All right, it's time to get Chopped.
We pulled social media stars
that normally cook behind the camera.
Say hi, guys.
We got the sauce, you know?
What is he doing?
Making a TikTok mid-Chopped
-Let's go! -[yelling]
It needs to taste good, it needs to look good!
Whoo! What have I gotten myself into?
They don't get to do a second take.
Oh, my God.
There's no escaping the stress and the pressure.
I'm terrified.
I don't know if you're even supposed to shuck 'em.
I can't really think straight. But what else is new?
Is this dish going to go viral?
Oh, that's looking money, baby.
My knees are weak.
Oh, my gosh.
Let's make this happen.
[clock ticking]
I'm a Syrian-American,
and I'm all about big, bold flavors.
Remember, if their color don't change,
no flavor was gained.
I'm a cook and the founder of The Golden Balance,
the online collective of all my favorite recipes.
I currently have 4.9 millio TikTok followers,
1.3 million Instagram followers.
Honey chicken tenders.
These were absolutely incredible.
I'm ready to push myself to the limit,
compete against other content creators,
and make all the people that support me proud.
That is a 10 out of 10 experience.
Let's make one of my all-time favorite dinners. Chicken Piccata.
I'm Alix Traeger, I'm a content creator.
Add in your wine. Lemon juice.
Most of my cooking videos
center around viral food trends.
Not only how the food tastes
but visually, how it looks.
Hakuna Piccata!
My followers have come to expect a lot of laughs.
[clattering]
Maybe a spill or two.
But hopefully making somethi delicious in the end.
My strategy is to keep my cool and keep my confidence.
I am going all in, and I'm bringing home the wi
[H Woo Lee] I am a chef content creator
based in Los Angeles.
I have a video series calle Cooking For Myself.
[clapping]
Most of my recipes are fusing of different flavors
from different countries, and I try to make dishes
that usually seem out of reach more attainable.
I like to compete.
I feel like I'm good at working under pressure.
I feel energized. I really wanna win Chopped.
[Tway Da Bae] I was born in Vietnam,
and I create really easy-to-follow recipes onlin
focusing on Vietnamese cuisine.
I'm super-passionate about sharing my culture.
I am 100% very competitive.
I am buckled in, ready to kill it.
Say it with me. Canh Kho Qua Bitter melon soup.
Cheers. [slurps]
-So excited. -Whoo!
Say hi, guys.
[both] I'm so excited!
-Wow. -Oh, wow.
-Wow. -This is so cool.
-Hey, guys! -Hello!
-[Maneet] Welcome! -Oh, my God!
[Ted] You're already at it.
Always gotta get that content.
[laughs]
[Ted] Hello, everyone.
-Hi! -Hi, Ted.
[Ted] Your followers are used to
eating with their eyes first.
So our judges are expecting every dish to be Insta-worthy.
-Got it? -Insta-worthy.
Got it.
-[Ted] All right, chefs, it's time. -We're doing this.
Open your appetizer basket.
[Tway] Whoo!
Oh, man.
[Ted] The mandatory ingredients are baked feta.
Oh, wait! This is familiar.
[Tway] Is this like the baked feta?
[Alix] This is all the rage, yeah.
[Ted] Mussels.
I'm screwed. [laughs]
I've never worked with a mussel in my entire life.
I'm terrified.
[Ted] Micro mizuna.
-[Ahmad] Micro greens. -[Tway] Okay.
And I have no clue what this is.
[Ted] And a raindrop cake.
Okay.
Warning, this first 30-minute round
tends to fly by.
Also, time starts now.
-[Ted] Let's go! -[Maneet] Go, go, go!
-Whoo! -Oh, my gosh.
[Tway] Oh, my God, we're doing this.
[Ted] Maneet, Geoffrey, you are joined by
online cooking instructor and Chopped champion,
Chef Joe Sasto. Welcome, Joe.
-Thank you for having me. Very excited. -[Maneet] Welcome!
[Joe] I think what makes this so hard here today
is that we pulled social media stars
that normally cook behind the camera,
and challenge them to do something
where they don't get to do a second take.
[Geoffrey] Yeah, like, this is real and there's no escaping
-the stress and the pressure. -Uh-huh.
One portion, two portions.
As a content creator, it feels really cool
to compete against other content creators.
But when I'm making my video I have nothing behind me.
But in the Chopped kitch
there's a clock, and there's all the judges.
I really just have to zone everything out
and bring my A game.
I'm making baked feta lingui with a side of mussels.
