[man] Barbecue, it's almost embedded in your soul.
[woman] I love the heat, the fire, the intensity.
There's nothing that we love more than putting meat
up against the flame.
[Zuri] Strike that match and watch the competition burn.
[woman] I know how to manipulate fire.
Feeling the heat.
[woman] These aren't your grandpa's grillers.
We expect more.
Ooh, sweaty.
If there isn't fire leaving off these plates,
I'm gonna be very disappointed.
[Shane] Give me meat. Give me fire.
That's all I really need.
[Dominique] I'm the new face of fire.
[Joe] And I'm just a high school math teacher.
I'm missing class right now.
This is like some cooking.
But sometimes when you play with fire...
You can get burned.
You work hard through everything.
$25,000, I need you to cook like you mean it.
Yeah. No big deal.
He just looks confused.
I can't believe right now.
Oh God.
Now, I don't know what the hell to do.
[woman] This tournament's about to get wild.
You're killing me.
You sound like my mom.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
That's fire. Bring it.
What's up, y'all. I'm Dominique Leach.
I'm the new face of fire.
My secret weapon,
taking in my grandmother's soul food
and refining it for a new generation.
I'm the chef and owner at Lexington Buddy SmokeHouse.
Three restaurants, a catering company, and a food truck?
I am a smoke master.
Pay attention. You might learn something.
[Zuri] I'm Mexican.
Mexican grilling is sexy, naughty, and amazing.
I love when the meats hit the fire.
In that moment, I become the master of the meat.
They call me El Maestro.
My food is the future of fire.
The fire is the only thing that stands
between me and $25,000.
[Joe] I'm not your average barbecue guy.
I'm the high school teacher that teaches math.
And I barbecue is my side hustle.
I'm insanely passionate about Korean barbecue
with a Texas twist.
It has that smoke, that char,
that sizzle from the fat.
[Shane] They haven't seen anyone like me in
the Chopped kitchen.
[Shane] My grilling is new school Nashville
and it has earned me multiple grand championships,
bringing new flavor profiles to the barbecue game.
I love everything that happens in that grill.
I love the wood. I love the fire.
I love the smell.
It's magic.
I cook for all day every day.
It's what I was created to do.
I can't help that I'm hogging the spotlight.
I'm just that good.
There's a momentous challenge ahead
as we don't just want you to play with fire,
we want you to master it
and show us something brand new.
We can do that.
Hey, they call me El Maestro, man.
- We got it. - Maestro. That's nice.
The winner here will earn a coveted spot
in our playing with fire grand finale
with a lofty grand prize.
That $25,000 is mine.
I got a bunch of tricks up my sleeve.
Also you should be in hog heaven,
because there will be pork...
- Oh. - Yes, yes.
- ...in every basket. - [laughs]
We go through so much pork at the restaurant,
between rib tips and pork butt.
I mean, what's not to love about it?
Okay. First round, first basket.
Open it up.
[laughs]
[Ted] You've got baby back ribs.
Beautiful baby, beautiful.
Cook these every day.
[Ted] You also have daikon, honeycomb.
Honey and pork is always good, so.
We know what this is.
What the?
[Ted] And a bologna salad.
The bologna salad.
My stomach just dropped,
I think all the way to my knees.
The painfully short 20-minute appetizer round starts now.
- All right. Go, go. - All right.
- Let do this. - Finish strong. Finish strong.
Alex, Chris, you are joined by a very special guest judge,
acclaimed personal chef Eric Adjepong.
Thank you for having me, guys.
So do you love this basket or not so much?
I mean, I'm a huge, huge fan of pork,
whether it's braised, whether it's smoked.
And I think the ribs have to be
the star of the show for sure.
The fact that they're pre-cooked,
kind of, gives these chefs
a little bit of a head start, right?
And then they obviously can, kind of, put their own spin.
You know you could cut the meat off the bone
and make it into a pulled pork sandwich.
That's what I was just gonna say.
I think we've cracked the code.
This basket is tailor-made for pulled pork.
There's nothing not to love about the pork sandwich.
So I say go big or go home.
So I'm gonna make a pulled baby back rib sandwich
with a honey-chipotle barbecue sauce.
The pork definitely needs a barbecue sauce
and I'm going to add some chipotle,
some Worcestershire,
some molasses.
The sweetness in the honey is really gonna bring balance
to the chipotle.
You know, a lot of black female chefs
are being ignored in the industry.
I just put my head down and opened three restaurants
in 10 months, lines out the door.
I said you know what, you're ignoring me,
watch me do better than you.
Zuri is so focused.
