On a thoughtful episode of Top Chef, with competitors exploring the African diaspora, Dawn Burrell came out on top. Yup, Chef Burrell won the Elimination Challenge. For the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs had to make ... a layered dessert (save your groans, please) using sponsored product Talenti gelato (again, save those groans). Burrell went for a parfait of toasted rice mousse, blackberry caramel, and black sesame crumble. Judge Carrie Baird said, "Thank you, good job." That's what we got; she finished somewhere in the middle. Then came the Elimination Challenge, for which the chefs headed into the city and visited a number of pan-African restaurants to better acclimate them with African cuisine. At Akadi PDX, Burrell and chefs had dishes like cassava and fish with peppers, onions, and sides of spicy sauce. At Bake on the Run, a Guyanese eatery, they had bites like bacalao (Portuguese salt cod stew).