There was quite an uproar last week when Kenny was eliminated from “Top Chef DC.” Many fans and even some of his fellow contestants were outraged, and rightly so. Was Alex a better chef? Really?? But the judges proved that they are sticklers for their own rules. Anyway, here is a recap of last night’s episode, as we get down to the meat of the season!

The show began with the Top 7 meeting up with Padma and also Wylie Dufresne, owner of restaurant WD-50 and a contestant on “Top Chef Masters.” They announced the quick fire challenge, for which the prize was $10K. They each had a mystery box in front of them, and they had to begin cooking with the ingredients in the box. However, more mystery boxes would keep coming, and as they did, they would have to incorporate those ingredients in as well. Yikes. There wound up being four boxes in all….fish, fava beans and honey; squid and black garlic; ramps and passion fruit; and jicama. Angelo was not feeling as confident as usual and it showed in his cooking. However, the least successful dishes were Alex and Amanda, and Wylie’s favorites were Tiffany and Kevin. The winner was Tiffany, who seems to keep winning lately and showing that she is truly a contender here.

For the elimination challenge, the chefs had to visit CIA headquarters, and create a classic dish that they were asked to disguise visually. Interesting challenge to be sure. Oh, and the winner would get a trip to Paris! They drew knives to see who wound up with what dish. Amanda had French onion soup, Ed chicken cordon bleu, Angelo beef wellington, Kelly kung pao shrimp, Tiffany had gyros, Kevin cobb salad and Alex veal parmesan. As they were cooking, Alex admitted that he’s only been a chef for six years. Really? How exactly did he land on this show? Anyway, I don’t know if he’s sandbagging or what, but Angelo is starting to slip. He decided to use frozen puffed pastry for his wellington and already Kevin and Ed were commenting that this wasn’t very smart. The thing is, Angelo knew it too, but his head was somewhere else.

As they were trying the dishes, CIA chief Leon Panetta, who was quite hilarious by the way, said that if Angelo were a spy and served that dish, they would have hung him. Ouch! Eric Ripert loved Tiffany’s dish, saying it was and “elegant” version of gyros, one of his favorite dishes to begin with. And they all felt Alex’s veal was very tough. Seriously, he’s a better chef than Kenny?

Anyway, Panetta was called away during the dinner, something his subordinates said is a regular occurrence. Wow, what a cool gig he must have. The chefs were all commenting that he must know where there are aliens living. Ha!

So the winning dishes of the night–Tiffany, Kelly and Ed. Tiffany made a nice fine-dining version of gyros; Kelly made her shrimp dish into a soup; and Ed made inside-out chicken cordon bleu, which wasn’t disguised well but that apparently tasted great. The winner? Tiffany!
She really is hitting her stride here, isn’t she?

The bottom 3 were Alex, Amanda and Angelo. Wylie flat-out told Alex that he had a nice disguise (tortellini) but that his dish was poorly executed. Amanda made….soup. Really? Nice disguise. And we already knew Angelo had failed as soon as he bought the puff pastry, but he got railed for not being more creative to begin with. Tom Colicchio said that he was very disappointed in all three of them, and he asked them point-blank if they felt seventh-best, because one of them would be. They all shook their heads. Well, we know Angelo is not seventh-best here. But neither was Kenny. In the end, it was Alex who was sent home. I mean, it had to be, though Amanda was a close second. But Alex getting this far was bordering on ridiculous.

So that’s it, we’re down to the final six — Angelo, Kelly, Kevin, Tiffany, Ed and Amanda. Amanda has to be next in line to go home, and after that I think any of the other five are potential winners. What do you think? Let me know and we’ll see you back here next week…

I’ll fill in the rest of the subject line in a bit. But first, let’s recap last night’s episode of “Top Chef DC” on Bravo. The quick fire challenge was one of the Top Chef favorites, the tag team challenge. They would break up into two teams of four, a red team and a blue team, and would each have 10 minutes while the rest of the team was blindfolded…ultimately creating a single dish. The winning team would receive $10K to split. Kevin and Ed drew knives and were the team captains, and Kevin was allowed to choose first. He picked Kenny, and Ed chose Tiffany. Kevin also wound up with Kelly and Amanda, while Ed chose Angelo and Alex. Well, he didn’t choose Alex.

Everything went smooth for both teams except for one thing–Alex went second in the relay and seasoned some fish, which should have been the last thing done. The blue team’s dish was prawns with pasta in a mustard sauce. The red team’s was a pan seared snapper dish. Judging the challenge would be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She liked both dishes but thought that the blue team had a slight edge because the red team’s fish was…..wait for it…..too salty. Alex really blew it for his team and cost them a lot of money!

