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Choi, a food truck icon, became famous for his Los Angeles tacos. He requests that the chefs provide a similar local dining experience with the New Orleans answer to the taco, the po' boy. The participants are given only 20 minutes to achieve deliciousness. They fail completely. I am not joking. Choi is brutally honest about his crushing disappointment.

“I’m going to start talking on the real, man. Like, you guys kind of missed the boat on this. So… I don’t know what’s going on in your heads right now but you guys had a cook’s dream. You had a po’boy bread in New Orleans and you had a chance to tell your story. And you all *bleeped* this *bleep* up.”

Top Chef is not a show that requires a lot of bleeps in the editing room as a rule so you know Roy Choi is mad. Here is what he disliked about each chef. Nicholas provides fried shrimp with sriracha. The bread is tough while the shrimp is not seasoned to Choi’s satisfaction. Nina fries mahi, but she does not provide the crunch that Choi seeks from a sandwich. Brian, who mentions he shares a similar upbringing to Choi, tries to take advantage of what he knows of his friend. His secret ingredient is gochujang, expecting that flavor to win over the judge. Choi feels that it is a terrible flavor profile.

Finally, Carlos has the oddest incident. He crafts an al pastor po’boy, which causes Choi to note that he is “very particular about al pastor because I’m from LA." Carlos is befuddled by whatever implication Choi was making. He wryly notes that he is from Mexico, and that is how he likes his al pastor. Carlos, if it helps any, I think that even if you AND your al pastor had been from LA, Choi was in such a bad mood by then that he still would have hated your dish.

By process of elimination, you can deduce that Shirley wins the challenge although I am not sure if my wording is precise. It could be that she loses less than the others. Whatever the explanation, the victory is a huge relief for Shirley because she receives immunity. Yes, nothing has been learned from last week. With only five players remaining, one of them is given immunity. Everybody but Shirley now has a 25% chance of being shipped to Last Chance Kitchen tonight. Even Nina!

Speaking of the Elimination challenge, the special guest judge this week is actor/director Jon Favreau. I am going to avoid the temptation to provide 50 quotes from Swingers during the rest of this recap. Simply know that I really want to do it. The Iron Man director, who is so money and he doesn’t even know it (hey, I didn’t say I wouldn’t do ANY quotes), announces that the challenge this week is brutal. The cheftestants will be required to prepare meals using only what they can find in local dumpsters. Before the players are forced to consider which wines pair well with soylent green, Favreau announces he is joking. The chefs instantly like him better than Roy Choi.

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