[Ted] Fans picked all your ingredients.
Freaking, panicking, y'all.
Why would you do this?
How am I supposed to make a dinner with this?
Say a little prayer.
Mom, please help me.
Viewer's choice.
God, this is happening.
Get it. Get it. Get it. Get it.
-Oh, my God. -I don't wanna burn this.
That sauce better be perfect.
I don't know what the hell they were thinking.
Viewer's choice.
You have a whole different ballgame.
You got five minutes left.
That's not enough time.
Everything is better with butter.
My go-to style of cooking is southern soul food.
Oh, this is good.
My drive comes from a long line of a family that does not give up.
I'm very resilient, I'm very driven, I'm very determined,
and I'm allowing my art to speak for itself.
And it's on a plate.
Another bomb dish. Enjoy!
The baskets are definitely like puzzles.
You got a bunch of pieces.
You gotta figure out how they go together.
Perfect.
I do gravitate towards Mexican cooking, spice and lime and acid.
I love my food spicy. [laughs]
I'm feeling tremendously nervous, but I wanna win.
I wanna be able to prove to myself that I can win
and I'm gonna go in there and compete.
Not too shabby.
[Jeremy] The food I like to cook is a lot of South American influence
a lot of Polish influence.
I always think about texture salt, and acid.
As soon as you break it up, a little bit of texture, som acidity and some nice salt.
You'll remember that dish for a long time after you finished it.
I am incredibly competitive, given that I'm the youngest of four boys.
I've always had to prove myself
and I'm ready for it.
I really like to cook everything,
but my favorite thing to coo
is something I've never cooked before.
All right.
Get the juices flowing. It's exciting and new.
That's so good.
I definitely base things a lot off of French cuisine and branch off of that.
Nice!
You know, without risk, there's no reward.
I like things that are challenging,
and I'm very excited to put my skills to the test, for sure.
Look at that. Beautiful!
-Hello, chefs! -Hello, Ted.
-Hey. How are you? -Good morning.
Chefs, you are here for a viewer's choice.
-Oh, no! -God!
What?
[Ted] Our fans picked all your ingredients via social media,
which is to say the baskets might be tougher or stranger than usual.
-Oh, no! -[Adrianna] My heart's beating.
[Justin] Chopped's already really hard
and you throw in the viewer's choice theme
and you have a whole different ballgame.
[Ted] All right, let's see what our fans chose for you in basket one.
Open if you dare.
[Adrianna] Oh, my God.
-[Ted] Interesting. -Okay.
[Ted] And you've got chicken Alfredo in a can.
[Salimah] All right. I gotta work with it.
-[Ted] Rainbow chard. -[Justin] Interesting.
Coconut flakes.
-[Ted] Shredded coconut. -[Adrianna] Okay.
[Ted] And a suggestion that shocked us all...
I don't know what this is. What is this?
-[Ted] ...stomach sandwich. -Okay.
Stomach or tripe is the kind of meat
that comes from the stomach lining of the cow.
We chose tripe because it's high in protein,
relatively inexpensive, and sounds kinda gross.
-Good luck, chefs! -Good luck, chefs!
[Ted] This ought to be fun. For me.
-Yeah. -Yeah, yeah.
[Adrianna] My god. What am I gonna make?
-All right. -20 minutes to do what you can here.
Clock starts now.
-Whoo! -[Ted] Let's go, chefs.
-Let's go. -Let's go.
20 minutes.
Oh, my God, I'm running out of time already.
Ahhh!
Judges, ah, viewer's choice.
The Chopped battle where we all cross our fingers
and hope that something semi-edible
comes out of the havoc the fans have brought.
Viewer's choice is always very difficult.
I mean, this basket is not easy.
What's my game plan here?
My game plan. My game plan.
[Ted] Okay, let's... let's talk about flavors.
We know that's a stomach sandwich.
It's beef tripe.
Tripe sandwich is a very traditional Italian sandwich,
which I think maybe viewers thought would be the most bizarre ingredient.
But to me, that actually gives them a lot of opportunity
to play with really deep flavors.
The tripe is cooked in aromatics,
and then there's a very bright salsa verde,
all packed in this beautiful sandwich.
Behind, coming down, behind, behind, on your rear, on your rear.
I'm familiar with tripe.
The texture of it reminds me of like a cooked pig's ear.
So immediately, I'm thinking I can fry this and it's crispy and delicious.
That's the move there.
So my plan for the appetizer round
is make a crispy tripe toast with sauteed Swiss chard.
So for the sauce, I'm going a little out of the box here.
I'm taking the Alfredo in can.
I'm throwing in some chicken stock, some fish sauce,
a little bit of coconut,
kind of give it like a well-rounded flavor to dip this toast in.
Chicken Alfredo in a can, not my favorite ingredient.
It's exactly as you can imagine
what it is, right?
