Top Chef: Kentucky: The Fastest Two Minutes in Cooking [Season Premiere]

December 6, 2018 7:31 AM - Season 16, Episode 1

Top Chef Kentucky begins as fifteen of the country's finest chefs are off to the races at Churchill Downs for the ride of their lives. After a lightning fast two minute mise-en-place focused Quickfire, the Chefs are challenged to make a dish that will appeal to a crowd of two hundred at a stakes-filled Kentucky Derby party. Churchill Downs' own Chef David Danielson serves as guest judge along with returning regulars Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, and Graham Elliot.
posted by nightrecordings (7 comments total)

Still never a fun of the live judging in front of them system. Also halfway through and my partner asked if they'd been watching great British bake off, so far everyone had been very nice and no raging egos yet, at least not in a terrible way. I don't expect that to continue past this first episode, but it's been pleasant so far.
posted by Carillon at 9:49 PM on December 6, 2018

The only raging ego is the blonde white guy from Menlo Park. Brandon? I'm glad he didn't win his group!

This seems like a talented group! I'm impressed.
posted by apricot at 8:34 AM on December 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Not a fan of Brandon. Especially irritated that he was 100% right about Caitlin picking the wrong thing with her tortellini-turned-bowl-of-bizarre-pasta that sent her home.

I like a lot of the contestants, but as an Iowan, I’m contractually obligated to cheer for Kevin. He’s definitely Iowa Nice so far, but I hope he makes a better showing in future weeks—fingers crossed!!
posted by epj at 4:25 PM on December 8, 2018

The food seems really good this year. Of course, I have a preference for Southern food, so that helps. And (Spoiler!) a vegan dish won! That was a case when I wish we could taste the food. Through the screen, all we could see was a brown potato soup, but it hid more complexity than the other dishes.

I'm upset about who went home because it looked delicious. I wish it were summer so I could try replicating it. I also am putting the shrimp and grits and "succotash" in my mental list of recipe ideas.
posted by tofu_crouton at 5:40 AM on December 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

I am team Eric Adjepong all the way. DC *represent*. And hell yeah West African cuisine. Look at this food! Look at it!

Brandon can go pound sand.
posted by nightrecordings at 8:09 AM on December 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

I was a little late on catching up on this, but a quarter of the way through this episode I texted my similarly-Top-Chef-obsessed friend and said, "Oh my God I hate this prick from California". He couldn't possibly be more annoying!

I also watched this before lunch and I was sooooooo hungry the whole time. Everything looked so good.
posted by chainsofreedom at 1:40 PM on December 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I am so excited they are in Louisville this year! My partner kept pausing because I was shouting out names of landmarks over the dialogue--so many wonderful food memories from that city, including the amazing Mayan Cafe--I'm still dreaming of my last dinner there.

I had to laugh when Kelsey said she was making deviled eggs--there's a woman who knows her audience. Also dying to know more about the vegan soup, that sounded like a terrible choice and I was so relieved that it won! And of course they kicked things off at Churchill Downs. Fingers crossed that Hot Browns make an appearance!
posted by stellaluna at 2:10 PM on December 17, 2018