KRISTEN: Previously on Top Chef...
There are a few new rules to be aware of.
For the first time ever, there will be no immunity given
- for a Quickfire win. - What?
The winner of the Elimination Challenge
will receive immunity.
[all cheering]
Sexy, let's go.
RASIKA: This little barbecue girl is going to
get some pasta done today.
KRISTEN: I love the thinness of Michelle's pasta.
Yes, her pasta was the best of everybody.
RASIKA: Manny, it smells really good.
MANNY: My pozole with chicken worked out.
KRISTEN: Manny's dish was just everything I wanted.
He rolled that thing right down the center, man.
PAUL: One chef achieved beyond your challenge,
Manny.
[all cheering]
Judges are going to be like, "Oh, awful,"
but that's the way I cook.
David's gnocchi, for me, was a little bit of a miss.
- This is too much sauce. - Of course.
[speaks foreign language] You good, you made it?
I'm getting ready to go pack my knives and go home.
We're going to have a cook-off right now.
With whatever you can find left over in the kitchen.
[all cheering]
- KENNY: You guys like salad? - I love a salad.
DAVID: Uh-oh, find something here to cook with.
- AMANDA: Oh, God. - ALL: Three, two, one.
David, please pack your knives and go.
KRISTEN: Fourteen 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 Springwater,
and the title of Top Chef.
♪
[upbeat music playing]
MICHELLE: How are you feeling after your win?
MANNY: Yeah, it's good to have immunity,
but still nervous.
I don't want to, like, get too relaxed.
MICHELLE: I'm completely happy to be up top.
We did have a favorite, Michelle.
MICHELLE: I've been a pit master for the last six years,
and I was top three dishes
with stuffed pasta, bananas.
It gave me a sense of security,
if you will, for at least a day.
You know, I didn't start this career
until I was in my early 30s,
and so sometimes it's like,
"Oh, have I done enough? Have I burned my hand enough?
Have I cut my fingers enough?"
And I have to remember, like, "Hell, yeah, I have."
- Let's have a good day. - [both laugh]
♪
Yeah.
♪
Oh, [bleep] yeah.
- AMANDA: It's Joe Flamm. - KALEENA: Whoa.
- Where is going on? - KENNY: Oh.
Funky.
I have no idea...
I'm, like, completely blindsided.
- Good morning. - ALL: Good morning.
I want everyone to give a warm Midwestern welcome
to your guest judge, Joe Flamm.
[all cheering]
- Top Chef Colorado winner. - Correct.
And the last Top Chef
to win Last Chance Kitchen.
- I was the first, though. - Yeah, yeah.
I'm not saying I did it better,
because it was at altitude and it was harder, but...
- Oh, right. - MICHELLE: [bleep]
You're lucky I love you so much with all of my heart.
Great to see a couple friendly Midwestern faces there.
Dan and I have known each other a long time.
Alisha as well, so...
He was the executive sous chef
at the first stage I ever went to.
I didn't go to culinary school.
Everybody else was like, "You got to go to culinary school."
He was the first person who was like,
"No, you don't. Just work hard."
I think it's time we...
- Hop-- - hop to it.
Oh, come on.
Beer is what has made Milwaukee famous.
It's called Brew City for a reason,
but brewing can't happen
without one key ingredient, hops.
Hops can produce all kinds of flavor profiles,
floral to earthy, peppery and citrusy.
The flowers themselves, you can grind them up.
You can use them to infuse flavor.
Has anyone here cooked with hops before?
- How did you use them? - I worked at a brewery.
So we'd use, like, spent grain and spent hops
a lot in baked goods.
Hops are like oregano on steroids.
Very soapy and very bitter if you use too much of it.
And it smells like weed. [laughs]
When I was cooking it.
Chefs, for this challenge, we want to see what you can do
with these bitter little flowers.
Remember, there is no immunity for Quickfires this season,
But there is a Quickfire, quick cash prize
from our season-long sponsor,
the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card.
And for this first challenge, it's $5,000.
ALL: Yes.
- You're excited, yes? - Yes, chef.
MICHELLE: I'm gonna take some money.
My chef salary in all of my jobs was, like, this big.
So, to win money just for cooking good food
is, I don't know, it's one of the coolest feelings ever.
- AMANDA: Absolutely. - It is, for sure.
You have 30 minutes on the clock,
and your time starts-- Uh-uh!
Go back! Go back.
Gotta wait for that next word.
- Now! Run. - [upbeat rock music playing]
[chefs clamoring]
Seafood. Can I get in there--
Sorry. Thank you.
KEVIN: Hops can be extremely bitter.
It's not something you can eat like that.
Instantly, what I think is, like, a dessert,
because, like, I can control the bitterness with that.
I'm a big dessert guy.
Back in Austin, Texas, I own a pastry company,
so maybe this is gonna make me feel like home,
and it's gonna give me a little push.
- Oh, these are low tables, huh? - [Michelle laughs]
I don't know if I'm nervous as much as
I'm trying to figure out how to navigate the kitchen.
We got paper towels anywhere in this kitchen?
My OCD at home is, like, one thing,
and then my OCD in the kitchen is, like, next level.
If there's grains of salt on the countertop,
like, your station is dirty.
I drive my wife crazy.
She's like, "We don't live in a museum.
"We live in a home." It's kind of amusing.
Michelle, you ever play with this stuff before or what?
- Absolutely not. - Yeah, tell me about it.
- How familiar are you? - Not at all.
It smells all right, but so bitter.
I'm gonna use the hops in a sauce,
I'm gonna treat them as if they were tea, and steep them.
This is gonna be - ing great!
Dan, how you feeling about the first Quickfire?
Slow, old, but you know what? That's what I am.
Charly, what kind of hops did you grab?
The lambic has, like, a real kind of fruity,
little more milkier notes.
I'm gonna do that to braise my chicken
in the traditional Haitian style.
I've got some farro.
I'm gonna make a little broth with some kombu.
Hey, Laura, do you worked with hops before?
- Making a rice pudding. - 30 minutes? Whoo!
LAURA: Yep. Got a rice pudding.
That's something that I serve at my restaurant.
I have rice and the cream infusing.
