[Opal] I feel a lot of pride.
There's a lot of honor involved in this.
[Caleb] My whole life, people have always kinda doubted me.
I'm ready to silence those haters.
Let's get it.
Double time!
[Ted] This tournament is about honor and commitment.
[woman] I don't quit.
[Georges] This is all or nothing for me.
[Xavier] I love this feeling.
[woman] The adrenaline rush is real.
[Ted] Sixteen military chefs
battle to represent their branch.
Champs will join forces...
Unbelievably crazy.
[Ted] ...it's our nation's best...
[Sunny] You can say that again.
[Blesam] B-E-S-T, best.
-It's so good. -[cheering]
[Ted] ...put to the ultimate test.
These chefs, they'll do whatever it takes to win.
Oh, yeah, baby, here we go.
-[groans] -You've gotta finish.
[Opal] But you don't train for something like this.
[man] Everything has to be flawless.
[woman] The only time you fail...
-[man grunts] -...is when you quit.
Let's go!
[shouting] What do you want from me?
Get the food on the plate.
Oh, God!
[in normal voice] I'm here to win and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
-[Sunny] Remember, he's bomb squad. -He's bomb squad.
[Ted] This is Chopped. Military Salute.
[Mo] Integrity first,
service before self, and excellence in all we do.
That's why we're the best.
[Opal] I joined because I wanted to be part
of something greater than myself
[Xavier] I love it honestly.
[Blesam] In the Air Force, we have this slogan,
"Aim High ... Fly-Fight-Win".
That's exactly what I'm here to do.
My name is Opal Poullard,
and I am an advanced culinary instructor
based out of Fort Lee, Virginia.
I describe my style of cooking to be very diverse.
As a culinary instructor, I teach all military chefs.
Show me what you got, chef.
You have to be one of the best to teach the best.
Smells amazing.
I'm the best the Air Force has to offer,
and now I'm coming for that Chopped champion title.
My name is Blesam Sadang.
I'm a services craftsman
based out of Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas.
I grew up in a little small island in the South Pacific.
We cook a lot with Asian spices
and different type of sauces.
When you taste my food, you'll expect flavor.
There's no denying it.
That's how you grill a short rib right there.
I'm very competitive.
I think of cooking competitions as a sport
and one thing's on our mind is to win. So I'm here to win.
[Mo] This win is mine.
Typically, when people say that they get chopped first, I feel... [laughs]
I am a culinary specialist
stationed at Peterson Space Force Base.
Make sure you guys have everything you need.
My style of cooking is inspired by my culture.
Oh, we're just crisping up some chicken skin.
I was born and raised in the Philippines.
My grandma inspired me to cook.
The Air Force has given me the opportunity to do what I love.
I was deployed in a very remote location in Africa,
and I've worked in mobile kitchens.
So working in the Chopped kitchen will be a breeze.
[exclaims] Mami, this looks good.
I am a services craftsman.
I'm based in Okinawa, Japan.
My style of food has definitely stemmed from my childhood.
While other kids were watching cartoons,
I was watching the Food Network and culinary shows.
It's gonna be umami, little spicy,
and a whole lot of flavor.
In my position, we're at the flight kitchen
we provide flight meals to anyone that's gonna be on the aircraft.
If I can handle a flight kitchen,
I can handle a Chopped kitchen.
Our Military Salute tournament continues
with four chefs from the US Air Force
touching down in the Chopped kitchen.
Welcome, everyone.
-Good morning, Ted. -Thank you. Hi, Ted.
You're competing for a spot in the tournament's finale
where you'll join winners from three other branches
of the US Armed Forces.
So which one is going to win the coveted
Air Force slot on the team?
-It's gonna be me. -It's gonna be me,
-of course. -This girl right here.
I didn't fly thousands of miles to lose.
All right, let's get into these.
Please reveal your appetizer ingredients.
Oh, man. [laughs]
-Oh, wow. -[Ted] What do you chefs
think of pilot bread crackers,
rainbow carrots...
Well, baby colorful carrots.
-...goat chops... -Goat chops.
I can do something with this.
That's our cream cheese.
...and a bowl of chili?
It's got my brain spinning right now.
It's gonna be a challenge but we'll make it happen.
Thirty minutes to produce flavorful creative apps.
Clock starts now.
-[Alex] All right. -[all clamoring]
-Let's go, let's do this! -Sounds like a bass.
[judges] All right!
-Behind. -Judges, to be in the Air Force,
you have to have nerves of steel and be able to think quickly
in the most challenging situations, all of which is to say,
the pressure of the Chopped kitchen might not even
-faze these people. -Not at all.
I'm a former Air Force member.
I got in that Chopped kitchen, was not fazed.
I would call the demeanor of our Air Force chefs
pure military bearing.