There are pasta shells that are tossed in this creamy sauce
with chicken as well and doesn't look very appetizing.
We have to actually eat this.
Thanks a lot.
All right. Let's go.
[Salimah] So I'm really familiar with all the ingredients
in the basket from the shaved coconut, the rainbow chard.
Even I can get a little jiggy with the chicken alfredo in a can,
but I'm perplexed
as to how the viewers came up with a stomach sandwich.
Like, really?
All right, let's see.
My plan is to go ahead
and just scratch the tripe all together.
I'm gonna go ahead and toast the bread.
Throw it in some butter,
give it a nice crispy layer to it.
-Behind, coming down. -I'm behind.
[Salimah] I'm gonna go ahea
and turn this into my versio of a rainbow chard parmesan alfredo dip.
We're gonna rock with it.
Chef Justin, how is it going over there, chef?
Uh, I think I'm gonna do a little bit of, uh,
tripe tacos with coconut and pineapple
with a little bit of Alfredo crema.
[Scott] That's a great idea.
[Justin] So for the taco filling,
I'm doing the tripe from the sandwich,
the shredded coconut
and just season it up like a good taco.
I'm making a mess over here.
Should have grabbed a bigger pan.
For the pickled rainbow chard,
I'm gonna chop it up and do a nice little sweet pickle,
how normally you would do
a pickled cabbage on, on a taco?
Come on.
[Adrianna] All my chilies, all my chilies.
My food is very Mexican influenced
because that's what I grew up eating.
I had my mom and my grandma at home
teaching me how to cook every single day,
breakfast, lunch and dinner
Stomach.
I've never seen a stomach sandwich before,
but I'm familiar with stomac
I actually eat it in a traditional soup called menudo
that my mom makes all the time.
You know, I love you menudo, Mom.
So I'm making Menudo with rainbow chard and coconut.
Come on. Chilies, chilies.
Let's see how freakin' hot.
And I wanted to bring the spice element into my menudo.
I grabbed my dried chilies.
I know they need to be rehydrated, cleaned, and blended.
I'm definitely going crazy right now.
Once my chili puree is ready,
that goes straight into the sauce pan with my rainbow chard.
I add some beef stock, thin it out, and start to make the base for my soup.
I mean, this is pretty!
Chef Jeremy, viewers, what do you think?
I'm sorry for everybody I put in the same position in previous polls.
-Aha! -Listen, we've had to eat that in the past.
-This is called karma. -[Jeremy] I'm sorry for what I've done to you.
[Jeremy] So for my fried tripe toast, I take the tripe off the bread.
I just use the bottom of it.
It has the least of that salsa verde on it.
Let's go.
I'd like to meet all the viewers that like rainbow chard.
-I mean, that's very nice of that. -I know.
I love it because you can use the leaves, you can take the stems.
-[Nilou] And the color. -You can cook them a bit.
-They're gorgeous, uh, very flavorful. -[Nilou] Nice.
[Salimah] Rainbow chard is a really simple, leafy green
that I know will work really well with this dish
'cause it doesn't have like a bitter taste to it.
Need to go ahead and start working on that ca of chicken alfredo.
I need to get this blended u
so it can be a starch component
that we can add to this dip and use it as a base.
Growing up, my mother was legally blind.
It never stopped her from accomplishing any of her goals
and being really resilient, and she instilled those qualities in me.
We're gonna go with what we know.
[Justin] For the alfredo crema,
I'm gonna mush out the alfredo sauce
so there's no chunks of pasta and chicken in there,
add a little bit of sour cream,
some lime juice, some salt and pepper,
and just make a nice little crema to go with the tripe tacos.
This is definitely nerve-racking.
[Adrianna] Tripe, don't fail me now.
With the stomach sandwich, that meat is going straight into my menudo as well.
-[Ted] Five minutes to go, chefs. -Five minutes heard.
Are there any ingredients you have overlooked?
Did I get everything?
[Scott] Chef Adrianna, she hasn't touched the canned chicken alfredo,
which is a big problem.
I have no idea what chicken Alfredo in a can is.
I have never seen it before.
I have no idea what to do with this right now.
My nerves are going now.
You don't know where you're going.
We're gonna point you in the direction which is...
-Out the door. -[Scott] ...to the exit.
Freaking panicking, y'all.
-Get it, get it, get it, get it. -Okay, here we go.
Three minutes.
[Adrianna] Oh, my God, three minutes.
I haven't touched this chicken alfredo in a can,
but I am one who likes homin in my menudo,
so I'm gonna use this pasta as a hominy substitute in my soup.
Okay, I got to start plating.
I look at the rainbow chard and I figure I'll saute som
for a nice, soft, wilted green,
and I figured I'd fry some up as well
because having a little bit more texture
with the crispy tripe toast would be fantastic.
Chefs, two-minute warning.
That went quick.
