Every once in a while someone makes something
that blows the back of my head off.
-It is brilliant. -Oh, that makes you hungry.
-Come on, chicos. -[Cris] I'm like a Mexican grandma.
-Why? -Tania's making tacos.
-Burrito. -They better be good. [laughs]
Four chefs that are experts on Mexican food.
[Saul] I'm spicy and you know it.
That's like Manuela used to do it.
-[Daniela] I could smell Mexico City. -Oh, my gosh.
-Oh, wow that's pretty good. -Hell yeah.
-[grunts] -Is that clock working? It's going too fast.
-The bacon -Aye yai yai.
Are you watching?
You better be watching.
I am executive chef at Cantina Rooftop, New York City.
My food is a mix of three things,
modern, grandma's food,
and street food. It's a fiesta.
I am the chef to beat because I come a long way.
I crossed the border, now I am American citizen [laughs] after 24 years.
More. More. More.
We making the big-ass taco. The biggest in the whole world. [teeth crunch]
I will do anything it takes to take this for the people that I love.
I'm only gonna need three knives to beat you all.
Three of you. Three knives.
I'm spicy and you know it. [laughs]
Let's do this.
I'm the chef de cuisine at a Mexican restaurant in Redondo Beach
called Ortega 120.
Group up in Gardena, California,
which is predominantly Mexican.
So I got to eat a lot of good Mexican meals growing up as a kid.
Good and spicy. Whoo.
I like to just modernize those classic Mexican recipes.
I'm like a Mexican grandma.
I'm very confident in my Mexican food.
My wife's Mexican,
and she has mentioned that my cooking is better than her mom's,
but that's like our in-house family secret.
There's no way I'm gonna let these other chefs beat me.
It's a beautiful purple color for this laritum.
That's the way my grandma wants to eat it.
I'm really proud to be Mexican because it's beautiful nationality.
Like, Mexican food, it's, like, really roasted for my guajillo.
What I'm doing is high-end Mexican food.
And I have a catering company in Paris and Miami.
I'm a global businesswoman.
Finally, we don't add soy sauce to Mexican food,
but I like to add this umami flavor.
I'm super creative and I think fast on my feet.
These two things will help me win this competition.
[Zuriel] We, as Mexicans, we really just want to feed people.
I am the executive chef at Prim and Proper in Dallas, Texas.
I love a big heat component.
One of my favorite chilis to use is serrano.
Mexican food is the best food because it's how I feel closer to my ancestors.
Remembering the little things that my grandma would make.
I'm the chef to represent Mexico because I was born there.
All my memories revolve around community and copious amounts of food.
Viva Mexico!
Chopped, here I come.
-Hello, everybody. -[all] Hi.
-[Cris] Hey, guys. -Hey, guys.
-[Tiffani] Welcome. -This is gonna be rough.
[all laughing]
Jeez, the creme de la creme.
Hello, chefs.
-Hola, Ted. -Howdy.
You are all experts in Mexican cuisine.
All of the baskets will have a Mexican focus,
and we want you to show us your love of Mexican cooking.
-Viva Mexico. -Go Mexico.
Viva Mexico.
There are three rounds. Mandatory mystery ingredients for each course.
If your dish doesn't cut it,
you will be Chopped.
Uh, Cha, Chopped.
-Cha-Cha Chopped. -[chuckles]
-[Cris] Not me. -Not me.
All right, first basket is in front of you.
Open them up.
-[laughing] -Oh.
-Oh, yeah. -[Ted] In there's something
that should make you all happy.
-This is great. -[Ted] Chayote squash.
-Tlayuda. -Tlayuda!
Tlayuda, it's like a big tostada.
And then you add some beans, some fresh Mexican cheese.
And it's totally amazing.
[Ted] Cochinita pibil.
Oh, my gosh.
[Saul] Cochinita pibil, it has the pickled onions, the habenero,
the pork, everything.
I can't believe I have to tear this apart.
-What's this? -[Ted] And huitlacoche.
Yes.
Oh.
Huitlacoche, it's basically a corn fungus,
so it has a really earthy taste which I love.
-[laughs] -[Ted] Twenty minutes to complete your appetizers.
-Okay. -Clock starts now.
[judges cheering and clapping]
Here we go.
Saul, um...
Tiffani, Chris, you are joined by a very special guest,
modern-Mexican chef Daniela Soto-Innes.
-Welcome, chef. -[Chris] Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Yes. So happy to be here.
What would you say most Americans misunderstand about Mexican cuisine?
A lot of people think Mexican food is only about tapas.
But we have so much varieties.
So much variety.
[Daniela] The north, you have all the delicious seafood.
On the south, is the Cochinita pibil.
So, Cochinita pibil is a very, ubiquitous, um, Mexican dish.
-It's kind of like pulled pork from the south. -Yeah.
But much different flavor profile.
A lot of citrus.
-Sometimes oranges. -[Daniela] Yes, I can smell it.
-Yeah. -Mmm.
