Take 'Top Chef' to the Ball Game

After last week's elimination of Top Chef supervillain Alex, the live chat took a trip to the ballpark for a little baseball and a few meatballs. Chat room regular Mimi had "been waiting for this episode since May, when I was in DC and learned I missed the Nats game challenge by ONE DAY......eeeeeeek!"

The episode got off to a seductive start with cheftestant Ed getting in touch with his feminine side by trying on Tiffany's sexy yellow dress. Chat room style maven veronicaromm put it simply, "Hot dress on Ed." Fellow chatterer and future Hollywood type MindsofMongoose just hoped "he was wearin' underwear under that."

While Ed definitely sprouted some nice stems, not everyone was impressed. No nonsense chatterer Walter screamed "Ed is ignorant!" The rest of the chat room was abuzz with thoughts on Ed's next move now that he had unlocked his inner diva. A whopping 56% chimed in that an "awkward Craigslist personal" would be a near certainty in Ed's future.

For the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs used familiar food-related idioms to create dishes that could be easily served as frozen dinners. Chat room newbie Kayte wondered "what does "hide the salami" mean?" The always intriguing chatterer dfunkmcgunk was quick to offer her take, "hide the salami means you eat it real fast." With perhaps a hint of irony, East Coast Hostess with the Mostess Bravo Monica simply stated "I'm not even going to touch that salami one...." Probably a good call; when you touch it, it's a lot harder to hide.

For the Elimination Challenge, the Cheftestants went over to the Washington Nationals stadium where they were challenged to put a Top Chef spin on the traditional ballpark munchie menu. But right off the bat (get it?), Live Chatterers were critical of Amanda's tuna tartare.

Take Walter, who said, "Ok, this is a ballpark! Why are we trying to make food that should be eaten in a sit-down spot!?" Or Chris Lehiy: "Tuna tartar in the hot sun, sweating and getting all funkified, yummy." In fact, so many chatterers thought the tuna was a bad move, that a poll asking about "mushy, raw tuna at the ballpark" showed a whopping 78% voted for "Yuck" over the other choices, "I'll try it." (0%) and "Hey, lay off Barry Bonds" (22%). Sorry Giants fans, but we may have to brand this vote with an asterisk.

But even though the room was clearly turning against Amanda, chatterer Mimi reminded us all that no matter who leaves, we'll still all have someone to rag on. "We'll still have lots of options: Angelo, Kevin, Amanda (minus whoever goes home tonight)." Whew! With the pea puree incident fading in the rear view mirror, and Amanda tossed out along with her grey tuna, it's always good to know we will always have a villain.

But it wouldn't be a Top Chef Live Chat recap without a few choice quotes from some favorite return chatterers, EviEAaY, who at one point shouted "BEER!!!" for some reason, or Mark, who closed out the evening with a "Thanks BravoBoys. I have so much fun on here. See you next week!" You sure will, Mark. But it had to be Live Chat chief Burnt Toast who said it best. "Thank you MattyB and JohnnyB for giving us this forum, and thank you Bravo!" No, Burnt Toast. Thank you.