[female contestant] I am Lady Luck.
[female contestant 2] I make my own luck.
[male contestant] I'm gonna gamble every single chance I get. Let's go.
Welcome to Chopped: Casino Royale.
These 16 chefs are all in.
A giant jackpot.
Ooh, baby.
Adrenaline through the roof.
[all exclaim]
This is truly an ingredient that I would not know what to do with.
[Ted] Don't like an ingredient?
Spin the roulette wheel.
[female contestant] Boom! Yeah, baby.
[sings] Feeling lucky.
[cheering]
-[Ted] Get lucky... -[cheering]
-Oh, my God! Yay!
-[female judge] This is an incredible ingredient. -Oh!
[Ted] ...or lose big.
Oh!
[Ted] Limburger cheese!
[gasps]
It's, like, what do you even do with that?
You've got to make your own luck in this kitchen.
[female contestant] If you're not taking risks in the Chopped kitchen...
Come on.
[female contestant] ...why are you here?
[male contestant] I'm rolling that dice regardless of the ingredient.
Ugh.
-[exclaiming] -Whoo!
We're cooking over here.
You get one bet. This is it.
I am sweating, honey,
[female contestant] No risk, no reward, baby.
No!
[Ted] Place your bets.
Hope you guys are playing your cards right!
Whew!
Let the good times roll.
Most families play boardgames. My family has always played hold'em with real money,
and root for your dad to bust.
Gotta spread my love.
I definitely have Korean influence, some Southern influence.
I have some Mexican influence.
I love taking risks.
My strategy is I'm gonna go really big.
[Jorge] I'm gonna make sure that you'll feel the pressure.
I learnt to cook old-school. Grandma, Mom.
We're in a Mexican household. Everything happens in the kitchen.
I am the chef to beat.
I love the pressure. I love the rush.
I like to win.
[Natascha] Show me the money.
-No. Yep. Delete. -[producer laughs]
I make Asian street food. Heavy, heavy Chinese influence,
but we also have some Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino food.
I have a history of taking risks.
I used to be a lawyer, and I felt like I was dying inside.
So at age 37, I decided to open a food truck.
That was a pretty hard risk to take.
So coming to Chopped, no pressure.
[Ashley] I never play it safe in the kitchen.
When you taste my food, you can expect small plates
that are influences from around the world.
That's money right there.
I don't give up.
I'm gonna go all in and all out.
-Hello, Chefs. -[all] Hi, Ted.
This is Chopped with a Vegas spin.
That sounds awesome.
[Ted] After you open your mystery baskets,
you can ditch one ingredient for the chance to get another
by spinning the roulette wheel.
Oh, man.
Hell, yeah.
Win your bet, choose a lucky ingredient.
Lose your bet, you chose from some unlucky ingredients.
[laughs] Oh!
Mmm.
The champion of this preliminary battle will win a coveted spot
in the Casino Royale finale.
Jackpot there: $25,000 minimum.
-Minimum? -Ooh!
-Yes! -[Ashley] Oh, man.
Time to jump to it.
Please, unpack your appetizer baskets.
-Oh, what is that? -Ooh.
Some sort of soup.
[Ted] All right. Goat water...
What the heck is goat water?
Is this fresh wasabi?
[Ted] ...wasabi root...
Is this a cocktail?
What is this?
[Ted] ...a vodka cranberry...
Is this, like, some kind of baked clams?
[Ted] ...and clams casino.
Well, who wants to swap an ingredient out?
-Chef Natascha? -Yes, please.
I'm gonna get rid of the wasabi root.
-[Ted] Okay. Chef Jorge? -The vodka cranberry.
I have no idea what goat water is.
I think I'm gonna get rid of that.
Chef Ashley, how about you?
I think I'm gonna stay with the basket.
-Okay. All right. -Whoa.
-[Tiffani] We see you. -Let it ride.
All right, Chefs. Let's work it out by spinning it out.
Here we go.
All right. Let's do this thing.
Chef Ann, what ingredient would you like to get rid of?
The goat water.
Red or black?
[Ann] I'm gonna bet on red.
-Let's go, let's go! -Oh, get it, get it, get it!
-Whoo! -Come on, Ann.
-[Ann] Here we go. -[Tiffani] Gonna go red.
Give me a good ingredient.
[all exclaim]
-You have to choose from our unlucky ingredients. -[Ann] Okay. Okay.
I'm gonna pick number nine.
[Ted] Tuna casserole.
Let me tell you why it's not the luckiest ingredient.
You're gonna have to deconstruct the casserole
-and make something really delicious out of it... -[Ann] Yep.
...in 20 minutes.
I'm up to the challenge.
