Looking for some pig candy!
Let's rock and roll!
I got this, I got this.
[Ted] Every basket will be packed
with porky goodness...
We love you, baby.
Just making it really weird.
Really weird!
[Oscar] Piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy.
[Ted] Who is most high on the hog?
Why is this so hard?
I'm feeling so nervous...
Vamos, Oscar!
He's panicking.
[yelling]
Oh, my gosh!
[Winnie] If you were to taste one of my dishes...
you can expect a punch in the face of flavor.
I'm the owner and pit-madam of Smoke Queen Barbecue
in Orange County, California.
I can already tell this is gonna be so good.
The aromatics are gonna come through.
I started smoking in my backyard
and selling in a parking lot.
Oh, that smells so good.
There's nothing that scares me.
As an Asian pit-madam in a boy's club,
they don't take lightly a woman coming in
and taking over.
Gotta spice it up.
I wanna show them who is boss in the kitchen.
Pork appetit.
[Oscar] Pork is everything.
Nice and sexy, no? [laughing]
I love to play with fire
and pig is the best to do that.
I love it.
Passion makes the difference in your food.
Ooh. Very nice.
My wife Norma sacrificed
to really support me in my career and my dreams.
I wanna prove that sacrifice is worth it.
I want to bring the heat.
[Amanda L] Everything's better with pork fat.
Pork has a beautiful amount of fat.
Fat is flavor
and you could turn it into anything.
I'm a whole-animal butcher
and a private chef.
I've been butchering since I was 16 years old.
There's no way that I would do anything else.
When I get into a whole pig,
I am ecstatic, you have no idea.
And if I can butcher a whole hog,
then I can definitely butcher the competition.
Absolutely perfect.
Let's go.
I was raised in a family
that had strict dietary restrictions.
Pork was always fascinating
because it was the most forbidden.
When I was in Thailand,
I got a tattoo of a wild boar.
That is knock-out.
I like to cook contemporary cuisine
with global flavors.
Dishes than punch you in the face.
That's so awesome!
I come with a lot of experience,
not only in competition,
but in high level cuisine.
I wanna show the people who believe in me
that they have a reason to believe in me.
Hi, chefs!
-Good morning. -Morning, Ted!
[Ted] The only thing happier than a pig in mud
is a Chef with pork in the pan.
-Absolutely. -That's me.
[Ted] Excellent to hear
because every basket will be packed
with porky goodness.
And you'll be fighting to show who is most high on the hog.
Numero uno.
Can you do it?
-Absolutely. -Absolutely.
-Of course. -Heck, yes.
My knowledge of barbecue does give me an edge.
I know the pig from snout to tail.
First baskets are waiting for you.
Open 'em up.
[exclaiming]
Oh, my gosh.
Do we have to try these first?
[Ted] And its...
pork belly bao buns!
Piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy.
Oh. Hell, yeah.
[Ted] Coppa steaks.
Barbecue-flavored vodka.
Nice.
Barbecue-flavored vodka?
This cannot be... Oh, my gosh.
I'm very excited to see if it's smokey, if it's sweet.
Peaches.
[Ted] Peaches.
20 minutes to hammer out
gloriously porky appetizers.
Clock starts now.
Amanda, you are joined on the judges panel
by two celebrated restaurateurs.
Chef Esther Choi.
-Welcome, Esther! -Great to be here.
This pig-tastic environment.
And Chef Darnell Ferguson.
This is a great day to be in the Chopped kitchen.
I love you, baby.
[Darnell] Pork is so desirable.
When you see it, you get excited.
When you smell it, you know it's time to eat.
The coppa, which is pork shoulder steaks.
There's a lot of fat,
a lot of marbleization.
You have to manipulate it.
I would definitely cook it, rest it, slice it.
But you also have two proteins now.
The belly that's already cooked inside the bao bun,
and then you have the shoulder steak.
So, I think this is a trick.
Yeah, how are they gonna utilize that
and bring it to life, right?
[Amanda L] Being a whole animal butcher,
pork has always been significant in my life.
I love to use that ingredient and respect it.
I combined the pork of the bao bun
with the coppa steaks
because double pork is better.
I'm making coppa and pork belly tacos
with fresh peaches
and a roasted poblano salsa.
How you feeling about pork today?
Pork is my specialty.
So, let's rock and roll.
[Amanda] Chef Winnie, you okay down there?
Yes, I am.
-Are you embracing the pork? -I am.
[Amanda] We love our pork.
[Winnie] Pork is the best meat.
