It’s time to find out who won Last Chance Kitchen. I think it is going to be Jamie. Since he gave away his immunity and got eliminated, I feel like Tom probably just picked him every week. It really is all up to Tom regarding who comes back. No matter how many judges there are, I think Tom picks the winner. I do remember a season when the judges argued mightily about who should win. But I’m sure Tom won out.
We start tonight in a huge soccer stadium. Well, I am shocked! It is Brooke that is back as the winner of Last Chance Kitchen! The four chefs will be cooking dishes featuring goat as a tribute to the local soccer team, the Chivas. Hidden Valley Ranch is giving the winner $10,000. Hidden Valley Ranch must literally pay for this whole show. Tesar is doing a torta, a Mexican sandwich. Brooke is making goat ribs. Is that even a thing? Sheldon is making goat cheeks. Shirley is doing some sort of Asian soup and noodle dish.
Damn you Shirley for using a radish. The radish lust is real y’all. This challenge went by so fast there was no time to type much. Tesar’s dish was the worst. His goat was chewy. Somehow Brooke’s fruity goat ribs win. I guess you had to be there. Brooke will also have an advantage at the elimination challenge.
The challenge is sponsored by Patron. Patron is having a party for 100 people at their distillery. They have to make a dish and create a signature margarita. They each have a sous chef from the last four eliminated. Brooke’s big advantage was that she gets to pick first. She chose Casey. She also gets to choose the sous chef for the other three chefs. She gives Katsuji to John, obviously. Sheldon gets Emily and Shirley gets Sylva. Katsuji is Mexican. So it might have been a mistake to give him to John. Then again, they do start fighting immediately about restaurant wars when John should have gone home.
The tequila factory was very interesting. They literally chop up the agave by hand with an axe. The tequila tasting got everyone a bit tipsy.
I love the Mexican grocery store. When I travel I love to go to grocery stores and regular places and see what they are like. Brooke wanted to do tuna but was not happy with the selection so she decides on coconut instead. Because, that makes sense. Brooke is already saying, “It is what it is.”
Sheldon is making an octopus ceviche. But he is cooking the octopus. Am I the only one very confused by this episode? Shirley is making a skirt steak to pair with her cucumber and honeydew margarita. Brooke is making a chilled coconut soup with a watermelon salad. Katsuji is making a prickly pear relish for whatever Tesar is making. He is also making a rim for the margaritas with traditional sweet flavors. Sheldon’s octopus overcooked. Shirley’s steak is making my mouth water.
The judges start with Sheldon. One of the judges says that his margarita looks like the bottom of a fish tank. It really does. He put lots of coconut and guava in there. The judges love the octopus and think it is perfectly cooked. Richard Blais and another guy were the judges that went to Sheldon first. Tom was not impressed with Sheldon’s dish.
Meanwhile Tom and Padma start with Shirley. Earlier Shirley explained that she asked Sylva to pick up extra agave nectar and he came back with vanilla. She used the vanilla on her steak. Because, nothing they are doing makes sense to me. Tom and Padma are not getting it either. The don’t like the margarita. It needed to be strained.
John made a simple chicken soup type thing with a very simple margarita with an interesting rim. I’m not sure what Blais and the hot latin guy thought of John’s offerings. They were very simplistic. That can either be great or not enough. Tom and Padma seemed underwhelmed.
As it turns out Brooke’s chilled soup is avocado. Again confused. Isn’t chilled avocado soup commonly know as guacamole? She also served a coconut and watermelon salad dish. Tom and Padma love Brooke’s dishes. They really like her margarita as well. She’s the clear frontrunner. Did I miss Blais and the local guy’s assessment of Brooke’s dish?
Judges’ Table
Blais starts off by telling Brooke that cold soup in the finals is playing it safe. Padma says she thought both her dish and her margarita were great. Tom agrees with Padma.
Tesar is taking a beating from Tom. Tom thinks the tequila was not a cocktail and the taste washed out his soup. It was a bad pairing.
Blais loved Sheldon’s octopus. Tom said his dish was a bit sweet but his knifework was great. His cocktail was not very refined. The local chef wanted to like the cocktail but felt it lacked balance.
Blais says that Shirley’s salsa was spectacular. Padma asked why there was vanilla on her steak and Shirley explains the ” beautiful accident.” Tom hated the cocktail even more than the vanilla beef.
Brooke won the challenge and a bottle of tequila worth $7,500.
The editing all episode has been Tesar being sent home. So, I figured he was safe and was starting to worry about Sheldon. But they decided to send Tesar home.
Next Week: A winner is crowned. And it seems the chefs have to cook without tools!
Sidenote, Alabama Jim is currently in second place behind Sheldon for fan favorite. Click here to throw him forty points a day. Hopefully, Sheldon will win the whole thing.
Happy to see Brooke back and happy to see John go! He finally couldn’t skate past this one. These dishes were confusing as hell! So many mixtures/combinations of ingredients I did not understand… Love Shirley but I don’t know what the hell she thought the vanilla would be good for.
I’m happy with any of these three winning. It’ll be an enjoyable finale!
I agree with you about Brooke. She actually looked relaxed this time round!