[Tania] My style is elevated Mexican.
I want to make my really beautiful high-end stack.
And I'm going to use the cochinita for my taco filling.
So, I'm making a cochinita taco
with some frijoles refritos with huitlacoche.
And a salad of a chayote.
I'm taking the whole tlayuda and I'm putting it into my blender.
And then I add the huitlacoche to do, like, a really nice sauce.
for my tacos.
Oh, that's good.
Huitlacoche's one of my favorite ingredients.
It's like our Mexican truffle.
And it's the fungus of the corn.
It's crazy 'cause from time to time in the kitchen,
you'll get a case of corn...
-[Daniela] Yeah. -...and there'll be, like, a new cook who's like,
"What is this?" "No, no, no."
-"No, don't throw it away." -"Save it." Yeah.
-"Don't throw it away." -[Daniela] I know, yeah.
The sleeper ingredient in this basket for me is that chayote,
-kind of like an apple and zucchini pear. -[Tiffani] Yep.
Kind of...
-Hey, Z, you gonna make us a great dish? -[Zuriel] Absolutely.
Chayote is in the squash family, we ate it a lot growing up.
So, I'm gonna make a bit of a fritter with the cochinita in there.
Gonna make a bit of like a fungus barbecue sauce with the beans.
I decided to make cochinita fritters
because it's a quick little bite for an appetizer round.
-The whole basket in the fritter... -[Chris] Wow.
-...which can be really delicious... -[Chris] Wow.
...and sometimes is a very smart play.
Sometimes it gets a little muddy and lost.
[Cris] Hell yeah.
I taste the cochinita and it's bland,
so I know I'm gonna have to doctor it up.
-[grunts] -[Chris] Cris, it looked like you were, uh,
trying to figure out that basket.
Yeah, the basket kinda too me a little by surprise, but I'm adapting to it.
I'm keeping it simple with my game plan.
I'm making a chile relleno with a chayote slaw
and a huitlacoche salsa verde.
Behind you.
[Cris] I know that I could stuff this meat into a pepper and kinda turn it into my own.
I gotta char those poblanos.
Hey, brother, are you gonna use this onion?
-[Saul] Take it, take it, -[Cris] Okay, thank you, brother.
I have to work on my salsa.
I grab chilies, tomatillos, yellow onion,
and I saute it with my huitlacoche.
I like to call myself "the sauce guy,"
take pride in all my sauces.
So my salsa needs to be on point.
Oh, wow, that's pretty good.
So, I'm excited also to see that tlayuda.
It's like the crunchiest, delicious...
-I... I don't want to say pizza. -Right.
-Yeah. -[Daniela] But it's like that texture
when you get, like, that thin-crust pizza...
-[Tiffani] Yep. Yes. -...that you love.
[Ted] It looks delicious.
[Daniela] So much bean and cheese,
and, like, tosaco on it.
So, I'm really, really excited to see what they're going to cook.
Gonna start with this.
I love this dish. It's one of my favorite dishes.
I can't believe I have to mess this up
to come up with something else.
But, uh, it's doable.
I'm gonna make a gordita.
It's stuffed with a tlayuda.
Gordita basically is home-based patty that has been stuffed.
I start by mixing masa harina in water.
When my dough is ready, I wrap it around Oaxaca cheese
and the tlayuda to make a gordita.
This is like how Manuela used to do it, my mom.
Chefs, 10 minutes on the clock.
Behind.
[Tania] I want to add a fresh element.
So, for the squash, I'm mangling it and dressing with miso and some olive oil
so it can be, like, a nice chago de salad.
[Zuriel] Every dish needs a salsa,
so I strip the beans off the tlayuda
and then I throw in my huitlacoche to make a salsa.
And I add dried cherries and medjool dates.
It's a little bit sweet, little bit heat.
[Cris] I still have to stuff my poblanos.
And try to get the squash just to have a crunch that I really enjoy,
so I'm gonna put it in my mix.
I need some smokiness.
And then I run to the fridge and grab the one thing I love to cook with, chorizo.
I'm gonna add the refried beans
and the cheese from the tlayuda.
I'm stuffing these rellenos as fast as I can.
[Saul] With the chayote squash, I decide to make
chayote coleslaw.
Okay. So, my gorditas, I want it to be nice and even cook.
I'm feeling very worried because I notice
that as soon as I cut it, it's gonna fall apart
because the tlayuda is inside.
Saul seems to be struggling with his masa.
I don't know, he's just trying to keep the cake together a little bit.
-That's huge. -[Tiffani] Yeah.
Chef, you doing all right over there, man?
-Hear a lot of noise. -I know. I'm pretty busy, but I got this.
Instead of me stuffing them, I need to go to plan B.
Running out of time, so he's gotta figure it out.
Five minutes to go.
Is that clock working? It's going too fast.
The time is running out.
I need to put all this together.
[groans] Why you doing this to me?
[Tiffani] Saul is really struggling with his masa.
Maybe he needs to press it down a little bit further.
