Top Chef: Kentucky episode 2 preview: Bourbon and a shopping mistake

Top Chef: Kentucky episode 2 is coming onto Bravo Thursday night, and at the center of this one seems to be a Kentucky staple: Bourbon! It feels like a requirement to mention it at least on a few occasions based on where this season is set, and given that we’re still in the early going, why not lean into it? Clearly, that’s something that the production staff decided in the early going here.

Over the course of the next new episode you will see the chefs head to the home of Makers Mark in order to create some rather fascinating dishes — likely using bourbon as a big part of them. For more on that, just take a look at the synopsis below:

A very pregnant Gail Simmons asks the chefs to feed her cravings in a special Quickfire delivery. Then it’s time to celebrate two iconic Kentucky mainstays: local cuisine and bourbon. The Chefs head to Makers Mark, the oldest distillery in America to put their spins on a meal full of Kentucky classics including burgoo, Benedictine, mutton, and dumplings. This is a true battle for Kentucky as the chefs navigate their first team challenge – and one chef makes a potentially fatal shopping error. Can they recover or will they be scraping the bottom of the barrel to make it through?  Food and travel editor, Nilou Motamed joins the judges this season, and Maker’s Mark’s in-house Chef, Newman Miller, sits on the panel as a guest judge.

We are actually rather psyched about their being some sort of shopping mistake on the show, just because that’s not something you get on it all that often but it feels like one of the easiest parts of it to screw up. You’ve got so many things to keep track of, and typically, you only have a limited amount of time to get your ingredients together.

You can see one sneak peek for the upcoming episode below. There is something rather fun about the Quickfire this time around just because it’s formatted a little bit different than some others we’ve seen over time. Gail is close to welcoming her baby and, because of that, she can’t be there in person to help with the challenge. Yet, the winning dishes from the kitchen will be taken over to Gail, at least in the form of prepped ingredients, and then cooked. The winner at that point will be chosen. It’s a little bit unorthodox for a Top Chef challenge but we like the effort to keep Gail involved! This is a show that does love to innovative and this seems to be very much in the spirit of that from top to bottom.

Related News – Check out our take on the recent Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen episode!

What do you think is going to happen on Top Chef: Kentucky episode 2? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: Bravo.)