EVELYN: People think it's very glamorous to be a chef,
but it's not all pretty all the time.
ROBERT: I think for a long time we, kind of,
undervalued our cooks.
We still have a lot of work to do
but I think we'll get there.
SARAH: I'd like to see the tides changing
and I think that they are in large part
because of the younger generation of chefs
just putting their foot down.
LEIA: I'm bringing my grit and I'm bringing my drive.
I feel like I'm unstoppable.
NICK: I'm about to take over.
[squealing]
Top Chef is back.
15 of the country's most talented chefs
have traveled to Houston to compete
in one of the most diverse cities in the nation.
Hot stuff!
MONIQUE: It's a hot kitchen in here!
I worked in Paris at the Ledoyen,
which is a three Michelin star restaurant.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
I was working at a five star restaurant at 14.
I ended up becoming head chef at 19-years-old.
I worked with Pierre and chef Daniel Bouloud.
They helped me get my green card.
STEPHANIE: These chefs are the cream of the crop.
May the best team win.
- Good luck. - Good luck to you.
Each week, we'll be joined by
a Top Chef all star guest judge...
Any time that you tilt your bowl,
you got a good dish.
PADMA: Along with a local or national culinary icon.
The brisket was the star of the plate.
- I was like, "Whoa." - We love queso.
- I'm gonna aerate it. - Aren't you fancy?
- JAE: One minute! - That clock is not your friend.
Oh, my God!
♪
EVELYN: Welcome to Houston!
♪
At stake for the winner,
a feature in Food and Wine magazine,
an appearance at the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen.
$250,000 furnished by San Pellegrino
and the coveted title of Top Chef.
♪
[luxurious hip hop plays]
Hello, chefs!
STEPHANIE: Oh, my God...
MONIQUE: This is crazy!
Welcome to Houston and to season 19 of Top Chef.
Walking into the Top Chef kitchen, I'm in a dream.
I am having an outer body experience.
We've been everywhere, from New York
to Chicago, to L.A., to Portland...
but we've never been to Houston
and it's the fourth largest city in the country.
And Houston is also home to Top Chef finalist
and your guest judge, Dawn Burrell.
I am so excited for you guys to be in my city.
Houston is a true melting pot.
Every culture is represented here.
The food is really delicious
and it is the reason why I love living here.
Take a look around. Standing amongst you
is an incredible collection of talented chefs
all here to compete for the grand prize
of $250,000 furnished by San Pellegrino.
And that title of Top Chef.
[cheering]
I hear Padma but what I see is that knife block.
My mind immediately goes to
this is looking like a team challenge.
Being from Houston is definitely an advantage
in the competition but team challenges,
those are the hardest ones on Top Chef.
PADMA: The 15 of you represent an incredible range of cuisines,
from Asian to French to Afro-lachian.
That would be me.
A lot of Southern Appalachian cuisine
has to do with cooking out of sustenance.
True living off the land.
I think we have some James Beard nominees
in the kitchen, right?
- Ashleigh, Sarah. - Wow.
Raise your hand if you've ever worked
in a Michelin starred kitchen.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
DAWN: Wow. It's a big group.
DAMARR: I've worked in some really good restaurants
but I haven't worked in three Michelin star kitchens.
I came on this competition
to show that my collard greens deserve to be
in the same room as someone else's cassoulet.
There's somebody here who's worked
in the number one restaurant in the world. Who is that?
Yes, I worked at restaurant Noma, Copenhagen
for eight and a half years.
Looks like we have some competition in the kitchen.
I hope you're ready
because this first challenge is a silent killer.
♪
Chefs, it's time to draw knives.
This is a team challenge.
Each team must have a chef holding the number one,
a number two and a number three.
Now, find your teammates.
- SAM: You got a one? - ROBERT: Two anybody?
- I've got a two. - LUKE: Two? Three?
- MONIQUE: Two? - DAMARR: I got a three.
I'm Sarah.
- Jackson. - Robert.
Sarah, Jackson.
I just was not expecting a team challenge
so quickly, which sucks.
I had COVID a month ago.
Everything was fine,
but I lost my sense of smell and taste.
But for now, I don't see a need to tell anyone.
God, does that make me a dick?
So, today's challenge is just like a trust fall.
Great.
You'll have 30 minutes on the clock to incorporate
all of your cooking styles into one cohesive dish.
Each team member will only have 10 minutes
to contribute to the dish before the next team member
takes their place.
And, here's where the trust really comes in, guys.
You will not be allowed to speak to your teammates.
Am I hearing this right?
- I don't know these people. - Wow.
Make sure that each of you add something to the dish
that speaks to who you are as a chef.
And you're definitely gonna want to win
this first quickfire because every chef
on the winning team gets immunity
in the first elimination challenge.
When time starts,
everyone with a one can start cooking immediately.
Everyone with a two, over here.
Everyone with a three, you'll be over here.
You'll have 30 minutes on the clock.
Your time starts now! Good luck!
STEPHANIE: Go, go, go, go.
Push him off, push him off.
Please, get something!
I'm a little bit scared
because my style of cooking is Korean and New Orleans.
It has its own character and it's very unique.
But I have to rely on other two partners.
I don't want them to mess up.
BUDDHA: She got it, she got it.
LEIA: Sugar, sugar, sugar.
You guys have any idea what's going on?
- I don't think-- - [speaking over each other]
My intention is to build this blank canvas
so that my team can build on that.
What do you have going on over there?
How are you spending these 10 minutes?
Ha! I'm supposed to know what I'm doing right now?
I have proteins on.
I cook very much on the fly
and I'm also a very collaborative chef.
So I approached the entire challenge like a big,
"Choose Your Own Adventure"
and I am the game master. Did anybody find garlic?
ASHLEIGH: It's to the right of the watermelon, I think?
