Chef T Was Ready to Fight to Stay on Yes, Chef!: "I Was Actually Surprised That..."
Co-hosts José Andrés and Martha Stewart both liked Chef T's twist on a loaded baked potato puff in this week's challenge, but the "rich" appetizer wasn't enough to protect her from elimination.
This week's Yes, Chef! elimination had a feud simmering long before the final matchup between this week's MVC Emily Brubaker and Chef Michelle Francis. The latter pivoted to making a grilled cheese as her appetizer during the relay-like team challenge after Chef Torrece "Chef T" Gregoire's time sliced into her time on the clock.
"It's the Chef T show, this is crazy," Chef Michelle said in a confessional during the episode. "I'm not gonna have enough time. I don't know what to do."
When it was all said and done, Chef Michelle chose her teammate Chef T for the chopping block, catching the Virginia-based culinary creator by surprise at the end of Episode 2.
Now, Chef T is dishing all the details of the emotional episode in an interview with NBC Insider.
Chef T gives her take on Chef Michelle's elimination choice
Hosts José Andrés and Martha Stewart voiced their own dismay with Chef Michelle's decision to resort to a grilled cheese due to the time crunch.
"If she thinks...I put her in that spot and I caused her to create a cheese-less grilled cheese and make a bad dish, then, I take responsibility for that," Chef T told NBC Insider. "She realized the alliance that she'd been trying to form with other people is not going to happen because they see me as a strong link and if given the opportunity they're going to eliminate her so she had to go out and do what she had to do and basically cut my legs out from under me. I mean, kudos to her."
Chef Emily opted to not go up against Chef T for the challenge, who she referred to as her "number-one competitor from my team."
"At the end of the day, I really wish that Emily had picked me to cook off against her cause I would have put out a badass chicken dish right along with her and been given that opportunity," Chef T said. "Two strong people battling it out and let Michelle sit somewhere quietly in the corner because she seems to be very intimidated by constantly having to cook...
"This girl saw me as the biggest threat and she chose to eliminate me," Chef T added.
Despite the tensions, the dismissal by Michelle after she won the one-on-one challenge still caught Chef T off guard.
"I was actually surprised that she chose me to go home," Chef T said. "It's a cooking competition, and you are a chef. If fighting for your life and continuing to cook and put out good dishes stresses you out, two things: you shouldn't be here and you shouldn't be a chef because cooking is what we do."
What to expect from Chef T after Yes, Chef! exit
Although Chef T's journey on Yes, Chef! is over for now, the Virginia-based chef says she's in a "space of continual gratitude" after receiving so much support with the show.
"This industry is so daunting," Chef T said when remarking on the show's impact on her. "It's usually about the negative reviews or that negative thing that happened and now there's just...a different perspective. Some things will happen, but it's not the end of the world... How can I pick up those pieces and turn it around to be something more positive and more productive? Because there's always people that's going to try to harm you."
Chef T, owner of of Union 41 in Bristol, plans to have future collaborations with fellow chefs she met on set.
"I'm rooting for all of them," Chef T said of the remaining competitors. Though she did note she needs Chef Michelle to go home next.
"They all just want to be seen on the plate when they put the foot out there that is the number one objective. It's not about the drama," she said. "It's not about who famous you've cooked for. It's about your best expression of self on the plate."
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This might not be the end of Chef T on our screens.
"The goal is to a do a little more TV so I'm gonna try out for one or two more cooking competition shows cause I love the adrenaline of the clock," Chef T said.
New episodes of Yes, Chef! premiere on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, following The Voice. Each episode will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
