Massimo: Top Chef Season 22 Episode 12: Who was eliminated ahead of the finale?

Top Chef Season 22 Episode 12 aired on May 29, 2025. The Bravo culinary show's latest episode featured another elimination. It was Massimo Piedimonte who was sent home, ahead of the show's finale.

After Massimo's elimination, Top Chef Season 22 now has Top 4 finalists. It includes, Tristen Epps, Cesar Murillo, Shuai Wang, and Bailey Sullivan. Hosted by Kristen Kish, the culinary competition will feature a two-part finale in the upcoming weeks, where finalists will head to Milan, Italy.

Recently eliminated participant from Top Chef was Massimo. He was sent home after he and Bailey were in the bottom two. Being an Italian, he was quite excited to be part of the show's finale, where the finale challenges will be taking place in Italy.

However, the judges felt his dish felt "disconnected from the trout," and his journey on the Bravo show unfortunately ended.

Top Chef Season 22: Massimo Piedimonte was eliminated with an emotional farewell

Recently released Top Chef Season 22 Episode 12 featured the remaining Top 5 cheftestants on the show. It included:

Cesar Murillo,
Bailey Sullivan,
Shuai Wang,
Tristen Epps,
Massimo Piedimonte.

The latest episode's elimination challenge featured an interesting cooking task. For the episode, guest judges were Brenda Holder and Chef Tracy Little. The guest judges assisted the cheftestants in foraging ingredients from the Canadian wilderness.

Viewers witnessed a variety of wild ingredients, including thistle, rosehips, mustard, dandelion roots, juniper, yarrow, and more. Apart from the wild ingredients collected by the chefs, they also went to get additional ingredients. For the challenge, the Top 5 chefs had to prepare their dishes on an open flame, outside.

While Massimo got three hours, because he won the previous elimination challenge, the rest of the four cheftestants had 2.5 hours to prepare their dishes. The winner of the challenge will be rewarded $10,000.

With roasted cabbage with rosehip-glazed pork belly, sour cabbage broth, and a black spruce oil with thatching and tograshi, Shuai won the challenge and the prize money.

As for the bottom two, Bailey and Massimo were in danger. Later on, as Top Chef host, Kristen Kish announced with a heavy heart that Massimo was eliminated. As she announced for him to pack his knives and go home, she could be seen holding back her tears.

As Massimo was leaving, everyone was emotional. While Massimo said it "hurt" to hear his name being announced, Kristen responded:

"It hurt for me to say it."

Judges loved Massimo's dish, where Tom mentioned he liked how Massimo took one ingredient and focused on that. However, Gail Simmons, along with the guest judges, said that Massimo's bannock was "too intensely herbal" and "floral and bitter."

After Massimo's elimination, Gail Simmons told him how he had made Canada "very, very proud." Even after his elimination, he was trying to keep the surroundings fun and humorous. He told Gail not to make him cry, while his fellow chefs and Kristen were already emotional.

"I've made mistakes. I've learned from them. Today, maybe just four other chefs had a better dish than I did. I had a great time. Nothing is tainting this experience," said Massimo.

He joked that after reaching home, he will hug his children until they turn blue. Jokes aside, he stated that he would look forward to serving people every day.

After Massimo's elimination, Top Chef Season 22's Top 4 finalists, Bailey, Tristen, Shuai, and Cesar, advanced to the show's finale.

Top Chef Season 22 Finale will air in two parts on Bravo, on June 5 and June 12, 2025.

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Edited by Gira Rathod