[narrator] It's a pickle showdown...
[Maneet] Come on, chefs!
[narrator] ...as chefs battl for brine bravado.
Whoo!
It's a pickle party and you're invited.
Sounds delicious.
What am I going to do with that?
Come on, chefs, bring that brine.
[man 1] I mean, I have pickle juice in my blood.
Pickle juice in my blood.
Why didn't I think of that?
Let's go, baby. Let's go.
My goodness!
[man 2] This show is real.
It is do or die, baby.
[Mahogany] I have 20 minute to show these judges who I a
This is destiny.
[Nicco] Everywhere you go in the world, people are pickling.
We have probably pickled over 1000 things at Mamnoon
We maintain a larder of between 150 and 200 different pickles.
No one makes a lot of these different things, but we do here.
I'm the executive chef at Mamnoon Restaurant.
We cook modern Middle Easter food with a focus on Lebanes
Syrian and Persian cuisines
As a man of 1000 pickles, I think I have a good repertoire
to pull from here and can pretty much work
with any mystery basket ingredient to make it happen
[Bert] I'm the executive che at Sovereign Remedies in Asheville, North Carolina
Andiamo means "let's go" in Italian.
I love pickles because they're delicious.
I love to ferment just about anything I can.
I love the spice.
I love the diversity.
I grew up racing motorcycles with my dad and working on small engines and cars.
So that drive to be first is always there.
Looks good.
Rock and roll.
Move those hips. Cha-cha, cha-cha.
I am sweet, I'm tangy, I'm bright and refreshing.
I'm pickled, I'm Mahogany Williams
and I am the chef and owner of the Pickled Che
located in Seattle, Washington.
A pop up catering company that focuses on pickling things.
Yeah, look at this.
The apples are starting to bust.
I am building a pickle empire.
This $10,000 will really help me.
Whoo!
[Sebastian] My pantry is stacked to the ceiling
with things bubbling away, pickling and fermenting.
[exhales heavily]
My name is Sebastian Vargo,
the chef owner of Vargo Brother Ferments,
based out of Avondale, Chicago.
Vargo Brother Ferments provides naturally fermented vinegars,
kombuchas, krauts, kimchi's.
I approach food with a fine dining sense of flavo
and technique, but with a playful and rustic style.
I'm here to be a tiger, to be ferocious, and to get it in.
[man 3] Let's do this.
-[man 4] Ready. -Ready.
-Hello, everybody. -[in unison] Hey, Ted.
How's it going, Ted?
[Ted] Who's ready for a once in a lifetime challenge?
-I am. -[Sebastian] I am.
-[Ted] Let's do this. -[Sebastian] I am ready to do this.
All right.
You are here for a special pickle battle.
We don't just mean cucumbers.
We want you to utilize quick pickling techniques in every round.
How does that sound?
It sounds delicious.
-[Ted groans] -[all laughing]
No, you did not say that.
[Nicco] The pickle crew has showed up, and I'm about to go up
against three other really talented chefs.
[Ted] Open them up.
Oh, man.
[Ted] And in round one, you'll be making dishes with coconut vinegar.
[Bert] Who wants a drink?
Coconut vinegar.
Seems like a gift.
The wheels are turning in my mind.
I'm thinking Thai style.
[Ted] Red snapper fillets.
Red snapper. I can do this.
It's nice.
[Ted] Mangoes.
Semi ripe mangoes.
[Ted] Plus pickle ice cream.
This is my favorite right here.
[Mahogany] Oh, goodness.
All right.
What am I going to do with that?
[Bert] All I know is that there is a pickle hanging off of it.
[Ted] You have just 20 minutes to complete your plates.
Now, remember, chefs, you also have to pickle something yourself.
Clock starts now.
[judges cheering and applauding]
It's a pickle party, people.
What an exciting theme team for today, pickles.
Who doesn't love pickles?
Maneet, you are joined by two special guest judges,
restaurateur and brand consultant Tiffany Derry
and Top Chef and James Beard Award winner Stephanie Izard.
It would be nobody else that I'd rather be in a pickle with.
[Ted] Judges, we usually pickle in a brine for hours or even days.
What's the best shortcut here?
[Tiffany] For me, I love picking brines and doing quick pickles.
That's something that can be done within a few minutes.
[Stephanie] There's so many different directions,
some sweeter pickles with some a little saltier, some a little bit spicy.
Adding things to that brine, I think, is going to be key.
[Maneet] I think a great direction to go get some coconut milk
and make a bouillabaisse with the snapper pieces.
And I think that could be a great place to put the pickle ice cream in.
-Chef, are you willing to share the lime juice? -[Mahogany] Heard.
-Thank you. -I've been actively fermenting
and pickling for the last ten-plus years.
-Borrow your lime for one sec. -[Mahogany] Heard.
[Nicco] Normally, pickling is a rather slow process,
and we're letting things ferment for a couple of week
and 20 minutes is going to make it difficult.
But I think I got this.
So the first thing I want to do is get my pickling liquid going.
