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As a side note, I find it utterly perplexing that Doug would not have arrived in Mexico without some idea of how he might incorporate chocolate into a dessert. Chocolate is such an obvious target for use in some sort of finale challenge.

Time is up and Mei’s food is up first for tasting by Padma and Enrique Farjeat, the executive chef of the organic farm. Mei serves duck with bitter greens and chocolate mezcal for her savory dish, and chocolate yogurt with cocoa nibs for her dessert. Enrique appears to question her pairing of chocolate and duck. I find this bizarre - duck and chocolate is a classic combination.

Doug offers up a seared hen with onions, tomatoes, chocolate, and ancho chile. As his “dessert,” he has melted chocolate with chocolate mezcal and white chocolate. Padma notes that not all the alcohol in his desert has been burned off. Doug is POed at himself. He knows that with this challenge, he’s lost a lot of the momentum that he’d come in with.

Lastly, Greg has a seared lamb with white chocolate, ancho sauce, and green chorizo vinaigrette. For his dessert, there are baby carrots with tumeric, dark chocolate, and ginger.

Enrique delivers the verdict by first noting that Doug cooked his chicken well but lacked balance in his “dessert.” Mei did a nice job pairing duck with the chocolate and her dessert was well done. Padma chimes in to compliment her inclusion of cocoa nibs. Greg cooked his lamb well and made a great sauce, but the dessert with its use of ginger and rosemary was a great final touch.

Greg, predictably, ends up as the winner. With perhaps the biggest compliment Greg could have asked for, Enrique asks if he could copy Greg’s dessert for the farm’s restaurant. Greg is thrilled - having not won anything for a long time, he believes that he’s back in his groove.

With that, Padma preps them for the Elimination Challenge. The three chefs will have to work together to create a six-course, progressive meal. Each of the six dishes will have to highlight one of six beloved Mexican ingredients - one ingredient in each course. The chefs will have two hours to prep and cook for the judges and four esteemed Mexican chefs. To help, the chefs will be able to select one sous chef from the eliminated bunch.

Greg, as the winner, picks George. No surprise there. Mei goes with Melissa, and Doug picks Katsuji. Predictable (and smart) selections all around.

The chefs migrate to a different area of the farm where they find, seated atop a table, bowls of the six ingredients that they’ll be asked to highlight in their respective dishes. Spotted are guava, avocado, queso, poblano, huilacoche (a fungus that grows on ears of corn, also known as corn smut... go ahead, google it), and escamoles, which are ant eggs.

Within seconds, the chefs prove that Finale Eve will be a dog-eat-dog world. Mei, showing deft restraint, expresses interest in using avocado. Greg pounces, declaring that he’ll take poblano and guava. Mei instantly responds by calling both avocado and huitlacoche. Silent, slow Doug gets stuck with the leftovers. It’s basically a scene out of the drinking game Kings Cup where a Seven is drawn - Doug is the last one to shoot his hand up to “heaven” and thus must drink. Except here, he has to drink queso and ant eggs.

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