Previously on Top Chef...
Create two dishes
inspired by the creations of Frank Lloyd Wright.
This is gorgeous.
An entire team will be eliminated.
Sh--.
In cooking we think about the opposite, sweet and savory.
That's duality right there.
Dip, you shake.
- Yeah. - Give it a little one of those.
- Okay. - Wow.
You see the structure and it's like bam.
It's felt architectural, it's felt designed.
Congratulations, Danny and Rasika.
We win.
I need to get this done.
I need you to, like, literally stop stressing me out right now.
We're a team, we need to work as a team.
Alisha's dish, I find really disappointing.
This is like first year culinary student trying
to make a fancy dish.
It didn't go very well for us.
I messed up, technique-wise.
The bottom crust is just so bad.
Please pack your knives and go.
Today was tough.
This is the opportunity to be pushed to another limit
and come out even better.
Ten 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.
- Good morning. - Good morning, guys!
Nice view.
Yeah, it's a nice view out there.
I thought it was very nice
that they had this conversation with us.
I'm refocused and kind of like ready to attack what's next.
I woke up this morning and I was like, wow, top ten, it's great.
It's a really good feeling.
I know, I feel proud though.
I have three siblings.
I think that's where I got my competitive side.
But I was actually thinking what Buddha said yesterday.
We do need to work harder
and we don't have to regret anything later.
Growing up really close with my sister,
who's one year older, my parents said, you are 15,
you are 16, you are old enough to have a car and apartment.
I had to worry about paying the bills to buy groceries.
I was taking care of myself first.
It helped me so much to be the person who I am
right now because I felt like I had to step up.
I don't wanna regret not working hard and pushing hard.
And have fun doing it though, too.
Yeah.
Oh.
Yeah, it's the phone.
Oh, good morning by Kristen?
What? Let me see, let me see.
What's this?
Good morning, chefs.
What the hell?
Oh my God. What's going on now? It's always something.
Oh, no way!
I know that we're not strangers to an early morning,
especially when it comes to a farmers market.
And if you look right outside your window, you're gonna see
the Dane County Farmers Market, which is the largest
producer-only farmers market in the nation.
What?
So, I'm gonna give you $100 to spend it however you want.
A little bit of a small catch.
At 10:00 AM, I want you to meet me at L'Etoile on the rooftop.
I will be giving you your Quickfire Challenge then,
so you're gonna shop for your ingredients
before you hear your challenge.
Oh, no.
Give us a hint, dang it.
I will see you very soon.
Yeah, boy.
Let's go shopping, y'all.
The normal person going to this farmer market,
it's definitely a leisurely Sunday.
We're gonna be hitting this farmers market like
bats out of hell.
Yo, Danny, grab me some bread!
I got you!
Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, sorry.
On your left.
People of Madison are in for quite a surprise.
Coming through!
- Excuse me! - Go, go, go, go, please.
Nuts? Anyone?
Excuse me.
I'm not joining the Top Chef Run Club,
that's not me.
Like, I'll run when I need to.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I don't run.
I'll take the red leaf lettuce.
Can I get some mushrooms?
Sweet peppers, just the sweetest you can get.
And you got parsley? I'll take parsley too.
What I'm gonna do is just make sure I grab
ingredients that are very versatile.
Potatoes? Oh, I need potatoes.
Can I grab these four?
Three Fresnos for a dollar.
My boyfriend, Justin, had been giving me Quickfires
before I left and, you know, every time we went
to the farmers market, I was being timed.
I'm just grabbing anything that could provide me
different layers of flavors.
I'm great, y'all.
This is my----ing jam, I appreciate it.
Four dollars for that spinach? Perfect. Have a good day.
Oatmeal flour, I'll take it. How much is it?
- Thank you. - 10 minutes.
Green onions!
I don't know what I'm gonna cook,
so let's go with something I like.
Can I get this basket of tomatoes as well?
So I'm buying, like, everything to make a good shakshuka.
And these two onions.
Excuse me.
Broccolini. I'll just have one.
Are those Thai chilies? Yeah.
There's so much Asian ingredients.
Excuse me. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Can I get some pork bratwurst?
Bratwurst is very famous
in Wisconsin, so I got a pack of that
even though we don't know the challenge yet.
But a part of me is thinking about a grocery swap
between the chefs.
Can I do some of these heirlooms?
- Yep. - Amazing.
Bro, I'm out of money.
Thank you guys. Have a great day.
Wow. This is crazy.
- This is crazy. - Oh, my God.
- Let's go. - Let's go.
- Good morning, chefs. - Good morning.
How was the market?
- Amazing. - Super fun.
I'd like to introduce you
to comedian, director and activist, W. Kamau Bell.
Hello, chefs. I've been watching Top Chef since the beginning.
Tired of being at home licking the TV
to see how the food tastes.
And joining him is Madison's very own James Beard
award-winning chef, Tory Miller, whose restaurant,
L'Etoile, is right beneath our feet.
I know you guys have been spending a lot
of time in Milwaukee, but Madison's the capital
of Wisconsin for a reason.
You just shaded Milwaukee. You just...
I want to know what's in these bags.
So, what are we getting ourselves into?
Got some granola, some popcorn, some bratwurst.
Manny, not knowing the challenge,
what was the strategy?
To kind of like be ready for maybe two different dishes.
Okay.
So, when people talk about Madison, one of the very first
things that may come to mind is the University of Wisconsin.
Less well-known is a man who served as a chef
for the residence halls from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Chef Carson Gulley. Has anyone ever heard of him before?
No.
Damn it, we didn't do enough research, guys.
He and his wife hosted their own cooking show.
First African-American couple to host a cooking show.
In the '50s!
- Wow. - Yeah.
Give them the facts.
I think-- I just went Flava Flav a little bit.
In 1949, Chef Gulley published
his early recipes in his very first cookbook.
It had recipes to make everything from meat
and vegetable dishes to a variety of sauces.
For your Quickfire Challenge,
we want you to take a page from his book.