The elimination challenge was another Top Chef favorite–restaurant wars. They would be in the same teams that they had for the quick fire challenge, and they’d be taking over the Redwood restaurant for the evening. They’d have a wait staff and had to create a 3-course menu, with each of them conceptualizing and being responsible for at least one dish. They would also be judged this week by, in addition to Padma, Tom and Gail, former New York Times food critic Frank Bruni. Bruni is known for being one of the toughest critics in the business. Also on hand would be Bill and John Terlato from the Terlato Vinyards in California wine country.

The red team nominated Alex to be front of house, mainly because they didn’t trust his cooking skills. The blue team chose Kelly. They also had to appoint executive chefs, and red team went with Angelo while blue chose Kenny. As they got to work, the blue team was working well together and appeared confident, while the red team was bickering. Angelo was strong-arming his teammates and Alex was just being Alex. Angelo even said he didn’t want any talking in the kitchen. Say WHAT? I’m sorry, this guy is a douche.

In the front of house, Kelly was so much better than Alex. Alex didn’t greet or say goodbye to the judges, and he was stumbling over the menu, calling lamb pork at one point. Kelly wasn’t great, but she was decent. Meanwhile, the judges loved the fish dishes made by Ed and Kevin, and weren’t crazy about the beet salad and goat cheese dish Kenny made. They also didn’t like Kelly’s corn soup or Amanda’s beef, which was way overcooked.

In the end, the red team won. I think they were as surprised as the blue team and all of us, especially considering how bad Alex was. So they won, which meant that Ed, Tiffany, Angelo and Alex were all safe.

The blue team was the losing team, and they were PISSED. The judges said Kelly was okay at the front of the house, but that they had too many poorly executed dishes. They didn’t like Kenny’s dishes, but were complimentary of his job as executive chef. As they were on the chopping block, Kenny blurted out that he thought his team should have won, and that the red team was bickering the whole time. Gail defended them, saying all the judges care about is the food and the service, not how everyone treats each other in the kitchen. Kenny also pointed out that Alex was not responsible for a single dish, that Angelo and Ed conceived Alex’s dish and cooked it too. As the judges deliberated, Kevin also let the red team have it, singling out Alex and telling him that he should be the one going home.

When the blue team went back to face the judges, I had a feeling they would send Amanda home, because she failed at her one dish. But in the end, it was Kenny they sent packing. The guy who seemed like a favorite early on was consistently in the middle of the pack or at the bottom way more often over the last few weeks, but this was still sort of shocking. I think in a way, maybe in a big way, Tom did not appreciate Kenny throwing someone under the bus the way he did. But I’ll say this…Kenny was right. Not only did the red team not follow the rules, they were obnoxious and led by a douche. And I have to admit, I think the judges have a hard-on for Angelo, and want to see him in the finale at all costs. The cost in this case was sending Kenny home when it should have been Alex. You mean to tell me Alex is a better candidate to become Top Chef than Kenny? No way.

So now, I say to you…..”Oh my G-D, they whacked Kenny…….you bastards!”

Anyway, we’re now down to seven–Amanda, Angelo, Kelly, Kevin, Alex, Tiffany and Ed. I think this is going to come down to Angelo, Ed, Kelly and either Tiffany or Kevin. Amanda and Alex should and probably will be sent home next.

So what do you think? Am I out of line for thinking this was semi-fixed? Let me know in the space below and I’ll see you guys back here next week!

Last night on “Top Chef: DC,” the theme was related to Congress, as host Padma Lakshmi introduced congressman Aaron Schock from Illinois (dude is not even 30 years old!). Anyway, Schock told the chef-testants that they had to keep lobbyists from buying them expensive dinners and so they have rules that they can only have small bites when getting together for food. So the quick fire challenge was to create a small bite that packed the punch of a full meal. The winner would win not only immunity this week, but $20K. Wow!

The least favorite dishes were Ed’s duo of tuna; Alex’s pan-seared scallop; and Kelly’s bay scallop with watermelon. The top dishes were Kevin’s pork kebab; Angelo’s cucumber cup with shrimp and cashews; and Stephens surf and turf with crispy potato. The winner was…Angelo. Of course it was. Is he annoying all of you as much as he is me? I know he’s going to be in this till the finale though.

