The spiel is the usual: The chefs (Massimo, Lana Vinny Loseto and Tristen Epps on one team; Shuai Wang, Bailey Sullivan, César Murillo and Paula Endara on the other) will have one hour to create their restaurant concept and plan their menu, before they’re unleashed on a variety of decor vendors, specialty markets, and Whole Foods to flesh out the rest of their venues. The next day, they’ll have four hours to prep, cook, and train front-of-house staff before having to serve a restaurant’s worth of diners, including our trusty trio of judges Kish, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons. And along with bragging rights this time is a hefty $40,000 cash prize for the victorious restaurant team.
Though Massimo & co. initially stumble on their chosen concept—they land on the veg-forward idea of “Phlora + Phauna,” which, yeesh—Shuai’s team immediately goes all in on the granny-chicness of “Nonna Pipón,” an Italian-meets-Latin venture highlighting family-style service. Shuai and Massimo boldly decide to run FOH (always a dicey decision on Restaurant Wars), while Paula and Tristen—the latter of whom has individual immunity from last week’s Elimination Challenge win—opt to lead their respective kitchens as executive chef.
The kumbaya chumminess of Team Grandma ends up being to the team’s detriment, though—the foursome decides to shop together in the allotted (and very brief) time period rather than go for the divide-and-conquer strategy of Team Veg. (“I don’t have a bunch of heathen chefs running around screaming times to each other,” Massimo cheered.) When they realize exactly how many precious minutes are withering away, Paula and Bailey peel off to Whole Foods on their own, but accidentally take all of the seafood with them, leaving Shuai distressingly behind on his aguachile prep for the next day. “This is the only dish I have on the menu, so if I screw this up, I’m going home,” he worries.
And though a mise-en-place muck-up is certainly cause for concern in the Top Chef universe, Tristen is dealt a far more heartbreaking hand. During prep, he is informed by producers that he has a family emergency back home. It’s his stepfather, the man who raised him, who has had a stroke and is now in a medically induced coma. When we pick up for Restaurant Wars day, Tristen’s dad has tragically died. It’s a crushing and impossible situation Tristen finds himself in, but he’s adamant to keep going with the competition. “When somebody believes in you that much, you don’t want to let them down,” he says. “So I don’t want to disrespect my family by giving up. I was told to stay, and I listen to my parents.” It’s equally moving to see Tristen’s teammates immediately follow his lead nary a question, offering no-nonsense kitchen support as their executive chef pushes through his considerable grief and snaps right into expo mode.
Though there’s plenty of refinement found on the plates at Phlora + Phauna—including Lana’s cured trout with potlikker consommé, Vinny’s butternut squash confit with XO sauce, and Tristen’s own milk-chocolate custard with caramelized parsnip—Massimo’s charismatic but overpowering FOH presence doesn’t match all of that gastro elegance, the judges argue. However, it’s more than Shuai manages as head of Nonna Pipón’s front-of-house operations. He’s a bit too hands-off with the judges—mortifyingly, Gail has to call him over to their table at one point to introduce his own team’s plates—and his aloofness is not helped by confusion over Team Nonna’s shareable concept and lackluster dishes like Paula’s confoundingly dense tres-leches cake.
It’s not a surprise, then, that Team Veg takes the big Restaurant Wars victory—but it is a welcome joy to see Tristen deservedly claim yet another individual win this season, leading his kitchen crew with clear-eyed concentration in the midst of utter personal devastation. Kristen Kish certainly wasn’t the only one with tears in her eyes during final judgements. “Never feel like you have to be on,” she assures him. “This is also real life, too.”
And, like in real life, with victory comes loss. “It always comes down to the chef and the manager,” Gail says of this week’s bottom two, Paula and Shuai. And though Shuai certainly should have been more attentive to the judges’ table during service, Paula’s tres leche ultimately sends her out of the competition and into Last Chance Kitchen. “I’m proud of what I have done; the journey was amazing,” the chef says during her farewell. “Kristen Kish got eliminated on Restaurant Wars and she came back and won the whole thing. Maybe it’s a good omen?” Maybe!
Stray observations
- • Massimo might have been at Peak Massimo™ this episode—there was the Goodfellas-esque inspiration behind his flamboyant front-of-house service, sure, but also the sheer volume of the Montreal-born toque. “I think I’ll be able to hear Massimo for the rest of my life,” Shuai jokes of having to run FOH while next-door to the boisterous chef. “Even now, sitting here, I can hear him.”
- • After the moving humanity of this week’s episode, it seems like Top Chef is worryingly back on the gimmick train next week, which sees our remaining chefs having to bungee-jump from a tower and create a dish inspired by adrenaline-pumping stunts. Less is more, Bravo!
