Top Chef Season-Premiere Recap: No Baked Potatoes

by

The latest episode of Top Chef became available to stream on Peacock earlier than usual. It will also air on Bravo on March 9th at 9 PM Eastern Time.

Hello and welcome to the Carolinas! I’m Roxana Hadadi from Vulture TV, and I’ll be providing recaps for the new season of Top Chef, which is back in the South – specifically, the area where season 14 took place back in 2017. That season was Top Chef: Charleston, and this one is Top Chef: Carolinas. So far, the previous season focused more on South Carolina, while this one is centered in North Carolina. But the overall feel is similar – it’s humid, charming, and very American. The season kicks off at a NASCAR track with Gail sporting a denim jumpsuit – you can’t get much more authentically Southern than that!

The new season of “Carolina Roots” starts much like last season’s “Destination Canada”: all the chefs meet each other and the judges. Host Kristen Kish then announces the Quickfire challenge will require them to work in teams of three. Usually, this is a good way to see if strangers can collaborate, but this season, four of the fifteen chefs already know each other. It seems “Top Chef” is relying on familiar faces again! There’s a pair of competitive brothers who seem like they’ll be fun to watch, and a couple who’ve been together for 16 years. However, the couple, Jennifer and Justin, keep feeling the need to explain why they aren’t married, which is a little awkward. It makes you wonder how often couples even apply to be on “Top Chef” – a producer should really share some behind-the-scenes details!

The episode starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a place I love because they filmed Logan Lucky there! Each team of three chefs has to create a dish within the time it takes a race car driver to complete 23 laps – a nod to the show’s 23 seasons. They can make anything they want, but they can’t start plating until the driver begins the 23rd lap. Winning the Quickfire challenge doesn’t guarantee safety from elimination anymore, but it does come with a $15,000 prize. The guest judges are race car drivers Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson, and there’s an interesting situation: Jimmie is actually the boss of one of the chefs, Duyen, who created the NASCAR food program and has been getting a lot of good press. It feels like a potential conflict of interest, but honestly, Top Chef often features connections like this, so it seems they’re letting it slide.

The five teams quickly headed to their stations, grumbling about the 92-degree heat—surprisingly, no one mentioned the loud racecar. They began to brainstorm fast-cooking dishes. It was interesting to see that both sets of siblings and the couple split up, likely wanting to prove themselves as individuals. Someone suggested aguachile, which always seems to be a popular (and frustrating!) choice on this competition. Overall, teams focused on seafood because it cooks faster than meat. There were a few challenges—the Blue team struggled with their hush-puppy batter, and the Yellow team debated whether their shrimp dish would be too rich. However, the cook went smoothly, and the finished dishes looked and tasted pretty good, even if they weren’t perfect. Here’s what everyone made:

  • Red Team: Jonathan, Anthony, Sieger. Cured snapper with tomato vinaigrette, avocado, radish, cucumber, and fried kale. They ran out of time while plating, and not all the dishes got the fried kale on top. Plus, Brandon cut the fish, and he gets criticized for some pieces being too big.
  • Green Team: Jassi, Justin, and Brittany. Pan-seared red snapper with corn and cauliflower salad and Indian-inspired moilee sauce. Tom’s fish is rare, which isn’t great.
  • Yellow Team: Day, Duyen, Nana. Harissa-butter-poached shrimp with charred cabbage and pickled green tomato. The judges love the harissa butter and the pickled tomatoes.
  • Purple Team: Sherry, Oscar, Rhoda. Shrimp ceviche and avocado aguachile with crab salad. They kept their dish cold by storing it under the metal prep tables instead of on top of them, and that gets a lot of praise.
  • Blue team: Jonathan, Jennifer, Laurence. Crab and shrimp hush puppy with harissa aioli, napa, and peach salad. This gets a frown and a “good” from Tom, which we all know means he loved that shit.

The Red and Green teams struggled with the fish, landing them at the bottom, while the Purple, Yellow, and Blue teams performed better. Ultimately, the Blue team – Jonathan, Jennifer, and Laurence – won, each receiving $5,000. Their prize included a lap around the NASCAR track, which, frankly, I’d only do with a professional driver like Jack O’Connell! Then, Kristen announced the Elimination challenge. To celebrate North Carolina’s state vegetable, the sweet potato, each chef will focus on a different variety – Covington, Norton, Purple Majesty, Murasaki, or Carolina Ruby. They have just one hour to cook, a tight timeframe for working with starch, and will be judged in groups of three, with one standout dish, one acceptable dish, and one that falls short. There’s also a new rule: the first two chefs eliminated won’t get a second chance in Last Chance Kitchen. Once you’re out, you’re completely out of the competition.

The chefs are really feeling the pressure to come up with inventive ways to cook potatoes and finish on time, but a few initial concepts look good. Duyen plans to make mochi, while Nana is drawing on her experience hosting supper clubs during the pandemic to create a West African dish. Brandon and Jonathan are both inspired by their grandmother’s sweet potato pie, so we’re likely to see two different takes on the same recipe. Elsewhere, Justin and Jennifer are discussing how opening their first restaurant was incredibly stressful and financially damaging… honestly, a high-pressure competition probably isn’t the right environment for them right now!

The following day, the chefs competed at Jamie Lynch’s restaurant, La Belle Helene, working one after another to prepare their potato-based dishes. Almost right away, Day and Nana began to struggle. Day discovered her oven hadn’t been turned on, costing her five precious minutes while cooking her snapper. Nana, meanwhile, spent too long peeling and preparing her potatoes, throwing her dish off schedule. They were clearly falling behind, which was especially tough considering the judges had really enjoyed their harissa-butter shrimp in the earlier Quickfire challenge. Here’s a look at what everyone made and how the judges scored them:

Carolina Ruby didn’t have a good day in the kitchen. Both her fish and potatoes were undercooked, and the judges strongly disliked her overuse of herbes de Provence. Gail jokingly suggested the spice blend is better suited for freshening up drawers than flavoring food – a pretty blunt critique!

