Pasta, pasta, pasta.
- [judges cheering] - Yeah baby.
You'll be making pasta dishes for every round.
The pasta Gods are cheering me on,
they're on my side for this round.
I'm not sure if she has time to make the dough
within a twenty minute time frame.
There is chaos in the kitchen right now.
My heart is basically beating outta my chest.
This needs to work.
Let's go y'all, let's go.
Two minute warning chefs.
Are you serious?
This is just heartbreaking.
[screams]
I grew up making pasta, I have pasta in my vein.
Pasta's always been a huge part of my life.
It's one of the most special things to me,
I'm feeling super confident.
I've been cooking pasta since I was six or seven years old
and I'm ready to compete, I'm ready to win.
I'm not Italian,
but my heart and my hands are.
I've made thousands of pounds of pasta.
Ray you're not gonna be able to do it.
- Oh, no, no! - Towel.
Hell yeah, I fix problems, that's my job.
I'm a consulting chef.
Ya bring me in as the closer.
I just have to be sharp, whether I'm in the kitchen
or at a home, I have to be on top of my game.
I wanna prove whether you're a gal in the kitchen
whether you're a mom, you can do it.
I'm from Rome, the most beautiful city in the world.
My plate is my canvas, I can paint with my ingredients.
I'm very competitive and I'm not scared.
Italians do it better.
Meraviglioso.
Whoa, I got goosebumps. [chuckles]
I'm half Italian, half Israeli I like to cook Italian food and fusion Israeli.
I grew up playing basketball,
I made it to the pros.
Then I went to the Israeli army.
I'm here to compete and I'm here to just like... arrrh.
[laughing]
There's a really special place in my heart for pasta,
I've worked at some of the best pasta restaurants in the country.
I studied abroad in Italy, I lived in Florence,
so I bring in some of those influences.
The perfect pasta to me is,
rich and yolky, super smooth and just a perfect little bit of al dente,
just so you get that little bit of bite.
Pasta is my life.
I've got this in the bag.
Hello chefs.
Hello Ted.
Chefs it's no mistake that the four of you are here.
You live and breathe pasta everyday.
You'll be making pasta dishes for every round.
Appetizer, entree and dessert.
- Do you wear the stretchy pants? - [all laughing]
Well nothing is jumping out of the basket yet, but let's get them open, just in case.
Go for it.
And you're appetizer ingredients are...
The heck is that?
- Sunday gravy. - [Ted] Sunday gravy.
[Merrin] A Sunday gravy is,
tomato sauce, meat balls, pork ribs, simmered for a very long time.
I love you guys.
[Ted] Dried porcini mushrooms,
- arugula. - Arugula, nice.
White anchovies.
[Ted] And white anchovies.
Holy guacamole.
Remember chefs this is the super speedy 20 minute round.
Twenty minutes is fast.
Clock starts now.
[judges cheering]
Let's go chefs, let's go.
Amanda, Scott, you are joined by our special guest judge.
Celebrated food journalist, Nilou Motamed.
Welcome back, Nilou.
-Thank you Ted. Hi guys. -[Scott] Great to see you Nilou.
I'm so happy to be here and for pasta challenge. Very exciting.
Let's get that pasta in first.
[Amanda] Pasta is one of my favorite things to make.
It can end up with butter and cheese,
it can be complicated with a braised meat sauce but it starts off
with simple ingredients and becomes this beautiful thing.
You're so right, you combine the most humble of ingredients.
You take some flour, you take some water and you create magic.
Coming down, coming down, down the line. Down the line.
The important thing when cooking pasta is you need to have enough water,
that when you add the pasta is doesn't drop the temperature to a non-boil.
- And salty like the ocean, yes? No? - No, salty like broth.
Yeah, baby.
I'm the queen of the pasta and I'm the one to beat.
Let the smell come to mama.
I grew up by making pasta almost everyday with my mother,
so I feel pretty confident in this competition.
Okay. Here we are.
I'm making paccheri, stuffed with the meat in the Sunday sauce.
[Scott] I saw Barbara taking paccheri and stuffing it.
