Top Chef Masters 4.8 Recap

This week's Quickfire Challenge was a bit complicated. The remaining four chefs - Chris, Patricia, Kerry, and Lorena - were split into teams of two. Only one chef could touch the cooktop, while the other chef was in charge of the pantry and tools. Chris and Patricia worked together well, as they always have in the past, but there was some tension between Kerry and Lorena. She seems to be a bit of a control freak, and Kerry just wasn't doing what she wanted him to do when she wanted him to do it.

Guest taster was Vegas odds maker Johnny Avello who didn't seem all that knowledgeable about food. He seemed to enjoy both Chris' and Patricia's dishes, but in the end, he chose Kerry's somewhat simple pasta dish as his favorite. No immunity, but Kerry and Lorena get to split $5K.

The Elimination Challenge was also a bit involved. Apparently there's this global thing called "Diner en Blanc," a pop-up restaurant event that is so wildly popular that the NY event had 33,000 applicants for 1,400 seats. In Vegas, there are only 300 diners, who must bring the tables, chairs, and silverware with them. The Top Cheftestants will provide the food, each of the four cooking for 75 people, plus another five portions for the critics.

After the usual trip to Whole Foods, they have 4 hours to prepare their picnic-style dishes, three of them, which will be served cold the next day. Chris goes typically over-the-top, with oil poached swordfish and pate; Kerry keeps things picnic-simple. And the girls do their own thing: Latin and Pan-Asian influenced chow (guess who does which).

The girls end up serving their food to the critics first, and there are mixed emotions. Lorena's chicken salad was too sweet and her chocolate mousse too thick. (The non-critic diners seemed to love it though.) Patricia's chile jam was pleasing to some, but not so much to others. The boys, on the other hand, did very well. Kerry's three dishes, which at first seemed pretty simple, got only positive comments from the critics, and Ruth insisted it was what she wanted to eat on every picnic. Francis thought Kerry hit it out of the park, but then couldn't stop raving about Chris' pork and chicken liver pate. The rest of the critics agreed, and awarded the win to Chris.

It seemed a toss-up between the girls as to who was going home, but Patricia seemed to make the most errors this week and ended up packing her knives.

So what did you think? Should Patricia have gone home? Please leave a comment.

Posted on AllTopChef.com