It's succulent, it's sweet,
and there's so many ways you can cook it.
I am Chinese
but my husband's Indian,
so the primary cuisine
that we use is Chinese-Indian,
and I wanna make samosas,
which are fried Indian fritters,
with the coppa and some veggies,
and pair it with peach chutney.
The barbecue vodka has a little smoky flavor
and I think,
"Why not add it to the chutney?"
Samosas are made
with something similar to eggroll skin.
And I immediately go for the wonton wrappers.
I've a ramen shop,
so I know all about the pork belly buns.
-Yes. -Yeah, it's like a steamed bun.
Usually pork belly that's braised
for two to three hours.
And it's like the most harmonious bite.
-Ever. -It really is.
[Darnell] Simmer down, Oscar, simmer down.
I think Oscar's energy level is contagious.
[laughing giddily]
I look over to Oscar's station...
Vamos, vamos, vamos!
He has, like, Cirque du Soleil going on.
Vamos, baby! Vamos!
Show off.
Vamos, baby! Vamos!
I'm so happy all the time.
I am, and I have a killer smile.
[roaring]
I love you, baby.
I am Latin American.
My inspiration is my heritage.
I'm making bao bun chimichurri
with spicy coppa steaks
with flambeed peaches.
To make my chimichurri from my bao buns,
I'm taking cucumbers, carrots,
and then I mix it with olive oil,
lime juice, and basil.
[Zev] I have a very, very clear vision
of what I wanna do right here.
I really began my serious professional career
in Thailand.
And I just fell in love with how flavorful
and intense everything was.
Pork in curry is a no-brainer.
I'm making this curry with coconut milk
and pork belly bao buns
infused into it.
And this is definitely something a little weird
because I made a curry
out of fully cooked pork belly bao buns.
-Chef Zev, how's it going? -Yeah?
It's going great. The ingredients are really cool.
I'm just making it really weird.
Really weird!
Ten minutes on the clock, chefs.
All right, chefs, you got 10 minutes!
-[Zev] Let's go! -Let's rock and roll!
For my peach salsa, I wanna keep them raw.
I just have to respect the ingredients.
and bring just a little bit more freshness to the dish.
My dad passed about five years ago.
Our biggest thing was cooking
and watching Food Network.
I wanna win Chopped for my dad.
I'm going to make something crispy,
something amazing.
I'm seasoning my coppa steaks
with smoked paprika and cayenne pepper.
And I'm so excited.
Vamos, vamos!
Pork is amazing.
It's part of our culture in Mexico.
My family's everything for me.
I have my wife and my two kids.
This dish represents my family
and my traditions.
[Zev] I'm taking the coppa steak
and I'm slicing it really thin
and I'm seasoning it with miso
and burnt soy sauce,
which is one of my signatures, so...
dripping in soy sauce and letting it caramelize
with a little rice vinegar
to really pick up this deep, aromatic flavor
that comes out of soy sauce when it's been burnt
and pouring that into my saute pan
that has my pork cooking in it.
Chefs, you got five minutes left.
[Winnie] I start filling my wontons...
God, this is so messy.
I'm able to close a couple of them,
but the other ones are starting to rip.
[Amanda] Winnie's wontons are opening, they're breaking,
she has to pivot and figure something else out.
-Yeah, that's... -[Esther] Oh, no.
[Winnie] This is so hard!
I screwed this up... big time.
[timer ticking]
Chef Winnie, you okay down there?
I don't know if I have time, actually.
[Amanda] Less than four minutes left,
and Winnie's wontons are not working.
[Winnie] A minute to pivot.
I'm not making wontons anymore.
I can call it 'open faced samosa'
or something like that.
Perfect.
I noticed the timer running out
and I see that my steak is raw.
Oscar's coppa steak, and it is raw still.
So now he's panicking.
[Oscar] I feel so scared.
And I don't want to bring that to the judges.
I put it back on the fire
to have the right temperature that I want.
[Amanda] With one minute
you have to hustle, you do not have any more time.
[Amanda L] I know I need to get to plating,
but I want to make a crunchy topping for my taco.
Fried bao buns to kinda give an extra crunch.
Get it done, chefs, get it done!
-Finish strong! -Winnie, you have to hustle!
All four ingredients!
[judges] Ten, nine
eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one...
-[judges clapping] -[Darnell] There we go!
Wow!
[Oscar] I feel great about my pork steak.
The other chefs are in trouble.
I am feeling jazzed,
buzzing, I'm excited.
I'm not worried going into judging.
