First, my apologies for the late post, but I had to endure the following in the last several days.
1. A smoke alarm that would not stop beeping no matter what we tried until I tore it from the ceiling
2. The interruption of my Masters record from the fuse box attempts at stopping the alarm
3. The House passage of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal. And a long night at work. Very proud of my country right now.
4. Wickedly bad headaches.
5. A bug bite gone horribly wrong.

But that’s my cross to bear, or at least my headache to cure.

On Top Chef Masters, we were down to the Final Five and again, I have a judges decision which is baffling to me. Susan’s toast and jam was so good that Gail was talking about covering her husband with it and licking it off. Which, great mental image, Gail. Also, sounds delicious. In addition, amazing looking fried egg. The judges admit to how delicious it is, but yet, she went home seemingly because Jay has a problem with sandwiches. Why no sandwich love? I have to admit I have probably had more poorly made sandwiches in my life than amazing ones. And making a perfect fried egg takes real talent. I must admit to being surprised to see Susan go home and to see Marcus in the Top 2. I guess I will never really understand how these judges make their decisions.

But first, we have the Quickfire Challenge, which was the palate contest, which has been used, many times in past seasons. While it is a cool challenge that I think really tests the contestants, it is a hard one to really recap. The five are pitted head to head, with Obi-Wan getting a random bye from the first round. Hey Show, why not do this challenge with an even number of chefs remaining? Just saying.

First Round – Marcus vs. Ninja Suser
They must do a food version of Name That Tune and say how many ingredients they could name in the sauce presented to them. One of the two backs out and the other must name those ingredients.

They are using Blended Chausser sauce with 19 ingredients and Marcus backs out early leaving Ninja the easy task of naming only six ingredients. He rattles off – carrots, celery, onion, tomato, red wine vinegar and vegetable oil.

Rick vs. Susan
Same challenge, same sauce. Rick does the same as Marcus and backs out after six, but after getting onion, butter and salt, Susan messes up and guesses red wine, rather than red wine vinegar.

Round 2
The three go in spelling bee format and have to name ingredients from Thai Green Curry with 29 ingredients. If you miss, you are eliminated. Rick starts with coconut milk, Obi-Wan with garlic, Ninja with lemongrass. Rick goes with what sounded like wine leaf (got me), Obi-Wan wrongly picks butter, and Ninja stays alive with sugar.

Round 3
Rick vs. Ninja
They also go through spelling bee – and I am guessing it was edited down, since it ended rather quickly – and are guessing from Lobster Sauce with its 30 ingredients. Rick starts with tomato, Ninja counters with lobster. Rick guesses white wine, and Ninja goes with garlic. He is wrong. He later admits that he was stunned that a lobster sauce was made without garlic.

Elimination Challenge – The chefs randomly draw knives with Greek God names written on them. The task – make a dish inspired by a Greek God. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised not to see a cheesy Clash of the Titans tie in. Regardless, I found this to be a very fun challenge.

The gods/chefs matchups:
Rick/Hades
Susan/Aphrodite
Obi-Wan/Poseidon
Ninja/Dionysus
Marcus/Ares