[cars honking]
We're turning the Portland Expo
into a pop-up drive-in theater.
I'm ----ing baking bread in the rain. [laughs]
The orchard?
I might need all hands on deck to assemble.
- It was crispy. - That was really tasty.
In your cup, a Mexican campechana.
Vuelve a la vida!
Do you think it's too dry?
It's a little dry.
Jamie's making this joke
about a rubber chicken,
and she serves us this rubber chicken dish!
Okay.
Who had the winning dish?
Byron.
Oh...whoa.
We have really liked so many dishes
that you've created for us.
Tonight was not one of them.
This was all very one-note.
Jamie, please pack your knives and go.
[Jamie chuckles quietly]
Ten 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.
♪♪♪
- Good morning. - Good morning.
Congrats to Byron on his bankroll.
- The golden nugget. - The golden nugget, literally!
[Shota laughs]
Sucks to see Jamie go.
Yeah. Who's gonna take over the noises?
Whoo! [imitates firing guns]
Pew, pew, pssh!
[imitates blender] Wah-wah.
[chicken squawk] That's my ending.
[laughs]
- Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh! - [laughter]
[laughter]
Okay, kids. Let's get dressed.
Let's do the damn thing.
♪♪♪
- [indistinct chatter] - It's beautiful.
All right.
- What is going on? - Aah...
Oh, God.
♪♪♪
Tom is our guest judge.
It appears that we have been transported
into some magical Top Chef kitchen forest.
I'm really enjoying the mood lighting.
[laughs]
You all look so nervous to see Tom here.
[laughter]
Don't worry, he's a fun guy.
[laughter, groans]
The mom jokes are coming now.
[laughter]
♪♪♪
Tom's here today because, for this Quickfire Challenge,
you'll be working with one of his favorite ingredients--
mushrooms.
It's the ultimate ingredient, because mushrooms are
the closest you can get to eating the earth.
Finally!
Mushrooms.
That's what I've been waiting for.
I know it's the season.
Give me my weapons.
The pantry here behind me represents mushrooms
from seven different regions here in Oregon.
Including Portland, also known as Stumptown.
So in honor of the city's namesake,
your only prep station today
will be the stump.
- Of course. - [laughter]
Give us a mushroom-forward dish.
You have some great ingredients here
to build flavor really quickly,
including a variety of products from Better Than Bouillon.
There's no immunity for the Quickfire.
But the winner of this Quickfire Challenge
will receive $10,000 courtesy of Better Than Bouillon.
- Oh. - Oh, yay!
You have just 30 minutes on the clock for this challenge.
So knock on wood, because your time starts now.
- Oh, it's a hug for Maria. - [chuckles]
There's mushrooms that I never thought I was gonna see.
To be able to get mushrooms where I'm from,
it's an arm and a leg.
I like, I like.
The first thing I decide is,
pick the right stump.
Too big, no good.
Too small, gonna hurt your back.
Oh, it's so short!
This is the first time my height
has played an advantage to me.
It's a choose-your-own-stump adventure.
Oh, sh--.
Caught a spider, too.
We have to work on this really small stump.
I get one of the smallest ones out there, and I'm a big boy,
so my knees are hurting, but I gotta make this happen.
- Is that lobster mushrooms? - Yes.
They look like a lobster. That's weird.
Tom is never here during Quickfire Challenges.
I don't want to mess up, so I choose lobster mushrooms
because I know that their texture is very meaty
and I can make them the star of the dish.
[blows raspberry]
Coming in, coming in. Oo-wee!
Gabe, what kind of mushrooms you got, brother?
I've got some chanterelles.
I'm doing a mushroom taco, with a, uh,
mushroom bouillon-based tortilla.
- Beautiful. - Tom's feedback
in the last Elimination Challenge was
kinda like bringing home that F on the report card.
And mushroom being Tom's favorite ingredient,
this is the challenge I want to win most.
Oh! Good idea.
Hey, anyone have butter?
- Right here. - Thank you, chef.
Working at Café Boulud, I learned confit technique.
You want to slowly cook it in some kind of fat
with a lot of aromatics.
I'm very well trained in French techniques,
so it definitely brings me a sense of confidence.
I want another 10K. [laughs]
Oh, baby!
I found some foie.
- You found foie? - I found foie.
- What's up with that? - So I'm gonna do a little
foie and figs and golden chanterelles.
Golden chanterelles are my dad's favorite,
so this is kind of for him.
My family loves mushrooms.
So, soon as I could walk in the woods,
we were out there foraging mushrooms.
I mean, I didn't even like mushrooms when I was a kid,
but I loved foraging for 'em.
Oh!
We have similar ideas.
Do we, now?
Figs and mushrooms.
For chanterelles, you have to
cook them in the pan long enough
that the water comes out.
Come on, cook.
And then you're left with the mushroom
that will then begin to caramelize.
It's very tasty.
Ah, it's so full in here.
