With the exit of Monica Feybesse from the “Top Chef: Houston” kitchen last week (and permanently, as she lost “Last Chance Kitchen” thereafter), there were nine cheftestants left going into episode seven, “Swallow the Competition”: Damarr Brown, Jo Chan, Evelyn Garcia, Jae Jung, Jackson Kalb, Luke Kolpin, Buddha Lo, Ashleigh Shanti, and Nick Wallace. But swallowing the competition had two meanings as those nine hopefuls would learn. Read on to find out what happened this week.

Host Padma Lakshmi introduced two guest judges — Ope Amosu and “Top Chef” All-Star Kwame Onwuachi — who explained that the chefs would be dealing with Nigerian cuisine, specifically swallows, which are starches that are cooked (usually boiled) until tender and then dipped into a soup or stew. Each chef was to prepare a dish to complement a particular swallow. But before cooking they had the opportunity to taste a variety of accompanying ingredients and seasonings.

Then they drew knives to decide which swallow they’d use. Buddha, Jackson, and Luke drew iyan, which is yam-based. Jo, Evelyn, and Jae would use amala, which can also be made with yam and/or cassava or plantain flour. And Ashleigh, Damarr, and Nick got eba, which is cassava-based. The chefs would work individually, though, and not in teams, so they had to get acquainted with their ingredients on their own.

Buddha was getting a mashed potato impression from the iyan and decided to cook guineafowl in a peanut sauce to go with it. Damarr decided to make a shrimp and scotch bonnet stew to pair with the starchy potato flavor of his eba. Ashleigh seemed to have an advantage, having spent time in Africa and being more familiar with cuisines from the continent than many of her competitors.

Conversely, Jackson seemed at a disadvantage with unfamiliar ingredients; he expressed disappointment in not being able to taste all the unique new flavors he’d been using in the competition due to his COVID-zapped taste and smell. That said, he’s been acing challenges all season in spite of that deficit, so this task didn’t seem like it would be much different. He planned to make a tomato sauce and perfectly cook a fish and hope for the best.

“Everything about this is new to me,” explained Luke about Nigerian cooking. He has been hit-and-miss all season and has been having a crisis of confidence. He worked as a sous chef at Noma, the Denmark restaurant considered arguably the best in the world, but since he left that gig he’s been without a job, thanks in no small part to the COVID pandemic.

Ultimately, the judges gave a thumbs down to Nick’s too-sweet okra stew and Evelyn’s overpowering tamarind and chicken wing stew. The best of the bunch were Buddha’s shrimp and guineafowl, whose peanut flavor tapped into the roots of Nigerian cooking and culture; Damarr’s scotch bonnet and shrimp stew, which was “bold in all the best ways”; and, you guessed it, Jackson’s snapper with tomato sauce and herb salad. But Buddha was named the winner of the challenge , which meant he had immunity from elimination.

It was time for the main event: the “Jurassic Park” logo appeared, and out came “Top Chef” All-Star Joe Flamm decked out in Alan Grant cosplay. Then “Jurassic World” stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt appeared via video to explain their challenge: to extract prehistoric DNA from mosquitos, genetically engineer their own dinosaurs, raise them, slaughter them, and then cook them. They would have two hours.

… Okay, not really. Except for the two-hour part — that was true. Instead, they would split up into teams of three to make three-course progressive meals inspired by dinosaurs. Each team would have one chef inspired by the underwater predator mosasaurus, one inspired by the flying omnivorous quetzalcoatlus, and one inspired by the ever-popular land-based velociraptor — fearsome animals that could swallow you whole. So each team’s meal would represent land, sea, and air, and they all got dossiers on their dinos’ diets and lifestyles.

On the Red Team were Jae (land), Buddha (sea), and Jo (air). The Brown Team consisted of Jackson (land), Nick (sea), and Evelyn (air). And the Green Team included Luke (land), Damarr (sea), and Ashleigh (air). They only had 15 minutes to discuss their menus before shopping for ingredients, and for some that went better than others. The Brown Team quickly agreed on a unified southern culinary theme so that their dishes would be cohesive. However, Ashleigh and Jae left their teams’ respective meetings without a plan, though Jae’s teammate Jo assured her that she needn’t take the challenge too literally. Kind of like last week’s “Texas Trailblaze-hers” challenge, their inspirations could be more creative and abstract.

Ashleigh’s spark of inspiration was quite literal, though: chicken wings to represent the wings of the quetzalcoatlus wings. And for her carnivorous velociraptor, Jae decided to focus on meat, specifically a lamb duo. Jackson went in a completely different direction with the velociraptor: he anticipated that other chefs would represent that dinosaur with meat, so he had the idea to stand out by making a fudge dessert with a bloody, gooey fruit element.

