- Are we doing the night market? - Yes, girl.
Your very own, Asian night market.
- We are all deep in. - Uh-huh.
Slurp mode.
She hit the heat and the sweetness.
Savory.
Buddha, this puff pastry you fried.
Yup.
Frying just made this greaseball.
I told them not to fry at all.
I got Chinese.
Pretty awesome.
I found them bland.
The potatoes, I just grilled it.
It's confusing.
The winning chef tonight is Jae.
Congratulations, Jae.
Sam, please pack your knives and go.
12 chefs remain to compete in
the ultimate culinary showdown.
At stake for the winner,
a feature in Food and Wine Magazine.
an appearance in the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen.
$250,000 furnished by San Pellegrino.
And the coveted title of Top Chef.
♪
[fast paced music]
♪
You know, I've been really coasting through the middle.
It's not crushing to my confidence,
but it just makes me question.
I'm basically doing this for myself
because when I became a mom,
I started almost like losing myself.
I want to remind myself and my kids
that I'm a strong person and that I can do this.
[western music]
♪
Good morning, chefs.
Good morning.
What's going on today?
I am walking into the kitchen
thinking that it's going to be a great day
and I see these biscuits.
I don't bake, I don't like baking.
I just like to get baked.
[laughing]
Please, welcome back your guest judge for this challenge,
Chef and restauranteur, Chris Williams.
Thanks for having me back.
He's doing some really amazing work here in Houston.
It all started with Chris' restaurant, Lucille's.
Named after his great grandmother, Lucille B. Smith.
She was a chef ahead of her time.
And her client list included everybody from LBJ
to Martin Luther King and everybody in between there.
She authored a cookbook in 1941.
She came up with the nation's first instant Hot Roll Mix.
Sounds like Lucille was on a roll.
- Okay. - [laughing]
[suspenseful drumming]
For today's Quickfire,
we want you to pay homage to Lucille B. Smith
by creating your very own biscuit from scratch.
But this is Top Chef.
Don't just give us a biscuit on a plate.
We're looking for a complete dish.
And you have just 45 minutes on the clock.
The winner will receive a considerable advantage
in the Elimination Challenge.
Good luck, chefs. Because your time starts now.
[suspenseful guitar music]
Coming in hot.
Do you guys see flour?
Onions. Anyone seen onions?
- Monique, right there. - Thank you.
Why am I helping you? I don't even know.
I've made biscuits before, but I need my recipe.
This is so terrifying.
From what I can remember,
your butter needs to be very cold.
I mean, I have a pastry shop, but we don't do biscuits.
I'm going to try and do biscuits
with some Lardo and an onion jam.
You are so fancy. Can't even deal.
I'm going to make a drop biscuit,
so hopefully, it'll be crispy on the outside.
All the flavor profiles that I work out of
has kind of been informed by Black women.
In my family, you just didn't get the recipe.
You had to make it with them over and over again.
And that's how you knew how to make it.
What are you making with your biscuits?
If I can get this right,
I'm going to do like a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.
That sounds bomb.
Jackson, what are you working on?
I think I'm just going to go kind of more classic here.
I'm going to do a traditional biscuit.
I want it to be layered and light and flaky.
If I'm going to eat a biscuit, that's the kind that I want.
What are you serving with the biscuits?
Found some ostrich, which would be fun.
It might also be ----ing stupid to try, but...
- [laughing] - We can't just make a biscuit.
We have to do something more impressive than that.
So, I'm doing ostrich sausage.
I think that's really interesting
and weird in a good way.
SARAH: Jackson is never confident.
Despite all signs pointing to, he should be.
I think we got this, guys.
I'm going to go for a sweet shortcake style biscuit.
Macerate some strawberries and some Japanese brown sugar.
SARAH: Oh, I like that.
Incorporate a little bit of masa harina into my biscuit.
SARAH: Oh, I love that too.
- You're so creative. - Yeah.
SARAH: 36 minutes.
My mom is the one that makes the biscuits.
So just trying to remember everything
that she puts into it, you know?
I mean, I've spent, you know,
eight and a half years in Europe and you know,
the biscuits and gravy thing
is not necessarily a thing out there.
But I saw these kumquats,
so I am going to do a sweet corn and kumquat jam.
I am debating between sweet or savory.
- You ready? - Yeah, let's go.
Damarr and I are sharing an oven, top left.
We're good.
I want to get the biscuits on
and then I want to make fried chicken with the biscuits.
Always go for fried chicken.
My strategy is I know how to make fried chicken.
So [bleep] you, biscuit.
[laughing]
I'm also working on fried chicken with hot honey.
It's the only thing I know with biscuits.
Last challenge didn't turn out so great.