Who's in here? Can y'all come in or out?
You know, it's very important to cook your mushrooms
all the way through, so I am
kind of waiting in line for the wood fire oven.
I'll be out in 19 minutes, Dawn.
[Avishar snickers]
- I'll be done in two minutes. - [laughs]
♪ Better Than Bouillon-y ♪ Whoo!
Shota, how's the height on the stump for you?
This isn't too bad 'cause I'm short, dude.
- I hate you, Shota. - Yeah, [bleep] you.
Shota, are those fryers on or no?
Uh, they'd better be 'cause I'm doing katsu.
Katsu is breaded and fried.
I have a katsu restaurant in Seattle
so I wanted to give a little nod to that bar.
Probably gonna be other people who are doing fried mushrooms,
but I'm gonna try to fry it better than them.
Are you doing the same thing as me, homie?
- Yeah. - [laughs]
I need a fryer.
I will need a fryer, too.
I need one basket. It'll be fast.
- Okay, sorry. I'm in here. - But, I--
Sorry, I just did a second drop.
I'll be done in a bit.
After I get my mushrooms in the wood fire oven,
I turn to the fryer, and I find out
that that, too, is occupied,
so I'm a little bit frustrated
and trying to wait in line again.
- I'm coming over. - Hey, hey, hey, hey.
I just want 'em down for a second.
- Just for a second. - I need 'em up.
Oh, you need 'em up?
Gonna put 'em on this cooling rack, chef.
No go, I need it right there.
I-- [chuckles]
I'm gonna drop 'em again.
Hey, can I go in with you? Do you care?
Give me like a minute. Is that okay?
- I just want to share it. - Okay, sure, fine.
Yeah, throw 'em in.
My schnitzel is almost done, so,
I just let him do it and hope that
his mushrooms taste like oil. [laughs]
- Three minutes! - Agh.
Down.
Hey, someone's burning figs here!
Dawn, this you?
My figs are caramelizing.
- Perfectly. - Okay. Just wanted to help you.
We're going.
I think that this taco looks gorgeous,
and I really want to win a Quickfire.
Get it on the plate, chefs.
- What what? - Come on, Byron.
Get it on the plate!
Three, two, one.
Time's up! Utensils down.
[bleep]
[in Spanish]
Mushy mushrooms.
- Thank you. - You're very welcome.
- Mushroom chicken fingers. - Yeah, that's right.
- [both laugh] - Awesome.
So I did fried chicken of the woods mushrooms,
with a mushroom ranch and mushroom barbecue sauce.
You're pretty tall. How was it working on the stumps?
I had to go on my knees to cut some chives earlier.
- No, really? - Oh, yeah.
I made a mushroom katsu,
with kind of a classic katsu sauce.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
More mushrooms, please.
[laughter]
I made fried chicken of the woods
with a mushroom cream.
I'm still chewing.
Thank you.
I made for you today some seared foie
with white chanterelles, oyster mushrooms,
oven-roasted fig and herbs.
The white chanterelles are my dad's favorite.
That's why I chose those.
I made wood fire-roasted mushrooms
with chili vinaigrette.
What is the white sauce?
It is a tarragon mascarpone cream.
Thanks.
I did a chicken of the woods schnitzel.
Nice and crispy.
- Thank you. - Of course.
Gabe?
Thank you.
I've made a chanterelle mushroom taco
and the tortilla I made with mushroom bouillon.
Is there fig in-- there's fig in here too, right?
Yeah, there's a fig, chili,
and Meyer lemon jam.
Thank you so much.
I made a sautéed crab
with chanterelle and oyster mushrooms,
two of my favorites.
I made a lobster mushroom and chanterelle cabbage wrap.
- So should I wrap this? - If you want.
It's gonna be messy but... whatever floats your boat.
[soft whimper]
I told you it was messy.
So we have a confit and grilled
mushroom over bulgar.
What did you confit this in?
Thyme, garlic, shallots.
- Okay. - Thank you.
Okay, Tom, how do you think our chefs did?
There were some really nice dishes,
and then there were some dishes
where actually, the mushroom got lost.
Who had one of our least favorite dishes, Tom?
I think Chris.
Of all of the fried mushrooms,
yours was cut the thickest,
and they were still raw.
- And who else? - Nelson.
Couldn't taste the mushrooms at all,
all of them kind of mixed up in there with the crab.
Byron, I liked that you confited the mushrooms,
but, uh, you gotta check your salt.
Who had one of our favorite dishes?
One of the favorites was Gabriel.
The mushrooms were nicely cooked,
- really well seasoned. - Thank you.
And that pickled shallot just gave it a little pop of acid,
- so that was really nice. - Thank you.
Dawn, you cooked the mushrooms really, really well.
The mascarpone was-- a little creaminess to the dish.
Thank you.
Gabe, the tortilla was beautifully made.
It had some mushroom flavor,
a lot of heat, but it was really nice.
