http://worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/blogs/entry_img/2009/Jan/22/Picture_2.pngAnyone who has ever watched Top Chef knows that the most anticipated episode outside the finale is the “Restaurant Wars” show, where two teams create their own restaurants for a night. The chefs are in charge of everything from the appetizers to the decor. It’s a challenge where things you can’t even taste, the famous example being scented candles, can sink even the most well thought out ships.Yet Wednesday, the night’s biggest error couldn’t even get one restaurant to be deemed the loser. What did we learn from this?It pays to pick Stefan.Yes, he may be arrogant, but the man can cook and Wednesday night he saved the Sunset Lounge and Leah from the chopping block.Yes, the Finn, who, despite his obvious talent for winning, was picked last for the restaurant teams after the dude behind Buddakan and other famous restaurants chose the two folks who happened to almost get eliminated last week — Radhika and Leah — to run this season’s dueling restaurants. Think a producer or two were whispering in his ear to set that one up? Radhika and Leah were chosen based on their quick fire performances even though it seemed like the judges preferred Jamie’s dish to either of theirs…Anyway, enough about conspiracy theories. What happened next was no conspiracy — it was a ticking time bomb. Leah and Hosea have been flirting with each other since Day One, despite the fact that both are coupled with other folks in real life. Of course, in the fish bowl that is reality TV, they were bound to take it too far if both stayed in the competition long enough. And the stress of opening the “Sunset Lounge” (Where’s Tony Soprano? I hear he reserved the back room…) finally led to an illicit makeout session on a couch in the the Top Chef apartment. Haven’t these people ever watched The Real World? Didn’t they know that dollar signs would shoot out of some producer’s eyeballs when he saw the first slobbery moments? Ewwww.Well, the makeout session apparently didn’t make the Sunset Lounge any sunnier and both Hosea and Leah were horribly out of sync in the kitchen the next day. Hosea ended up really far behind and Leah was so distracted that she gave Padma undercooked fish, which she sent back rather than eating it. Yes, things were looking not so good for the team (or at least edited to look that way).Though, coming to the rescue was Top Chef’s other “couple” — the European duo Stefan and Fabio, who have a bond even the World Cup couldn’t break. The transplants, who both live in California, did what they do best — Stefan cooked some fabulous desserts, despite a faulty freezer, and Fabio showed off that sweet charm as the person in charge of the front of house for the Sunset Lounge.Those two things turned out to be really big because the other team, Team “Sahana,” didn’t get either right. Carla’s frozen yogurt desserts couldn’t survive the freezer problems Stefan had tamed and Radhika wasn’t much of a hostess, despite looking really good in her gray dress. She’s a sweet girl, but it’s hard to outdo Fabio’s cute accent and attentiveness. Jamie did a fine job running Sahana’s kitchen and the team put out slightly better food, but Sahana probably was hurt by the fact that it fed the judges first. The judges’ last impression came from Stefan’s awesome dessert lineup, not exactly helpful when your food was only marginally better and served an hour before.The diners at the challenge also seemed swayed by the desserts, picking the Sunset Lounge over Sahana by the slimmest of margins. That was enough to put Radhika and her poor management and Carla and her frozen yogurt stew on the chopping block. Of course, because Radhika was charged with running Sahana, which she didn’t have the personality to do, it was her who was sent home.Once again, the lesson here? Keep the best chefs close and the top chefs closer on a show called Top Chef — chose Stefan.Some random thoughts:– Where can I get my “Team Fabio” shirt?– Toby Young was definitely trying way too hard to be witty this week. Sorry, Toby, but you may have peaked your first week when you called Melissa’s dish “cat food.”– Think Leah and Hosea’s significant others are still with them after watching them cuddle on national TV? My guess is no, unless either of them won the show — hey, the winner does get $100,000 and a trip to Aspen, that’s worth public humiliation to some folks.– Isn’t it funny that Stefan won an entire suite of kitchen appliances for his elimination challenge victory this week and some weeks the winner gets nothing at all or some cookbook they’ll never use? What is that about, honestly?