PADMA: Previously on Top Chef...
For your elimination challenge,
put your own twist on brisket.
-I've never done this before. -JO: That looks fun.
-It's going to get interesting. -Ashleigh, how is that brisket?
-Well... -The dish morphed into something
totally different.
The soup is broken.
I'm just finding it under seasoned.
Chopping up the brisket.
Probably a cardinal sin here in Texas.
-GREGORY: Did a good job on it. -It came through, right?
Yeah, he did. I was skeptical.
She's grinding her burnt ends.
Brisket and curry is not a thing,
-but I'm making it a thing. -Even if she weren't
a local gal, this would be a favorite.
The chef with the winning brisket dish today is Evelyn.
Ashleigh,
please pack your knives and go.
Nine chefs remain to compete
in the ultimate culinary showdown.
At stake for the winner: a feature
in Food & Wine magazine, an appearance
at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen,
$250,000 furnished by San Pellegrino
and the coveted title of Top Chef.
[upbeat music]
[bluesy music]
[FaceTime ringtone]
-Hi. -I miss you so much.
The last few days have been really hard.
Yeah, same here.
Home sick is such an understatement
for what I'm feeling right now.
Oh, boy.
Say hi to Mum.
JO: I'm really thankful for Leah.
You know, she's been my rock
and I waited a really long time to find her.
If I had the option to go home right now,
I'd just come home to you.
Well, if I had the option to break into
your hotel room right now, I would obviously do that too.
I've just really not been able to find my stride,
but my goals in being on Top Chef have always been
about visibility, because living in Texas is hard.
It's hard to feel like your friends
are being legislated against,
but my presence matters so much more here.
You don't make a difference in places
that are like-minded as you.
Bye, honey.
[smooch] Miss you.
Let's go.
[hip-hop music]
-Good morning, chefs. -JACKSON: Good morning.
-Cool! -Ooh, I love her.
PADMA: Please welcome this week's pair
of quick fire judges:
All-Star, Nini Nguyen,
and Top Chef Kentucky winner,
Kelsey Barnard Clark. Welcome back, ladies.
[clapping]
But there's one more person who can't miss this part.
[suspenseful music]
They've earned a second chance to compete in this competition.
[Monique laughs]
DAMARR: Uh-oh.
There's someone coming back.
The winner of part one of Last Chance Kitchen...
Ashleigh.
[clapping and cheering]
I am back!
I'm back in the kitchen.
My girl!
Finding the sense of belonging in a kitchen
is not something that I've experienced,
but I feel that here.
You know, this is my family.
Ashleigh, this is really flavorful.
The texture components in the dish are really nice
and the sauce works really, really well with salmon.
You're back in.
-[clapping] -Good job.
Sarah, it's not over yet for you.
You are still the last person left in Last Chance Kitchen.
It's been a whirlwind, but it feels really good
to be standing back in the kitchen.
Now that we're all here,
-are you ready to get cooking? -Yes.
♪♪♪
Today's quickfire is a little salty like me.
-[laughs] -And sweet like me.
Well, some of time.
PADMA: As you can see, half of the ingredients here
are sweet and the other half are salty.
Chefs on this side of the kitchen
get to choose one jar of sweet ingredients,
and the chefs on this side of the kitchen,
you get to choose one jar of salty ingredients.
Come on up, and once you get
your ingredients, stand over there.
LUKE: Right in the middle, there's this black,
kind of, box thing.
Is this a part of the challenge?
PADMA: Hurry it up, let's go.
We're not sure exactly where this is going,
but you definitely can't go wrong with pork rinds, correct?
All right.
For this quickfire challenge, we want you to create...
-A sweet... -And salty...
... dessert.
[laughter]
-Ah, sh--. -[laughter]
Yes, it's a dessert,
but with a twist.
Oh, God, what's in the box?
-What is that? -Oh, my goodness.
Our friends at Talenti Gelato and Sorbetto
are back for another quickfire challenge.
But this time, we're taking inspiration
from the new range of flavors, Talenti Pairings.
And if you haven't guessed it already,
you'll be working in teams of two for this quickfire.
-NICK: Oh, God. -PADMA: Nick!
-[laughter] -Look at his face.
-[laughing] -'Kay, we need a badass partner.
To give you an idea
of some sweet and salty pairings that work,
there's Talenti Gelato pairings in the freezer
that you can taste.
So, pair up. One salty and one sweet per team.
I'll do whatever. You want to? All right.
JAE: Nuts and pears.
Buddha's standing to my right
and he has honey.
Miso and honey is like two combinations
that work well together.
NICK: I got pork ----ing rinds.
Everybody don't run away from me. Sh--.
ASHLEIGH: Dude, we're going to do this.
-[laughing] Okay. All right. -We're going to do this.
Ginger snaps and pork rinds.
[laughs]
This is a challenge you're going to want to win.
Because not only is there
a $10,000 cash prize
for the pair of winners,
-there is double immunity. -Yes!
And your dessert will help inspire
a new Talenti Gelato flavor.
To be clear, you don't have to make a gelato.
We just want an innovative,
sweet and salty dessert of any kind.
PADMA: You have 45 minutes on the clock.
And your time starts now. Good luck.
ASHLEIGH: Come on, girl.
-Caramel Pretzel Blondie. -Uh-huh.
Is there, like, chunks of blondie in there?
NICK: Yeah, you could taste the pretzel.
That's a great impression of what is floating around
in my mind about pork rinds, too.
-Mm. -I going to do a squash curd.
We're going to make a miso and honey ice cream.
And then we're going to make two twills.
We should candianize a little peach--
I have a mold for a buñuelo.
I would like to do a poached pear and then brûlée on top.
And then I want to do a cookie
with pistachio that's salty
and then I'll do a pistachio cream underneath.
I'm thinking of, like, a gingerbread cake
with fresh ginger snaps as flour.
