This is a teeny-tiny episode.
[Liv] Everything's tiny.
Little, little plates. Big, big flavors.
- Who doesn't like a little wieny? - [Liv laughs]
You got to get a lot of flavor into this one bite.
I got it, I got it.
[Marc] Everything matters on that plate.
- Hot, ow! Hot! - Flambe!
[Liv] Good things come in small packages.
Oh, come on, come on, come on. Please, please cook.
Is time going by faster, or am I moving slow?
- [Liv laughs] - I'm getting nervous.
- Tiny but mighty. - It's gonna be close.
- Oh, mon Dieu. - Aah!
My plate is a nightmare.
That could be an instant chopped.
Born and raised in Atlanta, ATL. You know? [laughs]
I make elevated Southern food. Packing a punch in a very small package.
Small plates, attention to detail.
As much flavor as you can put into just that perfect bite.
More butter.
I've always been underestimated in my life,
being short, being a woman.
I'm not a shrimp.
So, I gotta wake up every day with my head on right,
ready to show everybody who doubts me
what I can do.
I'm here to win.
I'm taking it home all the way.
[Jonathan] All of my plates are full of surprises.
You get a little bit of heat, a little crunch,
some sweetness.
Every bite has to be perfect.
My cooking style comes from both sides of my family,
having the food from my mom and my grandmothers on both sides
definitely influenced me in how I approach food today.
Winning Chopped, I think it just feeds my competitive nature.
I'm a cook, but I'm also a boxer
and I'm bringing the fight to Chopped.
That $10,000 is coming with me.
[Josue] I am slightly obsessed with tapas.
Trying to bring out my inner conquistador.
Growing up in South Florida, my inspiration was my family.
Be a lot of Latin influence as well as Spanish influences.
There's always some reason to celebrate
and if we're celebrating, we must have food.
My father's side of the family always had this rice in the holidays.
Arroz con cebolla, onion rice.
Obviously, I plan on dominating
because small plates is what I do every day.
[Alex] I am confident. Cooking is in my DNA.
I grew up in the northwest of France.
It's known for its seafood.
We believe in perfect technique and let the product shine.
It's all about the rhythm.
I'm coming here to win.
"I'm gonna win Chopped."
What's up? We're back at it.
- Let's go, y'all. - [Josue] All right, we ready.
- Good morning. - What's going on?
Oh, this is kind of cool, y'all. [laughs]
[Ted] Hello, everybody.
- [contestants] Hey, Ted. - How's it going?
I'm well. You all revved up for this?
- [Liv] Oh, yeah. - Ready to go.
You will need to think small to win big for this one
because you're here
for our special tiny but mighty battle.
We want you to make small bites for every round.
Good things come in small packages, just like me.
- You got this? - We got it.
- [Jonathan] That's for sure.
Put your hands on the baskets.
Open them up.
Ooh.
All right. [laughs] Oh, snap.
And your tiny but mighty appetizers
must include littleneck clams,
pineapple tomatillos...
Pineapple tomatillos, they're gonna be sweet and acidic
so I'm feeling pretty excited to have that with clams.
So I'm feeling pretty excited to have that with clams.
[Ted] ...cocktail franks...
Who doesn't like a little wieny?
...and mini pancake stacks.
A stack of pan... [laughs]
20 minutes.
Time starts now.
[judges cheering]
[Ted] Tiny food.
Judges, from tapas to finger foods
to adorable miniature versions of dishes we love,
the chefs could take this tiny but mighty theme
any number of ways.
I mean, we need to get all of those flavors,
their entire perspective across in one small bite
like you would on a tasting menu.
That's actually really, really, really difficult
to have that kind of restraint but also infuse so much flavor
into a small bite
and we're asking them to do this in 20 minutes.
[Marc] When you're making a small plate like that,
there's less to hide behind.
- [Amanda] Of course. - If you have one mistake on there,
- it's glaring. - Yes.
The key to making a perfect small plate is the attention to detail.
One small mistake can throw off the entire dish.
Mmm.
I know exactly what I'm gonna do.
I'm making littleneck clams with pancetta, cocktail franks
and a roasted tomatillo cream sauce.
I'm cooking the cocktail franks with the littlenecks
to help infuse the flavor and hopefully the smokiness
that's in those franks into the clams.
[Amanda] I like that Liv has pancetta.
I don't think the cocktail franks
are gonna give off a lot of fat
so she's adding some of that fat in, which I think is great.
So she's adding some of that fat in, which I think is great.
Chef Liv, how's it going?
A lot of flavor in a small bite?
Oh, yeah. I'm gonna try my best.
I wanna win Chopped for my parents.
The industry is full of hardship
so they were rather reluctant when I first told them
that I was going to pursue cooking.
I want to show them that this is paying off for me
and that I'm talented at it.
[Jonathan] So, I know how to incorporate the mini pancakes,
I know how to incorporate the pineapple tomatillos.
Ooh, that's good.
Have y'all tasted these little things?
