Previously on Top Chef...
You all are going to compete in our very own
Top Chef sausage race.
It's time to pull the best risotto of my life.
Cooking risotto on Top Chef is historically not a great food.
I make Polish sausage etouffée with creamy grits.
Far superior to most ballpark food.
Congratulations, Kaleena.
Congratulations, Soo.
Both dishes, by the way, were really incredible.
This is really hard, guys.
Manny, congratulations.
It's a tie game here.
Congratulations, Yellow Team.
You have taken the game.
Everyone did a phenomenal job.
Collectively, this is the best that you've done all season.
And the chef with the winning dish tonight is...
Michelle.
Kevin, please pack your knives and go.
Nine 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.
We're going to the lake.
I don't know exactly where the GPS is set to,
but I know the area where it's set to
and it's right on the lake.
There are so many things that this could be,
and I keep thinking, like, something to do with water.
- Hm. - Hm.
Discovery World?
- Tom and Kristen? - Oh.
I see Tom, and I'm like, we get to go fishing with Tom.
- Good morning, chefs. - Good morning.
Welcome to Discovery World.
Tom's here for a very special reason.
Anybody have any guesses what we might be doing here today?
- Are we fishing? - Fishing?
- Good guess. - Elimination Quickfire?
- You're all wrong. - Uh oh.
Because this is Restaurant Wars.
Holy sh--!
- Let's go. - You made it.
Okay.
Trust me, if I thought it was Restaurant Wars,
I would have worn a different outfit.
So everyone's excited?
- Yes. - Scared?
- Yes. - Yes.
This year, we're going to kick it old school.
Okay.
You'll need to come up with a three-course menu
with at least two choices per course.
You'll also assign an executive chef,
a floor manager, and line cooks.
- Okay. - Okay.
Everything else from décor
to the reservation book is all up to you.
It's Restaurant Wars, baby.
I mean, I'm not here to just slide under the radar.
I'm here to win. I'm trying to show them
that I can be the next Top Chef.
This challenge will push you in ways
you have never been pushed before.
I should know.
This is at the point in which I was eliminated.
Sorry.
Josie, two more orders.
- Right now? - Right now.
Like, right now.
That last dish should've been here by now.
All right, keep-- Please keep going.
Please pack your knives and go.
What would you have done differently?
Chosen maybe a different team.
Chefs, we're going to let you pick your teams today.
- Let's go. - Because we have
an uneven number of chefs,
Michelle, as the winner of the last elimination challenge,
you get to choose which team of four you would like to join.
- Oh. - Wow.
So, Michelle, come on up over here with Tom and I,
and the rest of you split yourself
in the two teams of four.
Two teams of four. You wanna be a team?
I'm standing next to Laura. I know she's immensely talented.
Her and I kinda lock up.
Soo, you wanna be a team?
Soo and I have already built
like a really good relationship together
coming out of Last Chance Kitchen.
All right. Us four, let's do it.
And then Manny kind of falls into place
as the last person on our team.
It's a solid team.
Amanda and I have worked on every team challenge together.
Her and I lock eyes and we're like, that's a done deal.
Michelle, who would you like to join?
Um...
I think I'm going to join my guys over here.
All right. You can go and join them.
I'm feeling very confident in my team.
We all lead kitchens.
I think that's gonna be our benefit here.
This should be fun.
Today, you'll have one hour to create your concept.
Then, you'll head to All-Star Event Rentals
to make your restaurant come to life.
Each team will have a budget of $3,000
to shop at Whole Foods Market.
- Wow. - And $1,500
to spend at a variety of specialty shops.
Remember, there are an unlimited amount
of possibilities for creativity
when you shop with the Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card.
And then you'll come back here to start your prep
- and your cook. - Okay.
Tomorrow, you'll have five hours to prep,
cook, and set up your restaurant.
You'll have four hours to serve 75 diners
and two VIP tables of four
that include Top Chef winner, Stephanie Izard.
- There she is. - Jesus Christ.
And Top Chef All-Star, Kwame Onwuachi.
Oh, Kwame.
And the hits just keep coming.
Half of us will eat at one restaurant
while the other half are at another restaurant
and then we'll swap.
We will be comparing notes.
If there's one piece of advice I can give you,
it's work together.
You're gonna need each other
- to get through this. - Yeah, we will.
The team with the winning restaurant
will take home $40,000
courtesy of the Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card.
I am so excited to see what y'all pull off.
The possibilities are unlimited.
Remember, one or two of you can still be eliminated.
- Good luck, chefs. - Good luck.
Let's make some great food.
It is an incredibly difficult thing to do
to open a restaurant.
- Let's go! - Let's go!
Let's go!
Having opened up nine of them, none of them are easy.
Let's get to work.
Opening something in 24 hours is insane.
All right, guys.
I think we have the most important questions right now.
Concept. Mexican and Korean?
- I think that would be cool. - I was also
- thinking like a fusion. - Mexican-Asian.
- Yeah. - Now let's think of the name.
Is there anything that's like a Mexican word
that could be a play on an Asian word?
- How do you say two? - D-E-U-L.
How about Dos by Deul?
- Two by two. - Oh, I like that.
- You guys like it? - That's cute.
Positions. Who's who?
I am not front of house.
- I'll do it. - Yeah.
How are your experiences on expoing?
I'm really----ing good at expoing.
Yes, I can see that too.
I'm super strong at expoing.
This is, like, what I tend to do at my restaurants.
Just being in that chaos, being able to organize it.
Like, my brain just works that way.
- I'm okay with cooking. - Yeah, same here.
Are you sure you're okay with that?
I would love to expo and be the chef.
Great. Front of house or line cook,
- I'm totally fine either way. - I think your energy
in the front of house would be----ing killer.
- I think it would be great. - Let's do it.
I started as a greeter in my very first restaurant ever.
Waited tables and bartended.
I've also managed front of the house.
So, there's a risk, but I think it's okay.
Just thinking about, like, all of us together,
it's a very global theme.
So, then what does that mean though?
Like, very global is very, very broad.
I think the water is a big inspiration.
If we focus on, like, seafood and vegetables?
I would like a concept with a singular name.
Maybe like one word.
- Channel? - Channel is good.
