Yeah. This was also thier chance to really go for it and show off. Loose constraints and a fun concept. How could so many of them fuck it up so wildly?!?
Chaos Cuisine is a trend. But besides that, this was the chance to let it all hang out!
Sadly I think Rasika took that to heart and made something wierd as fuck and unfortunately it also had to taste good.
Imagine if it had been tasty though! “This slug like eggplant and crab thing is amazingly delicious. It looks so wierd and unappetizing yet I can’t stop eating it. Etc”.
That’s the thing. Rasika didn’t go home because Use she didn’t get “chaos cuisine” she went home, like almost anyone does, because it didn’t taste good.
Agree, I was very on the fence about it at first but seeing who was on top and bottom in judges table felt like it made sense even though the challenge was a bit bizarre, so ultimately it worked out
I don’t have an issue with the challenge but I didn’t like how the judging was so… confused about what the challenge was. Like for one guy Tom was like “is this really chaotic?” And Matty said “maybe the chaos is the simplicity”.
Like ???? In other episodes, not following the challenge brief would land you in the bottom. That’s what bothered me, not the challenge. It felt like you could ignore the brief entirely and just cook whatever you wanted. That’s why the food was better.
That’s how all challenges are this early in the competition. To make it through to the next episode, you have just make good/okay food, but you’re not going to win unless you fit the brief and make great food. To lose, you either have to definitively made the worst food, or been tied for worst while also not fitting the brief. This is pretty much how it’s been since like, season 3.
Maybe it’s just because this is my first time watching live but everyone is sooo hypercritical of every episode. Having just binged every season over the past year for the first time, I can say that this season is very similar to most seasons of top chef that aren’t all stars.
You hit the nail on the head. It's why I don't like these very abstract challenges in general. So often it seems they just end jo making justifications for why God dishes fit the criteria and bad dishes didn't.
I really feel like we gotta trust that whatever Danny did to that dish, to minds of professional chefs was *fucking crazy*, like we dont get it especially cause it looked 'eye of the hurricane' but I think it was choosing and nailing that mousse, which if it sounded right it could have turned out like Rasika's
OK but then they have to explain why it’s so amazing/difficult/chaotic to the audience. The entire conceit of Top Chef is that the viewer cannot taste the food or understand how well they did. The judges are crucial — unlike a show like Project Runway, they’re the only ones who can express why the food won the challenge perfectly. I can judge the clothes on TV for PR. I can’t do that with food on Top Chef.
The judges didn’t do that here. No shade to Danny or anyone else.
Yeah thats totally fair, it would have been nice to know *why* Danny won, my post was admittedly just my takeaway from that lack of information, it would be better if they talked about each dish a bit more
I think it would have been better on an All Stars season. These chefs are still finding their footing within the usual challenge constraints. It’s no surprise how many were lost when there were no constraints.
I did find it odd that they found it so hard to decipher the word chaos. Many of them tried to find the safe way out and just do fusion. Dan and Kevin seemed to embrace it. The prompt was vague but not so unclear that they couldn’t understand that the point was to do something wild. Crab and eggplant is not wild or chaotic and tasted bad. Danny’s dish was not exactly chaotic but at least it was pretty weird. I thought we’d see a bunch of people trying molecular gastronomy type stuff but they didn’t.
Agree. Feels like the contestants this season have a hard time with the fact that good food is always beating trying too hard to fit the concept.
You might not win if you don’t hit both, but it’s bad food that send you home.
This challenge seemed like it set a pretty loose brief open to interpretation.
Agree it was a good challenge for the contestants. From an audience perspective it left a lot for us to imagine but not in the best way. I really had to imagine Danny’s dish to understand its ingenuity.
I actually found Marcels explanation in The Dish w/ Kish super helpful. It would’ve been too much to explain that it was a food trend to the contestants but for me as a viewer it was insightful.
Unfortunately, Danny's dish was ripped straight from Chef Victoria Blamey. At her restaurant Mena in 2022, she had literally the exact same dish, which was widely publicized by critics all over NYC. It's literally the exact same dish she created 2 years ago. Chou Farci, Scallop Mousse, Vin Juane. It was even in the exact same bowl Blamey used. I know because I ate at Mena and had that exact dish. This episode really ruined Top Chef for me, because thise judges should have recognized the blatant theft.
I think people think it’s a miss because of the lower caliber of chefs, honestly.
If we had Blais and Marcel types it would’ve gone better and felt more successful.