Add some depth of flavor.
Chili powder.
So, to make my sauce I'm gonna grab
the tomatoes, the garlic, the shallot,
from the baked feta,
and I'm gonna start developing all that beautiful flavor.
I want it to be silky smooth.
Ahmad, is this dish going to go viral?
I hope so.
[Maneet] You know, in addition to taste, creativity,
we are also looking at these dishes being Insta-worthy.
All of these social media stars are stars
because they have managed to entice people
through just the screen
with how beautiful their food looks.
And that is pretty much the expectation
-that we have right now. -Uh-huh.
Okay.
So, raindrop cake is a Japanese-inspired dessert.
It's essentially water flavored with sugar,
and then it's set with agar
And it looks like a raindrop
-So it could somehow throw some people off. -[Geoffrey] Yeah.
[Ahmad] How you feeling already?
-[Tway] I feel great. -I'm in my zone.
All right, let's do it, let's get it.
I'm really excited to see the mussels,
because in Vietnamese cooking there is a lot of seafood.
And I want to steam my mussels
in a broth with the raindrop cake.
I am making a raindrop-cake steamed mussel
with baked feta and tomato crostini.
Oh, love that!
I can't really think straight. [laughs]
Oh, my gosh! [laughs]
What have I gotten myself into?
Okay.
I know mussels are often served with linguine.
I'm making linguine with mussels
in a white wine tomato sauce
topped with dressed mizuna.
I'm also gonna add in tomato in the baked feta.
Does anyone have panko breadcrumbs?
-[Alix] I have them! -You do?
Thank you.
Oh, my God.
I've never cooked with mussels,
but I'm thinking it'll work really well fried.
I'm making fried mussels with a tomato sauce.
So, I grab a knife and I tr to start shucking the mussel
I've actually never worked with mussels.
I don't know if you're even supposed to shuck 'em.
It's not quite coming out the way I want.
Is there, like, a call-a-friend line thing?
[Ted] H Woo is shucking his mussels.
He's shucking his raw mussels.
[Ted] Which you really don't need to do.
You just need to heat them.
[both] And they'll open themselves.
[Ted] Very obligingly.
Not the time to learn how to do this.
Shucking the mussels is not working.
And then I realize you're probably supposed
to steam them! [laughs]
I need wine.
Cooks, just under 20 minutes to go.
Whoo! Where does the time go?
[Ahmad] Okay.
As I'm tasting my sauce I feel like it needs
a little bit more depth of flavor,
so I add some sriracha to give it a nice little kick.
Oh, that's looking money, baby.
I grab some of that raindrop cake
and I toss it into the sauc just to add some sweetness.
Mussels going in.
Gotta flick that wrist a little bit.
Okay, cooks, less than 10 minutes to go here.
[Tway] I'm making a spread for my crostini,
and I blend up the feta and the tomatoes together.
I have close to 600,000 TikTok followers,
360,000 Instagram followers
It's a lot of eyes.
And it can get really scary sometimes.
But what really, like, grounds me
is knowing that these peopl are inspired by me.
Whoo!
These look great.
Seven minutes, okay.
I love feta, so I have the idea to make breaded fet
using the roasted soy bean powder
from the raindrop cake.
This is a little bit of a risky move,
because I don't know if the cheese
is gonna explode from this.
I'm just praying that this works.
[Maneet] Alix took the feta cheese, coated it,
and threw it into the fryer.
-Oh, I like that idea. -Which is a great idea.
[H Woo] My mussels are now finally opening up,
so I'm battering my mussels
in a classic flour, egg, and panko mixture,
and drop them in the deep fryer.
To go with my mussels, I'm making a sauce
from the baked feta.
I'm using the tomatoes, the shallot,
the garlic, and the olive oi
Raindrop cake doesn't have much of a taste,
so I'm hoping that I can put it into the sauce
as a thickener.
Chefs, five minutes to go.
No way!
It is flying.
Time is running out, and whe I go to check on my broth,
half of it is burnt.
[gasps] Oh, my God.
There's no way that I could
cook these mussels in the broth.
It's not a broth at this point.
I'm starting to really freak out.
I think I [bleep] up.
[clock ticking]
Come on!
[Tway gasps]
The sugar and the sake that's in the broth
is completely burnt.
I have to start over.
All I can do now is to toss and start over.
Back in business.
Okay, less than two minutes to go, folks.
[Ahmad] Micro mizuna, I'm thinking to kind of
dress them up with a little bit of olive oil,
and just give them a little bit more love.
