-Breathe, breathe. -[Guy] All right. Let's go.
-This is it. -Ahhh!
The battle for the Relay Rumble championship is on.
-Joe came in like a track star. -And we're here.
[Guy] 18 big-name chefs have joined in our extreme team tournament.
This is the most difficult competition format I've ever seen.
I'm having fun,
but I don't know what I'm making.
No!
This is the hardest game I've ever played.
We've seen teams run hot.
-[mimics electricity crackling] -[gasps]
What is this game!
And cold.
-I'm gonna throw up. -Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
-Oh. -This is my worst nightmare.
[woman] No, Dad, no! Don't do it.
Joyous victories.
That's what I'm talking about!
[exclaiming]
Epic fails.
-No! -[Rocco] No, no, no, no!
Rocco drops one of our four burgers.
Oh, no.
But two crews have dominated it all.
And now, the TOC Champs are squaring off against the Top Chef All-Stars.
-Whoo! -Over you, Sasto.
[Guy] Will determine the ultimate Relay Rumble champion.
[Joe] Stop following me.
[Tiffani] Stop doing the same thing I'm doing.
-Blegh. -Losing is not an option.
[Kelsey] God!
That's not a lot to go off of.
For the title, the trophies and 60,000 bucks,
it's the finale of Triple G's All-Star Relay Rumble right now.
Two crews have dominated it all.
And now, the TOC Champs are squaring off against the Top Chef All-Stars.
First up, the team whose high score of 93 in their first heat
earned them an express pass to the finale, the TOC Champs.
Tournament of Champion 3 winner Sweet T, Chef Tiffani Faison.
Tournament of Champion 4 winner Mayday, Chef Mei Lin.
And Tournament of Champion 2 and 5 winner
Chef Maneet Chauhan.
We're TOC Champs.
[all] And we are in the finale!
[Tiffani] I think we'd be in so much trouble if we didn't get here.
-Yeah. Working with each other. -I agree. I mean--
And it's just natural that we got the highest score.
-Oh, my God. -Come on, come on.
-This one, two belts and she's done. -Oh. Seriously.
I can't even see.
It's so blinding,
-the way they come through here. -Bling, bling. Bling, bling.
They almost looked at me. They almost, like, said, "Hi."
I know them. I've known them for a long time.
We're actually friends.
You look confident, rested, focused.
-Yeah. -[Guy] I hope you are
because your opponents are kind of on a roll.
The Top Chef All-Stars.
The winner of Season 16 of Top Chef,
the one and only KBC, Chef Kelsey Barnard Clark.
Top Chef: All-Stars Season 8,
the boogeyman, Chef Dale Talde.
And Top Chef Season 15, Mustache Joe,
the one and only Chef Joe Sasto.
-[Joe] Ooh, we made it. -[Dale] Pumped.
[Joe] It was a mind meld that would happen week after week.
-Like Voltron. -We are now one.
-We're back. -Go get 'em.
-I'll give you a pound. -Yeah. Nice to see you, buddy.
-Hello, ladies. -[Maneet] Hello.
-That show's still on? -[exclaims]
My God!
You know what, after four epic battles,
we've arrived at the best versus the best.
The question is, can you relay your success into a final victory?
Don't worry. I'm here all week.
I've been here for the last four weeks.
I'm going out on a high.
All right, let me quickly remind you of the rules.
Teammates are working as a tag team style cooking in ten-minute shifts.
There is to be no contact or talking between the team members.
And after your shift, each chef goes into the Icebox.
And since there's only one chef who knows the challenge,
each chef has to leave culinary clues along the way
so their fellow chefs can figure out what the dish is.
The team that receives the highest score will win the title,
the championship trophies
and a guaranteed $60,000.
-[women] Whoo! -Yes. Yay!
[Guy] Champs, you're gonna probably need
-to give me those belts. -Yes.
Let me just load these up. Just...
There you go.
Okay, time to do the huddle,
determine who's doing what.
But I want to remind you,
you can't do the same job again.
Now, you have some options over here
because you've only done one competition.
You over here--
No choice.
[Guy] You have no choice what you're gonna do.
-Yeah, it's fine. -[Guy] All right.
Figure out who's gonna shop, who's second, who's third.
-Okay. -Okay.
We have to switch positions.
I'm gonna have to shop, and that makes me nervous.
-[Kelsey] Okay. Sounds good. -Go, go, go.
[Maneet] You can shop. You'll finish?
[Guy] Who's gonna be shopping for the... Okay.
Chef Tiffani Faison for TOC.
And Top Chef All-Stars?
Oh, Joe Sasto.
Super Joe shopper.
All right, going second for TOC Champs?
Maneet Chauhan and KBC.
So that means the closer is gonna be the champ, Mei Lin...
[Maneet] Ta-da!
...going up against the Top Chef All-Star Chef Dale Talde.
All right, so here's what's gonna happen.
Shoppers, you'll stay.
The other four go through the double doors.
We'll call you when it's time for your shift.
Bye-bye.
-Bring it home. -Let's do it.
-[Dale] You've got to swing hard. -[Kelsey] No misses.
You have to bring it. Yeah, and there's no misses here.
