[Ted] Get ready to be shell shocked.
[all] Wow.
[Kacie] You see clams, shrimp, oyster.
We really want the crustacean to shine.
[Gary] I am coming to whoop butt.
-[Kacie] This is hard. -Just profusely sweating.
This is one of the hardest baskets I've ever seen.
Just get the leg.
Sorry.
You ready for me?
I'm ready for you.
Go friends, let's go.
Oh, my God!
This is like private in the galley.
Right here.
[Kacie] I've been surrounded by seafood in crustaceans my entire life.
I am currently a yacht chef.
I'm based out of South Florida.
But I'm from Port O'Connor, Texas, which is on the coast.
Oh, yeah, nice.
I love it.
My dad was a merchant mariner,
and my uncle was a shrimper working with crustaceans.
Really, it's in my blood.
All right, Let me doll it up.
I have this crustacean competition in the bag.
[Gary] I come from a small town in Louisiana.
I've been brought up since childhood
to cook crustaceans, blue crabs,
soft shell crabs, crawfish. My style of cooking
is Louisiana Bayou, with a modern twist.
I know I can win this competition, because in Louisiana
we know what it takes to make a crustacean shine.
Perfecto.
Crawfish and shrimp, throw it in.
[Shiki] I am a private chef from Charlotte, North Carolina.
I go to people's homes where they go grocery shopping,
and I have no idea what they've bought.
It's basically my own little Chopped every week.
My style of cooking is a fusion of cultures,
but at the heart of it all, I always
go back to my Southern roots and my love for crustaceans.
I'm not just here to break down lobster.
I'm here to break down the chefs as well.
[Christopher] I can break down 250 lobsters a day.
I'm a New England boy.
I grew up maybe five minutes from the ocean.
I think some of my fondest memories as a kid, is grandfather
cooking up crab gravy, as in lobster, and it was just truly a blessing.
I am the head chef of Mecha Noodle Bar in the seaport of Massachusetts.
When you taste my food, you can sense the proximity of the ocean.
This New Englander is ready to shell out some fierce competition.
Hello, chefs!
Hey, Ted!
Good morning!
Get ready to be shell shocked.
Because you are here for our crustacean craze battle.
Got the crawfish king right here.
-You have no worries. -Let's get the shucking.
Okay. Time to see what seafood treats you have in this first basket.
Open it up.
[all exclaiming]
-[Shiki] All right. -[all] Wow.
[Ted] And you've got a whole, live Alaskan king crabs.
[Kacie] It's too big for me.
[Ted] You've also got a sea-cuterie board.
Okay, this has a lot I could work with.
[Ted] Persian cucumbers.
Oh, wow! Biscuit dough.
[Ted] And biscuit dough.
Biscuit dough. That's the kicker.
It's gonna be a great basket.
Chefs, this round is a very short 20 minutes.
And the clock starts now.
-Let's go, Chefs. -20 minutes go fast!
[whispering] Let's do buttermilk.
Marcus, you are joined by two special guest judges.
Our friend, celebrated food journalist Nilou Motamed,
plus Chef Esther Choi, superstar in modern Korean cooking.
-Welcome to you both. -Thanks for having us.
This is one of the hardest baskets I've ever seen.
-[Marcus] Yeah. -[Ted] The notorious biscuit dough
and full live Alaskan king crab.
[Nilou] King crab is such a coveted ingredient.
Kind of imagine the lobster tail.
You get that consistency of meat in each of the legs.
What a treat. But also a scary treat.
Because you have 20 minutes to cook it.
Hey, come here, buddy. You and me.
[Marcus] It's a setup, right?
Because you think you have to work with a whole crab,
but actually, just get the legs, get going,
get them down there, and then go to the dough.
Yeah. You just have to be aggressive, you know?
I'm gonna use the leg meat for the king crab
because of the flavor and the succulence that's gonna bring to my dish.
And that's gonna steam the fastest.
[Esther] Everyone is focused on this Alaskan king crab.
But what about the biscuit dough?
I feel like they should really know what they're gonna do
because it needs to cook for at least 10-11 minutes.
[Kacie] So I'm looking at this biscuit dough.
I still don't know what to do.
And I'm like, hold on.
Wait a minute, Kacie, make a waffle.
Kacie, where'd you get? What are you making?
So I'm gonna do kind of like an herbed biscuit waffle.
I'm gonna throw a little of the shrimp and crab in it
and then fry some oysters for crisp on top.
Okay. Okay. I like that.
[Esther] I think it's an interesting way
of serving the biscuit dough.