Bit intimidating making the biscuit.
I haven't really showcased what I can do.
I don't really make queso,
I don't really make samosas,
and I've never made a biscuit before.
My technique is making sure it's dry and crumbly.
Mississippi cutter, man, trying to represent.
You had time to find a Mississippi cutter?
[bleep] yeah, I got them all running through my kitchen.
- Oh, they're yours? - Yeah.
Mississippi is where my heart is.
This is the perfect opportunity
to put it on the map in the Top Chef kitchen.
I can't screw it up, man.
[laughing]
I'm going in.
Hope we bake.
Now, where am I going with this? Am I going sweet? Savory?
Does someone have black pepper over there?
Pepper, black pepper, a lot.
Pastry is one of those things
I never know how it's going to turn out
until I get it out of the oven.
MONIQUE: 17.
LUKE: Evelyn, what are you going to go with?
EVELYN: Savory.
- Savory? - I saw the chorizo
and I was like, "All right, we're going with that."
After the queso challenge,
I need some crispy cheese redemption.
I'm going to put some crispy cheese on there
that Padma is actually going to enjoy.
Time check, 11:11.
Please do what you're supposed to do.
Ugh.
Five minutes away!
I need so much more time.
All right, I'm about to do something kinda wild.
I'm pivoting so hard right now.
Do a fried biscuit.
BUDDHA: Oh, the biscuit is not that great.
1:30!
[suspenseful music]
ASHLEIGH: Still feel like I have a chance.
JACKSON: I'm really ----ing nervous this thing is raw.
No, I think it looks good, Jackson.
- Hi. - 30 seconds.
JO: Three, two, one, guys.
I'm so sweaty.
CHRIS: Ooh.
Made a scallion biscuit glazed in hot maple
with an ostrich sausage, crispy cheddar and fried egg.
PADMA: And this is a block of cheddar that you've breaded?
- Yeah. - Thank you.
I did a biscuit with mushroom maple gravy and a poached egg.
So I made a sweet biscuit, corn in the biscuit,
Japanese brown sugar,
macerated strawberries, whipped cream.
You make a lot of biscuits, Robert?
I don't.
I did a fried black pepper biscuit with apple molasses
country ham and chow chow with moonshine vinegar.
Why did you choose to fry your biscuit?
I wanted some sort of textural element.
Well done.
- Jo? - I made a biscuit.
[laughing]
It's with a chorizo and vegetable hash,
spiced butter on top.
I made a buttermilk biscuit, some crispy pork belly.
The jelly is fig, raspberry, orange and grapefruit.
It's better known as the frog jelly.
Is the shape intentional?
That's the map of Mississippi.
Big biscuit.
So I did a drop biscuit with shirred egg,
smoked bacon and hot honey drizzled over the top.
Hmm, I'm starting to get a buzz from these biscuits.
[laughing]
I made a biscuit with Lardo and then onion jam.
Thank you, Monique.
Today, I have a buttermilk biscuit
with buttermilk fried chicken.
And on the side, you have gochujang hot honey sauce.
Did you spend a lot of time working the dough?
Just to shape it.
- CHRIS: Okay. - Thank you.
I made a buttermilk biscuit with sweet corn
and candied kumquat chili jam.
Thank you so much.
I made a biscuit with a poached egg
and a chorizo country gravy, some marinated tomatoes.
- Wonderful. - Oh, wow.
I made a buttermilk biscuit with fried chicken,
hot honey, cheddar.
- It is very crumbly. - Yeah.
♪
PADMA: Chris, how do you think our chefs did overall
with this biscuit challenge?
Pretty impressive effort.
There were a few that missed the mark.
Buddha's. It was too crumbly.
It was further stressed by all of the things
that you put on it.
Jae, you just overworked it a little bit.
And also, it's buried by that huge piece of chicken.
And who else?
Ashleigh's biscuit. It's too much pepper in there.
And deep frying that biscuit just made it crumble.
And now for some good news.
Who had one of our favorites, Chris?
Damarr.
The texture is right, the temperature was right.
I thought you did a beautiful job.
- Thank you. - Chef Evelyn's dish.
Me?
- Yeah, girl, you. - Thank you.
I really liked the way that you balanced it out
with the herbs and cut through the richness of the gravy.
Jackson, I like the fact that you went for the ostrich.
Was that fried cheese?
Yeah, damn it.
However, there can only be one winner.
And that chef is...
Jackson.
- Thank you. - [contestants clapping]
Thanks.
Congratulations, you just won yourself
a big advantage in the next elimination challenge.
Still don't have immunity, so did I really win?
Take care, chefs.
I don't know about you,
but I'm ready for a salad challenge.
