- Hello, chefs! - Whoo!
Yeah.
Fifteen of the country's best chefs
have traveled to Portland, Oregon.
Oh, yeah.
Tom, Gail, and I
aren't the only people you'll have to impress.
What the heck is going on here?
Oh, no.
Your first Elimination Challenge
will be a blind tasting.
I make adobo all the time, but never duck.
This challenge is all pressure.
[alarm beeping]
Am I allowed to put this on?
[bleep]!
I'm excited.
The soy duck was so perfectly balanced.
I'm sad about this stew-that-isn't,
because a lot of individual components have great flavor.
This broth is too greasy.
The duck isn't cooked very well.
This coconut and grilled eggplant yogurt is awesome.
It's just like a flavor explosion in every bite.
Holy smokes.
The winning chef today is...
Sara.
Oh!
- Now I feel really stupid. - [laughter]
Roscoe...
please pack your knives and go.
Fourteen chefs remain to compete
in the ultimate culinary showdown.
At stake for the winner--
A feature in Food & Wine magazine,
an appearance at the Food & Wine classic in Aspen,
a quarter of a million dollars, furnished by San Pellegrino,
and the title of Top Chef.
Pour one out for Roscoe.
We're gonna go get some barbecue after all this is over.
- Yeah. - Everyone's a really good chef.
Doesn't matter when you go home. It's a game.
- Yeah. - Really fun, scary one.
All eyes are on me right now
- To our winner. - Oh, my gosh.
I've won both challenges.
Everyone's probably like,
"Where did this girl come from?"
Did you want to ever be on this?
Or was it, like, spur of the moment?
I've been out of restaurants for a year.
I was like, "Eh, keep it spicy.
2020's ----ing weird." [laughs] I don't know.
Did you think you were gonna be on the bottom?
I knew it. I had a gut feeling.
It sucked hardcore.
When you're on the chopping block,
you think it's gonna be you.
No matter how badass you think you are,
you think it's gonna be you and it can be you.
Or, when you're waiting in this room,
you think it's gonna be you.
I'm a little bit heartbroken.
The soul was missing from my dish.
The sauce did not make it, so I feel like I failed.
Never lose ourselves in this food.
From beginning to the end you have to have, like,
full confidence in what you're doing.
Y'all ready to wrap it up and
take this energy to bed?
To the bed.
♪ To eat some pizza ♪
- Yo! - Yep.
- Oh, all right. - Oh, my.
- Wow. - Got 'em all here.
- Good morning. - Morning.
Welcome to the "Top Chef" Diner.
Padma's standing up there with her pretty hair.
We're gonna do some diner food.
You know, you go to a diner and you get pancakes
at, like, 2:00 am.
Like, get dirty with it.
As you can see, we have a new addition to the panel.
James Beard Award nominee
and season 15 finalist...
Hi, everybody. Hi.
Portland is an amazing breakfast town, right, Gregory?
There are so many amazing breakfast spots--
Fried Egg I'm In Love, Canard, Mother's Bistro,
There's tons of options.
This morning, we're going to honor
the unsung heroes of the culinary world--
the short order cook.
For your Quickfire Challenge,
you're going to be making breakfast.
- Yes. - Right on.
Here's how it's gonna work.
One of the all-stars will call an order.
The first two chefs to hit that bell
get to cook their version of that dish.
Okay.
If you don't buzz in in time, you have to keep waiting
- for another dish. - It's a gamble.
There'll be a top and a bottom for every round.
At the end we'll select an overall winner
from our seven favorites.
And tell them what they get, Richard.
The winner will be granted immunity
for the Elimination Challenge.
Whoo.
You only have 30 minutes
to cook for all of us.
Got my running shoes on. [laughs]
That means eight perfect breakfast plates
in 30 minutes.
Eight breakfasts. Heard.
That's a little more than three minutes per plate.
Cool. That's gonna be awesome.
Get ready to hit those bells, because Amar
is ready with his first order.
I want some beautiful steak and eggs.
[bells ringing]
- Whoa. - [chuckles]
Byron and Gabe, go.
Go Gabe.
I think in everybody's mind,
they're like, "Well, sh--, I just want to get them
what they ordered and get it on eight plates.
Do you make steak and eggs a lot?
Only for myself and my missus.
That's a nice husband.
I want to have Mexican soul in every dish that I make.
- Beat that meat, dawg. - Excuse me?
So I want to create a nice adobo.
- Behind. - Ooh! [laughs]
Here I got a chimichurri.
So that's gonna go on top of the steak.
I have some short order cook experience.
My first job was at 15 years old
at a very famous restaurant called Burger King.
That's where I figured out my love for this career,
and I ended up working at the number one restaurant
in the world, Eleven Madison Park.
So steak and eggs, definitely in my wheelhouse.
I do not want to be in there right now.
Whew!
Melissa, what do you want?
I would love dim sum, just one perfect bite.
Dim sum.
[laughter]
I'm not gonna cook dim sum for Melissa.
What, tiny quesadillas? No, thank you.
[bell rings]
Avishar.
- Dim sum. - It could be salty,
it could be sweet. It could be fried, steamed.
Ah, whatever. I don't want to wait anymore.
- [bell rings] - And Shota.
[cheers and applause]
It's showtime.
I'm surprised it took 'em so long.
Yeah, I would've just been on that.
Starchy things, starchy things.
Dim sum is one of the most difficult things to make.
Oh, dear.
Is there any daikon?
No, ingredients are different from last time.
I probably should have thought of what I was making
before I even pressed the button.
Squash...
I see butternut squash.
I think I can use this to make a fritter.
Just need one bite, right?
I guess I just gotta start doing stuff, right?
Wish me luck! [laughs]
Of course.
I'm really in the mood for
a deeply flavored bowl of shrimp and grits.
[bells ring]
Jamie and Sara.
- Oh, whoa! - Aah! [laughs]
Oh, damn it!
The sauce is like the most important thing
with shrimp and grits.
- Come on, keep it spicy! - [laughter]
Go, Jamie!
Yowsa!
I have anxiety with competitions.
I don't know why.
Ahh!
I just need to, like, remind myself
of the passion of food.
Korean flavors on the shrimp and grits at this table.
