"Top Chef" Recaps: Episode 4.4 "Film Food"

THIS WEEK'S KITCHEN ESSENTIALS:

Quickfire: Technical difficulties; please stand by.
Elimination: Dinner and a movie.
Padmaism: "If you guys don't know who he is, you should just leave the kitchen now."

Touch me in the morning — Dawn in the Windy City. The cheftestants rise and shine and miss their loved ones. Everyone, that is, except for our chefbian lovebirds.

Jennifer: Everyone has mentioned that they miss their boyfriend or their girlfriend or their kids. I try to be really respectful because Zoi and I have an advantage. We can look at each other. We actually get to touch each other. So I try to be as fair as I can and, like, we keep our distance.

No, we want more touching. More touching, please. Spike, however, does not appreciate all the touching.

Spike: I love those girls and I feel they complement each other beautifully, but I am ready for one of them to go. It is a competition, and having two people in the house that are kind of like working together and understand each other's thought processes, it puts the rest of us at a slight disadvantage, and that's all it takes in this competition — a slight disadvantage.

Name that chef — The cooking crew heads out in their holdover red-and-blue SUVs from last episode. In the Top Chef Kitchen, Padma is waiting with a familiar face — or someone who should be a familiar face. In fact, she says if they can't recognize him, they should leave now.

Does that mean I have to slink away from my TV set now, too?

Actually, he does look familiar. I think I remember him from last season. Turns out the guest judge is none other than famed French chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud. Padma asks him what the most important foundation for a chef is. His answer: technique. And with that a Quickfire Challenge is born.

The chefs must create a "beautiful vegetable plate" using at least three classical techniques that will impress Chef Boulud. Immediately, long-lost chefbian contestant Lisa (seriously, I almost forgot she was on the show) says she is nervous.

Lisa: I am not into the classical training methods. I like to do things differently. I like to do things however I feel is the best for that moment. This is just not my style of cooking.

Remind me to play poker with Lisa sometime soon, because that face is a dead giveaway.