We are now jumping into the Champion’s Round on Top Chef Master! We are going the awesome route because it is Wedding Wars! That is always an awesome challenge to begin with. Bring in great chefs, it will be great.

The Quickfire splits them off into 2 teams. We have the tag team cook off. They will make 1 dish, each cook for 10 minutes and (the kicker) they are blindfolded while they wait. The winning team will split $10,000 between them.

Red Team is Marcus Samuelson, Tony Mantuano Susur Lee, Carmen Gonzalez
Blue Team: Rick Moonen, Jonathan Waxman, Susan Feineger, Jody Adams

I was shocked that both teams seemed to be pretty similar in the end. I don’t know if the proteins were limited or not. They both created a seafood stew but the red team had a piece of fish on the side. Jay was the judge. The blue team ended up winning.

No one seemed happy when they found out that the elimination challenge was going to be wedding wars. They get 12 hours between 2 day to prep for 150 guests. Both teams have to make a wedding cake. The groom is a steak and potatoes guy. And the bride likes French and Asian. The blue team chose the bride so the red team was cooking for the groom. The groom is Jewish so no pork. The bride doesn’t like shell fish or lamb. Her favorite dessert is Bananas Foster while the groom wants carrot cake. Jodie decides to make lamb even though it isn’t the bride’s favorite.

They get 6 hours to prep the night before. I think the blue team is going the safe route doing fish, chicken, and lamb. Of course Rick is doing the fish. The blue team is doing 2 desserts so they can also do the bride’s favorite, Bananas Foster (which Jodie has never made before but is responsible for). The red team is making shrimp, pasta and beef as their main dishes. Susur is making his first carrot cake. Carmen is the time cop for the red team. The blue teams wedding cake is kind of scary looking while Susur on the red team has this pretty creation.

The blue team’s appetizers went over pretty well. But many thought Jonathan’s potato cake was too big. The red teams also went well. Then we went to the chaos of the main dishes. The red team’s lamb and chicken went over very well. But Rick’s fish was over cooked and his sauce was too sweet. The blue team’s potatoes and shrimp went over well. But the pasta was over done. Marcus’s meat was a little hit and miss. Then we get to dessert. Susan’s cake for the blue was ugly;). Susur made a beautiful croque en bush. So not only was the blue team’s cake ugly, apparently dry. But their Bananas Foster were great. The red team’s (Susur’s) desserts were all a big hit.

The blue team was slammed for the bad cake. But the red team got hit for being light on entrees. The blue team’s entrees saved them because they won! Jodie was the individual winner. So then we get to see the groom’s team on the block. Marcus got hit for mushy meat. Carmen got hit for only doing an appetizer and a corn salad. But Carmen didn’t think her flavors would have pleased the groom. Tony got hit for over cooking the pasta. They didn’t really like Susur’s carrot cake but his dessert table over all was good. The bottom 2 ended up being Marcus and Carmen. In the end Carmen went home. It wasn’t that her food was bad, just not enough dishes.

So Carmen is out, who will be out next week?

We are getting the final 2 chefs to move on! This week we have Jodie Adams, Rick Tramonto (whom I believe was on Top Chef when they were in Chicago), Maria Hines, Debbie Gold and Susur Lee.

We are onto the 3rd episode of season 2 of Top Chef Masters. This is the episode where last year’s losers will compete;). This will be good.

Rick Moonen, Wylie Defrene, Graham Elliott Bowles, Jonathan Waxman, Mark Peel, and Ludo Lefevbre are all back! (excuse any name mispelling;)

The quickfire is that they will make a dish to go with an exotic drink with vodka in it. Gayle Green and the Housewives of OC are the quickfire judges. When Wylie’s dish came out the wives loved it until Gayle spoke and then Gretchen didn’t like it as much. This girls don’t seem to know a whole lot about food. Ludo wasn’t a big hit and he was freaking about a bit. Jonathan received a perfect score!

The elimination challenge was to take a pub dish and recreate it into an upscale dish. They really went pub with it with things like bangers and mash. Jonathan picked Shephard’s Pie and the rest had to negotiate between themselves. Rick got fish and chips. He should do well with it since he is a fish guy. But I thought is was kind of odd that he thought Mark was not going to do well because he was doing a seafood sausage because that is Rick’s area. Ludo got Irish Stew and that didn’t leave him in a great mood. It seemed to make him real upset that Rick got fish. It looks like Mark’s Yorkshire Pudding didn’t cook all the way.

Ludo’s fish stew seemed odd looking because there were raw veggies in it and it didn’t seem comforting. Rick’s potatoes were hard but of course the fish seemed to be a hit. I think it could bite Wylie that he didn’t make his own sausage for his Bangers and Mash but it looked yummy. Of course Mark’s uncooked Yorkshire pudding being a bit raw was a problem. Jonathan’s potatoes seemed runny on top of the lamb but it seemed to be a hit.

I think the problem with Ludo’s dish is that he didn’t like Irish stew to begin with. So he may have never had a base to go from. Graham seemed to dislike kidneys so he sold his own flavor short. Ludo is sure that the English people have bad food;). Rick got slammed for his thick chips. The reality to me is that the potatoes shouldn’t have been that hard. Does a good piece of fish really wipe out a bad potato?

Jonathan won with his Shepard’s Pie! I think it has inspired me to make one (having never cooked a lamb version). Rick came in second so he is also moving on. But Wylie did get to beat Graham;).

The next group will be cooking for Modern Family. I have been liking this season! See you next week!

This week’s competitors! Marcus Samuelson has been on Top Chef before and is always impressive! I didn’t recognize Monica Pope, Thierry Ratereau and David Burke. But Carmen Gonzalez seems familiar but I am not sure from where.