Top Chef: Tarjay

It's down to seven chefs, but it wasn't a lucky number for one of them. In an episode full of puppets and bromances, there was a fair amount of good, bad and ugly as well. Here's my take.

The Good:

• The quickfire challenge. Though I can't imagine how awkward it must have been to be in the Top Chef kitchen with puppets judging your work, I enjoyed watching this quickfire from afar. You'd think each chef would have at least one cookie recipe up his or her sleeve, but apparently that's not the case. Richard fell back on his old crutch, liquid nitrogen, and his zucchini ice cream "cookie" failed to impress Cookie Monster's palate (though his daughter did get a shout-out from Elmo, so it wasn't a total wash). It was fun to see the chefs taken out of their element and venture into the world of sweet. I was actually surprised that no one made a savory cookie, but I'd really like to get a recipe for Dale's winning pretzel/potato chip concoction.

• The elimination challenge. Does anyone else remember when Toys 'R Us used to give away a shopping spree, and you could grab as many toys as possible within the set time limit? That's what the chefs running around Target reminded me of. Though, in the previews, when they showed everyone talking about how difficult the challenge was, I honestly expected something a bit more outlandish, I guess cooking a meal for 100 people at Target is harder than it sounds. I just liked seeing Dale cook grilled cheese with an iron. You know what they say -- necessity is the mother of invention!

The Bad:

• Top Chef goes "Survivor." Before the opening credits, we were treated to Richard and Dale forming an "alliance." Then, during the Target challenge, we saw the extent of Mike and Angelo's bromance. While I'm all for camaraderie in the kitchen, I'm wondering why chefs suddenly think they're on a different reality competition show. It's not "outwit, outplay, outlast." It's out-cook, period. And evidently it was difficult for Angelo to out-cook his competitors when he was more worried about finding a can opener for clueless Mikey than fixing his overly salty baked potato soup.

• Angelo's exit. I wasn't devastated to see Angelo leave, but it's dismissals like his that make me upset with the Top Chef judging system. He is obviously more talented than Tiffany, but he had one bad dish and it was his undoing. The judges have always said that they only take into account the chef's meal for that particular challenge, but I think it'd be better if there was some way to account for past successes. Otherwise it's too easy for someone to scoot by in the bottom three every time while a better chef is sent home for one (big) mistake.

The Ugly:

• Carla's time-management skills. I would love to see Carla cluck her way to the Top Chef finale, but it seems like the competition is starting to ruffle her feathers. Why did she spend so much time beautifying her table? I know it's hard to resist Target's incredible bargains (as shown by the hat Tiffany snagged during her shopping spree), but unless the challenge was to make a half-decent meal and serve it on a pretty tablecloth, Carla was bound to be on the bottom. She's really lucky that Angelo's heavy hand left her to puree another day.

Did you enjoy this episode? Were you happy with Dale's wins and Angelo's loss? Will you now try to cook a sandwich using your iron?