- Previously on Top Chef...
- You're the. - You are the.
What's wrong?
- The 95 bees that are back here.
But we have to battle head-to-head
against our teammate, cooking the same dish.
Ahh.
- Take me bread, hey-- okay, go ahead.
I kind of feel like I'm an ass,
but the winner's going to get $15,000.
He took, like, five pieces.
- Put that in a blender again
with a little... Vodka.
- 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?
- You build the sandwiches ahead of time,
the bread just starts drying out.
- Chris...Please pack your knives and go.
And on Last Chance Kitchen,
one eliminated chef will get back into the competition.
- It's mom versus dad.
Let's see who's the better parent.
- Beverly came one step closer
by defeating Chris in the mystery box thriller.
Five 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 9x13 ♪ Bike, Borrow & Steal Original Air Date on February 1, 2012
== sync by elderman ==
- I woke up this morning feeling kind of crappy.
Chris Jones was eliminated.
We have become really close in a small amount of time.
So he's definitely missed in my book.
- It's all business from the waist up,
but then you got the-- you got the shorts on.
The remaining five of us are all
really good chefs,
and it's going to be very challenging
to make it to the final four.
- I'm getting dressed. - You're wearing that today.
- My family wasn't ecstatic about me becoming a chef
instead of something that would have
more financial reward as a career.
But they've always supported me,
and I want to be able to win this for them.
- Let's take care of some business today, shall we?
- We arrive into the Top Chef kitchen,
and there's Padma with about 80,000 pancakes.
I mean, I have never seen
this many pancakes on a table before.
- For your quickfire today,
you'll be making a favorite food of our guest judge,
pancakes.
- I'm thinking it's a kid
or a child star.
Maybe it's, like, Miley Cyrus or something.
- And here comes our judge.
- Oh!
- Oh, my God.
This is not what I was expecting at all.
It's definitely going to be entertaining.
- Nice to see you!
- Hi, Pee-Wee. - Hi, Padma.
- How was your ride?
Mwah. - Exhausting.
Worked up an appetite.
- Oh, good.
- I'm real excited to be here...and starving.
- For your quickfire, you have 20 minutes
to make pancakes.
Let your imaginations run wild.
- I love pancakes.
I mean, I'm not going to marry one,
but I love them anyway, so be creative,
dress 'em up, make them exciting,
happy, funny, and delicious, most of all.
- I remember my mom making pancakes as a kid,
and then I would watch Pee-Wee.
It was awesome, so I can't wait to rock this.
- The winner of this quickfire will win $5,000.
- $5,000 for a pancake?
Wow, that's a stack.
- Your 20 minutes... Starts now.
- Good luck!
♪ ♪
- This is fun.
- When I was a little girl,
I used to love confetti cake,
which had, like, sprinkles in it.
I haven't won any money yet,
and I know my fiance's gonna be disappointed.
I told him, hopefully, I would bring something back
for the wedding, so I have to win this.
- Ten minutes!
- Lindsay? - Yeah?
- Can I borrow a little sugar from you?
- Yeah, go.
I'm going back to being a kid.
My dad would make pancakes,
usually on a Saturday morning,
while I was watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
I'm doing a little bit of a lemon and ricotta pancake
to make it a little bit special for him.
- You know, my favorite part of a pancake
is those little pieces around the edges
that get kind of crispy and burnt,
so I'm doing a play off that.
- Ooh.
I'm making champagne dippin' dots.
We just got a liquid nitrogen tank
in our restaurant at Uchiko.
I've been playing with that for,
like, the last few months.
It's not a focus of what I do,
but if I find practical uses for it,
I'll use that kind of technique.
- I'm making ricotta buttermilk pancakes
with peach compote in the shape of Minnie Mouse.
I just hope it's whimsical enough for Pee-Wee.
- You have five minutes.
- Son of a bitch. Five minutes left,
and I am getting my pancakes in the Anolon pans.
I just hope I have enough time
to get them nice and crispy.
- The sprinkles that I put into the pancake batter
are starting to leech out and make the batter
look this, like, weird pink color.
I'm a little concerned about that.
♪ ♪
- Time's up!
- Hands up, utensils down.
Oh, my God.
- Hi, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too.
- This is Minnie Mouse.
It's a ricotta buttermilk pancake
with peach compote,
Blackberry, and some basil.
- That's all? - Yeah, that's all.
- Mmm.
- Pee-Wee's making all of these crazy faces.
It almost looks like he's having a stroke.
- Probably the best pancake I've ever had.
- Oh, okay. - Delicious.
