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HEAD OF THE PACK

There aren’t that many changes at the top for me. Until Richard or Angelo seriously mess up, I’m projecting them for the finale. And yes, I know that Angelo was on the bottom of last week’s QF, but his strong showing in the EC more than makes up for it. Also, with two EC wins, I think we have to consider Dale one of the front runners to challenge Richard at this point.

1. Richard
2. Dale
3. Angelo

CLOSING IN

With Fabio’s performances in the early part of the season, I thought he would have been outta here long ago...and yet, in the span of a few weeks, I have him at the #4 spot after showing great culinary dexterity in adapting his Italian roots for last week’s dim sum challenge. Carla, Tiffany and Antonia’s “home-y” food seems to have struck the right note in the past couple of episodes (Carla’s over use of spring roll wrapper aside), and with his first win this season, Mike jumps into this category.

4. Fabio
5. Carla
6. Tiffany
7. Antonia
8. Mike

FALLING BEHIND?

I still believe in Tiffani and Marcel. That said, they need to start making some waves.

9. Tiffani
10. Marcel

BREATHING EXHAUST

With a double elimination this week, ONE of these chefs has gotta go home, right? Right?

11. Tre
12. Jamie

This week’s episode opens in the aftermath of Casey leaving. Antonia and Jamie both confirm that all the cheftestants were expecting Jamie to be eliminated. Alas, front-of-the-house Casey had her neck on the chopping block instead. How much longer will this travesty continue? How much longer will Jamie continue her undeserved run on Top Chef: All Stars?

Of course, Jamie isn’t the only one who riling people up. For whatever reason, Marcel is seriously pissed off at Dale for winning last week’s challenge. He screams at Dale in the stew room, and he screams (drunkenly) at Dale on the roof of the Top Chef penthouse. It’s incredibly immature and distasteful. I still think that Marcel has significant culinary talent, but so far he’s living up to the title of “Top Chef All Star That I’d Least Like To Have Drinks With.”

The cheftestant’s alarm clocks inexplicably go off at 4:30 a.m. and most of the stumble into the kitchen with no idea what’s going on. They make their way over to the Top Chef kitchen, only to find a “Gone Fishing” sign sitting on a table alongside a map directing the viewer from NYC to Montauk (which, apparently, is the most popular fishing spot in New York).

Has everyone got an idea of what the chefs will be doing today?

Yup, the chefs head over to Montauk where they meet Tom and Padma. In a big surprise, there’s no Quickfire this week. Instead, the cheftestants will head out on boats and try to catch as many fish as they can in five hours. Then, they’ll be cooking on the beach for 200 diners in four teams of three. This seems like an infinitely better challenge than the “harvest whatever food you can get and then cook it” challenge in Season 5 when Arianne was sent home.

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