[narrator] Americans eat 140 million eggs a day.
That's one for every man, woman, and child in the nation.
[laughs] Yeah.
[Ted] Clock starts now.
[Tiffani] Here we go. Don't get scrambled.
Eggs, it's one of those things that you have
to get exactly perfect.
Kitchen egg-sential.
-Egg-sential? -Yes, I'm here all day, folks.
Cooking makes me happy, chef.
[Alexis] I've been raising chickens for the last nine years.
I don't know if you can tell.
Sometimes things that are too easy, though, will mess you up.
[Ivan] I'm definitely panicking at this point.
[Ted] 30 seconds.
[Tiffani] Your dishes are egg-cellent or it's your eggs-it [exit].
-Oh! -[Ivan] What, what, what?
You all right, Chef?
These eggs are the hard work of my babies at home.
We have 17 chickens, and I spend pretty much
most of my day collecting eggs.
I hope you're proud of yourself.
Say hello to America.
[rooster crowing]
I'm a head chef at Abbot's on Broad Creek
in Laurel, Delaware.
I love eggs.
You could do foams, you could do, uh, Bearnaise.
I mean, eggs can be sweet, salty, savory.
My style of cooking is haute-style cuisine,
marrying beauty and fashion into food.
Yeah.
I like this to come out on the plate.
I mean, 'cause look at me.
Excuse me while I go beat the competition.
I'll be in my office. All right?
[joyful music playing]
[ding]
[Hari] In India, we have a thing called an eggwala.
Eggwala is the person who brings eggs to you.
So I'm used to both eating eggs and cooking
with eggs my entire life.
I'm a chef and consultant from Central Florida.
When I was 21 years old, came to this country
for graduate education.
But 20 years ago, I had a professional midlife crisis,
and I channeled this path of getting
professionally trained as a chef.
The training that I've had as a mathematician
makes my outlook on life unique.
This is not your everyday shakshuka.
Having I've gone through the ranks, I'm here to prove
to the world that I belong, and I'm ready to show it.
-[clock ticks] -[ding]
[Mari] If somebody were to ask me what my last meal would be,
it would be an egg dish, 1,000%.
When I think of eggs, I think of how eggs are a foundation
for so many dishes.
And in Japanese food, as well as French food, it's a pivotal
and critical ingredient.
I'm the executive chef at the Cherry Circle Room
in Chicago, Illinois.
With my Japanese background, we tend to be perfectionists,
and within nine months of opening my restaurant,
we were awarded a Michelin star.
Growing up, my dad was a chef.
His restaurant, Yoshi's Cafe, really laid that groundwork
for a lot of Asian chefs.
My dad was literally working in the kitchen until he could
no longer.
I think that my job is just to continue his legacy.
[alarm clock rings]
[Ivan] There's probably not one day that goes by
that I don't have eggs.
I love cooking rustic Italian food.
And if you want to make a delicious pasta,
you're definitely using fresh eggs.
I'm the executive chef at Amara at Paraiso in Miami, Florida.
My dad is a very, very passionate chef,
and I really feel like I drew
and grew my love for cooking through him.
My parents came from Dominican Republic,
worked their tails off to be able to provide my brother and I
with better life and more opportunities.
They've been there every step of the way for me.
It's time to egg-secute.
Winning this would be really, really amazing for them.
Hello, chefs.
-Hello, Ted, how are you? -Hey Ted, how's it going?
We have a special theme for your competition, eggs.
That's fantastic.
Let's go. That's egg-cellent.
You'll find different kinds of eggs in every basket,
and we want you to impress us with all of the ingenious ways
you can make them shine.
If your dish doesn't cut it, you will be chopped.
Be no chopping today.
Let's go.
Open them up.
[laughs] Yes.
-[Ted] OK, you've got... -Wow.
[Ted]...caviar.
Caviar, OK.
Luxury ingredient in the house, best egg.
-[Ted] Plus quail eggs. -Score, quail eggs.
[Ted] Smoked salmon.
-I love this. -[Ted] And Tokyo scallions.
All right.
All right, let's make some food.
-[Ted] 20 minutes to work. -This is such a good basket.
Clock starts now.
-[clapping] -[Mari] Behind.
-[Tiffani] All right, let's go, chefs, here we go! -[Eddie] Let's go.
Tiffani Faison, you are joined on the panel
by two guest judges.
Trendsetting Texas restaurateur, Chef Julian Rodarte.
Super happy to be here.
Plus, pro football player turned Food Network star,
Chef Eddie Jackson. Welcome to you both.