And then I take out my tweezers,
and I'm like, I need to make this look pretty.
[Maneet] I'm really impressed with Ahmad's move right now.
He is looking at it being Insta-worthy.
[Ted] That is lovely.
I'm stealing that.
[Alix] Micro mizuna.
They're micro greens,
and micro greens tend to have a nice, like,
peppery flavor.
And so I think they will go really great
alongside my pasta.
So I'm gonna dress them
in some olive oil and lemon juice.
Whoo!
One minute to go, chefs.
[Tway] I'm going to dress up this mizuna.
Olive oil, little bit of citrus.
-[Maneet] Come on, guys! -[Joe] H Woo, get it on the plate.
[H Woo] Time's running out.
I decide to use the micro mizuna in my sauce
-Let's go. -Oh, my goodness.
-[Maneet] Come on, let's go. -Oh, my gosh.
-[Ted] 30 seconds! -It needs to taste good.
It needs to look good!
My knees are weak.
[Ted] Stay in the zone till the end, chefs.
10, nine, eight, seven,
-six, five, four... -Oh, my God.
...three, two, one. Time's up.
-Whoo! -[applause]
Oh, my God.
What a wild ride. Well done.
My heart is beating as fast as that round.
[H Woo] You know, I learned one thing here, and it's tha
you don't just shuck a musse
You just gotta cook it first I hope they love it.
I doubt they will.
Okay, this is my final dish.
[laughing] Look at the mess I made!
Classic Alix.
-Actually crazy. -[H Woo] That was actually crazy.
[Ted] You have arrived at the chopping block.
You worked with a first basket of baked feta,
mussels, micro mizuna, and a raindrop cake.
Ahmad, would you please tell us about your appetizer.
I made a creamy tomato linguine
with a side of mussels.
I love making pasta.
Anything with a lot of carbs, I'm a fan of.
But I'm not used to cooking mussels, only building them!
[all laugh]
-That wasn't planned, I promise! -[chuckles]
So, what got you into cooking?
Just growing up, I always loved eating,
so I would just always spend my time watching Food Network.
And then after high school I had gained a lot of weight,
and I started losing weight eating good food,
and I thought I would share it with the world.
[Geoffrey] It's a good plate of pasta.
It's restrained, which is good.
It's a very nice cook on the mussels.
The sauce is good, I like the fact that the sweet
balanced nicely against the sriracha.
Thank you very much.
Ahmad, it is a deceptively simple dish that you've given,
but the amount of time that you took to develop flavors
in that sauce, you can taste that.
It all comes together very well.
[Joe] I like this dish.
The way this looked, I thought was very social-media-worthy.
It was craveable.
I feel like the pasta itself
could be seasoned a little more.
But overall, a really great appetizer to start this off.
Thank you very much.
Next up, Tway.
I made raindrop-cake-steamed mussels
with baked feta and tomato crostini.
These mussels...
are absolutely delicious.
[sighs with relief]
-They're cooked perfectly. -Thank you.
[Joe] Your use of the raindrop cake,
pairing it with the broth, with the mussels,
stroke of genius.
I love that with the flavors
of the sake and the fish sauce.
Thank you.
[Geoffrey] Um...
The broth is good.
But the trick of the basket is you take the feta,
and somehow make it go with this.
Basically you just slathered this on top
and, like, called it a day.
So, Tway, a lot of people might not realize
that achieving social media prominence
takes a lot of work.
Can you talk about how you've done it?
I've honestly always loved the camera.
And I share mostly Vietnamese food,
because I think a lot of people
are intimidated by Vietnamese cooking.
And my goal is to make people feel like
-it's attainable to do. -[Ted] Wow.
Thank you, Tway. Next up, H Woo.
So, here I have fried mussels
with a tomato, raindrop cake sauce.
I like the sauce. It's sweet, and the bread's very good.
I must say, it is Insta-worthy.
Um, I think it's a good appetizer.
Thank you, Chef.
Let's start by talking about the sauce.
The sauce is incredible.
But the thing with mussels is that you cooked it twice.
-Right? -I did.
So it became tough.
I think those mussels were your biggest pitfall.
But they are totally redeemed by that sauce.
-Well done. -Thank you, Chef.
Thank you, H Woo. Finally, Alix.
So, my starter is linguine
with a white wine and tomato sauce,
with breaded feta, AKA "breada."
Is that a new trend that you're going to start?
Right breada, yeah, it's the new TikTok trend. [laughs]
[Maneet] Alix, you might be on to something
with this breada. That is delicious.
