Top Chef Season 20 Episode 9 Recap: Restaurant Wars

Last week’s episode of Top Chef was all about speed. The chefs competed in a mise en place race inspired by the Fast and the Furious, where the winning team got to go to the premiere of Fast X. Coolest tie-in ever. Sadly, the only true Fast fan of the bunch was Victoire Gouloubi and she missed out on the win.

The cheftestants continued on with a thirty minute elimination challenge using the ingredients from the mise en place race. The winning team of Tom Goetter, Gabriel Rodriguez, and Ali Ghzawi celebrated the vegetables they were given and made gorgeous and tasty veggie forward dishes. Amar Santana and Charbel Hayek were in the bottom two with uninspired lamb dishes, womp womp. Charbel got the boot, and all the chefs poured one out to celebrate onion boy.

Not today, quickfire!

Did Padma Lakshmi’s stylist miss the memo that the Fast and Furious challenge was last week? Padma rocked a bustier top that looked like a motorcycle jacket as she greeted the chefs with the dreaded news that it was time for restaurant wars! No pesky quickfire challenge today, it was all down to business.

Three Michelin star chef Clare Smyth also shared the chefs would be cooking at her restaurant, which meant no building out a restaurant was required. Buddha Lo took several big gulps and felt the pressure as he used to work with Clare. Padma then had the chefs draw knives and Victoire and Buddha got to pick their teams. Sara Bradley was picked last and swore vengeance in the form of drowning her fellow contestants in butter.

Victoire picked Tom, Nicole Gomes, and Gabriel. Tom immediately took the lead and suggested they call their restaurant “Roots” and focus on the flavors they are familiar with. Nicole wasn’t sold, but no one else seemed to mind so she was overruled. Buddha took the lead on his team and suggested to Amar, Ali, and Sara that their theme be classic British dishes with a twist. The team lacked enthusiasm but couldn’t come up with a better concept so Buddha won by default.

How to win friends and influence people

Each team broke off to shop for proteins or vegetables. Nicole went through three seafood stores until she found live lobsters. She knew any dish made from frozen food would send you straight to the bottom. Tom and Victoire grabbed a bunch of vegetables but accidentally left one of their baskets behind. Sara saw it on her vegetable run but understandably didn’t want to help the competition so all those veggies stayed at the store.

The person that got screwed from the lack of vegetables was Gabriel. He was supposed to have a dish with cauliflower and squid ink. Time for plan B! Buddha was overconfident and decided to take on two dishes. His first course was a full english breakfast, and strawberries and cream for dessert. In order to subtly manipulate his teammates into cooking their dishes how he wanted, Buddha noted he needed to speak up but not speak too loud. Guess he learned a lesson from when he straight up told Luciana Berry her potato puree tasted like glue and he completely remade them.

Restaurant bores

When the chefs arrived at Core they met Rob Rose, Clare’s restaurant director, who would be their front of house. Let me get this straight. The chefs did not have to design a restaurant, or have someone be front of house. And they had a professional waitstaff. Where are the fake waiters they normally pull from Craig’s List? The spirit of restaurant wars was severely lacking here.

Victoire’s team got to cook first. Gabriel bounced back from the cauliflower debacle and Nicole had drama with her tortellini’s seeping filling. Soon after, Padma, Gail Simmons, Tom Colicchio, and Clare all sat down directly in front of the kitchen. No pressure. Padma also dropped the bomb there was a secret food critic, Jimi Famurewa, in the dining room doing recon to make sure the quality of the food was just as good for the non famous people as it was for the judges.

Tom served his confit leek and black garlic chestnut puree dish first and it was a hit. Nicole was a bit late with all the pasta orders but managed to serve her shellfish tortellini to the judges which got mixed reviews. Gabriel made a sea bream with black huatape and trout caviar. Tom thought the dish was too similar in texture to Nicole’s. The judges liked the sorbet palette cleanser, but weren’t fans of Victoire’s tiramisu.

Take two

Buddha’s team was next up in the kitchen. Buddha realized he might have bit off more than he could chew with the amount of work that goes into making a full English breakfast. Still, his team worked together well and were continually tasting each other’s dishes. No bickering here.

Buddha served his full English breakfast to the judges, and in typical fashion somehow made a heavy dish into a light and delicate meal. Amar made a scallop tartare with vadouvan and pickled vegetables, and Sara served a leek wrapped in cod with potato and smoked onion. Both dishes were winners with the judges and diners. Ali served up two dishes. The first was a lamb loin with freekeh and apricots, and the second was a cornish pasty of braised lamb wrapped in filo. The lamb was so dry Tom ran into the kitchen to double check if Ali forgot to put a sauce on it. Oops. Buddha wrapped it up with strawberries and basil ice cream for dessert. Delish.

Root got the boot

At the judges table, Jimi the secret food critic showed up ready to spill the tea. He thought Root was a mixed bag with food and concept, and that United Kitchen was more defined. No one could argue, and Buddha’s team was called out as the winners. They nailed it on concept and taste. However, the main winner was … Buddha!

Root was called up next and someone had to go home. Everyone loved Tom’s dish, and Jimi favored Victoire’s. Padma thought Gabriel’s dish had too much sauce, but the majority thought Nicole’s pasta dish wasn’t very modern. And with that, Nicole was out. As lackluster as this restaurant wars was, it was still pretty shocking to see Nicole go as she had been in the top quite often. Hopefully next week’s challenge kicks it up a notch.

TELL US – DO YOU THINK NICOLE WAS THE RIGHT CHEF TO GO HOME? WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE SECRET FOOD CRITIC TWIST? WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED RESTAURANT WARS ONLY FOCUSED ON THE FOOD?

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