Top Chef - S9E4 Last Chance Kitchen

And we officially have our first LCK streak!

Okay, so it's only two in a row, but Keith takes down Richie to stay in the running.

Y'know, I was happily preparing to talk about how nice it was that they didn't try to pretend it was Thanksgiving in the middle of the summer. Ah, well. For those who haven't watched, this week's LCK challenge was to repurpose Thanksgiving leftovers.

Keith went with multiple components again... a roasted corn and turkey hash, some manner of salad that wasn't described, a ham and bleu cheese fritter, and a somewhat inexplicable smear of pie filling that Tom called him out on. Richie, meanwhile, broke out the toys. I think an LN cranberry noodle was in there somewhere, along with a number of other manipulated ingredients.

I have to believe that this multiple component thing is going to bite Keith in the ass at some point. They can work, but they've got to be cohesive, and his have just seemed like multiple dishes. Still, his actual repurposing of the ingredients trumped Richie's approach, which seemed to be to plate the same dinner with each ingredient manipulated somehow. Is it really all that different than it was the first time around? Is it better? This is a lot of speculation. We don't get much to go on with LCK.

Long story short, however, Keith lives to see another day, and Richie is eliminated for failing to successfully repurpose a dish. Again.

Discuss!

Comments

[Duffy]

Doesn't Ritchie come into the LCK straight from judges' table, exhausted from three challenges in a row, one involving an all nighter? He has no knowledge of the LCK so this comes as a surprise. He faces a well-rested challenger who has had at least on previous experience with the challenge and who is better prepared and raring to go. Seems the playing field is really tilted here.

[cube]

Just because that's how it's edited doesn't mean that's how it's shot. I wouldn't be surprised to find there's a lag and some rest in between elimination and LCK.

[Quoll]

The LCK seems to happen the next day. Both Richie and Keith were shown packing their stuff in an empty cast house during the daytime and both elim challenges so far have pretty clearly ended at night.

[Vncntdl]

Good point, Duffy. This would seem particularly unfair in the case of Richie, who stayed up most of the night, then served chili, then had to do a cook-off with his team members. Cube may be right though that it doesn't take place immediately following the elimination (although even if it happens the next morning, chances are likely that Richie was still mentally and physically exhausted). However they proceed with LCK, there is still one element though that works to level the playing field, to some degree: yes, Keith has the advantage of one or two day's rest before the cook-off, but his disadvantage is that he needs to beat about a dozen chefs in a row to make it to the end.

[doktarr]

Yes, LCK is clearly the next day - you can see that from the daylight coming into the house when Kieth and Richie read their letters from Tom. Presumably, the other chefs are off doing the quickfire or something else when the other chef is told to go back to the house to collect their things.

While I thought the previous two LCKs featured Tom deciding between two solid dishes, this one featured Tom deciding between two fairly flawed dishes.

[Nigel from Cameroon]

Dude Ritchie served a frozen pink noodle of some sort. Yum, I'm sure. Wonder if he cried after defeat?

[Lon]

If Top Chef & Last Chance Kitchen works the way its supposed to, no chef should last more than one or two episodes.

I'm curious about the eliminated chefs. Apparently they are quarantined in a separate house until the end. What do they do with the LCK chefs? Keep them segregated from the eliminated contestants as well?

Still not sure about the LCK concept. This week I forgot to watch the episode until Saturday morning. I like the concept in some ways, but it's one more thing to remember.

Bravo's web site is so loopy that I never even try to watch LCK until 16-24 hours later. I sort of have a pact with myself that I won't read Top Chef Power Rankings until after I've watched LCK. And actually it wasn't until I realized I hadn't read this column that I remembered I had not watched the LCK episode.

[garik16]

No way to know for sure, but I bet the LCK chef lives in the same eliminated chef house as the other chefs. There's no reason to segregate them if all the challenges are simply done in the kitchen in a single setting.

[aj]

my wife is hoping keith becomes "the Executioner", in which he strikes down any and all chefs who enter his Kitchen of Last Chances.

[DF]

I think it's bizarre that the Bravo site spoils the results of previous LCK if you happened to miss one or more. No doubt, this lowers the number of click-throughs for them. All they would need to do is highlight the name and photo of the just-eliminated contestant.

[Scott]

i wish last chance kitchen would give you more insight into tom's decision