For your elimination challenge, we're putting on
a fundraising block party.
I just get really proud when I think about where I come from.
My grandmother's curry. Every time I come back home,
my grandmother will make this dish.
It was missing that depth that everything had individually.
Yeah, it's my mom's recipe.
I want to create the moment of a Korean baby eating fish.
Jae's dish was really interesting.
-I love that. -My mom's meatloaf.
It's always been my favorite.
The meatball could've used a little more fat.
The winning chef today is...
Jae.
Luke, please pack your knives and go.
♪♪♪
Six chefs remain to compete in the ultimate culinary showdown.
At stake for the winner: a feature in Food & Wine
magazine, an appearance at the Food & Wine Classic
in Aspen, $250,000 furnished by Sanpellegrino,
and the coveted title of Top Chef.
♪♪♪
-Good morning! -Good morning, everyone.
-What is this? "Hey Chefs." -Oh, Lord.
"Hey Chefs, grab a map.
"Meet me at the Houston Farmer's Market.
-"Love, Padma." -ASHLEIGH: Whoo!
EVELYN: Oh, hey!
We're going to the Farmer's Market!
♪♪♪
DAMARR: This is it right here.
EVELYN: This is what I'm talking about.
Anything you can possibly imagine.
The Houston farmer's market,
it's essentially walking into a Mexican market.
Before coming to Houston, I didn't really know
what I was in for.
I love that the community embraces
different cultures and the food.
Yeah, yeah. All my chilies.
-Good morning, chefs. -ALL: Morning.
Please welcome your all-star guest judge
for this Quickfire Challenge.
She competed on Top Chef
and Top Chef Mexico.
Claudette Zepeda.
Thanks, I'm super excited to be here.
Nice to meet all of you guys.
Claudette and I just wanted
to heat things up a bit.
♪♪♪
For today's Quickfire, you'll be shopping and cooking
here at the Houston Farmer's Market.
-Ah... -Operating for over 75 years,
it's the city's oldest and largest farmer's market.
And as you can see, it's recently been transformed
into a can't-miss Houston destination.
And there happens to be a can't-miss Tex-Mex dish
that was popularized right here in Houston as well.
Can anyone guess what it is?
♪♪♪
Like, I don't know...
-It's the fajita! -Fajitas! Okay. Okay.
Fajita translates to "little belt," which is what
ranch hands in Texas called the skirt steak of the cow.
The story goes that local legend and chef "Mama Ninfa" Laurenzo
was the one who popularized the fajita as we know it today.
She served these strips of meat with her homemade
tortillas and some peppers and onions all on a hot skillet.
For this Quickfire Challenge, you'll get to shop anywhere
in the farmer's market to create your own take on fajitas.
-Ah. -Chipotle's provided you
with some amazing proteins.
They have always been committed to buying
fresh local ingredients and responsibly raised proteins
seen across their menus, from carnitas to pollo asado.
And today they're going to award the best,
most original fajitas...
$10,000.
-Oh! Hey! -A lot of masa right there.
Nick, you're The Baker, right?
I'm The Baker.
The reason why they call me the Mississippi Baker
is because I have the most bread.
-Nick! -Ten grand.
-Nick and Ashleigh. -You get $10,000!
Congratulations. You'll be receiving $40,000.
Need a little bit more dough to fill up the oven, though.
-[chefs laughing] -The Baker has just been baking
way too much bread and I'd like to take some bread off him.
Just a couple of slices.
You'll have 45 minutes to shop through
the market and create your finished fajita dish.
Are you ready? Because your time starts now! Good luck.
[Evelyn laughing]
♪♪♪
ASHLEIGH: Oh, you're trying to steal my sh--.
No, I'm trying not to. I think the hardest part
of the challenge is just navigating the market.
Dividing your shopping and cooking time
wisely is a big part of the challenge.
[Jae speaking Spanish]
I am thinking about making Korean-style
crepes instead of tortillas.
Dinero? Dinero? How much?
So, I don't want to spend too much time shopping
because crepes take a while to make.
I love being alone here.
NICK: Do you have any more peppers?
[Buddha speaking indistinctly]
Fajita's not just the steak. It's about
the peppers, the salsa, the condiments,
all the accoutrements.
[Evelyn panting]
I have to make a good fajita platter
or my mom's going to yell at me.
CLAUDETTE: 35 minutes.
Okay. Thank you.
-Hey, Jae. -DAMARR: Excuse me.
34...
NICK: Are you serving yours with tortillas, man?
BUDDHA: Yeah, I'm gonna serve it with tortillas.
-Are you making them? -Uh, no. [laughs]
NICK: I'm definitely gonna make tortillas
because I just hope that the world
and Top Chef can see my versatility.
