Thoughts on Top Chef S6Ep9: Best Restaurant Wars Ever

If you have not seen Top Chef Season 6 Episode 9, read no further. This post contains spoilers!

How’d you guys like the recent episode of Top Chef Las Vegas? Here are my random thoughts as I watched the show.  Would love to hear yours!

• Laurine’s talking first. Does that mean she’s going to pack her knives and go in this episode?

• Seattle’s Best red mugs. Branding again.

• What’s Michael V eating? Those look good. And look, he’s plating them so prettily even if they’re just eating at home.

• Guest judge is Rick Moonen. Wasn’t he on top chef masters? He looks like such a jolly fellow!

• Quickfire Challenge: 1st ever Tag Team Cook-Off! What, no sponsors this time? That’s new. Haha! The last two to pick out knives are the brothers. Bryan’s so cute asking his little brother. “Which one do you want?” So big-brotherly of him.

• Jen and Michael V. pick their teammates, and Robin gets picked last. Aww. Is this the team for Restaurant Wars already? That’s what it looked like in the trailer.

• I love the twist in the Quickfire! No talking and wear blindfolds while it isn’t your turn yet. This has got to be the most interesting Quickfire challenge. Each chef has his own style of cooking so it’s intriguing to see what the final outcome of each one’s ten minutes with the dish builds up to.

• “I can pretty much put a period on any sentence that Bryan starts.” — Michael V. These brothers — so competitive with each other!

• Eww plenty fingers have gone into Jen’s sauce!! Use a spoon, chefs!

• Blue Team looks solid. No drama has existed between any of the members from past episodes. They also win the Quickfire challenge. $10,000 to go or for here? They are asked. They decide to forego splitting the $10,000 now and see if they can win $10,000 EACH if they win the Elimination Challenge. Such confidence!

• RESTAURANT WARS! W00T! And Bryan and Michael are beginning their bickering during the planning.

• At Restaurant Depot, Robin pushes Laurine for banging the car door at them. Hey Robin, no physical violence no matter how playful! You might get booted out of the competition like Cliff from Season 2.

• Resto names are: REVOLT = Robin, Eli, Voltaggio brothers. MISSION = simple, understated architecture like the food the Blue Team will serve. Both are interesting names.

• Mission’s Menu: Asparagus and 6-minute Egg, Arctic Char Tartare, Bouillabaisse Consumme, Seared Trout, Pork Three Ways, Lamb with Carrot Jam. YUMMMMM!

• Revolt’s Menu: Chicken & Calamari “Pasta”, Smoked Arctic Char, Duo of Beef, Cod & Billi-bi sauce, Pear Pithivier, Chocolate Ganache. Fancy names.

• Front of the House: Eli and Laurine. Laurine looks cute! I love her little black dress! And Eli… I wish he tucked his shirt. He looks kind of sloppy. But he seems to have more energy than Laurine does.

• Wow, Robin’s pear dessert looks like it’s the best dish of the night. As well as Michael’s chicken and calamari dish.

• What’s happening to Team Mission? Such strong chefs but they’re falling apart! Jennifer’s seafood dishes look boring and tasteless. And ouch, Tom says that her mentor would have been disappointed in her. Ouch.

• And the winner is… REVOLT. And Tom says it’s the best restaurant war  ever. Wow, Best Restaurant War of all seasons! Good going REVOLT! And to think you served dessert AND pulled it off!

• “There’s a fine line between being helped and being dominated.” — Robin. I like that quote! Go fight for your pear dish!

• Wow, congratulations Michael V!! He wins the $10,000 the Blue Team forfeited in the Quickfire challenge and splits it with his team. Aww, he does have the biggest heart.

• “Come back, Mike.” — Michael to Michael I. How sweet. Reminds me of that line from Titanic when Jack was sinking into cold waters.

• “You can keep mine.” — Bryan says to Michael V. about his share of the win.  He looks like he’s upset his little brother won over him, even if they were on the same team.

• Oh man, Jennifer served two bad dishes. But Laurine looks like she’s going home. She did badly being hostess AND she had a bad dish.

• Oh, Laurine is going home. I knew it.

• Next episode: NATALIE PORTMAN!!!!!!! And Mike Isabella looks enamored. Can’t wait!!!

• Where’s Gail?

My Top 5: Bryan. Mike V. Jen. Kevin. Ashley.

The dish I would love to have tasted: Robin’s Pear Pithivier. Looks like wonderful comfort food.

Hi! I'm Toni Tiu, and I've been blogging at at Wifely Steps since 2003. This started as a blog to help newly weds adjust to married life. It has evolved into a home and parenting blog. I write about things close to my heart -- good eats, good reads, family, marriage, and the little things that make everyday happy.