Top Chef 5/25/26--"Appalachian Celebration" summary

 

Previously on “Top Chef”: Keith and Rachel from the Try Guys were here for the “let's let the internet screw you” challenge. It was mostly fine until they forced everyone to move one station over. Sherry was very bitter about this, but honestly I get it. Everyone got a free loaf of bread so there was a lot of fancy toast, but Rhoda won, mostly with Sherry's ingredients which is why Sherry was pissed. The Elimination Challenge was to make rabbit, for some Michelin starred chefs, so it had to be fine dining. And mystery diners, although that didn't really come into play. Sherry was still pissed, and Tom questioned her so she was mad about that too, but then she won for making jerk rabbit and mofongo. Anthony did a very fine-dining “here are five pieces of food all separated on the plate with a swoosh of sauce” and it was dry, so he was sent home. (click for more)

Hope everyone's TV recorded this show since it was on half an hour early! Last week DirecTV mislabeled the episode so a bunch of people missed it. They did the exact same thing with the season finale of Drag Race. Oh also next week it's 15 minutes late. Why? Fuck you is why. The only shows I've ever seen jerked around this much in terms of start times, is whatever show is after sporting events. And they renewed the show! They aren't trying to get rid of it!

In the morning everyone gets up and hangs around. Sherry says she and Laurence are like siblings. This is because his sweatshirt vaguely matches the color of the chair he's sitting in, so she says he blends in and maybe he's not there at all. In terms of sibling interactions this is extremely mild. My sister and I discussed that if I mysteriously disappeared on my cruise she would wait a month and then tell all the true crime podcasts that it was weird I bought that expensive Titanic necklace right before I left. Sherry says that she moved back to the US at 14 to live with her older sister “for better, bigger opportunities”. She is finally feeling validated.

Kristen rolls into a local donut shop and orders two dozen donuts, whatever the workers want to give her. She then turns to some random customer and asks if they want a donut. “I have a credit card!” I fully believe Kristen would decide to buy other peoples' donuts and charge Bravo with zero regrets.

Eventually everyone hangs out in the lounge, so Kristen can bring them donuts. No one seems suspicious, which I would be, but then again I watch too much reality television. Also she has shown up with one dozen donuts, which is more than enough for six people, so I hope the other dozen was for the crew. Kristen asks everyone how they're doing not having contact with the outside world. Is it weird or is it refreshing? It's mostly hard. I can't see any other regular judges or Padma ever doing this and it seeming natural. Kristen is so at ease with the contestants, and there never feels like a distance or like she's separated from them somehow. Kristen tells everyone congrats for getting this far, and it's time to head back to Charlotte. But first, a detour to Asheville. Everyone is very excited. This is a unique place and a year ago they had a hurricane. But they are coming together to rebuild, and Kristen tries to spin it like chefs are on the front lines feeding everyone and they're responsible for bringing everyone together. Listen, feeding everyone is important and I'm not discounting those effort, but to claim they are holding everything together is maybe a stretch. No Quickfire today, instead they're all going to hang out with the chefs and have touching moments. First stop is to Good Hot Fish, which is owned by Ashleigh, who was on Buddha's first season. I do not remember her at all. She's going to lead the tour. So I went and looked at my blog, and she was eliminated, won a single episode of Last Chance Kitchen, returned immediately, won Restaurant Wars (with Buddha's help), then went home again on the “cook for your family members” challenge. Also the Appalachians have their own cuisine, so the Elimination challenge is to make a dish featuring at least two Appalachian ingredients. $300 to shop, but proteins and some Appalachian ingredients will be provided. Then three hours to prep, and another 90 minutes at “Union Exchange” the next day to finish cooking. This is for 200 people. Also I put “Union Exchange” in quotes because I have seen several shots of them cooking literally in the middle of the woods, so I am not sure when that comes in. It's a special event that celebrates Asheville and the rebuilding.

Everyone fits in one car now. They talk about what the “Appalachian ingredients” might be, and Sieger thinks maybe mushrooms. Somehow Sherry laughs as she's dozing off? I don't know what prompted this? Sieger threatens her with a Wet Willy so maybe Sherry is just the annoying younger sibling for everyone. The driving scenery is gorgeous. They keep showing the back of the car and leaving Jonathan out of the shots.

