Guys, this is gonna be good.
This is exciting.
Yee-haw!
[Ted] There are three rounds.
The baskets will set the tone.
If you start wrong, it's gonna be difficult.
[Ted] To escape the chopping block, you have to be fast.
-10 seconds, let's go. -10 seconds.
[Ted] Smart.
I have some respect for what's happening over there.
[Ted] And confidant.
I feel great about it. This is something I would eat.
[Ted] If your dish doesn't cut it...
-Oh, my God! -Come on, chefs.
[Ted] You will be chopped.
[Jan] My vibe is very relaxed.
But every time I touch food, I wanna get better at it.
Mmm.
So creamy.
I'm the Chef-Owner of Jan Parker cookery in Tacoma, Washington.
My style of cooking is fresh and distinct Filipino food.
Hey, and we let this simmer.
When you get a plate of food from Jan Parker cookery,
you're basically being romanced by me.
It's definitely colorful, bright, aromatic.
I'm excited regardless if I win or not.
But I'm still gonna win. [chuckles]
I'm uber confident and I only come to win.
I'm the executive chef of Le Basque Catering
in Miami, Florida.
Every single day is a different idea.
Every day is a different challenge.
Every day is a different client.
Yeah, that'll work.
My style of cooking is traditional French.
I'm French to the bone.
But I love mixing it with Italian and new style of American.
This is how you sear a tilefish.
I came here to win, there's only one reason to come here.
And it is to win, that's the reason why you come to Chopped.
My mom taught me how to make arugula.
Just like her mom taught her.
I love to take classic Jewish-American food
like the kind my mom or my grandmother would've taught me.
I, kind of, put my own spin on it.
She taught me making, like, cranberry rugelach with candied orange.
She's just like, "What? That's not what goes into rugelach."
I am the chef and owner-operator of Babetown supper club
in New York City.
I've cooked in Michelin starred restaurants,
I've cooked for Jean-Georges.
I've cooked for the Breslin.
What's at stake? My dignity, my respect in this industry.
You know, if I crash and burn horribly, I would just hate
for other people to see that and be like, "What a mess."
I handle pressure very well. Every day, all day, in and out.
I'm traditionally French-trained with some new American influence.
Michelin-star restaurants, the high-end restaurants, fine dining.
My style of cooking is very product-forward.
It's gonna be super in your face
as far as the flavor goes because there's nothing to hide behind.
Think I'm the chef to beat 'cause I'm gonna be calm, cool, collected.
Till it needs to not be.
Welcome to Chopped, chefs.
-Good morning. -Thank you. Let's do it!
There will be three rounds.
Mandatory mystery ingredients for each course.
If your dish doesn't cut it,
you will be chopped.
Not today.
I wonder if you'll be happy with what's inside these.
Please open up your appetizer baskets.
[chuckles]
[chuckling] Oh, my gosh.
[Ted] And you're off to the races with kimchi fries.
Kimchi fries?
Kimchi fries, we got this, girl.
All right, kohlrabi.
[Ted] Kohlrabi.
Tequila brittle.
[Ted] And rock shrimp.
Oh, I love these.
Yeah.
[Ted] Just 20 minutes.
Clock starts now.
-Whoo! -Go, chefs.
Come on, come on.
Mark, you're joined by two special guest judges,
Chef Tiffany Derry and Chef Brooke Williamson.
Welcome Brooke and Tiffany.
[both] Thank you.
[Ted] So if I may ask the both of you,
what do you think is the most appealing
or, perhaps, appalling ingredient in this first basket?
[Tiffany] I mean, I think the kimchi fries
are both great and can also be the downfall
because obviously everything is cooked.
It's quite a few ingredients, quite a few flavors.
I think getting a composed dish
as an ingredient is always what plays with my head.
Layers of French fries with cheese sauce
and kimchi and scallions.
I think I would just concentrate on the kimchi,
'cause it's such a great flavor.
I love that fermented flavor.
You can make aiolis with it. You can do all sorts of great things with kimchi.
I feel good about the kimchi fries
because, A, I love potatoes, and B, I love kimchi.
Kimchi is a fermented cabbage.
And I got this deep desire to make a soup.
It looks like Jan's adding water
to the entire basket of French fries,
-with all the toppings on it. -Wow.
Jan, what are you making down there?
I'm making a potato kimchi soup.
I'm using the kimchi fries as the whole foundation for this soup
because potatoes are just a nice, warming thing to start out with
I mean, I think the first round really sets
the tone for the rest of the day, right?
You have a great first run,
-you go into the second run with confidence. -Yep.
This first run is very important.
Well, given these four ingredients,
I'm actually very confident.
Rock shrimp is one of my favorite crustaceans.
It's flavorful, it's delicious,
it tastes like little shrimp and little lobsters had a baby.
If you know how to use it, it'll come out delicious.
