-[Braunda Smith] Whoo-ee! -Show me the money.
This is the big one.
-[McKenna Shea] I am here to take it. -Cook, baby, cook.
Four ingredients. Make them the star.
[Jeromy "Jay" Wright] This is not basic at all, baby.
[Geoffrey Zakarian] They think they got it so down? They don't.
Well, that's terrifying.
-Tiny violins. -Hold your breath, light a candle, say a prayer.
-Whoo! -Ha! Let's go.
-Don't stop, baby. -I've never seen that. Ever. Oh, my gosh.
-You're real dark. -Don't touch.
Get the hell away from my food.
[Ted Allen] Are you all prepared for the pandemonium?
-[laughing] -Anyone else feel like they gotta puke?
[Braunda] I can chicken fry anything.
I am a chef owner of Lucy Cooper's Icehouse in San Antonio, Texas.
I serve crazy bar eclectic food.
Dirty, dirty little fish. You've been a bad, bad boy.
My food is Southern. It's Asian. It's weird, but it works.
[laughing] There's enough butter in there to choke a donkey. It's delicious.
I've got six kids.
That's what her nickname is. "Six".
This one.
I so wanna win for them. It would just mean the world.
And lemme tell you what. Bring it on.
Be prepared for your mind to be blown.
My name is Jeromy Wright. I'm a private chef from San Diego, California.
This is not basic at all, baby.
Ain't no shortcuts around here.
My style of cooking is elevated comfort food.
Lots of different textures, flavors.
Don't get no better than this.
I'm competing for my husband, my parents, my grandparents.
This is all for them.
I'm the full package. I'm disciplined, I'm creative, I look good. [laughing]
My secret weapon of being a chef is that aloha spirit.
Cha-cha-cha.
Ah-ah-ah. [laughing]
I'm the executive sous chef at Pacifico on the Beach, located in Maui, Hawaii.
This fish was just caught. Picked it up just about an hour ago.
With our fresh seafood, we do have a lot of Asian flavors woven throughout our menu.
I'm not afraid of flavors, bold seasoning, spices.
My office is the beach. It's paradise.
I can feel the salty air kind of breezing through our open kitchen.
I may live on island time, but in the kitchen, it's game time.
I'm French and fearless.
I'm chef owners at Camille Private Chef in Buffalo, New York.
Butter is better, baby.
My cooking style is rustic bistro with French infusion.
A lot of my training come from Paris. Those was cutthroat kitchens.
Some of them was Michelin star.
Oui. Come.
It takes guts to win Chopped. And I wanna crush it like my little baguette.
-Hi, chefs. -What's up?
-[Braunda] Hi, Ted. -You know, living the dream, right?
-[Jay] Oh, yeah. -Whose dream? Yours or ours?
'Cause ours is a nightmare right now.
-Tiny violins. -[all laughing]
Are you all prepared for the pandemonium?
-[Jay] Yes. -As prepared as I can be.
There are three rounds, mandatory mystery ingredients for each course.
If your dish doesn't cut it, you will be Chopped.
-Ohh. -Not today.
All right, time to get into your appetizer ingredients.
Open it up!
-[Jay] Oh, yeah. -Oh, Mylanta.
-[sighs] -[Braunda] Okay.
You've got an ube cheesecake.
Smells so damn good.
I don't know what in the fresh hell this is, but all right.
[Ted] There's also abalone.
That's, uh, ormeau in French.
[Ted] Upland cress.
And veggie crisps.
Well, that's terrifying.
[laughing]
20 minutes to make a delicious, beautiful first course.
Clock starts now.
-All right, chefs, let's go. Round one. -Let's go!
-Whoo! Round one. -Whoo! Whoo hoo!
Tiffani, Geoffrey, you are joined by a special guest judge:
cookbook author and James Beard Award winner, Chef JJ Johnson.
Welcome back, sir.
Thank you very much for having me.
-Yes. -At the block.
Chef JJ, what would you say is the biggest challenge right here, right now, for them?
I think right now is the abalone.
Many people don't work with it.
-It's a giant snail. -It's a giant snail.
You gotta pound it, you gotta fry it. You gotta do something to it.
[Tiffani Faison] There's a foot and an abductor muscle.
-[Geoffrey] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. -[Tiffani] And you have to get them both off the abalone.
Get these babies all cleaned up, and I'm gonna cut these babies up.
I know I have to get this abalone as tender as possible as quick as possible.
Get these babies pounded out.
And then I pound it out as thin as I can.
I cook a lotta Caesar salads. My favorite, actually.
-Hey, Chef Jay. What's the plan with the abalone? -What's up?
So I'm gonna fry these babies up.
