Previously, on Top Chef...
We want you to host Top Chef's very first supper club.
- Do you need all this stuff? - Let's see.
- Danny, we're at nine. - 900?
I got enough for, like, 12 people.
Laura, if you have a tight budget,
why do you to do two things?
It was exciting, right?
But they couldn't buy enough vegetables.
I think Dan hit the nail on the head with this relish tray.
The winning chef gave us a dish that was exciting and delicious.
Dan.
- Kevin's beef. - It's too undercooked.
Top Chef America, I feel like, is way, way,
way harder than Top Chef France.
Is that the best thing you can do with olives?
It wasn't that unique.
Dealing with a texture like that, and it's under-seasoned,
- makes it further unpleasant. - Okay, Chef.
I want to stay in the competition.
I want to prove what I can do.
Charly, the fish was really overcooked.
Please pack your knives and go.
Nine chefs remain to compete
in the ultimate culinary showdown.
At stake for the winner,
a feature in Food & Wine Magazine,
an appearance at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen,
$250,000 furnished by Saratoga Spring Water,
and the title of Top Chef.
Let's do this.
I'm struggling a little bit. I haven't win a challenge yet.
So to me, working out is just, like, my own therapy.
Power bottoms.
I mean, Manny become, like,
a very good friend in this competition.
He crossed the border, I crossed the Atlantic by swimming.
We're here to realize our American dream.
Six years ago, I had my restaurant in Paris.
Everything was going great, but I was not happy,
and I've always dreamed about America.
One night, I was kind of drunk...
Two weeks after, I was in Vegas,
and now I own a pastry company in Texas.
This country, if you want it, you can have whatever you want.
That's the power bottom training, huh?
That's the beauty of America.
All right, let's go cooking.
Let's go cook.
It's nice to be back, and I'm curious to see
- what's around the corner. - Same.
This is everybody.
I have, like, a sneaking suspicion
that something's gonna happen today.
Oh, yeah?
Hey, bitches!
Kaleena's back.
She's a badass and she's a warrior,
so I'm not surprised at all
she's back from Last Chance Kitchen.
Who's that?
- Who's that? - Who is this guy?
Why is he helping her with her luggage?
- I know this guy. - What's up, what's going on?
What's up, bro? What are you doing here?
In walks in Soo, and I recognize him from Chicago,
but in the back of my head, I'm like,
"Why the hell is this guy here?"
Like...
Surprise, right?
This is Soo. He's our 16th contestant.
Hi, Chefs.
He fought his way through Last Chance Kitchen
- with me. - Nice to meet you.
I've never heard of this happening in Top Chef history.
I'm sure you guys were like, "What the [bleep] is this guy?"
Surprise, world.
My name is Soo Ahn,
and I am your secret surprise 16th chef.
Please meet this season's 16th competitor.
- Oh. - Soo's here to compete
for his own chance to join the competition.
I love it, I love it. I want more!
Valentine, I'm sorry, you can exit the kitchen.
Kenny, sorry, you're not going on.
- Avenge us. - Yes, avenge us!
I'm not gonna give you sh-- this time, Chef, I will not.
Alisha, I'm sorry, you're not going through.
- Soo, how you doing? - Oh, my God, I'm tired.
I----ing hope this is the bite of my life.
Kaleena and Soo, you're both going to the competition.
Oh, my God!
This is, quite frankly,
some of the best stuff I've had all season.
I'm here to cook my ass off.
I was like, "This nice man is helping Kaleena with her bags."
Yeah, I'm a chef in Chicago.
I've been there for, like, 10 years.
Before that, I was playing professional golf.
Welcome.
For the first time.
- I'm excited, yeah. - Okay, then.
- I'm done. I'm done. - It's fine. It's fine.
For two people to come back,
that's extra digging to do, man.
But Soo beat four people in Last Chance Kitchen.
I'm just like, "Okay, he must be pretty badass."
I know you're happy, but you're also, like,
"Now I have to eliminate this bitch again."
Ai-yai-yai-yai-yai!
- It's always a twist, baby. - It's always a twist.
- Never expect the expected.
I missed you so much.
Kaleena, I was like, "Oh, my God."
I'm glad I only missed one challenge, and I didn't have
- to sit out for a long time. - Seriously.
When I got eliminated, it was devastating,
but honestly, it was, like, a huge reset.
I cooked food that was more real to myself
as a chef on Last Chance Kitchen.
And it made me realize, this is what I need to do.
I'm just so glad to be back. Like, yes, bitch.
- Good morning, Chefs. - Good morning.
Kaleena, welcome back.
- Thank you so much. - How does it feel?
Honestly, I feel like I've had some mental clarity,
and I'm just fired up, and I'm ready to go.
Ooh, I can feel it.
And welcome to the competition, Soo.
- Hello, Chef. - I know nothing about you.
So how does it feel
integrating into a group of chefs
that have already created such a bond?
They've been super nice to me.
Thankfully, no one's being an asshole to you.
Glad to have you.
I love when sh-- gets shaken up.
There is one more thing you need to know.
Because Tom has elected to send two chefs
back into the competition,
that means we have the ability to send two out.
It could be tomorrow. It could be weeks from now.
It all depends on how you all do.
All right, Chefs, please give a big, warm welcome
to two-time James Beard award-winning chef
and founder of Milk Bar, Christina Tosi.
Oh, wow.
Hello! I brought dessert.
- Oh, I love Milk Bar. - Oh, boy.
- Here we go. - You know how to make friends.
Dessert's the best way to make friends.
- It is. - Hello, Chefs.
- Hi, Chef. - Hello.
You're all in for a real treat today.
Dairy-based desserts are very popular in Wisconsin,
as you can see.
In all my free time when I'm not here with you, Chefs,
I have made it a personal mission
to try as much frozen custard around town.