- [Chris] Zuri's on his own. - Yeah, he's on his own.
- [Alex] Zuri. - Yes.
- How are we? - How you doing?
I'm doing great, man, you know, making it happen.
His crew cursed him as
- the Maestro. - Maestro.
I'm the Maestro behind the scenes, you know.
My food has rhythm and flow.
And I'm super, super excited
to show my Mexican side, my roots.
For my appetizer, I'm going to make ribs,
tres chiles, and a pickled daikon.
For everyone who doesn't speak Spanish,
tres chiles means three chilies.
Simple.
I use chile de arbol, chile guajillo, chile ancho,
and honey from the honeycomb.
I'm hungry and I know my flavors.
My food is, like, sexy, man.
Most chefs would be tickled pink
to get to cook with pork.
Over live fire?
Hog heaven indeed.
I'm expecting these chefs to come out blazing literally
and get that... Those fires going.
[Eric] I'm expecting four unique approaches.
We have someone who's focused with like the Chicago style.
We have a little bit of Mexican style.
We have Korean barbecue over here
and like a classic mashup.
Chef Joe, how are you feeling?
I'm supposed to be teaching math
but I guess this beats it.
So I gotta win it for my kids.
My approach is to make a Korean style gochujang
and honey barbecue sticky ribs
with a bologna and daikon slaw.
Gochujang is a fermented Korean chili paste.
It's a little sweet,
it definitely has a kick to it.
I don't have a culinary background.
So I'm the underdog in this competition,
but I'm passionate about barbecue
and I know what I'm doing.
I play with fire.
I feel phenomenal.
I've been competing in professional barbecue competitions
for over a decade.
My pork ribs, chicken, and brisket
has earned me multiple grand championships.
I'm making a baby back rib
with a honeycomb barbecue glaze
sitting on top of a grilled apple daikon slaw.
So Shane's is daikon on the grill with apples.
- Is it? - Pork chop and applesauce.
[Alex] I love that.
$25,000 would go a long way.
I work with a local organization.
We feed homeless and poverty-stricken
friends in our community
and that would just give us the opportunity to do more.
Eight minutes on the clock, chefs.
This daikon is a giant radish, it's juicy.
It's like a... It's like a mustardy ice cube in your mouth
begging to be turned into ice cold juicy slaw.
The daikon and the napa cabbage together
is gonna bring a nice crisp slaw.
And I'm using the bologna salad
to make the slaw dressing.
Bologna salad reminds me of something
my Portuguese grandmother made growing up.
We're talking about bologna, hardboiled eggs,
and sweet pickled vegetables
tossed with a mayonnaise type dressing.
- [Alex] Very light. - Very... [laughs].
Yes.
I'm looking at my dish and I think it needs a salsa.
So bologna salad by [indistinct] pan
with a little bit of fat,
start dicing up that pineapple that I grilled.
I grab some limes, some cilantro, some shallots.
Bologna salsa is not traditional
but after today,
it's gonna be my new signature dish.
Why not?
It's what I do every day,
you know, we're cooking with fire.
The texture of the daikon is just kind of like a radish
that you use a lot in making kimchi and Korean food.
I'm mixing up my bologna salad with a daikon,
grab some cilantro and some mint,
but I don't wanna add too many things from the pantry
and I also just wanna highlight
the baby back itself.
And I'm looking for the condiments that,
kind of, help elevate that baby back rib.
They have to be the star of the show for sure.
I'm gonna make a signature barbecue honey glaze
with this honeycomb ketchup.
A little bit of Worcestershire sauce, mustard.
I have chili powder
by half these ribs on the grill
but I do not wanna lift that pan,
I do not wanna take a peek.
When you're looking, you ain't cooking.
What are we feeling about the fact
that Shane's over at the grill with a whole rack of ribs?
Not cut, not plated.
Five minutes to go, chefs.
[Shane] I still have to give my plates,
I still have to get my slaw ready.
There's just so much to do and time is 100% my enemy.
Shane, you got to get it on the plate
or we're not gonna be able to eat it.
You know what I'm saying?
[Chris] Shane, hurry up, man.
I'm freaking out.
I still have to get the ribs off and cut.
[Chris] Shane, hurry up, man.
It's... It looks like he's cutting.
Is he just now cutting up ribs?
Two minutes on the clock,
I've gotta power through
and move like I've never moved before.
[Zuri] My plan with the daikon
is to make a spicy sweet pickle.
I'm using white vinegar
and sweeten also with the honey as well.
Like a big explosion in your mouth.
25K is on the line, guys.
Make sure you season that food.
