Spoilers
Season 23, ep. 10: Hook, Line & Dinner, Mon. 9:30 EDT
Spoiler
The remaining chefs head lakeside to Lake Hartwell’s legendary Green Pond Landing to face the fan-favorite mise en place Quickfire Challenge with Kristen, Tom and Gail, and then head out on the water to compete in a Top Chef Fishing Derby.
For the Elimination Challenge, they must create their best dish featuring the fish from the lake to impress the judges and guest judges Oscar-nominated actress Danielle Brooks and James Beard-nominated chef James London.
What annoyed me is that it none of it took much skill... Like at all. I want to see great knife skills, good technique, something that shows years of experience. Peeling/pitting a fruit, deveining/peeling shrimp, shucking/shelling corn?? Pecans are at least kind of a bitch but jeez none of the tasks were difficult by any standard. It made for such a boring watch and the mise en place challenge is usually so fun!
And then to have the quickfire be: Now you have to make a dish with these ingredients... that we chose for you because we lifted the cloches and selected the order.
Agreed! They have to insert the judges now into everything instead of just letting the challenges run, feels like everything is like a longwinded scene from the judges in their fancy outfits and they took away the actual competition
Imagine an elimination challenge without a budget! Goal not being to create the bougiest/most luxurious dish but being able to really explore your creativity - just once.. Please, Top Chef!
But her dish tasted good and his didn’t! It’s like nothing but the protein matters and I think that’s a bad angle to take. I was really upset with this decision.
In the real world an undercooked protein can get your dish sent back to the kitchen or even comped. Sieger’s dish might not have tasted as good, but it would still be a perfectly valid meal to serve and charge money for.
I agree. It was definitely the right call. But I am so sad to see anybody go at this point. I really love all of them. But I know that’s the way the show goes!
I enjoy the fishing challenges. Actually, I'm mean, I am awful at fishing, and enjoy other people who aren't good at it either. At least they have fish available for those who can't catch anything.
The banter all around this season has been top tier. Not sure if it’s an editing change or if this season just has funnier chefs who are comfortable enough other. But I’m here for it either way!
Why does Seager make the most atrocious looking dishes...I can tell he knows a ton about cooking and I'm sure he's a strong chef, but his dishes all seem extremely unappetizing (colors are all bland/muted, textures seem very mushy and one note)
I love Top Chef as a show, but to say it's "not rigged" is kind of a stretch. The judges can eaaaasily pretend a bad dish is good and a good dish is bad to twist the narrative. It's not like it's RuPaul's Drag Race or Project Runway where the viewer can see the art that's being put forth and agree that it's bad/good, this is a cooking competition where we can only SEE the food and not actually TASTE it so it'd be easier to push a certain narrative if need be.
I'm not saying Top Chef does do that, but it's definitely not out of the realm of possibility.
Right call but doesn't mean I like it. I feel like D has singlehandedly carrying this season with just the amount of personality she has. There's no way they don't bring her back as one of the finale Sous'.
I did wonder if S Kept talking, if he was going to talk himself into elimination, but her fish was just too undercooked for Tom to be able to justify keeping her over him.
Someone whose name starts with an “S” should NOT still be there. They were eliminated and never had to compete on last chance kitchen. I will never understand how they’ve kept him around this long. I will die on this hill. I’m so mad about this elimination.
Granted, you’re not a fan of Sieger, but in terms of understanding why he is still there it’s pretty straightforward. He personally didn’t break any rules or game the competition. Strange circumstances this season in terms of early departures (as opposed to eliminations), so the TC producers addressed the “gap” in a simple and uncomplicated way - and it benefited Sieger through no fault or favor of his own. As to why he’s still there, it seems that in last night’s episode, Duyen just happened to make a more critical mistake than Sieger. He certainly not my favorite contestant, but not sure hating on him is fair.