I guess 'cause you all said my food was mild last week.
- Ah. - [laughs]
Okay. So you made up for it.
I came back with a vengeance.
- I get it. - You sure did.
[chuckles]
The winning dish was the chef
that cooked the mushrooms the best,
had the most mushroom-forward flavor,
and that chef is...
- Gabriel. - Ooh.
[applause]
I won 10 Gs!
I think my dad would've been pretty disappointed
if I didn't win this one.
It's nice to finally get, like, a win
and not just be in the top three.
- Congratulations, Gabriel. - Thank you.
You just won $10,000
from our partners at Better Than Bouillon.
Well, thanks for stopping by, Tom.
- Take care. - Bye.
All right, chefs, please welcome back
Dale Talde.
- [applause] - What's up, chefs?
How are you?
Let's get down to business.
Who's game?
- I'm game. - There you go.
I'm hoping you're saying "game meat."
♪♪♪
Oregon was once home to over 60 different tribes
of indigenous peoples.
For your Elimination Challenge, we want you
to honor the indigenous people of this area
by creating dishes featuring some of the First Foods.
[whispers] Yes.
You want to talk about seasonal foods?
This is it.
Chefs, it's time to draw knives.
Antelope.
Steelhead trout.
- Rabbit. - Catfish.
- Meow. - Bison.
Five of you have a local fish on your knife,
and five of you have a game protein.
- And guess what? - Surf and turf?
This is a surf and turf challenge.
- All right. - Surf and turf
is such a classic combination,
but you don't often see it with things like game or fish
that have such a strong flavor on their own.
So now you need to pair up with someone--
one surf with one turf.
[knives clink]
I kinda want to do rabbit.
- You want to do rabbit? - Yeah.
- What you got, Gabe? - I see that Shota has smelt.
It's kind of like anchovies
and we can make that work with rabbit.
Make sure your proteins work well together.
- I'll go with bison. - Nice.
- Go with salmon? - Yeah.
All of a sudden everybody's partnered up.
Okay, get in your teams, please.
- I guess we're in a team now. - [bleep]
[both laugh]
Some people think Gabriel's cocky, but I don't think so.
He's one of the strongest chefs here right now.
Let's do this.
Gabriel and Nelson,
you have steelhead trout and antelope.
- Yeah. - All right.
Sara and Shota, smelt and rabbit, huh?
- Yes. - [chuckles]
- You have elk... - BOTH: And salmon.
- Deer and sturgeon. - Wow.
And Dawn and Gabe.
- Bison and catfish. - All right.
Before you shop,
we're gonna send you out to Cascade Locks
to meet with local experts.
- Ooh. - Oh, cool.
Then tomorrow, you'll have three hours
to prep and cook at Cascade Locks.
You'll be serving the judges
as well as tribal members and leaders
of the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation...
- Oh, sh--. - ...and Warm Springs.
There's one thing you should know about this challenge.
Uh-oh.
This is a double elimination.
Oh.
One team will be going home.
It's like walking barefoot on Legos
sitting on a cactus with an elephant on your shoulders.
You can never get ----ing comfortable.
Good luck. I'll see you tomorrow.
Be inspired.
♪♪♪
- That's amazing. - It's pretty.
I love it.
♪♪♪
- Whoa. - Wow.
Having this opportunity, it's a huge honor.
Even though I was born and raised here,
I've never gotten to see Oregon like this before.
Hello, how are you guys?
- Hi. - Hello.
Welcome to our homeland.
Today we're gonna be talking
about our Awtni Tkwáta
our sacred foods, our First Foods,
and how important they are to our tribe and our culture.
Everything is based in a food order,
So salmon, swimmers.
Four-leggeds is all the meat.
Xnít is all of the roots.
Tmaanít is all of the berries.
And so when we set our foods on the table
we set in that order.
Each food has a value to us as Indian people.
A child watches what you do.
That's how we've perpetuated indigenous knowledge.
So you, as their person,
need to be the one to go out there with the happiest heart.
Our foods hear us, they see us.
Being a person of color,
this coincides with what I'm doing now,
helping people get educated on history,
so this is important for me to learn.
There's so much tradition here, and it's absolutely amazing.
What do you feel about maybe mixing proteins?
So if you had a fish and a meat, you do them separately,
or what would be the proper way to serve those two?
I say, you're in a chef competition...
- [laughter] - ...you show us what you got.
- Okay. - We're here to see
how you can cook our foods
and bring those foods back to us.
We have harvested all of these foods for you.
Each individual one has been picked by us.
- What was the name of this? - The elderberry,
you're gonna want to make sure you cook it.
Use it as a sauce, because it does have a little seed in it.
- Okay. - That's a wapato,
which is duck potato.
We just harvested these for the first time
- in probably over 100 years. - Wow.
You can do basically whatever you want to do to a potato.
I feel so honored. Thank you.
