Top Chef: Just Desserts (2010) s01e01 Episode Script
Mr. Chocolate
Top Chef is taking on America's sweet tooth.
12 of America's most talented Pastry Chefs are about to take on the toughest culinary challenge of their lives.
I think it's time to bring Pastry Chefs forward.
Pastry is this beautiful cross between art and science.
People view the world of pastry as, like, magical and sweet.
Everybody smells so good.
Everything is marshmallows and pink colors.
Like, "oh, that's so nice.
" But being a Pastry Chef is not all fondant and frosting.
I'm broke.
My mother has over $100,000 in medical bills.
He doesn't care about anyone here.
You are a piece of .
It makes me sick.
We're not friends.
We're not buddies.
sabotage time? All right, I can do that.
Pastry is a science.
You can't just wing it.
Give us a countdown, please.
I'm doing it.
I'm trying to get to it.
I'm trying to get to the clock.
I thought the cake was dry.
I think it was Zac's idea.
Bitch needs to go home.
Go home.
I can't do this.
I can't do it.
Joining us in the kitchen as head judge is acclaimed Pastry Chef Johnny Iuzzini Can't wait to try it.
As well as Chef Hubert Keller and food and lifestyle critic Dannielle Kyrillos.
It was like a party in my mouth.
Every week, the Chef who fails to measure up will go home Come on.
Until one Chef is left standing to take the grand prize: A feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival, a german-engineered, sport-injected Buick Regal, and $100,000 furnished by Godiva Chocolatier.
Who has the creativity, the skill, and the drive to win Top Chef: Just Desserts? Top Chef: Just Desserts 1x01 Mr.
Chocolate My name is Seth Caro.
I'm from New York.
People are definitely surprised to learn I'm a Pastry Chef, just, I guess, because of the way I look.
I get Marky Mark, sometimes Dexter.
I was the original Pastry Chef at Harold Dieterle's first restaurant.
I am a prima donna Pastry Chef, and I'm not afraid to admit that.
Tania.
Seth, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
My name is Tania Peterson.
I'm from Boston.
I am all about rebellion.
I'm a Jewish atheist artist, and I am ready to kick ass.
I'm Heather.
Heather, nice to meet you.
I'm Tania.
Hey, hi, Tania.
Heather, I'm Seth.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi, how are you? I'm Erika.
I don't know what to expect.
Do you guys know what to expect? I have no idea.
Oh, my gosh.
Look at that.
I haven't been on one of those since living in London.
This is awesome.
Being on the Top Chef bus is pretty cool.
The wind is blowing, not good for the hair.
We just made new friends, so that rocks.
But I'm still gonna get ya.
We'll see.
I went to the Culinary Institute of America.
I won the 2009 ACF National Pastry Chef of the Year Award.
I'm a taskmaster.
It's anybody's game.
I'll tell ya.
If somebody finds me intimidating, I'm sorry.
Deal with it.
Oh, my gosh.
What is this? No, stop it.
Hi.
Ladies first.
Ladies first.
Real ladies first.
I'm Zac Young.
We got a bus.
Pastry Chefs are crazy.
You better watch out.
I will cut you with my flavor.
Whatever you want.
We're on a Top Chef bus driving through L.
A.
Sickest thing ever.
My name is Tim Nugent.
All of my gelatos, ice creams are really, really good.
I've been referred to as the Snow Queen Oh, my God, human beings.
Because my food is frozen, and I'm gay.
So it's kind of funny.
Hello.
Hi, I'm Heather.
It's a girl.
Hi.
I'm Tim, such a pleasure.
Danielle, nice to meet you.
Hello, team.
I know you.
Unfortunately, we know each other.
I knew someone from San Francisco would be here.
I know, the battle of the Queens.
I am Morgan Wilson.
I'm an executive Pastry Chef at a hotel in Dallas.
I juggle work, my son, climbing, and a girlfriend, and it's a miracle I'm even sane.
Is this all of us? I think Pastry Chefs get a bad rap.
I think a Pastry Chef can do a savory Chef's job, and I think a savory Chef is at best mediocre being a Pastry Chef.
Time to get out of the sun.
We're all getting a nice sunburn wondering what's gonna happen next.
And sure enough, there comes Gail Simmons' beautiful face.
Hello, Chefs.
Hello.
I've actually had a little bit of a schoolboy crush on her, and I'm trying to focus, but she's so beautiful that it's difficult.
Welcome to Top Chef: Just Desserts.
You may recognize the handsome man to my left, your head judge, Johnny Iuzzini.
Uh-oh.
Hey, gang.
Oh, my God.
Johnny is the executive Pastry Chef of Jean Georges in New York.
He's an icon, so he is definitely intimidating.
You know, the world of pastry, chocolate, and desserts is based upon tradition, technique, and skill, but it's also about cutting-edge creativity.
I have eaten Chef Johnny Iuzzini's desserts many times, and he's very brilliant, but I really think that I can impress him.
I can't wait for you to show the world how artistic and inventive desserts can really be.
So with that in mind, your first quickfire challenge.
You only have one chance to make a first impression.
For this first quickfire challenge, you're gonna introduce yourselves to us and show us your skill and talent through your own signature dessert.
The winner will receive immunity in the elimination challenge that's to come.
We're now gonna send you to the grocery store, where you will have 30 minutes to shop and $50.
You will then head back to the Top Chef: Just Desserts kitchen, where you'll have 1 hour and 30 minutes to bake us your signature creation.
Are you ready? Yeah.
I am originally from Turkey.
I used to work for Daniel Boulud as his executive Pastry Chef.
I think a Pastry Chef has to be very obsessive-compulsive, because with the preciseness and the detail and, you know, all the calculation, there's no room for forgiveness.
I'm making chocolate whoopie pies.
I work at a bakery, but I call myself a Pastry Chef.
But people will disagree with me.
I mean, it's definitely different.
I don't do fancy plating.
It's not froofy, you know.
I just want to kind of hang out here.
So I'm a little nervous about this competition.
I think I'm pretty set.
I just might get some liquor.
20 minutes, guys.
I'm a little scared, because there's no recipes allowed in this competition, and when it comes to pastries, you've got to be right on point with your measuring and remember how many grams or ounces, and my memory is, like, a little shot right now.
Just in shock.
Great, thank you.
Take care.
Have a great day.
You too.
Thank you.
I'm a Pastry Chef consultant, and I am in the process of a divorce.
My husband and I opened a restaurant together, and we had it just shy of three years and closed it this past summer.
It's really hard, because I'm a single mom.
I really would love to win Top Chef for my three boys to see that their mom did something fantastic.
Oh, my God.
We walk into the Just Desserts kitchen, and my eyes fall out of my head.
This is my Barbie dream house.
It's got every sickest piece of equipment.
This is awesome.
It's got two anti-griddles.
It's got a liquid nitrogen doer that's taller than me.
It's just perfect, perfect, perfect.
I'm gonna have to come back for eggs.
I don't want to break them.
I am making this chocolate cake that I call "my serious chocolate cake.
" It's even written on the top of the recipe: "My serious chocolate cake.
" I am definitely nervous being away from home for this competition.
My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for nearly three years, and we took a little hiatus because of the show, which is really hard.
But if I win Top Chef: Just Desserts it'll be worth it.
Someone turned my burner off.
I'm a little nervous to cook for Johnny Iuzzini.
What the ? It wasn't me, though, brother.
I swear to God.
The last time I saw him, I was doing a tasting out of his kitchen at Jean Georges, and on that particular day, I absolutely screwed the pooch.
Silly.
Seth is literally running laps around the kitchen, and he's not really accomplishing anything.
He's just kind of running in circles.
Right around you.
And it's really distracting.
Great, I think I-- Chefs, can you all stop what you're doing and everyone come to their stations? Did you really think it would be that easy? This challenge just got simpler, but it also got a lot harder.
Holy.
Everybody crapped their pants.
This challenge just got simpler, but it also got a lot harder.
We want you to transform your signature dish into A cupcake.
Heh? A cupcake.
Mmm.
Everybody crapped their pants.
You have 1 hour and 15 minutes to create your signature cupcake.
Your time starts now.
Holy.
me.
Instincts, baby, instincts.
The atmosphere in the kitchen is frantic.
I smell something burning.
Everybody is racing and running and, "oh, my God.
Where's a bowl? Do you see this? Do you see this?" It's very hard to think.
My plan right now is to create my coconut meringue in kind of a cupcake shape to hold my filling.
