- Previously on Top Chef...
Had you been able to get all your ingredients
on the plate,
you would've won this by a mile.
- I would like to have immunity.
Ugh.
- The quail egg symbolizes the baby
that was inside her when she got slaughtered.
- You went there.
- I'm gonna have maggots.
- They want it to be wicked nasty.
- Bring me more heart.
- Man, these guys are gnarly.
- You're scared, and that's good.
- It's basically a horror movie.
- Do I get the head of the chef
on a silver platter?
We were really impressed by all of your dishes.
Our winner tonight is Paul.
- Thank you.
- Beverly, please pack your knives and go.
Six 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 9x12 ♪ Block Party Original Air Date on January 25, 2012
== sync by elderman ==
- The thing about Bev is that her plates
came out perfectly balanced.
I'm going to miss Bev.
But some of the other chefs probably won't miss her so much.
- I'm Beverly. "Here's your halibut."
- Lindsay's.
- He's making fun of me, 'cause I rarely lose my ,
but I sure did that night.
I am probably one of the most diplomatic people.
But don't screw with my food
when you're representing me, while I'm representing you.
- I just wanted to take a moment
to thank you so much.
That meal was spectacular.
I am such a nerdy fan,
but I just want to say thank you so much
for listening to someone who just really loves food.
I don't know anything except that I was blown away
by what you guys did.
And good luck in the competition.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Thank you so much. - Break a leg.
- Thanks. - All right, thank you.
- Bye. Thanks for having me.
- I love her. - Wow.
- I was a fan. Bigger fan now.
- Bigger fan.
- Final seis.
- Top six. - Cheers.
- Same here.
- Another day in the life.
I was in the bottom of the wicked challenge.
So I really need to step up,
because one mistake can send you home.
Come on, girls.
- Mm-hmm.
- We walk into the kitchen,
and there's Padma, Emeril, and Cat Cora,
known for her Southern Greek food.
I'm so excited.
She's one of the fiercest chefs around.
- Good morning, chefs.
- Hi, good morning. - Good morning.
- Meet Cat Cora, co-host of Bravo's new
competition show,
Around the World in 80 Plates.
- Morning. - Chef.
- And of course, the great Emeril Legasse.
- Morning, chefs.
- Morning.
- Let's divide into three teams of two.
Grayson with Chris.
Paul, you and Ed.
And Lindsay and Sarah, you're the last team.
Here on Top Chef,
we really value speed.
So this challenge will test your technical precision
against the clock.
How are we feeling about these teams?
- Fine. - Great.
- I'm about to puke.
Whenever Ed and I get teamed up,
I feel like I'm bad luck.
In the chili cook-off, we worked together.
We thought we were gonna win.
Then the steak dinner, Ed goes to the bottom.
I just haven't gotten that-- that groove with Ed.
- We'd like you to prepare a dish
highlighting the ingredients in front of you.
Each team has 40 minutes
to peel, de-vein, and butterfly two pounds of shrimp...
Shuck a crate of corn,
and make a pound of perfect fettuccine.
Once you're done, whatever time you have left
is all you'll get to cook your dish.
We'll check your work.
If we approve, you can begin cooking.
Immunity is off the table from here on out.
But the winning team will receive
10,000 smackeroos, furnished by Healthy Choice.
- Please take your stations
and put on your aprons.
Your time starts now.
♪ ♪
- Sarah, about how long do you think that'll take?
- The dough's gonna come together in just a minute.
The difficulty in making a pound of pasta
is that you need to let your pasta rest
before you start rolling it out, and I don't know
if we're gonna have enough time to do that.
- Oh, Sarah's immediately gone for the pasta.
- Mm-hmm. Get your pasta drying.
- Ed's doing it too.
- Go, Jonesy, go, Jonesy, go.
Chris and I don't really talk about it.
I immediately go to the pasta.
He immediately goes to the corn.
30 minutes.
While my pasta is resting,
I'm going to start on the shrimp.
The fastest method is to de-shell it,
then de-vein everything,
and then butterfly everything.
- They're not so clean, huh? - No.
I heard once that it's the males that are real dirty.
- Oh, really. - Yeah.
- Always. - Wow.
- Grayson talks a lot.
And it slows you down.
- Maybe he just made it up, but I don't know.
- Can I get a check on shrimp, please?
- Butterflying looks good. - Yep.
Lindsay, yep. Shrimp is good.
- Thank you.
- How are we looking on pasta, Ed?
- Pasta? I'm ready to roll fettuccine right now.
- Go, baby. Go, go, go.
Paul's got you.
Go, go, go.
Ready?
- Stop saying that.
I'm going as fast as I can.
Grayson keeps riding me.
I believe that fast is slow and slow is smooth.
I don't want to have to redo the whole thing
for one hair.
