Previously on Top Chef...
Portland is known for
coffee shops and breweries.
We want you to create a dish celebrating these brews.
- This is a team challenge. - [Brittanny giggling]
And it's like "ching!"
But only one chef is going home.
Oh, girl. [both laugh]
I'm gonna have to throw some spices.
No pepper, please.
I don't do underseasoned food.
- This smells really great. - Mm-hmm.
Modern technique of carbonating fruit,
it's a great time to use this.
- My plate is empty. - Same here.
That's intense.
We need more beer taste in here.
There's a lack of point of view here.
The winning team today is
Avishar and Shota.
- Congrats, guys. - Thank you.
Sasha...
please pack your knives and go.
Thirteen 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,
a quarter of a million dollars,
furnished by San Pellegrino,
and the title of Top Chef.
[music]
The dish never quite came together for the challenge.
It just doesn't feel right,
that one person should go home
for a dish that two people worked on.
We are amazing chefs,
and we should be proud of what we do.
I have survivor's remorse
because I didn't feel like one of us
was any better than the other in that.
This is so hard.
This is hard, you guys, this sucks.
This game is evil,
in a very beautiful way.
[laughter]
[music]
- Good morning. - Morning.
Buenos dias.
Good morning.
Please welcome this week's Quickfire guest judge,
- Carrie Baird. - Hi, everybody, good morning.
Carrie, in her season, made a cake
in the middle of a forest in a tin cup.
- I buried it. Mm-hmm. - She buried it.
She made an oven out of snow.
[laughter]
So I think you are the perfect guest judge to be here.
As chefs, layering flavors
is a key component of what you do every day.
For your Quickfire Challenge,
we want you to create a dish inspired by...
these layers.
This is a dessert challenge.
Oh, no, I don't think I will make a cake in the snow.
I'll make a snow cone. [laughs]
Talenti Gelato & Sorbetto
has created a wide variety of Talenti layers.
These gelatos are cooked for an indulgent 45 minutes
to achieve maximum flavor.
We want to see a layered dessert.
You can make a cake, you can make tiramisu,
as long as it has at least three layers.
You do not need to make a gelato.
We want you to take inspiration from these existing flavors
to create something new.
The chef with the best layered dessert
will not only receive immunity
in the next elimination challenge,
they'll also receive
$10,000.
You'll have access to anything in the Top Chef pantry.
And because these gelatos are slow-cooked for 45 minutes,
you'll also have 45 minutes on the clock.
So we're expecting something
really delicious and very inventive.
Please keep your cool
because your time starts now.
- Good luck. - Good luck.
[music]
Mm, good.
I could probably eat this entire thing.
Reminds me of a buckeye.
[grunts] Oh, yeah.
Forty-five minutes is a long period of time,
but when you're really trying to get those layers distinct,
and separate different textures and flavors,
45 minutes just is really hard.
What are you making?
I'm gonna make a cream puff with grilled strawberries.
- Damn. - Like, I don't know
how these are gonna turn out.
[music]
I'm gonna do my play on a peach cobbler,
I'm gonna do a sweet corn whip.
That sounds beautiful.
I love baking. I really like to use
what I grow in the garden in my desserts.
I love that pairing of peaches and sweet corn.
Oh!
[sighs]
Look at that. You look like a scientist, dude.
Yeah, that's my-- that's my persona this time.
- [Shota laughs] - My approach is to
be able to get three layers in one bite.
Avishar, the science guy.
Where I'm from, Columbus, Ohio,
the state dish is called a buckeye--
peanut butter that's dipped in chocolate.
I swear it's not for show, I swear it has a reason.
The inside is going to be a peanut butter gelato,
the second layer, a liquid cocoa graham cracker.
Sweating a little bit.
So hot and cold at the same time.
And the third layer is gonna be pulverized chocolate,
so almost like a slightly liquidy explosion
of peanut butter in your mouth when you--
when you bite into it.
That sounds awkward.
Yes, [bleep] yes.
This is the fastest I've ever made a cake.
I am okay at making dessert.
Brittanny, what are you making?
Gingerbread trifle with rum.
I normally put beer in it, but we didn't have any, so...
I'm just trying to keep my head in the game
and get rid of the negativity.
I'm gonna make this stupid thing by hand.
Byron, what are you making?
Like, a take on a baklava--
goat cheese ice cream
with some pistachios, a date jam.
Sounds good.
Does anyone have a pastry bag?
No one.
Ziploc bag?
I'll find something.
Maria, whatcha doing?
Arroz con leche with a twist.
My game plan is to make little balls
so they can freeze,
and then, I can fry them with panko.
For the first time, I don't think I'm, like,
losing my marbles.
[music]
Look at that timing. [growls]
Think on my feet, think on my feet.
I don't like making desserts because it takes time.
