‘Top Chef: Seattle’ review: The ghost of seasons past
If you appreciate it when “Top Chef” takes a look back into its own past for challenges, then odds are you probably ended up rather enjoying the all-new episode of the show that aired on Wednesday night. Not even product placement could drag down what was a pretty cool attempt by the nine remaining chefs to create healthier versions of notable dishes from past contestants. After all, we can never fault anyone for reminding us all about the great pea puree war from season 7.
Before we even came to this challenge, though, we have to give a quick shout-out to a quickfire challenge that had no cooking at all; instead, it was about knife skills, and seeing who is a top chef when it comes to preparation. Micah ended up winning this, and thus he had immunity for the latter challenge (not that he needed it).
In watching this second challenge, really what we got from it more than just a history lesson was getting another reminder that Brooke and Kristen are so going to be the final two chefs this season. While Josh rose to the occasion this week, he’s night and day almost every week; meanwhile, these two are multiple winners, and Kristen won for a brilliant reinvention of what was Carla’s classic chicken pot pie from “Top Chef: All-Stars” back in season 8. As a part of the product integration, Healthy Choice is actually selling this now! As cynical as we are about in-show advertising, Kristen has to feel pretty good about this.
As for people who aren’t exactly feeling good right now, the dishonor this week went to John and Lizzie for some culinary failures; and with John, he got into a big to-do over the fact that his risotto was only bad because he couldn’t find the right pan. Really, though, this was still better than Lizzie serving up old scallops, but she somehow got a reprieve at first in a cook-off trying to revitalize the terrible burger that CJ and Tyler created during the team challenge earlier this season.
So who came out on top? It was about the patty at the end of the day, and Lizzie pulled off a pretty stunning upset. We don’t necessarily like John as a model of a good Samaritan, but we do agree with him that he got the shaft this week. He’s a better cook than some of the people left, but at least CJ has a very worthy opponent over in “Last Chance Kitchen” now.
Do you think that the right chef was sent packing? If you want to read up on the most-recent “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen” results, be sure to head on over to the link here.
Photo: Bravo