- Previously on Top Chef... - Let's go to Dallas!
- , man.
- Your driver's license
and proof of liability insurance.
- Well, that's gonna be an issue.
- This is your kitchen. - Wow.
John Besh is a handsome man. I'm not gonna lie.
- Hi!
- You can smell the smell of money.
- We love Gummy Bear-- I have a Gummy Bear addiction.
- We don't wanna give them any food that will make them feel
self-conscious about their breath.
- Do you need both those colanders?
- No, I just need that one.
- Can you take the other one out of the sink then?
I'm a little aggravated with Bev.
She's using the entire sink.
- Come on, sabotage.
- The winner is Paul.
- Thank you.
- It was overcooked salmon and goat cheese.
- It was a gimmick.
- Chuy, please pack your knives and go.
13 chefs remain, all hoping to win
a feature in Food & Wine magazine...
A showcase at the annual Food & Wine classic in Aspen...
$125,000 furnished by Healthy Choice...
To bring their culinary dreams to life...
and the title of Top Chef.
♪ Top Chef: Texas 9x06 ♪ Higher Steaks Original Air Date on December 7, 2011
== sync by elderman ==
- I'm gonna miss that little Chu-Chu train.
- Been a long day.
- This is all the guys, isn't it, right here?
- Yeah, this is it, man. - Oh,.
- There's definitely a little face-off starting to develop,
and I don't want there to be eight girls and two guys left.
You know, come on, guys.
We're gonna have to sort of rally together
to save face.
- Are you scared?
Scared of the girlies. - Scared of the girls?
- This whole boys versus girls, this versus that--
I just need to concentrate on food.
So that's all I'm really thinking about.
- We walk into the kitchen and we see Padma
and Chef Dean Fearing.
He's had a long career in the culinary scene,
and he was the original chef of Mansion on Turtle Creek.
He was classically trained,
so I think we have a tough competition ahead of us.
- Hi, chefs. - Hello.
- The Cordon Bleu kitchen will be our home base
while we're here in Dallas.
- I went to school here, so everything looks familiar to me.
But I'm also really nervous
'cause I feel like I'm in my school,
I should win this challenge, whatever it may be.
- Please meet your guest judge Dean Fearing,
the James Beard Award winner
and chef and owner of Fearing's restaurant here in Dallas.
- Welcome to Dallas. - Thank you.
- This quickfire will be testing your skills
as a saucier.
- The saucier position is the most prestigious position
on the line in a kitchen.
It's the item that gives the wow to the dish.
- If I could pick anything to do for the rest of my life,
it'd be saucier.
It's an artistry in itself.
- Please draw knives.
- Espagnole.
- Hollandaise.
- Tomates.
- Hollandaise.
- Espagnole.
- Bechamel. - Veloute.
- Tomates.
- Hollandaise.
I've been a saucier before,
and I'm also classically trained,
so sauces ain't no thang for me.
- Bechamel.
- Espagnole.
- Bechamel.
- Veloute.
- The legendary French Chef Escoffier
coined five mother sauces.
Bechamel, espagnole, hollandaise,
tomates, and veloute.
- A mother sauce is base for other sauces.
I think the easiest sauce probably is the veloute.
It's a basically a chicken stock
that's thickened with flour and butter.
So I'm feeling really good.
- Your challenge is to make a dish with a new sauce
that stems from your mother sauce.
The winner of this quickfire will receive immunity
in the next challenge.
- I have not won where immunity has been offered.
And I want immunity like... So bad it's ridiculous.
- Ready for the mother of all quickfires?
Your time start now.
Good luck. - Whoo!
- Hot, hot, hot.
- The most difficult thing about this quickfire
is that you have to make a roux, which is flour and butter.
I know a lot of chefs think it's old-school,
but I think you really need to know your classics.
- I'm doing some scallops...
A corn ravioli, and hollandaise.
I'm feeling saucy.
- I pulled espagnole.
It's a beef sauce made from veal bones and tomato paste.
And to make this sauce my own,
I infuse it with hints of ginger and lemongrass.
I haven't cooked a mother sauce since culinary school,
so this challenge is gonna test my skill.
- 30 minutes, guys!
- I'm making a shrimp veloute
with braised fennel, some saffron.
The main problem I'm encountering is
I don't wanna overthink the dish,
but I feel like it needs another element
and I'm trying to figure out what that is.
- They don't like this sauce, I don't know what to do.
I pulled bechamel, and it's a heavy,
flour-butter-based white sauce
which instead of just a regular cream,
I'm trying to incorporate a vegetable.
Gonna do rib eye encrusted with miso blue cheese.