I hope we gave you a little bit how important
they are to us. That's really the key.
Thank you very much, ladies. We appreciate you.
- See you tomorrow! - We will see you tomorrow, yes.
There's actually a lot of similarity and respect of food
and respect of people within Native American culture
and Japanese culture as well,
so I'm very excited to learn more about this.
Hi!
- Hi guys. - Hi guys.
Welcome to Cascade Locks.
We'll be taking you guys down to the scaffold to go fishing.
[overlapping enthusiasm]
Oh, my lordy!
This is where we fish.
1855, we fought to sustain our fishing and hunting rights.
And so we got the four river tribes
- Mm-hmm. - ..and have treaty rights
on the river.
My grandpa took these sites
and it's been passed down from my grandpa to my uncle
and dad and to us.
Going fishing with the sisters is the highlight
of my experience outside the Top Chef kitchen.
We basically sew a net together
and either put it on a hoop
or put it on pulleys out there.
I mean, they're in a boy-dominant career.
I am in a boy-dominant career.
And just to see badass around you,
you can feel it.
So this is empty. You know.
It's why they call it fishing and not catching, right?
At the end of the day, we have to cook for the judges,
but I need to pay homage to these people.
I feel blessed.
♪♪♪
- Well, that was amazing. - That was pretty insane.
I'm really excited.
I think that the bison and the catfish
- go really well together. - Right.
So, the dish would be, so far as we're envisioning it,
- braised meat croquette? - Yep.
- And then, seared fish? - Yep.
This is what I have in mind-- elk in a mole verde
over a smoked citrus salmon crust
with an elderberry sauce.
Okay. The mole's not acidic, right?
No, the elderberry can be acidic.
Maria and I have very different cooking styles.
I want to be proud of what I'm serving
and I don't want it to be mixed messages
- or anything like that. - No.
But the one thing that we connected with is that
these foods, they have a story,
and we don't want to lose that.
And let's be honest with each other...
- Yes, please. - ...and comfortable.
"You know what, Maria? I don't like this."
"You know what? I don't like this, Byron."
Yes.
I mean, as soon as I heard surf and turf,
- I was like, "Smelt. Smelt." - Yeah.
- Smelt. - [laughs]
I'm a fish lady.
I especially love small fish.
Dream of a lifetime,
I would want to have a boutique cannery.
It's really weird. [laughs]
Antelope and steelhead.
That's gonna be kind of a unique one.
Who do you think's taking the lead?
- [laughs] - Jesus.
Damn, they gotta take the immunity away
right when I win.
- It's been a long day. - Yeah.
Are you doing okay, your knee?
It's better now. I took some ibuprofen.
Ever since the orchard challenge,
I tweaked my knee.
God damn.
It's been giving me really bad pains.
I'm just gonna park him in front of a station tomorrow,
and I'm gonna run around for him.
You stay here.
I'm gonna ice it down and... yeah.
I just gotta fight through this,
and hope I feel a lot better tomorrow.
♪♪♪
Running boots.
Look at the office today.
- Ha ha! - Oh, what? What's up?
Look at that rainbow. It's a good sign, Sara.
- Good luck, buddy. - Yep.
This'll be your station. I'll go over and grill meat.
- Heard. - We'll meet in the middle.
Pills are kicking in.
- Feel great. [laughs] - There you go.
So me and Gabriel are making grilled antelope
and seared steelhead trout
with a berry jus.
Gorgeous fish.
Not worthy of my sh---y butchering.
My goal is your typical surf and turf.
It's like, you can take the antelope off this plate
and it still tastes good.
You can take the steelhead off this plate,
it still tastes good, so together,
they should taste good.
- [bee buzzing] - Get out of here, bee.
Go away. I don't want none of that today.
How do you think Team Tiny is doing right now?
Team Tiny's doing great.
We're thinking rabbit loin with
smelt prepared in many different ways around it.
Traditional surf and turf is fish and protein.
We want to do something more in the sense
of the rabbit is the main and the smelt
is there to support from all directions.
Kind of how I cook with Sara.
You're not stressing me out at all.
- Am I stressing you out? - It's okay.
Really? Am I stressing you out?
How? Time?
I just like being organized, all right? Everything's great.
She's the rabbit and I'm the smelt.
Go, smelly smelts.
How are you guys doing?
I don't want to speak for my partner,
but, so far so good.
I'm working on a sauce for the tenderloin,
my own take on mole verde.
The flavor is great.
Byron, he's a rule follower
when it comes to the cooking.
You gonna wash these?
- Yes. - Okay.
But on teams, it's like a 24-hour marriage.
- Can you maybe cut these down? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
I don't think we should do coffee and these berries,
'cause I want the berries to kind of shine,
so what do you think?
Because we can put that into the glaze for the bison.
Yeah. No one's situation
in this challenge is ideal,
'cause we would not normally place
this game and fish together.