Literally.
In this recipe box, there are 10 different sauce recipes
that can be found in his cookbook.
And we have all those ingredients
in that limited pantry.
Oh, okay.
We want to see your take on one of Chef Gulley's sauces.
You're gonna make the sauce and pair that with
the ingredients that you just bought at the market.
Take inspiration from the sauce you chose,
but put your own spin on it.
Remember what we talked about yesterday? Do you.
Yes.
All right, so chefs, come on up and grab one card.
You don't need to ruffle through them.
You might want to ruffle a little bit.
- Just grab. - Yes, ma'am.
Laura's gonna look at all of them.
Laura, man, you're so----ing--
Oh, my God, I've never even heard of this sauce.
He just looked at it and then threw the one that
she picked down and grabbed another one.
If that's what you need to do to win,
that's what you need to do to win.
Oh, nice.
I just want to cook my food.
So, you all got those great ingredients,
but now you're gonna have to rethink
what you're gonna do now that you have these sauces.
Does anyone have a sauce
that maybe they've never heard of before?
- Michelle? - Raisin sauce.
Oh, we were wondering who was gonna get the raisin sauce.
It's me.
Raisin sauce has ham fat and vinegar and Worcestershire.
Like, why is this a recipe?
You'll really want to win this Quickfire because
the Quickfire Quick Cash prize just went up to $7,500.
Yeah!
From the Wells Fargo active cash credit card.
- Woo! - Thank you, Wells Fargo.
Yeah, seriously.
You have 30 minutes on the clock
and your time starts now.
Oh my God!
That's not fish sauce.
It is, I got one. We can share it.
All right, let's get this party started. Ooh-wee.
I have so many things that I just can't use.
It's kind of ridiculous.
What sauce do you have?
Cold horseradish sauce is what I have.
I'm hoping to take Chef Gulley's recipe
and just kind of put my twist on it.
What do you think about goat cheese and horseradish?
That actually sounds really good together, man.
- Like a salad? - I'm into that.
Have you ever had raisin sauce?
Never.
I'm choosing to go with a baked egg frittata
because I purchased eggs in the market today.
A frittata works well with this sauce
because eggs are typically rich.
A sauce that has some sweetness and tartness to it
could cut through some of the richness.
I may go for, like, a cherry raisin sauce.
I'm not familiar with Chef Gulley,
but blazing trails in a space that has never been blazed
before by a Black person is always very inspirational to me.
Praying, saying a prayer.
Friday egg aioli.
That's gonna be the base of my tartar sauce.
Right here, I got some just roasted peppers and onions.
That's gonna be the base of my Creole sauce.
My favorite dish that my mom used to make
was her Creole chicken.
That dish is still on my menu.
It's not a dish that's ever gonna come off.
What I think I'm gonna do is a kind of baby baked potato.
Fill them up with a little bit of tomato chevre.
My mom passed away about 15 years ago.
I have dreams about my mom talking about my success
and look what I've become.
I graduated college. I'm working these great jobs.
I know she'd be so proud of me.
Her Creole chicken, it's just like a nostalgic dish
that means a whole lot to me.
Little habanero for some heat.
Do you feel like you got everything you needed
for this challenge?
I think so. I love making shakshuka.
So when I looked at the sauce that I had,
it was, like, perfect.
I'm gonna make it different.
Maybe use some jalapeno popcorn.
Oh, cool.
I think what they're looking for are risk takers
and that's what Top Chef is.
It's supposed to bring out that risky side of you.
My brain automatically thinks out of the box.
Anyone has an extra blender?
Rasika, it's dirty.
What's in this?
It's mustard vinaigrette with peach and sour cream.
That works.
Hey, is that heating?
19 minutes.
I got herb sauce, so I have main cilantro,
chives, parsley, onion.
I mean, I fell in love with Middle Eastern food
when I was in Turkey with my mom.
It was incredible.
Because I love the food. It's true.
It's good.
Are you still happy with the ingredients?
I actually am.
I got corn, squash,
zucchini, so I'm gonna make like a succotash.
Nice.
15 minutes, chefs.
I got already hard-boiled eggs.
That's gonna save me a lot of time.
Egg sauce got hard-boiled eggs in it and roux
and has fish stock in it.
It's quite an unusual sauce.
Is that your shrimp on there too?
That's my shrimp. I had the Thai direction going already,
so I'm taking my sauce and doing like a Thai-inspired salad.
Nice, nice.
I really wish that I had some limes
or any other kind of citrus for acid.
I really feel like it would bring this dish together,
but I only have sweet pickles to utilize in lieu of fresh citrus.
Mm.
I have a mushroom sauce.
My plan was to make a shakshuka and,
of course, I have the mushroom sauce.
It doesn't go very well together.
So, I'm gonna twist it a little bit with, like,
what my mom used to make.
It's a rahmschnitzel. Just need to peel my pepper.
...so it's like crunchiness, but because I don't have any meat
I'm just gonna do some crouton on the top.
Of course with the eggs, you want the texture.
What the [bleep]? This sh-- is not hot.
Come on, get hot.
You got just over five minutes.
I need to cook the fish,
but this mother----er doesn't get hot.
Use a grill. You got a grill and a flat top.
Make it happen. Make it happen.
You wanna win $7,500?
I am feeling a little bit lucky today.
All right, baby, carry over.
One minute!
Let's go!
A little bit of green onion garnish.
Mom, this one's for you.
Jalapeno popcorn for some crunch.
So glad I grabbed a trout.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Hands up.
- That's awesome! - That's so cute.
- Danny, how are ya? - I'm doing really well.
What did you make and what was your sauce?
My sauce was cold horseradish cream sauce.
He did it with whipped cream.
I wanted to go a little lighter,
so I did yogurt and a little sour cream.
How'd you find the market this morning?
It was amazing.
Actually, these cucumbers were the last things
that I picked up.
So I just gave them a quick little pickle.
Oh, it's a quickle.
It's a quickle, yeah.
