Previously on Top Chef...
For your Elimination Challenge,
Gregory and Kwame are going to take you
to some of the most exciting restaurants
that highlight the African diaspora.
- Mmm. - Oh, my God.
This food has soul.
Bring your own cultures into this challenge
but get inspired.
- Wow. That's spicy. - Come on, Kiki!
- Is the texture okay for you? - Yeah. Yeah.
The only thing worrying me a bit is my red stew.
Ay-ay-ay.
What did you feel about Brittanny's fish?
The red source is kind of bland.
Absolutely.
Dawn, how did it go?
[sighs] I don't know.
They never want to talk to me much.
It's the first dish that I want the recipe for.
The winning chef today is...
Dawn.
I'm almost in tears that
Pan-African cuisine is being featured on such a platform.
Fufu is one of the things in African culture
that you have to put a lot of care and love into it.
This ain't it.
It could have been anyone putting those things together.
You're here to cook, right?
- Cook. - Will do.
Brittanny,
please pack your knives and go.
[Brittanny sighs]
Twelve 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.
♪♪♪
Morning, chef. How you doing?
- I'm... - [laughs]
Wow. Yeah. All of that.
I'm like not--like, not today.
I'm just not today.
Last week from the Judges' Table,
what I kind of took was, whatever challenge it is
to make sure that it's very me on the plate.
Yeah. For sure.
I think, for me, it's just still finding out
who I am as a chef and what it is
that the food that I want to do is.
I think I'm approaching this competition wrong
in a certain sense because I'm not cooking me.
Do you know what I mean? Like I--I'm a little bit
too in my head about it, and I'm not just
going with the flow and just cooking.
Why can't I get my rhythm?
I've been--like, I won,
then safe, safe, safe, now bottom.
I need to have more confidence in myself
as a cook and as a chef.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Hi, Daddy. - Hi.
Oh, my God. Ella looks so big.
Uh, somebody else won.
Linda and I have three kids that are two, five, and eight.
My kids love Top Chef. We watch it together.
I'm excited to be on Top Chef and just share
different aspects of Mexican cuisine
that go against all the stereotypes.
Show them some things that maybe they've never seen before.
[laughs] Thank you, honey.
- I love you guys. - Love you.
Bye.
♪♪♪
- Good morning. - Good morning.
If there's one thing this year has taught us
it's that we should all keep our pantries
very well stocked.
♪♪♪
You guys wondering what's inside this pantry?
[all agreeing]
What's in there?
- Ooh. - Campbell's.
[applause]
Awesome.
If you open up the kitchen cabinets
in just about any American household right now,
chances are there'll be some Campbell's soup.
These soups can be a great kitchen hack.
I have a two-year-old,
and getting dinner on the table
quick and delicious is a must.
So we always have a can of cream of mushroom soup.
For your Quickfire Challenge,
we want you to create a dish
that evokes a food memory for you,
but we want you to elevate it
and we want you to do it using Campbell's soup.
Whether it's a family dinner
or even last season's holiday meal,
take us back to that special place.
But we don't want to see just classic casseroles
and pot pies, okay?
There's so many creative and modern ways
you can work with these soups.
The winner of this challenge will not only receive immunity
but they'll also get
a souped-up cash prize...
of $10,000
from our friends at Campbell's.
- [applause] - Yeah.
You have 30 minutes on the clock,
and your time starts now. Good luck.
♪♪♪
Ay-ay-ay.
Have you seen breadcrumbs, Jamie?
Uh...
♪♪♪
- Jesus. - Behind, coming through. Whoop!
In Oregon, we're always eating chanterelles.
Chanterelles on anything, everything, all things.
Sounds really good.
You okay, chef?
- I had to switch my plan. - Oh, wow.
- So--yeah, it sucks. - Okay.
They don't have collard greens.
I'm gonna do a Swiss chard gratin.
I like to plan. In my restaurants,
I R&D a sh-- ton,
and sometimes dishes evolve
over the course of like a year.
And so, like, I secretly hate Quickfires.
These Quickfires
- never get easier, huh? - Right?
Maybe not so secretly anymore.
Keep your eye on the prize, chef.
Keep your eye on the prize.
I hear that.
♪♪♪
Yeah.
I am using the cream of mushroom,
uh, diluted it, added bonito flakes.
Chawanmushi was a dish that mom made.
She cooked every single day of our lives
when we were growing up. I think that's kind of
a big inspiration of why I became a cook.
Ooh.
Using the steamer, huh?
- Oh, yeah. - Beautiful.
♪♪♪
- Which one you grab, hon? - I'll do the tomato.
- I did too. - Nice. Nice.
I'm making a crudo salsa.
And I'm making a chile morita tomato...
Everything chile, eh?
They cannot get more Mexican than me, dear.
Right.
