[man laughing]
[Ted] For our Bizarre Battle
It's pork uterus.
[Charleston] I'm gonna fry uteruses.
-Uteruses? -Uteri? I don't know.
[Ted] Cricket milkshake.
Insects, they're packed with protein. They're eaten around the world.
[Ted] Steaming hot rooster testicle stew.
Testicle stew, just like mom used to make.
Do you often work with bizarre ingredients like this?
I've made a career out of it.
'Cause mine is burnt.
[Charleston] This time is going by way too quick.
[Maneet] Come on, come on, come on!
[Travis] No matter what, get to the finish line.
[Ted] Five, four,
three, two,
one!
[Travis] Bizarre ingredient are just ingredients.
I am the chef-owner of The Parish
in Tucson, Arizona.
When we first started, I pu frog legs on the menu,
and ten years later, we can't keep up.
I think my pigtails are wagging.
Pig tails, I fell in love with them.
They're soft, the skin on them's crunchy.
It's been just dynamite.
I don't think anything's too bizarre for me,
but I'm sure they're gonna throw some challenges my way
I can't wait to see what they have in store.
[Charleston] The more unusua the ingredient is,
the more fun it is to work with.
I have a lot of Chinese, Japanese and Asian influence
I've work with sea cucumber I've work with abalone.
These are from New Zealand.
And all kinds of strange seafood
the other contestants might consider bizarre.
I like to go really, really thin on these.
I definitely am unique.
So bring on the bizarre, I'm here to crush it.
[Nikko] Nothing's really wei for me, I can cook anything
In Filipino cooking,
there is no such thing as bizarre food.
Pig's head, chicken's head,
chicken feet. Nothing scares me.
I love chicken feet,
'cause the skin is really go when it's crispy.
I wanna win Chopped just for validation
that I'm doing the right thi pursuing Filipino food.
[Sarah] Bizarre foods are my jam.
Yes, I love them. [chuckle]
I've learned how to work with things
that most people haven't touched.
The organ meats, the offals they're kind of thrown away
But this is food.
I like to do highbrow, lowbrow dishes,
really fancy ingredients in an approachable concept.
Beef heart, when treated wel
can taste just like roast beef.
I'm not afraid of what's gon be in those baskets.
I am up for anything.
It all just got way too real.
Chefs, you are here for our infamous Bizarre Baskets battle.
[laughing] Yeah.
[Travis] I don't know if I have words to express how excited I am.
I have been doing bizarre food for years.
The ingredients we give you will be even more challenging
than you imagined.
-I'm ready. -Feeling good, feeling good.
Let's go.
Bizarre Basket number one is packed with shockers.
[Travis chuckles]
Oh, whoa.
[Ted] You could never have guessed this one.
Pork uterus.
Oh, smells good.
Smells porky.
I love the smell.
We're here for bizarre things, right? [chuckles]
Doughnut?
[Ted] And, there's pork and seaweed doughnuts.
This is right up my alley right here, I'm stoked about the donuts.
What is this?
[Ted] Plus purple yams.
Cumin soda.
[Ted] And cumin soda.
That's the best part of the entire basket.
[Geoffrey] That's like the saving grace.
[Maneet] It's delicious. It's so good.
We're giving you a whole 20 minutes.
Time starts now.
Maneet and Geoffrey, you are joined
by a special guest judge,
Chopped champion and a online cooking instructor extraordinaire,
Chef Joe Sasto.
Always exciting to be back.
Better to be on this side of the table, right?
Much better to be on this side of the table, let me tell you.
[Ted] Well, you've arrived here for this bizarre theme,
anybody wanna just jump ship and get out of here?
-Come on! -This is pure Chopped territory, right?
-Right. -This is what we do.
This pork uterus might sound like a really bizarre ingredient,
but around the world this is actually a prized ingredient.
The texture can sometimes be a little slippery
and the flavor of it,
musky, very livery and intense
pork flavor, has that really unique texture,
almost crunchy, like calamari.
Bizarre food is the most exciting thing for me to do as a chef.
My restaurant does six or seven alligators every year,
and people can't get enough of it.
My entire career's built on bizarre food.
I am making a cumin soda, pork uterus open-face doughnut,
with deep-fried purple yam chips.
I've never worked with pork uterus.
But I've used other offal, and I'm guessing that it's probably the same.
