Top Chef wraps up Season 9 on Wednesday with its reunion episode (9/8c, Bravo), and if you ask us, it couldn't come a moment sooner.
That's not because we want to see Heather and Beverly square off, but we want to move on as quickly as possible from this underwhelming season. The series proudly boasted about its biggest season ever — 29 contestants! three cities! — in the state with the biggest motto of all, Texas, but it turns out bigger is not necessarily better. Between the new twists and the umpteenth team challenge, Season 9 was but a shadow of its former Emmy-winning self — and that's not even counting the overwrought drama between Beverly and Heather, Sarah and Lindsay. (Let's be real — there'll be drama every season.) Here are six reasons Top Chef: Texas has been a big letdown.
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Practice makes perfect — but not on Top Chef. Dakota Weiss' trial run to cook venison went off without a hitch, but when it came time to cook for the elimination challenge, all four racks wound up undercooked, leading to her and teammate Nyesha Arrington's eliminations. "It was such a shock because our trial run went perfectly," Dakota tells TVGuide.com. "And of course the racks that counted did not come out perfectly. But that's what happens sometimes." So what went wrong? Find out below.
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Top Chef's first double elimination claimed Nyesha Arrington and Dakota Weiss after they undercooked their venison — or more specifically, Dakota undercooked the venison. "It sucks to go home for something I didn't do myself," Nyesha tells TVGuide.com. "When it's something you did, it's a little easier to swallow." Still, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based chef says she's not bitter that she had to go down for Dakota's mistake.
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Keith Rhodes became the first to pack his knives and go on Top Chef: Texas after he used flour tortillas in his enchilada instead of corn tortillas and, most unforgivably, bought pre-cooked shrimp for teammate Lindsay. The North Carolina-based chef admits the purchase was "not the best decision," but thinks things could've turned out differently had Lindsay and Sarah not thrown him under the bus and "kept rolling over me" by harping about the shrimp at Judges' Table. But why did he buy the shrimp in the first place? Read on.
Is bigger better? 5 things to know about Top Chef: Texas
Why did you buy the pre-cooked shrimp? Was it really a money issue?
Keith: Well, one thing that I'm really adamant about stressing ...
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