-[Day] I am Lady Luck. -[Kat] I make my own luck.
[chef] I'm gonna gamble
every single chance I get. Let's go!
Welcome to Chopped: Casino Royale.
These 16 chefs are all in.
A giant jackpot...
-Whoo, baby. -...adrenaline through the roof.
[all exclaiming]
This is truly an ingredient I would not know what to do with.
[Ted Allen] Don't like an ingredient?
Spin the roulette wheel.
[chef] Boom. Yeah, baby.
[chef singing] I'm feeling lucky!
-[cheering] -[Ted] Get lucky...
[all exclaiming]
Oh, my gosh! Yeah!
[chef] It's an incredible ingredient.
[exclaiming]
[Ted] ...o r lose big.
-[exclaiming] -[Ted] Limburger cheese.
[gasps]
Like, what do you even do with that?
You've got to make your own luck in this kitchen!
[chef] If you're not taking risks in the Chopped kitchen,
why are you here?
[chef] I'm rolling that dice regardless of the ingredient.
[exclaims in disgust]
[all exclaiming]
We're cooking over here.
You get one bet. This is it.
I'm sweating, honey.
[Kat] No risk, no reward, baby.
-No! -[Ted] Place your bets.
Hope you guys are playing your cards right!
-Whoo! -Let the good times roll.
[Day] I'm absolutely a risk taker.
I hardly ever lose. Actually, I don't think I've ever lost anything.
I'm Haitian, and my style of cooking
is Afro-Caribbean with fine dining techniques.
I really love to push the boundaries of what I do know
and create things that most people wouldn't imagine.
I've gotten this far in my career by taking risks.
[Sami] Today, we're making my famous lettuce wrap tacos.
They are very sassy just like me.
♪ Three, two, one Let's go ♪
I have a catering business, Love & Spice With a Pinch of Salt in Miami, Florida.
My food is authentic, sexy and playful.
I reinvent flavors from around the world,
and I give them my Miami flair.
I believe it is important as a chef to take risks
because if you don't, then your artistry is just pure boring.
Well, bring it on.
[imitates slot machine] Jackpot!
[Andy] My competition should be worried about me
because, A, I can cook,
and B, I can gamble.
I might be a little cocky, but my food backs it all up.
Gotta let it ride, pal.
I cooked at five-star, five-diamond hotels.
I cooked at the James Beard house.
After my win, they're gonna call me the ace of spades.
[Kat] I was a private chef for A-list celebrities.
So I traveled all over the world, and I've always said
that if Martha Stewart and Anthony Bourdain had gotten together...
[exclaims]
...I would have been the love child.
Easy money, baby.
[laughs]
I've been cooking professionally for over 14 years.
My style of cooking is elevated comfort food
with global twists and turns.
It is literal entertainment for your mouth
and for your eyes.
Eyes on the prize.
I've got some aces up my sleeve.
-Hello, Chefs. -Hello.
-Hi, Ted. -[Ted] Welcome to Chopped: Casino Royale.
Your destiny is in your hands if you like to gamble.
-Absolutely. -Oh, yes, I am Lady Luck.
After you open your mystery baskets,
you'll be able to ditch an ingredient
for the chance to get another
by spinning the roulette wheel.
-[Day] Okay. -[Andy] Round and round.
[Ted] Win your bet, choose a lucky ingredient.
Lose your bet, choose an unlucky ingredient.
[all exclaiming]
[Kat] The only thing better than Chopped
is Chopped with gambling.
[laughs]
The winner of this preliminary battle
will move on to the Casino Royale finale.
The jackpot there will be at least $25,000
-with the possibility of more. -[whistles]
-Let's get it. -Yes.
Okay. First baskets are right here.
Go on and open them up.
-[Day] Ooh. -[Andy] Ooh.
[Ted] And what will you make with beef ravioli in a can...
-[Sami] Interesting. -[Ted] ...king trumpet mushrooms...
-[Andy] All right. -What are these?
[Ted] ...playing card cookies, and caviar service?
[Kat whistles] That is gorgeous.
Wow.
Anybody want to gamble away one of these gems?
I'm gonna gamble the card cookies.
How about you, chef Kat?
[Kat] My beef ravioli.
I haven't had them since I was in third grade,
-so I'm not comfortable cooking with them. -[laughing]
[Ted] All right, chef Andy?
I'm going to keep everything.
[all exclaiming]
Chef Day? How about you?
Oh, I'm definitely keeping them all.
-Yeah. -[Ted] Okay.
Let's try your luck over at the roulette table.
-Go. -Go.
-Yeah. -Yeah, let's get it.
-Whew. -Hello.
[Ted] All right, chef Sami, you're up first.
Place your chip on red or black
and spin to win
or lose.
