[Christian] The house always wins.
Let's prove it wrong.
Ooh, yeah! You're gonna like that.
[all exclaiming]
[Ted] Chopped has always been the ultimate culinary gamble.
Oh, yeah, baby.
[Ted] But this tournament gives competitors control of the game like never before.
[man] Hell yeah. If there's something I can
switch out to roll the dice on, I'm gonna do it.
Big money, big money, big money!
[man] About to get a new food truck, baby.
What's up? Let's go!
[Ted] Let's see what you've got.
Boomshakalaka!
Oh!
The lights are bright and the stakes are high.
Minimum of $25,000 for the winner.
- You telling us there could be more? - I am.
[inhales]
Come on, lady luck!
- It's still Chopped. - [straining]
[Ted] It's still brutal.
This is crazy, dude.
[Ted] It's harder than ever.
[Kaleena] Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
You feeling lucky?
Yes! Get it! [laughs]
[Ted] Let the good times roll.
[man] Ooh, Lord, have mercy!
[Zane] I'm a huge risk-taker in the kitchen.
[Graham] I'm not someone who's scared to take a gamble.
[Kaleena] I don't think you can be successful
without taking big risks in the kitchen.
[Monique] If you play it safe, you're not living at all.
What I serve, it's my personality on a plate.
Hold on a second.
I gotta shake it out a little bit.
My style of cooking, it's everything that just
brings me happiness and brings me joy.
I've cooked for 300, 500 people. I've cooked for celebrities.
If I can do that, I can do anything.
[Kaleena] Every time you have an event, it's a chance.
Every dinner service is a chance.
I'm the executive chef at the Thompson Hotel in Seattle.
I've been cooking for about 16 years.
Just been trained to move fast.
So I'm gonna be able to handle anything that gets thrown my way.
[Zane] I grew up in the Ozarks in Arkansas.
I make Italian food with farm-to-table ingredients
that stem from my heritage.
Just how Grandma made it.
Growing up, hunting was definitely a part of our life.
And every holiday, we would always make
a Bolognese out of rabbit, or squirrel.
I'm a huge risk-taker.
I'm a level 10 on competitiveness, and I am here to win.
[Graham] My biggest strength is my willingness to take risks.
I worked in some of the finest restaurants
in South America, Central America, all over the United States.
I'm bringing my knowledge, my experience,
in addition to an amazing mustache, to this competition.
There's a lot at stake here and I'm planning on taking it all.
[Ted] You have made it to Chopped Casino Royale!
Welcome, Chefs.
- Hello, thank you! - Thank you, Ted, you're looking sharp.
Why, thank you.
In this tournament, the competitors have more power than ever.
New house rules.
When you open your mystery baskets,
you don't have to accept the hand you've been dealt.
- Whoa. - Yes.
[Ted] You can decide to ditch an ingredient
for the chance to pick another by the roll of the dice.
And there are some insanely lucky
and unlucky ingredients under those golden cloches.
Even numbers bring good luck.
Odd numbers, bad.
- Got it? - [all] Got it.
The winner scores a spot in the Casino Royale grand finale.
$25,000 is the minimum jackpot there.
- You telling us there could be more? - I am.
Whoa!
[Ted] Baskets first.
Open them up!
[laughing]
[Ted] And here are the appetizer ingredients.
Caviar parfait.
I don't know what the hell this is. [laughs]
[Zane] Mmm. It's good.
[Ted] Purple spinach.
All righty.
[Ted] Spicy pickle potato chips.
Oh, my gosh.
[laughs] Smoked rattlesnake.
[Ted] And smoked rattlesnake.
All right.
Smoked rattlesnake, no thank you.
This is not an ingredient I wanna work with.
Who wants to gamble?
Hmm.
Uh, I'll... I'll take a gamble.
I'll keep it unchanged.
- I'll take it the way it is. - [Ted] You will?
[Graham] Yep.
- Chef Monique? - I'm gonna gamble.
The action's over here.
[Monique] As a chef, you have to take chances.
We can play it safe, but there's no fun in that.
All right, Chef Zane, what are you swapping out?
I'm swapping out the smoked rattlesnake.
- Let's roll them. - All right, Chef, let's go.
[all cheering]
[Christian] All right, Zane, let it roll.
[Ted] Whoa!
All right, Chef Zane, you got a seven
which is an unlucky number in this case.
So we go to the cloches.
- All right. - Ooh.
- Oh. - Yeah.
[Ted] Duck tongues.
[Zane] I feel like my gamble paid off.
I've shot a few ducks in my day.
- [Ted] Chef Monique? - Yes.
What're you, uh, kicking to the curb here?
The rattlesnake.
[Ted] Okay.
I don't like snakes. I don't touch no snakes.
And I definitely have not tried no snakes, so that's definitely going.
- Ah! Ah! - [Graham clapping] Here we go.