It looks kind of dense and thick, and he's running out of time.
My dough will probably fall apart
because the tlayuga's inside, the queso Oaxaca.
So I decide to make it a sope.
That's how I change plan A to plan B.
Sopes is a good plan B because you have, like, an edge, like a pizza,
so it holds all the ingredients nicely instead of me stuffing them.
Saul, how are you doing down there?
[Saul] Uh... Uh, I wanted to make a gordita,
but then I was like, "You know what?
It's still gordita, I'm just gonna make it into a sope."
Oh, all right, I like it.
-That's impressive. -[chuckles]
With my huitlacoche, I'm just gonna go simple.
I'm gonna, uh, saute it with some red jalapenos, sweet corn.
We're doing Mexican stuff.
I throw some tequila just to spice things up.
Oh, my gosh.
[Tiffani] We have four experts on Mexican food.
Our expectations are sky-high for this.
[Zuriel] Having the fritters cooked properly
is probably the most important thing
because half the basket right there.
Keep going, guys, about a minute left.
-Oh, my God. Vamos, Muchachos. -[Tiffani] Okay, so that's...
-Down to the wire. Let's go. -[laughing]
[Daniela] I'm, like, a little bit nervous for them.
I grab the tray with the squash,
I mix it with some julienne red onions,
and I finish it with some cilantro, and I have my garnish.
[Chris] Finish hard. Finish hard.
Final seconds, chefs. Get it all plated up.
Ten. Nine.
Eight. Seven.
-Six. Five. -Let's go, guys.
[Ted] Four. Three.
Two. One.
-Time's up. Please step back. -All right. Whoo.
-Good job, Cris. -Good job, brother.
-[Saul] Wow, look at you. -Whoo.
-[Saul] Good job, guys. -Wow.
That looks awesome.
[Cris] I think I did really good.
I have a Mexican heart,
so I feel like I represented the country very well right now.
Time just flew like crazy.
But I'm not worried about my dish. I think I got this.
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
In the first basket you got Chayote squash,
bean tlayuda,
Cochinita pibil,
and huitlacoche.
Chef Saul, please tell us what you've made.
Yeah, I made a cochinita with chayote coleslaw,
huitlacoche, with some serranoes and a little bit of corn.
And as the last, I decided to add some tequila
because the best way to party, to have a fiesta is with tequila.
Chef, what does it mean to you to be here representing the great cuisine of Mexico?
I think I'm living the American dream.
I wasn't documented for, uh, 20 years,
and then this past July the 6th,
judge told me, like, "Saul, you know, congratulations,
you're an American citizen." Like, you start crying.
You know, it's amazing.
-Congratulations. -Congratulations, chef.
-Thank you. Thank you. -Yes.
Saul, this is delicious.
You have the smoky, uh, cochinita pibil
within the, like, really funky, earthy huitlacoche.
I think that is so, so smart.
And to finish it off with the chayote
and give it that freshness is so great.
You did a lot of work here in 20 minutes.
Um, what I really like about this dish the most
is that there's little bits of freshness here,
and obviously from the chayote, but even this corn.
It's still mostly raw and nice and fresh.
-Doing a huitlacoche salsa verde is just brilliant. -Thank you.
This reminds me a lot of the gorditas at Charampe, Saul.
Uh, which is very similar flavors.
Would have been nice maybe if you push it down a little bit more.
and then cooked it with the fat of the cochinita pibil.
That could have helped to, like, just soften it up a little bit.
But I could smell Mexico City,
-so thank you very much. -Thank you, Daniela. It's a pleasure.
Next, Chef Cris.
What you have is a chile relleno
with a huitlacoche salsa verde,
and chayote squash with some onion, lime,
and some charred tomatoes.
Growing up in Gardena, California, it's predominantly Hispanic.
I think I was the only Black kid in the neighborhood.
So, the love for Mexican food has always been in me.
My wife is also Mexican. She's from Michoacan
She is my biggest critic.
Every once in a while, Cris, someone makes something
that blows the back of my head off.
And I would never have thought to make huitlacoche salsa verde.
It is brilliant.
The funk of the huitlacoche is in here
with the depth of the salsa verde.
It is unbelievably good.
Um, using the cochinita pibil inside with the chorizo, also really smart.
-Thank you. -I'm kind of a snob about salsa verdes
'cause I bottle my own. [laughs]
This is awesome.
Poblano isn't fully cooked.
-Okay. -But overall, a very, very good start.
Thank you. Thank you, chef.
Poblano is really delicious.
Just cook it a little bit longer.
But otherwise, like,
it's super impressive what you did in, like, 20 minutes.
Thank you, chef.
Next, Chef Tania.
What I made for you is a taco
with some frijoles refritos, huitlacoche.
chili serrano, cochinita roasted with onions.
And then I did a salad with miso and chayote.
[Tiffani] I think the huitlacoche, um, and the beans together
are super delicious, like, one complements the other.