I was already thinking cake.
-Yes. -Great.
Nick has some pastry experience.
He's made cakes.
Now we're just kind of trying to play around
with how to incorporate these pork rinds.
In my head, I'm thinking of this thing called kakigori,
which is like a Japanese shaved ice
and then some sort of [indistinct].
JACKSON: Get the milk and the cream to the boil.
So, I got a pistachio cream.
I'm going to make that into a crème pat.
These are not exactly a match made in heaven,
so I'm doing what I think
adds as much pistachio flavor as possible.
I make pistachio butter and I do
a cookie with pistachio and white chocolate.
Jae, what you working on on the hotline right now?
-Poaching liquid for the pear. -Nice.
JAE: Thirty-five minutes, guys!
♪♪♪
Nick, have you ever made a dessert with pork rinds?
No, I'm focusing on the gingerbread cake.
I love baking cakes
so I'm going to do a ginger snap Bundt cake.
I let Ashleigh kind of tackle the pork rinds.
I love pork rinds so this is actually kind of cool.
-Going in, Ashleigh. -Going in. Heard that.
Okay, boiled. You pour it in to the egg yolks.
Whisk, whisk, whisk.
Put it back onto the heat and I'll keep watching it, okay?
When I went to Melbourne at 17 years old,
I got a job at a two hat restaurant
and the first section that they put me on was pastry.
So, I want to go all out
using crystallized honey and miso to form leaves,
and then making a miso cake
to go on top of a honey ice cream.
Yeah, it's a lot going on but I would love
double immunity and $10,000.
I got the ice cream. Tastes great.
I'm making buñuelos.
It's like a Mexican crispy sweet cookie.
I think it's really nice to pair something sweet
like peaches and something nutty like marcona almonds
with a really herbaceous element.
So, I'm making a basil cream to go along with it.
ASHLEIGH: Over here, Luke.
You want to do your cornbread in this?
They bake awesome.
I know how to make, like, three desserts
so I'm pretty reliant on Monique in this cook.
Whoa.
One of my favorite ice creams is actually corn.
I'm making corn ice cream. It's going to go with cornbread.
We're making a pumpkin crumble and hopefully some squash curd.
Twenty-two minutes!
My poached pear is on.
Jackson, I would like to talk with you where we at.
-Okay. -You know, Jackson is
like a little horse, like, you know, jumping everywhere.
JACKSON: I'm going to check on these cookies.
JAE: I need to know what he's doing
but he's just running all over the world.
Like a horse, running.
♪♪♪
MONIAUE: Ten minutes, you guys!
NICK: How is it going?
I'm trying to coat these rinds
without burning them, because there's molasses,
has a ton of sugar.
But I think it's going to work out.
MONIQUE: They're called barquettes, okay?
-DAMARR: Barquettes? -Yeah.
DAMARR: All right, I'll let you describe it, then.
Why is it being so finicky with me?
The batter is sticking to the buñuelo mold
and it's not wanting to come off.
JO: Where's Abuela to help us?
EVELYN: I know, Abuelita, come through.
You have five minutes left.
Man, I'm sweating sweet and salty.
We got this! Yeah. Push, push.
-MONIQUE: Oh, sh--. -DAMARR: What's wrong?
Squash curd. It's in the blast freezer.
[tense music]
BUDDHA: Pick out the nicest leaves.
Time's up, hands up, please.
I'm a pastry chef!
[laughs]
PADMA: Jackson and Jae, please come on up.
Thank you. What do we have?
JAE: Rosemary-poached Asian pear, pistachio cookie.
JACKSON: And a pistachio cream underneath
and salted crème fraîche on top.
Have you ever made a pistachio cookie before?
I've done cookies with nuts in them, but this one,
I wanted to add textural component.
Thank you, both.
That's a ginger snap Bundt cake with lemon ice.
ASHLEIGH: And salted molasses buttermilk with a brown butter,
pork rind Mulberry crumble.
So, pork rinds and ginger snaps.
Yeah.
I love it. It almost eats like cereal.
I know.
-PADMA: Ooh. -What we've done for you guys
is a salted almond buñuelo on top of
a candied peach and we have a basil cream on the bottom.
This smells like the State Fair.
And I mean that, like, in the best way ever.
-Thank you very much. -Thank y'all.
-PADMA: Ooh. -We decided to make cornbread
with corn ice cream with a pumpkin seed
and parmesan crumble with also a pumpkin curd.
All the dishes have been really creative and delicious.
I've going to make you do weird stuff more often.
-Thank you. -BUDDHA: It's got a miso
cake crumble on the bottom, on top of that
we have a miso-honey ice cream glazed with
a miso-honey caramel, and the two leaves are actually--
one's made out of miso and one's made out of honey.
-Trying to get the perfect bite. -KELSEY: Right.
PADMA: Thank you.
Nini and Kelsey, how do you think
our chefs did with this sweet and salty quickfire?
I'm very impressed.
Y'all's food was just really good
and really pretty and interesting.
Kelsey, who had one of our favorite dishes?
Nick and Ashleigh.
It could have really gone very wrong
-and it didn't. -I really appreciated the ice.
It really ate like a tres leches.
Damarr and Monique. Your dish was beautiful.
Corn ice cream is seriously my favorite flavor
and it was everything I thought it would be.
-Jo and Evelyn. -When you look at it,
it's very simple, and then when you crack open,
I found little-little pockets of the herb cream,
the juiciness of the peach.
As you know, there can only be one winning team.
The team with the best dessert really highlighted
their ingredients and really balanced them well.
The winning pair today is...
[suspenseful music]
Nick and Ashleigh.
-Oh, yes! -Yay!
Ashleigh, what a way to come back!
I'm on fire, so I don't plan to lose it.
I really need this win.
I want my competitors to know that I'm still in it to win it.
-I'm back. -And Nick,
I mean pork rinds, good God.
