Lite Bite Top Chef: Kenny is Eliminated by Kara Howland

I just watched this week's episode. Now I know a lot of people think Kenny has a huge ego - I'm not disputing that - and the judges have mentioned more than once that he needs to edit his dishes. And even if Team 2121 was the losing team in this week's restaurant wars, I still think the judges sent the wrong chef home.

From what we saw, it looks like Alex had almost no hand in preparing any of the food. Yes, he was asked to butcher the lamb (which Angelo had to redo because Alex was screwing it up). Yes, he was asked to prepare the fish (which Tiffany had to redo because it was still scaly and boney when Alex got through with it). So what did Alex do other then harass the wait staff and tell the judge's they'd be eating pork when they were actually eating lamb? A whole bunch of nothing. But I think Amanda should have been up on the chopping block too. It sounds like her one dish was almost inedible; the beef was overdone and the greens were horrible. Why didn't she get put up on the block? I'm trying to remember if Top Chef has always sent the team leader home from the losing team during restaurant wars. Do you guys know? I would have been more than okay with Amanda going home since Alex was "safe" this week. I'm not quite sure why Amanda's still in the competition. I think she's been safe in the middle (or near the bottom). She needs to step it up or be sent home.

But let's revisit Alex for a moment. It seems like he's aware that his team had absolutely no confidence in him. And if that was the case he should have fought to prepare something of his own just in case Evoo was the losing restaurant. Having a hand in prep isn't nearly the same as preparing a dish. And Padma was very clear that each team member had to prepare a dish. For whatever reason, the culinary Gods have chosen to keep Alex in this competition but that had better end pretty soon. I want to see him step up and prepare an amazing dish (hopefully not involving a pea puree) or be sent packing.

I would have liked to see "the beast" hang around for a few more episodes. I don't think Kenny would have won the competition but his rivalry with Angelo was great for watercooler talk. Somehow, I think Angelo might be a little less compelling next week. I will definitely tune in to find out.

Want to know what Kenny really thought about this elimination? Check this out.

Top Chef D.C.: Capitol Grill by Tina Charles

It's been a week (for viewers) since Angelo's sabotage and not surprisingly, he's not seeing it as a sabotage at all. In fact, he's upset at Kenny for not standing by the team during judges' table. What? Plus, I'm still completely disappointed with the way Kenny folded during the elimination challenge. He should have taken the word "challenge" to heart and stood up for the fact their team didn't actually have any vegetables of substance in their school lunch. It's a good thing Kenny gets a letter from his girlfriend. He's been feeling like a second fiddle so maybe he'll use this letter as a wake up call.

Quickfire Challenge

Gail Simmons and famed pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini (well not "famed" to me. This is the first I've heard of him). We're about to hear a lot more of this James Beard Award winner since he's the head judge of Bravo's upcoming Top Chef: Just Desserts. And if you haven't heard yet, Gail's the host. This is yet another plug for the upcoming series. Is this going to be happening all season long? I hope not.

The Challenge: It's a dessert quickfire challenge where the cheftestants have 2 hours to make a pie from scratch. Those are the only rules of this particular game. The winner will get immunity in the elimination challenge.

• Angelo says he's never made pie before
• Alex decides to make tapioca pie. What is he thinking?
• Ed incorporates some sort of celery and peanut-y thing with his banana cream pie. What? Dude likes to over-think his dishes.
• Angelo helps out Tracey. I do like that Angelo is nice when it comes to her.
• As for Tracey, she's forced to scratch her first almond blueberry pie and attempt a second.

Out of all the pies, I totally have my eye on Kenny's take on bananas foster and Kelly's spiced raspberry and dark chocolate ganache tart. And I'm completely in fear of Alex's white chocolate, tapioca and chevre pie with almond crust and raspberry puree as well as Tracey's blueberry almond crunch pie with light cream and almond brittle.

• The judges (especially Gail) aren't taking much crap this season. Amanda (apple pie with rosemary and bourbon with a hazelnut crust) tries to make the excuse that she's not a pastry chef but Johnny's not having it. I think Amanda is just trying to fish for a compliment. I'm not sure about her at all.
• Gail seems turned off by Stephen's curried apple-date pie with saffron. There a sour taste she's not digging
• Gail also goes after Ed's banana cream pie with salted peanuts and celery spuma. Her comment doesn't reach the level of last week's sherry/vodka sarcasm, but I'll take it.
• Johnny and Alex have this awesome exchange (Johnny's tough by the way I already feel sorry for the Just Desserts competitors):

Johnny: "Is there egg in here?"
Alex: "There is."
Johnny: "So it's more like a quiche."