What do you got working on, Buddha?
Kind of relating it to Korean food.
I'm working on a corn salsa.
I have never made a fajita before,
but I know that corn's really big in Mexico and in Korea,
so I want to do a little spin on it.
I got a lot to do.
♪♪♪
Hmm...
There's a lot of variety here
at the Houston Farmer's Market. Maybe too much.
I'm going to have to execute this dish really quickly.
Feel like I'm the only one still shopping.
Hey, guys. Y'all ready for a new Baker in town?
If she did win this 10, she still haven't got
equal to The Baker, though.
-I know! -[Damarr laughing]
Listen, Nick, enough is enough. I want some bread, too.
I made a marinade for my beef.
It has papalo, garlic, lime, jalapeño.
Damarr, what are you thinking?
DAMARR: I'm going to do a seared steak with a salad
-that incorporates tortillas. -Okay.
I got kind of inspired. I saw they had this
-Jamaican booth. -NICK: Oh, cool.
It'll have spice, it'll have acid, it will have sweetness.
I think it should be balanced. Maybe I'll go a little...
Caribbean flair here.
ASHLEIGH: Ten K, 10K.
Ashleigh, I'm checking on you. What are you doing?
I tried to get everything I could, girl.
Honestly, I miss my girlfriend.
She works with all these ingredients.
I was getting excited seeing stuff
that she normally uses in the kitchen.
My partner, Meghan, she's half Mexican,
and she seals burritos with this amazing cheese crust.
I want to mimic that because that is one
of my favorite things that she does.
Hopefully those memories help me out a little here.
[coughing]
Trying smoke us out over there, Jae?
[laughs then coughs]
I am charring pineapples and tofu.
Making gochujang crepes with a tomatillo.
-ASHLEIGH: Oh, cool. -It's gonna be-- not Tex-Mex.
Korean-Mex or something, right? [laughing]
ASHLEIGH: I like that idea. I like where you're going with it.
NICK: Ten minutes, chef.
Oh, my gatos.
[sizzling]
-NICK: Come on, baby. -Here I go smoking.
[sizzling]
ASHLEIGH: People love to see that sizzle.
I got to get these things hot.
I'm just testing a bunch of stuff.
Buddha, what you got going on right now, man?
I got an avocado and ssamjang crema.
-Three minutes. -ASHLEIGH: [bleep]
That's not a good tortilla.
Oh, my...
Crepe is sticky, and it's not getting cooked
as fast as I want to.
Oh, [bleep].
Ah... Salsas, tortillas.
DAMARR: Just gonna put these chicharróns on top.
-One minute. -ASHLEIGH: Damn!
♪♪♪
JAE: Ah!
PADMA: Time's up.
-[bleep], really? -Hands up, utensils down.
JAE: Ugh.
ASHLEIGH: I didn't finish.
That's crazy.
♪♪♪
-Hi, Jae. -Hi, Padma. Hi, Chef.
So, I have gochujang tomatillo crepes with stir-friend tofu,
poblano peppers with a pineapple salsa on top.
-I'm missing a crepe. -Yeah, unfortunately, I'm sorry.
It didn't make the plate.
I made some beef fajitas.
-I marinated in papalo-- -[Claudette] Ah!
-- lime, fish sauce, garlic.
And then I also have un salsa verde and a pico with rambutan.
I like that. That's kind of my thing.
I did a steak fajita-inspired dish,
so I did a seared steak with a mango relish
that includes dried chilies and onions.
And then I did a purslane salad over the top and grated
some chicharrón over as well.
Why did you choose mango?
They were really ripe and soft and sweet.
I did a cabbage and black bean braise,
served it with some tri-tip.
I have a jicama slaw and a lime cilantro crema.
And I made some corn tortillas as well.
-Mm. Great texture. -Thank you
-for making the tortillas. -You're welcome. Thank you.
Today, I made a beef fajita with corn and avocado.
It's inspired by ssam.
Looks like you had way more than 45 minutes.
-[all laughing] -PADMA: Hi, Ashleigh.
-Hello. Hi. -What'd you make for us?
Chicken fajitas.
I added this cheese crust on the bottom.
You're not going to find a salsa on yours, unfortunately.
Uh-oh. What happened?
You know, time.
This was a fun challenge, but a couple dishes
fell short of the mark today.
Damarr's. I think it was a little too thick.
The salsa was a little too sweet,
so there wasn't enough balance.
-Okay. -Ashleigh, I'm sorry,
you didn't give me the full dish.
Also the cheese being on the bottom,
I was scraping the dish to get a little bit of it.
Jae, unfortunately you were also one
that gave me three-quarters of a dish.
The dish, Jae, ate a little too oily for me.