Going to be very thoughtful from here on out
about what I pick.
Me and Ashleigh take it home.
Double immunity.
Five more thousand dollars that can get to my pocket,
$5,000 for Ashleigh.
Congratulations, Nick and Ashleigh.
Your dessert's recipe will be used to inspire
a brand new flavor, and Talenti
has also decided to donate
$10,000 in your honors
to Chef Chris Williams' charity,
Lucille's 1913.
[clapping]
Kelsey, Nini, it was so sweet to have you guys both back here.
-Thank you so much. -Good luck, everyone.
-Bye, y'all, good luck. -NICK: Thank you!
[clapping]
We've had a lot of fun with classic Texas dishes
and traditions these past few weeks,
but it's time to get into the heart of Texas.
♪♪♪
Here to help introduce this next challenge
is Texas native and Top Chef all-star,
Tiffany Derry!
-Hi, how you doing? -Hello!
Hey, y'all! [laughs]
I am so excited to be here.
For your elimination challenge, you'll be making a dish
in honor of five trailblazing Texas women
whose voices were ahead of their time.
You'll each draw knives to find out which of the five women
will serve as your inspiration.
-Ann Richards. -Ann Richards, yes.
Selena! Sorry.
The Texas Latina gets Selena? That's pretty badass.
Barbara Jordan.
This is an individual challenge.
But there will be two chefs creating a dish
inspired by each pioneer.
Nick and Jo, you pulled
Texas Governor, Ann Richards.
Only the second woman ever to hold the position.
Ashleigh and Jae, you pulled
"Babe" Didrikson Zaharias,
one of the greatest athletes of all time.
Monique and Jackson.
Barbara Jordan was the first African American woman
elected to the Texas House of Representatives.
I feel like this is going to be a challenge.
It's giving us a lot of freedom but it seems like
it's going to be kind of difficult to wrap
this story of these women into one dish.
Luke, Buddha, Bessie Coleman.
She was the first African American,
Native American female licensed aviator.
And finally, Evelyn and Damarr,
the undisputed queen of Tejano music, Selena.
You will honor these women
through your dishes
and serve them to a table
of Texan trailblazers in their own right.
I think with everything that's happening currently in Texas,
it's such an important challenge to focus on
the women who have made this state great.
And I really want to showcase that.
Your guest judge for this challenge,
James Beard nominee, Christine Ha,
who you've already had the pleasure to cook for
at the Asian night market, remember?
In honor of the late Barbara Jordan's,
Get Out the Vote initiative work,
everyone at the dinner table will have an equal vote
in determining who will win this challenge.
We are providing you each with a dossier
about your leading ladies.
Tomorrow, you'll have two and a half hours
to prep and cook before service begins at Brennan's.
-TIFFANY: Good luck, everyone. -PADMA: Thank you, guys.
-We'll see you tomorrow. -CONTESTANTS: Thank you.
♪♪♪
-NICK: Ann Richards. -Here.
-Thank you. -[bleep].
JAE: Hey, Ashleigh, you got a dish that you're thinking of?
ASHLEIGH: No, no, I don't.
[laughter]
Babe is the daughter of poor Norwegian immigrants.
I don't know a lot about the foods of Norway,
but I think about the women in my family, so I'm going with
an Appalachian inspired dish.
I was Selena for, like, five years in a row
for Halloween.
Growing up as a first generation
Mexican-Salvadorian-American, it's hard to kind of know
and navigate, like, are you Mexican enough?
Are you American enough?
And I feel like Selena made that easier for us,
to be like, "Oh, see, like, she's proud."
Just when I grabbed the knife, "Como la Flor" came to mind--
Of course.
-- the song which was
my favorite when I was growing up.
JACKSON: All right, guys, you ready to go?
-EVELYN: Let's do it. -Let's go to Whole Foods Market.
JO: Girl.
Yeah, I'm sitting in an immunity car except for me over here.
Gosh.
Well, I got Ann-- Ann Richards,
and she was the 45th governor of Texas.
She added, like, African Americans and women
to the Texas Rangers.
She was the first one to break open that cycle, which was huge.
This lady was a powerhouse.
We have Barbara Jordan.
She had this awesome quote:
"I am neither a Black politician or a female politician.
"I'm just a politician." In my career,
I never wanted to be known as an Asian chef or a female chef,
I just wanted to be known as a good chef.
Yeah, so first of all Bessie Coleman, right?
Okay.
The thing on her hat is bird
because it's flying.
She's a pilot.
Not only was she the first
African American,
but also Native American to get
a pilot's license and all
that sort of stuff.
Women can't fly in America,
they're not allowed to.
But French women can fly.
So, she ends up saving up her money and moving to Paris.
This is something that, you know, made me very kind
of nervous. Just, like, one, doing research,
which is, you know-- That sort of stuff is really
hard for me to do anyways.
You know? Takes me a little extra time to do it.
I found out I had learning disabilities
much later in life than when kids know
that they have learning disabilities.
As a dyslexic person,
reading this dossier took me
a few times to really kind of
understand some things.
But my learning disabilities
and the way that I think definitely helped me
be a creative person or think differently.
I'm kind of, in a sense, going to focus in on
the Native side of it.
♪♪♪
JO: What do you have for gold shrimp right now?
DAMARR: Looking for tomatillos and I'm very excited
that I see them.
Selena, she was all about family and I think that pozole is like
a very family-oriented dish.
-JAE: Hi, welcome back! -ASHLEIGH: We both have Babe.
JAE: Yeah. What are you making?
ASHLEIGH: I'm going to do a candied pork dish.
ASHLEIGH: Ooh, nice.
BUDDHA: Twenty minutes, chefs.
You know what? I'll take two
of these guys and all of those.
MONIQUE: There are some shucked.
LUKE: There's shucked ones? Okay, that works for me.