-[all exclaiming] -Oh, I hope I win.
Red.
-[Maneet Chauhan] Whoo! -[Tiffani Faison] All right, here we go.
Okay, come on!
[Ted] What's it going to be?
[all exclaiming]
Yeah!
-[Tiffani] You're good. -[Ted] Congratulations.
-[Sami] Thank you. -You get to choose a lucky ingredient.
-which would you like? -Awesome, let's do number five.
[Ted] Yuzu.
[Chris Santos] Oh, yuzu.
[Sami] Yuzu, i t's like a sour orange.
It's just fabulous.
-Now it's your turn, chef Kat. -Okay.
-Black. -[Tiffani] Yeah!
-[all cheering] -Here we go, Chef Kat.
[all cheering]
-[Ted] Come on. -[Tiffani] Come on, black!
[all cheering]
Yes, yes!
Chef Kat, which lucky ingredient would you like to choose?
I am going to take three, Ted.
[Ted] Number three.
Ooh! [drumming table]
-[Ted] And you have it! -[all exclaiming]
[Maneet] Hey!
-[Tiffani] Ooh-la-la! -[Chris] Croissants!
[Day] Kat traded in the ravioli for croissants
and I think, man, she's got an advantage here.
[Ted] All right, you all have your ingredients.
You get 20 minutes to make appetizers.
Clock starts now.
[all cheering]
[Tiffani] Here we go!
[Kat] Behind you, behind you.
[Ted] Well, judges we had so much fun
the first time we did the Casino Royale tournament
that we're doubling down and doing it again.
-All right, let's get it. -[Ted] Would you have chosen
to get rid of an ingredient?
-Yes. -I would have.
Oh, my God, look at this exquisite delicacy.
-[Chris] That ravioli has a ton of sugar in it. -[Tiffani] Yep.
[Chris] And so you've got the cookies and the raviolis,
so I would have gotten rid of one of the sweet ingredients.
That ravioli, it traps you in a red...
In a low quality red sauce.
Did you just call me a low quality red sauce?
[Maneet] Oh.
[Andy] I see the beef ravioli in a can
and I think, "Bleh, pasta sauce immediately."
I'm making a king trumpet mushroom and fusilli pasta
with a beef ravioli Ragu.
Think roast off my mushrooms,
use the red onions from the caviar service,
also add in cherry tomatoes
because I want some bright freshness.
Whoo! Let's go!
Chef Andy, you feel good with all four basket ingredients?
I feel fantastic about all four basket ingredients.
I feel 100% better that somebody else
was the guinea pig.
[Tiffani] Chef Sami...
-[Sami] Yes! -...you rolled the dice, got yuzu. Nice or not nice?
[Sami] Yes, I love it.
I'm actually making a wild mushroom soup.
I'm just gonna... I'm just using the yuzu just to keep it fresh.
So let's see what happens.
[Tiffani] Wild mushroom soup with yuzu.
[Maneet] Getting an ingredient replaced by a fresh ingredient,
that is luck, luck, luck on his side.
[Sami] I'm making a king trumpet mushroom soup
with yuzu and caviar.
Yes.
[Day] I am elated because I absolutely love mushrooms.
I'm going to get a nice, hard sear on them
and make a stuffed trumpet mushroom
with beef ravioli duxelle.
For my duxelle, I take out the inside of my mushroom
and I chop that up and I chop up the herbs,
real nice and fine.
A lot can happen in 15 minutes.
All right.
[Kat] I really like a mushroom tempura,
so I'm making a king trumpet tempura
with a cucumber salad and a caviar creme fraiche.
I love croissants. They are a super versatile ingredient.
So I'm using the croissant and the playing cards
to add a little bit of additional texture to my tempura.
10 minutes remaining, chefs.
[Andy] Now we're cooking pasta.
I add my pasta to the pan.
I add the creme fraiche from the caviar service.
I've cooked in multiple Michelin Star restaurants.
I've worked with some of the best chefs in the world.
Robuchon, Pierre Gagnaire,
Daniel Boulud, Guy Savoy.
I bring a lot to the table.
[Sami] I am using the beef stuffing from the ravioli
to add some body to my soup.
I am no stranger to taking risks.
I grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I left Puerto Rico to live the American dream,
and 18 years later, I am a chef.
I think my decision paid off.
I feel like luck is on my side right now.
[Day] To make this duxelle,
I'm taking the beef out of the ravioli.
I'm going to add that to the inside of my mushrooms.
And I have to use these cookies,
so I'm going to crush them up and add them into the duxelle.
I know what I bring to the table.
People underestimate me.
I had an interview with an executive corporate chef
and he said to me, "Your nails are too long.
Your lashes are too long. Why are you here?"
I told him I'm going to be one of the greatest chefs
there ever was.
