Hello fennel lovers and fennel haters! All commenters—regardless of their feelings about fennel—are welcome to participate in our Top Chef Masters live blog, which will get underway soon right under this post. Why not join us?

The live blog happens in the comments section below, and tonight's episode starts at 10 Eastern on Bravo. As long as we avoid controversial food topics, everything should go swimmingly!

I mention this because a full-fledged fennel debate break out during last week's live blog. Commenters DahlELama and dippitydoo are anti-fennel, apparently, while xcornmuffinx and Heneage are pro-fennel. Things might have gotten ugly, but fortunately we all have very short attention spans and quickly changed the subject. Anyway, let's be careful not mention cilantro tonight, OK? Fennel is bad enough, but cilantro is pure flame bait!

Other highlights from last week's live blog included these:

  • During the "Wedding Wars" challenge, we all got distracted by the bride's boobs…and not in a good way. They were like a pair of Olsen twins: undersupported and overexposed.
  • When Rick Moonen called Susan Feniger's cake "the Charlie Brown Christmas tree of wedding cakes," it reminded me of why he was my favorite contestant last season. Please give us more of that wit, Rick, and less drunken grumpiness!
  • Commenter Sugar Boots noted that Feniger "looks like the love child of Truman Capote and the Lucky Charms leprechaun." There were many other funny comments, too — for a selection of a few of my favorites, click here.
  • Carmen "Bloody Fingers" Gonzalez cut herself again. I think she may be one of those "cutters" you hear about. She also got cut by the judges, so I guess that makes her a "cuttee" too.

The big highlight for me, though, was Heneage's description of a recent chance meeting he had in a bar with Bravo programming VP Andy Cohen — who told Heneage he reads these Gawker live blogs every week. So now that I know that, I want to take a moment to send out a quick message to Mr. Cohen: Hi there Andy! We love the show, but not the spoilers in your episode promos. So try not to do that anymore, OK? Thanks. Hey, when does the next Top Chef season start? Have you dropped Toby Young as a judge? Hope so, because we don't care for him. But we love Gail Simmons! Is it OK if we invite her to join our live blog one day? She's the best! Anyway, that's all until next week … bye now!

Ok, I've stopped talking to Andy. That means it's time to talk to all of you about a few "things to watch for tonight," based on what I saw in the preview clips:

  • Susur Lee will speak of "zen accuracy" and "yin and yang balance" in order to remind us, again, that he's Asian. Just in case anyone forgot.
  • For the quickfire, the chefs will have to make dishes inspired by characters from The Simpsons. If I were competing, I'd make a pasta dish with a beer-based sauce and call it "Fettuccini AlfreDOH!"
  • During the elimination challenge, Jonathan Waxman will share this rock-climbing anecdote/analogy: "There was a 2,000 foot drop below me and this guy said ‘trust in your foot.' I think this is sort of the same thing." So there you have it, folks: Jedi Waxman trusts in The Foot instead of The Force. Let The Foot be with you, Obi-Wax!

It's almost show time, so I'll see you down in the comments section shortly. If you want to grab a drink before the live blog starts, now's the time. You fennel lovers may want to put some absinthe in your drink, because absinthe contains fennel. Also, it makes the heart grow fonder.