Always a pleasure, Ted.
Judges, eggs are one of the great miracle ingredients
of all time.
They're a staple in everything.
From sauces to center plate to desserts,
all the way through.
It is an absolute kitchen egg-sential.
-Egg-sential? -Yeah.
[Ted] Did you just say egg-sential?
Yes, I'm here all day, folks.
[Hari] The memory of eggs takes me back to my childhood.
I used to make I make egg bhurjis for myself.
I used to make egg omelets for myself,
eat egg on the street.
So I'm making a Tokyo scallion and smoked salmon egg bhurji
and scallion chutney.
I decided to use the smoked salmon and Tokyo scallion
in my bhurji because it has great smoky flavor.
[Ivan] Coming down behind.
Cooking eggs, I think they're a measure of a chef.
Like, nothing is as fast and as technical
as cooking eggs.
[Julian] I wanna see the ingredients shine,
the quail eggs to be nice and yolky, if you will.
And then I would serve that with the caviar,
maybe in a crostini or tostada form.
I love that.
Coming down, coming down, coming down.
I've been eating quail eggs for at least 15, maybe 20 years
on a regular basis.
What's tricky about quail eggs is that their shell
is extremely thin.
But I'm cracking the eggs right at the top, and I'm dropping it
right into the deep fryer.
I'm making a deep-fried quail egg
over a smoked salmon and scallion cream.
I love the way that smoked salmon and scallions taste
together when they hit cream.
This gets a nice, luxurious flavor profile.
Oh, yeah, you're working.
Why is this so hard to open? [laughs]
Eggs are amazing because they can be super simple,
but also super intricate.
I'm thinking that I want to make a frittata because eggs
are a really nice vehicle for these beautiful ingredients.
Mari, what are you making?
I'm making a potato kind of egg frittata.
I'm going to poach some quail eggs.
Hopefully we'll get to an herb,
creme fraiche, horseradish situation.
Amazing -- I just heard like an hour and a half of work.
[Eddie] Yeah, potato frittata in 13 minutes.
[Tiffani] And a poached egg on the top, so we'll see.
[Tiffani] Japanese scallions, I love deeply, very mild leek.
I get those raw or just a little bit crunchy but not...
[Eddie] I like it raw. I like it raw.
-'Cause you still get the texture of it? -Yep.
[Tiffani] It has a little bit of that like, onion heat to it.
-It can easily be made into like a chimichurri or quick sauce. -Yeah, yeah.
Ivan, what do we got?
[Ivan] I am doing some melted scallions
with a little bit of aromatics,
butter, and then a smoked salmon white wine beurre blanc.
And then the egg, I'm getting there.
Eggs should be top of mind, buddy.
Top of mind.
Chefs, nine minutes on the clock.
[Eddie] Let's go, chefs!
[Hari] So with the caviar, I'm making a very simple
caviar cream sauce.
We talk about caviar being such an incredible ingredient.
It's tough in 20 minutes.
You want to kind of cook everything.
Like, if it goes into a sauce, it should be put in the sauce
in the very end, or else the caviar can pop,
and then it cooks down.
[Alexis] It's working!
With the caviar, I want it to stand out, so I'm going to put
this caviar in some fish sauce.
I'm always gonna be unique.
I'm not gonna just put a dollop of caviar on the plate
and call it a day.
It's aggressive, but it's good.
Seems like the competition is stiff, so, of course,
I want to show off to the judges.
With the Tokyo scallions, I'm using them in three ways.
In the potato-egg frittata, the wasabi herb creme fraiche,
and fried them as a crispy topping.
Five minutes, chefs. Keep cooking.
That's way too fast.
[Tiffani] I'm worried.
Ivan hasn't even touched his quail eggs.
[Eddie] What?
[Ivan] I have all my other components going, but I have no idea
what I'm gonna do with the quail eggs.
Time is against me.
You have to be agile when working with them and nimble.
How intense, how intense.
-[deep exhale] -[suspenseful music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Ivan] At this point, I still don't really know
what I'm gonna do with the quail egg.
OK, OK, OK.
But I keep pushing forward as quickly as I can.
So I think, let me make a nice little aioli to round
out the dish.
So I put the egg yolks over the double boiler,
emulsify a little bit of nice olive oil into there.
OK, things are happening.
I love seeing the fact that Ivan hasn't even touched
his caviar yet.
Like, I don't wanna see caviar being used, you know,
five minutes into the round.
[Ivan] I get the beurre blanc to where I want it I add some chopped
chives at the end.
