by Michael J. Lamp

"Bulls Eyes & Bacon"

The chefs are mourning Fabio's exit, Carla is dreaming of winning for the ladies (hey girl, hey) and Dale is wondering aloud why people would ever accept anything less than first place. His charm is mesmerizing.

Padma has some very special guests with her for this week's Quickfire Challenge. Some oh so amazing guests from everyone's favorite street, the street of Sesame. The challenge is to create a cookie. Duh. What else would Cookie Monster eat?

Richard's uncooked 'cookie' and Angelo's dried out pastry are the least favorites, while Dale's sweet 'n' salty treat and Antonia's chewy gooey cookie are the Muppets' favorites. Antonia makes the top group, in spite of Elmo pointing out that her cookies look a like cow dung. Dale wins. Ugh.

This week's Elimination Challenge has the largest price tag of any single challenge in Top Chef history - $25,000. The chefs must shop at a Super Target to create a meal for 100 people. The catch? They can't bring anything. Not a paring knife, not a piece of lettuce, not a grain of salt. They have to find everything at Target.

Carla's taking a long time to shop, Dale's ironing grilled cheeses and almost everyone is making soup. Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger restaurant and Thomas O'Brien, Target home designer, are this week's guest judges. Tom seems irritated that nearly everyone made soup.

Dale's grilled cheese, Antonia's Parmesan cream eggs and Richard's pork tenderloin are the judges' favorites. Dale takes home the $25K, capping a double win for him and making this my least favorite episode to date. Not really, but his arrogance is becoming impossible to stomach.

Carla's curry 'sauce' needed a protein, Angelo's soup was way too salty and Tiffany's jambalaya relied on pre-packaged spice mix. These errors land the trio in this week's bottom group.

Angelo gets the boot and Mike Isabella can't believe it. Kudos to Angelo, though, for continuing the trend of leaving with some dignity. 

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

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

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