'Extreme Chef' Recap: June 30

This week finds us with three new chefs willing to challenge their skills beyond all that’s holy in the culinary world.

Chef Leather Storrs of Noble Rot hailed from Portland, Oregon. Chef Kristi Ritchey appeared courtesy of Greeleaf Chopshop in Beverly Hills and rounding out the powerhouse trio was Sydney Hunter of Bastide in
Los Angeles. Chef Hunter seemed an early favorite: He admitted that he has no sous chef because he likes to run everything himself. Hmmmm…

Marsh warned them they were about to face the most intense, grueling day of their lives, something they couldn’t have imagined. With $10,000 at stake, they began by making a plate from every good chef’s worst nightmare – canned goods.

Hundreds of cans were stacked in a pick-up truck but the winner would earn an advantage in the next challenge. Using only plastic spoons, forks and knives and now knowing what was in the cans (the labels had been removed) the chefs used wagons, baby strollers and a shopping cart to retrieve the cans and retreat back to the cooking area.

Chef Ritchey got a cart that kept allowing the cans to spill out. She hoped to retrieve small cans in the hopes they would contain protein – she got veggie soup and hominy. Her saving grace was spicy as she added jalapeno winding up with spicy hominy stew with marinated sardines.

Chef Storrs got soup and mystery meat and channeled his inner MacGyver using the top of a tin foil box to cut meat (that looked like SPAM).
his dish was creamed corn with ham steaks, a sort-of southwestern chipotle ham concoction.

Chef Hunter, who got hominy and sardines and French onion soup, went French with a sardine cassoulet. (He has two French flattops and 12 burners in his restaurant, so to say he was out of his element was putting it mildly.) Chef Hunter added raspberries to his dish to cut saltiness of his canned goods.

It must suck to be a judge on the first challenge because they always seem to cook something nasty. Food critic and author Simon Majumdar judged the chefs to the same standards as he would if they had been cooking in their own restaurants.

For Chef Ritchey, who made the spicy hominy stew, the reviews were good – using the pickle and the heat were a smart way to counteracting the saltiness and sugar. Chef Leather got a mixed review for his ham dish – liked the creamed corn, didn’t enjoy it but said it wasn’t a bad effort. For Chef Hunter, sadly Judge Majumdar said he would have rather eaten a can of worms. In the first challenge, Chef Ritchey got the highest marks.

Moving on to the next challenge, the chefs were tasked with cooking for a block party. Chef Ritchey was able to choose her grill and got to assign the other grills to her opponents. She saddled Chef Storrs with a tiny hibachi while she chose the best grill. They then had 90 minutes to dash from house to house, begging people to allow them to ransack their kitchens for whatever was available in the pantries.

Chef Ritchey immediately went for the butter in every home she visited. Chef Hunter found salmon and bell peppers for a salmon and sauce. Chef Storrs got short ribs as his protein which meant he would have to cook in batches on the small hibachi grill Chef Ritchey assigned.

Chef Hunter began planning his salmon which doesn’t take long to cook – his strategy was to put a French spin on it. His decision? Salmon with pickled veggies and honey to balance it out. Onions flew as Chef Ritchey decided to make quinoa hash brown with a pork patty on top. She put some celery through a garlic press for the first time as she endeavored to struggle through the challenge.

As the chefs rolled along, something else rolled in. In the X-Factor challenge, they had to cook an appetizer on the engine blocks of a vehicle. They could have grabbed the flank steak, shrimp or pork sausage along with any for the ingredients they found in the tool box.

Chef Storrs selected flank steak and decided to do a salad using yogurt to help speed things along. Chef Hunter took the shrimp, added garlic with white vinegar and olive oil and chili powder on top. His goal was to put the shrimp in the right temperature to cook it evenly.

Chef Ritchey had no idea how hot a car engine could be until she went to put her pork sausage on it to cook. She added potatoes, purple artichokes, butter, mushrooms and fresh herbs to her protein.

Just when things couldn’t get any worse, the chefs had to contend with a torrential downpour. Chef Ritchey went to a garage to get an umbrella, slipping and falling on the concrete floor of the garage almost as soon as she entered it. But later, she cleverly added bread crumbs to her dishes to soak up the water she couldn’t extract.

Somehow, they finished the challenge. Chef Hunter felt his shrimp was perfectly cooked. Chef Ritchey gained praise for her pork burger and quinoa hash. She didn’t provide an appetizer because her pork sausage didn’t cook in time. Chef Storrs presented his yogurt marinated flank steak salad – but the steak was raw. His engine appetizer of short ribs wasn’t well received for the chewy texture one of the judges didn’t like. Chef Hunter presented his shrimp and tomato basil salad – but he didn’t devein the prawn which put the judges off. They could also taste lighter fluid on his salmon – and one of the judges (who happened to be bald) found a hair in his entrée. (Euw!) The other judge, caterer Candace Kumai, agreed with his review.

At the end of the challenge, judges sent Chef Hunter home. And despite Chef Ritchey’s loss of points for not delivering an appetizer, she and Chef Storrs were victorious, leaving the two of them in the Showdown Challenge.

The chefs began making their one bite of food – a single bite worth $10,000. The ingredients were composed of that which you would find in a child’s lunchbox – leaving many fans longing for caviar, crème fresh, champagne – anything true foodies dream about. In this episode, however, it was not to be had. Kiddie food, canned food, and the wafting scent of engine oil were the ingredients du jour. Using beef jerky, ham sandwich, raisins, carrots and string cheese they had to create a delicious one bite.

But wait, there’s more! The chefs were only allows to use a manicure kit to cook the $10,000 bites. Both chefs rushed to the pantry for supplemental ingredients. Chef Storrs came to the table with a North African inspired sweet and sour chutney. Chef Ritchey opted for a grilled ham and cheese salad with a beef jerky vinaigrette. She made croutons from the bread.

Chef Storrs had a strategy to put the string cheese in a spoon to cover with his warm chutney, but when his cheese went flying, he had to start over. But when the showdown was complete, Marsh delivered the news that he was $10,000 richer. Stay tuned next week when three more chefs throw their aprons in the ring to become the next Extreme Chef!