- They're confetti pancakes
with a Blackberry sauce,
cocoa nibs, banana, and a little whipped cream.
- I've never made anything like this in my life.
- I'm getting a piece of confetti
stuck between one of my teeth.
- Oh, no.
- I have to say, best pancake I've ever had.
- Thank you, Pee-Wee.
- So I did berries, black pepper,
with a rolled pancake
and champagne dippin' dots.
- I have an open mind and an open mouth.
- This is my first time making pancakes.
- Probably can't tell, though, I'm hoping.
I have to say,
this is the best pancake I've ever had.
- Thank you.
- I made a ricotta pancake.
Inside is a little bit of whipped creme fraiche,
and on the bottom, you have kona almond and anise cookies.
- Ooh, I just hit the cookie.
I have to say, this is the best pancake I've ever had.
- Thank you.
- My favorite part of the pancake,
when I was a kid, was always
those, like, crazy little random bits
that would fall off the edges of the pancake,
so I kind of did a play off that,
and blueberries, raspberries, strawberries,
some bacon. There's bruleed marshmallow.
- I have to say, it's the best--
- Best pancake you've ever had? - Pancake I've ever had.
- Pee-Wee, how do you think
our chefs did on their pancake quickfire?
- I think they did fantastically, overall.
- Who's our winner today?
- Padma, I'm gonna have to say,
I'm gonna go with the person who made
the best pancake I've ever tasted.
This person changed it up a little bit,
did something that surprised me,
and I thought the whole thing was very original and creative.
Should I tell who it is?
Yeah, who is it?
- Ed.
- Thank you very much, Pee-Wee.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
Finally.
This is my first quickfire win.
Feels great.
Hopefully I'm going to start streaking late.
- You win $5,000 furnished by Healthy Choice.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- Chefs, I'm sure you all remember the Alamo.
It's where our journey began.
And now... You're going back.
- Pee-Wee's last trip to the Alamo
was in his classic movie,
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.
- My most prized possession ever,
my bicycle, was stolen.
I looked everywhere.
Finally, I consulted a psychic,
who told me it was in the basement of the Alamo.
Imagine my surprise
when I hitchhiked across the country
to get to the Alamo to find out
there's no basement in the Alamo!
- Well, Pee-Wee obviously has
terrible memories of the Alamo,
and we need to give him some nice, new memories.
And that's what you guys will be doing tomorrow.
Pee-Wee, I heard you have
a little surprise for our chefs.
- I do, Padma.
I'm giving each one of the chefs
a new bicycle.
I had them already delivered to your house.
- Tomorrow, your challenge is to make
an unforgettable family-style lunch
for Pee-Wee and the judges.
You'll have a map to the Alamo,
a bike, and 100 bucks.
It's up to you to find your food
and a restaurant to cook it in.
But you'll need to hurry,
because only one chef can cook
in a restaurant at one time.
- How do you create a shopping list
if you don't even know where you're going?
How do you figure out what you're going to cook
when you don't know what kind of kitchen
you're gonna be cooking in?
This is just a lot to think about.
- Chefs, you have ten minutes to talk to Pee-Wee
about his likes and dislikes.
Good luck, and see you at the Alamo.
Bye, Pee-Wee. - Bye, Padma.
- What do you love? What's your favorite?
- Oh, I like lots of different foods.
Like, I like chicken.
Sometimes, I'll have an egg salad sandwich.
I eat healthy as much as I can.
Spicy food. I like non-spicy food.
I like American food. I like ethnic food.
- Nut allergies?
- We'll find out tomorrow.
Ooh, my throat's starting to swell!
- I'm freaking out a little bit.
There's so many variables that could go wrong
in this challenge.
We could fall.
We could not find a restaurant to cook at.
- I wish you all good luck.
- It's gonna be rough for sure.
- Good luck!
- Bye. - Bye-bye.
- Bye. - Bye!
See you, chefs!
- Oh, my God.
- Take no prisoners.
- These bikes are weird.
- Oh, absolutely not. We have two hours.
I'm frustrated. I have to walk out.
- Does this work?
Already got a neck rash.
Today we have three hours
to ride a bike around town
and scavenge for food
and find a place to cook
a family-style lunch for Pee-Wee and the judges.
- Who the hell was that?
- I'm a little scared.
There's five chefs left,
and this is the last challenge
before we're down to four.
The end goal is in sight.
I want to make it to the finale.
- You guys ready to take on the big adventure?
Yeah.
- Let's go.
♪ ♪
- Yay! - Oh, cool.
- We walk outside,
and there's five beautiful,
red Schwinn bikes in the backyard.
