Hello Rochester. Please put your hands together for six-time Grammy Award-winning band Food Fighters.

Er, I mean, Foo Fighters.

Ordinarily, asking a rock band to judge the haute cuisine found on a show such as Top Chef would be a dicey proposition. Most band members’ palates have been eroded by years of cigarettes and Taco Bell. But when Foo Fighters were given a chance to judge this season’s chefs — during a Thanksgiving dinner battle no less — it proved an entertaining choice for all involved.

Backtracking a bit. It was time for the cast of the Bravo show to shine after last week’s challenge which “set American cuisine back 20 years,” according to head judge Tom Colicchio.

Proverbial “hot seat” contestant Ariane was confident that her food would not be spit into a napkin by host Padma Lakshmi this time, boldly announcing “today’s my day.”

That wasn’t exactly true on the curveball Quickfire challenge. Contestants were asked to put their own spin on a recipe from Top Chef: The Cookbook. But 10 minutes in, they were then stopped and told to make a soup out of the very same ingredients featured.

Lanky Carla explained “You can judge a chef by his soup.” But unfortunately for Carla, she joined miserable Ariane in the loser subset. Instead, bubbly Leah notched her first win for whipping up a white asparagus and tuna nicoise concoction.

Leah got to choose her whole team for the Elimination Challenge, which pitted two sides against each other in a Thanksgiving meal catered at a Rochester, NY, venue for Foo Fighters and their 60-strong crew. (Anyone else realize the “Thanksgiving” battle was actually shot last spring?)

In yet another curveball, the chefs were only allowed to use microwaves and toasters.

Team Cougar, led by Ariane — who was given the task of handling the turkey due to her catering background — put a few spins on the traditional holiday fare. Pumpkin, potatoes and stuffing all got Chef-ified.

Meanwhile, Team Sexy Pants — dominated by European trash-talkers Fabio and Stefan — utilized such innovations as a pumpkin tiramisu.

The bottom line was Ariane’s turkey was deemed best by the band, the regular panel and guest judge Grant Achatz of molecular gastronomy/cancer survival fame. While Team Sexy Pants’ dessert domination proved substantial.

What it boiled down to most was that Team Cougar’s desserts weren’t just not great; they were often yucky. Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins compared the s’mores that Richard assembled using bananas and vanilla creme to “spit.”

Thus Team Sexy Pants scored the win, earning the members the right to get all gussied up and watch the band’s concert. The losers were forced to do the dishes, only hearing echoes of the concert from the bowels of the stadium.

At judges table, Daniel, Jeff and Richard were singled out as the bottom three. (There was no individual winner selected on the other side.)

Poor Richard got the boot, crying through his exit interview while wearing a shirt that read “Will Try Anything.”

That has since been amended to “Will Try Anything … Except Making S’mores for Rock Stars.”

Editor’s Note: It might be a while before Culture Crumbs regular Sarah Henning provides her take on this Top Chef season. Please congratulate her on the Nov. 25 birth of her first child, Nathanael Warren Henning.