It's inspired by the first dish
I ever cooked my wife,
and, uh, hopefully I do justice
- to our first date. - Nice.
I'm doing a tomato ginger seafood boil.
Over at Nelson's station,
he's doing something similar with cod.
What are you thinking?
Uh, I am gonna do
a braise of fish and cabbage
in a tomato broth.
Game on.
♪♪♪
Hands are so shaky.
What are you making?
So, like, shrimp toast and chicken tikka masala combined.
Oh, I like that.
[gasps]
The story of chicken tikka masala
goes that in England
at one of the restaurants,
the chef was serving tandoori chicken
and the guest said, "Hey, uh, this is dry."
And he dropped a can of condensed tomato soup,
probably Campbell's, made a creamy sauce,
and served it, and the rest is history.
Get that masala in there.
So this is gonna be our fire, okay?
- We're gonna hog this fire. - Love it.
One of the first meals
that I made in the pandemic was like
a cream of mushroom soup, stroganoff-y thing.
[laughs]
- Perfect. - Ooh.
To make it unexpected and elevated,
I'm making a smoked mushroom stroganoff with spaetzle.
Smells good.
It's a little bit more elevated
than grandma food. It's like grandma chic.
[laughs]
Sixteen minutes, chefs.
♪♪♪
How you feeling, good?
I'm still kicking, papi.
Thirty minutes goes fast, right?
Yeah. [laughs weakly]
- What does this remind you of? - My mom.
It's a play on the cream of mushroom chicken
that we had a lot.
That sounds good.
Aah!
Definitely burned
the sh-- out of myself.
Back. Very hot. Very hot.
Life-changing hot.
- Steak and mushrooms. - Yeah.
Nice.
So I'm doing a, like, grilled cheese panzanella salad
- with a tomato vinaigrette. - I love it. Approachable.
- Yeah. For sure. - Yeah.
Learning from my past experiences of being
too technical and over-complicating things,
let me just keep it simple.
Grilled cheese and tomato soup are both one of those
comfort foods for me. You know, my wife and I
are very easygoing.
- Do you feed your daughter? - Oh, hell, no. [laughs]
She just started her teeth growing now.
My wife is my rock,
and we have an 8-month-old daughter,
and she is the light of my world.
Whoa. A little tomato sandwich action going.
Yeah. Save me an extra. I'm hungry.
- Kiki, how you doing? - Girl, whatever.
I'm trying to get it together.
Five minutes.
Aah!
$10,000 dish, right there.
- Feel good? - Uh, the steamer's
not working like I want it to, so I'm gonna blanch shock it.
Nice.
Making grilled cheese on Top Chef, huh.
Who would've thought?
One minute, gentlemen and ladies.
- One minute. Heard. - Hot coming through.
I take my hot custard out of the hot water bath.
The middle kind of broke.
Not the happiest the way it came up.
How you doing, chefs? Everything doing well?
I'll finish on time, so that's great.
The fish is a little firm
but I'm feeling confident about the sauce.
It tastes great.
Three, two, one.
Time's up. Hands up, utensils down.
Ah! Little hot!
Gabe, please ce up.
Thank you.
I made a dish inspired by
a cabbage and tomato seafood stew
that I had in Mexico.
Cod that's been braised in charred cabbage
with a spicy sofrito.
The cod is marinated in cream of chicken soup.
- Mmm. - Where did you
originally have this dish in Mexico?
In Tabasco.
How you doing?
I prepared a cream of mushroom chawanmushi
with crab salad right on top.
Did you mean for the chawanmushi to be this loose?
Yeah, I like it pretty loose.
Not really. [laughs]
Here you go, Dale.
What I made for you today
is a chicken and rice fritter
with a mushroom and garlic sauce at the bottom.
When we eat dinner together on Sundays,
we always have cream of mushroom chicken.
Is that chicken skin?
It's a crispy chicken skin, yes.
Nice touch.
- Thank you, Dawn. - Thank you.
Uh-huh.
I made a Vietnamese shrimp tomato soup.
During the shutdown, it's just one of those things
that I automatically went to when I was stressed out.
I'm like, "Ah." So I was like, "Uh, I'll just eat soup."
[laughter]
[slurps, laughs]
I made a smoked mushroom stroganoff with spaetzle.
For me, that's comfort food.
Is there bacon in this?
There is no bacon in it.
I smoked the mushrooms to get that meaty flavor.
Thank you.
Hi. So I made a "Every day is Thanksgiving."
The chicken has been lightly grilled and poached.
The bread pudding has cream of mushroom.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
Nelson, please tell us about this dish.
A trip I took to Mexico City had a delicious cod.
It's one of the best dishes I ever had.
So I did a seared cod
with applewood-smoked bacon
and tomato ginger sauce.
Thank you.
I made chicken toast masala,
inspired by both shrimp toast and chicken tikka masala.
Very inventive.
Thank you, chef.