And I've had a lot.
A lot of good ones and a lot of great ones.
What's your favorite one so far?
I can't tell you that right now, Dan.
There's gonna be a war on social media if I do.
Mm-hmm.
For today's Quickfire Challenge,
we want you to make a dairy-based dessert.
There's a variety of different ways to make dairy shine,
whether it's in the flavor itself,
or in the incredible texture
that dairy can bring to any dessert you might dream of.
Dessert is not on my wheelhouse.
There is $7,500 in Quickfire quick cash on the line.
This is not only a Quickfire Challenge,
this is, like, a personal challenge.
Okay, this is what I've been practicing for.
All right, Chefs, you have 45 minutes on the clock
to make us some legen-dairy desserts.
- Yes! - That was cheesy.
Well done. Well done.
And your time starts... now.
Let's see the hustle.
- Oh, sorry. - Sorry, sorry.
I got the eggs.
I'm doing a play on a choux dough.
Make, like, a frozen custard out of it.
I'm going to do a biscuit shortcake
with some cheese inside,
and then I think a take on, like, Bananas Foster.
The combination of the cheddar and the banana
is a little bit weird even for me.
Have you made these biscuits before, Amanda?
One hundred percent.
The only thing is, I put the cheese in there.
That's not normal.
I definitely approach this with a gamer mindset.
The Pokémon theme song starts with,
"I want to be the very best like no one ever was,"
and that's the energy I'm trying to channel.
Yeah.
Oh, my God, this is so much more chaos
with frickin' 11 people.
Welcome to Top Chef, Soo!
What are you making, bro?
Chef, I'm going to do a play on a PB&J.
We're going to make ice cream out of bread.
All right.
Dude, Kristen Kish said my name.
I can die happy now.
I don't really eat a lot of desserts,
but churros is one that I definitely enjoy.
There's, like, 1,000 different ways
that you can approach this challenge,
but I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel over here.
I'm going to make whipped cream with maple syrup and lemon zest.
- 32 minutes, y'all! - Let's go.
I have a custard. I'm gonna make some chocolate.
It's going to be the base of the dessert.
I feel like I'm way ahead of the game right now.
Desserts aren't really quick, so I'm making chocolate pudding.
The only issue here is,
my recipe is for a vegan chocolate pudding.
So I actually used cream cheese.
This could be great or this could,
you know, totally bite me in the ass.
Yeah.
I'm very excited today to make another dessert.
It's comforting. Feels good.
I'm going to do a lemon corn cake
stuffed with a strawberry vinegar mascarpone cheese,
topped with a basil cream.
Desserts aren't, you know, my go-to things,
but we had a cheese challenge, which is nothing but dairy.
I came out on top in that Elimination Challenge.
Lord, have mercy.
I'm gunning to win this money.
I hope this is a good idea.
Twenty-one!
You know, my wife's a pastry chef, so it's like--
it's always pressure, always pressure.
My wife, Sumaiya, is incredible.
She is, hands down, one of the best
pastry chefs in New York.
Call me biased, but that's just facts.
I'm gonna do a sweet and savory pâte à choux.
I love it.
If I do a dessert and I [bleep] it up,
she's never gonna let me live it down.
I just need to get it in, like, straight away.
All right.
Do you have more basil, by any chance?
- Do you want it here? - Yeah.
- Anybody got any heavy cream? - Yeah.
- Thank you. - I don't hate it.
It's just, I can't get rid of that cream cheese flavor.
Does anybody have dark chocolate?
Where the is the dark chocolate?
Dark chocolate?
Oh, there we go.
- Can I? - Yeah, yeah, of course.
I'm sitting here----ing asking for it forever.
Laura's a competitor.
It's not that I think that Laura's inconsiderate,
I think sometimes she just-- she's in her own little world.
♪ You're my best friend
- 17 minutes, Chefs. - Somebody has caramel here?
I do. Let it go. Just let it go.
- Thank you. - Yes, Chef.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little
annoyed that I have to do a dessert
for my first Top Chef Quickfire again,
after I served a cheesecake with a really bad crust.
The bottom crust is just so bad.
It looks like it was made in less than five minutes.
I will never, ever forgive myself for that.
Hot, very hot. Hot sugar.
Come on. Corn cakes.
- Twelve minutes! - Taste it.
Mmm, that's good.
- Whoa! - Super hot.
- Really? - No.
Hopefully they like savory desserts.
- You doing okay, Manny? - Oh, they're a little soft.
- Make it work. - Yeah, make it work.
This may be the fastest I've ever made
ing churros in my life.
Chefs, you have five minutes.
That's good.
The cream puff dough is cooked,
but you can tell it needs more time.
Ah, but it tastes good.
It's----ing melting now.
I plated too soon. This is not good.
There's nothing I can do at this point.
Chefs, you have one minute.
That's cute.
Two, one.
Utensils down. Hands up.
- There's never enough time. - Yeah.
Kaleena, come on up.
- Here, Chefs. Thank you. - Thank you.
Tell us about your dairy-based dessert.
I made a salted caramel and rum custard
with a rum caramel on top,
and then a mascarpone and créme fraîche whip.
Why caramel?
I really wanted to highlight dairy,
and I felt like caramel is one of those flavors
that you can simply infuse into it.
Thank you.
I have a fried churro
with orange blossom and lemon whipped cream,
with a strawberry compote.
Are you happy with how it came out?
I think I put the cream a little bit too soon.
Amanda.
Um, it's a little melty, but...
Today I made for you a cheddar biscuit shortcake,
inspired by Bananas Foster.
I made a banana pastry cream, and also a vanilla Chantilly.
Cheddar cheese and banana?
Yeah, I thought it would be fun.
Thank you.
I did a take on shrikhand,
which is a traditional frozen yogurt,
kulfi-based dish in India.