Well, my husband and I own
an Eastern Mediterranean restaurant.
The restaurant opened five weeks ago.
It's like having a baby
and leaving right after the baby is born,
so you want to make sure this is worth it.
Lots of flavors from the hops, for sure.
KALEENA: It's hot, coming down.
I'm trying my best to just kind of utilize hops in everything.
Kenny, you know better how to work in a time crunch.
You've had some experience with that cook-off.
KENNY: Last week, I had to compete for my life
in a 20-minute bum-rush to get food on a plate
after everyone's left all their crap.
[all cheering]
You're just forced to think
in ways that you've never had to think before.
My brain feels like a ball of putty at this point.
You've seen the emulsion blender?
Coming through. Behind your back.
It smells like weed.
Think about a hops-smoked duck.
The hops are going to bring some earthiness.
I'm a pretty competitive person.
It can be Uno.
You know, there's no love in Uno.
I don't care who you are, my daughter, don't matter.
So, I'm just trying to be really hop-forward.
Trying to get some money. I got bills to pay.
Oh, my daughter. I miss that girl.
She's another force in my life that pushes me
to do better every day.
She just turned 14. That's my best friend, man.
She's my twin, just without a beard.
KEVIN: 15 minutes left, guys!
[Valentine exclaims]
Whoo!
ALISHA: Michelle, how's it going?
I want to keep my dish nice
and clean so that the hops can sing.
So I'm going with a hops-crusted flank steak.
Hope the judges like it.
Ten minutes, guys!
I'm excited for money!
Hops burning in the oven.
DANNY: That's me. I want it to burn.
DAN: You want it to burn? Heard.
Oh, God.
I'm gonna redo that.
Down, down, down, down. Hop on, hop on.
My sauce, it's unpalatable bitter.
ing disaster.
I'm hoping adding this trio of pepper,
it'll balance out this bitterness.
Trying to pull a sauce together.
- You can get it. - We're hoping it's there.
Hey, everybody, how you feeling?
- Sweaty. - CHARLY: Oh-ho-ho!
Very sweaty.
Hot, hot, hot, hot.
Chefs, you have five minutes left.
My dish is a hot mess, so got to look good.
Trying to go a little bit sweet with the dressing
because these hops are bitter AF.
KENNY: I taste my farro.
I feel like it's al dente,
but there's no chance
I'm not gonna get food on my plate.
I'm building my plate with my crumble with fleur de sel,
so it's gonna be a mix of, like, bitterness, salt.
- How do you feel, Laura? - My rice is cooked already.
- Better, better, better. - DANNY: I'm not gonna win it,
but it's fine.
One minute, Chefs. One minute.
I don't care what you think you're watching on TV,
is nothing until you actually get up in here and do it.
KRISTEN: Three, two, one.
- [timer beeping] - All right, time's up.
Utensils are down.
Let's go.
- Why am I nervous? - Why?
Because you're standing next to me.
You don't make me nervous. You bring me calm.
Thank you. You bring me calm.
All right, Amanda,
please bring us your dish.
Tell us what you made.
AMANDA: A smoked rainbow trout
cured with a little bit of hops.
On the bottom is a hop dashi,
grapefruit, and blood orange
to help balance out the bitterness of the hop.
I made rice pudding.
I infused my milk, my cream,
and also my rice with the hops.
Like, dessert came right to your mind.
For me, it was, like, the best way
to get all the floral and herbal flavors into the milk.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Here it is.
It's a grilled rack of lamb
with a hops au poivre, if you will.
I went with the lambic hops.
It was just very aromatic.
Thank you.
Today, I prepared a grilled flank steak
with a charred strawberry and shallot salad
tossed in a strawberry vinaigrette with hops.
KRISTEN: Did you like working with the hops?
I wasn't expecting the bitterness
that it was giving off.
Is that why you did the strawberries?
- To try to balance that? - Yes, sir.
Great.
- JOE: Hello, Chef. - KRISTEN: Hi, Chef.
I made some grilled peaches.
And on the bottom, whipped goat cheese
and then a honey Aleppo chili.
- Oh, there it is. - [Alisha laughs]
We have a charred cabbage salad
with citrus, herbs, Alpine cheddar cheese,
and red onion.
KRISTEN: He has a pastry background.
I can guarantee that.
I made for you a roasted black fruit with red fruit.
On the bottom, you have, like, a crumble a la fleur de sel
with whipping cream.
I infused the hop in the oil.
Great. Thank you.
- Hi, Charly. Thank you. - You're welcome.
What I have here is a Haitian fried chicken
braised in a lambic brine,
and then I did a pikliz and then traditional plantains.
[Joe coughs]
It has a little heat to it. I forgot to tell you.
Pikliz is a spicy Haitian relish.
You did not mention that.
KRISTEN: Thank you.
I have an oven roasted pork loin
with roasted sweet potatoes, onions,
and a shishito-hops chimichurri.
I made for you guys a crab salad.
Ponzu using hops.
I also made a sweet corn purée
with some of the hops infused into that.
JOE: Thank you.
I did a hops and kombu broth
with farro, seared maitakes, burrata.
How'd you find the time?
I got everything up, but I needed to twerk.
- I mean, tweak. - [all laughing]
Hey, yo. Hey, yo. Hey, yo. My fault, my fault, my fault.
- Oh, God. - [Kristen laughs]
I did a green chermoula crab salad.
I used two types of hops,
the [indistinct] and the green chermoula.
And the comet in the watermelon ponzu.
KRISTEN: Great. Thank you.
I made for you a hop-cured tuna
with a hop-infused dashi broth
garnished with a little bit of raw hops on top.
Hello, today I have hop-smoked duck breast
with some berbere spice, tomato nage.
KRISTEN: How long did you smoke the duck for?
It was probably about 10 minutes.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Chefs, I think you did a great job.
Having to work with hops is one of those things
that's really hard.
We did have a few least favorites.
Kenny, unfortunately, that farro was just undercooked for me.
I know you're going for al dente,
but you gotta push that a little bit further
and make sure it's there.
Danny, I can't imagine
that sauce came out the way you wanted it to.
- No, not at all. - That black pepper was wild.
Yeah.
And then, Valentine, your duck.
