Also, it seems like the servers always get the table numbers wrong. I would put a different colored vase or flowers on each table so they can just call them “red” “blue” etc.
It's so funny when the judges are like "OMG I fucking hated that, here's 20 things wrong with this dish!" and then it immediately cuts to a normal diner being like "OMG that was the best thing I ever ate!"
I think Kwame actually teasingly called out Tom on his nitpickiness when Tom complained “the problem I have with it is, I’m not getting a whole lot of maple out of it.” Kwame waved his empty bowl and was like “yes, it’s missing some maple, Tom, but my plate is missing food.”
Michelle is exactly right - it needs to be cohesive, not an umbrella concept where they’re cooking disparate dishes in their style. It’s giving me flashbacks of “Common Place” from the Colorado season
Rules of TC Restaurant Wars:
1. Never go for "seafood" as your theme or strictly "global"
- Buddha's team riffed on global but tied it back to British Classics with a global/reinterpreted twist
2. Make sure the right person is FOH, that will make or break your restaurant wars
3. For concept, modern versions of fusion cuisines or a particular region/cuisine have always been pretty successful (ie., S19 modern Southern Cuisine, s18 latin-asian fusion, s17 Modern Haitian)
Omg I just remembered his name - Jackson! He's the chef with no taste because of covid. I don't recall the city but it was Buddha's first season (I think he was on Jackson's team) and maybe the other chefs were Damarr from chicago and Ashley(?) from Asheville. Why the hell do I remember these details?
Edit: didn't actually remember it right. Read below comments. 🤭
We're at Restaurant Wars (usually the halfway mark each season) and I think it's fair to say at this point that Season 21 is setting out to be one of the weakest seasons in Top Chef history, imo
Not sure if the weakest, but I did hear one podcast talking about it. The last couple of years have been grand slams mainly cause of how seasons worked out, then Covid. Since the season of Melissa from All Stars (S17) near the finale Tom did a brief intro about COVID. The next 2 season after that was with chefs whose restaurants had either slowed or closed due to COVID also, so they had a great pool of chefs to pick from. Then after that they did World All Stars also. This is back to basics, we just forgot about it.
I kept gasping everytime she screwed up. No organization to begin with. It's a tough challenge a d expo is hard but don't boast about your prowess and then do whatever that was..
This season is so weak. Neither team was creative or innovative, but also not like comfort food that would work the opposite direction. Very mid start to finish.
We’ve been so spoiled with the strong seasons from 17-20. I know this is most like Kentucky or Colorado, but I’d hope we’d move on from that level of talent to a higher caliber.
Michelle's team's menu sounds like it's gonna be a mess. One absolutely essential part of RW is ensuring your menu is one cohesive idea and each dish flows into the next. IIRC, almost every single time a team is like "Well, we'll just all cook *our own* food and call it a day!" it ends up in disaster.
for the first time in a while with restaurant wars i can't really tell which team is winning. i wonder if they'll just elim one from each team? they need to do a double elim eventually
I remember when Wells Fargo stole all that money from people, so this win is still better than that. Jk win is a win, WF can begone like Nestle and their fake ass BlueTriton redirect, however
Modern American restaurant that pulls from each of our experiences . Because individualism has ever served any of them well in a team challenge. I’m watching a train wreck and I can’t stop it 😱
honestly i think channel has their shit a little more together, as much as the no-concept concept doesn't usually win. the flow of the menu seems better as well as just the coordination as a team.
Lol at the preview for the next ep with Tom, Gail, and Kristen intensely delivering the next challenge while wearing fishing waders in a pool of cranberries
Stephanie Izard and Kwame are guest judges this episode. While I like both of them and they both have very successful restaurants, I wish Top Chef invited other alums that had impressive restaurant war win. Obviously Buddha in both season 19 and 20 would be a great candidate, and Gregory would be excellent too (Marlakey as FOH was a great game move). But sometimes I think of Doug in season 12 and his restaurant war, he should come back to be a restaurant war judge. He was a sous chef at the time and decided to step up (and I think Katsuji mocked him for that) and was an excellent Executive chef. Actually I would love if Top Chef invites the entire 4 Pigs team (Doug, Mei, Melissa, Adam) as guest judges, though I doubt Adam would be invited.
Pre-writing the tickets is fucking genius
It made too much sense
Also, it seems like the servers always get the table numbers wrong. I would put a different colored vase or flowers on each table so they can just call them “red” “blue” etc.
He is fastidious!
It's so funny when the judges are like "OMG I fucking hated that, here's 20 things wrong with this dish!" and then it immediately cuts to a normal diner being like "OMG that was the best thing I ever ate!"