I'm gonna be smoking everybody.
In your appetizer baskets you found...
pork belly bao buns,
peaches,
coppa steaks,
and barbecue-flavored vodka.
Chef Zev, we'll start with you.
Please tell us about your appetizer.
I did a pork bao bun curry
with barbecue vodka-pickled fresh peaches
and a smoked soy and miso coppa.
[Ted] What sparked this direction for you, chef?
I go to curry all the time.
I really just love making curries
and I love the pork.
Well, chef, when you were cooking
you said it was gonna get weird,
-[Esther giggling] -What is the weirdness part of this dish in your opinion?
The curry base.
Which is just a bao bun cooked into an emulsifying agent
since I don't have enough time
to cook the curry down to thicken it.
I translate that into creativity.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
So, I love what you did with the bao bun.
The pork is cooked well.
Flavors are good.
Strong, in your face.
Thank you, chef.
-It got weird. -[all laughing]
-[Darnell] He said it would. -I'm a man of my word.
I love the creative flavors.
Obviously, being Asian, that speaks to me.
The silkiness of the texture of the curry is really nice.
[Darnell] I love the chew on the pork.
But then, when it comes down to the peaches,
the curry is so powerful
that the peaches and the vodka are like...
a background singer
to the background singer's background singer.
Yes, chef.
I would have liked to see those two elements
play a larger part in the game.
Chef, what would winning mean to you?
I walked away from a very high end restaurant.
My old boss and a lot of people
thought I wouldn't be able to make it on my own.
And this would really validate that I was ready to move on.
Chef Zev, thank you.
Next up, Chef Winnie.
Today, I prepared for you
a bao with peach and lime chutney.
[Darnell] Chef Winnie, flavor is your major,
because this thing is flavorful.
I mean, like, just like, went off like a firecracker.
But I think when you come into plating, aesthetically,
the pork and the bun, it's just hard to eat
because the bun is hard to cut through.
[Amanda] You have a really amazing hand with flavor.
So there's just a little bit of a struggle for me there
composition-wise.
I was going for a samosa.
I was having a really hard time
'cause the wonton skin was ripping,
and at the last moment I had to just put
all my ingredients on the plate.
So, now I have an open-faced bao for you.
[Esther] I'm all about flavor.
And I loved the flavor here.
The bao bun, it kind of reminds me
of, like, a flat bread
and it's really fun to eat with the pork.
I wish there was a little bit more vegetables on here.
Some more crunch and texture would have been really nice.
But overall, I thought it was absolutely delicious.
Thank you, chef.
Chef, what would winning this competition mean to you?
This barbecue business, it's a boys' club.
And there's not a lot of dominating women in this industry.
Whatever achievements I've attained gets discounted
because, "Oh, she's a girl."
I want to win this to show everybody
I'm just as good as the rest of you guys,
I'm not just a pretty face,
I can smoke,
and I could get down in the kitchen as well.
-Good for you. -Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Winnie.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Chef Amanda.
I made a coppa and pork belly taco
with a peach, heirloom tomato and poblano slaw.
[Ted] Would you say that you have any sort
of a competitive edge here when it comes to pork?
I am a whole animal butcher,
so I know my way around a pig.
[Darnell] Chef Amanda!
Taco Tuesdays!
That's what I'm saying.
Favorite day of the week.
'Cause it goes perfect with a drink.
Yes.
One of my favorite things on a taco
is what kinda sauce they pair with it,
you know, so it could have used that sauce.
Something to bring moisture to the taco.
[Amanda] You have good flavor in here
but the pork for me is a tiny bit over.
And when Darnell was talking about a sauce,
like a pico de gallo
or a salsa verde
I think would have been great on here.
Like, when you bite into the taco,
it almost has to run down your hand.
When I think of a taco,
I want it to be juicy and runny as well.
But I liked that you put the crunchy bao on top.
That gave a lot of texture.
Overall, I think it was fresh and light and delicious.
[Amanda L] Thank you.
[Ted] Chef Amanda, what is motivating you
to win our pork competition?
My dad passed away five years ago.
Chopped and Iron Chef are the two shows
that we would watch every night,
so I'm doing it for him.
That has to be a great source of memories for sure.
Yeah.
[Ted] Finally, Chef Oscar.
Please tell us about your appetizer.
I made Latin American influence bao bun chimichurri
with flambeed peaches.
What inspired you to take that direction
with this basket?
I'm Latin American,
I love my heritage.
And I want to explode and explore all that flavors
on my dishes.
