Pack Your Knives

From the very outset of Season 21, Michelle Wallace distinguished herself as one of the most authentic chefs to grace the Top Chef kitchen.

Not only does she bake the best biscuits in the business, she can execute an elevated homey dish of stuffed lobster pasta with charred corn sauce and crispy chorizo.

Two Elimination wins. An additional four top finishes. (The only thing Michelle can’t abide is “chaos cooking”).

Michelle stops by to chat about her Top Chef journey, what is and isn’t a sandwich, St. Louis’ greatest BBQ delicacy (pig snoot), the funniest Season 21 contestant, the secret to the perfect biscuit, and the wizardry of Ozzie Smith. 

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The five remaining cheftestants compete for only four tickets on a cruise ship to Curacao for the Season 21 finale in an elimination challenge that asks the to prepare a plate that express their maturation as chefs during their time in Wisconsin.

But first, it’s the beloved Blind Taste Test Quickfire, with one of the chefs blowing away the competition (is daily tongue-scraping the secret weapon?).

Finally, we have a blockbuster late-season trade between Team Tom and Team Kevin!

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Tom Colicchio does work in the Top Chef kitchen, where the wok is king in the Quickfire challenge.

Coming off her Last Chance Kitchen run, Laura re-enters the main competition and makes dessert for an elimination challenge that demands imagination.

Tom H. feels that desserts are a market inefficiency that more cheftestants should opt for.

Kevin shares how You Can Count on Me explains Michelle’s allergy to blue-sky Top Chef challenges without specific parameters. 

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With her sharp analysis, Mina Kimes can break down any NFL pass coverages or team-building strategy — and Top Chef field. She joins Tom and Kevin to discuss how Season 21 stands up to previous Top Chef seasons, to grouse about Soo’s controversial elimination at the fish boil, and to size up the remaining six contestants in the competition. 

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No chef has built confidence and momentum in recent weeks like Savannah Miller. She bagged a Quickfire win with canned corn beef (!), only to slice her hand open while filleting her fish for the Fish Boil.

Though it looked like she prepared the worst of the six plates, she was spared elimination.

Kevin was on hand in Milwaukee for the Fish Boil, and tasted three of the six fish boil dishes. He shares his impressions of the production, Soo’s beurre blanc, and Miguel’s winning boil.

Tom argues that, even with the new “Quickfire factor” at the chopping block, the judges didn’t make the right call.

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For weeks, the judges have been threatening to send home not one — but two chefs — if circumstances demand it.

This week, they did just that when they sent a quarter of the remaining field packing in a challenge that highlights the indigenous cuisine of the Northern Plains.

Tom and Kevin note that Kristen is bored stiff by Manny’s generally successful (but tiresome) formula in the kitchen, and celebrate Savannah and Dan for a master class on how to endear yourself to the judges by “embracing the challenge.”

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Few chefs have demonstrated the talent to execute risk in the Top Chef kitchen like Rasika Venkatesa.

Her pretzel-barley cake with honey mustard sabayon and her daal quenelle have been highlights of the season, during which she emerged as a fan favorite.

Rasika stops by Pack Your Knives to talk about her desire to reinvent cooking from Tamil Nadu, which she recently visited on a months-long food tour.

She recounts her trip, which included convincing village fishermen to take her back to their homes to cook snapper with their families.

She also shares her experiences on Top Chef with little formal training, despite rising from station cook to Chef de Cuisine in three years. 

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As Wimbledon is to the pro tennis calendar, and the Masters is to the PGA, Restaurant Wars is to Top Chef.

It’s the signature event of the season, after which things start to get really serious as the field of chefs is whittled down on the last stretch to the finale.

Tom and Kevin react to this season’s 5-on-4 imbalance (boo!) and the new twist with two judges tables so that both restaurants have to shine early and late (yay!).

They also dive into the controversy that erupted over Danny’s winning scallop chou farci from a few weeks back. 

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The great thing about chatting with Top Chef finalist Amar Santana is that you get a completely unvarnished take on everything. He stops by Pack Your Knives to tell Tom and Kevin who really had the best dish of the last week’s elimination challenge, why toilet paper should replace napkins at your next reservation, and the saltiest confrontation he’s ever had with a customer at one of his restaurants. 

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Maybe you’ve seen the Arrested Development episode in which Tobias tells Lindsay that people who entertain open relationships are delusional to believe that the arrangement could work …. “But it might work for us.” This is the theory of mind of any Top Chef contestant who believes that even though seven cheftestants have been eliminated after preparing risotto, somehow he’ll be the one who will impress the judges and be named the winner of the challenge. 

Enter this week’s delusional chef … Exit this week’s delusional chef. 

Tom and Kevin break down how Amanda is building momentum in the kitchen, how Danny is the kind of technical chef who has an inside track to Top Chef, and how ketchup has no place on a hot dog. 

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