‘Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen’ episode 1: Gerald Sombright, Annie Pettry face off

Tonight on “Top Chef: Charleston,” we saw Annie Pettry become the latest chef sent home in what seemed primarily to be an issue about preparation. She didn’t step up quickly enough to pick her meal of choice, and then struggled with the timing of it given that she tried to make a tart when it just wasn’t possible.

Meanwhile, for Gerald Sombright he struggled to get a quality chicken dish done in an hour. We’ve got all the sympathy in the world for these people given that they were both new chefs having to cook against returning players, getting used to the rigors and the production aspects of the competition for the first time. We have an easy time thinking that almost anyone in their shoes would struggle in one way or another.

The entire challenge tonight was about time, given that Gerald and Annie each had a certain amount of time based on the ingredients that they picked out of the kitchen. They had to use every single one of them. This made things interesting, given that Annie picked up cheddar cheese to go along with ketchup and lamb. Her ingredients also afforded her a smaller amount of time than Gerald, who determined that he was going to make chowder without the milk or the scream.

Basically, this was one of the weirdest showdowns we’ve seen on the show, and you got the sense almost immediately that these two were green in this competition. We were also worried about Annie simply due to the fact that she chose to do a tartare — which were down about a million times on this past season. We’re not sure that anyone wants to go down that road again.

The winner this week – Gerald. This really just came down to the rules of the competition. You had to use all of the ingredients that you picked up, and Annie forgot to add the cheese. Gerald’s win was largely by default, but he still should take this as a confidence boost as he moves forward to the next round.

To get some other news on tonight’s “Top Chef,” be sure to head over here to read our full review of Thursday’s episode. (Photo: Bravo.)