On the day of cooking Buddha whipped out the whole-ass alligator he’d bought for his dish, but he was concerned about what Jae’s plan, with a wide assortment of ingredients that looked to him more like a “buffet platter.” Many a chef has landed at the bottom for confusing, unfocused dishes. Elsewhere, Luke was worried about cooking his short rib properly with a pressure cooker, a machine he hasn’t used in years. Jo seemed to have a good plan for her quail dish, however: as a huge “Jurassic Park” fan, she wanted to add carrots inspired by a dish the characters ate in the very first film.

At this point, though, it was hard to predict whose risks would pay off and whose would backfire like a theme park where the attractions eat the visitors.

Joining Padma, Flamm, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons at the dinner table in Houston’s Museum of Natural Science was one of the co-stars from the upcoming “Jurassic World: Dominion,” DeWanda Wise, who explained that her character is some kind of black market dinosaur dealer. I think almost every “Jurassic” film has had one of those. You’d think they’d have learned by now that nefarious dino traffickers tend to get eaten.

In a choice I thought was surprising, the dishes were brought out by dinosaur, not by team. Seemed to me like it would be harder to judge the progression of a meal if you’re eating dishes from every team at the same time. But I’m neither an expert food-judging person nor an illicit lizard merchant, so I’ll defer to the wisdom of those at the dining table.

The mosasaurus sea dishes were first, and they were all hits: Buddha’s alligator plate was creative, sweet, and acidic. Nick’s crab croquette was delicious, though Tom thought it was more of an hors d’oeuvre than a complete dish. And Damarr’s oyster was crunchy and juicy. It was a “beautiful start,” according to Padma. All three teams were looking good so far.

The quetzalcoatlus air dishes were next, and their results were much more mixed. Evelyn’s pork tenderloin was expertly cooked and had great flavor. However, Jo didn’t have enough glaze while she was plating, so she knew not all of her carrots were getting what they needed. Indeed, the judges quickly picked up on that, calling the carrots an “afterthought.” What’s worse, Jo’s quail was also overcooked and dry. Ashleigh’s dish fell somewhere in the middle. Her chicken wing was topped with a watermelon salad that went over well, but the chicken itself was flabby and bland.

Last up were the velociraptor land dishes. Jae’s lamb duo had a lot of elements, and she wanted to plate them early despite Buddha’s fear that the food would get cold. I’m not sure if temperature was the problem, but the judges weren’t into it. Her lamb was soggy, and despite some good elements of the dish, there didn’t seem to be any clear idea behind it. Luke’s Mongolian beef and broccoli wasn’t terrible, but the beef was a little tough and it lacked the “sharp, jagged notes” you usually get from Mongolian beef. But Jackson’s dish, yet again, was a winner. The judges were thrilled to finally have a dish that graphically represented the dinosaur theme: Jackson had put down a blood-red raptor footprint on his plate, which he jokes was from one of his teammates who’d been eaten.

So it was time to consider all the complex elements of the challenge and decide who would stay  and who would go.

Padma, Tom, and company were quick to announce the winners: the Brown Team , unsurprisingly, since they were the only team without any significant errors. They were all declared the winners of the challenge and would get VIP tickets to the world premiere of “Jurassic World: Dominion.” For those keeping score, this was the third challenge win in a row for Evelyn. It was the second win for Jackson and his fifth week in a row as one of the top dishes; there has only been one week this season where he didn’t have one of the top dishes. It was the first time for Nick with one of the top dishes; up until now he’d been languishing in the middle, never at the top or bottom.

The losing team was trickier. The judges lavished praise on Buddha from the Red Team and Damarr from the Green Team, but everyone else had significant flaws. After more deliberation, the panel determined that Jo and Jae’s dishes each had more problems than Luke and Ashleigh’s combined, so the Red Team was declared the worst. Buddha had immunity, though he didn’t need it due to the quality of his dish, so it came down to Jo and Jae. In the end, the ambition of Jae’s dish was enough to keep her alive, so Jo was told to pack her knives and go . Before the tasting, Jo had said of her dish, “When you cook simply, when you miss you miss big.” Those turned out to be prophetic words. All things being equal it’s better to do too much than too little.

But “I’m really proud of the fact that I hung on to this point,” Jo said upon her exit. “It’s been tough for me to get it going creatively in the last year. This was sort of my effort to try to get back in the game. And given the caliber of everyone around me, I’m proud of what I did today.”

But maybe she dodged a bullet because she only has to survive “Last Chance Kitchen,” while next week the eight remaining chefs have to survive the dreaded Restaurant Wars!

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