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Top Chef Recap: Tucson Time

Season 19 Episode 13 Editor’s Rating4 stars ****

Photo: Bravo

In the culmination of this strong season, our top four chefs have landed in Tucson for the final challenges. After a two-week break to study up on the culture and traditions of Tucson, they’re focused and ready to push through the few remaining obstacles — and competitors — standing in their way of victory. Buddha, Evelyn, Sarah, and Demarr all believe they have what it takes to be named Top Chef, but only one will leave Arizona with the title and the accolades that come along with it.

For the final Quickfire, the four chefs rock up to El Charro Café, the country’s oldest Mexican restaurant run continuously by one family. Carlotta Flores, owner of El Charro and one of this week’s guest judges, is a living legend in Tucson and the perfect person to kick off the final festivities. Established in 1922, El Charro is a historic restaurant that still focuses on traditional preparations of Mexican foods. Their staple, carne seca, is the featured ingredient in the Quickfire today. Hanging high above their heads is a cage filled with about 300 pounds of meat. It dries in the hot Arizona sun, dangling above the restaurant, and is then reconstituted into various dishes.

Evelyn is the only chef who has worked with this ingredient before. It’s both an advantage and a disadvantage for her, as all of the Mexican-inspired challenges this season have been. The other chefs may be at a creative advantage because they’ve never seen the product used before, while Evelyn has an ingrained idea she’ll have to tease into something more interesting. But while she feels this pressure to perform above the others, she’s excited to work with something so reminiscent of her family’s traditional foods. “I’m trying to make not what I was raised on.”

Growing up in Michigan, Sarah is no stranger to dried meat. Typically working with venison, she knows how to use the texture and umami flavor of jerky to elevate her dish. Pulling mushrooms, berries, and an egg into her carne seca gravy, she’s attempting to meld Michigan and Tucson. Sarah is increasingly focused and ready to push herself to prove she deserves to be here, but that’s perfectly clear to everyone eating her food and everyone watching from home, too. Her impressive run on LCK has led her to the finals, and she’s more than earned her right to be there. Both Evelyn and Sarah are praised for their carne seca dishes, with Sarah winning the final Quickfire and a 30-minute advantage in the next challenge.

Buddha and Damarr both struggle a little with this challenge. While Buddha’s components are pleasing to Carlotta, he misses the mark with his tostada. He’s confident in the way Buddha is always confident and attempts a whimsical plating with his upside-down tostada, but it was greasy and didn’t eat well altogether. Damarr, on the other hand, seems extremely nervous. He had a great few episodes in the middle of the season, but nerves have severely impacted Damarr’s last few meals. He’s in his head, unable to let go and allow his creativity to lead his cooking. Damarr’s grilled avocado topped with his carne seca vinaigrette dish lacks any interesting texture.

Heading into the last Elimination Challenge of the season, the chefs meet with Top Chef: Portland contestant and Tucson resident Maria Mazon. She takes them to the gorgeous Mission Garden, a living agricultural museum in Tucson. The garden is home to tons of fruits, veggies, cacti, and other crops native to the Sonoran Desert. The chefs will create two dishes for the challenge, each featuring a key Tucson ingredient. One dish will center on the United States’ only native pepper, the chiltepin, while the other will focus on cacti. This type of challenge is the pinnacle of a Top Chef finale. Every season, the final chefs travel to a new destination and are forced to be creative with cuisines they may not have a lot of experience with. It’s a way to show creativity and the ability and desire to learn. The highlights of this season have been the niche cultural challenges, and this is the perfect way to wrap it all up. I know I had no idea just how rich the culture was here in Arizona, and I’m sure there are other Top Chef fanatics who are now adding Tucson to their mental list of foodie-friendly cities.

Buddha and Sarah present first, and the table is almost completely silent. Content and eatin’ good, the judges are blown away by both of these dishes. Kristen Kish joins Carlotta Flores as a second guest judge and mentions that while she typically is not a fan of lamb, Sarah’s lamb and chiltepin dish is damn near perfect. Jesús García, a conservationist who works with Mission Garden, raves about Sarah’s use of the native grapes. Both chefs have honored the ingredients well and put out amazing food. But while Buddha and Sarah both receive a ton of praise for their second dishes as well, it’s Evelyn who claims the final victory. Her chiltepin and nopales relleno is spicy and balanced, and her dessert is a beautifully plated curd and meringue. She knows how to work with the ingredients the chefs were required to use, but she doesn’t rely on this past experience. Evelyn is a master at elevating her cuisine to the next level and is consistently awarded for it.

The chefs have a lot to balance with two dishes and unfortunately for Damarr, it’s just too much. He rushes through his first meal, putting out a plate that isn’t exactly what he hoped for. Even though his second plate — a gorgeous cactus-infused cake — is highly regarded, he still falls short in the final moments of the competition. With the exception of Ashleigh’s elimination, everyone who has been sent home in the last few episodes has made minute errors, tiny missteps that cost them everything. Damarr is no different. I feel like we’ve watched Damarr come out of his shell and learn a lot this season, and while it’s a shame he won’t be able to cook his final meal, the three finalists are all so worthy of the opportunity. Buddha, Sarah, and Evelyn have all been forces to reckon with for the entire season, all in such different ways. These are three unique chefs and they each represent such different cuisines. Between Buddha’s upscale cooking, Sarah’s out-of-the-box midwestern fusion, and Evelyn’s traditional and delicious Mexican fare, anyone could pull out the victory. And I think we’re just lucky to watch it happen.

Musings From the Stew Room

• There’s something to be said about how proud Tom is of everyone this season. He’s always been the patriarch of Top Chef, and this season he just feels particularly fatherly. Clearly, he has a special affinity for Sarah, but the look on his face when Damarr’s cake came out is so sweet. “Oh, Damarr crushed it,” he says, just looking at the plate. Although he plays a part in crushing their dreams when the chefs are eliminated, these are his prodigies and he just wants them to succeed.

• Kristen Kish, the first chef to win Last Chance Kitchen and then go on to win her season, praising Sarah seems like a great omen that Sarah might just take her “win sandwich” all the way to the bank.

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