[Kelsey screaming]
The semi-finals of our star-studded Triple G Relay Tournament are here.
[man] Oh, yes!
[Guy] This crazy tag-team competition
pushed some teams to the breaking point.
[screaming]
Please, make a meatball!
What is this game!
[Guy] But now, only three crews remain.
One team earned a high-scoring victory
that has sent them straight to the finale.
Now the winners of the other two heats are
facing off.
This is our last chance to make it to the finale.
Come on, Joe!
The pressure is palpable.
Which team will earn their shot at the title,
the trophies, and $60,000?
[man] Jiminy Christmas, this is so hard.
[mimics electricity]
[yelps]
It's the semifinals
of Triple G's All-Star Relay Rumble.
[nervously] I'm being good.
[laughing]
[bell dings]
[Guy] It's the semifinals.
We have the quick-fire-tested Top Chef All-Stars
versus a super squad of Triple G judges.
Let's welcome back our battle-tested team.
Now, first up, the crew that out-cooked
culinary award winners
with their vegetarian spaghetti and meatballs.
The flavors in this dish are incredible.
It's a dish that I just want to keep eating and eating.
[Guy] The Top Chef All-Stars.
The winner of Top Chef Season 16, KBC,
Chef Kelsey Barnard Clark.
Acclaimed restaurateur
and Top Chef All-Star Season 8,
the Boogeyman, Chef Dale Talde.
And Top Chef All-Star and Season 15 finalist,
Mustache Joe, Chef Joe Sasto.
-We're back. -Semi-final.
It's Semi-finals.
Let's go.
[Joe] The more that we cook together
or not actually cook together,
the better we become not cooking together.
[laughing]
There's some winner winner spaghetti and meatball dinner.
Go get them.
Nice. I'm glad you have one more flower shirt
that I haven't seen.
And then the team that showed the next-gen young'uns
just how a winner winner chicken dinner is done.
The plate is delicious.
Just-- it works. It feels like one person made this dish.
[Guy] The Triple G Judges.
Food Network star
and Southern sensation Damaris Phillips,
TOC commentator
and one of Triple G's winningest chefs,
wild card Justin Warner,
and the hugely successful restaurateur
and celebrated chef
"Shenanigans" Brian Malarkey.
We're the victorious Triple G Judges.
[roaring]
We are on fire.
[Damaris] Hi, guys.
-[Brian] Hi. -[Damaris] Hello.
-Keep him in his cage, please. -[Brian barks]
-[howls] -It's going to be a long night.
This is going to be a battle.
I got to be honest with you.
I've been doing Triple G a long time,
and this is the most difficult competition format
I've ever seen.
[Guy] Everything that we've learned
in our kitchens
is about communication.
In this, we absolutely strip you of that opportunity,
and now you need to leave breadcrumbs.
One at a time,
you are going to be on a 10-minute shift.
The key is,
is you know each other.
You've been around the block with each other.
So you should be able to pick up
on one another's culinary clues.
These two crews have to battle it out
to figure out who is going to go to the championship,
who's going to be going for the title,
the trophies.
And I think there's a little bit of money on the table.
$60,000,
-ladies and gentlemen. -[all exclaiming]
-Big money, big money, big money! -Yeah.
[Guy] Now, the first chef will do the shopping
and the prepping.
The second chef will continue on the cooking.
And the third chef,
well, they're going to finish the dish,
and they're also going to present the dish
to the judges. All right.
For the next rowdy rumble...
you don't get to do the job you did last time.
-News to me. -Thank you. That's great.
[Guy] So go ahead. Talk amongst yourselves.
Find out who's shopping, who's in the middle,
and who closes the deal.
I still don't want to shop.
All right, so that leaves me to shop.
-And I'm fine with, honestly, any of the roles. -Okay.
I should do the shop. I just really want to.
-You're not shopping, bro. -Oh.
Don't let Shenanigans shop.
-He's definitely not shopping. -[laughs maniacally]
Malarkey is a notoriously chaotic shopper.
[Brian] Oh, I love it. This is all the good stuff. [laughs maniacally]
He's kind of like our Tasmanian devil.
I'll be shopping.
-You'll be shopping. -He'll be shopping.
I'm the Damaris meat in this sandwich.
All right, so who's shopping?
Justin Warner.
Dale Talde.
Who's in the middle?
Joe Sasto.
Damaris Phillips.
-[Joe exclaims] -Hey, bro!
So that means closing the door...
Oh, my gosh.
Talk about keeping the train on the tracks,
the wild man himself,
Brian Malarkey.
and Kelsey Barnard Clark.
Chefs that are shopping, you stick with the carts.
And the other four of you, out the double doors.
-Good luck. -Let's do this, Dale.
-Good luck. You got it. -Send us a sign.
-Let's go. -You got it.
-Send us a sign. -Breadcrumbs.
I'm clearing my mind.
Wow.
You do not look happy.
Oh, I'm stunned.
You know, Guy, I used to think
that Flavortown took my ability
to feel normal things,
like fear, panic.
Now I can't feel those, and I'm even lower than I was before.
-[laughing] -[Justin] It's cool, man.
