Episode
Top Chef: It’s Like They Never Left!
Overview
Fifteen of the competition’s fiercest challengers return to face-off in the toughest season yet! A mise-en-place challenge set at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles kicks off the battle, where the Chefs size each other up since last competing.
Details
- Series
- Top Chef
- Season
- Season 17
- Episode
- Episode 1
- Air date
- 2020-03-19
- Runtime
- 42 min
Episode context
It’s Like They Never Left! is Episode 1 in All Stars L.A. of Top Chef. It aired on 2020-03-19. The runtime is 42 min.
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More episodes from this season
Episode 3: Strokes of Genius
Comedic superstars Ali Wong and Randall Park swing by the Top Chef kitchen for a Quickfire Challenge tasking the chefs to make the wackiest fried rice they can. Then, the chefs head to the famed Getty Museum to seek inspiration from one of four historical art movements to create a masterpiece on their plate. Guest Judge Ludo Lefebvre joins Tom, Padma and Gail, as well as guest diners Chefs Ray Garcia, Sara Hymanson, Sarah Kramer and Craig Thornton.
Episode 4: You're So Fresh!
Kelly Clarkson drops into the Top Chef kitchen for a Quickfire based on her new movie, Trolls: World Tour, where the chefs are tasked with combining colorful ingredients from six different musical ‘lands’ to make one delicious dish. For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs are split into two teams to create a cohesive, progressive vegetarian meal for Padma, Tom, Gail and James Beard nominated guest judge Jeremy Fox. The catch is they won’t know what ingredients they’ll be working with until the morning of the challenge when they shop exclusively at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.
Episode 5: Bring Your Loved One to Work
In the Quickfire, it’s a true test of communication as the chefs play a game of telephone with their loved ones as they try to reproduce the dish their family member is currently eating at a nearby restaurant. Then, the chefs are tasked with creating a signature product that they will bottle, use on a dish and sell at a food festival. They may get help from their visiting loved ones, but for one chef, the help won’t save them from being sent home. Celebrity Chef Nancy Silverton is the guest judge joining Tom, Padma and Gail.
Episode 6: Get Your Phil
Padma gets a real rise out of the chefs when she tasks them to make a Quickfire dish without any All-Purpose flour. Instead chefs must work with alternative flours from Blue Corn and Buckwheat to Coconut and Hazelnut. James Beard Award-Winning Chef Chris Bianco serves as the guest judge for the Quickfire Challenge. Then, the chefs are whisked off to the famous Walt Disney Concert Hall to meet legendary conductor Gustavo Dudamel who is about to celebrate the LA Philharmonic’s 100th anniversary. The Maestro inspires the chefs to treat their flavor profiles like musical instruments, each providing a counterbalance to the other. For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs serve Dudamel and members of the LA Philharmonic at award-winning Otium restaurant along with Padma, Tom, Gail and Guest Judge, Bocuse d’Or finalist Timothy Hollingsworth.
Episode 7: Pitch Perfect
The chefs are challenged to a taco throwdown for the taco king, actor and restaurateur Danny Trejo. For the Quickfire, the only sharp tool they can use is a machete, in honor of one of Danny’s signature characters. Then, Padma informs the chefs that the only way to make it to Restaurant Wars is to survive this week’s qualifying challenge. The cheftestants have to dig deep to create and pitch a restaurant concept complete with a couple of dishes to the judges –Padma, Tom and Gail, along with “Top Chef” Chicago Winner Stephanie Izard and James Beard Award winning Restaurateur Kevin Boehm. The top two concepts will be the restaurants built for the signature Restaurant Wars challenge, while the chef with the judges’ least favorite concept will be eliminated.
Episode 8: Restaurant Wars
It’s Restaurant Wars and this season Padma takes all the limitations off the table as the chefs can make as much food as they want and shop wherever they choose. The two winning chefs from last week’s concept challenge are given 48 hours to pick their teams and make the restaurants they pitched come to life.
Episode 9: Cabin Fever
The chefs head to the mountains, a few hours outside of Los Angeles to go to Summer Camp where they are challenged to an outdoor grilling Quickfire for Padma and “Top Chef” Kentucky winner Kelsey Barnard Clark. Before the sun rises, the chefs get to work on an upscale brunch buffet for 200 moms vacationing at the camp using a very limited stock pantry. It’ll take more than s’mores and a round of kumbayas to impress the moms, the judges Tom, Padma and Gail, and guest judge “Top Chef” Charleston Winner Brooke Williamson.
Episode 10: Colossal Coliseum Kaiseki
With only six chefs remaining, the challenges get even more difficult, when pastry super-chef Sherry Yard awaits the All Stars for a dreaded dessert Quickfire, made even more impossible when chefs must endure a blindfolded taste test to pick their ingredients. Then Michelin-starred Chefs/Restaurateurs Niki and Carole Lidi-Nakayama demonstrate a traditional Japanese Kaiseki meal, the ultimate in simplicity, restraint and precision. The chefs must make this formidable dinner for not just these Kaiseki masters, but in celebration of the Tokyo games with Olympic medalists Diana Taurasi, Rai Benjamin, Nastia Liukin, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Christian Coleman, Kerri Walsh Jennings and NBC Olympic Primetime Host Mike Tirico. The gold medal meal takes place at the iconic Los Angeles Coliseum with Padma, Tom, Nilou Motamed and Niki & Carole Lidi-Nakayama at the judges table.
Episode 11: Michael's Santa Monica
Tom makes his final decision from Last Chance Kitchen on who should return to the competition. Then the chefs take off in a Quickfire with Padma and Jonathan Waxman making a two-course Business-Class dish for an airline. For their final challenge in Los Angeles before jetting off to Italy for the finale, the chefs go to Michael’s Santa Monica, where they meet Chef and Restaurateur Michael McCarty, the legendary pioneer of California Cuisine. With only five chefs moving onto the finals, the chefs will have to reimagine one of Michael’s iconic dishes from across the years and serve it to a table of celebrated alumni of Michael’s kitchen, including Roy Yamaguchi, Jonathan Waxman, Sang Yoon, Mark Peel and Brooke Williamson.
Episode 12: Lucca
In a Top Chef first, the final five travel to one of the top culinary destinations in the world - Italy. First the chefs must make an apertivo for 30 locals from the town of Lucca that pairs perfectly with a Peroni beer. Then, they have the experience of a chef’s lifetime, hunting the elusive white truffle which they must use in a dish for a Tuscan food festival. There’s no room for error, as the chefs are making dishes for not just Tom, Padma and Gail but avant-garde Italian Chef Cristiano Tomei, Truffle expert Cristiano Savini and a host of locals.