Top Chef ™

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Rhoda

Top Chef, Carolinas

Challenge Type:

Roasted Monkfish, Squid Ink Adobo

Roasted Monkfish with Squid Ink Adobo Sauce and Garlic Chips

Rhoda during prep: 'I'm basically dehydrating some ingredients that you normally find in an adobo sauce. It's a great thing to have a head start on the dehydrating process... I used to make this dish for a restaurant by José Andrés in Las Vegas, and we used dehydrated squid ink to season our fish. We'll see where that takes us.' She described her garlic chip: 'This is my garlic chip. So this is going to go around the monkfish to have a little bit of architectural dehydrated component.'

At presentation: 'So I made a roasted monkfish with adobo sauce. There's a dehydrated squid ink on the top of the monkfish, a squid ink adobo sauce on there as well, with garlic chips.' She intended to sear on the squid ink side: 'I really wanted that sauce to, like, stand up to the monkfish for you.' She noted: 'I felt good about it conceptually, like, it made sense in my head.'

ELIMINATED. Kristen (pre-cook, seeing underdone fish): 'That is not cooked right.' Gail: 'Is it raw?' Tom: 'Ew, no.' Gail: 'Roda's monkfish texture is very off to me, and it's, like, half cooked and very spongy.' Joe: 'That fish is not forgiving, and it's leaching water, which is also breaking the sauce.' Tom: 'There's no colour, no crust on it.' Tom: 'The best part is the chip. I think it's a good chip.' Kristen: 'She has delivered some really technical, well-cooked, executed dishes. And then you look at today's dish with the monkfish, and it was none of those.' Tom: 'It's a very odd dish.' In deliberation — Tom: 'If it was roasted, it was in a pan that wasn't too hot, overcrowded the pan, and immediately started to steam.' Gail: 'Not at all [did we taste the dehydrated ingredients].' Tom: 'The whole dish conceptually just didn't work.' Kristen (elimination): 'Rhoda, please pack your knives and go. I think it really came down to the fish cookery.' Tom: 'We'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen.' Rhoda on departure: 'I'm feeling a little crushed and defeated. I came onto this feeling really strong. I've already proven that I can beat all these guys twice in a row. I know I can do it again. This is not the end for me.'

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