[Tyler] Sandwiches.
-[Ursula] Bagels. -[Rebecca] Corned beef.
Loaded baked potato.
You can't spell delicious without deli.
Very clever, Ted.
I need to believe!
-[gasps] No. -Don't, don't.
[Adrian] I'm not trying to panic.
Crazy, nervous.
Are you the queen of the deli?
Yeah!
[Tyler] I live delis.
Please make a sandwich.
I wanna have it dripping down my wrist.
[Antonia] Go, go, go, go!
[Ursula] This is what I do everyday.
Well, let's rock.
Deli culture is in my blood
Just that little Ferris wheel of sexiness.
I think you can find beauty between two slices
of beautifully toasted bread
I'm a chef de cuisine at Duseks in Chicago, Illinois.
These are delicious.
Our late night sandwich menu is perfect
for people that have had a few drinks.
Reubens, schnitzel sandwiche
Delis are a part of me,
and if I don't bring home the win for this...
You know, what have I been doing?
[Ursula] Jeff & Jude's is predominantly a Jewish deli.
It's named after my parents
My dad's side of the family is Jewish.
My stepmom's side of the family is from North Carolina.
So I really wanted to bring something
that would bring together the foods that they raised me on.
There it is!
We smoke all the meat,
we bake all our bread, we do everything in house,
and I'm the person that does it all.
This is something that is so personal to me,
that I definitely feel ready
[Adrian] Elevated deli food is totally up my alley.
Coffee Coffee is definitely not a typical coffee shop.
We're constantly pushing the boundaries on what food can be.
Your classic flavors you experience at a deli
in a much more creative way
I wanna prove to everyone,
that I've mentored under, that I've worked hard enough
and I can put my experiences into this competition.
[Rebecca] The Bad Jew is a pop up in Los Angeles,
and makes me a bad Jew because I love pork,
and Jews traditionally are not supposed to eat pork
The Rebecca's Grill is kind of like a traditional reuben.
Turkey pastrami or porkstrami.
I left a stable job, I was working in commercial real estate.
But I wasn't happy, and it excites me getting to feed people,
seeing their faces when they're eating our food
So I'm excited and honored to be here.
I just, I'm stoked.
-Hello, chefs! -How are we doing?
-Hi, Ted! -Hi!
This competition will be all about
turning everyday deli favorites into delicacies.
Ohhh.
That sound good to you?
-Sounds great. -Yeah!
I like that a lot.
These baskets are here to inspire you.
Please open them up.
[exhales]
[Ted] And you'll be making appetizers with a bagel and lox platter.
Ooh, yeah. All right.
Ooh, meat treats!
[Ted] Roast beef.
This is amazing.
[Ted] Avocados.
They look beautiful.
[Ted] And honey mustard dressing.
I mean, a classic deli staple.
[Ted] Hope you can make something wonderful with those
in just 20 minutes.
Clock starts now!
- All right! - Let's do it!
They are off.
The deli challenge, huh?
Deli challenge.
Chris, you are joined here by two very special guest judges.
Visionary restaurateur Antonia Lofaso,
and James Beard Award winner
Chef Kwame Onwuachi.
Welcome chefs, great to have you here.
-Thanks Ted. -Great to be here.
You know, I grew up in New York City,
and I think before I got, like, a rattle,
-I had a bagel with cream cheese and lox. -[Chris laughing]
-Yeah. -What about you all?
I mean, I grew up in Long Island, New York, so the classic Italian deli,
the classic Italian sandwich that had, like,
seven different kinds of meat, like, shredded iceberg lettuce.
-More red wine vinegar than you can ever imagine. -Mmm-hmm.
-Oh, delicious. -Salt, pepper, it was like what I grew up on.
[Chris] Well, I did not grow up in New York,
but I lived on the Lower East Side for 28 years.
About as long as you've been alive.
-[all laughing] -[Kwame] Oh, Lord! Here we go.
And I literally lived a half a block from Katz's Delicatessen.
One of the most famous delicatessens in the world.
Behind, behind.
Being born and raised in New York,
there's bodegas and delis all over the place.
And I've been in Chicago for seven years.
So the inspiration for this dish is
the bodega salad bar meets the Midwest wedge salad.
I'm making a wedge salad with honey mustard green goddess
and everything bagel bread crumbs.
The plan for the roast beef is to crisp it.
Treat it like a bacon lardon like you'd see in a classic wedge salad.
Behind, behind.
[Rebecca] I wanna show the judges
that I'm taking a deli staple and elevating it.
The appetizer that I'm going to make
is a cream cheese dumpling with beef broth
and avocado crema.
For my dumplings, I crack an egg into the bow
with flour and cream cheese from the bagel and lox platter.
