Previously on "24 in 24"...
They hit it, they're in the finals.
They miss, they go home.
...Joe survived a unique challenge...
Unbelievable.
...to claim the last spot in the final shift.
There it is! We're going to the finale!
Then, after a grueling obstacle course...
We are struggling.
I'm too stressed out watching this.
Check.
...Alex claimed the Golden Knife...
I'll clap for myself, I don't care.
...and used its power to force three chefs
into a double-elimination challenge.
- Uh. - This is insanely intense right now.
We're exhausted.
I'm at the point where I have no energy.
Joe was the first to clock out.
Bless, salud, chin don.
And now we find out who will join Christina and Alex
in the final three.
This is "24 in 24: Last Chef Standing."
All right, this one hurts because I know how bad
you both want this.
But the next chef clocking out is...
Chef Viet.
You had a fantastic run.
I've never cooked like this ever in my life.
And my goal was just to get through round one.
And, um, here I am.
You know, what is this, bottom four or bottom three?
- Top four. - Top four.
Top four.
And I'm just truly humbled.
So, thank you so much for the opportunity.
- Thank you, Chef. - Yeah.
- We love you. - Go get some sleep, Chef.
- Yeah. - Thank you.
Am I surprised?
No.
Am I heartbroken?
Yeah. But I think about my family,
I think about my wife.
Win or lose, she's always rooting for me.
She's gonna be so incredibly proud of me.
All right, Lee Anne.
So, as they were going through every dish, they thought
your fish was cooked arguably better
than any of the other proteins.
- OK, got you. - And here you are, final three.
- Motivated. - It is right in front of you.
- Congratulations. - Congrats, Chef.
Thank you.
Let's go!
I'm pumped.
I need to go to the bathroom, I need to drink some water,
and I need to get my head back in the game.
So, Alex and Christina, after that break,
how are you feeling? - Fresh as a daisy.
I feel great.
I am extremely tired.
But being this close, any last shred of energy I have left is
all going to get spent right now.
Christina.
I think once we start moving,
my mind will get in the right place,
but I feel a little slow.
It's just so close.
I can't give up to this exhaustion at this point.
Challenge 22 was all about elevating street food.
So, this challenge,
we have yet another meal for you to elevate--
the weeknight family meal.
So, your task-- to turn a classic weeknight family meal
into an elevated experience.
You'll do it in the same amount of time
as an average parent will do for their family.
You're gonna have to do it in 30 minutes.
Chef Lee Anne, unlike the other two chefs,
you only have two more varieties left of your protein.
Chef Alex and Chef Christina, you have all three
of your varieties left,
so everybody has to choose one variety,
and that's the variety you use through the entire meal.
OK, chefs, the stakes have never been higher.
This is an elimination challenge.
So, after this challenge,
there's only gonna be two chefs remaining
for a chance for $100,000. - Ugh.
Four plates of food.
One for each judge and one beauty.
And your 30 minutes starts now.
- Final three. - Wow.
Everyone knows what is on the line here,
and they've put an incredible amount of work in
to get to this point.
Cockles.
I'm up against the best, but I'm here to take it all
the way this time.
Are they gonna stop underestimating me?
I don't know.
I am one step away from the last challenge.
Like, I have to give this my all.
I'm choosing prawns because I feel like
it can look really elevated and impressive
when you leave the heads on.
I'm going Greek.
I'm going with stuff that I would cook for my family.
So I'm gonna do, um,
roasted Greek lemon potatoes, tzatziki, like
beautifully grilled prawns.
Traditionally, I would roast the potatoes,
but I just don't have time for that.
I'm gonna parboil everything because I gotta play smart
- with the time constraints. - Christina.
- Hello. - Hi.
So, how do you feel about your dish?
- Are you feeling pretty good? - Oh, listen, I don't know.
Do you think that your daughter will be proud of you?
- Oh, my God, yes. - Yeah.
- How old is your daughter? - She is eleven.
