Bad week to miss the original airing of "Top Chef." The cooking reality show is finally based in New York City for its fifth season, and last Wednesday's episode featured a chef road trip to ROCHESTER! I apologize for not recapping sooner, but I was entertaining out-of-town guests on Thanksgiving Eve. That is to say, I was having a life. I'll make sure not to make that mistake again...

So the deal: After a Quickfire that featured the chefs randomly assigned recipes from the Top Chef Cookbook and a twist that found them changing course mid-challenge to turn the recipes into soups, the cheftestants were given their elimination challenge: to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the Foo Fighters. Before their concert. In ROCHESTER.

There are, of course, a couple things wrong here. Although the episode aired on Thanksgiving Eve, it was actually filmed the day of the Foo Fighters' show at Blue Cross Arena back in July (you can read City's review of the show here). And yet everyone - Padma, Tom, the chefs, the Foos - had to go along pretending that it was actually Thanksgiving. I find that kind of thing really stupid. We KNOW you didn't shoot the episode THAT DAY, guys. Why all the fake? Second, Padma informed the chefs that they'll be cooking in Rochester and - bam! There they are! No car-ride montage, nothing. I get that this is a TV show, and who wants to see people getting from Point A to Point B. But anyone who lives outside of New York thinks that upstate is anything outside of New York City, and this show did nothing to dispel that myth. You certainly wouldn't think that they all traveled SIX HOURS to get here, and then back, which raises some questions about the stress these people must have been under prior to Judges' Table.

And the final issue: no Wegmans! How do you film a cooking show in Rochester and not go to Wegmans?! Actually, I suspect I know that answer. Whole Foods is a major sponsor of the show (they have been the prominent food supplier for at least the past several seasons), and there's no way they'd allow "Top Chef" to work with a competitor like the ever-expanding Wegmans. Hegedorn's, however, is strictly local, and no threat to the healthy grocery giant. I'd be shocked if that's not precisely what happened. And it kind of sucks, because it's not exactly representative of Rochester, you know?

Anyway, the chefs were split into two factions, Team Sexy Pants (Leah, Jamie, Hosea, Stefan, Fabio, Melissa, Radhika) and Team Cougar (Jeff, Richard, Alex, Ariane, Daniel, Eugene). Both teams acquitted themselves well, especially since they were cooking outside, in the rain, with just one burner and a bunch of microwaves. But Sexy Pants edged out the win, mostly because the Cougar desserts kind of blew.

We didn't get a winner for the challenge (and I don't think we got a loser for the Quickfire, did we?) but Jeff was pulled on the carpet for not one, but two shitty dishes (dry spoon bread and poorly conceived pumpkin parfait, yuck), as was Richard for his banana chocolate s'mores. Jeff was probably saved by the fact that he assumed a natural leadership role (the second time he's done that, since he organized everyone during the New American challenge the week prior), and it was Richard - a.k.a. Yummy Bear - who got booted mostly because the vanilla cr�me on top of his s'mores looked like spit after sitting on the buffet line. That's kind of lame, really. But not too surprising. Richard had yet to make any impact in the competition, and even though he was adorable, that can only take you so far. Ergo, it's only a matter of time before useless pretty boy Jeff gets cut for serving similarly underwhelming food. Has he done ANYTHING right yet?

On the Foos: it's cool that they're fans of the show, but Dave Grohl is kind of a weirdo, and Taylor looked completely and totally not into this, at all.