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Eric Ripert

Survivor Mode

Eric Ripert praises the cheftestants use of strategy, and tells us the right way to unshell a conch.

Mar 17, 2011

The way to remove the conch from its shell is to make a hole by the top of the shell where it's very pointy. You make a little hole there, and then with a screwdriver or a knife, you basically go inside, and the shell is attached with a nerve to the flesh. You just cut and then the conch comes out. It's very easy, and very simple.

And sometimes if you don't have the right instrument, you can even use one conch against another conch to break the shell. And then again, it's fairly easy to remove the flesh from the shell.

Conch in the shell in America is not easy to find.

It's almost impossible. Almost all the conch that we find, it's already clean and doesn't have any shell. And it's logical because if you have to pay for the weight of the shell it's so heavy, the conch will be very expensive. So it makes sense.

Tiffany makes conch ceviche, and then she's pouring on top basically a coconut soup. So she call that a conch chowder on top of a conch ceviche. And I'm afraid that the coconut that she used was sweet and not unsweetened, and that may have caused the disaster in her soup, which is the soup is too sweet. And on top of it she served the soup cold, it was supposed to be a hot soup. She doesn't have a winning dish here, and unfortunately we are sad to see Tiffany going home.

So Antonia does a red snapper that really looks like "Antonia Red Snapper." And she's criticized for having her own style. I have nothing against recognizing the style of someone. I think one of the criticisms is that the conch is cut too small, therefore you don't feel the texture of it, and conch has a beautiful texture, so it’s too bad. I think that makes her lose the challenge more than just having something that is really recognizable as Antonia style.

Antonia makes a lobster nage.

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Thank you, Chef Ripert, for illuminating the difficulties with using/opening the conch. I did not get that from any of the show. I also better appreciate Richard's dish.

Hey Eric, what does Antonia's Red Snapper look like.

Chef, I love hearing/reading your comments on the contestants and the dishes. I also love when you appear on the show, because you're very fair and impartial. I really hope you return as a regular judge, or even stay as head judge! Tom looks like he needs a break from TC...