Passing behind!
It just turned up in here,
a little bit of frantic energy.
Right now, that curd is completely liquid.
[Tyler] Twenty minutes is not enough time to make anything.
Let's kick it into overdrive!
[Rachel] When I walk into the kitchen, everybody knows what time it is.
She should think about plating
-right now. -I need to get plates. Oh, my God!
There's no time to do anything.
I'm worried how her
-story will unfold. -Right behind.
I need to challenge myself
and just bring it.
-[exhales] -[Ted] If your dish doesn't cut it...
-[Nana exclaims] -[Ted] ...you'll be chopped.
[Rachel] I'm definitely a no-nonsense kind of chef.
When I walk into the kitchen,
everybody knows what time it is.
I'm the executive chef
of the Stovall House in Tampa, Florida.
I make Italian food mixed with a little bit of Mediterranean.
It's gonna have, like, big, bold flavors.
Everything's gonna be balanced. Salt, acidity.
There's gonna be a little bit of heat there.
Amazing. Perfect.
I've been cooking my whole life.
I come from a big Greek family.
My parents always cooked,
but I definitely have had
a lot of experience, a lot of different cuisines.
Money.
So I really feel like it's my time.
[Tyler] I kind of want to be like the teddy bear that everyone sees
and they're like, "Oh, this guy's got nothing on us."
But once the gloves come off, you know, grizzly bear time.
Magic fingers. [chuckles]
I'm the owner and operator of Alchemy Bakery.
These are gonna pop up really, really sexy.
Alchemy Bakery is comprised of
bespoke desserts that are all custom made.
That's why they call me the Black Willy Wonka.
But at the same time, I'm a savory chef as well.
I call myself a soul food oriented chef
with global influences.
I tend to be very creative in the kitchen.
I treat my food as more of an art form.
Anytime I do something, it's always more than food.
[Nana] What I really love is introducing people to African food
in that fine dining lens.
All right, we're cooking now.
I'm the executive chef of
Love That I Knead Supper Club,
a West African focused dinner series
that I do in Philadelphia, New York, and Ghana.
Yeah. That's it.
I worked in numerous restaurants.
I ended up working for Wolfgang Puck,
Chef Jose Garces.
That's good stock right here.
I'm here to prove that
African cuisine is the future.
Mm. Yeah.
It's about time people really saw
what we're made of.
Oh, yeah, baby.
[laughs]
[Danny] I've always said I'm the first guy
to fire his mother if she does a bad job.
She knows it too. I've told her. [chuckles]
I am a proud owner of Santo Chorizo
and Santa Masa Tamaleria.
She loves me. Look at this chunk. Here's a big one.
My family's been making tamales
for more than 60 years.
I'm a sucker for smashing garlic
'cause that's what grandma did.
Tamales is in the blood.
Salsas are in the blood.
Best salsa ever.
I also lived in France.
Cut my teeth at Michelin Star restaurants.
Ooh.
I believe that if you are happy in the kitchen,
that transpires onto the dish.
It's beautiful.
-Hello, chefs. -Hey, Ted.
-[Nana] Hello. -[Ted] You excited to be here?
-[Tyler] 100%. -[Danny] Absolutely.
There are three rounds.
Mandatory mystery ingredients
for each course.
If your dish doesn't cut it, you will be chopped.
-Not today. -Not me.
All right, let's see what surprises are in this first basket.
Open it up!
[exhales]
[laughs]
[Ted] And of course, we have...
[laughs] What?
[Ted] ...kholodets.
[chuckles] I have never seen that before.
Wow.
[Ted] You've also got cauliflower.
All right. Cauliflower. Let's go.
All right. All right. All right.
[Ted] Hamachi collar.
And black sweet corn.
Let's get it.
[Ted] The 20-minute first round starts...
-[exhales] -[Tyler] Oh.
...right now.
All right. Here we go.
-Here we go. -Let's go, chefs.
[Nana] Okay.
Marc, you are joined by James Beard Award-winning chef
Kwame Onwuachi
and Korean cuisine superstar
Chef Esther Choi. Welcome to you both.
-Thank you. -[Kwame] Thank you.
Kwame, Esther,
what do you love in this first basket?
-The kholodet. -What is it?
-[Esther] Meat jelly. -[Kwame] It's meat jelly.
Well, it's basically chicken stock that's gelatinized.
It's thickened with the collagen of the bones.
And this one's got chicken. It's got a carrot in it.
It's got some egg.
I believe this is from Russia.
So, they tend to eat it as a snack with vodka.
It's really good. They have hamachi collar as well, right?
So, I would get that thing reducing down.
Add some sugar to it, some fish sauce.
[Rachel] Ooh.
Oh, man.
Hoping it needs cilantro, 'cause I have like...
-Cilantro. My neighbor has it. -...three sprigs.
[Rachel] I've been nominated for
a James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef.
I won Best Chef in St. Pete.
When I come into the kitchen,
it's time to lock up and lock in.
Get the fins off.
