Quote machine Andrew D’Ambrosi pretty much did nothing right when he made his sushi roll boxed lunch for the Chicago Police Academy, but I was still hoping that somehow Lisa Fernandes’ almost-as-terrible dish and unsportsmanlike behavior at the judges’ table might be reason enough to send her home instead.

But as much as Andrew might have been my favorite contestant from a personality standpoint, Lisa appears to be the better chef, so I can’t be too upset with the judges’ decision to kick out the guy who unintentionally (on the Elimination Challenge) and intentionally (in all other contexts) went “against the grain.”

Or can I? I thought things were a bit off (and forced) when Antonia Lofaso described Lisa as “strong female competition,” especially because Lisa would be in the bottom bracket for the last four Elimination Challenges by the end of that episode. Compare that to Andrew, who had been in the top Elimination Challange bracket for the previous three. Hmm.

Plus, I happen to agree that as nutso as Andrew is, he wouldn’t have thrown Lisa under the bus at the judges’ table; after all, not only did he did mention to her in the kitchen that her shrimp might have too much cholesterol for a health-oriented challenge, but he didn’t mention it until provoked.

Regardless, I’ve always had fun watching Andrew. Whether he was wearing a too-tight football helmet for the Bears tailgate challenge, proposing an Oompa-Loompa presentation for the movie challenge, cursing for no apparent reason, expressing his culinary (love) for staying up to cook for 14 hours straight or just being awesome, Andrew was the most entertaining contestant since C.J. Jacobsen in Season 3.

I mean, how could you not love a guy who gave us this sound byte at the beginning of what wound up being his last episode?

I woke up today with a f***ing fire inside my stomach, like, either I’m going to stab somebody or I’m going to make some amazing food.

After the break, I’ll break down the rest of Week 10, preview next week’s Restaurant Wars, which would have been so much more fun with Andrew and make predictions for the final five eliminations.

Evangelos “Spike” Mendelsohn opened the show with a somewhat ironic quote about Dale Talde’s behavior in the previous Quickfire and Elimination challenges:

Why would you wanna be the outcast and act like an a******? It’s going to follow you and it’s going to haunt you at some point, Dale, in your career.

Antonia’s fawning over guest chef Sam Talbot was a little nauseating. But it’s perfectly fine when male contestants rave about host Padma Lakshmi. Yes, I’m a hypocrite. As eye candy, Sam’s appearance worked well with the not-so-Quickfire Challenge to bring sexy back to salad. In other words, do the impossible. (Well, not exactly. I inhale Caesar salad, but that’s not technically even a salad any more once it’s drenched in dressing, is it?)

The Quickfire’s Top 3 were Spike, Antonia and Dale, while Richard Blais, Stephanie Izard (again!) and Lisa trickled into the Bottom 3. Thankfully, Lisa didn’t blame anyone else for supposedly sabotaging her food this time around. She’d save that for the Elimination Challenge.

Spike won the Quickfire and got to take advantage in the Elimination Challenge, which was to make healthy boxed lunches for the Chicago Police Academy’s officers and cadets. Knowing that his Quickfire reward was the ability to use four foods that couldn’t be used by his competitors, he grabbed four of the most crucial ingredients: chicken, tomatoes, bread and lettuce. De-fense! (Clap-clap!) De-fense! (Clap-clap!)

While others complained, an undaunted Andrew said in his confessional that Spike’s strategy had no impact on his own. Andrew then playfully taunted Stephanie by sticking some food in her face and demanding her to smell his pending “success.” She seemed to be wanting no part of it, and it was tough to tell if she was amused or bemused by his latest exhibitionist exhibition.

As Lisa complained that someone turned the burner up to high, thus burning her rice, Stephanie reminded me why she was one of my favorite contestants:

I don’t think there’s any sabotage going on. I think people make a mistake or let a mistake happen and they just feel like blaming it on somebody else.

Once they were done in the kitchen, the chefs headed to the police academy, where sadly Steve Guttenberg was nowhere to be found. But there was definitely a Blues Brothers feel to the sign in the lobby:

THE CHICAGO POLICE ACADEMY WELCOMES TOP CHEF. UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS WILL BE SUBJECT TO ARREST.

Nice. I half-expected Jake and Elwood to emerge to perform a song while the chefs marketed their food, all while John Candy enjoyed the performance from the balcony. And Elwood’s famous speech still works even when you change the word “show” to “food”:

We’re so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight, and we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of Illinois’ Law Enforcement Community who have chosen to join us here in the Chicago Police Academy at this time. We do sincerely hope you’ll all enjoy the food, and please remember, people, that no matter who you are, and what you do to live, thrive and survive, there are still some things that make us all the same. You, me, them. Everybody! Everybody!

I love that movie. It’s in my all-time Top 20. Moving on….

Another reason to love Andrew: He used one of the giant Top Chef index cards that chefs had been using to explain how to prepare the boxed lunches to make a giant “My name is Andrew” sign for his lapel. Hilarious.

Dale, showing some rare humility, had a tough time predicting who’d be eliminated:

For the first time, it’s hard to say a clear-cut loser and winner. Sometimes you can point ‘em out, and this time, I don’t think you can.

I’m guessing he didn’t see Andrew’s dish, which at least to me appeared to be the worst by a lot. And interestingly, Dale was the winner. We’d seen Dale win when he was bragging about his dish, so it was intriguing to watch his reaction when he wasn’t sure just how well he did. Stephanie, perhaps righting her ship again, was also in the top Elimination Challenge bracket.

As for the Bottom 3, it was Andrew, whose dish was healthy but otherwise a dismal failure; Lisa, whose dish was almost as bad; and Spike, who had an unappealing olive-grape flavor profile and didn’t use the lettuce, tomato or bread for any real purpose. Andrew forgot to use a grain, which the judges curiously didn’t ask him about but knew all along had been the case. That seems strange, especially since Lisa was quick to bring it up. Makes me wonder if they planned to ask Andrew about that had Lisa said nothing.

So head judge Tom Colicchio seemed to enjoy delivering the pun “botched lunch.” And Andrew waved off security as shook the hands of everyone at the judges’ table. For a change, he handled his elimination with grace and humility. You could tell the judges almost always got a kick out of Andrew, even if his food wasn’t always up to par.

Next week? Restaurant wars. Last year, favorite Tre Wilcox was eliminated after this challenge—perhaps in lieu of C.J., who also could have gone home—so it just goes to show that anything can happen.

If an upset is unlikely, the rest of the eliminations until the finale are pretty easy to figure out. In the next two weeks, it’ll be either Lisa-Spike or Spike-Lisa; then Antonia-Dale or Dale-Antonia; leaving Richard and Stephanie to face off in the final challenge. And as boring and predictable as that might sound, it’s the way it should be, based on the first 10 weeks of “Top Chef.”

And even though Richard’s been more consistent to this point, I think the series will do anything possible to ensure that Stephanie is the winner, whether she deserves it or not. And if she does win, because of all the battle-of-the-sexes sound bytes we’ve heard from Antonia alone, people like me will wonder if it was a pity vote rather than a genuine victory. Here’s hoping she blows the competition away in the finale, assuming she gets there.

(Photos by Chuck Hodes for NBC/Universal.)