Hello Trashies, and welcome to the Top Chef Finale Recap. Like many of you, I was super disappointed to see Marjorie eliminated last week. Not only because she was great, but also because that left us with Amar, who had already been eliminated from Top Chef, and bro boy Jeremy, who has won a lot of challenges but is the most vacant person on this show.
Anyway, with just these two left, the show opens on them playing pool in their hotel suite when suddenly there is a knock at the door. Who could it be, they wonder? They open the door to find Tom on the other side, a cart heavy with food in tow. “No way!” says Amar, and I’m pretty sure Jeremy said something like, “Duuude, bro! Duuuuude!”
Tom is not only there to serve them their breakfast, but actually to make them an entire multi-course meal. He starts pulling out ingredients and whipping up some handmade (well, hand and pasta machine made) pasta. Jeremy starts to help him, but after a few mins, Tom tells them to go chill. Then he brings them out course after course of tasty looking foods. The contestants are really happy. They talk about how people would die to trade places with them right now, and how this is a reward for working this hard. I mean, yeah, I guess it’s a reward, but obviously it’s also part of the challenge. Top Chef loves moments like this, where the chefs think they’re relaxing or being rewarded, only to turn it into a challenge. They like to really keep their contestants in a constant state of terror; you never know what’s going to happen next!
In this case, at the end of the meal Tom sits with them and starts talking about how he loves the ingredients that he used in their meal, and how each entree highlighted one of those specific ingredients. He then tells them coyly, that they should start to think about what ingredients they love and want to showcase. With that, Tom bids farewell til the evening time, when they will once again be in front of the hot lights and cameras to shoot the finale. It’s also around this point that Jeremy reminds us one more time that he is a single dad, and Amar reminds us that he comes from the school of hard knocks in the DR, and also that most of his father figures have all died, and also that he is trying to live the American dream. One of these stories is more compelling than the other.
There are some interstitials of casinos, fountains, and people walking, and then we are ushered back into the casino, where Padma and Tom and all the previous contestants stand to welcome and clap for our two finalists. Padma then tells Amar and Jeremy they will each get to pick 2 sous chefs from the group. There are knives waiting for them to choose who gets to pick first. Amar choose Kwame, Jeremy Karl, Amar picks Marjorie and Jeremy chooses Angelina. The rest of the chefs will get to eat their food in finale. With that, the others leave, and Padma starts her spiel about the final challenge. Like Tom did yesterday, they will have to make a four course meal, with each entree highlighting their favorite ingredients. Tomorrow, they will serve their meals head-to-head to chefs, judges, family etc. Basically she is saying, the stakes are high personally and also you could win money and glory. Ok, we know.
Of course Top Chef couldn’t leave it there, so one more twist: the mentors arrive. Walking down what amounts to a kitchen runway (it seriously takes a full minute for them to get to Padma from the time they enter the kitchen), Jean George and Charlie Parker walk in. Jean George is Jeremey’s boss, and of course Charlie Parker is Amar’s. But while Jeremey’s stoked to see JG brah, Amar is a bit nervous. Apparently, before he left to start his own restaurant, Amar had a falling-out with Charlie. He tells us that he said some shit he shouldn’t have said, and now he feels bad. But Top Chef loves personal drama in the kitchen, so they are forcing the finalists to use their mentors as sous chefs. Of course it is an awkward dynamic to in an instant become your boss’s boss, but it’s extra weird if you berated him before the switch.
Going…
and going…
and still going…
WTF?! How are they still so far away ?
Regardless, this is the final ep, so everyone seems pretty committed to keeping the personal drama to a minimum. The chefs are off and running, quickly breaking down their dishes for their team and assigning work to each member. Jeremey’s vision is technique, technique, technique. He is planning on using liquid nitrogen and doing some complicated shit with cheese. Meanwhile on Amar’s side, he is more focused on flavors and his roots. A little more down-home country cooking, but the country is the Dominican Republic. With everyone on the same page, the teams head out to do some grocery shopping. These scenes are, mercifully, cut short compared to previous episodes. Basically Amar tells us that he is used to only saying “Yes, chef” to Charlie Parker, and now he is telling him what to do and that is weird. In the check out line we see Angelina give a side-hug to Jeremey. It’s the most emotion either of them have expressed all season, so I suppose that’s why the producers included it.