SARAH: Cool!
I choose two proteins: scallops and pork.
And I decide to do a romesco sauce
because it can be changed into many different things.
How do you feel about sharing your black pepper with me?
Uh, sure. I'll leave it on my station, you can use it.
I'm upset that I have number one
because I have nothing to do with
what the final dish really comes out to be.
I'm trying to get my guys set up,
things that make sense.
I'm really thinking that we can sear a steak, make creamed corn.
Really hoping that the creamed corn makes it
because that's something I grew up eating.
I want my team to run to the pantry
as little as possible,
so I spend time gathering everything
that I think we will need.
I think Leia is just trying to get everyone set up.
I know that Vietnamese food has a big imprint
here in Houston, so I'm trying to give them
a really specific direction.
What is your dish?
JO: Uh, I don't know right now.
I think I'm just trying to make a base vinaigrette
for these guys.
I grabbed T-Bone and flank steak, so I'm like,
"I'm gonna make salsa verde".
I made it for so many years
when I worked for Jonathan Waxman.
That's the old tried and true. It's always good.
Three minutes left!
MONIQUE: So she's making, like, a salsa verde, I think.
You know what you've got?
You have any idea of what their doin'?
STEPHANIE: Not much has happened yet.
- Nope. - I'm a little confused.
Come on, already.
Time to switch. Twos go in, ones come out!
JO: Good luck!
LEIA: Woo!
Now they're hustlin'.
SARAH: That was an intense 15 minutes of my life.
I don't understand the corn.
Definitely don't know what Damarr was going for
but I do see that corn,
so I put it to the stove top with a bit of butter.
I see the steak.
Hope he already salted it. Herbs.
I think that our dish is missing something
that's gonna add some sort of bitterness to it.
Evelyn, what kind of food do you make?
I specialize in a little bit of Southeast Asian
but I am Mexican and Salvadorian,
so there's a little influence of that--
- ROBERT: Oh, me too! - You're Mexican-Salvadorian?
- ROBERT: Yeah. - EVELYN: Oh, wow!
Do you know what your team mate had in mind?
Like, a romesco...
The last time that I worked in a restaurant kitchen,
I think it was October 2019.
I'm very afraid that I might be rusty
but I've always been really fast.
JO: Guys, six minutes left!
What do you have?
A T-Bone steak. I have, like, a salsa verde, I think.
What I think Jo's trying to tell me
is that she wants me to cook this steak
along with this chimichurri.
What does she have over there?
Uh, there were some pork chop
and uh, some sort of, like, a marinade.
She's got it. She knows what's up.
Sam looks pretty calm.
He's got a lot of stuff forming.
NICK: Still going to get more.
As the third chef, it's giving me a little anxiety
seeing my teammate stroll through the kitchen
versus run like all the other chefs.
You can taste crazy in food.
Three minutes, you guys!
Ten minutes goes by so quickly, there's just panic.
We need to put food on a plate.
[bleep]
Oh, no.
[bleep]
♪
My succotash fell onto the floor.
I want to make sure, at least, we have a protein on the plate.
I grab the pork and I put it right underneath the grill
so they kind of stay warm.
Time to switch!
BUDDHA: Let's do it.
PADMA: Threes go in, Twos come out, please.
JO: Plates, yeah! Get them plates!
LUKE: All right, well, what do we got here?
Didn't you have something on the grill?
JACKSON: Is this yours?
- Yeah, thank you. - JACKSON: Sorry, I don't--
He's on the wrong station. The pork is over there.
Anyone's steak, guys?
BUDDHA: Yeah, that's mine.
I just want to yell. I'm just, like, intently staring at him,
trying to see if he can gaze into my eyes.
The pork is underneath the grill.
I'm so scared for my life.
All right. I'll make ----ing eggplant then.
You know, sorry, I couldn't find it.
I love wood roasted vegetables.
I plan on making roasted eggplants.
I'm just trying to get cooked off as quickly as possible.
SARAH: We're making a veg dish today
and just, you and I don't know it yet.
JACKSON: Luke, what're you makin'?
I think I'm making some stir fry.
As the third chef coming in, you don't want to add too much
because that could change the whole direction
of the dish. But you don't want to add too little
because all you did was just plate it.
Being able to translate food
that I've learned in the last eight years at Noma
is quite difficult to try to translate that
in only ten minutes that's on the clock.
Protein's still behind. I gotta get that cooked.
What have you got cooking?
I got some pork chops right now.
Marinated and I think some Asian flavors.
BUDDHA: Oh yeah, I'm working with a T-Bone,
get some Thai flavors going.
- STEPHANIE: Nice. - BUDDHA: Gotta rest soon.
I worked in France and I was 17-years-old
and I couldn't speak any French at all.
What type of flavors do you normally work with?
Usually French, but I use a lot
of different cultures into it.
Sometimes the best form of communication
is not communicating. If you see something diced,
you understand that this needs to be diced like this.
EVELYN: I don't know what this is going to look like.
Like, what is it going to end up being?
I see creamed corn that's on the stove.
What I'm thinking is, this is like, a Southern thing.
You know, I'm from Mississippi, so I got that.
My team did very well.
So now, I need another component that's about me on the plate.
I see shallots and I see Brussel sprouts.
Mississippi is bold. Mississippi is flavorful.
Now, I gotta deliver.
STEPHANIE: Three and a half, guys, three and a half!
Woo!
- I mean, he cooked something. - Oh, plate, plate!
Ten minutes. I'm plating, there's not a lot of time.
JO: One minute! Plate!
[whistling]
MONIQUE: Yeah, warm plates. He's a chef, he knows it.
DAMARR: Oh, my God, Oh, God. Oh, God.
SAM: Ten seconds.
PADMA: Five, four, three, two, one. Time's up!
