Previously, on Top Chef: Sassy chefs! Insufferable man buns! Dirty spoon shaming!

Sixteen remaining chefs file onto an LA rooftop. Padma's there with transplanted French chef Ludo LeFebvre and some awesome news: The chefs will put on four popups in "diverse" neighborhoods across LA. Today.

Ludo promises, “It’s going to be a nightmare, guys.”

Padma divides the group into four teams. Jason ends up with Karen, the Boston chef who missed the James Beard Awards to compete, plus Carl, who might resemble a sweetly enthusiastic theater camp counselor, but seems like a legit cook. There’s also Giselle, who we didn’t see much of last week but apparently has a tendency to share too freely of her internal monologue.

The chefs get into cars and head off to discover what sort of food they’ll be cooking. Yeah, yeah, they talk and stuff, but all you really need to know is that one team’s car passes right by man-bunned Phillip’s restaurant. One chef cries, “That’s what’s-his-name’s restaurant!” This line is closed captioned so you don't miss it thanks to the derisive laughter that follows: The restaurant's entire front window contains a giant photo of Phillip...and his man bun.

Jason’s on the purple team and wondering where they’re headed. He hopes for some Thai food—“I have a lot of ideas about Thai.” Do tell, good sir. I’d totally eat your Thai food. Instead his team arrives in Koreatown, where chef Sang Yoon hands over his restaurant  and some advice on his native food: big flavors, variety, lots of produce, lots of vegetables. “Korean food in LA is only comparable to Korean food in Korea,” he says. “It’s literally that good.” No pressure.

After declaring his intentions to make a chilled noodle soup with daikon broth, our man Jason leads the menu planning discussion, making sure there’s a balance of hot and cold dishes.

Giselle decides to make Korean chicken wings. Which she has eaten, but never cooked. But don’t worry, guys. She knows that these wings are super spicy and “something makes them red.”

“Giselle speaks everything she’s thinking, which can be frustrating,” Jason tells the camera. “Okay girl, I don’t need to hear about all your anxieties.”

Meanwhile, the red team has arrived at a vegan restaurant in Venice. Man-bunned Phillip brags, “My wife, she’s an actress and a model has been on and off raw vegan for years.” When Top Chef includes a clip of a chef saying “I think we’re going to kill it,” it’s a pretty safe bet he is not, in fact, going to kill it.

Not to detract from Phillip being the most insufferable person on this team, but Renee, the redheaded Disney princess, possesses a concerning amount of sexpot photos of her tossing her hair. Not to mention one of her inexplicably drinking wine while wearing a hot pink bikini beneath a chef coat. Grayson’s pissed she can’t cook with meat and composes a bean salad that I could probably make myself—and I mean that in the most insulting, belittling way possible.

The blue team—aka Kwame, Jeremy, Chad, and pigpen Wesley—will put on a Mexican popup, while the silver team—Marjorie, Isaac, Angelina, Amar—cooks Persian. (Isaac, the devout New Orleans boy, tells the camera, “I don’t know what that is.”)

While Jason’s team wanders a Korean grocer, Giselle’s verbal diarrhea continues: “I’m comfortable eating Korean food, but I’m not comfortable making anything in it.”

“Girl’s never fried a chicken wing?” Fellow chef Karen is in a state of disbelief. As am I when, in the next scene, Giselle literally stops a random Korean woman in a store aisle and seeks her advice on frying Korean chicken wings. The woman actually offers advice instead of a restraining order.

The chefs get to work while Gail sends out an awkwardly contrived Twitter invite to the day’s popups.

Back in Koreatown, Jason is calm in the kitchen and warmly professional in front of house mode when the judges show up. We don’t get tons of reaction on his noodle dish, though Gail is all about it. Seems like she has a soft spot for Jason, maybe because he was a Food and Wine Best New Chef back in the day?

The chefs convene in the stew room and compare notes. “I honestly think we’ve got this,” says man-bunned Phillip of his team’s vegan menu.

Padma summons everyone before the judges. Tom says the Persian team asked a lot of questions of their host chef and it shows. The vegan team, however, earns his best disappointed father impression. Frances’s choice to use canned chickpeas leaves Tom actually, physically pained. Grayson is weirdly petulant about her bean salad and the general idea of not cooking with meat: “I thought I gave you something interesting,” she brats to the judges. “If you don’t think so that’s fine.” C’mon—now she’s just trolling.

The winner: Marjorie, the Mike Isabella lieutenant, takes the win for her yogurt mousse and pistachio sponge cake. And another round of kudos for sidestepping the Top Chef dessert curse.

The loser: Goodbye Grayson, it was nice knowing yo--wait, what?! It's Renee, the perky redheaded Disney princess, being banished from the kingdom. It seems Grayson’s crappy salad and crappier attitude was a classic Top Chef fakeout. Renee packs her knives and dispenses awkward hugs to a bunch of people she hardly knows. I might actually kind of miss her. “I arrived sassy, and I’m leaving sassier,” she muses. Maybe I won’t miss her.

On to Last Chance Kitchen!

This season, on Top Chef: Jason stands before the judges looking happy! Jason stands before the judges looking sad! Someone cooks with Bugles! And--oh jeez, is that MC Hammer?

Minutiae:

• The editing of these first two episodes focuses far more on some other chefs, but Jason's a primo Top Chef utility player: a great chef with a calm presence that keeps challenges on track, but well versed in the art of reality shows and unafraid to talk feisty to the camera.
• At the start of the ep, Kwame mentions he’s never cooked Mexican before, then his dish is the only thing that saves his team from the bottom. This guy’s quiet but he kind of rules.
• Is it just me or is the product placement shockingly subtle this season? It somehow doesn’t feel like Top Chef unless someone is working the phrase “Glad family of products” awkwardly into conversation.