Neither Alex or I felt that last night's "Top Chef" merited an full-fledged recap, but there were a couple parts that amused us: Thought #1 - After the Quickfire challenge, when the competitors were drawing knives with the names of rare animals on them, it took them WAAAAY too long to realize that they weren't going to be cooking the animal indicated on their knife. Here's how the segment went, if my memory serves me right: One chef pulls out a knife with the word VULTURE on it. "What? We're gonna be cooking vulture? That makes no sense!" Another chef pulls out a knife with the word BEAR on it. "When I saw that, I was like, cool, I definitely know that some people eat bear." Another chef pulls out a knife with the word PENGUIN on it. "This is cuh-razyyy!! Why would we be cooking penguins?? Aren't they endangered?? I cannot believe that the Elimination Challenge is going to be killing penguins and then cooking them." This goes on for three more minutes as the chefs continue drawing knives and being confounded. PADMA: "On each of your knives is the name of an animal. These will be your teams for the Elimination Challenge, which will be catering a cocktail party for the zoo." "When Padma said that, I was like, you mean we're not going to be killing gorillas, chopping them up and cooking them on television, then having the taste of our gorilla dishes evaluated? I thought that's what we were going to be doing, because I have never seen this show before and also I immediately assume the dumbest possible reality in any given situation." Thought #2 - It's always been a huge part of "Top Chef," but I love how strictly the show treats time limits -- "You will arrive at the venue and have one hour to finish preparing your dishes, unpacking everything, decorating the tables, setting up the table displays, and setting up the food. Two hundred people will be here in exactly 60.0000001 minutes and will be eating your food and talking about it on camera. JUST LIKE IN THE REAL WORLD. That's all. Otherwise, pretty standard episode, and a second straight justifiable elimination. Feel free to leave your own observations in the comments.

Read more at: http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/03/20/two-quick-thoughts-about-last-nights-top-chef/.