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Dinner service starts and Art presents fried chicken two ways plus a mango cobbler. It looks delicious but as an homage to southern cooking, it doesn't look like the most refined dish. Everyone seems to love it, though. Gail, in particular, says that it oozes Art's passion and personality. Well, I hope his passion and personality tasted great.

Roy comes out next with his surf and turf, worrying that his mahi mahi might not be all cooked to the same point of doneness. Gael, not a fan of mahi mahi, finds the fish delicious but most of the students voice displeasure with the overuse of lemongrass.

Michael comes out with a loin of lamb and sunchoke purée but ran out of time during plating and thus, half of his plates have no sauce on them. Gael loves the sunchoke purée but James argues that while nothing is bad on the plate, nothing is delicious.

Finally, we have Jonathan and he professes that he had trouble using seven ingredients in his dish – he's doing pork chops and really would have just liked to have seasoned them and seared them, letting their natural flavors emerge. He introduces the dish as an '80s throwback and Gael loves his take on it, calling his purée sensational. James also loves it as a home-cooking type of dish.

At this point, I know that Jonathan is behind after the Quickfire but I'm wondering if he might just sneak up into first place with a big win in the Elimination Challenge. It's a longshot but I think there's a chance.

Back at judges table we have a big lovefest between the Masters. Everyone admires everyone else's talent. Everyone is inspired by everyone else. It's like Season 3 all over again but without that a-hole, Hung.

The judges deliberate each Master, one at a time. Art gets praise all around for his cobbler, which had a fantastic crust on it (I love cobbler and I was pretty much drooling at the sight of it). James says that he's not sure how the two chicken preparations worked together but found the flavors wonderful.

As for Roy, he himself admitted to the judges that he's not great at thinking on his feet and most everyone agrees that his difficulty with improvisation hurt is dish. His meat was chewy, his mahi mahi was over sauced . . . James says that Roy's inner conflict showed through the dish (ouch).

Michael's dish was liked but the judges but Gail said that she wasn't sure how all the components worked together. Gael responded by saying that the sunchoke purée brought everything together because every ingredient worked in harmony with it.
As for Jonathan, James didn't like his truffles on the plate, though Gail did. James did, however, think that the dish as a whole was fundamentally connected, "and I can't say that about all of the plates tonight." Yes, this seals it for me: either Jonathan or Art will win today.

The Masters are brought back out and the scores are awarded.

Jonathan got four and a half stars from the diners (very high). James calls his dish "perfectly composed" and gives him four stars, Gael gives him four and Gail gives him four. His total is 20 and I'm now sure that he won't win – that total is simply not high enough.

Roy goes next and gets three stars from the diners. Gael admits that improvisation is not his strength and gives him two and a half stars (low!), Gail gives him three and James gives him two and a half. Roy finishes with a very rough 15 star total.

Michael, winner of the Quickfire, gets three and a half stars from the diners. Gail enjoyed his individual flavors and gives him three and a half stars, James gives him two and a half stars and Gael gives him three. Again, we have another low total of 17 ½ stars.

It's down to Art and I'm really thinking that Team Rainbow will pull this one off. Art only needs 16 stars to win, an average of four from each judge. The diners give Art five (HUGE!), James gives him three (uh oh) and Gail gives him four and a half. It's down to Gael and with a twinkle in her eye, she says, "Your homage to southern cooking was marvelous but I can only give you...five stars." WOW. I can't remember another chef who got five stars from Gael in this competition. Art wins with 22 stars, a damn good total.

And now we have our six finalists: Anita Lo, Art Smith, Hubert Keller, Michael Chiarello, Rick Bayless and Suzanne Tracht. The preview for the final looks AMAZING, with tons of fast cooking, drama and suspense. I'm thinking it'll easily be the best set of episodes of Top Chef: Masters. Come back next week to see how the final four weeks of Top Chef Masters begin.

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