Top Chef (2006) s12e06 Episode Script
The First Thanksgiving
Mm.
Man, I'm off-kilter.
- For the fallen ones.
- Huh? Aaron butted heads with almost everybody in the house, so it's kind of like a breath of fresh air to have him gone.
I'll cook you under the table.
Go yourself.
That kid's, like, such a pain in the ass.
He was messy, he was Messy is an understatement.
- Time for him to go.
- It was a fun day.
Great challenge, man.
You're a tough beat.
I'm glad that I made it out of there alive, honestly.
The red team had to battle the blue team in five head-to-head match-ups, and my team lost, but finding myself as the Victor in the battle against Doug, it definitely feels good.
Hey, guys! First blood! Whoo! Doug is one of the more dominant chefs in the competition thus far, but I'm also concerned about Gregory, Melissa, and Mei.
And Katsuji's a mess in a dress, but ultimately he's making delicious food.
So it's not gonna get any easier, because we're all, like, pretty close - and we all like each other.
- Yeah.
So, like, it's just gonna get tighter and tighter.
Nine chefs remain to compete.
It's the ultimate test of culinary skill.
A feature in Food & Wine magazine, an appearance at the Food & Wine classic in Aspen, $125,000 furnished by healthy choice, and the title of Top Chef.
"#mygirlfriendisatopchef.
" "#sugarmama.
" My girlfriend gave me a package of notes, one for each day that I'm here.
Little love notes to keep me going.
I feel like I can hear her voice and she's supporting me through it, and I want to make her proud.
Winning Top Chef would really bring a lot of options to our future together.
I want to have my own restaurant, and I think it would be a really great way for us to build something together.
- Morning.
- Morning.
Hi, guys.
Good morning.
How are you guys? A little early, huh? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
Chef Tiffani Faison from sweet cheeks barbecue and Top Chef season one.
Seeing her in the apartment is an alarming surprise.
Excited about today? - Yes.
Always.
- I guess.
What are we doing? Is she gonna cook breakfast for us? I hope so, 'cause I'm quite hungry.
I have something really special planned for you today.
I know you've seen them before, maybe not in person, and they're really beautiful and unique to this area.
- You ready? - Yeah.
All right, let's go.
Come on.
I have no idea what we're doing.
I have no idea either.
Where are we? I see Cranberries.
- Ocean Spray.
- Nice.
Truck is so cute.
Oh, that's so pretty.
We come over this hill, and there's this bog, and all these beautiful Cranberries are floating on top.
I grew up in east Texas in a town called Tyler.
When I was a kid I spent most of my time outside fishing, running around in the woods.
And, you know, you don't really get to do a lot of that when you're stuck in a kitchen.
So I'm really excited to be here.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
Well, good morning.
Welcome.
My name is Adrienne Mollor.
I'm a second-generation cranberry grower and part of the Ocean Spray cooperative.
Thanks for coming out here today.
- Thanks for having us.
- Thanks for having us.
As you can imagine, my family live and breathe Cranberries, and today we want to share with you the beauty of our harvest.
So what you may not know, before healthy, delicious Cranberries come to your table, they're grown on a low-lying bog outside of water.
At the harvest time, we flood that bog with about a foot to two feet of water, and that's where you get involved today.
In front of you, 6 million beautiful, luscious Cranberries.
- Oh, wow.
- Did you count them? I did.
So here's the deal.
You guys are gonna go harvest these Cranberries.
Wow.
The first four of you to fill your crates to the brim with Cranberries get an advantage in the next challenge.
Trust me.
You're gonna want it.
That needs to be the least of your worries.
I actually can't swim, and being 5'2", you know, gets me a little freaked out.
All right, guys.
Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold! With his long legs, Adam crushes everyone.
First to the box, Katsuji and Adam.
My first run, I was like, "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" Oh! And it's only the first one.
Oh, my God.
I'm out of breath! For me, this is awesome.
Being an athlete, skiing, snowboarding, running, hiking, this is the perfect challenge.
I'm ready to take all these other guys down.
You guys are looking a little bogged down.
Jesus Christ! I am tired.
Oh, , that's hard.
Guys are about halfway there.
Keep going.
You're doing well.
Go.
Unh! Katie's one.
Yes! Yeah! - Adam, two.
- Whoo! - Gregory, three.
- Yes.
Doug, four.
Done.
What's up with a city boy beating all you country folk? Nice job.
Somebody get the paddles for Katsuji.
It's like watching a caterpillar emerge from the cocoon, becoming a beautiful butterfly covered in Armani.
Congratulations, top four.
Let's head back to the Top Chef kitchen and see what advantage that wins you.
Whoo! Good morning, chefs.
Morning.
This morning, you were told to harvest Cranberries as quickly as possible, and here's why.
As you know, Cranberries pair really well with a variety of dishes, from appetizers all the way to dessert.
Using these ingredients, you must create a dish that highlights the bold and unique flavor of the cranberry.
Katie, Adam, Gregory, and Doug, since you were the quickest, you will have access to this side of the table, the high-end pantry.
- I think we got this.
- Cool.
The rest of you have access to this side.
We see a lot of not the best quality ingredients.
Ketchup, ground chicken, ground beef, nothing fancy, really.
We'd really like to see something super unique highlighting the cranberry that really can be used any time of the year, so don't go to Thanksgiving immediately.
No stuffing.
No bread pudding.
You have your choice of Ocean Spray ingredients, the fresh Cranberries you harvested, as well as the pantries you've gained access to.
The winner of this quickfire will receive immunity in the next elimination.
You have 30 minutes on the clock.
Your time starts now.
Get to it.
- Ah! - Oh, easy.
Easy.
It definitely sucks that I didn't get the advantage, because I wish I could just grab some of the proteins and the fresh herbs that they had available.
Pork tenderloin.
I'm feeling pretty lucky.
I have things that go with Cranberries a little bit more, so I'm thinking cranberry-glazed pork tenderloin and, like, a cranberry mustard.
Gregory, what you doing? A kinda sweet-and-sour cranberry puree.
- Guys, 25 minutes.
- I'm down.
What are you making, Katie? I'm gonna do a cranberry borscht.
Since that bog, I've been a little bit inspired.
Borscht is usually a little bit of a sour soup, and I know that since Cranberries are naturally sour, that this dish will definitely highlight the cranberry and not hide it.
Oh.
Almost got my hand.
I see Katie making cranberry borscht, and it looks disgusting.
I definitely wouldn't order cranberry borscht.
- Ooh! - I'm not thinking, like, this is a dish that's gonna work.
16 minutes! - What do you got going? - Sweet-and-sour pork, homey.
Where I grew up, it was always, like, the cranberry festivals, so it's kind of fun.
I wanted to do a curried soup, but there's not really a lot of options on that table.
So I'm mimicking cream in this soup by cooking the cauliflower with the onions in butter, and then pureeing them.
You know, if you're a chef, you should be able to work with anything at all.
I am gonna be cutting it real close.
Guys, ten minutes! It's going fast.
The time's going fast.
.
I like when they put me in hard positions, so if I don't have the nicest ingredients, that's okay with me.
I don't sweat it.
I'm gonna make a steak tartare with a salsa with arbol chiles and fresh Cranberries.
You don't really see tartares made with skirt steak, but this is what I have.
Seven minutes! Katsuji's making a tartare with skirt steak, and skirt steak is a super tough cut.
He needs to cut that up a lot smaller than he is.
You have five minutes.
Five minutes, everyone.
Guys, something's burning.
- Someone's burning something.
- ! I attempt to make this cranberry dirty water fully-seasoned liquid to rehydrate my couscous, and it doesn't work.
So now I'm left with mushrooms, steak, and sauce, and I just don't feel that that's gonna be enough to win this.
49 seconds.
Behind, behind, behind, behind! - Hot pan.
- Whoo! Oh That was close.
20 seconds! Five, four, three, two, one! Time's up.
Utensils down.
Had better days at the ballpark.
Let's check out the house we're cooking in, huh? What? We have to cook a traditional 17th-century Thanksgiving feast.
Oh, my God.
I guess some of the tears will give some flavor to my food.
- Hello, hello.
- Hello.
- Hi, Adam.
- Hi, chef, hi, padma.
30 minutes to execute a cranberry dish, which, let's be honest here, I'm not envisioning myself being at the top of this quickfire.
I stand before you a battered, battered man.
Idea one collapsed at the seams.
So what you have in front of you is a bourbon cranberry barbecue sauce glazed New York strip steak with some cranberry-infused mushroom fricassee.
I wish there was triple the amount of cranberry sauce.
I sort of wish you were feeling more joyful about this dish as we ate it, instead of, like, "wah-wah.
" I figured I'd be forthcoming.
It's a rabbit hole, dude.
Don't do it.
Hello, Gregory.
Okay, so today we have some pan-roasted arctic char with a sweet-and-sour cranberry sauce, royal trumpet mushrooms with Cranberries and some fresh pear.
Arctic char is really nicely cooked.
Awesome.
Thank you, chef.
I did a carrot soup with fresh cranberry and crab.
How did this go for you today? A little bit challenging, just looking at the other side and thinking of the things that I'd be doing with some of those ingredients.
But still, had to make the best of what we were given.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, padma.
Thanks, Tiffani.
So you had the run of the pantry.
