‘Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen’ review: Did Bene Bartolotta take down Janine Booth?
Janine Booth is following in the footsteps of another great chef in Kristen Kish, at least when it comes to how she is dominating “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen.” So for her to face off against a man in Bene Bartolotta who played a part in her getting sent home from the competition itself earlier this year (at least in that they worked on the same dish), it had to feel like a battle that she desperately wanted to win.
So was she able to do that? During one of the best showdowns of the entire season, she did. The idea of the challenge itself was great in forcing the chefs to cook only with frozen and canned vegetables, and both of them actually came up with things so innovative that they would have been able to stay around in the actual “Top Chef” this past week against people who actually created some fresh farm-to-table dishes. Neither one of them was even remotely terrible, and Tom Colicchio did not say anything horrible in his comments.
As a matter of fact, the only thing that was somewhat disappointing about the end of this particular challenge was the way in the Janine was declared the winner. About two minutes before the end, Bene declared his food as amazing and said that he won. This is something that should be the telltale sign of elimination, since it helps to make it into a little bit of a shocker. (In case you’re wondering why someone even says this in a confessional after the fact, it is because they want to still project an air of confidence despite being eliminated from the show.)
One of these days, we want to see someone who is so confident actually win a battle, and for it to be edited the same way. That would at least allow for an opportunity for us to be surprised, and we really were not surprised at all by this. As a matter of fact, we find the whole way in which this happened to be rather annoying despite a great challenge and a likable winner. Grade: B-.
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Photo: Bravo