[Ted] Chocolate. Chocolate.
Chocolate.
It's chocolate day!
[Ted] God help us, we can't get enough.
[both] Chocolate cake!
Wow, wow, that's a lot of fire.
[Lawrence] It's like burning the 10K right in front of me.
[Anthony] I made a mess.
[Claudia] You guys have to speed up.
Guys, you have to speed up, come on!
- All right! - [Anthony] My heart is pounding.
[judges shouting encouragement]
We're really excited about chocolate.
I'm Anthony Jones, Executive Sous Chef,
Red Rooster, Miami.
Table 23, let's go.
At Red Rooster, it is a very eclectic blend
of southern African, Island Caribbean
and Asian influences.
My chef, Marcus Samuelsson, he's a Chopped Champion.
I have to bring this win.
Just keep making everyone proud.
I'm looking forward to using chocolate in the competition
because of the smokiness that it can bring to a dish or even the acidity.
I'm naturally stubborn,
a bull through and through, so nothing's gonna stop me.
My name is Candice Custodio
and I'm a freelance chef in Paso Robles, California.
I like to explore my Latin heritage
which is Puerto Rican and Mexican.
I absolutely love chocolate.
[chuckling] It's my guilty pleasure, I sneak it whenever I can.
In ancient Latin cooking, they used a lot of raw flavors of chocolate
and I really like to explore that when I'm cooking.
I am very fiery.
I don't see any other way but me winning.
I'm focused on being the next Chopped Champion.
[Laura] I'm a former model and now, I'm a serious chef.
I'm Laura Gillway, I'm the pastry sous chef
at Butcher & Bee, in Nashville, Tennessee.
If you would have told me ten years ago today,
that I would be competing on Chopped,
I would spit out my celery laughing. [chuckles]
A baker's mind is like a crossroads between art and science.
It takes so much finesse and so much precision.
I'm a very driven person and when I'm in the zone, I am unstoppable.
I'm Lawrence Smith, Chef-Owner of Chilte,
a new-school Mexican taco truck.
Before I got into culinary, I was playing football.
When I was a professional football player, food was fuel.
And now it's art.
One with pickled onion
Being on a chocolate-themed episode is very exciting
because I went to Oaxaca with my girlfriend,
Oaxaca's like a mecca of chocolate.
I got to meet and play with a whole bunch of different chefs out there
and we were making chocolate from bean, toasting it, crushing it.
Give me one more second.
I went from playing professional football
to culinary school to owning my own business in three years.
And now I'm focused on being the next Chopped Champion.
[Laura] Walking in to the Chopped kitchen,
I feel a bunch of nervous energy.
Oh, my God.
[crew member speaking]
I'm excited, I'm terrified.
I have no idea what's gonna happen.
- Hi. - Hello, chefs.
[chefs] Hi. Hello.
You are here for a special competition
celebrating one of the most revered foods on the planet...
liver.
- Just kidding. - [all laughing]
Sorry. Chocolate.
Whoo! I love chocolate.
For your battle, you will find chocolate in every basket.
Appetizer, entree and dessert.
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Let's see what's inside.
Chocolate candy bar milk.
Chocolate candy bar milk, okay.
- [Ted] Fair trade chocolate truffles. - That's easy.
- [Ted] Duck breast. - Duck breast?
Duck breast. Duck is one of my favorite proteins
and I know it pairs well with chocolate.
[Ted] And chayote squash.
I feel good, I cook with chayote all the time.
Twenty minutes.
Time starts now.
[judge] Chocolate!
Really excited about chocolate.
It's chocolate day!
Did you know that 100 pounds of chocolate
are eaten in the US every second?
How many are you responsible for? Be honest.
98, 98.
Tiffani, Amanda, you are joined
- by a special guest judge. - Yes.
Baker and cookbook author, Claudia Sandoval.
Thank you so much.
Claudia, how important is chocolate in your life?
Oh, my gosh, so important. I mean,
some of my most nostalgia-filled memories
of my abuelita, I mean,
we cook with it in moles.
You know, we drink it. I love it in all of its ways.
-[Amanda] And honestly, -[Laura] Behind you.
- [Anthony] You're good. - [Amanda] Let's be real.
- [Tiffani] Yeah. - I eat chocolate every single day.
- Yes. - Obviously, chocolate goes great with citrus.
- [Tiffani] Love spice. - With spice.
I think the challenge here is you have 20 minutes,
you have duck breasts, you have to render the fat,
and get it cooked properly.
The classic style, in the pan, skin-side down, that's a 20-minute procedure.
- I would get into smaller pieces. - It's hard.
[Lawrence] I'm sizing up Chef Anthony,
Candice and Laura.
Just trying to see if they're off-balance
and make sure that when they look at me
that I look calm and composed.
[Laura] Behind you, I'm coming down.
Chef Lawrence, what are you making?
Oh, I think I'mma do a...
duck skewer with a little caper, raisin and chocolate sauce.
I know that's gonna be a way different preparation
than everybody else is gonna do.
And then we're gonna pair it with
the sweet and sour pickled chayote.