- Uh, corn check, please.
- Go faster, Chris.
- I'd go back and check your corn, chef.
- Got it.
- Here you got a lot of corn left on these.
Go in and just do a little cleanup on 'em.
- Thank you, chef.
I'm like, "ah,."
The longer that we take
to make our mise en place,
the shorter we have to cook.
- Done on corn. Can I get a judge check, please?
- Yep, Chris, good job on your corn.
You can move on. - Thank you.
- Check on pasta, please.
- Looks pretty good.
- Sarah, your pasta is good. You can move on.
- Thank you.
- Make sure you get 'em all off.
- I think she didn't add enough moisture,
and then she added too much flour.
- Pasta check, please. - All right.
All right, you're good. - All right.
- Looks good. You can move on.
Corn check..
- Much better.
All right, you're good. Move on.
- All right. Check corn, please.
- Aw, man.
- You're good to cook, ladies. - All right, Linds.
- Damn, they're already done?
- Pork, yes or no? No?
- Pork?
We finish our mise en place, and it looks like
we're way ahead of the other teams right now.
I think we're looking really good.
Got corn everywhere.
- Judges, shrimp check, please.
- Good by me.
- Thank you, chefs. - You can go on.
- Thank you, chefs.
- Shrimp check, please.
- Yeah, they're clean.
- You can move on. - Start your cooking.
- Ten minutes. - Holy.
Ten minutes.
- Go, go, go. Go, fast.
Okay, judges, check?
Ready.
- Okay.
Yep, looks good.
- Okay, let's go, Jones.
We're the last one to finish our mise en place.
I'm not sure at this point
we'll be able to get everything done.
Doesn't get hot.
- I'm leaving, okay? - Yep. I'll be there in, like--
I'll be there in ten seconds.
- Five minutes left.
- Grayson, we don't have time. Can I fry the bacon?
You cool with that? - Yeah.
- Sarah and Lindsay are way ahead.
The rest of us need to get our asses in gear.
Give me 40 seconds on pasta.
- We need butter. Butter!
- What about cilantro and shrimp?
You got that going?
- What's up?
- Cilantro, shrimp.
- One minute left.
- That's delicious.
That's delicious.
- Salt? - Okay--no, no, salt.
- We're good? - Mm-hmm.
- Ready? 45 seconds.
- Parm, parm, parm, parm.
- Parm? Where's the parm? - I got parm right there.
- Oh, burn your hands, chef.
Burn your hands.
Eight seconds.
- Three, two, one.
Hands up..
- Utensils down.
- This is great. I would eat it every day
and be happy.
- I think we're salty, though.
- Ugh.
- We have no shrimp.
- All your plans just.
- It sucks.
I had time to put the shrimp on the plate,
but we were, like, putting little herbs
and finishing off the pasta bowl instead.
I said it before--
whenever Ed and I are in a team, I'm bad luck for him.
- Tell us about your dish, Grayson.
- It's fettuccine with toasted corn,
oil-poached shrimp, and rosemary.
- How did you cook the bacon?
- It's a shortcut I don't like to admit,
but I dropped it in the deep fryer.
- There's no way you were going to render it.
- No, of course not,
so this was the fastest way to crisp it and do it.
- Thank you.
- Really, really nice job. - You.
- I beat Paul. - I know.
- That's why I took the time.
- Hello, ladies. - Hello.
- This is fettuccine with a corn milk,
shrimp, a little chili, tarragon, and parsley.
- Definitely taste the tarragon. - Yeah.
Thank you so much.
- Hi, gentlemen. - Hi.
- How was the challenge?
- I forgot the shrimp. I'm sorry.
- What? - Yeah.
- Wow. - No.
- Really?
- I was, uh-- I just forgot it.
It was just completely on me.
I had the shrimp over there with my mise,
and I was gonna sautee it last minute,
and I forgot to sautee it.
- That's a bummer.
- That's disqualification.
- Mother.
Oh, yeah. Burn, burn.
- That means you can't win.
You didn't get one of the elements in.
- I feel like I always disappoint Ed
when we're on a team, so... - No, no.
- Too bad, because the flavor's really nice.
Thank you. - Thank you.
Just was in the bowl.
- Don't worry about it. - It was in the bowl.
- Are you done? - Let's go, let's go.
I am truckin'. I'm screamin'.
Oh, come on!
- So how do you think our chefs did overall?
Emeril?
- Yeah, it was really a lot of fun to watch.
I'm glad I was on this side and not on that side.
- Paul, you and Ed can't win
because you didn't get an important element
on the plate.
- Sorry, Ed. - It's all right.
- Let's talk about Sarah and Lindsay's dish.
Cat?
- The idea of the corn milk was fantastic.
