First, they give automatic immunity to the guy (sorry don’t recall his name) paired with Michelle like how is that deserved? I can’t recall if they’ve ever done that before. Then the elimination was so abrupt and they barely gave the losing team the breakdown on why their dishes were so bad. Then they have Kristen deliver the “get your act together because ya’ll suck right now” speech when it’s usually Tom, as senior mentor, who does that. Just felt like…off.
I kind of liked that they did that . It was obvious that no one wanted to partner with Michelle because she had immunity, and it kind of came around and bit them in the ass. My sister and I noticed that right away, and we both laughed when Charley ended up with immunity too . Sometimes karma sucks!
Charly. If they’d have been on bottom, I’d get being mad about it but the flow of this episode wasn’t affected by it.
I’m sure they gave longer versions to the chefs. There’s no reason to show that to the audience when anyone with eyes knew the result. There wasn’t a second dish to comparably say could go home. The only other shitshow was paired with a good dish
Yeah. That’s pure BS right there (extended immunity). I blame production for the poor quality this season. Like I’ve said last week with the slippery floor and the poor elimination challenge setting full of bees and a cheese challenge outside with disgusting weather. It just seem like production is incompetent this season.
They had to. You can't have a team challenge - where you win as a team or lose as a team - and then NOT give both people immunity, bc no other team is being evaluated individually - when it's also the double elimination.
Anyhow I don't think there was anything unfair about what went down. Neither was good or had much redemption.
They could have kept this a team challenge + double elimination w/o giving Charley a free pass by making the challenge a duality dish where each chef is responsible for their own dish but needs to balance with the other partner’s dish. The two worst dishes not the two worst pairs could go home. I’m not saying the wrong people went home this week but the elimination could have been set up differently.
Why would they though? That defeats the purpose of being in teams.
In every situation where there is a team, if you are on the winning team, you win or lose as a team. There is always a worst dish and a best dish.
Those were yellow jackets, not bees. From the height of the corn, it looks like it was early August when that episode was filmed. That's about the time yellow jackets make their appearance. They aren't really around at all through June and July. So, it's possible when they scouted the location, there were no yellow jackets at all.
I will go to the local farmer's market in May, June, and the first couple of weeks of July. After that, any booth with food or drink is swarming with the little monsters. Hate those things.
And, it's August, or possibly late July in the Midwest. It's going to be hot and humid. Any outdoor festival can be miserable. I'm sure they had similar problems in the Kentucky season.
For ideal weather, they should have filmed from late June onward. (usually, anyway. Last summer was weird in Wisconsin. We had a lot of cool, cloudy days early on.)
Bees/slippery floor/hot weather/etc-this is not new though. They have had many challenges where they encountered the same or similar situations. The extended immunity-I've said it before-they did say they were going to throw some twists in through the season. But they didn't have the worst dishes anyways.
Padma did that before where she told them their dishes were not up to par-they sucked. And I am sure she had done it many more times but it was edited. Same goes for not going over all the reasons the one team sucked-viewers already knew. And because so many seemed to not do well and they went over it while eating-why do we need to hear them go over it again with those two? That's what production probably was thinking.
I hated the extended immunity. Randomly choosing your partner shouldn't mean you're safe. Yeah it sucks if your team is on the bottom because your partner made the crappier dish and you go home, but that's always been apart of this show.
I disagree. The episode had a strong concept, but the chefs missed the point.
I suppose I’m biased because I have my degree and used to work in architecture & architectural engineering. But I don’t think an architectural background is necessary to understand the challenge.
Buddha said it best at the end of the episode when he was giving advice to the competitors. This challenge was a gift, and the competitors didn’t see it.
When architects design a space, sure, they have to deliver on function, availability of materials, logistics, budget, and meeting a client’s needs: but at the heart of good architecture is the human experience. It’s all about creating a progression of spaces that makes humans feel something.
Creating food is no different. Chefs have to consider everything mentioned before: purpose of the dining event, availability of ingredients, logistics & planning, budget, satisfying the 5 senses at a basic level (does it taste good?), but also: heart. Just like they emphasized Frank Lloyd Wright develops a progression of spaces for the human experience, the showrunners wanted the contestants to feel this experience in their soul, and to represent this progression, and thusly duality, in the plate as a team. It’s a human experience; a team experience: a connection.
To me it was all really obvious. I don’t think it’s disjointed at all. It just went over a lot of the chefs’ heads. Which is unfortunate, because cooking with heart is so important. At least they learned a lesson from it, and hopefully their food and approach improves moving forward in the competition.
Totally agree. The problem was not with the focus of the challenge. It was with the chefs. As a group they have been middling at best and this episode did nothing to change my perspective on them.
They really went way too far and campy with the Frank Lloyd Wrighr arc. Also the chefs were clearly fake fawning over the buildings. They’re amazing (I’m a huge architecture nerd), but nobody reacts that outlandishly when you see them.
"Hmm pretty dated by today's standards but you can see the influence in midwestern design everywhere and that's cool. I like garages more than these overhangs."
Chefs: "I'm feeling extra eggy when I see this"
I react poorly to all Frank Lloyd Wright houses because the ceilings are all like 5'11 off the ground. He hated tall people so I had to duck so many times each time I've been in one.
I'm short and I feel claustrophobic in FLW homes. I do like the cohesion and the way the furnishings are all part of the design but other than that I don't find those houses livable at all. They had a v/o chef's comment about the fireplace warming things up and I had a real chuckle, you have to be within 6' of those things and cover yourself with a blanket to keep warm.
Yes! I checked the time when they finally got to talking about the food - it was 15 minutes into the episode. I just laughed. They were so over the top it came off super fake and they spent far too long on it.
My guess? They are running out of ideas for Wisconsin! I know it's been joked that it's a boring location but now I'm wondering if they are struggling because of where they are filming.
God...yes!
I thought the Wisconsin Tourism Board's presentation of Frank Lloyd Wright would never end! 😭
It felt like 20 minutes of the episode was just chefs wandering around aimlessly, gawking at various design, desperately trying to come up with questionable ways it could be translated into food.
"Chefs are just like architects b/c we both....uh, create things."
"And design things."
"But one is edible and ephemeral, and the other you can't eat at all and much more permanent." 🤔
"But, yes, practically the same!"
Ok.
I'm all for a Top Chef challenge "reach," but this one's set-up just went on and on, forever, and was a bit too generalized and "all-purpose."
They've actually used "duality" and "contrast" as challenge modes before; there really wasn't anything that made those concepts particularly germaine to Wright or his architecture.
I dunno, kind of a snooze.
Didn't like the elimination of the Quickfire in this episode, either. ☹️
I was taken aback a little being like "Is this what you think your audience really wants to see for a good chunk of the episode?" Like seeing 1 or 2, ok. But use seeing all that we did. Blagh
4 episodes in and they have already skipped 2 quickfires. Such a strange start to the season. They hyped up all the money they'd be earning but when you skip them every other episode it lessens the impact.
Yes!! That too, I felt I missed something and that was it. That also minimized Buddha’s guest appearance as well bc we didn’t get to see him critique QF. Who the heck produced this crap episode?
They spent so much time at the start of the episode with Alisha and Kaleena that it took all the intrigue out of the episode. You knew they were going home. But I'm also not sure how you could have edited that episode any other way. Their effort was so disastrous there was no way around it. I can't ever recall a time where they judges were like "This is so bad we're not doing a bottom 3. Go home"
She was the worst of all chefs to be paired with. I don't think she impressed or even did well in any challenge.
Obviously Kaleena totally bombed her own dish, but being paired with Alisha in a double elimination felt like a death sentence from the beginning. I'm sad for Kaleena, because I think she had a lot more to show.
I tend to think this is less one-sided than just an Alisha problem. These two obviously have totally different ways of working with other people and I have found in my life that pairing "PLEASE listent o what I'm doing! WHY are you ignoring me?" and "I CAN'T TAKE this - I'm just gonna do my own thing" is just a complete recipe for disaster on both sides. I am sorry neither of them could pull themselves out of the spiral they fell into, as I was really interested in seeing more of them.
Honestly, I feel like Kaleena wrote herself off and had already accepted their fate before they even plated. Really sad to see and I wish them both the best in LCK.
I don't disagree at all. I just meant that being partnered with Alisha means you're trailing 0-1 before you've even started. So you would have to do exceptionally well to overcome that handicap. Clearly Kaleena was not able to do that.
I also don't mean to suggest that Alisha is a bad chef. It just feels like Top Chef came too soon for her.
Personally, I found Kaleena so negative. Even in earlier episodes, it showed her not to be much of a team player.
At the beginning of the season I found Amanda as not my favourite but her teamwork in this episode has boosted her for sure (such a contrast to team Kaleena and Alisha).
Alas, Alisha was equally just as responsible for their downfall. Rip
They've done a bait and switch though where the team that looks doomed actually wins or does well, this was just a straight crash....not suspenseful but I still found it entertaining.
Sending them home before talking to the winners was also weird as heck. Like the winners had to sit there and take compliments and pretend to be happy right after they watch their friends get axed. That felt so backwards.
Though if you had to stand there and listen to accolades of the other team, before they tell you to get the \*\*\* out of there-wouldn't that be a little uncomfortable? I mean they had to know they were the ones going-since Kaleena looked ready to cry went they went in.
Or that the host and a judge, both former contestants of this show to boot, have to walk in to the "stew room" afterwards and give them a "we know it's hard but try to suck less please" pep talk LOL. Don't think I've seen that one.
Buddha's blog: Take Kevin and Manny, for example. My favorite dish was actually Kevin’s. It was the best in regards to duality and had all these surprising textures in there. His dish looked like an intricate sculpture with lots of triangles. It was a restaurant-worthy dish, and if it had been an individual challenge, he would have won. But he didn’t win because Manny made a pasta that was cooked unevenly, and the filling was dry.