So I take mirin, some rice wine vinegar,
salt and sugar and water and get that on the stove.
[Stephanie] I think with this basket, the hardest thing is probably the ice cream.
You see a beautiful fish like snapper?
Beautiful.
[Stephanie] Go with the direction of ceviche,
one of my restaurants is Peruvian-inspired and it's sort of what we do
is add a leche de tigre, put a little bit of
blended ice cream with some acidity,
that coconut vinegar is just screaming deliciousness.
[Nicco] My plan for the snapper is to take the skin off,
chop it up nicely and marinate it ceviche style with lime juice,
fish sauce and some coconut vinegar.
[Bert] Want some chilies?
-Love that. -All right.
We'll share.
Ooh! Spicy. I like it.
I just immediately knew I wanted ceviche two-ways
with a quick pickled mango and a pickled ricotta.
Ooh, these guys are ripe.
To prepare my red snapper, use one fillet
and cut those up into nice cubes.
And then I'm going to sear the other fillet
with the torch to make it tataki.
-Okay. -Whoa, what's happening over there?
-[Tiffany] Is that the fish? -[Stephanie] Oh, yeah.
I think he's just charring that fish to get a little bit color...
-[Stephanie] Yeah. -...a little bit of smokiness.
[Bert] Do you think it's done?
No.
[both laugh]
[Bert] For my pickling solution,
I use coconut vinegar, rice wine vinegar, black peppercorns,
some juniper, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks.
So good. I'm going with that flavor profile
because it's a pretty standard pickle.
Hold that thought. You're coming down.
[Mahogany] I have 20 minutes to show these judges who I am.
This basket kind of leans more towards Southwest.
I'm making pan-roasted red snapper on top of a pickled salad
with a mango kosher dill relish.
I love using vinegars.
You can make pickled mangoes.
Take that liquid that's left over
and turn it into a drink on the side.
Yeah, I expect some drinks today.
-Yeah. -And some beautiful salads.
[Mahogany] I'm making like a quick, warm dressing
I just want to reduce the ice cream and the coconut vinegar together
and then add the chilies in there to kind of give a spiciness to it.
[Sebastian] Pickles are something that I incorporat into all of my food,
so it should be a breeze.
I see the mangoes and my first thought is some sort of pickle de Gallo.
I'm going to make panko-encrusted snapper
with Thai inspired "Pickle de Gallo."
My grandmother is a huge inspiration in my life.
One of her specialties was, you know, braised sauerkrau with short ribs.
You know, she got me into fermentation at a very young age.
I would eat sauerkraut out of a coffee mug with a fork.
It's a beautiful time in my life.
Leave and let it fry?
Behind, behind.
Oh, come on.
[Ted] Just nine minutes to go.
[Nicco] Heard.
I really love using radicchi as a lettuce wrap
because it brings some bitterness to the table.
I want to pickle that radicchio a little bit,
so I take that pickling liqu and I pour it right on top of it.
For my mango salad, I'm going to pickle the mango,
some cucumbers and some bell peppers.
-What's up, Mahogany? -[Mahogany] Heard.
-Fine. -Beautiful. Beautiful.
[Sebastian] For my pickle cream ricotta,
I'm going to heat up the pickle ice cream
and then use the acid and the solids
from the pickle to break the cream.
It really showcases my technique.
Mahogany?
[Mahogany] Yes, chef.
[Maneet] Were you born to pickle?
I pickle everything.
I throw frisee into the mango salsa with the coconut vinaigrett
and I let it all kind of pickle.
I get Queso Fresco, and then I toss it with warm tortillas
so they stick to it.
-Got a line behind... -Heard that. Heard that.
[Mahogany] And hit it with some cayenne.
Chefs, you are already down to five minutes.
[Mahogany] Heard.
You guys got to plate? Let's see some plates.
[Nicco] So we're under five minutes.
I have to use this pickle ice cream.
It's a true curveball, and and I'm running out of time.
Nicco has just started working with the pickle ice cream.
And Sebastian hasn't touched it yet.
[Bert] Coming down the line.
Whoo-hoo!
I realized that I haven't touched my ice cream yet.
So I take the pickled garnish off.
I diced the pickle up and incorporate that into my "Pickle de Gallo."
[Maneet] Sebastian threw the ice cream in the trash
and is only using the pickle and the cones.
-[Tiffany] Okay. -[Ted] I don't blame him.
[Stephanie] Maybe he's going to put the whole dish on top of the cone.
I don't know.
[Sebastian] The cone, I thin would make a nice crispy top
Less than three minutes and there are people who are not plating.
Time flies when we are all in a pickle, right?
Got a line, got a line.
It's gonna be a long day.
[Bert] The 1990s called. They want their plates back.
You coming down?
[Nicco] I have to use this pickle ice cream.
I put it in the blender, I add some coconut milk,
Korean chili paste, some herbs, fish sauce
and lime juice, and I blend it all together.
Chefs, calling the two-minute warning here.
[Sebastian] Oh, my goodness gracious.
-This show is real. -Come on, chefs.
