Previously on "Top Chef"...
Today, we thought, why not give the people
- what they want? - Ohm great.
30 minutes, we're kinda lucky, right? The fans were nice.
There's definitely a curveball coming.
You must take over the station to your right.
Switch!
What the [bleep]?
Laurence, do you not have salt on your station?
Damn it! I'm pissed.
Sherry, you are on the money with this.
I was going to win $10,000 with that tostada!
And the winner of today's Quickfire is...
Rhoda!
[cheering]
For your last challenge here in Greenville,
we wanna see you pay homage to the French origins of Michelin
with some of the best rabbit in the country.
Hop to it!
I've only worked in Michelin my entire career.
After today's Quickfire,
I wanna come back with vengeance.
She kinda married the textures perfectly.
- Really flavorful. - Yeah.
Very, very flavorful.
Dollop. Drag.
They're two very different dishes.
And I would have been happy if he chose one.
Have you used a lot of rabbit before?
In culinary school, I didn't get a A on that one.
The flavors are there. They all complement each other.
It felt like a series of canapés.
The rabbit fell a little bit short.
The winner is...
Sherry.
Oh, thank you! [applause]
Anthony?
Please pack your knives and go.
[upbeat music]
Five chefs remain
to compete in the ultimate culinary showdown.
Woo!
At stake for the winner,
the grand prize of $125,000 provided by Graza olive oil,
a feature in Food & Wine magazine,
plus an appearance at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen,
their own exclusive dinner at the historic
James Beard House in New York,
and the title of Top Chef!
[upbeat music]
'Sup, Sherry?
Hey, how's it going?
Oh.
You blend in with the chair.
- No one can see me. - Can't see you.
Laurence is a goofball. We definitely have like
a brother-sister relationship.
Are you there?
Who knows, you just hear a voice.
[chuckles]
I'm the youngest of three.
I moved back to the United States at 14
to live with my older sister,
for better, bigger opportunities.
So, I was very much raised by her.
She definitely had such an impact on the person
and the mom and the woman that I have become today.
Got the W yesterday? How's it feel this morning?
Good. It feels like I got validated, but I mean...
it doesn't mean anything.
Hi! Can I have two dozen doughnuts please?
Just assorted?
- Yeah, dealer's choice. - Let's do it.
Would you like to buy a donut? I have a credit card.
Yeah, our pleasure.
I like to use my Active Cash Credit Card from Wells Fargo
because I earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases.
What up, chefs?
Hey, guys, good morning.
- Hello. What up, what up? - Good morning.
- How are we all today? - I just can't believe
we've been through so many... challenges.
There's five of us left.
Yep. The pressure's on.
[knocking] Hello?
[all]: Hi! - Hey!
- Wow. - This is nice in here.
I wanted to bring you some sweet treats from a local place.
It's really good, this is my second time having them.
- Nice! - So...
- Oh my god! - Oh my goodness.
Are you doing okay not having
- contact out there? - Um...
Is it weird or is it refreshing?
- It's a little weird. - It's hard... it's hard.
Especially at this point, it's hard.
Yeah.
Well, congratulations on getting so close to the end,
but that does mean our time here in Greenville
is coming to an end,
and we're gonna head back to Charlotte.
But, you're gonna take a little detour.
- Oh. - Knew it.
There's no trip to the Carolinas without visiting
a very, very special place.
Asheville.
- Oh! - No way!
- Yeah! - Oh, how fun!
- Nice. - Oh my gosh, that's awesome!
It's so unique in its cuisine, in its history,
and as you probably all know, about a year ago,
they were impacted horribly by Hurricane Helene,
but whenever there is something catastrophic that happens
to a city, the community comes together and finds ways
to liven the city, and I think chefs
are largely at the forefront of that,
especially when it comes to feeding people.
- Hell yeah. - Yeah.
There's no better way to know more about
how everyone came back together than those on the front lines,
feeding the community.
So, there's not gonna be a Quickfire Challenge today.
- Oh. - Aw.
Instead, you're going to meet all these people,
hear their stories and really celebrate
the community that they have brought back together.
- Oh, that's amazing. - That's awesome!
The first stop is gonna be Good Hot Fish.
Ashleigh Shanti, Top Chef alum, James Beard Award winner,
was one of the first to really spearhead feeding the community.
She's gonna take you on a tour to meet many other chefs
- to share their stories. - Cool.
- Sick. - Wow.
Asheville is in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains.
It's a region with its own unique and important
culinary traditions that define the community.
This is great.
So, for your Elimination Challenge,
we want you to create a dish featuring at least
two Appalachian ingredients.
That's so cool.
After your tour, you're gonna have 30 minutes
and $300 to shop at Whole Foods Market.
Proteins and some of the Appalachian ingredients
- are gonna be provided for you. - Cool.
And then three house in the Top Chef kitchen
to prep and cook, and then tomorrow,
you're gonna have an additional 90 minutes at Union Exchange
to get ready for service before you feed your biggest crowd yet.
- Oh. - Oh.
[tense music]
200 diners.
[dramatic musical swell] [chuckles]
[laughing]
[groans]
Oh, dang, 200 people? Aw, man.
It's a lot of work, okay?
You're gonna all be hosting a special one-night event
that not only recognizes the hardships
but also the people of Asheville
and celebrates the efforts to rebuild.
It's crazy.
Have a great time in Asheville,
and say hi to Ashleigh from us.
- Later guys. - Thank you.
- See ya. - Bye.
- Guys! So cool! - Wow.
- I'm excited. - Yeah. Yeah.
[upbeat music]
Yay-haw!
I'm so excited about Asheville.
Me too.
It all depends on what ingredients
- are available. - Yeah.
They get a decent amount of mushrooms,
especially up in the hills, with all the moisture.
- Mm. - Sherry, when you fall asleep,
I'm gonna give you a wet willy, alright? Just remember that.
Sleep with one eye open,
you're getting it. [laughing]
I love road trips.
Wow, it's so pretty.
Look at these mountains in the distance.
We are almost there.
A long way from home.
We're not in Brooklyn anymore.
[chuckling]
Driving up to Asheville, this is the cutest town.
It's hard to imagine that less than a year ago,
they went through such a tragic hurricane.
We're here, guys.
Welcome to Asheville, y'all.
[rhythmic guitar]
- Hi, Chef. - Well, well!
- Hello, Chefs! - Hello hello.
Welcome to Asheville. I am Chef Ashleigh Shanti
and right now, we're gonna cover some Appalachian ingredients
and go over some stuff that our community's
been going through lately, and...
- I've got some bites for y'all. - Oh, hell yeah.
