Top Chef episode 2 recap

Top Chef recap: More Houston and Chris Shepherd as chefs face off

Houston chefs Dawn Burrell and Chris Shepherd appear in episode two.

Photo by David Moir Bravo

After a season debut that didn’t feel very Houston, Top Chef displayed more of a connection to its host city this week. Episode two featured a Quickfire with one of the city’s favorite dishes and an Elimination Challenge set in the sort of massive high school football stadium that only exists in Texas.

Let’s take a look at Episode 2 from a Houston perspective by highlighting the local people and places featured on the show. Of course, we’ll check in with local cheftestant Evelyn Garcia and look at the current state of the competition for the title.

Featured Houstonians
Irma Galvan, chef-owner of downtown institution Irma’s Original, serves as judge for the Quickfire, which is all about queso. Host Padma Lakshmi cites Galvan as the recipient of a prestigious America’s Classic award from the James Beard Foundation. Chef Evelyn adds that she’s a local celebrity. Galvan provides a succinct assessment of each contestant’s offerings before departing.

The Elimination Challenge sees the return of Houston chef and Top Chef finalist Dawn Burrell. Instead of a judge, she’s a “coach” for a challenge that pits two teams of seven chefs in head to head matchups of carbohydrate-based dishes. Burrell is named captain of the blue “Wildcats” team rather than the red “Cougars” team, which seems a little strange considering she was an Olympic-worthy track athlete who attended the University of Houston.

Primarily, she serves as a mentor to the competing chefs, but a strategic error of sending up chef Monique Feybesse’s dessert of biko with caramelized coconut milk against chef Nick Wallace’s savory dish of purple sweet potato with potlikker may have cost the blue team an overall victory.

Chris Shepherd serves as this week’s guest judge for the elimination challenge. After being a mostly quiet participant in Episode 1’s dinner at The Annie Cafe, Shepherd shows more personality this week, and his Southern Smoke Foundation non-profit gets a major shoutout.

The carbohydrate-inspired challenge may not feel very Houston, but its setting in Tomball ISD’s 10,000 seat football stadium gave the competition major Friday Night Lights vibes. Top Chef still hasn’t shown much of the city’s unique environments, but that looks poised to improve in coming episodes.

How did Evelyn Garcia do
For the queso Quickfire, chef Evelyn shows both her Mexican heritage and her experience with Southeast Asian flavors by pairing a dip of adobo-spiced queso with fried taro chips. Praised by Galvan for its presentation, she finishes in the top three but doesn’t secure immunity.

Unfortunately, she struggles in the Elimination Challenge. Forced to pivot away from using rice noodles — she calls them “slimy” — to a four grain mix, chef Evelyn loses her head-to-head matchup with chef Sam Kang in a four-to-one vote. Thankfully, her dish of mixed grains with tamarind nuoc cham and turmeric sea bass displays sufficient skill to avoid being named a candidate for elimination.

Who wins
Episode two belongs to chef Damarr Brown. After earning immunity in the Quickfire for his cheddar dip with bread crumbs and a pickled serrano pepper for dipping, he takes the title of MVP at the football stadium for his dirty farro with nduja, chicken thighs, and chicken liver.

“There was a lot I loved about your dishes,” Gail Simmons tells Damarr. “It was the seasoning that got me.”

Who loses
Typically, chefs go home in early episodes for technical cooking errors. Such is the case with chef Stephanie Miller, who overcooks the rice in her Brazilian-inspired feijoada.

Chef Sarah Welsh also loses her head-to-head matchup in a 5-0 vote by using canned chickpeas to make hummus. They’re joined in the bottom three by Luke Kolpin, whose pumpkin gets criticized for being oily and bland.

Who exceeded expectations
Most of the chefs shined in episode two, but Austin’s Jo Chan gets the nod here. She contributed a couple quips about gaining queso weight when she moved to Texas, hails the good work Shepherd has done through the Southern Smoke Foundation, and wins her head-to-head matchup with a dish of black garlic congee.

