Top Chef All Stars: Dale Wins $30K While Angelo Packs His Knives & Goes

For a couple weeks the part of the internet that comments about Top Chef has had some with supposed inside info saying that there was going to be a surprising Cheftestant sent home this week.

And there was. Padma told Angelo Sosa to pack his knives and go.

Last week it was not too shocking that the likable Fabio got the knife cut. But Angelo failing while making something simple like soup, was unexpected.

The Quickfire and Elimination Challenges have really gone up a notch for Top Chef All Stars.

Last week's Jimmy Fallon Birthday Lunch was a good one. Making a fancified versions of Jimmy Fallon's favorite. Like Top Ramen and Burger and Fries.

Fabio turned a Burger, or Booger as he pronounced it, into Meatloaf and Fries. Which got him the boot.

This week's Cookie Quickfire Challenge was amusing with 3 Sesame Street characters doing the judging. I have never watched Sesame Street, but I did know who the Cookie Monster is.

Dale Talde won the Quickfire and $5,000. Richard Blais and Angelo's cookies where the least favorite, Blais' because it was not a cookie, but was instead something he froze with zucchini in it using liquid nitrogen. I forget why Angelo's cookie was not liked.

The Elimination Challenge was a strange one. The Chefs were taken to an empty Super Target at midnight. Then given 3 hours to collect all they needed to make 100 portions for Target employees arriving at 3am.

It was exhausting.to watch. And exhausting for the chefs. Finding everything from tables to cooking irons to spoons to salt.

Unfortunately, Angelo found too much salt, rendering his soup inedible, according to Tom Colicchio, who could barely tolerate one spoonful.

Carla wasted a lot of time looking for a table cloth. Which cut her soup cooking time short, which ended up putting her in the bottom three, along with Angelo and Tiffany, who used too much of a spice blend she found in the Target spice section.

Dale used an iron to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Not a cooking iron. An iron your clothes type iron. He also made tomato soup. Antonia was in the top 3 due to her well made egg dish. Richard Blais rounded up the top 3. I've already forgotten what he made.

Dale's iron grilled cheese got him the win and the biggest prize in Top Chef history. $25,000.

I had expected Angelo to be in the finals and likely win. Mike Isabella was more likable this episode. I can't believe he has lasted longer than Angelo. Now I want Antonia to win. She is very likable. Dale sort of grows on me too, what with his snarky one-liners in his confessionals.

Top Chef All Stars: Marcel Vigneron Packs His Knives & Goes After Restaurant Wars Disaster

I have no idea why Marcel is on a beach with Padma.

The latest episode of Top Chef All Stars started off with Dale winning a strange Quickfire Challenge. The Chefs had to slice up 2 fish to frying portions, approved by a master fish slicer, Justo Thomas of the famed Le Bernardin.

The top 4 slicers then had to cook a dish using the remains of the fish they had just gutted. Dale Talde used the liver in the dish he made, which seemed to be what gave him the win.

Then it was off to Padma who informed them that the Chefs were about to fight in Restaurant Wars. As part of his Quickfire win Dale got to lead one restaurant and pick the other restaurant's leader.

Dale wisely picked Marcel to lead the other restaurant, obviously figuring that Marcel would self-destruct. Which is what happened.

Marcel has zero leader skills. He is good at pissing people off.

The restaurants had to be something called a "Pop-Up" Restaurant, that I really did not understand. The guest judge was a volatile Frenchy who we saw be volatile on Top Chef Masters,  Ludo LeFebvre, who, apparently has a successful "Pop-Up" Restaurant.

Dale's restaurant was called Bodega. Marcel's was Etch.

The guests did the judging in this Restaurant Wars.

As the restaurants opened and Etch spun out of control, it was fairly clear that Bodega was a smoother operation, with Fabio running the front like a master, while Tiffany was Etch's greeter and a disaster at it.

Back at Judges' Table Padma called Etch first to the table, giving them some hope they'd actually won. This hope was quickly dashed. Meanwhile back in the Stew Room, Richard Blais was sure Bodega had lost.

At first the losers were reticent to point fingers. Then Marcel said yet one more dumb Marcel thing, which set off everyone, but Angelo, pointing at Marcel as the cause of their epic fail.

In the end, Richard Blais won Restaurant Wars and $10,000, while Marcel Vigneron was sent packing.

In his Bravo Top Chef Blog, Anthony Bourdain is amusing, as always, in his blogging about Restaurant Wars he is particularly amusing about what it must be like to live in "Marcel Land."