Previously on Top Chef...
We've always determined elimination based singularly
on your Elimination dish,
and now the game is changing.
Definitely raised the stakes.
It's a mess over here.
The cranberry sauce, it looks pretty basic.
Tom's here, so it's a whole different ballgame.
I think the sauce ate a little bit sandy.
- Okay. - I love the fact that
you found sweetness in the beets.
- Cool. - Wow! Oh!
We want modern dishes
using only Native American ingredients.
The last time I made a dessert, it was one of the top three.
It could've been a pre-dessert,
it could've been dessert.
It just defied sort of logic, in a very good way.
You just do not know what's gonna happen tomorrow.
And the winning chef is... Savannah.
I definitely smoke a lot of things, uh, food-wise.
I feel like I need to push harder
and make something very different and new.
I never worked with elk before,
but I think it's similar to venison.
Your Quickfire dishes
did play into this decision.
Laura and Amanda,
please pack your knives and go.
Six 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.
I miss home so much.
I know. I'm, like, excited about everything, but I'm really
excited to, like, see my family. I haven't really been
- away from home this long. - Yeah.
In the beginning of this competition, I was so scared.
But I feel like I am finally making some waves here.
I have turned something on, and I think it's dangerous.
This is a lot of... stuff. Like, mental, physical.
I've worked 16-hour days, 12-hour days.
That's nothing, but mentally taxing.
Being in the bottom definitely has me really kind of thinking
about my presence here in this competition, my creativity.
Am I mentally strong enough?
You're definitely someone I'm probably
- closest with here. - Yeah.
It's really nice to have people like that here.
It's dope.
What do we got here?
You always gotta go two-to-one ratio
when it comes to peanut butter to jam.
I'm with you, man. Before I go any further...
dude, final six. Really starting to see
the light at the end of the tunnel, I feel like.
Yeah, but definitely starting to miss my wife.
My wife's name is Erica.
We just did get married, and it is that honeymoon phase,
but I think she realizes that the opportunity
to be on Top Chef is huge.
Hopefully she still loves me when I come back.
- Good morning, chefs. - Good morning.
Congratulations, because you have made it to the top six.
Thank you.
Who is feeling lucky today?
Lucky every day next to you, Kristen. Every day.
Aww!
- I feel the same way. - Aww!
He makes me cry every day. In a good way.
He melts my heart.
Not in the way I'll make you cry.
No!
We've been partaking in a lot of traditions here in Wisconsin,
but there are traditions that we're still missing.
Maybe it's one even Dan hasn't heard of.
- Ooh! Maybe. - Maybe.
- It's a meat raffle. - Oh, sh--!
A meat raffle?
What's a meat raffle?
It's exactly what it sounds like.
Back in the day, bar patrons would buy a $1 paddle,
and it had a number on it, and if your number was drawn,
you'd be able to pick whatever meat you wanted in the freezer.
- Nice. - Okay.
Here to host our very first Top Chef Meat Raffle
is this week's guest judge,
two-time James Beard Award winner, restaurateur Art Smith.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
I definitely recognize Art Smith.
He's like a fancy Santa Claus.
Full of food knowledge.
Well, chefs, it's a pleasure to "meat" you.
Ohh.
We have this meat market of deliciousness.
Corned beef back there.
When your name gets drawn, you'll be able to come select
whatever meat you want to use in your next Quickfire dish.
There is a wide range of meat here.
There's premium cuts like wagyu ribeye, Chateaubriand.
There's more affordable items like bologna,
luncheon meat, and ground chicken.
I'm a fan of the luncheon meat.
All right, chefs, let's get started.
- Manny. - Oh, [bleep] yeah.
- Ribeye. - Yes, sir!
- There you go. - Good job, Manny.
You gotta cook it right.
Dan.
- Oh, no. - All right!
Chateaubriand.
Michelle.
I'm actually gonna go for the ground chicken.
- Oh! - I love that.
- Savannah. - I'm gonna go corned beef.
Oh!
- I'm impressed. - Wow.
I like that.
Savannah throws a full curveball
and goes canned corned beef,
which is like, "Thank you."
That's crazy.
I think it shows a lot of confidence.
She's definitely found her voice
and made her presence known.
- Danny. - Gosh dang it.
I'm gonna go lamb.
Soo.
- Luncheon meat. - Grab for it.
I grew up eating a lot of luncheon meat.
Spiced ham flavor packed in a can.
You know, I think we could elevate it.
I'm just trying to understand
why Savannah grabbed the corned beef.
I have an idea. We'll see how it goes.
All right, chefs. Meat isn't the only prize up for grabs.
The chef whose dish hits the jackpot will win $10,000
- in Quickfire Quick Cash. - Let's go.
- Gotta get that money. - I like that.
As you know, all of us judges will be taking into account
your Quickfire performance if you're on the bottom
of the Elimination Challenge.
You have 30 minutes on the clock,
and your time starts now.
Whoo!
Where are you, my little rice flour?
Get some rice.
Here we go. I love eating meat.
I can do red meat for breakfast, lunch, dinner.
I'm surprised I haven't gotten gout.
I'm making a ribeye aguachile.
It's nice and tempered. I'll take that all day.
We'll see what happens here.
I'm gonna spend half my time getting this open.
Is it a corned beef hash kind of day?
Not exactly. I'm gonna do a corned beef and beet salad.
Oh, Lord.
I know canned corned beef.
It is very reminiscent of dog food, to be honest.
So I head over to the Viking Range to cook this
and get it crispy and to really appreciate
all the flavors and the nuances that it has.
I wanna give the judges something unique,
so here we are.
I'm gonna do a jerk chicken nugget.
- Oh, hell yeah. - It has to have spice.
It has to have all of the things that jerk seasoning consists of.
Who doesn't love a good chicken nugget?
And I'm making a black bean puree and a mango salsa.
It's really a lot happening in 30 minutes,
but I wanna make sure that I take risks and chances.