My dip isn't really thick right now.
Salimah, how are you feeling over there?
How's that sauce working out?
[Salimah] I'm feeling pretty good.
Dips to me always taste better with cream cheese.
It gives you that really nice, velvety, smooth taste to it.
It looks real sexy.
[Ted] One minute left! One minute left!
[Adrianna] Behind. Behind you.
-[Ted] Let's go, guys. -Let's get it all done.
-All right. Here we go. -You gotta hurry up. You gotta hurry up.
You need all those ingredients on the plate.
-[Nilou] Oh, my gosh! -[Ted] Get it on the plate. Let's go, chefs.
[Justin] All right, how does this taste together.
I have to build a taco and taste it completed.
[Adrianna] Behind you buddy.
-Justin, having a nice snack? What are you doing? -You gotta taste it.
-Oh, my God! -Don't fail me. Don't fail me.
[Ted] Plate it up. The clock is ticking down.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three,
two, one.
Time's up!
[Ted] Well done. Good job!
[Justin] Guys, this was a really rough. I mean, come on.
Like, those are some really weird ingredients to try
and put together in 20 minutes.
[Adrianna] I'm really nervou to see how this turned out.
I try to do a take on a classic that I love,
that my mom makes me all the time, so,
Mom, please help me.
[Ted] Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
In the first viewer's choice basket,
you found a stomach sandwich,
rainbow chard, chicken alfredo in a can and shredded coconut.
Chef Adrianna, how do you feel about our viewer's choice theme?
[Adrianna] There's one ingredient in there that I love to eat,
and that's, that's the tripe.
Um.
[Ted] Wait, you love to eat tripe?
[Adrianna] I love tripe. Yes.
My mom makes the best menudo, ever.
So, you know, I try to represent her.
[Marc] What did you call this dish?
[Adrianna] Menudo with rainb chard and coconut.
I mean, for me, menudo is with all the spice,
it's like the perfect hangover helper.
But the spice is aggressive.
Yeah, I have to agree on the spice level.
It's definitely up there.
I felt the rainbow chard was a little underrepresented here,
and I think it would have helped, you know, bring the heat down.
I love the spice level. I think this is awesome.
-Spice guy. -[Scott] I really... I like it.
You know, what you should have done with that pasta?
You should have fried it.
Let's face it, it's been sitting in a can for God only knows how long.
It needs texture. It needs to come back to life.
Okay.
Next up, Chef Salimah.
So this is a rainbow chard parmesan alfredo dip with toast on the side.
And what did you do with the stomach sandwich?
So I actually removed the stomach and I ended up toasting the bread.
I think it was actually a good move to make a very good crouton
'cause the flavor of the salsa verde on there is very good.
But what really lacked with the rainbow chard in here,
like when you do a spinach dip,
it's a lot more greens in there.
Heard. Thank you.
So, Chef Salimah, you did such a good job with this bread part of this,
the way you toasted it, it's so delicious, so buttery.
That said, I wish that I saw it in some preparation on your plate.
-Okay. -[Scott] I agree.
I really feel like the basket has been kind of set aside
and it's like cream cheese and that cheddar.
That's what's really coming through.
Gotcha. Heard. Thank you.
[Ted] Who are you playing for, chef?
So I'm playing for my parents.
My mother has been legally blind my whole life,
and a few years ago, she was able to have a surgery.
And for the first time in my adult life,
she was actually able to physically see me. I wasn't like a blur.
-[Ted] Wow! -Stop it.
I'm so proud of her being able to see me on TV now.
[Scott] What a gift?
It is.
-[Ted] Chef Salimah, thank you. -Thank you.
[Ted] Chef Jeremy, please tell us about your dish.
So what I made for you is a crispy tripe toast.
The sauce is a little bit of the canned Alfredo.
And then there's also just a touch of some sauteed Swiss chard.
Chef Jeremy, you did do an amazing job
turning that alfredo in a can into something that tastes quite delicious.
The bright hits of acid.
The sweetness from the rice wine vinegar, really, really nice.
[Marc] The crispy tripe is great.
I think the Swiss chard is cooked well.
I just have a huge piece of bread on my plate.
This could be like a little crostini maybe, make it smaller.
It's just the composition is not quite right.
[Scott] You know, chef, I think your flavors are good.
I think the sauce is delicious.
I like that you did the rainbow chard two different ways,
but you need to be equally as thoughtful with the end result.
You got it.
Finally, Chef Justin.
I saw tripe and right off the bat, my brain just went to tacos.
Kind of like an al pastor.
So I put some pineapple in it,
and that's where I put the coconut, too
and a quick little pickle on the Swiss chard.
[Marc] What you did for transforming the viewer's choice baskets,
you played the game really, really well.
Now play the game really well and concentrate on flavor, concentrate on seasoning,
concentrate on balance because that's where you had a little bit of a rough spot there.