Add some ricotta, add some salt and pepper,
and then the honey mustard to brighten it up.
I take elevating deli classics very seriously.
I care about what I'm doing
And that's why I wanna win.
Wait a minute. Oh.
I'm excited to show these judges
what an elevated deli dish can be.
I think of dill, I think of lemon,
I think of also freshness.
So, I'm making a roast beef frisee salad,
dressed in a honey mustard vinaigrette
I'm making avocado mousse to create a base and foundation for the salad
Something that's creamy
and something that's a littl on the decadent side.
My mom's from Mexico and this is right up my alley.
If you look at that lox platter look at all the choices.
There's smoked salmon,
there are bagels, cream cheese.
That's a single ingredient!
Behind.
For me delis have always felt like home.
Growing up in Los Angeles,
if I ever had to have a tough conversation with my parents
it would happen in a deli.
And I would get a knish,
and half a grapefruit and a cup of coffee.
When I moved to Chicago I really missed having that classic deli experience
So I just decided to make one.
I am making a roast beef tartine
with a honey mustard Russian dressing.
Not a fan of the honey mustard.
Almost has an artificial sweetness to it.
Exactly.
To make my dressing I'm mixing together mayonnaise,
some horseradish and, of course, the honey mustard
-[Ted] Less than 10 minutes left, chefs! -Perfect.
[Tyler] So I'm gotta get goi on my green goddess.
I'm gonna take the avocado, honey mustard,
add shallot, lemon juice, jalapenos, olive oil,
basil, tarragon and chives,
and get that going in the blender.
Rebecca. Rebecca King.
What you got in that pan right there?
I made a little beef broth...
-Okay. -...for my dumplings.
That's how you manipulate that.
[Chris] I like that she said she made a beef broth 'cause I think that's also
-something you'd find in delis, right? -Yeah.
It's comforting soups and broths and things
-of that nature. -Oh, yeah.
[Antonia] I think Rebecca's use of the roast beef is
the smartest that I've seen so far.
You hear that?
Oops! Sorry, behind you.
[Ursula] For the bagel and lox platter
I definitely have to use these bagels.
It'll be a great base for this dish.
So Adrian's making, like, a crumble or some crumbs with his bagels
and they look like they're burning.
[Adrian] I turn around and realize my bread crumbs are burning.
Definitely freaking out.
I can't be serving burnt bread crumbs into the dishes of the judge
All right, only five minutes left and the clock, chefs.
[Ursula] I want the bottom of this dish to be toast.
I mean, it adds a totally different textural element.
Half of the grill pan looks extremely hotter than the rest of it.
Whatever it is, it's smoking.
[Ursula] This is the litera foundation of my dish,
and I need them to be okay.
If I burn my bagels I'm going home.
- [Ted] She's burning... - [Kwame] She's burning this thing.
[Kwame] Ursula sliced the bagels thin
and put them on this grill pan.
Half of the grill pan looks extremely hotter than the rest of it.
This is the literal foundation of my dish and I need them to be okay.
It's why I did six.
Luckily I made extra and I have four that are goo
So I'm just gonna leave those burnt guys behind and pull off the rest.
Chef Tyler, you got this under control?
Yes, sir.
Excellent.
[Tyler] The everything bagel is topped with
an amazing blend of spices and seeds,
that I think will work really well on this wedge.
The key to plating a great wedge salad
is to build it in layers.
Start with the green goddess down,
and then seasoned lettuce, and then bread crumbs, and the lardons.
[Rebecca] I'm gonna make an avocado crema.
So it should make a nice smooth bright sauce for my dumplings.
I really wanna manipulate the ingredients as much as possible.
Talk to me, Adrian.
Are you feeling good?
I feel pretty good.
I need to believe, Adrian,
I need to believe.
Let me get some herbs and then you'll believe.
All right, all right.
I need something that's gonna give it a little natural sweetness for my salad.
So, I gotta make a really quick tomato jam.
So, I'm using the red onions and tomato
on the bagel and lox platter
[Rebecca] That clock is fast
You think you know what 20 minutes is
and you have no idea.
This avocado deserves to be an avocado
and I'm gonna let it just stay an avocado.
So I'm opening this up
and I'm just gonna slice it through, and put it on top.
Adrian, you're gonna finish on time?
-You know it. -You've got 38 seconds.
[Adrian] I can't use these burnt bagel bread crumbs,
so I take the bagels that I have left
and I use them in the sesame seed and poppy seed topping.
And I kinda just create a little texture on the avocado mousse.
It looks like Rebecca has made some kind of, like,
fresh dumpling coming out of that pot.
[Kwame] Come on Ursula, you got this!
Final sprinkle of salt.
That was pepper, but I see you.
