[Scott] This competition is gonna be legendary.
[Ted] Four iconic Chopped judges
have each hand-picked
four All-Star champions in a battle of the best.
[Maneet] I am staking my reputation
on these incredible chefs.
[Chris] To become a legendary chef here,
you have to be so bold and so driven.
Pressure makes diamonds,
and in the Chopped kitchen,
pressure makes legends.
♪♪ And the legend goes on... ♪
[Scott] You gotta pursue greatness nonstop.
[Amanda] They have to push the boundaries.
They have to be ambitious.
-Ooh! -[Alex] Irreverent, unflappable,
-unbasketable. -You see this?
[Ted] These champs who win the preliminary rounds
will return to cook in the tournament's finale
with the judges as their sous chefs.
I can't wait to boss him around.
It's kind of naughty.
[woman] They need to come in guns blazing,
Make me proud!
Now that's some boom-boom right there, girl.
That's the legendary move, like, that's it.
[contestant] Everyone is a champion, but there is only one legend.
Good enough isn't good enough.
Many champions will fall, but one legend will rise.
♪♪ And the legend goes on ♪
[Chris] To become a legendary chef here,
you have to be very smart with your choices.
If you come under pressure,
manage the clock
and celebrate that basket.
As an original Chopped judge,
this competition is in my blood and my soul.
I've judged 238 episodes.
That's almost 1,000 chefs.
My favorite thing of the entire round...
Too much caviar in my portion.
It's really, really under.
I know what these chefs need to do.
I have the inside knowledge to create an unbelievable matchup.
I'm staking my reputation on it. So, here we go.
My first pick, Chef Kat Turner,
who won me over in our "Casino Royale" tournament.
-Chef. -Chef.
[Chris] One taste of her dishes and I knew
she had potential legendary status.
The main reason I chose you is because of how creative you can be under fire.
I mean, we made a cow eyeball ice cream
that was just absolutely delicious.
You took a lot of risks, for sure,
but I think you do need to rein that in,
-and be a little more calculated. -Mmm-hmm.
[Kat] The other chefs are gonna be good.
There's no question about that.
I just have to be the best.
[Chris] Next, I chose Chef Boots Johnson,
a champion I'll never forget.
His cooking and flavors were so bold,
and he was so driven,
-that he won our Indoor Grilling battle. -Yes! Thank you!
[grunting] Mmm!
You have a lot more experience
-than the other three chefs you're going up against. -[Boots] Yeah.
[Chris] You've got four competitions under your belt,
so I'm sure you're feeling a little bit nervous right now
'cause that's what Chopped does.
But they're even, probably, the more nervous.
Cook with confidence.
Thanks, Chef. Appreciate it.
Chris chose me 'cause I'm a badass,
not because I just, you know...
look good. [laughs]
[Chris] Then I chose Chef Lauren Windham
from my "Desperately Seeking Sous-Chef" tournament.
She's a workhorse who never settles for anything less than perfection,
and she knows how to pivot under pressure.
That's how legends are made.
-How are you? Welcome back. -I'm great. How are you?
So I chose you because I really loved your culinary point of view.
I loved the flavors you were able to develop,
-even, sometimes, in a frazzled state. -Thank you, Chef.
[Chris] My biggest advice for you is that, you know,
if you find yourself feeling like you're being overwhelmed or whatever,
like, you just got to brush it off and keep moving forward
because you definitely can win the whole thing.
[Lauren] My strategy is to not overthink the ingredients.
I've put in the work and I'm ready.
[Chris] And finally, I picked Zuri Resendiz.
I'm a huge fan of Zuri's because of his amazing
storytelling abilities with food,
and his immense skill at building flavors.
So what made him stand out in our "Playing with Fire" tournament
and I know he's gonna bring the heat here now.
What happened to the dreadlocks?
I opened the food truck, and the space is super small,
-so I had to cut them off. -[both laughing]
[Chris] The reason I chose you was really your flavor development,
and you were like a master saucier in there.
Thank you, Chef. Yeah.
[Zuri] Being chosen by one of the greatest chefs in America,
maybe even of the world,
my confidence is all the way to the roof,
and I'm here to prove him right.
Let's go.
-[Tiffani] Here they are. Hey! -[Ted] Welcome Champions!
So, Boots has a great deal of experience in this kitchen.
[Tiffani] I remember Kat from "Casino Royale."
We watched her cook with precision.
Lauren was in our "Desperately Seeking Sous-Chefs" competition,
and she you crushed it in her opening round.
-[Marc] Nice choice, Chris. -[Chris] Thanks.
Welcome back, champions!
-Thanks, Ted. -[chuckles] Great to be back.
Open the baskets.
-We're getting to that. -[all laughing]
[Ted] Chris chose you four champions
because he truly believes in you.
He's putting his reputation in your hands.
If you win here, you'll move on to our tournament's grand finale.
At stake, the rarefied title
of "Chopped Legend."
Chris, anything you'd like to say to these champs before we open the baskets?
Yes. Chefs, I chose all four of you because you all possess
a particular set of skills
that are different from each other.
Use them to your advantage.
Do what you do well and do it better than you've ever done it.
All righty. Let's see this first group of ingredients.
Open them up.