You have to measure things.
I like to go "Wah-ah-ah-ah-ah," stir it up.
Eight cups.
...and utilize the Talenti Gelato.
Shout them out, hey. [laughs]
Melt this bitch.
Anyone have the smoker?
The dish that I'm baking is a hazelnut cake
with a blueberry and Pinot Noir puree,
chanterelle mushroom cream.
Smoky.
There's an opportunity to win $10,000.
I'm going for it.
Oh, you know I'm in my own zone over here.
What are you making with the liquid nitrogen?
Attempting to do a sorbet,
a lime sorbet.
Burning! Something burning on the stove.
Heard, that's me! I just left for a millisecond.
Ten minutes, guys.
[music]
- Nerve-racking, huh? - Yeah.
Ten thousand dollars sounds nice.
[music]
The rice is not frozen.
Scratch this sh--.
I need layers.
Plan B is, instead of frying my arroz con leche,
I'm gonna layer it up in a different way.
So we'll see what happens, man.
Not the most beautiful cream puffs I've made.
- That's incredibly impressive. - Thank you.
My cream did not cool enough
for me to be able to properly whip it.
I need another layer,
and decide to make a "pie crust"
without really having a lot of time
to kind of bake it down.
I just pull it together real quick.
Flour and butter and sugar.
It is what it is.
Uch.
Chefs, a minute and a half left.
Corner hot.
I am running this down to the wire.
Using liquid nitrogen is a time-sensitive process.
If it's too cold, it'll just rip your taste buds right off,
and that is not a good way to win anything.
[whispers] Calm down.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
Time's up.
Hands up.
You're crazy. [laughs]
Brittanny, please bring up your dessert.
Tell us what you made.
- Rum gingerbread trifle. - Mmm.
With caramel apples and salted whipped cream.
Tell me about your cookie.
I did not make the cookie. It's just a garnish cookie.
Okay.
What did you make today?
Goat cheese ice cream with
a jam of figs and dates, brioche on top.
And how'd you get your ice cream?
I made a regular creme anglaise base,
and then, I just kind of tempered it
with liquid nitrogen.
- It's very ambitious. - Yeah.
- Thank you, Byron. - Thank you.
I made a parfait of toasted rice mousse,
blackberry caramel, and black sesame crumble.
Thank you. Good job.
So I did a crispy, uh, burnt-end brownie,
toasted sesame seed, a yuzu strawberry compote
with chocolate gelato.
- And you made the jam? - Yeah.
This dessert is what I'm calling the Oregon Trail--
hazelnut cake with a smoked chanterelle pastry cream.
- Mmm. - Cool.
A Pinot Noir and blueberry puree
and candied hazelnuts.
- It's really interesting. - Thank very much.
I did a little take on my favorite dessert,
which is peach pie.
So you have stewed peaches,
and you also have a little bit of like a shortbread crumb.
I didn't really have time to bake a pie dough,
so I wanted to give you the closest thing.
Thank you.
Avishar, what did you make for us?
I made a buckeye bonbon
with brown butter and liquid graham cracker.
I'm from the state of Ohio,
and the state dish is actually called a buckeye.
Tell me about your layers.
I wanted to go layers in one bite,
so the inside is gonna be the gelato.
On the outside, the liquid graham cracker
coated with a layer of salted peanuts
and dark chocolate.
I'm impressed with how cold and intact these are.
Yeah. Thank you.
I made a arroz con leche meets Puerto Rico
with plantains that I fried.
This is a big dessert.
I don't know how to cook for two people, I'm sorry.
I prepared a smoked whipped yogurt
with matcha miso crumbles and a yuzu kiwi on top.
I think the tartness is nice.
- Thank you. - Thank you, Shota.
I made a matcha-dusted cream puff,
grilled strawberries, and whipped cream with miso.
It's good. Your pâte à choux worked out.
I rushed.
- Thank you so much. - Yeah, thank you.
So, Carrie, who had one of our least favorite dishes?
Brittanny, your gingerbread trifle,
we found it quite sweet,
and with 45 minutes,
I want that cookie to be made by you.
Who else?
Kiki, that unbaked pie dough was just a little unpalatable.
- Heard. - Who else?
Maria with the arroz con leche.
Your flavors were excellent. It was just so big.
Who had one of our favorite dishes?
Byron, with the goat cheese ice cream.
Excellent flavors.
Goat cheese ice cream gave you a tartness
- that felt like another layer. - Thank you.
Another one of our favorites today was Avishar
with your buckeye bonbon.
Everyone gave us flat layers, and you changed your shape.
I love that there was a crunch to the enrobed chocolate.
Thank you.
Who else, Carrie?
Sarah. With 45 minutes,
I'm so glad you took the chance to bake something,
- and it came out well. - Thank you.
