I’ve noticed lately that the shows I like the most get the least amount comments and the show I like the least get the most. It seems like the trend is that being outraged my something is more proactive than enjoying something. That is precisely the reason shows like the housewives get such high ratings. Just a bit of an observation.
Tonight, Christopher is still down in the dumps after the last elimination challenge. I really need him to put his big boy pants on at this point and get in the game for himself. His compassion for others is a very admirable trait, but this is a competition to the death, man. Get your head in the game! Bruce is really starting to be distracted by his son at home he has not met yet.
Tonight’s Quickfire is to cook a dish that showcases edible flowers. There is no more immunity. This Quickfire is also a sudden death. The bottom three will battle it out and someone will not make it to the elimination challenge.
Christopher is doing a tartare with sea bass and scallop and is using chive and onion blossoms. That’s sort of a cop out, or perhaps it just really smart. Bruce is making pasta. Doesn’t he do that every week? Fatima is doing a rack of lamb. Joseph is roasting radishes with some of the flowers. Something happened to the first type of pasta Bruce wanted to make so he is repeating a pasta he has already done. Things are not looking good for Bruce. Carrie is making something called fancy toast. She is the only one who knows what that is. Sounds simple. Mustache Joe mocks the toast idea too. He is making dumplings. Again. What is with all the repeats tonight. I will say that squash blossom dumplings does sound good though. Adrienne made a beautifully plated seared scallop.
Padma actually said. “Pasta, again?” to Bruce. Padma stalks off muttering about how they are killing her with the pasta and polenta.
The top two were Fatima’s lamb and Carrie’s fancy toast. Fancy toast wins!
The bottom three are Joseph’s radishes were not roasted long enough, Christopher’s tartare was too heavily dressed, and Mustache Joe’s poaches squash blossom. Really? Bruce skates through?
The elimination is a cauliflower challenge. Joseph is doing a cauliflower rice dish and the guest judge has that on his menu. Joseph has never made it before. That could be a problem. Then Tom Colicchio literally gags on Mustache Joe’s buffalo cauliflower. Tom says he didn’t like any of the dishes. He particularly hate Mustache Joe’s dish. The guest judge hated Joseph’s “rice” dish. That make Padma the deciding vote. She eliminates Joseph and Fatima has a meltdown crying and so does Carrie. The girls love Joseph and openly cheered for him. I am sure that Bruce will go next. When the show opened and they were all on the couches they were talking about them having more room to sit. Bruce says if he and Joseph leave there will be a lot more. Foreshadowing?
The guest judge for the elimination challenge is a Pit Master and of course he is friends with Bruce. Isn’t everyone? Since Carrie won the quickfire, she gets to choose her partner and the other teams. She chooses Christopher. The other teams are Adrienne and Joe and Bruce and Fatima.
It is quickly obvious that Bruce and Fatima will lose. Fatima basically wanted something in Bronco colors so the are doing blue nachos with orange cheese. Fatima is putting lentils on nachos. I think that gives the other teams an automatic first down. Tom just said he loves nachos, so what do I know. Bruce is also doing a sirloin dish of some sort.
Adrienne and Joe are doing ribs. Christopher and Carrie are doing some twist on poutine.
I been tailgating a million times. I can’t remember a single thing I ate. In fact, I can’t remember much of it at all.
Everyone in the crowd seems to be pulling for Carrie because she is the local girl. The poutine with pork is a huge hit. The judges are a bit perplexed that Fatima and Bruce did separate dishes. Fatima could be in trouble with her nachos.
Adrienne and Joe’s ribs are a hit. The did not like the fried mac & cheese.
Judges Table
Tom has not been impressed with a dish this entire episode. The clear winner was Christopher and Carrie. They were the only elevated version of a tailgating dish. They both win a trip for two to the Superbowl VII which is AMAZING because Christopher is a HUGE Eagles fan. Now I have a team to root for in the game.
Bruce is safe with his sirloin. It’s down to Fatima and Joe. Sadly, Fatima goes home. Padma looks as devastated as I am. I need to check her Instagram and see how she is recovering from her cancer surgery.
Next week: We are down to five chefs. And it is some sort of Stephen King Horror theme.
So sad that Fatima got eliminated. It should have been mustache Joe— he did poorly in the quick fire, and then poorly in the elimination challenge with his gummy mac n cheese. I’m a Fatima fan. I hope she’s healthy now. She seems so kind and supportive.
Carrie has been on a roll lately, I like that she usually does something unique. Sad to see Fatima and Joseph go. I think it’s interesting that Bruce came on this season with his baby being due. It seems like he has a lot of connections so the timing seems odd, but I’m not his wife so my opinion doesn’t matter much.
I was so sad to see both Joseph and Fatima go as I was rooting for both.
I must say, I really like this years contestants, except for Claudette, so it’s hard to pick a favorite.
I thought mustache Joe should have definitely gone home. I was really rooting for Christopher, Fatima, and Carrie to make it til the end. I thought they were foreshadowing Bruce to go home the whole episode!
This episode made me sad, I really likes Joe and Fatima. I figured mustache-Joe or Adrienne would be going home when Carrie paired them.
I hope next week’s episode takes place at The Stanley Hotel. It’s what inspired The Shining, it’s in Estes Park (which is gorgeous) and the hotel itself is beautiful. My family dragged me on a ghost tour and I was more interested in the gorgeous antique furniture and the bar.
I agree with all of you-mustache Joe should have been eliminated. All he made was mac and cheese-it should have been perfect. Thy said it wasn’t crispy AND didn’t taste good. At least the consensus on Fatima’s nachos was that they were yummy. I never heard of fancy toast but it sounds (and looks) delicious.
