[Mike Beltran] Every dish that I create has a story to it.
[Lauren Lawless] I love to kick people's asses,
I love to be center of attention.
Oh, my gosh.
[Samantha Etienne] Man, watching [chuckles]
and actually being on here
is two complete different things.
-What the hell? -[Joe Sasto] Let's go, Mike, finish up.
Home stretch.
I've got almost like crazy stress butterfly thing in your stomach.
He winced as if somebody had punched him in the stomach.
-Tell me you have a plan. -I'll get to it.
-[Ted Allen] Five. -[Nilou Motamed] Damn.
-[Ted] Four. -Oh, my gosh.
-[Ted] Three, two. -It was a rough day in the Chopped kitchen.
[Ted] One.
[Lauren] My competition better step aside
because flawless Lawless is coming for that win.
Whoo!
I'm chef and owner of Flawless Cuisine,
a catering company in San Diego.
My style of cooking is Asian fusion.
That smells so good. Mmm.
When you taste my food, you can expect
umami, bold flavors, and pure magic.
Beautiful.
In my career, I've done a lot.
I've opened restaurants, a food truck, a cookbook,
and now I'm fighting for that Chopped champion title.
Don't let my looks fool you,
'cause I'm here to kick some ass.
All right, let's cut some stuff.
I wanted to become a chef
mostly 'cause I couldn't sit at a desk my entire life.
And now I get to cook food and listen to music all day,
so it's like the most fun thing you can do for a career.
Perfect.
My cuisine is Mediterranean.
Definitely use a lot of acidity
and brightness in my food
to balance out a lot of, like, fatty and rich things.
Bellissimo!
I started my career in Chicago,
and I worked with some awesome chefs in amazing restaurants,
I was in Eater Young Gun and Zagat 30 under 30.
2019, I went on Beat Bobby Flay, and beat him.
I didn't come here to lose.
I wanna be the last one standing.
[Sam] I may be small and young,
but I'm just as bad, just as skilled,
and I'm here for the win.
I'm the owner and executive chef
of Rose Catering in Atlanta, Georgia.
My food is inspired by my Haitian background.
Fresh herbs and some spice.
When you taste my food,
you can expect to feel overall good vibe,
like, it's a party in your mouth.
Winning Chopped would mean a lot.
I wanna walk into a room, and people know, like,
"Oh, there's Chef Sam."
I'm bringing the heat.
I am the owner of Little Chef Diner and Culinary Theory.
I got into cooking as a young kid.
I'll watch my grandmother cook,
make, like, Mexican pizzas, Indian fired bread, green chili,
lot of traditional Mexican cuisine.
I still make lot of those with my own twist.
And the thing I love about cooking
is being able to share my food with a story,
so everything that's on my menus
has a story behind it.
I know I got the skills needed to win,
so I'm ready to do this.
Let's go.
Hello, Chefs.
-What's up? -What's up, Ted?
Your moment to shine in the Chopped kitchen is now.
Can you do this?
-Let's get this party started, come on. -Hell, yeah Let's go.
[Ted] There are three rounds.
Mandatory mystery ingredients for each course.
If your dish doesn't cut it,
you will be chopped.
-Not happening. -No, it's not me.
Your appetizer ingredients are waiting for you.
Get into the basket.
-[all exclaiming] -Ooh, nice.
-Wow! -[Ted] Surprise!
It's a watermelon cake.
This one might be little bit challenging.
[Ted] You'll also be cooking with thinly sliced rib eye.
Thinly sliced rib eye.
[Ted] Marinated goat cheese.
[Lauren] Wow.
Shishito.
[Ted] And shishito peppers.
[Mike] Definitely like this peppers.
Could've been a lot worse.
[Ted] Twenty minutes to make a stellar first impression.
Clock starts now.
-[Nilou] Go! Yeah! -[Chris Santos] All right, here we go.
Look at this, Sam going for plates straight away.
-Straight, going for plates, that's interesting. -[Joe] What a move.
That's a move that says, I know exactly what I'm making.
-Yup. -Coming down.
Chris, you joined on the judges panel by two special guests.
Copped champion, Chef Joe Sasto,
-and celebrated food journalist, Nilou Motamed. -[Chris] Welcome, welcome.
Judges, this watermelon cake looks fancy,
but at the end of the day, it's just watermelon.
I think it gives tons of opportunities for our chefs
to use something fresh and bright,
I think it's, it's a lay-up.
Yup.
Behind you.
[Sam] Seeing the judges, they're looking awesome.
Chef Joe, I've always looked up to him
'cause of his snazzy little moustache, I love that.
I wanna show the judges, this 26-year-old Haitian girl,
I'm a force to be reckoned with,
and they better get to know me. [laughs]
I am making Seared Curry Rib Eye,
with pickled watermelon, and rosemary infused whipped goat cheese.
Time to cook.
Sam, how are you feeling about this watermelon cake?
I'm feeling good, I'm gonna pickle the watermelon,
and I'm gonna infuse this goat cheese with some rosemary oil.