- Eleven. - Yeah.
My daughter's name is Isabel, and she was born with
malformed chest wall.
And since she was six months old,
she's been needing surgeries.
I'm doing this competition to create a better life
for my daughter and give her everything she deserves.
And also, this is my dream.
Chef, best of luck.
- Thank you. - I'm rooting for you.
Thank you.
My plan is to cook the same way I've been cooking
this whole time.
It has to be something that's personal to me.
I'm pulling back from something my dad makes for all of us
when we were growing up.
Pork milanesa, but in Leominster, Massachusetts,
we call it pork cutlets.
Breaded, deep fried, and good.
I have pork tenderloin as one of my proteins, and that's what
my dad, Al Stupak, would use every time.
Plus, I can keep the best protein choices
for the last round.
I cut it a little bit differently.
I cut it the long way to give it an interesting, elegant shape.
This was always our favorite meal
when we made it growing up,
and it's something that when me and my kids go to
visit their grandfather, he still makes it,
and it's their favorite thing.
Before I had kids, I never worried about money.
I never even thought about it.
All I cared about was putting my name out there
and doing the food that I wanted to do.
But what's at stake is so much more.
- Hi, Chef Alex. - Hi.
- How are you feeling? - Oh, you know, nervous.
But you weren't nervous the entire competition.
Now it's real. Now it's at the end.
- There's nowhere to hide. - - There's nowhere to hide.
- This is it. - This is it.
It's now or never. All right, Chef.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
I'm gonna leave you to it.
I am getting more and more tired by the second.
But no matter how hard it gets,
I'm going to deliver an amazing dish.
I'm struggling with the coffee machine.
I'm just gonna go out here and get a cup.
Twenty-second cup. I'm still on my hour pace.
Everything is well with the world.
So, elevated family meal.
I'm looking at what I've got left.
I've got a whole sea bass, and I've got tuna.
And in thinking about, like, what we eat normally
at home in Hawaii, I automatically go to
steamed whole fish with black vinegar and hot oil.
So, my choice is use the sea bass that I have,
but is it elevated to give them fish on the bone
that they have to take off the bone themselves?
Probably not.
So, 22 hours in, I'm going to meticulously find
all the pin bones in the filet and make sure I take them out.
And then I want to julienne some ginger to go
with the fish. But my hands are shaking.
And normally, what is really great knife skills
has gone out the window.
Hi, Lee Anne.
- Hi. - How are you feeling?
- Terrible. - Terrible?
I'm just, like, fighting the clock,
but we shall see. - Chef, you're gonna kill it.
Thank you.
I am doing the best I can right now to hold it together,
but I am...
on fumes at this point.
Esther, I found egg and cheese bagel.
- Wow, you're finally eating? - Mm-hmm.
It's the first time I've seen you eat.
What did you see? How are you feeling?
Lots of nerves.
They're definitely very tense, especially Alex.
I think it's one of the first times I'm seeing him
really nervous.
Lee Anne, super nervous but focused in it.
Like, she wants to win.
And Christina, like, wow, what an underdog, right?
Right.
So now that I've parboiled my potatoes, I'm going to
deep fry them to give that golden outside
that roasting would do.
See how that goes.
For my herb yogurt sauce, I put Greek yogurt in a bowl.
I'm adding fresh, vibrant herbs.
I'm just trying to push through.
I won't even front.
It's not easy.
Little chopped cabbage salad to go beside the pork.
One of the things that's really hard about this challenge is
that it really does have to feel like something that
you would make at home, but at the same time,
something that Jean-Georges could serve
in his Michelin-star restaurant.
So I'm making a fresh, simple salad inspired
by my dad's coleslaw. But it's not coleslaw.
It's fresh cabbage and cauliflower salad.
And it's not dressed with mayonnaise.
It's dressed with a chickpea dressing with roasted garlic
and lime, so it immediately is starting
to feel more sophisticated.
Getting there.