Deep-fried cheese can always be a very risky move,
because if you haven't coated it properly,
it can just seep out into the fryer.
-So that was expertly done. -Thank you.
Yeah, I second the breada was very good.
But pasta's one of the hardest
things in the world to cook properly.
And so when you grab it,
you're grabbing, like, Kryptonite.
And no one cooked the pasta correctly.
No one put salt in the water.
It's a classic mistake.
I don't know about you judges, but my mussels
could have been cooked slightly less.
But that micro mizuna, the way you dressed it,
I really appreciate that.
It added that freshness and it really kind of helped balance out.
Tell us about your online work.
So, I actually have always loved to cook.
I am self-taught and I'm accident-prone,
-and spill and make messes. -[Ted laughs]
And a big part of my platform is making mistakes,
but at the end of the day, I just like
to have a lot of fun in the kitchen.
[Ted] I love that you all have this message that we all
-deserve a place in the kitchen. -Yeah.
[Ahmad] What's worrying me is the fact that
I didn't salt the water properly.
But I think H Woo might be on the chopping block,
just for the fact that he overcooked those mussels
[H Woo] I'm feeling more unsure than confident.
I'm confident in my unsureness, so...
[clock ticking]
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[intense music playing]
Oh, my God.
[Ted] Alix, you've been chopped. Judges.
Alix, you didn't have enough salt in the water
when you cooked the pasta.
And the mussels were overcooked.
And so we had to chop you.
Thank you so much, chefs.
-[applause] -Good luck, Alix.
[Alix] I'm a little disappointed,
but if you watch any of my videos you know that
I make mistakes, and I think that's what cooking is about,
and that's what life is about.
Chopped!
The vibes are immaculate at the moment.
He's always about vibes.
[Ted] Tway, Ahmad, H Woo.
Time to acquaint yourselves with this second basket.
Oh, my God.
Open it up.
-What? -Eurgh!
What is this? [chuckles]
-[Ted] It's rainbow brownies -[Tway] This is weird.
You also have lamb loin.
Ah. Lamb loin, that's my baby.
All right, this looks like some sort of beet hummus.
[Ted] Beet hummus.
And 15-hour potatoes.
[Tway] Good luck.
[Ted] 30 minutes for the entrée round.
-Clock starts now. -[Maneet] Go, go, go!
-Let's go! -Whoo-hoo!
On your right.
[Ted] Judges, the basket almost has
a little bit of a Middle Eastern feel to it
with the hummus and the lamb.
Is that the direction that you would take?
I don't see why not.
I grew up on lamb.
It's basically a rack of lamb without the bones.
[Tway] Oh, this is beautiful.
The trick is that it doesn't have a lot of fat on it.
So the chances of it getting overcooked
is very, very high.
[Ahmad] All right, let's do this.
So, I'm excited to see that lamb loin.
It does not have a lot of fa
so I wanna introduce some fa as some seasoning.
I'm making spiced lamb loin
with a beet vinaigrette Fattoush.
I add a little bit of olive oil and mint,
and I start butter-basting the lamb.
[Ted] That's good.
[sizzling]
[Tway] I've never had lamb in a quesadilla before,
but I love trying new things.
I'm feeling it.
So, I'm making a lamb and potato quesadilla
Oh, that smells great!
To go with my quesadilla,
I am making a hummus and brownie sauce.
[slamming]
[Geoffrey] She's making a quesadilla.
And she's using the rainbow brownie for a sauce.
-Oh, interesting. -Interesting, yes.
My word exactly.
That could either be a stroke of genius,
or a huge mistake.
[Joe] We have the rainbow brownies.
If there's anything that the Internet loves,
it's rainbows. And so these aren't just brownies,
they're brownies and cookies layered together.
[Maneet] I would probably powder the rainbow brownies,
-make a spice blend. -[Joe] Dry it out.
And then dry rub that on the lamb.
-Use it as a crust to roll the loin in it. -Yeah.
Yeah, that's a very, very good idea.
[H Woo] Rainbow brownies.
I think certain foods should stay on social media
and out of the kitchen.
[chuckles softly]
I'm kinda just winging it right now.
But lamb loin will work really well fried.
I am cutting up the brownie
and putting it into a buttermilk batter.
And I wanna pound out this lamb
so it can get really thin.
[forcefully pounding lamb]
I hear H Woo going to town on this lamb.
He's just bashing the goofy out of it.
You getting wild over there, H Woo?
