By Kim
Quickfire Challenge: Tony Mantuano (a former Top Chef Masters competitor) judges as the cheftestants try to make the best stuffing. I'm guessing it's actually dressing. Isn't that what it's called when you don't actually cook it inside the bird? The twist is that they are not allowed to use any utensils when making it. It's pretty hilarious to see people stirring with celery stalks and slabs of bacon and jar lids. Fabio grates cheese on the pot and pan rack. Here are the dishes:
Casey: mushrooms with crispy chicken liver, miso cake and mushroom dashi.
Jamie: stuffing crepinette with pork, lemon oil, and broth
Carla: Thai inspired vegetable stuffing with black quinoa salad
Spike: stuffed quail with raisins, herbs, port, and apricot glaze
Marcel: whole squab, stuffing with raisin brioche, cherries, currants, and ras el hanout gravy
Blais: pressure-cooked onion, nitro fried fennel, raisins, and pine nuts
Tre: Southwestern stuffing with bacon, cheddar, bell pepper, chili powder
Dale: Spanish influenced stuffing with crab, oysters, chili lemon aioli, grapes, olives
Tiffani: soy maple stuffing with quail, grilled mushrooms, and quartered grapes
Fabio: polenta bread, vegetables, smoked bacon, and grated parmesan
Tony's least favorites are Carla's food (who knows that she undercooked the quinoa), Tiffani's food (which was overly sweet) and Casey's (which seemed more like an appetizer than stuffing). His favorite dishes belong to Tre, whose food was spicy but balanced, Marcel, whose stuffing and bird both tasted great. And the winner is Tre, who gets immunity as well as $20,000. Look at Tre, making a run!
Elimination Challenge: They divide up into two teams (Orange and Yellow), and have to create a healthy dish for the participants in the U.S. Open. They will serve dishes head-to-head against someone from the other team for points. The team with the most points wins and someone who won will be up for the individual win. One of the losers from the losing team will be up for elimination.
First up, Team Orange Fabio serves whole wheat gnocchi with pork loin ragout, caramelized fennel and zucchini versus Yellow Casey who serves grilled pork tenderloin with farro, cherries, sugar snap peas, and vinaigrette. The judges award the point to Fabio, and Team Yellow is pissed because their strategy was to go first with their worst dish and probably lose, but Jamie had the worst dish and she wasn't ready, so they kind of wasted Casey's dish. So now they're down a point and they still haven't served their worst dish.
Second, Team Orange sends up Dale, who serves edamame dumpling with carrot froth and crispy soy nuts, versus Team Yellow Tiffani, who serves sashimi of black bass, avocado, and ponzu vinaigrette. Originally, Marcel was supposed to go second for Orange, but Dale's dumplings were time sensitive, and Marcel gets all pissy about getting bumped. Tiffani wins the point for yellow and it's all tied up.
Third, Team Orange Marcel serves cauliflower couscous with pomegranate seeds, golden raisins, and yellowfin tuna versus Team Yellow Angelo, who serves smoked tuna, yuzu gelee, red onion, and capers. Angelo was originally going to serve mackerel but decided last minute that the fish he got wasn't good, so he got some tuna from Tiffany. Angelo wins the point for the Yellow Team, giving them the lead.
Fourth, Team Orange Antonia serves diver sea scallop, Indian lentil puree, mint, dandelion greens, cilantro, and chives versus Team Yellow Tiffany serves spiced tuna with fennel, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and lentil salad. The judges give the point to Antonia, so now it's tied up again.
Fifth, Team Orange Blais serves "thai-bouleh" (a play on tabouleh) with lamb, herbs, and yogurt versus Team Yellow Spike, who serves tomato tamarind soup, olive oil poached shrimp, pineapple, tomatoes, and dill. Angelo and Tiffani did a lot of playing around with Spike's dish before he served it. The judges award the point to Blais, mostly because they hate Spike's shrimp. So now Orange is one point from winning.
Sixth, Team Orange Carla serves African groundnut soup with baked sweet potatoes, adzuki beans, and peanuts versus Team Yellow Tre, who serves Coho salmon, parsnip puree, olive oil sauce with citrus, tomatoes, and olives. Jamie couldn't go for Team Yellow because her dish STILL wasn't ready, like how long have those chickpeas been cooking at this point? Carla gets the point and Team Orange gets the win.
