[Ted Allen] Clock starts now. Let's go get 'em.
-[woman 1] I'm so excited to be here. -Let's go.
[man 1] The pressure is intense.
[Ted] Let me breakdown how this is going to go.
The baskets will set the tone.
-[woman 2 exclaims] -[under breath] My god.
Fried onions.
[man 2] Guys, these are great ingredients.
[Ted] 30 minutes to solve this culinary puzzle.
This basket is so hard.
I think I know what I'm doing. I'm trying to, uh,
strategically think of how to include all the ingredients
without just throwing them on the plate.
[Ted] If your dish doesn't cut it...
I'm shaking.
[man 3] Uh, I'm really feeling the pressure. I'll just have to plate it as is.
...you will be chopped.
[Ciaran] I'm the chef to beat because I bring that fire,
that heat, that passion.
Just cooking with an audience, that's all.
I am the chef and owner of Glenmere Farm in Warwick, New York.
My favorite style of food is farm-to-table.
I, quite literally, [chuckles] live on a farm.
We focus on regenerative agriculture and food education.
We host our own pop-up events.
Cool. That's great.
My strategy is to open the basket
and just start going.
I'm here to win.
[Jessica] My vibe in the kitchen is calm, cool and collected.
I'm just so, like, steady.
I'm the owner and executive chef
of Biscuit Batch mobile restaurant
out of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The dishes that I serve are seasonal.
Chicken pot pie, corn chowder, mushroom gravy.
All the yummy things.
I got into cooking when I was in the navy.
I was the gas turbine mechanic.
So, I used to find any way to get out of the 135 degree engine room.
I used to help the CSes and they put me in the pastry section.
I would say if you can't stand the heat in the engine room,
then get in the kitchen.
My dishes will never lack flavor,
color and definitely vibrant feelings.
Look at these beautiful root vegetables.
It's gonna be delicious.
I am owner of Sweet Savory Miami in Miami, Florida.
My past career I was a DJ.
Definitely the passion for food and music has always been a part of me.
There is nothing better than the perfect playlist
with the perfect dish.
Boy, it's gonna make you say, "Fix me a plate".
I am Scotty Scott from Fort Worth, Texas.
I am a personal chef, all-around internet food guy,
cookbook author and food truck owner.
I've got traditional soul food recipes
along with chapters where I kinda get funky.
Just kind of put my own spin on traditional recipes.
Duck fat is gonna give this a nice little earthy flavor to it.
I'm always trying to tell a story. Every plate has a story behind it
and I think Chopped will be the best story so far.
-Hey, Chefs. -Hi, Ted.
-Hi. -Hey.
The word is this group means business. Is that about right?
-Big business. -Absolutely.
Okay. There will be three rounds.
Mandatory mystery ingredients for each course.
If your dish doesn't cut it you will be chopped.
Not today.
What will you find in this first basket?
Let's check it out.
My God.
Oh my damn.
[Jessica exclaims]
[Ted] And we have uni shooters.
Uni shots.
Uni indeed.
What is that?
Never seen it or heard of it before.
-What is this? -[Ted] Mizuna.
Arugula.
Mizuna can be a very bitter vegetable.
[Ted] Rice balls.
[Scotty] Rice balls.
Okay, this is gonna be interesting because they're already cooked.
[Ted] And fried onions.
Fried onions.
Guess I'm overly excited.
It's interesting.
[Ted] The appetizer round is just 20 minutes.
[whispers] Okay.
Clock starts right now.
-Let's go get 'em. -[Ciaran] Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
-[man 4] Right. -Let's go.
-Whoo! -Let's go, let's go.
Marc, you are joined by two special guest judges.
Restaurateur and brand consultant, Chef Tiffany Derry.
And cookbook author and James Beard Award winning restaurateur,
Chef Stephanie Izard.
Welcome back to you both.
It's so good to have you guys here.
-Thank you. It's good to be here. -Thanks. [chuckles]
[Ted] Judges, what do you think the challenge of this basket is?
It's that there's not one clear protein or one clear star of the plate
that you're building everything else around.
Uni, of course. It's basically the roe of the sea urchin which, it's tricky.
[Marc] I think, for me, the hard part with the shooter
is that there's so many ingredients in there.
You've got the little quail egg,
you've got the uni, you've got the tobiko.
The uni shooter also has a little bit of sake in there.
So, I guess a vinaigrette but then you're really
pointing your dish in one direction.
All right, time to get going.
What's challenging about this basket is how
I'm going to be able to tie everything together.
So Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines to make
So, I'm making a red coconut curry soup
with an uni shot egg drop and mizuna oil.
While my soup is reducing
I start on my mizuna oil.