Chef Jorge, what ingredient you'd like to get rid of?
I never drink vodka cranberries, so the vodka cranberry.
Black.
-[Tiffani] All right. -[Ted] Doing well. Here we go.
Black, black, black, black, black. Let's go.
-Let's go. Let's go. -[all cheering]
Yeah! There we go.
[Ted] So, you get to choose from our lucky side.
Five.
What you got? What you got? What you got?
[Ted] Branzino!
-Oh! Nice! -[Tiffani] Yes!
[Christian] Branzino, also known as the Mediterranean seabass.
It is absolutely your lucky day, my friend.
[Jorge] Awesome. Awesome. Thank you.
Chef Natascha is next.
I would like to get rid of the wasabi root.
-[Ted] Red or black? -I have to always go red.
-[Jorge] Okay, red. -[female judge] Oh!
Let's get red. Let's get some red.
-It's going. Come on keep it going. -Come on.
Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
[all exclaiming]
[cheering]
-Congratulations. -[Natascha] Thank you.
Can I please do number two?
[Ted] Duck confit!
-[Nilou] Nice! -[all exclaim]
[Nilou] It is a duck that is cooked in its own fat.
There is so much unctuousness and flavor that you can get from that.
-[Natascha] Yes, ma'am. I'm very excited. -[Nilou] Yes! Yes!
All right. Now there's nothing stopping us from starting the 20-minute clock.
Now.
-Whoo! -All right, guys. Here we go!
-Let's go. Let's go! -Let's go!
Tiffani, Christian, you're joined by a very special guest judge.
Celebrate food journalist, Nilou Motamed. Welcome back, Nilou.
-Oh, hi. Hi, Hi. -Nilou's here.
I love this. So happy to be here. Feeling extra lucky.
[Christian] This is already hard enough.
What Chopped casino does is add a little bit of psychology to the mix,
which makes this that much more intense.
I am so excited to compete in the Chopped casino tournament.
Tuna Casserole, it's better than goat water.
I can definitely feel Lady Luck in the air tonight.
Any other tuna in here?
I'm making clam and tuna hush puppies with wasabi mayo.
Hush puppies are traditionally Southern fritters that are deep-fried.
-[Tiffani] Chef Ann. -[Ann] Yes?
-Tuna casserole. What are you doing with it? -[Ann] Hush puppies.
Didn't find the kind of cornmeal I wanted, so I'm using masa.
This is actually the first time I've ever made hush puppies with masa,
-but fingers crossed. -Okay.
[Jorge] I'm in the process of opening a new restaurant.
Like an oyster house, mixed tapas.
So this is something that really, really speaks to me.
[Christian] Jorge ended up with branzino.
It's versatile as a roasted fish, as a grilled fish,
as a crudo.
-Chef Jorge. -[Jorge] Yes?
Branzino for the win. You got it broken down yet?
Branzino for the win. I am not gonna cook it down.
-I'm actually gonna make a crudo. -Okay.
[Jorge] For my appetizer, I'm doing a branzino crudo and crispy clams.
Seafood is such an easy way to work 'cause it's fresh.
My cuisine, it's about letting ingredients shine.
Behind, behind, behind.
My style of cooking is to kind of turn comfort food on its side
and give you something that you wouldn't expect.
Clams casino. It's already got that bacon. It's got the breadcrumb.
I'm making clam chowder pot pie with a goat water demi-glace
and a phyllo dough wasabi puff.
I pull all the bacon out of the clams casino,
I throw it in the pot, and I let that start to render.
[Tiffani] Clams casino originated in Rhode Island.
Beautiful clams. Little bit of breadcrumbs.
Bacon usually always in there.
-Who doesn't love parmesan and breadcrumbs? -I mean, anything with bacon.
[Nilou] Sure.
[Ashley] I'm using the vodka cranberry to deglaze the pan,
hoping that it will pull all of that flavor off the bottom.
[Natascha] So, I've made a lot of curries. I've been to Thailand.
It's pretty good, actually.
And when I tasted the goat water,
I tasted all these layers of flavor that I thought I could use in a curry.
For my appetizer, I'm gonna make a Thai red curry
with duck, clams, and bacon.
My first instinct is to take the clams
and to cook them in the vodka cranberry
and get some of that acidity into the clams.
[Ann] I like the wasabi root.
Powdered wasabi is way spicier.
Wasabi mayo will add a little brightness
as well as cut some of the fat from the hush puppy.
Chefs, you're 10 minutes in. Half this round is done.
-Chef Ashley. -Yes, ma'am?
Did not gamble. Just cruising with goat water?
[Ashley] Just cruising with goat water.
