Top Chef 4/20/26--"Desserts Fit For a Queen" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: at first they said there was no Quickfire, because it's BBQ time. Smoke a whole pig overnight, in two teams. Each chef took one part of the pig and they battled head-to-head for [product placement] money. There did end up being a Quickfire, but it was “optional” and it was just to make s'mores. Oscar won some cash. Laurence won the Elimination challenge, partially because he made some pork floss at Sherry's suggestion. Sieger put himself in charge of his team's pig, and he did get a little superior about the other team removing the pork loin before it could dry out, but his pork loin was too dry and he was eliminated.(click for more)

Last Chance Kitchen: so in a really weird twist, Sieger was not there and Tom said he would not be joining them at all because of something “really unusual” which they'll find out next week. In the past when people have just quit LCK they say so, so the suspicion is that Jenn does finally quit and they bring Sieger back. Anyway, Tom told the contestants to buy weird shit at the supermarket, so here is all the weird shit they bought, make something with four ingredients. Nana and Brittany were able to get in on this for money, but Rhoda was always moving on. Nana managed to make something edible so she got the money. Rhoda didn't win, so she can't choose the next challenge, but she's at least still in it.

They did put the clip in the previouslies where they told Jenn if she has to sit out, she's out of the competition.

In the morning everyone gets ready. They cut away really quickly but they do show part of a logo on the building so it seems like it's extended stay suites? Maybe? It doesn't matter. Duyen is feeling good, because the judges like her food, but she's also wondering what is missing because she's not winning. She wants to win for her community and her family.

For no reason, someone has built a fake house facade in the Top Chef kitchen. Like, just the wall with windows and a door, and a porch. Also Cracker Barrel menus. The nearest Cracker Barrel to me is not actually very near. If I want diner food I can go to a local place. We do discuss Cracker Barrel a little bit, mainly that people like the ham steak, and also they serve breakfast so you can get all three meals there if you would like. The Quickfire is to make “a complete day's worth of meals”, but not anything that is already on the menu. I don't hate the concept of “here is a restaurant menu, make something that fits in but isn't already here”. Also here are random guest judges from “Southern Charm”. This show is about socialites who live in Charleston and do socialite things, while “trying to preserve their family names”. So you know it's just rich white people who hid all their Confederate shit before the cameras showed up. Or probably didn't hide it.

Anyway, because we have to talk to these people, they have a “present”, which is just a giant peg game. This is to “randomly” select teams, but then they don't even play it right! What the hell, Bravo? Stupid. I will not retract my “randomly” because the twins are together and Justin and Jennifer are together. Each person is responsible for a course, and they will have 45 minutes. Nice. Everyone celebrates and then immediately this blonde woman (I am NOT learning their names) is like “Well we think this challenge might be fixin' for a twist” in the cadence of someone who has never said “fixin'” in her life and also has spent a lot of time trying not to sound Southern and is suddenly supposed to sound Southern. Kristen says life in the South is about “slowing down” so only one chef can be cooking at a time. How is that “slowing down”? I mean, tag-team cooking is fine, but don't act like it's because of “slowing down”. Anyway, your team gets 45 minutes total and you can decide how to divide that up, but the lunch person has to wait for the breakfast person to finish, and so forth. You can serve as soon as the dish is ready. $12,000 for the winners.

Three minutes to discuss as a team and figure out who is doing what. And look at a menu. We do get to see who is doing what courses. Orange team is Oscar (breakfast), Sherry (lunch), and Laurence (dinner). Yellow team is Brandon, Anthony, and Jonathan (same order). Anthony very quietly asks his team if he can do lunch, because he wants to do a fried green tomato BLT. That sounds pretty good. I am assuming it's Anthony, because he is listed as doing lunch, but they subtitle him and the camera shots while he's talking are all from behind where you can't see whose mouth is moving. Green team is Justin, Duyen, and Jennifer. Duyen asks her team if she can do lunch, because she wants to do a fried green tomato BLT. Heh. They put in a shot of Anthony looking over, but no other reaction. Who knows if he heard Duyen, or if they just watched footage until they got a shot of him looking in the correct direction, or what. Also the longer Jenn is in this episode without quitting, the less sense it makes to bring Sieger back and not just let Jenn be eliminated, so it's still not clear what is going on with that.

