PADMA: Previously on Top Chef World All Stars.
16 chefs representing
11 different Top Chef competitions around the world
have traveled to London, England.
This competition'’s gonna be fire.
My inspiration for the dish is carrots,
the most underrated vegetable.
Tom's carrot fitted the brief perfectly.
- My sauce is perfect. - BUDDHA: Really?
Charbel'’s onions was a piece of art.
SAMUEL: I'm really rushing.
Competing again, it's pushing me.
I just need to finish.
That fish ate so slimy.
- He didn't devein the shrimp. - I got the same thing.
Coming through.
I'm now for going crazy in the kitchen.
- SAMUEL:----ing sh--. - You okay?
- SAMUEL: No. - DAWN: Oh, my--
- What the [bleep]? - I'll clean later, sorry.
I'm pissed off. Sh--.
The pastry is what this dish is about
and not vegetables.
The winning chef today is Charbel.
Donna, I think you gave us the right dish
at the wrong time.
Samuel, please pack your knives and go.
PADMA: 15 chefs remain to compete
in the ultimate culinary showdown.
At stake for the winner,
a feature in Food Wine magazine,
an appearance at the Food Wine Classic in Aspen.
$250,000, furnished by Saratoga spring water,
and the title of Top Chef World All Star.
♪
[tense music plays]
Samuel leaving really speaks a lot
about what this competition is about.
He is the winner
- of Top Chef France. - Yeah.
You have to be on the ball, every challenge.
It's basically like it is
when it's the final four or five,
- but it starts right-- - BUDDHA: Exactly.
The finale is already here.
This is tough. This is a tough competition
and that's why we're here.
Because we won our season
or we almost won our season, so,
no one's used to going home this early
with this many chefs.
It's new.
It's the last dish you put up,
is the one that counts.
It's been a long day.
- Vamanos, ya. - Vamanos, ya.
AMAR: That's the best thing you've said all day today.
[all laughing]
[suspenseful music plays]
Since Top Chef Season 16, I now have two children.
Lula is three years old and Hazel is nine months old.
I'm still breastfeeding and I will continue to pump
and ship milk home to my husband
to feed to my baby throughout my journey here.
I want to show people that
you can have a family and be a chef
and you can win Top Chef World All Stars.
[upbeat music plays]
- Good morning. - BUDDHA: Good morning!
SARA: Good morning.
Please give a warm welcome to this week's guest judge.
Michelin-starred chef, Santiago Lastra.
His restaurant, Kol, right here in London,
is the first and only
Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant
- in all of the U.K. - My mom is beyond proud.
BUDDHA: I followed the London food scene
and Santiago Lastra does some of the most beautiful
Mexican food that I've seen out there.
It's just stunning.
Chefs, who's ready to crack
- the next Quickfire? - Let'’s go.
♪
Whether you're going out to a nice meal,
or just visiting a friend,
a way that people welcome you
is often by offering you just a little bite to eat.
We want you to make us the perfect amuse-bouche,
using some of these unique and unexpected ingredients.
But you can only choose one ingredient
and your one bite
needs to fit on...
one of these.
[contestants laughing and applauding]
Doing an amuse-bouche on a Ritz Cracker?
Now you're talking my language.
PADMA: Who here grew up with Ritz?
- Everybody. - AMAR: Who didn't?
Santiago, you also grew up with Ritz.
I didn't really cook anything until I was 15.
I went to the supermarket
and I saw this Ritz Cracker box
and in the back was this...
And I made this and my family liked it
and I got a little bit obsessed.
Are you literally saying that if it wasn't for that
box of Ritz Crackers,
you may not have your Michelin Star?
I would be a banker or something.
- Oh, God. - [all laughing]
Ritz is on a mission to make the world
a more welcoming place.
So we want you
to transport us across the globe
with just one bite.
Come up and grab the ingredient you want to use
and head back to your station.
- BUDDHA: Caviar cream. - SARA: I knew
you were gonna take that.
It has a very tropical flavor.
I'm gonna turn it into savory flavor.
I guess bottarga it is.
PADMA: I'’m surprised no one took currents.
Okay, since Ritz is so versatile,
we thought we would put that to the test.
So I'm going to put you in groups of three.
Sara, Nicole, and Sylwia.
Tom, Amar, and Begoña.
Charbel, Luciana, and Dale.
Ali, Victoire, and May.
And of course that means
Gabri, Dawn, and Buddha will be a group.
But...
This is not a team challenge.
You'll be going head to head within your group.
Oh, [bleep].
That means you'll have 30 minutes
to make an amuse-bouche, featuring not one,
but all three ingredients
that your group has chosen.
This is too many twists for the one Polish girl.
We will pick our favorite amuse-bouche from each group
and then an overall winner from our five favorites.
This challenge is gonna push your creativity,
so let's have fun.
Not only is immunity on the line,
there's also a $10,000 cash prize
- for the winning chef. - Why not?
PADMA: You have 30 minutes on the clock.
Your time starts now.
Good luck!
- [contestants grunting] - ALI: Sh--.
LUCIANA: There is three different flavors.
The spiciness with wasabi,
saltiness of capers,
and sweetness of the plantains.
I'll do my best. [Charbel laughs]
Plantains I've got zero experience with,
so I'm gonna work it out right now.
Luciana has plantains,
which is probably the last thing
I would have picked on that table.
So I need to figure out the plantains first.
MAY: Victoire, what do you think
about yeast extract?
- My God. - That'’s the yeast extract.
Oh, my God. It'’s so strong.
Let me try.
It's-- it's a punch.
Ooh! It'’s sticky and salty.
I never taste something like this before.
In my country...
- I hope it works. - Let'’s see how it goes.