Chef, I love your passion for food.
-When you're talking about food, it's-- -Thank you so much!
You're so excited about it.
[Oscar] Why not?
[Oscar and Amanda laughing]
We know you struggled a little bit
with the coppa steak.
[Oscar] I don't want to overcook,
-and I don't want to have this raw. -[Amanda] Right.
[Oscar] I put back my meat
to have the perfect coction that I want.
There's some great flavors in here.
Some pieces of the coppa
are a little bit on the rare side.
I love the use of the barbecue vodka.
I definitely taste the smoky, flambeed flavor.
Muchas gracias.
I love the presentation.
So beautiful.
I thought it was a beautiful dish.
[Darnell] The pork...
was good.
A little bit raw, like, I would say,
could go a little bit longer for it to be pork.
But I thought that you did a good job
at giving me something that I wasn't expecting.
The way you plated it was very, very nice.
Okay. Thank you.
Chef, is there something in your life
that's motivating you to win?
My daughter give me Pancho.
-[Esther] Oh, that's so... -Pancho is traveling with me
to bring me a good luck
-in this competition. -[Ted] Is Pancho a pig?
[Oscar] Yeah, it's a little baby pig!
-Oh, that's perfect. -[Oscar] Piggy.
Well, I think you should keep Pancho on your station
the entire time you're cooking.
Of course. Hey, guys. He's watching you, eh?
Be careful.
[laughing]
First elimination.
Do you sense danger or do you feel safe?
[Winnie] That bao bun
was not the best that it could be.
So, I want to be able to show them more.
[Oscar] The judges say
my meat is not well cooked.
But I want to stay because I'm a pork lover.
I'm a beast! I'm a culinary beast.
[dramatic music]
[timer ticking]
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
[dramatic music]
Chef Amanda, you've been chopped.
Judges...
[Esther] Chef Amanda,
although we loved the freshness of your taco,
the coppa was a little overcooked
and the taco really needed a sauce.
These are the reasons why you were chopped.
Thank you, all.
-Good luck, guys. -[Amanda] Thanks, Amanda.
[Amanda] I knew I should have made a sauce.
[laughing]
My dad would be so proud of me.
No matter the outcome,
I'm here, I did it,
not a lot of people get to say that they did it.
Chef Oscar, Chef Winnie, Chef Sev.
Once again, it's swine time.
-Give me a whole hog. -Let's do this!
-Swine and dine me, baby. -[Ted] Open 'em up.
[exclaiming]
[Zev] Oh, my God. Tongue blood pudding.
That's super cool.
Uh, what?
[Ted] We've got tongue and blood pudding.
[Zev] I'm super excited.
I've worked with a lot of blood in Thailand before.
[Oscar] Uh-huh-huh.
[Ted] Mustard greens.
Oh, my God!
[Ted] Porchetta roast.
De-licious. Very nice!
Oh, my gosh. Paneer?
[Ted] And paneer cheese.
Totally up my alley.
30 minutes to wow the judges
with your second porky plates.
Clock starts now.
I don't think there's anything too scary in this basket.
Beautiful mustard greens,
great porchetta roast that you can do anything with.
[Ted] I think a lot of Americans
hear the term "pork tongue and blood pudding"
and think, "That sounds deeply unappetizing."
It's really underappreciated.
I love this because as a Korean,
I grew up eating blood sausage my entire life.
It will give the most amazing flavor to anything.
It's all the pork scraps,
usually, put into a sausage.
[Winnie] Tongue and blood pudding?
I'm ecstatic.
My mind goes immediately to congee.
Congee is a quintessential comfort food
for Chinese people.
You take rice,
and it's traditionally served
with the coagulated blood cubes.
Now, congee typically has something crunchy.
The porchetta,
it's got a thick layer of fat,
I'm thinking... "lardons."
Pig fat croutons.
Crunchy and salty.
[Darnell] Porchetta roast is intimidating to look at.
But when you know
that it's just a deboned pork loin
that has the belly wrapped around it,
it's like, now you can break it down and work with.
[Amanda] Chef Oscar,
he's unrolled it, he's breaking it down.
He took his hat and he turned it around.
Like, he's in business.
Vamos, vamos!
I feel so comfort with this basket.
My grandma, she showed me to make enchiladas.
It's so traditional in Mexico.
I make tongue and blood pudding porchetta enchiladas
with a mustard green
and poblano sauce.
Vamos, baby! Vamos!
[Ted] I think it's really to Chef Zev's credit
that he went right to the middle of that porchetta
to get the most beautiful piece of pork there,
that loin.