Paccheri is kind of a large rigatoni that's a little
floppy when it's cooked. And she was stuffing it with
chopped up meat balls and meat from the Sunday sauce, it's a great idea.
Behind you. Behind you. Behind you.
Unique part about this competition today, is that there is already pasta dough
made and rested in the pantry.
[Scott] Merrin is making her own dough right now,
I mean that dough needs to rest after you work it.
I'm really hoping she has enough time to be able to make
- this pasta and it's just not too... - Dense.
You know, it's just not too tight.
[Merrin] I've been working in Italian restaurants for about 10 years.
From south of Italy, all the way to Jersey, Americana.
Me making pasta is like a
musician playing their instrument, it's just, part of me.
Come together. Come together baby.
I am making a hand rolled capunti with a pomodoro sauce
and it's going to be garnished with a porchini breadcrumb.
The pasta challenge
it's like go big or go.
Capunti is generally made with three fingers and
you drag it across and you make three little seats.
[Jake] Using the meat from the Sunday gravy with anchovies is gonna be
difficult to figure out in a way that's not over powering either one.
All right.
But I know immediately I'm gonna make pasta salad.
One of my former chefs who is very Italian, always talked
about pasta salad as being this terrible dish.
But I've made it for her often and now, she's actually in love with it.
So I wanna make arugula pasta salad with anchovy vinaigrette
and porchini dusted croutons.
Chef Jake, how are you sir?
- I'm feeling great thanks, ready to eat some pasta? - [Scott laughing]
Alright, the key for perfect pasta is keep it simple, don't overwhelm,
make it with a lot of love.
I'm a little bit behind in time, but I'll make it happen.
Alright, give me that, come on, all right.
I'm making a meat tortellini with porcini mushroom and anchovy sauce.
My plan is to mix the arugula within my pasta dough
to give it a bright green color.
Rony has fresh pasta and he's trying to incorporate the arugula into the dough.
Give me that. Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Go for it. Go for it. Go for it.
But that dough is just sticking to the side of the bowl
- and it's spinning around. - [Amanda] And it's just bouncing around.
This needs to work.
[Ted] Chefs, less than nine minutes.
Nine minutes, thank you.
The time, it flies.
I feel like it just started.
Starter sauce.
[Merrin] I'm making a sauce to go with my pasta.
I melt down the white anchovies in a little bit of olive oil
and I start shredding the meat from the pork ribs, from the Sunday gravy.
I believe that chef Barbara is tough competition.
She's from Italy. She's gonna give me a run for my money.
That's pretty good.
Yep, baby.
[Barbara] So next I took the Sunday gravy and I saute with some butter,
just to give a little bit sweetness.
Is everybody okay?
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Let's get these anchovies goin'.
The white anchovies are gonna be generally a little bit more acidic
and I really want more of that salty fish flavor,
so I'm grabbing fish sauce to add a little bit of extra
anchovy flavor to my anchovy vinaigrette.
I'm using the meat from the Sunday gravy for my pasta salad.
[Rony] So my dough is not coming together.
Plan A didn't work.
I'm looking at the clock and I see that I'm really behind.
So I grab pasta sheets
and I want to put arugula, within the dough.
Six minutes Rony.
Yeah, I'm really behind.
Rony is doing a classic technique of taking sheeted dough
and then layering arugula in between those sheets.
It's not happening.
- [Amanda] He's struggling. - [Scott] He's struggling.
I'm really behind.
Five minutes to go chefs.
Five minutes thank you.
Rony did you hear that?
You know the time, you need plates, you need sauce.
You gotta start getting it together brother.
[Rony] Plan B is not working either.
He's really in the weeds.
I look at the clock, I've no pasta, no plan A, no plan B. I'm moving to plan C.
I'm really behind.
I decided, I'm going to cut the sheets, make the ravioli out of those
and use the arugula as a small side salad.
Four minutes. Okay, bro.
Come on, Rony.
I'm hoping that the mushrooms and the breadcrumbs will add
texture and umami to my capunti.
Yeah.