- Oh, wow. - What do we have?
- [Ted] Four! - [exclaims]
[all cheering]
[Ted] All right, lucky Monique,
you are getting rid of your smoked rattlesnake.
[exhales]
- [Ted] Japanese eggplant! - [Monique] All right.
- All right. - [Ted] Matches your shirt.
I feel good, Japanese eggplant is something that I can make magic with.
[Ted] Okay, everybody knows their appetizer ingredients.
Twenty minutes.
Time starts now.
So I gotta say, how much fun is this tournament?
We've got a whole new wrinkle that really kind of twists up the game in an exciting way.
Behind, coming down. Behind, coming down.
This is a blast. The first time ever
- where the contestants are able to have any sort of say-- - Mmm-hmm.
Whatsoever in their basket ingredients.
- Yes! - This is... This is incredible.
[Ted] I actually would have accepted this basket myself.
I actually think it's a good basket.
I don't know. Never trust a snake.
Rattlesnake is very stringy.
Has a lot of bones in it.
- Ugh. - So these chefs need to be very careful
- how they get the meat off of this thing. - That's no gift.
[Graham] Smoked rattlesnake.
I think this is gonna be a very fun ingredient to work with.
And, man, is it boney.
So I mixed it with a chiffonade of spinach,
egg yolks, mayonnaise, and mustard.
So I'm making a soft boiled egg stuffed with caviar,
rattlesnake, and purple spinach.
I'm so stoked to be here.
I wanna win Chopped because it would mean bragging rights
and then also, you know, it's a decent sized chunk of change.
Judges, we are not playing penny-ante poker here.
There is a minimum of $25,000 on the line in this tournament.
I mean, $25,000 is a tremendous amount of money.
These chefs need to fight for it.
I want the $25,000 so bad, I can feel it in my hands.
I want everybody to think like, "Oh, my gosh.
Mo is so nice and she's so sweet."
But then I come in like a mama bear
and I'm just, like, scratching,
and I'm just pawing people.
Because I came in here to win. Whoo!
I am very happy that I have the eggplant instead of the rattlesnake.
I'm just going to season that up with ground ginger,
and I'm going to make a potato chip encrusted potato cake
with caramelized eggplants and sautéed purple spinach.
We got this. You got this.
Girl, we've been through worse.
So this caviar parfait has hash browns, eggs,
smoked salmon, crème fraîche, and caviar.
You could utilize that hash brown, with the chips.
I think there's an opportunity there.
[Monique Burns] Going good. Doing great.
Less than two minutes on the clock, chefs.
[Kaleena Bliss] All right.
So, Zane wanted to give up his rattlesnake and take a roll.
And he ended up with duck tongue.
But duck tongues are not the worst thing in the world.
I've had them fried.
Almost eat 'em like little wings.
Mmm-hmm. They're mini wings.
- The problem is, they need a long cook. - They do?
Braised duck tongue.
I'm from Arkansas, I love some ducks.
I've hunted ducks. Been around ducks a lot.
And I know duck tongues definitely take a long time to cook.
So I'm gonna quick braise the duck tongue
and I'm making a duck tongue crostini
with ricotta and caviar.
With the purple spinach,
my brain automatically goes to a braised green.
So I'm braising it with onions, garlic,
white wine vinegar and some canned tomatoes.
It's gonna be beautiful.
[Kaleena] Uh-oh. [bleep]
The Chopped Casino Tournament makes me a little nervous.
I don't have a lot of experience gambling in casinos.
I constantly second guess myself.
I have, you know, severe anxiety issues.
But I do also have confidence in myself.
Behind, behind, behind.
So, I'm making an orecchiette pasta
with smoked rattlesnake and purple spinach pesto
with a crispy pickled potato chip crumb.
Kaleena, what you doing? You feeling lucky?
You're too quiet over there.
I hope so. [laughs] Oh.
I've opened smoked rattlesnake already
but I didn't realize there were so many bones in it
and I'm thinking, "Oh, God.
What have I gotten myself into?"
Chefs, five minutes left on the clock.
You gotta get all those ingredients going.
[Kaleena] The judges called five minutes
and I start panicking. [laughs]
I'm thinking, "You wanna go to the finale,
you need to get it together."
I do not wanna be sent home in the first round.
No time for this.
I'm dealing with a rattlesnake bone.
And I'm panicking. [laughs]
But I tell myself, "Figure it out."
So I'm thinking there's plenty of
smoky, briny juice
and I'm gonna incorporate that smoky flavor into my pesto.
And I'm looking at this caviar,
I'm thinking, "Okay, I've used it in pasta sauces before,"
so I figure it's gonna work really well.
All right, gotta call it. Two minute warning, chefs.
Get it on the plate.
Oh, man.
I'm feeling a little overwhelmed
and my filling is too loose.