I basically have a pot of sesame oil heating up
that will go on top of the fish.
I'm also gonna have this sort of like sweet-tart broth.
It's a little bit of black vinegar with seafood stock.
I need more acid in it.
I'm so tired, but I am so close to winning.
So close, closer than I've ever been.
Four minutes, chefs. Four minutes remain.
It's been a really hard few years.
When my restaurant burned down in Hawaii, people assumed,
because I was on TV and I was a successful chef,
that I was OK.
I've had to deal with a lot of self-reliance,
uh, the past five years. So it's up to me to win this.
No one else is gonna do this except for me.
Two minutes, chefs. Time is of the essence.
Chefs, think about the details.
- Get everything on the plate. - Man, oh, man.
I add my fish filet to the bottom.
I throw my broth in the bottom.
I spoon the hot sesame oil on top.
I'm looking at the dish, and I'm like, "You know what?
This dish looks good."
I start by plating my herb yogurt sauce.
I pile my prawns on the dish to add nice height,
and then I just nestle my lemon potatoes right in there.
Twenty-five seconds, chefs. Remember, make it elevated.
Michelin plate, Michelin plate, Michelin plate.
I take some of my chickpea dressing
and I sauce the plate with that.
To take it to the next level, I actually carefully mold
the salad in a ring mold.
I think this is toward the theme of elevation.
I add some thinly sliced jalapeno, and then it's time
to put the pork on the plate. I think I have a winning dish.
Chefs, you have five seconds left.
Sadly, one of you is gonna be clocking out.
- Three, - two, one.
Hands up, chefs.
OK, I did it.
Once your food is dropped off, go to the break room.
OK.
Whew.
This is gonna be rough.
All right, everybody, let's bring in the judges.
- Jet, Alex, and Jean-Georges. - Welcome back.
And you're back. Welcome back.
- All right. - Hi.
- How are you? - Round two.
Round two.
This is a serious panel of judges.
Jean-Georges, he's an icon for me.
Alex has competed the most,
and she's a chef that I respect greatly.
And Jet Tila, he's very meticulous.
So I'm scared. I'm worried.
So judges, for your second course,
it's their rendition of an elevated weeknight
family meal. - OK.
Weeknight family meal.
And this decision is gonna eliminate
one of the three contestants.
The chefs that make it to the final two will be competing
for $100,000. - Whoa!
And the title of Last Chef Standing.
That's pretty awesome.
All right, chefs, getting right into it.
Our first chef made a pork tenderloin milanesa,
chopped cabbage, and cauliflower salad.
There's such good cooking in this plate, right?
Although it looks simple, the breading is perfect.
It's crunchy.
I think the pork is moist and juicy.
This actually checks the box of family meal elevated to me.
I think this chili, you know that it's like one in 20
that are really spicy? This is that one in 20.
- You got a hot one. - So it-- it hit.
And I think the chef could have really checked before they put
it on the plate, 'cause it's pretty hot.
This reminds me of a family meal at home.
Yes.
We had, like, schnitzel once a week.
- Mm-hmm. - But I love this.
- I really enjoyed it. - I don't know.
I'm missing that connection between these two elements,
because this is not punchy enough.
I don't like her today.
- Maybe a little horseradish or mustard. - Yes.
Or a little funk or, like, miso or something
- that's just punchy. - Yeah.
That said, this cutlet is a 14 out of 10.
I wanna eat this alone, without silverware and maybe
without clothing.
You're in a safe space.
- This is really beautiful. - All right.
Um.
Yeah, I don't know.
OK, you guys, here's the dish.
Grilled prawns, herb yogurt sauce,
lemon potatoes, and charred lemon.
That's a good sound.
Wow. Beautiful prawns.
Juicy. Delicious.
Almost the texture of a langoustine.
Creamy.
Not too snappy, but they're really delicious.
The sauce, missing a little spice for me.
- A little spice, OK. - A little oomph.
I like that everything's charred and getting stuck in my teeth.
