The restaurant that you're cooking lunch in tomorrow,
It's mine.
The guests are all new york chefs who tried out
For the show and did not make it.
50 people, jealous, really critical,
Can you really get it right?
Jill, uh, bought some ostrich eggs,
Which I thought was an interesting choice.
Everybody does say my lemon meringue,
It's a little too sweet.
I have to get over the sugar shock.
I think originality is gonna pull some points for me.
It tastes like glue. Yes.
(man) as a possible candidate for top chef,
It almost angers me to eat this food.
You set american cuisine back about 20 years.
The winner is fabio.
Congratulations. Thank you.
Jill, please pack your knives and go.
You do deserve it. You are here.
At stake for the winner,
A feature in food & wine magazine,
A showcase at the annual food & wine classic in aspen,
$100,000 to help turn their culinary dreams into reality,
Furnished by the makers of the glad family of products,
And the title of top chef.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
Hey, joe!
It's the perfect morning with the perfect feeling
In the perfect day.
But now, there's a question mark.
Elimination challenge and quickfire.
My dessert was too sweet.
It was very sad that jill went home,
But I've been at the bottom
A couple times now,
And I just think my nerves are getting the best of me,
My colleagues are looking at me in a certain way.
It's definitely weighing on my shoulders.
Today's my day. I gotta shine.
When we left to come out here, it was gay pride in san diego.
The group so far, we all hang out and talk a lot.
You know, talking about the competition,
And also finding some time to kind of put it aside,
And just get to enjoy being people
For a few minutes every day.
Jeff is nicknamed "don johnson."
Rocks out the-- the blond boy.
Fabio's the cute italian.
Leah's the very fun, flirty one,
With a nice rack.
Team rainbow is living on with jamie and I.
Everybody's kinda got their own little thing
That they're-- that they're rockin' out.
All right, ladies. Let's get out of here.
Hello, chefs.
(all) hello.
And happy thanksgiving.
Happy thanksgiving.
I am delighted and proud
To introduce our guest judge for this round.
One of the most exciting
And innovative chefs in the country,
And all-around culinary rock star
Grant achatz,
Of alinea restaurant in chicago.
Hello. Hi.
(jamie) it's grant achatz,
And he's a superstar in the culinary world.
He's one of the, you know, sort of forerunners
In molecular gastronomy in the country.
(hosea) I am blown away.
Not only is grant achatz
Just an incredible chef,
But he just battled cancer.
And my father came down with cancer
Just before I got out here,
And so that was kind of touching for me
To see somebody who's gone through that.
Well, I think grant would agree
That one of the skills that a chef really needs to master
Is to roll with the punches.
Please pick a knife.
168.
188.
I go and I pull 188.
And the whole time, I'm thinking
What the hell is 188?
Everybody's pulling all these really weird numbers,
And nobody quite knows what these are all
Having to do with our quickfire.
The number on your knife refers to a page
In this book.
Ta-da.
You'll have one hour to put your own spin
On the recipe of a chef from our past seasons,
Using whatever you can find in the top chef kitchen.
Your time starts now.
Good luck.
[rock music]
(ariane) so we have 60 minutes for the challenge.
You have a recipe in front of you.
You know, okay, get inspired.
♪ ♪
(jeff) my recipe's pretty basic.
Howie, who also is from miami,
He did a fennel-crusted pork chop,
Three-apple salad.
I could bang that out in 15 minutes.
I didn't need an hour. I'm ready to go.
♪ ♪
The winning recipe I get is cj and trey's.
They were using ingredients and a cooking technique
That would help freeze an item.
It's a creative way to cook food for a frozen meal,
But I wouldn't have picked
Probably any of those ingredients.
(lisa) I'm page number 73.
It's hung from season three.
Tuna tartare with nicoise olives,
An asparagus and an egg vinaigrette.
You know, it's flavors I've worked with before,
And tartare is not that super complicated.
Everybody stop what you're doing.
Stop right now.
(daniel) everything's going fine. We're cruising.
Padma enters the kitchen, "stop!"
I'm like, what?
What the heck's going on?
(padma) we've changed our minds.
We're in the mood for some soup.
Everybody, soup.
Soup, soup it is.
Soup.
(fabio) you gotta be kidding me.
I'm like, what do you mean, soup?
(padma) you need to take
The ingredients that you're already
Working with for your respective recipes,
And make some creative, delicious soup
That will wow us.
And we know that you probably don't have time
To make your own broth.
So we've provided some for you from swanson.
You have 50 minutes to complete
Your swanson broth quickfire challenge.
Good luck.
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
Now they want me to make a soup
For my black forest ham egg, uh, bundle.
And it's very flustering.
30 minutes, kids.