My heart is beating so fast.
[groans] My eye is twitching.
The challenge for your ears only.
I want you to make
a party platter.
One platter with three components on it.
But on this party platter,
I want you to put something on there...
fried, raw,
and I want you to put something on there cheesy.
Of course, Guy.
[Guy] Three separate components
on one platter.
Going in three, two...
Hold up. Forgot something.
My absent-mindedness almost cost you guys
the opportunity to show your real prowess.
You know what you are?
You're aware of who you are,
and you're aware of how to watch your weight.
No, man! No.
So you're going to get something fried,
something raw,
and a cheesy component
on your party platter
with...
eight pounds.
No. I'm sorry.
So you'll shop around,
take your stuff over to the scale.
Hunter will be over there waiting for you.
You'll weigh your eight pounds.
Once you have that,
you'll be able to go to your kitchen
and start to cry.
Let's turn that frown upside down.
I'm smiling inside, Guy. I promise.
Eight pounds. Fried, raw, cheesy.
Those three things.
Two of you making one platter.
Now when you go think about weighing in...
Justin's not putting up with any of it.
[rock music playing]
[Justin] This ain't it. Yeah, this is it.
This is it.
I'm back with Team Triple G judges.
Some might say I'm formidable.
Some might say I'm to be feared.
This is our last chance to make it to the finale,
and we'll be facing off against Team TOC Champs.
I work on TOC as well.
I've been in more episodes than Maneet.
I want a trophy, and I want to take them down a notch.
So something's got to be raw.
It's going to be something delicious,
like a tuna poke.
Damaris will understand right away.
Ahi tuna. There's no point in cooking that.
This is the raw component.
My fried component, calamari. Tubes, and tentacles.
-Panko. -If you showed up to a party
and they had fried calamari,
you'd say, "Ooh,
did I dress up enough?"
And the cheesy component.
Nothing is more cheesy than nachos and chorizo.
If you've got cheese, that's just cheesy chips.
But if you have chorizo,
now they're nachos.
My strategy is
to weave this sort of Latin vibe throughout.
I like...
where he's going.
[Justin] I'm going to divvy my shopping cart
into little piles,
one for each component of the dish.
Weight's going to go like that.
He has little setups down here.
He's shopping by category.
And I will edit accordingly
once I get to the weighing scale.
All right, Justin, what have we got?
Give me the priorities.
[Justin] It's unfortunate, the amount of weight
that I have brought to this party.
So I need to start
hacking and editing my cart.
[Hunter] Woo!
That's a lot of tortillas.
It turns out my tortillas are too heavy.
They got to have a smaller pack of tortillas.
[Justin] So I got to run all the way back
to the other side of Flavortown Market...
He's so mad at me.
Under his breath, he's like, [grumbles]
[Justin] ...and grab some flight tortillas.
Why didn't they figure out how to play the game?
-They're getting all this big stuff. -[Guy] I know.
I don't understand it.
I'm going to throw up.
[Guy] You're right at eight pounds.
-That's it, done. Okay. -[Hunter] Okay.
-[instrumental music playing] -[Justin] Last week, we proved
Damaris, Malarkey, Justin,
-Demarcuston... -[music slows down and stops]
...Demalarkiston?
Whatever it is, we've got it.
My order got all messed up.
Let's go, semifinals!
One of the things that I learned as a shopper,
you need to spell out for the next chefs
what the dishes are going to be.
Uh, he's not getting it.
-I put a can of spaghetti meatballs... -Okay. That's what I'm saying.
-It's sitting out there. -...with impossible meat.
I think I made it literally crystal clear.
This is the hardest thing I've ever done.
For my fried item, I'm thinking fried shrimp.
For my raw item, a ceviche of scallop.
That was the lightest possible protein
I could have gotten.
For cheesy, fried mozzarella sticks.
For my fried shrimp tempura flour,
I'm getting some panko.
I need a dipping sauce, so I got hot sauce,
cocktail sauce, and wasabi aioli.
My strategy is to get items that are light,
impactful, flavorful,
but also help my teammates understand
what that challenge is immediately.
[Hunter] Are we ready?
Are we feeling ready? Not yet?
-No. -No? Okay.
[Guy] No time to cook
if they don't move their butts.
[playful music playing]
Dale's left his cart. It's time to ghost-ride it.
Leave your cart...
say goodbye.
You leave your cart, I ghost-ride that thing.
Or I'll fill it with my own groceries.
-[Dale] Hi. -[Guy] Is that your cart?
[Guy chuckles]
[Dale] Raw, cheesy, fried.
-Are you ready now? -[Dale] I think I am.
Okay. Let's load it up.
The whole big thing that makes this so difficult
is that eight pounds.
Who gives somebody eight pounds? Horrible.
-[Guy whistles] -Give me the priority items.
What do you need?
I'll take the egg.
[Hunter] Oh!
You're going to have to drop something off.
I lose my mayo.
I lose my sauces.
No sauces?
Everything that tastes good is heavy.
No sauces.
[Dale] All right, that's it.
I got to keep it light.
I wasn't able to get a lot of the things
that I would have loved to have.
Hey, start restocking this.