Bring that brine.
-Only for you. -[Bert] That's my line.
[Bert] That's... that's my line.
I'm stealing it from him.
[Mahogany] I start assembling my dish.
I put the frisee on the bottom,
and then I pour my warm dressing on top of it.
Come on, chefs, this is a big deal.
First course.
[Ted] Get it on the plate, chefs. Get it all on the plate!
-Make it nice. Make it nice. -[Ted] Ten, nine,
-eight, seven... -[Tiffany] Got it. You got it. Stay focused.
-[Ted] ...six, five... -Come on! Come on!
[Ted] ...four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
-[cheering] -[Maneet] Wow!
[cheering and applauding]
That's really cool.
-[Stephanie] I'm excited to eat it. -I know.
-[Stephanie] Smells good. -I'm hungry.
Smells really good.
[Nicco] I think I got it, you know, I pickled the radicchio,
I pickled the fish, I pickled the the garnish.
The sauce has pickle in it.
I kind of pickled all over the place here. So...
As a whole, I feel pretty good.
I wish I had another second to take the skin off before it went in the fryer,
but I think I'm bringing a lot of flavor.
I feel great...
I mean, I have pickle juice in my blood, so, yeah...
Pickle juice in my blood.
Why didn't I think of that?
[Ted] Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
In the appetizer round, we gave you a basket of coconut vinegar,
red snapper fillets, mangoes and pickle ice cream
We are starting with you, Chef Nicco.
Please tell us about your dish.
We have a pickled red snapper lettuce wrap
with some vinegar marinated radicchio, pickled mango,
a little bit of a pickle ice cream and coconut emulsion,
some herbs and a crispy cone on top.
I've done over 1000 batches of pickles in my career,
and so I'm ready to pickle whatever comes my way.
[Stephanie] Is Southeast Asian cuisine in all of your cooking?
[Nicco] No. I actually cook at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Seattle.
Nice.
And so the herbaceousness of that cuisine kind of translates to this as well.
[Stephanie] I mean, I love fish sauce.
I drink it for breakfast.
So, um, you had me at that.
But also taking the saltiness with the brininess
of all the pickles helps balance it a little bit.
Thank you, chef.
The one thing that I will say I am missing is a little bit of heat.
You have a great amount of acid.
You have a good amount of sweetness, but a few chilies
would have rounded the whole plate.
[Maneet] That sauce is dynamite.
-It's absolutely delicious. -Thank you.
In terms of the crunch factor, you went in the Thai direction.
If you had put some toasted peanuts on this, I would have called it a day.
Like this is really, really good.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Nicco.
Next up, Chef Mahogany.
Okay, chefs.
I did a Southwest themed salad with pickled lettuce,
pickled mango salsa, and a little fried,
crispy tortillas on top with a little Queso.
[Ted] So where do you work, chef?
I am the proud owner of the Pickled Chef.
It's my pop-up catering company,
but I'm now pivoting into a straight pickling company
because people love my pickles.
[Ted] Chef, if you win this competition, you'll get $10,000.
Any thoughts on what you might do with that?
Invest in myself and reinvest in my business and take it to the next level.
You know, I'm dead set on wanting my pickled grapes in France.
Next time I go to Paris, I want to be able to walk into that store
and grab my pickles off the shelf and see my brand there.
So that's my goal.
So Mahogany, I was expecting more acid, more sourness.
Your plate reads a little more on sweet.
I like the idea of using the frisee.
I like the bitter notes.
The fish itself is flaky,
it's nice, but you're going to leave the skin on,
get a better sear on that skin side.
Heard, chef. Thank you.
Chef, I agree with fish and it's
beautifully cooked.
The skin could be a little bit crispier, but it's cooked really well.
You did hit the crunch, and crunchy things make me happy.
[Mahogany] Thank you.
I think that you've used too much of the dill pickle ice cream.
That's what's giving it too much of the sweetness
and too little of the coconut vinegar.
If you would have reversed that,
you would have knocked it out of the park.
Heard, chef. Thank you.
Thank you for your feedback.
Thank you, Chef Mahogany.
Next up, Chef Bert.
Please tell us about your plate.
I have prepared for you today ceviche two-ways.
You'll have a sweet mango pickle red snapper.
And then beside that, you also have a snapper tataki.
Then on the side of the plate, you'll also find a broken pickle cream, if you will.
Can you talk through this broken situation again?
I love charcuterie and cheese making,
so that was kind of my inspiration.
It's really cool. It's like a ricotta
with like the texture of Parmesan
and then it's a little bit on the sweet side.
The pickled snapper, pickle's getting lost
because there's not the right amount of salt in that.
I think when you're pickling something just right,
it needs that right amount of sugar and salt to really
make that pickle flavor come through.
I do love that you torched the fish,
but maybe taking the snapper and focusing on one preparation.
Heard that. Thank you, Chef.
[Tiffany] Chef, I really like the mango.
It has a good amount of spice.
It has a great amount of sweetness.
Careful with those black peppercorns though,
-because they're hard. -I apologize.
