Woo hoo it’s part one of the Top Chef Finale you guys!! Are you ready??
Who’s reaady to cheer Chef Brooke Williamson across the finish line???!! Me too, but we can’t because SHE AND CASEY WERE ALREADY SENT HOME. But John’s still here.
Argh!!!
There is always a chance she made it through Last Chance Kitchen, though, so I am keeping the faith and focusing on Chef Sheldon Simeon, Chef Shirley Chung and Chef John Tesar as they head to Mexico for the last episode of Top Chef season 14.
The chefs are in Guadalajara and I’ve been there! During a garbage strike: plan ahead. John is ecstatic to have made it this far, his new lease on life seems to have made a difference.
The cheftestants pull up outside Chivas Stadium, futbol! Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio are with Chivas futbol fan and renowned chef Francisco Ruano who waits in super tight jeans.
Now they just have to see who made it out of Last Chance Kitchen…pleasebeBrooke pleasebeBrooke…IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s BROOKE!!!!!! She made it through!! I was hoping!
Time for the Quickfire Challenge! Which involves cooking with goat, because that’s what chivas means. So they want them to cook and eat the team mascot?? And Chivas Regal means Fancy Goat?
I didn’t watch Last Chance Kitchen, but apparently Hidden Valley Ranch sponsored it and they brought Brooke back so I’ll give ’em a plug. Have I crossed over the creepy line in Brooke fandom? You guys would say something, right?
Shirley is using the pressure cooker for her goat and a tortilla press for noodles, sure! John’s making a torta, which I just saw in a restaurant here! Show me what I was missing!
Brooke’s making goat ribs, which seems risky, but she’s still riding the high of coming back from the dead.
Everyone struggles to finish, Shirley is up first for judging
Brooke is next, Padma gives her a “ummmm” but she went sweet again! Damnit
John’s goat is chewy, but Padma likes his hot sauce with arbol chilies
Sheldon does well with his goat cheeks, of course
Sheldon and Brooke are top two; John and Shirley are in the bottom. Winning the 10 thousand dollar prize is: Brooke! Yay!!
That’s a great way to come back!
The Elimination Challenge is sponsored by Patron, Sheldon is ‘CITED! Until he finds out they have to make margaritas; he’s a sixer in the bed of a truck, yo.
Oh ffs, they’ve brought back eliminated chefs to sous for the cheftestants and one is EMILY. Come ON! Sorry, sorry, that’s unnecessarily negative, I just don’t see her being a lot of help, ifyouknowwhatImean. Also there are Casey, Katsuji and Sylva.
Brooke gets to choose first, she grabs Casey of course. She gets to choose for everyone else, too, let’s see if she goes strategy or no.
She gives Emily to Sheldon, whew, he’ll be fine, he’s got a great flow, so Brooke isn’t playing strategy. If she was, she woulda stuck Emily with John.
Sylva goes to Shirley and then Katsuji gets John again! LOL. They left on such bad terms; let’s roll tape!
The Patron hacienda is a mansion! It’s gorgeous! Sheldon is blown away by the fact that the workers are splitting the agave plant by hand, but he can’t drink tequila. He’s allergic, it makes him break out.
Me too!!! Except it makes me more kissy than dance-y. Then Hold-My-Hair-y. Tequila tasting time! Brooke’s getting sweaty and tipsy; time for strategizing. Except John and Katsuji, who are still working through their issues.
Shopping time! They have 45 minutes and 13,000 pesos and John now can see how useful Katsuji is in that he speaks the language. Although being from Texas, he should know that already, right?
Brooke is planning to replace her tuna with coconut in her ceviche…and really? There is NO other protein there? I mean, you poked the eye of one tuna, were they all gross?
Cooking day! Sheldon is also making ceviche with coconut and a Filipino something with octopus cooked in the pressure cooker.
Shirley is charring everything, that’s all I got. And she’s making a cucumber honeydew margarita and that sounds HELLA sweet.
Brooke was excited about her watermelon so she’s doing a salad, but she isn’t seeding it first, unless that’s Casey’s job?
John is making an extremely strong margarita with a candy rim, er. The first time I made margaritas I misunderstood the ratio of 4:1 (I thought the 1 was the lime. It was not), got schwasted and invited a bunch of teenagers into the party. I was not invited back 🙁
They got some great pictures for my going-away party, though!
Sylva mixed up ingredients for Shirley, throwing in vanilla instead of agave, that’s a problem, right?
Sheldon’s overcooked his octopus, hang in there, Hawaiian! Then they all have to carry boxes of stuff and set up in that.heat!
Time for serving! Sheldon is first and his murky fishbowl of a drink freaks people out. It’s a little out of balance
Shirley is next with her stuff she says too fast; the vanilla is very, very bad
Aww and Katsuji’s calling everyone at John’s booth vatos, who said he isn’t useful??
John is impossible not to like when he’s making that humble / grateful face.
Brooke just got asked about sweetness again in her beautiful dish
I can’t stop looking at Padma’s boobs this episode! Sorry!
Judging time! Richard Blais goes right for Brooke’s cold soup, saying it was a safe choice. She pushes back and Tom DIGS that!
John defends his simple boozy cocktail against Tom, it’s also impossible to not like John when he looks like he’s gonna cry.
Sheldon gets mediocre feedback on both drink and dish, hang in there, fella! He’s been so consistently excellent all season.
Shirley’s salsa gets great feedback! But the vanilla in the beef…all bad. And her drink was too chunky, nobody wants to chew their drink.
Chef Ray Garcia names the winner of today’s challenge: Brooke! Yay! She gets a bottle of tequila worth $7,500, which she immediately takes a swig of. Atta girl! Who else is going with her to the finale???
John is sent to pack his knives due to his pairing, good luck all around, fella. Until next week when we watch them bring this home! Cheers