I add about a dollop or two of caviar in there.
With the sunny quail egg, I'm going to fry it gently,
and leave the yolk runny.
I want the egg to be this unctuous, runny yolk when one
breaks into it.
I'm leaning into the egg theme really hard.
I want this dish to kind of look like a bird's nest,
so I find some phyllo, and I drop that into the deep fryer.
I like the way this is looking. It's a little bit weird.
It's a little bit quirky, just like me.
-Let's go, chefs. -Taste your plas.
Taste everything. Beautiful plates.
[Ted] Get it done, get it done, get it done.
[Julian] Let's go, Ivan.
-[Ted] 30 seconds. -[Tiffani] Don't get scrambled.
[dramatic music playing]
[Ted] Chefs, you are dangerously short on time.
-Ten, nine, eight, seven... -All the eggs from this basket
on your plate.
[Ted]...six, five, four, three,
two, one.
Time's up!
-[Tiffani] All right. -[Eddie] Good job, Chef.
-Good job, Chef. -[Alexis] Good job, Chef.
That was great.
Yeah. [squeals]
[Hari] Oh, my goodness.
I could barely breathe. That was so much fun.
[Ivan] I know.
Well, that was intense. That was intense.
But I'm really happy with what I made.
I didn't come this far, you know, halfway around
the world 37 years ago to leave after one round?
-[producer] How are you feeling? -A little stressed.
It was kind of intense.
I mean, kind of had some last minute ideas.
So hopefully it pays off.
You opened up that first basket and got caviar,
quail eggs,
smoked salmon,
and Tokyo scallions.
We'll start with you, Chef Hari.
Please tell us about your dish.
Chefs, I have for you a smoked salmon
and Tokyo scallion egg bhurji
with a sunny quail, a little caviar cream,
and a Tokyo scallion chutney.
What did you call your dish?
A bhurji. It's a scrambled dish in India.
-I thought you said bougie. -I did, too.
-That's the caviar talking. -[Eddie laughs]
Tell us about where you grew up, Chef.
I grew up in Mumbai in India, and I came to the United States
in 1987 to study mathematics.
-[Tiffani] Really? -Wow.
Yes, Chefs. But 20 years ago,
I had a professional midlife crisis,
and I stepped into this beautiful world of food.
That's a very interesting career path.
I love your use of the Japanese scallions.
I can taste them throughout in multiple ways.
Absolutely delicious.
I was concerned that the chicken eggs would
overpower some of the quail egg,
but honestly, it was delicious.
My only wish was that I had a little bit more caviar.
But I think it's kind of funny, though, when you said
you was a mathematician, because the biggest issue
that I have with this is like the ratios are off.
When I got a little bit of that caviar and I got a little bit
of the smoked salmon, I got those pops of salt,
but it wasn't a lot of it, and I wanted more of it.
I've never had like a sunny side up egg on scrambled eggs before.
That's so interesting.
Further, they're a very hard scramble.
Having that yolk to kind of bring it back to life
a little bit is helpful.
Really incredibly creative dish, Chef.
Thank you.
Next up, Chef Alexis.
I made a deep-fried quail egg over a salmon and onion cream
with deep-fried phyllo and a little bit
of marinated caviar on top.
So the phyllo just kind of makes it look like a little bit
of a nest since we are doing eggs today.
Chef, where do you cook?
I'm embarking on my second head chef position,
but it's five minutes from my house.
I get to be near my chickens and my children.
Wait, you have chickens?
I have 18 chickens right now.
-Cute! -[Alexis] So now I do.
I'm just going to point out, Chef Alexis, that you mentioned
the chickens before your children.
Oh, I know, I did, but we have six kids,
so it's hard to keep all the kids together.
I can keep the chickens together.
The use of the fried phyllo with the Tokyo scallion,
that you fried both of those. Really clever, right?
But I think because the quail eggs fry so quickly,
that's the problem.
With that, I think you still want some, like, gooey middle,
and this is pretty well done.
The fish sauce with the caviar is like, "Mmm".
I think those things are gonna cancel each other out.
But as I get into it, I actually enjoy that really
assertive saltiness, right?
The problem is this doesn't have a vessel, like a wonton.
You get everything in one bite, because right now it just seems
like, disjointed to me just a little bit.
I agree with you, but I really enjoyed kind of the playfulness
of its nest with an egg in the middle of it.
Thank you.
All right, next up we go to Chef Ivan, who appears to have
spent a little money on this dish.
There's that caviar. Right on.
Thank you.
