-[Ted] Please open up your appetizer baskets. -Wow.
Oh shnikies!
[all clamoring]
-[all] Go chefs! -Go chefs.
[Taylor] This is definitely gonna be a challenge.
You've gotta get those going, you gotta go higher, higher, baby.
Is this basket a win or is it a mess?
That's stressing me out.
-[laughs hysterically] -Let's go, let's go.
-[sighs] -This doesn't work.
Sorry.
-[Ted] Three, two... -[Maneet] Not a lot of time!
-[Ted] One. -Done!
Wow.
[Mollie] When you work for races, you've gotta move fast.
Being a private chef for an SRO race team
is an insane experience.
They call me "track mama" sometimes,
so it's really fun.
Some good looking chocolate.
When you taste my food,
you can expect to taste something you have never had before,
'cause I bring my personality in to it,
and I'm not like anybody else.
I'm gonna burn rubber in the kitchen
and leave the other chefs in the dust.
[Taylor] I 'm here to prove that I'm one of the best cooks in United States.
All right, you ready?
My style of cuisine is very Mediterranean focused.
I'm always looking for the freshest ingredients, the most seasonal ingredients.
I actually got in to cooking when I was about 12-years-old.
My father and I used to watch the Food Network together
and we used to test different recipes at home.
I always toast to chilis.
I went to Johnson & Wales,
where I got my bachelor's in culinary arts.
I think we're ready to plate.
I've put in my time at Micheline star restaurants
in the toughest environments in the world,
and I think Chopped is gonna be right on par with that,
and I'm ready to take it on.
How's my smashing? Am I crushing it?
I love cooking
because food is the one language that everyone can understand.
I've worked with James Beard nominated chefs
and very well talented chefs.
Being from the Cayman Islands,
I've worked with so many different ingredients.
I love the vibrancy
and I love the textures.
But, initially I got in to cooking
because I wanted to leave the Cayman Islands.
Culinary school was an exit strategy.
But, my Cayman Island people I know are gonna be very, very proud
to see me on TV.
My food is better than ever
and I'm here to put it up against all these other chefs.
I got in to cooking impulsively
because I was obsessed with food in general.
I went to college for one year and hated it.
I dropped out, and when to culinary school when I was 19.
All right, next step, pasta.
My style of cooking is lots of doughs from California.
Lots of vegetables, comfort food,
and I come up with my best ideas on the fly.
Of course there's a lot at stake, it's Chopped,
but there's nothing that they can put in those baskets
that I can't manipulate in to something delicious.
Hello, chefs.
[all] Hello!
[Ted] There are three rounds,
appetizer, entree and dessert.
Mandatory mystery ingredients for each course.
If your dish doesn't cut it,
you will be chopped.
Not gonna be me.
[exhales sharply] Not today.
It all starts here.
Please open up your appetizer baskets.
[chuckles nervously] Oh man.
Oh! [chuckles]
Oh shnikies.
[laughs]
And you'll be working with beef tendon balls.
Beef tendon balls. Cool.
Interesting.
[Taylor] Beef tendon is just like, very chewy, kind of hard to use.
I use it in a lot of stocks and sauces and things like that.
-Culantro. Okay. -[Ted] Culantro.
It's got some stuffed jalapeños.
[Ted] Jalapeño poppers.
-I don't know what this is, but... -[Ted] And Rompope.
Rompope? That's actually really good.
Rompope is a sweet vanilla liqueur.
Many a nights I have had Rompope
and very much enjoyed them. [chuckles]
This is the super speedy 20-minute challenge.
Oh, I am ready, Teddy.
Clock starts now.
-[judges cheering] -Go, chefs!
[judges applauding]
Maneet, Geoffrey,
you are joined by a special guest judge,
our friend, acclaimed private chef, Eric Adjepong.
-Welcome back, Eric. -Thank you so much.
Appreciate it. Good to be here.
[Maneet] I mean, this is actually
-a fantastic basket. -It's pretty forgiving, yeah.
-It is. I mean, the biggest task... -Yeah.
-...is to balance all of these ingredients. -[Eric] Yes.
[Maneet] The sweetness from the Rompope,
the-the little bit of spice and savory-ness
from the jalapeño poppers.
When I think about culantro,
it's in the parsley family, very herbaceous, but it has more of a pepper-y note.
So it's a dip, and then jalapeño poppers...
[Geoffrey] Basically, that poppers,
-cheese, jalapeño, so... -[Eric] Oh, yeah.
-Not a hard basket in my opinion. -I agree.
[Ted] Kirstyn, how are you doing?
[Kirstyn] Doing great.
I saw these, uh, jalapeños,
and it kinda made me think of a tortilla soup.
I'm making a tortilla soup out of the jalapeño
and culantro
with beef tendon-black bean relish.
A lot of the ingredients in tortilla soup are already in the jalapeño,
I have cheese, I have jalapeño, bacon is never bad,
so I just need to add onion and tomato.
I taste the Rompope,
and I realize that it will be a nice addition to the soup.
It has a nice creaminess and sweetness.
Boozy boozy, okay, so...
But it's a little too much.
So I wanna sauté it with onion to tame
the alcohol and the sweetness.
[Maneet] So Rompope is similar to eggnog.
-And it has booze in it too, let's not forget. -[Maneet] Yes.
-It's really sweet. -[Eric] Yeah.
That's interesting.
[Geoffrey] I think if you blend it with a little bit of yogurt,
a touch of vinegar, to keep the egg but get that sweetness away.