So Jamie gets away without serving a dish AGAIN and won't get sent home AGAIN which is kind of bullshit. Anyway, up for the win are Fabio, Carla, Blais, and Antonia, and the win goes to Carla! Yay! It's especially awesome because multiple competitors dissed her food, and she also cut her fingernail off during prep and just bandaged it and kept going (JAMIE!).
The cheftestants up for elimination are Casey, Tiffany, Tre, and Spike. Blais points out to Jamie that she's kind of got a pattern of not cooking. Agreed. And mad because Jamie was one of my pre-season favorites. Spike explains the team's strategy and how it backfired. Spike blames Angelo and Tiffani for his dish's problems, even though most of the judges hated the shrimp, which were all Spike. Tre doesn't throw Angelo under the bus, even though they hated his salmon, which Angelo actually cooked. But he has the luxury of immunity. Casey argues that her dish was fine, and the judges are wrong. So the judges tell Spike to pack his knives and go. Damn. Well, he was never going to win the whole thing. But it should have been Jamie.
After the stress of the double elimination, the cheftestants repair to a bar to drink away their sorrows. And the bartender is the hipsteriest hipster that ever hipped. He's wearing a low-V T-shirt with a zipper hoodie over it (exposing lots of pale, bony, hairless chest) along with GIANT red Sally Jesse Raphael glasses. I would walk out if I saw him behind the bar, because girl, please. I don't know what time they arrive at this bar, but most of them are drinking coffee. Maybe it's Irish coffee? Is that racist against the Irish to say? Anyway, Casey is sad to lose her BFF Dale, and Tiffani vows to stay out of the bottom, since she's been there twice now. I really can't get over how cute Tiffani is compared to her first season of the show. I don't know if her attitude made her less cute, but she's really stepped up her game. Mike I. tells the table that he's glad that Dale won, if only because he's not Angelo, and then interviews that he thinks Angelo is his biggest competition. I find it kind of fascinating that none of them know much about Angelo, since presumably his season hadn't finished airing while they were filming. But I guess they know he made it to the finals? I don't know.
After the credits, we jump right into the Quickfire Challenge: Tony Mantuano (a former Top Chef Master competitor as well as chef/owner of Spiagga) is there with Padma. She explains that they will be making the best stuffing. I'm guessing it's actually dressing. Isn't that what it's called when you don't actually cook it inside the bird? Tiffani points out that stuffing is really regional, and it's not just house-specific, it's mom-specific. That's true. My cousin-in-law makes our stuffing for Thanksgiving and it is delicious. I have no idea what he puts in it, though. I think there might be sausage? Tony explains that he and his mom always argue over the stuffing because he wants to make it Italian with prosciutto and sage (mmm) and his mom wants a more traditional stuffing.
But there's a twist to this challenge -- they don't get to use knives or any utensils. Fabio wonders if he's supposed to "crash potato with his head." I don't know that he should worry about putting potatoes into his stuffing. And the winner gets immunity and $20K. Tre tells us that he has two girls to support, and girls are more expensive. They are? Why? Because you want to spoil them more? Because they make cuter clothes for girls? I wore my brother's old clothes as a kid, but it was easier to find gender-neutral kids' clothes in the '70s. I go shopping for my boys now and everything either is green and brown with a truck on it or pink with a butterfly. And I would totally put my kids in pink with a butterfly, but I'm just saying. Why not green with nothing on it? Do we need our newborns to express a love of dinosaurs? They don't even know what dinosaurs are! Anyway.
Cooking flurry. I don't know what exactly everyone is running for in the fridge, but there is a massive pile-up. Carla takes a more Zen approach and just waltzes into the walk-in and takes what's left, which turns out to be quinoa. Casey has decided to make Asian stuffing, even though she's never made it before. Well, she's never made Asian stuffing, but presumably she's made Asian dishes, so she knows the flavor profiles and whatnot. How come Tom never talks about flavor profiles anymore? That used to be his jam. Blais is using a jar lid for a spoon. Fabio decides to grate his Parmesan on the pot rack. That is really gross. I mean, presumably it's been used to hold clean pots, but how clean are the bottoms of your pots, anyway? I focus most of my attention on the insides of the pots and then do a quick scrub of the outside, but I would bet the bottoms are the dirtiest part. And I'm betting the racks themselves haven't been cleaned or disinfected in a while. Couldn't he just use shavings with a can lid or something? I'm just glad I don't have to eat this food.