[laughing]
Please, give a warm welcome to James Beard Award winner,
Michelin starred chef, Wylie Dufresne.
- Hi, Wylie. - Hello.
Watching Wylie walk into the kitchen, it's amazing.
He is recognized for his restaurant,
which was WD-50 in New York,
which championed molecular gastronomy.
And I feel like this could be
the sort of challenge that I have been waiting for.
Before I tell you the challenge,
you should know, this is a team challenge.
Jackson, do you remember when I said,
you'd get a huge advantage?
You get to pick your team member first.
And you and your teammate will get an extra 30 minutes
of cook time tomorrow.
Okay, I'll go with Buddha.
PADMA: Buddha? Okay.
Buddha, he uses a lot of modernist techniques.
His plating is very elegant.
I just go with my gut.
The guy, who lost a biscuit challenge is your advantage.
Everyone else, please find a partner.
- Let's do it. Okay. - I'm right here.
All right. Let's do it.
This challenge is about both taste and presentation,
Oh, Lord.
[suspenseful music]
What kind of science project
am I going to be asked to do right now?
Chefs, please lift your cloches.
[dramatic music]
Wow, okay.
Now, take a bite of the dish in front of you.
Peanut butter?
PADMA: Damarr, what do you taste?
Cured fois? Some kind of pepper sauce?
Monique, what do you taste?
Cocoa, definitely in the crumble.
I'm definitely not tasting the cocoa.
Either she's really off
or she has like some super fine palate
that I'm just not even detecting this stuff.
Wylie, why don't you tell our chefs
what they've been eating?
The dish on the right?
I'm calling "pea-knot butter."
It's peanut butter ganache tied into a knot
on top of a coffee cocoa soil,
a strawberry mango sauce and fresh basil.
Oh, [bleep].
And the dish on the left, I like to call "knot foie."
It's foie gras terrine,
tied into a knot on top of a black sesame crumb,
kimchi purée and some cilantro.
Oh.
This is like blowing my mind up right now.
For your Elimination Challenge,
we want you to work in teams of two
to create two dishes that look exactly alike,
but taste completely different.
I hope everyone's happy with their teams
because this is a Double Elimination.
Oh, my God.
A whole team will be going home.
Oh, my God.
I'm really excited to see what guys come up with.
It's really a good opportunity to be playful and creative.
Have some fun with it.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Holy crap.
Okay.
I love you. Okay.
Do you have any idea?
- Like a blue crab cake? - Uh-huh.
And maybe do the other one apple pie?
I don't bake. I don't bake nothing.
I'm like, so lost.
I'm just-- I really don't want to go home.
I really don't want to make my partner do go home.
I am really freaking out big time.
You know, daikon looks like a noodle,
but it's actually daikon salad.
It's not a molecular challenge, it just has to be similar.
Yeah, I'm not relying on ----ing powders here.
- Right. - Me and Jo are kind of like, uh.
We both don't work this way.
I have to think backwards to start with
the visual instead of the flavor.
So I was thinking things that like, we can shape.
Pork belly, if we braise it and we press it.
And then I'm thinking a no-bake cheesecake.
So my idea is, breaking down everything bagel
or breaking down strawberries and cream.
I'm cool with you taking the lead on this.
The only thing I'm concerned about is
I don't want to add something just for the sake of adding it.
Scallop and oyster are very similar
in flavor and consistency.
I slice it and then I separate them.
I actually had in mind like a melon carpaccio
sort of thing as the sweet side.
Doing hot and cold, savory and sweet would be cool.
Okay.
Like a shrimp toast and then a strawberry panna cotta.
Because I think the color on your panna cotta
matches the color of my cooked mousse.
- Okay. - And I have done
- a shrimp mousse before. - Okay.
It's like a dish that we do at the [indistinct] bar that I run.
Sometimes these type of challenges, like,
I get this like mental block.
Thankfully, we're each other's opposites.
We can set the panna cotta in a mold
to look like whatever shape.
- I like your ideas. - Are you sure?
Yeah.
Robert is quiet, calm and confident.
And I am none of those things.
[laughing]
We need a cute name.
For our dishes or just for ourselves?
No.
The guys are gonna get it started.
♪
They had to get one to the fine dining folks.
Real cooking is my sh--, not shapes.
Not shapes.
- I'm excited, this one's cool. - Yeah.
We need noodles.
Noodles.
How are you planning on doing the honeydew?
Thin slices, so we'll peel the cucumber--
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it will look the exact same.
Can you grab me this instant coffee?
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- I got daikon. - Awesome.
We have a noodle focus.
Jae's going to be daikon, which is going to be spiralized.
I'm going to feature udon noodles.
Nick.