Yeah, I agree with you, Marc. It needed spice.
I think the tripe is delicious,
but the pineapple is a little too much for me.
It kind of overwhelms a lot of the other subtleties that you have inside here.
[Nilou] The balance of this felt a little one note.
And the tortillas wouldn't have fallen apart
if they had been more toasted.
Understood.
[Ted] Chef Justin, thank you.
[Justin] Thank you. Thanks, chefs.
Despite our fans' dubious intentions,
there was some very good cooking in that round.
Unfortunately, only three chefs can continue in this battle.
[Justin] I feel uneasy afte hearing the judges' comments
I... I don't know. I could be chopped.
I'm a little nervous with my dish.
But I really don't know who's getting chopped this round.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Salimah, you've been chopped.
Judges.
[Nilou] Chef Salimah, sometimes a Chopped basket,
especially a viewer's choice basket,
can get the best of any chef.
And unfortunately, your basket ingredients
just got lost in your cheese sauce.
And so we had to chop you.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Good luck to you, chef.
Thank you.
I have no regrets.
I'm actually really proud of myself
because I made it this far.
You don't know what you don't know,
but what you do learn
is things that you can do differently going forward.
[Ted] Chef Justin, Chef Adrianna, Chef Jeremy,
do you think the second viewer's choice basket
could possibly be any more ruthless than the first?
-I have a feeling it will be. -Yeah, absolutely.
-Yes. -[Ted] Here it is.
Open it up.
-Oh, come on! -Okay.
[Ted] And Chopped's maniacal followers chose to give you bison spleen.
[Pablo] Bison spleen has a texture similar to liver
and can be tough and chewy.
Spleen is mineral rich and full of flavor.
Why would you do this?
What am I supposed to do with this long, slimy, stinky bison spleen?
Good luck, chefs.
[Ted] Flat cabbage.
Cabbage, I can work on cabbage.
-[Nilou] Ah! -[Jeremy] This is a pizza.
[Ted] Hot chicken pizza.
[Jeremy] Pickles and some chicken sauce.
I've never even seen this before.
[Ted] And gummy noodles.
How am I supposed to make a dinner with this?
[Ted] When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
When Chopped fanatics give you bison spleen, you've got 30 minutes.
Clock starts now.
-[Scott] Let's go, Chefs. -[Nilou] Yeah!
-[Scott] Let's go. -[Ted] Good luck.
[Nilou] And make something of those spleens.
[Scott] Make it edible, chefs. Let's go.
Oh, that's all we're asking for.
[Adrianna] I'm like super panicking.
[Ted] Judges, our viewers are cruel and calculated,
but I think it's kinda fun
to get our fans involved in choosing the basket ingredients.
[Marc] Well, as you know, Ted, we all love our fans.
But today, I don't know.
We might have a different feeling
because of the spleen that they're making us eat.
[Justin] What in the world!
[Adrianna] Snarly! So gnarly!
So the spleen is very assertive.
I don't find it to be particularly delicious.
[Nilou] We're talking about the level of funk,
the level of minerality, the level of intensity.
[Marc] I'm not 100% sure it's all the funk
that we're gonna be worrying about with this spleen,
it's also the chewiness of it.
[Jeremy] As a whole, I think this might be the worst basket I have ever seen.
I'm trying to formulate a plan while I'm trying to clean this.
I immediately go tonkatsu. I can bread it. I can fry it.
So my plan for the entree round,
bison spleen tonkatsu with a little spicy barbecue sauce
and little fresh cabbage slaw on top.
Let's get that going.
I need to add more flavor to this bison
because I got one shot to make this thing delicious
so I take a little bit of miso,
take a little bit of mirin
and I throw my bison spleen in with that.
I see the gummy spaghetti stir fry
that's going to go into my barbecue sauce for the tonkatsu.
I know that putting a big old chunk of spleen
in a fryer is a bit of a ris
but $10,000, man, you gotta go for it.
Let's go.
I've never worked with spleen before in my lif
I have no idea how to season or cook this piece of meat.
This is so gross!
My head is just spinning now.
All of a sudden, something clicks.
A bison spleen bibimbap.
[Scott] Really impressed with the direction that Chef Justin is going in.
-[Marc] Is the spleen cut up small? -[Nilou] Yeah.
It is cut up very small into little tiny, tender pieces.
That's a good idea.
[Justin] I get the rice on
because the rice really needs to cook.
Cabbage can get braised.
Add the noodles in there so they melt away
and add the sweetness and tr and make something spicy
that overwhelms those irony flavors
permeating through the air off of this meat.
-16:30 left. -That's not enough time.
[Justin] That's not enough time.
[Adrianna] This spleen takes up the first ten minut of this round.
I'm thinking that I'm in trouble.
Come on, spleen. Work with me, buddy. Work with me.