Don't let 'em see you sweat.
I feel like I'm more nervous than they are.
I'm very nervous.
[Mo] Chopped is no joke, it's stressful.
But I'm a master resilience trainer where I equip people
with tools to cope with stress.
So I'm feeling strong, competitive, and confident.
As soon as I see the chili, I know I wanna make hash.
I was born and raised in the Philippines.
The hash is similar to a Filipino dish called giniling,
and giniling means ground.
I'm using the goat chops
as an additional meat component
in my hash along with the chili.
The Air Force has taught me how to be hard-working
and driven. I'm a mom of two.
Is it yummy?
Winning Chopped would
definitely show their mom's hard work, resiliency.
Mom is tough.
I'm super ready to come into this Chopped kitchen
because of the experience that I've had with working with limited resources.
I've been cooking in a tent
feeding up to 400 people,
and so this Chopped kitchen is gonna be nothing to me.
I've never worked with goat meat before,
but I've worked with lamb chops.
I'm thinking that they're kind of the same type or style of protein.
We might think that a goat chop will be really long cooking,
-but these are decently quick cooking. -[Sunny] Yeah, sure.
[Alex] And then to top it off,
we're doing a double protein with a giant bowl of chili.
I don't know how you make it into an appetizer.
-Right, right. -I think that's kind of the challenge.
[Blesam] I am making encrusted
goat meat on a bed of chili with glazed carrots.
After I cut my goat meat, I begin to work
on my pilot bread crackers and my crust for the goat.
[Marc] So these are crackers that are in a can.
I guess they take all the oxygen out
so they can last for a long time.
You can make a crust with it,
you can use it to thicken something.
I think it would be great on top of a salad.
[Opal] As a culinary instructor,
I teach chefs across all the branches in the military.
The students that I teach go on
to cook for the military's top officials.
And I take that responsibility very seriously.
I'm making a goat chili croquette
with a carrot purée.
I think the goat chops will work well in the croquette
because the flavors will blend well with the chili.
[Xavier] When I see these goat chops,
the first thing that comes to mind is pan searing them.
I'm making a pan-seared goat chop
with reconstructed chili.
What I've learned the most about being in the Air Force
is definitely how to think on my toes
and be quick on my feet.
So I plan to reconstruct the chili
and enhance it with the carrots, shallots,
rosemary, thyme, and garlic.
Everything is sautéing in the pan,
I feel like I'm in my zone now.
[Mo] I'm hoping that the rainbow carrots
will bring texture and pop of color to my hash.
Mo, how are you feeling down there? How's the pressure?
-Is it just like-- -I--
I'm feeling it. I don't stress,
still don't know what to do with the crackers.
Heyo! Crackers.
Pilot bread crackers, it's really dry.
Tastes like cardboard.
I am parched after that first bite,
like, it's so dry.
So I decide to make a crumble out of these crackers,
and mix it with fresh herbs
to add flavor and texture to the dish.
I taste my potatoes
and my potatoes are still not cooked through.
I'm really starting to worry.
I put a lid on it hoping the steam will help it.
[Opal] To make my carrot purée, I boil the carrots
and I blend them with heavy cream.
It's not blending well, it's too thick.
But my experience serving in the Air Force
-has really shaped me... -Behind, chefs.
-...to think quickly on my feet. -Behind.
So I add water to it to loosen it up
and I think it'll be okay.
[Xavier] I pull out the pilot bread crackers
and grab the food processor
along with the rosemary, thyme, and garlic.
I want to use them as a garnish for the goat chops.
[Marc] Boy, Xavier's gonna give us a lot of crackers.
Pilot bread crackers are definitely not something
we serve day-to-day at the Air Force Base.
[Blesam] Rainbow carrots are sweet,
so I am thinking of making a glaze with it.
My goal of these carrots is to make something sweet
and a little bit of spice.
What's that?
-Oh, cut. -[man] All right, come on, come with me.
I don't like these kind of updates
but Blesam has cut himself.
[Blesam] I run over and I get my bandage.
Blesam got cut and he walked away from the pan.
He burned his carrots.
[Blesam] Yeah, this cut is unexpected
so it's definitely throwing me off my game.
So Blesam cut himself.
When he was going to get himself fixed up,
he ended up burning his carrots.
I cannot not have these carrots on this plate.
Chefs, less than five minutes to get this done.
Change your plans if you have to.
[Blesam] So I'm remaking the carrots,
I'm dicing them up and then
I'm getting some more butter and brown sugar.
Wait a minute. I'm seeing fried eggs going in now.
I am making fried eggs for my hash
to give a richness of flavor.
It's hard to fry four eggs when you are under pressure.
[Sunny] Yeah, you gotta take your time with the sunny-side up egg.