This is a perfect marriage for cooking.
- Ten minutes! - I've got the cornstarch,
I got the mushrooms for the tuile.
Are you sure about the mushrooms?
Oh, yeah, yeah. I make it all the time.
- Are you sure of yourself? - I'm ----ing worried.
The seasoning is definitely on steroids.
- $243,77. - Thank you so much.
Let's get out of here.
Alrighty, let's go.
Let's do this, bro.
Oh, God.
Let's go.
We live together and die together.
- We die together. - Let's do this, Damarr.
DAMARR: I am trying to get this liver mousse done.
MONIQUE: I'm going to start the ice cream.
Heard. #CrushingIt.
Sarah, what are you working on?
I'm doing a seafood terrine,
meant to look like Robert's panna cotta.
JAE: Oh, nice.
Can I get some allergy meds?
Sarah is a little allergic to shrimp,
but I'm not really worried because at the last challenge,
she, like, sucked on crawfish.
- I'm about to start a mousse. - ROBERT: Okay.
I'm going to roast all my strawberries.
So, my main focus is going to be my panna cotta.
- because it needs to set. - Yeah.
I'm doing dessert, she's doing savory.
But we're going for the same textures.
I'm a little scared about the gelatin.
- Ashleigh, what are you making? - I'm doing the scallops.
Luke is doing the vegetarian of my dish.
I've got a king oyster mushrooms over there.
LUKE: Ashleigh, how are you looking?
Looking good.
That honeydew and cucumber look almost identical.
LUKE: Perfect.
The really difficult part of this challenge is like,
are you having to sacrifice flavor for looks?
It's incredibly important to win this challenge.
It's the first double elimination.
We both know what the bottom's felt like
and at this point, I'm just trying to think,
"How can I not be on the bottom?"
Oh yeah, I'm on a streak
and it's not the kind of streak that I want to be on,
so it's scary.
I'm definitely glad that I ended with Jae.
- Aw, thanks Damarr. - You know what I'm saying?
You guys are like a perfect odd couple.
- Yeah. - Like, you're like our parents.
Yeah, oh, wow.
- Sarah's just jealous. - Geez.
EVELYN: Buddha, what are you doing?
Cooking some strawberries very slowly
in the sous vide machine.
So we're going to be dipping white chocolate
panna cotta into a strawberry jelly
to make it look like a tomato.
ROBERT: Coming down hot.
JO: We'll do the pork belly flat.
EVELYN: Poach it.
As long as we press it tonight, I feel okay about it.
This challenge is all about survival.
I know how badly Evelyn wants this.
We make those squares,
Make those squares and they look exactly the same.
And it's not that I don't want it,
but you don't want to be the one to sink someone's dream.
Get that pork belly going, It's that pot right there.
♪
JACKSON: I am smoking the salmon.
Better be the best damn cheesecake I've ever made.
I'm planning to make coffee ice cream sandwiches.
Damarr is making chicken liver mousse with cornbread.
Is that the color you think it's going to be?
Yes. So it's going to be like a-- It looks kind of chocolatey.
It's no, it's perfect.
The ice cream is going to look exactly
like my chicken liver mousse.
Chicken liver mousse is usually like a pinkish color
because you add nitrates. I know that if I don't do that,
it's going to be a shade of brown.
Which I think Chef Wylie will appreciate.
Look at the color, it's better now.
Yeah, that's perfect.
- Jae, what are you making? - The daikon noodle?
- Oh, that's fun. - Yeah.
- The thickness is the same. - Yep.
- But the color is a little bit-- - Tumeric.
Yeah. I'm gonna put a pinch of it.
- Yeah. - JO: 30 minutes.
I tested my panna cotta for my ratio of gelatin
and it seems to work out.
I think if I add my roasted strawberries to it...
- SARAH: Yeah. - I think it'll make it
- really tasty. - Oh yeah,
that color is beautiful.
JO: It needs longer, huh? We need to get it softer.
We ran out of time and we can't quite get the pork belly
to be as tender as we wanted to be.
We'll deal with you tomorrow.
I got to get everything to your cart.
I think we're in a very good spot.
I think so too and I just want to taste really good.
Although, we got little things to finish,
everything is fixable.
We're packed up, Jae.
- Let's go. - Get out, let's go.
♪
[groaning]
It's very daunting that it's a double elimination.
And seeing that Jackson chose me out of every other chef,
I really feel a lot of pressure.
Because it is one of my strongest challenges
- that I can do. - I think so too.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, pull out all the bells and whistles.
Like technique, for technique's sake,
we can't put on there.
I think we're both on the same page there, you know?
I grew up in my father's restaurant.
I'm kind of obsessed about food.
