you say potato, i say...

The chefs get serve up some food and a nice tribute on Top Chef.

Mark Peel served as the guest judge for this week and presented the chefs with their Quick Fire Challenge. They needed to prepare a potato dish, which is pretty difficult to do in just 45 minutes. Preeti stole Ashly’s boiling water for her gnocchi but fortunately it didn’t mess her up, too much because she was in the top three for this challenge. Jennifer ended up winning this challenge and she is looking to be a major front runner.

In their elimination challenge, the chefs were greeted by Colonel Belote to prepare a meal for 300 airmen in the Air Force. The main challenge for the chefs was that they wouldn’t see their ingredients or cooking materials until they “reported for duty.” Jennifer was going to serve as the main chef and would check in on the remaining chefs who paired off into teams of two.

The chefs needed to use a lot of canned and dried foods and very limited cooking materials. Some of the chefs seemed very happy with their pairings but some…not so much. Robert and Jesse were stuck together at the end and neither of them would have chosen each other. But, then again, no one would have chosen them either and that’s why they were last!

It seems like most of the teams actually did a great job with their challenge. None of the meals seemed to be major disappointments. It might be pretty hard to determine who goes home in this challenge.

The best chefs from this challenge were Mike, Michael, Kevin, and Eli. Wow, another win for the brothers! Michael V. took home this win and I think it was well deserved. It seemed to be a very unique dish that had a lot of flavor and was clearly a crowd pleaser.

On the losing side, Preeti and Laurine were called in. But the real surprise was that Mike I. was called back and went from the winning side to the losing side. His salad dish did not please the judges and it was something he didn’t need to do because he already had a dish with Michael V. And, man, Preeti and Laurine were just slammed by the judges. I have never seen Padma so upset or stern with the contestants before! Well, Preeti went home and I completely agree.