I'm gonna take my mushrooms throw 'em into a spice grinder and just get them powdered
so it's easy to season the bread with at the end.
That's like this is a unique twist on the porchini.
[Barbara] When you eat the porchini mushroom, you can taste the forest.
So, basically I re-hydrated the porchini and then
I sauteed them and I added at the end, anchovies.
Come on, baby.
Two minute warning chefs.
Are you serious?
[Amanda] You guys got to think about time here, we need food on the plate.
I only have time to make one tortellini for each plate,
I throw it into the water so they can be cooked as quick as possible.
How do you say nervous in Italian?
[Ted] Chefs, are your pasta plates ready for their close-up?
Ten. Nine. Eight
- Seven. Six. Five. - Let's go. Let's go.
Four. Three. Two.
One.
Time's up.
Yes.
It didn't go as planned, sadly
I hope the taste will win but...
[exhales deeply]
I am feeling amazing
and I rolled pasta, in 20 minutes.
Isn't that crazy?
I am so confident for this round.
Chefs, the first round we challenged you to make
pasta appetizers with Sunday gravy,
dried porchini mushrooms,
arugula,
white anchovies.
Chef Merrin May, please tell us about your dish.
Here, chefs, I made for you a hand-rolled capunti
and on top is seasoned breadcrumbs with the porchini mushrooms.
[Scott] I think the texture is very good, I think it could be a little bit thinner,
it's a little bit dense it's a little heavy.
But there's so much flavor here.
You used the breadcrumbs on top
great textural contrast with everything else that's goin' on here.
So, good stuff chef, thank you.
Chef, this is fantastic.
Thank you.
Yes, it's dense, but the texture,
the toothsomeness of it, is really great
and really full sauce.
I love the brightness of this sauce.
The amount of acid that you have is
so wonderful.
So I feel like this is a real success.
Next up, Chef Rony.
So my dish is...
um, tortellini filled with meat and with the Sunday gravy.
Where did your love of pasta come from chef?
So, born to Italian family and we were raised, "spoiled"
because we didn't want to put food in a microwave.
So we literally started cooking, me and my brother food everyday
and going to my nonna, my grandma, in Italy
and making fresh pasta, fresh gnocchi, fresh ravioli.
Chef,
it was absolute chaos in your station
and I think when you're under pressure like that you have just decide
you know what, this isn't working and obviously it's undercooked.
It's not really filled properly,
and we would want a lot more on this plate.
Thank you.
However,
I think it's a good idea to utilize the porchini with the sauce.
The porchini themselves have really nice texture to 'em
but usage of the arugula, it's dry.
Even if you had a little bit of olive oil over the top of it, I think that
it would have showcased a little bit better.
There's no need for us to tell you what went wrong when you know what went wrong.
Yeah.
But what I think went right is that you
stayed the course, you rallied and you put something on the plate
and you're standing here proud, so I think
that I'm gonna commend you on, for sure.
Thank you, Chef Rony.
Chef Barbara.
Please tell us about your dish.
It's paccheri cooked extremely al dente,
and I stuffed with the meat that we have in the Sunday sauce.
This is such a creative appetizer.
I love the paccheri it's really fun that you stuffed it and fried it.
The tomato sauce for me is a lot.
It's so heavy and dense 'cause it has all the meat in it.
Yes, okay.
But a fantastic way to start.
That little package, that little bite, is so fun.
Thank you.
I have to say your porchini mushrooms
are the best version of porchini we have had in this round.
Aw, thank you.
I think it's the perfect amount for an appetizer.
It feels like you really gave this some thought
and I love that you carry your vision all the way through.
Thank you.
Chef, what're you looking to prove here?
Umm...
So in 2009, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
And my doctor told me that I couldn't use my arm anymore.
They told me that.
And I didn't believe it.
And I didn't want to believe it.
No matter whatever they are going to tell you is wrong.
That you cannot do this, just you need to prove the opposite.
Chef, just talking your using your arms.
It's physical therapy every time you act like an Italian.
You're inspiring a lot of people, Chef.
- Yeah. - Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Chef Jake, please tell us about your appetizer.