- Oh, really? - I see gochujang.
That's a smart way to go. Yeah.
Food is, like, the way I express myself.
I can do things on a plate that...
sometimes I can't verbalize.
I'm just "waaah." [laughs]
Soy sauce. I'm gonna try to make a sweet soy sauce.
Um, I did bring some chili oil,
so I'm gonna try and get that in here somehow.
- You look good. Keep it up. - [chuckles]
[laughs]
[singsongy] I'm getting a little nervy.
Everyone who hasn't made a choice yet,
the nerves are starting to--
[laughter]
I'd much rather be already in it.
I'm gonna pee my pants.
Chefs, I would love
a spam and kimchi fried rice.
[bells ringing]
I don't know why I hit the bell.
Go, go, go!
I think it was just like, reflex. Like, go!
Any piñas? See any pineapples in there?
- What do you got going? - I'm gonna make
- a spam and eggs a la Mexicana. - Oh-ee.
I'm faster than you, Avishar!
I just don't want to fall on my ass!
[chuckles]
Chefs, health is wealth.
I'd love fried eggs and a veggie hash.
[bells ringing]
Dawn and Sasha.
Nelson, it's me and you, man.
- I thought you went. - No, not yet.
I'm waiting to see which one you pick.
I want you. [chuckles]
I am making a vegetable hash with chipotle sauce.
- Dawn wants it all. - I want it all.
I make hash a lot.
You so sassy right now, Sasha.
Yeah, you better believe it. I'm on fire, baby.
[chanting] Go, Gabe. Go, Gabe.
Maybe?
Chefs, make me your best version
- of fancy toast. - [bells ring]
Brittanny and Kiki.
Yas, yas, yas, yas.
Very hot behind. Order hot.
Hey, chef, what are you making?
I'm gonna do a fancy avocado toast.
Green harissa, do a little salad.
Brittanny is a badass.
I'm just gonna do this bread.
But I also am here to win, and actually owned a restaurant
that, like, that's what we served was breakfast all day.
So, I got this.
Oh! Thought that said 16 seconds. [laughs]
I figured out what I'm gonna do.
Mochi sesame ball. That's fried.
- Can I--can I-- - I'm using this one.
That's not mine. I don't know whose that is.
Okay, uh, [bleep].
I love Sara. She's such a sweetheart,
but to feel her anxiety, like, it overpowers me.
- Oh, my God, Shota. - You got this.
Byron and Gabe, you have five minutes.
- Behind. - Behind.
Thirty minutes is definitely not enough for this challenge.
Hot, very hot.
Eight plates this size, quite impossible.
[yells]
[laughing] So much crazy energy going on right now.
It's amazing.
Is this what we look like? [laughs]
I forgot how fast the time goes.
- [laughs] - All right, Richard,
tell Nelson and Chris what they're making.
Okay, chefs, I'm pretty hungry,
so I'm looking for
corned beef hash with eggs over medium,
hash browns, and Hollandaise sauce.
[laughter, applause]
- Go. - Go, guys.
This is absolutely crazy.
We waited till the end, we got the hardest dish then,
- unfortunately. - How you doing, Chris?
Sweating my ass off over here, but...
You're looking tall and gorgeous, just letting you know.
Hey, my little sexy thang over there.
- I appreciate you. - [laughs]
I don't know if I'm going to be ready.
I don't think mine's gonna be ready, either.
[groans]
Byron and Gabe, you have two minutes left.
Ugh, my eggs, I'm not--
Oh, I'm glad I'm not competing.
- Ooh! - Oh, he's shaking.
Twenty seconds.
[growls]
Get 'em on the plate. Get 'em on the plate.
[chanting] Three, two, one.
- [bleep] - [alarm beeps]
Just a light start.
Jesus! [laughing]
Byron, tell us what you made, please.
It's a seared T-bone steak,
topped off with a little bit of chimichurri,
over-easy egg and potatoes with pickled shallots.
- Gabe, what did you make? - I made a steak
marinated in chipotle adobo, plantains and baby potatoes.
What is the dark brown sauce?
It is a black garlic molasses.
It's delicious.
All right, all-stars, it's time to vote.
Which one did you prefer?
Pass it down?
Whew. I've never sweated so much in my life, dude.
The winner of this round is...
- Gabe. - Awesome, man.
- Great job, buddy. - Congratulations.
- Good save, man. - Great job.
How are my dim sum people doing?
Two minutes-- Ah, three minutes left!
Sh--.
Hey, you guys, make sure that fryer's open.
I'm about to come in real fast.
At this point, I don't have a choice.
I've got to fry it.
Ah, your balls look better than mine, bro.
[Shota chuckles]
Hot.
Somehow this guy's made mochi in a half an hour.
33 seconds? [bleep]
[alarm beeping]
[bleep]
Sh--.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
I did, uh, shrimp dumpling mochi
with a little bit of salt and sugar,
tossed it in sweet soy green onion sauce.
It's amazing the texture you got out of that
in the time that you were allowed.
- Thank you. - Avishar.
Butternut squash fritter with chili oil and sweet soy.
Think I'm missing a component here.
[sighs]
I don't have the fried.
It's actually good.
Sauce is tasty.
The winner of this round is...
Shota.
- Congratulations. - [applause]
- How's it going, Jamie? - Ah, it's going.
Cooters. Oh, my God, cooters.
I am beyond frantic.
Like, if there's a frantic meter,
it went "doop!" and popped at the top of it.
[groans]
It's okay.
I remind myself, "Stop overthinking
and just focus on the food."
I got my cardio in.
29 seconds.
[alarm beeps]
- Oh, this looks good, huh? - Shrimp and grits.
This smells great.
[both laugh]
Sara, what did you make for us?
Shrimp and grits fritter.
I've got some garlic, onion, bell pepper in there,
and Tillamook cheddar.
Jamie, what did you make?
I did a creamy polenta with sharp cheddar,
Cajun gochujang shrimp,
with a little jalapeño.
Think I'm having a heart attack. [laughs]
The winner of your duel is...
- Jamie. - Ooh. [mimics pistols firing]
- Congratulations. - Good job.
That was a legit shrimp and grits.
- It was a contender. - Yeah.
Where are the eggs? Over on this--on our side?