45 minutes total. The people not cooking go to sit on the rocking chairs and cheer. Kristen serves the other two sweet tea in mason jars. These people are rich. They only drink out of mason jars for the vibes. Oscar is making pan de elote, which is apparently a corn cake “with a custard like texture”. I'd eat corn pudding for breakfast. Hell, I'd eat a corn cake with elote flavor for breakfast. I think the breakfast people are really trying to stay under their 15 minute share of the time. Brandon has a giant hash brown cake, filling the frying pan. He says hollandaise is impressive and easy to make if you put it in the blender. Justin is making corned beef hash, but I don't think with corned beef?

For all that everyone talked a big game about making a quick breakfast and leaving time for everyone else, Oscar is the first one done and he's only left an extra minute for his team. Oscar: pan de elote with berries, maple, and piloncillo. Piloncillo is a type of sugar, that comes in cones and you grate it. It's basically a pancake with blackberries, but they all seem to like it. Brandon makes it almost exactly 15 minutes. Brandon: eggs Benedict, “rushed” hash browns, and “shortcut” hollandaise. It's well cooked, and I guess that's “different” from the current menu. I don't think this matters, they didn't say you'd get your dish on the menu if you won. Justin put his beef in the fryer but it's overcooked and it looks like he's starting over, even though there are less than 30 minutes left. Jenn is starting to freak out. Justin finally finishes with 27 minutes left, and as he serves he asks for a second to catch his breath. Justin: New York strip corn beef hash, mustard sabayon sauce, hash browns. It's chunks of fried beef with some croutons, in a yellow sauce like soup, with maybe some potato strips in there.

Duyen is aiming for 10 minutes, so Jenn has enough time. Anthony discovers Duyen is making fried green tomatoes also. One of the twins decides Duyen is scared now, which is absolutely not true. She says “yeah he's trying to copy me” which is funny. Sherry is making soup. Oscar hollers at her, and he has posted up on a rocking chair, feet up, with a piece of grass he found somewhere, chewing on it like a yokel. Heh. Sherry puts shrimp paste in her dish, because she doesn't have time to do anything like develop flavors. Duyen finds country ham, which she finds better than bacon because it doesn't need cooking. She goes up with almost exactly 15 minutes left. Anthony is up within 30 seconds, and Sherry right after. Duyen: fried green tomato and country ham sandwich. Anthony: fried green tomato and country ham sandwich with salmon roe and avocado. As he describes his dish, Kristen has to lean forward to hear him over everyone else yelling. Sherry: crab and shrimp bisque with hoecake. Kristen says the shrimp paste was very smart.

Both Oscar and Sherry had corn batter of some kind, so they've left the extras for Laurence to use to fry chicken tenders. Very smart. Jonathan has smothered steak. Jenn is also reusing Duyen's batter, for fried oysters. Sadly the batter doesn't work for oysters because it's too wet. Laurence gets some sweet tea to make syrup. Lots of running around but I think everyone is done on time.

Laurence: chicken tenders with five-spice butter and syrup. He keeps saying “chicken tendies” which is extremely cringe. Karma hits because they're undercooked. Jonathan: smothered steak with bourbon pan gravy. Jennifer: cornmeal battered fried oysters with lemon pepper and creamed corn.

The Green team was the bottom team today. Justin's steak was tough, but Duyen's sandwich was delicious. Jenn's batter did end up too wet, so Green team is out of the running for the win. Oscar made crispy pancakes, and Brandon didn't have greasy hash browns. Sherry's soup had a ton of flavor, and Anthony had a ton going on. And then Laurence served undercooked chicken. Jonathan's steak was a great dish, but it was a little overcooked. The winning team is the Yellow team, so the twins and Anthony won. Honestly out of the nine dishes, Jonathan's smothered steak with gravy seems like the closest to something you would actually find at Cracker Barrel. Kristen yells at Laurence that they would have won if he hadn't fucked up. See, he said he was going to be super careful to not dry out the chicken, and I didn't notice the foreshadowing.

