Six chefs remain, and immunity is probably off the table. They roll into the kitchen and are greeted by Jacques Pépin, renowned culinary legend and French guy. Carlos even recognizes Jacques, because he follows him on Facebook. Padma says for this QuickFire, their technical skills will be under the microscope since Jacques Pépin wrote the book "La Technique." Each of the chefs will prepare Jacques's favorite dish, some artichoke and asparagus Dover sole French thing. Jacques shows them how to prepare it and it must be excruciatingly difficult for Carlos to follow, with a language barrier and a half to get through.
Jacques Pépin casually shows the chefs how to carve a butter rose -- like it's a thing you can even learn how to do by watching one time -- and then sends them to work with a glass of wine in his hand. Shirley and Nicholas are the top contenders as they were both trained in classical French cooking. The kitchen is unusually quiet, with each chef working on executing the same dish.
Holy shit, Dover sole is a crazy fish. It's all flat and weird, and you have to peel the skin off in one go. Stephanie has trouble skinning her fish, which means she's one of those people who will probably end up eating a little plastic with her candy cane. It does appear to be between Shirley and Nick, as Carlos hasn't even started cooking with five minutes left. Nina's fish is raw with four minutes to go, though, because she never turned her burners on. It's a mad rush to the end and Carlos's looks the craziest.
He didn't get everything on the plate, but Carlos gets a courtesy taste from Jacques Pépin anyway. Shirley's plate looks much better and Jacques compliments her reduction. Brian apologizes for his hot mess of a plate, which isn't much better off than Carlos's. Jacques is very understanding even of Nina's imperfect fish. Stephanie says it was also a scramble for her, especially getting the skin off the sole. Nicholas's looks as good as Shirley's, as the prophecy foretold.
Jacques Pépin admits that it was a difficult challenge. Brian, Stephanie and Carlos basically failed. Shirley and Nicholas did it just right, but Nicholas had the dish with that something special that gave him an edge over Shirley.
For the elimination challenge, Padma reminds the chefs that both French and Spanish cultures have had an enormous effect on Louisiana territories. So who better to judge this challenge than Dominique Crenn and Julian Serrano, premier French and Spanish chefs? The chefs will work in two teams, each preparing a five course meal in either Spanish or French style, highlighting olives, almonds, mussels, chicken and chocolate.
At this point in the game, there isn't a bad team to be on, as long as Nicholas and Carlos are separated. Shirley and Nick both draw knives for the French team, which is good news for Stephanie, who will join them. Brian, Nina and Carlos are clueless when it comes to Spanish cuisine, but each team has all day with their coaches to learn. The viewers, foolishly and almost overwhelmingly, agree that French cuisine is more difficult to prepare in the poll below. Spanish -- not Mexican, guys. Even I can make a quesadilla.
Dominique Crenn goes to work with the French team on their menu. She has a lot of really exciting and exotic words to use like "veil" and "nest." She's so innovative and pretty. Meanwhile, Julian Serrano helps the Spanish team with their flavors. What can you teach in a day? He suggests focusing on things that they know are good. It's good advice, and completely different from Dominique's approach.
Dominique Crenn storms the Whole Foods like it's the revolution and Julian Serrano is just kind of wandering around. I hope their personal styles are indicative of the food styles they represent. Nicholas got immunity for that QuickFire, so he's taking a risk with Cornish game hen in a chocolate reduction in a corn silk nest. Haha, what? Shirley is doing the snapper crudo first course. Stephanie is taking the mussels, then Shirley and Stephanie will share responsibility for the chicken course and Nicholas is trying that crazy nest thing and almond panna cotta.
Julian Serrano is very detail-oriented, showing his team members how to cut everything so they represent him accurately. Nina will execute the first and second courses, olives with potatoes and gulf shrimp and a gazpacho, respectively. Carlos is working on steamed mussels with romesco sauce for the third course. Brian is doing arroz con pollo and a flan for the fifth course.
Stephanie is much, much less sure than her teammates, so she is running around a little frantically. Nicholas and Shirley feel confident. The morning, Stephanie is feeling very, very nervous about all these nests and veils and avant-garde techniques. Carlos gets emotional talking to his family on the phone.