Tarragon--I wouldn't have used that herb
because I think it's very overpowering.
But it was a tasty dish,
and your pasta was very, very beautiful.
- Okay, green team. - Well, Grayson and Chris,
I think you had about maybe a second and a half,
if that, down to the wire.
But you pulled it off.
I loved how you used the chili with the shrimp.
- Thank you, chef.
- Grayson, I was so worried
about you and your pasta.
The bacon--I would've done something differently.
You have a beautiful wood oven.
Could've had some rendering.
You could've had a little bit of flavor in there.
- So, red team, green team,
one of you will win $10,000.
Emeril and Cat,
please announce the winner of this quickfire.
- Well, the winning team for us
was the team that executed the dish exceptionally,
and that team is...
- The green team.
Yes!
- Yes. Whew.
- Congratulations.
- Got a win. You got a win.
- This is the best feeling I've had in the competition.
I get to take home $5,000 to my family.
It may not be a lot of money to a lot of people,
but $5,000 really puts us ahead.
And we needed that.
Thank you, Healthy Choice.
- I think our pasta was better.
Unfortunately, Cat Cora doesn't like tarragon.
- Chefs, for your elimination challenge,
you'll be cooking against your teammate.
So you can remove your aprons, because your partner
is now your opponent.
Healthy Choice,
in partnership with its initiative
"Child hunger ends here,"
is sponsoring a community food drive
to support the San Antonio Food Bank.
- When my family first immigrated to America,
we were poor as dirt.
We needed a helping hand back then,
so it's very important
that people who need the help get it.
- Tomorrow you'll be serving 200 people
at a block party at the Pearl Brewery.
You and your opponent will be making a version
of the same dish.
The guests at the block party will be choosing
their favorite from each pair.
Whoever has the least amount of votes
will face elimination.
- My heart sinks,
'cause the last thing I want to do
is compete against Lindsay.
- You have to decide right now
what dish and side dish you'll be making tomorrow.
- That is not a lot of time.
- Jesus Christ, two hours? - What the?
- 200 people. - Ass.
- I don't think we wanna do burgers.
I don't think we wanna do hot dogs.
- You wanna do Korean barbecue?
- You wanna--
- I'm down.
- If you're already gonna go head to head,
why not go against the best?
So I wanna go up against Paul.
- Asian showdown.
- Meatballs? - I think meatballs.
- I'm thinking something cold and refreshing.
- How about chicken-- chicken salad?
- Chicken salad sandwich is not my favorite sandwich.
And if I was having a block party,
it probably wouldn't be the first stand I hit.
But I don't have any better ideas.
- Good?
- I think so. - All right.
- Tell us what you've decided to cook.
Let's start with Grayson and Chris.
- Chicken salad sandwich
and watermelon salad.
- Ed and Paul.
- Asian beef barbecue with pickled veg.
- Sarah and Lindsay. - We're gonna do meatballs.
And then we're gonna do a vegetable salad
as our side dish.
- Those all sound great,
but I'd say a little on the heavy side.
- Uh-oh.
- Healthy Choice and its Cafe Steamers line
prides itself in creating healthy meals
that are also low in fat content.
So chefs, you need to give us healthier versions
of your chosen dishes.
- Oh, God, then why did we pick a meatball?
- Healthy dishes can still be delicious and gourmet.
I cook healthy for my four kids,
so I know it can be done.
- All Asian food is healthy,
so our dish is gonna be healthier
than meatballs or chicken salad.
- And chefs, the winner of this challenge
receives $15,000,
furnished by Healthy Choice.
We'll see you tomorrow at the block party.
- This could be good.
- Hey, I need some short ribs.
- Do you guys have big watermelons?
- I only saw that you had two packages of ground lamb.
Do you have more than that?
My meatball is going to be
in a mediterranean style.
But usually I would do this dish with pork.
- Can you make it ten? - Ten.
- Beep beep. Sorry.
- Can you grind me 25 pounds? - 25?
- Of turkey meat? - Yes, ma'am.
- All right, thank you.
I notice that Lindsay is buying ground veal
and ground lamb.
But I'm not sure if it's as healthy as turkey,
so Lindsay, you might be in a little trouble.
- 13 minutes.
- Yeah, if you could follow me, I'd love you forever.
Wait one second, okay?
- You found short ribs? - I got turkey.
Ahhhh.
- Pretty sneaky.
- Yeah.
- I'm definitely nervous, because I'm sure
that Paul's gonna pull something out of his back pocket.
Turkey. That's a good idea, though.
- I need way more than this.
How fast can you do it?
I got, like, five minutes.
Run, run.
- You could see me coming a mile away, right?
- You guys have an E.T.A. on the chicken?
- Uh, second basket's fine.
- Tell 'em to hurry!
Light the fire!