[Ted] Just navigate.
Just navigate as best as you can.
I honestly, I thought the cheese, this part over here,
I thought you were just making up something.
But you know what?
It totally works. It's...
It's weird.
I'm a weird guy.
I've got to say, great utilization of the coconut vinegar.
That was very smart to use that for the ricotta.
-Thank you, chef. -[Ted] Chef, if you were to win,
what would you do with 10,000 bucks?
Take my dad on vacation 'cause my dad raised me and my brother
as a single parent and I wouldn't be half the person
I am today without him.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Bert.
Finally, Chef Sebastian.
What we have is some panko-encrusted snapper
with a kind of Thai inspired Pickle de Gallo.
Did you say Pickle de Gallo?
Pickle de Gallo.
[laughter]
I think your Pickle de Gallo clever and it's, it's tasty.
Texturally the fish with the panko, think that that's great.
This is a really big piece of fish.
So you want to put some salt on it before frying.
Thank you, Chef.
You did a really good job of getting that thick cut of fish
cooked throughout and still golden brown.
Again, it's lacking salt.
It's lacking a little bit of seasoning, which is crazy
because your "Pickle Gallo" is tons of flavor.
So delicious.
I think it's a very well put together salad.
Sebastian, the skin on of snapper, when you coat it in panko
and you deep fry it, it becomes really stringy.
I really wish that you had removed the skin.
This Pickle de Gallo, I think the idea is very witty
and there is deliciousness to this.
Thank you very much.
All right, chefs, now the judges have to talk about
who stays and who goes.
Thank you.
[Sebastian] If I had to pic anyone to be chopped,
I would say, Bert, just because his fish wasn' as seasoned
and he had whole spices.
[Bert] I made some pretty rudimentary mistakes,
leaving the whole spices in there.
But, you know, 20 minutes is pretty hard to pull off.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Sebastian, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Sebastian, though we like the crispiness
and the panko that you have on the red snapper,
we couldn't quite get over the skin and the lack of seasoning on it.
And we felt that you could have showcased the pickle a little bit more.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you very much.
Bye. Good luck, guys.
[overlapping dialogues]
[Sebastian] I'm a little disappointed.
You know, if I could go back, I would have had better seasoning.
I think definitely leaving the skin on the fis
was, you know, a bonehead move.
Chef Nicco, Chef Mahogany, Chef Bert.
Take a moment to breathe a sigh of relief that you've made it to round two.
[exhales heavily, laughs]
Okay, moment's over.
[laughter]
Entree baskets are all set.
Get in there, chefs.
Ooh!
[Ted] You'll be creating main plates from pickle brine.
Pickle brine? Okay.
Is that carbonated?
Pickle brine in a jar.
Seems like the work's been done for me.
[Ted] Chicken thighs.
I got some yummy chicken thighs here.
[Ted] Rainbow cauliflower.
-[Mahogany] Pretty. -[Nicco] Gorgeous. Gorgeous.
Love it.
[Ted] And pickled turnips.
Now turnip jar is a pickle party just waiting to happen.
I am excited.
[Ted] Thirty minutes on the countdown clock.
Pickle it real good.
Clock starts now.
-[cheering] -Pickle party time.
Let's see, you guys.
Judges, the chefs are required to pickle something,
and we gave them pickle brine.
Is this a lay-up or is it a trick?
It's a slam dunk.
We laid out some ingredients that all go very well together.
-I love it. -The basket is beautiful.
We are going to get delicious entrees.
Cauliflower is beautiful.
Cauliflower by itself doesn't taste like much of anything.
So we're giving them this sort of empty canvas to do whatever they want to it.
Yeah, I think that it's really smart to pickle the cauliflower.
You can hold on to that color.
[Bert] Fumble.
Sorry about that.
The first thing I think of when I see the pickle brine
is to immediately brine the chicken with the pickle juice.
For my entree dish, I'm going to go with a pickle brine chicken
with a roasted tomato butte with a pickled cauliflower
and frisee salad and a cheesy cauliflower whi
The pickled turnips are beautiful because there is beet juice
which has been added to it.
And I love that color. I want a blouse of that color.
[Ted] Do you wear that color a lot?
[Maneet] I do.
[Bert] That does not taste good.
[laughs]
-Oh. -What's so bad?
Oh, you'll find out.
[Mahogany] This basket is very interesting.
There's two things that are already pickled on there,
which means you don't get to really control the flavor profile.
Down the line. I knew I want to do something different.
I want to do a soup.
Down the line. Behind. Down the line.
I remember the soup I have when I'm in London.
I go to a Lebanese restauran and they have like they jus call it chicken noodle soup
It was just something more than chicken noodle soup,
briny, but puckery.
And then it has lemon and nuts and little pasta.
Then I add the pickling brine to deglaze.
[Nicco] After round one, the judges are telling us they want a pickle party.
So I'm thinking we've got to get pickles on everything.
[Mahogany] Down the line.
[Nicco] Well, for this entre round, I'm going to do
a Moroccan spiced fried chicken with a couscous tabbouleh and tahini.