We're gonna go over some things that you would see
on the Appalachian table.
Some bowls of buttery hominy grits...
and pawpaws, don't eat the skin.
These are gonna be custardy, banana-like,
reall, really tasty fruit.
I've had a version of a pawpaw before.
I grew up in the Philippines, and we have these cherimoyas.
You crack them open, it's like super custardy,
it's very, very similar in flavor...
This is delicious.
- This is so good. - I know!
It's the first time I ever had a pawpaw.
- Oh, dude. - It is so good right?
- It's so good! - Yeah.
You'll kinda see around the restaurant,
we have leather britches hung.
In Appalachia, it's a form of preserving beans.
They look like dried up leather pants.
We use dehydration to intensify flavor.
I'm very much drawn to leather britches.
It reminds me a lot of sun-drying in Chinese cuisine.
I'm thinking about what I might be able to do with it.
We're coming up on the anniversary of Hurricane Helene.
That caused such devastation to our community.
How was your restaurant affected?
Good Hot Fish lost power and water.
And our restaurant was closed for about six weeks.
We just started doing these grassroots pop-ups
in small communities that couldn't even get out
to come downtown and get a meal.
We popped up at one of the oldest Black churches
in western North Carolina and fed about 200 people.
It's beautiful when something so terrible creates something
that lasts longer.
Yeah. It was really, really incredible.
My friend is not far,
and I want to take y'all to his spot. Maybe he'll have
a little something for us to eat.
- A little snack? - We'll see. Hopefully,
if we're lucky!
How's it feel? Y'all are almost at the finish line!
A little exhaustion setting in maybe?
I think that set in a while ago.
Yeah. [laughing]
[upbeat music]
- Wow! - This is gorgeous.
- Smells so good! - Welcome y'all.
- Hi! - Welcome everybody.
- Hi! I'm Meherwan. - Hi, what a pleasure.
- Nice to meet you. - Thank you.
Welcome to Chai Pani, it's good to have you guys here.
The decor is sick, like it kind of transports you
to somewhere else. It's a huge dining room.
It's super cool to be here.
- Oh wow, look at that. - So what we have here is some
okra fries. We're in the South.
Fried okra's a big Southern staple.
It's a big deal. This is sort of our take on it.
Hit it with the lime, squeeze it all over.
- So nice. - And since we're also
in the South, we wanna make sure you guys
- have some tater tots. - Wow.
I'm so excited.
But these are made with tapioca pearls.
- Oh, I love that. - So it's an Indian street
food snack, and it's seasoned with curry leaves and ginger.
Chef Meherwan, he's taking his authenticity and incorporating
Asheville local food. So good.
About a year ago, come Thursday, we woke up to essentially
the worst devastation that this area's seen in 100 plus years.
So we emptied out the pantry and just started cooking.
And then the phone rings by that evening
and it's World Central Kitchen, and they're like,
can you guys start a bootcamp for making food?
I really feel like it's the chefs
in this town that are at the foundation of trying
to create a sense of a community.
- Yeah. - That's what we do.
Right before I became a chef,
I was working in a non-profit,
building fundraisers around food.
I realized that food had a really
big role in bringing people together.
Being connected to Asheville is reminiscent of that.
I feel a lot of pressure to cook the best dish
that I possibly can.
- See you guys later! - Thank you.
See you, Meherwan, thank you! Alright, come on y'all.
That naan is hella good by itself!
So good.
[upbeat music]
We're just gonna kind of drive around, and you all will see
a lot of how our community
- has rebuilt itself. - Oh.
This area's very historic. And here is Corner Kitchen.
Their building took on over 12 feet of water.
All of their kitchen equipment was destroyed.
They just reopened a couple weeks ago.
We are headed to the River Arts District.
You're seeing Bull and Beggar here.
They're definitely another staple in the community,
and we're so happy to still have them.
This overpass was covered
- with water. - Wow.
Like, the waters came up that high.
- Damn. - That's insane.
- I'm talking houses... - Just float by.
- That's insane.
40 feet above my head, this was all under water.
It really puts it in perspective.
I feel like everyone in Asheville's very lucky
that these establishments put in the hard work
to rebuild and reopen for everyone.
What are some of your favorite spots here?
- You have to go... - Uh-huh.
To Neng Jr's. It's fine dining
and it's really, really good Filipino food.
Zillicoah. This is the industry's brewery.
That little red food truck that you see
in there in the corner called Master Barbecue?
Incredible Filipino-style barbecue.
Is there a big Filipino community here?
- It seems like it, huh? - Yeah.
- But no. - No.
[chuckling]: Okay.
It makes me proud to hear
that there are Filipino chefs out there
who are doing their thing.
I really just wanna do something more Filipino.
[upbeat music]
We are at our final stop.
Welcome to The Market Place.
- Chef Ashleigh. - Hey, Chef William,
- how you doing today? - Come on in, welcome.
- Hey, I'm William. - I'm Jonathan.
- How are you? - Nice to meet you.
Well, thanks for coming in. We're celebrating
our 46th anniversary here as one of the OG
farm-to-table restaurants. The Asheville area
is one of the most bio-diverse places in the world.
With Appalachia, a lot of the cuisine is really based
on a necessity. Trying to extend the season when you only have
a small amount of time to grow things.
With that, we really try to incorporate those ideas
into how we cook.
So on both sides of the table,
I've got a plethora of different pickles and ferments.
We have some pickled green strawberries.
- Yum. - Mm.
These pickles, like, every single one of them...
- Every single one. - It's like, so different.
You eat one and you can't stop.
Four quarts of these please.
[laughing]
You're beginning to taste
some of the acidity that we talked about... sour.
You're gonna have a jar of sorghum,
you're gonna have chow chow.
These preservation methods
are really, really special to us.
Chow chow, the idea of it is utilizing whatever little
that you have to make one really special condiment
and bring vibrancy to this dish.
Chow chow was such an important piece of every meal.
It's just an assortment of pickles and preserves,
which is really true to the spirit of Appalachian
ingredients in cuisine.
Come on back here.
I'm excited to make my first chow chow.
- Cool! - Sick.
This is just going to be a small sampling of what will be
available to you all in the kitchen.
Chef, what are some of your favorite ingredients?
Sour corn. It's lacto-fermented corn. Great umami,
sour notes there.
- Super funky. - Sour corn's great.
- So fun, right? - Yeah.
When I was little, my grandma gave me some sour corn
to try, and I was scarred for life.
I had never tasted something so sour. I didn't eat corn
for like three years.
And now that I'm a chef,
it's great as long as you eat it
with something that balances out the acidity.
