Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert!

Oh Bravo. Let's not kid ourselves: The Elimination Challenge from this week's Top Chef episode was about as Project Runway as it gets. The contestants worked in pairs to create dishes inspired by their favorite movies, and it felt almost like Tom Colicchio was channeling Michael Kors in his criticism ("They talked about vibrant colors -- I didn't see vibrant colors there").
Despite the fact that I kept thinking that Tim Gunn would enter the kitchen at any moment (or perhaps because of it), I really enjoyed this episode. Firstly, I thought that the Quickfire Challenge was a smart way to showcase the most technically skilled chefs, as the challenge required the them to create a vegetable plate that highlighted at least three technical skills. Though guest judge Daniel Boulud said that he would not be influenced by the fact that both Ryan and Richard had worked in his kitchen, I don't know if that happened. Clearly, Richard picked up some of his technical skills from Chef Boulud, so it was inevitable that the chef would appreciate his style. Dale won the challenge.

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs chose to be inspired by Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (it drove me crazy that they kept calling it Willy Wonka), Good Morning Vietnam, Il Postino, A Christmas Story, Talk to Her and Top Secret. They loved the Willy Wonka first-course by Richard, Dale and Andrew, which combined wasabi and white chocolate, and used tapioca pearls for faux-caviar. Andrew wanted to dress as an oompa loompa, but fortunately his other teammates vetoes him, and Richard ended up winning again. Another favorite was Stephanie and Lisa's steak and caramel apple dish, inspired by Top Secret.

Now to the losers. I had already seen the episode when I watched it with my boyfriend, and the second Manuel received his first camera shot in the beginning of the episode, my boyfriend turned to me and said, "I love Manuel, it's too bad he will have to go soon." And it's true. To me, Manuel represented the last of the "have-to-go contestants," and he was sent home for the Vietnamese Spring rolls that he followed Spike into. The judges also singled out Zoi and Antonia for their lamb dish, which they mis-described while serving the dish. But because it apparently wasn't foul-tasting, it was obvious that the girls were safe.

I think that next week is where it will get really interesting, as I don't feel that I could predict the loser at this point. Richard remains the man to beat, and I can't wait to see the others step up against him.