You have always said, "Its about the food". I disagree, Most of the chefs on Top Chef are great cooks and I am sure I wouldn't throw a fit about one of their dishes. However I feel there is an ethical standard, a certain class anyone should strive for. I don't care how good Heather Terhune, Sarah Gruenberg or Lindsay Autry can cook, I would never eat where ever these classless, backstabbing chefs work. I think that a persons character should be factored in. If I owned a restaurant certainly a person ethics and character would be factored in. It would be a cold day in hell when I would hire any of the aforementioned chefs. Beverly should get a purple heart the way Heather, Lindsay and Sarah treated her. Paul is the only chef left that would get a penny of my money. Top Chef, 10-10, see you next season.

This episode was such a turnoff. The producers have no clue. The real T.C. fans want the show to be about the food. What a disgrace. I been watching T.C. from the begining, and this episode had to be the worst. Why are the producers turning T.C. into a reality show. It's the cooking, the food, and the cheftestants we care about. Especialy at the final four. All the challenges were a disgrace. I don't even want to rehash what the challenges were. Shame on TOP Chef and their out of touch and assinine producers.

This season seems to have the hardest challenges that I have seen thus far, Paul is a solid chef

Well, its pretty disgusting that Sarah & Lindsay have bullied their way into the top 3. Hope that Paul wins, but don't care enough to watch the last 2 episodes. Farewell Top Chef. I don't want to watch a show that rewards bullying and hateful behaviors. Sarah & Lindsay should be ashamed of the way they have portrayed women in the culinary field.

Come on now Sara...please. It just made me sick to see Beverly go home. Good Luck in your future Beverly. You were a true professional. I can't say the other two women were .....

I'm crying foul! This episode was all about physical Olympic challenges instead of great cooking. Unfair and frankly, quite difficult to watch. What in the world were you guys thinking?! Survivor Top Chef? Severely un-athletic people running with sharp objects? It's all about the FOOD, guys! Just completely ridiculous.

Sarah is makes excuses about everything. Oh, I shoot all the time. Please, you went out with your father and you had Beverly who has never shot get the better of you. Your comment, "Do I really have all my shots". Bogus. Blaming your fall on Beverly. Come on. Well, at least you don't have the heat to blame and you don't have to swoon and sit out...........

This was the worst gimmick of an overly gimmicky season. I spent the whole last challenge thinking to myself "What are they going to do, send someone home if they can't hit any targets? Obviously not, so why exactly am I watching this out-of-place slapstick?" The cooking skills were way back in second place to the nonsense with the skiis and guns, which isn't really what I was expecting.

I have to say this was one of the weakest episodes of TOP CHEF this season. I was hoping this was going to be a culinary duke out with the last four but it turned into an "Olympic" theme and less about the FOOD!!!! The viewers watch the show to discover the challenges of creating food and less about the shenanigans, especially if it doesn't go along with food (Shooting range, skiing and gondolas?! Really?)

This episode, the food was left out in the snow.

At least this episode makes it easy to root for Paul to win since it's him versus two total jerks in the finale.

I would NEVER eat in any restaurant where Heather, Sarah or Lindsay were chefs. I don't care how competent a chef you are, there is NO excuse for treating people as they all three treated Beverly. I hope Paul wins hands down.

This "Olympics" episode STINKS! This is about cooking...not all the other silly games. This is very disappointing.

As a Texan, I felt drawn to watch Top Chef Texas. After watching this series I find it strangely ironic that we live in a nation that is preaching to our children how wrong bullying is and yet this show and others play up the bullying to enthrall(?) the viewing audience. Shame on all of us for this hypocrisy, the producers who allowed this and to the chefs that did the bullying. Brave/Top Chef, step up and set an example!

Jumped. The. Shark.

When will the contestants on Top Chef (Sarah, Heather and Lindsay) realize that their back stabbing confessions to the camera about how they don't respect Beverly's skills or cooking only makes them look petty and shallow? I trust Tom's judgement over all of theirs. Every year there seems to be people who can't wrap their mind around the fact that they are on national television, and handle themselves in a way they should be embarrassed by (i.e. Marcel, Jamie, Spike to name a few). I have eaten in most of the Top Chef restaurants, but I must say I will avoid eating at Sarah's and Lindsay's restaurants if they ever open one. Their food feels cold to me, like their hearts.