Yeah, as soon as I saw the tenderloin, I was thinking, like, glazed pork.
I crisped up some brussels sprouts and I made a cranberry mustard.
Tastes like fall in New England.
It does.
I really like your brussels sprouts.
Thank you.
So here I have a fried Turkey bite with apple butter and a little cranberry compote with pecans and fried sage.
Did someone tell you I like fried things? Anything that flies can fry.
I did a cranberry borscht for you today.
What? In the bowl is creme fraiche, charred brussels sprout, pancetta.
I know it's borscht, but it has this kind of goulash-y quality to it that I really love.
- Oh, thank you, I think.
- It's really interesting.
- Hi, Katsuji.
- How are you? I made a steak tartare.
The mayonnaise was made with Chile de arbol, fresh Cranberries, and oil, and a cranberry hot sauce on top.
I'm assuming you hand-cut this.
Yes.
Thank you.
- Hi, Stacy.
- Hi, padma.
Hi, chef.
So, little bostonian, how you doing? You have a curried cauliflower soup with a smoky pepper cranberry relish.
Your Cranberries have probably the least amount of sugar.
Was that a conscious decision? Yeah.
- Thank you so much.
- Thanks, Stacy.
Thank you.
So I made for you a sweet-and-sour pork with pickled mustard seeds and an apple salad.
It's actually got that really great Chinese-American, craveable, sweet-and-sour pork quality to it, but it's way more elegant than that.
I had no problems with the low-end pantry.
My dish was great! Tiffani, how did our chefs do with this cranberry quickfire? Overall, I was pretty impressed, but there were a few low points.
Katsuji, for tartare, skirt steak is a really odd choice, and if you're gonna go with skirt steak, you're gonna have to get in there and dice it really nicely.
Who else? Adam kind of begged for us to, - like, hate his dish.
- I know.
So I just didn't think it was a particularly cohesive dish, and there wasn't enough cranberry in it for me.
The last one's Stacy.
And you're my hometown girl, but I thought that the soup needed a little bit of seasoning, and I just felt it was pretty clunky.
I'm so pissed.
Cranberries are what I use all the time.
I'm really getting tired of being on the bottom at this point.
One of the ones I thought was really great was Doug.
You know, we started the challenge, and I said we really want to see something that's, like, really clever, and that maybe takes it to a place that I haven't seen.
It didn't do that, but it was like, "this is why we eat Cranberries in the fall.
" - And it was perfect.
- Thank you.
My next pick was Katie.
Borscht is hard.
I think using the Cranberries instead of vinegar, like you would traditionally do in borscht, was really smart.
And also using them with the beets.
- Thank you.
- My last favorite was Mei.
It was super complex and really elegant.
I would eat that every day of the week.
Tiffani, tell us who won this quickfire.
The chef that won this quickfire was the person that took the Cranberries, and it was clearly, clearly cranberry, but it was elevated, and I thought it was really inventive.
That person Is Katie.
- Thank you.
- Congratulations.
Katie, you have immunity in the next elimination challenge.
Awesome.
For the first time, I feel like a strong contender.
It kind of shows you that it doesn't matter what city you live in, what michelin star restaurant you work for, you can still be a great chef.
Tiffani, thank you so much.
- This was super fun.
- Take care.
- Thank you.
- I'll see you later.
Awesome.
Bye, you guys.
Good luck.
Hang in there.
Thank you.
As you know, Thanksgiving is just around the corner.
We have the Cranberries out of the way, and now it's time to serve the rest of the meal.
It just so happens that the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth, just 40 Miles South of Boston.
So for your elimination challenge, you'll work as one group to create a traditional Thanksgiving feast.
And when I say "traditional, " that historical meal wasn't exactly as we know it today.
Tomorrow you'll head to plimoth plantation and experience what life was like in the 1600s.
You won't see the pantry or cooking equipment until you arrive.
And you'll only have access to native ingredients and what the colonists brought with them on the mayflower.
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner using the same pots and cooking utensils that the people had back in the 1600s, this is gonna go just fine.
You'll have 2 1/2 hours to cook, and you'll be serving a family-style meal in two groups.
It's completely up to you to decide who serves in each group.
Joining us for the meal will be James Beard award winner Ken oringer, and most importantly, descendants of the native wampanoag tribe as well as colonists who first came over on the mayflower.
Enjoy your day tomorrow.
We'll see you at Thanksgiving.
Bye.
Did they have tortillas on the mayflower? - My dad always made pizza.
- On Thanksgiving? Let it, like, rise outside in the sun, and then me and my brother would get to make our own pizzas.
Being together? Yup.
I'm from Mexico, so we don't have Thanksgiving, but it's one of those traditions that I really value nowaday.
You know what we do? We eat a big, fat duck - stuffed with sticky rice.
- Yum.
- Same here, me too.
- That actually sounds amazing.
High five.
The vibe in the house is pretty good.
I do think Stacy, however, seems to be having a hard one.
She's kind of been on the bottom the last few times, so I think it's starting to wear on her a little bit.
Cranberry quickfire, I should've had that.
I'm just really beat up and feeling very much alone.
I definitely miss my boyfriend, but I'm kind of used to that.
Robbie is a corporal in the U.
S.
marine corps, infantry division.
I don't know if I said that right.
I really know nothing about the armed forces, but I'm learning.
He's currently deployed overseas.
- Hi.
- Hi.
How are things going there? Yeah, it's hard.
- Stab anyone yet? - No.
Doing good, then.
I miss you.
I miss you very much.
Look at me.
I'm being a girl.
Are you happy? Are you happy about this? I didn't have feelings till I met you.
You're an hole.
It's so nice to see his face and hear his voice that I can't hold it together.
I'm turning into a little bitch.
All right, I got to go.
I love you.
I love you too, Robbie.
Talking to Robbie tonight definitely helped my morale.
How was that? Great.
Don't touch her, please.
It'll bring bad luck to whatever you touch.
So this is probably our entire lot of boiling water.
You're basically cooking in the dirt.
Ooh! It makes it a little difficult.
I like my kitchens clean.
It makes it a little difficult.
Happy Thanksgiving.
.
- Ready for this ? - Sure.
I love it when both of us sleep, it's like, every hour we wake up, like, half panic, half laughing.
I think it's really cool that we have two Portland chefs kind of representing p-town.
Doug is somewhat unassuming, he's kind of a little guy, he's very cute, and kind of fuzzy.
They're throwing something up at us today.
For the first part of the competition, I wasn't sure about him, but he's been doing great lately.
- Portland, Oregon.
- Yes, yo.
- Another day to survive.
- Awesome.
You know what, though? I want to go churn some butter.
- Let's do this.
- Let's go.
We're here.
Arriving at plimoth plantation was awesome.
You could feel the history.
You can tell something very, very special happened there.
And knowing that I'm gonna cook there, it's amazing.
Time to get this going.
Mussels - Rabbit - Oh, lobsters - I'm gonna hit a dessert.
- All right, I'm doing the cabbage.
Is this a Turkey? Goose.
Duck fat--tons of duck fat, you guys.
I got the birds.
We have 2 1/2 hours to cook a traditional 17th-century Thanksgiving feast.
The ingredients are not your traditional ingredients that you see nowadays at the Thanksgiving feast.
No, no.
This is what was available in the first Thanksgiving.
Let's check out the house we're cooking in, huh? What? So this is probably our entire lot of boiling water.
As far as tools and cooking equipment, I am seeing fire pits and big, cast irons, and big wooden spoons.
It's really cool, but it's also really challenging.
Hey, Doug.
- A whole spit set - Sweet.
To get it closer to the flame.
And we can catch the drippings.
- And baste the--I'll do rabbit.
- And boom, boom, boom, - boom, boom.
- Sounds good.
As a group, we need to work together to execute a menu which honors the rich tradition.
Who's gonna be the first four? I could do rabbit first or second, it doesn't matter.
- Go first.
- Okay.
- Rabbit first, no problem.
- I can go first.
Doug and Melissa first.
Who else? I'll go.
Katsuji, Stacy, Melissa, and Doug go first.
How you doing, Greg? Definitely taking a chance.
Goose is hard to cook.
Just 'cause it's such a tough bird, I'm gonna try and cook it long and slow as long as possible.
Definitely a huge difference between a goose and a Turkey.
Goose meat itself is actually a lot leaner, so I'm taking a risk by cooking goose today.
At this point in the competition, I've had a string of wins, and I'm really proud of myself, but sometimes you have to push the walls to see how big the room can get.
Like a clam bake.
- Yeah.
- Nice.
I've never actually smoked a clam before.
I mean, you're basically cooking in the dirt.
It makes it a little difficult.
I like my kitchens clean.
Okay.
All right, guys.
An hour and 42 minutes left! Oh, .
I'm gonna do, like, a freeform kind of blueberry pie.
I'm gonna have to go one bunny at a time.
In 1621 they didn't have forks, so I'm assuming the diners today at the Thanksgiving table will only have, you know, spoons and knives.
Much better.
So I'm spit-roasting my rabbit, and I'm breaking it, and they can kind of spoon it in.
I'm gonna try to pull off a stuffing for you too, okay? - Okay, cool.
- What's going in your stuffing? Pickled blueberries, Cranberries, walnuts, and then a lobster.