Most people are using heavy pans to smash their food since they can't dice or chop with no knives. Carla tries to do it with an onion, which doesn't seem like it's going to work. She needs to at least cut the onion into pieces first somehow. Another cheftestant is using a metal plate or pan lid to cut. Tiffani uses a pepper grinder to butcher a quail. Tre is making a jalapeno and cheddar bread pudding, and he decides to use liquid nitrogen to freeze the food so that he can smash it, which is way more genius and practical than grating cheese on a pot rack. FABIO. People are using various things to stir: a celery stalk, an ear of corn, a slab of bacon. Carla thinks her sauce is great but knows that her quinoa is undercooked, so she's sad. Everyone plates their food with weird tools: a celery stalk again, a can lid, and I think someone's using a broken shard of a plate, so did they break a plate just to get a sharp edge? That's also kind of genius but seems dangerous. Padma says, "Time's up! Utensils down." Maybe she should have switched up her saying since they aren't using utensils.
The tasting begins. Casey made mushrooms with crispy chicken liver, miso cake and mushroom dashi. Jamie made a stuffing crepinette with pork, lemon oil, and broth, which she explains is also an homage to matzoh ball soup. That's her second soup dish in two weeks. Carla tried to make Thai inspired vegetable stuffing with black quinoa salad, but she calls it "Undone-tay." Tony asks why it's al denta and she hilariously corrects him: "I said undone-tay." I love how she knows her dish is bad and just puts it on front street. Tony and Padma gamely try to eat it, and she asks if they need some floss. Everyone is just cracking up. Love her.
The few dishes pass quickly without much comment from the judges. Spike made a stuffed quail with raisins, herbs, port, and apricot glaze. He admits that he used lemongrass spears to plate it. Marcel made a whole squab, stuffing with raisin brioche, cherries, currants, and ras el hanout gravy. Blais made a pressure-cooked onion, nitro fried fennel, raisins, and pine nuts. Tre made Southwestern stuffing with bacon, cheddar, bell pepper, chili powder, which Tony says has a nice kick to it. Dale made Spanish influenced stuffing with crab, oysters, chili lemon aioli, grapes, and olives.
Tiffani made soy maple stuffing with quail, grilled mushrooms, and quartered grapes. She says that she never broke down a bird with a pepper mill before and Tony advises her to make sure they don't use that pepper mill anymore. Fabio explains his polenta bread, vegetables, smoked bacon, and grated parmesan. He tells them how he grated his cheese, and no one seems as impressed as he is with himself.
Tony talks about his least favorites. First is Carla's food, since the quinoa was undercooked and it wasn't really a stuffing, so even if it had been cooked properly, she might not have placed higher. Tony says it might have been delicious if he had poured milk over it in a cereal bowl. Tiffani's dish was overly sweet, which she kind of knew in advance. Tony feels that Casey's dish seemed more like an plated appetizer than stuffing.
Tony's favorite dishes belong to Tre, whose food was spicy but balanced. Tre and Dale exchange fist bumps. He also liked Marcel's food, because the stuffing and bird both tasted great. And the winner is Tre, because his stuffing showed the most resourcefulness and the best flavor. He is more than psyched to get immunity as well as $20,000. Look at Tre, making a run!
Padma moves right into the Elimination Challenge, and announces that the cheftestants will be cooking at the home of the US Open, where the players have to eat healthy, high-energy food. The cheftestants draw tennis balls out of cans to determine their teams, either Orange or Yellow. Team Orange ends up being Mike, Carla, Blais, Fabio, Dale, Antonia, and Marcel. That means Team Yellow is Angelo, Spike, Jamie, Casey, Tre, Tiffani, and Tiffany. Carla likes her team, except she thinks that Fabio might overthink the challenge. Spike, on the other hand, is concerned because he has no allies on his team. All of his bros are on the other team, it seems. As they stand together, I can't tell if Angelo is really tall or if everyone else is really short. Also, can Angelo please cut it out with the white pants? He looks even dorkier than usual in those things.
Padma explains the structure of the challenge. They will serve their dishes head-to-head against someone from the other team, and the winning dish earns a point. When all is said and done, only those from the winning team who earned a point will be up for the win, and only those from the losing team who lost a point will be up for elimination. So you want to be on the winning team, obviously, but you definitely don't want to have the worst dish on the losing team. Tony adds that there will be strategy involved in deciding the order in which to serve the dishes. It's not clear to me if they are supposed to have a team theme for all the dishes or just make individual dishes.
