S18.E13: Shellfishly Delicious

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

The remaining chefs get an early wake-up call from Padma to go meet Brooke and dig for clams; the chefs honor the area where James Beard spent his summers, creating both a hot dish and a cold dish with one of his favorite ingredients, Dungeness crab.

Original air date: June 24, 2021

[stewedsquash]

Dammit I am so irritated because I hate, hate, when they do this no one is going home stunt but...the three were so happy afterward in the kitchen that who am I to be so...irritated.

I need to re-watch and think on this. 

 

[Bastet]

I was nervous like I was personally invested in this thing when they were all rushing around in the EC.  When it was announced they were all three going to the finale, my nerves settled back down.  Great job by the editors keeping me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

I just made Dungeness crab cakes last week, and now I’m hungry for crab again, because their food all looked spectacular.  Being at that table would undoubtedly have been one of the best meals of my life.

I loved Dawn’s reaction when she realized they were about to talk with Alice Waters.  Waters is planning to open a restaurant here in Los Angeles later this year, and I’m looking forward to it.

[rlc]

Was Kwame always this much of a dick? I remember liking him on his season. Not so much anymore…

I’m okay with them not sending anyone home. It would have been unfair to penalize someone for not getting something on the plate when passes were given all season. Apart from being deathly allergic to crab, I would have happily eaten any of those dishes.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Poor Shota!   Cutting his hand, and having to work on the dish with one hand, while the medic is bandaging his other hand.      Gabe wins the last quickfire.     It sounds like Dawn's clams weren't washed thoroughly, and there weren't enough.     

Two dishes with Dungeness crab, that should be interesting.    First course in cold.   

Dawn's cold dish sounds great.  Gabe and Shota's sound good too. 

Was that Dale slamming Shota for not serving the second style?    He didn't want to serve something that wasn't right.    When Alice Waters has to stick up for you, that was a nasty move by Dale.  (Was that Alice Waters?   I missed the first few minutes). 

Again Dawn leaves the potatoes off of everyone's place, and Gabe didn't make enough tortillas.     

So three go to the finale next week. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[Thumper]

Dungeness crab takes me back to our short stay (2 1/2 years) in the Bay Area in the late 1980’s.  Such a treat for this upper Midwesterner!

Fun to see them digging for clams and catching crabs.  
 

Happy to see the camaraderie among the last 3 and to see them compete in the finale.

Edited June 25, 2021 by Thumper

[The Solution]

Best penultimate episode ever! They all three deserve to go to the finale.

Shota's food was again remarkable. Gabe's food was again something I would love to eat. And Dawn is a force of nature. Being both Catholic and ethnically Jewish, I totally get her guilt issues and time issues.

And I love seeing Nina Compton on my screen again!

[dubstepford wife]

As a native Marylander who grew up crabbing by the Chesapeake Bay, I was laughing hysterically as they were catching the crabs.  Dungeness crabs must be smarter and/or tougher than Chesapeake crabs.  To catch a Chesapeake crab you drop a three-walled metal cage in, then sit back with a beer and wait for them to walk into it.  That's it.

Edit: I should specify I'm saying this as a hobby crabber, not a professional.  I'm sure the pros have to work a little harder than that.

Edited June 25, 2021 by dubstepford wife

[Angeleyes]

12 minutes ago, rlc said:

Was Kwame always this much of a dick? I remember liking him on his season. Not so much anymore…

I’m okay with them not sending anyone home. It would have been unfair to penalize someone for not getting something on the plate when passes were given all season. Apart from being deathly allergic to crab, I would have happily eaten any of those dishes.

I just finished Kwame’s book Notes From a Young Black Chef. His dad and other aspects of his growing up really hardened his personality. 
 

As for this episode, I like all three contestants so I’m glad they are all getting a chance to be in the finale. Maybe it was the editing, but it didn’t seem like they got as much prep time as they normally would for this round considering that they would have to break down crab for the two courses. Maybe that factored into the judges (or producers) decision to send all 3 to the end. 

[Thumper]

What did Kwame say that was so awful?

[Marianna]

I just want to say that I would give a lot to taste Shota’s dishes. Or even get the recipes. I looked up his restaurant tonight and it looked a lot like fast food, which seems like a waste. 

[rlc]

10 minutes ago, Thumper said:

What did Kwame say that was so awful?

