanda has a floating rose chandelier as their centerpiece and overall is more sparse yet classic. Lisa and company seem to dig Amanda’s entries as a whole, with extra points for the Giggy approved cookie. Meanwhile, Craig’s bakers don’t fare as well so it’s no surprise that Amanda’s team is crowned the victor.
At Judge’s Table, Nelson odd lollipop with cotton candy floss and Sally’s melted sorbet impress the least. However, Hugh really goes after Craig for his easy lemonade and his lack of overall presence on the table. Craig is heartbroken to be called out so pointedly but Rebecca steps up to defend his important assistance in the background. Craig feels guilty he’s got immunity so it’s Nelson who gets sent packing for his culinary bad call.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.