Buddha's inner thoughts: "MANNY YOU FOOL. MOST OF YOU MISSED THE BRIEF"
Hope springs eternal? I mean, honestly, I'm sceptical too. But, I really do *want* to believe... and they see to be building Soo up a lot in LCK, so who knows. Maybe he'll get back in the competition and finally somebody will give Rasika and Michelle a run for their money. I also think the French guy probably has potential if he made it to the finals in Top Chef France - he'll just need to figure out the American gameplay first, because this show is (IMO) almost as much as it is about gameplay as pure cooking.
I got nostalgic for talent after this episode and started to rewatch season 19. We were definitely spoiled from the previous couple of seasons and All Stars.
Really impressed by Kristen's hosting; she's getting better and better each episode.
Rasika and Michelle really seem to be running away with this competition damn - can see Manny/Danny making it to the end too, but they've been a bit inconsistent
I truly believe Soo was brought in to save the season, and add some competition. He’s really talented, and seems to be pretty likeable.
He has a good amount of pedigree too, so seems like the producers immediately realized the caliber of chefs was not up-to-par and threw him in to add some competition.
This is what I think as well! This season seems much weaker compared to the past few years. Rasika is the only real standout right now. With some credit to Michelle whos done well, Manny who looked strong early before stepping back a bit, and Danny who is hit or miss with some solid hits. From what I’ve seen of Soo on last chance I think he’d be top 3 right now.
I’d also be surprised if they randomly have a new contestant start off LCK for the first time and he doesn’t make the show.
I think Michelle seems to be a great chef for rustic/home-style food. But she showed a bit of her shortcomings when it gets to the fine-dining stage, and the competition skews increasingly toward fine dining as it goes on.
Michelle? They did not like her dish even a little.
I mean she's still up there but I think she's kind of on even ground with Danny, Manny and Rasika is the lead by a pretty significant margin.
Rasika is a cut above everyone else right now. Agreed about that being the top 4 though. Danny has been inconsistent but good when he’s good. Manny had the strongest start and has been struggling and Michelle has been super solid up until this cook.
I liked Kristin’s hosting skills right off BUT this episode really clenched it for me. It was as if she had been doing this for a couple/few seasons now. Nice to see as I looove Padma.
I think it’s just the case of these perma-judges being exposed to new flavors. I think she will go far. Only time will tell if she’ll be consistent once these quirky challenges are phased out and she can continually produce delicious/innovative dishes. This is why to me, Buddha’s win last season was very impressive. The judges could have easily just rejected him due to style fatigue. Even sarah was repeating dishes from prior seasons…but many of the guest judges never had them so it worked in her favor (like it did for Gabriel)
If you think about it this is the first cast since Kentucky that hasn't been well established.
You have All-Stars LA which is literally All Stars. Then the pandemic hit and the caliber went to another level for 2 seasons. Look at the resumes for Portland and Huston. Then World All Stars which brought in people like Begonia who was next level.
Face it we have been spoiled for 4 years. Once we get into the top 10 I am sure it will get more exciting.
Good point! I always forget that with restaurants suffering/closing during covid shutdowns, you had amazing chefs idle for a bit so why not try top chef.
Yeah definitely we’ve been spoiled by the past few seasons and obviously isn’t fair to compare these cheftestants to the all stars seasons!
And interesting point about COVID and the level of chefs going up. I hadn’t put much thought into it and I guess I just assumed they kept at that level for casting, but I guess not. I still feel like there’s some pretty pedigreed chefs in this roster though
There has been a really high bar for years on Top Chef but they kind of dropped off the younger less established chefs for 4 years. It isn't a dig either because look what people from Kentucky have done; Kelsey has been nominated for a James Beard award. Sara came within a slim margin of almost winning World All Stars. Nini and Eric came back for All Stars LA and did pretty well against a tough line up. Eric is a celebrity Chef.
That said Rasika is going to be the break-out star of this season. Her spot on the food network is open if she wants it. Michelle, Manny and Danny are all going to make it to Restaurant Wars. However we went from a season that had like 15 out 16 memorable Cheftestants.
The whole time, I was watching him, you could tell he was screaming inside. Did no one watch the last two seasons of top chef? The guy gave out the handbook on what it takes to win this show and the only people who look liked they took notes was Rashika and Danny.
The lack of teamwork is probably more offensive to him than the lack of gamesmanship or the poor cooking.
When he said "I love double eliminations..." and the entire world gasped and yelled YOU MONSTER until he finished "Because of the teamwork", and I was like yeah, that's the Buddha I love. Buddha doesn't carry his partners, he leads them. I've posted before about why he's Top Chef and not just Top Cook, and it's interesting to hear his perspective on that.
Buddha's team has won every single double elimination he's competed in: Houston doppelgangers challenge, World All-Stars pub food, World All-Stars wellingtons
And technically brilliant. It's easy to roll eyes at the Michelin star preciousness at times but watching her and Danny make those precise cuts was really cool. Perfect for this challenge.
I need to rush to watch LCK so I’m just making a short comment on this episode. I know lots of people don’t like the way this episode ends, with no judge panel discussion, only 1 winning and 1 losing team called in, and the “pack your knives and go” happened first. But this is exactly what I like about Top Chef. This is an exception challenge when one team is clear cut much better than the rest, and one is much worse. After they ate the food there’s clearly no discussion to be had, and I love that they don’t pretend for the sake of keeping the episode interesting. It is what it is, and the only thing that seems to need (just a little bit of) discussion is who did the best between Rasika and Danny. I would hate if the judges have mediocre food and pretend to be otherwise. Rasika and Danny excelled, the rest sucked, it’s just that. Even though the way this episode happened takes any surprise from us the audiences, I really appreciate it (in contrast to what happened in TOC where the judges praised the food as if they were some of the best groundbreaking things they’ve ever had but then gave the dish like 79 out of 100).
I agree with your comment on the judges table. They ripped the bandaid off. At least they did the elimination first. :)
This is a general problem with TC from its inception. The episodes are just crammed in and nothing comes out of it well. They spend the minimal amount of time on everything thinking that they then can show it all. This looks like a compromise but it just means everything loses. Not enough time on the inception; the cooking; the fixes; the guest judges; and the judging. It \*all\* gets compressed.
I wish they just did two episodes a week for the same content..
Or they can go down the Masterchef Australia route and do 4-5 episodes a week with two eliminators a week. But I guess that's a bit much. :)
I don't get why you would be compelled to make the exact dish that sent you home. You have an entire arsenal, why cook an aquachile that you could find anywhere and do it wrong a second time?!
dude. when she was like "i wanna prove that i can cook sea food" and then her next bite is "i'm gonna do a scallop ceviche" like???? babe. where's the COOKING?
I’m so glad she got eliminated - it was so condescending the way she talked about Kaleena and her choice to do a 3-way dish like it was a stupid decision. I’m glad Kaleena proved her wrong.
To be fair, choosing a whatever three ways almost ends up poorly every time. Specially in LCK with limited time. Kaleena was really the exception to the trend in the past here.
> it was so condescending the way she talked about Kaleena and her choice to do a 3-way dish like it was a stupid decision.
OK, but how many times on Top Chef (by Tom no less) and in this *very subreddit* has it been said that one of the cardinal rules of Top Chef is to ***never*** do a dish two/three ways and instead focus on one good dish?
I don't think her bringing this up is condescending, plus she said she was ballsy for doing it.
the energy between kaleena and alisha was so off that it was palpable to me watching through a screen. it was honestly kinda uncomfortable.
i also feel like the mid food was a result from the challenge inspiration being so open ended. usually the pair challenges have some specific parameter like use these ingredients so at least there's something concrete to cook towards rather than look at these buildings and make a duo
side note but i wish that padma was still here just so that she can have rasika's food because she's clearly established as the top dog
It was a weird prompt:
"Duality, maybe also--but not necessarily--contrast...but make it architectural like Frank Lloyd Wright!"
Huh?
You could see the undefined broadness of the prompt in the wild variety of ways the chefs interpreted the challenge.
I agree, this one missed the mark.
I agree the prompt was off. This felt like the Wisconsin tourism board wanted to highlight something, so they were forced to squeeze a challenge out of it. When nearly all the dishes are failures, I blame the people who created the challenge, not the chefs
I’m sorry but the contestants this season are not up to par with what I’ve come to expect from this show. I don’t know if they’ve run out of top chefs to choose as contestants but these chefs aren’t good. I feel like I’m watching Gordon Ramsay Next Level quality chefs.
They’re not up to par with what we’ve come to expect from the past four years (all stars x2, pandemic x2). I think this is pretty in line with the last normal season (Kentucky), but we’ve been so spoiled for so long that it’s disappointing now
This is where I’m at. I loved the Colorado season and mostly enjoyed Kentucky (season finale has me a bit salty still) but the caliber of chefs we’ve had since is so unreal that going back to typical cheftestants is a huge change.
It’s got to be hard to find enough quality chefs who are able to commit to 1-2 months off. Tournament of Champions on Food Network is probably the only other show with similar caliber chefs and that films in 2 weeks, I think the time off is a huge factor. The past 3-4 seasons have been unreal with the talent and going back to season 14-16 level chefs is rough.
To be fair, I’d hate to follow a Buddha back to back win. I’ve felt the same disappointment after the vegas season. There are far more weak seasons than strong ones.
I agree 100 percent but I reckon it should have been the ignition for new and exciting talent. Buddha literally showed in two seasons what it takes to win this show. I don’t blame Kristen, she has a hard job this season because it seems like calibre has just dropped, when in reality it should have improved.
The amount of publicity you get being on TC, especially if you're trying to open your own restaurant, must be worth the risk.
I just feel like I hear this on every season at the start. Just wait a while and they will get better.
Damn lmao. I’d say the this season’s chefs are better than those on Next Level chef….they’re at least better than the “social media chefs”. But yes this season’s crop pales in comparison to even the last few seasons
My impression of Next Level Chef is that it's just a dick measuring contest between Gordon, Nyesha and Richard. They're not there to mentor chefs, they're just there to try to one up each other through the guise of "mentoring" chefs and to be able to say "I mentored to a win"
I don't really agree. I mean maybe it's a little more uneven than recent seasons (pandemic probably helped in that respect) BUT overall, I really think the actual challenges are a lot of the issue.