Why me? This was your idea.
To my store.
[tense music playing]
Foil.
Let's meet the parties
responsible for judging
these fantastic party platters.
We have rockstar restaurateur,
culinary triple threat,
the one and only Chef Michael Voltaggio.
Celebrated restaurateur and fierce competitor,
don't let that smile and all the bling fool you,
it's Iron Chef Stephanie Izard.
An eight-time James Beard Award winner
with restaurants around the world
and soon on the moon,
the culinary and fashion icon,
Chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Like Mike Tyson said,
"Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face."
How do you communicate to the next person
that they have to make three different prep--
three different dishes?
Exactly.
You have to communicate party platter,
fried,
raw, cheesy,
all while you're cooking, prepping,
and giving clues, and shopping.
There are so many ways this can go wrong.
[Guy exhales]
Semifinals,
getting harder.
This is pretty obvious.
That's that.
First thing I'm going to do is
organize my ingredients onto trays.
Fried calamari, tuna poke,
and cheesy nachos.
Then I'm going to get the prep work started.
My fried component,
I'm going to make a flavorful dredge.
Slice the tube of the calamari.
Next, for my cheesy component, for my nachos.
I put the chorizo in a skillet.
Chorizo's really going to sell these as nachos.
And then I rely on my handy friend,
aluminum foil.
In my hands, aluminum foil becomes
the tiniest bread crumb.
You've got to use the fryer.
What's going on in the foil?
We put foil in the fryer-- wrap something in foil
with a secret code.
[Justin] A little wrap of aluminum foil
around the cheesy component.
It's got to be cheesy.
A little aluminum foil around the ahi tuna.
Look at this little technique.
These are must-use items. [chuckles]
He put foil around something else.
Follow the foil, my fellow chefs.
"Fry this."
[Guy] I see the cheesy.
I see the raw.
What's the fried?
[Justin] A little calamari action.
[Guy] Got it. Nice call.
If we win this, we'll go to the finale,
and we'll be facing off against Team TOC Champs.
It's an uphill battle,
but hopefully, I've set my teammates up for success,
and I don't think
we can be foiled.
[drum sting playing]
[all laughing]
[Dale] So I'm putting all my items
in three separate bowls
so they understand
that these are three separate dishes.
So I put scallops,
avocado, cilantro, the serrano chilies,
all the raw items.
For my fried item, I put shrimp
with the panko on top,
and in the last bowl,
mozzarella sticks,
telling them cheese has to be part of this.
-So you got your raw. -Cheesy.
-[both] Raw. -[Dale] Fried.
You think you've set 'em up here enough
-to understand all that? -I sure hope so.
So to make sure Joe knows
you've got to fry the shrimp,
I set up a dredge station.
I lightly dust and season some shrimp
and chuck it in the fryer.
[chuckling] 10 seconds.
I feel like I've left a clear path
for them to pick up and finish this dish.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
That's it. You go to the ice box.
-[whistle blows] -[Guy] Let's go! Ice box.
[tense music playing]
Bye.
[Dale] Crazy. Eight pounds?
-[Guy] Let's go! -Wait, Damaris, what's that?
Go, go, go, go, go.
[rock music playing]
Here comes [chuckling] Mustache Joe and Damaris.
[Damaris] He's so fast.
Joe came in like a track star.
[Joe] And we're here. All right.
Something's in the fryer.
-[sizzling] -What's in the fryer?
Shrimp's in the fryer.
It's the semifinals.
We want to make it to the finale.
[Damaris] Stakes are bigger this time.
Trophies and a sizable prize.
All right.
Three bowls, platter, family style.
The pressure is palpable.
[Stephanie] His hands are shaking.
His brain is going 100 miles an hour
trying to figure out, "What am I cutting this off for?"
-Joe, why do you look so nervous right now? -[Stephanie chuckles]
Calm, cool, and collected, they come in
till their heads start to fall off.
[tense music playing]
There's not a lot of things here.
[Dale] What my main concern is
is that there's not a whole lot of ingredients
to make things super delicious there.
There's not a whole lot you can do
with eight pounds of stuff.
This is so hard.
Two very strong teams.
The Judges team have judged
in Flavortown Market over 125 times.
Then the Top Chef All-Stars,
just competition in their blood.
They're fierce competitors.
[Joe] Why is there only one cucumber?
The challenge is a party platter.
Fried, raw, and cheesy.
These are three separate dishes.
So I hope Joe knows
that he has to fry the shrimp,
fry the mozzarella,
and that he has to make a ceviche
with the scallop.
[Joe] I see one big platter
with multiple small bowls.
I got this.
So I know this is going to be some sort of...
pu pu platter?
He put a scallop in a glass bowl.
There's no other interpretation
of that as a chef
than that is a raw scallop preparation.
One, two, three, four.
Fried.
I need a raw.
This is raw.
Crudo. I need a crudo.
I need a cooked.
Something cheesy.
Pretty impressive.
[Joe] So first, I want to get started
on the scallop crudo.
'Cause I'm trying to think
if I'm overthinking it or if I'm on the right track.
You're thinking, "What am I cutting these scallops for?"
They're really, like,
getting in your head over here.