Now I got it, I got it.
- Hi, Dan. - Hi, guys.
- You know Tory. - What's up, chef?
What did you make?
I made a diced grilled vegetable salad, fried bread.
My sauce was tartar sauce, so I did a fried egg aioli
with the capers, fish sauce,
and a little bit of Worcestershire sauce.
- It is the state condiment. - Yeah.
Hi, Savannah. What did you make for us?
I got mustard sauce, but I wanted to do
a light version of that, so I did a mustard and peach
vinaigrette with a poached egg, plums, peaches, brown cherry.
I just wanted to highlight the mustard spice by
balancing it with enough sweetness.
Nice.
I have the mushroom sauce, and this is a poached egg,
tzigane, rahmschnitzel.
What was it like to work with this existing recipe?
Very, like, comforting.
- Creole sauce. - Yeah.
- I mean, New Orleans, boy. - And Haitian.
I mean, we're synonymous with Creole sauce as well.
So, I have a fingerling potato with a honey and tomato chevre
with a roasted pepper Creole sauce.
Was the sauce similar to the ones
that you've grown up having?
It's very similar to this,
but instead of tomato powder, we do tomato paste.
I got Spanish sauce and made it into
a tomato-based Moroccan stew,
and I topped it off with some beautiful jalapeno popcorn
- that I found at the market. - That's amazing.
Oh, that was very smart.
I made a Thai-inspired salad with a coconut egg sauce.
It's still made with a roux, but I added
sweet pickles for acidity.
When you got the egg sauce, what were you thinking?
I actually don't love eggs, but I feel like eggs
and fish sauce actually is a good combination.
Okay.
- Raisin sauce. - What's up, raisin sauce?
Today, I made a spinach and feta baked egg with
a stone ground cherry, raisin, and ham sauce.
When you started building the raisin sauce,
did it remind you of anything?
I just got sweet and sour, so I just really tried to keep
it with sweet and sour flavors with the cherry.
I threw some rhubarb in there and some ham.
- The ham comes out nicely. - Yeah.
So, I got herb sauce and I made a fattoush salad.
It's got a little kick. Yeah, a little dancing kick.
Making me do this.
It has a little Tabasco in it, giving a pop to the salad.
- Thank you, Laura. - Figaro sauce.
Figaro sauce. It reminded me of Pomodoro.
I'll call it a farmers market succotash tossed
in tomato sauce with rainbow trout.
What do you do when you're not chefing?
You look like you would fight.
I used to box and do MMA.
See? These aren't gym muscles.
Kamau and Tory, how do you feel our chefs did?
I mean, to show up on a rooftop and then be
handed a recipe card, you guys really just crushed it.
- Thank you, chef. - Thank you.
But unfortunately, there were a few dishes
that did fall just a little bit short.
Michelle, the raisin sauce.
The sauce and the egg, it was like Taylor Swift
and Slipknot happening at the same time.
I love both those things, but it was a lot.
- Okay. - Who else, Tory?
Amanda.
The sauce was a little gloppy and it was salty.
Understood.
And Kevin.
The problem for me was everything was missing texture
and everything kind of just ate the same.
Okay, yeah.
And now for some good news.
Who had one of our favorite dishes?
Charly.
It was really fresh, it had a little kick, and
it felt like it really reflected the original sauce very well.
Thank you so much. It means a lot.
And who else had one of our favorites?
Laura, with the herb sauce.
Thank you.
You hit that balance
between utilizing the market
and that beautiful sauce underneath.
- Thank you so much. - Manny.
That was a very homey meal for me,
so I really liked that a lot.
- Thank you so much. - The winning chef today
utilized their ingredients from the market
to showcase their sauce and their own personal style.
And the winning chef is...
Charly.
Congratulations, Charly.
Took one bite and it was stunning.
Thank you.
Charly, congratulations.
You just won yourself $7,500.
Yeah, boy!
I can pay for that wedding.
I proposed to my fiancé, Christine,
the day before I came here, so I have a wedding to plan for.
I am thrilled for you.
Thank you, chef, appreciate it.
Thank you so much for being here,
Tory and Kamau. We loved having you.
Thank you all for your talent, and I'm glad we were
- able to honor Carson Gulley. - Thank you, chefs.
Thank you, chef.
Who's ready to find out what's on the menu
for your next Elimination Challenge?
- Let's go. - Let's go.
You have things like Friday fish fry, Saturday prime rib.
Supper club.
Sunday broasted chicken.
I just learned about that.
When you add that all up,
does anyone know what it becomes?
Supper club.
That's right, the supper club,
one of Wisconsin's most beloved traditions.
Legend has it that the first supper club started in
the 1920s by Wisconsin native, Lawrence Frank.
Supper clubs started as taverns, dance halls,
where fried chicken and perch were served alongside a beer.
Wow.
Chefs, please welcome Joe and Shaina Papach.
Owners of the Harvey House here in Madison. Hello.
Hello, chefs. It's awesome to be here.
Thank you so much for having us.
Hi.
Has anyone ever been to a supper club before?
Obviously, yeah.
Supper clubs turn normal dining into a social occasion.
At supper clubs, you would have a set menu
depending on what day of the week it was.
For your next Elimination Challenge,
we want you to host Top Chef's very first supper club.
- Yes! - So cool.
Chefs, it's time to draw knives
because this will be a team challenge.
Oh, I know. All right, chefs, come on up.
All right, two, two, two, two.
One. One.
- One. Two? Who has two? - One. I'm a one.
Oh, this is great.
- Oh, geez. - Almost, yeah.
Almost like the first team.
I'm working with a whole new set of chefs,
but they have worked together before.
- Yes! - Great job, bud.
But being able to communicate properly with people
you haven't worked with before is part of the challenge.
Each team of five is responsible for making
an elevated supper club menu that must include a relish tray,
a fish dish, a chicken dish, a beef dish, and a dessert.
Being the lovely hosts that Joe and Shaina are,
they'll be taking you to the Harvey House
where you can experience
a traditional supper club menu to help inspire you.