The goat water's a little spicy and a little acidic.
I'm hoping to reduce it down to really cut through the richness of the chowder.
I'm also making a layered phyllo puff.
I decide to make a wasabi oil to brush in between the layers of the phyllo dough.
[Jorge] For my goat water, I put it in a pot.
I put the wasabi on it.
I put some guajillo chilies.
That's gonna give some bitterness, a little bit spicy, too.
This is gonna go great with the fattiness of the branzino.
[Natascha] I gambled away the wasabi root and got duck confit.
I decide I'm gonna cut up chunks of the duck.
Hard to cut. It's really greasy.
Little tougher and greasier than I expected.
Cut, and I cut myself.
Did Natascha just cut herself, guys?
It's a 20-minute round. They need every second they have in this round.
Five minutes, Chefs, to get this done.
[Natascha] I'm really worried about the clock.
Ticking and ticking and ticking away.
[Nilou] The level of intensity in this kitchen.
Someone who's a professional cook
can still end up cutting themselves.
[Tiffani] We never want chefs to cut themselves.
They need every second they have in this round.
[Natascha] I don't really have time to make my own curry paste.
I find a can of red curry paste,
and I'm gonna use that to really get that Thai red curry flavor.
With the vodka cranberry, I use it as the liquid
to rehydrate some dried cherries.
You've got one single minute.
[Ann] I grab some apples, slice them really thin on the mandolin,
and then I do a really quick pickling technique.
[Jorge] I love to use this clam casino.
I'm gonna use it as a garnish.
I wanna toast it really, really well.
It's gonna be crunchy and a great texture to my plate.
[Ashley] My chowder's looking a little too thick.
30 seconds left. 30 seconds.
[Ashley] I don't really have time to fix it.
[Ted] Fast approaching the end of the round, Chefs.
Ten, nine, eight,
-seven, six... -[Ann] Oh, my gosh.
[Ted] ...five, four, three, two, one.
-Time's up. -[Tiffani] Okay.
-Hands up. -Okay.
Great job. Great job. You got it done.
[Ashley] I think I took a definite risk
'cause all of us were unsure what goat water was.
But I think all in all, it will pay off.
[Ann] I feel like I could have done better,
so I'm just dying inside a little bit.
Chefs, that first Casino Royale basket
contained goat water, wasabi root,
a vodka cranberry, and clams casino.
We also gave you the chance to gamble away one ingredient.
Chef Jorge, what did you do?
[Jorge] I gambled away the vodka cranberry, and I got branzino.
I make a branzino crudo
that has of the goat water with the wasabi and the guajillo chilies.
Chef, it's really good.
The butchery on the branzino is spectacular.
There's little bits of bacon.
It is tasty. It is light, well-seasoned.
The topping of the clams casino.
I wish that it came through it a little bit more, that crispiness.
-Yes. -[Christian] It kind of just got sucked out
-in that vinaigrette. -Yeah.
We would expect, at this level,
for you to have thought about that clams casino
as an integral part of your dish,
rather than just using the topping and kind of transferring it over.
It's such a pretty presentation,
but I wish I'd gotten more goat water.
You've actually developed a lot of great flavor.
There's very little of it.
-Okay? -Okay.
-Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. -Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Jorge. Next, Chef Ashley.
I have a clam chowder pot pie with a goat water demi.
Then on top, some phyllo dough that's been brushed with some wasabi oil.
Why did you decide to not gamble?
I saw a vision with this and went for it.
[Christian] This is smart.
Making that chowder, utilizing the clams casino, you're getting those herbs.
You're getting little pops of bacon.
And then putting that goat water in the middle,
it ends up becoming a little surprise, right, but I gotta tell you.
I'm looking around for the cranberry juice and the vodka.
There's a missed opportunity to not feel a little bit of that pop of that wasabi.
I wish there was a little more.
Using the puff pastry on the top was really inspired.
The puff is just a little bit under.
Almost feels more like a custard to me than a soup or a stew.
It's a little bit over-thickened with the roux.
But you managed to create something soulful and heart-warming
in this tiny little bowl.
Next, we go to Chef Natascha.
I gambled away the wasabi root,
and I got duck confit.
And today, I prepared a Thai red curry with duck and clams.
I gotta tell you. I'm having a hard time nitpicking it.
It's very spicy, but I keep finding myself going back.
This literally does transport me to a night market in Bangkok or Chiang Mai.
-Thank you. -[Nilou] You took clams casino, a cocktail,
and goat water and somehow ended up with something that feels really cohesive.
The curry is a really smart use of the basket ingredients
in a way to kind of bring everything together cohesively.
The goat water in here gives it a kind of base note and kind of anchors it
in a way that's really successful.