It's nothing. It's nothing.
Less than five minutes to go here.
[Kat] Behind, behind, behind.
[Ted] So caviar, widely considered
one of the most luxurious ingredients there is,
but is that an ingredient that you want
in a 20 minute appetizer round?
[Tiffani] You do want it in a 20 minute appetizer round.
You do one thing with it, finish whatever you're doing with it.
[Maneet] I am so afraid
that the flavors these chefs are creating,
they're going to overshadow the caviar.
[Kat] I'm running out of time.
I have to get started on my creme fraiche sauce.
I whisk together a creme fraiche, mayonnaise,
caviar, lime juice, rice wine vinegar and fish sauce.
-[Chris] Oh, boy. -[Maneet] She just put fish sauce.
[Tiffani] You don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
You don't bring fish sauce to a caviar battle.
-You just don't. -Boom.
[Kat] But I tasted it and I just realized
that I have way too much fish sauce.
I am so nervous.
My God, I'm shaking.
Behind, behind, behind, behind.
[Kat] I realized that I used way too much fish sauce
but this is the Chopped casino tournament.
Like this is a no risk, no reward game.
[Ted] Chefs, gotta call the two minute warning!
[Andy] I got full confidence that I'm going to make it into the next round.
[Tiffani] You get one bet, this is it!
You have to get past this round.
[Chris] Under a minute, under a minute, chefs!
[Sami] I top my soup with a little drizzle of truffle oil,
and then I add a dollop of caviar.
[Maneet] Come on! [exclaims]
Don't give up, chefs!
[Tiffani] Push to the end. Come on, come on, come on.
[Day] Whew, I'm sweating, honey.
[Ted] All right, time to finish up those plates, chefs.
-Hope you guys are playing your cards right! -[Ted] Here we go, 10,
nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four,
three, two,
one.
-Time's up. -Whoo!
-Yes! -Whoo!
-My God. -[sighs] That was intense.
I'm so excited 'cause I know I'm gonna keep going
to the next round and win the whole thing.
Oh, wow, you made like an entire freaking dish.
Andy's dish is huge.
I wonder what the judges are gonna say.
[Ted] Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
You opened your first Casino Royale baskets
and found beef ravioli in a can,
king trumpet mushrooms,
playing card cookies,
and a caviar service.
Chef Andy, did you choose to gamble out an ingredient?
I decided to go all in with my basket.
So I did a king trumpet and fusilli pasta
with a beef ravioli ragu.
Andy, you definitely used the basket ingredients
to your advantage.
-I thank you. -[Maneet] Fresh cherry tomatoes
hides that "tomato sauce" from the beef ravioli in a can.
I think that was really smart.
Chef Andy, my feelings about caviar are so amorous,
they're inappropriate.
[all laughing]
There's a lightness and a deft hand in this
that's really, really lovely.
It's clear that you know how to cook,
but I don't know that this is an appetizer.
It's a big bowl of pasta. I'm also not sure it matters.
I can't stop eating it.
It is very good. But to me, maybe too much caviar in my portion,
because there's big clumps of it as opposed to it
being kind of, like, worked through.
But overall, it was very good.
Thanks, Chef.
-[Ted] Next up, Chef Sami. -I made for you today
a king trumpet mushroom soup
with a hint of yuzu and caviar on top.
I got rid of the playing card cookies and I got the yuzu.
Chef Sami, gambling for the yuzu was a brilliant bet.
The citrus gave a lot of brightness in your soup,
and that was a lovely touch.
-Thank you. -[Chris] I think it's remarkable
that you made a soup that has this depth of flavor in 20 minutes,
and I also think using the interior
of that ravioli in a can is a great way to mitigate
the sort of syrupy, sugary kind of flavor
that that canned ravioli has.
The idea of a mushroom soup, I think is it's a great idea.
That caviar is such a beautiful
and a delicate ingredient.
-[Sami] Mmm-hmm. -You went ahead and drowned that caviar bite
-with the truffle oil... -Okay.
...and the soup needs to be a little bit more viscous.
It is very, very thick.
Okay.
Next up, we'll go to Chef Day.
I have a stuffed king trumpet mushroom
with beef ravioli duxelle.
I put the caviar right on top.
Are the cookies in the duxelle?
Yes, the cookies are in the duxelle.
I think you should've gambled those cookies away.
It's a good bite, but then you get
this sort of after note of artificial sweetness.
Heard you.
I love the idea of this entire dish.
I think it's great.
To me, I do think that the king trumpet mushrooms
when you seared them,
there was too much oil in the pan.
And then you went ahead and cooked the duxelle in oil.
So now you're giving me oil on oil.
[Tiffani] Maneet's totally right.
But I think the choice of the plate is great.
