Top Chef 2, episode 3 recap

Judging from the promos that we aired in the week leading up to this week's episode of Bravo's Top Chef, the show promised to be a good one. Then again, what reality show doesn't heavily advertise the conflicts that cast members have? At least we are starting to get to know all the competitors better and can pick out some of the chefs that seem to be leading the pack.

The chefs had a hard time with this week's quickfire challenge. Padma started out by saying that only 38% of Americans eat in fine dining restaurants at that it is important for a top chef to be well rounded and able to cater to different audiences. Their challenge was to create an original ice cream flavor to be served to beach-goers in Los Angeles. With the exception of the pastry chef, Marissa, no one seemed to have ever made ice cream before, but after seeing some of the flavor combinations, you would have thought that they had never eaten ice cream before, either.

Two chefs used bacon in their creations. Ilan made a bacon and waffle breakfast ice cream and Marcel came up with bacon and avocado ice cream. Carlos also used avocado for richness, not flavor, in his avocado vanilla marshmallow ice cream. Other flavors included Josie's peach cobbler, Sam's gingersnap and citrus, Michael's Elvis-inspired peanut butter and banana and Betty's berry with chocolate sauce. The bottom three finishers were Marissa's vanilla peanut swirl, Emily's lavender and chocolate and Marcel's bacon creation. Marissa still seemed to be in disbelief that anyone could dislike her food, while Emily actually seemed quite angry with some of the tasters who thought the ice cream wasn't sweet enough. The winner, with the most popular flavor, was Clif and his marshmallow cookie ice cream, which used marshmallows and oreos in vanilla ice cream.

With the chefs still fuming over the fact that the tasters picked a winner based on flavor in decisions that had "nothing to do with quality," the elimination challenge was announced. Continuing on the theme of cooking "for the people," the guest judge was Stephen Bulgarelli, the executive chef of TGIFridays, who challenged the chefs to remake a childhood favorite for the casual dining restaurant's menu. The test dishes would be served to some local firemen to get feedback.

From the fuss that the contestants put up, you would think that not only did none of them see the first season, where many of the challenges involved non-fine dining cooking, but that they have never cooked anything less than four star, truffle and foie gras-laden meals for themselves at home. Some complained about being completely at a loss when confronted with the prospect of cooking a "normal" dish.

When they finally got down to cooking, the chefs came up with some respectable looking plates, even though not all was peaceful in the kitchen. Betty really lit into Marcel for complaining that the deep fryer wasn't functioning while he worked, telling him that "anything to f*** you up is fine" by her, causing Marcel to say exactly the same thing back when she faced technical difficulties with the equipment. The other competitors seemed to want to say out of the conflict and focus on the food, though many of them seemed to be siding with Betty, anyway.

The dishes this week included:

• Clif - Fishsticks, Mac and Cheese
• Josie - Miami BBQ Skewers with Green Toast and Fire-Roasted Salsa
• Betty - Tuscan Portabello melt
• Marcel - Grilled Pork Chops with Wild Mushroom Sauce served with Bacon Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes
• Ilan - Corn N' Bacon
• Emily - Super Slammin' Surf and Turf
• Marissa - Strawberry Crisp with Whipped Cream
• Sam - Wild 'bout Fruit Salad
• Michael - Steak Sandwich
• Mia - Momma Mia Meatloaf Sandwich with Kitchen Fries
• Carlos - Chicken Fried Shrimp with Dijon Spinach Sauce served with Red Pepper and Corn Salad
• Elia - Ahi Tuna and Shrimp Tacos
• Frank - Wonderland Mushroom Fantasy Salad

Half of the dishes seemed to be very well received and the others had problems ranging from bland flavors to overcooking. The top three dishes were Clif's mac and cheese, Sam's sophisticated fruit salad and Betty's roasted pepper soup with portabello mushroom grilled cheese. Since it best embodied the challenge of updating a classic while staying with something familiar, Betty's dish won and will be featured on TGI Friday menus.

The three worst were Michael's sandwich, described as greasy, bland and sloppy, Frank's overly conceptual mushroom dish and Emily's surf n' turf, which was oversalted to the point of being completely inedible. Emily, for making that extremely elementary mistake, was eliminated.

Did you miss any episodes? Check out our premier recap or the recap of last week's episode. Tune in to Bravo on Wednesdays before the new episode airs, since they'll run the previous episodes again leading up to it.