Wow, that was a stressful judges table on TC!

As soon as the meal was over, I said I bet no one was going home. I wonder how long they actually deliberated, or if they knew what they'd do pretty quickly.

Antonia and Mike being distantly related is sort of funny, except for how it's Mike, and eww. I am thrilled that everyone cooked so well, though. With their families there, and their history all mapped out, it must have meant a lot.

Carla's husband is adorable.

Totally.

The shocked silence when Collichio said Richard's food was "just all right" was hysterical.

Oh, and I loved that Carla and her husband met on match.com! Hilarious. Also, a friend of mine met her husband similarly -- putting in "crazy" requirements!

On AI, I was pretty close on my ladies predictions - 4 out of 5. I had Lauren T. in Haley's spot, which would've been better all the way round and I didn't have Ashthon in the mix at all but that's because I didn't know we were getting three wild cards. For the guys, I was 4 out of 5 again on who America would pick. I had Brett in the Jacob slot, but I did have Jacob as the wildcard, so I'm gonna go ahead and count that in my favor and say that I was 5 of 6 on the ultimate male contestant composition. And I got my little cupcake Stefano to boot, so I'm happy with that.

This is an interesting top 13. I think Lauren A. is the only girl of the group who can really hang with the top guys: Casey, Paul, James and Jacob. Everyone else seems like fodder. I'm still kind of shocked the judges went for Ashthon over Robbie. Grateful, but surprised.

I love that Richard was the only one they really fucked with.

If he hadn't been acting such the asshat, I would have felt really sorry for him. I still think it was a mean thing to do (what is this - Hell's Kitchen?), but sometimes mean is deserved.

I wonder how long they actually deliberated

I read Gail's blog over at ew.com and she said something about it taking a couple of hours to convince the producers to let them not eliminate anyone. Gail said that the judges couldn't pick a person to go home, and they finally caved.

Girrrrrl -- are you Drag Race watchers watching Untucked, too? Because, damn Raja's a bitch. [link]

I feel like I should do a Bourdain/Ripert report over here, since they talked a lot about Top Chef and other food TV... But I'm afraid I'll forget all the best parts.

Ripert said he did ask Jen WTF happened with her, and also that (maybe right when she got eliminated? around then) she had stolen a cell phone from a crew member and called him to tell him she was getting screwed. He was like, yeah, nothing I can do about that.

Bourdain said he actually felt bad about how much he had slammed Fabio on the first episode -- that it was actually much worse than what we saw on TV. While he was eating other dishes, he kept going back to how terrible Fabio's was, all caught up in vortex of hate and meanness. But then Fabio -- in the most charming way possible -- threatened to kick his ass, and they are all good. Per Bourdain.

I don't know what else, but they were both awesome in their very different ways.

Oh, this was funny -- they were talking about TV chefs, and Ripert didn't know a lot of them. So I turned to my friend and said, you can tell which one of them has a real job.... And then some guy in the front yelled out the same thing! And then Bourdain did a funny Ina Garten impression.

But then Fabio -- in the most charming way possible -- threatened to kick his ass, and they are all good. Per Bourdain.

I so want to see this buddy comedy.