Ahh!
The hash that I'm making has onions, sweet peppers, yams.
Takes a lot of time,
and I still need to make my eggs.
[grunts softly]
I might have bitten off a little bit...too much.
- Come on, baby. - Oh, I'm sweaty, baby.
How you feeling over there, Gabe?
----ing crazy.
I don't know why I picked fried rice.
Oh, I ----ing forgot the kimchi! Aah!
- Ooh. - Time, please?
- Byron. - Thirty seconds.
[bleep]. Oh, [bleep].
[alarm beeps]
Thank you.
I want my mommy.
What did you make, Maria?
Fried rice with Spam,
but I gave it a Mexican twist.
I put chipotle and chorizo on it.
Gabriel, what did you make?
Seared pineapple and Spam fried rice.
Gabriel, I loved the addition of the pineapple.
Mm-hmm.
The winner of this Quickfire is...
Gabriel.
- Thank you. - Congrats.
Congratulations, Gabriel.
- They left us a mess. - Honestly, right?
----ing sabotage.
Their chef was like, "I want this, this,
this, this, and this." I don't envy them at all.
Five minutes left.
Oh. I looked down at the ticket,
and the top thing says "Fried egg."
I only heard the ----ing healthy hash part.
[laughs]
That egg is not gonna happen.
It's gonna be a delicious hash, so I'm okay.
- [sighs] - What are you doing
to make this dish stand out?
Um, I'm gonna get it on this plate.
- Perfect! [laughs] - Yeah.
Forty seconds done!
Oh. [groans]
- [bleep]. - [alarm beeps]
Hoo! Ha ha, I feel good.
I did not get the egg on the plate.
I failed again.
Sasha, what did you make?
A sweet potato hash
with preserved lemon crème fraîche
and a fennel salad.
- Where's the egg at? - Why did you choose to omit
one of the two things in your dish?
Honestly, I didn't hear it in the beginning.
But the yogurt looks like a poached egg,
and that's what you were going for.
He's trying to coach you about how to answer.
Yes. Thank you.
Dawn, tell us about your dish.
I made a Yukon Gold potato hash
with kale and sweet peppers.
My egg did not make the plate, but I made the egg.
And they're perfectly fried over there for y'all.
- They're both delicious. - I'm actually
really digging the yogurt. I think it's really yummy.
- Mm-hmm. - The winner of this round is...
- Sasha. - [applause]
Nice job, Dawn.
Brittanny and Kiki, you have one minute left.
Okay. I'm gonna die.
Doing okay. Mushroom toast, can't go wrong.
Five seconds. Five seconds.
[alarm beeps]
- Whew. - Brittanny,
what did you make us?
A mushroom au poivre toast on baguette
with sherry and Manchego cheese.
And Kiki, what did you make?
Avocado toast with green harissa,
little bit of goat cheese, some shaved radish as well.
The winner of this round is...
Brittanny. Congratulations.
- Thank you. - Good job, guys.
Godspeed.
One minute left, guys. Let's get it on a plate.
One, one, one.
I hate cracking eggs.
How much time, how much time?
Thirty seconds.
Come on, buddy, let's go!
- Fifteen! - Fifteen!
That is the hardest one.
- Jesus, look at him. - He's doing it, though.
He is doing it.
Seven seconds!
[bleep].
Oh, hurry up! Aah! [laughs]
No, no, no, no.
[alarm beeps]
[bleep]. I only got Hollandaise
on two dishes. This looks absolutely awful.
I'm feeling so embarrassed right now.
- It's pretty good. - [laughs] Damn!
That looks legit.
What did you do for us, Chris?
Today I made over-medium eggs, a Tillamook cheddar,
and black garlic hash and a Hollandaise.
- Nelson? - Potato hash with cheddar.
I used ground beef, ground pork,
and Dominican spices.
Gentlemen, there's a big part of me
that wants to apologize to you both.
- Yeah, you should say sorry! - I appreciate it.
Congratulations to both of you, just for getting
all this stuff on the plate.
So the winner of this round...
is Chris. Congratulations.
[cheers and applause]
That's the last time I'm gonna let Richard order for us.
[laughter]
The best dishes of the morning belonged to...
Gabe, Shota, Jamie, Gabriel, Sasha, Brittanny, and Chris.
And the chef who cooked
our favorite dish of the morning is...
- Jamie. - What?
[applause]
Jamie, I would order that dish at a restaurant.
Thank you. [laughs]
How does it feel, Jamie?
Like, I don't know. I needed cardio,
and I was out of shape, and I was like,
"Pew! Pew! Pssh!" And I was like, "Oh, yeah!
Um, hoo." [laughs]
She said she's very happy to win.
[laughter]
- Well, Jamie, congratulations. - Thank you.
You won yourself immunity, my dear.
I feel like Rocky Balboa,
like when he runs up the stairs.
"Top Chef," it's unpredictable.
You never know who's gonna be on top
and who's gonna be on the bottom.
Aaah! [laughs]
- I did it! - You did it!
Thank you, all-stars.
We'll see you all tomorrow,
but Amar and Dale, I'm gonna need your help
for this one.
[overlapping thanks]
Okay, well, after all that food,
I think it's time for a little pick-me-up.
I mentioned before, Portland is known
for its iconic coffee shops.
But it's also well known for its breweries.
For your Elimination Challenge, we want you
to create a dish celebrating
one of these two iconic Portland brews.
Yes.
What I love about cooking with coffee is
being creative and using this subtle bitterness
to make a dish kind of get to the next level.
Not only do I love beer, but I love cooking with beer.
Using a dark stout when you're braising, like, beef,
chicken, or short ribs.
Jamie, you can just relax.
- You don't have to-- - I don't know.
- [laughter] - She doesn't know how.
I want that beer. Give it to me.
[laughter]
Chefs, it's time to draw knives.
Beer.
Coffee.
- Coffee. - Café.
Coffee.
I'm hoping I get to work with coffee,
I feel like there's more you can do with coffee,
compared to beer.
Beer. Of course I get beer.
Surprise.
Who all drew beer?
And who drew coffee?
Tomorrow, you'll have 2 1/2 hours
to prep and cook at the Red Star Tavern.