This oil is going to add a little bit of bitterness
the contrast the heat and sweetness from the soup.
[indistinct]
So, it looks like Ciaran is making a mizuna oil,
which is an unusual use of that ingredient's sort of light, earthy flavor.
So, points for creativity.
The oil's a fun idea.
-[Ciaran] Jessica, how you feeling? -[Jessica] Feeling all right.
I think I know what I'm doing.
Looking at all the basket ingredients
I see Asian-inspired.
Jessica, what's going on over there?
I'm going a little Asian-inspired...
-Oh! -...Doing some fried onion rice cakes
and doing a bang bang sauce.
Okay. Sounds great.
[Jessica] For my rice cake, I'm gonna try to
add a little bit of moisture back into it
by adding some egg, scallions, and then I dice an onion.
I'm also gonna hand smash my fried onions
and use it as a coating for the rice cake.
For my bang bang sauce I'm mixing together
mayo, sriracha,
soy sauce and some of the liquid from the uni shooter.
I'm here to compete on Chopped
to show support for all of my lady veterans out there
that are struggling with PTSD.
When I started cooking in the kitchen it became my safe space,
and my light at the end of a tunnel.
So, I hope that they can find something.
So, they have rice balls which are also known as a arancini.
Going to Italy or actually Sicily to be specific.
It is rice. You typically have cheese.
Sometimes people put a meat sauce.
You can put whatever filling that you wanna do.
[Stephanie] Yeah, hopefully, the rice that's in there isn't cooked too long.
so if you go to bring a second cook to it, that's the tricky bit is
-now you're gonna end up with overcooked rice, possibly. -[Tiffany] Sure.
[whispers] Okay, okay.
This basket is so hard.
The problem with rice balls, they're already cooked.
So, they're going to be mushy.
The uni shooter is definitely leading me into a Asian direction.
I'm making an Asian-inspired fried onion rice cake
with a miso glaze and uni garnish.
I make the miso glaze with some of the juice from the uni shooter
as well as some sriracha.
Right now I'm a little bit flustered
because I'm trying to figure out exactly what path
to take with these ingredients.
I think I can use the mizuna to kind of help brighten up the dish.
To kind of balance the richness of the uni.
I'm making a citrus, uni salad with a tomatillo dressing.
So, to make my dressing I've got some tomatillos,
I've got some onions, some garlic,
and I throw it all in the oven to kinda get it nice and roasty.
I would describe my style of cooking as eclectic.
I'm not classically trained so I'm always looking for new ideas,
new things when I cook, new technique I've tried to implement it.
All right, chefs, you've got 10 minutes.
With the fried onions, I know I want to incorporate them as a crunchy component.
And I know that I don't want to just serve these fried onions alone.
So, I run to the pantry, I grab wonton wrappers
and I go straight to the fryer.
The pressure is intense.
Coming down.
I feel like I'm running around in circles.
[chuckles] Losing my apron.
[Tiffany] Let it go. Let it go.
[Jessica] Coming down, behind.
I wanna use the uni on top of my rice cakes,
so I'm gonna strain out the shooter
and I set the uni aside for plating.
I'm feeling confident this round.
Right behind. Right behind.
I've got all my components and I think they're
meshing well together.
[Oakason] I flip my rice cakes
and they have a nice, brown sear.
I have three basket ingredients in these rice cakes.
[softly] Okay.
The clock is moving so fast.
I just wanna get the ingredients on the plate.
[Scotty] So as a cookbook author and a recipe developer
I'm used to making ingredients,
taking them over and over and over again
and making sure it's correct and not just going by the seat of your pants.
So, you guys, Scotty's not touched any of his basket ingredients yet.
[Scotty] You know, at this point I've got the dressing
ready for the salad but...
Don't forget all the basket ingredients, guys.
Oh, boy.
None of the ingredients have been addressed yet, so I'm kind of freaking out.
At this point, you're telling me there's not
-been one thing touched? -There's not. Look. No ball touched.
[Tiffany] He has to figure it out, refocus
and... and make it happen.
5 minutes left here, chefs.
[Scotty] The clock is...
is about to expire and I'm really feeling the pressure.
[clock ticking]
Oh, boy.
Scotty has not even touched any of his basket ingredients.
[Scotty] At this point I'm worried I'm spending too much time on the dressing
and not enough time on the other items in the basket.
So what I decided to do was to take the uni out
and add it to the salad.
All of the rice balls are still sitting there.
[Scotty] I'm hoping to use the rice balls as a sort of a crouton
but then, I wanna top my salad with the fried onions
and the mizuna to add extra texture.
So, I'm feeling pretty confident about these.
