‘Top Chef’ 21 episode 8 recap: Kitchen mix-ups, long wait times and confused concepts – must be ‘Restaurant Wars’

“Top Chef” cheftestant and “Top Chef France” alum Kevin D’Andrea was eliminated last week in the ballpark-inspired “Sausage Race” challenge, leaving nine cheftestants on the main show competing for a chance to win a feature in Food and Wine magazine; an appearance at the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado; and $250,000 in prize money: Soo Ahn, Manny Barella, Kaleena Bliss, Danny Garcia, Dan Jacobs, Savannah Miller, Laura Ozyilmaz, Amanda Turner and Michelle Wallace.

So what happened when those cheftestants reached the famous — or infamous — “Restaurant Wars” in season 21, episode eight?

The episode begins with ominous music and black cars on the road. “I don’t know where the GPS is set to, but I know the area where it’s set to,” says native Wisconsinite Dan. “It’s right on the lake. There are so many things that this could be.” They arrive at Discovery World and find host Kristen Kish waiting for them with Tom Colicchio. He’s there for “a very special reason,” Kristen tells the chefs. Are they fishing with Tom? Is there an elimination Quickfire? Nope, it’s Restaurant Wars! “Holy shit,” says Dan. Savannah laments, “If I had known it was Restaurant Wars, I would have worn a different outfit.”

“This year we’re going to kick it old-school,” says Kristen. The teams are going to prepare a three course menu with at least two choices per course — so six dishes total. And they’ll assign an executive chef, a floor manager, and line cooks. Everything else is up to the chefs. As always, this challenge will push the chefs to their limits, which is something Kristen knows a little something about. This was the challenge that got her eliminated from her season of “Top Chef” and forced her to fight her way back through “Last Chance Kitchen” to ultimately win her season.

“What would you have done differently?” Tom asks her. “Choose a different team,” says Kristen. Likewise, the chefs will be allowed to pick their teams for this challenge, which sounds like another round of picked-last-for-gym. Michelle gets to sit out the initial deliberations, though. There’s an odd number of chefs left in the competition, so Michelle, as the winner of the last challenge, will get to choose which team of four she ends up on after the dust settles.

Kaleena and Laura are the first to team up. Kaleena then recruits Soo since they already have a good rapport coming through “LCK” together. Manny rounds out their group, I think mostly because he happened to be standing there at the time. So the other team ends up being Danny, Amanda, Dan and Savannah. Danny and Amanda have been on every team together so far this season, so that’s a “done deal,” according to Danny. This is a challenge where team relationship dynamics and communication are especially important. Put on the spot, Michelle decides to join Danny, Amanda and company. Michelle thinks her team is strong because “we all lead kitchens,” so they have restaurant experience. Problem is, not everyone can be the leader on this challenge.

The chefs have one hour to plan their restaurant concepts. Each team gets $3,000 to spend at Whole Foods and another $1,500 to spend at specialty shops. The next day they’ll have five hours to prep, cook, and set up their restaurants before serving meals to 75 diners over four hours. Helping to judge this challenge will be a few VIPs, including “Top Chef” winner Stephanie Izard and All-Star Kwame Onwuachi. The good news is that the winning team gets to split $40,000.

Kaleena’s team comes up with a Mexican/Korean fusion concept they call Dos By Deul. Laura takes front of house. Kaleena will be executive chef. That leaves Soo and Manny as line cooks. Everyone seems satisfied. Then it comes time to design their menu, for which Kaleena wants to make a kind of Asian aguachile, while Laura plans a tartare appetizer. “We all are pitching ideas,” says Manny. “Forcing a dish onto a menu is like a fart. If you have to push it, it’s probably shit.” He asks the producer not to use that clip, but c’mon man, they were never not gonna use that clip.

On the rival team, Danny asks to be executive chef. Michelle gets front of house — “I feel like your energy would be f*cking killer,” Dan tells her. “I started as a greeter in my very first restaurant,” Michelle explains. She has the necessary skill set and experience for it, so she thinks it’s worth the “risk.” They decide to focus on water and seafood and name their restaurant Channel. They too seem to be meshing well, but they’re flying a little close to the sun on their menu, planning three options for the main course. And “we need to make sure we’re not focusing too much on representing ourselves. We need to be representing the restaurant,” Savannah warns.