Pulled the baby back ribs off from the bone,
tossed them in the barbecue sauce,
add them to my nice buttery bun
and top it with the slaw.
One minute to go, chefs.
- [Eric] Come on, guys. - Let's go, let's move,
let's move, let's go, let's go, let's go.
[Eric] Let's go. Let's go. Come on.
[Joe] I've got my ribs in that gochujang
and honey barbecue glaze.
I'm pushing myself,
I believe in my ability to cook with fire.
[Eric] Get it done. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Come on.
Shane, 30 seconds, chefs. Come on now.
Come on. You can do this finish up.
Finish, Shane.
Only one of you is gonna make it to the grand finale.
Let's go. Let's go.
[Ted] Plate it up. Plate it up.
Plate it up, chefs.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one.
Time's up.
[clapping]
- [Chris] Wow. - Wow.
[Ted] Nicely done.
[Zuri] I think it's a $25,000 appetizer.
I look over Chef Dominique station
and I think her portion size is a little big for appetizer.
Per usual, the only woman in the competition
is thinking a little outside of the box.
I'm the only one that made a sandwich.
I'm the best. I'm the best.
I'm the super weapon.
It's mine for the taking.
[upbeat music playing]
Chefs, you've arrived at the Chopping Block.
Your first Playing With Fire challenge,
an appetizer basket stocked with baby back ribs,
daikon, honeycomb,
and bologna salad.
Chef Dominique, what have you made?
I made a pulled rib sandwich
with a daikon and napa cabbage slaw
along with a honey chipotle barbecue sauce.
The char on the bun,
the char on the ribs all day long.
I love it.
It's a fairly nourishing appetizer.
I was gonna say
I don't remember the appetizer round
but we must have had it
because this is clearly an entree sized sandwich.
Pulled pork sandwich.
Really good idea.
My biggest issue with this dish
is how sweet it eats.
I saw you put a little bit of molasses in there.
Obviously, honey was an ingredient in the basket.
It's very, very sweet.
[Dominique] With respect, I do disagree.
I didn't think it was too sweet.
I used some chipotle,
some soy sauce.
But I really like the cabbage
because the cabbage is weirdly bringing
the Bologna note out for me.
That's an example of what you wanna do all day long
in this kitchen.
If you're gonna take a pantry ingredient,
have it bring out something in the basket.
[Ted] Right on. Okay. Chef Dominique. Thank you.
Next up, Chef Zuri.
All right. What I made today for you guys
is a tres chiles and sweet tomato grilled pork ribs,
finished with grilled honey pineapple salsa,
and pickled daikon with honey as well.
The acidity from the pickle and from that daikon,
as well as the sweetness
and the char from the pineapple,
it's really, really delicious.
And the sauce you made is fantastic.
All the chilies, they're smoky.
They've got a warm heat.
Really good.
You got some great outside char on these...
on these ribs, like really great char.
But unfortunately, you never went further
than the outside of the rib.
The ribs needed a little bit longer on the grill.
I think, you know,
if this basket ingredient today
is playing with fire then, um,
you kind of flirted with fire,
I would say in this round.
You didn't play with it.
I will make love to fire next round.
[laughter]
Chef Shane, please tell us about your dish.
I did a grilled baby back rib
with a honey barbecue sauce
on top of a grilled apple daikon slaw.
Very creative with the daikon.
You cooked it,
so it intensified the flavor and changed the texture.
I really loved the succulents of the daikon and the apple.
The ribs feel like you had them on
for the entirety of the 20 minutes
so your ribs are a bit dry.
The sauce itself is delicious,
but in order for me to taste it,
I actually got to, like, scrape it from the plate.
If you would've served maybe a little side of it,
I think, man, it would've carried you over.
- This sauce is killer. - Thank you.
All right. Chef Shane, thank you.
Finally, Chef Joe,
please tell us about your plate.
For you today, I have a, gochujang
and honey glaze on a baby back rib
that is like a fusion of Korean and Texas barbecue,
and there's bologna and daikon slaw.
- You're a math teacher. - I am.
Statistically, you have a 75% chance of losing,
but if you cook ribs like this,
you're still gonna be standing here
when the smoke clears.
Joe, I'm gonna totally agree.
Um, the ribs are obviously the star of the show,
um, and my favorite ribs.
You get a hint of heat,
you get a hint of sweet,
um, they eat beautifully.
This tastes like fire
and I then get a floral note from the honeycomb.
I've got them stuck in my back teeth.
I'm gonna think about it for a while.
That's what barbecue does.
Unfortunately, slaw was kind of an afterthought.
Needs more herbs, a little bit more acid.
But good call on the lime.
