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?