The Top Chef Texas Last Chance Kitchen Redemption Island Twist Does Not Work For Me

I am liking Top Chef Texas, but I am not liking the Redemption Island addition called Last Chance Kitchen.

For one thing, to watch Last Chance Kitchen you have to watch it online on the Bravo TV Last Chance Kitchen webpage.

The last Chef standing in Last Chance Kitchen gets to re-enter the competition. I do not know how that works.

Several episodes ago there was a Top Chef Texas episode where Padma told two Chefs to pack their knives and go.

Those two Chefs Padma sent packing were Dakota and Nyesha. The Chefs had been paired in teams of two, with it being Nyesha's misfortune to be paired with Dakota, who messed up whatever it was Dakota and Nyesha were cooking. Dakota accepted full blame for the error.

After being sent packing Dakota and Nyesha soon found out about the Last Chance Kitchen Redemption Island twist.

In a 3 way Last Chance match up it was Dakota vs. Nyesha vs. Whitney, cooking in a wok with cactus as the main ingredient.

Tom Colicchio is the sole judge in Last Chance Kitchen. He judged Nyesha's cactus dish the best, and thus began Nyesha's string of beating one Chef after another.

The following week Nyesha was up against Heather the Bully, with the challenge being using 3 techniques, Frying, Injecting and Foaming to make a dish.

Colicchio again liked Nyesha's dish best.

Next up was formerly fat Malibu Chris, who was sent packing by Padma due to bad barbecue at the brutal BBQ challenge. Chris and Nyesha had to make a dish from ingredients bought at a Gas Station.

Colicchio again liked Nyesha's dish best.

The latest Chef told to pack his knives and go was Ty-Lor, a victim of the brutal Restaurant Wars. When Ty-Lor faced Nyesha the challenge was to make a pastry dessert in 30 minutes. Each chef got to pick a sous chef from the already booted Chefs. Ty-Lor picked Malibu Chris, while Nyesha picked Ty-Lor's friend, Heather.

Colicchio again liked Nyesha's dish best.

Now, I'll get to why I don't like this Last Chance Kitchen Redemption Island twist.

This week Ty-Lor goes from the exhausting Restaurant Wars to being told to pack his knives and go, to finding he is still in it and has to do some more cooking.

Meanwhile Nyesha is not exhausted from Restaurant Wars, she just calmly relaxes and awaits her next opportunity to have Colicchio like her dish best.

The week before, when Padma sent Malibu Chris packing his knives and going, it was after a grueling, staying up all night, of BBQing, and then being out in the hot sun the next day, finishing the BBQing.

While Malibu Chris went sleep deprived and cooked in grueling heat, Nyesha just calmly relaxed and waited in air-conditioned comfort.

Clearly this gives a HUGE advantage to the Chef who is already on Redemption Island, waiting in Last Chance Kitchen. With each fallen Chef, Nyesha gets stronger, as she has more and more time to rest, while the still competing Chefs are put through all sorts of misery.

I can see where there will be some semblance of poetic justice if Nyesha keeps knocking off the incoming Chefs and gets back in the competition, after her earlier elimination, which seemed very unfair.

Top Chef Texas In Dallas, San Antonio & Austin Adding Judges Emeril Lagasse & Hugh Acheson

My favorite Reality TV hostess is coming to my town. That would be Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi coming to Dallas.

Top Chef Texas is taking place in San Antonio, Austin and Dallas.

BRAVO has yet to announce when this Fall that Top Chef Texas is going to premiere.

BRAVO has announced that famed restaurateur and celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse and fellow celebrity chef, Hugh Acheson, who rose to fan favorite fame on Top Chef Masters, will join Padma, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons as judges in Texas.

Hugh Acheson is known for his amusing commentary. And his signature uni-brow.

BRAVO's ads for Top Chef Texas are indicating that everything is Bigger in Texas. Living in Texas I can tell you that this is true. Including the people. Many Texans like to eat. A lot.

One of the ways Top Chef is being bigger in Texas is by having the competition taking place in 3 different cities. San Antonio and Austin are fairly close to each other, at about 80 miles between the two towns. Dallas is about 270 miles north of San Antonio.

That's a long time in the saddle for Padma to ride her horse from the Alamo to Big D.

