You've got to set the tone and strike the right note.
[man] I'll do whatever it takes.
[man 2] This is not gonna be easy.
[Ted] Grab the butter, bring the bravado.
[Sayeh] I'm here to kick some butt.
[Ted] This is a celebration of the one, the only, the OG French chef...
I'm Julia Child.
[Ted] Every basket is a puzzle.
[Alex] Let's take coq au vin, put it through the Chopped meat grinder.
[Ted] Julia's classic recipes will inspire innovative and modern dishes...
[Scott] There's a million directions you can go in here.
[woman] Flavor in 20 minutes. Hello.
I'm hoping it's cooked.
So exciting!
It smells delicious!
[Ted] 16 chefs are gunning for a dream trip to France.
Oh, my God.
Heard that. Watch your back, baby!
[woman] Here comes the drama.
[Julia] Don't overcook the duck.
What is he thinking?
[Sayeh] It's a lot of pressure.
Oh!
We gotta go here! It's go time! Let's go!
Move, boy.
[exhaling]
Julia would be very upset right now, she'd be drinking wine.
[Scott] This is gonna go very fast.
Oh, my God, that clock is going. It's terrifying.
I'm gonna cry.
Whoo! We're almost there, mama.
[yelling]
That was a mistake.
Welcome to Chopped.
Bon appetit.
And now is the first course for this elegant meal.
[Javauneeka] I'll do my best Julia Child impression.
You can never have too much butter. [laughs]
I'm the sous chef of Frontera Grill in Chicago, Illinois.
The same approach Julia took to French cooking, I take with Mexican cuisine.
Julia's determination and drive are very inspiring to me.
Ooh. I must say that smells good.
[Javauneeka] I love to challenge myself,
I'm always pushing myself to be better.
I come from a James Beard and Michelin background,
and I've nailed every goal I set for myself.
Next one is winning Chopped.
I like any recipe where she's like "Beat the eggs!" [chuckles]
It's very invigorating to me.
[Dom] I'm the executive chef of Lonely Oyster
in Los Angeles, California.
My style of cooking is coastal cuisines.
I have great access to seafood
and amazing coastal farms near me.
Julia would hit it.
My biggest influence was my mom.
My mother channeled Julia.
It's funny, they have similar hair and similar mannerisms.
Not the same voice, though.
That's one of the most important parts.
[Dom] When I win, we get the yacht in St. Tropez.
Champagne, foie gras, caviar and oysters every meal.
Well that's fun, isn't it?
[Julia] One of the most famous of all duck recipes.
[Al] I never went to culinary school,
so for me, I would go to Waffle House
and read Mastering the Art of French Cooking for hours.
That's crazy.
[Al] I'm a chef de cuisine at Parallax in Mammoth Lakes, California.
Julia Child never took herself too seriously,
she wasn't afraid to make mistakes
and experiment in the kitchen.
-You're not gonna be able to get it... -[glasses clatter]
...sizzling.
[Al] My style of cooking is clean, vegetable-forward.
When I win Chopped,
I can't wait to get back to Europe and dine everywhere
and kind of expand all my horizons as a cook.
If you've ever travelled down in Marseille...
This was one of my favorite things to make
while staying at Julia Child's house in Provence.
Cooking in her actual kitchen,
picking the vegetables that Paul grew,
I slept in her bed.
I did. I had her room. [laughs boisterously]
I'm the chef and owner of Exquisite Host Catering in Washington, D.C.
I specialize in Persian cuisine,
but everything has a French influence to it.
It is very French indeed.
[Sayeh] Julia inspired me to follow my passion.
And I'm here to kick some butt.
Mmm. Perfect!
-[Scott] And you met Julia Child? Yeah? -[Alex] I did.
-Did you? -[Isabella] Have you?
-[Alex] I did. Yeah. -[Isabella] Oh, really?
Where did you meet her?
-I went to culinary school in Burgundy in France. -Oh, yes.
[Alex] And she came for lunch and I sat and we hung out.
-Oh, no. Really? -Yeah.
-And it was amazing. -Oh, that's incredible!
[Alex] It was amazing.
Hello, chefs.
-Hello. -Hello, Chef.
[Ted] Welcome to Chopped: Julia Child's kitchen.
If you haven't noticed already,
the legendary Isabella Rossellini is here with us on set.
Yeah!
I am not a chef,
-I'm just Italian. -[all laughing]
I cook a little bit.
But I do play Simca Beck who was the teacher to Julia Child.
I played her in a series called Julia.