[sighing]
This is not working well for me.
[Monique] It is extremely crazy watching
everybody else running around
but I have a sense of calmness right now.
I feel like lady luck is on my side.
[Zane Dearien] I pulled my duck tongue out of the deep fryer
and then begin picking it off the cartilage.
Time's running out
and the duck tongues are a lot harder than I thought they'd be.
[groaning]
Chefs, 45 seconds on the clock.
Woo!
Remind me to up my anxiety medication when I get back to town.
My heart's racing and I'm thinking,
"Oh, my God.
Don't be one of the competitors that don't finish their plate."
All right, guys. Here we go.
Get those tongues.
- Move it, chefs. Seconds to go. - Come on, guys.
- [Ted Allen] Ten... - [exhales]
- Nine, eight, seven... - [Scott Conant] Let's go, chefs. Let's go.
- Six, five, four... - It's on game.
- Three, two, one. - [Tiffani Faison] Go, go, go.
- Ah! - [Ted] Time's up.
[screams]
- [Tiffani] All right. - Sorry, I had to scream. I had to scream.
I am ecstatic with myself.
I feel like I am gonna move to the next round.
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
For your Casino Royale appetizer round,
your basket contained caviar parfait, purple spinach,
spicy pickled potato chips,
and smoked rattlesnake.
You had a chance to replace an ingredient
if you chose to roll the dice.
Chef Lucky Monique.
I chose to swap out the canned rattlesnake.
I got the Japanese eggplant.
What I made for you today
was a spicy pickle encrusted potato cake
with mascarpone garnished with some caviar.
I also sauteed the purple spinach
and Japanese eggplant.
Chef Monique, the combination of
the spinach and the eggplant,
I love that together.
It's got this beautiful soft texture that I like.
It shows really good cooking.
- Thank you. - Um, and really good instinct.
This is like a plate of food where you feel good.
- [Monique] Yeah. - When you're sitting down eating it.
- Yeah. - You know what I mean?
I love the creaminess of the eggplants.
The one issue I have is
you put white wine in the spinach?
- Yes, I did. - [Christian Petroni] It went in a little late.
- Mmm-hmm. - Right? And it wasn't able to cook out.
- Yes. - So, it's like you're almost, like, you're eating your
- glass of wine. Right? - Yeah.
- Listen depending on the day. It depends. - [laughs] Yes.
This potato, I love the texture of it.
- Yes. - I love the approach.
I think you can even have personalized it a little bit, frankly.
- [Monique] Mmm-hmm. - [Scott] Reshaped it.
Season the interior a little bit more.
Mmm. Okay.
[Ted] Mo, why are you competing with us?
I'm competing because as I have gotten older
I have developed a great amount of anxiety.
Cooking just keeps me calm, it keeps me rooted.
So I am extremely proud of myself.
- [Monique] So. - Me, too.
Okay. Chef Monique, thank you.
You're very welcome. Thank you.
Chef Graham, you decided not to roll the dice. Why?
I liked what was in that basket.
That's a good answer.
- [Scott laughs] What? All right. - It's a really good answer.
I think it came out all right
and it kind of plays into the casino theme.
When you come to a casino you're looking for elegance.
So, you've got a caviar with a soft poached egg
that's been encrusted with spicy potato chips
and then the filling is made out of purple spinach and smoked rattlesnake.
So, this is like an amuse-bouche.
That first bite is just so rich.
So decadent. I mean, bro,
a soft poached egg.
You got the caviar.
I love the crunchiness and the acid from the pickled chips.
The egg is cooked perfectly
but I keep trying to get into the rattlesnake.
- Is it in with the egg yolk? - It is.
It's searching for rattlesnake in here
and I'm just not getting it.
All right, Chef Graham. Thank you.
Next up, Chef Kaleena.
Chefs, I have made for you an orecchiette pasta
with smoked rattlesnake
and purple spinach pesto.
With a little bit of caviar.
So, Chef Kaleena, you also chose
to stick with the original basket. Why?
I don't always have the best luck.
I might be a little pessimistic.
Kinda like glass half empty girl so I was figuring
I don't wanna make the glass anymore empty
- and I will deal with what I have. - [all laughing]
[Christian] Incredible.
This is the game so well played.
Just like that purple spinach.
To make a pesto out of it, very, very smart,
and then using the chips on top
kind of brightens up all the greens that you have in the orecchiette.
This is so deftly done.
Thank you.
Yeah, I mean, it's very tasty. Very, very tasty.
The pasta's al dente.
The salt is right and you get little pops from that
caviar, you know, afterwards.
Which is, you know, you find one here and there.
And it's like, "Oh, yeah, this is great."
Thank you.
This is a good pasta. Think your flavor's great.
I like the backdrop of smoke,
I like the texture of the potato chips on top.
- You nailed this. - Thank you.