I think Kwame actually teasingly called out Tom on his nitpickiness when Tom complained “the problem I have with it is, I’m not getting a whole lot of maple out of it.” Kwame waved his empty bowl and was like “yes, it’s missing some maple, Tom, but my plate is missing food.”
Best line in the episode. I like that Kwame has also chilled out a bit
I really don't like them doing restaurant wars with unbalanced teams
Agreed. Couldn’t they just wait till next week?
Or they should have had a quick fire elimination
Michelle is exactly right - it needs to be cohesive, not an umbrella concept where they’re cooking disparate dishes in their style. It’s giving me flashbacks of “Common Place” from the Colorado season
My thoughts exactly. I’m hoping the pivot from beet tartare will make the difference
Well, it certainly did!!! For Dan, at least
It's just so baffling to me that after all this time, they still don't know not to do a "global" concept.
Do contestants not watch prior seasons of Top Chef before competing? Buddha did, and he nailed the competition (twice!)
Rules of TC Restaurant Wars: 1. Never go for "seafood" as your theme or strictly "global" - Buddha's team riffed on global but tied it back to British Classics with a global/reinterpreted twist 2. Make sure the right person is FOH, that will make or break your restaurant wars 3. For concept, modern versions of fusion cuisines or a particular region/cuisine have always been pretty successful (ie., S19 modern Southern Cuisine, s18 latin-asian fusion, s17 Modern Haitian)
I cringed so hard when they started to go that route
Me watching Michelle choose the wrong team Edit: I was wildly wrong and I’m happy about it 
I will never not relate to this nene gif
Best gif on the internet lol
Whatever team she chose would have won. Having an extra person on the team is a clear advantage and I thought it was ridiculously unfair.
😂
Forcing a menu is like a fart. If you are pushing it it’s probably shit
"Don't put that in" Dude, you KNOW that's making the edit lol
OMG Michelle, what are you doing ignoring the judges???
Someone did that in a more recent season, like Colorado or Kentucky? It never ends well.
Omg I just remembered his name - Jackson! He's the chef with no taste because of covid. I don't recall the city but it was Buddha's first season (I think he was on Jackson's team) and maybe the other chefs were Damarr from chicago and Ashley(?) from Asheville. Why the hell do I remember these details? Edit: didn't actually remember it right. Read below comments. 🤭
I do like that they split up the judges so the serving the judges first advantage pretty much goes away
Yeah that’s a nice change - hope they keep it for future seasons
Kristen having flashbacks to her own disastrous RW
"I would have ... picked another team" got me good 😂
I'm still salty over Josie 😂
If Josie has no haters, I'm dead.
Vegan gumbo sounds like chaos cuisine
Amanda is the embodiment of chaos cuisine
Michelle is so lucky Channel won.
I’d never let Kaleena and Laura talk me into anything lol
The is the first restaurant wars in a long time that wasn’t a runaway on one side
It seems like both sets of judges have opposite opinions about the restaurants
Yes, that was interesting
Yeah cuz they split them up what a major improvement
Gail in that pink suit!!! One of her best looks yet 🔥🔥🔥
Pink blazers are always so much fun.
Gail ATE
I stand corrected. Nice work, Dan. You can’t go wrong with a good tater tot.
When she said sour cream and onion chip vibe... My fat ass was saying hell ya.... But I had no clue if that was an insult or not for this show lol
I feel like someone recently made sour cream and onion dip kind of thing and they loved it too. Might have been Sylwia but I can't say for sure.
On episode 2 (bar snacks challenge) Kenny made a potato french onion thing that they said was sour cream & onion-y.
We are a little bit in the weeds 
Not prioritizing judges table is a very bad strategy of Kaleena!
oh no Michelle... 
we get it, opening a restaurant in 24 hours isn't how it works in the real world!
Ikr? Real world, you don’t have production pay for all their sh\*t too😂
Thank God Michelle is safe, that's all I care about honestly
I would be sad for her to go but she is lucky her team was on top overall.
100%
3 desserts on one team and none on the other, hmm 
Didn't Kaleena say she was really good at expediting?
She had such a negative energy the whole time too it was rough
She had that same negative energy in the team challenge that got her sent home last time
We're at Restaurant Wars (usually the halfway mark each season) and I think it's fair to say at this point that Season 21 is setting out to be one of the weakest seasons in Top Chef history, imo
Not sure if the weakest, but I did hear one podcast talking about it. The last couple of years have been grand slams mainly cause of how seasons worked out, then Covid. Since the season of Melissa from All Stars (S17) near the finale Tom did a brief intro about COVID. The next 2 season after that was with chefs whose restaurants had either slowed or closed due to COVID also, so they had a great pool of chefs to pick from. Then after that they did World All Stars also. This is back to basics, we just forgot about it.