It looks like a quiche to me. Real men admit to making quiche, Alex. Not surprisingly, the least favorite dishes come from Alex, Tracey and Ed. The most successful desserts come from both Kelly and Stephen and the winner of this challenge, Kenny. I'm happy for Stephen because before this he didn't seem like he could put together a tasty concoction. But I'm really happy for Kenny even though his general cockiness since the beginning of this season makes me sad. At least he's been able to finally rise above his second fiddle status.

Elimination Challenge

This season takes place in Washington D.C. so just about every elimination challenge will feature some sort of patriotic or political take. Last week they cooked school lunches for a worthy cause First Lady Michelle Obama champions. This week the cheftestants are, according to Padma, celebrating another American tradition: the summer picnic. Very appropriate considering we're heading into the July 4th weekend.

The Challenge: Prepare a cookout for 150 Capitol Hill interns that includes one main dish and two sides. And guess what? No dessert necessary. Rejoice! And they'll be cooking said meal on the grounds of George Washington's Mt. Vernon Estate and Garden. Pretty cool. Everyone gets their own grills which stereotypically pleases the men and makes the women fearful. Not really. Well, just a little.

The Shopping: Amanda reveals some really personal information which we hear while she's running through Whole Foods looking frazzled and practically mowing down the people in front of her. She tells us that in her mid-20s she had a problem with cocaine and pills and anything that she could get her hands on. But the fact that she fought back and survived all that means she can do anything. As soon as I hear that I do a double take and then rewind to make sure she just told us about her past drug problem. I don't know why I was incredulous I guess I just didn't expect the mother of all TMI confessions to happen while the chefs were frantically grabbing their ingredients for the elimination challenge. Wow. I don't know why but suddenly I'm liking Amanda a little better.

The 3-hour Prep: The quirky personality portion of the program continues when Tracey starts talking to herself incessantly during prep. It's kind of disturbing and oddly fascinating at the same time. Alex and Amanda start fighting for the ovens. Amanda insists she labeled an oven and Alex stole it from her. It's unclear whether there are other empty ovens available, but Amanda calls Prison Rules: Label the oven, it's yours. Ed seems to have a lot going on with his dish again while Arnold seems like he's one of those chefs that no longer spends a lot of the time in the kitchen. He finds it difficult to do all the sous-chef responsibilities himself. Stephen says the issues that can arise with his seafood dish is if the fish dries out or the bacon doesn't get crispy. That's all?

The Event: Arnold has no grilling experience so he just spies on Kenny and does what he does. Very smart. Right now I feel like Tim's all talk and no follow through. I hope he can make a good meal but I'm not completely confident he will. Top Chef Master finalist and the Obi Wan Kenobi of the kitchen Jonathan Waxman is handling judging duties along with Tom, Gail and Padma. He's also a grilling expert so this challenge is perfect for him. The Dishes:

• Arnold: Sesame lamb meatballs with Tabouli salad and gazpacho (Me: I want some; Judges: they're impressed)
• Tamesha: Marinated skirt steak wtih caramel soy glaze and fennel citrus salad (Judges: the steak is overcooked)
• Angelo: Vietnamese lettuce wrap and smoked egg salad (Me: it's a pretty dish but there doesn't seem to be much there. Judges: they're impressed. Jonathan calls it a magazine cover dish.)
• Alex: Grilled pork butt with lemongrass, polenta and cucumber salad (Me: I'm not digging Alex's lame attempts at humor. I won't even repeat his ass butt joke. Judges: The pork is beautifully cooked but the sauce is too sweet.)
• Tim: Pork 2-ways [dry loin and wet baby back ribs] and grilled vegetables. Right when Tim's talking about the veggies, a bird dumps a substantial gift (Judges: Pork is OK, the vegetables and beans aren't OK.)
• Amanda: Dry rub baby back ribs, grilled asparagus, bacon hazelnut vinaigrette (Judges: They like Amanda's ribs more than Tim's ribs. And Jonathan is in love with her grilled asparagus)
• Kelly: bison burger, watermelon and tomato salad (Judges: the burger's bland, the dish is super simple)
• Kevin: Puerto Rican-inspired grilled marinated flank steak, rice and beans and tomato & avocado salad (Judges: the beans are overcooked and the rice is bland)
• Lynne: leg of lamb with ras el hanout, zucchini "spaghetti" with balsamic onions (Judges: her lamb feels heavy)
• Kenny: harissa-marinated pork loin, quinoa-grilled eggplant (Judges: well-cooked meal)
• Tracey: Italian sausage slider, tomato, cucumber & red onion salad (Judges: too much fennel; slider a tad undercooked and too big to be considered a slider)
• Tiffany: Tamarind glazed wild sockeye salmon, Israeli couscous (Judges: fish is bland and glaze inexplicably has no flavor)
• Andrea: spicy root beer-glazed skirt steak and potato salad (Judges: root beer glaze too sweet)
• Stephen: bacon-wrapped sea bass, ratatouille and olive pine nut couscous (Judges: not impressed at all; Tom's especially not a fan of the fish)
• Ed: spiced tuna loin with lentil hummus (Judges: his food is picnic friendly and there's a lot of flavor)