Right now, we have a lot of different fresh beans,
some purple hull peas... But we also have a lot of dried beans.
In Brazil, we eat a lot of black-eye peas...
- Mm-hmm. - And these are so similar.
My gut is telling me to make acarajé,
which is a black-eyed pea fritter,
to honor my Brazilian heritage
while highlighting these Appalachian ingredients.
Sherry, since you won the last challenge,
you get a really cool advantage.
You get to choose two Appalachian ingredients
that you wanna use from the pantry,
and those two ingredients are gonna be off-limits
for the rest of the chefs.
[dramatic music]
Sherry, you get a really cool advantage.
You get to choose two Appalachian ingredients
that you wanna use from the pantry,
and those two ingredients are gonna be off-limits
for the rest of the chefs.
Which one you guys said that you wanted?
[laughing] I'm just kidding.
So because I grew up eating these,
I know I can make something that's a little Brazilian.
And then, I've made chow chow twice already.
Oh, nice.
I'm very familiar with chow chow.
We always had it at the dinner table.
It's one of my favorite condiments.
It's in my repertoire.
This is sad for me.
I'm really just trying to think about a plan B and C.
Now it's time to show us what y'all learned.
It was amazing spending the day with y'all, thank y'all so much.
- Thank you. - Safe travels.
[upbeat music]
I would definitely like to drive through and stay
- like a day or so here. - Yeah me too.
There's so many like cool little knick-knack little places.
You know? Knick-knacks copperdong, let's go! Brother!
[laughing]
Knick-knacks, copperdong, brother.
Brother! [laughing]
Alright, y'all, back to Charlotte.
[upbeat music]
We're here.
Where are the carts? Don't take me out.
What are you running for? What are we...
what are we running away from?
- Running away from you. - What are we running for?
Jonathan, what you got over there?
I got a booty peach. Had a nice little dimple in it.
[chuckling]
I wanna do like a pickled peach relish.
23 minutes.
We're gonna get this beautiful pantry
of Appalachian ingredients to use.
That takes a lot of the stress off of this shop.
I really like this challenge, I think it's cool.
I think taking those pickles that are used
here but making my own is important,
so I know want to do something that's acid-forward.
Hell yeah. I think I'm looking good.
[dramatic music]
[upbeat music]
Did you find buckwheat?
I'm gonna do the small peas.
- Oh, cool. - Is that good?
- Yeah, yeah. - I think it's good.
I'm thinking about doing a grain chili crisp.
You want me to buy this buckwheat for you just in case?
Buckwheat does have like a nice texture.
Maybe I could add them to my chili crunch?
Okay.
Scoot! Sorry.
When Chef Ashleigh was talking about what chow chow was
and why it's important, it's really kind of this like,
whatever's available and whatever's around.
I'm not gonna make a chow chow, but we're gonna make a slaw
inspired by the spirit of a chow chow
using all these different pickles mixed with some cabbage.
I'm really excited about the...
- leather britches. - Yeah.
I think it's just really cool.
Coming out of Chef Ashleigh's restaurant, I've been thinking
about fried fish all day,
and so I'm going to make a catfish sandwich featuring
leather britches inside the bun that I'm gonna make by hand.
I gotta make bread for 200 people, huh?
Six minutes, Chef!
Is that enough food for 200 people, there, sir?
- Yeah, buddy! - You sure?
[chuckles]
- Have a good night. - Alright.
[upbeat music]
Do you need more than this?
I don't need a pawpaw, I'm sorry.
Final five, y'all, how we doing?
Very good.
These first 30 minutes are so crucial. I need to get focused.
I'm making a stuffed cabbage in the style of lumpia.
If you go to a Filipino party
and someone brings a tray of crispy eggrolls,
like, you're the star.
My main Appalachian ingredients that I'm using
is the pawpaw vinegar. So I'm making pawpaw ponzu.
Pawpaw ponzu. [chuckles]
It's probably the most vulnerable thing for me to do,
to cook food that I grew up with.
What if people find what I find delicious yucky?
Two hours, 29!
Don't have a smoker? We make one.
- You hobo-smoking? - Yep.
I need to make my smoked trout and crab cake mixture.
Yep, so we got just a little bit of smoke.
But I wanna make sure that the flavors are like pow, pow.
Appalachian! Pow! Sour corn! Pow!
So I might make a peach, corn, green tomato relish on top. Psh.
Right here, just cooking all this down
for my chicken liver pâté.
Smoked bacon and hock goes in.
Some of the rye, which is one of my Appalachian ingredients.
My dish is definitely screaming Appalachia.
This is sorghum molasses for my cracker.
These dilly greasy beans, the rye crackers,
and the chicken livers resonate to this area.
These are liversicles.
I feel like it's throwing a nod
to Appalachia while also being very much Sieger.
Who wants strawberry milkshakes?
[blender whirring]
Don't mess with Sherry, she's working that blender over there.
[chuckles]
Yeah, I'm making my acarajé. So I'm gonna take
the October beans then I'm gonna make a batter.
This is the traditional way to do it. We're gonna be cooking
in the middle of the woods,
and I'm serving 200 people alone. I have to be very smart.
I wanna make my fritter dough tonight,
and I also wanna get ahead on my spicy peanut sauce.
- It's a little baby! - That looks so cute!
Beans in nature are a very luxury ingredient.
You know, like, it's earthy, it's buttery, it's creamy.
I feel really good about these October beans,
and I wanna showcase them.
It tastes like home.
Does it feel like we're cooking for the finals, guys?
It feels like I'm cooking for my life.
[chuckles] It's like... Squid Games.
If anybody needs a mixer, I have them all.
I have so much bread to make...
this is TBD whether this was a terrible decision or not.
The biggest priority for me is getting this bread done
and then portioning my fish so it's ready for tomorrow.
It's gonna be like a little mini catfish sandwich
with this sourwood honey mayo.
It's gonna have this not chow chow slaw.
Is that the right amount of water?
But now I have to make it happen.
What am I doing?
[upbeat music]
I'm gonna sauté some of these leather britches
with onion and garlic. The idea is to get that flavor
throughout the dough.
[dramatic music]
[groans]
I never do this, but can I get a strong guy?
I've been waiting my whole life for this moment.
He's not gonna be able to do it.
[groans] [metal clang]
With my bare hands, look at that!
[clang]
For all your strong guy needs, I'm here!
I love it. Thank you, thank you.
- Y'all, two hours on the dot! - Heard!
Just gonna stuff 200 cabbages. Not a big deal.
[singing] ♪ Why did I do this? ♪♪
Feels beautiful, looks beautiful.