The teams break up to plan their menus. Spike wants to make something brothy and easy to break down. He supposes that the other team will be more "cerebral" (and with Blais, Marcel, and Dale all on one team, that's a good bet), so he wants his team to go for more balance. Team Orange is discussing their food. Carla wants to do an African peanut stew, which is vegetarian. Dale tells the team that the US Open is an upscale event. Because normally, they all cook hamburgers and French fries, right? Okay, maybe Spike does. Dale disses her idea in an interview, saying that's not what people want to eat. Mike thinks they need to go step-by-step, since it's a team challenge. I have no idea what that even means, but I just thought I'd throw it in there to show how sometimes Mike feels like he needs to say something so it looks like he's contributing to the effort, but really he's not helping much at all.
The cheftestants return to their apartment and immediately break up into teams again to discuss food and strategy. On Team Orange, Carla talks about how she thinks their dishes are really global. Mike adds that they just need to cook good food. See? He says things, but doesn't really add anything. Really, Mike? Here I was thinking that the goal was to cook bad food, but you have truly enlightened me. Team Orange seems pretty mellow about a serving strategy. I'm surprised Blais isn't taking more of a leadership role, though, since the other chefs really seem to defer to him most of the time.
Team Yellow is talking serving strategy and of course, Spike takes the lead. Angelo is wearing a gross tank top. Ugh. Men should not wear tank tops unless they look like Tre. I'm just saying. Or if it's really hot out, which it doesn't seem to be. Anyway, Spike suggests that they serve their worst dish first, against the other team's best dish. Then the other team's best dish is wasted, is the plan. There are a few problems I can see with this strategy. First, they're assuming that the other team will serve their best dish first, or that there will even be a clearly-defined best dish. With chefs of this caliber, I would imagine that there will be multiple dishes that are good. The other problem that I see is that they're assuming that they will be able to clearly define who made the worst dish on their team. Do they really think someone is going to stand up and go, "Yeah, my dish is awful." I mean, it's one thing if it's like Carla's quinoa, but that happens rarely, especially this season. Angelo seems to hop right on board with this idea, but the rest of the team just kind of goes along because they don't have an alternative to suggest, I assume. No one points out any reasons why it's flawed that we see.
Then the segment that I haven't missed: shopping at Whole Foods. Carla knows that her team doesn't believe in her dish, but she does. Tre tells us that he used to be fat, but slimmed down with diet and exercise, so he feels good about making a healthy dish. Angelo and Tiffany are both making fish. Angelo picks out a bunch of mackerel. A whack of mackerel? A pack of mackerel? I looked it up and it's either a shoal or a school of mackerel. BO-RING!
The teams arrive at the US Open kitchen, and get to cooking. Marcel is psyched about his team. Really? Marcel? Is psyched about his team? I guess if he has to be on a team, he's happy about this one. Blais is, of course, cooking some lamb sous vide. And making something he calls "Thai-boulleh" because it's like tabbouleh, but it's Thai-inspired. Carla is sorting beans, and she interviews that she's a runner, so she knows the kinds of food that athletes need. Antonia, on the other hand, admits that she never played sports in high school, and mostly just sat around and smoked pot. Is it weird that now I like her more? Not because she smoked pot, but because of how she admitted it.
Antonia is a little worried that Fabio is making gnocchi (AGAIN?), since it will kind of weigh people down, not give them energy. Seriously, why not just eat a pile of mashed potatoes and then try to play tennis? No, thank you. Fabio asks Mike for confirmation on how to improve his dish somehow. Fabio is distressed to find that the large mixer doesn't have a paddle attachment, so he puts the potatoes through what looks like a meat grinder but I guess could also be a potato ricer or food mill and then makes the gnocchi by hand. Sigh. I don't care how good his gnocchi is, but he needs to show some versatility.
Over on Team Yellow, Casey is making a pork dish with farro, which she thinks will be both tasty and healthy. Jamie is working on cooking her dried chickpeas, and she's worried they won't get done in time. Foreshadowing! Angelo discovers that his whack of mackerel are wack. He describes them as "slimy and gross inside," and I thank him for not serving them. Angelo asks Tre for some of his salmon, and Tre's like, "Hell, no. " I support that; sure, Tre has immunity but maybe he bought just enough salmon to make his dish and doesn't really have extra. Or maybe Angelo should figure out something to make that doesn't involve fish. Anyway, Angelo gets some extra tuna from Tiffany, who interviews that she gave it to him because she's not into playing games and strategizing.