Why did you call it The French Chef, hmm?
You're not French.
Well, because I cook French food.
[slams phone receiver down]
You are here to help us celebrate and honor
Julia's extraordinary life and legacy.
She was truly a culinary innovator,
and that's exactly what we're asking you to emulate in this tournament.
I was born for this.
The winner of this battle will advance to the finale
where somebody will win the trip of a lifetime.
A $25,000 dream vacation to France.
I'm very interested in that prize.
All right. Let's hear from Julia
which recipe will inspire your first course.
Today we're gonna do coq au vin.
Chicken and red wine.
It's one of the best and I think one of the most famous French chicken dishes.
Isabella stars in Max's hit series, Julia.
Ready to tell you about this collection of ingredients
is one of her illustrious costars.
Bonjour, chefs.
I'm David Hyde Pierce,
and I play the role of Paul Child in Max's Julia.
[Ted] Open your appetizer baskets.
Inspired by Julia Child's coq au vin recipe,
you have instant mashed potatoes...
This is definitely not Julia-approved.
[David] ...shredded carrots...
That saves me some time.
[David] ...Nicoise olives...
I love olives.
...chicken hearts.
Something a little different.
[Sayeh] I can definitely work with this.
Does not feel like coq au vin at all.
Good luck, chefs.
[Ted] Well, of course, chefs, you don't have to make coq au vin.
Instead, you'll be cooking up an ode to that classic.
The 20-minute appetizer round starts... now.
Let's go, chefs. Let's go.
[Javauneeka] Oh. Right behind you.
Behind you.
Isabella, coq au vin was so important to Julia
that it was featured in season one of the Max series.
We're going to do coq au vin.
That's French for chicken and red wine.
[Isabella] Now it takes about four hours,
and I don't know how our chefs are gonna make it in 20 minutes.
I don't know either.
Behind down. Behind down.
[Alex] I think that the basket points very indirectly.
Like, let's take coq au vin,
put it through the Chopped meat grinder
because I think you could serve coq au vin
with boiled potatoes, for example.
So there are mashed potatoes.
Arguably, there would be carrots.
But the red wine flavor is not in this basket,
and it's deep in the DNA of a coq au vin.
Let's go.
[Sayeh] Coq au vin, it has that protein component
where, of course, hers is a chicken,
and then it has the red wine.
Okay.
So for my appetizer, I'm gonna be making a sauteed chicken heart
with a red wine demi-glace
and a fresh salad with the Nicoise olives.
My aunt had a beautiful French bistro,
and she gifted to me, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
-Can I use some of this? -Please, help yourself.
I had never seen so much time and attention be put on different dishes.
Okay.
I definitely feel like I'm one of Julia's biggest fans.
I've read her cookbooks, I've watched her shows,
and I look at Julia Child as inspiration to being a trailblazer in the kitchen.
The same approach Julia took to French cooking,
I take with Mexican cooking.
I'm making a coq au vin tostada with fried chicken hearts.
Mashed potato spread
with a carrot, olive, red wine reduction.
I'm adding mushrooms 'cause it's a classic ingredient in the coq au vin.
Okay. Right behind.
And I'm gonna fry the chicken hearts and the mushrooms
till they get nice and juicy.
Feels very challenging to do a coq au vin with chicken hearts.
Well, I think the chicken heart
truly tastes like chicken mixed with maybe sulfurous or iron notes.
A crispy, crusted, breaded, fried chicken heart cooked perfectly is divine.
[Al] Julia always stressed the importance of great technique in the kitchen.
To be able to look at core ingredients
and know how to work with them.
I'm making crispy chicken hearts, a frisee and carrot salad,
and a red wine reduction.
I'm hoping that the saltiness and the brininess
of the olives will help season my reduction sauce.
Looking back at my mother's recipes
and how she executed French food
had a lot to do with Julia and, like, the Joy of Cooking.
I'm making grilled chicken hearts
with a carrot soubise and a Nicoise salsa.
I'm deglazing with a little bit of white Madeira.
It kind of accentuates the carrot.
Coq au vin's usually made with red wine,
but I don't want it to get too bitter.
Chefs, 10 minutes left in this round.
-How are you guys doing? -Hanging in there.
This is gonna be one creamy mashed potato.
Julia would definitely approve.
I'm using the instant mashed potatoes to make a spread for my tostada.
You can never have too much butter.
I think that instant mashed potato,
it's a great opportunity to add it to flour
and use that as a dredge for the chicken hearts
to be able to fry them in that as well.