KRISTEN: That smoke and that duck,
rendering that fat just a little bit more
so your palate has fat to grasp onto
- would've been really helpful. - All right, thank you.
- Now for some good news. - Now the fun part.
Laura, that rice pudding with the hops
was a really, really good way to infuse that flavor.
Thank you.
- Michelle. - The sauce with that strawberry
was a really great way to highlight the hops.
Thank you.
Kevin, I thought it was really smart
how you thought about infusing the oil,
then working that dish almost backwards from the oil.
But we did have one overall winner from this group.
The chef who had the witty dish today
showcased the hops in the best way,
and that chef is...
Laura.
[chefs applauding]
Oh, I can't believe it.
Congratulations.
You got the hops. You got the texture.
Everything really came together.
Oh, my God, that is $5,000.
I wish I would be getting immunity for sure,
but I'll take this money back home
and enjoy a really good dinner.
Maybe at my own restaurant. Why not?
But since you won the first Cash Quickfire,
you do have to buy everyone a beer.
I'll do it, yeah.
JOE: It's a little Top Chef tradition, so.
- Thank you. - I don't know about you all,
- but I could use a drink. - Me too.
And because we are in Milwaukee,
there's only one drink of choice, really.
- Let's get a beer. - [all laughing]
♪
Founded by Frederick J. Miller in 1855,
the Miller Brewing Company is the oldest
large-scale operating brewery in the Midwest.
And it all started right here in Milwaukee.
Their flagship beer, Miller High Life,
also known as the Champagne of Beers, is a crowd favorite.
I'm a big High Life fan. I always have been.
Whether you're sitting in a Michelin-star restaurant
or just having a bowl of popcorn,
you can't go wrong.
KRISTEN: For your Elimination Challenge,
we want to see how you can take
salty snacks found in any bar
and feature them in an elevated fine dining dish.
And, lucky you, this is a team challenge.
Do we like this?
You all seem excited to team up together.
What the hell happened in the house last night?
- We love each other already. - So everyone's getting along.
- Oh, yeah. - Very much so.
I love that. As a team, you must create
an elevated, seven-course progressive meal
featuring seven different bar snacks.
Popcorn, pickles, pretzels,
mixed nuts, potato chips,
olives, or toasted corn kernels.
KALEENA: Bar snacks, but fine dining.
What does that even mean?
Time to draw knives.
- KENNY: Yes, sir. - Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited.
ALISHA: Looking over at the red team,
I'm like, "Ooh, fine dining background.
"Fine dining background. Fine dining background."
Like, this definitely feels like team rustic food
versus team fine dining.
It's great. [chuckles]
Today, you'll have 10 minutes to menu plan
and $500 as a team to shop at Whole Foods Market.
Kind of the absolute definition of a champagne taste
on a beer budget.
Tomorrow, you'll be serving a table of 10
inside the historic Miller Caves,
which were once used for the fermentation, aging,
and storage of lager beer.
Wow, really?
Whoever has the best dish from the winning team
will win immunity and $10,000
from our friends at Miller Highland.
Yes!
I need this win. I need this win.
- See you in the caves tomorrow. - Thank you, Chef.
Okay.
What ingredient will everybody be working with?
- Mixed nuts. - Pretzels.
Olives, I could do melon and pickle salad
for, like, opening up everyone's palate.
I want to make mole with chicken.
I'll take popcorn and dessert.
RASIKA: I call dessert.
SAVANNAH: Well, let's think, because he also said that.
I'm thinking of doing like a barley pretzel cake
at the bottom with a honey mustard sabayon.
MANNY: It's fine. I don't have to do dessert.
- You'll do dessert? - Yeah.
Potato chips and corn nuts are left?
- Yeah. - I had corn nuts.
I didn't write anything for potato chips.
We can all help though, because that's okay.
Yeah, we'll help you out.
KENNY: I love a bag of potato chips,
but I just can't wrap myself around
how to elevate it.
There's so many things you could do with potato chips.
We got you.
So, I was thinking of olives.
To start with the saltiness.
And then after, you come in with the acidity.
- And we start them like that. - That sounds great to me.
So, I was thinking of doing salmon,
but I'd like to do it cold.
- Pickles. - Second.
LAURA: And then, so I'm doing the vegetable course.
KALEENA: For dessert, I want to do,
like, a buttered popcorn flavored budino.
- And then maybe some chocolate. - Amazing.
LAURA: We have four and six.
We need some sort of soup or something.
- I'll do like a corn soup. - Corn soup? Got it.
AMANDA: My idea for pretzels was a dessert.
- We already have a dessert. - Or could be another dessert.
- You can do a pre-dessert. - Actually, that's a good idea.
What about a key lime pie kind of vibe with a pretzel?
KEVIN: Pre-dessert, I feel like it's a great idea.
In a progressive menu, you always go slow, up, up,
and you go down, down.
So to me, the pie cleanser makes sense.
One, two, three, [indistinct]!
KALEENA: Let's talk about this for a little bit.
All right guys.
Potatoes, butter, potato, butter, potato, butter.
Press it, and we're going to cut it in pavés.
Where is the use of the potato chips?
Because the potato, you're making the chips.
- Oh, okay. - You just make potato chips.
Yeah, and then from there, what you want
- to build on it. - Got it.
KALEENA: We're here!
Get out of the way. [laughs]
Can I please get five pounds of this?
Oh, chamomile.
Salt and vinegar potato chips, found them.
Persian cucumbers, where are you?
For my team, everyone's going to shop for their own dish.
I got pickles. Are you pickled?
- Yes. Battle pickle. - Okay, baby.
If there's any pivots that need to be made,
we can adjust at the registers.
Move it or lose it, sister.
- Oh, there's more - Here, here, here.
- This is $4. - Okay.
- Margarine? - Margarine and oregano.
I'm going to switch to this oregano.
MANNY: Our strategy is separating smaller groups
to make sure that we don't buy repeated ingredients.
What beer snack are you using?
- Mixed nuts. - Mixed nuts? That makes sense.
MANNY: Mixed nuts are utilized in mole as a thickener.
It's a win-win situation.
I can focus on the mixed nuts
at the same time I get to keep representing Mexico.
Nineteen minutes, Chefs!