I gotta do this.
Soo, are you comfortable working with luncheon meat?
Yeah. I'm gonna do a play on an old-school Korean dish.
Doshirak is basically a Korean packed lunch.
I'm gonna cure some egg yolks.
- Cure some egg yolks? - Yeah.
- That's fast. - We'll see.
I mean, I made this super salty, so hopefully it'll work out.
Dan, you seem really excited about this meat raffle.
Oh, you know, it's one of those, like, real super Sconnie things.
I got Chateaubriand, beef tenderloin,
so I'm gonna sear it, and then I'm gonna dice it up
in the style of, like, beef larb.
The judges wanna see something creative.
This is not something they'd be expecting me to do
with the Chateaubriand, but it's going to
impact a ton of flavor into it.
Twenty minutes, chefs!
Damn!
You're on flames, is that okay?
Yeah, we're cookin'.
Let's get some marks here. Get that fat going.
Going to the Middle East.
I'm doing a za'atar-spiced lamb
with a harissa and Jimmy Nardello relish.
Coming around. Right behind, papucho.
The lamb's gotta be cooked perfect. Medium-rare.
This is an incredible cut. The marbling.
I'm making the aguachile with the ribeye
instead of traditionally making it with seafood or with fruit.
Wagyu steak, it has fat in it,
and you want the acidity of the broth
to cut through that fat, or else it just coats your palate.
I'm using these peppers for a bit of salsa.
Forget Chris and Tom, I'm just gonna cook something
I wanna eat for all the leftovers.
Go check on those peppers.
Oh, yeah.
The fattiness of corned beef really needs a lot of things
to cut through it, so by adding things like raw golden beets
and then some quick-pickled celery,
I'm giving it a lot of layers to balance it out.
15:30, guys.
Sh--! That went by fast.
I'm really trying to shape the chicken nuggets.
I prepare the mango salsa, and while that's all going,
get the beans off the stove to puree.
It's gonna be really, really tight.
Twelve minutes.
I'm searing luncheon meat.
It's pretty salty.
I do have a piece of meat that's not so glamorous.
You can jazz it up, or you can have
its surrounding flavors be a lot more fancy.
A little sweetness can definitely go a long way.
I'm using Brussels sprouts, and I'm gonna compress it
in a kimchi liquid to make a "kimchi."
What's up, dude? How you doing?
I'm actually gonna wrap everything in
some rice flour noodles.
Basically just getting this guy seared,
chilled down, getting everything else cooked off.
Ooh. Spicy, spicy.
Oh, there.
Savannah, how are you feeling about time?
It's not my friend. How you doing?
I'm good. I'm just-- I'm----ing juicing key limes.
They're so----ing tiny.
I feel like a giant.
Chefs, you have five minutes left.
God damn it.
Sh---.
Time is almost up, and my nerves are really kinda getting to me.
My patties will not cook in time.
I had them shaped in larger patties.
I am literally just chucking it in the oil
to try to get something done.
It's not looking good for your girl.
This is gonna definitely come down to the wire.
Lord Jesus.
Behind.
Let's go.
- 2:30. - My lamb is resting.
I'm just hoping it doesn't carry over.
I left it in for an extra minute,
but that extra minute might have been
not the right move.
I don't think this is good.
ing delicious.
Cool.
- It's not a pretty chop. - Oh, my gosh.
- My hands are shaking. - How many seconds?
- 55. - Oh, good Lord, Chef.
This isn't good. Like, no.
Close.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Time's up, and utensils are down.
Oh, God.
- Danny, come on up. - Chef.
All right, Danny, what'd you make with your lamb?
I did a za'atar spiced lamb rack,
and then I did a Jimmy Nardello harissa relish
with a little labneh and mint.
Why do you take a Jimmy Nardello
that's a sweet pepper, and turn it into a hot pepper?
Because I wanted there to be some of the sweetness of
the Jimmy Nardello, and then I wanted some spice
- from the harissa itself. - Got it.
- All right, Dan. - I had the chatoubriand.
I did something a little different with it.
I actually made a Szechuan beef noodle dumpling,
seared beef, minced it up, and then wrapped it
with a steamed noodle that I made.
Did you cook this in here, or is this all--
I did, so I seared it on each side, and then you dice it up.
Okay.
Michelle.
Thank you.
I was going for a jerk chicken nugget.
I did a black bean puree with a quick pickle on the mango.
So how long did you cook the patty?
In the last three minutes, time really just
- kind of ran out. - Mm-hmm. It's raw.
That's why I'm not eating it.
I'm already focusing on, like,
what will this elimination challenge be?
I know I'm gonna have to kill it.
Soo?
Look at this.
So I had the spiced lunch meat.
In Korea, there's this classic dish called doshirak.
So I marinated the egg, made some jasmine rice,
Brussel sprouts, and a semi-kimchi spice.
- I love the crunch factor. - Thank you.
Savannah?
Thank you.
So this is a corned beef and beet salad,
some creme fraiche, and pickled celery.
Definitely try to get it all in one bite.
How did you crisp up the beef?
I just did it in a skillet.
Thank you.
I always get nervous here.
I mean, Manny, first choice, wagyu ribeye?
Yes, I made a ribeye aguachile.
The serranos, I made a chile toreado
in the fat of the ribeye.
And on top, just a relish of onions and cilantro,
with some avocado just to round everything up at the end.
So when you cooked the ribeye, did you baste it with anything?
I wanted the flavor of the ribeye to be unbothered.
Thanks, Manny.
Art, how do you think our chefs did today?
I have a saying. It's not about winning.
It's about being remembered. You're all memorable.
If you keep that in your heart the whole time,
you'll always be successful.
And now it's time
for some of our favorite dishes of the day.
Soo, I liked the rice, and all the little different
treasures you had, and the silkiness of the egg.
I enjoyed it.
Savannah, I got to say, this is one that surprised me.
I like what you did with the canned meat.