-All right. -[all laughing]
Get it all together, chefs!
This is when it gets like really intense at the end,
and everyone's like hovered over their plate.
[Ted] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one.
-Time's up! -[Kwame] Yes!
[all applauding]
Nice job! Nice job.
[Rebecca] The appetizer round felt crazy.
I'm representing myself, and my brand, and my food.
And that's hard to do in 20 minutes.
Uh, that was more intense than I thought it was gonna be.
My concern is that I didn't really elevate the avocado enough,
but I have things on plates so that's cool.
[Ted] Chefs, you've arrived at the chopping block.
Inside the appetizer basket you found a bagel and lox platter.
Roast beef,
avocado,
and honey mustard dressing.
Chef Tyler, what do we have?
I made a wedge salad,
some honey mustard green goddess,
roast beef lardons,
everything bagel,
bread crumbs.
The Midwest on a plate, it's how I wanna start, so...
I think the usage of the ingredients was very, very smart,
very intelligent to take that roast beef,
and you repurposed it into a lardon.
You know, it's reminiscent of a deli.
You have this spicy, spicy green goddess dressing that wakes this salad up.
-It's great. -Thank you.
I don't share, uh, Chef's excitement about the dish.
The roast beef is a lot more like jerky.
So there are pieces of it that are just a little too sort of aggressively crunchy
when I'm expecting something a little bit softer.
The salad dressing texture is delicious,
but I would've liked a little bit more acid.
-Can I just see your plate for a second? -Yeah.
I'm just wondering if you got the same amount of dressing as I did
'cause my salad is fantastic.
There is so much flavor
and the honey mustard in the green goddess
balances that jalapeno really nicely.
I love the use of the bagels.
Mine are on the verge of being, like, slightly burnt,
but it works.
[Ted] All right.
Next up, Chef Adrian.
I have a roasted beef composed salad,
dressed with the honey mustard vinaigrette,
avocado mousse, and a tomato jam.
I like the juxtaposition of the dish.
You can get everything in a bite.
The only thing that I'm really lacking here is salt.
The roast beef seems like it was not really seasoned.
Hmm.
This tomato jam is dynamite, I love it.
I want more tomato jam,
but I want less of the avoca cream cheese puree.
There's a lot, like way too much.
Um, I like the avocado mousse.
I think the use of the cream cheese in there
is actually really, really smart.
I think you were almost there.
Chef, who are you playing for? What brings you here?
Um, playing for my mom.
We used to watch this show
almost every time it aired
and she was much more enthusiastic.
I'm sure she's gonna be watching this at home screaming.
-[Ted] Oh, you think? -[all laughing]
She's gonna be renting out a giant banquet hall
with a big screen TV and 250 people.
[Adrian] Sounds like her.
She's very much like a cheerleader.
She's been a cheerleader to me all my life.
Well, hey. That's love, you know?
Yes.
[Ted] Okay. Next up, Chef Ursula.
I have for you today a bagel tartine.
It's gonna have a honey mustard Russian
with some roast beef and avocado.
When you get the bite of everything,
like the roast beef, the honey mustard...
This is a good bite.
Thank you.
You let the ingredients shine.
Salt and pepper sprinkle reminds me of, like, being in a deli.
And then you cut the bagel,
so it wasn't too much bread to meat ratio.
Thank you for leaving the avocado whole,
everyone was just like,
"I'm pureeing this avocado, all day long."
I think all of it tastes really nice,
but I wish that the roast beef, since you just kinda took it and sliced it,
that it was treated.
[Chris] For me, I just have this internal battle of,
"It's delicious, but is it creative enough?"
It's very simple.
Thank you.
[Ted] Chef Ursula, thank you.
Finally, Chef Rebecca.
What do we have?
I made a cream cheese dumpling
with a beef broth, and an avocado crema.
I grew up on Jewish deli foo
and dumplings are in soup, eaten on their own...
Just something that remined me of childhood.
Chef Rebecca, I think the transformation of using roast beef
into a broth is really, really smart.
Taking the honey mustard and the cream cheese,
and transforming that into a dumpling.
Again, so smart.
You really went for it with this dish.
And so kudos for the effort.
[Kwame] Did you try one of the dumplings?
No.
On the outside, it's ethereal.
You know, it's light and fluffy,
but then when you get into the center
it's just raw flour, cream cheese.
Okay.
I think the broth though
is seasoned immaculately.
The addition of the lemon at the end,
it just made for this, like, really acidic, beautiful broth.
For sure.
I actually have a little bit of dumpling that is cooked through, and it's delicious.
I really love the fact that you took honey mustard and cream cheese
and created a dumping with it.
That's very creative.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, the dumpling just wasn't executed correctly.
Right.
