Top Chef: Anything You Can Cook I Can Cook Better (Episode #401)

Chefs in Chicago Project Runway has ended, paving the way for Bravo's second best show, Top Chef. This season the chefs are in Chicago, and what better place for them to meet than at the Windy City's culinary mecca, Pizzeria Uno?

After chowing down on some deep-dish pies and sussing out their competition (including dating chefs Jennifer and Zoi) Padma drops the obvious on them: their Quick Fire is...deep dish pizza!

Quick-Fire Challenge: Turns out the dough to pizza ratio on deep-dish is tough. A lot of chefs end up with serious crust issues, including Andrew, whose dish is stolen by Richard, leaving him to bake his pizza in a frypan. They deliver their end products to a house where Rocco DiSpirito and Padma are waiting for them (it's the house they're going to live in! yay!). Out of all the dishes, Richard the pan-stealer's peach tallegio pizza with sweet tea sauce intrigues me the most...he ends up in the top 8. Which is important for the elimination challenge.

Elimination Challenge: Each chef from the QF top 8 is paired up with one from the bottom 8 for a head-to-head cook-off on one of the following classic dishes: crab cakes, chicken piccata, shrimp scampi, eggs benedict, lasagna, duck a'la orange, steak, and the dreaded...souffle. The winner of each head-to-head will be safe from the chopping block, while the losers will be eligible for elimination.

The chefs go shopping, and already, certain people seem to be in trouble. Andrew forgets to buy mayo for his crab cakes, and Ryan thinks piccata is breaded. Others are feeling confident -- Italian-raised Nikki is making her own pasta for lasagna, Jennifer has poached so many eggs in her day, she's ready to go, and pan-stealing Richard keeps his cool over the crab cakes. Erik and Zoi, who drew the short stick with souffles, are stressing out.

Judge's Table: The head-to-head challenge winners are Richard, Nikki, Jennifer, Stephanie, Valerie, Zoi, Antonia, and Dale. Stephanie wins the day for her duck. In the elimination, it looks like Erik (who made glorified nachos, he admits) Nimma, who oversalted her shrimp (after undersalting her pizza) and Ryan, who still can't understand why piccata isn't milanese. In the end, stubborn-pants is given a second chance and salt-challenged Nimma is sent home.

ed note: apologies for the mishap! I can only blame sleep deprivation, and a secret hope that as a picatta lover, the man who so willfully destroyed it would be sent packing -- I clearly watched the episode otherwise! please, look through my past (correct) stories on the show, and come back so I can make it up to you. :-)