Channel actually is not bad because
the channel connects things.
I love that.
Are we doing only savory?
Dessert is like-- I can make dessert,
but it's not my strength.
- I'd rather do savory. - I agree.
I kind of want to do Asian aguachile.
- You know what I mean? - Let's do that.
I have an appetizer.
Tartar and then cilantro green goddess.
- And that could be two raw. - Perfect. Yes.
Course two?
I have a dish that I thought in the past
and it will be seafood with kimchi marmalade
and miso vermonte.
There's no Latin influence in this.
Why don't you do jicama instead?
- Oh, jicama. - Jicama.
They have like these little rice cakes in Korea,
but we could use, like, a mole.
The thing is, it's a perfect match with the green mole.
We all are pitching ideas for the menu.
And we just build on that.
Because forcing a dish into a menu is like a fart.
If you have to push it, it's probably sh--.
Don't put that in there. You don't have to take that.
- And then entrees. - So, when I was at Uji,
we used to marinate a steak with shio koji.
Have you done that before?
- Yes. - Okay.
And then I was thinking that instead of
using wajigi sauce, we can use a kimchi sauce.
Get like those fermented flavors.
Perfect.
I have an idea for a starter.
It's basically a smoked beet tartar.
So there's no meat in it?
It kind of mimics the taste of meat
- without being meat. - Sure.
I could do a seafood chawanmushi.
- That would be really beautiful. - Oh, I love that.
I would love to play on a New England clam chowder.
Because we have five people, our first thought
is that we would give three entrée options,
so you have a larger variety there.
I have a vegan gumbo that I'd like to do.
I was thinking about dirty rice
and instead of chicken livers, doing like an oyster.
Are you doing rice and you're doing rice then for two mains?
- Is that what you said? - It's mostly the soup.
- And that's three mains? - That's three mains.
We need to make sure that we're not focusing
too much on representing ourselves.
We need to be representing the restaurant.
Dan's first course, I'm not really sold on it.
It doesn't sound like there's any seafood.
I am concerned about making these decisions
and having to form a menu in this short amount of time.
So, dessert, I'm thinking the white chocolate cremeux.
Blueberries are also in season.
- Sure. - I know you had
another dessert that you were thinking of.
Yeah, I was thinking about doing a set custard,
and the flavor is mostly like tea-focused.
Do you want to do that together?
Yeah.
We spoke about a cocktail maybe?
I'm honestly thinking a tea cocktail.
I was literally just going to say a tea cocktail.
We all have a dish, and then we have
some that we're collabing on.
- Yeah. - All right, let's get moving.
All right, let's do this.
Hey BMW, take me to All-Star Rentals.
- Let's go. - Great.
Let's go.
Welcome to All-Star.
Can you do chairs, tablecloths, plants?
Design is not my forte.
Do these pillows.
But Laura can visualize
what the dining room is gonna look like
in a way that I just really can't.
The green, the faded wall.
The faded will be really pretty.
- I kind of like that. - Yeah, right?
- This one's more gold. - Let's go with this.
Hi, party of two, Danny Garcia.
I don't want people to get comfortable
in the waiting area, hopefully.
We're all done here, yeah.
We got to go shopping now, so thank you so much.
Bye!
I know that hour went by so fast,
but we really need to make sure that
our sh-- collectively makes sense.
What's up, squad?
We just wanted to be on the same page.
- For sure. - We really need
to make sure that we're cohesive in our menu and really
just are singing the same tune.
We're a modern American restaurant that pulls from
each of our individual experiences.
And I think that's up to you, Michelle,
to kind of tell that story when people come in.
I think it gives us some latitude to do anything,
kind of, you know?
But that's not the challenge.
The challenge is to create a restaurant with cohesiveness.
I feel like the cohesion point
is that we're inspired by the water.
I can pivot to something else.
Like, the beets don't fit into this.
I could do a smoked trout business.
That's like a real Wisconsin-y sort of thing.
I love the idea of a smoked trout.
- I got the list. - Yep.
While me and Savannah go to Mo's,
Danny, Michelle, and Amanda are going to go
to St. Paul's Fish Market.
- Can we just stay together? - Yeah, yeah.
There's no point in us separating.
- Yeah, no, it's fine. - Okay.
Catfish is here.
You guys have shucked oysters?
- Yeah, I got the select. - Perfect.
And do you carry trout?
What's up?
There's no trout here.
There's perch, there's walleye.
- Walleye would be great. - Okay, we need 13 pounds.
Awesome, thank you.
Oregano, [indistinct].
Manny and I are going to the Latin Market.
Our plan is to get the specialty and the produce
at the El Rey Market.
Find some papalo. I'm getting some epazote.
And we will get the proteins at Whole Foods Market.
Ah, pinche chocolate.
These are the rice cakes, but these are kind of silly.
The rice cakes in the store
are thinner disks used for soups,
which I am not making a soup.
These are weird and flat.
Where's, like, the tubes?
I just need this as a vessel that carries the salsa verde.
I think I can pull this off.
We're going to buy them out and see what happens.
Are you ready? Let's get out of here.
Thanks, Mo's. Have a good day.
- Oh, my God. - Yeah.
- Thank you! - Let's go.
Just quickly.
I think we're good. Good job.
Let's just grab mint.
- Hi, Dan. - Hi, guys.
We have a $3,000 budget here
and we've already bought all of our proteins.
That's a big deal.
I need to buy all the carrots though.
I am making my interpretation of a clam chowder,
but it's all about the carrots.
2, 4, 6, 80. That's 80.
I was this young sous chef and I kept getting,
like, carrot dishes assigned to me.
I actually had a book, it was the Carrot Chronicles.
It was, like, 15 different carrot recipes in it.
You name the way, I can tell you the best way to cook a carrot.
I love carrots.
Amanda, do you need help finding anything?
All I need is rices.
Hi, can I get all the Dungeness clusters?
Thank you.
That's all the whitefish you have?
What about this snapper?
Oh, my God.
For our team dish, pescado a la talla,
we didn't even consider that we have to cook
for about 75 people, but we need to start prepping.
We don't have time to go to the fish market.
We need to pick a protein we're comfortable with
because this is what, like, sends people home.
