Okay, now in a finale that seems to be lasting a month, because it is lasting a month, we are finally down to the final two chef-testants who will battle it out for the title of Top Chef next week. But first host Padma Lakshmi started out with celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck for the quickfire challenge, which would be to do a choice of a past quickfire challenge. However, the chefs would be assigned these by a competing chef. Yikes. Mike chose first and had Antonia do the “only canned food” challenge; Antonia gave richard the hot dog challenge, which wasn’t a huge stretch; and Richard gave Mike the one-pot-only challenge. Then Padma entered the kitchen halfway through, and added one more twist–they would have to use a crutch from a previous quickfire–Richard assigned Mike the “no utensils” challenge; Antonia gave Richard the one-hand-only challenge; and Antonia had the one remaining, which was to finish the task while having recently-eliminated Carla tied to her.

Antonia made a curry soup; Richard made hot dog and homemade roti bread with a ketchup sauce; and Mike made pork and beans with pork shoulder cooked in a pressure cooker.

Then, for the elimination challenge, the chefs had to make the “last supper” request of a specific celebrity chef–Puck, Michelle Bernstein, or Masaharu Morimoto. Yikes. Mike won the quick fire so he had the choice of who to cook for, and also who to assign his competitors to–he chose Michelle, and gave Antonia Morimoto and gave Richard Puck. So Puck’s last supper was goulash with spaetzele and apple strudel; Michelle’s was fried chicken; and Morimoto’s was a benton box of fish and sticky rice.

Each of them did nicely, but each had faults as well. Now, Padma had told them to be warned of an envelope that contained another twist. And that this was the judges’s table, which included her, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and the three celebs they were cooking for. Well, the first thing they did was to tell Richard he was in the finale. Whew. Thankfully they gave the guy a break this time and didn’t make him sweat any more. But then here came the twist. Padma opened the envelope and said that Mike and Antonia had to cook again–45 minutes to create one bite for the marbles of getting to the finale and face Richard. Yikes.

So Antonia made a coconut curry and Mike made a surf and turf with lobster and beef tartare. And the judges loved and disliked things about both of the bites. This was gonna be a tough decision. Mrs. Mike thought Mike was going home and I had hoped he was right, because he’s become super-cocky. But it was Antonia, who fell just short again.

So the finale next week for all the marbles will be Richard vs. Mike. I’ve been touting Richard all along but I’m quite surprised Mike made it this far. But he really is blowing these people away with his dishes.

So there you have it…..who do you like? And see you all next week for the grand finale of Top Chef All Stars!

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!

On Bravo’s “Top Chef: Las Vegas” last night, Penn and Teller were guests as well as chef Michelle Bernstein. But there was no magic act when it came to elimination time….because there are a few of these contestants that are hanging by a thread with the likes of Jennifer, Kris Kringle (Kevin) and the brothers Voltaggio that are barreling toward a showdown.

For the quick fire challenge with Bernstein as the judge, the chefs had to create a dish that displayed their own personal battle (i.e. something like an artery clogging dish alongside a heart-healthy one). The winner would have immunity for the elimination challenge.

The least favorites were Ash, who made some sort of custard; Brian, who made a chocolate dish that probably tasted better than it looked, or maybe not; and Laurine, who Bernstein said made a dish with no inspiration. Yikes. The favorites were Michael, who made two kinds of salmon; Eli, who made a risotto; and Robin, who made a raw salad that representer her surviving cancer, and a decadent apple crisp. Robin won, and Eli was bitter afterward, saying Robin used her cancer to gain an edge. Dude, easy!

On to the main challenge and replacing Gail Simmons this week would be British wiseass critic Toby Young. Vegas staples Penn & Teller would also be on hand to help eat and judge. The challenge was to de-construct classic dishes so that all of the flavors would blend together at the end to taste like the original dish. Some of the chefs were baffled by this challenge, including Jennifer who was fearing elimination for once.

Here is what they wound up choosing randomly:
Mike Isabella: eggs florentine
Mike V.: Caesar salad
Brian: Reuben sandwich
Laurine: fish & chips
Ash: shepherd’s pie
Jen: meat lasagna
Ron: paella
Eli: sweet & sour pork
Ben Folds (Ashley): pot roast
Kris Kringle: chicken mole
Robin: New England clam chowder

As they were cooking, Eli’s pressure cooker blew its top….and considering that he brought his own pressure cooker and the kitchen had plenty of their own, we had to wonder why he did this. And who travels with a presssure cooker anyway? Oh wait, my mom does, to make her famous mashed potatoes when she visits us.

Anyway, as host Tom Colicchio visited with each chef as they were preparing the dishes, Jennifer was trying to avoid him because she was so busy trying to make her dish a good one. Ron and Mike I. were totally confused by the challenge.

Anyway, at judgment time, Ben Folds, Michael V., Kris Kringle and Jennifer were the favorites. They loved the flavor of Ben’s pot roast, loved the way Michael de-constructed his Caesar salad, the way Jen melted cheese on top of meat and pasta and especially the thought and intricacy that went into Kris Kringle’s mole….and he was declared the winner this week.

The worst dishes this week were by Laurine, Ron and Ash. Laurine’s fish was overcooked and she only served two chips with each dish because many of the ones she cooked were soggy. Ron did a lousy job de-constructing his paella, and he was probably hurt by the fact that every other chef was trying to give him advice (in fairness, he did ask them for the advice). And Ash was pretty clueless about shepherd’s pie, and when his potatoes did not cook properly, he tried to substitute some sort of parsley puree. Think about that for a minute….parsley for potatoes? What was this guy thinking??? Anyway, I really thought Ash should have gotten the boot for that, but they instead chose Ron. All I can say is his paella must have really tasted awful for them to choose him.

So okay…..we’re down to 10 now….Mike, Mike, Brian, Laurine, Ash, Jen, Eli, Ben Folds, Kris Kringle and Robin…and you can bet Ash and Laurine are going to be next to go…with Robin, Ben Folds, Eli and Mike I. the next tier. I’d be really surprised if Jen, Mike V. Brian and Kris Kringle weren’t the final four, but who knows? This is reality TV after all, so anything can happen.

Who do you like? Who don’t you like? Let me know in the space below and see you next week….