All right, let's do this again.
I and everybody else is just slightly freaked out.
I already had mixed the base pretty much to the semifreddo.
I don't want to start over.
Don't they make a Cupcake-freddo.
So I'm gonna actually still take my signature dish and freeze it, so it'll still look like a cupcake.
Kind of cute if it'll work.
Behind.
Oh, I mean, I was making a cake.
I definitely feel like I have a bit of an advantage having already established that I was going to make a cake.
One of the biggest differences between being a Pastry Chef and a savory Chef is that you can't, like, taste your cake halfway through.
You have to get it right before it gets in the oven.
I probably haven't made a cupcake since I was in home economics, so we'll see what happens.
I think I have one of the most difficult dishes to convert into a cupcake strictly because the basil is a primary flavor, and I'm trying to go through my head, "what can I do with basil?" Then it occurs to me, "basil buttercream, how do I make it? I don't know.
" So I decide I'm just gonna throw room-temp butter into a robot coupe with my blanched basil and hope it doesn't turn brown.
Seven minutes.
I run back to check on my meringues, and the oven temperature has been turned up, and my meringues have browned.
It's too crisp on the outside.
It's too gooey and underdone on the inside.
1:20.
I don't think Malika's ever worked in an environment like this.
I'm not sure if she is geared for speed.
Time is up.
I am just freaking out.
All my components are ready, but I'm not able to plate the dessert.
Hi, Tania.
What did you make for us? Chicory mousse cupcake.
I added a little mesquite flour to the chocolate cake and creme fraiche caramel.
So it's actually filled with the chicory mousse.
It is.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Thanks.
Hi, Heather.
Hi, how are you? And they're about to taste my dish, and it's nerve-racking.
Chef Johnny is one of the greatest Pastry Chefs in the industry, so I don't want to disappoint him.
Tell us what you made.
A carrot cupcake with a creme fraiche cream cheese, icing, and just to keep it a little original, I wanted to put the fried carrots on.
I get the sourness of the creme fraiche.
It's nice.
Thank you.
Hi, Zac.
Hey, Gail.
The signature dessert was lemon meringue "in a glass.
" So essentially a deconstructed lemon meringue pie.
Exactly, so we have a vanilla Bean cupcake filled with lemon curd, topped with a blood orange marshmallow.
I'm stuck.
Hopefully in a good way.
Hmm, that's debatable.
Hi, Danielle.
Hi, Gail.
Tell us what you've made.
Chocolate cake, and it has a mint chip mousse filling and then toasted meringue.
Thank you.
Eric, how are you? Hi, how are you? My signature dessert was chocolate whoopie pie, and I just changed it into a devil's food cake made with buttermilk and coffee.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Hi, Chef Tim.
Nice to see you.
My signature is generally something frozen, but as a cupcake, that's not gonna work, so It's pistachio semifreddo.
So is there actually any cake to this? Nope, nope.
There's no cake at all? No.
I think it would be great as a semifreddo.
It was.
But I'm not so sure how it fares as a cupcake.
Hi, Seth.
Hello, Gail.
How are you? Hello, Chef.
Nice to see both of you.
My original dish was strawberries and textures with brioche, basil, and creme fraiche, so I tried to translate that into a cupcake by taking a steamed Malaysian coconut cake.
On top of that, there is a basil buttercream and candied pine nuts.
Thank you, sir.
Thanks a lot.
How are you? Hey, Morgan.
The signature dish was a guanaja dark chocolate souffle cake.
I basically kept the souffle cake, and then it's topped with supreme of the tangerine, and it's got a caramel buttercream on top.
Thank you so much, Morgan.
Hi, Malika.
How are you? I'm okay.
I see that your cupcake didn't make it on a plate.
No.
I was struggling with my meringue, so I got stalled.
The trickiest part of being on Top Chef: Just Desserts is gonna be timing, so we're looking forward to what you have to bake for us next.
Not having anything to serve to Chef Johnny and Gail was very, very embarrassing.
So, Johnny, tell me, whose were your least-favorite cupcakes today? Malika, you didn't finish your cupcake, so, obviously, you're on the bottom.
Tim, your flavors are really delicious.
We all know what a cupcake is, and unfortunately, that just wasn't it.
Zac, for me, your marshmallow had a really horrible texture.
Well, I end up in the bottom three.
One couldn't get anything on the plate, and the other didn't make a cupcake, so actually, I had the worst actual cupcake.
So then whose were your favorites? Seth, your cupcake was interesting.
It was very herbaceous.
You took a cake that normally you wouldn't bake that way and adapted it to the challenge.
Thanks.
It means a lot.
Tania, your cupcake was very moist, and you had a really interesting flavor combination.
Heather c.
, the way you interpreted the dessert and the extra component you added was really contemporary and unique.
All three were really great cupcakes, but unfortunately, I can only choose one winner.
Seth.
I won the cupcake? So it turns out that the big winner is this guy right here.
I actually felt like I might be getting punked.
I cannot believe that I won a cupcake challenge.
Congratulations, Seth.
That means you have immunity going into the elimination challenge.
Thank you.
I think the first challenge really sets the tone.
If you look at season one, Harold won the first challenge, won the season, and it just feels like the natural progression is for me to become Top Chef myself, and that's why I'm here.
For your elimination challenge, you're gonna be working with everyone's favorite ingredient.
They say some people prefer it even to love.
Of course, I'm talking about chocolate.
Chocolate is definitely one of the most temperamental ingredients to work with.
When I first started, I wanted to cry every time, because it would never come out right.
I love working with chocolate.
It's very rich.
It's very decadent.
It's what people expect when you think of great dessert, but as we all know, chocolate can be very temperamental, so you'll have your work cut out for you.
You need to create the most luxurious chocolate dessert imaginable, because you have to impress a room of 50 chocolate connoisseurs, including Mr.
Chocolate himself, Chef Jacques Torres.
Game on, people.
Thanks.
Mr.
Chocolate.
I'm sure if you took a bite out of him, he would ooze ganache.
You'll have four hours to cook here in the Top Chef: Just Desserts kitchen, which as you've already seen is filled with the newest ge monogram appliances.
Then you'll have one hour to plate and serve in the Top Chef: Just Desserts dining room.
It's been a long day.
We're gonna let you go to your lofts, get settled, and get to know each other a little bit.
We'll see you back here tomorrow.
Good luck, Chefs.
Yay! We walk into the loft, and I'm very excited, because it's really cool, wide-open spaces and high ceilings.
Oh, shh Are there six boys, six girls? Yeah.
All the girls can be together.
Yeah, all the girls can-- what? Oh, come on.
It's true.
It's true.
I am an insomniac.
That doesn't mean I deserve a special bed or whatever but-- I do--I am, like--I do, but I do, like, I get anxiety about sleep.
So, you know, apparently, Seth has insomnia.
I'm thinking, "you're not here to look pretty.
Just pick a bed.
Get to it.
" I do have one question.
Is there a thermostat, and can we turn it way the down? And if we can't get it cold, I won't sleep at all, and I'll make sure none of you do.
There's a couple crazy ones in the house.
By the way, that was my one bitch card.
Sure.
I promise.
Even just after meeting them, you know they're just gonna be a huge pain in the butt.
I need my own bathroom because I have bathroom issues.
I don't think that's the most decadent dessert.
I'm just not impressed.
Morning, guys, four hours.
Good morning.
Did you have your coffee this morning? I had more than my share.
Our first elimination challenge is to make the most delicious, decadent chocolate dessert we can come up with, and it's gonna be served to 50 chocolate lovers.
I'm marking my territory like a cat.
God, I love this chocolate.
Where I work, the ingredient that I use the most that's not sugar is chocolate, so I feel really confident.
I'm working on a chocolate fried pie.
I've put a little bit of maker's mark in the pie dough itself, cooking from home.
40 minutes gone already.
That's a fast 40.
I need to temper some chocolate before I can make the mousse.
Being a good Pastry Chef is about being well-rounded.
When you have the technical background and the skills, you can do anything.
Heather h.
Was actually working next to me, and I see that she and I have very similar techniques, which is a little Scary, because she could be a very strong competitor.
What the , man? Why is the convection on? Son of a I'm making a milk chocolate flan to bring another chocolate flavor into my dish, and the top rack are burnt, so I have one tray less flan.
So that's made me a little nervous, but failure is not an option.
1 1/2 hours.
1 1/2 hours.
What is going on over here? I didn't tnk you'd have the whole table.