Colicchio pops into the kitchen and asks Jamie about her team's strategy. Jamie says she can't reveal it, because her opponents might hear it. Tom goes from person to person and no one will tell him. He finally catches Angelo and Spike alone and they tell him the strategy, adding that they think the other team will put Blais first. It kind of cracks me up how everyone seems to think Blais is the best chef and yet he hasn't won any Elimination Challenges yet. Granted, he was disqualified in the first one, but still. Colicchio immediately grasps their strategy but doesn't comment one whether or not he approves.
So then Carla is chopping food and loses focus for a second and cuts half her fingernail off. Luckily, they show it dripping blood, so I can verify the injury. GROSS! I would have taken your word for it, show. The medic shows up and Dale tells us that he heard the medic telling her to go to the hospital, but Carla just bandages it up, gloves it up, and moves on. She tells the medic that it hurts, but she's not going to pass out, and she's more worried about her prep right now. Antonia points out that parallels to Jamie's situation from two episodes ago, and Carla mutters, "It's an inconvenience" as she chops away with her now heavily-gloved hand. Brilliant.
Angelo is apparently done early as he is wandering around hovering over other people's food. Jamie tells him that her chickpeas aren't done, and she needs them to be finished because time is running out. Meanwhile, Spike overpoached his shrimp so he has to quickly cook up another batch and doesn't have time to season them. Doesn't have time? How hard is it to throw SOMETHING in there? An herb? Cook them in wine or broth of some sort? Something? SALT? I don't know.
The cheftestants enter the tennis courts and of course Marcel has to make a dumb analogy to being a gladiator in an arena because he is a dorkasaurus. Angelo says that he feels like he's in a fighter jet and at least Marcel's analogy made some sense. Tennis court as fighter jet? What is he even talking about?
Everyone gets to their last-minute preparations. Jamie knows that the first thing she needs to do is get her chickpeas in the pressure cooker so they can potentially finish cooking. I don't know why she didn't use a pressure cooker from the start, unless they didn't have one in the kitchen? Or she was scared of it? Casey points out that the other team is set up way at the other end of the court, so they don't know anything about their dishes. That might hurt their strategy. The Yellow Team gathers to taste each person's dish in order to determine who will go first. Jamie won't let anyone taste hers as she says that it's still not done. I don't know what she's doing, but those chickpeas are not in a pressure cooker. It seems like she's got them in an open pot, which hardly seems like the best way to cook something quickly. I just looked up how to cook dried chickpeas, because I never have, and there are about a thousand different methods, but most seem to involve overnight soaking (not possible), a pressure cooker, or a slow cooker (not enough time). I really don't know what Jamie was thinking, other than she's probably done it before and it turned out fine. Anyway, Spike says that Jamie's unfinished dish probably counts as the worst dish, so Jamie will be up first. And what Spike says goes, right?
The judges arrive: Tom, Padma, Gail, Tony, and a tennis player named Taylor Dent. Padma calls for the first dish. Fabio has previously volunteered to go first for Team Orange, probably because his gnocchi are better the fresher they are, and he's ready. Team Yellow is thrown for a loop, since they were expecting Blais, but Tiffani urges them to stick to their strategy. I think another flaw in their strategy is that they didn't decide ahead of time how they would determine the worst dish. Did they think it would be easy to come to a consensus as a team? Did they assume that someone would volunteer? This was a horrible idea. As they all stand there and stare at each other, Spike asks for a volunteer and Tiffany volunteers Jamie (I don't think that's what he meant). Jamie firmly shakes her head no and says that her chickpeas aren't done. I don't really blame her at this point if she honestly believes that they are almost there and will be done in time for a future round. But this is where having a more fully-formed strategy ahead of time would have helped, because there would be less wiggle room. So then Casey can't take it any more and offers to go first. Spike interviews that he didn't know how that happened. I guess his strategy was for everyone to just refuse to go until Jamie was forced to go? I don't think that would work. Jamie is pretty stubborn. What a fiasco.
