Top Chef: Las Vegas - The Angel and The Devil

In honor of recently ousted French chef Mattin, most of the Top Chef contestants strode into this week's Quickfire Challenge sporting little red scarves around their necks. Except for Robin, who stuck hers on her arm like a mourning band. Perhaps she understood the red scarves were actually a subtle insult to her from the other chefs because she didn't get eliminated last week instead of Mattin.

In the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs were tasked with creating a duo dish representing their devilish and angelic sides. Poor Bryan, one of the season's top chefs so far, got a beat down when he ended up in the bottom three and brother Michael V. landed near the top again. Gay contestant Ash once again bombed with the judges by failing to even complete his dish - and mangling the part he did get done. Sadly for the other chefs and the Robin-hating viewers, the perennial loser finally managed to pull a win out of her ass in the Quickfire Challenge. With a salad. And she played the cancer card with the judges while explaining her dish. The best part was the looks on the other chefs' faces - shock, dismay, disgust as they realized Robin had won immunity and they'd have to put up with her for another week.

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For the Elimination Challenge, Top Chef brought on the magical duo of Penn & Teller to demonstrate how to 'deconstruct' one of their magical tricks. They were going so fast and talking so rapidly that I still don't quite get the explanation of their cups and balls trick. The point though was taking the magic trick and breaking it down into the sum of its parts. Which is exactly what the contestants were asked to do for the Elimination challenge. Each chef was given a classic dish and asked to break it down into its base components, from which the diner would reconstruct the taste of the dish on their plate.

Personally, when I order a meal, I don't want to have to have instructions on how to put the damn thing together to eat it. Someone piles a bunch of ingredients onto my plate and gives me a lecture on how to put it together and I'm marching into the kitchen and telling the chef to damn well do it herself and send it back when it's actually ready to consume without an instruction manual!

You knew it was going to be a bad night for contestant Ron when he was overly excited to draw the knife to do paella. He just couldn't stop talking about how many times he'd cooked it and how this was going to be his week to win. So, naturally, it was obvious he was going to experience a massive fail. You kind of had to feel bad for the big guy. He obviously has some language barriers and sometimes he just doesn't seem to get the gist of the challenges. Such was certainly the case this time as he spent so much time trying to figure out how to deconstruct the dish, the end result was an overcooked mess of nastiness.

Robin, relying on her immunity, lets herself do whatever the hell she pleases, while annoying the other chefs to insanity with her mindless babbling. The judges were less than pleased with the result and if she hadn't had immunity, we're betting she would have ended up in the bottom three yet again - and this time maybe even have finally got the boot. Instead, Ron shared the uncomfortable loser spotlight with Ash and Laurine - who I keep calling Latrine in my head. That makes me feel a bit bad about myself, but I just can't seem to stop myself.

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Ash, who has consistently been a bottom feeder on the show, shrugs off his failure by admitting he had no clue how to make Shepherds Pie, much less how to deconstruct it. The judges seem to get that he's clueless and let him pass another week. Sad thing is, he's continuously clueless and even if he is 'family', he really should have gotten the boot several episodes back. Laurine got blasted for overcooking her Fish & Chips and failing to give the judges enough 'chips' in the first place, because she burned the lot of then. But it was poor Ron who got the cut for his not-deconstructed and overcooked paella.

You just kind of had to feel bad for the guy, who has obviously gone through a serious amount of trauma in his life - but still managed to exit with a smile on his face and enthusiasm for his 'American dream' future.

On the winners side, lesbian contestant Ashley actually managed to shine for the second episode in a row with her deconstructed Pot Roast. Perhaps she is proving what the judges said last week when they noted she just might be the 'dark horse' of the competition. Michael V., naturally, also ended up in the top three, as did my current favorite for the winner's circle, Jen. Amusingly, Jen was freaking out the whole episode over having to deconstruct Meat Lasagna, but of course in the end she wowed the judges as usual. The win, however, went to straight-but-shouldn't-be Kevin for his Chicken Mole. For his second Challenge win, Kevin received a set of Calphalon nonstick cookware and some serious respect from the judges.

As much as I'd like to hope Ashley might just rise to the level of the other chefs and gain the first win for the lesbians on Top Chef, I think it's actually Kevin who may prove to be the real 'dark horse' on this season's Top Chef.

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