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Kevin idly wonders if Angelo has found his mojo.

Padma announces that for the first time in Top Chef history, the show is going international. The finale will take place in Singapore, and the chefs are blown away by this pronouncement. EVERYONE is dying to go to Singapore, especially Angelo. He says that he feels Asian inside and that he tingles when he thinks about going to Singapore. I’m excited to see Hot Angelo tingle.

To find out what they’ll be doing for their final elimination challenge in DC, the chefs will be going to NASA (again, they’re blown away). They show up at the Goddard Space Flight Center and are introduced to a woman in charge of the food system for the international space station. She plays for them a message from two astronauts already in space, who detail the concept of this challenge.

The International Space Station is stocked with a variety of food to keep astronauts from getting sick of the same ol' thing every day. They’ll have to design a dish that’s “out of this world,” following the guidelines for dining at zero gravity. The winning dish will be flown out to the International Space Station for the astronauts to enjoy - but in freeze dried form, of course.

The cheftestants are given one last set of instructions from the lady who manages the food system: don’t use a lot of sugar (doesn’t freeze dry well), don’t use big chunks of ingredients (ditto) and the astronauts have tended to like spice foods in the past.

The chefs are eager as heck to get cooking, so after a rapid race around Whole Foods, they’re back in the kitchen cooking away. Tom swings by and checks in with each chef. After hearing that Angelo is making short ribs, he gets a strange expression on his face. I’m wondering if he’s thinking the same thing I am: will a big piece of red meat freeze dry very well?

Turns out, though, that every chef is doing a big protein (halibut, lamb, sirloin, etc.) so maybe this consideration isn’t relevant. I am wondering, however, how the chefs will tailor their meal so that it can be freeze dried. I’m sure that none of them have ever freeze dried their meals before. How do you approach this challenge?

There isn’t too much drama in the kitchen - until the chefs start packing up and Tiffany realizes that the mussels she’d put in the fridge to stay cold have now totally frozen over. They’re all dead, and completely unusable. Back at the house, Tiffany talks it over with Ed and you can tell that she’s utterly demoralized. It’s really, really sad.

The next morning, the chefs wake up to find a note on the kitchen counter. It tells them that their transportation today is waiting downstairs, but that the winner of the challenge gets to keep it. Everyone is thinking the same thing: it’s a new car. They race outside as fast as they can. Yup, it’s a brand spanking new Toyota Avalon. Greed fills the heart of each cheftestant.

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