Guest judge Daniel Boulud presides over this round -- which starts with a Quickfire designed to showcase technique. Specifically, a vegetable plate. Nikki, Lisa and Manuel are the bottom three, while Zoi, Richard and Dale take the top slots. Dale wins with a vegan sashimi platter that highlights his impressive knife skills. Turns out Ryan and Richard have both worked at Daniel"s restaurants. Guess which one liked it.
Movies provide the theme for Elimination -- a dinner hosted by de-thumbed movie critic Richard Roeper for multiple hat-wearer Aisha Tyler. Six courses, cooked in pairs, each based on the duo"s favorite film. Knives are drawn by everyone except Dale, who gets to join any team he chooses, and bring with him a 33% increase in that team"s competitive advantage. Oddly enough, the teams are split precisely along gender lines. Six same-sex teams of two, and?Dale. Dale chooses to work with the predictably random, knife-selected team of Andrew and Richard, transforming a competitive duo into a curious threesome.
Though the movie selection tends west, several groups incorporate Asian flavors. The judges are surprised by how good some of the dishes are, and the party guests like them even better. Richard, riffing on Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory , leads his team to victory with a controversial dish using salmon, wasabi, chocolate and celery. Lisa and Stephanie round out the top with New York strip/short rib potsticker a la Top Secret.
Zoi and Antonia choose Talk to Her, and end up in the bottom for (ironically enough) talking the talk but not walking the walk, but Spike and Manuel get the lowest score for sticking afterthought Good Morning, Vietnam to a run-of-the-mill summer roll. Spike drove the entire disappointing effort, but he"s also dominated this season"s talking-head time, and Manuel goes home for being, uh, a "follower."