MONIQUE: I'm gonna make, like, a bean dish
that basically uses a lot of ingredients
from that neighborhood she grew up in.
And then I'm gonna do fried oysters on top.
LUKE: Awesome.
With the barbecue challenge,
I felt like I didn't have a vision.
For this challenge, the story needs to be there.
Thank you.
Barbara Jordan fought for her community even
after she made it big.
So, I looked back to her roots in her hometown
and why she came back.
Jackson, what are you thinking?
I'm gonna do something with a lot of heart and guts.
Barbara Jordan actually ran to be
in the House of Representatives three times.
To really go for it three times
I think is incredibly gutsy of her.
And that's just kind of the only thing that keeps running
through my head: "Heart and guts, heart and guts."
So, why not use offal in my dish?
I'm just going to pull back, focus on this one ragu.
JO: I bought one of everything. Don't worry.
-BUDDHA: Opa! -LUKE: Boom!
MONIQUE: What are you at, what are you at?
$299.20, wow!
JAE: Thank you.
♪♪♪
[contestants cheering]
ASHLEIGH: All right!
[contestants] She back! She back!
JAE: Welcome back, Ashleigh!
MONIQUE: She is risen!
Man, all these powerful women,
it's, like, so uplifting.
I check a lot of boxes.
Black, woman, queer. Have been in many kitchens
where I have been the only woman
and, you know, I want people to be able to walk
into my kitchen and find place there.
This one is really inspiring. You know?
-Absolutely. -'Cause I'm sure everyone here
has, like, a female mentor in some way.
I used to live in New Orleans and I worked
at Chef Leah Chase's restaurant for five months.
I was very glad that I had that experience early on
my expe-- you know, career and she became
my mentor and everything.
ASHLEIGH: I had no idea you worked with Chef Leah.
-Yeah. -ASHLEIGH: She's, like, my idol.
I mean, shout outs to the five of you, right?
Like, it's really a pleasure being around this space.
♪ Top Chef, Top Chef, tell me what's next ♪
Maybe quarter million dollars with my name on the check ♪
I'm here for the crown, ain't no sense in gettin' down ♪
Biscuits, crumble, watch me fumble ♪
I see the day o' dawn ♪ ♪ Pass the baton ♪
Last Chance Kitchen got another chance, I went in ♪
Y'all best believe I'm gonna put my all in it, aye! ♪
[upbeat rock music]
Chilies, they ain't playin'. Ah!
It seems like you know pretty much everything about Selena.
She had such a bold personality.
Like, just the way she carried herself, the way she tried
to push boundaries for the Latino community.
So, those are the things that are really inspiring my dish.
If Selena can tap down and help me out on this dish,
it would be amazing.
What do you think is the biggest challenge
to execute your dish today?
Tying in the story,
but also getting these tortillas right.
NICK: Hey, Jo, how you feeling?
JO: I got my corn grated for my polenta.
-How you looking? -Looking pretty good.
Mines is gonna be mostly veggie focused.
Ann Richards struggled a lot with cancer so she tried
to change over her life and start eating clean.
Right now I'm working on potatoes
that has the shape of mushrooms.
This is just an old school method that's dedicated to her.
I'm making potato encrusted red snapper, beet risotto,
kale romesco and potato mushroom.
I got a lot of knife work to do.
-[Jo laughs] -What's your protein?
Gold shrimp. Since we're celebrating Texas women,
I thought I'd celebrate things that we do best here.
According to her chef at the governor's mansion,
she really enjoyed Thai influence in her food.
Oh, wow, awesome.
Gumbo time.
I want to fry some okras just to give a little texture
to the gumbo.
Babe is a true fighter
and that reminded me of Chef Leah Chase.
It just means so much to me and I get really
emotional when I make gumbo.
I didn't really get to cook
with my grandmother, but being in the kitchen
with Chef Leah Chase in New Orleans completed
my childhood because I felt like I'm cooking
with my grandmother.
But it's also very difficult to make gumbo just in two hours.
This is a very, very special dish.
Buddha, how you doing? What are you doing?
I'm good. I just got a lot of things to get on at the start.
I bit a little bit more than I can chew,
but I'm going really high concept with this dish.
So, I'm making poulet en Bessie,
a traditional dish which is actually
called poulet en vessie.
Normally, poulet en vessie
is cooked in a pig's bladder,
but today I'll be cooking in a sous vide bag.
I really want to make sure that I do justice to her story.
Serving with Paris mash and then I'm going
to serve it with some corn.
Jackson, I'm pumped.
I just want to do it justice
and especially for Barbara Jordan.
JACKSON: She had a lot of hearts and guts so I'm gonna
actually incorporate chicken offal into this dish.
Make it kind of an offal ragu.
A delicious, not "awful" ragu.
I don't want it to taste too offal-forward,
so it's critical that I mince it right when it gets
into the pan, so hopefully this dish is not A-W-F-U-L.
Like-- Right?
Ashleigh, it's been quite a roller coaster ride
-for you, huh? -Oh, my gosh.
But you know what?
My head is so in the game.
It doesn't even strike me that I have immunity
because that's not important to me right now.
I'm doing that candied pork, salt and vinegar potatoes
and killed lettuce.
What are killed lettuces?
A Southern Appalachian dish.
MONIQUE: Okay.
ASHLEIGH: So far, when I'm a part of a team,
I do a little better. I don't like having to lean on
the support of others to succeed.
So, I'm hoping that I can stand out as an individual
for this challenge.
My goal is just make some very simple,
humble ingredients shine today.
Hey, chefs. How's it going?
-Hey, how are ya? -TOM: Hey, Luke.
-LUKE: How's it goin', chefs? -Hello.
-TOM: Chef Tiffany. -TIFFANY: What are you making?
I have Bessie Coleman. Found it really
cool that she was Indigenous American.
And in the northwest,
we only have smoked and cured salmon
because of the Indigenous Americans.