Daddy was away.
The child took over the house.
Coming out of the quickfire challenge, I haveomething to prove in a major way.
I'm doing a play on a brownie sundae.
I am looking for redemption, 'cause I don't like being on the bottom.
We'll see how that goes.
I look over, and Eric, all he's doing is foldFoldFold for, like, 15 minutes, but I guess that's his secret.
Hello, Chefs.
Hi, Johnny.
How are we doing? This challenge is really gonna show you the difference in training and backgrounds.
A Pastry Chef, a Baker, and a hotel person are all gonna approach chocolate in a different way.
Johnny Iuzzini is a very intimidating cat.
With a pompadour like that, you mean business.
Hey, Seth.
Hey, how are you, Chef? What are you gonna make? I'm making a chocolate palette with a homemade curry powder.
Sounds like a pretty untraditional dessert.
I'm looking forward to trying it.
Seth is coming to this with immunity, so you expect him maybe to take it easy, but he's not.
Hey, Tania.
Hey, how are you doing, Chef? What's going on? I decided to use some white chocolate for, like a cremeux.
I'm gonna make, like, a really dense, flourless bottom layer.
Well, it looks like you've got your work cut out for you.
I'll let you get to it.
Yeah, thanks.
Good luck.
Tania seems to be bringing it to the challenge.
She's working with a chocolate cremeux.
She's doing a sponge, so already, that's two chocolate textures.
Hi, Danielle.
Hey, Chef.
What are you gonna do? I'm gonna make, like, a free-form tart, and I'm kind of gonna show chocolate in different ways, so I'm gonna use milk chocolate and cocoa nibs and dark chocolate.
Sounds great.
Yeah.
Good luck.
Thank you.
Danielle, she's doing a free-form tart.
More often than not, when people do deconstructed ideas of desserts, they can go really wrong.
Hopefully, she can pull that off.
All right, Chefs, good luck, and I'll see you guys in a little while.
Thank you, Chef.
Oh, my God.
It looks exactly like hummus.
The mousse is one of the things that I did last.
When I went to taste it, the texture was just completely wrong.
It's pastry hummus.
I am just hoping that the flavors are enough to keep me somewhere in the middle.
Ahh, yeah.
35 minutes, everyone.
35 minutes.
I have never sweat this much in my life.
Oh, my God.
Augh.
See my hand shaking? Oh, my God.
I've got a milk chocolate ganache.
Service begins, and a horde of diners comes rushing through the door.
Please, be careful.
Molten ganache inside this chocolate fried pie.
Those came fresh out of the fryer.
Got plates set up and ready to go, first time in front of the judges, four discerning palates, and Mr.
chocolate himself, Jacques Torres.
Hi, Morgan.
Gail.
I'd like to introduce you to the judges for this challenge.
Please say hello to Dannielle Kyrillos, editor at large for dailycandy and one of your permanent judges.
Absolute pleasure to meet you.
Great to meet you, Morgan.
Uh, Chef.
You know Johnny Iuzzini, your head judge Chef.
Calm down, Morgan.
It's gonna be okay, Buddy.
And, of course, Mr.
chocolate himself, Chef Jacques Torres.
Man, what a pleasure, absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef.
We've got potpies fresh out of the fryer and then a milk chocolate bourbon flan.
Please enjoy.
You're in luck, Morgan.
I like me some bourbon.
All right.
It's really good.
Hi.
So, Heather, what's your chocolate creation today? This is a bittersweet chocolate torte, and on top of it is a mini whoopie pie filled with housemade marshmallow fluff.
Very clean dessert.
Thank you, Chef.
It's truly an honor to hear that.
Thank you.
I'm pretty excited to dig into Morgan's chocolate fried pie.
I'm always nervous about fried chocolate things.
It always tends to be, like, greasy, and the chocolate tends to get really hot because of the fat content.
There's bourbon in there.
Mm-hmm.
What were the different textures that Morgan used in the gel? I think that was a milk chocolate flan.
I don't know if it separated, but I have two layers.
You're not a flan fan? I'm not a flan fan.
So here we have Heather c.
'S whoopie pie.
Wow.
I never had one before, so I don't know what to compare that to.
Mr.
chocolate's first whoopie pie.
Congratulations.
Yeah, it's very exciting.
Thank you.
Now, I would not put any Fluffy vanilla cream there.
I would put something a little bit more citrusy.
Of course.
Hi, how are you? Hi, Eric.
Today I have a lightly spiced brownie with ancho Chile, ginger, and cinnamon.
Enjoy it.
Great.
Thank you so much.
Hi, Heather.
Tell us what you made for us today.
Well, it's a dark chocolate mousse torte, a caramel milk chocolate orange sauce with a little bit of grand marnier.
Well, you're lucky; Jacques likes grand marnier too.
Good, good, good.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, I like the citrus for sure.
For a finishing touch, I broke out the disco dust, which is edible glitter.
I think it really puts my personality on that plate.
Hey, Chefs.
How's it going, ddy? It's going good.
I wanted to do a play on the textures ofhocolate taking it into a brownie sundae, which I think is the ultimate chocolate dessert, finishing it with a little disco dust, because I can't do anything without a deep fryer and a little glitter.
Words to live by, I would say.
Who can? Thanks so much, Zac.
Thank you.
Oh, my God.
This is hilarious.
My God.
There is so much going on.
It totally is.
You can taste the disco.
Yeah.
A pretty complex dessert, a lot of texture.
Well-balanced.
One thing threw me a little bit off.
You do not blow on food.
Eric's spicy brownie.
It's very, very moist, very rich.
I don't think that's the most decadent desserts that he can do.
Heather's chocolate mousse is more elegant, obviously, and grand marnier: Always a good idea.
I mean, already, this is more of a plated-style dessert versus Eric's.
You know, Eric is a Baker.
She's probably a Pastry Chef of some sort, so she took the time to actually think about her plating.
Hello, Tania.
Hi, Chef.
Tell us what you made for us.
I made an orange blossom honey ganache, a dense flourless chocolate torte, and then an Earl Grey and white chocolate mousse.
The texture of the mousse isn't where I want it to be, but I'm all jazzed about the flavors.
Thank you so much.
Enjoy.
Thanks.
I'm feeling really upset.
I just didn't have enough time to correct the texture.
Don't stress.
It's grainy, and there is nothing that I can do about it.
Oh, no.
Hey, Danielle.
Hi.
How are you? Good to see you.
Good to see you.
Thank you.
Tell us about your chocolate creation.
I did kind of a free-form chocolate tart.
Thank you, Danielle.
You're welcome.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Danielle's dessert was kind of sloppy and chunky.
In a great dessert, you should be able to run your fork through.
With Danielle, you needed an ice pick to get through it.
We have to work to get the right bite.
That's right.
If you eat things separately, it's not very exciting.
The whipped cream is not sweet, banana not caramelized.
Put everything together, and then you get something pretty interesting.
And it's, like, not all-- like, sticking together.
Tania wasn't lying.
She was right about the texture, but I love the teardrop shape.
I love the candied kumquats.
The challenge was to create an extraordinary chocolate dessert, and I just-- I'm just not impressed.
So, Seth, what did you make for us? What I have for you here is a madras curry and chocolate palette, a raspberry gelee, a caramel chocolate cremeux, some fresh raspberries that I've shattered with liquid nitrogen, pistachio and candied Rose.
And even with that challenge, you finished on time.
I don't know how.
I almost had a nervous breakdown this morning, because you're here, and you are Mr.
chocolate, and I am not.
Hello.
Please tell us what you've made.
I made a flourless chocolate genoise and made a custardless ice cream.
I hope you like it.
Chef.
Thank you, enjoy.
Thank you.
Something is definitely wrong with the ice cream.
Yeah.
It's kind of rubbery.
This is so sad.
I was so excited.
And now that the judges are gone, my ice cream is tempered, and I get good cremeux.
Wow.
Seth's dessert is, like, the pug of desserts.
It's a tiny little body, and it's powerful.
The intensity of the curry is strong, and it really melds well with the chocolate.
Thank you.
Thank you.
What's your creation today? All that's in this is chocolate.
It's a milk chocolate ganache, bittersweet chocolate ganache, white chocolate in the cream, and then there's candy cocoa nibs.
Holy chocolate, Tim.
Oh, my God.
Hello.
Congratulations.
I see you finished this time.
Yes, I did.