The challenges in this episode were the most idiotic of all the Top Chef seasons ever. What do cooking in gondolas, chopping blocks of ice, skiing and shooting have anything to do with culinary excellence? I understand that the producers of the show try to come up with all sorts of ideas to try and make things more interesting, but this was just stupid and not enjoyable. It was humiliating to put somebody on a pair of skis for the first time in their life and watch them fall again and again. Not an enjoyable episode, almost ruined the show for me. Add to that the fact that the decision of who gets eliminated seems to be based on who Tom likes that week, and this show gets less enjoyable.

This was the most ridiculous challenge I have ever seen on the show! Your down to the final four, let them cook. It shouldn't come down to who can ski, shoot, or pick something out of ice. It's a cooking competition! What would you have done if some one had seriously injured themselves? Oh sorry you broke your arm skiing, guess your out of the competition? Give me a break.

Not interested in watching the nasty girls in the finale. I've had too much of them this season. I don't care who wins now. I'm done watching this season of Top Chef.

This blog would have been so much more interesting if I had to read it in a moving gondola on a tablet PC that was trapped in a block of frozen ice, all while having to shoot skeet and prepare a dish.

The show has jumped the shark. In the words of Fabio, "It is Top Chef, not Top Gimmick." If I wanted to see stuff like that, I would watch that terrible show that makes chefs cook on a desert island or get their food in a frozen food locker. (You know, I think I know where you guys were getting some ideas from.) Id like to write more, but I have to bike a piping hot plate of food across town.

Top Chef has officially Jumped the Shark. I thought nothing could be more stupid than the Pee Wee Herman episode, forcing the chefs to ride around on bikes foraging for food and finding someplace to cook it. But last night's is worse. Ingredients encased in ice? Skiing and shooting for ingredients? Enough of the gimmicks. I started watching this show because of the food. It is no longer about food or cooking. It's about stupid gimmicks and creating a soap opera. I am done. I think it is telling that Emeril wasn't around for this episode. I'm sure he thought it was insulting to the cheftestants as well.

Really this season has been ridiculous. I am a true Top Chef fan until this season when it has become more about group competitions and obstacle courses that have nothing to do with cooking talent. You guys have truly lost focus of the show. Viewers want the best cooks, like Paul commented last night its a cooking competition. I hope the finale includes actual cooking or you have lost me for good>

this is by far the WORST season of top chef. I have no idea how a mean mean sarah (who accuses everyone of cheating or having an advantage over her??) person with quite boring skills made it to the final above beverly. Get it together top chef. Lindsey and Sarah need to go back to the playground---it's like they've never had to work with people they don't necessarily click with. SERIOUSLY?! and how long have you been working in kitchens?!! It just doesn't make sense. i won't be watching the final nor watching the show ever again. that said....go paul!! a good person with amazing skills.

This has been the worst season of Top Chef and this episode was shockingly horrible. This is about COOKING, not skiing, shooting guns, or breaking huge blocks of ice. Please, Top Chef, go back to highlighting great chefs and competitive cooking *in the kitchen*. This season has been full of gimmicks and has felt more like 'Survivor' than the show I've been a loyal fan of for so long.

TC has officially jumped the shark this season.

Seriously, this is how you choos to eliminate CHEFS? What's up for next week, a spelling bee to see who goes to the finale? Maybe a beauty contest? Sorry that you are exhausted, but what does physical activity and shooting skill have to do with being a top chef?

Shark, jumped

Please re-evaluate the show for the next season...the challenges were too gimmicky and in my opinion insulting to the chefs, more like a game show than a cooking contest.I realize local cuisine and tradition are a part of the show, but there were too many contasts where the contestents had to cook for 100 or more people and just do silly things ( bike around and ski for ingredients, ugh) The very fact that Toms blogs are not there on a weekly basis either indicate he is busy or just doesn't feel they are worth comment. If it ain't broke, don't fix it..and that applies to the show. bring back the old show, I'm really not sanguine about watching anymore

I was so embarrassed for Top Chef and Bravo and the poor Cheftestants on this episode. These challenges were ludicrous. I want to see who can cook the best not who can ski the best. Ice picking the food out. Seriously?? I felt bad for Sara on the cross country skiing and I don't even like her. You should rename the show Top Stunt Chef! I assure you viewers want less gimmick and more cooking, please. (ditto for the Alamo challenge.)