Let me tell you that.
Do you have your dessert, like, planned?
Shut up.
Exactly. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Fried.
Damaris, follow the foil.
I see that Justin has left me some foil clues.
Oh, you have to use this, too.
You have to use the tuna.
Follow the foil.
"Follow the foil." That's it entirely.
Have to use the cheese.
Quesadilla.
Or taco.
This is the fried squid. Okay.
How do you know it's fried squid?
Because he has it over here
in the batter already.
And you've got to follow the fryer. It's fried.
[Guy] Wild card, wrap foil around the fish,
meaning "must use."
Foil around the cheese, "must use."
And then put foil there in the fryer
and the calamari for the fry
for the "must use."
Pretty smart.
Yeah, Guy.
♪♪ Follow the foil ♪
You can tell that they've competed before.
[Damaris] So I'm getting my calamari prepped.
I'm going to let Brian fry that,
'cause that's not something that takes a long time to fry.
All Brian needs to do is toss it and fry it.
We've seen it all.
I'm one of the most winningest chefs on this show.
I've judged over 100 episodes.
So this is really like the final boss of Flavortown.
I'm working on one thing while I think about the rest.
-That's what's happening. -So you're thinking about the rest might be?
-That's smart. Yeah. -While I'm like game planning
what else is happening...
Yeah, you might as well be doing something.
...I might as well be doing something.
Kind of multitask. And we'll just, you know,
make it more challenging by talking to you.
-[Joe] Right. That's true. -[Stephanie chuckles]
[Joe] There's cilantro, lime, jalapeno, and avocado.
All of the components
for some sort of ceviche,
aguachile, salsa verde sauce
that needs to be used on that scallop.
He put cilantro and avocado,
and that's what I'm talking about!
Let's go!
Yeah!
Come on, Joe!
Joe is getting a lot of stuff done.
A lot.
You look at Joe versus Damaris right now,
Joe is banging out prep.
Like, the restaurant is opening in five minutes.
Whereas Damaris is...
[Marcus] Oh, she's at the dinner party.
-She's having a dinner party. -She's hosting--
The guests are coming in three or four hours.
I think this is the advantage
that the Top Chef All-Star team has.
They're used to moving so quickly in the kitchen,
whereas the judges, they've been here a lot of times,
but a lot of times they're sitting right where we are.
[Hunter] Okay, Father.
What is this?
[Hunter] Brought you some more help.
[Justin] No, no, no, no, no, no.
I feel like if you were to help our chefs out,
give them a little hint.
Chefs, attention.
On your party platter,
you need to have three of these components
of either something baked,
fried, pickled, raw, spicy, cheesy, nutty, or charred
on your platter.
-[judges exclaiming] -Wow.
[Joe] Three.
It's almost more confusing to do that
-when you're like... -[chuckling] Right?
Thanks for the list, Guy and Hunter.
[Damaris] Guy shows me a list of all of the things
that they could have to be doing.
I have absolutely read Justin's mind.
Justin has tuna and yuzu,
cucumbers.
That sounds like a poke bowl.
You know what? I'm a little concerned
there's not a ton of stuff
for the nacho component.
Well, it's nacho fault.
It's true.
[Guy] Hi, Damaris. What do you think you got?
I think it's raw, cheesy, and fried.
Yes, Chef!
That's it.
[mimics electricity]
-How'd you come up with that? -Because he has fried,
which I know.
-And he has cheese wrapped in aluminum foil. -Okay.
And he has tuna.
-And tuna is raw. -What are you doing with the cheese?
I'm putting the cheese in the tacos.
It ain't a taco.
But I was thinking,
do I want to make tacos
or do I want to make quesadillas,
so it's cheesier.
I think I'm going quesadilla.
Chee... It's... I don't care how you do it.
[Damaris] I'm taking the tortillas,
layering on the chorizo,
and adding a lot of cheese.
It needs more cheese.
Top Chef crew are really trying
to take over our rightful place
on Triple G.
So we can't let that stand.
Those are ready to pan fry
when Brian comes in.
There goes the cheese.
It's like a pizza-dia.
And green onions need to get used.
Scallions need to get used.
Look around the station,
I see cheese.
There's eggs,
breading station,
eggs and panko.
Shallots, green onions,
and I'm already thinking charred.
All right, we're gonna go charred.
Pickled, fried, crispy, grilled, raw.
Let's just do it all.
Why limit ourselves?
So I char off some scallions,
and then right into the bowl
with all my scallops.
I'm going to marinate all my scallops
in this bright, beautiful green salsa.
Time to make a quickle.
These shallots will be perfect pickled.
I'm not sure where they're going to go,
but that's up to Kelsey to figure out.
I don't know why there's cheese.
That's really throwing me off.
Other people are counting on you
to do everything right.
We're only one win away from the finale.
Can't let those TOC Champs go home with another title.
I need to fry something.
I'm going to fry the cheese.
What are you going to fry there, Joe?
[Joe] We're going to do a little fried cheese.
[Marcus grunting] Mm.
They don't call us Top Chefs for nothing! Let's go!
Fried, raw, cheesy, dude. Fried, raw, cheesy.
