Last night was the part of the “Top Chef” season that everyone looks forward to–contestants, judges and viewers. But it was especially cool for “Top Chef All-Stars,” and the show began last night with Antonia mentioning how she seems to be bad luck to fellow teammates, who kept getting eliminated around her. Anthony Bourdain hosted the quick fire challenge at Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin restaurant, and this dude, Justo Thomas, was butchering fish like a madman. This guy is amazing…he can cut perfect portions of fish while leaving a carcass and skin, and do it in like 8 minutes. The challenge was to do this in 10 minutes, butchering portions of cod and fluke. The top four would compete for immunity by making a dish or dishes using all parts of the discarded fish–head, bones, skin, etc. (BLECH!!!!!) in the elimination challenge. In the bottom were Fabio, Tiffany, Carla and Antonia, and the best were Dale, Richard, Mike and Marcel. Dale won with his Fluke backfin sashimi with fluke liver sauce, and he had immunity for the main challenge.

Guest judge Ludo Lefebvre was on hand with host Padma Lakshmi, and his concept of a “pop-up” restaurant in which the menu of small bites constantly changes was the theme for restaurant wars. Dale won the quick fire, so he would head up the first team, and he would pick the head of the other team. He went with Marcel, who he doesn’t get along with, and it was a brilliant move. Marcel then had the first pick and went with Angelo while Dale snagged Richard. Marcel also wound up with Mike, Tiffany and Antonia; while Dale had Fabio, Carla and Tre. He called Fabio the “steal of the draft” because Dale knew Fabio was the best front of house guy in the history of the show. Also a brilliant move.

The challenge would take place at the Foundry Restaurant, and right from the start you could tell that Dale’s team was going to kick ass, while Marcel’s had no leadership and a bunch of bickering. Dale’s was called “Bodega” while Marcel’s was called “Etch.” The diners would be voting, not the judges, though the judges would be among the diners and so would folks like Food & Wine’s Dana Cowan.

As suspected, this was a blowout. Dale’s team was totally in synch, had a great menu and executed it nicely. Marcel’s team was just a mess, put out some bad food and offered horrible service with Tiffany running front of house.

Some of Bodega’s dishes included a play on bacon, egg & cheese; tuna in a “can” with fried chicken skin; pork shoulder with grits; and a play on blueberry pie with dry ice cream. Etch made dishes such as crudo of fluke; asparagus and egg salad; slow cooked lamb chops and a duo of peaches. The service with Fabio for Bodega was light years better, and the Bodega restaurant team won with 59 of 76 votes.

Richard was the overall winner, and his dish was a chicken fried cod with “Brussels kraut” and ginger beer. I don’t like seafood and it looked amazing. So up on the chopping block were Marcel, Angelo, Mike, Tiffany and Antonia. Of course Antonia was on the losing team! And of course she wasn’t going home. That distinction went to Marcel, who couldn’t lead and made some mediocre dishes. Even during the chopping block scene, Mike blurted out that Marcel was a “time bomb.” Ouch. But he was right,and Marcel went home. Dale had a positively brilliant strategy because he knew Marcel would shoot himself in the foot and be sent home.

So now we’re down to nine–Dale, Richard, Fabio, Carla, Tre, Angelo, Mike, Tiffany and Antonia. I’m going with Dale, Richard, Angelo and Carla as my final four. What do you think? Or is it still too early to think about that? Thanks for reading and see you next week…

Thankfully, last night’s episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox was just one hour, or one episode instead of two lumped into one. They must have realized that if they kept doubling them up, the show would be over by Thanksgiving. Anyway, here is our recap of last night, and we’re now down to five chefs!