Just drizzle it on top of the soup,
-you know, like a crema. -Crema, yup.
These basket ingredients are all definitely screaming something bright,
something with Latin roots in it.
So, for my appetizer, I'm making
beef tendon and culantro fritters
with a jalapeño crema.
The jalapeño poppers, they're so beautifully roasted.
I immediately start to remove the filling.
I add lots of culantro,
lots of lime juice, and then some Greek yogurt
and I figured that will thicken it up,
bring in some acid, some brightness.
[Maneet] Beef tendon balls, they are already cooked.
-Tendons are harvested, and flavored, and then... -[Geoffrey] Mmm-hmm.
-...kind of, meatballs are made out of it. -[Eric] Mmm-hmm.
We can fry 'em, or, uh, you know, how about a simple like, a quesadilla?
-Let's just have some fun with it. -[Maneet] I know.
The tostada is the perfect vessel for everything. [laughs]
That was like, my favorite thing to eat as a kid.
I'm gonna do a tostada with a chorizo and beef tendon filling,
a little bit of Rompope and Mexican crema.
And then I'm gonna do a little salsa
with the, uh, culantro on top.
Mollie, uh, look at you, you got the fryer going already.
I am frying some tostadas over here.
-Wow. -[Maneet] That's a good idea.
[Mollie] I wanna sauté the beef tendon balls with chorizo
because I feel like those two contrasting textures of proteins
will be really nice together.
[snapping fingers]
[Geoffrey] Jordy, he's so, like, calm.
He sort of just, wandered over to the pantry,
he didn't even, like, run.
Jordy, you look very calm, almost too calm.
I know it's suspicious.
[all laughing]
I mean, I'm a professionally trained chef
and I've made a million dishes. I feel relaxed.
I'm making a beef tendon wanton,
with a Rompope-coconut sauce.
I'm gonna combine the Rompope
with some coconut milk
and I'll steep some Thai lime leaves.
Trying to keep the sauce sweet,
because I know that the jalapeño poppers and the beef tendon
are very salty and bold in flavor.
Growing up in the Cayman Islands, I've known about culantro
almost my entire life.
You know, it's culantro, it smells great
more than it tastes great, if that makes sense?
So, I'm gonna try my best to do something
to make sure it stays alive.
Chefs, 15 minutes.
[Kirstyn] For my relish, I slice the beef tendon very thin
and crisp it up in a pan.
I add tomato, culantro, black bean,
little bit of raw garlic.
I'd eat this.
I would've never done this five years ago.
I've always been a very shy, reserved kid.
I feel like, in the past four years of my cooking journey,
I'm feeling more comfortable in my skin.
Oh, yeah!
I do want the chew from the beef tendon ball itself,
but I also want it to pleasant.
So, I'm looking at making a fritter here.
Got my beef tendon in to little mascarpone.
Little bit of herb.
[Maneet] Taylor has taken the beef tendon
and is making meatballs out of it.
-It's a good idea. -[Maneet] Yeah.
[Eric] Mollie's going straight for it.
I mean, she's drinking out of the bottle.
Oh yeah, let's go, guys.
[Eric] One of these things don't play well with the others...
-[Geoffrey] Yeah. -[Eric] ...and it's that Rompope.
Everything is so, like,
savory and straight to the point,
but that Rompope, like you mentioned,
-it's sweet, it's very custard-y. -[Geoffrey] Very sweet.
It's only 50% alcohol,
but it's tons of sweetness and tons of egg in it.
I'm going to use it to sweeten some Mexican crema
as a topping to my tostada.
The tricky part with the Rompope
would just be to make sure to balance
that sweetness with the liqueur.
You know, it can't really take over.
Okay.
I'm actually gonna use two of my basket ingredients together
to create the filling for my wontons,
my beef tendon balls and my jalapeño poppers.
-[Geoffrey] Five minutes left. -[Ted] Five minutes!
That's not a lot of time!
[Jordy] I grab my wonton wrappers and I start making my wontons.
[Geoffrey] Oh no, look at that.
What is going on here?
Jordy just went and grabbed
some wonton wrappers with less than five minutes left.
He's now going to make dumplings?
Well, that is very, very ambitious.
-He was sauntering, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. -[Maneet and Eric laugh]
So, he's going to deep-fry, I think,
-that's-that's gonna be amazing. -Yeah.
-[Eric] I see-- -But he really needs to
-put a foot on the gas paddle. -[laughs sarcastically]
I look at the time and I realize,
I only have four minutes left to cook them.
[Mollie] I think Jordy is very ambitious.
Jordy is gonna have to hustle to get those wontons done in time.
That's stressing me out.
[Jordy] I'm gonna get started on the wontons.
He's now going to make dumplings?
Well, that is very, very ambitious.
[Jordy] I only have four minutes left to cook them.
In hindsight, I wish I'd focused more on the clock.
But I'm confident that they're gonna be ready in time.
[Kirstyn] Get hot, get hot, get hot.
Now that my tortilla soup is reducing on the stove,
I wanna add a textural component to cut through the richness of it.
Behind, behind, down the line.
I'm making the crispy rice noodles
as a textural garnish.
Coming down behind, behind, behind, behind.
I decided to become a chef because
my mother always worked the night shift.
Pops wasn't the best cook back then.
So, we started watching Food Network.
It inspired us to learn how to cook together.