Team Orange sends out Fabio, who serves whole wheat gnocchi (using only egg whites, not the yolk) with pork loin ragout, caramelized fennel and zucchini. He's up against Team Yellow's Casey, who serves grilled pork tenderloin with farro, cherries, sugar snap peas, and vinaigrette. Taylor likes Fabio's gnocchi, and Padma says that Casey's plate is heavier, which wouldn't be great for an athlete. Tom admires that Fabio's gnocchi has flavor, so Fabio wins, and Fabio leaps over the net and cheers for himself to let his team (who are way at the end of the court) know that he won. Spike is disappointed because, while they planned to lose the first round, they planned to lose it with their worst dish. Although from what Padma said, it didn't sound like Casey's dish would have won any round.
Team Orange originally planned to send Marcel up second (so I guess they did have a predetermined order, though it was never mentioned), but Dale says that his food isn't going to last another round, and he needs to serve immediately. Marcel is all pissy about it, since he had already started plating, but no one cares, because it's Marcel and he's pissy about 85% of the time. Team Yellow is in disarray, and Angelo suggests that they send up a strong dish to try to build momentum. Had they ever discussed whom to send second? Anyway, Tiffani says that she'll go, and since no one else appears to have a plan, she goes. Dale serves edamame dumpling with carrot froth and crispy soy nuts, and Tiffani serves sashimi of black bass, avocado, and ponzu vinaigrette. Tom comments that they are two strong dishes again, so I guess Casey's food was better than we heard. Gail likes the lightness of Tiffani's food, and gives her the win. Padma chooses Dale's food, although we don't know why, but Tom and Tony give it to Tiffani and they win. The score is now tied 15-15 (they are doing tennis-style scoring).
There doesn't appear to be much discussion over at Yellow at this point, as Angelo decides to go and no one argues, and Orange is sending Marcel since he was supposed to go earlier. Marcel serves cauliflower couscous with pomegranate seeds, golden raisins, and yellowfin tuna versus Angelo, who serves smoked tuna, yuzu gelee, red onion, and capers. Taylor Dent likes both dishes. Some judge he turned out to be. Tom felt he couldn't taste the tuna in Marcel's, so he gives Angelo the point. Tony and Gail both agree (although they don't explain why), and Angelo wins the point. So Yellow is up 30-15. Angelo and Tre do a giant flying chest bump that actually knocks Tre to the ground. Marcel pouts back to his team and bitches in an interview that Angelo always plates on a spoon. And you always do some weird foam, dude. We all have our quirks. Wait, why am I defending Angelo? Ugh. These two are the worst.
Team Yellow is scrambling, trying to decide who should go . They need two more points for the win and they have four people who have not yet served their food: Tiffany, Tre, Spike, and of course, Jamie. They check out the other end of the court and determine that Blais is plating. But then they tell Padma that they're sending Antonia up, so Tiffany quickly decides to go up. I seriously do no understand their strategy, if they even had one. They should have just frontloaded with their strongest chefs/dishes and tried to win the first five rounds, period. Tiffany starts plating and everyone is helping her, especially Angelo. Tiffany interviews that Angelo needs to keep his hands to himself. I think he just gets excited and overenthusiastic. Antonia serves diver sea scallop, Indian lentil puree, mint, dandelion greens, cilantro, and chives versus Tiffany's spiced tuna with fennel, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and lentil salad. Tony gives the point to Tiffany. Gail and Taylor give it to Antonia. Padma goes with Tiffany, so Tom has to break the tie, and he gives it to Antonia. The two teams can't hear what happens during judging so they have to wait for a reaction from the chefs, and when they don't get one, someone yells out, "Who won?" Antonia whirls triumphantly and yells, "I DID!" Ha. She runs back to her team and gets big hugs. The score is tied, 30-30.
Orange team announces that Blais is serving , so between Spike, Tre, and Jamie and the Uncooked Chickpeas, Team Yellow decides to go with Spike as their strongest remaining cheftestant. As Spike plates his dish, Tiffani and Angelo are right there offering up suggestions on how to improve it. Angelo asks Tiffani if he should put some of his gelee in Spike's sauce, which kind of seems like cheating, but Spike is right there and doesn't tell Angelo to back off. He does interview that he doesn't know if he can trust Angelo, and that this is not the dish that he originally conceptualized. I understand that things happen in the heat of the moment, but Spike of all people should be willing to stand up for himself. Blais serves "thai-bouleh" (a play on tabbouleh) with lamb, herbs, and yogurt versus Spike's tomato tamarind soup, olive oil poached shrimp, pineapple, tomatoes, and dill. Tony thinks that the proteins were the downfall in both dishes because Spike's shrimp was bland while Richard's lamb was gamy, but Richard's tabbouleh saved his dish and he gets the point. Padma agrees. Tom loved Spike's soup but hated the shrimp, so he also goes with Richard and Richard wins the point. Please note that the flaw mentioned in Spike's dish was the bland shrimp, which Spike himself noted was a problem since he had to recook his shrimp last minute and didn't have time to season properly. Anyway, Team Orange leads 40-30 and only needs one point to win.
