[Chris] I'm gonna say something I haven't said ever in 15 years.
If it's up to me, you're not getting chopped.
[Derek] I feel it, baby.
[Izz] The desert is full of tough people.
[Ashley] I go to my roots as deep as I possibly can.
[Tony] I try not to hem myself in by what people say you can't do.
What is he doing? What is he doing?
If it doesn't bring that heat,
I don't want it.
[Ted] So much chili smoke.
-[all coughing] -It's getting hard to breathe in here.
Holy hellfire.
I am good at this.
What they say in the Wild West is town's only big enough for one of us.
[Derek] I need a side of bone marrow, extra butter.
I am the chef-to-be in the Wild West
because I am wild and I can make anything out of anything.
Smells like cowboys.
I am the chef of Bacanora in Phoenix, Arizona.
Hey, I need queso asadero, stat!
We got the James Beard semi-finalists
for Best New Restaurant and the nomination for Best Chef Southwest.
Ooh, it's toasty.
So I usually cook open fire.
The smell of the smoke, the heat from the wood,
it's the desert, it's indigenous,
it's all the wonderful things of the Southwest.
Come and get it!
I am very competitive to the point my mother
has called me obnoxiously competitive.
Yeah, baby.
But I'm here to prove I'm the best chef in the Southwest.
I'm the executive chef of Rio Chama Steakhouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Come get a big ol' whiff of this.
Santa Fe is a huge foodie city.
Local cuisine is a lot of chili peppers, corn, elote,
and a mixture of what's grown in season.
My style of cooking is big, bold flavors.
I like to have fun, be a little creative with food where I can.
I don't care who they have out there.
I think I can beat anybody they put in front of me.
Whoo!
[upbeat music playing]
[Ashley] I love Southwest cuisine because it's indigenous,
it's Mexican, it's part of my roots.
Elk walking in.
I am chef de cuisine at IV by Brother Luck in Colorado Springs.
I have known I want to be a chef since
I was seven years old.
I love wild game.
My style of cooking is stick to your ribs, smoky, spicy.
-There we are. -Duck, elk, snake.
Bringing the heat.
As a Southwestern chef, I'm not afraid to get down and dirty.
Service.
That's that.
[Izz] Okay.
The desert is a tough place, and it's full of tough people.
And we eat like it.
My name is Izz Rivera.
I am the chef and owner of the shop Breakfast and Lunch,
and I'm from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I cook like I'm from New Mexico.
And since my parents are from Mexico,
a lot of my flavors come from Mexico as well.
That's just what I know and what I love.
I don't hold back when it comes to flavors.
It's gonna be intense.
It's gonna be bright, spicy, in all the right ways.
I'm in the perfect position to represent the Southwest
and to elevate what we do.
[Ted] Howdy, chefs.
-Hello. -Hello.
-Hey. -Welcome.
-Giddy up. -Giddy up.
Welcome to the Wild Wild West of
cooking competitions, anyway.
You all share a love of Southwestern cooking,
as do we.
And we can't wait to see you put your talents to work.
-You ready to go? -Let's go.
[Ted] Okay, first basket.
Open it up.
-Oh, man. -Oh, my God.
-What is happening here? -Let's go.
[Ted] You are looking at a three sisters casserole.
[Tony] Here we go.
[Ted] You also have nopales.
Ooh, okay.
[Ted] Fry bread.
Fry bread, yeah.
-[Ted] And quail. -Let's go.
Love me some quail.
[Ted] 20-minute appetizer round
starts now.
-All right, here we go. -Let's go.
-Woo, woo, woo, woo.
Chris, joining you on the panel for this special battle,
two great Southern chefs, Food Network star
Chef Eddie Jackson, and chef and cookbook author
Kelsey Barnard Clark. Welcome, y'all.
-[Eddie] Glad to be here as usual. -Glad to be here.
Judges, what are you looking for in a great Southwestern dish?
If it doesn't bring that heat on this table,
-I don't want it. -Behind.
I agree. I think of grilling, open fire cooking, smoke, char.
And I know you're a fan of fry bread, aren't you?
[Eddie] Love fried bread.
So many different cultures have this style of bread,
which is basically just flour, baking powder,
salt, and hot water.
Have fun.
I'm here to show the world what Southwestern cuisine can be.
Like, we can turn these humble ingredients
into something very, very special.
For my appetizer, I am making quail adovada
stuffed fry bread
with a grilled nopales pico de gallo.
Adovada is typically pork cooked down
in a red chili sauce with dried guajillos
and some chile de arbol.
But I'm using quail.