A good amount of acid to cut through some of the fat,
but it didn't lose that flavor of corned beef, either.
All right, Art, which chef hit the raffle jackpot,
and had our favorite dish?
There's one dish that really stood out,
and I felt there was a lot of thought in it,
and it belonged to...
- Savannah. - Yes!
- Congratulations, Savannah. - I love corned beef.
I think I'm on a little bit of a roll here.
I really wanna keep cooking this way.
I can't play it safe, and I don't really want to.
Savannah, you just won $10,000
thanks to the Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card.
- Congratulations. - Thank you very much.
Unfortunately, there were a few dishes
that did fall just a little bit short.
Manny, there was so much acid in your aguachile
that it overpowered the actual flavor of the meat.
You kind of covered it up with the sauce,
and that's what was left on my palate.
Heard.
Michelle, bless your heart,
I come from the same place, okay?
You sound like my grandmother.
There was a lot of batter on it,
which I don't think you need,
because she had a lot of flavor in the center.
30 minutes got me today. That's really pretty much it.
Danny, the meat was a little over-rested.
You wanted it to be a little bit more juicier,
a little more lively.
The Jimmy Nardello, it's such a sweet, beautiful pepper.
You know, there's hot peppers over there.
- Other than that, I liked it. - Appreciate it.
Dan, once I got through the forest...
Oh, there it is!
This lovely dumpling, that was beautiful.
- Thank you. - I just wanted,
for the thickness of the noodle, more meat in the center.
Okay. So everything, for me, ate dry.
Heard.
All right, chefs, who's ready to set this competition on fire?
We're not gonna tell you about your Elimination Challenge
just yet.
Instead, we'll change into something a little bit more
comfy, and we'll meet you out back.
Out back?
- Let's go. - What is this?
- We got Gregory Gourdet. - And it's Mei Lin.
- Holy sh--. - Oh, boy.
Here we go.
- Hello, chefs. - Hi, chefs.
- Hello. - Wow.
There are six all-star Top Chef alums.
This is madness.
Allow me to introduce you all to Gregory, Shota, Mei,
Sarah, Justin, and Jeremy.
- Hi, chefs. - Good to meet you.
We're really happy to have you here.
All right, why don't we all take a seat?
So I'm guessing that a lot of you have already heard
about a fish fry or a crab boil,
but have you ever heard of a fish boil?
- Dan? - Yeah.
- Do you like fish boils? - No.
- Why? - My first restaurant jobs were
in Door County, Wisconsin, the land of the fish boil.
Fish boiling goes against everything I've ever been taught
as a chef you don't boil fish, you poach fish.
It's not traditionally something
I want to boil whitefish and eat.
I'd like to introduce you to our friend, Torch.
- How we doing? - He's a fish boil
- master from Door County. - What up, Torch?
Torch.
Oh, God.
Tomorrow, for your Elimination Challenge,
you'll each be putting on your own fish boil
- at Grant Park Beach. - Okay.
For 100 diners,
along with Art, and our all-stars.
We're providing everyone with the same whitefish,
and we want you to serve the fish with two sides.
This is the setup for a classic Door County fish boil.
Three cups of salt for about 25 gallons of water.
It's very simple. Baby red potatoes,
small Spanish onions, local fresh whitefish.
At what point do you put in the fish?
They go in for, like, the last eight minutes.
- Eight minutes? - Yeah.
Once everything cooks, you get this layer of foam
and scum and ash from the fire.
You throw a can of kerosene into the fire,
it makes a huge fireball, but more importantly,
it makes the whole kettle boil over,
and everything comes out all clean.
If you don't do it, all that gunk sticks to everything.
I've never thrown kerosene on
anything that I was cooking. This is crazy.
- I'll protect you. - This is not safe.
Three, two, one.
Oh, my God.
Yeah!
That's insane.
We don't do this in New York.
Tom, Chef, you want a beer?
What's up, you guys? I'm Sarah.
- Hey, I'm Manny. - Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too. - Cheers.
- Bottoms up. - Salud.
All right, let's get some more fish out here.
Okay, the tails are the easiest. Just cut them, that's fine.
Peel it open, get those little rib bones.
There, and then throw the bone on there.
And then everyone gets a couple potatoes, an onion.
And you put melted butter all over the fish,
the potatoes, and the onions. That's the meal, yep.
- Thank you. - Enjoy your fish boil, sir.
Sit over here with the girls.
- Ladies. - Hello, ladies.
Just slide up in there.
- Fish is beautifully cooked. - Yeah.
- What do you guys think? - It's pretty good, right?
I thought it was more moist than I expected.
It's not that moist.
It's just not my thing.
I'll sit in the middle of you guys.
Sit down. Stay a while.
I remember we watched your season, and I was like,
they're doing from Restaurant Wars.
- Yeah. - That was so cool.
Yeah, that was a fun Restaurant Wars.
I feel like I'm really just enjoying getting
to know Shota. I just spilled my drink.
I'm trying to keep it cool.
- Do you have a restaurant or- - Yeah, I'm the executive chef
at Adelina, a modern Italian restaurant.
Hopefully it's up my sleeve, and then I'll get to showcase it.
All right, chefs. There is one more thing.
- Oh, of course. - Here we go.
All Stars, why don't you come stand over
back where you were, please?
- Thank you, chefs. - Later, y'all.
Thank you.
I hope that you all got to know each other
during this little family reunion time,
because the All Stars
will be doing your shopping.
Oh, snap.
- Yo! - Oh, [bleep].
- Okay, that's great. - Yeah.
I'm trying to figure out whose side they're on.
Are they on our side, or are they on the judges' side?
Chefs, I hope that you all got to know each other,
because the All Stars will be doing your shopping.
- Yo! - Oh, [bleep].
- Oh! - Okay.
They're gonna be drawing knives to see
who they are paired with out of you all.
Savannah, as the winner of the last Elimination Challenge,
you get to choose which All Star you want to do
- the shopping for you. - Amazing.
