Boxed up and sent off

I'm doing better today, guys, so not too much over-the-top pessimism. Last night's episode was fun and a bit surprising. I wouldn't be sad, however, if they decided to kick all three of the bottom chefs out in one shot. None of them deserve to be there anymore and they are serious drama queens! Anyway, Dave won this week by choosing Andrew to go home and predicting the fight – which was surprisingly not started by Dale this time! The only other points awarded this week went to Arielle for also banking on a brawl.

Roundup:
1. Spike somehow pulled out a win on the salad quickfire challenge with his Sensual Beef Salad. Which actually looked (pictured at left) much better than the flavor combination sounds: skirt steak, pineapple, radishes and cucumbers. With Spike's quickfire win, he was given the advantage of choosing his ingredients first at the grocery for the elimination challenge, and then the other chef's couldn't use those in their boxed meals for the coppers. You'll see why he was an ass...

2. Spike chose bread, tomatoes, lettuce and chicken as his ingredients, hoping to screw everyone. Nobody really seemed phased by this at all, and in fact, the person who got around it the best actually won. Dale, who wanted to do lettuce wraps, decided to use cabbage instead, and it came out wonderfully. He made Lemongrass Mango Bison Wraps (recipe here) that I actually would want to try to make at home. Plus, bison is half the fat of beef and, if cooked properly, can be very tender.

3. Spike, with his attitude and trying to trip-up everyone, came out near the bottom on the challenge because he didn't use his tomatoes, lettuce and bread well; he just threw them on the plate, practically. But it was Andrew, who didn't follow the directions in a few different ways, and made a bad-tasting dish to boot, that was, well, the one booted. I have to say, those little sushi rolls didn't really look appetizing (see right).

4. Like I said, Dale didn't start the fight, but the drama between Lisa and Andrew was quite hilarious. Andrew might need to get a psych eval at some point; he's a little nuts.