So, immediately comes to mind is romesco.
It's kind of trying to use those tomatillos
and use that pancake as bread.
Two things that are normally in romesco.
So, I'm making mini pancake blinis with sauteed clams
and pineapple-tomatillo romesco.
Chef Jon, what are you making?
Yeah, we're gonna make a tomatillo and roasted tomato romesco.
- [Justin] Ooh. - And I got some fire-roasted peppers...
Ooh, I like that idea.
I got the tomatillo. Tiny but mighty. Tiny but mighty.
We'll see what happens.
Winning Chopped would mean a lot to me
because of all the women in my family
that have supported me, have molded me.
I wanna make everybody proud.
[Josue] So, my style of cuisine is refined yet approachable.
I see these ingredients
and I already know what to do with them.
Put these guys in.
So, I'm making clams con chorizo.
I'm subbing in the cocktail wienies for the chorizo part.
I add the pineapple tomatillos.
[Justin] They have these pineapple tomatillos.
They have a little sweetness to them
that, you know, I'm getting a little pineapple flavor.
- [Amanda] Yeah, a little tropical note. - Yeah.
I'm from an area that we do seafood all the time.
I work with littleneck clams all the time.
I should go to the easy route, but now I'm gonna try to
take them out of the shell.
I'm making a surf and turf wonton
with a bed of baby spinach and a saffron sauce
with pancake croutons.
I'm gonna make the sauce with the jus of the clams.
The franks, let's do, like, a small stuffing.
I saute the franks and I add the pineapple tomatillos.
Chef Alex, what does tiny but mighty mean to you?
I love doing tasting menu in my restaurant
so I think it's a great way to showcase the cooking of a chef.
[Justin] I love it, I love it. Excited.
[Alex] I'm putting my pancakes in a half-sheet pan
and I'm putting in a hot oven to make crouton out of it,
but I'm watching them like a hawk to see they're not burning.
But I'm watching them like a hawk to see they're not burning.
15 minutes on the clock, chefs.
[Liv] To go with my clams,
I'm making a roasted tomatillo cream sauce.
I'm roasting the tomatillos to help add some more depth of flavor.
That char, the smokiness
that's gonna come out of those burned edges is really gonna help.
[Marc] I'm looking at Liv
and she's got that sauce in that blender.
- It looks delicious. - [Justin] yeah.
I've always been a competitive person.
I played professional volleyball growing up,
was pre-Olympic several years in a row.
When I put my mind to it and I focus on something,
I go all the way.
I'm going all in.
So, I sauteed the littleneck clams in a pan with the franks.
I'm hoping that the saltiness and smokiness from the franks
will get on those clams.
So, the pancakes and the pineapple tomatillos are sweet.
So, you have 50% of this basket in the sweet world.
So you really have to bring some spice, some savory,
some garlic, onion, all of those things.
All right, these pancakes now, what am I gonna do with you?
Mini pancakes are definitely the odd man out here.
I'm just thinking, "You're eating clams,
you need something to soak this up with,
so why not just get some brown butter in there,
go in and toast them up?"
5 minutes remain, chefs.
The stuffing is done and then I'm starting
to stuff my wonton.
Ah, [bleep].
I just heard an expletive from him.
- Was it in French? - Yes.
[Alex] I forgot the pancakes in the oven.
I think Chef Alex just burned his pancakes over there.
- So, he had them toasting in the oven. - Yes.
If Chef Alex burned all of his pancakes
and that is a basket ingredient,
that could be an instant chopped.
[cursing in French]
That was a French expletive. I don't know if you knew that one.
- Thank you. - Yeah.
Behind you.
Alex used the majority of his pancakes that we gave him
and they all burned.
So, I don't know if he has any left over that are gonna be useable.
[Alex] I don't know what I'm gonna do with those pancakes,
but in the meantime, I'm frying the wonton.
Man, I still don't know what to do with these pancakes.
I think the pancakes, I'd put them in the oven
to help try and dry them out for almost a crouton texture
to add some crunch to the clams.
Chef Jon, how're we doing, brother?
I think we're doing all right. I think we're doing all right.
We'll try to beat this clock, huh? [laughs nervously]
To go with the blini, I'm making a pineapple tomatillo vinaigrette.
Then I'm going to dress up some frisee.
Is the time going by faster, or am I moving slow?
[Josue] I'm grabbing these clams with the tweezers,
checking them to make sure they're all popping
and make sure there's no broken shells.
I wouldn't want to serve it in broken shells.
[Amanda] So, Alex took his burnt pancakes
off of the pan and he's chopping them up.
[Alex] I'm, like, "Okay, well, I'm just gonna use them,
you know, as a crouton.
[Marc] Not only has Alex burned his pancakes, but he's also...
now he's sauteing some type of greens as well.
One minute to go, chefs!
Keep your eye on the time. Keep your eye on the time.
The energy's a little weird.
I mean, Alex is frantic. Liv is finishing up.
