‘Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen’ episode 3: Grayson Schmitz, Garret Fleming face off

We’re a couple of weeks behind getting into “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen,” but if there was ever a great jumping-off point for this season, it had to be the week that Grayson made her grand entry into the proceedings. She’s supremely entertaining, mostly because her rapport with Tom Colicchio is on another level. She fights back in a way few others do, and she also has great commentary in the confessions.

Therefore, isn’t a Grayson win on “Last Chance Kitchen” the best gift we could receive this holiday season? Probably so! The challenge for her and Garret Fleming (who impressively defeated both Frances and Renee the past two episodes) was to use some unusual ingredients in order to prepare a winning dish. Both had ingredients we had never heard of, and it’s nice that there was such a close competition here for the sake of drama.

Did we know for sure Grayson was going to win before Tom announced the results? Not really, but we were leaning towards her after Tom seemed slightly more critical of Garret’s fish during that critique over whether or not it was overcooked. He doesn’t have anything to be embarrassed about after being eliminated first thanks to his wins over in this competition. As for Grayson, she lives to cook (and argue with Tom) another day.

What makes this entire episode for us is Tom proclaiming “Grayson, you won something!” at the end, forgetting that it was not that long ago at all that she won a Quickfire this season on “Top Chef” proper. Grade: A-.

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