Oh!
- I love it. - That's awesome.
That's the most excited I've ever seen them.
That's amazing. Thank you.
After your meal, each team will have $1,000
and 30 minutes to shop at Whole Foods Market.
Tomorrow, you'll have two hours to prep
and cook before service begins at Harvey House.
Green team, you'll serve first.
You'll be serving us judges
and 40 other local supper club enthusiasts.
Good luck and we'll see you tomorrow.
Follow us.
Harvey House is so beautiful.
They've reinvigorated what was once this bustling train station
into a really dope, amazing restaurant.
Hi!
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- Clinking, clinking. - Cheers.
- Cheers, guys. - Purple team.
Ooh.
Wow.
- See, look how pretty it is. - So this is our relish tray.
It is a staple in every supper club.
It sort of piques your palate
and gets you kind of going with your meal.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you so much.
That ranch mousse is so fluffy.
Right away, I want the relish course.
It's the one I have the most memories of.
So Dan, when you were gonna have a smoked fish.
Smoked fish. Chicken liver.
Around Christmas time every year, my parents used
to make the chopped liver,
and we would refer to it as Jacob's family catnip
because we basically box each other out
trying to get at the chicken livers.
It tastes so good.
I have a couple ideas starting off.
Pickle platter.
Danny's a pickle guy.
I've done a lot of pickles this season, huh?
Oh, wow.
- Oh, my God. - Wow.
That is beautiful.
Oh, sh--, look at this. Chicken schnitzel.
- It's schnitzel. - Oh, wow.
This is Christmas.
For the prime rib, this is just natural jus.
Get this closer.
- And this... - Oh, hell yeah.
...is our traditional fish fry.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Dive in, guys. Let's go. Eat it while it's hot.
Oh, my God.
- This is classic supper club. - This is classic as [bleep].
You're gonna take the whole cut? Cut me some of your cut.
The prime rib, like, absolutely gorgeous.
The sauce on the bottom.
So, I would love to do the beef.
I'm French, and I didn't do a freaking jus since I'm here.
So, I really want to make, like, a good jus.
I love when I get to cook New Yorks.
Cut them in fours and I trust it.
You get to shape one with, like, a tenderloin.
I think it's a good idea.
This is so tender.
The whole fish is my signature dish.
The best thing about the fried fish is the flavors,
the crispiness of the batter.
That batter is so light and delicate.
So, for chicken, I'm planning on doing
chicken katsu with a cabbage salad.
This is, like, one of my signature dishes.
At the restaurant, we've done fried chicken.
At the end of the night, when we have regulars come in
and they get off-menu stuff,
and I put a big dollop of caviar on it.
Hell yeah.
That's exactly the dish we want to serve.
- Yeah. - I really wanted to do a fish
if everybody was open to it.
I think it sounds great, honestly.
I did have an idea for fried fish.
And also, I've made a dessert before in the competition,
so I would like to show something else, you know?
I've already made two desserts.
If you're doing chicken and he's doing relish,
I did have an idea for, like, fried fish with,
like, a mint and cilantro chutney.
It sounds good.
But it's up to you, because I also do have immunity.
I was gonna pitch a dessert idea,
like a coconut milk bread pudding.
It sounds spot-on.
I wanted to do the fish dish,
but I haven't done a dessert yet in this competition.
Fish goes good with bread pudding.
I'm a damn good team player.
Also, I'm a twin. Like, I was born with a teammate.
I'm, like, the best team player there is.
This is grasshopper pie.
Oh, wow.
Yo!
- That's so cool. - Hell yeah. It's wild.
So, you have a chocolate cookie crumble
on the bottom, pudding,
and then you flavor it with a classic grasshopper cocktail.
It's like a take on mint chocolate.
And how do you call this drink?
It's a Brandy Alexander.
It is a hazelnut liqueur.
I like that idea. And I haven't done anything Mexican yet.
So, I want the base to be a tres leches cake.
The fact that Laura has won Quickfires with dessert,
it strategically makes sense.
You guys, thank you so much for coming.
Thank you so much for having us.
- We appreciate it. - Thanks for coming.
You're fabulous, and we cannot wait for tomorrow.
- Thank you so much. - Good luck.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you!
Excuse me.
I need some cheap ass yogurt.
A little bit cheaper? I'll take this. Thank you.
We're gonna go with the cheaper one.
We have $1,000 for our team,
which basically means $200 a person.
That's not a lot of money when you have to feed
40 diners and the judges.
I need to smoke my fish. Perfect.
Here's some extra virgin olive oil. The cheapest find.
Whew, this is a hard shop.
I have sugar. We can share.
I'm just getting some liquor.
I'm calling the dish four leches because I'm making two dishes.
Yeah, tres leches cake, and I'm actually making
on the side a grasshopper milk.
So, I need to get a lot of ingredients.
You're making dessert.
Dessert. My first time.
You're using all your flour?
- No, you can have some. - I need 1,000 grams.
Yeah, just get another one.
This budget is really hard.
You have more beef tenderloin in the back?
Hey, buddy, what you making?
- New York. - You're making steak?
Yeah, I'm making steak.
Where I'm from, Monterrey is known for making carne asada.
That is like our thing.
For example, skirt steak in Monterrey is
like saying like lobster from Maine.
15 minutes!
- 15! - 15 minutes, chefs!
Can I get eight of the white fish filets, please?
Three things of chicken liver? All three of them.
You got the chicken liver ready?
I got all of them, yeah.
I'm grabbing some green onions for my [indistinct],
the Haitian green goddess.
Cauliflower, pickled cauliflower?
Yeah, it's gonna be cauliflower. That's it.
In my mind, you can very much make a relish tray your own,
so I wanna focus on North African flavors.
Tahini we have, and I'm just trying to get some spices.
I've got to spend some time in Tunisia. It's incredible.
At first glance, one wouldn't correlate
Tunisian food and Wisconsin supper club and a relish tray,
but I think there's a lot in common.