It's very, it's, like, high end.
It's very like the vibe of something you would get
-in a casino for an appetizer. -Thank you very much.
[Ted] All right.
Next up, chef Kat.
Um, I made king trumpet tempura with caviar
and creme fraiche sauce and a light cucumber salad.
I got rid of my beef ravioli, and I got croissants.
[Chris] My favorite thing is this tempura batter.
Usage of the croissant in the tempura batter, that is brilliant.
Thank you.
Can you talk us through the creme fraiche?
This is a creme fraiche from the caviar service,
caviar and fish sauce and chives.
Um, fish sauce and caviar together,
they're, like, competing.
To me, I feel like I'm at a buffet line in a casino.
And I have taken three different ingredients
-which are not supposed to be presented together as a dish. -Got it.
It seems like we're being a little harsh, guys, like,
this is a big tournament. It starts at 25 grand.
And for you guys to take the house down, you got to bring it.
-I know. -[Ted] All right chefs.
Nothing risked, nothing gained,
but one culinary gambler cannot continue.
The judges, they said, you know, the portion size was a little big,
but I think it's between Kat and chef Sami.
I am a sack of nerves right now.
Luck, be a lady tonight.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Sami, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -[Tiffani] Chef Sami,
the texture of your soup was thicker than it should be.
And the truffle oil on top of the caviar
made the caviar inedible.
And so, we had to chop you.
Well, thank you so much for the opportunity.
Lady Luck was not on my side today for sure. [laughs]
I am walking out with my head high.
This is not the end of me.
Chef Kat, chef Andy, chef Day, are you ready?
Please open your entree baskets.
Ooh.
[Ted] And you're looking at pork uterus...
[Andy] I see pork uterus and I'm like,
[hums sad music]
[laughs]
[Ted] ...okra...
[Day] I do like okra.
-[Ted] ...hoisin sauce... -Hoisin.
[Ted] ...and truffle mac and cheese.
Challenge.
Okay, chef Kat?
I'm gonna get rid of the pork uterus.
Yes, thank you, Ted.
Excellent, more for me.
[all laughing]
-Chef Day? -I'm not big on Asian cuisines,
so I'm going to gamble away hoisin sauce.
Chef Andy, what are your thoughts?
Well, that pork uterus is a little overwhelming,
and I think it's time to hit the tables.
Then to the roulette table for us.
-[Tiffani laughing] Let's go. -[Maneet] Okay, let's play.
-[Andy] Whoo, all right. -[Day] Yes.
Okay, chef Andy, time for you to give it a spin.
Gonna go black, Ted.
[Ted] All right, here we go. Chef Andy.
-Come on, black. Come on, black. -[all cheering]
-Mama needs a new pair of uterus. -Come on.
[Andy] Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
-[exclaiming] -Red.
[all exclaiming]
[Ted] Unfortunately, you have to choose
from the unlucky ingredients.
Seven.
[Ted] Limburger cheese!
-[Day] Ooh. -Better than pork uterus.
[Tiffani] It's a tough ingredient in the Chopped kitchen.
It's funky cheese. It smells like, um, some socks
that might have been left around the house.
[all laughing]
-That's one way to put it. -[Maneet] That's one way to put it, yes.
You are next, chef Day.
I'm gonna go ahead and choose my favorite color, red.
-See what happens with you, chef Day. -[all cheering]
-[Ted] Here we go. -[Tiffani] Go, go, go!
-[Day] Red, red, red! -[Ted] All right, it's red!
[all cheering]
-Yes! -Congratulations.
-Yes -All right, all right.
-Okay. -Yes!
Chef Day, you get to choose from the lucky side.
I'm gonna go with lucky number four.
-And you got a charcuterie. -[all exclaiming]
[all cheering]
-[Chris] Oh, my God. -Okay.
[Chris] Now that is luck, right?
All these house cured beautiful meats,
all these great cheeses.
All right, Chef Kat, it is your turn.
Black was good for me last time.
So, go again.
[Ted] All right. Here you go, Kat.
No red, baby! Uh-uh!
[Tiffani] Here we go, here we go, here we go!
-Red. -[all exclaiming]
[Ted] Chef Kat, unfortunately, we have to ask you to choose
from the less lucky side.
Number nine, Ted.
Black chicken.
[Maneet] The issue with black chicken
is that it's very tough,
so it takes hours to braise and break down,
and you have only 30 minutes.
I understand.
The three of you have 30 minutes to make your entrees.
The clock starts...
-...now. -[Tiffani] All right!
Let's go!
[Kat] Come on, chefs, let's go.
[Chris] As challenging as this pork uterus is,
the black chicken is also very, very unlucky...
-[Tiffani] Yeah. -...potentially.
[Ted] What meat is there is very stringy and tough.