In theory, this will work the same as breading any other protein.
So there are five minutes left on the clock,
and Chef Dom, he hasn't touched his chicken hearts
or his instant mashed potatoes.
He doesn't have time to waste.
Those chicken hearts need to be cooked.
[Dom] The clock's burning down,
and I totally need to get these instant potatoes into my dish,
but the chicken hearts are very unwieldy.
They're moving around, they're not working out.
Ugh!
Chef Dom doesn't have time to waste.
Those chicken hearts need to be cooked.
The chicken hearts are very unwieldy.
I get them on the grill, and I'm just hoping they're gonna be done.
Dom just dumped a scoop of the instant mash into his sauce.
-By the way, a sauce thickener, the instant mash. -[Scott] That's a great idea.
That's a good idea. Yeah.
I love olives.
I love the brininess,
so automatically, I'm thinking of a salad.
Olive oil.
I love the concentration.
You know, it's almost the same concentration that you have
when you're on stage.
As an actress, you know, you're in a tunnel,
they're zeroing in on their food.
[Javauneeka] This 20 minutes is no joke,
but in the kitchen that I work in,
if chef says go, you gotta go.
To top off my tostada, I'm making a red wine reduction
with the olives as well as the carrots.
Behind, Chef.
To make my frisee and carrot salad,
I take the carrots, clean frisee, olive oil, sherry vinegar.
I make sure I mix it well.
Let's go, chefs, 50 seconds!
-Yes, Chef! -Get it done! Get it done!
Yes, Chef. Push, focus. Get your plates.
All four ingredients. Double check your inventories, chefs.
Let's do this. Don't forget anything.
All right. Just seconds remain, chefs.
-Use them wisely. -Come on, chefs.
-Whoo. Good luck. -[Scott] Let's go, chefs.
[Ted] Eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
-Hands up. -[Scott] Let's go.
-[Alex] Wow. -[all applauding]
Good job.
-[Sayeh chuckling] How did you do? -Good push. Good push.
That looks great. That looks nice.
[Sayeh] I hope it tastes good.
It's a lot of pressure to get it done right.
Now I'm thinking of the million things I could have done differently.
But what I put out there is what I put out there, and I stand by it.
[Dom] I think the chicken hearts will definitely be cooked,
but I think that-- We'll see.
Four Julia Child fans
have arrived at the chopping block.
For the first round we gave you instant mashed potatoes,
shredded carrots, Nicoise olives, and chicken hearts.
Ingredients inspired by Julia's recipe for coq au vin.
Chef Al, what have you made?
So, I made a crispy chicken heart
using the instant potatoes to form a breading on the outside,
a light frisee salad, and a red wine reduction.
You have sherry vinegar and then you have the red wine.
And then you have these Nicoise olives which are very briny,
and a little acidic, almost the way wine is.
So what I'm getting is a trio of flavors of fortified wine
that obliterates everything else on the dish.
Very strong.
I think you're actually missing the fat that is French cooking.
Butter or cream needed to be brought in to give us some relief.
I agree with everything you've said,
but I am amazed about the creativity.
I think it does feel like an appetizer.
I really like the textures of the chicken hearts,
I think it was a really good touch
to utilize those instant mashed potatoes
on the coating and on the breading.
I think your flavors were on point.
Thank you, Chef Al.
Next up, Chef Sayeh.
So, I made a sauteed heart with a red win demi-glace.
Served that on top of mashed potatoes,
with a fresh salad with the Nicoise olives.
And how did you get started in cooking, Chef?
I had a very long, successful career working as a news reporter,
but my passion has always been to work in the kitchen.
I was really inspired all my life by Julia.
So I wanna be that modern-day Persian Julia.
I see the spirit of the coq au vin inside here,
the way you created that red wine sauce and cooked it.
Those carrots also add a really nice underlying component of sweetness
that match with the shallots themselves, so.
I think all in all, Chef, it's a good dish.
I really agree with Scott, but there's way too much mashed potato on here.
I like that the chicken heart,
they're cut, and they almost mimic the olive.
[Sayeh] Mm-hmm.
So, once in a while,
I eat an olive, and it's a heart.
There's like an element of surprise.
I was hesitant about eating the heart,
it's the first time in my life.
But I could do it because it looked like an olive. [laughing]
So I liked it very much.
Thank you.
Next, we go to Chef Javauneeka.
So I have a tostada coq au vin.
I cook a lot of traditional Mexican food,
I work at a Rick Bayless restaurant.