Jesus. [bleep] me.
First challenge, and I ----ed it all up. [bleep].
[clapping]
Brown team, please come up.
Thank you. Tell me about this dish, Jackson.
I made coal roasted eggplants with, I believe,
macadamia romesco and a serrano creme fraiche.
Let's start with you, Sarah.
I created a macadamia nut sauce
and some peppers and corn in the oven to serve as,
like, a succotash for the pork and scallops that I pulled.
There are no scallops here.
SARAH: Oh, I know. Yeah.
- Or pork. - I know.
And then, Robert?
I noticed she had corn, so I started a succotash.
I also saw that she had some pork, so I grilled the pork.
I was unable to get anything on the plate I made
SARAH: We're so sorry.
- It's okay. - You didn't see the pork?
I saw you grilling something.
So, I looked for that. Couldn't find it.
So, I threw some eggplant in the oven.
Okay, thank you.
It was under the grill
but he was cooking at your station.
I didn't even see it.
PADMA: Red team. Come up.
Thank you.
What we have for you is a thinly cut pork chop,
marinated in a little bit of Asian spices.
On the bottom is a grilled corn salad.
And then the sauce, I believe,
is pureed tomato and a little bit of fish sauce.
Who made the sauce?
- I started it. - And I finished it.
- PADMA: Who cooked the pork? - I did.
DAWN: Did you use oil while you were cooking the pork?
I believe there was a little bit of oil
tossed in with the marinade.
Was there oil in the marinade?
I didn't put any oil in the marinade.
Thank you, all.
Green team, come on up.
- NICK: Hello, judges. - Hi, Nick.
Thank you. - DAWN: Thank you.
So, we have a seared New York strip
with some creamed corn and charred Brussel sprouts.
- PADMA: Thank you. - DAWN: Thank you, chefs.
PADMA: Yellow team, please come up.
It's okay.
Buddha, tell us about this dish.
So we've done a barbecued beef.
It's served with a Thai inspired som tam salsa verde salad.
We've incorporated the butter sauce,
which is a classical French technique
using the umami of the fish sauce.
DAWN: There's a lot of brightness in this dish.
I'm a Texas chef, so it's a great time for produce.
Okay, thank you, all.
MONIQUE: Thank you.
Blue team, please come up.
LUKE: Sorry, guys.
DAWN: Oh.
- Oh, no. What happened? - I lost track of time.
I was just about to start plating.
It was way too late.
Okay, so I had the idea to do something simple.
I did a fried cabbage with vinaigrette.
I'm like, "All right, I can make a stir fry right now".
You know? "This will be over!"
PADMA: Okay, so then, you, Luke, clock in.
- Yup. - What happened?
I focused, maybe,
too much on trying to put my own spin on it.
Okay, thank you all.
ASHLEIGH: Thank you.
DAWN: This was a very difficult challenge
and I think that you guys should be happy
that you've made it through.
Which team fell a little short
of blending all three styles into their dish?
The blue team.
Chefs, I understand what it feels like
to lose track of time in the kitchen,
but please let that be a period, new paragraph moment
and pick yourselves up for the next challenge.
The red team.
Unfortunately, the pork was really dry,
lacked a lot of seasoning and flavor.
That pork was so overcooked.
All right, now for some good news.
The yellow team.
We really enjoyed the salsa verde.
And I thought the steak was beautiful.
PADMA: It had a lot of flavor and brightness.
Brown team. The romesco was really beautiful
and the eggplant was delicious.
I didn't mind that it was just a vegetarian dish.
It felt really robust and complete.
SARAH: Thank you.
So out of these teams,
which team will receive immunity in the elimination challenge?
♪
and we were able to see each chef's style.
The yellow team.
[laughter]
Yeah! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.
I'm thrilled we won!
It's like a punctuation mark to everybody else
as to where we're at.
We never met each other and we won.
Congratulations, yellow team.
All three of you now have immunity
in the first elimination challenge.
I think that the other chefs can now look at us
and say, "Okay, we're the people to look out for."
Who's ready to get to the meat of the challenge?
♪
- Hi, guys. - TOM: Hello.
PADMA: Chefs, please welcome all-star guest judge
and Seattle Top Chef winner, Kristen Kish.
And our head judge, Tom Colicchio.
- Hey, chefs! - Hi!
- Hey, chef. - Welcome to Houston, chefs.
I have watched these people on Top Chef for many years.
It's a moment. But you know, when you feel
like you're about to get punched and you,
like, brace yourself?
- Yeah. - Chefs, this is season 19.
I know you put a lot of hard work in to get here,
but this will test your limits.
When you get through this, you'll be a better chef for it.
Good luck.
For this elimination challenge,
you'll be working in the same teams
you had as the Quickfire.
We're going to be teammates again.
And the first thing
that comes to my mind is the comeback.
As a team, you have to create three cohesive dishes,
all highlighting... beef.
Each of you will be responsible for one of those dishes.
After you select your primal cut,
you'll have to break it down.
That's scary. Butchery is an art.
People study butchery the way they study pastry.
You'll have $600 to shop from Whole Foods Market.
Tomorrow, you'll have two and a half hours
to prep and cook at the Annie Café before service begins.
Each team can only use
one of these primal cuts of beef.
Yellow team, you won the quickfire,
so you get first pick.
You'll also get to pick which team chooses after you.
And then so on. Get it? Good.
Okay, yellow team.
I say ribs. We're going to pick the ribs.
Okay. And, who would you like to go next after you?
To make this cohesive, can I be first?
The blue team.
- Oh, thank you. Thank you. - That's nice.
The last restaurant I worked at was Momofuku Wayo
and we specialized in beef.
I would like to think that I am the king of the beef.
The blue team will choose the loin.
Okay, who would you like to go next, blue team?