We can do pork tenderloin.
Loin and loin, is that too similar?
But we don't really have a lot of options.
So, we're doing pork a la talla?
With this pineapple salsa.
Yeah, that sounds good.
Instead of the fish,
we can do pork tenderloin a la talla.
Never have eaten it, but they have enough pork tenderloin.
I'm like, let's just go with it.
I'm gonna go start checking out.
Okay.
Oh, looks like we're not coming back out.
Full-on budget.
I need a shot of something.
You ready to rock, Dan?
Let's do this.
Let's go, guys.
When I first got here,
my milestone was to make it to Restaurant Wars.
- Here you are, bud. - Careful with
what you wish.
So many vegetables, so many bags.
This is crazy.
Restaurants don't open in 24 hours.
That's just not how it works,
but this is Top Chef,
and we're gonna make some sh-- happen.
- She's smoking. Woo! - First course,
we're gonna do a little smoked walleye salad.
For our seafood concept, the smoked walleye dip
is just classic Wisconsin, but also being Jewish,
I am using Middle Eastern ingredients
that you'd find in Israeli food,
and that really speaks to who I am as a person.
This dish is even better than my original thought
of doing beets because it's closer to the theme.
And then we're just gonna do a little simple
- potato hash brown finger. - Hash brown finger
is not a term I'm familiar with, but I like it.
Savannah really wants to do this chawanmushi.
I think it really honors scallops
and mushrooms in a really beautiful way.
Second course, Amanda is doing a gumbo z'herbes.
The utilization of kombu gives it the feeling
of seafood without there being any in there.
I have never eaten a gumbo that has been vegan,
but she feels very strongly that she can give it seafood flavor.
I just hope the judges think it's fitting for this concept.
It's a very Amanda dish.
It sounds very Amanda.
I am making grilled carrots with Old Bay clams and thyme.
Michelle is making fried catfish with dirty rice.
I feel like the dude in Elf.
Because of the maple syrup?
And for our third course, dessert,
Dan is making maple cremeux.
So, I'm thinking dessert prep tomorrow.
And Amanda and I
are collaborating on a honey custard.
Because five hours should be plenty of time
for it to set with the gelatin and everything.
I couldn't agree more.
What's up, Green Team?
Living the dream!
Dungeness crab is kind of my jam.
It's the crab I use the most back home
in the Pacific Northwest.
So, for the first course,
we're kind of thinking appetizer,
but cold dishes.
So, I'm making a dungeness crab aguachile.
I'm going to do a quick pickle on the bamboo.
I'm going to make
- cilantro green goddess - Beautiful.
And Laura is making a beef tartare.
Let's talk shrimp.
We have these big-ass shrimp.
Second course, I'm making shrimp with a miso butter.
Soo, are you making your verde tonight?
- Yeah. - Soo is making
rice cakes with salsa verde.
I'm gonna try to make the salsa verde tonight,
but I'm gonna try to help out as much as I can.
Get proteins kind of squared away.
- Yeah. - Thank you for that.
For the third course,
Manny is making a beef tenderloin.
- Pork looks good! - And then as a group,
we'll be making Ssamjang marinated pork tenderloin.
It just makes sense for us as a team of four
to nix the dessert and go in on savory only.
That plays more on our strengths.
I'm really excited about our menu.
Dos by Deul!
50 minutes left.
How are you feeling, Michelle?
The rice just cooked a little uneven.
I think I'm going to just cook this rice here in the oven.
I definitely have to get 90% of my prep done today
because tomorrow I have to be in front of the house.
All right, guys, we'll be in there.
Okay, cool. Crush it.
This is the base of my aguachile.
I think you're going to go higher on the acidity.
- I think so, too. - All right, Chef Manny,
you want to taste the ssamjang marinade?
Oh, can I try that, too?
We're making sure that everybody tastes everything.
A tad saltier.
My experience, I wish I would have put more salt.
- All right. - I'd go easy, though.
It's a little salty. I think it's kind of salty,
- to be honest. - Yeah, I like it.
It's okay, we can always add more salt.
- We can adjust tomorrow. - Yeah, you're right.
The biggest thing
we have to do is these reservations.
It feels totally insane that we will be cooking
in a restaurant that we created in less than 24 hours.
Tomorrow, we're going to go over the tartar dish,
but you need to focus on front of house.
I need to focus on front of house.
- And training the servers. - Nobody does this.
You want to know why? Because it sucks.
You all right, girl?
- I'm not okay. - She's freaking out.
I am freaking out a little bit.
Let's go, let's go.
- Let's go, Restaurant Wars! - Yes!
Opening day of Dos by Deul.
I didn't get much sleep, not going to lie,
but everyone's in high spirits.
I think we're ready to take this challenge on.
What's your staff going to be like today?
Me, Dan, and Savannah are working the line.
What station is Dan working?
Dan's on garde manger.
This is the most experienced
garde manger you've ever seen.
First thing I wanna do
is pull out the little hash brown cakes.
Dan, am I going to be able
to grab gelatin sheets from you soon?
Just tell me when you want.
I want this carrots rocking and rolling.
Savannah, checking in real quick.
The plating for my dish will require Savannah
to sear the rice cake, fry the catfish,
and garnish with some smoked oyster mayo.
- Are you happy? - It needs salt, but I'm happy.
- The flavor's great. - Hallelujah.
Aguachile's done. Manny, what about you, bud?
I am cooking everything for the mole.
Soo, what about the rice dish again?
Soaking the rice to give them a little better texture.
I need to get a nice crust on these ricecakes,
plus I need to help out with Manny's two dishes.
Okay.
Manny, you're working the charred pineapple?
Yes, chef. Since we don't have wood fire here,
I decided to just roast it,
but reducing it with sake instead.
That sounds great.
I'm gonna mix everything right now so we have it ready.
Laura, the meat itself isn't seasoned at all
just with the sauce, right?
It is, but it's not already seasoned because
- the sauce is pretty seasoned. - Okay.
This dish, me and my husband used to serve at our popup.
It's a good dish that I can have ready in the fridge
to make things easier for Kaleena to expedite.
Guys, servers are here. Stepping off.
- Heard. - Okay.
Have a lot of fun with it.