-[Tiffani] Yep. -[Geoffrey] Yeah!
[Jay] Like a fried oyster.
-[JJ Johnson] Ohh. -Add a little fresh salad on the side.
I'm gonna crust it up with some of these crispies over here.
I use the veggie sticks to bread my abalone.
Bread it up good. Headed to the fryer.
As quick as possible.
[Geoffrey] Chef Jay got in the fryer first.
And how many fryers are here? One?
Uno.
Good luck, chefs.
It's just got to be very tender, right?
The abalones are as French as it can be.
I will eat these a lot growing up in France.
I'm going to have more flavors into the abalones if I saute them.
I'm making a sea abalone and mushrooms in a miso sake reduction,
with a ube cheesecake cream.
Chef Camille. You've worked with abalone before, I assume?
Yes.
You're comfortable?
Uh, as much as I can be, yes.
-[laughing] -Okay, fair.
[Camille Le Caer] I decide to use a miso and a sake,
because I love to experiment with different cuisine.
I'm a hunter for flavors. It's an approach you need to show that is like,
I'm not just centered on where I came from, but where I'm going.
Well, we're gonna see what these little slimy suckers do.
The thing that's giving me the most trouble is this abalone.
I literally do not know what to do with it. And I'm starting to sweat a little.
Good lord. I am shaking like a leaf.
But other than that, I feel great.
Chef Braunda. What's the plan with the abalone?
I, uh, I'm from Texas, so I'm gonna chicken fry these things.
-Chicken fried. [laughing] -Braunda is making chicken fried snail. This makes sense.
Honestly, I think it's a good plan.
Cross your fingers.
Do what you do best, girl. Chicken fry it.
I'm making chicken fried abalone.
I know I need to make a dredge for this abalone,
so I'm gonna use veggie sticks and some ube cheesecake.
I feel right at home making my dredge. I'm the queen of chicken fry.
Behind, behind, behind.
Who all's in the fryer?
Chef Jay's in the fryer. Chef Braunda's trying to get in the fryer.
Are you gonna need both baskets, mama?
I just need one.
So we have a fryer battle to worry about now.
This could result in some people not getting their abalone cooked.
This one's for Rachel Ray. One trip.
Being on Maui has changed me as a chef,
because it's kind of my coming of age period.
I finally feel comfortable in my own skin, and I have a really good grasp
on what I do well, and I'm here to bring it.
I'm making crispy abalone, bitter greens,
and ube cheesecake Nicoise dressing.
Whoo!
So my abalone is ready to fry, but there's already a line for the fryer.
Chef McKenna, what are you working on?
I've got my breading rolling and my salad dressing.
I'm gonna do a little nice bitter greens with some, uh, fried abalone on top.
I mean, I think a salad is a good idea, here.
Not enough people make salads. It's so strange.
Like, a beautifully composed salad will be great.
[McKenna] I'm gonna add this ube cheesecake to my salad dressing
to really help the creaminess go a little further.
Chefs, ten minutes to go. Halfway in.
Okay, let's go.
The ube cheesecake, ube is a Filipino yam. So it's a purple yam.
Any time you see purple in potatoes or yams, you have, like,
a really dense kind of starchy quality to it.
It's hard to transform it into something else.
[Camille] Ube cheesecake. Like, how am I gonna incorporate
that sweet flavors into that savory dish?
The ube cheesecake cream's going to be a counterpart of my sake reduction.
[Jay] I know my abalone's frying up good.
I know time is passing by and other people are having to utilize the fryer as well.
Just gotta get these in the fryer.
Jay, let me know when I can get in that fryer.
[Jay] Heard.
Time, guys? Time?
Chefs, less than five minutes left, here. Wrap it up.
[Braunda] That clock is tick, tick, tick, tick.
I've gotta get this in the fryer.
Chef, I'm gonna pull you. You're real dark.
No, no. Hold on. Don't touch.
-And Braunda's pulling his stuff up. -[both] Ohh.
-[Geoffrey] Sassy. -[both] Ohh.
I see her over there shaking my basket, and I tell her, hey,
get the hell away from my food.
I just kinda politely let him know, like, hey, buddy,
I don't know how dark you want this. Eh.
Here's what we don't do. We don't touch each other's food.
Like, if I need you out of the fryer, I'm gonna ask you to...
-You should have got in there before me. -[Braunda] Move over. Exactly.
I'm stressed.
Chef, I'm gonna pull you. You're real dark.
No, no. Hold on. Don't touch.
-We don't touch each other's food. -[Geoffrey] Yes.
I mean no harm. But it is what it is.
Fryer.
So I've only got five minutes left, and I still haven't fried my abalone.
Jay's in the fryer, Braunda's about to get in the fryer,
McKenna also wants to get in the fryer.