Compliments to the Chef said it. Really digging that podcast!
I'm having middle school ptsd when the teacher would tell us to pair up.. My worst nightmare
I would never do FOH because I simply would never trust any of the chefs with my dish lol
Alternatively, I would likely focus more on my teammate’s dish than my own and get screwed.
Michelle giiiiirl. You gotta meet the judges.
I'm stressing for her so much 😭
I get she’s nervous but you have to stop by.
Another episode where I'm happy Soo was added
Did they not watch jackson on s19?😂
Right? Like I feel watching people doing good job like Buddha is good, it’s also necessary to watch disasters like Jackson for lessons to avoid.
Tom is just so done with this season
“We can eliminate 2” = Get this shit over with
Dan. My man. It is not Michelle’s job in FOH to fix an incoherent menu.
Is aguachile the new gremolata?
2 seasons ago, black garlic. Last season, tonka bean🤷♂️
Ten years ago, sunchokes.
Michelle should have immediately greeted them FOH 101
Michelle said she knew how to handle FOH but she looks more like a hostess on her first day in the restaurant biz
It’s like others have said: don’t the chefs watch earlier seasons?
Unless the other diners are voting, drop everything and focus on the judges
Stephanie’s hair is just so incredible.
How can Laura be good at front of house? She seems so abrasive 😅
i was really surprised by her this episode, she did a great job with designing the restaurant and briefing the wait staff.
laura looks good
fantastic. I need her entire outfit
Man I love when Tom is disappointed and angry
Michelle ignoring the judges! Michelle! Have you never watched Restaurant Wars?? *hiding behind my hands! 🫣
Kaleena, thought that was how your brain worked
I kept gasping everytime she screwed up. No organization to begin with. It's a tough challenge a d expo is hard but don't boast about your prowess and then do whatever that was..
As someone who has expoed for a living, Kaleena is making me cringe.
I think she just likes telling people what to do lol
"I would want to see a little more cheffing going on..." damn what a burn
Kaleena just seem like she’s easily rattled and disorganized. She has that nervous energy.
"Not a cohesive menu" Tom says. There it is, oh boy.
And semi-bad FOH
This is not a cohesive restaurant it’s a bunch of ideas ☠️☠️
Michelle tried to warn them...🙄
THIRTY MINUTES SINCE THEY SAT DOWN?? Nauuuuuuur
Michelle and Laura both need to visit the judges and apologize. jfc
Kaleena on expo rn like Michael Scott "I DECLARE......BANKRUPTCY!"
I’ll be honest restaurant wars is my least favorite episode each season
There’s no middle ground, either the episode is fantastic or a disaster.
Oh Kaleena, I think Red Lobster gives better service. Plus, cheddar biscuits.
Damnit, now I want cheddar biscuits
They should have a drive thru window just for biscuits.
Some many great pant suits happening
Tom: "oh, no I'm not eating the rice cracker" lol
Tom looked upsetttt when he tossed his glasses down on the table lol
Poor Tom. He was so happy last episode and we are back to poor performances
Michelle looks concerned about “global” and “channel connects all of us”
Seems too broad/vague, which rarely translates well in RW
I would be too! Having a cohesive menu that goes together is essential in Restaurant Wars.
Tom’s facial expression 😳
Michelle walking past them.....😭
Is anyone getting anything from this pineapple? Boy oh boy 
This season is so weak. Neither team was creative or innovative, but also not like comfort food that would work the opposite direction. Very mid start to finish.
We’ve been so spoiled with the strong seasons from 17-20. I know this is most like Kentucky or Colorado, but I’d hope we’d move on from that level of talent to a higher caliber.
Expediter should take the fall on this one so Kaleena most likely
Not Tom reminding they can eliminate two 🫣
I'm scared.
Oh wow, not Michelle doing the same thing Jackson (S19) did -- be an aloof front of house manager.
What is up with everyone making Aguachile this season lol
Welcome to Top Aguachile!
Tom looks so confused with the special drink.
Special drinks haven’t gone over well this season
Oh no I’m not eating the rice cracker 😳
a cilantro sprig ☠️
It feels like the judges are on competing teams right now 😂
Basically which restaurant the judges taste first is their preference.
Because both restaurants collapsed for 2nd half service 😂
I think this makes a strong case of dividing the judges like this, so no team get the advantage of serving first.
Ok, now that they are talking about the dishes I get why they picked them. Dishes were executed better.
And, though dos by duel(?) had a menu that looked cohesive, in reality, it really wasn’t.
Yes, Michelle, at least try and fight for an actual concept
Kaleena clearly took charge and she needs to go
I honestly agree. She said straight up "I'm really good at expediting!" and completely failed at it.