It's the longest walk.
What you're eating today is a Swiss chard gratin.
I used the cream of mushroom soup.
How long did you cook the Swiss chard?
Five to seven minutes.
- Thank you. - You are very welcome.
Made a grilled cheese panzanella
with a tomato soup vinaigrette.
I was waiting for someone to give grilled cheese.
[chuckles]
Maria, what did you make for us?
A cabbage salad with a poached egg.
I did a vinaigrette actually with the tomato soup.
That was the first meal I cooked for my wife
when we started dating.
- It obviously worked. - Yes. Indeed.
I made for you a grilled fillet
with roasted delicata, chanterelles,
and a little mushroom cream pan sauce.
For me, the memory is mushrooms.
Like, right now, I'd be in forest with my dad
foraging chanterelles.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Okay, this table makes me realize how messy I am.
[Padma laughs]
Chefs, I thought there was a high level of execution
with many of your dishes.
But there were a few that were less successful.
Nelson,
I felt like the fish was overcooked.
- The cod was hammered. - Okay.
Shota,
there was a layer of liquid over the top
that never really got incorporated with the dish.
Kiki,
your Swiss chard gratin,
the Swiss chard never really cooked out.
This really felt just like a warm dressed salad.
Heard.
But now for some good news.
Gabe,
there was a depth of flavor
that made this dish feel longer
than 30 minute cook time,
and kudos to that.
Thank you.
Sara,
your smoked mushroom stroganoff,
it brought me to...
Thanksgiving dinner with my mother.
Thanks.
I really love that you made
your own spaetzle with 30 minutes.
And Chris,
your use of the tomato soup
in the vinaigrette,
I thought it was a really fun twist and play
on grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Thank you.
But there can only be one winner, so, Dale...
The chef today who won gave us a dish that was
imaginative, modern, and that chef is...
Chris.
[applause]
I just won $10,000.
I won with making a grilled cheese.
And that just kind of simplifies the fact
that I need to let my food do the talking and be myself.
Congratulations, Chris.
Not only have you won immunity,
you've won yourself $10,000
from our friends at Campbell's.
It feels great. I mean, being at the bottom
so many times, I needed this.
Dale, thank you for joining us.
Good luck, chefs. Cheers.
[applause]
Chefs, that was fun.
Now let's move on to something
that will definitely throw you for a loop.
♪♪♪
Located about an hour east of Portland,
you'll find Oregon's Fruit Loop.
And I'm not talking about cereal.
The Fruit Loop is a 35-mile scenic route
through the Hood River Valley,
which is a part of the Mount Hood
and Columbia River Gorge region.
Right now, you can find things like peaches, apples,
and a variety of pears.
Tomorrow you'll head to Mountain View Orchards
where you'll shop for the fruit right off the trees.
- [chuckling] - Ooh.
Oh, yeah, and this is not the time
for apple pie, people, okay?
This is a savory challenge.
We want a savory dish featuring fruit.
Everything you need to cook with
will be on site at the orchard.
Not knowing our ingredients until tomorrow
feels kind of worrisome.
It feels like a Quickfire.
All I'll do is go in there
and hopefully make a plate
and just go with God. [laughs]
Or Buddha.
Or Allah. I don't know. [laughs]
You'll have three hours to prep and cook your dish
before you serve.
I'll you at the orchards.
- Bye. - Bye.
Let's get it, guys.
- I love it. It's-- - Oh, I'm excited.
- I can't wait. - It's so nice.
♪♪♪
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
After that last elimination,
I'm a little scarred.
And so now I'm, like, unsure
of what I want to do next.
- But... - Edit yourself and do--
and be yourself.
- I mean, it's scary. - It's scary.
Oh, look at these weird rocks.
They look like they're in movies.
I know. This is so beautiful.
Did you see them?
- Look at that. - Wow.
This is, like, gorgeous.
- Beautiful. - Whoo!
Yeah.
Like, now I understand why people want to live in Oregon.
♪♪♪
Man, this is still cold.
[laughter]
About to take off my shoes, dude,
and start cooking barefoot.
[laughter]
♪♪♪
Hi, chefs. Good morning.
Good morning, chefs.
- Good morning. - I am so jealous.
I really want to compete in this challenge.
What the heck is this?
Why are they here?
Fruit doesn't always get the respect it deserves
in savory dishes.
You may have noticed something missing
from your pantry.
Please don't give me another twist. [laughs]
There are no vegetables in your pantry.
Spin! Ha!
The [bleep]?
All the ideas I had in my head
were just shot down.
There are no vegetables in your panty.
- [laughs] Nice. - Ooh.
We're sticking at the fruits that are on trees
- that you can pull yourself. - Cool.
Oh, sh--.
- Spin! Ha! - [laughter]
The nerves start to rise. [laughs]
The vegetables are our flavor bases,
but now we're gonna have to utilize the fruit
so that it will be the flavor base.