I see the hamachi collar and I think to myself,
"I've eaten this before, but I've never had to cook it."
So, I'm hoping that I can get it in a taco.
I'm making a hamachi collar taco
with a black corn pico and a cauliflower puree.
While the hamachi is cooking,
I start on my napa slaw to add some
freshness to it, a little bit of brightness to the dish.
Well, I like to win for my wife.
She recently was diagnosed with cancer,
and I think that she's just like
the strongest person I've ever met.
[Marc] Danny took that corn
and dropped it into hot water.
-[Esther] Smart. -Smart move.
[Kwame] It's an Asian corn.
So it's a little bit sweeter.
-[Esther] Starchy. -[Kwame] Starchy.
You have to cook it down a lot.
[exhales tensely]
[Danny] My grandmother,
she made tamales for more than 60 years,
so I hope these judges are
really into spices and layers of flavor
because that's what I'm bringing to the Chopped table.
For my appetizer,
I'm making a grilled hamachi collar tostada
with a kholodets tomatillo salsa,
cauliflower relish,
and the black sweet corn as a garnish.
Danny, what do you got for us?
So I'm working on a tostada.
-Get a nice little crunch factor. -[Kwame] Right.
[Danny] Now that my hamachi collar has been marinating,
I go straight to the grill pan.
[Tyler] A lot of people know me for
my pastry background, but at the same time,
I'm really, really known for
my savory food as well. That's how I started.
You know, I was a savory chef before I got into my pastries.
I kind of start to go towards my soul food,
Southern influence a little bit.
I will be doing a Southern deep-fried hamachi collar
with a cauliflower and black corn succotash
and lime crema.
-Tai, how are you doing? -[Tyler] I'm doing great.
So I'm gonna do a really cool succotash
with this purple corn over here
and this cauliflower.
I'm gonna use a little bit of this meat, whatever you gave me,
broth to kind of fortify
a little bit of my succotash
to give it a little bit more flavor.
-[Nana] Tai, how you doing? -Doing great, boo. How are you doing?
I'm all right, girl. [laughs] I'm all right.
My style of cooking is about my heritage.
So I'm really bringing West Africa,
primarily Ghana to the map.
I'm gonna do something like this.
So for my appetizer,
I'm gonna do a curried
hamachi collar stew
with a corn and cauliflower salad
and stuffed wontons.
Like this.
-Like that. -[Kwame] Nana, what's up?
What you doing over there?
I'm going to my roots. I'm from Ghana, right? So...
-Okay. -[Nana] I'm gonna do
a curry stew
-with the hamachi. -All right.
[Nana] I have mad respect for Chef Kwame.
I love what he's doing.
He has an amazing restaurant that puts on for West Africa.
So I'm shooting to hit his palate.
Lord have mercy.
-Chefs, less than ten minutes to go here. -[Danny] Heard.
Is there anything challenging about hamachi collar?
Basically, the meat is within it. So if you're gonna...
-[Esther] Yeah. -...try to harvest the meat,
it's a lot of work...
-[Esther] Mm-hmm. -[Marc] ...to be able to dig it all out of there.
-You would have to cook it first. -[Kwame] Yeah.
[Marc] I think cooking it and scraping it out would be good.
YOLO.
Rachel, you gonna make us some good food? We're hungry.
Right now, I'm blanching the corn
so I can make a little bit of pico out of it.
I'm using the black sweet corn to make a pico.
This is gonna add a good texture to the dish,
as well as a good amount of acidity and heat.
I go to check on the hamachi collar and start pulling out some of the meat.
Come on, you little collar meat.
And I realize that it's not cooked all the way,
so I throw them back into the pan
in hopes that I can get some of that meat cooked
so I at least have some hamachi in the tacos.
[Danny] The kholodets.
My plan for that is to make a salsa.
I add a chunk of the cauliflower.
Danny's got a nice green sauce
going in his blender right now. It looks delicious.
[Danny] So my salsa tastes refreshing.
I love the acidity notes
from the raw tomatillos.
-[Rachel] Behind, behind, behind. -All right.
Let's kick it into overdrive, guys.
Let's kick it into overdrive!
With the hamachi collar, I'm gonna deep fry it.
I think this is gonna be a winner.
[Marc] Seven minutes left.
Tai is in the fryer with his collars right now, guys.
-[Esther] Okay. -This is gonna be like a dumpling situation.
I see wontons in the pantry.
I think this will act as not only a crunch factor,
but a starch that will help to slop up that stew.
It looks like she's actually using
the kholodets to make the filling for the dumplings.
I'm really concerned about Nana filling these dumplings
and getting them cooked.
She needs to get it into the fryer.
Chef, are you in the fryer right now?
-[Tyler] Yes, I am in the fryer right now. -In both baskets?
-[Tyler] Yes, both baskets. -[Nana] Can you...
Uh, probably about... Give me two minutes.
Oui, oui.
Tai is in the damn fryer with both baskets.
[Kwame] We've only got six minutes left.
And Tai said he has two more minutes in the fryer.