Do you guys have the corn starch over there?
[Mahogany] Yep, right here.
[Nicco] Round one taught me that in the Chopped kitchen you have to move fast.
You got to grab the ingredients that you want
and need and you have to be able to execute on the clock
Can I have that corn starch back when you're done?
-Thank you. -[Nicco] Thank you.
I want to go check out what the chefs' doing.
[Bert] Ooh, cordless. Look at that.
[Tiffany] Chef Bert, what's happening? What we cooking?
[Bert] I'm trying to infuse a little vinegar.
Some of that stuff you guys gave me with a little bit of Sherry wine.
Some white wine.
What are you doing with the chicken here?
I'm letting this brine as humanly long as possible.
So trying to get that pickle flavor in there.
RSVP to the pickle party.
-Let's roll. -It's in the mail!
Heard that! Heard that!
Okay. I see a little couscous action happening on your cauliflower.
-[Mahogany] Yes. -[Tiffany] All right.
I'm actually making a soup.
-I'm going a little Mediterranean with this. -[Tiffany] Okay.
Who do you think your biggest competition is right now?
-[Mahogany] Chef Nicco. -Okay.
-Hey, Chef Nicco, what's happening? -How's it going?
Oh, we're doing a little Moroccan pickle brine fried chicken.
Fried chicken?
-Yeah. -You know, I'm from the South.
-I love some fried chicken. -Yeah, we got buttermilk.
-You got pickle brine? -Who do you think is your biggest competition?
I'm worried about, Chef Mahogany.
-She's bringing the flavor. All right. -Oh, yeah.
-Best of luck, chefs. -Thank you.
-Down line, behind. -All right. Down line, behind...
[Nicco] Down line, behind. Down line, behind.
[Ted] Chefs, less than 15 minutes to go.
[Tiffany] There is fried chicken.
-[Maneet] Hmm. -There's an unexpected soup.
Chef Bert has got a lot of interesting flavors.
Hey...
[Bert] For the green cauliflower whip,
I boiled a cauliflower and milk and a little bit of butter
and emulsify that in with a little bit of spinac
and some green onion to give it a really nice pop.
[Mahogany] Take the pickled turnips, fill those in the soup, too
because they'll add a nice texture to the soup.
And I grabbed Tabasco sauce because that's like a go-to.
Down the line. Down the line. Down the line.
[Nicco] So for the pickled fruit tabbouleh,
I'm going to take pickle brine, turnip pickle brine
and heat that up on the stove and pour it over the top of the dried fruit.
Chef, you got eyes on this chicken?
-Thank you. Chicken. -Yep.
-[Nicco] Right behind. Right behind. -[Bert] I got you, bud.
I got you.
We're still friends.
-For now. For now. -[Bert laughs] Yeah.
So my plan for this pickle cauliflower is to make
a really nice cauliflower and dried fruit couscous.
[Ted] Whoa!
Bert is cooking a whole mess of cherry tomatoes cranked.
-[Tiffany] I like it a bit charred. -Yeah.
It's almost blistered.
That would be nice.
-Chicken. -[Nicco] Thank you.
Yep.
130. Not there yet.
-Oh, right behind. -A little friendly sabotage.
How are you doing, Mahogany?
[Mahogany] I'm doing good, Bert. How are you?
-[Bert] You hanging there, baby? -[Mahogany] Oh, yeah.
-Let's roll. Let's roll. -[Mahogany] Let's get it.
[Bert] I know these pickled turnips are pretty aggressive flavor.
So my plan is to add them to the tomato butter.
I'm hoping to show the judges with the tomato butter,
it's kind of like a different version of hot sauce.
Hey, that was almost disastrous.
-What you frying, chef? -Pistachios.
-[Ted] Oh, nice. -[Mahogany] Thank you.
Mahogany just fried pistachios.
-[Tiffany] Ooh... -[Maneet] Love it.
I never had that...
[Stephanie] Come on, Nicco.
[Nicco] Right. Right behind.
I'm thinking I want to do a pistachio condiment,
so I take some pistachios, pickle juice, and I start breaking it down.
-[Mahogany] Make it nice. -[Tiffany] Come on...
[Bert] Heard that. Heard that.
Nerves are definitely running.
That clock doesn't stop.
Show us how it's done, chefs.
Let's go, baby. Let's go!
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
[Tiffany] Whoa!
[cheering and applauding]
Oh! Let's go!
[Bert] Yo!
-Whoo! -Ow!
Phew!
[Bert] I'm feeling very hyped up.
[laughs]
Thirty minutes to complete an entree.
It's pretty rough.
Whoo!
Even though the vinegar hit each and every one of those ingredients,
I'm a little bit worried they're going to call me out on
not having enough physical pickles on the plat
But however, the vinegar did touch everything,
so I'm feeling good about that.
Chefs, the judges are eager to taste the entrees you made with pickle brine,
chicken thighs, rainbow cauliflower and pickled turnips.
All right, Chef Mahogany, please tell us about your entree.