It was, like, a tuna tartare
With nicoise olives, and asparagus.
I'm a little nervous
Trying to translate tartare into a soup.
Obviously, if I'm gonna have the tuna--
Have it be raw, I'm gonna do a chilled soup.
Basically, I have white asparagus,
And that is probably the only thing that I can use
As a base for the soup.
I hate, hate, hate white asparagus.
Coming down the pike, coming down the pike.
(carla) my dish was lia's from season three,
And it was an oil-poached shrimp.
I still was feeling a little apprehensive,
But I feel like I'm a macgyver
When it comes to those kinds of things.
You can judge a chef by their soup.
I think you have to build flavors.
I think that's the most important thing.
That's my philosophy.
And of course, that special ingredient:
Love.
(jamie) I love making soup.
If I could make anything for the rest of my life,
It would be soup.
I see kind of what miguel did,
And it's a deconstructed falafel.
And I can recreate those.
Those middle eastern flavors.
I got this, like, these are the flavors I work with.
Hot, hot, hot, hot.
Hot, careful, hot.
7 1/2 minutes, guys.
Page 188 is a chile relleno
With a roasted red pepper sauce
And some black beans.
I'm gonna kinda stick to the same flavors
Of the chile relleno recipe,
But really kind of make it my own funky little mexican soup.
All right, you have five minutes left.
Five minutes.
I'm thinking I've got to make sure that I grab some limes,
And put some extra lime juice into my soup,
And that damn clock got to me.
You have five seconds left.
4, 3, 2, 1.
Hands up, utensils down!
Oh, my god.
Hi, stefan, what have you done for us?
(stefan) the original dish was a scallop and shrimp burger.
I have a thai green curry bisque.
The dumpling's made out of shrimp and scallops,
Coconut milk.
The broth has a very nice aromatic quality.
(padma) thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Hi, ariane.
I had the colorado rack of lamb, ratatouille, and sauce vert.
I wanted to keep it very, like, homestyle.
I think with soups, they need to be comforting.
So I diced the lamb, roasted a red pepper.
The eggplant's actually in the couscous
With the, uh, beef broth.
Maybe be overcooked.
Hello. Hey, padma.
I got a black forest ham and egg bundle.
I sauteed my mushrooms with a little bit of scallions.
I fried a little basil.
Monterey jack cheese is on the bottom.
And a poached egg.
Yeah, I don't think I've ever had
Ham and egg soup.
It's actually a very good complement
To the original recipe.
This is, uh--
I like ham and egg soup.
They really liked my soup, and it was perfect.
I am striving
To do my best to get this immunity.
What did you do?
(richard) I roasted the pasilla peppers,
And pureed them with some of the black beans,
And then served them on top of
Some rice that I cooked with the swanson
Vegetable broth.
This one, I feel really needs acid.
Hi. Hello, melissa.
I started out with a black truffle
And parmesan linguini.
So I decided to make my version of an italian wedding soup,
With a black truffle and parmesan linguini
With some chicken.
We blurred the line here,
And not necessarily in a good way.
Hi. Padma.
I got a plate of michael,
Which he made a duo of trout and salmon.
I did a mushroom and asparagus soup
With seared trout
And salmon belly.
The flavor I thought was a little bit flat.
Fair enough.
Hello.
I was supposed to make lia's olive oil-poached shrimp.
I wound up making
A shrimp, tomato,
And coriander soup. I like it very much.
Thank you very much. (padma) it's really nice.
Hi, leah. Hi.
Uh, I started off with a tuna tartare
With, uh, nicoise olive and white asparagus.
So what I did was
I did a chilled asparagus soup brioche.
I took tuna to make, uh, tapenade and put it in between.
The white asparagus is not
An easy ingredient to work with.
I hate the flavor.
I was kind of upset that I got it.
I like it.
Thank you very much. You're welcome.
Hi, jamie. Hi, padma.
Well, I had the deconstructed
Falafel to start with.
So I did a chickpea soup.
I scented it with vadouvan,
A french-indian spice blend.
And then I did a little pickled chili,
Some cilantro mint yogurt,
And some crispy shallots on top.
I feel like
This is a great representation.
I'm not even trying to be, like,
Egotistical or obnoxious here, but I knew my soup was good.
I saw what other people had done,
And I definitely thought that I deserved
To be at least in the top three.
So what did you think of
Our chefs in general?
The curve ball that we threw them
I thought was handled quite well.
Who impressed you?
First was jamie.
This soup was very balanced.
It was very well done.
Thank you.
The second one was leah.
White asparagus, again, a very difficult ingredient
To work with.
The flavor shined through.
Thank you.
Uh, daniel.
This soup was a very complete vision.