I really wanted the judges to shut up. [laughs]
Like, I cannot answer no questions,
it's already a lot of pressure. [laughs]
I'm a little stressed right now, this was like, whoo.
-[Chris laughs] Okay. -[Joe laughs]
What do I need for this? Bit of lettuce.
[Joe] So this thinly sliced rib eye
is normally the steak,
the prime rib cut that you'd have,
but sliced thin, it's the perfect cut for cheese steaks.
What about pounding out this rib eye and doing a carpaccio?
I wouldn't be against it.
Let's do this.
I think the other chefs need to look out for me because
my presentation is always gonna be flawless.
Flawless Cuisine is a high-end catering company,
I specialize in global cuisine,
I love to do farm to table, fresh ingredients,
fine dining with a modern twist.
Whoo!
With the thinly sliced rib eye,
I don't wanna do too much to it,
I really wanna showcase the meat.
For my dish, I'm gonna make a Mediterranean Inspired Beef Carpaccio
and blistered shishito peppers.
So this is kinda one of my favorite childhood dishes.
In my Mediterranean salad,
I'm going to use the watermelon from the watermelon cake,
some heirloom tomatoes,
I wanna add some pickled onions
because I love pickled stuff.
How are you feeling over there, buddy?
-Good, good, how are you? -What are you doing?
-I'm good. I'm hyped. -Let's do this.
Whoo!
[Mike] I'm trying to add some flavor into this beef.
Every dish that I create has a story to it,
and I make a Thai steak salad for my wife all the time,
I'm gonna recreate that with this basket.
For my appetizer, I'm making a Thai Cold Noodle Salad.
I marinated my steak in rice wine vinegar,
soy sauce, honey, and garlic.
Perfect.
Sieger, it looks like you're making a steak tartar, yeah?
We'll see.
-[Chris] We'll see! -[Nilou] Damn!
Keeping us in the dark.
-I could do larb. Do you guys want larb? -[Chris] Yes.
If larb in available, I'm interested.
We'll do larb. Okay, we'll do larb.
Since I'm doing larb, I kinda wanna go more towards Thai,
so I wanna get fish sauce and soy sauce
to kind of balance out the spiciness
and then also have that umami punch.
Chefs, less than 10 minutes to get this done.
Heard.
[Nilou] I love a shishito so much,
but they're like a little bit of Russian roulette situation, though,
'cause for every seventh one,
you get one that, it burns your face off.
That's... Which is my favorite one, by the way.
[Nilou laughs] I know.
[Sam] I'm taking my shishito peppers
and looking to get them into a nice char.
Cool, who love some curry.
You can never go wrong with curry.
My mom is Haitian, my dad is Haitian,
and Haitian cooking is just what I was raised on.
I'm putting Haitian cuisine on the forefront,
and I want people to realize we're about to take over the fine dining world.
So, hopefully, it tastes good.
Get some olive oil on here.
I take my shishito peppers and pop them on my grill.
I wanna blister them, get a nice char on them
to bring out the flavor and some caramelization.
How is everybody looking on time? We're good?
Some beautiful bread right here.
No one expected me to be as successful as I am today.
Crunch time.
I'm very hard working and determined.
When I set my mind to something, I accomplish it.
Pistachios.
Add some vinegar and acidity.
Chef Mike, how are you feeling about that watermelon cake?
I'm gonna use the watermelon cake to make a quick vinaigrette,
um, for my Thai Asian salad.
-[Joe] There we go, acid. -Oh, nice.
[Mike] The goat cheese is kinda salty,
so if I add it to my vinaigrette,
it will help balance the sweetness.
I see my shishito peppers.
I'm gonna throw them into a hot skillet.
My Daphnie and I have been married for six years,
we have five kids,
and I love coming home to them,
they, like, brighten up my day.
I'm just working hard for my family
and trying to, like, build something for them to have
as they get older.
My family means the world to me,
so this win will be for them.
You guys, last six minutes, six minutes.
Six minutes.
[Sieger Bayer] I want the watermelon to kinda of add
the sweetness that you usually get in larb,
I add some minced shallot to that and some vinegar,
and kinda just let that marinate.
Right after culinary school, I backpacked in Europe for a couple of months.
I hit Italy and Germany and France,
but Spain was the one that really stuck with me.
I'm gonna take this $10,000, and I'm gonna go on a big trip to Spain.
Five minutes to go, chefs.
-Five minutes, chefs. -Heard.
[Joe] All right, now I'm worried for Sieger.
We're down to the final minute,
and he just started working with his goat cheese.
-Let's hope that Sieger pulls it out. -I'll get to it.
-Ugh! Oh. -Busted.
-He heard you. [laughs] -Oh, no.
I promise.
Coming through, behind. Coming through, behind.
[Sieger] I know I'm running out of time,
so I just need to get this goat cheese on the plate.
So I season it just like I seasoned the larb.
Mirin and just a little bit of fish sauce.
The mouthfeel and the texture with the larb
is gonna be perfect.