So I'm gonna vacuum-seal it in a bag with some fresh herbs,
some vinegar, a little oil,
and I'm gonna get it in boiling water
so that it will get as tender as possible for the judges.
[Maneet] Travis took the pork uterus,
went ahead and vacuum-sealed it,
then got it and put it in boiling water.
That is not gonna work at all.
It's gonna toughen it up.
Sarah, you had no reaction to the pork uterus.
-[Geoffrey] Why not? -[Sarah laughing]
[Sarah] It smells really good.
Pork doesn't scare me.
I have worked with everything from balut to pork brains to emu necks.
I don't think there's an ingredient that I can't cook with.
I'm ready.
I'm making quick-fried pork uterus with purple yam paste.
And golden raisin chutney.
Do you have any space over there?
-[Travis] Left side. -[Sarah] Yeah?
[Sarah] I dropped the pork uterus in. The fat around that
is gonna help crisp up and make a little crackling texture.
[Geoffrey] Pork uterus is similar to tripe.
The fryer will help enhance the flavor and the crunch.
You want it crunchy.
And I would love something that's savory, that's really yummy.
[Nikko] Reminds me of the Philippines right now.
In Filipino cooking, we use the whole animal.
Pig's head, chicken feet,
and even pork uterus.
I'm going to make deep-fried crispy uterus
with roasted purple yam.
I sliced my pork uterus as this as possible.
And then drenched it with corn starch.
It will be, like, super crispy, like bacon.
I need to win this to show other young Filipino chefs
to just represent our food,
'cause our food is freaking amazing.
[Ted] Charleston, are you feeling okay about this basket?
-[Charleston] Uh, no. But I'll make it work. -Come on, piece of cake.
I'm gonna tempura-fry these uteruses.
Uteruses? The plural?
It's uteri? I don't know.
I've never worked with uterus before
but I have worked with veal sweetbreads and brain before,
and my plan is to always fry it.
So I'm making a tempura-fried pork uterus
and a purple yam mash.
The taste of purple yam is definitely a little sweeter.
So I grab red potatoes,
just because I don't want the purple yam mash to be too sweet.
Less than 15 minutes to go.
[Maneet] Cumin soda, in India you call it masala soda.
It is pretty much cola,
to which roasted cumin has been added.
[Travis] As soon as I taste the cumin soda,
I know I'm gonna make a barbecue sauce.
So I grab a raspberry jam,
and a little bit of bourbon
Because, everybody loves bourbon.
[Sarah] I am familiar with cumin soda.
It's a little smoky,
very, very cumin. And sweet.
I put the cumin soda in with the yam,
I add the doughnut to the po to add texture.
Bizarre ingredients are just always a challenge
but if somebody brings a challenge to me, I'll meet them.
[Charleston] I have a lot of experience
in Japanese and Chinese cuisine.
So, I'm using the cumin soda to make a kaeshi dipping sauce.
Add a little mirin.
Kaeshi is a sauce in Japanese cuisine.
It's mirin, soy and sometimes sake.
Five minutes to go, chefs.
Filipino food doesn't use a lot of cumin.
I decide to make a cumin soda sauce,
with pork floss, the seaweed
a little bit of lime juice.
This time is going by way too quick.
I'm a little worried for Nikko over here,
he cut his purple yams incredibly thick
and he's trying to roast them in the oven.
He doesn't have much time left.
I don't think they're gonna be cooked all the way through.
I just wanna make sure if my purple yam is cooked before time runs out.
Why in the oven? Why in the oven?
[clock ticking]
Nikko cut his purple yams thick,
and he's trying to roast them in the oven.
I don't think they're gonna be cooked all the way through.
[Nikko] I pulled my yam from the oven,
and I immediately put a pan in the stove, put some butte
I wanna brown it more.
Everything is coming togethe
and I feel like I can pull this dish off.
[Geoffrey] Travis, are you happy with this basket?
I'm happy all the time, man.
-You're happy all the time? -[Travis] I'm happy all the time.
I want what he's eating.
I'm using the doughnut to be the base of my dish.
So I slice a doughnut,
I toast it up in a cast iron pan.
All right, what am I gonna do with you?
[Geoffrey] Fried pork and seaweed doughnut?
If you break down the flavors you have salty seaweed,
and sugar. Doughnuts has sugar.
I don't want the dish to lean too heavily sweet.
So I diced the breading,
and fry it into croutons.