Part of the fowl family and it's on the fouler side for chicken.
-I could see that one coming a mile away. -A mile away.
This thing is gnarly.
What worries me about the black chicken
is I don't have enough time
to make it really, really delicious.
But I saw the okra, and I immediately thought gumbo
because it's typically thickened with okra,
so I'm making a spicy black chicken gumbo
with chorizo and okra.
Right behind.
[Kat] I'm going to use the black chicken
to fortify a stock.
My onions, my peppers, my okra.
I have my rice going. I have my gumbo going.
I'm feeling good at this point.
[Tiffani] So, chef Day took a gamble,
got rid of the hoisin instead of the pork uterus.
Not the choice I would have made to keep the pork uterus.
This is truly an ingredient I would not know what to do with.
[Day] The judges are surprised that
I've gambled away the hoisin,
but I'm from Haiti and pork is something that
we put into everything that we do.
-Wow. -[Andy] How's that working over there for you?
It's interesting. It smells crazy.
I've smelled worse.
I'm making stewed pork uterus with Haitian style sauce,
truffle jasmine rice, and charred okra.
I'm hoping that making a stew cooks the pork uterus
until it gets tender.
Nothing wrong with a little pork on my fork.
[Andy] It's funky.
[Tiffani] Look, there are people that love stinky cheese.
I'm one of them.
If all the funky, stinky cheeses chose a king.
Limburger.
Whoo, let's go!
Grab some gruyere, grab the Limburger, get a little stock going.
I'm going to make a Limburger and okra stew
with some sausage and red potatoes.
[Ted] All right, chefs, you are down to 20 minutes here.
[Day] Behind. Coming through.
[Maneet] With Andy, he is making an okra stew.
The trick with okra is that it is a very slimy vegetable
if people don't know how to cook it properly.
Right behind!
[Day] Because okra tends to be a bit tough,
I'm going to get a nice, hard sear on them,
and then I finish cooking it in the oven.
What I feel is most unique about Haitian cooking
is that there is a lot of French technique used.
So I'm going to make epis, which is like a Haitian sofrito.
It's got tons of herbs in it, olive oil,
all blended up together.
Anything you put this on is sure to taste great, even pork uterus.
I add a pork uterus with my epis.
I'm going to throw that into the pan.
Make sure that those flavors are nice and deep and developed.
[Maneet] So, hoisin sauce is sauce made with fermented soybean,
and it just has this beautiful umami-ish flavor.
I am rolling on my stew here.
With the hoisin, I am adding it to the gumbo
just to round it out, give a little bit of sweetness
to balance out the spice.
I think Lady Luck's on my side right now.
[Andy] I've got cheesy okra stew.
It's going to be funky, What else can I do with it?
Hoisin, oh, that's gonna brighten up,
It's gonna sweeten it, A little less funkiness to it.
All right, chefs. You're just under the 10 minute mark here.
Whew, baby.
This is a whole thing, honey. I am sweating, you sweating?
I'm adding the prosciutto and the salami
from the charcuterie board into my sauce
just to continue to develop the flavor.
I think the truffle mac and cheese
is such a fun ingredient.
What makes this absolutely awesome is the fact
that there are fresh truffles which are used on it.
[Ted] Well, so why not just grab the truffles
-off the top and run? -Exactly.
I don't want to use the mac and cheese.
I'm just going to sauté my truffle
and incorporate the truffle into my rice.
Behind.
[Kat] I take all the truffles off the top.
I chopped them up, I actually add that
to the gumbo base.
[sighing] Okay, let's see.
Then I added that mac and cheese and black chicken stock
into the blender.
[Andy] I'm going to put my arugula salad right on top of the stew.
I add the truffle from my mac and cheese.
[Tiffani] Okay, come on!
[Ted] One minute to go, chefs.
-[Maneet] Come on, chefs! -Come on, guys.
Stakes are high!
[Andy] Soup's on.
Under a minute.
Heard.
[Ted] All right, chefs, you can bet
that clock's not lying!
-10... -[Tiffani exclaims]
[Ted] ...nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four,
three, two,
one.
-Time's up. -Whoo!
[judges clapping]
[Andy] Wow, stew in 30 minutes.
I think we've got a winner right here.
-Damn, that looks pretty. -It's funky.
[Kat] Andy's entree is beautiful.
Suddenly I worried that my dish is not
an elegant enough entree.
[sighs]
Chefs, for your second set of ingredients,
we gave you pork uterus, okra, hoisin sauce,
and truffle mac and cheese.
Of course, you had the option
to scrap one ingredient or replace it.
Please remind us what you did, chef Day.
Well, I gambled away the hoisin sauce,
and in its place, I won a beautiful charcuterie board.
Okay, so what did you end up making?