Ooh, the panther.
- All right. - That's backwards.
- Is it? - Linds.
- I don't even know. - She's screwed.
- My brother does triathlons,
and he has two or three bikes,
so I definitely feel like
this is karma coming back at me
for giving him a hard time.
- Take no prisoners.
- Turn signal.
- Man, we're--we're like a biker gang.
We got some shopping to do.
We are doing great.
We're staying in formation.
As a group, we decide
we're going to start at the Farmers Market.
But other than that,
it's every man for themselves today.
- Oh, my God, we have, like, the old school brakes.
These bikes are weird.
- I'm pretty comfortable on a bike.
I ride my bike to work.
But two years ago, I was going pretty fast
and I hit a manhole.
My head smashed into the pavement.
And now, if I drink, the left side of my face,
it'll just get all red,
like I've been in a fight.
♪ ♪
- Sorry.
Do you guys have chickens?
- Yes, whole chickens. - Yeah. Oh, okay.
- Do you guys have a plastic bag
I can put this in, by chance?
- Okay, and then I have a few squash.
I had to be really choosy with what I bring
because I don't want to weigh myself down on the bike,
since I'm going to have to be carrying everything
to the Alamo safely.
I think I want to get some eggs and some chicken.
- The beef cheeks are $5. - $5 a pound.
- Oh, okay, do you have anything smaller than this?
- No. I could do a special for $8.
- Okay.
We have $100 to buy everything,
so I'm a little nervous about
how much money I'm spending right off the bat.
Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- Hopefully, if I find a kitchen to work in,
I can bargain with the owner
for some oil and salt and pepper and spices.
Thank you.
- Thank you so much.
- Hopefully they don't break.
- Okay, if it's not there, I'll be right back.
- All righty.
- I'm looking for shrimp,
'cause that was one of the things on Pee-Wee's list
that he loved, but there's no shrimp at the market.
Where did my map go? I already lost my map.
I'm thinking,
the restaurant I go to has gotta have some proteins.
So I'm just hoping I can find someplace
faster than the other chefs.
- Are you going there?
- No, no. - Me neither.
Paul and I are neck and neck with each other.
I am a completely competitive person.
At game night in the Schmitz house,
usually at least one of us breaks down and cries.
Sorry, Paul, this is my plan too.
- Grayson's following me around.
I got to the place first,
but I went to the wrong door.
And she gets her stuff,
and she starts to go for the right door.
That's not cool,
especially on a elimination challenge like this.
- Hi! - Hi, how are you?
- I'm Grayson. How are you?
- Doing okay. - Um, I'm in a competition...
- Uh-huh? - And it's a race against time.
And I have to get back to the Alamo.
May I prep some things in your kitchen?
I'll be very clean.
Walking into somebody's restaurant
and asking if you can cook in their kitchen
is very awkward.
- All right, I'll help.
- I know this is crazy, but thank you.
Thank God.
- All right, so I think I keep going straight.
I get a little lost,
so I had to kind of backtrack a little bit.
Time is running out.
I'm freaking out.
- Hello. - Hello, how's it going, chef?
- Good. What's your name?
- Uh, my name is Paul.
- Paul, Holden. Nice to meet you.
- So, I'm in a competition,
and I was wondering if I could use your kitchen
for a couple hours.
- Uh, sure, yeah. We can find a spot for you.
- Perfect.
It's a huge sense of relief.
I'm, like, "Yes, yes, I'm in."
Is that it out there, the Schwinn?
- Yeah.
- That looks like Pee-Wee Herman's older brother's bike.
- This chef is really cool, his staff is really cool.
And I see really quality ingredients.
Best decision ever.
- Do y'all work with any chicken stock,
vegetable stock, anything like that?
I find a kitchen to work in
at Madhatters Teahouse and Gifts.
So you don't have, like, one specific kind?
But I do want to try and find a few more ingredients.
I'm gonna come check you guys out in a few minutes,
all right?
- Edward. Nice to meet you.
- Oh, look at all this beautiful stuff
you have here.
I find a King William Manor bed and breakfast.
I was hoping that you had a couple of things
that maybe we could trade or barter or I could buy from you.
- Okay, look in our fridge--
- Any shrimp by any chance? - Um, no.
- No, we have got some chicken breasts.
- There's no shrimp, but there's chicken breasts.
Do you have any grits?
- I actually think I have a bag.
- Do we have grits? - Oh, they're the best.
Chicken and grits in Kentucky,
we like to have it with red-eye gravy
which is basically a lighter gravy made with coffee.
And I thought, coffee's perfect.