Okay, Carrie, who had our favorite dessert of the day?
The chef today with the winning dessert
just really pushed the limits,
and that chef today was...
Avishar.
[applause]
Congratulations, Avishar,
you just won immunity and $10,000...
Holy sh--.
...from our friends at Talenti Gelato.
And if that wasn't enough,
your dish's recipe will be used to inspire
a brand new flavor of Talenti layers.
- Yay. - It's crazy.
I've never won a cash prize.
I've never won, like, anything.
It's cool. Like, I won with the buckeye.
Congratulations again, and thank you, Carrie.
Thanks everybody, and well done.
I'll see you again.
[applause]
Chefs, I think it's time you hit the road.
Oh, right.
For this trip, I think you're going to need
a couple of guides.
- What's up, y'all? - Well, well, well,
I'm so glad you dressed up for me.
Hey, chefs.
- Hey. - Hello.
More and more, the Portland food scene
is being influenced by a wide range of cuisines,
and many are part of the African diaspora.
So I have a vast background.
I am Jamaican, Nigerian, Trinidadian, and Creole
from Louisiana,
and people were taken from West Africa
and spread all across the globe.
So you can't talk about American food
without talking about West African food.
With the fight for equality in America,
it's helped bring attention
to some of the amazing Pan-African restaurants
right here in our town.
For your Elimination Challenge,
Gregory and Kwame are going to take you
to some of the most exciting restaurants downtown.
This is like a dream come true.
I'm almost in tears that Pan-African cuisine
is being featured on such platform.
We want you to take inspiration from this field trip,
and pay homage to these cuisines in your dishes.
This is an individual challenge.
You'll serve your dishes
to the judges and the restaurant owners
at Lovely Rita in the Hoxton Hotel.
There'll be a full pantry at location.
So this half of the room,
you're gonna be heading out with Kwame,
and that half of the room,
you'll be going out with Gregory.
All right, let's do this.
Okay, guys.
This is not a competition between me and Gregory,
but we better ----ing win, all right?
[music]
I would like to do my food,
which is like West Central African food.
In 2019,
I had been named by the New York Times
as one of the 16 Black chefs changing food in America,
but I started to see my vision for what I wanted
these businesses to be kind of pulled away from me.
I left at the very beginning of this year.
I shouldn't have to fight for my voice to be heard
in my actual businesses that I started.
And I would really love to use cassava leaves.
There's a stew in the Congo called saka-saka.
The reason that I came on Top Chef
is that I want to shed light
on what it means to be an African-American woman
in this industry.
[music]
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Hi, guys. - Hello.
- Hi. - Welcome to Akadi.
Thank you.
Right here, I have the beef suya.
And this is the cassava couscous fermented.
We got the fish with the onion and tomato relish.
- Wow. - I hope you guys enjoy.
We are going to enjoy it. Thank you.
- Hmm. - Wow.
There is like a mother sauce of West Africa,
and it's red stew,
and you take a bunch of aromatics
like garlic, ginger, tomatoes, red peppers,
and then you cook that down,
so it kind of like makes a sofrito.
- What did you say? - Wow, that's spicy.
This fish reminds me of a fish my mom makes.
We're Vietnamese, but it reminds me of it.
Have your own interpretation to this.
Take it and make it your own.
You know, bring your own cultures
into this challenge,
but get inspired by this
because this inspired a world,
you know, and it really needs to be respected.
I'm kind of embarrassed I haven't been here yet
having lived here.
Everyone knows French cuisine and Italian food,
but there are a lot of chefs
that have never eaten West African cuisine before.
They are now enlightened.
All right, chefs. Good luck tomorrow,
and I can't wait to try your food.
- Thank you. It's amazing. - It's so good.
[music]
- Welcome, guys. - Thank you for having us.
Of course.
I bring you curried goat.
This is expensive,
and so, unless somebody's offering a goat,
not your everyday dish.
- All right. - Brown stew chicken
is one of the most popular things cooked in Jamaica.
It was Sunday dinner.
I mean, this is so parallel
to, like, the mole poblano to me.
Gabe and I we're like, "It's like mole."
And I was like, "Where's the tortillas, dude?"
- Like, this food has soul. - Yeah.
It's beautiful how I feel, like, at home.
Jamaican food is extremely complex
because there's definitely lots of cultural influences
from Ghana and West Africa.
And then, when the British came over,
they brought Indian flavors
through the indentured servants,
so that's how we get Jamaican curries.
We're talking about slavery.
So there's a lot in all of this
that are part of the Pan-African global community.
This whole experience is only reminding me
of how impactful historically this food is,
but how unrecognized it is.
This is one of the most iconic Haitian dishes whatsoever.
Just like Mama makes it.
I want oxtail!
If it burns a little, it's fine.
[sighs] Keep it simple, Jamie.