It tastes like somebody truly cooked.
This person took the time, being so exhausted,
to really char.
But for me, it's the potatoes that don't really belong.
The lemon and the shrimp and the yogurt all fit.
And then the potatoes, I wish they weren't there.
And I'm missing that crispiness.
I think that they're not cooked enough
because they're also soggy.
That being said, though, it is a stunning dish.
This prawn is cooked perfectly.
But you need to season the prawn enough on the shell
so that flavor carries into the center of the meat.
And that was missed.
But this is a very elevated weeknight dinner.
I knew my potatoes fell a little flat,
but that's how I like to eat.
I wanted a starch with my prawns.
All right, chefs, we're gonna move to our third dish.
This is a steamed hot oil sea bass, ginger, maitake,
black vinegar broth.
Such a gorgeous plating.
This is probably my favorite plate of the three.
The thoughtfulness of the vessel, the roulade
of the fish, that is all elevated immediately.
The flavor profile of the sauce is great.
He needs to work on his deboning the fish.
I've got a couple of bones in there.
Oh. I'm done.
- Don't cry. - I'm sorry.
I'm just, like, exhausted. Oh, my God.
But, um, I love the flavors. The hot oil, the soy, ginger.
I love the broth.
I love the boldness. I love the risk.
I love the audacity of all that ginger.
I ate it all.
Every single thing in this dish made sense.
I love you.
All right, so chefs,
we're gonna cut the feed.
Remember, one person is getting eliminated.
So I need you to pick the bottom dish.
- Understood. - They're all great, huh?
- Shoot. - That's hard.
- It's a hard one. - I love that first dish.
It was a very completely seasoned dish.
I know, but it was boring.
So the second dish then, the prawns, chefs?
I think the ingredients on the shrimp were impeccable.
I think for me, those potatoes being pushed to the suburbs,
I think integration is a big part of elevated,
'cause your-- you're really being a chef.
- Yeah. - This was my favorite.
- But he got a bone. - Yeah.
I feel like the flavors were my favorite here,
but the mistakes could have been the worst offending mistakes.
Should they go home, this person?
I'm gonna cry right now.
It's just exhaustion.
Are we in agreement?
- We are in agreement. - Yes.
Chefs, I'm gonna have to ask you guys to leave
one more time.
All right, thank you.
- Thank you, chef. - After 24 hours.
- Good food, yeah. - It's good food, huh?
- Yeah. - I'm impressed, huh?
- Can't believe it. - This is hard.
Chefs, please come out.
All right.
The three of you cooked your hearts out.
You should be really proud of yourselves.
There was a point in the deliberation
where each one of you was going home.
But ultimately, the 22nd chef
that will be clocking out...
...is...
I'm incredibly sorry...
...Chef Christina.
Oh--. I knew it.
- Oh, I'm leaving. - Good job.
Really, really good.
Oh.
You know, I've met a lot of new chefs, uh,
during this, and you have a fan in me,
and I know you have a fan in Esther.
Good luck, you guys.
I just feel super proud of myself,
and I've been true to myself.
I put up good plates, I cooked well,
and I went against the best.
And I want my daughter, Isabel, to see that as a woman
and someone who cares for a family and works and juggles
all these things, don't ever put a limitation.
Like, the sky is absolutely the limit.
And then there were two.
All right, so you're each one challenge away from $100,000.
Oh, my God!
I'm sorry. That's so ridiculous.
I've never been here before.
Lee Anne, what are you gonna do with the money?
I mean, I'd love to buy a home for my family.
This money, it's a life-changing amount
of money that
could help me buy a home for my-- my son and my husband.
When my restaurant burned down, the pressure of not being able
to provide for my family, that was immense.
And it took time to get past that.
So I'm here now, competing for them, competing for our future.
Love it. Alex, what would you do?
I closed a couple restaurants,
and it-- it put my company in a really bad place.
Um...
There was a point where I had to,
um, use my kids' college fund to make payroll a couple weeks.
