‘Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen’ review: Did Kristen Kish beat Josie Smith-Malave?

There was an extra layer of drama on “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen” this week, and some may even call it culinary justice: Josie Smith-Malave facing off against a woman in Kristen Kish who many believed should have stayed in the competition over her. As a matter of fact, there’s no doubt in our mind that Kristen would still be in the competition now had Josie went home over her during Restaurant Wars. But alas, that is just the way this very fancy cookie crumbles.

As we said last week, though, these sort of eliminations are the reason that this web series exists, and we are thus very happy for it. This time around, the challenge was rather simple: break down a salmon into ten equal portions, and then create a stellar dish that impresses Tom Colicchio and all of the previously-eliminated contestants. We know that both chefs brought their A-games to this, since they each had something major to prove. Kristen obviously wanted to show that she deserved to be in the competition longer than Josie, whereas Josie wanted to shut up everyone who acted as though she should have went home first.

In the end, you may have seen the end result here coming a while away: Kristen won thanks to a crispy salmon dish with pickled pineapple, and she is getting very close to having an opportunity to re-enter the competition. There are only five chefs left in the running, and two of them (in Josh and Stefan) we very much believe that Kristen can defeat here without a problem if they are sent home. As for Sheldon or Brooke, that match-up may be more competitive if we ever see it happen (though we are hoping it does not come to that until the final three).

We should also point out that for the first time, there was a change in the “Save a Chef” voting since week 2; Kuniko was finally defeated by CJ, and ironically all three returning chefs still have a chance to still be in this competition moving forward. With that being said, either Josie or CJ will be eliminated by this time next week.

Do you think that Kristen will cook her way back into the competition? If you missed our review of Wednesday’s “Top Chef” episode, be sure to check it out here.

Photo: Bravo