Not one specific thing, but he has been extremely hard on all the chefs for small mistakes. Based on the fact that he has been in their shoes and understands how challenging the process can be, I’d expect to see a bit more grace and less attitude. If Richard Blaise is in the same room as you, and Blaise isn’t the most arrogant person there, it’s time to reevaluate things.

[MerBearHou]

Alice Waters was not there in person — she was on the laptop screen.  Loved that little segment.  Someone named Naomi (she looked familiar - past season perhaps?) was the additional woman in blue at the big judges’ table.  

Happy that Shota won the night and I’m OK with all 3 going to the finale.  There were highs on all of their plates tonight as well as missing components so I would have been so ticked if someone was sent home for a missing item tonight.  

Digging for clams (hard!!) and catching their own Dungeness crabs was so cool!  What unique experiences for them in that beautiful area.  

Thought it was kinda weird that they were cooking on someone’s condo patio with Padma and Brooke peering out over the upstairs balconies.  But wow, what a view.

Really liked hearing Gregory’s advice to Dawn — maybe if you’re continually having trouble getting all of your items on the plate, decrease the number of items.  Did she do it — nope!

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by MerBearHou

[biakbiak]

21 minutes ago, Marianna said:

I just want to say that I would give a lot to taste Shota’s dishes. Or even get the recipes. I looked up his restaurant tonight and it looked a lot like fast food, which seems like a waste. 

He closed both his restaurants during the pandemic and one was more fine dining. He relaunched Taku (which opened right befor the pandemic) only a few weeks ago and it was always street food but also had a small footprint/operating costs which make sense to start there from a recovery standpoint rather than the other.

10 minutes ago, MerBearHou said:

Someone named Naomi

Naomi Pomeroy was on Top Chef Masters and had been a judge/guest on previous seasons.

Edited June 25, 2021 by biakbiak

[marybennet]

I’ve been having a mixed response to Kwame this season, too, and remember really liking him in his first season. Remember his crush on Padma and his fantasy of wooing her by buying her a dog?  Charming. He’s not funny the way he was sometimes then, and I miss that. But I read him as having a full of himself moment because of his successes—respected restaurant, good and well-regarded book, film adaptation, being played by Lakeith Stanfield. It can be hard to figure out for a while how to handle success. For me, it’s forgivable. YMMV. But I predict he’ll figure it out. 

[catrice2]

Many of the chefs who come on this show have restaurants that have failed, even those that were not trying a fairly new concept. It amazes me that when someone is confident or critical they are automatically thought to be arrogant, even Tom.  Everyone doesn't have a "warm and fuzzy" personality, and also some people are way too sensitive.  HIs job, as the same with Dale, etc. was to come and be  judge on this show. Being critical is part of the job, whether you were a previous contestant or not.  His upbringing or successes or failures may not have anything to do with how he critiques this show. 

I would never do reality tv as people sit back and become professional analysts qualified to decide a person's issues, personality, etc. via a television screen.  I think the nature of that work in a really successful restaurant means that sometimes all of them have been curt, abrupt, etc. at one time or another in a moment of pressure, even if they are incredibly sweet otherwise.  I also believe that some of them are just not nice people.....that's life. 

[avecsans]

I had a feeling everyone would be safe because all the judges were smiling at the end of their deliberations. It’s okay, though. I agree with the poster who said that they didn’t have enough prep time. It must take ages to shell the crabs, on top of all the other prep work and the time to cook the food. That crab looked so delicious. Such an upgrade to the cheddar cheese challenge! 

Why were the judges passing around Gabe’s torn tortilla after the meal? And so much food left off the plates tonight. Wouldn’t you make more than you need just in case you drop one or something?  I don’t know how Dawn would have fit those potatoes on the plate. She had so much food crammed into relatively small plates. It looked delicious, though. Although there was way, way too much finger licking tonight. That’s a sure fire way to turn my stomach.

Shota for the win.
 

 

[carrps]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

I loved Dawn’s reaction when she realized they were about to talk with Alice Waters.  Waters is planning to open a restaurant here in Los Angeles later this year, and I’m looking forward to it.

Hurray!!! Whenever I'm in the Bay Area I can never convince anyone to go to Chez Panisse with me. Now I can go on my own whenever I want!

[Bastet]

25 minutes ago, avecsans said:

I had a feeling everyone would be safe because all the judges were smiling at the end of their deliberations.

That's a good point, and I missed that.