Chef, would you say that delis are important to you?
Yes, extremely important to me.
I own a pop up deli in Los Angeles,
it's called "The Bad Jew." where I pit smoke pork pastrami.
-And... -You named your deli,
-"The Bad Jew"? -Mmm-hmm.
-[laughing] -'Cause I was the kid at the deli
that ordered ham, you know.
So, I wanna be a large brand with "The Bad Jew"
and I want porkstrami to be in homes across America.
So winning Chopped could help me get started with that.
[Ted] Okay.
We'd love to see you all back for the entree round,
but first chop must happen soon.
Thank you, chefs.
I think I'm definitely up on the chopping block right now,
just because of my lack of creativity.
But I hope that my straight forward approach
was enough to get me through.
[Rebecca] After hearing the judges' comments,
I am pretty nervous because my dumplings were undercooked.
But I think my creativity will definitely help me get to the next round.
[Ted] So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Rebecca, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Rebecca, your broth was delicious.
You really took that roast beef and manipulated it
into something magical
Unfortunately, the dumpling was raw,
and it had two of the basket ingredients inside.
So, for that reason we had to chop you.
Thank you so much.
-Good luck to you, Chef. -Bye.
-Be well. -Thank you, Rebecca.
[Rebecca] I feel relieved because it's very anxiety-driven.
But I also feel disappointed. I wish I could have gone to the end.
But I'm really excited for my competitors and to see where they take it.
Chef Tyler, Chef Adrian, Chef Ursula.
Here, is another basket of deli delights.
Check it out!
Wow!
[Ted] The challenge is to make entrees from a loaded baked potato.
A lot of different elements on that one, for sure.
All right.
[Ted] Turkey breast.
Yummy.
[Ted] Spinach.
Beautiful.
This is a bodega staple right here.
[Ted] And cream soda.
A little too sweet for my taste but...
Okay, interesting.
Half an hour to get it done.
Clock starts now.
Let's go!
[Adrian] Behind you.
So judges, what kind of innovation are you expecting
to see in this round?
When I think of turkey breast I'm thinking some sort of sandwich.
Something in between bread.
I wanna hold this and have it dripping down my wrists.
I love a good sliced roast turkey,
cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce,
rye bread, untoasted.
Very, very specific, but I love a good turkey sandwich--
-That is very specific. -[laughing] I know!
[Tyler] We work on turkey breast every day at the restaurant,
but this is 30 minutes,
so I know I have to grind it immediately.
This is huge.
So the dish I'm gonna make for the entree round
is a ground turkey orecchiette pasta
with a cream soda spinach pesto.
[Antonia] I mean you've got Tyler over there with a ton of bacon
and that turkey meat getting ready to grind.
Oh, yeah!
Really smart, the use of fat is gonna go great in the turkey.
[Tyler] My cousin Nick was a Marine.
And he was killed while his wife was pregnant.
His son is an unbelievable little kid.
If I win the $10,000
I would just love for him to have some money in a college fund.
You're gonna use all that bacon?
Uh, no, you can grab it.
This is like a deceptively simple basket
and I'm hoping that Ursula gets creative and doesn't just
give the basket back to us, which happened in the first round.
[Ursula] The judges made it very clear that I need to wo
on being a little bit more creative.
So, my entree round, I need to make something
completely different from the ingredients that are put in front of me.
I am making a pastrami jerke turkey on crispy potato skin
and a cream soda glaze.
[Chris] Ursula, how are you feeling?
A little more creative this round? Yeah, yeah, yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'd be hard for me to be less creative than the last round.
Well, don't be too hard on yourself.
First things first, the turkey I have to put it in a brine.
If I know anything about poultry is that it's gets really dried out.
[Kwame] It looks like Ursula is stepping it up.
She's adding a little bit more finesse,
a little bit more seasoning, more oomph.
[Ursula] And I'm making a spice rub inspired by the spices
we actually use it at the deli to make our pastrami.
Coriander, juniper, black pepper and mustard seeds.
[Adrian] Turkey breast is not my favorite.
You gotta be very careful while cooking because it can dry out.
So, what I'm making is a pan-roasted turkey escabech
with cream soda, cream spina
and crispy potato skins.
Escabeche is almost like a pickled liquid whisked with the same amount of oil
And it helps preserve the juiciness and tendernes of the turkey breast.
I added a little bit of cream soda to my pan
with turkey, a kinda quick deglaze.
It'll will mean so much if can win this competition for my mom.
It's gonna bring her to tear once she sees me on TV.
I think she's probably gonn scream really loud
and probably do a lot of salsa dancing.
[laughing]
Chefs, less than 20 minutes left on the clock!
[Tyler] Heard that.
[Rebecca] So this baked pota my first thought is
I have to go through and use the skins.
