'Top Chef' season premiere recap: Vice City

With those two teams clearly not in the running, it was neck and neck between the blue team (Bryan, Jennifer C., Jesse, Mattin) and the black team (Mike I., Eli, Ashley, Hector). Thanks to Bryan's speedy rib eye chopping, the blue team won despite (or perhaps because of) the annoying sideline cheering courtesy of Mike I. Between his calling Robin an ''old lady'' and implying that women shouldn't be able to shuck clams better than men, I think I'm going to really dislike this guy.

The blue team's win wasn't the end of the story, though. To spice things up, each member of the blue team then competed against each other by cooking a dish made out of the ingredient they prepped. The prize would be $15,000, a Top Chef first and a ''High Stakes Quickfire'' as Padma called it. As much as we would've liked to see some screw-ups, all four dishes were relatively successful, but in the end, Jennifer C.'s clam ceviche nabbed the money. This Philadelphia chef clearly knows what she's doing and, if I may so boldly speak, seems a likely candidate for winner.

But I'm not going to get ahead of myself; it's just episode 1! For their first elimination challenge, the chefs had to create a meal based on their vices, since Vegas is all about bad behavior, get it? I feel like we're going to have one too many corny tie-ins this season. Most of the chefs chose alcohol as their bad habit (i.e. beer powder garnish) but we got some clever interpretations like Mike V.'s rack of lamb to symbolize plastic surgery and procrastinator Ash's intentional half spread of parsley coulis (because he didn't have time to spread it all the way around - har har). By far, though, Kevin's arctic char with turnip salsa verde took the cake for creativity and taste. Also representing procrastination, his meal quickly cooked foods that are traditionally made slowly, and vice versa. It was playful, tasty and to the point, and the judges, including guest judge Wolfgang Puck, took notice and crowned Kevin the winner. They also took notice, for the wrong reasons, of Jennifer Z.'s seitan-stuffed chile relleno, which, according to the judges, was a clunky, flavorless dish that was ultimately the wrong choice for the self-taught cook. I disagree with Tom & Co. on this one. I think seitan was an appropriately ballsy move. The real letdown of the episode was Eve's overcooked shrimp and all-wrong curry cream sauce, which, beyond being risk-averse, seemed to lack a distinct connection to the vice theme.

Alas, I'm not a judge but I am going to be a spectator for what looks like a juicy season-Eli accusing Robin of using her cancer to win pity, Mattin going giddy over a renowned French chef (TV Watchers, please clue me in on who this is!), Mike I. going postal...and Penn & Teller? What about you guys? What are you looking forward to seeing this season? And what did you think of the premiere episode? Did Jennifer Z. deserve the boot? Sound off!

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