Intrigue

The chefs are blindfolded in a classic cooking relay race for the elimination. Then it's Restaurant Wars time! The chefs are divided into two teams: donkeys versus elephants. The diners will taste each menu and "vote" for the team they want to win.—Bravo Publicity

Amanda wakes up sad that Stephen is gone, but thinking she's got a good shot. Kenny is perplexed that he keeps ending up in the middle.

Quickfire They arrive to see red and blue aprons and blindfolds. It's the tag team cook off. Each person cooks for 10 minutes and hands it off. There's no immunity, but the winning team gets to split $10,000.

Kevin and Ed get the knives to pick their teams. Alex goes last to Ed, who also gets Tiffany and Angelo. They decide order and the first person in each team starts cooking.

Kenny tells us he's known as "the preppin' weapon" in his kitchen back home.

Tiffany puts saute pans on and lays out a red snapper. Kenny heads for prawns.

Rotating in, Amanda gets Kenny's mustard cream sauce and gets the pasta in. Kenny smiles as he sees her get it.

Tiffany is irritated as Alex starts seasoning the fish too early. They swap.

Tiffany hopes Ed can see the salt on the fish.

Angelo comes in and thinks the station is a mess. He immediately grabs more salt.

For the blue team, Kelly reads the neat and tidy station and does exactly what Kenny hoped.

Angelo realizes the fish is already salted, which he finds weird.

Time's up. Padma brings in an "extraordinary" guest, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Kelly is psyched. Pelosi says she's a foodie.

Kevin introduces his blue team dish: Sauteed shrimp, angel hair pasta, mustard sauce and crispy basil. Pelosi says it's delicious.

The red team made roasted red snapper, wilted greens and maitake mushrooms. Pelosi says it's wholesome, but a little salty.

"Freakin' Alex, no one likes salty dishes," Tiffany complains.

The winner is the blue team, who each get $2,500.

Elimination Challenge Padma announces it's restaurant wars time. They're taking over a restaurant in Bethesda. They have to make a three course menu with two options for each course, and everyone has to make a dish. The guest judge will be former NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni.

Padma welcomes Bill and John Terlato, from the Terlato vineyards in Napa. They're providing the wine for the wars.

Then it's shopping time. Angelo and Ed brainstorm on how to keep Alex out of it, which Kevin hears and finds lame. "We all question Alex's ability to, basically, cook," Ed explains. They decide to make him front of the house.

Tiffany shops without a list.

Kelly and Kevin go $500 over budget and have to cut back.

Back at the kitchen, Angelo appoints himself executive chef. Their menu includes tomato soup, crudo of black bass and yellowtail snapper, then striped bass and clams, slow-baked turbot, sauteed rib eye and lamb chop with pea puree.

Kelly decides to do cold soup and dessert because her team appoints her front of the house. Kenny calls exec chef. The blue team menu features chilled corn soup with crab salad, warm beet salad, strip steak and halibut, then chocolate ganache tart with ice cream and also crispy goat cheese.

Angelo hovers over Alex as he butchers the meat, then finally takes over. Kenny watches Alex take forever to butcher his fish.

Tiffany thinks her red team is floundering but the blue team appears organized.

The next day they arrive at the restaurant. Angelo tries to claim a side of the kitchen but Kevin won't budge. Angelo micro-manages Alex and Tiffany realizes the fish Alex cut for her has scales and bones.

The blue team works together effortlessly and seem confident.

Amanda tries to figure out the wood-burning grill.

Kenny enjoys seeing Angelo ramped up over Alex. "I don't think they trust me, that's b--- s----," Alex says.

In the front of the house, Alex bosses his waitstaff around as Kelly tells hers to come to her with any questions.

The blue team does a tasting with their staff, Alex opts to just describe the heck out of their food.

The diners arrive. Immediately, one of the red team servers forgets to write a course down. Alex makes apologies and misses the arrival of the judges.

The red team serves their first course, Angelo's tomato soup and Tiffany's crudo of fish. Gail thinks Tiffany's fish was too salty. Frank likes Angelo's soup.

The judges are stuck waiting for the second course. It finally comes with Tiffany's bass and Ed's baked turbot with eggplant. Frank says he "really, really likes" Ed's. He calls it a "nice recovery" from the first course.

The third course is Alex's own lamb chop with pea puree (he calls it a pork chop at first) and Ed and Angelo's seared rib eye.

Frank likes the lamb but the service has been hit or miss. Tom suggests they sneak out and it works. Alex watches them go without a good bye.

Amanda has trouble with the beef. Kelly nicely tells her it's slightly overcooked as Amanda struggles to cook the grass fed beef.

The judges head over to the blue team side, where Kelly greets them, describing their "progressive American cuisine."

Padma's excited to see a cheese and dessert course.

Kelly brings out the first course, including her corn soup and Kenny's warm beet salad.

Tom thinks Kelly's soup is thin with little taste. Frank thinks Kenny salad has too much going on.

The second course is Amanda's NY strip and Kevin's pan-roasted halibut.

Tom thinks the steak is cut too thin, but her sauce is good.

Kelly stops by to check in.

Frank thinks Kevin's halibut is really pretty. Tom really likes the sauce.

The third course is Kenny's crisp goat cheese and Kelly's dark chocolate ganache tart. Gail raves about the dessert but Frank thinks the ice cream is bland.

They mock the giant size of Kenny goat cheese. They think it's salty and Frank says it's a "horror show."

The judges recap and like Kelly's service. Frank thinks both restaurants failed to live up to their stated mission.

Alex tells his team everything went well.

They head back to judge's table.

Padma comes for the red team of Ed, Alex, Angelo and Tiffany. In the stew room, the other team is shocked to think they might be on the bottom.

Padma confirms this for the red team. They won. Frank tells Alex he seemed too nervous. Gail liked Angelo's soup. Frank raves about Tiffany's bass. Frank tells Ed his turbot was "an absolutely perfectly cooked piece of fish."

Tom asks who did the lamb. Angelo says Alex came up with it, but he and Ed finished it. Tom liked it.

Frank announces the winner: Ed.

He gets a trip to the Terlato vineyards in Napa and a magnum of their wine.

The blue team heads out. Kenny tells them he's shocked they lost. Frank tells Kelly she had a clumsy charisma, but it was good. They tell her her soup was thin.

Gail tells Kenny he needed to reel his beet salad in. "I felt like this was a beet salad done through the guise of Hamburger Helper," Frank says. It's not really clear what the heck that means, but Kenny can tell it's bad.

Frank tells Kevin his halibut was good. He tells Amanda her meat was overcooked and not juicy.

Frank tells Kenny his cheese course didn't work. Kenny tells them that at least he cooked his own food and that Angelo and Ed carried Alex, and he didn't cook his own food.

Kevin says flat out that Alex should go home.

Padma dismisses them. Back in the stew room, Kevin rages at Alex for not doing anything. Then Kenny takes it up, saying that Alex didn't conceive of a dish. Angelo sits coolly and listens, telling Alex he doesn't have to defend himself.

The judges discuss, Frank says Amanda only had one dish and didn't do it well. Tom says Kevin is safe. He thinks Kenny's dishes weren't good, but Gail says he led well.

Verdict time.

Tom recaps.

The knife packer is: Kenny.

"To not be on Top Chef anymore is hard because the reality is that Alex didn't prepare his food at all, there should be more dialogue about that. i hope that the best chef wins. The Beast is gone, it's anybody's game now."