So in front of you chefs, you have a melted scallion
with a smoked caviar beurre blanc,
some crispy scallions on top.
What was it that tugged you into culinary?
My father, he is one of the best cooks I know.
At a young age, I was just a little fat kid
in the kitchen, kind of just not knowing what's happening,
but the aromas and, you know, being Hispanic
just brings family together.
[Tiffani] Chef Ivan, the use of the Tokyo scallion's really smart here.
It gives this really luxurious, sort of sophisticated slant
to your dish right away, but I think it's screaming
for bread to, like, really soak up all that delicious flavor.
I think the addition of the salmon on top was
very, very smart.
Because everything underneath it was kind of,
like one note for me.
'Cause if you get some of just the reduction, the sauce
on its own without that little pop of caviar, it's very bland.
But other than that, this is a very, very good first round.
Thank you, Chef.
Chef Ivan, I love hearing your story
because it reminds me of mine.
I was that same young kind of fat kid in the kitchen.
My dad, he came home after cooking every day
for all of his guests.
He would come home and cook for his family.
And so altogether, it's absolutely delicious dish.
Thank you for the feedback, Chef.
All right, and finally, we go to Chef Mari.
I have prepared for you a frittata.
It is topped with a wasabi herb creme fraiche,
soft-boiled quail egg, and then topped with some
crispy Tokyo scallions.
Mari, I think the frittata is cooked perfectly.
I just feel like the quail egg, to me, just seems like a little
bit of an afterthought...
when it's just placed on top.
The problem is the quail egg, right?
Just, like, I think...
had you just sunny side up,
like, just really babied that egg
and given us some runny yolk, that would have worked
really nicely in here. This is egg-spectacular, right?
All day.
And so it's really important that the eggs are celebrated
in really robust ways.
[Julian] I agree, but I love the cream.
I love the combinations of the dill
with the scallions, the wasabi. There's so much depth.
There's so much complexity. Very, very well done.
Thank you, chef.
All right. Thank you, chefs.
[Alexis] There's a little trepidation
because the quail egg was overcooked,
but I think Chef Mari may be on the chopping block.
After the judges' feedback, I am slightly concerned,
so I am having second thoughts about my execution.
[suspenseful music intensifies]
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
[suspenseful music playing]
[suspenseful music intensifies]
[sigh]
Chef Alexis, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Alexis, we really enjoyed the plating of your dish.
However, the dish just didn't feel as cohesive
as we wanted it to be.
And your deep-fried quail egg was overcooked.
And so we had to chop you.
Thanks a lot, guys. It's been really great.
Thank you for being with us, Chef -- be well.
[dramatic music playing]
[Alexis] You know what? You live and you learn.
And it does not mean that I'm stopping.
There's going to be a lot more coming from me.
You're never --
this isn't the last time you're gonna see all this.
You better get ready.
Chef Hari, Chef Mari, Chef Ivan.
Entree basket is here.
[suspenseful music playing]
Open it up.
-[Ted] And you've got... -Interesting.
-[Ted]...salted egg yolk syrup. -Salted egg yolk syrup?
I have no idea what that is. I'm gonna find out.
-Some eggs. -[Ted] Duck eggs.
These are duck eggs. For sure.
-[Ted] Plus... -My favorite green in the world.
-[Ted] Collard greens, -[Ivan] OK.
[Ted] and Mexican chorizo.
This is not egg-related, really.
[laughs]
-[Ted] 30 minutes. -[Ivan] Oh, my God.
We're definitely gonna have to think about this a little more.
Clock starts now.
[judges clapping]
[judges] Let's go!
[electronic music playing]
Judges, is there room for improvement now
that we are in the entree course?
I think the biggest thing for me is, like, I don't wanna
just see the egg used once, like, use it multiple times.
[Tiffani] I think this is an excellent basket for an omelet.
Just straight up make an omelet.
I was more so thinking like a fried rice.
-Fried rice would be good. -[Julian] Yeah.
All right, Mari, what you got going?
So I'm gonna make some omurice.
I'm going to do a soft egg scramble on top of fried rice
with all these ingredients, making a little
bordelaise sauce.
I decided to make a chorizo bordelaise just because
traditionally we use beef scraps.
So to me, it just made sense to swap out for protein.
Tasting that egg yolk syrup, it has this sweetness,
but also has a little bit of saltiness to it as well.
[Tiffani] I think the egg yolk syrup would be the base of any kind
of grape vinaigrette or any --
it's really got this...
