‘Top Chef: New Orleans’ preview: Emeril Lagasse’s challenge
Just how are the remaining chefs on “Top Chef: New Orleans” going to get an opportunity to “leave their mark” on the Big Easy? Let’s just put it this way: The winning dish on tomorrow night’s elimination challenge will be featured throughout Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants in the city. That’s some big stuff. Most people in the culinary world are just happy that they get to meet Emeril, let alone have something that is actually served at one of his establishments.
But, are all of the chefs going to be cooking the sort of food that should be served at the restaurant? This is what could make this final task so interesting. The chefs are asked to cook something that symbolizes their time in this competition, and while the preview below doesn’t show it, another clip that we’ve seen recently hints that for some reason, Carlos Gaytan is not going to make something that is actually fitting of the city at all. Instead, he’ll go with something from within his own personal wheelhouse.
If we were to just take the overall quality of work of the four remaining chefs into consideration, we feel like this is Nina Compton’s task to lose. While Shirley Chung has been on a role lately, Nina has excelled in challenges that really show off some of the local flavors. She knows how to bring a little bit of herself to every dish, but also something that is still traditional to the region or the style that she is assigned. Shirley should also do very well, while we imagine that Nicholas Elmi’s biggest obstacle is going to be his own brain, since he’ll want to do something that is overly complex for foodies everywhere.
At the end of this episode, the eliminated chef will head over to the finale of “Last Chance Kitchen,” where the winner will re-enter the competition. Personally, we’re happy to see that the competition will not have this to worry about in the final four, since it still means that whoever returns would still need to win two more challenges before taking the prize.
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Photo: Bravo