I wonder if it was always the plan for all three to go to the finale unless one blew it; we've often seen three cheftestants in the finale (whether they all cook against each other in the end or one gets knocked out in a QF or partway through the challenge).  But I think - yet may very well simply not be remembering - that was usually known, a situation where four were competing to be the final three, and then how the final showdown was structured (all three present a full meal, all three start but someone gets knocked out after the first course, or only two compete because someone gets eliminated in a sudden-death QF) was the mystery; in this, Padma kept talking about a final elimination challenge, and how two of these three would go to the final round.

So they could have been faking the cheftestants out along with us all along, always knowing all three would be going (or maybe three would be going unless there was a clear loser), or they could have really decided we were planning on two, but, nope, it's too close, let's take three to the next step.  The pandemic bubble plays into this, along with time between this round and the finale - there are usually former cheftestants as sous chefs and the finalists' family members in attendance.  Those logistics will speak to how the finale was originally structured - for three all along, for three or two depending on how this went, or for two, but, well, we decided to go with three so let's adjust.

On a basic TV level, the last one is the most unlikely, but things are weird this season, so who knows.  Ultimately, it doesn't matter to me; as I noted, the food all looked stellar and I'm happy for all three to have at least one more shot AND the editors created great TV by making me actually nervous as to what would happen.  Whatever the plan, this episode totally worked for me.  Bottom line, this was a great competition between these three, and I'm looking forward - and will probably get irrationally nervous again - to the final showdown.

[biakbiak]

15 minutes ago, Bastet said:

wonder if it was always the plan for all three to go to the finale unless one blew it; we've often seen three cheftestants in the finale

Also, remember that a second person didn’t return from LCK so they were either going to eliminate two people in one of these last challenges or have three in the finale.

[ProudMary]

I wonder if a three chef finale wasn't the plan all along. Had Byron made it back into the competition, they would have eliminated a chef in this episode to get to three for the finale. No insider info here, JMO. I'm glad we'll get to see three amazing chefs, each with a very distinct style, cook in the finale. 

Had they truly wanted to send a chef home, I think the case could have been made for Gabe, in that his cold dish wasn't cold and then several of the diners said that the Jerusalem Artichokes were too forward and overpowered the crab. 

Dawn's a better person than I am because I sure wouldn't have mentioned that I was planning to serve sweet potatoes but didn't have enough time. Unlike Shota, who'd committed to Crab Sushi two ways for the menu and didn't deliver on the second, or Gabe who's one missing tortilla was obvious, the judges had no idea that there were sweet potatoes left in the kitchen! 

I liked how Shota thought to collect some seaweed for his QF dish. 

Shota's been James Beard nominated for Best Rising Star three times? I didn't realize that was possible. I figured that was a one and done category. Interesting that he lost to Kwame one of those times.

 

 

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, MerBearHou said:

Thought it was kinda weird that they were cooking on someone’s condo patio with Padma and Brooke peering out over the upstairs balconies.

It was Surfsand the hotel  they were staying at.

[PackYourKnives]

LOL at Kwame finding it "unacceptable" there were not 2 sushi pieces on Shota's first course (that everyone found remarkable), after Dawn for the 5th time couldn't plate everything. Where was that energy last episode Kwame?

 

Kwame's just jealous that Shota is a better chef than him AND close to winning. And they were both nominated same year for James Beard. 

 

I've already resigned myself to Dawn winning based on the edit. It is what it is but absolutely ridiculous. 

 

Pretty ridiculous no one went home and Shota gets 0 advantage going into the final. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by PackYourKnives

[biakbiak]

5 minutes ago, PackYourKnives said:

And they were both nominated same year for James Beard. 

And Kwame won the James Beard that they were both nominated for so I don’t know why he would be jealous. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by biakbiak

[PackYourKnives]

13 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

And Kwame won the James Beard that they were both nominated for so I don’t know why he would be jealous. 

He's threatened that Shota is clearly a remarkable chef. Kwame's insecure, he's obviously the least talented chef as a judge and probably would have been out at F6-7 on this season. 

Eliminating no one when the bottom two chefs both made multiples mistakes is a cop out.

 

Shota won, and the inherent advantage of winning is that you have one less person to compete against. If he doesn't win the title, then there's a 50% chance that the winner was someone that should've gone home for not being able to complete their dish IN THE GODDAMN SEMIFINAL.

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by PackYourKnives

[biakbiak]

3 minutes ago, PackYourKnives said:

He's threatened that Shota is clearly a remarkable chef. Kwame's insecure, he's obviously the least talented chef as a judge and probably would have been out at F6-7 on this season. 

The dude literally beat Shota for a prestigious industry award.  He has also frequently sung his praises.

