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The second group is putting the finishing touches on their dishes. For Greg’s part, he’s freaking out a bit about his goose. It’s apparently “really, really chewy.” Doug notes that Greg really felt that, for Thanksgiving, they had to put a bird on the table. Goose was the only thing available, and serving it (in his opinion) was a big risk.

It’s service time and Adam kicks things off with his take on a classic succotash, with beets, corn, and summer squash (again, I laugh at the availability of summer squash in Boston during the winter). Gail loves what she’s tasting in his dish. Katie has a blueberry stuffing with blue cornmeal cornbread. Gail finds her cornbread “wacky” but notes that she might have eaten half of the bowl of stuffing. Tom declares that he’s “loving the stuffing.” Mei has a duck fat-roasted cabbage with trout vinaigrette. Gail finds the vinaigrette lovely.

Next, we have Greg with his chewy, chewy goose. BUM BUM BUM. For the first time this season, he’s offered up a dud. Gail tries to be nice and calls it “toothsome.” Ken agrees. Tom, who’s clearly a fan of Greg by this point, tries to salvage the dish by noting that the flavors were nice and pointing out that Greg chose a difficult protein.

Finally, we have Keriann’s seared venison loin with blueberry compote. It’s well received.

The chefs convene in the kitchen trying to figure out which chefs will be up for elimination. They’re having a tough time, since the judges seemed to like everyone’s food. This conclusion is borne out by the judges’ conversation happening at the same time. Tom and Padma agree that this is going to be a tough elimination because, as Tom puts it, “there wasn’t a bad dish.” Padma loved Mei’s dish and Gail agrees. Gail says that Doug’s rabbit dish was one of her favorites, and Ken says that it wasn’t predictable at all. Padma call’s Katsuji’s dish “sublime,” and Tom declares that it was “his kind of dish: sticky and savory.” Tom also was a fan of Katie’s stuffing, as he found himself going back to it over and over.

The weaker dishes are, predictably, Melissa (lacked flavor), Greg (too subtle and restrained), Keriann (sauce too sweet), and Stacy (weird flavor in certain bites). Despite these flaws, Tom thinks that Judges Table will be difficult because “someone will be going home for making a pretty good dish.”

The producers cut to Judges Table and we have Doug, Katsuji, and Mei. Tom loved the “great, intense flavor” in Katsuji’s dish, and Gail compliments his use of lobster. Padma found Doug’s rabbit delicious and Ken likes that he used the spitfire to cook his rabbit. Finally, Gail calls Mei’s cabbage “a brilliant dish,” and Ken compliments it as “pure comfort food.”

Reader of my past recaps will be familiar with my theory that “Tom f-ing gets whatever the hell he f-ing wants.” What I mean by this is that the winner of any given Elimination Challenge will be the dish that Tom liked best. This tendency is most evident during the Top Chef finales. Not once has a chef won Top Chef without being the chef whose food Tom liked best. If Tom thinks you should win, you win. Plain and simple.

And today’s episode proves this once more, with Katsuji ending up as the winner. He’s absolutely thrilled to have won an Elimination Challenge that required the chefs to cook where the first immigrants to this country cooked.

On the bottom, we have Stacy, Melissa, and Greg. Padma assures them that all three dishes were delicious, but notes that they had their flaws. Ken notes that Greg had serious “cojones” to cook goose, and Greg responds that he found it important to get a bird on the table for a Thanksgiving meal. Padma asks if it was perhaps too much of a risk, and Greg says it was “100% too much of a risk.”

Melissa says that she was happy with her dish, but Gail criticizes its simplicity, saying that it seemed to “blend into the background.”

Finally, Stacy admits to the judges that she’s feeling some pressure as the local chef. Gail thought she cooked her clams perfectly, but that there was a dirt-like flavor, which perhaps was the result of the fact that Stacy actually plated her food on the ground.

Padma again notes that the whole meal was delicious but names Stacy was the chef going home today. Stacy knew it was coming - she looked utterly defeated the entire time at Judges Table. Tom tries to console her - it was a really tasty dish, he says, but it was just the judge’s least favorite among eight other really good dishes.

Stacy says that she’s really sad about going home, but also “kinda relieved.” She says she felt so much pressure being from Boston that it would sometimes keep her up at night. Hopefully, she’s able to get a few nights of good rest before she heads off to Last Chance Kitchen.

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