-Ooh. -[laughs]
[Ted] And for your appetizer basket,
Chris has chosen French dip sliders...
That pastrami, and that sauce bring a lot of salt to the party.
They're gonna need to really balance their seasoning.
[Ted] ...daikon...
I didn't see this coming.
[Ted] ...tuna loin...
-Ooh, yeah. -[Chris] Very tricky basket.
Cooked meat and raw tuna. And you say, "Well, what am I gonna do?"
[Ted] ...and the bacon roses.
Obviously, everyone knows my love for bacon.
Chris, you shouldn't have.
[all laughing]
The 20-minute test of your talents...
starts now.
-[judges cheering] -All right, guys. Do it for Chris!
[Ted] All right, Chris Santos, you chose these four chefs.
Why? Do they truly have the potential to be Chopped Legends?
[Zuri] Right behind, chefs.
All four have a lot of perseverance.
The thing for me is the creative,
outside-the-box thinking that all four chefs bring.
[Tiffani] So... the things you chose for the baskets,
are they your favorite things or things that reflect you?
[Chris] So one of my favorite dishes is, um, vitello tonnato,
which is, uh, thin slices of veal with the tuna sauce.
And I've done variations on that my whole career, 'cause I just love it.
So that was the jumping off point.
How are they gonna balance the tuna with bacon and the pastrami?
So, it might be the most difficult basket of the three that I curated.
I think you have to keep the tuna raw.
It's cooked meat on the slider.
Cooked meat in the bacon.
There's gonna be some need for freshness.
Um, I think also, the French dip sliders,
I think I would just use the bread.
I don't think you need that extra protein.
Right behind, chefs.
[Boots] To be a legend, you have to be aggressive.
You have to, like, make that basket sing.
And they say, "Lean into it.
Lean into it."
Chef Boots, what's the plan for the dish?
I'm a Southern boy, so we got to do some, um...
some grits, put some seared tuna on there.
Okay. Seared tuna on grits.
-Yeah. Let's have some fun, guys. -[Tiffani] I like that.
[Boots] I see the French dip and bacon roses...
bacon gravy.
I take the gravy from the French dip,
and pour it into the bacon fat.
[Marc] You know, I would say the easiest ingredient here
is probably that daikon.
You can just slice that, throw some vinegar on it,
and then you've got a nice pickled daikon that's great.
[Chris] Absolutely. Boots is playing the loosest.
He's having the most fun in there.
-[Marc] It seems so. -And that's who he is. That's how he cooks.
-[Marc] He's come up with an ingenious idea... -[Tiffani] Yeah.
-and very out of the box. -Yeah.
Behind. I'm behind you.
Chris is literally and metaphorically,
like, in my ear the whole time.
The man is a legend in his own right.
So I'm like, "What would Chris do?"
[chuckles]
-Chef Kat! -[Kat] Yo!
-[Tiffani] What's the plan? -I'm gonna use these little buns
and, kind of, make like a little, uh...
like, brioche crostini,
then I'm gonna do a little, uh,
tuna and, uh, bacon tartare.
-Okay. -Okay. I like that.
[Kat] So for the tartare, I grabbed scallions,
I grabbed cilantro,
rice wine vinegar,
sambal and some fresh limes.
I decided I'm going to incorporate
all of my basket ingredients into this tartare.
The jus, it almost has like a soy sauce kind of, quality to it,
so instead of adding salt to it,
I add the jus.
I need fresh, acidic hit
to kind of cut through the bacon and the tuna.
So, I'm going to pickle some of the daikon...
some agaves and a little bit of salt.
Let's go!
Head down!
[Chris] I have such high expectations.
I would say, in terms of confidence,
Boots and Zuri right now, are cooking with the most confidence.
It's really pretty.
I definitely feel that extra pressure
of wanting to make Chris proud.
Bacon can be extremely overpowering.
Tuna loin is very delicate,
and so, my goal is to find a nice balance.
Lauren, what is your dish?
I'm gonna do, like, a warm bacon vinaigrette,
some little pickled daikon radishes,
tossed with some of the tuna.
[Tiffani] Excellent.
[Lauren] I'm gonna use the French dip sliders
to make a breadcrumb topping.
For my warm bacon vinaigrette,
I've rendered the fat off my bacon,
and then I add the pickled daikon radishes
as well as the vinegar.
Coming down. Coming down.
[Zuri] Chopped Legend is more than just a title, you know.
It means that you are the best of the best.
All the chefs that I'm going against,
they know what they're doing, and that's great.
I'm excited.
I'm taking a risk here by mixing beef stock with fish stock.
But Chris already said that my sauces and my flavors are the best,
so I have to take the risk. I have to make a legendary sauce.
-Zuri? -[Zuri] Yes?
-You got a good plan for a dish in a hurry? -[Zuri] Yes.
We're doing a ceviche.
We're gonna do it for the first time,
a gravy leche de tigre.
So, you're gonna use the French dip gravy
-to make leche de tigre? -[Zuri] Yeah, and then we're gonna finish with a crumble
with the bread and the bacon right on top of it for some crunch.
-I love it. -[Tiffani] You have chosen some risky fighters.
The start of this dish has to be my leche de tigre.
Some seafood stock,
daikon, jalapenos,
cilantro, lime juice
and the French dip.
