Well, Jesse will leave before too long. I was pretty sure that Eve was going because she seemed pretty clueless about what was wrong with her food. (I love that she seems to think that her "combinations" are too avant-garde for the judges.) Then Pretti - because also, pretty clueless. Then the ones that know what's wrong but cannot seem to do it right. Then come the really difficult decisions.

No, it's Jen who keeps doing it, which is even more vexing.

It makes me wonder if it's a pronounciation she picked up from Eric Ripert.

heh. sumi has outlined the next 5 weeks of boots...

This is Frank Bruni's advice on menus from his last NYT column, but it works pretty well as a guide to judging Top Chef:

Scratch off the appetizers and entrees that are most like dishes you’ve seen in many other restaurants, because they represent this one at its most dutiful, conservative and profit-minded. The chef’s heart isn’t in them.

Scratch off the dishes that look the most aggressively fanciful. The chef’s vanity — possibly too much of it — spawned these.

Then scratch off anything that mentions truffle oil.

Choose among the remaining dishes.

It makes me wonder if it's a pronunciation she picked up from Eric Ripert.

She's obviously authoritative, so I'm suspecting her pronunciation is correct and coming from some regionalism or dialect or Ripertism or something.

Well. I can see how if you pronounce the word as if it were French, you'd come up with something like that (though I'd expect a softer "ch" at the end). But I don't know I'd go so far as to call it correct.

yeah, it ain't correct. No one else in the history of the show has said it that way - including judges and other contestants. Granted, the one chef is from PR and not Spain, but he doesn't pronounce it that way.

Is that something the judges would call her on if it was incorrect? I know they'd call her if the dish was made incorrectly, and since she's done it twice now to accolades (though unacknowledged last night), she must be doing it right.

I hope she doesn't go to the ceviche well again, or she's going to come across as a one-trick pony.

I must say I was pretty eye-rolly with the men vs. women challenge last night. I get why it was appropriate given the theme of the event, but I felt like I was watching Hell's Kitchen at a couple of points (especially with some of the guys jumping in the pool).

Technically correct or not, "seh-VEETCH" just sounds pretentious.

Heh--someone over at WX has dubbed Kevin "Yukon Cornelius," which totally fits!