Off the charts creative.
I mean, I would have gone fryer, but why not?
[Christopher] Alaskan king crab is one of my favorite things
that I've honestly eaten in my life.
It's juicy, it has great salt content.
The butteriness from the biscuit pairs very well,
with some of the sweetness from the Alaskan king crab.
So I'm making an Alaskan king crab with herbed aioli,
fried oysters, and a biscuit.
So I'm making the biscuit, flattening it out,
thinking maybe it helps it cook a little faster.
[Shiki] This is intense.
I thought I studied hard enough for this.
But here we are.
-[Nilou] Hey, Shiki. -Yes.
How's it going over there?
Fast. Coming down behind, behind, behind.
I am making a fried oyster and fried biscuit dough.
With fresh cucumber, shrimp salsa and steamed king crab.
I checked on my crab legs and I realized that the water
is not steaming, so I have to pivot.
It's a difficult method
to have to take crab out of a raw leg because it's still clinging
to its actual shell, that I can't get this meat
out of these legs, in a whole piece.
[grunts] Come on.
I'm literally ripping the crab out of the shell.
I throw butter into a pan and I just start poaching.
[Gary] This first basket makes me feel like
being at home with my grandmother, watching her build all these flavors
in her seafood stews and the inspiration, all of a sudden, it comes to me.
It's like, couvillion.
With this dish, I'm going to be able to showcase Louisiana
and the roots that I come from.
[Nilou] Hey, Gary.
-Yes? -What are you making?
Making a little take on couvillion with some curry biscuits.
[Nilou and Esther] Curry biscuits.
I like it. I like that.
I like that. I like that idea.
Chefs, 10 minutes left on that clock.
Have either of you ever served a sea-cuterie board?
No, but I love the idea of it.
[Kacie] Looking at this board, I see clams, cooked shrimp.
I see oyster. I definitely don't want to use clams.
We don't really mess with those in Texas.
But I think I could do stuff with this shrimp.
The waffle that I'm making is gonna have three basket ingredients,
so it is crucial that it taste delicious.
[Shiki] I'm going to use the clams and the oysters
from the sea-cuterie, and I'm going to fry them.
I don't have enough time to bake the biscuit dough.
Coming down behind.
So I'm going to use it in a Southern way that I grew up with.
As a hush puppy.
[Christopher] With my sea-cuterie board,
I'm using a mignonette in a couple of different ways.
One way is burnt aioli.
The other one is for a pickling liquid for my Persian cucumbers.
And I'm frying up my oysters.
[Gary] All the elements of this sea-cuterie board
goes well in the couvillion.
This is a crustacean battle.
I need to make sure that my crab and all of the other components
of the sea-cuterie board are cooked to perfection.
Chefs. You have five minutes to get this done.
Oh, my God, five minutes.
Has Kacie produced anything from that waffle iron yet?
I see it's steaming.
[Kacie] So time is winding down and I open up the waffle iron,
and I realize that I never put one in.
-Look at this. -Look at that.
[Kacie] I get my seafood biscuit waffle dough into the waffle maker.
I'm cooking them as fast as I can.
[Ted] So, okay, Kacie's biscuit waffles
are in the waffle iron now, but there are only three minutes.
-Oh, my God. -Yeah.
I'm on the struggle bus right now.
These waffles have three of my basket ingredients in them.
Behind.
[Nilou] Kacie, are those waffles going to be done?
I'm hoping so.
Okay.
On a struggle scale of 1-10,
I'm at an 11.
[Nilou] Kacie is making waffles.
She's making one waffle at a time.
-Four. Four waffles. -Her intention is to make four waffles.
-[Ted] It's impossible. -[Nilou] Impossible.
[Kacie] Ooh, that looks good. Okay.
I open up the waffle iron.
I am so relieved that it's cooked enough.
I'm cooking them as fast as I can.
Time is just flying by.
It is going so much faster than I could have ever expected.
With these Persian cucumbers,
I think everyone else is gonna do kind of like a cold chopped slaw
or something like that.
So, I'm gonna grill them.
Chefs, two-minute warning.
[Gary] Finely sliced the Persian cucumbers
in the bottom of the bowl, and then I put my couvillion in.
Time in the Chopped kitchen gone by so fast.
This is nerve racking.
So last minute I grabbed my poached crab and it's got this beautiful,
gorgeous orange to it that I am looking for.
Whoo!
One minute to get it done, chefs, one minute.
Oh, my God, are Chris's biscuits burning?
I hear the judges say something's burning in the oven.