Let's talk about some of our favorite fajitas today.
Nick, I think you did an amazing job incorporating all
of those ingredients that you saw in the market.
You made your own tortilla and you did it well.
-It was lovely. -Buddha,
the overachiever of the day. [chuckling]
The star of your meal was the corn.
So much flavor in that corn.
Evelyn. Papalo, it is a very polarizing herb,
so congratulations on properly using it
and not scaring us away by its potency.
So, Claudette, who had our favorite fajita dish of the day?
The chef that really took advantage of their surroundings
and gave us the perfect bite is...
♪♪♪
-Nick. -Yeah, man!
-[chefs laughing and clapping] -The Baker comes again!
Nick, congratulations. You won a sizzling $10,000
from our friends at Chipotle. The Baker!
Yeah, so you gonna roll out the dough.
You got to knead the dough.
[all laughing]
Another win for the Mississippi Baker.
$35,000 in right now. Let's just keep on moving it up.
Thank you for spending some time with us.
It was really nice to see you. Take care.
Yes! Thanks for having me. -Good luck.
[clapping]
All right, chefs, it's time to launch
right into your next challenge.
Please welcome your next guest judge,
a longtime member of the Top Chef family,
Chef Marcus Samuelsson.
[clapping]
MARCUS: Hi! How are you?
I like your jacket, by the way.
-Listen! I brought it. -Sick wardrobe, always.
[chuckling]
I'm super excited to be here in Houston.
It's amazing food and culture and of course, NASA.
NASA. It's NASA!
It's a space challenge!
♪♪♪
Houston is known as Space City.
The Space Food Systems Laboratory
at the Johnson Space Center supports the development
of flight foods in all of NASA's missions.
They're currently researching how to feed
a crew that's on a mission to Mars.
This challenge, you'll have to think like a food
scientist and create a dish for astronauts.
[chuckling]
Food scientists have to meet
the difficulties of eating in microgravity,
such as limiting any foods that can create crumbs
or any free-floating liquids that might get loose.
To help you get a little bit more
information and inspiration,
I've set up a meeting for you
-at the Space Center-- -Whoa.
-- right here in Houston.
-We're going to NASA! -Oh, wow.
I'm excited to have some experience at NASA.
In the kindergarten, the teachers always ask me,
"Jae, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
And I said, "astronaut!"
Tomorrow morning you'll have two and a half hours
to prep and cook your dishes
in the Top Chef kitchen before service begins.
And you want to make sure your dishes are truly
out of this world, because three retired astronauts
will be joining us to taste what you've all created.
That's awesome, man. That's awesome.
Along with, of course, your All Star guest judge,
-Melissa King. -Hey!
And the winning dish in this challenge will inspire
a dish that will be sent up to space for a future mission.
That's very cool.
Well, good luck, Chefs.
Have fun at the Space Center.
ALL: Thank you.
♪♪♪
-NICK: This is amazing. -JAE: It's really cool.
♪♪♪
DAMARR: Blast off.
BUDDHA: Never been so close to a rocket before.
Hi, welcome to Rocket Park.
My name is William Harris. I'm president and CEO
of Space Center Houston here at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Preparing food for astronauts is really challenging,
so we're real excited to have you here.
And I actually got some real astronauts here
who are going to be some of your testers tomorrow.
-Awesome. -I got to tell you,
I'm pretty nervous and excited. I've watched the show
and the countdown clocks make me incredibly nervous, so...
More nervous than your countdown clock?
The clock counted down to zero and I got
blasted off of the planet!
We spend a lot of time here.
It's basically where we do most of our training.
And we practice eating space food.
I lived on the Space Station
for six months and food's important, okay?
Cady said she was on station for six months.
And you think about if you were going somewhere
and had isolated choices, what would you prepare
for six months? And we're preparing
to send astronauts on to Mars, where the mission
-can be up to three years. -Wow.
WILLIAM: We're going to head over to the Science Center.
Whoa! Look at that.
It's like we're on the moon.
-What is this? -This is the garden.
ASHLEIGH: Getting some veggies here.
WILLIAM: Welcome to the International Space Station.
-Oh! -DAMARR: Thank you.
I'm really excited to introduce
you all to Dr. Grace Douglas,
who's a food scientist with NASA Johnson Space Center.
She's going to tell you about astronaut food.
We have about 200 different foods
and beverages on the regular menu.
Everything that we send has to be a wide variety
so that people can find foods that they like.
They don't want to be bored off of the food.
They want something that is craveable.
It's not a whole lot of, like, salt.
Salt exacerbates things like bone loss.
But we work with a lot of spices.
This challenge is all about bold flavors, which I have.
All of our sauces are thick enough that they're
not just going to float out of the pouch.