Brown team.
There's a lot of steaks in the chuck that we could do.
We're going to go with the chuck.
PADMA: Who would you like to follow you?
- The green. - PADMA: Okay.
Thank you. What's left on the board
is the sirloin cut or the round.
The round, the back of the leg, so they're tougher cuts of meat.
Green team will do the sirloin.
Okay. Red team, that leaves you with the round.
- Awesome. I love the round. - Good.
I remember our first challenge on my season
where we were in teams, but we all
had to collaborate to make one dish.
So I feel like this is quite a luxury
to all be able to create your own dishes,
tying them all together to tell a full story.
Okay, chefs, good luck.
- Thank you. - PADMA: We'll see you tomorrow.
SAM: Thank you.
So I'm trying to do a take on au poivre.
Like, just a peppercorn sauce, perfectly cooked steak.
- Super simple. - What would be a flavor
that we could take through whole thing?
Peppercorn. We could do a peppercorn tasting.
- ASHLEIGH: I love it. - That's something that could be,
like, a really nice oil finish.
My last challenge wasn't the best, but getting
a good piece of meat where I could have a little
more clarity to think, a little bit more time,
I know I can organize myself better.
My dish is going to be a kitfo,
so that's essentially like a beef tartare.
SAM: Lebanese?
- It's West African. - SAM: That's cool.
ROBERT: What were you thinking of making?
JACKSON: Italian.
I can cook Italian food.
BUDDHA: So we got ribs. Maybe we do a roll.
I'll do the tartare, I can make a tartare.
I'm gonna do that.
And then, I might be crazy but in England,
there's a dessert called spotted dick.
How do you spell that?
All right, look at this guy
riding on the wild side with immunity.
Usually, like fruit's in there.
Like, we can use beef fat and you know, it makes sense--
We're just going to say it over and over again--
Whenever I've been an executive chef or a head chef,
I've always always done the pastry menu.
It's the most creative part of cooking.
You want to take a risk. Now's the time.
Everyone knows what you wanted to cook, or?
I can do, like, a quick marinade on the top round steak,
slice it really thin and do spring rolls.
I wanted to do, like, a rice dish, kind of soup--
LEIA: Soup with--
- Rice. - LEIA: With rice.
More like an Asian flavor.
- All right, let's do it, then. - JAE: Yeah.
I am concerned
that our cooking styles are so different.
I would really like to do a pasta for a second course.
Is it going to be more like a wonton?
More like a pasta.
It will be filled, but it will be Asian flavors.
I feel like it feels separated.
I can definitely use some, like, Napa cabbage or some bok choy,
or something fresh to put in my pasta.
Growing up in North Dakota was incredibly rural.
Everyone has a farm. Everyone has a ranch.
We had steak multiple times a week
and it's served with a baked potato.
And so, I want to represent that.
But I also need to put a spin on it
with this Asian flair
that the other two team members are excited about.
LEIA: All right, guys. Let's go.
♪
MONIQUE: Sorry, sorry.
JO: I'll start grabbing herbs.
SAM: Is it possible to try this cheese?
SARAH: Tuna done. Carrots. Did you get--
ROBERT: I got my carrots.
My culinary style is very simple. It's very rustic.
So, I've decided that I'm going to make gnocchi.
Hey, where's your flour?
When I was working at Octavia,
we got a Michelin star,
but it wasn't my restaurant.
Working for someone highly acclaimed
puts you in this place where you know,
you kind of live behind their shadow.
There are usually, like,
really small packages of mustard seeds.
I just want people to know who I am through my food.
SARAH: 19 minutes!
STEPHANIE: Um, olive oil, onion, carrot, celery,
bok choy, 00 semolina.
I want to bring out my love for Italian food
but my team really want to go an Asian route.
EVELYN: Jae, Jae and Stephanie, you guys got scallions?
STEPHANIE: So I'm making seared top round roast
with sweet potato purée and braised bok choy.
MONIQUE: Need to get a good olive oil.
It's not our money.
DAMARR: We're going to try to treat it
as courses so I'm going to do,
like, the first, little small course.
Then, she's gonna bump it up to salad
and then he's going to make a braise,
something really filling at the end.
NICK: Anybody see garlic anywhere?
I'm a little worried because the only thing
that we have all agreed upon
is three different preparations of the steak:
Seared, char grill and braised.
So you got your salads
Is it really cohesive? I don't know.
- ASHLEIGH: Anything else? - DAMARR: I'm good.
Excuse me, sorry, sorry, sorry.
JACKSON: Make sure you keep an eye on the time.
I'm not really feeling great.
I think that I have a very bad bladder infection.
That's enough for 12.
JAE: How many of micros?
I'm not gonna let this get in the way
but I just want to go, lay down and rest.
JACKSON: All right, guys, we good?
ROBERT: I think so.
LEIA: Thank you very much.
Here it is, here it is.
It's right here, right?
- Ooh, so cute. - LEIA: I love it.
STEPHANIE: There's a pool table, guys.
I'm excited because I get to actually talk to the chefs.
Yes, it is a competition. But we also do have feelings.
Are you guys talking menu
or are you guys just chit chattin'?
I'm definitely excited to showcase you soon.
JACKSON: Can I take some of the fat off
of your short rib or are you gonna need it?
SARAH: There's also a lot at the bottom of the chuck.
We're kind of the nerds in school,
just sitting in the corner doing our homework
while everyone's hanging out.
If it's delicious, they're not going to be,
- like, "It's too simple". - I don't mind.
So Leia is not here right now.
Yeah, she's feeling--
She's not feeling well
and she's taking a little rest.
I think, physically, yeah, something's going on, so.
Hopefully she gets some good rest.
She's back tomorrow.
♪
LEIA: Morning. How are you?
