‘Top Chef: Boston’ episode 10 review: The Julia Child risk gone wrong

After a series of pretty great episodes this season, “Top Chef: Boston” for us hit a small bump in the road on Wednesday night. Why is that? It was not so much an issue of the episode being terrible, but we just didn’t feel like the Elimination Challenge nearly had the same sort of fun that other recent ones have.

Part of it is simply due to the wording of the challenge, which is to create a dish that honors the legacy of Julia Child. We would have preferred the chefs being told more to do what Mei Lin did in winning the challenge: Creating a dish that is inspired by Child, but still with your own personal twist in tow. It allows for a little more creativity.

The Quickfire Challenge was still fantastic, though we would’ve preferred a slightly more transparent look at just how involved Andy Cohen is at Bravo rather than just him being the host of “Watch What Happens Live.” The idea of making food using junk in a college dorm room was tremendous fun, and something that was really great to watch. (These people had more food in their dorm than we ever did.) Melissa won, with a big reason why being that she used a whole lot of cheese, something that Andy and his former roommate proclaimed to be a big fan of.

The writing was a little more on the wall for the Elimination Challenge as soon as it was clear that Doug Adams was struggling to get his family-style foie gras cooked all the way through. This is not an easy dish to make, and given the three-hour limitation the first day and the hour cook time the second, there simply was not time for him to get this done. It was a bummer that this did not work out, but at the same time, we’d much rather see someone go home for taking too big of a risk over someone going home for making something that is too safe.

Plus, Doug could clean up over on “Last Chance Kitchen.” He’s a killer chef, and he’s shown to be very good at taking big risks. Episode Grade: B-.

For more on “Top Chef,” including our review of “Last Chance Kitchen” this week, head over here. Also, sign up to have some other tasty TV updates served in your direction, courtesy of our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Bravo.)