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Greg is making a coq au vin, though he’s never made it before. He’s also struggling a bit with incorporating butter (loads of it) into his dish - something that’s anathema to his style of cooking.

Meanwhile, Mei is doing a duck a l’orange, though with a bit of Chinese five spice powder. It’s her own little spin on the dish.

The next morning, all of the chefs in the kitchen are visibly nervous. Doug admits that he dreamed that night about cooking foie gras. Oh boy.

The chefs arrive at the kitchen and Greg and Mei, the first two up, go at it. Greg finds that his flavors have concentrated overnight (leading to them being too acidic and salty) and commences re-seasoning. Mei makes sure that all her sauces and purees are ready for her veggies and duck.

At this point, the cameras turn to the diners outside who are sharing memories of Julia. My husband comments that despite all this, no one has seen fit to mention that Julia Child used to live in Boston… a ridiculous oversight given the locale (in fact, I used to live down the street from her old house).

It’s time for service and Greg goes first. He offers up coq au vin with glazed carrots. Jacques would have preferred (in the spirit of Julia) if he had separated the veggie garnishes (carrots) from the coq au vin (which does not traditionally include carrots), but finds the dish overall well-seasoned. Tom calls it “solid food.”

Mei is next with her take on a duck a l’orange. Tom notes that she “took a lot of license” with this dish, but channeled Julia’s spirit and brought a modern sensibility to the dish. Jacques is very happy with how she prepared the duck skin.

George is next and wishes that he had more time to cook his meat. He serves braised veal with pomme puree. Dana Cowen (from Food and Wine Magazine and a frequent guest judge) likes how George united all of the ingredients in his dish, and Jacques agrees. Tom comments that every part of the dish is taken care of “except the meat,” which is under-seasoned. Barbara Lynch, a big Boston restaurateur, agrees. Tom further states that he would have liked George’s meat to have cooked for 20 minutes more.

Melissa, like George, was worried about getting her shortribs cooked through. She kept them in the oven for her full hour of pre-service prep, but now worries that they’ve dried out or, worse yet, burned. She serves her red wine-braised shortribs with a brown butter polenta. Tom picks up bitter notes in the sauce, Hugh questions the char on her meat, and Dana says that while she wanted the shortribs to be unctuous and juicy, they came out dry. After Melissa walks away, Tom comments further that she over-seared her protein, leaving the cellular structure dead and unable to retain moisture.

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