I know why Joe is shopping. He has to.
But why are you shopping?
Like, I... Don't do this right now.
Why are you doing this?
-I wanna know, too. -I'm a great shopper.
-I'm curious why. -I'm a great shopper.
Hi. Have we met? Paranoia will destroy ya.
I'm just asking a simple question.
No, I feel like there's more there than you're asking me.
-[Joe] I'm worried. I'm worried for you. -No, no, no, no.
I like shopping. I love shopping. It's my favorite.
For the finale, I want you to make everybody's wheelhouse,
high-end dinner.
I want you to prove that your team can prepare
an elegant, cohesive meal while working blind
on a budget.
-Wait. You slipped in one more thing there. -[Guy] No.
-No. Shh. -[Guy] That was pretty much it.
-[grunts] La-la. -I just said working blind on a budget.
-No, no. -He did. He did. He said.
What did you think I said?
"The grocery store is your oyster."
-[Joe] Yeah. -[Guy] No.
Hunter, come here.
What was that thing we had talked about earlier?
We're going to do a thing when they had their thing.
[Hunter] Oh, fudge.
[Guy] Fudget.
-Fudget. Yeah. -That's right.
-What does that mean? -No, it wasn't fudget.
It wasn't fudget. It rhymes with fudget.
That did not sound right, actually.
-[Guy] It rhymes with it. It rhymes with fudget. -Budget.
-What did you say? -What is it?
-Budget. -[Joe] Budget.
-That's a good idea. -Great idea.
I love it. You know what?
-[sighs] -[Guy] That's great.
Hunter, how much, uh, spare money do you have?
-How much can we give? -I've got my lunch money,
I got some out of the cash register.
Okay. Now this right here is as good as--
How much is there?
Oh!
-$40. -[Hunter] $40 each.
You have ten minutes and $40 each
to shop, pay and prep your ingredients for your high-end dinner
that must be plated in the total of 30 minutes.
This is awful.
As always, Wendy will be right over here,
uh, checking you out,
helping you with your groceries.
-It might be prudent... -[Hunter] Mmm.
...to not spend all your money.
[Guy] So when your fellow chefs come out to compete,
there might be a little extra coin laying around.
-'Cause you never know. I mean, you never know. -If they need something.
Sometimes I get a little snackalicious,
and I might want to have something.
So I'm just saying
you might want to stick around with some extra cash, okay?
-Right. -You may want to leave at least five, six.
Leave at least $3, okay?
I mean, honestly, at least--
At least, like, two more than that.
If you leave $1 for them
and they have to go shopping with that,
they're going to be in trouble.
-Okay? -Yeah. It's not gonna help them.
I'm serious.
Why do you look so nervous?
-I don't-- -I'm not happy about this.
You know what, it's free money,
and you get to shop the entire store.
-It's pretty awesome. -You know what makes me feel so good at home, folks,
is they're veterans,
they've shopped here a bunch of times...
-[Hunter] That's when you know. -...and it just went over
like a lead balloon.
-[Hunter] Uh-huh. -[Guy] And they're just standing here, burning time.
-[Joe] Oh! -A-ha!
-[Tiffani] Stop banging into me. -That was a good one.
-Haven't burned 'em that good in a while.
We've started, we've started, we've started.
-[Joe grunts] -Over you, Sasto.
High-end dinner, $40.
I'm coming for ya.
Like, I don't know how I make that work.
I have no idea. Blegh.
Pork chops are not high-end.
They are cheap, but they can be cooked really beautifully on a bone.
[Joe] I like pork.
I don't have very many options on a budget.
I can either grab chicken, sausage,
or make it a pork v. pork battle.
Oh, we're gonna battle pork? All right.
Yeah. I think it's battle pork.
Might as well level the playing field
and see who can cook the better chop.
One, two, three, four.
Both are going with pork.
[Tiffani] I'm a good shopper,
but the pressure for this shop is different.
I have to leave hints that this is a high-end dish
without buying high-end ingredients.
I can't afford any of that. Oh, my God.
Polenta can be so luscious.
It can read really elegantly
with tons of cream and lots of butter and seasoning.
This is so hard.
Polenta.
I know I have pork chops, and I grab some grits.
Cheap ingredients
that my team can then transform
into making to something delicious.
Cream, cream, cream, cream, cream.
Stop following me.
[Tiffani] Stop doing the same thing I'm doing.
I don't know, I don't know.
[Tiffani] Move, move. Move away!
No. You go away.
[Tiffani] Mushrooms can be very high-end,
but I get, like, the cheaper version of mushrooms.
Are there bags or we're just throwing in our cart?
-Oh, where'd you get that? -None of your bees.
Where'd you find that?
Excuse me.
Hi. It's so interesting you stole my baskets.
[Tiffani] Hi. I'm sorry.
I want to grab an ingredient
that can elevate it into high-end.
And chanterelles, being a premium wild mushroom, can do that.
So mushrooms is high-end.
Ramps are high-end.
[Joe] I'm also looking at the price tags.
Try and choose ingredients that are by the pound.
Just a few ramps add a whole lot of flavor
for not a lot of weight or money.
So I know Kelsey is following me up, cooking second.
