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The 20 Minutes Club consists of Paul Qui, Kim Calichio (it’s spelled differently than Tom, but we looked it up just to make sure) and Andrew Curren. We suspect that all of them will be given more of an opportunity to make the bubble if their cooking is a bit suspect given that they face the worst handicap of the 29 contestants. The first of the trio on the chopping block, Paul Qui, pleasantly surprises the judges with “the best dish of the group”. He is quickly given the 12th chef coat, leaving the other two to pace nervously, realizing their situation is dire.

Kim (no relation to Tom) does not have a lot of time to worry. She is eliminated before she can take a deep breath. Her lamb is greasy and overcooked with the judges quickly reaching the consensus she is out of her depth. Maybe if she had spelled her name Colicchio. Andrew is quizzed a bit about his performance. He acknowledges he is nervous because he didn’t feel his dish was a best case scenario result. To his relief, Tom and Padma agree to put him on the bubble as the fifth member of Purgatory. This is probably an instance where he was given the benefit of the doubt due to the time constraint. To a larger point, the fact that only one of the first three chefs earns a coat is good news for the remaining dozen competitors. As we speculated last week, there is a chance that as many as 11 of them could have been competing for a single spot.

One of the 40 Minutes Club is Chaz (think about baseball more, dude), an impossibly charming chef from “Fatty Crab Restaurant”. He states that he has been in love with Padma Lakshmi since he was in seventh grade and even though he is happily married, she must be #1 on his Laminated List. Chaz is personality plus. In addition to mooning over the world’s greatest Hardee’s Burger Eater, he describes his professional accomplishments as “nominated by my mother as one of her two favorite sons." We are ready to name Chaz Top Chef right here and now. Bravo, just give us the authority and we’ll make it happen. Alas, we are not given that power and Chaz, whom we adore, is unable to complete his dish in time. He is eliminated before he can talk Padma into a threesome. As far as we know. Chaz, we are going to miss you, buddy. The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

The three chefs who matter much less to us at the moment are Berenice deAraujo, Laurent Quenioux, and Jonathan Baltazar. Laurent is the non-union French equivalent of Tom Colicchio, so if anything ever happens to him, we can important a replacement from Europe. The judges feel the same way about these competitors as I do. There is a void in the wake of Chaz. Jonathan is eliminated before Tom finishes swallowing. I don’t know what is wrong with the dish, but it makes Hugh Acheson’s unibrow elevate several inches on his face. And that is not a pretty sight.

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