- How you doing, dough boy? - I'm about to start portioning.
Honestly, all I've done is made one element of my dish.
Make sure you make a couple extra for me so I can taste it?
- Extra? - Hell yeah.
[tense music]
Hey, Chefs! How's it going?
- Oh wow, hi! - Hey!
- Hey, Rhoda. - Hey, Chefs.
What are you making?
I'm making a stuffed cabbage.
- Oh okay. - Mmm.
And then I'm doing a pawpaw ponzu.
So is the pawpaws where you're introducing
your Appalachian ingredients?
I'm also using the apple butter.
I'm making, like a apple mostarda,
with a little bit of miso and mustard.
And then this is puffed buckwheat chili crisp.
So you only need to stuff, what, 200?
- Just 200. - You have plenty of time?
No. [laughing]
- We'll make it happen. - Nice. Okay.
- Jonathan. - Hello!
- What's going on? - I love sour corn.
I just remember eating it as a kid
and like... like what the hell is that?
So I'm gonna do like a sour corn, peach relish.
I know that corn was sour. He did not make a face.
Not one eyebrow moved.
We got a lot of preserved and sour things,
so that's a good start.
What was your favorite part of the tour, Chef?
Just being inspired by the story. I lived Florida,
I lived in St. Lucia, and so I've been on an island
going through a hurricane. It really like,
hit me in the heart when, you know...
- Yeah. - This dish that I'm doing
today is like gonna be fueled by, you know,
preserved items because, you know, that's all you got.
- You don't... - Absolutely.
- Use what you have, right? - Right. Exactly.
- Thanks, Chefs! - Good luck.
Appreciate it.
Looks like you're cooking for 200 people over here.
I am cooking 200 people, I'm trying to at least.
We are trying to bake bread.
- Who's we? - We.
[laughs] Me and my collective
- baking team over here. - You and yourself.
Got it. Okay.
I'm trying to do a fried catfish sandwich.
- Okay. - Just... respect to you,
- hopefully you like it. - Risky. Alright. Okay.
Thanks, y'all. Yeah.
- Thanks, Chef. - Take care.
- Chefs! - How's it going?
What are you making there?
Believe it or not, this is chicken liver pâté.
I believe that. [laughs]
So what I do is cook it over a double boiler to 135.
Set it with a little gelatin and then I'm gonna let it
set in the cooler overnight
- and pipe that. - Okay.
A classic way of making chicken liver pâté
is you put it in oven, cook it in a water bath.
But if it's undercooked, it won't set.
This sets perfectly every time.
Are you worried about your time at all with that pâté?
No, I'm looking good, this is my last batch
of chicken liver to cook. Then, roll crackers and pickles.
We had all these amazing ingredients to use,
so I wanted to utilize as much as possible.
- Sounds good. - Thank you so much.
- Hey Sherry. - Hi, Chefs, how are you?
Good. What is this, right here, you're making?
So this is vatapa. This is the pureed peanuts.
So what you do is a bean fritter using the dry October beans.
I wanted to use it as the base and...
Right, wanted to use it as an ingredient.
This dish is nothing... Yeah. The dish would be
nothing without the beans.
Very different from what
- most people make. - Everyone else, yeah.
- Awesome. - Thank you guys.
45 guys, 45!
Here we go.
This apple butter is pretty sweet.
It's gonna be really nice.
I love that the chefs, they've certainly
been inspired by a lot of the ingredients.
I'm looking at these dishes. I think it's gonna come down
to a lot of work at the station,
last minute. And we're cooking outside, too.
I hope Sieger's pâté sets.
Yep. They're all right here right now.
So they're not in the refrigerator yet.
He's done this recipe, so I'm expecting that he knows
how much gelatin needs to go into each one of these.
A lot of people will be sweating tomorrow.
How's everything looking, brother?
Baos portioned about to go in the oven. The fish is portioned.
I gotta start making all the stuff for the fish.
I have fried catfish for a lot of people.
- Never by myself though. - Once you get past the fryer,
then you gotta build the sandwiches too.
Right.
Diced peaches going in. This is going to be like
the base for my relish.
And then I'm gonna add a little bit of sour corn.
The sour corn's interesting.
- It's sour. - Quite sour, yeah.
Gotta fry 200 cakes at the station.
- Yeah. - Could be difficult.
Trout by itself is a very smushy fish. I didn't want this
to come out like a dip. I want it to have some substance.
Sherry has an interesting dish.
I think the biggest thing for her is gonna be making sure
she's able to fry 200.
It seems like a lot to do at the table.
Now we have Rhoda. She's doing a stuffed cabbage.
We'll see if I have time to wrap everything today.
- Gotta stuff all that cabbage. - She's gotta get to stuffing.
There's a very fine line between
being ambitious and being practical.
Five chefs left, there's a lot on the line here, too.
Hopefully, we'll get some great food tomorrow.
I know, I'm excited to try everything.
Okay chefs, everything looks great!
- See you soon. - See y'all.
- Thank you, Chefs! - Thank you!
[upbeat music]
Crackers are looking great. I made another dough so tomorrow
I can make another round of dough when I get there.
I'm going to try to make this aioli right now.
I'll adjust the seasoning on that tomorrow.
It's just a little tart.
These bao look really good. Cooked through, golden brown.
Did you complete everything?
No. I gotta make a mayo, and I gotta make a cabbage slaw.
I need to wrap everything up. I would love to get the slaw
done, I would love to make some mayo,
but I think that's stuff gonna have to wait for tomorrow.
Oh no.
Man, that three hours went quick, huh?
What the helly?
I realize that I'm not going to be able to get
these cabbages stuffed tonight.
I need every last drop.
[tense music]
All I need to do tomorrow is attempt to stuff...
200 cabbages.
I don't know what's going to happen.
I don't know if I'm gonna have a dish tomorrow.
- Watch all those trays up top. - Okay.
Let's get out of here!
[tense music]
You just gotta get something in.
Three to five times a week minimally.
Do you do any, like, work out or exercise?
He's doing it right now!
Oh, I didn't see that. [laughter]
Hi, baby girl!
Baby, say hi.
Look at all those teeth!
[baby noises]
Aw!
It's been crazy here,
but it's just good to see a familiar face.
We're twinsies.
I know.
I wake up feeling really nervous
about how to handle this cabbage today.
How are you feeling?
I love being able to connect with my sister Katrina.
It's very grounding.
We moved to the states together 20 something years ago.
It feels like it's been forever since this started.
'Cause it just, it doesn't even feel real. But--
I keep like saying, like, if she's not calling crying,
that means everything's good.