I did the frozen custard base with some saffron.
Soo, what did you make?
A play on a PB&J.
On the very bottom I made a puree with brioche,
some brioche liquid nitrogen shards,
peanut brittle, and blueberry jam
flavored with pasilla pepper.
Hmm.
- Hello. - Thank you.
Today I made a play
on strawberry shortcake,
but it's a corn cake stuffed with mascarpone cheese,
and then I topped it with a little bit of basil cream.
First person to make cake in 45 minutes.
Swing for the fences.
Laura.
- Hello. - Hello, thank you.
I made a chocolate muhallebi.
It's a custard with espresso whip cream,
some butter crumble, the sauce is a butter caramel.
- Hmm. - Thank you.
It's just a black sesame cream puff
with a little black sesame pastry cream on the bottom.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Um, yeah, I think-- Yeah. I'm happy with it. Yes.
I made a floating island.
I wanted the créme anglaise to be the star.
Underneath the meringue, fresh apple,
and then sautéed apple, with a sweet cranberry vinegar.
Hmm.
Just, like, crack it with the bottom of the spoon,
you know what I mean?
We have on the bottom
a buttery shortbread cookie,
strawberry and basil jam,
with cream cheese vanilla Chantilly,
and on the top a tuile, with layering of butter.
Dairy on dairy.
Exactly. Dairy, dairy, dairy.
Thank you.
I made a dark chocolate pudding
with macerated plums, basil, and some fried baguette.
What's in the pudding?
Cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla,
dark chocolate, and milk chocolate.
I want to say, 45 minutes to make
a dairy-based dessert
on the fly, very impressive.
But there were a few chefs
that were a little bit less successful.
Manny, I got so excited when you made a churro.
Yours was tasty, but had so much moisture
that the crunch of that churro was lost.
- Thank you. - And who else
had one of our least favorites?
Dan.
Everything just is kind of like that...
...mouthy peanut butter texture
and you just needed something in there to help lighten it up.
Heard.
Danny, a cream puff should be crunchy,
then eggy, nearly hollow in the center,
and yours just needed more time in the oven.
My wife is going to lay into me for sure.
Who had some of our favorite dairy-based desserts?
Kaleena.
I thought your caramel custard
was really smart and savvy.
Michelle, the elements that you brought in
helped contextualize dairy in a really beautiful way.
And we had one more favorite.
Amanda. The cheddar biscuit.
You brought dairy in a variety of different approaches.
Yeah, that cheddar was this perfect salt balance you needed.
- Thank you so much. - All right, Christina,
whose dish was the cream of the crop?
The chef who gave us the best dessert today
utilized dairy in a really thoughtful way.
And the winner is...
Michelle.
Congratulations.
Oh, my gosh.
Michelle, you just won $7,500.
This is my first Quickfire win, I'm so happy.
I've trusted my gut and I'm going to ride this wave.
Well done.
And most importantly, good luck.
Thank you, Chef.
It's time to say hello
to your next guest judge.
He's a chef, restaurateur, and actor.
Please welcome...
Matty Matheson.
Oh, my God.
- How you doing? - Oh, my gosh!
We just keep coming in with the heavy hitters.
I'm a huge Matty Matheson fan.
I watch all of his videos on YouTube.
I have his book. I love The Bear as well.
Good to be here. Thank you.
His character in the show is who he is in real life.
The world is turning around us right now,
and the speed is getting faster, you know?
And he makes damn good food.
This is the best day of my life.
All right, Chefs, it's time to let loose,
and embrace chaos cuisine.
- Life is wild, right? - Of course.
How crazy can it get?
Chaos is an amalgamation of "Where did you come from?
What have you learned? Where are you going?
What's your culinary voice?"
Chaos is every single day.
My mind is just absolute chaos.
I want you to do whatever you feel.
Dream the biggest dream.
I want you to take something,
create it, destroy it, build it up again,
throw it on the floor, throw it up into the ceiling,
grab things, use techniques you've never used before.
- Okay. - I mean, I'm already confused.
I'm so confused.
It's like staring into the sun.
We're going to clarify all of it.
For your Elimination Challenge,
we want to see dishes that break the mold
of culinary convention.
All right, I need to know how everyone's feeling.
Trying to wrap my head around it, yeah.
Yeah. Amanda?
I feel like this is my wheelhouse.
Okay.
I definitely think it's cooking without borders
or limitations to marry cuisine styles together
and just kind of bringing it all to the plate.
I should have just said that at the beginning.
I'll come cook. We switch.
To make sure that you all have fun with this challenge,
you'll each have 20 minutes
and $150 to shop
at a specialty shop of your choosing.
- Oh. - Of our choosing?
Tomorrow, you'll be cooking right here
in the Top Chef kitchen,
so you'll have access to the entire Top Chef pantry.
Good luck and happy shopping.
Thank you.
Bring the chaos.
What the heck am I gonna do?
Go, go, go, go.
Amanda is the Queen Mother of chaos cooking here.
When you explained it, I was like,
"Oh, okay. Thank you for the clarity."
My favorite vegetable to work with is eggplant.
And then I think of crab.
That's not what I was expecting.
I like to take risks with food
and it has so far paid off in the competition.
Mustard is, like, my number one favorite condiment
of all time, but I had never had it in dessert.
The winning chef highlighted their cherries
and their mystery ingredient perfectly.
Rasika.
Two in a row?
I want to show how out of the box,
you know, this 25-year-old can be.
Definitely going to be chaotic on the plate.
I love this place.
Just gotta get all my stuff.
I am really excited to shop at Mo's.
We go shopping for the restaurant at Mo's,
like, three times a week.
Oh, my favorite thing in the world,
some Ajinomoto.
The wheels are turning towards this idea
of an okonomiyaki funnel cake.
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake
made with whatever you want.
