Top Chef 2/14/19--"The Greatest" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire involved bullion cubes. Sure. Eddie won, somehow, and as a prize he got immunity and didn't have to participate in the Elimination challenge. Which was to go to a basketball stadium and compete in teams. Sara and Adrienne both made chicken and waffles, and Sara bought boxed waffle mix. This was not looked on well by Tom and sundry, and caused the most drama we've seen all season. Eric and Justin took the opportunity to get the crowd to chant against Sara, and then couldn't read the room and kept making jokes in the Stew Room when it was clear Sara didn't think it was a joke. Sara was mad that they'd even bring it up, which is ridiculous because Tom already knew about it. Also you know she'd whip up the crowd if the situation was reversed. Anyway, Eric won by making chicken wing lollipops, but his whole team (him, Justin, and Adrienne) each won $5,000. While Sara rightfully got shit for using box waffle mix and having soggy waffles, Michelle had soggy ribs and pickles that needed more acidity (which...is the whole point of pickles) and so Michelle was eliminated. (click for more)

On Last Chance Kitchen, Michelle and David had to share the knife and make a game day dish. Each person gets the knife for 30 seconds at a time. But you can use as much product placement ranch dressing as you want. Ugh. Anyway, Michelle made a “ragu” that was then called “chili” for the rest of the episode, with fresh pasta and she won.

We're down to six. Sara actually apologizes for jumping on Adrienne earlier. She then immediately starts crying about how her grandpa brought her to games at this stadium and it's very emotional. Look, sure, this is emotional. But if it's the greatest moment in your life to stand on this floor, wouldn't you do your absolute best? Including not taking shortcuts when you know that's where you're headed? That's all I'm saying.

Eric gets a phone call home to talk to his pregnant wife and be cute about how much he misses her. The contestants find Padma by herself at first. She then says it's time for fried chicken. FINALLY. Art Smith comes out with a cart full of KFC. I don't eat KFC because there's a local dive down the street making much better fried chicken and I go there instead. The Quickfire challenge is to make your own blend of herbs and spices. However, first you have to identify them while blindfolded. There are 30 different herbs and spices. If you can identify it, you can use it. Winner gets $5,000 but not immunity.

Adrienne is up first. So the whole thing is timed also. Adrienne just guesses dried thyme for a bunch of things...until she gets to dried thyme and says oregano. Sigh. She didn't even get rosemary. In the end she only gets 6 things. Sara brags in confessional about how great her nose is, and she actually ends up with 12. Eric gets 7, and Justin gets 6 (he can't even get salt). Eddie just stands there saying nothing because Eddie, but he eventually gets 6. Kelsey is a beast and has 11.

30 minutes to cook. Justin is the only one to not get salt. Kelsey is making pickled peaches. Justin is making Japanese fried chicken, which is probably wise because he can put soy sauce on it and get some salt. Eddie is making his chicken in a cast iron skillet. Adrienne goes Moroccan. Sara claims she doesn't have the energy to hold grudges. Maybe. But from what I have seen of her on this show, I don't buy that. Adrienne's chicken is still raw. Justin is having the same problem. That's because deep frying doesn't work right. That's why KFC uses a pressure fryer and home cooks do what Eddie's done and use a skillet. Kelsey's chicken is raw too.

Eric: fried chicken sandwich, gochujang mayo, slaw cabbage with ginger and lime. Justin: Japanese fried chicken, tempura fried cabbage, white shoyu, tamari and rice wine vinegar. Eddie: double breaded chicken thigh, fried in duck fat with homemade sauce. Sara: fried chicken with corn and blackberry salad. Adrienne: fried chicken thighs breaded with turmeric sage, Moroccan orange salad. Kelsey: fried chicken thighs with pickled fennel peach slaw and remoulade sauce. Kelsey's portions always look stingy but in this case it's because so much of the chicken was raw.

Justin overcooked his chicken, and Kelsey only served a tiny portion. Eric's chicken was also “overfried”. Sara gets points for her salad, Eddie made a great sauce, and Adrienne's plate was very pretty. The winner is Sara. Sigh.

Padma talks about Muhammad Ali, and says they're going to celebrate his life through their food. Padma has a bunch of papers, each with one of his most notable fights. They must work together to make a progressive menu, even though they'll be judged individually. 100 people at a charity gala. 20 minutes to plan today, 3 hours to cook today and 2 hours tomorrow. Also for added pressure the guest judge is Muhammad's daughter Laila Ali.