My new sauce is definitely avant-garde interpretation
of the espagnole,
'cause the espagnole is a very classic French sauce.
The risk of the sauce is mine is turning out to be
a very Asian sauce.
But I feel really good about my dish.
I want this so bad.
- Five minutes, everyone. You have five minutes left.
- I'm really excited about bechamel.
It's one of my favorites.
I'm making a lemon black truffle bechamel
with brown butter scallop.
But I definitely put those scallops on way too early.
The longer it sits there, one, the colder it's getting
and two, the more, you know, carry over cooking.
- I'm totally effed.
I'm getting really nervous
because I have so many elements that I need to get on the plate,
or the dish won't come together as a whole.
Is there plastic wrap, guys?
- 55 seconds.
- God. Stop shaking.
- Time's up!
Hands up. Utensils down, please.
- Thank God I'm able to get everything on the plate,
and it's exactly how I want it to be.
- Hi, Chris. - Hi, how are you?
I had veloute, so I did a butter-poached Halibut
over a little hash of mussels and andouille, mushrooms.
- And what is in your veloute?
- I cooked the andouille and the mussels together,
and then infused that fat back into the veloute.
- Thank you. - Thank you very much.
- So I had bechamel.
What I did was I made a cauliflower bechamel.
There's a little poached red snapper,
a little tarragon crab and fried oyster on top.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- I had hollandaise.
It's a charred corn hollandaise.
I also made a corn ravioli
and blueberry balsamic reduction.
- Did you use clarified butter?
- No, I like to use whole butter.
- Mm.
- I used, chef, espagnole.
It's quail with some pickled and roasted mushrooms.
Just a touch of garlic scapes and some roasted okra.
- And what color was your roux?
- I didn't use a roux.
Maybe I should've just lied and said, "yeah, I used a roux."
- So I had tomato sauce today. I used a little pancetta.
And I used the shrimp shells in it, instead of carrot,
to sweeten it a bit.
And then I cooked a little fennel pilau
which is what it sits on.
- And what roux did you use? - No roux in that.
- Mm.
Well, the true classic tomates sauce has a roux.
- Oh.
I've never used a roux in my tomates
nor would I ever use a roux in my tomates.
So I was kind of taken aback by that.
- My sauce was bechamel. So I made a gruyere croquette.
It's got a apple and ginger compote
and a little Asian slaw.
- It's a crab maki roll with rib eye,
and the rib eye is crusted
with a little bit of miso blue cheese butter.
I interpreted it as a...Kind of Asian style.
- Bev always cooks Asian food.
And if I was the judges
I probably would be bored with her.
- Why so little of your espagnole sauce?
- Because I had the soy,
and I don't wanna overpower your palate
with too much soy.
- Thank you, Beverly. - Thank you.
- Thank you, Beverly.
- I have a bechamel sauce.
I infused the milk
to make the bechamel with lemon zest
and black truffles.
It's sitting on top of a roasted peach.
There's a crab and mushroom duxelle.
Then we've got the seared scallop,
and then to the right is a creme fraiche pommes puree.
- It's almost like a hollandaise.
- Yeah.
- My base sauce was hollandaise,
and I chose to do a lemongrass and four citrus variants on that
with Ahi tuna, baby bok choy.
- And did you clarify your butter?
- I did not clarify my butter. I used whole melted butter.
- How you doing, chef?
I'm guessing you have tomates.
- Yes, ma'am. I had tomates.
For the sauce itself, I combined coconut flavors
with ras el hanout.
I did braised lentils.
I used the tomates in a fresh form
with toasted pistachios.
I love making sauces. It's my favorite thing to do.
- Lotta flavor. - Thank you very much.
- Dean, how do you think our chefs did
with the sauce quickfire?
- I think there were some sweet sauces.
I think there were some over acidic sauces.
But overall,
I thought the seasoning techniques was well done.
- Who were some of your least favorites?
- Dakota, I really thought
the use of the peach was overdone.
With the sauce, not a big flavor profile for me.
Nyesha, great thought,
but so many flavors made it muddled.
And lastly, Beverly,
your coriander wasabi
was more sauce than the mother sauce.
- Well, let's hear some of the favorites.
- Grayson, I really liked your dish.
And you made a ravioli.
And I don't know if I could've made a ravioli...
In an hour and a half.
Chris C.,
you changed the veloute a little bit
by adding the poaching liquids back into the sauce,
and I really liked the combination of flavors.
Paul, you were another one of my favorites.
Using the quail, mushrooms with the okra--
the pickling on that was perfect.
- So Dean, please announce the winner.