Methinks Top Chef Texas is going to be very amusing and entertaining. With some Barbecue and Tex-Mex in the mix.

Top Chef All Stars: Tiffany Derry Pack Her Knives & Goes While Mike Isabella Wins 3rd Elimination Challenge in a Row

The highlight for Top Chef's Episode 14: Island Fever, for Mike Isabella, in addition to winning his 3rd Elimination Challenge in a row, was walking onto a dock to find himself greeted by Padma in a bikini.

Padma in a bikini came after the Quickfire Challenge.

The guest judge this week was a Latin chef named Lorena Garcia, who apparently is about to host a new NBC show called America's Next Great Restaurant.

For the Quickfire the boys cooked against the girls. The two teams had one hour to make 100 plates with a perfectly consistent dish on each plate. With Padma and Lorena judging who did best.

Of course, the consistently insufferable Isabella was quite dismissive of the inferior simplistic dish the girls churned out, while his was pure daring with his handmade noodles.

But, Padma and Lorena gave the girls the win, which thoroughly annoyed Mike and Richard Blais.

Tiffany and Antonia shared  $5,000 for their win.

The next morning was when Padma greeted the four remaining chefs in a bikini. The four hopped aboard a boat to be floated to an island where they were to make a celebration dinner for the Nassau Yacht Club's 80th year in business.

The chefs were told the meal had to include the Bahama staple.

Conch.

Arriving on the island the chefs found their supply of food to work with. But no conch. And then realized they were expected to go snorkeling for the conch.

As the chefs were gearing up for snorkeling, we cut to a Richard Blais confessional where he said something like, "I don't think anyone wants to see Isabella topless. I know I don't."

Then we cut to Isabella topless.

Blais was right. But I also would have included him among those I really did not want to see topless.

I was a little surprised that the conch were so easy to find. I suspect the seabed had been salted by Top Chef producers with an ample supply of the shellfish. Or are they really that prolific in such a populated area?

The cooking conditions were very primitive. Wood fires for heat, grills to cook on. No electricity, few tools. Lots of sand.

But, there were hammer-like pick tools to whack at the conch shells. That was unpleasant to watch. Why did they not notice Mike Isabella's sticking the conch in hot water to get the meat out method?

After much angst the three hours of cooking was over with the arrival of the Yacht Club's Commodore and his crew, plus Padma, Tom, Gail and Lorena.

The non-judges seemed to like everything. The judges found something wrong with all the chef's dishes.

With Tiffany having the biggest wrong with her chowder that had chilled to cold from its intended hot.

Mike won for his conch wrapped in a banana leaf, along with other stuff stuffed in that leaf. I thought for sure he was a goner due to having added butter to the mix, with Lorena saying she did not like how greasy the butter made the dish, and with Tom also making a fuss about the butter being all wrong.

But, for some reason, unfathomable to me, they gave the Insufferable Isabella the win, which of course will make him even more insufferable.

It will be sort of amusing if Isabella wins Top Chef All Stars. The backlash from viewers will be a fun spectacle to watch, if that happens.

Top Chef All-Stars: No Final Four--All Five Remaining in Finals in the Bahamas

This week's episode of Top Chef was my favorite Top Chef episode ever.

It started with the five remaining chefs, Antonia Lofaso, Mike Isabella, Carla Hall, Richard Blais and Tiffany Derry being surprised to have Padma show up in their loft.

Padma directed the chefs to the roof where she pointed out Ellis Island and told them she'd be meeting them there.

Onboard the ferry to Ellis Island the chefs discover a note telling them that when the boat whistle blows they have til it blows again to make a dish from the limited supplies in the boat's pantry.

The whistle blew and much mayhem ensued as the chefs tried to make something tasty out of items like tortilla chips, hot dogs, cheese, buns and oranges.

In the end, when the whistle blew after docking on Ellis Island, Padma and guest judge, Dan Barber, came onboard to taste the food. After tasting it, it was decided that Carla's orange concoction tasted best.

Then it was on to the Elimination Challenge.

The chefs were told that a famous genealogist had been researching their family histories. And that some special people were arriving to help the chefs sort it out.