Don't forget to make your brew the star of your dish.
Okay, guys, your 30-minute shopping period starts now.
We will see you tomorrow.
Good luck, guys.
I got coffee.
- What did you get? - I got beer.
I'm going for scallops. Figure it'd be a good way
to highlight the-- the interesting notes of coffee.
When you're using coffee, people want to utilize it
in a way that involves being braised or something heavy.
I'm gonna attack seafood.
Hear there's a really good coffee roastery in here.
I think beer is good, it's just typically not
typically to my tastes, so I don't prefer cooking with it.
We've got 22 minutes left, guys.
- I got beer. - You got beer?
- Yeah. Super excited. - I got beer, too.
- Awesome. Awesome. - It's un-beer-eivable.
[chuckles]
I'm thinking of doing a lobster sunomono,
and all the pickled components
have a little bit of beer inside them.
I think it's gonna be different
than everyone else's dishes,
because I think people are gonna go for, like,
stronger, richer, in-your-face beer flavors.
I'll just, like...
- ninja-mode this. - [both laugh]
Byron, what you got going on?
Korean-style fried chicken.
Then, like, a beer and, like, honey glaze.
- That sounds great. - This ----ing budget, dude.
Aah!
Like, if we don't have something,
we'll try to help each other, right?
No, we don't help each other anymore.
It's over.
B.G.C, baby!
Whoo-hoo!
Gabe's part of the bad girls' club.
Yeah, you're in the bad girls' club.
I got dual citizenship.
- Booyah. - Let's do it.
- What are you doing? - Mushroom and coffee.
Inside of pasta. I'm doing pasta this time,
- 'cause I got eggs. - Oh, snap.
First one to bust out the pasta.
There we go.
- Ready for the bar. - [laughter]
- Whoo! - Uch! Good to be back home.
Hey, stop rubbing your good luck fish.
Get out of here.
I have my lucky fish in the club room
that I like to kiss before all of the challenges.
Damn it, she's winning again.
We'll see, man.
Jamie crushed it.
Yeah, Jamie did her thing.
When they were like, "Jamie's the winner of this round,
she was like, "Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!"
[laughter]
And then she went like this...
- I don't talk like that. - "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah."
There's so many different personalities here.
If I feel like having a calm conversation,
like, I'll go hang out with Nelson.
And then, if I want to, like,
be crazy and be a little sh--head,
- I'm gonna hang out with Shota. - [laughs]
And if I want to have, like, a deep, long, conversation,
like, I want to talk to Brittanny.
I think this week we're definitely gonna get
- like, a vibe of the group. - Right.
With COVID, like, we don't get to really, like,
learn so much about each other all the time, so...
It's so hard,
because I've been locked up in my house since March.
I'm trying to connect with humans
for the first time in five months and I'm awkward
and I feel weird, and I don't know what's happening anymore.
I got sober during COVID.
I was super self-medicating.
Everything was in limbo at this time.
There was nothing in my life that was certain,
it felt like...and...
I just drank so much,
and I had no control.
It was a point where I knew I needed to reach out.
Of course I want to, like, win "Top Chef"
for all these amazing reasons,
but I also want to be here to share this story
and hopefully make a difference.
We can't all be best friends forever, so...
Shut the front door, Sasha. Yes, we can.
- We can! [laughs] - We can.
Good morning, chefs.
Tom's here. Oh.
Come on over here for a second.
Sh--.
Tomás! [chuckles]
So...
Okay, so, everybody with beer stay on this side.
Everybody with coffee stay on this side.
You are no longer working individually.
This is a team challenge.
Oh...
So, in teams of two, you'll create a new dish
featuring both beer and coffee
using the ingredients you've already purchased.
So those dishes you planned, throw them out the window.
You need to make a dish that is cohesive,
but make sure that each of you has an element on the plate
that is entirely yours, because
only one chef is going home.
- Oh. - Oh.
Okay, pair up.
Sasha and I look at each other and it's like,
ding! It's like magic magnets.
I think your romesco sounds delicious with my pork.
What do you got? What do you got?
Get together.
- Uh, you gotta go? - Yeah, here we go.
Let's go, let's do it.
No one wants Avishar. I looked left and right.
You know, no one wants to lock eyes with me,
then I look down and I see Shota.
Wow! [laughs]
You have a team yet?
Everybody picks everybody else and we're both like,
"All right, I guess we're together."
- Yeah. - I don't know.
All right. Everybody's happy with their teams?
[overlapping agreement]
Your time starts now.
The hell?
I think we were thrown for a loop.
Oh, absolutely.
What are we gonna cook?
Should we just not use the scallops,
or what do you think about the scallops?
I think just go with one.
What if we cooked down butternut squash with porter
- and mixed that into yogurt? - Perfect.
I have beer, I have chicken, miso.
Maybe we just go with the duck?
I was still thinking that I can do the pasta.
Now the problem is me, incorporating the beer.
Right.
Beer and coffee is so...
those flavors are so hard to come together.
Put it on a dish, especially with somebody
that you've never worked with before.
Let's do, like, marinated mushrooms.
Like, beer-marinated mushrooms.
Yes, that sounds great. Okay.
I have to give up about 90% of my ingredients,
but mushrooms have earthy notes
that could relate to the hoppiness of any beer,
as well as the coffee grounds
so I feel very confident.
Kinda want to drink a beer now.
Who's stopping us, you know?
- So... - I'm thinking
- we should use your ribs. - Yeah.
I have ahi tuna. It's gonna be hard pairing with coffee.
And so I just have to make sure
I have enough elements that add to the dish.
I think all my garnish works with your ribs.
- Yeah. - Right? 'Cause I got herbs,
pickles, watermelon.
- I'll make the glaze... - Uh-huh.
and coffee sprinkle.
You can braise and grill and get the ribs ----ing nice.
I am gonna fry them 'cause we're gonna pressure-cook them.
All the fryers suck.
I say we get 'em in and we can get color
- and char on that. - Well, okay, we'll--okay.
Gabriel gave up his dish and his idea,
and joined forces with me, and I think that that shows
a lot of restraint, but,
ribs are something that I cook all the time.
I can cook them with my eyes closed.
Okay, pork-wise, what do you want to do?
I was still gonna brine it in the beer.