- Woo! - Anyone see yuzu kosho?
- Lemongrass? - Has anyone seen inari?
Chef, do you know if they have corn syrup here.
Yes, they do, somewhere.
There's no labels anywhere.
I am doing a sweet and savory situation.
Supposed to be savory, but it's going to be a dessert.
Chaotic cuisine, to me, means that you're not necessarily
playing by any old-school rules.
I'm leaning into, uh, memory here.
I made a dessert that had mustard greens on it
for no particular reason, it didn't really make sense.
So we'll try again.
I want to prove that I've learned a lot.
16 minutes, guys!
There's some cool stuff here.
I'm actually learning about a lot of these,
uh, African spices, so I'm getting a bunch
and I'm going to play around with them.
Cocoa butter. Cocoa butter?
Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah?
This is food, right?
Oh, it's for the hair? No, that's not the one.
This guy.
Thank you.
We should come to this store more often, y'all.
Can you show me what a pound of chorizo looks like?
I go to the Latin market
because I'm going to do flavors of a burrito.
It was one of my favorite dishes
that my mom used to make growing up.
I always loved when she'd do a taco or burrito night.
I was born in South Korea,
but at four months, I was adopted.
I grew up on American food.
Ancho.
The idea is that it's fillings of a burrito
rolled into a stuffed pasta.
I got some dried chilies.
Hopefully, this is chaos cuisine?
Five minutes, Manny.
Wow.
That's amazing.
Did you find everything you needed?
I did.
I changed my dish
on the way here, so that was fun.
I honestly have no idea
what I'm going to do with my dish yet.
In Last Chance Kitchen, I didn't have time to pivot.
I didn't have time to change my mind.
Oh, wait, no.
Two minutes, guys. 25 seconds.
Oh, I need the expert.
I feel like a deer in headlights
where I'm just trying to buy ingredients
that would make sense.
Always scared. Never not scared.
Thank you so much.
- Oh, my gosh. - This is chaos.
Chaos, chaos, chaos!
Is everyone ready for some chaos or what?
Let's go!
- Sorry. - Chaos, baby.
I'm dehydrating.
Some beautiful shrimp.
So, Michelle, I have the rice going right now.
That's going to be the base, so that's going to be the tahdig.
I need to make a crab salad.
What are you up to right now?
Oh, just getting my mise en place
ready to go for tomorrow.
I am doing
a Vietnamese shrimp and pork arayes.
I have never heard of chaos cuisine.
It seems like anything goes.
I'm thinking that this cross between cultures is chaotic.
I'm excited, these flavors should be really good.
With such broad parameters,
it just means more room for error.
Oh, Lord.
One hour 20, guys.
One 20.
Coming around.
Peeling my potatoes.
I'm doing a potato tarragon raspberry.
The plate's going to look like a massive, big atom,
and when you're going to break it, that's the chaos.
That sounds weird, bro, I'm just going to say it.
Dan, are you a chaotic person?
I feel like I'm more chaotic neutral
than straight, just, chaotic.
I definitely think I'm chaotic neutral.
My plan for this dish is to make a black garlic pappardelle
with a cumin lamb ragu and XO sauce.
Chaos cuisine is the brand that has been put on my kind of food.
It's modern fusion at its core.
I'm working on my pasta dough.
I don't want to change the hydration
of the dough at all,
so I'm actually going to be blending
the black garlic with my eggs.
Dan, how's that immunity feeling right about now?
I kind of forgot about it, so now it feels great.
I've got to make my funnel cake batter.
I'm going to get my seafood salad together.
Then I'm also going to need to cook bacon.
This is an absolute chaos dish.
It's going to have bacon and seafood and cabbage
and chili oil and crispy sh--.
It has potential just to be a total mess.
Hot.
Picking some hot-ass clams, you know?
We've got one hour, Chef.
Heard it.
I'm going to cook that down a little bit.
We're laying out some of the cabbage.
Definitely getting there.
Chef?
Hey, Chefs. How you doing?
What up, y'all?
Oh my goodness. Hello, Chefs.
How does it feel, your first challenge?
Thankfully, these group of guys are very helpful.
Hopefully they're not sabotaging you.
I didn't even think about that.
What are you making?
- General Soo's chicken. - General Soo's chicken?
General Soo's chicken. Yes, sir.
I have a better idea of what I want to do as my dish,
but it's still not in concrete form yet.
We're going to jazz it up
and make two different sauces for you guys.
Sounds good.
- What do you have here? - I'm going chou farci.
- There you go. - We're taking it into Japan.
I'm going to do a scallop soufflé,
- basically, on the inside. - Got it.
- That's a scallop mousse? - That's a scallop
with some layers of cabbage
and wakame seaweed.
The mousse is going in and you're steaming it?
I'm going to steam it, yeah.
I wanted to take something super, super traditional
and really flip it on its head.
- All right. Yeah. - Good foundation.
- Rasika. - Hi, Chef.
I haven't seen eggplant and crab paired before,
so I think that's definitely chaotic.
I'm going to make a filling with the crab
and then I'm going to fill it in the eggplant skin.
Okay, how are you putting the crab in there?
I'm just going to shred it up
and mix it with some créme fraîche, mirache,
and a little bit of preserved lemon.
And then you'll slice it?
I'm going to steam it so that it sticks.
And then I'm going to give it a light sear on the plancha.
I'm excited, I love king crab,
- I love eggplant. - I love king crab.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
Working my dough.
So, what do we have?
Um, this is preserved mustard stem.
- Mustard stem? - Yeah. This one's
a little bit personal, actually.
Nine-ish years ago, I put my first dessert
on a menu at a restaurant
and you were on FaceTime with my chef
and you made fun of me
for putting mustard greens on the dessert.
Do you have any recollection of this at all?
- He doesn't know. - What chef?
