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)

On Last Chance Kitchen, Tom told everyone to make Christmas breakfast and include the product placement ranch dressing. Natalie made a perfect omelette and won. Brother Luck survived, as did Kevin. Carrie put too many things on her plate, which is how most people actually have Christmas breakfast, but she ended up eliminated.


Hello to anyone who's here from the new subreddit! Sorry this is a couple of days late, but I'm out of town. This week I'm hoping to be on time. But welcome!


Everyone goes into the Stew Room to recap the last episode. Nini is pretty confident since she's won twice now. Brian pretends to be sorry Kevin left instead of him. I'm sure he's not gleeful, but come on. Brian decides to make things he's good at, and not try new things.


In the morning, the chyron tells us it's 8:33AM for some reason. Kelsey has abandoned her biscuits? They keep calling her and she hasn't responded so they take out her biscuits but they aren't done? I'm not sure what is happening, except to show that some contestants do not want to cross Kelsey. Also that they can't tell if biscuits are cooked, which, I could tell they needed a couple more minutes.


Padma greets the contestants with Karen from the California season and Nina from New Orleans. Nina! I wanted her to win so badly. Karen I actually did not remember and had to look up. She was the one who did Asian food, and they did that challenge where they got a country and an historical time period and she was so mad she didn't get China that when she got Japan she made Chinese food anyway and claimed that Japan stole noodles from China. I may have confused the two countries but you get the idea. Anyway, Nina. These two are the guest judges. They give some advice and then Padma tells everyone to make an amuse bouche for the Quickfire. They can plate in a Chinese soup spoon, a ramekin, or a small plate. Winner gets immunity.


30 minutes. Oh, the "choice of plating" means you have to hope you reach the table first to get what you want. Kelsey hates Quickfires and David loves them. He's making raviolis. Michelle appears out of nowhere to make watermelon. She's thinking about how she drinks salsa water? I still feel like she just appears randomly because the producers want us to remember she exists. Brian changes his plans, now that he's given Michelle half his watermelon and she stole his idea. Kelsey thinks shrimp and grits. Eric is making something he made to court his wife. Adrienne (who TOTALLY does look like Jonathan Brandis, thanks Reddit) makes lamb tartare. Brandon claims he thought of chowder, except he admits in confessional that he wanted to make a crepe but got stuck with a ramekin. He's putting a bunch of onions in there. Kelsey doesn't have time to put all the flavor she wanted. David's raviolis are failing and he might not make it. Adrienne rolls bell pepper around her tartare and realizes they're bigger than she wants. Much more frantic working than usual.


Brian: grilled watermelon, mozzarella, prosciutto with white shoyu and lime vinaigrette. Adrienne: lamb tartare with bell pepper, harissa oil and watermelon salad. Eric: curry corn bisque, pancetta, chive and mint gremolata with caviar. Eddie: steak tartare with eggs stracciatella, Oestra caviar and crispy potato. Stracciatella is a type of soup that sounds like egg drop soup. These people all had soup spoons to serve in, which I think is the easiest serving dish if you're going to make people have actual amuse bouche sizes. They usually care about that kind of thing. But your food won't fit well in the spoon if it's too big to be an amuse.


Small plates are next. Kelsey: shrimp and grits hush puppy with tomato puree. Nini: aguachile with yuzu, dragon fruit and dried avocado. Aguachile sounds like shrimp ceviche. David: Brussels sprout and apple raviolini with harissa butter. Justin: fried chicken with apple, fennel, radish and chive in champagne vinaigrette with chili.


Ramekins, which on first glance all look too big to be an amuse bouche. Sara: pickled shrimp with sunchokes two ways and fresh cherries. Pablo: grilled corn, miso aioli, cayenne pickled radishes and shaved truffle. Brandon: bay scallop chowder with pea broth, potatoes, leeks and parmesean. Michelle: halibut ceviche with compressed watermelon and salsa water.


Adrienne didn't cook or skin her bell pepper and it was underseasoned. David's pasta failed, as he knew, and Kelsey's hush puppy was too big and dry. Brandon's chowder was good, even if I've never seen chowder with peas. Eric's flavors were balanced, and Michelle's dish respected the vegetables. The winner is Michelle. Is she too low-drama to get screen time or what? The first episode she had maybe two lines and she hasn't had many more.


Guest judge for Elimination is Caroline Styne, who has won a James Beard award. Anyway it's time for Restaurant Wars! Ha! You know, this is good because everyone knows when to expect that episode already. Change it up. Rather than have six person teams, they'll have three teams so they can keep it to four people on a team. The teams will be based on what kind of serving vessel you got for the Quickfire. Orange team will be Adrienne, Brian, Eddie, and Eric. They could do OK. Blue team is David, Justin, Kelsey, and Nini. Gray team is Brandon, Michelle, Pablo, and Sara. I think this team might have the most trouble, in addition to the fact that Michelle has immunity. Sara points out that Nini and Kelsey have pastry experience. Kelsey brags that her team is full of winners and none of them have been on the bottom. I changed my mind, Blue team may crash and burn. Two days to open their restaurant. 30 minutes to plan today, and then head to Lexington to "design" décor. Then 6 hours to prep a three course menu. Two options for each course. 100 guests.