[Nana] I need him to get out.
Lord, help me.
I'm worried how her story will unfold.
[exclaims]
I don't know what I'm doing.
Five minutes to go, chefs.
Get it done.
Something's making something.
I need to fry these wontons as soon as possible.
[exclaims]
[Ted] All right, Nana, that fryer is free now.
Tai is finally out of the fryer.
I race over and finally drop in
my wontons.
-[Ted] Does it sound like filling is coming out? -[Esther] Yes.
The fold on them is not very tight.
Those wontons could actually end up with nothing in them.
The table looks crazy right now.
Rachel, how you doing down there?
[Rachel] I'm making a little bit of a cauliflower
Mexican crema drizzle for the taco.
I'm just gonna put that in there.
[Nana exclaims] Behind, behind.
Two and a half minutes. Come on.
Just start thinking about plating, y'all.
[Rachel] Danny, I'm not freaking out. Are you freaking out?
Nah, not at all.
-Not this guy. -[Rachel] "Not this guy."
[Danny] So next I get started on my raw cauliflower relish,
which I want to
introduce those same citrus notes
that were on the marinade for the hamachi collar,
and just bring that right acidity.
I'm liking Tai right now
putting all sorts of lime zest...
-[Esther] Oh. -[Marc] ...on top of these hamachi collars
and seasoning them up. It's great.
And they look good.
[Tyler] I know Mexican crema adds really great flavor and fat.
I'm gonna just season it with salt, pepper,
lime juice, and more lime zest.
That's really gonna tie everything together.
I really don't need that much.
I'm gonna take the sweet corn
and the cauliflower
and make a salad.
That's gonna add a little bit more of a crunch to my stew.
[Esther] Oh, my God, I'm stressed out.
Chefs, you should think about plating right now.
[Ted] Okay, Nana's got her dumplings
out of the basket.
One minute to go now, chefs.
-[Nana] One. -One minute, heard.
[Kwame] Let's get it on the plate.
-Get it on the plate. -Chefs, you got this.
You got this. Make sure all four ingredients
are on your plates. 30 seconds, chefs.
[Tyler] Heard, 30 seconds.
[Rachel] All right.
Okay, chefs, you've got to
complete those plates in
ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five...
-[Nana whooping] Let's get it. -[Ted] ...four...
-You got this, Danny. You got this. -[Ted] ...three, two,
one.
-Time's up. -[Esther] Wow.
-Good job. Good job. -Good job. Very good job.
[Rachel] That round was intense.
I feel okay about my dish.
I feel like I transformed all the ingredients in the basket
into something else. So I feel pretty good.
[exhales]
Oh, my gosh, that went crazy.
I'm very relieved I got everything on the plate.
I think under pressure...
you could crack, but I held it together.
Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
Your appetizer basket brought you
kholodets,
cauliflower,
hamachi collar,
and black sweet corn.
Chef Danny, please tell us about your appetizer.
How are you, judges? So in front of you, I've made you
a grilled hamachi collar tostada.
I took the kholodets and made a salsa.
Chef, beautiful flavors. I love the hamachi.
It's cooked really nicely. I love the salsa.
It's like really nice and beautiful
and goes really nice with the hamachi.
The corn's cooked beautifully. The hamachi's great.
I think it's a really, really great bite.
I just wanted a little bit more seasoning.
I think that would have really helped,
like more salt, more acid.
I would have loved to see more kholodet used in a way.
But all in all, great flavors.
Really, really great flavors.
Thanks, chef.
Thank you, Chef Danny. Next up, Chef Nana.
I have prepared for you
a curried hamachi collar stew,
stuffed wontons
with a corn
and cauliflower salad.
I tried to stick with what I knew.
I'm a first-generation Ghanaian-American,
and we eat a lot of stews and soups,
so that was what came to mind.
Chef, what I really loved about this dish is
it's just so beautiful to look at.
I really love the hamachi collar.
It's so delicious.
The cauliflower was one of my favorite parts, too.
The corn's cooked beautifully. The hamachi's great.
But to me, this is representing
20 minutes of too many thoughts going on.
I would have loved it if you had concentrated on
a narrower sort of road.
-Sure. -[Marc] The wontons, I don't think, really work.
And they're sitting in a sauce here,
kind of getting soggy.
I have to echo chef's thoughts.
But I think it's a beautiful dish to look at,
and it's tasty.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Nana. Chef Tai.
So I did
kind of a dish inspired by
my affinity for Southern food,
also with global influences.
So I did a deep-fried hamachi collar.
On top of it is a little bit of a corn succotash.
Then there's a little bit of a lime crema
on the very, very bottom.
Chef, really sophisticated cooking here.
Just delicious in every front.
Like, sauce, good.
Succotash, just delicious.
And it just came together so nicely.
-Thank you. -[Kwame] The crema
adds a huge pop of flavor.
It brightens it all up.
The lime crema tying back to the lime zest
that you put on the collar when it came out of the fryer,
a brilliant move.
