Last night, Top Chef saw the final three duke it out. Surely, it must have been the season finale? Alas, no. Another week remains of this epic season.
The Quickfire Challenge was classically twisty. Wolfgang Puck showed up and the chefs were presented with 7 classic Quickfires. Each chef had to assign one challenge to each of their competitors. Mike gave Antonia the “Only Use Stuff from a Can” challenge. Antonia gave Richard the “Hot Dog” challenge; and Richard gave Mike the “One Pot Wonder” challenge. After they started cooking, Padma revealed that they would then administer further classic Top Chef twists to each other. Richard made Mike cook with no knives or tools. Antonia made Richard cook with one hand, leaving her to tie on a giant apron and cook in tandem with Carla. Antonia presented a curry and canned shrimp soup, Blais made currywurst (with premade hotdogs and homemade bread), and Mike did a take on pork and beans. Mike won, again. Sigh.
The chefs then went to meet some special guests: Wolfgang Puck, Morimoto and (my former employer) Michelle Bernstein. The Cheftestants had to cook the meals the star chefs would choose as their last meal on earth. Since Mike won the Quickfire, he got to assign the pairs. He took Chef Michelle, gave Richard Wolfgang Puck, and left Antonia with Morimoto.
Puck told Richard he wanted to eat goulash, apple strudel, and spaetzl. Morimoto wanted miso soup with rice, sashimi, and pickles. Michelle wanted fried chicken with biscuits and gravy–incidentally, the same meal I ate the last day I worked at her restaurant.
Padma also held up an envelope and assured the Cheftestants that a twist was coming later.
Antonia was cursed from the start. Her hamachi was slimy so she threw it out and replaced it with less exciting tuna. She had no confidence in the Japanese food she was making. The judges said her bento box was too salty and too spicy, though her rice was cooked perfectly. Mike chose to cook his chicken sous vide and then fry it, which caused the crust to fall off. His white meat was a little dry, though the judges loved his egg-yolk filled empanada in place of a biscuit. Wolfgang hailed Richard’s goulash and strudel as being worthy of being called Austrian (and his frozen sour cream was very Blais).
For the first twist of the new round, Judges’ table was done at the dining table instead of the traditional counter. Blais was declared safe, as he would be the first to go onto the finale. Then we had to see what was in the envelope. We waited after one commercial break, then had the bump (which was entirely unhelpful) and another commercial break, and it was finally revealed that Mike and Antonia each had to cook one more bite to decide who would go onto the finale.
Antonia made grouper on yam and apple relish. Mike did a surf and turf of tempura lobster on top of beef tartare. After much debate between the judges (who were split down the middle on their decision), Antonia was sent home, leaving Mike to cook in the finale. This outcome was especially sad for those who remember when Antonia was eliminated in the episode before the finale in Season 4. Her defeat was imminent, given that she was crying during her interviews throughout the whole episode. But we still love her, and next week is finally–finally– the finale.