Nice little squeeze of lime
just to kind of help bring things up.
That lime needed to be in the slaw with salt.
I agree.
The slaw police is in the house.
- [Ted] Okay. - Thanks, Chef.
Now the judges have to make the call.
Thank you.
[suspenseful music playing]
I think we're looking at the future of grilling
right here at this table.
Yeah. There's a movement here.
Sure.
Bring your individuality to the table.
From every culture and I think right now
we need something new,
we need to change the game, man.
[suspenseful music playing]
I think my competitors are really nice guys.
Unfortunately, they're not gonna win today.
I think Dominique should be concerned
just because of the size of her sandwich.
[Zuri] I think Chef Joe might get chopped.
His coleslaw didn't have like no flavor at all.
I hope I'm not on the chopping block,
and I wanna be able to say that I belong here.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
[theme music playing]
As we look ahead to the next round,
we must leave someone behind.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
[suspenseful music playing]
Chef Shane, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Shane, we loved the roasted daikon,
super creative.
Unfortunately, your ribs were overcooked
and so we had to chop you.
I understand.
- [Ted] Good luck. - [Shane] Yeah, man.
Good job, man.
This is high pressure, intense.
Obviously the time got away from me.
I'll be seeing that rib in my dreams.
Chef Dominique, Chef Zuri, Chef Joe,
the second hog heaven basket is in front of you.
The first round, they told me I flirted with fire
and I have to make love with fire.
So that's what I'm gonna do, make love to the fire.
Go for it.
[groans]
[Ted] And you are looking at pork butt.
I love pork butt but I don't like 30 minutes to cook it.
Pork butt in 30 minutes?
Okay. We're turning up a notch, I get it, Ted.
- [Ted] Cabbage. - Cabbage.
[Ted] Gummy apple candy.
I can eat like a whole bag of it,
but I never cook with them.
[Ted] And pork skin.
[Dominique] All Right. All right. All right.
- This is not an easy basket. - Not at all.
[Joe] Oh, my God.
This basket is way more challenging than the last one.
Let's see how I can make it work, yeah.
[Ted] Thirty minutes for the entree round.
Start playing with fire...
now.
Off to the races.
So the pork butt is a huge hunk of meat
that you normally braise for eight hours
and you've got to figure out a way to cook it quickly.
This is a classic chopped dilemma.
I would grind it with something
to make it juicy as it's coming through the grinder.
Very... Cut very thin, thin slices of shoulder.
He is now, as you can hear, pounding them away.
I have to tenderize the pork butt
because it has a lot of connective tissue.
[Eric] Zuri has all those vegetables
that are perfect for the grill.
I see some tomatillos over there.
[Chris] He's got great char on them.
[Alex] It's beautiful.
So I'm really, really interested
to see how these new school chefs
are going to impart their knowledge.
So, I wanna see some new flare.
I like to think out of the box,
but at the same time,
I'm always thinking elegance, technique.
So I'm making pork steak salsa verde,
something that my mom used to make all the time.
Zuri's definitely going full Mexican again.
He's got the chilies on the grill,
a lot of vegetables.
He also is scraping the pork fat.
So the pork skin,
it can be done in so many different ways.
In chicharon, you could fry it, boil it,
it's one of my favorite parts of the animal.
All right. Well, I'm gonna go in
because I wanna see how they are gonna get
this pork butt tender.
I'm not intimidated by pork butt at all.
I've had pork butt on my menu.
It's the best pork butt in Chicago.
- Dominique. - Hey, hey.
Hey, how are you feeling?
Feeling good.
How did you slice the pork?
I sliced it against the grain.
Yeah.
So you'll get a nice bite out of it.
So I'm thinking about doing a sauce
with roasted poblanos and fresh tomatoes,
and I wanna do a southern style cabbage.
My grandmother, Betty King,
from Lexington, Mississippi,
who I named my restaurant after,
often makes a big pot of braised cabbage
and I want to pay homage to her.
I'm gonna braise it down with some bacon
and added brussels sprouts,
you know, I'm just bringing my personality
- to the table today. - All right.
Good luck to you.
Chef Joe, what are you doing that's new school in this...
in this dish?
I'm gonna kind of do my own version of pork
and the cabbage so just a little bit
of Chinese five spice,
so kind of give a little Asian flare.
So the great thing about pork skin
is that fat that's in there,
I'm just gonna use as my cooking fat.
The judges like my Korean barbecue background.
So, um, I want to incorporate a little bit of fish sauce
into the braised cabbage with some crushed red peppers.
I think it has a kick to it.
[Chris] Chefs, it's $25,000 on the line,
bring it, bring it, bring it.