This. The concept? Great! And was it marginally more interesting watching them try to stretch themselves with minimal parameters than previous episodes? Sure.
What isn't interesting is watching a bunch of creatively stunted people do it. I mean, even if you didn't know the concept of "chaos cuisine" as a specific social media trend (I sure didn't), you do still speak English, do you not? You should be able to parse out some meaning of the word chaos and apply it to your cooking. Matty's original spiel was a little vague and disjointed but enough to come away with some concept of "pick a food or dish and subvert all the usual expectations of that dish through any means possible". And instead someone went "oh, like fusion?" and then 80% of them basically went down the path of "Oh, yeah, like the Korean shortrib tacos Roy Choi has already been doing for the last two decades!" Meh.
Fusion has been going on long before that even... we just never called it fusion. I grew up in a very mixed, diverse area (hell, I am a mutt myself - blending of multiple ethnicities and cultures) where they blending, not keeping to sperate areas... and the food the reflected that. We have various cultures and ethnicities marring and blending, and the food represents that.
I am actually hoping to see some of that in Wisconsin, but not sure I will.
Oh I agree - I was just making the point that fusion has been around a lot longer than before it became a thing. And yes, fusion really did not fit the challenge.
A few chefs in other seasons cooked dishes that I think would fit perfectly in this challenge - and yet they were not even trying to do chaos - simply unique dishes.
So you just straight up ignored Kristin then?
Like literally one of the first things she says is "I had three cook jobs on my resume"
Like fr people, accolades *do not* mean that much.
lol in what?
You literally said look up their accolades, forgetting the fact in that exact same opening where Kristen herself says *it fucking doesn't matter* only like two there hadn't worked in either a Michelin starred restaurant or had been nominated for a James Beard award.
But hey, you keep just ignoring facts!
With higher caliber chefs, this would have been a highly entertaining episode with wacky concepts like:
- salmon semifreddo with cream cheese meringue and a bagel tuile (fish dessert AND seafood with cheese!)
- protein marinated in Hershey's chocolate syrup, fish sauce and gochujang
- crudite sorbet with Ranch dressing gel and a spicy tomato gremolata
- an assortment of espuma you have to lick off the plate
- Foie served on Flamin' Cheetos bread
- Roasted turducken breast wrapped in chicken skin
- marinated spicy raw crab (one of my favorite things on Earth as an aside but generally dishes that push the diner's comfort zone)
Some ideas (mostly terrible I'm sure) conceived in a minute. But shoot for the moon and truly experiment in the kitchen.
Instead for half of the chefs, their idea of chaos was some Asian fusion or wrapping something in something else that will mostly taste the same.
Would love for them to try again with an All-Star season.
I was thinking about what I'd do too! I'd do a southern soul food dipping ramen and mix up the toppings. Pickled egg, smokey mustard greens, burnt ends, pork skin crunchy topping, and tonkatsu parmesean rind broth.
I’m not sure the judges know what “chaos cuisine” is. I had to read up on it, and based on what I’ve learned, the judges had their own interpretation of the idea. It’s kind of strange, considering one article I read was from 2022. Maybe it’s an idea these judges haven’t been interested in.
https://www.eater.com/23331987/restaurant-dining-trends-chaos-cooking-fusion-cuisine
I agree that the chef's in general are just sort of all getting by...talented but lacking their own vision and confidence??? I don't know, it's kinda off but I still enjoy watching. Bummed to see Rasika leave.
The chefs usually get time (off camera) after the initial explanation to ask all sorts of questions about the challenge if they need it.
I thought the challenge was fine. One of the judges remarked it was the best yet of the season. Most of the food looked good and not out of place.
They have the chefs enough rope to hang themselves with, and people here are mad about who got hanged.
If she doesn't make or back on LCK, she'll be on the next All Stars. People need to quit winning about this season and let it happen!
Chaos cooking seemed pretty clear to me... and really, who does not understand chaos. I think some chiefs simply got "into their heads" too much and way over thought it.
While I liked the challenge, I was disappointed in how some of the chiefs handled it (and the judges).
> The ones who embraced the chaos excelled, and the ones who made what they thought they were supposed to make didn't.
This isn't really true though. They did not punish the people who completely missed the point of the challenge, not even a little bit. And the folks who followed the chaos theme weren't rewarded for it in judging either.
You say you understand the criticism of the episode but you clearly don't. This was a poorly conceived, poorly explained, poorly judged episode.