-Kinda like the rebel, right? -Yeah.
Like, he grew up not eating pork at all.
-Right? -And then now he embraces it.
I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve
for working with pork.
I'm taking a porchetta,
which is normally roasted whole,
and I'm turning it into a very small steak.
So, for my entree,
I'm making a porchetta steak
with pork blood Bordelaise.
Bordelaise is a French sauce
made from a little bit of shallot and garlic,
a wine reduction and a fat added to it.
The pork and tongue sausage
is going to bring a really nice thickness to my sauce.
I'm highly competitive.
I've been part of some of the best teams in the world.
And for me, it's about working with the best,
and it's about trying to be the best.
And I'm one of the best chefs alive.
20 minutes to go here, chefs!
[Winnie] As a kid, I ate a lot of unflavored congee
with Chinese pickle.
These mustard greens are very bitter.
What better way to treat them than to pickle them
and work around the bitterness.
My parents is Chinese
and I feel like it's very important
to not lose your culture.
So I wanted to make sure
my children hold on to their heritage.
Everybody should be proud of where they come from.
[Esther] Chef Oscar, que pasando?
-[Oscar] Enchiladas. -Enchiladas! Yummy!
Paneer cheese is so similar to queso fresco from Mexico.
Amazing ingredient to make my enchiladas.
[Amanda] Basically, it's cow's milk cheese.
The tofu of the cheese world.
-Yes. -[laughing]
Taste like nothing till you season it.
[Winnie] Congee typically has something crunchy.
My husband's Indian,
so I've worked with paneer.
So, I batter it, fry it,
and treat it like crunchy tofu.
[Ted] Five minutes to go, chefs!
[Zev] I'm blanching my paneer in some oil
which will make its texture really silky and smooth.
And then I'm gonna toss in my mustard green oil.
Now that I know
that my Bordelaise has great flavor,
I throw everything in the blender and... ready to go.
[Winnie] All my elements are cooking together
and I decide to put a bit more
of the porchetta into my congee.
[Amanda] Okay, so Chef Winnie is hustling to try and make
ground pork for the congee.
Well, Winnie has certainly shown
a lot of ambition in this round.
Less than five minutes to go, chefs!
Zev just went pretty heavy with some pistachio oil.
[Zev] Mustard greens taste
like you're biting into raw mustard.
Very spicy.
But pistachio oil has the best flavor
and it should lend a hint of mustard
so you can just feel it.
Come on!
One minute! That's 60 seconds!
Winnie, you gotta hus-tle!
We wanna taste what you're making.
Oscar is using the paneer cheese
on the interior.
Maybe without the knowledge
that paneer cheese doesn't melt.
What is an enchilada without that...
-stretch, you know? -Cheesiness. Yeah.
[Oscar] My creamy sauce tastes amazing.
So intense in mustard.
The killer green color.
I'm in love with this challenge.
[Amanda] All four ingredients!
Everything on the plate!
Oh!
Oh, my gosh.
My sauce is not on the plate.
[Ted] Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one...
Time's up, chefs!
-[whooping, clapping] -Wow.
[Esther] Wow.
[clapping continues]
[Oscar] I'm so happy with the result.
My grandma is the inspiration for me.
She showed me to make enchiladas.
[Zev] I'm not thrilled with how it looks.
I'm a little nervous.
It's not exactly what I wanted it to be.
[Ted] Chefs, for the second round
we challenged you with a basket of
tongue and blood pudding,
mustard greens,
porchetta roast,
and paneer cheese.
All right. Chef Winnie, please tell us about your entree.
Today, I made you congee
with ground porchetta, blood and tongue pudding,
and fried paneer to mimic fried tofu.
In, uh, Chinese culture,
the first thing you say when you greet somebody is,
"Have you eaten?"
Anytime you're sick, this is what we eat,
and today, I'm giving you some homemade love.
Well, chef, this reminds me a lot of home.
Um, I really, really love this dish. Very ambitious.
You put a lot of thought and effort into the dish,
and you can taste it.
The flavors are well developed.
You can taste the pork.
This pickled mustard is like... [kisses]
So delicious, chef's kiss.
[Amanda] I like all the flavors in here, as well.
I think the paneer just got a little soft.
But then as soon as you get a bite
of the tongue and blood sausage,
or you get a bite of the really acidic mustard greens,
it makes you just wanna go back for more.
Thank you. Thank you, chef.
Everybody's trying to do a fun version of shrimp and grits.