She specializes in Southern cuisine.
She's gonna be doing most of the cooking.
So I grab some okra.
-[Tiffani] Maneet and Mei... -[Maneet exhales deeply]
...I'm not worried about playing to their wheelhouse with my shop.
Where's the bouillon, guys?
Here we go.
I'm worried about having them understand where the dish needs to go.
Your team cannot recover if you do not shop properly.
Okay, Wendy.
Here we go.
And also, Guy's low-key saying
I need to, like, leave some money behind.
It might be prudent to not spend all your money because you never know.
That money is gonna be consequential.
These stakes are ridiculously high.
There's $60,000.
There's this dope trophy.
Obviously, we want that. Hardwired for a trophy.
And also maintaining the TOC queen crowns.
[Wendy] And ramps.
-23.95. -[Tiffani] Okay.
[Wendy] I know you want to go, but...
About that... Hi.
It's not the first time I've shoplifted, Wendy.
Let's be clear.
Smart shopping over there by the redheaded wonder.
Over $16 left for her team,
which might be super necessary.
And she looks like she has a pretty good menu.
Yeah, I think that's too much.
I'm gonna grab it, just in case.
So generally in restaurants, you really only see
these beautiful black plates
when you're cooking high-end fine dining food.
So I think that's the perfect choice
to convey the message to the rest of my team
that we need to do a high-end dinner.
Knowing that it's a high-end dinner,
for me, dinner always includes dessert.
So I want to set Kelsey up with a couple of bananas, just in case she has the time
and is feeling inspired to make dessert.
We're the underdogs.
We could do banana foster on the side
and really blow the judges away.
Start with this.
And this.
We want to win this thing like nothing else.
Money aside, trophies aside,
we want to see those TOC Champs go down.
Some ramps.
Oh, so you're really ramping it up now.
-Ah. -Ba-dum-tss.
How much would this add me?
So I have the veal demi.
It's really expensive.
But I'd rather leave the cash for Kelsey
and make a sauce from the pantry.
31.52.
-Thank you. -$8 left.
Cool. I'm happy with that.
[Guy] You've got 2.5 minutes, buddy.
[Joe] I know.
They spent a lot of time shopping,
and their time is ticking down very quickly right now.
Checking out shopping takes up way more time
than I would have anticipated.
There is no time at all to leave any clues.
All right, folks. Let's meet the judges
who will be deciding the championship team.
We have award-winning chef with celebrated restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago,
the Iron Chef, Chef Stephanie Izard.
Bicoastal restauranteur,
culinary Triple Threat,
the one and only Chef Michael Voltaggio.
And the best-dressed guy,
that's also just simply an eight time James Beard Award winner
with restaurants on multiple continents, Chef Marcus Samuelsson.
A lot going on, a lot going down and a lot at stake.
This is the finale.
Team TOC Champs, of course, they've all won Tournament of Champions.
And then we have team Top Chef All-Stars.
It's a huge deal, $60,000.
So much at stake here.
And it needs to be high-end.
[Michael] Budget and high-end.
[Marcus] Tiffani's just showing off now.
She's got ramps, she's got pork.
-She's-- -[Tiffani] No, she's not.
She's freaking out.
The first thing I'm gonna start is my polenta.
I get water and heavy cream and butter going on my station,
and then I line up, like, a sizzle plate in front of the pot
to let them know that the rest of the cream
and the polenta and thyme should go in there.
[Stephanie] Tiffani's station is well underway.
She's already cooking.
She's got everything laid out and organized.
I feel like she could have this dish halfway done by the time her time is up.
There's so much more going on over on Joe's station.
[Joe] One, two, three, four.
Chefs, one minute. One to go.
[Joe] I'm doing whatever I can to leave things organized
so that my teammates have a clear vision
as to what I wanted them to do.
Onions, aromatics and bouillon in a pot.
Hopefully, they see that as an opportunity to make sauce.
Forty-five seconds, chefs.
Oh, oh, oh.
[Joe] I get the bananas and ice cream cups on the back of the station
as an alternative option to make dessert.
I want to get the pork chops seasoned,
ready to go on the grill.
Are you leaving breadcrumbs, Joe, or are you doing prep?
And leave your money.
[Guy] Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six...
Leave your cash.
Four, three, two, one.
You're out. Goodbye.
[whistle blows]
[grunts]
[exhales deeply] Wow.
[whistle blows]
Okay. I need Maneet to see what we're doing.
-[Guy] Look for your clues. -That's one component.
Okay, pork chop. We've got all of this.
Kelsey, follow the breadcrumbs.
[Kelsey] I immediately see four black plates.
Four black plates is fine dining, upscale.
Okay.
Then I see the ice cream sundae glasses.
Sundae is obviously a dessert.
I can go upscale dessert or upscale entree.
Like, what is happening?
Whatever, whatever.
That's not a lot to go off of.
I just think both shoppers could have given better clues.
I want Kelsey to make a glazed pork chop.
I want her to make a beautiful sauce.
I left dessert on the side.
She can make grits, mushrooms.
You got a lot to do, Kelsey.
All right.
There's grits, pork chops,
and my brain thinks upscale Southern.