It could be a little spicy for these folks,
but this is how I would eat it,
and that's how I'm gonna serve it.
I am good at this.
I love quail.
Yeah.
It's very common where I am in the South.
At least you don't have to clean the buckshot out of these quail.
Been there, done that.
-[Chris] They're super lean, right? -Yeah.
[Chris] You want to add fat.
You want to cook the medium rare or medium, right?
-Yeah. -Exactly.
[Derek] Quail has a little bit of gaminess to it.
It tastes what a bird should taste like.
You want a nice hot pan. Get that caramelization going.
I'm making a roasted quail over a fried bread sauce
and then top a little bit of nopal salad.
Derek, you got quail on the grill over there?
Oh, yeah. Is there another way?
-[Eddie] I think that's smart. -[Kelsey] Smart.
[Eddie] 20 minutes, you're not going to get that much flavor.
-Marinating, you really need to get some char on it. -Yeah, I agree.
To get some flavor.
[Derek] We gonna see about that.
Ashley, what are you making?
I have a little bit of cardamom and some cloves,
and I'm marinating it into the quail.
For my appetizer, I'm making a spiced quail
with pickled nopales and Western caviar.
I get a good sear on the quail,
then I throw it in the oven to get more of a cook.
Right.
Western caviar, it's beans, it's corn, it's tomatoes,
it's squash.
So I just take the ingredients that's in this casserole
to a saute pan, get some heat onto it,
actually season it.
Three Sisters casserole, it's corn and squash and beans.
The Native American culture is very similar to
-how we say what grows together goes together. -Yeah.
Tony, how you looking?
I'm thinking some pantry quail with a nopales pico de gallo.
Behind, behind.
The quail has to be the star, so I get a marinade on this.
Quail with a mixture of ancho chili powder,
garlic powder, cumin, and oregano.
Ten minutes left on the clock, chefs. Halfway in.
[Kelsey] I tell you what, y'all, Tony's got his quail down.
It looks good.
Look, we're halfway through the round,
and this is the first cheese he's applying to any of his ingredients.
[Tony] Three sisters casserole is tough.
Trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with this thing.
I'm gonna put it into a food processor.
Add a little bit of lime juice,
a little bit of chicken stock.
That way I get a nice base for a sauce.
I'm gonna get these nopales going.
I'd like to show people that New Mexican cooking
can be more than just tacos, enchiladas, burritos.
I'm not quite sure on this yet.
I'm thinking maybe a sauce, but...
With the nopales, I want to make a pico de gallo.
But first things first, I want to make sure
I just blanch them just to get some of that slime off of them.
[Chris] The nopales, they're basically the paddles
of a prickly pear cactus.
They can be kind of like okra in terms of
-their consistency when they're cooked. -Yeah, slimy.
But you also don't have to cook them. You can't serve them raw.
Okay, here we go.
The nopales, I need to cook them hard and fast.
The longer they stay in a pan, the more slimy they get.
So I really want to get that char on them.
This is gonna be a pretty classic pico de gallo.
Onion, tomato, and a lot of acids.
Let's go, baby, let's go.
[indistinct conversation]
Derek, what are you making?
The fried bread and the top of the casserole.
Do a little, um, a bread sauce sort.
That's very smart play.
That's right, that's right, that's right.
A bread sauce, typical creamy sauce of olden days
where you have stale bread and you soak it in something.
I'm gonna use some cream and cheese to kind of loosen it up.
Next, I'm sauteing the Three Sisters casserole
with a little bit of brown butter and jalapenos.
[Ted] All right, Derek is taking his quail off the grill.
He's got a nice amount of time for that to rest.
[Kelsey] And now he's pouring
-something with jalapeno over the top. -Jalapeno butter.
That is a real smart move.
Okay.
Almost there, almost there, almost there.
-[Eddie] I'm liking what Ashley's doing right now. -[Kelsey] I agree.
[Eddie] She has that quail sitting in just a pool of just
fat basting and basting and basting.
I like that.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
Ashley, what are you making?
[Ashley] I'm going to pickle some of these nopales.
It's gonna be good.
I'm adding some fresh herbs, white wine vinegar,
and heirloom tomatoes.
How y'all feeling?
Terror, adrenaline, anxiety just swirling around.
I'm running out of time.
If I don't move quick, I'm not gonna get everything on the plate.
Six minutes, 30 seconds.
I was hoping to do more with the polis, but my original plan
to make a pico de gallo is not gonna work.
I know that they're gonna take long to treat.
I'm kind of stumped on the fry bread.
I'm feeling all the stress.
Behind you.