You know what I'm saying, where they're topping it with different things?
They're trying to raise the level.
But this is so comforting that it takes me back to that same memory.
Great job of letting me know who you are as a chef,
and sticking to what you know best.
Thank you, chef.
-Chef Oscar. -I made porchetta enchiladas
with, uh, mustard greens and poblano sauce
and melted cheese.
My Grandma showed me
that if you put the love in your dishes, that is magic.
She's amazing. She's 90 years old.
What's her secret?
She's love spicy food.
-She's love chilies. -[Amanda] Spicy, okay.
I think that's the secret.
Well, brother, these enchiladas is good,
not gonna lie to you.
I mean, just the colors, it makes me feel like your heritage,
makes me feel your culture.
Everything about this is just vibrant.
Where did you use the tongue and blood sausage?
I put a couple chunks roasted to bring flavor on the filling.
It is a little heavy, but all in all,
I thought you did a great job on this dish.
Thank you.
You definitely cooked with your heart,
because I can see it on the plate,
can taste it on the plate.
It's so beautifully composed.
Every element, I thought, was really thoughtful.
Muchas gracias.
Oscar, we love your passion.
Obviously, it's in your food, as well.
I mean, this plate is stunning.
The paneer cheese, I think, was tripping you up at the end,
because it's a type of cheese that does not melt.
Another cheese that did give us that little melty feeling
would've been great on here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Oscar.
Finally, Chef Zev.
I made for you for your entree,
is a baton of porchetta
with blood and tongue bordelaise
and, uh, paneer.
[Ted] You were kind of up against it there in the final seconds.
I, uh, ended up pouring sauce out of a blender,
which is terrifying.
I've been a competitor for the last probably six, seven years.
I know what can happen,
happen if I mess up in the last 30 seconds.
[both laughing]
That mistake of plating threw off things a little bit.
It mixed some things that probably shouldn't have been mixed.
Outside of that,
the way you cooked the porchetta,
I don't know how you could go better.
[Zev] Thank you.
The chew on it, the fat is rendered right.
The meat is cooked perfect. I love this.
The crisp on the paneer, which I thought was beautiful,
has that sweetness,
that sweet note right on top of it.
You really took your time
and executed the components of the basket very well.
Plating, whole different issue.
[Amanda] If you had time...
...how much sauce would be on here, would you say?
About a quarter of that.
[Amanda] Quarter of this, okay.
[Esther] I'm struggling with the sauce a bit
because it's very heavy,
and it kind of takes over the whole thing.
I did really love the paneer.
Overall, it was the best paneer presentation that I've had.
Really, really crispy, nice flavor,
loved the texture of it.
I feel like if you had time to plate it a little earlier,
you could have thought it out a bit more.
Chef Zev, thank you.
Dessert round is next,
but only two chefs can make it there.
Please stand by for news on which two.
[Winnie] Coming out of judging, I feel really confident.
The judges loved my dish.
[Zev] I made a mistake with the plating,
and the plate wasn't as pretty as it should be.
And for my style, that's a big mistake.
[Ted] So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Zev, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -Thank you guys.
Chef Zev, and time management probably got the best of you today.
The tongue and blood pudding sauce got all over your plate.
It just overpowered your other flavors,
and so, you've been chopped.
Thank you, chef. Thank you guys.
-[Amanda] Thank you, chef. -[Ted] Good luck to you.
[Zev] Thank you.
I tremendously underestimated my competitors today.
But I think I was able to showcase
that it's possible to use high-end restaurant techniques
in short amounts of time.
[Ted] Chef Winnie, Chef Oscar.
You think you've got this thing in the bag.
It's in the to-go bag, ready to go home with me, Ted.
I am ready to candy my piggy.
I feel nervous.
I'm amazing with desserts.
Eating, not prepping.
Let's check out your final basket and see what happens.
[Winnie] I went to pastry school about 20 years ago,
so now I can finally show off.
[Ted] Go for it!
Ooh.
Pork neck bones. How am I gonna do this?
[Ted reading]
Pickled ginger? Awesome.
[Ted reading]
Cranberries.
[Ted reading]
Huh...
[Ted reading]
I love it.
30 minutes. Clock starts now.
Come on, Oscar! Come on!
Judges, those neck bones, very interesting.
Vamos, Papi, vamos!
[Ted] Very tricky for sure.
What do you do?
Whew! Well, first, they're raw.
The bones are raw. They can cook them right away.
[Esther] You could get, try to get some of that meat off
and, like, dice it and candy it. That could work.