At that Antonia's mom, Mike's mom, Carla's husband, Richard's wife and Tiffany's mom walked in.

With their family member the chef's went through the info trying to figure out their heritage and what food to cook to honor that heritage.

It was around this point that the impossible happened. Mike Isabella began to turn likable. He'd not seen his mom for 6 months. We heard the story of Mike's Italian grandma teaching him to cook. And how ever since she died he could never bring himself to cook Italian dishes that she had taught him. Which was the dish he decided to cook for the challenge.

And then Antonia, looking through her history, made the shocking discovery that her arch nemesis, and she, were cousins. With that nemesis being Mike Isabella. It was darn charming watching Antonia and Mike's relationship change after they learned they were cousins. With Mike now rooting for his new cousin to make it to the finals.

Then it was off to Whole Foods to shop. Then 3 hours to cook.

The family members joined Padma, Tom, Gail and Dan Barber for the feeding.

As the dishes rolled out, one by one, nary a negative word was spoken. Tom and Gail and Padma asked questions of the relatives about the chefs. From that we learned Carla met her husband on Match.com.

After all the chefs had rolled out their food, and Tom remarked that it was all good, wondering how they could make the choice of a winner and who to send home, I think it was Antonia's mom who suggested sending all 5 to the finals.

Back in the Stew Room the chefs waited their fate. Padma summoned them all. Each talked about their inspiration. Again Mike Isabella was likable. None of that blowhard blustering he usually does. There may have been tears.

After some discussion Antonia got the win and the guaranteed spot in the Final 4. And a brand new 2011 Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

Then Mike was told he was in and he could head to the Stew Room. Arriving there the two new cousins celebrated.

Richard was getting nervous. And might I add, his wife is very good-looking and was 5 months along with their 2nd kid. Padma then said to the very nervous Richard, "Please pack your knives." Long pause. "And take them to the Bahamas. You're in. You can return to the Stew Room." Richard looked as if he was about to explode and then he turned very relieved.

Go to break. After the commercials, Padma says Carla's name. Long wait, waiting for the pack your knives and go home message. Then Padma says Tiffany's name. Another long wait. And then, "You're both going to the Bahamas!"

Tom said they could not come to a decision because everyone had done so well.

I love it when I watch a Reality TV Show and I find myself changing my mind about someone. Previously I thought it would be travesty if Mike Isabella went to the finals after chefs like Angelo and Dale were sent packing. And I thought if Isabella turned out to be the winner of Top Chef All-Stars that this would be a bigger joke than when the repugnant non-All-Star, Mike "Boogie" Malin, won Big Brother All-Stars.

Now, I'm okay if Mike Isabella wins. It won't be a travesty. But, I want Carla or Antonia to win. I like both a lot.

Top Chef All Stars: Dale Wins $30K While Angelo Packs His Knives & Goes

For a couple weeks the part of the internet that comments about Top Chef has had some with supposed inside info saying that there was going to be a surprising Cheftestant sent home this week.

And there was. Padma told Angelo Sosa to pack his knives and go.

Last week it was not too shocking that the likable Fabio got the knife cut. But Angelo failing while making something simple like soup, was unexpected.

The Quickfire and Elimination Challenges have really gone up a notch for Top Chef All Stars.

Last week's Jimmy Fallon Birthday Lunch was a good one. Making a fancified versions of Jimmy Fallon's favorite. Like Top Ramen and Burger and Fries.

Fabio turned a Burger, or Booger as he pronounced it, into Meatloaf and Fries. Which got him the boot.

This week's Cookie Quickfire Challenge was amusing with 3 Sesame Street characters doing the judging. I have never watched Sesame Street, but I did know who the Cookie Monster is.

Dale Talde won the Quickfire and $5,000. Richard Blais and Angelo's cookies where the least favorite, Blais' because it was not a cookie, but was instead something he froze with zucchini in it using liquid nitrogen. I forget why Angelo's cookie was not liked.

The Elimination Challenge was a strange one. The Chefs were taken to an empty Super Target at midnight. Then given 3 hours to collect all they needed to make 100 portions for Target employees arriving at 3am.

It was exhausting.to watch. And exhausting for the chefs. Finding everything from tables to cooking irons to spoons to salt.

