‘Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen’ episode 2: Sam Talbot, Gerald Sombright face off

Tonight, “Top Chef: Charleston” delivered what host Padma Lakshmi referred to as the greatest meal that she’s ever had in the history of the show. Everything was really good, and what we ended up see happen was someone in Sam Tablot go home who made it really far on the second season of the show. Basically, it seemed as though the only mistake he made was not making his own bread — or so we thought.

Going into tonight’s edition of “Last Chance Kitchen,” Tom Colicchio actually made it clear that Sam may have went home simply for not using enough radish — the main focus of the Elimination Challenge. Now, Tom wanted to see Sam and his opponent Gerald Sombright have to face off using celery as a main ingredient — something totally didn’t given that this is not the most flavorful ingredient in the world. How do you make something really tasty when the ingredient doesn’t have all that much flavor?

Basically, both chefs chose to go all-out hitting as much celery as humanly possible. Gerald took the much bigger risk in basically creating some celery dip’n dots using liquid nitrogen. This was a challenge, and it was made even more challenging by the fact that he cut himself and lost a little bit of time. It ultimately felt clear that Sam’s soup dish was probably more technical and complex, while Gerald’s was a little more risky in execution. If you swing this hard, you either get a home run or a strike. His big problem was that his dip’n dots turned more into a sorbet at the end of it.

The results – Sam moves forward. Gerald probably spent a little too much time taking a risk, since he could have taken that to add a couple of other elements that would have secured him a spot moving forward. We’re going to miss him as entertainment, but the great thing about “Last Chance Kitchen” is that nobody really leaves! You’ll be seeing him hanging around for the remainder of the web series in some shape or form. Grade: B+.

For some other news regarding “Top Chef,” be sure to head over here! That link is also where you can find our full review of tonight’s episode. (Photo: Bravo.)