-Right, and you don't have a hell of a lot of time. -[Sunny] Sure don't.
-Behind, behind. -[Opal] Heard, heard.
[Mo] Behind, behind, behind, behind.
Opal, what are you frying?
I went ahead and took the chili
and I-- I had, uh, seared off the goat meat,
put that together with some goat cheese,
-and just tried to make a quick croquette out of that. -I'll take it.
I have three basket ingredients
in these croquettes. I need them to be perfect.
They are stressed, you can tell.
None of 'em are talking to each other or smiling.
They mean business and it's crunch time.
One minute left, you gotta get it all on the plate, let's go.
[Xavier] I decide to put the goat chop
in a bowl and layer the chili on top.
Come on, Air Force, make me proud.
Blesam's in the pantry.
-[Ted] Thirty seconds, chefs. -Half a minute.
There's thirty seconds left, get out of the pantry.
[Blesam] I'm adding onions to this chili to give it
a little bit of flavor and crunch.
[Ted] All right, you gotta fix whatever needs fixing right now, chefs.
Ten, nine,
-eight... -You've gotta finish.
-...seven, six... -Come on!
...five, four,
three, two, one.
Time's up.
Wow.
-[sighs] -[laughs]
[Xavier] We did it.
I feel like I could've done a little better in certain places
but honestly, I just put it-- I gave it my all.
I just put the best dish I could out there.
[Mo] I feel good about my dish. But I'm worried about
my potatoes because when I tried them in the beginning,
they weren't completely done.
US Air Force chefs, you have arrived
at the chopping block.
We gave you an appetizer basket of pilot bread crackers,
rainbow carrots, goat chops, and a bowl of chili.
Chef Mo, please tell us about your appetizer.
I made for you a chili carrot goat hash,
and on top of it is a fried egg
and a crumble of pilot bread crackers.
First of all, you came up with a great idea.
It's a proper dish for an appetizer.
I like the idea of the egg on it.
Those bread crackers, obviously, they're very dry
and I thought, you know, mixing with parsley was--
was a good idea. It gives it a little bit of crunch.
It also helped with the, sort of, presentation on the plate.
The pilot bread crackers, I would want more, right?
Just so I could really get that crunch and a vibe from it.
Um, I think there are just some issues beneath the egg.
And it was kind of oversoft and my yolk
just already, it cracked before I had a chance to it.
I always feel like that's-- that's my job
-to make the yolk run, you know what I mean? -Yes, chef.
My potatoes are toothsome.
So maybe it's just the uniformity of your cut.
Really, really creative.
I have double the potatoes I do carrots.
There's no potatoes in the basket.
Stick to that basket, hug that shoreline,
just go and just look at that basket.
Yes, chef, I'm coming for it for the second round.
Next up, Chef Opal.
So chefs, I made for you a goat chili croquette
with a carrot purée.
How long have you served with the US Air Force?
So Ted, I've been in the Air Force for 19 years.
When are you gonna commit?
[all laughing]
Think I'm there already. [laughs]
And thank you for your service.
I think the goat cheese and the chili
as a combination is smart and successful.
I think the chili notes in the croquette,
for me, that really works.
I think that the idea of having the ground beef,
and then you've just knife cut the-- the goat chop.
Yeah, I'm getting, like, some big pieces of fat in here.
And then, you really need to make those crackers
represented here and it's a--
A little bit of a missed opportunity there.
I disagree.
I actually like the crunch
of the crackers and the panko.
It's super crunchy but you know,
if you tell me there's goat cheese, I just--
I don't know, I just feel like I wanna get that little... [clicks tongue]
You know, back there to cut through the fat.
Um, and your carrot purée, I would just want a little bit more.
And yeah, punch up the flavors.
Thank you, Chef Opal. Next up, Chef Xavier.
Hi, chefs. I've prepared for you
a pan-seared goat chop and a reconstructed chili.
Where do you serve, chef?
I'm currently serving in Okinawa, Japan,
at Kadena Air Force Base.
I am the facility manager at the flight kitchen.
We have a very mission-critical job to do,
provide flight meals to all the pilots,
and the air crew that go out
and fight the good fight.
I've been there and I've dined at your facility.
It's an interesting choice to put this in a bowl.
I appreciate your seasoning
and the cook on the chop. I just wish I could get to it.
But I do love the addition
of those pilot bread crackers kind of crumbled
and creating a little bit of texture.
[Marc] I agree with a lot of what you said.
I mean, serving a chop for an appetizer
is not something you would normally do.
I mean I'm not extra bulking up for a fight or something.
It's a tricky basket.
Yeah. So I think your use of the heirloom carrots
is really, um, spot-on.
It's tasty and they sort of blend in like meat
but then you get them and they're sort of light and fresh, which is nice.
