Tamara Tattles

Come for the tea. Stay for the shade.

  • COMMENTING RULES!
  • Blinds
  • RHOA
  • RHOBH
  • RHOD
  • RHONY
  • RHONJ
  • RHOOC
  • RHOP
  • RHOSLC
  • Shahs of Sunset
  • Pump Rules
  • Southern Charm
  • Below Deck
  • MDLLA
  • WWHL
  • Killing Eve
  • Open Forum
  • MAFS
  • 90 Day
  • Love After Lockup
  • FT
You are here: Home / Entertainment News / Top Chef: Restaurant Wars

Top Chef: Restaurant Wars

January 26, 2018 by tamaratattles 19 Comments


I learned from the TV listing that Restaurant Wars will be men versus women. Do we even need to watch? Clearly women simply can’t work together. We learned that last week when Tanya went home. We were pretty evenly divided over whether Tanya or Claudette should have gone but when Tanya was a bit snippy with the judges, her fate was sealed. Do we really think the group of women will work together well? On the other side, We have the three bears (with Mustache Joe) somehow taking over Brother Luck’s spot. Christopher seems to feel a bit ostracized by the guys and the girls, which is hard to process since he is such a fan favorite.  For the ladies restaurant we have Carrie, Fatima, Claudette and Adrienne. Adrienne has been in the bottom two before with Claudette threw her under the bus.  So there is bad blood there.  I am going to guess Bruce takes lead for the guys. Not sure who will lead the women.

We start with a rehash of the situation between Claudette and Tanya last week. A lot is said about how this is the second time Claudette has thrown someone under the bus at judges table. Claudette says she was simply telling the truth. The other three women seem to be on Tanya’s side.

Brothers Eric and Bruce Bromberg will be the guest judges. They draw knives for Team Captains and Christopher and Carrie pull the captains knives. Carrie picks first. She picks Bruce? WTF the TV listing says is women against men. Christopher picks Mustache Joe. Carrie picks Joseph! Chris picks Fatima. Carrie picks Adrienne and Chris is stuck with Claudette. 

Bruce has a cute scene video chatting with Baby Jude.

This year they will have to do nine dishes, three entrees, three apps and three dreaded desserts. That is insane. Then each team gets to pick one eliminated chef to help them Carrie picks Tyler. She did not pick a single female chef until there was no other option to do so. Chef picks Brother Luck (Over Tanya).

The teams have ONE HOUR to spend 4K in Whole Foods. How is that even possible? I keep thinking it is suddenly going to be a last-minute team switch up but that doesn’t seem likely. Eventually I realize that there is an episode called Restaurant Wars every season and I pulled up a different season.

Commonplace

Chris, Mustache Joe, Fatima and Claudette first choose their name, Commonplace and design their food around that. Fatima is not thrilled Claudette is on the team. They are doing an “unexpected” theme whatever that means. Chris choose to expedite. He wants Claudette as the executive chef. Um really? Then again if the kitchen doesn’t do well then Claudette will get the blame. Fatima is FOH so she is only doing one dish,

For the first course, Mustache Joe is making oysters with a pea foam. He is also making chicken purse. Fatima is making a beef tartare. For their second course, Christopher is doing a braised pork with greens, Joe is doing ricotta dumplings and Claudette is doing shrimp and bone marrow.  For the third course, Christopher is doing a chocolate and beet donut, and Claudia is doing two dishes, a panna cotta with SKYR  and a sundae. Because being executive chef on her team doesn’t take up all of her time, Claudette starts showing her ugly attitude trash talking Adrienne and Carrie in her interviews. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that really happen before on Top Chef. It happens a lot on Project Runway, but not so much on Top Chef were everyone is busy cooking.

Conifer

Carrie, Bruce, Joseph, and Adrienne name their place Conifer. They think each course should have a vegan option. They going with sort of a Colorado theme. Carrie offers to do FOH but Joseph says he wants to do it. Bruce is going to be executive chef, and Adrienne and Carrie will cook.  Since Joesph is FOH he is going to do two raw dishes. Adrienne barely opened her mouth during the planning meeting.

