Tom finds Micah, who is filleting black bass. Micah explains that he's the Executive Chef, but he skipped the step of being sous chef, and went right for line cook to Executive. I don't know if that's a big deal or not, because I've never worked in a kitchen, but I guess they wouldn't mention it if it was no great shakes. Anyway, Tom doesn't like how Micah is filleting the fish, so he steps in to show him a better way. Micah interviews that he's shitting bricks.

Tom assigns Jorel (what kind of name is that, anyway?) to butcher and break down whole chickens. Jorel interviews that he could butcher a pig with his eyes closed, and chickens are even easier, so this will be a piece of cake. Famous last words. As he breaks down the first chicken, Tom walks by, stops, and stares. That doesn't seem like a good sign. Tom stops and lets Jorel know that he wanted the bone in the breast. Jorel was butchering a chicken like he was going to sell the breasts to the soccer moms in the grocery store (like me) who wants a boneless, skinless chicken breast. Most chefs like bone-in, though, right? For the flavor? Jorel feels like a dummy. Tom interviews that Jorel should have clarified before he started hacking away.

We're going to leave Tom's challenge for a bit, and go see what Emeril's up to in Las Vegas. He's got five potential cheftestants there to test and determine which ones go through. The first cheftestant, Joshua, also has a waxed moustache. What is the deal with those? Anyway, Emeril explains to the assembled group that he'll be putting them through a test to determine if they get to go on to Seattle and compete. He might be picking four of them, or he might be picking just one. Chef Stephanie has a stone face but she interviews that inside, she is feeling "pure fear."

Emeril explains that their challenge is to make soup because it seems simple but it's actually very complicated. Jeffrey, whose last name is Jew which seems... interesting, has a partner named Jim. He also has great skin and looks a little bit like Jude Law in that movie where he was a sex robot. Anyway, they have an hour to cook, so they all run into the kitchen.

Tina tells Emeril that she's using chorizo in her soup, and then interviews that she saw everyone else go for blenders and chinois, so she knows that everyone else is making a puree. She's decided to make a layered soup with many ingredients, and she's adding in oysters and clams to her chorizo.