[Sarah] I add my pork uteru to the plate,
and I'm realizing it's not quite enough.
But I did not have time to put anything else together.
[Ted] Closing seconds to the round, chefs.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six...
-Come on, come on, come on! -[Ted] ...five,
four, three, two,
one!
Time's up! Please step back.
That round felt like a thunder.
It went so fast.
I'm worried about the purple yam.
I feel like it's a little undercooked.
[Travis] The pork uterus really threw me.
I'm hoping I, uh, treated it correctly.
[Ted] Chefs.
We warned you that the baskets would be outrageous,
and for the first round, you got
pork uterus,
dried pork and seaweed doughnuts,
purple yams and cumin soda.
Chef Charleston. Tell us what you made.
I made tempura-fried pork uterus
with purple yam mash and crispy croutons.
The croutons are the doughnu
The dipping sauce has reduced cumin soda
mirin, little bit of soy and vinegar, just to bring a little bite to it.
What is your style of cooking?
Chinese, primarily, but with a lot of Japanese influence also.
Lot of my training, all comes from working in Asian restaurants,
and sushi restaurants.
[Geoffrey] It's a beautiful presentation.
The uterus, I like the fact that you tempured it,
it's a very good idea.
But, I would love to have the pork uterus sliced way thinner.
Yes, Chef.
So it has this calamari-like thing going on.
[Joe] I do have to agree,
the pork uterus should have been sliced thinner.
Right.
But the way that you utilized this doughnut,
very simple and straightforward.
I love that crunch that it gives to the dish.
And it's a really nice purple yam puree
that you have down at the bottom.
I will disagree with one thing.
The purple yam puree,
it's almost gummy and pasty.
The blender really worked up the starch.
But this sauce is delicious.
I grew up drinking cumin soda,
so the fact that you've created a sauce with Asian ingredients,
that... literally, I love it.
Thank you, Chef.
A good first attempt, really.
Thank you, Chef.
Chef Sarah, what did you make?
A quick-fried pork uterus.
Purple yam paste,
and a golden raisin chutney
Are you used to working with bizarre ingredients?
Anything that's weird and slimy, I'm interested in.
Pig snout, beef hearts, most of the offals.
Not uterus.
[Joe] Sarah, the dish is beautiful.
But, I do not like the purple yam puree.
Very sweet, especially paire with the raisins,
and you put the doughnuts, you put the cumin soda in there.
Two sugary things into an already sweet starch,
really just layers on that sweetness.
[Geoffrey] I'm craving a green or fresh herb,
a few more ingredients.
Something from that... That pantry is amazing.
You should us it, especially the fridge.
'Cause it needs some brightness.
Thank you, Chef.
The presentation is really beautiful.
There's a little bit of spice coming through the cumin soda.
I love the amount of tartness
that you've gotten through the golden raisins.
That really helps cutting down the funky flavor
that the pork uterus has.
I do think that you could have gone a little less
in the proportion of the pork uterus,
and probably would have just made small lardons
and put that in a nice salad.
Thank you, Chef.
Chef Travis, tell us about your dish.
Hello, chefs. Uh, today, I made kind of a open-faced
raspberry, cumin soda, and pork floss doughnut.
Do you often work with bizarre ingredients like this?
I made a career out of it. So, I love it.
And to me, I don't even know if there is a bizarre ingredient,
there just might be an ingredient I haven't used before.
I've built two restaurants on it.
Wow. Congratulations.
-Where is your restaurant? -So I'm in Tucson, Arizona.
There are some big flavors here.
The bacon seaweed donut is good,
it's like that fried sweet.
It's like that corn muffin on a griddle.
The pork uterus could do really well with...
Actually, more fat. It needs fat.
[Maneet] I agree.
I really like what you did with the purple yam.
It's nice and crispy and very addictive.
That barbecue sauce that you created is absolutely delicious.
Thank you.
[Joe] I really enjoy your use of the cumin soda in there.
I do however wish I got the same doughnuts that the other judges did,
because mine is burnt.
And so, it's not as enjoyable.
Finally, Chef Nikko. What do you have?
I made you guys a roasted purple yam.
With sauce made out of cumin and seaweed doughnuts
and a crispy pork uterus.
[Geoffrey] What type of cuisine do you serve?
[Nikko] I have my own Filipino pop-up.
I grew up watching my grandmother cook in the Philippines.