- I felt the one dish that had the mother sauce creativity--
everything on the plate
I felt was cooked to perfection--
was...
- Dean, please announce the winner
of the sauce quickfire.
- The one dish that had the mother sauce
cooked to perfection was...
Grayson.
- Congratulations.
You've now won immunity in the next elimination challenge.
- Whoo!
- This is amazing.
I've had to prove a lot.
I'm definitely one to be reckoned with.
So watch out.
- For Texas, steak is one of life's most important pleasures.
This elimination challenge will be one of the toughest
you'll ever face.
You'll work as one team to create a four-course
steak dinner for 200 guests.
- I worked at a steakhouse for two years in New York City.
I have a lot of experience cooking steak.
But we have to work as a team,
and that makes me really nervous.
- You have to incorporate steak into two of your four courses
at the Cattle Baron's ball.
- My grandfather has been a member
of the cattlemen's association for ages.
The Cattle Baron's ball is a huge dinner party.
These guests are used to eating steak on a daily basis.
- You'll have to pull the steaks off at the right time
so they're medium rare when they hit the tables.
- You have 30 minutes to menu plan together now.
Tonight, you'll have three hours to prep here.
And tomorrow, you'll have three hours to cook and prep
before service begins at...
Southfork Ranch.
You knew it was coming sometime.
- Yup. We were a Dynasty family.
We didn't watch Dallas. Some of my friends did.
I can't remember who shot J.R.
Was it his wife? Was it Sue Ellen?
Or was it a mistress?
I'm gonna need somebody to look that up on their Google machine.
- And one last thing.
The winner of this challenge
will also win a brand-new 2011 Toyota Venza.
- I drive a big truck that is a gas guzzler,
and a Toyota Venza would be a perfect car.
- You can check it out on the way to Whole Foods.
Your menu plan starts now.
- Wait, wait, wait.
- We need to break up into teams.
Three groups of three and one group of four.
- We quickly split up into the four courses.
- Okay, so it's four on dessert then three, three, three.
- What if we start-- the very course
is a cucumber base gazpacho.
If you wanna like make it a little bit different.
Still a gazpacho--
- So you're gonna be third course on rib eye.
What are we doing then? Second course?
- Sirloin. - Okay.
- Are you guys okay with me being the sort of secretary--
- Yes.
Yes, I concur.
- So what's your-- what's your base, the sponge?
- Yep. - Okay.
Heather is going to do her same cake
that we did for the quinceanera.
- Hey, can you give me the genoise real quick?
Do you know it off the top of your head?
- The genoise is-- she's taking my cake recipe,
and she's repeating it again?
That pisses me off.
At some point, she's gonna have to stop
repeating the same recipe and really cook.
- Everybody feel good? - Yeah.
- Let's go to Whole Foods.
- Wow.
- We jump into the Toyota Benza
and realize there's an amazing amount of space.
- The GPS right here.
Man, I would love to win a car.
I would love to win anything, just win something.
$2.
I just don't wanna walk away empty-handed from this.
- You think that's gonna be enough?
- We're feeding 200 people, so that's a lot of ingredients.
We are running around...
- Breaking bottles,
trying to get everything that we can.
It's a mess in there.
- Did you do this? - It was Chris C's fault.
- Yeah, it was. - Bull.
Do you have any kind of bones or marrow?
Growing up, my dad was always the grill master.
He would make steaks almost every Sunday night for dinner.
He survived an open-heart transplant.
And there's no way I would the chef that I am today
without the inspiration that my dad gives me every day.
- I think you need more potatoes than that.
- I got 50. - 20 more pounds of potatoes.
- I'm making potato gratin,
and I know how to execute this dish.
My mom was a very good cook,
so even though we didn't always have money,
she was very resourceful.
And that's carried over to my cooking today.
- Are we trimming beef tonight? Are we gonna have scraps?
For the steak, I'm looking for everything I need for my sauce
and everything I need for my compound butter.
I'm getting concerned because I'm realizing
that I'm doing two components on the entree.
Because I wanna like go all out.
I wanna win this challenge.
- Goddamn it.
- I'm gonna unload the beef.
- I'm gonna use this big guy.
Beverly, Dakota, and I are working on the first course--
tomato watermelon gazpacho.
- Is that horseradish, Sarah? - Yeah.
- Just trying to discern what's in your gazpacho.
You know what the people like down here.
- It's a cold soup,
and to have a menu with two beef dishes already,
we need something on the lighter side.
- Where's the timer at? - Two hours, four minutes.
- Edward, present for you.
- Gracias.
I'm doing the second course with Chris Jones and Paul,
and we're making a seared New York strip steak carpaccio
for our salad.
