‘Top Chef’ recap: Season 22 begins with ‘Across Canada, We Go!’ and one chef suffering a disastrous ‘landslide’ of mistakes

"I wasn't expecting to see a knife block so soon. I thought I was going to get a little settled before I started having to fear for my life," said Tristen Epps not long after landing in Toronto for the Season 22 premiere of Top Chef. The competition started immediately with the 15 new cheftestants drawing knives to sort them into five different cars. It didn't take them long to figure out that they were embarking on a team challenge, but it wasn't quite that simple — is it ever? Here's what happened in "Across Canada, We Go!"

This year the chefs are competing for the grand prize of $250,000, a $125,000 flight credit to spend on travel with Delta Air Lines; a feature in Food and Wine magazine, and an appearance at the annual Food and Wine Classic in Aspen. On top of that, the winner will headline an exclusive dinner at the James Beard House in New York and present at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards in Chicago. But there are a lot of meals to get through between now and then.

Quickfire Challenge

This season's first challenge tested the cheftestants' teamwork right off the bat. First, each chef had to select a single ingredient from the expansive Top Chef pantry. Not knowing exactly what the challenge would be yet, they focused their selections on what they knew best, or what ingredients they thought would be the most versatile whatever the challenge. They then reunited with their teams and learned that they had to create a dish incorporating the ingredients they selected, which resulted in some awkward combos. But wait, there's more! The judges then selected additional ingredients that all the teams had to use. Kristen Kish chose tomatoes. Gail Simmons selected chives. And Tom Colicchio went with a protein, clams.

These were the teams and the ingredients they were working with:

PURPLE: Kat Turner, Henry Lu, Corwin Hemming (corn, Fresno chile, corn)

YELLOW: César Murillo, Mimi Weissenborn, Katianna Hong (apple, fennel, corn)

RED: Paula Endara, Lana Lagomarsini, Vincenzo "Vinny" Loseto (apple, corn, portobello mushroom)

GREEN: Tristen Epps, Shuai Wang, Massimo Piedimonte (bok choy, king oyster mushroom, maple syrup)

BLUE: Anya El-Wattar, Zubair Mohajir, Bailey Sullivan (cabbage, Fresno chile, dried black olives)

Starting the season with a team challenge is always interesting since the cheftestants haven't gotten to know each other yet, leading to potential conflicts of cooking styles and personalities. Anya, for instance, felt like an "outsider" because her two teammates were bonding over their Chicago connection. "There's a clique," she observed, "the Chicago clique." The biggest conflict, though, was on the red team, where Lana preferred a straightforward plating approach while Vinny wanted to wow the judges by serving their dish in a hollowed-out apple. Vinny got his way.

Despite the many contrasting styles, backgrounds, and influences of the 15 chefs assembled, there ended up being a lot of soups — and a chowder — headed for the judges' table. The judges weren't bothered by the limited variety, though. "I get grumpy when the food's not so good," explained Tom. "I'm not grumpy right now. I'm really happy." So when it came time to announce the top and bottom teams, there actually were no bottom teams, just three especially good ones: yellow, green, and red — yes, Tom liked the apple bowl. "OK, Vinny, you got this one," admitted Lana. In the end, the yellow team prevailed and César, Mimi, and Katianna split a $15,000 prize for their apple and fennel soup with clams, corn, and chorizo relish.

Elimination Challenge

Kristen introduced five chefs representing the five regions of Canada: Sheila Flaherty (North), Jeremy Charles (Atlantic), David Zilber (Central), Dale MacKay (Prairie), and Nicole Gomes (West). Each region specializes in specific ingredients based on their locations, climates, and cultures, so each team had to select a region to make dishes with those ingredients. However, this was not a team challenge. Everyone would make their dishes independently, and on each team there would be one top contestant, one safe contestant, and one bottom contestant at risk of elimination. The teams broke down as follows:

CENTRAL: César, Mimi, Katianna

PRAIRIE: Kat, Henry, Corwin

WESTERN: Paula, Lana, Vinny

NORTH: Anya, Zubair, Bailey

ATLANTIC: Tristen, Shuai, Massimo

Unfortunately for a few chefs, time was the enemy. "The nervousness and the time took the best out of me," said Paula on Team Western, observing that her lamb for each plate varied wildly in temperature and doneness, resulting in some undercooked pieces and some overcooked pieces. The judges noticed, but it wasn't the biggest calamity of the day.

"Because of my potatoes, I completely lose track of time. I have 30 minutes left, and I haven't touched my pork yet," Mimi admits on Team Central. As for her potatoes, she accidentally spent too much time boiling them, so her puree ended up with a gummy consistency. "It tasted like elevated hospital food," David Zilber vividly described. "That makes me grumpy," Tom added.

As for Kat on Team Prairie, she spent too much time improvising a smoker to add flavor contrast to her dish, so plating was where she went wrong. Some dishes were missing key ingredients. "Oh my God, I didn't get it all!" she said when time ran out. "I f--king screwed the pooch." Tom could only grade her an "I for incomplete."

Speaking of incomplete, Tristen on Team Atlantic ran out of time before he could add his curry sauce to any of his poached cod and snow crab plates. Come on, chefs, get it together! Fortunately for him, the components that did make it to the judges were pleasing. In fact, the curry might have ended up overpowering his flavors, according to Tom, so Tristen might have been better off without it.

Truly, sometimes you're better off leaving components off the plate. For Bailey on Team North, she had the cojones to try making a risotto, that most accursed Top Chef dish, for her very first Elimination Challenge. Where did it land in the show's grand history of failed dishes? "It's not the worst risotto we've had on Top Chef," Gail concluded. "But it is not a good risotto."

Judges' Table

On the positive side, Vinny, César, Anya, Henry, and Shuai were the top chefs. Vinny's confit salmon was "perfectly cooked," according to Nicole. Tom added, "This is a very subtle dish that is just full of flavor and power." Henry's juicy ribeye tartare came with a delicious cracker. César's corn butter poached trout with grilled radicchio was "adorable" to Tom. "A great bite." Shuai's steamed cod was "beautifully cooked" to Jeremy. It had a variety of textures even without a crunch element. And Anya's ukha fish broth was simple but well executed, with a well thought out nod to her Russian heritage.

Vinny was chosen as the winner, giving him immunity in next week's Elimination Challenge.

Paula, Kat, Mimi, Massimo, and Bailey were the bottom chefs, but Kat and Mimi were the only chefs the judges decided to talk to -- you got lucky with that risotto, Bailey! Indeed, Kat's incomplete plating was a disastrous error, but it turned out that missing a few ingredients was slightly less disastrous than potatoes and pork that nobody liked. Mimi was eliminated; her fate was probably sealed the moment David compared it to hospital food.

"Fundamentally I had a lot of executional flaws, a little bit of a landslide in the failure direction," Mimi said as she exited the show, on her way to Last Chance Kitchen for an opportunity to return. "I didn't even get to give a good representation of myself, and I think that's, in the end, the most disappointing part. I am ready for Last Chance Kitchen. I want a chance to redeem myself, to get back and prove, yes, I can cook. The story's still unfolding, you know?"