I did a bittersweet chocolate layer cake, and it has braised cherries and a little bit of a cocoa nib nougatine on top.
Wow.
Hello.
Today I have a chocolate banana caramel crunch bar.
I have every chocolate that you can think of.
You're a chocolate ninja.
The crunch Erika put on the bottom is, like, ka-pow, pow, you know? It wakes you up.
So Tim's promise here was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and it looks like a whole lot of chocolate.
The cake is a little bit dense, but the flavor is actually pretty good.
I'm just gonna throw up.
I think Malika really went after it, and this--this is chocolate.
This screams chocolate.
Well, after how Malika did in the quickfire, I'm sure she probably felt she had a lot to prove.
It's great, thanks.
Thank you.
The challenge was chocolate decadence, and I think some people really delivered on that challenge, and some people didn't.
Let's go figure it out.
Let's do it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We're all exhausted.
All of us want to win, but only one can.
It scares me.
Yeah.
Honestly And I see around me all the things that the other competitors made, and I'm a little nervous.
It was kind of like one of these things just doesn't belong here.
It caused the dessert to explode on the plate.
Do you want some Zac on a plate? Whoa.
That's edible? Okay, now I'm ready to throw up.
Not you, the chocolate.
That was good.
Danielle, who is this girl? Like, bye.
Why don't you go bring me yours, and I'll critique it, okay? No.
Yeah.
Did you hear this? Danielle comes over, she takes one bite of this, and she goes, "I have to go throw up.
" Then she was like, "no, no, it was good.
" Zac's become my most annoying person here now.
Be nice.
I didn't mean anything personal.
Bitch.
Freudian slip.
Ha-ha, hey, girl.
Okay, I have to go throw up.
You smell like you worked really hard.
you.
you.
Hi, Chefs.
Hi, Gail.
We'd like to see Seth, Heather hurlbert, and Zac at judges table, please.
Thanks.
At this point, nobody knows what the protocol is.
We don't know who goes first.
I tasted all three of their dishes, and my dish is much better, so I wonder what these three people are leaving the room for.
Chefs Congratulations.
You're the top three in this challenge.
Zac, you seem emotional.
You know, making dessert is kind of like giving birth to a baby.
And you have a lot of experience in this.
I have a lot of experience.
You can bring the baby into the world, and you think it's beautiful, but you don't know who that kid's gonna hang out with, and you don't know how others are gonna perceive it.
And after the quickfire, I mean, I just--I was shaking through this whole challenge.
I thought you made a really well-conceived dessert.
You really put some thought into it and used a bunch of different techniques.
The textures and the different components really worked.
It was like a party in my mouth.
I aim to make a party.
Thank you.
One of my problems You blew gold dust into your desserts.
This is a big no-no.
It's something that I never thought about until today.
You can sprinkle disco dust.
Just like flour.
Heather I loved the aesthetic of your dessert.
I thought it was really well-balanced.
Thank you.
When I was cutting through your dessert, I find those little sheets of chocolates in it, and the crunch was a good surprise.
Thank you, Chef.
Seth, you had immunity today, but you still chose to make a really cutting-edge dessert.
Curry for dessert? What? And it worked, and it was so good.
I tried to season really aggressively, and I'm shocked that all four of you liked it.
So, Chef Jacques, as our guest judge, please announce the winner.
You all did a great dessert tonight, but the winner is the one who embraced chocolate, the one who understand chocolate decadence.
And the winner is Heather.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I won.
I couldn't believe it.
I was really shocked.
They really loved my dish.
Congratulations, Heather.
You're the first Top Chef: Just Desserts elimination challenge winner.
Wow.
To be in this competition is such a great honor.
I mean, there's so many talented Pastry Chefs.
Unfortunately, now I have to ask you to call back three of your colleagues.
I certainly have a lot more to learn, but I just want to stay focused and be able to do the best, and I think with my background, I'll be able to win.
I won.
Excellent.
That's awesome.
It was delicious.
Okay.
All righty.
Let's hear it.
So they want to see Danielle, Tania, and Morgan.
Whatever.
Chefs, yours were our three least favorite chocolate desserts today.
Danielle, why do you think that you're here? Honestly, I'm not really sure.
I liked my flavors.
I liked the texture.
Our first issue was actually eating the dessert.
As soon as we cut through, because your sablee was so thick, it caused the dessert to explode on the plate.
I figured that it might slide a little bit, but in composing it, I just liked that it was kind of a free-form tart, and I just wanted it to sit on the plate really nicely.
Sometimes when you eat a dessert, you start from the top, and you go layer by layer, and that's then the dessert was not popping.
Tania.
I know the texture of my mousse was really off, and there's kind of no excuse for that.
When I walked through, things seemed to be okay.
You seemed to feel pretty confident.
You know, my timing was off getting it together at the end of the day.
I actually really liked that chocolate layer underneath the citrus mousse.
Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough of it to counterbalance the error that you made in the mousse today.
Morgan.
I thought the dish had a nice array of temperatures, textures, and I thought all of the components were delicious.
I couldn't tell what that cube of gelee was.
It looked like it either was separated, or you had two different flavors stacked.
It was a milk chocolate flan.
It was only a milk chocolate flan? Yes.
Did it separate on you? It did.
I did notice it when I popped it out.
I suppose I hoped you didn't.
When we sat down to eat it, it was kind of like one of these things just doesn't belong here.
I think maybe with the flan, you were trying to add some refinement to the dish, but it was a jarring contrast.
I think my biggest fear there was that I would be judged for the fact that I didn't do enough.
Thank you, Chefs.
You can go back to the stew room while we discuss and make our decision.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Oh, my.
That was hell.
Morgan, what was wrong with it? What did they say about yours? I think you'll find, for the first time ever, I have very little to say.
Morgan's biggest problem was himself.
Because he tried to do too much, he kind of spread himself a little bit too thin and left too many holes for error.
I think that the way that he deliver it doesn't focus enough on the flavor of chocolate, who was the star.
Tania.
I have a lot of issues with the broken mousse.
She had plenty of time to remake that.
No question about it.
I think that she picked the wrong ingredients to work with.
She put some Earl Grey tea, who doesn't have too much flavor.
Top Chef: Just Desserts is not a place to be timid.
Her dessert was like, "hey, hey, guys.
" Let's talk about Danielle's chocolate tart.
I feel like she was kind of defensive a little bit with her dessert.
You're in the bottom three for a reason.
Right.
When you eat Danielle's dessert the way that she intended, that was almost impossible.
Right.
Well, I think we've made our decision.
I think so.
Yes.
I agree.
Let's bring them out here.
Chefs, tonight's elimination was about creating the most decadent, delicious, extravagant chocolate creation imaginable.
Morgan, you definitely have technique.
My issue is that you've spread yourself too thin.
Danielle, had you have taken the time to think about the way you constructed your dessert, I guarantee you would have done it differently.
Tania, we both know what went wrong with your dessert.
My greater issue is the fact that you didn't correct it.
Unfortunately, one of you have to be the first to be eliminated from Top Chef: Just Desserts.
Tania, your dessert just didn't measure up.
Please pack your tools and go.
Thanks for the opportunity.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Chefs.
Getting sent home first, you always think, "you're the biggest sucker.
" Bye.
I think everyone kind of hopes that there's, like, one sheep that will go to the wolves.
Just being the first to go is just such a bummer.
I don't want you to cry.
And then to be in that category bums me out.
Bye, Tania.
Bye.
Love you.
And my husband told me before I left, no matter what happens, he's--he's proud of me.
It's really nice to know that I have that kind of support.
This season on Top Chef: Just Desserts I remember watching the first episode of Top Chef thinking, "I'm gonna do this one day.
" This is awesome.
Wow.
It's like I've been transformed to this land of bad Pastry Chefs.
Everybody has certain things they do.
We're not playing around.
It's for real.
You're being an .
I'm not here for fun.
I'm here to save my life.
Hey, don't yell at her.
You don't want to see me get upset.
Sabotage time.
Morgan gets really angry, and he was like, "well, I'm gonna take all the butter.
" It's not okay.
Yes, it is.
We're all a wreck.
Don't ever tell me to shut up again.
Shut up.
Hey, shakey.
I see you shaking the Out of this table.
It's driving me crazy.
You can call me by my name, Morgan.
I'm definitely gonna hurt somebody, and I'm gonna get removed from the premises.
You could almost taste the resentment in her cookie.
I actually wanted to do something different.
Heather, you weren't forced into anything.