- Right, I don't wanna unwrap the rib eye yet.
- All right, perfect.
For the entree, I'm in charge of the steaks.
Chris is making the greens,
nyesha is cooking the compound butter and the sauce,
and Whitney is in charge of the gratin.
- You win that damn car, I'm gonna be looking to drive it.
- Look at Paul, he's like a machine over there
with his knife skills.
- Three hours include the chill down time?
- Three hours is packed and walking out the door.
- Bev has one thing that she's working on,
and that's the shrimp.
And three hours should be plenty of time.
She's so focused on saving her own ass.
She wants to make sure that that part of it is perfect,
but when you're working in a team,
you can't be selfish.
1:08.
- That gratin's gonna look like junk
if we cook it and cut it tomorrow.
- I agree. I like to do it the night before too,
but she said no.
- I would love to get these in tonight.
- I won't get 'em in tonight,
but as long as they're assembled and wrapped,
I'm gonna throw 'em in the oven immediately.
- I'm worried about Whitney.
Tomorrow, she only has three hours
to bake, cut, portion, and serve, which is tight.
- 17 minutes!
- Trying to get every last bit.
Goddamn.
- You need me to do anything?
- I need a medic right now.
- Probably goes in about a 16th of an inch,
and it's gonna bleed pretty well.
I think what's gonna be best for me to do what I need to do,
I'm just gonna wrap my whole hand up,
and that's how I'm gonna have to work.
- Okay.
- 'Cause I'm not gonna stop. - Okay.
I'm really pissed off, because I'm responsible
for the steaks.
I'm concerned about my hand,
but I'm also more concerned about being eliminated.
I did the oyster knife right here.
- Ooh!
- I gotta take care of this.
- Time's up!
All right, let's go.
- Anyone want a beer? - Yes, please.
- I would like a beer.
- Ty-lor cut his finger. - What happened?
- He and I were working on the butter.
All of a sudden, I look over
and there's blood coming out his hand.
He's like, "I just cut my hand."
- Now that Ty-lor's hurt himself,
we're discussing how we're gonna do this tomorrow.
- So who is gonna take the lead on the entree?
- I would, but I have to cook the Brussels sprouts.
- It does make me feel a little uncomfortable
that no one else is really stepping up.
And I think that with the first group challenge we had,
the quinceanera being so hard,
people are hesitant about taking control
because they don't wanna be the ones to go down.
- How long those shrimp gonna take her to do today?
If that was my prep cook, I would be through the roof.
- What happens if we're one man short?
Today we're cooking a four-course dinner
for cattle barons.
And Ty-lor is the one in charge of the most important component,
steak.
Wanna hear something surprising?
Looks like it's gonna be a scorcher today.
- I'm good, I'm good.
- Did you have to get stitches? - Yeah, I got four stitches.
- Ouch.
- The hospital was a little crazy.
- Yeah?
- Probably 60 people in the waiting room, the E.R.
- So you had to wait a long time?
- I cut my hand, but there's like
gunshot victim--they're not in the biggest hurry.
How late were you out there till?
Till 6:00.
- The nurse lady's like
so you can take the next three days off of work.
I'm a little delirious. I'm just tired.
But I need to step up my game
and take charge of the steaks.
If it means drinking 18 shots of espresso,
I'll do whatever it takes in order to win this competition.
- All right, everybody, let's go find out who shot J.R.
- Oh, my God. - Wow, this is it right there.
- I got us right here, Dakota.
- We arrive at Southfork Ranch.
The three hours to finish our cooking.
I'm a little uneasy.
- Sarah's gazpacho, avocado mousse,
I saw Dakota doing now.
Last night, I finished baking the cakes.
So today, Lindsay and I are pulling plates,
making sure we have the table set.
All of those things that you need to do
to organize everybody.
Love it! This is like a well-oiled machine.
- I'm doing the second course,
and we are making a triple seared beef
with mushroom asparagus salad.
- My strategy for cooking this meat
is gonna be a sear and shock from the grill to the liquid.
That's a hot grill.
- Whitney, you okay? - Yeah.
Getting some of these potatoes oxidized.
First thing I have to do is kinda remove that layer
that's gotten a little discolored,
because potatoes will turn brown
if you just sit 'em out in the air.
I think I'll have time, but it's gonna be hectic.
- How long are those shrimp
gonna take her to do today?
Beverly, how are we looking?
- Uh, there's just a small little batch left.
- Move your whole station closer to the stove
so you can poach in batches as you're finishing the other ones.
I do have a problem that Bev has been working on shrimp
for two days.