I'm gonna go with Shota. I think that we do similar food.
I'll try not to screw up.
No, yeah. Please don't, please.
All right, so, the rest of you,
you can go draw your knives.
All right.
All right, Gregory, you have Soo.
- Mei, you have Manny. - I'm excited.
Sarah, you have Michelle.
- Justin, you have Danny. - Let's go.
And Jeremy, you got Dan.
Super excited to support you, man.
All right, so tonight, each All Star will have $500
and 30 minutes to shop at Whole Foods Market for you.
That means you're not gonna know what ingredients
you have to work with until you arrive tomorrow
at Grant Park Beach.
So chefs, once you get all your ingredients tomorrow,
you'll have two and a half hours to prep and cook
before service starts.
You'll have five minutes to meet with your All Star
before they go out and shop.
Great, great, great, great, great, great.
And Chefs, we will see you tomorrow.
- Good luck. - Bye!
It's kind of terrifying, because I'm gonna basically
create a menu, but I'm not gonna know until tomorrow
if I can execute that vision.
I just wanna keep it simple.
I basically wanna do
a dashi in the kettle.
And so I want to really paint
the vision of what I'm trying to do.
And then I wanna do carrot coleslaw.
And I also wanna do, like, a French bean salad.
- Okay? - Awesome.
I wanna flavor the broth with, like,
really southern Houston big flavors.
Potatoes and corn for my side.
Southeast Asian, lots of lemongrass, coconut milk,
lots of fish sauce, lots of limes.
So, you're almost going for, like, a curry fish.
Yeah, totally.
My idea here is
to execute a really flavorful broth.
This broth is also going to be the stock
I'm going to use for my sauce.
We'll do Napa and scallions as one side.
Other sides that could go with that.
Why don't we go with fingerling potatoes?
Okay.
I wanna do something bold and, like, a little spicy.
To, like, add flavor and salt to that, like, fish.
For sides, like, maybe a smashed tofu salad on the side.
Just something bright.
We should have potatoes, right?
A potato? Yeah.
The broth, I wanna season it with chipotle and cilantro.
And I wanna add some Marzano tomatoes.
Then the sides, we're gonna make guacamole, white rice.
I don't know that a guacamole is sufficient enough as a side.
The guacamole's not gonna be enough.
The cheese fest was a nightmare for me.
My potatoes didn't set. They are very, very delicate.
I wanna be very realistic about the things
that I will be executing for 100 people.
We're gonna just buy the tortillas and make tostadas.
I wanna, like, really flavor that broth.
Lemongrass, ginger, some kind of, like, curry paste,
like, red or green, it doesn't matter.
I want to do a play on Thai curry.
I want that to be the broth.
Then I think for my two sides,
some, like, onion, like, fennel
and apple slaw or something like that.
And then maybe one more side.
I think potato would be good.
My mind is going a million miles per hour.
And then if they have some kind of, like, um...
Uh... Like, crunchy, um...
- Nuts for texture? - Yeah.
Grab whatever else you think would be good.
I trust you, Chef. I'll make it work.
All right, brother. I got you, man.
- Thank you. - Yeah.
- All right. - I trust you, Chef.
I trust you with my life.
Let's go!
Pressure to shop for someone else's...
It's very real.
Savannah picked me. I feel honored, but um,
a little bit of pressure because now I can't let her down.
I'm gonna do everything that I can,
and buy extra things that I would wanna buy,
and hopefully she likes it.
Do you all think they're really gonna shop
- for what we asked for? - They're All-Stars,
but they've been off the block for a little bit.
Just like I remember, yeah.
Here we go.
Feels like old times.
Oh, this brings back some good memories.
Shopping for Danny.
He wants to do kind of like a kombu, umami kind of broth.
What am I-- I'm looking right at it.
You guys are making a mess.
I gave Justin the vision.
I think he's gonna have to lose the hat
to get around Whole Foods,
but I think he's ready to roll.
I need to get some olive oil.
20 minutes.
Now she doesn't have to shuck the corn.
I'll just get her this corn that's already shucked.
She has to get the makings for Cajun seasoning.
My dish just doesn't exist without it.
She definitely wanted, like, lots of chilies
to, like, make, like, Creole spice.
What if we get nothing?
What? Sorry.
Soo wanted to go in a Southeast Asian direction,
so I'm gonna add a few layers of chilies
to give it some depth. He's smart.
He's just gonna throw everything in a pot
for umami, and then just cook potatoes and corn.
Whatever he brings, I'm gonna just try to make it happen.
There's gonna be a lot of----ing pivoting.
Giving him plenty of options for flavor bombs.
Ten minutes, y'all.
I'm grabbing some Napa cabbage
because she wanted some slaw.
I'm shopping for Manny, and he's gonna put forth
some amazing Mexican flavors. That's really kinda all I know.
When I was talking to Mei, like, she got a little bit
in my head with that guacamole thing.
Like, I don't know if that's gonna be considered a side
and everything, but it is a side, where I come from.
Got things like masa harina.
Hopefully he makes some fresh tortillas.
Five minutes, Chefs!
Five minutes heard.
I'm feeling like that was a pretty confident shop.
Everything that he asked for, I have.
Gregory, how much did you spend, brother?
- 499. - Are you serious?
- Swear to God. - Look at that.
- Bob Barker over there. - To the last drop.
I'm gonna take a little bath tonight.
I got this candle courtesy of Danny.
Oh, my God, look how beautiful that is.
Yeah, let's go!
The beach is beautiful, but I'm starting a little bit
behind from everyone else.
My Quickfire cook wasn't so good,
and if I'm on the bottom,
it could be the thing that sends me home.
So I have to perform today.
What up, baby?
What did we get? What do we got?
- Sarah! - Hello, sister!
- What's up, brother? - How we doing? It's go time.
Pretty much got everything that you needed.
- Carrot juice? - What's that? Got carrot juice.
