by Michael J. Lamp

'VanderpumpEd'

There's lots of gum in the kitchen. Oh, and Hugh Acheson.

The cheffies are curious about what they'll be doing. After Hugh makes a couple of funnies (well, moderately funny funnies), Gail announces the Quickfire Challenge.

The chefs must create a dessert that will inspire a new flavor of Extra Dessert Delights chewing gum. The winner gets their flavor entered into a consumer vote to become the next official flavor. If that's not enough, Extra gum will also reward the winning chef with $25,000. Needless to say, everyone is giddy at this news.

Rebecca had too many flavors at play, Melissa's coffee was an odd choice and Matthew's was overly sweet.

Craig's pancake, Nelson's black forest and Nelson's Tapioca are Hugh's favorite. Craig wins. He's extra giddy, like whoa.

Craig gets to choose the captains. He decides he'll lead one team and let Amanda lead the other. Orlando is upset to be on Craig's team and says that Craig was lucky to win the Quickfire. Pretty sure that's some old-fashioned jealousy. Just sayin'.

Time for the Elimination Challenge. Lisa and Ken Vanderpump (yes, those Vanderpumps - are they any others?) are celebrating the anniversary of their restaurant, Villa Blanca. The chefs must create a dessert table pitch for Lisa, which can include up to six dessert options.

Lisa and some of her Housewife cronies (I see you, Kyle Richards!) arrive at the Top Chef kitchen. Lisa's precious Jiggy is dressed up, as per usual. If you're not a regular viewer of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, first of all, that's a shame. You're really missing out. Also, you should know that Jiggy is a dog. Seriously.

Each team presents their displays and leads the group in a tasting of the individual desserts. Lisa's favorite of the day was Rebecca's crumble, but she loved that Amanda's team prepared goodies for Jiggy, in addition to the human guests.

At the end of the tasting, Lisa declares Chris' team the winners. To be fair, Amanda was actually the leader, but who can really expect Lisa to notice other women?

Craig's team arrives at Judge's Table as this week's bottom group. I guess that crumble wasn't as good as they thought. The judges criticize the team for an aesthetic that could've been as at home at a little girl's birthday party as it was at a refined, grown woman's upscale event.

The judges give Craig a really hard time, specifically, for what they considered a lack of effort and their least favorite dessert of the night. Johnny makes it extremely clear to Craig that he would be going home if he didn't have immunity. Ouch.

In the end, Nelson gets the boot, which is a shame, because he seems like such a nice dude. Nelson is mostly gracious, though he does manage to get in a departing dig at Craig for his lack of experience.

The episode ends, as you might expect, with Craig upset about the judges targeting him and with Orlando upset about Craig's entire existence in the show. Hug it out, bros.

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

(Image courtesy of Bravo)

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