It’s time for a new season of Top Chef! This season we are in Colorado. All of the chefs are either west coasters or yankees, so I have no hometown chef to pull for. There is someone named Brother Luck that might be interesting.
Instead of introducing everyone upfront, this seasons starts with a quickfire. The chefs can cook whatever they’d like to represent their style of cooking. They are going to have potluck dinner. Christopher Scott is cooking “Amish soul food.” That should be interesting. These chefs seem very qualified. They have 45 minutes for this challenge. One guy is making pasta. That’s risky! One of the chefs is making a seafood stew. That would take me three hours. I’m loving the snapper cooked in the wood stove.
Rogelio made a chorizo stew with jalapenos. He has worked at French Laundry in the past. That’s quite the name drop! Padma loves it.
Tyler made some weird kind of potato salad. Whatever that is, it’s assuredly NOT potato salad.
Christopher did Amish dumplings with broccoli rabe and mushrooms. Not soul food, Christopher. But Christopher is fine as frog fuzz and he’s already my favorite.
Bruce made skirt steak with salsa verde. All the judges know Bruce as do most of the chefs. I too, know who he is because he was on restaurant wars.
Joseph made the snapper in the wood oven.
Joe with the fancy mustache made the pasta with Pork and roasted cherry tomatoes.
Tanya made chicken wings and slaw. Apparently her Brown Sugar Restaurant is very popular. Joe with the mustache says it’s one of the few places he would wait an hour to get a table for brunch.
Brother Luck (it’s his real name) made pork carnitas. His restaurant just opened this week.
Claudette made skirt steak with a mole.
Tu David made some sort of a chopped salad.
Laura made an eggplant and chick pea dish.
Melissa made a pancetta and potato chowder. She’s the one who was making seafood stew I think. Looks like this is a last minute change. She’s very nervous and intimidated by all the other chefs big qualifications. I’ll be pulling for her as the underdog. She also seems very young compared to most of the others.
Carrie made a bruchetta with jalapeño and blueberry jam. That just sounds gross. The very hot Christopher Scott agrees with me. So he is smart and hot!
The judges have to judge each other. They will pick one favorite and one least favorite.
Melissa and Carrie are the bottom two. Poor Melissa.
The top three were the two Joes, and Tu! That must have been one hell of a flavorful chopped salad! My favorite would likely have been Joseph’s snapper. But apparently Joe’s pasta dish was very good as well. Tom says he really liked Christopher’s Amish dumplings. I would not like them as I don’t care for mushrooms. Tom loves wild mushrooms.
Tu won? He is as surprised as I am.
The elimination challenge is meat and potatoes. They have to serve to over 200 guests, many of whom will be chefs.
Fatima is Indian and grew up watching Padma on BBC Food traveling all over India. Padma loves Indian food so this will be a mutual love affair. Laura is from Alaska and well, she’s a bit different. She’s never been to a whole foods. They haven’t made it to Alaska yet.
There is a whole lot of pork going on. Both Joes are doing tartare. Yuck. Melissa is going to puree her potatoes. This doesn’t seem wise to me. Carrie is doing braised short ribs with potato chips with a feta dip. Rogelio is making a potato croquette with sirloin inside. This sounds dumb. Chef Tom seems concerned as well. It looks like they only have six ovens for the 15 chefs. This is a problem. Tu David gets finished early, so he is doing a lot of Bruce’s work. This displeases the other chefs.
Bruce and Tyler both sleep with sleep apnea machines making them less than ideal roomates. Claudette is very opinionated. She’s only had one roommate in her life. I’ve never had any unless you count that one boyfriend who would not ever leave my apartment. I would throw him out and he’d come back an hour later.
Tu David lets Joe have one of his induction pots. Tu is very helpful to the other chefs. Perhaps too much so.
Fatima made sort of a Pakistani tostada, she calls it a deconstructed samosa. Tu makes a beef and potato stew. He had a scorched flavor because he gave away his pan to Joe and the other one burned. Luckily he has immunity. Joe with the mustache made a tartare that was well received. Bruce made gnocchi, they loved it. Carrie’s potato chips were burnt. Brother Luck did a purple potato puree with lamb. Graham loved it. Rogelio croquette turned out very well after all. Tanya’s jerk seasoning was not as flavorful as they’d like. She may be in trouble. Tyler did sweet potato and pork gravy. Sounds yummy. Chris did a a potato waffle with corn chow chow. Claudette also did a tartare. It needed more salt and acid. Joseph did a lamb tartare that Tom liked. Laura did a potato bread and flank stank. Gail wanted some sort of sauce. Melissa did a braised pork shoulder with a potato puree. They didn’t like it. Everything was way underseasoned. Adrienne did a sweet potato tostone with pork belly. Padma is not a fan.
Padma loved Fatima. Joe’s tartare, Chris’ waffle and Tyler’s dish. Carrie’s potato chips were not a hit. Rogelio’s croquette is on the bottom and So is Melissa’s dish. I fear Melissa will be the first one out. Right after the tastings the bottom fell out of the sky and the event was rained out.