- All right, now.
- You're the. - You are the.
- It's been a while.
- Thanks.
- It's also the healthiest. The lean part.
Grayson has dark meat within her basket, mayonnaise,
everything that I would like to use
in a chicken salad sandwich but don't
because I'm trying to go healthy.
- You work on your prep list last night when you were up?
- I just looked at it.
- What'd you do? Just pace around here?
- Yeah. Did pushups.
- Paul's nervous, as usual.
He gets nervous at every challenge.
He didn't sleep very well.
He was pacing up and down all night.
So that woke me up.
So now we're both-- haven't slept much.
- Just do better than the chicken salad,
and you're safe.
- Meatball showdown.
Throwdown.
Meatballs with Lindsay and Sarah.
- Okay, let's go. - Let's go.
- Behind.
- We're at the Culinary Institute of America.
Where's our salt? Have you seen it?
- No.
- Prepping for 200 people in 2 1/2 hours
is an insane challenge.
Awesome.
- The go-to ingredient with healthy food is seasoning.
I'm--I'm making my mayonnaise right now.
It's tofu, so it's gonna be completely, you know,
almost fat-free.
A Mayo-less chicken salad sandwich
stems from a tofu emulsion.
And I've actually tricked people thinking that it is Mayo.
I really need to hit a home run.
Grayson's a great competitor,
but hopefully my idea will stand out as the best dish.
- 2 1/2 hours to-- to do all of this
is a little intense.
- Lindsay is very stressed right now.
- Just wash it when you're done,
and then I'll take it with me.
- She is a ball-buster,
and she will tell you how it is.
- Can you rinse it fast for me?
- Paul, can I use the mixer?
- Yeah.
- Paul and I are making a healthier version
of Korean kalbi with Asian pickled vegetables.
Let's try and put a little twist on it.
Do it kind of like an open-faced sandwich.
Instead of ketchup, I'm making a kimchi
and chipotle pepper puree.
Not a lot of sugar.
The meat is grilled, versus fried,
so this is gonna be nice and healthy.
Hey, did someone snag all the squeeze bottles?
And if you have extra-- - I've got a few.
I got you, Ed. I got you.
- My dish is gonna be, uh,
turkey kalbi ssam.
Ssam is a Korean lettuce wrap that's gonna be served
with peach kimchi.
I think Ed's gonna be pretty tough to beat.
He's using short rib, which is fattier
and delicious, and he's grilling steam buns.
- I have no idea what a block party is.
- I've never been to a block party.
- I think I might have went to one
when I was a little girl.
That's been a long time.
- All right, let's all freak out now.
- I'm sweating. I kind of want to get everything built
before I leave here.
- It stresses me out when I see Chris
making all of his sandwiches.
I still have to mix my chicken,
and I'm running out of time.
Will you help me? Are you done?
- Let's go. Let's go.
Helping out Grayson is very hectic.
- This is ed up. - They're all melted.
- I am truckin'. I'm screamin'.
- Oh, my God. - Oh, come on!
Sorry.
- What's wrong?
- I'm trying to get help with the 95 bees
that are back here.
I really swell up when I get bit by these things.
Go over there. Ag
- Whoa. Sunny.
- We have 45 minutes to get ready for a block party.
I'm ready to set up.
So, uh--get the off my!
Bees.
- They're all over my too.
- Not only do we have to do a dish for 200 people,
but we have to battle head to head
against our teammate cooking the same dish.
Grayson is actually gonna do everything to order.
I think, wow, that's risky.
- Uh, it's tight. It's tight.
- Ed seems like he's gonna be in the weeds today.
He's making bread for 200 people from scratch.
- What are you gonna do?
- I'm always worried when it looks like I'm ahead.
That's when I think I mess up.
- No time for nerves.
- Holy cow.
Damn, that comes fast.
- Here we go.
Hey, guys. How are you?
Thank you very much.
The diners are donating food to the San Antonio Food Bank.
It's important to give back to the community,
so this is one of the more important challenges
we've had so far.
- Hello. - We are the meatball girls.
We're the meatball girls.
- The goal is-- as much as I love her--
is for me to win.
- Okay, got it. - All right?
- Enjoy. - Thank you.
- White peach kimchi. It's very fresh, low sodium.
If you want hot, there's a hot sauce right there.
- So what's the less healthy version of what you made?
- It's over there. - Oh, it is? Okay.
- It's an open-face sandwich, so take one bun,
and just come down the line.
The way I set up my station,
it's a build-your-own.
No, just one for the bottom,
so it's an open face. - Gotcha.
- Yeah.
It's okay. It's all right.
Now I have to watch them
because I didn't make too many extras.
Take my bread. Hey--okay.
Go ahead. I gotta save some of the bread.