I'm getting a little crazy right now.
I'm making lamb katsu with beetroot yogurt dip.
Katsu is a very popular Japanese breaded cutlet.
That's good.
[Maneet] The beet hummus, the flavor is delicious.
But if they add something
lighter to it like sour cream or yogurt,
we will get a very bright pink,
fluorescent-pink-looking sauce.
[Ted] Yeah, and iridescent pink is not...
Not the most appetizing color.
But I think that would be very good as a vinaigrette.
[Ted] I think that's a great idea.
[Ahmad] There we go.
I'm making a beet vinaigrett
So I add some olive oil, som lemon juice, Dijon mustard.
And I'm gonna take
the chocolate chips on top of the rainbow cake
and I'm gonna microplane the
inside the vinaigrette.
Okay, that's pretty good.
Right behind you.
I wanna win Chopped for my parents.
They came from Syria 40 years ago.
And when I told my dad
I wanted to make content, he was there for me.
When I told my mom I wanted to cook in her kitchen
and make a mess, she was there for me.
My parents have always been support of who I want to be
And that's why I'm here toda
Holy... Time is flying!
[Tway] I'm seasoning the hummus with
a squeeze of orange juice,
some orange zest, and then some cilantro
and some green onions.
I have seen these 15-hour potatoes
all over social media.
It's literally like really, really thin layers
of potatoes that's fried.
And I'm using the 15-hour potatoes
in my quesadilla filling.
I am very competitive.
Being an immigrant, being a child of immigrants
has instilled in me,
hard work and dedication will get you so, so far.
And winning Chopped would be amazing.
Let's ground this.
[H Woo] I'm pan-frying the lamb
and they look golden brown,
so I take 'em out, put 'em into the oven
so they can stay warm.
And I'm making a yoghurt sau with the beet hummus,
chopped herbs and mint.
I started cooking while I was in college,
and learned from recipes that I found online.
So, I have close to a million followers on TikTo
and around 250,000 on Instagram.
Being in this competition means a lot.
I hope that it inspires others to start cooking more.
Less than 10 minutes to go.
[Ahmad] H Woo, how you feeling?
Feeling pretty good, you?
-You vibing? -Vibing.
I feel like everyone's zoned in.
Fattoush is a traditional Middle Eastern salad.
Usually has a lot of sumac, onion,
and some deep-fried pita bread.
So instead, taking the 15-hour potato,
I'm gonna deep-fry them to kind of
imitate the deep-fried bread
I'm behind you.
[Tway] I have to start assembling my quesadilla
with the lamb, potatoes, mozzarella.
And I go to check on my brownies
and I realize they are burnt.
God, I burnt my brownies! Damn it!
I need more brownies.
Hey, Tway, how are the rainbow brownies coming over there?
[Tway] I burnt them!
[Joe] Are you gonna be able to recover from that?
Of course.
Luckily I still have some brownies left.
I just restart.
Less than two minutes to go, folks.
[H Woo] Typically katsu's kinda served with a potato salad.
I wanna make a Mediterranean potato sala
out of the 15-hour potato.
Mixing it with horseradish, lemon juice, mayo, and olive
[Ahmad] I go to check on my lamb
and I'm so disappointed.
It slightly feels overdone.
I'm actually really nervous
[Maneet] Presentation matters, guys!
Make sure the dishes are Insta-worthy.
-[Ted] Keep on keeping on, folks. -[clapping]
-[Maneet] Come on! -[Ted] 10, nine...
-Right down to the end, use every second on that clock. -...eight, seven,
six, five, four, three,
two, one. Time's up.
[applause]
Marvelous, marvelous, marvelous, marvelous.
The brownies definitely threw me off.
But I think my lamb has great flavor.
So, fingers crossed.
[clock ticking]
Social media stars, in the entree round, we asked you to make main dishes
with rainbow brownies, lamb loin, beet hummus, and 15-hour potatoes.
And we're starting with you, Ahmad.
So I made a spiced lamb loin with a beet root vinaigrette Fattoush,
topped with crispy potato crouton.
Just to give off that, uh, Fattoush feeling of that fried bread.
I was expecting, um, Fattoush, and I got Fattoush-lite.
Fattoush is leftover pita that's dried with sumac, onion, lemon, garlic.
I think it was good, it's just that without
the lemon, the sumac and the onion,
it doesn't have, uh, the oomph of a Fattoush,
but I love the thought process.
-Have you made this beet hummus vinaigrette before? -I have not.