And so it just went straight to the tostada.
Well, Chef, I like your point of view here.
I like that you went the Mexican direction.
I like your usage of the potato puree on the tostada itself.
I like the cook on the hearts,
but the red wine sauce is just really sweet.
You know, when I first saw your dish, I thought,
"Hmm, where is the Julia Childs?" because we're honoring her.
And when I taste it, I am completely surprised by the richness.
And I love that there is meat,
but there's sugar, there's acidity, there is the lime.
You agree? You're nodding.
-I'm gonna judge the judge. -[all laughing]
I agree with you. I really agree with you.
The spark and the vibrant nature of your dish is very Julia,
but you needed to chop up those tomatoes,
and hack up those olives and finish this thought.
Needed to become a salsa of some form in your own language.
Thank you.
Finally, Chef Dom.
So, today, I've prepared for you a grilled chicken heart
and carrot soubise with a Nicoise salsa.
I mean, the cooking is really good.
I think what Julia did was get everybody cooking.
And the carrot puree is fluffy,
and it's got a richness that does feel French.
I love the texture of the olives.
I love the way you used those instant mashed potatoes
as a thickening agent for this puree.
But ultimately, those chicken hearts were a little bit under.
I ate the heart, and it did feel like a little raw.
I don't see the essence of coq au vin.
It is astonishing that four chefs could do so many different things
with this ingredient.
That, I am completely in awe and admiration.
[Ted] Chef, what does it mean to you to be competing
in our Julia Child's kitchen tournament?
My mother's half French. She was a great home cook.
I lost my mom in 2019 to cancer.
And watching Julia make tarte aux fruits,
or anything like this just makes me think of my mom, so.
-She is who she is, you know? -[Dom] Yeah.
And that reminds us of all our mothers.
Specially if they were a talented mother in the kitchen.
My mum was Ingrid Bergman, she never cooked.
Once we did a cookie, 'cause she said,
"I'm going to be a mother, we're gonna make cookies."
They were so hard, we couldn't eat them.
We threw them to the birds, the birds fly to peck them,
they thought they were stones, they flew off.
-[Ted and Scott laughing] -That was my mom.
-No cooking at my mom. -[all laughing]
Okay. Now the judges need to parse what they've just tasted,
and decide which one of you must leave us first.
[Dom] I felt like I definitely cooked at a high tier
besides, you know, the slight undercooking of the chicken heart.
But I think we all just made critical mistakes.
[Al] Getting the feedback that it wasn't reading as a French dish
is definitely a little worrying.
[Ted] Whose dish is on the chopping block?
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[Ted] Chef Dom, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Chef Dom, first of all, we loved having you here today.
Unfortunately, Chef, your chicken hearts just weren't cooked enough.
So, we have to chop you.
-Thank you, Chef. -Good luck to you.
-You were great. -[Dom] Appreciate it.
-[Scott] Thank you, Chef. -[Dom] Thanks.
I mean, I'm definitely bummed. I came here fired up
to try and instill the spirit of Julia,
but I think I really just missed that.
Chef Sayeh, Chef Al, Chef Javauneeka.
Congratulations on making it this far.
Let's find out what classic Julia dish
will be the inspiration for your next set of plates.
Today we're doing one of the most famous French bean recipes.
Cassoulet. It's a whole dinner in one great, big casserole.
Show us what you got.
[gasps] Whoa. [laughs]
-[Ted] Once again, I'm going to get an assist here... -All right.
[Ted] ...from the cast of Max's Julia.
Salute, chefs. My name is Brittany Bradford,
and I play the role of Alice Naman,
producer of The French Chef in Max's Julia.
Inspired by Julia Child's cassoulet recipe,
you have pig head.
[grunts] Oh! That's a big boy.
-[Brittany] Thyme. -Thyme.
[Brittany] Cannellini beans.
The beans are definitely a no-brainer.
[Brittany] Duck fat caramel.
Duck fat caramel. Okay.
Make Julia proud.
[Ted] All right, Chefs.
Get inventive and do great things in the next 30 minutes,
cooking up an ode to Julia Child's cassoulet recipe.
Time starts now.
Let's go, chefs.
Behind you.
[Sayeh] Exactly what I want. Italian sausage.
Judges, can you tell us a little bit about Julia's cassoulet recipe?
Ultimately, a cassoulet is like a stewed bean, right?
It's not fancy.
Traditionally, a cassoulet actually leans heavily into duck,
and then you have different meats.
One little important thing is that it should have a little tomato in it.