My alarm clock for us, growing up,
was like her cooking garlic fried rice,
that's how we wake up every morning.
Chef, I really like your approach to the pork uterus.
And the way that you sliced it thin.
The coating that you have on there
gives it a really excellent crunch and crispiness.
The texture that you put on that,
compliments the composition of the whole dish.
-Thank you. -[Joe] I just wish there was more of it.
If you're in the next round, like, don't hold back.
The sauce is delicious.
I get the cumin soda in it.
There is smokiness, there's acidity, there's sweetness.
That's a wonderful dance.
But the purple yam,
I think it needed to be cooked a little bit more.
There's only one mouth feel here.
It just doesn't feel complete.
However, I appreciate you frying the pork uterus
and cutting it very finely. That's very smart.
[Ted] The three chefs who get to stick around
can count on more of the same.
Thank you all.
[Charleston] That was brutal. That was rough.
It is hard.
I'm not confident with my dish at all.
-I mean, I'm confident with my dish. -Yeah.
'Cause they didn't... they didn't tear it apart.
You know, the uterus is weird.
I really thought I cut it small enough, but apparently not.
[Sarah] Nikko is the person that should be Chopped.
His yam was undercooked.
[Charleston] Getting Choppe is between me and Sarah.
My purple yam was a little gummy,
and they all said that my uterus could have been cut smaller.
[Ted] Someone must be the first to go.
[Charleston] And I have no idea what's about to happen.
Who is moving beyond round one in this tough battle,
and who's going home.
[Charleston] My hands have never been this sweaty in my life.
[Ted] Chef Sarah. You've been Chopped.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Judges.
[Geoffrey] Sarah, while we thought the plate was visually beautiful,
the pork seaweed doughnut
mixed with the purple yam, mixed with the raisins,
it was just too much, it overpowered that puree.
The pork uterus was cooked indifferently, and just laid out on top.
Really just didn't make for a complete dish.
We had to Chop you.
Thank you, Chef.
[Sarah] I was looking forwar to seeing
what next bizarre ingredien was gonna be in that basket
But, I don't have any regrets.
[Ted] Chef Nikko. Chef Charleston. Chef Travis.
You conquered a very tough first basket.
How much worse could it get?
We'll find out.
Check out the second set of bizarre ingredients.
-What? [chuckles nervously] -I have zero idea what this is.
[Ted] Rooster testicle stew.
Testicle stew. Just like Mom used to make.
[Ted] We also gave you beef kidney.
Cardoons.
[Charleston] Cardoons are very fibrous and very bitter, usually.
[Ted] And a fried egg cake.
[Travis] This basket is even more bizarre
than I thought it would be.
What am I gonna do with these?
Half an hour to solve this culinary riddle.
Clock starts now.
-[Geoffrey] Let's go! -[Maneet] Go, go, go, chefs! Go!
It's scary.
[Ted] Judges, we've got your steaming hot rooster testicle stew
right here!
A bizarre ingredient.
But it is Hungarian stew.
The actual testicles, they plump up when they're cooked.
[Ted] Great!
Hats off to Chef Travis for taking a big bite.
Rooster testicles have a nice, soft, creamy texture.
First thing that comes to my mind
is a beef kidney and bacon saute.
With braised cardoon,
and a potato and rooster testicle gravy.
The skin of the cardoon, I wanna shave all of that off.
Slice it as thin as I possibly can,
so I can braise it with beer
And Napa cabbage.
What inspired my love of cooking is really YouTube.
Oh, it's so slippery.
I would just watch Gordon Ramsay and Alton Brown for hours.
I really wanna make this my food, and connect it with my identity.
So I decided to go with the Chinese route.
I'm going to make rice noodles with five-spice beef kidneys
and crispy cardoons.
The beef kidney has a metallic flavor,
so I'm gonna season it heavily with a lot more Chinese five-spice,
salt and honey.
I'm using the broth from this rooster testicle stew
to season my kidneys.
[Nikko] These ingredients are, like,
next level bizarre food.
But, beef kidney, if you cook it right,
it's delicious.
[Maneet] Chef Nikko!
Is this basket bizarre enough for you?
[Nikko] Uh, yeah. Super.
I'm making adobo, which is the national dish of the Philippines.
Building my adobo, I strain the testicle stew
to cook the kidney.
[Geoffrey] When you're making an adobo,
all those flavors really play well
into this particular challenge.
