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.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for March 3 - March 9

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for March 3 - March 9. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie.

Rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average(in millions)
1.	American Idol (Wed.)	Fox	24.4	26.0
2.	American Idol (Thu.)	Fox	22.1	24.5
3.	The Mentalist	CBS	14.3	15.3
4.	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS	13.5	17.5
5.	CSI	CBS	13.4	13.9
*	NCIS	CBS	13.4	20.1
7.	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	12.1	13.7
8.	CSI: Miami	CBS	11.9	11.9
*	Glee	Fox	11.9	10.4
10.	Undercover Boss	CBS	11.8	12.3
11.	Blue Bloods	CBS	11.6	12.7
12.	Secret Millionaire	ABC	11.4	12.1
13.	House	Fox	11.1	10.7
14.	Survivor: Redemption Island	CBS	11.0	12.0
15.	CSI: NY	CBS	10.6	11.0
16.	60 Minutes	CBS	10.5	13.8
*	Bones	Fox	10.5	11.0
18.	Two and a Half Men	CBS	10.2	14.4
19.	The Bachelor	ABC	10.0	10.3
20.	Harry's Law	NBC	9.6	11.4

Mom's Sneezing Scares and Amuses Baby

Alma, the Songbird of the Texas Gulf Coast sent me this funny YouTube video of a baby who is alternatively terrified and amused at her mom's sneezing.

I thought it was some pretty funny TV.

The Bachelor Brad Picks Emily Who Won't Let Him Drink Beer & Won't to Austin

I made it to the part on The Bachelor where Brad dumped Chantal, with Chantal being quite upset as the tears flowed as she was driven away in a limo. And then my DVR caught up to the present moment.

So, I've not watched the special moment where Brad tells "Em" she is the one.

Nor have I watched the After The Final Rose show where Brad and Emily appear in public for the first time since Brad proposed 3 months ago.

Apparently on the After The Final Rose show Emily displayed a brand new personality, with all sorts of issues regarding her relationship with Brad.

Also, during the 3 months since Brad proposed in South Africa the wannabe lovebirds have broken up once. Near as I can tell, Emily has issues with Brad drinking beer during a football game and an aversion to moving to Austin.

I can understand the moving to Austin aversion.

Emily also had some trouble with Brad's assertion that he'd fallen for her from the start, after she watched the show and saw him being ardently lustful with several of the wife wannabes, including supposedly getting to know two of the others in the Biblical Sense in the notorious Fantasy Suites.

Brad may have had a problem with some of the info that has surfaced about Emily Maynard since he proposed. Then again, Brad does not strike me as the sort of guy who does a lot of reading. So, unless someone told him, Brad may be oblivious to the stories about Emily's tragic past, as told by Emily, being a bit fictional.

Emily's version has it that the father of her daughter, Ricky Hendrick, had been her childhood sweetheart, who left her one day to never return, killed in a plane crash, with Emily learning a week later she was pregnant.

Well.

Ricky Hendrick's ex-fiance, Cori Kurek, disputes Emily's story.

Cori's does not believe Emily and Ricky were ever engaged.

Cori claims that, “After Ricky died and she found out she was pregnant, Emily wanted to have lunch with me, because she didn’t know him that well.”

Cori was engaged to Ricky from 2002 to 2003. When the two broke off their engagement, Cori gave back Ricky’s ring. “I’m amazed at the details Emily excludes about her background,” says Cori of the 24-year-old’s portrayal on the show.

A source close to the Hendricks claims that Ricky's family gave Emily the engagement ring that Ricky had given Cori, in order to supposedly spare them the embarrassment of an out of wedlock baby, making it appear that wedding plans had been made at the time of Ricky's death. Emily had the ring on her finger in the delivery room, characterized, by an up close source, as "a staged, fake engagement."

Emily's story is that she and Ricky were childhood sweethearts. But Cori says, “Ricky and I were together for a very long time and as far as I know, there was never any Emily in his life.”

I thought it odd that when Brad went on the all important hometown date, to meet Emily's family, he met no family other than Emily's daughter, Ricky.

Brad should have fallen for Chantal from the start. He'd be much better off.

The Amazing Race Unfinished Business Is To Be Continued Again In China

That is Mallory of Gary & Mallory being loud on a Yak in China.

The latest episode of The Amazing Race went from Japan to China and, just like the first episode, when the racers reached the Pit Stop, Phil informed them they were still racing.

Margie & Luke were the first to make it to the Pit Stop, winning a fabulous trip from Travelocity, before Phil sent them off still racing. Which Margie was not happy about.