Oh, God, I love you guys.
You need [indistinct] at all? I have one, too.
- I just want the fronds. - Oh, okay.
That's the one that has the most.
What's the flour for?
Cake? Nice.
I love pretzels.
My parents were green card holders
when we moved from US to India.
To renew your green card, you need to go every six months.
So every time they would come back from the US,
they would get all kinds of pretzels
because they knew how much I loved pretzels.
I snack on pretzels all the time.
- Guys, five minutes! - KENNY: Do you have everything?
- Yeah. - Okay, good.
I think I have everything, too.
I got everything I needed
and I don't think it's gonna be that bad.
- Essential. Essential. - What are we at?
$434. We have money.
- Proteins are in. - CASHIER: It's $451.
It's gonna be really tight.
Okay, we're there, we're there, we're there.
$498.19.
RASIKA: That was good, guys. That was good.
[Kenny laughs]
[bleep] We're getting close, y'all.
We're over.
- Jesus. - DANNY: [bleep]
- No eggs. - Can we take one bit of pepper?
The butter, we can take one away.
Yeah. It'll be fine. We're good.
- We're good? - We're good.
Oh, my God, that's so stressful. [sighs]
Oh, I need a break. [laughs]
I feel like we're both dealing with the same things we were
from the very beginning.
Your timing, my editing.
I just don't feel like I've really been able
to put myself on a plate as of yet.
And it's tough, too, because with bar snacks,
it's like we're trying to do something
that's true to yourself,
but we're also in a team challenge,
and everybody has to acquiesce a little bit.
I like the fact that we're all cooking together.
You know, like seven of us are gonna come together
and help plate and do all this stuff.
I mean, the pressure is twice as much
as it would normally be being in a team challenge,
but I have to trust my teammates tomorrow
to be there and support me.
Also, like sharing recipes with each other
and trying to figure this sh-- out.
I was diagnosed seven years ago with Kennedy's disease,
which is a rare neuromuscular disease
similar to ALS.
I am slowly losing some basic motor functions.
It will be important to tell everybody eventually,
but I don't want anybody to think of me differently.
I'm the fourth course in, so I'm doing a soup.
Me and you are going head-to-head then.
- Yeah? - We're both fourth course.
Being diagnosed with a degenerative disease,
it took me a full six months
to kind of really come to terms with it.
I got angry and then sad,
and then I realized that I needed to do something.
I feel like my time is now. I'm here for a reason.
The reason is to be the next Top Chef.
I'd like to toast to all of us.
Let's kill this challenge tomorrow.
ALL: Cheers!
♪
Savannah, I got pickles for you.
- Thank you. - Of course.
- [thudding] - Whoa.
Wow. Tasty and durable.
When I say "win," you say "consin."
- Win! - ALL: Consin!
Hell yeah, baby.
KENNY: I feel great about my team
and how each dish
works its way into the next.
I have some honeydew that I'm gonna soak
in the brining liquid from the pickle jar.
KENNY: Savannah's got a cucumber melon salad
with dill vinaigrette to set the tone
with light, cold, refreshing dish.
Alisha, are you a big olive fan?
Oh, my gosh, yes.
Alisha, for the second course,
is making a smoked salmon spread
with a lavash and olive chimichurri.
I'm using the olives in every part of my dish.
I'm putting the pimento into my aioli to rub down my fish.
For the third course, Michelle's making
a toasted corn kernel and crab biscuit
to give you a little filling bite.
I am using beer in my spicy honey.
So I'm doing a spicy highlight honey.
ALISHA: Okay.
Our fourth course is Dan doing a popcorn and clam dish.
I'm making a popcorn mousse,
but I'm gonna make it look like a bowl of popcorn.
This is gonna be super fun.
RASIKA: Fifth course is Manny
highlighting mixed nuts
on his chicken breast and mole dish.
Did you see that bag of chipotle peppers?
RASIKA: Sixth course is Kenny doing a potato chip pavé
with a short rib gravy.
These chips, I'm just hoping
that it doesn't get over-salted.
And the seventh course is Rasika.
She has pretzels.
She is doing a pretzel dessert.
I am making pretzel barley cake
and honey mustard sabayon.
Rasika's dessert sounds crazy.
I've never heard of mustard in a dessert.
How are you incorporating pretzel into your dish?
Putting it in my cake, made some pretzel flour out of it,
and then I am making pretzel granita.
Yeah.
Kevin, how are you looking on the first course?
So, I'm making, like, a tapenade on a cracker.
So very, like, from my hometown, I'm doing like...
I'm doing, like, a Parmesan cracker
with, like, oyster on the top,
dressing a little sexy, beautiful.
Hey, will we get a ha-ha-ha for Kevin?
ALL: Ha-ha-ha!
Kevin is going to go first
to hit them with the big punch of salt.
From the salt we can kind of move backwards
into lighter flavors into the next course.
Danny's got pickles, so he's making
a quick cured salmon with preserved lemon.
DANNY: I'm gonna make variations
and different styles of pickles.
VALENTINE: Then moving into
the mixed nuts with Laura.
This is called badrijani nigvzit,
so it's a Georgian dish with eggplants.
Followed by my corn soup,
which is the first warm course of our meal.
Soon as I get my corn on to steep,
I'll have hands to help.
- CHARLY: I got potato chips. - AMANDA: Yep.
We're going to elevate it by crusting
some Spanish mackerel with potato chips.
Charly is very excited
about the potato chips and fish dish.
Going to do some pretzel foam,
pretzel crumble, pretzel puree.
I'm doing a beer and pretzel pre-dessert
that elevates the nuttiness of pretzel.
It's not too sweet, so it will also help complement
Kaleena's richer dessert using the popcorn and caramel.
My dish is inspired by my best friend.
He's also my dungeon master in Dungeons and Dragons.
He describes playing the game as beer and pretzels
when people aren't taking it seriously.
Mad beer, mad pretzels.
[laughs]
- LAURA: How are you, Val? - VALENTINE: I'm good.
I got my corn soup here.
I'm about to get it passed.
Soup is a great vessel to highlight
the intense corn flavor,
but it's always kind of a gamble on fresh corn,
how starchy it's actually going to be.
