9/17/2009

in

And it looks like frenchie boy Mattin isn't a happy camper.

Sara Eason

The competition heats up as the contestants hit the Vegas desert to camp, rough it up and cook up some high-class gourmet dishes. Sounds odd? How about Ron breaking branches off of trees and performing voodoo rituals to keep snakes away? Yep, this was a significantly odd episode of "Top Chef."  
  
Oh, and the weirdness doesn't just stop there. Viewers got to text in their votes on which secret ingredient that the contestants had to work with in the high-stakes quickfire challenge, and of course they chose cactus. I bet Hector was kicking himself after finding that out.  
  
The chefs came up with some pretty unique cuisines like Ashley's cactus jelly donuts or Ash's cactus grilled cheese. But it was Mike I. who won the high-stakes quickfire challenge with his tuna and cactus ceviche and received $15,000. No one earned immunity this week though. Tim Love owner of the south western restaurant, Lonesome Dove Bistro in Fort Worth, Texas was the perfect guest judge for both the quickfire challenge and the elimination challenge.  
  
For the elimination challenge the contestants had to prepare lunch outdoors for some hungry ranchers after camping over night in the hot Vegas desert with only fire pits, make-shift prep tables and a chuck wagon. All of them had a pretty hard time getting used to the supplies and many of the chefs avoiding cooking all together and made ceviche- which was a bad idea.  
  
Ron's and Mattin's ceviche were in the bottom three, but it was Mattin's rancid and raw cod that was the worse. "I'm feelin' sick man," guest judge Tim Love says at the judges table about Mattin's ceviche. It was so bad, Tom Colicchio had to spit it out! In the end, frenchie had to say au revoir and pack his knives cause was sent home.