And really just get them nice and crispy.
So I know that I wanna do a pesto pasta.
I blanched and shocked my spinach.
Add confit garlic and cream soda mixture.
I think that the pesto will totally take this dish
over the top for the judges.
[Kwame] So the cream soda is like really synonymous with delis,
especially in New York.
You know back in the day we used to make...
-You were probably alive then... -[Chris] Yes.
-They used to make them fresh in the deli... -[both laughing]
-[all laughing] -[Antonia] That was good!
I know, but they're delicious when they are made in-house.
But they're also kind of like iconic American soda, right?
When I'm in a deli getting a sandwich, I always get cream soda.
[Adrian] As my turkey is poaching in the oven,
I work on my base for the cream spinach.
I have turkey bones, a littl bit of bacon and some heavy cream.
Let that reduce. Drain everything into a big dollop of mascarpone.
It's gonna bring a little bi of that decadent, luscious,
fatness that the turkey doesn't have.
Chefs, 10 minutes left on the clock!
Ten minutes.
Ursula is now getting ready to cook her spinach.
[Ursula] I'm trying to definitely show the judges,
yet another element to who I am as a person.
So I'm thinking I can just take this spinach
and mix it together with the loaded baked potato filling
and I can make stamppot boerenkool.
Ursula, how do you feel?
I decided to go with something that's called stamppot boerenkool.
I'm a dual citizen Dutch-American.
And growing up we would have kale and mashed potatoes
for dinner together all the time.
So next I have my turkey brine,
and now I'm rubbing it with these spices that I've blended up.
And now I'm gonna throw on this pan to cook.
[Adrian] I know that the escabeche is gonna need some texture.
So I fried the potatoes.
They look super crispy.
But I wanna have more deli flavors to the dish, so righ away I think about it.
A quick pastrami spice mix and I season my potatoes with this.
Tyler, you had a great first round,
don't let that uh... Don't get you too confident down there though.
-Heard that. -These guys are coming for you, yeah?
Heard that. Yes, they are.
And I wanna add some crunch over the top of the pasta.
I decide to toast pistachios because
the green floral notes of this dish
I think will play really wel of pistachios, in general.
All right, only five minutes left on the clock, chefs.
Heard.
[Ted] Clock don't stop!
I need to use this baked potato as soon as possible.
What I focus in on is the actual filling of the potat
to actually thicken my pasta sauce.
But I realize then, that I forgot about the pistachios in the oven.
One minute on the clock!
And I'm super worried that I've potentially burned my crispy component.
But I notice that there's about a quarter of them that are usable.
Chefs, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, push!
[Ted] Get it done, get it done. Chefs, you've got this. You can do it!
Go, go, go, go, go!
Act fast, chefs.
Ten... Nine... Eight...
Seven... Six... Five...
Four... Three... Two... One.
Time's up.
[all clapping]
[Ursula] That was a really, really fast round for sure.
Hopefully, I incorporated the ingredients a little bit better this time.
[Tyler] Way more intense than the first round.
I'm worried that the depth of flavors not there for the judges.
But we're gonna see what happens.
Deli maestros, we asked you to make a main plate
from the basket of a loaded baked potato,
turkey breast,
spinach,
and cream soda.
Chef Adrian, please tell us about your entree.
Hello chefs, for your entree is a roasted turkey breast pouched in escabeche
with a cream soda-spinach
and hand torn crispy potatoe
tossed in pastrami spice and chives.
I can't help but notice that we all got three very different looking plates.
In the sense that I have sort of three pieces on a large amount of cream spinach.
And she's got a lot of little turkey nuggets.
and a tiny little bit of spinach.
I was aiming for a little more balance.
Okay.
So, Chef Adrian, I have to say everything on this plate is actually really tasty.
The turkey breast itself is cooked really well.
But I think there's a lot of inconsistencies.
I really wanted there to be like this strong vinegar component to it
and I'm getting it in sparks.
I actually think, because the turkey is so thick, it's absorbed it all.
So I'm not really getting that like beautiful acid flavor.
Thank you, Chef.
I agree, I'm getting sort of the vinegar notes here and there.
But I kinda like it.
It's not overpowering.
The real issue for me is the actual turkey itself.
I got all end pieces. It's a little bit tough and dry me.
If I read this on a menu, it would scream deli to me.
You know, you have your turkey, you have like your mayonnaise element.
You have the fried potato skins, which are like chips.
But as I eat it, the memory of a deli fades away.
I'm getting a very artificial flavor profile with the spinach.
I think you may have used too much cream soda.
But I do think the potatoes are star, they're a hit.
-[Ted] Chef Adrian, thank you. -Thank you.
Next up, Chef Tyler.