I'm making citrus-marinated rock shrimp
on a kimchi pancake with kohlrabi slaw.
I use the kimchi to marinate my shrimp in.
I wanna win this competition so badly.
My grandmother loved the show to her core.
And she's no longer with us. I lost her a little over a year ago.
So to win this for her will mean the world to me.
My mostly-served, very New American, Jewish-inspired food
and I'm thinking I can use these French fries.
The first thing that just comes to mind is the latke.
A latke is basically a very simple potato pancake.
Latkes are traditionally a staple of Hanukkah
but I make them all year long.
I have an event coming up called, "Latkes and Vodkas."
It's my biggest and bestest queer party of the year
and I probably have latkes on the mind.
Alex, how're you doing?
Really good. How are you doing?
Oh, good. See? She's fine.
[all laugh]
You're happy, you're very relaxed...
You got some good idea. What are you making?
I'm making a latke.
I'm gonna make a kimchi latke.
Just a little sauteed shrimp on top
and the kohlrabi.
I'll do like a little slaw. Little, brittle.
-Take your time. -That's delicious.
Take your time. We give you 20 minutes.
[chuckles]
I like the idea of using the potatoes for a latke.
[Tiffany] Yeah.
[Alex] I hope the kimchi will add some salt.
Guys, what I see Adam do right now is he's roasting peppers, right?
Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about this basket.
I think it's gonna lean into the dish that I wanna make.
Adam, what do you got going on over there?
I'm making a romesco, some toast, some pickled kohlrabi,
poached rock shrimp
and a little Tequila brittle crumble on top.
All right, not much time left. Hurry it up.
The romesco's gonna pack a lot of punch.
I think the flavors of the kimchi will play
really well with the roasted peppers and the almonds.
I grew up in a small county, Garrett County, Maryland.
Out in the middle of nowhere.
Coming from a small town, I think it's important that
it doesn't matter where you come from
and if you put in the work and put in the effort,
you can do anything you want.
[Jan] Rock shrimp are super tender and tiny.
And can deliver a lot of flavor.
I want to just keep it very simple.
I'm sauteeing it in olive oil
and also squeezing some lemon into the mix
with the kohlrabi.
-[Brooke] I love kohlrabi. -[Marc] It is great.
[Brooke] Kohlrabi is actually one of my favorite ingredients.
I love cooking it, I just love just, you know, putting it on the Mandolin.
-Making a little vinaigrette on it. -Yeah, beautiful.
-It's absolutely delicious. -[Brooke] Crisp,
pepper-y, radish-y.
The kohlrabi and rock shrimp are definitely going to add fresh bite to the soup.
All right, chefs, less than 10 minutes on that clock.
[Malcolm] I'm gonna make a kimchi potato cake
with a little bit of heavy cream.
Because I felt like it was the perfect vessel for my rock shrimp.
So, Malcolm went ahead and took the fries and...
-[Tiffany] Made a patty. -[Brooke] Interesting.
-Well, they look like latkes. -[Tiffany] They do.
-They look great actually. -[Brooke] They look delicious.
Beautiful little fritter.
I just love a sauteed shrimp,
but rock shrimp are very, very delicate.
You have to be really careful not to overcook them.
I toss the shrimp in cornstarch just to get it to crisp up.
[mumbling]
[Adam] Being based in Florida, I love working on fresh seafood.
It blends so well to my style.
Nice, simple, clean. I think these rock shrimp are gonna play out well for me.
[Tiffany] Y'all, Adam has not used two of the basket ingredients right now,
and it's six minutes on the clock.
[Adam] I'm poaching the rock shrimp
because they're such a delicate ingredient,
and I really don't wanna overcook them.
But 20 minutes goes by very quickly.
I look at the clock and I realize I'm cutting it pretty close.
I need to pickle this kohlrabi,
and I'm still not sure what to do with this Tequila brittle.
Sometimes you just open that basket,
and you have not much time to think about it.
And right out of the gate, if you start wrong, it's gonna be difficult.
You're gonna have a hard time making it to the end of the road.
Chefs, you've got five minutes to pull this off.
I'm gonna have to move really quick to get all this on the plate.
[clock ticking]
Behind you, Chef.
Chefs, you've got five minutes to pull this off.
[Adam] I'm gonna have to move really quick to get all this on the plate.
I think this dish has a nice acidic tone to it,
so I'm gonna pickle this kohlrabi.
Make a quick pickling liquid,
the champagne vinegar, some water, sugar, salt,
and I toss 'em right in.
So the only thing we haven't seen anyone use yet
is the Tequila brittle.
-I hope it's not just tossed on at the end. -[Brooke] Yeah.
And use a little bit as a garnish to sweeten the dish.
[Brooke] That's an ingredient that really needs to be integrated.
-I would put that in a vinaigrette of some sort. -[Tiffany] Yes.
Try to bring out some flavor,
it really doesn't have much tequila, though.
