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The five remaining chefs have to do the following seafood dishes:

Carla, escalar
Hosea, monkfish
Leah, mahi mahi
Fabio, red snapper
Jaime, black bass

The most interesting of these choices is Jaime, as she generally didn't like the dishes in Eric Ripert's tasting lunch and found the black bass dish to be the worst. Oh well, you got dealt a bad hand. Deal with it.

The six chefs head to the kitchen where they have two hours to experiment with all of the ingredients in their dish and try to re-create it. Stefan is overwhelmingly confident. He's figured out all the ingredients, for sure. "It's a really classic combination" he sniffs. He's really reminding me of Hung, lately. And not in a good way.

As for the other chefs, Jaime is unsure of how to braise celery for her dish but is giving it a try. Hosea is unsure of how to incorporate the za'atar spice into his fish and is particularly worried about using too much or too little. Fabio is worried about his Italian style clashing with Eric Ripert's French culinary style. Carla is confident in her skills, seeing as how she's classically trained.

Leah seems like she's having the most trouble (big surprise). She has no idea of how to incorporate the miso ingredient into the sauce for her fish. She decides to use butter. That seems like a huge mistake to me, seeing as how Japanese chefs never mix miso with butter.

Eric Ripert comes into the kitchen to try each chef's dish and give them suggestions before they have to cook the dish for real in the challenge. Stefan cooked his asparagus when it should be raw. Leah's broth is too intense. Carla is close with her sauce but needs acidity on her fish. Hosea hasn't cooked his fish using the right technique. All pretty minor issues except for Hosea.

Eric Ripert leaves the kitchen and I start yelling, "BUT WHAT ABOUT JAIME?!?!" He didn't taste her dish. I'm taking this as a good sign, assuming that he had nothing important to say to her, meaning that her dish is fine. Oh boy, am I wrong. Apparently, she's having so much trouble staying on schedule that there wasn't anything ready for him to taste. I'm starting to get really worried about her.

The two hours are up and the chefs begin presenting their dishes to the judges. Fabio is up first and it looks like he's burnt the top of his breaded fish . . . but apparently, it looks worse than it tastes. The top IS burnt and a little too thick, but the flavor is very close to the original according to Eric Ripert and it's dubbed "a very good forgery" by Tom. He's safe.

Leah is next and has been struggling to get her fish cooked all the way - sticking it back in the oven for another minute before plating. The minute the dish goes out, the complaints start pouring in. The miso saunce is not as thick as the original, says Tom. The flavor is definitely different, says Padma. There's not intensity of flavor, only ginger, says Tom. Toby says that her fish is "dull" while Eric's fish in the original recipe felt like an entirely new discovery, full of flavor and energy. Eric Ripert is genuinely humbled at this compliment, muttering a thank you. Padma proudly dubs him the new Top Chef.

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