Top Chef: Charleston wrapped filming around June 10, 2016. If you are aware of the hurricane season in the Atlantic, It technically begins on June 1st. But 2016 was a crap year and Hurricane Alex showed up in JANUARY. Because I enjoy going to the beach on my birthday in mid to late June, I often roll the dice in the Caribbean and have never had a hurricane or tropical storm disrupt my trips. If the Top Chef staff took hurricane season into consideration, I imagine they felt they could risk the last half of filming being the first week of June. But again, because 2016 was a merciless bitch, Tropical Storm Bonnie showed up the very last weekend in May and Tropical Storm Colin showed up around the time the finale was being filmed. So this is the first of a double wallop for filming. That must have been hell on production.
Meanwhile, Jim Smith is just a little love bug. He’s getting a great edit which I fear they may be doing to just crush all of our hopes and dreams. This was filmed in 2016, though frankly I’m not fond of 2017 either.
The Quickfire
The quickfire is a SUDDEN DEATH COOKOFF! The challenge has each chef cooking with ingredients based on whether their zodiac signs are Fire, Water, Air or Earth. There seem to be a lot of fire signs in this group. I am pulling for Sheldon because #TeamWater. There seems to be a heated debate online about which sign is which element. I don’t think there were any earth signs.
Jaime (AKA Burnt Veggies) has found his rhythm and is a force to be reckoned with. Emily appears to be on her meds this episode and is kind of ….pleasant! Katsuji should have just fire roasted tomatoes and peppers and did a Mexican dish. Instead he fire roasted an onion and made a cauliflower mash and a fire roasted jalapeno or something. Why? Fire roasting screams Mexican food and he did some sort of NYC fancypants appetizer that cost $30 famous chef crap. The guest chef agrees with me and says Katsuji’s dish is definitely not what he expected. Shirley is another fire sign, she did a fried cauliflower as well. Are we sponsored by the Cauliflower association tonight? Like the Mexican chef before her, and Asian chef could have gone with a spicy Asian dish. She did make a soy chili sauce for the damn cauliflower, but come on, this is sudden death. And it is starting to feel very scripted.
NEED MORE TOP CHEF! I’VE GOT YOU COVERED!
After all that fire, Sheldon provides some relief for the judges palates with a Filipino ceviche with coconut milk. Finally someone staying in their lane. However, ceviche is one of the things I hoped to leave behind in 2016. So played out in my opinion. Following Sheldon was Jim who did a charred bison with watermelon. Padma points out there is a lot of water in his fire dish. Ut oh. Again, Jim should have stayed in his lane and used fire roasted elements in a southern dish. Casey is Air. She did chicken, as did Emily and it was clear they didn’t get her “pickled egg cream” because why would they. Emily beat her this round. Because EMILY STAYED IN HER LANE.
The top three were Katsuji (he’s more shocked than even I am about this), Sheldon’s ceviche, and Jaime’s dish won. I really thought Emily had a shot at winning this round. The bottom three were Jim! Silva! and Emily! Surely Emily will go home, the other two are monsters at this game. Since no one had Earth, the three chefs in the bottom will pick a dish to make from that pantry. It sounds like they will all be making the same dish. Graham Elliot is back as the tie breaking judge.
Jim wants to make steak and potatoes. The other two want steak tartar. UGH, this will be bad for Jim. Down here in the south, we tend to actually cook our food, especially meat. I am behind so I am going to skip most of the drama. All three of these chefs are roommates. Jim says even though he doesn’t serve tartar much in the Governor’s mansion, he is quite familiar with it. WHEW! Why is Silvia cooking his meat? Apparently, searing is part of a certain type of tartar. That went by super fast.
Michael Cimarusti, am L.A. chef, was the co-judge with Padma for this round. Because, why? Did they run out of Charleston chef’s halfway through the season? I had to Google him. At any rate he said that Jim’s raw cow dish was the most refined of the three, so there is that. Jim served a Lisa Rinna portion to him and Padma. I think that is what they mean in L.A. when they say a dish is refined. Graham said he would have liked to have seen a real sized dish from Jim.
WHAT? I thought I saw Jim in the previews for the next challenge. Fuck them all in the ear. REALLY?