You guys should start plating, you have under three minutes to go.
-[Mike] Heard. -[Sam] Heard. Three minutes.
With the goat cheese, I am using a hand mixer
to whip and get it as soft as possible.
Then I fold in my rosemary oil.
Come on.
I wanna add some body to my salad,
so I grabbed arugula and spinach,
I tossed that together with some minced scallions
and crushed almonds.
Two minutes, guys.
It's down to the wire,
I gotta figure out what to do with this goat cheese,
I'm going to crumble the goat cheese,
put it on my salad, and cross my fingers.
[Ted] You got this, chefs, get it done, get it done.
[Mike] Come on, guys, come on, we're almost there.
Let's go, let's go.
Stay focused.
You can do it.
Oh, gosh, crunch time.
Whoo!
[Nilou] You have to remember all the ingredients,
everything in the basket.
[Ted] Don't let the clock trip you up now, chefs.
-Ten, nine, eight, seven... -[Nilou] Here we go, chefs, you can do it.
[Ted] ...six, five,
four, three,
two, one.
-Times up! -[all cheering]
-[Joe] Nice work. -[Nilou] Great job.
Man, watching [chuckles] and actually being on here
is two complete different things,
but the time is just ticking,
and you just gotta get it done as fast as possible.
[Sieger] Twenty minutes goes by real quick
in the Chopped kitchen.
I hope the judges can see that I can adapt,
work really quickly on my feet,
and put out a delicious dish.
[Ted] Chefs, you've arrived at the chopping block.
Your mandatory mystery ingredients were
a watermelon cake,
thinly sliced rib eye,
marinated goat cheese,
and shishito peppers.
First up, Chef Lauren, what do we have?
Uh, what I've made for you guys today
is a Mediterranean Inspired Beef Carpaccio,
a little watermelon heirloom tomato salad,
I blistered the shishito pepper,
I've also added the goat cheese to it
and some toasted pistachio.
Tell us what you do, chef.
[Lauren] First of all, I'm a mother of two,
I'm a private chef, and own a catering company,
so a little bit of everything.
[Nilou] What I love about this dish
is how beautifully presented it is.
The way you used the watermelon cake is exactly what we wanted,
we wanted you to take the watermelon and evolve it,
and certainly did.
Thank you.
[Chris] You know, it's really funny,
but getting bread right in this kitchen for some reason,
it seems to be an impossibility,
and this is perfect.
Oh, thank you.
But, yeah, that rib eye needed to be
just paid attention to a little bit more.
- [Lauren] Heard. - [Chris] Some pieces were thicker than others.
I think you needed to pound this out, basically,
-for it to make it a real carpaccio. -Heard.
-Thank you. -[Joe] Chef Lauren, the goat cheese itself
was kinda just put on there,
but I really enjoyed what you did with
the shishito peppers in there,
using them as texture.
Heard.
Chef Lauren, thank you.
Chef Mike, what have you made?
I've made for you guys today a Thai Cold Noodle Salad.
As soon as I saw the steak, I thought it was very lean,
so I could cook that really quick,
and then I wanted to make the vinaigrette,
which is made with the watermelon and goat cheese.
Yeah, I think you got a lot of flavor into this rib eye
-in a very short period of time. -Thank you.
I like the vinaigrette that you made with the watermelon,
but it's a little but hard to get the noodles with,
because of the weight of the spinach that's on top of it.
The utilization of the goat cheese in the vinaigrette
made it nice and creamy, it coated all those noodles,
but I think you could've either made it completely a salad
or completely a noodle dish,
and what we have here is something
kind of in the middle.
Thank you.
[Nilou] Chef Mike, I have to agree,
but I do wanna keep on coming back
and having more of the blistered shishito and the rib eye.
And the little hits of scallion that I'm getting are lovely.
Thank you.
[Ted] All right, chef, if you win, you get $10,000,
what would you do with that?
[Mike] Uh, when I win,
I'm going to use the $10,000,
uh, for my Little Chef Diner,
I just bought a 1950s vintage diner.
Just wanna put money back into it and just keep growing.
Chef Mike, thank you.
Thank you.
Next up, Chef Sam.
Okay, so what I've made for you guys today
is a Curried Rib Eye
with pickled watermelon
and rosemary infused whipped goat cheese.
Aesthetically, I wasn't sure what to expect
when going into this dish,
but then as soon as I started eating it,
it all completely made sense.
You get some of the meat,
you get that pickled watermelon.
The cook on the shishito peppers,
text book well done, they're blistered.
I think this all worked very well for you.
Thank you, chef.
There is a lot of flavor in each layer of your creations,
but I'm getting a lot of, lot of salt from that goat cheese,
but the rosemary is a nice touch.
Thank you, chef.
Couple of things, I love the pickle on the watermelon,
but I don't love the texture of it.
And then you kinda cooked, my steak at least,
I have pieces that are, like, very, very well done,
and then I have pieces that are, like, very, very rare,
-but the flavors are really stunning. -Thank you, chef.