- Got a lot of carrot juice. - That's great.
Justin, he really crushed it.
- Matsutake, bro? - Yes, that's matsutake.
It was basically as if I went shopping.
- Incredible, dude. - The shop went well.
We found pretty much everything
- that you had requested. - Love it.
- Is there tofu? - I got firm tofu,
- not flavored, though. - That's great.
No, if we have this stuff, I don't need it.
I wanna do something really bright on the side
for the salad.
I got you some masa.
So, there's masa, there are no tortillas?
No, no, there is tortillas.
Chef Mei, she has some ideas,
but I don't have time to make tortillas.
It is my dish, ultimately.
I got you some crayfish to help flavor the broth.
I got you some corn nuts for texture.
- Oh, hell yeah. Yes! - They're a little big,
so if you have time, crunch them up or something.
There wasn't any fennel, but I did get you red onion.
When you see everything else, don't get overwhelmed,
- just, like, focus. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's peaches, plums, nectarines.
- Yes. - I think it would be cool
to do some sort of emulsified butter sauce.
I was thinking about that last night.
Something a little fancier than just drawn butter.
She's doing something that is very classic,
so she needs to take that, and push it even farther.
- Yes! - I'm rooting for you.
- Yo. - All right, brother.
Make you proud.
Good luck, good luck, good luck.
We got all the stuff.
So many things.
My man got me a bath bomb, too.
He's gonna be out on the beach all day sweating,
so I'm hoping when he gets done, he can go get a nice little
refreshing, relaxing bath.
Let's go, Justin.
Definitely use these.
So much wood, but we're having fun.
Are we, though?
Butter, onions, celery, sausage. Woo!
Chef Danny, what are you up to over yonder?
I'm going to make a dashi out of the cauldron we got here,
and then add some of my favorite sofrito to it.
Pulling one out of my grandmother's book.
The hardest part is really gonna be how much flavor
can you impart into a fish if you only cook it
for eight minutes in boiling water?
I'm gonna debone to order.
I don't think taking it off the bone is the way here.
Just gonna brine my fish.
So, I decide to brine my fish.
I'm hoping that that imparts some flavor.
Whoo, that is hot. Burning my whole face off.
Chopsticks are coming out. It's over three dishes.
I'm doing something inspired by kimchi soup.
Korean food is about punches of flavor.
I want it to be almost a little too flavorful,
so the fish soaks it up.
The restaurant and the group that I used to work for
specializes in Korean street food,
so this is inspired by my favorite dish there.
I need to get through this fish and that's gonna take a second.
I would rather debone it now.
That's pretty smart.
And then finishing my tofu salad while my--
No! Medic.
- Yeah? - Holy sh--.
- You all right? - You okay, Savannah?
That's a lot of blood.
I've never cut myself like this.
No! I've never cut myself like this.
What happened?
I straight up went right into my hand.
Do you have anything to, like, cauterize it
- and get it to stop bleeding? - Yeah.
But it's got to stay.
I'm really just trying to stay level-headed here,
and not think too much about the pain.
My biggest concern is if I don't have a dish,
I'm packing my knives, and I'm going home.
- Chef Savannah, you good? - I'm okay.
I'm just changing my game plan.
- I'm gonna bone after. - Heard.
this fish.
There's light at the end of the tunnel.
It's just far away still.
I was thinking he was gonna get me Thai curry paste,
but he got me this spicy curry powder,
so we're gonna pivot.
I have this idea of this super flavorful broth,
so I start throwing in anything I can grab on my station.
Lemongrass, and then apples.
I love it when people tell me,
oh, those flavors shouldn't go together.
That's when I'm like, I'll show you.
Pivot, pivot, pivot.
When I was a kid, I was a rule follower.
I had a tiger mom. She was very strict.
All I could do was play golf,
go to school, and go to church.
But now I love taking risks,
and I think that definitely translates into the kitchen.
Oh, it smells freaking great.
Smoked paprika, chili powder,
a bunch of spices that make up cajun seasoning.
All right.
Hey, Manny. What you doing, bro?
Gonna make Mexican rice.
I'm finishing up my slaw. I still gotta smash my potatoes,
clean my fish and do my herb salad.
I'm doing a carrot slaw. Toasted pepitas.
I love your love for carrots, dude.
I got a thing for them. They got a special place in my heart.
Carrot concentrate. It's like liquid gold.
Savannah, what's going on?
You're still flaying the fish or have you moved on
- to other things? - I needed to pivot.
I'm a little gun-shy at the moment.
The pain is really excruciating, but I need
to really get my head back in the game and keep prepping.
Just chopping some tofu for my smashed tofu salad.
My salad, I wanna let it sit at room temp,
so that the flavors can marry longer.
I think it's gonna be a good vessel to soak up.
And then, I want to do the boiled potatoes.
But unfortunately, it feels like my brain's not connecting
to the rest of my body, so I'm gonna stick to the basics.
I'm just making sure my potatoes are ready to go in.
Is that peaches that I see on your station?
It sure is, buddy, old pal.
It's gonna need some sweetness somewhere.
So, I am making a peach garlic butter for my dipping sauce.
- Sounds delicious. - I've never made this before,
so I'm praying to the gods that it'll work out.
I feel like there's a lot of praying to the gods
happening over here today.
You're cooking in the elements, so the sun is hot.
- Oh, it's hot! - This is super windy.
Cut chives in the wind.
Oh, my God.
You're cooking on the sand,
then you have to keep walking firewood over.
It is tiring.
It's very different from a barbecue pit,
because it doesn't happen on sand.
There's sand in my Jordans right now.
This is physically the most demanding challenge
I think we've had all season.
Have me some fun.
There's nothing I can do about this.
I just have to keep going.
Oh, [bleep] off.
Thirty minutes, let's go.
Holy sh--, look at all those people.
It's a Top Chef parade.
It's beautiful, look at them going.
Let's go, Michelle. You can do this.
