Top Chef Masters | Episode 3 Recap

Episode 3 of Top Chef Masters aired tonight. You will have to read to the end of this post to see who won between Wilo Benet, Rick Bayless, Cindy Pawlcyn, and Ludo Lefebvre and will move on to the Champions Round.

Tonight's QuickFire Challenge was based on the theme of color. The chefs drew knifes that were painted various colors and they then had to prepare a dish with the color they chose as the foundation of the dish.

Wilo Benet picked orange and made smoked salmon tartare with coconut milk and tomato paste sauce. Rick Bayless chose the green knife and he went with his strengths and prepared roasted vegetables, mole verde with tomatillos, green chilies and pumpkin seeds. Cindy Pawlcyn color was yellow and she cooked yellow vegetables curry over sweet corn grits and fried corn tortillas. The final contestant, Ludo Lefebrve, picked the red knife and went with steak tartare with watermelon, red onions and red beet gazpacho.

What I got out of the Quickfire Challenge was that either Wilo Benet or Rick Bayless would win. Their food offered big flavors that seemed to be greeted with rave reviews from the guest judges. The other thing I got from the challenge was that even though these are award winning chefs and are some of the best cooks in the country they still have worries and doubts just like the newbie competitors on Top Chef. They made mistakes just like rank amateurs, such as Wilo leaving the ring on his dish and Ludo forgetting to put his tomatoes on his plate. We also found out that Ludo Lefebrve is very intense and competitive and that Cindy Pawlcyn is not.

I was right, Wilo Benet won the challenge with 4 1/2 stars and Rick Bayless came in second with 4.

The twist for the Elimination Challenge was that each competitor had to draw a knife again to find out which protein they were to use in their dish. They would then have to prepare a street food dish that they served to the public. The choice of proteins they had were offal, the parts such as brain, spleen, kidney or liver.

Ludo drew pig's ear and decided to make a pork quesadilla with chorizo, pinto beans puree, lime aioli and smoked paprika. Rick chose tongue and he made a chorizo, bacon and tongue taco with guacamole and pickled onions. He was accused by Ludo of copying him. I think once again he was just playing to his strengths by working whatever ingredient he got into something Mexican. Cindy Pawlcyn had the misfortune of picking tripe but she seemed to salvage her choice by making a hot and spicy menudo out of it. Based on the critics comments it was neither hot nor spicy. Wilo's protein was beef heart, a meat that he had never cooked with. He went back to his roots and made a traditional Puerto Rican street food, " Tripleta", beef, ham and chicken in a pita bread.

In the end Rick Bayless won tonight's Episode 3 of Top Chef Masters easily with 22 1/2 stars. He will move on to the Champions Round and tonight he won $10,000 for his charity Frontera Farmer Foundation.