‘Top Chef: Charleston’ episode 6 preview: Sheldon’s injury scare; Jamie’s plate mistake

Tonight, “Top Chef: Charleston” did a couple of cool things over the course of the hour. First, we had an opportunity to see a pretty excellent Quickfire Challenge where there was no announced twist or even an announced challenge; from there, we had an Elimination Challenge that was all about barbecue! The majority of the food was tasty, but it was pretty clear before the judges even had the food that Katsuji, Amanda, Sylva, and Silvia were going to be the ones in danger. Their meal just didn’t work.

In the end, Silvia unfortunately continued the show birthday curse, and we’re now left with 11 chefs — but it could easily go down to 10 as Sheldon seemed to aggravate an injury during the Quickfire Challenge in the preview for next week’s episode. It’s not entirely clear if this is the same herniated disc that set him back tonight, but it’s possible — and it’d be a shame to see someone this talented leave like this. He could legitimately win this season; right now, he and Brooke are two of the biggest threats.

Elsewhere, one of the newbie chefs in Jamie makes a rookie mistake in not getting all of the food on a plate — honestly, it’s a surprise that Bravo even showed us this, given that typically this just means that you are automatically in grave danger if not gone. He’s really going to have to rely now on something like a non-elimination, Sheldon going home (which would be a terribly way to stick around), or someone else’s failure to have a chance at staying put one more week.

Following this week, we will be down to the top ten and that this point, it’s looking like, to the surprise of no one, there is a bloodbath of the first-time chefs. Given that this is rather boring, let’s hope that there is something coming up that manages to turn the tide in some way. At least you have a newbie chef to the competition in Jim who seems like a reasonable threat.

Tonight’s episode – To get a review of everything that transpired, be sure to head over to the link here. (Photo: Bravo.)