‘Top Chef: Charleston’ episode 7 preview: A treasure hunt in a tropical storm
What does a pirate-themed treasure hunt have to do with a cooking competition like “Top Chef“? Pretty much nothing, but in an odd sort of way, maybe that’s what has us so intrigued about the idea of this going into Thursday night’s all-new episode of the Bravo show.
Based on the sneak peek below, the remaining chefs are grouped up and told to embark on a search across Charleston for some various treasure chests. Each one of these contains ingredients, and the first one to complete the task has an advantage in the second part of it. There’s certainly a part of this that feels like “The Amazing Race” (hey, they are traveling around and collecting various items), and there’s also a part of this that feels like hell. When the producers had put together this idea, odds are they weren’t imagining that there would be some sort of tropical storm bearing down on the region.
We’ll still give the chefs some credit just for going through this madness, and dealing with what has to be some frustrating conditions. It’s especially true for someone like Sheldon given that he’s got a bad back, and one slip out in the rain could mean that he’s out of commission for a while.
In looking beyond this sneak peek, one of the things that we’re the most excited for coming into this episode is an opportunity to learn a thing or two more about who’s got the moment now as we get into the middle part of this season. While it felt early on like Brooke had this whole thing in the bag, she’s had some bumps in the road now here and there. Meanwhile, Sylva’s started to become an incredibly impressive force among the first-time contestants, and Jim remains a really fascinating underdog. Given that there are still so many different challenges ahead in the area, and they could have to do with his specialty in southern cooking, you have to think that he has a leg up on some other people.
What do you think about this sort of treasure-hunt challenge, and do you like it when the chefs go this far out of their comfort zone? Let us know your thoughts below, and head over here for some other insight into “Top Chef.” (Photo: Bravo.)