He has to fry the shrimp.
[Joe] I got the shrimp marinating in some wasabi mayonnaise.
I think Kelsey
should grill the shrimp
so we don't have too many fried components on the plate.
Fry the shrimp!
Come on, Joe!
I just figured it out. "Ice-olation."
Uh, how do you think she's doing?
[Justin] She's doing great.
A little concerned that that yuzu juice got dumped onto the tuna.
It's gonna start acidulating it right away.
Yuzu is... That's not just lemon juice.
No, that's Mr. Acid.
I'm hoping, though, that Malarkey comes in
and course-corrects a little bit.
He's gonna see that Japanese mayonnaise
and he's gonna use it for everything.
And help that raw slow down that acidulation.
Three minutes!
[Damaris] I have left Brian
every single clue I got.
I've seasoned the tuna.
It's ready for Brian to just plate.
The calamari is cut
and has been put into the seasoned dredge.
That tastes nice.
They're ready to fry.
The cheesy chorizo quesadillas are built.
They're ready to pan fry.
He's in a good position.
What are the three things that have to be on this platter?
[Joe] Um...
It needs to be fried.
It needs to be pickled.
There needs to be charred.
Um, it needs to be raw.
But you only have to have three things.
I was inspired by the whiteboard
that you and Hunter brought over.
If you do everything,
it's better than doing nothing.
Joe just did, like, an hour of work
-in nine minutes. -Yeah.
[Dale] Don't do too much, Joe.
Don't do too much.
You have 29 seconds, my friend.
[Joe] That's all I need.
Cheese comes out.
I want to get that right into the bowl.
So there's no question on Kelsey's mind
as to whether or not that belongs on the plate.
Left the raw scallops in the bowl
so she knew that all she had
to do was plate them.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
-Out of the kitchen. -Oh, they're done.
They're done. Oh, no.
Into the icebox.
[Joe exclaims]
Not so great that I didn't get to tell
Kelsey to grill the shrimp.
-How'd I do? -Great.
-Party platter. -Party platter.
Fried, raw, cheesy.
-You got it, right? -I got it. I got it.
She just has to grill the shrimp.
But fried shrimp.
Oh, I did fried cheese.
I want double fried for gameplay.
So fried, fried.
[Damaris] I did not get enough done.
It's okay. It's Malarkey.
[Damaris] The quesadillas are built.
They just need to be grilled.
Yeah, I was going nacho, but it doesn't matter.
Oh, you were going nacho. Okay.
-All right, let's go! -[Kelsey screaming]
[Guy] The wild man himself and KBC.
[Kelsey screaming]
Here they come!
[Brian gasps] Oh, jeez.
Oh. Oh.
If I thought it was hard going in second,
third is so much harder,
because I've not really seen
the whole stretch of the land.
[gasps] Oh, God.
Sauces.
Side of this, side of this. Two sides.
-Calamari. -[Guy] Malarkey, what do you think you got?
-Hey! Don't look. -I'm just looking at my friends. Just...
Can I get some gaff tape, please?
Fried calamari.
I left all the aluminum foil.
We got to follow that foil, y'all.
Ceviche,
-fried, cheesy. -[Guy laughing]
No, no, no. Bad.
-No, Dad, no! -[Guy laughing]
[Damaris] Don't do it. I'm a good girl.
I'm being good.
Don't do it. I'm being good.
Not just... It's not... It's just, I'll be...
[laughs]
Not just... It's not... It's just, I'll be...
[laughs]
No more grand communication from these guys.
Guy's so proud of himself
in the covering up of the icebox.
[Guy] Eight minutes. Eight to go!
Y'all are a hot mess, guys.
You could have made this a little cleaner for me.
-Telling you, that's... -But it was eight pounds.
But it had to be under eight pounds.
-That's why you had barely anything. -Nothing. Okay.
[Brian] We have chipotle and adobo,
radish, cheddar.
I have...
poke.
[gasps] Oh, God.
-He has to go. -Yeah.
There's no fresh herbs.
There's no citrus. There's nothing.
Why is there a sign?
Chefs, on these whiteboards that you see in front of you,
three of these items on the whiteboard
must be on your platter.
It's not any three
that you want. It is a specific three.
-Ceviche, fried, cheesy. -Yeah, you did it.
[Brian] Guy tells me
that I have to look at this big chart of
raw, fried, baked,
all these different things.
Oh.
Uh-huh.
I left all the aluminum foil.
-Follow the foil. -[Brian gasps]
Aluminum foil.
And then I see a tinfoil.
There's tinfoil in the fryer saying,
"You better fry something, Malarkey."
I see the calamari sitting next to flour.
I have to fry my calamari. Yes.
That's my fry.
-[Dale] Yes! -[Damaris] Yes!
Chicka-chicka-boom.
There's tinfoil on the tuna going,
"You better use the tuna, Malarkey."
Something raw.
Of course, the poke is raw.
What is in this?
I cannot make out what is in this quesadilla.
And I'm thinking maybe it's like a fish.
Oh, it's tuna.
Oh, that's really funny.
Sometimes when you're in such a hurry,
product identification can even go
a little bit off, thinking that
something's a certain protein when it's something completely different.