I like the duck, the use of the duck confit.
I think your gamble here was really smart.
Finally, Chef Ann.
I got rid of the goat water, and instead, I ended up getting tuna casserole.
I am serving hush puppies.
I also made a mayo with the wasabi,
and I rehydrated cherries with the vodka cranberry.
[Nilou] Chef Ann, I wouldn't have called it a hush puppy...
-[Ann] Yes. Yes. -...because the masa, it is not hush puppy, right?
Yes.
[Nilou] There's a density to it that is not a hush puppy.
So you're kind of setting someone up for a disappointment already.
[Tiffani] It's a little bit dry.
Being able to really detect the tuna and the clams in it would have been great.
I think the move is having big chunks of tuna, big chunks of clam
-in your hush puppy or your fritter. -[mouths] Thank you.
Ann, I like the way you played the game.
That wasabi mayo was a great play,
though I do think it was a little heavy with that sesame oil.
But the flavor profile was great.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Your basket gambles paid off in some cases.
Not so much in others.
[Ann] The hush puppies were very dry.
I am definitely on the chopping block.
My pot pie was a little over-thickened.
I'm feeling concerned.
We have to part ways with one chef.
Chef Ashley, you've been chopped.
Judges.
[Nilou] Chef Ashley, it just comes down to the details.
Your pastry was not quite there yet,
and the vodka cranberry and the wasabi root were hard to detect.
-And so we had to chop you. -Thank you.
Thanks, Chef.
This experience maybe didn't go the way that I wanted it to,
but I'm not gonna stop creating my own destiny.
[Ted] Chef Natascha, Chef Jorge, Chef Ann.
The buzz at the casino has everyone dreaming of that big jackpot.
Let's see what you got.
-[Jorge] Whoa! -Cool!
What the heck is that?
[Ted] Well, how about that? You've got eel...
Okay, perfect. That looks really cool.
[Ted] ...bok choy...
Ooh! [laughs]
[Ted] ...porterhouse steaks...
[Ann] Now, this is something I'm familiar with.
No idea what this is.
[Ted] ...and a corn mousse cake.
Right. Does anybody want to turn in one of these ingredients?
Chef Ann?
[Ann] The eel.
-[Ted] Chef Jorge? -The eel.
-[Ted] Chef Natascha? -[Natascha] I would like to get rid of the eel.
Okay. Gambling begin.
Let's go!
Okay. All three of you have chosen to eel-iminate the eel.
[laughter]
-See what I did there? -That was really good.
Chef Ann, black or red?
[Ann] I'm gonna do a red again. Can't be unlucky two times.
-Really? -I was no math major, but yes, it can.
Here it goes, here it goes, here it goes!
-And red it is! -[cheering]
Yeah!
-Yeah! -[exclaiming]
I'm gonna go with number one.
-[Ted] Kauai sweet prawns! -[Jorge] Ah, that is so cool.
Lady Luck is smiling on you today with these pristine sweet prawns from Kauai.
Chef Natascha.
I'm gonna go red again.
-I like that... -[Nilou] Yes, Chef, again.
-[Ted] Here we go, Natascha. -[Nilou] Let's go, for Natascha.
-[all] Come on! -[cheering]
[Ted] Go, red!
[cheering]
[Natascha] Gonna go number two again.
[Ted] Twice-baked potatoes.
-[Nilou] All right. That's better than eel. -[Jorge] Yay!
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
We already have porterhouse, twice-baked potato. Fantastic ingredients.
Finally, Chef Jorge.
I win black before, so...
There's always that chance to get the right ingredient, so why not take the risk?
Black, black, black, black, black.
-Come on! -[all cheering]
-Black! -[all cheer]
-Let's go. -[Nilou] I love this color.
I'm gonna go with number three right there.
-[Ted] Baby corn in the house! -Oh! There we go.
I'm from Mexico. Corn is everywhere.
-Maiz? -Maiz.
The 30-minute entree round starts now.
-[Jorge] Okay. -[Tiffani] Go, get this! Go!
What is amazing is each and every one of them got yet another good ingredient.
[Tiffani] This was unprecedent.
-There is a clear roadmap... -[Nilou] Mmm-hmm.
...to a steak house entree here.
[Ann] I'm definitely feeling like the underdog.
But I've worked at steak houses before.
This is definitely something I can handle.
I'm making surf and turf with polenta and bok choy.
The tricky thing about the porterhouse
is one side will cook faster than the other side.
And it's really hard to get the right temperature on both.
With the eel being eliminated and them being able to focus on that steak,
lends the Chefs great opportunity to show great technical cooking.