I'm a street chef so I wanna bring this great piece of meat
do it street-style and show the judges a nice appetizer.
I know duck and orange go really well
and chocolate marries with all of that.
So, I'm making the pan-seared duck breast
and a chocolate truffle orange sauce.
So my great grandmother started a fast food chain in the Midwest called Runza.
I mean, those are some of my earliest memories
in the kitchen, down at the Runza.
I know my grandma's watching
and she'll be really proud of me.
- [Lawrence] Sorry, I'm shaking the table on you. - It's okay.
[Candice] Normally, I would cook a duck over 20 minutes
in a cold pan, but this is Chopped
and I only have 20 minutes.
So I'm starting in a hot pan with some butter.
The dish I'm gonna make is a spiced chili duck breast,
do a little bit of chocolate sauce
and then do a little bit of a hash
with the chayote and some spicy chorizo.
- Coming behind you. - [Anthony] You're good.
From the beginning, once I see the duck breast,
I know I'm gonna sear it.
- Coming in behind you. - [Anthony] Yeah.
I'm gonna go for spot-on medium rare.
I'm going to make duck tataki
with a chutney using the chayote squash,
some dates and currants.
I'm gonna prepare it two different ways.
I start breaking down the apple and chayote squash
so I can make a quick slaw with it.
I wanna make sure to get a nice acidic pickle.
[Lawrence] Anybody have regular sugar?
- Regular sugar right here. - Got it, take it.
- Thank you, boss. Behind. - Yeah.
Less than ten minutes on the clock, chefs.
[Laura] Coming up.
[Lawrence] For the chayote I'm just gonna do, like, a real quick pickle.
Some sugar, salt, vinegar, sweet-and-sour style.
[Claudia] That chayote squash, you can slice them up,
you can julienne them, you can saute them.
I mean, you can pickle them.
There's so many ways that you could really play this up.
[Tiffani] It's got flavor of almost, like, a raw potato.
For my money, I think you really have to sear it,
you've got to get some beautiful caramelization
to really pair it with chocolate.
[Laura] The chayote.
Oh, my God.
I taste it. It's crunchy.
It seems like it can go either sweet or savory
so I add it to shallots and the garlic to saute.
[Amanda] We've given them fair trade chocolate truffles.
It's ganache in the center, chocolate on the outside.
Fair trade just meaning that
the farmer who grows the cacao beans
is directly getting paid for it.
[Tiffani] There's also a chocolate candy bar milk.
A little nougat, a little caramel,
a little peanut, lots of chocolate.
It's very sweet.
[Candice] When I start the sauce,
I'm a little concerned that it's gonna be too sweet.
I have two elements of sweetness in there
and I'm worried that it's gonna overpower the dish.
But I'm gonna have some spiciness from the chorizo,
some tartness from the chayote
and then just that nice crispiness from the duck skin
for it to balance out the flavor.
[Anthony] Next, I start working on the sauce.
I'm going to use the chocolate candy bar milk and the truffles.
Chef Anthony, I saw molasses go into a sauce.
- What is that? - That's gonna be the glaze
for the duck, Chef.
I don't want it to be overly sweet
so, oddly enough, I add molasses
because I know molasses has enough natural bitterness to it.
[Tiffani] Chocolate milk and molasses?
Chocolate milk, molasses...
- [Tiffani] All right. - And some of those chocolate truffles.
Wow, wow, that's a lot of fire.
Lawrence has his duck skewers just
literally on fire, on the grill,
which is not what you wanna do.
There's so much fat on that duck,
the minute it flames up, it starts to take like gasoline.
[Ted] Yeah, and that also tells you that
he's got his grill turned up way too high.
[Lawrence] Working against this clock, the pressure of the kitchen,
it's a little challenging.
I'm hoping that I can pull it off.
[Tiffani] Lawrence has his duck skewers just
literally on fire, on the grill.
[Lawrence] I hear the judges getting a little worried.
I'm not worried about the flames.
It might add a little nice smoke, little char to it.
You have four minutes left.
Chef Lawrence, we have duck skewers over there.
- Is that right? - You heard that right, Chef.
[Tiffani] All right, they cooked properly?
Yeah, I'm going for that little nice mid-rare.
- [Amanda] It's fun. - I know.
It's down to the wire!
[Claudia] You guys have to speed up.
Guys, you have to speed up, come on!
I have my saute of garlic, shallot
and chayote
and I have my chocolate orange sauce and...
Coming in, behind you.
[Laura] I poured my sauce into my saute.
Chef Laura, you gotta get plates down and start plating,
you have two-and-a-half minutes left.
Plates and plating.
[Candice] So, I'm tasting my sauce
and I think that it's pretty balanced.
I still taste some of that sweetness,
but with the time running out,
there's really not much more I can do, but get it on the plate.
[Anthony] I feel pretty confident.
All the ingredients are playing well together.
My flavor's on point.
I have plenty of acid, plenty of heat and spice.
The duck is unctuous and fatty,
so I know it's gonna work.
Less than a minute, chefs.
