You'll face off under the bright lights
- of a football stadium. - Let's go!
Any kind of potato I'm in love with.
Buddha is probably going to have
something floating and invisible on his plate.
Judges raise your pompoms.
Whoa.
I started cooking rice too soon.
It's a little broken.
Stephanie, I think you could have gone a lot further.
Chickpea I thought, could present a different angle.
- It just felt like a dip. - Okay.
Just fine is not going to do it here.
Stephanie, please pack your knives and go.
13 chefs remain to compete
in the ultimate culinary showdown.
At stake for the winner,
a feature in Food and Wine magazine,
an appearance at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen,
$250,000 furnished by San Pellegrino
and the coveted title of Top Chef.
Hi.
My fiancé's name is Cameron, and we met
as most chefs in love do, on the line.
Well, I was in the top for the first one,
the first elimination challenge.
But it was a team challenge and I think the only reason
I was in the top was because I'm a really good teammate,
you know,
and because I'm just worried that I'm good at
people and not food.
Having made some decisions, you know,
to leave New York City after culinary school
and not work in Michelin star restaurants,
I think you're left wondering if you stack up.
I love you very much.
Hello, hello.
Oh wow.
So cool.
We are doing a night market?
- We're doing it? - Yes, girl.
I want to welcome this week's all star guest judge.
Top Chef winner Hung Huynh.
Congratulations, Hung, you are Top Chef.
- Welcome back. - Thank you.
Good to be back.
Chef Huynh, he was the first Asian to win Top Chef,
and I'm like, "Oh yeah!"
He's the reason why I own a cleaver.
It's been 15 years, but it's good to be back.
I don't remember the kitchen being this big.
Right? It's huge.
Houston is home to nearly two and a half million people.
One-fifth of that population is made up of several
large and vibrant Asian communities.
Every so often, Houstonians get to experience
the closest thing to being in Asia
without ever having to step on a plane.
The Asian night market.
My family came from Vietnam,
and I love going to Night Markets
because it brings me back
to the streets in Vietnam where I can get anything
as a child running around.
A noodle from here, rice from here.
With us are 10 of the best local chefs.
Many are James Beard award nominees representing
Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, Filipino and Japanese.
And they're all here to give you a special taste of Asia.
Chefs, you are in luck.
There's no Quickfire Challenge this week.
For your Elimination Challenge,
we want you to take inspiration from what you taste
to create a street food dish
for your very own Asian night market.
Is anyone afraid to cook Indian food for Padma?
- I know I would be. - I am so afraid.
Oh, no, no.
It's time to draw knives.
Oh, my God.
What did you get?
Me too.
- You got Chinese? - I got Chinese.
The cuisine on the night
is the cuisine that will inspire your dish.
And you may be happy to know
this is an individual challenge.
Is anyone not familiar with the food that they drew?
Yeah. - Oh no, really?
And you have Indian? Yeah.
I have Chinese. Chinese.
- Vietnamese. - Japanese.
I've never cooked Japanese food in my life,
so I'm not really sure where I'm going to go with this.
- Filipino. - Jo, you lucky duck.
Tomorrow night, you'll have one hour to cook
before service begins at the Post, Houston.
You'll be serving 100 guests.
Each group will get to shop at an Asian specialty market
that specializes in your cuisine.
That's what I'm really excited about for you guys.
- Thank you. - I'm so excited.
So use your BMW X5s to navigate the streets of Houston.
All right. Get tasting. Get inspired.
Good luck, we'll see you tomorrow.
- Thank you. - Good luck, chefs.
- Hi. - Hi.
Oh, wow, so cool.
- What's up, Evelyn? - Hello.
So what's in the sauce?
Peanut, cabbage.
And there's also banana hearts.
Ooh sh--.
Mapo tofu? - -WOMAN 2: - Yes.
Oh my God, I love this.
- Go in it, y'all. - Oh, hell yeah.
That's all the meat right here.
I'm allergic to shellfish.
No, but, like, only the shell.
I want to be buried in whatever this is
- when I die. - Thank you.
Which I might because of all the shellfish.
What I have here is a little bit of snapper on top.
I did a with a little bagoong
which is a fermented shrimp paste.