We wanted you to be able to taste
what's out in the orchard
before you run out
and pick your own fruit.
Dig into that Pink Pearl apple.
- Beautiful color. - She pretty.
- It has a nice tartness to it. - Ooh.
Like, wheels are turning right now. [laughs]
You guys have a big task ahead of you,
so get out there and start picking.
Run. [laughs]
[laughter]
I'm ditching the wagon.
Me too.
This is ridiculous.
All the chaos of people of running is insane.
We're all getting hit by apples and pears.
- Oh, Jesus. You all right? - Hello. [laughs]
That's one way to get them down.
I'm knocking pears off with my head.
A few years ago, I moved back home
because I was always struggling with being in New York.
Like, environment's really important to me.
Like, you don't get time to, like,
get out into nature or anything.
So harvesting the fruit straight off the trees
is very special to me.
It's like Easter egg hunting for adults.
Whew.
- Where are the plums? - They're right here.
Sara, you got a game plan?
I have like a sauce plan.
I feel like I cook with fruit fairly often,
but no vegetables in the pantry is difficult.
My sauce is charred peaches and a little peanut butter
in the first sauce.
To keep the dish savory,
I have a couple of fruit sauces planned.
It's getting a little wild.
Shota, come get some Akanes with me.
Why? Is it 'cause I'm Japanese?
- Yes. - Okay. I will. [laughs]
Like, the color is beautiful.
- Holy sh--. - Yeah. Right?
Every year I usually go with my staff
to get apples around now,
so this is pretty exciting.
I love these apples.
I'm out of breath already.
I feel my feet and my shins
starting to tighten up.
And I have kitchen shoes on.
Not helpful.
Got a mix of pears and apples.
I was gonna go peaches and Pink Pearls
but it's too far away.
I gotta keep going.
Oh. Oh, damn.
Thirty seconds.
How do I get back?
This way. Come.
Come, Jamie.
[Gabe groans]
[bleep]
♪♪♪
Shrimp.
I'm sweating in places
- sweat should not be allowed. - [laughs]
Well, I got chicken wings, so...
let me just go ahead and [bleep]
those chicken wings up, man.
[laughs]
Here we go.
Oh, that's much better.
Dawn, what kind of apples you got?
These are the Spartan apples.
I decided to cook duck,
and I love to cook duck.
Maria, what are you making today?
♪ Albondigas ♪
Albondigas, it's basically
a meatball in a broth.
It's a very Mexican dish.
But I am focusing on the sauces.
My idea is to make a plum sauce
but they took all my chiles away.
So I found smoked paprika
and red chili flakes.
Better than nothing.
I'm not scared to cook with no chiles.
There is no crying in baseball, right?
Right. Right. Right.
What you got going on, Gabe?
Smoked plums. It's gonna be a very
- ingredient-driven dish here. - Beautiful.
I'm making what I'm calling an orchard jus
which is inspired by mole.
There's a lot of technique behind mole.
It's a lot more than just putting, you know,
20 ingredients in a pot and letting it stew away.
Are you happy with it?
- Yeah. - Awesome.
The plum is the protein.
They are being slow roasted
between 175 and 200.
Anything hotter and they'll fall apart.
You know, it's a very, very gentle cooking process.
Two hours and seventeen minutes.
♪♪♪
Hey, chefs. Good afternoon.
- Hi, chef. - Good afternoon.
- How's it going? - Good.
Gabriel, how you doing? You have a game plan yet or
- you still formulating it? - I do. I got oysters.
I'm gonna do three different toppings
using three different fruits.
You always want some acid with an oyster.
So first is peaches, and it's like a fish sauce
and balsamic marinade.
- Hot oyster or cold oyster? - Cold oyster.
So I'mma chill all this back down.
Then I want to use green apples
with shoyu sauce and do the rose apples
as a little topping brunoise.
After that, Italian plums.
They grow in my yard. I'm very familiar with them.
It's really just a very meticulous dish.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
- Hey, Chris. - Chef, how's it going?
- What are you making? - I've got seared scallops,
pink apples, and smoked and pickled grapes.
And I'm making a herb salad with a peach vinaigrette.
- I hear you have immunity. - I do.
- Good for you. - Yeah. You know,
I've been at the bottom so many times
that I'm definitely trying to prove myself
and make sure that I work my way
- to the top. - Oh, good luck.
Thank you very much, chef.
Hey, Avishar, what do you got going on here?
Um, I was gonna cold smoke some cheddar.
I know apple goes well with cheddar.
I wanted to do kind of like a--
I call it a "Ohiotto."
"Ohiotto" is a word that I just made up.
'Cause I'm from Ohio, I'm gonna try and make almost
like a risotto sort of thing
'cause I don't want to do risotto. I know if I do risotto,
you're gonna judge me very harshly, so...