Josue is done and chilling out.
And Jon is going nuts. [laughing]
- Can I hold that? - [Justin] Chef Josue is fully completed.
He's ready to go
and he's looking to help some of the other competitors.
You've got 30 seconds!
[Ted] 30 seconds and it's over, guys.
I got it! I got it! Yes!
[Amanda] Don't forget, tiny but mighty!
My plate is a nightmare.
All right, chefs, you've gotta follow through here.
[Ted] Ten, nine, eight...
- [Justin] Come on, everybody, get everything on the plate. - Seven, six, five...
- You got it. It looks great. - Four, three, two, one!
- [Amanda] Oh, wow. - Time's up.
- [Marc] Nice job. - [Justin] Nice job, guys.
- [Amanda] Well done! - Photo finish.
- Whoo. - Yes! [laughs]
Good job! That was insane, huh?
Uh, insane!
It's a good dish. It's a lot of flavor, bold.
The new trend is charred, so it's a charred pancake.
It's trending. It's very trendy.
I think I underestimated, like, what that time was really gonna feel like.
Josue, I think, is gonna be a big competition
'cause his station was so clean afterwards.
He was kinda, like, done early, kinda hanging out, so...
He definitely knows his way around a kitchen
and knows what he's doing.
But we'll see what happens.
Chefs, you've arrived at the chopping block.
In the appetizer basket, you got littleneck clams,
pineapple tomatillos, cocktail franks and mini pancake stacks.
Chef Josue, what do we have?
Here's my take on Spanish-style clams con chorizo
meets breakfast.
But the wienies represent chorizo, ideally.
Chef Josue, I think you nailed the "tiny, mighty."
I mean, I got a big flavor pop right at the beginning.
There's a lot of acid. Um, it's very flavor-forward.
And honesty, my clams were cooked pretty well.
But I think you did play it a little bit safe.
I really liked the acidity of this.
It's bracing. I think it's good against the clams.
The pineapple tomatillo gets a little bit lost in that acid.
I do think maybe you could have
manipulated the pancake a little bit better.
I mean, it just tastes like eating a pancake with a bowl of clams...
- [Josue] Right. - Which we don't normally do.
- Right. - [laughs]
I don't think I could go and have a big bowl of this.
It's almost too powerful in the flavor,
which is sort of what we're looking for.
I think you did a great job.
Chef, who are you playing for today?
Well, I've got a couple of special women in my life.
My daughter and my girlfriend, honestly.
My daughter, we have a long-distance relationship.
So just trying to prove to her all that time that's been invested in my career,
you know, it's to show you that you can also do it.
She's made a lot of comments about maybe being a pastry chef
and maybe she could be my pastry chef one day.
- And I said, "Absolutely," you know. - That would be cool.
Thank you, Chef Josue.
Next up, Chef Alex. Please tell us about your starter.
So I did a surf and turf wonton
with a bed of spinach in a saffron sauce
and charred mini pancakes.
I'm French-trained, have been in this business for 20 years,
so tasting menu is my thing.
My restaurant, I do a tasting menu.
So, Chef Alex, I like the fact that you went for wonton.
From a flavor perspective, I think you nailed some really, really good flavors.
I think you hit the appetizer, tiny, mighty.
The flavor on the inside of the wonton's delicious
with the cocktail franks, the little bit of clam.
There's a lot of flavor in there, which is good.
But I'm losing the pineapple tomatillo a little bit.
I really love that ingredient, and that acidity of it
- I think would have been fantastic. - Yes.
I thought this dish was great.
I do agree, obviously, the pancake--
I think everybody's agreeing,
it's sort of a little bit of an afterthought.
But I thought the flavors really worked.
Thank you, Chef Alex. Next up, Chef Liv.
Please tell us about your dish.
Chefs, tonight, I've prepared for you
littleneck clams with pancetta,
cocktail franks
and a roasted pineapple tomatillo cream sauce.
I kinda see myself in small plates.
As you guys can see, standing next to these tall guys,
I am tiny.
But I am also mighty.
So I love focusing on smaller bites that pack a punch.
Chef Liv, I love this dish.
I think it really speaks to your perspective as a chef.
I like... I mean, that was just one of the biggest, like, flavor bombs.
When I first took that first scoop of the broth, I mean,
just the heat...
But the little hot dog got a little lost in there.
I really love what you did with the pineapple-tomatillo.
I think it's delicious.
Such a great flavor along with the clams and the cocktail franks.
It really works.
I thought this was delicious.
The clams are cooked perfectly
and the heat level's just perfect.
To me, the pancakes didn't work at all,
but I think everything else went really well here.
Thank you, Chef Liv. Finally, Chef Jon,
please tell us about your dish.
So I made for you a mini pancake blini,
sauteed clams, romesco, and a frisee salad.
I mean, the best thing on here I think is the vinaigrette on the frisee.
- Yes. - The acidity level is perfect.
The flavor is there. I mean, it's delicious.