I open the Rompope,
I'm definitely gonna have to tamp this flavor down.
It's gonna glaze my fritters and look really nice.
Behind, behind, coming down the line.
Mollie hasn't touched two of the basket ingredients.
-[Geoffrey] Two? -[Maneet] jalapeño poppers
-or the culantro. -Yeah, that's sort of strange.
I worked for race car drivers,
and this is definitely still the fastest 20 minutes of my life. [laughs]
To top off my tostada,
I'm making a nice, bright salsa out of the culantro.
With some cilantro, tomatillo.
I'm just gonna use the jalapeño part of it
as my spice.
It tastes good.
I need some extra chips for me. [laughs]
[Eric] So Jordy, right now, is taking his wonton wrappers,
and he's pan-searing them.
I'm not necessarily sure this is the smartest idea.
[Maneet] Just get it to the fryer.
You gotta get those going, you gotta go higher, higher, baby, higher.
Jordy, you need to cook, bro.
I get my wontons in the pan to give them a nice sear,
to have really nice texture.
But I realize that I don't have enough time
to cook them in the pan.
So I decided to treat them like a dumpling
and boil them.
This is like, a cooking method I have never seen.
Chefs, one minute left!
Coming down, coming down.
-Come on! -[Eric] Come on, let's go.
-[Geoffrey] Let's go, guys, you got this. -[Eric] You got this.
[judges clapping]
Come on!
-Finish strong. -[Jordy] Excuse me. [exclaims]
-[Maneet] What is he doing? -[Jordy] Oh my goodness.
-Jordy is leaving right now? -[Eric] He's gonna...
-Jordy doesn't have time. -[Maneet] With 15 seconds left?
What are you doing?
[Ted] Closing seconds to the round, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight...
-[Maneet] Come on! -[Eric] Chefs, let's go.
-[Geoffrey] Chefs, you got this. -[judges clapping]
[Ted] Four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
[Eric] Well done.
-[Kirstyn] That was a good... -[Jordy] Oh, my God.
-[Mollie laughs] -[Jordy] Wow.
-Oh my goodness. -[Jordy and Taylor laugh]
It definitely came down to the wire,
but I still feel confident that I finished with enough time.
I am feeling fantastic. [laughs]
It wasn't the prettiest dish I ever made,
but flavor wise, I think I'm there.
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
Your first basket, beef tendon balls,
culantro, jalapeño poppers, and Rompope.
Chef Mollie.
So I have made a beef tendon and chorizo tostada
with a Rompope crema
and a culantro salsa.
So, for me, this dish hit a lot of the notes
acid, heat, crunch.
To me, it was a good representation of
me and my many personalities. [laughs]
Where do you work right now?
So, I'm the private chef for an SRO race team.
-How is that? -[laughs] It's the funnest thing in the world.
-[Eric] Oh my goodness. -[laughing]
It is so much work.
I have to completely unload all my kitchen equipment from the trailer,
and I'm feeding anywhere from 30-60 people breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
There is so much good happening.
I love the use of the culantro,
I think the-the acidity that you added in to it
on the freshness that it gives,
-it's literally right on time. -Thank you, Chef.
I really do enjoy the use of the beef tendons,
I think that was really smart play.
I think the chorizo too, it just kind of, reinforced
-a little bit of that flavor. -Understood. Thank you.
The way you combined the chorizo and the beef tendons is really good,
because one or other are too much,
but together they have a nice textural contrast.
Very good, just missing just a little action.
[Maneet] I so agree.
There's a part of me which thinks that this is incomplete,
because I want a fresh, like, a Pico de Gallo
or some pickled onions, or jicama.
That being said, I think the-the flavors that you've created
are really good,
and the utilization of the basket ingredients,
-very well done. -Thank you, Chef.
-Thank you. -Chef Mollie, thank you.
Chef Kirstyn, what have you made?
I have made a tortilla soup with culantro,
a beef tendon and black-bean relish,
and a crispy rice cracker.
So, how'd you get started cooking, chef?
I've been cooking since I was 19-years-old.
I tried out regular college for a minute and I hated it,
so I impulsively signed up for culinary school.
I've always loved food, so I figured
it was a win-win situation learning to cook.
Soup usually takes hours and hours to develop the flavor,
and you've managed to do that.
To go ahead and take the Rompope, which, it can be very sweet,
and put it along with a tomato,
great idea.
The culantro, it has that little bit of that peppery-ness
which you're getting through and through.
But if you're making a tortilla soup,
if you would've just cut some of the tortillas
-fried it and put it on top... -Right.
-...we would've had a textural contrast. -Mmm-hmm.
[Geoffrey] I like the direction of it very much,
but it needs a pop. You blended the popper,
-but there's no pop. -Totally agree.
-But it's really good. -[Kirstyn] Yes.
-Thanks, Chef. -[Geoffrey] You're welcome.
I like the textures, I like the play that you have here.
My only gripe, though,
it kinda eats a little bit thick.
But other than that, I think it's really delicious. Good job.
Thank you, Chef Kirstyn. Next up, Chef Taylor.
I made for you a beef tendon and mascarpone fritter,
with a little crema with the culantro.
You know, the one ingredient that we were most worried about
was the Rompope, because it is so sweet.
-And I love what you've done with that. -Thank you.
Sweetness works very well with all of these
different flavors that you have created.
Thank you so much.
I love when a chef can balance bitter really well,
-and I think you do that in a really nice way. -Thank you, Chef.