Ashleigh meets them, and she does kind of look familiar. She introduces them to some of the ingredients they can use: buttery hominy grits, and pawpaws (Rhoda compares them to a cherimoya). Leather britches which seems to be like...some dried beans? Dehydration? Laurence is thinking about dried ingredients. Ashleigh says after the hurricane she was doing pop ups to feed people when they couldn't leave the neighborhood.

They walk to another spot, which is an Indian restaurant full of colors and hanging flowers. They have okra fries, which are not breaded but look like strips of okra that are crispy. Also the chef says since they're in the South they need some tater tots, but made with tapioca pearls and seasoned with curry leaves. I would love this restaurant. Chef says when the hurricane hit, they just cleaned out the pantry and started cooking, and then World Central Kitchen called and asked them to make a bootcamp kitchen so they could cook for everyone. Apparently the chefs in this town are responsible for all the community? This is a weird message. I don't know, like clearly everyone pitched in to do what they could to help with rebuilding but saying you held the community together because you cooked everything in your pantry? Anyway, Laurence interviews that he used to work with fundraisers that revolved around food, and that food bring people together. I don't disagree with that, it's just that we're presenting that as more important than like, clean-up or finding housing for people.

They drive around to another spot that basically lost their whole kitchen, and just reopened. But they don't stop like I thought they would, they are just driving around looking at places and talking about how deep the water was and stuff like that. Ashleigh tells them about a couple of Filipino restaurants, and when Rhoda asks if there's a big Filipino community here, she's like “nah.” Weird. Rhoda wants to do something more Filipino. Finally they do stop again, and learn about pickled green strawberries, other pickles, chow chow. Chow chow is good, and Ashleigh says it's supposed to be the odds and ends of whatever is around, all pickled. There's also a big table with ingredients, and I was waiting for a list but there won't be one. We do mention sour corn, which is fermented (Jonathan had some when little and it scarred him for years), beans and black eyed peas and stuff. Sherry gets to pick out two ingredients that only she gets to use, as her advantage for winning last episode. She picks October beans (taste like chestnuts), and chow chow. Laurence is unhappy because he was planning to make chow chow. We do not find out what everyone else is using. This tour was just them driving around and Ashleigh pointing out cool restaurants and then they drive away.

Jonathan says he wishes they could spend a day here, there are so many knick-knack places. “You know? Knick-knacks copperdong, let's go! Brother!” What the fuck does that mean. They then drive all the way back to Charlotte? Why? You're harping on these chefs holding everything together and then you drive two hours away? Either you aren't holding this “event” “honoring” chefs in their own city, or you're making everyone pack up their food and drive for two hours. Sieger says since they don't have to buy everything shopping is a little more chill. Yeah, they only got $300 for 200 people so they will need to have protein provided. Rhoda talks about buckwheat. Actually Sieger talks about buckwheat and I'm not sure why he cares what Rhoda buys but whatever. Laurence is going to make a slaw but not technically a chow chow, and catfish sandwiches with bread from scratch.

Three hours to cook. Rhoda says she has to get focused and this is the task of the first 30 minutes. She's making stuffed cabbage but lumpia-style. So fried? She's got paw paw vinegar also. Rhoda interviews that it's very vulnerable to make the food you grew up with, because what if people don't like it? Jonathan is making smoked trout and crab cakes, or maybe smoked trout in crab cakes. Which means he's doing that thing where you take the big hotel pans, and one with holes in it, and jerry-rig a smoker in the middle of the kitchen. Sieger calls it “hobo-smoking”. I think he is braving the sour corn. Sieger says “chicken liver pate” which he claims screams “Appalachia”. Sure. He pours a bunch of rye whiskey in the mix, because apparently that counts, as well as sorghum molasses and beans. Sherry is making bean fritters, Brazilian style but with local beans, and she wants to make the dough tonight. She says beans are a luxury ingredient. Also she says this is like Squid Games. Laurence takes all the stand mixers, because he is realizing how much work he has made for himself. He's sauteing the leather britches with onions and garlic, to add to his bread dough. Rhoda struggles with prying some hotel pans apart, and has to ask for help. Jonathan flexes a bunch but he is helpful in the end. Rhoda also feels like she's made too much work for herself. Laurence has an enormous amount of dough, but he has not done anything for the rest of his dish.

