Originally aired on Wednesday, 11/8/2006 Episode Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5) Episode Overview: Once again, the chefs are forced to leave their comfort zone and work with odd ingredients and dietary restrictions. Whether it's by design or oversight, there's another rule-breaking scandal.
Episode Highlights:

• The Quickfire Challenge requires a special level of resourcefulness from the chefs.
• The Elimination Challenge throws the chefs together into teams and they must work together to create a three-course meal...under 500 calories!
• There's yet another Bravo rule-related scandal and twist ending!

Recap: Mixed emotions in the Top Chef dorm. Betty Fraser is flying high off her two wins, while Mia Gaines-Alt is feeling like she better step it up a notch. Michael Midgley is feeling like he wants to stay in bed. No such luck, it's back to the kitchen for a Quickfire Challenge. Padma Lakshmi introduces this episode's guest chef, Executive Chef Suzanne Goin. Their challenge is to create an amuse-bouche - a tiny portion of an entrée that is meant to entice the diner. The twist: their "shopping trip" for ingredients takes them into a hallway, where there is a line of vending machines. They will each have a roll of quarters and will be allowed to get two ingredients from each machine. They can also use a few ingredients from the pantry. Most of the chefs seem challenged, but rise to the occasion, with the exception of the one the others thought would ace this: Michael. Cliff Crooks comments that he's never seen someone put so much junk in his body as Michael. So maybe it's a lack of actual nutrients that causes Michael to make the decision to, effectively, throw this challenge. His dish winds up being a mound of pureed Snickers bar with a Cheeto stuck in it. Sexy. The creativity and ingenuity displayed by the chefs is impressive. Chef Goin is pleased by most of their efforts, with the exception of Mia and Marcel Vigneron for going sweet instead of savory. She also takes Michael to task for his lackadaisical attitude. She singles out Frank Terzoli, Carlos Fernandez and Ilan Hall as the three best, and Carlos, who created a little nut and carrot loaf accented with Squirt soda, is declared the winner. Next the chefs are divided into four teams by drawing knives. In a cruel, producer-pleasing twist (?), Marcel and Betty, who got into it last episode, find themselves on the same team (ominously called the Black Team), along with Frank. The other teams are the Orange Team (Carlos, Cliff and Sam Talbot), the White Team (Josie Smith-Malave, Ilan, Elia Aboumrad) and the Red Team (Marisa Churchill, Mia and Michael). The Elimination Challenge will be to create a three-course meal for kids at fitness camp, with the entire meal coming in under 500 calories. Sam is diabetic, so he feels like he possibly have a leg up as he is used to personally making adjustments and watching his food intake closely. Betty and Marcel manage to pull together as a team and with Frank, they decide to make a kid-friendly low-cal pizza. After shopping, they return to the kitchen for a test run with their menus. Each team has its own nutritionist who watches their preparation, and analyzes the calorie count for each of the ingredients used. It takes a while for the chefs to adjust to the idea that they can't just sauté everything up in olive oil or butter, but all of the teams manage to come up with creative solutions and try to incorporate at least one "treat." The White Team has a yogurt cheesecake that Elia created, the Red Team makes a low-calorie fudge cake, and Betty on the Black Team attempts to make a meringue. Her test meringues are flat as she is primarily using Splenda and not sugar. The Orange Team opts to offer a fruit smoothie as a treat, a tactic Tom Colicchio questions. The next day, the chefs prepare the dishes again. Betty, whose meringues were unsuccessful the day before, adds two tablespoons of sugar to the mix, figuring that the team was already below the calorie threshold and so the two tablespoons shouldn't be an issue. At the camp, the chefs each have to present their menus to the kids, who will then each select which menu they want to have. The popularity of the menu will be part of the judging criteria. The Black Team wins the popularity contest, with the pizza menu being the biggest hit. The Red Team is dinged for their tasteless cole slaw, and the Orange Team's sour smoothie and rock-hard meatballs fall flat as well. Back at the judging room, the Black Team learns they are the winning team, and Chef Goin selects Frank as the individual winner for his execution of the pizza. They send in the two worst teams, the Red and the Orange. As they are grilled by the judges on their selections and execution, Sam blurts out that he feels like the other teams were not as careful with their calorie count on Day Two of cooking, citing copious usage of olive oil squirt bottles. He backpedals when the judges try to pry names out of him, but Mia doesn't hesitate. She offers up Betty's use of sugar as evidence that not all of the teams played by the rules. The teams are dismissed, and the judges concede they don't feel right sending someone home if all didn't follow the rules. Tom heads back to the holding room to discuss this with the chefs. Betty cops to her sugar usage, but swears she didn't realize it was against the rules and breaks down crying. Tom tells them that no one is going home this show, but they are all on probation. Everyone is pretty devastated by the talking-to and the general drama, but relieved to be safe...until next week! -Leslie Seaton