‘Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen’ finale recap: Is Amanda, Laura or Soo returning to the show? [WATCH]
Laura Ozyilmaz and Amanda Turner were double-eliminated from “Top Chef” in “The Good Land,” but they made their way to the “Last Chance Kitchen” finale where they awaited their opponent. That turned out to be Soo Ahn, who started the competition in “LCK” and previously made his way back into the competition in the mid-season finale. Could he win “LCK” one more time to keep his competitive hopes alive? Watch part one of the “LCK” finale above, and scroll down for part two.
“LCK” host Tom Colicchio is joined by “Top Chef” host Kristen Kish, who actually won “LCK” back in season 10 before winning the main competition, and “Top Chef” All-Star Mei Lin, who won season 12 of the cooking competition series. They will decide together who gets back onto the show. To start, a retrospective. The three cheftestants have 30 minutes to combine all of this season’s Quickfire Challenge ingredients and methods so far: hops, cherries, cranberries, sauce, dairy, meat raffle and flambé. Amanda makes a smoked wagyu ribeye. Laura cooks up a wagyu kebab with babaganoush. Those are good enough to defeat Soo’s Thanksgiving-inspired chateaubriand, which comes with brioche puree whose texture is too much like paste.
“This sucks,” laments Soo in his final exit interview. “I feel like I have a lot more in my tank to show, but this is the end of the road. It’s been crazy. It’s been fun. This experience of doing ‘Top Chef,’ I think I found who I am as a chef. I can’t wait to continue this journey.”
Then comes round two, and it’s arguably an even harder challenge: Laura and Amanda are told to make anything they want. What on the surface might seem like an advantage also has significant downsides. As Laura says, “I’m the type of chef that cooks really well when a frame is around me.” Oftentimes restrictions are a good thing for creative types: it helps you edit yourself and narrow down the infinite possibilities you might have in mind, especially when you only have 30 minutes on the clock to figure it out. It’s also an emotional challenge for Laura and Amanda; they started the season working side-by-side, and they were eliminated together, so “it’s kismet, it’s meant to be,” says Soo, who joins fellow eliminated chefs Kevin D’Andrea and Rasika Venkatesa as a spectator.
The two remaining chefs take different approaches to the final “LCK” challenge. Amanda wants to show her ambition by trying something new: a gnocchi dish in just half an hour. Laura falls back on something familiar: a vegetable-based dish she serves at her restaurant. Unfortunately, Amanda’s gambit doesn’t quite pay off. Kristen calls her dish “rich, homey and yummy” but also “clunky,” while Laura’s veggies have the better balance of flavors on her palate. “Honestly that was a lot of fun,” says Amanda, bidding farewell to the show for the last time. “I feel like I cooked some of the better dishes that I’ve cooked in the competition here. I got a second chance, and I’m super happy that I did because I’m really proud of myself.”
“This is the beginning again,” Kristen tells Laura about her imminent return to the main competition. “Great success here, but also understand that you have a tough road ahead of you as well. So going back into the main competition, you really just have to keep pushing.”
“I cannot wait to go back into the competition,” says Laura in the end. “My husband told me, ‘You have to win this.’ To me he’s the biggest inspiration in my life … I’m pretty proud of the work that I do and the hard work that I put out there, and at the same time I feel very humble for being part of this ‘Last Chance Kitchen.’ I’m super excited. I’m so ready to be back and to win ‘Top Chef.’ I can do it, so let’s do it.”
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