- Jennings? - Oh.
But you were like, "Don't put sh-- that doesn't make sense,"
so I'm going to do it again and make it make sense.
That's what I'm going to try.
I'm really hoping that I can pull this off
and show how I've grown here.
Reach for the stars. I think you're reaching.
You said it's all inside of you, so that's what I'm doing.
Right behind you, Chef, very hot.
Oh, Manny, what'd you do?
No, no, no, it's on purpose, it's on purpose.
- That's on purpose? - Deep flavor.
I'm making a play on esquites,
but I cook it like if it was a risotto.
But growing up, there was this guy
with a bicycle and a grill.
When you approached the guy, you could smell the corn husk
being burned as he was grilling the corn.
So with the fattiness of the crema
and, like, the bitterness of the tortillas,
that'll kind of level out?
Yeah, so I love this dish.
I was hoping for the opportunity to make it in Top Chef.
- I love it. - Cool, looks good.
Thanks, Chef. Thank you so much.
This is pretty cool though, it's good to see the mash-up.
There's a lot of energy in the kitchen right now.
- I'm excited. - Yeah.
Savannah's mustard dessert.
Thing is is like, I'm probably going to say the same thing.
- Why? - It's definitely chaos.
If you could pull this off, it could be amazing.
Imagine like a créme brulée but dijon?
I'm dying over here. I don't know.
I don't know what's happening.
This is definitely outside the box for me.
Danny's doing a stuffed cabbage.
You don't want to steam that too far in advance
- and then try to reheat it. - No. It could be gummy.
Manny, he was burning tortillas.
The burnt tortillas was good.
I wasn't clear what he's doing.
- I don't see the chaos here. - There's no chaos.
- It's just a fond memory. - Yeah.
Rasika. Crab stuffed in an eggplant.
If you steam crème fraîche, what does it do?
It falls flat. We have to trust.
- It's going to be a trust fall. - We're trust falling hard.
It looks pretty chaotic. See you tomorrow.
- Bye, Chef. - Have a good night, everyone.
- 30 minutes, Chefs. - 30 minutes.
The rice smells amazing, Laura.
Thank you.
- Oh! - Oh, that's good.
I'm happy with where the flavors are in my meat mixture.
I'm choosing to stuff the pitas tonight,
so it's one less thing that I have to do tomorrow.
Savannah, how do you find chaos?
Uh, just cook, right now.
That's the way to find it.
I'm doing a potato soufflé where you take
two thin slices of potato and lay them
on top of each other and fry it, and then
it puffs up into a ball, and it's hollow on the inside.
I've never done this before, so I want to test the technique
and make sure that it puffs up the way I want.
Oh, my God, the first one puffed.
It's going to work.
Yeah, girl. You're going to redeem yourself.
I'm going to try.
I'm working on my black garlic dough.
It looks awesome, the texture is great.
Still got it.
- Five minutes. - Coming out real nice.
You want to come take a look at them, Frenchy?
I'm good, boo.
You're using fish sauce there?
Yes, Chef.
I was going to do General Soo's chicken,
but I think we're going to go
with General Soo's shrimp now.
I did get those baby shrimps,
so I'm going to put that in the breading.
Hell, yeah, dude. I love it.
Definitely have a lot more work tomorrow
than I had today, but I work well under pressure.
Pack stuff up. Get ready for tomorrow.
That two hours went by fast.
Time's up.
Let's roll.
Chaos cuisine.
It's incredibly confusing.
I'm just trying to figure out
how can I, like, fit into this puzzle?
MATTY [echoing]: I want you to dream the biggest dream.
I want you to take something, create it, destroy it,
build it up again, throw it on the floor,
throw it up into the ceiling.
Use techniques you've never used before.
Chaos in itself is an amalgamation
of where did you come from?
What have you learned? Where are you going?
What's your culinary voice?
How do you bring that out?
That's chaos.
How you guys feeling this morning?
Feeling great.
The new guy was like,
he couldn't get any sleep.
Yeah, welcome to the club, bro.
That's what I said, "Oh, welcome."
All right.
- Let's do this. - Go, Chefs, go!
Turning the bottom right oven to 200.
Get some water going.
Oh! Bonjour, mademoiselle.
Bonjour, bonjour.
- How's everything going? - So far, so good.
I'm almost done with my garnishes.
I'm just going to start working on finishing my sauces.
Laura, how excited are you to cook your own food today?
Very excited.
My thing has always been, like,
cooking without borders.
This dish, I serve it at my restaurant.
People love it and I call it California tahdig.
You know, being Mexican and cooking Middle Eastern,
Asian, that's the chaos for me.
It is working.
All right, you son of a gun.
- How you doing? - Good.
I'm wrapping my eggplant with crab in it.
I was going to sear the crab and eggplant roulade,
but instead I'm going to put it in the sous vide bath
so it's perfectly cooked and it looks good.
Anyone using the sous vide bath?
Char-grilling these.
Meat stuffed pitas can turn out dry,
and so I need to make sure that my meat mixture
is cooked nicely, and that it's nice and moist
when it arrives to the judges.
This is just the perfect amount of chaos
I like in my life.
This dish is chaos cuisine,
maybe not to everyone, but it's chaos cuisine to me.
The chou farci, it's incredibly rustic and hearty,
but I'm using Japanese techniques,
really subtle, delicate flavors.
That's good. The texture is good.
They're going to be in for a surprise.
All right, it's go time, baby.
The pasta's kind of like the big project.
I want to make sure I just knock that out.
- I want to taste it. - Fifteen minutes.
Fifteen, heard, I'm going to start plating now.
Yeah, me too.
- Thank you, sir. - Thank you.
I haven't been to STU yet, it's nice in here.
Well, I am thrilled to be here,
not only because the company is fantastic, but also,
this is five extra people to help me
understand this challenge.