I kind of feel like I'm an ass,
but the winner's gonna get $15,000.
He took, like, five pieces of bread.
- Sorry, guys.
It's worth the wait.
- It's a little bit of a guilt-free dessert,
and it matches your strawberry dress.
- It is gonna be good. - Worth the wait, right?
- Yes, that's what I keep telling people.
There's about 20 people in my line.
I am in the weeds.
Sorry about the wait, guys.
- Need to get you a helper, huh?
- Yeah, I wish I had one.
- Busy. - Yeah.
- Yeah, you're doing everything.
- I know.
Doing my chicken salad sandwiches to order.
It's hard.
But it is crazy hot,
and I don't want the bread to get dry.
Sorry, guys. - No problem.
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
Enjoy.
- If I had about four more hands--
- Yeah.
- My line of people doesn't seem to be getting
any shorter.
And you have your salad? - Perfect.
- I'm a little nervous,
because I haven't seen anyone put anything
in the ballot box yet.
But I'm trying to stay focused
and serve them a beautiful plate of food.
- The sauce looks great.
- Thank you. Guess you wouldn't normally think about that
with a meatball, right?
- Sounds good.
- Holy , there's 20--
there's already 30 of them on there.
- I can hear Chris Jones kind of freaking out.
What's wrong?
- I'm trying to get help with the 95 bees
that are back here.
I don't like bees.
I really swell up when I get bit
by these things.
Go over there.
Agh.
I'm working through this knowing that, you know,
if they sting me a couple times,
I could be in trouble.
I'm so sorry, folks.
- It's not your fault.
- Hi, Ryan. - How are ya?
- I'm good. - How are you?
Well, this is helping out
the San Antonio food bank and helping the city
of San Antonio and above and beyond.
One out of every four kids in America do not know
where their next meal's coming.
So this is us starting at home
and trying to figure that out,
helping in one city at a time.
- You're doing great work. Thank you all.
- Thanks.
- We're gonna go taste some food.
- See you guys. - Thank you.
- Take care. - Thanks for what you're doing.
- Thanks.
- We're big fans, Paul. We're from Austin.
- Oh, cool. - Thank you.
- Good to see you. - Good to see you guys.
Enjoy.
- Hi, Paul. - How's it going?
- Paul, I would like to introduce you
to Dana Cowin of Food & Wine magazine.
- Hi. - Hello.
I'm really excited Dana Cowin's a judge,
but I'm very intimidated having to make her food today.
What she says can make or break careers.
- Tell us what you've made.
- A healthier version of kalbi.
Kalbi is traditionally made with short rib,
so I decided to make it with turkey.
Chose to put some eggplant in there,
so you get a little bit of meaty texture.
And I decided to serve that with a fresh white peach kimchi.
I used no sugar, low-sodium soy sauce.
I used agave syrup. Everything super, super healthy.
- Thank you. - Thank you, Paul.
- Thank you.
- Hi. - Hi, Ed. How are you?
- I'm doing a little bit more of a traditional kalbi,
made with beef short ribs.
I made a bao, or steamed bun dough,
a kimchi chipotle puree,
little bit of radish sprouts on top.
And then on the side,
I've got some pickled Asian veg.
Cucumber, carrots, fennel, and daikon radish.
- Thanks, Ed. - Thanks.
- Thank you, Ed. - Thank you.
- Stay cool. - Enjoy.
- I love what Paul did.
He took in to what healthy cooking is about.
You don't have to take out the flavor at the same time.
- And then of the kalbi, which one did you prefer?
- The lettuce. - The lettuce wrap?
- That was good.
- I actually preferred the other one.
- There's a method to this madness.
- Let's start with Paul.
- As simple as it is,
using ground turkey, it's absolutely brilliant.
- The eggplant has that little fatty mouth feel.
- He did all the right things.
He added acids and all the things
that you do to build flavor versus fat.
- Ed's dish--I was just expecting so much more.
My piece of beef was a little chewy.
- There's too much bun to meat. There's not enough there.
- I do give him credit for making his own bread.
And he tried to make it healthier.
- Mine was hard and dry.
- Give me a high five.
- Hi, Grayson.
- Hi.
I have a chicken salad sandwich
on whole wheat buns with arugula
and some pickled onion.
There's very little Mayo in here,
and it's olive oil Mayo.
Also, I have a watermelon salad
with feta cheese, watercress,
and a little bit of toasted pumpkin seeds.
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
Enjoy.
- Grayson's chicken salad sandwich
was one of my favorites here.
- That was--yeah.
I would vote that as the best meal here.
- Thank you. - Thank you so very much.
Enjoy, enjoy. - We will.
- Hi, how y'all doing?
- Hi, Chris.
- This is a chicken salad sandwich,
but I'm not using any Mayo in it.