Unfortunately, Angelo found too much salt, rendering his soup inedible, according to Tom Colicchio, who could barely tolerate one spoonful.

Carla wasted a lot of time looking for a table cloth. Which cut her soup cooking time short, which ended up putting her in the bottom three, along with Angelo and Tiffany, who used too much of a spice blend she found in the Target spice section.

Dale used an iron to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Not a cooking iron. An iron your clothes type iron. He also made tomato soup. Antonia was in the top 3 due to her well made egg dish. Richard Blais rounded up the top 3. I've already forgotten what he made.

Dale's iron grilled cheese got him the win and the biggest prize in Top Chef history. $25,000.

I had expected Angelo to be in the finals and likely win. Mike Isabella was more likable this episode. I can't believe he has lasted longer than Angelo. Now I want Antonia to win. She is very likable. Dale sort of grows on me too, what with his snarky one-liners in his confessionals.

Top Chef All Stars: Tre Wilcox Packs His Knives & Goes While Antonia Wins With Mussels

Watching Wednesday night's latest episode of Top Chef All Stars I was sure we were finally going to get Mike Isabella of our TV screens. Instead it was the much less annoying Tre Wilcox who had to pack his knives and go for bad risotto.

Risotto gets so many TV chefs in trouble. risotto is a regular woe on Hell's Kitchen. I don't know that I have ever had risotto.

Apparently Tre messed up his risotto real bad. Did not cook the rice right and then drowned it with other stuff.

Isabella made pasta, from scratch, badly. And then undercooked it. Apparently it was his sauce that saved him.

Mike Isabella is sort of amusing. He is so ridiculously cocky. Makes rude remarks about what the others make, like Antonia's mussels and Tiffany's polenta, while both were among the favorites of the night, along with Carla and Fabio.

Antonia's mussels were the winning dish. Which really annoyed Isabella.

And then what is further amusing about Mike Isabella is his confidence is so fragile. He puts on a big act of confidence while his inner voice is telling him he totally mucked it up. He was so sure he had this challenge nailed, what with him being Italian and it being Italian food they were cooking.

With the cooking taking place in a famed New York City restaurant called Rao's, that I'd never heard of til last night. Apparently it is impossible to get a reservation at Rao's. The place has only 10 tables, with each table only doing one seating per night. Regulars have ongoing reservations. If they can't make it they can send someone in their place. Seats get auctioned off. Apparently this is the way Tom Colicchio ate at Rao's his one and only time.

Richard Blais won the Quickfire Challenge and Immunity with black ice cream. The challenge was to make your dish look good, how it tasted was irrelevant.

Antonia Lafaso did not win anything extra for winning the Elimination Challenge. I like Antonia. She thinks it is time Mike Isabella gets told to pack his knives and go.

Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi's Scandalous Baby Custody Battle With Adam Dell

I remember being surprised when Padma Lakshmi got off a train at the finale of the Top Chef season in which Michael Voltaggio won Top Chef to see that Padma was hugely pregnant.

This sparked a lot of Internet speculation as to who Padma's Baby Daddy was. I remember one unlikely Baby Daddy rumor had him being Tom Colicchio.

Eventually it became known that the Baby Daddy of Krishna Thea was venture capitalist, Adam Dell, he being the brother of Dell Computer billionaire, Michael Dell.

Well.

According to records straight out of Manhattan Supreme Court, Padma refused to put Dell's name on her daughter's birth certificate. Adam Dell is suing for full custody, claiming, in court, that Padma has limited his time with his almost one year old daughter to only 7 hours a week.

Now why would Padma treat the father of her baby this way?

Well.

According to what Dell had to tell the court, Padma had told him that she had been sexually active with a billionaire named Teddy Forstmann at the same time she was busy baby-making with Dell. And that Padma "made clear . . . her hope that Forstmann was the child's biological father."

In the picture above, that is Adam Dell on the right, he being the young looking guy. The guy below, walking with Padma, is what looks to be a much older guy, Teddy Forstmann.

When one looks at those with whom Padma chooses to have her assignations, one must remember this was a woman who was married to Salman Rushdie.

He being the guy who's 4th novel, The Satanic Verses, upset Muslims in several Muslim countries, with death threats, including a 'fatwa' against Rushdie courtesy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died in 1989, while Salman Rushdie continues to live.