[Ted] Chef Sam, thank you.
And finally, Chef Seiger.
[Sieger] So we've got Beef Larb,
some charred and marinated shishito peppers,
a little bit of, like, watermelon kinda add some sweetness,
and I've just, uh, hit the goat cheese with some more,
like, the mirin and fish sauce
to kinda incorporate with everything.
Have you ever put goat cheese and larb together and seen that?
Never seen it.
I think the laws of larb say not to put goat cheese...
-Yeah, 100% -...with, with the larb.
Um, but it adds this creaminess
that cuts through all that
salty, umami fish sauce
that you have worked into that meat marinade.
And then you have the crispy lettuce to kinda scoop everything up.
Very well thought out.
[Chris] This is very craveable,
and I think you did the best job with the rib eye overall.
Did you out anything else in here for spice or is it just the shishito?
-It's just the shishito. -Well, you got a hot one and it works perfectly.
-[Nilou] Yeah. -It works really perfectly.
I'll take it. Thank you.
[Chris] Minced basil,
cilantro, um, all those things would've really elevated this.
I agree, more herbs, but I love the flavor,
I think it's a beautiful plate of food.
Knife cuts in the rib eye are beautiful,
but even the way you've cut the watermelon
from the watermelon cake is very impressive.
-[Ted] Chef Sieger, thank you. -Thank you.
You all put forth a great effort,
but only three chefs can cook in the second round.
[Lauren] I think Mike is gonna get chopped,
I think overall, he didn't have a well composed dish,
and I'm really hopping that my flavors beat him in this round.
[Sam] I think I did a good job,
but Chef Chris, his meat was rare
and also, like, over done
but I transformed the ingredients,
and the flavor was there,
so hopefully, that's enough to get me to the next round.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Knew it. [chuckles]
Chef Lauren, you've been chopped.
Judges.
[Nilou] Chef Lauren, the plate was beautiful,
but we wish you had created
more transformation with the rib eye,
and we felt that the goat cheese
needed to be transformed more as well,
and so we have to chop you.
Thank you so much, it's been an honor.
I'm sad to go, I feel like I had a lot more to showcase,
but I think my family and my kids are gonna be excited to see me.
They know I put my heart out there,
I did my best, and that's all that I can do at this point.
[mouthing] I've been chopped. [chuckles]
Chef Mike, Chef Sam, Chef Sieger,
let's see if you can keep the momentum going
with whatever you find in these.
Please open your entrée baskets.
Okay, what is in this?
[Ted] And can you make incredible dishes
with movie theatre popcorn...
[Mike] The popcorn is gonna be a little tricky.
Some eggplant.
[Ted] ...Japanese eggplant,
Cornish hens...
[Mike] Oh.
[Ted] ...and egg tofu.
Egg tofu, I have no idea what this even tastes like.
[Sam] This is definitely harder than the first round.
Yeah, definitely harder basket for sure.
But it's doable, we'll make it work.
[Ted] Thirty minutes.
Clock starts now.
-[Nilou] Yeah. -[Chris] There they go.
-Nice job. -Come on, let's go.
Onion powder, paprika,
garlic powder.
Judges, at first glance, this might not look like a very difficult basket,
but this is Chopped, what are the pitfalls?
-I think the Cornish hen is the trip up in this basket. -[Nilou] Really?
-[Ted] Really? -[Joe] 'Cause you have this
really lean piece of protein,
incredibly flavorful, lots of fat in there,
-but the cooking and managing the clock in this... -[Chris] Yes.
-...I think is going to be the challenge. -Yup.
[Sieger] I wanna cook the Cornish hen in a cast iron pan,
skin side down, so it gets nice and crisp,
'cause I know they're probably gonna need five to ten minutes to cook,
just wanna make sure they cook through,
and take the rest of the bone to make the jus.
Chef Sieger, are you taking a request again in this round or...
-Yeah, absolutely. -[Chris laughs]
Just kidding, just kidding.
What are you making for us?
I'm gonna do a seared Cornish game hen
with some marinated Japanese eggplant
and, uh, popcorn and egg tofu somewhere in the dish.
At this point, I feel like we're all just neck and neck in the competition,
but I love the competitiveness of cooking
and the short deadlines
and the energy that you get from the kitchen.
It's, like, one of the best things in the world.
[Mike] So, on my Cornish hens,
I wanna get a nice rub on them.
Add some of my Mexican flair to this.
I season them with honey powder, garlic powder,
oregano, paprika, cumin and coriander.
I'm making a popcorn sope
with spice rub Cornish hen and a guajillo salsa.
-Chef Mike. -[Mike] Yes?
What are you making for us?
Uh, I'm gonna do a sope.
So I'm gonna reinfuse, um, the masa with the corn.
And then, I'm gonna do a guajillo sauce.
[Chris] I love that he's drying in that popcorn down
and putting it in some masa, that's very cool.
[Mike] Let's go, let's go, let's go.
