“Hell’s Kitchen” is barreling toward the finale already, but wait….now there will be a 2-3 week break for playoff baseball. Anyway, when they resume in early November there will be 8 contestants left and they will probably keep up with the two-episodes-in-one thing until just after Thanksgiving. Either way, here is our rapid-fire recap of last night’s doubleheader:

EPISODE 1

Initial challenge: Spinning a roulette wheel with letters. Using said letters to choose ingredients to then make a meal with. This was a team challenge. Blue team had kale, yams, miso, striped bass and asparagus. Red team had rutabaga, cauliflower, bok choy, fennel and salmon
Mistakes: Blue team did not exciting with asparagus or yams; and red team’s rutabaga chips were terribly bitter.
Winner: Red team
Prize: Trip to Vegas, lap of luxury prize and even hanging out with Penn and Teller
Punishment: Peeling and prepping a truck load of potatoes for the next dinner service
Dinner service: Family night, including chef Ramsay’s family
Mistakes: Vinny trying to re-use risotto, Nona too slow on garnish, Russell not being a team player and not bailing Rob out when he was sinking at his station, Trev and Sabrina arguing instead of working together
Quote: Ramsay said that 90% of the customers “left………happy”
Winner: Both teams, as it was one of the best services this season
On the block: Sabrina, Nona, Boris and Rob
Going home: Nobody. Ramsay asked Nona and Rob to step forward, again because you can’t send ratings darlings Sabrina or Boris home yet, right? Then he told Rob to give him his jacket…because it needed cleaning. Rob’s quote: “Come on chef, you can’t do that to a fat guy.” Classic.

EPISODE 2

Initial challenge: Starting at high end grocery store Bristol Farms, the chefs had to choose ingredients for under $60 per team and create four fine dining dishes. Guest judges were Mark Peel, Sophie Gayot, Libby Rego, and Justin Wyborn–a collection of great chefs and journalists
Mistakes: Not many…and it was incredible to see how much each judge would pay for each dish.
Winner: Red team, again.
Prize: Sailing for the day and lunch on the water. But Trev kept saying he didn’t feel welcome on his team, and they were giving him the cold shoulder
Punishment: Prepping kitchen and dining room for black tie, 100th episode anniversary dinner.
Dinner service: Elegant black tie affair, including chef’s tables with former “Hell’s Kitchen” winners–Rock, Christina, Danny and Holli.
Mistakes: Nona messed up the risotto, while Boris lit his on fire…Trev was completely in over his head with garnishes and could not keep up…Vinny made chewy lobster, as some of the dishes were returned to the kitchen…all of Trev’s teammates were helping him, leaving other stations unattended….Russell was not communicating, and Rob missed a ticket and had to rush cooking chicken, which of course was undercooked
Quote: “Get out!”–Ramsay to Trev, telling him to go get some fresh air
Winner: Red team
On the block: Boris and Vinny. But Ramsay asked Rob to also step forward.
Going home: Boris, finally. Whew. Okay, now just one whack job (Sabrina) left.

But wait…….Ramsay then said he wasn’t done yet….and asked Trev to also step forward. And then the dreaded “To Be Continued” appeared on the screen. Which means they wanted to leave us hanging for a few weeks. Don’t worry, producers…I’m surely not going to lose any sleep wondering if Trev is getting kicked off the show or not. In fact, I know he’s just going back to the blue team, because that’s how you guys roll!

Thanks for reading everyone, and see you in a few weeks!

We’re three episodes into Bravo’s “Top Chef: Las Vegas,” and already it’s looking like this is going to be a race between Jennifer and like half a dozen guys. So far, everyone that’s been eliminated has been female, and a few of the next chefs to be cut are likely to be women as well, judging by recent history.

Last night the episode (which was a too-long 75 minutes) began with a quick fire challenge, as the contestants were greeted by host Padma Lakshmi and chef Mark Peel (who was recently on “Top Chef Masters”). The theme of the challenge was potatoes, and they were asked to create an “out of this world” potato dish in 45 minutes time.

Since we still have way too many contestants and could use pages of cyberspace saying what each one made, we’ll continue to just give you the best and worst, since that’s what Peel would be judging anyway.
His least favorite were Eli, Ron, and Jesse. Eli made some sort of sweet potato dish with pistachios, and Padma had the misfortune of chomping on a shell. Ron made some sort of yellow tail fish with potatoes, and made reference to Bob Marley (Ron is Jamaican) but his dish lacked flavor. Jesse made a sweet potato soup but was too heavy on the cayenne pepper.

Peel’s favorites were Jen, who made some sort of mussel and potato dish with broth; Ash, whose ice cream instead turned into a custard, which made him laugh that he actually came out on top; and Ben Folds (Ashley), who was almost inadvertently sabotaged by Preeti, and scrambled to finish her gnocchi dish in time. Jen won the challenge and her prize was immunity this week, and one of the guys made a comment about Jen being a teacher’s pet of sorts. Yeah, but that’s because she is a damn good cook, guys, and she has an arrogance that she can back up.

Then came the elimination challenge, and after meeting an Air Force base colonel, the group was told they would be cooking as one team for 300 or so Air Force “Thunderbirds” and their families. But the catch was, they would not know their ingredients and cooking untensils until they arrived at the base. When they did arrive, they realized they would be dealing mostly with canned foods and no pots or pans or stove tops. Yikes.