The elimination challenge was a power lunch at The Palm steakhouse….there would be five groups of two cooking with the same protein, but this would be an individual competition. The judges would be Padma, Tom and Gail Simmons, as well as guest judge Art Smith and several Capitol Hill dignitaries and TV personalities. The winner would have their dish on the menu at this Palm location and their face on the wall of caricatures. Head judge Tom Colicchio would be watching over them all in the kitchen too. There was some drama when Ed accused Alex of stealing his pea puree….and I’m sorry, I believe Ed…Alex seems a bit squirrely.

Amanda and Kelly went first with porterhouse steaks….but Amanda cut her’s off the bone, creating a duo with NY strip and filet, but the judges liked it enough. Kelly’s, however, had too much salt.

Oh, and why did they keep showing Tom in the kitchen trying each dish, but not saying anything? That was oddly creepy.

Andrea and Tiffany had swordfish and they weren’t fond of Andrea’s, which had like mustard and vanilla flavors…blech! But Tiffany’s came out well.

Stephen and Alex made salmon and the judges were fawning over Alex’s pea puree. Hmmmm.

Kenny and Kevin had lamb, the very protein that almost had Kenny sent home last week. Kevin’s dish came out not so good this time, with too much spice.

Angelo and Ed had lobster, and Ed hung in there and found a replacement for his pea puree.

The top dishes were Alex, Tiffany and Ed. Art Smith went off about how much he loved the pea puree and announced Alex as the winner. You could see Ed’s teeth gritting, and then Kenny declared Alex to be a thief and was pissed for Ed. Wow. That was crazy….I just wonder if any of it was staged.

The bottom three were Kelly, Andrea and Kevin. Kelly’s dish had way too much salt and Kevin’s way too much spice, but in the end it was Andrea who was sent home. They didn’t like that there was too much going on on the plate, and that the flavors were beating each other up. Also, Andrea admitted she doesn’t like swordfish or cook with it, so she was almost conceding beforehand. Meanwhile, Kevin and Kelly dodged a bullet.

And Angelo, of course, was in the middle this time because he had immunity. I’m sure he sandbagged it just to keep everyone guessing. So annoying.

Well that’s it folks…this season is about halfway there…..who do you like? Who don’t you like? Thanks for reading and see you next week…

Last night on “Top Chef: DC” it was all about peer pressure, literally. the chef-testants had to judge each other in the elimination challenge, but more on that later. First, they had the quick fire challenge, and for that Miami restaurateur Michelle Bernstein was on hand to help Padma judge. Michelle and Andrea knew each other from the Miami scene and Andrea admitted to having quite a rivalry with Michelle.

The challenge was to create a dish with exotic proteins, which they would draw randomly for. They included yak, emu egg, ostrich, wild boar, llama, rattlesnake and even duck testicles! The best part was when Angelo took the duck balls, which were called something like duck kidney beans, and was mortified when he realized what they were. But as they were cooking, Padma entered the kitchen and threw them a curveball–“take over the protein to your left!” You could hear 11 groans coming from wherever you were.

The least favorite dishes were Stephen’s frog legs, Alex’s ostrich and Andrea’s wild boar. Andrea was seething at that point.

The top dishes were Kelly’s emu egg omelet, Tamesha’s duck tongue soup and Amanda’s roasted llama. Ewwwwww!!!! The winner was Kelly, and she had immunity for this week’s elimination challenge. No matter, she is a front runner at this point anyway.

The elimination round was to cook a dish served cold, and they would prepare their dish on a moving cruise ship. They would then serve the judges back on the land. There would be two groups, A and B, and those groups would serve the judges and each other, with their peers voting on who had the worst dish and who had the best dish. The two worst would be up for elimination. Wow. Talk about peer pressure, literally.

The teams were Amanda, Kevin, Kenny, Alex and Ed; and Angelo, Andrea, Stephen, Tiffany and Tamesha.

For the first group, the judges chose Kevin’s veal and tuna surf and turf as the best. They picked Kenny’s grilled lamb two ways as the worst, and Kenny felt like he was sabotaged, especially with Angelo on the opposing team.

For the second team, the judges liked Tiffany’s fennel and pepper ahi tuna the best, and Tamesha’s scallops with weird and bold flavors the worst.

