'Top Chef': Joe Sasto packs his knives after his sesame flatbread with aioli sauce fails to impress judges
Bravo TV's 'Top Chef' has returned for Season 17 and it's all cooking in Los Angeles this time. The show will follow the journey of 15 accomplished chefs who were this close to winning the title of a top chef. The premiere episode dropped this week and it's explosive.
Judges Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio had a lot to say about how the dishes were prepared, the taste and garnishing style. It all began with the quickfire challenge, which was made into three legs — turn artichokes, prep California oranges, and shell almonds. The first five to finish turning artichokes would form a team and immediately begin working to create two dishes using the three ingredients they prepped.
Even though it made for an interesting visual — chefs going at the artichokes like their lives depended on it — the urgency in the background score drained the fun out of it. It was a fun challenge and the contestants were enjoying themselves rushing through the process.
However, for the next round, 15 contestants were divided into three teams — red, blue, and green — and given limited time to prepare dishes for the judges' panel. Red team that had Kevin Gillespie, Jamie Lynch, Bryan Voltaggio, Melissa King, and Joe Sasto, won fair and square for their perfectly roasted artichoke dish and the yogurt that tasted like savory whipped cream.
Even though this gave them an advantage over the others (each from the winning team got to pick two teammates to make a three-member team for the elimination round), unfortunately Joe was asked to pack his knives for his overcooked and overdone dish. Judges thought he had an issue with editing his plate because a lot was going on in it.
Joe made sesame and semolina flatbread with clams, fried garlic, sea urchin, pickled peppers and miso parmesan aioli. On paper, it sounds heavenly but Padma thought there were too many flavors and a lot was going on in his dish. Gail was curious about the spread Joe had used on his flatbread.
"It was like aioli I made. Some parmesan in there, a little bit of miso, some shrimp paste. I thought that would act as the glue to hold down the clamps and everything," Joe explained while Tom laughed saying maybe the word glue shouldn't be used with regard to food.
Catch all-new episodes of 'Top Chef' on Bravo every Thursday.