I love the idea of this pancake blini.
I mean, you guys have all had a tough time with this pancake,
but when you take a bite of a clam on top of a soggy pancake,
it's just not doing it, man.
It's just not doing it, man.
If you took all these components apart,
they'd all be delicious on their own.
I got a good amount of the cocktail franks
tossed with the clam and the butter
and that was salty, actually.
I think the clam liquid came down a little bit too much.
But I like the fact that you use the pineapple-tomatillo in two places.
[Justin] I think your plating is beautiful.
I think that really showed some technique there,
and we can definitely see this is what you do at your restaurants.
I like the technique of taking the clams out of the shell.
I thought they were cooked perfectly.
I'm just having a really hard time with the romesco.
I think it was screaming for salt, it was screaming for acidity.
It just needed more time and treatment.
[Ted] Chef Jon, thank you.
A lot of hard work went into those small bites.
In a few minutes, we'll tell you whose efforts paid off.
I'm feeling pretty confident about not being on the chopping block.
[Liv] Alex has to be concerned with that charred pancake.
And, uh, Chef Jon, they seem to think
that his components didn't really mesh the way that they should have.
So, you know, I'm definitely not the weakest link.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jon, you've been chopped. Judges?
So, Chef Jon, you know, the theme of today was tiny and mighty
and from a plating perspective,
I think you nailed it.
I mean, it really showcased your techniques as a chef.
It was very tight and concise.
After that, I think, is where you kinda started to lose us.
The pancake was just really salty
and that romesco was just lacking for some flavor.
So, unfortunately, for that reason, we had to chop you.
- Thank you, Chef. - [Amanda] Thank you, Chef, for being here.
Thank you.
[Marc] Keep up the good work.
I absolutely feel like there's more that I wanted to show.
Sometimes it doesn't go your way,
but you roll with the punches and you keep going.
Chef Josue, Chef Alex, Chef Liv,
here is the second basket to test your skills.
[Ted] Dig in!
What?
Ooh-hoo. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Something deep-fried.
[Ted] And you've got mini fried pickles, Cornish hens...
Oh, that's my favorite. I'm really excited about this one.
Baby eggplant...
- ...and tiny ketchup bottles. - Tiny ketchup.
It's gonna be a fun round, guys, for sure.
Once again, the judges are expecting small bites
that add up to hearty fare, this time, for a main course.
30-minute challenge...
starts now.
[hubbub]
- [Alex] Behind you. - Coming down, coming down.
Judges, this is the entree round
yet we're asking them for small bites.
Are the chefs being pulled in two different directions?
So normally for a main course,
you would serve a whole Cornish hen.
I think if you served a half of one,
we'd be looking more at a tasting menu being developed here.
Coming down behind you.
I think it's gonna come down to
what else they put on the plate, too,
how they are using these other ingredients
to make sure it's not an overwhelming amount of food.
Is Alex trussing his little birds to roast them whole?
[Ted] It looks like that, yes.
There's no way Alex is gonna get those Cornish hens cooked that way.
You need to put the Cornish hen in the oven first of all,
because it's gonna take a while.
I'm making a roasted Cornish hen
with ratatouille and a cornichon-Madeira sauce.
In ratatouille, you have to have a tomato element.
So I say, "Okay, I'm gonna put the ketchup inside the ratatouille
to link the whole vegetable together."
- [Ted] Ratatouille with ketchup? - [Marc] No! No!
- My grandmother's very upset right now. - [laughing]
You have to utilize the basket.
[Marc] Although, by the way, if you're gonna try
to disguise ketchup into something,
hiding it in a ratatouille is not a bad idea.
Let's take a look at these Cornish hens.
I'm not super familiar with Cornish hens,
but I know that I don't have time to roast the whole bird.
The hen's the star of the plate,
so I wanna make sure I treat it really carefully.
I'm making a green curry and barbecue-rubbed Cornish hen leg
with a feta and pickle baba ghanoush.
- I'm pretty excited about those tiny eggplants, though. - I know.
- I mean, those, they're sweet, they pack a lot of flavor... - They're beautiful.
Very versatile, they cook really fast.
Obviously, when you look at eggplant,
I think baba ghanoush right away.
[Liv] Baba ghanoush is a Mediterranean eggplant spread.
I worked in a Mediterranean small plates restaurant for several years.
I feel really comfortable making baba ghanoush.
[Josue] So, working with Spanish cuisine right now, I'm looking at the basket.
Everything makes sense to keep going with, you know,
Spanish cuisine, Spanish ingredients.
So, I'm making a spiced Cornish hen with eggplant piperade
and pickled breadcrumb bites.
Piperade is just a blend of tomatoes, peppers, onions, heavy saffron,
fresh tomatoes in there to go in with the eggplant,
as well as ketchup.
- Ketchup piperade. - Can we talk about Chef Josue, though?
I mean, one guy's roasting it whole.
Liv has broke it down, but not put it in the oven.
Josue has not even touched his bird yet...