[upbeat music plays]
- $10,000 is not bad, huh? - GABRIEL: Yeah!
I take the immunity, that's more the key here.
Actually love all of our three ingredients to be honest,
and I would have picked all three, which is funny.
Oyster plant tastes just like oysters
and having bottarga,
which is fish eggs that are salted,
perfect combination.
Okay, clean the shrimps properly. Check.
I was thinking about plain English Ritz Crackers
and I was thinking, what is the next
bloody English thing I can think of
and that's a shrimp cocktail.
- Sí, por favor. - What you making, Begoña?
A mousse of the oyster leaves
and tapenade of red paprika peppers
and then the bottarga.
I love working with bottarga,
because you can use it like it's salt.
It's quite popular in all of Spain.
The mousse needs to be cold
and I don't have too much time to put in the freezer.
CHARBEL: I think on the other side, babe.
Mm, look at that. Smell it.
- DAWN: Delicious. - BUDDHA: Banana.
Dawn and Gabri have tamarind and jackfruit,
two ingredients that go really well together.
I feel like I'm the wild card.
I brought caviar cream to the table.
I'm gonna do a veal tartare
with, like, a Thai-inspired cod cream.
DAWN: We're both doing Thai-inspired today.
After Top Chef Portland,
the responses that I received for my food
were really positive
and now I'm on the track
to open my restaurant late August.
I'm going to make
salmon baste in caviar butter, jackfruit,
- eden roll, too, right? - GABRI: Yeah.
DAWN: It's really important for me
to stay true to the roots of my style.
Global comfort food.
I'm making a...
a tamarind butter.
I never used caviar cream before.
It's going to be hard to fit
all those ingredients in one bite.
I'm working on my jackfruit right now.
It's going to be really meaty, like, a crab meat.
It will be delicious.
Caviar cream tastes really, really fishy.
I'm gonna add it to my jackfruit to punch it.
There'’s this Southern thing where you fry crackers.
Damn!
Ritz Crackers are such an important
part of Southern cuisine.
Not only did I grow up eating Ritz Crackers,
but we serve them in my restaurant.
Oh, something smells good.
- Is that you? - NICOLE: Yeah.
SARA: Oh, God.
I owned a high-end catering company for 13 years.
I'm used to doing small bites with lots of flavor.
Thank you for picking goat's cheese, that's a good one.
Guajillo peppers, goat's cheese, and horseradish.
They all kind of, like, go together.
I am sure we are gonna do
three different things completely, yeah?
NICOLE: I feel like it.
I'm gonna try and make a Mexican amuse-bouche.
I'm make-shifting salsa right now
for a----ing Mexican Michelin Star chef.
Am I, like, shooting myself in the foot, or what?
Mama needs some new shoes.
Mama needs another 10 minutes.
Time is fly.
DALE: I'm gonna do a fish, which is gonna be tempuraed.
I had the idea to do
almost, like, a fish and chips kind of thing.
Chop up the plantains really, really fine
and then mix them in with a nice batter.
Chefs, you have five minutes left.
MAY: Go, man.
I taste orange, sour, sweet, spicy.
I feel good now.
SYLWIA: How much time we have left?
BUDDHA: One minute!
It's just I need to put it in the bag to plate it.
♪
PADMA: Five, four, three, two, one.
Hands up. Crackers down.
DALE: Oh, sh--. You didn't put one.
Yeah, I didn't put it on the plate.
I feel really, really disappointed with myself.
I ran out of time.
Sara, Nicole, and Sylwia, please come on up.
- My God, I'm so excited. - Hello, you guys.
PADMA: Tell us what your ingredients were.
SARA: Guajillo, goat's cheese, and horseradish.
I have a brown butter and guajillo fried Ritz Cracker
with goat cheese, pepper jelly,
and an apple and horseradish salad.
PADMA: Nicole.
I have a grilled bavette with goat cheese
and an agave horseradish,
black garlic jam, and a salsa macha.
Salsa macha.
PADMA: Sylwia, what did you make?
Guajillo peppers on a pillow
of goat cheese with the truffles.
These are all delicious.
This is gonna be really hard.
Come with me.
They're gonna decide right now.
'Cause it was, like, unexpected, I'd say?
PADMA: Yeah, different notes.
Yeah, more layers.
Our favorite bite of this round belongs to...
Nicole.
PADMA: Congratulations, Nicole.
It was unexpected because of the umami
and the balanced intensity on the dish, you know?
I can't believe I won this round.
Thank you very much.
Tom, Amar, and Begoña.
Thank you.
Wait, what happened?
I was in another world.
- So you ran out of time? - Yeah. I feel really stupid.
Tell Santiago what he's eating, Begoña.
Tapenade with mousse of oyster leaves and bottarga.
- I love the sea flavor. - Thank you.
- I love the sea. - [all laughing]
Amar, what did you make?
I made a lightly smoked cod dip
with avocado pickled mustard seeds
and shaved bottarga.
Big Myanmar style.
And I thought I wasn't gonna eat a lot today.
[all laughing]
Tom, what did you make?
Shrimp cocktail my way,
which is avocado roulade
and then on top you have a persillade
with bottarga and the oyster fennels.
PADMA: So, it's between the other two?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's the amount.
- PADMA: Yeah, the ratio. - SANTIAGO: Yeah. Exactly.
PADMA: Okay.
Our favorite bite from this round belongs to...
- Tom. - Thank you so much.
Congratulations, Tom. It was very yummy.
On a roll, baby.
Thank you.
What are the three ingredients you guys had?
Wasabi, plantain, and capers.
I sautéed some corn and capers
and then I fried some plantain on top.
I did plantain fried cod with wasabi caper aioli
and some fried caper.
