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I expect Marjorie to take home her third Elimination Win, but surprisingly, the judges go with Isaac, who (if you'll remember) was the last chef picked for the challenge. Padma tells him that of the food he cooked, the judges could find no fault in either of them. He's absolutely thrilled for himself, and I am, too.

Which brings us to the bad news. To his credit, Jeremy owns up to his errors during lunch service, noting that he didn't help in getting tables cleared. “Lunch wasn't the issue,” Tom says, though. Dinner was where things went downhill. “Like, for example,” he says, “Phillip's cocktail.” Tom recounts how ridiculous it was for the host to reach down from behind the table to pull out a bottle of booze like magic. Bill says that it felt amateurish.

Phillip adopts a smug, snarky grin and says, “Well, thank god I'm not being judged on the cocktail.”

The judges all respond at once, shocked that Phillip would even suggest such a thing.

Gail Why don't you think we aren't judging the cocktail?
Padma: You gave it to us!
Tom: Why don't you think that's fair?

Phillip is taken aback. “Oh,” he says, “well, I'm sorry you didn't like it.”

But that's not all. Bill really didn't like how the front of the house was executed, noting that it felt blunt and forced. Tom points out a few specifics, like how his wine glass was totally filled to the brim, and how servers were very eager to clear plates even though the diners weren't done. “It was a lack of subtly,” Padma says.

The judges start switching targets. Tom hated Kwame's amuse bouche, didn't get much out of it, found no flavor, was overwhelmed by the oil, and simply wasn't amused. Amar's gazpacho wasn't really gazpacho. Gail hated Phillip's strawberry salad, saying she didn't understand it. Tom wants to know if anyone tasted it.

Of course, Kwame did, but Phillip didn't want to heed his advice. Not a problem to Tom - nothing any of the other chefs could have said would have saved the dish.

The guns then get trained on Jeremy. Padma cannot believe Jeremy cooked his risotto using water and not broth. Tom notes that there have been a lot of bad risottos on Top Chef, “but this could go down as one of the worst.”

With so many errors to go around, Padma and Tom can't believe that Amar, as executive chef, didn't step in and play quality control. “I don't care how good a team is,” Tom says, “if it's not being led, this is the result.”

The chefs slouch back to the Stew Room and Amar bids everyone adieu. Isaac asks the bizarre question of whether any of the four chefs on District LA feel safe - unsurprisingly, no one does.

Back at Judges Table. The decision of who to send home has narrowed to Phillip and Amar, with Jeremy and Kwame redeemed by the good dishes they served at lunch. Tom notes that the Executive Chef usually goes home in Restaurant Wars, and Bill agrees that Amar was passive, but the judges aren't sure that Phillip should get away with running front of the house so badly and serving two horrible dishes.

I would love to see Phillip go home. There's only so much pompousness this fan can take.

The judges don't take long to reach their decision. It's Phillip who's packing his knives and going home. YES. Though he maybe should have seen this coming, Phillip claims surprise. “Taste is subjective, I understand,” he tells us, “if you don't like my food, that's fine. But you just told Jeremy that he made one of the worst - if not the worst - risottos in the history of Top Chef, but I go home?” The amount of sheer indignation he packs into that sentence is appalling. “I came into this competition thinking no matter what, I'll cook flawless food. I'm going home cause they didn't like my food, but I know I didn't cook it wrong.”

Even in defeat, Phillip's epistemological blinders are as operational as ever. He just doesn't get it. I can't sum it up better than Gail did on her Top Chef blog:

“What Phillip doesn't understand is there are two different things going on in here: technically, he executed it perfectly; it came out as he intended, the technique was fine. But, here's the thing: it didn't taste good. In fact it was awful. It didn't matter that it was made properly, to his requirements. What really worries me about Phillip is that he definitely has the skill, but he seems to have no insight into his guest's experience and only cares about his own style and preferences. He also seems to have no insight into good or bad food, success or failure, except by his own parameters, which seem to be very narrow. And he's always blaming other people's palates for his mistakes or poor judgment, which is not what being a chef is about.”

Amen.

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