Grits can either be basic or the best thing ever,
and he knows that I know how to do that with nothing.
I just get this grits started.
Then I'm gonna be feeding the corn into my grits.
What do we need to use? We need to use pork chop.
Okay, ingredients.
Oh, there is some money left.
I see pork chops which have been salted.
Polenta.
There is some polenta, some thyme.
That's it, mama. That's it. Keep it simple.
Get the polenta and get a pan on for the pork chops.
[Maneet] The first thing that I do is this polenta.
So Tiffani has left a saucepot with some milk.
And I go ahead and put the instant polenta in it.
There we go.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
[Maneet] So that when Mei Lin comes in,
all she really needs to do is just finish it.
Taste it, finish it.
Yes, Maneet, get that pan on for the pork chops.
All right, chefs.
Just as a little point of information.
Your dinner could be one of these four.
It could be a Sunday supper, an international dinner,
a fast food favorite or a high-end dinner.
It is one of the four.
All I can think is, like, black fine-dining plates.
That's high-end dinner.
I got it. I'm going.
Black plates, high-end. Done. We got that locked in.
[Kelsey] Now I'm gonna start with these pork chops.
There is no worse sin than not letting your meat rest.
So what I don't want to do is for Dale to come in
and have to let them rest if he plans on slicing them,
which I think I would probably do if I was going upscale.
-[Marcus] Whoa! -[Stephanie] Whoa!
Those are getting real grilling.
Those grills are hot.
[Joe] We've got flames on the grill. I'm not feeling good.
Okay. I need Maneet to see what we're doing.
[Guy] Maneet, how you feeling?
Do you have any idea what you're cooking?
A high-end dinner.
Why would you say that?
Because I'm just thinking of--
I'm looking at all of these mushrooms,
there is ramp.
Ramps, of course, you think about an expensive ingredient.
-Okay, okay. -It's easier to shop.
The next thing that I do is searing of the pork chops.
The key to cooking pork chops is making sure
that it's seared on both sides,
and it's a hard sear.
Yes, my girl. Yes.
[Stephanie] Maneet has pork chops going.
Kelsey, she's got her pork chops on the grill.
They are on fire.
[Kelsey] I've charred those pork chops on one side.
That is flavor, y'all.
They're resting.
Dale can finish our pork chops.
All right. Hold up, chefs.
Hold up, hold up, hold up.
Oh, my! No.
-We made a bit of a mistake. -No.
Dinner has to have what?
Has to have dessert.
So, fortunately, your team members left you some money.
We're gonna need you now to take your money,
go shopping and start to build dessert.
[Maneet] I have less than five minutes left.
Now I have to make a dessert?
Come on.
Unfortunately, your time doesn't stop now.
Bye-bye.
I bought the bananas. I put it in gear.
[Kelsey] God.
[Maneet] I am worried that I have to leave the pork chops.
I'm, like, I have my fingers crossed.
KBC has $8, Maneet has 16.
[Kelsey] Joe got me bananas. It's like he knew.
My brain thinks bananas, dessert, bananas foster.
That is high-end Southern right there.
The base of bananas foster is sugar and butter.
Sugar and butter are on our station.
Done.
You cannot have high-end bananas foster without ice cream.
And I need rum.
I have to light this on fire for the flambe.
[Wendy] You have 8.48.
[Kelsey] Literally, y'all, $8.
$8.
The rum is 12.99.
I forget that rum is expensive.
-Right here? -[Kelsey] Go back, go back.
So you know what you can buy with $8?
Okay, that puts you at 5.88.
Nothing.
[Maneet] $16 for dessert.
I am going to be making cherry jubilee-ish dessert.
I grab some frozen pound cake
and I grab some cherries.
I think this dessert for high-end is because when you think of cherries,
you think of a really decadent ingredient.
[Wendy] 14.96.
What did you think? I figured you wanted dessert.
I mean, you're dressed like you're going out,
you know, like, in the big city.
This is true because it's the finale.
We want to see something high-end.
[Marcus] I would say this round is the toughest round
because you threw that curveball,
and they were cooking at the same time.
This was really, really hard.
I think they're going to be just fine.
Four minutes. Four to go!
I honestly, like, don't usually see Maneet this frazzled.
When she's cooking, she looks frazzled.
I think that she was so laser focused...
-Yeah. -...throwing in the desert, as would any of us.
[Stephanie] I feel like Maneet was really in the zone...
-[Marcus] Yeah. -...and had plotted out exactly--
She's looking at the clock. She knows how many minutes she needs for the pork.
And now you just throw that wrench.
-You have to go think of a dessert. -[Marcus] Yeah.
You're doing your thing, and all of the sudden,
"Hey, I want another thing."
It's dessert and it's halfway through a 30-minute cook...
Like, that's just wild.
So she had the most important thing on the stove
when this was happening.
Those pork chops are still cooking.
It's not easy to come back from that.
[Maneet] I need to make sure that the pork chop is done.
I put it in the oven to make sure that
it's cooked through and through.
[Kelsey] There's not any time.
I've got the grits started,
I've charred those pork chops on one side, they're resting.
I'm gonna start bananas foster.