[Mahogany] I made a Lebanese- inspired pickled chicken soup,
pickled turnips, rice cauliflower
and fried pistachios to finish it out.
[Stephanie] Mahogany, when you get a bite with a little bit
of the pickled cauliflower on top, crunch the pistachio,
a little bit of sweetness from the currants, that tasty broth
and that little sort of funkiness from the turnips.
You're hitting all those layers and flavor,
which is what you want a soup to do.
I feel like I have to nitpick.
I want more of the broth.
I must say that it's very good.
The sweetness of the currants, the chicken itself being pickled.
I mean, there is so much pickle brine happening,
like there's so much of that that acid in here, but it's all balanced nicely.
Mahogany, we asked for a pickle party.
You gave us a pickle party.
And the crowning glory on this was the couscous cauliflower.
It's not only in the terms of taste like "wow,"
but also in terms of appearance.
I do think that if you had just given half the amount of pasta,
then the pasta wouldn't have drunk up the beautiful broth.
Heard.
But flavor-wise, you knocked it out of the park.
[Mahogany] Thank you, chef.
Thank you, Chef Mahogany.
Next up, Chef Nicco.
[Nicco] We have a Moroccan pickle brined fried chicken,
pickled fruit couscous tabbouleh,
and then a pickled cauliflower relish.
[Ted] Are you on a Middle Eastern kick?
Kind of took inspiration from different regions,
but mostly with the spicing on this one Moroccan with that couscous as well.
[Stephanie] It's delicious.
The chicken's really well done.
The crunch is really great.
Still juicy.
The pistachio condiment on top is really cool.
I think for me, what's missing is actually the pickling of some of the things.
Because when you bite into one of the pieces of cauliflower,
I'm not like, "Oh, that's pickled cauliflower."
I understand that.
The chicken itself, you may not know,
but I have a duck fat-fried chicken concept.
That's how I make a living nowadays.
And this is good chicken.
Absolutely. And the crunchiness I can attribute to the...
it's actually cornstarch and rice flour...
-Love it. -...as the coating. Thanks.
Good job.
Nicco, this is like a dance on a plate.
The tabbouleh, I think it is so required that freshness
of all of the herbs and I love the pickled turnips.
They look so beautiful.
This is delicious.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Nicco.
And let's go with Chef Bert.
We have a pickled brine chicken with green cauliflower whip,
a charred tomato butter.
And then the salad is dressed hard with a lot of vinegar and red wine.
This cauliflower puree situation is delicious.
-[Bert] Thank you. -[Stephanie] It's cheesy yummy.
The tomato sauce is great as well, I think,
and mixing them together is really delicious.
Also, I just have to tell you, my son's name is Ernie.
He's named after our dog, Bert.
But not that you're the dog, but I'm just saying,
so your name, it just made me smile.
Perfect. Perfect.
Chef Bert, I love, and when I say love,
I mean love this cauliflower right here.
It is aerated and smooth and just, "Oh, the texture is amazing."
I could slather
this cheesy whip, whatever it is, on everything.
[Bert] Well, I don't know if y'all noticed,
but I definitely threw some herbs and some spinach in there to maintain that
really vibrant, bright green color.
It is technically so well done.
And then the chicken right next to it,
by the virtue of comparison, kind of feels let down that,
"Hey, I needed some love too."
That being said, I just want to go back to this delicious puree.
Very well done.
Thank you, chef. Thank you.
Okay, take another break, chefs.
We'll call you back soon for the good news or the bad news.
I mean, honestly, it's been neck and neck since right out of the gate.
Everybody's really showing up and cooking really strong dishes.
-[Mahogany] Thank you, sir. -[Bert] You're welcome.
-[Mahogany] Always a gentleman. -[Bert] Come on in.
[Mahogany laughs]
[Nicco] I do think that maybe the lack of
actual pickled components is going to knock me out.
That's a hard one to call.
I know. I think they were all good.
I'm worried that I am on the chopping block.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Bert, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Bert, I think we would all agree that
the green cauliflower sauce, we could eat that again and again.
It's so delicious.
Unfortunately, the chicken didn't get all the love
that you put into those sauces,
and it felt almost like an afterthought on the dish.
And for that reason, we had to chop you.
Thank you, guys. I appreciate the opportunity.
-Good luck, y'all. -Thank you, chef.
-[Bert] You're going to crush it. -Thank you.
[Ted] It was great having you here, Chef.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Stay nutty.
[Bert] Aye, will do.
That's it.
That's all she wrote.
Chef Mahogany, Chef Nicco, we can't wait to see
what you can do with whatever's in these.
Open your final baskets.
And you've got pickled bologna.
Oh, what?
-What? -Oh, my God.
-[Ted] Grapes. -[Mahogany] Got my grapes.
[laughs]
[Nicco] You know, Chef Mahogany has been talki
all day about her famous pickled grapes,
and so I am super nervous.
[Ted] Sugar cookie dough.
I'm gonna eat this raw. [laughs]
[Ted] And pickled sakura blossoms.