Whoo!
Definitely getting nervous.
I'm out of the fryer.
Thank you, fryer. Heard.
-Thank you, babe. -Sorry, right out of your way.
Uh, just an update. Braunda is now in the fryer, or her abalone is. Not her.
[all laughing]
Mama, how long you got in the fryer?
Probably two.
Two, heard.
[Camille] I wanna make a salad with a French endive.
To bring some bitterness to my sea abalone.
In a bowl, I mix my endive and Upland Cress.
Get out some frustrations.
And then I sprinkled, uh, my veggie croutons on top of my salad.
Fryer, please?
[Braunda] Pull it, babe.
Thank you, gorgeous.
Finally, the fryer opens up and I get my abalone in there as quick as I can.
[Ted] Coming up on two minutes, here, chefs.
Upland cress is interesting. It's hydroponic, so it grows water-only.
And it's got a little bit of a peppery flavor to it.
You know, it can be used as a component in a salad.
[Braunda] I'm using my Upland Cress for a salad,
because I feel like this dish is gonna need some brightness,
because that's heavy abalone.
I mix gochujang vinegar into the salad, 'cause I'm a spicy girl.
Oh, that's good.
[Jay] It's time for me to make the Caesar dressing.
I keep up my ube cheesecake. Gonna add some sweetness.
I'm gonna use my Upland watercress, radicchio,
and some parsley to really give my salad extra depth.
One minute to go, chefs.
[McKenna] All right, guys, this is it.
-Whoo! -[Geoffrey] Let's go, let's go.
[Tiffani] Here we go. Look at that.
[Geoffrey] 30 seconds.
-[Ted] 25 seconds, chefs. -First impressions count, everybody.
Don't stop, baby.
Hold your breath, light a candle, say a prayer, talk to Jesus.
All right, 20 minutes you will never get back, chefs.
-Whoo! -[all] Ten...
...nine, eight, seven...
-[Tiffani] Here we go. -...six, five, four, three, two, one.
-All right. -Time's up.
[Tiffani] There it is.
[Geoffrey] Literally, hands up.
-Whoo! -Everybody got something on their plate.
Good job. Good job.
Little shot for the nerves, guys. Cheers.
[Braunda] It's my first time working with abalone.
So I just put in my mind what I thought it would be.
I hope the judges like it. At least appreciate it.
[McKenna] The abalone was very intimidating.
I just had to treat it like a giant oyster. But honestly, I'm stoked.
That's what matters, you know? It brings me happiness, and I would eat it, so...
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
For the first round, we challenged you to make appetizers
using the ube cheesecake,
abalone, Upland Cress, and veggie crisps.
Let's start with you, Chef McKenna.
So for you today, chefs, I have a bitter green salad
with a ube cheesecake Nicoise dressing,
topped with a breaded abalone and veggie sticks.
As soon as I saw the ube cheesecake, I got really excited,
'cause it's quite a popular, uh, flavor on Maui.
So as soon as I saw that, I kinda felt at home.
-What took you to Maui? -Work, but also my boyfriend, he's a boating captain.
So we needed a bigger body of water to play around.
Uh, the prize money, if you were to win it?
I'm gonna put it towards a boat,
and sail off into the sunset with my hubby. [laughing]
Yes.
[Tiffani] Okay, I'm gonna start with, like, the Upland Cress.
I do think the addition of the parsley in here is really smart.
It links up with the cress, and those play really nicely together.
-The ube is in the dressing? -Yes, ma'am.
There's so little of it here, it's really hard to...
-Okay. -...parse that out.
Chef, it's good.
The abalone's tender. It's crusted well.
But I do want some more dressing to dip my abalone into.
Yeah, good idea.
The challenge at hand was met with success.
You got the abalone thin and crispy. Good job.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef McKenna. Chef Camille.
I made a sake wine reduction mushrooms with a abalone saute,
and then on the side, you have the greens.
[Geoffrey] You did a lot of work here.
It's almost like an ube beurre blanc.
I can forgive the veggie crisps on the plate as croutons.
I think we should have made that a bit more functional, instead of thrown on top.
Heard that.
I think unfortunately, I don't know how much abalone you cook,
this got, uh, too much cooked and it gets tough.
But it is really delicious. When you cut a thin piece, it's really very flavorful.
[JJ] I mean, the flavor's phenomenal. I like that acid in it.
The mushrooms are, are beautiful.
But I probably would have used a different mushroom that had a little bit more body.
I disagree. Use the bud mushrooms.
What I think is so smart is you found a vegetable
that kind of mimics the texture of the abalone,
which is with the bud mushrooms.