Ten minutes to go, chefs.
Cabbage salad is not a huge thing
in the Mexican culture but hey,
like I said, I'm the new generation, right?
I have to make something different.
That's why I'm here.
Zuri, what are you doing with the cabbage?
I wanna make a little coleslaw with a red onion.
I did a jalapeño apple gummy vinaigrette.
The apple gummy will go perfectly with some cilantro,
jalapenos, and honey, and a little bit of canola oil.
Wow, just beautiful.
I take a breath and I go, "All right.
Salsa Verde."
Tomatillos, chilies, tomatoes.
He's now braising those pieces of grilled pork
in that blended sort of vegetables mix
that he reduced down into this, like,
concentrated juice which I think would be delicious.
[man] I'm down with that.
Like I said, I'm the maestro and I'm not serving
tortilla so you need a starch to absorb
all this salsa on the bottom of the plate.
So I make some crispy potatoes.
I'm like a tornado, here, there, over there
but Chef Dominique, I think, is my biggest competition.
She's calm, doing her thing.
I'm not nervous at all.
I'm a pretty organized person.
I do handle stress well.
Pork skin, it's good on everything.
I'm gonna cut this up, put it in a deep fryer,
make some chicharons out of it.
Less than four minutes to go, chefs.
Finish strong, Joe, come on now.
[Joe] With the gummy apple candy, I'm gonna add
vinegar, butter to quickly make a glaze.
I also wanna quickly whip up a chimichurri.
I'm adding parsley, olive oil, pepper to kind of give it
a little bit more spice.
[Alex] You guys can do this.
[Eric] Finish strong, let's go.
If you haven't started plating, start plating now.
[Eric] Coming up on two minutes.
Let's go, guys.
The gummy apple candy was put in the basket
to throw us off but I know apple works
really well with pork.
I melt it down and used it as a sweetener
in my dressing with some roasted poblano, some tomato.
This will really, like,
taste good with the pork steak.
Let's go, guys, come on now.
[Alex] Come on, slice it up.
You've got less than 30 seconds to go.
[Eric] Let's go, Joe, let's go, let's go, let's go.
Get everything on our four plates.
[Ted] Focus, focus, focus, chefs.
You've got just seconds to get it done.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one,
time's up. Please step back.
[judges applauding]
Oh, man. Why does yours look so pretty?
I'm feeling... I'm feeling great, man,
I'm feeling pumped, and at the end,
I did my signature, you know, my flavors, my chilies,
I think I made it happen.
I'm pretty calm, uh, I'm running every day,
uh, curveballs constantly between the three restaurants
and so I'm kind of used to his,
no doubt in my mind I'm gonna make it
to the finale.
[dramatic music playing]
Chefs, in that second basket,
you got pork butt, cabbage, gummy apple candy,
and pork skin.
- Chef Joe? - Uh, Chefs,
for you guys, I have a, uh,
grilled pork steak with a braised cabbage
and a little bit of chimichurri.
[dramatic music playing]
Working with the pork butt in a small amount of time
isn't easy.
Here's why I love it.
Um, the slice, that bias cut definitely helps
with the chew so it's really, really intelligent
of you to cut on a bias, um, with that.
It's a little bit spicy on my back end,
um, the pork is, it's actually picking up
in heat as I'm speaking and that's not necessarily
agreeing with me or the plate.
I love heat. It's just kind...
Jarringly spicy.
Are there chilies in the chimichurri as well?
Yeah, there's a little bit in there.
I think that's the problem,
is that you doubled up on the chilies.
I like the chimichurri and I like the heat
I'm getting from that more than I like the heat
from the cabbage.
I think the cabbage is where you should've left
it alone.
But I like the use of the gummy candy.
I get that apple, I get that sour note
a little bit,
I think it's unbelievably clever the way you used
the pig skin and the fat from the pig skin
to flavor the cabbage.
- Thank you Chef. - [Ted] Thank you, Chef Joe.
Next up, Chef Dominique, what do we have?
I did a grilled pork steak with a roasted
poblano pepper and tomato vinaigrette,
some braised cabbage and brussels sprouts.
Judges, does this dish get you to hog heaven?
Total, Ted.
Or cabbage heaven, I love the cabbage.
There's a sweetness to this cabbage
but it's not that, you know, synthetic kind of candy flavor
that I would expect to get with the gummy apple candy.
And I like that you've brought bacon onto the party
and double down on the pork and you got it nice
and crispy.
But my issue that I can't really get over is this...
The toughness, the pork itself is really, really tough.
Uh, I got a lot of pieces that are just mostly fat,
um, just the way you butchered it basically.