It's delicious.
Whenever we go back to Manila,
it's the first thing that I always eat, so.
For sure.
Getting Filipino, it's a best-case scenario,
but it's also a worst case scenario.
I mean, tons of people on Top Chef go home
for cooking the food that they know, the expectation is high.
- This is really good. - Thank you.
This is lamb keema samosas.
It's delicious. Thank you.
This is a fig sauce?
Yes, fig and tamarind.
Fig and tamarind. Yeah.
Do you mind sharing what the dough is?
It's all-purpose white flour.
I'm excited about picking Indian because recently I did
a stage at an Indian restaurant
finding out how Indian food is done.
But just because you spend one day there
doesn't make you a master of it.
Would it be okay to use puff pastry instead of--
Yes. It would be.
And then you can bake it.
If we decide to fry it, is it still okay?
No, it gets very greasy.
I feel like Buddha's asking all the right questions.
Great questions.
This patty is called tiki.
Aloo is potato.
My biggest passion right now is teaching kids to cook.
They are the future, and they need to be educated by the best.
Is that why Vindaloo is vin for the wine
and aloo is the potato? The potato, yes.
Ah! Now it makes sense.
I always teach the kids, keep it simple, so I'm like, okay,
I'll just do potatoes with the curry and rice.
Thank you so much. Everything was delicious.
This is a Cantonese style
shrimp and chicken dumpling soup.
And then we have ginger scallion egg noodles.
Oh wow. What is this Red Vinegar?
It's a kind of rice vinegar.
The Sichuan style kind of remind me of my food ways.
You get these fermented flavors
and methods that allow your food to last longer.
I'm going take one more bite of this because it's so good.
This dish right here I call this a Nagoya karaage,
so karaage means fried chicken in Japanese,
and we add the sweet miso sauce,
Fresnos, mint, and cilantro.
Can't wait to try it.
The Mississippi guy pulls Japanese cuisine.
Didn't know I was going to see fried chicken.
You know, I could definitely put my spin on this.
- Great flavors. - Yeah, I love the sweetness.
What are the stable herbs in Vietnamese cuisine?
Thai basil, mint, Vietnamese coriander.
I knew basically nothing about Vietnamese cuisine.
And on top of that,
I got COVID a few months ago
and I lost my sense of smell and taste.
Bao is one of my favorite foods on the planet,
but I just unfortunately do not know much else
about Vietnamese cuisine.
When we think of taste,
generally what we're talking about is smell
what your tongue can taste, sweet, sour,
salty, bitter, spicy, umami.
My tongue is pretty much back.
The smell really is not,
so I can't actually taste anything.
As long as you understand the basics,
if it works for you and if it tastes good.
Be proud of your dish.
BMW, take me to 99 Ranch Market.
Let's go.
There we go.
How do you guys feel? Indian food?
Well, we have the hardest one for sure.
Yeah. What direction you guys thinking of going?
I'm going to go the samosa route
what are you guys doing?
I'm making a samosa. - Okay.
Buddha has been cooking a lot longer than I have.
So knowing Buddha is doing something similar to what
I'm doing, I need to make sure that my stuff is tight.
So many of the chefs that I've worked for have been Filipino
but I've never cooked Filipino food.
- Yeah. - Like, there's this weird
shyness about cooking it
because it's like not what we've seen as being fine dining.
When are we ever going to cook Indian food
and give it to Padma, you know?
It might be the first and last time.
Yeah, first and last time!
Oh, my God, this is so cool.
I love this stuff.
Grabbing some daikon, cooking for a 100 people,
want to make sure I have enough food.
Scallions, I'm grabbing scallions.
It's really fun at the Hong Kong market.
I can smell Chinese spices.
Somebody is making some soup somewhere.
I'm hungry.
Alright, I'm going to spices.
For me street food is, you know, noodles are always the best.
As a kid in Korea every summer,
I used to go to see my uncles
and I got this udon noodle from the little cart
at the train station.
I'm definitely using that experience as my inspiration.
Whoa, some pretty melon that I didn't expect.
Here we go, here we go, here we go.
Fish sauce, soy sauce...
As an adult, I started to really embrace my childhood
and the foods of that time.