Very hearty, very rustic.
(padma) so grant, who did you pick as your winner?
I picked leah.
[applause]
Well, congratulations, leah.
Thank you.
You are now immune from elimination
In the next challenge.
It's pretty awesome, my first quickfire win.
I'm very excited, and I have immunity, which is nice.
'cause it's always nice knowing you're not going home
The next day.
Maybe the day after, but not the next day.
Your new clients have a message for you.
(man) hi, everybody.
We're the foo fighters.
Shut up!
We're actually cooking for rock stars.
Your elimination challenge today
Is to make thanksgiving dinner
For some very special clients.
You'll work in two teams.
So leah, as the winner of the quickfire,
You get to choose your teammates.
So please pick six chefs to work with you.
Uh, jamie, hosea,
Stefan, melissa,
Fabio,
And radhika.
Leah picked stefan and me.
Europe is united now, in order to pull it out
In american traditional meal.
(padma) so we have a message for you
From your new clients.
I start running through my head who's the client gonna be?
I'm thinking donald trump,
Him being the most richest and powerfullest man
In new york.
Hi, everybody. We're the foo fighters.
Shut up!
(dave grohl) we're actually huge
Fans of top chef.
We watch it a lot.
And we have a challenge for the chefs.
(leah) it's shocking and awesome.
Like, I never thought that the foo fighters
Would be into top chef.
[laughter]
Every chef wants to be a rock star.
And we're actually cooking for rock stars right now.
So that's pretty cool.
Seeing as how we spend most of our time
On the road, we've had some pretty
Questionable thanksgivings.
So we want you guys to make a thanksgiving feast for us,
And our entourage, which is a lot of people.
Also, we're pretty fussy about what we eat.
So we've given padma a copy of our rider,
So, uh, you know,
They can figure out our likes and dislikes.
Thanks, chefs. I'll see you at the show.
Woo-hoo.
[cheers]
So you'll travel to the venue of their next concert,
Where each team will receive a copy
Of the foo fighters' rider to help plan
Their thanksgiving meal.
In it, you'll find helpful hints,
Such as the foo fighters' love of bacon
And chocolate-covered frozen bananas.
They have an entourage of over 60 people,
Including 18 vegetarians.
They mentioned they have a few vegetarians.
But I live in boulder, colorado,
And we have lots of vegetarians,
Lots of vegans,
Lots of people with food allergies.
So I'm used to dealing with the vegetarian thing.
One final thing:
After they eat, the foos will invite
Their favorite team to watch the gig.
[indistinct chatter]
[applause]
While unfortunately, the other team will get stuck
With the clearing up.
One person
From that losing team will be eliminated.
(leah) the team that I picked,
We're the strongest out of the bunch.
I think we should rock it out.
Good luck, chefs.
Thank you.
[hard rock music]
♪ ♪
(richard) we pull up to the blue cross arena,
We all start walking in,
And we meet one of the roadies.
Hey, guys.
Welcome to rochester. Hi.
All right. Follow me.
This is it.
(jeff) the stadium's big. I'm pretty psyched.
And, uh, I hope I'm gonna be there later tonight,
And be able to check out the foos playing.
Nice.
(carla) so we get taken to the kitchen,
And we're walking, we're walking,
And we're walking.
[l [laughter]
(woman) oh, are those microwaves?
Oh, my god.
You have got to be [bleep]ing me.
All the tables are set up outside,
And there's not a refrigerator anywhere.
There's not a freezer anywhere.
Oh, it's all microwave.
We have one burner,
And nothing else but microwaves
And toaster ovens to cook off of.
Have you ever seen a turkey?
It's yea big.
Our toasters were this big...Yeah.
All right, change of plan, guys.
What are we doing?
I got turkey covered, two gravies--
How are you making two gravies?
(jamie) we have one burner.
This is what we have to talk about.
It doesn't take me long.
Catering is, uh-- it's a different animal.
It's not, you have your salt and pepper and your oil,
And a stove right in front of you.
I have a catering company, so I have no issues
With turkey, I cook it in toaster oven.
Green beans are much easier than freakin' brussels sprouts,
Let me tell you.
We have one burner, though.
It will be fine.
I'm a little annoyed with my team at this point.
I don't know how it's gonna go down
When we start cooking.
Each of us listen to each other,
And talk about our dish, can you do it successfully--
It's a couple curve balls in a row right now.
I'm a little concerned.
I'm used to running my own kitchen
With my own guys.
So I helped organize the team.
We all know it's gonna be tough to beat these guys,
So we all gotta be on the same page.
Look how full that is.
Ariane's gonna do the turkey.
I'm a little worried.
She hasn't been performing really strong lately.
