Since this season takes place in Portland, Top Chef couldn’t help itself this week and created a quickfire challenge centered around the popular educational children’s video game, The Oregon Trail. Guest judge and famed local restaurateur, Vitaly Paley, wanted the contestants to create a modern dish using only ingredients the settlers had on their travels. It was quite tricky to manage considering the pantry was off limits.
Next, world renowned chef, Massimo Bottura, joined the competitors remotely and spoke about his famous dish, “Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano” that utilized and highlighted the Italian cheese in five different ways. For the elimination, they would create a similar dish but because they’re in the United States, they would be using cheddar cheese. What better place to learn about the ingredient, pick up some great samples, and cook at then the Tilamook Factory.
This was definitely a challenge that took all our chefs outside their comfort zone. Some were more successful than others and check out how everyone did in our Power Rankings.
Top Chef airs Thursday nights on Bravo.
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