I do have some materials for you that I want you to study.
This is the menu.
There's so much to do.
We have to get the service staff trained
and ready to go in a short amount of time.
Let's start getting the linens on the tables.
I am feeling the pressure.
Welcome. I have set up a sheet of the concept,
the menu, the name, the inspiration.
Let's do it.
Let's go all the way in the corner on that side.
This is the biggest day of the competition so far.
- Just like that. - Just like that?
- Yeah. - Okay.
I'm a little bit of a perfectionist
and I try to pay extra attention to the details.
Pull it closer. This way off. Yeah.
Damn, Michelle. It looks great.
- We're ready. - If everything else
goes to sh--, at least we look good, girl.
Welcome to Dos by Deul.
- Wow! - Oh, my God!
Good job, girl.
She killed it.
It's a beautiful looking restaurant.
One hour 'til service.
One hour.
It's not a challenge, this is a war.
Yes, chef.
I'm almost halfway through the beef.
Once I'm done with this, we have pork to work.
After the challenge that
I didn't do my best with the steak,
- I kind of want-- - Redemption?
A little bit of redemption, yeah, that's right.
Yeah, buddy!
You guys wanna give a taste to this guy real quick for me?
That's what I want to eat after I eat a fish.
All right, guys, we're in.
Wow, chef, you look amazing.
Let's do this. Woo!
- 30! - 30!
All right, so this is ready.
Every time you need to put in a ticket,
I need you to just come and get one of these.
I don't want to have to decipher
one server's writing from the other.
Therefore, I pre-wrote the tickets.
So, you're going to put your table number up top
and then dishes for that table.
As a chef, I feel good.
Everything that we made today is delicious.
I'm happy to serve it
and the menu definitely makes sense.
This is for the W.
You know, if we win, drinks on me, sh--.
You guys, we have the first guests coming.
Three, two, one.
Dos by Deul is open!
Let's do it. Let's have a good service, chef.
Hi, how are you?
Come on in.
Dos by Deul is two by two.
It's a Mexican-Asian concept
and we do want to welcome you with a refreshment.
You're good? You're good?
- Hi, folks. How are you? - Good.
Settle in, have a good time.
My name is Michelle.
If you have any other questions, let me know.
Guys, we already have six tables, okay?
- Yes, chef. Six. - Heard.
First order in.
Can we say tartare, not beef?
It's confusing.
Um, yes.
I've seen time and time again
where the expediter gets messed up
because everybody's writing tickets a different way,
so I just wanna nip that in the bud.
Guys, when you drop tickets, will you just put it here?
Because if it's there, I'm going to miss it.
- Okay. - Let's go.
I'll follow you.
We have two fresh dishes to start the meal.
This is beautiful.
This is good.
Both of these dishes are so colorful.
They fit the ambiance
- and the vibe. - Mm-hmm.
It's such a great menu.
We definitely are seafood and vegetable forward.
It's a cold brew of tea.
Chef Danny does tea service pretty much every day.
- Hungry? - Starving.
- Good luck out there. - Thank you.
- See you on the other side. - See you on the other side.
- Hi, how are you? - Good, how are you?
Follow me right outside.
Thank you.
Hello! How are we doing this evening?
- Well, thank you. - Wonderful.
I'm just going to start you off
with a little welcome drink.
It is going to be a sparkling soba cha
which is going to be a buckwheat tea.
Yours looks different.
- Cheers, cheers. - Cheers.
Welcome.
Thank you so much.
Hey chefs, first table of judges is sitting down in patio two.
- Patio two. - I'll be back.
We want the guests at Dos by Deul
to feel that everybody is special,
but the judges are extra special.
- Hello. - Oh, hello.
- How are you? - Hi, Laura.
Welcome to Dos by Deul.
We are two Mexican chefs and two Korean.
And the concept is based on that.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Kaleena, the first judges ticket.
Four tartare and four crab.
Thank you, Laura.
All right, I'm working on judge apps.
What are your first impressions of the menu?
We're talking about two regions that have really bold flavors.
It gives you a lot to crave.
Service, please.
We're going to go to the judges.
So they're going to get one of each.
- That's it? - Yep.
Judges table, first course is out.
Thank you.
- Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited. - Oh, here we go.
Great, thank you.
Okay, so my dish, the beef tartare
and then the green goddess cilantro sauce.
The tartare is mixed with a little bit of gochujang.
And then the other dish is Kaleena's.
That's a melon and dungeness crab aguachile
with bamboo and a tostada with some furikake.
- Thank you so much. - Of course.
What did you think about Laura's beef tartare?
I was worried about it having too much going on,
but the more bites that I take, it starts to
work really well together.
The sauce work is phenomenal.
I love the beef tartare. I love the spice on it.
I think Kaleena did a beautiful job.
The aguachile was bright and tart,
but the melon, things got a little bit washed out.
A little muddled? Just needed that
- tiny bit more acidity. - Yeah.
Judges are down, they're at 43.
Yes. Yes, 43. Judges are on 43.
The judges arrive and my nerves kick in.
Okay, I'm going to walk out there and be like,
y'all done showed up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm not sure how much
or how little I should be going to their table.
No, I'm going to give them a minute.
Michelle has not come to say hello.
This is true, she has not.
My strategy is to have a presence,
but make sure that they have their space too.
You know, I'm surprised that Michelle,
she walked right by the table
- and never checked in. - Yeah.
Can we get Michelle, please?
- I'm here, Danny. - We're going to run some judges.
Heard. You guys, we need all hands on deck.
Thank you.
Hello.
- There's Michelle. - First course, thank you.
- Hi, Michelle. - How are you all?
Great. First tables are doing all right?
First tables are doing okay.
Channel is a play on the channel that connects waterways.
Dan is the smoked walleye with a potato cake.
It's representative of Milwaukee.
And then a chawanmushi with scallops.
Savannah, she's from the Carolinas.
She does a lot of Japanese cooking.
- Thanks, Michelle. - Thank you.
Well, the first bite
of the chawanmushi is really beautiful.
Texturally, it's stunning. It's seasoned really well.
I think the only thing for me is the mushrooms
are kind of just chewy and kind of an afterthought.
