Top Chef: Thrown For A Loop

April 26, 2021 6:48 AM - Season 18, Episode 4

For the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs must create a dish featuring Campbell’s Soup for Padma and guest judge Dale Talde. Then, the cheftestants get thrown for a loop when they find out they won’t be shopping for their Elimination Challenge, because they’ll be picking their fruit right off of the trees in the heart of Oregon’s Fruit Loop and making a savory fruit dish without any vegetables. Melissa King and Carrie Baird join Padma, Tom and Gail at judges’ table.

description via bravotv.com/top-chef

posted by everybody had matching towels (9 comments total)

I'm really curious to know what happened with that chicken. I saw her temping it, but what was the temp? Are we talking 135 and thinking that will carry over? Was it 150 and just looked more red which can sometimes happen to chicken?
posted by Carillon at 10:11 AM on April 26, 2021

She talked about carryover but it sounded almost like she temped her first batch to get the timing, and just cooked the second batch for that same amount of time. Countertop fryer, cool weather, increased load all led to that not being long enough.
posted by supercres at 10:31 AM on April 26, 2021

Damn I was going to post something laudatory about Texas Gabe but the hints of milkshake duck are strong.
posted by supercres at 10:48 AM on April 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

The fact that they gave Kiki a raw challenge in Last Chance Kitchen was funny, and I'm guessing a change from the original challenge.
posted by ShooBoo at 12:08 PM on April 26, 2021

Damn I was going to post something laudatory about Texas Gabe but the hints of milkshake duck are strong.

Just had the wild realization that Comedor was the last proper restaurant I ate at before the pandemic started. Yiiiiikes.
posted by bcwinters at 8:17 PM on April 26, 2021

Kiki had, I think, three minutes to spare after plating - which is practically unheard of in a challenge - so there's really no excuse for not cooking the chicken properly.

Yeah, uh, Gabe. This season was filmed before he was terminated (Dec 2020). He's not a favourite of mine, even less so now.
posted by essexjan at 1:02 PM on April 27, 2021

I feel bad for Kiki. Actual work in a kitchen is probably closer to game-show competition parameters than in most other professions, but there are still some talented chefs for whom the format just doesn't work.
posted by praemunire at 10:20 PM on April 27, 2021

I thought Gabe's food all looked interesting and cool and now I am worried he will win :(

I LOVE this challenge. May be one of my favorites ever. Possibly because I am a fruit farmer.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:12 AM on May 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Catching up on this season, love being in Portland where I used to live. Just wanted to say The Fruit Loop is a real thing in Oregon and a very nice way to spend an afternoon driving around beautiful scenery and enjoying produce and wine. It pairs nicely with a drive up the Gorge, too. There's a fair number of stops along the way, this year's map lists 26.
posted by Nelson at 10:17 AM on May 22, 2021 [1 favorite]