I'm doing a tofu emulsification,
so you're losing all the calories.
You're losing all the cholesterol.
It's hot. It's Texas.
So I wanted to do something just a little bit different.
So we have a watermelon salad with a little bit
of a pineapple ice on top,
just like a smoothie, just to kind of cool you off.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you, Chris.
- So did you choose to do the chicken salad,
the healthy chicken salad?
- Yeah, we did.
- I'm a little taken back by choosing chicken salad
for a block party.
With that said,
I like the fact that Grayson did hers to order.
- As far as the watermelon,
it needed a squirt of lime.
It needed maybe some fresh mint,
something to freshen it a little bit.
I don't know.
- Somehow, in resolving the healthy aspect,
Grayson's chicken didn't have a whole lot of flavor.
- I loved Grayson's chicken salad.
- Me too.
- I think Chris, you know, had this great idea
of using tofu to bind the chicken salad.
I also like the fact that there's curry in there,
so it's a little different.
The bread is starting to dry out.
I wish he'd built the sandwich to order.
- I thought Chris's watermelon salad
was more flavorful.
- Just put that in a blender again with a little vodka.
- But you take your first bite.
You get a piece of watermelon and two ice cubes.
- Kinda call this dish "dry ice".
- Looks good.
- Yeah, they all thought I was crazy,
but I'm like, "I am crazy. That's why I'm here."
- I think Chris is a little more refreshing,
you know, on a hot day.
- Hi, Sarah. - Hello.
I made the meatballs with whole wheat bread
and turkey, and then I braised them down
with calabrian style tomato sauce.
I have a summer vegetable salad.
I have shaved fennel, shaved baby squash,
uh, squash blossoms, arugula.
- Can't wait to try this. It looks good.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- I don't get a lot of spice out of this.
- Well, I'm not sweatin' 'cause of the spice.
It's just I'm in Texas, you know.
- Hi, how are y'all? - Lindsay.
- So I made kind of a Greek-style meatball.
I'm mostly using, like, lean veal,
um, and I also used some lamb.
But I bound it using Greek yogurt.
And then a little Greek salad
made with quinoa, fresh black-eyed peas,
and a grenache vinaigrette.
Thank you. - Thanks a lot.
- Thank you. Y'all enjoy.
- The yogurt complements the meatball very well.
- Very good.
- I think Sarah's meatball,
making a healthier version of it using whole grain,
it's not too dry.
I love the sauce.
- I think the salad is really great.
Ton of flavor.
I think it's a perfect little summer salad.
- Tom, I think you and I had a different salad.
- Really? Okay.
- I ended up with zucchini and arugula.
- Sorry about that.
- I put a lot of love into my sauce.
Enjoy.
- When I walked up to Lindsay's table,
it just looked heavy.
But when I tasted it,
I love that crunch of that pita bread,
that great yogurt on the bottom.
It's so refreshing. - Lindsay's meatball.
When you bite into it, it just has tons of flavor.
Again, I love the lemon in it.
I love the acid in it.
- It's really great, and it's original.
You know, which I think it's hard to be healthy,
tasty, and original. Wow.
- The two best dishes were these two.
- Really? Everyone said that our two dishes
were the best ones of the thing.
- Awesome.
- Yours is the best.
- Oh, I appreciate that.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
People are saying that they love the turkey meatballs.
But Lindsay's also doing well.
So I think it's gonna be a pretty close call.
- We might have to flip a coin.
Can I borrow one?
- No.
- This morning. - Oh, in the kitchen?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, even split. Thank you.
That's what I'm talking about.
- The two healthiest dishes we had today
were the two best dishes we ate.
- This is great that the chefs are gathered here today
to raise that awareness and to help a lot of needy people
here in San Antonio.
- It's gonna be interesting to see
what the guests prefer.
- Very nice to meet you. - I loved your watermelon.
- You loved the watermelon? - Yeah, I loved the watermelon.
- She had about ten of them. - Really?
- I think you got me.
- I don't know. - It's pretty slim.
I know that the votes between Paul and I are kind of close.
- Thank you so much.
- Yeah.
I'm worried that I'm gonna have to defend myself today.
- You have to win this against other dishes
that are potentially much more exciting
than a chicken salad sandwich.
- Like a meatball?
- Right, or--
- Right.
- Well, whoever goes with Paul's team,
we're all gonna be like, "damn."
- And he wore the freakin' green socks.
Damn it.
- The rest of the chefs think that I have lucky socks
because my socks have stripes
or they're, like, crazy colors.
- We might have a chance
because he didn't wear the caterpillar socks.
- All my socks are crazy.
That's the joke.
I have no white socks.
So all my socks are automatically lucky socks.
- The ones that you wore yesterday
looked pretty regular.
- That's, like, the only one.