I made salsa plantain
with fried capers and a bit of wasabi.
Our favorite bite is...
- Dale. - Thank you.
I've never seen plantain used in that way.
- It was really creative. - Thank you.
Oh, pretty.
The three ingredients you had were?
- Yeast extract, kumquat, and-- - MAY: Hibiscus.
I make panzanella cracker
with kumquat salad and smoked mackerel.
I have made Ritz Cracker
topped with yeast extract with mascarpone mousse
and then kumquat spiced jam and the glazed hibiscus.
I made spicy kumquat jam with hibiscus juice
and cooked with extract yeast.
These are so different.
Fantastic.
Our favorite bite from this round is...
- May. - [all applauding]
SYLWIA: Go, May!
Yours was really different in flavor profiles
and I also thought you understood
the proportion of cracker to topping.
And the spiciness was like...
Thank you.
All right, last, but I know not least,
Buddha, tell us what you made.
Veal tartare with jackfruit, tamarind,
and the caviar cream and cucumber dressed in,
like, a little bit of a tamarind dressing.
I made caviar butter basted salmon
with tamarind and jackfruit tiger cry.
Mine is Jackfruit à la Mexicana
with caviar paste and tamarind butter.
We'll be right back. I don't know,
it's a really hard choice.
I didn't really taste the caviar.
SANTIAGO: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
The winner is...
Gabri.
- Thank you. - [all applauding]
PADMA: It was so sweet and tart.
It was really elegant.
- PADMA: Thank you all. - Thank you so much.
[applauding]
The winners from each round were Nicole,
Tom, Dale, May, and Gabri.
Our favorite amuse-bouche
was surprising, unexpected, delicious,
and it belonged to...
Chef May.
Congratulations!
May, you utilized the three ingredients you had beautifully.
I'm totally proud of myself.
I'm the only one from Thailand.
I'm here to represent my country.
PADMA: Not only did you just win immunity,
- you won $10,000... - Boom.
...from our friends at Ritz.
Now they know me.
My name is Chef May.
Thank you.
PADMA: Santiago, thank you for joining us.
It was great to have you here today.
Thank you and good luck to everyone.
Pleasure.
[chefs applauding]
Chefs, you did a great job,
but this next challenge could get a little sticky.
After 19 seasons of Top Chef,
no ingredient has caused more chefs
to pack their knives than...
- Risotto? - PADMA: Rice!
[Amar laughs]
LUCIANA: Rice is so important in Brazil.
If you go to somebody's house and there is no rice,
we think, like, "What happened in the kitchen?"
Chefs, please welcome your guest judge
for this next round,
host of Top Chef South Africa,
Lorna Maseko.
- [chefs applauding] - Welcome.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm super excited to be here.
NICOLE: I'm starting to see a theme
and it's that Top Chef
reaches all parts of the world.
It's fun to be able to cook for so many different palettes.
PADMA: Rice is a staple food around the world
from Palau to paella to tahdig,
rice dishes can be vastly different
depending on where you're from.
LORNA: Rice can be quite temperamental.
You need to get the ratio between rice and water perfect.
For your elimination challenge, we want a rice dish.
How you'd like to prepare it is up to you.
Sweet, savory,
or, if you are daring, a risotto.
No make a risotto. Mm-mm.
But you should know you'll be cooking your rice dish
for 100 guests.
Plus the judges at Alexandra Palace.
We're putting you chefs to the test.
Chefs, I'm super excited
to taste your food, so good luck.
PADMA: Remember, feature the rice.
We'll see you tomorrow.
♪
BUDDHA: It's so such a simple ingredient
and it's usually served as a side.
So how do you make it the star of the show?
The key here is to maintain rice quality.
Some of them are stressed or afraid
from cooking rice, but not me.
When I cook rice, I'm always gentle,
I'm always sweet and nice. [laughs]
[indistinct chatter]
LUCIANA: Oh, my God, I need some help. [yells]
I have been living in London for 19 years.
My boyfriend is English
and he was living in Brazil with me.
19 years later I'm here cooking,
so I decided to make Kedgeree, British Indian dish,
to show, like, I hold my appreciation
to live in this amazing city.
Spicy, traditional Congolese food.
- And you? - I'll make a dessert.
VICTOIRE: Wow, creative.
I know that everyone
was going to...
because it's rice,
but I'm going to make a dessert.
Taro root.
Thai black rice pudding.
I love the grains of the black rice,
the shells of the grains, still dense,
but inside soft.
AMAR: What kind of paella are you making?
BEGOÑA: I'm not doing paella.
What, do you think I'm crazy?
ALI: Okay, awesome. Thank you so much.
I'm going to do a lamb ouzi
with basmati rice.
It's very famous in Jordan.
My mom used to cook it for us all the time.
Which one is better chocolate, this one or that?
- BUDDHA: This one. - ALI: My main influence
when it comes to cooking is my mother,
but...
...men.
And do you have something to light it up?
That's why at Alee, my restaurant,
we are offering plenty of positions
for female chefs or front of house.
It's all about your skills all the way up.
14 minutes!
GABRI: I'm looking for ingredients for my mole.
I got in my mind mole with risotto,
so my mole needs to have 54 ingredients.
Sunflower seeds. Beautiful.
I need tomato, garlic, onion,
celery, red pepper, green pepper,
pink pepper, black pepper, white pepper,
fennel seed, pumpkin seed, coriander seed, walnut,
chestnuts, macadamia, and a whole chicken, yeah.
There's a lot of ingredients.
[Gabri chuckling]
DALE: Dawn, how do you feel with cooking rice?
Is it something you do all the time?
- DAWN: Rice is life, friend. - All right.
I cook with it all the time.