This was beer cheese, but now it can be romesco,
and then our salad of beets on top
with the hazelnut crumb instead of pretzel crumb.
Hazelnut and beets is gorgeous.
Yeah, I think it'll be delicious.
It's gonna be a little cocoa in there, too.
Sounds good to me.
This is good. I think this is good.
We decided to just combine the two ideas
into one dish that highlights coffee and beer.
So all the beer's on me
and all the coffee's on you, basically.
I'm gonna take care of the coffee side.
The coffee romesco and the coffee hazelnut relish.
What color will your romesco
- end up being? - Orange.
Oh, this is gonna be very orange and green.
- It'll be pretty. - Yeah.
I want to get a lot of spice in there,
a lot of dark, deep flavor.
It's gonna be right in your face.
- ♪ Big and bright and bold ♪ - Whoo.
What you doing in there?
Braising some chicken in beer.
- Nice. - We're gonna do a sauce,
though, with the coffee and then we're going to
fry the chicken wings.
- Hey, Kiki. - Yeah.
How do you feel about being with Jamie
who has immunity, dawg?
Basically if we're on the bottom, I'm going home.
- Yeah. - I'm ----ing terrified.
- I believe in you guys. - Thank you.
What do you say we work together and stuff like that, and...
It's just strategy, so we're gonna do that, okay?
Okay.
Maria? What are you gonna do?
Chile relleno with a recado negro sauce,
but I went heavy on the guajillo instead.
It's gonna be stuffed with lobster and coconut.
Wow, wow! [chuckles]
- When I saw Tom, I'm like... - Yeah, I already knew.
- "Damn it!" - [chuckles]
It was actually a good twist, though.
Right? I'm--
- I'm happy to be with you. - I'm happy.
Cooking beside Maria, I feel like I'm cooking
with my aunt or mom and I'm like,
"Oh, man, she's a godsend right now."
Because she was doing a chile relleno
and I'm doing lobster Thermidor
which is usually stuffed on the shell.
I think with three, it should fill it up, right?
- Sure. - Instead of stuffing
the lobster back into the shell,
I'm gonna do it inside her chile poblano.
This is gonna be fire.
[Maria speaking Spanish]
Okay. [speaks Spanish]
To be able to speak with Nelson in Spanish,
it's like you were holding your pee for an hour,
and then you pee, and it's nice.
- Nice. - [both speaking Spanish]
- Oh, yeah. - Nice.
I love that charred skin smell. Mmm.
We are working on a lobster sunomono,
so it's a Japanese vinaigrette with stout,
coffee, double cream underneath.
Adding the coffee to the double cream,
having beer in all the other elements,
I think it's gonna be
a beautiful combination of both flavors.
Oh, man, I haven't tasted booze in a few months.
- [both laugh] - Exactly.
I'm not drinking right now,
but I don't mind cooking with beer.
I look at it as an ingredient.
When COVID hit, I had to close both my restaurants.
I think that was really hard for me to do.
I put so much love and effort into it and then,
I kind of went a little downhill and I started drinking a lot.
I do need a focus.
I need to, like, kind of put myself back together.
I think that's another reason why I got
on this competition.
Just gotta make sure every component
- is ----ing excellent. - Everything tastes good.
If it doesn't taste good, don't put it on.
- [chuckles] - Yeah, literally.
Learned that from the first one.
When I heard we were collabbing, I was just, like,
trying to get your eyes locked.
I was actually very lost in the sea of people.
You looked lost in the sea of people.
I was like, "Oh, no!"
You were like, "No one wants to be my friend."
I really love the flavors of Mexican food,
so I'm so relieved to be working with Gabe.
I could make-- what if we do like a--
like a really nice quenelle of squash
right next to a really nice quenelle of this yogurt.
Okay. A lot of this dish
is his original plan,
The pork and the tortilla are highlighting the stout.
Let me know if you think it needs anything.
- Yeah, a little more acid? - Yeah.
I am making the hazelnut coffee salsa macha.
And then the smoked yogurt can be that smokiness
and nuttiness that sometimes you get from coffee.
You want to hit this sh--, Maria?
Are you reminiscing the high school days?
- Oo-wee! - [coughs]
Chicken going in!
- How you doing? - I'm doing great.
I'm gonna have to toast some spices for the ribs.
My spice blend--this coffee, star anise, salt and pepper.
No pepper, please.
- Pepper's really powerful. - Pepper.
You already have it on the ribs.
We gotta shine the coffee and the beer.
This dude is crazy.
Man, she is just steamrolling everything.
Pepper's really powerful.
No pepper, please.
We gotta shine the coffee and the beer.
Gabriel is trying to chefsplain things to me
that he has no business doing.
I still think there's a note missing.
I don't do underseasoned food.
I'm gonna stand my ground,
because I know what I'm doing.
I need to make sure that he knows that.
What was I doing?
Bossing me. That's what you doing.
We're bossing each other.
There's not a whole lot to split on a dish,
and I want to make sure I'm on the plate.
That's good. No, that's good.
I'll take it. I'll take it.
Only one person is going home.
My plan if we're not seeing eye to eye
is just find some compromise that doesn't
ruin the integrity of the dish.
Oh, get a little beer in here.
I'm using my sour beer
to compress the watermelon and I'm also
using the beer to make a sweet and sour glaze.
Like, I need to have something on the dish, all right?
No, I get it.
- Boo woo. - Let me do the salt.
- All right. - That's kinda--
I kinda like the sourness of that.
It just needs salt, that's it.
I've never used beer in a tortilla before.
What do you think?
I do feel like you get that beer right off.
- Oh, you for sure get the hops. - Mm-hmm.
It's very exciting to cook food that I feel
is part of my culture and my soul.
So what I was thinking is, I'll roll 'em up,
- I'll tie 'em with a corn husk. - You're the tortilla man.
- [laughs] - I support you.
31 minutes left. Behind, coming down. Behind.
I got this watermelon ice cold.
- Love it! - Are you into this nitro
- cold brew trend? - I don't know.
Sometimes it just doesn't taste that good.
I'm doing a nitro cold brew butter right now.
Well, you know what? I think it's great, dude.
Before I started cooking,
I got a bachelor's of science in psychology
and biology.