Just slice the abalone so thin
that I can't tell the difference between the mushrooms and the abalone.
Okay.
Thank you, Chef Camille. Next, Chef Braunda.
What have you made?
So I did a little take on chicken fried abalone with a little Korean salad.
[Tiffani] Chef Braunda, this is...
...really visually nice.
Using the veggie crisps in the breading makes a lot of sense.
The idea of like, bringing your Southern heritage into abalone, really smart.
The fry on the abalone's good.
I think it's about butchering, like, really slicing it thin, and getting a nice round.
Yeah, very few people know how to cook abalone. So overall, good flavor.
I think the crust is actually good. Salad dressing is good. It's a bit, like,
over the top with sriracha. I, I love sriracha, but, gently.
But I think the ube cheesecake smear underneath there is a nice touch.
I did get some sweetness.
So, uh, Chef, what is motivating you to compete here?
[Braunda] It's really big for me to show women that are like me,
who gave up everything to take care of kids and do that traditional route,
that there is a, a second part of your life that is fantastic.
Get to be a chef, I get to do what I love. And...
...if I can do it hey, y'all, anybody can.
And it's important. I don't think we talk about it a lot.
[Geoffrey] It's very important.
Thank you, Chef Braunda. Finally, Chef Jay.
So this is a crispy abalone on top of a, uh, Caesar market salad.
Are you competing for anyone here?
Uh, I'm competing for my husband.
Prize money would definitely go towards, uh, adoption for us.
Being a father for me is, like, a lifetime goal. So, uh, I'm living the dream.
[Tiffani] Jay, this is delicious.
-Thank you, Chef. -Um, this is unabashedly a salad.
It's not a salad as a garnish. And I love that.
I think using the ube as the base of your, like, Caesar is super, super smart.
I think the breading on the abalone is super successful
using the veggie sticks on here.
But I think you have to be careful of your cuts.
I mean, some of these abalone pieces are smaller than the others,
so there's a different cook and texture and toughness on 'em.
I do wanna say that I think all the judges just love this 'cause it's familiar.
The flavor's very familiar, so we kinda keep going back for seconds and thirds.
Yes, Chef.
[Ted] Chef Jay, thank you. All righty.
Unfortunately, someone's mistakes will cost them.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
All four of us kinda had a rough go of it.
It was definitely a wowzer basket.
And we all kinda stumbled on it.
[Jay] I actually am a little bit nervous about how my dish went,
but I am planning to bring the fire in round two.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Braunda, you've been chopped. Judges?
Chef Braunda, your spirit and your joy is just, like, oozing from you, we love that.
But your abalone wasn't pounded thinly enough, and so it was very tough to eat.
And so, we had to chop you.
Well, thank y'all. I appreciate it.
I have zero regrets today.
I am absolutely gonna go back to Texas and celebrate with my family.
'Cause just being here is a win, y'all.
Being here is the win.
Chef Camille, Chef McKenna, Chef Jay. Entree baskets.
Let's see what you got.
Oh, beautiful.
Nice.
And the mandatory ingredients for the entree round: iron eggs.
Chocolate covered eggs?
This is not chocolate. [laughing]
[Ted] Top sirloin cap.
Top sirloin.
[Ted] Lacy cauliflower.
Delicious.
[Ted] And spicy peach jam.
I can work with this.
30 minutes.
Clock starts now.
-[Jay] Let's go! -[Tiffani] All right, guys.
-Entree time. -Whoo!
[Geoffrey] This is a good one.
Judges, these iron eggs, a snack from Taiwan, look a little alarming.
But how did they get that way? And how do they taste?
They've been cooked in soy and Szechuan peppercorns.
-Black tea. -They've had... Tea. Black tea.
They've got a lot of flavor on the outside.
When you pick it up and you smell it, you can smell all of that flavor in there.
So you can do a lot of things with it. You could do gribiche.
-That's a great thought. -You could do a potato salad.
Potato salad, gribiche. You are an egg machine right now.
[laughing]
[Jay] What's up, chefs? How y'all doing?
-Good, good. -Wheels are spinning.
Yeah?
I'm definitely feeling more confident with this basket than the first.
The spicy peach jam kind of sets the tone,
and I know I wanna use gojuchang to kind of balance out
the spicy, sweet flavors I'm going for.
I'm making sweet and spicy glazed top sirloin cap with roasted potatoes,
with a Korean-inspired gribiche.
McKenna, what's happening?
I'm gonna go with a little bit of a kimchi gribiche.
I just said that. I just said something like that!
-Get outta my head. -Are you stir frying that steak?
Uh, no. I'm gonna give it a good render,
and then probably pop it in the oven to finish.
[Tiffani] Good thinking.
