The episode begins with the tearful exit of Elia. For all the chefs, the true reality of their circumstance is setting in. They are once again in the ring of fire, facing stress, exhaustion, humiliation, and possible elimination for the second time.
The next day, the cheftestants enter the Top Chef kitchen to find Padma standing with Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers. Since none of the chefs are 12 years old, his presence is not all that exciting. Apparently, Joe Jonas is participating in a Night at the Museum sleep over at the American Museum of Natural History. 150 elementary school children will be sleeping over in the museum, and the chefs are asked to make these rug rats a midnight snack. The Quickfire Challenge is to create the winning snack in 45 minutes, making sure that the snack can be eaten from a brown paper bag.
After the usual scrambling around and fretting over their dishes, Joe and Padma make the rounds to sample all the sugary snacks. The least favorite snacks were made by Tiffany D., which was deemed messy; Mike, whose snack was not chocolatey enough; and Steven, whose complex mixture of ingredients did not go well with his cookie. For the winner, there is a tie between Spike and Tiffani F. Conveniently, the tie will be broken by the children who will get to sample both snacks and declare the winner. To make 150 samples of each hyperactivity delivery system, the rest of the chefs are divided into teams chosen by Spike and Tiffani F. Spike's group is Team Red and Tiffani F.'s is Team Blue.
The snacks are hastily assembled and transported to the museum where the kids get jacked up on the sugar and vote on the winner by a show of manic screaming. Team Blue wins by a wide margin, giving Tiffani F. immunity.
Just when everyone wants to go home and have a beer, Tom arrives and announces that the Elimination Challenge starts right now. The two teams will have to prepare breakfast for the children and their parents. In keeping with the museum's theme, the teams will be broken out into a Tyrannosaurus Rex group and a Brontosaurus group. That is, one group can only serve carnivore food (meat, eggs, and dairy) while the other group must serve vegetarian fare (fruits and grains). Since Tiffani F. won the Quickfire, she gets to choose first and picks the carnivore menu. Tom explains that the chefs will use the museum's kitchen where their ingredients will be provided.
The two teams huddle to plan their menus, leaving only a short time for them to sleep before they must rise at 3:45 to start breakfast prep. Some of the chefs (all guys) decide to forgo sleep and wander around the museum with flashlights. Whether they slept or toured the museum, all the chefs are tired and cranky by the time they hit the kitchen.
When they look at their carts of ingredients, Tiffani F. realizes that she made a tactical error. Apparently, she did not understand the difference between a carnivore and an omnivore because she thought that she would be able to use fruits and grains in addition to meat. Nope, just meat, eggs, and dairy are on her carts. So her group seems to struggle while Team Brontosaurus floats along with a wide variety of dishes.
Team T-Rex is dealt another blow when Jamie cuts her finger and, rather than toughing it out, decides to leave for an emergency stitch-up. This leaves Jen alone to complete their dish.
After cooking, the teams are given one hour to set up an outdoor buffet. Marcel gets pissed that Angelo is trying to alter their Banana Parfait dish without his approval. Marcel is suspicious of Angelo's motives. Soon the one hour is up, and everyone digs in for tasting and judgment. Most people gravitate toward Team T-Rex since they have eggs and bacon, but the soft pork belly is not what kids want for breakfast, and the other proteins like salmon seem a little strange as well.
Meanwhile, despite the lack of crowd pleasing meat and eggs, Team Brontosaurus is winning over tasters with their greater mix of dishes. Fabio, in particular, is charming the crowd with his glad-handing pitch for his freshly made gnocchi. After much eating and talking, the judges retire to their Judges' Table to figure out the winners and losers.
Team Brontosaurus is given the win and the Banana Parfait, made by Richard, Angelo, and Marcel is deemed the winning dish of the day. Team T-Rex, a.k.a. The Losers, is then sent in for their tongue lashing. Among the criticisms, the frittatas were uneven (some were over cooked, some undercooked), the steak and eggs were good but pretty simple, and the sauce for the salmon dish was over-reduced and salty. Jen and Jamie's dish was singled out as the worst and, since Jamie wimped out and did nothing to prepare it, the poor results were laid squarely at Jen's feet. This enrages Jen and she disagrees vehemently with the judges. Although Tom admires her feistiness, it still doesn't justify the poor quality of the dish and she is sent packing. Jen's angry retorts echo down the hall as she leaves.
So, what did you think? Was it Jen's time to go, or was someone else more deserving? Who do you think will go next?