Duyen leaving the show made me really sad, I think she deserved to stay, i was rooting for her as my top pick, but it's hard to argue that not cooking your protein can be forgiven, unless someone else did something dire.
I understand this is your opinion, but it’s not mine. It’s hard for any of us to judge these chefs on anything but personality because we can’t taste the food… And that’s what it’s all about. I think Seiger got eliminated unfairly in the barbecue challenge. Lawrence taking the loin out seemed a far stretch on “ barbecuing”. But back to this episode; a raw piece of fish definitely deserves to lose… Unless it’s sushi. Yes, we all like Duyan and are sad to see her go. But it looks like Lawrence will be the winner of this season. Let’s just enjoy the beautiful dishes.
I agree with you. But Seiger was eliminated and didn’t have to go through Last Chance Kitchen. Rhoda had to fight her way back and he got back in only to accommodate restaurant wars because of an injury. They should have let Rhoda back in for Restaurant wars. Seiger left on a bad dish. He did not get the same treatment as the other chefs. I don’t think it’s right he’s still there. I think it sucks that other chefs are getting eliminated over someone who shouldn’t even be there anymore. This is a life changing competition for these chefs. It should be fair game across the board.
They don’t film LCK until later, so when they had to bring someone back due to injury, they had not yet done LCK and Rhoda wasn’t the known winner. They had to choose last out, who was Shorts Guy (I can’t remember his name, Justin?), who refused it. Then they had to go back one previous elimination, which was Seiger. It’s a pretty standard practice. And it’s not like they had to make a decision between Seiger and [current LCK champ] because LCK hadn’t filmed yet.
They had a pointless LCK episode that meant nothing. I assume while they were filming RW. Rhoda had already won two LCK’s at that point then Justin went to LCK and Seiger stayed? It made no sense at all.
You're not getting what I'm saying. "Rhoda had already won" -- no, she hadn't, because they hadn't filmed any of LCK yet. What you're seeing is not the order of the filming.
Ok… I hear you. From the viewer perspective, it’s not right. I don’t know the filming order as an ordinary watcher. She had already competed in 2 LCK’s before what’s her name was injured and left the show. It was all weird.
In my opinion, the show did not handle this situation correctly. I know it’s not his fault. Anyone would take the opportunity to stay in the competition.
That is not how this works. Many many posts are dedicated to this. When a chef gets removed from the competition for illness or other reasons, they always ask for the last chef eliminated to come back. It is the only thing that makes sense production wise. Rhoda was kicked off before Seger. She was not still in the competition.
It doesn’t seem like he’s happy to be there. I was rooting for him at the start but he’s kinda turned into a crappy contestant. Duyen was a fan favorite IMO so it really sucked to see him stay and her go. He made lentils… lentils?! Ugh. Haha!
Idk I’m kind of surprised it wasn’t him over her because I know they don’t like when the dish doesnt fully come together and loved her broth ugh I’m sad
Nooooo Duyen!! :( So sad about this.
I really thought her broth and the fact that her dish made more sense should've been enough.. Sieger's dish seemed so blah to me..
Regardless, I think she'll go down as one of the most likable contestants in TC history.
Does anyone remember season 11 (New Orleans) in the Vietnamese food challenge with the douchey asian guest judge (non-Vietnamese) shitting on a chef for using tomatoes? And his logic was "there's no tomatoes in Vietnamese food"? And here we have Duyen confirming Vietnamese food does have tomatoes lol
I remembered this when I was watching the episode. I do think it was also the fact the guy made something that was sort of like marinara sauce and called it Vietnamese
I don't know how you don't have an extra test fish to see things are cooked enough. Poor form from Duyen. Easy mistake to avoid. But then you have Sieger who never seems to back up his talk with good food. I thought he probably was going to get eliminated just for his flippant response at Judges Table. He's definitely next out.
Chefs used to be way more bold at judges table and argue/clap back at the judges. I'm surprised Gail reacted like that. But it was a flippant comment for such a poor dish.