Alright, for your appetizer, chefs, I made a arugula pasta salad with
anchovy vinaigrette and porchini dusted croutons.
The thing that I'm drawn to over and over again is the croutons.
I think they are such a nice play with the acid from the dressing
- and I love that anchovy. - Awesome.
Umm, honestly, I think this salad would be better without the pasta.
The greens with that vinaigrette, are so delicious.
The pasta is almost an afterthought here.
Because it's also not dressed enough, you know, it feels a little dry.
I agree, I feel like the pasta is...
superfluous.
Right.
Chef Jake, thank you.
[Rony] I'm definitely not happy with my appetizer.
They saw the struggle, the struggle was real. [chuckles]
I think there is a good chance I'm going home.
[Jake] The judges felt like the pasta salad needed
probably a little bit more dressing.
I feel like I've so much more to show the judges.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[dramatic music playing]
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Rony, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Chef Rony, it's so hard to do this cause we saw your over ambition in that round.
We liked what you did with the Sunday gravy to make the filling for the tortellini.
We felt the arugula was under dressed,
pasta was under-cooked.
So, we had to chop you.
Thank you so much.
I'm a little upset.
I knew I could do better, but it's not about what you encounter in life,
it's about how you react.
I'm walking out proudly.
Good luck guys.
And thankful for all this journey I went through.
Chef Barbara, Chef Jake, Chef Merrin Mae.
Are you ready to take on round two?
- Yes, absolutely. - Oh, yeah. Let's go.
The second basket contains more culinary treasures.
Go on and open it up.
- Oh. Hello. - Oh.
[Ted] And you'll be making pasta entrees with basil-flavored cotton candy.
Cotton candy, perfect.
Hello.
[Ted] Langoustines.
- [Jake] Beautiful. - Mortadella.
Oh, mortadella, yes.
[Ted] Mortadella.
This bread.
[Ted] And garlic bread.
Some nice suspects and some really unusual suspects.
Thirty more minutes to flex your expertise.
Clock starts now.
[screaming] Let's go.
Judges, who invited basil flavored cotton candy to this pasta festival?
[all laughing]
Some twisted basket maven decided that
this was the thing that was gonna take them for a spin,
- but at least it's basil flavored. - [Ted] That's true.
Mortadella is one of my favorite ingredients ever.
It's kinda like baloney, with pepper corns and pistachios
but it is the entree round of the pasta competition
and these chefs really need to bring it in this round.
[Merrin] When I first started off, one of the first pastas I made was a casarecce.
Okay.
And I love pastas and soups.
I'm making a langoustine casarecce zuppa with crispy mortadella bits.
There we go, beautiful.
Crunchy mortadella is delicious mortadella.
Little spiced bits of ooh-hoo porky goodness
and a zuppa is soup.
And it's comfort food in a bowl.
Alright, gotta get these out of the shells get the guts out.
Langoustines are basically
smaller lobsters.
With more of a shrimp-like tail really delicious and sweet.
Seeing this basket as a whole, I know I'm gonna make a stuffed pasta.
So I'm making this filling out of the langoustine and mortadella.
Also in the filling I'm gonna throw the breadsticks.
All right.
Jake took the langoustine, he took the mortadella and he took the bread,
he put it inside the food processor all three ingredients.
Wow!
Oh, yeah.
Being from the North West,
langoustine and seafood in general are just a huge part of my background.
Also, as a kid, I went from baloney sandwiches
to being able to have mortadella, when I first lived in Italy.
So, it's a nice way to be able to tie everything together.
All right.
[Barbara] Langoustine is like one of my favorite ingredients.
It's something that in Italy we use a lot.
Barbara, I just love her instincts.
She took all the interior, all the stuff outta the heads
and she has that in a saute pan and she's roasting that
to develop a great depth of flavor.
I'm building the broth that is going to be the base of my sauce
with langoustine head and body because with the head you've a lot of flavor.
So I'm making fettuccine with langoustine and mortadella.
Okay.
Twenty three minutes.
You don't wanna over cook the langoustine so you gotta keep an eye on it.