Perfect.
[Tiffani] Zuri's tuna is already in the leche de tigre.
There's a ton of lime juice in there.
It is going to cook, cook, cook.
-[Chris] Do you fear it's going to cook too much? -[Tiffani] Yeah.
I think you're absolutely right, but I think if you're gonna use the tuna,
you should probably dice it pretty big.
-Yeah. -Poke big.
[Marc] Yeah. So, you can still keep it
-to that temperature in the middle. -[Tiffani] Agreed.
But if there's someone that can make it work, Zuri can.
Lots of good flavors, great culinary point of view.
[Lauren] Because my tuna poke is flavored pretty mildly,
I feel like chard radicchio is gonna bring
the bitterness component to the dish.
All right, chefs, five minutes to get it done.
[Lauren] Everyone's plating, and I don't have anything plated yet.
And I'm feeling a little bit flustered.
Oh, man. It's crazy.
[Tiffani] When Lauren was here for "Desperately Seeking Sous-Chef,"
she got really frazzled in her last round,
and that's how she got chopped.
She is, once again, frazzled.
Come on. Come on.
[Chris] Go, Lauren, you got this.
[Lauren] If I don't go ahead and get some of my components on my plates,
it's gonna end like it did last time.
[Chris] Oh, boy!
[Boots] Lauren just seems,
like, she's like, really nervous.
I can feel the tension next to me.
[Lauren] Coming into this competition,
Chris told me, "If you I feel like you're..."
-[dishes clattering] -[Lauren] "...a little in over your head,
take a deep breath. Keep going. Don't give up."
I'm going to take Chris' advice.
Chefs, here's your two-minute warning.
[Chris] Kat and Zuri seem completely in control of what they're doing.
Plenty of time to finish their dishes.
I'm a little bit worried about Boots.
He's just getting his plates out.
Boots, you gotta... gotta move, man.
You-- Minute 20.
[Boots] I start plating. I didn't wanna get too much.
It's an appetizer around. Two bites at the max.
Get those flavors, so they all melt together,
and have a sexy plate.
Come on, guys. Let's go! Let's go!
-Let's go! Let's go! -[Kat] Boots, we gotta go.
-[Boots] Get it done, chefs. -[Kat] Lauren, push!
[Ted] Step on it, chefs.
The clock is not gonna stop!
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one...
Time's up. Please step back.
[judges clapping]
[Tiffani] Boots' tuna looks great.
Medium rare, almost medium.
Like, really nice sear, with all the spices on the outside.
-[Chris] Yeah. -[Tiffani] Looks good.
[Boots] You know, I feel like... it felt pretty good
till I got to 30 seconds,
and I'm like, "Ughhh!"
I didn't garnish it all the way.
This presentation is not legendary.
[Chris] As a mentor, I preach patience.
But I hope I can give these chefs the advice they need
to advance them to the next round.
Chefs, what did you do with that appetizer basket
of French dip sliders, daikon,
tuna loin, and bacon roses?
Chef Lauren, please tell us all about it.
Today, I've made for you a tuna poke
with radicchio seared in bacon fat
and topped with a warm bacon vinaigrette
and pickled daikon.
[Chris] As always, I like your culinary point of view.
You always tend to look at the basket
in a much different way than your competitors.
And I think this radicchio, the way you featured it,
almost as much as you feature the basket ingredients,
that's you, that's what you do.
And... and so, I like it.
But because you left it whole,
the radicchio takes over 'cause it's so bitter.
The one thing that does tie it together is the pickled daikon.
The acid does help.
The daikon is used perfectly.
The bacon vinaigrette is delicious.
You know, if you're gonna take the sliders
and really only use the bread on it,
it needs to be crunchy on top.
And I think it's, kind of, getting smooshed
-into the bacon vinaigrette. -[Lauren] Okay.
Thank you, chefs.
Next up, Chef Boots.
Well, I made my version of fish and grits
with a bacon French dip gravy,
and creamy grits.
[Chris] Let's talk presentation first.
You kind of struggled to finish in time, which I was surprised at.
-Right. -[Chris] The way you've built this up,
this is really just the wrong plate for it.
The tuna, it's fine, that you give us a slice,
but we, in turn, have to cut that.
And it's just really hard to work around this tiny little--
Yep. Yep.
[Chris] I think that your grits are great.
Um, what did you pickle the daikon in?
-Apple cider vinegar and sugar. Yeah. -[Chris] Okay. Yeah.
Yeah, I love it.
The pickling of the daikon is so delicious,
like, I just got it all on my shirt
because I kept eating it.
I love this French dip and bacon gravy.
For me, a legendary dish is something I think about a lot,
that I wanna go keep going back to.
And that has this quality.
I think it's a great concept for that basket.
The cook on the tuna... is really great.
The daikon is a little heavy.
I got a lot less than everybody else.
It must have been in the four-three-two-one process.
Thank you.
Next up, Chef Zuri.
I did a ceviche with a gravy and ginger leche de tigre,
finished with a bacon French dip crumble.
How did it feel when you learned that you'd been selected by Chris?
You know, it's an honor to be selected by a great chef,
and just having the idea in the back
that I can compete with him next to me,
just feels fantastic.