Judges' Table

The most successful dishes come from a trio of "A's": Arnold, Amanda and Angelo as well as Ed. The judges praised all meals although they did say Amanda's salad didn't need to be there. Arnold wins his first challenge. I'm all for someone who's not Kenny or Angelo taking the win. Very cool. The least successful dishes are: Tim, Stephen, Tracey and Kevin. Tim is told his veggies just weren't good. Padma calls Kevin's Puerto Rican dish the "safest Puerto Rican food I've ever had." Kevin begs to differ. He says all the Puerto Rican people he's familiar with (including his wife), that's the food that they would do. Sassy Gail tells it like it is:

Gail: "Are they chefs?"
Kevin: "No."
Gail: "Exactly. You are. So show us great Puerto Rican food that a professional chef would make. Step it up."

I agree. It's crazy that his rice and beans were bland. I'm pretty well versed in all things rice and beans. My mom cooks them and every time there's flavor. There's no excuse for making it bland. The judges were particularly brutal with the resident psychic and chef Tracey. She tells them she's not surprised to be there. Tom's insulted she calls her dish Italian food. Jonathan says she stopped trying instead of figuring out how to fix it. They were also brutal with Stephen's food. Jonathan calls the Ohio chefs fish "really seriously inedible." Tom thinks his greasy couscous was even worse. He thinks Stephen lacks confidence.

The deliberation: After the bottom 4 leaves the room, the brutal comments don't stop. Jonathan continues to have a lot to say. I love that Jonathan's so vocal in this episode. He again uses the word "inedible," this time to describe Tim's grilled zucchini. And as for Tracey, the Obi Wan feels his 10-year-old son could have made that patty. He cannot believe a professional chef made that slider. While Kevin's meat was grilled nicely, his food really was a watered down version of the real thing. He didn't do anything to elevate it. Meanwhile, Tim had watery beans and wilted greens. Two-thirds of his meal reached epic fail status. The person told to "pack their knives and go" is Tracey.

For me, this could have very easily been a double elimination. The things said about Stephen's food were just as bad as Tracey's. However Stephen did do well in the quickfire this week. Tracey fared poorly on all counts so I'm okay with her leaving although I really did learn to enjoy her presence. Anyway, Top Chef D.C. is saving the double elimination for the next episode which is cool with me because I still think there are too many chefs around. Feel free to work a triple elimination into things, Top Chef!

Top Chef D.C.: Outside the Lunchbox by Tina Charles

So far the show's main story is Kenny versus Angelo. It's shaping up to be a good rivalry. Will this storyline continue? At the beginning of the hour, we see the cheftestants at the house. Talk covers John leaving and Angelo winning both challenges in the first episode. Cut to the Top Chef kitchen where the contestants enter and Padma greets everyone. At her side is one of the guys that feeds President Obama and his family, Sam Kass. He's the assistant White House Chef and Food Initiative Coordinator. He's also rockin' the bald head very well.

Quickfire Challenge: Make a Biparti-SANdwich

-Teams of 2 (attached at the hip) have to make a sandwich in 30 minutes

-Each chef can only use one hand

I kind of like the play on Bipartisan. Probably because I love puns, I'm not going to lie. Cheesy puns definitely rule. The Quickfire mission is for teammates to create a sandwich in 30 minutes. The knives will determine the 8 pairs. I'm not the biggest fan of pairing up or team challenges. Nobody on reality shows like to work together. Not on Top Chef, Project Runway or even on American Idol. Padma announces the winning team of this challenge will get immunity. Although I still feel like Padma has something up her sleeve.