For you chefs, I've made a ground turkey orecchiette pasta
with a cream soda spinach pesto with pistachios over the top.
I love the choice of the orecchiette, I think it's really smart
because all of the bits of turkey and that sauce can sort of puddle in the center.
And I love the pistachios on there.
I love that they are overly and aggressively toasted.
Thank you, Chef.
I'm gonna disagree with you completely on the pistachios.
Mine are really dark, really bitter.
And turkey's little dry.
But the pesto is delicious.
This is my favorite part of the dish and great usage of the spinach.
Thank you, Chef.
The turkey, you know you took your time to grind it,
and add that fat into it and then completely eviscerated that out of it and it's dry.
I think more salt, more seasoning, more acid
and it would have had a different outcome.
And finally, Chef Ursula.
Um, in front of you, you have a pastrami jerked turkey
over what's gonna be called stamppot boerenkool.
It's mashed potatoes and spinach combined together.
And then crispy potatoes, which I encourage you actually
pick up and scoop the potatoes with.
How'd you started cooking, Chef?
I actually got started cooking really by happenstance.
I had been struggling with mental health and dropped out of college.
And I actually started baking.
A friend of mine reached out and said, "My bakery is hiring."
I somehow got hired.
And then I spent the next year kind of freaking out everyday
thinking they'd find out that I was a fraud.
I still actually think that people will find about me too.
Yeah, imposter syndrome is so real.
[laughing]
Really happy with the way you cooked this turkey.
It's juicy, juicy, juicy.
Thank you.
And this rub on the outside is so assertive, it's great.
And these potato skins are somehow still crispy
even though they have been sitting in the broth.
I mean, honestly, I am not crazy at all about your presentation
But everything else is great.
Thank you.
Yeah, agreed. It's just like the most beautifully flavored seasoned protein.
But because it's so thinned there are pieces that seem like
they're seasoned a little too much.
I think this is the best application of spinach that we've seen.
It tampered down the heat of the pastrami spiced turke
'Cause when I first ate it, I just ate the turkey and I was like, "Wow!"
When you swipe it through the sauce, that sweetness, it brought it all together.
-[Ted] Chef Ursula, thank you. -Thank you.
[Tyler] I'm feeling super nervous after that round.
The turkey was definitely dry.
They also talked about the inconsistency in the pistachios.
Yeah, I'm super worried.
[Adrian] There's definitely a chance I might be on the chopping block,
but I wanna stay so bad.
We all made a little bit of mistakes, but I'm hoping that I made a little less.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[Ted] Chef Adrian, you've been chopped. Judges?
Chef Adrian, let me start by saying that there's
so many elements from the dish that we did love.
The vinegar from the escabeche
and then the creaminess from the spinach reminded us
of what maybe a deli sandwich would feel like.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of inconsistencies in your dish.
The turkey was really under seasoned.
And some of us got larger pieces where other's got smaller portions.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you, Chefs.
Thank you, guys. Good luck. Thank you.
Yeah, I do feel a little devastated.
I wish I was able to move forward,
but I know my mom's gonna be super proud of me.
Mom, I know you're watching, this is for you.
Chef Ursula, Chef Tyler, final basket awaits your spin.
Please dig in.
[laughs]
What?
[Ted] And you see a special ice cream sandwich,
I'm gonna have to try that. I don't know what's going on.
[Ted] Ham.
Yummy. Grew up on it.
[Ted] Raspberries.
The most dessert thing in here.
[Ted] And sauerkraut.
Which I use a lot at the restaurant, usually not in the dessert I will say.
Thirty minutes restored to the countdown clock.
We are starting it now.
-All right, here we go! -[Chris] Let's go!
-Final round! -Ice cream sandwich, ice cream sandwich.
Here we have a different kind of ice cream sandwich.
It's a sandwich ice cream hybrid. Are you all familiar with this?
[Antonia laughing] Please tell us!
[Kwame] It's got a brioche ice cream bun.
Strawberry ice cream is like the ham.
You know, I really wanna see the chef's push creativity in this round
because this is the hardest basket that I have seen to date.
[Ursula] I hate this basket This is the worst basket eve
This basket can go back to where it came from.
Ham of this variety belongs nowhere near a dessert.
Did you try that ham yet?
[blows raspberry]
This is absolutely the most difficult basket of the day.
[Tyler] What is this?
I'm looking at this special sandwich. It's the wackiest thing I've ever seen.
But, I'm thinking that I ca melt it down and use it as the base for something.
Yum!
So for the dessert round, I'm making a special
ice cream sandwich and ham fritter.
[Chris] This isn't that bacon that you can candy and call it a day.
This is a completely different ham, it can be very salty, lots of nitrates
-Mmm-hmm. -Yeah, very smoky too, it can be very smoky.