[Kwame] The fish is cooked beautifully.
I mean, I would have liked more of a crisp to it
because it was fried.
But succotash is nice.
I can taste the kholodet. [chuckles softly]
Chef Tai, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Finally, Chef Rachel, please tell us about your starter.
Hi, judges. So I made for you
a hamachi collar taco
with a black corn pico,
a little bit of napa slaw on the bottom,
and a cauliflower crema on top.
So, chef, I took a bite of the taco
and the flavors were really balanced.
-It was quite tasty. -It was a good strategy.
A little taco is a good idea. And you seasoned it well.
You added the napa cabbage, which made it fresh.
The problem is that
everything tasted kind of raw.
The hamachi collar
should have cooked a little bit longer.
And then the corn could have been cooked
a little bit longer as well.
But overall, the seasoning was really nice,
and nice acid to it, and good flavors.
-Thank you. -[Kwame] Yes, chef.
Although, like, when it came, it was very unassuming,
the flavors were beautiful.
The sweetness from the corn
against the spiciness
from the jalapenos. It's a tasty bite.
Chef Rachel, thank you.
Thank you, chefs.
[Rachel] I feel a little nervous, honestly.
But I think that
Chef Danny is in danger of being on the chopping block.
Him and I had similar dishes, so we had some
similar technical difficulties in ours. Um, so we'll see.
If I'm not on the chopping block, I think
Nana or Rachel.
So feeling
that adrenaline rush for sure.
So, whose dish
is on the chopping block?
Chef Rachel, you've been chopped.
Judges?
[Esther] Chef Rachel, you had some really nice flavors.
But your execution fell a little bit short.
Starting with the hamachi collar,
it was undercooked.
And then your corn was also a little undercooked.
And so we had to chop you.
-Thank you, guys. Thank you so much for the opportunity. -[Marc] Thank you.
[Rachel] I feel a little disappointed for sure.
But I'm walking out of here with my head held high.
And I think my wife will be proud of me no matter what.
[Ted] Chef Danny, Chef Nana, Chef Tai,
into the entree round.
Show us your ingredients.
Let's go.
[Ted] And you've got deep-fried egg yolks.
[Nana] What is this?
[Ted] Spigarello.
This is like escarole.
Uh, spigarello who?
I've never heard of this thing ever in my life.
[Ted] Denver steaks.
Denver steaks.
[Nana] This is...
[Ted] And zhoug.
Never met a zhoug I didn't like.
-Zhoug night. It's a zhoug night. -Yeah. It's a zhoug night.
[Ted] 30 minutes to make main dishes.
Clock starts now.
-[Marc] All right, here we go. -[Esther] Yes, yes.
-Let's go. -Everybody's just
beelining to the pantry.
-They got a little pep in their step now. -[Marc] Absolutely.
So we have deep-fried egg yolks. Just the yolks.
Who thought of this one?
You can find it on the streets
of Thailand or the Philippines.
And they freeze the egg yolks
in breadcrumbs and then deep fry it.
-[Kwame] Mm-hmm. -[Esther] So it retains that creamy texture.
There's so many different things that you could do with it.
You can make a sauce.
[Marc] You could just use the outside, the inside, you know.
Cast iron. Behind.
[Marc] I hope Nana this time does not run off with some
-crazy idea like she did... -[Esther laughs]
...in the first round with those wontons.
If she sticks to her roots,
-she's gonna have a much easier time. -Right.
Here we go.
Ghanaians and eggs.
Man, let me tell you, we eat eggs with everything.
Fried egg.
So I am going to do
seared Denver steaks
with a shito compound butter,
an egg sauce,
and spigarello salad.
I'm gonna use some of this.
[Kwame] That zhoug, you know, it's a spicy sauce.
It has a lot of cilantro in it.
It comes from Yemen,
and it's like a condiment on the table.
So they should think of it as like a chimichurri
or something like in that category.
-Chef Nana. -Yes, sir.
Talk to me. What you got?
[Nana] I'm making
a shito compound butter.
Shito is this, like,
pepper sauce that we have in Ghana
that we serve with pretty much everything.
[Kwame] I love shito.
[Nana] As my Denver steaks are searing,
I add the compound butter.
Baste in that.
Denver steak is similar to a flank steak
-or a skirt steak, right? -[Esther] Mm-hmm.
It's like the under blade
and it's very well-marbled.
Really delicious beefy flavor.
It's a real, real treat.
They have to cook it right though. Can't overcook it.
-[Marc] I don't want it well done. -[Esther] Mm-hmm.
Ain't no time to waste.
So immediate upon seeing the steak,
the zhoug, and kind of the eggs,
I'm thinking a really cool play on maybe steak and eggs.
Let's get it. Let's get it. Let's get it.
I'm making a zhoug-marinated Denver steak
with crispy potatoes.
I'm doing a pancetta vinaigrette to go along with my greens.
And then I'm also going to make
a really, really cool bearnaise sauce.
-Tai. -[Tyler] What's up, Kwame?