I'm going to time check.
Five minutes to go in this round, chefs.
-Five minutes, heard. -Heard that.
Trying to make it happen.
[Tony] The clock is not my friend.
If I don't move fast, I could be chopped.
I'm going to dress the nopales real simply,
just lime juice, salt, and pepper.
Now I have to figure out what to do with this fry bread.
So I cut it up and deep fry it to make croutons.
[Eddie] I'm not a fan of that. You go and deep fry it.
You're just adding more oil to it.
It used to be light and airy, and now it's going to maybe soak up all that oil.
Exactly.
[Derek] The nopales are going to add this perfect
refreshing element to this dish.
I dice up some red onion and cilantro
and toss that with a little bit of the nopales.
Three and a half minutes.
I'm ready, y'all. Where you guys at?
Guys, you only have three minutes left. Three minutes.
Behind, behind.
[Izz] Coming down behind.
[Ashley] I checked my quail, and it's looking real good,
but not really sure what to do with the fry bread.
It needs to be crispy on the outside, so I drop it in the fryer.
-Just under two minutes. -[Ashley] Two minutes heard.
[Chris] Start plating. If you haven't started plating,
it's going to go by very fast, chefs.
[Izz] So I grabbed the refried three sisters casserole.
I'm blending it. I'm seasoning it.
This is going to be like a Mexican torta.
You put refried beans and kind of use it
as a sauce on the bread.
-[Kelsey] All right, y'all. You got it. -[Eddie] Let's go.
[Ted] All right, this round is almost over, chefs.
Let's go, let's go.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four, three,
two,
one.
-Time's up. -Whoo, okay.
That's an impressive first round.
[Tony] This is easily the fastest 20 minutes of my life
and I'm wondering where all the time went.
But I feel really good with the ideas I came up with.
This doesn't make y'all proud at home.
I don't know what will.
I just wanted to do something like humble,
something that represented Albuquerque.
I feel like I did that.
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
For the first round of this Wild West competition,
you got a Three Sisters casserole,
nopales, fry bread, and quail.
Chef Derek, what do we have?
We got some roasted quail,
bread sauce made of fry bread
and the topping on the casserole with
a little nopales salad.
Derek, outstanding job on the cook of the quail.
I love the little bit of char that you get.
And then the nopales kind of lightens everything up.
So this seems like something I would get in
a Southwest restaurant.
We wanted to feel as if we could be sitting by a fire, right?
So you definitely achieved that.
I love also what you did with the fried bread
and also utilizing that Three Sisters casserole with
the topping to make the sauce.
[Chris] Yeah, I love the heat from the jalapeno that you're bringing here.
This is a good start if you had a few extra minutes.
You move forward, definitely seasoning and acid.
For sure. Thank you so much.
All right, Chef, what would it mean to you
to win this competition?
To win today would be awesome.
I'm the only person here from Arizona,
and it's a southwestern state.
So to be able to do that for Arizona here
at Chopped would be great.
Next up, Chef Tony.
Yeah, for you guys today, we have a spiced-rubbed quail
over a Three Sisters puree
with fried bread croutons and a nopales salad.
[Eddie] Tony.
Quail, perfectly done.
A nice sear on the outside.
You get some underlying notes of smokiness
from the chili and the cumin.
I think you nailed the three sisters casserole puree.
-Yeah. -It's got a little underlying note of sweetness
that I think really works against that spice rub again that you made.
Where I run into trouble is the salad.
It doesn't really read like a salad to me.
It's just chili and cactus.
And the fried bread croutons, I don't mind them so much,
but they're just really big.
-Thank you, chef. -[Kelsey] My issue is also the salad.
More acid, more salt all throughout.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Tony. Next up, Chef Ashley.
So this first course is
aromatic spiced quail.
And the bottom is calabacitas-style Western caviar.
And then just refried fried bread.
Just to get a little more crispiness.
Ashley, it's kind of astonishing that
you were able to get this amount of flavor in the quail
in such a short amount of time.
Those aromatic spices, it definitely works.
And the three sister casserole,
the amount of vinegar that you put inside of it
kind of transformed it into something else.
A little take on what we call cowboy caviar, western caviar.
[Eddie] Cowboy caviar, exactly.
It really plays nicely with those aromatic spices
-that you have going on in the quail. -Thank you.
My biggest thing, I actually think there still needs to be more acid.
But everything on here feels very cowboyish,
by a fire, give us a cup of something warm or whiskey.
-[all laughing] -I don't mind it.
[Chris] I mean, look, it's delicious.
My only issue with it is there's just so much butter
and also the deep fried bread.