Dan's first dish
is giving me, like, sour cream and onion potato chip vibes.
It's bright, it's tangy.
The whole dish is beautifully seasoned.
The smokiness comes through
and the harissa just provides just the right amount of heat.
I would go somewhere to order this again.
- First course went down well. - Love it.
We're fired on their entrees right now, chef.
- Heard. - All right, guys,
let's push out these judges, real beautiful, real cute.
- Judges, entrees now. - Yep, let's go.
Catfish with dirty rice.
- Catfish with dirty rice? - Thank you.
- Smells delicious - Enjoy.
Michelle, this is your dish, yes?
- Yes. - So, how does it feel
not executing your own dish?
I've gone over it with Savannah several times.
It's a little nerve-wracking, but I trust her.
My dish is fried catfish with a dirty rice cake.
I'm from Houston. It's very Gulf Coast.
And chef Danny did a play on New England style clam chowder.
There's no potato, it's substituted with a carrot.
Chef Amanda did the gumbo z'herbes.
It's vegan, so it's all made from kombu.
- Thank you, Michelle. - My pleasure.
Thank you.
Interesting to do a vegan gumbo
when it's a seafood restaurant.
I mean, the kombu, part of the sea.
- The home. - You're right.
It's good. It's not eating like gumbo, but it's tasty.
Danny's carrot dish I'm thoroughly enjoying.
- Yep. - The texture of the carrots
mixed with the velvety sauce, the clams.
But if they were doing a New England clam chowder,
and then there's old bay and carrot in there?
It's a little confusing.
Carrot, P1. Catfish, P2.
The best part of Michelle's dish is the smoked oyster sauce.
You wouldn't even need this rice.
You could just eat the fried fish.
Yeah.
The catfish is really delicious.
Judges are coming, right?
- What table? - That's patio two.
No, I don't have two.
Okay, four people.
- Okay. - Two of each.
- Eight dishes. - Write it out.
Please write it out.
But I will fire it, but please write it out.
Wait, what?
When you're trying to push out tickets,
you don't realize if the tickets
have been delayed for a long time,
or something that's been fired right on time.
We just cooked whatever Chef Kaleena
needs at that moment.
You're working a beef and a pork?
Are they fired? No, chef.
Okay. One, two.
Why are they----ed up?
Stop writing that.
Can you help me with the wipe?
I'm a little behind on apps right now.
We are a little bit in the weeds.
- Judge's table. - Okay. All right, guys.
One of each for each table.
I love all these green sauces that we're getting.
I know.
These ones are fun.
Soo made the rice crackers
with a little salsa verde and Chinese sausage.
And we have the shrimp cooked in miso butter
and kimchi with jicama.
That's Chef Manny.
- Thank you. - Of course.
Soo's salsa verde is delicious.
- Delicious. - It is.
It's savory, it's spicy, it's acidic.
I see that you've eaten almost all of it,
- so I feel like you like it. - I can't stop.
Soo did a really good job
of providing something craveable.
Well, Manny's shrimp is beautifully cooked.
- It is. - Mm-hmm.
As much as his miso butter sauce is delicious,
Manny's jicama kimchi drowns out the heat of the jicama.
I need salt in this pork.
Remember that yesterday, the marinade,
I was like, we should go a little saltier?
It doesn't carry over as much as you think.
Chef, I'm coming with our friend's dessert here.
- You want to start? - Yeah.
- Thank you. - Enjoy.
So, you have a jasmine tea and citrus gelée,
buckwheat crumble on top.
That's a collaboration of Danny and Amanda.
And then Dan's dish is the cremeux
with blueberry and pistachio.
- Thank you. - Enjoy.
Amanda's and Danny's, honey custard is super tasty.
Great texture.
- Really well-balanced. - I love it.
I love the addition of the tea.
- Dan's cremeux. - I actually really like this.
The nuts are really, really nice.
The blueberry, the sweetness.
- A lot of balance. - The problem I'm having with it,
I'm not getting a whole lot of maple out of it.
- Yes, it was missing maple, Tom. - Come on.
But my plate is missing food, all right?
There were no bad clunker dishes.
No, these are all really good dishes.
No, there really weren't.
No, it's just, this is not a cohesive restaurant.
- Yeah. - It's a bunch of ideas.
- We're going to 41. - 41.
All right, we have another reservation to catch.
- 6:00 reservation. - So, let's go.
Let's go eat another one.
There you go. Thank you, 41.
The judges are gone and I don't get a chance to say goodbye.
That's not a good look from me.
Judges are out.
We just need to keep pushing on these other tables
before we get set on the other.
Excuse me?
I'm so sorry. We're waiting on another course.
Just check on it. Thank you so much.
All right, our judges table has been plated.
Can you run judges table?
Yes. One and two.
We'll follow you guys.
Laura, how's it going in the kitchen?
- They're hustling for sure. - Yeah, I bet.
Manny made the beef tenderloin with mole negro,
shimeji mushrooms on top, and then for the other course,
you have pork loin with a little bit of pico
and then emulsion of black beans.
And the pork is kind of a collaboration.
- Great. - Thank you.
Yeah, of course. Enjoy.
This mole that Manny made, that's just ridiculous.
Fantastic.
I think there could be some salt on the pork,
and it is the dish that's the collaboration.
It's lacking punch.
So, did this dish kind of miss the love of someone
giving it all of their attention?
That's so tender.
I think it's been a really good progression.
Do you think that these two last dishes
went along with the rest of the courses in terms of the theme?
Up to the second course it was way more cohesive.
I feel like this course almost felt like we already
got up and went to a different restaurant.
- How's everything? - Appreciate it.
- It was great. - So good.
It's hard to not eat all of everything.
I know that. You're going to the other restaurant.
The other restaurant.
Hi! How are you all this evening?
Round two, guys.
Hi. Simmons for four, please.
- Follow me this way. - Great, thanks.
Guys, second judges just went down.
Okay. All good.
First service with the judges,
I don't get a chance to say goodbye.
My name is Katie. I'll be taking care of you.
Now that Gail has arrived,
I want to make sure that they get top-notch service.
- Hi, Michelle. - Welcome.
- Hi, how are you all? - Lovely to see you.