Okay. Chef Kaleena, thank you.
And finally, Chef Zane.
I made for you a purple spinach,
duck tongue crostini.
I did, uh, choose to switch out the rattlesnake
and drew duck tongue.
And so for that
I treated the duck tongue as if it was like any kind of braised meat.
[Ted] So you knew how to work with duck tongue?
Uh, yes. Uh...
Growing up in the South whenever we hunt them
we just make little tongue poppers. You know what I mean?
Chef Zane, it's really clear you know how to cook.
The spinach's like, it's super tasty.
The duck tongues...
This is probably as good as it gets.
Chop them up, throw them in the fryer.
So, I think really smart.
Absolutely. Thank you.
[Christian] Zane, I really love crostinis.
It is like a blank canvas, right?
It's tasty. I love the way it looks.
But I'm looking for something to crunch through.
You gotta get it crispy, crispy, crispy.
I agree with Christian.
If you're gonna make a bruschetta
- you need to have texture, too. - Understood.
[Ted] Okay, Chef Zane, thank you.
In a minute we'll tell you which three culinary
gamblers remain in the game.
Thank you, chefs.
[Monique] I feel good.
I don't think I'm getting chopped.
I feel like I did my dish extremely well.
I believe I can take this whole championship
to the top.
It was a lot of pressure in that room.
But based on the judges' critiques
I feel like the harshest
might have fell on Zane's shoulders.
[suspenseful music playing]
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[suspenseful music playing]
Chef Monique, you've been chopped. Judges.
[Christian] Monique, your eggplant was beautiful.
Creamy. But the potato cake...
We just wished the inside was transformed a little more.
And at the spinach,
had that white wine gone in a little earlier,
we'll be talking... And that's how close this was.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you so much for the opportunity
and best of luck to you guys.
Honestly, I am a little saddened
but someone has to walk
and I just had to take that walk.
Chef Zane, Chef Kaleena, Chef Graham,
it's time to deal out your entree ingredients.
[suspenseful music playing]
Open up basket two!
Okay. What is this? [chuckling]
[Ted] And you are looking at a cheese ball die.
No idea what this is.
All right.
[Ted] Jackfruit.
Hmm...
I'm happy about this. [chuckles]
[Ted] California Cabernet.
[laughs]
[Graham Calabria] This is a big shank.
[Ted] And a goat leg.
Okay.
[Ted] Okay. So, chefs,
who would like to make a swap?
Think I'm gonna gamble my cheese ball.
I actually also think I'm gonna go with the cheese dice.
I'm getting rid of the goat leg.
[Ted] All right, sounds good. We have three gamblers.
This is gonna be fun.
Chef Zane, the dice are yours.
All right, let's do this.
- [all cheering] - There we go.
- [all] Whoa! - [Ted] And we've got a...
[all cheering]
- There you go. - [Ted] You've got...
[suspenseful music playing]
- Snow peas! - [Kaleena] Yes!
- [Ted] Well done. - [Tiffani] Great ingredient.
[Zane] I'm happy. I'm happy.
That's gonna cook a lot quicker than a goat leg.
- [Ted] Kaleena, you are up next. - Kiss.
- Oh, hand each. - [all cheering]
Get it. Get it. Get it.
[Tiffani] See it.
- [all cheering] - [Tiffani] Yes! Six.
[Scott] Six. Good job.
All right. Let's see what you've got.
[suspenseful music playing]
Saffron!
- Okay. - [all exclaiming]
[Kaleena] I can work with that.
I can work with it.
- [Ted] All right. Next up, Chef Graham. - Keep it even.
- [Tiffani] Keep it even. - [Christian] Oh, there it is.
[Ted] Whoa!
[all] Nine.
[Ted] Nine. Let's see what we've got.
A gelatin tuna salad.
[Graham] All right!
- [Kaleena] You think... - [all laughing]
You should have kept the cheese die.
[Graham] Ouch.
[laughs] That sucks.
Bummer, dude.
[Ted] All right. 30 minutes.
Time starts now.
- [all cheering] - Let's go, guys.
Big money. Big money.
[Ted] Well, judges, no matter what way the dice fell
this was bound to be a tough round.
Graham and Kaleena, both gave up the cheese dice.
Why?
I feel like it's a gift wrapped in a casino bow.
We've got some cream cheese. We've got some cheddar.
It's like a spreadable, edible, kinda
delicious appetizer.
You can fold it into almost anything.
Do you think it would've been nice for polenta?
- That's a great idea. Yeah. - [Christian] Oh, that would be delicious.
[Zane] I tasted the cheese ball die,
my game plan is to make a good cheesy polenta.
All right. Here we go.
The casino gods were on my side.
I'm making cheesy polenta
and a roasted snow pea salad.
Olives in it. Sneaky little devils.