- How you doing? - How's it going?
- How you doing? - Hey.
You guys ready for some amazing authentic Guyanese food?
- Yeah. - Yes.
KWAME: The reason I wanted to take you all here
is because I wanted to show the reach of a diaspora.
You've had hints of it in different places.
- Right. - So what you guys are eating,
is semisweet puff bread.
Inside one piece is gonna be bacalao.
It's a Portuguese-style salted cod.
The other piece is gonna be stuffed with chana aloo.
Mmm!
Oh, my God.
The curry one is--
Now Guyana itself is a very small country.
It's half-Indian, a quarter African,
then Chinese, then Portuguese, then Amerindian.
That's why we have a little bit of everything.
Wow.
Put a little bit of this pepper sauce on there.
- It's spicy. - Now I'm scared.
I don't have, like, a super high tolerance for heat,
but I'm really inspired by the food.
The bacalao reminds me of a crab salad
that they make in Alabama.
And then a yassa is so delicious,
and the mustard reminded me of Germany.
Seemed like a perfect kind of sauce for a schnitzel.
So I'm torn between the two sides of me,
like, the Southern side of me and the German side of me.
And that's the beauty of the diaspora
of how the tentacles reach all across the globe.
Being Dominican, this reminded me so much
of what I've eaten as a kid,
so I wanna do something very familiar,
but with a twist of the things that we ate today.
Thank you guys so much for having our food.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
- Thank you. - We'll see you tomorrow.
[music]
Hi.
This is the griot,
which is one of the most iconic Haitian dishes whatsoever.
And we eat it with the pikliz,
which is the spicy cabbage pickle.
It's literally on the table for every meal.
This cabbage is delicious. It's so nice.
So as you can see, the food is, like, extremely unfussy,
but there's a lot of flavor.
Just like Mama makes it.
[laughter]
My first introduction to food was definitely Haitian cuisine,
but Haitian cuisine isn't something that I typically cook.
After culinary school,
I worked at Deuxave cooking modern French cuisine.
Just because I don't know how to cook Haitian food
doesn't mean I can't use my cooking style or techniques
to incorporate those flavors into a dish.
I hope you enjoyed the food.
- It's delicious. - It's amazing. Thank you.
The home-cooked meal I needed.
[laughter]
Check this out.
[beeps, car engine starts]
- Ready to go cook? - All right.
- It's on. - Seatbelt.
[music]
- Chaka, chaka, chaka, chaka. - Let's do it.
Is there anyone dying for oxtail?
I want oxtail, por favor!
Chris, what are you making?
A pan-fried snapper.
So I'm gonna marinate the snapper right now
in the spice called epis.
It's a typical, like, Haitian marinade.
- Nice. - I'm trying to focus on
what a traditional Hatian meal would look like,
on to one composed dish,
with French techniques.
It's just about making a dish that well represents
the Haitian culture, you know?
So what are you doing, Nelson?
Peri-peri braised chicken,
large fava bean puree, and sweet plantains.
Definitely Dominican flavors,
but taking it back to the motherland.
Attaboy.
Goat milk with goat cheese.
I'm making my version of red stew with lamb shoulder.
I'm gonna try it in the method that Kwame was describing,
maybe remove the ginger,
and use more Italian ingredients.
Buttermilk? I don't want that.
I want heavy cream.
Look out.
One minute and thirty-five.
One hour and thirty-five minutes left.
I was like, "One minute?"
Hey, chefs, how's it going?
- It's going, chef. - We're good.
Smells good in here.
Hey, Brittanny. Got some mackerel, huh?
- Yeah. - From having
a German restaurant, you pickle fish?
- Yes. I pickle mackerel a lot. - Yeah. Sure.
I saw the puff puff at the West African restaurant,
which was incredible, and it reminded me of hush puppies,
so I wanna make a fritter to go with this pickled fish.
I come from a family of fishermen
and growing up near the Chesapeake Bay,
we eat a lot of seafood.
I really wanted to try to connect the food
we got to taste to my personal story.
I'm using chilies and stuff that I never use.
- I was really inspired. - Good luck.
Thank you.
Hey, Dawn. What are you making?
I wanted to present to you guys a curry.
I'm braising the goat currently.
I'm gonna serve it with some roti.
- So this is Guyanese-inspired. - Got it.
All right. I'll let you get back to work.
See you tomorrow.
A braise is very rustic,
and I hope that it's not too simplistic.
Hmm.
- Hey, Kiki. - Hi, chef. How are you?
I'm doing well, yourself?
This is an emotional challenge for me, so...
- Why is that? - My dad's from the Congo.
Okay.
And this is the first time I've had food
- that felt like home. - Really? Who cooked at home?
- Yeah. My dad. - Your dad did?
- Yup. My dad. - Okay.