We're at a B&B.
I've got to transport it,
so I can't do anything that's fried.
- How far do you got to travel?
- Uh, back to the Alamo.
I hope your guests are trustworthy
'cause my bike is right outside your B&B.
- Don't worry.
- You're in a pretty good area.
You shouldn't have any trouble.
- Do you have shallots?
No?
How about just regular white onion?
- Yes, I do.
- Rosario's is a Mexican restaurant.
Definitely not my style of food,
but at this point,
all I really need is essentials.
Oh, wow. All ready--
Thank you.
- I stop at Rosario's restaurant to find more ingredients.
Do you have, like, a little tupper?
Something we can put that in?
- As I'm cooking, I see Lindsay stopping.
She's definitely screwed because she's not even cooking yet.
- And do you have any type of grain?
Not rice but, like, couscous or something like that?
- No, all I have is rice.
- I am a little bit nervous about my ingredients.
There's some things that I still need,
but at this point, I just need to get back
to Madhatters and figure it out.
♪ ♪
- Go in there and ask for Vince.
He's my kitchen manager.
- Vince? Okay. - Vince, yes.
- Hi, hello. Is Vince here?
- Yes?
- Hey, is it possible for me to use your kitchen?
- Sure. - Great.
- Hey, guys. - Hi.
- Coming in.
- Oh, absolutely not. We have two hours.
- There's only enough room in the kitchen for, like, one.
- I mean, we're--
- We have too many people in the kitchen.
- All right, you have a plastic bag
I can take with me?
- Yes, I do.
- It's extremely frustrating that
Sarah has beaten me back to Madhatters.
- Linds, are these yours? These are mine.
- No, this is all mine.
I should have never left in the first place.
Time is ticking away.
We're so close to the end.
I definitely don't want to go home
cooking lunch for Pee-Wee Herman.
- Where's the salt for this? - I agree with Pee-Wee.
- I bet you never saw yourself
saying, "I agree with Pee-Wee" today.
♪ ♪
- We have a bike
and 100 bucks to find a restaurant to cook in
to serve Pee-Wee and the judges lunch at the Alamo.
When I left Madhatters for a few moments,
Sarah actually beat me back.
So when I see Frank's Hog Stand,
I'm praying that Paul's not there
'cause he's the only one I haven't run into yet.
Do you boys mind if I cook here?
No?
It's definitely a small kitchen,
but I'm going to make it work.
I got some beef cheeks, and I'm praying to God
that I have enough time to cook them.
And they're a little frozen
which kind of scares me a little bit.
My first priority is to defrost the beef cheeks
in hopefully five or six minutes,
because if that doesn't happen,
then I'm not going to have a dish.
- Vince,
I have five potatoes and a head of garlic.
- Gotcha. - Thank you.
It's a tight space, but you gotta--
you gotta trust the person you cook next to,
right?
- Yeah. - That's right.
Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't hang.
The guys were really nice.
They let me jump in, get in their way.
- What are you making again?
- Um, it's a summer vegetable salad
with a medium-boiled egg.
And then a chicken skin vinaigrette.
- Very good for this hot climate.
- I hope so.
I want this spot in the final round,
and I'm going to do anything I can to push myself
to make it.
Oh, ho.
That's like a little cracker of love.
- I got grits on the bottom,
I got kale.
Poached the chicken breast over there.
Think I need anything else?
I'm making chicken and grits
with kale salad and a red-eye gravy.
- What kind of time limit do you have
to cook this wonderful meal?
- Uh, less than an hour.
- And then you got to make it back to the Alamo?
- Yeah.
It's really hot today.
And I don't know how long the ride's going to be
from here to the Alamo.
I want to keep the chicken moist and pink,
so, I'm gonna undercook it just a touch.
- We actually do have
one additional breakfast plate to make.
- Okay.
- Since you got this side, would you mind
cooking a couple of over easy eggs for me?
- Oh, you want me to cook over easy eggs?
- Would you, since you have
that side of the fire?
- And I'm thinking, I don't--okay.
All right, over easy are looking good.
I'm frying up these over easy eggs for my new boss.
- That's it. Thank you, sir.
- You're welcome.
So, win or lose this thing,
I'm Top Chef in the B&B.
- Hola. Como esta?
- Bien. You?
- Ah. Asi, asi.
I'm making an spinach and egg yolk stuffed chicken breast
with roasted butternut squash.
I'm just going to let it cool a little,
and then I'll put it in there.
I'm putting a raw egg yolk into the pocket of my chicken.
They'll cut the chicken breast, and the yolk will run out.