[Jessica] For my mizuna salad, I'm keeping it simple.
I'm just gonna add some lemon juice,
olive oil and salt and pepper.
Adding fried onions to my mizuna salad is gonna add texture.
[Ciaran] I'm adding the rice balls to my soup because
they're gonna act really well as a thickener.
Oh, we're less than 2 minutes. If you're not plating you're in trouble right now.
[Oakason] I drizzle some miso glaze on my plate
and then add the rice cake.
To complete my appetizer I add the uni on top
as well as some chives.
[Tiffany] 45 seconds.
All four ingredients on the plate.
[Scotty] At this point, uh, I'm really feeling the pressure.
I'm starting to realize I haven't really transformed the ingredients much
but I still have to make sure I get everything on the plate.
[Ted] All right, let's get those plates polished up, chefs.
I'm shaking.
-[Ted] Ten, nine, eight... -You got it, guys.
...seven, six...
-[Tiffany] Let's go. -...five, four,
three, two, one...
Time's up. That's it.
[all cheering]
[Marc] Oh, boy. I think he got it all on.
Just couldn't get all my ingredients to meld together.
I was like, I had ideas in my head and they were going
separate directions at the wrong time.
[Oakason] Jessica, it looks like she also made a rice cake
so I am worried.
[sighs]
Chefs, you've arrived at the chopping block.
Inside your appetizer basket you found
uni shooters,
mizuna,
rice balls,
and fried onions.
Chef Ciaran, what did you make?
So, chefs, what I have for you is a
Thai-inspired red coconut curry soup
with a uni shot egg drop
and a mizuna oil.
I love the taste of the crispy onions on top.
-Each time you get a bite of that texture it's so nice. -Thank you.
The only thing I would say is having the quail egg as the,
um, the ribbons that are supposed to be in the soup
it works a lot better when you have a brothy soup for egg drop but
I wish you had added just some richness in there and just wish that I could
detect that a little bit more.
So, Ciaran, I think you really did a great job of
bringing all of the ingredients together.
You brought in minimal things. I liked the red curry,
I love the spice, I love the sweetness.
I think it's a very balanced dish
and I think using the rice balls as a thickener
-it was a really smart way to cook. -[Ciaran] Thank you, Chef.
I see why you used the mizuna the way you did.
-Mizuna oil doesn't, you know, doesn't have much flavor... -[Ciaran] Yeah.
...but you used it for, you know, for presentation.
Next up, Chef Oakason.
I prepared for you an Asian-inspired
French onion rice cake with a miso glaze,
garnished with uni.
And where do you work?
I am chef and owner of a company named Sweet Savory Miami.
It's a private chef service
that predominantly provides nutrition to professional athletes.
I have about 52 NBA clients and--
-52? -Wow.
-You're making meals for-- -Yeah, and 32 NFL.
And it's so much fun.
I like it. It's simple. I think that
the rice cake on the inside maybe could have a little bit more flavor incorporated.
I think it's nice that you decided to put
the fried onions inside to incorporate that flavor
But on the inside of the rice ball it's a little bit dried out
because it was already rice cooked
-and then you cooked it again. -Right. Yeah.
Oakason, I think this is a very good cake itself
with the flavors of the sauce.
I find your sauce to be a bit strong, though.
I feel like you missed one area
to be able to add some freshness to the plate
and perhaps, if we had the freshness it wouldn't feel so overpowering.
Right. Thank you.
You also used the uni from the shot on top as a garnish.
-Yes. -[Marc] Yeah.
And I thought that was the best bite.
I have to agree. It's a good start
but I think it needs some acidity.
I think you... A little salad on this plate would've gone a long way.
Next up, Chef Jessica.
Today I have for you a bang bang uni rice cake
with a fresh mizuna salad.
I see a big piece of onion in here. What else is in the cake?
A yellow onion and green onion and egg
to help remoisten.
So, it's odd when we get two dishes that are very
-similar, obviously... -Yeah.
...'cause you end up comparing them a lot but
I like the sauce underneath.
I think it... it complements the rice cake.
-The rice cake is still dense as well... -Mmm-hmm.
...but I do appreciate the mizuna salad on the side, which is
-a little bit of relief. -Thank you.
Yeah, this is a very well seasoned dish, Jessica.
I like the use of the onion and green onion
and kinda mimicking each other,
they... one is more fresh and one is more, you know, lingering.
So, even though the cake itself is definitely dense
but I think you gave us some relief
-with the salad. -Thank you.
Jessica, I think there's some really great things going on in the plate.
The texture of the rice cake is a little bit challenging.
Putting in some fresh onions, you just would wanna go little bit smaller
because getting that kind of big piece, it's a weird, um,
texture and just kinda gives you a little bit too much onion all at once.
