The story of Nicholas, Top Chef contestant, has become a story about a man who is deeply insecure. I don't know if that's who he really is, but the way that he's edited, there seems to be a side of him that is always trying to prove himself—desperately, like he's convinced that he's no good himself. Even though I don't think he's the most talented chef left, I am pretty sure that he is the most obsessed with winning. It's kind of weird, how seriously he is taking this competition.
Nicholas’ whole narrative has altered in the past five or so episodes. In “Restaurant Wars,” he came across as calm and collected: Occasionally a bit of a hardass, but competent and reliable. But gradually he’s morphed into a far less sympathetic contestant. Last week, in “Oui Si A Challenge,” he was practically the enemy; this week, he’s dialed down to “annoying, deluded guy.”
It goes to show, I suppose, what pressure will do to a contestant. But the Nicholas tonight was not fun to watch. He’s too stiff to really enjoy on television—he doesn’t have the ease of manner that confidence or enthusiasm brings. He’s just too stressed out.
Compare that to Shirley, who is almost incandescent in this episode. I don’t think that she’s always been this charismatic, but she’s so excited and happy throughout this whole episode—it’s yet another double-win for her. The immunity from the quickfire is wasted because she won anyway. She’s more engaging than I’ve ever seen her in this episode, when she discusses her culinary “vision.”
The challenge this week is to cook a dish that shows a moment of transformation as a chef. For Shirley, that’s a dish inspired by New Orleans, because she had that moment on the shrimp trip with Emeril. For Nina, that’s a simple pasta dish that let the flavors shine. For Brian, that’s a… boneless, skinless chicken breast. Sometimes I find Tom’s snap judgments a little too black-and-white (he draws very strongly on gut reactions and first impressions), but in this case, I also felt that the boneless skinless chicken breast showed such lack of vision that it was doomed right before it started.
But then again, that’s sort of how I’ve felt about Brian this whole season—there’s nothing wrong with him, but Top Chef never offered him a lot of depth. And maybe he never offered it much, either. Episode to episode, his expression, outfit, and tone of voice remained consistent in the upfronts; something about the total uniformity of Brian made his dish seem all the more appropriate. It was a bland idea with a lot of superficial enhancements, and the effect, rather like his highlighted hair, was immediate, obvious, and not entirely tasteful. And maybe the judges would forgive him for the first two—but there’s no way that tastelessness would go too far in this competition.