I start picking out the membrane,
and I'd cut up the spleen into smaller pieces
and I know I'm going to fry it.
My first thought is tortilla
I then pivot and I think cabbage leaves as a taco shell.
The inspiration behind this dish is parents on a taco truck.
The tacos are life, so I'm making this bison spleen cabbage taco.
I never thought I'd say that.
I put the gummy noodles on the skillet because I know I need to melt these down.
Ten minutes left in this round, chefs.
Ten minutes, guys. Ten minutes.
[Jeremy] What am I doing with pizza?
We did get to taste the hot chicken pizza before, and it is hot.
-[Nilou] Spicy. -It's not a mild one.
-[Nilou] No. -It's spicy.
[Nilou] Thank you, viewers. Thank you.
[Jeremy] I'm gonna take the pickles off of it.
I'm gonna add that to my flat cabbage slaw
to kind of break up that iron taste of the spleen.
If I win the $10,000, I woul kind of pay back my wife.
When I met her, I wasn't in a good financial spot,
and she really picked me up and pushed me forward.
My wife's been there through everything,
thick and thin, highs and lows.
And I owe so much to her.
J, how is it? You good?
[Justin] Yeah, I'm doing something.
Chefs, you got five minutes left.
Five minutes heard.
[Marc] Adrianna has gone and gotten the tomatillos.
Tomatillos are a very powerful ingredient.
They have a wonderful acidity.
For this kind of meat, I think it's actually exactly correct.
[Adrianna] I know I want to make a salsa.
I cut up my tomatillo, my cilantro, my jalapeno.
Salsa, always.
Adrianna, are you on it?
Do you have all your ingredients?
I don't know.
My gummies are still sitting on the stove, melted down.
I throw them into my salsa as well.
I need to get these cabbage leaves to use for my tortillas.
I don't know if this is gonna work.
[Jeremy] So the mayo I'm making is just add a little fat to the tonkatsu
'cause there is zero on the spleen.
Okay. I used that. I've used that.
Used the cabbage, pickles.
Bibimbap normally has a fried egg on top of it.
[Ted] Oh, double yolk. Good luck.
[Jeremy] So I'm thinking, let's do something fun and creative
and take the fried egg and blend it into a sauce,
add some apple cider vinegar, a little bit of oil, blend it really nice.
I have to use my pizza.
I wanna make a Pico de Gallo for my taco.
I decided to put the pickles into the Pico de Gallo.
[Ted] Chefs, we got a minute and a half.
-[Nilou] You gotta them on plate. -[Marc] Minute and a half.
-Let's go. -[Scott] Less than a minute and a half.
[Jeremy] Welcome to Chopped. Come on.
Deep breath and hit it. Deep breath and hit it.
[Adrianna] So I'm pulling the cabbage out of the water and they're overcooked.
They definitely aren't whole pieces like I wanted.
This is not gonna work the way I thought it was.
Thirty seconds, chefs.
[Nilou] Do you have all of your ingredients?
Every single viewer's choice basket ingredient needs to be represented.
[Scott] Let's go, chefs.
-[Scott] Justin, are you ready? -[Justin] Ready.
[Ted] All right, chefs. All four ingredients cooked,
canned or raw, get them on those plates.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
[Jeremy] Holy!
[Adrianna] Guys, you really threw us a curve ball with that one.
You're lucky you're not cooking this at home.
[Jeremy] I dare any of you viewers to go find bison spleen
and then I want to see you cook it
and then see if you can do i in 30 minutes.
That was insane.
[Ted] Chefs, in the second round, the viewers gave you a doozy of a basket.
Bison spleen, flat cabbage,
hot chicken pizza and gummy noodles.
So, Jeremy, please tell us about your entree.
[Jeremy] So what I made for you is a bison spleen tonkatsu.
I've got a cabbage slaw with the hot pickles in it
and a gochujang barbecue sauce.
I think you went really bold going tonkatsu.
The cabbage slaw with the hot pickles in there is delicious.
This mayonnaise that you've got underneath is fantastic.
The barbecue sauce is a good idea.
I think that the gummy candies are a little too forward pronounced.
[Nilou] Yeah.
Your presentation was honestly very beautiful and really pleasing.
I love the plate that you used.
The white, the contrast of the cabbage is beautiful,
but it's just that this protein doesn't lend itself to this preparation.
It is a real, intense, beyond liver flavor.
[Marc] Ah, it's...
you can't really chew it all the way through it.
[Scott] I agree with Marc. The spleen itself.
-I mean, look at the thickness on that, right? -[Jeremy] Yeah.
You did a lot of really good work here,
but the product itself,
-the spleen itself is a challenge. -[Jeremy] Got it.
-I don't see myself using it in the future. -[Nilou] Well, then good.
-I blame all of the viewers forever and ever and ever. -[Scott] Yeah.
Next up, Chef Justin.
