Ok, I have to admit, I found this episode a little dull. With only four contestants left we don’t see as much food, and while I loved the Quickfire, it seemed like the chefs were all sort of burned out and uninspired during the Elimination challenge. Did anyone else get this vibe? Or was I alone in finding this a bit of a snooze?
1. Wow, Alaska is pretty!
… and cold. Looks very cold. I hope they told the poor chefs to pack at least a few warm items before they came on the show.
2. Yuuuuuuuuum, Alaskan crab
It felt kind of weird to see only four people competing in this week’s Quickfire! All of a sudden the field feels tiny. I think I still haven’t quite reconciled myself to a certain Elimination decision from a few weeks back (ahem).
Almost every Quickfire this season has had me salivating, and this is definitely no exception. When Brooke joked about not being able to stop eating the crab I grinned – the last batch of crab cakes I made at home definitely ended up a little bit light.
3. Josh, STOP IT WITH THE BACON ON EVERYTHING
There are other ingredients. Good grief.
4. Salmon and sourdough?
Having the chefs work with the gorgeous Alaska salmon made total sense to me, but … bread baking? Really? I am actually a total bread snob, but I don’t necessarily assume a great chef will be able to bake a kick-ass loaf of sourdough. I was also concerned with whether there would be interesting variation between the loaves, since they all had to work with the same sourdough starter. At least they gave the chefs an opportunity to let their dough rise properly.
5. Yay Sheldon!
This guy has got the Quickfire thing down cold. I was glad to see him rebound from last week’s near-Elimination.
6. Eeeeeeeeeeeeep
Cooking food to order is one of those things that never, ever seems to work out under Top Chef conditions. I was super-worried about Brooke when she said that was her plan. Her dish sounded good, but would the cooking method doom her?
… nope! Her dish was a home run with the judges. Phew. My favorite contestant was safe.
7. Double eeeeeeeeeeeeep
Sheldon’s green tea and chive sourdough didn’t sound great, but it looked even worse. The color was off-putting and the judges clearly didn’t like the flavor. And then Josh’s dish got good reviews while Lizzie’s got mixed ones. I started to feel like Sheldon might be headed for elimination – and he’s such a Quickfire killer, could he oust Kristen from Last Chance Kitchen?
8. Yeah Brooke!
Her dish definitely looked like the one I would want to eat. Sheldon’s pea soup and salmon sounded appealing but I wouldn’t want to eat that sourdough.
9. Goodbye Lizzie
I enjoyed watching Lizzie compete and thought she was a great, positive, steady presence on the show. But her cooking never really wowed me, so this Elimination felt right. I’m not sure Josh belongs in the finals, but Brooke and Sheldon are both strong chefs.
10. And, on Last Chance Kitchen …
More fish! On an open fire! And it starts to rain! And my husband wonders why I wrinkle my nose when he tries to get me to go camping. Kristen’s Asian-inspired dish goes up against Lizzie’s hot-and-sweet take on salmon, and Kristen wins again.
So how many more episodes of LCK will there be? From the promos, it looks like just Brooke, Sheldon, and Josh will be competing, so does that mean one more episode of LCK before the winner gets back in the competition?