TCFL 18 Portland // Episode 11 Recap

Alright guys. This is a warning. I don't know what it was about this Episode... but I am super out on it and I'm super grumpy about it. I'll definitely be interested to know how you guys feel. Let's get to it.

First of all, we can't talk about this Episode without talking about the Finale of Last Chance Kitchen. If you missed it, it was a two-parter where Byron beat Sara, then Byron had to cook against three of the five remaining Chefs and win two out of three to get back in. They debuted this "running the gauntlet" finale during All-Stars last season with Kevin succeeding and coming back into the competition. I do think that it should be difficult to win the 2nd half of LCK considering you will be put back in with so few Chefs remaining. But I also think this is too hard to pull off for "normal" (non-Alumni) Chefs. I was rooting hard for Sara (and still think that she is better than Byron) but I don't think she could have pulled off the gauntlet either. And it's obvious that the producers assumed that someone could/would come out of LCK, considering that the Episode 11 Quickfire was set up for six people.

Long time TCFL-ers know how much I love Brooke. And I was happy to see her participate in the Quickfire. But this thing was a mess. I have a feeling that the version of the Black Box Challenge that we got and the one that they actually do on Top Chef France are way different. It feels like they were trying to combine the mise-en-place relay (a Quickfire that I love), the blind tasting challenge (another Quickfire that I love), and the Black Box, and it just turned into a cumbersome mess. What's the point of letting them back in with five minutes to go? Did it really have to be a no communication relay? Would it have been better if they didn't get such an un-charismatic guest? If we're just going based on his appearance on the show, I have no interest in tasting Gabriel Rucker's food, or ever trying a gribiche sauce because I now associate it with him. By the way, if Brooke was an eligible TCFL Chef, she would have gotten +5 for her shared Quickfire win and would be outscoring Brittanny, Byron, Chris, Kiki, Maria, Nelson, Sasha, and Roscoe.

I've been singing the praises of the Top Chef production team all season long for how they handled making this show during the pandemic. And I still feel that way and they absolutely deserve all the credit in the world. But this Episode was the first time where I really missed what would "normally" be happening. The family Episode is a great one almost every season and the care packages and letters, while emotional, didn't have quite the same heft. And I have so many questions:

What instructions were the family members given for constructing the boxes? Did they know that they would be used for a challenge? Even if they weren't told so, shouldn't they have figured that that's what was happening?

Some of the Chefs definitely got screwed. And I think the brief was an attempt to compensate for that. Being inspired by the box and having to use the box are two way different things. A couple of the Chefs (and I don't blame them for this) only used four or five ingredients from their box. Gabe used everything in his, save his mezcal. Maybe it's no coincidence that he won this challenge. Also, special shout out to Ed this Episode who is taking hat lessons from Tom.

It was painfully obvious who was going to be in the bottom of the Elimination Challenge this week. I don't think you can say a component of your dish is "dry and weird" and escape at least the possibility of elimination. And this brings me to whatever it was that Jamie was doing at the end of this Episode. I know that there are a lot of Jamie fans here in TCFL, so I will tread lightly: It didn't seem like she quite had a plan for what she was trying to do (or at least that's how the edit made it seem). This is not to say that any of her feelings weren't genuine. Obviously she wanted Maria to stay. But I don't think she (at first) wanted to quit either. It's almost as if she saw her friend get eliminated and then quickly realize that Tom wasn't going to say: "It's not over... I'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen." And at that point, she had no choice but to offer to sacrifice herself. To Maria's everlasting credit, she handled the whole situation with class and grace. And I'm glad that the Judges reminded everyone that there is a game to be played. They easily could have given everyone a pass this week considering that there is technically an empty slot in the competition.

At the end of it all, (outside of Sara not being involved) we have the correct Final Four. At this point, I'd have to guess that we end up with Shota, Gabe, and Dawn cooking in the last challenge. If it wasn't for her timing issues rearing their ugly head again, I think Dawn would be the clear cut favorite. More importantly, the top of the TCFL Leaderboard is getting tight. The money positions (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) are only separated by six points. Everyone enjoy our trip to Tillamook Creamery tonight. Until then...