And being that it's thanksgiving,
This turkey needs to be right on.
You can also cook in the hotbox.
(ariane) no one's acknowledging my strengths.
Since I've catered, I have that advantage
Of knowing how to get the job done
With whatever you have.
So we're down a dessert, guys. I don't have this dessert.
Hey, what if we did [bleep] s'mores?
A s'mores-- kinda banana s'mores?
(richard) one of the things that was in the rider
Is all about frozen bananas and chocolate.
And since we didn't have a freezer to use,
I could actually make s'mores.
Okay, guys, let's go shopping, let's go.
[cheers]
If we pull this out,
There is no way for anybody in the United States
To have one excuse for don't pull out
A good meal for thanksgiving.
(leah) we have an hour to shop, and $1,200 to spend.
Our team was team sexy pants.
I don't know where that came about.
Maybe because we're all super sexy.
Uh, garlic--
I'm going to dairy. I'm gonna be dairy.
The other team just kind of scatters
Through the grocery store,
And we stop, and we start going over a game plan.
I'm glad that I'm helping organize.
I want us to win.
Let's go, let's go.
Our team name is the cougars,
And we have our mascot.
Ariane. You know, she's a mom.
She a little older than some of us.
She's hot, you know, she works out,
You know, with the little shorts.
And, like, yeah, she's on the prowl.
Clean up, aisle 12.
A cougar is,
I don't know, hot and sexy?
I don't know.
It makes me smile.
37 minutes left.
We're in new york, white cheddar.
Can't go wrong with it.
I'm in charge of shopping for dairy,
And I decided to do some macaroni and cheese
With butterball bacon.
Guys, 15 minutes.
Jesus christ.
(ariane) yeah, let me get-- this is good.
Peeled. That's it.
I have all--you know, the butterball turkeys,
We got a smoked butterball turkey.
We got some butterball bacon.
I think everybody has everything
And we're heading, uh, for checkout.
My nerves are still rattled.
I've been at the bottom a couple times now.
If there's anything I want to do, it's to prove
That I can cook good food.
Good job, guys. Nice job, team cougar.
(women) happy thanksgiving.
(fabio) I ain't going home because it's raining on my tiramisu.
No more barf-ets.
Let's go, guys. Let's go!
Our challenge is that we are cooking a thanksgiving meal
For the foo fighters.
The two teams are going head to head
To see who can cook a better thanksgiving meal.
We get back from the supermarket,
We got three hours to cook.
While I was at the market, I decided to build us
A little grill,
Using a chafing dish rack to hold my charcoal.
Eugene!
Yo. You're a genius, baby.
If you see the brown sugar, pass it.
For the team cougar menu,
Ariane is making the turkey.
Jeff has the stuffing and one of the desserts.
Carla's working on the desserts
And dressings for the salad bar.
Danny's making a potato dish.
Eugene's got his pork.
And I'm gonna be making banana s'mores
With vanilla cream sauce and chocolate ganache.
Desserts are ridiculously tough.
That always seems like it's the one thing
That trips everybody up.
But I want us to be the ones
Who get to go see the foo fighters tonight,
And I don't want any of us to have to go home.
The four ovens in a box, and 450 for the turkey
And the stuff, okay?
I feel like we really had,
You know, a kick ass menu put together.
Stefan, he said he's happy to do the turkey.
Jamie's got a couple nice side salads.
Leah offers up the mashed potatoes.
Radhika wants to put together a stuffing.
Melissa does the sweet potatoes.
Fabio says he's got a tiramisu
That he wants to do with pumpkin.
And I'm gonna do a fruit crisp.
It's not my proudest dessert,
But it's definitely something that
I know can be a real crowd pleaser if done right.
What a deal.
Careful, we're frying potatoes down here.
Watch out.
Anybody else's back feeling good?
I decided to do a pumpkin mousse.
I'm also doing savory bread pudding.
I decided to throw a lot on my own shoulders,
Which, you know, I'm not sure
If that's the smartest thing in the world.
But I think the strongest people
Need to really buckle down and do the most.
Turkey's in, right? Obviously.
Yeah, I have four turkey breasts in.
That turkey breast,
What's going on with it?
While I'm cooking, everybody's like,
"is the turkey in? Is the turkey in?"
And I'm just like, "guys, it's a breast.
It's not gonna take long."
I'm trying not to get angry,
And prove to them I know what I'm doing.
[thunder crashes]
Come on, guys, we got it. Push yourselves.
Things went from really, really, really, really, really difficult
To just downright awful.
The rain starts falling,
We've got some guys trying to set up tents above us.
Everybody starts feeling the stress.
Keep pushing. Come on, keep pushing.
