Noelle Myers recaps the 7th episode of season 5!

This week on Top Chef Masters, two previously eliminated chefs (Jen and Sue) had the chance to win a spot back in the competition.  They battled it out on Battle of the Sous chefs, and Jenifer won her spot back in the competition.

As soon as Jenifer came back on the line, Curtis brought out the guest judge for this week’s Quickfire – Ali Lauder.  This week the chefs had to reinvent nachos.  The winner of the quickfire won both immunity and $5000 for their charity.  The chefs only had 30 minutes to complete their dishes.

The chefs were very divided on the subject of nachos.  A few, like Jenifer, loved nachos, but most hated them.  With only 30 minutes, the chefs brought all their creativity, using an apron as a strainer and several chefs brought out the liquid nitrogen!

Douglas made shrimp with powdered nacho chips, cheese and beans with a shot of salsa consume.  Neal served chicken and jack cheese flautas with tomatillo salsa and ancho chilis.  Jennifer created skirt steak and tomatillo salsa verde with a sour cream and cheddar sauce.  Sang’s mesa corn griddlecake with chorizo hash, pico de gallo, and cheddar cheese snow failed to impress the judges.  The cheese snow reminded them of the mac and cheese powder in their kid’s meals.  Bryan made a very cool avocado wrapped crab salad with tomatillo salsa and crispy corn chips.  I really wanted to try that one!  The judges liked it too.  It reminded Ali of a dish she had on her honeymoon!  David struggled during this quickfire.  He cut his finger, and could not get his groove back after that.  His calamari and mango skewer with squid ink and jack cheese sauce was not up to his standards, and he agreed with the judges that it was sloppy and lackluster.

The two chefs who hated nachos the most ended up on the bottom of this Quickfire.  Sang and David did not create what the judges were looking for.

Bryan was hopeful he would win his first ever Quick fire as he was one of the judge’s top picks, but Douglas just squeaked in ahead of him to take home the money and the immunity.

For this week’s Elimination Challenge the chefs were paired up in teams of two.  They served 60 guests at a premiere Miami seafood restaurant.  They created a dish with BOTH a hot and cold preparation of seafood.  The catch?  They did not know what their protein would be.  They had to get that off the truck the next morning from the Catch of the Day.  The Chefs were also given $250 dollars to shop and 30 minutes at Whole Foods.

After planning and shopping the Chefs were given a much needed break.  Dinner at Kwami’s was full of good natured ribbing, pictures and laughs.

The next morning the chefs had to choose knives to see who would get to pick their Catch of the Day first.  The Red Team – Douglas and Jenifer- pulled the first knife….and got to choose first as well.  They took the JonDory for their dish.  The Blue Team pulled knife number two, so Neal and David chose to take the Whole Sea Bass.  Yellow Team’s Sang and Bryan are last, and decide to go with the Sablefish.

Things were pretty hectic in the kitchen, but everyone finished their dishes in time.  Curtis, Gail, James Oseland, and Frances Lam were the judges for this Elimination Challenge.  The Yellow Team was up first.  Sang was responsible for the Raw/Cold portion of the dish, and he created a dashi cured sablefish with charred cucumber.  Curtis actually spit out the fish!  He and the other judges said it was almost inedible, the temperature was lukewarm and very off-putting, and the texture was very mushy.  Bryan’s BBQ sablefish with pine nuts, cornbread and soy bubbles was, according to James, “the smartest dish of the season.”

The Blue Team served next, Neal was responsible for breaking down the fish as well as the cold preparation.  He served a local sea bass crudo with citrus tomato pepper vinaigrette.  The fish was chewy, but the vinaigrette was fantastic.  David made Mediterranean glazed sea bass with tomato couscous and curry oil.  Gail thought it had too many ingredients and the couscous was greasy and damp, but overall the judges felt that the dish was more cohesive than the Yellow Team’s dish.

Last but not least, the red team served up their dishes.  Douglas and Jenifer did not separate the components of their dish, but instead both worked on every part of it.  They created jon dory two ways:  kimchi cured jon dory with crispy jon dory and cucumbers.  This dish was the highlight of the night.  The cucumber and cured fish stayed cold, while the crispy jon dory was hot and crispy.

Curtis called everyone in for judging, telling the chefs that the winning team would receive $5000 each for their respective charities.

After watching the service, it was no surprise that Douglas and Jenifer were the winners.  Douglas was thrilled to get another $5,000 for GreenDog Rescue, and Jen was equally happy to be bringing home the money for Work Options for Women.

After some deliberation, it was Neal that was sent home.  Sang nearly broke down as he was sure it was him.  As the credits roll, Curtis told James it just as easily could have been.

Next week – Mexican Wrestling and a Sous Chef swap!