When you start seeing a little bit of the shell start changing color
you wanna take it off, cause you know that the heat is gonna carry through
while it's sitting and waiting for you.
Go faster.
Gotta step it up a little bit.
I'm starting to pipe the filling into the agnolotti
that you just cut them off into individual pieces and you have
these cute little pasta envelopes.
- Jake has made something beautiful, beautiful. - They're gorgeous.
- Really nice. - Really stunning.
- Jake clearly knows his way around pasta making. - Holy cow!
- Pasta making technique. - Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Ohh-ho. Perfect.
Mazel tov.
Everybody wins.
[Barbara] You know, it's pasta, for me, when I talk about pasta
it's homemade pasta.
That's it.
That's my baby.
So I just have to roll the pasta into nice fettuccine.
Chefs less than 12 minutes to go.
Barbara has touched only one of her basket ingredients.
She's not dealt with anything else aside from langoustine.
Okay.
Merrin Mae how you doin'?
Doin' good, doing good.
Coming together?
Coming slowly, but surely, together, yes.
Can't go slow now, speed it up.
I think every soup should come complimentary with
a good dipper, that's like one of the best things.
I take the garlic bread and I griddle those to get crisp up.
I've got another food processor so I can make a basil pesto
out of that delicious basil cotton candy.
The cotton candy is inside that pesto in
Jake's station that he's making right now.
The langoustine are very soft so I wanna do some crunchiness.
So I just sauteed the garlic bread with mortadella
just to give the crunchiness that I needed.
Barbara, you've got three and a half minutes, are you okay to-- on time?
Yeah, I think so.
Okay, you have to be. We wanna taste your pasta.
- Chefs, let's go, let's go, get the food on the plate. - Let's go.
Just worried about Barbara getting her food on the plate.
She hasn't even touched the cotton candy.
Barbara, you gotta get it on the plate, you gotta go quicker Chef, let's go.
Leave no plate behind chefs.
Ten. Nine.
I realized that I didn't touch the cotton candy.
- I just grab it and put just a touch. - Seven. Six. Five.
Four. Three. Two.
One.
Time's up.
- Okay. - [all cheering]
[Barbara] I feel great, that pasta tastes amazing.
I'm proud about the flavor a lot.
The flavor is amazing, the only thing, I'm not happy about the presentation.
[Merrin] That was more intense than the app round.
If I win, I feel like I'm swingin', I'm swingin' before and
I'm just hoping I make a grand slam.
Chefs, in round two you set out to make flawless pasta plates with
basil flavored cotton candy,
langoustines,
mortadella,
and garlic bread.
Chef Merrin Mae, what do we have?
Here for you guys is a casarecce zuppa
that is adorned with crisped up mortadella
and langoustine that was dressed with olive oil basil and lemon zest.
Chef, you got so much depth of flavor,
for the limited amount of time that you had.
I feel like your mortadella is exceptional in the crunchiness,
those little crispy bits that you gave us.
Yeah, this is definitely comfort food,
even though it's quite elegant,
the way you developed flavor.
And I love your choice of pasta.
[Scott] I think your flavors are great here.
The langoustine in particular is beautiful flavor,
great texture, cooked perfectly, really special.
The pasta, I don't think you had enough salt in the water,
or any, for that matter.
It's a pasta competition. And if you're not salting your pasta water,
that's the foundation of it all.
[Ted] Chef Merrin Mae, why would it be meaningful for you to win Chopped?
Well, I'm playing for my family.
I have two kids at home, and it was crazy when we were homeschooling my son,
we were literally cooking pizzas, Neapolitan style, off of my drive way.
With the $10,000, my kids and I would want to
put our pizzeria on wheels and take it to town.
Go, get 'em, you know?
Thank you, Chef Merrin Mae. Next up, Chef Barbara.
So, basically, I made fresh pasta,
and I add to the, little tomato sauce.
At the end, I finish with cotton candy
and I put on top.
Well, Chef, you obviously developed so much good flavor,
the way you made that sauce with the langoustine.
I like the texture of the pasta.
The cut is a little rough, but obviously, you made it by hand.