Right. Thank you.
And finally, Chef Scotty.
I have a citrus, uni salad with a roasted tomatillo dressing.
How did that round go for you, Chef?
We... we were watching and I think at the
halfway mark you hadn't touched any of the actual basket ingredients.
Ah, I just got flustered. I was trying to go
seven different directions at one time and
I couldn't figure out which road to go down
and wound up going down none of them, basically.
All right, well, let's talk about the food.
The dish itself it's fine, right?
You made a vinaigrette, had some flavor,
you had the Granny Smith apples.
But when we're looking for a complete dish
we wanna see transformation.
I saw the rice balls just in the saute pan by themselves and
-I just think you could've done so much more. -I agree.
I think there is a couple of things where you can tell
there would've been a good idea there if you had let it, kind of, go.
Bringing in the apple to go with the richness of the rice cake,
you've got the acidity that you were trying to work in.
The dressing with the tomatillos,
again that brightness with the rice cake could've worked in some ways.
It seems that you let the stress, kind of, take over.
Okay, thank you, chefs.
Right now I'm feeling dejected, disappointed,
uh, but still optimistic.
The problem was I just couldn't get in the right direction.
[Oakason] The amount of time that was so short.
It was really hard to execute everything I wanted to do.
I should've added some nice greeneries, some freshness.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Scotty, you've been chopped. Judges.
Scotty, none of the four basket ingredients were transformed.
The rice balls were simply pan fried,
nothing else done to them and put on the plate.
And so, we had to chop you.
-Quite understandable. -Thank you, Chef.
I think the basket definitely threw me.
I did not follow the task at hand and
that's the result of it.
[Ted] Chef Oakason, Chef Ciaran, Chef Jessica,
now, things get real. Entree baskets.
Let's check it out.
Wow.
[Ted] And can you make magnificent main dishes
with cream of mushroom soup?
Mushroom soup.
The mushroom soup is weird.
It's congealed. It has...
a grotesque texture.
[Ted] Cone cabbage.
Big old cabbage.
Okay. I feel okay about that.
-[Ted] A banh mi. -Ooh, a banh mi.
I've had so many banh mis in my life
but to repurpose them and put them in a dish will be very hard.
-[Ted] And Dover fillets. -Dover fillet.
Very eclectic.
[Ted] 30 minutes.
Very interesting.
Clock starts now.
-All right, let's go get 'em. -Whoo!
[Jessica] I am feeling a little bit more nervous this round.
Entree is something that's a lot bigger
but being an engineer maybe, definitely
made me more organized
and better at holding my composure.
So, I just wanna keep it simple.
I'm making banh mi breaded dover sole
with a mushroom cream sauce.
For my mushroom cream sauce
I'm gonna dice an onion, mince up some garlic,
add some fresh thyme, some chicken stock and heavy cream.
I'm gonna add a little bit of soy sauce
to add a little more umami flavor.
Judges, the Dover fillets which are Dover sole
are a sweet and mild fish.
Is that a good thing in this basket?
[Stephanie] I think it's such a... a simple fish that you don't wanna overpower.
It's not only about delicate flavors
but it is delicate in the touch.
You're not gonna be grilling it.
[Stephanie] I'm just excited about the banh mi, I mean,
you have beautiful crackly bread,
you have your pate that's smeared on the bottom,
pickles on top, crispy sort of ground pork in it.
-Just so many layers of flavor going in. -Yeah.
[Ciaran] I know Dover sole is really delicate
and it can overcook in a second.
I'm waiting to cook my fish because these fillets are so thin
that I know if cook them too early, they're gonna dry out.
For my entree I'm making a butter-basted Dover sole
with a charred cone cabbage,
a pickled carrot puree and a mushroom tarragon sauce.
Definitely more conscious about the time this round.
I'm choosing to make a pickled puree
from the pickled carrots and radish off the top of the banh mi.
And then, I'm also using the baguette for a crumb.
I own Glenmere Farm with my mom.
Like so many chefs, I got laid off during the pandemic.
It actually turned into a blessing because I was able to
prioritize myself and my family and buy the farm.
Oakason, how is it going down there...
-[Oakason] I'm good. -...and what are you making us?
-[Oakason] I'm kind of going a southern route, um... -Southern?
...in a sense. I'm doing a polenta with cheese
with a touch of the mushroom
and a light, corn meal-crusted style Dover sole.
I'm excited 'cause last round we had, like, two of almost the same dish
-and now, these are three very different directions. -Yeah.
[Oakason] Because the Dover sole fillet is so flaky and delicate
I wanted to add a nice crunch factor
which is the reason why I decided to pan fry it with a corn meal flour.