Team Orange sends up Carla and Team Yellow has to decide between Jamie's undercooked beans or Tre, who has immunity. I read a blog comment somewhere that suggested that Team Yellow should have put Tre in charge of deciding service order, since he has immunity. He wouldn't really care if he served or not, since he has immunity, but he also would REALLY want his team to win, since he could potentially win then. I don't know, it makes just as much sense as serving your worst dish first. Casey points out that if Tre loses, he won't be up for elimination, and then only two of them will be up for elimination. Mike has zero confidence in Carla, and he stands right in front of her while she's plating and basically says, "Welp, I'll be serving against Jamie. Better start plating." Dude! So rude. Meanwhile, Angelo offers to help Tre, so Tre has him cook the salmon for his dish. Jamie notes that a few of them are burned. Shouldn't Jamie be cooking her stupid chickpeas? Anyway, Carla serves African groundnut soup with baked sweet potatoes, adzuki beans, and peanuts versus Tre's Coho salmon, parsnip puree, olive oil sauce with citrus, tomatoes, and olives. I think Carla's soup looks amazing and it's making me really hungry. Taylor likes the salmon. Tony loves Carla's soup, as does Padma. Gail mentions that the salmon was a bit overcooked, and Carla's soup was really spicy. BUT, she loves spicy food, so Carla gets it. Carla turns around and ululates in victory. I love that Dale and Blais both take off at a sprint to hug her. Take that, stupid Mike. And Dale. And everyone who doubted Carla's awesomeness. Carla and her bandaged finger celebrate with her team, as they are the winners.
Meanwhile, Team Yellow is trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Tre mentions that the judges thought the salmon was overcooked. Tiffany thinks Spike's plan was stupid. Well, you didn't follow Spike's plan, so we won't know if it was stupid or not, right? I mean, it all fell apart when the worst dish wasn't served first. Jamie admits that she dodged a bullet since she didn't have to serve, since she probably would have lost the point and would be up for elimination. This was a dumb challenge. Everyone should have had to serve and they should have cut out the tennis-style scoring.
Weird interstitial. Mike is goofy in the stew room. People dance and act the fool. It's fun. That was a perfect weird interstitial. Didn't add anything to the plot, so I could have skipped it, but it was fun to watch, so I'm glad I didn't.
Stew Room. Mike asks Jamie if she's upset that she didn't get to serve her food, and she says that she is, because she didn't get a chance to present her food. Spike interviews that Jamie should be up for elimination. It is weird that it's the second time she hasn't served anything and not been penalized. Padma comes in and asks to see Fabio, Carla, Blais, and Antonia, so these are the people up for the win.
Judges' Table. One of these four will be winning a trip to Italy. Gail thought it was some of the best food of all time. Blais explains that the strategy was not having a strategy, and they just sent people up randomly. Tony tells Carla that her soup could have been homey, but she elevated it. Gail tells Antonia that her layers of flavors were interesting, and the raisins were a great touch. Tom compliments Blais's tabbouleh, since he isn't going to mention that the lamb was gamy. Blais won't be winning this one. Tony tells Fabio that his gnocchi was light and miraculous. But the winner is Carla. YAY! In your face, stupid Dale and Mike! Carla wins a trip to Italy, and she is crying. In an interview, Carla admits that she wants to throw it in her teammates faces, but she also feels validated.
Carla has to send out Casey, Tiffany, Tre, and Spike for elimination. Blais points out to Jamie that she's kind of got a "story going on." Jamie says she's trying not to be offended and wants to know what he means. It's obviously kind of meta so they don't give much explanation, but I believe what he's saying is that she has given the editors something to work with now, and they will definitely craft a storyline around Jamie not cooking, since it's happened twice. I took it as a warning to her that she should watch what she says and does from here on out, because she's just giving the editors more ammunition. He wasn't saying, "You don't deserve to be in the competition" or even "You should have been eliminated this week." Just, "The editors need to craft storylines and arcs for the season, and you're giving them a good one, so think about it." Maybe I'm wrong, but he seemed really non-confrontational about it, and Jamie seemed really defensive, so I think she knew exactly what he meant.