So, every single move that I make has to be correct.
[Chris] Right on.
The thing that I like the most in here is the daikon.
Beautiful break from all of the other,
like, heaviness of this dish.
I think it's so brave and so cool
to try and use French Zip slider jus
as a base for the leg de tigre.
But the tuna, if you're gonna do that,
it needs to be cut in, like, really larger pieces,
so that it doesn't cook completely in the leche de tigre.
Yeah, and all that bread absorbed the sauce,
and then it kind of got a little heavy and weighted down.
Everything's, sort of, just mushy, mushy.
Yeah, I mean, I think the issue with this dish
is time management.
You wanting to do, sort of, a complex ceviche,
this speaks to exactly who you are.
But I might have wanted to eliminate a couple of steps.
I have so much red onion.
The ratio of tuna to onion is like...
sixty-forty. It's just too much.
Yes, Chef.
Finally, Chef Kat.
Uh, this is a tuna tartare and bacon toast
with pickled daikon.
How does it feel to be representing Mr. Santos?
[Kat] It's an honor.
Chris, you are a legend...
Oh, stop.
[Kat] ...with your restaurants.
I was in culinary school, living on Ludlow and Stanton,
-when Stanton Social opened. -Oh, my God.
Um, I remember the first time I went in and had
-the French onion soup dumplings. -[Chris] Mmm-hmm.
I mean, I still taste them.
-Wow. -And so to be standing here, representing you,
it's... very, very cool.
[Chris] Um, I think the tartare is... is delightful.
I think you've just done a really good job of balancing...
-You used the jus, you said? -Mmm-hmm.
[Chris] ...the tuna and the bacon.
[Tiffani] Actually, I like the cilantro
and the big pieces of daikon on top.
I do think you need something kind of visually that pops,
that brings you away from, like, the red-brown thing going on.
Thank you.
[Marc] I think that it's a little bit on the heavier side,
so maybe even the daikon, a little bit bigger in there would have been good, too,
to give a little bit more balance, but it's good.
Thank you.
I think for me, this is the most successful dish of the first round.
Thank you, Chef.
Four champions, but just three spots in the next round.
Thank you, chefs.
I'm feeling a little unconfident. [chuckles]
Time got away from me, which never happens.
[Lauren] I'm glad that I got all the ingredients on my plate,
but I know I could have done better.
I'm not incredibly proud of my plate.
[Kat] I think Lauren's radicchio
really threw off the judges,
so I'm worried
that my only other girl might get you chopped.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Zuri, you've been chopped.
Chef Zuri, it brings me no pleasure to chop you.
You actually made a legendary move.
That leche de tigre with the jus from the...
from the French dip slider was excellent.
Unfortunately, the tuna was cut so small
that the acid completely broke down the tuna,
and it was, like, really mushy.
And the ratio of onions to tuna was just way off.
And so, we had to chop you.
Thank you.
Nobody likes to lose, but it's okay.
I met some great chefs today.
I'm learning from them, too,
and I'll just keep getting the experience,
and that's the way you have to see it.
I think it's pretty clear that Kat did really well in the first round,
and you guys did not do as well as you're capable of.
I've seen it. I know what you guys can do.
Put a little pressure on her this round, okay?
-[Boots] Got it. -[Lauren] Got it, Chef.
Champions, you've proved that you have
the mental toughness and the skills
to slay basket after basket here.
Do you think this round will be any different?
-No. -I'm ready to bring it.
All right, Chris's entree ingredients are right here.
Check them out!
Oh, wow!
[Ted] All right, you've got that classic pantry staple,
cream of mushroom soup...
My mother cooked with this all the time.
[Chris] Cream of mushroom soup is extremely nostalgic.
It brings me back to my childhood and...
and hanging out at my grandmother's house.
And that's what we'd have.
[Ted] ...along with bok choy...
Big old bok choy.
[Ted] ...bavette steak...
[sighs] Yes.
Oh, my God, wait, are these picklebacks?
[Ted] ...and pickleback shots.
Thanks. Thanks.
-Don't look at me. My name's not Chris. -[chefs laughing]
Thirty more minutes of culinary brilliance...
clock starts now.
[Tiffani] All right, guys, let's go!
-[Chris] Let's have a legendary round. -[Tiffani] Let's go!
This round is so important for these chefs.
You know, two of them didn't have the best first round.
In the appetizer round, Kat did well.
This round makes it or breaks it for them.
[Chris] I knew I wanted to do a steak in the entree round
because so many chefs come in here
and either cook the steak properly, but it's not seasoned well,
or it's seasoned well, but it's not cooked properly.
But then, specifically, you don't wanna
really cook that past medium rare plus.
Um, so I'm really looking to see if they understand that,
and that they're able to execute it.
[Kat] I feel like I came out strong in the first round.
Can opener. Can opener.
[Kat] One of the things Chris is known for
is giving you this sense of nostalgia through his food.
And cream of mushroom soup is definitely nostalgic.
Wow. Whoo! Wow.
Look, I'm a Wisconsin girl... meat and potatoes.
I can make a really great steak au poivre.
Kat, what do you think you're making there? What do you got?
I think I'm gonna do, like, a kind of a riff on a steak au poivre.