Without Padma.

Top Chef All Stars: Casey Thompson Packs Her Knives & Leaves Because of Bad Chicken Feet

Incompetent Jamie keeps on cooking badly, while good chefs get sent home on Top Chef All Stars.

First Jen Carroll, then Spike Mendelsohn. And now Casey Thompson have been rolled over by the Jamie steamroller.

After a couple week absence the first Top Chef episode of the New Year started off annoying, with creepy Mike Isabella winning the Quickfire Challenge, getting both immunity from elimination and a brand new Toyota Prius.

Isabella was as insufferable winning as you can imagine. And then was a mess handling the dim sum expediting on the bizarre Dim Sum Elimination Challenge.

Now, I know a lot of the actual Top Chef All Stars, like Bryan Voltaggio, and others, turned down being on TC All Stars because they were too busy. But were the producers so desperate that they had no other options but to add Isabella as an All Star? Do not they read the Internet TV Forums. Viewers can not stand this guy.

Putting Mike Isabella on Top Chef All Stars is as bizarre as Big Brother putting the repugnant non-All Star, Mike "Boogie" Malin, on Big Brother All-Stars. Boogie won BB All Stars. Does this portend an equally bizarre ending to Top Chef All-Stars?

The Quickfire with Tom Colicchio whipping out a dish at warp speed, with the Chefs then having to whip out a dish just as fast, well, that was entertaining. Except for Isabella winning.

Dale's attempt at Pad Thai was a disaster in the Quickfire. Not a good omen for the Elimination Challenge. Which Dale won anyway, despite his Quickfire woes. But, Dale got no good prize for winning, nothing, no car, nothing.

The Elimination Challenge seemed a setup for failure. Cooking in an alien kitchen in New York City's Chinatown. And then making 2 of the chefs be the dim sum servers. That is just wrong. If you are testing how well they do as chefs, why throw such a curve? Casey and super lovable Carla volunteered to be the servers, leaving the final preparation of their dishes to their competitors.

How fair is that?

Carla's spring rolls did not require much help. But, Casey's chicken feet did. Antonio was supposed to send out Casey's feet, but didn't. At some point Casey headed back to the kitchen to work on her feet. But it was too late.

Everyone hated Jamie's two dishes. Everyone also hated Casey's. Everyone thought it would be Jamie who was sent packing, including Jamie.

Instead it was my Fort Worth neighbor, Casey Thompson, who Padma told to pack her knives and go. Somehow I think Casey was not all that sad to be free of that madhouse.

From next week's previews it appears the chefs will be cooking on a boat, along with fishing. Will Jamie slide on by another week? Or will someone throw her overboard?

Top Chef All Stars: Jennifer Carroll Has Angry Emotional Outbursts & Packs Her Knives & Goes

It took me a week, but I eventually got my DVR to successfully record Top Chef All Stars.

Usually I am not a fan of Reality TV All Stars shows. Not Amazing Race All Stars, not Survivor All Stars, not Big Brother All Stars, especially not Big Brother All Stars.

I never watched Big Brother again after the disgusting non-All Star Mike Boogie Man won, with him only being on the show only because the #1 Big Brother All Star, Will Kirby, would not be on BB All Stars if his non-All Star BFF was not on.

I digress.

I've now watched the first 2 episodes of Top Chef All Stars and I believe this is the first time I am going to like a Reality TV Show All Star iteration.

Angelo Sosa won the first two Elimination Challenges. That sort of seems familiar to how the previous season of Top Chef started.

The second episode really delivered, what with a spectacular angry outburst directed at the judges by Jen Carroll.

I think she may have been sleep deprived.

A pop star with very bushy eyebrows, who little kids seemed to recognize, named Joe Jonas, had the chefs making midnight snacks for kids for the Quickfire Challenge. It had been planned, obviously, that Jonas could not decide between 2 top treats for the win. So, it was off to a New York City natural history museum where 100s of brats would decide who made the best junk food.

The two contenders, Spike and Tiffani, chose teams. who then whipped out the goodies. Tiffani's won. The kids really did not like Spike's at all.