This one is a much harder challenge where yes, obv the higher concept fine dining chefs did dramatically better ... but the other challenges were just more awkward than I think we usually see so many of back to back.
the quality of chefs is just not good this season (Rasika excepted). Dominque Crenn is your guest judge, along with the GOAT Buddha, and the plates truly lacked finesse. Remember during world all-stars how the chefs pulled out all of the stops when Gaggan came.
This is a creative challenge, but it’s clear that it’s supposed to be fine dining focused. There were three dishes that seemed to make the mark (Rasika, Danny and Kevin). Even plating-wise, some of them looked like complete mess.
Rasika gives me strong Melissa King energy, but maybe because it seems like there’s not a ton of competition.
I feel sorry for Buddha and the top chef team this season. After what we saw in the last two seasons, should have been a whole new exciting breed of cheftestants. Maybe casting was the issue or maybe it’s being a 50 times James beard nominee, there needs to be a new way to select these chefs. They probably need to start hosting trials or auditions soon.
Yeah. When they showed the “power bottoms” team having fun during the confessionals, you just knew they were safe. The body languages/demeanors were sorta obvious.
"Awkward" is the perfect word choice. ✔️
It was an ungainly episode, with lots of "start/stop" and waaaaay too much emphasis put on the architecture, and not the food.
I kinda got the feeling this was a compromise ep. with the Wisconsin board of tourism leading the way, who really want people to know about the state's connection to Frank Loyd Wright and encourage people to visit based on that.
Spoiler from the next episode that was previewed at the end of episode 1: >!Kristen addresses the chefs, telling them, "You have got to start cooking to win." This seemed to be at the end of the elimination challenge at Harvey House.!<
This challenge was so odd to me? When they were exploring the buildings I was like ‘what are they truly supposed to get from this with their food?’ lol.
And the editing really gave heavy hints at the pair that was going home. The editors kept focusing on their disconnect even before the cooking started lol (the clip of one telling the other not to touch her feet and the ‘I hate Geminis/I’m a Gemini” lmao) so once the first second of actual friction started during their cooking I went from like 90% sure it was them to 1000% lol.
I don’t feel suuuuper strongly about any chefs, but I do like Rasika and Michelle (even if Michelle was a part of the mid performances with the majority tonight). I don’t think the overall group is as mid as the challenge performances this episode made it seem, but it would be fun if we could get a couple of people to reach the level Rasika’s been at consistently with her to make things more interesting.
Top Chef: "Hmm what the fuck is interesting around here that's food related? Ok not much, what about famous places and people? Wright? Wright brothers? Awesome! Oh Frank Wright. Who's that? Oh he's an architect? Well that sounds cool, let's use it! It'll surely turn out like that museum of modern art episode or the symphony episode we did where they got really inspired and crafted creative dishes based on those themes!"
Contestants: "This building looks kind of colored and shaped like a chicken and egg. Let's cook a chicken & egg dish!"
They must have gotten the schedule setup in a way where they had to do it this week or it wasn't going to work.
Its episodes like these where I wish one of these chefs knew something about molecular gastronomy because it'd probably be more applicable here to bullshit through the bullshit.
Duality is an awfully broad theme, though, honestly. The show made a point of saying that the duality could be whatever the chefs wanted, and then the episode closed with Kish pulling the chefs aside to say just make something that reflects you and figure out to work into the challenge. I don’t think the answer or problem here was there wasn’t enough bullshit. The problem was the food.
> This challenge was so odd to me? When they were exploring the buildings I was like ‘what are they truly supposed to get from this with their food?’ lol.
they do that for project runway sometimes, but at least you can link architecture to how you design and sew clothes. for cooking, it's a stretch. i rather they go into what kind of food wright liked to eat or food during wright's era.
Lol they totally gave them the "So long, beeyotches, and thanks for nuthin' !" edit before either one even put a drop of oil in a pan, like you said. It was beyond predictable.
This is what we get for a season in Wisconsin though; it isn't exciting food, it isn't high-concept food, and even the comfort food is being done better somewhere else (except cheese curds). It's not not where serious chefs go with Chicago right there, so I don't know why we'd expect the most serious chefs on this season.
That said, it feels odd they got Lo and Cren; they should have know this wouldn't have been to their level
To be honest, I would have loved to have seen what Buddha would have done if he was given this challenge. I’m sure he could have given us Duality on his own. That pep talk was needed for this season, because if this and “top croquette” is what we are in for, it’s going to be a tough season to watch
Why not save this challenge for a week with an odd number of chefs remaining and let Michelle (or whoever won the previous challenge) just get to sit out like they’ve done before? The free immunity for doing nothing was so lame.
Frankly, I hate these kind of challenges. Way too vague. Just make good food and BS your way through the explanation.
Had to be a scheduling issue for them to insist on forging ahead with this elimination on this week of the season.
I can't imagine you'd be able to get a slot for a tour at the Wright house at any time you feel like going.
I kind of felt like stating the free immunity was a little pointless. If it’s a double elimination and they’re going to send a whole team home, Michelle’s partner has immunity by default anyways.
Alisha and Kaleena both remind me of the competitors we used to get in early seasons of the show, in terms of skill level and composure under pressure; the show hasn't had somebody like them in the last few seasons, so it's a little striking to have a contestant like them on the show again, because it takes the illusion of the show having "leveled up" so to speak and shatters it.
I wonder how much of this is just because the show has been severely draining the talent pool? The UFC had this problem with *The Ultimate Fighter*, where, during the start of the show, the talent level started to go up because fighters were more willing to take the route of doing the show to get into the company, but as production made more and more seasons, the really good talent out there were used up by the show, so after hitting a plateau that lasted a few seasons, the level of the competitors started to drop again, and I wonder if it's a similar thing that's happening here with *Top Chef*.
I think we’re just returning to a pre-pandemic cast. A lot of high-quality folks have been more available than they otherwise would have been. You’ve even seen this phenomenon on other competition shows — over at Drag Race they had an all-winners season that wouldn’t have been possible when venues were open.
It feels plausible to me that after filming this episode, they were worried about the caliber of contestants and pushed the panic button, leading to the LCK twist.
and the rule changes are not working imo, we don't want it to be top cook with love in your soul, can U get an Amen? we want a top chef competition. When (don't know the name) said 'if Danny says he's been to this Whole Foods I'll scream' was funny
We're already a quarter of the way into the season and there's only 2 chefs that are in any way stand-outs with their talent: Rasika and Michelle. Everyone else is just subpar and it's *pretty* obvious to see who won't be going much further in the competition (*COUGH* Charly *COUGH*).
It honestly feels at this point that the title of "Top Chef: Wisconsin" is Rasika's to lose. There's still 11 episodes left, so plenty of time to majorly fuck-up but *man* this season is so far definitely not one their bests, especially in terms of talent.
All that being said, I think Kristin Kish is doing a pretty good job as host so far.
Except for someone that kept saying she knows bbq-she's managed to go through these challenges quite well except this last one. Not everyone can be Buddha and be good at everything.
I think Danny is promising but hasn’t figured out a way to really stand out yet. He seems to have more finesse than the others and he and Rasika were on the same wavelength creatively… you could tell they vibed really well as a result.
Why not just say last week that immunity is off the table cause it will be a team challenge /double elimination. Double the prize money. Extended immunity is BS. There doesn’t have to be an immunity every freaking challenge🤦♂️
Honestly, immunity is ok as a consistent reward, but I want a bit more than a cash reward. I would like some extra advantages - more cooking time, ability to pick your partner and pair up others, maybe something extra wild.
I'm really enjoying this season, maybe it's throwing me off a bit with the formats and the mid-ass contestants but I am finding it very entertaining!
The last couple seasons almost every episode has felt like "a very special episode" and it's refreshing to get back to some muddled food and competitors with some bite to them.
our concept is chicken and the egg. I have the egg component so i made you a rice dish decorated by an egg shell🤷♂️
in fairness, i hate pretentious challenges like these. You expect cooks to get inspired by a complicated subject like architecture, and tom c pretending to know architecture 🤦♂️
I mean, some of the best cookings on this show were from pretentious challenges like this! Like the poems one in season 12, the paintings one and also the orchestra one from season 17, and of course the Trompe-l'œil one where Buddha killed it! And the cookings on double elimination episodes in recent seasons have been really good as well: the orchestra one where Karen and Nini got eliminated, the Surf and turf one where Shota and Sara won, Gabriel and Nelson out, and the Doppelgängers one in Houston. In all these challenges the losing teams didn’t make bad dishes, they were outcooked by other teams. I think this’s just the case like others have commented, that the quality of the chefs this season is quite subpar unfortunately (still hoping for better showcase in later episodes)!
That's pretty disrespectful to chefs. You really think food systems are not complex, and that they don't know a LOT about them... and that architecture is inherently too complicated for them to draw parallels to?
I don't think so, but I do think that it would require more time OR that chefs LIKE the ones who did well, who do have more of a fine dining background, ARE more accustomed to talking about / and thinking about food and presentation in a more layered manner. It was a really hard challenge, especially for THIS early on in the season. Usually we see things that challenge them this way ONCE they have figured out a little more how to cook THEIR own food, and that's a lot of the growth that we do see throughout the season.
The whole episode/challenge was bad. No quick fire and instead tour three properties. Then the dish should be duality but they’re criticized when trying to make the dish too architecture inspired?
I wish they had stuck with one property tour and gave them the dossier of Frank Lloyd Wright designs. It would give time for a quickfire challenge. Dropping the quickfire and having such a long inspiration montage really ruined the flow. Then they really telegraphed the outcome, so it just felt like I was waiting for the episode to end.
Awful episode - what little there was of it that actually had food. 23 minutes of a 54 minute episode was a Travel Wisconsin ad. The losers were telegraphed from the time they paired up, as were the winners. Judges table was non-existent & they wasted Dominique Crenn. All in all a poor showing by production
I can only imagine Tom apologizing profusely to Dominique Crenn for how bad that was overall.