They are focusing dishes that are prep intensive so that basically they can get all the set ups out of the way. For the first course, Joe is doing a Hiramasa crudo, Bruce is doing a pork meatball, and Carrie is doing kale and beet salad. The second course Joe will make a duck dish (wasn’t he doing two raw dishes?) Adrienne will do a Colorado sea bass and Bruce will do a pasta with lamb sausage. For the third course, Bruce is making apple bacon upside down cake. Adrienne is making a toasted white chocolate buttermilk cake and Carrie is making a lemon curd tart. She has some problems with her tart right off the bat. I had forgotten about the altitude issues when it comes to baking.

It’s time to open the doors.

Conifer

Bruce is being very picky about the plates going out. The judges like the name Conifer as it has Colorado roots. They love the menus. Bruce is in the weeds right off the bat. They have mixed feelings about Joseph’s crudo. The love Carrie’s salad. They really love Bruce’s meatball and polenta. The judges think Joseph is doing well in the front. They loved Joseph’s second course duck entree. Bruce’s pasta dish is a winner. However, in the kitchen they are having an issue with the plates getting too hot. This has dried out Adrienne’s fish dish and made the foam “god awful” according to Tom. For the third course, the love Bruce’s cake but they love Adrienne’s desserts even more.

Commonplace

Over at commonplace, the FOH is a nightmare with poor service. Food is being sent back for being cold on the first entree. There are people waiting a long time to get a table. By the time the judges arrive there is a very long line. Tom doesn’t all the ferns. He thinks it’s very Cheers circa whenever Cheers was on. Padma likes it. One of the guest judges says he thinks the menu is much more ambitious than Conifer’s. They don’t understand the commonplace concept. Bruce notes that Claudette is not tasting food.

For the first course, Tom hates Fatima’s tartare it needs more of everything and the garlic chip is burnt and inedible. They also hate both of Joe’s dishes. This is not a good start at all. For the second course, Padma loves the presentation of Claudette’s dish but she cooked the bone marrow to the point that there is nothing there. While we are seeing that the judges so far hate everything about this restaurant the chefs are acting like they are sending out French Laundry level dishes They are exceedingly pleased because clearly, none of them have tasted any of the dishes. Joe’s dumplings have burnt mushrooms. They like Christopher’s pork and greens but Tom says they have too much salt. Still it is the only thing they have liked so far. They keep saying that they don’t get the concept of the restaurant. Fatima is not getting good reviews for her FOH assignment. For the third course they don’t like anything. They do says Christopher’s donut has a light, fluffy texture, but there is no beet taste coming through at all. Meanwhile, Mustache Joe, Claudette and Christopher continue the high fiving and celebratory behavior in the kitchen. Joe even says it’s not like on some restaurant wars when one team is great and one team fails miserably as the judges talk about how crappy everything is.  Claudette is going home. Christopher was smart after all.

Judges Table

This is going to be epic. They let them know Conifer was the winner. They just gushed over everyone. Joe got the win for his FOH skills. I’m not sure if that has ever happened before. They loved that he greeted every table personally and that it was evident he was having a good time. Also both of his dishes were spectacular. I’m worried about Fatima now. In a surprise announcement, each team member get $10,000 for Craftsy who did the interior designs.

Padma tells Commonplace if she was bringing a friend to their restaurant and the friend asked what kind of restaurant it is, she would not know what to say. Tom tells Fatima that he didn’t see her going around to each table. Fatima says she did and she is surprised he didn’t see that. They told Joe all of his dishes were horrible. They tell Claudette that they didn’t like any of her dishes. Claudette admits she didn’t taste everything on the way out. Christopher tries to defend Claudette saying ultimately it was his team. SHUT YOUR BIG MOUTH CHRISTOPHER! Padma asks him if he wants to go home. He says that he doesn’t. He just wants to be real and to own up to it. Then Fatima jumps in to defend Christopher. She says Christopher has a lot of heart and integrity and that is just who he is. All Christopher had to do was keep his mouth shut! They hated his dishes the least.

While the judges deliberate, the chefs head back to the stew room. Carrie tells Christopher that just because he was the one that pulled the knife doesn’t mean he is the one that goes home. Claudette rolls her eyes. Claudette suddenly says she never wanted to be executive chef in the first place, even though she was thrilled to take the spot. I didn’t hear any of the judges bashing Carrie when she opted to let Bruce take the reins. Why would they fault Christopher for the same thing?

