Top Chef Recap

By David Mumpower

November 18, 2013

She cries more often than Sophie post-choice.

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I guess this challenge is one way to negate Nina’s advantage over her peers. Someone else will wind up serving the food she prepares. As Brian summarizes, “It’s musical chairs gone chef-y.” Yes, this Quickfire is nonsense, albeit joyous fun due to the musical accompaniment. We also find out which chefs are okay with kicking back and having fun versus which ones only focus on their work. Carrie resents leaving her station in the middle of a meal while Sara is annoyed that they lose valuable time walking around when she should be enjoying a delightfully peppy performance of When the Saints Go Marching In.

Evaluating the winners and losers during the Quickfire is nonsensical. The bottom group includes Louis and Justin. Backtracking, the people most responsible for Justin’s dish are Patty and especially Shirley, the latter woman working on the dish twice. Justin knew he was screwed when he got to the station. Similarly, Louis was largely undone by Stephanie, who worked on his dish twice while Brian did virtually nothing while he was at the station. Realistically, Shirley and Stephanie are on the bottom in this challenge.

The top group is comprised of Carlos, Brian and Patty with Brian declared the winner. Brian is frankly the least deserving winner I can ever recall. He totally set Louis by doing little of note on the dish he crafted. Meanwhile, Sara and Nina nailed ducks & mussels with flavors of Asia with Sara being doubly responsible. After last week’s struggle with the Elimination challenge, Sara redeems herself. The other chefs on Patty’s dish were Stephanie and Louis twice, meaning that Louis finished last for creating one of the best dishes. Carlos’ dish was built by Nina twice and Travis once. In other words, Nina worked on three courses. Two of those wound up in the top group. Her skill is outrageous. Brian does have the grace to thank his fellow players for their input in “his” dish.




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Padma announces the Elimination Challenge next. Like a band of musicians, the contestants are asked to “band together to create a potluck style menu." Patty has never even heard the term “potluck” before, so she is already in trouble. As a native of the south, I’ve been going to potluck dinners since before I could speak the English language. I had presumed this concept is at least nationally (if not globally) known so Patty’s words shock me.

The teams are allowed to group as desired. They are all informed that Nicholas will join the smallest one of them if his health allows. If not, I have no idea if there will be one or two eliminations this week. I suspect the latter. The first group is easily formed. Louis and Shirley have already worked together three times; they are joined by Sara and Justin, the two people standing next to each of them at that moment. They become the Blue Team.

The real threat is the Green Team. It is comprised of Carrie, Nina, Stephanie and Carlos. That quartet represents four of the best seven players remaining on Top Chef this season per my power rankings. So I am an idiot if they struggle. Well, more so. The Gray Team is the opposite. Travis, Brian and Patty are three of the five “worst” players still in the competition in my estimation. The only good news for them is that they will be joined by Nicholas if he is capable of continuing. He would instantly become their best chef. I will be surprised if a member of the Gray Team is not the player voted out tonight, and they may lose two if Nicholas’s health situation fails to improve.


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