So the pork is a real problem for me.
I think your time needed
to be spent pounding it thinner,
or chopping it up, throwing it on a taco,
throwing it in a burrito,
making dumplings, any other way to tenderize it.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Dominique.
Finally, Chef Zuri, what do we have?
[Zuri] I make the grilled pork butt,
the, uh, grilled tomatoes salsa verde, crispy potatoes,
and then I did a cabbage salad with red onions
and then apple gummy vinaigrette.
This dish takes me back you know, uh,
to middle school when I came from home
and my mom just made us Mexican dishes like this.
The sauce you made is dynamite.
Reminds me of my favorite Mexican dish,
the chilaquiles, that would be a great sauce
with chilaquiles, right?
It's dynamite.
It might be my favorite thing I've had all day.
I can do without the chicharon,
um, or the attempt at the chicharon,
uh, just kind of fall short a little bit,
you get a really crunchy outside
but then the inside is pretty much the same thing,
might as well raw, yeah.
I'm having the same experience I had
with Dominique's where I have... I have a lot
of connective fat in my pork which I wish wasn't here.
I so wish you had just put the two pieces
of meat in the grinder and made a burger
with this sauce and this slaw, I'd give you...
I'd give you $25,000 out of Ted's bank account
right now.
- Okay, Chef. - [Ted] Okay.
Now the judges have to make the call.
[Zuri] I know my food. I know my flavors.
They only criticized my meat but overall I think
my sauce was the best out of them.
I feel like Zuri is my biggest competition today
and I think Joe is probably going home
just because he's not a professional chef.
I'm just a math high school teacher
but I'm bringing something new,
my own style of my Korean background and hopefully
that's not enough to get me to the next round.
[dramatic music playing]
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
[dramatic music playing]
Chef Dominique, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Dominique, you gave us so much bold flavors
and it was really, really delicious.
Unfortunately, it was really hard to get over
the toughness of your pork butt steak
and so we had to chop you.
All right. Well, thank you guys for having me.
Good luck, guys.
The game didn't go the way I wanted it to
but I'm proud myself.
I know I'm a great chef and I know
I have the fight in me.
[uplifting music playing]
Chef Joe, Chef Zuri, who's got to dessert chops
to bring this thing home?
I've got this, Ted. I'm here for the win.
- I'm taking it home. - Don't tell me that.
- I'm taking it. - Looking forward
to finding out who's right.
Final baskets.
Open them up.
And here we go with banana muffins.
Muffins.
[Ted] Thyme.
[Joe] We got thyme.
[Ted] Peaches.
I love peaches, man, especially on the grill.
[Ted] And bacon beer brittle.
Oh, boy.
I'm pretty happy that we don't have
a big giant pork chop in here.
The hog is in a brittle candy.
There you go.
[Ted] Thirty minutes to make dessert to remember.
- I'm good. - [Ted] Clock starts now.
- [Alex] All right. - [Eric] Go get them.
-Let's do this. -[Eric] Finish strong. Finish strong.
But judges, there's no actual fresh pork
in this basket.
They're just a pork candy and that's not all that pork.
No. But you do get a little bit of that smokiness
from the bacon.
Zuri, did you grab that bacon brittle?
What do you think?
[Zuri] Delicious.
I've never seen it before but this is delicious.
The clear answer is make ice cream and chop it up,
and put it in the ice cream.
No, that's wrong.
I think the direction I see is like a crumble
or a cobbler.
[Alex] Zuri clearly gonna make something
that is an expression of who he is and his cooking.
He's been doing that the whole competition.
Zuri, are you... Are you building the blocks
for tres leches?
I'm making my version of tres leches.
- Yes, sir. - [Chris] Yeah.
[Alex] Tres leches with a banana muffin soaked in coconut milk.
See? That's so good.
Joe's kind a more of a wildcard and I wonder
what direction he's gonna take.
[Joe] I'm making a banana bacon brittle grilled
muffin top with thyme, peaches, and cream.
So, with the muffin, I wanna add a little bit
more moisture to it.
So, I'm gonna soak it in milk.
I'm pulverizing the bacon beer brittle
and hopefully, it'll all create
a crust inside my muffin.
I wanna win for my students to ultimately prove
to them all the words that I share
with them actually have meaning,
that if they actually work hard,
they can achieve something that they never thought
they could.
Twenty minutes on the clock.
This is playing with fire.
They have to go something and obviously,
those peaches have got to be grilled.
[Eric] Totally. Yeah. Totally.
They've got a really, really nice char on them,
bring out that natural sweetness as much as possible.
