THIS SAN FRANCISCO CHEF WASN’T WRONG TO SPEND ALL THAT MONEY ON THE LATEST ‘TOP CHEF’
As Top Chef season 21 rages on things have escalated as any good reality show should. Superstar San Francisco chef Dominique Crenn guest judged the fourth episode, and the remaining cooks entered the fifth episode — which aired on Wednesday, April 17 — as the last 10 contestants standing. And with the stakes getting higher each week, it made sense for one San Francisco chef to choose to put herself front and center, despite it being a team challenge.
It could be argued that Laura Ozyilmaz, co-owner of James Beard award-recognized Dalida, sabotaged her team in the most recent episode. In the elimination challenge, the chefs split into green and purple teams, each getting $1,000 to prepare an upscale supper club-themed menu. Ozyilmaz proceeded to spend a lion’s share of the budget on her own dish. While her team lost the challenge, and New Orleans’s Charly Pierre went home for serving over-cooked fish, Ozylimaz made the right choice by playing the game for what it is: a competition. She may have put a target on her back, especially from chefs Manny Barella Lopez and Danny Garcia who ended up sharing vegetables due to the tight budget. But her ability to protect her place on the roster is just what she should be doing as the game heats up.
The producers know it too: Earlier in the episode, they showed Ozyilmaz talking about being 15 and 16 years old and working, having a car, and paying bills for her and her sister. “It helped me become the person I am right now,” she said. “It helped me step up. I don’t want to regret not working hard.”
Still, most of the episode was uneventful for the remaining San Francisco cooks. The quickfire challenge was an homage to chef Carson Gulley who worked the kitchen for decades at the University of Wisconsin Madison. He was also the first Black cook to host a cooking show, alongside his wife, in the 1950s. The challenge was to take a page from his book — literally — and make a sauce paired with random ingredients contestants picked in advance.
Ozyilmaz made a fattoush salad with Tabasco to complement an herb sauce, which guest judge W. Kamau Bell said had a kick. Fellow San Francisco chef Rasika Venkatesa pulled a Spanish sauce, creating a tomato-based Moroccan stew to accompany it with jalapeno popcorn on top. James Beard Award-winning chef Tory Miller says Ozyilmaz’s herb sauce was a high watermark for the group, celebrating the balance of the market ingredients and the sauce itself. It was Pierre who won the $7,500, though, before he was sent home later.
The supper club, a Wisconsin tradition, inspired the episode’s second challenge — during which Ozyilmaz made her controversial move. She tackled a four leches cake inspired by an Old Fashioned with extra chocolate on the side. The ingredient list at the grocery store becomes an issue for the team’s budget, with Garcia growing resentful as he gets the short end of the stick. On the other hand, Venkatesa, protected by her immunity thanks to winning last week’s challenge, takes a hit so her teammates can get what they need. That checks out, given the show’s mechanics, but it would’ve been too risky for Ozyilmaz to compromise her vision and risk elimination.
Upon presentation, the judges found the San Francisco chefs’ dishes somewhat middle-of-the-road-ish. A guest pastry chef judge said Ozyilmaz’s cake was too soggy and sweet, Colicchio noting the ingredients didn’t complement each other well. Venkatesa’s fish was received as “lively” by Colicchio, but the judges found it too salty, with the green sauce only adding to that salinity. No matter as Venkatesa’s team, the purple team, takes the favorite.
Upon review, the judges scolded Ozyilmaz for her budget splurge, as Garcia and Barella Lopez ran out of vegetables, saying she should’ve been more considerate. Importantly, though, they praise her dish amongst the group’s, though Amanda Turner from Austin’s take on hot chicken katsu was the favorite. “As much as Laura’s was overly sweet, I would’ve eaten it,” Kish said as the judges reflected on who to send home. Colicchio and guest judges from the Harvey House agree the flavors of the cocktail-inspired fare were pleasant, as well, if not executed to perfection. Ozyilmaz proves, to the viewers at home at least, that she’s a determined, dogged chef who wants to make the finest food she can. “Every single thing you do we’re going to pick apart,” Colicchio says. “At the end of this there’s only one person left. You gotta make sure it’s you.”