I have a stewed pork uterus with truffle jasmine rice
with some charred okra.
Day, the sauce is absolutely delicious.
The okra is beautiful.
Just the char on it is absolutely gorgeous.
But the pork uterus needed to be cooked a lot more.
I think it's salting it and just,
like, cutting it into, like, the finest bits, right?
To where it becomes a thickener for the stew.
-Does that makes sense? -It makes sense.
I also think the truffle mac and cheese is really nowhere
to be found here.
-But the flavors are really nice. -Thank you.
This pork uterus, you know...
I don't hate it. It is just really tough.
There's just no getting around it.
But your development of flavors is great.
The use of the charcuterie is great.
Overall, this has got some great, great dynamite flavor.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Thank you, chef Day.
-Next, chef Andy. -Well, I gambled away that pork uterus
and I got...
Got that funky cheese, and, you know, I decided to embrace the funk.
You guys have a Limburger and okra stew.
I think the leaning into the Limburger
and making that stock was really smart.
Like, you took all your chips and put them in the middle,
and I think there's something about it
that's really courageous and really works.
Thank you.
You did not have a focal point in the basket,
and you created that.
I like the idea of the salad on top
just to use the truffles. I think really smart.
I like the interplay between the sauce and the sausage,
the bites of okra I'm getting really compliment the stew.
But it feels like something that you had to really
cook this out a little bit longer.
You would have something really spectacular. As it is, it's good.
But it just it does seem a bit under seasoned.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Okay, Chef Andy. Thank you.
Finally, chef Kat.
So I rejected the pork uterus, and I got black chicken.
I made a spicy gumbo inspired stew.
The flavors are great and I appreciate using
the black chicken for the fortification
of the stock in the broth.
Totally get that and I think that's a smart play.
You're speaking my language. This feels like a Sunday
-afternoon... -Comfort food.
[Chris] Comfort, yeah, I mean, this is very comforting.
The rice is beautifully cooked.
It's just satisfying.
I mean, there definitely is a lot of yumminess
going on over here.
To me, I do think that the okra is
a missed opportunity.
I am literally fishing for okra over here.
-Hmm. -[Maneet] So either there wasn't enough,
or I didn't get enough.
-All right. Chef Kat, thank you. -[Kat] Thank you.
[Day] I brought a lot of flavor
and showcased a lot of my heritage.
I think chef Andy's going to be chopped.
I think that there was a lot of mixed reviews about his dish.
[Andy] I agree with all the judges' critiques.
They definitely needed more time flavors to develop,
so I'm very nervous.
We'll see how this plays out.
So whose dish was on the chopping block?
Chef Day, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -[Maneet] Chef Day,
the pork uterus was really tough to eat,
and the truffle mac and cheese got lost in the rice.
So for these reasons, we have to chop you.
Thank you.
I wish I would have gambled away the pork uterus.
But I will be back and I will absolutely take the win home.
Chef Kat, chef Andy, do you consider yourselves lucky
to have made it this far?
I make my own luck, Ted.
I've been lucky so far,
but I got some tricks in my back pocket.
[Ted] Okay. Final baskets.
Let's hit it!
Whoa. Oh, my gosh.
[Ted] And you've got wafer cigars,
rotisserie chicken...
[Kat laughs]
[Andy] That's interesting.
[Ted] ...cherries...
[Andy] Cherries.
-[Ted] ...and a gold bling espresso martini. -[Andy] Ooh.
Chef Kat, what ingredient would you like to swap out?
It's called winner, winner, chicken dinner,
not winner, winner chicken dessert, Ted.
[laughing]
-What do you think, chef? -That chicken does not belong.
Let's go back to the roulette table and spin for a change.
We're calling this the double down dessert round.
-Ooh. -[Ted] If you don't win at the roulette wheel,
we're going to give you a chance to double down
by playing the slots.
Cha-ching-ching!
Win there, and you get a lucky replacement ingredient,
but if you lose,
we're going to give you
the worst ingredient we could think of.
Andy, it's your turn first.
I'll go with black again.
[Tiffani] Letting it ride!
-Let's do it. -[Maneet] Whoo!
-Go, go, go, go. -[Tiffani] Let's go, black!
[Tiffani] Come on, black.
-[all exclaiming] -[Ted] No, red it is.
Chef Andy, would you prefer to choose from
an unlucky ingredient or double down
at the slot machine?
Go with the unlucky ingredient today.
Number seven.
Fermented butter.
Ooh.
[Tiffani] So fermented butter has a good amount of, like, funkiness.
It's got a little bit of gamey quality.
It's the Limburger of butter if you will.
[Maneet laughs]
[Ted] All right, chef Kat. Going with red?
-[sighs] God, okay. -[all cheering]
-Come on! Come on! -Come on, red!