Edited June 25, 2021 by biakbiak

[PackYourKnives]

16 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

The dude literally beat Shota for a prestigious industry award.  He has also frequently sung his praises.

So he can't be jealous? Kwame's been a hater all season. 

 

Absolutely a joke he calls it "unacceptable" Shota missed one piece of sushi when Dawn has done this ALL SEASON and yet to hear a word about it from Kwame. He's such a bad judge. 

[biakbiak]

20 minutes ago, PackYourKnives said:

Shota won, and the inherent advantage of winning is that you have one less person to compete against. If he doesn't win the title, then there's a 50% chance that the winner was someone that should've gone home for not being able to complete their dish IN THE GODDAMN SEMIFINAL.

There have been many times during this show when they didn’t eliminate anyone amd had everyone go to the finale including at least once a final four. 

[PackYourKnives]

Just now, biakbiak said:

There have been many times during this show when they didn’t eliminate anyone amd had everyone go to the finale including at least once a final four. 

And I disagree with that too then.

At worst, Shota should have gotten SOME sort of advantage for the final especially when he won and both of the other 2 competitors made huge mess ups. It's not like all 3 were flawless meals. Shota's was in another league to theirs this episode. 

[biakbiak]

1 minute ago, PackYourKnives said:

Kwame's been a hater all season. 

But he hasn’t. He has frequently loved Shota’s dishes as well as others. That doesn’t make him a “hater”. And was also vocal about Dawn missing a component in the tofu challenge (he hasn’t been present for several of the times Dawn has missed a component).

[PackYourKnives]

1 minute ago, biakbiak said:

But he hasn’t. He has frequently loved Shota’s dishes as well as others. That doesn’t make him a “hater”. And was also vocal about Dawn missing a component in the tofu challenge (he hasn’t been present for several of the times Dawn has missed a component).

What did he say about Dawn's tofu challenge? The difference in emotion and verbal words between Shota this week and Dawn last week with Kwame was massive. 

[biakbiak]

7 minutes ago, PackYourKnives said:

The difference in emotion and verbal words between Shota this week and Dawn last week with Kwame was massive. 

Shota didn’t plate half of his planned dish on 13 plates this week whereas Dawn missed one person’s Gougères last week so they were not equivalent. It basically turned it into one bite/ an amuse compared to what the other two served. Did Dawn luck out that she didn’t list the potatoes on the menu? Yes, but expectations are a huge part of dining so that was Shota’s bad luck which he acknowledged.

Edited June 25, 2021 by biakbiak

[Fukui San]

So nice of Gabe and Shota to show solidarity with Dawn by leaving stuff off their plates as well!

Seriously, the chefs probably needed another half hour. Picking crab's gotta be a nightmare on limited time. I remember an old Iron Chef crab battle where one of the two sous chefs did nothing but pick crab for most of the entire hour.

I was thinking that Gabe could have cut one of his tortillas in half (or quarters to be more precise). Shortchange two diners a bit rather than one diner completely.

I make sushi at home every 2 or 3 weeks. Getting the rice exactly right is the trickiest part. Not washed enough, the wrong water level, the wrong vinegar mix, the wrong heat level. It's always something. I've completely nailed it only a handful of times. 

It was interesting to me that Shota had done so much Japanese food without doing sushi, and that he thinks that last week was when he steered into doing Japanese food. I do feel the teasing of Asian food thing he talked out. 

 

[PackYourKnives]

3 minutes ago, Fukui San said:

So nice of Gabe and Shota to show solidarity with Dawn by leaving stuff off their plates as well!

Seriously, the chefs probably needed another half hour. Picking crab's gotta be a nightmare on limited time. I remember an old Iron Chef crab battle where one of the two sous chefs did nothing but pick crab for most of the entire hour.

I was thinking that Gabe could have cut one of his tortillas in half (or quarters to be more precise). Shortchange two diners a bit rather than one diner completely.

I make sushi at home every 2 or 3 weeks. Getting the rice exactly right is the trickiest part. Not washed enough, the wrong water level, the wrong vinegar mix, the wrong heat level. It's always something. I've completely nailed it only a handful of times. 

It was interesting to me that Shota had done so much Japanese food without doing sushi, and that he thinks that last week was when he steered into doing Japanese food. I do feel the teasing of Asian food thing he talked out. 

 

There's a massive difference between DECIDING to not plate something smartly, and running out of time bc of poor time management from both Gabe and Dawn. 

