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The Green team presents a series of dishes that strike me as perfect food truck cuisine. It’s economically sized but clearly delicious. Calendar Girl’s tuna sliders are the life of the party while Shirley’s lamb salad is apparently not as nasty as it sounds. Overall, the Green team’s performance is barely evaluated on camera. So my speculation about editing for time appears to be correct.

As was the case last week, the first portion of Judges Table is broadcast to the Stew Room. Tom quickly identifies the Yellow Team as being his favorite while Gail nominates the Green Team. That leaves the Red and Blue teams on the bottom. Before the judges get to the bad news, the Yellow team is called back for a victory lap. This conversation is a series of exchanged compliments. There is no doubt about which dish is best, though. Carrie wins again for what must be the tastiest empanada this side of Tijuana. Carrie goes two for two in the episode, identifying her as the early favorite or possibly co-favorite along with Nina.

After the celebration for the Yellow team, the Blue team is forcibly invited to a reality show funeral. Out of the four people, Patty seems to be the worst one thus far. Realistically, the only person who is safe, however, is Nicholas. All three other dishes were despised by the judges, a point they drove home during the conversation.

Bret chooses this moment to make the world’s worst argument. He notes that the other teams had issues with food portions. Some of them ran out while his team had no problem serving all potential customers. The judges openly giggle at this, asking him to think about the flaw in his logic. The other teams had people go back for seconds. The Blue team did not. They were clearly the worst of the bunch.

Tom queries Jason Luvs Jason about hand rolls. The chef immediately identifies that he hand-rolled his wraps ahead of time, acknowledging a miscalculation. He regrets not making the food to order. Tom then attacks Patty over the quality of her tomato. He irritably growls, “Did you think it was good?” When she acknowledges that it was “nothing special”, he appears frustrated that she did not recognize that her component was inferior. He believes she should have known to remove it from the plate.

The conversation is oddly dismissive. The judges clearly believe that the Blue team failed completely. Any of the three of them could be eliminated. As Tom mocks every aspect of Jason’s dish, the choice becomes obvious. Patty and Bret made mistakes but Jason delivered food that bordered on inedible. Jason is better at looking good than he is at cooking food. He is eliminated from Top Chef. Patty dodges another bullet.

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