Oh, you could do it. Just do it right.
Yeah. [laughs]
Kiki. So what are you cooking?
- Okay. I have chicken wings. - Got it.
I'm gonna try to fry them in flour and cornstarch.
- You have the one fryer? - I have the one fryer.
I see you have that grill over there. Are you gonna make
use of the smoker at all in that or...
I'm gonna get some nice grill marks on the peaches.
Okay.
[sighs]
Tom. [laughs]
I can sense his concern.
I'll leave you to it, then. You have three hours.
- I appreciate it. [laughs] - Good luck.
Should I grill?
Maybe I should grill?
But I just need to stick with my plan.
I'm gonna do it the way that I want.
- That's what it's all about. - Yeah.
All right, chefs. Looking forward to lunch.
- Good luck. - Thank you, chef.
Thank you, chef.
- [bee buzzing] - I'm kind of thinking
pickled salmon marinated in apple sauce, soy sauce,
- bonito flakes. - Awesome.
There's a butterfly on my station. [laughs]
That brings you good luck.
I just got bees all over me. That's...
[Shota laughs]
Jamie, you gotta get drunk.
- Get some more wine. Whoo! - Whoo!
There you go. What's up, girl?
The difficult part of this challenge is
highlighting the fruit without making it too sweet.
I'm gonna take some of that poached pear,
put it in my goat cheese polenta,
sear some pork chops,
do a little bit of a salty soy.
- [bee buzzing] - Ow! Son of a bitch.
- Are you okay? - Got stung by a bee.
You know what's fun?
Shucking oysters with a bee sting.
Oh, get the [bleep] away from me.
Come on, bro. You already got me once today.
[bee buzzes]
[Sara chuckles]
Nelson, what are you doing?
Curing the scallops for now.
I'm gonna go light on my meal,
- so... - Totally.
I usually go really heavy and bold.
I need to light up my food, according to the judges,
so I'm gonna go scallop 'cause, you know,
I have the best seafood restaurant in Oakland.
We're helping for a program
- doing urban gardens... - Yeah.
for kids in East Oakland, the hood.
You know, helping them understand sustainability
and great ingredients.
My beautiful wife, she's born and raised in Oakland.
Oakland is where I feel at home.
All the people that supported me
throughout the years,
that's my biggest motivation.
I'm doing it for you.
- Thirty minutes. - Thirty. Heard.
Don't go pasta when there's a lot of wind.
This wind is kicking, huh?
Here comes the wind. [chuckles]
What are you doing, Byron?
Pear- and apple-filled tortellini.
Just this wind, it's kind of going a little against me.
Oh, come on.
Let's go. Let's go.
Twenty-two minutes.
♪♪♪
Could we have all our meals here?
Right?
- Thank you. - Sure. Right there.
Welcome, everybody, to this beautiful table
and these orchards.
I'm really happy to share my state
- with all of you today. - Finally.
Finally. [laughs]
It's pretty amazing.
When I pull the plums off, I am so happy that they don't
look like they've been cooked for 2 1/2 hours.
They're beautifully intact. There's basically my dish.
- Oh, sweet. No protein? - So it's smoked--no, no.
The protein's in the jus.
I feel more confident than I typically do.
That's nice, dude. That's better than my dish.
[laughs] It really is.
Still a little under, chef?
- Keep going? - Keep going.
Keep going. Close, though?
- Huh? - Close?
Keep stirring it. You need more starch.
I go back and forth between, "Is it done?
Is it not done? Is it happy or not?"
My time is running out. Still scared.
I made rice for the first challenge
and I failed.
There is no room for failure.
♪♪♪
No, Mr. Bee. Not now.
I'm in the zone.
We're there. Plate very, very fast.
- [sighs] - Twenty-nine seconds.
[alarm beeps]
Ooh. Smells great.
- It looks classy. - Hello.
What did you make for us, Avishar?
So I made an "Ohiotto"
because it's Japanese and I'm from Ohio,
so sushi rice with apple, bacon, and cheddar.
So I actually made an apple bacon stock
to cook the rice in.
- Gabe? - So I'm a huge fan of plums.
The plums have been slow cooked,
smoked, and then glazed.
The jus is made from a variety
of all the fruit on the farm with a little bit
of pork and chicken.
What do you think when you found out you weren't
gonna have vegetables for this challenge?
Actually, I feel like it was a nice
leveling of the playing field and really
showing everyone, showing their cards to get after it.
- Thank you, both. - Thank you.
Thank you, chefs.
I want to do this real quick, guys. I'm sorry.
[laughter]
- This is--this is... - Amazing.
- Wow. - I know.
This is the best thing I've eaten so far.
Gabe's masterful when it comes to sauce-making.
- Mm-hmm. - The plum had so much integrity
but was soft and so beautifully smoked.
