Which means they come back fresh: No frazzle, no exhaustion. And for some, there's a possibility that it might dull their edge some, although I have no reason to believe that anyone in particular is in danger of that. (Although I do think Antonia and Stephanie benefited from endurance -- Stephanie hit a wall and then caught her second wind, Antonia just kept getting better as it went on. I suspect she's someone who buckles down more depending on the pressure.)

Also, sometimes it seems like the time off causes some cheftestants to forget how to work under the TC kitchen pressures. And it could possibly happen to any of them.

Or they'll learn too much in the time off, and want to use all of it, without being able to make a coherent plan (I'm looking at you, Casey).

God, I hated seeing Ilan again. And I cannot believe he brought up the head-shaving. Asshat.

Oh, and he also says (pretty much) that he would have eliminated Lisa not Dale last week.

Well, he says that he would, judging from what he saw. It must be interesting for him to be in the viewers' shoes, and for an episode which proved to have a controversial decision.

I was really hoping Bourdain would blog about it. I'm glad Ted did, and said, essentially, "Yes, the butterscotch scallops WERE that bad!". Plus it was interesting to learn that they don't use past performance as a criteria for elimination. I can see both sides of that argument (i.e. does one great/awful night overcome a series of great/awful nights). Certainly a single horrendous dish might make a person swear off a resturaunt not matter how good the word-of-mouth on the place is.

Watching Tom expedite last night had me fantasizing about how everything would have gone down with Gordon Ramsey doing the expediting instead, especially when Richard was lagging behind on his entrees. I would have LOVED to see him reacting to Lisa, Dale and Spike last week.

Watching Tom expedite last night had me fantasizing about how everything would have gone down with Gordon Ramsey doing the expediting instead, especially when Richard was lagging behind on his entrees. I would have LOVED to see him reacting to Lisa, Dale and Spike last week.

I just loved that glimpse of Tom in his natural environment! But I have a huge Tom!crush, so.

Also reinforced my belief that I could NEVER work in a kitchen. God, I would crumble within minutes.

I did really enjoy that challenge because, even more than Resturaunt Wars, this was indeed a resturaunt cooking challenge, with all the pressure, distraction and need for detail of the real deal (which it was). My only slight disappointment was the fact that is was all steak. I love steak, and a well-cooked steak is an amazing thing, but there are really only so many things you can do with steak in that kind of top-end steakhouse environment.

I loved watching Tom expedite too - it was good to see him at work. (And was also another way for the judges' to get insight on how the cheftestants were working.)

It was cool seeing a place I pass every day on my way to work featured! I've been meaning to take my dad to Tramanto's for a steak dinner ever since they opened, and in fact committed to it last weekend when I told him it was going to be his birthday/Father's Day gift.

I just knew that Spike was gone as soon as he picked the frozen scallops. Between that and her peanut butter potatoes, kittybuttface (a very appropriate name for her, I think!) makes it to the final four. Feh.

Spike doesn't seem to get that he didn't have to choose the scallops.

I figured Spike was a goner as soon as he got to choose proteins first: he made a really stupid decision last time he got the advantage too.

it was good to see him at work. (And was also another way for the judges' to get insight on how the cheftestants were working.)

And also a good way to make sure the frazzled, exhausted cheftestants didn't trash their host's restauraunt ...