Top Chef Season 5 - "Super"-ly Suspicious

The conspiracy theories have to be flying after tonight's episode.

Jeff, after a "Super-Bowl themed competition", was sent with his knives packin' back down to the Miami.

And here's why this bugs me.....

Do I think Jeff would eventually win? Certainly not - Jeff is a solid chef but he was too inconsistent and combined too many elements into dishes that didn't need to be complicated. But no way did he deserve to go home tonight. And tonight is all that matters.

Fabio, for starters, performed the cardinal sin of Top Chef - overcooking meat. Chefs have been sent to the chopping block time after time and usually eliminated when they overcook meat - especially when Tom, who has a particularly sore spot for "meats-cooked-poorly", called Fabio out on the spot for his error. Then, he tried to defend his poor cooking with eradicate and hard-to-believe reasons. The European looked set to go home.

After winning 5 straight challenges, Stefan and his arrogant yet brilliant cooking style found himself on the block as well. His dish was actually received the worst out of all of the contestants in the competition. This should have been enough to force Stefan home. After all, if we've heard one phrase repeated over and over again from the judges, it is the following: "The past means nothing. It is what you have done for me lately that matters." And certainly, Stefan's disappointing dish (you could see the blandness radiating off of his small portion dish) should have set the enigmatic chef home.

Now, in no means was Jeff's dish excellent. But the judge's appeared split on their decision at the actual tasting, much more than we can say about the judge's reactions to Fabio's and Stefan's respective dishes.

Was Jeff voted off because his cooking was the worst? Or, was Jeff sent packing because sending Fabio or Stefan home would kill off funny, interesting, controversial and television-sexy characters? Let the conspiracy theories begin......