-We can't have free liquid. -ASHLEIGH: Mmm.
That's the cherry-blueberry cobbler.
And the interesting thing is, when you're eating this,
you notice there is crust in there; we have to get rid
-of any crumbs. -Crumbs, it's going to go
as far as it can go until it hits something.
Do you rely somewhat on, like, nuts and stuff to add
-some sort of texture? -We do.
I'm thinking of making a pork stew.
I didn't see a lot of pork on the example menus
that we saw and not a lot of Mexican food.
I think it could translate into a dish for NASA.
-Good luck with your challenge. -CHEFS: Thank you.
♪♪♪
MAN: Station, this is Houston.
-Are you ready for the event? -Houston, we are ready.
Oh, wow!
Are you talking to us?
MAN: Top Chefs, this is Mission Control Houston.
Please call station for voice check.
Station, this is Melissa King from Top Chef.
How do you hear me?
Melissa, we have you loud and clear.
Welcome to the International Space Station.
[whispering] That's awesome!
Is this real life? Like, what?!
-Hi, everyone! -BUDDHA: Hi.
So, we wanted to ask you a few questions about food.
Does food taste different up there?
I noticed when I first arrived that congestion,
you get kind of a fluid shift to your head.
Feels like you have a cold for a little while.
I tend to use hot sauces and condiments
to kind of bring some of that flavor back.
I came to Top Chef thinking that it was about cooking and food.
But you're also experiencing all these wonderful moments
which are once in a lifetime chances.
Do you have silverware, or--
-how do you prepare? -You always have your spoon.
You always know where your own spoon is.
Food that's not actually in a can, you're gonna
-use a pair of scissors. -MELISSA: What's in there?
So, this is the cherry-blueberry cobbler.
-Best ever. -MELISSA: Whoa!
Oh, my God.
Whoa! That's so cool.
MEGAN: Thanks for joining us up here and enjoy Houston.
MELISSA: Take care. Bye.
Oh! That's so cool.
-ASHLEIGH: Learned a lot. -EVELYN: Yeah.
♪♪♪
-EVELYN: Ugh. -ASHLEIGH: Thank you.
That was awesome.
Definitely did not think about food that way.
NICK: So, how y'all feel? Top six.
ASHLEIGH: It's crazy. I remember when you couldn't
-even get a spot on the couches. -Yeah.
-Or even at the dining table. -Yeah, right?
Our group is getting smaller and smaller.
It just shows us that we're nearing the end.
After tomorrow, it's going to be five of us.
Thanks for the wakeup call, Jae.
I have worked so hard in this industry. So hard.
And I don't feel like I have a whole lot to show for it.
I've won restaurant's awards that are not mine,
put blood, sweat and tears into businesses that are not mine,
and I've sacrificed birthdays and anniversaries.
That's a big part of why I did this.
I'm here to win the title of Top Chef for me.
It's been a long day. Let's get some rest.
-ASHLEIGH: Yes. -For sure.
BUDDHA: NASA challenge, over and out.
♪♪♪
JAE: Hi. Yes, I would like to get some ribeye.
-This one, please. -NICK: What up?
DAMARR: Where these banana peppers at, Nick?
I'm definitely having a little chef block,
which could be similar to writer's block.
Creating food that could be packaged and eaten in space,
it's not an easy job at all.
The astronauts talked about wanting a taste of home,
and they also mentioned putting hot sauce
on everything because food tastes differently up there.
I'm really just thinking about going the comforting route,
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs and some chicken livers.
EVELYN: That's a lot of fruit. Making dessert, Buddha?
Yep. Making a pavlova. Pavlova is something that really
brings me back to just cooking at home with my wife.
My wife is a pastry sous chef at Eleven Madison Park.
She's formed me into a better chef.
And I'm proud to be able to showcase
a dish that means a lot to me.
JAE: Eleven minutes, guys!
ASHLEIGH: Can I do two pounds of tuna steaks?
The idea that I have here is this hot sauce ceviche dish.
But you can't just take raw fish to space.
So, I'm thinking tinned fish, reimagined.
Thank you so much.
-Have a good day. -You, too.
-EVELYN: Pork butt, too? -NICK: Black-eyed peas...
-BUDDHA: Thank you. -DAMARR: Thank you.
♪♪♪
-[chefs laughing] -ALL: Whoa! Wow!
NICK: Look at this!
Ha-ha! This is going to be a lot of fun.
JAE: Take a look!
NICK: Oh, look at the table! Man, this is beautiful!
Almost makes me feel like I'm cooking at NASA.
Or cooking on the moon. Speaking of moon,
my dish is gonna be based on the moon.
So, they're gonna feel like they're actually on there.