Great.
- You having fun yet? - Yes, a pretty good time.
- Just riding around town, buying food,
and then cooking in random kitchens
that we've never seen before, so...
- That's always fun. - Yeah.
Pee-Wee, he likes Thai food, and he likes something spicy,
so the dish that I'm making is roasted chicken salad
with Thai basil oil, red curry gastrique,
and summer squash.
- What you got working there?
- Uh, just, like, a curry--a curry gastrique.
Just curry sweet and sour sauce.
I'm a little worried that it might be too sweet,
so in order to contrast that sweetness,
I make pickles out of cucumbers.
- We also have these aluminum to go,
if you want to pack up your hot chicken.
- Oh, that'd be perfect.
- Can you wash that for me? Got it?
Cooking in this atmosphere is challenging.
I've only got these two pots,
so I'm making sure that
I'm prioritizing everything as I go.
I'm going to take some more of your spices, okay?
You let me know how much money I'm getting at
or I'm gonna run out.
I don't want to have to stay here
and help y'all cook all day to make my money back.
When I'm placed in a situation
where I have very few options,
that's when I tend to do my best.
Yes.
- Kale, check. Okra, check.
Mustard seeds are checked.
- I'm going to start writing up your tab.
- Yes, please. Great.
We have to be at the Alamo at 1:00 p.m.
I have a half hour left.
I don't want to cut it close,
so I want to give myself plenty of time.
- Are you going to need a bag for all this?
- Yes.
- When you get all packed up,
just see Steven at the front, and, uh,
he'll have a bill ready for you, okay?
- Thank you, chef. - No sweat, man.
- Now I just got to head to the Alamo.
Supposedly, there's no basement though,
right?
- That's the legend. No basement.
- $20. - Ding.
- Thank you, ma'am. - Thank you.
I think what I'm going to have to do
is carry my chicken in my hand
because I'm too freaked out
that the yolks will break
if I just put it in my basket.
- Boys, I'll be out of your way
in five minutes, okay?
I'm nervous because
as soon as we get to the Alamo,
we only have 15 minutes to plate and reheat our food
to serve to Pee-Wee and the judges.
- Headed to the Alamo.
♪ Heading to the Alamo to cook for Pee-Wee Herman ♪
- Sir, is this the Alamo? That is it.
Seen anybody else?
- No.
- They're all still cooking?
- I don't know.
To the Alamo.
- I wish I had a oven mitt.
My pan of chicken is hot.
This is burning my hand.
- That is not safe, Grayson.
- I know, but it's fragile.
- Hey, girl, hey.
Oh, snap.
- You work right there. - Yeah.
- I'll work right here.
- That's perfect.
- Thank God my egg yolks didn't get "smushed."
We've all worked so hard in this competition,
none of us wants to be eliminated
because the final four is around the corner.
- Thank you, Mr. Pee-Wee. I appreciate that.
- What did you tell the chefs that you liked?
- I'm guessing chicken is going to be on the menu
because I mentioned chicken.
Ethnic foods, spicy foods, so I can't wait to see
what the chefs bring out.
- Did you guys see mixing bowls anywhere?
- They're underneath the platters on your side.
I am frustrated that my dish didn't turn out
the way I'd conceptualized it,
but I know that it tastes really good,
and hey, I made it happen.
- Pee-Wee, what do you cook at the playhouse?
- We made cheese balls one time, parfaits,
my favorite was ice cream soup. I-I almost suggested it.
- What's the time?
5 minutes to 1:00 p.m.
Come on, folks.
- Where are the tongs?
- While I'm plating, I feel I'm a little too heavy
on the curry sweet and sour sauce,
so I start to put more pickles on my plate,
and I feel like I'm just destroying my dish.
♪ ♪
- When we started,
there were 29 chefs at the Alamo.
And we're down to five.
It's getting so close that we just want
to get this challenge over with and find out who's going on.
- Sarah.
- Pee-Wee's first thing he said he loved was egg salad,
and so I have a soft-boiled egg
with a summer vegetable salad with a chicken skin vinaigrette.
So I took all the skin off the chicken,
rendered it down with the salad.
- I picked a chicken breast,
stuffed it with spinach,
some gorgonzola cheese,
and an egg yolk bacon vinaigrette on top.
- I made roasted zucchini stuffed
with braised beef cheeks and rice,
a salad of some greens with pickled carrots and celery,
and a little bit of goat cheese.
- I did my version of chicken and grits,
with a little bit of goat cheese in it,
and it also has fresh corn in it as well.