15 minutes left, guys.
Jessica, how you lookin'?
I'm doing all right.
I'm trying to first strategically think
of how to include all the ingredients
without just throwing 'em on the plate.
I'm looking at my mushroom sauce and my breaded Dover
and I decide that I'm gonna go a German route.
I'm gonna hard sear my cabbage down, add onions, fresh garlic,
and red wine vinegar.
I, I mean, I love cooked cabbage, I love raw cabbage.
I think here, you know, the cone cabbage itself is an interesting thing,
but it doesn't have a difference in flavor.
If you were gonna go a slaw route,
you could take a little bit of the herbs and the pickles
from the banh mi and have that a part of your slaw.
All right, chefs, you've got 10 minutes.
[Ciaran] So, I take the cone cabbage and I quarter it into wedges,
and I get that in my pan really, really hot,
so I can get that char on the exterior.
-Then I start on my mushroom sauce. -[sizzling]
[Ciaran] Shallots, butter, garlic, and I bring in fresh mushrooms also.
And then I deglaze with white wine.
It's time for the fish.
I grew up watching Food Network, grew up watching Chopped,
never would've thought I'd be here today.
But the stress is through the roof.
Ciaran, did you skin your fish.
-I did not. -[Tiffany] Okay.
-He's like, "uh-oh." -Now he's like, "Uh-oh, should I...
Was I supposed to?"
[laughing] Are you giving me hints?
Classically on Dover sole,
it's peeled off, it's very chewy.
It's not something that you really wanna eat.
[Ted] Less than five minutes left here, chefs.
[Oakason] I taste the banh mi and I immediately realize that this
ground pork has such a beautiful flavor,
and it would go perfect in a succotash.
I use some chopped portobello mushrooms,
red and orange bell pepper, and the cone cabbage,
and the pork from the banh mi.
I cook for some celebrities,
um, some amazing, uh, hip-hop artists,
some actors.
It's hard to manage all of them,
they're very high demand.
However, I have a very strong team and we make it happen.
-All right, coming up on the two-minute warning here. -Oh, two minutes.
I hope everyone's plating.
[Ted] Two-minute warning here, chefs!
-Can I take some mushrooms? -[Ciaran] Yeah, go for it.
[Jessica] I wanna do a garnish of seared mushroom
so that you kind of know mushroom is in the dish
with the cream of mushroom soup.
[Ted] Final minute of the round, chefs!
[Ciaran chuckles] Jessica seems to be calm,
as cool as a cucumber.
I'm looking at Oakason, I'm a little worried about her.
I've watched Chopped for a very long time.
Polenta is rarely successful in the Chopped kitchen.
[Ted] All right, let's get those plates polished up, chefs.
-Let's go! -[Ted] Ten, nine,
-eight, seven... -You gotta plate now.
...six, five, four,
three, two, one.
-Time's up! -[applause]
-All right! -[applause continues]
[Oakason] Wow, even though it was 10 more minutes,
that round was so intense.
I just wish I had a couple more minutes
to put a little bit of citrus on top,
but let's see what the judges say.
[clock ticking]
Chefs, in your entree basket,
you found cream of mushroom soup,
cone cabbage, a banh mi, and Dover sole fillets.
Chef Jessica, please tell us about your dish.
I have a pan-seared Dover sole,
a sauteed cabbage,
and a mushroom sauce at the bottom.
Usually on Dover sole, you should take the skin off.
But it's just a, it's a little bit tough,
it's a little bit gelatinous.
None, none of you did think of taking the skin off.
[laughs] Good to know.
I mean, I think when you eat your fish, Jessica,
I think because you did that breading
that the skin is fine, it's not,
um, deterring from the flavor of the fish.
It's not ruining the texture in any way.
Thank you.
For me, the beauty here is definitely the cabbage.
Like, the cabbage with the acidity
and the flavor is delicious.
Chef, what is motivating you to put yourself through this? To compete here?
My kids. I have two kids.
Um, I want them to see that their mom's a badass, you know?
I was in the military, I have my own business,
and I've been on Chopped and, you know,
I've made it this far already.
-Badassery is required here. -It is.
[all laughing]
Thank you, chef Jessica, next up, chef Oakason.
I have prepared for you today
a Southern-crusted Dover sole
with a banh mi succotash,
and a polenta with cream of mushroom
and a little bit of cheddar.
[Marc] The succotash I like, I think it's got a lot of flavor, the peppers.
I think that was a very smart, sort of, maneuver there.
My problem here is that the actual Dover sole itself,
it's just extremely bland and overcooked.
And the other problem is this polenta is just a little bit grainy.
