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The seven chefs present their dishes to Scott for judgement. He doesn't give much away in terms of what he's thinking. The only indication, positive or negative, from him is the fact that he takes multiple bites of Jeff's chicken, which of course, makes Jeff ecstatic, having assumed that it's a good sign when your judge eats lot of your dish.

Scott and Padma take their position at the front of the room. Leah's mussels and branzino dish is on the bottom, as she hasn't executed it properly and the bacon she used clashed with her fish. Fabio's oats-covered-eggplant also comes out on the bottom, as the oats completely overwhelmed every other flavor. Lastly, Jeff is on the bottom for having a very brown, very heavy dish (though his chicken was very moist and well done).

On top, we have Miss Oats with a delectable tofu and veggies dish. Jaime's dish with fruit three ways is also on top with a nice flavor combination. Stefan is also in the top three with great textures and nice flavor. Ugh, I hate Stefan...

...which of course means that he wins this Elimination Challenge. Blech. This irks me almost as much as it irks Hosea, with Stefan having now won five challenges back-to-back. Anyone else think that he's a lock to make the finale?

The chefs tromp back to the stew room for a "surprise" while Padma "gets things ready" for their Elimination Challenge. Like children at Christmas, the chefs can't wait to see what they're getting. "Dogs?" Fabio wonders to himself. Nope, they're getting customized football jerseys. But what could the Elimination Challenge be, then?

Upon re-entry to the kitchen, the chefs find out that they'll be competing in the first-ever Top Chef Bowl. Who's their opposition? Not each other but a selection of "Top Chef All-Stars" from past seasons! Having been a fan of this show since Season 1, I am over the moon. I love it when they bring chefs back. I guess I'm just easy to please.

Of course, I think you'd be hard-pressed to call these chefs, "All-Stars." True Top Chef All stars, in my opinion, would HAVE to include Marcel, Tiffany, Hung, Stephanie, and Richard. We have none of these. Instead, we have Spike, Andrew and Nikke from Season 4, Camille from Season 3, Josie from Season 2 and Miguel and Andrea from Season 1. This is really unfair. At least four of the chefs from this season will make it to the finale...as for the All-Stars, none of them made it that far. I think the cards are pretty well-stacked in favor of this season's chefs.

Not to say that this challenge won't be interesting. I hated Miguel during Season 1 but I'm totally ready for Josie to show her stuff. She was eliminated far too early in Season 2 and would have done extremely well, I think. She'll definitely be a force to be reckoned
with.

The Elimination Challenge goes as follows. Each chef in Season 5 will compete head-to-head against one of the All-Stars. The judges have selected 7 NFL teams - each pair will be given a bag full of local ingredients from that team's region and will have to make a dish inspired by the cuisine in that area. Oooooh, I'm loving this challenge so far.

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