So there's the acidity that lifts this dish up
from being very fatty and very heavy.
It's not considered haute cuisine, no?
I would imagine it's a peasant...
Something you eat in the winter.
I think the peasant aspects of it is what makes it so revered.
Cassoulet, historically, has always been a super hearty dish for the people
with whatever they had around.
And I wanna make sure that I get that onto my plate.
I'm making a peasant's cassoulet
with cannellini beans and a duck fat caramel stock.
Not too much meat on here.
I take some of the fat from the cheek,
and I begin rendering it in the pan to cook the rest of the dish in.
I'm adding the duck fat caramel to my stock
to bring a nice sweetness to the dish,
but also add a little bit of body.
I gotta try that duck fat caramel.
[Scott] I think one of the challenges of this basket
is those duck caramels, right?
There's a lot of cream and a lot of sugar in those caramels.
So, navigating the duck fat
in order to incorporate it into this dish is gonna be fine,
but it's the sweetness that becomes the issue.
[grunts]
Maybe if you just took a bunch of butter,
melted some of the caramels into it, made a roux.
That's really smart.
I'm leaving all my Mexican roots back at home
and I'm gonna Julia Child this one up.
I'm making a pig head and cannellini bean cassoulet
with asparagus, green beans and zucchini.
The mistake would also be to just rinse the beans and use them.
You need to cook them again.
I think they need to be simmered.
[Javauneeka] I simmer the cannellini beans with thyme and butter.
[Sayeh] So, when I think of a cassoulet,
it has lamb, it has pork, it has beef.
For my entree, I'm making pork cassoulet
with a pig cheek, duck fat caramel crumble.
I put the pig cheek, some sourdough bread
and also the duck fat caramel into the food processor.
[Ted] Chefs, you've got nineteen minutes to get this done.
[Al] These are canned beans so they're already cooked,
so I don't really wanna overdo 'em.
I'm gonna use my hot stock and the heat of the oven
to finish up the cooking process on them.
What do you do with the pig head?
-The ears. -[Isabella] The ears?
Well, I give them to my dog.
You buy them dry at the pet stores.
I think you could take a hunk of that pig's head,
throw it in a pot and cook it
so you get juices and fat from the pig head itself.
[Javauneeka] I have a dish at the restaurant that uses pig head
so I am not intimidated by this.
I just need enough meat so I can braise it in the red wine.
I traveled around Europe. I've seen most of the world
because of my career as a journalist.
But what was always brewing in the background was my passion for cooking.
Winning this tournament would be amazing.
All mine. Thank you.
[Alex] My spirit animal is cooking tonight.
Sayeh, who has taken the sausage from the pantry,
she has tomato paste, she has little cubes of bacon and beans.
-Everything is simmering beautifully. -[Scott] Nice, nice.
Four minutes to go, chefs.
[Al] I never went to culinary school
so winning this trip would be amazing.
For me, as a young cook, to be able to experience things first-hand
would help me immensely in my career.
I'm making the croutons to add a nice, savory
and crunchy component to the dish
to help work with the savory and gelatinous flavor of cassoulet.
[Javauneeka] France is the Mecca for cooking,
and winning this trip would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
To top off my cassoulet, I'm making a crouton
with butter and thyme and parsley.
Behind you, behind you.
[Alex] Is anybody finished? Let's finish up.
Let's go, Chefs. Get it on the plate.
-Would Julia eat this dish? Yes or no? -[Scott laughing]
[Alex] You have 16 seconds to make it Julia's favorite.
Running out of time.
Ten, nine...
-[Scott] Let's go, Chefs. -...eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one.
Time's up!
Wow!
[exhales deeply]
[Javauneeka] I look over at Sayeh's dish,
and it looks a little like mine.
I look at Al's dish, and I'm like,
"Wow. That's so pretty."
So, it's gonna come out to who has the best flavor.
[Al] Javauneeka and Sayeh's dishes look very similar.
I think mine really stands out.
My dish definitely looks the most evocative of a classic cassoulet.
Chefs, the mandatory mystery ingredients for the entree round
were a pig's head, thyme, cannellini beans
and duck fat caramels.
Ingredients inspired by Julia Child's recipe for cassoulet.
Chef Javauneeka, what have you made for us?
[Javauneeka] This is a pig head and cannellini beans cassoulet.
And then I have some asparagus and green beans.
I don't know.
You did some stuff like you put asparagus in here.
Every ingredient that doesn't belong
hurts my cold, traditional heart.