So, I'm going to do a cured salmon
that I'm going to lightly smoke.
How much time do you have to cure them?
So, this is a very light cure. It's a mix of the miso
and seaweed is the cure, with coriander.
-Ah. -Sounds good.
-LUKE: Thank you. -TIFFANY: Thank you.
-TOM: Hey, Monique. -Hi, chefs!
What do you have? What are you making?
So, my inspiration was Barbara Jordan.
And so, I kind of took ingredients from the 1940s,
what was accessible to her neighborhood
and what they were familiar with.
Yeah, I love the way you're thinking here.
That's just great.
I'm doing fried oysters,
so, like, an appetizer dish.
Do you think frying oyster's
a little tricky with the timing?
The fryer's right next to me so I think
that I can get it done. And I think the biggest thing
is making the right textures with the beans.
-Making sure they're cooked. -Yeah, exactly.
And bring the flavor, 'cause she's bold. Yeah.
-Thank you so much. -That's good, thanks.
Hey, Damarr, how you doing?
Good, chefs, how are you all?
TOM: Okay. Making some tortillas?
I am. I got Selena so I kind of thought about my team
at the restaurant. And some of the Mexican team members
say they make pozole for family meal.
And then I figured I'd try to make tortillas.
-I've never made 'em before. -That was my question,
-"Have you ever made tortillas?" -I have not.
Do you have any store bought tortillas as a backup?
No. You know, I didn't even really want to have
that moment where it's like, "Did you make the tortillas?"
So, I'm just going to make these tortillas.
-[laughs] -They're gonna be right.
And that's where we're going to go for.
-Moving forward, I like it. -TOM: Sounds good.
All right, cool.
Hey, Evelyn, you're coming off a big win. How's that feel?
Feels great. But I can't stay on that high,
but I'm definitely using that energy as a boost
and just keep going.
-Who's your inspiration? -Selena.
I mean, she was an amazing person,
so there's so much to get inspired by.
It's really, like, what do I choose, right?
So, first thing that came to mind
was my favorite song, "Como la Flor,"
which is, "Like a flower."
So, visually my dish
would look like a flower.
-Sounds good. -I'm ready to try it.
Thank you, chefs.
TOM: Chefs, everything looks great.
-BUDDHA: Thank you. -TIFFANY: Good luck, y'all.
-ASHLEIGH: Thank you. -JO: Thirty minutes!
LUKE: Right now, I am making a chicken fudge.
Basically, it's a compound butter
that has the consistency of a fudge.
-BUDDHA: Sounds great. -Ooh, that didn't work.
Making tortillas is pretty difficult.
Trying to press these things, they're ripping.
I'm assuming this is too wet, or am I just being a barbarian?
A little bit more flour.
I know that I have to figure this out, period.
Ah, too thin.
[tense music]
WOMAN: How fun is this?
I believe this is your seat, right here.
CHRISTINE: All right, thank you, Gail.
Thank you.
Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for being here.
It means the world to all of us.
It's a great way to honor some amazing, accomplished,
groundbreaking women, past and present, at this table
and not, so cheers to everybody.
And thank you for sharing this meal with us.
ALL: Cheers, cheers.
Can I say one thing just because Sheryl's here?
PADMA: You can say as many things as you want.
So, my mother and Barbara Jordan would sit on the floor
of the Erwin Center and watch Sheryl play basketball.
I feel like just that spirit is--
-You're gonna make me cry now. -at this table.
So, it's such an honor to be here with amazing women.
[upbeat electronic rock music]
ASHLEIGH: Ooh, what you up to over there?
Hey! I'm breading the oysters already.
I just want to make sure they're breaded
and fried at the last moment.
ASHLEIGH: Nice. Nice.
Got this chicken. It's been slowly cooked in a bag
and now I'm just giving it some color.
My biggest concern about the dish is chicken breast
can often be dry, but techniques that I put
on the plate will be all the stuff that I've learned
in Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, working for my mentor,
Clare Smyth. To me, she is the best chef in the world.
So, it's kind of like a roast chicken
and poulet en vessie.
Trying to get some more flavor going.
EVELYN: Five minutes.
[humming]
[tense music]
Why did I choose such intricate work?
I'm just very scared because I'm running out of time.
Sh-- is real.
I don't want to mess up.
I'm trying to well represent not only myself but Selena.
JACKSON: Evelyn, you need any help?
Can you follow with the chili oil?
-Two drops? -Yeah, beautiful.
Sh-- got real.
DAMARR: Oh, boy.
EVELYN: Three, two, one.
[timer beeping]
We did it!
-Looks great. -Selena.
WOMAN 1: Ooh...
WOMAN 2: Oh, the first set up is so fancy.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
-WOMAN 3: It's incredible. -WOMAN 2: Yeah.
This first course is inspired by Selena.
So, Evelyn and Damarr,
please let me introduce you to Suzette Quintanilla.
Hi.
PADMA: Selena's sister as well as her drummer.
Awesome. Well, first of all, it's an honor to be here.
It's a table full of amazing women, and Tom.
[laughter]
For inspiration, I mean, she just meant so much
for our community. It's someone that we saw in a bigger platform
that we could relate to.
So, what I've prepared for you guys today
is kind of a take on aguachile, ceviche vibes.
I've named it after my favorite Selena song,
which is "Como la Flor," which is "Like a Flower."
So, that's why the presentation.
On the bottom, we have our Texas Gulf snapper
tossed in a little bit of Asian pear, chives,
avocado mashed with orange zest.
PADMA: Damarr, what did you make?
What really stood out to me was that she was all about family.
Which made me think about pozole.
It's just, like, family in a bowl in my mind.
So, I made green pozole with white corn tortillas,
cabbage and radish and cilantro.
What does it feel like to cook for this table, Damarr?
You know, I'm usually sort of calm,
but I'm, like, really nervous.
