I stayed up for Top Chef, yadda yadda yadda, and I'm really tired today

WARNING: SPOILERS

Unfortunately for me, I left the second airing of Project Runway on in the background last night and just as I was about to turn the TV off and drift away into peaceful slumber..."UTENSILS DOWN, HANDS UP!"

Padma??

Yes. Even though Bravo promised the "Top Chef Holiday Special" debut tonight at 9 p.m., it came on at 12 a.m. this morning. Odd how a special whose details were kept so hush hush ended up airing 21 hours before it was intended for the masses...But if you don't want to know who wins (or you could care less about this show) stop reading now!


The competition pitted eight chefs from the last three seasons against each other in one quick-fire round and a three course holiday meal for a smattering of impressive culinary judges. After each course, two chefs will be eliminated until two are left standing at the end of the meal to win $20,000.

Stephen, Tiffani, Josie, Betty, Marcel, Sandee, CJ and Tre ventured out to Chicago and pretended like it was the holiday season (though this was likely shot three months ago) and opened up stockings full of gag gifts to get them in the mood--CJ was given a bundle of broccoli to remind him of the fateful overdone "Bob Marley" broccolini that sent him home last season.
The quickfire challenge was done in "dirty Santa" style, where the first person unwraps an ingredient from under the tree and the next person can either steal that or go for another gift. Betty, Marcel and CJ land in the top three, and CJ ultimately wins immunity for one course of the meal, which is talked about a lot until the actual meal and never really seems to benefit him anyway.

The gang runs out to shop at Whole Foods, and hello marketing campaign. Everyone is raving about the selection of produce, meat, seafood...but I don't think Tre got the memo, because he demeans the greens that another chef scoops up: "I wouldn't use those. They're not...done," he said.

The first round sends Sandee and Stephen back into the kitchen after sub-par plates of watery soup and odd decisions. Betty and Josie are the next to go--overdone and overdone. Marcel and CJ go next, basically because Tiffani and Tre dominated, leaving them one step closer to $20,000.

And then the curve ball. Tre and Tiffani are asked to prepare a on-the-fly dish from whatevers left in the kitchen of their ingredients and the eliminated chefs' stations. Tre conquers his fear of desserts and presents a beautiful raspberry crepe, and Tiffani goes with a leftovers-style puff pastry.

In the end, Tre gets robbed and Tiffani wins the money. I wouldn't say it was my favorite episode of the show ever, but it was nice to get a little taste of it in the fashion reality show season. The special was filmed in Chicago, which they pumped the hell out of--Chicago signs everywhere, filler shots of the city--because the new season is being filmed there: coming in 2008, whoo!