S22.E04: Top Chef Trivia

[ProudMary]

Airdate: Thursday, April 3, 2025

Synopsis:

Actor Michael Cera joins Kristen in the kitchen for the Quickfire Challenge, where the chefs' trivia skills are put to the test. For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs must put their own spin on some of Canada's most iconic confections.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I love the trivia contest.  I liked Amy's remark about looking forward to eating four battered rice sandwiches, and the joke about Top Scallop. 

Edited April 4 by CrazyInAlabama

[Straycat80]

Actually the little fried sandwich looked good and it is something you might find at a carnival or fair. 

[Bastet]

I wish they hadn't wasted time on having Kristen run back and forth with the mic, but it was nice to see Mattea and Amy in the trivia contest.  It's cool that Kat had one of the top three QF dishes, having had only 15 minutes.  Massimo was sure a sore loser about being in the bottom.

The top three EC dishes were the ones I most wanted to eat, but I ranked them Kat, Corwin, and then Tristan (of course, I didn't get to actually eat any of them -- and I don't think I'd have wanted to sit baking in the sun at that table in order to do so, given how many other dishes I didn't find very appealing).

I couldn't decide which of the bottom three dishes I'd least want to eat; I was kind of leaning towards Zubair's, but they all sounded rather unfortunate.

[Pandora]

1 hour ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I love the trivia contest.  I liked Amy's remark about looking forward to eating four battered rice sandwiches, and the joke about Top Scallop. 

I loved the callback to top scallops too. That will never grow old.

Kat impressed me tonight. To land in the quickfire top 3 with 15 minutes cook time, good for her. Her elimination dish was creative. And the go-go dancer background, what’s not to like?

[DEL901]

Shocked that Cera actually seemed knowledgeable  And was able to add to the discussion.   And always happy to see Mattea and Amy.

[Thumper]

They focused a lot on Kat at the beginning; I thought for sure she’d be a loser.  Happy she was not!

Massimo showed another side tonight, right?  I thought that was shabby of him. 

Edited April 4 by Thumper

[Quilt Fairy]

I thought the trivia contest was stupid, they were talking so fast and cut so much that I really didn't understand what they were saying. 

[hula-la]

I was in Nanaimo last week, so pulled a Nanaimo bar out of my freezer to eat whilst watching. I would have happily eaten any of the top 3 EC dishes, but my Caribbean roots are happy with who won. 

[Fukui San]

Amused that they had Cera judge at the location of one of Scott Pilgrim's fight scenes. Wonderful synergy there. If only they could have had Chris Evans drop by and challenge him to a fight to the death.

I love duck so messing up duck to the extent that Zubair did was really sad to me.

[dleighg]

I loved the trivia contest. My only beef was not being able to "play along" like I do with Jeopardy! since they cut out most of the questions after the first couple (Hey Bravo-- put the whole contest on your website so WE can play too)

Those chocolate gnocchi did look like (cat) poop.

So what would they have done if the bottom team hadn't even gotten to THREE ingredients? But battered, rice, sandwich was rough. Seems like a lot went to rice vinegar, which is a bit of a cheat. But I understand.

 

[Fukui San]

I imagine that the trivia contest was run until all teams got 3 answers. And that the green team hit an upper limit and had to stop answering so that the trailing teams got enough.  
 

With battered, rice, and sandwich my only thought is a fried fish sandwich battered with rice flour.  

[meep.meep]

Where were they cooking in the elimination challenge?  It looked like somewhere I've been outside Victoria, but I thought they were still in eastern Canada.

[DEL901]

https://casaloma.ca

13 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Where were they cooking in the elimination challenge?  It looked like somewhere I've been outside Victoria, but I thought they were still in eastern Canada.

[dleighg]

13 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Where were they cooking in the elimination challenge?

I'm thinking it was here. My daughter visited a castle when she was in Toronto last year, and this was it.

https://casaloma.ca/

[rlc]

Ugh. I wish Massimo (and his ego) had been eliminated 3 weeks ago.

[meep.meep]

This was the castle I've been to.  Maybe they'll get there eventually.

https://hatleycastle.com

[Thumper]

I don’t remember the cheftestant’s name, but this was the second episode in which he tried to brown nose a judge.  This time with the gold dust for some movie/show Michael Cera was in; previously with the soufflé for Chef Boulud.  🙄

[Bastet]

19 minutes ago, Thumper said:

I don’t remember the cheftestant’s name, but this was the second episode in which he tried to brown nose a judge.  This time with the gold dust for some movie/show Michael Cera was in; previously with the soufflé for Chef Boulud.  🙄

That's Vinnie.  I occasionally find him mildly obnoxious (which is better than I was expecting coming in; I find his face extremely punchable and feared he'd have a personality to match).

[Steph Sometimes]

George Michael!

When they were doing trivia, there was a question that was something like "a meal that's also a basketball star," and there was enough of a pause before the answer ("curry") for me to guess "Kobe." 

Gail's black and white dress reminded me of the iconic prom dress that Kelly and Brenda both wore in 90210. 

[The Solution]

Still liking the remaining cheftestants, even Massimo and Vinnie, and would have been willing to eat all of the dishes, even the misfires. 

That being said, I thought this week's EC was kind of a punk on the chefs. I'm not a big dessert/sweets/breakfast guy and I'm already sick of seeing those ingredients.

I agreed with the win, and unfortunately, even the elimination. Seems like Zubair had a bad day but his ideas would have been good if executed well.