-How you doing, man? -What you got cooking over there, man?
I immediately saw the steak,
and then I saw these eggs and I immediately thought kind of like a bearnaise.
Hopefully make it really flavorful for you guys.
-[Kwame] All right. All right. -[Esther] Nice.
-We're looking forward to it. -[Tyler] Thank you.
[Kwame] Tai seems dialed.
I think for Danny, we need to see him
up his flavor.
-He just needs to stop holding back... -[Marc] Mm-hmm.
...and give us food the way he eats it at home.
And looking by that saute pan
with all the rehydrated chilies,
we're gonna get that this round.
[Esther] Mm-hmm.
Am I dreaming just looking at this Denver steak? I mean,
I feel lucky.
So now it's time to
just keep layering flavors.
I'm making a char-grilled
ancho chile-rubbed Denver steak
with a egg yolk and spigarello croquette
and chile guajillo shrimp sauce.
We've got Danny down there with a smoking hot grill pan
where his steaks are. I'm really happy to see that.
Really looks like he's got a nice sear on there.
Fifteen minutes left on the clock, chefs.
-[Nana] Tai. -[Tyler] Coming around. Hold on.
-What's up, babe? -[Nana] You ready for this, dog?
[Tyler] Yo, I was born ready.
Behind.
Denver steaks, I've never made before,
but kind of reminds me of a little bit like ribeye,
so that's how I'm gonna treat it.
Kind of want to keep this medium-rare to medium
because no one likes overcooked steak.
To go with the steak, I'm thinking about making some crispy potatoes
because steak and potatoes go really, really well together.
I'm a little worried, guys. I just saw Tai.
He's got some red bliss potatoes.
Good idea, but he just drops them into boiling water.
-There's not enough time to cook potatoes. -[Esther] Yeah.
It's a little last minute.
[Nana] Or whatever this thing is.
My plan for the deep-fried egg yolks
is to take the yolks and create a sauce.
It's just gonna be eggs, tomatoes, and herbs.
That's just gonna really showcase a little bit of,
like, my French culinary work.
Time... 7:00.
[Esther] Chef Danny, you all right?
What you got going on?
I am gonna make a croquette with crispy egg yolks.
-Sounds delicious. -[Danny] Thank you.
[Danny] The croquette's gonna bring
complexity of texture.
What a great place to put the zhoug, inside a croquette.
-Really smart. -[Danny] Okay.
Chefs, five minutes on the clock.
-[Nana] Heard. -[Tyler] Perfect. Perfect.
Because time is so limited,
I'm starting to worry a little bit of
whether or not these potatoes are gonna be cooked in time.
-[Esther] Chef Tai. -[Tyler] Yes.
Potatoes cooked?
-[Tyler] Potatoes are in the fryer right now. -Okay.
[Tyler] Spigarello, literally just fancy kale.
So I decided to use the spigarello
to make a really nice, composed salad.
Two minutes. Two minutes. Let's go. We got to get everything on the plate.
[Danny] When I taste the zhoug,
there's a nice spice flavor.
I just want to use that as a base foundation to build a sauce.
I really like the looks of the sauce that Danny's developing
over there with all those tomatoes and guajillo chilies.
Spigarello, I've never used before,
but it's giving me bitter greens.
So I'm treating this spigarello like it's kale
and make a salad.
I take the outer layer of that deep-fried egg yolks
and I'm just gonna chop it up
as a crouton for my salad.
It's like...
Chef Nana, you good?
I need to get plates. Oh, my God.
[Ted] One minute, chefs.
It just turned up in here, a little bit
of frantic energy.
-Tai's potatoes still are not done. -No.
[Tyler] These things are cooking as fast as I want them to.
But I have to get everything on the plate.
All right. Get it done, chefs. You got this. 30 seconds.
[Danny] Right behind.
Now that Tai's out of the deep fryer,
I throw my spigarello in there.
-[Esther] Oh, my God. -[Kwame] Oh, my God.
[Danny] There's, like, 15 seconds left.
I'm hoping to just make it land on the plate.
Right behind.
Get it done, chefs. This round is nearly over.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
-six, five... -[exclaims]
[Ted] ...four, three,
two, one. Time's up.
[judges applauding]
-[Esther] Wow. -[Marc] Wow.
[Tyler] I was up against, like, literally like the wire
when it came down to just cooking the potatoes and whatnot.
I always try to set a high bar for myself.
And I always just try to do the best I can.
So, hoping for the best.
[Nana] Feeling relieved, but also I'm really trying to,
you know, step it up
and just be better each time.
So hopefully the judges see that.
Three chefs duking it out
in the Chopped kitchen.
Your entree basket,
deep-fried egg yolks,
spigarello,
Denver Steaks, and zhoug.
We're starting with you, Chef Tai.
Please tell us about your dish.
So what I prepared for you was
a zhoug-marinated Denver Steak.
There is a little bit of frisee
and spigarello salad on the side.
On top of it is what I call, like, a quick bearnaise
and also a few baby crispy potatoes on the side.