I'm gonna be a , and I'm gonna cook, and I'm gonna win this whole , and you can all suck it.
12 of America's most talented Pastry Chefs are about to take on the toughest culinary challenge of their lives.
I think it's time to bring Pastry Chefs forward.
Pastry is this beautiful cross between art and science.
People view the world of pastry as, like, magical and sweet.
Everybody smells so good.
Everything is marshmallows and pink colors.
Like, "oh, that's so nice.
" But being a Pastry Chef is not all fondant and frosting.
I'm broke.
My mother has over $100,000 in medical bills.
He doesn't care about anyone here.
You are a piece of .
It makes me sick.
We're not friends.
We're not buddies.
sabotage time? All right, I can do that.
Pastry is a science.
You can't just wing it.
Give us a countdown, please.
I'm doing it.
I'm trying to get to it.
I'm trying to get to the clock.
I thought the cake was dry.
I think it was Zac's idea.
Bitch needs to go home.
Go home.
I can't do this.
I can't do it.
Joining us in the kitchen as head judge is acclaimed Pastry Chef Johnny Iuzzini Can't wait to try it.
As well as Chef Hubert Keller and food and lifestyle critic Dannielle Kyrillos.
It was like a party in my mouth.
Every week, the Chef who fails to measure up will go home Come on.
Until one Chef is left standing to take the grand prize: A feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival, a german-engineered, sport-injected Buick Regal, and $100,000 furnished by Godiva Chocolatier.
Who has the creativity, the skill, and the drive to win Top Chef: Just Desserts? Top Chef: Just Desserts 1x01 Mr.
Chocolate My name is Seth Caro.
I'm from New York.
People are definitely surprised to learn I'm a Pastry Chef, just, I guess, because of the way I look.
I get Marky Mark, sometimes Dexter.
I was the original Pastry Chef at Harold Dieterle's first restaurant.
I am a prima donna Pastry Chef, and I'm not afraid to admit that.
Tania.
Seth, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
My name is Tania Peterson.
I'm from Boston.
I am all about rebellion.
I'm a Jewish atheist artist, and I am ready to kick ass.
I'm Heather.
Heather, nice to meet you.
I'm Tania.
Hey, hi, Tania.
Heather, I'm Seth.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi, how are you? I'm Erika.
I don't know what to expect.
Do you guys know what to expect? I have no idea.
Oh, my gosh.
Look at that.
I haven't been on one of those since living in London.
This is awesome.
Being on the Top Chef bus is pretty cool.
The wind is blowing, not good for the hair.
We just made new friends, so that rocks.
But I'm still gonna get ya.
We'll see.
I went to the Culinary Institute of America.
I won the 2009 ACF National Pastry Chef of the Year Award.
I'm a taskmaster.
It's anybody's game.
I'll tell ya.
If somebody finds me intimidating, I'm sorry.
Deal with it.
Oh, my gosh.
What is this? No, stop it.
Hi.
Ladies first.
Ladies first.
Real ladies first.
I'm Zac Young.
We got a bus.
Pastry Chefs are crazy.
You better watch out.
I will cut you with my flavor.
Whatever you want.
We're on a Top Chef bus driving through L.
A.
Sickest thing ever.
My name is Tim Nugent.
All of my gelatos, ice creams are really, really good.
I've been referred to as the Snow Queen Oh, my God, human beings.
Because my food is frozen, and I'm gay.
So it's kind of funny.
Hello.
Hi, I'm Heather.
It's a girl.
Hi.
I'm Tim, such a pleasure.
Danielle, nice to meet you.
Hello, team.
I know you.
Unfortunately, we know each other.
I knew someone from San Francisco would be here.
I know, the battle of the Queens.
I am Morgan Wilson.
I'm an executive Pastry Chef at a hotel in Dallas.
I juggle work, my son, climbing, and a girlfriend, and it's a miracle I'm even sane.
Is this all of us? I think Pastry Chefs get a bad rap.
I think a Pastry Chef can do a savory Chef's job, and I think a savory Chef is at best mediocre being a Pastry Chef.
Time to get out of the sun.
We're all getting a nice sunburn wondering what's gonna happen next.
And sure enough, there comes Gail Simmons' beautiful face.
Hello, Chefs.
Hello.
I've actually had a little bit of a schoolboy crush on her, and I'm trying to focus, but she's so beautiful that it's difficult.
Welcome to Top Chef: Just Desserts.
You may recognize the handsome man to my left, your head judge, Johnny Iuzzini.
Uh-oh.
Hey, gang.
Oh, my God.
Johnny is the executive Pastry Chef of Jean Georges in New York.
He's an icon, so he is definitely intimidating.
You know, the world of pastry, chocolate, and desserts is based upon tradition, technique, and skill, but it's also about cutting-edge creativity.
I have eaten Chef Johnny Iuzzini's desserts many times, and he's very brilliant, but I really think that I can impress him.
I can't wait for you to show the world how artistic and inventive desserts can really be.
So with that in mind, your first quickfire challenge.
You only have one chance to make a first impression.
For this first quickfire challenge, you're gonna introduce yourselves to us and show us your skill and talent through your own signature dessert.
The winner will receive immunity in the elimination challenge that's to come.
We're now gonna send you to the grocery store, where you will have 30 minutes to shop and $50.
You will then head back to the Top Chef: Just Desserts kitchen, where you'll have 1 hour and 30 minutes to bake us your signature creation.
Are you ready? Yeah.
I am originally from Turkey.
I used to work for Daniel Boulud as his executive Pastry Chef.
I think a Pastry Chef has to be very obsessive-compulsive, because with the preciseness and the detail and, you know, all the calculation, there's no room for forgiveness.
I'm making chocolate whoopie pies.
I work at a bakery, but I call myself a Pastry Chef.
But people will disagree with me.
I mean, it's definitely different.
I don't do fancy plating.
It's not froofy, you know.
I just want to kind of hang out here.
So I'm a little nervous about this competition.
I think I'm pretty set.
I just might get some liquor.
20 minutes, guys.
I'm a little scared, because there's no recipes allowed in this competition, and when it comes to pastries, you've got to be right on point with your measuring and remember how many grams or ounces, and my memory is, like, a little shot right now.
Just in shock.
Great, thank you.
Take care.
Have a great day.
You too.
Thank you.
I'm a Pastry Chef consultant, and I am in the process of a divorce.
My husband and I opened a restaurant together, and we had it just shy of three years and closed it this past summer.
It's really hard, because I'm a single mom.
I really would love to win Top Chef for my three boys to see that their mom did something fantastic.
Oh, my God.
We walk into the Just Desserts kitchen, and my eyes fall out of my head.
This is my Barbie dream house.
It's got every sickest piece of equipment.
This is awesome.
It's got two anti-griddles.
It's got a liquid nitrogen doer that's taller than me.
It's just perfect, perfect, perfect.
I'm gonna have to come back for eggs.
I don't want to break them.
I am making this chocolate cake that I call "my serious chocolate cake.
" It's even written on the top of the recipe: "My serious chocolate cake.
" I am definitely nervous being away from home for this competition.
My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for nearly three years, and we took a little hiatus because of the show, which is really hard.
But if I win Top Chef: Just Desserts it'll be worth it.
Someone turned my burner off.
I'm a little nervous to cook for Johnny Iuzzini.
What the ? It wasn't me, though, brother.
I swear to God.
The last time I saw him, I was doing a tasting out of his kitchen at Jean Georges, and on that particular day, I absolutely screwed the pooch.
Silly.
Seth is literally running laps around the kitchen, and he's not really accomplishing anything.
He's just kind of running in circles.
Right around you.
And it's really distracting.
Great, I think I-- Chefs, can you all stop what you're doing and everyone come to their stations? Did you really think it would be that easy? This challenge just got simpler, but it also got a lot harder.
Holy.
Everybody crapped their pants.
This challenge just got simpler, but it also got a lot harder.
We want you to transform your signature dish into A cupcake.
Heh? A cupcake.
Mmm.
Everybody crapped their pants.
You have 1 hour and 15 minutes to create your signature cupcake.
Your time starts now.
Holy.
me.
Instincts, baby, instincts.
The atmosphere in the kitchen is frantic.
I smell something burning.
Everybody is racing and running and, "oh, my God.
Where's a bowl? Do you see this? Do you see this?" It's very hard to think.
My plan right now is to create my coconut meringue in kind of a cupcake shape to hold my filling.
All right, let's do this again.
I and everybody else is just slightly freaked out.