First of all, Angelo says it'll be extremely embarrassing to lose the sandwich challenge because he has a sandwich shop in New York City. You know what that means don't you? That means he's going to lose the sandwich challenge. Almost no one ever wins in their specialty. Here's the twist (we knew there was going to be one): they'll be competing in bipartisan aprons (one side red, one side blue) and the chefs will only be able to use one hand. They're about to get real close. Right away I can tell Angelo got a bum deal, he's forced to work with Tracey Bloom. I like Sam. He suggests everyone leave their egos at the door, forget about taking credit and just get to work. I may have developed a quick crush on Sam Kass.

The pairs and their sandwiches:

• Kenny & Ed (Korean chili-rubbed tuna) - Ed's left-handed and Kenny's right-handed; this pairing could work. Sam liked the spice of their sandwich.

• Angelo & Tracey (flounder marinated in fish sauce) - Tracey reveals she has a secret crush on Angelo. However, I don't see love in their future. I see conflict. But they seem to do okay. In fact Angelo refers to Tracey as his twin sister. Cute. Sam says their sandwich is tasty.

• Tamesha & Amanda (grilled sandwich w/ prosciutto & swiss cheese) – One word: awkward.

• Timothy & Alex (Croque Madame) – They instantly have knife issues. I don't blame anyone. They haven't played the trust game yet. They don't know their teammates at all. I don't know if I would let anyone get near my hand with a big freakin' knife.

• Stephen & Jacqueline (chicken and avocado) – I'm immediately worried about these two. They didn't fare too well in the first episode.

• Arnold & Kelly (curry-rubbed grilled chicken breast) – They work real well right away. I'm impressed.

• Tiffany & Lynne (flatbread saltimbocca) – Sam says it's hard to eat. Lynne admits it's more of a knife-and-fork sandwich. Who wants a knife-and-fork sandwich?

• Andrea & Kevin (Philly Cuban) – I didn't really get an impression of this team before Sam judges their dish. Sam likes the pickle in the sandwich.

I don't know how the chefs get it all done. That seems like a difficult challenge. Sam thinks the chefs just got a taste of how hard it is to work in a cooperative way.

The bottom: Stephen & Jacqueline (not creative); Lynne & Tiffany (not great texture)

The top: Tracey & Angelo (Angelo, again? Although so far I'm not minding him in this episode); Kenny & Ed (Sam raved about the sandwich)

The winners: Tracey & Angelo

That's three challenges in a row for Angelo. Is that a first for Top Chef? If not, how many times has this feat been achieved? Is anyone keeping track? Well this win doesn't bother me as much although I would really love Kenny to get one of these wins. Tracey and Angelo now have immunity. They can coast.

Elimination Challenge: Cook a School Lunch

-Use the same restrictive budget the public schools have: $2.68 / child. That's $134.00 for all 50 kids

-Sam takes four of those dollars away for labor and supplies so the chefs have a budget of $130.00

-Lunches consist of a main course, a couple side dishes (a vegetable), some fruit and dessert.

-Must be delicious and healthy

-Teams of 4 (every person on team is responsible for 1 item on the menu)

-They only have 30 minutes to plan and 2 ½ hours to prep and cook; 1 hour to heat up the food at the school

The elimination challenge focuses on "Let's Move," Michelle Obama's campaign to end childhood obesity. The cheftestants will have to cook a school lunch that's delicious and on a budget. Angelo and Tracey get to pick the team they want to cook with and they choose Kenny and Ed.

The teams:

Team 1: Angelo, Tracey, Kenny & Ed (going the healthy burger road)

Team 2: Amanda, Tamesha, Jacqueline, Stephen (chicken thighs)

Team 3: Alex, Tim, Kevin, Andrea (Mac & Cheese; Kevin offers to do dessert)

Team 4: Tiffany, Lynne, Kelly, Arnold (they're thinking roasted carnitas tacos)

Did Jacqueline say she's doing dessert? Did she not learn from John? Amanda sure did. She knows well enough to stay away from the sweet stuff. Then we learn a little more about Jacqueline's life. When she was in high school her parents went through a nasty divorce and she had to be the mom to her younger sister. Learning about these people's lives isn't really that great a sign. It's usually a sign that that person's going home.