The clarification of this
is unnecessary, this is a personal journey.
I'm pretty sure all my cuisine is pretty chaotic.
So, how would you describe your cuisine then?
Things that people are familiar with,
how it's served, and then just try to present it
in a way that is completely new.
I think there's a fair bit
of personal element to it though, too.
I'm from Florida so I love a boiled peanut,
but I'm also half Japanese, so is it like,
togarashi, miso, boiled peanut?
Oh, I want to eat that.
Chef Manny, how much time do I have left?
Thirty-five minutes, Chef.
Thirty-five.
Damn, Amanda, that dish smells good.
My dish is definitely very intense.
The only thing I'm nervous about is this getting cold.
I'm so afraid this is going to tilt.
One minute.
Ah!
That's it.
Thank you.
- Wow, okay, it's happening. - Here we go.
- It's time. It's time. - It's happening.
- Thank you. - Laura?
What I made for you is a tahdig.
So it's crispy Persian rice with Asian flavors.
Yuzu kosho sauce, quail egg yolks,
salmon, seaweed salad on top,
mixing those two completely different ideas.
That's the chaos that I wanted to create on the dish.
- Amanda? - I made a black
garlic pappardelle with a cumin lamb raguù.
On the very top is an XO sauce.
There's also some celery leaf and crispy shrimp chips.
- Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you.
Laura's dish, I just wish it was a little more flavorful.
A lot of the Persian flavors
felt like they were side-by-side on the plate
rather than coming together harmoniously.
Also, it's very contemporary plating.
- Very orderly. - Yeah.
Sort of the opposite of chaotic.
Happy with it. I think it was good.
When it comes to Amanda's dish,
is anyone else getting the wrong pasta texture?
- It's snappy. - I suspect that you make
the pasta dough, it hydrates overnight,
and then when you roll it out, you add too much flour,
and that flour doesn't hydrate, and it just gets dry.
The lamb raguù was flavorful.
I love the celery. I really do taste it.
But I don't necessarily know
if there was something new there,
something chaotic.
No, that was just like a pasta dish.
- It's a nice dish. - Yeah.
I think it's a good dish.
You got a lot of dots, what's up?
Oh, yeah. My hands are cramping up.
- Oh, no. - My vision is
to have dots of the salsa roja
and dots of the salsa verde nearing each other.
Why not let there be some chaos on the plate, right?
- Hell yeah. - But the salsa verde
won't shape perfect dots.
Oh, sh--.
Things aren't going as I planned.
Oh, chaos.
Absolute chaos.
[bleep]. It's looking a little messy.
I can't start replating,
so I made a schmear of the salsa verde,
made the dish look more chaotic.
Having clawed my way from the very bottom
and getting knocked out
in the first Elimination Challenge,
I don't know how I can get over that.
Chaos!
What are those jump-offs?
Funnel cake jump-offs.
I wanted to start plating
very, very early on, so this is good.
I'm happy with how my potato turned out.
It's very fancy for chaos.
My definition of chaos is the Big Bang,
so I wanted my dessert to look like an atom.
It's gotta do the job.
How did the test batch come out, Chef?
I'm very happy with it.
I'm loving the flavors on my plate so far.
Two minutes, two minutes.
- Welcome, brother. - Oh, damn.
- Onward. - Here we go.
- Thank you. - Couple sauces.
- Oh. Okay. - Hi, Chefs.
- Soo, Gail. Gail, Soo. - Hi.
- It's a pleasure. - Hi. Pleasure's all mine.
I've heard all about you.
This is General Soo's shrimp.
Instead of chicken, I took shrimp.
I battered it vermicelli noodles,
and a little bit of chicken skin.
Then the two sauces, the green one is the salsa verde
and then the salsa roja.
- Manny. - I've always think
that cooking is a metaphor for chaos.
Mine is a esquites risotto with a burnt tortilla aioli.
The bitterness got balanced with the acidity of the lime
and the fat on the mayo mixed in it.
- Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you so much.
Yeah, thank you.
Okay, we're getting somewhere.
Manny's course really surprised me with the similarity
of the risotto and the burnt tortillas,
I think, really adds a unique element to it as well.
The rounded flavors, it's very balanced texturally.
The only problem I had with Manny's dish is
it's a little more safe.
But I think the chaos
is maybe that simplicity.
- How'd it go? - It went great.
I think Soo's dish is a little more chaotic.
You're having fun, you're wiping,
use your hands, use your fork, cool.
The texture is first and foremost in my face.
Like, I love something crispy.
It's like texture on top of texture,
I could eat 600 of those.
I had a whole speech for the judges,
but I mean, I was just, like,
starstruck by everybody that was in there,
so I got half of it out.
I need to blend my streusel, dust it on my puffs.
I'm gonna fry them one more time.
This is the riskiest dish I've made
in this competition so far,
but this is also the riskiest dish
I've made in my career, period.
I honestly can't believe this is----ing working.
If I fail this,
then I will have failed this two times now,
and I don't want to go home.
One minute, Michelle.
Kevin's dish is absolutely stunning.
My dish is solid, the flavors are there,
but I feel like I should have done more.
That's the chaos. Big bang!
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Ba-boom. - Whoa.
Kevin, why don't you tell us what you made?
When you said chaos, I thought, big bang.
I thought, like, explosion, we have on the bottom
sweet mashed potato, lemon and vanilla.
On the side, a little extra tarragon.
Inside, you have a capsule of a raspberry coulis
with a white chocolate around.
And, Michelle, what did you make for us?
A Vietnamese shrimp and pork arayes, puffed rice,
herb salad, a little bit of sweet hoisin,
and then a ginger toum on the bottom.
- Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you. Enjoy.
Thank you, guys.
Kevin's dish got me to understand
what this chaos cuisine means,
because there's this battling of, like,
do I like it or do I not like it?