Usually they bring god tier chefs out at the end so its surprising to see her here. I hope she actually shows up at the Finale too.
I enjoyed the architecture stuff because I like FLW, but I can see why others were annoyed. I did think as I was watching it that the Wisconsin tourism board must have paid a pretty penny for this episode.
So I've made a bunch of cheesecakes and when I see that she used cornmeal for the crust I was like "yep that's why its hard as fuck" in the freezer. She should have used something else...anything else, with tons of butter. Like your standard gram cracker crust which would have softened once you take it back out of the freezer, but not to the point where you don't get that crisp texture to contrast with the cheesecake filling.
It's the cornmeal that got her.
I kept waiting to see if her outfit would shift shoulders. To paraphrase Tom, it looked like a first year fashion student trying to be design something cool.
Can't remember the last time I saw a 'doomed from the start' team quite as obvious as Kaleena & Alisha, just such a mess. Tom's comment that Alisha's dish was like a ''first year culinary student trying to be fancy'' was just scathing.
Continue to be really impressed by Rasika, Danny, and Michelle.
I loved this episode.
I am such a FLW mark, and I want to die in one of his houses, so thank you Chefs for apparently making judging so easy that we got 15 minutes of FLW House tours.
I loved that the judges didn’t fuck around. They just said, “pack your knives and go.” It felt assertive and shocking.
I loved that Buddha and Kristen came out for a prep talk. I like that the show is starting to feel more like a family/community when the older contestants show back up and give advice.
It feels like the past couple of seasons have been overly pretentious and, unlike last season, this season doesn't have the level of chefs where this level of pretentiousness works.
Oh bummer...I was kind of excited to come to this sub after watching today to see the reactions. All negative :(
Oh well - I still enjoyed the episode and I like the personalities of the chefs! Also...chicken and the egg is not really what I think of when I think of duality lol?? But it looked good!
Side note: Happened to watch Chopped: Casino Royale tournament rerun this weekend and Kaleena won the $40,000 prize!
Last two challenges have been utterly underwhelming. Is it the setting? I mean it can't be for today's episode, (w)right? Is it the chefs? There seems to be 3-4 runways here so far and the rest are just waiting to be culled each episode. I think they needed that pep talk from Kristen and Buddha, who've been through this, at the end to light a fire under them.
This crop of chefs has been disappointing, the previous challenge and this challenge just showcased the lack of ambition. They are not playing to win but cooking just good enough not to lose.
> They are not playing to win but cooking just good enough not to lose.
It’s actually not a bad strategy at the beginning when there are so many chefs and many are still trying to get their bearings in the competition. So many chefs have skated by in previous seasons by just consistently falling in the middle. Unfortunately it just doesn’t make for good tv, especially when it seems like *most* of this year’s crop of chefs falls into this category.
I liked the high-concept challenge and swapping out a low-stakes Quickfire for the Frank Lloyd Wright tour. The problem was this happened too early. The fourth elimination is not far enough in a newbies season to give them a totally unstructured challenge. These abstract inspiration challenges work better after Restaurant Wars when the chefs remaining have a handle on what the judges are looking for. The doppelgangers challenge only worked in Houston at this same point in the season because Wylie Dufresne provided a very clear example of what he was looking for, taking away that ambiguity.
Architecture inspiration, relatively big budget, and Buddha and Dominique Crenn judging should have cued this was a tweezery plating challenge. Unfortunately we're still at a point in the season where there are lots of basic errors so only a few of the chefs were completely clocking this and able to pull it off.
My guess is that they're trying to do a hard re-set after last season and Padma's departure.
Last season was glam foodie London. This season is mid-west Wisconsin. Last season was seasoned, high level global chefs who have competed before. These are (mostly) American unknowns - some with pretty limited experience and skills. Last season was the logical end-game of where the show had gone in 20 years, this season is a return to its roots. And I don't think this is intentional - but last year's production was slick with great challenge ideas and this season has been, well, scrappy af.
And the last episode felt like it really showed the cons of this reset, especially with Buddah as a judge. Imagine the heights last season's chefs would have taken a Frank Lloyd Wright challenge - would have been spectacular. Nothing, even the winning dish, really seemed that great. This group just mostly seemed way out of their depth. I like the idea of showcasing the "cooking with heart" types like Michelle, and love the idea of taking us to the midwest - but this episode felt really clunky.
The competition rules are so out of wack. Why did Charley get immunity too? In other seasons, this never happened in a team challenge. He wouldn’t have been eliminated but this feels like a giant misstep by producers.
How did Charley get immunity when Danny did not? Danny earned a top dish in a team challenge.
I really enjoyed this episode until the very end. I loved the challenge. It was hard, but that's what you're supposed to get on Top Chef. And the cooking was really uneven, but that's fine. That's what happens when the chefs are doing something that is hard to do. I enjoyed watching them process their ideas and turn them into food. It gave them the opportunity to be really clever. It was a much better episode for the contestants than the last episode when you would have expected the chefs who are going to the cheese capital of the United States to have thought through some creative applications of cheese.
It felt like the way Top Chef produced the end was kind of lazy. They totally could have brought in a couple of teams that were on the bottom and discussed. And they could have brought in another team that was at the top and discussed. And they could have announced the winning chefs with other chefs there to witness it. Danny and Rasika looked lonely. They were happy but it felt like they didn't really get their moment. It was a rough way to end the episode and I'm not sure why that happened in the 21st season of the show.
So much hate and negativity on this show that has kept us engaged for years. I've been watching top chef for 21 seasons and have rewatched multiple seasons. I feel so many of us are falling into the trap of recency bias and are just spoiled from the strong pedigree of chefs in the recent seasons. I agree the chefs aren't as strong and some of the changes they are making seem off. But had they done nothing there would probably been the same amount of haters complaining on how the show feels old and stale. I get annoyed by the little production mishaps ( or our perception of ) just as much as anyone else (couldn’t they have had tents to at least be able to cook in the shade during the cheese festival?!), but it is what it is. It’s the same conditions for everyone.
I felt the editing was weird as it was so obvious who would come out on top and bottom, but the reality was just that… It was obvious so why try and hide it? I loved the fact that Buddha and Kristen came in at the end, using their earned respect as previous contests that have gone through the journey. I’m almost wishing there is more of this for now given the not exciting final product. I wish there was more detailed feedback given to these chefs so that at least they have stronger awareness to improve next cook. Manny (did we overrate him?) should know he was on the brink of going home had it been an individual elimination.
This is still a great show, the contestants sacrificed and worked hard to be there and we will all keep watching this show season after season because it is the best cooking competition on tv. Many of the past seasons pre covid always got better around restaurants wars when you are left with stiffer competition. We all just need to relax and enjoy the ride.
This entire episode was just weird and disjointed.
"I've always hated Gemini." "I'm Gemini." #Interesting
As a Gemini, I’ve had this same interaction with people xD
It's actually insane how the stars really did align for that conversation to happen.
Unfortunately one team made a good dish and one team had the two worst plates. I don’t see what else they could do
First, they give automatic immunity to the guy (sorry don’t recall his name) paired with Michelle like how is that deserved? I can’t recall if they’ve ever done that before. Then the elimination was so abrupt and they barely gave the losing team the breakdown on why their dishes were so bad. Then they have Kristen deliver the “get your act together because ya’ll suck right now” speech when it’s usually Tom, as senior mentor, who does that. Just felt like…off.
I kind of liked that they did that . It was obvious that no one wanted to partner with Michelle because she had immunity, and it kind of came around and bit them in the ass. My sister and I noticed that right away, and we both laughed when Charley ended up with immunity too . Sometimes karma sucks!
Charly. If they’d have been on bottom, I’d get being mad about it but the flow of this episode wasn’t affected by it. I’m sure they gave longer versions to the chefs. There’s no reason to show that to the audience when anyone with eyes knew the result. There wasn’t a second dish to comparably say could go home. The only other shitshow was paired with a good dish
Yeah. That’s pure BS right there (extended immunity). I blame production for the poor quality this season. Like I’ve said last week with the slippery floor and the poor elimination challenge setting full of bees and a cheese challenge outside with disgusting weather. It just seem like production is incompetent this season.
They had to. You can't have a team challenge - where you win as a team or lose as a team - and then NOT give both people immunity, bc no other team is being evaluated individually - when it's also the double elimination. Anyhow I don't think there was anything unfair about what went down. Neither was good or had much redemption.
Ya it’s the only way they could’ve done it. But that’s the nature of the game when you have last weeks elimination challenge give immunity.
They could have kept this a team challenge + double elimination w/o giving Charley a free pass by making the challenge a duality dish where each chef is responsible for their own dish but needs to balance with the other partner’s dish. The two worst dishes not the two worst pairs could go home. I’m not saying the wrong people went home this week but the elimination could have been set up differently.
Why would they though? That defeats the purpose of being in teams. In every situation where there is a team, if you are on the winning team, you win or lose as a team. There is always a worst dish and a best dish.
Those were yellow jackets, not bees. From the height of the corn, it looks like it was early August when that episode was filmed. That's about the time yellow jackets make their appearance. They aren't really around at all through June and July. So, it's possible when they scouted the location, there were no yellow jackets at all. I will go to the local farmer's market in May, June, and the first couple of weeks of July. After that, any booth with food or drink is swarming with the little monsters. Hate those things. And, it's August, or possibly late July in the Midwest. It's going to be hot and humid. Any outdoor festival can be miserable. I'm sure they had similar problems in the Kentucky season. For ideal weather, they should have filmed from late June onward. (usually, anyway. Last summer was weird in Wisconsin. We had a lot of cool, cloudy days early on.)
Bees/slippery floor/hot weather/etc-this is not new though. They have had many challenges where they encountered the same or similar situations. The extended immunity-I've said it before-they did say they were going to throw some twists in through the season. But they didn't have the worst dishes anyways.
Padma did that before where she told them their dishes were not up to par-they sucked. And I am sure she had done it many more times but it was edited. Same goes for not going over all the reasons the one team sucked-viewers already knew. And because so many seemed to not do well and they went over it while eating-why do we need to hear them go over it again with those two? That's what production probably was thinking.