Come on, red. Come on, red. Come on, red.
-[all exclaiming] -[Tiffani] Black. Oh!
-Black. -[Chris] It's black.
Luck is not being a lady.
-Double down. Double down. -Double down. Double down.
All right, all right,
I'll do the slot. I'll do the slot!
-You're doing it for you. -Let's go.
Okay, guys.
I know it's risky, but if I get a lucky ingredient,
I can crush him.
If you get any two symbols on this pay line,
you get to pull from the lucky ingredients.
-Right. -If you don't, you get the worst ingredient
we could come up with.
[all exclaiming]
[Ted] Maneet, would you please do the honors and bring us
the worst ingredient ever?
[Maneet] These are cow eyeballs.
Oh, no.
Cow eyeballs.
-Hard to see how this is gonna go well for you. -[laughs]
I'm at a loss for words.
[Maneet] They have been cooked.
They are going to be very challenging
to incorporate in a dessert or food in general.
At this point, I am just about to throw in the towel.
30 minutes on the clock. Dessert round starts now.
-[Chris] All right. -[Maneet] Go, go, go.
[Tiffani] Let's go, guys.
So what do you do with eyeballs?
The big challenge is going to be the texture.
Okay, here we go.
You got to make an ice cream base or custard
-or hollandaise... -[Tiffani] Or caramel.
...something that you can steep it
-and then get it out. -Exactly.
-I do not want an eyeball on my plate. -[Maneet] I do not.
[Kat] Like how bad could a cow eyeball taste?
Did I just see Kat take a pretty good bite of eyeball?
[Tiffani] Hey, Kat. How's the eyeball?
It just kind of tastes like beef tendon.
I'm honestly not scared of these eyeballs.
I think they're all bark and no bite.
All moo and no bite?
[laughs]
I am making a cherry nutmeg and eyeball ice cream
with an espresso chocolate ganache.
I'm gonna really impress the judges.
[Andy] You put the eyeballs in a blender?
-[Kat] I am. -[Andy] Holy smokes.
Old fashioned eyeball ice cream.
Everybody loves it.
I'm feeling very comfortable with the fermented butter,
but if she pulls off cow eyeballs,
I'm done.
For my dessert, I'm making a cherry apple crumble
with Chantilly.
I get my apples into a hot pan,
start a little bit of caramelization,
add my cherries and then I add some fermented butter.
Let's bring the funk.
Fermented butter, it's gonna play very well with the cherries and apples.
Perfect.
I flambe my apples and cherries
with a little bit of bourbon. I have some espresso martini.
I'm going to add that to the sauce just because it's there. [laughs]
All right, chefs, we're just under 20 minutes here.
To make my ice cream, I bring up some
milk, cream, sugar, nutmeg, egg yolks and thicken that
into a creme anglaise.
So these wafer cigars are pretty neutral in flavor.
You get a little base of vanilla,
they're nice and crunchy.
-They have a great texture. -[Maneet] Mmm-hmm.
[Andy] It goes down nice.
I need to get my crumble topping in the oven ASAP
because it needs time to bake.
I grab some graham cracker,
I grab the wafer cigars and brown sugar.
[Ted] Twelve minutes on the clock, chefs.
This is an espresso martini with a little bit of coffee in it.
Coffee liqueur, there's vodka.
Maybe the magic of the gold dust
will make the cow eyeballs taste good.
Yes.
[Kat] I'm making an espresso ganache to go with the ice cream.
I add espresso martini, to give some nice flavor
and a little bit of that, like, boozy hit.
I'm gonna make a Chantilly. Grab some mascarpone,
some Greek yogurt and espresso Martini.
Right, chefs, less than five minutes to go here.
I start making ricotta fritter that will go with
the chocolate ganache.
I mixed my batter together as fast as I can
and I start dropping it into the fryer.
[Maneet] Is she making a biscuit, like, what is she doing right now?
Girl, she ain't got no time.
[Kat] And then I run back to the ice cream machine to check it
and the ice cream has turned to butter.
It has totally over-churned.
There's $25,000 on the line and this ice cream
could be the reason I get sent home.
Kat's ice cream with a cow eyeball, it's over-churned.
[Kat] Luckily, I've got these cherries which will give another layer
of texture and thin out this over-churned ice cream a little bit.
[Andy] I'm going to serve this Chantilly separate.
I didn't want it to just melt into the hot cobbler.
[Tiffani] Only one of you goes to the finale
-for $25,000 minimum. -Come on!
One goes. One goes home.
[Kat] I love adding, like, a secret crunch factor.
So I'm going to sprinkle the top of my ice cream
with the chopped up wafer cigars.
[Maneet] Yeah, Kat. Come on.
-You got this. -[Tiffani] Eye of the tiger.
