New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

It comes down to the Sudden Death Quickfire-rematch of Aaron vs. Katie. As you’ll remember, there’s little love lost between the two. Aaron knocks Katie for “copping out and making a dessert.” Katie wishes Aaron would STFU.

In front of the judges, Aaron serves up his Asian spin on spaghetti and meatballs: pork meatballs with noodles made from scallops. As you’ll remember, in the pair’s Sudden Death Quickfire, Aaron made noodles out of shrimp. Hugh asks Aaron whether he’s happy with the texture of his noodles. Tom jumps in before Aaron can respond, agreeing that the noodles lack texture and criticizing the dashi broth. Aaron, relieved to have an excuse for at least one of Tom’s points, says that his pot of dashi broth was knocked to the ground.

Katie serves up a gorgeous dish of imperial chocolate cake with smoked sour cream. Tom finds the cake “nice and moist,” and Hugh says that the dish was good but not exciting. Padma asks how Katie felt in her rematch against Aaron and Katie - now supremely confident in the forthcoming win - brings up the “cop out” comment.

“Why is dessert a cop out?” Tom asks Aaron, noting that dessert has long been a point of weakness for past Top Chef-ers. Aaron responds that this Elimination Challenge was supposed to be a war, and “no one brings chocolate cake to a war.”

“Who brings scallop noodles to war?” Hugh wants to know. *BOOM*

All four judges pick Katie over Aaron and the Winning Team wins the Elimination challenge, three-to-two. Apparently, winners gonna win win win win win. And the losers gonna lose lose lose lose lose.

So someone from the doubly-losing team is going home today. At judges table, Tom chides the double-losing team for only focusing on beating their individual opponent, and not on trying to get a team win. Only Adam and Mei on the team put forth great dishes, and thus only they are safe.

With those chefs having stepped to the side, the judges begin to really tear into the three chefs up for elimination: Aaron, Melissa, and Stacy. Melissa admits that she was concerned about the texture of her gazpacho, and Jamie tells her that if she’s going to make a classic dish, it’s got to be perfect. Hugh didn’t enjoy the “watery finish” of the dish.

As for Aaron, Padma tells him that he bit off more than he could chew. Hugh blasts him for having mushy scallop noodles. Padma wants to know whether anyone on Aaron’s team warned him against trying to do too much in his dish. Adam pipes up, saying that Aaron believed he could finish and thus he didn’t have a problem having confidence in his teammate.

Then, in unbelievable fashion, Greg chimes in from the sidelines. “I would have never allowed that to happen,” he says self-righteously. “You have to work together as a team, and we all know what each other are strong and weak at.” Who asked you? I wonder aloud. What a pompous little a-hole. This is your third team win. We get it. You do well in group challenges. So shut your trap and stop acting like a Mr. Know-It-All.

Continued:       1       2       3       4       5