That's what this is gonna be.
Oh, I like that.
I'm intuitive, you know?
But Gabe and I know catfish very well,
and bison is essentially beef, and so, the cohesive part
of this surf and turf is the pumpkin seed mole
that's appropriate for both proteins.
Come on, dude. Team Texas!
Oh! Oh, boo.
Ah, and jump! I'm not jumping!
- Oh, lord. - Yeah.
[laughing] Oh, my God.
Oh. Sturgeon are so heavy. [laughs]
[grunts]
- Holy wow. - Food is love, baby.
Yep, food is love, so we say.
- Aw, how romantic! - Yep, we are a romantic
venison and sturgeon couple, you know.
You guys are so cute.
- [grunts] Sorry. - [laughs]
Just getting your fish slime on me.
We decide I'm going with a seared sturgeon with
the venison croquette and incorporate mushrooms
as, like, the bridge between the two proteins.
These are the duck potatoes.
- Wow. - Hmm.
- That's some flavor there. - Yeah, that is.
Kinda like a sugar cane. It does taste like sugar cane.
- Yeah, right? - It's beautiful.
- Super unique. - Yeah.
Our dish is practically a take on fish and chips.
It seems like a very playful way to present this.
I'm hoping the judges appreciate that.
So we're gonna cool down the potatoes and the meat,
- mix them up together. - Yeah, mix 'em together.
All right.
Two hours left.
I'm breaking down this filet.
Smoking salmon is very ancient.
I want to honor the Native Americans' traditions.
So I gotta figure out how I'm gonna smoke this.
- Add smoke to the cooler? - Yeah.
To marry the salmon and the elk, we're going
with the story we were told yesterday.
The salmon came first, then the four-legged animals.
So put the salmon up first.
Underneath is the elk loin.
So we're, like, cold smoking, hot smoking at the same time.
This is a double elimination challenge.
So I don't want to fail her, and I know she...
damn well does not want to fail me, either.
90 minutes left, chef.
- I'm feeling good. - Yeah. You really calm me down.
I'm really happy to have you beside me.
- Is it the voice, man? - It is the voice.
When I came into Top Chef, I had no intentions
of making any friends, but now it's almost like
a weird, messed-up support group
is the way that I'd describe it.
You both are amazing over there.
Yeah, you guys are doing so well.
- No, you are! - Oh, come on, stop it.
I'm blushing. [laughs]
I want to do Chris proud,
I want to do the challenge proud,
and I don't want to go home.
How's that bad boy?
Me, too.
We have a few different ways we're gonna prepare smelt,
so some we need to roast, some we need to smoke.
We gotta pickle some smelt.
I'm using smelt in five different ways--
smelt glazed, smelt crunchies,
apple salad with smelt pickled,
smelt inside the sesame dressing,
and then smoked smelt kabocha puree.
I love smelt.
- Good? - I like it.
I think our dish is kind of weird,
but super cool. [laughs]
I definitely ----ed this one up, so that's a roaster.
[Shota laughs]
What a gorgeous day, truly.
That is so beautiful.
Oh, wow.
Holy cow, that's so sick, dude.
To be invited to cook for these tribes,
I'm just trying to take it all in.
How many people get invited
and cook the foods that they do?
The opportunity is definitely once in a lifetime.
I need to sear this rabbit
and hope I don't [bleep] it up.
How's everything going?
I'm just taking the filets off these catfish.
Then they'll go into brine.
Catfish is very common in Texas,
but it's 9 out of 10 times fried.
You don't want to put a piece of fried catfish
on a plate with this beautiful piece of bison.
There's no tartar sauce that goes good with bison.
I would eat that raw, actually.
It's so clean.
So I'm gonna cook the catfish kind of like unagi or eel--
leave the skin on and then grill it
so it gets super crispy.
It's gonna be nice, Gabe.
Ah, we're at 17 minutes.
Okay, so, let's plate one up, right?
No, no, no, no.
I like it.
- I think it's too citrusy. - I don't think so, but...
We marinated the elk in mole,
but I think we need more on the side.
'Cause it's already marinated in it,
and then now you're adding this to it.
- That's my only concern. - Okay.
I don't agree with him, but
I took one for the team and compromised.
Let's keep this away, then.
[bell rings]
We come here today
to open up our hearts with prayer.
We acknowledge the sacredness of our Indian food.
[speaking native language]
- [chanting] - [bells ringing]
Thank you.
Welcome to our dinner.
Thank you for that beautiful prayer.
I think it's super well-balanced.
- I'm happy. - I'm happy too, chef.
Three, two, one.
- [alarm beeping] - Chef.
Good job, amiga.
Ooh, nice.
Byron and Maria, please tell us what you made.
We have an elk cooked in a green mole,
duck potato puree, smoked salmon,
and in the sauce is a mixture of berries.
Thank you for having us.
Enjoy.
Oh, my gosh.
What did you think, Linda?