So, like, the earthiness and sweetness of the beans
with the earthiness of the huitlacoche, so delicious.
I love that you did it, like, very small.
But the cochinita, it could have been pulled a little bit
so it wouldn't be so dry.
And I was looking for spice.
-Yeah. -But it's a beautiful presentation,
-and I love the chayote, how bright that was. -Thank you.
Chef Tania, first, the dish is you,
-little and packs a punch. -[Tania chuckles]
-Thank you. -[Chris laughs]
-[Daniela] With a big smile. -[Tiffani] Yeah.
And there's all these little choices that you made that are so smart.
Like, the use of the beans from the tlayuda is...
uh, I love what you did mixing it with the huitlacoche.
I could eat this one that's a little bit spicier,
I could, on a Sunday watching football, and be very, very happy.
Thank you, Chef Tania.
Finally, Chef Z.
I've prepared a tortitas de calabaza with cochinita pibil.
So, it's a play on, like, a squash fritter.
Over the bottom is a huitlacoche salsa,
prepared with some fresh veggies, the beans,
and, uh, a little vinegar for acidity,
and the pickled red onions went into there as well.
I love the texture of it.
Um, and I love the use of the chayote in the fritter.
Cochinita pibil as like a... as a whisper,
letting the meat take a back seat.
Um, because all that smokiness and the fat really does work
to, like, add more to this fritter.
There's something so heartwarming about this dish
-that I'm really... I keep going back to. -Thank you.
It's very rustic, but it's totally delicious, very comforting.
Um, I love how you, how you shredded the pibil.
The sauce, the huitlacoche and the tlayuda,
um, you know, it's got a great consistency,
-but it's just too sweet for me. -Thank you, chef.
-[Daniela] What's the sweet in the... -[Zuriel] Uh, I added raisins
and medjool dates.
We use a lot of, like, dried fruits and stuff as sweeteners.
I think it doesn't work with the salsa.
It clashes a little bit.
But it's a really cool, uh, way to incorporate the beans and the huitlacoche.
-[Zuriel] Mmm-hmm. -Um, just maybe take back the sweetness a little bit.
Thank you, chef.
All right, thank you, chefs.
My sauce was too sweet.
And looking back on it, I completely agree.
I should have added some chilies.
[Saul] I agree with what they had to say about my sope.
I think it was a little bit thick,
but everybody should be worried about me.
I mean, look at this face. [chuckles]
Who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Z, you've been Chopped. Judges.
Chef Z, we really liked what you did with the cochinita pibil
and the chayote, making that fritter.
But really what it came down to
was the usage of the, uh, huitlacoche and the tlayuda.
We just felt like yours was just too sweet.
And so we had to chop you.
-Thank you, chef. -[Chris] That's okay.
[Zuriel] My sauce was too sweet.
I should have added some chilies.
It's... It's tough, you know.
It's like a kick in the gut.
But, you know, you get back up.
[Ted] Chef Saul, Chef Chris, Chef Tania,
ready to do this again?
-Totally ready. -Team on.
They're all yours.
[exhales]
[Ted] Open them up.
What the heck?
[Ted] And we want you to keep the Mexican flavor coming
-with... -Wow, goat shoulder.
[Ted] Goat shoulder.
-Yucca. -Oh, my gosh.
-Oh, that's good. -[Ted] Mole poblano.
The mole, okay, great. I have to make mole.
-What's this? -[Ted] An elote ice cream.
Uh, is this a dessert?
Ice cream? Are you kidding me?
I'm not excited about this ice cream.
But, you know, it's Chopped. [sighs]
-We'll see. -[Ted] Thirty minutes for round two.
[blows air]
Clock starts now.
-[Tiffani] All right, entree round. Let's go, chefs. -[Chris] Right, here we go.
Pa-pa, pa-pa, pa-pa.
Goat shoulder. Here we go.
[Tiffani] I actually think this is a great basket.
I know that there's some challenges.
Goat shoulder's tough, right?
Literally, tough. They put the yucca and the goat shoulder
are long-cooking time ingredients.
Yucca is something that definitely takes about 25 minutes to cook.
[Saul] Chop, chop, chop.
Oh, speaking of tough, Saul is just going to town on his goat's shoulder.
Can you see this? Which is smart, actually.
-[Daniela] He might break that knife. [laughs] -[chuckles] Exactly.
[Saul] This goat shoulder reminds me of when I was a kid.
My mom used to ask me to cut the goat.
I wanted to break all the muscles apart,
so to have a nice, tender goat,
I want this goat to be Chopped. [laughing]
Huh, man, doing all right over there?
[Saul] I'm doing great.
I am making zarape de chivo.
Zarape's a very popular dish in Mexico.
Where's my spoon? It's a sandwich made out of two tortillas.
And, of course, mole.
The goat shoulder, I'm gonna mix it with some mole for my stuffing.
Ooh, okay.
Dukkha is very widely used in Latin-America as a starch,
mashed or fried.
[Cris] The profile of the yucca is very starchy,
so being "the sauce man," I'm gonna make my own mole.
