Top Chef 12/27/18--"Surprise...It's Restaurant Wars" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: everyone pretended it's Christmas, when we all know it's the middle of the summer. There was a random Quickfire that involved trading ingredients, and also not being able to change your ingredients so being stuck with whatever. David used leeks as pasta and won that. Then the producers also pretended that everyone could have the night off and have Tom and Graham cook Christmas dinner. Then Eric Ripert showed up. Then they were told to make dessert for the Elimination challenge. Brian didn't bring a dessert recipe because he is not genre savvy, or he's an idiot. Nini has some pastry experience that she'd been hiding, and she won. Brian did end up on the bottom, but in the end Kevin was sent home for salty cherries, and also for knowing they were salty and serving them anyway. (click for more)
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Top Chef 12/20/18--"Naughty and Nice" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire asked chefs to come up with meals to satisfy Gail's pregnancy cravings. Then the top two meals were packaged up so they could take them to Gail to make at her apartment. Smells suspiciously like a meal kit. David won immunity from that, although they didn't tell them until after the Elimination challenge. Then the contestants went to Maker's Mark to have a Kentucky feast and then get into two teams to “reinterpret” those classic dishes. Of course, one team did a great job and one team failed, but at least the one chef actually from Kentucky was on the winning team (although she didn't actually win). Nini won by making spoonbread with etouffee. Eddie had to buy rack of lamb instead of lamb loin, which caused him to go way over budget. Then his team got thrown off, although the main complaints didn't all have to do with lacking ingredients. Natalie's lemon curd didn't taste lemony enough, so that's something that could have been solved with more money, but her crust also was raw, which couldn't be blamed on anyone else. So Natalie went from first to worst and was eliminated.(click for more)

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Top Chef 12/14/18--"Bourbon, Barrels, and Burgoo" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: 15 chefs went to Kentucky to try to win all the usual prizes from Bravo. The Quickfire at Churchill Downs had teams and not using knives after two minutes. The winners got tickets to the Derby, which is a nice prize actually. The Elimination Challenge made the teams compete against themselves at the usual “make small plates and stand at stations while random people walk around and try to be on TV” event. Brandon was sort of a villain, but compared to the master list of Top Chef villains like Ilan and John Tesar and so forth, he's basically harmless. Natalie won, with a ceviche/Vietnamese flavors mashup. Caitlin tried to make tomato cobbler with a biscuit top, which sounds amazing, but ended up soggy. (click for more)

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Top Chef 12/6/18--"The Fastest Two Minutes in Cooking" summary

I'm not sure why we're in Kentucky, but there you go. New season, new gimmicks. I don't mind this gimmick, though, which is that the “veterans” that are returning are starting out in Last Chance Kitchen. Brother Luck and Carrie from Colorado, and Jim from Charleston. I don't mind any of them, honestly, so that's a good sign. (click for more)

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