-It's very good. -Thanks.
[Joe Sasto] It has a great balance of acid and creaminess.
I love the potatoes on top. It adds a wonderful kind of crouton texture to your salad.
Thank you, Chef.
On the lamb, how did you use the spices?
I marinated it with a little olive oil, mint leaves.
Yeah, it did get dried out and also, the spice on top, it almost got burnt,
and that's where the bitterness is coming from.
Thank you, Ahmad. Tway, we'll taste your dish next.
I made a lamb and potato quesadilla
with a hummus brownie dipping sauce.
Look at this plate, pink salsa...
...at first glance may seem kind of weird,
but it actually on the black cast iron plate, made me wanna dive right into it.
Thank you, Chef.
The color of the sauce that you have over here
definitely makes this dish social media worthy.
-Right. -[Maneet Chauhan] But with the lamb I would have
suggested cooking it to only rare,
cutting it and then putting it in there and searing it
because you're cooking the lamb twice, and being such a lean piece of meat,
it overcooks very easily.
-Thank you, Chef. -[Geoffrey Zakarian] Did you taste this dipping sauce?
Um, no, I didn't.
Tell me what you think.
There's way too much going on it. It becomes like a train wreck in Times Square.
It's so much going on, so you gotta, like, taste as you go.
Thank you, Tway. Finally, H Woo.
I have here a take on a lamb katsu,
a horseradish potato salad, and then the sauce
is a beetroot hummus with yogurt sauce.
Where is the brownie?
[H Woo Lee] I cooked the brownies in buttermilk,
and then dipped the lamb in the buttermilk,
then I battered it and fried it.
The lamb again is a little overcooked, but the breading on that lamb is excellent,
and very imaginative to put the brownie into the buttermilk.
-Thank you, Chef. -The beet hummus sauce, it's delicious.
The lamb is overdone, but because it's fried, it doesn't come across as dry.
-Thank you, Chef. -This is a beautifully composed plate, H Woo.
The potato salad, I think is incredibly creative.
What I don't like is the olives,
and I just don't think it works with kind of those greasy, heavy potatoes.
It's kind of like fat on fat on fat.
-You need some freshness. -Thank you, Chef.
[Tom Allen] Now enough of all this tension and critiquing,
do you guys wanna take a selfie or something?
-Yeah. -Let's do it.
-Okay, here. Give it to me. -[Allen] Okay.
[Tway] Okay.
[Allen] Maneet, you should be in the picture.
[Chauhan] Oh, I am so being in the picture.
-[Ahmad] She is the picture. -[Chauhan] Yeah. Let's go.
-[Chauhan] That's how selfie are taken, guys. -[all laughing]
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Tway, you've been chopped. Judges...
Tway, while we loved the idea of the quesadilla,
the lamb was a little dry and overcooked,
and that pink salsa, it was just a little too sweet,
and not balanced, and so we had to chop you.
Thank you, Chef. Bye guys. Good luck.
-[H Woo] Good luck. -[all clapping]
[Tway] Ugh, this experience has been incredible.
I feel like I can conquer anything now that I have gone through Chopped.
[chuckles]
This final round, I can believe I'm here. It's a blessing.
Ahmad, H Woo, will you like what's in this final basket?
There's only room for one. I got this.
I'm ready to take this one home.
[Allen] All right. Let's do it.
Open it up!
-[blows air] -[Ahmad] Oh, look.
-[H Woo] Okay. -The dessert is already made.
-[Allen] A cotton candy cake. -[H Woo] Who invented this?
[Ahmad chuckles]
Is this Nature's Cereal?
-[Allen] Nature's Cereal. -[H Woo] Oh, my God.
[Allen] Bergamot.
-[H Woo] Wow. -[Allen] And croissant doughnuts.
-This is ridiculous. -[Allen] 30 minutes.
Time starts now.
-[Cauhan] Chefs, let's go! -[Zakarian] Go!
-[judges clapping] -[H Woo] Here we go.
On social media, desserts, especially colorful,
over-the-top desserts are so popular.
Vanilla extract.
This cotton candy cake, all that this is is different layers of cotton candy
layered up in the form of a cake.
[Sasto] Cotton candy's just sponge sugar...
-[Zakarian] Yeah. -...so essentially we're giving them sugar...
-[Chauhan] Sugar. -...for the dessert round.
[H Woo] Yep.
That's ridiculous. [chuckles]
Cotton candy is easy to incorporate into an ice cream.
I'm making cotton candy and ice cream.