-It's just sweet. -[Tiffany] It's just sweet.
Yeah.
[Jan] I decided that I'm gonna use the tequila brittle
as part of the brulee toast
because the potato kimchi soup is very spicy,
salty and I just wanted something to offset all that.
Kohlrabi.
I'm gonna make a slaw,
'cause I feel like the best way to eat kohlrabi is raw.
The tequila brittle, I wanna use it two ways.
Definitely use it as like honey for my dressing,
and just as a garnish for some crunch.
Two minutes left.
[Ted] Two minutes left.
[Tiffany] Chef Alex, how we looking?
Really, really good.
-Living large, a little charged. -Living large, chilling.
I'm making a pickled kohlrabi slaw
to add some acidity to my latkes.
Tequila brittle, I'm just gonna use this
as sugar in my vinaigrette.
[Adam] Not a lot of time left on the clock.
And I don't know what I'm gonna do with this tequila brittle.
I thought it would play nicely into the romesco
but I forgot to put it in there, so we're gonna put it on top.
One minute, chefs. One minute to go.
Guys, Adam is still plating
and I'm not sure if he's gonna finish.
He seems to have a lot of work to do.
-I mean, at this point-- -[Marc] 40 seconds.
Come on, Adam. Let's get it on the plate.
I'm running out of time, I hear the judges yelling at me,
and I feel the anxiety and the pressure coming down on me.
[Marc] 35 seconds. That's not much time.
Time flies.
-Finishing touches. -[Marc] Let's go. Let's go.
Oh, my gosh. Those 20 minutes went by quickly, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one...
-Time's up. -[Brooke] Time's up, guys.
[Marc] Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
[applause]
-We made, like, the same thing. -I know.
We, kind of, went the same direction, didn't we?
-Great minds, sir, you know. -[Malcolm laughs]
I'm pretty happy with my dish.
Well, it's nerve-wracking 'cause Malcolm right next to me
did a very similar dish, so...
Definitely, I imagine, whichever one
of our two dishes is the superior one, is really gonna be judged.
My competitor to the left, we made almost identical dishes.
But I feel good. I mean, it's a dish I'm proud of.
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
For the appetizer round, we gave you kimchi fries,
kohlrabi, tequila brittle and rock shrimp.
First up, chef Jan, what have you made?
Today, I have made for you a spicy potato and kimchi soup,
garnished with citrus rock shrimp and kohlrabi.
And I also have a bruleed brioche toast
with the tequila brittle
and kohlrabi leaf
that you can wrap the brioche in
and dip into your soup and eat as a package.
Chef Jan,
I love the direction you went here.
It's comforting.
I just want a little bit more flavor in there.
Like I almost wish you would
amped up the spice, amped up the salt.
Maybe there was a little too much French fries in there.
They kind of dampened down the actual kimchi flavor.
I wish we had more kimchi in the pantry
that you could've added to this.
I think it would've really gone a long way.
But I really love the idea here.
The actual toast itself is a brittle,
it's my favorite part of the dish.
It's sweet, it's crunchy, it's salty.
I took your advice.
I wrapped my bread up and I dipped it in there.
And I liked that bite,
because it was a little more interesting
when you had everything together.
Thank you.
Chef Jan, thank you.
Next up, Chef Adam.
I made a kimchi romesco tartine
with lightly poached rock shrimp.
Some of the Kohlrabi bitter greens on top
and a quick pickle of kohlrabi as well
to accompany the shrimp.
A brittle is sprinkled on top
to lend a depth of the romesco with almonds.
You spent a lot of time on the romesco.
And, honestly, I wasn't sure that was gonna be your downfall.
Because, obviously, it took most of your time
and you didn't leave enough for plating.
And then you just kind of threw it all there.
But the romesco is delicious.
That romesco, to me, is the star of the show.
I'm glad the kimchi's in there.
It's nicely seasoned. It had some spice to it.
But I would've loved a little caramelization on the shrimp
rather than a poach.
Yeah, you definitely could've introduced more flavors into those shrimps.
Those shrimp are just a little bit bland.
And the brittle to me feels like an afterthought.
I don't know that the dish needs
the sweetness from the brittle to balance out anything else.
But the pickle on your kohlrabi is beautiful.
Thank you very much.
Chef Adam, thank you.
Chef Malcolm, please tell us what you've made.
I made a citrus-marinated rock shrimp.
With potato and kimchi pancake
and a kohlrabi slaw.
Wow, this is great.
I think this dish is really hitting all the notes.
I think where I'm liking it the most
is you added a lot of that slaw on top here
that had really brought a lot of freshness to this dish.
But texturally I think, the pancake,
I you could've gotten, I don't know,
-A little bit of better sear? -A little more of a crisp on it.
'Cause it's a little bit mash potato-ey.
The potato cake tastes...
nice. It's nicely seasoned.
But I agree, it needed a bit more of a sear.