Less than a minute, ten seconds of plate.
[Laura] I cut into the duck breast,
realized that it's a little more rare
than I would have liked for it to be.
[Amanda] Oh, my gosh.
-Come on, guys, you got this. -[Amanda] This is so stressful.
That clock ticking down is intense, it's on you.
[Ted] Chefs, careful now, watch that clock.
Ten, nine...
- [Amanda] Oh, my gosh. - [Ted] Eight.
- Seven... - [Amanda] So stressful.
[Claudia] Hurry up!
- [Amanda] On a plate. - [Ted] Five.
- [Amanda] Taste it. - [Ted] Four.
- [Ted] Three. - [Tiffani] Push, push.
[Ted] Two, one. Time's up.
[judges applaud]
- [Claudia] Wow. - [Amanda] Whoa.
- Oh, God. - I made a mess.
I make a mess even when I'm not here so... [laughs]
I had something in my mind and then
- getting it on the plate was just-- - I know, I know.
Oh, my God.
I'm looking at their dishes.
And they all look really good.
Candice's looks super solid.
And, yeah, think it's going to be a great competition.
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
Your first assignment was to make appetizers
using chocolate candy bar milk,
fair trade chocolate truffles,
duck breast and chayote squash.
Chef Lawrence, please tell us about your dish.
I did a duck breast skewer
with chocolate and orange caper raisin sauce.
And then I did the pickled chayote on the side.
Why did you decide to cook the duck on a skewer?
I'm a street chef right now so it seems like a fun kinda street food.
Chef Lawrence, we all saw you grilling it
and there was flames coming off of it.
We were all very worried about your duck.
I'm less worried now.
There's a little inconsistency,
but it's an interesting way to cook duck breast.
But I have to tell you, this sauce,
it works really nicely with the duck.
The capers give you a gravitas
and the raisins and the vinegar
are just the right thing to kinda balance the rest of it.
Yeah, I have to agree. The sauce is so surprising.
Yes, the duck was overcooked,
but I can go down that road with you
into this kebab world
where it's okay for the meat to be a little over.
Chef Lawrence, I'm jealous 'cause they actually had
you know, meat that was like, a lot better cooked, this is...
- It's over. - You know, I couldn't even cut these.
The real bright star for me
is kinda that idea of pickling chayote.
It's really successful.
- Thank you. - [Ted] Thank you, Chef Lawrence.
Next up, Chef Candice.
[Candice] The dish is a spiced chili duck breast
with a spiced chocolate sauce,
has a little bit of veal demi in there.
And you have a chayote and chorizo hash.
Chef Candice, I know that this is a hard protein to cook,
but I've got, like, really uneven cooking.
So, tried the sauce on its own and
it really just comes forward as just chocolate.
But the chayote, it's nice and tender
and it's really delicious, thank you so much.
- Thank you. - [Amanda] Agreed.
Chayote saute, it's delicious.
- [Candice] Thank you. - [Amanda] The sauce is a little bit sweet but...
I like the spice level in there.
[Tiffani] Chef Candice, my duck is raw.
I think you got a nice render on the fat, but that's it.
But I think for the sauce,
when you said veal demi, I though, oh, that's so smart, right?
'Cause the richness of the veal demi
can really, like, allow the chocolate to just subtly tuck itself in there.
Had you switched the ratio of the chocolate and the veal demi,
I think we'd really be on to something.
Chef Candice, thank you.
Next up, Chef Anthony.
Hello, everyone, we have a duck tataki
with a chutney and then a chayote and apple slaw.
Chef, it always bugs me to even say it,
but it was hard to eat out of this dish, as pretty as it is.
- Right. - [Amanda] So I can't really get in there.
And grab the ingredients I wanna grab for that perfect bite.
I do think there's a fine line between, like,
tataki and rare duck.
- [Anthony] Right. - So I think you needed to either go
thinner on the slice...
- Understood. - Or cooked a little more in a different preparation.
But, Chef, I love the slaw.
I think it's really fresh and crisp and bright.
And I like the chutney that you made.
It makes a lot of sense with duck.
Yeah, so, like, I could eat that
every day of my life and I would be so happy.
- Loved it. Well done. - Thank you.
[Tiffani] I agree. The chayote,
putting in the chutney and also giving us the slaw,
really good game play.
The anise quality of the basil
kinda links up with that molassesy chocolate
and it's just such a smart dish.
- [Ted] Where do you work? - I work at Red Rooster in Miami.
So, I get to work with Marcus Samuelsson
Did Marcus give you any tips?
He just said for me not to cut myself and not to mess up.
- So... - That's useful.
- Thanks, Marcus. - [Anthony] Yeah, that's all the help he gave me.
Thanks, Marcus.
Yeah, just go in there and win.
- [Claudia] We could have told you that. - [all laughing]
- Chef Anthony, thank you. - Thank you.
[Ted] Chef Laura, what have you made for us?
I've made a pan-seared duck breast
with sauteed chayote
and chocolate truffle orange sauce.
- How do you feel about chocolate? - Oh, I love chocolate.