I love the shopping portion of the episode. The teams go way over their 130 dollar budget. It's really sad when you think that's what schools go through everyday however.

The Cooking

Team 3: Andrea's telling Tracey what she's making. And she's all "It's my idea." Which it is her idea but there's no need to be so obnoxious about it.

Team 1: Kenny's making the dessert, the apple-bread pudding. I don't understand why he's relegated to dessert when Angelo and Tracey have immunity. Let one of them handle dessert. Angelo's being very smart here. Kenny's not feeling like his team's dishes are as healthy as they should be.

Team 2: Amanda's feeling stressed. Jacqueline feels her dessert's too starchy so she adds sugar. More sugar! What?

Team 4: Kelly's acting like the leader when there were no leaders designated.

Downtime

• Tracey talks to Kelly about how this challenge hits close to home. She's been raising her girlfriend's daughter and she admits they go out for fast food at least once a week. It really seems to affect her. I'm liking Tracey more this episode. See? I said in the last blog I am able to change my mind. I'm still not sure about Angelo though. One thing I can say about him is that he's smart.

• Arnold and the rest of Team 4 let Kelly know she's taking too much credit. I don't really know what purpose this serves. Oh I get it. Arnold's trying to validate what he did for the team because all his cooking amounts to is some salsa. He's trying to enact some sort of preemptive strike. How very legislative of him…

The Event

Prep time: Kelly says she wants to end Angelo's winning streak. The valve to Team 1's foam gun is broken. Angelo asks another team for some help they refuse. It is a competition and they're sick of Angelo winning. So I understand why they say no. I just like it when there's good sportsmanship. Tom Colicchio arrives. He thinks Kevin's fruit with yogurt foam is a good idea. Tom's mom ran a lunch school program for 20 years so this challenge is very close to his heart. Tom goes to Team 4 and Arnold decides to be spokesperson probably because he's the most insecure about his contribution. He lets Tom know they've all worked on everything. Tom's not buying that for a second. That's why the rules say everyone needs to take responsibility for a dish. Amanda puts sherry wine in her dish. Let's see how that flies with the judges.

Serving the Judges

Team 3

The Menu: Picnic Coleslaw with yogurt; grilled apple cider bbq chicken (skinless); mac & cheese with whole wheat crust, skim milk & low-fat cheese; fresh melon kebab & orange Chantilly dipped in yogurt

The Judges: good comments for the cole slaw, chicken and dessert; the weak link is Tim's mac & cheese

Team 1

The Menu: Chicken Burger with Fiesta Rice; Peanut Butter & Celery crudités, tuile; Sweet Potato Purée with cinnamon; Apple Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Yogurt

The Judges: They're not overly enthusiastic about the meal. They have nothing bad to say about Kenny's bread pudding but the judges want to know where the vegetables are

Team 4

The Menu: Black Bean Cake & Crispy sweet potatoes; Braised Pork Carnitas Tacos with Pickled Onions & Cilantro; Roasted Corn Salad with Cilantro with Lime Vinaigrette & Chili Oil; Carmelized Sweet Potatoes & Sherbert

The Judges: Gail loves all the color on the plate; They love the taco and the salad; Lynne's bean cake is a little spicy; They like the dessert too.

Team 2

The Menu: Braised Chicken Thigh in Sherry Jus; Sweet Onion Rice with Tomato, Carrots & Green Onions; Bean & Tomato Salad, Pickled Red Onions & Apple Cider Vinaigrette; Banana Pudding with Skim Milk & Strawberries

The Judges: Not into the "sherry jus" aspect of the dish for kids; they like Tamesha's salad but Sam and Tom definitely feel something went wrong with Jacqueline's dessert; Stephen's rice is good but mushy

Jacqueline's feeling good about her dessert. She says it sold out.

Judges' Table

Kevin snores in the stew room. I wonder how long it is before Padma makes her entrance. She wants to see Teams 1 and 3 first which is odd since the judges didn't have all that many great things to say about their food. The losers get the awesome dramatic entrance edit and music this time around. When Padma tells the teams they had the worst menus of the day you can tell the cheftestants are kind of shocked since they were called to face the judges first.

Jacqueline explains her dessert. Sam's on to her asking if she had to add a lot of sugar, which she did. Sam rocks. He wonders how Amanda had the budget to buy sherry when Jacqueline couldn't buy chocolate..

