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Susur is next, delivering a Southeast Asian version of comfort food with roast chicken and farce, plus curry polenta (for the vegetarians) served alongside a tomato jam and chili mint chutney. All the actors love it, though Gael wonders if the dish is too spicy for an entire family to enjoy.

Rick is next and is “OMG-ing” over the fact that he’s seeing the Modern Family actors in person. He has a truffled white bean dish with escarole and grilled sausage. The diners don’t seem to be finding much truffle flavor in the dish. One of the actors says that it’s very family, but not very modern.

Jody has braised chicken thighs with mushrooms, semolina gnocchi and an herb salad. It definitely looks like a home cooked meal. The actors like the food, though one says that she can only eat a little because it’s so rich. Gail says that it’s too salty and a little muddled.

Debbie has gone lighter than everyone else, providing a glazed pork loin with apple butter and a winter squash slaw. The diners find the dish a little too sweet, saying that they lose the flavor of the pork. Also, the pork is a little undercooked, making it hard to cut through. Looks like the dog food didn’t come through.

Now that the cast has finished eating all five dishes they are invited to score the Masters. I’m wondering if any of the actors is worried about how much they ate and how many extra weight will result from this challenge.

The Masters all gather in front of the critics before final scoring. It’s pretty much a firing squad. Rick lost the truffle flavor, Debbie’s apple butter and jus were too sweet in combination, Maria had great flavors and was very modern with her dish (she got off easy), Judy’s dish was oversalted, Susur maybe risked making his dish too spicy.

Despondent, the Masters walk back to the kitchen. Debbie wonders aloud if the judges know how hard it was to cook everything in the kitchen and then transport it to the set for service. Rick retorts that diners don’t care about how hard it was to cook something, they just want good food.
“That’s why we’re called ‘Masters,’” he says in a snide, superior tone. I don’t like him.

They Masters go back out for scoring and I’m guessing that Maria won this challenge. Surprisingly, there are no summations before the scores are announced. Maybe this episode ran overtime?

Jody gets 3 ½ stars from all judges, plus 4 from the diners for a total of 14 ½. Respectable score.

Debbie gets 3 stars from Gail, 2 ½ from Gael and 2 ½ from Jay, plus 2 ½ from the diners. 10 ½ total. Ouch.

Maria gets 3 ½ stars from Gael, 3 from Jay, and 3 ½ from Gail. Add in 3 ½ from the diners and she has 13 ½ total. That’s a lot lower than I thought she’d get. She’s behind Jody, but since Jody already has a spot, Maria is still in the running.

Rick gets 3 stars from Gael, 3 stars from Jay and 4 stars from Gail. The diners only give him 3 stars, so he comes in below Maria with 13 stars.

So it’s either Maria or Susur. Susur gets 5 stars from Gail, 5 stars from Gael, and 5 stars from Jay. HOLY COW. The diners give him 4 ½ stars, and so with 19 ½ stars out of a possible 20, Susur has the highest total of any Elimination Challenge in Top Chef: Masters history. WOW. I’m blown away. It certainly didn’t seem like the judges loved his dish as much as their scores indicated, but I chalk it up to editing.

Maria shakes Susur’s hand. There’s no shame in her losing to him – he would have beaten every other chef in any other Elimination Challenge with those scores. It’ll be interesting to see if he can keep it up in the Champions Round. Bring it on!

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