‘Top Chef: Boston’ episode 8 review: A returning chef, and chaos commences

Last week, “Top Chef: Boston” continued with its crazy season, and despite all of the twists and turns, we still have to say that this may be the best season that they’ve done since “All-Stars.”

One of the reasons that this Sudden Death Quickfire twist ends up working so well is mostly because it doesn’t just screw over a chef. You have two opportunities to cook and save yourself from being in danger, and for Katie, she probably feels like she is her own worst enemy. We feel like some of her momentum may have been completely destroyed following that Restaurant Wars fiasco, and that caused her to struggle against George, the very first victim of the twist who was coming in with nothing to lose.

Within the span of an hour, George went from being the first chef out to being on the top of an elimination challenge. Maybe that wasn’t entirely fair, since typically someone in his position would have needed to win a ton of duels on “Last Chance Kitchen” to have a shot. Still, it is what it is, and we really liked the elimination challenge this week, where the chefs have to cook using ingredients picked by the judges. We thought Gail Simmons was about to slap Katsuji for calling her ingredients “cute,” and Adam seemed to be poo-pooing what Richard Blais brought for him.

Still, this challenge was proof that much of this was about the state of mind. Richard picked Adam and Doug’s ingredients; Doug won the challenge, and Adam was sent home after taking a big risk in how he cooked the shrimp. Obviously, the guy is a super-passionate cook, and probably a great one most of the time. It’s just that not all risks pay off, and there was something about this that the judges did not care for.

Could Doug be the favorite right now to win? He might be. While Gregory is dominant, we feel like there’s been at least a billion challenges where he has used either coconut or curry as a main ingredient. If we’re going to give Katsuji a hard time for his peppers, we have to do the same thing here. Meanwhile, Mei struggled this time after previously being dominant.

In the end, this episode from start to finish was fun, fast-paced, and creative. It’s what we want on “Top Chef” every week. Grade: B+.

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