I think McKenna has actually one of the best stories
for what she's gonna do with the cash.
And we like it when people come with baller intentions with their money.
I'm gonna buy a boat.
[McKenna] So I see Chef Jay and Chef Camille,
and I know they're great chefs. You can just feel it being in the room with them.
But I know I've got what it takes to beat them.
-Camille. C a va? -Tres Bien.
-What are you making? -What I'm making?
-Yes. -Love.
Love, he says. Love.
There are sirloin. I'm going to butterfly it into smaller pieces.
For my entree, I'm making seared chopped sirloin
with iron eggs, mashed potatoes and sauteed lacy cauliflowers.
[Tiffani] I think this basket really plays to Camille's strengths.
You know, he's very traditional country French cooking.
-Oui. -So to get steak and cauliflower and a jam
that would go with, like, you know, cheese that you would find in France.
Living in, uh, don't mess it up town.
[Jay] This meat isn't ideal for short-term cooking, 'cause it's not as tender.
But I gotta do what I gotta do.
I'm making seared top sirloin cap on top of rice noodles
with spicy peach lime sauce.
I decided to use a meat that doesn't have any fat cap on.
It was just too much fat to cook the meat all the way through.
20 minutes left, chefs.
[McKenna] So I think I'm happy with the cook on my sirloin.
So I start glazing it with my spicy peach glaze with gojuchang.
This is a steak you can take to medium. After medium, it's gonna be super tough.
It's gonna be like those tires on the road.
A gribiche uses hard boiled eggs.
I think this is a perfect option for the iron egg.
Gribiche brings some creamy dipping sauce element to the plate.
For my mashed potatoes, I add the iron eggs,
and making sure I get that creamy texture.
Did Camille just add egg to potato?
[Geoffrey] Good idea.
Behind.
[Jay] I'm gonna make a sauce with this spicy peach jam.
I wanna add sriracha, fish sauce to the pan, really kick it up some.
The lacy cauliflower, I add some salt and pepper and some olive oil,
and I put it straight into the hot oven.
I look at lacy cauliflower more of a more subtle ingredient.
-[Tiffani] Mmm-hmm. -It's tender. It's soft. Um, like a baby cauliflower.
With my lacy cauliflower, I wanna pair it with my starch element for the plate.
I'm getting a real steak and potato vibe out of McKenna.
I think that's her jam.
[McKenna] Oh, I love that.
-[Tiffani] McKenna is roasting her steak. -[Geoffrey] Beautiful.
The tallow's just melting off of her steak.
And she's using that beef fat from one pan...
-[Geoffrey] There you go. -[Tiffani] ...to roast the potatoes in the other pan.
So I deglaze my caramelized onions with the spicy peach jam.
And then fold in the potatoes and my blanched cauliflower
to really meld all the flavors together.
Chefs, ten minutes left on the clock.
Ten minutes.
[Camille] I see the spicy peach jam, and I think to deglaze my cast iron.
I see the lacy cauliflowers, and I think to treat it like green beans,
and then just add some flavors, lemon zest and garlic.
And then salt them.
I grab my rice noodles, and they go straight into the boiling water.
All right, chefs, two minutes left to go, here.
Let's get it, baby.
Thankfully, this is coming together quick, 'cause I gotta get this plate together now.
I'm gonna toss my noodles into this peach jam,
just to get some more flavor into there.
Okay, chefs. Four ingredients. Make them the star.
Hawaiian salt for the win. Gotta finish strong.
-Let's go! -Let's focus in.
[Jay] I still have an iron egg that I need to use,
so I go ahead and grate it on top of the steak for some saltiness.
-Let's go, baby. -Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the plated, chefs.
-10 seconds! Let's go, Jay. -Ten, nine, eight...
-[Tiffani] Finish it up. -[McKenna] Here we go.
[Ted] ...seven, six...
-[Tiffani] Make 'em nice. There you go! -[Ted] Five, four,
-three, two, one, time's up! -[Tiffani] Whoo! Nice work, guys. Nice work.
Brava! Brava! Brava!
[Jay Wright] I feel great, just a lotta adrenaline still.
Also, just kinda worried how my steak went.
Probably not cooked as much as I wanted to, but it's in God's hands.
That was a whirlwind for sure. I'm exhausted right now.
I'm really happy with all the flavors on this dish.
I just wish I had a little more time for that steak.
I'm really nervous my meat's a little undercooked.
[clock ticking]
Chefs, you opened up your entree basket, and found iron eggs,
top sirloin cap, lacy cauliflower. and spicy peach jam.
Chef McKenna, let's start with you.
I've prepared a sweet and spicy glazed top sirloin
over roasted potatoes, and lacy cauliflower,
on top of a Korean- inspired gribiche.