But because you built it around the right amount of richness,
with the tang of tomato,
which just brings out the creaminess of the beans.
I get the sweetness from the duck caramel also.
And the thyme on the croutons was smart.
Chef, I gotta tell you something.
These are the type of flavors and the style of cooking that makes me emotional.
Somehow you cooked everything to the point where it was melting together.
The flavors are intermingled.
This 100% gives me all the cassoulet feels,
but uniquely yours at the same time.
Thank you so much.
When did the idea of adding asparagus and zucchini came?
I wanted to give it a little bit more texture because the beans are soft
and the meat is meat.
So I just wanted to add a little more crunch in there.
I think it's very good. I'm gonna eat more.
Very good.
Chef, what does Julia Child mean to you?
[Javauneeka] She means inspiration.
I went to Le Cordon Bleu, she went to Le Cordon Bleu.
And then, um, she, kind of, really focused on one cuisine,
which was French cuisine.
And she dove right into it,
and that's, kind of, what I do with Mexican food.
It would mean a lot to me to win Chopped.
My husband, Zach, and I got married this year.
We both share the love of food.
If I win this trip, I would take my husband, Zach, with me.
Next up, Chef Al.
I wanted to, uh, present a peasant's cassoulet.
I used the duck fat caramels in the broth to add sweetness
as well as some fresh tomato and some fresh herbs.
[Scott] Chef, it's very pretty.
I feel like this is, uh, something you would see on a cover of a magazine
talking about the variations of cassoulet.
And here's the cover shot, right? It's beautiful.
But it doesn't have depth.
This broth needs to come way down.
-Because it's so liquidy, you need that concentration. -Yes, Chef.
So, I do like the flavor of the broth.
But I, kind of, agree with you
that maybe there is a little lack of depth
of surprise, of what's in it.
It almost feels like a minestrone,
-and everything is so beautifully cooked. -[Isabella] More like a soup.
[Alex] I love the thyme in here.
The dried sage with the pig meat is really nice.
And I do taste the caramel sweetness in your broth.
But I just think this needed some retooling.
Hm.
Finally, Chef Sayeh.
So, I've made an all-pork cassoulet
with a pig cheek, duck fat caramel crumble.
I like the sauce a lot.
And I like the beans.
I like the way they cling to each other.
I would have liked it without all these herbs, and I never say that.
The duck fat caramel, I'm not necessarily
identifying inside here at all.
I don't really see any or taste any sweetness.
But I think that your usage of the pig head with the ground bread,
it's a really nice flavor profile.
I love the richness, uh, with that head.
It was excellent.
Thank you so much.
[Sayeh] So Javauneeka got a standing ovation,
but I think I have the components for French cuisine down.
And this dish is gonna get me to the finale.
[Al] I think that I put a lot of my techniques out there,
and I put a lot of my skillset into that,
and I hope that it comes across well.
But I am concerned that I might be on the chopping block, yeah.
[Ted] Whose dish is on the chopping block?
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Al, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Al, you made a very beautifully-cooked bowl of soup.
But unfortunately, your dish just lacked that rich flavor.
And so, we had to chop you.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
I'm... I'm definitely disappointed,
but I did my best.
And I think that there's a lot of great technique that I put across.
And at the end of the day, it just didn't come together when it needed to.
[Ted] Chef Javauneeka, Chef Sayeh,
I wonder what iconic recipe will inspire your last basket.
Today, we're making one of the loveliest kinds of fresh desserts.
It's a light and lovely one, that's why it's called a mousseline.
-Oh. -[Julia] Mousse means foamy,
and mousseline means even more light and foamy.
Well, chefs, your inspiration is Julia's chocolate mousse.
Let's hope whatever's in here will inspire you.
Open 'em up.
Ooh.
-Oh. -[Ted] And here to tell you about this set of ingredients
is another star from Max's Julia.
Chefs, my name is Fran Kranz,
and I play the role of Russ Morash in Max's Julia.
Inspired by Julia Child's chocolate mousse recipe, you have...
Is it a ostrich egg?
...an ostrich egg.
This is the biggest egg I've ever seen.
This is a big plus.
[Fran] Raspberries,
whipped coffee with boba.
[Javauneeka] Okay.
Okay, I could definitely work with the Eiffel Tower.
[Fran] And a chocolate Eiffel Tower.
Final round to make Julia proud.
Thirty minutes to rise to the occasion,
creating dishes inspired by Julia's chocolate mousse recipe.
Clock starts now.
-[Scott] Let's go, chefs. -[Ted] Let's go, chefs.
