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Mei has a rack of lamb with charred eggplant purée and scallion-ginger relish. Padma loves the eggplant purée but questions (along with Tom) the cooking of her lamb. Padma says that, for her, it’s too rare. Tom concurs - he likes his lamb more medium-rare than rare, but admits that Mei’s flavors are good.

Doug has chorizo-marinated mussels with sweet peppers. It doesn't look like much food on the plate, but Gail likes the dish a lot. She likes Doug’s plump mussels. Insert your own sexual euphemism there.

Finally, we have George, the newbie who’s nervous. In his first Elimination Challenge, he has a beef and lamb kabob with green lentils. Padma finds his lamb moist and flavorful, and Tom thinks that his lentils are cooked perfectly. Score one for the new guy.

The judges meet to go over their favorites and it’s clear within seconds which chefs will be in the top three. George’s dish was well-seasoned (per Tom) and made good use of his pantry (per Gail). Padma loved Greg’s curry, Tom appreciated the cooking of the chicken and use of jack fruit. Richard thought Doug’s use of ingredients was smart, and Tom comments that he put classic flavors together on the plate.

As for the bottom, Tom laments the lack of flavor in Mei’s dish, and Padma hated how undercooked it was. Gail notes that the lamb was slimy, though not as slimy as Adam’s flash-marinated shrimp. Richard has no idea what Adam was trying to do with that cooking technique. Finally, though Tom appreciates that Melissa cooked her shrimp to order, Padma wishes there was more sweetness to the dish, and Richard criticizes her for playing it too safe.

No mention is made of Katsuji’s dish - the bane of the chef stuck in the middle.

Sure enough, when all the chefs are called out, George, Greg, and Doug are announced as the judges’ favorites. George was smart to combine beef with lamb to get enough fat in his dish, and his lentils had tons of flavor. Doug featured a classic combination of flavors and, as described by Tom, put together a “powerhouse of a dish.” Greg, Richard says, was “otherwordly” in preparing his curry. Tom says that his chicken was perfectly cooked and had great flavor.

I was fully expecting this to be the second episode this season where Greg has swept both the Quickfire and the Elimination challenges, but to my surprise, Doug picks up his second Elimination win in a row. Wow, he’s sure coming on strong as the season is winding down. Will he be this year’s Carla Hall?

As for the bottom three, it’s Mei, Adam, and Melissa. Though Gail loved Mei’s eggplant purée and salad, the lamb was unpleasant to eat. Tom likes that Adam took a risk in the way he cooked his shrimp, but found the dish under-seasoned. Finally, though Padma admits that Melissa’s food always demonstrates great knifework, she chides Melissa for doing something safe like “seafood on top of salad,” which she’s already done before. Gail agrees - she wanted more depth in Melissa’s food.

We’ve seen chefs go home for rare lamb before and I think it’s possible that Mei goes home today... but in the end, it’s Adam who’ll be leaving on account of his slimy shrimp.

He’s pretty devastated. He wanted to show people who he is as a chef, but never envisioned his journey ending like this. He tearfully says that this may just be cooking, but it’s what he breathes and believes every day of his life. He looks into the camera and advises other chefs: “If you don’t love cooking enough to be an emotional mess on national television, put the knife down.”

Words to live by. Best of luck to him in Last Chance Kitchen.

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