Chef, really nice flavors going on.
The dish was seasoned really nicely.
The salad, my favorite thing on the plate.
I love it.
I know that the spigarello is a little bit chewy.
You've got some of the stem in there,
but I'm actually okay with it.
I love the vinaigrette.
What are you calling the sauce?
It's kind of like a quick bearnaise.
[Marc] The flavors are there. I think it's good.
The steak, to me, is cooked perfectly.
[Kwame] I have to agree.
The steak is cooked beautifully.
-Thank you. -[Kwame] But we didn't eat the croutons.
I actually liked the deep-fried egg yolk crouton,
but my potato was undercooked.
[Ted] Chef Tai, thank you.
Chef Nana, please tell us about your dish.
For you today, I have
seared Denver steaks with shito compound butter,
an egg sauce on the bottom,
and a spigarello salad.
The green compound butter
with the zhoug is, to me,
spectacular. I love it with the steak.
I think it's absolutely fantastic.
It's so... It's like fresh.
It's got a little heat.
It's got fat. I think it's great.
I'm gonna agree with Marc,
but you could have gotten a better char on it.
It could have used a better crust.
But I really love the spigarello.
The sauce on the bottom,
I feel like, the red wine, I'm tasting too much.
The sauce on the bottom, I'm not crazy about it.
Maybe it's just too sweet for me.
I just think that there's a lot going on
on the plate, like a lot of different flavors competing
-kind of with each other. -Okay.
Well, I feel bad for my fellow judges
'cause I feel like you knew I was getting this plate...
-[laughs] -[Kwame] ...'cause mine was plated beautifully
and it all ate very harmoniously.
Thank you, chef.
Chef Nana, thank you.
Finally, Chef Danny.
You have a grilled ancho chile steak
with a spigarello and egg yolk croquette.
Chef, beautiful presentation.
The sauce, ancho chile,
like, very flavorful,
lots of depth in there, delicious.
The sauce is so good, but yet the steak,
I feel like was too rare.
But yet the outer layer was too charred,
like it tastes burnt almost.
[Marc] I have to disagree.
I think the char was part of this.
I like the char in this.
And yes, it's very rare, which I'm okay with,
but I thought the char flavor
with the steak and then getting it through that sauce was just...
I loved it. It was brilliant.
Thank you.
Danny, I thought this was a great dish.
The steak for me was cooked fine. I mean, it was
maybe a touch on the rare side,
but I like my steak like that, so...
The croquette was delicious.
Towards the center, it was a little raw.
But all in all, I think this was really thoughtful.
-Thank you, chef. -[Ted] Chef Danny, thank you.
All right. Thank you, chefs.
[Tyler] I'm just nervous as all heck
because anything could happen,
and, you know, I may just have an aneurysm.
Honestly, I'm feeling really good.
Chef Kwame really liked my dish.
I think Danny might be on the chopping block.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Nana, you've been chopped.
Judges?
[Kwame] So, Chef Nana,
we would have liked more of a sear
on the Denver steaks.
And I think time management got the best of you
because there were some plating inconsistencies.
[sighs] So we had to chop you.
Thank you, chef.
I was a little surprised, but...
[exhales]
...I did what I came to do, and that was
to celebrate where I come from.
[Ted] Chef Danny, Chef Tai,
two rounds down, one to go.
Still got gas in the tank?
100%, Ted. Let's do this.
Ready to put the pedal to the metal.
Good. You're gonna need it.
Open your dessert baskets.
[Tyler] Oh.
[Ted] And your final set of ingredients is...
This is like a mooncake.
[Ted] A mooncake.
Pink lemons.
[Tyler] Citrus.
[Ted] Sour candy belts.
My wife's gonna be cracking up. She loves this.
No... Some random drink?
[Ted] And mushroom water.
Very curious about this drink.
[Tyler grunts] Okay.
[Ted] It's your last 30 minutes to impress the judges.
Clock starts now.
-[Marc exclaims] -Yes, chefs.
-Let's go. -Here we go.
-Let's go. -[Esther] Last round.
[Ted] Judges, there's been a lot of hype about
"mushroom water" lately.
It's got a growing following
because of its supposed health benefits.
Are you believers?
-I believe. I think mushrooms are very healthy for you. -Kwame?
It's a potent version of the mushroom.
-They take it and dehydrate it and blitz it into a powder. -Ooh, that's nice.
They put it in coffee, too,
and it's like spiked with spices,
so it gives a little
-different flavor profile. -Absolutely.
[Danny] So the mushroom water,
instantly I start thinking of chocolate.
So, for my dessert, I'm making
mushroom water chocolate mousse,
mooncake agave cake,
sour candy almonds,
charred pink lemons,
and pink lemon cream.
So I take my mushroom water
to make the base of the mousse.
So Chef Danny has the mushroom water with some chocolate
and some gelatin in it.
[Danny] This mooncake has a walnut and date filling.
I need to transform this to make another cake.
Danny, what do you got going on?
