Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode 12
This week’s episode of Top Chef saw our Chef’testants pack their knives and say goodbye to DC, heading off to Singapore– but they still had one last showdown with the good folks at NASA.
Yes, that is Buzz Aldrin sitting next to Padma. Oh, and Anthony Bourdain.
Shocked, we shared Tiffany’s tears as she was sent packing.
Endless Simmer: A lot of people thought Ed might be going home, were you surprised it was you?
Tiffany: One thing I’ve learned is never to be too surprised and never act like you know exactly what is going on (laughter). I was a little uneasy with myself and not quite wanting my dish the way I wanted it. I felt like it was going to be me. Everyone else seemed more confident at the end with their product.
The mussels were frozen, in retrospect do you think there was something else that would have made the dish more dramatic?
(Laughs)… The whole thing was kinda crazy. What I would have done is definitely cleaned the plate up a little bit more, the rice was not quite sticky enough to hold in the ring mold and so if I was to do it all over — don’t get mistaken, the flavors of this dish were good — The mussels would have just been added to it. I think I would have just cleaned it up. I heard that the judging came down to plating.
What exactly happened, the food was just too cold?
Yeah, supposedly. I don’t know if the refrigerator went into a defrost mode or it just dropped the temperature. It killed all of my herbs, it froze my tomatoes and it froze the mussels completely. I didn’t want to get into it at judges table. I didn’t want to bring it up because I knew it was going to upset me even more. The reason you might be going home is the refrigerator froze, something you have nothing to do with. You trust it with your food. I’m thinking technically I should get more mussels, that’s not what they thought.
After you’ve served the dishes to the judges and you’re back in the kitchen sampling each competitors’ dishes, what runs through your mind?
It’s funny you ask this question — when I went back into the kitchen and tasted everyone’s food, I kind of felt like I’d be OK. People didn’t pull it out the way that I though they would with crazy bold flavors. For the space challenge we wanted to give them very good flavors. Eddie’s dish I thought was bold, but there was so much going on, so I didn’t know if they’d appreciate it. I thought I might have been OK but I knew my plating was horrible.
Did you meet any exciting politicians through the show?
I was really excited to see Anthony Bourdain (Editor’s Note: not a politician). I really enjoyed seeing Marcus Samuelsson but when I saw Anthony I was so excited. I think its because that he does the type of show I want — I want a cooking show (Editor’s Note: he has a travel show), so it just excites me that he’s able to do what I’d love to do. I’d so go with Anthony and go try out all that crazy stuff.
What about any politicians?
No, not really.
In last week’s episode, we saw Ed in your yellow dress, what was up with that?
(Hysterical laughter)… I have no clue. I was sitting in my room and Eddie said, “Let me see one of your dresses.” I had only two dresses and I was like, “What dress for what?” He took the yellow dress and I was like oh… my gosh. It was just a moment to lighten everything up.
(Photos: Bravo)
What a bummer that Tiffany was sent packing. I really enjoyed watching her.