The judges asked Kevin and Tiffany to come in first and declared them winners. Kevin was the top chef this week and he was thrilled to have won, especially since he’s already been on the chopping block a few times. Meanwhile, Kenny and Tamesha were on the block. They were both surprised to be there, and Kenny told the judges he thought he was being singled out. They disagreed, saying his dish had too many things going on flavor-wise. They also said the same thing about Tamesha’s scallops, that there were flavors fighting with each other, and the scallops were partially raw. In the end, it was Tamesha being sent home, and Kenny was safe. However, he’s now been in the bottom twice, so maybe he is not all that. I’m starting to feel like this could be Angelo and Kelly leading the pack.

Speaking of Angelo, his taking Tamesha under his wing appears to have been a ploy….because he coached Tamesha through her scallop dish and told her it was great. Hmmmm.

So that’s it…..we’re now down to 10…..and this season is moving along rapidly along with our summer. See you guys next week and thanks for reading!

Last night’s episode of “Top Chef DC” was another battle between Kenny and Angelo. This time, they freely admitted that they were in a battle for who was the bigger alpha male. And Kenny proved to be just that, while Angelo showed several signs of being, well, Mr. Creepy.

Here is how it went down. The show began with a little fluff, like who in the house is doing who. And Angelo was hitting on Tamesha and acting like a creepy old man in the process. Ed was hitting on Tiffany in a weird manner too. Such is life on a reality show I guess.

Then it was time for the quick fire challenge, and the guest judge was chef Patrick O’Connell, from Maryland. So since it was Maryland, there were blue crabs involved, and lots of them. The simple challenge–to create a dish using crab. Well, duh.

Patrick’s least favorite crab dishes were by Andrea (warm crab salad), Amanda (crab salad with juniper gelee) and Kevin (blue crab chowder). His favorites were Ed (Thai inspired crab), Kenny (crab 3 ways) and Angelo (crab broth with Thai flavors). So here’s a question….why did nobody make crab cakes? Seriously….there were more soups and salads than than anything, making it feel like a Weight Watchers meeting. Anyway, the winner was Ed, and he got immunity for this week.

For the elimination challenge, the chefs were sent on a field trip to Ayrshire Farms, one of the country’s largest all-organic farms. They would be serving lunch family style for 40 local chefs and farmer, along with O’Connell and regular judges Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Eric Ripert.

But the challenge was also to work as one big team. This led to a battle between Angelo and Kenny, who each proclaimed, out loud, that they wanted to be the big dog, the alpha male, the guy who had to take control. And it not only slowed down the process, but pissed off everyone else in the room. Finally they agreed to break into teams of two, since each chef would be responsible for one aspect of the meal anyway. They also agreed to have the same pairings as last week, something that irked Ed because he didn’t want to work with Alex again.

Tim and Kelly got into an argument over the fact that Tim took too many vegetables and left Kelly with nothing, but Kelly was allowed to take beets and left Tim with all of the turnips. Then Kenny knocked over Kevin’s cauliflower cous cous. Sounds disgusting anyway! Anyway, Kevin wasn’t fazed, and started over using broccoli instead.
And oh yeah, Angelo was commenting about Tamehsa’s cherry sauce and even called it “sexy.” Come on dude, dial it back a bit.

Colicchio was acting like Simon Cowell through most of the meal, really berating most of the chefs for not taking basic rudimentary things into account when making their dishes.

So at the judges’ table, they first asked to see Kevin, Kenny, Kelly and Andrea. Kevin made that broccoli cous cous, which the judges actually thought was delicious. Go figure. Kenny made a curried eggplant that the judges were just raving about. Kelly made roasted beets and apples, and even decided to make a dessert for bonus points–strawberry rhubarb crisp with basil whipped cream, which the judges loved. Andrea made a pork loin that also went over really well.

The bottom three were Amanda, Tim and Stephen. Amanda made a minestrone soup, and was saying stuff like, “Progresso, eat your heart out.” Ha! She then proceeded to not cut the vegetables uniformly, making her carrots three times the size of the other veggies, and therefore not cooking them enough. Oops. Tim was going to make a turnip puree but wound up just serving roasted cubed turnips. The judges thought this was a bad move. And Stephen made a salad, and claimed that it was an awesome salad with lots of ingredients and big flavors. The judges, however, thought it was a weighted down bunch of vegetables that were wilted from too much dressing. You just had the feeling that was going to be the reaction for one of these chefs making a freaking salad in an elimination challenge.

So who would it be? Tim……dude just hasn’t shown quite enough these first few weeks. But seriously, Amanda and Stephen are going to be right behind in heading to the exit.

What do you think? Who do you like so far? I’m having a hard time not pulling for Kenny. He may be trying to act like a top dog, but he’s not obnoxious about it whatsoever. Thanks for reading and see you all next week!