[Guy] Malarkey, what do you think you got?
Looks like I have
a seafood trio.
Calamari, poke,
tuna quesadilla.
[Justin] We're not, Malarkey.
[Brian] We're playing for a chance
to go up against the TOC Champions
and potentially have
the greatest upset
in Triple G history.
[groans]
And I am fired up.
-So we have to have three things? -[Guy] Correct.
[Kelsey] So I'm starting to kind of take stock.
Three things, three things, three things.
Kelsey, like, clearly still has no idea
what in the world is going on at her station.
[Kelsey] Baked, fried, pickled, raw, spicy, cheesy, nutty, charred.
There's a bowl of already finished pickles.
I have raw scallop ceviche.
There are charred scallions in my ceviche.
I have a fried cheesy thing.
What of this
is the three things?
Kelsey looks lost.
She needs to start cooking the shrimp.
[Kelsey] Now I'm thinking, the shrimp,
is this supposed to be raw or fried?
What am I supposed to do?
I have fried cheese
that's already done in a bowl.
Come on!
Fry the shrimp!
Okay, that's it.
You guys are gonna get special time-out too.
-Oh. -Hey, hey, hey!
[Stephanie laughing]
-[Joe] No! No! -[Guy laughing]
[Joe] Come on!
[Dale] Blacked out. Guy's blacking us out.
That's really not fair.
I can't see what even she's doing
'cause Guy blacked us out over here.
[Guy laughing]
[Kelsey] And I'm like, "Okay, wait. We have a breading station.
This has to be fried shrimp."
-Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! -[Dale] Yes!
[Joe] We're feeling good.
We're feeling good. Kelsey's on it.
Yes, Kelsey! Yes, Kelsey!
I went above and beyond.
I did everything on the whiteboard.
There is no such thing as too much in Flavortown.
Is this mustache too much?
Some people might say that.
-I don't. -No. No. It's not enough.
So, KBC, what do you think you got?
I think that we have
pickled and charred.
Something's charred in the ceviche situation.
Um, I think I have fried with shrimp.
-That's... -You think it's fried, pickled, and charred?
That is what I'm going to the deathbed on right now.
I made the raw. She just has to plate it.
Take the raw scallops out of that bowl and put
-my scallops in. -She thinks that it's pickled, but it's actually raw.
The last thing I want to do
is for my fellow teammates
to do a great job and me be the one that we lost.
[Guy] Five minutes left! Five to work.
You don't have to mark it if you don't want to.
I want to.
I got something raw.
I got something fried.
I got something cheesy.
How am I going to toast these tortillas?
We're supposed to leave clues for each other.
And there is a pizza stone in the oven,
so I'm thinking maybe
the pizza stone was left for me to toast.
I put plenty of cooking oil down
to crisp up that tortilla shell.
Look, a pizza stone.
[Brian] Put another pan on top of them so the quesadillas
are pushed down to get nice and toasted.
[Damaris speaking]
Maybe, yeah. He is going to the oven.
[Damaris speaking]
The poke should have so many more elements to it.
You can't just have yuzu.
The yuzu is actually pickling the poke,
which I hate.
I don't like high acid in my poke.
It's not a ceviche. It's a poke.
Chop up the green onion. I put it into the poke.
But I want, like, cilantro.
I want sriracha. I want soy.
I want so many things.
All I can do is my best.
And it's so much harder than I thought.
The calamari is my only dish I really feel that has
a chance of being great.
But, like, what is my sauce?
Like, what's gonna bring this thing together?
What's gonna be my wow factor?
I have mayonnaise, chipotle, and adobo in a can.
I'm gonna make a quick aioli out of it.
This team, we are three minds
thinking as one brain.
Follow the flavor.
-[Justin] It's an instinct for him at this point. -[Damaris] What?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[Guy laughing]
Hello.
It's the funniest part of the whole night.
[Kelsey] The signs are
as gray as gray gets right now.
Cook!
Kelsey should take a deeper look at the list
and realize that we have
all of these boxes getting checked.
And just stay on our path.
[Kelsey] I'm going with fried shrimp.
I have charred with the ceviche.
We have a pickle.
I don't know.
So the only thing I know to do is make the sauce
for the shrimp. So I add some
Kewpie mayonnaise, some seasoning,
some cilantro stems.
-[Guy] She's got this. -Yes, Kelsey.
Yes, chef. Yes, chef.
Yes, chef.
[Kelsey] I really want to go to the finale.
You know, we want to win.
We want to win bad.
We are definitely more about the reputation.
That's what we care about, is,
us being better than we were yesterday,
and having a win would mean more to us than anything.
[Guy] Three minutes!
[Kelsey] I have fried cheese that's already done in a bowl.
Ceviche, get that in the bowl.
Fried shrimp, it's nice and beautiful and golden.
Pickled shallots,
a nice pop of acid.
-I mean, hers is looking beautiful, though. -[Marcus] Oh.
[Stephanie] She's plating it very artfully.
[Michael] They do have all the components
-on there. -[Marcus and Stephanie] Yeah.
[Joe] So we got to beat these judges and then
the champs are all we have left.