Houston chefs Dawn Burrell and Chris Shepherd appear in episode two.

Top Chef Houston episode 2 Chris Shepherd Dawn Burrell

Photo by David Moir/Bravo

Houston chefs Dawn Burrell and Chris Shepherd appear in episode two.

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Music feature

Texas country star Cody Johnson's new album goes to 'Banks of Trinity'

Photo by Cameron Powell

Cody Johnson.

There's a moment at every Cody Johnson show where the Texas-born-and-bred country star asks the crowd, “How many of you tonight are watching me and this band live for the very first time?” he told The Associated Press. “And every night, I would say at least 80% of the crowd raises their hands.”

It's not the kind of reaction most veteran artists receive. “And I’m thinking, you know, 20 years is a long time to work for something. But when you see that … What’s the next 20 years look like?” he asks.

The rancher, rodeo competitor, and onetime prison guard started his two-decade career playing honky tonks and dive bars. That led to slow and steady growth for the country traditionalist, but in the last few years, something has shifted. He landed his fifth career No. 1 song with “The Fall.” He was named Entertainer of the Year at the 2026 Academy of Country Music Awards, the show's highest honor. That was a month after he headlined Stagecoach Music Festival. For an artist with legions of fans, it looked like he was accessing new heights.

“I feel like I’m closing a book and I’m opening another one and it’s all blank pages,” he says of this period. “Let's get to the next chapter." On June 26, that new era began with the release of his latest album, Banks of the Trinity.

Traveling to the Banks of the Trinity
It hasn't been an easy road. Last fall, Johnson had to cancel a bunch of tour dates after upper respiratory and sinus infections caused a burst eardrum that required surgery — an intimidating medical procedure for anyone, but especially nerve-wracking for a musician. “I was scared,” he said simply. But “in a roundabout way, it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

It forced him to take three months off, which allowed him to be home during the birth of his son. It also rejuvenated his approach in the studio. Before the incident, he thought the album was complete. It was not. The additional time resulted in the inclusion of a few songs that now feel inextricable from the record: “Thank Somebody Country,” “Take Me Back (Leave Me There),” “Cricket on a Hook,” and the resilient “I Have” among them.

“What a blessing to have that kind of song fall in your lap when you’re kind of up against the ropes,” he says of the latter. “I mean, we thought we had the record done. It wasn’t done.”

A title track with real resonance
At the heart of Banks of the Trinity is its title track, which recalls Eagles' cover of “Seven Bridges Road” meets bluegrass and Southern gospel.

Lyrically, it's an ode to Johnson's childhood. “I grew up on the banks of the Trinity [River.] Fishing for catfish, not so much out of pleasure or sport but for necessity to put food in the freezer. Deer season for me was not a trophy thing,” he said.

And while that track inspires a feeling of nostalgia within the listener, he doesn't consider this album a throwback collection. He says it's about showcasing his evolving sonic diversity.

"The rest of the album for me is a musical journey from track one to track 16,” he said. “There’s a little bit of a flavor for everybody. It does kind of hit Motown. It does kind of hit bluegrass. It does hit progressive country. It does it old country. It does a little rock here and there.”

It's the result of a new kind of freedom, one that is at least partially due to his recent accomplishments, including taking home the top prize at the ACM Awards.

“I just did the thing that I’ve aspired to do in my career my entire life,” he says. “A really good place is a really good way to describe where I am.”

And now that the album is out, he's ready to take a breather.

“I will be shirtless with no shoes on a beach at an undisclosed location,” he jokes about the days after record release. “'Cause I have already done all the prep work. I've been working on this album for two years. I’ve done all of the interviews. I’ve shook all the hands. Me and my wife and kids are gonna disappear for 10 days and I’m gonna become, I guess, every Kenny Chesney song ever.”

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