I don't know if Dale knows how to make bananas foster.
-Desert's been started. -So I get the caramel going,
I've got butter and sugar in a pan.
If Dale just, like, slice bananas,
add a little bit of cream, toss it and it's done.
She's getting set up for Dale.
[Guy] Pound cake, cherries, what are you thinking?
Almost like a cherry jubilee.
I mean, you guys do understand she's the two-time TOC champ.
I mean, it's just--
[Maneet] I start prepping the dessert.
We are champs
and we know how to play this game.
But the nerves are at an all-time high.
There is so much at stake, not only the bragging rights
but also those wonderful trophies and $60,000.
So we really have to bring it.
[Stephanie] Maneet put one dessert started together
to kind of say, "This is the direction.
This is what you're going to make.
So please finish." [chuckles]
[Guy] Two and a half minutes.
[sighs] Oh, boy...
[Kelsey] I'm making bananas foster.
It takes a little while to develop a caramel.
I'm doing grits.
I'm then gonna just boil
these grits with some chicken bouillon,
which is gonna add viscosity and kind of fattiness.
If you've ever had the best grits of your life,
and you're like, "I don't know what it is.
It just tastes great." Bouillon.
Get it! We got to get a sauce. I hope she's got her sauce.
I'm thinking to myself, like, oh, my gosh.
If Dale can use those mushrooms
to make, like, a nutty mushroomy,
brown buttery thing
to put on top of the pork chops.
So in a skillet, I've got onions and thyme,
and I've got the butter waiting for him.
So I'm like, "Put it in here."
And I sit a basket of mushrooms there.
And you've got smoky, you've got nutty,
you've got umami, intense flavors,
which is high-end southern food.
[Guy] One minute and 30 seconds left.
[Maneet] Time is running out,
but I think that we need a sauce of some sorts.
Parsley and ramps,
and I decide to make a chimichurri.
I'm thinking of something nice and bright and acidic
to just lift the plate.
Because everything is going to be really decadent in it.
And so that's why I think chimichurri
is going to be the perfect foil.
She's making a chimichurri.
She's making a ramp chimichurri. I'm here for this.
I am here for this.
Chefs, you've got 20 seconds.
Twenty to go.
Twenty seconds, game time.
Let's go.
[Guy] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...
Leave your roadmaps. Four, three, two, one.
Chefs, you're done. Out of the kitchen.
[clapping]
No, no, you're great.
[Kelsey] So... Wow.
[Tiffani] Get in here. Are you kidding?
Yeah. I did it.
[Tiffani] You got it. You got it. You got it.
Wow. Oh, my God.
Good job. Good job.
-[blows whistle] -[Guy] Let's go.
[Guy laughing] Look at Mei Lin. Smoking.
Dale Talde down here.
All right, she's in the pit.
-So we're high end dinner. On a budget. -[sighs] High end dinner.
Yeah, 40 bucks.
-Budget? -$40.
Oh, I didn't know that!
I was wondering...
I was like, "Where are the herbs?
Where is the rum?"
-[sighs] -Ten minutes and counting.
What's up, Mei?
-What's up, chefs? -Hi.
-Good. How are you? -Look in the oven. Look in the oven.
-[Tiffani] Yes! -[Maneet] Yes! Okay.
[Mei] I check on the pork in the oven.
You know, it's a big pork chop,
it's on the bone.
I see polenta.
If that doesn't scream steakhouse type dinner,
I don't know what does.
Chef Mei Lin, what are you thinking?
Definitely some sort of steakhouse dinner?
Mei, Mei, Mei, Mei, Mei, Mei...
[both speaking indistinctly]
Guy!
[whispering] Pork chops, mushrooms and ramps...
[Dale] One of the first things I saw was dessert glasses.
So I immediately knew, oh, we're making dessert.
I see a caramel that's being made,
I see bananas.
Okay, bananas foster.
I see grits bubbling away,
I see some pork chops that have been grilled.
I start to think that this is a homey meal.
Like, you know, pork chops are homey, grits are homey...
Chefs, here were the choices
of what your team had to cook tonight,
Sunday Supper, International Dinner,
Fast Food Favorite or High End Dinner.
So which of the four is your team member cooking?
You are cooking the same thing.
At first, I thought "steakhouse" theme.
But I see that whiteboard
and I immediately thought high end.
We're going high end.
-Yes, yes! -Yes. Yes! Okay, good.
-Yes, yes, yes! -Good. Good.
[Guy] What do you think you're cooking there, Dale?
-[Dale] Sunday Supper. -[Guy] Sunday Supper.
What makes you think Sunday supper?
To me pork chops, grits, that says Sunday Supper to me.
Okay.
You could do a high end Sunday Supper,
but that's not what the judges are looking for.
[Dale] So I'm thinking it's Sunday Supper
because that's the homey meal. I feel great about it.
-Hi. -[Joe] Hi, Guy!
-[Guy] Hi. -Hey.
-Oh, it's nice and cool in here.
Your buddy thinks
that he's got a Sunday supper going.
-Okay. -Which is weird.
Because in our world the black plating is fine...
-[Kelsey] ...fine dining. -I mean, it's my world too.
