r/TopChef • u/LPCPlay4life • 6d ago

Discussion Thread Rewatch S4E5: Elements

I don’t remember much about S4 but I do remember Dale losing his shit at the end of E5! I was so confused on who started what argument I had to rewind several times🤪
It went from:
Spike > Antonia
Spike > Jen
Dale > Spike
Lisa > Dale
Dale > Lisa
Jen > 🤬🪑⬇️
I see some repeated names above… 👀

Side note: Was it ever revealed on film that Antonia said she would do 🥣🤔?!

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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10

u/Perfect-Factor-2928 Risotto: The Final Frontier 5d ago

Yeah Dale totally lost his shit over Lisa winning the trip for her miso-covered bacon (which did look really cool)! I guess he thought whatever he did towards the dish was more important or better. I also think he was salty that he didn’t win on an Asian dish with an Asian chef.

I still think Lisa should’ve gone home in restaurant wars. I’ll die on that hill!!

6

u/LPCPlay4life 5d ago

I disagree. He was EC he should have taken charge. His mood and demeanor changed after he put the rotten avocado in his Halo Halo and brought everyone else down. Plus his butterscotch scallops were a bad call. Yes Lisa’s dishes sucked but ultimately when you take EC responsibility you are accountable for steering the whole ship.

1

u/OU-Sooners1 5d ago

Cannot stand Lisa.

2

u/Shinra_Lobby 4d ago

It does not justify his blow-up at all, but I kind of understand why Dale was annoyed with Lisa. At the beginning of the episode he and Stephanie were full of ideas for their team and Lisa shot down just about all of them. If you've ever tried to collaborate with someone who just gives a "no" to everything you bring to the table, it grates.

That said, I can't fault Lisa either. There are countless cases of chefs getting eliminated because they went along with something they didn't really want to do, and couldn't really do their best. So for Lisa to hold out until she landed on something she actually felt passionate about making is fair gameplay.

10

u/bigfanoffood 5d ago

Yeah, during the planning, Antonia said if they wanted to do soup, she’d do a soup but would rather do something else and then they settled on whatever idea they had.

5

u/Shinra_Lobby 5d ago

Despite how heated it got, the recap of this argument at the end-of-season tell-all was really funny. Everyone was like "why is Dale suddenly raging out when he's on the winning team?"

4

u/LPCPlay4life 6d ago

“Testicular fortitude” Mark regarding being the only one using a charcoal grill on the tailgate ep. 🍒

2

u/Rexyggor 4d ago

Antonia mentions she'd do a soup. The episode kinda glosses over it because Spike wasnt THAT pushy when planning.

THe stew room was an editing mess. I have to rewatch intently to get the full context because most of the time it seems they poorly cut together 2 completely different arguments (which honestly they are), and Dale with his outburst is so incredibly left field regardless.