OK the Southern Charm people are gone. The real guest judge is Melissa Benoist. Ooo. She was in “Supergirl” back when the WB had all those superhero shoes, plus she was on “Glee” and she's been on Broadway. She's also a “Top Chef” superfan. I like her a lot. Now we have to have some exposition that Charlotte is “The Queen City” because it's named after Queen Charlotte. We already made breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but did you know what Queen Charlotte loved the most? “Brunch.” Ha! No it's dessert of course. Everyone curses and some random people wheel out a giant cake with some displays. Brandon says he knows how to make desserts, he went to culinary school for pastry. He just doesn't like doing it. But if that's the challenge, he has to prove all his skills. Justin says in confessional that he's pumped and he loves dessert. A producer says “Do you?” and he immediately says “no I hate dessert”. Heh. He says his family was healthy and not big on sugar so he just doesn't like sweets. There is some discussion of birthdays and celebrations. All the desserts on display on the giant cake are Southern desserts. So time to create a dessert “fit for a queen.” You have to pick out a dessert from this display to “inspire” you, but also you will have three hours. Like, the party starts three hours from now. Then 60 superfans will show up and try everything. Oh and ALSO the superfans will determine the winner. Hilariously when Melissa tries to say there's another twist (it was just the part about who chooses the winner) everyone groans and Justin says “I thought you were a fan!” The twins get ready to rush the display, and Brandon says I love all y'all but I used to play football.

The list of desserts: benne wafers, apple stack cake, coconut cake, caramel cake, banana pudding (the Southern kind with banana slices and Nilla wafers). Oh I thought they were listing everything. This was just to get to banana pudding so the twins could freak out. No one got hurt, anyway. Justin ended up with ambrosia, and he says he's gonna learn to love it today. Heh. He figured avoiding having to bake a cake was a good idea.

The time limits this season have been really wild and unnecessary. Oscar says he doesn't have time to think about anything, just get started. They don't get to go to the store, so there's no time to think about what you're making. Jenn has Atlantic beach pie, which I learned about on “Crime Scene Kitchen”, a surprisingly fun show where you get into a kitchen and you dig around in the trash and the dishwasher and like, you find cream cheese wrappers and strawberry tops and a springform pan and go oh, they made strawberry cheesecake, and then you make whatever you think they made. Atlantic beach pie has both lemon and lime curd and a saltine crust. She has it every Thanksgiving, so she's adding yuzu and making a layered dessert. Jenn “reluctantly” does desserts, probably for family gatherings. She also reveals she's from a tiny town in Georgia, where the one grocery store was owned by her dad and was called “The Grocery Store”. Sherry has sonker, which I have never heard of. It's some kind of cobbler/pie hybrid with fruit. You make a very juicy fruit filling, get it hot, then pour over a batter that's like, pancake batter, and then into the oven. A pie has a stiff crust and a cobbler has batter but it's really thick and you spoon blobs like cookie dough. Sherry is grating butter for pie dough. Laurence has coconut cake and he's turning it into tres leches. That sounds great. Laurence also has immunity so he's not mad about that.

Anthony has apple stack cake, and he's thinking about his grandmother and how she used to make what sounds like a crepe cake. The chyron describes apple stack cake as dense cake layers and spiced apple filling. I am thinking about white cake spread with apple butter which sounds pretty good to be honest. Oscar got Moravian sugar cake, which he calls “ugly duckling cake” and it's very flat and dense. It looks like a flat apple fritter. Oscar has grabbed all the bread to make capirotada, which is toasted bread layered with cheese, nuts, raisins, and piloncillo syrup. That sounds pretty good. Also a little pasilla chili powder. Jonathan (probably) has chocolate chess pie, and he claims there isn't enough time to make a pie crust so he's just going to roll out the dough and bake it flat, then crumble it. Chess pie is just a custard pie in whatever flavor. Also Sherry is making pies so...? Get it together.

Duyen likes chef-y desserts. She has caramel cake, and she's going to make dulce de leche sabayon which sounds perfect. She is also talking about vanilla pandan rice, and grilled bananas, and tapioca pudding. Pandan leaves are a common Asian flavoring. Laurence tastes it and says it's not too sweet, which is the biggest Asian complement you can get. Hee. Justin isn't straying too far from ambrosia salad, which is basically whipped cream or a little sour cream, with fruit chunks and mini marshmallows and maybe some nuts. Brandon says “banana-misu” which I assume means a layered dessert. But Southern banana pudding is already layered? Everyone is in and out of the ovens constantly for some reason. Why are we opening ovens with stuff inside? Can't you look and see if it's full? Anyway, Sherry is worried her ovens will lose all the heat and her galettes will ooze butter and be ruined. So she cranks up the heat and is “praying for the worst, hoping for the best”. A producer has to correct her.

Brandon roasted bananas in the skins and he says they're amazing. Justin has a lot of elements and he's not panicking yet but it's getting there. Duyen wants her sabayon to be sweeter, and she's going to put it in that thing that makes foams, for “airy mouthfeel”, because that makes her sound really fucking bougie. Nice. Anthony measures out agar agar, to make an apple gel. Oscar has a deep pan with bread pudding, which isn't in the oven yet. And there's an hour left. Oh yeah, I think he put the entire thing in one pan, so that's enough for 60 people in one giant pan.