All right. Whoo!
[Sayeh] Okay.
Okay.
Judges, that single giant ostrich egg
has as much material in it as 24 chicken eggs.
[grunts]
It's a completely different texture than a chicken egg
or even a duck egg, for that matter.
[Alex] It's so silky. It's rich.
Let's see.
[Isabella] And how do you open an ostrich egg?
This is a thick... Very thick shell, isn't it?
[Alex] Traditionally, you take a nail and you chisel a hole.
And then you get it out,
the way you get, like, ketchup out of a bottle.
Come on.
You could make a Swiss meringue
by whipping those whites and putting sugar in them
and torching the bowl, and there's your mousse.
Javauneeka is trying to calculate how many "eggs" she needs
for whatever recipe she's making.
Oh, my gosh. I got a ostrich egg.
I've seen them. I've never touched one, I've never used one.
But I guess I'm about to.
I'm making a ostrich egg crepe
filled with a chocolate coffee mousse
and raspberry orange sauce.
To fill my crepes, I'm making a chocolate and coffee mousse.
I add in some of the whipped coffee into my chocolate
to reinforce the chocolate flavor.
And I add in some orange liqueur
because it's something that Julia Child did.
How are you doing there?
I'm... I'm feeling okay. Pastry's not my strong suit.
The personal stories of both are very touching.
One is so young and one is changing her career,
and it's, you know, admirable.
And they're very good.
Chef Sayeh.
-[Sayeh] Yes. -What are you making?
I am making a choux pastry
and serve it with a side of ice cream
and a chocolate orange liqueur on top.
So, where does the mousse aspect come into play, Chef?
The inside of the actual choux pastry,
I'm gonna make it, kind of, like a mousse consistency,
made of chocolate.
It's definitely scary, starting a whole brand-new career at age 40.
And Julia really inspired me to do that.
It would mean the world to me, winning this competition.
It would prove to myself that I know exactly where to be,
and that's in the kitchen.
This is looking good.
It would mean the world for me to win the trip to France.
I've never been there, my husband's never been there.
We love to travel.
And just to have all the inspiration that Julia Child had,
it would just be amazing.
My mousse is looking a little runny.
So I fold my whipped cream into my chocolate to try to make it fluffier.
All right, chefs, it's almost nine minutes on the clock.
[Sayeh] Oh, wow.
Sayeh is making a choux pastry,
and she's making ice cream, and she's making a ganache.
This is a classic case of a chef trying to do way too much.
Sayeh barely has time to make ice cream.
Okay.
This is a lot happening right now.
This is a classic case of a chef trying to do way too much.
[Sayeh] So now that my ice cream is in the machine,
I have to make my raspberry compote.
Just saute some of that raspberries
with a little bit of powdered sugar,
some orange liqueur and some orange zest.
She has her pate a choux still in the oven,
her ice cream is still mixing.
She has her raspberry she just put in a pan with confectionary sugar.
I mean, it's a mess. It's going sideways for her.
I wonder if we're not gonna end up with an empty plate.
Three minutes and 20 seconds, Chefs.
I'm so tense. I'm so worried for them.
[Javauneeka] Sayeh is taking on a lot in this dessert round,
and everything that can go wrong is going wrong.
So I'm like, "Okay, I think I got this."
To top off my crepes, I'm using the raspberries
to make a little bright fresh sauce
and to, kind of, really pull that flavor of the raspberry out.
That's actually really good.
[Ted] One minute, chefs. One minute.
-Come on. -[Ted] Guys, her ice cream is coming out.
-But where are the cream puffs? -It might be okay.
[Sayeh] Oh, my God.
[Alex] You gotta give us something.
-You gotta give us something. -Forty seconds, Chefs.
-[Alex] You've got 40 seconds. -[Scott] Forty seconds.
We gotta go here! It's go time! Let's go!
[Sayeh] The plan was to fill the choux pastry
with the whipped ganache filling,
but there is absolutely no way I'm gonna be able to get that in time.
This is just not happening.
[Ted] All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round here.
Ten, nine, eight...
-[Scott] Let's go, Chefs. Let's go. -...seven, six...
[Scott] Let's get it on the plate. Get it on the plate.
...five, four, three, two, one.
-Time's up, chefs. -[Sayeh grunts]
-Aw. -[Ted sighs]
This was rough.
How you feeling?
Not so good. You?
I don't know.
I think I have a solid dish,
but I am really worried about the consistency of my chocolate mousse.
I can see it running out of my crepes.