There's no actual egg yolk in the egg yolk syrup,
but it's got this butterscotch-y kind of,
like, delicious autumnal quality to it. -Yeah.
Oh, whoa there, buddy. Slow down.
-Ivan! -[Ivan] Yes, Chef?
-[Julian] What are we doing? -We're making some pasta, Chef.
I'm gonna make a little bit of tagliatelle.
Use some of that salted egg yolk in here,
some of the duck eggs whole and the yolks.
Salted egg yolk in your dough.
-[Ivan] Yes, chef. -Wow, love that.
Making a pasta is a ginormous risk,
but I'm wanting to showcase
some technical ability and wow the judges
with what I can accomplish within 30 minutes.
[Tiffani] The duck eggs, guys, differ from chicken eggs
in a couple of different ways.
A little bit bigger, so overall volume is increased.
They're much, much richer, so you see, like,
a really, like, beautiful, orange yolk, typically.
I love duck eggs fried over the top of very spicy things.
Yeah.
Hari, you've got some beautiful spices on your station.
What are you doing?
Making a little North Indian-style curry.
I'm gonna make some egg white sauteed kind of tortillas
as your bread.
Right now, what he's doing is bouncing up and down
with excitement, which I love to see.
I know -- I love to see it as well.
[Hari] Making a caramelized chorizo, collard green, duck egg
tikka masala with some egg-crisped tortilla.
So I'm cooking the chorizo as well as the collard greens.
The stems in the chorizo are in one pan,
the tops of the collard greens and some mushrooms and onions
are in another pan.
I add the egg yolk syrup to both pans because I know
it has that sweetness, and I'm using it as a sugar content
to help caramelize these components.
Chefs, 17 minutes on the clock.
[suspenseful music playing]
Chef Ivan, what are you using the Merlot for?
That, I kind of built a little bit of ragu with the chorizo,
a little bit of onions and garlic.
Chorizo ragu.
And now I got my greens in here with the chorizo.
Kind of making like a Mexican-Italian ragu.
I hope, you know, my Italian friends don't hate me for it.
[Ivan] I wanna win for my parents.
I mean, they have sacrificed so much to even get me
to the point that I am in life.
Food was always at the table, clothes on my back.
Bringing a "Chopped" championship home --
it's gonna mean the world to them.
Five minutes, chefs. Keep cooking.
[Hari] The duck eggs, I'm simply going to boil them and leave
the yolk slightly soft.
[Mari] By curing the duck egg yolk in soy,
it's going to taste really nice
with that extra umami from the soy sauce, and I hope
that it will add an extra level of creaminess to that scramble.
[Ted] One minute left on the clock, chefs.
I was worried about Chef Ivan, but now it looks like he's
the front runner now. -Right.
[suspenseful music playing]
Be smart, be smart in your final seconds, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
-six, five... -Go, go, go, go, go!
four, three, two, one. Time's up.
-[Tiffani] All right. -[Ted] Please step back.
-[Tiffani] Whoo! -[Eddie] Wow.
[judges clapping]
Besides feeling very sweaty, I feel good.
One thing is to put an egg on the plate, right?
That's a no-brainer, but it's in the pasta,
it's in the dough.
I'm very proud of what I just made.
[Hari] The competition is tight, it's fierce,
it's elevated, it's passionate.
But, you know, I'm gonna make it to the next round
because I made the dish I wanted to make.
I have no regrets.
I've showcased the basket ingredients
in the best way I could.
Chefs, for the entree round, you got salted egg yolk syrup,
duck eggs,
collard greens,
and Mexican chorizo.
Chef Mari, please tell us about your main course.
I have prepared for you omurice.
It has a pickled collard green frisee salad,
soy-cured duck egg yolk in the center,
and a chorizo bordelaise on the side.
Is there someone who inspired you to become a chef?
It was definitely my father.
Unfortunately, he did pass about 11 years ago.
He was truly an inspiration to me because even though he did
get ill, he was in the kitchen working up until the day
that he couldn't.
I think through me, I'm able to, like, really still
continue his voice through my dishes.
I love hearing that.
Well, first off, I'm a big fan of, like, a soy-cured egg yolk,
and that was delicious right on top of here.
The chorizo with the egg syrup and the rice and the egg,
It all goes really, really well together.
I love the chorizo.
It does give it a smokiness to it that I really appreciate.
But there is a sweetness,
because you have the sweet ketchup here,
and then you have the egg yolk syrup in here.
It just makes things a little bit too sweet,
and it needs some balance.
Everything is really rich. It needs some relief.