The judges eliminate Claudette. She doesn’t hug anyone goodbye. She is the most disruptive chef left and this was the best decision. The other guys come over to hug Christopher who feels bad. Claudette tells us in a talking head that the judges were wrong and she hopes they all go die in a fire. Just kidding she says she hopes they are all kicking themselves in the ass for this. Really? Such attitude and hubris. She says it is really pathetic because she knows that the flavors she is bringing and her story is unique. If Top Chef wants a vanilla Top Chef they are doing a good job. She is such an arrogant asshole. I hope she doesn’t come back from LCK again.

Share this:

  • Tweet

Related

Filed Under: Entertainment News, Top Chef Tagged With: Adrienne Cheatham, Brother Luck, Bruce Kalman, Carrie Baird, Christopher Scott, Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins, Entertainment News, Fatima Ali, Gail Simmons, Graham Elliot, Joe Sasto, Joseph Flamm, Laura Cole, Lee Anne Wong, Melissa Perfit, Padma Lakshmi, Rogelio Garcia, Tanya Holland, Tom Colicchio, Top Chef, Tu David Phu, Tyler Anderson

About tamaratattles

Come for the tea. Stay for the shade. Not for the easily offended. You're a special snowflake just like everyone else.

Comments

  1. Chris says

    January 26, 2018 at 1:48 am

    I am so glad she’s gone and I hope she doesn’t return from LCK.
    I felt as though she acted like she was the first Latina on Top Chef, the first single mom, etc. When someone didn’t like her dish it was because she wasn’t ‘true to her story’ or she ‘wasn’t allowed to cook HER flavors.’ I love that Joe no-mustache rolled his eyes when Claudette tried to say she was only expediting and then Tom called her out for knowing the duties of an executive chef (like tasting the dishes) as she holds that role at her own restaurant. She was even talking shit back at the house the night before.

    Reply
  2. Daintyfeets says

    January 26, 2018 at 3:15 am

    See ya, Claudette.

    Reply
  3. Athan says

    January 26, 2018 at 6:26 am

    *Spoiler alert*

    Claudette loses in LCK and it was delicious

    Reply
    • tamaratattles says

      January 26, 2018 at 1:22 pm

      See that is not how spoiler alerts work.

      I’m getting complaints about y’all spoiling LCK and I’m pretty pissed about being spoiled on this one.

      Reply
  4. A Little Birdie says

    January 26, 2018 at 7:29 am

    I hated she came back from lck the first time. I felt like Kwame may have gone much further than both of those ladies. That said… Claudette throws everyone under the bus and this time it backed up. Glad she’s gone.

    Reply
    • queenmarie says

      January 26, 2018 at 9:05 am

      Me too. She is a total bitch.

      Reply
  5. DRE says

    January 26, 2018 at 2:40 pm

    When Christopher was being the wonderful guy that he is by trying to take the blame, I literally yelled “Stop talking!” at him through the television…Claudette has a very arrogant attitude for someone that got told to “pack their knives and go” twice in one season.

    Reply
    • tamaratattles says

      January 26, 2018 at 4:56 pm

      I need Christopher to win the next elimination round and wow the judges. AND STOP BEING SO OVERLY NICE! It’s a competition!

      Reply
  6. Lynn Duncan says

    January 26, 2018 at 5:47 pm

    Thank all gods and goddesses everywhere that Claudette is gone!!!

    I don’t usually read before watching, but my DVR suddenly dropped most channels while recording Top Chef last night, losing the first 17 minutes. I set it to record the next showing and it didn’t record at all.

    But at least I can watch the exit.

    And since I never watch LCK, I don’t mind learning the results (but I am very careful about spoilers in my posting.

    Reply
    • SJU says

      January 27, 2018 at 9:28 pm

      Mine did, too. It was either a Bravo thing or a Optimum thing. I knew something was wrong when they were talking about Brother and I knew he’d been voted off. I watched it on demand so I could see the entire thing.

      Glad Claudette is gone. I even watched LCK to be sure.

      Reply
      • SJU says

        January 27, 2018 at 9:38 pm

        Figured it was OK to mention it as the cat was already out of the bag.

        Reply
  7. ShaleD says

    January 26, 2018 at 7:41 pm

    Bye bitch! She is literally the worst. Glad she is gone. She is a good chef, but the arrogance is gross to watch.

    Reply
  8. Anna says

    January 27, 2018 at 3:24 am

    Only thing is, with Claudette gone, I like everybody who’s left. From now on, I wince at every cut because I hate to see any of them leave. I wish they could bring back Brother Luck and Tyler and let everybody stay.

    I’m liking Carrie for Top Chef. Anybody else have a prediction as to the winner?