-Oh, my God! -[Christopher] I open the oven and my heart just dropped.
-They are destroyed. -They are very crispy.
I'm trying to salvage the biscuits by cutting them in half
and placing everything on top to be able to get them to be a little moist.
[Ted] Chefs. We're down to 40 seconds here.
[Kacie] Time is running out.
I have to make three waffles instead of four waffles.
You can always cut it.
[Kacie] I take them out, cut them down, get them all plated.
-She's cutting it. She heard me. -She heard you.
[Kacie] I throw these grilled Persian cucumbers on top.
Just try to finish in time.
-[Ted] Oh boy. -[Esther] All four plates.
[indistinct chatter]
Make sure it's four plates.
[indistinct chatter]
Wrap it up, chefs. Time is a ticking away.
[Ted] 10, 9, 8...
7, 6...
5, 4, 3, 2,
one, time's up.
What...?
-Great job. -[Marcus] Great job, guys.
What the front door?
That was a whirlwind, for sure.
I'm happy with the waffles.
I think they taste great, but my biggest fear right now
is that the dough is not cooked all the way through.
[Christopher] You see that everything wasn't presented
how I normally plate things, and I missed one biscuit on the plate.
I'm definitely not as confident as I would like to be going into this.
Chefs. You have arrived at the chopping block.
The mandatory ingredients for your appetizers
were whole Alaskan king crabs, a sea-cuterie board,
Persian cucumbers and biscuit dough.
Chef Kacie, what do we have?
[Kacie] A shrimp and king crab biscuit dough waffle
with some grilled Persian cucumbers on top.
So, Kacie, tell us about what you do and where you work.
I am currently a yacht chef.
I work for a private family.
The boat is based out of South Florida, but I am from Texas.
My uncle was a shrimper.
-Lots of seafood in your life. -Lots of seafood.
You know, in Japan, there's street food that you eat like this
where you, all the seafood is worked in into the, kind of, waffles.
-But pancakes, you know? -[Kacie] Yeah.
-Okonomi? -Yep. So I like the idea.
I like the grilled cucumber.
There's only one thing I don't like,
and that's the uncooked biscuit dough.
-Oh. Okay. -[Marcus] Right?
I have to agree with Marcus about the biscuit.
-You know, that dough is is tough to work with. -Right.
I really loved the flavor of the waffle itself.
I was worried that you know, you would taste the biscuit
and then the seafood separately.
But it was actually like a lovely marriage.
Thank you, guys.
Next up, Chef Christopher.
Today we have a Alaskan king crab with herbed aioli,
some fried oysters and... biscuit.
So am I to understand you're from Maine?
So I'm originally from Revere, Massachusetts.
But I spent a lot of time up in Maine.
My grandfather would be going out digging
for clams, finding quahogs, bringing 'em back, cooking with him.
Chef. You want the seafood to really shine, right?
So I love that the king crab was there,
very prominent on the plate and the fact
that you didn't really mess with it and just cooked it really nice.
It shows technique, And then the aioli worked
really nicely, that sauce element
always is nice with something like seafood.
-Thank you. -[Nilou] You fry these oysters beautifully.
The cucumbers, are perfectly dressed.
The thing that I'm missing here,
unfortunately, is the dough.
[Christopher] Yep.
I didn't get a fried oyster as Nilou got.
Maybe slow it down right before plating.
I love a charred biscuit.
This is a little bit too much.
I agree.
But you did an awesome job. It was a very tough basket.
Thank you very much.
-Appreciate that. -Next up, chef Gary.
So, putting a little bit of home in a bowl.
Seafood couvillion.
Where is home for you?
-Louisiana. -Where did you get your love of cooking?
-Ah. My grandmother. -And so what was your favorite thing that your grandma made?
It was gumbo, so my grandmother's gumbo still resonates with me today.
Well, Chef, I love that you're inspired by your grandmother,
and I can taste kind of like the grandma flavors
in your stew.
I love that the seafood is, like, really chunky and like, super prominent here.
-Yeah. -[Marcus] Yeah, for me,
I would say that canned big tomatoes in there,
it kind of took over a little bit.
You want to make sure that the seafood is the star, right?
Other than that, I love the big, bold biscuit here.
It gets the right amount of sogginess
when you put it in to the stews.
And the idea of brushing your biscuit dough
with the curry is a great addition.
I thought that the Persian cucumber was going to be a little odd,
but the crunch that it gave was perfect.
Thank you very much.
Finally, Chef Shiki.
So for you, I have a fried oyster with fried biscuit dough
to use with the fresh cucumber shrimp salsa.