I remember during high school,
YouTubing all these great chefs and restaurants
and Wylie was definitely one of those chefs.
So, this challenge was like a childhood dream.
It's a very well thought out dish,
it just needs to be executed properly.
Right.
JO: Girl, I'm just-- I just, I know I don't want to go home.
I'm not ready to go to the dark side--
We ain't doing it.
And I don't want to go with you.
You know me, though, I live on the dark side.
- I know, you're the worst. - I am the worst.
I have enough positive energy to pull us through, okay?
I know, I know.
Oh good Lord, have mercy.
- Ready, mate? - Yeah, let's do it.
I think this is the most difficult challenge so far.
And it's not just about having one nice plate of food,
it has to look like
someone else's entirely different dish.
All right, man, what you working on first?
I'm doing the tuile. I already got my things melting.
Tuiles are like that. I got the bread proofing.
Yeah, Jackson's making everything but the bagel.
And I'm making strawberries and cream.
I would never make this dish if Buddha weren't on my team,
but he seemed really passionate about it.
I've never got the chance to cook for Wylie in my life.
So, cooking for him is a huge honor.
We're going to mimic every single thing.
So, for the tomato that's on Jackson's dish,
I am making a white chocolate panna cotta
set inside a strawberry gel. What do you think?
- Oh, yeah. - It looks like a tomato.
- Yeah. - For the salmon tartare,
we're going to be doing a strawberry tartare with basil.
For the cream cheese bavarois,
we're going to be doing a white chocolate bonbon
filled with strawberries.
This is one of the elements of surprise
we're going to be putting on our dish.
All right, down half an hour.
♪
What did you guys do with that extra 30 minutes?
Oh, we've just been hanging out, waiting for you guys.
[laughing]
Yeah.
The panna cotta hasn't set.
Why don't we melt these down super fast,
add a little bit more gelatin and get those sitting?
I am really frustrated,
but if I decide to change something,
we both have to change complete components on our dishes.
So, I have to make this panna cotta work.
If our technique fails us, we fail, you know?
- LUKE: Perfect size. - ASHLEIGH: Awesome, awesome.
That was exactly what I was envisioning.
Teamwork.
Me and Ashleigh are producing stuff
to go on each other's plates.
We have the scallop and the king oyster mushroom
that almost look identical.
We also have carrot purée with the kanzuri,
they are very similar in color.
As well as the compressed melon and the pickled cucumber.
The ones with the peel on.
- Yeah. - They look even more identical.
LUKE: Being teammates for the third time, it really clicks.
- Teamwork makes the dream work. - That's it.
[giggling]
I keep having to taste everything to make sure--
I know what's what.
I'm not going to have any more [indistinct].
One hour.
Put it in.
What's your final description right now?
So we got a goat cheese cheesecake and apple relish.
At this point,
we know that both dishes taste different.
So on that part of the challenge, success.
I'm going to reset this purée
into another with a parchment underneath.
Okay.
But my cauliflower purée isn't as dry as I need it to be.
It's what needs to emulate the cheesecake of Evelyn's dish.
And so it needs to be thicker.
It's fine, it's fine.
- We are going to figure it out. - I know.
What's one of the hardest things that you had to imitate?
EVELYN: The crust in the belly?
Because it's a base of both of them.
I just want to make sure where the texture is.
What's the toughest component you think?
I think the cornbread and the cake.
Like both are the same sort of pale yellow.
To make it thin and even,
so we can cut it after it cooks and cools.
Here is my impression of Damarr.
[laughing]
- Yeah, man! [bleep] yeah! - Yeah, great. Awesome.
45 minutes.
What are you doing over there, Jae?
No, no, no, I'm busy. Please leave me alone.
Oh my God.
♪
Yeah, leave that out and start plating.
Put a little bit of oil on the tomatoes.
Ten minutes.
Is that chive?
Yeah.
Still do a taste, you know, just give it a mix.
Three minutes.
Wow, looks so impressive.
- Hey, chef. - Hi, how are you?
Hi, chef.
Beautiful.
Now I can fully appreciate the kitchen.
- Yeah. - Oh, there, right there.
Yeah.
It's a double elimination.
- It's so hard. - So, this is something
that's going to really force them to think.
The two things must look alike.
And then the roe, just a tiny bit, right?
Perfect.
- [alarm beeping] - [laughing]
It's almost identical.
This looks amazing.
GAIL: There's a lot of little details to discover.
- This is fun. - I know, right?
Jackson, tell us what's in your dish.
It's just inspired by an everything bagel.
It's everything but the bagel.
So salmon tartare, capers, shallots.
Above that is a cream cheese bavarois.
A marinated tomato and then a buttermilk scallion dressing
to mimic the scallion cream cheese.
