For Roice, all the extra yelling caused him to make mistakes. While their teammates tried to offer encouragement and support, the help was almost a hinderance. Looking at both dishes, neither one was perfect. Given the wide array of flavors, it is curious that both contestants picked Asian noodle dishes. The only caveat was that the flavors could not represent Italian food. The contestants need to find a solution or adapt their dish.įor the elimination challenge, Roice and Zach had to great a globally inspired noodle dish. It doesn’t matter if the ovens in the basement can be tricky. Serving the judges raw dough it never acceptable. Roice floundered in this and the previous challenge. For Team Gordon, the option seemed obvious. Unfortunately, that meant that Gordon Ramsay and Nyesha Arrington had to put two contestants up for elimination. Based on this challenge and the previous one, Jonathan is emerging as a front runner. Even though Jonathan seemed a little scattered during his cook, his flavors won over the judges. Jonathan on Team Blais won the Italian food challenge and kept the four strong to cook another day. Unlike the first challenge, the judges picked just one top dish. Luckily, the top dishes are spread throughout all three teams. While many dishes seem to fall in the middle a few contestants seem to be consistently in top consideration. Having 14 contestants in the kitchen, it is impossible to give everyone and every dish its spotlight.Įven though it is early, a divide between top and bottom contestants is starting to show. As the competition field narrows, the hope is that more attention will be given to the twist and its impact. Although the twist was part of the judging, it would have been nice to see some creative uses of the various mushrooms.Ī few of the comments showcased the uses of the mushrooms, but it was mostly overlooked. Since it appears that a mid-challenge ingredient twist is part of every episode, the Italian food challenge had mushrooms as a twist. Hopefully after the next challenge, the ingredient grab becomes more streamlined and the forgotten ingredients are thing of the past. Still, the competition is early and the contestants are still learning to adapt. Anyone expecting to just put some pasta on a plate shouldn’t have signed up for this competition. Even with that mad dash, a composed dish shouldn’t be out of reach.Īlthough the Italian food theme is quite broad, the contestants could be able to think of an idea, direction or concept before running for the platform. While the 30 second grab can be chaotic, the contestants need to be organized, thoughtful and even concise. Several contestants forgot to grab integral ingredients that were needed for the dish that they wanted to make. The bigger issue to tackle in this Next Level Chef recap is the forgotten ingredients, again. That risk/reward ratio might have been a factor.Īlways gotta make it look sexy, right 😍 #NextLevelChef /k5IFSEzvUh

It might be a valuable ingredient but it is a tricky protein to cook. Then again, maybe no one wanted to risk cooking with a live lobster. How a lobster made it to the bottom kitchen is questionable. Similar to the first challenge, the ingredients played havoc with the contestants. It will be interesting to see how the kitchens impact the competition in the later rounds. If there wasn’t variation viewers might question the randomness. While the levels are assigned randomly, it was good to see that each team had to tackle a different kitchen. Although much has been said about the kitchen essentials on each floor, the thoughtful cook can make anything work. This challenge was far more than just a bowl of pasta.Īs the teams headed to their respective kitchens, Gordon Ramsay – middle, Nyesha Arrington – bottom, and Richard Blais – top, the approach for each team seemed to be quite different. While the theme was Italian food, it was curious that the contestants could go in a variety of directions.

Unlike the first challenge, this Next Level Chef recap has the teams tackling a cuisine versus an ingredient. Then again, rising to the occasion after the elimination could set a tone for the remaining team members. Given that the competition is in the early stages, being down a team member is not ideal.

Going into this episode, Team Trailblazers, ie Team Richard Blais, was down one chef. Was another forgotten ingredient one mistake too many? The concept of thoughtful intention with that ingredient grab might be the best advice the mentor chefs could give. By Cristine Struble 6 months ago Follow TweetĪs the contestants face their second challenge, this Next Level Chef recap shows that simple mistakes cannot be made in this FOX culinary competition.

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