This is one of the first dishes I actually learned
- to cook with him. - Okay. What's in here?
So we're doing saka-saka--
tomato, garlic, onion, peanut butter,
and that's a lot of the basis for most of ours.
- Yeah. - Got it. It smells really good.
- Thank you. - I'm thinking about digging in.
- No, no, no. Not yet. Not yet. - Not yet.
- I got-- - Good luck.
Thank you. [chuckles]
You got a little under an hour left to cook.
I'll see you tomorrow. Good luck.
- One hour. Thank you, chef. - Thank you. Have a good night.
Boy, that is some sh--, like, goddamn.
If it burns a little, it's fine.
[sighs] Keep it simple, Jamie.
I'm making fried snapper.
The inspiration was from the fried whole fish.
Kiki, is cassava, it's like cornstarch?
- You can use it like that. - Okay.
Yeah.
Shota, what inspired your dish?
I really liked the cabbage pickles
and the sauteed cabbage.
Kind of realized how homey their food is.
I'm making black cod and cabbage.
I definitely wanna use the jerk spice in my dish.
- Would you go stronger? - Yeah.
- More? - Another good pinch.
Japanese cuisine doesn't use a lot of spices,
so this is gonna be a little bit of a challenge for me.
- My palate is [whistles]. - Fried?
- Oh, yeah. - [chuckles] Get it? Fried?
- [chuckles] - Five minutes.
Down to the very last second, guys.
- Anyone have foil? - Foil, chef.
Thank you.
[sighs]
- Three-- - What's going over here?
- Two-- - [growls]
Oh, man.
You got this, Brittanny. You got this.
I do take tremendous pride in promoting the fact that,
being a Black-owned business,
I support the Black Lives Matter movement.
In New Hampshire, I'm in my own little bubble,
and it was really eye-opening yesterday.
Food, through culture, is a great avenue
to relate with one another.
I'm behind. Woot, woot.
I know I was in a Haitian kitchen.
I felt like I was right at home.
I was gonna be that Mexican.
- [Nelson chuckles] - Tortillas, please.
There's all these ties we have to Africa.
The thing with roti, it's very similar
- to flour tortillas. - Sí, sí.
[music]
- How you feeling? - Good.
The red stew spoke a lot, just because in Latin cuisine,
we have a lot of sofrito, which is like a pretty much
- a base of a lot of braises. - Oh.
Dawn, what are you working on over there?
I'm quick pickling some peppers.
I'm making a chili sauce that's kind of like
a play on the hot sauce from the Guyanese restaurant.
My style of cooking comes from my roots.
There's a certain soulfulness in my grandmother's cooking
and my aunt's cooking, then I want to honor them.
I am... nervioso.
Forty-five minutes left, guys.
Oh, sh--.
Making fufu for this many people,
it's a workout.
The fufu was taking me a long time
to really kind of work it, and smooth it out,
but people are gonna eat the fufu in the stew,
and maybe that won't matter as much.
Oh, it needs more pounding!
[music]
- Ooh, nice. - Hi. Thanks for coming.
It's so great to have you guys.
Let's have a seat, everybody.
Moment of truth.
Hey, we're at the kids' table.
[laughter]
So I'm really excited about this challenge,
and tasting all this food.
What was your night out like?
Actually, a lot of my group was emotional
over the whole thing because the food
was so comforting. They felt, like, really at home.
When I got with them, I asked them,
"Have you all had West African cuisine before?"
And they said, "No," and I said, "Yes, you have.
You've had it. But you just don't know."
And once they had it, the dots connected,
and they were able to see their heritage within that food.
For sure.
Wow.
- Is the texture okay for you? - Yeah. Yeah.
The only thing that's worrying me a bit
is my red stew.
Just nervous about it being overwhelming to the fish.
I add coconut cream to calm down
the bigger flavors of the red stew.
I'm gonna hit it with some acid.
Oh, you--all right. So you're good. You're good, yeah.
Sixteen seconds.
- Whoo. - Ay-yi-yi.
Ooh. Thank you.
Mmm.
This smells Dominican to me.
- Hello, chefs. - Hi.
- How you doing? - Tell us about what you made.
- Byron? - So what I've prepared for you,
this is pan-seared snapper, marinated in red stew.
Along with it is a fritter of cassava,
salted cod, and escabeche.
Brittany, what did you make?
I never had West African food,
but I make a lot of pickled mackerel
with German food, so I made a pickled mackerel
with an allspice fritter, red stew,
coconut sauce, and charred cucumber.
- Nelson? - When we went to Akadi,
I saw all the similarities
of where Dominican culture comes from,
and I made an "obe ata din din,"
braised chicken, jerk spice yucca,
sweet plantains, and a fava bean puree.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- Thank you, guys.
The salted cod cake is pretty damn good.
Mm-hmm.