Casey, Tiffany, Tre, and Spike head out to face the judges. Padma asks them what strategy they employed. Spike explains the "worst dish first" strategy they meant to employ and Casey shakes her head. Gail sounds surprised that they thought Casey's dish was the worst, and Spike says he didn't say that, and when Tom asks him directly, he says that he thought Jamie's was the worst. Colicchio wonders why Jamie isn't even up for elimination then, and says that their strategy backfired.
Spike explains that he seasoned his shrimp with salmon roe, and it was spicy, but then Angelo and Tiffani tossed his first three plates because they thought it would be too spicy. They did? How was that not on camera? Because what we saw was Angelo and Tiffani adding to food that was already plated? I'm confused. Tre is stifling a laugh. Spike says he just got overtaken and then Angelo threw some yuzu gelee in there. Padma asks if they got Spike's permission to do that, and Spike admits that they did, but he acts like he's so tired and over it all. I think he would be better off admitting fault. I think the judges like it when you can explain what's wrong with your dish and what you should have done differently, because everyone has off nights, and that shows that at least you had a good concept and good technique, but maybe the equipment was different than you're used to or whatever. Gail says that she thought Spike's dish was too sweet. Colicchio thinks the problem was bland shrimp. Tony thought it was a good soup, but too many chefs were in the kitchen. Tom brings up the obvious, that Angelo has been accused of sabotage in the past, and wonders if that's what's at play here. Tiffany admits that she was on the Angelo sabotage train in the past, but now she would rather be eliminated because of something she did herself rather than something someone else did to her dish. I think I would tell Angelo to keep his stinking hands out of my food. Tiffany suppresses a smirk like there is so much more she wanted to say, but she's holding back.
Gail asks Tiffany if she dressed her salad before serving, and Tiffany says that she did. Gail thought it was overdressed, and also didn't love the spice rub on the tuna. Tom pinpoints the problem as the spices having no finish, like a bad wine. Moving on to Tre, Tony asks if having immunity was in the back of his mind, because his salmon was overcooked and oily. Tre just kind of shrugs, and doesn't throw Angelo under the bus, because why? Tre knows he's not going home, and neither is Angelo, so what would be the point?
Padma thinks Casey's dish was kind of heavy, but Casey counters by saying that it was actually hearty. Padma calls it too much of a good thing, because there was a lot of pork loin. Tony adds that it's all about perception, and with more grain, it would have been healthier. Casey doesn't get it, so I guess this is her fighting for her dish.
The cheftestants are excused and the judges deliberate. Back in the Stew Room, Casey doesn't want to talk about it, because she thinks it doesn't matter. Spike says he told the judges that he thought there were too many hands in his dish, and he should have told everyone to back off and plated it himself. Well, he didn't tell the judges that. They told him that, kind of. Tiffany adds, "At the end of the day, you're responsible for your own plate."
The judges discuss the food. Gail says what the strategy should have been, which is to just make good food, since you can't control what your opponent does. Padma thinks it's lucky that Tre had immunity, and Tony wonders if maybe he phoned it in, because he knew he wasn't going home regardless. His dish does seem pretty lame, even if it were perfectly done. They all agree that Spike's shrimp needed salt, which is no one's fault but Spike's, and that he should have told everyone to leave his food alone (which is also Spike's fault). They think Casey's dish was too protein-heavy, even though Casey disagreed with that assessment. Gail wanted more of a farro salad. They all think that Tiffany's dish was underseasoned and lacking something. So who's going home?
The cheftestants come back out to find out who will be eliminated. Tom starts out by telling them that they seemed to get in the weeds and couldn't get their dishes out in time, which is where the trouble started. Tom thinks Casey had a decent dish, but just went up against someone better. He says that Tre gave the main part of his dish to someone else. So someone did tell the judges that Angelo did the salmon. Did Tre? Why not show that? Tom tells Spike that they liked his soup but the shrimp was underseasoned, and tells Tiffany that she gave them a bland piece of tuna. I really thought it was going to be Tiffany for some reason, but no. Spike is told to pack his knives and go. In his exit interview, Spike says that he got screwed, and that there are cheftestants left that aren't as good as he is. Spike is also pissed that Jamie got to stay without serving any food. Can't blame him. Spike still thinks he's the best of the best. He might want to work on his ridiculous hair, though. You can't wear a hat every day. I think that's the lesson that we've all learned.