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Padma then invites the chefs to pick the author from which they’ll be drawing inspiration. Greg goes with Edgar Allen Poe. Katsuji is keen on Stephen King. George takes Dr. Seuss. Mei picks David Thoreau, though she admits she’s not too familiar with him. Melissa goes with Nathaniel Hawthorne. This leaves Doug with Emily Dickinson. He laments this fact to us. “Great, I get the depressed chick poet from the 1800s,” he says bitterly.

The chefs get together and strategize a bit before heading off to Whole Foods. Mei is going to do a take on Walden by Thoreau by focusing on nature and doing an entirely vegetarian dish. Greg is taking the obvious route and doing homage to “The Raven” with a bird dish. Doug wants to do something romantic to honor Dickinson. Finally, there’s Katsuji. He’s gonna put Carrie on the plate, with as much blood splatter and gore as possible.

I sort of love Katsuji. He’s always committed to his vision.

Before we know it, the chefs are cooking away and Tom has wandered into the kitchen for his typical walkabout before service starts. He chats with George, who’s taking inspiration from Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. A very literal inspiration. Two types of seafood, a red and blue color combo… he says it’ll be a “cartoon on a plate.” Awesome.

Tom goes over to inquire about what Melissa is doing. Melissa, who has already described this project in detail for us, repeats it for Tom. She’s using Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance as inspiration. As summarized by her, it’s about a village of do-gooders and has as a reoccurring theme the change of seasons. So she’s going to do a spring dish that has an undercurrent of fall - basically, spring vegetables sitting on a mushroom broth. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that Melissa is ignoring the fact that spring does not transition directly to fall.

On the other side of the kitchen, we have two chefs taking some big risks. Mei is making something called “charred onion soil.” As disgusting as it sounds to eat soil (I mean, Stacy was basically sent home for dirt in her clams), Mei says that this “soil” is made from charred onions, blended to a powder, with bread crumbs added. I will say that it looks like soil. Dark, dirty, icky soil.

Next to her is Katsuji. He’s making a beet puree that’ll represent the pig’s blood that gets dropped on Carrie. He criticizes George for doing such a boring interpretation of Dr. Seuss. In contrast, Katsuji will be making a statement. He wants his diners to look at his food and say “shit,” but “in a good way.”

Yep, I kinda love Katsuji.

Service is quickly approaching and the cheftestants are realizing that presentation is going to a play a big role in deciding this challenge. Melissa is trying to differentiate her dish visually from Mei’s - she realizes that they’re both doing vegetable dishes and doesn’t want to get overshadowed. Meanwhile, Greg is doing his best to ramp up his presentation. He says that “it’s been a while since I’ve won an Elimination Challenge,” and sees today as his golden opportunity. I check my notes. He’s right. The last time he won an individual Elimination Challenge was Episode 3.

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