I have, like, four pairs that are caterpillar socks.
- I know. That's what scares me.
- What a rough day.
- It's pretty cool that Dana Cowin was there, though.
- Hell, yeah, it was.
- The line was, like, shhhhhh.
- I know.
- I just kept saying,
"don't worry, it's worth the wait,"
like, down this huge line of people.
- Paul kept going, "this is a healthier version
of his dish."
- I didn't say that at all. I didn't say that.
- Hello.
We'd like to see Grayson...
Paul, and Lindsay.
Thank you.
- Good luck, guys.
- Chefs, the guests at the block party
voted the three of you...
The winners of your head-to-head battles.
So congratulations.
- Awesome.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Paul, what was your strategy for lowering the fat,
lowering the salt, lowering the sugar,
but still adding flavor?
- I used the eggplant as far as creating
more fat in the ssam.
- Well, Paul, I thought your dish was perfect,
how you used all those spices with turkey meat.
- Your hot sauce was great.
You should bottle that stuff.
But the peaches--
one of my favorite things I had all day.
So nice work.
- Thank you.
- Grayson, I was struck by the fact
that you didn't make the sandwiches ahead.
You made it to order.
- Thank you.
- The flavor was good in the sandwich.
But did you ever think about, if you're on the winning side
or the losing side,
"am I gonna win this with a chicken salad sandwich?"
- I think it's definitely possible.
Obviously not.
You think that chicken salad is really boring?
- Yeah.
And you have to win this against other dishes that are
potentially much more exciting than a chicken salad sandwich.
- Like a meatball?
- Right, or--
- Right.
- I mean, I always want to win this.
I don't know if I understand fully.
I thought I could make an elevated
chicken salad sandwich--
- Okay.
- To compete with meatballs and Asian food.
When you're serving 200 people
and making it fresh, it was hard.
- Okay.
- Lindsay. - I loved the lemon aspect.
I thought your meatball was seasoned perfect.
Delicious.
- I decided to use chickpea flour instead of all-purpose
to at least get away from the heaviness of it.
- The sumac and that yogurt, it was phenomenal.
- Thank you.
- Cat, please announce our winner.
- Well, the dish for us that was healthier version
of a classic,
executed perfectly,
and basically just rocked was...
Paul.
- Thank you so much.
- Congratulations.
- Congratulations, Paul.
You've won $15,000,
furnished by Healthy Choice.
- Thank you so much.
The win feels really good today,
and the $15,000 is a nice bonus.
But I have to be focused and keep my eye
on the end goal
if I'm gonna be the Top Chef.
- Please send back your colleagues.
- Thanks.
- Congratulations, Paul. - Thanks.
Thanks.
Thanks, man.
- Asian showdown, man. You did it.
- Thanks. - Oh, yeah.
We have to send you guys.
- Yeah, we kinda knew that. Let's go.
Come on.
- Come on, guys. - Good luck.
- Let's do this.
- Good luck, guys.
- I feel like I just got brutalized
because of chicken salad.
They wanted me to do more.
Duly noted.
I don't know. Whatever.
Maybe I should be in there.
- No. - Kinda feel like I should be.
- Chefs, all three of you lost
your head-to-head battles.
And as you know, one of you will be going home.
Ed, how do you think you made your version
of kalbi healthier?
- Traditionally, you would use rice with it,
and I thought that rice was empty calories.
So I thought of making a really light,
almost pita-like bread.
- Bread is empty calories too.
- I know. Maybe-- maybe it was just a stretch.
- Your bread, while that could've been commendable
that you made your own bread,
in this situation, the rest of your dish
needed to be perfect, and it wasn't.
- You made a decision to use short rib,
and so your way to get some of the fat out
was to trim the fat out of it.
The nice thing about short rib is the fat.
And so you're taking the really good part out of it.
I mean, to me, it was no surprise at all
that Paul's dish beat yours out.
- Chris?
- I feel like I really made a very healthy dish.
I used lean chicken.
I used no Mayo, where my counterpart did.
She also used dark meat. - I agree with you.
I thought your choices were healthier.
I thought it was a good idea
using tofu and making a mayonnaise.
But you build the sandwiches ahead of time.
They go outside.
They're not wrapped up.
The bread just starts drying out.
I appreciate that you're cooking for 200 people
and it's difficult.
But yet the person right next to you,
who's not here right now,
was building those sandwiches to order.
- I actually would've had more time
to do a lot of things if I would've made 'em out there.
But I just didn't do it.
- Here I was excited about your idea
about the frozen pineapple and buzzing it, and the watermelon.
I actually had a couple chunks of ice in it.
- I'm sorry.
That sucks. - Sarah.
- I felt like our meatballs
were really delicious on both sides.
She used lamb and veal. I used turkey.