You know, if you move forward, let's try to just balance out
-the fat and the lean on your plate. -Thank you.
[Ted] Finally, Chef Izz.
Today I made for you a quail adovada stuffed fry bread
with grilled nopal pico de gallo
and refried three-sister casserole.
-Where are you from, Chef? -Albuquerque, New Mexico.
More than anything, I wanted to represent where I'm from
and that I wanted to make humble food
eaten by people at home.
I feel really good that I did that here in this round.
I think that's a very interesting way
to use that casserole.
We all kind of were saying puree it
and make a sauce out of it.
And so I think the fact that you did that and you added
some heat to it was really the kicker there.
Izz, you nailed this challenge.
[Eddie] This is amazing gameplay.
I think you utilize each ingredient beautifully.
You got a heavy char on the outside of this fried bread.
But then you also fried the nopales.
Eating them and getting these pops of char,
it goes really good with those sweet tomatoes.
My only knock with this dish is because the fried bread is so big,
you need more of that quail.
Heard that.
I love the concept and the point of view of a sandwich.
This eats amazing.
I'm going to say something I haven't said ever in 15 years.
If it's up to me, you're not getting chopped this round.
Okay.
I'm just gonna save that in my brain
to hold on to that for a while.
That was a great first round. Unfortunately,
only three of you will get to make an entree.
I'm not overly confident by any means.
Definitely some improvements, obviously some seasoning.
I had it in my mind not to make it too spicy,
and then it was not spicy at all.
So that needs to be changed for the next round.
[Tony] At this moment, I'm feeling all the stress.
I'm a little worried about the nopales.
If I could have done a little more with them, five more minutes,
I would have been able to taste a little more
and add a little more to it.
But, you know, the clock is what it is.
So, whose ditch is on the chopping block?
[dramatic music playing]
[Ted] Chef Tony, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Tony, we thought that your quail was beautifully seasoned.
The downfall is that your nopales
wasn't really seasoned, and it wasn't really a salad.
And so we had to chop you.
[Tony] Well, you never want to be the first.
It's a little bit of a tough pill to swallow,
but at the end of the day, like, I know at least
I put out a good effort, and I put out a strong showing.
Chef Derek, Chef Ashley, Chef Izz,
are you ready for round two?
-Let's go. -I'm ready.
Giddy up.
Time to take that basket by the horns.
Check out your ingredients.
-Ooh. -Hell, yeah.
Okay.
[Ted] What you're looking at is elk tenderloin.
Yes, please.
Now this is a beautiful sight to see.
[Ted] Chile ristras.
-Tamales. -[Ted] Cheese tamales.
-Gorgeous. -Tamales.
-Ah, prickly pear. -[Ted] And prickly pear.
There's a lot I can do with this.
The judges are expecting entrees in 30 minutes.
-Clock starts now. -[Kelsey] Hey, let's go.
Really love this basket.
I especially love the elk tenderloin.
I mean, that's a gift.
[Chris] Very, very lean, and you want to be very, very careful
not to overcook it.
Medium rare, medium at most.
[Kelsey] We saw perfect cooking from the proteins in this first round.
-Like, I'm expecting that in the second round. -Yeah.
But what can they do with the prickly pear?
-What can they do with the tamales? -Yeah.
[Ashley] Elk tenderloin, it's definitely been
part of my menu. I know how to break it down.
This is going to be easy.
I'm making a seared elk tenderloin,
a tamale fritter, elk demi-glace,
and a prickly pear gel.
Okay.
I'm waiting to cook these because it's something
that doesn't need to be cooked well done.
This demi-glace sauce is going to add
a punch of flavor to the elk tenderloin.
It's going to be rich.
I'm adding elk tenderloin, carrot, tomato paste,
my chilies, of course.
[Chris] Chili ristras is basically a wreath of hatch chili.
Do get a little bit of spice, but I think the beauty of it
has this smokiness.
Oh, those chilies.
Let's go, baby. Let's go.
I'm feeling like I set the bar pretty high
in the appetizer round, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I am crusting this elk tenderloin
with a coffee chili rub.
Izz, you seem pretty excited with those ingredients. What you doing?
[Izz] I'm doing a chili rub on my elk
and cheese tamale polenta situation.
Tamales and polenta, they're essentially both
dried corn products.
And I add that mascarpone just to give it a little bit
more body and a little bit more richness.
We have an interesting dynamic is crush the first round,
but that we all have really high expectations
-for him now, too, right? -Yeah.
[Kelsey] Although Ashley and Derek, their cooking was strong,
and that shows a lot of promise.
