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This week, the elimination challenge will be hosted by Michael Schlow at his restaurant, Via Matta, which (conveniently enough) is right around the corner. The chefs will be grouped into four teams of three, and will need to make a classic three-course Italian menu, including an antipasti, pasta, and secondi. The diners will choose which menu they want to eat, and the team that gets the most selections will be the winner.

I am not happy. I don’t like any challenge where the “winners” are chosen without anyone having tasted their food. That seems moronic. It’s an invitation to promise without delivering.

Oh yeah, and the elimination challenge will be a double elimination. I’m assuming that this is a direct result of the fact that we didn’t actually see a chef get eliminated last week during the Sudden Death Quickfire.

The chefs are graciously allowed to pick their own teams for the Elimination Challenge, and in a brief two minutes that harkens back (in disturbing fashion) to my experience in middle school and high school, the chefs look around, meeting each other’s eyes, asking silently, “Hey, we’re friends, right? Wanna be on the same team? Wait, are you looking at him? What about me? Argh, okay, well, what about you? Do you want to be on a team with me? Do you already have team members? You do? Dammit. Well, how about... shit.”

Most teams come together without much drama... but (surprise, surprise) Aaron finds himself without a team. Asshole that he is, he walks over to Greg and Katsuji and inserts himself into their team. Katsuji, remembering that they’ve already had heated arguments on two occasions (which shows just how desperate Aaron was to get on a team), is not happy. Greg assumes that he’s going to have to play the grown-up on the team. Good luck to him.

After planning out their menus and trying to put together the most alluring, attractive, approachable dishes they can so that they lure in as many diners as possible, the chefs head to the kitchen to start cooking.

And (surprise, surprise), Aaron starts fighting with Katsuji. He thinks he hasn’t been left with enough room for his station. Greg mollifies the two, aware of the double elimination pending. This is gonna be interesting to watch.

Tom comes into the kitchen and announces that Michael, the owner of the restaurant and this week’s guest judge, will be staying in the kitchen to expedite service. I’m assuming this will (mostly) keep everyone on their best behavior. Obvious beneficiary: Greg and the rest of his team.

In the dining room, the diners enter, including the judges and Emmy Rossum, our celebrity diner of the week. She’s apparently an avid watcher of the show.

Service starts and the purple team (Aaron, Katsuji, Greg) and blue team (Katie, Rebecca, Stacy) are immediately slammed. Everyone wants their dishes. Aaron notes that his team’s success is their prominent offering of seared scallops. “Everyone loves scallops,” he boasts. Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’ve known that since Season 1, when Dave Martin criticized Tiffani Faison over and over for cooking scallops. Or, to quote Fabio from Top Chef New York regarding Jaime, “This is Top Chef, not Top Scallop.”

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