[Geoffrey] Taylor, stunning.
Outside of the meatballs, excellent, I mean, they're beautifully fried.
The inside could've been better.
-It sort of gets mealy and falls apart. -Okay.
Maybe if you used parmesan cheese, a little bread,
this would become more of a meatball,
which I think it needs, and less,
-sort of, hollow. Okay? -Okay.
But again, the overall dish is really good.
Chef Taylor, thank you.
Next up, Chef Jordy.
It is a beef tendon dumpling
with a Rompope-coconut sauce.
So how'd you get started cooking?
[Jordy] Uh, I actually went through
two major hurricanes in my lifetime,
-and lost my home twice. -Wow.
They kinda, built the resilient, uh, person that you see today.
After the hurricane, I actually met a chef
who was the first person that showed me that this can be a career.
The stuffing,
the flavor and the texture,
is what I was looking for with Taylor's meatballs.
So you've got that, trust me, it's really good.
To me, the way you've used the beef tendon balls
along with the culantro and the jalapeño poppers,
that filling is delicious,
and it would have worked very well,
just get it to the fryer,
and the fryer would've just added more to the flavor.
-But your handle on flavors is really good. -Thank you.
So, this wonton, it eats very flat,
um, because you added more water to it.
So it kind of like, flat notes everything
as far as the texture is concerned,
and it actually gets really mundane.
Understood.
Okay. Thank you, chefs.
[Mollie] I was a little worried about the garnish.
It was one of the components I didn't have time to do.
But I think my flavors are gonna push it through.
After judging, I'm feeling a little rattled.
I could've executed a little better.
But uh, hopefully, I get to go on to the next round.
Unfortunately, one chef must be
the first to leave.
So...
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jordy, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -[Maneet] Jordy,
the idea of wontons was a great idea.
But the wonton in itself needed to be fried.
And so, we have to chop you.
-Thank you so much, guys. -Thank you.
[Jordy] I feel like I had an opportunity to showcase who I was,
but I wasn't able to convey that.
So, I'm disappointed in myself,
but at the same time, I'm proud of the fact that I had the opportunity.
[Ted] Chef Taylor, Chef Kirstyn, Chef Mollie,
time to get in to the second basket.
Check it out.
Wow.
Oh God, okay.
And, what direction will you be going
with geoduck clams...
-Geoduck. -Awesome.
Geoduck is intimidating,
but at heart, it's just a clam
and I know how to make that delicious.
[Ted] Cherry tomatoes.
[Mollie] Yeah, these are beautiful.
[Ted] Puffed corn snacks.
Puffed corn snacks.
This puffed corn snack is rainbow,
I have feeling it's gonna be sweet,
so this is definitely gonna be a challenge.
-[Ted] And merguez sausage. -Woah.
Merguez sausage is a lamb sausage
with a lot of spices.
Thirty minutes to do your best.
Clock starts now.
[judges cheering]
-Come on! -Second round, let's do it.
-[Mollie] Right behind. -[Taylor] Heard.
[Geoffrey] I mean, those cherry tomatoes, you don't wanna waste those.
-The sausage is a blessing from heaven. -[Maneet] Oh!
-This just screams Spaghetti Vongole. -[Eric] Oh, yeah.
-[Geoffrey] Right? -Oh, beautiful.
[Geoffrey] I mean, classic... we're done. Let's get out of here.
Hi.
[Geoffrey] But you know what,
the geoduck is something that's very strange.
I mean, it's a, it's a creature that lives six feet under the sand...
-[Ted] Yes. -[Geoffrey] ...for 140 years. It's kinda creepy.
-[Ted chuckles] -[Geoffrey] You gotta cook it, you gotta skin it,
it's a pain in the neck.
[Mollie] I've never worked with geoduck before,
but I have watched the YouTube video on how to do it. [laughs]
Chef Mollie, do you wanna share anything?
[Mollie] I'm going with like, a little,
a little bit of a hash situation
with a nice geoduck relish on top.
-Geoduck relish? All right. -[laughs]
-[Eric] Okay. -It's a new one for me too, don't worry,
-we're going through this all together. -Not a problem.
I don't wanna do a lot of the same flavor profiles as my first dish.
So, I take the merguez sausage,
render out all the fat and get a little bit of color.
And then we're gonna fry the potatoes in the oil
from the merguez sausage.
And then I add some shaved brussels in there
to kinda tie it all back together.
[Ted] We also have the classic Chopped problem of two proteins here.
[Maneet] If you think about it,
both the proteins are such contradictions
when it comes to flavor profile.
-The-The merguez sausage is, it's a lamb sausage. -[Ted] Mmm-hmm.
[Eric] Not only does it give you that meaty protein,
but it also give you a really unique,
-kind of a harissa back-note. Yeah. -[Geoffrey] Mmm, beautiful.
-Behind you. -[Taylor] Heard.
This basket's taking me to Spain in the summer.
-Kirstyn! -Yes, Chef.
Are you loving the geoduck?
I love geoduck, I love clams. It's just a really big clam.
I'm making sort of a couscous paella with merguez sausage,
and a corn puff gremolata.
So we'll see how that goes.
I did think of paella but I was like,
"There is not going to be enough time for the paella."
But to use instant couscous,
I think it's a great idea.
[Kirstyn] Paella usually features sausage, fish and rice.
So, I'm making couscous
because I don't think I have time to cook this with traditional rice.
Come on, chef.