EMILY IS STILL THERE AND JIM IS NOT?
I’m gonna need a moment.
Elimination Challenge
Apparently, Blackbeard had this big pirate party in Charleston and that is where he was killed. There are three teams. Red, Yellow and Black. Whatever. Now I get it. God sent in this awful storm to show his displeasure about Jim going home. It will essentially rain God’s tears for the rest of the season. I’m really not in the mood to recap this. If you missed Jim’s short documentary on Crowe’s Chicken, you can watch that here whenever you miss him.
Random thoughts on the scavenger hunt: How hard is it to boil a lobster, Emily? How does Emily not know where things are? Has Jaime lived there for a full week before this show? Why is Emily still on the show? WHY?
The yellow team with Shirley, Silva and Sheldon is cooking first. We see Shirley shaking a GIANT BOX OF MORTON’S SALT into her stew. Do these people really not use plain sea salt like normal people?
The black team comes in to cook second. They are Brooke, Casey and Katsuji. Katsuji was not loving waddling around in a hurry during a tropical storm. Again, they have TWO cauliflower dishes. Katsuji is adding chorizo to his cauliflower soup. I make cauliflower and broccoli soup a lot. I need his recipe.
The red team is John, Jaime and Emily. John plans to saddle Jaime with the worst ingredients which in their case is peanut butter and chicken but John has a great chicken peanut satay up his sleeve.
The Judges Tasting
On the yellow team, the first up is an asparagus soup with lots of weird crap in it. Yet. the weather might give the soup course an advantage. Sheldon has a filet with pineapple. Both of their first two dishes have macadamia nuts, but come on. In these dishes? Shirley did a stew. Why? Why a soup and a stew? The judges seemed to like it.
On the black team, Casey did a salt brined scallop. Which means she is serving salty raw scallops. Why don’t these people fucking COOK THE FOOD? It also has like radishes and Brazil nuts and reminds me of the sort of things the kindergarteners would make in class and bring to me. I do not eat things made by five year olds and I would not eat this either. Brooke fried cauliflower, because clearly they are all being paid to cook cauliflower 47 times this episode, and oh yeah, did I mention Brazil nuts? I do want some of Katsuji’s cauliflower soup with chorizo, hot sauce, lemon, chive powder (why do I not own this?) and cumin. The judges don’t like that the soup is so very thick. He probably should added some more stock and/or milk, but cauliflower soup is always thick. The judges love Katsuji’s soup. I am going to try to make it ASAP. They can barely get Casey’s scallop down.
On team red, Emily made fennel and lobster chowder with crispy chicken skin and kaffir lime leaves and orange zest. Sounds yummy. John made lobster with truffle butter and he made gnocchi with canned peas. I was wondering who had to take on the canned peas. Jaime made the Chicken peanut satay over pickled fennel and orange salad. Go Red Team! The judges hate Emily’s chowder. That is because she should have gone home and you should have been eating Jim’s lobster chowder. I BLAME YOU PADMA. They also hated Jaime’s dish. That means Emily will FINALLY go home because John’s lobster was great.
Judges Table
Yellow is the clear winner. Shirley’s stew won.
Red team is the losing team. John says that they opted to give Jaime the worst ingredients since he had immunity. Emily says that is not true, it was John’s idea to give Jaime the crappy ingredients. Jaime wants to give up immunity and be judged with his team. In the boiler room John and Katsuji both say they have a lot of respect for Jaime doing that. They both say they would never have done it. Jaime feels like he deserves to go home for his dish. He is really upset and anytime anyone in the boiler room wants to say he should not, he gets a bit hostile.
The black team is considered heavily by the judges as a losing team. They seem not to want to send anyone on red home because they can’t decide. Should John go because he had the best ingredients and it was not stellar? Should Jaime for having the worst dish? Was Emily’s dish really better than Jaime’s though? Should they allow Jaime to forfeit immunity? It’s a tough call.
Ultimately, the red team loses. Padma asks Jaime if he is sure he wants to give up immunity. He says he is and Padma tells him to pack his knives and go. I am really pulling for Jaime in last chance kitchen. He has a lot of integrity. Tom makes it clear to Emily that if he had not given up his immunity, she would have been out.