- We watched you do it. - By hand.
[Amanda] I got one piece of the toast that was perfect,
and one must've had a lot of cotton candy on it,
and it was super sweet!
Um, I know cotton candy was the last thing to go on this plate.
We were worried. You hadn't even touched your mortadella for a long time too.
You were in love with the langoustine.
I was in love, you're right. I was making love with the langoustine.
[all laughing]
[Scott] Chef, I think your flavors are great.
I love the usage of the langoustine.
I love the texture of the sauce, the way it coats the pasta.
But I think the usage of the mortadella is a little too disjointed.
Couple of those ingredients got the better of you
as you were so focused on the actual langoustine.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Barbara. Finally, Chef Jake.
Please tell us about your main dish.
All right, Chefs, what I have for you is kind of a Surf & Turf Agnolotti.
With the langoustine tails and mortadella.
Sauce is a super simple fumet with langoustine heads.
[Nilou] Your pasta is so beautiful,
and the execution, I think is so lovely for me,
it eats a little bit dry and al dente.
- Yeah. - [Nilou] I do feel like
- it is a little toothsome. - Got it.
[Amanda] Yeah, Chef, this is an amazing effort.
We were watching you pipe, and there was a pile of agnolotti.
Like, it was fascinating.
And I like that you made pesto with cotton candy.
It makes a lot of sense, you know, the garlicy-ness of the pesto
can really tempt on that sweetness.
But, the whole thing needs moisture.
- More sauce, more broth, more fat. - For sure.
[Scott] Chef, this is one of those dishes I wanna
take you in the kitchen and make with you,
because I feel like there's so many great elements here
that just need to be nuanced a little bit better.
I feel like the filling in particular, it's a little bit dense.
So I think you have a seed of greatness.
But you really have to nurture it a little bit more.
[Ted] Okay.
You all looked chopped in the eye,
without flinching and it's a difficult competition.
So, who's moving on?
[clock ticking]
[Ted] So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jake, you've been chopped. Judges.
Chef Jake, you beautifully embraced this pasta challenge
by giving us some house-made agnolotti.
Honestly, it looks like it's ready for a photoshoot.
That said, we end up with a dry filling,
and unfortunately, your pasta was a little bit undercooked.
So, we had to chop you.
- Well, thank you all very much. - Good luck with everything.
[Jake] I agree with the judges' decision.
I know exactly what went wrong,
and I wish I could do it over again.
Gotta get back on my feet and cook food and do the thing I love more than anything.
[Ted] Chef Barbara, Chef Merrin Mae,
pasta for dessert might be challenging for some.
- Are you up to the job? - Absolutely, yes.
I'm ready.
[Ted] Excellent. Baskets are packed with goodies.
Check them out!
Okay!
[Ted] And, you'll be making pasta desserts using an Italian cookie tray,
strawberry liqueur.
Not so bad, so far.
- [Ted] Pears. - [Barbara] Pears?
[Ted] And espresso powder.
That's something.
Thirty minutes back on the countdown clock.
Let's start it... now!
- [all cheering] - [Ted] Let's go.
[Merrin] Yes!
Pasta, pasta, pasta!
[Nilou] I actually have no idea what to expect
when we're talking about the two words, dessert and pasta together.
I've only seen chocolate pastas and coffee pastas.
- Things like that. - Yeah.
[Scott] I think you can make a pasta dough,
- and then fry it, cover it with powdered sugar. Right? - [Amanda] Right.
I think another option is kind of like what Merrin Mae is doing right now.
She's taken the orzo, she's broken it down,
kinda back into semolina after she's buzzed it.
[Merrin] I'm using the ground up orzo flour in my Zeppole batter.
I'm gonna be making and espresso zeppole
and a pear and strawberry liqueur sauce
that will be hiding underneath a pasta nest.
[Nilou] Merrin Mae, what are you making with that orzo?
I'm making a little pasta nest,
and then a homage, I'm gonna make little zeppole eggs
to represent the mama bird.
It's really cute. That's really--
[Scott] To represent that mama's coming home with ten grand!