My grandmother Bobby,
she is one of the biggest inspirations in my life.
Growing up, she was always in the kitchen.
She inspires me to follow my instincts and take risks.
Come on, baby.
Grandma Bobby's in her 80s now.
And for her to watch me win Chopped
would mean everything to her.
[Tiffani] We talked about the goat leg.
It is so much work to get very little amount of protein.
[Ted] It's gamey. It's really a difficult ingredient.
- But I think I might get rid of the jackfruit. - [Tiffani] Yup.
Well, the good news about jackfruit is that
it has a beautiful sweetness to it.
In a lot of circles it is utilized as a protein.
You can do wonderful things with jackfruit.
[Kaleena] I'm pretty excited about the jackfruit.
And I'm immediately thinking, "Okay, there is my sweet element."
I'm making a goat stew
with the jackfruit pine nut relish.
I am a big fan of eating
stewed meat with creamy polenta.
And I'm thinking if I incorporate the saffron
it'll be super aromatic.
Go, go, go, go, go.
[Christian] So, guys. Sweet Graham over here.
Throws an odd number.
He got a tuna salad lime gelatin thing.
It's the equivalent of getting kicked out of the casino
than punched in the parking lot.
[Ted laughs]
[Graham] This gelatin tuna salad
got a little bit of lime flavor to it.
A little celery and a little tuna.
Thinking I can heat this up
and turn it into gastrique that'll complement
Brussel sprouts.
I'm making lime gelatin Brussel sprouts
with goat steak au poivre.
I'm gonna get a nice crust on the outside of this goat leg.
And then, I'm deglazing my pan with some of the red wine.
- Come on. - [sizzling]
[Kaleena] I taste the meat and I'm realizing
it's still a little tough.
So I'm cranking it on high
and I'm putting the lid on
hoping that it'll tenderize.
Chefs, less than ten minutes left on the clock.
Ten minutes. Ten minutes.
I have less than ten minutes left
and I still haven't even touched this jackfruit.
Maybe this is what I want.
So I tried to extract as much of that flaky meat as I can.
You got this.
I would describe myself as a thrill seeker.
I love adventure. I'm not afraid to take risks.
And I think it's vitally important as a chef
to try to push the envelope.
I ain't got no worries.
I have a nice char on my snow peas
and I tossed them with frisee,
arugula, lemon and olive oil.
[exhales]
All right, chefs. One minute left to go.
Get it on the plate. Let's go!
[Kaleena] Come on.
I'm checking on this meat...
It's just not getting tender.
I'm panicking.
Come on, you [bleep].
Ah... [exclaiming]
Ten seconds to get it done, chefs.
Ten, nine,
- eight... - [Tiffani] Whoa.
- Seven, six... - [Scott] Come on, chefs. Let's go.
- [Tiffani] Go, go, go. - Five, four,
- three, two, one. - Be clean.
[Ted] Time's up!
[all applauding]
- [whooping] - [bleep]
I'm feeling less confident about mine.
[Graham] It's looking good.
I felt good.
I'm pretty excited with how the goat's gonna taste.
I'm not super excited about the jackfruit.
But I did what I could with it, so...
- [Scott] How are you feeling? - [laughs]
Like I'm gonna pass out.
I'm worried that my goat is gonna be tough
but if anything can save me hopefully is just the flavors.
Chefs, for your second Casino Royale round
you got a basket of a cheese ball die,
jackfruit, California Cabernet,
and a goat leg.
We also gave you a chance to swap out ingredients
if you were in the mood to gamble.
Was luck on your side, Chef Zane?
Luck was definitely on my side
as I chose to get rid of the goat leg
and rolled up snow peas.
And so with that I have a cheesy polenta
with a seared umami jackfruit
and a, uh, seared snow peas salad.
Zane, I love vegetable
forward dishes and you would not expect that from seeing me
- but it is something that makes me so happy. Right? - [both chuckle]
Really vibrant plate. You eat with your eyes.
That wine reduction reminded me
of something that my father makes called Vino cotto.
Which is essentially cooked wine.
The problem with that wine sauce is
it's screaming for fat. The whole dish is screaming for fat.
- But all in all, I mean, this is beautiful. - Thank you.
[Scott] Chef, there's a lot about this I really like.
I think the polenta is a great texture to it. Really good flavor.
I like the salad.
And, uh, it's, clearly, I ate all the vegetables like a good boy.
[Tiffani] The snow peas are so good.
Like, you knocked it out of the park.
And the jackfruit,
searing it was so smart.
Like a really good way to handle it.
Using the cheese ball die with the polenta,
- it's yummy. - Thank you, chef.
Okay. Chef Zane, thank you.
Next up, Chef Kaleena.
You did an ingredient swap. You got yourself some saffron.
I have for you a goat stew
over a saffron polenta
with a toasted pine nut and jackfruit herb relish on top.