When you're working in a team with 12 other chefs,
if that was my prep cook,
and he's working on shrimp for two days,
I would be through the roof.
Where we at with that pickling the watermelon, Beverly?
Have you started it?
- Heather's the most obnoxious person I think I've ever met.
She's a bully, in my opinion,
and she would be the first person that I would boot
from the island.
- Hi, Tom. - Hey, Heather, how you doing?
- Good, how are you doing? - I'm good, you too?
What are you responsible for?
- So I made the cake yesterday.
It was smart for me.
I have the most, probably, pastry experience here as well.
So to be on the last course so that Lindsay and I
could execute and expedite which was the reasoning behind it.
- Very good.
I'll see you later. - All right, thanks, Tom.
- What are you up to?
- I am doing all the knife work garnishing for our gazpacho.
- Who made the soup?
- Sarah's been doing the base.
- You're doing all the vegetable work.
Who made the mousse? - I made the mousse.
- Beverly's poaching the shrimp. Got it, okay.
Do you always leave the skins on when you use peppers?
- You don't like the skin?
- Just asking you if you like it.
- I was in the bottom yesterday,
and I don't wanna be in the bottom today.
- That's not fun. - I don't like that at all.
I don't wanna leave Dallas.
- This is the potato for the steak...
- Yes. - Going on the main course.
- Yes, I did a potato gratin.
- So you're not doing it in a double boiler?
- No, I'm not.
- Chancy.
- Ty, what happened?
- A little oyster knife through the--
- Oyster knife. Couple stitches?
- Four.
- So they tell me you are the grill master.
- Yes. Yes, I am tonight.
- You're cooking 200 steaks all medium rare.
- I'm just gonna mark those off, and I'm gonna crank out my ovens
and at the last minute, we're gonna give them--
- You're just marking on the grill
and you're finishing in the oven.
- Yes, sir. - Good luck.
- Thank you, chef.
- 13 minutes.
- Even though Heather was riding me,
I finally finished cooking the shrimp,
and they taste perfect.
- Ready to go inside with these? - Go, go.
- Hi!
How are you? I'm Jennifer Dix.
I'm the chairman of Cattle Baron's ball.
And this is Maria Clark.
She's our regional Vice President
from the American Cancer Society.
- This is a big day for you guys?
- It's a huge fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.
It's the largest in the nation. - Wow. That's amazing work.
- We're excited to see what's in store for--
- Steak. Lots of steak.
- Looking okay? - No, chef.
Can you turn the heat up, please?
It's the middle of the day. It's so hot.
Cut my hand, no sleep, playing with fire.
This is definitely one of the most difficult
cooking situations I've probably had in my life.
Jesus Christ.
- Guys, 1 minute, 24.
Let's get bread on these.
- Thank you.
- Is anybody taking a leadership role in the kitchen?
- Ed, yesterday, kinda got the ball rolling.
But today, Lindsay and Heather, they're really taking the lead.
- Well, here's the first course.
Hi, Sara - Hello.
- I'd like to introduce you to Jennifer and Maria
from the Cattle Baron's ball and the American Cancer Society.
- You remember Dean Fearing, Tom Colicchio,
and Hugh Acheson, author of A New Turn in the South.
- Today, we have a new summer gazpacho,
made with tomato, cucumber, and watermelon,
and an olive oil poached shrimp.
I worked with Dakota and Beverly.
I was expecting to taste more watermelon.
- It's properly seasoned, the shrimp is cooked nicely,
but I think they're playing it a little safe.
- The acid content in the actual gazpacho
is a little higher than I want,
but as a starting course, it's still hitting a good note.
- It's a lot lighter than I thought it was gonna be.
- It's delicious. - Very good.
- This is fantastic.
- Follow me with pistachio.
There's a small one there.
I'm doing the second course with Chris Jones and Paul.
A seared New York strip steak carpaccio.
Chris Jones seared the steaks
and Paul made the mushroom bacon.
Not on top of the meat. Just around the edge.
- I made a tomato salad
and then a candied pistachio vinaigrette.
I think it's a winning dish.
- We need to start firing the steaks soon.
- Second course is being plated,
but I think nobody was thinking about the third course.
And that really makes me nervous.
- Here comes the second course. - What do we got?
- Hello. It's a grilled New York strip steak carpaccio
with a salad-- heirloom tomatoes, asparagus,
pistachio vinaigrette, and some mushroom bacon.
I worked with Ed and Chris Jones.
- This raw tomato thing with a little bit of grilled asparagus,
it's not really cooked enough.
There's no point of view in this dish.
- I would've peeled the tomatoes.
They had a lot of time and three hands working on this.
