Season 14:Top Chef Charleston Spoilers

[Adultosaurus]

Is Amanda the cheftestant that was "dating" another contestant (Pea Puree?) during their season and it was a bit of a scandal?

[Fukui San]

Are you thinking of Leah and Hosea?

[biakbiak]

Amanda was one of the few voices of support of Alex in the pea puree drama but she wasn't dating anyone. She does resemble Leah.

Edited November 28, 2016 by biakbiak

[cooksdelight]

I like Amanda. And I like Katsuji and John Tesar. Promises to be fun to watch those two guys go after each other, as they have been alluding to on Facebook in the past week. Probably hype for the show, and I also wonder if TC had trouble finding qualified chefs. I can think of a few who were on Food Network Star or Chopped that would definitely be great newcomers. But the demands of running one or two restaurants are often too much to take 8 weeks off and let someone else handle things.

[AriAu]

After watching the 15 minute snipit that showed up on my dvr, I was left wondering whether the returning chefs knew which ones were coming back. Brooke seemed genuinely surprised/pleased to see Sheldon back.

Also, WTF are these newbies doing trying to make 3 dishes in an hour??? Make one plate of great food and move on-have they never watched this show before-key is surviving these early challenges!!

Edited November 28, 2016 by AriAu

[JTMacc99]

On 10/23/2016 at 4:38 AM, Xazeal said:

I think the show loved her, and I remember the viewers loving her as well, so I'm surprised by the lukewarm response so far.

That's a nice thing about this show, there are various reasons to like or not like the contestants ranging from what we think of their food to what we think of their personalities. I have no recollection of why I liked Brooke her season, but I remember that I did.  I'm actually a little surprised she came back. Second place is a job well done. Maybe she's super competitive, or she has eyes on becoming a TV chef of some sort.

[Quilt Fairy]

13 hours ago, AriAu said:

Also, WTF are these newbies doing trying to make 3 dishes in an hour??? Make one plate of great food and move on-have they never watched this show before-key is surviving these early challenges!!

I can see Tom going either way, but as they have an hour rather than the more typical 15-20 minutes for a quickfire, maybe one dish won't cut it, even if it's wonderful. 

Since the returning chefs are able to see what the quickfire is, I figure that they'll be given a totally different ingredient to work with.

It's nice to have the show back.  It still has a class to it that nothing I see on FN can match.

[ProudMary]

2 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

I can see Tom going either way, but as they have an hour rather than the more typical 15-20 minutes for a quickfire, maybe one dish won't cut it, even if it's wonderful. 

Since the returning chefs are able to see what the quickfire is, I figure that they'll be given a totally different ingredient to work with.

It's nice to have the show back.  It still has a class to it that nothing I see on FN can match.

Well, as this is the spoiler thread:
 

Quote

Top Chef
Episode: Something Old, Something New

PREMIERE  S14, E01

Eight new chefs face off against eight returning chefs in Charleston, S.C.; the new chefs enter the kitchen first to cook as many dishes as possible in one hour using a whole chicken; the veterans square off to re-imagine shrimp and grits.

[AriAu]

Quote

I can see Tom going either way, but as they have an hour rather than the more typical 15-20 minutes for a quickfire, maybe one dish won't cut it, even if it's wonderful. 

I know the editing monkeys were at work here, but he did mention one guy's knife work in breaking down the chicken so unless the food sucks, that guy is safe. I think the strawberry guy is either winning or going down in flames! I would think good food will win out over being ambitious since Padma did say they were looking at skills and time management, as well as creativity....but we'll see in like 36 hours!

By the way, it would suck to lose in a sudden death quickfire in the first episode, but it would suck even more to come back and lose in a sudden death quickfire in the 1st episode!

Edited November 29, 2016 by AriAu

[dleighg]

is this 15 minute preview available online? It's not up on my OnDemand menu (FiOS)

[The Solution]

Oh good. I was hoping to see more of Sam Talbot and Casey Thompson. Can't get enough of those two.

[cooksdelight]

This interview has some things that might be spoilerish. He's honest, I'll give him that.

http://www.previewsinsideout.com/john-tesar-the-return-of-the-top-chef/

[chiaros]

23 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

This interview has some things that might be spoilerish. He's honest, I'll give him that.

http://www.previewsinsideout.com/john-tesar-the-return-of-the-top-chef/

A good interview. Thanks for posting this.

It's also useful to remind oneself that TC has been, and presumably will continue to be, a reality game show (Tom C admitted this some years ago) - with cooking as a premise. It is no longer (if it ever was) a "cooking show" let alone a FOOD show. Many excellent chefs will continue to do badly on this reality show, not because they are bad at cooking, but because they don't play the GAME well enough or don't care (in the end) to compromise themselves to do so; or do well with the artificial time constraints imposed on the contestants in said GAME show. It's just a TV entertainment show, which is fun to watch so long as one allows it is just TV entertainment in the end.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 11/12/2016 at 6:44 PM, cooksdelight said:

 

Katsuji said there's not as much drama this season, it's more about the food.

