Note: Contains spoiler info. Missed the show? More "Top Chef" air times. Last time on "Top Chef": The 9 remaining cheftestants used Alexia brand snacks as inspiration and a culinary companion in their quickfire dishes, culminating in Eli's first win of the season for his potato-clam salad with fennel, celery and white truffle sauce. For the elimination challenge, New American cuisine kingpin Charlie Palmer brought his Pigs & Pinot event to the table, asking the chefs to prepare 150 tasting-size dishes that paired the aforementioned ingredients. The hopefuls drew knives to determine their pork parts, but selected their Pinot from the massive wine tower at the Vegas branch of Palmer's restaurant, Aureole. Kevin, whose pork leg pâté paired with 2006 Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills nailed the essence of the challenge. This marked his fourth elimination challenge win, breaking the tie he held with three-time EC winner Bryan V to become the most successful contestant so far this season. Meanwhile, Ash's chilled tenderloin with cherry-corn salad, paired with 2007 Sanford, was panned for its blandness, and the sweet-but-long-struggling chef was sent packing.

Thanks, readers, for your patience on this recap while I handled the Jay-Z concert in the wee hours of Wednesday. Now, back to the scheduled program.

Rick Moonen and Padma Lakshmi introduce a quickfire challenging the cheftestants' teamwork skills.

Seafood maestro Rick Moonen stepped in this week as guest judge. This week's quickfire, a "tag team cook-off," was probably the most exciting of the season. The cheftestants drew knives to determine teams, with all of the knives blank, except one printed with "choose first" (pulled by Jennifer) and one with "choose second" (pulled by Michael V). From there, the lucky knife-pullers took turns to select their teams.

After the teams were designated, the hopefuls learned this was not a simple culinary relay-style event; rather, each team had 40 minutes to prepare a single dish, with the first chef working for 10 minutes, and each other chef taking a turn until the time expired. Again, this sounded reasonable enough, but then the twist: the chefs would not be allowed to talk once the challenge commenced, which went into effect after getting a minute or so to discuss cooking order (no actual cooking chat allowed). Plus, lest the contestants start mentally planning their dishes, they were blindfolded after determining the cooking order. Victory would go to the team with the most cohesive dish — along with $10,000 split among the members, as this was a high stakes quickfire.

Michael V finishes up the dish for the "tag team cook-off" quickfire.

The teams, organized by cooking order: • Jennifer, Laurine, Mike, Kevin • Eli, Robin, Bryan V, Michael V

This shaped up to be a pretty fair match, with two top-tier cheftestants (Bryan, Jennifer, Kevin, Michael V) and two comparatively middle-to-low players (Eli, Laurine, Mike, Robin) apiece. Team Michael V turned out a pan-roasted New York strip steak with whipped miso, avocado purée and pickled vegetables, praised by chef Moonen as intriguing and delicious, with the rare-ness of the meat enhanced by the sides. Conversely, Team Jennifer offered a sablefish with sautéed mushrooms, shiitake broth and radish salad, edging out the win thanks to the long finish lent by the broth.

Then, the big news, as Padma announced the restaurant wars elimination challenge. The quickfire teams carried over and would be working and serving in the kitchens and dining rooms of Moonen's Las Vegas establishment, RM Seafood, with an hour to shop and a $1,500 budget. In contrast to previous restaurant wars, the cheftestants were not responsible for décor; this season was all about food and good service from the kitchen as well as the front of the house. Additionally, the chef handling FOH duties was charged with conceptualizing and executing one of the team's dishes. Finally, the teams were also encouraged to follow through on chef Moonen's philosophy of using sustainable ingredients. Now, for the good stuff that Jennifer's team got with their quickfire win: they had the kitchen and dining room of their choice, opting for the more fine dining-style facilities. And a juicier choice: accept the $10,000 to split among the four, or let it ride and win $10,000 apiece if they won restaurant wars (of course getting nothing if they lost). Apropos of Sin City, Team Jennifer let it ride.