-[Marc and Tiffani] Ooh! -Oh.
[Marc] What a smart idea!
[Kat] I'm also making a bok choy
and russet potato hash.
Kat really deciphered that basket.
Making a steak au poivre, sort of, rendition
and using that cream of mushroom soup as your cream in there,
really good idea. And also using the whisky
into the deglazing of that sauce.
[Tiffani] Like, you watch her cooking,
she looks like an absolute legend, like a pro.
[breathes heavily]
[Boots] I have to redeem myself from that last round.
I am the Memphis Grill Masters champion.
Why am I legendary?
My sauce.
Boots, making us something good?
I am going back to my barbecue roots.
Got a pickleback barbecue sauce happening.
I got some, uh, cream bok choy,
potatoes with grilled bavette steak.
[Chris] I love hearing that. They need to play to their strengths.
Any time he leans into that, kind of,
Southern roots barbecue, he crushes it.
So, these are the moments that legends are made of.
So this barbecue sauce is all the sweet notes
of the Memphis barbecue sauce.
I grab some ketchup, molasses,
the whiskey, brown sugar.
So, I know that it's gonna go great with the steak.
Right now, I have enough time to cook it
to a nice med-rare.
Behind, behind, behind.
Looks like Lauren has a dough of some kind.
-[Tiffani] What? -[Marc] That's pretty remarkable.
Chef Lauren, what are you making us?
I am making a flatbread
with, like, a Persian spice-rubbed bavette steak,
and some sort of bok choy salad.
[Marc] A really good idea.
We'll be looking forward to it.
Lauren actually did put some of the cream of mushroom soup
inside of that flatbread.
[Tiffani] That's smart in terms of gameplay
and strategy to put the basket ingredient
in Lauren's flatbread.
[Lauren] Once my steak's in the pan,
I'm adding the whiskey from the pickleback shot.
I'm not sure Lauren's going in the right direction here.
I mean, I could see dicing up the steak
if you were maybe doing a really quick dice
and maybe making some type of a stir fry, maybe.
I'd rather cook the steak like steak...
-[Tiffani] And then slice it. Exactly. -...and then slice it.
15 minutes on the clock, chefs. Halfway in.
Behind, behind, behind.
[Kat] The steak au poivre is kind of like leaning
into a little bit of a French vibe.
I don't want to go super-Asian with my bok choy.
So I do shallot and garlic,
and I hit it with pickle juice
to give it a little bit of like funk and acidity.
We're already at 14.5 minutes.
Kat has a screaming-hot pan,
but she needs to get that steak on
and then get it off to rest.
[Kat] I hear the judges.
"She better get that steak on there."
I'm like, "Oh, my God, I have to get the steak going."
[Boots] I go dive into creamy bok choy.
I salted some portobello and some button mushrooms
to really enhance that mushroom flavor.
Using the bok choy and that creamy mushroom soup
just kind of like puts it together.
Literally pickle juice.
I'm gonna use the pickle juice from the pickleback shot
as part of my bok choy salad dressing
for that salty vinegar component.
After I've let my flatbread rest,
it's time to go ahead and get in the pan
and start it cooking.
I'm hoping that they get cooked all the way through.
They're a little bit thicker than I want them to be.
All right, chefs, coming up on 5 minutes.
[Kat] Get the steaks off, Kat.
It needs to rest, and it's not gonna have enough time.
[Boots] I feel like my entree needs a little bit of texture,
so I grab an onion to make some onion strings.
Kat's making steak and potatoes as well,
so I need to make sure that mine is prettier than hers.
[Marc] Less than a minute.
Lauren and Kat are just struggling
to get everything on the plate.
[Tiffani] Come on, legends.
All four basket ingredients.
-Come on, come on, come on, come on. -[Chris] Let's go.
Let's go, Lauren. You got this.
Yes, Chef.
This is where legends are made.
Push!
[Ted] Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
Oh, my gosh, it's so much pressure being here.
Selected by Chef Chris,
I kind of went with ingredients
that I know taste good.
I tried to have the difference in textures,
and hopefully that translates to the judges.
I feel good.
I got into a zone.
Went back to my barbecue roots.
Uh, plating. I didn't do a great plate last time.
And most of all, I just wanted to make sure
I had enough room to draw.
I'm looking down at my plate,
thinking about what I'm gonna make for dessert,
because this plate is knocking out one of these ladies.
[Chris] I think one of my strongest skills
is my mentoring ability.
And so to be able to take these four great top champions
and hopefully get one of them all the way
to win this entire thing,
that's just a privilege and an honor.
Champions, you opened up your entree basket
and found that Chris had given you cream of mushroom soup,
bok choy, bavette steak,
and pickleback shots.
Starting with you, Chef Kat.
So this is a bavette steak
with a cream of mushroom poivre sauce.
And there is whiskey in the poivre sauce.
And a bok choy and russet potato hash.
I added the pickle juice to the bok choy
to kind deglaze it.
How is the pressure after having made
a pretty strong showing in the first round?
I'm competing with other potential legends here.
The pressure is high.
And I want to make Chris proud and represent him well.
In this kitchen, pressure makes legends.
And it's how you respond to that pressure
that really shows up.
Opening that basket and coming up with this concept
to put the cream of mushroom soup
into an au poivre sauce,
it's a genius dish, I think.
