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Stephanie has other concerns. There is an alligator nearby. She does not believe that the “makeshift bamboo fence” provides the architecture required to prevent a headline of “Reality show contestants maimed by gator!” Stephanie seems hypnotized by its presence right up until the point that the beast makes a sudden move vaguely in her direction. At this point, she flees in terror, not demonstrating anything resembling valor or, for that matter, pride. On the plus side, her hair looks lovely during the monologue. Does lovely hair make the gator more or less likely to devour her?

Many of the problems during the cooking phase involve external issues. The chefs are outside with onlookers observing their every move. What the people cannot tell is that the grills are not heating evenly. Brian cleverly checks to determine how quickly his dish is cooking. This is his saving grace as it would have burned otherwise. He recognizes that the thermometer is wrong and adjusts. Justin is less fortunate. Despite his attempts to control the temperature, he still winds up burning his dish by his standards.

The guests do not care. The boucherie unites them as a people, and the cast of Top Chef affords the proceedings a rare opportunity for haute cuisine to be introduced. Even the ordinarily hypercritical Tom Colicchio notes ahead of time that “the food looks amazing." What everyone quickly deduces is that the casting this season provides a multi-cultural blend of dishes. Most countries in the world feature specialty dishes involving pig. Several cast members have inherited these cultural nuances from their families. The dishes are not only novel for this part of the world but also memorable.

Not coincidentally, the people who prepare non-American dishes do better. Carlos presents pozole verde with fried chorizo tacos. Apropos of nothing, Tom announces, “This is delicious.” We all know the rules of Top Chef by now. If Tom says something is delicious, that person is finishing in the top group and has a strong chance of winning.

Shirley presents something she describes as a celebratory dish to her people. It is a jiaozi dumpling with pork, grilled kidney & crispy pork fat salad. Some of the guests celebrate it for an arcane reason. Shirley’s dish is the only one with cracklin. The people cannot believe the oversight from the other chefs, but they celebrate Shirley’s downhome spin on Asian cuisine.

Perhaps the strangest sounding dish this week is presented by Nina. She serves braised pig’s head ragu, which sounds like an Italian spin on a dish from Lord of the Flies. There is also roasted corn & mustard greens. The effect is that the plate appears to be undulating so much that worms want to flee the land. To my horror, the judges adore it. Tom again describes a dish as delicious. Padma notes that “every time I taste a new dish, I think this is my favorite.” That’s a good sign for everyone.

With so many chefs hitting grand slams, picking out the stragglers is easy. Stephanie crafted pork brood with braised pork belly & summer vegetable pickle. Apparently, her broth is wonderful but Stephanie herself acknowledges that the dish seems incomplete. She laments that she did not know how to complete the dish and should have been more considerate when choosing her food.

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