- MONIQUE: Good to see you. - Good to see you, too.
Hi, guys.
Okay.
I still don't feel great
but I know how to be strong in moments
where I need to be strong.
I just want to cook and it's going to be great.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
And like, I don't want to [bleep] this up.
Yeah. We got this.
♪
- ASHLEIGH: Hi, guys! - JACKSON: How's it goin'?
SARAH: The priority is the steak, guys.
ROBERT: Yeah. Gotta get on.
Oh, my God.
Isn't it really nice to talk
to you guys, now? Finally.
MONIQUE: I'm glad we chose rib, you guys.
I mean, everything's tender.
Buddha, you're rendering the fat, right?
I'm steaming the fat right now.
This dish is a traditional great British style dessert.
It's pudding that's steamed together with beef fat.
JO: If you nail this,
it's gonna be ----ing killer with the judges.
MONIQUE: You're gonna put yourself on the map.
SAM: So as soon as we have the loin and the strip,
should I give you one piece of cut so you're,
you can specialize in it?
It depends on how much you get off of it.
While kitfo isn't mainstream,
it's incredibly comparable to beef tartare.
Most teams are going to start with a raw beef course.
So I pull out my shito because that is special to me
and I think that's really what's going to
make this dish stand out.
Taste this for me.
It's actually not as crazy as I thought.
SAM: Delicious, though.
DAMARR: Hey, Evelyn, you live in Texas.
- Do you cook with beef a lot? - My dad has a ranch,
so I'm definitely used to breaking down some beef.
DAMARR: Oh, wow.
I just normally have a lot more time, you know?
JACKSON: Robert, you're gonna want
to braise this chuck down, right?
Yeah, I'll take it. I'm gonna put it in water.
To stick with the Italian theme,
I want to do a play on vitello tonnato,
so I'm making a beef tartare with a tuna aioli.
I know it sounds gross but I promise you, it's not.
Potato coming. But I can't really taste much.
Maybe, like, if you hit it with a little bit of acid.
- Hey, Jae! - JAE: Yeah!
STEPHANIE: Remember that one time we were on Top Chef?
was watching Top Chef
and saying to myself, one day I want to be on Top Chef.
My parents are very, very proud of me.
Robert, are you making gnocchi?
ROBERT: I am. We'll see what it turns out like.
There's a lot of elements with my dish.
How's time? How's the gnocchi?
ROBERT: I might need a little bit of help.
Heard.
I still have to make gnocchi
and my pressure cooker still hasn't started to steam.
You can get on my burner. I'll swap.
Right now, I just have to put my head down
and push to get food on a plate.
Here, I'll feed you like a baby?
- JAE: Stephanie! - Yeah!
JAE: Maybe you're going to be in the middle
and as the course goes, it gets more Asian, Asian.
I just wanted to do a beautiful, simple meat and potato dish.
But I think adding bok choy is enough
to tie the dishes together.
Are you searing right now-- Grillin' right now?
Yeah, I'm gonna go grill the meat
and then I'm gonna grill the radicchio.
I'm going to do this grilled top round summer roll
with this yuzu tahini sauce.
I'm going to start to assemble.
I try to cut the steak as thinly as possible.
It's a little chewy.
I can't turn the top round into a filet mignon.
It is what it is.
I think it's delicious. Guys, like this:
Standing up.
JAE: It's pretty.
STEPHANIE: It's a little messy.
Yes.
This is the black garlic miso water reduction.
That's what's going to get brushed onto the steak.
That sounds good.
I'll be feeling better once these mushrooms are back
so they can sit for a little while.
Tom's always talking about using the entirety
of the product,
so I am going to cut some nice steaks, sear them rare.
And then, I'm going to render all that fat,
make a vinaigrette and coat my mushrooms in that fat.
- I got two eyes, chef. - EVELYN: Thank you.
It's a little dry.
I don't want the judges looking at me and saying,
"Hey, he's got this braised piece of meat
"and he couldn't get it right."
I think it needs to stop cooking.
It needs to stop cooking? Okay.
We have 38 minutes. So I have my pot roast here.
A little scared
that the pressure cooker took a little while.
A couple of pieces are still a little bit tough.
It's a big challenge.
This is the most important part of the plate.
And I haven't cooked my gnocchi.
Are we gonna be ready in, like, 30 minutes?
Talk to me.
♪
TOM: Beautiful place settings.
PADMA: This is a very exciting table of humans.
TRONG: It's an honor to sit next to you.
Oh, thank you, chef for being with us.
We are excited to have you here.
I want to welcome everyone to Top Chef Houston.
The chefs are very excited to cook for you all.
Your restaurant is beautiful.
They were asked to do three cohesive dishes
from a primal cut and work as a team.
SARAH: I'm about to start plating.
ROBERT: I wish my pot roast was a little bit more tender.
JACKSON: Guys, let me help you. What can I do?
ROBERT: Finish playing these guys.
SARAH: Don't slow down.
- [alarm beeping] - We got it on the plate!
TOM: Well, I'm in love with the way it looks.
I'm not waiting, I'm eating this hot.
GAIL: It's gonna get cold.
Mm. Damn, I'm really enjoying this.
Hi, Brown team.
- Hi. - Hi.
Let's start with you, Jackson.
I did a take on vitello tonnato.
The tonnato has a lot of punch and acid,
not a traditional tonnato, which is very heavy.
PADMA: Robert, what did you make?
I did a pot roast braised with a little bit of white wine,
a little bit of potato gnocchi, some parm cream
and a castelvetrano tapenade.
I love how light the gnocchi is.
- Oh, well, thank you. - PADMA: Sarah.
I made tallow seared beef on an eggplant purée
with agrodolce shallots and a caperberry relish.
PADMA: Thank you so much.
- ROBERT: Thank you. - PADMA: I'll see you later.