[Guy] Minute 20.
[Brian] I put the poke in the bowl.
Perfectly crisp calamari.
I go to check on my quesadillas.
Cheesy.
But tortillas were weird.
They didn't have enough fat in them.
Chorizo and American cheese,
-like, will be okay. -It's gonna be fine.
Definitely looking over on Team Judges' side,
it's like a snack platter for when your, like,
kids' friends are coming over.
[Brian] The cherry on top of the sundae,
great chipotle aioli.
Are we the best at this?
[Damaris] I think we might be the best
-at this, ever. -[Justin] We might be the best at this.
Five, four,
three, two,
one. That's it.
Good job, guys.
Careful. [chuckles]
I felt this was twice as hard.
-Right? -Oh, this is so hard.
[Michael] This was the hardest one we've seen.
[Stephanie] This is the hardest one we've seen so far.
Great job on your...
-Thank you. -You did a great job.
[Justin] The food looks great.
[Guy] That was gnarly.
All right, judges. This is it, the semi-finals
of the All-Star Relay Rumble. Wow.
So we have the Top Chef All-Stars
going up against the Triple G Judges.
Uh, Chef Malarkey.
Yes.
Why don't you explain to us, for the judges,
and everybody at home,
what you think you were cooking?
I don't think, I know what I was cooking. All right?
[both laugh]
So what we have here is a trio
of seafoods.
We have a tuna poke
with a nice little yuzu vinaigrette,
super fresh,
representing our raw element.
Then we have a breaded calamari
with a chipotle aioli
to represent our fried element.
And then for our cheesy element,
we made a chipotle tuna spread
and baked that.
-I mean, and made that cheesy. -[Guy] One second.
What was cheesy?
Uh, my quesadilla.
What is in it?
I would like to believe it is a, uh,
a spicy, uh,
chipotle tuna. [chuckles nervously]
[Stephanie] But you knew exactly what you were cooking, like you said.
I know exactly what I'm cooking.
-[Stephanie chuckles] -Chef, your restaurant's
-in San Diego, correct? -Yes.
Any Latin breakfast meats down there?
Oh, gosh. Uh...
A Latin breakfast meat.
Oh. Uh, chorizo.
-Oh. -It's a ground chorizo.
And if you eat it quick enough to the poke,
it has an element of tuna flavor.
-[laughs] -Ha-ha!
Jeez.
All right, thank you, chef.
Let's go ahead and bring out your two fellow competitors
and see how close you were to the truth.
Hi.
-Nicely done, dude. -You did great.
-Oh, God. Oh, God. -You did so good.
-Well, I stumbled on one thing over here, so... -No.
[Guy] So, Justin, would you like to tell us
what he was responsible to try and make today?
Yeah. So this is a party platter.
Oh, yes, I said that.
[Justin] Containing, uh,
three dishes...
-Ah, yes. -...or components.
-One being fried. -[Brian] Yes.
-One being raw. -[Brian] Yes.
-And one being cheesy. -Yes.
-Yeah, you got it. -Yes, yes.
Ooh, yeah.
And the common seafood theme, uh, throughout?
[laughs]
You thought it was a seafood platter?
I didn't know if there was a fish element
throughout the whole thing,
but we've decided... I've decided
it is a chorizo...
-Quesadilla. -...quesadilla.
[Marcus] First of all, you guys,
every time, nail exactly the concept.
I mean, the raw,
the fried,
and the gooey, cheesy, done.
Like, really good teamwork.
I like the pizzadilla here.
Fun, cheesy, gooey.
[Stephanie] That we named pizzadilla.
Exactly.
Pizzadilla.
[Marcus] It is cheesy, and it's gooey,
and it would be perfect on a party platter,
so from a theme, you guys crushed it. Boom.
Watching you all cook together this round,
a lot of clever play with foil.
Thank you. Thank you, chef.
Which led to successfully figuring out
three dishes on a platter, which is not an easy feat.
I would say, out of the three,
there's one that's very successful,
and the other two that
have a little work done to them.
The calamari is full of flavor.
It's got spice, it's got crunch,
it's cooked just right.
You can really go chewy very easily
with over-fried calamari, but you hit the mark with that one.
The tuna could use a little more flavor.
I think that the chorizo, the cheese is nice and melty,
so it hit the cheesy point,
but it just needed to be crispier on the outside,
maybe using a different cooking tool to cook it.
Yeah. My least favorite is the poke, too.
I don't think it was executed well.
Oh.
Gameplay, whatever game you thought you were playing,
you played it well.
Brian, it's almost like you sort of knew somehow,
but I think you just got lucky and guessed.
You played exactly what you were supposed to play in the end
and closed it out the right way.
Justin, great setup.
Damaris, you came right in hot,
figured it out, put everything together.
It all makes sense.
For the calamari, the flavors are delicious,
but the poke,
the sort of treatment could have been better.
[Guy] Judges, 100 points in the scoring,
40 points available in taste,
40 points available in the gameplay,
and 20 points for the plating, possible of 100 points.
Thank you very much, judges. Very nice.
Let's see how your opponents did.