What is this?
Ugh!
Thirty minutes to get your work done.
Your clock starts now.
[judges cheering and applauding] Whoo! Go, chefs!
-[Nicco] Right behind you. -[Mahogany] Heard.
To be one chef away
it's just amazing and it feels great.
I look at the cookie dough and I think, "Okay,
I'm going to make a pickled ice cream sandwich
-[Maneet] Hi, Mahogany. How are you doing? -[Mahogany] Hello, chef.
I'm doing well, chef.
So what... what direction are you going in?
You know, I'm going to try to make an ice cream,
pickled ice cream with apple cider vinegar,
and then I've got some crispy bologna. So...
[Maneet] How excited were you when you saw the grapes?
It seems like it was made for you.
I know, I know. It's perfect.
It's like a little pressure, like I can't blow this one, right?
Judges, I think maybe it's the chefs themselves who are in a pickle here.
That is a tough basket.
[Maneet] These four ingredients
just do not speak to each other at all.
[Ted] No, and one of them shouldn't even exist.
[Maneet] Agreed.
Think about using bacon in desserts, taking that bologna
and deep frying and putting some brown sugar on it.
Doing something like that, candied...
-I'm not convincing you, am I? -No.
I mean, it's just straight vinegar, like, right?
-I mean, like, I get bacon... -[Maneet] Yes.
Bacon is smoke and salt, like...
[Maneet] That literally tastes like sponge,
which has been put in vinegar.
I've never heard of pickled bologna before.
This would be my first time working with it.
The dish I'm going to make is a pickled bologna baklav
with a mascarpone cream with a little bit of
a pistachio sugar cookie crumble.
For the baklava filling, I'm going to use the bologna
I'm going to render it out and use a little bit of orange liqueur
and then mix that with my nuts, some chocolate
and roll that up inside the filo dough.
Next, I'm going to get stuff to pickle the grapes
so I get some cinnamon, star anise, clove.
[Maneet] This has been such an exciting competition so far,
and both these chefs are so talented and so creative.
The way they have been embracing the pickle theme
and their plans for desserts, I'm really, really excited.
Mahogany is making pickle ice cream
and the sugar cookies, baking already.
[Mahogany] I taste the sakura blossoms,
and I realize how salty they are.
These pickled Sakura blossoms are edible cherry blossoms
that have been pickled and then coated in salt.
[Mahogany] So I grab apple cider vinegar
because it has a little bit of sweetness to it.
And I grab some pecans and I add some honey.
And I know I want to go int like an agrodolce type of situation.
Sticky candy nuts.
[Nicco] Next, I need to start working on my cream.
Take some saffron and start blooming that in a pot.
Then, I taste the sakura blossoms.
They are insanely salty.
I thought it was sugar on th and I was wrong.
I put it in my mouth.
So this is a huge curveball
So I'm thinking we'll go nicely in balancing that cream
where I'm going to add some sugar and a little bit of honey
and hopefully round it out.
[Tiffany] Uh-oh, something's burning.
Something's burning behind you.
[Mahogany] Those damn pecans in that...
Oh, oh, pickled blossoms.
I mean, they were just burning.
My heart just drops.
And those are basket ingredients.
I mean, she has to save it, otherwise that's going to hit the plate and then that's...
[Ted] Yeah.
[Stephanie] ...not a good thing.
[Mahogany] Oh-ho...
Mahogany's burnt caramel.
The pickled sakura blossoms are in it.
She does not have time to make another one.
[Tiffany] Well, let's see.
[Mahogany] Luckily, I take the moment to kind of taste
Hot.
[Mahogany] They weren't so bad.
So what I did is just salvag what I could out of there.
[Tiffany] You have three minutes.
Hurry!
[Nicco] So at this point, I have to start building the baklava.
It looks like Nicco has taken his filo
and actually wrapped it almost in a style of making a spring roll
or an egg roll and is now pan frying it.
That's pretty cool.
[Nicco] Normally, I would us orange blossom water
to make a syrup for baklava but I didn't see any of that in the pantry,
so I took some saffron, honey and sakura blossoms
to make the drizzle for the dish.
Oh-ho-ho.
[chuckles] Hell, yeah.
[Maneet] Chef Nicco started very strong.
He has been very consistent about it.
On the other hand, Mahogany, her first course was a little bit shaky,
but she has been soaring after that.
So this course could be the deciding factor on who is the Chopped Champion.
[Ted] Thirty seconds.
[Nicco] I see I have a few seconds left.
I go to the fridge, I grab a little mint.
Come on, Chef Nicco.
Eighteen seconds.
[Ted] Final seconds of the final round, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five, four,
three, two, one.
[judges cheering and applauding]
-[Stephanie] Great job, chefs. -[Tiffany] Good job!
[laughter]
[Nicco] That was intense, but I think I got a good dessert on the plate
I'm actually really proud of what I made.
[Mahogany] Crazy.
Oh, I mean, I kept looking u at the clock,
thinking I would have more time each time I looked up.
And then it was less time, so...