[laughter]
Feeding off of that energy,
I'm feeling good.
I want to make everyone proud.
I love you so much.
I love you too.
[kisses]
[dramatic music]
We're going to the woods!
It's gonna be 89.
So if you were sweating doing the prep,
like Sieger was...
You're gonna be schvitzing during the cook.
Sieger, did you set your chicken liver mousse with gelatin?
Yeah.
Do you think you can still pipe it with a piping bag
if it's set with gelatin, or will it come out?
Oh, I sure can.
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
Yeah, I've done it before.
So it's kind of a little fool-proof?
Yeah. So like with the heat, it won't puddle out either.
I imagine we're just gonna be in the woods.
[dramatic music]
Oh, my God.
This is so cool.
[birdsong]
- Are we ready? - Let's go!
Three fryers, that's me.
This is gorgeous.
Can somebody move these trees out of the way,
I can't get to my mis en place.
[chuckles]
Can you see me through the woods?
Rhoda, where are you? I hear you, I don't see you.
I'm right here!
Today, I really need to be meticulous with my time.
Right now I gotta focus on just getting the rest of my sandwich
put together.
There's, like, no room for error.
Making the mayo, getting the slaw done.
Originally, I had wanted to wrap
my stuffed cabbages individually,
but this entire competition is just all about pivoting.
I decide to make into a longer roll, steam it whole,
and then cut it into portions.
I think it's gonna save me a lot of time.
How's that dough looking?
Dough's looking great, Chef.
I just want to make sure I have enough for all the guests
that come through today.
I've been pretty fortunate in my career,
I've done a lot of charities and tasting events.
No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strengths,
Meals on Wheels events where it's about a bunch of chefs
coming together towards a good cause.
And those are from anywhere between, like,
eight to 1,200 people.
Getting these crackers made,
and getting all my knifework done is my main priority.
[chopping]
Hey Sherry, how's it going?
I am making my acarajé.
The October bean fritter,
I know that's a risk to make something that's so foreign.
Right? Most of the diners will have no point of reference,
so it's important for me to be able to chat
when people come to the table.
I wanna par fry them,
and then, right before I serve it,
I'm gonna put them back in the fryer.
But this is my first project because I need
200 of them.
I've got my breadcrumbs.
I'm gonna press them with a mold.
I know we're out in the woods,
and I know we're doing some rustic stuff,
but there's gotta be some refinement in what I present
for the judges.
One hour!
One?!
Sieger, how's your liver looking?
I'm gonna get into bags and into the cooler.
- Hey, Sieger! - Chef!
Hey, the chickens are calling, they want their liver back!
Hell yeah.
All the chefs are doing a hot dish except for Sieger.
He's going cold with a liver mousse.
It's hot as hell out here.
I'm gonna need to get ice.
'Cause, I don't know.
This doesn't feel like it was in the cooler for that long.
It's a little risky to me, but, if he executes it,
it could be a winner.
Can we turn the air conditioning on?
The idea of taking each of these off one by one
and cutting them haunted me,
and so I'm really happy that this is working out.
I have one hundred ready.
Sherry, mad respect, yo.
If anybody can do it, who is it Jonathan?
It's Sherry, man.
Woo! Baby. Let's go.
How's your cabbage turning out? The steam all right?
Really good, yeah. I'm really excited about this.
29 minutes!
[upbeat music]
That's 120 pieces right there.
[banging]
I'm trying to open up about my feelings,
and these cans are the perfect representation of it.
[chuckles]
Aah! There you go! I'm a strong woman!
That's right.
So, I'm making my Brazilian chow chow.
So I'm pretty much combining a chow chow
with a pico de gallo.
She's done.
The sour corn's sour, but you know,
when you add the peaches to it, it's gonna add some sweetness.
This is sourwood honey mayo.
Tastes like sourwood honey, tastes like mayo. I'm into it.
Watermelon rinds out of the pickle
so I can get them diced.
These are my dilly greasy beans. Quick pickle on those.
I love being in the woods,
my hair doesn't like being in the woods.
[laughs]
It's too humid!
12 minutes, y'all! Woowee.
Just dredging my fish, I'mma fry my fish,
and I'm ready for service.
Get some tee'd up, so when these hungry guests come through,
I got some ready for them.
Oh yeah, baby.
I'm taking a sample over to Rhody.
We're cutting it down to the wire, but you know what?
I like to cook while I'm talking to guests
so it looks like I'm doing something.
There you go, Rhoda!
[crunch]
Chef?
Is there any way you can drain your pickles more?
- Yeah. - Yeah. I love it.
Three minutes!
There's gonna be a little bit of spicy, there's a little sweet.
[intense music]
Fighting for our lives!
Ooh boy! I hear the people.
[crowd chatter]
Hello, hello. Welcome to the forest.
[dramatic music]
Hi, everyone!
- Hello! - Hi, welcome!
Hi, y'all.
[dramatic music continues]
We got some catfish sandwiches.
It's delicious.
Hello, hello. I've got mountain trout.
Please enjoy.
[upbeat music]
- This is beautiful! - We're, like, in the woods.
I have a pork and shrimp stuffed cabbage with a pawpaw ponzu.
This is chicken liver pâté. Enjoy.
I like the topping on it.
Mm.
Ashleigh, what are we benefiting?
All of these amazing diners today have donated canned goods
and dry goods that are gonna go to BeLoved Asheville today.
And ingredients from the pantry are going to MANNA Food Bank.
- Amazing. - So thankful.
And how's the city doing overall?
We're back and we're better than ever.
You can get into your favorite restaurants, finally.
[laughter] That's right, that's right.
We're definitely ready for everyone to come back
and see us.
All right, just give me a second to load up some more.
You think you're prepared,
and then you get bum rushed.
I just never cooked for 200 people in the woods.
[laughter]
But, you know, I embrace the challenge.
You just try to hold on for dear life.
Give me one second, let me get some more cakes on
and I'll plate up some more here.
This is their biggest crowd yet.
And zero help with service? I mean...
Zero help with service. We're cruel, terrible people.
Yes.
[upbeat music]
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
So, acarajé, it's a traditional Brazilian street food.
Oh, okay.
I call it the Brazilian hot dog.
- You deep fry it? - You deep fry it.
- Like french fries. - Yes.
Gotcha.
Like a true hush puppy.
Okay! Well, it's wonderful. We love it.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
SHERRY: I truly appreciate that.
- Enjoy. - Thank you.
- Hello, Jonathan. - Hello!
How you doing?
Nice to see you here in the enchanted forest.
What'd you make?