Um.
That was scary.
So, obviously, I wanna replenish every bit of that.
We all run restaurants, right?
And we all know that it hangs by a thread.
- And, you know, when you add - Everyday.
children, it just...
you-- you learn how vulnerable
- it-- you are. - Yeah.
For me, it, like, hits home. I, like, I just had a baby.
So...
I feel you.
There are very important reasons that
both of you wanna win this, obviously,
so let's get down to business.
Lee Anne, Alex, you made it to the final challenge.
The last dish that you cook in this kitchen
will be the most elevated of all.
Your final challenge is to make a Michelin-worthy dish.
Lee Anne, you have one protein left, tuna,
and Alex, you have the choice-- Ibérico pork shoulder and chops.
I've never worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant,
and Alex is a Michelin-star, grade-A, number-one chef.
So I've got my work cut out for me.
I'm scared because she's worked
at a million different restaurants
and has a very, very high culinary IQ.
But I've made it this far, and I badly wanna win.
Chefs, take a look at the big clock.
As soon as the clock gets 24, the challenge is over.
So your time starts now.
I never see you get choked up.
- I know. - - I almost started crying
'cause you started. Come on.
The finale round always gets me.
Oh, my God.
I've made it to the finale.
I've never made it to the finale of a show.
And I am like,
"I've earned this." I've worked my life to get here,
and I'm gonna go all the way.
Come on. Can't think.
I am overwhelmingly,
completely, and utterly exhausted.
But I know what it feels like to liquidate
my children's college savings.
Please, God, where's the saffron?
Someone's gonna win $100,000, and I want it to be me.
There it is.
Uh, do we have nori?
Michelin-starred restaurants,
they work for months, sometimes years,
sometimes lifetimes on just one dish.
I've got 30 minutes.
Oh, my God.
And I'm exhausted.
My back is killing me, but I know I have an advantage
with my protein.
Ahi tuna is something I use in my restaurant
almost every day, and even though
I can barely keep my eyes open, I can't mess this up.
Michelin plate, Michelin plate, Michelin plate.
I've been a pastry chef
in three Michelin-star restaurants.
When you think Michelin-level, not only does it have to be delicious,
it has to look perfect.
OK, um, think.
I have two protein choices left.
The pork chop is the obvious choice.
But that shoulder steak, which is not as pretty,
is the more delicious choice. I have to be rebellious.
I have to do something different.
All right, Alex, which protein did you pick?
The Ibérico presa, the shoulder steak.
- OK. - It's the most delicious.
There's a little bit of a risk there 'cause it's not the most
tender cut of meat, Right.
but it is the most flavorful.
What are you making?
I'm making an Ibérico pork steak
- with a carrot argan oil coulis. - OK.
What's going to elevate that to Michelin-level is
technique, presentation, and just deliciousness.
Twenty-three minutes left, chefs.
Twenty-three.
The romesco is going to be cut
thick, the same thickness as the steak.
We're gonna add ras el hanout, which is a Moroccan
spice blend, on both the Romesco and the pork.
There it is.
I'm glazing carrots with brown butter,
which immediately says elegance to me.
Separately, I'm cooking more carrots to make a very elegant
carrot argan oil sauce for my dish.
Argan oil has an extremely unique flavor,
like a psychedelic almond.
I know that this dish is gonna be unlike
anything that anyone else will make.
Whoo.
I know you have fatigue, a lot of emotions going,
all that stuff.
Put that passion and emotion into those dishes.
Basically, I'm gonna make a marinated piece of fish.
I wanna play into the tuna's natural ability to be served
rare, but at the same time, I wanna add glamour to it.
So for my elevated Michelin-star dish, I'm making
nori and feuilles de brick wrapped tuna loin.
What is it?
It's called feuilles de brick.
Feuilles de brick, um.
F-- I can't, I don't speak French.
It's pastry.
And I'm gonna serve that over caviar yuzu beurre blanc.
