Next Level Chef Episode 3: Next Level Italian

Last week saw the first elimination on Next Level Chef as Gary from Team Blais was given his walking papers. Already a chef down, Richard Blais and Team Trail Blaisers (groan) are desperate going into Episode 3 to avoid sending someone else to Elimination.

As luck would have it, Team Blais ended up in the Top Level Kitchen and had all the tools at their disposal to tackle this week’s theme: Italian. The chefs had to create Italian dishes from the ingredients that were on the platform which meant lots of pasta and sauces.

With Team Ramsay in the Middle Level Kitchen and Team Arrington taking up residence in The Basement, the game was on as the platform began its descent through the three kitchens.

And it is becoming obvious that while the three different kitchens are a challenge, what is really perplexing the chefs is the ingredient platform. Once again multiple chefs either forgot to grab items from the platform or missed things that could have made amazing food.

Which team sent a member home on Episode 3 of Next Level Chef?

Roice and Tricia both forgot to grab important items for what they were planning to make while somehow, a live lobster made it all the way to The Basement. Angie, a home cook from Texas, was the lucky one to grab it off the platform.

Of course, she had no clue how to cook it or what to do with it, but details come later.

For this week’s twist, midway through the challenge the chefs had to add mushrooms to their dishes in some capacity. Some cooks made the most of the added ingredient while others such as Pyet basically ignored the mushrooms altogether.

In the end, Jonathan came away with the victory for Team Blais with a clams and pasta dish that impressed all three judges. Overall Team Blais had a strong showing with Courtney also making a comeback from a pair of weak showings and turning in a strong dish.

At the other end was Roice from Team Ramsay and Zachary from Team Arrington. Roice never recovered from his mistake on the ingredient platform while Zach gave the judges raw pizza dough that was nasty to even look at.

For the Elimination Challenge the two chefs had to make a noodle dish that could be anything except Italian. Both went in an Asian direction with Zach taking a very broad interpretation of Asian noodle dishes and Roice focusing on Thai flavors.

While Zach is a professional chef with years of experience, Roice cooks just for fun on his TikTok channel and it showed. The pressure got to him quickly and you could see the panic start to set in as he tried to finish his dish.

After the judging ended in a tie with Arrington liking the broth in Zach’s noodle dish and Ramsay enjoying Roice’s version of Pad Thai, that meant it came down to Richard Blais to pick the winner. He ended up sending Roice home, which honestly was the right decision.

It is becoming very obvious that the chefs are going to have to figure out the ingredient platform if they hope to win Next Level Chef. Too many chefs are coming away without what they need to make a good dish and it will start sending more and more chefs home despite being good cooks. Let’s see if anyone has an ingredient breakthrough next week in Episode 4.

What did you think of this week’s Next Level Chef Guilty Eaters? Did Roice deserve to go home? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts or join the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook pages.