-However, there is a classic Chopped trick. -Sure is.
[Ted] In the basket, there are two porterhouse steaks.
Each one has one New York strips and one fillet,
so that's a math problem.
[Natascha] There's a Chef over there who is the chef of a steak house.
I don't wanna go head to head and make a steak house steak.
So, for my entree, I'm gonna make Vietnamese porterhouse
with nuoc cham and grilled bok choy.
Nuoc cham is fish sauce, lime juice, and Fresno chilies.
All these flavors really show my type of cooking.
Ann, how you feeling?
Feeling pretty good. How about you?
There's a lot of things to do.
Ann is my biggest competition.
She seems to be a really seasoned chef.
And she got
But I'm really competitive.
But also I'm well-rounded in most of the cuisines.
I am gonna go Italian-American.
So I'm making carne asada steak,
pasta with summer vegetables
and an Italian salsa verde.
I taste the corn cake and it's sweet,
so I'm gonna make like a really starchy, chewy sauce
with asparagus, the bok choy, the baby corn.
It's gonna offer that sweetness that I'm looking from the corn.
Chef Jorge has pulled asparagus, tomatoes and poblanos.
[Ted] He's got too much going on.
Chefs, 10 minutes to go.
-I'm gonna go prowl over there and... [purrs] -No corny jokes, okay?
Meow.
You had such an incredible crudo
coming out of the first course.
What's the entree? You're butterflying a beautiful New York steak.
-You'll see the results. -[Tiffani] Well, I hope so.
[Jorge] I'm gambling.
I put some salt on my New York steak
and I'm gonna butterfly it to save time on cooking.
Chef Natascha,
so, we gave you this gorgeous porterhouse
and we're getting stir fry?
-Yes. -Okay.
Well, who do you think is your biggest competition?
-Myself. -[Tiffani] Fair.
[Natascha] I'm making a tomato potato.
[Ann] I look over at Natascha.
She's putting ketchup in her potatoes.
What is she thinking?
I taste the corn mousse cake. I loved it.
So I throw the corn pudding into the mashed potato.
It is sweet and tangy,
almost like a sweet and sour potato.
[Tiffani] We have this corn mousse cake.
[Nilou] It tastes like baby corn
made into a sexy, soft, velvety mousse.
[Ann] Corn mousse cake will work really well in the polenta
because both are made out of corn.
I cut up the bok choy
and saute in a little bit of hot oil.
[Tiffani] Bok choy is an Asian leafy green.
It's essentially like a longer cabbage.
There's a lot you can do with it.
-You can serve it raw. -It's crispy, succulent.
-It's kind of like a win in terms of vegetables. -Yeah.
[Ann] I wanna fry my prawns.
Just wanna add a little variety with the textures.
A little over two minutes left.
[Nilou] Chef Natascha, she's taken a gorgeous porterhouse
and cut it into stir-fry strips.
That may be exactly the right answer, but, boy, it feels wrong.
We need to see 25k worth of talent on that plate.
[Nilou] Okay, here we go.
Please, do not disappoint us in the Chopped: Casino Royale, guys.
My vegetables are ready and my sauce is ready.
I have my pasta in the pan.
[Ted] All right, show that clock who's boss, chefs.
10, nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four, three,
two, one.
-Time's up! -[Tiffani] There it is.
[all cheering]
Whoa!
[Natascha] Wow, that was a tough one for me.
I hope that they're able to taste my nuoc cham in the beef.
[Jorge] It went so fast.
My brain wasn't... I don't wanna say careless,
but I wanted to accomplish so much
I didn't have enough time to actually try to plate correctly.
[Ted] Chefs, we presented you with eel,
bok choy,
porterhouse steaks
and corn mousse cake.
Then we gave you the power to dump one ingredient
and gamble for another.
So did that work out for you, Chef Natascha?
Yes. I was really happy to not use the eel.
I got the twice-baked potato.
I made a Vietnamese stir-fried porterhouse
with a nuoc cham,
tomato potato.
Potato tomato. I'm here for it.
It's tomato potato.
[Christian] So, it was very brave.
-I love it. It plays. -I keep on wanting to take another bite of it.
-[Christian] Yeah! You keep going back to it. -It was a scary risk.
[Christian] It's not the prettiest plate. You look at the steak
and you're not expecting it to, like,
almost feel tenderized and flavorful.
And when you get it with a piece of that grilled bok choy,
it's all great.
And then I go back to the potatoes again.
[Nilou] The potato tastes terrific,
but what I'm disappointed by with the ketchup
is then we lose one of our basket ingredients,
that corn mousse.