- It tastes good. - But what does it taste like?
Raspberry with the texture of potato, though.
This is chaos because I'm confused, actually.
At least he went for it.
- Good job. - Good job.
Texas!
Kevin, chaos. Michelle? Meh.
I felt Michelle's dish was very Vietnamese-focused.
I didn't really get anything much else coming out of it.
Kristen, it looks like you have a third element there,
- Tartare. - Yeah, I know.
I took one bite, and then I stopped eating.
Yeah, mine's burnt, and that's all I'm getting.
The stuffing seems overcooked.
Chaos is such small and large
at the same time, don't know what the [bleep] you need to do.
I'm hoping I found their sweet spot today.
Still making pasta.
Six minutes, just got to make things happen,
watch it happen, see what the hell happens.
Are you chilling today, Danny?
I'm touching things because I don't know what to do.
Got to start cooking soon, but it feels weird.
The chou farci, it's seemingly very simple.
I don't have the mise en place to do anything
extra to the dish, I'm just really holding back
from plating this dish too early.
Restraint. I'm just showing restraint.
You guys can help me put on one of the 18 things
I have to put on each one of these.
- Four minutes. - You got four minutes.
Here, put three of each piece on there.
He's got, like, 30 components on his dish.
It's kind of crazy. This is wild looking.
Holy sh--, this is chaos.
- A minute and a half. - Are you serious?
This is crazy.
And you got immunity? Damn, dawg.
That's why I went crazy with this.
And look at that, Dan,
you put me right in the right time.
Eighteen minutes. Time to start cooking.
Just focus. The plates look good.
The cameron pepper, there's a hint of it,
but I don't want to overpower
the sweetness of the crab.
It's just a clean crab filling.
That was nuts.
- Thank you. - Okay.
- Hi, Chefs. - Hi.
Dan, what did you make for us?
So, it's an okonomiyaki funnel cake.
We have lobster, crab, scallops, clams, shrimp, bacon.
We have pickles, pickled Fresnos, caviar, herbs.
I just figured I might as well go for it.
- Rasika? - First thing I thought about
is pairing ingredients that you don't usually
pair together, so I made crab and eggplant
with mushroom conserva, some dukkah
and garlic tahini.
- Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you.
I feel Dan was really ambitious
taking a dessert, and converting that
- into something savory. - I'm obsessed with it.
That could be on a menu in a lot of restaurants.
The funnel cake is such a great vehicle for all the chaos.
- I put a lot of sh--. - You were listing
all of the ingredients
- that you put in your dish. - It was 19 things!
And I'm just like, "Dan, talk about the chaos!"
What do we think of Rasika's?
We're gonna take a couple steps back on this one.
I took my first bite, and I was like,
"Did I just miss something?" Because there was no flavor.
- You missed the flavor! - Whatsoever, which is wild
- when you look at it. - It's not here.
She steamed the eggplant, it feels,
so it's also a bit slimy.
It's like slug-like.
Not bad.
That looks - ing beautiful, Danny.
Thank you, Chef.
Happy with the way it tastes.
Three minutes.
I got time to go for a run.
Last three.
The big finale.
- Ooh. - Thank you.
Kaleena, why don't you tell us what you made?
I made you guys a trash burrito
inspired agnolotti with an ancho chile and morita crema.
So the idea of flavors of a burrito that I kind of
grew up on but also kind of transform it into a pasta dish.
- Savannah? - I made a potato soufflé
with golden milk,
tropical fruit, and mustard greens.
Matty was kind of helpful for me in this one.
I wanted a chance to take all of that chaos
and try to do it again in a more controlled chaos way.
Danny?
I made for you a scallop chou farci
with a yuzu kosho foam.
When we were talking about chaos,
I wanted to do something a little different
with something really classic.
- Nice. - Thank you so much.
Savannah's dish.
- Mm-hmm. - She did it.
It's nice.
I want that every----ing day.
That is so good.
I couldn't wait to talk about it.
With mustard green. It's insane.
- It just works. - It wasn't just putting
mustard greens on for shock value.
- Mm-mm. No. - The bitterness is really
hard to do well in desserts
and she made it make sense here.
This is hard. This is really hard to do.
Danny's dish is just beautiful.
It is. It is absolutely.
It is technical. It is luscious.
I expected that to be cabbage.
- So did I. - But to do it,
to make that mousse out of the scallops,
it can get eggy, it can get squeaky,
and it is like silken tofu.
This is like a duck.
There's no chaos on the surface,
but it's just paddling well underneath it.
Underneath, it's crazy, which is nice.
My whole dish was one texture.
My dish was many different textures,
- but it weird as [bleep]. - But I wanted it that way.
I feel like Kaleena did a very nice job
with replicating the flavors that you would find
- with a burrito. - Agree. Kalina nailed that.
It reminds me of like Hamburger Helper,
- like Tex-Mex vibes. - It's close to it, yeah.
I think she delivered on her idea.
I just don't think that technically
it was perfect because it felt really heavy.
I wanted a little bit of texture on it
because it's like a play on burrito,
like it's a heavier sauce, you know?
I just don't know if they're going to get it.
Phillip, I just want to say thank you
for lending your expertise in chaotic cuisine.
It was a pleasure having you today.
Thank you so much for having me.
We have a lot to discuss,
so I think we should get over to Judges' Table.
Thank you.
Anybody have trouble like truly, you know, conceptually?
There was no clear parameters to this challenge, right?
And so that allowed you to go so far,
and is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Yeah, that's-- that's a good question.
All right, well, Soo,
Danny, Dan, and Savannah,
please stay here, the rest of you can move off to the side.
All right, Chefs, you're all standing here...
because you had our favorite dishes of the night.
Congratulations.
Savannah, you look-- The look on your face.
