Top Chef did away with the Quickfire Challenge this week in “Captain Vietnam” and instead had an intense Vietnamese cuisine challenge that saw Travis getting too confident for his own good and Janine sent home.
The Elimination Challenge of the week: to create a Vietnamese meal with at least one prawn dish worthy of a New Orleans’ Vietnamese crowd. Chef and guest-judge Eddie Huang and Emeril gave the contestants a crash course in Vietnamese foods, and then the chefs went around Vietnamese locations in New Orleans to learn about Vietnamese culture and food.
Shirley used the opportunity to speak to the fishermen and their wives about how they, personally, prepare their shrimp, while Travis crowned himself ‘Captain Vietnam’ and decided he knew better than the Vietnamese people there what made Vietnamese cuisine really Vietnamese.
Travis took the lead of the Green Team, composed of himself, Janine, Sarah, Stephanie and Bene. Sarah tried to challenge his Vietnamese-know-how, but in the end Travis won out and Sarah may have been at fault when the team forgot their lemongrass. That lack of lemon grass caused Emeril and Huang to shake their heads at Travis in the kitchen. Travis’ attitude certainly did not do him any favors. When Huang asked him what happened to the Green Team’s lemongrass, Travis responded it was “lost in translation.”
Orange Team Nicholas, Brian, Carlos and Louis underwhelmed the judges. The only dish they deemed worth praise was Brian’s shrimp spring roll. The Red Team did much better, with Justin whipping up a respectable pho and Shirley delivering a BBQ shrimp that won her the challenge.
Unfortunately for the Green Team, every dish served disappointed the judges to no end, including Travis’ pork lettuce wraps and his idea for a shrimp dish (executed by Janine and Bene). They lost the challenge, and were all up for elimination.
In the end, Janine was eliminated, sent home due to her “twice-fried” shrimp.
Top Chef airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on Bravo.
– Olivia Truffaut-Wong
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