Yeah, as a pastry chef, I work with chocolate every day,
in all different forms, you know.
I am familiar with all of the different complexities of it
and what it takes to make that chocolate pop.
I mean, I'm not gonna sugar-coat it,
- I think you had some issues in this round. - Yeah, I did.
Starting with the duck being very, very rare.
And I think you fell in to the basket trap.
We gave you two sweet things and you gave us a sweet sauce.
- [laughs] - [Amanda] You gave it right back to us.
But I think it was really smart to cook the chayote squash.
The pairing with chocolate,
it had to be seared, like you did.
Chef Laura, Amanda's covered it for the most part.
There's traps in these baskets.
Like, chocolate's such an incredible ingredient,
really it's about controlling the sugar
with the chocolate that we're giving you.
I have to commend you,
I kinda would have gone in the same direction.
When I saw this, I was like, duck, orange,
- I mean, it's like, what you think, right? - [laughs] Yeah.
- Thank you so much, Chef. - Thank you.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Laura.
[Laura] After hearing the judges' comments,
I'm not feeling too confident.
I wish I could say I was feeling good
but, I'm pretty nervous.
[Anthony] I think as far as competition goes,
Candice and Lawrence are gonna be definitely hard ones to beat.
Laura will obviously be an extreme challenge
if she makes it to the dessert round, 'cause she's a pastry chef.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Laura, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Laura, we felt that you had such a great idea
in using the orange juice, obviously.
Duck and orange is just a classic.
Unfortunately, the duck was not well cooked.
And so, we had to chop you.
I understand.
- [Claudia] Thank you, Chef. - [Ted] Good luck.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much
I regret not starting with the duck on a pre-heated pan
I went with the classic method, but the clock didn't agree with that.
So, humbly, I agree that I should've been chopped.
[Ted] Chef Anthony, Chef Candice, Chef Lawrence,
are you ready to apply the lessons you learnt in Round 1?
- Yes. - [Anthony] Oh, yeah.
Let's see what you're up against.
[both chuckle]
Is this chocolate? Yes.
[Ted] White chocolate deviled eggs.
Oh, no. It's terrible.
Gross.
[Ted] Ruby chocolate.
- Ruby chocolate bar. - [Candice] Yummy.
Another chocolate.
[Lawrence] I'm looking at this ruby chocolate.
I haven't had it before, I haven't worked with it.
You also have rump roast.
Rump roast.
Good protein. Good protein.
[Ted] And rainbow carrots.
Carrots.
Beautiful carrots. I hope they're carrots and not chocolate.
Those are actual real carrots.
[Candice] Okay. [laughs]
Carrots and chocolate don't necessarily always play well together.
Huh!
So I'm curious as to how I'm gonna work this one in.
[Ted] 30 minutes to do your best work.
Clock starts now.
[Anthony] I taste the ruby chocolate and I do get some fruity notes from it.
But it also is cloyingly sweet.
So I'm gonna bring chili into this dish.
Gochujang Korean chili paste.
It's gonna balance out the dish entirely.
So you know, I'm making Korean chili beef.
And I haven't cooked a lot of Korean dishes before in my life,
but have a general concept of how they like to layer flavors.
[Tiffani] Ruby chocolate is actually a red cocoa bean.
So it is chocolate, but it doesn't get to the maturity
of like the darker cocoa beans that we are used to,
whereas white chocolate is not chocolate at all.
Butter, cream and sugar.
The white chocolate deviled eggs, it's like an insane sugar rush.
I wanna make soubise with just, you know, an onion-based sauce.
I grab fish sauce, soy sauce, limes and coconut milk.
I started adding in toasted cashews to help thicken the sauce.
In this round, once again I'm going for big risks, big plays.
Looking at this rump roast, immediately I'm thinking grind it down,
put it inside a pierogi.
I grew up making them with my mom, stuff them with whatever you want.
It's gonna be the way to go to tenderize that meat.
Rump roast is, like, a larger piece of meat, it's heavy
It's got some connective tissue and not a lot of fat,
so that's, kind of, one of the tricks of rump roast.
It takes a lot of time to cook, if you don't break it down.
[Lawrence] For the filling for my pierogi,
I'm doing onions, carrot, butter and the rump roast.
For my pierogi dough, I got a mixer.
Oh, come on. Come on.
Unfortunately, the mixer wasn't thickening it up right.
- Come on. - Chef, you got to do this.
- And then you tilt it. - Ah!
- Oh! It's a tilt. Cool. - Yeah.
Thank you.
[Lawrence] So I hand-knead it,
I grate the white chocolate deviled egg right into that dough.
I'mma boil my pierogis first, pull them out,
and get them into a pan with some butter to finish cooking.
For my ruby chocolate red wine sauce,
I'm getting the ruby chocolate in with the red wine,
salt, butter, some guajillo chilis and all that working together.
Chefs, less than 20 minutes to go here.
[Candice] So my plan for the white chocolate deviled eggs, I'm not really sure.
So I'm just gonna put it in a bowl and melt it down,
and hope that inspiration comes to me.