Initial challenge: Amuse-bouche (quick bite) challenge with guest judges Ludo Lefebvre, Quinn and Karen Hatfield, Suzanne Tracht, and Michael Cimarusti
Mistakes: One judge said Nona’s shrimp and grits smelled like “body odor.” Ouch! And Trev’s frog legs were also a mess
Winner: Russell, for his hamachi broth
Prize: Tour of LA Market, and lunch with Gordon Ramsay and executive chef Kerry Simon. Russell was allowed to bring one person with him and he chose Gail since she finished second in the challenge
Punishment: Cleaning the dorms and having to listen to Trev whine
Dinner service: Tableside Steak Diane
Mistakes: Gail undercooked scallops; Trev overcooked pasta; Gail’s fish stuck to the pan; Jillian over-salted mashed potatoes; Gail “poached” her grilled salmon; Russ’ beef was raw in the middle. Ramsay pulled them all aside and said, “No more mistakes!” They straightened up for a bit before screwing up more. Russ’ steak was raw again, and that set Ramsay off.
Quote: Ramsay, to all chefs: “Get out!”
Winner: No winner. The remaining six chefs had to come up with a consensus two nominees for elimination
On the block: Trev and Sabrina. Sabrina started whining, though, about how she thought Gail screwed up more than she did and waah, waah, waah! Man, she’s annoying.
Going home: Sabrina, because the producers have mercy on us.
So that’s it, we’re down to the final five—Trev, Nona, Russ, Gail and Jillian. Does that seem to you like the weakest final five ever? You have to believe it’s Russ’ job to lose. But we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!

Rick had green and made a roasted vegetable dish with green mole sauce over a banana leaf. CIndy drew yellow, and made a vegetable curry over yellow tinted grits with corn tortillas. Wilo had orange, and made a salmon tartare with carrots and orange edible flowers. Ludo had red, and made a beet gazpacho and steak tartare. But he forgot the tomatoes, and then the wait staff forgot his beet juice, at least temporarily. The judges, former “Top Chef” contestants, liked Wilo’s salmon the best, giving him 4.5 stars. Rick scored 4, Cindy 3.5 and Ludo 3. Ludo, the Frenchman that he is, was bitter in falling behind so early.

Then, for the main challenge, the chefs were asked to create a street food dish for the tourists visiting Universal Studios, but there was a twist. They had to make street food using disgusting ingredients made palatable. If you’re sqeamish, stop reading here. Wilo had beef hearts, Rick had tongue, Cindy tripe (cow stomach), and Ludo pig’s ears. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I’m not sure I would touch any of that stuff, much less put it in my belly, no matter how you doctor it up. They had 45 minutes to shop and a $300 budget.

Anyway, Wilo made a pocket sandwich with thinly sliced beef hearts, as well as some chicken and ham to disguise the hearts. Rick, whose expertise is Mexican food, made tongue tacos. Yum. Cindy went with a Hispanic classic, menudo soup, which is best known to cure hangovers. And Ludo made pig ear quesadillas, the catch being that he’d never made a quesadilla in his life. Ha!

It was fascinating to see how they made these dishes palatable. Ludo, who admitted than in France they are trained to cook “anything,” and that he’d made pig ears before, cooked them for like two hours in a broth before chopping up and putting them in quesadillas. But he was having trouble with his grill and didn’t get off to a great start.

Anyway, the judges (along with the guests at Universal, the usual trio of James Oseland, Gael Greene and Jay Rayner) discussed the results. They loved Rick’s tacos, so we knew with Rick being .5 behind Wilo that he had a shot at winning. They also thought Ludo did a great job with the toughest ingredient, but that the pig ears themselves were kind of bland (um, really? They are freaking ears!) Wilo’s sandwiches and Cindy’s soup were good, but not as good as Rick’s tongue tacos.

Cindy’s score between the diners and the judges was 12, giving her a final score of 15.5. Ludo’s diner/judge score totaled 13.5, giving him 16.5, and eliminating Cindy. Then Rick knocked it out of the park, with one 5 and a few 4.5’s, for 18.5 and a final score of 22.5. That brought it down to Wilo and Rick. Wilo started with 4.5, and his combined score from the judges was 15, giving him a final score of 19.5, and Rick Bayless the victory. (Interesting side note for you sports fans….Bayless is the brother of sports writer and ESPN personality Skip Bayless.)

Anyway, Rick moves on to the final round along with Hubert Keller and Suzanne Tracht, as well as the next three round winners. Hopefully the challenges won’t be as disgusting next time around! See you next week…