- [Amanda gasps] - ...and we are approaching 20 minutes.
I mean, they're small, but we still need the time to cook this fully.
- Oh, we need to open that package... - Yeah.
And start manipulating the Cornish hen.
[Liv] To season my Cornish hen legs,
I take the ketchup,
cream curry and make a sauce out of it.
I'm a little behind on getting my chickens in the oven,
so I'm worried about cooking these all the way through.
Less than 20 minutes to go, chefs.
Chef Josue has a really nice seasoning on his hen right now.
[Josue] Once I get some sear going on there, pop 'em in the oven.
I'm already regretting not starting the hen first.
[Marc] Alex just opened the oven to look at his Cornish hens
and shook his head, like, "Uh-oh, I must have made a mistake."
That's the look I got.
I know I need to change my game plan.
So, Chef Alex, are we changing directions here with that hen?
I saw you pull it out of the oven and break it down.
What are we thinking, brother?
Oh, yeah, completely. It's not gonna be cooked.
[Liv] I'm making the baba ghanoush.
I take the ketchup, the Worcestershire, bourbon, and make a sauce out of it.
Flambe!
I take my roasted eggplant, throw it in the food processor
and I also throw the pickles in with the baba ghanoush.
[Josue] Hot! Ow, hot!
So I'm cooking the hens, flip them over,
deglaze with apple cider vinegar, some chicken stock.
Deglaze with apple cider vinegar, some chicken stock.
Pop it back in the oven, let it braise a little bit...
All right, these pickles.
And then use the breadcrumb over the pickles
to create my crispy breadcrumbs to complement the piperade.
I just need more texture.
5 minutes to go, chefs!
The cast iron is getting really nice color on his Cornish hen.
Whoo!
[Alex] I've fixed the Cornish hen problem. The ratatouille's going well.
Madeira.
I deglazed the cast iron with some Madeira,
a sweet wine from Portugal.
- Whoo-hoo! - [Alex] Ca Flambe!
And now he's screaming, "Ca flambe!" It's a fire.
No, it's just flambe.
[laughing]
Cornichon. Cornichon!
Then I add some chopped fried cornichon and I reduce the sauce.
Behind.
[Amanda] There's a lot going on.
This is gonna be down to the wire. Aah!
[Liv] I check on my hens in the oven,
and realize that they're not going to cook in time,
so I gotta come up with a plan B.
Now Liv is taking her chicken out of the oven
and then is going to go onto the grill pan.
Less than a minute left, chefs!
Behind you!
[Amanda] A tiny amount of time left.
- Are we all plating, tasting, feeling good? - We've got it. We've got that!
Yours might be undercooked. Mine won't be undercooked.
Don't forget, tiny but mighty!
- [Ted] 30 seconds. - [Justin] 30 seconds! You guys can do this!
Big flavors here, guys, big flavors.
[Amanda] Eggplant, ketchup,
check out all your ingredients.
You have your hen, your pickles, don't forget!
I hope I remembered them all.
Oh! Oh, mon Dieu!
- Whose chicken's going to be underdone, huh? - Not mine!
Get these dishes to the finish line, chefs!
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...
- Done. - Five, four, three...
- That's nice, nice. Go, go, go. - Two, one...
- That's it! - Time's up!
- Good job. - Oh, boy!
- Good job. - Nice work, guys.
- Get in here. - [Liv] Oh, man!
Getting pumped right now. My energy's rushing, I can feel it.
Definitely made it just in time.
I saw them all doing, like, their chickens first and I'm thinking like,
"Maybe I started wrong, I'm running out of time."
I'm feeling nervous about what they have,
but I feel comfortable that I can match up to them or better.
Chefs, for that second tiny but mighty round,
we asked you to make small bites with mini fried pickles,
Cornish hens, baby eggplant and tiny ketchup bottles.
Chef Alex, what do we have?
So in front of you, I made pan-seared Cornish hen
with ratatouille and Madeira sauce.
- [Ted] So, I'm getting the idea that you're French. - Yes, I am.
- So I'm from Brittany, so northwest. - [Amanda] Oh!
[Alex] A lot of seafood, a lot of vegetable.
- Excellent. - [Amanda] What brought you to the States?
- A woman. - Ah-ha! We can do that.
You have this kind of power to make men cross an ocean.
I met my wife in Idaho and then we decided to get married.
I asked my chef if I can get a job in the US,
and he find me the job in Vegas.
Wow!
[Justin] Chef Alex, that Madeira sauce with those cornichons
is dynamite.
I mean, I would put that on anything.
The ratatouille was delicious.
I was nervous about that ketchup,
that it was gonna get too sweet,
but it actually tied it all together really nice.
But it's a little too big for the tiny but mighty challenge.
Chef, I think you did a great job with flavor here.
I mean, honestly, that sauce, it's buttery and delicious.
What I want to see in there is the showcase of the eggplant more.
That was the ingredient I'm looking for.