    Reply
    • tamaratattles says

      January 27, 2018 at 3:30 am

      The thing is SOME OF US DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHO WON LCK! I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE! But I let it happen because I thought most of you felt the same. Now I have people who won’t read comments because of spoilers.

      SO PLEASE JUST STOP.

      Spoiler Alert
      I do not trust y’all enough to even tell people it is safe to come back into comments. Hell I don’t want to read them myself.

      Reply
  9. nooshu says

    January 27, 2018 at 8:36 am

    I hate when they argue with the judges. It’s not a good look.

    Claudette changes the rules to suit her. Anyone that has been in the restaurant business knows that nothing gets sent out without tasting it. That being said, Restaurant Wars is insane but it drove me nuts that she said such stupid things to pretend she wasn’t wrong. She just knew that she was the only choice for Executives Chef but then lies about that just meaning being the expediter.
    She’s disgusting. Too good to hug and say goodbye. Im so glad I don’t need to hear her pat herself on her first ever single mom Latina shoulders anymore.
    .

    Reply
  10. Old Jane says

    January 27, 2018 at 9:40 am

    Joe was in the right place at the right time. In a role where many get frazzled, he made everyone feel welcome. I was surprised Fatima didn’t excel, she has such a bubbly personality. Because much of the the prep done early, Bruce could be picky about the plates and it was a good call. He did it without bullying too.

    As a contestant, I would avoid tartare ( and ceviche) because they have been done and done. Unless yours is the best ever, it’s not memorable.

    Yes to the Claudette and Christopher comments.

    Reply
  11. 8isEnough says

    January 27, 2018 at 9:41 am

    So glad Claudette and her knives were sent packing! I really enjoy this crew this season and feel like Claudette brought a real bad vibe. She really showed her true colors with her commentary! Just curious TT, do you watch LCK or specifically make it a point not to? I always wonder if Tom puts his feelings aside when judging it and if he sees the talking heads before LCK

    Reply
  12. EnglishRose says

    January 28, 2018 at 4:24 am

    Don’t contestants like Claudette recognize that their demeanor is almost as important as their cooking skills? Any competitor who stands up in front of the judges, on any show, and bad mouths their teammates is instantly frowned upon and creates ill will with the people who may be placed on the same team, and whose support may be needed. We’ve seen it on Project Runway and we’ve certainly seen it on Top Chef. It makes her look like a sore loser (which she is) and won’t make her look good to the residents of her home town, which could impact business at the restaurant she’s supposed to open this year. To make matters worse, she has to throw in the race card and say that if they want vanilla, then they’ll get vanilla, implying that her ethnicity had something to do with her being sent home. I certainly didn’t think of her as an Hispanic chef, of whom there are hundreds of fine, professional examples, just an ignorant person who couldn’t accept defeat gracefully, and who didn’t say goodbye to the other contestants or the judges. Go home, Claudette. I don’t think you’ll be missed very much and definitely no boo-hoos from me.

    Reply
  13. Shae says

    January 29, 2018 at 7:33 am

    Exactly, TT. Claudette is delusional. Her attitude was revolting. She always had to make it known she thought she was superior to all and it was everyone else’s fault when she made missteps.

    She was EC and actively CHOSE not to taste or review anyone’s dishes as they went out at the restaurant. Who does that??

    Terrible team player, terrible attitude, and while I don’t dispute she can cook, she doesn’t cook well enough to make up for what a delusional bitch she is.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Come For The Tea, Stay For The Shade!

  • MAFS Recap: Is This Love?
  • RHOSLC Recap: Reunion Part 3
  • RHONJ Recap: Licked Up And Down
  • Sheree Whitfield Reunites With Convict Boo Tyrone Gilliams
  • Breaking News! Scheana Shay Needs Our Help!
  • Southern Charm Butler Michael Suffers Serious Stroke
  • 90 Day Fiance Recap: Three’s A Party

SEARCH TAMARA TATTLES

Recent Comments

  • Rmicu on MAFS Recap: Is This Love?
  • Lucinda Meyer on MAFS Recap: Is This Love?
  • Jean Parker on RHOSLC Recap: Reunion Part 3
  • tamaratattles on MAFS Recap: Is This Love?
  • Gigi on MAFS Recap: Is This Love?
  • tamaratattles on MAFS Recap: Is This Love?
  • Fave4 on MAFS Recap: Is This Love?

Archives

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in