Everyone reads their dossier first. Kelsey is last so she's planning bread pudding. Eric's got the Rumble in the Jungle and he's got some African ingredients and ideas. Sara suddenly interrupts everyone and says she doesn't want to get stuck with the first dish just because it's a fight that happened in Kentucky. Well, so how did everyone else end up with a fight they're interested in, and you ended up with Kentucky? Could it be because you've been harping on Kentucky this whole time? I mean, this declaration of “I don't want to get stuck with Kentucky” seems out of left field for how much she's been talking about being the hometown chef. Justin counters that HE'S been doing a lot of southern food so he's trying to do something different, and Sara doesn't seem to acknowledge him, saying she'll do dish #2 or #3, but not #1. Am I missing something? She's being weird compared to how she's been most of the season, right? Also demanding you be given the dish you want isn't being a team player. Kelsey declares that they'll have to draw straws, because Sara is being stubborn. Eddie is confused, I guess because he has one of those dishes, and then Justin says “You and Sara are drawing” as if he's not involved. I see you, Justin. No, sorry, Justin is also participating. Sara complains in confessional that everyone else is making what they want except for her, and then she says “Whatever”. Don't act like you're not pissed.

Sara ends up with the Kentucky dish anyway, because karma. But now she's pissy about it, even though she agreed to the random draw. But if she gets her way, then someone else doesn't get to do what they want, right? By her own logic? But clearly that's what she wants to happen, because she wants someone to say “Oh, Sara, you can trade with me”, even though clearly no one else wants to trade. See this is why I don't buy that she doesn't have “energy” to hold grudges and I believe she would have riled up the crowd last week if she could have. You can't boss everyone in the last team challenge about how fucking great you are at Kentucky cuisine, and then suddenly whine that you don't want to make Kentucky food and it's unfair.

Shopping time. Justin jokes that he used to beat up his brothers, does that count as boxing? Sara is buying seafood, and she interviews that she was upset at having the first course, but then she read about the match and it said something about how he was fast as lightning so now she's doing “thunder and lightning”. OK, no you didn't. You were supposed to read the descriptions of the fights before the planning, because that's what everyone else did. So either you read it then, got stuck with the Kentucky course, and then were forced to come up with an idea. OR, when everyone else was reading you were sulking at being stuck with Kentucky and didn't read about it until afterwards. She claims everyone gathers tomatoes and cucumbers before a storm. Eddie freaks out because he wants duck breast, but they don't have it, so he has to make chicken, so he tries to relate it to adapting and he's got Ali's first loss anyway. In the end he has extra money so he tells the cashier he'll buy some of his competitors' food.

3 hours. Sara is curing salmon with beet juice to represent the injuries from the fight. She announces to the room that she's excited because she knows all of her teammates are going to help her plate it. Shut up, Sara. No one responds. I wouldn't either. Kelsey makes bourbon and corn bread pudding out of croissants.

Tom Time. Eric is making fufu, which is cassava and plantain flour and water, pounded into a dough. It's one of those dishes that is cheap and is intended to take up space in your stomach so you don't eat as much meat, which is more expensive. Adrienne doesn't know that much about Filipino food, but she does know Southeast Asian. Tom tells her that her dish is too Vietnamese, but she doesn't know what to do, now that she's already shopped and everything.

Everyone goes home to find a pile of Laila Ali's cookbooks on the counter. They all make burgers from the cookbook and talk about how great they are.

Eric wakes up emotional that he gets to make African cuisine in honor of Muhammad Ali. Aww. Everyone gets to work. Justin interviews that in order to plate 100 dishes they'll have to help each other plate. Lots of people working. Adrienne says she needs to stop thinking of this as Filipino food. She wants to bring the heat, since her fight was 120 degrees. Yes, but Southeast Asian cuisines aren't interchangable. Guests are arriving.

Everyone helps Sara plate. Sara: “The Fight at Freedom Hall”--king salmon with “thunder and lightning” pickled tomato and cucumber. It's a good start to the meal. Justin: “Liston Two”--saffron and seafood soup with scallops, clams, and mussels. The soup is great, even though Tom seems offended that the fight was nowhere near the ocean.

Eddie asks for someone to help him carry his stuff, and at first no one does anything, and he says “OK fuck me then”. But they show everyone helping eventually, so I don't know what that was about. Eddie: “The Fight of the Century”--brown butter roasted chicken, collard green puree, red wine poultry jus, and toasted hazelnuts. The chicken is cooked really well, but the dish is kind of boring. Eric: “The Rumble in the Jungle”--fufu plantain and cassava dumpling with Congolese red sauce. It's humble, and Eric's stubbornness in making something humble is a good fit for Ali.

Adrienne: “Thrilla in Manila”--braised short rib with mango and herb salad. She warns everyone that it's spicy. Laila likes the salad on top, although Tom sniffs about how there's bottled hot sauce there. Kelsey: “Battle of New Orleans”--”Unanimous” bread pudding with corn three ways. Stop giving all your dishes names, Goddamn. I am sure there are plenty of people who love Kelsey and her names, but they are part of why she drives me up the fucking wall. Just tell me what's in the dish for fuck's sake. Sadly Ali loved bread pudding and everyone likes it. But the kettle corn is maybe too hard.