And I think it comes off a little bit mushy to me.
I also think you've benefited from a sauce as well.
But the flavors are great.
Nice dish.
I love that you did something more to
the brittle to make it into a vinaigrette.
But there are pieces of my shrimp
where some are nicely cooked,
some are really overcooked.
But I think you did a really good job
of balancing flavors here.
Thank you, ma'am.
-Chef Malcolm, thank you. -Thank you.
Finally, Chef Alex.
Today, I made a kimchi potato latke.
There's a little sauteed shrimp on top
and a kohlrabi slaw
with a tequila brittle vinaigrette.
Chef Alex, there are a couple of things here that I'm really loving.
Your shrimp are cooked nicely.
-They're very flavorful. -Yeah.
Rock shrimp, favorite part of the dish.
I love the texture on the shrimp.
Love the crispiness on it.
They have, like, nice moisture
and what you're calling a kohlrabi slaw,
it's really beautifully pickled.
Um, the latke itself feels dried out.
It feels dense and like it's lacking moisture.
I have to agree, it's a little dry.
That is a problem.
It's very heavy, it's very dense.
And I think it's because you obviously started with fries
-that were already cooked. -Yeah.
And definitely, it needs a sauce.
This needs an aioli maybe or something.
It needs like a sour cream almost.
-Something would be great. -Something appropriate for a latke.
Chef Alex, thank you.
Thank you, guys.
Just as you're getting a sense of the Chopped kitchen,
one of you has to leave us.
My plating was not up to my standards, absolutely not.
Hopefully, that kimchi romesco can carry me to the second round.
I feel like I don't know where I'm going,
to be honest.
But if I do make it to the next round,
I'm definitely gonna just cook my heart out.
So... whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Alex...
you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Alex, French fries already being prepared
led to a really sort of dense and dry potato cake.
So, we had to chop you.
-Thank you, Chef. -Thank you.
Bye, guys.
I am feeling a little disappointed.
I think the clock got to me.
If I had a little more time, I like to think it would've been better.
Chef Jan, Chef Adam, Chef Malcolm,
second basket.
Check out your entree ingredients.
[laughs]
What is this?
[Ted] And the stars of this round are...
menudo.
I don't know. Oh, is that shrimp?
Oh, my gosh. It's heavy.
[Ted] Beef knuckle.
Oh, jeez.
Beef knuckle is a surprise.
We use this kind of meat in the Philippines.
[Ted] Sunchokes.
Sunchokes are gonna be nice, for sure.
[Ted] And banana soda.
Banana soda?
Wow.
Thirty minutes to do great things.
Time starts now.
Yes, go.
I'm excited.
Judges, menudo is a Mexican soup made with tripe,
also known as cow stomach.
Might not be everybody's first choice,
but how does it taste?
It's delicious.
You know, I grew up having menudo
really almost every other weekend.
A lot of times, they'll put pig feet in there
to really give it some body.
It usually has Guajillo chilies
to really, kind of, add some spice.
Obviously, you can do the broth.
Or you can do the menudo itself, which is the tripe.
I think the broth is probably where you gonna go with,
especially because you have the beef knuckle.
I thought Malcolm did a great job in the first round.
I was very impressed with his balance of a dish.
I have high hopes for him right now.
My wife loves menudo.
It's something that she's actually tried to get me to try.
I just never have.
But as soon as I see the beef knuckle,
I know I'm gonna have to grind it.
Oh, there we go.
Malcolm's got the grinder out, guys.
-Smart. -Malcolm's got the grinder.
I think he knows the ingredient.
And I think he knows what to do to it.
-That beef knuckle is very lean. -Yeah.
It's just the piece of meat that's near the knee.
It either cooks for a long time
or you're gonna have to get the grinder out.
I've worked with beef knuckle only once.
I've used it to make Bolognese
and that's exactly what I wanna do.
I'm making creamy polenta,
beef knuckle ragu and crispy sunchokes.
I'm gonna use this menudo and I'm only gonna use the broth
that I'm only gonna use it in my ragu.
The flavors are like a spicy tomato broth.
Malcolm is really building the flavor.
Making it to round two is definitely giving me a good feeling,
a little more confidence.
It's really important for me to add a little more spice
since they wanted a little more spice with kimchi and potato soup.
So I'm making curry katsu with aromatic rice,
a banana ketchup sauce, and sunchoke and jalapeno pickles.
I'm using my menudo soup and my banana soda
to make a banana ketchup.
Jan is taking a sauce from the menudo
and she's gonna take the banana soda
and almost make, like, the banana ketchup?
Smart idea.
-Philipi-- Yes. -Yeah.
Twenty minutes to go, chefs.
Hopefully, Adam concentrates more on
the ingredients in the basket
and can really tie them together.
I feel like out of the first round, I'm the underdog.
I think Jan and Malcolm both put up great dishes.
Judges loved them.
