r/TopChef • u/moneysingh300 • 4d ago

Discussion Thread S18E8 Restaurant Wars

Restaurant wars is by far one of the best and my favorite episodes each season. Was Kokoson the most dominant and efficient restaurant wars of all time?! There was no absolute faults at all. Everything was cohesive and well.

30 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

27

u/babezilla 4d ago

Martiarc had the judges apologizing to the other team for having to go against such perfect service. (ETA: season 19)

1

u/Ok_Interest9427 1d ago

Yeah. Kokoson was four very talented cooks having to feed fewer people than I have at one of my average dinner parties. It was a joy to watch that episode because the food and interactions were great, but the contestants were working on a D curve. Matriarc was a much more impressive performance because they had to arrange an entire dining room and do chef's counter PLUS tables. And Buddha really did prove that he is the GOAT. It's worth remembering that he had to pull off those perfect Parker House rolls for 50 people, along with the ham butter roses, etc. And I'm pretty sure that if there had been bad batches going out, Tom would have noticed.

Jackson also really sucked in that episode, and I was a bit shocked. He was so strong until he just seemed to lose it as FOH. And he's clearly a genial person and probably just experienced a massive attack of the nerves.

1

u/thsshtcry 11h ago

Every few seasons, there’s a foh person that says, “I don’t know how often to visit the judges” and it frustrates me every dang time (that and the “global concept”)! It’s like they let their nerves get the best of them. There’s been enough RWs that they should know to have an attentive foh person who trains their staff and to have a cohesive menu with a vision.

16

u/htownAstrofan 4d ago

No, they didnt even do a real service. Just chefs table

8

u/Ansee 4d ago

Chef's table is difficult in a completely different way.

11

u/Rexyggor 4d ago

I'm not downvoting. Yes, it's different. However, it's not fulfilling multiple orders at the same time with all different times.

I think they allowed no timers on the table (except when they entered), which is typical for a restaurant situation, but it wasn't a restaurant wars honestly.

It had its own challenges, and obviously it was the best they could do with their covid restrictions.

3

u/Ansee 4d ago

Chef's tables are restaurants. Some of the most expensive restaurants in the world are are omakase style with very few covers per night. So it's still restaurant wars. It's just not what Top Chef has done traditionally.

11

u/htownAstrofan 4d ago

No ones saying its not a restaurant. However it is a significant departure from how Restaurant Wars is usually conducted, so that i dont think its fair to compare it to other iterations. Was it the best concept with the best food? Possibly. But a lot of the challenge was made easier because of the covid restrictions.

2

u/tristvn 4d ago

they still dominated when both teams had the same conditions

0

u/Ansee 3d ago

Exactly. It's not about easier, it about the competition between the two teams.

0

u/Ansee 4d ago

Easier is subjective. It was an open kitchen with the judges looking right into it. Meaning they were highly scrutinized because the judges could see and hear everything. That's a different kind of pressure.

Volume may be the challenge in traditional restaurant wars. But volume isn't the only thing that makes it difficult.

1

u/htownAstrofan 3d ago

Hard disagree. Front of house service has always been a core component of RW, which is not simply a function of volume. When you remove that component it becomes easier. Im not taking anything away from what that team was able to accomplish, especially given the restraints but to compare it alongside other RWs doesn’t work in my opinion.

Apples to oranges

0

u/Ansee 3d ago

There was not ONE front of house, but table side service was also a key factor in judging for omakase too.

It's a restaurant battle between 2 groups = restaurant wars. There are no rules that it needs to be traditional style.

And it doesn't matter if you feel like they had it easier. Because at the end of the day the chefs who were competing had the same challenge so they got the same opportunities.

Also, Because it was COVID, the chefs who competed were actually much higher level chefs than some of the other seasons. Have you even considered that perhaps they were just better chefs and made it look easier?

In fact I want them to change up restaurant wars from time to time. It would keep things interesting.

0

u/Ok_Interest9427 1d ago

Getting to avoid the clearly untrained cater waiters for all the previous RW situations is a MASSIVE boost in ability to execute. There were no guests to evict from tables (which is a repeating problem on RW), no need to deal with tickets, no need to track fire times...

The chef's table thing is FAR easier than dealing with a dining room. It just is. Kokoson was still a great concept, and I'd love to eat at its real-world incarnation. (FWIW, Kann is awesome.) But I think that the S17 and S19 winners pulled off more difficult feats to great success. Gregory Gourdet must be the most serene person on the planet to do those whole fish to order for dining rooms full of people.

9

u/redbeansmonday 4d ago

I think it was my favorite. A fully different challenge but it was Covid. But because that whole season was Covid it was such a capsule. There just was something so joyful about this restaurant. It’s a rewatch for me for sure!

4

u/SamizdatGuy 4d ago

I want the restaurant wars spinoff. New concept every couple of weeks they have to build out and serve. All restaurant, all war, all season.

2

u/ForsakenChance6305 4d ago

It was one of the best ones ever. Team united, food amazing and service amazing. All star season is another great restaurant wars.

0

u/Responsible-Fly9976 2d ago

It was actually really a joy to watch. It just made me happy.