- Yummy. - Hmm.
Beautiful.
"Brian" and Maria really used
all the ingredients.
I was really impressed with that.
I think this was a beautiful start.
I think they were really trying to honor the culture.
I wish it had a little more green mole.
It was a little bit lost to the rest of the dish.
When I heard "elk" and "salmon," I thought,
"Okay, that's maybe one of the harder ones,"
but I thought they did this very well.
They set a really nice level
for the challenge, where we're nitpicking
at some of the stuff, but that's good.
You want to taste this sauce?
It's definitely, like, borderline seasoned too much.
- It's, like, right there. - Yeah. Hold.
- Definitely berry-y. - That's beautiful, yeah.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
15 seconds, chef.
Oop, we need jus.
- Right here. - [alarm beeps]
Sh--.
Thank you.
[indistinct chatter]
Oh, I'm gonna douse that.
- And these look like-- - Huckleberries.
Avishar and Chris.
Today we prepared for you a grilled sturgeon
with a venison and duck potato croquette,
a mushroom puree, pickled chanterelles,
and sturgeon caviar. Thank you.
- That was awesome. - That was delicious.
- Oh, I loved it. - I loved it.
- Mmm. - I'm really liking
how they're cooking our food.
[laughter]
Avishar and Chris's croquette,
the breading is really light,
the duck potato made this filling really creamy.
- And you taste the venison. - Absolutely.
I'm not sure if I would've gone for grilling the sturgeon.
It's a little bit dry on the outside.
Normally when you get surf and turf,
you usually get, like, this nice piece of protein
and then fish is the complement.
They really turned that over today.
I think a sauce would've helped tie this together.
Definitely more sauce.
Let's go, we gotta plate, we gotta plate.
Yeah, yeah. I'm just gonna glaze this real quick.
- Looks good, Dawn. - Thank you.
[alarm beeps]
Ooh!
Hello, everybody. Thank you for having us.
We're very honored to be here.
Today we've cooked a bison tenderloin
with catfish and a pumpkin seed mole.
And this catfish, we wanted to treat it
in the style of unagi and grill it.
Dawn, have you ever cooked bison before?
I have cooked ground bison before,
but never tenderloin. Thank you.
Crispy skin catfish, huh?
That pumpkin seed mole, that kick
- was just wonderful. - Very good.
Never had it like this before.
Gabriel and Dawn's dish,
like that mole brought the two pieces of protein
together as one bite.
Yeah, there was a nice earthiness to it, too,
- just from the seeds. - But that flavor
that Dawn managed to marinate the bison in,
she did amazing with it.
The cooking technique on the catfish was brilliant.
- Yeah. - This is a chef that knows
how to balance flavors.
Definitely starting to feel the time, dude.
- How's the salmon? - It's almost there, bro.
Naw, man, it's gotta be faster than that.
It's not crispy.
- Let's flip those, flip those. - Yeah.
We gotta put a little boogie in our step.
Got it.
The pain is starting to come back.
I'm going a lot slower than I usually am.
Ah, sh--.
Sh--, some of these we took a little too far, dude.
The trout skin is really crispy,
but I see a couple that overcooked.
Dude, they're ----ing cooked.
- We got more, down there. - Oh, [bleep], man.
Let's cook some. Yeah, dude!
- Gabriel, he wants to do more. - There you go.
I don't want to mess it up for Gabriel,
he doesn't want to mess it up for me.
We gotta be plating in two minutes.
Yeah.
♪♪♪
They're not crispy.
Damn it, might have to use the other ones.
Right now, we're basically taking this choice
between do I give them soggy skin and perfectly cooked fish
or do I give them crispy skin and maybe slightly over fish?
And I think most people would choose crispy skin.
Four minutes. Four minutes.
- Dude. - Yep.
Get those mushrooms on the plate.
- Go. - And then blueberries,
you follow blueberries. I'm doing sauce.
Let's go, dude, we gotta move, we gotta move, we gotta move.
Move, move, move, move, move.
- [alarm beeps] - We're good.
Oh, this is the real surf and turf.
Very pretty.
Hi, Gabriel. Hi, Nelson.
How you doing? We made for you tonight
some crispy-skinned steelhead
with antelope, chanterelles, and berries.
- Great, thank you. - Thank you.
I really liked antelope the way he cooked it.
I loved the dandelions.
It gave you something different,
something different than an animal product.
I liked the bitterness of the dandelion green,
and I thought the puree was really flavorful,
but the steelhead was cooked too hard.
Because it starts to push out all the albumens
and you gotta be a little more gentle with it.
I thought the trout was really overcooked, too.
- Thirty seconds. - Thirty seconds, heard.
You want to follow with the smoked salt?
Oui.
[alarm beeps]
Those look sexy.
It's beautiful.
- Hi, everyone. - Hello.
We made you smoked, smelt-crusted rabbit loin.