How's your team feeling over there?
We're feeling fabulous, fantastic, my friend.
Honestly, I think
we're the better-looking team as well.
- Whoa! - AMANDA: Yikes.
We have just over 45 minutes until the first course goes out.
KENNY: I love potato chips, sour cream.
This is going to be the best version
I could imagine eating on my couch.
This dish feels like a rebellious jab
at culinary school.
Here's this super technical pavé,
and then I'm going to slap French onion dip
and a potato chip beef gravy with it.
I dropped out of culinary school
because I forgot to sign up again. [laughs]
And guess I forgot that I was in charge
of my own life at that age.
Manny, are you relaxing because of immunity?
MANNY: No, chef. I am not relaxing.
- One team, one dream, baby! - One team, one dream!
I'm still working on these scales.
Same sh-- I've been working on for the last 40 minutes.
With this potato chip snack, I really want to elevate it
by adding the potato chips as a scale on the fish.
The biggest thing is to balance the technique
with the flavors,
but I've never done anything like this.
This is the most technical thing
I've ever done in my life, this is no joke.
Time up for the course, 28 minutes.
Feeling a little stressed right now.
The time is gonna be against me.
Kevin, what do you need right now?
KEVIN: Can you blend that baby?
- What can I do for you? - Where is my olives?
Toss in the flour, and you gotta start
- with the tempura. - KALEENA: Tempura.
KEVIN: Oh, yes!
♪
SAVANNAH: Twelve minutes 'til first course!
You want us to follow you?
Um, I think I'm okay.
- Very light, yeah? - Yeah, very light.
Perfect, that's exactly what it is.
KALEENA: Got you. That looks awesome.
♪
- TOM: That's beautiful. Ooh. - KRISTEN: Elegant.
KRISTEN: Thank you.
TOM: All right.
KRISTEN: Welcome, everyone.
If you haven't noticed, we're in a cave.
Perfect setting, I think, for a bar snack challenge.
- Cheers. - ALL: Cheers.
Champagne of beers.
TOM: I don't think I've ever had beer out of champagne glass.
CHARLY: Oh, that's good.
You can just taste that
in the back of the palate, right?
Or the top of the palate.
- Side. - [laughter]
The beer snacks, if I'm a chef,
I'm thinking, okay, that sets the bar low.
But it's not a low bar.
We want it to be an elevated experience.
We did say fine dining,
so their version of fine dining should be interesting to see.
GAIL: Yeah.
You have to go into this
assuming everything's a----ing trap.
Or an opportunity.
Sure. Sure.
On my side of the table, it's an opportunity.
CHARLY: Chef, how you feeling? Do you need anything else?
I'm good. Kaleena was my queen.
KALEENA: I just hope all the flavors are there.
SAVANNAH: When I see Kevin's dish,
it's beautiful, and very technically driven.
I feel inferior
just looking at the dishes themselves.
KEVIN: 45 seconds for first course.
[timer beeps]
- Yes, sir. - Go, Kevin!
It's good. It's really pretty.
GAIL: It looks pretty good so far.
KRISTEN: Yeah.
- Hi, Chefs. - BOTH: Hello.
Savannah, can you tell us what your snack is
and what you made for us?
I had pickles today,
so I wanted to do a melon salad
with some fresh cucumber as well.
On the bottom, cream cheese whipped with shredded pickle.
Kevin, can you explain what you made?
So, I have tapenade, tempura,
olive stuffed with red bell pepper,
and on the side a parmesan cracker
with green olives.
So before turning the olives into each component,
did you do anything to tame the salt?
That's why we wanted the olive first,
and after the dinner we can continue with layering.
- KRISTEN: Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you.
Savannah's dish, it just had a really nice balance
between the cream cheese and the vinaigrette.
You could put a little more pickle flavor out of it,
- but it's a good start. - I personally don't like
starting with dairy as your first course,
as your first bite, I want something
a little bit lighter, right?
JOE: You can't say that in Wisconsin.
- How dare you? - [laughter]
- DAVID: Hey, how'd it go? - It seemed like
they liked it, so I guess we'll find out.
Did anyone feel like Kevin's dish
- is just too salty? - ALL: Yes.
There are so many different textures,
but all I taste is olive.
I thought Savannah's was much more
- of a composed dish. - It was a dish.
JOE: It wasn't three snacks on a plate.
KRISTEN: Charlie, do you think everyone at this table
is being too harsh with their critiques?
No, I think you know what you're talking about,
but I'm going to represent the average fellas here.
You're drinking beer out of a champagne glass.
- Yeah. - The average guy. Okay.
- CHARLIE: Cheers. - TOM: Cheers.
- Yo, V. - VALENTINE: Yo.
The consistency is nice. I don't think it's too thick.
I think it'll be good.
SAVANNAH: Seven minutes until the second course.
Manny, do you have time to check the oven
- on my crispy fish skins? - Crispy fish skin, checking.
- You all plated up? - Yeah, I'm double checking.
One silly mistake, this whole dish
- will be lopsided. - ALISHA: All right.
- [timer beeps] - DANNY: Done.
- Beautiful! - Yeah.
That's what I'm talking about.
- TOM: Lovely. - KRISTEN: Very pretty dish.
KRISTEN: Hi, Chefs.
Danny, can you tell us what you made?
DANNY: You have a variation of pickles.
Some salt-cured, some quick pickled,
and then a cured piece of Atlantic salmon.
- Alisha. - So, I had olives.
I made a smoked salmon rillettes with a lavash
and a little bit of an olive chimichurri.
- KRISTEN: Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you.
Danny's dish I thought was really refined.
It ate really clean.
The salmon could have been cured.
He said it was cured,
I just don't think it was cured enough.
JOE: If you guys aren't going to eat that salmon,
- pass it over. - [laughter]
They----ing ate
every piece of that plate.
KRISTEN: What did you think of Alisha's dish?
Compared to the knife cuts on Danny's plate,
it was hard for me to think of that olive chimichurri
as a chimichurri.
Just not refined enough.
There seems to be some confusion here.
We're supposed to take snacks
and turn them into a dish,
not take snacks and turn them into snacks.
Ten minutes! Third course!
No, no, no, no. Okay.