[Marc] I do find a little bit of a problem with the breast itself.
The breast is actually a little dry.
If you had left the breast off,
it would have been a little more successful.
Thank you. Thank you, Chef.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Alex. Next up, Chef Liv.
Chefs, I've prepared for you a green curry
and barbecue-rubbed Cornish hen leg
with a feta and pickle baba ghanoush.
The balance, you're hitting all cylinders.
That is an amazing baba ghanoush. I love it.
Well, Chef, I have to tell you, the hen needs to cook more.
I wanna take another bite,
but the pink hue near the bone is really stopping me, unfortunately.
Yeah, I waited a little too long.
Unfortunately, mine, like Amanda's, is a little bit under.
Which sucks, you know, because it's so good.
And, I mean, you played the game.
I mean, this is small, this is mighty, big flavors.
It would have been a home run.
Presentation, I mean, it looked beautiful,
but I've got to eat it, too.
Like, I gotta get my knife and fork in here.
But going back to that eggplant baba ghanoush,
I mean, you killed it. It's really, really good.
[Ted] Thank you, Chef Liv. Finally, Chef Josue.
All right, chefs, in front of you, I have a spice-rubbed Cornish hen,
layered over a bed of eggplant piperade and apple cider jus.
You had us a little worried. You waited--
It was ten minutes
- before you opened that Cornish hen pack. - Yes.
[Josue] Hopefully I cooked them all the way through.
Yeah, I think we're running up against
some undercooked thighs here again.
These thighs have gotten in everybody's way today.
- Where did the ketchup come into play here? - In the piperade.
Okay.
[Amanda] I love the spice mix that you put on it.
And I've already eaten the skin, which is my favorite part,
and it was crispy and good.
[Justin] It was definitely the best crispy skin of the group's,
but once I pulled that skin off,
then it was just a very mute flavor.
Just a little more salt would have woken all of these flavors up.
[Amanda] I think the piperade's delicious.
I like that you put the pickle in there.
But I do wanna see the eggplant more.
And because your thigh wasn't cooked all the way through,
if you left that thigh off,
this would be a perfect portion.
- It was about restraint, really. - Right. Thank you.
Two chefs will get to continue showing off in the dessert round.
Which two? We'll know soon. Thank you, chefs.
[Josue] I was very worried, honestly,
that it was gonna be undercooked,
but my flavors are there
and I got the right balance on my dish.
I'm feeling kinda nervous.
I'm hoping that even though my protein was undercooked,
that the chefs next to me
maybe did something a little worse than I did
and that keeps me safe.
[Ted] Who gets to keep competing?
And whose dish is on the chopping block?
[Ted] Chef Josue, you've been chopped. Judges?
[Marc] Chef Josue, as you saw,
everybody seemed to have some struggle with the Cornish hen.
Everybody seemed to have some struggle with the Cornish hen.
Yours was definitely undercooked.
And it was a little bit flat in flavor,
and so we had to chop you.
- [Amanda] Thank you, Chef, for being here. - Thank you, Chef.
Thank you, guys. Good luck out there.
- Thank you, Chef. - Thanks, Chef.
[Josue] I'm feeling slightly disappointed right now with the results,
but I'm leaving with my head up
and my hopes high for the next time around.
Chef Liv, Chef Alex, you'll be making tiny but mighty desserts
from whatever you find in these.
Let's see what you got.
What is this?
Oh.
[Ted] There you go, burger cookies.
Oh, mini burger with chocolate. Okay.
What the heck am I gonna do with these?
[Ted] Baby zucchini...
chokeberries...
- What's that? - And tiny spiked horchatas.
Okay.
30 minutes back on the clock.
Time starts now.
[Amanda] Go! Tiny and mighty!
- Make it sweet, make it tiny! - Just do it proud,
you've made it this far.
[Marc] Wow.
Desserts, to me, are something that
I just want a couple bites of. That's all I need.
[Amanda] When you eat dessert, you're not hungry, right.
- [Marc and Justin] Right. - It's just whimsical, it's fun.
It's a sweet way to finish a meal
and I think pastry chefs these days are having a great time
with playing with little tiny bites like that.
So this is gonna be a real decision
about what they're putting on that plate.
- Is it gonna be tiny... - But mighty?
But mighty.
[Alex] I want to do ice cream and I wanna bake some.
I just wanna go big or go home, right?
That's what you say in America.
So I'm making a zucchini bread muffin with a horchata ice cream,
a chokeberry compote and a burger cookie crumble.
[Marc] Baby zucchini, guys, they're nice and tender.
And, of course, now we're talking about using them for dessert.
I find that they're a little sweeter, tiny little guys like that.
You make, like, carrot cake, you make zucchini bread.
[Alex] So I go for the zucchini bread first.
It's a great way to use zucchini in a dessert round.
I add my zucchini and I put them on the tiny muffin pan.
Behind.
[Marc] Chokeberries, what do you think of that?
- Ah, ugh, not my favorite. - No?