I'm making goat with a yucca yellow mole.
Behind. Behind. Behind. Mole is a nut-based chocolate sauce.
I decided to add peanut butter because that was the best way to get that nuttiness.
And I melt white chocolate.
To finish the sauce, I add my yucca.
And then I grab the goat shoulder.
I need to figure out how to utilize this prepared mole.
The flavor's actually not that bad.
I'm gonna try to get creative with it though.
So, I'm adding it to the goat.
Judges, elotes, the classic Mexican street corn.
Mayo, chili powder, cheese, delicious.
But does it work in ice cream?
Does that work in a savory dish?
It might work. We'll see. [laughing]
[Tania] Too sweet. Too sweet. Too sweet.
Elote ice cream, It just tastes like corn.
It has a little bit of cheese on it,
a little bit of chili pepper.
Maybe.
So, I decided to do a Mexican corn risotto
with mole-braised goat, and yucca chips.
I know a risotto needs cheese,
so I'm grabbing the blue cheese and the Mexican crema
to balance out the flavor of the goat.
Okay, it's going good. It's going good.
Chefs, 20 minutes left on the clock.
Heard. Thank you.
with serranos, uh, red chiles,
pepitas, and lime.
[Tiffani] You know, Saul and Tania, who are both Mexican,
and then we have Cris who is married to someone that's Mexican,
and has really grown up in Mexican culture.
He himself is not Mexican, but you would not know it
from how he's cooking and how it's running through his heart.
He can be pretty Mexican.
Yeah, he's honorary Mexican.
-He's honorary Mexican. -[laughs]
[Cris] As I'm trying the ice cream,
the thing that pops up in my head immediately is esquite.
The difference between esquite and elote
is esquite is off the cob.
Just rubbed in mayonnaise and butter.
I cook it down in some butter and salt,
that way I can control the amount
of sweetness versus salt in the ice cream.
[Ted] Something smells really sweet.
The ice cream. [laughs]
[Tania] Have to take out bone.
I have never cooked goat,
but I'm gonna treat the goat like beef.
I'm getting into the pan to sear.
And then I'm gonna glaze it in mole.
Chefs, ten minutes to get this done.
[Saul] I'm using the elote ice cream and yuca to make a sauce.
And then I figured out it was too sweet.
[in sing-song voice] What can I do?
[in normal voice] So I decided to add potato,
more cream, and more habanero.
Spinach.
Spinach to cut some sweetness.
And it's still too sweet, so I add spinach to it.
Too sweet!
And that didn't help. I ran out of time.
So I was like, you know what? Let's pray in God
and hopefully that makes it... [kisses fingers]
Cris, how you doing?
-[Cris] You know me, calm chaotic. -[laughs]
It's like I'm freaking out and composed at the same time and it's driving me crazy.
I feel like my dish is missing something, so,
I have leftover yuca and leftover plantains, so I think I'm gonna fry it.
All right, chefs, five minutes to go here.
[Tania] I'm not really familiar with yuca,
but it's similar like a potato
so I will do, uh, really nice chips.
That's good.
Tortilla.
[Chris] I'm excited to try all these dishes.
They're all... have very different approaches.
-[Daniela] Mmm-hmm. -[Chris] But that goat is making me nervous.
You don't wanna overcook it. It's gonna be very, very dry.
Chef Tania, how you feeling about the cook on the goat?
I think it's good. It looks really nice.
Uh, I tried, and it's really, really good.
[Tiffani] All right, guys. Let's go, one minute.
-Everything on the plate. -[Chris] Let's go, you can do it. Let's go.
Let's go, Cris.
All right, button up those entree plates, chefs.
Me tienen miedito.
[Ted] Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
-four, three, -Ay!
two, one.
-[Ted] Time's up. -[Tiffani] All right, yes!
Here we go.
-[Saul] Yes, we made it. -Whoo, that's beautiful!
[Cris] By far the biggest challenge
was, uh, just making sure that goat is cooked perfectly,
because I'm here for perfection.
Ay, ay, ay.
My biggest challenge was the ice cream,
the contrasting to kill all the sweetness.
But I just, you know, hope for the best.
Chefs. The judges are expecting flavorful Mexican entrees
made of goat shoulder, yuca,
mole poblano, and elotes ice cream.
Chef Tania, please tell us about your dish.
For my dish, I did a Mexican risotto
with a mole-braised goat
and yuca chips.
[Daniela] First I thought it was going to taste like, uh,
cream soup, like crema de elote.
But then I take, like,
a dive through Paris, no?
With the cheese and the ice cream.
Like, you obviously know how to cook.
Chef Tania, you're such a bright presence
and your food is similarly bright, like,
I think this is really a great way to use the mole
and make it creamy and kind of match up
with the risotto on the bottom.
And using that yuca as a thickener I think is just really smart.
Thank you.
I agree, but unfortunately the goat is troublesome
because, goat, it doesn't have a lot of fat.