And I feel like if you had just grilled your steak
so you had gotten a beautiful char on it,
you would've had, maybe, more beautiful presentation.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, I think the steak is a little overcooked
and a little dry for the beautiful porterhouse that we gave you.
Thank you, Chef Natascha.
Next up, Chef Jorge.
-You got rid of the eel... -[Jorge] Yeah.
[Ted] ...and you got yourself some baby corn.
Please tell us about your entree.
This is a New York steak carne asada.
Then you have a pasta that has summer vegetables.
Baby corn, bok choy.
I think the steak is beautifully cooked.
I loved the brightness of your salsa verde.
I do feel like the pasta needed to be a celebration of the corn.
I just think it's a bunch of different dishes together.
There's a pasta dish over here.
There's some salsa verde and steak here.
You're obviously cooking with passion.
You're cooking with love.
And you nailed it with the salsa verde.
But I think you really could've benefitted from self-editing.
The asparagus didn't need to be there.
But all in all, you transported me.
Thank you, Chef.
Okay, finally, Chef Ann.
The gamble that I took over here
was getting rid of the eel.
Now I'm able to present you
like a traditional surf and turf
with polenta and bok choy.
[Ted] Who are you competing for?
[Ann] My late mother.
I was a pretty bad daughter and I feel like...
I really wish I could've taken my time back with her.
I just hope that if I win, you know, she's...
She can look down and be proud of what... Where I've come.
[Tiffani] Chef Ann, this is really good cooking.
The steak is cooked really, really nicely.
The prawns are perfectly cooked.
-You killed it. -Thank you. Thank you so much.
Your gamble paid off.
The one thing I will bring up is
there's so many great flavors and stuff going on,
the polenta, for me, become just a starch...
Yes.
...and I just wish there was just some sort of pump into it.
This tempura reminds me exactly of
the best fritto misto I ever had as well.
-The bok choy was a little overcooked. -Mmm-hmm.
But, overall, it's a beautiful plate of food.
Thank you.
Well, you'll know very soon who will be making dessert.
[Jorge] I felt a lot better in the first round.
Right now, I don't feel as confident.
[Ann] I think I could be a Chopped champion.
I haven't shown the judges everything that I have to offer.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Natascha, you've been chopped.
Judges?
[Christian] Natascha,
mixing that twice-baked potato with the ketchup, unfortunately,
really caused us to lose the flavor of that corn mousse cake.
Your porterhouse steak was overcooked and dry.
Unfortunately, we had to chop you.
Thank you, guys, so much for having me.
I've only been cooking for seven years.
I don't give myself enough credit.
Getting to be on Chopped, I feel like a winner.
It's been a really special experience.
[exhales and laughs]
It's the Chopped: Casino Royale dessert round.
Can you handle the pressure?
I thrive under pressure.
Pressure is my middle name.
Okay, ingredients first.
Open your baskets.
And you've got a hangover burger...
[laughing] I've got a burger.
-Aloe. -[Ted] ...aloe vera leaf...
Okay. Oatmeal. What am I gonna do with these?
[Ted] ...oatmeal...
Some chocolate coins.
-Look at that. -[Ted] ...and chocolate casino chips.
Should we start the clock now or gamble?
-I wanna gamble. -Gamble.
-The aloe vera. -The aloe leaf.
With the sliminess of the aloe,
it would be really hard to work with.
Okay, let's try your luck at the roulette wheel.
[Jorge] Let's go.
Come on, let's win again.
[Ted] Here we go again.
High rollers.
Chefs, this is the double-down dessert round.
-Is that a good or bad thing? -It depends.
If you don't win your bet at the roulette wheel,
we're gonna give you a chance to double down
by playing the slots.
-Ooo! -[Tiffani] Okay!
[Ted] If you win here,
you get a lucky replacement ingredient,
but if you lose,
we're going to give you a horrendous ingredient.
[exhales] Okay.
So, you're both gambling away your aloe vera leaves.
-Chef Ann, you're first. Red for you? -Red again.
-[Tiffani] Here we go. -[Ted] Put your money down.
-Here we go. -Here we go! Here we go!
Come on, red!
[Ted] Whoa! And...
-Whoa! -[all exclaiming]
-So close! -[exhales]
Would you like to double down,
or would you prefer to choose from our unlucky ingredients?
[Ann] Oh...
-I'm gonna double down. -[all cheering]
To win, all you need are two icons on the payline.
[Ann] Okay.
Go for it, Chef.
Here we go.
Here we go. Here we go. One.
-Two! -[all cheering]
-Whoa! -Yeah!
My heart nearly stopped.
[Ted] You get to choose from our lucky ingredients.
I'm gonna go with number four.
And you've got pears!