I'm hoping that the grapes are just gonna pick up
a little bit of bitterness in the carbohydrates.
If you want to do it, you can put the CO2 in it.
It'll carbonate it. It'll give you some bubbles
in the flavor. I'm thinking,
"What would it be like to eat a beer?"
So I put the grapes into the siphon with beer.
I grab the CO2.
I'm using my knowledge of science
to make a carbonated compressed grape.
I trust you, science man.
This is a pretty big risk.
Whew.
♪ I feel fine ♪
[Sasha and Brittanny laughing]
I'm using a milk stout for the vinaigrette
that I'm dressing the beets with,
because it's sweeter.
Hey Sasha, the beer on the stove is mine.
I just want to make sure it's not going crazy.
When you cook down beer, it comes out super bitter.
You just gotta be really careful with how you use it.
And I think that's kind of similar with coffee as well.
All right, that's the coffee crumble?
Yeah.
It's intense.
For me, it's a little bit bitter,
but, like, coffee's just intense.
That's the point of it.
I feel like we want coffee to be intense.
I kind of am, like, we need more beer taste in here.
Yeah.
Oh, those look good.
- You making pasta, Dougie? - I am.
- Aw, yeah. - I'm gonna cut a little bit,
just so we can drop it in water and taste it.
I'm doing a dual-colored pasta,
lacing coffee pasta onto the yellow dough
so you'll get some flavors of the coffee.
Cook it a little longer or just roll it out
- a little bit thinner. - Yeah, exactly.
This is not gonna be the main one, right?
Nope. This was just a little test batch.
Okay. Okay.
Ahh.
- It's cozy in here. - Mm-hmm.
So they had to cook a dish highlighting beer or coffee.
But bright and early, I met them in the kitchen
+and I told them that they had to work in teams now.
Are you serious?
Didn't seem too upset.
I don't think they're at that point yet.
[laughter]
Give 'em some time.
Now here's the thing-- they all had a dish in mind,
so if they try to keep that dish
and just do them side by side, or make a cohesive dish.
Beer and coffee are great ingredients
in the kitchen. I mean, there's plenty you can do.
- Yeah, yeah. - But you need to definitely
tamp the bitterness,
'cause the two together can get intense
if you don't choose wisely.
Falls off the bone.
Falls off the bone, and it's super crispy.
It is a better dish than what
I was originally planning to put out.
-We worked really well together. - Yeah.
For myself, I would have the coffee chicken wing
and have the beer on the side.
Ka-ga-ga-ga. [laughs]
Okay, we have a minute.
Don't freak out, Jamie. I got this.
- Move with intention. - Two, one.
- [vocalizes in relief] - [both laugh]
- This smells really great. - Mm-hmm.
They both smell good, actually.
- Hi. - Hello.
We together did a beer-braised fried chicken,
coffee stout glaze, butternut squash puree.
And we finished off with a little roasted coffee.
She has immunity, I don't, so hopefully you like it.
- [laughter] - Thank you guys.
Avishar and Shota, tell us what you made.
We prepared a lobster sunomono
with double cream coffee and stout reduction inside
with carbonated grapes and furikake on top.
What were you guys going to do
- prior to the mashup? - I was gonna do
more of a curry double cream underneath
with beer 'cause beer was my ingredient.
And instead we focused on textural components
- and different flavors. - It's really nice.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you guys.
Gregory, what did you think of Kiki and Jamie's dish?
I love that they took the time to braise the wing
and make it super crunchy and crispy on the outside.
They're really embracing the bitter notes
- in the chicken wing. - Yeah.
- But with the squash puree, you get the sweetness
that's kind of helping tame that bitterness. It's nice.
I just wish they hadn't put the chicken wing
- on top of the puree. - Just thinking that myself.
It just becomes unnecessarily messy.
I ate it with my hands.
It's on my pants now.
Gail was tearing those wings up. Oh, my gosh.
I absolutely loved Avishar and Shota's dish.
It was beautifully composed.
Lobster's perfectly cooked, and I love
the richness of the sauce.
It just sung to me.
Coffee and beer are gonna be bitter,
but they balanced it with some sweetness.
And then I think the modern technique
of carbonating fruit, it's a great time to use this.
That fizz at the end. You're like, "Oh.
That's interesting."
- My plate is empty. - Same here.
[Shota laughs]
This taste good for you?
- Yeah. - I don't think we have
enough milk stout vinaigrette.
Yeah, we do. I think so.
- You do? - Yeah.
I'm happy about the flavors we're getting.
You can definitely taste the coffee in my crunch.
It's really punchy.
- Five seconds. - Oh yeah, look at that.
Aw, looks sexy.
- Time's up! - Nice.
I see a lot of sauce.
Everything looks so good. I don't know where to start.
We made a beer-marinated pork loin,
with beets, milk stout vinaigrette,
coffee romesco and coffee hazelnut crunch.
What were you going to do before you paired up, Brittanny?
I have a German restaurant,
so I was gonna make you guys a beer fondue
with the pork loin.
I was gonna do the romesco,
the coffee crunch.
So we kind of, like, knew
our dishes made sense, kind of, together.
- Thank you, ladies. - Thank you.
Nelson and Maria.
We made chile rellenos a la Caribeña.
I did a beer-coconut curry sauce with the lobster,
and a pasilla negro sauce with coffee.
I did the sweet potato puree
to balance the acidity of the coffee.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Thank you all. - Thank you. Have a good night.
Nelson and Maria's dish kept surprising me.
- It's a little crazy. - It's a satisfying heat.
It's a little cockamamie, but it works.
The only thing I will say,
I would've liked the salad on top
not to have as much heat,
because it was kind of fighting
the other heat from the puree.
I like my heat to fight.
[laughter]
It was an honor, man. Thank you.
[speaks Spanish]
What did you think of Sasha and Brittanny's dish?
There's a lack of a point of view here.
It felt like two people making the dish.
The components all make sense-- you had a little fruit,
you have some spice.
It's just kind of-- pretty bland.
You got the little burnt pieces of hazelnut with coffee grounds
that makes it super bitter
and I don't taste the beer anywhere.
Like, it needs a sauce. Maybe some jus or something
would've been really fun in there.