Gabe's dish is weird. Like, fruit with gravy.
- Like, really? - No, I hear you,
but that's what comes out of these challenges.
You normally wouldn't do that,
but because it's a fruit challenge,
why not gravy and fruit? This is amazing.
We should see more gravy and fruit.
Avishar's dish, the rice is too al dente
and it's mushy at the same time.
And then just the cheese, hiding it under the bottom,
I'm just confused by this.
The other thing is, this is a fruit challenge.
Like, where is the fruit?
- One minute. - Heard.
Whoo.
- I like that. - Ten seconds.
[speaking Japanese] Okay.
[bee buzzes]
[alarm beeps]
- Done. What's up? - Whoo.
- There we go. - [chuckles]
♪♪♪
- This is exciting. - These are both beautiful.
- Look at this. - They look great.
- This looks good. - Wow.
What did you do for us, Chris?
A seared scallop with a peach butter,
smoked and seared plums,
pickled Pink Pearl apples, and grapes.
- Hi, Shota. - I did a cold salmon dish
inspired by a dish called salmon nanban.
The sauce underneath is a sour apple sauce,
duck fat crumbles, and plum salad.
- Thank you, both. - Thank you very much.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
I think they both used fruit beautifully.
- Mm-hmm. - This is the same Chris?
- Yes. - Oh, okay.
I just want to make-- I just want to make sure.
[laughter]
He knocked it out of the park.
You know, I think we've gotten little hints
of Chris over the past couple of weeks,
but this, I think he showed up on the plate.
I love the smoked fruit.
They're tart. They're a little bit sweet
and they're smoky, and it's just a smart dish.
Shota's dish, I wanted to love, but the fish was too dry.
I agree. But I love the crumble and I loved his fruits.
I thought that was just the star of the dish.
He didn't need the salmon at all.
Six minutes.
You know, a lot people would be like, "Oh, you just made
three oysters in three hours," but it's a lot going on.
All these different flavor pops,
so each bite will be very different.
How are you looking? Do you need any help, girl?
I have everything on the plate.
- [bee buzzes] - Aah, bees attacking me.
[alarm beeps]
[sighs]
- Oysters. - Oysters.
- Wow. - [chuckles]
Hello. What did you make, Gabriel?
Kumamoto oysters, three different ways--
one with apples, one with peaches,
and one with plums.
And Jamie, what did you do for us?
Pepper pear sauce with grilled pork,
polenta and a poached pear with pickled grapes.
Thank you. [chuckles]
Gabriel's oysters were very enchanting to me.
They were beautifully presented, ice cold.
- Nice dish. - I did like that he played
with the way that he was cooking them,
especially I think it was the grilled peaches,
where he glazed them with that duck fat
to give it a little more savoriness.
What Jamie made felt a little bit dated.
Her pear was perfectly fine.
The grits were really weighted down by the cheese,
and there was way too much of it.
It's just a little boring.
All right. We're next, Sara.
- Ten seconds. - [Byron groans]
You got this, buddy.
[alarm beeps]
- Good job, buddy. - Thank you.
- Good job, chef. - We did it.
[Byron laughs]
♪♪♪
- Pasta looks thin. - Hey, guys.
What did you make for us, Sara?
Lightly grilled shrimp with quinoa,
apples, plums, and peaches.
Some different sauces in there.
What's your purple sauce?
Roasted plum, sesame oil,
peanut butter, and of course yogurt.
- Peanut butter? - Byron?
I did a filled pasta.
Inside you will find tarragon,
apples, and pears.
The sauce is a apple and pinot noir reduction
topped with blue cheese and pickled grapes.
- Thank you, chefs. Thank you. - Thank you both.
Sara's dish, there was just too many sauces
happening with the yogurt and the peanut.
Mine is so dill-heavy. I got all the dill.
I don't know if asking what's in the purple sauce
was a good thing or a bad thing.
What dI'd you think about the pasta Byron gave us?
To finally get a fresh-made paste...
- Done well. - ...done well outside,
- I mean, kudos to him. - To me, it tastes like
deconstructed cheese plate.
It's just a very fun dish to eat.
♪♪♪
I'm gonna drop my chicken at 15.
Hopefully, that's not pushing it too much.
The biggest challenge for me is to make sure
that my oil is at temp to fry.
This runs cold, Nelson. The sun's going down.
It's getting a little bit colder.
Dude, this wind.
Like, if the temp is too low to actually fry,
what do I do? Shoot.
♪♪♪
I temp my chicken and decide to take it out
knowing that it'll continue to cook.
So once it hits the judges' table,
it should be perfect.
Nelson, we got three minutes.
Oh, sh--.
Okay.
This might be a good one today.
I'm just saying.
♪♪♪
You feeling okay, Nelson?
I'm done overthinking.
[Nelson chuckles]
♪♪♪
Hello. So, Kiki, what did you make for us?
