Top Chef Season 5: Episode Four Wrapup

After Richard's emotional departure last week, Bravo keeps the drama rolling this week as Alex reads a letter from the eliminated chef. Richard tells Alex to go for the win every day. Foreshadowing!

Quickfire Challenge

Haven't we all dreamed of waking up to make breakfast for Rocco DiSpirito? Their task is to cook up a breakfast amuse bouche - meaning very very tiny. A one-bite breakfast! Bonus points if bacon is used. Ah, this takes me back to the breakfast challenge of season 3, minus Padma running around the apartment in her pajamas and waking up the chefs by jumping on their beds.

Anyway, Rocco and Padma eat a ton of breakfast bites and decide on their favorites. It turns out most of the chefs don't really "get" the concept of amuse bouche and on the bottom is Danny's cornflake crusted squash blossom and Fabio's uber-sweet brioche and espresso cream. A few dishes shine though, and Rocco apparently likes the classics. Jamie and Leah's almost identical breakfast sandwiches rise to the top, but Leah's takes the win.

The prize? Just like the breakfast challenge in season 3, the winner gets...a judge's cookbook? Seriously? Thanks a ton, Rocco.

Elimination Challenge

Some chefs aspire to cook on television and some want to do nothing but stay behind the scenes but no one has a choice this week, as they are thrown into creating a 2 ½ minute demo suitable for a nationally syndicated morning show. After a shopping trip where several of the chefs actually jump behind the counter to butcher their own meat, everyone gets to cooking.

The foreshadowing continues for Leah and Alex. She keeps telling us she doesn't want anything to do with TV, and Alex admits that his dish probably won't work because of time constraints.

When the cheftestants try out their dishes and demos on Tom, Rocco, Gail and Padma, the obvious happens. Alex's dish fails, Leah is completely uncharismatic, and Jeff and Fabio shine. A few curveballs: Melissa's shrimp is so spicy Tom spits it out, Jamie's duck egg isn't cooked, and Ariane...impresses everyone with a salad? To be fair, it is a Jersey tomato salad. And with only a 2 ½ minute segment to use, salad is actually the smart way to go for once.

Top 3: Ariane, Jeff and Fabio

Bottom 3: Melissa, Jamie and Alex (Leah would have been in here if she didn't have immunity)

Judging is to resume the next day so the chefs can get some sleep - until Tom wakes the winners at 2 am to have them cook for the saucy ladies of the Today Show. While the rest of the chefs watch from the apartment, the dishes are judged by Kathy Lee and company around 6:30 in the morning - not the best time of day for Middle Eastern malfouf. Suddenly, there's a "gagging sound coming from Kathy Lee." Yep, in an overly dramatic and embarrassing display, she spit it out.

Fabio's sesame crusted tuna goes over well, but the winner is Ariane. What a comeback! She takes home a whole set of tools courtesy of Rocco and will be appearing the following day to cook her dish live on the Today Show.