I think it's definitely for me to turn the heat up.
I think pasta is a great vessel
So I'm making a beef knuckle orecchiette
with a menudo and sunchoke cream sauce.
I'm excited for those sunchokes.
[Brooke] It's the actual root of the sunflower plant
that actually taste like an artichoke heart.
I'm using the sunchokes to make my cream base.
I'm using the tripe and the menudo
for my sauce to act almost as a thickener.
And then I blend it up.
[Malcolm] ... I can make delicious and make it fast.
And knew the ragu would be the perfect vessel for polenta.
I see that Malcolm is making the polenta.
And he's used some of the reduced banana soda in that.
That banana soda really tastes like fake banana flavor.
So, I think the challenge here is gonna be
using it enough so that we taste it,
but not so much so that it's all we taste.
Jan is just now opening up her beef knuckle.
[Jan] With the beef knuckle, I'm preparing the curry katsu.
Katsu is any type of protein that's covered in panko.
The thing that's motivating me is to know
that I represent a larger group.
I'm not only here to win, but I'm also here to let people know
that being a Filipino chef is totally acceptable, and we have the space.
All right, chefs, less than ten minutes on that clock.
I'm noticing this knuckle has a lot of tendon, sinew
and fatty particles around it,
so I'm, kind of, cleaning that up.
Try to do it on the bias to shorten those muscle fibers to keep the tenderness.
[Marc] It looks like Adam's got the pieces of his knuckle in that pan.
And it might be just going into the pasta.
I'm not sure.
[Brooke] That concerns me a little bit.
Yeah. Because you really need the beef to either be fully braised
-or quickly sauteed. -Or quickly cooked.
I'm gonna do my sunchokes two ways.
I'm gonna roast them with the juices from the menudo.
Second way is to fry them and make them crispy.
I feel very comfortable working with sunchokes.
Malcolm, how are you doing over there?
-Feel good. I feel good. -Yeah?
-Kitchen chaos is where I feel the most comfortable. -Yeah.
[Ted] Chefs, you've got five minutes, less than five,
to pull this off.
[Jan] I decide that I'm gonna pickle my sunchokes
because the dish is pretty heavy.
Pickling the sunchokes and adding the jalapeno for a little spiciness
will lend this dish a nice balance.
[Marc] Is that rice? Yeah, that's rice.
[Brooke] Jan just made steamed rice.
I have some respect for what's happening over there.
All right, chefs, less than two minutes to wrap it up here.
Let's go.
[Adam] I taste the banana soda. It's very sweet.
I'm thinking I can use this to rehydrate some golden raisins.
I want a nice acidic pop to finish off my pasta.
All right, chefs, one minute on the clock.
Let's go, Jan.
[Jan] I feel like I don't have enough time, and I'm like,
"Oh, my goodness." This is challenging.
[Marc] Let's not forget all four basket ingredients.
-[Ted] All right, chefs. -Thirty seconds.
[Ted] Thirty seconds to go, chefs.
[Marc] Adam had breadcrumbs toasting in the oven.
[Brooke] Did he not get it out of there?
-[Tiffany] He's gonna get it now. -[Brooke] Oh, God. Oh, God.
-Let's go! -Ten seconds.
-[Ted] Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
-Oh, my God! -That was awesome.
[Malcolm] I like my dish.
I don't love my dish, but I like it.
Beef knuckle was a really tough piece of meat.
That's what I was worried about.
Just getting enough flavor in there
in that short amount of time.
[Jan] I feel pretty good.
The adrenaline is probably talking,
but I feel like it's a pretty solid dish, and I feel happy about it.
Whatever way it goes, I'll have to accept it.
Chefs, your entree round ingredients,
menudo, sunchokes, beef knuckle and banana soda.
Chef Malcolm, what did you make?
I made a creamy polenta
with a spicy beef knuckle ragu
and crispy sunchokes on top.
Malcolm, you gave us a really delicious bowl of very comforting food.
This meat sauce is delicious.
It's heavily seasoned, it's spicy.
I mean, on its own, I think it's almost a little too spicy.
Yeah.
I mean, you are, like, on the verge of, like,
"Oh, snap. I'm choking."
-Okay. -But I think the polenta itself is very smooth.
In fact, I like the sweetness of it with the banana soda.
And when you have that bite together, it is delicious.
When you're eating it with the polenta, it balances out.
I think that the polenta could have probably been seasoned a little bit more.
Okay.
Your sunchoke chips are delicious.
I think I've picked them all off and eaten them.
I don't know that you needed the cannellini beans.
But I'm nitpicking. It's delicious.
Thank you, ma'am.
Chef, Malcolm, thank you.
-Thank you. -Next up is Chef Adam.
Today I made a beef knuckle orecchiette.
I rehydrated some golden raisins in the banana soda.
Used the sunchoke and the tripe soup
for a cream-based sauce.
I'm just gonna be honest.