I think you're hinting at that with your collard greens
and pickling the stems of the collard greens.
Really nicely done, but I need more of it, right?
Putting the egg yolk on top makes a lot of sense.
You have to really remove the white from the egg yolk.
I got raw egg white, which is, it just detracted from all
of the cool work you've put into this dish.
But overall, it's delicious and it's craveable.
-Thank you, Chef. -Next, Chef Ivan.
All right, chefs, in front of you,
you have a salted duck egg tagliatelle
with a chorizo and collard green ragu.
-Chef Ivan. -Yes, chef.
This is outstanding.
This is really, really good work.
We watched you work with this dough, and just to be able
to pull this off is egg-cellent work.
I think the chorizo, you really rendered it
out nicely, and the spice that it's giving,
in contrast to the sweetness of that egg yolk syrup,
I think they played very well.
My favorite aspect of this is actually the collard greens.
That bitterness and that crunch and the way you cooked it,
I never thought greens would be my favorite part of the ragu.
and you really did this --
these collard greens amazingly.
Chef Ivan, it takes a lot of courage to cook this
and put it in front of us in an egg battle.
The question for me, and I think the elephant
in the room is, is this an egg-centered dish?
You know, for celebrating eggs today, is this enough?
And it's delicious, no question.
I don't know if it's enough.
Understood. Thank you, Chef.
Finally, Chef Hari.
Chefs, what I have for you is a caramelized chorizo,
collard green, and duck egg tikka masala.
And I've used the syrup to kind of give some of the balance
and sweetness in the dish.
And I used the duck egg to batter the tortillas
and pan crisped it.
So the tortilla is great.
I think coating it with the egg, super smart,
super delicious.
I like the way the duck egg is cooked.
I think this is an interesting way to use it
and the flavors are great.
I'm loving the combination of spices and heat,
but I'm not really...
happy with the combination of it with the chorizo
and collard green and the egg yolk syrup.
I think it's making it really, really sweet.
It almost tastes like maple breakfast sausage.
I do agree.
I think you utilized the salted egg yolk syrup
kind of in of in everything,
but you technically cook the boiled egg perfectly.
The sauce is delicious. The vegetables are delicious.
Thank you.
Very good. Thank you, chefs.
[Hari] Do I think I'm on the chopping block?
I don't think so. I cooked the dish I wanted.
I'm excited, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.
That round, it was definitely a lot more challenging
than the first round for me, but I did my best.
I can't really control what happens.
[suspenseful music playing]
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
[suspenseful music intensifies]
Chef Hari, you've been chopped. Judges?
Chef Hari, we felt that you just overdosed
on the salted egg yolk syrup, and it covered up
the amazing flavors you developed with the chorizo
and the collard greens.
And so,
we had to chop you.
Thank you, Chefs.
-[Hari] Good luck. -[Mari] Thank you.
[Ted] Best of luck.
I wanted to go one more round. I was ready.
I was just getting warmed up, as they say.
I was focused.
I made the dish I wanted to make,
and I did the best I could.
Chef Ivan, Chef Mari, this final basket will play
a big role.
Dig in.
Oh, here it is.
[Ted] And you are looking at an ostrich egg.
[Mari] It was gonna come at some point.
My God.
Oh, my God.
It's massive. It's like a dragon egg.
-All right. -[Ted] Plus chocolate caramel eggs.
-[Ivan] OK. -Strawberries, that's nice.
[Ted] Strawberries.
And ladyfingers.
Ladyfingers, that's very kind, actually.
Thrown for a loop a little bit.
I mean, what am I supposed to do with this?
Um...
-[Ted] 30 minutes to make eggs-citing desserts. -Yeah.
Clock starts now.
[judges cheering and clapping]
[suspenseful music playing]
They have come too far to crack up now.
I know, that's right.
In sports terms, though, the basket ingredients
right now are just like, it's a layup.
-[Julian] Yes. -It's a layup.
-[Eddie] This is a layup. -[Julian] It really is.
Sometimes things that are too easy, though, will mess you up.
[Tiffani] Ostrich eggs are giant, right?
The thing you want to do is get rid of the white.
The white tends to be a little bit tougher from like a chicken
or a duck egg.
The egg yolk of the ostrich egg performs like any other
egg yolk. It's just so much more of it.
[Ivan] Quite massive. Oh, God.
And to me, this basket is ice cream, custard, tiramisu.
[Julian] Yeah, absolutely.
Chef Ivan, what we making, brother?
I'm gonna make a ladyfinger cake with a zabaione,
some macerated strawberries, and I'm still thinking about
the chocolate component.