And what about this tuile?
And that is an everything tuile.
Buddha, tell us about your dish.
So we have strawberries and cream.
We have a white chocolate panna cotta
that's been dipped in a strawberry jelly
to make it look like a tomato.
And then we have strawberry bonbon and strawberry tartar.
The dressing was actually a cream and basil oil.
And then the tuile is just a plain sweet pastry tuile.
You know, I was initially concerned,
maybe it would be the same tuile.
And I, you know, and I think it's great
that even down to the very last detail, they're different.
The effects are great, but it really tastes fantastic.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Thank you. - Thanks.
That might be the best dessert we've had on Top Chef.
That's a really good strawberries and cream.
Well, it blows me away is how they start with--
The idea started,
the germanation was everything bagel.
- And then this comes out. - Yeah, exactly.
The flavor combinations of each dish
were so different and distinct,
but the textures I think, were the funnest part.
- Good job, man. - Yeah, it was really good.
SARAH: I'm going to pick these up and then this is my crumble.
And I'm going to go right over the sesame
to kind of cover our colors, what do you think?
ROBERT: Yeah.
Trying to keep my swoosh really straight.
ROBERT: I don't want to keep adding stuff.
- I think that's it. - [alarm beeping]
PADMA: They look pretty similar, except for the color.
GAIL: There's a slight tonality that's off,
but otherwise, yeah.
PADMA: Sarah, what did you make?
I made a shrimp terrine,
it's shrimp sausage over brioche,
toasted in brown butter
and then a brioche brown butter crumb
and compressed cucumbers in a pickle.
WYLIE: You poached, steamed?
It was a steam, followed by a poach, if you will.
PADMA: Robert, what did you make?
Strawberry panna cotta with creme fraiche,
Japanese brown sugar crumble, kiwi and basil.
Did this panna cotta set up the way you want?
I was having a lot of trouble today,
but I think it turned out.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you, guys.
We got to hope somebody [bleep] up.
I think they had a great idea.
I just don't think they executed the main part
of the dish well.
Both domes are texturally off in of themselves.
Sarah's is absolutely too firm and Robert's is a little loose.
It has good flavor, though.
- It is very tasty. - It is.
I think it didn't go terribly.
I don't think so either.
But I don't think it went well.
Pasta is ready. Come on, baby.
- Oh, it looks good. - Yeah.
Get the broth out.
Jae, broth is ready. I'm with you. We're on the same team.
Good job.
- Like that looks beautiful. - Yeah, they look similar.
Tell us about your dish, Jae.
It's a daikon salad with walnut crumbs
and chilled jasmine lime broth.
Nick, tell us about your dish.
I did a button mushroom beurre blanc noodles.
On the bottom is a mushroom puree,
red pepper coulis and mushroom jus.
I thought it was a good move to do two savories.
- Delicious, nice job. - Thank you.
- PADMA: Thank you, guys. - [Jae muttering]
These dishes are both really good.
I think they look very similar, taste completely different.
The only negative is I thought the noodles
were a little overcooked.
I totally agree with that.
But her crumbs were delicious. Like, really.
- That walnut, so good. - Whoo.
I'm going to crisp this up, put this on top.
It might still equal your total size.
EVELYN: Oh Lord, baby Jesus, do not take me out now.
The sauce is behind you. Okay.
EVELYN: Pull this sh-- off. Pull this sh-- off.
JO: It's gonna be fine,
we just need to figure out the plating.
C'mon, steady that hand.
- Girl. - I'm having a moment.
Okay, so, this is what I was thinking.
Time is ticking down.
I'm just like, "I'm going to plate this
and you tell me if you can mimic it."
The puree on the bottom and then the pork belly on top
- and then glaze it. - Okay, center like this?
- JO: Yes, center. - EVELYN: Just make sure
there's enough, like, sauce.
Doppelganger.
TOM: Looks the same.
PADMA: Tell me what we're eating.
In front of you, you have a crispy pork belly
with a cauliflower puree underneath, crispy garlic
and then a daikon relish and a five spice glaze over that.
Evelyn, tell us what you've made.
What I've made for you guys is a goat cheese cheesecake.
On top, we have a cardamom chocolate sauce,
a sesame crumble, apples and a champagne vinegar.
And then on top, I have a bit of matcha.
- Look great. - Yeah.
- Thank you both. - Thanks a lot.
Evelyn's dessert is pretty sweet.
As much as I visually think they did a really good job,
I did not love Jo's pork belly.
- Like pork belly leather. - It was, it was leather.
It was also so thin.
How do I feel better now than when I put up those plates?
I think it's really cool to be here while they're working.