It was poached in beef tallow,
and then there is a salad
of kale, okra, and roasted tomatoes,
and there's a red-eye gravy.
- I decided to do a red curry gastrique,
a basil blossom oil,
some roasted and fresh vegetables
from the Farmers Market.
- Thanks, guys. - Thank you.
I'm willing to arm wrestle
anybody for any of this if you want.
- I know.
I have to say, I think they did
a pretty amazing job from the look of it anyway.
- Let's try Sarah's egg salad.
- I'm sure when you told her about egg salad,
you had a very different idea.
- Yeah.
- Probably a little chopped-up eggs and mayonnaise.
- Yeah, classic. - Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah. - Classic egg salad.
- I thought her eggs were cooked beautifully
and I really like the use of a chicken skin vinaigrette.
Sort of genius.
- It's a festive, fun-looking dish.
Simple thing, there was just no salt
and pepper on the eggs. It's really bland.
- Where's the salt for this?
- The beef and zucchini in Lindsay's dish--
it's a really nice way of presenting the food.
I like the zucchini as a vessel.
- I love the flavor of the vinaigrette on the salad,
but Lindsay used way too much goat cheese.
- The vinaigrette and the goat cheese
are just kind of making her salad greens soggy
'cause they're delicate greens.
- You know, I really like this dish.
They look like little boats.
And I have to say when I take a big bite out of it,
and I get that gorgonzola cheese,
it tastes delicious.
And then it has-- is it pork?
- Beef. - Beef.
It tastes like chicken.
- Eggs, grits, and gravy.
- I like the fresh corn.
- Mmm.
- I can't tell what flavor I'm tasting
in the gravy.
- There's mustard in the sauce.
- It's delicious. I like it.
The chicken's slightly odd to me.
- I agree with Pee-Wee.
The texture of the chicken is a little weird.
It's just on the edge of being undercooked.
- I bet you never saw yourself saying,
"I agree with Pee-Wee" today.
- Let's try Grayson's stuffed chicken.
- I got a prize in mine. Look, it's a--
- I did think that it was smart to stuff
her chicken with the yolk,
and the squash is really good.
- The squash is great.
This bacon vinaigrette-- it all makes sense,
and then it kind of veers off into this fresh salad direction.
I wish she left out all the tomatoes themselves.
- I thought it was delicious,
but I have a lot of childhood issues
with runny yolk that,
you know, I have to lay down to talk to you about.
- Did it ever catch you? - It was running.
- I thought Paul did a great job.
I loved that he incorporated some Thai flavors,
you know, this kind of red curry and chili gastrique.
It just went so well with everything.
- I would have liked a bigger dash of heat.
I think it was a little too sweet for me.
- The gastrique itself is sweet,
but the vegetables are so acidic.
They're marinated in a lot of vinegar,
and when you get that vinegar and the sweet together,
it works.
- It totally works.
- And this plate is also emptier than all the rest of the plates.
Just an observation.
- Pee-Wee, were you happy with your lunch?
- I was extremely happy.
Everybody did something I liked.
- The fact that they were running around town on bikes
in kitchens that they didn't even know,
I thought that was really cool and considering all that,
they put out some really beautiful food.
- You know, once a week we should have lunch.
This is fun. - I'd love to.
- So now when you think of the Alamo,
what will you think of?
- Chicken. A lot of chicken.
- I know that you are, but what am I?
- I'm rubber, you're glue.
Whatever you say, bounces off of me
and sticks to you, infinity.
- Damn.
- Are you ready to get back to the judges' table?
- I'm very, very excited to sit in judgment
of all these people.
Guilty!
- Grab your bike. We'll see you there.
- Tom, you're in the basket.
- Lovely.
- That's where he usually is.
- I'll have a few more drinks.
- It's not going to be pretty because someone has to go.
- My egg wasn't seasoned.
Seasoning is like the biggest, isn't it?
- Did you crawl up underneath the chair the other day?
- Yeah. But it's not that easy.
- In the stew room, it's like Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
- And you go like this.
- We have a lot of characters here,
and I always joke that chefs are like traveling vagabonds,
and that's kind of what Pee-Wee's Playhouse is.
- How did you do it?
- You're totally invisible. No one can see you.
And when the judges come back, they go,
"where's Edward?"
- Where's--
- Everybody's stuff looked really good.
- It's not going to be pretty
because someone has to go,
but I'm proud to have cooked with all of you today.
- I second that.
- It's bittersweet because, you know,
four move on, and one has to go.
- Good afternoon.
We'd like to see all of you.
Thank you.
- All right, guys, we stand as one...
- We leave as four.