- [Merrin] That's right! - [Scott laughs]
I'm in the dessert round.
So, how can I not think about my kids?
So, I wanna win it! I wanna take it home.
The Italian cookie tray, I wanna use all the nutty cookies
for the zeppole batter.
I throw in about a spoonful of espresso powder as well.
[counter clinks]
I think it's really amazing where we're at in this competition.
Two incredibly fierce competitors,
two women competing for the grand prize.
[Amanda] You have Merrin Mae, who's clearly passionate about pasta.
Filipino, but her soul, her hands are Italian.
We're under 20 minutes, Barbara!
Thank you!
[Nilou] We have Chef Barbara, she's from Rome.
Of course, you can't forget about the fact that she beat breast cancer,
she came back from what was a horrible diagnosis.
- She's an inspiration. - [Scott] She is an inspiration. 100%.
[Amanda] Unbelievable.
[Barbara] I'm feeling extremely anxious.
I have one step to win this competition.
But as soon as I see these ingredients,
I knew that I have a plan.
I'm making pasta mille-feuille with strawberry and the pears.
[Merrin] Coming down, coming down.
Chef Barbara, are you making pasta?
I'm making pasta again!
[Amanda laughing] Again!
[Barbara] Sweet this time!
[Ted] Fifteen minutes on the clock. Chefs, half your round is gone.
[Scott] Let's go, Chefs, get it done. Get it done.
[whirring]
[Barbara] This time, I make a sweet pasta,
basically in the regular dough for making fettuccine,
I add some sugar, some butter,
and I used the strawberry liqueur, and the espresso powder,
let me sprinkle in the middle and they start to do and then,
suddenly, this is the best idea ever.
Okay, now, this is... can go inside.
When I discovered I have breast cancer, I said,
"I'm a fighter. I will never give up."
I just need to win. It's just something I have in my blood, in the Roman blood.
[exhaling] Okay.
[clinks]
[Merrin] With the pears, I wanna make it a sauce.
So, I sliced them up thinly,
and I cook it with some butter and the strawberry liqueur.
[exhaling] Okay.
[in sing-song voice] You are so beautiful!
So, as soon as the pasta was ready, I bring it back to the station.
And then, I start to saute the pears,
we are topping with the strawberry liqueur.
Okay, now.
[Merrin] I am making my pasta nest with fresh sheets of pasta.
And I cut them into thin little strips that I know that will fry well,
and kind of mimic the little ribbons that you'd see of twigs
for a bird's nest.
Coming down, coming down!
[Ted] Chefs, two-minute warning!
[clinks]
[Scott] Let's go, Chefs!
[Amanda] Under! Under two minutes.
Barbara has made coffee pasta.
And she's gonna make a layered Mille-Feuille.
[Nilou] Ah!
[Amanda] So, she's making a layered dessert.
[Barbara] When I piped the cream on the pasta,
I saw the Italian cookies.
So I decide to sprinkle and give like a little kick.
[Amanda] Check all your ingredients.
Make sure you have all four ingredients incorporated.
Plating time!
[Ted] All right, Chefs, final seconds of the final round!
Ten. Nine. Eight...
- [Nilou] Oh, my gosh. - [Ted] Seven. Six...
- Push, push, push! - [Ted] Five. Four...
Three. Two. One. Time's up!
[all cheering]
[Nilou] Oh, look at the high five... Oh, I love that.
Holy guacamole!
[intense music playing]
[Amanda] This pasta competition has been so impressive, so inspiring!
These two chefs that have so much passion for what they do.
At this stage,
Chef Barbara and Chef Merrin Mae are neck-in-neck.
They both did well on appetizer, they both did well on entree.
So, it all comes down to dessert right now.
[clock ticking]
[Ted] Chef Barbara, Chef Merrin Mae,
in the final round, we asked you to use your pasta skills
with an Italian cookie tray,
strawberry liqueur, pears and espresso powder.
Chef Barbara, what do we have?
So, I make pasta Mille Feuillet with pears and strawberry liqueur.
Chef, this is um...
This is great.