It started to rain in my tiramisu.
I ain't going home because it's raining in my tiramisu.
There is no freaking way.
My biggest challenge during this time
Is getting these goddamn potatoes done.
I can't get a nice golden crisp roasted potato.
And roast the [bleep] out of them on the [bleep].
(fabio) 15 minutes to go. You have to be downstairs.
There is no time. Okay.
Yes, yes.
When that clock stops,
If we don't have the food on the table, we can't serve it.
At this point, it's just like,
We gotta get this [bleep] together.
Where is it? Leave that open.
The one thing that we all feel
Is that we're the people
Who haven't been chosen.
And we want to show the other team
That we've got this.
Guys, five minutes!
My banana s'mores, I was gonna be making them
Pretty much to order, uh, just one tray at a time,
Because I still wanted them to be a little bit warm
When people were gonna have them.
What's gonna go here? Um, um, um--
(eugene) this is by far the hardest cooking experience
I've ever done.
Last minutes is a [bleep] hole.
Everybody's just pitching in,
Doing their part to get this thing done.
(man) time's up!
Okay, time!
By the skin of our ass, we get it done.
Foo fighter's roll up. They look like rock stars.
They just have this kind of aura around them.
They're a big deal.
(richard) the fact that we get to cook for the foo fighters
Is just really cool in of itself.
But I'm looking over,
And I see tom "the hottie gay bear icon" colicchio.
I'm definitely feeling a little bit
Of the butterflies in my stomach.
What's up, dave? How you doing?
How are you? Happy thanksgiving.
Service rolls up, buffet opens,
Team cougar is first.
Creamed potatoes, roasted garlic puree.
Uh, roasted shallots, and a little bit of chives.
Just like mama makes.
There you go, right?
If I don't sell myself,
Then, you know, [bleep]'s not gonna go down the right way.
This is spoonbread with roasted figs
Uh, cranberries, walnuts, a little bit of onions,
And, uh, whole wheat bread.
Excellent.
What is going on here?
It's a five-cheese macaroni and cheese.
What's going on in the middle there?
Some love, baby. Some bacon.
[bleep] yeah, it is! That's what I'm talking about.
All right. Put it right there.
Roasted turkey? Yes. Awesome.
A little mushroom gravy.
We also have a peared cranberry.
Is that enough for you?
Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
I got some, uh, maple-smoked pork loin
That we did over a little makeshift hibachi grill outside.
I will try that.
Thank you.
Man, I got to play tonight after eating all this.
Nice. Yeah.
And we're only just beginning.
(jeff) tried to peek and see their facial reactions,
But they were on the other side of the room.
There's no way to tell what they're eating.
We were, uh, crossing our fingers.
I gotta be honest. I didn't like the stuffing.
I just don't like figs and stuff and, like, stuffing.
You know, sometimes it's just good
To execute the classics the way they're supposed to be done.
I loved the, um--
The, uh, mac and cheese with the bacon bits.
(grohl) mac and cheese is great.
I'm a big fan of the bacon.
Only one complaint so far.
Mashed potatoes are slightly al dente.
Meaning, not cooked all the way.
I like the smoked ham.
And I like that he got all macgyver on it too.
Rigged his own fry pan or something.
(grohl) honorable mentions definitely for the smoker.
The turkey's really tender, man.
Like, the turkey's really good.
Ariane cooked the turkey.
She's been on the chopping block
The last two episodes.
She had to come through with something pretty good.
Did she redeem herself?
With the turkey? Yeah.
My favorite was the turkey.
I think we should do another main
And then have the dessert off.
Judges--judges are-- judges are coming.
This is leah.
Hi, how are you?
And do you want, um, some turkey?
Light or dark meat?
Yeah, a little piece of both.
What is the sauce here?
It's just a white chicken--turkey gravy.
This is a, uh, vegan cornbread stuffing.
I'll get some of that.
What is that?
This is, some, uh, sweet--yams.
Marshmallows on them.
The roasted corn salad is really, really good.
Do you want some?
Did you make it?
Absolutely not.
But I tasted it.
All right, I'm coming back for dessert.
The vegan stuffing is really super good.
It's the best stuffing out of it.
I think it has more flavor than the other stuffing,
And it's not as dry.
Vegan stuffing was my favorite thing
From either team.
I'm digging the yams too,
'cause they burnt the marshmallows.
You gotta burn the marshmallows, man.
How did they cook the turkey?
They had about six toaster ovens,
And about, you know, three or four microwaves.
I think that the cougars had better turkey.
I wanna do dessert now, if you guys are ready.
They're gonna have desserts, okay?
Tell, uh, rich to get over here.
Oh, it's the judges. Stop eating back here.
What's going on here, fabio?