[Joe] Right?
[Stephanie] Our final two chefs have just come in.
Mei raced over here in record time.
This entire competition is coming down
to this last round of cooking.
High end, pork against pork,
head to head, winner take all, this Is it.
[Mei] Mushrooms?
-You got it. -You got it, Mei.
-You got it. You got it. -You got it. Just see what you have.
[Mei] There is a plate
and there's also a sundae dish.
So I knew immediately that we had to do two dishes
and that one is a main dish and one is a dessert.
It's definitely high end.
I see the pound cake on the cutting board.
I see cherries in a liquid, so I think, cherries jubilee.
[Maneet] Don't need to do too much.
-Just do it. Just a, just a... -That's it, that's it.
Just that.
[Mei] Being the third chef, you're the person
putting the entire thing together,
making sure it's cohesive.
So if you don't win,
it definitely falls on the third chef.
[Tiffani] No, you don't have to saute the pound cake.
You don't have to do it.
Okay. But if you want to, that's cool.
[Mei] I get that pound cake into a pan
with some brown butter.
I wanna give it a little bit more flavor, more texture.
I just wanna make sure it's the best pound cake that the judges have ever had.
The next thing I do is taste the cherry sauce,
and it's really incredibly sweet,
and I add some red wine vinegar
to make sure that I balance it out.
[Guy] What's going on with the bananas there, homes?
-Bananas foster. -[Guy] Got it, got it.
[Dale] Kelsey had started caramel,
but I gotta finish this caramel off,
cut these bananas and get them into the pan.
So I'm thinking it's Sunday Supper,
but at this point, I'm just really trying
to get all these ingredients cooked
so I can plate a dish.
There's okra on the station.
You know, I decided to fry the okra,
because that's the only way I like okra, is fried.
I thought, you know what's more homier than fried okra?
[sizzling]
-Make a sauce, make a sauce... -[Tiffani] You make a sauce.
[Mei] I see the mushrooms,
and I immediately thought, high end.
There we go. She's in the mushrooms.
-She's in the mushrooms! -Okay. Good!
[Mei] Get those seared and I quickly add cream.
A little cream in there.
-I love it. I love it. -Yes. Okay, okay, okay.
-How you feelin', chef? -Feel okay. You know?
What are you working here?
I have a chimichurri for the pork,
I have a sauce ready. I have polenta.
Fantastic.
Five minutes, chefs.
You got five minutes to be plated.
[Dale] These grits,
super buttery, super creamy, tons of corn in them.
Bananas are bubbling away in the caramel...
I have maitakes in the fryer.
They're crisping up.
You know, it's just the one thing is the cook on my pork chop.
You've got a really hard grill on those pork chops, girl.
-[laughs] -[Kelsey] Oh, God.
That was during my dessert shops.
I know. I was watching it over here.
Well, he can carve it.
-Yeah. -And they're completely raw still.
-Like, completely raw. -But does he know that?
[Dale] I don't really know how well they're cooked.
Something being overcooked
can be a matter of three to four to five seconds.
He hasn't touched them. We're in trouble.
I see a cast iron pan that has some fat,
some thyme, some onions, some garlic in it,
and I think that, "Okay,
this is the pan I'm going to finish cooking my pork chops in."
-All right, I like that. I like that. -That's good. This is good.
-This is good. -[Dale] Cooking week after week,
going through other competitors,
I'm dying to get this win for us.
The polenta, taste the polenta.
-Start plating! -Get it on the plate. Get it on the plate.
[Mei] I tasted the polenta.
Polenta was seasoned just right.
I didn't wanna overseason it
because the sauce was salty,
so I left the polenta as it was.
As the third chef, I'm feeling so much adrenaline,
the stakes are so high.
There have been six total teams...
-[Maneet] Good, good, good. Come on. -[Tiffani] Yes!
[Mei] We wanna win that trophy.
We're the TOC champs.
Losing is not an option.
When you're saying high end,
-it's gonna come down to technical execution. -Yeah.
Who cooked the perfect pork chop?
Whose grits were creamy?
That's the only opportunity they have to be "high end."
Is this worth $60,000?
[Guy] Two minutes, chefs. Two to go.
[Tiffani] Plate, please. Please start plating.
She's got a lot of work to do.
[both] Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Okay, good, good, good.
[Mei] I get the agrodolce cherries
on top of the pound cake.
[Tiffani] Come on, come on, come on.
We have a lot of components to get on four plates.
[Maneet] Yes! Finish that. Finish that.
[Mei] For my main dish,
I get the polenta onto the plate.
-It's okay. -It's okay.
[Mei] Next up is the pan seared pork chop.
After that, mushroom sauce...
-Chimichurri, chimichurri, chimichurri! -Chimichurri!
[Mei] Some of that green chimichurri
and finito.
[Guy] One minute. Sixty seconds to plate!
[Dale] I start to think that this is a homey meal
that might have some, like, high end aspects to it.
'Cause I see ramps,
which are very high end ingredients.
So it makes me start to wonder if it's more high end.
I'm going to plate this dish high end
and then hopefully cover all the bases.
High end, open fire cooking.
-Yes. -We've got brulee,
we have grill, we have char.