What do you bring to the table here for a crustacean competition?
Growing up, my mom lived in Savannah and we would go home to see my Nana there.
And my uncle lived on the inlet, so we would have set out the crab trap.
By the age of four, I knew how to shuck oysters and crack crab legs.
But, you know, we never had a king crab coming through our nets.
Chef Shiki, I think the highlight
of this dish for me is your cucumber and shrimp salad
that you made lots of bright, herbaceousness.
You used herbs really nicely.
[Marcus] Yeah, a lot of goodness in this plate.
I love this kind of over fried oysters because it becomes like crouton.
You really show you understand acid, which is so important to seafood.
Yeah, I totally agree.
The king crab I liked a lot.
Like when you poached it in the butter.
I really get that butter taste.
Except I only got, like a tiny piece.
I would have liked to see a little bit more crab on the plate.
Chef Shiki, thank you.
A lot of good things went down in that round.
Still, one chef will have to leave us.
[Christopher] I'd had some inconsistencies on my plates.
I definitely most could be on the chopping block.
[Kacie] I'm a little nervous about my undercooked dough.
I feel that it's possible I could get chopped.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
[Ted] Chef Christopher,
you've been chopped. Judges.
Chef Christopher, you cooked a beautiful king crab.
But the execution on the sea-cuterie board was inconsistent.
And with the omission of the biscuit,
my plate was missing an entire basket ingredient.
And so we had to chop you.
I really appreciated being here. It was quite a pleasure.
Thank you to everyone.
[Ted] Good luck to you, Chef.
[Christopher] I'm definitely disappointed.
I'm still feeling pretty proud that I cooked a huge Alaska king crab beautifully.
Chef Shiki, Chef Gary, Chef Kacie, are you ready to crack into
whatever you may find in this next basket?
Oh, yeah, I think so.
I hear something crawling There's no telling what's in there.
It is very alive in here.
Open your basket.
-Oh, okay. -Yes!
Nice! Blue lobsters.
[Ted] And we have blue lobsters.
[Gary] Nice.
[Ted] Baby corn.
[Shiki] I love baby corn.
[Ted] Calabrian chilies.
Ooh! Calabrian chilies. I'm down.
I'm happy about that one.
[Ted] And frozen bacon wrapped scallops.
Frozen bacon wrapped scallops. That's gonna suck.
-This basket's great. -I feel pretty good.
You ready for me?
I'm ready for you.
30 minutes to make delicious lobster dishes.
Clock starts now.
[judges cheering]
These specific blue lobsters came to us from Ireland.
This is actually the lobster that I grew up with in Sweden.
These are tinier than Canadian or East Coast lobsters.
But they're so delicious.
[Esther] Yeah, sweeter in meat, right?
Sweeter, more firmer.
[Nilou] Also, they're blue.
But when they cook, they're red.
Yeah, they're red.
[Esther] I love showcasing the lobster in its beauty.
I want to see the lobster on the plate.
-You want drama. -Yes.
[Shiki laughs boisterously]
Stop it.
So blue lobsters are great and baby corn
is used in a lot of Asian cuisines.
So I am making Asian lobster and scallop
in mushroom cream sauce.
I'm throwing the blue lobster into the steamer.
Sorry, buddies.
For the Asian sauce with the baby corn,
I'm using soy and ginger and the garlic and the Calabrian chilies.
[Esther] I love the Calabrian chilies.
It has like this sweet heat, which I love.
It's not super spicy, but it definitely gives you a kick, right?
[Shiki] Yes. That looks beautiful.
[Marcus] Well, what are we doing with the scallops that are wrapped in bacon?
-They're frozen, right? -[Esther] They're frozen.
They have to be baked.
But you can also, like, deconstruct it and chop up
the bacon and use it separately.
You're gonna even chop up the scallop
and make a nice scallop sauce on top of the lobster.
That would be a really smart move here.
[Gary] My mind immediately goes to Italian
because I know the scallops and the bacon go great together
in Alfredo, why not do a cream sauce?
I worked with a chef in Vegas and we made lobster gnocchi all the time.
So I'm making lobster gnocchi with pickled corn and Calabrian chili cream sauce.
I believe making gnocchi with this lobster is a huge risk,
but I think it's going to showcase creativity and skill.
I'm gonna pickle my baby corn because I love pickled corn.
I add white wine vinegar, molasses, and I let cook.
The first thing that I think of is a Veracruz,
which is a dish from central Mexico.
[Nilou] Chef Kacie, what are you making?