It has been a long day of flying and struggling at the high elevation of Jade Dragon Mountain.

Leaving the Pit Stop teams were told to drive themselves to Narita Airport to take a provided flight to Kunming, China. This meant no airport drama.

Except Kent and Vyxsin missed the flight. When Kent & Vyxsin opened their first clue of the day they declared their theme for the day was "PMA. Positive Mental Attitude."

The PMA did not last too long. First they had trouble finding their car, then trouble opening the trunk, then trouble finding the airport, heading the wrong direction a long distance before Vyxsin thought to look at her compass.

The other teams were far ahead by the time Kent & Vyxsin landed in China. But, they caught up at Jade Dragon Mountain, making it there while Zev was still trying to figure out the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

But, before the Chinese Zodiac task, teams had to ride a yak across an treacherous looking river. Of course, the Cowboys, Cord & Jet, took right to Yak riding. The completed Yak task clue sent teams via gondola up Jade Dragon Mountain.

After completing the Zodiac Roadblock teams had to take a marked bus to Old Town Lijiang to find an ancient prayer wheel for their next clue.

I did not quite understand the prayer wheel. Teams had to write a wish and slip it in a slot that matched their sign, then say what sign they were to get their clue. The Globetrotters had a lot of woe with this, which I was not understanding.

The prayer wheel clue led to a detour involving making candy or carrying a long horn through the streets.

Most teams chose the candy.

The detour clue led to the Pit Stop at something called the Eternal Tower on top of Lion Hill.

Meanwhile, back at the Zodiac Roadblock, Vyxsin finally got it right. Rushing down to the marked bus, heading towards their next destination, Vyxsin realized she'd left her fanny back with all their money and travel documents back in the gondola. Vyxsin screamed at the Chinese driver to turn the bus around, while Kent pointed out that this was not possible.

I forgot to mention this was not Vyxsin's first lost passport incident of the day. An earlier one occurred at the airport where she left it on the ticket desk. Kent threatened to shoot her after that incident.

I also forgot to mention that Ron had a meltdown when he realized they had not gotten on a correctly marked bus. And were going the wrong direction. Much shouting and throwing of rocks ensued, with somehow Ron & Christina managing to get on the Globetrotter's bus.

So, the episode ended with all the teams checking in at the Pit Stop and continuing on, except for Kent & Vyxsin, who had had a real bad day.

The Cowboys came in 2nd, Gary & Mallory 3rd, Ron & Christina 4, Kisha & Jen 5th, Flight Time & Big Easy 6th, Jaime & Cara 7th, with 8th place waiting for Kent & Vyxsin.

Top Chef All Stars: Mike Isabella Wins Again While Carla Goes Home

Mike Isabella was back being his insufferable self again this week on Top Chef. For a few minutes, last week, he was almost likable, acting normal, instead of being a boorish braggart.

Isabella won last week's Elimination Challenge. And won again this week, putting him in the Final Four, which just seems wrong.

Then again, Isabella seems to finally be performing in a way that matches the bragging.

In the Quickfire Challenge the chefs had to cook against the chef who won their season of Top Chef.

Isabella was up against Michael Voltaggio. No match. I thought. But, Isabella won. Getting either 5 or 10 thousand bucks, I can't remember which.

Tiffany and Richard also beat the chef who one their season.

And then we get to the Elimination Challenge. The finals are in the Bahamas. The chefs were told they were to cook for Bahamian Royalty. None of them knew that the Queen of England is the sovereign reigning over the Bahamas.

So, it came as a shock when they were brought to a sort of Mardis Gras type celebration cooking for the King of Junkanoo.

After doing their prep the chefs were brought to the restaurant where they'd be cooking and met the King. Not long in to the cooking a deep fryer went to flames. The fire department arrived. Chemicals got on the food. They had to start over.

Now that they knew it was not snooty royalty they'd be cooking for Antonia decided to simplify what she was cooking. That ended up not working out so well.

And for some reason Carla decided to deep-fry pork, with some of the pork being served raw, with some of that raw pork going to some of the judges. Which is what sent Carla home.

Richard Blais was in the top with Isabella. Richard sure is one insecure guy for being so good at what he does. He is like the opposite of Isabella.

Isabella, who has now won two Elimination Challenges in a row. And a Quickfire Challenge against one of Top Chef's all time best winners. I expect the insufferablity to amp up next week.

It won't pain me too much if Isabella wins. But, shouldn't he get some sort of penalty for excessively sweating into the food he is cooking? I know I would not want to eat what he cooks and seasons with his own salty sweat.