You know, I have to agree with Marc.
I mean, obviously we can taste the polenta,
and it definitely needs more time,
but it also needs a little more flavor.
It has a lot of richness, there's a lot of buttery, creamy notes in it,
but everything could take a little bit more salt.
I think your banh mi succotash is a great idea.
You could see I ate it all off of the top here.
I just think the polenta is undercooked,
but the succotash, I love it.
[Marc] It's interesting because the cone cabbage,
you used very little of it, but it's very effective
where you did use it in, in this little succotash.
Finally, chef Ciaran.
You have a butter-basted Dover sole
with a charred cone cabbage,
a pickled carrot puree,
and a mushroom tarragon sauce.
[Ted] Ciaran, have you always been a chef?
No, um, my background is in
animal science and agriculture, originally,
and found myself a little bit lost.
So, I've always loved to cook, and my mom pushed me
to check out CIA in Hyde Park.
And I enrolled and fell in love
from the first day of my fundamentals class.
Ciaran, I mean, that carrot puree just steals the show. Do you see?
-I was about to pick up my plate and start licking up. -[laughs]
[Stephanie] It's just really delicious, so much flavor.
I like the mushroom sauce as well.
The fish itself is a little bit overcooked
and could use a little more seasoning.
The cabbage, I love that it's caramelized cabbage.
I love that flavor, the sweetness
that comes out when it's cooked that way.
I love the presentation here.
I mean, it is visually appealing.
Where you struggled just a little bit is in seasoning, right?
Like Stephanie said, everything could've used a little bit more.
-Got it, thank you. -[Marc] I have to agree with them.
It just definitely needs more seasoning,
and, uh, obviously your carrot sauce is really good,
but yeah, the fish is definitely a touch overcooked.
Thank you, chefs.
I feel good, but I also feel nervous.
I think it's about fifty-fifty right now.
I definitely made a few technical errors,
the dish being in some places a little under-seasoned,
so mixed feelings.
[clock ticking]
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Oakason, you've been chopped. Judges?
[Stephanie] Chef Oakason, though you had some great ideas,
your Dover sole fillet was under-seasoned and overcooked.
And so, we had to chop you.
Ciao-- Wait! [laughs]
Being chopped, I mean, it's frustrating.
I wish I could've gone on to the final round,
but it's been a great experience.
[Ted] Chef Jessica, chef Ciaran,
time to deal with the dessert baskets.
Let's see what's inside.
Oh, my God.
And what kind of innovative sweet creations can you make with...
Oh, no.
...red hot jawbreakers?
Used to eat those as a kid.
You know, I never liked those as a kid, personally.
They're so spicy, I don't find it satisfying.
It's not it for me.
-[Ted] Blackberries. -Some fresh blackberries.
-[Ted] Lychee drink. -Lychee, never had this before.
[Ted] And Pastel de Elote.
[Jessica] Including a cake that's already made.
[Ted] Clock is reset to 30 minutes!
Excited about the blackberries,
but that's about it. [laughs]
Time starts now.
-[Marc] Yeah, here we go! -[Tiffany] All right!
[applause]
Going into the dessert round,
I definitely wanna represent Biscuit Batch
and make a biscuit.
Jessica, what are you doing?
[excitedly] I am making biscuits!
[all] Oh!
-[Stephanie] Yay! -Staying on brand, Jessica,
-very impressive. -[laughing]
[Marc] Jessica has a biscuit truck
and she makes a lot of biscuits,
but we already have the Pastel de Elote
in the basket, I don't know if you want a biscuit with that.
It's basically a corn cake, right?
-[Tiffany] Mmm. -[Marc] So, it's like, it's, it's sweet.
I think the best thing you do with that
-is just cut it and soak it in a little rum. -Ooh.
Spongy.
I'm gonna add the cake to my biscuit mix.
I'm hoping it adds a little bit of sweetness.
Because I'm making biscuits, I feel like that puts my
mobile restaurant on the line.
I can't make a bad biscuit while I'm here. [laughs]
While the biscuits are in the oven,
I'm gonna get started on my blackberry coulis.
I'm gonna incorporate my red hot jawbreakers into the coulis,
and add some fresh rosemary and the lychee drink
to add some creaminess.
Judges, those red hot jawbreakers are extremely spicy,
they're also very hard to break down.
What is the solution here?
I think I would just, like, try to melt,
cinnamon up the outside.
I just heard Jessica put a few of them into her pot.
[Marc] It's a lot of those red hots in there.
-It's gonna be pretty spicy. -[Stephanie] Yes.
-You having fun, Jessica? -[Jessica] Oh, it's so much fun.
"So much fun?"