It's terrifying for them, though. I remember that.
- [laughs] Feeling that. - ASHLEIGH: Four pieces?
LUKE: Yeah. - ASHLEIGH: How are you going
- on the oil? - LUKE: One spoon
- inside of each one. - Okay.
Done. Done, done, done.
- Thank you. - TOM: Ohh... Crazy sauces.
MELISSA: Very interesting.
Let's start with you, Ashleigh.
I prepared a scallop with compressed honeydew,
kanzuri, toasted walnut and apple cider broth.
- What about you, Luke? - So I made
a king oyster mushroom with a pickled cucumber
and a carrot puree.
And a broth of mushroom with parsley and seaweed oil.
Whose idea was it to slice the mushroom and slice the scallop?
It was my idea to slice and put things in between.
- Yeah. - That was brilliant.
Looks great. It looked great.
- PADMA: Thank you, both. - ASHLEIGH: Yeah.
I think visually it was a home run.
TOM:I think they're both really good. I liked them a lot.
I love the intensity of Luke's dish.
Ashleigh's dish, that surprise of the melon.
I just thought it was fantastic with the scallop.
It was very Scandinavian.
They had some positive things to say.
- All right. This is mine, right? - Yeah.
This is mine?
DAMARR: Let's hope that they say that.
- One like this. - Heard.
Nice job, chef.
- PADMA: Wow. - TOM: Oh, cool.
- [laughs] - PADMA: Wow...
- TOM: Nice. - MELISAS: Both dishes
look exactly identical!
Damarr, please tell us about your dish.
I did a chicken liver mousse sandwiched between
cornbread with a dukkah spice with tomato chili jam.
Monique?
I did a coffee ice cream sandwich
along with an olive oil streusel,
candied lime zest and some fruit gel.
PADMA: Really lovely. Thank you both.
Thank you. Yeah!
I mean, aside from the dense cornbread,
the rest is fantastic.
Damarr's chicken liver mousse was nice and smooth.
The dukkah was so flavorful.
Monique's comes together very nicely.
It's a lot less risky. It's cake and ice cream.
She's not walking out on a ledge, but it's delicious.
I mean, we felt confident from start to finish, so.
I thought this was the best food we've had so far.
Wiley, your presence here has had an immensely
positive effect on our chefs.
- They stepped up for you. - PADMA: Yeah!
Kay. Stop.
We have a really difficult decision.
Let's get to Judges' Table.
I've been lucky to be here many years in a row
and this is some of the best food I've seen.
So really, you guys should all be very pleased
with your, your efforts.
Ashleigh and Luke and Jackson and Buddha, please stay.
Everyone else can step to the side.
Your two teams...
Had our favorite dishes of the night.
So congratulations on a job beautifully done.
Ashleigh, you look so relieved.
Yeah, it's been-- It's been a rough couple of days.
So this was a pleasant surprise.
I felt your dish was so progressive
and thought provoking when it came out.
It was striking.
We couldn't stop talking about it at the table.
The dishes you gave us tonight.
They stretched us. They made us think the most.
The idea of slicing the scallops and slicing the mushrooms
and shingling like that,
it really brought those dishes together.
I thought they were absolutely stunning and delicious.
- Great work. - Jackson and Buddha,
your dishes looked so similar but independent of that,
there was such whimsy in eating your dishes.
So sublime, so delicious. So fun.
We started digging in and I just remember thinking,
"There's so much to discover here."
There were so many fun textures and also playing up,
you know, savory-sweet. Beautiful dish.
And I think it was really fun how you started
with classics and did some really clever
and delicious twists with those two dishes.
Thank you.
Congratulations to both teams,
but there can only be one winner.
Both teams put forth amazing efforts,
very playful, lots of fun.
The winning team tonight is...
Jackson and Buddha.
Congratulations.
PADMA: Congratulations, you guys.
- And the winner is... - [slapping thighs]
Keep this up. See this feeling you have right now?
Remember it. Keep it up.
I'm winning this for my dad. He's my mentor.
He's my best friend, my number one fan.
He actually didn't know that I made it onto Top Chef.
He passed away not too long ago. So this is definitely for him.
But I hope that this is just the beginning.
You can step to the side, please.
And now we'd like to see Sarah and Robert.
Evelyn and Jo.
Your two teams had our least favorite dishes
in a very spectacular night of eating.
One of your teams will be going home
because this is a double elimination.
Robert and Sarah, let's start with you.
Were you happy with the dishes as they came out?
There was a little struggle, especially with my panna cotta.
There was definitely a pivot when it came to the gelatin.
Do you have a panna cotta recipe that you use, like in your head?
- Yeah. - TOM: Does it always
- include strawberries? - No.
