The tasting begins. Casey made mushrooms with crispy chicken liver, miso cake and mushroom dashi. Jamie made a stuffing crepinette with pork, lemon oil, and broth, which she explains is also an homage to matzoh ball soup. That's her second soup dish in two weeks. Carla tried to make Thai inspired vegetable stuffing with black quinoa salad, but she calls it "Undone-tay." Tony asks why it's al denta and she hilariously corrects him: "I said undone-tay." I love how she knows her dish is bad and just puts it on front street. Tony and Padma gamely try to eat it, and she asks if they need some floss. Everyone is just cracking up. Love her.
The next few dishes pass quickly without much comment from the judges. Spike made a stuffed quail with raisins, herbs, port, and apricot glaze. He admits that he used lemongrass spears to plate it. Marcel made a whole squab, stuffing with raisin brioche, cherries, currants, and ras el hanout gravy. Blais made a pressure-cooked onion, nitro fried fennel, raisins, and pine nuts. Tre made Southwestern stuffing with bacon, cheddar, bell pepper, chili powder, which Tony says has a nice kick to it. Dale made Spanish influenced stuffing with crab, oysters, chili lemon aioli, grapes, and olives.
Tiffani made soy maple stuffing with quail, grilled mushrooms, and quartered grapes. She says that she never broke down a bird with a pepper mill before and Tony advises her to make sure they don't use that pepper mill anymore. Fabio explains his polenta bread, vegetables, smoked bacon, and grated parmesan. He tells them how he grated his cheese, and no one seems as impressed as he is with himself.
Tony talks about his least favorites. First is Carla's food, since the quinoa was undercooked and it wasn't really a stuffing, so even if it had been cooked properly, she might not have placed higher. Tony says it might have been delicious if he had poured milk over it in a cereal bowl. Tiffani's dish was overly sweet, which she kind of knew in advance. Tony feels that Casey's dish seemed more like an plated appetizer than stuffing.
Tony's favorite dishes belong to Tre, whose food was spicy but balanced. Tre and Dale exchange fist bumps. He also liked Marcel's food, because the stuffing and bird both tasted great. And the winner is Tre, because his stuffing showed the most resourcefulness and the best flavor. He is more than psyched to get immunity as well as $20,000. Look at Tre, making a run!













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