So I made a mountain trout and crab cake,
pickled green tomatoes,
and there's a little bit of a sour corn and peach relish.
And then on the bottom is a sage and apple aioli.
Why the crab?
I like the texture of crab in there.
Trout by itself,
- it has a very soft texture. - Got it.
- Please, enjoy. - Thanks, Jonathan.
Thank you.
Ugh, gotta shake off the, the scaries!
That's sour corn right there.
That is, it's sour.
- Tom, you already finished it? - Yeah.
Hungry or delicious, or both?
It's, it's good. The trout cake is nicely made.
It's crispy, has some flavor.
The only problem I have is that it's all acid.
With sour corn, you want a good bit of fat
to cut the sour and acidity,
and I think that is lacking a little.
But hey, I'm finishing mine, so.
Oh yeah, it's flavorful, yeah.
The peach is good. I've never had peach on top of fish.
[upbeat music]
[crowd chatter]
Wondering how the pâté is gonna age out here.
It's very good, lot of flavor, but temperature--
Yeah. I wonder if in an hour we're gonna be struggling.
Hi, Sherry.
Hi, guys!
- Hello. - How are you?
I just had a big rush.
They saw Brazilian food and they came running.
[laughter]
So what is it?
So, it's an acarajé with October beans,
vatapa chow chow, and garlicky shrimp.
The chow chow, did you add anything
to what was given to you?
Yes, I transformed it,
or morphed it in a pico de gallo.
So it's pico chow gallo? [laughter]
We're gonna coin that term.
- Thank you, Sherry. - Thank you guys, thank you.
The shrimp are delicious, they're cooked really well.
Yeah. The peanut's delicious.
I feel like I'm just gonna go in for this.
It's a nice dish. It's really creative,
and I think it's great for an event like this,
you can pick it up and almost treat it like a lobster roll.
Sherry did a really great job with that bean cake,
and really highlighting that ingredient.
Have you used October beans in fritters before?
No, I've not used it in fritters before,
but that's providing that earthiness.
I love that she inserted her own culture into this dish.
I thought the chow chow was wonderful.
- It was tasty. - Yeah.
I'm so proud that I get to represent my country
and where I come from.
[upbeat music]
Hi, Chef! What inspired you to create this dish?
When we visited Asheville the other day
with Chef Ashleigh,
she told me about this Filipino fine-dining restaurant.
It really inspired me to, like, make this dish.
I love it. Well, that's our restaurant.
- Stop it! - Yes.
- No! - Yeah, I'm the chef.
[laughter]
You got this, you're doing amazing.
Yes. It's so nice to meet you, you're doing amazing.
Oh my gosh, so amazing. Thank you!
We're so excited.
Well, please don't judge me too much on this.
I won't, I won't, you're doing incredible.
Thank you, Chef.
Thank you, thank you, what an honor.
Chili crisp is amazing, honestly, it's genius.
The crunch is so good.
- Hi, Laurence. - Hi.
- What are you making? - A catfish sandwich.
- Shout out to Chef Shanti. - I know a bit about that.
High bar. High bar.
I don't know if this is a good idea. I guess we'll see.
So this is a catfish sandwich.
The bread has leather britches in it.
Sourwood honey mayo.
And then there's a slaw that I made with Appalachian pickles.
- Oh, man. The mayo's delicious. - Yeah.
- We're gonna leave you. - Okay, okay.
- But it's not because-- - You have a very long line.
Yeah, I know, I got some more coming, right now.
All right, y'all go home. I'm done now.
I'm kidding! I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm back, I'm back.
I mean, this is a great fried catfish sandwich.
Well done on the crisp for the catfish.
And the acid from the- his pickled cabbage,
I'm enjoying it.
The sourwood honey mayo is really tying it all together.
Technique-wise, the sauce, the bun, the fish,
everything is cooked beautifully and seasoned well.
Absolutely.
I'm a little perplexed about the leather britches bun.
To have them cooked and folded into the bun,
I don't know if that comes through at all.
I feel like I'm melting out here.
Great, we're all melting together.
- Aloha, judges. - Hello!
How are you?
Hi, nice to see you again.
Can I make you a fresh batch? Is that okay?
- Sure. - Whatever you want.
Okay, please, I'll make you a fresh batch.
What are you making?
It's kind of like my take on a Filipino egg roll.
It's cabbage stuffed with pork and shrimp.
I did a pawpaw ponzu,
apple butter mostarda,
and then a buckwheat chili crisp.
- Thank you. - Thanks, Rhoda.
Thank you! I appreciate it.
- Yeah, good luck. - Thank you, enjoy.
Okay. Mmm.
I mean, it's freaking delicious.
- It's delicious. - It's so good.
- The buckwheat crisp is great. - I love the buckwheat crisp.
Yeah, the chili crisp is the bomb.
It is so good.
There's such beautiful layering of flavor in Rhoda's dish.
And I got the vinegar.
Do you stuff cabbage?
We stuff everything.
[laughter] You stuff everything?
Yeah, definitely stuffed cabbage throughout the region.
I think the shrimp and pork inside is actually delicious.
It's well seasoned, it's good texture,
and the rest of the ingredients are just fun.
- It's beautiful. - It smells so good.
Thank you! Thank you so much.
For some reason, I ended up with buckwheat. I don't know why.
Must've had an angel.
Must've.
Looking over you as you shopped.
Always looking out for me.
Everyone's got a line.
[dramatic music] [crowd chattering]
Sieger does not have a line.
Chicken liver's a hard sell.
It is a hard sell.
I'm gonna do a big bite. I'm scared.
I'm not the biggest fan.
I just don't like the taste of liver.
[crowd chattering]
- Hi Sieger! - Hello!
How are you?
We've got a chicken liver pâté.
It's with a little rustic mince and mills.
Rye cracker. The salad on top is pickled watermelon rind,
some greasy beans in the style of dilly beans,
pickled coriander.
And then in the pâté, you've got ham hock, smoked bacon,
a bunch of onions, rye, livers,
and a good amount of brown butter.
- Thanks, Sieger. - Thank you.
Thank you, have a great rest of your day.
Thought they would never leave!
I'm like, these beautiful people need to eat,
quit blah blah blah-ing me.
I really applaud Sieger's concept.
The mousse, I'm not sure if it's just the method of cooking,
or because it was just sitting, that it got very, very soupy.
Should be a little more firm
- like soft butter. - Mhmm.
I mean, a little minerality on it, but you know,
it's chicken liver mousse, you're gonna get that.
And the cracker I could fault, like, you know,
it's a little dry, a little chewy, absolutely.
But I just loved the courage to highlight these ingredients.