 

 Interesting. I wonder if that's why we got all that silly nonsense from Emily - because the rest of the cheftestants weren't bringing enough drama.  Not a joke, I really do wonder. 

[Wings]

31 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

 Interesting. I wonder if that's why we got all that silly nonsense from Emily - because the rest of the cheftestants weren't bringing enough drama.  Not a joke, I really do wonder. 

It might mean Emily is the sole source and most just ignore her or have a bit of thunder and it soon passes.  We might have seen all she has to offer in the preview. I don't think she lasts very long. 

[biakbiak]

42 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

 Interesting. I wonder if that's why we got all that silly nonsense from Emily - because the rest of the cheftestants weren't bringing enough drama.  Not a joke, I really do wonder. 

Also, interesting because he was the one who was trying to get Jon to cause drama with Gerald.

[cooksdelight]

If you have 5 minutes of drama out of a long day of cooking, the cheftestants won't know the final edit until they see it along with us. I chalk it up to perhaps the drama was minor, but I would bet the farm the editors will use it for all it's worth.

[biakbiak]

9 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

If you have 5 minutes of drama out of a long day of cooking, the cheftestants won't know the final edit until they see it along with us. I chalk it up to perhaps the drama was minor, but I would bet the farm the editors will use it for all it's worth.

Except the drama on this episode wasnt "editing" it was straight up Katsuji trying to make drama happen. I guess you could argue producers told him to do it but he still whole heartily participated in trying to stir shit up.

[Wings]

6 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Except the drama on this episode wasnt "editing" it was straight up Katsuji trying to make drama happen. I guess you could argue producers told him to do it but he still whole heartily participated in trying to stir shit up.

I missed that. I saw Emily being pushy. What did Katsuji do, I don't feel like going back and looking for it. 

[Pickles]

Quote

1 hour ago, wings707 said:

It might mean Emily is the sole source and most just ignore her or have a bit of thunder and it soon passes.  We might have seen all she has to offer in the preview. I don't think she lasts very long. 

I hope she is gone quickly. I find her to be so unappealing. Ugh.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, wings707 said:

I missed that. I saw Emily being pushy. What did Katsuji do, I don't feel like going back and looking for it. 

It's the morning of the sudden death elimination challenge and he tells Tesar to go get into Gerald's head because it's not just a cooking show its also about mind games according to Katsuji. Tesar shockingly didn't take the bait but the conversation was gross.

Edited December 3, 2016 by biakbiak

[chiaros]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

It's the morning of the sudden death elimination challenge and he tells Tesar to go get into Gerald's head because it's not just a cooking show its also about mind games according to Katsuji. Tesar shockingly didn't take the bait but the conversation was gross.

Yes.

John Tesar did NOT take him up on his suggestion - which also feeds into his persona (as shown) of being more mellow than the hordes would have us think.  Why would you think it was "shocking" that Tesar didn't fall for it?

Since this is a spoiler thread, I would also point out that the snippets of subsequent episodes at the end of episode 1 show Katsuji in full SPEWING mode, with John Tesar being somewhat calm; and Shirley Chung saying that Katsuji was like a "Storm blowing through".

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, chiaros said:

John Tesar did NOT take him up on his suggestion - which also feeds into his persona (as shown) of being more mellow than the hordes would have us think.  Why would you think it was "shocking" that Tesar didn't fall for it?

Because of his behavior on TC Seattle in several different challenges but particularly the dill and dill pickle incident and nearly every interview he has ever given.

[seltzer3]

Did anyone see look a good examination of the preview clips?  Looks like Sheldon and Shirley seem to gone decently far (seen them in a ton of clips).  Sheldon may possibly be pulled out due to a back injury.

[JeanneH]

On 12/2/2016 at 5:26 PM, biakbiak said:

it's not just a cooking show its also about mind games according to Katsuji

During the 2nd episode (possibly the 1st) during a talking head interview Casey says something on the lines of the new guys need to learn how to play the game, like the veterans do. To her credit she then says (paraphrasing) that the veterans need to play better because they all lost their seasons.

On 10/20/2016 at 7:04 PM, biakbiak said:

Weird that they have three from Seattle.

IIRC Kristen Kish was trying to open a restaurant in Charleston while this was filming.. Wonder if she shows up as a guest judge.

[spankydoll]

13 hours ago, JeanneH said:

IIRC Kristen Kish was trying to open a restaurant in Charleston while this was filming.. Wonder if she shows up as a guest judge.