Sherry's galettes seem to have turned out. Laurence asks Oscar what he's doing with the pineapple tops, and he says he's making a hat. Jonathan's pot boils over, right after he says he needs to get more votes than his brother. Oscar is cutting it close. Duyen explains to Justin how to use the liquid nitrogen. Sherry makes cotton candy.

As everyone arrives, Oscar interviews that his bread pudding is still kind of loose, and his whipped cream has been sitting out and is warm. “It's not a California 10, it's a Midwest 10.” Rude. But he has to sell it. Some woman tells Anthony “a minute 36 chef” and then laughs that she always wanted to say that. These fans are wandering around looking at stuff before they start eating. Everyone is schmoozing the fans.

Anthony: apple semifreddo with apple coulis, spiced cake, and apple butters. When they get to Jonathan's table, there's a fan there grilling him with questions. Jonathan: chocolate sabayon, chocolate custard, pate sucree, and candied kumquats. “Pate sucree” is just French for pie crust. There's a lot of clips of fans talking about how amazing it is to be here. Laurence: coconut tres leches. Melissa says she's resisting the urge to talk directly to the camera about how good the food is. Heh. Anthony's dessert wasn't too sweet and had a lot of apple flavor. Jonathan had a great story about how his grandmother made chocolate chess pie, but his dish was basically chocolate pudding and whipped cream. Laurence had a good cake, but Tom would like more coconut flavor.

Oscar is charming everyone as much as possible. Duyen: pandan and coconut rice, roasted bananas, and dulce de leche sabayon. The glamour shot is...weird. The sabayon is brown, and there's a lot of it and it seems very thick, so it looks like a ton of gravy ladled over some random things. Jennifer: Meyer lemon curd and yuzu jelly, with saltine and graham cracker crunch. Justin: cherry granita, roasted pineapple, brown butter walnuts, and raspberry whipped cream. Duyen's dish is confusing, and doesn't read “caramel”. Kristen throws out that maybe she wanted to make pandan rice pudding and shoehorned that into what she was supposed to make. Jenn's is great, a little assertive but they want it to be citrus forward. Apparently ambrosia has a certain amount of cream, because Kristen says Justin's dish doesn't have enough cream. Everything was in liquid nitrogen, so the whole thing was crunchy, plus it dampens the flavor.

Sherry: berry compote, almond pate brisee, with passion fruit mousse and cotton candy. She interviews that she saved the nicest-looking pieces for the judges, but the crust on those was a little thick so maybe that wasn't a great idea. Oscar: capirotada with whipped cream. Brandon: “banana-misu” (sigh): roasted banana compote, espresso dipped Nilla wafers, and whipped cream. OK well at least there is an actual tiramisu ingredient. Sherry's galette was undercooked, but Kristen liked the passionfruit. Oscar's whipped cream was broken, and Kristen is like “that's your problem with Oscar's dish???” Tom says it needed more custard, because it was like bread and not pudding, so maybe it dried out? Brandon's proportions are great and it tastes great.

So everyone votes, and the judges wander around and talk to people. Hilariously Tom asks a group if they liked the bread pudding, and they all say they did. He's like, “even with the broken whipped cream on top?” so they all laugh that they aren't technical like that and someone jokes that Tom basically said “wrong answer, morons”.

The top three chefs are Laurence, Anthony, and Sherry. Anthony won by one vote. Nice. Kristen kicks everyone out so the crew can clear out and they can set up Judges' Table. It was a great night, and Gail says the judges put Anthony on the top as well. The apples weren't cooked into mush and they had a ton of flavor. The bottom three are Justin, Oscar, and Duyen. Kristen asks if they were happy with what they served. Oscar says he got decision fatigue, and the thought of 60 servings threw him. They could see how some of the bread was dry before they ate any of it, and some was undercooked. He should have made a smaller portion. Tom is still mad about the broken whipped cream. Oscar tries to say that he was focused on the actual dessert, so Tom hits him with the “if you knew it was bad, why did you serve it?” Oscar says that he saw Sherry's colorful dish (and I guess cotton candy) and felt his dish needed a garnish. Sherry's like, why am I getting blamed? Duyen explains how she wanted to do the dulce de leche foam, and have caramel flavor without being a sugar bomb. No one got the caramel flavor, and it was all soft. Justin should have mixed his cream into the fruits and stuff, because I guess that's an important part of ambrosia salad. Just putting whipped cream on top of frozen bits didn't work. It was also so cold it didn't taste like anything. Listen I don't eat ambrosia salad but I assume it's whipped cream with bits, not bits with a little cream on top. Two different textures.

