Hosea interviews that he's going for strong flavors in his food, and he knows he wants to do a raw fish first course, something with scallops for the second and a game for the third course. He's skipping dessert because they don't have to do it, and he knows it's not his strength. He's going to sleep on his choices tonight (not literally -- that seafood would really start to stink), and make his final decisions tomorrow. Stefan comes by Hosea's station and asks Richard how they got all three tins of caviar. Richard tells him to take it up with Hosea, which is smart. Stay out of it, Blais. Richard interviews that he knows how much it sucks to lose, and he's really rooting for Hosea to win, and will do what he can to make that happen. Stefan brings up the caviar with Hosea, who seems to capitulate on that, too. So if Stefan is going to claim that Hosea bogarted ingredients, he doesn't really have a case.

Carla interviews that she also wants strong flavors. Does any chef want weak and bland flavors? She plans to use her French cooking skills, so she's going to start with a bouillabaisse, and then do a beef course. She doesn't mention what she's doing for the third course yet. Casey interviews that Carla has good ideas, but her second course, the meat and potatoes, needs to be jazzed up a bit, so Casey suggested cooking the sirloin sous-vide. This seems like a terrible idea to me for a number of reasons. First, while I have never cooked sous-vide myself, I understand that you put the food in a vacuum-sealed bag and cook it in boiling water at a constant temperature, and it ensures evenly cooked food. So, Carla's cooking sirloin steak. Don't you WANT sirloin steak to have a caramelized crusty outside and a pink inside? Isn't that the drawing point of steak? In addition, as Carla herself said earlier, she needs to keep cooking the food that got her here, and she has never cooked anything sous-vide. I'm sure Casey can help with the technique, but how does it show off Carla's point of view? It just makes absolutely no sense, and we don't really see enough of the conversation between Carla and Casey about it to know what really happened. Did Carla immediately cave in? Did they discuss the points I raised above (and which tons of other people raised on forums and blogs)? Anyway, those were my first thoughts upon my initial watch of the episode, and they haven't changed. This was Carla's first mistake, and it's a big one. Hosea interviews that he spotted the sous-vide preparation, and he hasn't even seen Carla do that, so he figured it must be Casey's influence. He thinks it could work for her, but it's risky. So Hosea basically just summed up what it took me an entire paragraph to say. Thanks, Hosea!