The ruby chocolate, I'm definitely gonna incorporate it into guajillo chili sauce.
So my plan is to do a guajillo chocolate beef taco
with a little pickled carrot and onion and slaw, and some garlic zucchini on the side.
What I learned about working with chocolate in the appetizer round
is it's a lot more potent when you have to put it into a savory dish.
So I'm putting the star anise in there,
hopefully that balances out some of that sweetness from the chocolate.
For my salad, I want the carrot to stand out.
I slice it nice and thin on the mandoline, I mix it in with Napa cabbage,
some lime juice, toasted cashews and lots of herbs.
Rainbow carrots, I mean this is something that I absolutely love.
It literally makes my holiday table.
- They're a blank canvas. - Yes!
So there's a little bit of sweetness, but you start roasting carrots
and they're not too sweet.
[Candice] Next, I'm gonna start peeling the carrots for the slaw
and kind of mincing down some of that onion and getting it in the white beans
and vinegar-ness of the escabeche to kind it give them a little bit of umami.
So I have my tortillas out and I get the oil going,
hoping that I'm gonna crisp them up,
but then, I turn back around and my tortillas are burnt.
I don't have enough time to do new tortillas, so I'm thinking
we're gonna do tostadas.
[Lawrence] There's two minutes left on the clock, my pierogis are still in the pan.
Pressure's amping up. I'm grabbing some sour cream.
I'm finishing my sauce, tossing a salad and getting a quick vinaigrette on them.
[Ted] Lawrence's pierogi, you can see that at least one of them broke open,
but it's basically retaining its shape.
- The problem is, it's gonna have water inside. - [Claudia] Yeah.
Come on, guys. Finish up.
[Claudia] Oh, no! You should be plating now, guys.
[Anthony] I wanna do beef lettuce wraps.
Usually, we buy beautiful large heads of lettuce,
so it makes a nice cup to eat with.
Oh, no.
But these ones are too small.
Chefs, here's the one-and-half minute mark.
Romaine lettuce isn't the sexiest lettuce
to go with my dish, but this is a concept that I'm already sold on.
Got to hustle, 1 minute 18 seconds.
- You don't get extra time. - [sighs]
All right, chefs. Make every second count here.
Ten, nine, eight,
- [Amanda] Come on. - [Ted] Seven.
Six, five...
- [Tiffani] Again Anthony with the lettuce. - [Amanda] Why?
- [Ted] One. Time's up. - [Tiffani] You've gotta finish every plate equal.
[judges applauding]
[Anthony] Where did you get pierogis from?
-I'm dumb, dude. I'm dumb. I tried to make them. -Amazing.
[Lawrence] I decided to make pierogis
because it's part of my family, something I grew up eating.
Definitely a little creative
and tough to do in this competition, so,
hopefully, I get the creative points with the judges
and the flavors hit.
That looks great.
Yours looks good.
[Anthony] I used both chocolates in two different ways.
One in a pretty good application,
came up with it on the fly, so, yeah,
pretty happy with it.
Chefs, in the entree basket, you found white chocolate deviled eggs,
ruby chocolate, rump roast and rainbow carrots.
Chef Lawrence.
So I made a pierogi stuffed with beef.
I did a sour cream on the bottom, and then I did a ruby red sauce.
The white chocolate is in the pierogi dough.
And then I did a little orange vinaigrette dressing on the salad.
Chef, this was really impressive thing, to go for the pierogi. [chuckles]
[Lawrence] Yeah, it's something I grew up making with my mom.
My mom, she's, like, Slovak, Polish, all that European mix, so...
My sister-in-law is Ukrainian, so she makes these a lot
and we just love them, they're comfort food.
- Unfortunately, the dough is super thick. - [Lawrence] Yeah.
- I don't think you had the time to roll it... - Yeah.
the thinness that it need to be.
Chef Lawrence, you know, you risk nothing, you win nothing, right?
Unfortunately, I think these opened up in the water,
which bums me out, but I enjoyed your sauce.
It's acidic, it's bright.
Chef Lawrence, I really think using the ruby chocolate in the red wine reduction
was super smart. It's got the notes of that ruby chocolate, a little bit of acidity to it.
And I pair that with the sour cream, it's so good,
but I just-- I'm searching for carrots.
And they're such a beautiful ingredient and work so well with chocolate.
Really wanna see them here.
Thank you, Chef Lawrence. Next up is Chef Candice.
I made a guajillo chili beef taco.
There's a little bit of ruby chocolate and white chocolate in the guajillo chili sauce.
I also have a fried white bean
and carrot onion slaw
with some garlic zucchini on the side.
- Who are your culinary influences? - [Candice] My grandmother.
She's a mean lady, but she gets the job done. [laughs]
- She's a mean lady? - Yes.
Latina mom.
She loves with anger.
- [Claudia] Loves with anger. - [laughs] Yeah.
- I call it tough love. - [Candice] Yes, exactly.
It's the Latina tough love. Mmm-hmm.
Chef Candice, I really loved the escabeche, you know, it takes me to, like,
my growing up with my grandma.