It was really tough as a kid to do that.
When your mom's frying up sardines
and serving banana ketchup with French fries
at your house, you're not going to have a lot of friends.
This is like the Filipino shrimp paste.
Okay, thank you so much.
Yeah, of course, dude.
Nick, what are you thinking of doing today?
So I'm getting my spices and my rice wine vinegar.
A lot of this stuff isn't in English, obviously.
Yeah, I got to find somebody I can ask some questions.
Literally just looking around learning through seeing.
There's just a lot of stuff that I've never seen before.
Can you pronounce this word for me?
- It's a-- Oba. - Oba.
Sarah! - Yeah?
Where are you at? Right here.
What are you looking for?
Oh, girl, I don't even know.
Girl, that's American [bleep], come here.
I love Asian cuisine.
I've thankfully had the ability to stage in Thailand.
I've traveled through Malaysia, India, Philippines, China.
And I was just, like, "Oh," it clicked.
I was like, "You know, mom used to make me this
maybe with different spices and ingredients,
but it's the same technique of layering flavors."
It's heartwarming.
And that's what I try to create when I cook.
Girl, I need a bunch of spices.
Are you one for pho spices?
It's clove, it's all spice.
Evelyn, you're a godsend.
Making something called Samaloo.
Got a great ring to it. - Yeah, great ring.
You know, I got the spices. Samaloo.
When I eat Indian food
there's only one dish that I really appreciate,
which is Vindaloo.
I'm trying to make it a little bit more Sam.
Thank you so much.
You don't use anything fancy.
I want to keep it simple and just highlight
the beauty of a potato.
20 minutes.
I just hope I have enough food for everyone, you know?
I think so.
All right.
All right, here we go.
- Good luck, chefs. - Good luck.
Robert, what are you making?
A rice cake with some chicken thigh that I'm going
to marinate in peanut sauce.
- Awesome. - Trying to get the...
- mousse in the oven. - Mousse?
I'm doing a banh mi with chicken heart.
There's just so much to do.
There's so much to do.
What are you making?
Chilled chicken salad.
I actually had this dish when I was in Vietnam.
Hell yeah.
I'm thinking of adding a avocado crema.
I want to show my point of view of being Latina
and also cooking Southeast Asian flavors.
I'm cleaning my rambutan right now,
adding it to my chilled salad for a little bit of sweetness.
That's awesome.
Which cuisine did you get there, Jackson?
Vietnamese, man. I don't know exactly what I'm making,
but I think it's going to be a spring roll.
Pho is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes,
but how can I make Pho portable, right?
You can't walk around with a big bowl of soup.
I believe in you, Jackson.
Yeah, thanks.
- Hello, chefs. - Hi, Tom.
- Hey, Buddha. - Hey, Tom.
What are you up to?
So I'm going to be doing
a chicken curry inside a samosa.
You think there's any way you can possibly please
Padma with Indian food?
The clock is not my friend at this point.
Indian food needs time to develop flavor.
It's not something that you can just mix together.
- Hey, Luke. - How's it going, Chef?
I'm okay. How are you?
I've never cooked Indian food before.
I'm doing a samosa as well,
but we are doing a different approach.
I am going to be doing a crab and corn samosa.
Are you making a masala also, with all the spices?
Yes, I've already kind of toasted everything.
I've never cooked Indian food,
but I understand how they develop their flavors.
My plan is to try to emulate two really good sauces
a spicy fig and tamarind sauce,
and then a coriander yogurt sauce.
I might as well just try to make it as tasty as I can.
Hi Jae. What are you inspired by today?
Chinese cuisine.
So I would like to make the noodle
with the Chinese sausage, ground pork and ramen noodle crumble.
And that's what I grew up with as a kid.
You have, like, a whole pantry down here.
All the goodies down here.
I hope I got the right one.
Actually, this is my first time cooking Chinese cooking,
so this is actually one of my favorite ingredients.
Love that too. Great for noodles.
Chili flakes to make the chili oil.
That sounds good. I'm looking forward to this.
I'm looking forward to cook for you too.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
Hey, chefs.
- How are you doing? - Good.
I'm going to do mala style beef.