Chef McKenna, I love how the potatoes are roasted.
I think that using the beef fat, the tallow, that's really, really smart.
And I think using the iron egg in the gribiche, super smart.
The steak is seasoned well, it has good flavor, but you left the fat cap on.
This is what it's all about, literally being able to render the fat all the way down.
Here, I can't eat this fat here. This is inedible.
My steak was great, I ate most of it, as you can see.
The potatoes are delicious, so, uh, really good use of the ingredients.
Thank you, Chef McKenna.
Next up, Chef Jay.
Judges, I have a seared top sirloin cap on top of rice noodles
with spicy peach and lime sauce.
Chef, when it comes to steak,
and how you cook it, to then how you slice it on the plate,
make a huge difference.
My steak is not cut against the grain.
When I'm slicing into the steak, it's super-tough,
but the steak is seasoned well.
And I think the highlight of your dish here is the sauce with the spicy peach jam.
[Geoffrey] It's a beautiful bowl.
The vinaigrette is good. The noodles are cooked properly.
But the steak is tough, so I think you got a little tripped up.
The iron egg, the way you grated it on top of the beef,
it visually looks like it should be peanuts, which is what I want on this dish.
But the thing I like the most about this is the lacy cauliflower.
It's so crispy and delicious.
And the peach jam sauce is so good.
All right, Chef Jay, thank you. Finally, Chef Camille.
I made a seared prime sirloin,
iron egg mashed potatoes, and sauteed cauliflower.
What inspired you to go this way, chef?
My appetite. Uh, I have to be honest, I'm hungry.
Uh, and definitely, it's like, it's... It's something that, uh,
that I like to do for myself.
And I have a background as a pastry chef,
and I think that background taught me how to infuse the creams, those elements,
and making sure, like, that the flavors is much inside.
Well, I think the plating has suffered. There's no room on this plate.
You need a big round dish, potato, cauliflower, steak. Sign the painting.
Uh, but what I taste is very good.
The egg in the potato is very interesting.
It's very, very tasty.
My steak is cooked well. I don't know about everybody else's.
I have so much unrendered fat on my steak.
-Um... -Me and you both, chef.
-It's a lot. -It's a lot.
When you have that much fat on a steak that you cut very thinly,
it's nearly impossible to get it rendered.
So, the butchery of the steak, I think, was incorrect for the cut.
I love the cauliflower, done very well, al dente. The potatoes are good.
But all this excessive amount of fat on my steak is very unappetizing.
Thank you, chef.
Okay, maybe your minds are already racing ahead,
wondering what might be in the dessert basked.
Very soon, two of you will find out.
I actually am a little bit nervous about how my dish went,
but even though I had some errors, I believe in myself.
I'm feelin' pretty confident, I am hoping to make it to the next round,
and taking a deeper breath than I have been all day,
but, you know, it's anybody's game.
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
The judges faced a tough call, but they have decided.
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jay, you've been Chopped.
Judges?
Chef Jay, the dish was great in certain elements.
But the steak was tough, the iron egg was an afterthought.
So, we had to chop you.
[Ted] Appreciate you being here, chef.
[Tiffani] We loved having you here. Good luck.
[Jay] Of course I'm a little sad, but I have gained a lot through this experience.
Next for me is just be stronger and better,
and whenever I get called again for the lights, you know, I'll be ready.
[Ted] Look at those game faces.
Chef McKenna, Chef Camille, your dessert baskets await you.
Go get 'em!
And you have worm salt...
Okay.
...Asian pears, Lambic beer...
Ah, I love this stuff. Oh, my gosh.
...and rainbow black and white cookies.
Not very French.
-It's a good basket, though. -It's not bad.
I can make it work.
Final half an hour on the clock... which starts now.
[Tiffani] All right, guys. Here we go!
-Whoo! -Sweet round.
Judges, the black and white cookie, a New York City classic.
Here we have a rainbow version.
[Tiffani] It's a metaphor.
-It is. -None of us are actually different,
Some of us are just rainbows, and some of us are black and white.
[Ted, Tiffani and JJ laughing]
[Camille] I'd really love to be a private chef, that's for sure.
I love the freedoms, and being able to be creative,
and work on something different everyday.
I want to do something special and different.
For my dessert, I'm making a vanilla pate a bombe brulee with poached pear.
Pate a bombe is like a sweet bearnaise sauce.
For the pate a bombe I grab a vanilla bean,
putting it in a pan with water and sugar,
and then I drop it off into my yolks, and whipped it inside the mixer.
I'm really excited to see what's gonna come
because Camille said, "I'm trained in pastry."
Both of these chefs are trained in pastry.
