by Gina Scarpa

 

In the world of Top Chef, who better to judge a quickfire than those who have lived to tell the tale about them? Padma brings in Josie Smith-Malave (Season 2), CJ Jacobsen (Season 3) and Stefan Richter (Season 5) and presents the cheftestants with their next challenge: divide into teams of three and make a dish in just 20 minutes that highlights local shellfish.

 

John tries to strategize before the time starts and Padma shuts... him... DOWN! That'll teach him to talk when she's talking. It's hard to pay attention to what anyone else is doing because Carla is racing around the kitchen like a madwoman and saying things like, "I wanna be a James Beard and I wanna have a nice ass," and "I don't want to round around like a stupid." Casting definitely hit the jackpot with this one!

 

The veterans of Top Chef decide that the yellow team (Eliza, Danyele, Josh) had the weakest dish with their crab and corn soup, while the blue team (Sheldon, John, Kuniko) are the winners with a gooey duck dish served with apples and uzu. The members of the blue team drawn knives, and John pulls the ones with the word immunity on it. He'll be safe from the first elimination challenge of the season. Before everyone leaves the kitchen, Padma has a little surprise: Josie, CJ, and Stefan will be joining the competition and if you're asking yourself if that went over well with the group, it did not.

 

The teams must stay together for the elimination challenge, which will take place at Seattle's famous Space Needle. They must make a dish using regional ingredients for the panel, as well as famous Seattle chef and restaurateur Tom Douglas. The yellow team grabs a fish they can't even identify, the veteran decide to change their dish last second to quail, and everyone in the kitchen is just happy they're not working with Carla because she's so darn loud!

 

Teams serve the following dishes...

 

Blue Team (Sheldon, John, Kuniko): Chili oil poached cod with dashi, spot prawn shabu shabu
Orange Team (Carla, Lizzie, Chrissy): Poached salmon with seasonal vegetables and beurre blanc
Red Team (CJ, Josie, Stefan): Quail breast with confit spot prawn, cherries, and porcini
Gray Team (Jeffrey, Brooke, and Bart): Pan roasted halibut, mushrooms, english peas, wheat beer with herb sabayon
Green Team (Kristen, Tyler, Micah): Crispy seared salmon, local vegetables, spot prawn butter sauce
Yellow Team (Eliza, Danyele, Josh): Pan roasted cod, mushrooms, fava beans, pickled green apple, garlic scape bistou

 

The blue team sweeps the evening, winning the elimination challenge as well. John tells the panel that he felt his team collaborated and worked well together. The judges were especially impressed with the way Kuniko poached the fish in chili oil, and declare her the winner. The red and gray teams are called out next, and are the bottom two teams. When asked why she felt her team was there, Josie said something was important. "Clearly," Padma quickly responded. Ooh, that Padma is getting sassy this season!

 

Stefan makes excuses for his overcooked quail but quickly realized he has nowhere to go, so he starts apologizing instead. Gail tells Jeffrey that his fish had a hard sear on both sides and was dry on the inside, which seemed to be a worse offense than the quail. He's told to pack his knives and go, as the veterans narrowly escape elimination. What do you think about the returning players this season?

 

 

Top Chef: Seattle airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Bravo.

 

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

 

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