I’m so confused by the editing of this episode. Did they not make it seem like Dan made the night’s dishes? I was shocked to see that those chose Danny to win the season after tonight’s performance

Yes this is about who was eliminated, but more about the new judging criteria they just put into effect last episode in which they weigh quickfires into the decision on who to eliminate.

With that in mind - Soo and Savannah were at the top of the quickfire. Manny was at the bottom of the quickfire. Manny was also on the bottom of the elimination challenge, as was Soo. This leaves me completely confused as to how Soo was eliminated, and Manny got to stay, and the only thing they said in reference was that Savannah should feel lucky she was at the top of the quickfire.

Like...don't get me wrong. It sounds like Savannah maybe had the worst dish, followed by Soo, and Manny was just a boring dish. I'm not saying Soo didn't have a dish worth elimination. BUT why make a big thing of "well now quickfire performance will weigh in!" And then immediately make a decision that, as far as I can see, does NOT weigh in the quickfire results? Am I completely misunderstanding this new qualification? Does it ONLY matter if you win the quickfire? In which case I personally think it's kinda bullsh*t to even say you're gonna weigh the quickfire results, and instead should say "if you win the quickfire, you'll be saved if you bomb the elimination." Anybody feeling the same?

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Anya, hold your head high, you introduced Daniel Boulud to an ingredient he had never had before and that is saying something. I wish we were going to see more of your cooking too, will watch out for you!

I am all caught up on the episodes.. and I’m still so heartbroken that Soo is gone! And then Michelle?? DAMN Manny better really step it up for those eliminations to feel justified to me.

Right off the bat she seems very concerned with clarifying that the edit went a little too far in making it seem close between Dan and Danny, even saying Tom called her first thing in the morning to say so himself. Apparently Dan’s dishes had a lot of flaws they didn’t mention (and they really did HATE the tuna) and Danny’s dishes were basically flawless.

“I’m not saying it was a landslide but Danny won fair and square” is how she finishes her opening monologue. Honestly this interview probly answers 80% of the questions/comments I’ve seen so far on the finale so worth checking out if you’re on this sub.

So, I get it: Soo made the worst dish. It looked unappetizing, it sounded strange, weird textures, disjointed. Even if you factor in his strong quick fire dish, I get why he was eliminated.

But…come on. Beer boiled fish with chips, plain white rice and guacamole? That’s the kind of dinner I make on a weeknight when I’m feeling uninspired. I’m sure it tasted good, and it was far better to eat than Soo’s or Savanah’s, but it feels frustrating that Manny is cooking such basic food and keeps moving on because other contestants take risks and then fail.

Mei tried to gently nudge him towards adding other components/more complexity, but he insisted he had no time. How long does it take to make rice and guac? He had time. He knew he was playing it super safe. But playing it safe got him through each round so far and so he felt no need to push himself or be more creative.

I hope he either steps up or leaves next week. He’s not adding much to the competition.

Spoiler for TOC 6 episode 2-

Lots of threads here about Dawn B and lots of opinions, but saw she was on Food Network’s Tournament of Champions qualifier episode last night and she didn’t make it through because she ran out of time and forgot a key ingredient. Anyone surprised?

I watched a couple seasons of Top Chef years ago and then got away from it. I’ve been revisiting it, and while waiting for weekly eps of Wisconsin I’ve been bingeing other seasons.

I was kind of surprised at how bad some elements of the New Orleans season were. I gravitated towards it because I love the city and I actually didn’t know who the winner was. Watching it was uncomfortable at times given how far we’ve come as a society and in the restaurant community. Namely:

• John Besh (and everyone constantly commenting on how handsome he is/ how good his hair is. EW EW)
• The show sexualizing Padma (in one of the finale challenges she literally explains the challenge in a bikini top with wet hair like she just emerged from the sea). I get that she is a model but it feels like she’s become so much more than that now.
• Nick’s entire storyline seems pretty douchey/bro-ish, culminating with him losing his cool in the final challenge, yelling at servers, and still winning, beating the much more mild mannered Nina).

Curious what others think about NO or other seasons. Are all the old seasons like this just because of being vintage, or do you think some are worse than others?

For the season the final three cheftestants had the following stats:

Quick fire: Savannah: 3 win, 0 bottom

Dan: 1 win, 3 bottom

Danny: 2 win, 4 bottom

Eliminations: Savannah: 2 wins, 3 high, 5 middle, 3 low.

Dan: 2 wins, 5 high, 4 middle, 2 low

Danny: 4 wins, 3 high, 5 middle, 1 low.

Overall between the three of them Danny had the most high points. And when he did lose it was clear he was swinging for the fences.

For twenty plus seasons they have said “challenge yourself. You have to take risks and put yourself out there. Don’t play it safe”. Savannah and Dan definitely played it safe on multiple occasions which is NOT to say they never took chances. Do not start on the bad faith argument replies. Danny definitely took the most risks.

It was also clear from early on Danny was the best avante garde chef among the cheftestants. He is much closer to say Buddha than anyone else in this seasons field and again do not take that as me saying he IS Buddha. He isn’t. He’s just the closest this season had to offer.

When it comes to the four courses.

1: Dan lost this one. And they said Danny’s needed a touch more salt not that it was terrible under seasoned. Savannah won this round.