[Tiffani] I love the color.
But I want a little bit more of the saffron.
It's very hearty and very homey.
And the stew works.
- Think the texture is really nice. - Thank you, chef.
[Scott] Love the sauce that you created
but that goat leg is tough.
And I think if you would've run it through a grinder
it just make a ragu type of thing.
It would've had such a different mouth feel and texture.
I see what you went for with the goat.
I'll say this.
I love the char.
So when I run it through that rich, you know, gravy,
- I can eat this. - Thank you, chef.
So, chef, what would it mean to you to win this competition?
I used to watch the Food Network, uh, with my parents a lot.
And unfortunately, I lost them, uh, pretty,
pretty early after culinary school.
So they never really got a chance to see me succeed
in the capacity that I am now.
Don't think they ever could've thought that I'd, um,
actually been on the screen myself.
So I think they would've really gotten a kick out of it and been proud of me.
I'm sure they're very proud of you.
Thank you.
Finally, Chef Graham.
For you I have a goat flank steak au poivre
with some beurre rouge and then Brussels.
And a braised jackfruit.
So were you happy with your decision to swap ingredients?
I was happy until I saw what I got.
[chuckles] I got tuna gelatin salad.
I'd be bummed, too.
I, uh, ended up using it for my Brussels.
I did like almost like a monte au beurre.
[Christian] Graham, this is cooked beautifully.
Crispy, salty, sweet.
So, all in all, man, you pulled it together
and I'd love a big bowl of these Brussel sprouts.
Awesome. Thank you, chef.
I agree, the Brussel sprout is delicious.
And, frankly, it's the best thing on your plate.
The jackfruit, it needs to be peeled.
Like where that, where that seed is you need to
pull those things out.
You didn't do much else with it either.
The usage of the red wine,
your sauce completely broke with the amount of butter that you had in it.
The big issue is this baby goat.
It's just hammered.
I understand.
Scott hit you on the goat, I'm gonna leave it alone. He's right.
But Brussel sprouts are great. Like who knew that
the tune gelatin was gonna be the star of the show.
So to be able to use that as an ingredient that worked for you,
really shows a lot of creativity and a lot of heart.
Okay. Thank you, chefs.
[Graham] I definitely overcooked my goat
but I got that green gelatin salad
and I was able to make it the star of my plate.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[suspenseful music playing]
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[suspenseful music playing]
Chef Graham, you've been chopped. Judges.
Chef Graham, you gambled away the cheese die
and you got this tuna gelatin salad.
And you made Brussel sprouts which were stunning.
Showstoppers.
The goat. That was a little bit of a challenge.
You rendered it really overcooked.
And with the red wine you made the beurre rouge
and that ended up breaking on the plate.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you all so much.
- Good luck to you, sir. - All right. Take care.
I'm a little heartbroken.
But I'm walking out of here with my head held high.
You know, I feel like my gamble paid off.
Everybody's still raving about the Brussel sprouts.
Chef Kaleena, Chef Zane.
Mystery ingredients awaits.
Check 'em out.
- Ooh. - [chuckles lightly]
[Ted] And what do you have?
Cherries jubilee.
[exhales] I think we're halfway there already.
All right. Here we go.
[Ted] Passion fruit...
That's a good one.
[Ted] Canned butter...
Yeah, yeah.
[Ted] and a vegan turkey log.
Vegan turkey log, I do not know where to begin.
Once again, you have a hand in your destiny.
Who wants to take a chance on change?
- I will, Ted. - [Ted] Excellent.
- And I won't. - [Ted] You won't?
Chef, what ingredient would you like to replace?
I am going to replace the vegan turkey log.
[Ted] Come on, guys, let's gamble.
- All right, here we go. - Here we go
Come on, baby!
- Let it roll. - Yes.
[both] Nine.
[Ted] Let's see what he's got.
It's a century egg.
Oh, man.
Can you describe what they taste like?
[Zane] No, not good.
Actually, Ted, it has an ammonia flavor to it.
- It's ammonia... and sulphur. - Ammonia...
Okay, that's not going to taste so good.
- [Scott] Yeah. - [laughs]
All right. 30 minutes to dessert.
- Time starts now. - Whoo!
- All right. - Let's go, chefs.
So, judges, tofu turkey log...
I think I'm with Zane on that product.
When you smell that vegan turkey,
it kind of reminds me of stuffing.
- It's, like, very dry stuffing It's not turkey at all. - Yes, yes, yes.
It's not good
But I'm going to say tofu turkey versus century egg--
[Scott] I will take the tofu turkey.
I will eat the entire vegan turkey
before I would have a bite of the century egg.
It's an egg that's been fermented,
essentially, over several months.
So incredibly overwhelming that you just have to
dose this so slight just to say that you've used it.
[Zane] The century egg's a real curveball.