So I'm kinda... I'm inspired by the Veracruz, right?
Kind of like a Mexican style.
[Ted] Excellent.
[Kacie] It's a lot of fresh ingredients.
It has olives, capers, and I was like, my gosh,
that would be so great with this lobster
with like the sweetness. I really feel
the Calabrian chilies will bring the perfect amount of spice to this sauce.
I feel like this baby corn will add
the perfect amount of crunch, and it is just, it's killer.
It's a good sauce.
I've traveled the last several years for work,
and I realize that I'm kind of ready to go home for a little while.
The home is Port O'Connor, Texas.
My community is... oh, man, it's everything to me.
$10,000 would help me get one step closer to opening up my dream venue space.
All right, chefs, you've got 10 minutes to get it done.
My scallops are frozen, frozen.
Coming down behind.
I am using the fryer, basically to defrost them.
Behind, behind, behind.
When I pull the blue lobster out of the steamer,
I stick it into some melted butter, some white wine and some chili.
[Gary] I add my lobster meat to the food processor
with my eggs and my mascarpone and my flour.
I think Chef Gary is gonna make lobster gnocchi.
[Nilou] I'm nervous for him.
-I'm nervous. -[Marcus] It's a big move.
I've added too much mascarpone,
so I pull it out and I add more double O flour.
Chef Gary's dough is looking really wet.
-[Nilou] It does. -[Ted] Very soft.
[Nilou] Very loose.
[Marcus] It's not getting thicker.
I decided to grab a pastry bag because I figured I could control the flow.
Gotta pivot.
Gary's preparing to pipe...
-Yeah, oh, he's gonna pipe. -[Ted] ...that gnocchi material.
[Marcus] Into water.
That is one of the biggest ideas I've seen in the Chopped kitchen actually.
[Nilou] Wow. Really nervous for Chef Gary.
I mean, if he can pull it off, though...
[Gary] It starts to float.
Okay, this is gonna work.
[Nilou] Holy moly.
Chef Kacie has just, just opened her frozen box of scallops.
[Kacie] Time is winding down, and I realized you can't use
the scalps 'cause they're frozen, frozen.
So I take the bacon, I cut it off.
I get it in a skillet and I start cooking it down
because I'm thinking all right, Kacie, not only would that bacon grease
add another layer of flavor, but it's gonna add some crunch to it.
I'm from Texas, right?
So good.
[Ted] It looks like Shiki has harvested a whole bunch of lobster tail.
Shiki, all four ingredients on the plate.
Gnocchi's actually looking beautiful, Chef Gary's done a great job.
[Ted] Here we go, Kacie's going in, plating up.
[whispering] Why did she put all those tomatoes on top
-of the lobster? -Oh, my Lord.
[Ted] All right, you've got this Chefs, get it done.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3,
2, 1.
Time's up!
[Marcus] Well done!
-Very nice work. -Great job, Chefs.
[Nilou] Great cook.
That was rough. I'm feeling very exhausted.
There was definitely a risk.
But the dish itself came out flavorful and great.
Okay, okay.
I feel real good, I think.
I think the flavors are there.
I think this can get me to the dessert round.
Chefs, for the second round of our crustacean crazed battle,
you got blue lobsters, baby corn, Calabrian chilies,
and frozen bacon wrapped scallops.
-Chef Gary. -I saw the lobster.
I saw Calabrian chilies, made me think of Italy.
So this is a lobster gnocchi with pickled corn and Calabrian chili cream sauce.
Chef, you took a very big risk making the gnocchi.
We were pretty nervous for you.
But I think your risk paid off.
The texture of the gnocchi is so great.
It's like chewy.
It has great flavor.
[Nilou] Yeah, I love the flavor profile of this dish,
and when I eat it, the slow burn of the Calabrian chili is phenomenal.
The creaminess of your sauce that you made
with the frozen bacon wrapped scallop is terrific.
I love that the baby corn is sturdy and gives another crunch.
I totally agree with Marcus, but I would have loved to see
some lobster chunks in it with the gnocchi
because it is such a beautiful blue lobster.
And that was one of the things that I was looking forward to having.
I think there is that balance that you have to keep in mind
with trying to wow us with your creativity,
but also doing a great job with the ingredients.
-Understood. -Chef, if you win this thing, you get a little prize.
$10,000.
What would you spend it on?
I would spend it on opening my own space.
I've been in the industry for almost 30 years,
and I just want to I finally showcase myself.
-What would it be like? -A small cocktail bar
where you can really enjoy and showcase the cuisine.