You would have one tray, and there's different dips,
and there's breads, and you're sharing everything.
Seven minutes.
All right, I'm done.
I'm done. We can start checking out.
Yeah, protein, dairy first.
We'll put the herbs at the end.
Make sure the chicken liver is going through.
- It's tight, huh? - Oh my god, yeah.
Guys, the steak is like 150 alone.
- My fish is already in there. - What are we at?
- We're at 400. - I'm almost done.
Do you need the coconut? The coconut?
Yes, you gotta have it.
All these onions, we need all this.
- I need one onion. - Okay.
Take two out, but I need like five.
Okay, okay, okay.
Five?
The onions are not the problem.
We still have so much left in our carts.
We're all, like, freaking out.
I have my fish, but I have nothing for my green chutney.
I have nothing.
It's fine. I'll just get the lime.
Rasika's got immunity, and she really takes one for the team.
$1,000 goes quick.
600, y'all. That's good. We got two left. We got 400 left.
After Amanda, Charly, and I, we are at $600,
so we're in a good spot.
I need the vanilla.
Do you need all this stuff?
That's it. Get the chocolate. I need this.
Okay. We're almost at 800.
Laura definitely has a lot of ingredients,
including alcohol, which is quite expensive.
So, how much is that?
- Wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. - Danny, we're at nine.
900?
And the budget just quickly gets out of control.
Charly, what are we at?
- Yeah, $75. - 938.
$75, okay, that's fine.
Come on, guys. I need to be able to have some food.
The budget's like blown out of the water.
This is a must.
And now it's just the triage of what can I actually buy?
What do I have, like $2? You have radishes.
I have radishes. I can share with you without a problem.
Let's do that.
I got enough for like 12 people. Great.
- I'm sorry, Danny. - Man, I'm sorry, Danny, bro.
Danny, I'm sorry. It's so bad.
I'm----ed, dude.
Danny, we'll work together, okay?
It's another opportunity for greatness.
Let's go!
I got a green apron, y'all.
Let's roll!
All right, guys.
Salt, pepper, over here.
Manny, all these carrots are mine?
Take them all, chef.
I gave my vegetables to Danny
for his crudités and his pickles.
If one of us goes down, we all go down.
It's a team challenge for a reason.
I think my budget went from $200 to somewhere around $75.
After the shop last night, there was definitely a menu overhaul.
It's gonna be even more badass when you make it work.
You know what's gonna be badass? When I win.
All due respect. I love you all.
I'm first at bat for my team,
leading off with the relish tray.
I'm making pickles, dips, and bread.
I'm gonna turn this oven into a smoker.
I love trout.
I cook with trout very often at my restaurants.
Charly takes fish. He's doing trout with pikliz.
Starting my apples.
Then I'm gonna be working on my starch dredge.
Amanda, she's gonna make hot chicken katsu with mala spice.
I'm about to carve out the meat so I can get it cooking.
After that, I'm definitely immediately on potatoes.
I have the beef course, and I am cooking New York strip
in a salsa verde.
I have a couple of bases I need to make.
I need to make a meringue. I need to make a cake.
Oh, okay, okay.
Laura has the dessert course,
and she's making a four leches.
Supper clubs are, like, really, really fun.
People love their supper clubs here.
My parents would take us to supper clubs when we were on,
you know, road trip vacations.
They'd give us the relish tray,
and my dad would eat the raw scallions.
Me and my brother thought he was the coolest thing ever.
I've never made chicken liver mousse this fast before.
I'm making a chicken liver mousse,
steak tartare, crudité, in soil.
I just gotta get these breadcrumbs in the oven
so I can get them nice and dried out
so I can make my flavor soil.
I don't like it, I love it.
He'd take the raw vegetables, dip it in the dressing,
and then dip it back into the soil
to add texture and more flavor.
Rasika, what you up to?
Right now, I'm portioning my fish,
and then I need to work on both my sauces.
Rasika has the semolina fried fish.
I'm making both my sauces,
smoked sturgeon dip and the peanut tamarind situation.
Thank you, Dan, for letting me use your smoked sturgeon.
I need a turn.
Savannah's doing chicken tonkatsu
with a caviar butter sauce and pickle cabbage.
What are you up to, chef?
I'm [indistinct] my filet, trim everything.
I'm making like a roasted beef tenderloin,
jus au [indistinct], and some roasted fingerling potatoes.
My jus is on.
The fire is burning. I love it.
Love it.
Michelle's working on the bread pudding
with this like roasted pineapple,
and she had the smart idea
to do this boozy sauce on the top.
Michelle is smart.
I think I'm gonna go sweeter.
I think that's delicious.
Are you ready for katsu fest?
I'm honored to cook tonkatsu next to you, Amanda.
Yeah, me too. It's gonna be fun.
Savannah has a background in Japanese cuisine as well,
but I think that our dishes are going to be very different.
I know that my dish is one of my signature dishes
for my pop-up that no one else makes at all.
Katsu battle, baby.
Hey, chef, checking in on you.
I'm just making pikliz, our relish.
The Haitian relish, the-- Oh,----.
The key to a great pikliz is heat.
Any Haitian will tell you it's not pikliz if it's not spicy.
I swear, if these people try to call
my pikliz coleslaw, we gonna be fighting.
time is upstairs.
Coming up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up.
Laura, how's the cake?
Cooling down now, nice and fluffy.
I'm adding my black tahini to this mixture of white bean.
Oh yeah, there it is.
Black like my heart right now.
My beef should be coming out of the water soon.
I decided to also beat my steak.
Try to soften a little bit, hopefully,
because I don't want it to be tough.
You sear your steak or not?
Oh yeah, I'm gonna sear it because they're kind of soft.
Hi, everyone. Welcome, welcome.
Oh, hello.
Time, please?
- 35 minutes. - 35.
My chicken liver is----ing tight, bro.
Laura, you gonna be able to help me with this fish?
Yes.