- Right. Yeah. - [both laugh]
I think where you start to lose me a little bit is with your beef, I mean it's...
- It's really tough. - Yeah.
The star anise comes forward
super intense with the chili and the chocolate,
but I think it needed time to develop.
[Amanda] The beans are an interesting riff.
- And then you just shaved the carrots and added that. - [Candice] Yeah, yeah.
- [Amanda] I loved the acidity there. - [Candice] Thank you.
Chef Candice, I loved the use of the rainbow carrots.
You get to see all the colors and it's really very appealing
to see that coming at you first on the tortilla.
Mine is, I think a little bit further
- than everyone else's, so... - [Candice] Yeah.
It went from, you know, taco to tostada
- to burnt-stada for me. - Yeah.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Candice.
Finally, Chef Anthony.
So in front of you, you have a Korean braised beef
with a gochujang vinaigrette, chili mixed into that.
And then the rainbow carrots are mixed into a salad. I also braised them with the beef.
And then the white chocolate deviled egg
was used to make a onion soubise.
[Tiffani] Chef Anthony, the rump roast is so tough.
It's a little over...
But using that ruby chocolate in the gochujang sauce makes so much sense.
You put your rainbow carrots into that sauce,
and it is like having the most delicious Korean pot roast carrot I've ever had.
For me, I don't know if it's all coming together as a particularly cohesive dish.
But there's moments of just brilliance in this cooking.
Thank you.
- [Claudia] Chef Anthony, this... - Yes, ma'am.
soubise. This was, like, "What in the world?" Like, bottle it, sell it.
- I don't know why it works, but it does. Good job. - [Anthony] Thank you.
[laughs] I just had to get that out, because I'm like, "What?"
Okay. After persevering through two tough savory rounds,
of course, you all want to make a chocolate dessert.
But the judges must pick just two of you.
I'm feeling so-so after the critiques. There were some mistakes I made
that, obviously, I knew I should've done something different or better,
but I was already so committed.
After the judges' critiques, I'm a little nervous. [laughs]
A lot of nervous, It didn't play out the way I wanted it to.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
[Ted] Chef Candice, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Candice, we loved having you here today.
- We loved your spirit, we loved your bold flavors. - Thank you.
When it comes down to your entree round,
the white chocolate deviled eggs and also the ruby chocolate
were in the sauce that was, like, you know, just encasing the rump roast.
Ultimately, the sauce linked up with that star anise
and the tomato paste, and it was
just not developed and it became really hard to eat.
So we had to chop you.
Thank you.
- Thank you. - Best of luck, Chef.
I'm feeling, you know, a little disappointed, but I was expecting it.
I think the chocolate theme did make it a little bit harder than I was expecting.
But that's how it is. [chuckles]
[Ted] Chef Lawrence, Chef Anthony.
Do you think you can rock the last round of this chocolate challenge?
Oh, yeah. Time to melt the competition.
I'm ready to rock it.
[Ted] Let's see what's inside.
Dark chocolate body paint.
- [all laugh] - [Anthony] Body paint.
Didn't see that one coming.
Edible body paint. All right.
[Ted] Double dark chocolate cookies.
All right, good start. Good start.
- [Ted] Greek yogurt. - Oh, yogurt? Also solid.
[Ted] And rhubarb.
Rhubarb.
Your final half-hour in the Chopped kitchen starts now.
- [Tiffani] All right! - [Amanda] It's finally time for dessert.
- I want it. I want this. - Come on, guys!
Whoo!
[Amanda] I am just praying
for beautiful, creative, ooey-gooey chocolate desserts.
And this basket is gorgeous.
Ooh! That's sweet.
The stakes are super high for me.
My business needs this 10K.
Also sweet.
My girlfriend and I are looking at getting a restaurant soon.
So I'm gonna do whatever it takes in this dessert round
to make it happen.
I wanna do this chilled custard and a rhubarb, like, jammy gastrique.
I look at the milk chocolate body paint.
I know, I can incorporate this into my custard very easily.
Yogurt!
I also have yogurt.
I know I'm folding that right on in.
And then, with the chocolate cookies,
it's gonna be that nice, fudgy unctuous chocolaty-ness that the judges are looking for.
So I'm gonna work the chocolate into that custard.
[Ted] So I got to talk to you about the double dark chocolate cookies
because they are off the charts!
They're chocolaty, it's, like, fudgy.
- I actually dipped them in Greek yogurt. - Yep.
And the, like, sourness of the Greek yogurt
and the richness of the chocolate was so good!
20 minutes to go here.
- [Lawrence] Right behind you. - [Anthony] You're good, bro.
I'm up against Lawrence, the man who was able to pull off pierogis.
I, in a million years, would never even have attempted that.
So it just proves to me that going into dessert, anything's possible.
- I want a chocolate cake. - [Amanda] Me too.
[both chanting] Chocolate cake!
- Chocolate cake! - [Ted] You should've done that
- in the first minute of the round. - [laughs]
[Amanda] There's still 16 minutes left.