The chefs move into prep mode at Restaurant Revolution and Shirley is making olive oil ice cream to go with her snapper for the first time. God, all this stuff. The ice cream is going haywire in the back as the judges visit jovially in the dining room. Nicholas and Carlos head out with the first courses. Nicholas has Shirley's dish: a snapper ceviche with dehydrated olives and ice cream. Carlos introduces their selections in Spanish. Nina's dish is first: an ensaladilla rusa with green olives and shrimp. Dominique Crenn declares her dish idea "delicious," but the other judges don't like the fish and olive oil ice cream together. They seem to like Nina's potato salad.
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The second course goes out, with lots of double and triple checking. Stephanie's dish is pickled and poached mussels over a crustacean jelly (gross!). Nina created an "ajoblanco" that the judges love, especially Julian Serrano. Tom gives props to Stephanie's mussel flavor but one of the judges says he had grit in his.
Stephanie and Shirley prepare their third course together with a chicken liver mousse and Shirley's consommé. Carlos presents his own dish in the dining room: mussels with romesco sauce. The French chefs like the mousse, but Julian Serrano doesn't. They agree Carlos's dish is more about the sauce than the mussels.
The fourth course is ready and the arroz con pollo will go out much more confidently than the corn silk nests. Stephanie is not sold on the nest and looks like she's about to crap herself, but Nick is unwilling to deviate. Brian and Carlos present their chicken with rice, and the judges look quizzically at Nick's nest.
The Spanish dish goes over with the Spanish side of the table, but Dominique Crenn says it's too safe and the chicken is too dry. She's learning how to play this game very quickly. They move on to the French dish and Chef Serrano keeps saying, "you like-a that? You like-a that?" to Dominique, as she explains how "progressive" it is. He folds his arms across his chest. "This particular dish for me no make any sense," Julian Serrano concludes and Tom laughs. He doesn't like new cooking, this Spanish chef.
The other judges try to be fair, saying the idea was good, but the execution was lacking. Tom says Nicholas is lucky to have immunity because the nest looks like shower drain hair.
Brian sends out his super-classic Spanish dessert: a chocolate flan. Nicholas's almond flan goes out to it and lacks a pleasant texture. The judges agree that Brian's flan is too sweet. They try to figure out which team did better as a whole. The favorite dish was Shirley's gazpacho but the least favorite was Nick's chocolate chicken and they were on the same team.
In the stew room, the chefs aren't sure what the judges preferred either. Padma asks to see the Spanish team first. They are awarded the judges' overall favorite meal of the day. They compliment Nina's perfectly simple potato salad and the way Carlos cooked his chicken. Everyone is delighted to be on top and Nina can't stop laughing, even when discussing how dated the flan was. Ultimately, Nina is the winner. She keeps relief-laughing all the way back to the stew room.
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So what really sucks is that because Nicholas has immunity, Shirley or Stephanie will be going home, even though their dishes weren't the worst. While the judges liked the olive oil ice cream as an idea to present olives, the result was an odd mixture with fish. Stephanie's liver mousse with Shirley's consommé was practically flawless. Nicholas defends his wacky chocolate chicken dish, which is clearly the glaring failure of the team. Tom says it was their least favorite dish of the night, but it's only going to get worse because the dessert was "equally bad."
"You two are in a tough position because we just got done telling you how much we like your dishes," Tom tells Shirley and Stephanie. "Do you think your team should be penalized for you? Or do you think you should resign?" Jacques Pépin asks Nicholas. Nick considers for a moment, then says he thinks he did well enough in the QuickFire challenge to deserve immunity for this challenge. He's such an ass. The viewers agree at 65% that Nicholas should resign. No word yet on what percentage of an ass he is.
"Though I consider him a friend and we've talked about the importance of this competition to both of us, I can't even look at him right now," Stephanie says of Nicholas. Back at the judges table, Emeril laments that Nicholas wouldn't resign. Padma forces them to move on and nitpick two perfectly good dishes. This is a real pickle.
The judges reach a conclusion, but hope that Nicholas decides to come out and fall on his sword. He won't, though, because he's an ass. He hides his face in his hands in front of the judges, but doesn't resign. Reluctantly, Padma tells Stephanie to pack her knives and go. I hope you're happy, Nicholas. Padma rolls her eyes as the French team leaves the judges' table.
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