They decided to break up into teams of two to streamline the process, with each chef being responsible mostly for one dish. Jen was assigned the title of executive chef since she had immunity, something she is familiar with doing outside the show. The last two to not be picked for teams were Ron and Jesse, who then had to work with each other.

After serving everyone, including Peel and the three regular judges (Padma, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons), they were asked to pick their favorites and least favorites. The judges asked Mike, Michael, Eli and Kris Kringle (Kevin) to face them. They praised Michael, who made some sort of pork belly dish that they couldn’t get enough of; but berated Mike, who threw together a cold shrimp salad that was bland and uninspired. They loved Eli and Kris Kringle’s tag-team of braised pork and potato salad, staying true to their Southern roots and reminding Peel of his grandmother’s cooking. But the winner was Michael.

Then, they stunned Mike by saying they wanted him to return to the losers’ bracket along with Laurine and Preeti. Mike was again lashed at for his shrimp dish, but he was like a pit bull trying to defend himself. The judges appreciated his fire, but were still correct in saying he should have not made the dish at all, and instead should have focused on helping Michael. Preeti and Laurine were another team, and they made a pasta salad with veggies like sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes that looked boring as hell. Laurine said she forgot it was a competition for a minute, that she was more focused on and honored about feeding the troops. Preeti, however, said that she didn’t believe anything was wrong with the dish. After deliberating, the judges told Preeti to pack her knives and go, and it was mostly because she really believed her flavorless and boring pasta was one of the best dishes. Tom even said to her, “Do you want to just get by week after week, or do you want to win?” And when he answered his own question, the choice was easy.

So three women have gone home–Jen with the big hoop, disgusting earrings and very large tattoos; Eve, and Preeti.

The next several weeks will likely see chefs such as Jesse, Ron and Laurine heading home. Michael, Brian, Jennifer, and Kris Kringle appear to be the top contenders, but you just never know how things are going to shake out on “Top Chef.” See you all next week…..

Host Kelly Choi announced the quickfire challenge, and as they have been using some of the more interesting challenges from past seasons of “Top Chef,” they continued that by asking the chefs to create a dish with eggs, but with one hand tied behind their back. The judges were “Top Chef” regular Gail Simmons, as well as two other experts in eggs including a diner owner. Douglas went first and made a corn cake with eggs and ham. Mark, who said his dad was born with one arm, knew a little something about this particular “disability,” was a bit more ambitious, making a duck egg pasta with an olive oil cream sauce. Anita cooked the egg in its shell with shiitake mushrooms and truffle oil. And John made simple slow-cooked eggs, but he cooked them too slowly, because they weren’t done in the 25-minute alotted time.

Douglas scored a 3.0, and Mark a 2.5 because he omitted of all things, the olive oil. Anita scored the maximum 5.0 as the judges just loved her dish, and John, because he salvaged one of his eggs by stove-cooking for a couple minutes, received 0.5 points when he expected to not have any points at all.

The main challenge was to cook for actor Neil Patrick Harris and a few of his friends, two of which were magicians (and Harris is also a magician as a hobby), as well as judges Gael Greene, James Oseland and Simmons, in a magic castle in Hollywood. They each had a theme to base their creation on–Doug had “spectacle,” Anita “illusion,” John had “surprise,” and Mark had “mystery.”

Mark went first and made a Tai snapper in parchment along with garlic mashed potatoes and leeks with a lobster sauce. He also served it with scallion oil and Dassai Sake wine. The judges loved his mystery aspect and also the food.

Next was John, and his big surprise was using liquid nitrogen to make a horseradish sorbet. His dish was a salmon tartare with cauliflower blini served with the sorbet, along with a cucumber and salmon roe salad, as well as tempura fried lobster. The judges were a bit freaked out by the frigid sorbet, most of all Harris, who was asked to help John make the sorbet at table.

Anita was next and made a braised daikon with Kombu caviar and steak tartare. She meant for it to look like a sea scallop with shellfish broth, with the illusion that it was served on a bed of sand. They all loved this one, both for the taste of the food and for the creativity Anita put into it.

Douglas closed with duck four ways, first with an oyster seviche (what’s with all the raw food? Blech!), an empanada with foie gras and figs, duck breast with butternut squash puree, and a duck broth served in a coconut bowl that was literally on fire (the main part of his spectacle). Everyone there was afraid of the flaming coconuts, and they didn’t particularly love his food.

At the judge’s table, John scored an 11.5, giving him 12 points total. Douglas was next, and he only scored 10 points, but his grand total of 13 points eliminated John. Mark did better, scoring 16 points with the diners and judges, giving him 18.5 and eliminating Douglas. Now it was down to Anita, and since she had a big head start and the fact that the judges loved her creation, we could all see this coming. Anita scored 17.5, giving her 22.5 overall and the title. Her charity was breast cancer research, and she will compete in the final rounds with Hubert Keller, Suzanne Tracht, and Rick Bayless.

Only two more initial rounds and then the real fun begins. I think Anita is going to be a really tough competitor for the other five in the finals, but we’ll see. Let me know what you all thought of the show last night….