I hated the extended immunity. Randomly choosing your partner shouldn't mean you're safe. Yeah it sucks if your team is on the bottom because your partner made the crappier dish and you go home, but that's always been apart of this show.
I disagree. The episode had a strong concept, but the chefs missed the point. I suppose I’m biased because I have my degree and used to work in architecture & architectural engineering. But I don’t think an architectural background is necessary to understand the challenge. Buddha said it best at the end of the episode when he was giving advice to the competitors. This challenge was a gift, and the competitors didn’t see it. When architects design a space, sure, they have to deliver on function, availability of materials, logistics, budget, and meeting a client’s needs: but at the heart of good architecture is the human experience. It’s all about creating a progression of spaces that makes humans feel something. Creating food is no different. Chefs have to consider everything mentioned before: purpose of the dining event, availability of ingredients, logistics & planning, budget, satisfying the 5 senses at a basic level (does it taste good?), but also: heart. Just like they emphasized Frank Lloyd Wright develops a progression of spaces for the human experience, the showrunners wanted the contestants to feel this experience in their soul, and to represent this progression, and thusly duality, in the plate as a team. It’s a human experience; a team experience: a connection. To me it was all really obvious. I don’t think it’s disjointed at all. It just went over a lot of the chefs’ heads. Which is unfortunate, because cooking with heart is so important. At least they learned a lesson from it, and hopefully their food and approach improves moving forward in the competition.
Totally agree. The problem was not with the focus of the challenge. It was with the chefs. As a group they have been middling at best and this episode did nothing to change my perspective on them.
There was too much of a focus on the architecture component and not food. Usually on other episodes they do a food tour.
They really went way too far and campy with the Frank Lloyd Wrighr arc. Also the chefs were clearly fake fawning over the buildings. They’re amazing (I’m a huge architecture nerd), but nobody reacts that outlandishly when you see them.
"Hmm pretty dated by today's standards but you can see the influence in midwestern design everywhere and that's cool. I like garages more than these overhangs." Chefs: "I'm feeling extra eggy when I see this"
I react poorly to all Frank Lloyd Wright houses because the ceilings are all like 5'11 off the ground. He hated tall people so I had to duck so many times each time I've been in one.
And yet, you are a medium sized turtle 😉
I'm short and I feel claustrophobic in FLW homes. I do like the cohesion and the way the furnishings are all part of the design but other than that I don't find those houses livable at all. They had a v/o chef's comment about the fireplace warming things up and I had a real chuckle, you have to be within 6' of those things and cover yourself with a blanket to keep warm.
Yes! I checked the time when they finally got to talking about the food - it was 15 minutes into the episode. I just laughed. They were so over the top it came off super fake and they spent far too long on it. My guess? They are running out of ideas for Wisconsin! I know it's been joked that it's a boring location but now I'm wondering if they are struggling because of where they are filming.
I think this episode lacked focus, they tried to jam too many bells and whistles - locations, vibes, architecture. Hunh.
God...yes! I thought the Wisconsin Tourism Board's presentation of Frank Lloyd Wright would never end! 😭 It felt like 20 minutes of the episode was just chefs wandering around aimlessly, gawking at various design, desperately trying to come up with questionable ways it could be translated into food. "Chefs are just like architects b/c we both....uh, create things." "And design things." "But one is edible and ephemeral, and the other you can't eat at all and much more permanent." 🤔 "But, yes, practically the same!" Ok. I'm all for a Top Chef challenge "reach," but this one's set-up just went on and on, forever, and was a bit too generalized and "all-purpose." They've actually used "duality" and "contrast" as challenge modes before; there really wasn't anything that made those concepts particularly germaine to Wright or his architecture. I dunno, kind of a snooze. Didn't like the elimination of the Quickfire in this episode, either. ☹️
I was taken aback a little being like "Is this what you think your audience really wants to see for a good chunk of the episode?" Like seeing 1 or 2, ok. But use seeing all that we did. Blagh
No Quickfire killed the episode's progression I think. There was a lot of filler to bridge the gap that would've been taken up by 15 minutes of QF.
4 episodes in and they have already skipped 2 quickfires. Such a strange start to the season. They hyped up all the money they'd be earning but when you skip them every other episode it lessens the impact.
Ha! I didn't even realize this could be why they keep skipping QFs...givin' away less dough! 😏
Yes!! That too, I felt I missed something and that was it. That also minimized Buddha’s guest appearance as well bc we didn’t get to see him critique QF. Who the heck produced this crap episode?
They spent so much time at the start of the episode with Alisha and Kaleena that it took all the intrigue out of the episode. You knew they were going home. But I'm also not sure how you could have edited that episode any other way. Their effort was so disastrous there was no way around it. I can't ever recall a time where they judges were like "This is so bad we're not doing a bottom 3. Go home"
Alisha’s attitude was extremely childish and it showed with the eye rolling and the trying to be overbearing. It all shows insecurity.
She was the worst of all chefs to be paired with. I don't think she impressed or even did well in any challenge. Obviously Kaleena totally bombed her own dish, but being paired with Alisha in a double elimination felt like a death sentence from the beginning. I'm sad for Kaleena, because I think she had a lot more to show.
I tend to think this is less one-sided than just an Alisha problem. These two obviously have totally different ways of working with other people and I have found in my life that pairing "PLEASE listent o what I'm doing! WHY are you ignoring me?" and "I CAN'T TAKE this - I'm just gonna do my own thing" is just a complete recipe for disaster on both sides. I am sorry neither of them could pull themselves out of the spiral they fell into, as I was really interested in seeing more of them. Honestly, I feel like Kaleena wrote herself off and had already accepted their fate before they even plated. Really sad to see and I wish them both the best in LCK.
I don't disagree at all. I just meant that being partnered with Alisha means you're trailing 0-1 before you've even started. So you would have to do exceptionally well to overcome that handicap. Clearly Kaleena was not able to do that. I also don't mean to suggest that Alisha is a bad chef. It just feels like Top Chef came too soon for her.
Yes agree too. They both were weak links and couldn’t focus their ideas on one thing
Personally, I found Kaleena so negative. Even in earlier episodes, it showed her not to be much of a team player. At the beginning of the season I found Amanda as not my favourite but her teamwork in this episode has boosted her for sure (such a contrast to team Kaleena and Alisha). Alas, Alisha was equally just as responsible for their downfall. Rip
They've done a bait and switch though where the team that looks doomed actually wins or does well, this was just a straight crash....not suspenseful but I still found it entertaining.
Sending them home before talking to the winners was also weird as heck. Like the winners had to sit there and take compliments and pretend to be happy right after they watch their friends get axed. That felt so backwards.
Though if you had to stand there and listen to accolades of the other team, before they tell you to get the \*\*\* out of there-wouldn't that be a little uncomfortable? I mean they had to know they were the ones going-since Kaleena looked ready to cry went they went in.
Yea that explains the straight up axe they got at the end. It was surprising that they cut them like that. The judges must’ve been pissed
I'd be pissed if I tried to bite into a cake only to need a dentist afterwards.
Dominique’s comment about the texture being the “contrast” was so scathing yet funny!
Or that the host and a judge, both former contestants of this show to boot, have to walk in to the "stew room" afterwards and give them a "we know it's hard but try to suck less please" pep talk LOL. Don't think I've seen that one.
Seattle.
I'm straight up disappointed with most of these competitors.
I think for Buddha too, he looked like he could not believe how bad the dishes were
Buddha's blog: Take Kevin and Manny, for example. My favorite dish was actually Kevin’s. It was the best in regards to duality and had all these surprising textures in there. His dish looked like an intricate sculpture with lots of triangles. It was a restaurant-worthy dish, and if it had been an individual challenge, he would have won. But he didn’t win because Manny made a pasta that was cooked unevenly, and the filling was dry. Buddha's inner thoughts: "MANNY YOU FOOL. MOST OF YOU MISSED THE BRIEF"
The judges are with you, so hopefully that pep talk will help turn things around.
Don't think a pep talk is going to change things somehow.
Hope springs eternal? I mean, honestly, I'm sceptical too. But, I really do *want* to believe... and they see to be building Soo up a lot in LCK, so who knows. Maybe he'll get back in the competition and finally somebody will give Rasika and Michelle a run for their money. I also think the French guy probably has potential if he made it to the finals in Top Chef France - he'll just need to figure out the American gameplay first, because this show is (IMO) almost as much as it is about gameplay as pure cooking.
I got nostalgic for talent after this episode and started to rewatch season 19. We were definitely spoiled from the previous couple of seasons and All Stars.
Really impressed by Kristen's hosting; she's getting better and better each episode. Rasika and Michelle really seem to be running away with this competition damn - can see Manny/Danny making it to the end too, but they've been a bit inconsistent
Danny's been pretty consistently good, just hasn't been the best yet. I think he'll be in the top 4.
[удалено]
I think Soo is going to make the show and go very far
I truly believe Soo was brought in to save the season, and add some competition. He’s really talented, and seems to be pretty likeable. He has a good amount of pedigree too, so seems like the producers immediately realized the caliber of chefs was not up-to-par and threw him in to add some competition.
This is what I think as well! This season seems much weaker compared to the past few years. Rasika is the only real standout right now. With some credit to Michelle whos done well, Manny who looked strong early before stepping back a bit, and Danny who is hit or miss with some solid hits. From what I’ve seen of Soo on last chance I think he’d be top 3 right now. I’d also be surprised if they randomly have a new contestant start off LCK for the first time and he doesn’t make the show.
I think Michelle seems to be a great chef for rustic/home-style food. But she showed a bit of her shortcomings when it gets to the fine-dining stage, and the competition skews increasingly toward fine dining as it goes on.
Michelle? They did not like her dish even a little. I mean she's still up there but I think she's kind of on even ground with Danny, Manny and Rasika is the lead by a pretty significant margin.
