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Meanwhile on the Red team, Mei Lin tries Katsuji’s sauce and is blown away. She says it’s really fucking good and she was stressed for no reason. Wow. I’m surprised. Looks like even the “bad” chefs are pretty good.

Over on the other side of the kitchen, Adam and Keriann are fighting about onions and whether to reduce a sauce further. Stacy, stuck in the middle, keeps her mouth shut.

Finally, the dishes start to go out.

-The Red team serves a pea and coconut puree with sautéed halibut and pickled rhubarb. Padma loves Katsuji’s sauce and Tom finds the fish cooked properly. He compliments the fact that the dish doesn’t feel disjointed at all.

-The Blue team serves filet mignon with a parsnip puree and pan seared scallop. Tom finds the beef perfectly cooked and loved the scallop.

-The Grey team serves up a “blue collar” dish of grilled pork chop, grilled stone fruit, and morel mushrooms. Padma finds the pork seasoned well, Gail loves the apricots, and Tom loves the flavor combination.

Pretty amazing - not a single catastrophe so far. Seems like this is a really deep cast of chefs this season.

Back in the kitchen, Joy is really worried about her veal chops, which are pretty underdone. Melissa expresses concern but notes that they’re out of time. The team offers up maple and vanilla, wood-roasted veal chops with kale and pickled radishes. Joy says that it’s soul food that they cooked from the heart. Apparently, it’s a rare heart because the chops are very, very pink. Padma finds the dish overwhelmed by the use of vanilla, which was Ron’s brilliant idea, and questions the team’s use of the ingredient. Tom agrees and finds it odd, given that vanilla is usually paired with sweet ingredients. Gail says that her chop is “pink, pink, pink,” and Tom agrees that the veal is underdone. I feel bad for Joy - she saw this coming.

Back in the kitchen, team Sour Green Apple is in a mass panic. Adam and Keriann are finding some common ground stressing out about Stacy’s chicken - they don’t think she has enough time to finish cooking them. They separately offer to help her out and then complain while plating their dish that she’s going to run out of time but still refuses their assistance. Stacy is not worried. “It’s chicken,” she says exasperatedly.

Aaron, meanwhile, is having problems with his molecular gastronomy marmalade, which is not setting well. He wants to heat it up and add more agar. Keriann thinks there’s no time. They bicker further about the “clumpiness” and lack of salt in their sauce.

They put their fight on hold so that they can actually present their mess-of-a-meal to the judges. It’s officially a pan-roasted chicken breast (by Stacy) with a bourbon onion jam (Aaron) and corn salad (Keriann). Gail declares that the chicken is the best thing on the plate, and Tom agrees that it’s “very good.” Padma hates the rawness of the corn, saying that it leaves a scratchy feeling on her tongue. Tom hates the jam, complaining that “I don’t even know what this is.” He tells Stacy that she should be pissed because she cooked perfect chicken that was accompanied by two “terrible” garnishes. Padma asks whether they were able to work as a team. Keriann says that she thought they came together as a team at the end, but Aaron is having none of this nice talk. He says that they each see food differently and accuses Keriann of having been erratic and making bad decisions.

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