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The women return and Antonia informs everyone that she won. The silence is deafening. For several seconds, no one congratulates her for this, her first win of the season. This is particularly unfortunate given that Antonia has cooked her ass off during All-Stars yet she keeps losing due to getting stuck on the bad team every time. She could have won twice previously if only her team had been victorious. All the remaining men in the room can do, however, is realize that three of them are up for elimination. As expected, everyone from the primo meal is sent to the gallows.

The judges question Tre, Dale and Mike about their mistakes. Two of them are understandable. Mike clearly recognizes that he failed to cook his dish perfectly. According to Tom, Mike's sauce turned out fine, meaning that if he had used store bought pasta instead, he would not be up for elimination. Meanwhile, Tre and Tom debate the proper way to make risotto. We believe Tre when he says this is the way he was trained, but it is obvious that Tom sees his mistake as amateurish. Dale is also quizzed about his performance; the judges act as if his dish is bland rather than bad, though. Dale should be safe, which means that the choice comes down to Mike being eliminated for making bad pasta or Tre being eliminated for learning a different way to cook risotto than Tom believes is correct.

My instinct is to believe that Mike should go home, yet anyone who has watched Top Chef for a while knows that Tom makes the final determinations. He liked Mike's sauce; conversely, he hated Tre's risotto. To the chagrin of Padma, who is fighting back tears as she announces the decision, Tre is eliminated from the competition. I hate this and I also disagree with the logic. It does reinforce what we had said last week, though. From this point on, everyone who gets eliminated will be someone we either like or respect or both. Tre falls into the both category. Judging from how forcefully he is hugged as he leaves, it's clear that the other contestants on Top Chef All Stars hold him in the same esteem that I do. On the plus side, Tre truly redeemed himself this season after his disastrous Restaurant Wars outings (yes, two of them) led to his elimination during season three.

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