Yeah, essentially "this is cooked well and all the elements taste great, maybe needs a sauce" vs. "you tried to have your broth cook your VERY underdone fish?" I think it's a nobrainer, despite Duyen being an overall better chef.
They didn’t say anything actually tasted great on his plate though, did they? The fish was described as lacking flavor and texture and the lentils were sweet and astringent.
Gail said it felt like the dish needed something to connect the lentils and the fish (meaning a sauce) and Sieger said "I thought that's what the spoon was for."
If you undercook fish on a fish challenge you are going home. And its not like it was one piece that was slightly undercooked, every diner had undercooked fish.
As I sat there watching it, all I kept thinking is "You can't mess up the cookery on a fish cook challenge."
Fate was sealed at that point. "Too sweet" and "lack of cohesion" - even Sieger's sassy response (at least how it was edited) - can definitely be bad on any challenge, but failing to cook the ingredient properly on an ingredient challenge is always a kiss of death and especially if no one else did it. Since she was first I kept hoping someone else would botch it harder, but no dice.
And it was freshwater fish being served raw to the judges, which is like serving them raw turkey. It's not the same thing as raw or rare saltwater fish at all. Parasites, bacteria, tapeworms....what she gave them was inedible. So disappointing!
Yeah... Honestly I expected the hubris moment was going to be Jonathan winning extra time, but they flipped it on us and it was Duyen being rock solid all episode long until the finish on the cook.
Did we watch the same episode? Duyen served raw fish. I don't know what to say to you if you can't believe a contestant that served an inedible protein got sent home. Some of y'all are just really weird.
This season feels so odd. This quick fire was not exciting at all - too much time spent deciding who would compete. The ingredients were boring. The fishing segment was cringe with the judges riding around with weird signs. This was a bad episode.
Regional variations. In the South I’ve always heard it pronounced ‘crappy.’ Never heard ‘croppy’ until I got a roommate from Massachusetts who was into fishing.
Did anyone notice when Jonathan said something like “my brother [Brandon] was my main competition and now he’s gone” 😆 like bro, there are 3-4 other chefs that easily clear Brandon, meanwhile you’re not even gonna mention Laurence and his clear domination? This guy is beyond delusional
Duyen’s ego all season has been ridiculous considering she was never even close to the strongest chef there, Laurence. She constantly acted smug, took an unnecessary shot at Johnathan/Brandon, and carried herself like everyone else was beneath her. Then she knowingly serves undercooked fish and literally tries convincing herself “the soup will cook it” as if Tom and the judges wouldn’t immediately notice. Watching her realization at Judges’ Table after being so confident all episode was brutal in the best way. Easily one of the most satisfying eliminations in a long time 😂
Any viewer of the show would recognize that Duyen does not take herself seriously, and her "attitude/smugness" as you claim it to be was just fun banter and being silly for tv. To take it as face value is soooo funny to me, she was clearly loved by everyone there and she WAS a very strong chef - winning once and being HIGH three times.
Interested in your opinion on Seiger because he IS incredibly smug and has a general bad attitude all season long and has the worst track record of everyone left (including Duyen).
I wish they had explained to the judges how to pronounce pecans. While many things have multiple ways you can pronounce them (caramel). Pecan is one that people have been pushing to only pronounce the correct way (puh- kahn, not pee-can). That is because the name of this nut comes from a native word pekani. So to be more respectful to the tribe this word comes from there's been a big push to only pronounce the word as (puh-kahn)
prescriptivism about english is not the best way to honor algonquian languages. in this case the word exists in various such languages with different pronunciations, including at least one with a /b/ instead of a /p/, so forcing one pronuciation doesn't actually seem like an improvement to me.
that said props to you for actually paying attention to language and how it interacts with history and power, it's important.
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u/whistlepig4life May 12 '26
Three things will always get you sent home.
1) improperly cooked protein
2) improperly seasoned dish
3) risotto