No fairy tale ending for Lina

Rebecca Masson shines on Top Chef: Just Desserts season opener; other Houstonchefs advance

Rebecca Masson
Courtesy photo
Vanarin Kuch
Amanda Rockman
Photo via Star Chefs

Welcome to Hollywood, Top Chefs. What's your dream? Everybody here got a dream ... of dessert domination.

The first episode of this season'sTop Chefs: Just Desserts started out fast, furious and over the top in true Hollywood style. Before everyone could even get their introductory video in, they were paired into teams of two and creating modern takes on soda shops desserts for the quickfire challenge.

But even if Bravo is too busy for bios, we aren't — at least not for the trio of competitors with Houston ties.

Houston's highest profile pastry chef (both on and off the show) is Rebecca Masson of Fluff Bake Bar, and whose bubbly, sarcastic personality was all over the premiere episode. Masson makes for some great television, whether she's adding a dramatic "duh-duh-DUNH" to describe the surprise quickfire, musing about the dessert possibilities of children being baked alive or just running her mouth.

Then there's Vanerin Kuch, pastry chef at Tiny Boxwood's and one of two 2011 StarChefs.com Rising Stars in pastry from Houston. Kuch doesn't have much screen time yet, except from the standard fawning over how beautiful host and judge Gail Simmons is — I wonder if that's in her contract.

One Houstonian that not everyone might be familiar with is Amanda Rockman, who works at Chicago's The Bristol but hails from Katy originally. Amanda From Katy (as I'll call her) looks all sweetness and innocence, but after I saw her sleeve tattoo and the way she bossed around the boys, I'm happy to claim her as a Texas girl.

Back to the quickfire: It's about "taking the soda fountain treat to the next level." Lots of people grab bananas, but Rebecca and partner Carlos rank in head judge Johnny Iuzzini's top two teams with a cute milkshake of white chocolate chip ice cream, bananas, malted milk and Captain Crunch cereal.

Vanerin skates under the radar with a micro cake of malt with shattered banana carpaccio with "runt sauce." However Amanda From Katy and her partner Nelson win immunity with a chocolate sponge cake and AFK's signature pickled cherries plus whipped cream and pistachios.

For the elimination challenge, competitors are split into four teams which each made two desserts and a showpiece based around fairy tales. Rebecca ends up on Team Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Nelson, Sally and Orlando, who seems poised to take on the villain role and quickly exchanges words with Rebecca over whether their "porridge" dessert should be made with rice pudding or steel cut oats. Rebecca's porridge-inspired dessert has a cherry sorbet (too cold) chile rainier cherries (too hot) and a oat-based porridge that's just right. It's served with bear food, a soft almond sponge cake bar with roasted almonds, fruits of the forest and honey ice cream.

Amanda From Katy chooses to work with Carlos, Chris and Matthew on Team Little Red Riding Hood, where everyone seems competent, together and ready to go. Snooze. They make a rose-scented bomboloni with coconut tapioca and red berry gelée, as well as a blackout sponge cake cocoa nougatine cherries and micro basil.

Vanerin gets stuck on Team Hansel and Gretel with stubborn, unrefined Lina (who hails from Fort Worth and is executive pastry chef for Stephan Pyles) and bitchy, unhelpful Melissa. Between the cake showpiece and the clashing egos, the only thing that could save them was walking disaster Craig on Team Jack and the Beanstalk, who I'm pretty sure I could take at a baking contest.

The guests arrive, and though Orlando describes it as like being in a fairy tale, it looks more like being at your weird cousin's wedding or a formal Renaissance Festival. At judges' table, Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks teams are predictably on top, but for the second time in the episode Rebecca and her team take second place to Amanda From Katy's team.

The judges hate the ugly non-gingerbread-house from Team Hansel and Gretel, and they don't care much more for Vanerin's non-foresty butterscotch brioche with smoked pineapple.

While Team Jack and the Beanstock get knocked for a sloppy showpiece and unbalanced flavors in the desserts, Craig's teammates manage to pick up after his total incompetence, and in the end it is Lina who is sent packing after Melissa throws her under the bus, runs over her, and then backs up to make sure she is dead.

Do you think Craig should have been the first to go, or are you just glad that Lina isn't on television representing Texas anymore? What do you think of Amanda From Katy? And are Rebecca Masson's confessionals just great or the greatest confessionals ever?

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he finished the job

Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

Photo by David Moir/Bravo

Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

“Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

[ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

Photo by David Moir/Bravo

Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

chefs interview q&a top chef tristen epps