TCFL 19 Houston // Finals Preview (Episode 9-12 Recaps)

Hello TCFL and greetings from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Commishes are on vacation (along with fellow TCFL members Dave M. and Lisa M.).

Yes, I know. It's been a while. The good news is that I'm mostly done with travel. The bad news is that I'm still one episode behind. The meh news is that I now, for the first time, know what it feels like to binge Top Chef. It definitely colors the experience. I'll always believe that anyone's individual opinion on the last season of How I Met Your Mother is based on whether you watched it "live" week-to-week, or binged it afterwards on streaming. With that said, here is my binge of Episodes 9 thru 12. As always, Standings can be found HERE.

Freedmen's Town

• Nyesha is one of those alums that I see everywhere except on Top Chef. I'm glad she was back for this episode.
• I like when Quickfires get weird. Monochromatic Vegetarian Dish is definitely weird.
• It's fun when Padma really lets you know how she's feeling. Too bad it didn't end up meaning anything for Luke's prospects past this episode.
• I do not recall a Top Chef event where they specified 1. that it is a ticketed event, and 2. that 100% of proceeds go to a cause. Now I want to know how much those tickets were.

• It's about that time when you get a feel for the Chefs, and know who is made for a specific challenge and who isn't. Luke not doing well here was a lock.
• I've never had a fish dish that was pre-"flaked".
• Damarr's hoecake drama was obviously manufactured because everyone knows you fuck up the first few (hoe/pan)cakes before you get dialed in.
• Kwame's glove was... something.
• It feels like they tried something different here with an "extended" Judge's Table. I would not mind seeing this more often, but not necessarily coupled with more Stew Room time because for this episode it was just seven variations of "we made this really hard on the judges.".

Dinner in Zero Gravity

• You know how pro athletes will save game balls/pucks/mementos from important games/matches? That's what I would try to do with any note signed "Love, Padma".
• I did not recognize Claudette at the start of the Quickfire. I don't know what the nature of her weight loss was, but if it's a positive, then that's awesome.
• I definitely did not know the origin of fajitas prior to this Quickfire.
• If I had already won as much prize money as The Baker, I wouldn't even care about being eliminated.
• Possibly unpopular opinion alert: Chipotle is severely overrated.

• It is wild that we are this far into the competition and there were two non-finishers in the Quickfire.
• Is anyone else tired of the Marcus Samuelsson over-saturation?
• I was wondering if the Elimination Challenge would essentially be the same as when they were at Goddard in Season 7 in D.C. and they are slightly different. The focus was on freeze-drying in that first Space-themed challenge.
• I definitely felt queasy watching the Astronauts eat in zero gravity.
• Evelyn is so nice that it almost feels wrong calling this out, but her calling Buddha a scientist is definitely meant as a slight.
• Did anyone else find it interesting that Tom had to give the bottom Chefs a pep talk after Judge's Table? It didn't seem like that tough of a critique.

Family Table

• Sarah is a worthy returnee. I'm happy she's back and she is hilarious. But she also technically lost (to Ashleigh) earlier in LCK. I don't know how to feel about this.
• Really can't argue with an episode that has both Shota and Sheldon. I was definitely considering a "Would Sheldon wear his red hat?" Tiebreaker question but decided against it.
• I hope they let that rogue crab go free.
• Several years ago, I was at a bachelor party in Atlantic City with Dave M. where everyone else we were there with decided to go to bed before midnight. He and I drank and played blackjack through the night and at some point decided to not bother going to sleep because it was 1. way too late/early for it to be worth it, and 2. because we wanted to get a seafood tower with our "winnings". We made it to when the restaurant with the seafood tower opened, but for reasons that were not clearly explained, they did not want to serve it for breakfast. On the way home that same day, I had to take a nap and dry heave at the I-95 rest stop in Delaware and found out upon coming home that 1st born Mini-Commish took her first steps while I was gone. Now I both love and hate seafood towers.
• Everyone who knows Top Chef knows that the tearful family episode comes around this time. I'm glad that they don't try to surprise them anymore and that the intrigue was more around who specifically would be showing up.

• I felt really bad for Damarr here. His guarded demeanor/lack of emotion makes a lot more sense as we progress through the season.
• Did they stop the clock when their visitors showed up? I hope so because that would have been very mean.
• Sarah prepping/plating in front of that huge TV made me very, very uncomfortable.
• Nick's mom is hilarious.
• An appearance from Adrienne, who brings the contingent from Season 15 (Colorado) to three (Flamm & Claudette). A decent showing considering how boring that season was.
• I've considered making "a Judge spitting out your food" a scoring category, but I can't figure out what the value should be. Feels like it should be at least a -25.
• Why are they playing so much with the aspect ratios this season?
• Thunderstorm for Judge's Table is just too perfect... and it's the universe telling Tom to quit it with the hats.
• Watching the Judges rearrange furniture was hilarious to me.

We're on a Boat

• The whole setup (and almost-failure) of this challenge took me back to many a Cook's Tour/No Reservations/Parts Unknown where 99% of fishing scenes were busts. Still miss Tony.
• I know that logistically it makes sense because she is from there, but there has been a lot of Dawn this season. Glad that Izard is around though.
• Give me all that Dramamine. I'd be eliminated on this challenge automatically because I'd refuse to get on the fishing boat in the first place.
• Ugh, Bangs Padma is here.
• Solely because of Bouloud being there, it felt like a big challenge to end Houston with.
• I had no idea what a UNESCO City of Gastronomy was before this, and if Tuscon and San Antonio are the American entrants, I really have no idea what to make of it.