I'm into this team, I gotta tell you.
All of their dishes are delicious
and they go really well together.
Jackson's tartare, I actually love the fact
- that it's ice cold. - PADMA: Yeah.
I think the tuna sauce is really good.
It's something different.
The star of this meal is Robert's braised short rib.
The gnocchi is like a pillow, as it should be.
He made pasta, he pressure cooked. He had sauces.
He had a lot of things going on that could have gone wrong
but he actually did it really well.
I think the gnocchi turned out well.
You think so?
JACKSON: I really do.
Sarah's seared flat iron steak
is my most favorite just because I felt
like every component was so well-balanced.
It just pops with acid and texture and crunch.
They don't show anything.
- TOM: Good start. - Yeah.
EVELYN: Eight minutes.
DAMARR: Eight minutes. Oh, Lord. All right.
I do not want to be on the chopping block.
EVELYN: We're so close.
My head feels like it's gonna explode.
DAMARR: Ah, man. My mushrooms are starting to congeal,
a little bit.
EVELYN: Five, four, three, two, one.
- [alarm beeping] - Nice job, chefs.
Hell yeah.
- GAIL: Oh, wow. - CHRIS: Thank you.
DEL GRANDE: Thank you. How are you today?
EVELYN: Good, how are you?
DEL GRANDE: I'm good. Very good.
Damarr, what did you make today?
The roasted rare sirloin.
Just mushrooms marinated in a beef fat vinaigrette.
There's a mixed herb oil
and some little, petite, sunchoke chips.
Evelyn, tell us about your dish.
I did for you guys,
a spiced and grilled tri-tip steak
with a charred eggplant salad and chili jam.
And Nick, tell us what your dish.
This dish is dedicated after my grandmother.
This sirloin is stewed
with a lot of fennel, apples, oranges.
I also made a sweet potato dumpling.
How do you feel this is cohesive?
So mine, should have gone a little bit lighter,
brighter in acid. And then, you start getting
into her grilled meat and he has stewed meat,
so, it should go light to heavy, kind of.
PADMA: Okay, thank you so much. We'll see you in a bit.
- Thanks you guys. - Thank you.
EVELYN: Holy cow.
Damarr's dish is very simple, very straightforward.
His protein is very tender. Is it risky at all?
No, it isn't.
Damarr's mushrooms really threw me off.
They were cold and slick with congealed fat.
I loved the eggplant in Evelyn's dish. So flavorful.
Delicious but the cookery of the beef,
go a little bit more medium rare would make these better.
I'm proud about what I put out.
Yeah.
Nick's dish, it's very homey and familiar but it's dry.
Great dish with the wrong cut
because his grandmother probably used oxtails, you know?
Use something you can really cook and shred out.
ASHLEIGH: How can I help you with plating?
LUKE: I'm gonna have you start putting mushrooms
- on the plate. - ASHLEIGH: Mushrooms on plate.
LUKE: We have two minutes and 40 seconds!
I would have liked to have plated it
a little bit differently.
- The dish is still very tasty. - We need to get it on.
We have a minute now, minute.
I don't feel we're gonna be on the bottom.
ASHLEIGH: You gonna finish, Sam?
SAM: Yes!
[alarm beeping]
LUKE: Whoa!
KRISTIN: Thank you. Thank you.
Wow, this is really rare.
TOM: It is.
KIRAN: Love the chili oil.
PADMA: Yeah, it's good.
DEL GRANDE: Thanks, chef.
So Ashleigh, tell us about what you made.
I prepared kitfo, which is a raw beef dish.
And along with that, I've got an egg yolk sauce
and some red rice crumble for texture.
PADMA: Sam?
I made a roasted striploin grilled with kompot peppercorns
and it's served with a bread salad.
PADMA: Luke, what did you make?
New York steak that's been cured in seaweed,
charred on the grill
and then I brushed it with a sauce
of seaweed and mushroom.
Below it is a puree of black garlic
and shiitake mushrooms.
Thank you, blue team.
TOM: Thank you.
Ashley's kitfo, her bringing all
of her African experience into it,
could go down in tartare history.
Ashleigh's kitfo makes me happy as can be.
It has a ton of flavor,
it has great texture and you know, it's not timid.
My thing about Sam's, it totally blew out my palate
but I couldn't stop eating it.
It seems to me, like, Luke got lost
in how to put together the flavors in his dish.
He used roasted mushrooms, pickled mushrooms,
he cured stuff in seaweed. There was no umami.
There was no salinity.
There was no depth of any flavors.
On the plate!
- Hey, we got it on the plate. - We got it on the plate, yeah.
Nine, 13.
One minute!
STEPHANIE: Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Go, go, go.
LEIA: I'm just really trying to get through this right now.
JAE: Ah, my hands are so shaking. 10 seconds.
[alarm beeping]
Oh, sh--.
I did not get the bok choy on the plate.
DEL GRANDE: Beautiful, thank you.
PADMA: Look at how pretty that is.
LEIA: Good evening, everyone.
I had the top round steak.
And I made it into a summer roll with some local peaches,
tahini and lime sauce and a little basil oil.
Stephanie, tell us about your dish.
I have the seared top round with a little bit
of kimchi paste and some sweet potato puree
and oxtail demi.
Was there braised bok choy in your dish.
No, there is not. That's the one thing I forgot.
Jae, what did you make for us?
I never been to North Korea,
and this is my imaginary North Korean bibimbap.
I use the eyeround with vegetables.
Then I seasoned it with the soy sauce and sesame oil.
And on top, it has a soy marinade egg yolk.
How did you come up with your menu?
Did you compare notes?
We, kind of, all were inspired by these Asian flavors
and so we, kind of,
each did our own personal take on that.
