‘Top Chef: Seattle’ review: Josh Valentine loves fried chicken
One week after the stunning elimination of Kristen Kish on “Top Chef: Seattle” (even if it was the right move for the integrity of the show, given their history of eliminating frontrunners for a bad week), everything is starting to seem right with the world again. This week brought us a fairly simply challenge that was all about cooking fried chicken, and it was interesting to see just how night and day things were between this and the sushi-based quickfire earlier in the episode.
In what is surely evidence of the importance of being well-rounded, Brooke and Stefan killed in the quickfire with something that they were both very familiar with; meanwhile, Josh struggled with something that was almost like an awkward breakfast sandwich on a role. (Does anyone else see that Josh is the master of breakfast on this show?)
Meanwhile, Josh is really one of the only chefs that really seemed to understand what the purpose of the fried chicken challenge was: to make good fried chicken. Just about every other person across the board made some sort of mistake; while Sheldon was in the top, for example, he failed get enough cooked for everyone. Meanwhile, Lizzie made something that was tasty, but not fried chicken in the traditional sense.
Here’s something we don’t get: why is it okay for Lizzie to not make fried chicken, and Stefan gets ripped for doing the same thing? It may just be due to him making a subpar chicken cordon bleu … something the judges really had no interest in eating at all. His dish was a bit of a mess, but not anywhere near something almost catastrophic from Brooke (ironically cooking for some famed chefs who originally applied for a job with her years ago) or the greasy mess that Josie produced here.
The reason we believed that Josie finally left this kitchen is because she was unable to blame anyone but herself for her mistakes. We’re not sure she was really worse than Brooke, but given her track record you really couldn’t send two phenomenal chefs home over someone who is clearly treading water. With her gone, we have a pretty solid final five; and while we are still sold on a Brooke – Sheldon final two, the other three have all been strong enough that they could sneak in at the end.
Who do you want to see win “Top Chef: Seattle”? If you want to read some more news related to the show, you can do so over here.
Photo: Bravo