"Top Chef Chicago" Power Rankings: Week 4
It's often been said that nice guys finish last. It didn't happen for Manuel Trevino, who can take solace in the fact that he finished thirteenth out of sixteen chefs in "top Chef Chicago." Ultimately, it wasn't so much his cooking that did him in than it was his overall lack of personality.
In this show, it's the alphas that come to the fore immediately, whether through superior cooking skills (Stephanie, Richard), arrogance (Dale), being batshit crazy (Andrew), or a combination (Spike, Mark). Manuel was none of these. He was simply an above average chef who did or said nothing to rock the boat. Also not rocking the boat last week? Richard Roeper, who, like any good journalist who isn't a food critic, didn't turn down a free meal.
We're also starting to see the next eliminated chefs starting to shape up. Zoi, Ryan and Lisa are our next candidates for ouster. Sure, Lisa was in the top five in last week's elimination challenge, but we think she was mainly riding Stephanie's coattails. The only major changes, besides Manuel tumbling from 7th to gone, is a switch of Andrew and Antonia in the rankings. He may be tweaking hard, but Andrew's stepped up his game. Antonia, by contrast, seems to be feeling the pressure, although being paired with the insufferable Zoi didn't help.
- 1: Stephanie (last week - 1): Seeing her in contention in the elimination challenge is almost becoming a habit. Don't know what we'd do if she wasn't called back in front of the judges for her excellence.
- 2: Richard (last week - 2): "Form of Water" bit his tongue and worked well with "Space Monkey Gleek" Andrew and Dale and came away with an elimination challenge victory.
- 3: Dale (last week - 3): Finally broke through with a quickfire challenge victory, although we'll keep our opinion about whether his apprenticeship under Daniel Boulud may have played a factor in it.
- 4: Mark (last week - 4): Hobbit stayed strong this week, although he should acquaint himself to the brilliance that is A Christmas Story very soon.
- 5: Andrew (last week - 9): Gleek runs hot and cold, but there's no denying the antagonistic chemistry he and Richard share. It's almost as though Andrew is trying to impress Richard more than the judges.
- 6: Jennifer (last week - 6): If one had to look at her and Zoi and predict the sensible one in that relationship, Jennifer's faux-hawk would have biased many into thinking that Zoi was the mature center. We'd have all been mistaken.
- 7: Spike (last week - 8): The best of the four worst dishes in the elimination challenge. We'd love to meet his haberdasher.
- 8: Antonia (last week - 5): Her tumble in the rankings isn't solely due to being paired with Zoi in the elimination challenge. Ms. Lofaso is wildly inconsistent in her preparation.
- 9: Nikki (last week - 10): Line of the episode was easily "I can bang out the pasta." And Jennifer was getting frisky with her.
- 10: Lisa (last week - 11): Stop picking your hair while you're prepping food.
- 11: Ryan (last week - 12): There's always a "prodigy" that gets booked on "Top Chef" who gets humbled by being on the show. We're genuinely surprised that Ryan has made it this far.
- 12: Zoi (last week - 13): Besides starting to show some petulance, she was also shooting daggers at Nikki during the elimination challenge. Her best hope, besides being paired with Jennifer and the politics that will occur from that with others, is that Lisa and Ryan royally screw up this week.
- 13: Manuel (last week - 7): Vaya con dios.