[Dale] I love a runny grit,
almost acts as a sauce.
So I get that on the plate.
The pork chops look overcooked,
and I'm going to hope for the best.
I wanna lay the chop down and use the pork chop
almost as a second plate for the garnishes.
Like some of our ramps...
the maitake mushrooms.
I wanna kind of gingerly rest this okra
on top of all these ingredients,
almost like magazine quality.
He's gotta plate the ice cream and the dessert still.
-[Guy] Thirty seconds. -[Dale] I get my bananas
into the bowl, douse it with some caramel,
trying to do this really fancy version of an ice cream scoop.
And I'm just thinking to myself,
"If you don't get ice cream on this plate, you're done.
Get some ice cream on the plate."
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one!
Chefs, that's it. Stop working.
-Nice job. Well done. -[all cheering]
That was so stressful.
Are you worried about the pork chops or no?
Of course. I would've...
I would've sliced them open.
[Kelsey] If he was concerned about them being anything over,
he would have cut around that.
-Do you see what I'm saying? -Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had the time, I think.
He had time to stop and be, like,
"I need to cut around this.
I need to..." And he didn't.
[Guy] All right, judges. Here we are.
This is the finale of our All Star Relay Rumble.
It's the Team TOC Champs
versus Team Top Chef All-Stars.
First up, Chef Mei Lin,
what do you think you had to make?
Think everybody had the same ingredients to work with.
High end dinner...
Okay. So you thought you had a high end dinner.
-Budget high end dinner? -Okay.
What do you got for us?
So today we have a seared pork chop
with grits with a chimichurri
and a mushroom sauce. And we have a pound cake
with some sweet and sour cherries and whipped cream.
Let's bring the TOC champs in, please.
-[both cheering] -[Mei] God, you guys.
Weirdos.
[Tiffani] You crushed!
[Guy] All right.
Tiffani, you wanna give Mei Lin the insight
of what the challenge actually was?
-High end budget. -High and budget.
So high end dinner, $40.
I'm not surprised to have such an impressive plate
put in front of me from the three of you.
We'll just start with that.
Starting out with the shop,
it's so interesting that both teams got pork chops.
So it come across that that was the challenge, was a pork chop challenge.
I think the scariest moment for me
was, Maneet, when you walked away from those pork chops.
I expected to just cut into a half overcooked pork chop,
but it's super moist and juicy.
The flavor that you got in, especially for me, the sauce,
is incredible here.
The small details makes it a very high end
feel to this dish.
Because grits and pork
doesn't necessarily make it a high end dinner.
Because the way you guys executed this
makes it very, very lush and luxurious.
Very, very nice touch.
Everyone knew that you guys gonna be tough to beat.
So you had to do budget and high end.
And I think what's interesting here
is that your ingredients definitely represent budget,
but what's high end is your ability to cook.
The only thing I would say,
is the polenta is a little under seasoned.
[Stephanie] Then you go to the dessert.
It's a three ingredient challenge, pretty much.
Pound cake, smart gameplay,
-cherries, whipped cream... -[Michael] The bread is warm and toasty.
The cream is soft,
-the berries are sweet. -[Stephanie] It's so simple.
I don't know how high end it is.
I just wanna keep eating that dessert.
All right, let's bring in the second team.
Top Chef All-Stars, Chef Dale Talde.
All right, Chef, Impressive battle.
Why don't you explain to us
what you felt the challenge was?
I saw some pretty high end ingredients
like maitake mushrooms and ramps,
so I think it's like a,
like a high end dinner and dessert...
-Okay. -You sound so confident when you say that.
[all laughing]
You had told me earlier that
you felt it was a Sunday Supper.
Yeah. I, I looked at--
I don't think I have maitake mushrooms or ramps for Sunday supper.
-[Guy] Okay. -We reserve that a little bit,
for something a little more special than, than just Sunday Supper.
Break the dish down for us.
[Dale] So we grilled a pork chop and then we fried
some maitake mushrooms, along with some grilled ramps,
underneath is a cheesy grit with corn and fried okra,
and then a roasted banana with a salted caramel,
a touch of black pepper and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
So an homage to a bananas foster.
-An homage to a bananas foster. -With no with no rum money.
With no rum and no gueridon,
and lighting in front of the guests.
Well, why don't we invite the rest of your team out and they can enlighten you
on what exactly you were cooking?
[laughs] Please. That would be great.
-Chef. -Good job.
-Thank you. -Joe, why don't you go ahead and enlighten Chef Talde?
The challenge was a high end dinner
and dessert on a budget with $40.
Looking at all this, you were able to bring
so much to the plate on such a small budget.
I think the star on this plate for me, the mushrooms
but also just the polenta
having the fresh corn inside of it,
so each bite, you get a little bit different of texture.
Looking at the pork chop,
it went a little too far on the inside,
so it's eating a bit dry.
I wish the sauce had come together
a little bit more because when I took my spoon
from the ice cream, licked off all that ice cream 'cause I love it,
and then went in for that sauce,
it's just a little too loose.
If it was in a bowl, perhaps you could have enjoyed all those flavors.
But being able to take that small amount of money
and bring so much flavor is really impressive.