Gives it a little bit of elegance.
With butter-braised endive and radishes.
That's cooking.
It's just like a French-Japanese mashup.
It's very me.
And it's a culmination of a lot of the things that I've learned
in my culinary career.
Get some greens, brown-- a little endive browning.
- Radishes poaching. - Yeah.
OK. I'm not gonna interrupt
and slow you guys down.
Thank you, Chef.
My only concern at this point is I've never made this dish
in my life.
In theory, I know it will work, but, like, I've never served it
to anybody for review.
$100,000 on the line. Oh, my God.
What is a Michelin...
dish to you?
I do think the one thing that is consistent is
the quality of the product has to be perfect.
And that takes a lot of work.
It has to have a uniqueness to it that makes it
inherently yours as a chef.
I guess this sense of, like, flawlessness.
Can't miss.
Chefs, you have about 19 minutes left.
Whew.
I am finishing my sauce,
an umami bomb beurre blanc
with yuzu, ginger, some miso.
Normally, beurre blanc is with, like, a white wine reduction
that you emulsify cold butter into it.
I do what I like to call blender beurre blanc, where
I just throw some stuff in the blender,
and then I add in melted butter. It's delicious.
That sauce sounds good.
Yeah, it sounds like the right thickness.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
- Like, it has body. - Uh-huh.
And then I add the salty caviar.
That is the trick.
Salty, but it's supposed to be.
Next, I put my tuna packages down in the oil.
It's cooking the nori and searing the outer edge
of that tuna.
$100,000 on the line.
My hands are shaking. My palate is blown.
But I have made it here past 22 other chefs.
I want my boy to be proud of Mommy, you know?
He's seen Mommy lose a bunch.
But now I want him to see Mommy win,
and I want him to see me win big, you know?
So...
This is more sauté pans than I've used at any time
in the competition.
I'm trying to cook as much as humanly possible.
Ibérico pork is some of the finest pork
you could ever taste.
I'm grilling it very gently and with great care.
- Come on, please. - Feeling good?
Was it harder than you thought it would be, or just a little
emotionally harder? Both?
It's the emotional part.
Cooking on camera
exposes you so completely.
I've always been a little hesitant to go on TV,
even a little self-conscious about it.
So this was scary for me.
Look, I made it this far. I'm very proud of myself.
I didn't think it was gonna be like this.
Chefs, you have five minutes left to cook
in this crazy competition.
Home stretch.
Elevated Michelin-star dish is all about execution.
First thing I do is I lay down the piece of endive on top.
Three and a half minutes left, chefs.
Three and a half.
I put the caviar sauce on the bottom of the plate,
and it looks beautiful. I put two medallions of tuna.
I need to make sure I don't put too much on the plate,
and I keep it simple.
It's gotta be $100,000 perfect.
Chefs, 90 seconds left.
Oh, my God.
Remember, last looks, seasonings,
rims and plates wiped as good as possible.
All the things you would expect if you went to
a Michelin-star restaurant. Perfection.
The first thing I'm putting down is the carrot argan oil coulis.
This is a huge focal point.
I'm saucing it in a very Jackson Pollock style.
Next is taking my romesco, placing it on the plate.
Next, I'm plating the carrots.
They're perfectly tender and perfectly glazed.
It's time to put the pork on the plate.
Everything is at risk here. I'm going for broke.
I'm proud of it, and I think it's beautiful,
but I'm wondering if I pushed it too far.
So, chefs, we have 30 seconds left.
Longest culinary day of your life.
Look over everything two and three times.
So intense.
Really feels like a Michelin-star kitchen.
Energy level is very different now.
You could cut it with a knife. They are so close.
Oh, my God!
Make it be the best plate of food you have ever put up.
We know how capable you both are.
- Ten, nine, - eight, seven,
six, five, four, three,
two, one. - Hands up, chefs.
- Incredible. - Congrats, chefs.
Congratulations.
