“Top Chef” Recap: Can the ‘Risotto Curse’ Be Broken?

Some cheftestants hit it out of the ballpark and others strike out during this baseball-themed 'Top Chef' challenge. Former champ Buddha Lo recaps episode 7

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's episode begins with the chefs trying to recover from a very chaotic previous episode that ended with front-running chefs at the bottom and Rasika being eliminated. Two chefs from Last Chance Kitchen also joined the competition last week, including newcomer Soo who is settling in well. This was especially important in this week's episode because it featured a team challenge, which leans heavily on chemistry, and that was one major disadvantage Soo had coming into the main competition.

Related: Top Chef Recap: Last Chance Kitchen Winners Cause Chaos but Ultimately, the 'Best Dish So Far' Is Served

THE QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE

“Is that a Voltaggio?” Yes it is! Bryan Voltaggio, the three-time Top Chef finalist judged the Quickfire, where chefs had to flambé an element of the dish. This was a two-part, ultimate Quickfire, with the top three from the flambé competing again for $20,000.

In part one, Danny, Amanda and Kevin made the top dishes. Danny was praised for his grilled prawns flambé with mezcal that Brian said got the smokiness in the sauce from the mezcal, a very smart move. Amanda did a play on baked Hawaii, French toast with coconut and vanilla meringue with caramelized mangos, torching every element of her dish. Amanda did something I would have done because the first thing I think of for a flambé is a baked Alaska. Kevin made grilled shrimp flambé au pastis with fennel potato puree that judges said was a beautiful presentation and texturally their favorite.

In part two, the top three chefs had to use fire in a different way, this time to create the perfect char. Danny made a charred branzino with charred avocado and a poblano sauce. He hit the nail on the head by executing the perfect char into every element of the dish leaving the judges no room for criticism.

Amanda prepared a sweet soy glazed veal chop with corn relish and pickled peaches. The protein she selected is very challenging to cook in 20 minutes and in the end got “burned” for it being undercooked. Kevin made a charred squab breast and panko fried leg with a yogurt green curry. This dish sounded delicious, but ultimately it wasn't as char forward as the other dishes. Danny won making this his second win in a row.

THE ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

This baseball-themed team challenge featured ballpark favorite sausages. Guest judges included Top Chef: All Star Amar Santana and Wisconsin’s Famous Racing Sausages (as seen at Milwaukee Brewers games). There were five head-to-head challenges with each team member responsible for a sausage dish and the winning chef scoring a run for their team.

The Yellow Team included Amanda, Danny, Laura, Kaleena and Michelle; and Soo, Savannah, Kevin, Laura and Dan on the Blue Team.

This time when the chefs shopped, they learned from previous mistakes, sharing the budget equitably. In the hotdog head-to-head, Danny made a bacon-wrapped hotdog with cabbage and beet relish, and Soo made a corn dog rolled in French fries with wasabi and jalapeño mayo, bonito flakes and pickled ginger. The judges chose Soo 9-6, giving Blue the lead.

Next up, Michelle made Polish sausage etouffée with creamy grits and collard green salad, and Savannah made a Polish sausage pierogi with an apple and fennel salad. Michelle cleaned up 13-2, as Savannah didn’t put enough sausage in her pierogi. In the Italian sausage face-off, Kaleena beat Kevin 13-2 with her potato gnocchi with Italian sausage ragu and Calabrian chili, to Kevin’s risotto with Italian sausage, roasted Parmesan and fennel emulsion.

Related: Top Chef: The Contestants Food Shop Blind — and a Winner Goes Home

Kevin continued the Top Chef risotto curse. I would never cook risotto on Top Chef as there is a lot of room for failure in executing this dish. Next, Manny topped Laura 9-6 with his chorizo and cheese tetela with roasted tomato sauce and avocado crema over Laura’s chorizo kebab tacos with yogurt sauce. Both dishes sounded incredible, but I want to give a shout out to Whole Foods Market’s chorizo for contributing to the “W” for Manny.

Lastly, in the bratwurst head-to-head, Amanda made rye and caraway spaetzle bratwurst with caramelized beer and mustard sauce, and crispy sauerkraut. Dan made a potato pancake with charred cabbage, mustard butter and herbs. The votes were 12 to 3 giving Amanda the win, and more importantly, the win for the Yellow Team.

WHO WON

Tom Colicchio said that collectively this was the best the chefs had done all season, making it difficult to choose a winner in each heat. Michelle was named Top Chef sausage race MVP, knocking her dish out of the park and rebounding from last week's episode.

Related: Top Chef's Dan Jacobs Opens Up About His Rare Disease: 'It Was the Best of the Worst Possibilities' (Exclusive)

WHO LOST

Kevin, whose risotto was inconsistent, also did not showcase the sausage enough, a similar criticism to his Quickfire dish, which didn’t focus on the char. Savannah and Dan were also on the bottom. But any Top Chef fan knows that cooking risotto is a big risk with very little reward, and unfortunately that led to Kevin’s elimination.

Next week is my favorite challenge of the season. Buckle up it’s time for Restaurant Wars!

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