I’m a little concerned for Team Channel, but no giant red flags flying up yet.

On the way to shopping, Michelle talks with her team about their menu. She wants to make sure the dishes are cohesive. I thought they’d settled on kind of a seafood theme, but Dan says, “We’re a modern American restaurant that pulls from each of our individual experiences.” He thinks Michelle can tell that story to people who come in and give the team the “latitude to do anything” with their dishes. Michelle pushes back, rightly I think, saying that they need to be cohesive. First off, they should have their menu already decided, not be debating it in the car on the way to Whole Foods. Second, how does Dan think a random assortment of dishes with such a tenuous connection to each other is a winning plan? Red flag! They do seem to smooth things out quickly, though. Dan decides to swap out his beets for smoked trout to keep the aquatic theme going.

“For our team dish,” says Manny at Whole Foods, “we didn’t even consider that we have to cook for about 75 people.” Oof, epic fail, dudes! Team Channel got their proteins at the specialty markets, but apparently Team Dos By Deul didn’t consider they’d be feeding a restaurant full of people during Restaurant Wars, and now they can’t find enough protein. “We need to pick a protein we’re comfortable with because this is what sends people home,” warns Kaleena. They ditch the fish dish and go with pork tenderloin instead. “Let’s just go with it,” says Manny, sounding not too confident. Red flag!

That evening they start preparing. Surprisingly, Team Dos By Deul decides to do three savory courses instead of a dessert course at the end. Kaleena thinks that plays more to the team’s strengths, but I worry the judges and the customers will be expecting to close out their meal with a dessert. Between that and Dos By Deul needing to compromise on their protein, I’m starting to think Team Channel has the advantage in this challenge.

“It feels totally insane that we’ll be cooking in a restaurant that we created in less than 24 hours,” says Dan. “Nobody does this. You want to know why? Because it sucks!”

Before you know it, it’s the day of the restaurant opening. The serving staffs arrive, so the front of house chefs, Michelle and Laura, leave the kitchen to prepare their teams for meal service. Michelle hands out materials for the servers to study including the menus, sets up the tables, everything looks splendid. “If everything else goes to shit, at least you look good, girl,” says Danny. Meanwhile, Laura is a “perfectionist” focused on the minute details, and leaves Dos By Deul looking equally polished. Time runs out, and it’s showtime.

Meal Service

The restaurant doors open, food service begins smoothly, and the VIPs arrive. Kristen and Tom’s group starts off with buckwheat tea at Channel, though they’re confused that what’s in all their glasses looks different.

Gail Simmons and company start at Dos By Deul. They begin with the first course. Laura’s is beef tartare, cilantro green goddess, gochujang and rice cracker. Kaleena’s is melon and Dungeness crab aguachile, pickled bamboo, furikate tostada. The judges praise Laura’s tartare, it works really well together despite seeming at first to have too much going on. The sauce is “phenomenal.” Kaleena’s aguachile was bright and tart, though the melon washed things out, needed more acidity.

Oh no, Michelle takes her time visiting the judges. Her plan is to give them attention but make sure they have space too. Michelle!! Isn’t this exactly what got Jackson Kalb eliminated from the show a couple of seasons ago? You’ve gotta spend time with the judges, not hang back in the kitchen. Michelle even walked by the table once but didn’t check in. This could only ever come off as dismissive or even insulting. You are the face of the restaurant, Michelle — too much face is better than not enough.

Michelle finally comes out with the first course for Channel. Dan’s is smoked walleye, labneh, potato cake, harissa. Savannah’s is chawanmushi with scallop, maitake, ikura. The first bite of the chawanmushi is “beautiful,” “texturally it’s stunning,” well seasoned, mushrooms are kind of a chewy “afterthought,” though. Dan’s dish gives Kristen “sour cream and onion potato chip vibes.” Bright, tangy, beautifully seasoned.