Uh, my mom used to marinate chicken in epis,
and I think that's what I'm gonna do today.
For my dish,
I am making seared Cornish hen breast
marinated in epis, with eggplant legume.
Chef Sam, what are you making?
It's epis. It's a Haitian herb blend.
With cilantro, parsley, onion, shallots.
I'm just making it work.
-Okay. -Fifteen minutes to go, chefs.
[Sam] Some more.
[Joe] Japanese eggplant.
Very different than that large, black Italian eggplant
that you see in the store.
Uh, much less seeds, much less bitter.
When it's cooked,
the interior becomes very soft and decadent.
You could fry it, you could broil it, sauté it, grill it.
In my opinion, Japanese eggplant
is the best thing to deep-fry outside of potatoes.
It's crispy on the outside, but it gets really creamy
-in the center. -Yeah.
[Mike] The Japanese eggplant makes me think of calabacitas.
Calabacitas are just a medley of different squashes.
I'm gonna sauté this Japanese eggplant
with some zucchini and onion.
Mmm, I love that.
With my Japanese eggplant,
I plan to make legume.
Legume is a Haitian dish that I grew up eating.
Uh, can't use that, there's flavor in there.
So, once my eggplant gets a nice char,
I am adding brown sugar, mushrooms, bell peppers,
as well as shallot and oil.
[Sieger] So, the eggplant's going into a marinade.
I add some jalapenos, some shallot, two vinegars.
I know this dish is gonna need
some acidity and some brightness,
so I really want that marinade
from the eggplant to shine through.
Six minutes, y'all.
[Ted] Is anybody else worried
that Mike might have waited too late
to start his sopes?
[Mike] I was going to pan-fry my sope,
but once I put it in the pan, I realized it wasn't hot enough.
So I need to pivot and drop this in the deep fryer.
[Ted] Four minutes, chefs.
Come on.
Chefs, you have all your ingredients.
[Sieger] At this moment, I realize
I haven't done anything with that popcorn.
Oh, my gosh.
[Sieger] So I'm adding the popcorn to the jus.
This is gonna be the flavor
that really boosts up this jus.
[Ted] Get it done, chefs, get it done.
Get it done. You got this, let's go!
What is... What the hell?
[Joe] Sam, I'm on the edge of my seat over here,
tell me you have a plan for the egg tofu.
I'm creating a sauce right now.
[Chris] This is gonna be interesting.
Down to the wire.
[Sam] I'm going to use my movie-theater popcorn
and make a egg tofu sauce.
[Chris] This egg tofu is made of pasteurized eggs
as well as water, and obviously, soy.
It's got a little bit
-of a custard consistency. -[Nilou] Mmm-hmm.
That bit of an egg flavor.
[Nilou] I think it would actually be a really good use.
It'll almost give you that velvetiness
of a sauce that you might not have time to develop,
-by just blending it in. -[Chris] Yeah.
[Ted] All right, chefs, you're coming up
on the two-minute warning here.
[Sieger] I have three of the four components ready to go.
I look at the egg tofu,
and I'm thinking, that has to be a sauce.
So I grab the blender, fill my egg tofu in there,
and hit it with a little bit of the jus.
[Mike] I wanna stay true to my roots this round
and make guajillo salsa.
I still need to use the egg tofu.
It tastes very bland,
but I think I can give my guajillo sauce
a nice consistency.
[Chris] Let's go, Mike, finish up.
Home stretch!
Heard.
[Chris] Paint those plates up, make them look nice.
[Nilou] Okay, here we go.
Finishing touches, finishing touches!
Follow through, chefs, get it done!
Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six,
five, four,
three, two, one...
-Time's up! -[Nilou] Wow! Wow!
-Wow! -[Joe exclaims]
[Mike] My dish came together pretty well.
I had a plan and I stuck to it.
And I wanted to make sure I put my roots on
to that plate, and that's exactly what I did.
[chuckles] I definitely think
that this dish will get me to the dessert round, for sure.
Chefs, you opened your entree baskets
and found movie-theater popcorn,
Japanese eggplant, Cornish hens, and egg tofu.
Chef Sieger, what have you made?
Here, we have a roasted Cornish game hen,
seared Turkish eggplant, popcorn jus,
and a egg tofu crema.
[Chris] I think the jus is really great.
For 30 minutes,
you've really coaxed a lot of flavor out of that bird.
My Cornish game hen is really crispy.
Great crisp on the skin, but it is too, also,
a tad overcooked, it's not very juicy.
-Thank you. -[Joe] I think you executed
a lot of things perfectly on here.
The eggplant, my favorite part,
you got this beautiful caramelization on the outside,
so it almost has this, like, bitterness to it
that provide a fantastic relief
to that really creamy egg tofu
-you have down on the bottom. -Thank you.
[Nilou] Chef Sieger, the base that you've created
with that, uh, sulken tofu
is velvety in a lovely bed
for everything else to rest on.
Um, but my Cornish hen's a tiny bit overdone.
What would winning Chopped mean to you?