Hey, grab the gremolata after the black beans.
Add a little water to that, please, soup.
TOM: Are you excited for the spiced honey high life drizzle?
I'm incredibly excited for that, yes.
- I figured you would be. - Yeah.
- Oh, yeah. - Good?
- Yeah. - It's a flavor bomb.
I love it. The acid.
Laura's vegetable dish, it's a little heavier
than maybe I thought it was going to be,
but it's really delicious.
Many of these are kind of clumped up.
I want to just, like, fix.
Your food is beautiful.
- MICHELLE: Oh, my God. - [timer beeps]
- Time's up! - DANNY: Nice job, Laura!
- LAURA: Let's do it! - DANNY: Yeah!
Thank you.
WOMAN: Oh, it's cold.
- That's amusing. - KRISTEN: Laura?
So my dish is called badrijani nigvzit.
Georgian eggplant rolls,
stuffed with nuts, crumble on the side
with a little bit of Urfa pepper.
- KRISTEN: Michelle? - Today, I prepared for you
a roasted corn kernel and crab biscuit
with a spicy, high life honey butter.
- TOM: Where's the crab? - It's folded in the biscuit.
- Got it. - Thank you, Chefs.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
Michelle's dish, I honestly don't know
what was going on there, but I thought it was delicious.
I think I can tell you what it was.
- It was the high life drizzle. - It's not that.
The high-life honey drizzle was delicious.
Definitely could have just used
the corn nut component more in the crab.
Tom asked me where the crab was,
and I was like, "In the biscuit."
Laura's dish, it's a beautiful dish.
I think it's just a little too aggressive.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the progression
- on this red team. - It went like, salty,
very subtle, very aggressive.
- What comes next there? - Yeah, where do you go?
- VALENTINE: Laura, you good? - Good. I feel good.
Four and a half. Let's go.
First, in the plate, we're going
with the corn velouté,
coming behind it with corn kernels.
I'm into plating popcorn with tweezers
because I have really shaky hands.
I would say 30% of this is the competition,
70% of this is Kennedy's disease.
Oh, God. Something's sh--.
Especially as I'm more stressed, it's harder for me
to grip things and use my hands,
and so I'm really relying on people to help me with plating.
This is what happens when you're old.
AMANDA: One minute, Chefs!
- Oh, yep. - One more, one more.
AMANDA: Beautiful.
My soup is very rich and velvety,
and let me tell you, delicious.
[laughs] So good.
Thank you, guys.
AMANDA: Beautiful.
DAN: You guys are the sh--.
- [timer beeps] - Time's up!
KRISTEN: Thank you.
KRISTEN: Hi, Chefs.
- Hello. Good afternoon. - Hi.
So, Dan, can you tell us what you've made, please?
So, on the bottom is popcorn mousse,
clams, roasted corn, basil,
and then we cover it with a spicy popcorn.
- Valentine? - Today, I have for you
a beer and corn kernel soup.
I finished it with a little pickled fresh corn,
Fresno peppers, some chili oil and chives,
and a little more corn kernels on top for some texture.
You didn't thicken it with any dairy or anything?
And milk, I'm sorry.
- Thank you, Chefs. - BOTH: Thank you.
KRISTEN: Omar, what do you think of Dan's dish?
I wasn't sure what to think of it
reading the ingredients, just to speak frankly.
I thought he pulled it off.
Yeah, when you eat it and you get
that cold corn in there with it, you're like,
"Yeah, I don't know, this is weird, but it works."
I think they really enjoyed it.
Tom, it feels like you have a lot in your head.
Lay it on us.
I mean, Valentine's dish is...
- It's thick. - Is it a soup or is it a sauce?
- I was thinking-- - It's more of a sauce.
The toasted corn kernels on top of the soup
kind of sunk in a little bit.
Nothing screams that flavor.
They really didn't give too much feedback.
Yeah, they don't give anything.
- DAN: Rasika. - RASIKA: Yes.
DAN: How are you looking on dessert?
I'm going to pop this in the freezer longer.
I hope it's done.
- KEVIN: Where we at time? - DANNY: Three minutes.
CHARLY: Go ahead. Start grabbing fish, y'all.
1:30.
MANNY: You want to keep putting the mole?
CHARLY: No, no, no. I'm sorry.
The fish goes on it and the black beans go--
- Yeah, there. - Everything's there.
- Manny, it looks beautiful. - That's a white one. Watch it.
- [timer beeps] - [cheering]
- Hi, Chefs. - BOTH: Hello.
Manny, why don't you tell us what you made?
My ingredient was the mixed nuts,
so I went to mole.
So, we have guajillo and mixed nuts mole
with roasted chicken.
Charly, what did you make?
We have a potato chip crusted Spanish mackerel,
a black bean puree with also a little bit of
that beurre blanc as well.
- Thank you, Chefs. - BOTH: Thank you.
KRISTEN: I love Manny's dish.
I think I've been waiting for a dish
that felt composed, you can taste the nuts.
You get the nuts in the mole.
You get the nuts on the seasoning.
It was very delicious.
This has to be one of my proudest dishes.
I did find that Charly's dish
- was lacking salt. - TOM: Oh, yeah.
The black bean puree wasn't seasoned
and the beurre blanc was so mild.
KYLE: My mackerel is raw.
- TOM: Is it? - Yeah.
I was looking at Tom the whole time
trying to figure out, but it's hard to read him.
DAN: As soon as you get this on there,
go grab the other stuff.
The other stuff is already here.
You have six minutes. You have six minutes.
TOM: They're doing two desserts, right?
JAMIE: Yeah. One looks like a palate cleanser
- type of dessert. - I hate that.
It's your second Elimination Challenge.
Are you going to be like,
"Oh, I'll do the palate cleanser course?"
- Unless it's amazing. - Sure.
KEVIN: Two minutes.
ALISHA: Let's go.
AMANDA: Good. Top to the right.
This tastes literally like beer and pretzels.
My dish is weird.
But there's money on the table and immunity.
I have my fingers crossed.
- Okay. - [timer beeps]
- KRISTEN: Hi, Chefs. - Hello.
Amanda, can you please tell us what you made for us?
So, this is a pre-dessert.
