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The judges call everyone out and Greg, Melissa, and Katie are declared to have made the best dishes of the evening. Katie is praised for having found a way to rebound and reconfigure her dish in light of the complications she encountered. Melissa gets kudos for the simplicity of her dish (I hope you’re taking notes, Aaron). Greg’s dish was incredibly balanced. Tom says that “there was nothing screaming for attention, it all worked together.”

It sounds like Greg has won again, and yep, that’s exactly what he’s done. He’s swept this episode. Padma calls him “quite the frontrunner,” and I agree. Tom notes that Greg has won the second Elimination Challenge in a row (though, again, last week was a team challenge) and asks the other chefs to step up.

The bottom three are Ron, Keriann, and Katsuji. Wow. This just goes to show that success one week is no assurance to success the next. Ron was on the top of this episode’s SDQ, but is now on the chopping block. Katsuji was down two weeks ago, was up last week, and now is down again. Keriann… well, she’s been mostly down.

Meanwhile, Aaron and Adam are relieved. They were sure that they were gonna be on the bottom. Me, too.

Tom questions why Keriann though she could braise a short rib in the short amount of time she had without a pressure cooker. Keriann stands behind her braise. Hugh finds that doing so shows poor judgment - it was not braised enough. Keriann says that she doesn’t like it when braised short ribs “turn to mush” and prefers not to have to eat short ribs “with a spoon.” Hugh says that he needed “saber-toothed tiger teeth” in order to eat her short ribs. Ouch.

Katsuji says that he’s having trouble avoiding original mistakes. Hugh agrees and tells him to be a better editor of his food. His dish had some good attributes, but they were drowned out by bad ones.

Tom says the same thing applies to Ron’s dish. Was his dish supposed to be a soup or giant fish ball? He says it totally lacked proportionality. Ming agrees and says he should have cut the croquet in half.

Tom, meanwhile, wants to cut to the chase and announce the loser of the night. He says that all the chefs swung for the fences, but that some struck out. And that person… is Ron. Yep. There was nothing “fine dining” about the dish, and as per usual practice in the early episodes, the judges are sending the chef home who showed the poorest culinary judgment. Here, Tom says that the judges just couldn’t get past the “overall messiness of the dish.”

Ron, in his final testimonial, is brought to tears. He knows that he’s better than what he showed today and better than many of the chefs still in the competition. He says that TC has reaffirmed his passion for food and will return home with renewed vigor. And smaller portion sizes, I hope.

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