- Likewise. - Hope you enjoy everything.
Thank you.
So, guys, your next pick, if we can push it out
before the judges, two gumbo and two catfish.
There's 12 or 15 tickets on the board at the moment.
If I stop service to focus on the judges,
I just think it'll be a detrimental thing
to the kitchen.
Nothing is VIP that walk in.
So, this is a little bit of a refreshener because
I know you've been waiting for a while.
We're going to go on 43, okay?
- Anything you need right here? - Yes, can you hang tight?
We have three tables coming out back to back to back.
It gets much busier once we get into like second turn.
Pork one, beef two, table one.
- Where did they go? - Go bring them back.
We have tickets that are across the board.
Appetizers, second courses, entrees.
I have the pork right here for you.
Oh, you have the filet and you have the pork?
- And she has filet too as well. - Oh, okay.
We have a full dining room.
There's not really room for mistakes.
Can you give me a filet on the fly?
I'll wait right here okay, Manny?
- Thank you very much. - Yes, chef. On it.
Thank you.
Enjoy yourselves.
It's pretty.
Pickled bamboo, furikake tostada.
At first glance, this makes sense to me.
- Hello. - Hi. How are you?
- Welcome. - Thank you.
Of course.
What do you think of the cocktail?
- Better than the last one. - Right.
- It's better than the last one. - Comparatively.
Okay, so the judges are here and they want one of each.
Okay, heard.
All day, you owe me four by two
walleye and chawanmushi.
If it's too many things at one time,
tell me, and we can slow it down and readjust, yeah?
- Heard. - It's been
over 30 minutes since we sat down.
Well, at least I'm hungry again.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
How close are we to the first course?
- Give me a time. - I can start plating now.
Let's not get comfortable yet, guys.
We're going to go table one, table 43. What's up?
Table one, they're waiting for course number two.
This is not right. That already went.
We're getting table numbers and stuff wrong.
The servers are confusing the table numbers.
Guys, we're not going to use it.
Just set it down. Put it in the sink.
The dishes are coming back and that throws like
a big wrench in the middle of service.
We need to fire the judges' table.
Okay, give me a second.
Guys, let's go to 43. Tartar, seat one.
Tartar, seat two.
Yes, we're going.
Starting judges.
Do you know we've been in here for 25 minutes already?
And they're two cold dishes.
The people right behind us, they haven't had any food.
I don't see anybody eating.
- Do you see anybody eating? - No.
Very slow start.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
- Okay, this is for our friends. - You guys want to start?
Judges, everyone gets one.
This was a really long wait.
Right, and she didn't come over to check on it.
- Thank you. - My pleasure.
First course is called the smoked walleye dip.
That's from Chef Dan.
Chef Savannah did the chawanmushi.
- Great. Thank you. - My pleasure. Please enjoy.
Thank you, Michelle.
Erick, what do you think of Dan's dish?
I like the playfulness of the flaked fish presented as a dip.
I love it. I think it's really good.
It is really good.
That texture with that harissa, so good.
In Savannah's dish, the mushrooms
overpower the delicate nature of scallops and chawanmushi.
After these, I'll go straight into those judges' catfish.
We're gonna go to the judges table right now.
Let's go.
Thank you very much.
Beef tartar is actually my dish.
And the aguachile, that's Kaleena's dish.
- Thank you, Laura. - Enjoy.
- Thank you, Laura. - Of course.
What do you think of Laura's tartar?
I think it has really good flavor.
- It's a nice dish. - Even with the rice cracker?
Oh, no. I'm not eating the rice cracker.
The second they sit, they get soggy.
This is wonderful.
- Yeah. Yeah. - So fresh.
Overall, I like Kaleena's flavor profile.
It's just pretty flat to me.
And then this chip, it tastes stale. It's greasy.
The chip wasn't great,
but the rest of this was delicious.
You're saying 53 was waiting for their second course?
Their second course already went.
Chef Kaleena, you heard, right?
We're firing on the judges table.
We're having a lot of issues with table numbers.
So, Laura, I need you to double check on that because
I need this out before we even begin on the judges table.
Michelle, we're going judges right now, right now.
Beautiful. Let's go.
Yeah, we're rocking here.
- Oh, wow. - I did the fried catfish
with the dirty rice cake.
Chef Amanda did the gumbo z'herbes.
And then Chef Danny did a take on clam chowder.
- All right, enjoy. - Thank you.
Biting into Michelle's dish, I mean,
the smoked oyster mayonnaise is the star of the show for me.
I think the one thing for me that I found to be
just a little overcooked was the rice
- inside of the dirty rice cake. - Yeah.
The crunch on this catfish is delightful.
Amanda's gumbo?
The moment I see seaweed,
let's make a really delicious kombu
and not screw around with tomato,
which is kind of fighting the kombu.
- Taking over? - Yeah.
Spicy. Just more than I expected.
- More than I thought, yeah. - Good job, y'all.
Danny executed the carrots perfectly.
It's a whole vibe going on with the carrots.
Yeah. I really love the sauce on Danny's dish.
I keep going back and trying to dig up some more of it.
I don't know how to tie in chawanmushi with the carrots.
And the vegan gumbo.
- Where's the channel? - Great job, guys.
Table 43, Chef?
Their entrees are in my hand.
All right. After this goes out, we need to do judges' tables.
- Yes. - It's been 45 minutes.
This is taking forever.
Okay, let's go.
- Chef's table. Okay, walk in. - This is the last push.
- Here it comes. - Oh, here we go.
Oh, thank you.
You do have salsa verde with some rice cakes.
That's Soo. And for the shrimp,
- that's Chef Manny. - Thank you.
Soo's rice cakes are hard to chew.
It feels like they were seared first,
- and then they sat. - Yeah.
Rice cake salsa verde. It's delicious.
That was really good.
What about Manny's miso poached shrimp dish?
Each ingredient is fine on its own, but none of them shine.
They're just trying to force this.
- It doesn't work. - Yeah, there was no Latin
- in the miso. - There's a cilantro sprig.
We just need to put a touch of soy sauce here.
We're waiting on you guys.
- They're already reset. - All right,
you guys go with the custards, please?
Judges are walking right now.
Thank you.