Maybe it should've just upped the ante a little bit.
- But the steak is cooked really well.
The degree of doneness was nice.
- I think I need to go back. Or Heather, you go back.
I'm blasting steaks. - I got it.
- Start going on those. Let's go.
Here, you and I are gonna do this.
Nobody wants to decide
when to put the steaks in the oven.
So get 'em straight on here, and then we blast right in the oven.
Hot!
I'm just trying to make sure
that the steaks are getting cooked at this point.
Check those out and see if they're ready.
- That fatty one is perfect right there.
- Take those and make it the first.
- You're good.
- I'm outside, marking all the steaks,
and I'm depending on all the chefs inside
to flash the steaks at the last minute.
- Let's roll! - Ready to do this?
Steak's ready.
- I say we hang tight.
The guests are still on the second course,
so we can't serve the third course.
That's a concern, because timing's a big issue right now.
- I'm good. I'm ready to go.
All my 's ready.
- Slow down, my friend, slow down.
- These steaks are ready to go.
- Okay, well, we haven't started plating a thing yet.
- Hold on. Everybody wait.
Let's take the steaks, put 'em on the speed rack,
and then Edward can be flash, flash, flash,
and then maybe-- - they already flashed.
- He already flashed.
- Flashing the steaks early is the same
as when the meteor hit the earth and made the dinosaurs extinct.
It's that big of a deal.
- These are good right now. Why can't we start plating?
- When I come back inside,
I realize somebody fired the steaks too early.
- This is not going to affect it.
It's gonna be fine.
- We still have ten plus minutes
before a steak's even gonna be set down for a diner,
and I know that I'm instantly screwed.
- Take--replace all the kale that's in 'em,
'cause they're not-- it's not crispy anymore.
- Plating? - Yes.
- I'm worried because the steaks are gonna be ice cold,
and the gratin is a big mess.
This is gonna be a disaster.
- Pull it and sell 'em. - I need servers.
- These don't all look the same.
The steak looks like.
I'm wondering if my elements of the dish--
the compound butter and the sauce for the steak--
are gonna be strong enough to shine on their own,
or is it gonna be rallied in with the steak?
We have a grilled rib eye with a creamy potato gratin,
braised Brussels sprouts with a compound butter
of bone marrow, red wine, onions.
- Who worked on this dish?
- Ty-lor, myself, Whitney, and Chris Crary.
- Thank you.
- I like the Brussels sprouts, as you were saying,
adds a little twang to it.
- Right, but not overpowering.
- Ty-lor cooked the steaks. Chris made the vegetables.
Whitney made the potatoes.
- The steak's a little messy.
- Mine is not medium rare.
- Well, considering that I was the person that said
that every steak needed to be medium rare,
that is a big problem.
- Tom, what do you think of the gratin?
- Just not cooked. - I agree.
- If you're gonna do it, you better do the best one
anyone's ever tasted.
- I like that the potato is under the steak
so I don't have to like pile it on top
and look like I'm a caveman.
- What did Nyesha do?
- Nyesha made the compound butter.
Nyesha also made the sauce. - The sauce is good.
- Sauce is good and the butter's good.
- And the butter's great.
- Edward, can you chiffonade just a little bit on top,
'cause some of them don't have basil.
At this point, we have nothing to do
except focus on getting my cake out the door.
I hope the judges understand the reasoning behind
why we didn't choose to have something uber-sweet at the end
because we had such a heavy meal.
You eat a ten-ounce rib eye, you're gonna be pretty full.
- For your last course,
we have a right-side-up Texas peach cake,
a shaved peach salad, and a candied pecan streusel.
- Who worked on it with you?
- It was Heather, myself, and Grayson.
- Thanks, Lindsay. - Bye-bye.
- Heather made the cake. She did a great job with it.
- It's delicious.
- The cream's got no sugar in it, though.
- Yeah, but I don't like sweet desserts, so I think it's--
- No, neither do I, but I want a little more sugar.
- Doesn't jump up and grab you. - No.
- I actually wanna toast to the dessert.
At least the dessert is a winner.
- It was delicious.
That should be the last of it.
- Overall, it was fine.
I think they could've pushed it a lot more.
200 covers.
13 chefs back there.
Expect a lot more.
- Well, ladies, it's been a pleasure.
Cheers.
- All right, good job, you guys.
- We fired too quickly to plate.
- I don't need to hear anything.
I just know that it's done for me.
The most important element of this elimination challenge
was to serve 200 medium rare steaks at the same time.
Did we do that? Nope.
- Yeah, it was a little loose,
and it kinda broke down a little bit.