I'm thinking this is the right time to cook fish
because I don't want to run out of time.
Laura, let's get cooking. Let's get cooking, Laura.
Laura, cook, please.
Last time, the fish was undercooked,
but it's not gonna happen this time.
♪ Silhouettes in the ballroom snow ♪
♪ Lovers are dancing to moonglow ♪
♪ And this time...
So beautiful.
Oh, it looks wonderful in here.
Joe and Shaina, I just want to say
thank you very much for hosting not only the chefs,
but our first ever Top Chef supper club.
- Oh, happy to have you. - Cheers.
- Wonderful.
Tory and Kristine, obviously being a Wisconsinite,
you and supper clubs.
Supper clubs are very big in our family.
Yeah, for sure.
And we still celebrate our anniversary every year
at the Tornado Club here in Madison.
- So looking at these menus. - Yeah.
At first glance, understand the assignment.
I think they got it.
- Totally. - Yeah.
Right now, I'm making the tartar.
I'm helping Dan for cutting the tartar.
I have the meringue done.
The cake is done.
The cherries are done.
I need you to taste this stuff, okay? It's salted.
When it sits, it develops a little bit more flavor
just from kind of sitting and melting.
I'm glad you're having just one.
Salty.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
My tahini is definitely a little bit more seasoned
than I'd like it to be.
God, I'm gonna get----ing killed for this. Come on!
- 10 minutes, chefs. - Heard, heard, heard, heard.
Three cauliflower, four of everything else.
I'm definitely not feeling as confident as I have in the past.
I definitely did my best to use the ingredients
and the resources that I had to make the best food that I could.
The bread's gonna go one-in-one cut up top.
Time!
Hands up! Fish looks good, Charly.
Thank you.
- Hi, Danny. - How we doing?
- Good, how are you? - Doing well.
- Hello, hello. - Hi, Charly.
How are you?
I am good, thank you.
All right, Danny, let's start with you.
This is my version of a relish tray.
Kind of taking you to North Africa.
I have a black tahini with black garlic,
labneh with za'atar, pickles, smoked white fish,
- and then frena bread. - Charly.
Yeah, so what we have here is to kind of play on
something I grew up eating.
We do a traditional epis rub,
kind of a green spice with green onions and parsley.
I also did a coconut epis sauce and a little relish
cabbage and a little preserved lemon.
It's called pikliz, that's what we call it.
How did you both find the budget?
- Ooh... - The budget was tight.
Do you feel like you had enough budget?
I would have graciously loved a little bit more.
I made it work.
- Thank you, chefs. - Thank you so much.
Thank you both.
I felt like Danny's tahini was over-salted.
Without the bread, it does taste salty,
but with the bread, I thought it was good.
Kristine, what do you think of Danny's relish tray?
Give me some dips in bread and I'm easy to impress.
I was happy with the carbs and the things to dip them in.
No, yeah, the whitefish absolutely blew it away.
I'm not super mad at the pickles,
but definitely not as executed as well as the whitefish was.
Normally at a supper club,
I don't even touch the relish tray
because it's like boring carrots, boring celery.
That was so good.
I'm really loving Charly's green sauce.
I think it's fresh, I think it's tasty.
I'm sort of known for reaching for hot sauce in my family,
so I was a little bit like, where's the Cholula?
And the pikliz, there was a lot of
straight up lemon juice, but no heat.
The fish was a little under-seasoned
and underwhelming.
The fish is overcooked and really overcooked.
It's not even close.
Good job, good job, good job.
It's good.
Here, let's-- Ooh, girly.
It's getting slippery little----er.
- Is this all for me? - Yeah.
Okay, thank you.
Savannah needs pineapple.
She says it helps break the chicken down,
imparts a great flavor.
I would like to have more pineapple,
but whatever I can do to help her dish so that collectively
we win as a team, you know, I'm gonna do.
You got any of that rum? Where's the rum at?
It's right here. You want a shot?
I do.
I'm freaking out.
Time, please.
- 1:50. - 1:50.
Okay, we're good.
- Beautiful cook, chef. - Thank you, chef.
Beautiful, dude. Looks great.
Thank you.
Woo!
Let's go, y'all.
Ooh, that looks beautiful.
Thank you.
Hi, chefs.
Amanda, let's start with you.
What have you made for us?
This is my take on hot chicken.
It's actually katsu and Szechuan mala spice.
The sauce is an apple miso mustard sauce,
and the relish is just cabbage with a little sauerkraut.
It's usually a katsu sando, like a sandwich style.
Manny.
I have a New York striploin, pistachio crusted,
pommes purée with horseradish, and cilantro, epazote,
and marcona almonds, salsa verde on top.
- Thank you, chefs. - Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
So let's start with Amanda's dish.
I think Amanda crushed that sauce.
It was buttery.
It soothed any of the heat for me,
and the balance of flavors.
I thought she knocked it out of the park.
Chicken is nicely fried. It's juicy.
The cabbage is nicely seasoned.
Technically, she did everything nice.
- Where's the time? - Nine minutes.
- Okay, you're good. - Oh, nine minutes, we're good.
Yeah.
I love Manny's almond salsa verde.
I think it's really flavorful and acidic and tasty.
I love meat and potatoes,
but when you have a silky pommes purée
and you have a tough, chewy piece of meat together,
those two things never match up for me.
The meat was really flavorful,
except the fat hadn't been rendered in a way
that made it easy to cut and easy to chew.
Doing great.
It was a little tough.
It was not my preference.
If I find a stick lighter downstairs, I'll get it.
- Can you grab my hotel pan? - Yeah.
My team's helping me out today.
It was harder for me to get up and down stairs.
Dan, I got your plates and ramekins.
Oh, man, I love you so much.
I think everybody's just kind of rallying around this,
and we really feel like a team.
Hands up, hands up.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
The moment you've all been waiting for.
Will we destroy the space-time continuum
by adding a fourth leche?
For dessert, you have a play on four leches.
So, it's basically a tres leches cake.