Oh. Thank you.
I agree. The steak is seasoned perfectly.
But it could've been rested a little bit longer.
Yeah, and I don't know
where we're going with the bok choy.
Like, it's kind of sauteed
and then with the potatoes that aren't crispy.
It's using the bok choy, but it's not celebrating the bok choy.
But this sauce is so good,
and it's such an excellent way
to highlight the cream of mushroom
and also with the whiskey.
There's something really comforting
and elegant at the same time about this dish.
And that sauce signs that painting.
Thank you.
Next up, Chef Boots.
I went back to my-- to my barbecue roots.
Made steak and potatoes.
Made a cool whiskey barbecue sauce.
I used cream and mushroom soup
as I tossed the bok choy greens.
Fried some onions for some texture.
And enjoy.
[Ted] What would it mean to you
to be the first Chopped Legend?
That's some-- some huge bragging rights for my brand
and my restaurants.
All right, give it to me.
I'll tell you what I love, up front.
And that's using the cream of mushroom soup
to turn this bok choy into creamy bok choy.
I think it's smart. It's very simple.
And I love this like frizzled onion ring.
It adds really great texture
and a nice salt element to your dish.
My least favorite thing on this plate
is your barbecue sauce.
No!
Yeah, it's just too sweet.
If I get chopped on barbecue sauce, man,
that's gonna kill me.
[Marc] I was gonna say the exact same thing.
I think it's a delicate steak.
It can take flavor,
but sweet's not one of them,
-I think. -[groans]
And the meat is seasoned.
The potatoes are cooked perfectly.
Yeah, these sort of crispy bit crunchy edges,
we live for that.
Yep. Heard, heard, heard.
Finally, Chef Lauren.
I have prepared for you a griddled mushroom flatbread
with Persian spiced bavette steak
and fresh bok choy salad.
[Chris] When I put this basket together,
I was thinking of all the possible dishes
you guys could come up with.
This was not it.
This is an incredibly unique point of view.
[Marc] I love the concept of the dish.
I love the freshness.
I love all those warm spices coming out. It's beautiful.
Thank you, Chef.
And the steak has great flavor,
but it's just-- it's a bit chewy,
because you just went so far it.
Okay.
[Tiffani] This is Legends.
Your entree course in this round
needs to be a showstopper.
And this feels like a really nice version
of something I would get at lunch in like midtown.
I'm struggling with the bread.
Using the cream of mushroom soup,
you've got to roll it a little bit thinner.
This is like a giant pancake.
I thinking also, the use of the actual pickleback
in your vinaigrette is really smart.
You get great acid that way.
The bok choy, I love the way you just sliced it
and left it nice and delicate.
I mean, like I said, I love the flavors of this dish.
-I truly do. -Thank you.
Okay. It's clear that Chris chose his champions wisely,
but soon we must send another one home.
[Boots] I'm the barbecue Chopped champion.
I can't get exed on a barbecue sauce.
[Kat] I made some errors in round two.
I should have cooked my steak earlier.
I should have just let it rest.
I feel...
Aah!
[Ted] Two of Chris Santos' favorite Chopped champs
will duel in the dessert round.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Jeff Lauren,
you've been chopped.
Chef Lauren, you know,
one of the reasons why I chose you to come back
is because of your ability to coax amazing flavor.
The rub that you put on the bavette steak, loved it.
But the bavette steak was just overcooked.
The flatbread itself was a little dense,
and so we had to chop you.
Thank you.
-Y'all, good luck. -[Boots chuckles]
[Lauren] Walking away from the Chopped kitchen,
I feel proud of myself, no matter what.
-Good luck to you. -Thank you.
I can leave with my head held high.
[Kat] My heart is pounding.
I cannot believe that I am here,
not only for legendary status,
but to compete against Boots.
He's his own version of champion.
I need to be laser-focused.
[Boots] This pressure is really, really high.
Kat's a great competitor, and I've got to bring it.
Like, really show that I belong in the finale.
Chris, what are you looking for in this final round?
I'm looking for both of our chefs to finish really strong
so that whoever emerges victorious in this round
can go into the finale with me with tons of confidence.
You heard him. Dig in.
-Oh. -[laughing]
Yo!
[Ted] And what can you make with a cereal treat tower?
That's crazy.
[Ted] Chris eats one of those for breakfast every day.
Lychee.
Which are beautiful.
Wow.
[Ted] Habanero hot sauce.
It's a corn dog?
[Ted] And a chocolate corn dog.
I love corn dogs. I love state fairs.
I love chocolate.
[Boots] This is something.
-[Kat laughing] -Thanks, Chef. [laughs]
[Ted] 30 minutes on the clock.
Time starts now.
-[Tiffani] All right! -[Marc] Here we go.
-This is the last round. -This is it.
-[Chris] This is it. -[Ted] Push through!
-Push through! -[Tiffani] Make it legendary.
[Ted] Chris, kudos on another very interesting basket.
What are you trying to test these chefs with,
using these ingredients?
[Chris] For this tournament,
I wanted to ask the question of,
"Can these chefs balance?" Right?
And so we've got the habanero hot sauce,
but that cereal treat tower is so incredibly sweet.
