Top Chef: Restaurant Wars

April 23, 2022 1:55 PM - Season 19, Episode 8

In the most anticipated challenge of the season, the chefs are put to the ultimate test. Not only will they have to build restaurants from the ground up, but the Chefs’ Table is back. If that wasn’t enough pressure, “Top Chef’s” signature challenge levels up yet again, requiring the chefs to satisfy their VIP counter and a dining room full of guests watching their every move in an open kitchen. Guest judges Tiffany Derry and Hunter Lewis join Padma, Tom and Gail on the battlefield.

Episode description courtesy of Bravo.

posted by Superilla (10 comments total)

I always love Restaurant Wars; the chefs generally seem to enjoy it, it's nice to have a mid-season challenge that's basically the same every time, there's a ton of freedom.

Immediately after Buddha said that he acknowledged the other three chefs had a similar style of food and he wanted to support them and run front-of-house, I thought they were going to win; especially paired with Luke's ever-widening eyes as Jackson railroaded the team in a Southeast Asian direction.

Honestly, it's a good thing for him that Jackson packed his knives; if he hadn't and Luke had gone based in part on Jackson's bad tasting advice, then Jackson would have been the first in-season villain (obviously last season's winner was a real-world villain) in some time. As it is, he's just the most awkward chef to ever ask to do front-of-house. I hope production gave a cash bonus to whichever cameraman got the shot of the judges sitting at the table in the distance with Jackson leaning into the foreground like some sort of tragicomic meme.
posted by Superilla at 2:48 PM on April 23, 2022 [2 favorites]

I liked Jackson's weird energy so sad to see him go but it certainly felt like the right choice given everything. Luke really needs to step his game up, I'm sure surprised at how bland he's been, like what are you doing here if not trying to actually make interesting food?
posted by Carillon at 5:17 PM on April 23, 2022

I also liked Jackson but 100% agree that all the right choices were made in this episode. It seemed like a really weird choice for him to volunteer to be front of house given how awkward he seems and I really don’t understand how he thought it was cool to not explain the dishes to the judges, really. I am waiting for Luke to go home and am a full Evelyn stan now.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:15 AM on April 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I thought that everything team Matriarc did was smart.
Not only did Jackson seem to have a finger in every bad decision his team made, for the final course, Evelyn had him come with her to deliver the food, and told him to tell them about the desert. She could tell what was going on. Also, I got the impression that by that point, Jackson could taste salt. So, for him everything would taste salty.
posted by Spike Glee at 8:17 AM on April 24, 2022

How about Ashley, bouncing from being eliminated to winning RW?

I think Evelyn could hear what the judges were saying. I'd take two plates of the nem + Jae's sauce, though! That and the carrot cake. I've never been a huge carrot cake fan, but making a carrot caramel sounds intriguing.
posted by praemunire at 9:00 AM on April 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yes! Carrot caramel sounded so good. I think Nick picked well for his team.

I was curious so I watched Last Chance Kitchen for the first time this season to see how Jackson would do. It was an interesting prompt — ghost kitchens!
posted by inevitability at 4:27 PM on April 24, 2022

I really like LCK, which almost feels like the 'purer' version of the show now. Usually one straightforward challenge, two chefs, 30 minutes, one judge, go. You fucked up cooking goose? The challenge is cooking goose. The ghost kitchen challenge was hard, but also sensible - the difficulty came logically from the ghost kitchen idea, not from some producer saying "also you have to use the ingredients alphabetically" or something. I also really like Sarah and her wry wit, and desperately hope she comes back onto the main show; she's the only one I'm actively cheering for at this point.

I'm wondering if Luke is suffering from having a cooking style that's just not well suited to Top Chef; his pedigree is from Noma, and one thing I know they're into is fermentation and preservation, which are techniques that are just of limited use in a one-day challenge. I'm also wondering if their/his food is just more subtle; that's great at the restaurant since you are just eating the food and can enjoy the restraint. But it doesn't work when you're serving alongside three other dishes, each of which has a ton of flavour in it. Sort of like how in women's figure skating it doesn't matter how fancy your arm waving is now, it's all about hitting quad jumps.

At this point, DaMarr and Evelyn seem like the strongest chefs to me; Buddha has a style that I think can work well in the later rounds. Luke is obviously in trouble; Jae to me seems hit-or-miss and seems to have more blind spots than other cheftestants. Nick and Ashleigh seem like they're in the middle to me; Ashleigh has been less consistent but might have a higher ceiling.
posted by Superilla at 9:11 AM on April 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

This challenge warmed me to Buddha. He was very good at deflecting praise to his teammates and willing to set aside some of his own impulses for the sake of the effort.

I was so happy for Ashley's win, I like her a lot. I hope "finally" getting to cook her own food sticks with her. My dream top 3 at this point is her, Evelyn, and Damarr. If that works out I think Luke is next to go, then Jai, Nick, and finally Buddha, with either Nick or Buddha coming back from LCK.
posted by donnagirl at 1:06 PM on April 25, 2022

Very happy for Ashley's win. The team killed it and it was a pleasure to watch them work together.

Buddha's cooking in a style that is instantly familiar from fancy Australian restaurants but it is coming off a bit clinical to me. I'm wondering if he is going to get pinged later in the season for not cooking from the heart or something.

I am always astounded given how often Front of House makes or breaks RW how often teams fail to take it seriously. Whhyyyyyy Jackson?
posted by arha at 12:02 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

At this point, DaMarr and Evelyn seem like the strongest chefs to me; Buddha has a style that I think can work well in the later rounds. Luke is obviously in trouble; Jae to me seems hit-or-miss and seems to have more blind spots than other cheftestants. Nick and Ashleigh seem like they're in the middle to me; Ashleigh has been less consistent but might have a higher ceiling.

I thought Buddha would be the pick to win but now that he was described by arha as "clinical" I see that part even more. My heart wants Evelyn to win. I kept expecting Nick to be too rustic/BBQ-ish in his style and to eventually get dinged for it and it is fun to keep seeing that he doesn't fit into the mental Top Chef style I assigned to him. DaMarr's descriptions of his dishes don't seem exciting to me and then the judges go wild for it and I think "wait, run that by me again..."

Has Luke done anything memorable? Every week his eyes look bigger and tireder...
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:40 PM on May 8, 2022