I genuinely believe there would be a post like this defending almost ANYTHING the show did, because there are just people who sit down and enjoy anything that comes on the television in front of them. As a very devoted fan of top chef who watches it as a cooking competition and not just as yet another piece of fake-drama reality television bravo nonsense, it's impossible to defend this episode. if you just want to say you thought it was stupid and fun, that's another story.
>They did not punish the people who completely missed the point of the challenge, not even a little bit.
At the end of the day bad, inedible food is always worse than good food that isn't crazy enough for the challenge.
I mean, I disagree. It's also a more than little rude to assume I am not a devoted fan and am watching it for fake drama or something just because I have a different opinion. I've watched and rewatched every season, listen to podcasts, and am on the freaking sub reddit. Not exactly casual. I feel no need to restate my points or those of other users on this post. The only thing I'll give you is the judging is lackluster, but that's been all season. And sure, the middle didn't get punished but that doesn't matter because Rasika presented an awful dish. Danny's dish may not have looked chaotic, but it was unexpected and wowed the judges. We can't taste the food so there's only so much we can judge on ourselves. But it's really hard to take your comments seriously with that delivery.
I agree completely. This was the most fun episode of the season and it wasn’t *just* because Matty Matheson was there.
Yeah. This was also thier chance to really go for it and show off. Loose constraints and a fun concept. How could so many of them fuck it up so wildly?!? Chaos Cuisine is a trend. But besides that, this was the chance to let it all hang out! Sadly I think Rasika took that to heart and made something wierd as fuck and unfortunately it also had to taste good. Imagine if it had been tasty though! “This slug like eggplant and crab thing is amazingly delicious. It looks so wierd and unappetizing yet I can’t stop eating it. Etc”.
I think had she fried it, and obviously seasoned it better, that dish might have actually stood a chance.
That’s the thing. Rasika didn’t go home because Use she didn’t get “chaos cuisine” she went home, like almost anyone does, because it didn’t taste good.
I stand by this. If the food tastes good, it’s rare to go home until you’re in the end stage. Usually someone screws something up and it isn’t tasty.
Agree, I was very on the fence about it at first but seeing who was on top and bottom in judges table felt like it made sense even though the challenge was a bit bizarre, so ultimately it worked out
I don’t have an issue with the challenge but I didn’t like how the judging was so… confused about what the challenge was. Like for one guy Tom was like “is this really chaotic?” And Matty said “maybe the chaos is the simplicity”. Like ???? In other episodes, not following the challenge brief would land you in the bottom. That’s what bothered me, not the challenge. It felt like you could ignore the brief entirely and just cook whatever you wanted. That’s why the food was better.
Wasn't the other bottom chef called out by the judges for just making a good dish but not doing the challenge?
I thought she was called out for raw meat.
It was both in the end. Tom said Kevin was Chaos, Michelle... Meh Also Gails pork was too rare.
No, definitely not. Michelle’s dish was pretty bad all around.
Matty doesn’t make any calls. They could’ve edited it out but that’s just flavor. The judges decide the challenge
That’s how all challenges are this early in the competition. To make it through to the next episode, you have just make good/okay food, but you’re not going to win unless you fit the brief and make great food. To lose, you either have to definitively made the worst food, or been tied for worst while also not fitting the brief. This is pretty much how it’s been since like, season 3. Maybe it’s just because this is my first time watching live but everyone is sooo hypercritical of every episode. Having just binged every season over the past year for the first time, I can say that this season is very similar to most seasons of top chef that aren’t all stars.
You hit the nail on the head. It's why I don't like these very abstract challenges in general. So often it seems they just end jo making justifications for why God dishes fit the criteria and bad dishes didn't.
I really feel like we gotta trust that whatever Danny did to that dish, to minds of professional chefs was *fucking crazy*, like we dont get it especially cause it looked 'eye of the hurricane' but I think it was choosing and nailing that mousse, which if it sounded right it could have turned out like Rasika's
OK but then they have to explain why it’s so amazing/difficult/chaotic to the audience. The entire conceit of Top Chef is that the viewer cannot taste the food or understand how well they did. The judges are crucial — unlike a show like Project Runway, they’re the only ones who can express why the food won the challenge perfectly. I can judge the clothes on TV for PR. I can’t do that with food on Top Chef. The judges didn’t do that here. No shade to Danny or anyone else.
Yeah thats totally fair, it would have been nice to know *why* Danny won, my post was admittedly just my takeaway from that lack of information, it would be better if they talked about each dish a bit more
[The montage didn't help.](https://streamable.com/36bazr)
"maybe the chaos is the simplicity”. Genius is making complex ideas simple, not making simple ideas complex.....Einstein
Get ready to dodge bullets along with me. I liked it too. The *only* problem was **its execution**.