[Marc] What are you making with this?
Like an ice cream sundae or a banana split.
I would make a banana lychee sundae.
Behind, behind.
[Chris] I think that Kat's still got a lead here,
but I think that Boots,
he's certainly within striking distance.
-[Tiffani] Yeah. -Kat,
She's acting like she's playing from behind,
which is great.
I mean, if somebody's gonna be a Chopped legend,
they're not gonna stop even though they're ahead.
They're gonna push all the way through.
[Kat] The person that wins this competition,
they need to come in all three rounds guns blazing.
You have to be able to make good savory,
but you have to be able to make great desserts.
Kat, what are you making?
Um, I am going to make a cereal churro.
Ooh.
I'm also baking the lychee in strawberry sauce
and a habanero chocolate cream.
[Marc] Kat's putting the cereal treat in her churros.
-Correct. -That's sort of taking care of that one ingredient.
[Tiffani] The danger in that is the sugar content in the treat,
that there's already marshmallows,
so much sugar in that.
If that cereal treat goes into the churro,
it's highly likely that it will burn while it fries.
[Marc] Well, the other thing
you have to really be careful with the churros,
-actually making the batter properly. -Correct.
[Marc] If you don't get the eggs
and get everything right temperature,
it's something you have to be used to making.
[Tiffani] You want to make sure you're giving yourself enough time
for, like, any mishaps that might happen
or having to do it over again.
[Kat] How's it going over there, Boots?
Oh, it's coming together.
-Yeah? -How you feeling?
I feel like I'm coming to butter your biscuits, baby.
[laughs] Bring it on, baby.
[Kat] Once my dough is done, I get it in the piping bag.
I set it aside for a little bit.
[Tiffani] Smart strategy for Kat.
[Marc] It looks like Kat found the mixture.
-That batter looks perfect. -[Tiffani] She's done this a couple--
[Boots] Chris made this basket pretty hard
because it was the final round before the finale.
I have to come up with something
that speaks to my strengths.
I started my biscuit company during the pandemic.
My biscuits are legendary.
I mean, I beat Bobby Flay with them.
Hey, Boots, what are you making?
I'm making a cereal biscuit.
[chuckles] I knew a biscuit was coming out at some point.
I got some little habanero inside of here.
What else?
Then we're gonna do like a lychee cream on top of it.
Boots is known for his biscuits.
He's got a reputation for having
some of the greatest biscuits in all of Harlem.
I gave them advice to play to their strengths, right?
Some could see it as being playing safe, though.
I don't know.
[Kat] Boots is famous for his biscuits.
I need to bring the best churro I've ever made.
[Marc] The lychee is such a great ingredient.
They're a pain in the butt to peel.
Not a ton of meat.
And there's a big pit in all of them.
-[Marc] And they're slippery and slimy and-- -And they're slippery!
Oh, lychees.
You can make a beautiful fruit salad with that.
Like, lychees and strawberries,
lychees and bananas.
[Kat] I'm gonna make a lychee strawberry jam
for my churro dip.
These guys are slippery, slippery little guys.
I am peeling them.
It's labor-intensive.
[Boots] My plan for the lychees
is to make like a lychee milk
that can soak up some of the biscuit.
I crack open the chocolate corn dog
to make a chocolate cream.
Take the inside out.
I got some cream cheese with powdered sugar.
[Marc] Guys, I'm getting a little nervous here with Kat
because there's only 8 minutes left
and the churros have not been cooked yet.
[Kat] I know that I want to serve each judge three churros,
so I am like piping up directly into the hot oil,
and I just set it and forget it. I walk away.
So I'm making a habanero chocolate cream
as another dipping sauce.
Chocolate and habaneros both have fruity components.
It just feels like a good combo, to me.
Five minutes left, chefs.
[Tiffani] Kat understandably left her churros in the fryer
to go do something else.
But they're really, really brown.
[Marc] Those churros need to come out.
Don't make a legendary mistake, Kat.
Those churros need to come out.
She waited too long.
[Kat] I hear the judges freaking out,
but I feel confident.
I'm not worried.
The churros are getting gold and crispy on both sides.
I pull them out,
and then I get them in the cinnamon sugar.
[Boots] I check my biscuits.
Boom, done.
These biscuits are perfect.
[Ted] All right, chefs, you got this.
Keep going, chefs. Get it done.
[Kat] Time is winding down
and I am making sure that my plate is well composed.
Chef, do you have mint over there?
I do. Right here.
[Marc] 30 seconds.
[Tiffani] This is where we find out what legends are made of!
-Come on! -Yep.
-[Ted] Let's go, chefs. Get it on a plate. -[Chris] Finish strong!
-[Tiffani] Come on, legends! -[Ted] All right, chefs, this is it.
Final seconds of the final round!
-[Tiffani] All the basket ingredients. -Ten...
-Make it beautiful. -...nine, eight...
-Come on! Come on! -...seven...
-Come on! Come on! -...six,
-five, four... -[Chris] Let's go! You got this!
-...three, two... -Who's hiring me as a sous-chef?
-...one. -[Tiffani] Come on, legends!
[Ted] Time's up.
[Kat] I feel like I did bring
a lot of my personality into this dish.
It's super-fun.