[laughter]
You know, I was raised by three women
and it's just, like, a moment of reverence and so...
I think that's probably the vibration
in my voice, 'cause I'm just nervous, so...
[laughter]
PADMA: I got it, thank you, both.
WOMAN: This is amazing.
PADMA: What did you think of Evelyn's aguachile?
I could feel the love there and it flowed into her dish
completely, and I loved it.
The size of the fish is really nice,
it has great texture, it's really bright and I'll stop
talking now because there are plenty of women here
who I should listen to.
[laughter]
Evelyn's aguachile was excellent.
It was just well balanced in texture,
in temperature and in flavor.
PADMA: Sheryl, did you like this dish?
Well, I have none left.
-[laughter] -Pace yourself.
-I wanna try your pozole, dude. -Yeah.
What about Damarr's pozole?
His dish was definitely that type that you just
want to sit down and be around family and talk and hang out.
The tortilla, I thought, was really soft
and delicious and beautiful.
-I was, like, vibrating. -Yeah, it's just so much.
Like, what is going on here?
I feel like you just feel the power at the table.
-Yeah. -Like, whoa.
-JAE: You good, Ashleigh? -Yup.
Ah, plating, why is it so tedious?
ASHLEIGH: Got some plates to clean over here.
[timer beeping]
That is amazingly beautiful.
PADMA: This is "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias.
Mm.
PADMA: Ashleigh, what did you make for us today?
I prepared candied pork with salt and vinegar potatoes,
killed lettuces and a little herb yogurt.
Jae, what did you make for us?
I have seafood gumbo with okra kimchi.
Babe's story inspired me.
She's so strong and I wanted to highlight Chef Leah Chase
in New Orleans. [clears throat]
I try not to be emotional for today, so I'm sorry.
PADMA: It's okay. We're all emotional. I get it.
She is the reason that I'm here,
because she wrote me a letter for the visa
so that I could stay in America.
And Chef Leah Chase used to tell me if the gumbo is not right,
she's going to punch me in my face today.
[laughter]
I don't think you'll get punched in the face for this.
-PADMA: Thank you, both. -TOM: Thank you.
-JAE: I'm bawling. -[gentle laughter and chatter]
Nini, what do you think of Jae's gumbo?
I think it's very flavorful.
I don't know if I would say that her inspiration
really is Babe as it is Leah.
That's really fair.
I'm obsessed with the okra kimchi.
I think it's wonderful.
I do think it's lacking a little bit in the depth
that you feel a gumbo broth is.
This is probably the dish I was most excited about
'cause it's Babe.
-And you're an athlete. -SHERYL: Yeah.
Babe was a shero and I didn't really connect
their stories to Babe.
I try really hard not to be so emotional.
PADMA: What about Ashleigh's candied pork?
I think being visually impaired
and trying to cut that pork, I got really
nervous at the table, 'cause I thought my pork
-was about to fly off my plate. -[laughter]
And sure enough, it was very tough.
There was so much vinegar.
I do think that Ashleigh's dish was quite unbalanced.
We have to be honest and you have to be able to say,
"Your baby is ugly."
[raucous laughter]
It looks right, gotta taste it.
Mm.
♪♪♪
[timer beeping]
[upbeat music]
Wow. Buddha, tell us about your dish.
My inspiration for Bessie Coleman
is that she went to France,
to get her international pilot's license
and she would become a stunt woman,
that her famous move was the figure of eight.
So, on the dish, we have a poulet en vessie,
which is actually poulet en Bessie.
So, with a Paris mash in the figure of eight to the way
that she would fly her plane, served with a sauce Robert,
corn with a [indistinct], which is a chicken mousse,
because of her native roots to America.
Why the popcorn?
When you see brave Bessie fly, you're gonna need some popcorn.
[laughter]
Hi, Luke. What did you make for us and why?
The time that Bessie Coleman left to Europe was around
the same time that I did to start my career,
basically, in culinary.
So, I took one of the first
things that I learned there,
an emulsion made from oysters,
and then the last thing that I learned there,
which was curing fish in a brine of parsley
and then covered in a miso and seaweed.
On top, I also have a fudge
that's made from a chicken reduction.
Also some chicken crumbles and rye bread crumbles.
-Thank you, both. -Thank you.
Buddha's chicken dish was quite clever.
The whipped potato with the figure eight that she does.
It was delightful.
When you think about someone like Bessie Coleman
who's doing very fancy tricks,
but there's no doubt that behind that there's a tremendous
attention to detail, which I can sort of feel in this dish.
There's a lot of technique in this dish.
And to get it done in two and a half hours
-is pretty remarkable. -I love it even more now.
Luke's dish for me is less successful.
I'm definitely missing some acid and some texture.
I definitely felt like it needed the salt,
but I felt like Luke did a good job of trying to find
himself in Bessie's story, so I appreciated that.
I thought that the dish fell a little flat.
I did like the chicken skin rye moment,
but it needed-- it just needed more than that.
I think it needed salt. It needed acidity.
It needed brightness.
You know, sitting next to this chicken dish,
just feels paltry, a little bit.
No, the poultry's here.
[laughter]
-Dad. -PADMA: Dad jokes.
[chatter and laughter]
Should've had the fish on just a little bit longer.
This has dried out a little bit.
Nick, I'm giving you a little wipe here.
-Thank you very much. -I got you, B.
[timer beeping]
SHERYL: The potatoes are mushrooms.
-CHRISTINE: That's cute. -Beautiful.
Hello, everyone.
I did a potato encrusted red snapper
with a beet risotto, a kale romesco
and you have a potato
which is shaped just like a mushroom.
It's really beautiful.
Ann Richards was very into a Thai twist on things.
I did some gulf shrimp that's been tossed with a coconut
lime salsa verde. Underneath, fresh corn polenta,
some shishitos in there and a little fresh salad.