[Derek] Because of how well Izz did in the first round,
I need to step it up and really show them what I got.
All right.
I'm making seared elk tenderloin over
a roasted poblano tamale pudding.
-So what do y'all think about Derek grilling his elk whole? -I like this.
-And not breaking it down. -He's basically basting it whole now
with jalapeno butter.
I think it looks really beautiful.
All right, just 15 minutes on the clock.
Heard.
[Eddie] Prickly pear has a very watered down,
like watermelon kind of a flavor.
[Kelsey] It lacks the sweet and the acid that
a traditional fruit would.
Red wine vinegar would even be wonderful with that.
[Ashley] I'm adding gelatin sheets to the prickly pear.
This is going to add the acidity that Chef Kelsey
was asking in the last round.
Tamales are steamed masa.
It's corn flour, and it's stuffed with cheese.
First, I get started on breaking down the tamales,
getting the masa so I can make a new dough out of it.
Ashley, what is that that you put in the pan?
-Kind of like a tamale fritter. -Tamale fritter.
-[Ashley] Great. -Looks great.
-Sauce, too. -Yeah, let's keeps them cooked.
Have we seen Ashley cook her elk yet?
[Ted] It's not cooked, and we are under eight minutes.
[Kelsey] I am very concerned.
At this point, I would want my elk to be resting.
[Ashley] I want the cook on this elk to be medium rare.
Okay.
So I get a good sear on it. I add in my butter.
But I cut these things huge.
Come on, guys. Come on.
I underestimated my time.
I should have put them in the oven,
like I did the quail in the last round.
Keep going.
[Kelsey] All right, so Izz has pureed this prickly pear,
strained it, and he has, like, a juice.
It's beautiful.
[Izz] I really want to showcase what a prickly pear is all about.
Got a lot of brightness, sweetness,
and it definitely lends itself to a vinaigrette.
But it needs just a little more depth,
so just whisk in some Dijon mustard.
Let's go just like that.
[Eddie] Derek's beautiful dish in the first round,
but everything was lacking seasoning.
So I want to see him bring that seasoning in this round.
The soft macha is going to accompany the elk beautifully
because the elk has a natural sweetness to it.
The chilies are working. Yes, they are.
Salsa macha is an oil-based salsa seasoned
with chilies and some sort of nut or seed.
-It's gonna be cashews. -Ooh, those chilies are nice.
As I'm toasting the chilies, there's a good bit of smoke.
My nose hurts.
[all coughing]
-Wow. -It's getting hard to breathe in here
with so much chili smoke in the air.
We're bringing the smoke, as you can tell.
Breathe it in.
[Chris] This is a first in Chopped history I think,
we can't even get the... [coughs] Can't even get our words out.
[Derek] If you can't handle the heat,
then you don't belong in the West.
I feel it, baby.
Five minutes, chefs, five.
Heard, five.
[grunts] All right.
-Derek, I'm watching him move around. -For sure.
-He's making smart choices. -[Chris] Yeah, you know what?
-He's making a salad. -[Kelsey] I love that.
[Chris] And there's herbs in the salad,
but he chopped everything up, including the stems, and I love that move.
[Derek] The prickly pear has the most berry-like flavor to it.
I throw it in the pan with some sherry vinegar
and a little bit of apricot jam as well.
I'm going to strain all those seeds out.
He's got his hot prickly pear,
-so it's going to be like a wilted salad. -I love it.
-I love that.
Oh, this is good.
Izz, is your elk in the oven or resting?
Yeah, resting. Come on, I'm a professional.
[all] Oh!
[Kelsey] Shots fired.
[Chris] Ashley's tenderloin is still in the pan.
We have one minute to go.
Go, Ashley!
-Chefs, how are you guys feeling? -Feeling hot.
-We're getting there. -Definitely.
-Let's go, everybody. -[Kelsey] Finishing touches.
Oh, wow.
[Ted] All right, chefs, this round will be over in
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three,
two, one.
-Time's up. -Wow.
-Great job, Chef. -[Kelsey] Nice, y'all.
-[Ted] Great job. -[Kelsey] That was fun to watch.
Never thought I could make a demi in 30 minutes.
I think it went great. Don't tell anybody.
[Izz] I'm a little worried. I absolutely feel pressure.
The weight of a whole region on my shoulders,
and I just want to pay service and respect the ingredients.
Hopefully, I'm the guy to do it.
Chefs, we challenge you to make main dishes
with elk tenderloin, chile ristras,
cheese tamales, and prickly pear.
All right, Chef Derek, please tell us about your dish.