-[Tiffani] Oh, yes! -Oh, okay.
Pears are so easy to use.
Lady Luck is on my side right now.
These pears are redolent with sweetness and sourness.
It's the perfect thing for you to make us
-your dream winner dessert. -Yeah.
-How are you feeling, Chef Jorge? -I'm ready.
Black has been good for me the whole day, so let's do it again.
All right, here we go.
Let's go, black! Let's go, black! Let's go, black!
Come on! Come on! Let's go, black!
[all exclaiming]
-Oh! -[all exclaiming]
-Oh! -[Nilou] Yes, yes, yes!
-[Ted] Right on! -I'm gonna choose number one.
[Ted] Numero uno coming up.
A crepe cake!
[Tiffani] Many layers of very thin, delicious chocolate cakes
that have a little bit of icing on the inside
so really easy to use for the dessert round.
I didn't get any shrimp paste or fish oil,
but I know that I'm gonna be stuck with chocolate.
All right, chefs, Lady Luck has smiled upon you both.
The 30-minute dessert round
starts now!
[Tiffani] All right, guys, let's go!
[Christian] Let's go, let's go, let's go!
How excited are you, judges?
You're not gonna have to eat any,
I don't know, eyeballs, earlobes.
Coming through. Coming through.
Ann comes from a family of gamblers
and if they saw her not go to the slot machine...
She might be excommunicated from her family.
I've spent a lot of time at the slots...
Behind.
...and this is the most intense feeling I've ever felt.
Removing that.
The buns from the hangover burger
are looking very dry,
so I wanna rehydrate them.
So, I'm making chocolate-oat-crusted French toast
with caramelized pears.
They're really juicy.
Everyone in my family is very competitive
and I definitely wanna win at all costs.
[Tiffani] Ann's gone to the pantry to grab a Granny Smith apple.
She got pears.
They need to be front and center in this dessert.
[Ann] These pears are really sweet.
I wanna pair them with Granny Smith apples to add some tartness.
[Jorge] I already know that I'm gonna make a mousse.
But then, when I taste the crepe cake,
it kinda throw me off on a curve.
It has already a mousse of chocolate.
How am I gonna use this ingredient?
I grab the crepes
and I started rolling them,
kinda, like, do like a crepe roulette
with a burger bun oatmeal crumble.
The hangover burger is basically a cheeseburger
with bacon, egg and cheese on top of it.
[Ted] Right.
-There's the bread. There's the bacon. -Mmm-hmm.
-Those are elements you can use. -Make candy.
[Jorge] I take off the bacon.
I'm gonna turn this into spicy candy bacon for my crumble
with cayenne simple syrup.
I don't really like to lose. I like to win.
I wanna show everybody that a small-town chef
can be a big name in the world.
20 minutes on the clock, chefs.
I'm trying to make an oat crumble.
And I'm using the bacon from the hangover burger
to make candied bacon.
This'll add a nice salty, sweet, crunchy texture.
[Jorge] I take the burger bun with the oatmeal.
I want all the sesame flavor from the bun to come out.
I'm making a raspberry reduction.
I'm gonna finish with a little brandy.
And then, with the chocolate casino chips,
I'm gonna make a chocolate sauce
with basil.
[Ted] Chefs, 10 minutes to go.
[Ann] I'm melting some white chocolate chips with the casino chips
to make a chocolate sauce.
Oh, man.
But the heat is turned up too high.
My chocolate is seizing up.
It's overcooked.
I check on my oat crumble
and there's too much fat in there,
so it's not crisping up.
My dessert is falling apart.
And I haven't even started making my French toast yet.
Why is the time going so fast?
I am panicking.
Oh, my God.
Oh, man.
Right now, my chocolate is not how I want it
and my oat crumble is not crisping up.
The clock is running down
and I pivot
and decide to use my oatmeal and my chocolate in the French toast.
Things not going exactly the way I planned.
[Jorge] With the crepes,
I cut it in a bias, and you can see all the little rolls
and the mousse inside the cake.
[Ted] One minute, chefs.
[Christian] I'm a little nervous about Jorge.
He's cutting up crepes
-and he's just looking at it, hoping something happens. -[Tiffani] Yeah.
One of you is going to the grand finale.
[Ted] Final seconds of the final round.
10, nine, eight,
seven, six, five...
-Home stretch! -[Ted] ...four,
three, two, one.
-Times up! -[all cheering]
[groans]
[Ann] Double down dessert round
was definitely the craziest and wildest round.
Nothing went as planned
and I just had to roll with it.
[Ted] Chef Ann, Chef Jorge,
your dessert basket was packed with a hangover burger,
an aloe vera leaf,
oatmeal and chocolate casino chips.