Adrienne has expedited in three restaurants so she's pretty confident. Her team quickly decides on "Upper East Coast". Sara wants to do vegetable forward, but she's very quick to reassure her team she's not talking vegetarian. I'd love for someone to do a vegetarian restaurant for Restaurant Wars. Michelle interrupts to say they need a name, executive chef, and front of house. Sara volunteers for FOH, as Pablo interviews that Sara is very bossy. I think she just knows how to make herself heard. They decide on Thistle for their name. Michelle then volunteers to be executive chef, because she has immunity and she knows the executive chef often takes all the heat and goes home. Brandon's fine with it as long as she can be louder. Heh. We were all thinking it. Blue team is going seafood and Southern. They go with Third Coast for a name. East Coast, West Coast, Gulf Coast. Actually I really like that name. Justin takes executive chef, and Nini takes FOH. She's had experience in both FOH and doing pop-up dinners. She thinks she can stay calm. Orange team is now North East, and Eric tries to make Eddie executive chef, but then Eddie says Adrienne should do it. I'm not sure why but she doesn't care. Then everyone agrees that Brian is the best FOH. I...guess? I don't see him having charisma but then again, I don't see him as being a jerk so maybe it'll work.


In the car on the way to the place, Kelsey brags that they have the best team, while David tells a story about how he tried to open a restaurant but his partner stole all the money. They also think Pablo is too stubborn and should listen to Brandon. In that car, that's what's happening. Pablo has an idea, but Brandon tells him to do something else. But it's Pablo's dish, shouldn't he do what he wants? I guess I've seen this exact scenario play out and when the chef says they went along for the good of the group, then they got penalized for not staying true to their vision. Brian wants to sous vide something, and he promises he can execute it even if he's going to be out of the kitchen doing FOH.


The restaurant pace is basically a warehouse with false walls and the usual janky kitchen set up. Everyone meets with the designers, which is as boring as usual except that Sara asks the designers if they know what a thistle looks like which is hilarious to me. No one ever cares about the décor, unless you use scented candles. Sara interviews that she has a degree in psychology, but she hated it and asked her grandfather for money for culinary school. These design ideas are huge, so we'll see. I mean working with designers is a step up from making them go to Pier One and try to decorate themselves. Next step is to hire actual FOH.


Shopping is one hour and $3500 per team. Eddie is having PTSD from the last team challenge. Adrienne lets us know that they have 3 hours to serve everyone, so their plan is to make dishes that have a lot of prep, but can be completed quickly for service. We also get some partial menus. North East has Brian doing a chicken ballotine (a roulade) and Eddie is making striped bass crudo for appetizers. Mains are Eddie again on NY strip with cabbage and cauliflower, and Eric on scallop, pork, couscous and carrot. Third course is all Adrienne: Madeira poached pears, and Harbison cheese with fennel and blackberry. Harbison is a brand name. I'm a little worried about one person doing both dishes in a course, because that's how people end up in the weeds. But she seems to be aware of timing. As far as I can tell Kelsey tells Justin to get cheese for them to eat.


Back at the house there is planning from some teams, and champagne and caviar from the Blue team. They're all sitting in the hot tub lounging. I'm kind of hoping this is foreshadowing for when they fail spectacularly. To be fair they are making sure to talk about making sure FOH is taken care of. But overall they think everything will be no problem. Eric tries to get Adrienne to do an appetizer, but she refuses. If she's executive chef, she needs to do two dishes that are the same course, and that's dessert and a cheese course. Why are we having this conversation now? After the shopping is over? She promises to help everyone else with their course. Maybe they did some editing trickery and this is before shopping? Because you've already decided a menu and shopped. You can't decide now that Adrienne should do an appetizer and not a dessert. She's also executive chef, so I think she's planning to be involved in that, and then when it's dessert time everyone else will be done with their dishes and can help her with dessert.

In the morning everyone is planning. Brian wrote a service manual. It's pretty anal but that's probably going to help? He interviews that he took a lot of drugs in high school and after he got clean he put it into cooking. I know we've had good FOH people before but no one made a manual, so maybe they'll be OK.


