Top Chef All-Stars S08E02: Night at the Museum

If you haven’t seen Episode 2 of Top Chef All Stars, read no further as this post contains spoilers. If you’re a fellow Top Chef fan, I’d love to hear what you think of this episode! These are my thoughts as I watched the show unfold.

Is Ben Stiller a guest? Are they serving some big event at the Met? Those were some thoughts that crossed my mind when I saw the episode title.

So… Ep 2 kicks off with the contestants reflecting on the first challenge. Let’s see what’s in store for the chefs this round.

“Bourdain is a great chef but next time, talk about my food — be nice.” – Fabio

I want to skip through these reflections because “you’re only as good as the last dish you made” as one of the former contestants in Top Chef said (can’t recall who though, or maybe it was Tom?). Moving on, the cheftestants walk into the Top Chef kitchen for their Quickfire and it’s Joe Jonas standing right beside Padma! GUSH!

All hail the cutest Jonas brother.

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE
Ah, so there’s really an activity called Night at the Museum. It’s a sleepover for 150 kids and Joe Jonas is a surprise guest. The challenge is to create a midnight snack for kids. Winner gets immunity and an advantage come elimination challenge time.

“You have 30 seconds,” goes Joe Jonas. Haha. The chefs look totally freaked out by that. Padma says they have 45 minutes and off they go to create kiddie midnight snacks.

“I grab pretzels and graham crackers, and whoppers and marshmallow mix. Basically I’m making crack for small children.” — Dale L

So what did the chefs make? Here we go:

“It’ll be like a little 10-year-old rave.” — Dale L. on his high sugar snack

Apple with white chocolate, caramel and blueberry for the first apple wedge.

Least faves are Tiffany D because it looks like a messy treat for kids, Mike because his treats are not chocolatey enough and Stephen. whose cookie was good but stuffing not so good.

You know I have to give it to Stephen. Whenever his dish is being slammed, he just has this poker face on. And not just a poker face poker face, it’s a gracious poker face.

The Quickfire faves are Spike and Tiffany. So the tiebreaker is — let the kids decide. Oooooooh. Sugar bomb vs carrot chips and dip. Uh oh! That looks like a no brainer. What kid would prefer carrot chips over rice krispies snowballs? The two winners are asked to pick team members ala gym class. Fabio gets picked last. Aw.

Aaaaaaaaaand cook!

“I like to be under the radar. And now I’m gonna crush the other team.” — Fabio

The chefs arrive at the museum and set up.

Aaaaand the kids arrive. Holy cow they all look super wired. They’re nuts. And double nuts when Joe Jonas came out. Wow all the shrieking! So the sugar bombs are handed to the little people and they start devouring the goodies. I’d hate to be one of this trip’s guardians. Imagine 150 kids on a sugar rush. Mayhem.

The kids are asked to vote for their favorite by screaming. The blue team wins! Tiffany wins immunity and an advantage in the next elimination challenge.

Exit kids, enter TOM!!!! The chefs go “Awwww damn it.”

“Your elimination challenge starts now.” It’s 1.30 am. “You guys are joining the sleepover.” Harsh, Tom!! Service starts at 7.30am. Create breakfast for kids and their parents. Make a breakfast inspired by a dinosaur’s diet. Tiffany’s team goes for the T-rex diet. Spike’s team goes for the veggie dino’s diet.

The girls choose to go to sleep, but the guys go for a flashlight tour of the museum. I think that is AWESOME! How often can you do that?

The girls sleep…

The guys tour!

Before we know it, it’s almost 4 am and it’s time to cook breakfast! So the T-rex team doesn’t have any flour or veggies. Ooooh so it’s really purely MEAT for their T-rex’s diet. Really carnivores. Meat, eggs, dairy, that’s it.

Aaand Jamie slices her thumb and she needs stitches. So her partner Jen’s left to herself. Fabio’s like “SUCK IT UP!” because he broke a fineer in his season. I remember that. He banged out a really good dish too. It was roasted chicken I think and it got a lot of props from the judges.

Cooking, cooking, cooking.

Jamie was out for a long time. She gets back and says she got TWO STITCHES? Weird. She was away for a long time. The other chefs are like TWO? Geez. I don’t know if that was a strategy or what but hey, I don’t want to judge. Maybe it was a really bad two stitches. *whistles*

Aaaand what do the chefs prepare for breakfast? Oh wait, it’s Katie Lee! The host of the very first season of Top Chef! The guys look happy to meet her too.

And of course there has to be a flashback of Stephen and Katie sharing some naughty words during the first season about a naughty dessert Stephen prepared for a challenge.

Um, the exchange is too naughty to put on this blog. Hey, I know of a ten-year-old who reads this so I won’t type it here.

Back to the dishes! From Team Brontosaurus:

From Team T-Rex:

Here’s something we should remember about cooking for kids: Most of them don’t like spice.

So the judges seem pretty happy with the veggie group, and are disappointed with the carnivore’s group. Let’s go to the stew room.

Padma steps in and says “We would like to see Team Brontosaurus.” Ooh the fruits veggies and grains team. Good going! While the winners go in, Jen is seething in the stew room.

Jen: “Honestly I don’t cook for the people anymore.”
Dale: “I think that’s selfish.”
Jen: “Do you wanna win or make the 150 people happy that you’re never gonna see again?”

She has a point but she sounds so antagonistic. Maybe she’s really tired. Let’s go back to judges table.

The banana parfait wins! Marcel, Angelo and Richard are the three winners. So much talent in one little bowl of parfait.

And now the loser carnivores go into the judging room. Tom asks why they opted to serve the dishes in one plate, resulting in the different dishes meshing together.

Jen: “You guys are smart enough. You’re the judges. Why don’t you say hey can I get a different plate for this?”

Wow, why is Jen so fiercely weird? Defensive? Why is she being so rude?

“Yah I’m smart enough to know that but maybe someone on your team should’ve been smart enough to know that,” snaps back Tom. Take that sister.

Sheesh Jen. Even her stance is so “I don’t give a care about what you say. I’m right, you’re wrong.”

As the judges begin critiquing her dish Jen is going “No way!” and yes, she defends her dish but to the point of rudeness. IMHO.

And so… Tiffany and Dale’s dish are standard steak and eggs but it was the best of the lot so they’re safe. Tiff D and Antonia’s frittatas were cooked unevenly. Casey made a good salmon, but Tre’s sauce was too salty. Jen’s had bad texture, bland eggs, and Jamie didn’t have anything to do with the dish.

So Jen and Jamie go home?

Do they?

Hmm.

JAMIE.

Oh wait, Jen.

She says she’s shocked.

“The judges got it wrong,” she says in closing.

Oh well. It just wasn’t her week.

The dish I would have loved to taste:

Fabio’s Apple Treats!

Next week two chefs are going to be eliminated. Huzzah!!

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.