Tons of sodium, tons of sodium.
[Tyler] I wanna hide the ha and it's funk and odor behin the melted ice cream sandwic
It would mean the world for me to win,
and then be able to help my nephew
just to show that I believe in him, he's got the family behind him
and he's able to do whatever he wants.
[Antonia] You know, I think that Ursula has found her ground in the competition.
Round one was a little rough,
coming into round two she did an excellent job.
So, I think that she's gaining confidence as the competition continues
[Ursula] The deli is my life I'm there everyday.
It is all I do. I live and breathe deli.
So, I wanna win this
even more badly than I thought previously.
I am making a orange and caraway ice cream.
Some candied ham and a raspberry-sauerkraut coulis.
This sauerkraut is gonna be used for the juice and the juice only.
So I'm gonna get some raspberries in there to star making the coulis.
I don't wanna use the actua kraut itself because I just
wanna have that kind of fermented acid
that comes from sauerkraut without having the texture of sauerkraut.
Less than 20 minutes left, chefs!
Heard.
For the raspberry compote, I'm taking raspberries
sugar and some of that juice from the sauerkraut
will add a fermented vinega flavor profile to this raspberry sauce
[Ursula] I make a really goo caraway ice cream back in Chicago
and I just know that If I could incorporate these
ingredients that they might not be expecting
I can really take this dish to another level.
I'm using the brioche ice cream element of this special sandwich.
Mash it down and then I'm gonna throw in some
roasted caraway as a nod to rye bread,
and then just mix it back together
and let it reset in the freezer.
[Kwame] So we've got some interesting things going on here.
We have a caraway ice cream being made by Ursula.
-[Chris] It's kind of cool. -[Kwame] Yeah.
[Chris] It's embracing the theme.
[Ursula] To go with my ice cream I'm making a mixed berry sau
which is actually gonna be made from
the strawberry ice cream in that same sandwich,
and I'm gonna mash up the raspberries and throw them right in ther
How's it going over there?
It's going all right. How're you doing?
-Chilling. I'm not worried. -Yeah?
-Nervous? -Why would I be worried?
-Okay. -There's nothing to be worried about.
Ten minutes left, chefs.
[Tyler] Ten minutes left?
I gotta get this batter into the fryer
and I'm noticing that this batter
looks really, really loose.
[Chris] You know, Tyler's struggling with his fritter dough
because he's been using the ice cream base
-which he heated up. -[Antonia] Right.
[Chris] So, hot liquid is going to make your batter loose.
It's not gonna come together.
[Tyler] I pull out the firs test pieces of batter.
The consistency is super wrong.
[Kwame] I'm definitely worried about Tyler walking back and forth.
He seems a little bit frazzled.
I hope the fritters are frizzled
-and not like him. -[Ted laughs]
[Tyler] Time is running dow
and I'm not sure how it's gonna go.
I mean, is he blowing it right now?
[Tyler] I pull out the firs test pieces of batter,
the consistency is super wrong,
so I go to add some flour to try to thicken this batter
and re-drop it into the frye
So now he's added enough flour to make it actually come together,
-but that's probably gonna make for a very dense fritter. -Right.
[Ursula] I'm making a maple candied ham
to go with my mixed berry sauce
to add a big salty element to it.
Ursula, I got faith in you, how're you doing?
-I'm good. -[Kwame] You feeling good?
You look relaxed.
You look like you're in your element.
[Ursula] We're gonna just caramelize this ham
and then let it get crispy, so that way
it'll be salty and sweet and hopefully a little bit firmer
than when I first got it.
[Tyler] Fritters come out of that fryer.
They look good, they're crispy.
The fritters look like they're coming together,
-you know, they're getting nice and golden brown. -They do, they do.
-[Kwame] Tyler, Tyler, talk to me. -Yes.
[Tyler] A little nervous here.
You are a minute away from $10,000.
A little nervous.
Oh, let's go.
[Chris] Get it finished. Finish it up.
You got this! I believe in you!
[Ted] All right, chefs,
final seconds of the final round.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one.
Time's up!
[applauding]
[laughs]
[Tyler] The pressure of the dessert round is absolutely real.
I'm just focused on the flavors
and the fact that I changed the ingredients in the basket into unique things.
We've got a little hybrid fritter, fried dough action here.
[Ursula] Tyler's kind of stiff competition,
but I'm hoping for right now that mine is just a little bit better than his.
I made it this far. I can't lose at this point.
[Ted] Chef Tyler, Chef Ursula,
this final duel of deli pros had you making dessert using
a special ice cream sandwich, ham, raspberries, and sauerkraut.
Chef Ursula, please tell us about it.