My inspiration came from the old-fashioned
brandy cocktail with brandy cherries.
And I took that idea that the two of you explained,
of having something moussey at the end of the meal.
And then the chocolate is the play
on the four leches cake.
- Thank you, chef. - Thank you.
Kristina, as the pastry chef, what do you think?
I was so excited about it, but definitely too soggy,
definitely too much of the milk mixture.
Very sweet.
I'm gonna eat it all, but--
I like the Brandy Alexander idea,
but you have two things that are just okay,
but also, they don't necessarily
complement each other, so I don't understand it.
Laura, how'd it go?
I think it went well.
I mean, it's hard to know.
You know, I think we're off to a good start.
I am looking forward to seeing what our purple team brings.
- How you doing? - I just feel so weird.
I think it's something I ate, or stomach thing.
I'm sorry, chef.
Hot, behind.
I cooked my fish last minute, obviously,
because I don't want to pre-cook my fish and for it to dry out.
Tom will be a stickler for that if I cook the fish too early.
All right, Dan, you ready to, uh--
I'm ready to roll, baby.
Hands up.
Thank you.
- Hi, everybody. - Hi.
All right, Dan, let's start with you.
First off, I have a little bit of raw vegetables and soil.
We have some steak tartare with chicken liver mousse,
pickled shallots, some dill stems,
and a little bit of seed toast that's been lightly fried.
For your fish, I did my own take on fried fish
and coated it in couscous and then shallow fried it.
I also paired it with a peanut and jaggery,
which is palm sugar dip, and a smoked sturgeon,
mint, dill, herby kind of sauce with that.
How did you both find the budget?
- Complicated. - Complicated.
Okay.
It was good because we got to learn as a team
and work as a team better.
- Thank you, chefs. - Thank you.
- Enjoy. Thank you.
Immediately what strikes me with both of these dishes,
especially Dan's, it's lively.
I think Dan hit the nail on the head with this relish tray.
I love the way that the liver mousse melts in your mouth.
It adds great acidity to the pickle.
I'm just annoyed that he gave us three pieces
of vegetables and we still have all this stuff.
You have five fingers.
Yeah, I know, I could just paw it.
Yeah, like that, there you go, yeah.
That's it.
Oh, that was good.
Let's go, team. Let's get Kevin's plates.
Rasika's fish.
Did anyone else find it severely salty?
- I did. - I did.
- Like, crazy. - And I love salt.
The peanut jaggery is interesting.
Oh, I think it's beautiful.
But what's even saltier is the green sauce.
Yeah, the green sauce is so strong.
All right, team, let's go.
Do you prefer the beef like that?
I think it looks great, dude. That looks----ing killer.
I don't know how they eat their steak here,
but I cooked the steak exactly how I would like to eat it.
I want to do as much sauce and caviar on the plate as we can.
It's going, "Moo!"
All right, Savannah, please tell us what you made.
You have a chicken tonkatsu.
The sauce is an American white sturgeon caviar emulsion,
and there's a little bit of a sweet pickled cabbage
- underneath of it. - Kevin?
You have like a beef tenderloin with au jus [indistinct].
It's like a cherry vinegar from Spain.
And your little potatoes,
confit butter and garlic, and medium rare.
- Fantastic. Thank you, chefs. - Thank you so much.
Kevin's beef.
- That's-- I mean-- - That's a move.
- It's still got a name. - Right.
I like that he went for making au jus,
but he's lucky it's tenderloin,
or we wouldn't have gotten through this thing.
It's too undercooked.
In my restaurant, I would have rested it a little longer.
Even if we lose, the food we cooked, it's great.
Tom, what do you think of Savannah's chicken dish?
I like it. I don't know if it needs caviar.
It's a nice little dish.
I agree with you on the caviar.
I thought the chicken was crispy.
It was seasoned. I like the sweet cabbage.
Felt balanced and full in my mouth.
I'm stoked about it, and it tastes really good.
Awesome.
The chicken?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Will it make it? That was all the pineapple.
I'll make it happen, chef.
Don't worry!
- Michelle. - Hi.
Hi.
I made for you a coconut bread pudding
with a pineapple cream sauce.
Fantastic.
- Thank you, Michelle. - My pleasure.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
What did you think of Michelle's dessert?
This felt very of the supper club.
Yeah, I mean, this is a classic supper club dessert.
The pineapple was nice, caramelized nicely
and overall, it's beautiful. It's really good.
- Needed more pineapple. - Definitely.
I need way more sauce.
Actually, I think I had more pineapple than you had,
so I almost have--
You're welcome to have some more.
So, Joe and Shaina, thank you very much
for opening your restaurant to all of us.
- Of course. - Our pleasure.
Thank you so much for coming.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- To Madison. - To Madison.
- Hello, chefs. - Hello.
We're down one.
Amanda's just a little under the weather.
- Got it. Okay. - Is she okay?
She will be. She's just being taken care of right now.
Let's start with the purple team.
Green team, if you could step aside for a moment.
Purple team, you're standing here because...
you were...
- our favorite team of the day. - Yes!
You look surprised.
I did taste a lot of food today,
and I thought everyone cooked well.
I didn't know what was going to happen.
All right, the relish tray.
Gail, there was a point where I think you dipped
your finger in some things.
Yeah, I truly loved it.
I thought every component, as complex and complicated
as it might've been to make, felt really clean and classic.
The liver mousse was absolutely delicious
and luscious and smooth.
This was one dish I thought was executed
from start to finish just flawlessly.
Savannah, your dish.
I personally really loved it.
I thought it was crunchy. It was super tasty.
I thought it was really beautifully balanced.
The cabbage underneath the chicken was also delicious
with a nice little acidic note to the whole dish.
Thank you.
And Michelle, the dessert.
The pineapple upside down, it was true supper club,
classic dessert.
Pineapple on a plate was really nice,
but I got this much pineapple, and I got a cake that big.
Due to our lack of budget...
Okay, that's the answer.