I love the idea of black rice congee
because it is overcooked rice
and so it will hold better over the course of a few hours
and I just want to make sure that the dish
is the same from the first person to the last person.
Coriander and Sichuan peppercorn.
GABRI: Oh, my. Oh, my, oh, my, oh, my.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
In my season of Top Chef,
we're not doing shopping at all.
Oh, my God, this is so expensive.
My cart still has half of the ingredients,
you know, and already I spent £350.
What should I do?
SARA: It's kind of crazy.
Oh, my God, this is so expensive.
My cart has half of the ingredients,
you know, and already I spent £350.
I don't know what to do.
GABRI: How your money do you spent?
MAY: I spend 120.
GABRI: Can I use the rest of your money?
Wha-- sure. I'm happy to share.
Keep that money with myself,
that not gonna...
GABRI: Thank you so much.
You saved me.
AMAR: Thank you very much. Thank you, guys.
[upbeat music playing]
DAWN: I don't even know where we find the rice.
[Dawn chuckles]
DAWN: What the heck, eh?
Hey Charbel, your onion, mi onion, we're going to cry.
CHARBEL: Seriously.
Back when I was in Lebanon,
my first job was in a big kitchen.
Cooking the rice, I messed it up so many times,
get yelled at, but you're a kid,
you have tough skin, so you learn.
I'm going with chicken and rice.
My mom used to cook it Lebanese way.
I'm using basmati rice because I can cook basmati blindfolded.
I wanna share the same experience I used to have
when I was a kid with 100 people.
LUCIANA: I can see you have some Oxtail.
DAWN: Oh, yeah. Oxtails are my favorite.
The challenge is to get them done in time.
Time is not on our side today.
I have to have pressure cookers.
- ALI: Good luck. - [Dawn chuckles] I need luck.
I think we all need luck in this competition, no?
Yeah, you're probably right.
Black rice takes a long time to cook
and I want to get it cooked all the way
so that I can begin making the congee tomorrow.
Behind, behind.
CHARBEL: Coming through. Really hot.
LUCIANA: [exclaims] So hot.
I feel like I'm in Brazil.
BUDDHA: Tom, there's, like, at least 80 German dishes
with rice that I can name on the top of my head.
[bleep] no, man, we don't do any rice.
TOM: Every culture in the world uses rice.
There's not a single rice station
in whole bloody Germany, man.
So, for this challenge I'm making...
My colleagues on the ships, they're Indian,
so we use this a lot for family meals
and it means something.
- Just under one hour, chefs. - Wait.
- BUDDHA: I love a khajuri. - So do you like it?
- One of my favorites. - LUCIANA: It's looking good.
I just need 100 eggs.
I think, "Do I'm gonna have time to peel 100 eggs?"
- Behind. - Oh, [bleep].
The mole preparation usually takes two days.
Such a waste, such a waste.
But if I don't get my mole done tonight,
I'm totally screwed tomorrow.
Amar, what are you doing?
I'm making a Fesenjaãn style
with beef with some saffron arancini.
Arancini is the leftover risotto,
you shape into a little ball, you bread it, you deep fry it.
- DAWN: Oh, come on, man! - AMAR: Oh, sh--, sorry, sorry.
I'm using arborio rice.
The whole idea is to get the rice done today
and then tomorrow, bread and fry to order.
This is looking great, man, I'm happy with it.
- Hey, Chefs, how you doing? - [chefs] Hey.
Perfect.
- Hey, Sara. - Hey, chefs, how are y'all?
So what are you making with your yogurt here?
I'm making an everything bagel.
- An everything bagel. - Everything rice.
How are you presenting the rice?
So I'm doing sticky rice, but I'm gonna put
a bunch of everything spice in there
and then I'll crisp it up on the plancha.
- Oh, you're frying it. - Yeah.
Which is quite popular at the moment as well, right?
- Maybe I made it popular. - [laughing]
- JUDGES: Good luck. - Thanks, you guys.
- Hey, Dale, how's it going? - It's going good, I think.
- So, what are you making? - I'm gonna make congee.
I've never made congee before, but I've had it.
My cooks make it all the time
for staff meals, so I'm gonna do that.
I think because the fact that congee
is essentially overcooked rice,
I feel reasonably comfortable.
I go with koshihikari rice, which is a sushi rice.
Do you pay attention when they make it?
I've asked a couple of questions, you know?
I started with Gordon Ramsay here in London
and then we were opening up two restaurants
in Tokyo, Japan.
I had my son live in Japan with me.
I've been essentially a single father with him
since he was about five.
I've been lucky enough to raise him
and him help basically raise me.
What's going in your congee?
I've got short ribs braising.
So I'm gonna kind of crisp that up--
Actually a smart thing to do for 100 people.
Thank you. Hopefully you're saying that
- to me tomorrow. - JUDGE TOM: Good luck. Yeah.
- Hi, Sylwia. - Hello, chefs.
- How are you doing? - Good.
Did you get the message? We're making rice, not potatoes.
No, actually my dish is gonna be coconut rice
inspired by the Thai dish, massaman curry.
Having two starches like potato and rice,
how do you plan on highlighting rice?
The potatoes get the taste of the massaman
and then they can complement rice.
I'm not a big fan of rice.
I'm potato girl. [chuckles]
- Fantastic. - Good luck.
Thank you.
- JUDGE TOM: Hello, Begoña. - Hi.
- How you doing? - Yeah, good.
I'm doing, like, seaweed rice.
- Seaweed rice? Okay. - Yeah.
Not much people use it. I love the flavor.
I find the carnaroli rice
and I'm gonna do with pickled ginger.
I want to use the peel from the lemon,
- like, a kind of risotto. - It's like a lemon risotto?