I think it would have been better on an All Stars season. These chefs are still finding their footing within the usual challenge constraints. It’s no surprise how many were lost when there were no constraints.
i also liked it! mainly because i took Danny with the first overall pick in my fantasy league and now he's racking up points
Wait there are top fantasy leagues? Sign me up please
i'm just in one with my friends!
Bookmark this to do next season! Great idea!!
Danny stans let's goo! He's been my day 1 and he's getting his flowers!
I did find it odd that they found it so hard to decipher the word chaos. Many of them tried to find the safe way out and just do fusion. Dan and Kevin seemed to embrace it. The prompt was vague but not so unclear that they couldn’t understand that the point was to do something wild. Crab and eggplant is not wild or chaotic and tasted bad. Danny’s dish was not exactly chaotic but at least it was pretty weird. I thought we’d see a bunch of people trying molecular gastronomy type stuff but they didn’t.
Nailed it. Very well said.
Agree. Feels like the contestants this season have a hard time with the fact that good food is always beating trying too hard to fit the concept. You might not win if you don’t hit both, but it’s bad food that send you home. This challenge seemed like it set a pretty loose brief open to interpretation.
> You might not win if you don’t hit both, but it’s bad food that send you home. > > Except those two times with Brother.
Agree it was a good challenge for the contestants. From an audience perspective it left a lot for us to imagine but not in the best way. I really had to imagine Danny’s dish to understand its ingenuity. I actually found Marcels explanation in The Dish w/ Kish super helpful. It would’ve been too much to explain that it was a food trend to the contestants but for me as a viewer it was insightful.
Unfortunately, Danny's dish was ripped straight from Chef Victoria Blamey. At her restaurant Mena in 2022, she had literally the exact same dish, which was widely publicized by critics all over NYC. It's literally the exact same dish she created 2 years ago. Chou Farci, Scallop Mousse, Vin Juane. It was even in the exact same bowl Blamey used. I know because I ate at Mena and had that exact dish. This episode really ruined Top Chef for me, because thise judges should have recognized the blatant theft.
I think people think it’s a miss because of the lower caliber of chefs, honestly. If we had Blais and Marcel types it would’ve gone better and felt more successful.
This. The concept? Great! And was it marginally more interesting watching them try to stretch themselves with minimal parameters than previous episodes? Sure. What isn't interesting is watching a bunch of creatively stunted people do it. I mean, even if you didn't know the concept of "chaos cuisine" as a specific social media trend (I sure didn't), you do still speak English, do you not? You should be able to parse out some meaning of the word chaos and apply it to your cooking. Matty's original spiel was a little vague and disjointed but enough to come away with some concept of "pick a food or dish and subvert all the usual expectations of that dish through any means possible". And instead someone went "oh, like fusion?" and then 80% of them basically went down the path of "Oh, yeah, like the Korean shortrib tacos Roy Choi has already been doing for the last two decades!" Meh.
There was a lack of whimsy and creativity. The most recent Dish With Kish episode makes last episode look even worse in comparison.
Fusion has been going on long before that even... we just never called it fusion. I grew up in a very mixed, diverse area (hell, I am a mutt myself - blending of multiple ethnicities and cultures) where they blending, not keeping to sperate areas... and the food the reflected that. We have various cultures and ethnicities marring and blending, and the food represents that. I am actually hoping to see some of that in Wisconsin, but not sure I will.
It isn’t a fusion challenge though. It’s a find a traditional idea and flip it on its head challenge. Break a rule.
Oh I agree - I was just making the point that fusion has been around a lot longer than before it became a thing. And yes, fusion really did not fit the challenge. A few chefs in other seasons cooked dishes that I think would fit perfectly in this challenge - and yet they were not even trying to do chaos - simply unique dishes.
Why go to "lower caliber" chefs? Just because they are not good at competitions, does not make them lower caliber chefs.
Oh please. Watch the show. Look up their accolades.
So you just straight up ignored Kristin then? Like literally one of the first things she says is "I had three cook jobs on my resume" Like fr people, accolades *do not* mean that much.
No thanks.
No thanks what?
Not interested. Bye!
lol in what? You literally said look up their accolades, forgetting the fact in that exact same opening where Kristen herself says *it fucking doesn't matter* only like two there hadn't worked in either a Michelin starred restaurant or had been nominated for a James Beard award. But hey, you keep just ignoring facts!