It is called beer and pretzels,
which is pretzel beer foam and miso.
And the sorbet, like granita, is actually beer and lime.
Great. Kenny.
I love eating potato chips with a French onion dip,
so I did a potato chip pavé with togarashi yogurt on top
and beer-braised short rib.
- Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you, guys.
Luke, what do you think?
I thought Kenny's plate was spot on.
Tastes like a sour cream and onion chip.
I loved it, potato chips and beer in one dish.
Man, I tell ya, Kenny brings
that sucker to the potluck, it's not lasting very long.
And he will get an invite back. Those are my thoughts.
- [all laughing] - Nailed it.
This one dude right when I left was like,
"I think Kenny's dish was pretty [bleep] spot on."
What do you think about Amanda's dish?
I realized we were all crapping
on the palate cleanser.
This pre-dessert, I think, is better
than a lot of the other dishes we got today.
- I do too. - In terms of flavor.
When you got everything together,
- incredibly balanced. - Awesome.----ing hit it.
I think the texture was great on the plate.
- I love it. - You love it?
Six minutes, last course.
RASIKA: Six minutes! I'm gonna spin my granita.
It's not setting in the freezer,
so I'm gonna use some liquid nitrogen.
My pretzel granita is not even close.
It's not even cold.
Seeing if this works. This is for the garnish.
It's good to cover my whole dessert.
I have never worked with liquid nitrogen.
If I go home with soupy granita,
I will never forgive myself.
- VALENTINE: One minute! - Let's go, let's go, let's go.
- VALENTINE: One minute! - RASIKA: Let's go, let's go.
- Plate? - Yeah. Plates, please.
Plates, plates, plates.
RASIKA: I hope it's done.
Not bad, not bad, guys.
- Happy with it? - Yeah.
Oh, it looks great.
Lord behold, it freezes.
Never doubted you for a second.
RASIKA: I am so happy.
- Yeah, I got you. - Thank you.
ALL: Three, two, one.
[cheering]
♪
KRISTEN: Oh, yeah.
- Hi, Chefs. - Hi!
So, Rasika, can you explain your dish to us?
At the bottom, you have a barley and pretzel cake
and then a pretzel granita.
On top, you have a honey mustard sabayon.
- KRISTEN: Kaleena. - I've made for you
a buttered popcorn budino.
On top, there is a salted caramel sauce,
chocolate and caramel popcorn.
- Thank you, Chefs. - Thank you.
I think both dishes overall,
they're some of my favorites of the day.
Kaleena's dish was elegant and simple.
I think it's safe,
where Rasika's is the exact opposite.
I like the fact that she took
some huge risk here and it paid off.
Unless you threw someone to a challenge like this,
this dish would never come out of somebody's head.
I've never had anything like that before.
That sh-- is crazy good.
Kaleena, flavor-wise, it's great.
You got some salty, you have sweet.
It's a decent dessert. It's not a good budino.
It was perhaps just a touch overcooked.
- Guys, I feel good about it. - ALL: Yeah, amazing.
If I got to look at the two teams, overall,
I thought the chefs embraced the challenge.
They did, for the most part, a good job.
There's some basic cooking things
that they just kinda messed up on.
Congratulations. Everybody did a fantastic job.
I feel really good about this.
Going off just looks, I think they would have won.
We need to get back to judges' tables now,
but we really enjoyed your company.
- Thank you very much. - ALL: Thank you.
- Cheers. - ALL: Cheers.
To the high life.
[mellow hip-hop beat plays]
ALL: Wow.
- Oh, my gosh. - Everyone needs a mug.
AMANDA: First team challenge.
How's everyone feeling?
- It was good. - It was fun.
- It was good. - It was a lot of fun.
My team, you guys kind of picked me up all day today.
I just wanted to open up to you.
If you see me going slow, it's not just because I'm old.
I have this thing, it's called Kennedy's disease.
I'm losing my ability to walk,
losing my ability to use my hands,
losing my ability possibly to speak and swallow.
Being around people like you really inspired me
to keep fighting and being tough and just do this sh--.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
- Your hustle was crazy. - Cheers to that.
- DAN: Thanks, guys. - [all exclaiming]
This is already hard.
He's amazing to be able
to push through this competition,
be as creative as he is.
And, you know, he does it with a smile.
Y'all talking Kumbaya, I'm nervous for this judging.
- [all laughing] - Y'all not nervous?
I feel like I'm burying it.
RASIKA: I think we're all pretty freaking nervous.
[Dan groans]
[intense music plays]
While there were some great dishes on both teams,
we did ultimately have a favorite.
And that team is...
- the Yellow Team. - Yes! Yes! Yes!
- Yes! Yes! - [team cheering]
Red Team, if you could just step aside for a moment,
we'll call you back.
- Are you surprised? - Yeah.
The food that you guys plated was so gorgeous.
- Their plates? - I was self-conscious
of just seeing how their plates looked.
For the most part, we got some really tasty stuff.
And there was really good use of the ingredients
that you were asked to work with.
In some cases, there's some dishes
that we've probably never ever seen.
Rasika, for instance, your dessert.
It was so good.
Where'd you even start on that dish?
Was it the cake or the sabayon?
I just wanted to reinforce
the pretzel flavor in every layer of the dish.
Mustard is my number one favorite condiment of all time.
But I had never had it in dessert.
And you delivered on that pretzel mission
- at every absolute layer. - Thank you.
Manny, something that was also really
unanimously delicious at the table was your mole.
I mean, that sauce, just slather that on anything
and give it to me all the time.
I thought it was really impressive,
the depth of flavor you got out of that mole.
And it did taste like mixed nuts.
It was, like, really cool.
You know, I think another crowd favorite was the pavé.
Yeah, buddy! Yeah!
The way you fried it, where it was crispy and layered,
it gave me that feeling of eating potato chips.
- I thought it was a fun dish. - Thank you. Appreciate it.
You had mentioned when you were introducing your dish,
French onion dip, and so, for me,
whenever a chef has an intention and it works,
that tells me they're cooking with confidence
and they actually nailed the dish.
Thank you, Chef.
Joe, as our guest judge, you get to announce the winner.