And I love the addition of the thyme and the rosemary.
So good job, really good.
Thank you, chef.
Thank you, Chef Xavier. Finally, chef Blesam.
Yes, chefs, so I've prepared for you guys
an encrusted goat meat on a bed of chili with some glazed carrots.
I'm originally from Koror, Palau.
It's a pacific island near Guam, southeast of the Philippines.
And I've tried to go back to my roots and cook the way
that we used to cook. So I want you guys to get
the little savory notes from the chili and the meat,
and the sweetness of the carrots to kinda balance it out.
I think your dish is extremely elegant.
It feels like the most composed dish that we've had.
I really love your composition.
The carrots are delicious, I think they're very well-cooked.
But I would've loved, like, a spritz of any kind of acid.
I also love the al dente of your onions.
There's that little bit crunch, um, and I kinda like that.
[Marc] I think presentation-wise, you did a great job.
The-- The plate looked very inviting.
For me, the little piece of, uh, meat on top
that's crusted, it was just overcooked.
I mean, this is a really hard basket, and once again,
when you get two proteins like this,
especially a big piece of meat like that, you think,
"How do you make an appetizer with that?"
-It's hard to redirect in a certain way. -Thanks, chef.
We also understand the first round jitters.
You guys are up against a basket with four ingredients.
Right. Like, keep that basket in the center of your mind.
Don't run from it.
Um, I'm sure there are plenty of things you don't run from
in your work. Don't run from some carrots.
All right. Which three chefs will move on to cook entrées?
The judges will have word on that shortly.
I do regret adding that fat cap to the croquette.
I should've just cut it off.
Based on the feedback as far as on the chopping block,
I feel it could be actually myself
or possibly, Chef Xavier.
It would mean a lot for me to go ahead
and continue cooking in the next round
because I can take all the critiques
that the judges made and improve,
because I'm like fine wine, I get better with time.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Mo, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Mo, I think it's really just boiled down
to the potatoes. Uh, they were undercooked.
The egg was a little bit overcooked.
And those two ingredients aren't even in the basket.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you so much for having us here, it's truly an honor.
Thank you.
[clapping]
[Mo] Thank you.
I'm definitely disappointed
but the Air Force has taught me to be resilient.
So I will definitely be cheering on whoever
makes it to the finals.
Chef Xavier, Chef Blesam, Chef Opal,
ready or not, you have made it to round two. Second basket.
Check out what the entrée round has in store for you.
Wow, okay.
Well, this is a new one for us, perhaps not for all of you.
-Survival coffee. -Survival coffee.
What the... What the...
-[Ted] You also have sugar snap peas. -Okay.
All right.
[Ted] Airline chicken breast.
[laughing] Airline chicken breast.
Oh, that's finadene.
[Ted] And finadene sauce.
Finadene sauce is essentially soy sauce
with little bit of vinegar and some chilis to give you that heat.
Thirty minutes to bang out great main dishes.
Clock starts now.
-Yes! -All right.
[Marc] Come on, let's see it.
Whoa, he's gonna go get dishes?
I'm hoping this time, we really get to see the basket ingredients.
I think that last round was very difficult.
It was a difficult basket.
Some of the ingredients were sort of hidden.
But we let 'em know, we let 'em know.
[Marc] I wanna see you on the plate, I want flavors.
-Don't be shy. -Mm-hmm.
[Opal] Airline chicken is the chicken breast
and the drumette attached together.
This is the kind of meat that I actually teach
my students how to fabricate.
[Alex] We start them with goat chops...
-[Sunny laughing] -...and chili and now,
we go all the way back
to one of the most simplistic universal proteins.
A chicken breast, it's a blank slate.
It looks like an airplane, like the wing...
-The wing is sticking up. -...of the chicken, look.
[Marc] Yeah, very much like an airplane.
[Opal] I'm gonna make a finadene chicken stir-fry
and use rice noodles with it.
Finadene sauce is a type of soy marinate that's used
for barbecue in Guam.
It's clear to me that Opal is building in this second round,
she's on a mission to give us something, sort of,
honed in and really refined.
Those are great qualities.
[Opal] In the first round, I made a lot of mistakes
which was a little tough because I know better.
I have a lot more to give and I want to do a lot better
and show the chefs that I am here to stay
and I'm here to win.
[Xavier] I feel where this basket is going,
that is a very Asian route for me.
I'm making chicken stir-fry with a coffee twist
and jasmine rice.
With my stir-fry, I plan to pay homage
to all the locals that I work with in Okinawa, Japan.
And then, I wanna use shiitake mushrooms in my stir-fry
because that's an Asian mushroom.
I am rehydrating the shiitake mushrooms
in mirin, finadene sauce, and the survival coffee.