Ed is told his dish was pretty spicy. He needed to be careful since he was cooking for kids. Sam calls Team 1 on their lack of vegetables. Kenny says they realized that and that's why they roasted the tomato on the burger. Sam makes it known that tomato's a fruit. Embarrassing moment for Kenny there. The attention turns to Angelo. Tom wants to know if he would have handled peanut butter and celery if he didn't have immunity. Angelo says he can't answer that. He's unbelievable. Tom says he doesn't want to draw the conclusion that Angelo sabotaged the team because he doesn't think the New York chef is that kind of guy. (Although I think he is that guy) This may be my favorite judges' table session ever because everybody's turning on everybody else. Team 2 decides to point out the lack of nutritional value in Team 1's dishes so Kenny has to fight back. So awesome! And I'm getting excited for Top Chef: Just Desserts because Gail's on a roll. She goes after Amanda's use of sherry once again:

Gail: "Why did you choose to use sherry?"

Amanda: "Because for me I really like chicken braised with sherry normally I like it with mushrooms…"

Gail: "I like it too. There's a lot of things I like. I love vodka. Not cooking with it!"

Gail gets the gold star for this week's Top Chef. The losing teams go back to the stew room and tell the other two teams that they are the groups with the best dishes. Kenny and Stephen are talking about how that even though two team members are immune, their dishes still count for something. How did they not know this? Cut to Angelo whistling like he's innocent when all it does is make him look super guilty. He's smart but I don't like the way this all went down. However, Kenny just rolled over and let it happen.

The judges feel Angelo's team had the worst meal. They would have sent Angelo home had he not had immunity. Although Angelo wouldn’t have made peanut butter and celery had he not been immune. The devil. They do blame Kenny for not being more proactive in getting vegetables on those plates. Cut to Angelo telling Tracey he doesn't like Kenny. He totally threw the challenge. Angelo's officially on the villain list. The judges hate Amanda's sherry braised chicken. Jacqueline's dessert is deemed too sweet thanks to gobs of sugar. Then they actually get around to talking about the winning teams. Gail digs the tacos. They had vegetables and fruit. The two teams found innovative ways to make their meals healthy and delicious.

Padma asks to see Lynne, Tiffany, Kelly and Arnold. They are the most successful team of this elimination challenge and Kelly's named the winner. Nobody has to justify their contributions, which is cool because we had some major drama with the losing teams. Kelly announces the judges want to see Amanda, Jacqueline, Kenny and Ed. Jacqueline is forced to pack her knives and go. She wishes she had fought for more than 10 percent of the budget. Two chefs in a row took a risk by making a dessert and have gone home. When will they learn?

Top Chef D.C.: What's Your Constituency? by Tina Charles

Bravo's Real Housewives isn't the only franchise hitting President Obama's backyard. Yes, Top Chef has hit Washington D.C. The current crop of 17 cheftestants is an eclectic group and that's a very good thing. I haven't blogged Top Chef since Season 2 when Ilan won. That was also the season of Marcel. I'm hoping this year we'll get plenty of highly skilled chefs who simply make great food. I don't mind drama, just please don't be anywhere near as much drama as there was during the Ilan, Marcel, Cliff, Sam and Betty era. Each year, I find that right off the bat there's one chef that may cook fabulously, but his or her personality instantly gets on my last nerve. This year's choice: Angelo Sosa from New York. Obviously this guy can definitely cook. But what set me off was this line:

"I want to be the first contestant to win every single challenge."

Seriously? I think everyone who goes on Top Chef would love to do that, but it's not going to happen. And if it does happen, then kill me now because I don't want to see a show where one person dominates entirely. There are others who did contend for this honor (or dishonor since I'm talking about making a bad impression) like Tracey Bloom. I'm keeping my eye on Kenny Gilbert too. He's clearly a great chef but I'm wondering how cocky he's going to get as the season rolls on. But no worries I'm someone who has an open mind so while this week Angelo may have annoyed a lot, in three weeks he may be my favorite. It's happened many times.

Quickfire: Mis En Place Tournament
-Peel 10 Potatoes: 12 fastest will move on
-Brunoise 10 cups of Onions: 4 chefs will be eliminated
-Break down 4 chickens into 8 parts: 4 fastest chefs will move on to the finals
-Finals: Use the potatoes, chicken and onions to make a dish

High Stakes Challenge: $20,000 prize

This is such a good Quickfire to start things off because the competition's fierce from the very beginning. It seems like many chefs have great resumes so to fail is not going to be good for their egos. And we know chefs have some massive egos.

