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How does Travis’ descent into heel status begin? Emeril Lagasse arrives with news of the Elimination Challenge. He and his friend Eddie Huang inform the players of the history of shrimping in New Orleans. Apparently, the 1970s bore witness to an influx of Vietnamese immigrants whose cooking techniques and skills on the docks (don’t make it dirty) fundamentally altered the nature of seafood in The Big Easy. In lieu of a Quickfire challenge, the chefs will take a tour of various high spots of Vietnamese cuisine including the shrimp docks.

Over the course of the next 45 minutes, Travis manages to make the entire challenge entirely about him. You see, Travis is dating a Vietnamese man and simply by exchanging fluids with a native of the area, he believes he has been imbued with the wisdom of the ancestors of that country. He also notes multiple times during the episode – and not for the first time this season – that his boyfriend’s grandmother cooked an authentic meal for him in Vietnam. To his mind, he is now an expert in Vietnamese cuisine. Using this same logic in another field, anyone who goes to watch the Denver Broncos play football this season immediately becomes every bit as good a quarterback as Peyton Manning. I’m not even exaggerating for effect here. That truly is his stated logic.

If the Elimination challenge were an individual competition, Travis’ madness would not be a problem. Alas, there are 15 remaining players who are divided into three teams of five members. In other words, one unfortunate quartet of people has to put up with Travis for the entire challenge. The misguided individuals are briefly happy about this turn of events once the teams are announced.

Bene, Janine, Sara and Stephanie are the unfortunate souls who must suffer through the 100% insufferable Travis. They are all members of the Green Team. Brian, Carlos, Louis, Michael and Nicholas comprise the Orange Team, while Carrie, Justin, Nina, Patty and Shirley represent the Red Team. Based on what we have seen of the players thus far this season, the Red Team appears head and shoulders above the other two teams in terms of natural cooking ability. I still think that if Travis were placed on their team, they would still be 90% likely to be on the bottom this week, though.

“No offense to Eddie or Emeril but I could probably give ‘em a crash course in Vietnam. “ – Travis.

You thought I was joking above about his ego, didn’t you? I am forcefully reminded of a joke from a (phenomenal) Simpsons episode, “The Food Wife”. One of the foodies brags, “We discovered Korean BBQ in this town.” When pressed about the fact Korean people would disagree, the same person argues, “Oh sure, they can cook it, but they don’t GET it.” That is a great joke because it is so over the top. No real person could possibly believe that, right? Well, Travis does…

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