Okie dokie.
I've made a seared elk tenderloin
sitting over a pudding, essentially,
of a mixed up tamale with some burnt poblanos.
And there's a salad tossed in a prickly pear vinaigrette.
Derek, nothing that's on this plate seems like an afterthought.
The elk, the rub on the outside is spot on.
The cook is about as good as you can get.
The pudding that you have doesn't lend any heat
because the heat is coming from the salsa macha,
and they work beautifully together.
The pudding on the bottom, it tastes like masa,
but then you have this herbaceousness to it.
That prickly pear you made into a vinaigrette,
that was really smart.
-Beautiful job. -Thank you so much.
[Chris] Yeah, I am...
This is outstanding.
The heat with these chilies is just perfect.
I mean, I've got a large pool of oil at the bottom of my plate,
but the balance between cool and hot is delicious.
So you definitely nailed the Southwest feel for me.
Thanks so much.
Next up, Chef Izz.
So we have a coffee and chili crusted elk tenderloin
on a tamale polenta and a salad with
a prickly pear vinaigrette.
[Eddie] You got the skills, man.
I'm really digging this coffee rub that
you have on the outside of that elk.
It gives it a really deep, like, smoky char flavor.
And then you get that sweetness from the inside.
That just kind of almost brought me back to
my childhood eating this, right?
The thing that I'm missing is the chili.
Okay.
[Kelsey] When you have that molasses, brown sugar with
an already smoked chili with coffee, it just goes better.
It's not unpleasant, though. It's just lacking a little.
[Chris] I love what you did with the tamale.
It's creamy, it's unctuous. It's a great foil for
this prickly pear vinaigrette you made, which is outstanding.
[Ted] Thoughts on what you might do with
the prize money should you win?
Um, I've been really focusing in my career to not only be
a good chef, but I want to be a great leader.
I know in my career, my biggest learning opportunities
have been stepping outside of New Mexico
and just eating different cultures.
I want to take the whole staff on a vacation,
and I want to give that to them.
Thank you, Chef Izz.
Finally, Chef Ashley.
So we have a seared elk tenderloin,
a fritter that I made from the tamales.
The chilies is in the demi-glace
and prickly pear gel.
Ashley, the very strongest part of this dish is the sauce.
Very velvety.
The flavor is there, the salt.
I wouldn't necessarily say this is a fritter, but I like it.
You're calling it a fritter, but it is like polenta.
It's really silky and smooth. It's delicious.
I have a beautifully cooked piece of elk in front of me, so thank you.
The prickly pear sauce tastes good.
It just seems a little out of place for me.
-But overall, I love this dish. -Thank you.
The seasoning on the tenderloin,
I think, is really, really good.
As you can see, my tenderloin is under.
I think the thing that brings everything together
is this demi that you have.
Seems like you have more than 30 minutes.
Chef Ashley, if you were to go on and win this thing,
you'd get a prize.
Any thoughts on what you might do with that?
The prize money would go to my family
because they are my biggest supporters.
I would not be standing here today if I didn't have them.
Chef Ashley, thank you.
[dramatic music playing]
[Ashley] They love the ingredients and the flavor profiles,
but the cook on my elk was way underdone.
I should have started it a lot earlier.
[Izz] I think maybe it's between me and Ashley.
The type of rub I used kind of lended itself to be
a little too bitter, so I hope that doesn't send me packing.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Ashley, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Ashley, the seasoning on the elk tenderloin was perfect.
Unfortunately, you severely undercooked the elk,
and the prickly pear gel just didn't seem to have
a place on the plate,
and so we had to chop you.
Heard.
Thank you.
My family is definitely gonna be proud of me.
They've told me a million times,
get Chopped the first round or win.
They're gonna be very proud.
Chef Derek, Chef Izz, any words of wisdom
or warning for each other?
It's high noon, and I'm ready for a duel.
I'm your huckleberry.
[Ted] All right.
Let's see what you've got for this Wild West dessert round.
Let's see those ingredients.
[laughs]
You've got white chocolate chips.
[Izz] Cool. Great.
-Ruby red grapefruit. -Delicious-looking grapefruit.
Absolutely loves that.
-Mesquite flower. -Mesquite flower?
-Okay. -What in the hellfire?
And I spy more cacti
cactus macarons.
[Izz] Okay. I have no idea what that is.
-This is... -It's a good one.
[Ted] 30 minutes to whip up exquisite desserts.
Clock starts now.
I feel it, baby.
Behind you.
-[Chris] This is a special, special dessert round. -[Kelsey] Yeah.
These two guys have been just crushing it all day.