The puree on the side is smoked smelt
and kabocha squash and pickled smelt as well.
Thank you so much, chefs.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
The rabbit and the smelt was
probably my best bite, with the sauce.
I'm loving this dish. I just want to know, like,
in a million years, would you ever think, like,
"Yeah, I'm gonna coat a rabbit loin in smelt."
- [laughter] - I know.
- I'm a fan. - There's so much going on
- with this puree. - The color is sort of jarring,
- 'cause I keep looking down-- - Like French's mustard?
Yeah, I keep thinking it's mustard.
- [chuckles] - Smelt, You know, I mean,
we usually just bread it and fry it,
so it was definitely different tasting it like that.
Yeah, I liked it.
Now Sara turns into a pumpkin.
[laughs]
Overall, how did you think our chefs did?
I really liked how they used all the ingredients.
I definitely feel like they did a great job
and I was very honored to be present.
I thought all in all, the food was all very good.
- Yeah. - I mean, it's the best food
we've had all season.
In fact, I'm struggling with,
really, who's on the bottom.
[applause]
Chefs, thank you for this wonderful meal.
It's clear you were inspired by everything you learned.
Everybody rise.
When those Indian foods began to grow,
they prepared themselves for today.
And because you cooked our food,
our food knows who you are now.
You've honored us today.
[whispers] Thank you.
It was a very special day for us, and chefs,
we will see you at Judges' Table.
♪♪♪
I have to say, the food across the board
was all very good.
We did see a puree on every plate
and they were all very good, too.
- [laughter] - Great job, and
keep doing what you're doing.
How was it for you guys?
Uh, this was really special for me.
I've lived here my whole life
and I don't think I would've had this opportunity
had I not come on this show, so, it's really special.
Well, it's clear you guys were all inspired,
but there were two dishes that we thought
were just a little bit cut above the rest.
And those dishes belonged to...
Gabe and Dawn...
Thank you.
...and Sara and Shota.
Congratulations.
Gabe and Dawn, walk us through your dish.
Catfish, everyone's expectation is to fry it,
and I didn't want to fry it
because I know that that would outpower
the bison that Dawn was gonna be preparing.
Both proteins were delicious, were cooked perfectly.
The sauce really made that plate come together.
I think all the different components together
really sang.
- Thank you. - I thought the fruit
on the bison working with the mole,
was a great combination.
Sara and Shota, walk us through your dish, please.
We wanted to keep it super simple.
- Simple... - And just highlight
the two surf and turf ingredients.
- That's it. - You're lying.
It was not a simple dish.
There was so much technique behind that.
You did something very unusual, actually,
'cause when we spoke to our guests,
they say that they usually just fry it.
So seeing you take the smelt and use it
on the rabbit like the smelt was seasoning
connected with them as well.
No chef has ever said,
"Let's do a dish with rabbit and smelt."
[laughter]
Being able to execute that
was just amazing to watch.
- It really was. - Thank you.
Dale, as our guest judge, you have
the pleasure of announcing the winner.
The team that had the winning dish for us tonight
took these ingredients to another level and
made sure it showed a lot of respect
to what the ingredients were.
And that team was...
Sara and Shota.
- [applause] - [both laugh]
Team Tiny Fish! [laughs]
It's really nice to hear the judges say
that they understand that I wanted smelt!
She says she wants smelt.
She wanted smelt 'cause I had it.
Uh, yeah. I just wanted Shota.
[both laugh]
Thank you very much.
Congratulations, Sara and Shota.
You two teams can step to the side.
I know it feels like you guys are on the bottom here,
but you should really feel proud of what you did today.
None of these dishes were anything but delicious.
Whoever goes home tonight
will be going home having made a good dish.
I know it feels like you guys are on the bottom here,
but you should really feel proud of what you did today.
Whoever goes home tonight
will be going home having made a good dish.
Let's start with Avishar and Chris.
Um, I've never been picked for a team
ever in my entire life. I'm always the last one picked.
So I kind of looked, and Chris looked at me,
and I was like, "Yay! Someone picked me this time."
You used the duck potatoes.
When we spoke to the tribe, they were
saying how hard it is for them
to actually harvest these things
- and I'm glad you used it. - We couldn't not use it
after trying it, so...
My only issue is when you choose to grill,
I think it's really screaming for a sauce.
And I know you had that jus there,
but I didn't get the jus on the plate.
I liked the idea that you played up the sturgeon.
I thought the venison was a nice little crispy bit.
I would've preferred a little more seasoning on the fish.
Gabriel and Nelson,
how did you come about this dish?
We're both familiar with steelhead trout,
but not with the antelope, so, it was a first for us.
We both agreed, gotta have crispy skin
for the steelhead.
My fish was overcooked.
It's not even that it was overcooked.
It was cooked too hard.
In an attempt to crisp up the skin,
the albumens on the side of the fish were coming out.