Ready to go home and to bed the chefs were not happy to see Tom Collicchio arrive to tell them their Elimination Challenge had begun, that they were spending the night in the museum. And cooking breakfast for 100s of brats and their parents in the morning.

Due to winning the Quickfire, Tiffani got to pick if her team was T-Rex or Brontosaurus. With T-Rex being a meat eater and Brontosaurus a vegetation eater.

Tiffani picked T-Rex, making an erroneous assumption that T-Rex ate everything, not just meat.

Tiffani's team lost. Jen Carrol was the worst of the worst and she was not happy about it. She argued with what the Judges were telling her, talked back sarcastically, sort of called them stupid. And then after getting told to pack her knives and get the hell out of there, Jen left the Stew Room and as the door shut could be heard yelling and swearing.

Who to? The Judges? No one?

Jennifer Carroll had been a favorite on her season of Top Chef, making it to the Final Four where she flamed out. Something seemed real off about Jen Carroll, throughout the episode. Was she exhausted? PMS? A combo of causes?

I am guessing this was not the last we will see of talking back to the Judges on Top Chef this All Star Season.

Top Chef D.C.: Kelly Packs Her Knives & Goes From Singapore

Ed may a self-described douchebag, at least regarding how he treats Angelo, but he is one big douchebag on a roll, winning both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges. Again.

After their arrival in Singapore, Kelly, Ed, Angelo and Kevin eventually met up with Tom Colicchio and some famous Singapore foodie who's name I could not possibly be expected to remember. The Singaporean took the chefs on a tour of Singapore street food.

And then they came to Padma, at the end of a long day of flying and eating. Padma gave the four 30 minutes to cook their version of Singapore street food. This was a super high states Quickfire. No money, but for the first time in Top Chef Final Four history, the Quickfire winner got immunity from elimination.

Everyone assumed Asian oriented Angelo would have this nailed. But, Ed beat Angelo. Again.

For the Elimination Challenge the 4 had to work as a team to feed 80 people at some event held by some well-know lady in the food business. Again, I don't remember the name. But, I'm sure she is famous.

The dinner was to be done restaurant style, as in waiters took orders and the chefs cooked the orders as they came in.

The night before the four decided to each do one dish. The next day Ed told the camera that he was making a 2nd dish. Then Colicchio arrived, all appalled the chefs were only doing one dish each, with Ed chiming in that he was already doing 2. So, now the other 3 had to whip out a 2nd dish.

There was an awful lot of unseemly sweating going on with all that pressure, particularly from Ed, who really had now pressure, because he had immunity.

The chefs worked real well together in the kitchen, there were some communication problems with the order takers and food deliverers. But other than that it was a way smoother dinner service than you ever see on Hell's Kitchen.

In the end Ed came out the winner, again, at Judges' Table.

Back in the stew room Angelo was sure he was out, due to comments made about his soup. Then the 3 were back at the firing line. Angelo lost his composure, so sad, due to being so sure, he was out. Then Kelly got the boot which really got Angelo sobbing. Angelo did not, til then, seem like a sobbing type of guy to me. Just like his food, he has layers of complexity that make him interesting. And just a tad weird.

Then the 3 finalists, Kevin, Ed and Angelo relaxed for a second before Padma shows up to tell them there is one more thing, and they need to see them back at Judges' Table.

From the previews I'm guessing what Padma has to tell them is that they have a group of former Top Chef chefs to choose from as helpers, like a heavily tattooed Voltaggio brother.

Top Chef D.C.: Baby Food Quickfire Hilton Hotel Double Elimination

You are looking at last week's Elimination Challenge winner, Arnold Myint and cooking teacher, Lynne Gigliotti. This week both were told to pack their knives and go.

This was a different sort of Top Chef episode. It confused me.

It started with a baby food Quickfire Challenge where the chefs had to make something that pleased Baby Daddy Tom Colicchio and new Baby Mama Padma Lakshmi as adult type food, and also have a baby pureed version that makes baby happy.

It was a high stakes Quickfire, with 2 winners, with Tom and Padma each picking one. With the winners getting no immunity. Instead getting $10,000. I don't remember who won. I do remember Alex Rezink saying if he won he'd spend the money on a hooker and an eight ball.