Tom is still pissy about the whipped cream, but Melissa says that she'd eat Oscar's dish again because the flavors were good. They don't think Duyen was inspired at all by caramel cake, and the execution was bad. Justin had a poor interpretation, and so it didn't read as “ambrosia”. Back in the Stew Room, Jenn is promising Justin his dish was great, and he interrupts her to ask why she's doing a Gary Busey thing. She says her jaw is doing a weird thing and don't draw attention to it. Oh no. People online were trying to figure out what's going on with her shoulder (because that's how the internet is) and someone thought it might be a nerve issue or a slipped disc. To be fair they said it had happened to them so they thought it looked similar. Anyway, a nerve issue is not good and now Jenn is in confessional saying she has a “weird face thing” going on, meaning the left side of her face is pulling and it's very uncomfortable. This is very bad, because it's her right shoulder that is hurting, and your face doing a weird thing means it's time to go to the hospital.

Tom says it does kind of suck to go home for something you maybe don't do every day, like pastry, but that's how Top Chef works. Justin is eliminated. Just too cold. Justin's bummed. Melissa says that was awful, which is kind of funny. It sucks to leave Jenn but she's doing great so maybe it's some motivation. He says to look out for her, and he's planning to come back through LCK.

Kristen comes into the Stew Room, which seems pretty unusual. She tells them to come back to Judges' Table. Yeah this would count as “really unusual”. We do still have like 10 minutes left in the show. Kristen starts by saying they want to congratulate everyone for making it halfway through the competition. Jenn doesn't look thrilled, but her partner was just eliminated so I think no one is surprised she doesn't look thrilled. Gail asks how she's doing, and she says a lot of emotions. Physically, though? “I don't know.” When she says it, she's talking out of one side of her mouth, and I knew I saw that on the preview. This is bad. Kristen looks worried, and Jenn admits something is going on with her face. Tom just keeps going with the script, about how this is the hardest thing they've done. Also there's eight of them, so it's Restaurant Wars time. We go over the rules, which are the same rules they have had for years now: someone is Front of House (they are calling it “floor manager”), someone is executive chef, two line cooks, three courses of at least two options each. Blah blah. This time they will get to divide themselves however they want, instead of random assignment or schoolyard pick-em.

There is some standing around, like I think Oscar wanted to join Laurence's team but they already had four so maybe he was hoping someone would get kicked? Anyway the two teams are the twins with Jenn and Oscar, and then Sherry, Laurence, Anthony, and Duyen. There hasn't been that much drama so I'm not sure if anyone is going to fight about anything. The drama has all been Jenn's shoulder. They have an hour tonight to plan menus. Oh and one more thing: takeout. Uuuuuggggghhhhhhhhhhhh. This season is just extra hard for no reason. Brandon says in the real world, he would never do takeout in the first week, let alone the first day. True. Kristen also points out that Anthony has immunity, so this team might be in trouble. The math is not great. The prize is “epic” but Kristen won't explain it yet.

They all go back to the Stew Room, and Jenn says no one knows what's going on with her face, so the medic is taking her to the ER. Yes, this is the best idea. She hugs everyone, because I think they think she's not coming back. Brandon tells Oscar he (Oscar) should be front of house, and Jenn executive chef, which keeps Jenn off the line. Not the worst idea.

An hour later, Kristen (having changed out of her cool suit into a hoodie and a backwards baseball cap) is in the kitchen next to the fridges? And Justin has been summoned from...probably somewhere nearby where he was doing exit interviews. She wanted to give him an update on Jenn, which I think was a very nice thing they didn't need to do. Justin immediately says “Oh Goddammit” because he knows full well this isn't good news. Kristen tells him that they're going to have to ask her to leave, for her own health, but she is 100% invited back on a future season. Ah, people thought that offer expired. Like, that they told Jenn she could quit but if she didn't, she would have to participate in all challenges, and then Jenn said she wasn't leaving. So we thought the offer of a guaranteed return was off the table. Justin isn't happy, but Kristen is basically saying “I don't think it's the best thing for her” which I'm sure it isn't. Justin is getting choked up and saying she deserves to be here, she was doing well. Kristen says if he cries, she's going to cry. Aww. Because Justin was just eliminated, he can come back if he wants. Yes, because they need eight for Restaurant Wars. OK so “Jenn goes out at the beginning of the episode and they bring back the last person eliminated” was correct but we were just wrong about which episode. Anyway, Justin thinks about it and he says he'd like to talk to Jenn about it. Fair, Kristen agrees this is a good idea.