[Danny] So I'm making a really quick cake
using the mooncake.
-Tai, how's it going? -It's going well, man. How are you doing?
[Danny] Pretty good, man.
What are you gonna delight us with?
I know you do pastries.
[Tyler] Oh, I'm not gonna tell you what I make.
It's gonna be a secret.
Dessert is something that I'm known for, which is why they call me
Black Willy Wonka. So I know
I definitely can't mess this one up.
[Marc] Now, Tai, I'm seeing
already going right now, two glass bowls,
four spring molds,
a blender, a whisk, and three pots on the stove.
And he's only been at it for five minutes.
[Tyler] I'm doing a dessert inspired by
one of my favorites, lemon meringue pie.
I'm making a pink lemon curd
with a graham cracker mooncake crust,
a sour candy berry compote sauce,
and a vanilla bean meringue.
For the sour candy belts,
these things have tons of flavor
and tons of citric acid.
So I'm gonna use that in the berry sauce.
So winning the prize money would be huge for me.
I have a lot of creative endeavors that
need a lot of money.
And I'm currently working on a cookbook
to go along with my other two cookbooks.
So this $10,000 would just help bring that to fruition.
You got the mooncake.
I love the mooncake.
-It's got dates in there. -[Kwame] Yeah.
-[Marc] It's sweet. -[Esther] I have them all the time.
And usually they're enjoyed with tea.
Just celebrating, like, the Lunar New Year or...
Lunar New Year often...
-[Kwame] Often. Okay. -...but you see them, like, all throughout the year now.
It's so good as it is.
So, like, how do you remake something with that?
[Marc] I'm sort of thinking if you took
the mooncake and the graham crackers and made a crust with it...
-That's really clever. -[Marc] ...that would be really good.
[Tyler] To make my mooncake tart crust,
I take my springform pans
and I layer up
all of the crumbles in the bottom
and put it in the oven until it's nice and crispy.
I'm making a meringue
because that's one of the integral ingredients
for any type of lemon meringue tart.
And that's what I'm going for.
Less than 15 minutes to go, chefs.
-[Danny] Heard. -[Tyler] Heard, 15 minutes.
[Danny] So I have my pink lemon whipped cream
going on the stand mixer. It's just to kind of
counterbalance those mushroom chocolate flavors.
So I'm reducing down the sour candy belt
and need something that's, like,
in a contrast to all that sourness.
So I add my toasted almonds.
Typically, I would say I want to honor
my grandmother by winning,
but I believe I've honored her since,
you know, day one
where she just watched me roll a tamale.
To be honest, I want to win for my son.
I want to give him that level of confidence.
"Look, you can do it, too,
because your dad and your mom have worked so hard
and your grandparents have worked even harder
for you to be privileged."
That's who I want to win for.
Ten minutes remaining, chefs.
[Tyler] Ten minutes.
Next, I know I have to get started on this pink lemon curd.
They have a really cool floral note
that I think is gonna lend well to my curd.
[Marc] You have Tai making his curd. You see him on the double boiler
-in the back there. -Yep.
The only problem with the curd is
you really have to pay attention to it when you're cooking it.
You don't want the eggs to cook too much.
You have to really stand over it
a little bit. So, that's where I see a curd a bit of a problem.
Right now, that lemon curd is completely liquid.
[Tyler] It is a little risky.
I mean, your butter's gotta be right,
the texture's gotta be right, and you
can't curdle those eggs.
I definitely don't have any time for any mistakes.
I'm just worried that's not gonna cook in time.
[Tyler] If this curd doesn't come out right,
I could be snip-snip.
Five minutes left on the clock, chefs.
[Tyler] I'm taking a massive risk on this,
so if this curd doesn't come out...
[scoffs] It's a wrap.
It's giving him a little more trouble
than he wanted, I think, which is a problem.
[Tyler] But my curd is really, really nice and thick.
It's super smooth, and it's exactly
kind of how I want it to be.
Oh. Behind.
So I throw it straight into the blast chiller.
He's gotta cool that down as quickly as possible.
All right, three minutes. Let's make sure we get everything
going here. Come on.
[Danny] I love citrus, so,
these pink lemons, I'm excited.
Instantly, I'm like, let's do a couple segments.
-What is, uh... -[Esther] What?
...Danny bruleeing right now?
He's bruleeing the lemons.
The supremes. He's just getting a little heat on them. Okay.
How's that little tiny work going, Danny?
-I know, right? -Yeah, it's fun, right?
All right, chefs, two-minute warning.
-[Tyler] Heard. -[Danny] Heard. [speaks Spanish]
[Marc] Where is, um,
Tai's mushroom water?
[Tyler] So in order to make my simple syrup,
I'm gonna take a little bit of the mushroom water
as well as some of the pink lemon,
add a little bit of sugar to it,
cook that down.
-We're coming up-- -One minute left.
-What he said. -Come on. Oh, sorry.
[Danny] All right.
-[Ted] All right, chefs, come on. -[Esther] You got this.