But like, a great idea can only carry you so far on Top Chef.
It's just not a good chicken liver mousse.
No, exactly, he made a mousse that is not good.
It's wet.
Unfortunately, the beans and the stuff on top was also wet.
And then it just went wet into wet,
and it just is no longer appetizing.
It's a little sweet. I didn't know what to expect.
I've never had a pâté.
- Wish you the best. - Thank you so much.
Have a good rest of your day.
[soft music]
Sherry, that was really bright.
And the Appalachian ingredients in there.
But then, again, I haven't had anything I don't like.
It's wonderful.
- Hello. - Hey, guys!
- How are you? - Good!
How was it today?
Rhoda's, oh my gosh. Amazing.
Y'all ate some good food today?
Trout cake, we got it hot, it was perfect.
Today overall was a good day.
- Cheers, brother. - Nice job.
- Yeah. - You killed it.
To me, the catfish was really strong.
Yes, loved that.
How'd it feel today having other people cook for you?
Well, I didn't have to do anything.
A change of pace.
- I loved it! - Yes.
Well thank you very much.
Thank y'all! Thank you.
Well, thank you, everyone, for being here,
supporting a fantastic cause.
If we could give our chefs a huge round of applause.
[cheering]
I hope that you all had a lovely time.
Thank you so much for being here.
[applause]
[dramatic music]
This is it.
Nice.
Now, this is life! Look at this!
Did anybody else cook for 200 people today?
I think I cooked for, like, 500 people today.
It felt like 500!
It was really fun.
And like, the food donation, and everything that went with it.
I know we cooked great food today.
You always have that feeling in the bottom of your stomach,
like, they're gonna be splitting hairs
because it's only five of us,
and they have to send somebody home.
[dramatic music]
Considering that maybe some were unfamiliar
with some of the ingredients,
and you're cooking for 200 people by yourself,
I think pretty damn good.
A lot of tasty food.
Little minor things here and there, but nice job today.
There were a few dishes that definitely stood out
amongst the rest.
Sherry.
It's a good thing! Okay?
[laughter]
Yeah.
Laurence, and Rhoda.
Cool.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
Sherry, where did you find inspiration for your dish?
I was asked the question about 200 times, "where are you from?"
And I would just push the plate and I'd be like,
"Let me tell you about it."
Like, I didn't have a second dish that I wanted to make.
I knew. And I'm so glad that I got to do it.
Our concern yesterday was frying 200 fritters,
and it seemed like you had a pretty good handle on that.
I made it.
I was next to her, I was like, "Yo, Sherry, you're a beast."
I thought the fritter was really flavorful.
The shrimp was beautifully cooked.
Nicely marinated. It was a nice dish.
Thanks, Chef.
That peanut sauce, I thought it was delicious.
It did get a little lost in the dish,
but I love how you made the chow chow your own.
But you were able to do that and still use
Appalachian influence, so, great job.
Thank you, Ashleigh.
Rhoda, I don't know if I would've ever arrived
at a dish like that for 200 people.
The ambition was there and then you delivered on the execution.
The buckwheat, I thought that was fantastic.
- I love chili crisp. - Thank you, Sieger.
- Is that... did you? - Did you make it?
He put the buckwheat in my cart.
- Good job, Sieger. - Yeah, nice job, Sieger.
Team effort.
He's really good at that.
Top sous-chef.
[chuckles]
Chef, your dish was one of my favorites.
I was so excited about that pawpaw ponzu.
Incredible work.
It really, to me, did represent not just the challenge,
but also this unifying nature of food for a cause.
I thought it was beautiful.
Thank you.
Laurence, how did you arrive at your dish?
The thing that I, like, was most drawn to
was those leather britches.
Sun drying vegetables,
like, that's a very village Cantonese thing.
The leather britches was so fascinating to me
how you chose to incorporate it into the bread,
I wish I could've tasted it more.
The sourwood honey mayo, that was really great.
You had a little sweetness from the honey,
you had some tartness from the cabbage.
I thought the bao was beautifully done.
The fry on the catfish was outstanding, it was so crispy.
The ratio of the bun to the sauces to the slaw.
Everything was working,
and to consistently, across the board,
for 200 sandwiches, to nail them,
that's incredible.
Thank you.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
Watch the snake over there.
Oh! [hissing]
- Oh, my God! - No, no, no, no.
- It's coming around. - Oh, it's coming for you.
No, I cannot have it.
He's going under! Gail, he's going under.
Gail, get up.
- Where do I go? - I don't know, on the table.
[overlapping voices] [hissing]
- Now it's over that way. - Stay right there.
Guys! You're totally freaking me out!
Spencer, help us.
That's wild!
You're just gonna pick it up like that?
Sh--! Damn!
Oh, my God!
Yo!
No ----ing way.
Okay, we're gonna need it all the way over there.
Yo, Spencer, what a hero!
Spencer, that was so sexy.
What do you guys think, I'll just be like,
"Um, I think it was..." [laughter]
Okay.
[exhales]
Ashleigh, as our guest judge,
you have the pleasure of announcing our winner today.
This chef did an incredible job
taking those Appalachian ingredients,
and being inspired by them,
and even finding parallels within their own culture
and cuisine.
The chef that had our favorite dish today is...
Chef Rhoda.
No!
Oh, good job, Rhoda!
Good job, Rhoda!
- Congratulations. - Whoa.
Rhoda, you just won an advantage
going into the next elimination challenge.
Cool, thank you so much.
Making a version of the humble lumpia on Top Chef and winning?
It feels extremely validating.
I'm just so grateful to be here.
And if I talk more, I'm gonna cry, so I'm not gonna do that.
And if you cry, I cry, so then, we're in a tough spot.
It's the home stretch. It's hard.
You guys have done so much.
Thank you.
Sherry, Rhoda, and Laurence,
you guys can step to the side, thank you.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
Sieger and Jonathan, the two of you had our least
favorite dishes of the day, and one of you
will be going home.
[tense music]
Let's start with you, Sieger.
Did the day, and your dish, go as planned?
Yeah. Absolutely, to a T.
I thought the cracker was nice and crispy.
I thought your chicken liver mousse had a great flavor.
The texture of the mousse was a lot looser than, you know,
I'd expect a mousse to be.
Okay.
Did you set the mousse in the Top Chef kitchen?
I set it in third pans, yeah, let it set,
and then brought it here.
I got them into the pastry bags and they went into ice.
Taking it from the third pan to the pastry bag,
did it soften up?
Yeah, it softened. That's why I got ice in that cooler
and just packed each bag in ice so that it could set up again.
Right.
Everything was there except for the texture.
