It’s mid-May, but you get the feeling last night’s “Top Chef: Masters” was probably taped around Valentine’s Day. At least, that’s the only explanation I can come up with for the random “Date Night” theme.

Before that, though, we got a variation on the “name that ingredient” task for the Quickfire challenge. In successive rounds, the chefs had to identify five ingredients using only one of their senses. Lowest score in each round is eliminated.

In the taste round (which seems harder than you might think when you’re denied your sense of smell), Floyd doesn’t get a single ingredient right. He chalks it up to the fact that having to wear a blindfold, nose plug and headphones threw his whole balance out of whack.

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Another week, another challenge that forces the “Top Chef: Masters” contestants to work in a difficult environment. At least this one wasn’t the out-and-out failure of last week’s fast food restaurant.

But before we get to that, we’re going to play a little “7 minutes in heaven.” (I swear I said that joke before host Curtis Stone did on the episode. Stop stealing my material, Stone!)

Working off the All-Stars episode where Tom Colicchio made a dish in record time, our Master chefs are given 7 minutes to make a “heavenly” dish with top-shelf ingredients. If that’s not enough pressure, the judges for this Quickfire are the chefs themselves.

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Last night’s episode of “Top Chef: Masters” was all about budget-conscious creations. The Quickfire focused on cooking on the cheap, and the Elimination challenge put master chefs in an even cheaper environment. (Some of the contestants took some cheap shots at non-fine dining establishments.)

Worst of all, it became painfully obvious that producers have cheapened the “Masters” franchise with this third season.

But let's start with the Quickfire, which was an interesting concept: Make an appetizer that has a total value of a dollar or less. It presented a nice challenge for chefs who likely aren’t used to this kind of restriction on their ingredients. For example, Mary Sue decided not to taste her bacon because she was worried using some to sample wouldn’t leave her with enough for the dish.

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With its new format and new host, this season of “Top Chef: Masters” seems to have carved out its own niche, feeling more like a standard reality show competition than past seasons.

Unfortunately, it’s not the most compelling reality show competition, and last night’s episode continued that trend.

The Quickfire challenge was to make a master cheese dish, and the twist (if you can really call it that) was that the chefs only had 12 minutes to cook. The time constraint would seem to add some pressure, but everyone finished in time. And since the episode devoted almost no time to the Quickfire itself, it just made the whole challenge seem perfunctory.

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If you saw any of the previews for this season of “Top Chef: Masters,” you knew this episode was coming. Hopefully you had enough time to prepare yourselves.

Last night’s Quickfire challenge forced the chefs to think organic. They were required to work with raw materials, including some unusual proteins. You could say (and host Curtis Stone does) that they had the opportunity to go back to their roots.

Have I stalled long enough for any weak-stomached readers out there to cover their eyes?

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This new season of “Top Chef: Masters” may have stumbled out of the gate, but with last night’s episode it seemed to be finding its footing.

It also doesn’t hurt to have some celebrities along to boost the star power.

First things first, though. As the chefs enter the kitchen, we’re told that John Rivera Sedlar has had to withdraw from the competition because of an emergency. To fill the void, welcome back Hugh Acheson, who was eliminated last week.

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