You're gonna have to do a lot to balance out
the bitterness and the tannins in that fruit.
[Marc] Ooh.
- If you're never had a chokeberry... - [Justin] Right.
Picture a blueberry with five layers of skin,
picture a blueberry with five layers of skin,
and a teeny tiny bit of that juicy yummy fruit in the center.
No sweetness.
I see the chokeberries. That's gonna be a great compote.
So I put the chokeberry on the pan, add some sugar,
add a little bit of blueberry in it,
and I put some bourbon in the sauce as well
just to give a little taste.
- Alex, what are you thinking? - I'm making a zucchini bread.
You're gonna make zucchini bread in 30 minutes, huh?
I guess we're gonna try.
[Liv] In the entree round, my hen was undercooked.
So moving into the dessert round,
I need to make sure I make no more mistakes.
But do you know what? Sticking with my gut has gotten me this far,
so I'm feeling really confident.
I am making a chokeberry and chocolate turnover
with sugar-dusted zucchini coins.
I take the chokeberries, I put them in a saute pan with some sugar, molasses,
some of the horchata, to try and sweeten it and make a compote out of it
and use it for a filling in my turnover.
And use it for a filling in my turnover.
- Good luck. - Less than 15 minutes left, chefs.
- Then you have the horchata, which... - [Marc] Horchata.
- [Justin] Heavy cinnamon in that. - Is a lot of cinnamon.
It's rum. Not even any dairy, normally.
It's just a rice base.
- [Justin] Where is it from? - Mexico.
I see the horchata. It's delicious.
Okay, it's gonna be a great ice cream.
With 13 minutes left,
Alex is just putting his ice cream base into the ice cream machine.
It should be enough time,
but I don't know what else he has to do on his station.
[Liv] I take the burger cookies
and I just want that chocolate in the middle to make a ganache.
I then add the spiked horchata to my ganache to help make it more creamy.
I look at the clock, and I realize I'm really pressing time.
I need to get my turnovers in the oven.
So I start putting my compote and the chocolate together
and forming my turnovers.
[Marc] I think what Liv did right now by putting those hot berries
onto the puff pastry,
the puff pastry got hot and she's having a rough time with it.
- [Liv] Argh. - There's not enough time to bake those in the oven.
There's no way those puff pastries are gonna cook.
[Liv] I'm gonna make a couple more, but you're gonna go in.
I have three basket ingredients in these turnovers
so I need to make sure they're fully baked.
So Liv's got 13 minutes to cook that puff pastry. That does not cook that fast.
We're gonna get raw puff pastry.
[Liv] Please cook. Please. Please cook.
C'est chaud. Chaud.
[Liv] Come on, cook.
I'm really worried about how long it's gonna take
for these turnovers to bake.
This is going to come down to the wire.
I want to deep-fry the zucchini and make it sweet somehow.
So with the zucchini, I'm making sugar-dusted zucchini coins.
Chefs, it looks like Liv has tempura-fried these baby zucchini...
- [Amanda] Yeah. - And then coated them in powdered sugar.
They look like little doughnut holes.
- I can't wait to try those, actually. - [Liv] Works for me, dude.
Alex, how are you feeling down there? Ca va?
- [Alex] Amazing. - Amazing?
- Super, super, Marc. - Super. Okay.
I see that Alex has taken the zucchini bread out of the oven.
It looks like it rose up.
[Alex] I see the burger cookies and I'm thinking, "Okay,
It could bring a little crunch element,"
so I decide to make crumble on the fly.
Flour, butter, sugar and add the burger cookies in it.
So Alex has just now put something in the oven.
[Justin] I think he's making a little crumble.
- [Alex] It's gonna be close. - 3:45, guys.
- How are you feeling, Chef Liv? - I'm feeling good, guys.
- Tu vas bien? - Yeah.
- Yes? - For somebody who doesn't do pastries,
I think I'm putting something together that's really nice.
[Liv] I check on my turnovers in the oven
and they're still not cooked, but I'm running out of time.
[Marc] I'm a little worried about Liv's puff pastry in the oven.
She keeps looking in there and popping her head in there to look at it
and she's letting all the heat out.
Two minutes, guys. If we've gotta do something to make them cook.
Do it. Whatever it takes.
Behind.
[Amanda muttering quietly] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Argh, Liv has taken the Searzall
and she's trying to give her puff pastry some color with it.
- They're just gonna light on fire, essentially... - [Marc] Which has happened.
Which is what's happening.
She's just burning the outside.
Less than one minute to go, chefs. Gotta plate it up.
[Amanda] Watch what you're doing, watch what you're doing.
Oh, my gosh, I'm getting... I'm getting nervous
- [Marc] Come on guys-- - [Ted] You gotta get everything on the plate.
[Justin] 15 seconds, let's go. [clapping hurriedly]
[Ted] All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round.
Ten, nine, eight,
- seven, six... - [Amanda] Oh, my God!
- ...five... - [Justin] Somethings of fire!