Tamara- you are absolutely right (again). Perfectly enjoyable shows don’t get the noise they should. I loved Sweet home Oklahoma but it was so drama-free; Im sure Bravo won’t bring it back.
I’m there with you with loving this show and Sweet Home OK, even turned a whole bunch of my friends on to that show.
I loved Sweet home Oklahoma too! They are real friends…makes a difference on these shows IMHO.
Me too! Love this show, Runway and sHOk
This was a very sad one for me. Joe flamm and Fatima were my favorites, though I like Christopher and Carrie, too.
I love them both so I’m not sure who I’m going to root for in LCK 🙁
so sad Fatima is off the show, and she left graciously, which was nice to see. Mustache Joe should have been the one to go. I am sort of wishing that Bruce goes next, he needs to be home with his baby! I am thinking I know who the final two will be, but then there are always surprises.
I have been home with the flu for the past few days, so I am taking any form of teevee I can get, and mostly I like the feel-good stuff, (like the cold medicine) or the light drama. Outrage (RH) makes me cough more.
I love that you recap Top Chef and I look forward to reading it every week. I usually lurk in the comments because I don’t have anything insightful to say.
Top Chef is my top fav reality show. I’m there with you, with enjoying it so much for the talent – not the drama – and seeing these people strive to for better each episode. These seem like genuinely nice people that are talented and want to better their brand.
Top Chef has always been my favorite! I am slowly quitting the housewives, I am down to NY and BH, but I don’t go out of my way to watch either.
Not going to give anything away, with this season of strong competitors, the chef that returns from LCK is going to be a beast. I am so glad they have continued to do LCK, like a Tim Gunn save, sometimes it is a technicality/team challenge that gets the best chef booted…LCK levels the playing field. I also really like Tom, his interactions with the eliminated chefs, and the challenges in LCK.
Last Chance Kitchen Tom > Regular Top Chef Tom
Tom is much more appealing in the LCK episodes and the atmosphere is more convivial. This is the first season that I’ve watched LCK and now I wish I could see previous seasons. This season’s cast of chefs (even without a Southern chef to root for) really appeals to me overall.
They’re tops…sorry.
Youtube for the past LCK seasons.
Thanks Superfly! Love your name-
I love Top Chef. It seems to me that over the years the chefs are more supportive, respectful and actually like their fellow contestants..l love it!
I don’t know what I expected from a tailgating elimination challenge but I was suprised that there wasn’t a lot of really great food!
Nachos are hands down my favorite food group, I have a friend who owned and then later sold a restaurant here who would occasionally have duck confit nachos on his menu, they were to die for! He bought another local restaurant, haven’t been yet it’s a little fancier and I’m a lot more casual these days. Need to go and support though, love locals standing out instead of the “chain” food you can get anywhere!
Thanks for the posts TT, lack of comments probably just means we agree?
Like Bridgett, I’ve moved away from the H’Wives-I’m down to NY and Potomac.
I love Top Chef (and Million Dollar Listing). This season features one of the strongest Chef-cast in quite a while, and I love seeing glimpses of Denver and Colorado, where I lived for 10 great years.
Too bad about the lack of comments on the best shows!
Sad show in terms of eliminations.
I love this show but constantly amazed that basic cooking wasn’t taught in their respective schools. Things like cooking an egg or making macaroni fails them they can put flavors together like mad but dont ask them to cook an egg. Remember when Gail did a video on how to cook an egg.
I didn’t want Fatma to go. Was she ill while they were filming?
I am with you, I am down to RHOBH & RHONY. I watched NJ for the first time in years and it irritated me for the entire. OC an I are done because of Vicki & Tamra’s mouths. I hope I live 100 more years without hearing Whoop It Up again.
I watched the final of Hell”s Kitchen last night and all of those chefs seemed better than the chefs on this show. Those five course meals they made in the finale were outstanding.
So true! The Hell’s Kitchen finale food looked amazing! I’ve been a little disappointed with Top Chef this season.
It is hard to screw up Mac & Cheese but Joe managed to do so and should have been sent home. I’ve not seen any seriously complicated delicious dishes this season and I love this show. 🙂
To turn out soggy Nachos is beyond belief. Personally, I do not think any of them are worthwhile to compete.
Tamara, your recap reminds me of even more things I hated about this episode. The quick fire elimination is stupid: 30 minutes and a really good chef gets tossed? When Fatima got eliminated, it made me think fondly of the Great British Baking Show, where they judge the contestants on all 3 challenges. Fatima came in second in the quick fire, but they didn’t take that into consideration. Mustache Joe should have gone. I cringed when I saw him pour cornstarch all over those tiny mac and cheese squares. Unoriginal and poorly made, versus her creative take on nachos? Poor judging.
The elimination challenge was…tailgate party food? How/why would anybody elevate that?
The only thing that made me smile in the episode was Mustache Joe being disgusted by…basketballs…because they hit the ground and then you touch them and your hands get dirty…
How did I miss the fear of basketballs? LOL!
“Sports and balls? No. Especially basketball? You throw it on the ground and then you touch it again? You throw it on the ground and then you touch it again? GrosS”
(From Sports Illustrated recap)
I like the fact that LCK is now available on cable. I prefer that to watching online.
I have always enjoyed this show. Christopher and Carrie winning a trip to the Super Bowl was the BEST! I loved the scene with them talking about the win and saying “hopefully the Eagles will go this year” and “maybe they’ll have a really good halftime show”. I was sooooooo happy for them!
Thinking of Christopher and Carrie. What a night for them!!! Yay!
I was thinking of him all day! I really hope he was able to go, I think he just got the tickets. not sure if he had hotel and air and that stuff was probably sold out for quite some time. And his team won!!
Chris and Carrie post a couple of pictures on their instagram, looks like they had a great time!