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The chefs come back out for one final round of applause and Tom drops the final bomb: the winner will also get to compete for a spot to cook on the US team at the Bocuse D'Or. The cheftestants all proclaim an eagerness to take part on the team, but frankly, I think they're all shellshocked. We didn't have any AMAZING dishes. Most everyone had some serious mistakes. I think frankly that this challenge called for the chefs to come up with some extremely complex dishes, and as a result, most of them tripped up somewhere along the way. This is understandable, given that they only had 12 hours between the announcement of the challenge and dinner service. Still, it makes for a slightly underwhelming TV experience. I wanted to see fireworks and all I got was a pretty bonfire.

The cheftestants settle into the Stew Room but I predict that Padma will call all five chefs out and not just the top two or three. I can't imagine that the judges will want to give any chef a hint about which four will be going onto the finale in Napa Valley.

And I'm right, Padma invites all five to come before Judges Table. Each one has criticisms leveled at them.

- Michael's ingredients of cauliflower and caviar were not Mediterranean. There was a bone in one of his pieces of fish. Parts of his dish were great but it overall lacked direction.
- Bryan's lamb was underdone. With more time, it might have been a totally different dish (i.e. it wasn't well executed at all)
- Kevin's dish was very simple, not demonstrating many culinary skills. It was too bare given the amount of time he had to cook
- Jennifer didn't cut her fish well, with certain pieces thicker than others, which led to uneven cooking
- Eli under cooked his lamb sausage, leaving big pieces of fat in it.

The five chefs head back to the Stew Room with no idea as to how anything turned out. Meanwhile, the judges go over the nitty-gritty.

Gail loved the influences of Eli's dish, especially his sauces but Padma points out that it was the worst lamb dish of the night. Jerome says that it's hard to see the big picture with an important component (his sausage) wasn't right. Gail liked Jennifer's garnishes and the salmon she ate was cooked well, but the salmon was inconsistent as a whole across all the diners. Tom points out the uneven cutting again.

Tom found Kevin's dish to be well executed but simplistic. Jerome says that in the actual Bocuse D'Or competition, his dish would have been dismissed immediately, though he also notes that because he was the only one who correctly cooked his dish, he should place ahead of his fellow chefs.

With Michael, Tom says that he demonstrated tons of technique and put in a lot of work. Padma says that his techniques in the past hasn't resulted in a loss of flavor, but this time it did. Gail said that his protein was perfect but his garnish was weak. Tom says that Bryan's dish is on the bottom for him because of the total lack of execution. Gail agrees, saying that Bryan did more than others, but didn't do it right.

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