But you didn't have to stick with all four of those ingredients.
Chef Ann, please tell the judges about your dessert.
[Ann] I swapped the aloe leaf for the pears.
I have a chocolate-oat-crusted French toast
with caramelized pears.
This is like what we like to call "a grownup dessert".
I think that the use of the oats to crust your bread
was very smart.
I even love the bits of chocolate
-in your batter. -Yes.
I see it all represented here.
I see the hangover burger,
I see your hard-won pears.
The sweetness and the savoriness interplays terrific.
I would say that the whipped cream's
almost a little bit over-whipped for me...
-Mmm-hmm. -[Nilou] ...but I feel like
this is a very satisfying dessert.
I often don't think
chefs think about what plate they choose.
You've chosen so wisely.
To use the boat
and then have it look like, kind of like a pear tarte tatin.
Really, really smart.
Um... But you don't need to bring apples to the party.
-Okay. Yes. -Do you know what I mean? Like, really highlight
those things that we're giving you and let them sing.
Thank you.
[Ted] Finally, Chef Jorge.
You also gambled away the aloe vera leaf.
[Jorge] I did and I got a crepe cake.
I did a crepe roulette
with an oatmeal and the hamburger bun crumb
with a cayenne simple syrup candy bacon
and a chocolate bay sauce.
[Christian] Jorge, the bright, raspberry sauce that you made...
It puts me in that, sort of...
A time when I was a kid in Italy
having the chocolates with the orange, so...
I really respect that.
Thank you, Chef.
I love the crumble that you've created, Jorge.
I think that the bacon and the oats...
You've created something that's very compelling.
I have to say the elephant in this room is
you took one of your basket ingredients
and didn't reinvent it,
you just repurposed it.
My heart breaks 'cause you say "chocolate mousse"
and I'm thinking casino chips,
the top of the crepe cake, the inside of the crepe.
Like, it was all here for you to make a mousse.
It's delicious. I'm just not convinced that it's yours.
[Ted] Who will win?
It's in the judges' hands now.
-Thank you, chefs. -[Ann and Jorge] Thank you.
Going to the appetizer round, this is where Jorge blew me away.
The branzino crudo, I thought, was just spectacular.
[Christian] The little bits of bacon
with that smokiness going through...
Delicious.
I mean, frankly, I didn't think Ann
-was gonna get passed round one. -[Nilou] Yeah.
[Tiffani] Her hush puppy fritter,
it had two proteins undetectable.
I thought it was really tight. It was really dry.
They both decided to gamble their eel. Thank you.
Jorge got the most gorgeous baby adolescent corn,
used very little of it in his pasta.
And to have Jorge take the New York and butterfly it...
What are we doing?
But he did cook that steak beautifully
and that salsa verde that he had underneath
was really bright, really fresh.
Ann ended up getting this Hawaiian sweet shrimp.
The two anchors in her basket
were the porterhouse and the Hawaiian sweet shrimp
and both of those were cooked perfectly.
To me, the tempura of the shrimp was stellar.
[Christian] But that corn cake absolutely got lost in the polenta.
Two good chefs.
One took a second to get their feet underneath them
and then started running
and the other really, like, started out running
and stumbled a little bit.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jorge, you've been chopped.
-Judges... -Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.
Chef Jorge, first of all, we've loved having you here.
We got to the entree round and we felt like you brought
a lot of ingredients that weren't in the basket.
And then we get to the dessert round
and we just were so curious about the choice
to really take the crepe cake
and give it back to us kind of in its original form.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you. Thank you so much, guys. Appreciate it.
-[Ted] Thank you, Chef. -Thank you.
-Good luck to you. -Thank you.
[Jorge] Competing in Chopped today meant a lot to me.
Reignite always that passion that I have for cuisine.
Be big and be bold and gamble away, please.
And that means, Chef Ann Kim,
you have secured a spot in our Casino Royale finale.
-Well done. -[Tiffani] Yes!
[all cheering]
-Yes! -Yes, yes!
I mean, this is just beyond my wildest dreams.
Oh, my God, I won!
[shrieks]
I'm ready to go into the finale
and bring home the jackpot.
Whoo!
[Tiffani] It all comes down to this.
One of you is gonna be the grand champion!
[Kirsten] My heart is beating out of my chest.
Focus, focus, focus.
[Tiffani] The stakes could not be higher.
[all cheering]
-Feeling the pressure, baby. -[Nilou] You can do it! You can do it!
[Ann] This would change my life.
-My hands are shaking. -Whoo!
[woman] I want this so bad.
-Oh, my God! -Whoa!
[sobbing]
[whispers] What is happening?