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Oh and by the way, Jennifer gets a huge advantage for having won the Quickfire. She gets an additional 30 minutes to cook. Jennifer is thrilled, she says that she's a slower cook than the other four chefs and that this will definitely help her.

The chefs head to Whole Foods to shop, but most don't really have an idea of what they're going to make. They get home and all of them sit down in front of their TV to watch a DVD of the previous year's Bocuse D'Or competition – well, all but Michael. He goes straight to bed.

Which is too bad...he misses a crazy moment when Kevin, pondering how to cook his lamb, confesses to his housemates that he would like to sous-vide his lamb (basically, slow cooking it in a plastic bag immersed in a warm water bath) but has no idea how to do it. He probes Bryan as to the best temperature and length of time to sous-vide his meat. It's crazy. Rule #1 of Top Chef is "Don't try to use a technique that you're not familiar with." This sort of thing totally got Carla in trouble during last year's finale. It's stunning that Kevin would take this sort of risk.

And of course, Bryan takes the opportunity to observe that while he might be willing to help Kevin out and advise him on sous-vide techniques, his brother Michael would not have. Ah, so mean but so true.

The next day, the chefs head into the kitchen to get started on their Bocuse D'Or. Everyone seems uber-focused, and the kitchen is eerily quiet. Clearly, the chefs are all daunted by the task in front of them...everyone except for Michael, that is. He notes that he's competed in culinary competitions before and always did quite well.

The chefs cook and cook and cook. Jennifer is nervous about cooking for Thomas Keller – she just wants to be able to show her full ability to him. Bryan is focused on getting a good braise on his meat, as this technique usually takes 10 hours. Kevin has his fingers crossed that he's picked the appropriate cooking technique (sous-vide) for his dish. Michael remarks that Kevin never does amazing food, saying that he cooks like Kevin does on his days off.

* I'm going to take a moment to note that both of the Voltaggio brothers tend to go out of their way (Michael especially) to knock Kevin's cooking. David Mumpower here at BOP thinks that this has to do with the producers of Top Chef setting up for a Michael-Kevin finale. I'm not so sure. I think this might simply be the result of three super talented chefs competing with drastically different styles – in this case, down-home cooking versus more innovative techniques. It's in the vein of Marcel vs. Ilan, Hung vs. Kasey, and even Stefan vs. Carla in a way.

In any case, head judge (and show producer) Tom Colicchio enters the kitchen with Jerome Bocuse, for whom the competition is named. He gives them another surprise: the winner of the challenge will get $30,000. The chefs all act surprised and they all discuss the myriad of ways that they could use the extra money, but I think at this point, they're all pressured-out. Nothing else Tom could add will increase their intensity levels. They're already fighting for a spot in the finale and for the respect of the American Advisory Board of the Bocuse D'Or. That's enough.

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