I chop some garlic,
merguez sausage, tomato paste,
and a little bit of cream chili paste
to make a play on like a Spanish sofrito.
When the couscous is about halfway done,
I pour that in to the sofrito,
stir it, and let it keep simmering in that pan.
[Taylor] I get my cherry tomatoes in to a pan,
start to blister them, 'cause I want those to cook down for a while
and transform in to a jam.
Taylor, what's the plan?
I made you a sausage meatball.
I have a little, uh, pommes purée working,
and then I'm gonna do something pretty cool
with the, uh, geoduck.
-It's gonna be fun. -[Maneet] Okay.
[Taylor] I decided to make a mixture of breadcrumbs, milk and eggs.
After that, I finally minced some jalapeño.
Taylor's doing a meatball and sauce again?
I wouldn't give Taylor that criticism about him being a one-trick pony.
-I think that this particular basket-- Yeah. -Calls for it.
I just wanna see a really different spin on what he's doing.
Twenty minutes on the clock, chefs.
So right now, chef Mollie is slicing up her geoduck.
The people understand it's very flavorful.
Looks like ...
You can actually have it with sashimi or you can have it raw.
But if-- if it's overcooked, it's like, uh,
chewing rubber band.
-[Eric] It is. -[Maneet] Yeah.
[Mollie] I taste a piece of the geoduck
and I am just in love with the flavor and texture of it.
So I decide to make a relish with it
inspired by...
I marinate the tomatoes,
and then added a bunch of citrus, garlic chili paste.
[Maneet] She's almost giving that--
-that ceviche-ish treatment -Yeah. Yes.
-to the geoduck. -Yeah.
-[Maneet] But I don't understand her dish. -[Eric] Mmm-hmm.
She's-- has a hash and then she has ceviche on the hash?
-I feel your confusion. -[Maneet] Right?
Ten minutes to go, chefs.
My mind goes to the pommes purée,
because I want a luxurious carrier for this dish.
I'm treating this geoduck like fried calamari.
So I'm making a corn snack crusted geoduck.
Taylor, tell me what you're doing.
So I broke down that corn snack
and blitzed it with a little panko breadcrumb,
little red pepper flake, put on the geoduck,
gonna drop it super quick.
I just wanna get it crispy on the outside.
All right.
[Maneet] You know what's really interesting with Mollie?
She's gotten some pistachio to the party,
and I do like that
-as a flavor combination -[Eric] I'm not mad, yeah.
-along with the merguez. -Pretty...
[Eric] Do you think she's adding the popcorn snacks to that?
-I think it'll be-- it's very smart if she does. -[Eric] Yeah.
[Mollie] I'm gonna blitz the popcorn snack
with some pistachios
to add crunch to my dish.
I have a dish that I've never would've ever imagined making,
and I think it's gonna work together, so,
fingers crossed.
All right, chefs, five minutes left.
[Eric] Let's go, chefs.
[Kirstyn] Sear up this radicchio.
My couscous needs some kind of a vegetal texture contrast
in loss of acid,
so I think a warm salad
will give it a little bit more of a entrée vibe as well.
Yeah, oh, nice.
I wanna sear the radicchio nice and hard
till the outsides are black,
and then use the same pan to blister my tomatoes
and deglaze with cherry vinegar and olive oil,
and sort of make a warm tomato vinaigrette.
[Maneet] Why would she burn radicchio?
-It already has the bitterness. -[man] ...
[Kirstyn] I'm actually gonna use these puffcorn snacks
to balance the bitter I'm going to add in this warm salad.
I've blitzed them up with some garlic
and add some fresh parsley and dill
to create a very quick gremolata.
[Ted] Final minute of this round, chefs.
[Eric] Oh, boy, come on, let's go, let's--
[Ted] Come on, chefs, let's go.
[Taylor] I pull my meatballs out of the oven,
I can tell, they're absolutely perfect.
I check out my tomato jam,
it's bright, it's perfectly seasoned.
That's awesome.
[Kirstyn] I add my geoduck to the couscous at this point,
because I'm just trying to warm it through.
I don't wanna overcook it,
because I know it'll get really chewy.
Are you happy with your geoduck?
Oh, yeah.
[Maneet] Is the geoduck happy with you?
[Eric laughs]
[Ted] Chefs, perfect those plates.
In ten, nine,
-Okay, come on, come on, come on. -[Ted] eight, seven,
-[Eric] Let's go, guys, -[Ted] six,
[Ted] five, four, three, two, one.
-[Geoffrey] Yeah! -[Ted] Hands up.
-[Geoffrey] Yes! -[Eric] Nicely done.
-[Maneet] Good job. -[man 2] ...
-[Mollie] High-five, good job. -Nice job.
-[Taylor] Nice job, ladies.
-[Mollie] Hell, yeah. -[Kirstyn sighs]
[Kirstyn] I'm worried that that corn chips are a little sweet
and they're very forward.
Hopefully, the rest of the dish is gonna balance that out.
[Mollie] The meekness of this dish, I think,
is gonna be something that they are really gonna, kind of be put off,
maybe at first,
just kind of have their reservations, you know, about.
And I think once they try it,
I'm hoping that I will change their minds.
Chefs, you dug into the entrée basket,
and found geoduck clams,
cherry tomatoes,
puffed corn snacks,
and merguez sausage.
Chef Mollie, what do we have?
Today I have made for y'all a merguez sausage,
purple potato and brussel hash
on top of a geoduck and cherry tomato relish.