- I hope so. - JUDGE TOM: Good luck.
Thank you.
Okay, Chefs, everything looks great.
I mean, who knew rice could be so exciting?
- See you tomorrow. Good luck. - See you tomorrow!
All right, see you later.
SYLWIA: 30 minutes left, Chefs!
Thank you, you gorgeous voice over there.
♪
AMAR: Is anybody done with this two pot of water here?
Anybody?
Two pots of water sitting here?
Anybody done with it?
Going once, twice.
VICTOIRE: All right, let's move it.
You need one?
- AMAR: I could take one, yes. - It's hot.
I sautéed the rice and I need to just to do the eggs.
Time is gonna fly quickly now.
DAWN: Yes, yes, yes.
LUCIANA: When I go to the stove with the eggs...
where are my pots? It's not there.
Who took my pan from here?
- BUDDHA: I don't know. - Guys.
I had a pan here with hot water
and somebody took it!
- That's not right, yeah? - Oh, my God.
The Brazilian fire.
Who took the pan here? I have to cook my eggs.
Somebody took my two pans from here.
Somebody-- these two places here.
DAWN: Luciana turned beast mode.
I've realized that she was talking about
Amar and I moving pots.
- I didn't know, - LUCIANA: Is this yours?
DAWN: That's mine, yes. We asked a lot.
But I didn't hear.
That's very unfair for people remove it,
but forget about feelings.
There is no time. I'm just, like, move on.
DAWN: 10 minutes.
I pre-cooked my rice for tomorrow,
so then I can add the spices.
- How's it going, girl? - VICTOIRE: Good.
Tomorrow I'll cook my shrimp.
GABRI: Good. Almost finished.
Pretty much done with my mole.
It's not blended,
but I'm pretty happy with the result.
I'm dizzy.
DAWN: Sh--.
As I'm laying out my rice,
I'm noticing it's still very crunchy.
It's not cooked enough.
Black rice requires a lot more time.
Tomorrow, I'm going to focus on doing everything I can
to make it be a congee.
[chefs] Three, two, one.
♪
[all laugh]
It's all about the variables around,
like, you know, the temperature,
what pot you're using, what stove you're using.
BUDDHA: How did you feel about the kitchen last night?
It was a nightmare
- a little bit, you know? - Yeah.
Did you see my crazy moment yesterday?
When I was like... [imitates screaming]
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [laughing]
[Luciana speaking]
[both laughing]
♪
TOM: Did you cook your rice already?
- DAWN: Partially. - It's gonna be tight.
- It's gonna be very tight. - Yeah.
Yesterday, working in that environment,
in that kitchen, it was horrible,
but I love this challenge,
the fine dining, the tweezer.
I call those sissy pots.
[Amar laughing]
[suspenseful instrumental playing]
[woman exclaiming]
We are cooking rice.
I think it's gonna be very difficult.
But being here outside this beautiful palace
overlooking the entire city is amazing.
I still don't have a bigger pan,
I have to do in paella pan.
DAWN: My oxtails didn't let me down,
but my rice let me down.
I am stressed.
Do you think this will cook in an hour?
- If not, I'm----ed. - AMAR: I will close it.
DAWN: I decided to put it in the pressure cooker.
I think that I'm going to be able to make the rice,
and kind of create congee all in one go.
DALE: Gabri, what are you cooking right now?
- GABRI: I'm finished my mole. - DALE: Yeah.
GABRI: Making my salsa verde
- for my risotto. - DALE: Nice.
- And you? - Just gotta get my rice on.
Koshihikari rice, yeah, that's what it is.
I feel pretty comfortable with the koshihikari rice,
because I know it's got,
I think, the right starch content for congee.
GABRI: I think Dawn's doing congee, actually.
It's a congee-off.
- [blender whirring] - Do your freaking job.
My mole tastes freaking good.
The grandmothers took two days to prepare this dish,
and I just made it in two hours, you know?
I'm just going to cook the risotto.
All your attention needs to be in the risotto,
because the risotto needs love, you know.
It's like a spoiled child.
NICOLE: 35 minutes already, Jesus.
Are you used to cooking for 100 people, Ali?
Yeah, I have a background in hotels,
- I have opened five hotels. - Yeah.
After winning Top Chef,
I felt that there's a responsibility on my shoulders
that I need to evolve my Jordanian cuisine.
[Ali speaking in Arabic]
The charcoal is really important for this dish
because normally I would put it underground and just smoke it.
So I get my charcoal just inside
and cover the whole pot with aluminum foil,
so I can have the rice fully smoked,
intense flavor, but lovely.
MAY: Twenty-five minutes.
Buddha, have you ever tried my Thai dessert before?
I love it.
I came out to my mom when I was 13.
She cried,
she didn't accept me at the first time,
She let me be whatever I want to be.
I do my best to prove her being me is okay.
And now, she's happy.
Guys, 15 minutes left.
Stop pressuring me, and don't yell at me.
It's a little bit risky, but I can show that rice
can have a different flavor.
- Ooh. - Delish.
TOM: I need to check my background, man.
- Maybe I'm actually Indian. - [laughs]
My rice is cooked.
That's the most important thing.
[suspenseful instrumental playing]
Uh-oh.
NICOLE: Oh, Lord.
MAY: Hello!
♪
MAY: Would you like to try some dessert?
- Sounds lovely. - MAY: Enjoy.
Thank you, enjoy it. Thanks, you guys.
I am from Saskatoon, Canada. Ever heard of it?
- [man] I have. - All right.
PADMA: How was the walkthrough?
- Were they calm? - LORNA: Never.
- They were not calm, okay. - No one was calm.
PADMA: Rice always messes up even our best chefs, sometimes.
- I'll try some sparkling mead. - Sparkling mead in a glass.
