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School was in session tonight on Top Chef: Just desserts both literally and figuratively as one of the contestants really showed their class in baking skills.  Tonight the chefs had to make a wedding cake and put on a real live bake sale.  The guest judge was Sylvia Weinstock, undisputed queen of the glamour wedding cake.

During the wedding cake quickfire Heather H. displayed a bitchy side we had not seen up until now.  She made some disparaging remarks about Eric and Danielle’s cakes – she thought Eric’s was messy and didn’t like Danielle’s because it was green – not sure why you can’t have a green wedding cake but in Heather’s world it’s a big no-no (what would the Green girl do at her wedding?) Heather saved the toughest words for Erika’s cake  – basically saying it looked too domestic and  unsophisticated, which seemed silly since it looked fine to me.

Of course justice is swift on reality shows and Erika’s cake won.  In being in the bottom three Malika (crying) was reminded by Sylvia Weinstock that “it’s not death only cake.” She obviously hasn’t seen the movie Kings of Pastry.

For the elimination challenge the contestants were divided into 2 teams, the  Glee Club and the Pep Squad and we learned they would be making and selling items for a real school bake sale to send one of the two glee clubs to either a practice camp or to NYC.  Many extra-awkward-looking junior high school kids accompanied each team with cheer leading.

During the elimination challenge Heather C. hoarded all the peanut butter and admitted she took it all to “protect her team” knowing that it would prevent the other team from using any in their creations for the bake sale.  Luckily, Eric has mad baking skills.  And he unleashed them like the thunderclap of Thor’s hammer and quickly improvised, swapping out Nutella for some of his missing peanut butter.

In a nice gesture of team unity (and apropos high school behavior) Morgan retaliated against the other team for the peanut butter embargo and jacked all the butter – and declared “when they are ready to share some peanut butter they’ll get some butter”.  Eric (and Dessertbuzz) liked that the Morgan got his back.   It turned out that Eric didn’t need the help as baking school was about to be in session.

Top three on the top team: Erika, Malika and Eric. The judges were blown away with Eric’s rice crispy treat based squares that also had Nutella, peanut butter and who knows what else and Gail proclaimed them a “Home run.” Sylvia wanted Erika’s family recipe for her chocolate chips cookies.  Everyone liked Malika’s toffee twists but we learned at judges table that she got the recipe from Eric!  So they gave it to Red Hook based Eric Wolitzky.   Way to take one for baking, Baked and New York!

Bottom team:

At judges table Danielle opened up the proceeding by introducing Seth to the asphalt and the oncoming wheels of the (school) bus.  She tried to use his previous punk-like behavior against him but Zac and Yigit actually got his back which posed a serious problem for Danielle and her dry-assed-cupcakes especially after we learned that, even though they thought it was a stupid choice, the judges liked Seth’s financiers!  Luckily for Danielle the judges liked Heather C’s boring peanut butter cookies (which she made with the hoarded peanut butter) less.  Sylvia said that you don’t want to make cookies that any “housewife” could make, ouch, you hurt me Sylvia.

Zac Young quote Tracker: “Have you been snorting buttercream?” – about having to make a wedding cake in 1.5 hours, ” I was [the kid] slammed in the locker in school” – on why he wanted to win the challenge for the Glee club.

Other notes: There has been crying on all three episodes of Top Chef: Just Desserts – Zac in episode 1, although those were tears of joy, Seth in episode 2 and now Malika.  Seth seems to have recovered from his red hots meltdown and we learn that he feels misunderstood and doesn’t know what it will take to get back in the other chef’s good graces.  Not sure if he went in the right direction with that goal.

More Top Chef: Just Desserts coverage on DessertBuzz:

Go here for an interview with contestant Zac Young from New York’s Flex Mussels

Go here for an interview with contestant Eric Wolitzky from New York’s Baked bakery.

For a recap of episode 1 go here.

For a recap of episode 2 go here.

Go here for a look at Johnny Iuzzini.

Go here for a closer look at Judge Danielle Kyrillos.

Official Bravo Bios for the judges: Johnny Iuzzuni – Executive Pastry Chef Jean Georges, Hubert Keller – Owner/Chef Fleur De Lys, Gail Simmons – Food and Wine Magazine, Dannielle Kyrillos – Daily Candy

Go here for the DessertBuzz Top Chef: Just Desserts preview page.