[Ted] All right, chefs, final seconds of the final round here.
10,
nine,
eight, seven
six,
five, four,
three, two,
one.
-Time's up! -[judges clapping]
If she pulls off the eyeballs, I'm absolutely worried.
[Kat] I don't have faith in my ice cream.
But I don't know how Andy's dish tastes,
so there's still a horse in the game.
Chefs, we started the dessert round
with a basket of wafer cigars,
rotisserie chickens, cherries,
and a gold bling espresso martini.
Chef Kat, what happened after that?
I traded in my chicken for beef eyeballs.
So I made nutmeg and cherry ice cream,
a espresso chocolate ganache with a ricotta fritter.
Think it takes true vision to make an ice cream like this.
Folding the cherries in. Really, really smart.
I don't think it's the most finished dessert in the world,
but the flavors are good.
Thank you.
Saying that I'm enjoying your cow eyeball ice cream
is certainly probably the most ludicrous thing I've ever said.
[laughs]
But the fritter is very dense,
and what happens is I'm focusing now
on something that doesn't even have basket ingredients.
[Maneet] But I took a little fritter, a little bit
of the ganache, the ice cream,
and together it's such a delicious bite.
[Ted] Finally, chef Andy.
I gambled the rotisserie chicken away, lost big,
and got some fermented butter.
I made for you a apple and cherry crumble
with a Chantilly.
There is a sour funky quality that for me links up with
the apples and the cherries that becomes super interesting
and craveable and there's something about the sourness
that allows me to just keep eating this.
I agree. My favorite part is the way you've cooked
the apples.
You still have that crunch, but you still get that
caramelization of it, which just shows what a skilled chef you are.
But I wish the streusel was a little bit more cooked
so it could have had that deep, roasty flavor to it.
[Chris] I agree, the crumble, it is a little raw
and it's it gets a little soggy.
But the wafer cigars add a really nice texture,
which is actually a little bit crunchy.
Okay, we'll name the winner soon.
-Thank you, chefs. -[Kat] Thank you.
-I think both of them had highs and lows... -[Tiffani] Mmm-hmm.
...throughout the competition.
Andy came out, he made a pasta in the first round.
Which was good except for when I got one bite
that I didn't even realize how much caviar was on there,
and it was like just, it was too much.
-It wasn't an appetizer, that's what I can't get past. -[Maneet] Yes.
[Tiffani] I will say it was seasoned nicely
and I liked a lot of the flavors.
Kat went ahead and got
these beautiful croissants,
put it in the tempura batter which was delicious.
But there's fish sauce
in the mayonnaise with the caviar.
This is crimes against caviar, right?
Then the entree round, she was speaking my language
with the chorizo and the spice.
Kat took the black chicken and used it to fortify...
-Mmm-hmm. -...her chicken stock,
-which again gave depth of flavor... -Yeah.
...to the entire dish, but there wasn't enough okra.
[Tiffani] Agreed.
And on the other hand, Andy did get Limburger, right?
And, boy, did he lean into it.
The way he had the okra in the stew was amazing.
But the rest of his dish was just underdeveloped.
The sauce, it lacked overall seasoning.
Well, do you have it worked out?
[Andy] I think I really showcased what I do day in and day out.
I think I'm the next Chopped champion.
[Kat] I didn't play it safe.
I think I deserve to go on to the next round
and prove myself at the final tournament.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Andy, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -[Chris] Chef Andy, in the first round,
the caviar wasn't dispersed in any way, shape or form,
and it was too much. In the entree round,
we felt that the stew in general needed
more time to develop flavor.
We really enjoyed your dessert,
but the crumble itself was undercooked
and so we had to chop you.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
[all clapping]
A little disappointed, but I lost to eyeballs
and I can't complain about that.
And that means that chef Kat Turner, you are the Chopped champion.
You'll be back to face three other winners
in the Casino Royale finale.
-Yeah, you got it. -[all cheering]
-[Tiffani] Nicely done. -[Ted] Very nice.
[Kat] I took so many risks, and it paid off
and I won and that is what gambling is all about.
-Nice job. -Congratulations.
I am ready to slay in the finale.
Oh, my God. Yes!
-[all cheering] -Stakes are high!
[chef] Action, flashing lights.
I'm running like hell.
-Oh my gosh. -[Maneet] The glamour, the glitz.
-[chef] This would change my life. -Ooh, my hands are shaky.
Trinkets, people winning. People losing.
[Maneet] Luck, luck, luck.
[Tiffani] I need all of these chefs
to be the best that they have ever been.
Don't even look at the clock, just plate.
-There we go. -[chef] I'm not gonna fold under pressure.
[Tiffani] Chopped isn't about playing it safe.
One of you is gonna be the grand champion!