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The three head over to the judges. Aaron serves his version of a pretzel dog with a pretzel encircling pork rillette. Ming criticizes it for having a soft and mushy flavor. Tom finds that the pretzel gives the dish some nice salt, but that it’s a bit bland other than that.

Ron serves a popcorn soup with a gigantic breaded fish croquet in the middle, which is supposed to resemble a baseball. And it does. In size. Ming finds that the soup has good popcorn flavor, but Tom says that sometimes a bowl of soup should be just a bowl of soup. Not one with a grapefruit-sized croquet in the middle.

Katie serves her dish while discussing everything that went wrong with it. After the initial catastrophe, it’s now a popcorn mouse with a blue cornmeal salted shortbread. The judges all love it and chide her for “dumping” on the dish prematurely. They think she should stand behind what she put out. Katie talks about how the dish was dedicated to her father and starts to cry.

The next three are up and Doug goes first with a seared scallop, grilled corn, and corn sauce. Ming was surprised by how un-sweet the corn sauce was, but Tom declares that he likes it that way.

Keriann puts forth her braised short rib with parsnip puree. Everyone at the table agrees that it wasn’t cooked enough and is underseasoned. Keriann is frustrated. She says it was cooked exactly as she wanted.

Katsuji serves up a bread pudding with mushrooms and bacon and braised pork belly. This was a reimagining of fried dough and Richard thinks it’s a brilliant one. Hugh Acheson, though, finds the pork belly tough and Tom criticizes it for having a lot going on.

Melissa is next with a popcorn and ramp soup. The soup is a bright, bright yellow. Like Pikachu yellow. The judges adore the dish, though. Ming loves the corn flavor and use of “popcorn bacon.” Tom loves her pickled ramps.

Mei Lin is next with a seared pork loin with braised peanuts. Hugh loves the radishes she used and says it’s a great dish, but Richard notes (and others agree) that her pork is overcooked.

Stacy, the local girl, presents seared scallops with pickled peanuts and sunchokes. The judges engage in a totally irrelevant discussion about whether and how Stacy would be able to throw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game. Guess her food wasn’t worth discussing as well.

Rebecca comes out with a roasted salmon with mustard and honey glaze. Richard notes that lots of things could have gone wrong with her dish, and turns the conversation to when he had his own bad salmon moment when he was a contestant on Top Chef. Tom notes that Rebecca’s dish “got the job done.” In other words, “you’ll be in the middle of this challenge.”

James offers a lobster cake with pretzel panzanella. Tom likes the lobster flavor but finds it overall very mushy.

Adam serves his watermelon curry with peanut oil-poached halibut. He knows it’s overcooked - earlier, the convection oven in the Fenway kitchen “hammered” his fish. He blames the Curse of the Bambino. And sure enough, Hugh says that while he likes Adam’s peanut base, he “hated the fish.” Tom chimes in. “Exactly.” Richard, though, says that Adam’s broth saves the fact that his fish is overcooked. We’ll see about that.

Last, we have Greg with a roasted duck with peanut “nam prik pao” - whatever the hell that is. The judges love it, though. Hugh likes the use of pears and scallions and Richard declares it well-balanced. “It’s like moneyball,” he says.

The cheftestants head to the Stew Room, where Adam is convinced he’s going home. Aaron is too, noting that the judges didn’t like the filling of his dish. Katsuji is surprised that Aaron isn’t blaming someone else for his F-up. Aaron tells him to STFU. The two immediately engage in a heated, talking-over-each-other, slinging pot shots as quick as they can come up with them, argument. Aaron criticizes Katsuji’s bread pudding, say that it’s what “five-year olds cook.” Sigh, that’s always his comeback - “you make simple food.” Katsuji tells Aaron not to talk to him like that. Aaron says, “I’m so scared of you right now.”

Sigh. If only Katie had gotten her shit together during the SDQ.

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