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Hammer gets things back on track with some good news. Carl’s tartare was meaty and succulent. Isaac’s sauce was tangy and tart. Karen really brought the fire. And the winner is... Isaac, who immediately breaks into his Hammer dance. Boy, this challenge really brought out the goofy in the chefs. Isaac gets immunity and some words of praise for his moves from the originator himself.

But Padma isn’t satisfied simply taking us back to the early '90s. Nope, we’re going back even further. And to help us is Jonathan Waxman of Top Chef Masters fame (and others), who brings a globe adorned with many little flags. The chefs will draw knives and then select from a variety of different countries and eras. The dishes they make will have to bring those historical time periods to life.

Isaac goes first and gleefully picks the Viking Era, Carl goes with Ancient Greece, Amar wants La Belle Epoque in Paris, Marjorie takes ancient India, Kwame has Beijing, Karen selects ancient Japan, and Jeremy is happy with the Gold Rush in California.

To research their cultures, the chefs head on over to the gorgeous San Francisco public library. With armfuls and armfuls of books, the chefs settle down looking a bit like Hermione leading up to exams. Jeremy finds a menu from one of the first San Francisco restaurants and decides he - like them - will do a chowder. Karen, who really wanted to do Chinese, is thrilled to find that in her time period, Chinese cuisine started to make inroads into Japan. Marjorie, though, finds little that is helpful and is frustrated beyond belief, lacking any real direction for her dish.

There’s not much time for that, though, as the chefs are off and cooking before we know it. Carl is awash in great seafood, Amar is knee-deep in truffles, Kwame is putting together a dish composed of only four ingredients and wants them perfect, and Marjorie... oh, Marjorie. She’s patching together some semblance of a dish based off of things she’s made before, but botching everything up. She’s trying to make this Indian flat bread, paratha, which is delicious . . . but she keeps burning it. Badly. The skillet in which it sits emits so much smoke that Marjorie, in a total coughing fit, ditches it in an empty corner of the kitchen. She starts over. And burns that batch.

It’s looking like it might be the end for this D.C. chef.

Carl and Marjorie are both up first. Carl, harkening back to Ancient Greece, has marinated mackerel, calamari, olives, and grapes. It looks absolutely beautiful on the plate. Tom loves it - the dish looks simple but is anything but.

Marjorie follows that up with a lamb kabob with heart jus, curried split peas, and paratha. Padma appreciates that balance of spice and heat, but cannot stand the paratha, which tastes fried and is not soft at all. Jonathan agrees - it’s quite greasy.

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