- Chefs, you did a great job on your big adventure.
Pee-Wee, did you make some nice new memories?
- I certainly did.
I want to thank each one of you for making me lunch.
It was delicious.
And you've totally changed my perception of the Alamo.
- Great job.
Everything looked amazing when it came out.
With five chefs left,
tiny little things separate winning from losing,
but overall, nice job.
- Grayson,
what did you think about this challenge?
- Rosario's was really fun. They were really sweet.
- On bicycles through the streets of San Antonio,
with just a map and money--
it was really impressive to see what you guys
all produced today.
- Everywhere I went, everyone was working,
and they wouldn't let us share a kitchen.
- Wow.
- They made me cook for the--
I cooked for the B&B.
- Yeah.
- He goes, "I need two eggs over easy
because I got a breakfast table coming in."
So I stopped--
I thought everyone was doing that,
so I just went with it
and I just started cooking breakfast.
- All right, let's start with you, Paul.
You made the Thai chicken salad.
What did you think of that, Pee-Wee?
- I thought it was fantastic.
Um, I loved having the option of skin or no skin.
That I thought was really practical.
I don't even eat summer squash, and I loved it,
so I learned that I like something new today also.
- I loved those sort of ragged pieces of chicken skin
that were super crispy.
My one kind of hesitation
when I first started eating the dish--
unless you were eating everything together...
- Yeah.
- There were times when it just got sweet.
- Got it.
- I wish there was some other crunchy element
than the chicken skin.
- Ed, were you happy with your dish?
- It's a tough challenge.
It was a lot of improvising.
- How did you cook the chicken?
- I melted the beef tallow into a pan,
then I just kind of let the chicken poach in there.
- You poached it in oil. - Yeah.
- For how long? - Oh...
About 12 minutes.
Tried to cool down the chicken as much as possible
so it still wouldn't continue cooking.
Uh, because obviously,
there wasn't really enough time
to poach, take it out,
properly chill down.
- I thought it was delicious.
I loved the fresh corn and the grits.
Tasted delicious.
My only criticism at all
was I thought that the chicken was slightly odd,
the texture of it.
- You know, when chicken doesn't kind of--
just falls short, it gets a little,
kind of rubbery almost.
- Grayson.
- Pee-Wee said he liked a little spice.
So I tried to give a little spice to the dish,
but not too much.
- I loved your squash.
Really warm and hearty and really tasty,
seasoned really well.
But how did you cook your chicken?
- I took the skin off
because he said, you know,
he tries to eat healthy when he can.
- But then you loaded it with gorgonzola cheese,
egg yolks, and bacon.
- The only issue is a small issue I had
because I actually loved the combination
of the cheese, the spinach,
chicken, bacon-- it all makes sense.
The butternut squash was really delicious.
It was perfect roasted,
but butternut squash and tomatoes in my mind
don't--don't go great together.
- I thought it was just, like, big.
It looked odd because it was so giant.
And short of finding, like, tinier chickens,
I don't know what you do there.
Yeah.
- Sarah, did you enjoy your adventure?
- I did.
I would never have the opportunity
to do anything this absurd in my life.
- The okra-- it was beautifully done,
and it wasn't greasy, and it was seasoned well.
- The seasonings she had in her kitchen
weren't what I was used to using,
but thank you.
- It was clearly a new take and a different look on egg salad.
And I'm sure Pee-Wee was thinking the egg salad
was mayonnaise and celery, and the whole bit.
The eggs were perfectly cooked.
But they were also perfectly under-seasoned.
- Under-seasoned? - Under-seasoned, yes.
- Okay.
- If there had been a few sprinkles of coarse salt
on each egg so that you got that crunch
and that little bit of salt, it would have been great.
- Okay.
- Lindsay, one of the first dishes I ever cooked--
uh, I think I was about 13 years old--
that I ever cooked on my own was a stuffed zucchini.
And so this brought back nice memories,
so thank you.
- And who doesn't like something served in a little boat?
That's what I loved about it.
- Thank you.
- I thought it was delicious.
I thought it was just a smart, fun dish,
although I thought the salad was a little overdressed.
There was a lot of cheese and a lot of dressing on it,
and those very delicate Greens were sort of wilted.
- Right.
- I picked out as much of the baby spinach and all that.
I was trying to get rid of all that
and find the stuff that had more substance.
- Pee-Wee, as our guest judge,
please announce the winner.
- The winner is a chef who was fun,
original, creative.
Changed my entire feeling about the Alamo...
Lindsay.
You're the winner.
- Awesome.
- Thank you.
This is the first individual challenge
that I've won this far.