  • Top dish: Jonathan’s grilled pork loin, Carolina Ruby, bacon jam, pickled okra.
  • Bottom dish: Day’s Carolina Ruby roasted with herbes de Provence and sos kreyòl (Creole sauce).
  • Safe dish: Sherry’s Carolina Ruby moqueca (Brazilian stew) with green-papaya chow chow.

Okay, so Nana totally crumbled under the pressure during plating – it was a bit of a disaster, and she barely got anything finished! Everyone was shocked, honestly. But get this – Tom was the only judge who voted for her dish! He said she really highlighted the sweet potato, which was…unexpected, but hey, I guess he saw something we didn’t!

  • Top dish: Anthony’s seared scallop with Murasaki akra fritter.
  • Bottom dish: Nana’s Murasaki mpotompoto stew, collard greens, and smoked ham.
  • Safe dish: Laurence’s Turkish-inspired sarma with Murasaki and pork stuffed inside collard greens plus tomato and yogurt.

Brandon’s dish was visually striking, featuring dark potatoes and a delicate, crumbly meringue. While Justin’s dish landed near the bottom, the judges still appreciated it, and this group generally performed well with their potato-based creations.

  • Top dish: Brandon’s Purple Majesty with caramel, coconut, and chocolate sorbet, sweet potato streusel, and meringue.
  • Bottom dish: Justin’s poached potatoes in curry and cardamom with brown butter sweet potato puree.
  • Safe dish: Oscar’s braised Purple Majesty with agave chorizo hash.

Okay, so everyone absolutely loved Rhoda’s dish – it was like seriously good street food. Jassi’s was a hit too, though Tom was being a bit of a critic and said it wasn’t technically a potato dish. Poor Brittany, though – her pork was unfortunately undercooked.

  • Top dish: Rhoda’s soy-glazed Covington with miso-sweet-potato purée and lime crème fraîche.
  • Bottom dish: Brittany’s seared pork tenderloin, Covington potato purée, and pickled sweet potato.
  • Safe dish: Jassi’s rice-and-lentil khichdi with roasted Covingtons and yogurt pickles.

According to Norton, Duyen’s dish looks just as good as Brandon’s, and it comes with a small bottle of coconut cream to add to her mochi. He thought it was lovely! However, he found Jennifer’s dish too sugary and not cooked consistently.

  • Top dish: Duyen’s Norton sweet-potato-and-pandan mochi with ginger syrup, coconut cream, and tarragon oil.
  • Bottom dish: Jennifer’s sweet potato poached in condensed milk, squash purée, and pickled Nortons.
  • Safe dish: Singer’s seared Norton, roasted-onion jus, and sweet potato purée.

When the judges taste the top and bottom dishes, everyone wonders who will win immunity and who will be eliminated. Rhoda’s dish was a clear winner, and she succeeded with a popular Filipino recipe from her childhood. Unfortunately, Nana and Day ended up on the bottom, and Day was sent home. The judges felt her dish lacked fresh flavor and wasn’t properly cooked. She left gracefully, though understandably upset. Now, people are starting to notice fewer chefs competing in Last Chance Kitchen. Is Tom losing interest in the show, or is this a deliberate choice to create more drama? I’m curious to hear all your theories!

Leftovers

I loved all the potato dishes this episode and honestly, I want them all! Just send them all to my house – I’m serious!

I don’t know a lot of famous people from the Carolinas, but Danny McBride lives in Charleston, South Carolina. If he doesn’t appear as a guest judge on an episode, I’ll have to recreate one of my favorite scenes from Eastbound & Down – specifically, I’ll deliver the line, “I put a curse on you,” but aimed at the Top Chef producers!

I was really impressed with how Kristen interacted with Nana – she was kind, respectful, and comforting. Asking Nana directly what was bothering her helped Nana explain things from her point of view, and giving her space to join the judging panel when she was ready was a good move. Kristen is quickly becoming a natural host, and while I initially wasn’t sure about her use of jokes, she’s improved at making genuine connections with contestants. Plus, she deserves an award for smoothly saying that complicated phrase about the ‘Active Cash Credit Card from Wells Fargo’!

Keep an eye on two contestants in particular: Sieger, who’s auditioned for the show for eleven years, and Sherry, who’s incredibly confident and believes she’s a shoo-in to win.

As a total movie buff, I’m thrilled to hear about the grand prize this season! It’s a fantastic $250,000, sponsored by Graza olive oil – honestly, it’s my go-to brand! And their granola? Seriously delicious. It’s the little things, you know?

I couldn’t believe it if that was Oscar wearing a glowing red UV mask! I admire someone who takes care of their skin, but picture this: you’re walking around the Top Chef kitchen and see a bright red light shining from under someone’s door. It’s a little creepy!

It’s great to have Sean Brock back as a judge! Many will remember his fantastic appearance on the Charleston episode of Parts Unknown, where he famously brought Anthony Bourdain to Waffle House.

I couldn’t believe what I saw in the preview! A snake actually tried to crawl onto the Judges’ Table during the forest-themed episode! It was wild. And it immediately made me think of Rob Rausch – Kristen, you have to get him to regain your trust after everything that happened on The Traitors!

Read More

2026-03-04 02:57