Especially the beef kidney, it needs it.
[Travis] This round,
the ingredients are even harder,
and I need to manage my time really well.
Twenty minutes to go, chefs.
[Travis] I have no extra tim to waste.
And then, my knife, it just nicks me.
Travis just cut his finger.
-[Ted] Oh, no. -[Travis] It's just a little nick, right here.
[Travis] Every single thing I do on earth is for my family.
I just always want them to be proud.
My kids, I'm trying to teach them not to give up.
No matter what, get to the finish line.
[Joe] Travis, he just got bacon out on his station.
That's gonna work really well.
This food needs help and it needs fat.
Especially the beef kidney. Beef kidney is not like your regular kidney.
You cook it quick, so it's medium rare,
or you really cook it to death.
In between, it will be very tough.
It's a very hard product.
[Charleston] While I was in college,
all I really wanted to do was cook.
All my downtime, I was just watching Chopped
and watching YouTube cooking videos.
I'm here to show that his a right path for me.
Adding some Chinese five-spice, give it a little flavor.
[Charleston] Nikko is cooking rice,
which I think is crazy to do, with a 30-minute time limit.
[Nikko] Winning would be a lot for me.
Filipino food is such a beautiful cuisine
and I just wanna share it to the world.
Coconut milk is the butter of Filipino cuisine.
It will give that adobo sauc a little velvety texture.
[Maneet] Nikko has some coconut milk.
Anything with coconut milk is good.
[Nikko] And then I add some egg cake.
The starches from the cake get it to good consistency.
Fried egg cake, white cake with a frosting,
and an apricot on top.
[Joe] They're all approaching this basket...
with a sense of urgency.
[Maneet] What we really want to see,
is how to take these ingredients which they don't work with very often
and elevate it.
Five minutes to go, chefs!
Travis still hasn't touched the rooster testicle stew.
[Travis] The testicles kinda look like little chicken livers,
so I'm just gonna kind of treat them like that.
So I throw them in with my potatoes,
to make kind of a potato gravy.
[Charleston] The texture of the cake,
it would make a crispy breading for my cardoons.
The sweetness of the cake
will help combat the bitterness of the cardoo
I have to up the texture element to the dish.
I shave some of the cardoons and I put it in deep fryer.
Also, I took half of the kidney,
in the deep fryer.
'Cause I wanna cook it two ways.
Crumble up the cake and I get it into a bowl, and I'm gonna toast it.
Oh! Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I'm freaking out.
That was all of Travis' cake that he had.
If I don't get this cake on my plate some way,
I'm getting sent home.
[Maneet] Thirty seconds!
Start plating.
Hey, do you have any cake I can use?
No, I don't.
-[Travis] Do you have any cake I can use? -[Nikko] Yeah.
[Travis] Thankfully, Nikko still has one piece of cake that I can use.
Come on, you got this, Travis.
[Travis] I get it crumbled, throw it in the oven...
Travis, it's not a lot of time.
[Ted] Chefs, round two is slipping away here.
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
Time's up!
Please step back.
I'm out.
[Charleston sighs]
That is rough.
I felt like I had a more solid plan this time around,
but executing it was a lot more difficult.
Cutting myself set me back a few minutes,
but I'm hoping that the flavors shine through.
I hope the judges see the effort.
Chefs, the ingredients for that Bizarre Entree round,
rooster testicle stew,
beef kidney,
cardoons,
and fried egg cake.
Chef Nikko, what have you made?
I made for you guys some kidney adobo,
with a coconut milk sauce and some crispy cardoons.
Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines.
My grandmother used to put coconut milk on her adobo,
so I just did the same thing.
Your grandmother's route,
adding something unexpected like coconut milk,
is something I often do. So, I can totally relate to that.
The adobo sauce, delicious.
I feel like I know you after eating that.
Good use of the ingredients, very nice dish.
You kinda solved the mystery of the cardoon.
Frying it was a smart thing to do.
The only thing is that, kidneys are either, you cook 'em a little bit,
or you cook the hell outta 'em.
In-between is tough.
Your beef kidneys, they've swallowed you up.
It's almost inedible.
And even the part that you stewed,
not successful.
But the coconut sauce with the fried egg cake,
and then the peppers out of the testicle stew...
Very smart utilization of bizarre ingredients.
Thank you, Chef.
Next up is Chef Charleston.