If that's your answer--
No, it is my answer because it really was all I could get,
and I tried to stretch it as far as I could.
Joe and Shaina, as our guest judges,
you have the pleasure of announcing our winner.
The winning chef today gave us a dish
that was exciting and delicious
and incorporated the theme of the supper club.
And that chef is...
Dan.
Even though I have physical limitations,
my brain is sharp as a pencil.
I know how to put flavors together,
and it just reaffirms the fact that I belong here.
You have immunity in the next elimination challenge.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you, chefs.
Purple team and green team, go ahead and swap places for us.
Green team, you had our least favorite
dishes of the day, and one of you will be eliminated.
Green team, are you all surprised to be standing here?
I wasn't happy with my dish.
I actually think that the relish tray
was a relatively good start to the meal.
What about the dish that concerned you?
I struggled from the beginning, just from the shop, obviously.
Like, $1,000, it was tight, so...
There was things that I wanted to get that
I couldn't get, vegetables and pickles.
I was gonna have roasted radishes and carrot in my dish,
but he didn't have the ingredients,
so I decided to give them to him.
This budget really screwed everything.
- Where did it go? - My God.
Proteins, ingredients, yeah.
It's expensive.
So, Laura, if you have a tight budget,
why do you try to do two things?
It was exciting, right?
Like, you could get a dessert,
and then we got a cocktail at the end.
But they couldn't buy enough vegetables
between the two of them.
I agree with you, that's a great experience,
but you're eating into a budget that's already really small.
I'm trying to give you advice here.
Do one thing right.
Don't do two things okay.
Yes, chef.
Manny, how did you cook your beef?
I was concerned that the New York was chewy.
With that in mind, I was like, well, I'm gonna
sous vide it just for an hour, try to work out a little bit,
and get it a little bit softer, considering the time.
It should've been cooked longer.
Yes, chef.
The steak was definitely chewy. Really tough.
If you actually brought it closer to medium,
I think it would've eaten much better.
Charly, what is your question about your dish today?
Is the flavors too strong?
Is the fish gonna be cooked well enough?
How long before you plated the fish did you cook the fish?
30 to 25 minutes left.
We started to cook it.
I mean, you can cook trout in four minutes.
I hear that. Heard that.
The fish was really overcooked.
If you sit there for how long before it was plated,
- you know it's carrying over. - Heard.
I think that green sauce of yours was delicious,
but the pikliz, I was hoping it was
gonna be really spicy, and I just didn't get that.
I can't lie, when we had that last event with Joe Fleming,
he just coughed, and I was like, maybe I'm just overdoing it.
It has a little heat to it, too. I forgot to tell you.
- So-- - You're overthinking it again.
How many times did we say, do your thing?
Yeah, you're right.
So I know, obviously, Amanda's missing,
but I personally thought it was the best dish on your team.
I thought it was balanced well.
It was really, really tasty.
Thank you, chefs. We'll call you back
- in a little bit. - Thanks.
I appreciate all of yous that walked up and down for me,
because that was not gonna happen.
Of course, man.
So, it was clear that the green team had
some issues coming together, especially with that budget.
So yours was $150?
Something like that.
It had to be more. It had to be more.
- There was no way. I got $200. - There's no way.
There's no way, because I got flour--
There was booze, there was milk, cream.
It was definitely more, but...
As much as Laura's dessert was overly sweet,
I would've eaten it.
She drew inspiration from the cocktail,
and I thought she actually extruded
- the flavors of the cocktail. - Yeah, for sure.
I was just nervous, obviously.
You know, I was like, uh-oh, 30 minutes left.
Well, we gotta make sure we get this fish on
so we can get it out.
Charly's, although absolutely overcooked,
not crispy, sort of floury tasting,
you were able to eat it, because it was sort of mush.
Yeah, but I did sort of find it inedible, though.
The fish was very difficult to get down.
New York, medium, from now on.
You know, like, that's my take out of this one.
It's a toss-up, but I think overcooking fish is worse
- than undercooking meat. - Well, I'm trying to decide,
because you can't actually physically eat the meat.
Some people might enjoy a medium-rare steak like that.
Not that tough.
Yeah, I can't lie, I feel like I'm going home today.
I feel the same way.
So, I think we have our answer?
- I think so. - I think so.
Chefs, by now, it's probably starting
to settle in that this isn't going to be easy.
Every single thing that you do, we're going to pick apart.
At the end of this, there's only one person left.
You've got to make sure it's you.
Charly, please pack your knives and go.
- Thank you. - Charly, we just thought that
the fish was really overcooked,
but we'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen, man.
Appreciate it. Thank you so much, y'all.
You're not done yet. You can get back.
- Pleasure to meet you. - Pleasure.
- Good luck here, y'all. - Thank you so much.
- So nice to meet you. - Thank you.
This is not where I wanted it to end.
I wish I cooked the fish less
and added more spice to the pikliz,
but it didn't happen, so.
It's me, y'all.
I don't really like to live with regrets.
I always want to make sure that
my dish is always representative of me,
where I come from, my culture, my cuisine.
And I just did that in every dish,
and that makes me really happy.
And I'm going to kick ass on Last Chance Kitchen, so...
I got to be ready for that.
Tonight, Charly's trout dish lands him
in Last Chance Kitchen.
You got that heat coming.
Will he sink or swim as he battles the reigning champ?
You've been trying to get in people's heads, Tom.
That's what I'm here for.
Watch now on Peacock or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef.
Somebody's coming back.
Who's that?
Welcome back.
I love when sh-- gets shaken up.
You're all in for a real treat today.
It's always pressure. Always pressure.
This is not good. Woah!
It's time to let loose and embrace absolute chaos.
How crazy can it get?
Is everyone ready for some chaos?
Let's go!
This is the riskiest dish I've made in my career, period.
There's this battling of like,
do I like it or do I not like it?
Dan, talk about the chaos!
This is chaos, because I'm confused.
I'm obsessed with it.
I want that every----ing day.
- It's really good. - That is so good.