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The most humorous moment during the introduction involves men of Chicago. Carlos and Aaron both work in the city, but they have never met. Carlos queries Aaron about his restaurant, and when the balding, bearded gentleman replies, Carlos has to politely pretend to know the place. Conversely, Aaron’s eyes light with recognition when Carlos identifies his place of work as Mexique. “Well, I know of you.” Aaron later confides to the camera that Carlos’ restaurant recently received a Michelin star. While Aaron seems terrified and insecure in the moment, his boss, Takashi Yagiashi, is a former Top Chef Master. This brief conversation reinforces how Top Chef has become a rite of passage for the rising chefs across the world.

One of the reasons this show is so great is that they get right down to business. Tom and Padma show up and announce that there will be no Quickfire and they’ll be heading straight for the Elimination Round. Several of the chefs haven’t even spoken on camera yet. We presume that anyone we don’t know is in a world of hurt.

Stephanie Cmar expresses surprise at the cold efficiency of the judges. Stephanie is also a familiar face. She was one of the potential Top Chef players last season who failed to earn an apron. What we did learn is that she’s a good friend of eventual winner Kristen Kish. While she denied it with her words, her body language showed that she wanted to be much more than just friends. Whether true or not, poor Stephanie had to watch helplessly as one of her closest friends became a champion. I’m sure she’s very happy for her friend, just as I’m sure nobody is egoless enough to find that turn of events anything other than humiliating. If Stephanie has a strong run this year, the mentor of both Kristen and Stephanie, Barbara Lynch, has a strong claim as the best eye for talent/developer of talent in the culinary profession.

Today’s challenge is to tap into the spirit of the food, culture and people of New Orleans. The chefs will be cooking deep in the Louisiana swamp and each of their dishes will highlight a local delicacy. Tom and Padma toss around beads to the contestants, and their necklaces indicate to them which protein they’ll be using, which include alligator, turtle and frog. Some of the people seem comfortable with it, while others act like they’ve never worked with these items before. Their dishes will be served to a group called the Dinner Lab, and keeping with the New Orleans theme, they’ll be handing out beads to chefs who present their favorite meals. The three with the most beads will finish on top.

Padma also takes an opportunity to remind us that two of the chefs are representing New Orleans. Since they already had to fight to earn their way into the competition, they are given immunity from elimination. Because there are 19 chefs, the odds of elimination are only increased from 5.3% to 5.9%. It is only at this moment that I realize there are 19 chefs this season. In the immortal words of Abraham Simpson, “please eliminate three.”

While driving to select their food, Michael displays a great deal of civic pride in his city, pointing out some of the local sites to the other chefs in the car. For their part, his competitors are there to win Top Chef, so they’re focusing on the dish they’ll be preparing rather than listening to his tourist information.

Bene has the most guilt of the competitors. He had a childhood pet, a turtle named Tim. Today, Tim is what’s for dinner. This is a first step toward Bene becoming Top Gay Pet Chef. ALL THE EUPHEMISMS!

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