And then there were 17. Though it looked like Fabio was on his way to a shock­ing early exit, Elia took the hit for under­cooked fish. Angelo pulled out an Elim­i­na­tion Chal­lenge vic­tory for recon­fig­ur­ing his Ramen noo­dles with glazed pork belly and water­melon that was a miss in the finale of Sea­son 7 in Sin­ga­pore. The team of Spike, Richard, Anto­nia and Dale T. for Top Chef: Chicago won the Quick­fire Chal­lenge with a hand­made pork sausage with mus­tard ice cream.

Carla had a decent week. She was, unfor­tu­nately, in the bot­tom for the Quick­fire Chal­lenge. I didn’t under­stand why the team agreed to Jamie’s sug­ges­tion to do a trio, fea­tur­ing apples.If you’ve ever watched Top Chef, one of the quick­est ways to get knocked down is to offer mul­ti­ple items on a plate that don’t make sense together. It appeared that Jamie was hell bent on mak­ing a soup, so that would explain why she sug­gested Carla and Fabio make their own com­po­nents. I was quick put off by Jamie’s state­ment that she’s a stronger chef than Carla and Fabio. I’ve spent time around Jamie, and was quite sur­prised that she would say such a thing. (Or maybe I’m not that surprised…just dis­ap­pointed.)  Carla did bet­ter in the Elim­i­na­tion Chal­lenge with a grilled strip steak , smashed pota­toes , com­pound but­ter with tar­ragon and a red wine sauce. It appears that Carla may have sliced the meat in a way that left a ten­don for some peo­ple to notice. Angelo com­mented that he got a nerve end­ing with Carla’s steak. Even with that com­ment, Carla was in the mid­dle of the pack and is safe for another week.

Now that I’ve spoiled it for you, here’s the entire episode in case you missed it.

Episode two of Top Chef: All Stars airs tonight. Here’s a sneak peek at the Quick­fire challenge.

Go Carla!