What you have here is an interpretation
on bibimbap with braised cabbage and bison spleen.
[Marc] I think, your bibimbap idea was really, really good.
The bison spleen was used well here.
You cut it very small. It's very tender.
You turned the volume down on that funk
with the sweetness, with the gummy noodles.
The one thing I'm not really crazy about
is that I would have much rather a fried egg on here than this sauce.
[Nilou] You cooked the cabbage beautifully, but if you'd had a sexy...
-Fried egg, I know. -...fried egg
and then it would have like just melted into your rice,
you would have just gotten so much more unctuousness...
-[Justin] Right. -[Nilou] ...and some of that umami...
-[Justin] Mmm-hmm. -...that just it's kind of begging for.
-[Justin] Totally agree. -[Nilou] I want to know how you became a chef?
[Justin] I've been cooking since I was young.
But when I was 15, my parents got divorced
and I was living with my mother.
She's a nurse, so I felt bad
that she would come home after 12 hours of work
and have to make me dinner.
So I started just making all sorts of stuff,
started with super easy with like pastas and bakes,
and just made sure that she had a dinner come home to at night
-so she didn't have to do it. -That's so nice.
-[Scott] Good kid. -[Marc] Wow!
-[Scott] Good kid. -Thank you, Chef Justin.
Finally, Chef Adrianna.
[Adrianna] Okay, so I tried to make a bison spleen cabbage taco.
Cabbage got a little overcooked,
which is why you can't actually pick it up.
I was struggling with the spleen, so it got the best of me.
[Marc] Are you chopping yourself?
-It sounds like you're chopping yourself. -[Adrianna] I'm sorry.
-It sounds like you're chopping yourself. -I'm gonna tell you,
of all of the spleen preparations
I've tasted today,
yours to me is the most delicious.
I like the use of the ingredients.
I do taste a little bit of that gummy noodle flavor.
The sweetness is a nice balance to all the heat.
-Thank you. -[Nilou] Um, your cabbage is overcooked.
Yeah.
It would have been amazing if you could've made us great tortillas.
I wish I could taste the version of this dish if you had ten more minutes.
You didn't think your salsa is going to be as good as it is, but it is bright.
It's acidic, it's spicy. It's absolutely delicious.
And when you're eating it with this breading
and a little bit of the spleen,
-I think it kind of works. -Thank you, chef.
[Scott] Chef, you have to rely on your skill set
and you have an incredible skill set of making fantastic flavors.
-Don't sell yourself short on that. -Yes.
-I need to work on my compliments. -Knock it off.
-Like, knock it off. -Knock it off.
-[Adrianna] Yes, chef. -Yes, sir. Thank you.
[Ted] All right.
Before the dessert round, one more chef must leave us.
[Jeremy] Without a doubt,
bison spleen is the hardest protein
I have ever worked with,
but if the judges can look past the thickness of my bison spleen,
I think I'm in the next round, for sure.
[Adrianna] This was a very difficult round,
and my dish was the least composed out of the three.
I feel like that's gonna be a downfall for me.
[Ted] So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jeremy, you've been chopped. Judges?
[Marc] Jeremy, I feel like you really rolled the dice there.
Unfortunately, making tonkatsu with the spleen is not what needed to happen here.
The overpowering flavor of it, it was just way too much.
So unfortunately, we had to chop you.
But don't blame us.
-You gotta to blame those friends of yours. -Oh, I know who.
-[Marc] Keep up the good work. Cheers. -[Ted] Thank you, chef.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Be well.
[Jeremy] Ah, you know, I'm a little disappointed
I didn't make it, but you know what? I stand behind it.
I will never forget that one of you out there gave us bison spleen,
and it was ultimately why I was chopped.
You guys are mean.
[Ted] Chef Adrianna, Chef Justin, Chopped fans
wanted you to work with the four ingredients you'll find in these.
Open 'em up.
-[Adrianna] Okay. -[Justin] Okay. This is weird.
[Ted] Viewers have done it again.
[Alejandra] My name is Alejandra.
And I'm Valerie.
And we are from Colombia,
and we want to see the asparagus Bundt cake.
Viewers, asparagus Bundt cake? Are you serious?
-[Ted] You also received dragon fruit. -[Justin] Interesting.
Dragon fruit, I've worked with a lot of times before.
It's a mild sweet flavor that really can be blended into a lot of things.
-[Ted] Dirt soda. -[Adrianna] Never worked with that.
[Justin] Does it taste like dirt?
Great. Thanks, guys.
And this is chocolate.
[Ted] And tie-dye chocolate bars.
[Adrianna] Viewers, this is gonna be a tough one.
[Ted] Thirty minutes.
Clock starts now.
Let's go, chefs.
[Nilou] Viewer's choice!
-[Justin] Whoo! -[Adrianna] I wanna do...
[Ted] Judges, asparagus Bundt cake?
