by Michael J. Lamp

“Restaurant Wars Beat Downs”

The episode begins with a revelation. Antonia is the Top Chef ‘hammer,’ which means that when you’re on a team with Antonia, you are going to be sent home. It’s kind of like being friends with Sidney Prescott. Scream 4, anyone?

The chefs are taken to Eric Ripert’s famed Le Bernardin where Anthony Bourdain greets them. Where art thou, Padma, I wonder?

Justo Thomas, the best fish butcher in the world, gives the chefs a little demo before revealing their Quickfire Challenge. The chefs must fillet & portion one cod and one fluke in ten minutes. For the sake of comparison, ol’ Justo can do it in juist eight.

Carla, Fabio, Tiffany and Antonia are in the bottom group. Tiffany works in a seafood restaurant. Ouch. On the other hand, Dale, Blais, Mike and Marcel display the most efficient butchering skills. To determine who will win and earn immunity, they must cook a dish using only the, how to phrase this, ‘leftover’ portions of the butchered fish. Eyes, shoulders, scales, oh my! All four fellas get great reviews, but Dale comes out on top, once again. Meanwhile, major tension is a brewin’ between Mike and Marcel.

Ludo Lefebvre is with Padma (there she is!) in the Top Chef kitchen. The Elimination Challenge is a new spin on Restaurant Wars, which cues the chefs to channel their inner Oprah audience members. This year, the chefs must create pop-up restaurants in 24 hours. Also, for the first time in Top Chef history, the diners will choose the winning restaurant.

As Quickfire winner, Dale is the default leader of one team. He chooses Marcel to lead the other team, a decision that was made entirely due to Dale’s disinterest in working with Marcel.

Dale’s team names their restaurant ‘Bodega’ and elects for a comfortable, NYC corner store-style feel. Marcel bickers with and throws mucho sass at his fellow team members, before titling their restaurant ‘Edge.’

While Dale’s team seems to fly through prep, it’s all the makings of a major train wreck on Marcel’s side.  Tiffany ends up abandoning her dish before it’s finished (she’s in charge of the front of the house), and she leaves its completion in Angelo’s hand. Hmm. Putting dishes in Angelo’s hand hasn’t ended particularly well for anyone yet.

Food & Wine’s Dana Cowin surprises Team Edge when she pops in for dinner. She proceeds to have a pretty miserable dining experience. Meanwhile, the judges are eating at Bodega and appear to be in total awe of Fabio’s front-of-house skills. He’s directing waiters, he’s schmoozing with guests. If there were babies, he’d be kissing them.

By the time the judges make it over to Edge, Tiffany seems to be in the midst of her own Black Swan­ breakdown, complete with forced and super awkward school girl giggling. In the kitchen, Marcel and Mike’s differences have hit a fever pitch. Not. Going. Well.

The diners select Bodega as their favorite, and to say it was a landslide decision would be the culinary understatement of the century. Marcel and Mike get into another yelling match at Judges’ Table, fingers are pointed all over the place and the judging session ends with Tom hanging his head. Phew.

The tone turns around when Bodega meets with the judges, and Richard, a.k.a. the team’s ‘technical advisor,’ is singled out as the challenge winner. He gets $10,000 and some high fives.

Marcel gets the boot, but he says he’s misunderstood. What do you think? We’ll see when we chat with him.

Top Chef: All-Stars airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Bravo.

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

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