When silva got the wrong item, vanilla not agave, she just should’ve left it out! vanilla and meat? ugh.
Ceviche is not is not cooked using heat. Acid. ok, we know that the producers want Sheldon to win, could tell from the start, like Blais. Why? Well, he’s their poster boy. If Shirley or John or Brooke cooked a fish and called it ceviche, Tom, Would have ripped them a new one. This show has gone so PC is pathetic. You can pick the winner from the first episode.
I couldn’t predict a thing for any episode. This whole season makes not sense. I figured the final two would be a rookie and a vet. I at least thought one of the rookies would be in final four.
Cooking octopus is ceviche, and guacamole is soup and those were the top two.
If you ever get Guacamole and it’s soup? Send it back.
Thank you for being confused. This whole show felt like the twilight zone.
I’m not too savvy in the kitchen but half the combinations seemed so conflicting to each other that it would taste like mush. This show definitely makes me feel hardcore culinarily challenged lol
The while show felt rushed to me for some reason and I had a hard time keeping up. I have always loved Blaise but I feel like the show is going to his head and he is becoming (as my grandma would say) a bit to big for his britches!
I’ve felt that Blaise has ALWAYS been an egotistical jerk , but that’s just me I guess. I’ve never liked him or his food.
I’ve always liked him and was thrilled when he won top chef all stars, but that was a dick type comment last night. Brooke stood up to him though, and tom agreed with her 🙂
I wanted Sylva back but Brooke is really good so I was fine with that. The whole episode I was chanting, “No Tesar. Go home Tesar.” I really want Sheldon or Shirley to win this.
Paco Ruano is one of my favorite Mexican chefs and I find him demasiado tan sexy. It was good to see him at Chivas stadium. I wish he was the judge later. I like how they are travelling por Mexico for the finale.
Most of their combinations made no sense to me. Like at all. Even their margaritas seemed overdone. I actually quite like that Tesar made a straight Margarita con chamoy. Chamoy has all the flavors they called for in the task. Sucks that it ruined his sopa.
I was so thrilled Brooke made it back! I liked her and Casey both but I think Brooke is the superior chef. This challenge seemed fun but I was nervous the whole time because there was only one person who I would’ve been happy to see go home, Tesar.
To his credit, he did his best to smooth things over with Katsuji, they did seem to work without conflict, but he lost in the end (thank god).
Love that it’s shirley/sheldon/brooke. I would be happy to see any one of them win.
TT, I think you meant, gazpacho, which is a spanish style cold soup, but it’s a specific kind made with tomatoes, veggies and spices. Not the type Brooke made last night. 🙂
Oh nevermind, I see what you meant, I misread your comment lol 🙂
Yeah, it looked to me like she made guacamole and called it “cold avocado soup.” It just seemed silly to me.
I didn’t mind John Tesar as much as some of the other commenters do, but of the remaining chefs, he seems to have been the weakest given the overall performance, so I was fine with it. I’m rooting for Sheldon. He seems talented, down-to-earth, and is never a source of drama or petty squabbling. Growing up in Hawaii probably helped contribute to that disposition. I think in this challenge, the product placement got the better of them. It felt more like an hour-long Patron informercial than a Top Chef episode.
I agree with the editing and the pacing of this episode. They should have tacked on an extra 15 or 30 minutes and slowed things down a bit.
I knew Tesar was out. He got his redemption edit and that’s all he needed. Tesar was not going to make it against any of the other three. He truly is the Roxxxy Andrews of Top Chef.
Overall I have been pleased with this season of Top Chef and whomever wins deserves it.
What do they call the cooking technique Sheldon used to cook the octopus inside a bag? Does it sound anything like ceviche? Perhaps we misunderstood?
sous vide, it does sound similar
Thank you. Surely he was saying that. I was trying to think of the name. Maybe he pronounced it sous vi DAY instead of sous vide? That would explain a lot.
I watched the episode again this past weekend with my mom, and he definitely said “ceviche”. I’m baffled lol
Thanks Shae! My hearing is going down the drain along with my memory and sanity lately. I started to wonder if I just misheard him.
Nope, your faculties are working just fine! lol 🙂
It does sound similar, but I think Sheldon called his dish a type of ceviche.
Boring episode. I was expecting get so much more. I’m rooting for Sheldon and then Shirley if not him.. Brooke seems like a talented chef but has a smugness that I don’t care for.
I’m hoping Jim wins fan favorite title.
An avacadon’t.
I liked the comments of the Mexican judge about the cocktails…John’s was okay, but he would have left the others at the bar for someone else to drink. The drinks did look suspect. Thought Brooke was shrewd on her pairing. Katsuji and John would fight; Emily would not be an asset to Sheldon and Silva doesn’t do Asian cuisine.
I am rooting for Sheldon but Brooke and Shirley seem to be excellent chefs, too.
I’m in the minority, but I dislike Brooke. She seems to play the game well, but her smugness and clique like attitude made me disappointed to see her back. It’s good TV and admittedly she’s a good chef but it’s a personality thing for me. I’m rooting for Sheldon all the way.
In the previews for the finale they have to cook with no tools. I don’t understand why they put these chefs through stupid crap like that. That’s not testing their cooking abilities, just their problem solving skills. Ugh