Top Chef: Music City USA

February 5, 2019 12:26 PM - Season 16, Episode 9

In Nashville, Tenn., the chefs cook onstage at the Grand Ole Opry for singer Hunter Hayes. Inspired by a vibrant music memory, the chefs put their hearts on a plate for musician Caleb Followill, model Lily Aldridge and chef Jonathan Waxman.
posted by Anonymous (6 comments total)

Is Lily auditioning for Padma's spot? She had the best comments of all the diners who were not Tom or Padma in my opinion.

There is way more corn being served this season than I remember from the past.
posted by Emmy Rae at 2:21 PM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Lily also has killer outfits.

Surprised about who went home this episode. I was very impressed with them the first few episodes and thought they would potentially win it all.

Now I'm beginning to suspect that Eddie is going to win. So many episodes seem to revolve around him somehow.
posted by tofu_crouton at 2:30 PM on February 5, 2019

This is certainly my lack of knowledge than a comment on his stardom, but I hadn't heard of Hunter Hayes but thought he came across really well. Overall interesting episode sorry the purple plate wasn't in the running.
posted by Carillon at 7:42 PM on February 5, 2019

Now I'm beginning to suspect that Eddie is going to win. So many episodes seem to revolve around him somehow.

Don't they shoot all this stuff before the finale? So they would have shot and cut and maybe released the whole first part of the season before they know the outcome? They always talk about going home for a break before the finale.

I consider myself an occasional fan of country and I have never heard of Hunter Hayes. But apparently he won best new artist at the CMAs in 2012, so I guess that's on me.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:47 AM on February 7, 2019

Don't they shoot all this stuff before the finale? So they would have shot and cut and maybe released the whole first part of the season before they know the outcome? They always talk about going home for a break before the finale.

Yeah, then on the other hand they have seasons like Paul Qui's where they know he's going to win from the outset and they have to do special editing to make it seem like he's having more problems than he actually is.
posted by tofu_crouton at 12:56 PM on February 7, 2019

I've been wondering about the timing myself. All of this was from May and maybe the first bit of June so far.

(The sad reason I looked this up: when Ripert appeared I wanted to see if it was before or after Bourdain's death. Based on Padma's instagram, my guess is that we're just coming up on that date. Wonder if the show will mention it.)

I think the finale happened before anything started airing, but (a) I can't find the article that that guess was based on, and (b) there might be a tiny bit of backchannel info I have related to it, but I could easily be misinterpreting that.
posted by supercres at 1:02 PM on February 7, 2019