There's like tons of booze and butter.
Sold.
Okay. Someone busted out a bottle of booze.
[Ted] Orange liqueur maybe?
I'm on board. I'll be back.
[Eric] See you in a second.
[Chris] Bring us some.
[Alex] Oh, I love liqueur liquor.
What are you doing, chef?
So, I'm grilling my peaches with a little bit of honey
and thyme but then I wanted to glaze it
with orange liqueur.
So excited because I thought...
- [Zuri] It was. - ...this basket could really use booze.
I believe in you, chef. Good luck.
I know you wanna be interrupted, not at all.
What are you doing?
And, uh, I got some muffin tops
that I grilled up that I soaked in some milk.
I pulverized the brittle.
I like the way you've kind of broken up the peaches
so you can really gauge the texture and...
- Yeah. - ... tenderness.
Yeah. I didn't... I didn't wanna get like big,
uh, quarters on there and have the outside
be super charred and inside still be,
you know, too rock solid.
All right. Cool. Uh, no pressure, guys.
Only one of you is gonna make it
to the finale for 25 grand.
Don't worry about it. Carry on.
Fourteen minutes on the clock, chefs.
[Eric] Come on, guys.
Zuri, what's in the cast iron pan?
I have a [indistinct] so it's like
a crispy crepe from Italy.
Almost like a... Like a tuile.
I've seen chefs do it before.
Um, you'll essentially take egg whites,
a little bit of 10X sugar.
Um, maybe a little bit of flour.
And what you're doing is slightly kind of
grilling it to a point where it almost
like bubbles and it looks like a net,
it almost looks like a tuile.
[Zuri] I grab the bacon beer brittle and I add it
to my tuile mix.
I'm here to kill it, man.
Zuri's got so many different things going on
and I'm getting pretty nervous thinking
that my dish is way too simple.
So, I quickly char the thyme onto the grill,
release some of its oils and I add it to steep
in the cream to hopefully impart that flavor.
Why did Joe just put whole thyme sprigs in cream and milk?
He's not steeping it, it's literally cold.
It's not gonna work.
Less than five minutes to go, chefs.
I'm really nervous about this cream
and I don't wanna get chopped because I didn't give myself
enough time to plate.
This is $25,000 tournament.
Is whipped cream gonna really get you there?
No.
[Joe] This could be the difference between
moving on or me going home.
[Eric] Come on, guys. Finish strong.
Coming up on two minutes.
Joe's just standing there making whipped cream.
I would like the cream to be a little bit thicker
but I just don't have time right now to deal with that.
We need a strong finish by whoever is gonna win this
and move on to the $25,000 round.
Let's go, Zuri, less than a minute.
- Let's go. Let's go. - [Eric] Come on, now. Come on.
Zuri just grabbed some spice.
[Alex] Why he is in the pantry right now?
What are you doing with one minute left?
[Eric] Finish strong, guys. Come on now.
[Zuri] I pull my tuiles out of the cast iron.
They turned brown because of the caramel
and it was delicious. It worked, man.
It was amazing. Finished it with a cinnamon.
This is going to be great.
[Alex] Finish with some good stuff.
This is your last chance to get in the finale.
I'm so close to that $25,000 I can taste it.
I'm adding some mint. This is perfect.
All right, Chefs, final seconds of the final round.
Ten, nine, eight...
- [Eric] Come on, guys. - [Ted] ...seven, six,
five, four, three,
two, one.
Time's up.
- [Alex] Hold me. Hold me. - [Zuri] No. Okay.
- They're good. They made it. - All right.
They made it. They made it. They made it.
[Eric] Good job, guys.
[Zuri] I feel happy. I think my dish looks sexy.
I think this is a $25,000 dessert.
[Joe] I just feel accomplished to make it through
all three rounds.
And I feel like I've been able to bring my love of fire
more than Zuri.
Chef Zuri, Chef Joe, in the Playing
With Fire Desert Basket, you found a banana muffins,
thyme, peaches, bacon beer brittle.
Chef Zuri, what do we have?
What I prepared today is a banana muffin
tres leches with, uh, honey, thyme,
grilled peaches and I did a mascarpone vanilla mousse.
I decided to make tres leches because it takes me back
to my memories when I was a little kid.
I love that you leaned hard into your roots
and I think the presentation
by the way was stunning.
Thank you.
The use of the tres leches and getting that beautiful,
um, that custard, uh, kind of soaked
into that muffin was really, really smart.
But my muffin is not like soaked through with your...
With the tres leches, like the out...
Outer... Outer part is.
But when you really get into it,
it's really just still the muffin.