- No more time to bake. - [all laugh]
[laughs]
With these ingredients, everything that's going on,
cake is screaming in my head, there's just no other option.
I'm gonna make a cake.
And I know, I'm gonna use it to make a dark chocolate trifle.
And then I grate in double chocolate cookie.
Then I also add in Greek yogurt for the fatness and texture.
I throw my cake mix into the oven.
One in a madeleine pan and one in a small muffin pan.
I got to cover my bases in case one doesn't come out.
Next, I start slicing strawberry, raspberry and the peeled rhubarb
to make a sauce, a coulis.
It feels amazing to be so close to possibly being Chopped Champion.
My heart is pounding.
[Amanda] We also have rhubarb.
Talk about sour, we think of it as a fruit, but it's really a vegetable.
It's a great, great foil against all that rich, sweet chocolate.
For the rhubarb gastrique, I really wanted a mezcal.
I didn't have that, so I'm adding in
smoky bacon and tequila, it's gonna kind of marry
and make that flavor profile.
We have tequila going in the berries.
Chef Lawrence did just come back from Oaxaca.
I'm sure he's craving mezcal right now.
- I would love some mezcal. - I know. I would too, actually.
Ten minutes on the clock, chefs.
- How's your custard? - Hopefully it's good.
[Anthony] Oh! You're winging it that much?
Shoo! I've been wing it all day, haven't you noticed?
- I thought that was my job, eh? - Oh, nah.
Ten minutes left, I got to come up with a crunch component.
I grab the chocolate cookie, hit it with some salt
and throw it in the oven to crisp up.
[Ted] All right, judges.
Fess up, from whose boudoir did this dark body paint originate?
- [judges laugh] - Okay, let me be clear.
I don't need body paint, to paint to keep things spicy.
[all exclaiming suggestively]
[Anthony] Dark chocolate body paint,
it literally tastes just like chocolate ganache.
So, I decide I'm going to melt it down with some heavy cream
and just make a quick, rich sauce.
I know this dish needs texture,
but also, one thing I'm lacking right now is saltiness.
I'm gonna take almonds and the cookie, make a quick little crumble.
You guys, Lawrence just burnt his tray of double dark chocolate cookies.
[Tiffani] Is that what's smoking?
Right over to the oven and the cookies are smoking. [chuckles]
Completely burnt.
Yeah, it was the cookie.
Having something burn at this point in the competition
it's like burning the 10K right in front of me.
[Lawrence] Whew!
[Ted] Chef Lawrence has just burned a whole sheet tray full
of crumbled up chocolate cookies.
I think what he was trying to achieve was, kind of, a cookie crumble.
[Lawrence] Seeing the cookies burning is just heartbreaking,
and I've got to come up with another plan quick.
Nuts.
My plan is to go for pistachios. Just, kind of, toast them up.
Get them on the plate.
[Tiffani] I think one of the things that's really impressed me
is Chef Lawrence's sheer grit.
He picks a direction and by sheer will alone, makes things happen.
[Anthony] I'm making the whipped cream, and for me,
I don't want to necessarily overdo it.
It's just cream and confectionary sugar.
I really need to jump on the next component of my dish,
which is gonna be yogurt and dark chocolate chip mousse.
I'm adding in cognac.
Chefs, here's the one and a half minute mark.
At this point I realize my custard is not setting.
So, I throw some mascarpone cheese in there.
All coming together to make a nice mousse.
- One minute, guys. - Whoo!
[Ted] Chef Anthony is assembling his trifle.
[Anthony] I'm grabbing my coulis. A spoon of that in each one.
Everyone gets a little madeleine to dunk into their mousse.
All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round!
- [Amanda] Ten seconds! - [Ted] Ten.
Nine.
- Eight. - [judges whooping]
[Ted] Seven.
Six.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two...
- [Tiffani] Finish up! - [Ted] One!
[Ted] Time's up!
[judges cheering and clapping]
- [Amanda] Wow. - [Claudia] Whoa!
Well, it's not the dish I exactly had in mind.
I wanted my chocolate to set up.
Custard.
Always a little worried going into the judging.
[Anthony] I feel good. I mean,
chocolate is throughout the whole entire dish.
I have texture going on.
Sweet, little bit of sour, some richness. I'm happy.
[Ted] Chef Anthony, Chef Lawrence.
As the lucky two to make it to the dessert round of our chocolate challenge,
you got dark chocolate body paint,
double dark chocolate cookies,
Greek yogurt
and rhubarb.
All right, Chef Anthony.
I made the madeleines, the mousse,
a dark chocolate almond cookie crumble.
Yeah, just trifle.
[Ted] And the $10,000?
[Anthony] The $10,000, I want to put a little bit aside for myself.
Hoping I get my own restaurant one day.
Can't work for Marcus forever.
And the rest, I want to help my sister, as far as college.
Don't let her be a chef.
Oh, no, no. She's already tried working at restaurants and she burns toast.
- [laughs] - [Anthony] And she takes food to the wrong tables, so...
- Oh, okay. [laughs] - [Anthony] Yeah.