It's integrity was compromised, probably by, I think,
the water of the fruit.
- Yeah. - I mean, I thought
the flavor was beautiful.
- It just, it was a little curdy. - Mm-hm.
Sarah, were you happy with the texture
of your shrimp mousse?
I struggled with the cooking aspect of that.
I'm allergic to shellfish, so...
- So then why make this dish? - I was confident in the flavors.
Your mousse felt very spongy and over worked.
And the panna cotta was too loose.
So did you start off with the idea of a panna cotta, first?
SARAH: I think we started out with trying to
replicate shapes first, which is kind of like two
things that we could create in a similar shape.
The shapes were fine.
I think the big issue was both cooking mistakes.
- Yeah. - Okay, let's talk to Jo--
Bring it on over here.
Let's bring it on over to you, yes.
Were you happy with the way your dishes came out?
The cauliflower potato puree was supposed to set.
It was just too much liquid.
We kind of had to change the plating.
I really loved your dessert.
I mean, it was a very interesting,
very intense dessert.
My main concern was the pork belly.
- I felt it was dry. - TOM: You started it yesterday?
We started it yesterday.
We didn't feel like it had cooked enough yesterday,
pressed it and then we cooked it again, today.
When you pressed it, did you take it out of
the broth when it was hot?
We cooled it and then pressed it.
You cooled it in the liquid?
Not in the liquid.
- TOM: Ahh... - GAIL: In the braising.
You gotta cool it down in the liquid.
I don't feel bad for anything I've put out,
I think I've definitely pushed myself
and I'm gonna keep pushing myself.
But, yeah, it sucks being down here.
Thank you, all. We'll call you back in a bit.
I'm sorry, boo.
We have a hard task.
We have to send an entire team home tonight.
On Robert and Sarah's dishes, we have two molds
that didn't turn out the way
they envisioned them, texturally.
GAIL: One was bouncy and stiff and one was loose and lumpy.
WILEY: And Sarah didn't seem like she had a ton
of experience with shellfish.
- I mean, she's-- - She's allergic to it.
She might have gotten in her own way a little bit
with trying to go into unfamiliar territory.
Just thinking of something that she could do that was round.
There was a lot of troubleshooting.
Jo and Evelyn seemed to be troubleshooting
to the very last minute.
They seemed like they never quite got it where they wanted,
and they were making these on the fly decisions.
They were trying to save the pork belly
to the last minute, and they knew that it was chewy.
Evelyn's dessert, although I wasn't a huge fan of it,
wasn't a major flaw.
I just personally thought there was too much sugar in it.
From a flavor standpoint, I actually would eat
Robert's dessert many times over before I ate Evelyn's.
The fact that it hit the plate at all
felt like such an accomplishment.
- Yeah. - Okay. I think we have
- our answer. Yes? - Yes.
Let's get them out here.
- Love you guys. - LUKE: Good luck, everyone.
You know, tonight's doppelganger challenge,
I thought, was a really excellent challenge.
It just causes you to think very differently about food.
But there was one thing that both teams had in common,
and that was you made mistakes in basic cooking.
And that's going to send one entire team home, tonight.
Padma?
Robert and Sarah.
Please pack your knives and go.
Thank you for the opportunity.
We'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen?
You sure will. Congrats, guys.
Thank you so much.
I love Sarah.
Like, we've formed such a bond together.
It's okay.
And I think we both feel like we let each other down.
Which is..
What's so hard about this whole situation.
- Oh, my God. - ROBERT: It's okay.
MONIQUE: Man, that's crazy.
I don't think this competition could,
you know, hack the iceberg that is my self-doubt,
but I've gained a lot from this experience
even in the short amount of time that I've been here.
I still have Last Chance Kitchen
and I'm going to keep going until they make me go home.
PADMA: Tonight, two chefs enter Last Chance Kitchen.
You're not seeing double.
PADMA: Robert and Sarah's textures fell flat.
That's your sea bass?
- SARAH: Yes. - Okay...
PADMA: Can they cook their way to a win without flipping out?
Find out now On Demand or wherever you stream Top Chef.
- Next time on Top Chef... - It's the barbecue challenge.
There's a reason why there are pit masters.
You don't mess with Texas.
Oh, my God, that looks beautiful!
- To the brisket gods. - Hey, chefs, how's it going?
Sons of bitches.
Twist!
- Let's get it. - There's a word for this.
- GAIL: Tell me. - Whelming.
LUKE: Turned out pretty well, yeah?
- JO: Yup. - This is a dish
that if you put this on a menu,
- this becomes a signature. - Yee haw!
I'm not that kind of Texan.
PADMA: We're gonna go take a nap now.
[laughter]