I'm thinking that ice cream is the best way to hide
that strong, eggy taste.
I'm making a century egg cherry ice cream.
With a passion fruit, raspberry butter sauce.
And I'm making my ice cream base with buttermilk and the jubilee.
Kaleena is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
She's way more soigné, in the sense that she's very quick
and effective in the kitchen, so I don't have a lot of room to make mistakes.
[Kaleena] I'm looking over at Zane and seeing that he's utilizing
the ice cream from the cherries jubilee.
I'm thinking it's kind of a cop out.
So, I'm making a donut with a mousse
because I want to show the judges
that I can make something from scratch.
I'm making a vegan turkey log and whiskey-cherry donut
with a passion fruit mousse.
The first thing I'm doing is pulling the cherries out of the ice cream
and flambé them with some whiskey.
I'm doing everything I can right now to get to the finale.
I'm gonna beat Zane
because I'm not giving myself another choice.
All right, chefs, less than 20 minutes to go here.
Toasty.
I want to add texture to my dish
with toasted walnuts.
And I tossed them with a little bit of the canned butter,
some sugar and some salt.
Let's do it. Let's... let's go all the way.
And then I add the century eggs to the ice cream base.
Yolo, right?
Wait, did you just put a whole egg in that blender?
- [Scott] I hope he didn't put a whole egg. - Yeah.
[Christian] Oh, my God!
- [Tiffani] Zane. - [Zane] Yes.
Is that century egg ice cream?
Yes, ma'am.
My suggestion would be to not have any ice cream.
[Kaleena] I've never seen canned butter in my life before.
But I open it, and I'm really relieved that it's just butter.
Thank you, universe.
I can incorporate that into the donut batter.
All right, chefs, less than 10 minutes to go here.
[chuckles nervously]
Yo, cousin Zane, how we feeling, buddy?
Feeling strong. Feeling tough.
- Wow, confident. Confident. - [Zane] Are you feeling juicy?
Big and juicy, baby.
To go with my ice cream, I'm making a passion fruit, raspberry butter sauce.
I want to be in the finale very, very bad.
Winning Chopped is a dream of my grandma Bobby's,
and I'm not gonna let anything get my way.
[Ted] So, the dessert round is really exciting
'cause one of these two people is going to the finale
with a chance at winning $25,000
or possibly even more
It's amazing. 25,000 plus,
we don't even know how much further it's going to go.
[Kaleena] It's crazy being one person away to get to that finale.
I'm putting my heart into it because I want to show these judges I want this.
I want it more than Zane.
With the passion fruit, I'm gonna make a mousse using whipped cream
and some whipped egg whites.
Less than five minutes to go, chefs.
[Kaleena] I'm looking at the donut batter.
I need to get these dropped in
so that they're done in time...
Kaleena, are you happy with those cute little donuts?
- Ask me in five minutes. - [laughs]
So, there are three basket ingredients
and Kaleena's donut batter.
So I'm hoping that they work out for her well and they fry up nicely.
-I'm a little concerned for her -[Christian] Yeah.
[bleep]
[Kaleena] Time's ticking down.
There's nothing worse than if I serve an undercooked donut,
but if I'm calculating correctly,
I think it's going to work out in my favor.
[Zane] I taste my ice cream, and I'm very happy with the result.
Looking over, Kaleena seems to be stressed and a little frazzled.
I'm not worried about a whole lot right now.
All right, chefs, less than a minute to go here.
[Kaleena] So, I run to the fryer.
I break open one of the donuts,
and there's a poof of steam that comes out.
It's cooked all the way through.
I think I've got this.
One of you guys is going to the finale for 25K.
- Who's it gonna be? - Me.
[Christian] Yeah!
Final seconds of the final round, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight...
- seven, six... - Let's go, chefs, let's go.
- [Ted] five... - Go, go, go.
[Ted] ...four, three, two...
- [Kaleena] Come on. - [Ted] ...one.
Time's up.
- [applause] - Whoo!
God!
Whew!
[Kaleena] I tried to do as much technique as possible, I left the ice cream,
'cause that was a cop out to me.
So I tried to not just take the easy way out.
[Zane] I'm thinking...
"Wow, I just put a 100-year-old egg into ice cream successfully."
I definitely feel like I should be able to go to the finale.
Chef Kaleena, chef Zane.
For dessert, cherries jubilee, passion fruit, canned butter,
a vegan turkey log.
Kaleena, what did you make?
Today, chefs, I've made for you a vegan turkey log
and a whiskey-cherry donut with a passion fruit mousse.
Kaleena, the donuts are super light.
They're crispy on the outside,
they're really nice and light cakey on the inside.
Heard, chef. Thank you.
Chef, I look at the texture of the interior
of those... of these donuts
and I think you're spot on.
They're cooked beautifully, but I think the mousse texture needs a little work.
