Stephen is up to answer for his salad. Patrick says that serving salad in a bowl is horrible, because a plate allows the diner to toss it as he or she eats it. That is a good point. Patrick adds that the dressing was "gloppy" (what is with the made-up words this week?) and didn't work. Stephen says that he made two different dressings and tried to incorporate texture with apples. Tom says that a big slice of apple doesn't do that, and he should have diced them and scattered them throughout. Stephen's face is like, "Oh, shit. I totally should have done that."

Ripert asks Amanda what minestrone means to her. She says hers had beans, pancetta, Parmesan rind, and vegetables. Ripert points out that it should have pasta too. Amanda stands there with her mouth open for a while and then says that she didn't use pasta. Which we know. Duh. Tom reminds her that the vegetables need to be cut uniformly so they cook evenly, and she has no response to that either. Padma says that her dish "felt amateurish" and Patrick says it was "grandmotherly" and "didn't quite have the polish that you might expect from a chef." Whew. That was tough. Good. I hope Amanda goes home.

Back in the Stew Room, Amanda tells how it hurt to hear the criticism. The judges discuss their options. Tom thinks that Stephen's dish was jumbled up, and the number of ingredients was fine if you could taste each ingredient, but you couldn't. Ripert thinks Stephen had too much time so he was trying to incorporate every technique that he knows. Padma concludes, "Overthought and overdressed." Back in the Stew Room, Stephen makes fun of himself for putting so much into a stupid salad, but even more disturbing is in the background, where Angelo is counseling Tamesha. About what? They are creepy.