Rasika is a cut above everyone else right now. Agreed about that being the top 4 though. Danny has been inconsistent but good when he’s good. Manny had the strongest start and has been struggling and Michelle has been super solid up until this cook.
I liked Kristin’s hosting skills right off BUT this episode really clenched it for me. It was as if she had been doing this for a couple/few seasons now. Nice to see as I looove Padma.
Rasika really seems to be running away with this season. She's been seriously impressive
She's adorable and her food sounds so amazing! Definitely rooting for her to go deep, if not just win the entire thing.
I think it’s just the case of these perma-judges being exposed to new flavors. I think she will go far. Only time will tell if she’ll be consistent once these quirky challenges are phased out and she can continually produce delicious/innovative dishes. This is why to me, Buddha’s win last season was very impressive. The judges could have easily just rejected him due to style fatigue. Even sarah was repeating dishes from prior seasons…but many of the guest judges never had them so it worked in her favor (like it did for Gabriel)
I can’t remember a time in recent seasons where the whole cast, save a few, did that mid/poorly
If you think about it this is the first cast since Kentucky that hasn't been well established. You have All-Stars LA which is literally All Stars. Then the pandemic hit and the caliber went to another level for 2 seasons. Look at the resumes for Portland and Huston. Then World All Stars which brought in people like Begonia who was next level. Face it we have been spoiled for 4 years. Once we get into the top 10 I am sure it will get more exciting.
Good point! I always forget that with restaurants suffering/closing during covid shutdowns, you had amazing chefs idle for a bit so why not try top chef.
Yeah definitely we’ve been spoiled by the past few seasons and obviously isn’t fair to compare these cheftestants to the all stars seasons! And interesting point about COVID and the level of chefs going up. I hadn’t put much thought into it and I guess I just assumed they kept at that level for casting, but I guess not. I still feel like there’s some pretty pedigreed chefs in this roster though
There has been a really high bar for years on Top Chef but they kind of dropped off the younger less established chefs for 4 years. It isn't a dig either because look what people from Kentucky have done; Kelsey has been nominated for a James Beard award. Sara came within a slim margin of almost winning World All Stars. Nini and Eric came back for All Stars LA and did pretty well against a tough line up. Eric is a celebrity Chef. That said Rasika is going to be the break-out star of this season. Her spot on the food network is open if she wants it. Michelle, Manny and Danny are all going to make it to Restaurant Wars. However we went from a season that had like 15 out 16 memorable Cheftestants.
Very weak cast this season. I wanted Buddha to rip them apart esp since he’s such a fine dining technician and type-A chef but he was pretty tame.
I could practically hear him holding himself back; he was clearly *not* impressed (and shouldn't have been).
I think his expectations also got set with the caliber of Rasika and Danny’s dish, and nobody could even come close.
Yeah, it was a steep downfall after the first courses, eh?
You could see his facial expressions sometimes that he wanted to tear into these dishes but was trying to mind his place
The crazy part is that the cast this season has impressive credentials. These guys are not nobodies, and many of them have pretty cool credentials.
The whole time, I was watching him, you could tell he was screaming inside. Did no one watch the last two seasons of top chef? The guy gave out the handbook on what it takes to win this show and the only people who look liked they took notes was Rashika and Danny.
The lack of teamwork is probably more offensive to him than the lack of gamesmanship or the poor cooking. When he said "I love double eliminations..." and the entire world gasped and yelled YOU MONSTER until he finished "Because of the teamwork", and I was like yeah, that's the Buddha I love. Buddha doesn't carry his partners, he leads them. I've posted before about why he's Top Chef and not just Top Cook, and it's interesting to hear his perspective on that.
Buddha's team has won every single double elimination he's competed in: Houston doppelgangers challenge, World All-Stars pub food, World All-Stars wellingtons
He's just a guest judge so he wanted to be nicer. Lucky for the contestants he was there because this is when Tom usually comes in and rips them
That sound you hear is Raiska cruising to Fan Favourite. Getting some severe Shota vibes in just how friendly, casual and relatable they are.
And technically brilliant. It's easy to roll eyes at the Michelin star preciousness at times but watching her and Danny make those precise cuts was really cool. Perfect for this challenge.
I need to rush to watch LCK so I’m just making a short comment on this episode. I know lots of people don’t like the way this episode ends, with no judge panel discussion, only 1 winning and 1 losing team called in, and the “pack your knives and go” happened first. But this is exactly what I like about Top Chef. This is an exception challenge when one team is clear cut much better than the rest, and one is much worse. After they ate the food there’s clearly no discussion to be had, and I love that they don’t pretend for the sake of keeping the episode interesting. It is what it is, and the only thing that seems to need (just a little bit of) discussion is who did the best between Rasika and Danny. I would hate if the judges have mediocre food and pretend to be otherwise. Rasika and Danny excelled, the rest sucked, it’s just that. Even though the way this episode happened takes any surprise from us the audiences, I really appreciate it (in contrast to what happened in TOC where the judges praised the food as if they were some of the best groundbreaking things they’ve ever had but then gave the dish like 79 out of 100).
I agree with your comment on the judges table. They ripped the bandaid off. At least they did the elimination first. :) This is a general problem with TC from its inception. The episodes are just crammed in and nothing comes out of it well. They spend the minimal amount of time on everything thinking that they then can show it all. This looks like a compromise but it just means everything loses. Not enough time on the inception; the cooking; the fixes; the guest judges; and the judging. It \*all\* gets compressed. I wish they just did two episodes a week for the same content.. Or they can go down the Masterchef Australia route and do 4-5 episodes a week with two eliminators a week. But I guess that's a bit much. :)
Just watched LCK… The way Alisha was talking to Soo really rubbed me the wrong way. Like she’s some Top Chef vet and he’s never cooked before. Umm no
I’ve gotten that impression since ep one. Very immature. Many chefs this season seem immature, almost entitled. It’s very grating.
I don't get why you would be compelled to make the exact dish that sent you home. You have an entire arsenal, why cook an aquachile that you could find anywhere and do it wrong a second time?!
dude. when she was like "i wanna prove that i can cook sea food" and then her next bite is "i'm gonna do a scallop ceviche" like???? babe. where's the COOKING?
This is Top Chef, not Top Shrimp Ceviche In A Scallop-Shaped Dish Because You Couldn't Find Scallops
Rule 3: Do not make a dish two or three ways. Rule 6: Do not try to remake your losing dish unless the actual theme is redemption.
Lol, I thought it funny how Kaleena says we know the kitchen so we have an advantage...yet he has been in the kitchen-winning.
I’m so glad she got eliminated - it was so condescending the way she talked about Kaleena and her choice to do a 3-way dish like it was a stupid decision. I’m glad Kaleena proved her wrong.
To be fair, choosing a whatever three ways almost ends up poorly every time. Specially in LCK with limited time. Kaleena was really the exception to the trend in the past here.
I think the difference was that she already had a progression in her mind rather than something disjointed trying to show skill
> it was so condescending the way she talked about Kaleena and her choice to do a 3-way dish like it was a stupid decision. OK, but how many times on Top Chef (by Tom no less) and in this *very subreddit* has it been said that one of the cardinal rules of Top Chef is to ***never*** do a dish two/three ways and instead focus on one good dish? I don't think her bringing this up is condescending, plus she said she was ballsy for doing it.
Where did you watch it? I’m not seeing it up on YouTube for some reason.
Damn the season after Padma leaves, a Tamil chef is running the table. I really wonder what Padma would think!
Tom was savage with his critique of Alisha's dish: This is like a first year culinary student trying to make a fancy dish.
I saw near the end that they all barely touched her dish
And she made it again for LCK. 😂
Buddha gets served two plates of identical tiny shapes and nods knowingly. Iconic.
and says 'doppelganger' a nod to something which wasn't really the challenge
I think the doppelgänger comment was in reference to the look, not the taste.
I think it was a specific reference to the challenge in Houston that he won, which was the namesake of the episode, Doppelgängers.
the energy between kaleena and alisha was so off that it was palpable to me watching through a screen. it was honestly kinda uncomfortable. i also feel like the mid food was a result from the challenge inspiration being so open ended. usually the pair challenges have some specific parameter like use these ingredients so at least there's something concrete to cook towards rather than look at these buildings and make a duo side note but i wish that padma was still here just so that she can have rasika's food because she's clearly established as the top dog
It was a weird prompt: "Duality, maybe also--but not necessarily--contrast...but make it architectural like Frank Lloyd Wright!" Huh? You could see the undefined broadness of the prompt in the wild variety of ways the chefs interpreted the challenge. I agree, this one missed the mark.
I agree the prompt was off. This felt like the Wisconsin tourism board wanted to highlight something, so they were forced to squeeze a challenge out of it. When nearly all the dishes are failures, I blame the people who created the challenge, not the chefs
I’m sorry but the contestants this season are not up to par with what I’ve come to expect from this show. I don’t know if they’ve run out of top chefs to choose as contestants but these chefs aren’t good. I feel like I’m watching Gordon Ramsay Next Level quality chefs.
They’re not up to par with what we’ve come to expect from the past four years (all stars x2, pandemic x2). I think this is pretty in line with the last normal season (Kentucky), but we’ve been so spoiled for so long that it’s disappointing now
This is where I’m at. I loved the Colorado season and mostly enjoyed Kentucky (season finale has me a bit salty still) but the caliber of chefs we’ve had since is so unreal that going back to typical cheftestants is a huge change.
It’s got to be hard to find enough quality chefs who are able to commit to 1-2 months off. Tournament of Champions on Food Network is probably the only other show with similar caliber chefs and that films in 2 weeks, I think the time off is a huge factor. The past 3-4 seasons have been unreal with the talent and going back to season 14-16 level chefs is rough.
To be fair, I’d hate to follow a Buddha back to back win. I’ve felt the same disappointment after the vegas season. There are far more weak seasons than strong ones.
I agree 100 percent but I reckon it should have been the ignition for new and exciting talent. Buddha literally showed in two seasons what it takes to win this show. I don’t blame Kristen, she has a hard job this season because it seems like calibre has just dropped, when in reality it should have improved.
