Last Chance Kitchen: Who Will Return to Top Chef? / Five Way Fight For Your Life

May 10, 2021 2:49 PM - Season 18, Episode 6

A two-part episode.

Part 1: Two eliminated chefs go head to head and use inspiration from their childhood to recreate the first dish they ever cooked. Who will win and re-enter the Top Chef competition?

Part 2: Five chefs get one last chance in Last Chance Kitchen. Who will win and get another shot at redemption?

posted by everybody had matching towels (9 comments total)

Really wondering what Gabriel was actually like because everything he said was SO COCKY - was that all he gave the editors? Did he piss someone off? Because yikes.

I also thought it was kind of funny that Jamie used eggs in her dish, too. Not that it's unheard of to have eggs and rice in the same dish, just that she seemed to cook her eggs a lot better than his.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 2:54 PM on May 10, 2021

I also thought it was kind of funny that Jamie used eggs in her dish, too.

Well, she basically made slightly deconstructed fried rice based on her memory, so...

Did Tom really drive the losing team back to the city??? I notice he was not visible in the actual driving shots.
posted by praemunire at 3:21 PM on May 10, 2021

Highly irritated by the fact that I went to the part 1 LCK on iPad after watching the episode (maybe 24h after airing, granted) and the top comment was visible and congratulated the winners of both parts.

This "no sous chef" lineup really has some early shakeups, huh? First-episode-looking frontrunner Sasha still has a chance but despite his un-self-awareness I had Gabriel going pretty far too.
posted by supercres at 3:38 PM on May 10, 2021

Well, she basically made slightly deconstructed fried rice based on her memory, so...

Yes, I know, it's just funny to me that her eggs looked so much better than his!
posted by everybody had matching towels at 3:56 PM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Gabriel seems like such a bad sport. He was bitchy about it being Nelson’s fault, then didn’t give Jamie a handshake or or a congratulations.
posted by sixswitch at 4:54 PM on May 10, 2021

I wonder was the original idea to have Nelson and Gabriel compete against each other and have the winner go back? If so did Nelson's injury give Jamie her chance to shine?

Also I am happy Gabriel is out given his apparent attitude, but cooking in 3 high pressure situations back to back like that can't be easy.
posted by Carillon at 7:14 PM on May 10, 2021

Jamie was the reigning chefpion, so someone was always going to have to defeat her to get back on the show, whether that be in a three-way cookoff or one-on-one after the two newcomers battled it out. (I would guess that the challenge was so super-bare-bones because they had to change it at the last second.)
posted by praemunire at 7:58 PM on May 10, 2021

I'm confused about Tom's statement that they were down a chef (because of Nelson's injury), so that's why they had the 2nd part of the competition. But they had already planned a double elimination from the regular competition. I wonder if the LCK with what would have been Gabriel, Nelson, and Jaime, was originally intended to have 2 winners?
posted by hydra77 at 9:35 AM on May 12, 2021

I was guessing the 3-way to return, then another battle between the remaining two to stay in LCK, maybe winner to return and 2nd place to stay.
posted by supercres at 12:01 PM on May 12, 2021 [2 favorites]