Chris can't turn me down because I'm fun,
I bring skill, I bring speed.
I bring intention,
I bring focus.
I bring everything that you want in a partner.
[laughs] That was-- that was hard.
This pressure is really high.
We're both very passionate about it.
We're both very, you know,
excited about working with him.
So it's gonna come down to who Chris feels
is gonna team up with him best.
[Ted] Chef Kat and Chef Boots,
you had one more round to show why you should be
representing Chris Santos in the Legends finale.
Your goal was to make great desserts
using a cereal treat tower,
lychees,
habanero hot sauce,
and chocolate corn dogs.
Chef Boots.
So what you have in front of you
is a fun play on cereal biscuit and milk.
So open up the biscuit,
get some of the chocolate cream,
dunk it in the lychee milk.
There's also the habanero hot sauce
inside the buttermilk.
Enjoy.
I'm a biscuit fanatic.
It's a good biscuit.
The marshmallow in the cereal treat tower
was so delicious and crispy on the outside.
It's great.
[Chris] I think the biscuit's good.
You played to your strengths,
which is something that I advised you guys to do.
So I appreciate you taking the advice there.
The cream cheese frosting, um, is good.
Could use a little bit more chocolate.
I know you used all the chocolate
in the chocolate corn dog,
but we've got a lot more chocolate in that pantry.
I like the heat from the habanero,
but I feel like, you know, the lychee milk is good,
but I wish you had highlighted the lychee a little bit more.
Finally, Chef Kat.
These are breakfast cereal churros
with a little cinnamon sugar
and then a lychee and strawberry sauce
and a habanero chocolate cream.
[Chris] The churros are excellent.
They are light.
They're really, really great.
The only thing I would say,
I put the habanero in the basket for a reason.
I want to sense it.
It's really-- it's really not there.
Okay.
[Marc] I did take a big spoonful of the chocolate sauce,
and the habanero does come, but it's at the end
and it's got a little bit of heat.
When you eat it with the churro,
it's not quite as prominent.
Could have turned it up just a bit more.
Mm-hmm.
I like the lychee strawberry sauce a lot.
This is a really good example of the basket
expertly and elegantly folded into a dish
without it being showy.
Thank you.
Okay, who still has a shot at legendary status?
The judges need some time to decide.
Thank you, chefs.
Judges, there's nothing like having champions back here.
They know this competition
and they serve you incredible food.
The first basket was very difficult,
a lot of protein in there,
but Boots really found a great way
to use all the ingredients.
I thought that the tuna,
the way he cooked it, was really perfect.
I agree. His choice of his plate was terrible.
It was very difficult to eat.
But putting both the French dip jus
and the bacon roses into that gravy
I thought was delicious.
And Kat's use of the French dip jus
and the bacon roses in her tartare, genius.
[Marc] Yeah. For me, the tartare was a little heavy.
Some more pickled daikon
would have really elevated that dish.
[Chris] But Kat, by a wide margin,
beat out those other three chefs in that round.
She did.
Which put Boots in the position
of having to come out really strong in the entree round.
[Tiffani] Boots came through fighting
with that cream bok choy.
I really, really loved it.
I thought it was so delicious.
And I thought the cook on the potatoes for Boots,
so much better than Kat's.
[Marc] Boots also really stuck to his roots
because he did that steak with the barbecue sauce.
I unfortunately think his barbecue sauce
was the downfall of his main course.
[Chris] Against a delicate bavette steak,
it was just way too sweet.
And with Kat, the bavette steak didn't rest.
[Marc] But I thought the bavette on Kat's dish
was seasoned to perfection.
Using both the cream of mushroom soup
and the whiskey from the pickleback shots
in that au poivre sauce was delicious.
I wanted to lick the plate.
Okay. Do you know which champ is finale-bound?
We do.
All right.
[Boots] I'm a seasoned veteran.
I've done a lot of competitions.
And, you know, it's always
just put your best plate out in front of the judges.
And I feel I did that.
[Kat] I brought a really great first round.
My appetizer...
was loved by all three judges.
And I do think that I brought
a really whimsical skilled dessert.
I 100% deserve to be a Legend.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Boots,
you've been chopped.
Judges.
[Chris] Oh, Boots, Boots, Boots.
In the appetizer round,
you did a play on shrimp and grits.
We thought that was so fun.
But the choice of plate
made it a little bit hard to eat.
Having said that, you came out in the second round,
and loved that you took the cream of mushroom soup
and made creamed bok choy.
But, I'm sorry, but, dude,
that barbecue sauce, it was just too sweet.
So it pains me to say we had to chop you.
Well, thank you so much.
You got a good partner here.
No.
When you put your heart on the plate,
you don't have any regrets
because I'm still going out on a high note, you know?
-We'll talk soon. -Definitely.
[Chris] Great to see you.
[Ted] And that means, Chef Kat Turner,
you are the Chopped champion.
-Congratulations. -[Tiffani] Yeah, buddy!
Whoo!
[laughs]
I came to win!
And I am so excited to be here.
I cannot wait to crush everyone.
Like, really, let's go!
I am so excited to be working with Chris in the finale.
The fact that he's my sous-chef is so insane.
Whoo-hoo!
I'm ready to go into the finale
and just nail it.