I wasn't expecting that.
It feels great to get a win,
especially this close to the end,
and, you know, it definitely validates
all the hard work and it shows
that I deserve to be here.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
- Paul, you're also safe.
Ed, Grayson, and Sarah.
Unfortunately, one of you will be going home.
You can all leave the kitchen while we make our decision.
Thank you.
♪ ♪
- These five chefs have really shown us
so much great food.
It's sad at this point to let anyone go.
- I didn't want to say this in front of all the contestants,
but I thought that they all failed
in that all their dishes needed ketchup.
- Ketchup was not what I was craving.
- I loved the way Sarah did all of her vegetables,
and the way she cooked her eggs--
they were perfectly done.
- But the problem I had with this
was the definite lack of seasoning--salt, pepper.
- At this stage in our competition,
something like seasoning becomes really critical.
- Sure. - My egg wasn't seasoned.
Seasoning is like the biggest, isn't it?
- I still had a bigger problem with Ed's dish.
That chicken was just borderline undercooked.
- My piece wasn't undercooked.
It just-- the texture was weird.
- He chose to poach it in beef fat.
There are faster, tastier ways.
- You know, if it's technique,
I made, probably, the biggest technical error.
- What did you think of Grayson,
who had, unlike Ed,
the largest chicken breast I've ever seen in my life?
- They came to the table, and they were just sticking out
like big fat thumbs.
- I had the exact same feeling.
- The butternut squash, me in my mind,
butternut squash and tomatoes never work.
You know, you have to make a decision here.
Do you go in the direction of sort of a more fall dish
or more of a summer dish?
It's tough because all three chefs made mistakes.
- Let's get them out here.
♪ ♪
- Chefs, for tonight's challenge,
you were asked to take a bike ride
through San Antonio on a scavenger hunt.
Ed, you gave us a chicken dish with grits
and fresh corn, beautiful flavors.
Unfortunately, that chicken breast
was just slightly undercooked.
Grayson, large chicken breast
filled with great ingredients,
but maybe those ingredients just went a little too far,
a little too much.
Sarah gave us a newfangled egg salad.
Great idea, great flavors, just under-seasoned eggs.
At this stage of game, it's these little details
that make the difference.
For each of you, I hope you had fond memories
for your time on Top Chef,
but for one of you,
your time is going to be cut a little short.
♪ ♪
- Grayson...
Please pack your knives and go.
- Oh, my God. Oh.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
- Bye.
- I'm proud of everything that I put out.
I tried my hardest on everything,
and that's all I can say and do.
- Oh.
Yeah.
It makes me sad that I was eliminated,
but this whole experience definitely pushed me
to do things that I would never imagine doing in life.
- Oh, my Grayson.
- I stayed true to myself through this whole process.
- Bye. - Gray, bye.
- I don't regret anything.
- I thank, uh, the final four.
Congratulations to everyone.
- Congrats.
- Cheers.
- We got to go even harder. - Yeah.
- Good evening.
- Uh-oh.
- We'd like to see you back at judges' table.
- I'm definitely thinking, okay, maybe now they'll tell us,
"all right, you're the final four,
and you're going to move on to the final round."
- Chefs, congratulations on making it this far...
But it isn't over yet.
- Oh, my God.
- The whole time you've been competing on Top Chef,
another competition has been taking place in secret
at bravotv.com.
We call it Last Chance Kitchen.
Oh, my God.
- Every single eliminated chef has been getting a second chance
to get back into Top Chef and compete for the title.
- Here's a taste of what's been happening.
- Welcome to Top Chef's Last Chance Kitchen.
- Oh, my God. - "It's not over yet."
- It's all I wanted. Just one more chance.
- So I'm really happy that Nyesha got another chance.
She was kind of brought down by my mistake.
- I got to win this. I got to seal the deal.
- Anybody betting on Beverly here?
No one?
- The winner is...
- Tonight on the finale of Last Chance Kitchen...
It's the ultimate battle.
The winner will come back into Top Chef next week.
Will bullied Beverly shock the world?
- If Beverly beat me, she better go all the way.
- Or will Grayson, her only ally, crush her dreams?
- Grayson is a firecracker.
- Are you kidding me?
- To watch Last Chance Kitchen, go to bravotv.com now.
Next on Top Chef...
- I got money that Grayson kicks Bev's ass.
- Let's find out who will be joining you.
Chef, please come in.
- Sorry, I couldn't finish that,
but, uh, thank you.
- For information on visiting Texas,
click the Texas link at bravotv.com/topchef.
== sync by elderman ==