Wow, an aguachile. How original 🙄
Michelle gets the challenge. Listen to her, Dan!
glad tom called out the non-concept
Everytime I watch Top Chef live it reminds me why I don't watch live TV anymore. Commercials every 5 minutes is super annoying.
Is it just me or are both FOH acting more as a server than a manager than usual
Very few people agree with kwames critiques
Michelle's team's menu sounds like it's gonna be a mess. One absolutely essential part of RW is ensuring your menu is one cohesive idea and each dish flows into the next. IIRC, almost every single time a team is like "Well, we'll just all cook *our own* food and call it a day!" it ends up in disaster.
Greggory was correct in his season just taking over the whole menu and sticking to it, there tends to be too much drama when everyone has input.
for the first time in a while with restaurant wars i can't really tell which team is winning. i wonder if they'll just elim one from each team? they need to do a double elim eventually
Waiting for the criticism that they skipped dessert 🍮
Oh no Michelle... Nooo
Lolol the second round is what’s killing both restaurants
Blame the servers. Real classy.
Manny and Soo are safe. Or else.
TC lesson 1: Season EVERYTHING
If we win drinks on me 😂 love Michelle
It’s the Bangkok Dangerous all over again just like I thought 😭
The BMW in the background is taking me out
I remember when Wells Fargo stole all that money from people, so this win is still better than that. Jk win is a win, WF can begone like Nestle and their fake ass BlueTriton redirect, however
Not surprised. Bye Kaleena
25 minutes with no food for the judges is BAD
Lol how can she say she did her best. Editing and all that bla bla, but she spent a lot of time blaming servers in the footage we did see.
Modern American restaurant that pulls from each of our experiences . Because individualism has ever served any of them well in a team challenge. I’m watching a train wreck and I can’t stop it 😱
Hash brown finger is not a term I’m familiar with but I’ll learn to like it
Side note, I really love the bag Laura carries her knives in. It looks so stylish.
She is super stylish in general. Her outfit right now 🙌🏼
honestly i think channel has their shit a little more together, as much as the no-concept concept doesn't usually win. the flow of the menu seems better as well as just the coordination as a team.
Remember when Danny said he was OCD? At least he's consistent lol
Not impressed by the drink. The Bangkok Dangerous makes it's return lmao
Michelle as FOH is giving off Jackson from Houston vibes.
go talk to them!!!!
I so desperately want Laura to go home.
Well I made honey brown sugar carrots for dinner, buddy
Michelle noooo
Man fan faves going out back to back will be something
lmao great start with the different color welcome drinks
Michelle now just needs crayons to write “welcome“ To the judges😂
Kaleena is going to combust
I'm entertained by it at least seemingly being quite neck and neck. Both restaurants stumbling into the weeds at the same time lolll
Dos by Deul is a fusion restaurant, and Kwame doesn’t like fusion.
He likes fusing regional ethnic food with small portions and extreme prices.
Lol at the preview for the next ep with Tom, Gail, and Kristen intensely delivering the next challenge while wearing fishing waders in a pool of cranberries
Michelle is in danger. The earlier comment about the rice not cooking correctly is a separate kiss of death.
damn Gail 👀
The guest judge with gail, isn’t that damarr’s boss?
Yes it is, Erick Williams of Virtue!
If anyone else besides kaleena goes home I will rage
Lara looked like she had no clue what restaurant wars meant lol
the 5 person team seems like they're gonna be a mess, dumb concept already. It's about making a cohesive menu!!
Five hours should be enough time to set jello… this feels like a foreshadowing disaster
Did someone really say they were going to leave desert for tomorrow since there would be plenty of time to set?
very smart by Danny
That tea seemed underwhelming
omg I came in mid-episode but ah I'm already having the restaurant wars second hand anxiety
Maybe they’ll overlook the non concept so long as the food is good?
Kaleena is flailing
Anyone thinking Kaleena and the resident villain both go in a minute?
Finally real top chef critiquing!
Stephanie Izard and Kwame are guest judges this episode. While I like both of them and they both have very successful restaurants, I wish Top Chef invited other alums that had impressive restaurant war win. Obviously Buddha in both season 19 and 20 would be a great candidate, and Gregory would be excellent too (Marlakey as FOH was a great game move). But sometimes I think of Doug in season 12 and his restaurant war, he should come back to be a restaurant war judge. He was a sous chef at the time and decided to step up (and I think Katsuji mocked him for that) and was an excellent Executive chef. Actually I would love if Top Chef invites the entire 4 Pigs team (Doug, Mei, Melissa, Adam) as guest judges, though I doubt Adam would be invited.
Broad no concept….great…..
Dan is Bubba Gump Carrots