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    Top Chef episode 2 recap

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

    Eric Sandler
    Mar 11, 2022 | 9:34 am
    Houston chefs Dawn Burrell and Chris Shepherd appear in episode two.
    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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    Metallica concert review

    Heavy metal legends Metallica roll into Houston with thunderous riffs

    Craig Hlavaty
    Jun 15, 2025 | 12:59 am
    Metallica concert Houston NRG Stadium 2025
    Photo by Brittaney Penney
    Metallica played a career-spanning set on June 14, 2025.

    Heavy metal is a baton that has been passed on for generations now. Now, more than ever, metal has turned into family entertainment. On Saturday night at NRG Stadium, the Metallica family reunion left ears ringing and hearts full, with a few scorch marks from hellacious pyro.

    Metallica — 44 years into this — is a frenetic, multigenerational machine. Four gray hairs from San Francisco that can still pack out a football stadium. The current lineup of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo is the longest-running one in the band’s history.

    Hetfield’s frenzied screech from 1981 is now a smoky, barrel-chested growl. Hammett’s metallic, exploratory guitar lines are a part of the metal vocabulary, and Trujillo — still the new guy — has been the sturdy thunder below it all. Urlich’s reliable drumming is its stadium-honed heart.

    Openers Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera provided direct support, with ST serving as a bracing thrash appetizer. Keeping it all in the family, Trujillo’s 21-year-old son Tye is now playing bass for ST, just as Robert did in the ‘90s. The band’s set whizzed by before most fans were able to enter the building, but those who arrived early witnessed a masterclass in ‘80s hardcore thrash.

    Texas sludge legends Pantera have been celebrating the lives of departed brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul since the group reformed in 2022. Collapsing in acrimony in 2001, the band and its fans never got a proper sendoff, and, with the violent shooting death of Dimebag and Paul’s death due to heart disease, the current lineup only features two original members in lead singer Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown. Guitar hero Zakk Wyle, stepping into Dimebag’s shoes, is a Hall Of Fame avatar for Dimebag, perhaps the only living human that could have delivered the appropriate riffs. Anthrax’s Charlie Benante now handles drumming duties.

    It’s 2025, and I’m watching a Pantera pit on the floor of NRG Stadium from a comfortable seat in the end zone. Anselmo, seemingly ageless, stalked Metallica’s sprawling, jaggedly circular stage barefoot and howling, splitting the difference between Henry Rollins and Rob Halford. Heathen anthems “Walk” and “Cowboys from Hell” still slice with precision, just as they sounded in the adjacent Astroarena in 1995.

    Before Metallica hit the stage around 9 pm, bored fans passed the time by doing the wave in NRG Stadium, but it only made a few laps before fizzling out.

    Kicking off with “Creeping Death” from 1984’s Ride The Lightning, Metallica reveled in rumbling NRG Stadium’s foundations.

    “For Whom The Bell Tolls” sounds as apocalyptic as ever, one of the early highlights of the night. The band has embraced it’s Load and Reload era recently, with the latter’s “The Memory Remains” and “Fuel” making setlist appearances. The crowd deftly filled in for the late Marianne Faithfull during the former. There’s still a lot of love for ‘90s eyeliner Metallica.

    Metallica’s 2023 album 72 Seasons saw the quartet reconvening for a loose and unrelenting collection of songs. “Lux Æterna” and “If Darkness Had a Son” have a slithery swing to them, borne from those famous Metallica jam sessions that sometimes appear on YouTube.

    1991’s “Nothing Else Matters” is still a romantic ballad for metalheads, a Gen X wedding staple.

    Few hard rock bands can still pack a football stadium in 2025, which makes Metallica among the last of a dying breed. All in their early ‘60s, they’re not unlike a performance hot rod team with 30 or so souped-up machines in the garage that only they know how to drive. They just have to take a few more breaks than they used to in between laps. Those four guys together still make magic via extremely loud noises.

    Closing out with “Master of Puppets and “Enter Sandman,” Metallica pushed Houstonians out into a humid Saturday night, covered in each other’s sweat, looking forward to the next Metallica family reunion.

    Setlist

    Creeping Death
    For Whom the Bell Tolls
    Ride the Lightning
    The Memory Remains
    Lux Æterna
    If Darkness Had a Son
    Kirk and Rob Doodle ("Hit the Lights" and ZZ Top's "La Grange")
    The Day That Never Comes
    Fuel
    Orion
    Nothing Else Matters
    Sad but True
    One
    Seek & Destroy
    Master of Puppets
    Enter Sandman

    Metallica concert Houston NRG Stadium 2025
      

    Photo by Brittaney Penney

    Metallica played a career-spanning set on June 14, 2025.

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