I have made rice noodles with sauteed beef kidney.
And a crispy cardoon with cake crumble.
Is there mace or clove, or something?
-There is five-spice. -Five-spice, okay.
-Charleston. -Yes.
My favorite thing you did is frying the cardoons in that fried egg cake.
I think that was a stroke of genius.
I love your approach to this dish to utilize the pantry noodles
and have that be the base.
Although, I wish there was a little more of the glaze.
The noodles did eat a little dry in some pockets.
If you added some chicken broth, it would've been much better,
because that five-spice powder, it's just like I'm licking five-spice powder.
It's all I taste.
Five-spice is on the higher side,
but the beef kidney, they're cooked perfectly,
they work very well.
And Chef, what would it mean to you, personally, to win this thing?
When I was in college, I was on a different career trajectory,
I was studying biology.
And I left all of that just to pursue cooking. So, winning would kinda validate
that I made the right choice for that.
Finally Chef Travis, what do we have?
So we have a bacon and kidney saute
with a cardoon and saffron braised Napa cabbage.
And then, the sauce is made with potato and rooster testicles,
uh, it's a gravy.
Well, I know that this presentation is not what you had in mind.
No.
Oh! Sorry, sorry, sorry.
But I will say this, you did not give up.
It was hardcore, man. That was a tough one.
I had never worked with any of those ingredients before.
Travis...
This...
Napa cabbage, beer, cardoon mixture that you have is delicious.
But with the fried egg cake,
yeah, you dropped it,
but it almost seems like an afterthought.
You could have used it a lot better.
Yep.
Travis, the jalapenos, the bacon,
really helped balance out
that gaminess that may come from working with beef kidneys.
You did a great job at that.
What doesn't necessarily work for me, is that gravy.
The texture of it gets kind weird when you incorporate rooster testicles.
And then, I think when you put potatoes,
-into a food processor... -Yeah, yeah.
...it turns them really grainy and gummy.
And if you just chunked the bacon, chunked the kidney,
throw it in a pan, put some mushrooms in there,
you would have nice little fricassee going here.
But there are some really good flavors here.
And the bacon and kidneys are really flavorful.
It's really well-seasoned.
Now, the judges must pick just the two of you to advance to dessert.
[Charleston] The judges like my entree conceptually,
but I definitely overdid it with my seasoning and my five-spice.
The potato gravy was a little rough.
But I think if I'm lucky enough,
maybe Chef Nikko might go home.
His kidneys were pretty tough.
[Nikko] The judges didn't really like my kidneys,
but I think that my Filipino flavor
is gonna be in the dessert round.
The second bizarre basket got the better of one chef.
-Chef Travis, you've been Chopped. -[chuckles]
[Ted] Judges?
Travis, the clock
and the bizarre basket definitely got the better of you.
-Agreed. -Your rooster testicle and beef kidney gravy,
the texture was grainy and gummy.
And you were unable to transform that fried egg cake.
And so, we had to Chop you.
Thank you very much. I had the time of my life.
-Thank you, Chef. -[all judges thanking]
This experience has just been... fantastic.
And I'm proud to represent my city.
Rock on, Tucson.
See you soon.
Chef Charleston, Chef Nikko. Who feels like a Chopped Champion in the making?
-This guy. -I'm gonna take this home tonight, Chef.
[Ted] Here we go, final basket.
Open it up.
-What? -What is this? What?
[Ted] The bizarre theme continues.
This looks like... Grasshoppers?
[Ted] You've got a cricket milkshake.
Crickets?
-Alien fruit. -[Ted] Horned melon.
-Very green. -Green pepper jelly.
-No idea what this is. -[Ted] And dragon beard candy.
And I don't know how you guys came up with this.
I used to eat dragon beard candy as a kid.
It's spun sugar stretched ou
into really, really thin fibers.
This is the most bizarre yet.
[Ted] Thirty minutes.
Go!
[judges applaud]
-Go, go, go! -Good luck, guys.
[Geoffrey] The basket, it's bizarre...
Hopefully, they came in with some sort of plan.
And I see a buttered cast iron pan, which I like.
I'm really happy now that I'm in the dessert round.
What put me over the edge is staying true to my Filipino food.
So, I'm making a Bibingka Dutch Baby.
Bibingka is a traditional Filipino holiday bread,
which is sold every Christma
Nikko, seems he's almost going in a Dutch baby direction.