I've got some sweet potato starch
and I'm going to coat it in sweet syrup--
Oh, I see your face.
No, no I'm just picturing it.
I'm going to coat it in sweet potato starch
and hopefully get a nice crisp on the outside, very light.
Are you going to marinate that beef?
Yeah, I'm thinking I should
based on the faces that you're making.
So you're going to fry it? - Yeah.
Don't make it too tough, though.
Okay.
Chef Hung with his very cool hair.
He's worried that this top sirloin
could end up being a little chewy.
- Good luck. - Can't wait.
After you start to prep, you have so little time to pivot.
Everything smells really great. Looks tasty.
- Good luck. - Thank you, Chef.
Thank you.
There's nothing I can do at that point.
I'm always so confident until Tom comes over.
- How you're looking? - Oh, good.
I've got to dice all this tofu.
I'm making a miso soup.
Going to add some ham hocks to kind of make it taste
a little bit more like home.
I think it's the same thing.
I had a bite of that Japanese fried chicken today
and I was like, "You know what?
I can do my thing with that."
20 minutes.
I'm trying to get a couple of these done,
so I'm not doing a hundred tomorrow.
- You know, what I mean? - Yeah.
Hot.
I have my aromatics toasting right now.
I got curry going.
I have my curry and I have my rice done.
I got potatoes on the stove boiling
and I'm ready for tomorrow.
11 minutes.
Chicken thigh running.
I'm not right on time, but I'm going to make it work.
I got you. I got you. I got you.
Got it?
- Good? - You guys are the best.
20 seconds.
Three, two, one, times up.
Dude, I up.
I have potato's on the stove.
My dish is called Samaloo.
Sam with potato.
How do you guys feel about today?
Going into this feel like I always do.
I love Ashleigh, she's very easily fit in
with Evelyn and I and one of our weird little group
that we've started.
I mean, it's Top Chef.
Like, there is no feeling confident.
Evelyn and I are just on the same wavelength.
There is just a lot of people who don't handle anxiety
and pressure well, and there are some people
who just get funnier.
And Evelyn and I
have definitely just gotten funnier.
This one. That's some sort of cheating, I swear.
I was like, "This girl just pulled the Filipino knife?"
It was like the sword in the stone, I was like sh-bang!
Jackson's legs are so long.
How are you doing over there, Ma?
Surviving, girl, surviving.
We have one hour on the clock before guests start arriving,
which is just not nearly enough time for me,
Jackson, what are you up to, mate?
I'm just a little bit behind,
so I got to do a bunch of veg prep.
I just have too much to do.
I don't know why I did spring rolls.
It's a lot to do in one little tiny package.
After won ton.
Hey Sam, what are you doing tonight?
Samaloo which is my take on potato curry.
Yesterday, I left the potatoes
on the stove boiling, but I'm not worried
because I have more russet potatoes,
Russet potato, it is the chef's potato.
I'm trying to figure out how hot this grill gets.
How cool would it be if you're walking around the market
and you see this guy just grilling?
I wish that we have a great time, Robert.
That's all I ask that we have a great time.
I hope you have a great time too.
43 minutes, guys.
Heard.
All spicier.
I'm having a lot of pressure because
I have 35 different ingredients.
I'm just pew.
Sugar, chili oil, fermented beans, sesame oil,
starch water, fish sauce.
So much spice here.
Oh my God.
It could be a little bit more spicier.
Evelyn, why did I do skewers?
Are you doing okay?
Yeah, I'm all right.
You know, curries actually taste better the next night, so.
Putting this dish together
definitely reminds me of my mother.
My mother's from Malaysia. Half Indian, half Chinese.
When it comes to street food,
I believe you should be able to eat it with your hands.
I decided to fry my samosas instead of baking them
just because that's how my mother would do it.
Luke, how are you doing over there.
Man, I am sweating bullets over here.
Welcome to Texas, bro.
This is not my weather.
It's been a while since
I've fried any sort of pastry or things like that.
I work more with baking a puff pastry.
And if you do it right, brush it with an egg wash.
It puffs up really nicely and it's flaky.
There's sweat in my eye.
How are you feeling, Ashleigh? I'm feeling good.
I've got my beef in the fryer. It's crispy beef.