Some real Top Chef sh--, you know what I'm saying?
I took the job specifically for this exact moment.
So, I am thrilled to be reunited with so many amazing friends.
So thank you all for being here.
How did the shop go yesterday?
It was kinda good, running around that store again.
Was there anything that had you scratching your head going,
what the hell, why do they want that?
Soo didn't have, like, an exact plan,
so I just got him a bunch of stuff.
I feel like I'm a little behind right now.
You got this, you got this.
Since the fish is so light, I'm trying to just have, like,
super in-your-face flavors and textures for the sides.
I'm going to be pairing corn and onion slaw.
And I love the textural contrast whenever you eat something,
so I add in the toasted corn kernels.
I just hope he finds a little bit of direction
in the ingredients that I got.
I got pineapples that are charring.
We're gonna do a vinaigrette with these charred tomatoes.
Woo, that is charred, baby!
There's like soy sauce, there's fish sauce, there's kombu,
there's lemongrass, and it's like--
You don't want all of it. You need to edit a little.
Charred pineapple beurre blanc for the fish.
There's a lot going on right now.
That seems to be the issue.
They just, like, throw everything at the wall.
So, I'm gonna make a "chimichurri"
salsa verde for my potatoes.
I got eight minutes, Papi.
I'm making the chips.
- Did you make your own? - No, I didn't have time.
Why complicate sh--, right?
My water's tasty.
I'm getting ready to blow this mother up.
Bombs away, let's go.
I think we're getting ready for the first boil.
Hide your wife, hide your kids, huh?
Oh, my God.
Oh!
Oh, my!
That was epic.
All right, let's get it out.
Well done, well done.
All right, let's do it.
What's up, Danny? How was that for you?
That was definitely different.
So, what is it?
I did a little sofrito boiled salsa verde
over top, a carrot slaw,
and French bean and bonito salad.
- You guys are set. - Thanks, Danny.
- Thank you very much.
Cheers, good luck.
What up, y'all?
I'm Puerto Rican and Dominican.
Let's go, wepa! Woo!
The fish got a lot of flavor from that broth.
The fish is cooked perfectly.
Salsa verde complements it really, really well.
It's really beautiful, and the salad is absolutely stunning.
This salad is good enough to steal.
Yeah, it is.
That carrot slaw was insane.
The slaw was definitely the star of the dish.
- Hands down. - The slaw was pretty great.
- How's that hand? - It hurts.
Oh, my gosh.
I pull my potatoes out, they have almost no flavor.
I'm worried my broth is just not even close
to being seasoned enough.
Hey, Savannah, what time are you putting them in at?
I'm giving myself seven minutes.
I wanna be in the top five so badly.
It would really suck to go home because I cut my hand
and I could not mentally recover.
All right, we should head over.
It looks like the next boil over is ready.
All right, we should head over.
It looks like the next boil over is ready.
Here we go, again.
Hi, Savannah. Are you okay?
- I'll be okay. - You look like a champ.
Thank you.
So, I did kimchi gochujang broth,
with some of the butter and baby potatoes,
smashed tofu salad, with some Asian pear.
I love it.
I started by deboning,
but I cut my hand, so I started doing steaks.
So I have a little bit of both.
Fantastic. Thanks, Savannah.
- Awesome job. - Thank you.
I am here to lend a hand. How can I help you?
Oh! Can you do plates exactly what I'm doing?
I just want potatoes, sauce
and then a little bit of the salad.
I think the fish itself is pretty bland,
and I'm also, I'm not a fan of the way she cut it.
It's definitely overcooked.
- Because she filleted it. - I don't get it.
Because the bones actually hold everything in place.
I love the potatoes.
They were super creamy, and delicious.
What do you think of Savannah's salad?
I love wilted salad, but not like this.
It's got too much going on.
Everything just kind of disintegrates together.
What up, girl?
I'm gonna go to Urgent Care
and have them look at this.
See you later. Feel better, dude.
Torch. Let's do it.
Torch, Torch, Torch!
- Good luck, Soo. - Oh, man. I need it.
- Hi, Soo. - Hello, guys.
- How we doing? - Good. How are you?
- Oh, what's this? - Oh, my gosh.
What was in your broth?
Charred pineapple, crawfish, a little bit of curry.
We have potato cooked twice,
and then almost like a slaw that's made with corn, onion,
charred tomatoes and crispy corn and miso.
Oh, yeah. And you see the curry.
There you go. Yeah.
So this is a charred pineapple and fish sauce beurre blanc.
- Thank you so much. - Oh, absolutely.
Thank you, guys. Enjoy.
So, when Soo was giving you his grocery list,
was this what you were expecting him to do?
- Not at all. - No?
- Oh, really? - Not at all.
I wouldn't call that a slaw.
Is this corn cooked? I feel like the corn is raw.
No, the corn's raw.
Also, the top is really mushy.
- Sawdusty, you know? - None of that comes out.
I was envisioning maybe studded kernels of corn, like, nice,
crunchy, just the-- Like, the corn nuts on top.
What's he calling it? Corn slaw?
Nothing about it looked appetizing at all.
I do think the fish is cooked really nice.
It is, but it feels very just kind of disconnected.
I'm not seeing how this eats well together.
I think he put all his energy in the sauce.
Yeah. This pineapple butter is maybe my new favorite thing.
We're gonna drink this.
Yeah, no, I'm gonna finish it that way.
- Cheers. - Hey, cheers. Exactly.
Thank you, guys. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy.
Fish is in. We're boiling.
Torch! Torch! Torch!
Okay, moment of truth.
Dan was also hating this challenge.
- I know. - Didn't wanna do it.
- Hey, Dan. - What's up, Dan?
Hi, guys.
You change your mind about the fish boil yet?
- You know, man, I think I did. - You did?
If you can impart flavor to it, that's what it is.
So, what's the broth?
