This week, the 13 remaining chefs on Top Chef: Carolinas welcomed the legendary Emeril Lagasse as a guest judge and included a rather tricky Elimination Challenge that involved using natural food dyes. It flummoxed nearly every cheftestant.
Spoiler alert: The post below discusses the elimination and the challenges from the Monday, March 23 episode of Top Chefseason 23. Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to be spoiled.
Related: Meet the Full Cast of ‘Top Chef’ Season 23
Who Went Home on ‘Top Chef’ Season 23 Tonight?
Bravo
Nana Araba Wilmot – Cherry Hill, NJ
Related: ‘Top Chef’ Star Recalls Wild On-Set Romance: ‘We Were Wasted Like All the Time’
Advancing Contestants on ‘Top Chef’ Season 23 Episode 2
Sieger Bayer – Chicago, IL
Sherry Cardoso – Brooklyn, NY
Brittany Cochran – Charlotte, NC
Oscar Diaz – Durham, NC
Brandon Dearden – Hamilton, MT
Jonathan Dearden – Alexandria, VA
Duyen Ha – Los Angeles, CA
Jennifer Lee Jackson – Suttons Bay, MI / Detroit, MI
Anthony Jones – Alexandria, VA
Laurence Louie – Quincy, MA
Rhoda Magbitang – Kailua-Kona, HI
Justin Tootla – Suttons Bay, MI / Detroit, MI
Related: ‘Top Chef’ Star Joins Padma Lakshmi’s New Culinary Competition Show
What Were the Challenges on ‘Top Chef’ Season 23 Episode 3?
The Quickfire Challenge tasked the chefs with preparing dishes that all revolved around livermush (yes, that’s its real name). It is Southern food that is especially popular in the Carolinas made of pork liver and other scrap pieces of meat, cornmeal and spices, then formed into a loaf and sliced. The winning dish was the one that most successfully elevated the humble livermush.
The $10000 prize went to Chef Anthony for his livermush pate with tomatoes, cayenne chilies and livermush croutons.
The Elimination Challenge focused on highlighting North Carolina’s history of textile manufacturing by making each chef have at least two elements in their dish that were naturally dyed with food dyes like carrot powder, hibiscus, pea flower, etc.
Meanwhile, Chef Jennifer Lee had to go to urgent care to get her shoulder looked at; she had injured it prior to the show and it was flaring up. She missed the Quickfire Challenge but was able to compete in the Elimination Challenge, though her arm was in a sling, which made things very difficult.
Related: ‘Top Chef’ Judge Gail Simmons Teases What Makes Season 23 ‘So Different’ (Exclusive)
The top dishes were from:
- Anthony, who prepared mole negro, mole rojo and mole verde with chicken, colored with activated charcoal, beets and chlorophyll.
- Brandon, who made deconstructed lasagna with Bolognese, marbled pasta and whipped ricotta, colored with activated charcoal and saffron.
- Laurence, who made a bao flight of two savory and one sweet bao buns, colored with chlorophyll, turmeric, curry powder and dehydrated strawberries.
Chef Laurence was declared the winner, so he will have immunity next week.
The bottom dishes were from… everyone else. Yikes. In the end, Chef Nana was sent home for not completing the challenge and serving an incomplete dish, but she will get to try to battle back in Last Chance Kitchen. That will start next week once they have two chefs to face off with each other.
Top Chef airs Monday nights from 9:30 to 10:45 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. All season 23 episodes will be supersized to 75 minutes.
Related: ‘Top Chef’ Judge Gail Simmons Opens Up About Her Brother’s Schizophrenia (Exclusive)
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