Thank you.
I think one thing that's brilliant about this dish is presentation first.
Like, the black plate
and just the way you stacked it
looks like the cover of every magazine right now.
I think the char on the pork chop was really good.
You want that when you get a grilled chop of sorts.
You wanna taste char, I think you nailed that part.
[Marcus] I love the maitake-okra sweetness.
That is absolutely delicious.
I'll tell you what I love,
I love the grits.
Great, great, great job on that.
I do think that the sauce for me
is a little bit too thin to tie the dish together.
It could have been a little bit richer.
And then, looking at our bananas foster shout out,
Ernie and I microwave our ice cream,
and we eat it every day of the week,
so this makes me very happy.
What is this microwave your ice cream stuff?
You don't microwave your ice cream?
-Why would you microwave your ice cream? -I do.
-So that it tastes like this
-because then it's, like, creamy and soft and delicious. -[Guy] What?
[all laughing]
Who doesn't want... I mean, we literally just had tableside bananas fosters.
We were sitting over there
and you made bananas foster tableside.
-So that's high end. -Yeah! You did it.
[Guy] Very nice.
That was one heck of a finale.
Congratulations. Job well done.
-Well done. -Nice job, everybody.
Unfortunately, only one team
will be crowned the Relay Rumble Champions.
We're gonna ask you to head back to somewhere else
and hang out there for a while
until we figure out what we're doing
and then we'll call you back,
and somebody's gonna win.
So which high end dinner and dessert
deserves the higher score?
What are the chances that we ending up
with very similar dishes, which makes it amazing?
It kind of became a pork against pork competition.
-And who cooked it better. -[Stephanie] And who cooked it better.
The char on the outside of the Top Chefs,
the pork was delicious and had so much flavor,
but you just can't forgive an overcooked pork chop.
I think TOC Champs edged them out
a little bit on gameplay.
Other than a little salt in the polenta,
they built luxury out of budget ingredients.
[Stephanie] For me, the one thing that really won on Top Chefs
-is the polenta. -[Marcus] They executed that to perfection.
All right, time to tally up your scores.
Forty points available for taste,
40 points for the game play
and 20 points for the plating for a possible of 100 points.
So I don't know, judges,
if we saved the toughest challenge for last, but I have to say,
with all the expertise
that you've gained in the competition
over the last four weeks,
you were not short on talent or determination.
I think both teams battled really well.
So congratulations.
-Nice to have you. -[all cheering]
Well done, guys.
Unfortunately, as we all know, there can only be one champ.
Let's take a look at the scores.
TOC Champs, 40 points available in game play.
40 in taste, 20 in plating.
Game play, 36 out of 40.
-Oh. -Taste... 37, out of 40.
And plating at 18 for a score of 91.
-Congratulations. -[Kelsey] Nice job, guys.
[Guy] Don't get so excited.
What's, what's going on over here with the pity party?
-There's no pity party. -This is what I get?
-You get a 91. -[Stephanie] They expect a 98.
-They expected a 98. -There is suspense.
No, no, no, no, no. We didn't expect--
Look at these three. Like they've never won anything before.
[groans] Oh, oh, oh...
Top Chef All-Stars,
this is a beatable score with what you did.
Well, we're gonna go to commercial.
We'll be back in about two hours...
-[all laughing] -...to tell you that you need better than a 91.
Thirty five in gameplay,
35 in taste, plating at 18.
-And there you have it, at an 88. Congratulations. -[gasps]
-[all applauding] -[Guy] Congratulations to TOC Champs.
[all applauding]
Both of these teams really battled it out and did a fantastic job.
Congratulations, making it all the way to the finale.
It was a hard fought road, but maybe we'll see you again.
-Ladies and gentlemen, the Top Chef All-Stars. -[all cheering]
Great job, guys. Great job.
[mimicking sad music]
-We lost. -We lost.
And you know what? We lost to the champs.
There were four belts on that... On three people on that team.
[Dale] 100%. And we didn't lose by a lot.
[Kelsey] I think if we rematched
that exact finale episode again,
like, we could have won.
-It was splitting hairs truly at the end. -[Dale] Of course.
All right, ladies and gentlemen,
Triple G All-Star Relay Rumble Champions,
give it up, the TOC Champs!
-[all cheering] -Yes!
-Now. -[all cheering]
Here you go and a nice victorious medal.
And very nice and heavy, by the way. There you go.
-This is so cool. -So now you have the Relay Rumble Championship title.
Congratulations, TOC Champs.
-There you go. Fantastic! Fantastic. -[all cheering]
Everything is right in the world.
-The universe is in harmony. -[sighs in relief]
Before I say good night, I'm missing something.
Oh, thank you to my judges.
Judges did an awesome job tonight.
Wait, there's missing something still.
Missing something still.
That's right! The check for $6,000 apiece.
[all laughing]
It's missing a zero.
[Marcus] That's so good.
[all cheering]
[Guy] There you have it, ladies. TOC Champs.
-Your check for $60,000. -Hell yeah.
Give it up for the champs.
Thanks to the judges. Join us next time
for some more really twisted challenges
right here on Guy's Grocery Games. Adios.