I think Jessica is really gonna
hit her stride in dessert round
because biscuits are her specialty.
But this is do or die.
[loudly] Ciaran, what are you making?
You know, the one thing my mom told me not to do
the whole competition was make ice cream.
So, like any good kid, I'm gonna do the opposite of what she told me,
and I'm gonna make a lychee ice cream.
Okay.
Sorry, Mom, making ice cream.
[laughing] Listen to your mom, Ciaran!
[Ciaran] We've been Chopped fans and viewers for a long time,
and the ice cream machine can be the kiss of death.
But the lychee drink is very sweet and floral,
and I think it's gonna work really well
with the heaviness of the fat from the heavy cream and milk.
I also crush green cardamom pods
and add those in with some cinnamon sticks.
So, I plan for this Pastel de Elote cake
is to turn it into some kind of crumble...
[Jessica] Coming down, right behind.
...with some crushed ladyfingers.
I think this is a great mash up.
I think that Ciaran has a little edge ahead of Jessica right now,
but she makes biscuits every day.
Yeah. I think she's really gotta shine in the dessert round.
Chefs, 15 minutes to get it done!
[Jessica] I taste my coulis, and I feel like it's lacking a little bit more citrus,
so I'm adding orange juice and zest.
I'm also gonna add some orange liqueur and some fresh raspberries,
so that there's another acidic berry in the dish.
[Ciaran] I'm using the jawbreaker as a flavoring base for my blackberry compote.
I grow blackberries on my farm,
something I use all the time.
At Glenmere Farm, we're still brand-new.
We really need to improve our infrastructure, so winning the 10k
would really push us in the right direction.
I also add some golden raisins to give it bit more texture.
Okay, this is gonna go on fire.
To finish my compote, I flambe with some rum.
-[sizzling] -[Ted] All right, chefs, you've got 10 minutes.
Oh, definitely cutting it down to the clock.
I'm checking on my biscuits,
I see that they're still a little bit gooey in the center,
so I raise the heat about 25 degrees.
If I win the $10,000, I would put it towards my Biscuit Batch business
and opening another mobile restaurant,
so the pressure's really on to have these biscuits done in time.
[Ciaran] So I go back to check my crumble,
I take it out of the oven and...
It's not really coming out the way I want it to.
It's so dense and moist
that there's no way it's gonna dry out
to what I want within the time.
Five minutes left here, chefs.
[Ciaran groans] Oh. That hurts.
I can't serve a soggy crumble.
My elote cake crumble just isn't gonna work.
[clock ticking]
[sighs worriedly]
I check my crumble in the oven,
and it's just not turning out how I want.
The texture is just nowhere near where I need it.
[hurriedly] I'm gonna go back and turn the cake into something else.
Ciaran, what's the batter?
So, I wanted to use the cake in a crumble,
but I'm gonna try to turn it into some kind of lychee fritter.
So, I'm taking this mushy, failed crumble,
-and turning it into an elote cake fritter. -[sizzling]
[Ciaran] And then I'm also making a lychee-soaked elote cake
to sit my ice-cream on.
Just wanna remind you that you have three minutes.
[Ciaran] Okay, ice-cream time.
-[Marc] Ciaran's ice cream is coming out. It looks... -Oh, it looks good!
It's actually ice cream, yeah.
[Ciaran] I have my ice cream out, I'm super happy with it.
[Jessica] While the biscuits are in the oven,
I'm gonna use my lychee drink in a whipped cream.
Jessica, how's your biscuits looking?
Really gonna come down to the clock, I think.
[Ted] And we've got one minute on the clock, chefs.
[Stephanie] If you look at Jessica's face,
you can see worry all over her face
about the time and the biscuits.
[Jessica] I check my biscuits,
and thank you kitchen gods, they're done. [chuckles]
All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round here.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one, time's up!
-[applause] -[Tiffany] Oh, my God.
-Ah. -[Stephanie] Oh, you guys.
[applause continues]
-My hands are so sweaty. -[both laughing]
Me to.
Feel like the ice cream machine
can either make you or break in the dessert round,
but I really wanted to push myself.
So, I'm happy with the way things turned out.
[Jessica] I took a big risk making biscuits in the final round,
and I pulled it off with, like, maybe 30 seconds to be able to plate my dish.
[Ted] Chef Jessica and chef Ciaran,
your final dishes, desserts made with
red hot jawbreakers, blackberries,
lychee drink, and Pastel de Elote.
Chef Jessica, tell us what you've made.
For dessert, I wanted to represent my Biscuit Batch business.
I made you a buttermilk biscuit,
a blackberry rosemary coulis
with a vanilla whipped cream.