The finadene sauce is really sending people in the Asian direction.
The finadene sauce, if you think about it,
it's soy, it's lemon.
[Marc] There's some heat in it.
I might take that sauce and whisk butter into it
-or cream... -[Sunny] Skim a little bit out.
...and just chill it out.
So I'm familiar with finadene sauce
'cause it's originated from Guam
and I'm from Palau near Guam.
I'm making a chicken stir-fry with sweet coffee glaze
and sesame sugar snap peas.
I'm using the finadene sauce as my marinade.
I'm grabbing rice, lemon juice,
mirin, and onion, all for my stir-fry.
The one thing that I have a problem with,
is that dried coffee.
It's actually picked, it's ground, toasted,
and vacuum sealed. And it's supposed to last,
for 30 years or something like that.
[Sunny] Let me tell you, every military office
runs on some strong black coffee.
I think, I would rub it, and use it dry.
[Blesam] I am wanting to add a little bit of bitterness
to my finadene sauce,
so I'm adding the survival coffee to it.
What does it mean do you think that all three chefs
are basically giving you a stir-fry with really similar ingredients?
-I mean-- -[Sunny] Well, I think, they read the basket
and they said, "We're just gonna play it, like we see it"
[Opal] I tried to clean the snap peas as best as possible.
Get them seared nicely with a little bit of color.
Keep that crunch and incorporate that in the stir-fry.
The Air Force has allowed me to live out my dream to become a chef,
so, it will be an honor
to represent them in the finale.
[Sunny] What we're basically, doing here is creating
an elite military unit of service members
that win each of these rounds.
Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines, all team up together
for one common cause.
This is huge.
We've got to pick the right people, right?
[Xavier] It would mean the world to me to win Chopped for my daughter.
I'm the father of two little girls, Sariah and Shalom.
It is very important to me to make it to the next round,
to show them that they can go for their dreams.
We're seeing a huge mistake happening right now.
Xavier is making rice,
and he's only got 17 minutes left.
That's not something you have enough time to do.
[Xavier] I finished the coffee reduction with the finadene sauce,
and I set that aside.
I realize, I have less than 10 minutes left,
and I have to start cooking these veggies.
Blesam is peeling ginger right now.
-Oh, what a great ingredient. -Oh, take it.
[Blesam] I've worked with sugar snap peas before,
so, I'm thinking I'm going o make
a quick saute with them.
With fresh ginger, garlic powder, and fresh red peppers.
[Opal] For my stir-fry, I'm making the sauce using the finadene sauce,
grated garlic, grated ginger.
The energy in the kitchen at this point, is pretty frantic.
Everyone's trying to get their dishe together, and get it plated.
[Xavier] I'm checking my rice, and I realize
it's still crunchy.
Oh, crap.
I'm adding one more scoop of water, hoping that it will
get it to what I want it to be.
[Blesam] I'm tasting my rice, and it's a little bit undercooked.
So I'm fixing this rice by
cutting off the heat, and letting the steam do the process.
-[Ted] There's one and a half minutes on the clock. -[Alex] Xavier, forget it.
-Just plate. Let's go. -[Sunny] Put it on the plate, man...
-[Marc] One minute and 30 seconds! -[Sunny] ...don't worry.
-[Marc] Come on! Come on! -[Alex] Come on!
[Opal] So, I have my chicken, my veggies, my mushrooms in the pan.
I go ahead, and add those noodles.
When I taste my sauce,
I wasn't getting a lot of the coffee flavors,
but at this point, I just have to go with it.
Chefs, you have to plate now, you're down to a minute.
A single minute!
Fine, Chef.
I need some crunch to my dish, so, I run, and grab
some sesame seeds as well as panko.
-[Ted] Thirty seconds. -Xavier, you can do it, let's do this.
You got the sesame seeds?
I'm running around trying to find sesame seeds,
so, I can go ahead, and add it as a garnish.
[Ted] Make those plates pretty.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two , one.
Time's up.
-[applause] -[Alex] Wow.
[Sunny] Wow.
Now that I know that I have a shot to make it to the end, and win this,
I definitely feel the pressure
starting to fire on all cylinders.
[Opal] The Chopped kitchen is giving me a run for my money.
It's very tough.
Yes, I've trained to cook,
but you don't train for something like this enough.
Air Force Chefs, round by round, you're getting it done.
For the entree you brought together
survival coffee, sugar snap peas, airline chicken breast,
and finadene sauce.
So Blesam, what did you make?
I prepared for you guys, a chicken stir-fry
with a sweet coffee glaze, and sesame sugar snap peas.
[Marc] Well, I like the flavor you got,
on these snap peas, the only problem is, you didn't clean them.
You really needed to snap them, and pull that string out.
