I’m disappointed in Keith. I wanted him to do well. I don’t think he got sent home for the shrimp purchase, though, because they didn’t use them. He got sent home for mushy flour tortillas. He’s never had a proper enchilada made with corn tortillas? How sad.
Nitpick: It was her quinceañera - fifteenth birthday party.
Didn’t they used to pick a favorite chef from the winning side? Seems like they would call a group of the best chefs in to judge’s table, pick a favorite, send them back in to tell the least favorites to head in.
I was running around last night and might have missed it, but all I remember was the judges telling the Green Team they were the winners. All the chefs seemed to be present in the stew room when the elimination went down.
Keith was my favorite, so I’m disappointed to see him go, but he made some terrible decisions in this episode. It seems like if you know you’re going to be on the TEXAS version of Top Chef, you’d stop and do some research on Texas cuisine. Know how to do some good BBQ, chile, and of course you need to know Mexican.
Does anybody really get how the Last Chance Kitchen is supposed to work? They are supposed to get a chance to get back in the competition, but when and how?
The last chef standing joins the regular competition in the finale, I think.
Good catch. As I remember from previous seasons you are absolutely correct; they always chose a winning chef on the winning team in the past. It seems odd they didn’t do the same in this episode.
It seems that would be an obvious step to take. I’m not sure the chefs knew this was going to be based in Texas when they originally auditioned. It is a good question though.
[NITPICK]As someone born and raised in Texas I think I need to point out chile is either a pepper or a country in South America. Chili, OTOH, is a spicy stew of meat and the aforementioned peppers.[/NITPICK]
The teaser for the next episode shows the chefs participating in a chili cook off. May the good Lord take pity on any contestant misguided enough to put beans in their chili next week. I know this has been a point of serious debate in multiple chili threads on the Dope over the years, but true Texas chiliheads don’t take kindly to beans fouling a bowl of red. I suspect the issue of beans or no beans will mess up some of the contestants.
I noticed that too. I keep meaning to go back and watch it again to see if I’m misremembering.
I ended up finding Keith a little whiny. If Chris Crary did aid in the sabotage of Keith, he will certainly lose favor with me. Another reason to watch it again.
I think the birthday girl wants to be a food critic someday. She made some good observations.
I thought this week’s episode had two good challenges. Knowing how to work with chilies and not make them overwhelming is HARD, so good on Paul for making something with ghost chilies that actually tastes good. And knowing how to make a good Texas Chili is something I would expect from anyone competing on Top Chef Texas.
I feel sorry for Richie, as he seems like a good guy.
The Black team seemed so wiped out and defeated even before the final cookoff was announced. That must’ve been a heck of a night.
And I’d’ve been really ticked off if my teammates headed to bed leaving me to mind the chili all night. They should’ve set up watches or shifts.
StG
I Couldn’t taste the losing teams chili, but how bad can a mole’ be? It must have been too far outside of chili savory and sweet to get such a knocking… or perhaps this was an outright example of “Texan Honky Rodeo racism” ironically voting out the Mexican influence. I no longer trust padma and tom to judge purely on merit… they are political and :hosting: and devious judges with no center in my book. Somebody should have done Ohio Chili, otherwise known as Toledo/Cincinnatti Chili.
Ohio chili would have lost them outright. Texans admit to a cultural influence from Mexico and most love Mexican inspired food (Tex-Mex) none would admit that anyone from Ohio even knows what chili is.
I can’t remember: Was the losing team selected by the judges, or was it strictly the team with the fewest votes? If it was the former, it’s at least possible to make a chili least-preferred by the Texas crowd but still liked well enough by the judges not to lose. In the latter case, though, I definitely agree with you.
The losing team was voted out by the crowd. I can’t believe that one tema put beans in their chili. It’s a travesty in Texas! They had to have known that. Good thing that wasn’t the worst chili.
I loved both challenges this week. The Two Hot Tamales as judges was fun!
I can’t believe they all wanted to use brisket! And the one team that couldn’t get enough lbs of brisket opted for short ribs. What about chuck! If you’re cooking long enough, like they all were, chuck makes for FANTASTIC Texas chili.
Pretty sure there were two teams with beans in their chili.
I think this episode was the first time I have ever seen anyone on Top Chef pronounce “habanero” correctly.
Not to mention that serving spaghetti covered with a chili-less sauce and topped with a pound of grated cheese to serious food judges would get you thrown off the show. Tom wouldn’t even eat it. He’d just toss the entire team like he did that one guy in the first episode. May as well serve jello ambrosia with canned fruit.
Are you serious? Part of being a chef is adapting what you know to any given situation. I, as a home cook, and any chef worth his salt could have made a duly gourmet Cincinnati/Greek influenced Texas Chili that could have taken the competition or at least done better than the mole’ chili. Cincinatti/Toledo chili isn’t always served over spaghetti, either, and it being a gourmet chili cook off I would think Texans would probably be receptive to the new and complementary flavors of a warm Greek spice melange that typifies Ohio Chili… probably would have gone over better than mole.
There are definitely chilis in Ohio Greek Chili… don’t know what you mean by chili-less sauce?.. I think one of the winning teams topped their chili with cheddar, to boot.
Actually, the winner was chosen by the crowd, the loser was chosen by the judges.
StG
If your local food favorite has been around for 100 years and never managed to escape the general area it originated in, yet other varieties are ubiquitous across the country, there’s probably a good reason for it. You can get Texas or Tex-Mex chili anywhere in the country, while you never see Cincinnati style outside of that small area. You can get New York or Chicago style pizza anywhere, but St. Louis style is only in St. Louis. Bland food is never going to win in a cooking competition. You saw that in the quickfire challenge, where one woman served a mild, uncooked, banana pepper and was judged the worst, while the winner served a dish made with a ghost chili.