I'm not really sure what I'm eating.
But I keep eating it.
And in my mind, conceptually,
this just doesn't really go together,
but it goes together.
I'm getting this flavor of the menudo coming through,
without being overpowering.
The knuckle itself is still tender.
The raisins are also, kind of, nice, too.
Yeah. I'm glad you like 'em.
[Brooke] I mean, I'm, kind of, on the same page here.
I'm like, is it mac and cheese, is it beef stroganoff?
It's none of those.
-Um-- -Delicious. It's just delicious.
-Go ahead and sell it. -Yeah.
The beef, I'm shocked it's not tough.
It's tender.
I'm not loving the consistency of that cream sauce
because I feel like the sunchokes weren't cooked enough,
and so they feel kind of grainy.
I think you're right about the little bit of a graininess.
Maybe the sunchokes needed to cook a little more.
But the little bits of beef knuckle
are just a nice little relief.
-Chef Adam, thank you. -Thank you.
Finally, Chef Jan.
What you have is a curry katsu
and the sauce is a banana-ketchup katsu sauce.
And you also have an aromatic rice
with ginger and orange.
Chef Jan, this is a really smart dish.
And I do feel like the banana soda makes sense in this sauce.
The menudo with the banana-ketchup even makes sense
'cause it's, like, slightly spicy,
and it's okay for it to be sweet,
because I know, traditionally, this sauce would be sweet.
My favorite part of this whole plate
is that little bite of sunchoke pickle.
It's bright, it's spicy, it's crunchy.
But I wish you had pounded this meat a little bit
or sliced it a little bit thinner.
It's still really tough.
My beef is not any pink inside.
So the beef knuckle really started to dry out.
We could not believe that you did that rice so quick, and it is so perfect.
I mean, it's just beautiful.
Yeah, I have to agree. I think the rice is absolutely perfect.
Very flavorful, very tasty.
This sauce, I do like it. It's very sweet.
Between the ketchup and the other things,
for me, I would have just liked
something a little bit more with a little bit more of a pop.
-Chef Jan, thank you. -Thank you.
Each of you had some highs and lows in that round.
Please give the judges time to discuss.
Thank you, chefs.
I'm a little concerned about some of the technical things that I experienced.
But I'm hoping that they are a little more curious
about what I can offer during the dessert round.
I'm thinking it's a very tight competition at the moment.
My entree, the judges were a little perplexed.
The sunchoke cream-based sauce really threw 'em.
I am absolutely unsure of what to think
about the judges' reaction at this point.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jan, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Jan, this was a tough and a challenging round.
You had your rice, which was perfectly cooked.
But the beef knuckle itself was tough, under seasoned
and just not the technique that we would expect to have.
And for those reasons, we had to chop you.
Thank you so much for that.
All in all, I'm happy with what I accomplished today.
I'm most proud about just representing women chefs and Filipino people.
That's pretty awesome in my book.
Chef Adam, Chef Malcolm, congratulations on making it this far.
But only one chef can go the distance.
Third basket is packed with some final surprises for you.
Check 'em out!
-I'm trying to figure out what it is. -A breakfast pizza, I guess.
[Ted] And you'll be making dessert with a bacon and pancake pizza,
macadamia nuts.
Macadamias. That's nice.
[Ted] Kiwis.
Kiwis. Yes, nice!
[Ted] And clotted cream.
Clotted cream. All right, that's easy.
I can do something with that for sure.
Half an hour to make something sweet and perfect with this basket.
Time starts now.
All right.
-All right, chefs. -Last round.
Guys, this is gonna be good. This is exciting.
Judges, pizza in the dessert basket, that's right.
It's a bacon and pancakes pizza.
-Who's responsible for this? -Marc.
-Yes, Marc. -No, no, it's not me.
I do not make any of these decisions.
It's a pizza. It's got pancakes on it
with little pats of butter.
And, of course, there's some bacon.
This breakfast pizza aside,
I don't know what the center of this dessert looks like.
I feel like they need to bake some kind of a cake.
-They need to bake something, they need to mix something. -Yeah.
-Because there's no substance to this basket for a dessert. -Yeah.
-I think you have to create
the centerpiece of this dessert.
I'm excited to see what Malcolm's gonna make.
Because the first two rounds, he's shown to be a very strong competitor.
-He seems to be able to take the basket... -Yeah.
...and understand it from the get go.
I won New York Post's Top 40 Best Desserts in America back in the day
so I'm very confident. I know what I'm doing.
-[Marc] Malcolm? -[Malcolm] Yes, sir.
What are you making for us?
I'm gonna do a classic white chocolate macadamia nut cookie,
vanilla creme anglaise, macerated kiwis.
And we'll do, like, a bacon crumble.
[Marc] Malcolm is making one of those classic cookies,
macadamia and white chocolate cookie.
It's wonderful. It's a genius move.