I dredged it
in a light coating of sweet potato starch.
Yeah.
Monique, I'm kind of loving our spot.
- I know. - How was your first test?
The biggest thing is just separating the rice cakes,
so they don't stick together.
My family's from the Philippines,
but in my career I never really cooked Filipino food.
If I felt like my grandpa
or my dad could do it way better than I could.
It came later on when I started making my own menus,
mixing Asian ingredients with the techniques
that I learned in Europe.
Pretty awesome.
Eight minutes.
Thank you, mate.
- Jackson, it's delicious man. - Thanks.
Oh, diners are here.
Diners are walking in, chefs.
Good evening.
Ready to mingle?
Single, ready to mingle.
Hey guys, thank you.
Evening. Can't wait to feed you.
Good luck, everyone.
Hey guys. Looking good.
How are you? Nice to see you, my friends.
Who wants to eat?
Hi, how are you guys doing?
Ready to eat some chicken heart?
Hey, Chef, how are you?
So the Vietnamese spring roll.
Yeah, it got a lot of chili in there, so buyer beware.
- Thank you so much. - Of course. Enjoy it.
Thank you.
- See, it's nice out. - It's very nice out.
It's like a perfect Houston night.
This is our first Asian night market.
I'm surprised we've never done a challenge like this.
I'm surprised we haven't either.
The cuisines that we've brought to them today
have such rich histories here,
and we want to see that they can take inspiration from them.
Did you see anything that excited you?
Yes, I did.
Something very interesting.
Well, let's go taste some of this food then.
Hey, how are you, folks?
Thanks, bud.
- Hi, Evelyn. - Hi.
It smells really good.
- Smells like Vietnam? - It does.
So I've made poached chicken salad with fresh Rau Ram
I've added some sweetness with some rambutan.
- Fresh rambutan or canned? - No, no, no, fresh rambutan.
I put in the work for these rambutans.
And I went with an avocado crema
and then it's on top of a sesame crisp.
Thank you.
Pressure's on.
Vietnam!
If I didn't have 10 other things to eat,
- I would ask for a second. - Yes.
- That was very delicious. - Thank you so much, Evelyn.
That boosted my confidence a lot.
I like that the heat is mild.
It's actually real nice, like a crunchy--
Okay, that was good.
It reminded me of Vietnam, the taste was authentic.
It had everything you needed.
Texture, herbaceous notes from the herbs, it had some acid.
- Glorious. - Can I have another please?
I wanted one too.
A bunch of more people to feed.
I'm very interested in what you're doing here.
You know, I know you are.
I'm doing Indian kind of my version of a samosa.
Crab and corn samosa, spicy fig and tamarind sauce,
coriander, cumin, some fresh mint over the top.
All right. Thanks. - Yup.
I think he has done a great job
of incorporating all the spices.
The samosa has nice color and he filled it very nicely.
The chutney really gave you that kind of sweet
and sour spicy flavor of chop.
Yeah.
Very good job and very balanced.
It's the best dish he's made.
Yeah, he needs to cook Indian more, I guess.
- Enjoy. - Thank you so much.
Man. Oh my God. Top tier.
So today I made my take on karaage.
So I did use 12 different spices on the batter.
Not Nick's 26 tonight?
No, it wasn't Nick's 26.
But I'm glad you remembered that.
I have some pickled Fresno and ginger as well.
My sauce is peach miso.
Oh, yum. Thank you.
That's good.
- I love that crunch. - Nice work.
Thank you, Chef.
Thank you.
That was some damn good fried chicken.
- Crispy fried chicken. - I loved it.
It was very tender.
Not at all greasy.
I wish it had a little bit more Japanese flavor.
I really liked the pickled ginger and that made me feel
a little bit like his inspiration was coming through.
Enjoy the chicken salad, guys. Thank you.
So just take it, fold it in half and then just dunk it.
Hi.
Hello. How are you keeping track of all
- of this stuff here? - It's a little crazy.
This is insane.
So what is it?
Szechuan style stir fry noodle with Korean melon
and crispy ramen on top.
Wow.
That's something that I grew up with as a kid.
Oh, not ready yet, chef.
Don't touch.
I know there's a couple of things you left out over here.