Judges' Table. Laila tells everyone she understands competing in the kitchen. The top two are Sara and Eric. Eric talks about how cooking something African was very important to him and how inspired he was by Ali. Padma then asks Sara if she wanted that course (because the PA's tell the judges everything, that's how they knew about the box mix, guys, come on). Sara admits that at first, she did not, but then she was all, wait why am I doing this, this is the food I love. Bullshit. You all saw her reaction when she lost the random draw, and she was pissed. Now she's pretending she changed her mind on her own, instead of having to make the best of it. Eric wins, though, so good. He's really overwhelmed, and he actually thanks the judges for being open to the cuisine. African cuisine isn't that popular, so I think he's emotional for winning with it.

So now it's nitpicking time. Adrienne managed to cook her short ribs well, but the bottled hot sauce was not great. Justin's soup was so light and delicate, but maybe the seafood was a little undercooked. Eddie wanted duck, but couldn't get it. His dish was a little boring. Kelsey's dish was one-note, although the corn was interesting. She talks about being a good example for children and now she's crying so they won't send her home. You know they won't. Padma promises that when Kelsey's son is older he'll be proud of her instead of being mad she was gone for so long. Well, he's too little to remember. God, I'm really bitchy today. I know she misses her son, and it's not like I'm going to condemn her and say she should stay home and be a mother. I just don't like Kelsey. But you know she won't go home.

Adrienne went home and thought about her dish after she got some feedback. Kelsey “went deeper” on her dish, although I argue thinking the decision was unanimous and then naming your dish “unanimous bread pudding” doesn't really count. Eddie was confused, but his dish was technically good. Justin went with the first thing he thought of, and apparently that's not good enough. Justin didn't dig deep enough for the challenge, and Eddie was too lackluster. Laila brings up that there should be a balance between the food and the challenge.

They send Eddie home, and he goes and apologizes to Laila for not doing good enough. Aww. He says he's got more confidence, and he's a better chef and person for being here.

Next time: Tom wakes everyone up, brings out whoever won Last Chance Kitchen, there's' some auction thing, everyone freaks out. Bryan Voltaggio.

Last Chance Kitchen: Eddie thinks he should be in the finale. Michelle wants to beat him, but she's slightly worried because he's tough. Whoever wins this challenge gets back onto the show. Tom says Eddie struggles with the challenges sometimes, especially if he needs to connect his dish with a story or memory or something. Tom wants the story of “your life's most difficult knockout”. Maybe you were down, maybe you weren't going to cook anymore, whatever. They'll have five minutes to think about it, and then 45 minutes to cook.

Eddie says his mom passed before he became a chef, and he wants to make something he'd make for her. She wasn't the best chef, and he would try to get her to try different things. So he's grabbing halibut and I'd like to note that this is two fish dishes where his inspiration was “well she doesn't really eat fish so I'd like to change her mind.” Michelle is thinking of a time when she was going to quit cooking.

45 minutes to cook. Eddie tells the peanut gallery he missed them. Michelle is making scallop dumplings. She's got steamed beets and a bunch of vegetables as a bed. Eddie knows he's been in the bottom for emotional dishes. The peanut gallery is not helping because they're just giving him shit. He's got cauliflower that he's trying to incorporate, so it's not just random texture.

Tom Time! He questions if Michelle has time to get everything done. She's using a squeeze bottle to put oil in a pan and the lid falls off. Eddie tells Tom his mom never got a chance to cook for her professionally, and Tom lays off the snark for a minute.

Brandon says he doesn't think he'd do well at having to relate food to emotional things. Brian asks him if that's because he's a sociopath. I love the peanut gallery. Eddie's doing a lot of talking, and I'm not sure if it's because Eddie rambles when nervous and Michelle is much quieter. Or because of editing and foreshadowing.

Michelle: scallop dumpling with beet and fennel broth. Eddie: halibut with cauliflower puree, brown butter emulsion and cauliflower macadamia relish. Tom admits that he's had times in his life where he thought about not cooking anymore. And he lost his dad at 26, before he could see him cook, so he appreciates Eddie's story. The dishes are great. Michelle liked the inspiration, and her dumplings are perfect and the flavors were great. The one thing he might have changed was this dish didn't need olive oil. Eddie's food is very precise and clean, and he does it well. The relish was perfect, but the cauliflower and fish could use maybe more salt. Michelle wins. Awwww. Poor Eddie. But Michelle is really great. Eddie knows himself better, and he thinks maybe he'll start working for himself. I'm surprised they told us who was coming back. Usually they keep it a secret.