Well, I was wrong.  The mushroom lady, who this week made a solid brick of macaroni and cheese, did not go home.

But her time is limited. Seriously.

I mean, I make mac and cheese from a freakin’ BOX, and even I know it can’t sit around.  Leftover macaroni and cheese is gross.

Her lasagna from that first week looked so awesome, I’m sorry to see her go downhill like this. If she’d been on a different team, she’d be gone now.

Erik, king of the nacho souffle, is gone.  And I can’t say I’m surprised.  He never really made anything great, and he blew the quickfire totally, completely ignoring the challenge because he makes “soul food.”  And tacos AREN’T fine dining, can never BE fine dining, in fact, Mexican food in general isn’t fine dining, so screw what the judges want and what the challenge is.  Yeah, not a good attitude at all.  Can’t you just PRETEND it’s fine dining because that’s what your job is?  And I still don’t understand why he thinks Mexican food can’t ever be fine dining.  The dude is delusional.

Of course, all the tacos had cilantro everywhere, so I was gagging a little during the quickfire anyway.

I thought it was interesting how the judges made it very clear to the winning team that they just “barely” won, but they didn’t say anything about that to the losing team.  I really think the only thing they liked was the fruit dessert, and maybe the sliders.  Hey, I wanted a slider and some of that dessert. 

And hello?  FRIED FOOD DOESN’T TRAVEL WELL, EITHER.  I’m guessing everybody on the team knew that and just decided to let Erik go down in flames.

Zoi and her pasta salad.  “Nobody wins Top Chef making a pasta salad.”  Well, no, but you might just lose that way. Her time is limited, too, and I think Jennifer will outlast her.

I want a s’more on a stick, though, that looked soooo cool.  I might just have to do that if and when we ever have a barbecue again.

Stephanie has now won two out of three.  (Congratulations, Stephanie, you now have a huge target painted on your chest, and everybody will be gunning for you.)  She is officially the one to beat, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her in the finale.

Oh, and if I were the judges, and listened to Andrew talk about being dragged out of there by security, I would have sent him home right there, just because he’s so clearly a loose cannon.  He seems to be able to cook, though. Bummer.

Spike, lose the ‘tude, and the hat.  Please.

Next to go:  I still say Nikki. Zoi won’t be around for long, either.