You get this one shot to cook on the NASA challenge
and I want to go all out. I'm making a Pavlova 14.
It's a take on Apollo 14.
Alan Shepard played golf on the moon.
[Alan speaking indistinctly]
I'm going to do a little funny take on that.
-That's pretty cool.
Buddha's making spaceballs next to me.
A Pavlova 14.
He's doing what I would expect Buddha to do.
There's powders, molds, there's things whipping.
He's a little scientist over there.
-BUDDHA: How you looking? Good? -What I'm making is
a guiso rojo, which is a pork and chili stew
This dish warms my heart.
Coming home to a bowl of this stew
is definitely very comforting.
I've been saying "space challenge" for a while.
I just really didn't know the perimeters of the challenge.
Traditional stews are very loose and goosey,
and that in space does not work.
So, I'm going to incorporate a roux.
Got an hour and 49.
DAMARR: Jae, what are you cooking?
I'm making bulgogi.
That's kind of like the first dish my mom
cooks for me every time I visit.
Bulgogi is a comforting dish.
Back in Korea, it used to be a special occasion dish.
I par-freezed the ribeye to slice very, very thinly.
Cooking something my mom used to cook as well.
Some rice with chicken gravy that'll have
some chicken thighs and chicken livers in it.
And I'm going to do some hot pickled peppers.
-Sounds good, Damarr. -Keeping it pretty simple.
I'm definitely holding some things back to try to,
you know, get closer to the finale.
But the danger of holding back is that
you hold back too much, you'll get eliminated
and never get the chance to actually pull that stuff out.
So, it's really a dangerous game you're forced to play.
[humming]
-[meat sizzling] -NICK: I'm really inspired
about Mississippi kind of having their own identity.
-ASHLEIGH: Yeah. -I've always been, you know,
an ambassador for my state.
So, I created a Mississippi gumbo
cooked with collard greens, speckled beans,
chicken and lots of okra.
I'm going to bring this into space.
EVELYN: What's that down there, Nick?
-The mix 27? -NICK: 26.
BUDDHA: Where have you been hiding?
NICK: Yeah! Thank you, man.
-Buddha, what are you doing? -Making aluminum halos
so the aliens don't detect us down here on Earth.
JAE: Oh, fun. Have fun.
♪♪♪
Apparently, astronauts like hot sauce.
-NICK: Yeah. -I do a hot sauce ceviche
for my pop-up.
So, I'm actually going to poach the seafood using
this very aromatic coconut water.
NICK: Very cool.
Jae, why did you decide to use barley?
I don't want to serve mushy rice.
I want to give a, you know, nice texture to it.
One of the rules was not to serve sitting liquid.
Bulgogi is supposed to cook in a beefy broth.
So, I'm thickening with parsnips.
Oh, my gatos.
My brain is really cloudy with all the restrictions.
Without executing this exact dish before,
doesn't make me feel comfortable.
Struggle is real here.
BUDDHA: I'm hollowing out these coconut panna cottas.
I'm going to fill it with mixed berry center
like the blueberry and cherry cobbler.
It's cool to be doing all these different
space ideas on one dish.
The golf balls are berry-cherry sauce
inside a coconut cream and then covered in white chocolate.
And then for moon rocks I want to use meringue.
Pavlova will be able to travel well because meringue is
dehydrated egg whites, basically a freeze-dried product.
Some parts I want crispy and some parts I want
chewy on my meringue.
♪♪♪
45 minutes!
EVELYN: How's the gumbo turning?
It's looking pretty good.
Just added some collard greens, already got the butter
beans and black-eyed peas in here.
What type of rice are you doing?
Pumpkin seed and lemon zest rice.
I'm also cooking rice a different way
by toasting the grains itself, as well as roasting
my pumpkin seeds to really add texture.
I think that's the biggest thing I saw with food
in space, was just, like, no texture.
My mom's going to be like...
-Jae, how you feeling? -Good. I'm cooking beef
but super gently, so I don't want to overcook it.
♪♪♪
Damarr, you're cooking rice?
Yeah, I overcooked the first batch
so I got to get some more on.
I would really hate to get this far in a competition...
What the [bleep]?
--to go home over something as simple as,
you know, overcooked rice.
♪♪♪
Right behind you.
-JAE: Wow! -BUDDHAS: Nine minutes.
My goal is to serve this dish
in the same way that astronauts would eat it in space.
So, the diners can cut open a package
of slaw and scoop it over the tin of seafood.
♪♪♪
Look, it's a rover! I know! Isn't it exciting?
MELISSA: Can we ride it around the set?
-PADMA: I would love to. -NICK: Game time now.
PADMA: Wow! That looks great.
♪♪♪
It's an honor to have you here.