'Cause it's sort of a-- little, little chewy,
what I'm missing on this plate is sauce.
I've got this chicken, and it's kind of dried out.
It needs a little bit of moisture, this dish.
But you definitely-- this time you brought us more flavor
-which I'm really happy about. -Thanks, Chef.
The way you cut the chicken or didn't,
it's hard to eat.
And I think, if you were making this at home,
wouldn't you put it in a bowl with the rice, and all the stuff on top?
Yeah.
I think, your snap peas were delicious.
I love 'em.
I liked the flavor of your chicken. I just didn't like
the texture of the chicken.
But I really appreciate your cooking.
-Thank you, Chef. -[Ted] Chef?
Are you playing on behalf of someone?
Yes, I'm competing for my mom.
She grew up feeding six people, every single night.
Uh, there wasn't a day she did not cook.
I just learned visually, how she just makes food off the fly.
So, it kind of helped me out especially going in the military.
It's a life skill that I needed to have.
Wow, that's beautiful.
The American Dream.
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you Chef Blesam. Next up, Chef Opal.
Chefs, I made a finadene chicken stir-fry.
You know, there is the sauce which I like.
I'm not detecting much of the coffee.
I put only about a teaspoon in there.
I probably, should have added more.
When I'm done eating, I do have a little bit of that bitter coffee note.
It's in there, but you're right.
You could have just punched it up a little bit more.
I actually, wish there were more noodles
because there's lot of sauce.
[Alex] Yeah, I think the,
the noodles, and the vegetables are really good.
They're steamy, they're juicy. They have a nice taste.
I think, any issue I have with your dish
is just you inside your own head.
Just slow down.
-Yes, chef. -If your little voice says there's not enough coffee.
-Add some more. -Put more coffee.
Thank you, Chef Opal.
Finally, Chef Xavier.
I made a chicken stir-fry with a coffee twist, and jasmine rice.
I love the crunch on all of your vegetables.
I would say your chicken, to me, is the most successful.
In that it's not super dry, it's got some flavor.
I really enjoy your sauce, I can taste the notes of the coffee,
and the finadene.
The chicken, I'm gonna say, I-- I feel still was dry.
I think, your flavors are there.
I do taste coffee, I like the heat.
This biggest mistake here is, one, you started cooking your rice a little too late.
-Because it's not all the way done. -Yes.
And two, well, there's a problem
with dried shiitakes, they really have to soak.
It's like shoe leather.
I mean, it's hard to eat because it has not soaked long enough.
But all in all, I mean, it's flavorful.
I like your dish, I think it's good.
The sugar snap peas almost ended up steamed,
-in a lovely way. I ate them all. -Thank you.
Just this shiitake
needed to stay back there in that jar
-with the survival coffee for 30 years, and be ignored. -Yeah. [laughs]
-All right. -[Xavier] Yes, chef.
[Alex] All right.
Okay. The judges have given you their take on these second dishes,
and we'll soon have a decision about who will be making dessert.
I feel comfortable that I am the front-runner
leading into the next round.
[Opal] My biggest competition, probably, would be
Chef Xavier, moving forward.
He's doing very well.
Thank you, Chefs.
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Xavier, you've been chopped. Judges?
Xavier, first of all, and thank you for everything you do
and the service you give our country.
Unfortunately, the rice didn't get cooked all the way through.
And also, the shiitakes, you just didn't give it enough time to soak.
So, unfortunately, we have to chop you.
-Thank you, Chef. Thank you. -Thank you so much.
[applause]
The hardest moment of this competition was the time.
But I'm very proud how I represented Air Force, and myself.
Chef Opal, and Chef Blesam.
Scared of what you might find in these?
Dig into your dessert baskets.
And you'll be making sweet treats with U.S. Air Force cookies...
Air Force cookies. Okay.
[Ted] ...raspberries.
Raspberries, okay, can do something with that.
-What is this? -[Ted] ...chocolate fudge topping,
and fruit drink pickles.
[Opal] I don't know what to do with those.
Clock sets for 30 again.
-Time starts now. -[Alex] All right, guys!
-[Sunny] Come on! -Let's do this.
[Sunny] Final round!
[Marc] Let's go Air Force!
Somebody here is gonna make the team.
I'm the one who's gonna win this for the Air Force.
But I'm looking at this basket of ingredients,
I need to figure something out.
I see these Air Force cookies, and I immediately think,
that I can make a cookie dust out of them.
[grinding]
[Blesam] I'm making a raspberry fruit cocktail with cookie dust.
Raspberries have a very sweet, but also tart taste to 'em.
For my raspberry fruit cocktail,
I'm grabbing all the different type of fruits.
I don't think pickles, chocolates, and raspberries
are an easy thing to bring together.