I already had mixed the base pretty much to the semifreddo.
I don't want to start over.
Don't they make a Cupcake-freddo.
So I'm gonna actually still take my signature dish and freeze it, so it'll still look like a cupcake.
Kind of cute if it'll work.
Behind.
Oh, I mean, I was making a cake.
I definitely feel like I have a bit of an advantage having already established that I was going to make a cake.
One of the biggest differences between being a Pastry Chef and a savory Chef is that you can't, like, taste your cake halfway through.
You have to get it right before it gets in the oven.
I probably haven't made a cupcake since I was in home economics, so we'll see what happens.
I think I have one of the most difficult dishes to convert into a cupcake strictly because the basil is a primary flavor, and I'm trying to go through my head, "what can I do with basil?" Then it occurs to me, "basil buttercream, how do I make it? I don't know.
" So I decide I'm just gonna throw room-temp butter into a robot coupe with my blanched basil and hope it doesn't turn brown.
Seven minutes.
I run back to check on my meringues, and the oven temperature has been turned up, and my meringues have browned.
It's too crisp on the outside.
It's too gooey and underdone on the inside.
1:20.
I don't think Malika's ever worked in an environment like this.
I'm not sure if she is geared for speed.
Time is up.
I am just freaking out.
All my components are ready, but I'm not able to plate the dessert.
Hi, Tania.
What did you make for us? Chicory mousse cupcake.
I added a little mesquite flour to the chocolate cake and creme fraiche caramel.
So it's actually filled with the chicory mousse.
It is.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Thanks.
Hi, Heather.
Hi, how are you? And they're about to taste my dish, and it's nerve-racking.
Chef Johnny is one of the greatest Pastry Chefs in the industry, so I don't want to disappoint him.
Tell us what you made.
A carrot cupcake with a creme fraiche cream cheese, icing, and just to keep it a little original, I wanted to put the fried carrots on.
I get the sourness of the creme fraiche.
It's nice.
Thank you.
Hi, Zac.
Hey, Gail.
The signature dessert was lemon meringue "in a glass.
" So essentially a deconstructed lemon meringue pie.
Exactly, so we have a vanilla Bean cupcake filled with lemon curd, topped with a blood orange marshmallow.
I'm stuck.
Hopefully in a good way.
Hmm, that's debatable.
Hi, Danielle.
Hi, Gail.
Tell us what you've made.
Chocolate cake, and it has a mint chip mousse filling and then toasted meringue.
Thank you.
Eric, how are you? Hi, how are you? My signature dessert was chocolate whoopie pie, and I just changed it into a devil's food cake made with buttermilk and coffee.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Hi, Chef Tim.
Nice to see you.
My signature is generally something frozen, but as a cupcake, that's not gonna work, so It's pistachio semifreddo.
So is there actually any cake to this? Nope, nope.
There's no cake at all? No.
I think it would be great as a semifreddo.
It was.
But I'm not so sure how it fares as a cupcake.
Hi, Seth.
Hello, Gail.
How are you? Hello, Chef.
Nice to see both of you.
My original dish was strawberries and textures with brioche, basil, and creme fraiche, so I tried to translate that into a cupcake by taking a steamed Malaysian coconut cake.
On top of that, there is a basil buttercream and candied pine nuts.
Thank you, sir.
Thanks a lot.
How are you? Hey, Morgan.
The signature dish was a guanaja dark chocolate souffle cake.
I basically kept the souffle cake, and then it's topped with supreme of the tangerine, and it's got a caramel buttercream on top.
Thank you so much, Morgan.
Hi, Malika.
How are you? I'm okay.
I see that your cupcake didn't make it on a plate.
No.
I was struggling with my meringue, so I got stalled.
The trickiest part of being on Top Chef: Just Desserts is gonna be timing, so we're looking forward to what you have to bake for us next.
Not having anything to serve to Chef Johnny and Gail was very, very embarrassing.
So, Johnny, tell me, whose were your least-favorite cupcakes today? Malika, you didn't finish your cupcake, so, obviously, you're on the bottom.
Tim, your flavors are really delicious.
We all know what a cupcake is, and unfortunately, that just wasn't it.
Zac, for me, your marshmallow had a really horrible texture.
Well, I end up in the bottom three.
One couldn't get anything on the plate, and the other didn't make a cupcake, so actually, I had the worst actual cupcake.
So then whose were your favorites? Seth, your cupcake was interesting.
It was very herbaceous.
You took a cake that normally you wouldn't bake that way and adapted it to the challenge.
Thanks.
It means a lot.
Tania, your cupcake was very moist, and you had a really interesting flavor combination.
Heather c.
, the way you interpreted the dessert and the extra component you added was really contemporary and unique.
All three were really great cupcakes, but unfortunately, I can only choose one winner.
Seth.
I won the cupcake? So it turns out that the big winner is this guy right here.
I actually felt like I might be getting punked.
I cannot believe that I won a cupcake challenge.
Congratulations, Seth.
That means you have immunity going into the elimination challenge.
Thank you.
I think the first challenge really sets the tone.
If you look at season one, Harold won the first challenge, won the season, and it just feels like the natural progression is for me to become Top Chef myself, and that's why I'm here.
For your elimination challenge, you're gonna be working with everyone's favorite ingredient.
They say some people prefer it even to love.
Of course, I'm talking about chocolate.
Chocolate is definitely one of the most temperamental ingredients to work with.
When I first started, I wanted to cry every time, because it would never come out right.
I love working with chocolate.
It's very rich.
It's very decadent.
It's what people expect when you think of great dessert, but as we all know, chocolate can be very temperamental, so you'll have your work cut out for you.
You need to create the most luxurious chocolate dessert imaginable, because you have to impress a room of 50 chocolate connoisseurs, including Mr.
Chocolate himself, Chef Jacques Torres.
Game on, people.
Thanks.
Mr.
Chocolate.
I'm sure if you took a bite out of him, he would ooze ganache.
You'll have four hours to cook here in the Top Chef: Just Desserts kitchen, which as you've already seen is filled with the newest ge monogram appliances.
Then you'll have one hour to plate and serve in the Top Chef: Just Desserts dining room.
It's been a long day.
We're gonna let you go to your lofts, get settled, and get to know each other a little bit.
We'll see you back here tomorrow.
Good luck, Chefs.
Yay! We walk into the loft, and I'm very excited, because it's really cool, wide-open spaces and high ceilings.
Oh, shh Are there six boys, six girls? Yeah.
All the girls can be together.
Yeah, all the girls can-- what? Oh, come on.
It's true.
It's true.
I am an insomniac.
That doesn't mean I deserve a special bed or whatever but-- I do--I am, like--I do, but I do, like, I get anxiety about sleep.
So, you know, apparently, Seth has insomnia.
I'm thinking, "you're not here to look pretty.
Just pick a bed.
Get to it.
" I do have one question.
Is there a thermostat, and can we turn it way the down? And if we can't get it cold, I won't sleep at all, and I'll make sure none of you do.
There's a couple crazy ones in the house.
By the way, that was my one bitch card.
Sure.
I promise.
Even just after meeting them, you know they're just gonna be a huge pain in the butt.
I need my own bathroom because I have bathroom issues.
I don't think that's the most decadent dessert.
I'm just not impressed.
Morning, guys, four hours.
Good morning.
Did you have your coffee this morning? I had more than my share.
Our first elimination challenge is to make the most delicious, decadent chocolate dessert we can come up with, and it's gonna be served to 50 chocolate lovers.
I'm marking my territory like a cat.
God, I love this chocolate.
Where I work, the ingredient that I use the most that's not sugar is chocolate, so I feel really confident.
I'm working on a chocolate fried pie.
I've put a little bit of maker's mark in the pie dough itself, cooking from home.
40 minutes gone already.
That's a fast 40.
I need to temper some chocolate before I can make the mousse.
Being a good Pastry Chef is about being well-rounded.
When you have the technical background and the skills, you can do anything.
Heather h.
Was actually working next to me, and I see that she and I have very similar techniques, which is a little Scary, because she could be a very strong competitor.
What the , man? Why is the convection on? Son of a I'm making a milk chocolate flan to bring another chocolate flavor into my dish, and the top rack are burnt, so I have one tray less flan.
So that's made me a little nervous, but failure is not an option.
1 1/2 hours.
1 1/2 hours.
What is going on over here? I didn't tnk you'd have the whole table.
Daddy was away.
The child took over the house.