I know the chefs are super excited.
This is such a great challenge. So, welcome.
-ALL: Cheers. -Thank you all so much.
What's the best thing you've ever eaten in space?
Any food that was unattended, right, by somebody else.
I love it! You're that guy. Every kitchen has that guy.
-[all laughing] -I'm not normally that guy!
♪♪♪
[timer beeping]
-Yes! -Yes! Wow.
-Hi, Evelyn. -Hi!
We learned that it's really about spices
and how to introduce more flavor into food.
So I knew this dish was really gonna represent that.
And I think I could really see this dish in a pack in space.
It's a guiso rojo. It's made out of pork,
added some toasted pumpkin seeds to the rice
as well as the escabeche.
Buddha, tell us about what you made.
Alan Shepard played golf on the moon,
so on the plates there's a golf ball.
I've called it Pavlova 14.
Inspiration's from Apollo 14.
Coconut mousse filled with a berry compote,
and then a tropical salsa on the bottom.
Great first start. Thank you.
-MARCUS: Great job. -Wow.
What a pair of beautiful dishes.
Very beautiful.
Evelyn's dish had so much depth of flavor.
That pop of acid, you get the heat.
-Really well-rounded. -I thought that it had
enough spice to make it really interesting
and great, but not overpowered.
This could be a very heavy, dense dish,
but because of the pickles it becomes a light dish.
And I love just subtle things like that.
I like the texture that the vegetables supply.
We really miss texture up there.
Yeah, the textures kept the dish interesting.
And you know who else liked it? My man Tony.
[all laughing]
The stew was, like, super flavorful.
What did you think of Buddha's dessert?
I liked the surprise inside the golf ball.
You break into it, it was interactive and fun and playful.
It had so much flavor. It wasn't too sweet,
but it was definitely like you got the white chocolate,
you got the creaminess, you got the tartness
-from the berry. -He told a great story,
number one. He clearly is engaged.
And I thought it was a nice dessert. It was fun.
I like the plate that I did, yeah, spaceballs.
-It looked awesome. -NICK: What you got left?
ASHLEIGH: I'm just doing my last-minute adjustments.
I never seen nobody have shears on the plate.
The magnitude of creativity here is explosive.
-JAE: You look really calm. -ASHLEIGH: Can't say that
every day now, can you?
-Ready, Nick? -Yep.
[timer beeping]
-PADMA: Beautiful. -TONY: Wow!
Hi, Nick. Hi, Ashleigh.
Please tell us what you've made.
Marinated tuna and marinated shrimp.
And you're going to take your scissors and open
your re-thermostabilizing packet of sweet potato slaw,
and you're just going to scoop that into the little tin.
So, I was just trying to evoke the spirit of being in space.
Nick, tell us about your dish.
So, I created this Mississippi gumbo
and I have it on my menu at the Civil Rights Museum.
It's collard greens, butter beans, black eyed peas.
There's a lot of deep rooted Mississippi ingredients with it,
because all I could think about
is coming to home and having some gumbo.
-And it's really delicious. -Thank you.
-Thank y'all. -JUDGES: Thank you.
Let's see what happens.
What did you think of Ashleigh's tinned seafood?
I think Ashleigh gets extra credit
because I haven't eaten with scissors in a long time.
[laughter]
-I mean, she's so on brand here! -[all laugh]
With the can and the scissors.
I do think that was almost too much
of a focus on presentation.
And then we lacked a bit on the flavor.
The tuna was a very big piece and it was very bland.
If you're gonna poach tuna, you've gotta cook it
-all the way through. -If she would have butchered it
in a little bit smaller cubes,
the flavors of the pickling liquid
would have gone in and it would have been even more flavorful.
-I have no idea what they think. -I know.
What did you think of the gumbo that Nick gave us?
There's a famous Nina Simone song called,
"Mississippi Goddam," and that's really what I feel.
It is super flavorful, not spicy.
You can tell that Nick has cooked this many, many times.
Never had beans in a gumbo before and I kind of like it.
-Makes it a lot more richer. -I thought it was delicious.
I thought it would fly perfectly in space.
I brought the flavor, so...
You brought the Mississippi flavor.
Yeah.
This is definitely not the bulgogi
that my mom used to make.
I'm not 100% happy with it, but the dish itself
tastes pretty good. Five minutes, Damarr.
Hm. This rice is still a little overcooked.
What the [bleep]? Overcooking rice twice
is very embarrassing and I have no other backup plan.
Ain't this pot a bitch?
So, yeah, I'm kind of screwed.
♪♪♪
-JAE: Two minutes, Damarr. -Oh, boy.
♪♪♪
[Jae sighing]
♪♪♪
[timer beeping]
Oh, we're done.