[Marc] Raspberries are fine.
[Sunny] Raspberries are great, chocolate's great,
pickles' interesting.
[Alex] I think, you need a real connector here.
I might be looking at the booze,
like, temper it with bourbon, and pickle juice as an example.
And then, bring that back to the fruit together.
Pickle ice cream.
I would actually, dice 'em up small, make a caramel,
throw 'em into the caramel, maybe a little bit of butter, and then buzz that up,
and use that as a crispy, crunchy, salty topping.
I've never in my life seen fruit drink pickles.
It is surprisingly sweet with a little bit of briny flavor.
I'm thinking I can use these in a filling for an apple pie.
I'm making fruit drink pickle apple pies
with raspberry coulis, and whipped cream.
I'm making apple pies because
nothing reminds me more of home than apple pie.
For my pie filling, I sauteed diced apples
with some butter, and brown sugar.
I cut up the fruit drink pickles, and add them
to the apples in the pot.
It means everything to be the one to represent the Air Force in the finale.
The Air Force has allowed me to live out my dream to become a chef,
and still serve. They've given me so much.
And I feel like, this is the best way to pay it back.
So what's motivating me to win this competition is for my mother.
I wouldn't be here without her, her influence.
I owe everything to her.
I'm thinking, that the sweetness, and tartness of the pickles
will marry well with all the other fresh berries.
Then I'm adding sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk,
and heavy cream to mix with my fruit, and pickles.
I'm thinking, I want to keep the integrity of the chocolate fudge.
So, I'm keeping it as is, and using it as a layer for my fruit cocktail.
[Opal] Next, I get started on my raspberry coulis.
Royal icing is sugar, so why not add it to the coulis?
I scrape the icing off, and add it to the pot.
-Five minutes on the clock, Chefs. -[Opal] Five minutes, heard.
I run over, and drop my pies into the deep fryer.
[Marc] Opal just dropped her little, puff pastry pockets into the fryer.
But I'm afraid, right before she put them in, she seemed to be struggling
to try to keep them together.
I'm not sure that they're sticking.
I go to check my pies on the fryer,
and I notice that two of them have
actually, broke open.
So I lost the filling in two of the pies.
[Marc] The stuffing is coming out of it.
This is so bad.
I think, there is a complete meltdown happening, like, right now.
[Opal] I check on my pies in the fryer,
and two have broken open.
The filling has completely fallen out.
This is a disaster.
I pull my pies out of the fryer, cut them in half,
and get at least half of it on each plate.
This is really awesome to watch.
Because these Air Force members, they just have a lot of fight in them.
-A lot of heart. -[Ted] And you would expect nothing less,
from Air Force personnel than to be focused, head down.
They've got a mission, they've got a job.
One minute, Chefs.
[Blesam] I'm plating my dish by layering chocolate,
the cookie dust, and the fruit cocktail.
[Marc] So Blesam, I'm not sure exactly what it is,
but I-- it looks like, it might be a tasty little dessert.
[Ted] Forty-five seconds.
-Forty-five seconds! -[Opal] Heard, Chef.
As that clock is ticking down.
I need to get this chocolate fudge on the plate.
[Sunny] Come on, Air Force.
I want bragging rights too, y'all.
-Aim high, let's do this. -[Ted] Final seconds of the final round, Chefs.
Ten,
-nine... -[Sunny] Nine.
-[Ted] ...eight, seven... -[Marc] Wow.
-[Ted] ...six, five... -[Marc] Slow countdown, mix it up.
[Ted] ...four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
-[Sunny] They're done? -Wow, unbelievable. Wow.
I've represented the Air Force well, and I'm proud
of how far I've came.
[Opal] I'm relieved, that I was able to get
all four ingredients on the plate.
It may not be my original plan, the way it turned out.
But it came together.
Chef Opal, and Chef Blesam,
you've made your third course in the Chopped kitchen
using U.S. Air Force cookies,
raspberries, chocolate fudge topping,
and fruit drink pickles.
Chef Opal, what do we have?
I made a deconstructed fruit drink pickle apple pie
-with raspberry coulis. -[Marc] And, how well do you think it worked?
[Opal] The fry could have been better on the pie.
My pies popped open, so I just tried to salvage what I could.
[Marc] Well, it was nice trying to recover.
You know, it was a big mishap, when the opened up, lost the filling.
You know, I got a little taste of it.
The apple, it was, probably, a good idea.
I don't think, I got enough of it to be able to understand it,
and unfortunately, yes, the puff pastry is a little undercooked.
Thank you, Chef.
Sure, the puff pastry was a little bit undercooked
but when I bit into it, I thought,
"Well, that's pretty clever what you did there"
And the pickles came through with this tart.
Granny Smith vibe.
