“Top Chef”: Buddha Lo Takes a Seat at the Judges' Table and Two Cheftestants Pack Up Their Knives and Go

Former Top Chef champ Buddha Lo recaps season 21, episode 4, and shares his experience as a judge

Buddha Lo is a two-time Top Chef winner, executive chef at Hūso in New York City, and a Saratoga Spring Water brand ambassador. He is sharing his thoughts after each episode of Top Chef season 21, set in Wisconsin, offering a unique perspective as a former cheftestant.

Warning: This article contains spoilers.

This week, I got to be a guest judge along with iconic Chef Dominique Crenn. I absolutely loved sitting next to her, as she is someone I look up to; judging with her was an honor. It was also so nice to see people who have been quite instrumental in some of the biggest moments of my career — from the director Ari Boles to the showrunner Doneen Arquines.

THE ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

This week they skipped the Quickfire and went straight to the double elimination challenge. The chefs got to go on the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail (Wright was from Wisconsin), and fittingly, considering Wright’s architecture style, the theme was duality.

The chefs actually had quite a bit of time — three hours — and $200 to create one dish for five people. These challenges are a lot of pressure because it's actually a lot of time for five servings. You don't usually get that advantage in Top Chef.

I absolutely love this challenge, but I don't feel like everyone took a full opportunity of it.

Take Kevin and Manny, for example. My favorite dish was actually Kevin’s. It was the best in regards to duality and had all these surprising textures in there. His dish looked like an intricate sculpture with lots of triangles. It was a restaurant-worthy dish, and if it had been an individual challenge, he would have won. But he didn’t win because Manny made a pasta that was cooked unevenly, and the filling was dry.

Related: Top Chef: One Contestant Reveals a Diagnosis and Everyone Makes a Fine-Dining Meal on a Tight Budget

WHO WON

The winners, Danny and Rasika, did the challenge best as a team. While a bit small, their dishes were super tasty. Plus, they really got the idea of the duality.

Related: Top Chef: Buddha Lo Talks Kristen Kish, the Mistakes on Episode 1 and Which Chefs He's 'Looking Out for'

WHO LOST

With Kaleena and Alisha you could really taste their disjointedness in the food. I don't think there was one thing that they agreed on.

At one point Alisha even said that she hates Geminis and Kaleena said to Alisha, “I am a Gemini.” Kaleena ended up making a mushroom cheesecake and Alisha made an agua chile, fitting their theme of land and sea.

The base of Kaleena's cheesecake was rock hard — we couldn't cut it without utensils. And the filling wasn't that great, either.

As for Alisha, she really didn't do a lot. If you look at it, she poached a couple of prawns and cut some cucumbers, which felt quite incomplete. My plate was still missing salmon roe, which is confusing for a challenge in which you're only cooking for five people and you have three hours. Ironically, Alisha made the same dish in 30 minutes on Last Chance Kitchen and won.

AT THE JUDGES' TABLE

While watching the episode, I was surprised at how accurate our tasting was — we could taste the level of panic and rushed cookery in front of us. The dishes definitely spoke for themselves.

The big deliberation of this challenge was simple: Who do we put in the top three and who do we put in the bottom three? Because we couldn't find enough justification for any of the other teams to be bottom or top, they were kind of all together in the middle.

We ended up doing something that I don't think I've ever seen before on the show — we brought the winning and losing contestants up to the Judges' Table and eliminated the losing chefs. The remaining chefs were obviously the winners.

Top Chef airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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