Welcome back, Food Spectators! We’ve got six chefs and a lot of cooking to do before the hour is out. Zjswurd zprpin, or, if I move my hands over just a squinch, Jaques Pépin. He’s like the Jacques Cousteau of French cuisine and he’s in the Top Chef kitchen.

The Quickfire Challenge is all about technique. The chefs have thirty-five minutes (so specific!) to prepare Jacques Pépin’s favorite dish—Dover sole, artichokes, and asparagus. But first, a demonstration. Zip bang boom, he prepares the delicious meal in no time flat. And now, it’s their turn. Ready, go!

So who screwed up? Well Nina forgot to turn her burners on, but she salvaged it pretty well, Carlos is missing the tomatoes and the sauce is…questionable, Shirley done good, as usual, Brian never finished a sauce, Stephanie put everything on the plate and Nicholas gets a “very good.” The winner of the coveted pride and immunity is Nicholas.

For the Elimination Challenge, it’s all about French and Spanish cuisine. Padma introduces Julian Serrano for Spain, and Dominique Crenn for France, who will act as mentors. The chefs will work in two teams to prepare a five-course meal in one of the two styles, using ingredients that feature in both. The team with the best overall meal will win, and someone from the losing team will be going home.

The French Team is Shirley, Nicholas, and Stephanie. The Spanish Team Nina, Brian, and Carlos. For the French Team, Dominique suggests an extraordinarily modern chocolate, duck, and a nest. So…good luck with that? Julian is talking about potato salad, which doesn’t sound very exciting at all.

Nicholas and Shirley are all over the French cuisine, but Stephanie is all sorts of confused. Over in Spain, Chef Serrano is micromanaging the three chefs in the menu and their prep. When the mentor chefs leave, the scurrying and scrambling kicks into high gear. Shirley busts out the liquid nitrogen for some ice cream, tarragon is flying on the Spanish side, and Nina fusses over her simple potato salad. As Brian says, “it’s old school versus new school.”

The first dish from France is Shirley’s snapper with dehydrated olives and ice cream, which seems odd for a first coarse. For Spain, it’s Nina’s ensaladilla rusa with green olives, shrimp, and potatoes. Tom doesn’t like the ice cream with the fish, but everyone enjoys Nina’s potatoes.

The second French dish is Stephanie’s pickled and poached mussels with gelée, and for Spain it’s Nina’s ajo blanco with almonds and cherries. Again, Nina receives high praise. Stephanie’s mussels had good flavor, but there was also some grit which is not a good thing.

The third dishes are Carlos’s mejillones a la romesco with crispy leeks, and Shirley and Stephanie’s chicken liver mouse with roasted chicken bouillon. The mousse gets mixed reviews but apparently the consummé is to die for, and Carlos’s dish is called one-note.

The fourth course is getting very hearty on the Spanish side, and very…weird…on the French side. There’s Carlos’s polo con arroz, and Nicholas and Stephanie’s Cornish game hen with spiced chocolate and corn silk nest. Carlos’s chicken is beautifully cooked and sounds delicious. And then, the French dish. Nobody other than Dominique want to eat the French dish, and Tom says it looks like what he used to pull out of the drain before he went completely bald.

Finally, dessert. There’s Brian’s flan de chocolate and strawberries that is overall too sweet, and Nicholas’s almond flan with plum and coconut crumble which is too…flanny?

The Spanish team gets called to Judge’s Table first, which means they are the chefs with the favorite dishes. And the winning chef is Nina with her perfectly executed potato salad. Huh.

And now, the French team. Since they cooked avant garde cuisine, they should all show up in avant garde headgear. But they don’t. Instead, they take their punishment with dignity. Except for Nicholas. He has immunity, so it’s between Shirley and Stephanie. Yet it is clear that Nicholas had the least favorite dishes with his chocolate chicken and his miserable dessert. Julian even suggests that Nicholas resign. But he doesn’t, so the judges are now comparing dishes they very much enjoyed. Tom hopes that Nicholas rethinks his decision and falls on his sword, but no dice. Stephanie, pack your knives and go home. The look Shirley gave Nicholas, wow. That says it all.

Next week, possum. Mmm.

Reprinted from HealthyWayToCook.com