It's not the best gratin I've ever made,
but my hopes are that it's gonna be something
that highlights the beef,
because the cooking technique isn't gonna be there.
Because of that, I could be at the judges' table.
- Bev, I really honestly think you could've done more.
I'm not really sure what else you did.
- That totally was uncalled for to call me out like that.
- I thought I might be on your list
because I made a reservation.
- Oh, and then you didn't show up?
Well, I cancelled that day.
- The very fact that I'm cooking with Edward Lee
is a huge honor,
because he was my idol for a long time.
I peeked into your restaurant and then went like--
and you turned around and I went--
I know that there's a lot of great chefs,
but I do particularly pay attention,
because I am Korean-American,
to the Korean-Americans out there.
My husband was like, "You should go say hi to him."
I was like, "Well, I look like I'm stalking him."
- After this is all over, you come down to Louisville.
We'll hang out. Bring your husband.
It'll be a good time.
- So can we talk about it? What happened with those steaks?
That's what they're gonna nail us for.
- If you wanna get down to it, I'm respon--
I was responsible for the steak.
But I was personally maxed out today.
I only got an hour of sleep last night.
- Did everybody pull their weight in there?
I don't know.
I mean, Bev, I honestly think you could've done more.
You spent a lot of time working on shrimp.
Besides that, I'm not really sure what else you did.
- We decided to go with 400 shrimp.
I'm sorry, but to peel and de-vein all of that
and make it perfect-- - I'm just saying.
It's gonna come down to it. - It's all gonna come out.
- That totally was uncalled for to call me out like that.
How does that have anything to do
with that mishap of the third course?
- My ass and Lindsay's ass is on the line today.
'Cause we were the ones that were responsible
for execution of this banquet today.
If I go home today,
that's gonna piss me off that other people are here
still in this competition that worked on shrimp all day.
- We'd like to see... Nyesha...
Heather, and Chris Jones.
Thank you.
Chris, Nyesha,
Heather...
The three of you
did the best in this challenge.
Congratulations.
- Wow, okay.
- One of you will win this challenge
and take home a new 2011 Toyota Venza.
- Wow.
- Chris, your steak was cooked perfectly.
- Thank you.
- It worked really well,
and that was the shining part of that dish.
It was really clean,
the meat was still beautifully marbled,
and really the flavor really came through really well.
- Thank you.
- Heather.
- I love dessert.
And I don't like overly sweet desserts.
So it was right in my wheelhouse.
Well done. Really well done. - Thank you.
- The cake--light as a feather.
Very moist. Properly cooked.
Perfect. - Thank you.
- Nyesha...
- Compound butter's been around for such a long time.
And they've kind of gone out of style.
But it was clear when someone puts time and thought and effort
into a compound butter,
it could be really great and it really made the dish...
Um, save the dish, I would say.
Thank you.
- It had really bright flavors.
And just added such nuance and integrity
to a steak that otherwise was a little confused on the plate.
- Dean, please announce the winner.
- This was tough.
The winner of this challenge made us the favorite element
of this dinner.
And that person is...
Heather.
- It feels good to finally win something.
I haven't been on the bottom,
but riding in the middle doesn't feel so good.
Yay, a new car!
Thank you so much! Wow.
Winning a car is huge.
I haven't won anything in my life.
- Unfortunately now, I'm gonna need you to send back
some of your colleagues.
Good job, guys. - Thanks.
Anybody wanna ride in my new car?
So the judges would like to see Ty, Whitney, and Ed.
Sorry, guys. - Okay, see you guys later.
- Good luck.
- Hugh Acheson is my mentor,
and seeing him on the judges' panel
is comforting 'cause I know he's been in my position before.
- Chefs, tonight's menu was underwhelming.
We felt that the three components you served
really missed the mark.
- The elements that each of you prepared,
some of them were undercooked.
Some were inconsistent, and some were just kinda boring.
With 13 chefs at your level, I really expected more.
- Let's start with you, Ty.
- Why do you think you're here?
- Because the steaks were overcooked when they went out.
- Some of them.
Just at our table. Two of them were overcooked,
Hugh's was kind of on the rare side,
mine was medium rare.
- And I get the medium well steak.
- I'm sorry about that, chef.
- If I was in a restaurant,
you'd be refunding that money.
- You have 13 people back there.
You had the time to grill each one to medium rare
off the grill and out.
I think that the method could have worked
if we would have fired at the correct time.
But still, it's my dish, it's my responsibility.
And the buck stops with me.
- Whitney. - Yes.
- Why the decision, when it's 104 degrees outside,
to gratin a potato and give us all that cream?