Coming out of the quickfire challenge, I haveomething to prove in a major way.
I'm doing a play on a brownie sundae.
I am looking for redemption, 'cause I don't like being on the bottom.
We'll see how that goes.
I look over, and Eric, all he's doing is foldFoldFold for, like, 15 minutes, but I guess that's his secret.
Hello, Chefs.
Hi, Johnny.
How are we doing? This challenge is really gonna show you the difference in training and backgrounds.
A Pastry Chef, a Baker, and a hotel person are all gonna approach chocolate in a different way.
Johnny Iuzzini is a very intimidating cat.
With a pompadour like that, you mean business.
Hey, Seth.
Hey, how are you, Chef? What are you gonna make? I'm making a chocolate palette with a homemade curry powder.
Sounds like a pretty untraditional dessert.
I'm looking forward to trying it.
Seth is coming to this with immunity, so you expect him maybe to take it easy, but he's not.
Hey, Tania.
Hey, how are you doing, Chef? What's going on? I decided to use some white chocolate for, like a cremeux.
I'm gonna make, like, a really dense, flourless bottom layer.
Well, it looks like you've got your work cut out for you.
I'll let you get to it.
Yeah, thanks.
Good luck.
Tania seems to be bringing it to the challenge.
She's working with a chocolate cremeux.
She's doing a sponge, so already, that's two chocolate textures.
Hi, Danielle.
Hey, Chef.
What are you gonna do? I'm gonna make, like, a free-form tart, and I'm kind of gonna show chocolate in different ways, so I'm gonna use milk chocolate and cocoa nibs and dark chocolate.
Sounds great.
Yeah.
Good luck.
Thank you.
Danielle, she's doing a free-form tart.
More often than not, when people do deconstructed ideas of desserts, they can go really wrong.
Hopefully, she can pull that off.
All right, Chefs, good luck, and I'll see you guys in a little while.
Thank you, Chef.
Oh, my God.
It looks exactly like hummus.
The mousse is one of the things that I did last.
When I went to taste it, the texture was just completely wrong.
It's pastry hummus.
I am just hoping that the flavors are enough to keep me somewhere in the middle.
Ahh, yeah.
35 minutes, everyone.
35 minutes.
I have never sweat this much in my life.
Oh, my God.
Augh.
See my hand shaking? Oh, my God.
I've got a milk chocolate ganache.
Service begins, and a horde of diners comes rushing through the door.
Please, be careful.
Molten ganache inside this chocolate fried pie.
Those came fresh out of the fryer.
Got plates set up and ready to go, first time in front of the judges, four discerning palates, and Mr.
chocolate himself, Jacques Torres.
Hi, Morgan.
Gail.
I'd like to introduce you to the judges for this challenge.
Please say hello to Dannielle Kyrillos, editor at large for dailycandy and one of your permanent judges.
Absolute pleasure to meet you.
Great to meet you, Morgan.
Uh, Chef.
You know Johnny Iuzzini, your head judge Chef.
Calm down, Morgan.
It's gonna be okay, Buddy.
And, of course, Mr.
chocolate himself, Chef Jacques Torres.
Man, what a pleasure, absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef.
We've got potpies fresh out of the fryer and then a milk chocolate bourbon flan.
Please enjoy.
You're in luck, Morgan.
I like me some bourbon.
All right.
It's really good.
Hi.
So, Heather, what's your chocolate creation today? This is a bittersweet chocolate torte, and on top of it is a mini whoopie pie filled with housemade marshmallow fluff.
Very clean dessert.
Thank you, Chef.
It's truly an honor to hear that.
Thank you.
I'm pretty excited to dig into Morgan's chocolate fried pie.
I'm always nervous about fried chocolate things.
It always tends to be, like, greasy, and the chocolate tends to get really hot because of the fat content.
There's bourbon in there.
Mm-hmm.
What were the different textures that Morgan used in the gel? I think that was a milk chocolate flan.
I don't know if it separated, but I have two layers.
You're not a flan fan? I'm not a flan fan.
So here we have Heather c.
'S whoopie pie.
Wow.
I never had one before, so I don't know what to compare that to.
Mr.
chocolate's first whoopie pie.
Congratulations.
Yeah, it's very exciting.
Thank you.
Now, I would not put any Fluffy vanilla cream there.
I would put something a little bit more citrusy.
Of course.
Hi, how are you? Hi, Eric.
Today I have a lightly spiced brownie with ancho Chile, ginger, and cinnamon.
Enjoy it.
Great.
Thank you so much.
Hi, Heather.
Tell us what you made for us today.
Well, it's a dark chocolate mousse torte, a caramel milk chocolate orange sauce with a little bit of grand marnier.
Well, you're lucky; Jacques likes grand marnier too.
Good, good, good.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, I like the citrus for sure.
For a finishing touch, I broke out the disco dust, which is edible glitter.
I think it really puts my personality on that plate.
Hey, Chefs.
How's it going, ddy? It's going good.
I wanted to do a play on the textures ofhocolate taking it into a brownie sundae, which I think is the ultimate chocolate dessert, finishing it with a little disco dust, because I can't do anything without a deep fryer and a little glitter.
Words to live by, I would say.
Who can? Thanks so much, Zac.
Thank you.
Oh, my God.
This is hilarious.
My God.
There is so much going on.
It totally is.
You can taste the disco.
Yeah.
A pretty complex dessert, a lot of texture.
Well-balanced.
One thing threw me a little bit off.
You do not blow on food.
Eric's spicy brownie.
It's very, very moist, very rich.
I don't think that's the most decadent desserts that he can do.
Heather's chocolate mousse is more elegant, obviously, and grand marnier: Always a good idea.
I mean, already, this is more of a plated-style dessert versus Eric's.
You know, Eric is a Baker.
She's probably a Pastry Chef of some sort, so she took the time to actually think about her plating.
Hello, Tania.
Hi, Chef.
Tell us what you made for us.
I made an orange blossom honey ganache, a dense flourless chocolate torte, and then an Earl Grey and white chocolate mousse.
The texture of the mousse isn't where I want it to be, but I'm all jazzed about the flavors.
Thank you so much.
Enjoy.
Thanks.
I'm feeling really upset.
I just didn't have enough time to correct the texture.
Don't stress.
It's grainy, and there is nothing that I can do about it.
Oh, no.
Hey, Danielle.
Hi.
How are you? Good to see you.
Good to see you.
Thank you.
Tell us about your chocolate creation.
I did kind of a free-form chocolate tart.
Thank you, Danielle.
You're welcome.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Danielle's dessert was kind of sloppy and chunky.
In a great dessert, you should be able to run your fork through.
With Danielle, you needed an ice pick to get through it.
We have to work to get the right bite.
That's right.
If you eat things separately, it's not very exciting.
The whipped cream is not sweet, banana not caramelized.
Put everything together, and then you get something pretty interesting.
And it's, like, not all-- like, sticking together.
Tania wasn't lying.
She was right about the texture, but I love the teardrop shape.
I love the candied kumquats.
The challenge was to create an extraordinary chocolate dessert, and I just-- I'm just not impressed.
So, Seth, what did you make for us? What I have for you here is a madras curry and chocolate palette, a raspberry gelee, a caramel chocolate cremeux, some fresh raspberries that I've shattered with liquid nitrogen, pistachio and candied Rose.
And even with that challenge, you finished on time.
I don't know how.
I almost had a nervous breakdown this morning, because you're here, and you are Mr.
chocolate, and I am not.
Hello.
Please tell us what you've made.
I made a flourless chocolate genoise and made a custardless ice cream.
I hope you like it.
Chef.
Thank you, enjoy.
Thank you.
Something is definitely wrong with the ice cream.
Yeah.
It's kind of rubbery.
This is so sad.
I was so excited.
And now that the judges are gone, my ice cream is tempered, and I get good cremeux.
Wow.
Seth's dessert is, like, the pug of desserts.
It's a tiny little body, and it's powerful.
The intensity of the curry is strong, and it really melds well with the chocolate.
Thank you.
Thank you.
What's your creation today? All that's in this is chocolate.
It's a milk chocolate ganache, bittersweet chocolate ganache, white chocolate in the cream, and then there's candy cocoa nibs.
Holy chocolate, Tim.
Oh, my God.
Hello.
Congratulations.
I see you finished this time.
Yes, I did.
I did a bittersweet chocolate layer cake, and it has braised cherries and a little bit of a cocoa nib nougatine on top.
Wow.
