http://worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/blogs/entry_img/2009/Jan/15/Picture_2.pngWell, I finally got what I wanted.Since the beginning, I’ve been grouchy about Ariane, whom I thought should have gone home in the first episode. Back then I thought she was the second coming of Wendy Pepper, the not-so-talented contestant from the first season of Project Runway who happened to hang around all the way until the finale. And though Ariane didn’t have a drop of Wendy’s horrid personality, I just couldn’t root for her. I thought she was sub-par and had no business being in the Top Chef kitchen. Funny how when you get what you ask for it’s just not as sweet as it was before you had it.Ariane is finally gone and I somehow miss her already. Maybe it’s because I’d secretly grown to like her. Or because she really wasn’t the most deserving this time around. Or possibly that I think I would have shot myself if I had to work with lovebirds Hosea and Leah as Ariane had to do last night. Those two leave a taste in your mouth heavier than the creme brulee that the contestants keep doing (and messing up). Looks good on the outside, but once you get a taste of working with them, you go into insulin shock.And this week’s challenges were a shock to the chefs’ senses, that’s for sure. Whole Foods was nowhere in sight in either the quick fire or elimination challenges and everyone had to think fast and change their game plans.The quick fire challenge was definitely something that would be painful for any chef outside of the dorks on Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares whose only kitchen tools are a can opener and a microwave. The chefs had to use all canned and processed ingredients to make a meal. Meaning Spam, bean dip and Velveeta. Not exactly yuzu, duck and other not-so-normal foods that normally populate the chefs’ ingredient lists.Stefan’s soup with Spam and Velveeta grilled cheese won him immunity and groans from Jamie and Carla, who were paired with him at random for the elimination challenge as Team Chicken. Also paired were Fabio, Jeff and Radhika (Team Pork), and, of course, Hosea, Leah and Ariane (Team Lamb). The chefs were told they are cooking a family-style lunch, complete with dessert, based around their selected protein and seasonal ingredients. They all go home and plan out their meals based on what they know they can get at Whole Foods and call it a night.Of course, there’s always a twist. Instead of Whole Foods, the chefs will be shopping at a place with even better ingredients … a real, working farm. Not exactly the nice, sterile aisles of a grocery store. It was lovely seeing the chefs pick out the ingredients themselves, fresh from the dirt — it’s always important to remember where our food comes from. It doesn’t just magically appear in bins or packages or in perfect, rectangular slabs, it comes from the earth.Maybe it was because they had to change their recipes on the fly based on what they had to work with, or maybe it was because our chefs aren’t used to being that close to their ingredients, but two of the three teams failed so badly while using fresh ingredients that you wonder if they would have done better if the Spam and Velveeta had carried over from the quick fire challenge.The judges were flabbergasted that Team Pork and Team Lamb couldn’t do any justice to their fresh proteins. Both teams took the meat off the bone and discarded the fat, big no-nos when you’ve got such high-quality meat. Ariane, who had won an earlier challenge by cooking lamb, reluctantly took charge of cooking the lamb and ruined it with bad butchering and bad roasting with an assist from Leah, who helped her tie the meat and did so unevenly.Yes, Ariane did do a bad job cooking the meat, but Hosea and Leah really let her hang out to dry from beginning to end of the challenge. They didn’t help her despite having butchering and roasting skills and, instead, just watched her screw up. They weren’t great teammates and were so self-centered, that they, not Ariane, ruined the meal.Unfortunately, Leah and Hosea survived to flirt another day … like next Wednesday, perhaps?Some final thoughts:– Who would you rather be forced to work with during next week’s restaurant wars challenge? Hosea and Leah on the same team, or Stefan … who no one but Fabio seems to want to work with? I’d rather brave Stefan, personally.– Jamie did just fine in a challenge where there were no scallops in sight. Finally!– Carla is the sweetest, most professional, most genuine chef in the show’s history. I’d pay big bucks for anything she makes, even if it’s just a bowl of oatmeal.– I think Fabio needs his own cooking show after this. I just want to pinch his cheeks and watch him make pasta.