Top Chef 5/18/23--"Battle of the Wellingtons" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire was working with preserved fish, which no one really had a ton of trouble with? Amar won, even though he didn't know what he was doing for most of the challenge. He was given extra time in the Elimination challenge, which was to make a thali of Indian food. You didn't have to make Indian food, but you had to include a variety of flavors. A lot of work and some people don't know anything about Indian food. Amar managed to win again, which is very nice and I like seeing him do well. Victoire couldn't keep up with the spices, and while the other two in the bottom managed to provide at least one excellent dish, nothing she made was very impressive so Victoire was eliminated. (click for more)

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Top Chef 5/11/23--"Thali Time" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: it was Restaurant Wars time! They let the contestants take over a pre-existing restaurant with a trained waitstaff and FOH leaders, which I think was amazing. No more cater waiters. But apparently there are a lot of people who really wanted them to have to do décor and force someone to be FOH. But that stuff never matters and why not let professionals do it? Of course Buddha showed up with a concept already in mind and his team easily won with superior food. He won individually, again, of course, because he made two dishes and he knows what he's doing. Nicole made pasta ahead of time and then ended up in the weeds (possibly because she refused to make more than 6 dishes at a time) so she was sent home. (click for more)

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Top Chef 5/4/23--"Restaurant Wars" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: we had two challenges that in my opinion should have been flipped. The Quickfire was making iconic street food from different countries, which I think would have been a great Elimination challenge. But the Elimination challenge was a product-placement mise en place race and then you had to make something with the mise en place ingredients. Dumb. Anyway, Buddha wins because of course he does, and then his team gets more proteins in the race but they lose to the team without any proteins at all. Tom won for roasted red peppers. The losing team didn't seem to really understand how the dishes were supposed to work (you had three ingredients and you should do one dish featuring each ingredient, not three dishes, each with all three). Charbel just did lamb which was boring, so he was sent home. (click for more)

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Top Chef 4/27/23--"Street Food Fight" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: everyone had to make a dish inspired by an emoji, which was dumb, because some of the emoji were food emoji and some were not. Buddha made a skull out of frozen coconut or whatever and he won. Then everyone had to make a dish that both sent a message (or had a message) and also could be eaten without utensils. So you can just make finger food if you want. Ali made a traditional dish, only meatless, with a good presentation, and he won. Dale tried to make mole, but his chicken was a weird texture. And honestly, the other people in the bottom were Victoire, who tried to make something from her native Africa, and Tom, who had a great idea but terrible execution. So Dale was eliminated. (click for more)

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Top Chef 4/20/23--"Hands Off" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: Dale and Begoña battled to return to the competition, by making high tea for everyone else. Begoña left off a whole component from her towers, so she went home permanently and Dale returned to the competition with immunity. Then everyone split up into two teams to make fancy picnics. Buddha told his group to think of fancy canapes, which worked and they won. The other team made some weird dishes, like sandwiches with lemon posset, and “cold cioppino”. Sylwia and Tom were the bottom two, and then they had to battle to stay in the competition. (click for more)

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Top Chef 4/13/23--"Top Chef Is No Picnic" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: the chefs had a Quickfire involving honey and mead, and making “celebratory” dishes. Tom made duck and some honey caviar and won immunity easily. Then they shipped everyone off to a vacation home to make a “family holiday feast”, served family style, for the Elimination Challenge. Tom was immediately volunteered for dessert, since he had immunity, and it was of course not great. Amar made lamb shanks he had had while on vacation, but which was certainly a special occasion dish, and he won. Begoña made “leftovers” which involved dry chicken and she was eliminated. (click for more)

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Top Chef 4/6/23--"Holiday Vacation" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: the chefs had to make British biscuits, and Tom decided he didn't even want to try. But it was a Quickfire so who cares? Ali won immunity for having crispy biscuits. Then we made teams and went to Tottenham's stadium and cooked with British ingredients. If your team lost twice then you had to compete against each other, so that meant Gabri, Begoña, and Luciana had to fight it out. Luciana did the worst, so she was eliminated. (click for more)

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