First of all - a bit of disclosure: I wasn't around for this week's Quickfire Challenge. The first I learned of it was while watching the episode like everyone else. I have to say that I was, for the most part, impressed by the dishes that our chefs came up with using convenience-store ingredients. With the exception of Dave, whom I felt simply heated existing items (burrito, cinnamon bun) and placed them on a plate into a coy "morning after" presentation. The dishes were creative and smart, and our chefs tackled the challenge with a sense of humor. Who would ever have imagined Stephen cutting into a block of Spam? Certainly not yours truly...

Another staple of convenience stores is an appliance found in most home kitchens, and the focus of this week's Elimination Challenge - the microwave. You could feel the inner recoil from the 'pros' in the group - Harold, Tiffani, Stephen - even Andrea - when they learned they had to prepare a microwavable dish for a group of Junior Leaguers. The microwave, they've been taught, is declasse, strictly for amateurs, right up there with the George Foreman Grill. But I don't necessarily agree. The microwave has its place. Recently I was on a Qantas flight to Sydney where my friend and colleague Neil Perry - Australia's own Top Chef - provides menu consultation for the first-class cabin. I ordered the fish, and it was delicious; Light, delicately seasoned, not remotely overcooked or rubbery. The fish had been prepped, cryovaced (sealed in an air-tight package,) and microwaved just before serving. Clearly Chef Perry - a superstar -- had faced his own version of this very same challenge, and nailed it. So, ridiculous as it may have seemed to some of our contestants, the idea of a microwaveable meal has real, professional application beyond reality TV. And - on a side note -- silly as any of these challenges may seem, at the end of the day I'd rather watch C-span than tune in to watch a bunch of chefs in an optimal environment cook "perfect" food each week. Our chefs face their challenges - the silly and the serious -- on an even playing field; the rest is up to them. The chefs who did well this week understood (as many of our chefs did not) that this was not so much a cooking challenge as a reheating challenge. The task was to prepare a dish that would survive refrigeration and reheat well in a microwave.