[Kelsey] They both are from the Southwest,
but so different, their takes on it, right?
-Which I love that. -Arizona versus New Mexico.
I think this is very much a head-to-head battle.
What they say in the Wild West,
-this town's only big enough for one of us. -Yeah.
[all laughing]
Mesquite flour is the pod from the mesquite tree.
It's toasted, dried, and then ground up into
a very fine powder.
Almost warm spice vibes.
Hey, Derek, what we make?
We're gonna do a little Western clafoutis.
Mesquite's gonna go great in this.
[Kelsey] Oh, that is smart.
[Chris] Clafoutis is like an egg custard.
I love clafoutis.
[Derek] The clafoutis is a baked custard cake
with fruits in it.
I'm going to use these wonderful dates.
While I'm making the clafoutis,
I'm trying to figure out what to do with the cactus macarons.
I have no idea where they're going.
I'm feeling the most pressure in this round.
If I were to win today, I would find myself on
a vacation or an adventure with my wife,
having fun and getting into shenanigans.
I want more smokiness in the clafoutis.
So I go and grab some sweet blue chips.
Chillin', baby. Chillin'.
He just basically burnt that mesquite and put it right in the oven,
so it's smoking in the oven right now.
-Really cool. -Wow.
-I haven't seen that done yet. -Oh, that smells good.
[Izz] I haven't been playing it safe this whole time.
My food is a lot like me.
It's strong, it's in your face,
and I'm not holding back.
Izz, what's going on, my man?
I'm making a buttermilk biscuit with some of that
mesquite flour and white chocolate.
I make regular buttermilk biscuits
every day at my restaurant, so I'm going to have
to make this more of a dessert biscuit.
I mix regular flour with mesquite flour,
cold butter, buttermilk, and I'm going to add
the white chocolate chips for some sweetness.
[Kelsey] I'm also concerned about the 50-50 AP to mesquite.
-That mesquite flour is wetter and denser than AP. -[Chris] Yeah.
And you definitely want a dry, light flour for a biscuit.
All right, chefs, 20 minutes on the clock.
[Chris] White chocolate, of course, isn't chocolate, right?
It's basically cocoa butter and vanilla and sugar.
-Very, very, like, sweet. -Yeah.
So you really want to pair that with something that's kind of tart.
I think the grapefruit is something that could work
really well with it.
But the thing about these ruby reds
are that they're not as bitter as a regular grapefruit,
-but they're perfect for a dessert. -Yep, yep.
[Derek] Grapefruit and white chocolate, they're not friends.
They don't go together.
But today, they're going to play together.
I start with some heavy whipping cream
with some vanilla and grapefruit juice.
And then I add my white chocolate ganache.
[Ted] Nice vanilla whipped cream.
[Chris] I like the plain vanilla because there's a lot of
vanilla in the white chocolate.
-There's a lot of vanilla in the macaroon. -[Kelsey] Right.
And I love cream with grapefruit.
It just, it's so tart.
[indistinct chatter]
[Derek] I'm making candied grapefruit peel with some tequila,
agave, and a little bit of water.
[exclaims]
[Izz] I want to make a tequila grapefruit jam,
so I cook the grapefruit down,
and tequila is going to bring another depth of flavor to it.
And then I add a touch of apricot jam.
I blend it. It really gives me that thickness
that I'm looking for.
I'm checking my biscuits, and I'm immediately hit with,
like, a smoky smell.
And that's, that's bad.
-Is that color because of the flour? -That's burnt, I think.
Uh-oh.
[Izz] I didn't come this far to be taken out by burnt biscuits.
It's something I do every day.
This is the first time today where Izz seems
a little bit flustered.
[Izz] I have to nail this dessert, or I'm going home.
Behind you.
[Izz] I'm checking my biscuits, and I look at the inside.
They're all the way done, but they're not burned.
So while I'm relieved, I'm still worried
I used too much mesquite flour.
Chef, less than five minutes to finish this up.
Groovy.
What are you?
[Kelsey] The thing I love about macaroons is
they're crunchy and chewy at the same time.
I think maybe not overcomplicating that ingredient
-[Eddie] Yeah. -might be the best route.
Coming now.
Derek's going on the blast chiller with his clafoutis.
He's looking good.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
[Izz] I pull the macarons out of the oven.
I get them and my graham crackers
into a food processor.
I blitz it.
The taste of the macarons is not overpowering.
[Derek] These damn macarons just don't belong anywhere.
And I throw them in the food processor.
What is Derek doing out with the macaron?
-[Kelsey] I have no idea. -[Eddie] It looks electric.