During the Quickfire, Kenny from Colorado is the man. He finishes first in all three rounds before the finals. He's set the tone and everybody realizes the guy has some mad skills. However, it's Angelo who wins the high stakes Quickfire and pockets 20 thou. Not bad for the first day of the competition.

Elimination Challenge: Create a dish that reflects where you're from
-The chefs will be cooking at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival for 300 young, successful Washingtonians
-There will be four groups and the individuals within each group will be going head to head. One person from each group will be up for the win, one chef will be up for elimination.

Angelo, Kevin, Kenny and Timothy get to choose who they go up against. Angelo picks Tiffany and Kenny picks Tracey. They obviously don't think Tiffany and Tracey have what it takes to win. All four guys select chefs they think will be easy to beat. The ones that get chosen last can sort of feel good about their skills being more of a threat than the ones that get chosen first. Angelo also gets to choose the team that takes the last guy standing, so he sends Ed to Kenny's team. Kenny's team is the only one to have five chefs. Here's how the teams break down:

-Tim's Group: Tim, Alex, Tamesha, Andrea
-Kevin's Group: Kevin, Amanda, Jacqueline, Arnold
-Angelo's Group: Angelo, John, Tiffany, Kelly
-Kenny's Group: Kenny, Tracey, Lynne, Ed, Stephen

Kevin is going with a lamb sous vide. Good luck with that buddy. It never seems like those that go the sous vide route have a lot of success with the dish. John's going to make a dessert. He scares me the most during this prep time for the elimination challenge.

The Event
I love when Padma introduces the judges because not only are Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons once again in attendance, but renowned chef and former Top Chef guest judge Eric Ripert has joined the show as a full-fledged judge! Yes, that deserves an exclamation point. I'm beyond excited he's part of the show. Does that mean we will no longer be seeing that English Simon Cowell-type judge anymore? Awesome.

Weird crossover thing going on: Dr. Andy Baldwin, U.S. Navy, formerly of The Bachelor (he was the officer AND a gentleman) was part of the young and successful Washingtonians tasting the Top Chef cuisine. He's very much into all things healthy so Steven's potato-crusted rib-eye (basically fried rib-eye) didn't sit too well with him. He said he wouldn't serve that dish to his kids.

It seems like Kenny chose his group the best. He's the only one in his group that received great reviews.

The Judges' Table
Padma calls one guy from each group to come stand before the judges: Kevin, Alex, Kenny and Angelo. They represent the top dish from each group. So Kevin's lamb sous vide and Alex's deconstructed borscht are both super successful as are Angelo's arctic char and Kenny's cinnamon-coffee rubbed trout. There you have Kenny vs. Angelo once again and it's only the first episode. The rivalry is on. Eric announces the winner: Angelo. Boo. I'm glad his food was good, but Angelo taking both challenges is frustrating.

The ones up for elimination are: Steven, John, Jacqueline and Timothy. Timothy's shocked. Is he going to be one of those that can't see the flaws of his dish? Eric says Steven's fried rib-eye looked like chicken nuggets (ouch!); Gail is wondering what Jacqueline was thinking when she admitted to trying to make low-fat chicken liver mousse. Jacqueline also admitted not having memorized her recipe. Meanwhile, John says he bought the puff pastry already prepared which doesn't bode well since that means he really wasn't responsible for a third of his dish. Eric had issues with Timothy's rockfish and more specifically the skin on the fish. It was chewy. I'm glad Timothy owned up to his disappointing dish. The judges expected more from Timothy since he was one of the final four in the Quickfire.

The 1st cheftestant going home: John the dessert guy. I'm kind of upset. He's a personality that I would have loved to have seen a couple more episodes.

I had high hopes from the quickfire; things didn't turn out so well in the first elimination challenge but I'm excited to see where the season goes from here. For me the first episode is usually extremely difficult to keep things straight because there are so many names and faces to remember. It'll be great when we get down to the top ten so we really get to know these wannabe Top Chefs.

Random Thoughts
-One of my favorite parts of the entire hour is when the top finalists enter the judges' room. I love the dramatic music cue and I love the way the editors cut the scene. We already know these guys are going to be praised for their delicious food, but I like that I can expect this same entrance every episode. It's much better than when those up for elimination enter the room.

-I love John. He's odd. But I love him. I love his oddness. Too bad he's already gone.