It's... even though it's medium rare, it's still a little bit tough.
But I like the funkiness of the blue cheese. It's unexpected.
Yuca are perfectly fried.
Thank you.
[Chris] Well, what inspired you to become a chef?
It was my dad. He loves to eat,
so all the time he was taking me to these
amazing places in Mexico City.
He was the one who pushed me to go to Paris.
So, inspiration to me and I want to,
to do that for him as well, because he...
he passed away, like, one year ago.
So, this is for him.
-[Ted] I'm sorry to hear that, Chef. -No worries.
-[Ted] He must have been very proud. -[Tania] Yeah. He is.
Next up, Chef Cris.
What you have is a yuca yellow mole.
And then I cooked the ice cream down with fresh corn,
and then some Mexican crema that's sauteed with the corn.
It's beautiful.
First, like, first glance, we were like,
"Oh, my God, this is so aromatic."
Like, it's so, it's so beautiful.
What did you do in 30 minutes?
-[Tiffani laughs] -Oh, my God, it's so many ingredients.
It's like a novella.
[laughs]
-Like, it's a novella with, like, 15 chapters, you know? -Yeah. Mmm-hmm.
And somehow it all works together.
I love the use of the ice cream.
The yuca is, like, perfectly, like, nice and crispy.
The new mole that you made is a lot more flavorful than the original.
Cris, you have a Mexican soul.
That is very clear.
I think the tampering down of the elotes ice cream
is so perfectly done here.
It's creamy and it's craveable,
and the mayo and the corn
link up with the new mole and it's so delicious.
You pride yourself on sauce work and it's clear why.
It's... there's a lot of wow in here.
But the goat, it's a problem. It's tough.
Um, there are smaller pieces that
actually are not so tough.
-But the rest of the dish is composed beautifully. -Thank you, Chef.
Thank you, Chef Cris. Finally, Chef Saul.
What I got today, Chefs, zarape de chivo,
which is a goat, uh, zarape.
And basically what I did with the, uh, goat,
I chopped the crap out of it. [laughs]
-[Tiffani] Yeah, you did. -Just to make sure it was nice and tender.
Uh, Chef Saul, this is
so visually exciting.
Looks like a party and it's got lots of colors.
This is the most successful goat cook of the round.
Using the mole in that cook to, like,
caramelize everything together, super smart.
I mean, this, I think really is celebrating
the flavors of Mexico.
I'm getting the acid from the lime,
getting the heat from the jalapenos.
It's visually stunning,
-um, it's really comforting to eat. -Thank you.
[Daniela] I love soft fried tortilla.
But I can taste a lot of ice cream in here.
I wish there was a little bit more
salt or stock in it
to take the flavor away of the ice cream,
because everything else is still delicious.
-Thank you, Daniela. -Gracias.
Thanks, chefs.
[Saul] I'm feeling worried because of the ice cream.
But at least I cooked the, uh, goat better than them,
so, so that's a win.
[Cris] The goat hit me hard in the judging.
I feel like I'm making some pretty rookie mistakes.
But if I make it to the dessert round,
I'm gonna have a flawless dessert.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Tania, you've been chopped. Judges?
Chef, we see that you are an incredible chef.
-[Tania] Thank you. -[exhales] Ah, but the goat
was just super chewy.
And it just didn't work out for us.
-Mmm-hmm. -And so, we had to chop you.
Thank you very much. And it's a complete pleasure for me
to be judged by you. Thank you very much.
I feel a little bit disappointed,
but I think I showed the kind of cooking that I can do.
[Saul] I made it to the final.
I can smell the championship on my hands.
Saul is a really worthwhile competitor.
I think he has a lot of heart.
Going into the next round, it's time to take him out.
[Ted] Chef Cris, Chef Saul.
Check out your mystery ingredients.
Open 'em up.
[chuckles]
[Ted] It's a beautiful, colorful gelatina.
Wow.
I'm a huge fan of gelatina. My suegra,
which is my mother-in-law, makes it all the time.
-[Ted] The cilantro. -[Saul] Cilantro.
-[Ted] Sotol. -44.5% alcohol.
Chili-lime chips. Wow.
[Ted] And chili-lime potato chips.
Ay, ay, ay.
Not good at all, but I get this.
[Ted] 30 minutes to make exceptional Mexican desserts.
Gonna be tricky.
Clock starts now.
-[Tiffani] All right, guys. -[Chris] All right, here we go.
-Final round. -Final final.
[Ted] Judges, the stand-out item in this basket
is, of course, the gelatina,
but should that be the star of the plates or something else?
Gelatina is my drag name, so, yes.
-[all laughing] -It should be the star of the plate.
[Daniela] So, the gelatina is usually
-sold in bakeries in Mexico. -[Ted] Mmm-hmm.
And, uh, after it's made,
it's chopped up into little pieces
and combined with condensed milk.
It's really good with a lot of, uh, lemon zest.
[Tiffani] Ah.
And my favorite ingredient, gelatina.