[Sayeh] I just hope that my dessert, at least,
is a little bit better than Javauneeka's
because it does not look great.
Chef Javauneeka, Chef Sayeh.
It was certainly exciting to watch you make desserts with ostrich eggs,
raspberries, whipped coffee with boba,
and a chocolate Eiffel Tower.
Ingredients inspired by Julia Child's recipe for chocolate mousse.
Chef Javauneeka, what do we have?
So, I made a crepe with a mousse,
uh, stuffed inside with sauce of orange liqueur,
a little orange juice and raspberries.
[Alex] I really like this.
The mousse is delicious.
Julia's chocolate mousse recipe has coffee in it.
And I think in terms of the, sort of, classic French sensibility,
that coffee note really helped your chocolate.
I think that your raspberries are good.
I... I wish that that wasn't directly on top of the crepe that you created
because it's hot, right?
That's gonna deflate some of that mousse
and also completely change the texture
of the crepe that you created.
Crepe's a little bit thick,
but I think your flavor's really good.
[Isabella] Well, I... I disagree
because I find that the crepe is very fine.
And I don't find it so thick.
Just something simple and small and delicious.
[Ted] Chef Sayeh.
I've made for you guys egg and orange liqueur ice cream with yolks,
and then the chocolate ganache,
and beautiful raspberry compote
and a cookie.
Chef, what happened?
-What happened? -What did not happen?
But Julia had that thing. "Oh, no, it doesn't work.
Don't worry about it," you know.
And you have that spirit.
Well, I'm glad I have the spirit.
You had all four basket ingredients in your dish
without the cream puff, right?
To be honest, I don't think you needed it.
There's really good flavor in it.
Strangely, I taste all of the basket ingredients
quite clearly and quite beautifully.
The cream, the chocolate, those bitter notes of the coffee.
I get whole raspberries so we are reminded,
sort of, of the essence of the ingredient itself.
Uh, the fact that you added that, um, choux pastry
as hot as it was,
it's really a melted dessert.
And I agree with Alex, everything was...
From a flavor perspective was where it needed to be.
All right. One chef is headed to the Julia Child finale.
Judges need some time to figure out which one.
Thank you, Chefs.
Judges, having the baskets inspired by classic recipes,
I think is a really interesting twist here.
Did those two chefs do a good job managing that surprise?
I mean, I think Javauneeka took more risks.
-I think Javauneeka moved away from French food more. -Yeah.
And Sayeh deserves points for really just hugging the shoreline
-with Julia Child and the French cooking. -I agree.
Sayeh's appetizer did have that truly traditional French feel,
which I think is important in this conversation tonight.
[Scott] Yeah, I think that with Sayeh's appetizer,
there was a large amount of that potato puree she created
from those instant mashed potatoes,
which, I think, was a little bit too much.
I loved Javauneeka's appetizer.
-Me, too. I agree. -[Alex] The tostada with the cannellini beans.
[Isabella] And the creativity and the complexity.
I thought Julia Child would have liked this one the best.
But I think Javauneeka's red wine sauce was just far too sweet
in that appetizer.
In the main course round, Javauneeka gave us
as close to a perfect plate of inspired cassoulet, um, as I've ever had.
-[Alex] I know. -[Isabella] It was excellent.
I almost ate the entire thing.
I had to refrain myself.
-[Scott] Yeah. -That was so good. Yeah.
I think if you just airlifted all of the herbs out of Sayeh's dish,
Sayeh could potentially have given Javauneeka, honestly, a run for her money.
-[Scott] I agree. -In terms of what she created.
At this point, I'm just hoping that they're not just gonna judge me on dessert.
In terms of the dessert round, I feel like I just had a more composed dish.
I'm ready to go in that finale and win this for me and for Julia.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Sayeh, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Chef Sayeh, first of all, we loved having you here competing today.
In your appetizer round, Chef,
unfortunately, there was a little bit too much
instant mashed potato puree that you created.
In your main course, you had five different herbs inside there
that just overwhelmed the dish as a whole.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
It's really disappointing, but I had a really good time.
So I think Julia would have been really proud.
And that means Chef Javauneeka Jacobs,
you are the Chopped champion.
And you have secured a spot in the Chopped Julia Child's Kitchen finale.
Way to go, Chef.
-[Alex] Amazing. -Thank you. I'm so excited.
Having won this competition, I do feel a lot more connected to Julia.
Heading into the finale, I just have to keep listening to her
and feeling her spirit.
I'm ready to win it all.