Agree. I thought it was the most fun episode we’d had so far!
With higher caliber chefs, this would have been a highly entertaining episode with wacky concepts like: - salmon semifreddo with cream cheese meringue and a bagel tuile (fish dessert AND seafood with cheese!) - protein marinated in Hershey's chocolate syrup, fish sauce and gochujang - crudite sorbet with Ranch dressing gel and a spicy tomato gremolata - an assortment of espuma you have to lick off the plate - Foie served on Flamin' Cheetos bread - Roasted turducken breast wrapped in chicken skin - marinated spicy raw crab (one of my favorite things on Earth as an aside but generally dishes that push the diner's comfort zone) Some ideas (mostly terrible I'm sure) conceived in a minute. But shoot for the moon and truly experiment in the kitchen. Instead for half of the chefs, their idea of chaos was some Asian fusion or wrapping something in something else that will mostly taste the same. Would love for them to try again with an All-Star season.
I was thinking about what I'd do too! I'd do a southern soul food dipping ramen and mix up the toppings. Pickled egg, smokey mustard greens, burnt ends, pork skin crunchy topping, and tonkatsu parmesean rind broth.
It was good TV!
i did too and it's the best they've cooked all season. i will miss rasika, but no way she's *not* winning LCK
Yeah, I didn’t hate it. Given that there was a top 4 that everyone really liked, it was one of the best performances by the chefs too.
I’m not sure the judges know what “chaos cuisine” is. I had to read up on it, and based on what I’ve learned, the judges had their own interpretation of the idea. It’s kind of strange, considering one article I read was from 2022. Maybe it’s an idea these judges haven’t been interested in. https://www.eater.com/23331987/restaurant-dining-trends-chaos-cooking-fusion-cuisine
Oh good. I thought I was alone in this!
I agree that the chef's in general are just sort of all getting by...talented but lacking their own vision and confidence??? I don't know, it's kinda off but I still enjoy watching. Bummed to see Rasika leave.
Also loved the challenge! Mostly cause they actually seemed to make some damn good creative food this time
The chefs usually get time (off camera) after the initial explanation to ask all sorts of questions about the challenge if they need it. I thought the challenge was fine. One of the judges remarked it was the best yet of the season. Most of the food looked good and not out of place.
I was hoping they were going to throw in some extra chaos like taking away their knives or turning off the ovens, etc.
Loved that competition. So unique.
They have the chefs enough rope to hang themselves with, and people here are mad about who got hanged. If she doesn't make or back on LCK, she'll be on the next All Stars. People need to quit winning about this season and let it happen!
Chaos cooking seemed pretty clear to me... and really, who does not understand chaos. I think some chiefs simply got "into their heads" too much and way over thought it. While I liked the challenge, I was disappointed in how some of the chiefs handled it (and the judges).
I got to be honest I just thought the dude was on a shit load of coke and a case of Monster. Just watched the episode.
> The ones who embraced the chaos excelled, and the ones who made what they thought they were supposed to make didn't. This isn't really true though. They did not punish the people who completely missed the point of the challenge, not even a little bit. And the folks who followed the chaos theme weren't rewarded for it in judging either. You say you understand the criticism of the episode but you clearly don't. This was a poorly conceived, poorly explained, poorly judged episode. I genuinely believe there would be a post like this defending almost ANYTHING the show did, because there are just people who sit down and enjoy anything that comes on the television in front of them. As a very devoted fan of top chef who watches it as a cooking competition and not just as yet another piece of fake-drama reality television bravo nonsense, it's impossible to defend this episode. if you just want to say you thought it was stupid and fun, that's another story.
>They did not punish the people who completely missed the point of the challenge, not even a little bit. At the end of the day bad, inedible food is always worse than good food that isn't crazy enough for the challenge.
I mean, I disagree. It's also a more than little rude to assume I am not a devoted fan and am watching it for fake drama or something just because I have a different opinion. I've watched and rewatched every season, listen to podcasts, and am on the freaking sub reddit. Not exactly casual. I feel no need to restate my points or those of other users on this post. The only thing I'll give you is the judging is lackluster, but that's been all season. And sure, the middle didn't get punished but that doesn't matter because Rasika presented an awful dish. Danny's dish may not have looked chaotic, but it was unexpected and wowed the judges. We can't taste the food so there's only so much we can judge on ourselves. But it's really hard to take your comments seriously with that delivery.