These challenges were an embarrassment to the proud history of this show. The gondola challenge was bad, but the other two were simply disasters. Who did well had an enormous amount to do with things that have NOTHING to do with their talents as a chef.

Moreover, putting together a gag reel of two people who have never skied being forced to labor through a course while wearing inappropriate clothing is simply demeaning. Thank goodness they each managed to hit some targets, or we would have had someone go home because they were bad at using an air rifle. Good grief.

Save this junk for the Real Housewives series, please.

I'm really at a loss for words. This show should be about the chefs and their food, but here we have the pre-finale episode, and the chefs are participating in a dangerous, harebrained biathlon that shows nothing of their ability to cook! The finale had better be spectacular--and by spectacular, I mean giving the chefs great ingredients and letting them cook.

Peace Ty

I have to say, I was at the edge of my seat the entire episode, but I wonder at the logic of the producers when they chose the skiing challenge. Watching Bev and Sarah crash and twist their skis up so many times, I was really afraid that one would break a leg. It is one thing for a chef to get injured with a knife or a flame, as those kinds of dangers come with the territory, but if someone broke their leg or arm in a completely non-food challenge---they hadn't even shot for ingredients, yet, I think you would have had a lot of angry fans---not to mention a contestant whose heart would break along with the limb. I also think that the producers should have tried breaking ice with an ice pick prior and realized that they needed less ice around the ingredients in the second challenge. Had Paul not helped out or if it had been the three girls in the challenge, nothing would have been cooked. I think the producers got really lucky!

I hope Paul wins this, out of the three he has showed the most class, especially towards Beverly. Sarah and Lindsey (especially Lindsey) you're beauty is only skin deep, the way you treated Beverly really showed your ugliness.

I'm sorry to say I think the "Olympic" episode was the worst ever. What does hacking ice blocks, cross country skiing, and shooting a gun have to do with being a good chef? Please try to have more challenges that actually test the skills required to be a chef. I'm so disappointed in this season.

Dumbest episode ever. Why do Gondolas and guns have anything at all to do with who makes a better chef? If you are going to put people through that, then give them points for the athletic endeavor AND the cooking...Picking Sarah over Beverly is wrong on so many levels. Bev beat her in the fist challenge, and kicked her ass with skiiing and shooting, the food, in the opinion of the judges was too close to call and they both "made great meals"...really? Then if it's a close call, and you just put them through hell, give it to the person who won the shooting, the skiing and the gondala challenge. That would be Bev...you know, the girl Bravo allowed Sarah, Heather and Lindsey to bully all season. Maybe doing what is right is just too much to ask of Bravo.

I hope this season doesn't end the same way it did on Richard Blaise season. The two remaining women Sarah and that bland blonde are nasty people and I think they are not worthy. They were constantly rude to Beverly as we're the judges. Paul needs to win and you need to stay out of gross places like Texas. This show is going way down hill. emiril?!

1. If we have to watch any more challenges that involve anything like Sarah and Beverly falling over and over in the snow, I will stop watching the show. This is clownish and embarrassing. If I wanted to watch WIPEOUT, I'd watch WIPEOUT. And patronize its sponsors. 2. The Winter Olympics? So 2010.

Enough with the gimmicky challenges that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the chefs' actual skills and genuine creativity. I realized as I watched the ice block segment of the episode that may have been the point where Top Chef officially "jumped the shark" and became a parody of itself. What's up for next season - Wipeout-style challenges where cheftestants have to cook half-blindfolded on rotating platforms and jump over giant arms?

I feel Beverly deserved to be in the top 3. How many times has Sarah pickled peaches and cherries? That's all she's got. And I knew Lindsey wasn't a great chef when she couldn't even prepare a simple cochinita pibil even after studying in Mexico for 7 years. Please. I am really surprised two see these two women in the top 3. I can only hope the judges redeem themselves and Paul is declared Top Chef!