I made an apple-glazed fried chicken,
grilled and pickled peaches,
creamy polenta on the bottom.
What about you, Nelson?
I did a seared scallop with an apple béarnaise.
There's an apple and shallot relish
and also sauteed pears.
Is there rosemary in your dish?
Yes. It's in the pear.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you, guys.
Yes. Cheers.
Kiki's fried chicken was,
unfortunately, a little undercooked.
Mine is not undercooked. It's raw.
This is one of those things where
you have a small tabletop fryer
and then you wonder why it's not cooked.
- It's just risky. - Was everyone's chicken raw?
- Yeah. - Everyone. Across the board.
- The whole table. - The peach
with the parsley is actually really, really great.
I love the idea of grilled chicken
with a fruit barbecue sauce.
- What do you think, Kiki? - Flavors were there.
Um, the one that Melissa cut into,
it didn't look quite right, but everyone else's
- looked good. - Got you.
Carrie, what did you think of Nelson's scallop?
I just get herbs on herbs on herbs.
It's just really flat.
My poor little scallop just wants nothing to do
with that sauce. It's drowning
in so many garnishes that don't go together.
All I got was rosemary.
Both these dishes were pretty disappointing.
- Do you feel good? - Yeah. Yeah, I do.
Good.
Two minutes. I swear to God.
I'm trying to see what other sh--
I can put on this plate.
[laughter]
- [bee buzzes] - Aah!
Three, two, one.
[alarm beeps]
Thank you.
- Wow. This smells good. - Yeah.
I made a caramelized apple risotto with herbs,
as well as an apple-glazed duck.
Well, since you took away my chiles...
[laughter]
...I made albondigas secas.
I braised the albondigas
in grape juice and red wine.
And then the sauce is plums with bonito flakes.
Enjoy.
Maria stuck to what she does
and she created something soulful and savory.
She showcased the fruit in the sauce beautifully to me.
How do you think things went?
I am proud of what I put on the dish.
This apple and olive oil puree
that Dawn gave us is so luscious.
Apple olive oil puree
is something I've never seen before.
- Yeah. - And, like, I will walk away
learning something today because of Dawn.
I feel like I used the fruit well.
I just hope that they appreciate it.
We have to drive back to Judges' Table now.
We have a lot to talk about.
Thank you all for being here...
- Thank you. - ...on this beautiful evening.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
♪♪♪
- Whew! - What a drive.
Portland is gorgeous.
[Sara sighs]
What was the hardest part about today?
- The bees. - The bees.
Yeah, the terrain too.
Kind of running on uneven-- my knee.
Oh, yeah. Same here.
The terrain was tough.
- Hello, chefs. - Hello.
We'd like to see Kiki,
Gabriel, Chris, Gabe,
Nelson, and Avishar.
Oh, sh--.
See you soon. Thank you.
And now my heart starts beating again.
Let's face the music.
- Love you all. - [applause]
♪♪♪
The challenge was pretty straightforward, you know?
It was about using fruit that was in the orchard
that was just freshly picked.
Some of you did amazing work.
Gabriel, Chris, and Gabe,
you can stay here.
The rest of you, please step to the side.
Thank you.
The three of you had
our favorite dishes of the day.
So congratulations.
[applause]
Gabe, how did you come up with your dish?
I wanted to showcase one of the fruits
as a centerpiece, and then I knew I wanted
to incorporate the rest of the fruit in my sauce.
What I loved about the dish,
it was that perfect bridge between summer and fall
with all those sweet spices in there.
There was clearly a little heat in there.
There's layers and layers of flavor.
Amar literally licked the plate,
picked the plate up and licked it.
It was another complex Gabe sauce
that I need to eat again.
Thank you.
Gabriel, tell us about your dish.
I really wanted to focus on three different
flavor profiles in each oyster
approaching the fruits in each a different way.
I think it's very brave to give us three oysters.
But then once we took a bite of each one,
they were all so different.
You just did such a great job,
giving us something that was fresh and bright.
The oysters ate beautifully.
You pulled it off, and you pulled it off
because of the attention to the detail.
- Thank you. - Chris,
this is a much better place to be, right?
Oh, it for sure is. It for sure is.
Honestly, going into there, I felt right at home.
Uh, being in New Hampshire, I'm always in the woods
and going to orchards, and that's how I cook.
This dish was beautiful.
Those little smoked grapes were so packed with flavor
and it really gave a nice counterpoint
to the delicate scallop.
The dish was really, really well-balanced.
The fruit wasn't sweet.
You had the scallops, which add salinity to the dish.
Spectacular.
Thank you.
The chef with our favorite dish today
highlighted the flavors of these fruits
and really let the fruit shine.
The winning chef today is...
♪♪♪
...Gabe.
- Hey. - [applause]
Thank you guys so much.