[Maneet] The way you have treated the geoduck
that's amazing.
It's-- It's really, really nice.
The hash leaning in on the merguez
to give it the flavor,
I think that was a really good idea.
So the puffed corn, uh, snacks were along with the pistachio?
Yes.
[Maneet] I think that bite of sweetness was really nice.
Thank you, chef.
Chef, this is, um,
flavor like, bomb.
I'm getting raw, but I'm also getting cooked.
It's very disjointed, but,
it tastes good.
Understood.
[Geoffrey] I love ... cherry.
I love hash.
Pick one.
They don't belong on top of each other.
They just don't. Sorry.
There are great flavors,
but I don't think this works as a-- cohesive main course.
-[Mollie] Okay. -[Ted] Thank you, chef Mollie.
[Ted] Next, chef Kirstyn.
[Kirstyn] I made a couscous paella
with merguez, geoduck, a warm tomato
and radicchio salad and a corn puff gremolata.
We saw you charring the radicchio,
and I'm like, "Why would you take an already bitter ingredient
and then add another layer of bitterness to it?"
Um, I'm glad you did.
-[Kirstyn] Mmm. -[Maneet] Because you have managed to create
- [Maneet] a really sophisticated bite. -[Kirstyn] Mmm.
[Maneet] The couscous itself is cooked great.
I like the flavor.
The geoduck is also cooked very well.
-Overall, I think good flavors that you've created. -Thank you, chef.
Chef, these tomatoes are it.
Delicious. Really, really good.
It has a beautiful bit of sweetness in there
when you get some of that puffcorn snacks in there.
My only beef is that I want more of the lamb.
There's not much of it that like,
intrinsic harissa flavor profile that you get
with the merguez.
I'm not getting that at all.
Um, it felt like the pantry items
might've taken over just slightly.
I think you probably demonstrated every
kitchen technique known to humankind.
[chuckles softly] You charring, searing...
warm vinaigrette, all really well. And the--
The-- the-- the geoduck is cooked great.
You should have less couscous, more geoduck.
But good cooking.
-Thank you, chef. -[Geoffrey] Good cooking.
Thank you, chef Kirstyn.
Finally, chef Taylor.
Hello, chefs.
I made for you a merguez sausage meatball,
classic pommes purée.
I blistered the tomatoes down into a jam.
And then, I corn snack crusted the geoduck.
-Corn snack crusted geoduck. -And slash fried it. [laughs]
What's with you and meatballs?
I won't make a dessert meatball.
-You never know. -[Taylor chuckles]
The pommes purée, the potatoes, delicious.
Really smart idea.
The ... and the meatballs are just really--
I mean, everything is there.
And then, these cherry tomatoes.
Honestly, the star of the show for me.
I love that it's almost kind of like,
jam consistency that it's giving me.
But this geoduck was definitely the ingredient that
hung you up, I felt like.
[Maneet] The geoduck is slightly overdone.
But the flavor that you added to the merguez
gave it a little bit more of the personality.
Thank you.
The meatball's really, uh,
it-- it's very moist.
Frying is very, very hard on a-- on a geoduck,
'cause it's naturally rubbery.
-Absolutely. -[Geoffrey] And I think it just got little bit too much.
I'm trying to figure out what this is.
I don't know if it goes together.
[Ted] Okay.
-Chef Taylor, thank you. -[Taylor] Thank you.
[Taylor] We're getting deep into the competition,
things are heating up.
So yeah-- I'm nervous, for sure,
since I did have some flaws on my dish.
But hopefully, some techniques
and some bold moves will carry me through.
[Ted] Who's dish is on the chopping block?
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Mollie, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Mollie, we're all firm believers
that happy people make happy food.
Unfortunately, serving a geoduck
with a tomato relish over a hot hash,
that dish just does not come together.
And so, we have to chop you.
-Thank you, chefs. -Thank you.
[Mollie] Thank you, chefs.
Well, you can't win 'em all. [laughs]
I'm gonna walk outta here, head high,
just ready for the next moment.
[Ted] Chef Kirstyn, chef Taylor.
Who's it gonna be?
It's gonna be me, Ted.
I know we're cooking something sweet, but that doesn't mean that I am.
[Ted] Ah.
It's obviously gonna be me, Ted.
It's time to finish this thing.
Well, your third dish should be inspired
by these dessert baskets.
Get in there.
Oh, wow.
[chuckles nervously]
[Ted] And you've got a chocolate strawberry tower.
Chocolate covered strawberry.
Nice.
[Ted] Oranges,
requesón cheese...
Cheese?
I can that it's a semi-soft cheese,
so I can definitely incorporate this into my dessert.
Some cool cookies.
[Ted] ...and shortbread cookies.
I'm glad there's no like, meatballs,
or liver.
[Ted] Thirty minutes to prove you should be the champ.
Clock starts now.
-[Maneet] Go chefs! -[Eric] Go chefs.
-[Maneet] Go, go, go. -[Eric] Last round.
-Chef, I have flour and sugar if you need it. -[Kirstyn] Thank you.
Judges, oranges and cheese and cookies and strawberries.
Is this basket a win or is it a mess?
It's a messy win.
[all laughing]
All of these ingredients are so beautiful.
Sweet, yeah.
-[Maneet] Sweet. -[Eric] Mmm-hmm.
Coming up with a focal point is going to be difficult.
You know what this calls for, Geoffrey? Soufflé.