I agree with you Paul t! I hate to see the 2 mean girls win. The BIG girls on the show were just BIG bullies and Lindsey's personality just made her UGLY. I didn't like bev in the beginning of the season but those 3 mean girls just make her look like a determined sweetheart. Ugh... Can believe they let Sarah or Lindsay to the final round!

Hope Paul wins in the end. Would really like to have seen more individual challenges this season (perhaps not as difficult as this one!) and less "team" trials. I want to see each chef cook their best, and the team challenges do not really show that. BTW, Sarah and Heather are the two MOST unpleasant chefs to ever appear on the show. I don't care if Sarah is a good chef, I hope she loses just for the sake of karma. Lindsay has NO personality, and evidently no confidence, either. I don't think a win would necessarily help her get over that...

I thought this episode and the challenges were just so contrived and proved that even something as great as Top Chef has succumbed to the crap that makes Reality TV as despicable as it is -- Kardashians, Real Housewives, etc. At this point in the show with the Final Four, they should be allowing the chefs to showcase everything about their cooking and culinary ingenuity. It should only be about the food and the great flavors, not what makes for silly entertainment. All this biathalon, ice picking crap is so ridiculous. We're not there to watch these chefs be awkward and forced to do something they're not truly there for. I want to see just good cooking. I hope next season the writers and producers remember what this show is about and the quality it represents, and drop all this contrived drama/survivor nonsense.

I really think that your efforts to be "interesting" have gone too far. That last challenge with the skiing and the shooting. What does that have to do with cooking. I think it was cruel to make Sarah and Beverly cross-country ski and fall down all to amuse the viewers. Let them cook.

I thought it was ridiculous to ask chefs to compete in athletic competitions. Come on, Bravo! Asking people to ski and shoot rifles that may have never done so before? I thought the show was about cooking.

Bev Rocks! Was sorry to see her have to go, but glad she's back here in Chicago!

Sarah and Beverly certainly proved their true natures. You reap what you sow. Paul watch these two plain and simplely mean, bullies and they love themselves more than anyone else ever could.

Wonder what would have happened if either Bev or Sara, or both, had missed all 10 out of 10 targets. What does shooting a gun have to do with being a top chef anyway?

Did not like Bev. I am older than most of u and have a lot of experience reading people and from what I saw she really didn't show the producers her real personality. Of course I was not there all the time but neither were any others views. There is too much editing done to show for more drama.

This is not about the last challenge, but rather the Fan Favorite. Sorry, didn't know where else to send my "gripe". Sorry, but Chris being in the lead for this is absolutely ridiculous. Chris did nothing in the cooking challenges, nor did he express himself at any time to warrant this "honor". I'm sure he's a very nice person, but the only thing he could possibly win for in this category is best looks. How shallow are the voters!

"HARD"!! You dont KNOW 'Hard' until you are forced to See Bev win over Nyesha! THAT was HARD! I couldnt cook for a Week After that Bogus Decision! ... REALLY!??

this season was such a waste. and if i wanted to watch mean girls, i would wacth the housewives. bev rocks!

I don't know if the executive producers for Top Chef even look at these blog entries, but your viewers are sending you a message loud and clear. In previous years this show was gaining a status and a following along the lines of Iron Chef. Serious competitors making serious food. The sometimes kooky quickfires were all in good fun, but the eliminations, particularly in the later rounds, were awe-inspiring. What ever happened to cooking in famous chef's restaurants, cooking for Joel Robuchon or for the owner of Le Cirque, trying to butcher fish at Le Bernardin - even the Dim Sum challenge was at least a legitimate concept. The audience for Top Chef is not the same audience that follows any of the ridiculous Housewives. Yes, we want to be entertained; but have a little respect for the art of cooking and the tremendous sacrifices many of these contestants have made to be here. There were a few highlights this season: the Evil Queen dinner and Tim Love's game dinner come to mind; and Last Chance Kitchen was devilishly entertaining. Much of the rest of the season is pretty forgettable.