[gorgy]

They clearly made the green team stop answering questions once they swept the first 8 questions in the quick fire quiz.

Outside of Massimo and Vincenzo, all the men this season are bald, balding, or have their hair shaved really short and they're all super nerds. That isn't to say that's bad or I don't like them, but as a whole, the shear volume of foodie nerds this season left in the competition is a little too much for me to keep my interest.  I do find the female cheftestants far more appealing to watch. (except Bailey)

Again, even though there was some discussion at judges table about who to eliminate, the actual elimination felt abrupt. 

[Steph Sometimes]

On 4/4/2025 at 1:28 PM, Thumper said:

This time with the gold dust for some movie/show Michael Cera was in; previously with the soufflé for Chef Boulud.  🙄

Not that I would ever be on Top Chef, but if I were and Michael Cera was the judge, it would be incredibly difficult not to make Arrested Development references.

"What I have here is a deconstructed frozen banana with a hot ham water glaze."

And when I am inevitably sent home, "I've made a huge mistake."

 

Edited April 6 by Steph Sometimes

[Ancaster]

On 4/4/2025 at 11:11 AM, rlc said:

Ugh. I wish Massimo (and his ego) had been eliminated 3 weeks ago.

The first week I found him pretty funny, but then he just overplayed his persona and got too much air time.  By this week's show, I'd really had enough of him, not to mention his petty sour grapes attitude about being in the bottom.

On 4/4/2025 at 1:49 PM, Bastet said:

That's Vinnie.  I occasionally find him mildly obnoxious (which is better than I was expecting coming in; I find his face extremely punchable and feared he'd have a personality to match).

I think Vinnie seems like a really good chef and that he might go far, but his sycophancy really needs to stop.

I like Kat, and enjoyed hearing about her past lives!

Did they ever introduce the two women guests at the elimination challenge?

[marke34]

2 hours ago, Ancaster said:

The first week I found him pretty funny, but then he just overplayed his persona and got too much air time.  By this week's show, I'd really had enough of him, not to mention his petty sour grapes attitude about being in the bottom.

Yeah, I originally loved everyone in the season outside Bailey...but I'm so tired of Massimo, and want him gone at this point, he's the only other person I don't like in this season.  He's probably the worst chef in the competition overall along with Paula, so even on a talent level...Massimo just isn't there.

Also, damn, I guess I need to watch out for Tristen, he's kinda the new frontrunner in this competition, Corwin is also doing very well, and I have a feeling that Kat will break the hump, and win something soon, she's been doing very well ever since her episode one misstep.  Despite Shuai fucking up in the EC this episode, he does so well overall that he's still probably third best overall after Tristen, and Corwin, but Kat might change that.

Edited April 7 by marke34

[caitmcg]

2 hours ago, Ancaster said:

Did they ever introduce the two women guests at the elimination challenge?

It seems like if they're not actually going to be at judges' table, the guests get a fleeting chyron at most. I didn't catch names on the broadcast, just that they are Canadian pastry chefs (which makes sense for the EC); according to the Wikipedia entry for the episode, they are Stephanie Duong and Lenore Johnson.

[LBC Me]

We've already talked about Vincenzo brown-nosing a guest judge for the second time in only four ECs, and @Bastet finding his face "extremely punchable," so I have nothing to add there.

But I can add that Tom said "flaccid" and it made me giggle.  Yes, I'm 10 years old.

Edited Monday at 04:36 PM by LBC Me
Edited for perfectionism.

[seltzer3]

This was a really good challenge.  Enjoyed the creativity of converting sweet desserts into savory.  I was curious how one would transform a naimamo bar in to savory.  Also didn't realize the center layer of the naimamo bar is just literally butter and powder sugar?  I thought it was a custard.

I'm not going to lie, losing Zubair really sucks.  There surprisingly isn't a lot of Indian contestants in the season of top chef (and a lot of them flamed out pretty early too).  So its just super unfortunate because thought Zubair was one who easily could have gone the distance.

Edited Tuesday at 03:19 AM by seltzer3

[caitmcg]

34 minutes ago, seltzer3 said:

Also didn't realize the center layer of the naimamo bar is just literally butter and powder sugar?  I thought it was a custard.

It's not, the recipe also also traditionally includes Brd's custard powder. So while it's not a custard, the Bird's helps give it a typical vanilla custard flavor.

[Daisychain]

On 4/4/2025 at 12:29 PM, dleighg said:

I'm thinking it was here. My daughter visited a castle when she was in Toronto last year, and this was it.

https://casaloma.ca/

First, I'm a long ways behind -- I didn't realize the Primetimer chats were still open and delighted to find out I was wrong.  

Second, any castle with a portrait of Prince is my castle.  

Looking forward to the rest of the season!  Some of the personalities are a bit much, but the cooking seems creative, compared to my beloved state of Wisconsin.

[CrazyInAlabama]

On 4/6/2025 at 8:03 PM, caitmcg said:

It seems like if they're not actually going to be at judges' table, the guests get a fleeting chyron at most. I didn't catch names on the broadcast, just that they are Canadian pastry chefs (which makes sense for the EC); according to the Wikipedia entry for the episode, they are Stephanie Duong and Lenore Johnson.

Lenore was on Crime Scene Kitchen and with her partner, won.   

[marke34]

Also, just realized a hilarious coincidence...you know the team with Anya, Bailey, and Zubair in the first team challenge of the season? All three of them were the ones eliminated after Mimi, that team fell apart REALLY quickly.

Edited Tuesday at 09:08 PM by marke34