Next Week: It’s RESTAURANT WARS! And Emily has a fucking breakdown about three challenges too late.
I hate Emily. Can someone please tell her that she is NOT as great a Chef as she thinks she is.
I call Conspiracy!!! Wailing Emily should have been sent home 2x tonight. I think they are keeping her until she snaps and is taken to the psych ward where she belongs.
Did anyone catch the awesome dig that Richard gave to all the silly millys ( my nickname for millennials) chefs even singling out last season’s Philip. Philip was such a douche!
What Jaime did was so classy. I might be in Charlotte later on this year. I am going to his restaurant. I would even eat that chicken satay.
Your statements about Emily are harsh. She’s a bit crabby buy not someone who needs the psych ward. We have a lot in common that way. I am sure Emily is a great chef. She’s just getting the villain edit this season and that must be hard for her.
First she stays and Jim, who is everyone’s favorite underdog goes. Then another guy throws himself on his sword and as a result saves her.
Let’s remember that editing is in full effect and that Emily is one of the TOP CHEFS chosen for TOP CHEFS.
Also, if you are going to be in Charlotte you will be a state away from Jaime. But you could go check and see how Peter’s “bars”are open. 🙂
Love you, TT. I never thought about her actually reading my comments. So ummm…Emily, if you read this. I don’t know you so I really don’t hate you. I do not care for the way you acted on this episode. Or the last episode, or the one with you and Brooke cooking.
How many rookie remain? 2 more went home tonight.
Hey, I thought Peter’s Bars aren’t open anymore.
AND while I personally, as a Tim fan wanted her to go home many times this season, she has remained. That is not a reason to HATE anyone. She’s on a cooking show. Cooking. It’s scripted. Get ahold of yourself my friend.
Do you really want Emily to read you hate her? She’s not a RHW of anywhere. She’s a regular gal, on a cooking show.
I am VERY sad that Jim is gone. And I felt like Jaime was just getting in his groove, I thought Emily was a contender to WIN the elimination challenge.
It’s a cooking show. Let’s not hate people on a cooking show. Unless it is Tom. 🙂
My take on Emily is that she’s a young female chef swimming in a sea of testosterone. It’s made her insecure and defensive. That’s my two cents.
Lol at the pirate game. Katsuji clearly hasn’t done cardio lately.
I hate on Padma.
I’m so sad Jim is gone!! 🙁 I fell in love with him and his quirkyness from the start when he paired strawberries and chicken liver.
Cauliflower is on trend right now because it’s an alright carb replacer, but I don’t think anyone is dieting or diabetic on this show so I don’t get it. It is very versatile though so I guess there’s that.
And yay for restaurant wars next week!
I knew I should not have said that I really like Jim! Will he get to go to last chance kitchen? No spoilers here I watch them at the end.
I like Shirley, too. She was so good in her real season. Or was she the chef who made some kind of porridge for most of the challenges?
I love ceviche? When I lived in Mexico, several of us (ex pats) were having a get together, I said that I really liked that chicken tostada that I had for lunch
3 or 4 times a week. Needless to say It wasn’t chicken but raw fish. I am a Southerner and, like you, I prefer my food cooked. However, I continued to love the ceviche but I confess that I told myself that it was chicken every time I ate it!
The year 2016 was crap for me, too. So far 2017 hasn’t been any better ! Oh well…it’s still early!!
If it make you feel any better, ceviche isn’t technically raw as it’s been marinated in an acid like lime juice. The acid cooks the fish. I once turned a beautiful fish into a pile of mush leaving it marinating too long.
So sad to see Jim eliminated. I will have to re-watch the episode because It was all a blur to me after he left. He is such a gentleman and proved to be a great chef. Tonight just wasnt his night. Hope he does well in LCK.. I’m rooting for Sheldon, Sylva and Brooke in the finale.
Emily is starting to grow on me for some reason.
I apparently have no life because I have been thinking of Jim off and on all day today hoping he is okay. I loved him and want him to be my friend. I thought he was going to get to the finals by the good guy edit he was getting. Thinking of sending him a personal note.
Evidently I don’t have a life either because I’m still pissed about Jim getting the boot so you’re are not alone.