Byron's red stew had the most authentic flavor.
- The croquette is delicious. - Yeah, it really is.
- The pickle is just perfect. - Really good.
- It adds crunch, it adds spice. - And they're delicious.
Yeah.
I don't really do food like this.
What did you feel about Brittanny's dish?
The red sauce is kind of bland.
Well, she muted it with the coconut milk.
Yeah. There doesn't feel to be any depth to her red sauce.
Brittanny's fritter is tough.
But I really like her mackerel.
[music]
What did you think of Nelson's chicken?
- It's a tasty dish. - It is.
But it tastes like a lot of the food
that we've had from him before.
I expected West African-Guyanese flavors
to be a little bit more prevalent.
Coming down. Oh, oh, oh!
Five, four, three,
two, one.
Yeah. Ooh, okay. This looks good.
- You're right. - Smells good.
- Hello. - Jamie, let's start with you.
At Akadi, their fried fish reminded me
of my mom's fried fish.
So I went with crispy snapper, turmeric couscous,
heirloom tomatoes, and some pickles.
- [chuckles] - Great. Dawn?
So I was inspired by the Guyanese cuisine,
so I made curried goat,
crispy roti, and fondant potatoes.
And the green sauce is a play on pepper sauce.
Gabriel, what did you make for us today?
Oregon lamb shoulder braised in a "red stew,"
goat cheese, an olive oil mash,
and potato chips dusted with the suya spice.
- Thank you, guys. - Thank you.
Let's start with Jamie's dish.
The fish is so light and crispy.
The pickling juice reminded me
of, like, a very classic Vietnamese dipping sauce.
I love how she used the suya spice
in the couscous.
She really took this challenge and owned it.
Every bite is very bright.
You don't get tired of eating it.
You want a second bite, you want a third bite.
Oh, that's the couscous one from Akadi. Yeah.
- How'd it go with the judges? - I don't know.
What do you think of Dawn's goat curry and roti?
I love the fact that it's on the bone.
- This, like, the green puree-- - Oh, it's so good. So bright.
- I want a jar of it. - She nailed the inspiration
when it comes to these flavors.
It's the first dish that I want the recipe for.
- That was my favorite. - It was really good.
- Dawn, how'd it go? - [sighs] I don't know.
I like Gabriel's dish,
but these designer mashed potatoes, I'm kind of over it.
Especially when I got the mouthful of goat cheese.
My mouth was taken hostage for a second.
Yeah. [laughs]
I'll say what everyone's thinking--
this dish is too white.
[laughter]
Two minutes.
[music]
Four, three, two...
Look how beautiful this is.
Hello, chef. Chris, tell us what you made.
Having a Haitian background,
I was truly inspired by the cuisine.
Today, I made a pan-fried red snapper
marinated in epis,
a crispy rice cake,
a mushroom and bean puree,
twice-fried plantain,
- and pickles. - Sara.
I made coconut rice porridge, a jerk spice gravy,
salt cod in the style of "pork floss,"
peanuts, and some pikliz.
- Kiki. - This dish is for my father.
He was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
and we call this dish saka-saka.
I served it with fufu. The meat in there is beef,
and the base is tomato and peanut.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
What did you think of Chris?
I think he tried a little too hard to reinterpret
- Haitian parts of a dish. - Yeah.
Chris made a bunch of technical mistakes here.
The plantain is way too dark and bitter.
There's just too much on the plate, and nothing was
honed in and expertly done.
How'd it go with the judges? You happy?
Yeah. I'm happy with the dish that I put out.
Sara's dish is a dish I'd order again and again.
What a bold move.
Pineapple and coconut and peanuts.
It's so out the box.
Mm-hmm. Interesting.
- Very good flavor. - How'd it go, Sara?
It's hard to read their faces.
I really enjoyed the flavors of Kiki's saka-saka stew.
It tasted like it had been developed over time.
She put a lot of flavor in here.
It's just the fufu, unfortunately.
The starch isn't cooked out of this, and it's cold.
Yeah, it's very cold.
- No way. [laughs] - The fufu was a no-go.
It wasn't cooked.
I'm not gonna change myself,
so if they like it, they like it.
- Twenty seconds. - Behind. Coming down.
Three, two...
Aah.
[music]
I love that we're doing this challenge.
This is the roots of Southern cuisine,
American cuisine.
Hello. How are you guys doing?
- Fantastic. - Well, tell us what you made.
I made braised chicken with heirloom beans,
plantain dumplings, a curry leaf oil as well,
and then, escabeche in the style of pikliz.
- Avishar. - I did a shrimp and grits
with a eggplant and Bengali-style escabeche
- and Taro Beresta. - Thank you both so much.
- Thank you. - We'll see you later.
I really like Avishar's dish.
The grits were just-- it was just very smart.
