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Even though I peg Silvia as the winner, Tom surprisingly gives immunity to Jim. Wow, really shows that less is more, contrary to what the challenge invited the chefs to create.

As for the bottom of the heap, Tom picks out Ann from Louisville, Kentucky (who made a good tasting chicken panzanella salad, but wasn't really panzanella in any way), Jamie (who absolutely annihilated his vegetables), and Gerald from Florida (who had a greasy sauce and overcooked his garnish). Just based on those criticisms, you'd guess that Gerald had the worst dish, and you'd be right.

Of course, there's still a whole 'nother Quickfire to go. The vet Top Chef-ers come in, while the rookies look on agog. Well, not entirely agog. Silvia drools a little bit over Sam, but honestly, who doesn't? As Sam is happy to remind us of, he was named one of People's Sexiest Men Alive in 2012.

This challenge will not be judged by Tom and Padma, but rather by Graham Elliot, more familiar to viewers of MasterChef on Fox. Acknowledging this, Graham notes that he's honored to be a part of this show. Booyah Gordon Ramsay!

Graham challenges the vets to put their own spin on a Charleston classic: shrimp and grits. This will, of course, be easier for the ethnic chefs, who will simply have to do a version of that dish in their own style. For people like Casey Thompson, a native of Texas, they'll have to get a bit more creative…

…like Brooke is. Despite being a total bundle of nerves who wonders again and again why she came back to do this, she's going to try and put her spin on the dish by doing a Scotch egg - a soft boiled egg wrapped in shrimp instead of sausage.

And the creativity pays off. Graham picks out Brooke's dish as one of his favorites, as it showed great technique and incorporated great flavors. Graham also liked Shirley's transformation of shrimp and grits into a Chinese egg custard (Graham called it an explosion of flavor) and the dish from Amanda Baumgarten from Top Chef DC (a great, purist version of shrimp and grits). Brooke wins immunity, which will hopefully calm some of her nerves.

As for the bad news, Graham found Casey's dish lacking in flavor and simply not at the same level as everyone else's. He didn't enjoy the dish from John Teasar (Top Chef Seattle), which had one texture and a baffling use of kimchi. He also disliked the dish from Katsuji (Top Chef Boston), which simply had too many ingredients and too little balance.

In the end, it'll be John battling Gerald for the right to stay in the competition. Both chefs readily feel the pressure - no one wants to show up on Top Chef and immediately get sent home.

But that'll have to wait for the next day. The rest of the evening will be devoted to exploring the new Top Chef house (which always reminds me of the first episode of The Real World), and picking out bedrooms. The vets are quick to remind the rookies that they know the ins and the outs of the show, dashing off to pick out bedrooms first and throwing their stuff on the beds to “claim” them.

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