For the second week in a row, one of the top people in the competition got sent home. First Fred, now Jamie. They aren’t messing around. We saw a really cool challenge with plating in which Nick got immunity, and then a bold sausage challenge that put lots of people on the top, with only a few misses. Let’s rank.
8. Bri Baker- Bri has had bad dish after bad dish after bad dish. The one time she had an amazing dish, she forgot truffle. Then, she had another great dish, but it was only for immunity. Bri can’t seem to catch a break, but she still comes across as one of the strongest ones there. It’s hard to call, but I believe Bri is still in some danger, as much as I’d love to put her as “safe” one of these days.
7. Subha Ramiah- Subha’s plating with test tubes in the plating challenge. Meh. His sausages, nope. Subha did below average on both challenges, and he keeps skating by because of his flavors. But flavor only covers half the battle. If the food tastes good, but isn’t cooked properly, I don’t see you being safe by any means. Luckily, Jamie had a worse dish, but I really thought Subha’s time had come. Sigh.
6. Shari Mukherjee- Shari, aside from the disastrous team challenge a few episode ago, has been doing fairly well. I think she still needs to gain a bit more self confidence, but I really do see Shari as the dark horse of everyone left.
5. Micah Yaroch- Micah, for his age, is really impressive and I think, despite some minor flaws in plating sausages this week, continues to grow week by week. Someone who I expected to be out a lot earlier, like Shari, continues to really impress and grow, and that might be his ticket to the finale if the top dogs of Nick, Dorian, Noah, or Sarah falter anytime soon.
4. Sarah Faherty- Sarah’s paint inspired dish looked almost embarrassingly bad. If it were an elimination challenge, I’m worried we would’ve seen her go. But I think she is actually in a good spot, and still one of the best they have there. A few pegs lower because of that plating of the paint dish…yikes…but still a contender.
3. Noah Sims- Noah’s sausage dish actually looked pretty great. I think he’s finally finding his groove, and like most of the others, has a legitimate shot to win this thing.
2. Dorian Hunter- Dorian continues to impress. And the best part? She underestimates herself. She’s humble. She knows that what she’s doing is challenging, but she still embraces the challenge. I’m a huge fan of Dorian, and she continually comes out on top. One of the best there is.
1. Nick DiGiovanni- Nick won the plating challenge, and thus didn’t have to make sausages. Finally Nick got to do something experimental and make something exciting and technical and different. I think Nick has been strong this whole competition, and he finally regained his contender status this week.
I think Nick, Noah, Dorian, and Sarah are the four top dogs, while Micah and Shari are on their heels. As for Bri and Subha, they’ve just been on the bottom too much to consider them top dogs in this competition. Bri has been so consistently on the bottom, and since Subha has been my elimination prediction for weeks now, I’ll guess Bri this time.
1. Nick (+5)
2. Dorian —
3. Noah (+2)
4. Sarah (-1)
5. Micah (-4)
6. Shari (+2)
7. Subha (+2)
8. Bri (-1)
Biggest Rise: Nick (+5)
Biggest Drop: Micah (-4)