Last week's Top Chef Masters really could have been anyone's game. As the chefs cooked on the challenging Teppanyaki grill, some things came together while other things fell apart. Sadly, Mark Gaier was sent packing after his dish was deemed too simple and underseasoned by the critics.
I caught up with him after the elimination to talk about his experience on the show.
Hi Mark! So how difficult was this challenge for you?
Well, I’ve cooked on like surfaces like that before and I’ve been to enough restaurants where I’ve watched chefs do it, but of course they were very experienced unlike myself. So I had some idea about how it worked and we were given a tiny bit of information about how it works, but it was a challenge. I was not nervous as far as performing and talking to people because I like that, but nervous as far as just how am I going to cook on this thing and do what I wanted to do. I really wanted to do this very sort of clean and simple and what I felt would be very Japanese. I didn’t want to do a really complex dish. I think I could have if I had executed it right and if the ingredients that I had access to were better, but you know that’s what happens.
How confident were you during critics' table. Did you think you would be the one sent packing?
I wasn’t really sure. I thought maybe there was a strong chance because I know there were things like having a shaker of salt, stupid things we had forgotten to bring, which was the one thing that was said. "Well, none of you are seasoning or tasting your food" and we all sort of responded differently to that. My response was kind of just... I think I just avoided the question (laughs). I felt that I had a good chance of [going home] because I chose such a simple dish. When you do something simple, if everything isn’t prefect and the stars don't all aligned just right, you're dead in the water. And unfortunately, that’s what happened. I think I was rushing. I was afraid that the people behind me weren’t going to have enough time and so I should have gone a little more slowly and cooked the bok choy a little more fully, things like that. I could have done better, but you know that’s the whole thing, you’re under pressure, you’re doing things you’re never familiar with and it’s hard.
Did you go into the show with any kind of strategy?
My feelings before I went on to the show were [that] I was going to do the best I could, that I was going to be nice to people, that I was going to learn from other people, I was going to make new friends, and that whatever was going to happen, would happen. And that I would do the best I could and that the most important thing to me was to keep my dignity and not be overbearing, not be an asshole (laughs). You know, be true to myself and I feel like I did stick to that.
You definitely did! So I probably already know the answer to this, but who would you like to see win Top Chef Masters?
Who do I want to win? Well Clark, of course. That would be great to keep it in the family.
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