[Sieger] It's the next step in my career.
I just kind of wanna do this, I've traveled a bunch,
I've worked in a couple of big cities.
And then, just kind of, like, prove
to some of my cooks, myself, my family,
that I still got it.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Sieger.
Next up, Chef Sam.
Okay, so what I have in front of you today
is a seared Cornish hen breast
marinated in epis, a Haitian herb blend.
And charred eggplant legume.
[Nilou] Chef Sam, you've done a beautiful job.
I love that you're representing Haiti
through this plate of food.
The smoky flavor that you got from the eggplant
is one of my favorites.
And the Cornish hen is perfectly done
and incredibly moist.
Yeah, I agree. The Cornish hen, it's absolutely delicious.
And then, this eggplant,
it's got delicious flavor.
But the skin is separated from the eggplant.
It becomes kind of hard to chew,
kind of like it's stuck in your teeth.
And it just doesn't have great texture.
Thank you.
[Joe] The fact that you have the flavor of the popcorn
but the texture of the egg tofu,
it eats and reads like a super-creamy polenta.
And it's just really, really pleasant.
And what motivated you to compete with us?
[Sam] In my culture,
if you're not, like, a doctor, engineer, or a lawyer,
they don't really consider you doing much of anything
with your career.
So, that's why I'm here on Chopped,
to prove that I take this very seriously,
and this is a career path that I'm choosing.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Sam.
Finally, Chef Mike.
I made for you guys today, a popcorn sope
with a spice rub hen and guajillo salsa.
[Joe] I love the way you worked that movie-theater popcorn
into the sope, you really taste that butteriness.
And it adds that different corniness to it.
The guajillo salsa on the bottom,
working in that egg tofu,
stroke of genius.
-Thank you. -What I do think
could have been accomplished a little better
is just a little more salt.
-[Mike] Okay. -All throughout the dish.
-Thank you. -[Nilou] I do feel
like there's some seasoning missing.
So, the Cornish hen is delicious,
but I just think that sope
is such a central part of this dish
that it just needed to be a little bit more delicate.
[Chris] Yeah, I mean, that's a giant sope, right?
And it's dense.
-Like, it's super dense. -Yeah. I agree.
-But there's a lot of good work that you did as well. -Thank you.
And this is my favorite Cornish game hen of the round.
[Ted] Okay.
Which two chefs will face off in the dessert round?
[Mike] I feel like I should move into the next round
because my Cornish hen was cooked the best.
And I feel like that will kind of give me the edge.
[Sieger] Coming out of the judging, I think it's neck and neck.
I don't think any of us are, like, safe,
or anyone is, like, for sure, going home.
So, kind of nervous.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Mike, you've been chopped.
Judges...
[Joe] Chef Mike, that sope was very dense,
And I think overall, your dish
lacked the level of seasoning and salt.
And for those reasons, we had to chop you.
Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you.
-Thank you. -Bye! I want a hug.
-Good luck, man. Good luck. -Thank you.
-Good luck, guys. -Thank you.
Thank you, guys. Bye.
It's unfortunate, but I'm proud of just being here.
What's next for me is my little chef diner,
and the food trailer,
and just see where it takes me from there.
[Ted] Chef Sam, Chef Sieger,
anybody wanna just walk away? Back down? Give up?
-Hell no, I came all this way. -Too late to turn around. Let's do this.
[Ted] All right, let's check out what you'll be
dealing with for dessert.
Open the final basket.
-[Sieger] Oh, god. -[chuckles excitedly]
[Ted] And you see mochi donuts.
[Sam] I'm loving this.
[Ted] Guavas.
Vanilla frosting.
[Ted] Vanilla frosting.
Okay!
[Ted] And a Craft cosmopolitan.
-[Sam] Okay. -Uh, yeah.
It'll be fun. Let's see what happens.
[Ted] Once again, 30 minutes.
Clock starts now.
-[judges cheering] -[Joe] Yeah, let's go, let's go!
-Okay! -[Chris] Last round.
-Who's gonna take it? -[Joe] Here we go.
Just gonna take that.
[Ted] Judges, this has been quite the competition so far.
Does one of these chefs have an edge going into dessert?
I think Chef Sieger is a little bit more consistent
-in his two first dishes. -[Ted] Okay.
[Joe] So it's really his competition
to lose at this point.
Whereas Chef Sam
is really gaining momentum in every round.
And if she continues that momentum,
she might have enough to really knock him out.
[mumbling]
I feel like I'm right there, like,
Chopped champion, and I'm, like, right there. [chuckles]
Behind you.
[Sam] I love guava
because it is a fruit that grows in Haiti.
And guava is tangy, it's sweet.
For my dessert, I'm making soaked mochi doughnuts
with a guava cosmopolitan syrup,
and a vanilla mascarpone frosting.
[Nilou] We do have guava in this basket,
which is a beautiful tropical fruit.
The flavor is musky and tropical
-and super sexy. -[Joe] Musky is a really good word.
But it's not a fruit
that you can just puree it all together.
