‘Top Chef: Boston’ episode 2 review: Keriann vs. Aaron
On Wednesday night’s “Top Chef: Boston,” we had a series of events that we would certainly classify as interesting … which were not the Quickfire. That was by and large fun, but useless to the rest of the action.
How often is it that you see most of an episode focus on a fight between two people to their detriment, only to have both of them end up staying? It’s really pretty rare, but that is precisely what happened to Keriann and Aaron as their team challenge, which was meant to honor Boston’s finest, ultimately brought out their worst.
Let’s start out with this: Aaron is an instigator. He is almost looking for a fight at every turn, and has such a chip on his shoulder he seems almost impossible to work with. We probably blame him 60% for the arguments, since he basically created a volatile work environment from the get-go.
However, Keriann also deserves 40% of the blame for acting so wishy-washy and tentative when the subject of desserts came up, like she was afraid to be a leader and take the blame for any challenge. She’s was worried about gaming more than cooking, and that attitude may have led to her making a corn / onion component to her chicken dish that really felt very safe. She comes across as a little bossy and defensive, but unlike Aaron, we feel like in the right situation and with the right team, she could function well in the future. We’re not sure he can unless he is the boss of everything.
The biggest thing we’re shocked by is that somehow, likable Joy goes home, while both of these two stay when we would have been tempted to send them both packing. Maybe the cooking skills of Stacy saved the two, and Joy didn’t have a savior that helped her overcome undercooking Veal. It is a standard belief for cooking shows that if something is inedible, you’re probably leaving.
On the positive side of things, major props have to go to Katsuji this episode, who went from being almost gone last week to nearly winning both the quickfire and the elimination challenge later with his team. Gregory, Adam, and Rebecca were ultimately the victors, and we really feel like the former of the three may be our pick right now to take this competition home. He struggled at first when it comes to that prepping quickfire, but ever since then the guy has been almost lights-out.
While we don’t always love professional chefs swearing at each other and acting petty, some of the drama tonight was entertaining. If nothing else, “Top Chef” is still “Top Chef,” and we like some of the subtle changes including the noticeable decrease in awful product placement. Grade: B+.
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