Dutch baby's basically a pancake.
It kinda souffles and it comes back down,
and you drizzle it with whatever berries you have.
[Nikko] And also, I'm planni to do a brittle
using the cricket instead of the peanuts.
It's gonna be a good texture.
-[Maneet] Cricket brittle. -[Geoffrey] Brittle. Wow!
He is embracing bizarre.
[Joe] They're packed with protein, they're eaten in a lot of
other countries around the world.
Kind of has this nutty, sweet
characteristic going on to it.
What is this devil fruit?
I thought beef kidneys and pork uterus was bad,
but this takes the cake.
So unused to dough.
I'm going to make a fruit tart.
And a horned melon and pepper jelly gelee.
I'm using the dragon beard candy.
And the cricket milkshake to make a mousse for my tart.
[Maneet] The dragon beard candy, think of
cotton candy which has been fortified with cornstarch.
They say a Chinese emperor invented this over 2000 years ago,
inspired by a dragon's beard.
[Charleston] Dragon's beard candy has a nutty earthines to it.
I want it to taste like sesame.
When I think of nutty, earthy flavors...
Yeah.
...I immediately go to black sesame.
Which is commonly used in Chinese desserts.
[Ted] Less than 15 minutes to go.
-I'm going to go in and check and see what they're doing. -Great.
-Charleston, how is it going? -Yes, hello.
-Very stressful. -Really?
-Really. -You think you got this?
I don't know. Nikko's pretty tough competition.
-Hello, Nikko. -Hi, Chef.
How close do you think you are to winning?
It's 50-50 right now. We'll see.
-Fantastic. Best of luck, chefs. -Thanks, Chef.
Green pepper jelly... it's sweet, but there's some heat in it.
So, I wanna make a sweet and spicy mousse.
It means a lot for me to win
People would shy away from the flavor of the Philippines sometimes,
and I want them to embrace it.
[Charleston] I'm making a gelee out of the horned melon and the pepper jelly.
If you look at horned melon, it tastes like really watered down version of cucumber.
I think the gelee will add cleanliness from the cucumber taste of the horned melon.
All right, chefs. Five minutes left.
Charleston is trying to cut the puff pastry that he had baked into rounds.
But the entire puff pastry was completely raw in the center.
I'm definitely freaking out a little bit right now.
This puff pastry is the foundation for this entire dessert.
Why?
This is why I don't work with dessert.
My puff pastry isn't baked all the way through.
But the clock's really ticking down and I just decide to throw it in,
'cause I know the dessert needs a base.
Charleston, are you okay? We gonna get a dessert?
[Charleston] Yeah.
I wanna win Chopped, validate to myself, to my family,
to my friends that I am good at what I do.
[Nikko] I scoop up the inside of the horned melon.
Marinade it with some tarragon, some blueberries, some lime juice.
I hope there is time for my horned melon to have some flavor.
One minute left to go, Chefs!
[Charleston] I macerate my strawberries and blueberries.
I toss in some horned melon juice.
And then I want to assemble my tart.
Come on, Charleston. Let's get this done.
What am I missing? What am I missing? What am I missing?
I'm looking down at my dessert and missing my pepper jelly gelee.
It's in the blast chiller.
What is he doing?
[Ted] All right, chefs. Final seconds of the final round here!
-Oh my God! -[Ted] Ten,
nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three,
two, one.
Time's up! Please step back.
[judges applaud]
-Bro... -[Maneet whoops]
This is by far, the hardest challenge.
I just let the time get the better of me.
We'll see what the judges think about it.
[Nikko] I'm happy to be here This is, like, a bonus for m
that I made it to the dessert round.
Chef Charleston, Chef Nikko,
you've both been such good sports throughout this bizarre baskets battle.
We asked you to make desserts using a cricket milkshake,
horned melon, green pepper jelly, and dragon beard cand
Chef Nikko, what have you made?
I made for you guys...
Bibingka Dutch baby.
Bibingka is a traditional Filipino holiday bread.
And some marinaded horned melon.
Where are the crickets?
Crickets is in the brittle.
-I don't hear 'em. -[chuckles]
-Good one. That was-- -Thank you.
[chuckles softly]
[Geoffrey] This is a really good Dutch baby. However,
doesn't have any of the ingredients of the basket in it.
Blueberries,
while fun-looking, don't really do anything for this.