Boston lost Kristen ? Nooooooo

[biakbiak]

14 minutes ago, spankydoll said:

Boston lost Kristen ? Nooooooo

She is still in Boston she was splitting her time, she does occasional dinners at Stir.

[JeanneH]

18 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

She is still in Boston she was splitting her time, she does occasional dinners at Stir.

Interesting.  I read she'd left Stir, no longer worked for Barbara Lynch, travelled, did a short TV series, and tried to open a restaurant in Charleston with a partner whose name I don't recall. The plans for the restaurant were dropped due to staff problems (not enought people to staff all the restaurants in Charleston, I guess), and she was back doing a lot of travelling again. Nice to hear she's back at Stir, even if only part time.

[biakbiak]

27 minutes ago, JeanneH said:

Interesting.  I read she'd left Stir, no longer worked for Barbara Lynch, travelled, did a short TV series, and tried to open a restaurant in Charleston with a partner whose name I don't recall. The plans for the restaurant were dropped due to staff problems (not enought people to staff all the restaurants in Charleston, I guess), and she was back doing a lot of travelling again. Nice to hear she's back at Stir, even if only part time.

She just does the occasional dinner, not really working there, she is doing one on Dec 17. She is travelling a lot but her home base is still Boston at least according to her social media presence. 

[ProudMary]

2 hours ago, JeanneH said:

Interesting.  I read she'd left Stir, no longer worked for Barbara Lynch, travelled, did a short TV series, and tried to open a restaurant in Charleston with a partner whose name I don't recall. The plans for the restaurant were dropped due to staff problems (not enough people to staff all the restaurants in Charleston, I guess), and she was back doing a lot of travelling again. Nice to hear she's back at Stir, even if only part time.

You're correct on both counts:
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/Eat/archives/2016/08/25/top-chef-star-kristen-kishs-charleston-restaurant-on-hold
 

Quote

(W)hat about a Charleston restaurant Top Chef winner Kristen Kish and restaurateur Brooks Reitz announced they were working on back in March? Well, you may not see that happen for a while either. 
"We’ve really pumped the breaks on the project," Reitz said in an email. "It was my sense that with the boom in openings, and the persistent city-wide staffing issues, it’s best to give the city a few years and see how things develop."
 

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/the-search-for-solutions-to-the-restaurant-staffing-crisis-continues/Content?oid=6325164

The labor problem for downtown Charleston restaurants is immense.  Unlike larger cities, public transportation in the Charleston area consists only of buses, most of which don't run late enough to allow F&B workers whose hours extend past midnight to use them.  So everyone has to drive from their homes in the outer areas as downtown housing is pretty much priced out of reach for the average F&B worker.  The commute is awful whether you're heading in from North Charleston and the other western suburbs, West Ashley or Mount Pleasant and even if you deal with the traffic there is then the issue of where to park your car and how much that is going to cost you.  
The good news is that more and more quality restaurants are opening in a lot of the outer areas.  There are great places to eat in Mount Pleasant, James Island, Johns Island, North Charleston (Park Circle/Mixson areas) and Summerville, several of which are sister restaurants to those downtown.  It's much easier to staff the outer locations; shorter commutes, free on-site parking, etc.

[biakbiak]

Tom just mentioned on Twitter that instead of the normal 2-3 month break that usually happens between the main competition and the finale thus year there was only a 1 week break.

[chiaros]

Preview of episode 5:

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-14/episode-5/videos/is-katsuji-stirring-the-pot

In the clip Emily Hahn expresses surprise that adding vinegar (and salt) to her beans made them cook/soften VERY slowly. Hmm. I thought having acid in a pot of cooking beans made them hard to soften, if at all - and she as a chef should have been aware of this notion?

[dleighg]

5 hours ago, chiaros said:

In the clip Emily Hahn expresses surprise that adding vinegar (and salt) to her beans made them cook/soften VERY slowly.

What I have read is that, yes, acid makes beans slow to soften, but the salt thing is an old-wives-tale. And truth be told, I *always* add salt throughout the cooking process (tasting as they cook) so that the beans are "seasoned" (Top Chef word for SALT) all the way through.

Edited December 28, 2016 by dleighg

[cooksdelight]

A piece of salt pork in a pot of beans does the job. I am beginning to think Emily isn't the chef she thinks she is.

[spiderpig]

4 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

A piece of salt pork in a pot of beans does the job. I am beginning to think Emily isn't the chef she thinks she is.

Does that mean she's going to win?

[cooksdelight]

I hope she's bounced soon.

[seltzer3]

Teams for next week look like the following.

Red team John, Jamie, and Emily

Yellow Team Shirley, Silva, and Sheldon

Black Team Casey, Katsuji, and Brooke

Uh, have no idea where Jim is.  Wonder if he won immunity so he doesn't have to compete (or if he got eliminated).  Promo has John saying I don't want to get eliminated during the quickfire.