Bergamot is a Mediterranean citrus fruit.
Definitely gonna use this in the ice cream.
[Chauhan] H Woo has over the last two courses
really shown us that, uh, he has a very controlled
and a very refined approach to cooking,
beautiful plates that look absolutely Insta-worthy.
[Ahmad] H Woo, how are you feeling?
[H Woo] I'm vibing. I feel I'm being a little crazy here.
Ahmad sort of exudes this sunshine of food and cooking, you know?
He just loves to cook, and I love seeing that.
[Ahmad] I've never made a cheesecake before,
but I feel like you cannot go wrong with some cream cheese.
Bergamot is giving me some lemon vibes,
and I'm dusting it into the cream cheese.
I'm adding some confectioner's sugar, some vanilla extract,
and I'm gonna toss in a litt bit of heavy cream
just to give it some silky smoothness.
Twenty minutes to go, folks.
[Sasto] Nature's Cereal is o of those things
that is a direct product of the internet.
It is a mix of berries, usually with coconut water poured over it.
It's a gimme basket ingredient for the dessert round.
[Chauhan] It's-- Completely.
[H Woo] I'm using the berrie from the Nature's Cereal to make a compote,
and I get them into a sauce pan with, um, bergamot rinds water and sugar.
[Ahmad] I'm gonna repurpose the Nature's Cereal into a reduction.
I'm straining out a little b of that coconut water,
then I'm gonna toss in the cotton candy instead of sugar.
Zest and juice.
I'm also zesting and juicin the bergamot into the reduction.
I guess the most.
Less than 10 minutes to go!
-H Woo, are you making ice cream? -[H Woo] Yes, sir.
[Sasto] These croissant doughnuts, uh, incredibly popular.
Essentially it's a croissant dough,
punched out into the shape of a doughnut and then fried
[H Woo] With the croissant doughnuts I'm cutting them up
and then making a chocolate orange sauce
to help bring some flavor out in them.
Behind, behind.
[Ahmad] For my cheesecake crust, I'm takin some Graham crackers,
the croissant portion of the pastry, and I'm gonn blend them together.
So, uh, Ahmad right over there is making a no bake cheesecake.
He's going to use the croissant doughnut as the base,
-and then build a cheesecak on top. -[Sasto] Interesting.
Four minutes to go!
[H Woo] There's not much time at all
[Allen] We're getting down to the wire here.
[H Woo] I go to check on my ice cream and...
...it just splatters all over me.
-[Allen] Oh, wow. -What is he doing?
Let's not touch that early.
H Woo has just gone ahead and opened the ice cream machine,
and the ice cream is not set.
[H Woo] I have two of the basket ingredients in this ice cream.
I need it to turn out perfectly.
[H Woo] I go to check on my ice cream, and it jus splatters all over me.
-Oh, God. -Oh, my God.
[H Woo] My ice cream is not even close to being ready.
I hope that's fine. [chuckles]
[Ahmad] This berry sauce needs to thicken.
My plan is to have several levels of flavor and textur in this cheesecake,
so I take my cheesecake crust, I put it on the bottom of the dish,
then I start piping my cheesecake filling on top.
[Sasto] Don't forget about your ice cream.
H Woo is going to wait 'till the last second to get the ice cream out.
H Woo, you have to pull your ice cream out.
I'm praying for that ice cream. Behind, behind.
[Chauhan] Okay, come on, come on! Let's go, let's go!
Make sure everything's on your plate.
Time's running out. I hope that the ice cream has set.
-[Chauhan] Okay, come on! -One minute to go!
[Chauhan] Not a lot of time! [clapping]
Okay, come on, come on! Let's go, let's go, let's go!
[Sasto] Make sure everything's on your plate, all the components.
[Allen] All right, final seconds of the final round!
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
-[Sasto] Wow. -Whoo!
-[judges clapping] -[Ahmad] Hey.
-[H Woo] Oh, my God. -You all right? Sup, baby?
That was scary.
I'm looking at Ahmad's dish and it looks fantastic.
[Ahmad] I look at H Woo. It seems like he's pulled off ice cream,
but I think this is a $10,000 dish.
I came up with something that I'm pretty proud of, honestly.
H Woo and Ahmad, that last basket was a lovely one.
A cotton candy cake, Nature's Cereal, bergamot and croissant doughnuts.
H Woo, please tell us about your dessert.
Chefs, on your right is a cotton candy and bergamot ice cream,
and on the left is a croissant doughnut
with an orange chocolate sauce underneath,
and on top is a Nature's Cereal reduction.
