I told you...

that "Last Restaurant Standing" would be a great replacement for "Top Chef" - because Tuesday night's episode was straight out of the "Top Chef" archives. This was a challenge episode - where the bottom 3 couples are pitted against each other for a chance to stay in the competition. The challenges are very interesting - the first was at a large petrol station, the last one was at a university, and this week's was on a plane! I'm sure you all remember "Top Chef: Miami" where the chefs had to prepare a dish for the Continental Airlines staff in order to advance from Newark, NJ to New York City. Well, this was essentially the same thing. The bottom 3 had to shop for and prepare a meal for first class that was representative of the concept and theme of their restaurant. Since there are 6 couples left, each of the challenge couples was paired up with a non-challenge couple. The chef counterpart of each pair worked together in preparation, while the front-of-house counterparts had to learn how to properly set up and serve first class all while keeping within the time limits. We did have a classic "Top Chef" faux-pas - the chef of one of the challenge teams bought frozen prawns (Spike and frozen scallops, anyone?) - big no-no. If some of you are trying to catch up with this show, I won't post any team spoilers, but there were a few things in this episode worth noting.

• As I have mentioned before, the head judge is Raymond Blanc, a French chef and restauranteur. The ultimate prize of the show is to open a restaurant with him. I'm pretty sure this is the first time he has tasted the chef's food since the very first episode - or, as my husband pointed out, as far as we know. That was kind of exciting, but probably kind of a bummer for the teams who were in the clear - that would seem to be good exposure.
• One of the other two judges was initially forgotten by two of the three teams. I could see that happening once, but twice! That was pretty crazy.
• The prize for winning this challenge (besides staying on the show) was kind of a big one. If your meal and presentation won, this particular airline would start serving your dish. Kind of cool, especially if they advertised it with your restaurant name.
• Lastly, even though this challenge didn't take place in a restaurant, it further solidified the connection between quality food and quality service as the key to success in the food world. This show really highlights both of those aspects, which I've never really seen in a reality cooking show before. Good job, BBC!