- [Claudia] This is delicious. - Thank you.
[Claudia] I definitely wouldn't have thought to create this madeleine,
but the crispy edges are just phenomenal.
But I think what sings for me, is...
That rhubarb, kind of, coulis that you have in there.
I am very happy right now.
Thank you so much, this is incredible.
Thank you.
This is the chocolate dessert I've been waiting for.
- [laughs] - [Anthony] Thank you.
Because it has lightness, it has richness,
it has texture.
It's really a fantastic dessert.
- Chef Anthony. - Yes, Chef?
I don't like this.
Uh-oh.
- I love it. - Oh, jeez. [chuckles softly]
-I really thought I wanted chocolate cake, -Thank you.
And as it turns out, I want a Greek yogurt madeleine.
With a little bit of chocolate cookie folded into it.
So, I'm gonna take this to go, if that's okay.
Okay. Chef Anthony, thank you.
Next up, Chef Lawrence.
I did a raspberry rhubarb,
like, jammy gastrique.
And then a nice mousse, with a little bit of bacon fat.
Kind of, got a little funky with it. Threw some savory in there.
[Claudia] This totally takes me back to Mexico,
because it reminds me of savory chamoys that you can find...
- Oh, yeah. - All throughout the mercados.
[Amanda] Yes, Chef, I think your mousse has a lot of really great flavor.
And you offset it with all these other flavors.
The freshness of the fruit with the tequila,
the rhubarb jam gastrique,
it's really complex, again, like you did in your first round with that sauce.
It's impressive.
Chef Lawrence, it's so interesting.
I get a little bit of the tequila from the fruit,
and then I get that smokiness of the bacon,
and it's mezcal.
I just really enjoyed watching you cook today.
Great job today, guys.
- Nice job, both of you. - Seriously.
All right. Another short wait and we will know the winner.
See you soon, chefs.
Bacon plus tequila equals mezcal.
- Who knew? - Who knew?
- It's so smart. - Genius.
[Tiffani] In the appetizer round, it's interesting,
'cause the chocolate wasn't as much of the challenge as was the duck.
And Chef Lawrence made duck kebabs,
and essentially went right for the grill.
So, we got this interesting cook on the duck,
really, kind of, inconsistent across the board.
And then, all of a sudden we got the sauce that was super complex.
-Yeah. -It was acidic. It wasn't too sweet.
And it worked really nicely with the duck.
Definitely. And, you know, I like how he pickled the chayote.
Anthony did beautiful. He gave us brightness and lightness
- in that chayote slaw, with all the herbs in it. - [Claudia] My gosh.
And then, this really interesting dried fruit chutney.
But, I will say this.
Tataki by any other name is called raw duck.
I mean, in the entree round, I didn't even think
Chef Lawrence was really gonna make it through.
But I have to give it to him for his creativity
to make this fresh pierogi.
You guys, that takes guts!
And honestly, rolling that dough a little bit thinner,
I think, would've been really, really successful.
And Chef Anthony's entree
[laughs] it was this fan of romaine lettuce leaves,
this big glossy pile of stewed rump roast,
and he made this onion soubise with the white chocolate deviled eggs.
So smart.
But his rump roast was so overcooked.
All right, you ready to get the chefs back in here?
We are.
All right, let's do this.
[Anthony] I'm gonna be the Chopped Champion.
I put out amazing food today, plenty of flavor, plenty of technique.
I took the appetizer round. Lawrence took the entree round,
but I know I'm taking home the dessert round.
[Lawrence] I'm hoping to be the Chopped Champion.
I think I took more creative risks than Anthony did.
I really hope that the judges see that.
[Ted] So, whose dish is one the chopping block?
Chef Lawrence,
you've been chopped.
Judges?
[Amanda] Chef Lawrence,
it's very clear that you chose the right path by becoming a chef.
You're an absolute natural.
In the first round, you took two really sweet milk chocolate items
and created this very complex sauce.
Then, we came to the entree.
I've never seen anybody attempt to make fresh pierogis in this kitchen.
But they weren't thin enough.
The dough didn't have a chance to cook.
And in dessert, you gave us these really unique flavors.
But, unfortunately, you had some errors.
You were up against a fierce competitor
and those errors were just enough to get you chopped.
- Thank you, chefs. - [Amanda] Thank you.
- [Claudia] Thank you. - Shout out, bro.
Thanks, bro.
[Ted] Good luck to you, Chef.
[Lawrence] The hardest thing about this moment is staying positive.
I've lost before. I'm not afraid to lose,
that's why I took the big risks.
And I'm going to shake it off and be back at it.
And that means, Chef Anthony Jones,
you are the Chopped Champion of our Chocolate Challenge.
You leave here with $10,000 and our hearty congratulations.
- Great work, man. - [judges cheering]
[laughs]
Would you care to share a fist bump with the judges and myself?
It would be my pleasure! Yes, please.
I've been wanting to do this all day.
You have no idea!
I'm the Chopped Champion. I've just won $10,000.
I, you know, beat out all the competition.
I'm over the moon, you know. It's amazing!