-It takes on Louisiana Bayou using mirliton, using crabs... -Nice.
-...using a lot of crawfish. -And lobster gnocchi.
Oh, it's gonna be on the menu for sure.
Next up, Chef Shiki.
I prepared a Asian lobster and scallop dish
with a white wine mushroom cream sauce topped with pistachios.
-Chef Shiki, the sauce is so delicious... -Yes.
[Esther] ...and I really like
the fusion of soy and cream together, it really enhances the seafood
and like that corn being like soaked into the sauce is just so lovely.
And it was one of my favorite elements of this plate.
I love how you thought about the bacon crunch
and the fish saltiness from the scallops in there.
That garlic.
Amazing.
And then there's the other side.
You have lobster, one of the most expensive ingredients in the world.
-If you would have cooked this two minutes less... -Yes.
...you would have an incredible dish.
Your lobster is a little bit overdone...
-Yes. -...because you cooked it more after you steamed it.
-Finally, Chef Kacie. -Today, I've prepared for you
my style of a lobster Veracruz and a little bacon saute.
The Calabrian chilies and the corn are in the Veracruz sauce.
And it's served over jasmine rice.
Chef Kacie, you developed a lot of great flavor here.
I'm from Iran. I've never had bacon with rice, and it's such a good combo.
Yeah, it's comfort. This is a wonderful delicious grub.
There's only one problem with it.
It does not necessarily highlight the basket ingredients.
I'm just struggling to find the lobster, the scallops are almost hidden.
Yeah, the corn was so good. The chili was so good.
But all the other basket ingredients got buried
with the non-basket ingredients, which were like the tomatoes
and then the herbs, and then the rice, kind of like, overpowered this dish.
And it all of a sudden became a rice and tomato dish, not a lobster corn dish.
Okay.
-Chef Kacie. Thank you. -Thank you.
Now the judges must decide who is advancing.
I don't feel that I celebrated the seafood
as much as I should have, but I feel I deserve to move forward.
I wanna show them that I can do it.
[Shiki] I overcooked my lobster and I should've known better.
But I did bring so many different flavors to this dish
so I'm hoping that will push me forward.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
-[Ted] Chef Kacie... -That's okay.
[Ted] ...you've been chopped. Judges?
Chef Kacie, we really wanted you to highlight the crustaceans in this basket.
But unfortunately, the rice and the tomatoes
kind of muddled the flavors of the basket ingredients.
And so we had to chop you.
No worries. I understand it, guys. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. Have a good one.
Of course, the end goal is winning.
But really just having the faith in myself
to do this, I absolutely accomplished what I set out to do.
Chef Shiki, Chef Gary, let's end the suspense.
Open it up.
-What? -What in the world?
[Ted] And there are the crustaceans, candied crabs.
What the hell do I do with this?
[Ted] You also have mayonnaise ice cream.
Mayonnaise ice cream?
Who made this and why?
[Ted] Makrut lime leaves.
And mangoes.
Mangoes.
That's a doozy.
We do doozies quite a bit.
30 minutes for the final round.
The clock starts now.
[all cheering]
[Esther] Last round, guys. Let's do it.
Is it me, or is this basket a gift?
-[Marcus] Absolutely. -Absolutely.
[Marcus] It's a great basket, right?
I remember eating the candied crab as a kid growing up.
It's salty and sweet.
It has that, like umami from the crab.
They're just baby crabs that have been dried
and baked and covered in a sweet solution.
That mayonnaise ice cream tastes like a tangy
buttermilk ice cream.
It sounds pretty good.
Yeah. I think one tricky ingredient here might be the lime leaves.
Because you can't really, like, have that by itself.
It needs to be infused some way.
What if they repurpose the ice cream as sort of an Anglaise...
[Esther] I was gonna say that.
[Ted] ...and infused it with the lime leaves?
Yeah, that's very smart.
Wow.
This mayonnaise ice cream,
it kind of tastes almost like buttermilk.
And then ding! My brain goes panna cotta.
Because I'm thinking I could melt this ice cream down,
add some gelatin to it, and then let it set.
I'm going to make a mayonnaise lime panna cotta
with a mango basil coulis and a candied crab caramel.
I'm not familiar with makrut lime leaves,
but it looks as similar to kefir lime leaves,
which has this really intense lime flavor.
This $10,000 will go a long way to helping me build my community
by having my own restaurant.
I want people to see the love and the joy embraced in Louisiana.
Mangoes are such an amazing fruit, like, nothing else tastes like them.