We have some, uh,
Roasted pumpkin, honey, and cinnamon tiramisu.
Excellent, thank you.
So this is, like, a cobbler?
(fabio) this is a peach and blueberry crisp.
Some cinnamon cream.
Cinnamon cream, huh?
They make me present the food.
[speaking italian]
[laughter]
And instead of sitting back down,
They just come for our desserts as well.
Stuff that was hot wasn't hot anymore.
It's concerning.
Now, if you have room, I'd like to put
Put a sidecar of this peach and cherry cobbler
With a flaky crust.
Cream? Sure. Nice.
This is, uh, fresh fruit
And pumpkin mousse.
Tossed the fresh fruit with a little bit of maple,
And whipped cream, sugar,
And made a mousse out of, uh, pumpkin.
Folded it in, voila.
Oh, they got [bleep]in' s'mores!
[laughter]
Start you off with one of our banana s'mores
Topped with vanilla cream and a chocolate ganache.
Enjoy. Thank you.
It's cool when you get to serve, you know, celebrities.
You get to serve rock stars,
And they can just tell, looking at your food,
They're like, "all right, this is cool.
I'm gonna like this."
But at the end of the day,
It's all about making it through
And winning this competition.
All right, we're doing sexy pants first.
Sexy pants dessert.
How's that?
I'm really into the tiramisu.
It's super light.
I also like that you have the italian chef
Who doesn't know the tradition.
But he knows we use pumpkin,
And instead of making a pumpkin pie,
He made tiramisu with pumpkin.
I think that's resourceful, it's smart.
Thanks. Thank you.
That crumble's pretty outrageous.
Consensus here is sexy pants,
Thumbs up on dessert.
Absolutely.
Yes? You're into it? Yeah, it's good.
All right.
Where did that come from?
That's the second team's dessert.
Why are you making that face, taylor?
I don't like pumpkin foam.
You know, it's not even the taste.
It's just the consistency.
It's one of those things you put in your mouth
And you don't know if you should chew or swallow.
No more barf-ets.
Did someone offend the s'mores guy?
'cause I think he spit on mine.
[laughter]
I gotta say the cougars kinda floundered on the desserts.
Wow.
Well, what do you foos think?
There wasn't really one that stood out
As, like, head and shoulders above the other,
Because there were things that I liked from each of them
I thought they were pretty-- pretty even.
Like everybody else, I know the turkey
With the cougar team was better.
I think the dessert with the, uh, sexy team
Was just way better.
And they had my-- my favorite entree.
Which is... The vegan stuffing.
I'm going with sexy pants.
I actually liked mostly the cougars more,
And I just can't say
That a dessert's gonna push me on it,
Because, I mean, to be thoroughly honest with you,
I usually don't order desserts.
I am a little nervous.
Yeah, I am. I'm not gonna lie.
Our presentation was good, I mean, we did it.
I think we did a lot more for the challenge.
We are rocking it out.
At this point, I'm going to the concert.
I already had my party hat on,
My party underwear on, and I'm ready to go.
The foos here are inviting their favorite team
To watch their gig tonight.
It was pretty close,
But they have picked a favorite.
Honestly, I'm feeling like it's neck and neck.
It could swing either way.
Hopefully our proteins will pull us over the top.
So...
Who is the favorite team?
Sexy pants.
[cheers]
(fabio) I'll see you
In half an hour at the concert, guys.
We love you. We love you guys. Thank you, guys.
That's [bleep]ing bull[bleep].
Congratulations,
Team sexy pants, you have won.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
You will be at the concert tonight,
And I'm afraid,
Team cougar,
It also means one of you will be going home.
All right, foos, I guess you gotta go
Get ready.
Good job. Congratulations. Thank you.
But we did great [bleep]ing food, I'll tell you that now.
Our food was better than their [bleep]ing food, dude.
Going down with my head held high.
Guys, we're going to a concert.
[cheers and applause]
All right, let's go, guys, let's go.
We won today.
Team sexy pants was the winning team,
And I was stoked.
[rock music]
(leah) we're all really excited.
I think it's the best seat in the house.
It's something, like,
20 years from now, I won't forget.
[muffled music]
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
Well, like I said, guys,
We did a hell of a job.
It was an honor to work with you guys.
Absolutely.
(eugene) team sexy pants, they get to watch
The band in concert, while us losers
Get to stay and wash dishes.
Do we need these flowers, no.
You find out you're on the losing team,
It just sucks.
There's nothing else you can do.
Really, I mean, we don't even know
Why we lost yet.
And so I think right now,
For us to sit there and speculate,
It's just gonna make us all crazy.
The only thing I could hope is that
We don't all start resorting
To throwing each other under the bus
Just to save our own asses.