Because why not?
Enjoy. Let me know.
- CHARBEL: I hope you love it. - PADMA: Oh, the smells.
LORNA: I know, it smells good.
Chef Tom. That was a munch.
- That was a munch. - That was a munch.
LUCIANA: You guys ready?
Hello. Luciana, tell us what you made.
LUCIANA: I made Kedgeree, a British dish,
with curry, smoked haddock, and duck egg on top.
- Did you cook the rice here? - Yeah, I cooked today.
PADMA: Thank you. Sara, what did you make for us?
So, today, I have everything rice
with salmon, cucumber, and cream cheese.
It's supposed to be like a everything bagel,
so you can kind of use that like a little cracker,
- and two-hand it. - PADMA: Nicole.
My favorite Japanese sushi roll is a negitoro maki.
So I did a crispy furikake rice
with negitoro on top.
The sauce is a pickled ginger aioli.
- PADMA: Thank you. - NICOLE: Thanks, you guys.
PADMA: Good job, ladies.
A lot of interesting flavors.
PADMA: What did you think of Sara's rice dish?
Ah, I absolutely love it.
I love the crunch, the salmon's cooked well.
Just a banger of a dish. I love it.
I love when the chefs have an idea,
and then turn the whole thing on his head.
Oh, wow, the salmon is cooked, like, perfectly.
My dish was not as rice-forward as the other ones.
But it's creative, though.
Nicole's dish, it's tasty,
and it is a common thing done with rice.
I know rice is supposed to be the star,
but there's too much rice to the fish.
I agree with Tom.
The ratio between rice and the fish
is just a little off.
I love to cook what I want to eat.
PADMA: Let's talk about Luciana.
JUDGE TOM: Boy.
So we got our first overcooked rice dish.
It's weird, because it's overcooked,
but it's still, like, very hard?
Although I think that Luciana did a great job
smoking the fish, and that egg was beautiful.
- Mm-hmm. - How was it?
- Did you like it? - WOMAN: Did I like it?
Oh, yeah, it was nice. Thank you, yeah.
Thank you.
I am proud where I'm from,
so I can show some Polish cuisine too.
- SYLWIA: Enjoy. - WOMAN: Thank you.
- VICTOIRE: It's al-dente. - It's al-dente.
It's not too creamy.
- I love it. - Thank you.
- SYLWIA: Here we go, guys. - VICTOIRE: Hello.
PADMA: Thank you.
Okay, what did you make for us, Begoña?
Lemon rice with pickled ginger, beetroot and seaweed.
PADMA: What kind of rice is this?
PADMA: Hi, Sylwia.
I made the coconut rice with shredded coconut
and Turkish veg with the Thai sauce and spices.
- PADMA: You used jasmine rice? - Yes.
- PADMA: Victoire. - I make basmati rice
with sauce maafe and vegetables and shrimp.
- PADMA: Thank you. - VICTOIRE: Thank you so much.
- SYLWIA: Thank you. - PADMA: All right.
- What about Begoña's dish? - She's, like, out there, man.
- LORNA: I liked it. - JUDGE TOM: And it works.
- The rice is the star. - PADMA: I agree.
It has a beautiful mellow, lemon flavor,
a strange, but really alluring pop of horseradish.
You could taste the sea, but it wasn't too heavy.
Sylwia's dish is very flavorful,
great texture, but the rice is a side.
It's a stew that's served with rice.
The flavoring of it is too sweet for me.
There's almost like, a sharp corner of sweetness.
- Yeah. - The vanilla salt,
- it tastes really well. - Yeah.
I thought that Victoire's sauce was really successful
and had a lot of flavor to it.
I just think she shouldn't have put it into a bowl.
- Molding it together-- - That also breaks the rice.
Yeah.
ALI: Thank you very much.
GAIL: Thank you.
- Excuse my reach. - Thank you, Dale.
Hi. Buddha, tell us what you made.
Today, I made Hainanese chicken rice.
Classic Singaporean dish
that my dad would teach me all the time.
PADMA: Gabri?
I made a green risotto with a mole negro.
There's 54 ingredients in that mole.
PADMA: And, Dale, tell us what you made.
I made congee with short rib, pickled mushroom, and chili oil.
- JUDGE TOM: First congee ever? - DALE: First congee ever.
GAIL: Bold move, Dale.
[laughing] It is, thank you.
- Appreciate it. - GAIL: Thank you.
PADMA: I love the cookery on Buddha's dish.
How moist the chicken is.
I agree with you, Padma, but the rice didn't feel
like the center of this dish.
You having a good day?
Aw, thank you.
Gabri's risotto,
- I love the flavors in it. - GAIL: Absolutely.
There really is an amazing balance
between that dark earthiness of the mole
and the freshness of the herbs.
The consistency of the mole is perfect, too.
It really is just like a hug in a bowl.
GAIL: Dale's dish, a great balance,
like, it's not too hot, it just hits you on the tongue.
I would have liked a little bit more congee,
but I devoured his dish.
DALE: Awesome. Thank you.
[suspenseful instrumental playing]
AMAR: Let's start with bread balls.
It's sweet, it's a dessert.
TOM: It's slightly spicy.
I'm German, it's not that bad, you know.
Dessert.
- GAIL: Oh, good. - Thank you.
Tom, what did you make for us?
So it's a Sri Lankan biryani
with a fermented and pickled raisin and goji berry salad
and a green sauce.
- PADMA: May. - My mom and my grandma
made this dessert for me as a rice pudding dessert
with watermelon puffed rice and sweet potato.
- PADMA: Charbel. - I made the Lebanese
spiced basmati rice with grilled chicken,
mint yogurt and cucumber.
