Straight to the Quickfire this week everyone, and I have to say I’m pretty excited there’s only one more episode left after this. Lisa’s in the Top Chef Kitchen with Mark Thuet and his business/life partner Biana. They own Petit Thuet (Real Talk: the macarons I bought there ages ago were stale). Anyway, cheftestants have to create two pies: one savory and one sweet.

BUTTER MATH! OMG you guys, I love butter math, and we see Trevor doing some! Yay, Trev! For the non-bakers out there, there’s a lot of butter math in the kitchen, because recipes measure butter in sticks, cups, ounces, and tablespoons. I can usually be found talking to myself in the kitchen when there’s butter math involved i.e “So if I need 12 tablespoons, that’s 3/4 cup, which is 1 1/2 sticks”. Also, you can’t make pie in a rush! All the stress goes right into your dough! I need a clean kitchen and a deep breath before making pie dough.

Carl ends up with the best pies; he made a cheddar/ham/chanterelle quiche with duck fat pastry for his savory pie and a peach/blueberry pie for his sweet pie. I cannot wait for sweet Ontario peaches in August!

The Elimination Challenge this week is basically just an excuse for a half an hour commercial for the Shoppes at Don Mills, which is where Mark McEwan’s grocery store is. But they justify it by saying the chefs have to take their cooking from the kitchen to the catwalk with a fashion inspired lunch, with a beautiful picture on the plate. Whatever. Clearly the best part of this episode is that they get sous-chefs for the challenge and they are ROB, CONNIE, DUSTY and FRANCOIS from Season 1!

Connie grew out her bangs!!! She looks great!!! Remember when we met Connie at Charcut last summer? Good times!

Chefs draw knives to pick their sous, and the teams are:

Carl / Rob

Trevor / Francois

David / Connie (their restaurants are both in St. Germain hotels in Toronto / Calgary)

Jonathan / Dusty (they love each other, they used to work together at Susur, so cute)

The chefs are competing for a cash prize of $10,000 and of course, a spot in the finale. Leggo:

Jonathon: dim sum trio of uni in mussel shell, prawn dumpling and fresh jicama roll

Judges say: dumpling has a familiar flavour, tasty. look of dish – mistake to have white on white, dumpling a bit doughy. jicama is hard to eat. pretty food that doesn’t taste like much…but wasn’t super beautiful

Trevor: potato-crusted lamb loin with porcini foam, ratatouille and eggplant chip

Judges say: rustic, good competant flavours, crust was the best, delicious labour intensive plate

Carl: crispy euro bass salad with zucchini aoili, roasted pepper coulis and baby green salad

Judges say: like the triangle food on triangle plate, fish perfectly crisp, clean fresh flavour, bright,

David: grilled beef tenderloin in nori with wasbi pea butter and veteables

Judges say: not happening, chives taste like lawn trimmings, but the beef is great.

Back in the supply closet, Lisa calls in everyone!

The winner: Carl!

The next spot in the finals goes to: Trevor! Wasn’t expecting that one! Judges like how he described his plate as labour intenstive, with many technical components, to relate it to the world of fashion.

The worst: Jonathon & David.

David – plate looked great, but fell flat. Mark shocked at flavour. chives were awful.

Jonathon – confused and underwhelmed by the dish. expecting more. white on white was boring. white food was boring.

– both went for fashion, not flavour

David’s was stronger in presenation, but all the flavours were bad. Chives were revolting.

Jonathan’s tastes weren’t brilliant, jicima wrap had no flavour, bad cocktail party food.

Going home: David

Next week: Finals!