Thank you very much, ladies.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
I think there were some really interesting ideas
but each of the dishes didn't, like,
really come together for me.
Uh, Leia's summer roll? I mean, restrained.
The leek sauce, just, that didn't do anything.
The tahini was overpowering for everything.
I'd rather do a little bit smaller wrap, tighter,
because you want to have a perfect bite on it.
LEIA: Is it good?
Jae's dish was interesting.
I liked the egg yolk and I am not completely familiar,
nor maybe is she with the dish she was inspired by.
I just wanted the beef to be there
and I just wasn't getting it.
She could have seared the meat a little bit, you know,
to give it a better taste and texture.
Stephanie's beef and sweet potato?
I don't-- I have no idea what that has to do
with the rest of the other two dishes.
She admitted she forgot the bok choy.
That's a big miss.
I'm like sick to my stomach that I forgot that bok choy.
♪
JO: Three minutes, 50 seconds.
That's cooled all the way, yeah?
- It's cooled all the way. - Perfect.
With this dessert,
I'm trying to show myself on the plate.
This is a style of food that I like to cook.
If I pull it off,
I think I can really make an impression.
10 seconds.
MONIQUE: Time's up!
- DAWN: Pretty food. - CHRIS W: Smells good.
CHRIS S: That looks great.
DAWN: Beef is what's for dessert?
TOM: Yeah.
- Yeah. - JO: Hello.
Hello, yellow team. Monique, what did you make?
I prepared for you a beef tartare.
It's marinated in a nori seaweed paste and tamari
and cured some egg yolk and then, grated that on top.
PADMA: Jo?
I prepared a ribeye rub with a bit of black garlic
with a kare-kare sauce to go underneath.
- And Buddha. - I prepared dessert today.
We have a beef fat-inspired cake, miso ice cream,
a beef fat caramel.
Have you made a dessert with beef before?
This is my first time.
Thank you so much.
Wow. Monique's tartare. What did you think?
The balance of the textures
and the flavor and the creativity?
I mean, I think it's really excellent.
Overall, it's good.
I enjoyed that tamari onion juice in it.
I was really intrigued with the egg yolk.
It composed the plate for me.
How do you feel?
I feel good.
I'm feelin' good, I'm feelin' good...
I really liked the way that Jo cooked the ribeye itself.
And I like the freshness of the relish on top.
I love that Buddha decided to make a dessert.
Has immunity, so why not go for it?
I loved the texture of the caramel in the middle.
The crunch was great.
This is the most exciting one and the most balanced one
as far as the flavors are concerned.
Everything stood out.
And standing out was part of the challenge.
Well, he did that just in the title.
PADMA: Right.
Congratulations, you made it through 15 courses of beef.
I think the conversation at the table
really is a great sign for the season
we're all about to enjoy.
Thank you.
♪
[groaning & laughing]
MONIQUE: Is there wine in there?
- SARAH: There is wine. - DAMARR: Yeah.
SARAH: Who needs wine?
ASHLEIGH: Who needs one of these?
- JO: Should we do a big toast? - Yes!
[exclaiming]
It's all good to be with everyone in the kitchen
and be able to talk, that was like--
Can we talk?
Actually being able to talk was huge.
Everybody got food on the plate?
Everyone got their food?
I did not. My braised bok choy.
I think I should be okay but it still sucks.
Like, they see it on the menu.
ASHLEIGH: We're enjoying each other's company so much
that I forgot someone's going home tonight.
Don't bring it up.
ASHLEIGH: It's just our reality.
Let's get on up and let's go face these judges.
- LUKE: Let's do it. - Yeah.
DAMARR: All right, come on. Jump on in, Jackson.
[exclaiming]
♪
Overall, the first challenge is always tough.
There's a lot of nerves.
Those that worked with big teams are realizing
that there's no sous chefs here.
This is a tough challenge.
There were some really outstanding dishes
and of course, there were a few clunkers as well.
Our favorite team tonight was...
The brown team.
What?
PADMA: Congratulations.
[clapping]
Please stay here, everyone else, please step to the side.
Thank you.
You look a little bit surprised.
- I'm shocked. - I'm very surprised.
Why are you so surprised?
In a really intimidating room of super impressive people,
it's really hard to know where you stand.
- The competition is stiff. - Yeah.
Collectively, you guys had three solid dishes.
- Good start. - Thank you.
Yours was clearly one menu.
I mean, that's what stood out to all of us
as we ate your food and it makes a difference.
Robert, what I loved most about your dish
was it was comforting, but it was truly elevated.
I think the balance of the parmesan
with the beef and the gnocchi,
everything was pillowy and light and bright and airy.
Meat was nicely braised
and it's tough to braise meat in a pressure cooker
in two hours, but you did it. You pulled it off.
Thank you.
Robert, you were the only one out of the whole group
who really cooked that meat
and brought out an inherent beef flavor.
Thank you.
Jackson. Your tartare--
And we ate a lot of tartares today--
Was exceptional in the fine dice of the meat
and in the seasoning of the meat.
Jackson, I really loved the tartare.
The tonnato just lifted up and it, sort of,
expressed that flavor of the beef.
Thank you.
Sarah, what I love most about your dish
was all the different plays of texture.
I thought it was a really wonderful,
playful interpretation of a carbonara.
So you had the sweet and salty and the crunchy and nutty.
The meat had tons of flavor
and I thought that you did the right thing with it.
Really was delicious to eat.
Thank you.
Tonight's winning chef delivered a beautiful,
technically sound dish.
The beef was treated really, really wonderfully
and truly it was delicious and a joy to eat.
And the winning chef for us tonight is...
- Robert. - PADMA: Congratulations, Robert.
[clapping]
I really can't believe
that I won to be quite honest with you.
There's so much self-doubt, you're out of your element.
