Recap of Top Chef Masters 4.7

This week's episode felt more like a battle than any of the previous episodes. First off, the five remaining chefs had to wrestle with separating 18 eggs, grating 2 lbs of Parmesan to the rind, and cutting steaks from a tenderloin. Speedy Chris finishes first, but a couple of his steaks fall short of the required weight. (It seems hard to do this accurately without a scale, but top chefs can indeed do it by feel if they do it often enough. Apparently Chris was rushing.) Patricia finishes second but has the same problem as Chris. Finally, Takashi gets it right, as does Kerry. The two then go head to head to create a dish using the ingredients just prepped, in fifteen minutes, judged by the three chefs who didn't get the job done. And Curtis, of course.

After tasting, Kerry comes out victorious with his parm-crusted filet and gets $5K for his charity and immunity from elimination. Not only that, he doesn't have to cook at all in the Elimination Challenge. Which is...a boxing match, judged by special guest Sugar Ray Leonard. Las Vegas is, after all, the boxing capitol of the world. Or at least of the western US. The chefs draw knives and find that it's battle Boys and battle Girls, with Takashi and Chris taking to the ring first. Their secret ingredient is...bacon. After 20 minutes of a mini-Iron Chef competition, Chris is declared the victor of round one.

For the second round, Patricia takes on Lorena in battle...bacon. It seems close, but Lorena wins the match. The third match features winners Chris vs. Lorena in battle Sugar. Desserts aren't Chris' forte, but he makes a lovely zabaglione over fruit. Lorena is super ambitious and makes two desserts, which wins her the competition.

Round four is for the losers, Patricia and Takashi. All through the episode, Patricia is trash-talking Lorena; the magic of editing makes it seem like she might be the one going home. Patricia that is. But somehow she manages to make a better dish with the chicken livers provided for the final battle, and Takashi is sent packing. I was a little shocked - were you?

What did you think of the episode overall? Who do you think is going to take it all?

Posted on AllTopChef.com