Who Went Home on ‘TOC: All-Star Christmas’ Tonight? The Great 8 Battles Begin! ...Saudi Arabia

Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas is down to its Great 8 teams, and these round 2 matchups were real barn-burners. The battles tonight were as follows:

At the top of the hour, Chefs Graham and Giuseppe got to open their Golden Gifts for earning the highest first-round score (87). They each won a cruise for two.

The two battles left for next week are:

Spoiler warning: This post reveals who went home and who advanced to the semifinals on Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas. Don't keep reading if you don't want to be spoiled.

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There was an upset this week — Tobias & Marcel took down Alex & Antonia by one point, 80 to 79, on a really difficult Randomizer.

The first matchup was also a small upset when Kevin & Dale took down Graham & Giuseppe by a score of 78 to 74. Graham & Giuseppe did have the highest first-round score, and Dale & Kevin are a 4-seed.

Let's see how we got here…

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The First Faceoff

The first battle was between two of the three lowest seeds to advance: 3-seed Graham & Giuseppe vs 4-seed Dale & Kevin. Their Randomizer came up rack of lamb for their savory ingredient, rhubarb for their sweet ingredient, cedar plank for equipment, stuffed for style and mincemeat for the wild card ingredient, which must be in both dishes. Mincemeat is a mixture of dried fruit, brandy and cow fat.

For Kevin & Dale, they made smoked rack of lamb with a mincemeat dumpling for savory and cannolis and rhubarb dulce de leche for sweet. Dale was going to make mochi-like rice balls, but he had to pivot because he couldn't get the dough right.

Kevin and Dale are one of the teams that does not have a dedicated pastry chef, like the Voltaggio brothers and Alex & Antonia. That could prove tricky as the competition gets stiffer because if the savory dishes are comparable, it'll come down to the dessert scores.

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Graham and Giuseppe decided to do roasted rack of lamb with mincemeat jam and stuffed delicata squash for savory and mincemeat beignets and meringue for sweet.

The judges this week were Susan Feniger, Judy Joo and Geoffrey Zakarian. That's quite a panel.

During judging, Kevin & Dale were dinged for the lamb being overly smoky (for Susan) and a lack of creaminess and rhubarb flavor in the dessert.

Graham & Giuseppe were dinged for both the lamb and the meringue not being smoky enough, and the lamb and beignets being slightly undercooked. It really felt like Kevin & Dale had it after those comments.

The score ended up being tied on sweet but a four-point difference on savory. In the end, Dale & Kevin won by a score of 78 to 74.

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The second battle was between 1-seed Alex & Antonia vs 3-seed Tobias & Marcel. Their Randomizer came up scallops for savory, sweet potato for sweet, the aebleskiver pan for equipment, sour for style and hibiscus for the wild card ingredient. Woof. That is a hard set of requirements.

"This is so bad," said Alex. Later, sideline reporter Tiffani Faison hilariously remarked, "The aebleskiver pan, little bit tricky. You want to make sure when you use the aebleskiver pan that it doesn't turn into the evil-skiver pan."

She's not wrong. I grew up in a Danish church where we did an aebleskiver brunch every spring as a fundraiser, and those pans have a steep learning curve. Marcel kept calling it the "aeblegiver" pan, which was funny.

Alex & Antonia decided to make lemon curd-filled aebleskivers (which are like round, puffy doughnuts) with a hibiscus/lemon sorbet for sweet and seared scallops with hibiscus/cranberry relish and parsnip puree. Alex was on sweet, and she got very behind, which made plating quite the last-minute endeavor. They barely made it.

Marcel & Tobias went with seared scallops with a soy and hibiscus glaze and a Thai basil coconut curry with lime rice for savory and hibiscus and passion fruit drizzle over aebleskiver doughnuts with sweet potato pearls inside and a sweet potato puree.

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Interestingly, but also not a surprise because the aebleskiver pan is a fairly specific piece of equipment, both teams seared their scallops in the pan and also used it to make aebleskivers for their dessert. It's obvious, but it also just made a ton of sense. Unfortunately, Tobias didn't get his scallops far enough down into the pan to get the best sear, and Antonia did. That could be the difference.

During judging, Marcel & Tobias got dinged for lack of sear on the scallops and lack of seasoning on the dessert (though they aren't sure if it needed more salt or more sugar).

Alex & Antonia got dinged for lack of hibiscus and acidity in the savory dish, and not enough sweet potato in the dessert, plus a poor color choice and sloppy plating for the dessert plate, which was definitely true. The dessert plate looked weird and messy.

It felt like after the judging, Marcel & Tobias won savory and Alex & Antonia won sweet — and that turned out to be exactly what happened. The scores turned out to be 38 (savory) and 41 (sweet) for 79 total for Alex & Antonia, and 43 (savory) and 37 (sweet) for 80 total for Marcel & Tobias.

Wow. Good for them! Talk about a dark-horse team.

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The Semifinal Matchups

The matchups in the semifinals are as follows:

Those final two Great 8 matchups take place next week, Wednesday, December 3 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network. Then the semifinals and the finals air in the same episode on Wednesday, December 10, also at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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