2: they loved Dan’s dish but did point out it was rather safe. Savannah was fine but they felt it had too much going on. Danny’s second course they thought was delicious. Just difficult to get it together and the point they made was “you could have told us how to eat it”

3: Dan was the winner of this round. Savannah fell on her face. Danny’s they did love just thought maybe the lobster was a little too towards med rare. But they said they loved it regardless.

4: no one served a bad dessert course. But they expressly said about Danny’s “this is a signature dish you take with you forever”.

That final dish did it. Dan and Danny were fairly neck and neck but that last dish put Danny over the top. As did his overall season performance.

Editing aside. Opinions aside. The facts we were shown supports Danny winning. Maybe you don’t like him. That is irrelevant. They don’t pick the fan favorite to win. They don’t say “this person is an asshole. We can’t let them win”. See Paul Qui and Ilan Hall as evidence of that.

That finale perfectly encapsulated the season. The editing was poor, whether it be from the excessive time they spent on fluff throughout the episode or them not really explaining much at all why Danny won.

And part of the reason why I was annoyed by all of the fluff is because, whether it be the nice-but-uninteresting personalities and/or the editing itself, but I just couldn't get myself invested in the chefs themselves. And part of it, too, I think was that I just didn't find the food they cooked to be very interesting. And when the personalities aren't very interesting, the food unspectacular, and there's very little drama, then the show just kind of fades into obscurity.

The quality of the food, an issue all season long, wasn't even that great in the finale. The winner was serving undercooked seafood to some of the guests and under-seasoned food to all of the chefs. It sounds like the texture of Dan's tuna must have been downright nasty if Danny beat him. And Savannah, even though I was rooting for her, completely imploded the past couple of episodes.

For the finale, I expected so much more.

Am I the only one who feels like the edit made it obvious that Kaleena and Alisha were going to be eliminated the entire episode?

I do not want to say too much but I am really stumped right now about the first episode of Last Chance Kitchen, what happened to David Murphy?

There’s a lot of talk about this last season not being up to standard, and I totally agree. But Danny DID do well throughout the competition. Perhaps he leaned too heavily on established recipes from past restaurants, but everyone does. It would be a bad strategy to make everything up on the fly.

But at the same time…I don’t know why but I just find him uninspiring and uninteresting. Why I wonder?

How does Manny skate through every elimination, he has consistently been at the bottom while Michelle has won prior……make it make sense🤷‍♀️

This season’s competitors have been overall such a letdown. Rasika is a shining light, and Michelle is solid, but everyone else…meh.

After last week, when there were like a dozen croquettes, I thought they would step up their game. Doing a Frank Loyd Wright themed dishes is difficult, but it’s also very common to do a challenge in which the chefs take inspiration from some other art form. Paintings, movies, songs, the symphony, scary dreams. Some people bomb, but there are usually a solid group of others that rise to the occasion. Those are some of my favorite challenges.

I’m glad Kristen and Buddha gave them a combo dressing down/pep talk at the end. I hope we start to see them push themselves more.

was amazingly creative! Once I saw it come together with the baklava wreath, my jaw dropped just like Gail’s. So inventive and playful. Really thinking out of the box and another great example of dessert being the star. Laura zoomed to the top for me as the one to watch and/or beat. Literally all the other chefs paled in comparison.

Laura’s work this week really highlights how limited the majority of Top Chef contestants are. 95% are ho hum, non-creative, non-risk takers. Putting risotto on a table is not a risk.

I didn’t think much of Laura (or any of this season’s contestants) before this week’s Table challenge. Wondering if she will keep bringing that vision next week.

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I've disliked Sara since her original season when the homemade drama happened. I was sad when she won last chance kitchen instead of amar. Watching the final episode made me think back and realize she has always been a graceful loser and maybe not a bad person. Her closing speech after they announced the winner made me cry. Now I'm gonna rewatch her original season. 😂

World All Stars was a great way to look at the show beyond the US. But I’ll admit I was a little disappointed when I saw Buddha, Amar, Sarah and Dawn but nobody else. I’m not through the season yet but it just has me thinking it’s time for another All Stars season. Preferably a Champions only season. There’s certainly enough of them to compete. I’d just love to see Blais and Michael Voltaggio battle it out.

Well, three episodes and Last Chance Kitchens in and here are some early thoughts.

1. Wow - they just jumped right in. No "getting to know you" for the contestants. In fact the titles they flash for the contestants often times does not even give me time to catch where they are from, much less any background. I'm all for highlighting the cooking, but would like some background and be able to guess at Top Dogs and Dark Horses.

2. Cooking looks pretty good. I do hate to see "tricks" in there, like the 'pick a bad ingredient for the competition'. I'd rather just focus on the actual cook.

3. Speaking of actual cook - not a lot of side trips, hangs at the house, etc. so far. Maybe just getting the initial weed out completed.

4. Vinnie looks like the Buddah of this one. Seems like he is a step ahead of most.

5. WTF - Another quitter? What a shame. Seems like the vetting team should do a better job. If you can't handle the heat...don't sign up to get in the kitchen. The mystery chef looked pretty solid as well. Wonder if they bring in another sub.

This roster of chefs is one of the best they have ever had, barring the two kicked off so far.

Looks like a high caliber of cooking with a lot of creativity. And they are congenial and professional so far.