Top Chef - Chefs Gone Country

The quick fire this week is to make a dish using canned goods and pantry staples. Spam seemed to be the most coveted ingredient and pandemonium ensued as all the chefs went for the prized meat. Stefan is getting on Josea's nerves (isn't he on everyones nerves?) but Josea takes the high road and even gives Stefan his extra Spam. Stefan ends up winning the challenge making his already too big head that much larger and Josea regretting that he gave Stefan his Spam.

Before they find out the actual challenge, the chefs are split into teams of 3 and already, no one is looking forward to working with Stefan. The cheftestants are driven to the country to Blue Hill Farm where they are to make a family style meal for 16 people centered around pork, chicken or lamb. The chefs get a tour of the farm and I am wondering if they are going to have to kill their main course. The chefs get to the kitchen and, luckily, their proteins are already dead. Stefan goes about being his superior self and tells Carla & Jamie what he is going to cook rather than being a part of the team. Hey Stefan, there is no "I" in team! Ariane has to work with love birds Josea & Leah who both leave her to her own devices. Ariane, who has done lamb very well in past challenges, is butchering the animal to the point where there is nothing left. She makes a stuffing and tries rolling the lamb but says she doesn't have experience doing that. Leah makes a feeble attempt at helping her tie the roasts and they come out a sad mess.

Team pig was somewhere in the middle with no one really digging Jeff's pork dish. Jamie & Carla give up on Stefan and let him do as he pleased which was soup and roast chicken. Now, it's like 85 degrees and humid on this farm and lunch is served outside in the sun. Who wants hot soup?! Jamie cooked chicken cutlets and Carla whipped up a fruit tart which everyone loved and the team (even Stefan) wins the challenge.

At judge's table, team lamb gets lambasted (hee, hee) by the judges when they find out that Josea has butchering experience and didn't offer to help Ariane with her botched butchering. Leah also does not escape the judge's wrath when they tell her that she too could have done more for the dish. In the end it was a sad day for the over 40's when Ariane was told to pack her knives and go. Double D