  Judge Ben Schmerler expounds on sliders. Photo: Melissa Hom
Challenge No. 5: White Castle Slider  Judge Gabrielle: It's like
"Where's the beef?" except that it's "Where's the smoke?" For a
split second before I bit, when the exterior of the bread was
touching my tongue, I was like, "Oh, it's smoked," and then as
soon as I bit into it, it went away.  Judge Ben: It inspires me
to make something like this. But the smoke is too faint. This
Maldon sea salt that I've been cooking with would crank it up —
it imparts power and honesty to the smokiness.  Chef Josh: The
smoke only permeated the bread. Maybe if we had tried the
ingredients separately. If we were making the burgers ourselves,
we would have used smoked paprika, smoked salt …  There are no
words to express the glory of the fried slider.Photo: Melissa
Hom   Judge Gabrielle: This is totally disgusting, and I want to
eat the rest of it! I want to sit in front of the TV and eat
these for the rest of the day in a deep depression and watch
really bad reruns.