Hi.
Michelle, who made this dish again?
That is a collaboration from Amanda and Danny.
- Ah. - And then Dan
- made the blueberry. - All right.
- Thank you so much. - My pleasure. Enjoy.
Amanda and Danny made a really successful custard.
It's pretty delicious.
I really love the bites where I got the citrus.
The custard game is strong.
I'm digging around Dan's dessert,
and I'm enjoying every bite that I'm having,
but I feel like it's almost like a bowl
of the best garnishes for a dessert.
Yeah, it needs another component.
Mm-hmm.
- That's it, team. - Come on.
- Bring it in. - Yay!
Got it done.
So, this is the restaurant that feels like
there are too many egos.
Everybody's trying to shine,
and they're not leaving enough room to be collaborative.
Guys, the judges' table?
Right now, right now, please.
- Great. Okay, let's go. - Thank you.
And then please come right back.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
You have pork tenderloin,
it's a collaboration from all the chefs.
The other course, Manny is doing the beef filet
with some mole negro.
- Enjoy. - Thank you.
What do you think of Manny's beef filet?
The beef is cooked well.
The beef was cooked perfectly.
Yeah, I really enjoyed Manny's dish.
The other thing that really bugs me is that
you're bringing these two cuisines together,
Asian and Korean, there's tons of flavor.
Just because you take one ingredient
from the Asian supermarket.
I think that's been happening across the board.
- Yeah, I do too. - The mole is really good.
So tender.
Andrew, what do you think of the pork?
I think it was cooked really well.
I think it's slightly under-seasoned,
especially for the sweetness of the pineapple.
Anybody get any char in this pineapple?
Mm-mm.
Anybody get anything from this pineapple?
Boy, oh boy.
Yay!
- Group hug! - Yay!
Crushed it.
The whole thing feels very forced to me.
Dos by Deul had a theme actually going into it,
but now I'm walking away feeling
more confused by the whole thing.
- Hey, guys. - Hi.
Hello. How was Channel?
- Hi. - Hi.
- Hello. - Interesting.
- Oh, interesting.
We all thought that a lot of the dishes in Channel
were not as advertised, but the dishes were good
- and the carrots were amazing. - The carrots were great.
It's interesting which restaurant you got to eat
at first for what your expectations were.
We came from having a very cohesive menu
then going into a menu that wasn't quite as cohesive.
Let me ask you about cohesion for a second.
The menu may have been, but did you find the Asian ingredients
with the Mexican ingredients, you found it to be cohesive?
In most, but not all cases.
The ingredients on the individual dishes worked.
As a progression, we definitely found
some things that fell flat.
For us in Dos by Deul, the menu was what I think of
when I don't like the word fusion.
At least it felt like they were working
as a team collaboratively,
whereas Channel didn't collaborate.
But that was their concept.
Did that work as a concept?
Is that playing it too safe?
There's a lot to discuss,
so Itaru, Erick, and Andrew,
thank you very much for being here and lending your expertise.
It was such a pleasure to have all of you with us.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Chefs, for your Elimination Challenge,
we asked you to work in teams
to create your own concepts for Restaurant Wars.
We'll start with Channel.
Help us understand the concept.
Sure. An American seafood restaurant.
Kind of like how channels put together waterways,
these are channels that put us together.
Across the board that was there,
but now you're talking about a restaurant concept
coming out of five heads.
It became very, very hard for us to figure out
what you really were trying to go for here.
Sure.
This is a good,
high-level conversation to have
because we're not sitting here nitpicking over--
"God, these dishes were terrible and we didn't like them."
You're going to hear similar things on your side as well.
How did you determine who did what?
I think we played to all of our strengths.
I had most front-of-the-house experience I think amongst us.
With Danny being such a strong leader already in the kitchen,
everybody agreed that he would do that.
So, Michelle, when do you think it's appropriate
to touch a table and how often?
Throughout their entire dining experience,
- to be honest with you. - Perfect.
In your mind, do you think you touched our table
as frequently as we just talked about?
I did not get a chance to say goodbye as you guys left.
All right, so now let's move on to Dos by Deul.
Can you explain that concept?
We realized that we had two very obvious strengths.
It's two chefs with a Mexican background,
two chefs with an Asian background.
When you were creating the menu and each dish,
did you all talk through each one and think,
does this have enough of each one of the sides represented?
I think even in our own individual dishes,
the entire menu was cohesive.
Laura, were you made aware that our group waited
roughly 30 minutes for the first course?
Y-- yes.
We had a couple snafus with servers
getting a couple table numbers wrong,
but I do believe that we were able to straighten it out
and get back on track.
It happened in both restaurants on the second turn.
That second push that had the tickets had come in before
and I wanted to continue service and not, you know,
completely halt everything to start your appetizers.
This was the whole purpose of splitting up
and having judges in your dining room at all times.
Across the board, we had some really fantastic
and very memorable plates of food,
but ultimately, we did have to come up with
one winning team and one losing team.
The winning team is...
- Channel. - Yes! Yes!
Oh, sh--! Yes!
We just got money!
Holy sh--!
You just won yourselves $40,000.
- Yes! - Let's go!
Courtesy of the Wells Fargo
Active Cash Credit Card.
Put that on the Top Chef bank account.
Dan, as confused as I was by the dessert,
I was very certain and clear on your smoked walleye.
I thought it was really well put together.
The flavor was fantastic,
the hash brown was crispy and it was hot.
What I loved about the dish is that
if you're talking about a regional seafood restaurant,
that clearly had a sense of place.
Yep.
That really conveyed the mission.
Danny, at our table, Erick that was sitting
next to me said that you must have had
a very long relationship with carrots throughout your life
because they were just cooked impeccably.
- Great dish. - Thank you.
Savannah, your chawanmushi.
The flavor and the seasoning was really lovely.
The only thing I think collectively that we were
kind of scratching our heads about was
- the garnish of the mushrooms. - Okay.
The mushrooms felt dehydrated.
Michelle, I thought the catfish was
- absolutely beautifully cooked. - Yeah, it was so good.
If you just served that catfish with the oyster mayo.
Thank you.
Amanda, setting the word gumbo aside,
it was just very one note across the board.