I had an idea after. I was like, "What if
"we took the skin off and wrapped it around the meat
- and then seared it?" - Cool.
But, and then I was like, "Wait, what if we didn't
use any of the fish?" It's a hard challenge.
- Yeah, it's a hard challenge. - Very hard challenge.
I wish I'd gotten more of the berries.
More would've rounded out the plate a little more.
Byron and Maria, how did you come up
with your dish concept?
He had an idea of, um, smoke the salmon cold.
We used every single berry we were given,
I pureed in my green mole.
That's a great idea, but we didn't taste
the green mole at all.
I marinated and...
It was the first thing that we did.
We marinated it just to have enough time.
You clearly took to heart what you were taught yesterday.
I just was looking for so many of the things you talked about.
That mole, didn't taste it at all.
Okay, we have a really hard thing to do now.
- We will see you in a bit. - Thank you.
I was so worried about that ----ing...
[laughter]
Much better sentiments overall, tonight.
I mean, that was, like... - Yeah?
...the nicest Judges' Table I've been a part of.
[laughs]
All three teams gave us pretty good dishes today,
but we still have to send two chefs home.
Maria and Byron, if they were never to tell us
the green mole was there,
then we wouldn't have been searching for it.
But that smoked salmon
was a great component to tie it together
and added a really nice little smoky element to the dish.
I mean, it's a tough one.
Like, they had really good things to say
about both top and bottom.
I think it's really a toss-up now between
Gabriel and Nelson and Avishar and Chris.
Gabriel and Nelson's antelope
might have been the best piece of cooked meat,
but it might be negated by
- poorly cooked steelhead. - Yeah.
They handled the fish a little bit too hard.
But their puree was really nice.
Their puree was nice.
Mushrooms were really nice.
There was just no
real point of view on that plate.
It was as if they were being really polite to each other.
You know, that fish really got to me.
Perfect skin, turned it over,
and then they're saying it's overcooked.
Avishar and Chris's dish,
the sauce that they claimed to have
- just really wasn't there. - It was a whisper of it.
There wasn't enough flavor in it.
That's why it didn't tie together.
But I loved that venison croquette.
I loved it.
The amount of times we tasted everything...
Yeah, we were out of spoons.
We were using everything that we could find.
I think we have our answer.
I think so, too.
- Yes? - Yes.
Okay.
You know, chefs, once you have great ingredients
like we had today, and you're cooking at the level
that you're cooking at right now,
the only thing that's left
is the interplay between those ingredients.
And unfortunately, one team
just fell a little short today.
Nelson and Gabriel,
please pack your knives and go.
Thank you.
Guys, I know you both said you want to cook more, and
you'll get that shot in Last Chance Kitchen.
- All right. Thank you, chef. - Thanks.
Thank you for the opportunity. Really appreciate it.
Thank you all. That'll be it.
- Have a great night. - Thanks.
- Thank you. - You, too. Thank you.
Get some rest.
[bleep]
It hurts to have to leave Top Chef.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
So I get to rest my knees?
I'm holding my head high, proud of what we did,
and proud of myself for going through these pains
and sticking it through.
Didn't let it stop me.
You no longer have a tour guide.
Really?
- Us. - Oh.
I don't think I deserve to go home right now.
If we had just scraped the frickin' fish off
and served that crispy skin, we may have been in the top.
You guys better wait for me in the finale.
I'm gonna kick your ass.
I'm going to Last Chance Kitchen
to get back into this competition.
I don't care how many chefs I have to cook against.
Nelson, we worked together, and you are a true gentleman.
And Gabriel, you're a perfect, lovely asshole that I love.
[laughter]
It's an honor. I really do love you.
[mouths words]
Hey, guys.
Gabriel, Nelson, how you doing?
♪♪♪
Tonight one of you are going to earn a chance
to get back into the competition...
and one of you are out of the competition for good.
This is Last Chance Kitchen starting right now.
- Let's go. - Sh--.
- What? - All right.
What the [bleep] is that?
Tonight, Gabriel and Nelson are left reeling
after a double elimination.
I'm going in crush-kill-destroy mode right now.
- [bleep] yes. - Who has what it takes to beat
the current reigning champ of Last Chance Kitchen
and earn their spot back into the competition?
Come on, get on the plate.
Find out now on demand
or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef...
Please welcome back
the winner of Last Chance Kitchen.
[all cheering]
Are you ready to change the world?
- Yes. - Yes, chef!
You'll be making the meals for hardworking staff
at three local hospitals.
These are the people that take care of us.
- How we doing, everyone? - Put it right here.
I feel really blessed to have this.
It's so damn good.
This has the wow factor.
She does not lack on flavor.
Holy mother of God.
I don't know if this is a great idea or a terrible idea.
Unfortunately it's raw. Turn it over.
- [gasps] - It's quite raw.
You know how to cook. That's clear.
But often, we send people home for making some rookie mistakes.
♪♪♪