Please welcome in
KBC from Top Chef All-Stars team.
Hey, y'all.
How's it going?
That was fun.
[laughs]
KBC, please tell us what dish you believe you were making.
This is what I've got for y'all.
Okay?
You know, that board
that was supposed to help us
would be helpful if your team didn't
do all of them.
-[all laughing] -[Kelsey] You know?
And then leave you to just
figure out which one is the best one
to do.
But what I went with is where I landed.
Three bowls on a platter.
Cheese curds, fried shrimp,
green ceviche, and pickles.
[Guy] Let's go ahead and bring your other two team members in,
see what they have to say.
There's our All-Star.
Yeah? Really?
[laughs]
Oh, well.
Dale, why don't you tell, uh, Chef KBC
what she was supposed to be making?
You were supposed to make
something fried, something cheesy, and something raw.
-Okay. -Correct.
We went there, with some pickles, too.
You guys, gameplay, you got there somehow.
It wasn't pretty. You figured it out.
So, Kelsey, you got fried.
You said it. You got cheesy. You said it. You did it.
But you said pickled instead of raw.
But you got lucky because you were set up
with a raw preparation of fish.
But you did get there. You got all three dishes. Very impressive.
So I don't think you should be docked for that.
I think that cheesy, fried,
raw, it's all here.
I love fried cheese.
It's gooey. It's cheesy. It's all that stuff. But like,
I would love a little, like,
something to eat it with, just so it stands on its own,
because I wouldn't take the fried cheese and eat it with the ceviche.
You wouldn't? What's wrong with you? [laughs]
Shrimp doesn't need it. So it's like,
"Hi, I'm cheese."
The shrimp, it's one of my favorite parts of this dish.
-Thank you. -I'll have these cheese sticks any time
at a party. They're fun. They're delicious.
They're crunchy and gooey.
And I love the pickles.
Although it wasn't an item, you made it an item.
And it's delicious.
This ceviche
would have been incredible
with lemon.
All right, judges, thank you very much.
Time to get your final scores in.
Teams, I think you did awesome.
And the great thing is, is for one of you,
the TOC champs are waiting.
Yeah.
We're gonna send you back to the whatever.
And we'll call you when we have something.
-[Kelsey] Thank you. -[Guy] Thank you so much.
-[Damaris] Good job, you all. -[Kelsey] Good job.
-Yeah, nice work. -Nice work.
[Guy] Two versions of a party platter,
but only one team will be celebrating a victory party.
They both nailed gameplay,
one accidentally and one intentionally.
We almost need to go raw to raw,
cheesy to cheesy, fried to fried,
and which dish won, because it's so close.
I think that's the best way to do it.
Dissect each individual little dish.
You know, you look at calamari versus shrimp,
I think the texture on the calamari was better.
[Marcus] But the All-Stars' shrimp dish
is absolutely amazing.
The mozzarella sticks, for me,
they were better executed than the pizzadilla.
Then we have the two raw dishes.
I think the tuna was lacking in some flavor.
And then looking at the other team,
the scallop really needed that lemon.
So both of those dishes, I think, needed a little work.
They kind of canceled each other out.
This is tough.
[Guy] All right, then.
Well, you know, the old saying is,
if it was easy,
everybody would be doing it.
Let's take a look at, uh...
Who went first? The Triple G Judges.
Let's take a look at you first.
38 out of 40 in gameplay.
Congratulations.
34 out of 40 in taste.
17 for plating.
For a score of 89.
[Kelsey] Wow.
That's high, y'all.
That's pretty good.
That's not pretty good. That's fantastic.
Top Chef All-Stars, 89 to beat it.
Gameplay,
38.
Taste, 35.
-Oh, my God. -[Justin] Oh.
-My heart's pounding. -[Kelsey] Me too.
A 17 to win,
a 16 to tie.
In plating...
-18. -[cheering]
Let's go!
[All-Star chefs cheering]
-[Kelsey] Yes! -[Joe] Nice!
[Kelsey] We did it.
[Guy] Triple G Judges, I got to tell you,
great competition, great representation
of the Triple G team.
Thank you so much.
But an 89 will not take you to the finals,
and we will say goodbye. Thank you, guys.
-[Kelsey] Guys, nice job. -[Joe] Nice.
[Justin] Nice work, chef.
Oof.
That was a little bit of a tough pill to swallow.
Wow.
[Brian] 89 to 91?
That is wild.
So close.
[Damaris] So close.
Do the judges know that they're on our side?
-[chuckles] We're Triple G Judges. - [Damaris] Yeah.
[Brian] How did you not Triple G judge win us, judges?
You're us.
-You are. -We're you.
-Exactly. Very meta. -Yeah. Whoa.
I don't even know what that means.
So there you have it, going into the finals,
congratulations,
Top Chef All-Stars.
Join us next week...
Oh.
[Guy] ...when our two teams of Relay Rockstars
battle for big bucks...
-[Kelsey] God. -[exclaims]
[Guy] ...and bragging rights in the tournament finale.
-Hold up, chefs. -[Joe] No.
The best versus the best.
I'm going to come at it with everything I've got.
[Joe] We want to see those TOC champs go down.