Letting the tomatoes kind of steal the show and maybe
cover up all those other flavors that you took the time to build.
I'm sorry, chef.
But the idea of doing a vegan dish
in a seafood restaurant and using seaweed
is quite brilliant.
Well, good thing you made the honey custard.
It was really, really good.
It was beautiful. It was light.
It was a very pleasant way to end the meal.
So Kwame and Stephanie, as our guest judges,
you have the pleasure of announcing our winner.
It came down to which dish could we all agree upon
was our favorite of the night.
And the winning chef is...
Dan the Man.
Let's go!
Congratulations, Dan.
Let's go!
Love that, love that.
Yeah, Dan, your smoked walleye
felt like you've been doing it for a long time,
but it also was the dish that really represented the concept.
Thanks. Thank you so much.
I mean, it's a team effort,
so I just played my role and did the best I could.
I'm so proud to be back on top.
I mean, this is cool as hell.
Like, I've won two Elimination Challenges
and I won Restaurant Wars.
This is crazy. Like, pinch me.
So, Dan, anybody that gives you a hard time about the brats,
you can say that you brought it home Sconsi-style.
I brought it home Sconsi-style.
So unfortunately, that means, Dos by Deul,
you had our least favorite restaurant of the day,
and either one or two of you will be eliminated.
Unfortunately, Dos by Deul,
you had our least favorite restaurant of the day.
Laura and the beef tartare.
Good way to start, but the rice crackers were really bad.
More bad for you guys because they sat even longer.
This is a moment where things are different.
You know, different tables get different things.
But overall, the salsa matcha
and the gochujang for me, I was like, wait a second.
I kind of like it.
- Yeah. - Thank you.
Kaleena and the Dungeness crab.
Tom, what did you think of that dish?
I thought the crab flavor came out nicely,
but the big problem was the tortilla.
It wasn't crispy. It was greasy.
When you think of aguachile,
you think of spicy and like really, really fresh.
It was just a little boring.
Heard. Thank you.
Manny, going on to your beef.
Mine was-- I mean, it was perfectly cooked.
The star of the beef plate was that mole.
- It was delicious. - It was great.
Thank you.
What did you think of the shrimp?
The flavors of your dish were really lovely,
but in the context of the restaurant,
the butter sauce felt a little bit out of place.
I thought that dish was kind of, like, bland and forgettable.
Heard.
I will tell you, Soo,
that your rice cakes made me really, really happy.
Bringing in all those flavors together,
I think it really worked with the pepitas
for that little extra texture on top.
But two of the ingredients were store-bought.
I just want to see a little more chefing going on here.
I tried to simplify my dish as much as I can
and help out wherever the chefs need me.
He took on a lot of projects to help Manny
with his two dishes and our collab dish.
The pork tenderloin was the collaborative dish.
The pork was not seasoned at all
and the pico...
I thought it was not a pico.
The tricky thing
is the dish that was the least successful
doesn't technically fall on anyone.
It's hard to tell how that fell through the cracks.
I have a question for Kaleena. Going back to that pico,
you're the chef in this restaurant.
- Did you like that? - I did get heat.
I did get salt in my taste of it.
I did like it.
We certainly need to discuss before we can decide.
- We'll call you back in a bit. - Thanks.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Thank you, chefs.
That was the judges' table, man.
That was brutal.
They took a microscope and just was like, all right,
this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.
Soo's dish was a clunker.
We loved Soo's dish. I just really liked the sauce.
What about front of house and how that went?
I think Laura was pleasant and she was present,
but she wasn't present enough, especially with the lag.
The best thing about the shrimp dish was
the cooking of the shrimp that you did.
It was not like my flavors that are like punch in the mouth.
I thought the shrimp was a pretty bad dish.
This butter boat, where does that fit in the concept?
It didn't.
Manny struggled with the idea of putting
Asian flavors in his dishes.
- That's what it felt like to me. - Yep.
What's unfortunate about Manny, that beef dish was really good.
But you could argue that there was nothing
about the concept in it. It felt purely Mexican.
There's certainly an argument for Manny.
- I think Kaleena, too. - Kaleena, too.
We can eliminate two people. That's an option.
A couple people liked my dish
and a couple people found it quite boring.
There was a lot of problems in some of the dishes
and it just didn't seem like Kaleena took charge whatsoever.
I have a problem with that.
She let the collaborative dish go out as it did,
which somebody has to be held accountable for that.
Saying it tastes good and approving it
is still being accountable for it.
That's your job as the chef.
I'm really----ing proud
of what we did and I'm proud of you guys
and I feel like we really pulled together as a team.
So, I think we have our decision then.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Let's get them out here.
You know, chefs, this is Restaurant Wars.
It's about the entire restaurant.
You put together a Latin-Asian concept
and one side of that equation was short changed,
and unfortunately the concept was lost in translation.
Kaleena, please pack your knives and go.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Kaleena, you came through Last Chance Kitchen once before,
- you certainly can do it again. - Thank you, chefs.
- Thank you. - Thank you all.
- I'm sorry. - It's okay.
Obviously I'm bummed, but I... am okay.
I'm still proud of you guys. I'm still proud of what we did.
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
The last elimination three challenges ago,
I was devastated because I knew that I had made a mistake.
I did not feel like I did my best
and this is like the complete opposite of that.
I feel like I've had so many redemption battles
and Last Chance Kitchen itself was a huge redemption battle.
Even though our team didn't win,
I still in my head feel like we're going out on a high note.
Tonight, Kaleena reenters Last Chance Kitchen
where she's already been victorious.
Oh, my God!
Can she cook her way back into the competition
- for a second time? - Ready to go again?
Watch now on Peacock or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef...
We're raising the stakes even higher.
We've always determined elimination based singularly
on your elimination dish...
and now the game is changing.
- Jesus. - Definitely raised the stakes.
Oh, this is so cool!
There's no better way to get to know a culture
than through its food.
We should be normalizing indigenous foods,
not just here but on a global scale.
You took all the mustard grains?
Where'd all the cedar go?
People are going for it.
Get out of here. Get out of my sh--.
Ahh, it's a monster!
This might be a bad idea. We'll see.
Lord Jesus.
Let's go, please.