All right, guys. Ready?
Let's get out of here.
What a day. What a day.
Happy thanksgiving, everybody!
(man) happy thanksgiving.
Whoo, that was a great concert.
We cleaned up your mess.
Thank you.
Okay, whatever, danny.
Congratulations.
Good to see you again. Go get 'em.
So obviously, you guys were the losing team tonight.
Were you surprised?
Yes.
Yes, very.
Why's that?
I thought we did a good job, considering the circumstances.
Uh, you guys definitely threw a lot of curve balls at us.
God made it rain. You gotta get past the curve ball.
It's all part of the challenge, dealing with that.
You haven't told me anything that the other team
Didn't have the same situation.
They had the same conditions, they had the same rain
Falling on them.
(padma) was there a team leader?
We didn't really assign a team leader.
But a team leader emerged.
Who was that? Jeff.
Jeff did a great job in organizing us.
We pretty much had a clear picture going in.
I think where we failed was execution.
Would everyone agree with alex's statement?
Jeff made a point of being very organized for us.
And I think that it wasn't necessarily him being a leader,
As him saying "this is something I've done before,
So let's make sure we're following a, b, and c."
As for the actual execution, it fell on all of us
To make sure that we were getting things done.
Jeff, you seem really pissed off.
I'm very upset that we lost.
Everybody really gave 100% here.
It's a good team,
And, uh, I wouldn't trade them for anybody on the other team.
We got a lot of heart, sir.
(tom) this wasn't something where this was a runaway,
That they just completely crushed you guys.
This was very, very close.
There were things that were real standouts,
And there were other things that weren't.
Ariane, your turkey was better than theirs.
It was perfect.
That's the foundation of a thanksgiving meal.
And that did not go unnoticed by any of us.
It was just super moist.
And it was, you know, carved well.
Thank you. It was great.
Who did the spoonbread?
That was your spoonbread?
I thought it was dry.
Um, it seemed that it was probably cooked too long.
Danny, what dishes were you responsible for?
I was responsible
For the potato
And the vegetarian stuffed mushroom.
The problem with the potatoes is that
They were a little bit undercooked.
Crunchy. Okay, well, um--
That's not how I want a potato to be.
They were a little al dente.
I was the last one to get in the oven.
So I had to improvise, and throw the roasted potatoes,
Because they weren't browning, into the microwave,
Because there was no way the potatoes were going
To get done on time.
I tried to do my best. Yeah.
At any point, did you think
Of just eliminating the roasted potatoes,
Just going with the ones that were cooked?
No, because there wasn't gonna be enough.
What's thanksgiving without starch?
Well, you had sweet potatoes. Yeah, and you had stuffing.
That was one of my least favorite dishes.
If it was really anything that set the two teams apart,
It was dessert.
Carla?
The cobbler wasn't exactly what I had
Hoped for.
The crust was good.
But in the end, it may have been a little sweet
With the dried cherries.
It's very subjective.
Your intention was fine.
I think here was a case of execution.
The flavor combination that actually struck me
As odd was actually the pumpkin mousse
With the berries.
They didn't balance each other very well.
If you're gonna re-interpret
A classic dish,
The essence of the original dish
Should be there.
I think the one that really stands out,
As far as that goes, was the s'mores.
That was mine.
If you're gonna call it a s'more,
It has to have some type of burnt sugar.
It has to be gooey.
And frankly, every s'more that I've ever eaten
Has a high ratio
Of warm chocolate component.
So if those focuses are lost,
Then really, we have, in my mind, a failed concept.
The band had said something about chocolate and bananas.
And initially, I was going to do, uh,
Frozen bananas dipped in chocolate.
Obviously, again, the curve ball threw us no freezer,
So I had to improv when we got there.
For me, it was more about it being
A banana s'more with chocolate ganache,
So that it was still something you could,
You know, get the chocolate and the banana
Without it being too much about the chocolate,
More about the banana.
(gail) there was something else on the top.
It looked like it was some sort of foam.
It was, uh-- it was a vanilla cream.
For catering, specifically, when you know that your food
Is gonna be on a buffet,
It just sort of fell, and actually, the band
Look around and said, you know,
"it kinda looks like spit on the plate."
Please give us some time.
We'll call you back in when we're ready.
Thank you. Thanks.
I'm still stumped. It's a really hard one.
Honestly, I think it comes down
To the people that made desserts.
Carla, jeff, and, uh, richard.
But how about, you know, daniel?
I mean, he made some pretty bad dishes.
(gail) I think his execution was sloppy.
(tom) yeah, potatoes were undercooked.
They think they're gonna just sneak it by?