-Thank you. -Thank you so much.
First, I'll just have to say these are all the things
that my mother loved, and Jo's version
of shrimp and grits is a wonderful, to me, take on that.
It was unfortunate that Joe's dish was so sweet.
It doesn't remind me of the Ann Richards I know.
She was spicy and saucy and a little feisty.
She could have pumped up the flavor a lot.
I was freaking out 'cause Sheryl Swoopes was there.
Yeah, there you go. I'mma hold it.
There we go, there you go. Good job.
[laughs]
Nick's dish is gorgeous
and delicious.
I love the red snapper.
Mom would love this dish.
It's a beautiful presentation
and that's what I always got from Ann when I saw her.
And I was like, "Oh, that woman right
there is about to give me hell tonight."
[laughter]
Potatoes, you know, they're cute.
[snickering]
There are misses.
I would eat Nick's dish for lunch.
Tom, the look!
I'm agreeing, there are misses.
But I think that romesco--
-Which is good, yeah. -I really love it.
She would've loved this. I just have to say,
she would've loved this.
I hope I paid as much respect as possible to Ann Richards.
Yeah, that was really cool.
-Monique, time? -Five on the dot.
The oysters are done and they're kind of big,
so I decide to cut them,
but I'm realizing they'll be in the broth
and they might get kind of soggy.
JACKSON: Twenty seconds. Move.
I make the decision not to put as much broth
because the oysters are just going to sink.
[timer beeping]
[tense music]
PADMA: Next is Barbara Jordan.
Yum.
Monique, tell us about your inspiration
and the dish you made.
Barbara Jordan.
She went back to her hometown
and she opened up her law office there and these are
the ingredients that were most accessible in that area.
So, these are fried oysters with assorted beans, pickled okra,
and a pancetta bean broth,
-Jackson. -I made tagliolini hand cuts
with chicken and offal ragu.
Why?
Okay, so I have a lot, I wrote it all down.
-[laughter] -Yes.
Okay, so she ran for the House of Representatives
not once, not twice, but three times,
which I think has a lot of heart and makes her very gutsy.
So, that's why I tried to go with the heart and guts
-and the offal. -Ah!
Trying to make it happen.
So, there is chili and mushroom as well, right?
So, there is more to it than just the chicken and the offal.
Thank you, both.
Did anybody else get a half cut oyster in their bowl?
ALL: Yeah.
Instead of cutting them in half, just give us one oyster.
That said, they're nicely fried.
Knowing Barbara Jordan-- I'm from Houston--
I looked up to her as a young Black woman.
She was so important to me.
I could because she did and I really feel that way.
And so, it didn't wow me, and Barbara Jordan is wow.
All I had were beans and two halves of an oyster.
I got everyone's broth. Sorry.
MONIAUE: And not too salty, right?
JACKSON: I think you should have someone else have some.
Jackson, I could only imagine how uncomfortable he was
in reading about her and her bio and trying to figure out,
"How am I going to serve this dish to a table full
"of women and Tom?"
And I thought he did an incredible job
of really understanding who she was and what she represented.
So, huge fan of this dish.
The offal wasn't chalky.
Sometimes it has that grainy texture.
I think it was cooked well.
I am not a fan of offal.
-SUZETTE: Like, what's offal? -It's organ meat.
That's what I had? It was amazing.
Oh, I didn't know that's what I ate.
I didn't even know.
The confidence in this plate,
in his story, he just nailed that.
Padma, Gail, Tom.
I really want to say, for Houston,
especially the restaurant women and men,
thank you so much for coming.
For you to come at this time
-couldn't be more important. -Thank you.
[clapping]
So, in front of you, you have a menu which I would
like to now turn into a ballot.
I would like you all to cast one vote for the winning dish.
♪♪♪
No recounting.
-[laughter] -PADMA: No recounts!
[laughter]
♪♪♪
It was great to see that everybody really took
the challenge to heart
and put together some really great dishes.
PADMA: Evelyn, Jackson and Buddha, please stay here.
The rest of you can step to the side for now. Thank you.
The three of you had our favorite dishes of the night.
♪♪♪
-God! Oh, my gosh! -We meet again.
I thought you all did really, really well.
Evelyn, it was lucky for you that you had such a personal
connection, of course, to Selena and her music.
I felt like I had such a big connection that I really
had to show that in one dish.
I love the fact that you put the cucumber in the aguachile
because it made it refreshing. There had this spice to it.
Everything just sang.
Because I'm visually impaired, presentation isn't as important
to me, but when I take a bite of something,
everything has to be balanced.
And I thought, Evelyn, you did a very thoughtful job with that.
So, I really commend you on that, Evelyn.
-Thank you. -It was bright and powerful.
It had a crescendo. You know, it really built up.
Every bite was a little spicier than the last.
-Thank you so much. -Jackson.
The pasta was beautifully made.
Ragu was really flavorful, had right amount of spice,
and it doesn't need to be adorned
because it's simply delicious.
It's a bold thing to be using
that sort of meat and protein in such a challenge,
but you did it. You pulled it off.
I thoroughly enjoyed your ragu.
I thought it had so much depth of flavor.
-Kudos to you. -Thanks.
-Buddha. -It's just a great
-roast chicken. -Yeah, is what it is.
You gave us sensible technique
matched up to great narrative, and I thought
it was really, really successful and delicious.
Thank you.
And when we get into the technique, I mean,
you took chicken breast and you kept it moist for all of us.
It was a little bit of a risk
and I liked that it paid off for you.
Thank you.
As you all know, the guests today
at the dinner table got a vote on who won this challenge.
Chefs, you all made delicious food,
but the chef with the winning dish
really told a great story through their food.
And the winning chef tonight is...
♪♪♪
Evelyn.
[clapping]
-Jesus! -Great job all over again.
Congratulations, Evelyn!
Thank you so much.
Two for two. How you feeling?