I understood the hooker part.

For the Elimination Challenge the chefs had to pair up, as in get someone to agree to co-cook with you. And then prepare a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu for Hilton Hotels, something healthy, easy to prepare, easy to transport. And tasty.

Now, here is where it gets weird. First up is breakfast. If you are the judges' favorites you are safe from elimination. If not, you continue on to cook lunch.

In addition to the regular judges we had returned cheftestants like the older Voltaggio brother, Bryan and that annoying Mike Isabella guy. Plus the sometimes amusing Spike from a previous season.

So, some were safe, the rest moved on to cook lunch. After lunch it was down to three pairs. Arnold and Lynne, Kevin and Kenny, plus Kelly and Andrea.

Dinner gets served. The judges eat. After that is where it got weird.

Now, did I miss something or was it not true that the worst chefs ended up cooking dinner? With the good chefs made safe from elimination?

So, Padma called the three dinner cooking pairs to the Judges' Table. A little discussion and then it's announced that Kelly Liken and Andrea Curto-Randazzo win.

Huh? What about all those who successfully cooked breakfast and lunch?

And then it got even weirder. Kelly and Andrea won very nice vacations for two. One to Italy, the other to Spain. Or was it Portugal?

Then after more discussion it was decided that Arnold and Lynne were the ones who needed to go.

Lynne was a first rate ass. Hard to believe she can go back to teaching chefs now. She was totally arrogant about her noodle cooking, Arnold wanted to get them boiling. Lynne insisted she was the world's noodle expert. In the end it was her undercooked noodles that did them in.

Or so it seemed.

Am I the only viewer perplexed by how a winner was picked on this episode?

Top Chef Las Vegas: Insufferable Isabella Told To Pack His Knives And Go

It was good TV to get the insufferably smug Mike Isabella of my Top Chef TV screen. If my memory serves me correctly, each week Isabella would brag that he had whatever challenge in the bag due to his superior cooking skills. But I don't remember him delivering anything that was well received.

For his exit week Isabella was sure he would be on top because the Elimination Challenge was to create a vegetarian dish for Natalie Portman in Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak restaurant in the MGM Grand. Of course, the cheftestants thought they would be cooking a protein and were thrown a loop with the arrival of vegetarian Portman.

But not Isabella. He said he cooks vegetarian all the time in his restaurant. But somehow he did not know that when you cook vegetarian you combine certain grains and beans to make a complete protein. Instead, he thought it was immensely clever to slice leeks to make them look like scallops. He actually referenced, to the judges, the faux scallops as his dish's protein.

This episode started with the drawing of knives for the Quickfire Challenge. The knives had classic TV shows on them. The challenge was to make an upscale, update of a TV dinner, somehow reflecting that show. I really did not get how they were supposed to do that, but Kevin came up with a meatball TV dinner that won the challenge.

Kevin also won the Elimination Challenge, to the total upset of poor loser Michael Voltaggio, who felt his complicated dish, that included a banana infused polenta, should have won over Kevin's simple kale dish that Voltaggio claimed was something you learned your first day in culinary school. Or something like that.

Those Voltaggio brothers are a real intense piece of work. But there are moments when I find them amusing.

Poor nervous Jennifer really suffered this round. She ended up in the bottom again. She was so nervous and shaking so bad she spilled sauce on the judges. I like Jennifer. Both she and Kevin have grown on me. Especially Kevin. It comes through rather clear that Kevin is a nice guy. And a very good chef. I was surprised to hear him reference his wife. I want to see the wife.

It was particularly satisfying to see Robin survive Isabella. Mike was sure that he was safe as long as Robin was also on the chopping block. But it was clear from Tom Colicchio's blog that everything about Isabella's dish was bad and that Isabella stood by his untasty food. While Robin understood what was wrong with hers and Colicchio said that, unlike Isabella's, Robin's problem was not that it tasted bad, it just was not a cohesive dish that combined flavors into something you wanted to eat.

Anyway, good to see Mike Isabella go. Now if Robin survives Eli that will also be amusing.

Almost forgot. The repartee that followed Padma's remark about, I think it was a garlic flower, being like a "little prick in your mouth" was pretty funny. I don't think that repartee would have survived the censors on network TV.