Had you dusted 'em with sugar from the brittle,
with the crickets, so you could have had a bit more integrated dish.
[Joe] Everything is just piled on top.
And while a delicious dessert on its own,
I don't know how creatively it utilizes all the bizarre ingredients
-that we gave you. -Heard that.
[Joe] But the horned melon,
they way that you treated that and added the tarragon from the pantry,
was an excellent maneuver.
The tarragon, the horned melon, the blueberries,
it's a visual delight.
The one thing which I would say is that
if you would have thought of plating a little bit before you started,
-if you would have gotten the individual ones... -The single ones.
...I think it would have just been so much more impactful.
-Thank you. Thank you, Chef. -Thank you, Chef Nikko.
Finally, Chef Charleston.
I have made for you guys
a milkshake and dragon beard candy, black sesame mousse
with macerated fruit.
And a horned melon and jelly gelee.
On top of a puff pastry tart.
Charleston, there are some good flavors going on over here.
Especially the topping that you've made using the cricket milkshake.
The way you macerated the berries right on top,
you got some mint, the horned melon, that works very well.
The bigger problem is the puff pastry is raw.
[Joe] The way you combined the horned melon and the green pepper jelly,
perfectly balanced, that green pepper flavor, and just the texture of it,
I think is where you went wrong.
I agree with Joe.
But I like the flavors and I thought the integration of the basket was spot-on.
-Thank you, Chef. -[Ted] All right.
Please give us a moment while the judges choose the champion.
Thank you, chefs.
From dragon beard candy to rooster testicle stew,
we did not exactly make things easy.
But with 10,000 bucks at stake, why would we?
That's right. In the first course,
literally, there was pork uterus.
[Geoffrey] Nikko sliced very very thin, which is crucial
It needs to be cut like rings of calamari.
And frying it is a fantastic thing to do.
But, he gave us this big round base of purple yam.
It wasn't cooked enough.
I really liked the way Charleston approached the pork uterus.
Tempura frying it, great use of the basket ingredient.
[Geoffrey] However, we got, like, a 2x4 of that pork uterus.
They were these really big chunks.
If he had taken it and cut it into small pieces,
might have been more successful.
I think the second round, we got a really good dish from Nikko.
His version of an adobo,
coconut milk. Really interesting.
However, Nikko served two different versions of the beef kidney,
both of them... very hard to chew.
I think Charleston actually approached it better.
We could actually eat his beef kidney.
And I really liked his approach to the cardoons frying them,
coating them in that fried egg cake... Genius.
Agreed, but I can't overlook the amount of
Chinese five-spice in his noodles.
So, who's done and who's won it?
[Maneet] We are ready to make that decision.
[Ted] Okay.
[Nikko] I think my dessert is stronger. It was, like, perfectly cooked.
I think I can bring the trophy home.
[Charleston] Throughout the competition,
Nikko and I have been pretty neck and neck.
But I feel like in my dishes, uh, all of the bizarre ingredients
were very flavor forward and I didn't try to hide anything.
[Ted] So...
who's dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Charleston, you've been Chopped.
Judges?
Charleston, you have approached each and every bizarre basket fearlessly.
-Thank you. -In the first round,
the pork uterus pieces were too big.
In the second course, you used too much of the Chinese five-spice.
And then finally in the dessert round,
the puff pastry was raw,
and so, we had to Chop you.
Thank you, chefs. It's been an honor cooking for you.
-See you. -I'll talk to you in there. Yeah.
-[Charleston] Thank you. -[Ted] Good luck, Chef.
[Charleston sighs]
Uh, I knew it. It's okay.
It was fun. I had a good time.
I'd like to think I have a pretty good grasp
on bizarre ingredients and I'm excited to take that on in the future.
And that means, Chef Nikko Cagalanan,
you are the Chopped champi.
-Yes! -No shocking ingredient could hold you back
from winning $10,000. Congratulations.
-Thank you. Thank you, chefs. -[Maneet] Whoo!
-Well done. -Thank you so much.
-[Geoffrey] Well done, Chef. You're a good man. -Thank you so much.
-Very well done. I'll see you soon. -Thank you, Chef.
-So great. -Thank you, thanks, Chef.
-Don't skip the host. -Thank you.
-They always skip the host. Congratulations, sir. -Thank you, thanks really.
Grandma Mansuetas, this is for you.
Heck yeah, we did it.