Hello.
Today I have a chocolate banana caramel crunch bar.
I have every chocolate that you can think of.
You're a chocolate ninja.
The crunch Erika put on the bottom is, like, ka-pow, pow, you know? It wakes you up.
So Tim's promise here was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and it looks like a whole lot of chocolate.
The cake is a little bit dense, but the flavor is actually pretty good.
I'm just gonna throw up.
I think Malika really went after it, and this--this is chocolate.
This screams chocolate.
Well, after how Malika did in the quickfire, I'm sure she probably felt she had a lot to prove.
It's great, thanks.
Thank you.
The challenge was chocolate decadence, and I think some people really delivered on that challenge, and some people didn't.
Let's go figure it out.
Let's do it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We're all exhausted.
All of us want to win, but only one can.
It scares me.
Yeah.
Honestly And I see around me all the things that the other competitors made, and I'm a little nervous.
It was kind of like one of these things just doesn't belong here.
It caused the dessert to explode on the plate.
Do you want some Zac on a plate? Whoa.
That's edible? Okay, now I'm ready to throw up.
Not you, the chocolate.
That was good.
Danielle, who is this girl? Like, bye.
Why don't you go bring me yours, and I'll critique it, okay? No.
Yeah.
Did you hear this? Danielle comes over, she takes one bite of this, and she goes, "I have to go throw up.
" Then she was like, "no, no, it was good.
" Zac's become my most annoying person here now.
Be nice.
I didn't mean anything personal.
Bitch.
Freudian slip.
Ha-ha, hey, girl.
Okay, I have to go throw up.
You smell like you worked really hard.
you.
you.
Hi, Chefs.
Hi, Gail.
We'd like to see Seth, Heather hurlbert, and Zac at judges table, please.
Thanks.
At this point, nobody knows what the protocol is.
We don't know who goes first.
I tasted all three of their dishes, and my dish is much better, so I wonder what these three people are leaving the room for.
Chefs Congratulations.
You're the top three in this challenge.
Zac, you seem emotional.
You know, making dessert is kind of like giving birth to a baby.
And you have a lot of experience in this.
I have a lot of experience.
You can bring the baby into the world, and you think it's beautiful, but you don't know who that kid's gonna hang out with, and you don't know how others are gonna perceive it.
And after the quickfire, I mean, I just--I was shaking through this whole challenge.
I thought you made a really well-conceived dessert.
You really put some thought into it and used a bunch of different techniques.
The textures and the different components really worked.
It was like a party in my mouth.
I aim to make a party.
Thank you.
One of my problems You blew gold dust into your desserts.
This is a big no-no.
It's something that I never thought about until today.
You can sprinkle disco dust.
Just like flour.
Heather I loved the aesthetic of your dessert.
I thought it was really well-balanced.
Thank you.
When I was cutting through your dessert, I find those little sheets of chocolates in it, and the crunch was a good surprise.
Thank you, Chef.
Seth, you had immunity today, but you still chose to make a really cutting-edge dessert.
Curry for dessert? What? And it worked, and it was so good.
I tried to season really aggressively, and I'm shocked that all four of you liked it.
So, Chef Jacques, as our guest judge, please announce the winner.
You all did a great dessert tonight, but the winner is the one who embraced chocolate, the one who understand chocolate decadence.
And the winner is Heather.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I won.
I couldn't believe it.
I was really shocked.
They really loved my dish.
Congratulations, Heather.
You're the first Top Chef: Just Desserts elimination challenge winner.
Wow.
To be in this competition is such a great honor.
I mean, there's so many talented Pastry Chefs.
Unfortunately, now I have to ask you to call back three of your colleagues.
I certainly have a lot more to learn, but I just want to stay focused and be able to do the best, and I think with my background, I'll be able to win.
I won.
Excellent.
That's awesome.
It was delicious.
Okay.
All righty.
Let's hear it.
So they want to see Danielle, Tania, and Morgan.
Whatever.
Chefs, yours were our three least favorite chocolate desserts today.
Danielle, why do you think that you're here? Honestly, I'm not really sure.
I liked my flavors.
I liked the texture.
Our first issue was actually eating the dessert.
As soon as we cut through, because your sablee was so thick, it caused the dessert to explode on the plate.
I figured that it might slide a little bit, but in composing it, I just liked that it was kind of a free-form tart, and I just wanted it to sit on the plate really nicely.
Sometimes when you eat a dessert, you start from the top, and you go layer by layer, and that's then the dessert was not popping.
Tania.
I know the texture of my mousse was really off, and there's kind of no excuse for that.
When I walked through, things seemed to be okay.
You seemed to feel pretty confident.
You know, my timing was off getting it together at the end of the day.
I actually really liked that chocolate layer underneath the citrus mousse.
Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough of it to counterbalance the error that you made in the mousse today.
Morgan.
I thought the dish had a nice array of temperatures, textures, and I thought all of the components were delicious.
I couldn't tell what that cube of gelee was.
It looked like it either was separated, or you had two different flavors stacked.
It was a milk chocolate flan.
It was only a milk chocolate flan? Yes.
Did it separate on you? It did.
I did notice it when I popped it out.
I suppose I hoped you didn't.
When we sat down to eat it, it was kind of like one of these things just doesn't belong here.
I think maybe with the flan, you were trying to add some refinement to the dish, but it was a jarring contrast.
I think my biggest fear there was that I would be judged for the fact that I didn't do enough.
Thank you, Chefs.
You can go back to the stew room while we discuss and make our decision.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Oh, my.
That was hell.
Morgan, what was wrong with it? What did they say about yours? I think you'll find, for the first time ever, I have very little to say.
Morgan's biggest problem was himself.
Because he tried to do too much, he kind of spread himself a little bit too thin and left too many holes for error.
I think that the way that he deliver it doesn't focus enough on the flavor of chocolate, who was the star.
Tania.
I have a lot of issues with the broken mousse.
She had plenty of time to remake that.
No question about it.
I think that she picked the wrong ingredients to work with.
She put some Earl Grey tea, who doesn't have too much flavor.
Top Chef: Just Desserts is not a place to be timid.
Her dessert was like, "hey, hey, guys.
" Let's talk about Danielle's chocolate tart.
I feel like she was kind of defensive a little bit with her dessert.
You're in the bottom three for a reason.
Right.
When you eat Danielle's dessert the way that she intended, that was almost impossible.
Right.
Well, I think we've made our decision.
I think so.
Yes.
I agree.
Let's bring them out here.
Chefs, tonight's elimination was about creating the most decadent, delicious, extravagant chocolate creation imaginable.
Morgan, you definitely have technique.
My issue is that you've spread yourself too thin.
Danielle, had you have taken the time to think about the way you constructed your dessert, I guarantee you would have done it differently.
Tania, we both know what went wrong with your dessert.
My greater issue is the fact that you didn't correct it.
Unfortunately, one of you have to be the first to be eliminated from Top Chef: Just Desserts.
Tania, your dessert just didn't measure up.
Please pack your tools and go.
Thanks for the opportunity.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Chefs.
Getting sent home first, you always think, "you're the biggest sucker.
" Bye.
I think everyone kind of hopes that there's, like, one sheep that will go to the wolves.
Just being the first to go is just such a bummer.
I don't want you to cry.
And then to be in that category bums me out.
Bye, Tania.
Bye.
Love you.
And my husband told me before I left, no matter what happens, he's--he's proud of me.
It's really nice to know that I have that kind of support.
This season on Top Chef: Just Desserts I remember watching the first episode of Top Chef thinking, "I'm gonna do this one day.
" This is awesome.
Wow.
It's like I've been transformed to this land of bad Pastry Chefs.
Everybody has certain things they do.
We're not playing around.
It's for real.
You're being an .
I'm not here for fun.
I'm here to save my life.
Hey, don't yell at her.
You don't want to see me get upset.
Sabotage time.
Morgan gets really angry, and he was like, "well, I'm gonna take all the butter.
" It's not okay.
Yes, it is.
We're all a wreck.
Don't ever tell me to shut up again.
Shut up.
Hey, shakey.
I see you shaking the Out of this table.
It's driving me crazy.
You can call me by my name, Morgan.
I'm definitely gonna hurt somebody, and I'm gonna get removed from the premises.
You could almost taste the resentment in her cookie.
I actually wanted to do something different.
Heather, you weren't forced into anything.
I'm gonna be a , and I'm gonna cook, and I'm gonna win this whole , and you can all suck it.