Ivan, how are you feeling about this egg?
Oh, my God. I'm just happy I got it open.
Got some things separated, so some things are happening.
[Ivan] I've never used an ostrich egg before in my life.
It is a massive white, and it is so much yolk.
[Ivan] When it comes to this sponge cake, I'm adding this
in batches, hoping that my culinary knowledge
will help guide me through this.
[suspenseful music playing]
The interesting thing about both of these chefs
is they're sort of cooking with a lot of heritage.
Mari's dad was the chef of a legendary restaurant
in Chicago.
Similarly, Ivan has had kind of the same heritage
with his father, so.
I completely agree, and they've been fairly
neck and neck. -Clearly, yeah, yeah.
I decide to make a Swiss meringue with the ostrich egg
because I do think that it is a smart way to use
the egg white.
I feel like torching it will be really beautiful.
Chef Mari, what we making?
[Mari] Trying to make a strawberry sherbet
and some Swiss meringue.
I'm adding prepared strawberry preserves just to fortify
and concentrate that strawberry flavor.
[Ted] Chefs, 17 minutes on the clock.
[Ivan] With the zabaione, I grab half of my egg yolk,
put some sugar in there.
I grab some Marsala wine, start whisking away.
It's something that I have to be very attentive to because
I could end up with sugary scrambled eggs.
There's so much at stake here. I got my family on the line.
I'm thinking about bringing a "Chopped" championship home
to Miami, to my hometown.
OK.
Chefs, nine minutes on the clock.
With the ostrich egg, I'm using it two ways.
Ostrich egg Swiss meringue.
And I'm also using it in a chocolate caramel egg mousse.
I checked the consistency of my strawberry sherbet,
and it just isn't really setting up at all.
Hey, Mari, how's the sherbet looking?
-We're almost there. -A little bit under still?
[Mari] Yep.
Time is running out, and I am actually starting
to feel a bit frantic.
Oh!
[Mari] So close, so close, so close.
You all right, chef?
[Mari] I think I might give up on this.
Keep pushing, keep pushing.
[Mari] I have to make sure the sherbet is perfect.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mari] The consistency of my sherbet just isn't really
setting up at all.
I think might give up on this.
I look over at Chef Ivan's dessert, and it's making me
a little nervous because he managed to make some sort
of a cake in 30 minutes.
But I'm not really feeling like I can back down.
So I give it another go, and thankfully, it's coming
out exactly the way that I wanted it to.
We're good.
One minute on the clock, chefs. This is it.
Check this out.
Chef Ivan has deep-fried the leaves from the tops
of strawberries, apparently to garnish.
I've never seen anybody do that.
I know that we are not dipping strawberry tops in chocolate
right now -- oh, we are.
I have my chocolate mixture from the chocolate caramel egg
that I've kind of thinned out with a little bit
of heavy cream.
So it's kind of like doing chocolate and strawberries,
but in a different way.
I've never just...
I mean, I've eaten a strawberry top.
It's just really like filamenty and like not a lot of flavor.
[Eddie] Let's go, chefs. Finish up.
[Ted] Let's go. Get it done, get it done.
Final seconds.
-20 seconds. -[Eddie] 20 seconds.
[Ted] 20 seconds on the clock, chefs, let's go.
Get it done.
Final seconds of the final round, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three... -Whoo!
...two, one. Time's up.
-Please step back. -[Eddie] Good job, chefs!
-[Tiffani] Whoo! -[clapping]
Did we go from four minutes to 20 seconds like, that fast?
[Julian] Yeah.
[Mari] I'm feeling OK about my dessert.
I normally prefer more of a composed dish.
I tried to use the egg in a lot of different ways.
Maybe that was a mistake. We'll see.
But I do think that the flavors will be there.
[Ivan] I feel like this dish is winner, winner, chicken dinner.
When it comes head-to-head, it's a battle of the titans.
You know, we're both here for a reason,
so may the best chef win, honestly.
[Ted] Chef Mari and Chef Ivan.
In the final round, we challenged you to make
desserts with an ostrich egg,
chocolate caramel eggs,
strawberries,
and ladyfingers.
Chef Mari, please tell us what you've made.
I have prepared for you a strawberry parfait.
It has a toasted ostrich egg Swiss meringue,
underneath a strawberry sherbet, and then underneath that
is the chocolate caramel egg mousse.
So, Chef Mari, like that you used the strawberries
two different ways.
So you have the strawberry inside of the sherbet,
but I also love the fresh strawberries as well
because it gives it a little bit of texture.