I'm feeling very watery because I'm not good at desserts.
But the inspiration about this dish
is 100% my daughters.
They are playful, they are spicy,
and they are nuts. [laughs]
So, my kids really love a tres leches cake.
I'm making gelatina tres leches cake
with candied nuts and ricotta whipped cream.
The sotol...
Ah! Ooh.
...it tastes pretty good. [laughs]
Delicious. So for my tres leches sauce,
I use condensed milk, heavy cream, milk,
gelatina, and sotol.
I'm really excited to see sotol,
because sotol is, uh, spicy, 'cause in...
or of the tequila and mezcal, no?
sotol is to take it with respect.
-[Tiffani] Mmm-hmm. -You know, not, like, shots, you know?
We all have spicy cousins that force us to respect them.
-[Chris laughs] -You have to be very careful with sotol.
-It's not as smoky as mezcal, -[Tiffani] Mmm-hmm.
because it's cooked, like, above ground.
[Cris] I tried the sotol and it has a smokiness to it,
so I'm thinking the best thing to do is
make this part of the base for arroz con leche.
Coming down, coming down, coming down.
Arroz con leche is typically used with leftover rice,
which shortens the cooking time.
But since I don't have leftover rice,
I need to grab fresh rice and I need to get it going now.
-Chef Cris. -[Cris] What up, Chef?
-What are you making? -I'm just staying true to myself.
-[Chris] Mmm-hmm. -I love arroz con leche.
-Oh, nice. -[Cris] And, um,
-I'm gonna challenge myself to make it a little different. -All right.
All right, chefs, 20 minutes left on the clock.
[Saul] For my gelatina tres leches cake,
I need to make pancakes.
So I grab all-purpose flour, baking soda, eggs, milk.
In Mexico we don't have no mixers, so we have to do everything by hand.
No, we do.
We just don't have the money to buy them.
I think Cris, as non-Mexican, seems to work harder
'cause they have to prove something, so, and he has the talent.
but I'm gonna focus on myself and come up with something amazing.
I'm not Hispanic, but, you know,
I cook like I'm an old Hispanic woman.
Winning will validate the fact that
you can be any race and cook any type of food.
I'm a huge fan of gelatina, so I know exactly how to use it.
I add some condensed milk and sotol.
I add some cilantro and then I add my cinnamon sticks.
And now I'm just letting that rice boil while I'm keeping an eye on it.
Ten minutes to go, chefs.
[Saul] My tres leches sauce is coming out pretty good,
the sotol makes it special.
I'm gonna buy a couple bottles after this and just chug them all.
-[Cris] You doing all right over there, Chef? -Good, man. Thank you.
-How about you? -[Cris] Let's finish strong, man.
-[Cris] Let's finish strong together. -Got it.
[Saul] Reason why I want to win this is
I want to represent all the immigrants that come from all over the world.
If you do the right thing, you know, it gets you to good places.
[Cris] I grab a jar of raisins.
I grab the sotol and sherry vinegar,
and I reduce it and make a pickling liquid.
My pickled raisins is gonna be the asset
that I think I need to bring this dish home.
All right, chefs, you got less than five minutes to wrap this up.
[Cris] The difficult part for this round
is making sure I keep an eye on that rice.
I need to make sure it won't over or undercook.
Making that rice is just really a big risk to take in a 30-minute round.
I have a feeling we might get some al dente rice.
[Cris] Cooking rice in 30 minutes is a huge risk.
But at this point, the rice is cooked enough.
I'm adding my base and then I'm gonna bring my rice home.
[Chris] Cris drained the rice, which doesn't look cooked enough at all.
I have a feeling we might get some al dente rice.
Tajin potato chips is a great seasoning.
-it's basically chili powder, lime, and salt. -[Tiffani] Mmm-hmm.
Cris has taken those chili lime potato chips, buzzed them up
in a food processor, and thrown them in the oven to crisp them up.
[Cris] I realized this dish needs texture.
Wonton wrappers are perfect when you fry them.
And my plan is to mix it with these chili lime chips.
All right, two-and-a-half minutes to go, chefs.
[Saul] Oh-ho-ho. Cooking sexy.
I'm going to take the lime and chili chips and cilantro
to make candied nuts.
I add, uh, pecans, pistachios, and pine nuts.
Cooking very sexy. Whoo!
One minute left for $10,000.
Make sure you're tasting everything.
-[Ted] 30 seconds, chefs. -[Cris] May the best chef win.
Come on, baby.
[Ted] All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one.
Time's up.
-[Tiffani] All right. -[all clapping]
-Good job, brother. -We made it.
Out of all the rounds, that round was by far the craziest.
It's gonna come down to technique.
I'm a little nervous because Saul dish looks really good. [chuckles]
[Saul] Okay, I'm tired now. Very tired.
Ah, I mean, I made it, you know?
I came from nothing, from all the way from Mexico,
I'm in the final, I feel amazing.
[Ted] Chef Cris and Chef Saul.