Or 17.
It's good to go, chefs.
Enjoy.
We're all deep in.
Slurp mode.
- Very good, thank you. - Thank you.
So far, there's not a bad dish in the house.
- That was damn tasty. - That was really good.
It had everything I wanted, the sweet, the savory, the crunchy.
Just slurping.
- Very, very Cantonese. - Is it?
That's all I cared about.
It got a bit of spice with the chutney.
Hi, how y'all doing?
I'm doing a Mala style crispy beef
alongside some red daikon.
I was very inspired by the mapo tofu,
which is my favorite Chinese dish.
All right, Tom's having some trouble there.
- Mm-hmm. - Okay.
I have teeth.
- Thank you so much. - Yeah, absolutely.
Sorry about that, Tom.
Ugh, gave Tom
I felt like that daikon is so big
it's hard to eat on a skewer.
Grate it or slice it or something.
And even the meat was not really done as great.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
The textures are really awesome.
I appreciate that.
Hi, Sarah. Tell us about your dish.
So I knew I wanted to do a banh mi.
So yeah, liver mousse, pickles, charred heart
and my interpretation of a traditional dipping sauce.
I incorporated a little bit of maple syrup.
Just go ahead and fold it and dunk.
Fold...
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Her charring, cooking chicken hearts any other way
would not have been that flavorful.
I love the playful interpretation of Sarah's dish.
The bread needed to be much more charred and crispy
because it completely gave way.
Hi Robert,
What's the cuisine you're doing?
Filipino. So I did a marinated chicken thigh
I marinated it in a peanut sauce with a little bit of rice.
What is this sort of chili sauce?
Thai chilies with some fermented shrimp paste.
Shrimp paste is pretty hardcore.
- Yeah. - Thank you.
I'm really happy with the flavors.
It's kind of something that I really like to eat,
like kind of in your face.
Oh, yeah, it's in your face.
Pungent.
- Thank you so much. - Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
I mean, talk about down and dirty.
- Yeah, funky. - I liked it.
And I really liked that--
- Shrimp paste. - Shrimp paste, yeah.
I thought the shrimp paste was really flavorful,
just too much of it.
Here you are, enjoy.
Hi Buddha.
I have made a chicken karahi samosa.
It's a dry style chicken curry
with tamarind chutney and yogurt.
How did you make your pastry?
- This puff pastry is fried? - Yeah.
Thank you.
Buddha made a valiant attempt at a samosa
but frying the puff pastry just made it this greaseball.
It was raw inside and gummy and pasty.
I told them not to fry at all.
I told them to bake it,
and his chutney was very sugary.
Yes, there was no spices and no heat.
It's like jam.
So I'm trying to grill these potatoes, but I'm like, dude,
does this really make sense?
And I'm like, "Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
We should grill these potatoes."
Hi. Hi Monique.
What did you make?
I got Chinese, so I made rice cakes with fermented beans,
braised pork belly and some fresh pea sprouts
- and garlic chives. - Thank you.
Thanks. - Thank you so much.
Thank you, Monique.
She had all the flavors there,
but I think they needed to get in to the rice cakes.
And I found them bland.
If she had sautéed or stir fried
in the wok with those sauces,
those flavors would have gone in.
Good evening, Jo.
What did you make for us?
Chicken Ticino skewers.
This is the street food that I had
when I was in Manila growing up.
These chicken thighs have been marinated in banana ketchup.
Some calamansi juice.
underneath is a sawsawan and it's a chewy onion
sugarcane vinegar infusion.
- Thanks. - Thank you, Jo.
I liked the condiment.
Yes, my problem was
I feel the chicken was really bland.
- The actual chicken. - Agreed.
It needs to be more sweet and more salty, more everything.
I wish Jo had pushed herself more
since she knows this cuisine very well.
Okay, now the rest of the evening.
So I did a smoked ham hock miso soup.
Just learned togarashi means red pepper in Japanese,
so I thought of making a togarashi hot sauce.
Oh, right.
Oh, that's delicious.
- Yeah. Thank you, Damarr. - Thank you so much.
Thanks.
That was good.
The broth had so much flavor.
It had the umami I've been looking for.
It was a very complex dish.
