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Meanwhile, Sarah had mentioned during that same challenge that she makes sausage every day and now she explains why. Her grandmother and grandfather made sausage and cabbage each day; Sarah pays tribute with pork sausage stuffed cabbage and spinach with browned butter. The judges like Paul’s dish but they would make love to Sarah’s dish if the state of Texas were not so restrictive about sex acts.

Beverly’s inspiration is his mother, whom I am begging to take out a hit on Heather. Beverly creates Korean braised short rib with edamame scallion puree and hon shimeji mushrooms. Malibu Chris has revealed that his mother was not much of a cook but his uncle taught him how to create delicious fish dishes. Chris makes a sockeye salmon with confit potato and brown sugar carrot puree. One of these dishes is not like the other. Beverly’s second pressure cooker dish of the episode as well as in her entire life is delicious while Chris has albumin leak out of the salmon, a mistake that will annoy any high level judge.

Lindsay mentions that she has two inspirations, one of whom is Greek and one of whom is southern. Because of the unique pairing, she delivers an imaginative dish of trout spanakopita with crispy leeks and rainbow trout roe. Edward notes that his family was poor, which meant that his grandmother did not create a lot of meat dishes. He is the only contestant who creates a vegetarian dish. It is modern bibimbap with lemon-chili sauce. The guests love Lindsay’s dish but Emeril and Tom concur that she has used too much butter, negating the overall quality. Edward’s dish is meatless ambrosia and possibly good enough to win this challenge.

The final presenters are Grayson and Ty. A Wisconsinite, Grayson has decided to go big in hopes of not going home. She throws down an absolutely massive plate of food, one of the largest ever served on Top Chef. Since her parents are meat and potato people (aka My People), she cooks a grilled rib eye steak with German potato salad and grilled vegetables. Proving once and for all that I have the palate of a small child, the judges hate the dish that sings directly to my heart.

Ty has a more interesting story than the others. He explains that he learned to cook from his Japanese nanny, which probably says a lot about his childhood, good and bad. I’m going to blindly speculate that Ty’s favorite movie of 2011 is The Help. Anyway, his love for this woman is unmistakable throughout the episode and he honors her with a dish that is probably too simple to win yet one that the other contestants adore. It is duck fat-fried chicken tender with pickled peaches. You have to possess tons of courage to serve a chicken tender on Top Chef. The judges are complimentary of the dish and seem that much more impressed by the story.

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