['Top Chef Masters' - 'Restaurant Wars']

Never let it be said that Bravo is resting on their laurels when it comes to the 'Top Chef' franchise. Just a week after 'Top Chef All-Stars' wrapped, here comes 'Top Chef Masters.' This is the third season, and the producers have revamped the concept dramatically.

The new host is Aussie chef Curtis Stone, who's also on NBC's 'America's Next Great Restaurant,' so either he's totally determined to be a star, or somebody at NBC Universal is invested in his success.

After watching this episode, he's nice to look at, but he didn't add much to the drama.

But back to the new 'Top Chef Masters,' Season 3 format. Instead of two dozen masters and rounds of challenges to winnow the contestants to just a few, this year began with the Top 12.

And they are: Hugh Acheson, Floyd Cardoz, John Currence, Traci Des Jardins (she looked familiar), George Mendes, Mary Sue Milliken, Naomi Pomeroy, Suvir Saran, John Rivera Sedlar, Alex Stratta, Sue Zemanick and Celina Tio. If the last name caught your eye, it did mine, too. She competed on Food Network's 'The Next Iron Chef' ... and nearly won the whole thing.

The judges are now called critics, not judges. For Season 3, they include James Oseland, who was on last season, and culinary critic Ruth Reichl, best known as the Editor-in-Chief of 'Gourmet' magazine.

No sooner had the chefs greeted each other, when Curtis appeared to present the Quickfire Challenge. There were 15 mystery boxes and the task was to create a dish with your ingredient and your partner's box, too. In 15 minutes.

They were given a crappy selection of food: Pop corn, dragon fruit, cottage cheese, sardines, marshmallows -- WHOA, is this 'Chopped All-Stars'? Mystery boxes, weird ingredients, no time to think or cook? Okay, everything is a rip off of everything else, but this is pretty familiar territory. It might have been smarter if the 'Top Chef' producers saved this Quickfire for later in the run ... like six weeks away from last Sunday's finale of 'Chopped All-Stars'!

Chef Naomi blew it and so did John C. and Celina. They all failed to plate a dish. That was surprising, especially from almost-Iron Chef Celina! The Quickfire came down to Traci and Mary Sue, with Traci winning. Interesting that it was two women chefs standing out ... kind of different to 'Top Chef All-Stars' where so many of the ladies were axed especially early in the competition (Jen, Elia, Tiffani, et. al).

The Elimination Challenge was a 'Top Chef' favorite, "Restaurant Wars" ... but this was the first time it was done by the masters. These guys know how to open and run restaurants, so it wasn't surprising that they seemed a lot more proficient than the typical 'Top Chef' contestants.

"Team Mosaic" was going for diversity, new American cuisine, and they seemed very confident. "Leela" was the other team and they were in the weeds from the get-go thanks to Naomi's communal dinner idea.

It was strange that Naomi, who failed to plate anything in the Quickfire, emerged at the leader of Leela. By comparison, the Mosaic team had both Traci and Mary Sue, and Hugh definitely seemed like a leader. As for the food, Mosaic had a strong line up, and the salad, salmon and short ribs were a hit. Mary Sue's chocolate cupcake, however, was a dud, and Hugh's scallop was big ... but salty.

For Leela, the service was a disaster. After the appetizer course, there was a long wait. ... Did I mention it was a long wait? A long ... long wait. Or at least that's how it appeared on television. Before the wait, however, Alex had wowed the critics with a spicy fricassee. When the lamb and halibut arrived, however, things went from bad to worse. Rare lamb's not good, and the sticky label still being attached to the apple slices was awful. However, Leela salvaged the meal with two superb desserts.



The critics' opinion counted a lot, but so did the diners. Leela was called in first because the diners liked them better. Hmm, interesting, that despite the flaws, they were tops. The critics gave Alex the individual win for his appetizer and that meant money for his cancer charity.

Hugh and Mary Sue were called in to face the music from the losing Mosaic team. The scallop was overly salty and Hugh couldn't talk his way out of that. Mary Sue's cupcake was deemed underwhelming compared to the gourmet cupcakes these critics are chomping on all the time. (Think 'Cupcake Wars.') Neither of these chefs seemed like failures to me, but one was going home.

Hugh was told to pack his knives ... as well as that aggressive Maldives salt that sunk his scallop. Oh well, somebody's got to be the first to go. Wholesome Wave, his charity, still received a donation so that was a positive.

'Top Chef Masters' airs Wednesdays, 10PM ET on Bravo.