-These macadamia nuts, one of my favorite nuts. -[Brooke] Mm-hm.
I mean, they're... I think they're mostly grown in Hawaii.
-Very, sort of, a fatty-- -[Brooke] Yeah, delicious.
-It's considered, like, a very fatty nut. -[Brooke] Yeah.
[Malcolm] I think macadamia nuts are only meant to be put
in macadamia nut and white chocolate chip cookies.
I haven't seen them used anywhere else.
Chefs, 20 minutes left to get it done.
I mean, to me, the first two rounds were both led by Malcolm.
-Mm-hm. -So I think Adam has some catching up to do.
This is the opportunity now for Adam
to step it up and show what he really can do.
[Adam] Malcolm's brought out two strong courses so far,
I gotta really bring it with this dessert round.
I feel confident with desserts.
I help our pastry chef make good desserts
at our restaurant all the time.
I got this.
I think Adam is making a pate a choux.
Adam, what are you making for us?
I am gonna make a classic pate a choux puff.
I'm gonna dip that in some chocolate with bacon in it.
And then a kiwi syrup to, kind of, dip everything in at the end.
Okay.
[Adam] I love to eat pate a choux puffs.
They're absolutely delicious.
You can knock down twenty of those things without a problem.
To top off my puffs, I'm making a bacon and dark chocolate drizzle.
Chocolate lends really well to that porky flavor.
I think it will help, kind of, coat it and give it a nice crunch.
Chefs, less than 15 minutes to go here.
[Brooke] Clotted cream is basically a process
where they heat the cream, the fat rises to the top,
it lightly ferments.
And that thick layer is removed,
and that's what's used as clotted cream.
[Tiffany] Super high in fat.
I mean, as rich as butter, really.
So super thick, super delicious.
I'm using clotted cream to make a creme anglaise 'cause I feel like it works.
Our creme anglaise is a vanilla base thickened with egg yolks.
I decided I was gonna macerate my kiwi.
My kids love kiwis. We use them a lot at home.
I would be devastated not to win.
Grandmother loved this show to her core.
Now that I'm so close, I feel like I have to win.
[Adam] I'm frying these pate a choux
to give them a nice, crispy outside
with a nice, airy inside.
And then, with the kiwi, I'm making a syrup to go with my dessert.
It's taking a bit longer than I expected to fry these.
The thing with the choux dough,
it does have to one, brown on the outside,
but it has to cook the dough all the way through
on the inside as well.
I go to check on my puffs.
They still don't have the color that I'm looking for.
These are the base of my dish.
If these pate a choux puffs don't get cooked all the way through,
my dish is ruined.
If Adam doesn't get this pate a choux recipe perfect,
the whole dish is done.
Yeah. His entire future, sort of, lays in the wings of this dessert round.
[Adam] Come on.
All right, chefs, you're under the five-minute mark here.
Check on my pate a choux puffs, still not ready.
I decide to leave them in for a little bit longer.
I'm a little worried because his puffs are still in the fryer.
I think he's really trying to get a little bit more color on it.
[Adam] I'm using the clotted cream to make a whipped cream.
I'm hoping it will add a nice dipping component to my pate a choux puffs.
Two minutes, chefs. Coming up on two minutes.
I think this bacon and pancake pizza is kind of ridiculous.
I don't think it's a real thing.
I'm definitely gonna use the pancake and the bacon from this pizza,
so I know it'll lend itself to a good crumble.
Malcolm is taking the actual pancakes and the bacon
and putting them into the food processor.
[Malcolm] Crumble's gonna give a good smokiness and sweetness
and richness to the dish and add some texture.
[Ted] Chef Malcolm checking his cookies.
-They may be done. -Malcolm, how's your cookies looking?
They're good, they're soft. They're gonna be chewy, they're gonna be nice.
-[Marc] Love a chewy cookie. -Mm. I like chewy cookies.
[Adam] With the macadamia nuts,
I'm just trying to get a nice toast on those
so I can blend them up and then use it as a textural component on top.
I'm feeling the pressure a little bit.
I wanna win more than ever.
Everyone is Garrett County that's watching back home, in Western Maryland,
they would be so proud.
[Ted] Thirty seconds left, folks. Thirty seconds.
-Oh, 30 seconds. -[Marc] Thirty seconds.
[Tiffany] All right, guys, this is it.
Last moments. Make sure everything is the way you want it.
Guys, I don't know why Adam still has those puffs in the fryer still.
They're gonna get dried out.
-[Brooke] I don't understand that at all. -[Tiffany] Come on.
Come on. You gotta get it out, though.
[Adam] These pate a choux puffs
finally have the golden brown color that I was looking for.
Pull them out of the fryer, toss them in a little bit of sugar.
Let's go, chefs! You got this!
Wrap it up. Final seconds of the final round, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
-Time's up. -[Brooke] Whoo!
[Adam] I think it went pretty well actually.