It's a stretch, but at the same time, I picture lemon and lobster and blueberry all kind of going pretty well together, and I just feel like having immunity, I was ready to take a big, big leap.
Mel, is yours getting paired with something? Uh, no, just, like, a roast veggie salad type of thing.
There's a lot of heavy proteins on everyone else's dishes, so I'm taking a risk to not have a protein on my dish.
I'm feeling confident that I can take this opportunity to showcase my knife skills - and my technique.
- What you making over there? I'm working on a trout vinaigrette for some roasted cabbage with duck fat.
Being on the losing team in the last elimination challenge, the pressure's definitely on to make food that's new to the palate.
I don't want to ride through in the middle, like, I want to win.
So today I'm making duck fat-roasted cabbage with trout vinaigrette.
It's definitely something that they've never had before.
I have salt.
- This pie crust is .
- Really? What's going on? I just realize that the blueberry pie was not gonna happen without ice to keep it cold.
Guys, I'm switching to venison.
So I quickly switched my dish to making a venison instead.
Switching game plans.
I'm going with a succotash.
Ultimately, this'll be a great complement to Greg's goose.
Hey, Gregory.
How you doing? Hey, chefs, how's it going? Chef oringer is judging this competition, so we're just doing a little walk around.
- Right on.
- See what's going on.
Indeed.
What, do you have this kitchen to yourself? Yeah, a little peace and quiet.
It's really hot, though.
Ken oringer is an extremely iconic chef personality in the Boston culinary scene.
He was right next to me at the i Top Chef food festival, and he liked my dish.
I really want to impress him with another dish today.
I have deboned goose.
I have our thighs confiting nice and slow in some goose fat, tons of aromatics.
This is what cooking's all about, you know? - I know, it really is.
- I mean, who needs immersion circulators when you can get - all this flavor? - Exactly.
In the water and everything else.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's amazing.
Why'd you choose goose? It's so tricky.
I think, you know, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, you know, getting a bird on the table is important.
Well, good luck.
This is great.
- Good luck.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Hi, Keriann.
- Hi, chef.
How are you? - Good.
How's it going? - Great.
- Chef oringer.
Hi, chef.
Nice to meet you.
- How are you? Nice to meet you.
- What's going on here? I am actually doing a venison with a blueberry compote sauce and then some toasted hazelnuts with some fresh herbs.
How did you decide to do venison? I was actually gonna go and do a blueberry pie type of deal.
My crust wasn't coming together, so I switched it real quick.
Wow.
All right.
That's quite a switch from blueberry pie to venison.
Your blueberry pie filling's being repurposed for a sauce? It is.
I hadn't sweetened it yet at all, so I'm-- it's still gonna be very savory.
- Great.
Good luck.
- Thank you, chef.
- Good luck.
- Nice to meet you.
Katsuji, what's going on? How are you, chefs? How are you? What's been the biggest challenge for you? Oh, my God.
Dealing with the smoke coming through your eyes.
- Yeah.
- Really brings you back of how we started our craft, you know, how we started as chefs.
More and more chefs are going back to this.
Yes, yes.
- Yeah.
- What are you making? Oven-roasted butternut squash with a Chestnut and Chile butter to finish it.
Okay.
You look like you're having a hard time.
- The smoke part is just - I'll let you go.
Thank you, chef.
The smoke gets in your eyes.
And you just keep crying and crying and crying.
And I guess some of the tears will give some flavor to my food.
Okay, chefs.
Everything's looking great.
Looking forward to a good meal.
- Thanks, chefs.
- Finish strong, guys.
Finish strong.
30 minutes! I think I smell like a settler.
Oh, man, I'm definitely taking a shower tonight.
- Whoo.
- Oh, my God, it's so hot.
We're all really dirty, really sweaty, but you know, at the same time we're really inspired by our challenge today, so we're all cooking our asses off.
First course, three minutes! I'd like to welcome everybody to this table, and it's an honor to eat with the descendants of the wampanoag tribe well as the descendants of the colonists.
Happy Thanksgiving.
- Cheers.
- Happy Thanksgiving.
What does it mean to be a descendant of the mayflower? Well, I mean, for me, there's a certain sense of pride and heritage.
For my dad to be 12th generation, and for me to be 13th generation, and be able to know that we're getting around the table, we're getting people there, we're kind of paying homage to Thanksgiving.
I mean, it's a big deal for us every year.
Phillip, how does it feel to be representing your tribe? All about continuance, you know, and making sure I'm doing the last generation good, and always looking to where you came from to see where you're going is something really important.
Start putting clams on each of 'em? Yep.
- This is the last one.
- Okay.
As I see Stacy plating on the ground outside, I'm thinking, like, "really? "Be careful.
You don't want dirt in your food.
" It's really good, actually.
One minute left, guys! Five, four, three, two Time.
Here we go.
- Oh, fabulous.
- Smells good.
- Looks good.
- Looks good.
Hello, chefs.
Happy Thanksgiving.
How did you find cooking out here? It's fun.
- An adventure.
- Yeah.
I definitely went big with the spit roast and the rabbit.
Playing with the fire all day, but it was fun.
You can really smell the fire when you just have the food in front of you too.
That's the way Thanksgiving should smell.
Tell us what you've made.
I have a spit-roasted rabbit with garlic, ramps, hazelnut, Chestnut, and radish.
Doug, you said you wanted to go big.
What does that mean? As soon as I saw the spit roaster and the whole rabbit, I realized that you guys didn't have forks, so my main idea was just, like, you know, big, beautiful, like, roasted rabbit.
The rabbit is excellent, but we always have it whole.
We just tear it apart and pull the meat right off.
When you were smoking your rabbit, were you concerned about controlling the smoke? Oh, yeah.
But I kind of did it pretty gently, so it was just kind of a babying.
It was a good payoff.
It tastes great.
- Thank you.
- The side dish for that one, it will be the oven-roasted pumpkin.
With poached lobster, and it's all been finished with Chestnut and ancho Chile butter.
I wanted something just to have a little texture.
Lobster seemed like either a really good idea or a really bad idea.
- That was a good choice.
- Thanks so much.
I also like the lobster, which is something that I usually never like.
In fact, wampanoag people used it as bait to catch more desirable fish.
I love it.
Who would've thought a Mexican guy cooking kosher food would turn a wampanoag Indian into loving lobster? Stacy.
I have ramp-smoked clams with butternut squash, slow-roasted lobster, sesame seeds, and fresh ramps.
Remember the other day when I said you got to dirty up your food? This is exactly what I was talking about.
Actually, I plated on the ground, sitting in the dirt, so What I meant is just you weren't afraid to make it look rustic.
You know, forget about tweezers and stuff like that and actually focus on great flavor.
Is there sage in this? - Thyme.
- There's a flavor that I'm getting too that I'm trying to figure out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like a mustiness.
- Yes.
- Melissa.
I made a roast vegetable medley side.
It has parsnips, green beans, zucchini, and I charred ramps.
Why did you decide to just do a vegetable dish? I really wanted to just do a nice vegetable dish that was executed well.
I thought the zucchini could've been cooked a little more, but there's a lot of flavor there.
I just want to say, nice job all the way around.
I mean, this is really delicious.
Each one of you just really brought it.
I'd love to have any of these things at my Thanksgiving table.
Thank you so much, chefs.
Thank you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Good job, guys.
It all feels right.
You can imagine that this was part of the table way back when.
Guys, 15 minutes.
- It looks really good, Keriann.
- Thank you.
- Looks great.
- , that's hot.
I'll take a four-star hotel any day over this.
Has enough spice? Did you get it? It's really hard to control this fire.
I don't want to overcook my goose.
After searing my goose breasts and trying to cook them as gently as possible, I cut one open and realized that it's still really, really chewy.
I'm feeling pretty nervous, honestly.
Needs to cook a little longer, is the problem.
- Goose is hard.
- Goose is real hard.
Gregory, he's right now, like, the king of Top Chef.
If he goes home tonight, this is gonna be a game changer for everybody.
Gail, did you even celebrate Thanksgiving? I'm from Canada, so our Thanksgiving was very different.
Yes, we sort of sometimes have a Turkey, and pumpkin soup or something.
But it's not, by any means, the same traditions.
By far, my favorite adopted U.
S.
holiday.
I grew up Italian-American, so we had the tradition of, you know, Turkey and stuffing and everything you'd expect, but we also started with lasagna.
And you weren't full after that, or you were? Of course we were.
That's the beauty, yeah.
The point of Thanksgiving, right? Yeah.
Do you think this is too rare? This one's, like, a lot more rare.
You want to scoop it like this.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Little bit of mint on top? What do you think? Just tear the mint into little pieces.
- Yup.
- We good? I don't know yet.
My goose is still really, really chewy, so I totally start panicking.
Got to go a little longer.
- Just on this one? - Yeah.
Gregory definitely has some balls to cook the goose.
To him, it was important that we put a bird on that table for Thanksgiving, and I love that about him.
This one's still resting in the fat? Yeah.
We got three minutes left, guys! Three minutes.
Goose is hard.
Goose is real hard.
It's a big risk, and at this point in the competition, any small thing that you do wrong can send you home.
One minute.
Think that's enough sauce? Yeah.
Time.
Okay, sister, you got this.
No.
The only eyewitness account of the first Thanksgiving gives us a description of some of the things that were served and that were available in that three days of banqueting and sports.