He's putting it on a sheet tray, I guess, going in the oven.
I'm a little nervous for Derek, for real.
Where's his clafoutis?
[Chris] I think it's in the blast chiller still.
[exclaims]
Come on, Derek.
[Izz] I'm going to use the white chocolate to add
a glaze over the top of my biscuit with lime zest.
-One minute on the clock, folks. -All right, y'all.
-[Eddie] Let's go. -[Kelsey] You got it. Put your spurs on.
[Ted] Get it done. Get it done.
Here we go, chefs. Final seconds of the final round.
10, nine, eight,
-seven... -Let's go, let's go.
Six, five, four, three
two, one.
-Time's up. -[all clapping]
[Derek] I'm worried about the clafoutis.
It is too warm with this sauce.
It's gonna come off a little bit looking like
some sort of clafoutis soup.
[Izz] I definitely overdid the char on the outside of the biscuits,
but hopefully did all right with the other ingredients.
Chef Derek and Chef Izz, you pulled together desserts
with white chocolate chips, ruby red grapefruit,
mesquite flour, and cactus macarons.
So what's for dessert, Chef Derek?
You have a major date and mesquite spice clafoutis,
a white chocolate crema, and then there's some candied grapefruit.
Derek, the texture of it, the caramel that you have,
and then this glaze that you have on top,
it is phenomenal.
Looking at it, you think there's going to be sweet
on top of sweet on top of sweet.
But actually, you get a little bit of kind of smokiness
from that mesquite flour.
It is so well balanced.
Thank you so much.
The only miss for me is the macaroons on the bottom.
Don't know what you were trying to do with it.
They're just kind of there.
For me, it is a little bit on the sweet side,
and I think it's just a ratio thing.
This white chocolate creme has a lot of it,
but really hard basket, and I think you did a really great job.
Thank you.
Finally, Chef Izz.
Uh, I made for you a mesquite flour buttermilk biscuit
in a tequila grapefruit jam and a lime
white chocolate glaze on top with
a graham cracker cactus macaron crumble.
I like the fact that you made this delicious
ruby red jam and then this
really sweet curd situation going on,
but you paired it with tart fruits.
-They play so well together. -Heard that.
But I think the macaroon crumble turned out quite nice.
But I think the biggest issue is definitely the biscuit
in the terms of the mesquite flour.
It's so smoky, it's kind of overwhelming everything.
If you had changed that ratio a little bit,
this would be another third crushing round in a row.
But you set a really high bar for yourself
-in the first two rounds. -I'll take it.
All right, it's almost time to name the Chopped champion.
We'll call you back soon.
Judges, really interesting baskets
for our Southwestern-themed competition.
What were the highlights?
First thing on my mind is Izz's fried bread sandwich.
Oh, it was so good.
One of the best things I've had in this kitchen in a really long time.
Which isn't to say that Derek's dish
wasn't good, because it wasn't bad.
[Kelsey] Very, very creative, but the flavors
and the seasoning was just very one-note.
-But Derek's second dish, that elk with the bread -Yeah.
on the bottom and all the herbs,
it just was one of those things that I would create again.
[Chris] He made that tamale pudding.
-Astounding. -[Eddie] Yeah.
I don't think Izz did as much as Derek did in the second round,
but Izz's dish was amazing.
The tamale polenta that tasted like cheese grits,
I thought was delicious.
The choice of using the chili added as a spice rub,
which I think is beautiful with the coffee,
but using that brown sugar, you totally lost all of that spice.
[both] Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]
[Izz] I feel like I did bright, bold flavors.
I put the Southwest on three plates,
and I deserve to be the winner.
[Derek] I think Izz and I have pretty much been neck and neck.
I'm hoping I can edge them out,
and I think I did that with this dessert.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Izz, you've been chopped.
Judges?
[Kelsey] Izz, first course, so strong.
Second course, same thing.
But really, it was the third dish
that separated the two of y'all.
The real issue was that mesquite flour
in the biscuit was just very overpoweringly smoky.
And so we had to chop you.
Beautiful work, brother.
-Thanks, buddy. -Thank you. Congrats.
[Izz] I came here to win, but I also lost to a dude
who cooked his butt off. Like, I can't be mad at that.
And that means, Chef Derek Christensen,
-you are the Chopped Champion. Well done. -[all cheering]
You roped the judges in with an amazing meal,
and now you're riding off into the sunset with $10,000.
It's been an amazing day.
It's been a ton of fun cooking in here in general,
but that's icing on top.
I won it all.
I have proven today that I am one of
the top competitors in the West.