The people votes for what they liked right? Chef Tom C. why all the hate of chicken salad?
The people liked it.
Gotta say glad to see ’ Top knot(nut)’ go.
I also thought Ed was toast. However, I guess I’m alone in being sorry to see Chris Jones gone. 
I liked him and his extreme creativity. It’s just sad that all his talent never translated to much on the show. But if he was a chef anywhere near me, I’d certainly give his cuisine a shot.
Pee Wee Herman has to be there.
Who else can provide the special cream sauce for Tom & Padma?
It looks like Pee Wee is the least crazy part of this episode.
It was kind of fun in a wacky way. Cheftestants Big Adventure complete with vintage bicycles. One of them summed it up well saying “when else would I get to do something like this?”. It made me think of a scavenger hunt. I liked seeing how easily the cheftestants fit into the other restaurants kitchens. They even had the kitchen staff helping out some. Love it when the the B&B guy asked Ed for an order of Fried Eggs.
On the downside its tough seeing someone go in a challenge like this. I guess it really tested who could settle down and really focus when it came time to cook. They couldn’t let all the excitement of the scavenger hunt distract them.
I didn’t realize there was a kitchen and dining area at the Alamo. I visited there as a kid, but don’t remember too much. I do recall its downtown and there’s hotels all around it.
So, for a few seconds we had our Final Four. Then it becomes Final Five when the Last Chance Kitchen winner comes back.
Last Chance Kitchen ends on a cliff hanger. :smack: We won’t know who won until next week.
LCK has been fun. I hope it continues next season.
I found it a little odd that they apparently told the current chefs who was in the final LCK challenge (unless they were making bets based on surmising that Beverly beat Chris J. from the clips).
This would seem to be the only season where it’d be a secret to those who get eliminated, which means they’ll have to do something else to create the impact of leaving the show if they repeat it.
I was expecting a strong reaction to bringing back a chef. They did it once before in S5 at the New Orleans Finale. Three eliminated chefs competed to get back in. The final four chefs seemed pretty angry at seeing Jeff come back.
This final 4 didn’t seem surprised in the previews. I’m curious to see how the episode plays out.
Argh! My DVR failed to record it. Grump, gripe, grumble, growl. . .
My DVR has mysteriously dropped it from its subscription list twice now. I think it is objecting to the quality of the season so far.
The borrowed restaurant kitchens were, of course, pre-arranged, right? I mean they film the contestant coming in the door from the view INSIDE the place, and obviously the restaurant employees were aware of the huge TV camera setup! So the contestants already had a list of cooperating places and had to get to one before somebody else did.
PWH still gives me the creeps.
I’m getting increasing annoyed at reality TV producers who keep pretending things are unplanned when in fact we know locations had to be scouted, and releases had to be signed. Of course the cheftestants map had the five restaurants they could use, no way they could just walk into a random kitchen with a film crew and start cooking. Do the producers not get that we know that? They showed at least three of the chefs explaining they were in a competition and needed to use the kitchen.
Top Chef has been one of, if not my favorite recurring show on TV. The quickfire challenges are the perfect length to start the show - they are like an amuse bouche before the meal. The elimination challenges are free enough of completely unfair twists that the eliminated chef usually has no reason to complain. I love Tom and Padma and Gail and Thomas Keller and Hugh Atcheson and almost all the guest judges.
That said, they could stop this season right now and never say another word about it and I would be perfectly fine with it. I don’t care who wins the LCK. I don’t care who wins Top Chef. Paul (and I just had to look up his name) may be the best chef left, but if he wins, he will fall to the bottom of the list of winners and never be heard from again. Just stop it now and pretend it never happened.
I don’t know what Texas got out of their sponsorship of this show. It makes chefs hot and sweaty and grumpy and pass out. Oh, Texas has steaks and chili and barbeque? You just can’t get that sh#! anywhere else in the country!
On to Season 10, pronto!
I hated this challenge. Some of the challenges are overly complicated and this season really is going out of its way to make the most convoluted circumstances. Scavenger hunt? I’m shocked anyone got anything out that was halfway decent.
Yeah, I thought “Oh I get it. The locations on the map are restaurants they’ve agreed upon ahead of time, they just have to beat the other chefs there,” and then they added that whole charade with several chefs asking if they could use the kitchen and acting like it was an awkward imposition to ask. 
Did they really think the audience would be fooled into believing that the chefs just walked into any random restaurant and asked to use their kitchen (and were allowed to with no hesitation!?)
I agree. Before the season started, I was disappointed to learn that Houston wouldn’t be featured. But considering the quality of this season I don’t think Houston has missed out on much.
I was expecting Sarah to pass out from the heat again. I hated that a good part of the competition really had to do with their physical skill and stamina on a bicycle in god knows what temperature. It’s supposed to be a cooking competition, not a fitness challenge.
I agree, especially in the last challenge before the final four. Who stays or goes at this stage of the competition should be only about the cooking.
I was anticipating hating the overly-complicated challenge, but honestly I thought it had very little impact on the results.
It had an impact on what they chose to make, but other than Ed’s undercooked chicken - which I don’t think if he’d cooked perfectly would have been enough to send him to the top - I didn’t see where it made much difference in the judging.
I really wish tasting were blind. I know the chefs’ personalities aren’t supposed to be a deciding factor, but it would make me feel better if the judges didn’t know whose food they were sampling. That would mean that either Tom couldn’t be a judge, or he couldn’t do the kitchen walk-through during the cooking time.
I wonder if the contestants got to keep the bikes.
StG