I'll mix it in with the other cooked ones,
And then maybe they won't get a raw one.
50/50 chance. Yeah, right.
If I go home because of this challenge,
I'm like, we got our food out.
I felt that carla-- I mean, her dessert was okay.
It wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't--
It was nice. It was a nice little, you know--
I think it was fine.
I think, compared to the other things we're talking about,
Including daniel's food, hers was the least offensive.
Okay, I'd buy that.
Jeff, across the board,
His dishes were not very good.
I mean, conceptually,
The pumpkin and berry dish was just wrong.
It was wrong.
(tom) the spoonbread...
On its own, if it weren't overcooked,
I think would be fine.
I think it's great that he emerged as a leader,
And he didn't sort of go there and say "I'm the leader."
It just happened, so that shows that
He has natural leadership skills,
And also that his teammates recognize him
As the natural leader in the group.
If I were choosing a team, I would pick jeff.
I think he just got too much going,
And lost focus on a couple of things.
I wish I did one less dish.
Grant, what was your least favorite dish of the night?
If you're gonna put me in the corner and pick one,
I'm gonna pick the s'mores,
Because not only did it not taste good,
But conceptually, it was-- it was a mess.
(gail) why did you choose a s'more
That you know that in a catering situation,
You're gonna have to--
To make them good, do them one by one,
And they're still gonna sit for who knows how long.
You don't have to do everything on the rider.
You know, you do the best you can.
Do something with bananas. It doesn't have to be a s'more.
There's plenty of other things you can do with bananas.
Sounds like we have a decision.
Okay, let's get them out here.
Oh, come on.
I go to get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
And I'm dripping peanut butter on the floor.
(jamie) you're the reason why there's flies all over this place.
Oh, yeah?
Immediately, jamie lashed out at me.
A napkin would be helpful.
That's disgusting.
(danny) you have a problem with me or something?
Do you have a problem with me?
(danny) you just make fun of me all the time.
I just think you're putting food all over the floor.
It's disgusting.
Danny definitely gets on my nerves.
All right.
(danny) maybe the stew room is really getting to her.
Maybe it was that time of the month.
I don't know.
[sigh]
It was a team challenge.
We felt there were some high points,
Uh, starting with eugene.
Pork dish was one of my favorite dishes
Of the entire evening from both teams.
So you're safe for tonight.
You can leave the kitchen, thanks.
Thank you.
Alex, you put together a few good dishes.
You're safe for today as well.
Thank you.
Carla, desserts were not the strong suit of this team.
However, your dessert was probably the best of the three.
So you are safe as well. You can leave the kitchen.
Thank you. Thanks.
Ariane, thanksgiving's all about the turkey.
Your turkey was excellent.
I think you redeemed yourself with today's challenge.
So you can leave the kitchen, thank you.
Thank you.
[cheers]
I'm here, I'm here.
It's quite a different feeling, that's for sure.
Thanksgiving for a band that's traveling,
I think this is the time of the year where they--
They really are thinking about their families,
And again, thinking about their thanksgiving.
And, uh, I think, for the most part,
They were very happy to get a thanksgiving meal.
However, the dishes that seemed to not work
Were the ones that weren't typically
What you find in the tradition for the most part.
Daniel, undercooking potatoes-- never a good idea.
Serving them is even a worse idea.
Jeff, you bit off a lot.
The team looked to you for leadership.
Maybe you bit off more than you could chew.
Richard, the band said they wanted something with bananas,
But the s'mores were really disappointing.
It's a tough thing to send someone home
On a thanksgiving dinner, but, uh, unfortunately,
Someone has to leave the kitchen.
Richard, please pack your knives and go.
Thank you guys for the opportunity.
Thank you very much, richard. Good luck to you.
(richard) I think I took this challenge on both guns a-blazin'.
Now, I'm just looking forward to getting to go home,
And, uh, keep learning, keep growing, keep getting better.
Bye, guys.
It sucks.
I really tried.
I've tried for the last three seasons to get here.
Busted my ass.
Bye, guys. Good luck.
[applause]
I've gotta try to hold my head up high,
And know that I competed with the best,
And just for getting here,
I know my family's gonna be proud of me.
Captioning by captionmax www.Captionmax.Com
(padma) next, on top chef:
This morning, we put 13 chefs to the task
Of making a meal for us.
Today show, 16 million people watching.
It's a huge deal.
(ariane) I'm ready to take on these kid chefs.
Move over, here comes the old lady.
Right here, right here. Sorry!
Somebody spit your food out, it's bad.
Raw egg on tv, not a good combo.
I mean, that was beyond belief.
The whole point of this competition is to win.
(padma) for more about the recipes seen tonight,
Go to bravotv.Com.