It could be a soufflé in my future here.
Going into this round,
I'm definitely reliant on a cake that I make often.
Taylor, how's it going? What are you up to?
Might make a little Greek Yogurt cake.
I'm gonna scent it with the orange,
maybe a little cardamom.
And I'm definitely gonna break into this cheese
and see what I can do with it after, though.
I just wanna get in the oven.
He seems comfortable around this cake idea.
That's exactly what you need to do.
[Geoffrey] We have beautiful juices of oranges,
you have chocolate, you have strawberries.
I mean, you have all kinds of stuff
that's great with a cake.
[Taylor] I'm super excited
to continue to show the judges what I can do.
When I win, I'm gonna take my wife,
we're gonna go to Italy,
and we're just gonna eat all the pasta that there is.
[Maneet] Kirstyn grabbed the pizza dough.
No, I'm not a big fan of that.
Too long to cook.
I think she might surprise us.
I have faith.
The requesón cheese and the shortbread cookies
remind me of a cookie butter pizza.
Chef Kirstyn.
-You have an idea of what you're making? -[Kirstyn] Yes, chef.
Uh, I'm gonna go for like, a cookie butter dessert pizza.
Cheese with a little mascarpone and orange,
and then chocolate strawberries.
[Geoffrey] How about, think again?
[Kirstyn] Shortbread cookies already have a lot of butter in them.
They're kind of salty and flaky.
To make my shortbread cookie butter,
I add some butter and I blitz them down to crumbs.
Oh, there-- there we go!
This cookie butter.
You're adding more butter
to something that's already butter-rich.
So I'm very confused
as to how she's gonna execute this dish.
[Kirstyn] It would mean a lot for me to win.
It would be a huge confidence boost.
I've always worked really hard.
But maybe questioned, uh, my abilities
when I shouldn't have.
I'm a solid chef and I can hang with anyone.
If I win Chopped, I'm going somewhere tropical
and just sit and drink rum punch for a few days.
Twenty minutes to go, chefs.
[Geoffrey] Requesón is from Portugal,
and it's a fresh cheese.
Sort of like ricotta.
[Taylor] So Chantilly cream is essentially whipped cream.
So I get that requesón cheese into the mixer,
because I wanna start to break it down.
I add my heavy cream,
whip it till I get some soft peaks.
[Eric] Strawberry is such a beautiful summertime fruit.
And with orange,
you get a little bit of more citrus, more cooler,
uh, weather notes.
And I think the orange can be used
to accentuate some of those strawberry flavors.
[Taylor] I chop all my strawberries,
toss them with a little bit of sugar and some lime juice.
I get the rest of the cheese into a sauce pot,
grab some heavy cream,
it's making this beautiful thick sauce.
I see all the chocolates
on my chocolate covered strawberries
on my cutting board,
and get that into the pot.
Less than 15 minutes left, chefs.
All right, 15.
I paddle half and half
mascarpone and requesón and powdered sugar,
and then I add a little orange zest to that.
I love the funk that the requesón lends
to the whipped mascarpone.
All right, dough, let's do this.
From there, I start portioning the dough,
and then spread my cookie butter.
I grab the mascarpone whip,
and add the little blobbies to the top.
Kirstyn is stressing me out.
She's building a pizza.
I mean, that dough takes...
Takes a while.
[Kirstyn] I look at the clock and realize
I have to get this pizza dough in the oven
as quickly as possible.
Kirstyn has three basket ingredients on the pizza.
If the pizza doesn't work...
We're getting orange juice.
Kirstyn has three basket ingredients
on the pizza.
I mean, that dough takes 15 minutes minimum.
-[Maneet] Kirstyn. -[Kirstyn] Yes, chef.
-Have you made this before? -Uh, no.
-Lovely, great time to try a new dessert. -[Kirstyn laughs]
[Taylor] I try the cookie,
it's super buttery.
It has a pretty good sweetness to it.
I wanna break this down into a crumble.
I have all my components ready for the dish.
I open the oven,
and the cake is nowhere close to being done.
Come on. Come on.
This is gonna be close.
But I'm gonna do this.
-Taylor. -[Taylor] Yes, ma'am.
How confident are you feeling
-with the dessert you're going to serve us? -I'm feeling good.
I just hope this cake gets done in time.
Two minutes to get it done, chefs.
Only two minutes.
[Kirstyn] It's a dessert pizza,
so it needs to be fun and playful.
So I dice up the strawberries to mimic tomatoes a little bit
and added mint to mimic some basil.
Add some orange juice and orange zest.
I then realize I have all this nice chocolate here,
why not utilize it to make a nice ganache
to drizzle over my pizza?
I check my pizza.
It's brown, it's fluffy, it looks delicious.
Well, it looks nice.
Her pizza cake is nice looking.
[Maneet] Because she cranked up the oven,
the bottom of the pizza might be done.
But the center of the pizza,
that could be raw completely.
-Have you tried it? -I have not.
[Kirstyn] I don't wanna mess it up. I'm saving it for y'all.
Taylor's cake is still in the oven.
He keeps on opening it,
It is not done yet.
He's got to take the cake out,
he's got to cut it, he's got to plate it.
[Geoffrey] Cutting a cake when it's blazing hot?
Less than ideal.
-[Maneet] Hot cake can break. -[Eric] Oh, boy.
[Ted] All right, chefs.
Final seconds of the final round here.