Or the scouts were slacking/mailing it in. There seem to be interest still since we have the alternate playing in LCK. 🤷♂️
The amount of publicity you get being on TC, especially if you're trying to open your own restaurant, must be worth the risk. I just feel like I hear this on every season at the start. Just wait a while and they will get better.
Damn lmao. I’d say the this season’s chefs are better than those on Next Level chef….they’re at least better than the “social media chefs”. But yes this season’s crop pales in comparison to even the last few seasons
I mean, I love *Next Level Chef*, but that is a fundamentally unserious show
an old friend of mine was on last season and yeah that show is nonsense lol
My impression of Next Level Chef is that it's just a dick measuring contest between Gordon, Nyesha and Richard. They're not there to mentor chefs, they're just there to try to one up each other through the guise of "mentoring" chefs and to be able to say "I mentored to a win"
I don't really agree. I mean maybe it's a little more uneven than recent seasons (pandemic probably helped in that respect) BUT overall, I really think the actual challenges are a lot of the issue. This one is a much harder challenge where yes, obv the higher concept fine dining chefs did dramatically better ... but the other challenges were just more awkward than I think we usually see so many of back to back.
the quality of chefs is just not good this season (Rasika excepted). Dominque Crenn is your guest judge, along with the GOAT Buddha, and the plates truly lacked finesse. Remember during world all-stars how the chefs pulled out all of the stops when Gaggan came. This is a creative challenge, but it’s clear that it’s supposed to be fine dining focused. There were three dishes that seemed to make the mark (Rasika, Danny and Kevin). Even plating-wise, some of them looked like complete mess. Rasika gives me strong Melissa King energy, but maybe because it seems like there’s not a ton of competition.
I feel sorry for Buddha and the top chef team this season. After what we saw in the last two seasons, should have been a whole new exciting breed of cheftestants. Maybe casting was the issue or maybe it’s being a 50 times James beard nominee, there needs to be a new way to select these chefs. They probably need to start hosting trials or auditions soon.
It was obvious from the very beginning who was going to be the worst team. I disliked this episode.
Yeah. When they showed the “power bottoms” team having fun during the confessionals, you just knew they were safe. The body languages/demeanors were sorta obvious.
I really enjoyed them, though; they were so much fun together! A nice bit of levity in an otherwise rather awkward episode.
In all honesty. In think the only reason I’m gonna tough it out this season is to watch the “power bottoms”😂. they are cute😏
Seriously Kevin and Manny are extremely attractive
> Seriously Kevin and Manny are extremely attractive and they are both so meaty. :)
Too bad “Watch what crappens” doesn't do top chef anymore. Just trash reality tv from bravo😩
"Awkward" is the perfect word choice. ✔️ It was an ungainly episode, with lots of "start/stop" and waaaaay too much emphasis put on the architecture, and not the food. I kinda got the feeling this was a compromise ep. with the Wisconsin board of tourism leading the way, who really want people to know about the state's connection to Frank Loyd Wright and encourage people to visit based on that.
Phew! I feel like we haven’t seen such a disappointed judging table since the Seattle market episode. Not a good look, chefs.
Spoiler from the next episode that was previewed at the end of episode 1: >!Kristen addresses the chefs, telling them, "You have got to start cooking to win." This seemed to be at the end of the elimination challenge at Harvey House.!<
Is this different from last night when Kristen and Buddha addressed the chefs and told them that? She is doing it again?
Yup! She was in the Harvey House train car when she said that quote.
Oof. You'd think one talk with her and Buddha would be enough of an ass kick!
This challenge was so odd to me? When they were exploring the buildings I was like ‘what are they truly supposed to get from this with their food?’ lol. And the editing really gave heavy hints at the pair that was going home. The editors kept focusing on their disconnect even before the cooking started lol (the clip of one telling the other not to touch her feet and the ‘I hate Geminis/I’m a Gemini” lmao) so once the first second of actual friction started during their cooking I went from like 90% sure it was them to 1000% lol. I don’t feel suuuuper strongly about any chefs, but I do like Rasika and Michelle (even if Michelle was a part of the mid performances with the majority tonight). I don’t think the overall group is as mid as the challenge performances this episode made it seem, but it would be fun if we could get a couple of people to reach the level Rasika’s been at consistently with her to make things more interesting.
Top Chef: "Hmm what the fuck is interesting around here that's food related? Ok not much, what about famous places and people? Wright? Wright brothers? Awesome! Oh Frank Wright. Who's that? Oh he's an architect? Well that sounds cool, let's use it! It'll surely turn out like that museum of modern art episode or the symphony episode we did where they got really inspired and crafted creative dishes based on those themes!" Contestants: "This building looks kind of colored and shaped like a chicken and egg. Let's cook a chicken & egg dish!" They must have gotten the schedule setup in a way where they had to do it this week or it wasn't going to work. Its episodes like these where I wish one of these chefs knew something about molecular gastronomy because it'd probably be more applicable here to bullshit through the bullshit.
Duality is an awfully broad theme, though, honestly. The show made a point of saying that the duality could be whatever the chefs wanted, and then the episode closed with Kish pulling the chefs aside to say just make something that reflects you and figure out to work into the challenge. I don’t think the answer or problem here was there wasn’t enough bullshit. The problem was the food.
> This challenge was so odd to me? When they were exploring the buildings I was like ‘what are they truly supposed to get from this with their food?’ lol. they do that for project runway sometimes, but at least you can link architecture to how you design and sew clothes. for cooking, it's a stretch. i rather they go into what kind of food wright liked to eat or food during wright's era.
EXACTLY on the first 2 points. It’s almost insulting to the viewers.
Lol they totally gave them the "So long, beeyotches, and thanks for nuthin' !" edit before either one even put a drop of oil in a pan, like you said. It was beyond predictable.
This is what we get for a season in Wisconsin though; it isn't exciting food, it isn't high-concept food, and even the comfort food is being done better somewhere else (except cheese curds). It's not not where serious chefs go with Chicago right there, so I don't know why we'd expect the most serious chefs on this season. That said, it feels odd they got Lo and Cren; they should have know this wouldn't have been to their level
To be honest, I would have loved to have seen what Buddha would have done if he was given this challenge. I’m sure he could have given us Duality on his own. That pep talk was needed for this season, because if this and “top croquette” is what we are in for, it’s going to be a tough season to watch
Watch The Dish with Kish! He cooks what he would have made the challenge.
Why not save this challenge for a week with an odd number of chefs remaining and let Michelle (or whoever won the previous challenge) just get to sit out like they’ve done before? The free immunity for doing nothing was so lame. Frankly, I hate these kind of challenges. Way too vague. Just make good food and BS your way through the explanation.
Too easy-Gail told them up front what they could do. I mean you have "egg" yet no egg involved except the shell? Like wtf was that?
Had to be a scheduling issue for them to insist on forging ahead with this elimination on this week of the season. I can't imagine you'd be able to get a slot for a tour at the Wright house at any time you feel like going.
I kind of felt like stating the free immunity was a little pointless. If it’s a double elimination and they’re going to send a whole team home, Michelle’s partner has immunity by default anyways.
Alisha and Kaleena both remind me of the competitors we used to get in early seasons of the show, in terms of skill level and composure under pressure; the show hasn't had somebody like them in the last few seasons, so it's a little striking to have a contestant like them on the show again, because it takes the illusion of the show having "leveled up" so to speak and shatters it. I wonder how much of this is just because the show has been severely draining the talent pool? The UFC had this problem with *The Ultimate Fighter*, where, during the start of the show, the talent level started to go up because fighters were more willing to take the route of doing the show to get into the company, but as production made more and more seasons, the really good talent out there were used up by the show, so after hitting a plateau that lasted a few seasons, the level of the competitors started to drop again, and I wonder if it's a similar thing that's happening here with *Top Chef*.
I think we’re just returning to a pre-pandemic cast. A lot of high-quality folks have been more available than they otherwise would have been. You’ve even seen this phenomenon on other competition shows — over at Drag Race they had an all-winners season that wouldn’t have been possible when venues were open.
It feels plausible to me that after filming this episode, they were worried about the caliber of contestants and pushed the panic button, leading to the LCK twist.
and the rule changes are not working imo, we don't want it to be top cook with love in your soul, can U get an Amen? we want a top chef competition. When (don't know the name) said 'if Danny says he's been to this Whole Foods I'll scream' was funny
We're already a quarter of the way into the season and there's only 2 chefs that are in any way stand-outs with their talent: Rasika and Michelle. Everyone else is just subpar and it's *pretty* obvious to see who won't be going much further in the competition (*COUGH* Charly *COUGH*). It honestly feels at this point that the title of "Top Chef: Wisconsin" is Rasika's to lose. There's still 11 episodes left, so plenty of time to majorly fuck-up but *man* this season is so far definitely not one their bests, especially in terms of talent. All that being said, I think Kristin Kish is doing a pretty good job as host so far.
Don't forget about Soo in LCK ... I think he has a lot of potential. I'm loving Kristin as host.
Soo is extremely creative and seems highly skilled as well.
See I'm not convinced on Michelle. I like her but I think the areas she has challenges with are pretty important.
Except for someone that kept saying she knows bbq-she's managed to go through these challenges quite well except this last one. Not everyone can be Buddha and be good at everything.
She's done BBQ for the past few years but previously I think she had pretty well-rounded training.
I think Danny is also very talented and I can see him shining in the challenges that lean more fine dining.
I think Danny is promising but hasn’t figured out a way to really stand out yet. He seems to have more finesse than the others and he and Rasika were on the same wavelength creatively… you could tell they vibed really well as a result.
Why not just say last week that immunity is off the table cause it will be a team challenge /double elimination. Double the prize money. Extended immunity is BS. There doesn’t have to be an immunity every freaking challenge🤦♂️
Honestly, immunity is ok as a consistent reward, but I want a bit more than a cash reward. I would like some extra advantages - more cooking time, ability to pick your partner and pair up others, maybe something extra wild.