Tom Time! And he has brought Ashleigh. Helpfully they list everyone's Appalachian ingredients when Tom talks to them. So Rhoda is using buckwheat, oyster mushrooms, paw paw vinegar, and apple butter. The buckwheat is puffed and put in the chili crisp. She admits she doesn't have time. Jonathan has sour corn, ramp bulbs, and pickled green tomatoes. Ramp bulbs but not ramps? Mostly a relish. Tom eats some of the sour corn and does not react, which shocks Jonathan. Laurence has a ton of stuff: leather britches, dilly beans, sumac, pickled ramps, and sourwood honey. Dilly beans are basically green beans flavored like dill pickles. It looks like he has most of his buns portioned out. When he says he's making a fried catfish sandwich, Ashleigh declares it “risky”. Oof. Sieger has sorghum molasses, rye flour, greasy beans, and muscadine shrub. Listen Bravo, if it's rye FLOUR, don't have Sieger saying “rye” over a shot of him pouring liquid from a bottle. Do you think I don't know what a whiskey bottle looks like? Come on. Greasy beans are a heirloom variety, and muscadine is a variety of grape. Shrub is flavored vinegar. Sieger's pate mixture is very liquid but he's going to let it set overnight. Somehow he is not cooking it in the traditional way but in some way that will guarantee it sets up. The last time Sieger was this confident about his technique was the BBQ episode and he was eliminated. Sherry tells Tom and Ashleigh she is making vatapa, which is a stew made with shrimp and coconut milk. In addition to the October beans and chow chow, she has dilly beans too. Her dish would not be anything without the beans in it.

After talking to everyone, Tom and Ashleigh basically stand at one end of the room and talk about everyone. A lot of the cooking is going to be last minute in the shitty outdoor kitchens, so that will be a challenge. Ashleigh hopes Sieger's pate sets. It's a very unappetizing dark pink liquid currently. Laurence is getting his bread in the oven, but tomorrow he has to both keep track of frying fish, and assemble sandwiches. Jonathan also has to fry things to order, and Sherry. Lots of frying. We don't mention Rhoda frying, but she says there's fine line between ambitious and practical. As she talks she nearly upsets her container of filling onto the floor. Sieger is making a round of crackers now and one tomorrow? Jonathan is making aioli now but he says he's going to adjust the seasoning tomorrow. Sure. I think Laurence gets his bread baked, but I'm not sure if he will be allowed to let it cool properly before packing it for transport. He still needs to make mayo and slaw, but not now because he has to pack everything up. Rhoda doesn't get everything stuffed today. I think she was portioning filling, so she hasn't stuffed anything actually.

In the morning Rhoda calls her sister. She's very nervous about today, but she's getting energy from talking to her family. She wants to make everyone proud.

So I looked up this event venue, and it is not even in Charlotte. In fact, it is on the other side of Charlotte from Asheville, so it's even further away for these chefs you are supposedly honoring. What the hell, Bravo? In the car on the way, everyone talks about how it's going to be 89 degrees (that's 31.7 Celsius) and then Sieger says he will totally be able to pipe his pate, he's done it before. Also it's set with gelatin so it shouldn't melt.

They are literally in the middle of the woods with the shitty outdoor kitchens and trees everywhere. Laurence has a ton to do. I think it's 90 minutes today. Rhoda doesn't think she has time to stuff 200 portions of individual cabbage, so she's making long rolls and then she'll slice them into portions. Sieger is rolling out cracker dough, and he brags in interview about the charity work he's done with events with way more people than this. Sherry makes fritters and talks about how foreign her dish is and she has to be able to talk to people when they come to her station. I guess to explain it to them. So she's parcooking the fritters, and then will fry them again when people come up.

So it turns out everyone is making something hot except for Sieger, who is now talking about getting ice and putting his pate back in the cooler and so forth. Laurence has discovered he can slice a whole tray of buns all at the same time, the way you cut a whole tray of Hawaiian rolls to make sliders (don't separate them but treat it as a single loaf of bread, and it's much easier). Sherry's halfway there, and she's yelling about chow chow and pico de gallo. I think she got pre-made chow chow to make a combo. There is a lot of frantic working, it seems like everyone at least has some plates ready to go when everyone arrives.

