Top Chef - S9E3 Last Chance Kitchen

If nothing else, Last Chance Kitchen makes for a convenient bit of filler between the postmortem and the power rankings!

For those who might have missed it, though details are sketchy, eliminated chefs now go on to Last Chance Kitchen, where those who have been eliminated can work their way back into the competition. There are apparently some reality show analogues with which I'm unfamiliar, but the way it works here is that the winner from the previous week faces the eliminated chef this week, and the winner moves on. At some point, though we haven't been told precisely when, the king of the hill will rejoin the main competition.

A few thoughts on the structure. I like it! I've been a supporter of previous second chance competitions, and this is simply an extended version thereof. And being online, it doesn't complicate the regular show. The fact that the eliminated chefs don't know about it until they're eliminated is either awesome or brutal, depending on your point of view, I suppose.

It's fun to think of an early elimination running the table to get back into the late stages of the competition, but that isn't going to happen. If Keith, for example, is so dominant that you'd give him a 75% chance of winning every challenge, and if he only has to get through ten rounds to get back in (more seems likely, though we don't know), he still only has about a 5% chance of running the table. While not impossible, the odds are incredibly long for the chefs who are eliminated early. More likely, LCK won't matter much until three or four episodes before the point where the winner returns. But it's still fun to watch.

Andrew took down Janine in episode two, and so he went head to head with Keith in episode three. A table full of Mediterranean ingredients seemed to be right up Andrew's alley, but Keith's a seafood man and clams ended up being the focus. Generally speaking, I'm with Andrew... one dish is better than two, unless you really know what you're doing. But apparently Keith did. A hot/cold clam duo impressed Tom, and Keith moves on.

Discuss!

Comments

[Quoll]

Gotta agree on the odds. I would not be terribly surprised if there wasn't a consistent LCK winner until week 10. I'm still hoping Keith can run the table though.

[Vncntdl]

I think they said, in the first episode of Last Chance Kitchen, that the winner would re-join in the finale. So I'm guessing this means that there will be a top 3 + winner of LCK in finale. I'd put money on the LCK winner being someone who makes it to nearly the end of the TC competition, but it sure would be something if an early elimination manages to string together a whole series of wins – that would be fun. (But, even then, it's unlikely that this series will continue all the way to the end.)

[Duffy]

Two huge errors and he thinks he was thrown under the bus?? Keith appears to be a fine technician, but is without a clue on the realities of competition. His decision to do a duo worked here -- but his judgment on this issue leaves no doubt that he will not last.

[Lou]

I like the LCK mechanism for holding on but I really like that it seems to be Tom's (and only Tom's) decision. He does seem more invested in the show process this season.

[Anon Man]

I kind of like the fact that it's a surprise to the chefs. In theory, it gives the previous winner a bit of an edge. Also, totally hoses the chef who gets drunk in the stew room, by the way. We'll see if that comes up at some point in the future.

A few musings: what if they have a "double" week? Do they then do a three-way competition? (Further decreasing the odds of the incumbent going all the way.)

[ZRD]

I'll say - I wonder if, like some previous early-round losers, Keith just had a hard time working within the structure of the show's competition, which caused the major mental mistakes. He seemed to do quite well in this 30 minute challenge. But I agree, odds of him going all the way are slim to none. Not that that wouldn't be kind of awesome.

Also, I agree that there is a definite advantage for the previous winner (Keith, now) because he has to / gets to sit around all day waiting for an eliminated chef, and if he's smart, he'll spend the time planning 30 minute meals.

[doktarr]

Yeah, duos are typically just two chances to make something the judges don't like. It's definitely one of our Top Chef commandments. But Keith bucked the conventional wisdom.

If you think back on the majority of the surprise, upsetting eliminations we've had, they've almost all been with 8 or fewer contestants remaining*. Since I'm guessing that the LCK contestant will be added back in just before or at the beginning of the finals, this means that it's likely that the chefs most deserving of a second chance will have a pretty decent chance of getting back in the game.

While I haven't watched Survivor in almost a decade, a check of the "Redemption Island" twist shows that, the first time it was implemented, some dude named Matt won 10 consecutive challenges (although there were two winners out of three participants in the last few of those). Then he lost in the last challenge where the winner gets back into the game...

* I should note that hindsight bias plays a big role here. It's possible that some quickly-eliminated chef from another season would have seemed like a big upset elimination if we had had a chance to see him/her knock a couple dishes out of the park.

[Skillet Doux]

I'm guessing the LCK winner will be reintroduced sometime before the finals. The finals are usually shot at around the midpoint of the regular season (though I haven't looked to avoid spoilers), so if the LCK winner isn't revealed until the finals are shot, they'd spoil the surprise for the finalists... and I can't believe the elves would waste that opportunity.

[rab01]

Dom -- I'm not sure I get that. If the LCK winner goes straight to the Finals, they have the extra frisson of the viewers knowing who the LCK winner is while the finalists don't. So, Bravo gets the first five minutes of the Finals with all the other finalists wondering who the other competitor is going to be (having just discovered while watching the show that they have to beat one more person) ....

[Skillet Doux]

rab01... I would think that whenever the LCK winner rejoins the regular competition, they'll want it to be a surprise to the others (for obvious reasons). Historically, the finals aren't shot until midway through the broadcast season. So unless they've made a change this season, the finals haven't yet been shot. And since the finalists are watching along with everybody else, that surprise has now been ruined. For this reason, though we don't know for certain, it seems a pretty safe bet that the LCK winner has already been reintroduced to the herd, which would mean one of two things. Either the LCK winner is reintroduced *before* the finals, or for the first time since season one, they've shot the finals before the broadcast started. Could be either. But my money's on the former.

(I suppose it's also possible that they bring back the LCK after the finalists have been determined, but before everybody goes home for the break before the finals. "Congratulations, you're the finalists, go home, rest up, we'll see you in [insert exotic location] in a few months. And by the way, Chef X will be joining you." Surprise and traditional shooting schedule preserved. So maybe that's how they'll do it.)

[rab01]

Dom, It's likely that they'll handle it your way - bring them back the challenge before the Finals. In fact, that's when the Elves did it before -- back when they were producing Project Runway. I'm just saying that they might want to do it at the Finals even though the main contestants will know someone is coming -- they still won't know who. Instead of shock that anyone is joining them, you'll have paranoia and guessing about who it might be.
The Elves might choose that route in part because of how badly the gimmick failed on Project Runway. The two contestants who returned happened to be the ones who had just been eliminated and the viewers were totally uninterested in seeing them again.

[Skillet Doux]

Ah, I see what you're saying.

I agree, having somebody eliminated only to pop back up one episode later would be kind of lame. And at least as likely as unlikely. Just have to see how it plays out, I guess.

[doktarr]

One easy way for them to reduce the chance of the "last chef eliminated returns" phenomenon would be to allow the ranks of the last chance chefs to swell past one.

Let's say there's one or two double elimination episodes this season. If they still only eliminate one chef in LCK, that means there will be two (or three) survivors moving on each week from then on.

If there are four chefs in the last challenge to get back into the game instead of two, then that reduces the chance of the most recently eliminated chef returning from (roughly) 50% to (roughly) 25%. Multiple survivors would also obviously increase the chances of one chef making a long, dramatic run on LCK.

[TokenOmnivore]

Contrats to Keith for pulling off the duo. I'm glad he got some redemption.

But we were rooting for Andrew to hang on for a little while longer. The 24-hour Cafe serves some pretty good food (think high-end, upscale diner -- with a liquor license). If that's the bar for folks getting eliminated at the start of the season, it speaks volumes for all the folks that are left.