I'm gonna say a f... State a fact after being here 14 years,
the pastry chefs that get to the pastry round, never do well.
-[Ted] That's true. -It's a...
It's... It's just because they think they got it so down, they don't.
I wanna see what McKenna's doing with two stand mixers.
I've never seen that in doing this show for 14 years, ever!
[Tiffani] She's opening a cupcake shop.
Maybe she's a spokesperson.
[McKenna] I came in with a plan to make a pavlova.
I make pavlovas all the time, but typically, it takes 24 hours for them to dry out.
Never before have we seen two stand mixers.
-I hope you have a good reason for this because I mean... -I hope it turns out.
-[McKenna laughing] -So, what is it? What is it?
I'm gonna try for a 30-minute pavlova there, Geoffrey.
-Oh, my gosh! -What do we got?
Pavlova.
That's incredible. That's a hard dish.
[McKenna] For my dessert, I'm making an Asian pear framboise pavlova.
A pavlova is basically, a fantastic mound of meringue that you cook low and slow,
so the outside's cracked and the inside's still soft.
-I mean, how... How you do that? -Really smart.
-But ooh-ooh-eh... Hello? -[Tiffani] I know.
You have to dry it out. It's a slow, long bake.
-I know, I hear ya. I know. -That's two hours.
-[Tiffani] McKenna's flattening out her meringue... --[Geoffrey] Make some
-individual ones. -...which is gonna be a faster bake.
-That's actually... It could work. It actually could work. -It could work.
So, I just first came to do my best, and leave it all on the plate.
But now that I'm so close to $10,000, I want it way worse than I thought I did.
I am here to take it.
-How you going over there? -Good, you? How are you?
Good, good, good.
My meringue's looking good.
Chef's less than 20 minutes to go here.
I take the Asian pear, and the Lambic beer...
Opa!
...and create a compote for my pavlova.
Salute!
So, Lambic beer is... It's... It's got raspberry notes.
It's like a Belgian beer, it's a little bit yeasty, it's got a little funk to it.
I'm thinking I'm going to turn the Lambic beer into a coulis for my dessert.
Drop this inside.
I poach my pears into the Lambic beer sauce.
The coulis was all ready from the poaching juice, and then I add some worm salt.
The worm salt is dehydrated worms,
-actual worms, like in the garden. -[Tiffani] Correct.
-Yes. -Dried up, and ground, and mixed with salt.
Well, it's got a really, like, strong umami quality to it.
You know, when I think of dessert, I think a lotta people forget about salt.
-I mean, I think it's gonna be a great enhancer here. -Yep.
[Camille] I take the rainbow black and white cookies.
I am going to get the cookies into a smaller circle,
and use it as a base for my poached pear.
Ugh!
I have to use this worm salt somewhere,
and I think it would lend really nicely into the mascarpone whip,
and amp up the salinity of the cheese.
-[Geoffrey] Oh, she's checkin' the meringue. -[Ted] Oui.
-Oui. -[Geoffrey] She's checkin' the meringue right now.
The first time I check the meringue, it is not done, at all.
McKenna's praying that her meringue is gonna come done.
-I feel like she's getting a little worried. -Yes.
Come on.
I would not, in a million years, do a pavlova.
Cook, baby, cook!
[McKenna] I have everything riding on this pavlova, right now,
and I don't have a second game plan.
Everything's riding on these meringues.
[clock ticking]
All right, five minutes left to go, chefs.
Kay!
I would not, in a million years, do a pavlova.
[McKenna] Everything's riding on these meringues.
And I pray to the gods that this meringue gets a slight bit crispy.
She's gonna torch the top to push it.
You don't wanna torch egg whites.
Whoo-eee! Show me the money! Let's go.
Looking at the poached pear cake, it needs a creamy texture.
So, I'm making whipped cream because who doesn't like whipped cream?
Ha! Let's go.
And I zest some lemon into the whipped cream.
It's definitely not looking like any pavlova I've ever seen,
but I'm just proud that I have a meringue to plate.
30 seconds left, guys,
-30 seconds. Go McKenna. -[JJ] Come on! Come on! Come on!
-[Geoffrey] Come on, you got this! -Come on! Come on, McKenna!
[Tiffani] Fix that plate!
-[Ted] All right, chefs, final seconds... -[Geoffrey] Hold fast
-to the ingredients, please! I beg of you! -...of the final round, here!
-Ten, nine, eight, seven... -[Tiffani] All four guys, all four!
...six, five, four, three, two one.
-[Tiffani] Hands up! -Time is up!
-Whoa! -Ooh! Ooh-ooh-ooh-oh.
[judges clapping]
Congrats.
I'm feeling amazing. Just an amazing experience.