Chef Nicco, Chef Mahogany, for the dessert round in this pickle battle,
you got pickled bologna, grapes, sugar cookie dough
and pickled sakura blossoms.
Chef Mahogany, what do we have?
What we have is basically a pickled bologna
ice cream sandwich on sugar cookies with
blossom, agrodolce pecans
and pickled grapes and apples.
Um...
this was a tough round.
Oh, this was a tough basket.
[Mahogany] Yeah.
I think it's kind of fun when you get into the ice cream sandwich,
the pickled ice cream and the cookie,
it's delicious.
And I've been excited all day to taste your pickled grapes.
And I think it's... it's really fun
having the freshness of the dill in there.
Chef Mahogany, the pickled grapes are, I think,
on their own, very nice.
They're a bit sour considering that this is a dessert round.
The pecans are over caramelized.
You would have put a touch of heavy cream
or something in there to stop that cooking.
It would have coated a little better.
I should have thrown some butter in there.
-That's a really good... -Quickly, yeah, right at the end.
Thank you, chef. Thank you.
[Maneet] Love the idea of a pickle ice cream and made perfectly.
I was dreading the pickled bologna.
You actually made it work.
But I had to work to undo my jaws because they got stuck because of the caramel.
Thank you, Chef Mahogany.
Finally, Chef Nicco.
All right, so for dessert, we have a pickled bologna and chocolate baklava,
and then a sakura and saffron honey,
pickled grapes and orange zest.
I mean, huge success on the texture on the outside of this.
I think the grapes definitely cutting them in half,
they definitely got pickled and they're delicious.
I think the acid is welcomed.
It's sort of just a little bit like too much of a high note, I think.
The pickled bologna gets kind of lost in the chocolate,
but I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.
[Nicco] It was kind of the intention.
[Tiffany] Chef Nicco, I like all of that intensity within that
that roll, followed by that buttery layer of crispiness on the outside.
And I honestly disagree with Stephanie on the pickled grapes.
I think it's just right because the chocolate is intense
and I really like the sweetness in the cream
and that, like salty vinegar with a sugar cookie,
-it all works. -Mm-hmm.
Thank you.
Chef Nicco, this is a very learned dessert.
You know, the sakura blossoms in the whipped cream and the bologna,
I mean, thank you for so successfully hiding it
with the nuts and the chocolate.
I think that was amazing.
And both of you, such solid cooking today.
-[Nicco] Thank you. -[Mahogany] Thank you.
[Ted] All right, we are just minutes away from naming a champion.
Thank you, chefs.
Both of them did very well in the dessert round.
So we will have to discuss about the entree
and the appetizer round to figure out who won.
So Nicco really created a beautiful radicchio cup
with snapper that was cured and brined.
Just thought it was a very balanced for a starter.
I mean, it was strong.
I think that Nicco's appetizer,
he almost edited it too much, not enough sauce.
It was missing that heat.
And then you look at Chef Mahogany's dish
and we couldn't stop eating the crunchies.
[Maneet] I do think that with the pickled ice cream too sweet.
But the fish itself was cooked very well.
Mahogany really surprised me.
We went from appetizer course that had a lot of little problems
going on into the entree that I thought was absolutely fantastic.
[Tiffany] I really loved chicken thighs in her soup.
She pickled it, so she had that brine.
[Maneet] The fact that she went ahead and made couscous
and then pickled that and put that all over the dish.
[Tiffany] But it needed more liquid.
It was a noodle dish, you know, with a little bit of broth.
On the other hand, we look at Nicco's entree
and I could not stop eating that fried chicken,
but you know, it didn't have as much pickle
coming from the cauliflower as we wanted.
[Nicco] This one is going to be huge for me.
It's a real culmination of my cooking career so far
and really proved to myself that I am a great chef
who can compete and really kick butt.
[Mahogany] I want this win very bad.
I mean, this would definitely skyrocket my chef career.
This would definitely, you know, put me on the radar
of a lot of people and it's something that I just really want.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Mahogany, you've been chopped.
Judges?
[Maneet] Chef Mahogany, it was an absolute pleasure
seeing you cook in this kitchen.
In the first course, your snapper was cooked perfectly,
but you used too much of the pickle ice cream
that the entire dish was too sweet.
The dessert, the caramel and the pecan they seized.
And so we have to chop you.
This has been an experience of a lifetime. So thank you.
-Thank you. -[Stephanie] We wish you the best.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Thank you, chef.
-Good luck to you. -[Maneet] Well done.
Thank you, chefs.
I was chopped.
And that means Chef Nicco Muratore,
you are the Chopped Pickle Champion.
Chopped Pickle Champion!
It's quite an accomplishment for your pickling prowess.
You have won $10,000.
[cheering]
[Stephanie] We wish you the best.
It feels really amazing to have won.
-Thank you so much. -[Maneet] Thank you so much.
-It's an honor. -It's a pleasure.
I proved that I know what I'm doing with this
- and that the sky's the limi -Thank you.
We did it. We got it.
We're taking it home.