-[Ted] 30 seconds, chefs. -[Kwame] Let's go, chefs.
-[Esther] Take your time, chefs. -[Kwame] Come on.
-[Esther] You got this. 20 seconds. -[Kwame] 20 seconds.
All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round here.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one. Time's up.
[judges applauding]
[Esther] Oh, my God.
I love that.
Ooh, man. [laughs]
Yeah, that was crazy.
But you know what? I'm feeling confident in my dessert
because it gives this, like,
whimsical kid, you know, went to the candy store vibes.
[Tyler] Fighting against Danny,
it's been a really, really good battle.
He's definitely been a strong competitor.
Like, I think it went well.
[Ted] Chef Tai and Chef Danny,
we packed your dessert basket with a mooncake,
pink lemons, sour candy belts,
and mushroom water.
Chef Danny, please tell us about your dessert.
So, in front of you, you have a mushroom chocolate mousse,
with, uh, sour candy almonds,
pink lemon segments that are charred,
as well as a pink lemon cream.
Walk us through this chocolate.
You're calling it a mousse.
-How did you make that? -So, I took the heavy cream
and the milk, threw in a milk chocolate.
I mean, you're going more in the direction of a pudding.
But I like the flavor of it.
Yeah, I... I agree with Mark.
Like, the chocolate mousse pudding was delicious,
and really clever use of the mushroom water.
It's just that the way that it was plated
kind of masking the beautiful date cake.
And unfortunately, I didn't get any of the lemon segments.
I didn't get any lemon segments on mine at all, either.
I think you executed everything you wanted to do perfectly.
But you just needed a little bit of everything,
and it would have been a knockout dish.
-Chef Danny, thank you. -Thank you.
Next up, Chef Tai.
So, what I did was a deconstructed pink lemon tart.
You have a pink lemon curd at the very, very bottom.
I ended up making a cookie with some graham crackers and the moon cake.
Well, Chef, very whimsical dish and very fun to eat.
And I think, really smart hiding the sour belt in the fruit syrup.
I thought was really clever.
The lemon curd, and then, the berry,
all of it worked, like, so nicely.
I know it's got a lot of curd and it's got a lot of acid in here,
but it's very, very sweet.
[Mark] It works, but it's definitely a heavy dessert.
Yeah, it was a little sweet,
but, I mean, I ate the whole thing. So...
-Thank you, Chef. -Chef Tai, thank you.
-Thank you. -Standby, chefs.
Soon we will name the champion. Thank you.
Judges, well, that was a battle.
Definitely, two very good cooks.
Right out of the gate, I thought Tai's appetizer was spectacular.
It was great.
It could have been a little crispier to my liking.
But that crema just
-brightened that whole thing up. -[Esther] Right.
[Mark] I thought Danny did a really good job.
That tostada that he made was great.
My only complaint about Danny's appetizer was just...
It was missing a little bit of salt.
Moving on to the main course, the Denver steak.
I got to tell you, I thought Danny got a really nice char on it.
It was a little rare. But that meat can handle it.
-It was so delicious. -Mmm-hmm.
[Kwame] Where he lost us was the croquette.
Although it was a tasty croquette,
it was raw towards the middle.
[Mark] What stood out to me on Tai's dish
was that Tai did a good job of cooking the steak properly.
You know, I think for me, Tai lost me in that round.
He did the potatoes, that kind of--
-Exactly. Yeah. -...did nothing to the plate.
Right? And mine wasn't cooked.
I think all in all, we had two chefs here
that were obviously extremely talented.
They brought a lot of their culture
-and their backgrounds to the Chopped kitchen. -[Kwame] Mmm-hmm.
And I think it showed up on a lot of the plates.
What are you thinking? Which way will this go?
-We know. -All right.
[Tyler] I'm pretty excited, you know?
Winning Chopped would mean the world.
I could probably start saying,
"You know, I am the real Black Willy Wonka."
[Danny] Based on all three rounds,
I deserve to win because I believe I showed the judges
my inner true self.
I am feeling confident that I will win.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Danny, you've been chopped. Judges?
Danny, the appetizer around,
we felt like you did a good job cooking that Hamachi collar.
But you just didn't season that dish enough.
And in the desert round,
you took all that time to supreme all those beautiful pink lemons.
Unfortunately, some of the judges didn't get any.
And so, we had to chop you.
-Thank you, chef. -Thank you.
-Thank you, chef. -It was great.
[Danny] I did not accomplish what I came to do,
but I am so excited to go back to my two and a half year old.
Just continue, you know, pushing, and pushing, and pushing.
And that means, Chef Tai Davis,
you are the Chopped champion.
You have made your friends and family proud,
and you're going home with the $10,000 prize. Congratulations.
-Let's go. Let's go. -[judges applauding]
[Ted] Well done.
[Tyler] I'm very, very excited.
This win is going to be insurmountable for my career.
I think it's really gonna put me on the map,
and this is gonna be the catalyst
for me to bring my book to fruition.
So, this is a dream come true.
Yo.