The top three are Tyler, Chris and Fatima. Joe barely missed it with his tartare I suppose. Tyler won! Tyler says that the person who wins the first week often wins the whole thing. He is swinging for the bleacher seats.
Adrienne, Melissa and Carrie are the bottom three. Let the vagicide begin. Padma points out that Tu might have been on the bottom were it not for his immunity. Melissa is terrified. Carrie thought her potato chips were great. Melissa seems like a goner.
Melissa is out. She was sort of over her head. Melissa is devastated. She packed her knives and headed over to Last Chance Kitchen. The season preview looks fantastic! The last chance kitchen has Jen, Kuame and two other former chefs. I am watching now and I still don’t get how it works.
“Let the vagicide begin.” Snort-bark-LOL!
My very same reaction. Your comment beat me to the punch. Loved the line. Hated the meaning, but agree.
Every season the first five or six people to leave are female. Or at least mostly female. I blame Tom for that.
I don’t like mushrooms either TT. Tastes like musty dirt to me lol. This season looks great!! Excited to watch for sure. Poor Melissa. That look on her face when Padma said her famous words said it all.
This season looks fantastic! They released the first LCK prior to start of show…TT if you want, I’ll explain how it works. I know you don’t usually watch LCK and don’t want to spoil.
Well we don’t need to give the results away or spoil people that have not seen it much, but what I watched last night was four vets fighting for a chance to get back in the game. They had a cooking challenge and one person went home. But where the heck was Melissa?
They launched this episode a week before the premiere to introduce the twist of the 4 vets cooking for their chance to join this season. She’ll join in second episode of LCK. Usually LCK doesn’t start until after episode 2, so you have competitors. I like this twist!
I’m THRILLED Jen is back on last chance kitchen. That woman is a BEAST in the kitchen and in my humble opinion has been fucked over twice by the judges when she competed. Melissa was over her head and made dumb choices. Mashed potatoes??? Just no.
“Fine as frog fuzz”.
Lol, that’s going to be one of those things that I laugh about for days. Thank you very much. ???
OK, you guys have me interested in this show now, don’t know how I missed it all this time. It sounds like great entertainment, plus maybe I can get some new ideas. I love the concept of Chopped too, but mixing all the gross ingredients that they have to use doesn’t teach me anything innovative I could prepare in my kitchen. Of course, now I’m going to blame you all because this will be one more thing that will keep my fat butt wedged firmly in my recliner.
English Rose, I’ve learned a lot watching these shows over the years. If nothing else my culinary vocabulary has been expanded. Just like all the competition shows, it takes a while to get to know all the people and it is more exciting as people leave and they have time to show more about each person.
Can’t wait, thanks…
I used to watch Top Chef faithfully, then the last couple seasons totally lost interest.
This season I am enjoying and guess just needed a break, and needed to watch something different. Win, win.
I did make sure I had lunch first, just in case I got hungry, lol. (Reason I shouldn’t watch, but oh well)
Last Chance Kitchen makes this show better. Bravo posted two episodes, one with the four returning chefs and one with Melissa and 3 returning chefs. This season’s chefs are refreshing and good. Give me a Vietnamese, Thai, etc. salad any day, not the bland American poorly season interpretations of such salads any day, so I’m happy Tu won.
Brother Luck was on Chopped (I googled to be sure, it was 2015). I think it is his real name.
Watched LCK but won’t give it away.
Season looks promising.
I love this series, so excited it is back. It doesnt usually motivate me to cook, but I learn so much about food combinations, different ways to cook things, and it helps make me a more adventurous eater. (not that I need help eating more). How they can cook such intricate food in such stressful conditions looks like a superpower to me. Fun fact: Tom is married to my sister’s friend from high school. I would totally take advantage of that but my sister is not into that stuff. (translate: boring about food) I would love to see an Alaska version of Top Chef, and they never did a Hawaii series either, did they? Both would be amazing.
Love Top Chef, pretty sure I’ve seen every episode of every season. I’d switch teams for Padma, she’s just getting better with age!
Do I cook better? Probably not. Have I learned the fancy words for dishes? Amuse bouche? Learned that one. I love food and wine, not necessarily in that order. I love trying different things which can be hard to do on a limited budget in a fairly rural/touristy area…
I love the stories! Where the chefs come from, their families, how they interact with their competitors, judges, what their strength and weaknesses are and if they can overcome them! Luv watching them shop! We recently have a Whole Foods but I usually keep my head down…don’t want to act like I don’t know what I’m doing! That’s complicated shopping to me!!
I was worried about Melissa immediately when she shared she prepared for TC by having 2 panic attacks! Have never watched LCK, may have to give it a go this season!
Thank you TT for your recaps, this site has become a joy in my world outside of just watching, love hearing everyone else’s opinion. Sometimes just knowing you/fellow viewers “in the know” changes my whole opinion about a scene, person or season!
PS: I want Tu’s salad recipe. Do they put out a TC cookbook?
Fatima is Pakistani, not Indian.
May I just say BOTH times they showed Joe talking about Padma “not being able to handle his meat” were pretty tone deaf. Am I more sensitive with everything going on???