PADMA: Thank you. Beautiful. Hello.
-What did you make, Jae? -Bulgogi with gochujang barley
and sesame mushrooms and carrots.
Going back home, my mom cooks bulgogi
for the first meal because it's a special occasion for her.
That's why I wanted to serve bulgogi today.
-PADMA: Damarr? -I did rice
and what my mother would call chicken gravy
with some hot pickled peppers on top.
Y'all spoke about missing home a lot, so I want to share
-a little bit of my home. -PADMA: Thank you both.
Thank you.
What do you think of Jae's barley and ribeye?
I wasn't sure...
exactly what the texture was supposed to be, but it...
You didn't know what to make of it.
-Yeah. -The idea of barley gochujang,
I think, is really interesting and could be punchy
and delicious. The barley was undercooked.
But I like the fact that barley
is something that really crosses cultures as well,
and I think they would appreciate the spices.
The thing that I really did not enjoy was the beef.
The beef was very mushy.
It just disintegrated on my plate.
TOM: I didn't care for Jae's mushy bites.
Carrots were the best part of the dish.
Everything was cooked correctly, so...
PADMA: And what about Damarr's chicken thigh?
My rice was overcooked. It was really very mushy.
I appreciate the peppers,
because otherwise there wasn't a lot of flavor.
I guess I was looking for something a little more.
It's not inspired enough. People are bringing it.
I just felt like this was underwhelming.
It's just not interesting at all.
It's not really seasoned well. The gravy is kind of thin.
It was just a stressful cook, you know?
JAE: It was very, very stressful.
I think any of the meals we had today
would be more than welcome in space.
This was a wonderful challenge
that really pushed our chefs to think about food in a new way.
I want to thank all of you for being here.
We've got to go to judges' table now.
Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much.
♪♪♪
Chefs, some of you did a great job today,
but there were a lot of missed opportunities.
Evelyn, Buddha and Nick, please stay here.
The rest of you can step to the side. Thank you.
The three of you had our favorite dishes of the day.
Jesus Christ! Thank you.
Evelyn, walk me through that dish, please.
I knew I wanted to do a pork dish inspired by Tex-Mex
flavors and something that I find very comforting.
It was well-seasoned. It was well put together.
The escabeche really stole the show.
It kept the dish interesting, especially the size they were
cut created the counterpoint to the rest of the dish.
The best rice we had today. Stellar job with your stew.
I was very happy. It was cozy.
Thank you.
Buddha, how was today for you?
Today was really nerve-wracking,
making it something that can go to space.
You gave us a beautiful, creative, delicious,
interactive dessert, and I appreciated how much
thought you put into each element of that dish.
-You knocked it out of the park. -Thank you, Padma.
I love that you actually thought about
the space program and tried to work it into the dish.
You have a bunch of tricks in your bag and you played them
-really well here. -Thank you, Tom.
That plate was a perfect intersection between
playing the game, showing techniques,
but not being gimmicky.
PADMA: Nick, tell us about your dish.
Today I got a chance to feature what I do a lot of, and that's
Mississippi-style gumbo, which is all about flavor.
We've all eaten a lot of gumbo.
And today you took us to Mississippi and showed
us that gumbo could be something entirely new.
The beans, the okra, the pickled peppers.
Totally delicious, comforting.
The textures were fantastic,
and it was completely on another level.
Make people forget about gumbo in Louisiana.
I doubt. Don't say that.
TOM: It's a big flavor bomb. And it's Mississippi gumbo.
-Thank you. -There's a lot of beautiful,
subtle things that you did in there.
The okra and the way the collard greens coated
and gave the beans was-- that was a perfect pairing.
-Thank you very much. -Marcus and Melissa.
The chef that won today gave us a dish that was
inspiring, thoughtful and something
that all the astronauts are asking for.
The winning chef today is...
♪♪♪
Buddha. We're going to send you to the stars.
-[laughing] -NICK: Good job, man.
-You worked your ass off. -Thank you.
I absolutely loved this challenge, and I feel like
what I did today showed that I'm a serious contender.
I want to make it clear that I'd rather go hard or go home.
I've been in this podium a lot.
-PADMA: This is your first-- -Yeah, my first individual
-in elimination, yeah. -[Tom] Good for you.
Buddha, your dish will inspire a dish that goes
on a future mission up into space.
It's amazing. I can't wait.
The three of you can step to the side.
♪♪♪
Ashleigh, Jae and Damarr.
The three of you had our least favorite dishes,
and one of you will be going home.
♪♪♪
Let's start with you, Ashleigh.
Your seafood dish, I loved the presentation of it,
but the dish itself felt ate really bland.