I'm tired. I le... I put it all out there.
I did my very best with a pretty tricky dish to create in 30 minutes.
So, I'm proud of myself.
[Ted] Chef Camille, and Chef McKenna,
for the final round we have you worm salt,
Asian pears, Lambic beer, and rainbow black and white cookies.
Chef Camille, what do we have?
This is a vanilla pate a bombe brulee uh, with a poached pear,
and a lemon zest whipped cream.
I really like the plating, beautiful.
But the creme is great, the sabayon is really good,
although, I think it should be a little cooked a bit more.
-A pate a bombe. -Well, sabayon, pate a bombe, whatever.
If you really cooked that longer, and really got it a little stiffer,
it would have been a more elegant dessert.
[Tiffani] I think the poach on the pears is great.
I think the worm salt in there helps give it a little bit a savoriness to the sweetness.
I love that you torched the sauce on top.
I love that it got like a little bit of, like,
a toasted marshmallow quality to it.
I think it adds depth.
When I get that sauce on the pear, and then I get it on the cookie
it's good, it's just a lotta sugar.
Understood.
Right, so the balance is kind of off, but overall, a really nice dish.
Thank you, Chef Camille. Finally, Chef McKenna.
I have made a Asian pear and framboise pavlova
with a mascarpone cream, and rainbow cookie crumble.
[Geoffrey] I wanna start,
just because I think pavlova's one a my favorite desserts in the world.
And the meringue, which a pavlova's made out of...
didn't work out.
But I love that you actually went for it.
I was, like, good for her!
I was, like, yes, come on. Maybe you know something I don't know.
But can't change the law of physics.
It's just... You need a couple hours to let it get real.
Chef McKenna, not a pavlova, not a problem.
There's a chewy, crispy quality to this that I keep going back for.
But the Lambic needed to be reduced a little bit more,
and have that be a little jammier.
So, that sits on mascarpone whip
in a way that feels more, um, intentional.
[JJ] The worm salt in here is amazing.
I love when I take bites through the mascarpone.
It's just so balanced, which is like really nice.
[McKenna] Thank you.
All right, judges have a lot to think over.
We'll call you back soon, chefs, thanks.
Well judges, they had 20 minutes to make appetizers with abalone. How'd that go?
Camille did this fricassee of abalone, and he made a cheesecake into a sauce.
-It was good, so we had a lotta good flavors. -Yep! Yeah.
And McKenna, you know, she came out very meek, a little salad.
Neck and neck between Camille and McKenna for the first round.
I think we were abalone-ly. It did not come through.
But I do think that their cooking blossomed on the next course.
-Mmm-hmm. -I think their main course...
For McKenna, that was her star of the day.
I thought the steak was pretty well cooked.
[Tiffani] For sure, her meat was underdone,
but I thought McKenna's sirloin was edible
in a way that I didn't really feel like Camille's was.
But also, I thought that the mashed potatoes
with the iron egg was inspired.
I'm still tryin' to understand why he plated it on that little, itty-bitty plate.
JJ, so is he.
Throughout three rounds today, we've gotten delicious food from both of these chefs.
-Yeah. -The question becomes which technical errors
are the ones that are gonna stick with us, and which are the ones we can forgive,
-and award $10,000 to. -That's a good point.
-We don't allow ties. -We sure don't.
But we know the winner.
Chef, uh, Geoffrey Zakarian was not too happy with my pavlova.
I don't like the concept of under delivering and overpromising.
So, I'm just hoping the flavors are enough to give the 10,000.
I'm feeling happy.
Uh, overall, it's been magnifique.
I wanna find out if I'm the next Chopped champion.
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Camille, you've been Chopped.
Judges?
[Geoffrey] Camille, um, you have passion, and you have great heart,
and it came out in the food,
I mean your first there's the beautiful mushroom gravy you made.
The second course, again, another rustic home run.
But the steak, you left some fat on it, and for those reasons, we had to chop you.
Thank you, Ted. Uh, chefs, thank you.
[all clapping]
I won't do anything differently. You get Chopped, you keep on going.
I'm only 29, the... The book is not finished to be wrote.
And that means, Chef McKenna Shea, you are the Chopped champion.
-Congratulations! -[Tiffani] Congrats! [all clapping]
-Nicely done. -Thank you. Thank you.
It's pretty surreal.
I came just wanting to do my best, and just to make it here.
And then, as the rounds grew, so did my taste for the $10,000.
-And I really did my best, so I'm really proud of myself. -[Tiffani] Good.
-You're gonna need a bigger boat. -That's amazing.
I'm gonna need a bigger boat.
I just won $10,000, and I'ma buy me a boat.
-Congratulations! -Yes!
Thank you, guys.