This week's Top Chef 5 featured a favorite Quickfire: the palate challenge. After testing their tasting, the chefs had to cater a bridal shower for none other than Top Chef judge Gail Simmons.

The episode was supersized to give us plenty of time to learn about some of the cheftestants' own romantic lives. For example: did you know one of the cheftestants has been married twice to the same person?

Well, Stefan Richter has, although he is currently divorced from her…for now. While we (frustratingly) learn no additional interesting details about this, we do at least learn what his type could be: tattooed, mildly grumpy, skilled at cooking and a lesbian. Yes, he appears to be gunning hard for lesbian Jamie Lauren, giving her little gifts, undeterred by her stated sexual orientation.

But this is a cooking show, not a soap opera, so it's onto the Quickfire. There's no guest judge with Padma Lakshmi in the kitchen, and she tells them the challenge will be a bracketed head-to-head tasting challenge. The chefs will taste a dish, state how many ingredients they can identify, and the chef who wagers more will list ingredients. If they can't meet the number or guess wrong, they're out; if they are right, the other person is out.

In the head-to-heads, selected by knife draws, the chefs taste a lobster shrimp bouillabaisse. Hosea Rosenberg beats Danny Gagnon. Jeff McInnis guesses wrong, giving Ariane Duarte a win. Stefan delivers – in his words – an “ass whipping to Jamie. Leah Cohen beats Eugene Villiatora, Carla Hall beats Melissa Harrison and Radhika Desai beats Fabio Viviani.

The next round has Hosea taking down Ariane, Stefan beating Leah and Carla beating Radhika in tasting a Thai green curry. The remaining three chefs – Hosea, Carla and Stefan – taste a mole in the final round. Carla knocks herself out on the first guess, and after trading back and forth, Stefan guesses wrong, giving Hosea a win. He's happy for immunity and to beat the cocky European.

Now the chefs learn their elimination challenge. Padma is throwing a bridal shower for Gail, and the chefs will cater. The draw knives and pair up according to the old saying, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” The teams are:

Old: Jeff, Hosea, Stefan
New: Eugene, Carla, Danny
Borrowed: Jamie, Ariane, Radhika
Blue: Fabio, Melissa, Leah

The chefs conceptualize and come up with their plans. Team Old is going to focus on a trio of heirloom tomato dishes, with each chef adding a dish. Stefan is skeptical about Jeff's sorbet and a bit bossy. Jeff's sorbet will be paired with a tomato carpaccio. Hosea will do a gazpacho, and Stefan is doing a terrine.

Team New is going with a surf-and-turf sushi. Carla seems a bit reluctant, but lets the boys have their way. She will be contributing a frisee salad, Danny will have a peach-BBQ glazed meat and Eugene will do the rice with a tempura shrimp.

Team Borrowed is borrowing from Radhika's Indian heritage. She seems a little concerned that she continues to make Indian dishes, but Jamie wants to use an ingredient she brought with her. Radhika will be making a lamb marinade and raita. Jamie will make a carrot puree, and Ariane will be cooking the meat.

Team Blue is challenged – there isn't any blue food, judge Tom Colicchio notes. Even blueberries are purple. So instead they go with Chilean sea bass to communicate the blue of the ocean. They are coating it in blue corn flour and putting it on a corn puree.

The chefs run into a few issues. Stefan is bossy and annoys not only his team, but the others when he butts in. Eugene overcooks his rice, and adds yet another flavor component to their already busy dish by trying to “fix” it with texturing and flavor. Danny takes the initiative to add mushrooms to Carla's salad without her say-so at the last minute. Ariane freaks out her team by underestimating the time it takes to cook her lamb, and the minutes it cuts into plating means that all the other chefs wind up pitching in to get them plated in time.

Since Gail works for Food and Wine, it's a pretty tough crowd. The first course – Team Old's tomato trio – goes over well. Stefan's terrine seems to be the weakest point, while Jeff's sorbet wins praise.

The second course – Team New – doesn't fair so well. The teams decided to deconstruct the sushi to allow the guests to construct as they wish. Eugene forgets to mention this as they present the dishes, so the guests are confused. The rice wasn't fixed, the shrimp isn't good, the meat isn't either, and the ouzo sorbet is melted by the time it's eaten as a palate cleanser.

Things look up with Team Borrowed. Everything goes together well and pleases the crowd. Team Blue, on the other hand, doesn't impress despite Fabio's charming presentation. It's flavored well, but lacking in texture and is called “old people food.”

Back at judging, Old and Borrowed are brought in first as the best. Jeff is praised, as are Jamie and Ariane. Jamie is hungry for the win, but it's Ariane's lamb that wins. It's a little unclear, though, if the judges knew it was actually Radhika's marinade, and whether or not that impacted the decision for the win. Jamie is ticked off to be close to the win again.

As to the bottom, Team Blue is chastised for being boring, and Fabio's defense that cooking fish for 45 is risky is shot down when the judges note they picked the most forgiving fish to use. Nevertheless, they are safe.

So it will be one of Team New. The judges sense Carla knew better and was trying to be a team player. Her salad was also one of the few bright spots – minus the mushrooms Danny added. Eugene showed poor decision-making skills when he decided to move forward with the mushy rice. But it's Danny's apparent inability to see what was wrong with the dish that baffles the judges and ultimately seems to cost him his spot in the competition. He's packing his knives and going home from Top Chef 5.

We'll talk to Danny on Thursday, so come back here to hear what he has to say!

Hosea, Stefan and Jeff: Tomato gazpacho, tomato carpaccio and tomato terrine



Ariane, Jamie and Radhika: Lamb marinated in French and curry spices, Vadouvan carrot puree and kale



Leah, Fabio and Melissa: Blue corn sea bass, roasted corn and Swiss chard



Eugene, Danny and Carla: Chili sticky rice, Yuzu giner granita and miso barbeque

- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

(Image courtesy of Bravo)