IMHO: "Top Chef": Foo Fighters Thanksgiving

This week's Top Chef was certainly a frustrating episode. While it featured the already-legendary chef Grant Achatz, there was none of the molecular gastronomy that earned national attention for Achatz' Chicago restaurant, Alinea. More frustrating was the way the episode tried to create the illusion that Top Chef now airs live, challenging the cheftestants to come up with a Thanksgiving meal and pretending it actually was Thanksgiving. For that and more, I'm giving Top Chef the down arrow.

Find out the details of why I didn't care for this episode (including a SPOILER of who got the boot) after the break.

Probably the biggest disappointment this week was that Team Rainbow was cut down to the last woman standing, as the last gay man on the show, Richard Sweeney, was told to pack his knives. Based on what we've seen of Richard, I don't have a problem with his being gone. So far his food has only stood out for being too dry or for missing a key flavor. He seems like one of those "not yet ready for Top Chef cheftestants" who usually gets eliminated early on, so the elimination seems fair enough.

But it is pretty frustrating that the other gay man cast for this season was also someone who didn't have the polish needed to really compete. I'm not saying it was a deliberate bit of casting but it's disappointing that it only took three weeks for both gay men to get eliminated.

Top Chef's Team Rainbow, Richard, Jamie and Patrick

Richard's failure was a variation on s'mores made with bananas, a chocolate ganache and a vanilla foam that left the dessert looking as though someone angered him enough to spit on all the desserts. Also up for elimination were Danny's undercooked potatoes and two failed dishes from team leader Jeff. I actually was surprised to see Richard go, since I thought both Danny and Jeff's mistakes sounded much worse. The judges seemed positively disgusted by Jeff's pumpkin mousse and spoonbread, while Richard's s'mores just seemed underwhelming, and underwhelming food is certainly preferable to disgusting food, right?

Richard's banana s'more

This episode was pretty frustrating. Not only did the judges table skip out on part of the story, but we also watched everyone act like it was Thanksgiving (complete with Tom wishing the cheftestants a "Happy Turkey Day") even though most viewers should know the episode was filmed months ago, saw a portion of the challenge disappear (a number of the diners were vegetarian or vegan but the audience didn't see a lot of the vegetarian dishes made) and the guest-judge didn't get to showcase his specialty. Seeing the last gay man on Top Chef eliminated just caps off a bad episode.

Still, seeing Grant Achatz as a guest judge was fairly satisfying, as his comments were a sharp analysis into why Richard's s'mores were a conceptual failure. I'd love to see him return, hopefully with a focus on the food science skills that made him famous. Also, I'm looking forward to cheering on the last member of Team Rainbow, Jamie, who certainly seems like someone who can compete in the long run.

What did you think? Did this episode fall below the usual Top Chef standards?