Top Chef Recap: Episode 2 – Blind Dates

For those of you still unaware, Top Chef Recap is a weekly column here at ES and an excuse for us to run pictures of Bollywood porn star Padma Lakshmi.

This week’s quickfire was a vague challenge centered around citrus fruits, with most chefs opting for the luscious-looking blood oranges. The only thing of note is that Micah made some kind of nasty pudding-soup concoction, lost, and then cried for the rest of the episode. Hung won, and his shameless gloating makes him so happy it’s almost endearing.

The elimination challenge was a gourmet BBQ, won by Brian, who had the balls to make seafood sausages, which sounds like a course worthy of school lunch, but actually looked, and apparently tasted, pretty great.

Despite her Sanjaya-style haircut, Sandee just wasn’t cut out for reality TV, and the judges freaked out on her when she screwed up unscrewupable lobster by pairing it with dates (seriously) and poaching it when she was supposed to be BBQing. So Sandee gets the boot, even though Joey thought “gourmet” includes chicken drumsticks and was acting like a total a-hole.