 

Both black and red team are standing in front of the judges table.  Since Emily, John, and Jamie are fighting, I'm guessing both are at the bottom and yellow is on top?

[cooksdelight]

Let this be Emily's swan song, please. I cannot stand her.

[Mellowyellow]

oh no I ADORE Jim! Please don't let him be eliminated. It does look like an elimination quickfire though.

[chiaros]

It does look like Jim gets eliminated in the QF in the next episode. Other BBs on Top Chef have also noted this, commented on it. If this is confirmed when the next episode is aired, I for one would regret it - count me as one who would have liked to see him go at least a little further.

[cooksdelight]

If that happens to Jim, here's hoping he aces it in LCK.

[spankydoll]

3 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

If that happens to Jim, here's hoping he aces it in LCK.

Jim is my favorite. Very knowledgeable and a class act. I am all set with bringing back the contestants from previous seasons though. It's a yawn. It was fu to watch Stefan on the show again because he is a very witty diabolical genius. But I'd like to see some new faces to map out some new restaurants to try.

[seltzer3]

So preview next week is Restaurant wars.

Teams are the following

Blue Team
Katsuji, Sheldon, John, Casey.
Casey is definitely front of house, she is wearing a yellow dress at judges table.
John looks to be Executive Chef.

Red Team
Silva, Emily, Shirley, Brooke
Front of House is Brooke
Looks like Shirley is Executive Chef, since she is shouting orders at Emily.

Hate to be bearer of bad news, but I believe it looks like Emily slips by again and Blue team loses.  I could be wrong, but here is my reasons, based on looking the clip.

The judges comment (on the losing team), about how their is tension causing the team to lose.  Unless its a red herring, they showed John and Katsuji arguing.  There is also a quick second of Katsuji and a waiter (or busboy) clashing, and nothing on the red team.  The red herring, is showing a clip of Emily crying in front of Shirley.  However she is in the house, so I'm pretty sure this is right after the drama of Jamie getting eliminated, and Shirley comforting her and not a Red Team drama as the producers are trying to frame it.

[cooksdelight]

The stuff they show us in previews is always wrong. I thought Sheldon was a goner when they showed the clip of him falling. Now, knowing that John and Katsuji are friends in real life, I think this is more of the same. I am going to keep everything I own crossed that we're being led astray and Emily goes home. Finally.

[Wings]

4 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

The stuff they show us in previews is always wrong. I thought Sheldon was a goner when they showed the clip of him falling. Now, knowing that John and Katsuji are friends in real life, I think this is more of the same. I am going to keep everything I own crossed that we're being led astray and Emily goes home. Finally.

Yep.   It is a dependable formula.  There is a lot of room for discord on the red team.  I believe Shirley and Emily had conflict and it permeated the team all the way to Brooke in the dining room.  Brooke was probably stretched too thin having to deal with diners and a chaotic kitchen. This makes sense of an earlier clip saying she never should have come back.  

The clip of Shirley and Emily talking in the top bunk makes me think either Brooke or Silva go and Emily feels she is responsible or others blamed her.  

Edited January 14, 2017 by wings707

[biakbiak]

29 minutes ago, wings707 said:

 

The clip of Shirley and Emily talking in the top bunk makes me think either Brooke or Silva go and Emily feels she is responsible or others blamed her.  

So far this season the have consistently shown the aftermath of judges table on the new episode so I imagine it's about Jaime leaving not the outcome of this challenge.

[Wings]

47 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

So far this season the have consistently shown the aftermath of judges table on the new episode so I imagine it's about Jaime leaving not the outcome of this challenge.

Ah thanks.  Good, so I can hope Emily goes next then.  Excellent.  

[seltzer3]

6 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

The stuff they show us in previews is always wrong. I thought Sheldon was a goner when they showed the clip of him falling. Now, knowing that John and Katsuji are friends in real life, I think this is more of the same. I am going to keep everything I own crossed that we're being led astray and Emily goes home. Finally.

I dunno, last week's preview was Jamie, John, and Emily fighting with each other (and they did end up being the bottom team).

The sucky thing about Restaurant Wars is that its always either the Executive Chef or head of house that goes home.  This is true for majority of the seasons.  So unless one of the others really screw it up, Shirley, Brooke, John, and Casey are definitely the ones with targets.  I can totally see Emily being sous chef so that she doesn't get eliminated.

[cooksdelight]

2 minutes ago, seltzer3 said:

 I can totally see Emily being sous chef so that she doesn't get eliminated.

Oh, I hope she does duck and hide. Tom and Padma both hate that and will call her out for it.

[ProudMary]

Wasn't it last season that they did both lunch and dinner service for RW and each cheftestant had to take a turn at either FOH or Executive Chef?  I hope they hold to that for this season too.  No hiding then.