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Top Chef Chicago: Do You Like Burritos?

Oh, the Richard Blais charm got annoying all right. He asked every Chicago police officer who came by his lunch table, "Question of the day. Do you like burritos?"

But at least he wasn't bickering or arguing with the judges or his fellow contestants. We almost felt uncomfortable watching last night's episode. Can't we just all get along?

Note: We reveal the winner and loser after the jump.

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There were accusations of sabotage, actual sabotage by Spike in Whole Foods, denials of sabotage... It makes us want to jump straight to the finals, where (we hope, but who knows) we'll be rid of Spike and the sulking Lisa.

But back to the food. We liked both of these challenges, actually. The quickfire had them "bringing sexy back" to the salad, which is always appreciated, and while Spike's beef salad won, we would have preferred Antonia's mushrooms with a poached egg on top. Antonia continues to impress us with her simple, beautiful, heartwarming dishes. Anyone else?

In the elimination challenge, chefs were required to make boxed lunches for the Chicago Police Academy that were healthy and included a protein, whole grain, fruit, and vegetable. Again, we love seeing experienced cooks create good-for-you food that is still flavorful and sophisticated. Which is why Spike's chicken salad looked so sad and predictable. Plus, olives and grapes together sounded pretty unappetizing.

Our vote was for Stephanie. She made soup! Such a good idea! We didn't feel she got enough credit for doing something different and un-sandwich-like. We still feel like she keeps cooking things that aren't the norm for her (she mentioned not having experience with a lot of whole grains), so when she finally does, we think it'll be exciting.

Dale won with an Asian bison lettuce wrap, which we did think was creative without being kitschy. As for the loser, couldn't they send Andrew and Lisa home? Please? Her reheated shrimp looked grey and awful on our TV screen. And his salmon sushi just completely missed the mark. Seafood in boxed lunches is clearly not a good idea.

As for the arrogance and anger, we're fed up.

What about you? Are you as engaged with these contestants as in seasons past? Who do you think will be eliminated next?

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(All images: Bravo)

Comments (14)

I love Tim's? expression above.

Blais was definitely acting like a wienie with his whole burrito thing. My wife said that the whole reinterpretation thing is getting pretty old. He's really stretching with some of these things.

I thought it was funny that it looked like Stephanie gave them enough soup for lunch and then to take home for their whole family. I guess you could just eat soup for lunch. A couple different kinds of soup.

I thought Antonia's salad was like the poached pear for the tailgate party. It would have been a nice appetizer for a bistro but not a substantial lunch. A little too frou-frou for a lunch.

The salad people were definitely on the right track though. I feed a lot of cops and they eat mostly salad. Cobb salads, steak salads, chicken salads...

Looks like Dale and Richard and Antonia or Stephanie for the final. I'll hope they'll kick off both Spike and Meanie next week.

posted by art on 2008-05-15 09:56:48
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Andrew was one of my favorites; I'm sad to see him go. :-(

This is the first season I've watched, so I had assumed that this level of arrogance and anger was the norm!

posted by notharctus on 2008-05-15 10:19:08
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How could Spike actually question Tom about the mix of olives and grapes? They should have had a triple elimination last night....Trump style.

posted by cweingarten on 2008-05-15 10:49:24
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It would have been great had all three of them got shipped home. (spike, andrew and lisa). Could these people be any more annoying??

I just hope that the challenges will focus more on real Chef'ing. Are we going to have to wait for the finale before we'll see the contestants have the chance to cook without jumping through any silly hoops?

posted by sfmitch on 2008-05-15 11:21:10
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I was hoping Andrew would stick around for a while. He was talented and a breath of fresh crazy air.

posted by renata on 2008-05-15 11:23:51
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I'm sad Andrew is gone. He seemed like a total serial killer but in a good way :)
I think Lisa should have been eliminated. That shrimp looked downright hazardous! I do not want my police officers suffering from food poisoning.

posted by Nikita on 2008-05-15 11:24:17
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Ted's blog on bravotv.com hints that Bravo will probably utilize Andrew somehow... perhaps a la LeeAnn of S1? As weird and volatile as he was, I think Andrew had a lot of potential and made for interesting TV.

Spike has been on the chopping block practically every week, and his rude demeanor is really grating. I had a chuckle when Lisa said she "manned up" to every part of her dish. How is accusing your fellow chefs of sabotage "manning up"? I loved the judges' expression when Lisa tattletaled, though. Priceless.

posted by selena on 2008-05-15 11:36:34
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I like burritos.

posted by cweingarten on 2008-05-15 12:07:42
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The body language Lisa uses every single time she's on the chopping block is just so hostile. The faces she makes, the crossed arms -- whenever she's up there it's like she really can't believe she's actually there. Ugh!

Kick her off already! Plus, that shrimp was down right ugly.

posted by Alex on 2008-05-15 12:22:43
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i liked andrew for the first episode. then he just seemed crazy. he was always trying to do something a little different and it never quite turned out to his advantage.

i've also never gotten over his whole "this is my house" bit.

and as for lisa... well, she's not only a sore loser, she's a sore not-loser, too. the look on her face last night when Andrew was eliminated was so sour. She may be more talented than Spike, which is how she's managed to stick around this long, but her attitude is just awful.

posted by sara.h on 2008-05-15 12:29:25
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Andrew will live on though.....His "I've got a culinary boner" could be the line of the season.

posted by cweingarten on 2008-05-15 13:49:32
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I was so glad that *finally* everyone wasn't all loving on Richard all over the place. I do *not* think someone sabotaged Lisa-- she'll take herself down and I think that's obvious.

posted by FromTheFuture on 2008-05-15 15:38:01
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I thought it was interesting how Richard missed the mark on both challenges last night. His self-proclaimed cleverness was not doing him any favors.

A triple elimination would've been awesome, and so well deserved.

posted by Girl Detective on 2008-05-15 18:14:41
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I really liked crazy Andrew. Lisa's long past her time.

posted by kenboy on 2008-05-15 23:02:15
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