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I'm hoping that we don't see another catering challenge until next season. I think Nikki probably was due to go, but I'm a bit tired of seeing people eliminated because they couldn't put on a buffet for 125 people in less than 36 hours while standing on one foot with no food processor or whatever. That tells me absolutely nothing about what it might be like to eat their food at their restaurant. There have been so many of these challenges this season that I still don't have a good idea of what kind of food some of these people actually cook when they're serving their customers back home. Perhaps next season they can just spin off 'Top Caterer' into its own show and let the chefs on Top Chef be chefs.

Personally I think cast iron over high heat beats a grill for burgers any day of the week.

I too am a bit sick of watching 'Top Caterer'. Next week looks like more of the same, feeding a horde of tailgaters. I don't really care if the cheftestants can serve 300 people at once with only 15 minutes of planning and 2.5 hours of prep time.

Dale's complaint wasn't that she cooked bacon and won, it's that she cooked bacon and won a trip to Italy! I agree with him. I'm sure Lisa's bacon was great, but it was one element of the dish that three people worked on. I think if anything Stephanie should have won, she was the one who smoothed over the problems between Dale and Lisa and allowed the three of them to work as a team.

Andrew strikes me as the Joey of this season. Joey was all 'F this, F that, F you, I'm from F'in Noo Yawk', then when he got kicked off the show he was blubbering like a baby.

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran.. with nut cluster (bombs). McCain's already recorded the audio for the commercial.

@ zekks: The reason Dale was doing everything was because there was no leadership, which Nikki should have assumed since she has the most experience with Italian cooking. She should have set a tone with a menu and split up the responsibilities accordingly. Fish rots at the head. And I loved how she had the audacity to say she wasn't leading the sinking ship. Nikki should have been kicked off weeks ago for the Italian sausage blunder during the tailgate.

I think Dale was far from the most annoying contestant. He was placed in an untenable group of slackers and back-stabbers, in my opinion, and only tried to rescue a meal that was doomed. His frustration level was high, but, understandable, especially after extreme sleep deprivation, extreme work, and extremely annoying people. Lisa made a cool cake, but, her hateful disposition and greasy hair annoys me. Antonnia is cool but she tends to be very patronizing and while she shined in last week's challenge, she's not really shown herself to be extraordinary. Dale is a very outspoken and honest person who doesn't suffer fools gladly. I felt he deserved some credit for having to suffer through unbelievably selfish people who were only interested in themselves and their individual dishes, not caring about team work, and not caring about producing a quality menu for someone's wedding! Dale had the work ethic, and he's proven himself through the past episodes. I love Richard, and thought his gesture of bestowing the win on Stephanie was awesome, but, I think Dale would have performed brilliantly if given the chance to work with the bride team, not the bottom of the barrel of this season's remaining chefs. I'm sure they're all top chefs in their own way, but, there is no comparison between Nikki, Lisa, and Spike's attitudes and ostensible mediocrity to Dale. They are so threatened by his excellence that they literally shunned him and refused to treat him like a team member. I was thrilled that Nikki left. She should hang her head in shame. It was she who came out looking like a mug, after shouting out how cooking Italian and leading this mess had nothing to do with her. If their team had won by some miracle, she would have leaped into the center stage. There was a big contrast between the type of people they were compared to Andrew, Antonia, Stephanie and the lovable Richard.
All in all though, I thought it was an interesting show and one that we'll talk about in future seasons.

I make galic purée and ginger purée to freeze. My South Indian best-friend's mother showed me this trick - she makes garlic/ginger/jalapeno all together for her masalas.

@mballena - No! I agree. Mincing garlic is REALLY not that difficult, and the resources that must be used for this (shipping from Israel, to start) are outrageous to think about, and I'm not even THAT environmentally conscious! If you do it yourself, that's fine, but buying it seems ridiculous.

This and the ginger one are good for pan sauces and stuff like that because the cubes sort of melt down into everything. I can never get garlic or ginger smooth enough, and I hate dragging out the food processor just for a little ginger, so these are good when you want everything nice and smooth.