- I guess I just really wanted
something that was gonna highlight the steak,
and I thought something traditional like that
was gonna be a really good steak plate.
- I tasted some of Tom's gratin,
and it was raw.
- That's awful.
I'm really sorry that you got that from me in any way.
It's not what I like you to know from me at all.
- Even cutting it, you had had to felt the raw potato.
I'm a little baffled.
- Ed.
- You made the salad with, you know,
green and white asparagus, grilled off--fine.
Cherry tomatoes raw, mixed together,
that dish really said so much about this menu.
It was like okay, we'll play it safe,
we'll grill some stuff, put it together,
put a salad on top--done.
- That dish should've taken off like a rocket.
Because the meat-- unbelievable flavor.
But everything else fell apart on the dish.
- I think to our detriment,
we didn't wanna step on each other's toes a little bit,
so we were all kinda dancing around--
- Somebody's gotta rise up, though.
Somebody's gotta say,
"I've got a vision for this plate
that's gonna be awesome."
Somebody's gotta be that person in this competition.
- Unfortunately, one of you will be going home tonight.
Please join your fellow chefs while we make our decision.
- Hi, guys.
- What'd they say?
- I worked at a goddamn steakhouse in New York City
for two years.
I should've been all over it. Hot or not.
Hospital or not. No sleep or not.
It doesn't matter.
- I may have made a stupid mistake.
I had a undercooked potato.
That's an idiotic mistake.
- Whitney, I don't get.
You have three hours to cook yesterday,
three hours to cook today.
Make that kinda potato?
If one of my cooks takes six hours to make that,
they wouldn't last very long.
- We're talking about a dish
that every chef should have done correctly.
I mean, this is 101.
- I just wanted her to bring more.
I mean, this is an assertive young chef
who can run a kitchen,
shouldn't be afraid to make that plate sing.
- The main challenge was the cooked steaks medium rare.
And Ty definitely failed that.
If he was putting them on the grill,
cooking to medium rare, and running to the kitchen
every single one of them would have been medium rare.
And he didn't do that.
I got to beat up Ed a little bit too.
I mean, just making his little salad that goes on top of a--
- Yeah.
- It's like what are we doing here?
You can't ever underestimate your clientele.
I think if you do, you're making a huge mistake.
- It was just an okay dish done in a mediocre style.
And that was just kind of the theme of the night.
- I think we know who's going home tonight.
- Mm-hmm.
- All right, let's get them out here.
- Tonight's challenge was a difficult one.
Putting food out for 200 people.
That doesn't mean that it needs to be boring.
Whitney, doing a potato gratin--
pretty simple, straightforward dish.
But you gave us raw potatoes.
You're playing it safe, and you still mess up.
Doesn't look good.
Ed, that dish could've been something special.
The garnish was just really run of the mill ordinary.
I mean, this is not Top Chef material.
Ty, you took a lot of responsibility on yourself,
but then you didn't carry through.
We chose 16 chefs,
and quite frankly,
I'm starting to think maybe I chose the wrong chefs.
Usually it's really difficult to send someone home,
but tonight you really made it easy.
- Whitney...Please pack your knives and go.
- Okay, thank you. It was a great opportunity.
It was really hard being eliminated by Hugh Acheson.
I feel disappointed that I didn't make it further
in this competition.
- If you can't put together a great gratin in six hours,
you have no business being here.
- Au revoir.
- Wow.
- It's okay.
To be in this competition meant a lot to me.
The best part is just meeting so many amazing chefs.
- We love you. - I love you too.
I think experience is more just a part of the dreams
and goals I've set for myself.
Bye, you guys! I love you.
I really fought and did my best to be here.
So I'm proud of what I've done.
- Tonight, on last chance kitchen,
after a less than glamorous gratin...
- Yeah, boys.
- Can Whitney bounce back with an American classic?
A very confident Chuy stands in her way.
- They're both good, but--
- To watch Last Chance Kitchen, go to bravotv.com now.
Next on Top Chef...
- Coming over, move! - Doesn't have slaw?
- Ahh.
- Double elimination,
and we all have to judge the three dishes
that are gonna be on the bottom.
- Are you happy with that meat?
- Do we have a choice? - Oh, my God!
- Bev, don't put that stuff on the edge, okay?
I would've rather gotten paired with anybody else
besides Bev.
- Agh! I am really pissed at myself.
I should've nailed this.
- Ridiculous.
- That looks beautiful. - It's not that exciting.
- It's a little rare.
- Okay, no, no-- - you guys don't speak up.
- Stop, stop. - No, you stop.
It's not like cooking normally.
This is the hardest thing I've ever done.
== sync by elderman ==