I'm sort of befuddled by the coffee romesco
because it definitely has a chalky, thick texture
and you want it to be fresher, livelier.
- I know it tasted good. - Yeah, exactly.
- That's nice. - Yep.
I feel like they're not really
gonna be able to tell
where coffee meets beer.
- Yeah. - Are these cooked enough?
- Just to double check. - Yeah, oh, yeah.
They went much longer than the last batch.
Okay. Okay.
I'm not feeling confident.
I'm worried about the thickness of the pasta.
Maybe I should have said something, but
he has taken the lead.
I don't want to step over his toes.
[sighs]
- Ooh, la la. - Jeez, hell, yeah.
- There's that pork loin. - Somebody busted out
the pasta machine.
Good afternoon, chefs.
Today we've prepared for you a pork tenderloin
that's been cured in espresso,
a smoked yogurt with a Oregon hazelnut salsa macha
and then an heirloom grain masa tortilla
with stout and porter in it.
Smells beautiful. Masa, wow.
- Thank you. - Thank you, chefs.
- How's everyone doing tonight? - How we doing?
We have a coffee- and berbere- spiced duck breast
with a mushroom and coffee tortellini,
beer and miso foam,
beer-marinated mushroom,
and honey and beer glaze on the duck.
I see the pasta has a little different color.
The striped dough is made with coffee.
Thank you all.
[overlapping thanks]
I really like Sara and Gabe's dish.
- Oh, yeah. - I mean, I haven't had
a tortilla made with beer before.
That was exciting.
And when you have time to do
all of this technique and then tie something in a bow,
you're stunting on everybody in the competition.
[laughter]
You get beer, you get coffee,
but it's not, like, bitter
and over-the-top.
The garnishes were just salty and fun and creamy.
It's just a beautiful dish. Lots of flavor.
First time I've seen you smile this whole time.
- [laughter] - I loved it.
And what about Chris and Byron?
I love that there was a lot of beer flavor in this dish,
but that pasta just wasn't cooked enough.
I think part of the problem was
too much dry flour when he was rolling it out.
- Yeah. - And it just eats dry.
It's rolled a little too thick.
It was a little bit of-- of issues there.
I don't think the duck is necessary,
but this foam,
I don't think it's a foam, but, it's tasty.
Twelve minutes!
Two more in here glazing, then we're on the plate.
Let's just taste them.
Oh, yeah. Fall off the bone.
Mm-hmm. We got this.
[alarm beeps]
- This is exciting for me. - Mm-hmm.
- It's ribs, yes. - Yes.
I love ribs.
- Hello. - Hello.
We made a coffee- and beer-braised pork rib
that we glazed with sour beer
and had an herb salad on top.
Is the watermelon compressed?
Yeah, compressed with the sour beer.
Yeah, it's like candy. It's, like, so good.
- Really nice. Yeah. - Thank you.
You guys pivoted well.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I think Dawn and Gabriel's dish was phenomenal.
I mean, look at this. I know I'm a professional eater,
but this was perfectly cooked.
It looked like watermelon and ribs,
which we've all eaten 100 times,
but when you tasted it, there was so much more.
You got the beer, you got the sour.
I personally would've loved more pickle, more garnish,
because it's so rich.
What is it like when you guys are competing
and you get a twist like this?
For me, there was a lot of deer-in-headlight moments,
Like, "Uh-oh." Definitely shocked at first.
You have to just roll with it,
'cause if it gets in your head too much,
you spend time overthinking.
How did you guys think the overall meal went?
I'm just blown away.
I feel everyone really tried
to work together to make cohesive dishes.
They delivered. They showed us that
they're here for a reason.
All right, well, thank you all.
Time to go to Judges' Table.
Dale and Amar, you have to come with us.
You two guys are gonna see how much
we actually sweat this stuff.
[laughter]
♪♪♪
Whew!
Who thinks they did good today?
Everybody?
Everybody killed it?
All right, nobody's going home.
Well, hello.
Yeah. [chuckles]
We'd like to see Gabriel and Dawn,
Sasha and Brittanny,
Avishar and Shota,
Gabe and Sara,
and Chris and Byron. Thank you very much.
Being not called for the second time,
I'm like, "Okay, so I'm skating by?"
♪♪♪
From a pedigree standpoint,
this could be the best collection of chefs
we've had on the show in 18 seasons.
It's good to see that you're cooking up to those resumes.
Please continue to do that.
[chuckles]
Red team, blue team,
and gray team, please stay here.
Orange and brown team, you can step to the side.
Your three teams...
had our favorite dishes of the day.
So congratulations.
We got a lot of delicious food,
and you guys were on the top of that list.
Yeah.
Gabriel, who did what on this plate?
I did the pickled watermelon rind,
the pickled cucumbers, the compressed watermelon.
Dawn made the coffee-spiced rub
and braised the ribs.
It was so refreshing
and so delicate for pork ribs, right?
I was eating them and, like, leaving the bones clean.
There was this rich fattiness from the rib
that paired with the sour beer compressed watermelon.
It was just a home run...
- Thank you. - all the way.
Shota and Avishar, tell us about your dish.
We did the lobster sunomono.
I did the double cream, the apple pickles,
and Avishar did--
the grape pickles and the furikake.
This was totally original.
This was out of left field, but it worked together
because of the balance of the dish.
Yours really brought out
the beer and coffee bitter notes
in a way that embraced it.
The seasoning on your dish,
from the acid and the umami, was perfect.
The first thing I did, I tried the sauce,
and I'm like, "Whoa."
It was just so harmonious.
It was delicious.
Thank you very much.
Gabe and Sara.
Talk to us about your dish.
I executed the pork,
uh, the glaze on the pork, and the tortillas,
and then Sara did all the sauce work and the pickles.
The burnt squash puree with the yogurt
with the salsa macha, the pickles--
everything just made sense on that dish.
Gabe, you need to sell that tortilla
'cause it was so phenomenal.
The creativeness of putting beer inside the tortilla?
Talk about embracing the challenge.
- Kudos, guys. - I was more, uh,
stoked and proud on our collaborated dish
then I probably would have been on my solo dish.
Sara, you have a thing with yogurt.
This is your second yogurt that put you on the top.
