Top Chef episode 3 recap

Top Chef recap: Local Asian food stars shine in a consummately Houston episode

Chef Kiran Verma is this week's local guest judge.

Photo by David Moir Bravo

It took three episodes, but Top Chef finally feels grounded in Houston. In Season 19's strongest episode to date, the show on the city’s vibrant Asian community with a night market-inspired Elimination Challenge.

Instead of participating in a Quickfire Challenge, the cheftestants sampled food prepared by ten Houston chefs representing Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Filipino cuisines. Then they had to create their own dishes for a night market attended by 100 Houstonians. It's the first individual elimination challenge of the season, and the absence of a Quickfire means no one has immunity from being sent home.

Let’s break down the show from a Houston perspective by highlighting the local people and places who appeared in the episode. Then we’ll check in on the progress of local cheftestant Evelyn Garcia and keep track of the overall competition.

Featured Houstonians
As always, the episode’s quick pace doesn’t give much time to identify the local chefs who participated in the night market. Let’s give them their due.

Vietnamese: Trong Nguyen (Crawfish & Noodles) and Christine Ha (The Blind Goat, Xin Chao)
Indian: Kiran Verma (Kiran’s) and Kaiser Lashkari (Himalaya)
Japanese: Naoki Yoshida (Shun Japanese Kitchen) and Manabu Horiuchi (Kata Robata)
Chinese: Cori Xiong (Mala Sichuan Bistro) and Elaine Won (Dumpling Haus)
Filipino: Gabe Medina (7000 Islands, Click Virtual Food Hall) and Andrew Musico (The Fattest Cow)

After being properly inspired, the contestants shop at local grocery stores for ingredients specific to their cuisines: 99 Ranch Market, Hong Kong Food Market, Viet Hoa, Seiwa Market, and Subhlaxmi Grocers. We get a few amusing moments as the visitors look a little overwhelmed by the unfamiliar ingredients, but the more knowledgable contestants help their peers find everything they need to create their dishes.

Chef Verma returns to judge the elimination challenge, which takes place on the rooftop Skylawn at Post Houston. Anyone who’s dined at Kiran’s will recognize her friendly demeanor, but she doesn’t spare the contestants from criticism — calling out chef Buddha Lo for disregarding her advice not to fry his puff pastry samosa.

The Houston chefs return to evaluate how the cheftestants faired interpreting their dishes. For example, Kaiser Lashkari praises chef Luke Kolpin’s corn and crab samosa. Ha and her husband John Suh approve of chef Evelyn’s Vietnamese-style chicken salad.

Food-obsessed Houstonians will enjoy scanning the night market attendees for familiar faces. Yes, that’s Saint Arnold chief marketing officer Lennie Ambrose complimenting the texture of one dish, and Houston Life co-host Courtey Zavala taking a big bite of a dish in a quick shot. Chronicle food editor Greg Morago is in the background of a couple of the judges’ conversations, and CultureMap readers will spot this author in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.

The Skylawn provides an appropriately dramatic setting. Filmed on a warm September night, the venue looks lush and inviting, and cameras capture plenty of views of downtown’s dramatic skyline.

How did Evelyn Garcia do
Speaking of chef Evelyn, she had her strongest performance of the season. Her gasped “I know all these people” helps establish the credibility of the night market participants. During their trip to Viet Hoa, she helps chef Jackson Kalb find the right spices for the pho dipping broth he’s making for his Vietnamese spring rolls.

During the elimination challenge, the judges enjoy her Vietnamese-style cold chicken salad with a Latin-inspired avocado crema as much as Ha and Suh do. She earns a place in the top three and narrowly misses her first Elimination Challenge victory.

Who wins
Chef Jae Jung takes the prize with her Sichuan noodles seasoned with Chinese sausage, an elaborate mix of spices, and Korean melon. Chef Jackson’s spring roll with pho dipping sauce rounds out the top three.

Who loses
Poor Sam Kang. The chef forgets to pack up his boiled potatoes before the allotted preparation time expires. Forced to pivot, he grills his remaining potatoes to order, but the judges find his attempt at an Indian curry to be undercooked and bland. Time to pack your knives.

Who exceeded expectations
Despite his Noma pedigree, chef Luke Kolpin has struggled in the first two episodes, but he finally shines this week. His corn and crab samosa earns praise from two tough critics: Kaiser Lashkari and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi. Hopefully, it’s a sign that chef Luke has found his footing.

Chef Kiran Verma is this week's local guest judge.

Photo by David Moir/Bravo

Chef Kiran Verma is this week's local guest judge.

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Movie Review

Jessica Chastain gets in a tangled love story in new drama Dreams

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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