“Time’s Up! Hands Up, Machetes Down”: Top Chef All Stars LA

The chefs stayed close to home in episode 7 of Top Chef All Stars LA, as both the Quickfire Challenge and Elimination Challenge were staged in the Top Chef Kitchen, with the latter setting us up for next week’s always-anticipated Restaurant Wars.

Long before anyone was asked to pack their knives in this Top Chef All Stars LA episode, chefs were tasked with using one that they’d never wielded in the kitchen before, a machete. Fittingly, the special guest judge for the Quickfire Challenge was actor/restaurateur Danny Trejo, who played Machete in all three Spy Kids movies.

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE

• Tequila, beer & masa batter fried fish taco with cheese crust tortilla (Lee Anne)
• Fresh masa tortilla, tempura rockfish, with dried chili & onion salsa (Gregory)
• Five-spice beer battered mahi mahi taco, mango, jicama, grilled nopales & guacamole (Melissa)
• Fried rockfish taco with kimchi sesame salsa, cilantro & Korean chili flake dough (Karen)
• Rockfish chorizo taco with corn, mango & jicama salsa, charred leeks, topped with caviar (Eric)
• Fresh masa corn tortilla with lamb, grilled cucumbers, cilantro cashews & crema with chipotle (Stephanie)
• Miso wood-roasted salmon taco with avocado, salmon caviar & green tomatillo salsa (Bryan)
• Baja Asian street taco with tempura shrimp & mole (Brian)
• Mojo roasted pork taco with fried banana & smoked scallion (Kevin)

OUTCOME: Despite telling Lee Anne that her taco “was a party of tastes” and Karen that “the flavor was just perfect” about hers, “the chef who made everything in a taco that I wanted is Stephanie.” With the QC win came immunity, the final one of the season.