So I felt like I was really trying to go
the extra healthy mile.
- The apricot I didn't taste a whole lot of.
It's mild against a tomato sauce.
But I thought you could've lost the cheese
and added more fat.
- Dana was sitting across from me.
When I started talking about
all these vegetables and stuff in the salad,
she was like, "I didn't get any of that."
- Oh, no.
- So a little inconsistency in the salad.
- We'll call you back in a bit.
- Thank you, chefs. - Thank you.
- Hi, guys. - Sarah won.
- What do you mean Sarah won?
- Oh, God, I'd hate to go home
because I didn't wrap my
And I didn't blend my smoothie.
What a bitch move that would be.
- Every time you, like, make like you're going home,
someone else goes home.
- Well. - Whenever you act--
- Oh!
- I felt for these chefs.
I mean, 200 people. - 200 people's tough.
- Alone out there. 105-degree heat.
- I don't think there was any lost causes,
as far as dishes go.
- Sarah just had the unfortunate luck
of going up against something that was just exceptional.
She made a very good meatball.
Lindsay made an excellent meatball.
Sitting and listening to Chris, I think he really
took the healthy side of this to heart.
It was a little bland, but I think that's because
he purposefully took the salt out.
- The chicken salad was dry.
The bread was dry.
He tried with the tofu emulsion.
It's pulling flavors out, not adding any flavors in there.
It just didn't do it for me.
- I don't understand it.
With him, it's time and time again,
idea, idea, idea.
Cannot execute.
- Ed's dish--I know that he didn't live up
to his capacity.
He had a tiny little crouton of dried bread,
a tiny piece of short rib
that was chewy and tough,
and pickles.
- And a B.S. story on top of that.
"I took away the rice,
so I used rice flour." Wow.
- He's gonna try to B.S. the four of us here.
- It's hard.
But, unfortunately, we do have to send someone home.
- Mm-hmm.
- Chefs, tonight's challenge was to take a classic dish
and make it healthier.
And our 200 guests voted your three dishes
to be the least favorite.
Sarah, as we mentioned earlier, you definitely made
a meatball healthier by using turkey.
It was quite good.
It just went up against a much tougher opponent today.
- Okay.
- Chris, I appreciate the fact that you really tried
to make this as healthy as possible.
Taking out fat, taking out salt is part of it.
Watching those sandwiches sit out there in the sun
wasn't the healthiest choice.
Ed, just cutting fat off a dish isn't really doing it.
You needed to be a little more serious about this challenge
and deliver food that wasn't only healthy,
but really flavorful, and I think you missed the mark
in both cases.
Coming down to the wire. There's only six chefs left.
It's all about details right now.
You guys gotta deliver.
Unfortunately, for one of you-- didn't deliver today.
♪ ♪
- Chris.
Please pack your knives and go.
- Thank you all very much for this opportunity.
I appreciate everything.
- Thanks. - Cheers.
I had no doubt that I was going home today.
The mistakes I made were stupid.
And I'm gonna miss being here.
- Leaving? - Yeah.
- You're awesome.
You guys are all so talented.
I'm very happy to share the same room with you all.
Really happy. - Sorry, Jones.
- Oh, you're great. You're good.
- Jonesy goes home tonight,
and it's completely my fault.
The chicken salad was my suggestion.
- Should've been me, Chris. - No.
This has been--
this has been one of the best journeys
of my life,
and this is something that I'm always gonna remember,
for the rest of my days.
I think that how I've changed here will affect me
at Moda, the restaurant where I work.
I really feel like I've learned a lot
from a lot of different chefs,
and, you know, we really can have
a great environment from what I've learned here.
I wish you all the best of luck.
Somebody take him down
so he doesn't win the most money ever on Top Chef.
But if you don't, I love you.
Good luck.
- Chris Jones. - Chris Jones!
- One of the things I'm happy about
is I stayed true to myself.
I was the crazy, creative chef,
and I did the food that I love.
Making it as far as I've made it,
I can be proud of myself.
- Tonight on Last Chance Kitchen...
Will Chris, the lovable nerd,
cook his way back into the competition?
Beating Beverly, the determined warrior,
will be his ultimate Kobayashi Maru.
- The winning chef is...
- To watch Last Chance Kitchen,
go to bravotv.com now.
Next on Top Chef...
- Oh, my God.
- I'm really excited to be here, and starving.
We're like a biker gang.
- Can you let her get in there first?
And then you can come in after her, 'cause--
- Oh, absolutely not. I mean, we're--
Time is ticking away.
And I have to walk out.
- Paul, this is my plan too.
- Grayson's following me around.
, that's not cool,
especially in an elimination challenge.
- This is burning my hand.
- Where's the salt for this?
Guilty!
== sync by elderman ==