The winning chef today gave us a really great dish
that really highlighted the bar snack,
really highlighted versatility in it.
And that winning chef today is...
- Rasika. - Yes!
SAVANNAH: Good job.
Congratulations, Rasika.
You just won immunity in the next Elimination Challenge.
My first Elimination Challenge win,
and it's on a dessert.
Having that Elimination immunity,
it's a relief to me. [sighs]
And we can't forget $10,000
from our friends at Miller High Life.
- Congratulations. - DAN: Oh, my God!
It makes me feel humbled by the fact that
I am right for choosing this career path
and this is what I'm meant to do.
I can't believe it.
$10,000 going to my savings.
Thank you so much, Chef. Thank you.
Thank you, Yellow Team. You can step to the side.
And the Red Team, please come forward.
[suspenseful music plays]
Red Team, one of you will be going home.
♪
Kevin, Charly, and Valentine,
you three had our least favorite dishes on your team.
Kevin, you had olives.
Is that the best thing you can do with olives?
Certainly no, Chef.
- It wasn't that unique. - I agree.
We just got salty olive with a crisp,
salty olive in a fried dough, salty olive with a toast.
It felt one note as the start of that progression.
Thank you, Gail.
Charly, were you happy
with how the fish was cooked?
Yeah, I tried it and I was very happy.
There was one that was severely undercooked.
I apologize for that, Chef.
And you thought the beans were seasoned?
It was seasoning to my liking, Chef.
Coming off that Quickfire, I was like,
"Oh, man, this is going to be big, bold flavors."
For it to come out with that really flat bean purée,
I don't think it was the best representation
- of what you can do. - KRISTEN: Valentine.
I just wanted to infuse as much corn flavor
from the corn nuts as I could
and I thought a soup was a good vehicle for that.
It definitely was thick.
There's corn and there's toasted corn kernels
and they're not the same thing.
I was really looking for a toasted element.
Heard.
There's no bad chefs in this room.
Just know that it's like there's bad days and bad dishes,
but there's not bad chefs standing around here.
Thank you, Chefs, we'll call you back in a little bit.
- Thanks. - KALEENA: Thank you.
Beautifully said.
- Congrats, guys. - Thank you. Good job.
- So proud to work next to you. - Thank you.
- Kevin, how are you feeling? - I feel sad.
I know I can do better, but it was tight.
30 canapés in an hour and a half.
It was tight, man.
They're not putting their best foot forward.
And Kevin, for instance, you have olives.
There's so many things you can do.
GAIL: None of it had any distinction.
It couldn't be made by anyone.
It was all crispy with olive, crispy with olive,
- crispy with olive. - Yeah.
KRISTEN: It was just completely too salty,
let alone uninspired, it was just salty.
CHARLY: Yeah, I mean, it's a hard feeling.
Especially for things like black beans,
which is something I make like literally every day in my job.
So, to hear that they were under seasoned
and they were bland, I mean, that hurts.
When it comes to Charly's dish...
It was so bland.
His dish was supposed to be about potato chips.
There was nothing that focused
- and elevated. - There was no other effort to
- get potato chips in that dish. - Right.
I'm sad to be potentially leaving all you guys,
because it's been such a long time
since I've been surrounded by this energy.
Valentine's soup was pretty bad.
You could tell he just didn't know
how to manipulate that cornstarch properly.
The viscosity was just so off.
Ever made the mistake of making mashed potatoes in a blender?
- I have. - Oh, yeah.
That's the texture that it was.
I'm so proud of what you cooked.
- It was beautiful. - Thank you.
- Don't think less of you, ever. - No.
KRISTEN: I think we all can agree
on who's leaving the competition tonight.
- Yeah. - Yeah, I think so.
- KENNY: I love you, bro. - VALENTINE: I love you too.
See you soon, bro.
[suspenseful music plays]
You know, Chefs, in your cases, you just fell a little short.
Kevin, no real imagination, never really pushing yourself,
not really putting your best foot forward.
Charly, putting together a dish,
you managed to incorporate the potato chips,
but the dish was really, really bland.
And Valentine, you gave us a soup
that was really so thick it was almost a sauce,
but you seemed to shy away from that ingredient.
Fun challenge, yeah, but unfortunately,
someone is going home on this one.
♪
Valentine, please, pack your knives and go.
Hey, Valentine, we'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen.
Both of these chefs actually came through
- Last Chance Kitchen to win. - I do know that.
- You got a shot. - Can I come shake your hand?
Hearing Kristen say, "Pack your knives and go,"
it's just-- It's tough.
It's tough.
Thank you very much, Tom. I'll see you.
- Nice to meet you. - It was a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
I stand on what I put out.
I can still walk away with my head held high.
It's your boy.
DAN: Oh.
- Come on, bud. - Really?
VALENTINE: Thank you for everything, guys.
- KENNY: Come back, Chef. - Kick ass in Last Chance.
- Will do. - [chefs applauding]
[sighs]
I'm going to fight like a pit bull
to get back in this competition.
And I know that my daughter is rooting for me back home.
TOM: Tonight, Last Chance Kitchen begins.
We told you we were going to shake things up.
Last Chance Kitchen is no exception.
ANNOUNCER: Can Valentine survive a twist that turns the whole
- competition upside down? - Oh, sh--.
TOM: I'm feeling pretty good about my time.
Of course you are, Tom.
ANNOUNCER: Watch the season premiere on Peacock now,
or wherever you stream Top Chef.
KRISTEN: Next time on Top Chef.
- KENNY: Are those doors? - DAN: What does that mean?
- [laughs] - What the hell?
MICHELLE: I think it looks like a murder scene
on my cutting board.
KRISTEN: There's something Wisconsinites
can't live without.
- Cheese! - [all laughing]
DAN: Does anybody have any plastic wrap
over here on our side?
- [Dan yells] - [plate shatters]
I just lost gnocchi.
RASIKA: Careful. The floor is slippery.
Oh, my gosh.
It is hot.
- My potatoes didn't set. - Oh, sh--.
Truffle croquette? Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming.
I'm struggling.
My ass is on the fire.
- I love this so much. - Oh, it's delicious.
Please vote for me. I worked my butt off.
It was just too much cheese.
Get out of Wisconsin.