I have to say the peaches, the thyme,
I get really clear flavors.
I ate them all, that was successful.
Thank you.
The tuile with the bacon beer brittle is brilliant.
Talk about taking brittle and twisting it,
Chopped style, that really works.
Thank you, Chef Zuri. Finally, Chef Joe.
Chefs, what I have for you is a banana bacon brittle
muffin top with thyme, peaches, and cream
Your peaches are spectacular.
Delicious. Amazing.
Supple, succulent, juicy, sexy,
they're just awesome.
Thank you, chef.
I do like your peaches, uh, a little bit
more than Chef Zuri's.
They were grilled nice and delicately.
I wanna commend you on that.
You really didn't steep your thyme whipped cream.
You wanna give it the time, no pun intended,
to actually go ahead and get that extract flavor
as you want.
And then you put all this mint on top.
So, whatever subtle thyme flavor you got in the cream,
you can't... You can't get past it
because the mint is the body guard, you know,
and you're trying to get in the club
and the men will say, "No."
Mint buries the thyme. I totally agree with Chris.
Don't do that with the basket, you know,
but I love the grilled muffin.
You guys are not giving enough props...
- I... - ...to the campfire char vibes
on the muffin and this like caramelly...
- Yeah. - ... little situation.
It's the most fire like flavor I've had...
- Yes. Agree. - ... all day.
Thank you, chefs
I really want this, man. I need to make it happen.
You know, I think giving up teaching,
coaching, was something I've always wanted to do
just to learn how to barbeque more.
It's not an easy thing to play around with.
I don't know, man.
I think you have a pretty strong appetizer.
The second round I think I really killed it.
I think it's pretty even but it's all about dessert now.
Both these two finalists here in the...
In the competition gave us some really,
really high notes.
In the appetizer round, Joe's ribs were just perfect.
Talk about playing with fire, he hit the...
He had a perfect amount of char on those ribs.
But the slaw that he made on the side of it,
it wasn't seasoned at all,
it was kind of an afterthought.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
And that's why his ribs were cold in the middle.
I loved Zuri's sauce though, um, and the daikon bologna
salad salsa thing kind of worked.
- Yeah, it did. - Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Then in the next round, you get pork butt
and pig skin.
I thought Zuri did a really great job
of actually ponding out the, uh, the pork butt,
getting it as thin as he could, grilling it
and then braising it in that really delicious sauce.
That salsa that he made was just phenomenal.
For me, the most tender pork butt
that I had actually came from Joe
but unfortunately, he made a condiment
- with tons of chili pepper. - Chilichurri.
Yeah. Totally.
That condiment was way too spicy,
blew out my palate.
It was really, really hard to eat
anything after that.
He did play with fire.
To my mind, the best.
Yes. I would agree with that.
He definitely played with fire better than Zuri
but I feel like Zuri made the better dishes.
Zuri definitely tried his best
to push the boundaries and push the envelope.
And that's the conundrum, right?
Yeah. Totally, I 100% agree.
I have to admire Joe, but he's missing
just a little bit of technique
while I took four more
of the ingredients, you know?
That's why I think a hundred percent
that I can get this.
Zuri killed it.
I mean, yeah, he's definitely a tough,
tough competitor but I feel like I've been able
to bring more fire.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Joe, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Joe, a really good job, man.
It was really close but on the appetizer round,
you made a slaw and it was completely under seasoned.
In the entree round, the entire dish
was just jarringly spicy.
So, we had to chop you.
Thank you.
I think what got in my way is just kind of
my lack of experience.
That definitely encouraged me to, um, you know,
push myself forward and learn more.
And that means Chef Zuri Resendiz,
you are the Chopped Champion.
Outstanding work, Chef.
You have seized the spot in the $25,000 finale.
Great work. Nice.
It feels great. I'm humbled and super happy.
There's no word to explain it, but we still have one
more competition to go.
I just... Do what you did today, man.
Honestly, I don't know about that.
In the finale, I'm bringing fire
like nobody else would.
Only one of you is gonna make it
to the finale for 25 grand.
I'm feeling the heat right now.
[indistinct] don't feel pressure.
Yes. Yes.
My nerves are shook.
It's madness in here.
- Behind. Behind. Behind. - Let's go. Let's go.
- Let's go. - What happened?
I am trying to make the best bad decision
I possibly can.
Oh. Oh. No, no, no, no, no.
No bueno.
Presentation is a little bless your heart,
you know what I'm saying?
With due respect, I do disagree.
- Finish it. Finish it. - Oh, my God.
This is it, guys.
You will think about this in the shower
for the next 10 years.
Let's do this.
What the hell?