[Marc] Sounds pretty crazy, but it actually tastes like a nice Bundt cake.
[Justin] Okay.
[Nilou] I would say that if you were to try to imagine a carrot cake
or a zucchini cake, it feels a lot like that.
[Marc] It's got nuts in it too.
[Nilou] Nuts and raisins
and like a lot of great flavor, a lot of great spices.
[Justin] How's that soda?
That's gnarly.
Ugh!
Now the dirt soda, I wouldn't say
it tastes like dirt, although I have to say I...
it's been a long time since I've had a nice bowl of dirt.
I did discern quite a bit of dirt in the dirt soda.
Yeah. And I...
I wouldn't say it's offensive, but it, there's terroir there.
[Justin] Okay.
My mom's favorite dessert is cannolis.
All these flavor profiles I could make into a cool cannoli-ish thing.
I got eggs on the station if you need 'em.
So cannolis normally have a sweet round shell
and the cannoli filling that's piped inside.
But I don't have time to make this sweet shell,
so I take the puff pastry dough out
and get it in the oven right away
'cause I know it's gonna take a while.
Don't forget the puff pastry.
For the cannoli filling,
I start with breaking down the dragon fruit
with a little bit of that dirt soda,
grab some ricotta and mascarpone and whip that.
I can chop off this white chocolate bar
and put it into the cannoli filling
just like you would with a mini chocolate chips.
I am one round away from winning $10,000,
so I'm very zoned in and focused.
All right, couple of more things.
Come on.
It's the last round. I'm ready to go. Feeling confident.
Inspiration for my dish is my abuela.
So, masa.
I know that I want to do one of her favorite things.
I'm making Arroz con Leche with asparagus Bundt cake masa tortillas.
Arroz con Leche is a rice pudding.
It has got a lot of sweetness to it,
so I'm thinking I can probably incorporate
the starch soda into it without affecting that Arroz con Leche much.
Come on, tortillas.
Chef Adrianna, what are you building?
So, chef, I'm actually making some tortillas this time.
Ah!
-[Scott] There you go. -Hey.
You wanted the tortillas, I'm trying to bring the tortillas.
[Marc] Justin was cooking off puff pastry.
How did he cook that pastry so quickly?
I'm worried it's not cooked all the way through.
[Justin] Pulled the puff pastry out, I'm unsure
if it's really cooked through in the middle,
but I don't want to take the risk of overcooking these.
I see the espresso machine over there
and instantly I'm like, "Okay, let's do some coffee."
I add the icing from the Bundt cake
as it's kinda like the cream for the espresso.
I then hit it with a little shot of this dirt soda
to kind of introduce another ingredient highlighted as well.
Hmm, that's interesting.
Okay.
All right. What I'm gonna do with my chocolate?
I have to turn this chocolate into something crunchy.
Is the tie-dye chocolate, though, is it white chocolate that's been with coloring?
[Marc] Yes.
[Adrianna] I melt down the chocolate with some butter and some brown sugar.
I toast my nuts just a little bit
and I throw them in there and get them coated.
So I continue going back to my rice.
Damn it, I'm really scared of this rice not being cooked.
It's not cooking as quickly as I need it to.
Adrianna is having a little bit of a nervous moment right now...
-[Nilou] Hmm. -...with the rice pudding.
Ah, she's got two basket ingredients in there.
-It's the chocolate and the dirt soda. -[Nilou] Hmm.
And I'm not sure if it's gonna be cooked all the way through.
[Adrianna] Still not done.
I'm in bad trouble.
[Justin] Corner it. Behind, behind, behind, behind.
[Adrianna] Come on, rice. I need you to cook.
Still checking my rice pudding. It's still not done.
Cutting it close on my rice.
Now, a rice pudding, it's gotta cook
and it's gotta basically overcook.
-Right? -[Nilou] Yeah.
[Scott] You don't wanna have it undercooked.
[Adrianna] I continue to add some more dirt soda.
I'm just making sure I don't burn it
and I'm able to present it on the plate.
I don't want to burn this.
[Justin] I'm extremely happy with how the cannoli filling came out.
I feel like it just needs another component to brighten it up.
So I decide to break down more dragon fruit,
a little bit of raspberries a little bit of sugar,
a little bit of shaved white chocolate
and a little hint of that dirt soda.
All right, buddy. Time for some fruit, man.
I have to get working on the dragon fruit now.
I decide to macerate that,
with some flavors that I really love,
the chili powder, a little bit of cayenne.
-What else do I need? -Let's go, guys. Let's go.
[Nilou] Here we go, Adrianna. Here we go, Justin.
[Ted] Twenty seconds left.
You need all those ingredients on a plate.
[Nilou] You can do it. I know you can.
[Justin] Oh, my hand's shaking so bad.
[Ted] All right, chefs. Final seconds of the final round.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three,
hurry up, two, one.
