Padma, Gail, Tom, Mark Peel and the troops. Photo: Bravo

Note to "Top Chef" editors: You fooled us. As with any reality show with a dozen-plus contestants, the ones who get the most face time in the early episodes are usually the superstars, or the ones who'll be packing their knives and going home.

By that logic, perma-cryer Jesse -- who managed the ignominious feat of having the lowest scores in the previous two episodes -- was marked for doom this week. But at least she owned her status -- or lack of it -- as the loser of last night's quickfire challenge: "I'm on the bottom again -- balls!"
But her overly spicy sweet potato soup -- and some more suspenseful editing -- didn't stop her from dishing out an admirable corn-and-clam chowder a little later, to a couple hundred servicemen and women at Nellis Air Force base. As she and the other chefs paired off to whip up some mostly tasty buffet food for the troops, we made the following observations:

- Jennifer and Michael V. continue their cocky, mumbly reign over most all of the other chefs. Jennifer won yet another quickfire with a beautiful bowl of steamed mussels and lemongrass potatoes, earning the right to play executive chef to the crew for the challenge. "I was a little nervous, because she's a little soft-spoken," Ash quipped, tongue firmly in cheek.

- Ron's goofy malapropisms are never-ending. "I feel like I'm Bob Marley with music," he mentioned at one point, which took us about 10 minutes to decode into his intended analogy (which was, "cooking equals one love," um, or something). "You know these troops, they love chowder!" was another Ron oddity, but at least this one was actually confirmed by an East Coast serviceman who couldn't get enough clams.

- If you're going to suck up to our troops, at least be genuine about it. Countless cheftestants sang the praises of the armed forces last night, ranging from the ultra-sincere (Kevin and Bryan got misty-eyed talking about relatives) to the ultra-specious (Preeti invoked 9/11 as the event that convinced her cooking was the only thing that made sense in the world).

In fact, it was Preeti's steely loyalty to a marginal idea that got her kicked off the show: The three bottom-feeders this time were all responsible for bland salads, but while Michael I. got indignant over his Greek salad with shrimp and Laurine admitted shame for her and Preeti's farfalle, her teammate wasn't having it. Neither of the two women indicted each other, but Preeti's headstrong pride in what looked like a back-of-the-pasta-box recipe sealed her fate. ... And bought Jesse another week to prove herself.