And Alex laments the loss of his new buddy, Richard, with whom he had gotten really close in the first few weeks of filming. Really close.
Richard left a long, heart-felt letter for Alex, who decided to read it to Jamie and Carla.
Later, at the hallowed Top Chef kitchen, the cheftestants enter to find Padma standing next to someone who is actually taller than her, for once. She introduces him with great fanfare.








Beside the fake Italian and Padma is a table laden with the ingredients for breakfast, which strikes fear into the heart of the remaining member of Team Rainbow.

On to today's Quickfire Challenge: create a breakfast "amuse bouche." Not a full-blown breakfast entrée, but, tell them Padma...


Stefan opts for ethnic rather than elegant. He uses a special cutter to take a neat slice of shell off the top of an egg, leaving behind a nifty little natural container. For some reason this process is reminding me of how a certain villain on Heroes gets his powers....
Padma and Rocco taste everyone's offerings. Few get both the concept of "breakfast" and "amuse bouche" correct.
Rocco likes Stefan's, Jamie's, and Leah's dishes, and because Leah is the only one of the three who presented something that was exactly one bite, Rocco gave her the win. Also a copy of his latest cookbook. She, of course, was ecstatic beyond belief. And I'm making that up. She also gets immunity in the Elimination Challenge.
Fabio, who made a sweet dish with a too-rich espresso shooter on the side, was bitter.
Padma and Rocco taste everyone's offerings. Few get both the concept of "breakfast" and "amuse bouche" correct.

Fabio, who made a sweet dish with a too-rich espresso shooter on the side, was bitter.
The Quickfire was a little difficult but the Elimination Challenge will be a bit trickier. Ok, a whole lot trickier. The cheftestants must present themselves to the public by appearing in a 2.5 minute segment on the Today Show in which they demo a dish while answering questions and being their charming selves.


The chefs hit Whole Paycheck to buy the ingredients for their demo dish. Fabio goes behind the fish counter and cut his own tuna, then copycats Gene and Hosea do the same.






In the middle of the night, Tom wakes the top three chefs. He tells them they are going to 30 Rockefeller Plaza to cook their dishes for the Today Show ninnies who are going to pick the winner of the challenge. "WTF? It's 2:30am, dude!" was basically Jeff's comment.





Back at the Top Chef Kitchens, Rocco presents Ariane with a little gift. Nothing makes him happier than tools, so he picked out about two dozen of them (Alton Brown would call them uni-taskers) for her. She also gets to do an actual Today Show segment the morning after the episode premieres, which would be...today.

The bottom three - Melissa, Alex, and Jamie - faced the music. It was hard to pick the loser, since all three did so poorly. Jamie's duck egg was not only undercooked, but she also had a petulant air about her when criticized. Melissa's use of habaneros was ill-conceived.