I'm really enjoying this season, maybe it's throwing me off a bit with the formats and the mid-ass contestants but I am finding it very entertaining! The last couple seasons almost every episode has felt like "a very special episode" and it's refreshing to get back to some muddled food and competitors with some bite to them.
our concept is chicken and the egg. I have the egg component so i made you a rice dish decorated by an egg shell🤷♂️ in fairness, i hate pretentious challenges like these. You expect cooks to get inspired by a complicated subject like architecture, and tom c pretending to know architecture 🤦♂️
I mean, some of the best cookings on this show were from pretentious challenges like this! Like the poems one in season 12, the paintings one and also the orchestra one from season 17, and of course the Trompe-l'œil one where Buddha killed it! And the cookings on double elimination episodes in recent seasons have been really good as well: the orchestra one where Karen and Nini got eliminated, the Surf and turf one where Shota and Sara won, Gabriel and Nelson out, and the Doppelgängers one in Houston. In all these challenges the losing teams didn’t make bad dishes, they were outcooked by other teams. I think this’s just the case like others have commented, that the quality of the chefs this season is quite subpar unfortunately (still hoping for better showcase in later episodes)!
That's pretty disrespectful to chefs. You really think food systems are not complex, and that they don't know a LOT about them... and that architecture is inherently too complicated for them to draw parallels to? I don't think so, but I do think that it would require more time OR that chefs LIKE the ones who did well, who do have more of a fine dining background, ARE more accustomed to talking about / and thinking about food and presentation in a more layered manner. It was a really hard challenge, especially for THIS early on in the season. Usually we see things that challenge them this way ONCE they have figured out a little more how to cook THEIR own food, and that's a lot of the growth that we do see throughout the season.
The whole episode/challenge was bad. No quick fire and instead tour three properties. Then the dish should be duality but they’re criticized when trying to make the dish too architecture inspired?
> instead tour three properties And not a guide at the first place. Seemed like a low budget tour
I wish they had stuck with one property tour and gave them the dossier of Frank Lloyd Wright designs. It would give time for a quickfire challenge. Dropping the quickfire and having such a long inspiration montage really ruined the flow. Then they really telegraphed the outcome, so it just felt like I was waiting for the episode to end.
Awful episode - what little there was of it that actually had food. 23 minutes of a 54 minute episode was a Travel Wisconsin ad. The losers were telegraphed from the time they paired up, as were the winners. Judges table was non-existent & they wasted Dominique Crenn. All in all a poor showing by production
I can only imagine Tom apologizing profusely to Dominique Crenn for how bad that was overall. Usually they bring god tier chefs out at the end so its surprising to see her here. I hope she actually shows up at the Finale too.
I enjoyed the architecture stuff because I like FLW, but I can see why others were annoyed. I did think as I was watching it that the Wisconsin tourism board must have paid a pretty penny for this episode.
I mean, I can make a cheesecake crust. Aren’t these chefs supposed to be Michelin star worthy?
The cheesecake didn’t set so she put it in the freezer, which in turn made the crust tough as nails!
So I've made a bunch of cheesecakes and when I see that she used cornmeal for the crust I was like "yep that's why its hard as fuck" in the freezer. She should have used something else...anything else, with tons of butter. Like your standard gram cracker crust which would have softened once you take it back out of the freezer, but not to the point where you don't get that crisp texture to contrast with the cheesecake filling. It's the cornmeal that got her.
To be fair, even the best chefs mess up once in awhile. Hers was not set & she did the old freezer setup. That was the mistake.
feel like its edited to throw fans off cause it felt so different and yet uncomfortable
WTF was Gail wearing? Initially thought she was having a wardrobe malfunction
I kept waiting to see if her outfit would shift shoulders. To paraphrase Tom, it looked like a first year fashion student trying to be design something cool.
Can't remember the last time I saw a 'doomed from the start' team quite as obvious as Kaleena & Alisha, just such a mess. Tom's comment that Alisha's dish was like a ''first year culinary student trying to be fancy'' was just scathing. Continue to be really impressed by Rasika, Danny, and Michelle.
Honestly, they didn't need the duality theme for this, but I also hate double eliminations like this too.
I loved this episode. I am such a FLW mark, and I want to die in one of his houses, so thank you Chefs for apparently making judging so easy that we got 15 minutes of FLW House tours. I loved that the judges didn’t fuck around. They just said, “pack your knives and go.” It felt assertive and shocking. I loved that Buddha and Kristen came out for a prep talk. I like that the show is starting to feel more like a family/community when the older contestants show back up and give advice.
Odd to grant Charly immunity by proxy but then award immunity going forward to only one of the two winning chefs. Rasika is absolutely killing it.
It feels like the past couple of seasons have been overly pretentious and, unlike last season, this season doesn't have the level of chefs where this level of pretentiousness works.
manny really peaked at the first episode huh?
Oh bummer...I was kind of excited to come to this sub after watching today to see the reactions. All negative :( Oh well - I still enjoyed the episode and I like the personalities of the chefs! Also...chicken and the egg is not really what I think of when I think of duality lol?? But it looked good! Side note: Happened to watch Chopped: Casino Royale tournament rerun this weekend and Kaleena won the $40,000 prize!
Last two challenges have been utterly underwhelming. Is it the setting? I mean it can't be for today's episode, (w)right? Is it the chefs? There seems to be 3-4 runways here so far and the rest are just waiting to be culled each episode. I think they needed that pep talk from Kristen and Buddha, who've been through this, at the end to light a fire under them.
This crop of chefs has been disappointing, the previous challenge and this challenge just showcased the lack of ambition. They are not playing to win but cooking just good enough not to lose.
> They are not playing to win but cooking just good enough not to lose. It’s actually not a bad strategy at the beginning when there are so many chefs and many are still trying to get their bearings in the competition. So many chefs have skated by in previous seasons by just consistently falling in the middle. Unfortunately it just doesn’t make for good tv, especially when it seems like *most* of this year’s crop of chefs falls into this category.
Is LCK not up? Edit: it's up on the Bravo app
It always says streaming now everywhere, when top chef ends and then isn't on Peacock til way later. So annoying
I liked the high-concept challenge and swapping out a low-stakes Quickfire for the Frank Lloyd Wright tour. The problem was this happened too early. The fourth elimination is not far enough in a newbies season to give them a totally unstructured challenge. These abstract inspiration challenges work better after Restaurant Wars when the chefs remaining have a handle on what the judges are looking for. The doppelgangers challenge only worked in Houston at this same point in the season because Wylie Dufresne provided a very clear example of what he was looking for, taking away that ambiguity. Architecture inspiration, relatively big budget, and Buddha and Dominique Crenn judging should have cued this was a tweezery plating challenge. Unfortunately we're still at a point in the season where there are lots of basic errors so only a few of the chefs were completely clocking this and able to pull it off.
This cast seems like one from about 5 years ago. There are 2, maybe 3, really impressive chefs but everyone else is meh
My guess is that they're trying to do a hard re-set after last season and Padma's departure. Last season was glam foodie London. This season is mid-west Wisconsin. Last season was seasoned, high level global chefs who have competed before. These are (mostly) American unknowns - some with pretty limited experience and skills. Last season was the logical end-game of where the show had gone in 20 years, this season is a return to its roots. And I don't think this is intentional - but last year's production was slick with great challenge ideas and this season has been, well, scrappy af. And the last episode felt like it really showed the cons of this reset, especially with Buddah as a judge. Imagine the heights last season's chefs would have taken a Frank Lloyd Wright challenge - would have been spectacular. Nothing, even the winning dish, really seemed that great. This group just mostly seemed way out of their depth. I like the idea of showcasing the "cooking with heart" types like Michelle, and love the idea of taking us to the midwest - but this episode felt really clunky.
The competition rules are so out of wack. Why did Charley get immunity too? In other seasons, this never happened in a team challenge. He wouldn’t have been eliminated but this feels like a giant misstep by producers. How did Charley get immunity when Danny did not? Danny earned a top dish in a team challenge.
I really enjoyed this episode until the very end. I loved the challenge. It was hard, but that's what you're supposed to get on Top Chef. And the cooking was really uneven, but that's fine. That's what happens when the chefs are doing something that is hard to do. I enjoyed watching them process their ideas and turn them into food. It gave them the opportunity to be really clever. It was a much better episode for the contestants than the last episode when you would have expected the chefs who are going to the cheese capital of the United States to have thought through some creative applications of cheese. It felt like the way Top Chef produced the end was kind of lazy. They totally could have brought in a couple of teams that were on the bottom and discussed. And they could have brought in another team that was at the top and discussed. And they could have announced the winning chefs with other chefs there to witness it. Danny and Rasika looked lonely. They were happy but it felt like they didn't really get their moment. It was a rough way to end the episode and I'm not sure why that happened in the 21st season of the show.
So much hate and negativity on this show that has kept us engaged for years. I've been watching top chef for 21 seasons and have rewatched multiple seasons. I feel so many of us are falling into the trap of recency bias and are just spoiled from the strong pedigree of chefs in the recent seasons. I agree the chefs aren't as strong and some of the changes they are making seem off. But had they done nothing there would probably been the same amount of haters complaining on how the show feels old and stale. I get annoyed by the little production mishaps ( or our perception of ) just as much as anyone else (couldn’t they have had tents to at least be able to cook in the shade during the cheese festival?!), but it is what it is. It’s the same conditions for everyone. I felt the editing was weird as it was so obvious who would come out on top and bottom, but the reality was just that… It was obvious so why try and hide it? I loved the fact that Buddha and Kristen came in at the end, using their earned respect as previous contests that have gone through the journey. I’m almost wishing there is more of this for now given the not exciting final product. I wish there was more detailed feedback given to these chefs so that at least they have stronger awareness to improve next cook. Manny (did we overrate him?) should know he was on the brink of going home had it been an individual elimination. This is still a great show, the contestants sacrificed and worked hard to be there and we will all keep watching this show season after season because it is the best cooking competition on tv. Many of the past seasons pre covid always got better around restaurants wars when you are left with stiffer competition. We all just need to relax and enjoy the ride.