And, you know, everyone's so talented. It's surreal.
I'm really happy that I won.
I just want to make sure that, like,
this isn't as high as I can go.
Your gnocchis were really good.
Awesome. Thank you.
Nice work.
Congratulations, brown team.
You can all step to the side.
Red team, please come forward.
Red team, you unfortunately had our least favorite meal today.
And sadly, one of you will be going home tonight.
♪
Let's get into the nitty gritty of these dishes
and figure out what went wrong.
Stephanie, were you comfortable
with doing something Asian inspired?
Not really.
Originally, I was actually going to do like
a filled dumpling or a filled pasta
but I kind of stuck to what I know in the Midwest,
is meat and potatoes. You know?
I wanted to balance it as best I could, as best--
In the ability that I know Asian cuisine,
which I, you know, I really don't.
That bok choy that was left off your plate,
was that tossed in an Asian vinaigrette
or something like that?
I braised it in a little bit of the oxtail
and then I hit it with quite a bit of lime
and some salt to give that dish a little bit of brightness.
Did you just run out of time to get it on the plate?
Yeah, it was just time.
Jae, walk us through why you would choose
for your first elimination challenge,
to make something that you admittedly
weren't that familiar with?
There were a couple of reasons.
I wanted to take on the raw beef.
Uh...
[laughing]
Are you okay?
I'm okay.
I read about the North Korean cooking
and haven't seen the dish,
but I thought about it for a long time.
You can read all you want, but you have to eat the food
to really understand--
I learned it very hard.
Leia, how about you?
Do you make a lot of summer rolls?
I don't make a lot of summer rolls.
I have made summer rolls before.
Leia, in your summer roll, unfortunately,
there was a lot of sinew in my first bite,
so I had to spit it out.
It was so large and overstuffed.
- Right. - It just completely fell apart.
I do agree that it was overfilled,
there was too much sauce on the plate.
I rushed and I missed the details.
I recognize that and I own it.
We have a very difficult decision to make.
We'll call you back in a bit.
- Thank you all. - DEL GRANDE: Thanks.
Wow.
Congrats, brown team.
Congrats, Robert.
- EVELYN: Congrats, brown team. - SARAH: Woo!
You should be grinning from ear to ear right now.
I mean, I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it.
It was like one hour and I was, just like--
I was like, "Are you good?"
And you were just like, "I unno..."
Well, it's the first challenge and it's always tough.
Yeah, I think the chefs clearly are nervous.
Seems like there's a lot of little mistakes being made.
Kristen, you certainly know what they're going through.
During the Quickfire, I think you asked people, like,
their accolades and you figured out
who worked in Michelin star kitchens.
And I think when you're amongst your peers like that,
and you start to hear that, all of a sudden you feel like,
"I need to step up, I need to impress."
And what got you here is no longer present anymore.
All three of them did not trust themselves today.
I mean, Stephanie said,
"I was not comfortable with Asian food."
And Leia's summer roll,
the only thing that made it Asian
was just throwing it in a rice paper roll
and calling it a summer roll.
And for Jae, her dish was inspired by a Korean dish.
But then, it just got watered down over time.
The three of them forgot
about the main point of the challenge.
How are you going to make that beef really shine?
I think Stephanie's dish,
in terms of doing something with the beef,
it probably was the beefiest of the three.
It wasn't cohesive,
but as a dish it was much better than the other two.
It was waiting to take off.
It just never really took off.
Otherwise, it was fine.
My flavors weren't there, for sure. Fully admit it.
Fully admit it.
Jae's dish, I mean, this is a beef challenge.
We got a little bit of raw beef, it had zero flavor.
But also, the rice was just cooked improperly,
That was rough.
With Leia, beef was the worst part of the summer roll
and it was a bad summer roll.
It almost seemed like the beef was an afterthought.
Instead of the starting point, it was the last thing.
It was the thing in both their dishes
that were the least tended to.
And it was the thing that needed most tending.
I ----ed up. And I can own that.
I think we have our answer.
- Mm-hm. - Let's get them out here.
You know, chefs, clearly some mistakes made.
These weren't our best dishes.
The three of you just seemed really,
really disjointed and it just didn't work at all.
Padma.
Leia, please pack your knives and go.
Thank you so much.
Even being in this kitchen for one day
was just incredible.
It sucks. You know, you don't put your life on hold
to compete in the most prestigious cooking competition
to be eliminated in the first challenge.
Leia, it's not over yet.
There is the Last Chance Kitchen.
So, you do have a shot at getting back in.
Thank you so much.
I made some very rookie mistakes. I was not focused.
I did not pay attention to detail.
It was not my best day and it was me.
[groaning]
It's me.
Guys, kick some ----ing ass.
- MONIQUE: Woo! - JACKSON: Yeah.
I'm a fighter. Don't count me out just yet.
This season on Top Chef...
- MAN: Let's go! - WOMAN: Go!
You guys gonna carve lettuce tonight?
That's the plan.
I'm trying to bring the mood up high.
SARAH: I wanna be buried in whatever this is when I die.
Which I might because of all the shellfish.
All that blood is from one of our chefs
- you see on the plate here. - Oh...
Oh, so we don't have to send anyone home.
- I won't ask whom. - Woo!
Have you ever worked with alligator?
I've worked with an alligator, but I haven't broken one down.
To the brisket gods.
Welcome to Restaurant Wars.
Celebrate the soul of cooking.
Who wants to eat!
We're pretty excited about tasting your space food.
Cheers!
It's going to be a beautiful, interesting season
if we're cooking like this.
♪
PADMA: There's the velociraptor.
SARAH: Brace yourselves, guys.
I'm so nervous to be cooking barbecue in Texas.
Because you don't mess with Texas.
SAM: Yeah, and then they brought all of us in here
to mess with it.
♪