I know it helped to take notes as the second episode of “Top Chef” Season 4 unfolded, but I think even catatonic viewers could guess that Valerie Bolon (pictured right) would be the one going home.

For the elimination challenge, teams of three were each asked to create dishes inspired by the diets of one of five animals—penguin, vulture, lion, bear and gorilla—and serve them to 200 people at Lincoln Park Zoo. The teams seemed to be ranked in that descending order when the judges made their decisions.

Wait, so serving horrendous blinis as your only dish on the worst of five trios (Team Gorilla) is enough to send you home? You don’t say!

The only person remotely close to taking Valerie’s place was Team Bear chef Nikki Cascone, who made at least three poor decisions—serving putrid mushrooms, not bothering to taste said mushrooms and, unbeknownst to the judges, lobbying to spend some of the food budget on decor instead of ingredients. That last one set back the feminist movement about 50 years.

Attempts to make one of Nikki’s teammates, Dale Talde, look equally responsible didn’t seem credible, especially since instigator Evangelos (“Spike”) Mendelsohn appeared to tweak him when he, too, hated the mushrooms. But at least Team Bear presented the judges with some dishes that were palatable.

And there was no way Valerie’s Team Gorilla teammate, Stephanie Izard, was going home for her poorly seasoned crab salad. And although I objected that the judges didn’t seem to penalize her for incorporating crab—not on the list of vegetarian foods gorillas normally eat—into one of her dishes, I accepted her pass because she also made the successful banana bread dish. Slam-dunking the previous week’s elimination challenge didn’t hurt her either.

Even the episode’s editor seemed to admit the lack of suspense by not bothering to insert a pause and a reaction shot of the eliminated cheftestant between Padma’s announcing of that person’s name and her “please pack your knives and go.”

More thoughts about the episode and the remaining contestants are after the break.

One week after Richard Blais (un)intentionally tweaked with Andrew D’Ambrosi, I was happy to see a changing of the guard when guest chef/judge Wylie Dufresne (pictured right) preferred the molecular gastronomy styles of the latter. Andrew’s growing on me, despite his insistence on cursing in every other sentence. And his food—from his innovative mint “glacier” to his sumptuous squid—is backing up his talk for the time being.

Even more successful and likable in Week 2 was New Zealand native Mark Simmons, who redeemed last week’s Bottom 4 performance with a win in the Quickfire Challenge and rave reviews for his dish—particularly impressive because he left one of his five main ingredients at the Green City Market. He seems like a humble enough guy with still enough confidence to sink a pool shot while explaining to Dale (and the camera) that “vultures are able to do things without even looking.”

Chappaqua’s Erik Hopfinger, still one of my faves personality-wise, hasn’t been delivering in the kitchen just yet. After escaping last week’s Elimination Challenge judges’ table, he was in the Bottom 3 of this week’s Quickfire for presenting a dish that was “not composed” and was part of Team Lion, which only finished third out of five. He’ll need to step it up very soon, because if there’s one thing these judges hate almost as much as serving disgusting food, it’s being safe.

Let’s see: Spike Mendelsohn watched musical performers at the Green City Market while everyone else shopped for the Quickfire challenge, served a terrible Quickfire dish (albeit with tenderloin he didn’t expect would look like “dog meat”) and poured gasoline on an argument between his Elimination Challenge teammates on Team Bear, which probably was the second-worst of the five teams. So, no, I’m not a huge fan of him right now.

Here’ s how I’m receiving the remaining 14 contestants:

Favorites: Mark Simmons, Andrew D’Ambrosi, Stephanie Izard and Erik Hopfinger.

Indifferent: Richard Blais, Zoi Antonitsas, Jennifer Biesty, Antonia Lofaso and Lisa Fernandes, Ryan Scott and Manuel Trevino.

Grating on me: Nikki Cascone, Dale Talde and Evangelos “Spike” Mendelsohn (all of Team Bear!)

(Photo of Bolon by Chuck Hodes; photo of Dufresne by Matt Dinerstein. Both pictures courtesy of NBC/Universal.)