‘Top Chef: New Orleans’ review: Did Nicholas Elmi have a reason to feel sick?
Tonight’s “Top Chef: New Orleans” episode did not start off very well for Nicholas Elmi. The man started off with the news that he was suffering from strep throat, and he had to skip the entire Quickfire Challenge. Then, he tried to overcompensate for his absence during the elimination challenge, and it ended up blowing up in his face.
We have to start here, though, with the awesome idea for the Quickfire in what was basically a culinary version of musical chairs. All of the chefs had the opportunity to cook with food made partially by other people, and there were a few occasions of one chef benefiting heavily from the work that another chef put on the plate. In the end, the winner was the one who managed to bring everything together in the right amount of time and deliver something out of this world good … and that was Brian Huskey, who got a little bit lucky with some of his ingredients.
As it turns out, Brian needed that immunity from the quickfire since he, like Nicholas and the rest of the Grey Team, struggled to make a great potluck meal for Kermit Ruffins and his band. This at least wasn’t a challenge where there was one singular disaster, but the Nicholas, Brian, Travis Masar, and Patty Vega. While Travis doesn’t really seem like a guy who is long for the show, it was Patty’s time to leave this season. She’s been in the bottom a few times now, and we’re more willing to chalk up the mistakes from Nicholas on his illness. After all, he’d been among the best for the two episodes leading up to this.
So while we’re typically bummed about the predictable finish this week, at least there were some creative moments in here. We prefer that much more than something that we didn’t see coming with an elimination. Grade: B-.
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Photo: Bravo