Clearly, you work well with Gabe and with yogurt.
[laughter]
Strange but true.
As you could tell, there was a lot to love
about today's meal.
The winning team today is the team
that was able to highlight the beer
and the coffee the best.
And the winning team today is...
Avishar and Shota.
- Congratulations, guys. - Aah!
What a feeling, huh?
- We won! - We won.
- I mean, Asian sensation.
- That's right. - Watch out, ladies.
- Here we go. - [laughs]
It's a really good feeling.
You encouraged me to do stuff
that I would have been afraid to do by myself.
Thank you for believing in me and trusting me.
Oh, I always believed.
Okay, okay. [laughs]
Congratulations to all of you.
You can step to the side.
The orange team and brown team,
please step forward.
Chris and Byron.
Brittanny and Sasha.
You guys had our least favorite dishes today,
and one of you will be going home.
♪♪♪
Chris and Byron.
Brittanny and Sasha.
You guys had our least favorite dishes today,
and one of you will be going home.
Chris, who did what on this dish?
While I was making the pasta doughs,
he made the beer-marinated mushrooms
and also the beer miso foam.
You describe it as a foam, right?
What we got, we got a puree.
It was good, but it wasn't a foam,
so then we started judging that puree as a foam.
Chris, were you happy with the texture of the pasta?
The texture of the pasta? Yes.
It was al dente, which is what I was looking for.
The filling inside was definitely nice and hot.
I thought the interplay between the beer and coffee
was there, especially was evident, I thought,
in the mushroom, but I thought the pasta was dry.
It almost seemed as if you added
a lot of flour as you were rolling it out,
and that part of the dough wasn't hydrated enough,
so it was a little brittle.
I thought the pasta could've had more filling,
and that sort of highlighted the brittleness in the pasta.
Brittanny and Sasha,
how did you feel today went?
I feel like today went well.
You know, it is what it is.
We're here. I stand behind our dish.
Who was responsible for what items
on that particular dish?
I did the romesco and I did the hazelnut crumb.
I did the pork, the pickled fennel stems,
the milk stout vinaigrette.
When you first dropped it in front of me,
I thought, "Wow, this is a beautiful-looking dish."
It just didn't kind of follow through with the look.
How did you guys conceive of the dish together?
Um, we kind of combined sort of parts
of both of our plans into one plate.
That is exactly how it felt.
Like a collection of ingredients brought together
but there was not a holistic identity
to that dish.
I was really hoping for a beer-forward flavor.
We added in the stout into the vinaigrette.
- What vinaigrette? - Where was the vinaigrette,
- on the beets? - On the beets.
They were dressed on the beets.
I think much more of that vinaigrette
all over the plate,
and I think we would have felt a balance
of beer.
We talked about it, and we didn't put it on the plate.
It wasn't as successful as some of the other dishes,
because it didn't come together.
- Sure. - We have a lot to discuss.
Thank you all. That'll be all.
We'll call you in a bit.
- It's a hard one. - Yeah.
Ooh, you guys.
So, what happened?
- Yeah! - [cheers and applause]
- You know it. - Shota and Avishar,
they were so into it.
That was, like, some wild high compliments.
- That was really cool. - I'm proud of you guys.
- Who's on the bottom? - What's up?
No.
Like, what we did was just combine our two things,
'cause it seemed like it would make sense.
I still think it made sense.
This is gonna be a really difficult decision.
Who do we send home?
I'm oscillating a little bit, because
the single bite of the day for me
that I had the most trouble with
was Chris's pasta.
You make a good point that that could've been the worst thing
but it's the dish that we're talking about.
- Yeah. - Chris and Byron's dish,
at least the coffee-beer flavor was there,
and that was the challenge.
My heart is pounding right now. Whew!
Sasha and Brittanny's lacked any kind
of personality or point of view.
There were problems with the hazelnut crumble on top.
- Yeah. - When I tried the crumble,
I just couldn't get that bitter taste out of my mouth.
But my least favorite was that romesco sauce
was too chalky. Just, it didn't eat well.
It felt like a dish conflicted, and it also felt
like that romesco, it just wasn't romesco.
But if one of the biggest issues was
that there was no beer in their dish,
that was all Brittanny.
I think it's hard to get the beer to come forward
when it's with the coffee.
Like, coffee takes over everything.
I can remember that dish
because of how bad those hazelnuts were
and how, like, burnt and bitter they were.
- Yeah. - That's true. I have issues
with both parts of a very divided dish.
I think we have our decision, then.
- Let's get 'em out here. - Yeah.
♪♪♪
You know, chefs, this particular challenge,
it forces you to really think a lot deeper
about these dishes. When you get through this,
you're gonna be a much better cook.
Trust me.
This is going to challenge you in ways
you've never been challenged before.
Sasha...
please pack your knives and go.
It's okay.
We'll see you in "Last Chance Kitchen"?
You will.
Ciao, chef.
[teary]
Getting eliminated so early in the competition,
it's like a stab in the heart and kinda hits you in the gut.
Sasha!
But one failure does not make me a failure.
One mistake does not make
everything else invalid.
I've been working a [bleep]-ton on myself,
and this is just one more challenge
where I have to put in the work.
[whispers] I said I wasn't gonna cry.
[laughs, sniffles]
Tonight, "Last Chance Kitchen" begins.
Roscoe and Sasha, the first two eliminated chefs,
battle it out.
How was your Elimination Challenge?
Well, I'm here, dawg, so obviously it didn't go well.
Who will win to cook again?
Watch the season premiere on demand now
or wherever you stream "Top Chef."
Next time on "Top Chef"...
Gregory and Kwame are going to take you
to some of the most exciting restaurants
that highlight the African diaspora.
This food has soul.
Get inspired by this, 'cause this inspired a world.
I'm almost in tears that
pan-African cuisine is being featured
on such a platform.
Taking it back to the motherland.
- My palate is [whistles]. - Fried?
Come on, Kiki!
I can't tell if this is working.
Ay yi yi!
Ah ah ah!
Mmm.
You want the second bite. You want the third bite.
It's the first dish that I want the recipe for.
The red sauce is kinda bland.
You taste it and you're like, "This ain't it."
You're here to cook, right?
Cook.