All right.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
What are you making?
I got inspired yesterday when I found out
Aloo meant potato, so I was like,
"Oh, if I put my twist on it,
Sam's take on a potato curry,
so Samaloo.
- Sam's potato. - Okay.
Today I'm making Samaloo with a chutney made with grape,
pomegranate, mint and cilantro.
Did you steam the potatoes or did you boil them?
The potatoes-- I thought to myself, I need to put on a show.
I need people to smell what I'm cooking,
so I just grilled it.
I seasoned it nicely with oil, salt, just grilled.
Okay, thank you so much. - Thank you.
Thank you.
Samaloo.
The problem is the potato, the aloo.
The aloo was undercooked.
And grilled potatoes have nothing
to do in a potato curry.
It's shouldn't be a thing.
When you make curry all the flavor,
the spices go inside the potato.
It's confusing. Yup.
- Hey Jackson. - I made a spring roll,
Vietnamese spring roll made with sausage.
Some won ton, shallot
and the sauce is reduced Pho broth.
I've made Vietnamese zero times in my life, so.
Thank you. - Thank you so much.
I mean, this is a good twist.
We don't do that originally on spring roll
For Jackson never cooking Vietnamese food before,
I think he nailed it.
The sauce was hot and flavorful.
That roll felt so fresh.
It was really good.
This crazy technique of reducing Pho way down.
Turning it into almost, like, gelatin because.
You can't tell, right?
They give you the poker face.
Naw, they won't tell you nothing.
I got to say, all in all, the food's very good tonight.
Yeah, I think that all of the chefs really reached.
- Let's go back to Judges' Table. - Sounds good.
There was one that I was trying to hold back from Tom
because it was much bigger than the other ones.
And he was like, I want that one.
It's a difficult challenge.
In some cases you had zero experience
with the cuisines that you were presented with.
And I think overall very exciting,
some very, very good food tonight.
The flavors, the techniques, you know,
you literally almost have to be born with Asian flavors
to bring out the kind of flavors you all brought out.
Evelyn, Jackson and Jae, please stay here.
Everyone else, please step to the side.
The three of you had
our favorite dishes of the night.
Congratulations.
Jae, I thought the harmony between the udon noodles,
which were really chewy, the vegetables,
they all were in harmony.
- Thank you. - The oddball was the melon.
I mean, that was like out of left field.
Koreans eat this melon,
and I wanted to give a little personality to it.
It just completely worked.
Jackson, I loved how much heat you put in your spring roll.
I loved the acidity.
I thought it was right and gave us
a beautiful contrast to this rich, deep sauce.
I was kind of worried about your dish.
When you described it to me and you came through.
that sauce really was fantastic, Jackson.
It was ridiculous.
Thanks.
- Evelyn? - Yes.
You layered in the perfect balance of so many flavors.
The creaminess you gave with that avocado cream.
Yeah.
It was very balancing.
I'm happy you guys understood it as it worked in my head.
I'm proud of you guys.
But there can only be one winner tonight.
The winning chef tonight is...
Jae.
What?
Congratulations, Jae.
You cooked with a lot of confidence today and it showed.
And it just won you $10,000.
I can't believe this.
$10,000.
You know, the rent in New York City is so expensive,
so I'm going to cover my--
Thank you.
The three of you can step to the side.
Now we'd like to see Buddha...
Ashleigh...
and Sam.
Please step forward.
You had our least favorite dishes of the night
and one of you will be going home.
Let's start with you, Ashleigh.
Did you feel good about your dish?
I was proud of the knowledge that I learned
and I did my best to apply it.
The sauce part, the more Chinese part of your dish
actually was fine.
The problem was, at least with my piece,
it was really, really chewy.
The daikon was cut too big
and the whole dish also needed the salt.
If you added more sugar, salt vinegar, boiled it,
dumped it over the daikon
it would have marinated instantly.
Buddha, what made you want to fry puff pastry?
In Malaysian cuisine, - which is Indian- - Chinese,
they have something very similar, curry puff.
- Yes. - And it is fried.
The issue with your dish, Buddha was the pastry.
It was piping hot but when I broke into it,
the inside was still quite pasty and undercooked.