There's some time lapse of construction but no one cares about that. Michelle promises that she has a softer voice but still has authority. We also see the Thistle menu. First course is Sara on green tomato gazpacho, and Michelle on sweet pea agnolotti. Pablo is doing both mains, scallops with sunchoke and apple, and short ribs with artichoke and asparagus. That's a terrible idea unless he's going to pass one of those off onto someone else. When one person does all of a course you get really behind. Brandon is doing both desserts: soy milk custard with strawberries, and goat cream roulade with blueberries. Who decided the labor split here? This looks like a terrible idea. Eddie doesn't want anyone to have to cover his dishes. Brian claims his chicken dish is the culmination of his entire career. Sure. Third Coast also reveals their menu. First course is Justin on crawfish bisque, and the team on chargrilled oysters. Sure hope "the team" doesn't all assume someone else is watching the oysters and ruin them. Mains are David on Creole spiced duck and cabbage, and David and Justin on red snapper Pontchartrain. Kelsey's dessert is a buttermilk biscuit with panna cotta, and "chocolate" from Nini. This involves a sorbet, and also using liquid nitrogen right before service and hoping she doesn't run out. Also why is Kelsey not doing executive chef, or FOH, but still only making one thing?


There is now some time for the designers to talk about what they're doing, which I seriously don't care about. It'll be done or not. Brian is annoyed because he wants to make a seating chart but the room isn't set up yet. We're halfway through and there's plenty of work happening. Brandon thinks Pablo is behind and they'll be screwed. David brags that they've been perfect. Staff arrives, and Sara explains the menu and how to write the tickets. Nini also greets the staff, and then says she can't do anything until they have tables so polish the silverware. Adrienne goes out to greet their servers instead of Brian, because Brian is still making ballotines. Adrienne says that's where he needs to be, basically letting him know he's behind and she's covering for him. She gives the servers the service manual, and then tells them to read aloud to each other while she goes to do stuff.


Tom Time! Michelle explains she wanted executive chef and she also says a bunch of stuff about the team. I like this attitude. Tom seems surprised that Nini is front of house. They cut her answers to make it seem like she has no idea how to do FOH, which is possible I guess, but is also suspicious. I mean, "what's your FOH philosophy" "make sure everyone gets their food on time" obviously. Tom also wants to know why Brian is FOH, as if Tom can't imagine a worse idea. They imply that he's abandoned his servers, which he kind of has since he's behind.


Two hours left. North East really is reading their manual aloud. Brian finishes and claims he's done cooking. He is pretty on top of things once he gets out there to set up a place setting. Pablo's short ribs are not as good as his first batch. Michelle is still making pasta with 39 minutes to go. Pablo hasn't had time to make a composed plate and taste it. Nini has to have her servers move chairs and stuff. Justin is pissed she hasn't finished her dessert, so he tells her to spin ice cream. Even though she said she was going to spin it right before service, because they don't have room in the freezer, she says she'll spin some right now. Kelsey has to go over the menu with the servers. They don't know what they're doing, or their section, or service rules. Justin gets pissed. Eric tries to get Eddie to do something for him but Adrienne catches it and makes him do it himself. Kelsey is doing Nini's job, and Justin basically tells her to let Nini do it because she needs to get to work. So...she does? She just abandons them to go back to cooking? Brian is worried that they didn't go over the service manual, but his servers know where their sections are and I think they're the most prepared. Oh and then Tom rolls in and says it's a double elimination so good luck! To Be Continued.


Next time: a lot of stress and yelling at servers, Padma finds a pit, Justin continues to freak out, plenty of drama.


Last Chance Kitchen: So we're going to get rid of someone this week, so we can get down to two people, and then go right back up to three after the double elimination. Kevin knows no one is coming, but it's still time for something to do. Time to work together? One person will peel and devein one pound of shrimp, one of them will shuck two dozen oysters, and one will break down a whole fish. Then they'll each have to cook a dish with one of those proteins. They can't start until all the prep is done. 


25 minutes. Kevin takes shrimp and Natalie takes oysters, so Brother Luck gets stuck with fish. He's pissed he has to scale it. No one wants to be last. The peanut gallery cheers. Natalie used to work at an oyster bar, but she also thinks she only has to do one dozen. Tom taunts them that Brother Luck is wasting time because he only needs five minutes to cook anything. Natalie and Kevin finish, and Brother Luck takes so long they only have like 10 minutes to make anything. Everyone is giggling because everyone is convinced he did it on purpose. Heh. 


Natalie and Kevin get going but Brother Luck blanks and just kind of stands there. Kevin makes a beer batter for frying oysters, and then chugs the beer. Nice. Natalie is poaching shrimp. Brother Luck is cooking fish, but so far that's all he has. He decides on kiwi and arugula salad. Kevin's batter is too thick for what he wants, so he's making a dipping sauce that he hopes will cover up the batter problems. Brother Luck is freaking out.


Brother Luck: sea bass with arugula, orange and ginger salad. Kevin: beer battered oysters with shoyu ponzu sauce. Natalie: poached shrimp with corn and tomato. Tom calls out Brother Luck for wasting time prepping. He admits he did it on purpose. No one really did a great job with their dishes. Natalie's shrimp was OK but underseasoned and her tomatoes were watery. Kevin's batter didn't cook properly, and he didn't have enough sauce because he just drizzled it instead of having it for dipping. Brother Luck's fish wasn't cooked perfectly and his salad was kind of boring. Kevin is eliminated. He's going to reinvest in himself. Brother Luck promises he'll never play those games again. He's so relieved.