He put a lot of himself in it. You feel it.
You eat it. You know it's Avishar.
'Cause the shrimp itself was amazing.
Yeah. The seasoning was on point, too.
- Good job. - We can move on to Gabe's dish.
You know, these beans are beautiful.
They're cooked perfectly.
The chicken is well-executed. It's crispy.
I love that chicken, that crispiness.
I did a little bit of Jamaican and Haitian. "Jahaitian."
- Thirty seconds. - Heard.
The sauce itself has a lot of spice,
and the cod is marinated in spices.
It could be an overpowering dish.
[music]
[alarm beeping]
Thank you. Wow. That is a full plate.
I'm excited about it, though.
Maria, what dish did you make today?
With Mathilde's restaurant,
I find it very close to Mexican food.
Today, I made black-eyed pea crema,
topped with oxtail, and habanero avocado oil.
Shota, what did you make for us?
Gregory, he was talking about Haitian
using a lot of seafood, so I made black cod and cabbage.
The sauce has turmeric, cloves, allspice,
- a tiny bit of yuzu. - Thank you both so much.
- Thank you. Thank you. - Thank you very much.
When Shota's dish hit the table, to me it looked Japanese.
But when you taste the sauce, it's anything but.
- Yep. Yep. - You know?
It had so much dimension, and it was just enough
for the amount of fish.
I was waiting for that spice, and I got it.
I can tell 'cause you're crying.
- I am crying a little bit. - We got some spice over here.
[laughter]
I feel like you're fine.
Let's talk about Maria's.
The big problem I have right now is this the last dish
and I am full. I can't eat another bite,
and I just wanna keep eating this.
The sauce is like-- it's bean puree,
- but it's, like, so deep. - It's aerated and fluffy.
- It's fluffy. - It is fluffy.
- Oh, my God, yeah. - Whew.
All of the chefs seemed really excited
and inspired by the time they spent with both of you.
This is some extraordinary cooking.
- What we just did today-- - Was very meaningful for you?
- Very meaningful. Yeah. - Awesome.
All right. Let's get out of here, you guys.
Let's do it.
You really got me inspired. You got me--
That's everybody's favorite dish at this table.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
We have to get to Judges' Table.
Thank you again for opening your restaurants,
and for dining with us today.
It was lovely to have you.
- [music] - Oh, man.
Yeah, I don't know how they'll feel about it, but--
- It's good. - Oh, you guys. Thanks.
I love you, Brittanny.
Hi, everybody.
- Hi. - Hello.
We'd like to see Shota,
Kiki, Dawn,
Brittanny, Chris,
and Jamie.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Oh, no. I'm on the bottom.
Argh.
[music]
We used to be where we were only focused
on two or three cuisines-- French, Italian,
possibly Japanese.
And nowadays, we're opening our eyes
to so many different cultures, so many different cuisines,
and it's just really great to watch young chefs
embrace this idea.
We'd like for Dawn,
Jamie, and Shota to stay here, please.
The rest of you can step to the side.
Thank you.
The three of you had our favorite dishes of the day.
Ooh. I'm gonna run out of here.
- Excuse me. - Don't run out, don't run out.
- Okay. - It's okay.
- How you feeling, Jamie? - I love my dish.
Akadi just hit me. Mom and Dad was in this dish,
and I just had to represent
'cause it just hit that home for me.
You could tell your heritage because of the sweet notes
and the tart notes, but you still managed
to show us how these flavors can be translated
in a new, modern way.
The fish was so crispy. The little pickles
that were just perfect, and just a couple of bites
of tomatoes and onions really carried that dish through.
- Thank you. - It felt like you'd been
making this dish for years.
Dawn, can you walk us through the goat curry?
I braised it, and then I sauteed vegetables down with curry,
but I forgot to tell you that I wanted it to be eaten by hand.
- I ate it by hand. - I ate it with my hands.
- Okay. Good. - Yeah. We swiped it
through all the sauces, and then that green seasoning
on the side, we wanted a jar of it.
- Good. - Everything was balanced,
There was just enough of the green sauce,
although I don't know if there could ever be enough
of the green sauce.
Everything was just where it needed to be.
Thank you.
When we heard of the challenge, I was really, like, moved.
I can't feel more in touch with the food
that we're making right now.
- It's a long time coming. - It's a long time coming. Yeah.
Hey, Shota. How are you feeling right now?
Really relieved. I was pretty anxious.
I really don't cook with spices a lot.
Thinking about the spices, I was sitting there thinking,
"There's gonna be a clash here," but it didn't, it worked.
Primarily being fairly unfamiliar
with these ingredients, I think you did a fantastic job
because I got all those flavors in that beautiful sauce.
Thank you very much.
Well, all of you clearly were very, very inspired,
but there can only be one winner.
Gregory, why don't you start?
