Eight competing chefs meet judges Masaharu Morimoto, Dakota Weiss and J. Kenji López-Alt; they'll need to prove their mastery of fundamental sushi skills in the first challenge, because one chef will be eliminated.

Chef Morimoto turns up the heat with a spicy sushi challenge; the seven remaining chefs create decadent sushi rolls, then add heat to a Japanese style dish; however, as the dishes get hotter, so does the competition, and one more chef goes home.

The six remaining chefs compete in a three-round conveyor-belt sushi tournament; in the end, two chefs will battle it out to see who keeps their place in the competition.

Chef Morimoto challenges the five remaining chefs to make their own versions of on-the-go Japanese street food and to "think like Morimoto" while using Japanese flavors and sushi techniques to reinvent American classics; only four chefs remain.

The final four chefs must prove their storytelling skills in the kitchen, creating a dessert featuring candy flavors reminiscent of their childhoods and a three-tiered seafood tower that tells their own chef's story; guest judge Shota Nakajima joins.

The three remaining chefs remake a failed dish from earlier in competition, as they battle it out for the title of Sushi Master and $25 thousand; one chef is eliminated, leaving two chefs to serve the final Omakase to the judges.