I hope you both are very proud.
OK. This is going to be...
I don't know.
I've got no juice.
My hands are shaking. My eyelids can't stay up.
And, uh, there's a spark of hope.
Spark of hope.
- Hi. - The Lee Anne Wong.
- How'd you do, Mr. Alex Stupak? - Who knew?
I don't know. I, eh.
I'm tired.
Lee Anne's tired.
We're too tired to even have a conversation anymore.
But making it this far in such a difficult competition.
It's a pretty special moment.
- Oh, God. - That was nuts.
- Oh, my God, that was crazy. - Me and you, Lee Anne.
I'm just like, "Thank God that's done with."
Aye-yi-yi, that felt horrible.
Oh, my God, it was really, really a lot.
I'm just exhausted.
I'm very proud of myself.
My performance the past 24 hours, I have blacked out
on several different occasions, but I'm here.
Win or lose, I've made it to this moment.
- I'm so nervous right now. - Me too.
One thing that I'm going through in this show that I've
never gone through before is nervousness fatigue.
I can't describe it.
I mean, how many times are you gonna get nervous
with your heart racing in a 24-hour period?
So, yeah, I'm sick and tired of being nervous at this point.
I just wanna be done with it.
- Good job, buddy. - Great job.
Oh, this was such a long two days, day and a half,
day. - All right, one last time.
Let's bring in our finale judges, Alex, Jet,
and Jean-Georges.
- Wow. - Ooh-la-la.
- This is a tough panel. - Yeah.
OK, judges, the challenge for the two remaining chefs was
to make a Michelin-worthy dish.
So what does that mean to you, Chef?
When you taste it, you know it's a yes
or it's a no. It's magic or it's not.
- I'm gonna dream about it. - All right.
Well, that's what the chefs needed to achieve.
Wow.
The first dish, nori seared ahi tuna, osetra caviar
yuzu beurre blanc, radish, endive.
First of all, when I dine at a Michelin restaurant,
plating, that's the expectation.
This plate is so well composed.
The meticulousness of the roll, the level of searing
from opaque into translucent.
Then the endive is still tender and sweet.
Sometimes dishes look better than they taste
in these very fine restaurants,
but this tastes as good as it looks.
Michelin.
- Oui, c'est ça. - But it's there.
It's there?
- OK. - It's there.
You got this, Lee Anne.
I think the endive and the braised radish tell me
this person works in a French restaurant.
And then the other side is skewing more Asian,
and that to me is Michelin cooking.
When you get what someone's story is and their passion
in the ingredients and the way they curated them.
That said, I need more yuzu.
I want maybe a little lime zest or lemon zest in here.
Like, I want the bitter to bring out the acidity
in the beurre blanc, and I want more caviar,
which is fat. This dish needs fat.
OK.
We're gonna move to the second dish.
My dish is a mess.
Next, you have an Ibérico pork shoulder steak
with a carrot argan oil coulis, romesco, and fresh mint.
- Oh, my God, I'm so nervous. - I don't know.
- Uh-oh. - Uh-oh.
This is confusing.
There's a ton of cooking that went on here.
This person cooked more.
And I think everything's really beautifully cooked considering
how much they took on. - Mmm.
The roasted cauliflower is really a standout.
Mm.
The one thing I don't love about this dish is this cut
of pork is wrong for this context.
It's a cut of meat that to me
asks for direct glazing - Yeah.
and charring to be its best version of itself.
Everything else on the plate is the best version of itself.
And the pork's like, "Hold up, guys.
Let me get in line for the dance routine."
Wow.
That's very French. Should be.
- No? - Yes.
And is that a bad thing, Chef?
- No, it's a good thing. - Mm-hmm.
I can't believe Jean-Georges is eating our food right now.
- I know, right? - I think it's well composed.
I like the purées.
I like the-- the roasted carrots, the raisins.
JG's digging it.
The pork, I think, could have been hard grilled.
Like, more texture on the exterior to give more
smoke and char. - I took a chance.
