Jaunted

First stop is the picturesque, sprawling grounds of Houmas House Plantation and Gardens in Darrow, Louisiana, which if you thought looked familiar, could be because it's been the setting for dozens of TV shows and movies, from All My Children to Fletch II to Budweiser spots. The obvious N.O. guest judge—Emeril Lagasse—shows up to resurrect one of the axed chefs, and he likes Jeff's reigned-in creative monkey, sending Leah and Jamie packing yet again.

The rest of the show seems like a paid ad for New Orleans: the chefs stay in a swank suite at the ritzy Hotel Monteleone—ooh look, a gift basket from New Orleans tourism and marketing!—have dinner at Emeril's Delmonico, hang out at Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World for no apparent reason other than to give Padma a chance to try on pretty masks, then have to cater a masquerade ball at the New Orleans Museum of art.

After all that, any Top Chef watcher could tell you this was gonna be a regionally-centric challenge, and the chef who just didn't understand that was gonna go home. Carla and Hosea are clearly watchers of the show, because they understood and tossed out some perfect gumbo and fried oysters, garnering approving nods from Emeril. Euro #1 (Stefan) made the Creole sin of serving gumbo with a roux that's not dark enough, but dodged the bullet, because Euro #2 (Fabio) didn't get it at all and served pasta. Oops! If only they had gone to Little Italy instead.

· Leah Cooks Her Last Supper [Jaunted]
· Chef'Testants are No Match for Eric Ripert [Jaunted]
· Jeff Takes His 'Creative Monkey' Back to the Beach [Jaunted]

Photo: [Bravo]