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Tom Colicchio comes over and discusses butchering with Tyler. What follows is one of those moments when someone who has no idea what they are doing tries to fake something in front of someone else who happens to be an expert in the field. Tyler is clearly in the way of smooth talking his way out of troublesome situation by pumping up his chest and exhibiting extreme false bravado. He has found that claiming tremendous expertise at something is enough to make most people believe that he is in fact an expert. We do not need to see any more to realize that Tyler the Strange is a fraud.

Moments later, Tyler starts to, well, beat his meat. Coincidentally, Grayson chooses this moment to shout, “Who’s got the tenderloin?” She is in for a big surprise when she looks across the room and realizes the person she has made responsible for her initial Top Chef dish has exactly the same butchering ability as a fifth grader. He has given up the pretense of expertise as frustration has set in.

At this point, Grayson and Tom both arrive at his table to inspect the damage from his butchering. You know the phrase, “Nobody wants to see how the sausage gets made?” What Tyler has done is so appalling that we briefly consider joining Colin in vegan-dom. He has not only destroyed his pork chop but also Grayson’s tenderloin in a way that makes Tom vacillate between humor and outrage. Colicchio has taught enough cooking classes to recognize a student failing their first project. That is fine in and of itself but Tyler’s ineptitude has created collateral damage for Grayson, who made the faulty presumption that someone who says they can butcher meat can in fact do so. In Grayson’s words, she has a “three ounce piece of meat to work with”. We suddenly understand why she has been crying during her monologue.

At this point, at the 11 minute mark of the first episode, Tom Colicchio steps in and does something completely unexpected. He eliminates Tyler the Strange right then and there. The pork chop he has cut is in such terrible shape that there isn’t any point in giving him the rest of the hour to create an edible dish from the remnants. Even worse, his false assertion of expertise has endangered another chef and that is a huge no-no. If this were a cooking class, everyone could laugh about the situation. In a competition that makes careers, however, Grayson finds nothing funny about Tyler the Eliminated.

Come back tomorrow for part two of the recap.

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