‘Top Chef Masters’ review: Who survived Restaurant Wars?

Every year on “Top Chef Masters,” there is one challenge that stresses everyone out beyond belief, and with good reason: Restaurant Wars. It’s an exciting hour of TV that is traditionally jam-packed full of drama, and it did not disappoint here. You had some people stressed out beyond belief, David Burke flirting with everyone in the front of the house, and Sang Yoon looking like he was about to exterminate half of the wait staff with his eyes.

The teams were broken down based off of the Battle of the Sous Chefs results, which you can read a little bit more about here.

Artisan – Neal Fraser, Lynn Crawford, Jennifer Jasinski, and Bryan Voltaggio

First of all, this name just sounds completely hipster and lame, and it’s so abstract. It almost feels like a name from deluded “Celebrity Apprentice” contestants. There was disharmony there, and there was disharmony on the team. We don’t know why these people did not listen to Bryan, who had been through this before. It was like Neal especially just didn’t really care to do anything risky since he had immunity, and he put a “New York steak” on the menu for a Los Angeles-themed restaurant.

Sunny and 72 – Sang, David, Douglas Keane, Sue Zemanick

From the name up, this was just a far superior idea. There was more of an effort here with the theme, and despite not having the sous chefs, the dishes were also by and large better. Douglas remains a personal favorite, and while we also love Sang, we don’t think he is doing himself any favors by focusing almost entirely on himself and continually winning. If there’s ever a knockout round, he’s going to be in some trouble.

Artisan was the clear loser here, and when you consider that Bryan did well and Neal was immune, that just left the show with two options … and Lynn was sent packing after a brownie that overwhelmed the judges.

But wait … there was another surprise. Douglas’ sous chef Drew has been forced to leave for personal reasons, which could complicate things for him. Will he just have to take a punishment the rest of the season? That is what we are now going to be finding out.

Photo: Bravo