Football, I mean, obviously.
'Cause that's what you watch Thanksgiving, right? Hello, everyone.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Thank you.
Adam what did you make for us? A take on succotash.
Beans, corn, summer squash, and wilted spinach with a spiced goat milk.
I like what I'm tasting, and I think actually the goat milk adds a little bit of earthiness that's really, really nice to it.
- It grounds the dish well.
- Thank you.
I think this is something that's gonna be on my table.
This is succotash for me.
- I want the recipe.
- Katie.
I did a blueberry stuffing with a blue cornmeal cornbread.
On top is sauteed lobster.
It's sort of wacky, like, I keep looking at it.
I know, it's so wacky.
Thinking I'm not supposed to like it, and then I have another bite, and then I look at it again, and I've somehow managed to eat half of the bowl, I think.
- Thank you.
- Really loving the stuffing.
It's actually, I think, a very interesting dish.
- Hi, Mei.
- Hi.
What did you make for us? Duck fat roasted cabbage with a trout vinaigrette.
I would typically use anchovy to make this type of vinaigrette, just to make it, like, really salty, but I used trout instead.
I thought the trout vinaigrette was really subtle and lovely.
The vinegar just pops.
Thank you, chef.
What did you make, Gregory? We have some roasted goose, kind of slowly cooked in its own fat.
Also, the thigh meat has been deboned and confited with some herbs.
The goose confit, was it cooked to your liking? I felt it probably could've gone a little bit longer.
It is toothsome.
The breast, especially.
But I think the flavors are really nice, and you chose something difficult to do, - and you gave us a nice dish.
- Hi, Keriann.
- Hi.
- What did you make? Today I did a seared venison loin with a blueberry compote and then a buttered and herbed hazelnut.
I was a little worried at first how the blueberry pie turned into a sauce for the venison, but I think it's really well done.
Thank you.
Venison being a large part of the wampanoag diet, so was blueberries.
To mix them both, I've never had them at the same time.
- It's great.
Thanks.
- Oh, I'm glad you like it.
- Thank you.
- Thank you all.
- We'll see you in a bit.
- Thanks.
Well done, guys.
- Thank you.
- Yay.
You, my little rock star.
- Look at you.
- It's gonna be tough.
Yeah, yeah, this is all really good food.
There's not a bad dish on the table.
Having eaten in the pilgrim village before, this is a step up from our 17th-century food.
I was really excited when I saw them bring the succotash out, 'cause it's a wampanoag dish, you know, it's something I could see wampanoag people maybe even using, you know, back then.
Thank you so much for giving us the honor of sharing this meal with you.
Thank you so much.
- Great to meet you.
- Thank you.
This is gonna be tough.
Mm-hmm.
What'd they say about everybody else's dishes? They liked all of us.
Us nine absolutely nailed this as a team.
In a way, I think when we give these young chefs sort of limitations, they're actually better off.
Every dish had depth, and they were slow-cooked.
I mean, this was what cooking should be.
What's your favorite dish? I loved Mei's dish.
I loved that cabbage.
It had crunch, it had, like, a juiciness to it, it had a little bit of sweetness from the Cranberries.
- How'd it go? - It was positive.
Super positive.
For me, Doug's rabbit dish was one of my favorite dishes of the day.
I just kept going back for more.
It was just, like, really vibrant, flavorful, and wasn't predictable at all.
You killed it.
Your rabbit was beautiful.
I like Katsuji's squash.
- Yeah, me too.
- Me too.
That dish, to me, was just sublime.
That was my kind of dish.
You know, it was sticky, and gooey, and savory.
I really liked Katie's stuffing.
It didn't need the lobster, but I'll tell you, there was something about it that I just kept going back to.
It looked like it was gonna be so sweet, but it ate very savory.
And then you got these bursts of fresh blueberry, and I thought it was sort of brilliant.
I couldn't stop eating it either.
It was really tasty.
But who are our least favorites? The only dish that didn't have as much flavor was Melissa's vegetable dish.
Yeah.
I thought it was under-seasoned compared to everything else.
If you had two-plus hours - to cook with an open fire - Right.
Would you be making a dish like that? - Perhaps not.
- We'll see what happens.
I wanted Gregory's to be a little more powerful.
The confit, to me-- it was just, like, dry and a little rough.
I liked Keriann's venison.
It was cooked beautifully.
But when you ate bites of the blueberry sauce on its own, it really was too sweet for me.
I was basically eating pie filling over venison.
It needed stock.
Yeah, it really did.
I also think that Stacy's stuffing upstaged her clam.
There was a flavor in Stacy's stuffing - That mustiness.
- That I think was one of my least-favorite bites of the meal.
- Off-putting.
- So it was a good day? - We'll see.
- Cool dish.
- Cool dish idea.
- I still think, you know, no matter where we go it's tough, because someone's gonna go home for making actually a pretty good dish.
- Yeah.
- Very good dish.
Well, I think we have our decision.
Let's head back to the judges' table.
Whoo.
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.
Thanksgiving.
I just loved, like, the old-school cookery.
I'm totally gonna go home and try and order all that .
- Is anybody else nervous? - I'm nervous.
I'm on the chopping block, I think.
Gregory--he's right now, like, the king of the Top Chef.
You know, they love Gregory.
If he goes home tonight, this is gonna be a game changer for everybody.
Oh, man.
We'd like to see all of you.
Let's go.
Chefs, today you were tasked with making us a Thanksgiving feast.
I think that could create a lot of new traditions.
Some of the dishes were really, really good.
Doug, Katsuji, and Mei, please stay.
The rest of you can move to the side.
The three of you had our favorite dishes of the day, so congratulations.
Wow.
Tom, what did you think of Katsuji's dish? It was just this great, intense flavor with just a few simple ingredients.
The lobster was beautifully incorporated too.
A beautiful dish, and it was totally appropriate to the challenge.
Doug, thought your rabbit was delicious.
The smokiness of that spit, it was just like eating real wood-fired meat, and I loved it.
And it was never a boring bite.
Mei, a really brilliant, unusual dish.
You know, the cabbage took on such a lovely texture.
- I loved it.
- It was just, like, crunchy, smoky, pure comfort food.
Thanks, chef.
Ken, please do the honors of announcing the winning chef.
In the true spirit of ingenuity, threw everything aside to just make something of a ton of flavor Katsuji, you're the winner.
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho! Congratulations.
Yay! I just won a challenge.
This is probably the most important challenge, because I got to cook where the first immigrants cooked.
This is an amazing feeling right now.
You can join the other chefs, all three of you.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Stacy, Melissa, and Gregory, please step forward.
All the dishes were delicious, however, the three of you had some flaws, and one of you will be going home.
- Gregory.
- Yes, chef.
Quite a bit of cajones to - Yes.
- Pull out that goose.
- What were you thinking? - Just tradition.
I felt it was important to get a bird on the table.
So do you think it was maybe too much of a risk? I absolutely, 100%, think it was too much of a risk.
Melissa, if you could do something over again, would you do something differently? You know, I was really happy with the dish.
Were you concerned at all that it was sort of so simple? I didn't feel that I had to incorporate a protein on there, so that's where I decided to just execute it nicely and have perfectly diced vegetables.
I think that they just sort of seemed to blend into the background a little.
Stacy, are you feeling any pressure because, you know, obviously, you've come here, this is your hometown? Oh, my God.
So much.
There was a lot that I really loved about your dish.
I thought you cooked the clam beautifully, but there was this dirt-ness.
I--it's a strange-- - maybe it was the dirt.
- It's a strange flavor, and the only thing that I kept going back to was that you were describing plating it in the dirt, and I kept thinking, maybe it's some of the dirt.
As I said earlier, the whole meal was delicious.
Unfortunately for one of you, it'll be your last time cooking here.
Thanks for really coming out and giving it your all.
Unfortunately for one of you, it will be your last time cooking here.
Stacy, please pack your knives and go.
Thank you.
I'm so sorry.
You know, Stacy, that was a really tasty dish.
It was just the least favorite dish among eight other really good dishes, so you should keep your head up high when you walk out of here.
Thank you so much, and especially all these guys.
The rest of you can please say your good-byes.
We'll see you next time.
Take care, Stacy.
Good luck.
You guys are amazing.
I'm a little sad.
Kind of relieved.
I felt so much pressure being from Boston.
It was keeping me up at night.
- Did you just lift me up? - Yeah.
You don't want to let your hometown down.
Boston is what it is.
- You're a gem, girl.
- The Yankees.
I'm gonna miss you.
And the person that's leaving tonight is someone who doesn't have to beat themself up anymore.
Someone who is really proud to be who they are.
I made Boston proud.
I really did.
- Come on, come on, come on! - Whoo! Still to come this season on Top Chef It is time for restaurant wars.
Restaurant wars! - Go shake that ass out there.
- Whoo! You could play hockey with this thing.
I'm not paying for dinner.
That's up.
Please welcome the legendary Jacques pepin.
Whoo! Andy Cohen.
Rob gronkowski.
Your loved ones.
Are you kidding me? He's annoying the out of me.
Need a clean-up in aisle two.
How does a hotel pan of clams go missing? What the happened here? The winner will go directly to the final round in Mexico.
You are Top Chef.
To learn more about the chefs, go to bravotv.
Com.
Man, I'm off-kilter.
- For the fallen ones.
- Huh? Aaron butted heads with almost everybody in the house, so it's kind of like a breath of fresh air to have him gone.
I'll cook you under the table.
Go yourself.
That kid's, like, such a pain in the ass.
He was messy, he was Messy is an understatement.
- Time for him to go.
- It was a fun day.
Great challenge, man.
You're a tough beat.
I'm glad that I made it out of there alive, honestly.
The red team had to battle the blue team in five head-to-head match-ups, and my team lost, but finding myself as the Victor in the battle against Doug, it definitely feels good.
Hey, guys! First blood! Whoo! Doug is one of the more dominant chefs in the competition thus far, but I'm also concerned about Gregory, Melissa, and Mei.
And Katsuji's a mess in a dress, but ultimately he's making delicious food.
So it's not gonna get any easier, because we're all, like, pretty close - and we all like each other.
- Yeah.
So, like, it's just gonna get tighter and tighter.
Nine chefs remain to compete.
It's the ultimate test of culinary skill.
A feature in Food & Wine magazine, an appearance at the Food & Wine classic in Aspen, $125,000 furnished by healthy choice, and the title of Top Chef.
"#mygirlfriendisatopchef.
" "#sugarmama.
" My girlfriend gave me a package of notes, one for each day that I'm here.
Little love notes to keep me going.
I feel like I can hear her voice and she's supporting me through it, and I want to make her proud.
Winning Top Chef would really bring a lot of options to our future together.
I want to have my own restaurant, and I think it would be a really great way for us to build something together.
- Morning.
- Morning.
Hi, guys.
Good morning.
How are you guys? A little early, huh? - Yeah.
- Yeah.
Chef Tiffani Faison from sweet cheeks barbecue and Top Chef season one.
Seeing her in the apartment is an alarming surprise.
Excited about today? - Yes.
Always.
- I guess.
What are we doing? Is she gonna cook breakfast for us? I hope so, 'cause I'm quite hungry.
I have something really special planned for you today.
I know you've seen them before, maybe not in person, and they're really beautiful and unique to this area.
- You ready? - Yeah.
All right, let's go.
Come on.
I have no idea what we're doing.
I have no idea either.
Where are we? I see Cranberries.
- Ocean Spray.
- Nice.
Truck is so cute.
Oh, that's so pretty.
We come over this hill, and there's this bog, and all these beautiful Cranberries are floating on top.
I grew up in east Texas in a town called Tyler.
When I was a kid I spent most of my time outside fishing, running around in the woods.
And, you know, you don't really get to do a lot of that when you're stuck in a kitchen.
So I'm really excited to be here.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
Well, good morning.
Welcome.
My name is Adrienne Mollor.
I'm a second-generation cranberry grower and part of the Ocean Spray cooperative.
Thanks for coming out here today.
- Thanks for having us.
- Thanks for having us.
As you can imagine, my family live and breathe Cranberries, and today we want to share with you the beauty of our harvest.
So what you may not know, before healthy, delicious Cranberries come to your table, they're grown on a low-lying bog outside of water.
At the harvest time, we flood that bog with about a foot to two feet of water, and that's where you get involved today.
In front of you, 6 million beautiful, luscious Cranberries.
- Oh, wow.
- Did you count them? I did.
So here's the deal.
You guys are gonna go harvest these Cranberries.
Wow.
The first four of you to fill your crates to the brim with Cranberries get an advantage in the next challenge.
Trust me.
You're gonna want it.
That needs to be the least of your worries.
I actually can't swim, and being 5'2", you know, gets me a little freaked out.
All right, guys.
Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold! With his long legs, Adam crushes everyone.
First to the box, Katsuji and Adam.
My first run, I was like, "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" Oh! And it's only the first one.
Oh, my God.
I'm out of breath! For me, this is awesome.
Being an athlete, skiing, snowboarding, running, hiking, this is the perfect challenge.
I'm ready to take all these other guys down.
You guys are looking a little bogged down.
Jesus Christ! I am tired.
Oh, , that's hard.
Guys are about halfway there.
Keep going.
You're doing well.
Go.
Unh! Katie's one.
Yes! Yeah! - Adam, two.
- Whoo! - Gregory, three.
- Yes.
Doug, four.
Done.
What's up with a city boy beating all you country folk? Nice job.
Somebody get the paddles for Katsuji.
It's like watching a caterpillar emerge from the cocoon, becoming a beautiful butterfly covered in Armani.
Congratulations, top four.
Let's head back to the Top Chef kitchen and see what advantage that wins you.
Whoo! Good morning, chefs.
Morning.
This morning, you were told to harvest Cranberries as quickly as possible, and here's why.
As you know, Cranberries pair really well with a variety of dishes, from appetizers all the way to dessert.
Using these ingredients, you must create a dish that highlights the bold and unique flavor of the cranberry.
Katie, Adam, Gregory, and Doug, since you were the quickest, you will have access to this side of the table, the high-end pantry.
- I think we got this.
- Cool.
The rest of you have access to this side.
We see a lot of not the best quality ingredients.
Ketchup, ground chicken, ground beef, nothing fancy, really.
We'd really like to see something super unique highlighting the cranberry that really can be used any time of the year, so don't go to Thanksgiving immediately.
No stuffing.
No bread pudding.
You have your choice of Ocean Spray ingredients, the fresh Cranberries you harvested, as well as the pantries you've gained access to.
The winner of this quickfire will receive immunity in the next elimination.
You have 30 minutes on the clock.
Your time starts now.
Get to it.
- Ah! - Oh, easy.
Easy.
It definitely sucks that I didn't get the advantage, because I wish I could just grab some of the proteins and the fresh herbs that they had available.
Pork tenderloin.
I'm feeling pretty lucky.
I have things that go with Cranberries a little bit more, so I'm thinking cranberry-glazed pork tenderloin and, like, a cranberry mustard.
Gregory, what you doing? A kinda sweet-and-sour cranberry puree.
- Guys, 25 minutes.
- I'm down.
What are you making, Katie? I'm gonna do a cranberry borscht.
Since that bog, I've been a little bit inspired.
Borscht is usually a little bit of a sour soup, and I know that since Cranberries are naturally sour, that this dish will definitely highlight the cranberry and not hide it.
Oh.
Almost got my hand.
I see Katie making cranberry borscht, and it looks disgusting.
I definitely wouldn't order cranberry borscht.
- Ooh! - I'm not thinking, like, this is a dish that's gonna work.
16 minutes! - What do you got going? - Sweet-and-sour pork, homey.
Where I grew up, it was always, like, the cranberry festivals, so it's kind of fun.
I wanted to do a curried soup, but there's not really a lot of options on that table.
So I'm mimicking cream in this soup by cooking the cauliflower with the onions in butter, and then pureeing them.
You know, if you're a chef, you should be able to work with anything at all.
I am gonna be cutting it real close.
Guys, ten minutes! It's going fast.
The time's going fast.
.
I like when they put me in hard positions, so if I don't have the nicest ingredients, that's okay with me.
I don't sweat it.
I'm gonna make a steak tartare with a salsa with arbol chiles and fresh Cranberries.
You don't really see tartares made with skirt steak, but this is what I have.
Seven minutes! Katsuji's making a tartare with skirt steak, and skirt steak is a super tough cut.
He needs to cut that up a lot smaller than he is.
You have five minutes.
Five minutes, everyone.
Guys, something's burning.
- Someone's burning something.
- ! I attempt to make this cranberry dirty water fully-seasoned liquid to rehydrate my couscous, and it doesn't work.
So now I'm left with mushrooms, steak, and sauce, and I just don't feel that that's gonna be enough to win this.
49 seconds.
Behind, behind, behind, behind! - Hot pan.
- Whoo! Oh That was close.
20 seconds! Five, four, three, two, one! Time's up.
Utensils down.
Had better days at the ballpark.
Let's check out the house we're cooking in, huh? What? We have to cook a traditional 17th-century Thanksgiving feast.
Oh, my God.
I guess some of the tears will give some flavor to my food.
- Hello, hello.
- Hello.
- Hi, Adam.
- Hi, chef, hi, padma.
30 minutes to execute a cranberry dish, which, let's be honest here, I'm not envisioning myself being at the top of this quickfire.
I stand before you a battered, battered man.
Idea one collapsed at the seams.
So what you have in front of you is a bourbon cranberry barbecue sauce glazed New York strip steak with some cranberry-infused mushroom fricassee.
I wish there was triple the amount of cranberry sauce.
I sort of wish you were feeling more joyful about this dish as we ate it, instead of, like, "wah-wah.
" I figured I'd be forthcoming.
It's a rabbit hole, dude.
Don't do it.
Hello, Gregory.
Okay, so today we have some pan-roasted arctic char with a sweet-and-sour cranberry sauce, royal trumpet mushrooms with Cranberries and some fresh pear.
Arctic char is really nicely cooked.
Awesome.
Thank you, chef.
I did a carrot soup with fresh cranberry and crab.
How did this go for you today? A little bit challenging, just looking at the other side and thinking of the things that I'd be doing with some of those ingredients.
But still, had to make the best of what we were given.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, padma.
Thanks, Tiffani.
So you had the run of the pantry.
Yeah, as soon as I saw the tenderloin, I was thinking, like, glazed pork.
I crisped up some brussels sprouts and I made a cranberry mustard.
Tastes like fall in New England.
It does.
I really like your brussels sprouts.
Thank you.
So here I have a fried Turkey bite with apple butter and a little cranberry compote with pecans and fried sage.
Did someone tell you I like fried things? Anything that flies can fry.
I did a cranberry borscht for you today.
What? In the bowl is creme fraiche, charred brussels sprout, pancetta.
I know it's borscht, but it has this kind of goulash-y quality to it that I really love.
- Oh, thank you, I think.
- It's really interesting.
- Hi, Katsuji.
- How are you? I made a steak tartare.
The mayonnaise was made with Chile de arbol, fresh Cranberries, and oil, and a cranberry hot sauce on top.
I'm assuming you hand-cut this.
Yes.
Thank you.
- Hi, Stacy.
- Hi, padma.
Hi, chef.
So, little bostonian, how you doing? You have a curried cauliflower soup with a smoky pepper cranberry relish.
Your Cranberries have probably the least amount of sugar.
Was that a conscious decision? Yeah.
- Thank you so much.
- Thanks, Stacy.
Thank you.
So I made for you a sweet-and-sour pork with pickled mustard seeds and an apple salad.
It's actually got that really great Chinese-American, craveable, sweet-and-sour pork quality to it, but it's way more elegant than that.
I had no problems with the low-end pantry.
My dish was great! Tiffani, how did our chefs do with this cranberry quickfire? Overall, I was pretty impressed, but there were a few low points.
Katsuji, for tartare, skirt steak is a really odd choice, and if you're gonna go with skirt steak, you're gonna have to get in there and dice it really nicely.
Who else? Adam kind of begged for us to, - like, hate his dish.
- I know.
So I just didn't think it was a particularly cohesive dish, and there wasn't enough cranberry in it for me.
The last one's Stacy.
And you're my hometown girl, but I thought that the soup needed a little bit of seasoning, and I just felt it was pretty clunky.
I'm so pissed.
Cranberries are what I use all the time.
I'm really getting tired of being on the bottom at this point.
One of the ones I thought was really great was Doug.
You know, we started the challenge, and I said we really want to see something that's, like, really clever, and that maybe takes it to a place that I haven't seen.
It didn't do that, but it was like, "this is why we eat Cranberries in the fall.
" - And it was perfect.
- Thank you.
My next pick was Katie.
Borscht is hard.
I think using the Cranberries instead of vinegar, like you would traditionally do in borscht, was really smart.
And also using them with the beets.
- Thank you.
- My last favorite was Mei.
It was super complex and really elegant.
I would eat that every day of the week.
Tiffani, tell us who won this quickfire.
The chef that won this quickfire was the person that took the Cranberries, and it was clearly, clearly cranberry, but it was elevated, and I thought it was really inventive.
That person Is Katie.
- Thank you.
- Congratulations.
Katie, you have immunity in the next elimination challenge.
Awesome.
For the first time, I feel like a strong contender.
It kind of shows you that it doesn't matter what city you live in, what michelin star restaurant you work for, you can still be a great chef.
Tiffani, thank you so much.
- This was super fun.
- Take care.
- Thank you.
- I'll see you later.
Awesome.
Bye, you guys.
Good luck.
Hang in there.
Thank you.
As you know, Thanksgiving is just around the corner.
We have the Cranberries out of the way, and now it's time to serve the rest of the meal.
It just so happens that the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth, just 40 Miles South of Boston.
So for your elimination challenge, you'll work as one group to create a traditional Thanksgiving feast.
And when I say "traditional, " that historical meal wasn't exactly as we know it today.
Tomorrow you'll head to plimoth plantation and experience what life was like in the 1600s.
You won't see the pantry or cooking equipment until you arrive.
And you'll only have access to native ingredients and what the colonists brought with them on the mayflower.
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner using the same pots and cooking utensils that the people had back in the 1600s, this is gonna go just fine.
You'll have 2 1/2 hours to cook, and you'll be serving a family-style meal in two groups.
It's completely up to you to decide who serves in each group.
Joining us for the meal will be James Beard award winner Ken oringer, and most importantly, descendants of the native wampanoag tribe as well as colonists who first came over on the mayflower.
Enjoy your day tomorrow.
We'll see you at Thanksgiving.
Bye.
Did they have tortillas on the mayflower? - My dad always made pizza.
- On Thanksgiving? Let it, like, rise outside in the sun, and then me and my brother would get to make our own pizzas.
Being together? Yup.
I'm from Mexico, so we don't have Thanksgiving, but it's one of those traditions that I really value nowaday.
You know what we do? We eat a big, fat duck - stuffed with sticky rice.
- Yum.
- Same here, me too.
- That actually sounds amazing.
High five.
The vibe in the house is pretty good.
I do think Stacy, however, seems to be having a hard one.
She's kind of been on the bottom the last few times, so I think it's starting to wear on her a little bit.
Cranberry quickfire, I should've had that.
I'm just really beat up and feeling very much alone.
I definitely miss my boyfriend, but I'm kind of used to that.
Robbie is a corporal in the U.
S.
marine corps, infantry division.
I don't know if I said that right.
I really know nothing about the armed forces, but I'm learning.
He's currently deployed overseas.
- Hi.
- Hi.
How are things going there? Yeah, it's hard.
- Stab anyone yet? - No.
Doing good, then.
I miss you.
I miss you very much.
Look at me.
I'm being a girl.
Are you happy? Are you happy about this? I didn't have feelings till I met you.
You're an hole.
It's so nice to see his face and hear his voice that I can't hold it together.
I'm turning into a little bitch.
All right, I got to go.
I love you.
I love you too, Robbie.
Talking to Robbie tonight definitely helped my morale.
How was that? Great.
Don't touch her, please.
It'll bring bad luck to whatever you touch.
So this is probably our entire lot of boiling water.
You're basically cooking in the dirt.
Ooh! It makes it a little difficult.
I like my kitchens clean.
It makes it a little difficult.
Happy Thanksgiving.
.
- Ready for this ? - Sure.
I love it when both of us sleep, it's like, every hour we wake up, like, half panic, half laughing.
I think it's really cool that we have two Portland chefs kind of representing p-town.
Doug is somewhat unassuming, he's kind of a little guy, he's very cute, and kind of fuzzy.
They're throwing something up at us today.
For the first part of the competition, I wasn't sure about him, but he's been doing great lately.
- Portland, Oregon.
- Yes, yo.
- Another day to survive.
- Awesome.
You know what, though? I want to go churn some butter.
- Let's do this.
- Let's go.
We're here.
Arriving at plimoth plantation was awesome.
You could feel the history.
You can tell something very, very special happened there.
And knowing that I'm gonna cook there, it's amazing.
Time to get this going.
Mussels - Rabbit - Oh, lobsters - I'm gonna hit a dessert.
- All right, I'm doing the cabbage.
Is this a Turkey? Goose.
Duck fat--tons of duck fat, you guys.
I got the birds.
We have 2 1/2 hours to cook a traditional 17th-century Thanksgiving feast.
The ingredients are not your traditional ingredients that you see nowadays at the Thanksgiving feast.
No, no.
This is what was available in the first Thanksgiving.
Let's check out the house we're cooking in, huh? What? So this is probably our entire lot of boiling water.
As far as tools and cooking equipment, I am seeing fire pits and big, cast irons, and big wooden spoons.
It's really cool, but it's also really challenging.
Hey, Doug.
- A whole spit set - Sweet.
To get it closer to the flame.
And we can catch the drippings.
- And baste the--I'll do rabbit.
- And boom, boom, boom, - boom, boom.
- Sounds good.
As a group, we need to work together to execute a menu which honors the rich tradition.
Who's gonna be the first four? I could do rabbit first or second, it doesn't matter.
- Go first.
- Okay.
- Rabbit first, no problem.
- I can go first.
Doug and Melissa first.
Who else? I'll go.
Katsuji, Stacy, Melissa, and Doug go first.
How you doing, Greg? Definitely taking a chance.
Goose is hard to cook.
Just 'cause it's such a tough bird, I'm gonna try and cook it long and slow as long as possible.
Definitely a huge difference between a goose and a Turkey.
Goose meat itself is actually a lot leaner, so I'm taking a risk by cooking goose today.
At this point in the competition, I've had a string of wins, and I'm really proud of myself, but sometimes you have to push the walls to see how big the room can get.
Like a clam bake.
- Yeah.
- Nice.
I've never actually smoked a clam before.
I mean, you're basically cooking in the dirt.
It makes it a little difficult.
I like my kitchens clean.
Okay.
All right, guys.
An hour and 42 minutes left! Oh, .
I'm gonna do, like, a freeform kind of blueberry pie.
I'm gonna have to go one bunny at a time.
In 1621 they didn't have forks, so I'm assuming the diners today at the Thanksgiving table will only have, you know, spoons and knives.
Much better.
So I'm spit-roasting my rabbit, and I'm breaking it, and they can kind of spoon it in.
I'm gonna try to pull off a stuffing for you too, okay? - Okay, cool.
- What's going in your stuffing? Pickled blueberries, Cranberries, walnuts, and then a lobster.
It's a stretch, but at the same time, I picture lemon and lobster and blueberry all kind of going pretty well together, and I just feel like having immunity, I was ready to take a big, big leap.
Mel, is yours getting paired with something? Uh, no, just, like, a roast veggie salad type of thing.
There's a lot of heavy proteins on everyone else's dishes, so I'm taking a risk to not have a protein on my dish.
I'm feeling confident that I can take this opportunity to showcase my knife skills - and my technique.
- What you making over there? I'm working on a trout vinaigrette for some roasted cabbage with duck fat.
Being on the losing team in the last elimination challenge, the pressure's definitely on to make food that's new to the palate.
I don't want to ride through in the middle, like, I want to win.
So today I'm making duck fat-roasted cabbage with trout vinaigrette.
It's definitely something that they've never had before.
I have salt.
- This pie crust is .
- Really? What's going on? I just realize that the blueberry pie was not gonna happen without ice to keep it cold.
Guys, I'm switching to venison.
So I quickly switched my dish to making a venison instead.
Switching game plans.
I'm going with a succotash.
Ultimately, this'll be a great complement to Greg's goose.
Hey, Gregory.
How you doing? Hey, chefs, how's it going? Chef oringer is judging this competition, so we're just doing a little walk around.
- Right on.
- See what's going on.
Indeed.
What, do you have this kitchen to yourself? Yeah, a little peace and quiet.
It's really hot, though.
Ken oringer is an extremely iconic chef personality in the Boston culinary scene.
He was right next to me at the i Top Chef food festival, and he liked my dish.
I really want to impress him with another dish today.
I have deboned goose.
I have our thighs confiting nice and slow in some goose fat, tons of aromatics.
This is what cooking's all about, you know? - I know, it really is.
- I mean, who needs immersion circulators when you can get - all this flavor? - Exactly.
In the water and everything else.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's amazing.
Why'd you choose goose? It's so tricky.
I think, you know, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, you know, getting a bird on the table is important.
Well, good luck.
This is great.
- Good luck.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Hi, Keriann.
- Hi, chef.
How are you? - Good.
How's it going? - Great.
- Chef oringer.
Hi, chef.
Nice to meet you.
- How are you? Nice to meet you.
- What's going on here? I am actually doing a venison with a blueberry compote sauce and then some toasted hazelnuts with some fresh herbs.
How did you decide to do venison? I was actually gonna go and do a blueberry pie type of deal.
My crust wasn't coming together, so I switched it real quick.
Wow.
All right.
That's quite a switch from blueberry pie to venison.
Your blueberry pie filling's being repurposed for a sauce? It is.
I hadn't sweetened it yet at all, so I'm-- it's still gonna be very savory.
- Great.
Good luck.
- Thank you, chef.
- Good luck.
- Nice to meet you.
Katsuji, what's going on? How are you, chefs? How are you? What's been the biggest challenge for you? Oh, my God.
Dealing with the smoke coming through your eyes.
- Yeah.
- Really brings you back of how we started our craft, you know, how we started as chefs.
More and more chefs are going back to this.
Yes, yes.
- Yeah.
- What are you making? Oven-roasted butternut squash with a Chestnut and Chile butter to finish it.
Okay.
You look like you're having a hard time.
- The smoke part is just - I'll let you go.
Thank you, chef.
The smoke gets in your eyes.
And you just keep crying and crying and crying.
And I guess some of the tears will give some flavor to my food.
Okay, chefs.
Everything's looking great.
Looking forward to a good meal.
- Thanks, chefs.
- Finish strong, guys.
Finish strong.
30 minutes! I think I smell like a settler.
Oh, man, I'm definitely taking a shower tonight.
- Whoo.
- Oh, my God, it's so hot.
We're all really dirty, really sweaty, but you know, at the same time we're really inspired by our challenge today, so we're all cooking our asses off.
First course, three minutes! I'd like to welcome everybody to this table, and it's an honor to eat with the descendants of the wampanoag tribe well as the descendants of the colonists.
Happy Thanksgiving.
- Cheers.
- Happy Thanksgiving.
What does it mean to be a descendant of the mayflower? Well, I mean, for me, there's a certain sense of pride and heritage.
For my dad to be 12th generation, and for me to be 13th generation, and be able to know that we're getting around the table, we're getting people there, we're kind of paying homage to Thanksgiving.
I mean, it's a big deal for us every year.
Phillip, how does it feel to be representing your tribe? All about continuance, you know, and making sure I'm doing the last generation good, and always looking to where you came from to see where you're going is something really important.
Start putting clams on each of 'em? Yep.
- This is the last one.
- Okay.
As I see Stacy plating on the ground outside, I'm thinking, like, "really? "Be careful.
You don't want dirt in your food.
" It's really good, actually.
One minute left, guys! Five, four, three, two Time.
Here we go.
- Oh, fabulous.
- Smells good.
- Looks good.
- Looks good.
Hello, chefs.
Happy Thanksgiving.
How did you find cooking out here? It's fun.
- An adventure.
- Yeah.
I definitely went big with the spit roast and the rabbit.
Playing with the fire all day, but it was fun.
You can really smell the fire when you just have the food in front of you too.
That's the way Thanksgiving should smell.
Tell us what you've made.
I have a spit-roasted rabbit with garlic, ramps, hazelnut, Chestnut, and radish.
Doug, you said you wanted to go big.
What does that mean? As soon as I saw the spit roaster and the whole rabbit, I realized that you guys didn't have forks, so my main idea was just, like, you know, big, beautiful, like, roasted rabbit.
The rabbit is excellent, but we always have it whole.
We just tear it apart and pull the meat right off.
When you were smoking your rabbit, were you concerned about controlling the smoke? Oh, yeah.
But I kind of did it pretty gently, so it was just kind of a babying.
It was a good payoff.
It tastes great.
- Thank you.
- The side dish for that one, it will be the oven-roasted pumpkin.
With poached lobster, and it's all been finished with Chestnut and ancho Chile butter.
I wanted something just to have a little texture.
Lobster seemed like either a really good idea or a really bad idea.
- That was a good choice.
- Thanks so much.
I also like the lobster, which is something that I usually never like.
In fact, wampanoag people used it as bait to catch more desirable fish.
I love it.
Who would've thought a Mexican guy cooking kosher food would turn a wampanoag Indian into loving lobster? Stacy.
I have ramp-smoked clams with butternut squash, slow-roasted lobster, sesame seeds, and fresh ramps.
Remember the other day when I said you got to dirty up your food? This is exactly what I was talking about.
Actually, I plated on the ground, sitting in the dirt, so What I meant is just you weren't afraid to make it look rustic.
You know, forget about tweezers and stuff like that and actually focus on great flavor.
Is there sage in this? - Thyme.
- There's a flavor that I'm getting too that I'm trying to figure out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like a mustiness.
- Yes.
- Melissa.
I made a roast vegetable medley side.
It has parsnips, green beans, zucchini, and I charred ramps.
Why did you decide to just do a vegetable dish? I really wanted to just do a nice vegetable dish that was executed well.
I thought the zucchini could've been cooked a little more, but there's a lot of flavor there.
I just want to say, nice job all the way around.
I mean, this is really delicious.
Each one of you just really brought it.
I'd love to have any of these things at my Thanksgiving table.
Thank you so much, chefs.
Thank you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Good job, guys.
It all feels right.
You can imagine that this was part of the table way back when.
Guys, 15 minutes.
- It looks really good, Keriann.
- Thank you.
- Looks great.
- , that's hot.
I'll take a four-star hotel any day over this.
Has enough spice? Did you get it? It's really hard to control this fire.
I don't want to overcook my goose.
After searing my goose breasts and trying to cook them as gently as possible, I cut one open and realized that it's still really, really chewy.
I'm feeling pretty nervous, honestly.
Needs to cook a little longer, is the problem.
- Goose is hard.
- Goose is real hard.
Gregory, he's right now, like, the king of Top Chef.
If he goes home tonight, this is gonna be a game changer for everybody.
Gail, did you even celebrate Thanksgiving? I'm from Canada, so our Thanksgiving was very different.
Yes, we sort of sometimes have a Turkey, and pumpkin soup or something.
But it's not, by any means, the same traditions.
By far, my favorite adopted U.
S.
holiday.
I grew up Italian-American, so we had the tradition of, you know, Turkey and stuffing and everything you'd expect, but we also started with lasagna.
And you weren't full after that, or you were? Of course we were.
That's the beauty, yeah.
The point of Thanksgiving, right? Yeah.
Do you think this is too rare? This one's, like, a lot more rare.
You want to scoop it like this.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Little bit of mint on top? What do you think? Just tear the mint into little pieces.
- Yup.
- We good? I don't know yet.
My goose is still really, really chewy, so I totally start panicking.
Got to go a little longer.
- Just on this one? - Yeah.
Gregory definitely has some balls to cook the goose.
To him, it was important that we put a bird on that table for Thanksgiving, and I love that about him.
This one's still resting in the fat? Yeah.
We got three minutes left, guys! Three minutes.
Goose is hard.
Goose is real hard.
It's a big risk, and at this point in the competition, any small thing that you do wrong can send you home.
One minute.
Think that's enough sauce? Yeah.
Time.
Okay, sister, you got this.
No.
The only eyewitness account of the first Thanksgiving gives us a description of some of the things that were served and that were available in that three days of banqueting and sports.
Football, I mean, obviously.
'Cause that's what you watch Thanksgiving, right? Hello, everyone.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Thank you.
Adam what did you make for us? A take on succotash.
Beans, corn, summer squash, and wilted spinach with a spiced goat milk.
I like what I'm tasting, and I think actually the goat milk adds a little bit of earthiness that's really, really nice to it.
- It grounds the dish well.
- Thank you.
I think this is something that's gonna be on my table.
This is succotash for me.
- I want the recipe.
- Katie.
I did a blueberry stuffing with a blue cornmeal cornbread.
On top is sauteed lobster.
It's sort of wacky, like, I keep looking at it.
I know, it's so wacky.
Thinking I'm not supposed to like it, and then I have another bite, and then I look at it again, and I've somehow managed to eat half of the bowl, I think.
- Thank you.
- Really loving the stuffing.
It's actually, I think, a very interesting dish.
- Hi, Mei.
- Hi.
What did you make for us? Duck fat roasted cabbage with a trout vinaigrette.
I would typically use anchovy to make this type of vinaigrette, just to make it, like, really salty, but I used trout instead.
I thought the trout vinaigrette was really subtle and lovely.
The vinegar just pops.
Thank you, chef.
What did you make, Gregory? We have some roasted goose, kind of slowly cooked in its own fat.
Also, the thigh meat has been deboned and confited with some herbs.
The goose confit, was it cooked to your liking? I felt it probably could've gone a little bit longer.
It is toothsome.
The breast, especially.
But I think the flavors are really nice, and you chose something difficult to do, - and you gave us a nice dish.
- Hi, Keriann.
- Hi.
- What did you make? Today I did a seared venison loin with a blueberry compote and then a buttered and herbed hazelnut.
I was a little worried at first how the blueberry pie turned into a sauce for the venison, but I think it's really well done.
Thank you.
Venison being a large part of the wampanoag diet, so was blueberries.
To mix them both, I've never had them at the same time.
- It's great.
Thanks.
- Oh, I'm glad you like it.
- Thank you.
- Thank you all.
- We'll see you in a bit.
- Thanks.
Well done, guys.
- Thank you.
- Yay.
You, my little rock star.
- Look at you.
- It's gonna be tough.
Yeah, yeah, this is all really good food.
There's not a bad dish on the table.
Having eaten in the pilgrim village before, this is a step up from our 17th-century food.
I was really excited when I saw them bring the succotash out, 'cause it's a wampanoag dish, you know, it's something I could see wampanoag people maybe even using, you know, back then.
Thank you so much for giving us the honor of sharing this meal with you.
Thank you so much.
- Great to meet you.
- Thank you.
This is gonna be tough.
Mm-hmm.
What'd they say about everybody else's dishes? They liked all of us.
Us nine absolutely nailed this as a team.
In a way, I think when we give these young chefs sort of limitations, they're actually better off.
Every dish had depth, and they were slow-cooked.
I mean, this was what cooking should be.
What's your favorite dish? I loved Mei's dish.
I loved that cabbage.
It had crunch, it had, like, a juiciness to it, it had a little bit of sweetness from the Cranberries.
- How'd it go? - It was positive.
Super positive.
For me, Doug's rabbit dish was one of my favorite dishes of the day.
I just kept going back for more.
It was just, like, really vibrant, flavorful, and wasn't predictable at all.
You killed it.
Your rabbit was beautiful.
I like Katsuji's squash.
- Yeah, me too.
- Me too.
That dish, to me, was just sublime.
That was my kind of dish.
You know, it was sticky, and gooey, and savory.
I really liked Katie's stuffing.
It didn't need the lobster, but I'll tell you, there was something about it that I just kept going back to.
It looked like it was gonna be so sweet, but it ate very savory.
And then you got these bursts of fresh blueberry, and I thought it was sort of brilliant.
I couldn't stop eating it either.
It was really tasty.
But who are our least favorites? The only dish that didn't have as much flavor was Melissa's vegetable dish.
Yeah.
I thought it was under-seasoned compared to everything else.
If you had two-plus hours - to cook with an open fire - Right.
Would you be making a dish like that? - Perhaps not.
- We'll see what happens.
I wanted Gregory's to be a little more powerful.
The confit, to me-- it was just, like, dry and a little rough.
I liked Keriann's venison.
It was cooked beautifully.
But when you ate bites of the blueberry sauce on its own, it really was too sweet for me.
I was basically eating pie filling over venison.
It needed stock.
Yeah, it really did.
I also think that Stacy's stuffing upstaged her clam.
There was a flavor in Stacy's stuffing - That mustiness.
- That I think was one of my least-favorite bites of the meal.
- Off-putting.
- So it was a good day? - We'll see.
- Cool dish.
- Cool dish idea.
- I still think, you know, no matter where we go it's tough, because someone's gonna go home for making actually a pretty good dish.
- Yeah.
- Very good dish.
Well, I think we have our decision.
Let's head back to the judges' table.
Whoo.
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.
Thanksgiving.
I just loved, like, the old-school cookery.
I'm totally gonna go home and try and order all that .
- Is anybody else nervous? - I'm nervous.
I'm on the chopping block, I think.
Gregory--he's right now, like, the king of the Top Chef.
You know, they love Gregory.
If he goes home tonight, this is gonna be a game changer for everybody.
Oh, man.
We'd like to see all of you.
Let's go.
Chefs, today you were tasked with making us a Thanksgiving feast.
I think that could create a lot of new traditions.
Some of the dishes were really, really good.
Doug, Katsuji, and Mei, please stay.
The rest of you can move to the side.
The three of you had our favorite dishes of the day, so congratulations.
Wow.
Tom, what did you think of Katsuji's dish? It was just this great, intense flavor with just a few simple ingredients.
The lobster was beautifully incorporated too.
A beautiful dish, and it was totally appropriate to the challenge.
Doug, thought your rabbit was delicious.
The smokiness of that spit, it was just like eating real wood-fired meat, and I loved it.
And it was never a boring bite.
Mei, a really brilliant, unusual dish.
You know, the cabbage took on such a lovely texture.
- I loved it.
- It was just, like, crunchy, smoky, pure comfort food.
Thanks, chef.
Ken, please do the honors of announcing the winning chef.
In the true spirit of ingenuity, threw everything aside to just make something of a ton of flavor Katsuji, you're the winner.
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho! Congratulations.
Yay! I just won a challenge.
This is probably the most important challenge, because I got to cook where the first immigrants cooked.
This is an amazing feeling right now.
You can join the other chefs, all three of you.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Stacy, Melissa, and Gregory, please step forward.
All the dishes were delicious, however, the three of you had some flaws, and one of you will be going home.
- Gregory.
- Yes, chef.
Quite a bit of cajones to - Yes.
- Pull out that goose.
- What were you thinking? - Just tradition.
I felt it was important to get a bird on the table.
So do you think it was maybe too much of a risk? I absolutely, 100%, think it was too much of a risk.
Melissa, if you could do something over again, would you do something differently? You know, I was really happy with the dish.
Were you concerned at all that it was sort of so simple? I didn't feel that I had to incorporate a protein on there, so that's where I decided to just execute it nicely and have perfectly diced vegetables.
I think that they just sort of seemed to blend into the background a little.
Stacy, are you feeling any pressure because, you know, obviously, you've come here, this is your hometown? Oh, my God.
So much.
There was a lot that I really loved about your dish.
I thought you cooked the clam beautifully, but there was this dirt-ness.
I--it's a strange-- - maybe it was the dirt.
- It's a strange flavor, and the only thing that I kept going back to was that you were describing plating it in the dirt, and I kept thinking, maybe it's some of the dirt.
As I said earlier, the whole meal was delicious.
Unfortunately for one of you, it'll be your last time cooking here.
Thanks for really coming out and giving it your all.
Unfortunately for one of you, it will be your last time cooking here.
Stacy, please pack your knives and go.
Thank you.
I'm so sorry.
You know, Stacy, that was a really tasty dish.
It was just the least favorite dish among eight other really good dishes, so you should keep your head up high when you walk out of here.
Thank you so much, and especially all these guys.
The rest of you can please say your good-byes.
We'll see you next time.
Take care, Stacy.
Good luck.
You guys are amazing.
I'm a little sad.
Kind of relieved.
I felt so much pressure being from Boston.
It was keeping me up at night.
- Did you just lift me up? - Yeah.
You don't want to let your hometown down.
Boston is what it is.
- You're a gem, girl.
- The Yankees.
I'm gonna miss you.
And the person that's leaving tonight is someone who doesn't have to beat themself up anymore.
Someone who is really proud to be who they are.
I made Boston proud.
I really did.
- Come on, come on, come on! - Whoo! Still to come this season on Top Chef It is time for restaurant wars.
Restaurant wars! - Go shake that ass out there.
- Whoo! You could play hockey with this thing.
I'm not paying for dinner.
That's up.
Please welcome the legendary Jacques pepin.
Whoo! Andy Cohen.
Rob gronkowski.
Your loved ones.
Are you kidding me? He's annoying the out of me.
Need a clean-up in aisle two.
How does a hotel pan of clams go missing? What the happened here? The winner will go directly to the final round in Mexico.
You are Top Chef.
To learn more about the chefs, go to bravotv.
Com.