“I’m here for my family, for our future. It’s not over yet. This is my last chance to get back in the game and get in the running for $250,000,” said Lee Anne Wong as she entered “Top Chef’s” “Last Chance Kitchen” after being eliminated in “Cabin Fever.” But to get back into the main competition, she had to get past Kevin Gillespie. Wong herself admitted, “Kevin is probably one of the fiercest competitors in this competition. This is not going to be easy.” Watch their head-to-head battle above.
Wong was eliminated for a brunch buffet challenge. Her clafoutis was a disaster because she accidentally steamed it instead of baking it. And doughnut came out dense and stale. Her downfall was ironic since she owns a brunch restaurant and her dishes were great ideas on paper. So Tom Colicchio gave her another chance at a proper breakfast. The challenge was to prepare three egg dishes: one over-easy egg, then one French omelette, and finally eggs Benedict.
Gillespie knew Wong’s experience put him at a disadvantage, but “I can’t let myself become mentally weak,” he said. So he kept his cool and managed to deliver his first two eggs to Colicchio fast enough to leave him enough time to perfectly execute his final dish. Wong, meanwhile, struggled through a couple of setbacks — she needed a bandage after cutting her knuckle during the eggs Benedict round — but the two proved evenly matched. Colicchio preferred Gillespie’s over-easy egg, but the French omelette round went to Wong.
Unfortunately for Wong, she left her egg sitting a little too long on her final dish, which was a minor quibble but enough to give Gillespie the final advantage, so Wong was eliminated for good, while Gillespie still has a chance to return to the main competition. “I’ve now gone out on a brunch challenge and an egg challenge,” Wong lamented in her exit interview, “but I made it farther than I expected to, and I’m not going home empty-handed at all. If anything I’m going home with new friends and new colleagues. I’m going to remember this the rest of my life.”
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