As everyone arrives, and the judges arrive, Ashleigh says that all the other diners donated canned goods and dry goods, for Asheville food pantries. She says the city is back. Also we do establish this is a mean challenge, to serve this many people with no assistants. Jonathan is struggling, and Sherry is managing to talk to people. However she was acting like no one would get it, but then she describes this bean fritter like a hot dog, and the woman she's talking to is like “oh you fry it? Like french fries?” as if that's the only fried thing she has a reference to. She must be told it's like a hush puppy. Can people not draw this parallel themselves?

Jonathan: mountain trout and crab cake, sour corn and peach relish, sage and apple aioli. He tells Tom he likes the texture of crab better than just the trout, since Tom asked him a pointed question. Tom ate the whole thing on the way back to the table. It's fine, but it's all acidic and needs some fat. Everyone is eating the whole thing, so it's not inedible, but it's not balanced.

Sherry: October bean acaraje, vatapa, pico de gallo chow chow, and garlicky shrimp. Acaraje is the name of the fritter. Very creative because you can eat it with your hands. It's a great mix of Brazil and the Appalachian ingredients.

Someone asks Rhoda how she decided what to make today, and she talks about how Ashleigh told them about the Filipino fine-dining restaurant. And of course it's the people who own that restaurant, who do not look Filipino so she didn't suspect a thing. Rhoda asks if they want to do shots later, which is hilarious.

Laurence: catfish sandwich, leather britches bun, sourwood honey mayo, and pickled slaw. When the judges leave he jokes that he's also going to bail on the people waiting. Heh. It's delicious and they love the mayo. The one issue seems to be that maybe the bun doesn't taste like the beans.

Rhoda: “Filipino Egg Roll”: stuffed cabbage, paw paw ponzu, apple butter mostarda, and buckwheat chili crisp. When the judges showed up, she offered to make a fresh batch, which is interesting because it means she doesn't have a line. Right? If she'd had a line, then everything is fresh because all the plates are snatched up as you make them. But I think there were some dishes there on the table? Also lumpia are not egg rolls but sure. She does call it an egg roll. The buckwheat chili crisp is amazing, and they can't stop talking about how great it is.

Everyone has a line except for Sieger. Chicken liver is a hard sell. Montage of a couple of people saying they don't like it. Sieger: chicken liver pate, rye cracker, pickled watermelon rind, and greasy beans. OK so it is greasy beans in the “style” of dilly beans, that's why they were using both names. Gail likes the concept but the pate is soupy and too runny. The cracker is dry. I think they want to give him credit for trying but Kristen says it's not a good chicken liver mousse because it's too wet.

The judges wander around and talk to some of the chefs that are guests and whoever, to find out which dishes everyone liked and so forth. Nothing new, honestly. Everyone finishes and they hang out in the “Stew Room”, which is just a cleared space in the woods with five Adirondack chairs and a tub with ice and beer. Jonathan thinks they're going to split hairs.

Judges' Table. Still out in the woods. Tom says they overall did a good job. Sherry, Laurence, and Rhoda are the tops. Sherry claims she instantly knew what dish she wanted to do, because it's her background on a plate. She was able to fry all her fritters, although her peanut sauce got lost a little bit. Bur she made chow chow her own. They praise Rhoda's buckwheat chili crisp, so she makes a weird face and stares at Sieger. They think he made it for her, which is hilarious, but no. They were fucking around at the grocery store and Sieger put it in her cart. Actually I think he offered to buy it for her, but who knows why. It wasn't really explained why he was doing that. Laurence talks about drying vegetables and Chinese ingredients, although they didn't really taste the leather britches. He was consistent across all the portions.

Tom says “watch the snake over there” and there is a big black snake about 3 inches from Laurence's foot. You can see it moving in the previous shot. They all jump (especially Laurence) and the snake is unbothered. It heads for Judges' Table, where Gail and Kristen literally climb on the table. One of the swing grips actually just comes over and picks it up and moves it. Wild. Once everyone calms down, the winner is named, and it's Rhoda. Aww.