My sense is like New Orleans, producers are making it very clear who they would have preferred to win while at the same time showing why someone else did. Sad Shota isn't taking this. I even ironically think there's a chance Gabe wins looking purely at vdi t(of course Dawn is most likely the winner for edit reasons) 

 

[SemiCharmedLife]

I enjoyed seeing the cheftestants digging for clams and crabbing.  Dungeness crab is one of my favorite foods and we had a very late season again this year, off the Sonoma Coast.  

I also like learning about James Beard and hearing from Alice Waters.  

But, the best part for me was that all three get to advance to the final.  I think they are all fabulous chefs.  It should be an amazing finale.

[PackYourKnives]

23 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

 

Many times and when they don’t they criticize them for being incomplete or unsatisfying you get dinged either way as was what happened to Shota.

What? Shota wasn't criticized by anyone for his dish being incomplete other than Kwame. What about Shota's food was unsatisfying? He got absolutely 0 criticism this episode besides from Kwame's sushi comment 

[Irlandesa]

I'm glad all three are advancing because they all make food I'd like to try so I think the finale will be interesting.

1 hour ago, PackYourKnives said:

Shota won, and the inherent advantage of winning is that you have one less person to compete against. If he doesn't win the title, then there's a 50% chance that the winner was someone that should've gone home for not being able to complete their dish IN THE GODDAMN SEMIFINAL.

If he doesn't win, it's because he's not Top Chef when it counts--the finale.

The true Top Chef shouldn't need an advantage going into the finale.  That's why they don't give out an advantage to the penultimate winner.

Edited June 25, 2021 by Irlandesa

[biakbiak]

5 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

The true Top Chef shouldn't need an advantage going into the finale.  That's why they don't get one.

Also, we literally have no idea if he has an advantage. Perhaps he gets to chose his sous first or something else , wouldn’t be the first time they have had a carryover like that without announcing it.

Edited June 25, 2021 by biakbiak

[PackYourKnives]

2 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

I'm glad all three are advancing because they all make food I'd like to try so I think the finale will be interesting.

If he doesn't win, it's because he's not Top Chef when it counts--the finale.

The true Top Chef shouldn't need an advantage going into the finale.  That's why they don't get one.

So this episode was just an exhibition and had absolutely 0 need to happen then? Uh huh. 

I don't think anyone is a "True Top Chef" who misses components on their meal in 5 separate episodes, including last week where they clearly should have gone home. 

Just now, biakbiak said:

Also, we literally have no idea if he has an advantage. Perhaps he gets to chose his sous first: 

If you watched the preview, there were 3 knives as Padma is talking to them about their final meal, just like All Stars where they drew knives to determine who picked first in sous chef order.

 

 

[PackYourKnives]

I think we all need to prepare for the very real possibility Gabe wins this.

 

When Padma said, "You are top chef" neither she nor the contestants/all stars seemed very excited by their reaction. That sounds to me like it is definitely NOT Shota based on that so either dawn or Gabe fits that bill. Maria is the loudest in the preview saying "yeah" (although she is always like that) BUT based on the preview it seems like she works with Gabe as a sous chef, so that is why she is the loudest at that point. 

 

Meltdown city if anyone but Shota wins. Dawn winning would be less so (people would be happy for her, but not deserving of it), but Gabe would be a very controversial win for the factors stated before. 

[marybennet]

All that food looked so beautiful!  And I can’t help also loving the library steps in Alice Waters’s house. I was experiencing a lot of aesthetic pleasure in this episode. And I wanted to be out on the beach in the rain, too.  

[Vermicious Knid]

I wouldn't want to go to Dawn's restaurant, because who knows if you would actually get all your food. Once again, she leaves out a component and this time it was supposed to be a significant part of the dish. Five times, and she still makes it into the final. If there are no consequences the chefs don't even have to conform to the challenge requirements. Dawn should have been eliminated but I get the feeling she and Gabe cancelled each other out by both messing up. And as pointed out upthread, they had planned for four chefs in the penultimate episode.

[caitmcg]

8 minutes ago, Vermicious Knid said:

If there are no consequences the chefs don't even have to conform to the challenge requirements. Dawn should have been eliminated but I get the feeling she and Gabe cancelled each other out by both messing up. And as pointed out upthread, they had planned for four chefs in the penultimate episode.