You've just created desserts from a basket of
gelatina, cilantro,
sotol, and chili lime potato chips.
Chef Saul, what do we have?
What I make today, it's a reflection of my kids.
They gonna be sweet, they gonna be spicy,
it's gonna be full of surprises.
It's gelatina tres leches cake
with candied nuts and ricotta whipped cream.
I love the description of your kids in this
and I think you've kind of nailed it with that.
The use of the sotol is really interesting.
'Cause the smokiness comes out,
there's not a lot of cilantro in here.
But I like the smokiness in the cilantro
and the sweetness of the sauce.
And the more I kind of dug into it, the more I liked it.
This liquid at the bottom has wonderful flavor.
I love the whipped ricotta,
um, I love the addition of the fresh berries.
It's a beautiful presentation.
But the thing about tres leches is it's a soft, soft pillow.
For me, it's a little bit hard.
I agree, the cake is a little bit dense.
Had you been able to, like, soak the cake for a while,
it would've given that spongy tres leches vibe that I think you're talking about.
I also don't get a lot of chips.
They're so lightly dosed as opposed to, like, really leaned into.
-Thank you. -Thank you, Chef Saul.
Next up, Chef Cris.
Front of you is a gelatina arroz con leche
with some chili lime fried wontons.
[Daniela] I think you're lying to us, and you're
-really reincarnated into a Mexican grandma. -[laughs]
-[Daniela laughs] -Thank you.
This almost becomes like arroz con leches nachos a little bit,
like, it's very cool.
I also think the salinity and the rice really works to your favor here.
Did you like it with the chili lime chips? I'm curious.
Adding the little bit of lime and heat to this that
I think the heat kind of balances some of the sweet.
Thank you, Chef.
Judges, are you picking up on the gelatina itself?
Well, um,
I actually really like the Mexican crema with it.
For me, I like my rice to be just really creamy,
and this has just got a little bit of a bite that
I would prefer not to have.
I don't taste the sotol at all. Did you guys?
I get a little smoke.
And I'm not really a fan of the pickled raisins either.
But your flavors are great. And it's just fun.
Okay. Thank you, Chefs.
The elegance and the sophistication
that they represented was just extraordinary
-throughout the entire competition. -Yup.
So, we talked about the first round,
and it starts with Cris making
the stuffed poblano with the cochinita pibil.
[Daniela] Remember that sauce?
I will think about that sauce when I go to bed tonight,
-the huitlacoche salsa verde. -[Chris chuckles]
[Tiffani] The poblano was a little undercooked.
[Chris] Then Saul decides to make gorditas, or sopes,
from scratch, which was incredible.
Unfortunately, not quite executed perfectly.
We got two dense cakes.
Then in the entree round,
he was the only one that was able to cook that goat properly.
Cooked it in the mole, which I thought was really smart.
-Yeah, but I remember the ice cream. [laughs] -[winces]
He couldn't take away the flavor of the ice cream.
[Tiffani] Cris's sauce work continued to shine in the entree round.
I think he had the best usage of that elote ice cream.
-[Tiffani] Mmm-hmm. -But his goat really suffered from not cooking it right.
You know, I think the question at hand is,
which chef represented
-the most craveable, powerful flavors of Mexico? -One hundred percent.
[Cris] Whenever you're cooking for somebody from Mexico
and they reference their grandma, that's a win in my book.
All I want right now is to see Saul's dish on the chopping block.
[Saul] If I win, that's gonna give me so much confidence
that I can be better as a chef,
be better as a friend, be better as a husband.
That would be the cherry on my tres leches cake.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Saul.
You've been chopped. Judges?
Chef Saul, you have been a bright light and a joy.
Starting with the first round, um, the gordita, it was just dense.
And we get to the entree round and it came down to that corn sauce
just being too sweet.
And so, we had to chop you.
-Cris, congratulations, buddy. -Thank you.
-[Saul] You're a good competitor. -Thank you.
I'll see you soon.
[Saul] I feel like a winner. I came to this country
with, like, $6.00, and now look at me.
I should keep fighting for my dreams.
It's the end of this competition,
but it's gonna be the beginning of new ones.
[Ted] Ad that means, Chef Cris Brown,
you are the Chopped champion. Congratulations.
-[Tiffani] Nicely done. -[Ted] Well done.
-[all clapping] -Thank you.
I'm very emotional, because to be able
to represent a country that I'm not from,
I just have so much love and respect
for the Mexican culture and Mexican food,
like, that's why I cook with my heart. I cook my heart out.
-[Chris] Fantastic job. Well earned, well earned. -Thank you, thank you.
-You just crushed it today, congrats. -Thank you so much.
-Muchas gracias. -Mucho gusto tambien.
-[Daniela laughs] -[Cris] Gracias.
-Great job, Chef. -Thank you so much, guys.
I'm just thankful and I'm just very proud of myself.
My wife just thinks I'm the best chef in the world,
and now I can tell her, "Hey, I'm the best Mexican chef."