Top Chef: Colorado episode 11 preview: The finals begin in high altitude

Moving into Top Chef: Colorado episode 11, one of the things that we’re the most excited to see is the remaining chefs tackle something that we’ve never quite seen on the show before: Watching the remaining chefs try to tackle making complicated cuisine at very high altitude. Baking is especially a challenge, which makes sense that this would be one of the things that the judges challenge them with.

For some more news regarding what’s happening within this episode, take a look at the synopsis for the episode below:

In breathtaking Telluride, the Chefs embark on the first leg of the finals. As they walk down the quaint Main Street they are quickly reunited with the winner of Last Chance Kitchen, and the new group of five face Padma, Tom, and Chef Wylie Dufresne. For the Quickfire challenge, they are tasked to make a dish incorporating the old saloon slinging medicinal beverage, sarsaparilla. Then the chefs cook at Alpino Vino, a fine dining restaurant at the highest elevation in North America, where they prepare a dish that must include a baking element. And no chef knows the difficulty of cooking in high altitude locations like Michelin-star recipient Chef Paul Liebrandt who has cooked in the Swiss Alps. It’s a tall order to impress judges of this caliber at just under 12,000 feet up.

The sneak peek that CarterMatt has for you below gives you a little bit more insight regarding what you will see when it comes to the elimination challenge. To be specific, Joe seems to think as though two of the other chefs are playing it “safe” by making cornbread. We don’t entirely agree with this. You can make something a little bit simple provided that this “simple” is amazing. Also, one of Chris’ specialties is soul food and he was just criticized for stepping a little bit too far out of his comfort zone on this past episode. Why wouldn’t you want to have some of his best here? This is the time where the chefs have to bring the best version of themselves since we’re so close to the final round.

As for the Quickfire, that just sounds awesome since you’re going to see some sort of quaint old-town saloon battle with food. If you’re going to a place like Telluride, that is the sort of food that we would expect.

Let’s get back to the elimination challenge for a moment since there are some fun facts to spill here. Alpino Vino sits at almost 12,000 feet above sea level, which makes it almost 2,000 feet higher than the average elevate of Leadville, the highest city in America. There are plenty of cities that do sit at a higher elevation than this elsewhere in the world, but you have to go somewhere like Peru or China to see them.

Related – Check out the finale of Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen

Let us know who you think is likely to advance in this Top Chef episode in the comments! Also, like CarterMatt on Facebook for some additional news regarding Top Chef. (Photo: Bravo.)