Toasted nuts, finished with some fried parsley.
- PADMA: Thank you, chefs. - CHEFS: Thank you.
We got a bunch of chicken and rice dishes.
Yeah, what do you think about Tom's dish?
- He did a good job. - He's got a lot going on.
But there's a lot of great precision to his work.
He's German,
but he did, like, curry very well. [laughs]
TOM: Come on, come on, give me your mole.
Let me serve my customers first.
- Fine. - [Gabri laughs]
These two chicken and rice dishes,
Charbel and Tom-- I liked Charbel's better.
- Really? - The rice is cooked better.
I do love the nuts and the texture
in Charbel's dish.
Chef Charbel's really tasty.
The yogurt cuts through some of the saltiness
and some of this seasoning in that as well.
May's dish is fantastic.
I love the textures. I loved that crispy rice.
And it's sweet, but not too sweet.
And that she did rice two ways.
This was about rice.
It really was.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
- AMAR: Oh, you gotta cook? - DAWN: Yeah.
It's good?
Dawn's congee, it's, like, one dimension.
Black rice is delicious. It has a very distinct flavor.
AMAR: I'm actually very surprised
because her season of Top Chef,
her flavor profiles were always there.
It is black venus rice.
AMAR: Thank you.
It's really good.
GAIL: Thank you.
Ali, tell us what you made.
Today I have prepared something
inspired from my own childhood.
Lamb ouzi.
Normally ouzi is smoked rice, comes with spices.
- I used basmati rice. - GAIL: Amar.
I made a pomegranate beef stew
with a saffron arancini
and an herb yogurt sauce,
kind of like my version of FESENJIAÂN.
GAIL: Dawn, what did you make for us?
DAWN: I made a black venus congee
with black bean and five spice braised oxtail.
How'’d you do the crispy rice part?
- I fried it from raw. - GAIL: Thank you.
- JUDGE TOM: Thank you. - ALI: Enjoy.
GAIL: What did you think
of Amar'’s beef pomegranate stew?
I love a really good beef stew.
I love the twist with the pomegranate.
I didn't think he highlighted the rice as much.
I love the flavor of the pomegranate,
but the meat is tough.
What about Ali's dish?
I loved the smokiness of the dish,
that really was a highlight for me.
It was really smokey.
The smokiness is what hit me the second
- I took a bite of Ali'’s dish. - Absolutely.
- Did you like it? - Loved it.
It felt like the lamb was flavoring the rice.
It wasn't rice with lamb.
Can you feel the smokiness?
- I just felt it. - Yeah?
I just felt it.
If Dawn didn't tell me
this was congee, I wouldn't have known.
It feels like broth and crispy rice,
not a creamy congee, like a porridge.
There's just a lot happening, but there's no flavor.
- JUDGE TOM: Yeah. - I will say
Dawn'’s oxtail tastes delicious.
JUDGE TOM: A lot of good dishes here.
In terms of favorite, I don't know.
- That's a tough one. - GAIL: Really tough.
Gabri was one, I took the first bite,
I was like, "Oh, man, this is really good."
Just in terms of intrigue, Begoña was really memorable.
- PADMA: Oh, yes. - GAIL: Really refreshing
and different and interesting.
May'’s rice pudding with sweet potato,
I thought was very good.
GAIL: I'd put her up there definitely.
- I think so. - I think Ali just
knocked it out of the park.
It was delicious and I love that smokiness.
Dale'’s congee's pretty damn good.
- GAIL: Yeah. - JUDGE TOM: It really was.
I think they killed it. Let's go to the judges'’ table.
GAIL: Great.
♪
[all exclaiming]
- AMAR: Long one. - BEGOÑA: I need a drink!
- [Tom exclaims] - [Amar grunts]
AMAR: Oh, my goodness.
That was a fun challenge I'll say.
DALE: Crazy how good the food is.
I think if this was one of our normal seasons,
half the people would have went down on this challenge.
Let'’s wait and see.
DALE: Well, yeah. Yeah, that's true.
There's a bottom and a top always, so...
- CHARBEL: Oh, my God. - SARA: Oh.
PADMA: Hi.
We'd like to see...
Gabri, Dawn, Luciana...
Ali, May,
and Sylwia. Thank you.
♪
May,
Ali, and Gabri.
You three...
had our favorite dishes of the day.
- How does it feel? - ALI: Pretty good.
GABRI: Feels comfortable now.
- It's redemption. - Tell us about your dish.
My dish was inspired by my favorite dish
that my mother made for me, which is mole negro
and also arroz verde,
so I just want to mix those things.
I just love the idea of mashing up
these two different cuisines and I think it makes sense
'‘cause I think some of the best risottos
often have an earthy component.
It was just a beautiful plate of food
that I would have any day.
I appreciate it.
Ali, how did the day go for you?
It was a bit challenging cooking outside the kitchen,
especially because my dish normally is cooked
- under the ground. - Yes.
So I bought some charcoal, covered it,
and it gave it that smokiness flavor.
The first thing that hit me was that smokiness
in the most beautiful way.
It woke me up because it was so different.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
You gave us a rice dish.
Often, rice dishes could be boring.
- This was exciting. - Thank you, sir.
May.
Even though I get immunity,
I will try to do my best.
I would like to dedicate this dish
to my mom and my grandma,
so I respect to the recipe.
I love that you made dessert. It's great to see that.
I thought the sweet potato was just a great foil
because it's inherently sweet and it also created
another texture even though it was soft
and then the crispy rice cracker was spectacular.
The fact that this is a dish
that was inspired by your mom and your grandma
just makes it even more special.
- So, well done. - Thank you.
Sorry, I just grew up
with my mom cooking.
She's making dessert to sell in the market
to take care of our family.
