By Kim
Josie feels bad! No, not because it's totally her fault that Kristen left. She feels bad because she thinks everyone else feels it's her fault that Kristen left. WAAAAH!
Quickfire Challenge: Katsuya Uechi, master sushi chef, challenges them to create a dish to impress a sushi master. The least favorites are Lizzie, who inexplicably made a soup, and Josh, who made a breakfast sandwich on rice. The favorites were Brooke, who had nice, clean flavors, and Stefan, who threw something together last minute. Interesting that the top two are both from LA and probably eat sushi a lot. Anyway, Stefan wins his first Quickfire but there's no immunity this week, just cash.
Elimination Challenge: Guest judge David Chang (Ma Peche, Momofuku) arrives and Tom announces that the cheftestants will be cooking a meal for a group of famous chefs, and they each need to cook a fried chicken dish. Josh and Josie go with a more traditional dish, while everyone else puts a twist on it. There are numerous equipment issues and, this will be a shocker, Josie has time management issues. But here's what was ultimately served:
Sheldon: Umami drumsticks and thighs, wings with usukuchi and grapeseed oil (a la Momofuku). Sheldon burned his first batch of wings so he didn't serve enough so that each judge could have one. Even so, the judges thought his chicken was crunchy and not greasy, and they admired that he did something different.
Lizzie: chicken with coriander, black pepper, and brown sugar with peach cabbage slaw. Poor foreign Lizzie served what are basically chicken tenders, and while the judges liked them, they couldn't believe Lizzie took a whole chicken and served them a boneless breast.
Josie: chicken with black garlic, cayenne, thyme, and hot sauce with daikon salad. Josie did nothing but brag about her Southern fried chicken, but the judges thought it was overly greasy and bland.
Stefan: chicken cordon bleu with garlic aoli and lemon. The judges are disappointed that he did something so simple and pedestrian and of course, Wolfgang makes a boob joke.
Josh: smoked fried chicken with hot sauce and blue cheese. The judges love the smoky flavor, and think that it could be crispier but it had the most flavor of anything on the table.
Brooke: dukkah-crusted chicken breast over wilted escarole and tomato salad. Poor Brooke is having an awful day. She decided to serve boneless breasts, which was mistake number one. She somehow both ran out of time and had extra time at the end, so she kept her chicken warm in the oven and then refried it, so it unsurprisingly turned out dry. AND, it turns out that two of the diners, the guys who own Animal, interviewed for line cook jobs with Brooke years ago and she didn't hire them. Man. So anyway, they hate her chicken.
The cheftestants have to wait for the morning for Judges' Table. Josh, Sheldon, and Lizzie are the top three. They liked Lizzie's crunchiness and especially her side salad, but were disappointed she used boneless breasts. They liked Sheldon's sweet and savory dish, but he didn't give them enough chicken. Ultimately, they choose Josh's twist on a traditional recipe as the winner.
That means Brooke, Stefan, and Josie are the bottom three. Brooke's biggest mistake was cutting up the chicken, and she overthought the whole process. And then holy crap is Tom sick of Josie's shit and it is REALLY satisfying. She tries to blame her equipment and then that she didn't have enough time for why her chicken was greasy and Tom just shuts her down. And THEN she has the nerve to say that everyone else who ate the chicken liked it, and Tom is like, "Oh, so this panel of world-renowned chefs doesn't know what we're talking about?" Stefan tries to say he was serving the fried chicken of Europe and Wolfgang and Tom call him on his shit. It really was lazy of Stefan. I mean, seriously? I think chicken cordon bleu was the first "grown up" meal I learned how to make. Tom accuses him of making something he thought would just get him through instead of trying to win.
The judges debate. They can't believe Brooke cut up the chicken, which made it flavorless. She's just lucky that the others screwed up worse. Padma thinks Josie made fried chicken, but Tom points out that it was greasy and nasty and even guest judge David Chang sees that her timing issue is unacceptable. And they're mad at Stefan for lying and saying that he doesn't know fried chicken, and they're also like, "Who even serves chicken cordon bleu anymore?" I mean, if he had done SOMETHING with it, like made it a bite, or used interesting ham and cheese or a unique breading or SOMETHING.
Anyway, they send Josie home, thank GOD. I can't wait to watch her lose again on Last Chance Kitchen, and I know Tom at least is wondering why the fudge they brought her back.