-[Justin] Boom! -[Ted] Time's up.
[Adrianna] I really did it for, for my grandma.
All the things that she love sweet tortillas, rice puddin Feeling confident.
But I think Justin is a huge competition, giving me a run for my money.
[Justin] I'm feeling pretty confident.
The only thing that I have a small concern abou
is maybe the puff pastry is slightly undercooked.
It's like right there on that edge where it's iffy.
Chef Adrianna, Chef Justin, in that final viewer's choice basket,
you got an asparagus Bundt cake,
dragon fruit, dirt soda and a tie-dyed chocolate bar.
Chef Adrianna, tell 'em what you made.
[Adrianna] So I did like an Arroz con Leche
with asparagus Bundt cake tortilla.
What was the spice mix that you macerated the dragon fruit with?
So I put a little bit chili powder, a little bit of cayenne,
lemon zest, did it come out good?
It's great.
It feels like when you're on the street in Mexico
and you get the chili with any fruit
that you're having, it's wonderful.
The rice pudding, what's unbelievable about it is
how great the flavor is,
despite the center of the rice isn't cooked.
[Marc] Now, flavor wise and techniques are really good.
I just feel like there's something missing here
just to tie the rice together with the tortilla
and have it to make more sense.
-Yes, chef. -I... I disagree with you, Marc.
I think this is great.
There is an inherent rusticity to this that is endearing.
You're saying something in this plate.
We know you better by us eating this.
Thank you, chef. Yeah, feels good to hear that.
Moving on to Chef Justin.
[Justin] All right, chefs.
So what I did was kind of a deconstructed cannoli and cafe.
I wanted to make it interactive.
[Marc] I like this cannoli filling that you've got going on here.
You got that white chocolate tie dye.
It's like a little confetti cannoli filling here, which is cute.
I... I like it.
The puff pastry unfortunately,
when you get it into the inside,
it's sort of doughy in the middle.
[Scott] I think your flavors are great.
I love the textures and the cream itself.
I think your use of the tie-dyed chocolate
is clever inside this cannoli cream also.
[Nilou] I love the idea of a DIY cannoli.
I think this is a really whimsical,
playful take on a classic,
and you should be very proud of yourself.
-[Justin] Thank you so much. -[Ted] Okay.
All three rounds matter as the judges decide who is the Chopped champion?
Thank you, chefs.
Being here during a viewer's choice battle,
it was so interesting in that despite the fact
that there were so many unusual ingredients,
every single chef really embraced them.
I feel like Adrianna's appetizer
was the dish of the day for me.
The tripe from the stomach sandwich was stewed perfectly.
I think that she went a little heavy on the chili.
I didn't mind the spice at all.
I think it was reminiscent of something you would find in someone's home.
[Marc] So just Justin for the appetizer round, made us a taco,
which is really, you know, a safe bet.
His big mistake, though, I think was not enough seasoning, not enough heat.
And then using that pineappl just too sweet.
I thought Justin did a great job on the main course.
And I appreciate, you know, that nod
to a classic Korean bibimbap
He just fried an egg on top of that instead of trying to make
some fancy, fancy fried egg sauce that did not work.
If you looked at Adrianna's entree,
she breaded that little tiny piece of spleen.
I thought that was my favorite bite of spleen.
But, you know, let's face it, the...
the cabbage was a little overcooked on her plate.
[Scott] Absolutely.
[Nilou] When you look at today's competition with Adrianna,
we've seen a lot of soul, a lot of emotion.
[Marc] And I think Justin was a great technician.
I thought his dessert was actually plated beautifully.
[Scott] I was gonna say exactly the same thing.
Are we gonna go for the heart or the head?
[Adrianna] I want this one very badly for myself, for my career.
But we had some crazy ingredients thrown at us,
so it's gonna be a tight race.
[Justin] I'm feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, excited, nervous.
I'm just a melting pot of emotions right now.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Justin, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -[Scott] Chef Justin.
First of all, we loved having you here today.
In the second round, your bibimbap,
we liked the rice, we liked the idea that you created.
Unfortunately, the fried egg sauce
that you made was just the wrong ingredient.
In the final round, it was a great dessert,
but it just wasn't enough to overcome your competitor.
And so we had to chop you.
-Good job. -All right, Justin.
Congratulations.
-[Ted] Good luck to you, chef. -[Justin] Thank you.
It sucks not winning the $10,000.
I'm just happy to have come out and compete and been able to get as far as I did.
[Ted] And that means, Chef Adrianna Siller, you are the Chopped champion.
You survived three rounds of insanely tough ingredients
and earned a cool $10,000 for your trouble.
Congratulations.
-[Adrianna] Yeah. -Thank you.
Go, girl.
[Adrianna] Now that I've won it feels surreal.
My mom is gonna be so proud
And I'm very proud of myself.