[Marc] Putting whipped cream on top of everything,
my biscuit's just, like, buried underneath a bunch of soggy liquid.
If you had put this on a plate,
put the whipped cream on the side,
so it doesn't all just melt together.
I was surprised the red hots you put in there
didn't blow us away because we were worried
-you put so many in there. -Right.
And we could smell it as it was cooking.
I think the, the level of cinnamon spice in there
is actually really beautiful, it's very nice.
[Stephanie] I love the whip. I love the lychee in the whip,
it's really pretty. It's, um...
Has, like, those floral notes coming out.
-[Jessica] Mmm-hmm. -And I think that along with the cinnamon and the berries
-works really well together. -[Tiffany] Yeah.
I like the flavor combination together very much.
On the biscuit dough, you can definitely tell
that it's just slightly under 'cause it has this kind of,
almost like, um, a little mush in it, right?
Mmm-hmm.
Thank you, chef Jessica. Finally, chef Ciaran.
For dessert today we have a lychee ice cream
with a red hot blackberry compote,
a lychee-soaked elote cake,
and an elote cake fritter.
[Stephanie] I think the texture of the ice cream is beautiful.
The concern was having the lychee drink
not be as thick as a milk or a cream,
that it might make it too icy, but the texture is really nice.
-Thank you. -The soaked cake is great.
I think that's a great use of the lychee drink.
I like the lychee ice cream.
-It think it has just a little hint of it... -[Ciaran] Mmm-hmm.
...it's not too much.
I like that you put the lime zest to finish.
Just really helps to bring it out.
I was very concerned more about the fritter just because of...
[chuckles] ...you know, taking and mashing up cake,
and then frying it. Sometimes, it can be very dense,
and it is dense,
but it reminds me of bread pudding.
Uh, the berries itself,
it doesn't have as much flavor as what you would want.
[Marc] Well presentation-wise, I mean, it looks like a beautiful dessert.
I like that you used the cake in two different ways.
I love the ice cream.
I find lychee sometimes to be a little too floral in flavor,
and I think by toning it down, I'm really happy with it.
All right, chefs, thank you.
Judges, those mystery baskets contained a true hodgepodge
of flavors and influences.
I thought Jessica did a good job in her appetizer round.
She made that little rice cake...
Okay, the rice cake was a little dense.
But the sauce that she paired with it was really good,
and then she made that beautiful little salad with the mizuna next to it...
-Yeah. -...which sort of,
you know, carried the rice cake
over the finish line, so to speak.
[Stephanie] Ciaran's soup was one of my favorite bites of the day.
A lot of layers of flavor
created in a short amount of time.
I liked his use of the rice ball to thicken the soup.
Only, when Ciaran added the egg to the soup,
he said, like, egg drop.
And it was the most creamiest, velvety soup.
Delicious, but it definitely didn't feel like egg drop.
[Marc] In the main course, Ciaran's Dover sole
was actually overcooked and a little bit chewier.
But everything else on the plate really made up for--
-That carrot puree, it was delicious. -Yeah.
I feel like he did a lot of work that paid off for him.
You had the mushroom and tarragon cream sauce,
the charred cabbage, it was beautifully cooked.
Jessica did a great job of seasoning the fish
and the cabbage with the vinegar and that sauce.
I thought the, that dish together felt very homy,
very delicious, and I didn't want for any more seasoning.
I think Jessica and Ciaran, they're both good cooks.
They know how to season, they know how to balance flavors.
I think it really comes down to a few small mistakes.
So, who had the winning meal?
We know without a doubt.
I think I'm gonna win. I think I was a little bit
more creative than Jessica in the first round.
I think she may have me by a slight margin for the entree,
but I really think my ice cream,
it's gonna push me over the edge.
I stayed pretty consistent with flavoring and seasoning
and not overcooking any of my ingredients.
So I think overall, I definitely should take the win today.
Chef Jessica, you've been chopped. Judges?
[Marc] Jessica, you put up a good fight.
And, uh, when we looked at all the courses, you know,
starting with the appetizer round,
your rice cake was just dry, it was little too dense.
And your dessert, we felt, you know, the flavors were good,
but the way you plated it, everything got soggy, melted.
And so, unfortunately, we had to chop you.
Thank you.
It's definitely sad to lose,
but I'm not disappointed in myself at all.
Um, I came, I delivered. And I put out good dishes.
So, I'm very happy with what I did today.
And that means chef Ciaran McGoldrick,
you are the Chopped Champion. Congratulations!
-[indistinct cheering] -[applause]
-Nice. -Thank you so much. Wow!
Uh, so excited.
I had some very, very intense competition so
to make it all the way to the end and then win...
Childhood, childhood dream, honestly.