Top Chef Masters Exit Interview: Episode 6

We’re halfway through the current season of Top Chef Masters, and down to some serious talent — but with that we see some serious talent go home. We had Maroon 5 as guest judges this week, and the chefs had to cook on a tour bus as it made its way to the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles.

Continue reading to see who was sent packing.

You finally got a chance to cook with some fine ingredients, perhaps a tease with you only having 7 minutes for the Quickfire?
Alex Stratta: That’s where I felt the most comfortable the whole time. Those were ingredients I was very comfortable with and I really felt I knew how to go about making it simple. Unfortunately I was off by two cents. I always keep in perspective that we all have the same amount of time, it’s just a matter of trying to organize yourself and trying to keep it in as few steps as possible, not only in the cooking but actually physically — not going back and forth.

You’re a chef in Vegas — you must have famous people in your restaurant all the time, but you appeared to be pretty starstuck by Maroon 5?
They were great, really great to see young guys with the world at their feet and they’re actually beyond the party mode and taking care of themselves — we had a vegan there! Very nice and normal down-to-earth people, I like that.

Do you think being on a team of three people was a disadvantage?
Yes and no. The advantage was that there was not much room on the tour bus so I think if there were four of us it would have been a lot tougher. We could barely get around with three of us. We were given the same amount of things to cook but I feel it was more of a blessing, everyone was doing their thing so there wasn’t as much team effort as you would think.

James Oseland said you created “cafeteria food.” What do you say to that?
Cooking on what I had to cook on I’ll take it with a grain of salt. I wasn’t happy with what I did, If I had honestly really believed in what I did and felt good about it and he still said that, then it would have impacted me a little more. I wasn’t happy at all with the end result of my cooking, the ideas that I had weren’t thought out really well.

Do you think you deserved to be sent home?
Compared to how I usually cook and what I’m usually able to produce, yes. Compared to Celina, maybe not. I think our dishes were equally weak to tell you the truth. I honestly thought it was going to be one of us two. I felt in my gut it was going to be me, I really didn’t stand behind what I put out, which is not usual at all. I’ve always been able to make the adjustments as I go but that was a comedy of errors, it was one thing after another falling apart on me.

(Photo: Bravo TV)