Yeah, I mean, like, if this went really bad,
it would be, like, the second time,
so, you know, I wanted, like-- I just wanted it to work.
Back from our FaceTime about 10 years ago to now
just shows the growth and the maturity that you have,
and it's really amazing to see.
It could have been the first course because
it wasn't that sweet, it could have been dessert.
It just defied sort of logic in a very good way.
Thank you so much.
Dan, your dish, I'm pretty sure
there's five of us that will probably
try to do that at some point and sell it somewhere.
So good. I saw the chaos.
It was maybe a little more literal,
but I really enjoyed eating it.
Every bit of seafood in your dish
- was just perfectly cooked. - Thanks.
Danny, when your dish came,
everything in my soul and my being
was like, "[bleep] yes."
Like, it was beautiful.
It was simple. It was subtle.
The idea of chaos could present
an opportunity for you to do something
that just kind of gives the finger.
Sure.
But you weren't doing that at all.
It felt like you were doing it with reverence and respect.
Soo, I think Sophia was the first one to clean her plate.
- I did. - All of it.
That shrimp was so good!
Both of the sauces were very different texturally,
and they were both beautiful.
The shrimp was fired, like, it's cracking.
- You could eat 100 of them. - Okay.
Well, Matty and Sophia, as our guests this evening,
you have the pleasure of announcing our winner.
Chaos is confusing, and I think
taking a challenge like this and making it your own,
showing who you are culinarily, is really impressive.
Sophia.
And the winning chef is...
Danny.
Congratulations, Danny.
Well done.
Yeah, I win. Big win. Let's go.
This is my first solo win. It feels great.
I thought it was one of the better dishes
I've had in 21 years.
Thank you, Chef.
Congratulations.
You just won yourself immunity
in the next Elimination Challenge.
- Thank you. - Well done.
This is just a little bit more gas than the tank,
so I'm just gonna keep focused and keep going.
Thank you, Chefs. You can step to the side.
- Thank you. - Thank you, Chefs.
Now we'd like to see...
Rasika...
and Michelle.
You two had our least favorite dishes of the evening,
and one or both of you will be eliminated.
Rasika, let's start with you.
I wanted to pair ingredients
that don't usually go together.
It was a very, very risky move.
When we did the walkthrough yesterday,
you had mentioned that after you chilled it,
that you were gonna roast it again.
Yes, I wanted to sear it on the flat top,
but I was worried that if I did that,
the filling would come out.
Eggplant is this incredible, versatile thing.
You can steam it, you can stuff it,
you can fill it, you can fry it,
you can do all these amazing things,
and it definitely had an almost
slimy quality to it.
It all ate very one note,
both texturally and from a flavor point of view.
The eggplant was as bland as bland could be.
Michelle, personally, on my plate that I had
the center was raw.
- It was raw? - It was very pink pork.
- Okay. - My pita was very, very dark
to the point it was bitter.
I think it was...
- I don't know. - I don't think you'd like--
My feelings will not be hurt. I promise.
I respect everyone out here doing their thing.
I just thought it was a little simple.
- I was expecting more. - I honestly thought
the Vietnamese spring roll and I flip it into an areyas,
I thought it would be enough and it wasn't.
There wasn't a wow factor and that's what
- we're looking for. - Right.
Thank you, Chefs, we'll call you back in a little bit.
- Okay. - Thank you.
It's okay. It's okay.
I clearly didn't understand the challenge.
- Yeah. - It's only gonna be one winner.
We're all gonna be on the bottom.
I'm not gonna beat myself up.
I didn't go super hard on the spices like I usually do.
It just sucks that they didn't like it at all.
Rasika, I'm not quite sure if she felt the same,
agreed, understood why we didn't like that dish.
What's shocking to me is that
Rasika didn't impart any flavor.
- No. - It was tasteless but it took
a lot of technique to do what she did.
I know it's a lot of work. That's what's scary.
Baseline, it's gotta taste good.
I hear that it was undercooked.
You know, I'm really shocked to hear that
because I did, like, two testers and I knew exactly what--
And you cut it off, and I saw you cutting it off.
There was very little stretch to what Michelle did today.
That dish could've been good in a different circumstance.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity
to be on this competition and they're putting
- everything on the line. - This is the type of challenge
that pulls her way out of her comfort zone.
Both of these chefs made some bad decisions and mistakes.
Do you think they're both worthy of going home?
I can make an argument for both of them.
Let's get them out here.
Chefs, whether it's confusion, chaos,
whatever you want to call it, that was the challenge.
And this challenge was meant
to push you out of your comfort zone.
Unfortunately for one of you,
it made you too uncomfortable.
Rasika, please pack your knives and go.
Rasika, we'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen.
You've done a lot of great dishes,
so I'm expecting really strong showing from you there.
You can get back. We'll see you there.
- I love you. - Sorry, Chefs.
I'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen.
I'm gutted.
I am very disappointed in myself
for not producing a better dish
and I have produced dishes that judges have loved.
That's the beauty
and the ugliness of this competition.
No sh--.
Damn.
I've learned maybe I take bigger risks
than I should sometimes.
- Bye, guys. - Go get 'em Rasika.
See you real soon.
But I feel like I haven't showed
a quarter of what I'm capable of.
You have not seen the last of Rasika.
Next time on Top Chef.
Who's ready to play ball?
You all are going to compete in our very own
Top Chef sausage race.
Let's go!
My boy's making a hot dog on Top Chef.
How do you feel like going against Amanda?
I love Amanda like a little sister, but I gotta win.
- Let's get it. - Looks great, Manny.
So we're going to vote on the count of three.
One, two, three.
- This is pretty tight. - It's a tied game here.
He didn't use the sausage very well.
Of all people, I would think he would aim for the fences.
Oh! Oh!
- Look at that! - Oh!