H Woo... this is really good.
-Thank you. -[Chauhan] The consistency of the ice cream is lovely,
it's velvety, it is everything that an ice cream should be.
And the chocolate sauce and the Nature's Cereal sauce,
nice, flavorful, clean, and when I have everything together,
it's a very sophisticated bite.
-Thank you, Chef. -Um, I disagree.
I don't like your ice cream.
And chopping doughnuts and throwing 'em in chocolate
is not my idea of a dessert, it's like, Hail Mary.
[Sasto] I'm gonna land somewhere in the middle.
It's eye-catching and ice cream.
The texture on it's great, but in the cotton candy
and the bergamot you put in there, it gets lost.
Had you just used a little bit of zest,
you really would have gotten that floral and aromatic quality.
-Got it. Thank you, Chef. -Thank you, H Woo. Finally, Ahmad.
Chefs, in front of you is a cheesecake,
and then the reduction on to is Nature's Cereal.
I did a bergamot juice zest
and then I took all that top layer cotton candy,
and I put it into the reduction instead of sugar.
[Zakarian] It's pretty, no question about that,
and I think that it's a great idea, and I think the composition
-is very smart. -Thank you.
-Ahmad, have you used bergamot before? -My first time.
You would have had me fooled.
Um, I love your use of bergamot.
It is restrained, but you still taste it, and I love the way that this looks.
It's incredibly social media worthy.
I think this is a really fun, creative dessert.
Thank you so much. I'm honored.
I love the idea that you took the croissant doughnut,
and you made it into the crust,
but I think you could have taken it to the next level by toasting it
because when you have the cheesecake, you want that crunch,
you want that baked base.
[Allen] Okay, Ahmad, thank you.
The judges must choose just one winner, and this does not seem like an easy call.
We'll bring you back soon. Thanks.
Judges, even worse than being chopped, these social media stars risk being unfollowed
by people who didn't think they performed well here.
Could that happen?
-Well, uh... -No.
I think they are going to gain more followers.
Ahmad's dessert was a very rendition of a cheesecake.
It was elegant, and he made a beautiful, like, parfait in the glass.
H Woo, on the other hand, I know that you did not like the texture of the ice cream.
I do think that the texture of the ice cream was great.
In round one, H Woo did not know how to cook with mussels.
[Zakarian] Yes, they were overcooked.
[Chauhan] But the sauce that he created
with the baked feta, it was delicious.
I thought, though, uh, Ahmad did a really good job with the pasta,
you know, other than it need more salt and water,
-but his mussels were cooked perfectly. -[Chauhan] Yes.
-[Sasto] They were. -Where Ahmad sort of fell down was on his entree.
-[Sasto] Mmm-hmm. -[Zakarian] That beautiful, expensive lamb loin,
his spice rub got, like, really acrid smoky burn.
But what Ahmad did amazingly was take that beet hummus
and make that light, fresh vinaigrette out of it.
[Sasto] He transformed the ingredien
Think that H Woo's katsu, the crust was great,
and he was very successful in his beet yogurt sauce.
Unfortunately the lamb was overcooked.
I don't think either one of 'em made too many mistakes
that is gonna make this an easy decision.
It's a very close neck and neck battle.
I want this so badly for the people that support me,
which is friends, family and followers.
I'm just praying for the bes
Holy [bleep]. I'm feeling anxious. [chuckles nervously]
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
H Woo, you've been chopped. Judges...
H Woo, in the first course, the mussels, which was the star of the dish,
really were overcooked.
On the second course, the lamb was overcooked.
The potato salad was a good idea,
but the olives kneaded very heavy for us, and so we had to chop you.
Thank you, Chef.
-[Ahmad] Come here. -[both chuckling softly]
[H Woo] You did a great job.
[clapping]
This didn't go the way I wanted, but I'm just so grateful to be here
and to experience all this.
It's been a great time.
[Allen] And that means, Ahmad Alzahabi,
you are the Chopped champio, congratulations.
-[Zakarian] Yeah! -Thank you so much.
-[Chauhan] Whoo! -[all clapping]
-Oh, my God. I appreciate it. -[all clapping]
[breaking up] Shout out to my parents. Just makes me cry.
To my followers everyday who support me, and I'd never knew I'd be here.
It's crazy.
I just won Chopped, baby. It's just the craziest feeling in the world.
Thanks so much.
Big breath in, I won Chopped.
Just so emotion, and, so, bless you.