So you have in front of you a caraway and orange ice cream
along with a mixed berry ice cream
with some candied ham
and a raspberry, sauerkraut coulis.
Just to be clear, you didn't churn the ice cream,
you just took the existing ice cream,
added your flavorings and then rechilled it?
Yes, that's the basket ice cream.
[Chris] Got it. The strawberry ice cream
clashes with everything else You don't need it.
If you'd used that time
to maybe rechurn the ice cream, give it a little bit more viscosity,
a little more texture,
I think you might have been better served.
There hasn't really been a lot of transformation
of the ingredient into something that's yours,
kind of like what you did in the first round.
It's just melted ice-cream from an ingredient
that you already had.
[Chris] But I wanna say that the move
to take the brioche-flavore ice cream
and add the caraway seeds to it
is the most clever nod to deli that I've seen today.
[Kwame] I was afraid of this caraway ice cream,
but when I put this raspberry coulis
that has that acidity from the sauerkraut, that little bit of funk
and then I get some of the burned pieces
of that ham, that overly caramelized
and the raspberry.
All I can say is that it tastes good.
Thank you.
Finally, Chef Tyler.
So I've made a special ice-cream sandwich
and canned ham fritter
over a raspberry-sauerkraut compote.
Did you put ham in here?
Yeah, I steeped... I diced the ham,
steeped it in with the melted ice cream sandwich...
Oh, and then strained it out?
-[Antonia] Got it. -...and used that liquid to build the fritter.
If you steeped that liquid to have the ham flavor
and the ice cream sandwich flavor,
when you added that extra bit of flour
it just sucked all of that flavor out of it.
Heard.
[Kwame] And it's not sweet enough.
I know that maybe you might have thought that
the ice cream would have made it sweet, it just doesn't.
And then, while nicely cooked, it's just inherently, um,
really dense and chewy and I'm sure
not the texture that you wanted.
Thank you, Chef.
Your compote that you have on the side,
I think is spectacular.
And I think it's just really well-balanced
between the sweetness and the sourness
and the tartness from those raspberries,
but even if you just, you know,
hit it with a ton of powdered sugar, at the very, very end
would have made a load of difference.
Thank you, Chef.
So who, then, is the champion?
You'll know when they know. Thank you, chefs.
All right, let's bring it now to the appetizer round.
Tyler, he gave us, I think, the best dish of the day
-which was that salad. - [Chris] Yeah.
[Kwame] The green goddess dressing had everything
from acidity to heat, to the fat from the avocado.
For me, I'm looking at Ursula's first course, which was
really, really lovely.
[Chris] Her tartine was something you'd get at a deli.
-[Antonia] Totally. -[Kwame] Yeah.
But then she literally took the basket,
opened the basket and put it on a plate and then gave it to us.
[Antonia] I think that Tyler manipulated the basket
and used the ingredients better than Ursula did,
but you go into round two.
And great, I mean, I thought Ursula
did an incredible job manipulating the ingredients,
specifically the seasoning on that turkey
when eaten with the rest of that mashed potato
along with the spinach, I thought it was really, really lovely.
You know, Tyler's turkey was ground to bits
and still somehow was dry.
But the addition of the loaded baked potato
to finish off his pasta is kinda genius.
Yeah.
They put us in a very difficult position here.
Winning this competition would mean everything to me,
I mean, the deli is my entire life.
I just... I need to win this.
[Tyler] Winning that 10K and being able to
start a college fund for my nephew
would mean absolutely everything to the family
and that's why I'm so stressed-out.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Tyler, you've been chopped.
Tyler, your first dish was spectacular
and I think we all thought he's gonna be really hard to beat.
What happened going forward
is you had big execution issues.
In the entree your turkey was dry,
and in the dessert round, your fritter
had so much potential but you didn't sweeten it,
so it was very, very neutral and kind of savory.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
-Thank you. -Thank you, Chef. Appreciate you being here.
[all applauding]
I feel terrible about losing the $10,000,
but I stepped out on a limb with every course today
and I'm really proud of that.
And that means Chef Ursula Siker, you are the Chopped champion.
For your positively delish deli meal, you've won $10,000.
-Congratulations! -[Kwame] Yeah!
-[applauding] -[Ted] Nice work!
Thank you. [giggles]
Talk about a come-from-behind victory.
[Kwame] Kudos to you. Keep doing what you're doing.
You're only gonna get better.
You don't need anything else. You just need to keep being you.
Thank you.
It feels crazy to be the new Chopped champion.
-Congratulations, Chef. -Thank you so much.
Congratulations, Chef.
[Ursula] Winning the deli competition means a ton to me, I mean,
I'm in a deli every day,
so to be able to really prove
that I belonged there was extra special to me.