[Yak Nicholson]

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And on we go with this cooking merry-go-round. Before we get started, join us in our forums*here to tell us what you think!*Last week we saw Bitter Betty Jen leave the show, tonight we see two more go. We start off with the aftermath of Jen’s departure, the chefs sitting around talking about her elimination and how she left. They all agree her leaving was the biggest shock so far of the competition, that Jamie was far weaker. Some speculated that she shouldn’t have gone to the hospital for just two stitches. I’m liking this new opening to the show, where we see their reactions to who left and who stayed.

The remaining chefs went into the kitchen to see David Chang, one of NYC’s brightest culinary stars. He presented their quickfire challenge, which was to split into four teams of four. They were determined by how they walked into the room. The challenge was, as a team,* simultaneously prep three ingredients. David Chang will walk around and watch them. After the prep work each team was responsible for one dish using all of the ingredients. The first team to finish all their prep work was to hit a red button, which starts a 15 minute clock. If other teams aren’t ready, too bad. When they’re done, shows how much time they have left of the 15 minutes to cook. No immunity either, but each member of the winning team got 5K. The teams attacked this with vigor, and they seemed to each take a role automatically. Casey Thompson went wild on the lamb, redeeming herself after the relay race from her season. Antonia, however, decided to try and peel 400 cloves of garlic one at a time.* The White team didn’t deal with speed very well, Tiffani from Season 1 seemed to be very slow. Green finished first and started the cooking clock, the other teams weren’t done at all. Chang seemed to hose the Blue team on how fine the garlic needed to be chopped. Blue finished at 12 minutes left for cooking. Red finished shortly after that, with 10 minutes left. White team was last done, they only had 8.5 minutes left. The teams with the shorter times went for Lamb Carpaccio, which didn’t require the lamb to be cooked. The time was up, and Chang walked around judging the teams dishes. Chang’s least favorite dishes was the red team, said the parmesan and parsley was overwhelming. The Green team was deemed at the bottom too, they had the most time! The White team, with the least time, was judged at the top. Along with the Blue team. The winner was the Blue team. Tre, Spike, Stephen and Richard each won 5K.

The Elimination Challenge was presented next. Each group will dine at one of NYC’s finest restaurants and then tomorrow prepare a dish the chef of that restaurant would be proud to put on their menu. The groups drew knives to pick the restaurants. They’re working as individuals and the teammates are the competition. They were then told two chefs are going home. The chefs were then sent to their respective restaurants to dine. Stephen basically tried to shove sea urchin down Tre’s throat, who wasn’t a fan of the dish. Carla was freaking out a bit because her style was so different from Wiley Dufrain’s. David Burke’s food was seriously wacky, including a cocktail drink with a live fish swimming underneath. It looked like a dinner set in Wonderland!

Cooking day. Cool part was that the chefs got to cook at the restaurant they had dined at the night before.* They were all obviously frantically cooking, yet also very focused. In came the judges, along with the head chef from each restaurant respectively. Narea was the first restaurant they went to, where Spike, Tre, Richard and Stephen were cooking. Bourdain jumped on Spike’s dish, saying he didn’t make good use of it. Richard got good reviews. Bourdain then said that Stephen’s dish tasted like a head shop, while Tre also got good reviews. Next up was Ma Peche, the restaurant of David Chang. Fabio, Angelo, Tiffany D. and Mike cooked for them. Angelo was deemed to be very creative for putting white chocolate in with his fish dish. Mike’s dish was deemed flavorful and not over the top. Colicchio had a hard time figuring out Fabio’s dish, they didn’t understand how he could put his ingredients together. Tiffany’s dish seemed to be missing an element and a bit ordinary. After that was Townhouse with David Burke. Dale L., Casey, Antonia and Jamie were the cooks here. Jamie’s dish said the addition of smoke to the soup didn’t make it better. Dale seemed to have just a sweet dish with veal on it, but too sweet.*They decided that Casey had a great idea with her dish, and it was beautifully cooked. Antonia’s dish was playful and seasoned well. Finally, wd50, where Marcel, Tiffani, Dale*T. and Carla cooked at. Marcel said that one of Wiley’s sous chef had accused him of culinary plagiarism previously (before this season), and he seemed to view it as a way to follow it up. Tiffani felt like she messed up by freezing her melons. The judges felt like Tiffani lost control from the start with her dish. Dale T.’s dish was well received. Carla was deemed to have done a nice job, but that it was a little safe. Finally, Marcel’s dish was deemed a bit timid, Wiley said he didn’t use the techniques to improve the dish.

Back at the judges table, the chefs reunited to talk about their experiences. Called in first were Dale T, Antonia, Angelo and Tre. They were told that they had the best dishes of the night. The winner of the challenge will get a 6 night trip to New Zealand!!! The winner of the challenge was…………..Dale T.! They were then asked to send back Stephen, Tiffani, Fabio and Dale L. Those chefs were told to fight hard, Carla said be nice though, lol. The chefs deemed them the least favorite dishes. Stephen expressed frustration at completely blowing it and owned up to putting too much on his plate. Fabio’s dish was deemed sticky. Tiffani was told that her dish fell apart texturally. Dale L. got the remarks that the inspiration for his dish wasn’t made clear, and he gave them a breakfast dish with veal on it. It was a tough deliberation for the judges,

When the bottom four were brought back in, the two eliminated were Stephen and Dale L. Tiffani from Season 1 and Fabio were deemed safe. Stephen said who he was in Season 1 would’ve killed this one, but he wasn’t up to par with the rest of the chefs this time around. Dale L. said fair is fair, he would learn from it and joked that maybe he’d come back for Top Chef 16, the seniors edition. Next week they cook at the US Open.*At the very end I heard Collichio say something about Angelo sabotaging his teammates, we shall see!