You really need to make sure whatever you're doing with it,
-that the seeds are out. -Yes.
[Sam] I am going to use the Craft cosmopolitan
and a guava to make a syrup.
[Chris] Cosmo is very sweet,
and that vanilla frosting is extremely sweet.
The cosmopolitan is cranberry juice, vodka,
orange liqueur, and lime juice.
[Nilou] So there's a lot of brazing acid
-in whatever preparation you're making. -[Ted] Yes.
So you have to balance it out somehow and make it smoother.
I can't wait to see what they're gonna do with that.
[Sieger] I'm looking at all these ingredients
and I'm thinking,
gotta do something with some cream to help
knock down all the sweetness.
-Chef Sieger. -[Sieger] Chef!
What are you making this round for us?
Uh, guava mousse,
with caramel dragéed mochi donuts,
and vanilla frosting somewhere.
[Nilou] A guava mousse sounds really, really lovely to me.
Like, it feels like the right vehicle--
-Elegant, decadent. -For... yeah.
For... For... For a guava flavor.
[Sieger] To make this mousse,
I get cream, milk, and guava in a pot,
and I wanna get this to a simmer,
just so it thickens a little bit more.
Mochi donuts are gonna be the texture of this dish,
so I chop them up and get them in the oven to dry out.
Once they're nice, dry and crispy,
they're gonna go into a pan with caramel.
Just 14 minutes on the clock.
How you feelin'?
Good feeling. How are you feelin'? You good?
Making way.
About to taste these donuts.
Do they all taste the same?
Mochi donut's similar to a American
or Western-style fried donut, except these are made
with glutenous rice flour and tapioca starch.
It gives them this really unique chewiness.
I think what I would do is steep them in some sort of milk or cream,
kind of like a cereal milk,
-or make a donut milk with it. -[Nilou] Oh.
And then turn that into, like, an anglaise,
-or an ice cream. -[Nilou] Ice cream.
[Sam] I broke my mochi donuts apart
and soaked them in a mint simple syrup.
Usually, Haitians eat coffee with bread and, like, dunk it in there.
And so, I wanted to do the same thing
but with the donut.
And then, I throw them in the oven
so they're not too soggy.
[Sieger] I'm gonna start the caramel
that I put the mochi donuts in.
To make this dry caramel, I get sugar, just, in a pan,
over high heat and let it go.
Being Chopped champion,
first of all, is a great thing.
Winning the pot of $10,000 doesn't hurt.
And having the bragging rights is great.
That is something that I can, kind of, push it
on my friends and cooks' faces.
[Nilou] Chef Sieger is having a real issue
with his guava mousse, it's not setting.
[Ted] I mean, the idea
of using whipped cream to thicken that mousse,
that might be a good idea, except for the fact
that the mousse, I think, is still hot.
[Sieger] I want a nice, thick, velvety mousse.
But it's still a little loose,
so I'm gonna get it right into the freezer.
Five minutes to go, chefs.
Five minutes.
But I take a look at the caramel...
Oops!
And then I realize, my dry caramel burned.
Sorry to whoever has to clean that pan.
[Joe] I see the pan smoking,
which is not a good sign when you're making caramel.
[Sieger] I let it go too far,
so now I gotta start everything over.
[Ted] Might work,
but he's barely got enough time to do it.
It's gonna be close.
[Joe] Sieger, gonna make us a ten thousand-dollar dessert?
Yes, chef!
I hope.
All right, so we are quickly running out of time here,
and Sieger's first caramel has burned.
Terrible. He's starting over.
He's got very little time to get this done.
He just looks at the clock and he winced,
as if somebody had punched him in the stomach.
[Sieger] I still have to deal with that vanilla frosting.
I wanna use some of the brightness
and the alcohol from the cosmo
to offset the sweetness of the vanilla frosting.
[Joe] Chef Sieger, you got a lot of pans on the stove there.
How are you feeling right now?
Stressed, comfortable, confident?
[Sieger] Can I get five more minutes?
-[Chris laughs] Okay. -[laughing]
Coming up on three minutes.
[Sieger] Second batch of caramel is a success.
Now I'm ready to put this dried mochi donut in there.
These mochi donuts are gonna add texture to my dish
when I hit them with caramel and buzz them up.
Chefs, you're coming up on two minutes here.
[Nilou] Chef Sam, you can do it!
-Come on, chefs! -[Joe] Let's go, chefs.
-Final countdown. -[Chris] Come on.
$10,000 dessert. No pressure.
I taste the vanilla frosting, and it is way too sweet.
So I grab some mascarpone
and I whip it into the frosting.
[Ted] You got this, chefs. Get it done, get it done.
Final seconds of the final round, chefs.
-Ten, nine, eight, seven... -[Nilou] Make it beautiful.
-Here we go, chefs. You can do it! -[Ted] ...six, five, four,
three, two, one.
-Time's up! -[judges applauding]
[Nilou] Yes!
[Sam] I think I'm going home a Chopped champion today.