You really honored the women in your family.
You did a beautiful job.
GABRI: Well done, May, well done.
Thank you.
The three of you had our favorite dishes of the day,
but there can only be one winner.
The chef today who wins the challenge
really understood the brief.
They highlighted rice
in the most beautiful, balanced way.
And the winner for this challenge is...
Ali.
[applauding]
And I'm the winner of the second elimination challenge.
This is huge. This is big for me.
Feels great being back.
It's not an adrenaline rush, it's more of Top Chef rush.
It's a feeling worth chasing.
I'm sorry, Mom, but today I...
[laughs]
So, that means Sylwia, Dawn,
and Luciana.
Unfortunately, the three of you
had our least favorite dishes today
and one of you will be going home.
Sylwia, Dawn, and Luciana.
You had our least favorite dishes today.
The dishes were all good today,
but this is a rice challenge
and so chefs that aren't here, their rices were better.
That's why you're here.
Let's start with Luciana.
I did a Kedgeree, British Indian dish
because I live in London, I want to praise London.
The fish was cooked perfectly, the eggs were great,
but the rice, for me, just didn't have any flavor.
Your rice was overcooked and undercooked at the same time.
It was almost like it was cooked too quickly.
The haddock was nice, but the rest,
it just didn't come together.
Dawn, how did the day go for you?
Par-cooked my rice last night
and then I came today and it was still very crunchy
and I just reduced that jus down
into the porridge.
It ate more like a black rice soup
than a congee.
Black rice leeches such beautiful starch
and I thought that that would be enough
to make it feel like congee.
It all was eating crunchy,
so I wasn't getting at all
any of that creaminess that I still wanted
from a bowl of congee.
Sylwia, did you feel good about the way your dish came out?
I was happy with my dish, but I'm from Poland.
We are basically potatoes,
so rice is not our favorite thing.
- I can appreciate that. - [Judge Tom laughs]
How did you cook the rice?
Did you cook it with the coconut milk?
I cooked a little bit the day before,
finished in coconut rice,
a little bit of vanilla salt.
Vanilla salt.
Yes.
It was probably as sweet as May'’s dessert.
And I actually found there to be
quite a bit of sweetness in the stew.
That stew was incredible,
but unfortunately it wasn't about that today.
We have a lot to discuss.
Thank you, everybody. We'll call you back in a minute.
GABRI: Thank you.
LUCIANA: Congratulations.
ALI: Thank you.
- GABRI: The winner, everyone. - [cheering]
BUDDHA: I was right!
Congrats, bro.
- AMAR: I'm not surprised. - Good job.
- BEGOÑA: Who are the three? - MAY: Me, Ali, and Gabriel.
- Gabri! - [applauding]
- And you're in the bottom? - Me, Dawn,
and Sylwia on the bottom.
For me to go home with rice,
I don't think I could enter in Brazil anymore.
Luciana, I just thought her dish was--
just had no flavor, you had some nice smoked haddock
and some rice, but there was nothing there,
- there was no there there. - It really wasn't cooked well.
The judges said my rice was a little bit too sweet.
Sylwia gave us a dessert rice
next to her savory stew.
The vanilla was weird.
So you had sweet, sweet vanilla.
- It felt unbalanced to me. - Yeah.
I think Sylwia did understand
that this was not her forte
and that there were some problems with it.
I'm not sure Luciana or Dawn
got what we were saying as much.
I think Dawn understood it.
We know she's a competitor.
Regardless of what we know Dawn is capable of doing,
this was not a congee by any means.
Hers just felt like a soup
with a whole lot of things in there.
I took a risk with the black rice,
but that's what I wanted to do
and if they didn't like it, they didn't like it.
All right, I think we have our answer, yes?
- LORNA: Yes. - GAIL: Yes.
♪
JUDGE TOM: You know, for so many chefs in Top Chef,
rice has been the downfall.
It's always tricky, it's always difficult.
In the case of all three chefs,
the problem was in executing the rice dish.
Unfortunately for one of you, rice is going to be,
again, the downfall.
Dawn.
Please pack your knives and go.
- I'm sorry. - It'’s okay.
Dawn, we know you're a great competitor,
we'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen.
- Thank you. - JUDGE TOM: Okay?
And we'll see the two of you next week.
- Thank you. That'll be all. - Thank you.
I was not expecting to go home this early.
- GABRI: Oh. - DALE: Dawn?
You know, it wasn't in the cards for me.
I made some mistakes and I have to respect that.
It was such a pleasure to compete against all of you.
Kick ass!
To be included in Top Chef season 20 World All Stars
is amazing.
Bye-bye!
I lost here on this world stage,
but I'm not done.
I will do the absolute best I can
in Last Chance Kitchen.
Tom, bring it.
PADMA: Tonight, Last Chance Kitchen begins.
Any of these ingredients look familiar?
PADMA: Top Chef France winner Samuel battles it out
with Top Chef Portland runner-up, Dawn.
Do you want to go home?
- No, I'm not ready yet. - Me, too.
PADMA: Can either of these All Stars
make it back into the competition?
Watch the season premiere on demand now
or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef World All Stars.
We're gonna take you on a little pub crawl.
GABRI: It'll be a long day, guys.
- AMAR: More beer. - DALE: Oh, I love a meat pie.
[indistinct chatter and laughter]
It'’s time to get down to business.
This is a team challenge.
Oh, yeah.
SARA: Tom, I'm getting the meat going.
Our styles are pretty different.
Ready to serve. How can I explain ready?
ALI: Amar and Ali.
Can'’t have one without the other.
To be honest, I just don't think
they're gonna like that.
I'm not ready to go home for mashed potatoes.
The whole thing's become disappointing.