The closest I can think of is a really ripe peach,
and that's not the same either.
[Nilou] Mango is a gift.
All right.
My Nana has always used peaches with her madeleines.
So I'm thinking, let's just swap out the peaches
and let the mangoes speak to the madeleine.
Oh, Chef Shiki is making madeleines.
-[Esther] Madeleines! -I love that.
[Shiki] I'm making a candied crab cream sauce
with a madeleine and toasted coconut and graham crackers.
I know this Madeline recipe like the back of my hand.
Thank you, Nana.
So for my mango sauce, I am reducing the mayonnaise ice cream.
It has this creaminess at the front of my tongue.
But then all of sudden it hits the back of my throat and it's like vinegar.
So I used coconut milk to counter the vinegar of the mayonnaise,
and that will accent the mangoes.
Chefs, less than 15 minutes on that clock.
[Nilou] You know those crabs?
-They're already sweet and salty. -[Esther] Yeah, they're sweet.
-Any sugar. -[Nilou] So amplify that with some brittle, some caramel.
[Gary] So to make my candied crab caramel, I combined sugar and butter.
I add the chopped crabs. It's is gonna add the extra texture to the dish.
Chef Gary, he's making a praline
-with the candied crabs, which I think is super smart. -[Marcus] Smart.
[Shiki] I am using the lime leaves in my mango sauce
to bring that lime flavor and steep it out.
And I decide to grind up the candy crabs and use that as a seasoning for it, too.
Chef Shiki is making a sauce with all of the basket ingredients there.
It's a little interesting, so that Madeleine is
kind of like the star there, but it doesn't have
any of the basket ingredients.
That's a risk.
Chefs, five minutes to go.
So, I check on my panna cotta
and it's still soupy.
Gary is taking a huge risk doing this panna cotta
because if it does not set up, there's no way to pivot.
[Gary] I'm so worried. I don't have a plan-B.
I'm like, I'm destroyed if this doesn't work out.
[Gary] I'm a little worried. If this panna cotta
doesn't set properly, it stays this consistency,
I could be chopped.
The only thing I can do
is put this panna cotta back in the blast chiller
and pray that it sets.
For my mango basil coulis,
I'm gonna put it in a food processor
with fresh basil, a little bit of bourbon and sugar.
I taste the mango basil coulis and I'm like, yes, that bourbon slaps you right here.
Man, that's good.
[Shiki] My mango sauce looks silky and beautiful and gorgeous,
and it's the texture I was looking for.
It's perfect. So I cut up some fresh mangos.
I add lime zest to it and the honey to kind of sweeten it.
I take the madeleines out of the oven, they look gorgeous.
One and a half minutes left, chefs.
[Nilou] Oh!
-[Ted] One and a half. -[Marcus] Good job, guys.
[Marcus] What is that brittle going to look like?
Is it gonna be crunchy?
[Esther] It's not crunchy.
It just needs to cool down more.
He's making it to smaller pieces so it can cool down really, really fast.
I finally go back to check my panna cotta and they are set.
I feel so good.
I know I can win this.
[Nilou] Okay, the panna cotta--
-[Ted] Looks like it set. -[Marcus] Yeah.
[Ted] 25 seconds, chefs.
[Marcus] And look at Shiki.
She's putting the crab on top.
[Shiki] I'm going. I'm doing it.
[Ted] All right, chefs. Final seconds of the final round here.
[Marcus] Let's go, guys. Come on.
-[Ted] Ten, nine, eight... -[Marcus] All four ingredients.
-Come on. -Celebrate the crustacean.
[Ted] ...four, three, two, one.
Time's up!
[judges cheering]
-All right. Good job. -Damn it!
-What did she leave off? -Madeleines. [gasps]
Nothing that wasn't in the basket.
I used all the basket ingredients.
-Okay. -That's all that matters.
I am a little concerned that I don't have the madeleine in the dish.
I forgot to put 'em on because I was looking
at the last seconds thinking, Make sure I had the crab.
So yeah, whoo, it was...
It was stressful.
Ah, jeez, that's crazy.
I am confident. I'm feeling good.
I think it's just gonna come down to delicate details.
It looks like Chef Shiki's madeleines didn't make it to the plate.
I'm very curious about how it's gonna go.
[Ted] Chef Shiki and Chef Gary.
We gave you a dessert basket containing candied crabs,
mayonnaise ice cream, makrut lime leaves and mangoes.
Gary, what do we have?
So we have a lime panna cotta with candied crab, caramel and mango coulis.
[Esther] Well, Chef, what a clever dessert.
