Top Chef D.C.: Kelly Packs Her Knives & Goes From Singapore

Ed may a self-described douchebag, at least regarding how he treats Angelo, but he is one big douchebag on a roll, winning both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges. Again.

After their arrival in Singapore, Kelly, Ed, Angelo and Kevin eventually met up with Tom Colicchio and some famous Singapore foodie who's name I could not possibly be expected to remember. The Singaporean took the chefs on a tour of Singapore street food.

And then they came to Padma, at the end of a long day of flying and eating. Padma gave the four 30 minutes to cook their version of Singapore street food. This was a super high states Quickfire. No money, but for the first time in Top Chef Final Four history, the Quickfire winner got immunity from elimination.

Everyone assumed Asian oriented Angelo would have this nailed. But, Ed beat Angelo. Again.

For the Elimination Challenge the 4 had to work as a team to feed 80 people at some event held by some well-know lady in the food business. Again, I don't remember the name. But, I'm sure she is famous.

The dinner was to be done restaurant style, as in waiters took orders and the chefs cooked the orders as they came in.

The night before the four decided to each do one dish. The next day Ed told the camera that he was making a 2nd dish. Then Colicchio arrived, all appalled the chefs were only doing one dish each, with Ed chiming in that he was already doing 2. So, now the other 3 had to whip out a 2nd dish.

There was an awful lot of unseemly sweating going on with all that pressure, particularly from Ed, who really had now pressure, because he had immunity.

The chefs worked real well together in the kitchen, there were some communication problems with the order takers and food deliverers. But other than that it was a way smoother dinner service than you ever see on Hell's Kitchen.

In the end Ed came out the winner, again, at Judges' Table.

Back in the stew room Angelo was sure he was out, due to comments made about his soup. Then the 3 were back at the firing line. Angelo lost his composure, so sad, due to being so sure, he was out. Then Kelly got the boot which really got Angelo sobbing. Angelo did not, til then, seem like a sobbing type of guy to me. Just like his food, he has layers of complexity that make him interesting. And just a tad weird.

Then the 3 finalists, Kevin, Ed and Angelo relaxed for a second before Padma shows up to tell them there is one more thing, and they need to see them back at Judges' Table.

From the previews I'm guessing what Padma has to tell them is that they have a group of former Top Chef chefs to choose from as helpers, like a heavily tattooed Voltaggio brother.

Top Chef D.C.: Tiffany Leaves While Angelo, Kevin, Ed & Kelly Go To Singapore

I was disappointed to see Tiffany go down in flames last night on Top Chef.

This week's Elimination Challenge was to prepare a freeze driable dish for the International Space Station.

The Chefs were introduced to the challenge by two astronauts on the Space Station. And one of those, for whom they were cooking, was Apollo 11 moon walker, Buzz Aldrin.

Tiffany ran into some woes with the mussels part of her dish. That may have been her downfall. But in the end, the judges had high praise for all 5, but, with at least one judge having some issue with at least one aspect of each dish. Particularly that very picky Frenchman, Eric Rippert, who was nicely counter-balanced, this episode, by the always amusing Anthony Bourdain.

Angelo won the high stakes Quickfire with his successful wine/food pairing. He won $10,000.

Each episode we seem to learn something new about Angelo. Weeks ago some were surprised to learn he had reproduced. Then there was the revelation of some of his rituals, like Angelo's shrine to chefs he worships. Last week we learned about Angelo's Russian mail order bride to be. And this week we learned that that child we learned about weeks ago was produced during Angelo's marriage to the kid's mother. They divorced because the wife's family had no respect for the chef profession, wanting Angelo to be a doctor or lawyer.

Angelo seems to be doing fairly well for himself. At least this week on Top Chef. He recovered from the fumbles of the past couple weeks and won the Elimination Challenge, which gave him a new Toyota Avalon, a trip to London, a trip to Cape Canaveral to watch a Space Shuttle launch. And a book by Anthony Bourdain.

For the finale Top Chef is leaving the United States for the first time, heading to one of my favorite places, Singapore. The previews showed Padma taking extreme umbrage against something Kevin said or did. That should be interesting.

So, it is a final four of Angelo, Kevin, Ed and Kelly. Why does Kelly smoke? Why would any chef smoke? I don't get it. Angelo or Ed for the win. I'd be saying Tiffany for the win. But she's gone.