So the broth is gonna be red curry,
and then slaw with coconut milk and herbs and peanuts,
some fingerling potatoes,
in a duck fat and shiradashi red curry oil.
- Thank you, Chef. - Thanks, guys.
- Thanks, Dan. - Good luck, Dan.
- Thank you so much, Dan. - Thank you.
Congrats, homie.
It's been crazy. This was tough.
This was no joke.
Do you think Dan's fish is cooked well?
I was a little skeptical out of the gates,
because I saw some clear spots, but mine's perfectly cooked.
He was thinking about putting it in the broth,
and I think that it worked out.
Because of that broth, I am getting a lot of flavor.
What about Dan's sides?
The slaw was crunchy, crispy.
I like the peanuts in it.
The potatoes, I think, were kind of like an afterthought.
I really wanted some more spice, honestly.
I love that he upped the fish with the curry.
Well, I first picked up the bowl to drink the curry.
Oh! I'm gonna die.
I'm gonna die cooking on the beach.
And here I thought Cheese Fest
was the craziest thing I ever did.
I wish we were still at Cheese Fest.
Boil alert!
- Yeah! - Ooh, yeah!
I like the color of that broth.
Hopefully, there's some flavor in there.
- Yeah. - Good luck, Chef.
Thank you, sir.
- Hi, Michelle. - Hey, Michelle.
- Hi. - Nice pieces of fish there.
Yeah, that looks good.
And what was in your broth, Michelle?
My broth consists of
all the flavors of a traditional Cajun-style boil.
And then, I did the potato with the sausage to crisp up.
And then I just quickly charred salad right on the coals.
I did peach garlic butter sauce.
- Great. - Thank you, Michelle.
Thank you so much.
This was very different. Ah!
It looks beautiful.
This is very similar to probably what I would've done.
Love that.
The fish is beautifully cooked.
And the Cajun spice has some spices in there.
I love the idea of the potato with the sausage,
because the potato has taken on the taste of the sausage.
Her salad, the charring of the corn got this, like,
fiery vibe in there.
All the components, I think, told one story
of what she wanted to do, which we didn't get
with some of the other chefs.
It had like this really good spice to it.
Having a cold side dish is a nice complement
to the Cajun flavors.
Last one, best one.
- All right. - All right.
One more.
I want something spicy.
I think I'm ready.
What's up, Manny? How you doing?
Good. Uh, when I think about fish and the beach,
I think about eating it in the beach in Mexico.
- So there's beer in the boil. - Usually beer in my belly, too.
Instead of bread, I wanted to go with
tortilla chips, guacamole, Mexican white rice with corn,
butter with chipotle and lime.
So, what all is in the broth?
It's achiote, tomato, chipotle.
It's clearly a composed dish.
Maybe I'm playing it safe with this dish,
but I'm here to share who I am through my food.
- Great job, Chef. - Wow.
You got this.
I would dip it here,
mix it with the rice.
The perfect bite.
- Thank you. - Enjoy.
How is your fish?
- Mine's cooked. - The flavor's good,
and it complements, definitely complements the rice.
I wish I had more rice.
He's the first person who gave us a piece of citrus
- to squeeze on the fish. - Yeah.
When Manny originally talked about his concept,
he wanted to do the guacamole,
I bought him some masa and I wanted him to make some
chichayotes just to stand out from the crowd.
The problem with both the guacamole and the rice
is it's guacamole and rice.
This wasn't a Top Chef plate.
There was some chips on there. It just felt too safe.
At this point in the competition,
you need to knock people out.
You can't play this one safe anymore.
There's six chefs now. Tonight, there will be five.
Thank you.
Chefs, thank you so much for being here,
and also doing a lot of the legwork with the shopping
and revisiting the past, whether you wanted to or not.
You guys want beers?
- Yes, please. - I'll take one.
Oh, my God.
Everybody feel like they just got beat up by the beach?
Yeah, I feel like sun tired.
I smell like fish, and I'm sober.
I think my head hurts.
- Everything hurts right now. - That was rough.
- Oh! - Savannah!
She lives!
- How are you feeling? - They stitched me back up.
It was just deep. Honestly, I stabbed myself.
I haven't used that knife yet, so it was really sharp.
I won the Quickfire,
and I hope that that comes into play,
but it's one of those things where it's like,
you know the food you put up.
I can't look past that feeling
of deep, deep concern.
- Oh, man. - Oh, that's gonna be brutal.
Chefs, it was a picturesque Lake Michigan day, if you ask me.
I thought overall, you all did a really great job
of adding your twist.
Michelle, Danny, and Dan,
please stay here. The rest of you can step to the side.
Get the [bleep] out of here.
Chefs, the three of you are standing here
because you had our favorite dishes of the day.
No way, I thought--
Michelle, the wave of relief that just washed over you.
My last couple of cooks have just not been my greatest,
so I just wanna get out of that.
I loved the story of your plate.
You had like a reference point that we got immediately
and both of your sides just carried through.
The corn, peach, fish, sausage boil.
That's a perfect summer story right there.
You took slaw and made it beautiful.
I mean, it was like so artfully made.
Thank you.
And the potatoes with that smoky sausage.
Please, it was delicious.
Danny, that carrot salad was phenomenal.
- Holy sh--, man. - It was fabulous, okay.
I will dream about that carrot salad. And the fish, I loved.
But what made me love the fish was the salsa verde.
It was very balanced.
- I brined my fish. - I was thinking that.
- I brined it in a 10% brine. - Very, very smart move.
- Thank you, Chef. - Dan.
I thought for sure I was on the bottom.
- Well, because the manhandling. - Yeah, man!
I've never disrespected a piece of fish like that.
But was that the intention, to shred it into larger pieces?
I did. I don't particularly like fish boils,
so I wanted to do something that was completely different
and maybe, like, put my own spin on it.
So, I thought it was a good way because the fish was so bland
that like using the broth, you got some flavor in there.
I should've did that.
And I've had peanut slaw before,
but you obviously, you know, invented it.