She didn’t get something on the plate that she wanted to serve, but she met the challenge requirements, which were to serve a cold dish and a hot dish showcasing Dungeness crab. Fried potatoes were not a requirement, and she didn’t even have to tell the judges she intended to serve them. They had a few quibbles, but pretty universally praised the food she served, just as they had quibbles with but also praised both of Gabe’s dishes. 

[biakbiak]

4 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

I wouldn't want to go to Dawn's restaurant, because who knows if you would actually get all your food. Once again, she leaves out a component and this time it was supposed to be a significant part of the dish. Five times, and she still makes it into the final. If there are no consequences the chefs don't even have to conform to the challenge requirements. Dawn should have been eliminated but I get the feeling she and Gabe cancelled each other out by both messing up. And as pointed out upthread, they had planned for four chefs in the penultimate episode.

In any actual restaurant literally everything she didn’t plate wouldn’t be an in issue, there isn’t a hard out (drop your knives) so she can take a minute to finish plating or in the case of the missing gougeres a good expediter would have most likely spotted it and fixed it. Hell in the case of Shota in this episode a good expediter would have asked Shota if there was any way he could serve the crab another way and told the servers to say there was a misprint on the menu and the chef decided to change it up! There are a thousand ways the front and back of the house work together to cover for each other. Is it fair to call Dawn, Gabe and Shota out on their missing components  in the game of top chef? Of course, but at the end of the day they thought his dishes were worth winning and hers were too good to be eliminated. It’s not something that necessarily translates to a real world restaurant experience.

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by biakbiak

[Fukui San]

Small thing but Dawn having almost no exposure to even eating clams much is a bizarre culinary blind spot for a well rounded chef like her. I know she’s Houston based but still. Go to New England and have some fried clams, girl!

[PackYourKnives]

52 minutes ago, caitmcg said:

She didn’t get something on the plate that she wanted to serve, but she met the challenge requirements, which were to serve a cold dish and a hot dish showcasing Dungeness crab. Fried potatoes were not a requirement, and she didn’t even have to tell the judges she intended to serve them. They had a few quibbles, but pretty universally praised the food she served, just as they had quibbles with but also praised both of Gabe’s dishes. 

LOL she did not have "universal praise". They found her first dish to have way too many components on it and her second dish to be sloppy and lacking a starch component to offset it. 

 

Universal praise is what Shota got. They did not have 1 quibble with his food other than they wished he had another sushi bite (and that was only from Kwame). Out of 12+ chefs to not have one critique is amazing. 

29 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

In any actual restaurant literally everything she didn’t plate wouldn’t be an in issue, there isn’t a hard out (drop your knives) so she can take a minute to finish plating or in the case of the missing gougeres a good expediter would have most likely spotted it and fixed it. Hell in the case of Shota in this episode a good expediter would have asked Shota if there was any way he could serve the crab another way and told the servers to say there was a misprint on the menu and the chef decided to change it up! There are a thousand ways the front and back of the house work together to cover for each other. Is it fair to call both Dawn, Gabe and Shota out on their missing components  in the game of top chef? Of course, but at the end of the day they thought his dishes were worth winning and hers were too good to be eliminated. It’s not something that necessarily translates to a real world restaurant experience.

 

This has nothing to do with her or Gabe being "too good to be eliminated". The producers had decided beforehand to bring 3 chefs to the finale after Byron didn't make it back from LCK. 

[Josiemae]

2 hours ago, PackYourKnives said:

I don't think anyone is a "True Top Chef" who misses components on their meal in 5 separate episodes, including last week where they clearly should have gone home. 

 

Dawn's food is amazing but ... if she wins, this show has lost ALL credibility. 

2 hours ago, PackYourKnives said:

 

 

 

[Josiemae]

1 hour ago, caitmcg said:

Fried potatoes were not a requirement, and she didn’t even have to tell the judges she intended to serve them. 

Ummm ... pretty sure the producers let the judges know that she screwed up. Again.

[PackYourKnives]

11 minutes ago, Josiemae said:

Dawn's food is amazing but ... if she wins, this show has lost ALL credibility. 

 

I agree totally. 

This will be up there with Nick Elmi somehow winning New Orleans for worst and most controversial win ever if Dawn wins. But this is a production and judging issue - not Dawn. 

 

Nick was just unlikable and a downer, I don't mind Dawn at all. She seems nice but it's a total joke she's still somehow here after all of her constant screwups and rule breaking that they just continue to ignore. 

[Ellee]

FYI while this show was on Foodnetwork was airing Beat Bobby Flay.  Season 25 E29 from 2021. Dawn was one of the two chefs competing.