-[Eric] Let's go, chefs. -[Ted] Ten,
[Ted] nine, eight, seven, six,
-[Geoffrey and Eric] Let's go, let's go! -[Ted] five, four,
-[Ted] three, two, one. -[Geoffrey laughs]
[Ted] Time's up.
[judges clapping]
-Way to go! -Good job, good job.
[Taylor] I definitely took a risk there, baking something.
I really wanted to push myself,
and use those ingredients as much as I could.
[Kirstyn] I'm super nervous.
It's a little thicker than I wanted,
but I think, I'm feeling pretty good about it.
Chefs, hope you made it count,
working with a chocolate strawberry tower,
oranges, requesón cheese,
and shortbread cookies.
Chef Taylor, what have you made?
Chefs, today, I've prepared for you
a Greek yogurt orange cake,
um, requesón Chantilly cream,
uh, requesón chocolate sauce,
and then a little bit of shortbread crumble
and citrus, macerated strawberries.
The way the Chantilly cream with the strawberries,
it's beautiful.
And I love the fact that you've given us control
of almost having an activity to create a bite.
-[Maneet] I love the cake the way it is. -Thank you.
But it needed something
to carry it over the finish line.
Thank you.
The cake itself, I love how moist it is.
But I wish it had more sweetness to it.
I get that requesón for sure,
it's definitely there.
I get the orange and the cardamom.
But it would've been like, heightened
if there was just a little bit more sugar to it.
I feel like that's the other cardinal sin for this dish.
Thank you.
You really incorporated all the ingredients.
And I love the little chocolate sauce that you
sort of stole from the strawberries.
But it's kind of a little...
blah tasting.
And I think, you had that juice,
those beautiful oranges reduced it with some rum,
and just poured the rum over here
like a bottle of rum kind of thingy.
It would've given that extra kick.
Thank you, chef.
Thank you, chef Taylor.
Finally, chef Kirstyn.
Chefs, I made some dessert pizza for y'all today.
With cookie butter, mascarpone,
with the requesón,
and, uh, chocolate sauce with the strawberries,
and then a orange macerated strawberry
sort of mint relish on top.
[Maneet] I-- I think it's very fun
the way you have translated something which is obviously savory
and presented it as a dessert.
The requesón cheese with the mascarpone,
I think that's great.
The strawberry's delicious,
especially with a little bit of orange and mint.
-Works very well. -Thank you, chef.
Chef Kirstyn,
I think that you-- for this was a really wise decision.
But the requesón cheese
and the ganache that you added on top of that,
weighs everything down
to the point it starts to get soggy.
I would've loved if maybe the sauce was served
in a little saucier.
Sure. Thank you, chef.
Chef, you have a real command of flavors.
You're kind of a wizard at combining things.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work.
Sorry.
-It's yummy on top, raw underneath. -Heard.
The mixing of it is great,
but you gotta have a vehicle if that makes sense.
And unfortunately, this just doesn't make sense.
Heard.
-Chef Kirstyn, thank you. -[Kirstyn] Thank you.
Okay, please leave the judges to sort this out.
[Geoffrey] Thank you, chefs.
-[Kirstyn] Thanks, Chefs. -[Taylor] Thank you.
We had some really good food today.
Both Taylor and Kirstyn started off very strong.
- Yeah. -[Maneet] Kirstyn gave us this tortilla soup
[Maneet] with a black bean and a-- a beef tendon ball sauté.
There was a lot of flavor.
But she should've put something crunchy,
in terms of texture.
It's a tortilla soup.
-Put some deep fried tortilla on top of it. -Yeah. Yeah.
Chef Taylor's dish was actually visually stunning.
-That almost Green Goddess, uh, crema -[Geoffrey] Mmm-hmm.
[Eric] was so smart to play with the, uh, culantro.
Except the balls were kind of hollow,
'cause he didn't put enough sort of, thickener.
And the main course was really, uh, interesting.
-Because Taylor, he did meatballs again. -... That's right.
[Geoffrey] They were delicious meatballs.
He put fried geoduck, um, clams
which were like, chewy.
'Cause he-- he-- They were cut too thick.
It didn't make any sense.
Chef Kirstyn, she had a flavor bomb.
She cooked the merguez perfect,
she cooked her geoduck perfect.
[Eric] I mean, it was such a delicious dish.
But I felt like the pantry ingredients took over.
It was the couscous that was the star of the show.
I think that it's very close.
[Kirstyn] I'm so close to the win,
and it would be a huge confidence boost.
It would show my family, friends, loved ones
that what I do and I'm good at it.
[Taylor] Dealing under the time crunch,
I paid a lot of justice to all the basket ingredients throughout the day,
which I think, will steal the deal for me.
So, who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Taylor, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Taylor, for your first course,
we loved the first meatball you gave us.
The only problem is that it sort of fell apart inside.
The second course the geoduck clam,
which was a basket ingredient,
was severely overcooked.
-Sure. -And so, we had to chop you.
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
I'm very proud of myself for getting this far as I did.
The experience is gonna be something
I'm gonna remember for the rest of my life.
And that means, Chef Kirstyn Brewer,
you are the Chopped champion.
-Congratulations. -Man.
-[Maneet] Whoo! -[Kirstyn] Thank you.
Incredible. Very surprised. [chuckles]
I won Chopped.
I can't believe it, it still is not sinking in.
It's really, um,
proving that I can hang with anyone.
I can roll with the punches,
take whatever challenges come at me,
and I can really cook.