I love that you made the panna cotta work.
It's set beautifully.
I especially love the caramel that you made with the candied crab.
It celebrates the crustacean.
-Like I could just snack on that all day. -Thank you.
Yeah, it's super delicious.
It's crime. The panna cotta.
It's really delicious.
But lime leaves are tricky because they actually have one taste when they warm.
And when they chill down, it continues to grow the flavor.
For others you have to hold back when you make it,
because it's borderline soapy.
I agree. But the mango coolie that you added on top is velvety.
Like the liquor that you poured in there.
What was it? Whiskey.
[Gary] Yes, it's some bourbon.
Sometimes I cook off my bourbon and when I put it in desserts,
but if I'm making like a coolie, I want it to hit you right here.
It's doing that. I think you did this basket a great justice. Thank you.
-[Gary] Thank you. -[Ted] Thank you, Chef Gary.
Finally, Chef Shiki.
I did a sweet candied crab mango sauce
with toasted coconut and graham crackers.
I like this a lot.
Thank you.
Someone would have asked me to put crab and make dessert,
it would not be the easiest job, you've really not only responded
to the ingredients, but really taken the challenge
and made a really outstanding dessert.
[Esther] The mayonnaise ice cream, the lime leaf and everything out together.
The chunks of the mango was really, really nice in there,
and my favorite bites were that whole crab actually garnished on top.
Not only did it look very crustacean forward,
but that crunch in the sauce like worked so nicely.
-Thank you. -[Nilou] Chef Shiki.
This was, for me, a tiny bit sweet.
And it could have maybe used a little bit of heat in some way.
-Some spice. -Yes.
I think that the Madeleine still could have been used.
Put in to just give you something else to offset it.
Chef Shiki, thank you.
-Thank you, you guys. -[Ted] Okay.
Much appreciated.
At this point, chefs, there can be only one Chopped champion.
Thanks.
Okay, so the appetizer round, Chef Gary gave us a stew
that really spotlighted our beautiful crustacean.
Yeah. Beautiful poached king crab in there.
Big, chunky pieces.
Perhaps my favorite use of the crustacean.
[Nilou] e used the shrimp from the sea-cuterie platter,
but the tomatoes are kind of fighting for attention.
We want the spotlight to be on the seafood
because it's a crustacean battle.
Absolutely. It was a great round for Chef Shiki.
She gave us almost a Greek seafood salad
in the bottom with the Persian cucumber.
And then that sort of fried oyster.
It was a delicious dish.
But I felt like the use of the Alaskan king crab could have came through more.
She, I think, put one little piece in my dish.
[Marcus] And then on the entree round,
she had these big, big chunks of the lobsters.
It was really front and center.
But those large chunks of lobster were overcooked.
-Yeah. -Chef Gary did give us this amazing lobster gnocchi
that was so creamy and velvety because of the mascarpone.
But I was missing the drama of having that blue lobster front and center.
-Yeah. -But you know what I loved?
-He used the Calabrian chilies and he brought the heat. -[Marcus] Yes.
And that balanced with that creamy sauce.
Mm-hmm. That sauce had all the smokiness of that bacon within there.
You know, you got that fish saltiness from the scallops in there.
And that was a very clever move.
Do you have a decision?
We do.
Excellent.
I love the dessert that I produced, so I feel confident.
I feel like I am a Chopped champion.
I feel like I'm going to get that paycheck.
[Gary] I feel amazing.
From the first dish to the last dish,
I brought crustaceans to the forefront.
I want this so bad, like I can feel it.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Shiki, you've been chopped. Judges?
Yes, sir.
Chef Shiki.
On the appetizer round, the star of the dish,
was this amazing Alaskan king crab.
And on your plate, it was hard for us to find it. Moving on,
to the entree round. Soy, cream sauce with mushrooms and garlic.
Absolutely delicious.
But the blue lobster, which is such an expensive ingredient,
they got overcooked in the twice cooking of them.
So these small mishaps really are the reason why we have to chop you.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
-[Shiki] I got you. -[Gary] Come over here.
-Good job. -Thank you.
I am disappointed, but I am proud.
I am very happy with how I did.
And I will continuously hone in my skills and continue to push forward.
And that means chef Gary Caldwell,
you are the Chopped champion.
You cracked the code for this crustacean challenge and have won $10,000.
Congratulations.
[all cheering]
Little kid from Louisiana.
[Ted] Right on, Chef.
I am the crustacean king.
For my family and community, this win speaks volumes.
You know, it's humbling and extraordinary.