Top Chef Recap: John Tesar Makes 'Fun in a Bowl'

Last night's Top Chef: Seattle episode kicked off with an oyster-centric quickfire, which would seemingly bode well for Spoon chef/lord of seafood John Tesar; Tesar, inspired by New Orleans institution Drago's, does a hot dish with Parmesan foam, saying "I'm thinking that [NOLA legend] Emeril's gonna get it", but he ends up on the bottom because his dish has "no pop".

The elimination challenge broke them up into pairs to cook "bold and brash" food for a roller derby team. John asks Brooke to be his partner and Brooke is clearly not excited, saying, "It's not like my personality really meshes with John's, but I've gotten used to him and I've kind of taken him with a grain of salt." Zing. Meanwhile, FT33's Joshua Valentine pairs up with chef Sheldon from Hawaii.

John confides, "My first date when I was 13 was in a roller rink. I ate pizza and she ignored me." (Oh, John. Now you've got a whole Tumblr full of ladies Tesaring for you!) He and Brooke concoct a Thai beef dish with lobster jasmine rice and a Thai coleslaw—"fun in a bowl", says John. The judges are impressed and declare John and Brooke the victors, causing her to eat her words: "I guess at the end of the day our personalities do mesh really well."

Josh and Sheldon, meanwhile, have made a yuzu curd tempura with multiple sauces (including a fluid gel, natch), but the tempura is a bust. Judge Colicchio notes that "conceptually, it was a great dish" but the execution was a big fat fail. Valentine attempts to save his own ass by calling out the team who made a jalapeno popper, saying, "They told us not to serve concession stand-style food," but Tom shoots him down, forcing Valentine to eat humble pie.

In the end, Valentine barely hangs on by the curl of his 'stache, and habitual under-seasoner Bart the Belgian packs his knives and goes.

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