What the mentors said.

“Having not cooked this fish and grabbing something you've never touched before — that says a lot about your character. This is a competition and those kind of moments for me are important.”

“Salmon is cooked beautifully. It feels like you had 30 minutes to cook it — that intense. Great job.”

“Every element in this bowl works. Beautiful. The caramelization on that pork — marvelous, really good.”

“This is done beautifully. Quintessential basement cooking.”

“This is delicious. I'm amazed it's centered around a freaking hot dog — something that was unwanted from the previous two floors. The right kind of depth of heat is in there. It's sour. It's tart. Very good.”

“Beautiful halibut. It's cooked very nicely.”

“This is the type of dish I want to dive into. The texture is so craveable — I went in for a second bite.”

“This is soul hugging.”

“For 20 minutes this is impressive.”

“This is a fun expression of a cocktail bite. The glaze is delicious — it's tangy, it's sticky, and the chicken is cooked perfectly.”

“Can I order that for lunch? I really love all the bold flavors in here — it's vibrant, visually appealing.”

“This to me is really taking scraps and turning them into something special.”

“Frying the tortillas was really smart.”

“I'm blown away by the flavor in this. Usually you can go to a restaurant and get chicken, get shrimp, get tofu — I think we need to add hot dogs to the options in a Thai restaurant.”

“There's onion in the cocktail and that sounds super weird, but because the chicken wing is so sweet it works really well to give a nice savory pop to it. And nothing more American than a beautiful chicken wing.”