The remaining contestants of 'Top Chef All Stars' (Wed., 10PM ET on Bravo) faced an unexpected new challenge this week as they had to cook their dish on the beach using conches. A sea snail, the conch proved particularly difficult to shell and get to the meat inside.

"You could really kind of hear this orchestra of conch-shell shucking that was going on," Richard said of the sound ringing across the beach as the four finalists worked feverishly to figure out how to get their conches open the most efficiently.

Mike figured out a way by thinking outside the shell, so to speak. He started dropping them in boiling water. "The hot water is going to kill it like it would kill a lobster," he explained. "It'll loosen them up in the shell and I can pull them out a little bit easier."

One thing's for certain. The conch challenge will be one of the most memorable experience for all of the chefs. We doubt, though, they'll start making it a regular part of the cooking repertoire.