Top Chef Recap

By David Mumpower

November 13, 2013

Wait, vegetables are supposed to have colors?

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As has been the case for the past two episodes, the courses tonight merit lukewarm reception. I am a bit flabbergasted by the consistent mediocrity as the players this season seem like a topflight bunch. For whatever reason, their skill is not translating to the challenges, though. Dishes receive comments such as “gloopy and soupy,” “What are we doing here?” “Mine was evenly raw all the way through” and “I couldn’t tell you where the cream cheese was in that dish.” And one of those comments was for a dish that earned a chef a place in the

TOP

group. Yikes.

After the disappointing meal, the contestants all arrive at the stew room and await their execution. The judges are disappointed that these talented chefs were standing among endless rows of delicious produce yet failed to craft tasty cuisine. The worst part is that the mistakes were of the unforgivable variety rather than the “good but not great” critiques that ordinarily cause elimination.

The top group is announced. Nina, Nicholas and Justin have delivered the best dishes this week, which is no real accomplishment. We can rule out Justin because he received the “compliment” above about the lack of cream cheese. Tom also had announced during Justin’s course that John Besh wouldn’t hire the chef who crafted any of these meals. This is the moment where I point out the fact that nine (!) opponents performed worse than Justin. Realistically, the only delicious dish of the night was presented by the same person who won the Quickfire challenge, Nina. She is gradually differentiating herself from the rest of the cast, especially now that her (one-sided) conflict with Michael is finished. She is also $10,000 richer this week.

The bottom group could be comprised of almost anybody else. And that is why Travis, Sara and Bene should feel particularly terrible about their various dishes. Finishing in last this week is akin to losing a foot race with a turtle. To wit, Stephanie presented a dish so terrible that a diner noted that there must have been a story behind the totality of their failure. Stephanie was NOT in the bottom group. Think about that for a moment.




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Obviously, any of these people could be eliminated tonight. Travis is, as always, ultra-defensive about his criticism. This is definitely not only my opinion. Shirley comments at one point during the episode that he lacks the immaturity to handle the honest evaluations of others.

After the judges attack the others, they dismiss the players, almost as if they cannot stand the sight of them at the moment. I do not believe that Travis will be eliminated because John Besh, the guest judge, liked his dish the best of the entrée meals. Gail seems to want him gone more than Besh wants to save him, though.

The person who is victimized the most during the course of the episode is not Sara despite her cheerless behavior during the episode. Instead, it is Bene. Tom made a face after biting his cuisine that was enough to make me believe Bene would be going home. During the judges table discussion, multiple people note that his vegetables lacked color. They are so alarmed by this aspect of the food that I think it tainted their opinion of the dish before they even sampled it. While the episode is produced in a way that leads me to believe that Sara will be going home tonight, there is still little surprise when Bene’s name is called. At the end of the day, Bene’s kind and thoughtful nature was a poor match with the ultra-competitive nature of Top Chef.


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