Already on to Channel’s second course. Michelle’s fried catfish with dirty rice cake. Also Danny’s “New England clam chowder” of grilled carrots with old bay, clams and thyme. And Amanda’s vegan gumbo z’herbes with greens, grilled mushrooms and kombu. Amanda’s gumbo strikes the judges as an odd choice for a seafood restaurant, but it’s tasty. Danny’s clam chowder is also a winner, though Tom thinks the old bay and carrot are confusing. Michelle nailed her oyster sauce, it didn’t even need the rice cake.

Dos By Deul is having some trouble with their communication and their tickets. Some dishes seem to be delayed as they get that sorted out, but the judges do get their second course. Soo’s rice cakes, salsa verde, Chinese sausage and pepita. Also Manny’s miso butter-poached shrimp, kimchi jicama and bok choy. Soo’s salsa is “delicious,” savory and spicy and acidic. Manny’s shrimp is beautifully cooked, though the heat of the jicama is “drowned out.”

So far it doesn’t seem like anyone has hit a home run, but nobody has struck out either.

Michelle brings out Channel’s third course. Danny and Amanda’s honey custard, jasmine tea and citrus gelee, buckwheat crumble. Also Dan’s maple cremeux, blueberry, pistachio and caramel. Tom loves Danny and Amanda’s honey custard, Dan’s dish has good balance, but it was missing the maple flavor. Still, “there were no bad, clunker dishes,” according to Kristen, and Tom agrees. But it’s not a cohesive restaurant, just a bunch of ideas.

Dos By Deul runs into a delay, however. The judges’ third course is taking its sweet time. Gail asks a server to check on the progress, but it eventually reaches them. Manny’s beef tenderloin with mole negro, shimeji mushrooms and black garlic. Also the team effort dish, pork tenderloin a la talla, charred pineapple, black bean and onion puree. Manny’s mole is “fantastic,” but the collaborative pork dish lacks punch. Also, the last course feels like it came from a different restaurant from the first two courses. Maybe the team’s sudden pivot to pork hurt their cohesion.

The judges switch restaurants. Gail’s group hits Channel, but Danny makes the surprising decision not to prioritize the judges’ meal while they still have other open orders. He things putting them first will be “detrimental to the kitchen,” but I think losing Restaurant Wars is more detrimental to the kitchen. Eventually, Gail notes that it has been 30 minutes since they sat down, but no food. The good news for them is that Kristen and Tom’s group hasn’t been served at Dos By Deul after about half an hour either. They’ve got orders and table numbers getting mixed up, which is wasting time and effort. And then they keep the judges waiting for their last course for another 45 minutes!

In all the judges’ experiences at their second restaurant all seemed more sour than their first. Neither team seems to have executed a theme that well, and the wait times were deadly. How do the judges pick that all apart and choose a winner and loser? Hard to tell at this point.

Judges’ Table

Channel had a good concept, and the dishes were individually good, but the dishes didn’t cohere well enough, and Michelle didn’t spend enough time with the judges. As for Dos By Deul, their fusion dishes didn’t incorporate enough of both Mexican and Korean elements in each dish, and the judges had to wait forever. But Kristen says, “Across the board we had some really fantastic and very memorable plates of food.” Ultimately, though, the winner is Channel. And the individual challenge winner is Dan for his smoked walleye. Michelle deserves at least some of the credit for convincing him to switch from his beets idea to something more befitting a seafood restaurant.

Dos By Deul is the losing team. It never felt like an obvious choice, though. It came down to a lot of nitpicking about certain details. But boy is there a lot of nitpicking. “They took a microscope and were like, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong,” remarks Soo. But Kaleena is “really f*cking proud of what we did, and I’m proud of you guys. I feel like we really pulled together as a team.” In the end, unfortunately, it is executive chef Kaleena has to pack her knives and go — again.

“Obviously I’m bummed, but I’m okay,” she says in her exit interview. “The last elimination three challenges ago I was devastated because I knew that I had made a mistake. I did not feel like I did my best, and this is like the complete opposite of that. I feel like I’ve had so many redemption battles, and ‘Last Chance Kitchen‘ itself was a huge redemption battle. Even though our team didn’t win, I still in my head feel like we’re going out on a high note.”

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