During the competition, I'm representing who I am and where I come.
I'm making a pork neck bunuelos.
It's a Latin-American version of fritters.
I start to make my bunuelo dough
with flour, butter, sugar, and a little pinch of salt.
I'm cooking my pork neck in butter
to have more flavor in the fritters.
[Darnell] Chef Winnie, how are you bringing home the bacon
in this dessert round?
Ooh, you know, I was a pastry chef in my past life,
so I am taking the cake on this.
-Ooh! -Oh my gosh.
A cake in 30 minutes from scratch is ballsy.
But I can prepare a cake and get it in the oven within five minutes.
I'm making a chiffon cake
with the cranberries and the pickled ginger
with a pork and doughnut crumble.
So, chiffon cake is basically a sponge cake.
As an immigrant, our parents come to this country
with really high hopes and dreams.
So winning this will show my parents, like,
"Our daughter is good."
You don't need to be a doctor or a lawyer to be successful.
[Ted] Chefs, 20 minutes left on the clock.
-[Oscar] Bacon. -[Ted] I would bet if there's gonna be competition
for the bacon that is in our pantry.
[Esther] I actually do a lot of bacon in dessert.
-I love, like, a salty sweet... -[Amanda] Yeah.
Chef Oscar, how are you gonna bring home the bacon in this dessert round?
I'm using that for my jam.
-[Darnell] Bacon jam. -A bacon jam.
-Beautiful jam, bacon jam. -[Esther] All right.
I'm using my cranberries and my pickled ginger
to make a jam with the crispy bacon.
Come on, Papi, come on!
I remember a young Oscar thinking that being a chef is impossible.
I feel like this is a dream.
Less than 10 minutes on the clock, chefs!
[Amanda] Apple cider doughnuts I think are pretty much everybody's favorite.
They are so nostalgic.
They have cinnamon sugar on the outside,
and they're just always delicious.
Also, apple and pork complement each other.
[Winnie] The pork neck bones,
the meat is very bland, and I decide to use it as a crumble.
I cook the meat, crumble the doughnuts, and mix it together.
I smash my doughnuts,
and I mean, maybe I'll put in the oven to make crisp.
Oscar just threw a pineapple on the flame.
What are you doing with the pineapple that's on the open flame?
It's a secret.
-Ooh, okay. -[Esther] It's a secret.
You get to learn something new every day in the Chopped kitchen.
[Oscar] I want to add a pineapple relish to this dessert
because I don't have the opportunity
to demonstrate my skills like a wood-fired chef.
With lime juice and mint.
I know the judges love this pineapple relish.
[Winnie] Cranberries are very bitter,
so this pickled ginger is a godsend
to balance off the tart.
I put the cranberries with the miso
and start making a compote.
Less than five minutes to go, chefs.
[Oscar] I'm looking at my dough for my bunuelos,
and it looks a little bit dry.
[Amanda] What's happening down there?
It's still a secret?
[Oscar] Yeah!
I need to start my dough all over.
I don't have enough time.
I feel so scared.
I'm not a pastry chef.
Come on, Oscar, come on!
[Oscar] I'm making pork neck bunuelos.
But my dough looks a little bit dry.
I need to start thinking of plan B.
-Oscar's saying he has to change plans. -Uh-oh.
[Oscar] That's why I'm adding a little bit more butter
and then add the crispy pork neck.
It's important for me have this dough perfect.
Sometimes a pivot could be a good thing
-or a really bad thing. -Yeah, yeah.
Will we get a finished, cohesive dessert? [laughs]
Yeah, it seems unclear right now.
[Ted] Two minutes, chefs!
[Winnie] I fill my piping bag with buttercream
and start piping my buttercream onto the cake.
I am frantic, and Oscar over there is showing off.
Vamos, Oscar! Come on, Papi, come on!
You can do it, Papi!
[Ted] Let's go, chefs! Let's go, let's go!
Final minute, chefs!
One minute.
We're looking for some pig candy.
[Oscar] Time is going fast.
I see my dessert.
I feel like I have a chance to be the winner.
I got this, I got this.
Watch out, watch out, watch out!
[Winnie] Oh my God.
-Oh my God! -Oh my gosh.
[Ted] Here we go, chefs.
Final seconds of the final round.
-Ten, nine, eight... -[Amanda] Don't forget all your ingredients!
[Ted] Seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
Time's up! Please step back.
-[Amanda] Whoo! -[all applauding]
[Esther] Nice job, chefs.