If you took a gelatin sheet or two and put that in this mousse,
I think it would have held it a little firmer.
The brightness of the passion fruit mousse is so welcome,
but I wish that it was just a little richer.
Had you made a little zabaione and folded it altogether,
kind of would have, you know, gave me what you wanted.
But this is... this is spectacular.
Thank you, chef.
All right... Chef Zane,
We have a century egg-cherry ice cream,
a passion fruit in raspberry sauce
and then a little toasted semi-sweet, uh, walnut.
Well, chef, I've got to tell you, I think your instincts are really good here...
to be able to try to bury that century egg is a great idea.
I just think you shouldn't have used the whole egg.
You could have cut that egg in quarters or eighths.
You could've used 1/32 of that egg,
and it still would have shown up,
and that's a challenge to eat, man.
- Yeah. - [Tiffani] Zane.
If there's anything that saves the century egg in this ice cream,
it's this sort of earthy quality of the walnuts
and the oil from the nuts
pulls a little bit of that funk
and the sulphur away from the century egg.
It was a really, really smart move.
The cherries and the cherry sauce
and the sort of raspberry sauce on the side
also does help a bit.
Well, I'm nervous.
I think this is delicious.
I'm looking for the ammonia,
and I keep eating ice cream,
and I just keep enjoying it more and more.
Then you get, like, a little a little chunk of raspberry,
that is just so gosh darn tart.
You taste the cherry ice cream,
and the century egg is like speckles of vanilla in it.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just losing it.
All right. Thank you, chefs.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
All right, judges, who was our luckiest gambler today?
Well, we had Kaleena who gambled only in the second round
and we had Zane, who gambled... He just went for it all day long.
- [Scott] All day long. - Yeah.
[Tiffani] In the first round,
he got rid of that canned rattlesnake
and ended up getting duck tongues.
Yeah, and when he sauteed that purple spinach
with a lot of lemon and garlic, like, that was lovely.
But then, yeah, his bread wasn't toasted properly,
and then going up against Kaleena's pasta,
that purple spinach pesto
- was such a... such great game play. - Yeah.
Yes, and she had a beautiful smokiness
from the smoked rattlesnake.
Yeah, she did not roll the dice,
but she ended up really winning in the first round.
But I thought her second dish was not her brightest moment.
She rolled the dice and she got saffron,
and we got saffron polenta.
That was... it was good.
Was it as much saffron, as we'd all like to experience that luxury
gorgeous saffron?
I don't think so. And for me, the goat leg was so overcooked.
[Scott] The meat was a little tough,
but the sauce itself was spectacular,
particularly with that polenta.
Zane, he rolled the dice, he got rid of his goat leg
and then he ended up getting snow peas.
Like, what a gift.
He used his cheese dice to, like, really pump up that polenta.
So I think, for me, Zane really comes around a corner
and kind of shows up in the entree round.
No, a 100 percent.
You can tell he put care into the plating of that dish.
It was whimsical,
it was pretty, I wish there was some more fat or butter
in that reduced red wine sauce.
But, you know, I'll take what I can get.
I feel confident in what I put up today.
But Zane is a really badass competitor.
I hope I pull it out. [chuckles nervously]
[Zane] Feeling a little uneasy about the egg,
but I didn't take a break from rolling the dice.
I wanted to keep proving myself,
and I want to be in the finale very, very bad.
So... whose dish on the chopping block?
- Chef Zane... - Yeah.
[Ted] You've been chopped.
- Judges... - [Tiffani] Chef Zane,
you came out of the gate swinging.
You took a huge risk rolling your dice
and you got duck tongues.
Like, that was almost an impossible barrier to get around.
You did it anyway,
and buddy, like... [laughs]
You went to the craps table one last time.
And you got that century egg
Unfortunately, you just used too much of it.
That's how they roll.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you.
Uh, rolled the dice one last time
and it came back to bite me a little bit.
But I don't have any regrets, and I know my grandmother,
she's going to be very proud of me when she sees this.
And that means Chef Kaleena Bliss,
you are the Chopped champion.
And you will return to our Casino Royale
to play for a minimum of $25,000,
and it could be more more
- [cheering] - Thank you so much.
I feel on top of the world right now, and I'm so excited,
but I can't even imagine how tough the finale is going to be.
There's just so much on the line for this.
Get it together.
This is the most exciting Chopped I've ever seen.
You got this. You got this.
Oh, my God!
Players are playing.
Come on, Come on, come on, this is it!
[Chris] You don't look stressed.
I never look stressed. I'm just primal screaming on the inside.
[Ted] They're putting it all on the line.
Remind me to up my anxiety medication.
[Ted] It's always a gamble.
- Ahh! - [Ted] Five, four...
- Whew! - [Ted] ...three,
- two, one. - [judges laughing]
It's Casino Royale