I got this one in the bag.
[Sieger] I mean, I came out here. I tried super hard.
I just wanna make sure that, like, my final plates shine.
But I know Sam knows what she's doing, too.
So it's a toss-up.
[Ted] Chef Sam and Chef Sieger,
very exciting to watch you make desserts
using mochi donuts, guavas,
vanilla frosting, and a craft Cosmopolitan.
Chef Sieger, please tell us about your dessert.
So, what we have here is guava mousse
set on top of Cosmo and vanilla sauce,
and then mochi crumble on top.
It's rich. I like the way you dosed the sweetness in the bottom
and that your guava mousse isn't so sweet.
So that comes together really nicely.
-Thank you. -[Joe] I would've never thought
to pair a craft Cosmo and vanilla frosting together.
But I feel like that's gonna be a new classic pairing
-in the pastry world now. -[judges laugh]
Uh, because you get that tartness and that acidity
from the craft Cosmo
that cuts through that sickly-sweet vanilla frosting.
What I feel like didn't really work
is this guava mousse.
It eats more like a bowl of whipped cream.
I don't get that tart, tangy, sweet guava flavor
that I'm looking for.
[Nilou] Chef Sieger, I have to agree.
But the highlight for me is the mochi crumble.
-That feels like it's, like, the most successful. -Awesome. Thank you.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Sieger.
Finally, Chef Sam.
So, what you have in front of you
is soaked mochi donuts with a guava-Cosmo syrup
and a vanilla mascarpone frosting.
Chef Sam, vanilla frosting in a can is one of my life's guilty pleasures,
and I didn't think it could get any better.
But what you created here I think tops that.
-Thank you. -[Joe] I think it was a great move
to whip in the mascarpone cheese,
creating this ganache-like texture,
which works really well as an anchor
to hold your whole dessert together.
-Thank you, chef. -I have to concur with the very smart Joe Sasto.
But I wanted more guava.
I love the hints of raspberry that I got,
and if there was a way for you to create something
with the raspberry and guava together,
it would've been great.
-Thank you. -For me, it's just very mint-forward
when I'm really searching for guava, right?
Yeah.
-[Ted] Chef Sam, thank you. -Thank you.
[Ted] One runner-up, one champion.
The judges must sort through who has won which title.
Thank you, chefs.
Well, judges, should we start with the appetizer round?
Sam did some really, uh, smart things in the first round.
I love the way she pickled that watermelon.
[Joe] I really enjoyed what she did to the goat cheese.
She whipped it together with the rosemary and some olive oil
that I think tied everything together.
[Chris] But the ribeye itself was unevenly cooked
and it lacked seasoning.
Sieger made us, uh, a larb.
He did a beautiful job with the knife cuts
on both the ribeye and on the watermelon from the watermelon cake.
[Joe] I think he overdressed that salad
and it just became soggy and wet
and very hard to eat.
[Nilou] In the entree round from Sieger,
he used the Japanese eggplant,
did that double cook technique
which we were all impressed by.
It got them a little bit caramelized.
He did a nice job cooking his Cornish hen,
although we felt like the cook was a little bit over.
I love that, uh, Sam leaned into her Haitian roots
-even further in the entree round... -[Joe] Mmm-hmm.
[Chris] ...with that amazing marinade
that she put on her Cornish hen.
-That was so good. -[Chris] And that wonderful saute of eggplant.
But the skin separated from the eggplant,
and they were bitter and they were hard to eat.
-That round's very close. -I think that round is very close.
I could make a case that Sieger's dishes were better than hers,
but her individual flavors in each dish were better than his.
[Sam] I gave it all I got,
and at this point,
I just have to leave it in the judges' hands.
[Sieger] I'm gonna be super stoked
if I'm the Chopped champion.
So I hope the first two dishes
helped push me across the finish line.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Sam, you've been chopped.
Judges?
[Chris] Chef Sam, you cooked really well today.
The first round, I love that you pickled the watermelon.
However, the texture of the watermelon was a little off-putting
and your ribeye itself was unevenly cooked and under-seasoned.
In the entree round,
the eggplant saute was delicious,
but the skin separated,
and it was bitter and kind of hard to eat.
And so, we had to chop you.
-Well, thank you. -[Chris] But you did a fantastic job
and you can walk out of here with your head held high.
-I wanna give you a hug, 'cause you did that, honey. -Thank you.
[Sam] What I'm going to take away from this competition is...
Everybody needs to watch out. [laughs]
Bye, thank you, guys.
Like, I really feel like I proved myself today
as a young Black woman chef.
That means, Chef Sieger Bayer,
you are the Chopped champion.
-Well done. -Thank you so much. Hell, yeah. Thank you.
[Ted] $10,000 is the prize.
You really earned this, chef. Way to go.
Everything in my career has been a step towards this,
and then just carry this on to the next thing.
It's been a crazy day
and a lot of, like, fun challenges and curveballs,
but being a Chopped champion is the vanilla frosting
on the cake of this great experience.