I love the cream. The pasta has perfect texture,
the strawberry isn't necessarily a flavor in there.
But the texture of that pear really has great mouth feel.
Thank you, I really appreciate that.
[Nilou] Chef Barbara, the judicious use of sweetness and acid
is my favorite thing about this.
- It feels very Italian. - Thank you.
I mean, it feels like I'm having a little dessert at a local trattoria.
But for me, the pasta itself, after frying it, really needed some sugar on it.
- That would bring this whole thing together. - Okay.
- [Ted] All right, Chef Barbara, thank you! - Thank you, thank you.
Finally, Chef Merrin Mae, please tell us about your sweet treat.
Here, you guys have in front of you,
two baby zeppoles inside of a pasta nest.
I am a mama bird, and I kinda want to pay a little homage, like,
"Hey, even when mama's working, I'm thinking about you."
Aw.
I think you have some really good flavors here. You really do.
I think this is a really good plate of food.
You cook from your heart, and it's incredible to experience.
The flavor on the zeppole is delicious.
I love the idea of having these pasta strips
dipped in either caramel sauce or the mascarpone,
and you represented pasta in two ways.
One worked I think and one didn't.
We saw you going through the pastas in your mind,
and the first thing you thought of, was to grind the orzo.
A great idea.
But I think in this preparation,
you might've had to part cook it to get it tender.
Sure.
That makes me wonder what is the texture of a zeppole like
when it's made with pulverized orzo?
- Crunchy. - Crunchy.
Chef Merrin Mae, there are pieces of pear that are so delicious,
so perfectly cooked, I wish I could have an entire bowl of these,
and I would be so, so happy.
Okay, please give the judges a few minutes. Thank you, Chefs.
[both] Thank you.
I think this was a great day of pasta eating and pasta cookery!
I agree. Obviously, Chef Merrin Mae and Chef Barbara
have brought so much love.
Even in the first round Chef Barbara's stuffed, fried paccheri
with the porcini mushrooms.
She represented them the best out of anybody in that round.
What about the fact that Merrin Mae made her pasta from scratch?
She ended up creating a sauce
- that we were all kind of obsessed with. - [Scott and Amanda] Yeah.
I mean, she came out of the gate swinging.
We should definitely talk about entree round.
Chef Merrin Mae made this broth with pasta...
of this Zuppette as she called it.
I was impressed. Flavor-wise, again, I think she really stepped it up.
Che Barbara made a really delicious pasta but there were some missteps there.
[Nilou] Yeah, the tenderness of the pasta was exceptional.
But she'd only came back to most of the ingredients
late in the game. It needed three more steps.
So, do you know which chef came closest to pasta perfection?
We do.
Excellent.
[Merrin] I'm gonna be honest, I'm scared. But I'm excited.
And I am praying on the pasta Gods, that I did enough.
I want to win so badly!
I have adrenaline all over and it's like fighting all over my body.
I think I have a good chance to win.
[Ted] So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Merrin Mae, you've been chopped. Judges.
[Scott] Chef, you have an incredible talent
and an incredible passion for pasta and we taste it in your food.
But I think the fatal flaw for you really was your dessert round.
Those little pasta pieces of orzo
that you had inside your zeppole, just couldn't be overlooked.
And so, we had to chop you.
Fair enough.
Thank you so much, it's been an honor. Thank you.
[Scott] Our honor, chef, thank you.
[Ted] Really fun to have you here today. Thank you. Best of luck to you, Chef.
[all clapping]
I'm sad inside, of course, duh!
I was so close!
But I did it! So I'm very proud of everything that I did.
And that means, Chef Barbara Pollastrini,
you are the Chopped champion. Congratulations!
[all laughing and clapping]
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'm glad because pasta is, you know, I would...
- They wouldn't take me back in Italy if... - [all laughing]
Or else... you need to adopt me.
You're an inspiration. The way you overcame,
survived and then said, "I'm not gonna take
what you're telling me. I will overcome everything."
Thank you so much.
I'm Barbara Pollastrini. I'm a fighter, I'm a survivor,
and I'm Chopped champion.