Live Blogging - Top Chef Season 5: Episode 5

11:16
As expected, Team Blue is granted the first reprieve, so it's down to Eugene, Carla, and Danny for the boot. Danny's out and deservedly so. He was delusional about both the dish and his departure, so it's nice to weed out another person who was never going to take the title. Martha Stewart is the guest judge for next week's holiday episode. It looks like more high drama will ensue, and hopefully I'll be back to let you know about it as it happens.

11:07
The Borrowed and Old teams are the top achievers this week. Jamie's carrot puree falls short to Ariane's lamb. Poor Jamie, she's nothing if not consistent, but she never takes the top spot. I expect to see her around for a while, though, so she should have plenty more opportunities for a win. So, the other two groups, Blue and New, are in the bottom. While the Blue team suffered from blandness, the New team almost completely fell apart with their ambitious sushi-sorbet-salad effort. Danny, master of sneaking some apparently foul mushrooms into Carla's salad, should absolutely get the boot, because he was a part of virtually every component of the dish. Eugene, however, messed up a lot too, so his head may be on the chopping block instead.

10:55
Well the Bravo team pulled out all the stops for Gail's bridal shower, and they put it in a gorgeous ballroom at a fancy hotel and choose Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin as the guest judge. Faux-shower host Padma steps in to make the toast before the first team serves their trio of tomato dishes, and Jeff's peculiar tomato sorbet seems to take top honors among the guests. Danny, Carla, and Eugene's dish doesn't get the women to stand up and take off their clothes. In fact, they dislike most of the components. It's awesome to see all the chefs contributing to the assembly line for Jamie, Ariane, and Radhika's Indian inspired lamb dish, which turns out to be a smaking success all around. Last up is Jamie, Melissa, and Fabio's sea bass, and the women fall for Fabio's schmoozy introduction, but the lack of seasoning does the dish in.

10:35
Carla makes the weekly Top Chef Whole Foods shopping spree even more of a spectacle than usual as she begins to call out "Hooty Hoo" in the middle of the store in an effort to find her teammates. Every time she comes on screen she seems to do something to reaffirm her status as Carla the crazy caterer. I knew from the moment that I saw that digital rice cooker that Eugene's sushi rice was in trouble, and it screws him over when the rice comes out too sticky. Stefan reveals that he's been married twice to the same women, but he's now divorced. Now, he's just full of surprises isn't he?! Melissa chooses to speak for approximately the third time this season only to say that she thinks that her team's dish lacks "pizazz." Yeah, I think she should just keep her mouth shut from now on, unless she's actually going to lend anything of interest.

10:21
The chefs draw knives labeled as "old," "new," borrowed," and "blue" to mark the occasion of the bridal shower that Padma is throwing for Gail. Ok Padma, you can take as much credit as you want, but we all know this little soiree is coming out of Bravo's budget. The teams of three have to use their keyword as inspriation for their menus, and apparently Danny thinks that pickles are "new." As Carla is quick to point out, although a little more eloquently, what the hell is he smoking?

10:11
Continue suffering in term paper hell or take a break to watch this week's new episode, is that even a decision? So Stefan has a thing for the last remaining member of Team Rainbow, Jamie. The only problem is that she's a lesbian. Well, I guess the Fin can dream, right? Luckily or unluckily, they are drawn against one another in the quickfire challenge, tasting a sauce and attempting to identify as many ingredients as possible in a sort of bracket format. Stefan ruthlessly takes out his crush, but he falls to Hosea at the final hurdle.

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