Now, for the good stuff: the restaurant names and menus, with the chef(s) responsible in parenthesis:

Team Jennifer: Mission • asparagus & six-minute egg (Mike) • Arctic char tartare (Mike) • bouillabaisse consommé (Jennifer) • seared trout (Jennifer) • pork three ways (Kevin) • lamb with carrot jam (Laurine, Kevin)

Team Michael V: Rɘvolt [sic] • chicken & calamari "pasta" (Michael V) • smoked Arctic char (Eli) • duo of beef (Bryan V) • cod & billi-bi sauce (Michael V) • pear pithivier (Robin) • chocolate ganache (Bryan V)

Team Jennifer, noting that little good has come of ill-prepared chefs making desserts during past restaurant wars, chose to go strictly savory. On the other hand, Bryan V and Robin were confident enough in their dessert abilities to offer the judges and guests something sweet. Would this decision affect the outcome? Yes and no, as you'll find by reading on.

Team Michael V's Rɘvolt (Robin + Eli + Voltaggio, FYI, though it was misinterpreted as a slight toward the team's cooking) was first on the judging block. The team leader's chicken and calamari was a hit, described by the judges as a genius combination — and that wasn't the last of the praise for Michael V, with the judges calling his cod brilliant, appreciating its melt-in-your-mouth quality. The desserts were well-liked, too, from Robyn's thoughtful pithivier, hands-down her best dish to date; to Bryan V's silky, beautiful chocolate ganache. Bryan V's cod, however, was not so popular, dismissed for being bland and not served hot enough. The other lowlight of the meal was Eli's one-dimensional smoked Arctic char, but his hosting duties were welcoming and thorough, which contributed to the pretty successful overall experience.

Laurine puts some final touches on the presentation end of her team's dishes before sending it out to the diners.

Team Jennifer's Mission followed, opening with two disappointments by Mike, his boring asparagus and egg dish and an under-seasoned Arctic char tartare that compelled the judges to ask for a salt shaker. Jennifer also had a rough night, from the broth being the only redeeming quality of her bouillabaisse, to her seared trout shaping up greasy, flavorless and with a broken sauce, culminating in head judge Tom Colicchio calling the latter a disaster. Kevin's pork three ways was fine but didn't wow anyone, and he couldn't help Laurine's lamb, which was far too rare. Laurine also didn't help herself with her FOH skills, slow to seat guests and serve food, and simply dropping off the dishes to the judges without explanation, to the point that the judges called her back to the table to ask what they were about to eat.

Team Michael V — Robin, Eli, Michael V and Bryan V — had a successful dinner service, but it wasn't all smiles in the kitchen, as they discuss the night's events.

With all of this in mind, it was obvious to judges, viewers and cheftestants alike that Team Jennifer should've taken the $10,000 at the end of the quickfire. Adding to the rub, the judges hailed Team Michael V for creating the best restaurant wars dishes in "Top Chef" history. But only one team member could be the big winner, and with two knockout dishes under his watch, Michael V was the man. Appropriately, he was awarded the $10,000 that Jennifer's team gave up earlier, and in contrast to his brusque personality, his reply to this news was to ask whether he could split it with his teammates. (Colicchio: "You can do whatever you want with it.")

Now, the bad news for Team Jennifer. Jennifer had a taste of humble pie, as the judges asked how her real-life boss, Eric Ripert, would feel about her restaurant wars performance. And Mike knew he was no prize pig himself. But the combination of a failure of a dish with meltdown-level service led to Laurine's well-deserved elimination, given her unimpressive performance all season long.

There's only a bit of fat left to trim competitorwise this season, which should make these next couple of episodes interesting. It's close enough to the finale that a small misstep could send home one of the more successful cheftestants, so it's more important now than ever that Eli, Mike and Robin try to impress the judges, and Jennifer, Kevin and the Voltaggio brothers stay on top of their games.

Chrysta Cherrie is the entertainment producer/copy editor for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at chrystacherrie@annarbor.com or 734-623-2526, and follow her on Twitter @chrystacherrie.