The vision I had for this dish really came to life,
and it spoke to me
and it spoke to the judges the same way.
Walking away from this challenge,
I feel like I need to continue to cook things
that speak to the soul of Mexican cuisine.
Congratulations.
The three of you can step aside.
Nelson, Kiki, and Avishar,
please step forward.
The three of you had our least favorite dishes
of the day, and one of you will be going home.
The three of you had our least favorite dishes
of the day.
Avishar, do you think you used enough fruit
in your dish?
I used a lot of fruit in the dish,
but I know that bacon is a strong flavor as well.
That was all we could taste and you kind of lost
those bright, you know, flavors of the fruit.
All I tasted was the bacon and uncooked rice.
Kiki, walk us through your dish, please.
My dish was an apple-glazed fried chicken.
I took the apples and I roasted them
and pureed them down.
Um, I made it into a glaze with a bunch of spices.
The unfortunate part of your dish--
you gave us raw chicken.
- Raw chicken? - Yes.
- I--that is... - Yes.
Did you taste it?
I did test some chicken out beforehand
and I did fry it in two batches.
Every single chicken on the table
was way undercooked.
My heart sinks. I did not intend to serve
- anyone raw chicken ever. - No. Never intentionally.
- Sure. Of course. - Ever ever.
Nelson, what was the experience like for you?
I never really cooked with fruit.
I wanted to really go kind of bold on the sauces
and be delicate with everything else.
There was nothing delicate about that dish.
That béarnaise was so heavy and so cheesy,
it just coated everything,
and so you lost the integrity of the fruit.
- Got you. - I think that you were
maybe trying to fight the sweetness of that fruit
with those herbs, so it just didn't mesh.
I didn't see your vision.
I tried to stay a little more classic
instead of cooking "my" food.
I always want you to cook your food.
I think we all want that.
All of you are very talented
- but this meal was a real miss. - Well.
We'll call you back in a bit.
You can exit the kitchen.
What is it?
- Mr. Gabe. - [applause]
Top, right here.
Why--what happened?
I mean, it's...
All three of these chefs made food
that could send them home.
Avishar gave us raw rice.
Pretty basic cooking technique.
The extra fatty bacon and that little bit of fruit,
I don't think that the concept of what he gave us was good
regardless of the rice either.
This is worse than the first week.
I feel really ----ed at this point, myself.
I think Avishar--you know, it was a really terrible dish,
but the worse of two evils, I go with Nelson.
Honestly, I could not eat that scallop dish.
That rosemary, it had such a chemically medicinal,
um, aftertaste.
That didn't bug me as much as the, like, raw fruit
and heavy, heavy parmesan and crème fraîche.
Everything was lost.
I kind of knew it. I didn't cook my food.
I tried to go to classical French.
I was out of my element, honestly.
Do you feel that Nelson or Avishar
made as big a mistake as Kiki did
with that raw chicken?
It is very rare
when every single person at the table
- gets a raw piece of meat... - Right.
...let alone a raw piece of chicken.
If she'd cooked her chicken,
it would've been a palatable dish,
and it would've made her in the middle.
I tested the batch, timed it.
- Nelson ate it, I ate it. - Yeah, she made one for me.
- It was perfect. - Yeah.
I think we have our answer.
- I think so, too. - All right.
Let's get them out here.
♪♪♪
Chefs, these challenges are set up to really push you
into a place that is difficult.
You have to embrace them.
The only time you're gonna get to cook
whatever you want, unencumbered, is in the finale,
but you gotta get there first.
Padma.
Kiki,
please pack your knives and go.
Undercooked chicken,
- you can't get past it. - I hear.
We'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen.
Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity.
- I appreciate it. - Thank you.
Thank you.
I have never in my life served raw chicken to anyone
and I just ended up serving it
to 10 Top Chef judges.
Oh.
I am proud of myself for giving
every single challenge my all.
This is not gonna be the last time.
Oh, you're gonna make me cry.
- No, it won't. - We'll see you again.
I'll see you guys again. Okay. All right.
I needed to shoot from the hip.
I didn't allow myself to do that in this competition.
I tried to be more in control of it
and I just couldn't.
So, you know, we'll see what happens next time.
Tonight, Kiki arrives in Last Chance Kitchen.
I have a lot of redemption to strive for.
Her undercooked chicken left the judges crying foul.
No!
Can she end her streak of bad cluck?
Well, I see how L.C.K. gets down.
Find out now on demand
or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef...
Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the Top Chef Drive-in.
Oh, this is dope! [chuckling]
[horns honking]
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
What's our time?
I need hands, please.
They had four hours and Dawn made us popcorn?
I made cauli tots.
That sh--'s harder than it sounds.
Gabriel rubs people the wrong way.
Aliens of E-A-arth.
On this planet, my name is Danny.
Danny?
- Yes! - He's a real nerd.