So Justin calls Jenn and the first thing she says is “Well, I'm not having a stroke.” OK thank God. She's going to have an MRI because they aren't sure what's wrong. Justin says they should go home and get her better, and Jenn is like, you should do what is best for you. He says his cards were on her, which sounds like he didn't think he'd win, but he thought she could, and now that she's out he doesn't want to compete anymore. He does say he's not staying in the competition while she's in the hospital, which is a fair argument. Then the episode ends, so now what? Next week starts with offering Sieger the spot? Make Antony sit out since he has immunity and you do Restaurant Wars with teams of three?

Next week: Restaurant Wars, the twins fight a little bit, someone's kitchen is extremely slow, it's very close. They did seem to do a good job of not spoiling what happens, or, I am not observant.

Last Chance Kitchen: we start with repeating the scene with Justin and Kristen, and him talking to Jenn on the phone. Two days later, Justin says she's doing better, and he's going to be doing LCK to make her proud. I wouldn't think they would film LCK so quickly, but maybe they talked to him two days later, he said he wasn't quitting, so then they did the actual filming later? Whatever. Probably he turned Kristen down, and then Jenn did get better, but by then they'd already filmed Restaurant Wars. So they couldn't wait for him, but he can go to LCK and get in that way.

Justin rolls in with his shorts and says Jenn is doing better, and she “has some work to do in recovery” but she'll be OK. So I guess we won't know what was wrong with her, which we don't need to know, I'm just hella nosy. Tom explains how Jenn left the competition, and Justin chose not to return but to stay with her, and then she pushed him to at least try to get back in, so that's why Justin is here now. “Does that make sense?” I mean you didn't explain why no one showed up last week, but sure. I suspect they did get Sieger to step in, and now enough time has passed that Jenn is better and Justin is willing to leave her for a bit and compete. But it is not “two days later”.

Justin chose ambrosia to try to make, and it was too cold. So here is the knife block. Each knife has a word, so you get three to try to “direct” your dish today. Rhoda gets “alien” which immediately irritates me. I know Tom does whatever he wants, but this seems irritating. Justin gets “glamorous” and Tom takes “whipped”. Whipped glamorous alien. Why. Fine.

30 minutes to cook. Justin says in the quicker cooks he turns his brain off which is good because he doesn't overthink things. Rhoda says “fancy mushroom toast” with the mushrooms as aliens. I think she has cauliflower mushrooms, which kind of look like lettuce. Like a head of butter lettuce but white. They had them on Tournament of Champions last night. She doesn't want to do something super weird, but stay true to herself. Justin has some fancy ingredients and he's looking for something green for alien. Roasted green olives look like little aliens right? Sure. Justin announces he believes in aliens and Brittany is like, “that tracks”. Heh. Rhoda whips some mascarpone and cream. She asks Justin if he knows he's going home today, and he's very confused. “Am I?” He says he can't go home, because Jenn will make him sleep on the couch and their couch sucks. Heh. He is whipping wagyu beef tallow. They both have caviar because that's glamorous. Justin calls 15 minutes, and says “Let's get weird and whipped” and Rhoda is like “that's you though”. Gottem. The peanut gallery is on board.

Tom Time! He doesn't seem 100% sold on “mushrooms = alien” but sure. Justin doesn't seem like he's on top of it, but he's got stuff going, tuna tartare, olives. Brittany reminds him about his olives in the oven. Rhoda worries she's not weird enough, compared to Justin, who is just weird in general.

Rhoda: mushroom toast with whipped mascarpone and caviar. Justin: whipped beef tallow, scallops, tuna tartare, and roasted olives. Everything is cooked very well, although the tartare could have been cut better. No one really hit “alien” but they did hit the other two things. They are both good dishes. Tom tastes again, which I think is maybe him putting on a show but I will reserve judgment. The winner is Rhoda. Ah, OK. Listen, 25 years of reality television primes you to think they keep Justin around to honor Jenn, and Tom pretends to be torn about his decision, but clearly that is not the case. The tuna was unnecessary and it just made the tallow cold which messed up the texture. Justin is glad to “get back home” which is why I think this is not really two days later. After Tom leaves, Nana and Brittany come over and do bumps of caviar off their hands which is hilarious to me.