Is he calling me old?
I really loved it. All of you did really great slaw.
Art, as our guest judge,
you have the honor of announcing our winner today.
All three of you, I love you to death.
I think you all are uber talented people,
but there can only be one winner.
I'm telling you,
Danny, you killed it.
Thank you. Amazing.
Congratulations.
Good job, buddy.
I could not be more happy.
You know, my vision was conveyed through this dish.
And I think the judges definitely are getting
a strong understanding of how I like to cook.
Thank you, chefs.
Every single person at the table had you as the favorite dish.
Well, congratulations, Danny.
You just won yourself an advantage
in the next Elimination Challenge.
- Cool. - Chefs, thank you very much.
- Thank you. - Move to the side.
Manny, Savannah, and Soo, please come forward.
You had our least favorite dishes of the day
and one of you will be eliminated.
Savannah, are you okay?
I feel like it was just more so,
like, not recovering mentally.
It kinda threw me off my game.
Obviously, the cut had an impact on the day.
But otherwise, how are you feeling?
I thought I was gonna be able to, like, impart a lot
of flavor with kimchi and gochujang.
Cooking the potato in the sauce was maybe a mistake.
It felt somewhat disjointed.
And then there was this pear tofu salad.
The tofu fell apart.
I think if you had kept the pieces of tofu bigger,
it would have had a lot more sort of integrity.
I just, like, couldn't put it together today.
And I was just trying to get things finished in time,
ultimately.
All right, Manny.
Was your plate exactly how you intended?
After talking to the chefs and doing the shopping,
all these other ideas started, like, coming up.
Well, at this point, I just want
to make sure that I nail the flavors.
Well, you know, it actually tasted very good together.
It's a nice dish.
You know, fish and there's a guacamole and there's rice.
I'll be really honest. There's six chefs here right now.
And at this stage, you got to swing for the fences, man.
We just wanted some creativity
because we know what a creative cook you are.
Soo, I'm curious to know
what the point of inspiration
or the through line for your dish was.
I just wanted to just have super, like,
acidic and bright flavors.
It wasn't really, like, a central theme.
Yeah, I mean, curry miso salsa verde.
- Your dish felt like a potluck. - Yeah.
It tasted like a raw casserole,
like, before you bake it and it doesn't really come together.
But of all the butter emulsions that we had today,
I actually thought yours was by far the best.
Thank you.
We have a lot to discuss and of course,
your Quickfire dishes could come into play in the final judging.
All right, we'll call you back when we have a decision.
Thank you.
- Congrats. - Thanks, dog.
I can't believe I survived that.
I can't believe.
There are, like, five other things
that I could have done,
including pescado a la veracruzana,
which is a dish that I have in my restaurant that I can,
like, nail with my----ing eyes closed.
Manny's did, in some way, go to the tradition
of keep it simple, make it make sense.
Thematically made sense.
But it was the least creative food
not only that I've seen from Manny,
but that we saw today.
And I think he gave us a so-so Quickfire dish.
Is it enough to bring it down? It was the wagyu with the...
- Salty, salty, salty. - Yeah.
So, you try to, like, kind of swing through the fences,
but sometimes you get caught up in the idea
and you don't wanna kind of back out from it.
I had a bigger problem with Soo's, to tell you the truth.
What does curry, miso,
and salsa verde have to do with each other?
There was too many things that you could never taste anything.
I don't know if there's a chef alive who can make
all that stuff just kind of work.
It's like he took out the Mary Poppins bag of tricks
and threw everything at it.
Soo did, you know, make that luncheon meat dish
for his Quickfire.
I did find it just to be a tad too salty.
I cooked the worst dish today.
But the truth of the matter is, Quickfires matter.
- Yeah, they do matter. - It saved me last week.
You did win the Quickfire.
But you could still cook the worst dish,
so I'm prepared for that.
Savannah's salad had a very strange texture, felt soggy.
Her potatoes were also completely overdressed.
It didn't feel very thought out at all.
I mean, you cut yourself. I feel for that.
But like, you know how to make a salad. It's a salad.
It just felt like it had been dressed three days ago.
But also, Savannah, she won the Quickfire.
Right. When we factor in the Quickfire,
now, does that change anything?
- It's close. It's very close. - Yeah.
- Good luck, guys. - Good luck, guys.
One of my favorite things about Top Chef
is that we find these traditions that, in some cases,
very few people know about.
And these traditions have been around a long time
because there's a certain charm to them.
And I can understand, as a chef,
wanting to make things better, but also,
in order to change these dishes,
you really need to understand them.
Unfortunately, one of you will be going home
for a misunderstanding of what this was all about.
Soo, please pack your knives and go.
Soo, you still have a shot in Last Chance Kitchen.
You did a great job there before.
- We'll see you back there. - Thank you guys so much.
Savannah, good thing you won the Quickfire.
- Thank you, chefs. - Thank you.
And at this point of the competition,
there's no such thing as a bad day.
And I just didn't have my A game today.
- Damn, Soo. - Soo!
Homie.
Bro, it's been a pleasure, dude.
Damn.
It's disappointing, but I gave it my all.
- And I'm proud of that. - Later, homie.
And now there is a roster of talented chefs
waiting for me at Last Chance Kitchen.
I'm ready, baby.
Tonight, Soo returns to Last Chance Kitchen,
where his Top Chef journey began.
Soo, this is right up your alley. You love doing this.
- Yeah. - He heads into the finale,
where a chef will be crowned the winner,
and return to the competition.
Watch now on Peacock or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time, on Top Chef.
Please welcome back into the Top Chef kitchen...
Oh, my God!
All right, chefs. Who's ready to take on Tom?
This is the craziest.
I don't know what I just made.
We want you to create a dish
that is directly plated on the tabletop.
Ah! Why won't you cook?
Oh!
This is like using your imagination.
- Danny, what's going on? - Not now, dude.
My heart stops.
Looks like something's missing.