Top Chef is back and it’s time to see some familiar faces. It’s All-Stars time. Tons of talent is about to be on display and this could be the most talented line-up we’ve ever seen. Top Chef Season 17 All Stars LA Episode 1 kicked things off in a big way.
So much talent this season. We have runners up from previous seasons. Chefs that got sent home too soon and are back with something to prove. We also have a few chefs that have been nominated for James Beard awards and even one chef who has won a James Beard award. Numerous chefs with their own restaurants and I think some with multiple restaurants.
This entire episode was very fast paced. That is usually the case when we have so many chefs still in the competition. This episode launched right into a Quick Fire Challenge. The chefs had to complete skill challenges before being split up onto teams and sent into the kitchen. The twist here was that the first five people done each challenge were made into a team and got a head start over the other teams.
First we had the artichoke prep. This challenge was a bit of a mess. Chefs were calling for the judges non-stop even though they had failed to complete the challenge as instructed. Seemed like everyone was nervous to be back on the show and eager to get an advantage early on. Finally we got 5 chefs to properly complete this challenge and head into the kitchen.
Next up it was time to slice some oranges. This was much better executed and in a few minutes we had our next 5 chefs heading into the kitchen.
The last skill challenge was to crack Californian almonds. This one was pretty amusing because non of the chefs had anything to properly crack almonds with. We had one lady trying to use a wine bottle opener, which was pretty hilarious. In the end most of the chefs used a knife in some fashion to crack to almonds and finally we have all 15 chefs headed to the kitchen.
From here the quickfire challenge was mayhem. 15 minutes just does not seem like enough time to prepare a dish from scratch. There were a few hiccups, like Lee Anne not being able to get her tempura into the deep fryer, but overall the chefs did a great job and we got our first look at just how talented our chefs are this season.
Not much on the line here, no immunity or anything but the first five chefs in the kitchen end up being our top team and the reward is that they get to be captains and select two other chefs to cook with in the elimination challenge.
The elimination challenge was great. Seafood on the beach, with only a fire to cook with. Usually this is the kind of challenge saved for later in the season but on All Stars we need to crank the competition up a notch.
I'll just single out a few chefs here. Our winning team was Gregory, Jamie and Stephanie. Gregory takes the win with a simple spicy prawn dish. This entire challenge seemed right up his alley and I'm not surprised he hit a home run. Melissa and Jen also did really well on this challenge and the judges seemed to really enjoy their dishes.
A few chefs did stick out as the bottom today, Joe and Lee Anne were not great and both on the losing team. They faced off for elimination and Joe was sent to last chance kitchen. Kevin was another who stuck out for bad reasons to me, seemed like he was just going for way too much and the judges weren't impressed.
Alright that's it for the premiere, I will be back next week for our second course of Top Chef Season 17 All Stars.