You know, samosas are a really savory thing.
And to me, the filling as well as the chutneys
ate very sweet.
Indian food has to have big and bold flavors.
I think it got lost in translation.
- Sam. - Hi.
Hi. - What's up, what's up?
Do you grill potatoes a lot?
You know...
I don't.
This is the exciting, this is the new,
this is something different.
Anyone can boil potato, who grills a potato?
- Exactly, Sam! - No one grills a potato.
Would you ever grill a potato again?
After this? Hell no.
When you're taking a risk on a dish,
you have to remember how to cook.
They just were not cooked through.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, okay,
if I took two steps back, maybe I might have changed it,
but I don't regret what I did because I'm learning.
All right.
We will call you back in a bit.
Thank you very much. You can exit the kitchen.
Let's hear it for Jae dog!
Nice!
Jae, we all want noodles for dinner.
Buddha, what do you think?
I'm-- I'm just super surprised.
I had a lot of people come up to me and said
it was their a favorite dish of the night.
All three of these chefs made
a valiant effort at taking inspiration
from all of the foods that they had.
But each of them suffered from technical mistakes.
Let's take Ashleigh's dish.
My issue with Ashleigh's dish was the size
of the meat that made it very hard to eat
and that lack of flavor in the daikon.
You know, daikon just tastes good even if you put salt
and lemon, nothing even more.
That's all you need for daikon.
I just don't think the dish went far enough.
It needed to go further.
This was not part of my game plan,
but you know, here we are.
For Buddha, Kiran?
He tried very hard.
He just needed bold, strong flavors and better techniques.
I also think that that pastry
should have been light and flaky.
I just don't think he used
the right cooking method for that specific pastry.
It's not like I've never fried that sort of thing before.
I tasted everything, I really enjoyed it.
And then we have the grilled potato vindaloo from Sam.
It's not a vindaloo.
Out of all of the different curries.
Vindaloo is the least sweet.
It's very highly spiced.
- Very hot. - It wasn't spicy enough.
Maybe it was too sweet. That's not the issue.
The issue was the raw potato, a grilled raw potato.
There was nothing he could do to correct it.
It was misguided.
If I had to eat it again,
I would eat the sauce and the rice without the potato.
I'm just being honest about what I'm doing
and what I'm trying to do.
You know, like, I'm trying to push the boundaries.
I think we have our answer.
- Uh-huh. - Yes.
Let's get them out here.
Chefs, I think that especially to cook right now,
it's so exciting that you get to go on a journey
and explore different cultures and sort of take bits
and pieces of that and bring it back to your kitchen
and kind of play around with things,
and maybe you'll do several iterations
before it goes on a menu.
Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury here.
If a mistake is made, it gets you sent home.
Sam, please pack your knives and go.
This experience was so much fun,
you know, like, yes, it's heartbreaking,
but then I keep remembering I have my right hand,
I have my left hand. That's all I need.
Sam, in Last Chance Kitchen, you'll get a chance.
Maybe you can grill a potato and make it work.
- I don't know. - Or maybe not.
Sounds good.
Take care, bye Sam.
No, no.
It's not about the failure.
It's about picking yourself up, brushing it off
and fighting the good fight.
Crush it. And then whoever wins, I'm coming to your house.
I'm so happy because someone's going to watch this
and someone's going to learn from my failure.
And they're going to be better than I am.
If I can spread that love I'm already winning.
Tonight, Sam enters Last Chance Kitchen.
I'm here to shock the world.
His undercooked potato left the judges cold.
He's going back for more grilled potatoes.
Can he live to grill another day?
Find out now On Demand.
Or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef...
Please give a warm welcome to Wylie Dufresne.
- Hello. - What kind of science project
am I going to be asked to do right now?
We want you to create two dishes that look exactly alike
but taste completely different.
This is a double elimination.
This challenge couldn't possibly
be closer to my worst nightmare.
Jo, what are you looking for?
A hope and a prayer.
If our technique fails us, we fail.
If I change something, we both have to change
complete components on our dishes.
This is so fun.
That might be the best dessert we've had.
It was leather.
Your dish was so progressive, it was striking.
One of your teams will be going home.
I'm sorry, very much, you know?