I kind of held back and wanted to make it, like,
healthy, so I poached the tuna in coconut water.
I felt like it was a good compliment.
If you had poached it in olive oil-- if you think
about all tinned fish, there's a good amount
of fat in there and that's what keeps it moist.
It was also still a bit pink in the middle
and you really want it cooked all the way through.
Jae, were you happy with your dish?
Mm, I wasn't really 100% happy, to be honest.
The big problem I had with the dish was the texture
of the beef was just mush. And the parsnip puree,
it was gritty and soggy at the same time.
Your beef was sliced so thin to the point
where it just vaporized on the plate.
And then you cooked the barley so firm,
that softness that we want didn't happen.
I tasted several times.
It really wasn't undercooked for me.
Okay.
Damarr, talk to us about your dish.
Were you happy with the way it came out today?
Uh, no. I overcooked the first batch of rice
and then I was rushing to cook more rice.
-It just didn't go well. -You are right.
Your rice was overcooked.
I loved the pickle, actually. I thought it gave great texture.
But it just felt a little, like, ho hum.
I just think at this stage, we all know you could do better.
The rice wasn't elegant or fun.
It was just like, "Okay, I'm putting rice on
"and I'm putting a stew on."
Listen, this is a tough part of the competition right now.
This is when you gotta dig deep. I'm talking to everybody,
not just you, Damarr, I'm talking to everybody right now.
I made a huge mistake, but I'm not really the guy
that makes the same mistakes over and over again.
We have a lot to discuss. We'll Call you back in a bit.
-Thank you. -Hey, keep your heads up.
Keep your heads up. Come on.
Hi. [giggling]
ASHLEIGH: God, that was very rough.
NICK: Hey, Jae.
JAE: Why everyone is coming to me?
[all talking over each other]
Listen, Jae, as the MVP of the bottom,
that's what people do.
They immediately embrace you,
tell you they're sorry,
it's going to be okay.
Listen, I'm a pro at this.
Well, all three of these chefs had problems today.
This was a challenge to literally shoot for the stars.
Ashleigh did at least try to give us something
interesting, creative, playful, and that she really thought
the astronauts would love in space.
It was cute. It was a cute dish but she made some mistakes.
We all agreed the tuna wasn't seasoned and that's it.
I kind of do think it's me.
With Damarr... [sighing]
it was just a poor cooked chicken and rice.
It was such a lack of creativity, imagination,
all the things you need to succeed in this competition.
And flavor, it was so bland.
I'm fired up. I want them to be like, "You know what?
"You three go cook right now."
Jae, she really tried to be creative,
-but she couldn't execute. -The only creative thing about
that was putting nuts in the barley.
Neither of the two main components
of Jae's dish work for me.
The meat felt mushy and the barley did not feel soft.
I did leave almost all of Jae's beef
on the plate because of the texture.
I think we have our answer.
-Yes. -Yes.
Okay. Let's get them out here.
♪♪♪
Chefs, imagine what it was like for that little girl
or that little boy to look up and maybe they saw a bird
flying and thought, "I could fly one day."
And they trained. And now think about the time
that you actually decided that you wanted to become a chef.
And here you are. You're so close. You're here to win.
Keep that thought. That's the thought
you're gonna need to push through.
♪♪♪
Jae. Please pack your knives and go.
Thank you.
Jae, we'll see you at Last Chance Kitchen,
so you do have a shot of getting back in.
Thank you.
I wasn't proud of my dish for sure today.
CONTESTANTS: Jae!
Don't act like you're surprised.
Well, you [bleep] better go kick ass.
-[Jae making noises] -'Cause I need you.
JAE: It's been quite a journey for me to come to Top Chef.
From Korea to New York to New Orleans,
learning new things in a new language and a new culture.
Bye. Thank you, guys. Take care.
I worked really hard. I never took any shortcuts.
I will always demand more from myself to be a better chef.
PADMA: Tonight, the finals of Last Chance Kitchen.
One of these chefs will return to the competition.
This will be a finale like we've never done before.
PADMA: Who will make it back? Find out now on Demand,
or wherever you stream Top Chef.
Next time on Top Chef.
There's a VIP family coming to Galveston.
You'll each have to make a family-style dish
catered to a different family member's tastes.
All the chefs in a home kitchen is gonna be a stretch for sure.
That's hilarious. Keep messing with me
and I'll hide some stuff from you.
This is certainly the most rustic dish
-we've seen from Buddha. -By a mile.
Where'd I see those bowls again?
I have no idea how I'm gonna
accomplish this. It's kind of a disaster.
It just gets a little confusing.
You listen to everything they want,
but you don't give everything on one plate.
[wind whooshing]
Please hold for hurricane.
[thunder booming]
♪♪♪