- ...four, three... - Again, it's like the pancake incident.
...two, one. Time's up.
Oh, my God.
[Amanda] What was that?
- [metallic crashing] - Oh, sorry. My bad, sorry.
So I put the crumble in the oven.
It was not colored enough, so I put the broiler on,
and the broiler's starting to burn the dough.
And I burned myself as well. It was just a mess.
Oh, man. I'm a little overwhelmed.
My main thought running through my head right now
is I didn't have the puff pastry cook all the way.
If my turnovers are not cooked through,
it's probably gonna be the reason that I get sent home tonight.
Chef Liv and Chef Alex,
you opened your dessert baskets to discover burger cookies,
baby zucchini, chokeberries, and tiny spiked horchatas.
Chef Liv, what did you make?
Chefs, for you, I've created a chokeberry compote
and chocolate turnover with sugared-zucchini coins.
And chocolate turnover with sugared-zucchini coins.
I think that you got something very right with the chocolate and the chokeberry.
I like the combination of those two, actually, together.
The unfortunate thing is the puff pastry's not cooked all the way through.
And also, this is supposed to be tiny.
The actual dessert's hanging off the plate a little bit.
Even just for regular old dessert,
this is a lot of food to eat.
This is a lot of food to eat.
I like the tiny baby zucchini, but I want it to be a little bit crispier.
[Justin] Making those chokeberries and that chocolate work,
I think you did really well. I mean, those were almost unpalatable by themselves.
- Thank you, chefs. - Thank you, Chef Liv.
Over to you, Chef Alex. What do we have?
So what I made is a zucchini bread muffin
with a horchata ice cream,
a chokeberry compote and a cookie burger chocolate crumble.
Chef Alex, this is a composed, complete dessert, and appropriately-sized.
Try and pull off, you know, a cake, a compote, an ice cream, a crumble,
all of that in 30 minutes, it was very ambitious.
But I think each piece was just screaming for some sugar.
I like sugar, but not to an extent.
Yeah, sugar doesn't only add sweetness,
it also gives texture to things.
It can make cakes soft and caramelized, even.
The cake itself, I was so excited to see you making it.
But sugar content missing. But it was tiny.
Hey, it's the right size.
I think that adding the blueberries to the compote was good
in a little bit of sugar. 'Cause this is still very tannic.
They definitely need more sugar I think.
- Thank you, Chef. - Chef Alex, thank you.
Big fun with small bites. The judges need some time now to decide who has won.
Thanks, chefs.
I mean, who do we think between Liv and Alex?
Who really embodied tiny but mighty today?
I think in the appetizer round,
look at Liv's clam dish and the sauce that she made.
I loved what she did with that.
I have to say that Alex, though,
he made that little wonton. There was a lot of flavor in that little wonton.
That was tiny and pretty mighty.
I like that he took those clams out of the shell.
I think he was thinking, you know, with a fine dining chef mentality.
But I think that we can all agree that Liv and Alex,
sort of, the mini pancakes were the downfall in their appetizer round.
- Both of them. - 100%.
But we all know about the entree and the Cornish hen.
- [Amanda] I was so surprised. - They all underestimated the cook time
and just tried to do too much.
[Marc] But that Madeira sauce on Alex's plate was absolutely to die for.
- [Amanda] Yes. - [Marc] It was one of the best things I ate today.
But then, honestly, you kinda had to take the Cornish hen
off of both of their plates to judge them.
Because we had issues with the leg cooking on Chef Alex's,
but also on Chef Liv's, her leg wasn't cooked enough either.
I think we have no choice but to look at that baba ghanoush
'cause that, for me, was one of the best things that I ate today.
It was bright, it had flavor. To me, that was my favorite bite.
It was a good showdown, but I think we've decided, though.
Excellent.
[Liv] I think I consistently pulled through, bringing forth mighty flavors
whilst still having small plates.
But there's no telling which way they're gonna go.
[Alex] I am very confident
the three meals that I did, I really represent myself.
I think I'm the next Chopped champion.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Alex, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Alex, this was quite a battle.
In the first round, we loved the wontons
as a little, tasty, small, bold-flavored package.
But the charred pancake crouton was not good.
And in dessert, if you had added the proper amount of sugar to each recipe,
we would have been maybe having a different conversation here.
We would have been maybe having a different conversation here.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you very much, Chef.
- Thank you. Thank you. - Thank you. Good job.
I'm not feeling so good. Pretty disappointed, actually.
But my wife and kids are still gonna be proud of me for what I've done.
And that means, Chef Liv Hurst, you are the Chopped champion
and you've just won $10,000.
- Yes! - [Ted] Congratulations.
- [cheering and applause] - [Amanda] Congratulations.
Oh, my gosh. This has been extraordinary.
Thank you, guys, so much.
It feels unreal.
It's so amazing to be the Chopped champion.
My parents are going to be so proud of me.
My parents are already proud of me,
but this is just gonna set it over the top.