Quickfire

Top Chef delivered on the Vegas showgirls immediately, just like Liz said. A half-dozen appeared on screen for about 10 seconds, just in case you forgot you were in Sin City. (As a side note, did anyone else think judge Tom looked thinner? Liz thought it was the vertical stripe action, but Justine thought he might've lost a few pounds between seasons. Padma looked hot as always.)

The first quickfire challenge divided the chefs into teams of four by choosing poker chips from a bag. Let's see how long they will keep that gimmick up. With an odd number of chefs, Robin drew the gold chip, which gave her immunity and the option to sit out this challenge. It seems silly to not cook when you're on a cooking show, but we guess it's more about strategy this early in the game.

The challenge had them shucking 15 clams, peeling 30 prawns, cleaning 5 lobsters and cutting 2 prime rib chops. Early on, Mike (a "jerkface," as Justine refers to him) cast himself as the villain by saying he couldn't lose to a girl. Sadly, Mike's team did end up losing to Jen C., the girl he shucked against.  

This quickfire had a surprise second part where the winning group of four -- cooked against each other to win a $15,000 poker chip (again with the product placement). The catch was they had to cook the item they prepared in the mise en place portion of the challenge.

As much as Bravo built up the sibling rivalry between Michael and Bryan, they were able to put it aside because they weren't cooking against each other at that point in the competition.

Tom called Jesse's prawns and grits "a mouthful of ocean," but even the ocean can't beat the clam ceviche from Jennifer C., so she got the $15k chip.

Elimination challenge

The teammates turned rivals as each group of four had a winner and a loser to go to judge's table, where they'd face a tough critic in legendary chef Wolfgang Puck (who conveniently let them cook in his Vegas restaurant Cut). To reinforce the Vegas theme, the cheftestants had to introduce themselves through cuisine by representing one of their vices.

Off to Whole Foods! (How far away from the Las Vegas Strip did they have to drive to find a Whole Foods, we wonder.) A budget of $150 and 30 minutes to shop of course put these first-timers in a tizzy as they frantically scoured the store for their specialty ingredients, the oddest of which may have been Jennifer Z.'s seitan (a wheat gluten protein -- we had to Google it). Thank goodness they were at Whole Foods.

Many of the vices were boring and full of alcohol. The most creative jaunty red scarf Mattin's Buffalo rib-eye and zucchini with mashed potatoes who referenced his astrological sign but didn't clearly reference a vice. Robin finally decided to cook for the elimination challenge, citing her vice as being a "bad Jew" who enjoyed pork. One of the components of her dish didn't make to the plate, but her pork tenderloin with chorizo and bread pudding was still clever. 

The Maryland brothers, while on different teams, both got very good comments from the judges (Bryan, while Puck said he made "steak and baby food" because he put put pureed sauces on the plate, made a well-executed dish with the beef cooked and rested perfectly; Michael's rack of lamb with coconut sauce and gnocchi was "professional" though it was a little weird that his vice was Vegas' plastic surgery -- note the rack and coconut).

The Marylander who disappointed, Jesse, knew before the judges even said anything that her chicken had been a disappointment because the chicken breast was dry. The judges liked the flavor, though, so it seemed pretty clear that while she had the worst dish of her team, she wouldn't be eliminated.

The team that seemed to have the weakest dishes was Ash, Jen Z., Ron and Laurine. Jen Z.'s stuffed pepper didn't even look appetizing, and the judges weren't impressed with the flavor, either. She said she wanted to make a statement of being bold and taking risks by using seitan, she wanted the dish to represent her temper. "I'm mad as hell but good for you" -- the judges complained about the lack of spice. Gail (she's so cute!) said "there's no heat" and the rest of them nodded.

The dish Justine was most excited for, Laurine's bacon doughnuts with some sort of lambic beer and chocolate sauce, didn't get rave reviews. Puck actually threw a doughnut across the room to emphasize his argument that they weren't fluffy enough. They did love the sauce, though, and with Jen Z.'s terrible pepper, Laurine could've made chocolate-coated bacon and been safe.

 Judges' table

They called the winners in first, with Padma looking very stern, sad and official (as always). Ron, Jerkface Mike, Kevin and Jennifer were the winners of their respective teams, and Bearded Kevin took home the win for his Arctic char with turnip salsa verde -- Jerkface Mike looked equal parts mad and cocky. Wolfgang apparently is hard-up in this economy because he couldn't even cough up a signed cookbook for him. Cooking in Puck's restaurant will have to be prize enough.

The losers were Hector, Jen Z., Jesse and Eve. Hector deep-fried steak, which was not acceptable in the august culinary world of Vegas. Liz would've scarfed that bad boy down though. Jen Z.'s aforementioned chile relleno (the fancy way of saying stuffed pepper) was like a "vegan bar midnight special," Padma said. Tom said it would've been terrible no matter what protein she used. Jesse's chicken was too dry, but the judges like that she knew what was wrong. Bad execution's usually the kiss of death, but she was safe this time. Eve's food was bland and forgettable (overcooked shrimp, bland sauce made blander with cream -- she said usually cooks "big, bold flavors" and toned it down with the last-minute cream, but the judges didn't seem to believe her).

It was no surprise that Jen Z. went home. She even squeezed out some tears as she packed her knives (but did she really have time to unpack them in the first place?). She complained about the vendetta the world has against seitan, but Justine's happy not to have those peppers served to her.

The predictions: 

Early favorites: Justine likes Kevin because he's a winner and because Liz hates his beard (Shouldn't he have to wear a beard-net?), and Liz likes Eli because his “buttered" Scotch with scallops and beer cashews was all about being bitter.

Who's going home next: Eve -- she had a bland dish, bland personality and she got enough camera time for us to recognize her as the door hits her on the way out.

Preeti could also be going home next. She made the Top Chef fatal flaw of trying to do something she hadn't done before, and c'mon, you really shouldn't be on a cooking show if you can't even shuck a clam.

 Who do you think is going home? Does a chef with a beard make better food? Did anyone else totally ignore Top Chef: Masters?