On another note, I found Casey especially annoying when she was tring to defend her not so fresh scallops.
Hhmmm, Emily. I’m still reserving judgment for her. I don’t think we have similar all around personalities, but I can see a similar flaw. We don’t necessarily stand up for ourselves in the moment or when decisions are being made, but then when shit hits the fan we’re all about pointing out how things actually went down or how we were wronged. And she’s just emotional. Some people can take “kitchen life” better than others. It’s hard. Working in many different restaurants during my 20’s I learned quickly to stand up for myself or get bulldozed over.
Am I allowed to say that I thought Jim was gay? I totally did. My apologies if that’s breaking a TT rule. I literally shouted at the tv when he got voted off. So terribly sad. He was a gentleman and a humble, kind soul.
I’m a Cancer sign, so was super happy to see that Sheldon is too. I can generally spot them from a mile away and I knew that was a big reason why I love him.
Shirley and Sheldon are my favorites, hopefully they’ll make it to the end. Restaurant Wars are my least favorite part of the show. I get too stressed out. Would rather just watch them make dish after dish after dish….
Great recap, thanks!!
The veterans are stacked with power players – do Sheldon or Shirley ever make a bad dish? This season is starting to have the feel of the all-stars season, which seemed specifically designed to crown Richard Blais with a Top Chef title since he choked on his season finale. We all know who is going home, the only surprise is the order it goes down.
Isn’t Sheldon a rookie?
I thought so too! But before I said so I thought I would check,
http://tamaratattles.com/2016/10/20/top-chef-season-14-charleston/
As it turns out he was on Seattle!!!!!!!! Along with Brooke and John!
It looks now like Sam was the only vet eliminated. Maybe he just agreed to do it for three episodes? You can ALWAYS manipulate this show to have whoever production wants to win.
Am I wrong or is Sam the only vet gone?
Amanda who was eliminated last week is a vet. Don’t know what season tho.
Amanda was the other vet eliminated.
Thanks. I need to write that down somewhere other than here http://tamaratattles.com/2016/10/20/top-chef-season-14-charleston/
I now remember that she was on before and something happened and she is now back after the event. Or whatever.
I am seriously not kidding that I think I have some sort of brain damage in the memory area. I literally cannot remember shit and fear I may be getting dementia.
Shut it. I said I was not kidding.
I am tired of Emily. I know they keep her for “drama” but I would be happy to just watch the chefs “gasp” cook
Bring Jim back!!!
I had to save this for today. I never get sick but had the 48 hour stomach bug that is going around. Could not read about food. Not at all.
Anyway, you have to get over your hatred of things raw. Beef tartare is fantastic and in France in the Parisian cafés that you love, the frequently do ‘the flip’ which is to sear it on both sides usually with lots of crunchy sea salt. Pure heaven.
I was perusing a french menu for fancypants restaurant that you have probably been to yesterday for a story I have been researching. Everything sounded great. I looked on Yelp and everything looked great. Then I saw a photo of the raw beef crap and nearly lost my lunch. Seriously I nearly wasted good PBR,
So disgusting.
At least cerviche looks tempting.
That story may be up today if I feel like working on anything.
Quelle horreur!
I finally tried beef tartare at a fancy restaurant during restaurant week. It was OK. Not bad, but probably wouldn’t try again.
I DO love the phrase “stay in your lane”, esp in LA or Boston traffic lol (*said in very agitated tone). Great recap Tamara
Great episode, I’m thoroughly tired of Emily’s attitude. She’s not a horrible person, just unpleasant with a chip on her shoulder. Sheldon is a favorite of mine, Jamie, Shirley, etc.
Thought it was a pretty stand up move for Jamie to waive his immunity. I’ve seen situations on previous seasons where someone should’ve done that and refused. It is how the game is played, and the rules protect them, but it was refreshing to see someone have the dignity to know when they should go home for the worst dish and not their team member. The team’s strategy was truly flawed because sticking Jamie with the shitty ingredients jeopardized their team and THEM, it didn’t protect them. If they were to lose because of his crap dish, one of them would be going home (presumably), not him.
Emily lucked out that Jamie’s such a great guy.