It was more flavorful than the pork loin.
That being said, though, like, this is, like,
the girl you think you want to marry when you're younger
to take to prom, and this is the woman you go, "Wow,
there's a lot of layers." - Thanks, Uncle Jet.
There's a lot of depth there.
Very artistic, the layers of purée.
I started to admire the chef the longer I ate it.
All right, you guys, I'm gonna turn off the feed real quick.
Oh, my God.
The bad part is, one of the chefs is not gonna win.
The good news is, is one of the chefs is gonna leave
- $100,000 richer. - Wow.
I don't wanna walk back out there.
Hey, we're here for our families.
We're here for our employees. We're here for our ohana.
I'm, like, totally gonna break down crying,
and I'm gonna cry in your lap.
So I'm just gonna try and contain myself right here.
Oh, it's so emotional.
- Wow. - There you go.
- Wow. - All right.
Chefs, we're gonna go stand in the front,
and we're gonna give away some cash.
Oh, wow.
Culinary, you can clear the table.
Resetting.
All right, let's bring out the chefs.
- Aye-yi-yi. - Great job.
Great job.
- You ready? - Yep.
All right.
Here are the chefs that have been cooking for you
- this whole shift. - Wow.
Chef Alex Stupak and Chef Lee Anne Wong.
- Hi. - Nice to see you.
How are you?
They have cooked their asses off for the past 24 hours.
- Wow. - Familiar faces, wow.
I know you both.
I have a whole relationship with you in New York
and your restaurants. And you, I've known forever.
Your cooking, and I love your boldness and your audacity.
- Thank you. - It's nice to see you both.
And I feel that you two should be incredibly proud
because you are the final two.
But unfortunately,
we know that it comes to this point where we have to tell
the twenty-third chef it is time for them to clock out.
The chef that is clocking out in this final battle...
...is...
Chef Alex.
Chef, I have to tell you, when you first walked in,
in my heart, I truly thought you were gonna win it all.
You cooked beautifully the entire time.
- I hope you're incredibly proud. - An honor to lose to her.
I am completely disappointed that
I didn't win.
Thanks, everyone.
- Chef. - This was awesome.
Thank you.
At the same time, I cooked my ass off for 24 hours,
and I made my family proud,
and that's the most important part.
Honestly, if I could pick,
who would I be most proud to lose to?
It's definitely Lee Anne.
Lee Anne is a friend, a real chef,
tremendously talented.
She deserved this. She earned this.
The first thing you told me, Lee Anne, is "I've done
a lot of these. It is my time."
You're gonna make me cry. Damn it!
"It is my time to win," and Chef, you did.
I am overjoyed.
I feel like a winner for the first time ever.
And that feels freaking awesome.
I am stoked to the moon and back.
- Who would have thunk? - Oh, my God.
A week ago, we were talking about-- oh, you're amazing.
- Bravo. - I'm so glad.
Thank you.
You got really crabby in the middle there, Chef.
But boy, did you rally like a-- you rallied.
I get a gold knife.
You get a Golden Knife, baby.
Oh, my God.
It's been a crazy few years, post-fires,
post-restaurant burning down.
I'm finally finding my feet again this year, and this is
literally the cherry and the whipped cream on top.
Chef, you won $100,000.
Oh, my God!
This is really validating for me,
to beat a chef as accomplished as Alex.
I'm sorry.
I'm in disbelief.
I've been competing for 20 years.
This is the hardest thing I've ever done.
I can't wait to tell my son and my husband.
I can't wait to tell my staff at my restaurants,
like, I'm just--
- Thank you, guys. - Thank you.
I'm in shock that I'm still here, like.
Lee Anne, you know who else is proud of you?
There's been a crew that's been watching you cook
the whole time. - Yes.
- For 20 years. - Crew, what do you think?
Let's give it up for the Last Chef Standing--
Chef Lee Anne Wong. Whoo!
Oh, my God.