So, I adore your decision to, uh, marry the two in a puff pastry fritter.
Your will, and desire to present something refined is there,
it's just a matter of better choices under pressure.
Yes, Chef. Thank you so much.
Next up, Chef Blesam.
Chefs, I prepared for you today,
a raspberry fruit cocktail with some cookie dust.
And, what is the creamy part of this?
[Blesam] So condensed milk, heavy cream and coconut milk.
Certainly, looking to take super sour pickles,
and tart raspberries, and sink them into something sweet is smart.
What ends up happening is, we're digging in almost like, into like a fruit soup.
And I think, it's, it's a little bit hard to eat.
Thank you, Chef.
I do feel like, you suffered from a plating accident here.
You left us no choice,
but to grab a spoonful of it, and go at it hard.
-It was a lot going on. -Yes, Chef.
[Sunny] I feel like, I would get
this at a, uh, Michelin Star restaurant
where they're trying to be clever, but would probably, be on a bed of ice.
I do appreciate the chocolate fudge sauce
around the rim there. Really added to the flavor.
This is really creative.
-Thanks, Sunny. -[Ted] Okay.
Please leave the judges to discuss what happens now.
I feel like Blesam really took some risks,
and he also showed us some pretty good technique today.
And we have Opal, who is calculated,
has an idea, sees the dishes in her head,
and just, sets out on her course.
[Marc] We're starting with the appetizer round.
Opal was clever to make a croquette.
And I liked the sort of crispy exterior that she developed.
[Marc] But I do wish, she had taken that
goat, and actually, ground it up.
Because texturally, it was difficult to have the big pieces of goat,
-and then, the soft chilli in there. -Agreed.
So Blesam's appetizer,
I thought, you know, he hit those rainbow carrots really shine.
But I thought the way they looked in the plate
very, very pretty, and tasted delicious.
I thought that that was really just simple, and clever.
I thought Blesam, uh, didn't do a really good job
with the actual goat chop, it was overcooked.
So, the entree round we had, Opal who made the, uh, noodles.
[Alex] I thought Opal's use of the Finadene sauce was really successful.
[Sunny] But the coffee notes were kind of,
hidden, lost in the sauce.
The sugar snap peas that Blesam did with the survival coffee
got it nice, and charred, I thought that was delicious.
[Alex] But there was a big misstep for me with Blesam's plate,
and that was him marinating the chicken.
And then, kind of boiling it in the marinate,
I think, the airline chicken breast
really suffered for that. It was dry.
We're choosing them to go to this elite team of service members that win
each of these rounds.
Either one would be very valuable to round out a team of people.
I feel my dessert was a lot more technically complicated than Blesam's.
Some things didn't work out for me, but some things did.
I hope, I'm going to the finale.
But you just never know.
[Blesam] I'm nervous, but I'm also optimistic.
I know my dessert wasn't really there, but I know
my appetizers, my entrees are what's gonna help me push through.
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Blesam, you've been chopped. Judges?
Chef Blesam, we loved all the risks that you took today.
But in the first round,
we felt like, your piece of goat chop was overcooked,
and for your main course, your chicken ended up,
feeling boiled, and really overcooked.
And so, we had to chop you.
Thank you, and congratulations to you.
-Thank you, Chef. -[Blesam] Well, represent us well.
It's an honor.
[Blesam] It takes passion,
and it takes courage to dive into something like this.
I feel immensely proud of how I represented the Air Force.
And that means, Chef Opal Poullard, you are the Chopped champion.
How do you feel now about representing the Air Force
in the Military Salute finale?
I feel absolutely amazing.
This was just an amazing experience.
Sergeant Poullard, please approach the table.
As an Air Force veteran,
I am honored to be in your presence.
You've done so much for this country.
So on behalf of my training school,
The Defense Information School,
-I would like to coin you. -Thank you so much.
Thank you for your service.
-I appreciate it. Thank you. -[Sunny] Congratulations.
Now fight in the finale.
-[Opal] Absolutely. -And represent for the Air Force.
-Thank you, Chef. Thank you. -[Sunny] Thank you.
Being given a coin in the Air Force is a symbol of honor,
so, it was amazing to be coined by Sunny.
It means everything to be the one
to represent the Air Force in the finale.
[Ted] You ready to fly high in the Chopped kitchen?
Get ready for this heat.
[woman] All that matters is what's on the plate.
Hard work, work.
Time is flying.
[clock ticking rapidly]
-Flying. -Oh, yeah, baby, let's go.
It looks perfect.
[Ted] Who has what it takes to take down a titan?
Four elite military chefs.
Against three Chopped legends.
-[woman] Plate like fire. -Yes.
-[woman] Whisk like the wind. -[man grunting]
-Guide 'em to find my plate. -This is nuts.