Top Chef season 21: Who went home tonight?

Top Chef, the popular culinary reality competition show, returned to screens with a brand new season on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. The latest installment marked the beginning of a new era with Kristen Kish as host.

The cooking reality show started with 15 contestants, and by the end of the episode, one of them, David Murphy, was sent packing. David, Kenny, and Amanda were the bottom three of the episode and had to compete in a cook-off on the spot. They had to prepare a dish in 20 minutes that should be delicious enough to save themselves from elimination.

David's poached shrimp with sungold tomatoes, coconut cilantro broth, and green curry sauce did not measure up to Kenny and Amanda's dishes, and he became the first chef to be eliminated from Top Chef season 21.

"I never thought I'd go out first. I thought I'd be hanging out last. Just a couple little mistakes, and those little mistakes will send you home. I'm tired. It's time to go." He said before leaving.

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What happened in Top Chef season 21 episode 1?

As is typical with the show's format, Top Chef season 21 premiered on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, without a quickfire challenge. Instead, the contestants competed in an elimination challenge and were split into three groups: soup, stuffed pasta, and roasted chicken.

The chefs pulled knives to see whose team they would be a part of: Gail's, Kristen's, or Tom's. The teams were as follows:

• Kristen (soup) - Amanda, Dan, Manny, Charly, and Laura.
• Gail (stuffed pasta) - Kevin, Alisha, Rasika, David, and Michelle.
• Tom (roasted chicken) - Danny, Valentine, Kaleena, Kenny, and Savannah.

The Top Chef contestants' budget per team was $200, with which they could be anything at Whole Foods in 30 minutes. They then had to cook their dishes the following day in two hours.

The pasta dishes that were served included squid ink ravioli with lobster, shrimp, bisque, and fennel puree by Kevin. David served mushroom-stuffed gnocchi with speck and chicken liver gravy, mascarpone, and Calabrian chili.

Rasika made a keema-stuffed kozhukattai with kurma, while Alisha prepared a ricotta gnocchi stuffed with mushroom béchamel, truffle goat cheese, and preserved lemon. Michelle made ricotta and lobster-stuffed pasta with shared corn sauce and chorizo.

Kristen Kish's team served corn and ham soup with pickled shrimp made by Charly. Manny made green pozole with chicken and charred salsa verde, while Dan prepared a tomato and fennel broth with seafood. Laura served yuvalama mint yogurt soup with bulger meatballs, morel, and maitake mushrooms, while Amanda came up with chicken and dumplings with citrus gremolata.

Tom's tea saw Kenny prepare a pho butter roasted chicken with coconut carrot mashed potatoes, while Kaleena made roasted chicken with spiced curry, corn, shitake, and lobster mushrooms.

Savannah prepared roasted chicken with avgolemono sauce, chicken skin gremolata, and potato puree. Danny made fine herbs roasted chicken, brown butter sherry vinaigrette, and carrot miso puree, while Valentine prepared roasted harissa chicken, corn puree, and warm shishito salad.

Manny won the first elimination challenge of Top Chef season 21 and was immune from the following week's elimination. The bottom three, Amanda, Kenny, and David, then had 20 minutes to come up with another dish, and ultimately, David was sent packing.

Top Chef season 21 will return next week with another episode on Bravo.