But you have this mousse, then you have the sherbet,
and then you have the meringue on top.
Just seems like they're all kind of melding together.
Fortunately, like the mousse, I had one little taste of it
and I was like, "Oh my gosh, that mousse is incredible."
And then I couldn't get it ever again because of the way it was
kind of melting into each other.
This is a Baked Alaska, right?
Take that, make strawberry ice cream, put some
of that chocolate caramel egg into the ice cream,
and then put your meringue on top.
You know what I mean?
For sure.
The use of the egg whites from the ostrich egg is really
successful with the meringue. I think that's great.
-Thank you, Chef. -Finally, Chef Ivan.
So what you have in front of you is a ladyfinger sponge cake
with an ostrich egg zabaione, macerated strawberries,
and a chocolate strawberry top.
I will say, like, I was like, "What is he doing with this
strawberry top?" I was like, "What in the hell?"
I love it.
It's my favorite part of the dessert.
You do get some of the vanilla notes of the ladyfinger in here,
but the sugar's not cooked out in the zabaione.
It's tough to cook out sugar in an ostrich egg.
So it's a little bit gritty.
For me, there's a lot of grittiness that I'm getting
in my zabaione,
but that's the only kind of like, missed piece aside
from having a great cupcake with those ladyfingers.
I do want either more of that chocolate-covered
strawberry top or more of the chocolate.
There's literally no chocolate on my plate right now.
But overall, I think that this was a very thought-out dish.
Thank you, chef.
Thank you, chefs.
Judges, eggs just seem so friendly, so familiar,
but they can really be tough to get perfect.
What were the biggest hurdles these two chefs faced?
-Knowing when to use the eggs, -Yes.
and knowing how to use the eggs.
We started the first round.
Chef Mari gave us a frittata.
It had this gorgeous wasabi cream sauce on top
that I really liked.
[Julian] I love the combinations of the dill
with the scallions, the wasabi.
But the quail eggs were cut in half and put on top.
-It was a little... -Afterthought-y.
Afterthought-y.
[Eddie] I don't know, Chef Ivan's plate.
I think he did a really good job with those Tokyo scallions,
just kind of melted.
They almost just literally, like, melted in your mouth.
The scallions really shine in that dish.
I still think that it needed a little bit more seasoning,
because again, when you didn't get the bite of that caviar,
it was very under-seasoned.
Then we roll into the entrees.
I'm still thinking about that pasta.
Chef Ivan had two basket ingredients inside that pasta,
the egg yolk syrup, and then he also had
the duck eggs, and he pulled it off.
Elephant in the room, not to shatter anyone's hearts,
does it need more egg? Is egg in pasta dough enough?
I don't know.
So we go from a pasta dish without any discernible egg to,
to, like, a deconstructed omurice
with not only scrambled eggs,
but also a full duck egg on the top of the scrambled eggs.
My issue was that there was still some white attached
to the yolk.
And then really kind of detracted from some of the good
things she did, like the delicious chorizo
crispy rice that was right underneath there.
Well, here we are. Decision time.
Do you know who's won?
We know who's won.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Ivan] I think I did more than enough to celebrate eggs and transform
them instead of just putting a yolk on the plate.
I am the next "Chopped" champion.
[Mari] Feeling pretty good.
I put a lot of technical skill on the plate.
Don't think I would have done anything differently.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[suspenseful music intensifies]
Chef Mari, you've been chopped. Judges?
[Tiffani] Chef Mari, we thought the potato frittata
was so delicious and really well-made.
For us, it really came down to the use of the quail egg,
that we got, like, half a quail egg on top.
It just wasn't enough.
For the dessert round, there were three different
components that ultimately got muddled into one.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you. I understand.
I'm feeling disappointed, but Ivan did a phenomenal job,
so I don't really feel like I lost to somebody who didn't
deserve to win.
I think my dad would be proud of me.
And that means, Chef Ivan Barros,
you are the "Chopped" Champion, and for your hard work,
you'll get $10,000.
-Well done, Chef. -[Tiffani] Nice job!
-Nice job, nice job. -Let's go!
Let's go! We did it.
[Ted] You did it.
I'm on cloud nine.
Oh, my God, it feels so amazing.
I'm a "Chopped" Champion. Like, I mean, come on now.
How do you think your parents are gonna feel about this?
They're definitely gonna cry.
They're going to be so proud. It's crazy.
We did it.
I am so excited to share this with my mom and dad.
It means a lot to bring home a win for them.