Very emotional and I'm very happy,
especially with this challenge.
I was clearly trying to keep it in this whole time.
But winning is definitely pushing me.
This is just a boost of energy to keep going hard
and staying true to me and showing y'all what I have.
Everyone at the table thought it was amazing.
-Do you want to know who won? -Yes!
Evelyn won.
[clapping]
-Selena! -WOMAN: Yes, exactly.
Thank you so much.
The three of you can step to the side. Thank you.
♪♪♪
Monique, Ashleigh.
[scoffs]
And Luke, please step forward.
The three of you had our least favorite dishes tonight.
And of course, that means one of you will be going home tonight.
Luke, let's start with you.
I did pull things that I wanted to try to relate to me.
It's hard to truly cure salmon in two and a half hours.
I think it just needed salt,
and the texture wasn't quite there yet.
I think the dish as a whole felt a little bit boring to me.
Something was a little bit missing and lacking.
TIFFANY: Tell me about the oyster emulsion.
Ideally, it should have been a little bit more bold.
With adding the fudge that I made
from the chicken reduction,
I thought it would be a little bit enough with the salt.
How could we possibly have had chicken fudge
with every bite when you gave us a teeny little dollop?
Compositionally, there's elements on the plate
that are really tasty, and yet we're not getting it.
Yep.
Monique, did you feel like you were struggling today?
Not with the idea.
I think I struggled the most with the time at the end.
You had a situation but it didn't feel
like you pivoted very well, right?
And if I'm being really honest, the bean salad reminded
me of, like, a three bean salad that you get out of a can.
It didn't have any definition of flavor.
Everything tasted the same.
My bowl had beans and two halves of an oyster.
-Okay. -And really, that's it.
I didn't get the broth.
I didn't get the apple that you talked about.
-I didn't get any herbs. -Sorry.
Most of the flavor was in that broth with the pancetta.
And that's where I messed up, yeah.
Did you cut oysters?
I cut the oysters after I fried them,
because some of them were big.
When you cut it, all those juices came out
so you lost the beauty of a fried oyster.
It was gone at that point.
Ashleigh, when those plates went out, you were like,
"This is how I wanted it to come out"?
Honestly, yeah. I thought that I was sticking
true to the narrative and I did feel good.
I think your narrative is great.
I just think there were technical issues.
I couldn't tell that it was supposed to be a braised dish.
My pork was definitely dry and tough.
There was an overwhelming amount of vinegar.
I got more vinegar than I got sweetness
and so the balance of the plate just felt really, really off.
Okay.
How are you feeling, Ashleigh?
It sucks, feeling like the weakest player.
You're not going anywhere because you have immunity.
We just want you to hear.
No. Yeah, I'm thankful that I got feedback.
Okay, we'll see you all in a bit.
Thank you all.
Number two.
Holy sh--!
I don't-- I can't even believe it.
-[clapping] -JACKSON: Congratulations.
-EVELYN: Anything for Selena. -JO: Awesome, girl.
Tonight was such an inspiring dinner,
and for the most part, we had a great meal.
But for these three chefs, it was just not a success today.
Right now, we're only talking about Luke and Monique.
Let's talk about Luke first.
It felt like there was a piece missing to Luke's dish.
The chicken fudge, as he calls it,
there was such a small amount that it was almost nonexistent.
And that's a pretty powerful flavor that would
have changed the dish significantly, had we tasted it.
Yes! There should have been so much more flavor.
It was just definitely an incomplete dish.
I think my craquelins were burnt because I just tasted
a lot of bitter notes throughout.
NICK: Keep your head up.
It's been down for too much of my life.
-I'm going to keep it up now. -That's good.
I'm not clear on what Monique was trying to do tonight.
And I certainly know she wasn't successful at it.
When you ate the dish, it was just lackluster.
The oysters were dry, and the beans had no flavor.
She had everything she needed to make a great dish,
but she did not do that today.
You were amazing, really.
You are amazing.
Okay. Let's get them out here.
♪♪♪
You know, chefs, tonight's challenge was to find
inspiration in reading the biographies of these
five amazing Texas women.
I think where everything went wrong is that there
was some hesitation and it showed.
And at this stage in the game,
hesitation leads to creating a dish that is just not
strong enough to continue in the competition.
[tense music]
Monique. Please pack your knives and go.
Thank you so much.
Monique, we'll see you in Last Chance Kitchen.
-Thank you, again. -PADMA: Thank you, both.
I came here to be a winner. I came here to show what I got.
I definitely feel that I haven't shown what
I can do enough.
ASHLEIGH: What, it's you?
EVELYN: Monique. It's Monique.
You just better kill it in Last Chance, that's all.
-MONIQUE: That's it. -That's all.
For me, Top Chef really reminded me
how strong I am as a person.
Oh, Damarr, I know. I miss you already.
Women rise, so I will always rise stronger than ever.
♪♪♪
PADMA: Tonight, Last Chance Kitchen is back.
Monique was eliminated and now must fight Sarah,
the current reigning champ.
I'm ready to take stock of you both.
-Uh-oh. -Will Monique get all her
-ingredients on the plate? -Sarah, it's always like this
-in LCK? -Sure is.
Find out now On Demand.
Or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef...
LUKE: Whoa...
JO: Jurassic Park?
In the upcoming new film,
Jurassic World Dominion,
worlds will collide.
I'm immediately stoked.
This is definitely gonna be
a fun one, if you can't tell
by the way I'm dressed.
BUDDHA: I've worked with
an alligator, but I haven't broken one down.
I think it's a dish that we've all been waiting for.
LUKE: What the [bleep] is going on here?
What was it like doing the movie?
It was summer camp with dinosaurs.
[eerie music]
-BUDDHA: Blood, baby. -Oh.
We don't have to send anybody home.
-Somebody was already sent home. -Maybe a double elimination.
♪♪♪