By Michelle Lerner

What do you get when you mix 14 chefs, a barbecue challenge and a hot summer day? A recipe for boredom.

After a creative and interesting start last week, this episode of TOP CHEF found the contestants doing something I have seen so many times, I could have predicted what they were going to make. I almost fell asleep.

The high level at which these chefs are cooking actually kind of hurts the show, because there is no dish that was obviously untasty, or as we say in the vernacular, “nasty.” Sometimes, to keep things entertaining, you need the foolish person who has no idea what s/he is doing.

For the first half of the episode, the burgeoning competition between Tre and Hung kept me hooked. So far, I am rooting for Tre, just because his dishes always look really good — even that peachy salmon thing the chefs said was too salty. Hung seems to have the goods, but he hasn’t really turned into the nemesis he promised to be last week. Instead, he comes off as more of a hyperactive child than a bad guy like TOP CHEF 2 runner-up Marcel (who I always thought bore more then a passing resemblance to Syndrome in THE INCREDIBLES). But, that’s OK.

By the end of the show, the cheftestant I was most fascinated by was Joey. He reminds me of the worst sort of contestant on THE APPRENTICE; the bitchy, whiney loser guy. These sorts always blame other people for their problems, worship Donald Trump and are quick to get hotheaded and confused. Joey was two for three of those traits tonight; bitching about Hung’s watermelon drink and starting a fight out of nowhere with Howie. I’ll throw in the title of “Biggest Mama’s Boy” to boot. He wins that for justifying a boring dish by saying that his family used to make it at home. Apparently, his family is big into barbecuing in the summer. Fancy that. Points for being original there!

I always love to hate a character, and though I suspected last week it might be Joey, I was also considering disliking Howie. But, I don’t really think Howie is going to be around long enough to dislike. And, he does have an earnest way about him that I am beginning to find endearing. No, I think I’ll stick with loathing Joey for being a big old baby, and I’ll continue to root for Tre and Sarah (who barely made tonight’s episode).

The runner-up for most dislikable this week is Micah, who snuffled to herself and blamed being homesick for her baby. In fact, I believe — as the other cheftestants suspect — that Michah was really just peeved at being in the bottom three for the “Quickfire Challenge.” By the end, when she made the top three, she was all smiles. I kind of wish she admitted to the judges that she used lamb as her protein because it was on sale. I bet that would have impressed them. She really threw that dish together. But, she does need a bit of an attitude adjustment. Man up, woman! You are a good chef! Stop being a brat! Or be a bigger brat! Pick one!

I have faith. Though, previews for next week's episode make it look almost as boring as this one. Except that a dish does actually look disgusting. Awesome!