And as we all know,
texture does impact the way we taste and how we eat things.
When we got to your station,
they were all sort of pre-plated.
Did you think of kind of re-piping them, or...?
Unfortunately, by the time you guys got up,
I was speaking with guests. I wasn't able to re-plate.
I think this just comes down to execution.
I'm sure you've cooked outside before,
and considering some of those factors,
your warm hands on the piping bag...
that chicken liver pâté was incredibly runny.
There's a good amount of brown butter in there too,
so, I mean, once that starts to get warm, that'll do it.
Putting that beautiful dilly bean relish on top
that also had more liquid in it,
made it even more liquidy and loose.
Jonathan, did your dish turn out how you wanted it to?
Yeah, I knew the dish that I wanted to do
right from the beginning,
and wanted to really highlight
the sour corn.
There was a lot of acidity in your dish,
and obviously, you're highlighting the sour corn,
but it also needs to be balanced enough with fat.
And I think we didn't get enough of the aioli,
which was also quite acidic.
That trout cake, I think, was well executed.
You got a nice sear on it, it had texture.
So I think just including a little more fattiness
in that dish would've toned a lot of that down.
Yeah. I added the local honey to it.
You did?
Yeah, but the intent was to lean more on the acidic side.
Your big challenge that you actually, I thought,
did really well with was browning, you know,
200 crab cakes to order.
I think you handled that really, really well.
I say it every season, when we get this far,
is we are nitpicking.
Because all five of you cooked incredibly ambitious food today
all alone. And that, I think,
- impressed everybody. - Mm-hmm.
This is gonna be tough.
Thank you, we'll call you back in a little bit.
Thank you.
You know, sometimes, it just blows my mind
the decisions that people make.
Mm-hmm.
Do you remember when I told you the moisture on your pickles...
- Yeah, I strained it. - You did?
Yeah. C'est la vie.
Dude, I mean everything here at this point, it is nitpicking.
Somebody's gotta go. That's the thing. Somebody's gotta go.
This is getting really difficult.
One was out of balance, and one, texturally,
was completely off putting.
I'm at a bit of a crossroads,
because they both listened to the challenge,
incorporated a multitude of Appalachian ingredients,
but they both had flaws.
I feel like I have a little bit of a pallet.
You know? A little bit.
- I think you have a lot a bit of a pallet.
- You know what I'm saying? - You're here still.
I added sweetness and I adjusted it before service,
but it's a sour corn relish.
Jonathan's was kind of one note.
It was just the acid problem, and that was it.
His cake was nice.
It was flavorful, it was seasoned well.
Really, it was missing fat.
And no amount of honey was necessarily gonna
balance out Jonathan's dish.
Me being on the bottom
because the mousse texture was a little off?
Whatever. My dish was great.
I can brush that sh-- off. I don't care.
Sieger's, the texture was completely,
completely off putting.
I took, like, two bites of it, and that was it for me.
Did it get that runny here?
I think it got that runny in the bag.
Yeah.
When I saw a pastry bag there, I was really surprised.
I really expected a quenelle was coming right out
of the third pan. Keep it cold.
There were some bad choices made there.
And Rhoda, she had plates,
and she said, "No, no, no, you're not taking those,
we're gonna do different ones."
- She said don't touch those, yeah.
No matter what, it's been a pleasure.
- Yeah, yeah. - Hanging out.
It's really tough to have to send one of these chefs home.
But we have our answer?
[tense music]
[exhales]
This is a tough one to send someone home
on a day when we're really here to celebrate the resiliency
of this community.
For the most part, you made really great dishes.
It's just unfortunate that there was one dish
that just fell a little short.
[music builds]
Sieger, please pack your knives and go.
Okay.
Yeah, Sieger, you took a big risk with that mousse,
and it just really didn't set up.
What was the challenge?
Yeah. Appalachian ingredients, right?
Yeah.
Okay, cool. Just making sure. Or whatever.
If you can't set a mousse...
Great. All right, that's fine. We'll leave, that's fine.
No, no, no. The mousse completely fell apart.
The heat got to it. Would you call that successful?
No, I think when the challenge is
highlight Appalachian ingredients--
Everybody was successful.
The dish was still a better dish than yours.
Okay, that's- Okay, great.
It is what it is.
Sorry.
At the end of the day, when judging happens,
we're looking at the challenges,
but also at technique.
Unfortunately, you didn't get past that starting line
of technique.
Or, when you speak with other people,
and you can grab my liver mousse that's in a cooler,
and see that.
But that's not what you gave us!
That's not what we got.
The flavor was good, the cracker was good--
But the texture was off!
That's a big issue!
Was the biggest flaw of all the five dishes
that we tasted today.
Just give it up, bro.
It's me giving you guys my feedback from your feedback.
And that's just how I feel. So that's it.
[tense music]
All right, you guys can exit. Thank you very much.
[chuckles]
[exhales]
I'm not sh---ing on you, but, technique, like...
an unbalanced dish, that's technique too, right?
All of them did the challenge.
Yeah, but you still have to make a great dish
that everyone wants to eat.
Number two. This guy.
Ah, it's fine.
Sorry, buddy.
Sieger put up a fight, bro.
I mean, I blew up, cause I'm like, this is bullsh--
I know, but dude, this is not the way to go out, bro.
It's not.
I don't, like...
I understand that you're trying to get your point across,
but do not end this way.
Was the challenge highlight Appalachian ingredients?
Can I get a copy of the rules right now?
PRODUCER: Yeah.
"Criteria for judging...
is not limited to judges' opinion of taste, originality,
creativity, cooking technique, presentation,
execution and use of the specialty ingredient."
We appreciate you, Sieger.
You stick to your guns, and that's fantastic.
Stay that way.
I exploded. So, whatever. It is what it is.
- See you. - Yep.
I'll see you, for sure.
But I went out on a challenge
where I produced a beautiful dish. It was me, I'm happy.
Oh, yeah.
Made it to top five.
After being eliminated and coming back again, so.
Chow chow!
Yeah.
Be good. Have fun.
[dramatic music]
Next time on Top Chef.
The last Quick Fire.
We are gonna play Tom's 20 Questions.
[groans]
Is there Tuscan kale in this dish?
No. [buzzer]
Damn!
For your final elimination challenge before the finale,
you all are going to have to think outside of the plate.
You're gonna have to come up with a dish served on something
that is completely unexpected.
This is it! This is the dish
that's gonna get us in the finale.
I really, really, really, really, really want this.
Oh, that was clever!
Oh, my God. Damn!
- It's good. - Happy Tom!
Yeah, it's good. It's good food.