Loser Gong. Sieger says his day went as planned. The texture of the pate was too loose. He describes setting the mousse in the hotel pans, then moving it to piping bags to pipe here, then into a cooler. Tom asks if it softened up when he put it into the piping bags, and he says yeah, that's why he packed the piping bags into ice. Everything was there but texture. It sounds like the reason they aired Rhoda asking if the chefs wanted fresh plates, was because if Sieger had done that, he could have used colder pate and it would have had a better texture. But he said he was talking to guests, and didn't have time to replate. Except they said you didn't have a line? The relish also was liquidy so it was wet. Jonathan wanted to highlight sour corn, but the dish needed more aioli or something to cut the sourness. It was not balanced. He did put honey in the dish, but he wanted it to be sour. Tom praises how he did cook 200 crab cakes very well.

Back in the Stew Room, Rhoda reminds Sieger that when he asked her to taste his dish, she told him to strain his pickles more, and he says that he did. Someone has to go. They both followed the challenge, but they did both have flaws. Jonathan's dish was one-note, but the crab cake was good. Gail thinks the honey wouldn't have been enough to balance the dish because it needed fat. Sieger tells the other contestants “whatever” because his dish was great. He doesn't care. Kristen couldn't finish Sieger's dish. The pate got runny here, in the woods, and Tom says he was surprised to see a piping bag, because he thought Sieger was going to do quinelles or scoops or something. Then you go straight from hotel pans to the plate. They also point out that Rhoda made them fresh plates.

Tom says they made good dishes but one fell a little short. Sieger is eliminated again. He took a big risk and it didn't pan out. Sieger kind of kicks the dirt and rolls his eyes and then he's like “What was the challenge?” WOW. “Appalachian ingredients, right?”. Tom is like, yes? And Sieger says “OK, cool. Just making sure. Or whatever.” Tom and Gail make the same gesture, which is both hands up, palms out, head shake, the universal gesture of “what the fuck?” Tom is like, if you can't set a mousse...? Sieger continues to be belligerent and be like “that's fine” and “we'll leave, that's fine”. Either throw someone under the bus by name or shut up. I hate people who are like “um actually not everyone followed the rules” and then they won't name names. Kristen says oh no no, the mousse fell apart because the heat got to it. Do you think that's successful? He starts to talk about how the challenge was to highlight Appalachian ingredients, and Gail interrupts him to tell him everyone was successful on that front. Tom joins in that “the dish” (I guess Jonathan but who knows since Sieger won't say a name) was still better than Sieger's. He's still saying shit, I guess because he can't drop it, but Jonathan mutters that he needs to chill, and he finally says sorry. Kristen is pissed and says that they do look at the challenge, but you also need technique and he didn't get past that starting line of having the technique. “Or when you speak with other people, and you can grab my liver mousse that's in a cooler, and see that.” But that isn't what the judges got. That's how it is, they can't judge what they don't have. The more he argues, the worse his dish becomes. You know? Like at first it was “well we're being picky and I get that it was hot and the other flavors were good” and now it's “you don't have the technique to be saying shit about the challenge”. Jonathan is still begging him to drop it. Sieger claims this is “me giving you guys my feedback from your feedback.” Bro they don't give a shit about your feedback. Finally he shuts up and leaves, but on the walk back he's like “I'm not shitting on you but an unbalanced dish, that's technique too right?” Kind of wanted Jonathan to deck him but I know that won't happen. As far as we can tell Jonathan doesn't respond.

They get back to everyone else and Jonathan says he put up a fight. And Sieger complains that this is bullshit so he blew up of course. Jonathan just says this is not the way to go out. You're trying to get your point across, but “do not end this way”. He is still complaining about how the challenge was about the ingredients, and then he demands a copy of the rules from the producers! Dude, you are not going to win this. He reads aloud from the rules in confessional, but the rules just say the judges are not limited to any single thing when judging, including “use of the specialty ingredient.” Do you think this proved your point? It basically says the judges can do whatever they want and use whatever criteria they want. “Not limited” means “can use any of this list of like 10 criteria”. “Criteria for judging is not limited to judges' opinion of...use of the specialty ingredient.” That's what it says. Laurence says they appreciate how Sieger sticks to his guns. He believes he made a beautiful dish.

Next week: Tom cooks, it's that Quickfire where they get the remnants of Tom's dish and they ask questions to recreate it, last challenge before the finale, deliberate We Want Plates situation. Someone uses those clothesline things.