The very, very last second,
one of my cakes kinda tipped over,
but I added another layer of buttercream.
I just hope that the judges love it.
[Oscar] I'm so proud of my dessert,
but looking at Winnie's,
she's dessert is amazing.
[Ted] Chef Winnie and Chef Oscar,
in the final round, we challenged you to make desserts
using salted pork neck bones,
cranberries, pickled ginger,
and apple cider doughnuts.
Chef Winnie, what have you made?
I made for you a cran-apple chiffon cake
with Italian meringue and neck bone crumble.
So what does it mean to you, chef,
to be standing here in the final round?
Well, I've been a Food Network fan since I don't know when,
and I'm a trained pastry chef.
-So actually to do pastries here... -Wow.
...means a lot to me.
Chef Winnie, what a cake we have here today.
Every word you wanna hear somebody describe
when you describe a chiffon cake, you did today.
I love the meringue.
I think you knocked it out the park
with the cranberries and the ginger.
The texture on your chiffon cake is outstanding.
The cranberry compote is great.
I think this is probably the only round
where you struggled with the pork.
It feels so separate.
Okay.
I have to agree with Amanda.
The pork and the apple cider doughnut place a little bit separate,
almost an afterthought that you just had to add.
But overall, I love your creativity.
[Ted] Okay. Chef Winnie, thank you.
Next up, Chef Oscar.
I make a pork neck bunuelos.
It's like a Latin-American version of a, of fritters.
We've been doing this show for a long time,
and we have never seen anybody torch a pineapple like that.
-[chuckles] -Where'd that come from?
[Oscar] I'm not a pastry chef.
I'm a wood-fired chef.
I'm trying to add something from my blood.
I feel amazing.
I feel like I'm making proud my family
and made me proud to be Latin-American.
[Amanda] Chef, this dessert is very contemporary,
the way you plated it.
Wood-fired cooking with the fruits
and the bunuelos,
that South American doughnut.
Like, you have so many influences here.
I love the pineapple. I want more of the pineapple.
-[laughs] -[Amanda laughs] Please.
The way you used the doughnut,
the flavor of the pork inside isn't really that much.
But then when you get that bacon jam,
that helps it out a lot.
Overall, there's a lot of great things about this dish
and things maybe not so great about it.
I really wish that I saw more of the pork bone,
because the pieces that I got in the fritter were really great.
You both cooked your hearts out.
But only one chef can win the title of Chopped champion.
Call you back soon.
-[Oscar] Gracias. -[Winnie] Thank you.
Judges, stick a fork in battle pork. It's done.
We have seen different variations
of how pork could be cooked.
I'm pleasantly surprised.
-[Amanda] Right? -Yeah.
[Amanda] We kicked it off with Chef Oscar crisping up the pork bao buns.
-[Esther] Right. -I thought it was really cool.
But not cooking the coppa properly was a big mishap.
Chef Winnie struggled in that first round.
I liked her flavors, but her dish didn't make a lot of sense.
It was pork on half a bao bun,
but everything she put on the coppa steak was really good.
So going into the entree round,
they both really needed a comeback,
which I think they both got.
Chef Winnie came out with her congee,
and it made so much sense.
She used the tongue and blood pudding.
Wish she would have breaded that paneer cheese differently,
'cause it was missing the crisp that you get when it comes out the fryer.
Chef Oscar made a delicious dish.
Even though the cheese didn't melt,
his filling was tasty,
and the sauces were perfect on top.
So, here they are,
these two chefs neck and neck.
How do we make this decision?
I think they were so close that the dividing factor is...
Who showed the best pork at this year's fair?
[Winnie] I have butterflies in my stomach,
but I cooked my pork butt off.
[Oscar] I feel so nervous.
I want to bring not only the bacon.
I want the whole piggy to my home.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Winnie, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Winnie, your first course,
the bao bun just seemed like an afterthought.
And in dessert,
pork was on the side
and didn't incorporate well into dessert.
And so, we had to chop you.
It was an amazing opportunity,
an opportunity of a lifetime.
I came into this experience
wanting to show the world what I can do in the kitchen,
and I feel like I achieved that.
The reign of the smoke queen isn't over.
And that means, Chef Oscar Padilla,
you are the Chopped champion.
Congratulations!
-Thank you so much. -[all cheering]
I feel like my family be so proud of me.
He's my lucky charm.
-Thank you, Pancho. -[all laughing]
I feel amazing. My family going to be crazy.
They start to scream and then make a party.
If you put love and passion in your food,