The chef that made our favorite dish today
truly represented the flavors of the African diaspora.
And the winning chef today is...
Dawn.
- [applause] - I told you.
I've had a few ups and downs, but I think
that I'm slowly hitting my stride.
Thank you guys. Thank you so much.
To win this challenge, it means so much to me.
I could not be more honored.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you.
You're making the ancestors proud.
Thank you.
You guys can step to the side.
Kiki, Brittanny, and Chris, please step forward.
Congrats.
The three of you had our least favorite dishes of the day,
and one of you will be going home.
[music]
Let's start with you, Kiki.
Were you happy with your dish?
I wished I had a little bit more time to cook the stew down.
I thought the stew was delicious.
My issue was the fufu. I mean, you know what's up.
So you taste it, and you're like, "This ain't it."
I felt fairly rushed in the process.
Typically, it's a little bit more gummy.
Being first generation Congolese,
it doesn't feel good to mess up your fufu.
This challenge hits home in a very deep way for me.
I've spent years cooking other people's food,
and feeling as though mine was not important,
so if I go home, I'm not gonna take that lightly.
Brittanny, the main problem with your dish
is that it was kind of mild.
I will admit that I am not super tolerant
of really, really spicy food.
- It didn't have to be spicy. - Had to be flavorful.
The flavors were monotone,
and they were competing against each other.
The yogurt was overpowering the red sauce.
It almost seems like you're not letting yourself cook.
That's a hundred percent true.
What do you love about cooking?
Tell us your story.
Maybe I'm here, and I'm kind of learning
that I don't know.
I think that I make food that isn't of my life.
I think that I cook a lot from my head,
and I don't cook a lot from a place of my heart.
You gotta get out of your head.
I know.
Chris, walk us through your dish.
So as soon as we entered this competition,
I also had the internal struggle of not knowing
how to cook the food, but interpreting
the flavors that I do know.
Plantain rice sauce, sos pwa.
So you just listed off a whole Haitian meal.
There's so much technique that would have to go
into executing that properly,
especially if you're unfamiliar with the cuisine.
But at the same time,
I was missing a lot of technique,
and a lot of seasoning in your food.
You gave us a collection of ingredients, not a dish.
It had no point of view. We didn't see you.
It could have been anyone putting those things together.
You're here to cook, right?
- Cook. - Will do.
We will call you all back in a bit.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- This lady! - You won?
- Awesome, guys. Good job.
- Yeah. - Thank you.
Me and Kiki and Chris in the bottom.
- What? - Yeah.
That's sh-- never gets easier.
It sucks.
This is a tough decision to make today.
There are a lot of technical flaws.
And then, there was just a lack of point of view.
Kiki, her issues, at least for me, were really technical.
The stew was actually really, really good.
She just messed up the fufu, and it's unfortunate
when you only have two components to a dish,
- you have to hit both of them. - Yeah.
- My fufu was not right. - And Brittanny?
There's just such a huge difference for me
between understanding spicy food and understanding bland food.
- Like, this was bland. - Right. Right.
It wasn't that it needed heat.
- No. It needed salt. - It needed seasoning.
- It needed life. It needed-- - Flavor.
- Contrast. - Yeah. Good flavor.
I don't think we're even seeing Brittanny,
which is the sad part.
They're forcing you to answer the comfortable question,
like, who are you?
I don't know who I am.
Chris has the chops to make plantains well.
But he burnt them. Couldn't pull it off.
There's too much. Too many--too many elements.
Yeah.
He wanted to give us everything,
but he didn't know how to do everything.
The hardest part for me was hearing Tom say
that, like, he didn't-- he didn't get a sense of me.
- It just hurts, you know. - Okay.
- I think we have our answer. - Yes.
Let's get them out here.
[music]
You know, chefs, it's one thing to explore
the food of the African diaspora,
and try to understand it.
But translating centuries of cooking
by only experiencing it through a few meals
is hard to do.
That's why it's a challenge.
Brittanny...
please pack your knives and go.
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
I learned a lot.
We'll see you at Last Chance Kitchen.
It's not over yet.
You can still get back to the competition.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
I think the pressure of Top Chef is intense.
It was a little surprising to me how quickly
my confidence took a hit.
- You're going? - It's me. Yeah.
Because I think that our culture tells us
that we can only do experiences if we're supposed to win them.
But I think that the experience is also something
you can win at.
You're gonna grow so much from this.
I may not have 100% shown exactly
who I am in this competition.
I do feel that it's enabled me to think deeper
about who I am as a cook, what I want to cook.
It's something I want to continue to explore.
Tonight, Brittanny enters Last Chance Kitchen.
I think I've been trying to do too much.
Her planned dish fell flat.
- Cook, cook, cook, cook. - Can she spice things up?
Find out now on demand,
or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef...