Top Chef (2006) s12e08 Episode Script
Clean Up In Aisle 21!
You won restaurant wars, bud.
- Congrats, Dougie.
- Yeah, nice job, you guys.
It's a resume booster.
Chef wars executive chef, t.
C.
12 winner.
Words cannot describe how exhausted I am after restaurant wars.
You know, it was a huge challenge.
I took home the win.
Doug, I thought your dish had a ton of flavor, and it felt like it all came, obviously, from one vision.
The whole point of me doing this is, you know, to step up, and to push myself.
It was definitely a turning point for me.
I played it safe, you know, the first couple challenges, but I definitely found a rhythm.
I'm here to kick ass and that's exactly what I did.
I clearly told Keriann.
I said make sure you greet them.
Make sure you say good-bye.
At the end of the day, it comes down to food.
Did you have to make more crepes? - Take this.
- They were hot for the judges.
It wasn't my decision.
That's up.
You could play hockey with this thing.
Please pack your knives and go.
You don't make mousse by mixing bananas and chocolate and call it a mousse.
It was rock hard.
It wasn't a mousse.
I don't feel responsible for Keriann going home.
Unfortunately, it was a bad dish.
The pressure of being on the bottom is tough to recover from, but I'm gonna keep pushing myself.
I'm gonna keep taking risks, and I really believe I'm a contender in this competition.
Let's go get some rest, come back in tomorrow.
Seven chefs remain to compete in the ultimate test of culinary skill.
At stake for the winner, 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.
Hey, we have made it past the halfway point.
Just bring it, whatever it is.
We've got enough tricks in our bag to make it this far.
It's just really finding the energy to get through the second half.
Every challenge I go in with, like, a plan, and, like, it's just been catching up with me, I think, a little bit too much, 'cause I think I'm just overthinking stuff.
Top Chef tests every nerve you have and every muscle you have.
I compare this to running a marathon.
I'm an ultra-runner.
I've run 50 Miles a couple times.
But, you know, there's always that time where you're running, and you just kind of start to fall apart, and you have to push through.
You have to have determination and perseverance, no matter how painful it is and no matter how much you want to stop.
- Let's go.
- Let's do this.
Good morning, chefs.
Good morning.
Please welcome local legend and award-winning chef Jasper white.
Hello, chefs.
Jasper white is someone who I would consider a culinary icon, and there's this boatload of clams next to him.
I have an odd feeling where today's quickfire might be going.
I hope you guys came prepared, because this is a sudden-death quickfire.
.
For your quickfire challenge today, you'll take on one of the most iconic dishes of this town Chowder.
You didn't see that one coming, right? No.
I'm not a huge clam chowder fan, and it's a sudden-death quickfire.
So I'm a little nervous.
All right, chefs, the challenge is simple.
You have to put your spin on this classic dish.
You know, every restaurant and, actually, every home claims to have the best chowder in Boston, including myself.
You did write the book on chowder, I mean, literally, right? I did write a book on chowder called 50 chowders.
Wow.
Pressure's definitely on.
If you're gonna make a chowder, Jasper white is gonna be the one to tell you.
For this quickfire, the stakes are exceptionally high.
The winner with the best dish will win immunity.
The loser will have to battle it out head-to-head to stay in the competition.
Chefs, you have 30 minutes.
Your time starts now.
Good luck.
Share, share, share, share, share.
You want littlenecks? Mei grabs the whole bucket of littlenecks, and we agree to share.
You don't need all those.
The littleneck clams are perfect for this because of their sweet, delicate, briney nature.
Need some of those.
I'm a fair person, but they took the whole bucket of clams, and, you know, I don't want to go home.
So not gonna play nice anymore.
Chose littlenecks, but everybody stole them.
I'm pretty pissed at this moment.
I have three littleneck clams left.
I think that people thought it was okay to grab stuff off my station.
So I'm left with using steamer clams, which--they don't have a super amount of flavor, and it definitely sucks.
- What are you making, Dougie? - Smoky oyster chowder.
30 minutes for clam chowder is definitely tight.
The hardest part about making a clam chowder in this amount of time is getting enough clam flavor into the dish.
So my plan is just to have some really nicely cooked, plump, grilled, smoky oysters and then open up as many of these huge clams as I can and use the liquor in my broth.
You know, chowder was, like, the first on the top of my list for notes for coming here.
So it's exciting to be able to make this.
Razor clams are very juicy and very tender.
And they're really quick to cook.
I'm making kind of a Japanese-inspired clam with bumbu, dashi, coconut milk.
My strategy today is to be influenced by the classic New England chowder-- creamy with some potatoes and clams.
Of course, I look over, and I see Gregory yet again making a coconut, curry soup.
So more power to him.
Keep on doing what you're doing.
It's got you this far.
Gregory, right behind.
21 minutes left! Hey, Adam, who would you call out in a sudden death? Well, if I gave that away already, it wouldn't be much of a surprise when push comes to shove, would it? I definitely don't want to go home for some clam chowder.
I'm the new yorker that's left on this show, and I have to prove that all Manhattan clam chowders are not created equal, that they all don't suck.
I want to make an incredibly light, flavorful chowder which really will differentiate itself from any of the heavy, fat-laden chowder that the other chefs are trying to make here today.
So I'm gonna make tomato water to serve as the main component in my dish.
This ain't your mammy or your pappy's clam chowder.
In San Francisco, we have a lot of good cioppino.
It's kind of like a seafood stew.
I'm gonna make the dish thai style and incorporate lemongrass, kaffir lime, ginger, and lime juice.
I'm gonna go with flavors that I know.
14 minutes! This is gonna be a little bit interesting.
I could make a basic chowder, play it safe, but that's not the way I cook.
So today I'm gonna take a chance and try to make a black-tea sourdough chowder.
Tea has that nice earthy flavor, and I think that would go well with the sourdough and thick chowder flavors.
Katsuji, what kind of chowder you making? I'm making a Mexican chowder.
That's what's so cool about chowder is that it can be so many different ways done.
It's awesome.
As usual, I'm making a dish that I have not made before-- a roasted poblano and oyster chowder.
This like a base of a Mexican soup.
Of course it's risky, but believe me, if you don't risk, you're never gonna win.
Ah, ah! Five minutes everyone.
Behind, coming through.
Jesus, this is going quick, huh? Could use a little more time.
I see Katsuji with a bowl of green.
I didn't realize that we had the St.
Patty's day element incorporated into this challenge as well.
One minute! Katsuji, I like your bowls, buddy.
You like my balls? Huh? Whatever.
The chowder's not exactly where I want it to be, in terms of flavor, because I was left with using steamers.
This is a sudden-death quickfire.
If I go home because everybody stole my clams, it would suck balls.
Three, two, one.
Hands up, utensils down.
Good morning, Mei.
Tell us about your chowder.
So I made a clam and lobster chowder with yuzu aioli and a little celery and fennel on top.
- Do you make a lot of chowder? - I don't.
Which kind of clams did you use? - The steamers.
- Okay.
Katsuji.
So I didn't know if to go with a red or a white chowder, so I went with a green one.
Nice, that's a good idea, all right.
So it's poblano, jalapeño, and toasted-garlic broth.
And instead of using clams, I used oysters.
Do you work with oysters a lot? No, of course not, but I love oysters.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you so much.
Thank you.
So today we have a razor-clam and sweet-potato chowder.
The broth has been flavored with bacon, dashi, and coconut milk.
- How did you cook the razors? - They were grilled, chef.
I like the combination of sweet potato - Mm-hmm.
- With the coconut milk.
- Give it a little body.
- Thank you.
What I wanted to do for you guys today, being the only new yorker left in this challenge, was my take on Manhattan clam chowder.
I did a very simple mix of boiled potato, carrots, celery, and red-wine-poached clams.
Did you put any tomato in at all? The tomato water.
Oh, the tomato water, okay.
I wanted to put on cioppino-style with clams, white wine, onions, leeks, garlic.
Today I decided to go with the red version.
Must be a Yankees fan.
Hi, Doug.
Tell us about your chowder.
So I have some grilled-oyster chowder.
I just took as many clams as I could, steamed them, and just actually used the juice with a little bit of fresh jalapeño.
I'm not super familiar with all the east coast clams.
So I figured that I would just kind of use the juice from them instead of risking messing up something texturally.
Katie, talk to us about your chowder.
I did a chowder based on eating chowder in San Francisco in a sourdough-bread bowl.
So I did a sourdough base, and I also threw in the Boston influence of some tea.
And I put clams into my stock to start the chowder, but then I finished it with lobster, and then I just added some of the sourdough And you thickened it with the bread? Yep.
Jasper doesn't seem to love it, just from his facial expressions.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
Great to meet you, chef.
Sudden death makes me think of death.
I am very nervous.
We're mixing things up.
If your enlisted chef wins, he or she will rejoin the competition immediately.
Remember, this is a sudden-death quickfire.
The loser of this quickfire will face immediate elimination.
Jasper, who had some of your favorite dishes today? One of my favorites was Adam.
The flavors were excellent.
I really liked Gregory's.
I thought the sweet potatoes were a nice twist-- - wonderful version of chowder.
- Thank you.
And who else? Melissa's was really good, very tasty.
So, Jasper, ultimately, who had your favorite chowder? The chowder that I thought was the most outstanding Was Gregory.
Congratulations, Gregory.
You have immunity in the next elimination challenge.
Thank you very much.
I'm so happy-- my third quickfire win, and I win immunity for the next challenge.
This late in the game, any advantage matters.
Adam, I just want to say, it was a very, very close second.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
I'm sorry to say.
I can't win in this kitchen.
I'm convinced.
And now, of course, for the painful news.
And today's quickfire is going to be exceptionally painful for one of you.
Jasper, who were some of your least favorites? Doug's chowder-- it was quite salty.
It used oysters, and when you have a mild flavor, you got to pair it with something mild.
I'm very surprised to hear that I had one of Jasper's least favorite dishes.
You know, you always want to step it up when you're cooking for someone who you admire, and the fact that I totally missed the mark, it definitely sucks.
Who else? Katsuji, again, that sauce paired with the oyster-- I couldn't even taste the oyster.
Mei, I thought your chowder was actually the prettiest chowder of all to look at.
But it just seemed under-seasoned to me.
Katie, using raw sourdough, it was overpowering, and it had a kind of a gummy texture.
Jasper, please tell us who had your least favorite dish.
It's really hard to define what a chowder is, but when you eat one, you kind of know.
It was made with love.
It has that spirit.
And the chowder for me that had none of that Was Katie's.
Being here a second time is really frustrating.
I definitely maybe went too far outside of the box with my dish.
But I just cannot go home like this.
Katie, you're up for elimination, and you must battle another chef to stay in the competition.
But this time we're mixing things up.
Of course.
Get the out of here.
Tom walks into the kitchen with all the eliminated chefs.
I'm not sure what the hell's going on.
This is awesome! I mean, maybe.
- Hey, Jasper.
How you doing? - Hey, tom.
- Welcome back.
- Thanks.
I have a feeling everybody over there would say they went home a little too soon.
Yeah, I was the first one.
Chefs, you will decide which one of you will compete against Katie.
If your enlisted chef wins, he or she will rejoin the competition immediately.
Whoo.
Well, this is awkward.
This is crazy.
Why would they bring those guys back? Seriously, they leave for a reason.
You can choose any chef you like, but you cannot pick yourself.
Rebecca, who do you think should go up against Katie? George.
- Stacy? - Joy.
- Keriann? - I'm gonna go with James.
- Ron? - George.
It's two for George.
I couldn't imagine being eliminated after the first quickfire.
I mean, he definitely deserves to get back in the kitchen.
- Aaron? - George.
George being business partners with Mike Isabella, if the eliminated chefs pick George, the uphill climb will get a little bit steeper for Katie to fight for her life here.
- Who's it gonna be, Joy? - Stacy.
George, you're the front-runner.
- Who would you choose? - Aaron.
Aaron? James, who would you vote for? I think he got the rawest deal.
I'm gonna say George all day, get him back on.
Congratulations, George.
You now have a chance to get back into the competition.
I feel like a million dollars being eliminated first was one of the worst feelings I've ever had in my life.
I did not think this was gonna happen.
But now that it is, I definitely want to do my best to get back into it.
Katie, do you think you can beat George? George is extremely talented.
George comes from a very strong background of working with great chefs, working at great restaurants.
But I've been cooking over ten years, and I'm not afraid to take on any chef.
Would you guys like to know what you'll be cooking? Absolutely.
To win this battle, you'll have to pull a rabbit out of your hat.
Tom, what makes a good rabbit dish? It's one of my favorite things to cook, I mean, mostly because it's so versatile.
You can confit it.
You can roast it.
You can braise it.
I made a rabbit dish in culinary school seven years ago, and since then, I have never worked with it.
But I'm definitely a fighter.
When I feel like all the odds are against me, I just want to succeed more than anything.
You'll have 45 minutes to make your rabbit masterpiece, using any part of the rabbit.
Your time starts now.
Come on, George.
- Get it baby, get it.
- Katie, whoo! You got this, man.
I know nothing about Katie, and I don't care.
I'm super focused.
I'm getting back in this competition.
If you find the break on the saddle, Katie, you can just take both legs off together.
I decide to butcher off the hind legs, get them braising, and I'm gonna do a Moroccan-inspired rabbit.
Are you using couscous or something like that or no? I'm just gonna do rabbit over a sauce.
Perfect.
At least we know Katie.
We know she's not the best one.
We don't know George.
George can be the game changer for all of us.
So, you know, we want to get rid of Katie, but at the same time, it would be smart to keep her.
- She can pull it off.
- She can.
I'm gonna try to braise off these legs.
I'm gonna have a parsley puree on the bottom, farro Risotto for the confit'd legs, and then glazed carrots.
Did I hear "glazed carrots"? I didn't realize this was a culinary institute of America cookbook from 1996.
In addition to that, he's gonna make jus and the rabbit and another garnish? So he's definitely taking on a lot.
30 minutes, guys.
Come on, baby.
I'm most worried about the rabbit legs not braising in time.
I keep testing the legs.
They're not getting very tender.
I don't know, man.
It's making me nervous.
You better get those cutlets on, then.
Yeah.
I need to have a backup plan.
I decide to go back to the rabbit and just go for the loins, because I know the loins can get cooked in less than five minutes.
Now I just got to make sure this rabbit loin comes out perfect.
You doing loins as a backup or a duo? Well, I'd like for it to be a duo, but if the legs aren't ready in time Yeah, yeah, smart.
Ten minutes left! The parsnips are probably gonna go in about a minute.
- Getting tender? - Find out right now.
I'm definitely concerned with the legs being undercooked and chewy, rubbery.
- Tender? - Not bad.
You should be plating in four minutes.
Yes, chef.
He's not used to, you know, the time clock here.
You need to be starting to plate, buddy.
Two minutes! Good thing I brought four.
Pressure's on.
I got plan "b" going on.
I'm going with the rabbit loins.
It looks cooked nicely.
Come on, get it on the plate.
I need this second chance.
- One minute.
- You got it.
You got a minute.
don't even think about it.
Get your sauce on the plate.
Just a little salt.
It tastes juicy.
It tastes really good.
But if I serve rabbit that's not perfect, that will send me home.
Five, four, three, two, one! Hands up.
Utensils down.
After 11 seasons, we're doing something we've never done before.
Richard can't help himself.
Padma probably has people shopping for her.
I think it's been a while.
We need a cleanup in aisle two.
The first chef to get two votes will be the winner.
Who made which dish? I made a tomato-braised rabbit leg with a Moroccan tomato sauce.
George Today I made roasted rabbit loin with a little mustard jus.
Jasper, what's your vote? You know, both dishes had strong points, and for me, the clear-cut winner was the rabbit loin with barley and carrots.
- Thank you.
- Tom? Katie, I thought your sauce was really nice.
It did finish a little bitter.
I'm not sure what that was, but the flavor was really nice.
I like the little crunch with the apple.
George, I thought the barley had nice texture.
The rabbit was perfectly cooked.
You would get my vote as well.
Well done.
Welcome back.
So, George, congratulations.
You'll be rejoining the competition.
I was beating myself up every day when I got eliminated first, so I'm glad I get a second chance.
Hallelujah.
To be back in this competition is everything in the world.
Now I have the opportunity and the privilege to show everybody I am worthy of staying here.
Welcome back to Top Chef.
Katie, I'm sorry.
Unfortunately, I have to tell you to pack your knives and go.
Being in this competition is the toughest thing I've ever done.
Good-bye.
At the end of the day, I feel like I've cooked really strong and put up a great performance.
And my dad would be insanely proud of me-- proud that I put myself out there and I worked my butt off and I got as far as I did.
See you guys.
- In, like, five? The rest of you, it was great to see you.
And you never know, we may see you again.
So, chefs, you'll have another chance to get back into the competition, just like George.
Last chance kitchen is coming back, and I'll see you all there tonight.
Being able to have this opportunity to go into last chance kitchen is really huge.
- Bye, guys.
- Thanks, guys.
Redemption, to me, is like Sweet, sweet piece of candy.
I want to eat it, and I want all of its brothers and sisters too.
Chefs, after 11 seasons, we're doing something we've never done before.
- Hi, guys.
Hi, chefs.
- Gail, Richard.
George, hey, good to see you again.
Long time.
Ever since we got to Boston, people have been writing to us about how they can come taste the food on the show.
So tomorrow you'll cater a tasting event for Boston's biggest foodies and Top Chef fans right here in this kitchen.
We tweeted out to Boston that we were doing this event, and we had over 15,000 responses in one day.
We picked 75 of them to join us for an experience they'll never forget, or at least we hope they'll never forget.
Chefs, you won't be shopping today.
We will.
That's right.
We're going to whole foods.
Yeah, sure.
Let one of the judges shop for us.
They'll see what it's like shopping through whole foods.
It gets a little hectic.
You will not see the ingredients we choose until tomorrow, when you have to cook with them.
But from knowing us through the years, you should have a general idea of what to expect.
Please draw knives to find out which pantry you'll have access to.
Tom.
Well, Mei, I'll do my best to shop for you.
Padma.
Gail.
Padma.
- Ah, Gail.
- Nice.
I think I'm quite happy.
I have a kosher restaurant, and I think she's very, very smart and she will come up with some interesting ideas.
- Richard.
- Richard.
Hope you like the vitamin aisle.
I got to be honest, I'm not super excited.
Just knowing what I know of chef Blais and his style, there's probably gonna be agar or some other playful molecular in my pantry, and that's not the chef that I have become.
We got to get to the store before it closes.
George, have fun getting to know all your fellows chefs at 1330 boylston street.
We'll see you all tomorrow.
Good luck, guys.
Richard can't help himself.
- Where's this guy going? - Herbs, herbs, herbs, herbs.
What am I looking for? Tom and Gail and padma are sort of like, "ah, let's go look at some nice vegetables.
" 30 minutes, people! Excuse me, I'd like to get some eggplants here.
You don't need to do that, tom? What I was looking to do was give Mei some options.
I wanted to give her some ingredients that she could either take it in a Asian direction or maybe an Italian direction.
I need 15 racks.
Do you really want those racks? - You want them? - Yeah.
- You want the lamb? - Yeah.
He is a jedi warrior.
He says give me your lamb.
- I'll just take them.
- I think seniority - Thank you.
I appreciate that.
- Wins out here.
I'm getting some ingredients that can be sweet and savory.
Melissa is a simple, sort of more rustic cook.
Katsuji-- he's all over the place.
I wanted to focus on fresh flavors.
I got a lot of fresh herbs, a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, although I'm not really shopping for them.
I'm really shopping for what I want to eat.
- Have you seen the fennel? - Tom took it all.
- He took it all? - He took it all.
I have Gregory, and I have George, and I really feel for the chefs at this moment.
I can barely park my car at whole foods in half an hour.
Padma probably has people shopping for her at grocery stores, right? I think it's been a while since she shopped.
Do you know someone who could help me pick out some cheese, please? Hey, Richard, what you looking for? I'm in the vitamin aisle.
I'm looking for some lecithin and some agar-agar.
My strategy shopping for Adam and Doug is just to buy a lot of protein, many vegetables.
I hope I set them up for some success, because I don't want to be that judge that has two people on the bottom because they bombed with my ingredients.
I hope these guys cut this fish nice.
Richard leaves his shopping cart there unattended.
We need a cleanup in aisle two.
- Where'd you put my stuff? - Padma put it over there.
This is like high school all over again-- pretty girls making fun of me.
This is a cruel freshman prank.
I just want everyone to know.
- Am I now initiated officially? - You're now initiated.
Am I okay? Yes! And you're gonna get new fish for my chefs, though.
Oh, so this is home, huh? I'm very excited to walk into the house.
I didn't even get to see it the first go-around.
- Kitchen, living room.
- Kitchen.
Greg's on tour.
I'm on burgers.
- Stoked? - Yeah, dude.
- All's good, man.
- Yeah.
I'm So happy to be back.
I was so down in the dumps about the whole thing.
It's frustrating to have George back on the competition.
He's got tons of recipes that he hasn't used yet.
We're just kind of waiting to see what George has up his sleeve.
To Katie And here's to you coming back.
Gracias.
I never personally doubted George's skills at all.
I mean, he comes up through Mike Isabella.
I'm familiar with his restaurant, Kapnos.
It's a great spot.
This definitely got harder.
All my knives are still razor sharp, so We have 75 super fans coming in.
I'm kind of having a hard time cooking the lamb racks.
Do you always cook lamb this rare? - Yes.
- Really? Wow.
What's up, brother? Making coffee? Yeah, welcome to the thunderdome.
I'm feeling a little uncomfortable in the house.
I feel like the other contestants kind of established a relationship with each other, and here I come back in.
How do you feel about today? Ready? No preparation, sharp knives, someone goes home.
So the pressure is on for me to prove something.
It's just-- it's something I've been trying to do my entire life.
When my father, a Greek immigrant, opened a Greek diner in northern Virginia, I grew up with the restaurant-- just making toast, washing dishes, helping out the chef.
So I've been around food for my entire life.
It's a big part of who I am, and I want to win Top Chef more than anything in the world.
Deep down inside, I really want my father to be super proud.
I just want to prove to my family that I can do it.
The family's gonna get split up tonight.
This is gonna be a rough one.
Today's gonna be a tough elimination.
I love you all.
My love and passion for food is clearly evident.
It's just who I am.
I was a bad kid growing up.
I was failing all my classes, not being able to keep up with all the other kids, getting pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.
Eventually finding food as my passion and choosing to do it for my career is what saved my life.
And now I live and breathe for this craft.
I believe I can win Top Chef.
You guys ready to get out of here? - Yes.
- Let's go.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- Super fans.
You're a juice box, bro.
After you guys.
You're a juice box.
Oh, my God.
What have we got, buddy? Cloves.
We have two and a half hours to prep and cook a tasting-portion dish for 75 i Top Chef super fans.
It's definitely nerve-racking to have one of the judges shop for your ingredients.
Now we're seeing everything for the first time.
You have to think on your feet.
- Lamb.
- You got lamb? Yep.
I'm really excited to see if tom shopped for me in a way where I can go a few different directions.
Utilizing all these ingredients will definitely pack a lot of flavor into my dish.
Raws, tandoori Me, man.
This is what I was most afraid of, in Richard Blais' pantry that he shopped for Doug and myself.
I feel left with a bunch of ingredients that don't necessarily go together.
Along with the dewar of liquid nitrogen, and the core container of versawhip I'm recognizing that I'm gonna have a bit of a struggle getting a cohesive dish assembled today.
Bonito flakes? It's gonna be a weird day, Dougie.
Adam is definitely a little bit flustered, but I'm not too worried.
I'm just really gonna try and focus in one or two big flavors and do what I can to bring them out.
- You took kimchi? - Yeah.
I'm not using it.
Ginger, jackfruit.
It's pretty obvious that padma bought some flavors that will definitely play to my cooking strengths.
And she thought about some ideas, ingredients that would play well to George's Greek heritage-- beef, lamb, chicken, coconut milk, and curry spices.
I'm really excited to make an Indian-style curry for padma.
You gonna be okay, Gregory? Yeah, she put it on my station.
Hey, did she have the bed made for you when you walked into your pantry, or did you have to assemble your own pillows and stuff? Padma and I like the same flavors.
1:45.
I've got some middle eastern, Moroccan type spices going on.
I'm comfortable with those flavors.
So hopefully it all works out.
My first elimination challenge, my heart's pounding.
I'm nervous.
Here these guys are battling through this competition for weeks now, and here I come not knowing what to do.
I'm just hoping that I have what it takes to compete with these other chefs.
Tom wanted me to make sausage.
There's casings in my pantry.
Oh, my God.
That, dude.
One hour, 30 minutes.
Gail did really nice.
I feel pretty good about this one.
What are you trying to do? I'm gonna do a little sauteed shrimp with a herb salad.
So Melissa's making shrimp scampi with a salad, again.
And Melissa's a great chef, but choosing to play it safe is not going to win this.
Live once, go hard.
It's actually quite nice having someone else doing the shopping.
I think Gail actually went with, like, north African, mediterranean flavors, you know-- the shrimp, the harissa, potatoes.
So I'm making a tunisian potato salad with a poached cold shrimp with harissa oil.
- Dougie, what you making, bro? - I'm cooking some mussels, I got chorizo, peppers, preserved lemons.
Ah, so you got something super traditional.
Definitely tough not knowing what you're walking into and not getting to pick anything.
I'm struggling a little bit in prep just trying to conceptualize my dish.
So I'm just really gonna try and focus in on the mussels and the chorizo.
It's a classic combination.
I'm pretty sure I can make it taste good, and I'm just gonna run with it.
- What are these? - Peppadew peppers Pickled, a little spicy, a little sweet.
Take it.
I am so sick and tired of being in the middle.
The technique that I'm using on my shrimp is a risk.
I'll scald them with blazing-hot oil, then just very gently cook the outsides.
This is a technique I picked up in my travels abroad.
I got to start thinking outside the box, because I didn't come here to take second place.
What's the point in being anything other than creative? That's my option right now.
But you're safe, Adam.
You know that.
Why? 'Cause I just float around in the middle? This is Adam's Top Chef history.
He's never that good, but he's never that bad.
39 minutes! Katsuji's making some sort of potato salad with shrimp.
And then for some reason, he's putting some sort of, like, fruit sangria on the side, which I don't really get at all.
But Katsuji is completely bat-insane.
So it does kind of make sense.
I tasted it, and it does really kind of work together.
He's like a mad scientist.
More power to you, buddy.
I would've never, ever done that.
Mmm.
When you cut open a jackfruit, you see these beautiful golden-yellow pods that actually smells like bubble gum.
It will add something sweet and tart to my curry.
It smells so good.
It's super ripe.
A lot of people are unsure of what a jackfruit is.
And as chefs, it's important that we teach our clients and guests as much as possible.
Very exciting.
Can't you see I'm struggling here! As the time is counting down, I'm definitely having a little bit of trouble cooking the lamb.
The bones are really getting in the way, and it's not cooking evenly.
So, I have to finish cooking in the oven, but I'm thinking I should've took it off the bone and cooked it like that instead.
Freaking out a little bit.
- Hashtag good luck.
- "Hashtag good luck," he says.
Three, two, one! - Whoo! - I'm super excited to be here.
- Yeah.
- I can't believe it.
Oh, my God.
I know.
There's some spoons here.
You guys can start, yeah.
Please enjoy.
Good evening.
- Hi.
- Finishing touches, and I'll have these plates ready for you in a sec.
Getting people as excited about cooking as we do-- how cool to share this moment in our kitchen with these super fans? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for sure.
- Good luck.
- Thank you.
- Smells great.
- Thank you very much.
Man, you have no idea how much I want one of those.
Seven minutes, and we only have one microwave, so I want to make this experience special, because I came to this country with $5 in my pocket.
The fact that I am on Top Chef-- that's the American dream for me.
So this means a lot for me to be around these people.
- This sangria's delicious.
- Thank you so much.
Chicken and madras curry.
You guys excited to be here? You have no idea how excited I am.
I was in Puerto Rico about to get on a plane.
I saw the tweet from tom, and then we got it.
We're so lucky.
Oh, having a great time.
- How are you all doing today? - Great.
- Great.
- All right.
So we got a spiced lamb kabob, cucumber yogurt, and some lentils.
Hope you all enjoy.
Wow, our kitchen cleans up nicely.
I know.
It's so fancy.
How are you doing? How's it going? Do you guys want to pick it out? They're like mini mangoes within the fruit.
Yeah, they're amazing.
It's always really great to cook for people who are really excited about food and who really appreciate what you do.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
You're awesome.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Instead of having them shop, the four of us went to whole foods last night, and we ran around there - like crazy people.
- Oh, my God.
Did you have a strategy about what you were buying? I had a strategy.
Mine was just to make sure that the chefs could put their own style into it.
So, here's a plethora of ingredients and go for it.
I wanted to get a few things that she could work with, but not there was so much things where she was just, like, all over the place.
What did you coat the rack in before you fried it? Salt and pepper.
Getting a hint of the smell already.
So I have a little bit of chorizo-marinated mussels.
Thank you very much.
- Katsuji.
- Katsuji.
- How are you? - How are you? Good.
I got your basket.
I heard.
First of all, what did you think? You can be honest.
You can judge me.
- It was cute.
- "It was cute"? Like, you got the picture-- you know, the figs.
- "It was cute"? - Cute is a good thing.
I know what you're trying to say without saying it.
There weren't enough chilies for you.
There you go.
You put the harissa.
I'm actually very comfortable cooking with harissa.
Good.
Me too.
That's why I put it in.
So first I have a tunisian potato salad.
I poach them in harissa and fish stock.
Then I have a poached shrimp that was chilled - in that same broth.
- Great.
And then I made a white sangria.
Great.
I like the potato salad a lot.
There's a good creaminess to that, which you want in your potato salad.
You know what I think it could use? Some chili.
Yeah, well, next time I promise you I'll get you more chilies.
- Thanks so much.
- Thank you so much, Katsuji.
- Hi, Gregory.
- Padma, chef.
It smells delicious.
I hope I did your ingredients proud.
- Thank you so much.
- Spoons right here.
The curry does smell really good.
So we have a coconut milk and chicken in madras curry and then the awesome jackfruit that I was really - excited to work with.
- Good.
It's a good play between sweet and hot, acid.
- It's funny, you know - It's really nicely cooked.
It's really nice.
The smells when we walked in here were so authentic.
Awesome, awesome.
Thank you, padma.
Thank you, chef.
- It's delicious.
- Thank you, padma.
Tell us, like, what would've been your favorite season of all 11 seasons? The season that ended with olympic style.
Oh, season nine.
Yes! I love that one.
To, like, hack the food out of the ice.
- Thank you guys for being here.
- Yeah, thank you.
It was fun.
Enjoy.
We're off to taste, we are.
We're loving it.
Hi, Adam.
- It smells good over here.
- Well, thank you.
What did you think of Richard's pantry? I definitely was drawn to the liquid nitrogen first with my eyeline and knew one of the ingredients I wouldn't be using - this afternoon.
- Excellent.
You know, it's just not in my bag of tricks.
It's just not any kind of any portion of any technique I'm familiar with.
So what I've made for you guys today is a peppadew piperade.
Potted peppadews, Holland peppers, onions, garlic, white wine.
I took the shrimp shells and a little bit of fish fumet, the shrimp--the oil that I'm pouring over them is the oil from my mushroom conserva.
How do you feel about the texture of the shrimp? I feel like I would've preferred it five degrees hotter and five seconds longer on the cook of the shrimp probably.
It feels a little squeaky.
You know what I mean? I immediately receive the only pieces of negative feedback that I've gotten all day.
But I feel good about the piperade that I served.
Ultimately, I feel like the peppadew was what I really wanted to focus on more than anything else.
- All right.
- Thank you, Adam.
- Thank you.
- That was exciting.
Awesome.
You guys like it? My concern is that the dish is just a little safe.
The lamb is too rare.
There's no room for mistakes.
Are you excited to meet tom? Yes, I really am.
And padma too.
It's flattering and surreal to have all the super fans around.
Go ahead, guys.
I got forks right here.
One special guest was, like, this tiny little girl.
She kept on coming up to my particular stand 'cause she said that mine was her favorite.
It's like, "okay, I'll give you another one.
" She'd come back, and it was like, "all right, I'll give you another one.
" I usually don't like mussels, but I tried his - Uh-huh.
- And it was really good.
- It was good? - Uh-huh.
Eat some more.
Have a good time.
Take care.
I know that she liked my dish.
So I give my board to her, 'cause I think that will mean a lot to her.
I'm really, really glad that she was able to have a great day.
She's so stoked about Top Chef.
So I want to win this for her.
He's been watching since day one.
- Really? - Oh, yeah.
Favorite season, favorite chef? Favorite chef, fabio, by far.
- Oh, yes.
- I miss him so much.
- Aw.
- Yeah.
Hi, Melissa.
- Hi, Melissa.
- Hi, guys.
I am really excited for the basket you gave me.
Oh, I'm so glad.
I was looking at the description, and I have to say, you used a lot of the ingredients I was really hoping-- clearly, we Exactly.
Thank you.
What I made is a sauteed shrimp, and it has a harissa yogurt with shaved root-vegetable salad.
Going for sort of a balance of flavors.
I know that this is a challenge maybe for your basket.
- Maybe some more spice.
- More spice? Especially--you got the yogurt, you have the fennel.
The shrimp was just on the edge of being a little salty.
I think you need to be careful of that, 'cause we talked about that last challenge too.
Yeah, my concern is that the dish is just a little safe-- beautiful for a cafe, maybe a little safe for competition.
Perhaps, but it was nice.
I'm glad you used all the ingredients you did.
Thank you.
The judges questioned me for being too safe.
It's something you don't want to hear this late in the game.
I really liked Melissa's shrimp.
It was really light.
And I love that she cooked it to order because that was just, like, perfect.
- Hey, Mei.
- Hi, chef.
Hi, padma.
Hi.
How did you find your pantry? I love my pantry.
I made a charred eggplant puree with some black garlic inside Mm-hmm.
Roasted rack of lamb, a lamb jus with the ground lamb.
- Mm-hmm.
- I love your eggplant puree.
Do you always cook lamb this rare? - Yes.
- Really? Okay.
Wow.
For me, I have to tell you, the lamb is too rare.
Okay.
I like lamb more medium-rare than rare.
It's a little under, but flavors are really good.
Thanks.
My lamb was a little under today, but I think when you list all your doubts, that's when you get yourself into trouble.
Thank you.
We're the same size.
Maybe she had an inch on me.
- All right, tom.
- We're about the same size.
It's a four-inch heel, so See? It is unfair.
I get to wear heels, and he doesn't.
- Hi, Dougie.
- Dougie, how are you? Who's basket did you get, Doug? I got chef Richard Blais.
- Oh, you took all the mussels.
- I did take all the mussels.
I realized the second we got into whole foods, we all went to the fresh produce, and we realized you went right to the protein.
- Boom.
- Now I know.
Dougie, take that to heart-- right to the protein.
I made a little chorizo-marinated mussel.
Sweet pepper and cauliflower relish, with some lemon preserve, a little bit of bacon crumble.
It's nice, Dougie.
Well, I'm glad that you focused in on, like, one region.
It's definitely a little Spanish.
Mussels are really nice, actually.
They're plump and juicy and delicate.
- You guys like it? - It's a good dish.
It was a good dish.
Thank you, Dougie.
Thank you, guys.
Hey, guys.
Enjoy.
- Thank you so much.
- You're welcome.
Too bad you didn't get my pantry, because I had enough chilies to kill a village.
For George, his lamb's so succulent, and with the yogurt mint sauce, that was a little cooling note on the end.
Everybody seems to be enjoying my dish, but I'm starting to feel a little nervous.
I'm just hoping that it's okay for the judges.
- Hi, George.
- Hey, George.
Hey, guys.
How you doing today? - Good.
How was your pantry? - It's good.
I'm very happy with it.
I can't complain.
Because I've tasted so little of your cooking, I didn't know what kind of food you do.
Ah, well So I was hoping that at least you grew up with Greek food.
It works out that I do.
I have a Greek restaurant, so I have a beef, lamb kabob here.
Did a little bit of green lentils with shallots and onions and garlic and saffron.
I put a little bit of Greek yogurt on top.
Your lamb is so moist - Thank you very much.
- And flavorful.
The cooking of the lentils is just perfect.
Like, they're still firm, but they're not falling apart, but they're not crunchy at all-- they're tender.
- Thank you very much.
- Yeah, really good.
I'm glad you guys like it.
I feel like that first competition, I didn't really-- I got a raw deal, - but I'm very happy right now.
- Congratulations.
- And welcome back.
- Thank you.
Thank God I got through my first elimination challenge-- like a big sigh of relief right now.
Thank you.
So this has been really fantastic.
Oh, thanks.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm so glad you're here.
Hey, guys.
- Hi.
- How are you? - Good.
- How'd it go? What was that like for you, Richard? It was awesome.
I mean, the super fans were incredible.
They're getting to see behind the curtains, and they're so excited.
Good luck, ladies.
Thank you.
We're gonna hold down the fort.
I was really happy to see that the food across the board was really high quality.
Richard, did you have favorites? George is coming off the bench here deep in the season, and he's right in the game.
His dish was so well seasoned.
I thought he really played to your pantry, actually, - padma, on that dish.
- He did a great job.
The other chef I thought had great flavor was Gregory.
The chicken was beautifully cooked in the curry.
I like the jackfruit.
The vinegar and the jackfruit was amazing.
And I think anytime you have an opportunity to introduce a new ingredient like that, that's special.
What did you guys think of Dougie's mussel dish? He picked the three wisest ingredients, possibly, out of that basket.
It's a classic combination-- mussels and chorizo.
And I think he pulled it together really nicely.
The mussels were really nicely cooked.
- You're nervous? - No, I'm not nervous.
- They liked my .
- Loved your .
Who were some of your least favorites? I didn't get a lot of flavor out of Mei's dish.
I found Mei's lamb just too undercooked.
- The lamb - It's slimy.
- Is really slimy, yeah.
- Speaking of slimy Yes, another person who I thought was a little slimy was Adam.
The shrimp to me is just a mind-boggling technique.
I don't even know what he was doing.
He just poured hot oil over it.
And that does not cook shrimp at all.
When he served it to us, it was straight-up squeaky.
When I asked him, he said, "that's what I want.
" The technique is they're not fully cooked shrimp.
They're not ceviche.
It's a flash marinade.
What did we think of Melissa's dish? I liked that she actually cooked the shrimp to order, - and "cooked" being the - Operative word.
Yeah, the operative word there is "cooked.
" I was surprised that she didn't get more sweetness or more caramelization.
Melissa's dish was way too safe.
She made a salad and cooked some shrimp in front of it.
I think it's time to pull the plug on this party.
We need to get to judges' table and clean up, by the way.
This is the messiest I've ever seen the kitchen.
Are we doing the dishes? I didn't get that memo.
That was fun, huh? How were all the guests for everybody? I heard everyone talking about your dish and everyone talking about your dish.
I heard your dish.
I heard your dish.
It's like we all did great, and it's just a matter of the little things.
- Hello.
- Hello.
We'd like to see everybody.
Thank you.
All right, guys.
Bottoms up.
I thought all the food was really flavorful and creative.
Everybody had a great time.
I was really happy to see that we were all well represented, but there were mistakes.
George, Doug, and Gregory, please stay where you are.
Everybody else, please step aside to the right.
You three were our favorites of the night, so congratulations.
Exhale.
Good job.
George, when you get a second chance and to come back and perform the way you did today, I thought that was truly impressive.
Well, someone did nice shopping for me.
The lamb meatball-- really great use of putting beef in with the lamb to make sure that there was enough fat in there.
And the lentils were great too.
You really infused a lot of flavor into both components - of your dish.
- Thank you.
Doug, this is the most savory, soulful, and well-spiced dish I've had of yours.
I kept on overthinking, and then eventually it was like, "just go with it.
" When you think about it, chorizo and mussels and, you know, garlic and peppers-- these are all things that naturally go together.
So it was a great job of editing down your choices, and you put together just a powerhouse of a dish.
- Thank you.
- Well, Gregory, I mean, this dish was otherworldly.
It was like a show-and-tell at your station.
You had the jackfruit.
It looked like an alien autopsy out there.
We're always looking to give the guest an experience, - and I think you delivered that.
- Thank you.
The star of the dish was the chicken.
It was perfectly cooked, gave us great flavor.
- You didn't disappoint.
- Okay, thank you.
Gail, please do the honors of announcing the winning chef.
Well, the winner was the person who, in the end, was able to look at this laundry list of pantry ingredients and find something flavorful, really clear, and really inspired, and that person Was Dougie.
Nice work.
It was really great.
Fantastic dish, Doug.
Awesome.
Thank you, guys.
Winning two challenges in a row is awesome.
I feel great.
This is kind of the homestretch of the competition.
I'm feeling strong.
You know, it's looking good.
Mei, Adam, Melissa Please step forward.
Unfortunately, the three of you had our least favorite dishes, and one of you will be going home.
Mei, you made some beautiful food-- that eggplant puree.
Even that salad was so bright, but when you first cut into the lamb racks, did you think that that was the doneness you wanted? I mean, that was the doneness that I wanted it, but I should've honestly just took it off of the rack because they were a little uneven.
Well, they all are.
There's the neck side and the loin side.
The neck side has more fat.
The loin side is leaner.
It's gonna cook-- they're gonna cook-- - usually you cut them in half.
- Yeah.
Adam, how did you feel about your dish? I assumed a risk in the way with which I prepared the shrimp.
It's not a technique that I have executed anywhere close to the other techniques I've displayed on the show.
A lot of people liked your dish and was their favorite dish of the night, besides the fact that, texturally, the way the shrimp was cooked just read a little squishy.
Piperade I thought was really, really under-seasoned.
All you're talking about is a couple more grains, mix it, taste it.
Couple more, mix and taste it.
Melissa, were you worried that with two and a half hours we would come to your table and say, "what did you do because you're cooking the shrimp right here?" I wanted to make sure that I had a lot of knife cuts going on in the dish, and that's what preoccupied a lot of my time.
You always have great knife work.
I want to see your flavor, and I already saw some seafood on top of a salad at the last challenge.
I loved how you cooked the shrimp.
I love that you used the figs, the artichokes, the fennel, the dill.
Those are really big, bold ingredients, and I wanted to see a little more depth.
I just want to echo something that was said.
All the dishes were really good, and they were all tasty.
You're realizing at this point in the game, the compression is just incredibly tight.
There's no more middle.
Unfortunately, one of you will be going home.
chefs, we opened up our doors and our kitchen to 75 of Boston's super fans.
We had a blast, but unfortunately for one of you, you'll be going home.
Adam, please pack your knives and go.
You took a huge risk doing what you did today.
Unfortunately, it didn't pay off, but I really admire the fact that you pushed it.
It was great to have you in this kitchen, Adam.
The rest of you can say your good-byes.
We'll see you at the next challenge.
I wanted to come on here and show everybody what I got.
I didn't see it ending quite like this.
[Exhales deeply[ it may just be cooking to some people, but this is what I breathe and bleed every day of my life.
If you don't love cooking enough to be an emotional mess on national television, put the knife down.
Top Chef has served as a platform for so many chefs who didn't win, to find their voice and reach the next level.
I am 100% excited to see what's on the other side of this door.
Last chance kitchen is back in an epic two-part premiere.
Hut, hut, hut, hut.
Seven eliminated chefs will vie to stay alive.
It's my do-over.
You never get those.
Then the new reigning champ must defend their title by taking on Katie and Adam.
- Your next battle starts now.
- Bring it on.
To watch the two-part season premiere, go to bravotv.
Com.
Next on Top Chef New England patriot rob gronkowski.
Do you mind if I call you rob? You can call me "honey.
" All right, honey.
I eat a lot.
I need a big sausage.
Katsu, what the hell are you doing? I'm trying to cool down the sausage, so the fat doesn't break.
This is the best sausage dish, not just the best sausage.
Oh, now you're getting cocky? Each of you must select one author to celebrate.
Katsuji's the perfect choice for eating Stephen king.
Why, 'cause I'm a sick person? Yeah, 'cause you're sick in the head.
I want to make people say ", " in a good way.
It's a lot of technique and not a lot of flavor.
Cooking well for four out of five people isn't good enough.
Unfortunately for one of you, today's your last chapter.
- Congrats, Dougie.
- Yeah, nice job, you guys.
It's a resume booster.
Chef wars executive chef, t.
C.
12 winner.
Words cannot describe how exhausted I am after restaurant wars.
You know, it was a huge challenge.
I took home the win.
Doug, I thought your dish had a ton of flavor, and it felt like it all came, obviously, from one vision.
The whole point of me doing this is, you know, to step up, and to push myself.
It was definitely a turning point for me.
I played it safe, you know, the first couple challenges, but I definitely found a rhythm.
I'm here to kick ass and that's exactly what I did.
I clearly told Keriann.
I said make sure you greet them.
Make sure you say good-bye.
At the end of the day, it comes down to food.
Did you have to make more crepes? - Take this.
- They were hot for the judges.
It wasn't my decision.
That's up.
You could play hockey with this thing.
Please pack your knives and go.
You don't make mousse by mixing bananas and chocolate and call it a mousse.
It was rock hard.
It wasn't a mousse.
I don't feel responsible for Keriann going home.
Unfortunately, it was a bad dish.
The pressure of being on the bottom is tough to recover from, but I'm gonna keep pushing myself.
I'm gonna keep taking risks, and I really believe I'm a contender in this competition.
Let's go get some rest, come back in tomorrow.
Seven chefs remain to compete in the ultimate test of culinary skill.
At stake for the winner, 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.
Hey, we have made it past the halfway point.
Just bring it, whatever it is.
We've got enough tricks in our bag to make it this far.
It's just really finding the energy to get through the second half.
Every challenge I go in with, like, a plan, and, like, it's just been catching up with me, I think, a little bit too much, 'cause I think I'm just overthinking stuff.
Top Chef tests every nerve you have and every muscle you have.
I compare this to running a marathon.
I'm an ultra-runner.
I've run 50 Miles a couple times.
But, you know, there's always that time where you're running, and you just kind of start to fall apart, and you have to push through.
You have to have determination and perseverance, no matter how painful it is and no matter how much you want to stop.
- Let's go.
- Let's do this.
Good morning, chefs.
Good morning.
Please welcome local legend and award-winning chef Jasper white.
Hello, chefs.
Jasper white is someone who I would consider a culinary icon, and there's this boatload of clams next to him.
I have an odd feeling where today's quickfire might be going.
I hope you guys came prepared, because this is a sudden-death quickfire.
.
For your quickfire challenge today, you'll take on one of the most iconic dishes of this town Chowder.
You didn't see that one coming, right? No.
I'm not a huge clam chowder fan, and it's a sudden-death quickfire.
So I'm a little nervous.
All right, chefs, the challenge is simple.
You have to put your spin on this classic dish.
You know, every restaurant and, actually, every home claims to have the best chowder in Boston, including myself.
You did write the book on chowder, I mean, literally, right? I did write a book on chowder called 50 chowders.
Wow.
Pressure's definitely on.
If you're gonna make a chowder, Jasper white is gonna be the one to tell you.
For this quickfire, the stakes are exceptionally high.
The winner with the best dish will win immunity.
The loser will have to battle it out head-to-head to stay in the competition.
Chefs, you have 30 minutes.
Your time starts now.
Good luck.
Share, share, share, share, share.
You want littlenecks? Mei grabs the whole bucket of littlenecks, and we agree to share.
You don't need all those.
The littleneck clams are perfect for this because of their sweet, delicate, briney nature.
Need some of those.
I'm a fair person, but they took the whole bucket of clams, and, you know, I don't want to go home.
So not gonna play nice anymore.
Chose littlenecks, but everybody stole them.
I'm pretty pissed at this moment.
I have three littleneck clams left.
I think that people thought it was okay to grab stuff off my station.
So I'm left with using steamer clams, which--they don't have a super amount of flavor, and it definitely sucks.
- What are you making, Dougie? - Smoky oyster chowder.
30 minutes for clam chowder is definitely tight.
The hardest part about making a clam chowder in this amount of time is getting enough clam flavor into the dish.
So my plan is just to have some really nicely cooked, plump, grilled, smoky oysters and then open up as many of these huge clams as I can and use the liquor in my broth.
You know, chowder was, like, the first on the top of my list for notes for coming here.
So it's exciting to be able to make this.
Razor clams are very juicy and very tender.
And they're really quick to cook.
I'm making kind of a Japanese-inspired clam with bumbu, dashi, coconut milk.
My strategy today is to be influenced by the classic New England chowder-- creamy with some potatoes and clams.
Of course, I look over, and I see Gregory yet again making a coconut, curry soup.
So more power to him.
Keep on doing what you're doing.
It's got you this far.
Gregory, right behind.
21 minutes left! Hey, Adam, who would you call out in a sudden death? Well, if I gave that away already, it wouldn't be much of a surprise when push comes to shove, would it? I definitely don't want to go home for some clam chowder.
I'm the new yorker that's left on this show, and I have to prove that all Manhattan clam chowders are not created equal, that they all don't suck.
I want to make an incredibly light, flavorful chowder which really will differentiate itself from any of the heavy, fat-laden chowder that the other chefs are trying to make here today.
So I'm gonna make tomato water to serve as the main component in my dish.
This ain't your mammy or your pappy's clam chowder.
In San Francisco, we have a lot of good cioppino.
It's kind of like a seafood stew.
I'm gonna make the dish thai style and incorporate lemongrass, kaffir lime, ginger, and lime juice.
I'm gonna go with flavors that I know.
14 minutes! This is gonna be a little bit interesting.
I could make a basic chowder, play it safe, but that's not the way I cook.
So today I'm gonna take a chance and try to make a black-tea sourdough chowder.
Tea has that nice earthy flavor, and I think that would go well with the sourdough and thick chowder flavors.
Katsuji, what kind of chowder you making? I'm making a Mexican chowder.
That's what's so cool about chowder is that it can be so many different ways done.
It's awesome.
As usual, I'm making a dish that I have not made before-- a roasted poblano and oyster chowder.
This like a base of a Mexican soup.
Of course it's risky, but believe me, if you don't risk, you're never gonna win.
Ah, ah! Five minutes everyone.
Behind, coming through.
Jesus, this is going quick, huh? Could use a little more time.
I see Katsuji with a bowl of green.
I didn't realize that we had the St.
Patty's day element incorporated into this challenge as well.
One minute! Katsuji, I like your bowls, buddy.
You like my balls? Huh? Whatever.
The chowder's not exactly where I want it to be, in terms of flavor, because I was left with using steamers.
This is a sudden-death quickfire.
If I go home because everybody stole my clams, it would suck balls.
Three, two, one.
Hands up, utensils down.
Good morning, Mei.
Tell us about your chowder.
So I made a clam and lobster chowder with yuzu aioli and a little celery and fennel on top.
- Do you make a lot of chowder? - I don't.
Which kind of clams did you use? - The steamers.
- Okay.
Katsuji.
So I didn't know if to go with a red or a white chowder, so I went with a green one.
Nice, that's a good idea, all right.
So it's poblano, jalapeño, and toasted-garlic broth.
And instead of using clams, I used oysters.
Do you work with oysters a lot? No, of course not, but I love oysters.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you so much.
Thank you.
So today we have a razor-clam and sweet-potato chowder.
The broth has been flavored with bacon, dashi, and coconut milk.
- How did you cook the razors? - They were grilled, chef.
I like the combination of sweet potato - Mm-hmm.
- With the coconut milk.
- Give it a little body.
- Thank you.
What I wanted to do for you guys today, being the only new yorker left in this challenge, was my take on Manhattan clam chowder.
I did a very simple mix of boiled potato, carrots, celery, and red-wine-poached clams.
Did you put any tomato in at all? The tomato water.
Oh, the tomato water, okay.
I wanted to put on cioppino-style with clams, white wine, onions, leeks, garlic.
Today I decided to go with the red version.
Must be a Yankees fan.
Hi, Doug.
Tell us about your chowder.
So I have some grilled-oyster chowder.
I just took as many clams as I could, steamed them, and just actually used the juice with a little bit of fresh jalapeño.
I'm not super familiar with all the east coast clams.
So I figured that I would just kind of use the juice from them instead of risking messing up something texturally.
Katie, talk to us about your chowder.
I did a chowder based on eating chowder in San Francisco in a sourdough-bread bowl.
So I did a sourdough base, and I also threw in the Boston influence of some tea.
And I put clams into my stock to start the chowder, but then I finished it with lobster, and then I just added some of the sourdough And you thickened it with the bread? Yep.
Jasper doesn't seem to love it, just from his facial expressions.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
Great to meet you, chef.
Sudden death makes me think of death.
I am very nervous.
We're mixing things up.
If your enlisted chef wins, he or she will rejoin the competition immediately.
Remember, this is a sudden-death quickfire.
The loser of this quickfire will face immediate elimination.
Jasper, who had some of your favorite dishes today? One of my favorites was Adam.
The flavors were excellent.
I really liked Gregory's.
I thought the sweet potatoes were a nice twist-- - wonderful version of chowder.
- Thank you.
And who else? Melissa's was really good, very tasty.
So, Jasper, ultimately, who had your favorite chowder? The chowder that I thought was the most outstanding Was Gregory.
Congratulations, Gregory.
You have immunity in the next elimination challenge.
Thank you very much.
I'm so happy-- my third quickfire win, and I win immunity for the next challenge.
This late in the game, any advantage matters.
Adam, I just want to say, it was a very, very close second.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
I'm sorry to say.
I can't win in this kitchen.
I'm convinced.
And now, of course, for the painful news.
And today's quickfire is going to be exceptionally painful for one of you.
Jasper, who were some of your least favorites? Doug's chowder-- it was quite salty.
It used oysters, and when you have a mild flavor, you got to pair it with something mild.
I'm very surprised to hear that I had one of Jasper's least favorite dishes.
You know, you always want to step it up when you're cooking for someone who you admire, and the fact that I totally missed the mark, it definitely sucks.
Who else? Katsuji, again, that sauce paired with the oyster-- I couldn't even taste the oyster.
Mei, I thought your chowder was actually the prettiest chowder of all to look at.
But it just seemed under-seasoned to me.
Katie, using raw sourdough, it was overpowering, and it had a kind of a gummy texture.
Jasper, please tell us who had your least favorite dish.
It's really hard to define what a chowder is, but when you eat one, you kind of know.
It was made with love.
It has that spirit.
And the chowder for me that had none of that Was Katie's.
Being here a second time is really frustrating.
I definitely maybe went too far outside of the box with my dish.
But I just cannot go home like this.
Katie, you're up for elimination, and you must battle another chef to stay in the competition.
But this time we're mixing things up.
Of course.
Get the out of here.
Tom walks into the kitchen with all the eliminated chefs.
I'm not sure what the hell's going on.
This is awesome! I mean, maybe.
- Hey, Jasper.
How you doing? - Hey, tom.
- Welcome back.
- Thanks.
I have a feeling everybody over there would say they went home a little too soon.
Yeah, I was the first one.
Chefs, you will decide which one of you will compete against Katie.
If your enlisted chef wins, he or she will rejoin the competition immediately.
Whoo.
Well, this is awkward.
This is crazy.
Why would they bring those guys back? Seriously, they leave for a reason.
You can choose any chef you like, but you cannot pick yourself.
Rebecca, who do you think should go up against Katie? George.
- Stacy? - Joy.
- Keriann? - I'm gonna go with James.
- Ron? - George.
It's two for George.
I couldn't imagine being eliminated after the first quickfire.
I mean, he definitely deserves to get back in the kitchen.
- Aaron? - George.
George being business partners with Mike Isabella, if the eliminated chefs pick George, the uphill climb will get a little bit steeper for Katie to fight for her life here.
- Who's it gonna be, Joy? - Stacy.
George, you're the front-runner.
- Who would you choose? - Aaron.
Aaron? James, who would you vote for? I think he got the rawest deal.
I'm gonna say George all day, get him back on.
Congratulations, George.
You now have a chance to get back into the competition.
I feel like a million dollars being eliminated first was one of the worst feelings I've ever had in my life.
I did not think this was gonna happen.
But now that it is, I definitely want to do my best to get back into it.
Katie, do you think you can beat George? George is extremely talented.
George comes from a very strong background of working with great chefs, working at great restaurants.
But I've been cooking over ten years, and I'm not afraid to take on any chef.
Would you guys like to know what you'll be cooking? Absolutely.
To win this battle, you'll have to pull a rabbit out of your hat.
Tom, what makes a good rabbit dish? It's one of my favorite things to cook, I mean, mostly because it's so versatile.
You can confit it.
You can roast it.
You can braise it.
I made a rabbit dish in culinary school seven years ago, and since then, I have never worked with it.
But I'm definitely a fighter.
When I feel like all the odds are against me, I just want to succeed more than anything.
You'll have 45 minutes to make your rabbit masterpiece, using any part of the rabbit.
Your time starts now.
Come on, George.
- Get it baby, get it.
- Katie, whoo! You got this, man.
I know nothing about Katie, and I don't care.
I'm super focused.
I'm getting back in this competition.
If you find the break on the saddle, Katie, you can just take both legs off together.
I decide to butcher off the hind legs, get them braising, and I'm gonna do a Moroccan-inspired rabbit.
Are you using couscous or something like that or no? I'm just gonna do rabbit over a sauce.
Perfect.
At least we know Katie.
We know she's not the best one.
We don't know George.
George can be the game changer for all of us.
So, you know, we want to get rid of Katie, but at the same time, it would be smart to keep her.
- She can pull it off.
- She can.
I'm gonna try to braise off these legs.
I'm gonna have a parsley puree on the bottom, farro Risotto for the confit'd legs, and then glazed carrots.
Did I hear "glazed carrots"? I didn't realize this was a culinary institute of America cookbook from 1996.
In addition to that, he's gonna make jus and the rabbit and another garnish? So he's definitely taking on a lot.
30 minutes, guys.
Come on, baby.
I'm most worried about the rabbit legs not braising in time.
I keep testing the legs.
They're not getting very tender.
I don't know, man.
It's making me nervous.
You better get those cutlets on, then.
Yeah.
I need to have a backup plan.
I decide to go back to the rabbit and just go for the loins, because I know the loins can get cooked in less than five minutes.
Now I just got to make sure this rabbit loin comes out perfect.
You doing loins as a backup or a duo? Well, I'd like for it to be a duo, but if the legs aren't ready in time Yeah, yeah, smart.
Ten minutes left! The parsnips are probably gonna go in about a minute.
- Getting tender? - Find out right now.
I'm definitely concerned with the legs being undercooked and chewy, rubbery.
- Tender? - Not bad.
You should be plating in four minutes.
Yes, chef.
He's not used to, you know, the time clock here.
You need to be starting to plate, buddy.
Two minutes! Good thing I brought four.
Pressure's on.
I got plan "b" going on.
I'm going with the rabbit loins.
It looks cooked nicely.
Come on, get it on the plate.
I need this second chance.
- One minute.
- You got it.
You got a minute.
don't even think about it.
Get your sauce on the plate.
Just a little salt.
It tastes juicy.
It tastes really good.
But if I serve rabbit that's not perfect, that will send me home.
Five, four, three, two, one! Hands up.
Utensils down.
After 11 seasons, we're doing something we've never done before.
Richard can't help himself.
Padma probably has people shopping for her.
I think it's been a while.
We need a cleanup in aisle two.
The first chef to get two votes will be the winner.
Who made which dish? I made a tomato-braised rabbit leg with a Moroccan tomato sauce.
George Today I made roasted rabbit loin with a little mustard jus.
Jasper, what's your vote? You know, both dishes had strong points, and for me, the clear-cut winner was the rabbit loin with barley and carrots.
- Thank you.
- Tom? Katie, I thought your sauce was really nice.
It did finish a little bitter.
I'm not sure what that was, but the flavor was really nice.
I like the little crunch with the apple.
George, I thought the barley had nice texture.
The rabbit was perfectly cooked.
You would get my vote as well.
Well done.
Welcome back.
So, George, congratulations.
You'll be rejoining the competition.
I was beating myself up every day when I got eliminated first, so I'm glad I get a second chance.
Hallelujah.
To be back in this competition is everything in the world.
Now I have the opportunity and the privilege to show everybody I am worthy of staying here.
Welcome back to Top Chef.
Katie, I'm sorry.
Unfortunately, I have to tell you to pack your knives and go.
Being in this competition is the toughest thing I've ever done.
Good-bye.
At the end of the day, I feel like I've cooked really strong and put up a great performance.
And my dad would be insanely proud of me-- proud that I put myself out there and I worked my butt off and I got as far as I did.
See you guys.
- In, like, five? The rest of you, it was great to see you.
And you never know, we may see you again.
So, chefs, you'll have another chance to get back into the competition, just like George.
Last chance kitchen is coming back, and I'll see you all there tonight.
Being able to have this opportunity to go into last chance kitchen is really huge.
- Bye, guys.
- Thanks, guys.
Redemption, to me, is like Sweet, sweet piece of candy.
I want to eat it, and I want all of its brothers and sisters too.
Chefs, after 11 seasons, we're doing something we've never done before.
- Hi, guys.
Hi, chefs.
- Gail, Richard.
George, hey, good to see you again.
Long time.
Ever since we got to Boston, people have been writing to us about how they can come taste the food on the show.
So tomorrow you'll cater a tasting event for Boston's biggest foodies and Top Chef fans right here in this kitchen.
We tweeted out to Boston that we were doing this event, and we had over 15,000 responses in one day.
We picked 75 of them to join us for an experience they'll never forget, or at least we hope they'll never forget.
Chefs, you won't be shopping today.
We will.
That's right.
We're going to whole foods.
Yeah, sure.
Let one of the judges shop for us.
They'll see what it's like shopping through whole foods.
It gets a little hectic.
You will not see the ingredients we choose until tomorrow, when you have to cook with them.
But from knowing us through the years, you should have a general idea of what to expect.
Please draw knives to find out which pantry you'll have access to.
Tom.
Well, Mei, I'll do my best to shop for you.
Padma.
Gail.
Padma.
- Ah, Gail.
- Nice.
I think I'm quite happy.
I have a kosher restaurant, and I think she's very, very smart and she will come up with some interesting ideas.
- Richard.
- Richard.
Hope you like the vitamin aisle.
I got to be honest, I'm not super excited.
Just knowing what I know of chef Blais and his style, there's probably gonna be agar or some other playful molecular in my pantry, and that's not the chef that I have become.
We got to get to the store before it closes.
George, have fun getting to know all your fellows chefs at 1330 boylston street.
We'll see you all tomorrow.
Good luck, guys.
Richard can't help himself.
- Where's this guy going? - Herbs, herbs, herbs, herbs.
What am I looking for? Tom and Gail and padma are sort of like, "ah, let's go look at some nice vegetables.
" 30 minutes, people! Excuse me, I'd like to get some eggplants here.
You don't need to do that, tom? What I was looking to do was give Mei some options.
I wanted to give her some ingredients that she could either take it in a Asian direction or maybe an Italian direction.
I need 15 racks.
Do you really want those racks? - You want them? - Yeah.
- You want the lamb? - Yeah.
He is a jedi warrior.
He says give me your lamb.
- I'll just take them.
- I think seniority - Thank you.
I appreciate that.
- Wins out here.
I'm getting some ingredients that can be sweet and savory.
Melissa is a simple, sort of more rustic cook.
Katsuji-- he's all over the place.
I wanted to focus on fresh flavors.
I got a lot of fresh herbs, a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, although I'm not really shopping for them.
I'm really shopping for what I want to eat.
- Have you seen the fennel? - Tom took it all.
- He took it all? - He took it all.
I have Gregory, and I have George, and I really feel for the chefs at this moment.
I can barely park my car at whole foods in half an hour.
Padma probably has people shopping for her at grocery stores, right? I think it's been a while since she shopped.
Do you know someone who could help me pick out some cheese, please? Hey, Richard, what you looking for? I'm in the vitamin aisle.
I'm looking for some lecithin and some agar-agar.
My strategy shopping for Adam and Doug is just to buy a lot of protein, many vegetables.
I hope I set them up for some success, because I don't want to be that judge that has two people on the bottom because they bombed with my ingredients.
I hope these guys cut this fish nice.
Richard leaves his shopping cart there unattended.
We need a cleanup in aisle two.
- Where'd you put my stuff? - Padma put it over there.
This is like high school all over again-- pretty girls making fun of me.
This is a cruel freshman prank.
I just want everyone to know.
- Am I now initiated officially? - You're now initiated.
Am I okay? Yes! And you're gonna get new fish for my chefs, though.
Oh, so this is home, huh? I'm very excited to walk into the house.
I didn't even get to see it the first go-around.
- Kitchen, living room.
- Kitchen.
Greg's on tour.
I'm on burgers.
- Stoked? - Yeah, dude.
- All's good, man.
- Yeah.
I'm So happy to be back.
I was so down in the dumps about the whole thing.
It's frustrating to have George back on the competition.
He's got tons of recipes that he hasn't used yet.
We're just kind of waiting to see what George has up his sleeve.
To Katie And here's to you coming back.
Gracias.
I never personally doubted George's skills at all.
I mean, he comes up through Mike Isabella.
I'm familiar with his restaurant, Kapnos.
It's a great spot.
This definitely got harder.
All my knives are still razor sharp, so We have 75 super fans coming in.
I'm kind of having a hard time cooking the lamb racks.
Do you always cook lamb this rare? - Yes.
- Really? Wow.
What's up, brother? Making coffee? Yeah, welcome to the thunderdome.
I'm feeling a little uncomfortable in the house.
I feel like the other contestants kind of established a relationship with each other, and here I come back in.
How do you feel about today? Ready? No preparation, sharp knives, someone goes home.
So the pressure is on for me to prove something.
It's just-- it's something I've been trying to do my entire life.
When my father, a Greek immigrant, opened a Greek diner in northern Virginia, I grew up with the restaurant-- just making toast, washing dishes, helping out the chef.
So I've been around food for my entire life.
It's a big part of who I am, and I want to win Top Chef more than anything in the world.
Deep down inside, I really want my father to be super proud.
I just want to prove to my family that I can do it.
The family's gonna get split up tonight.
This is gonna be a rough one.
Today's gonna be a tough elimination.
I love you all.
My love and passion for food is clearly evident.
It's just who I am.
I was a bad kid growing up.
I was failing all my classes, not being able to keep up with all the other kids, getting pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.
Eventually finding food as my passion and choosing to do it for my career is what saved my life.
And now I live and breathe for this craft.
I believe I can win Top Chef.
You guys ready to get out of here? - Yes.
- Let's go.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- Super fans.
You're a juice box, bro.
After you guys.
You're a juice box.
Oh, my God.
What have we got, buddy? Cloves.
We have two and a half hours to prep and cook a tasting-portion dish for 75 i Top Chef super fans.
It's definitely nerve-racking to have one of the judges shop for your ingredients.
Now we're seeing everything for the first time.
You have to think on your feet.
- Lamb.
- You got lamb? Yep.
I'm really excited to see if tom shopped for me in a way where I can go a few different directions.
Utilizing all these ingredients will definitely pack a lot of flavor into my dish.
Raws, tandoori Me, man.
This is what I was most afraid of, in Richard Blais' pantry that he shopped for Doug and myself.
I feel left with a bunch of ingredients that don't necessarily go together.
Along with the dewar of liquid nitrogen, and the core container of versawhip I'm recognizing that I'm gonna have a bit of a struggle getting a cohesive dish assembled today.
Bonito flakes? It's gonna be a weird day, Dougie.
Adam is definitely a little bit flustered, but I'm not too worried.
I'm just really gonna try and focus in one or two big flavors and do what I can to bring them out.
- You took kimchi? - Yeah.
I'm not using it.
Ginger, jackfruit.
It's pretty obvious that padma bought some flavors that will definitely play to my cooking strengths.
And she thought about some ideas, ingredients that would play well to George's Greek heritage-- beef, lamb, chicken, coconut milk, and curry spices.
I'm really excited to make an Indian-style curry for padma.
You gonna be okay, Gregory? Yeah, she put it on my station.
Hey, did she have the bed made for you when you walked into your pantry, or did you have to assemble your own pillows and stuff? Padma and I like the same flavors.
1:45.
I've got some middle eastern, Moroccan type spices going on.
I'm comfortable with those flavors.
So hopefully it all works out.
My first elimination challenge, my heart's pounding.
I'm nervous.
Here these guys are battling through this competition for weeks now, and here I come not knowing what to do.
I'm just hoping that I have what it takes to compete with these other chefs.
Tom wanted me to make sausage.
There's casings in my pantry.
Oh, my God.
That, dude.
One hour, 30 minutes.
Gail did really nice.
I feel pretty good about this one.
What are you trying to do? I'm gonna do a little sauteed shrimp with a herb salad.
So Melissa's making shrimp scampi with a salad, again.
And Melissa's a great chef, but choosing to play it safe is not going to win this.
Live once, go hard.
It's actually quite nice having someone else doing the shopping.
I think Gail actually went with, like, north African, mediterranean flavors, you know-- the shrimp, the harissa, potatoes.
So I'm making a tunisian potato salad with a poached cold shrimp with harissa oil.
- Dougie, what you making, bro? - I'm cooking some mussels, I got chorizo, peppers, preserved lemons.
Ah, so you got something super traditional.
Definitely tough not knowing what you're walking into and not getting to pick anything.
I'm struggling a little bit in prep just trying to conceptualize my dish.
So I'm just really gonna try and focus in on the mussels and the chorizo.
It's a classic combination.
I'm pretty sure I can make it taste good, and I'm just gonna run with it.
- What are these? - Peppadew peppers Pickled, a little spicy, a little sweet.
Take it.
I am so sick and tired of being in the middle.
The technique that I'm using on my shrimp is a risk.
I'll scald them with blazing-hot oil, then just very gently cook the outsides.
This is a technique I picked up in my travels abroad.
I got to start thinking outside the box, because I didn't come here to take second place.
What's the point in being anything other than creative? That's my option right now.
But you're safe, Adam.
You know that.
Why? 'Cause I just float around in the middle? This is Adam's Top Chef history.
He's never that good, but he's never that bad.
39 minutes! Katsuji's making some sort of potato salad with shrimp.
And then for some reason, he's putting some sort of, like, fruit sangria on the side, which I don't really get at all.
But Katsuji is completely bat-insane.
So it does kind of make sense.
I tasted it, and it does really kind of work together.
He's like a mad scientist.
More power to you, buddy.
I would've never, ever done that.
Mmm.
When you cut open a jackfruit, you see these beautiful golden-yellow pods that actually smells like bubble gum.
It will add something sweet and tart to my curry.
It smells so good.
It's super ripe.
A lot of people are unsure of what a jackfruit is.
And as chefs, it's important that we teach our clients and guests as much as possible.
Very exciting.
Can't you see I'm struggling here! As the time is counting down, I'm definitely having a little bit of trouble cooking the lamb.
The bones are really getting in the way, and it's not cooking evenly.
So, I have to finish cooking in the oven, but I'm thinking I should've took it off the bone and cooked it like that instead.
Freaking out a little bit.
- Hashtag good luck.
- "Hashtag good luck," he says.
Three, two, one! - Whoo! - I'm super excited to be here.
- Yeah.
- I can't believe it.
Oh, my God.
I know.
There's some spoons here.
You guys can start, yeah.
Please enjoy.
Good evening.
- Hi.
- Finishing touches, and I'll have these plates ready for you in a sec.
Getting people as excited about cooking as we do-- how cool to share this moment in our kitchen with these super fans? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for sure.
- Good luck.
- Thank you.
- Smells great.
- Thank you very much.
Man, you have no idea how much I want one of those.
Seven minutes, and we only have one microwave, so I want to make this experience special, because I came to this country with $5 in my pocket.
The fact that I am on Top Chef-- that's the American dream for me.
So this means a lot for me to be around these people.
- This sangria's delicious.
- Thank you so much.
Chicken and madras curry.
You guys excited to be here? You have no idea how excited I am.
I was in Puerto Rico about to get on a plane.
I saw the tweet from tom, and then we got it.
We're so lucky.
Oh, having a great time.
- How are you all doing today? - Great.
- Great.
- All right.
So we got a spiced lamb kabob, cucumber yogurt, and some lentils.
Hope you all enjoy.
Wow, our kitchen cleans up nicely.
I know.
It's so fancy.
How are you doing? How's it going? Do you guys want to pick it out? They're like mini mangoes within the fruit.
Yeah, they're amazing.
It's always really great to cook for people who are really excited about food and who really appreciate what you do.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
You're awesome.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Instead of having them shop, the four of us went to whole foods last night, and we ran around there - like crazy people.
- Oh, my God.
Did you have a strategy about what you were buying? I had a strategy.
Mine was just to make sure that the chefs could put their own style into it.
So, here's a plethora of ingredients and go for it.
I wanted to get a few things that she could work with, but not there was so much things where she was just, like, all over the place.
What did you coat the rack in before you fried it? Salt and pepper.
Getting a hint of the smell already.
So I have a little bit of chorizo-marinated mussels.
Thank you very much.
- Katsuji.
- Katsuji.
- How are you? - How are you? Good.
I got your basket.
I heard.
First of all, what did you think? You can be honest.
You can judge me.
- It was cute.
- "It was cute"? Like, you got the picture-- you know, the figs.
- "It was cute"? - Cute is a good thing.
I know what you're trying to say without saying it.
There weren't enough chilies for you.
There you go.
You put the harissa.
I'm actually very comfortable cooking with harissa.
Good.
Me too.
That's why I put it in.
So first I have a tunisian potato salad.
I poach them in harissa and fish stock.
Then I have a poached shrimp that was chilled - in that same broth.
- Great.
And then I made a white sangria.
Great.
I like the potato salad a lot.
There's a good creaminess to that, which you want in your potato salad.
You know what I think it could use? Some chili.
Yeah, well, next time I promise you I'll get you more chilies.
- Thanks so much.
- Thank you so much, Katsuji.
- Hi, Gregory.
- Padma, chef.
It smells delicious.
I hope I did your ingredients proud.
- Thank you so much.
- Spoons right here.
The curry does smell really good.
So we have a coconut milk and chicken in madras curry and then the awesome jackfruit that I was really - excited to work with.
- Good.
It's a good play between sweet and hot, acid.
- It's funny, you know - It's really nicely cooked.
It's really nice.
The smells when we walked in here were so authentic.
Awesome, awesome.
Thank you, padma.
Thank you, chef.
- It's delicious.
- Thank you, padma.
Tell us, like, what would've been your favorite season of all 11 seasons? The season that ended with olympic style.
Oh, season nine.
Yes! I love that one.
To, like, hack the food out of the ice.
- Thank you guys for being here.
- Yeah, thank you.
It was fun.
Enjoy.
We're off to taste, we are.
We're loving it.
Hi, Adam.
- It smells good over here.
- Well, thank you.
What did you think of Richard's pantry? I definitely was drawn to the liquid nitrogen first with my eyeline and knew one of the ingredients I wouldn't be using - this afternoon.
- Excellent.
You know, it's just not in my bag of tricks.
It's just not any kind of any portion of any technique I'm familiar with.
So what I've made for you guys today is a peppadew piperade.
Potted peppadews, Holland peppers, onions, garlic, white wine.
I took the shrimp shells and a little bit of fish fumet, the shrimp--the oil that I'm pouring over them is the oil from my mushroom conserva.
How do you feel about the texture of the shrimp? I feel like I would've preferred it five degrees hotter and five seconds longer on the cook of the shrimp probably.
It feels a little squeaky.
You know what I mean? I immediately receive the only pieces of negative feedback that I've gotten all day.
But I feel good about the piperade that I served.
Ultimately, I feel like the peppadew was what I really wanted to focus on more than anything else.
- All right.
- Thank you, Adam.
- Thank you.
- That was exciting.
Awesome.
You guys like it? My concern is that the dish is just a little safe.
The lamb is too rare.
There's no room for mistakes.
Are you excited to meet tom? Yes, I really am.
And padma too.
It's flattering and surreal to have all the super fans around.
Go ahead, guys.
I got forks right here.
One special guest was, like, this tiny little girl.
She kept on coming up to my particular stand 'cause she said that mine was her favorite.
It's like, "okay, I'll give you another one.
" She'd come back, and it was like, "all right, I'll give you another one.
" I usually don't like mussels, but I tried his - Uh-huh.
- And it was really good.
- It was good? - Uh-huh.
Eat some more.
Have a good time.
Take care.
I know that she liked my dish.
So I give my board to her, 'cause I think that will mean a lot to her.
I'm really, really glad that she was able to have a great day.
She's so stoked about Top Chef.
So I want to win this for her.
He's been watching since day one.
- Really? - Oh, yeah.
Favorite season, favorite chef? Favorite chef, fabio, by far.
- Oh, yes.
- I miss him so much.
- Aw.
- Yeah.
Hi, Melissa.
- Hi, Melissa.
- Hi, guys.
I am really excited for the basket you gave me.
Oh, I'm so glad.
I was looking at the description, and I have to say, you used a lot of the ingredients I was really hoping-- clearly, we Exactly.
Thank you.
What I made is a sauteed shrimp, and it has a harissa yogurt with shaved root-vegetable salad.
Going for sort of a balance of flavors.
I know that this is a challenge maybe for your basket.
- Maybe some more spice.
- More spice? Especially--you got the yogurt, you have the fennel.
The shrimp was just on the edge of being a little salty.
I think you need to be careful of that, 'cause we talked about that last challenge too.
Yeah, my concern is that the dish is just a little safe-- beautiful for a cafe, maybe a little safe for competition.
Perhaps, but it was nice.
I'm glad you used all the ingredients you did.
Thank you.
The judges questioned me for being too safe.
It's something you don't want to hear this late in the game.
I really liked Melissa's shrimp.
It was really light.
And I love that she cooked it to order because that was just, like, perfect.
- Hey, Mei.
- Hi, chef.
Hi, padma.
Hi.
How did you find your pantry? I love my pantry.
I made a charred eggplant puree with some black garlic inside Mm-hmm.
Roasted rack of lamb, a lamb jus with the ground lamb.
- Mm-hmm.
- I love your eggplant puree.
Do you always cook lamb this rare? - Yes.
- Really? Okay.
Wow.
For me, I have to tell you, the lamb is too rare.
Okay.
I like lamb more medium-rare than rare.
It's a little under, but flavors are really good.
Thanks.
My lamb was a little under today, but I think when you list all your doubts, that's when you get yourself into trouble.
Thank you.
We're the same size.
Maybe she had an inch on me.
- All right, tom.
- We're about the same size.
It's a four-inch heel, so See? It is unfair.
I get to wear heels, and he doesn't.
- Hi, Dougie.
- Dougie, how are you? Who's basket did you get, Doug? I got chef Richard Blais.
- Oh, you took all the mussels.
- I did take all the mussels.
I realized the second we got into whole foods, we all went to the fresh produce, and we realized you went right to the protein.
- Boom.
- Now I know.
Dougie, take that to heart-- right to the protein.
I made a little chorizo-marinated mussel.
Sweet pepper and cauliflower relish, with some lemon preserve, a little bit of bacon crumble.
It's nice, Dougie.
Well, I'm glad that you focused in on, like, one region.
It's definitely a little Spanish.
Mussels are really nice, actually.
They're plump and juicy and delicate.
- You guys like it? - It's a good dish.
It was a good dish.
Thank you, Dougie.
Thank you, guys.
Hey, guys.
Enjoy.
- Thank you so much.
- You're welcome.
Too bad you didn't get my pantry, because I had enough chilies to kill a village.
For George, his lamb's so succulent, and with the yogurt mint sauce, that was a little cooling note on the end.
Everybody seems to be enjoying my dish, but I'm starting to feel a little nervous.
I'm just hoping that it's okay for the judges.
- Hi, George.
- Hey, George.
Hey, guys.
How you doing today? - Good.
How was your pantry? - It's good.
I'm very happy with it.
I can't complain.
Because I've tasted so little of your cooking, I didn't know what kind of food you do.
Ah, well So I was hoping that at least you grew up with Greek food.
It works out that I do.
I have a Greek restaurant, so I have a beef, lamb kabob here.
Did a little bit of green lentils with shallots and onions and garlic and saffron.
I put a little bit of Greek yogurt on top.
Your lamb is so moist - Thank you very much.
- And flavorful.
The cooking of the lentils is just perfect.
Like, they're still firm, but they're not falling apart, but they're not crunchy at all-- they're tender.
- Thank you very much.
- Yeah, really good.
I'm glad you guys like it.
I feel like that first competition, I didn't really-- I got a raw deal, - but I'm very happy right now.
- Congratulations.
- And welcome back.
- Thank you.
Thank God I got through my first elimination challenge-- like a big sigh of relief right now.
Thank you.
So this has been really fantastic.
Oh, thanks.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm so glad you're here.
Hey, guys.
- Hi.
- How are you? - Good.
- How'd it go? What was that like for you, Richard? It was awesome.
I mean, the super fans were incredible.
They're getting to see behind the curtains, and they're so excited.
Good luck, ladies.
Thank you.
We're gonna hold down the fort.
I was really happy to see that the food across the board was really high quality.
Richard, did you have favorites? George is coming off the bench here deep in the season, and he's right in the game.
His dish was so well seasoned.
I thought he really played to your pantry, actually, - padma, on that dish.
- He did a great job.
The other chef I thought had great flavor was Gregory.
The chicken was beautifully cooked in the curry.
I like the jackfruit.
The vinegar and the jackfruit was amazing.
And I think anytime you have an opportunity to introduce a new ingredient like that, that's special.
What did you guys think of Dougie's mussel dish? He picked the three wisest ingredients, possibly, out of that basket.
It's a classic combination-- mussels and chorizo.
And I think he pulled it together really nicely.
The mussels were really nicely cooked.
- You're nervous? - No, I'm not nervous.
- They liked my .
- Loved your .
Who were some of your least favorites? I didn't get a lot of flavor out of Mei's dish.
I found Mei's lamb just too undercooked.
- The lamb - It's slimy.
- Is really slimy, yeah.
- Speaking of slimy Yes, another person who I thought was a little slimy was Adam.
The shrimp to me is just a mind-boggling technique.
I don't even know what he was doing.
He just poured hot oil over it.
And that does not cook shrimp at all.
When he served it to us, it was straight-up squeaky.
When I asked him, he said, "that's what I want.
" The technique is they're not fully cooked shrimp.
They're not ceviche.
It's a flash marinade.
What did we think of Melissa's dish? I liked that she actually cooked the shrimp to order, - and "cooked" being the - Operative word.
Yeah, the operative word there is "cooked.
" I was surprised that she didn't get more sweetness or more caramelization.
Melissa's dish was way too safe.
She made a salad and cooked some shrimp in front of it.
I think it's time to pull the plug on this party.
We need to get to judges' table and clean up, by the way.
This is the messiest I've ever seen the kitchen.
Are we doing the dishes? I didn't get that memo.
That was fun, huh? How were all the guests for everybody? I heard everyone talking about your dish and everyone talking about your dish.
I heard your dish.
I heard your dish.
It's like we all did great, and it's just a matter of the little things.
- Hello.
- Hello.
We'd like to see everybody.
Thank you.
All right, guys.
Bottoms up.
I thought all the food was really flavorful and creative.
Everybody had a great time.
I was really happy to see that we were all well represented, but there were mistakes.
George, Doug, and Gregory, please stay where you are.
Everybody else, please step aside to the right.
You three were our favorites of the night, so congratulations.
Exhale.
Good job.
George, when you get a second chance and to come back and perform the way you did today, I thought that was truly impressive.
Well, someone did nice shopping for me.
The lamb meatball-- really great use of putting beef in with the lamb to make sure that there was enough fat in there.
And the lentils were great too.
You really infused a lot of flavor into both components - of your dish.
- Thank you.
Doug, this is the most savory, soulful, and well-spiced dish I've had of yours.
I kept on overthinking, and then eventually it was like, "just go with it.
" When you think about it, chorizo and mussels and, you know, garlic and peppers-- these are all things that naturally go together.
So it was a great job of editing down your choices, and you put together just a powerhouse of a dish.
- Thank you.
- Well, Gregory, I mean, this dish was otherworldly.
It was like a show-and-tell at your station.
You had the jackfruit.
It looked like an alien autopsy out there.
We're always looking to give the guest an experience, - and I think you delivered that.
- Thank you.
The star of the dish was the chicken.
It was perfectly cooked, gave us great flavor.
- You didn't disappoint.
- Okay, thank you.
Gail, please do the honors of announcing the winning chef.
Well, the winner was the person who, in the end, was able to look at this laundry list of pantry ingredients and find something flavorful, really clear, and really inspired, and that person Was Dougie.
Nice work.
It was really great.
Fantastic dish, Doug.
Awesome.
Thank you, guys.
Winning two challenges in a row is awesome.
I feel great.
This is kind of the homestretch of the competition.
I'm feeling strong.
You know, it's looking good.
Mei, Adam, Melissa Please step forward.
Unfortunately, the three of you had our least favorite dishes, and one of you will be going home.
Mei, you made some beautiful food-- that eggplant puree.
Even that salad was so bright, but when you first cut into the lamb racks, did you think that that was the doneness you wanted? I mean, that was the doneness that I wanted it, but I should've honestly just took it off of the rack because they were a little uneven.
Well, they all are.
There's the neck side and the loin side.
The neck side has more fat.
The loin side is leaner.
It's gonna cook-- they're gonna cook-- - usually you cut them in half.
- Yeah.
Adam, how did you feel about your dish? I assumed a risk in the way with which I prepared the shrimp.
It's not a technique that I have executed anywhere close to the other techniques I've displayed on the show.
A lot of people liked your dish and was their favorite dish of the night, besides the fact that, texturally, the way the shrimp was cooked just read a little squishy.
Piperade I thought was really, really under-seasoned.
All you're talking about is a couple more grains, mix it, taste it.
Couple more, mix and taste it.
Melissa, were you worried that with two and a half hours we would come to your table and say, "what did you do because you're cooking the shrimp right here?" I wanted to make sure that I had a lot of knife cuts going on in the dish, and that's what preoccupied a lot of my time.
You always have great knife work.
I want to see your flavor, and I already saw some seafood on top of a salad at the last challenge.
I loved how you cooked the shrimp.
I love that you used the figs, the artichokes, the fennel, the dill.
Those are really big, bold ingredients, and I wanted to see a little more depth.
I just want to echo something that was said.
All the dishes were really good, and they were all tasty.
You're realizing at this point in the game, the compression is just incredibly tight.
There's no more middle.
Unfortunately, one of you will be going home.
chefs, we opened up our doors and our kitchen to 75 of Boston's super fans.
We had a blast, but unfortunately for one of you, you'll be going home.
Adam, please pack your knives and go.
You took a huge risk doing what you did today.
Unfortunately, it didn't pay off, but I really admire the fact that you pushed it.
It was great to have you in this kitchen, Adam.
The rest of you can say your good-byes.
We'll see you at the next challenge.
I wanted to come on here and show everybody what I got.
I didn't see it ending quite like this.
[Exhales deeply[ it may just be cooking to some people, but this is what I breathe and bleed every day of my life.
If you don't love cooking enough to be an emotional mess on national television, put the knife down.
Top Chef has served as a platform for so many chefs who didn't win, to find their voice and reach the next level.
I am 100% excited to see what's on the other side of this door.
Last chance kitchen is back in an epic two-part premiere.
Hut, hut, hut, hut.
Seven eliminated chefs will vie to stay alive.
It's my do-over.
You never get those.
Then the new reigning champ must defend their title by taking on Katie and Adam.
- Your next battle starts now.
- Bring it on.
To watch the two-part season premiere, go to bravotv.
Com.
Next on Top Chef New England patriot rob gronkowski.
Do you mind if I call you rob? You can call me "honey.
" All right, honey.
I eat a lot.
I need a big sausage.
Katsu, what the hell are you doing? I'm trying to cool down the sausage, so the fat doesn't break.
This is the best sausage dish, not just the best sausage.
Oh, now you're getting cocky? Each of you must select one author to celebrate.
Katsuji's the perfect choice for eating Stephen king.
Why, 'cause I'm a sick person? Yeah, 'cause you're sick in the head.
I want to make people say ", " in a good way.
It's a lot of technique and not a lot of flavor.
Cooking well for four out of five people isn't good enough.
Unfortunately for one of you, today's your last chapter.