The breakfast pizza was definitely, kind of, out of left field,
but I'm hoping that it can all carry through.
That was crazy. I had a lot of ideas,
but I'm happy with my dessert.
I like the flavors, I like the cookie, I like the crumble.
I like everything that I put on the dish.
Chef Malcolm and Chef Adam,
in your final basket, you found a bacon and pancake pizza,
kiwis, macadamia nuts and clotted cream.
-Chef Adam. -So today I made a classic pate a choux puff.
Topped them with a little bit of the bacon from the pancake pizza.
Chocolate, the toasted macadamia nuts for a little bit of crunch.
Clotted whipped cream on the side and a kiwi syrup.
Chef Adam, you have these pate a choux puffs.
We all thought you left them in the fryer for too long.
But they actually maintain a nice, crisp golden crunch on the outside,
and they're still soft in the center.
I think they're crispy. It's delicious.
I love the color. They're beautiful golden brown.
The macadamia nut is... Is nice.
It feels a bit like an afterthought,
like, just chopped up on top,
but I appreciate the flavor.
And I think that goes nicely with the chocolate and the clotted cream.
What feels disconnected to me is the kiwi.
It doesn't make sense with the chocolate.
For me, the problem is the bacon.
I feel like you should have cut it up smaller.
Because you're getting these big chunks of bacon,
and I would have liked it more dispersed.
Thank you, Chef Adam. Finally, Chef Malcolm.
Please tell us about your dessert.
I did a classic toasted macadamia white chocolate chip cookie
with macerated kiwis, clotted cream creme anglaise
and a bacon and pancake crumble.
Malcolm, the cookies, you know, when they came out of the oven,
they looked absolutely perfect.
The problem here is when you plated it.
When you put the kiwi on top of the cookie,
it created a very mushy cookie,
which changed everything.
Understood.
You had a really beautiful cookie here.
And I can tell that the edges were crispy.
And honestly, your macerated kiwi is delicious.
The mint in there, your flavors in that kiwi.
Really delicious. And it goes really nicely with the cookie.
But what we've now gotten is this pile of mush.
Yeah, I don't know what else to say.
I mean, I think the flavors are fantastic.
I love all of it. I love the bacon pop right there that's happening.
But when we talk about dishes really get affected by plating,
this is a very good example of that.
-[Ted] Chef Malcolm, thank you. -Thank you.
You both worked hard, but who has won?
We'll let you know soon. Thank you, chefs.
Judges, these chefs were thrown a lot of tough curveballs here.
Where to begin?
I guess we'll start from the beginning.
Malcolm, actually, right out of the gate, does a great job.
His potato cake, the way he balanced it
with that acidity on the kohlrabi slaw,
I thought his dish was, I mean, close to perfect.
There was a bit of a misstep with overcooked shrimp for me.
But he really showed an understanding
of how to manipulate those ingredients to make something delicious.
And then Adam, he did that dish with the romesco.
The romesco itself brought it together
and really allowed it to have some flavor.
But I really wish Adam had cooked his rock shrimp
a little bit better for his dish.
They needed more flavor.
Now, we're gonna have to look at the main course.
I thought that Malcolm used the basket ingredients the best.
Definitely best cooked of the knuckle.
I thought that was a very good dish.
I think we all missed an element of freshness in that plate,
but it was maybe the only thing we missed.
It had so much flavor.
And now, when we look at Adam's dish,
that dish just, sort of, sang to me. It was great.
I thought it was flavorful.
And I'm so happy that he used the raisins like he did,
with adding that banana soda,
to give it a little bit of sweetness to the dish.
-And the beef knuckle was tender. -[Brooke] Yeah.
I didn't have a lot of complaints,
other than the sauce, to me, felt a little bit grainy.
[Marc] Well, I really think we have to look at Malcolm here in the end,
because I think he was really ahead.
But do you think his dessert plating took him down?
I feel like compared to Adam, overall,
I made a very complete and cohesive dish every single round.
I think I 100% deserve to win.
[Adam] It was a great competition.
I think that Malcolm took the first round,
second round was super close.
So it could be anybody's game at this point.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Adam, you've been chopped.
Judges.
[Marc] Adam, this was difficult.
It comes down to a couple of little things.
And I think in your appetizer round, the shrimp were poached.
They needed a little bit more flavor.
And in the second course, we felt the sunchokes weren't quite cooked out enough
so it made the sauce a little bit grainy.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you, chefs.
This thing got away.
I wanted it, but I think I made Garrett County proud today.
So even a small-town kid can have big dreams.
And that means Chef Malcolm Prude, you are the Chopped champion.
Congratulations, sir.
-Whoo! -Congratulations.
I can't believe it. I'm just feeling overjoyed.
I'm thinking about my grandmother, you know.
-Aw. -[Malcolm] Uh, she loved the show more than life itself.
And she would be the happiest woman to see this.
It's a surreal moment.