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The chefs scurry about, possessing a mere 45 minutes to complete their dish. I'm starting to think that the contestants this season have an annoying tendency to ignore the objectives of the challenges. Remember how a few weeks ago, almost every chef made amuse-bouches that were too large to eat in one bite? Yeah, there's a similar problem here. Many chefs are technically using one pot to make their dish, but their dishes are so complex and incorporate so many elements that no home chef could ever hope to make it. It's out of the spirit of the challenge.

The major violator seems to be (surprise, surprise) Eugene. His dish appears to have five elements on it, including a homemade stew (artificially thickened with cornstarch), salsa and tarot chip. Yeah, I'm sure that I could make that in one pot at home.

My two strong women, Jaime and Ariane, seem to have made winning dishes. Jaime cooks scallops, which frankly, we've seen WAY too much of on Top Chef. You simply cannot mess up a scallop, they are just too yummy. Season after season, scallops have been a go-to ingredient for chefs and I've been waiting to see who harnesses their tasty goodness first this season. Apparently, it's Jaime.

Ariane, on the other hand, cooks filet mignon with a cauliflower purée. Granted, these are not ingredients that are readily accessible to home cooks, but it's a dish that has an overall level of sophistication that we haven't seen from Ariane very much this season. I like that she's stepping up.

Martha samples all of the dishes and names her bottom three: Eugene with his overly-complicated, cornstarch-infused Korean stew, Fabio who had puréed mushrooms for his polenta but ended up turning it an unappetizing shade of grey, and Jeff who made a potato risotto that just didn't taste very good ("Pungent" was all Martha had to say after taking a bite).

As for the happy chefs, we have Hosea with paella that was both yummy, simple and reminiscent of home cooking (I'm starting to think that he's an emerging dark horse candidate, too), Ariane and Jaime. Martha says that she's awarding the victory to the chef who made the best dish and followed the spirit of the challenge. It's . . . . . . . ARIANE!!! Good for her, I've been rooting for her since the beginning and I'm really glad that she's starting to shine.

For those of you keeping score at home, at this point in the series, Ariane has now won more challenges than anyone else in the competition, with two Elimination wins and one Quickfire win.

But what's the Elimination Challenge going to be? As the chefs begin to ponder their fate, they hear a beautiful version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" sung by the Harlem Choir as they enter the kitchen. Wow, are they a talented group.

The chefs draw knives and each one has a number between 1 and 12 on it. Yep, it's exactly what we think it is. The chefs are going to cater a charity event for amFAR (the foundation for AIDS research) and must cook an hors d'oeuvre themed around their day of Christmas (ten lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, etc.)

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