- Previously on Top Chef...
- Oh! - How's it going?
- We're like a biker gang.
- May I prep some things in your kitchen?
Asking if you can cook in somebody's kitchen
is very awkward.
- I'm very, very excited to sit in judgment
of all these people! [Chuckles] Guilty!
[Laughter]
- Grayson, please pack your knives and go.
- Another competition's been taken place in secret.
Every single eliminated chef has been given a second chance
to get back into Top Chef.
- Welcome to Top Chef's Last Chance Kitchen.
- It's one more chance.
- I've got to win this one.
- Go!
- Are you [bleep] kidding me?
[Cheers and applause]
- And the winner is--
- Oh, my God!
- Four 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 9x14 ♪ Mentors Original Air Date on February 8, 2012
== sync by elderman ==
- You know it's gonna be Bev coming back.
- Why would you say such a thing?
- You know it is, though.
I got a pack of cigarettes says it's Bev.
- I got money that Grayson kicks Bev's ass.
- Pack of cigarettes, or are you gonna raise me?
- I'm gonna raise you a banana.
- Done. Pack of cigarettes and a banana.
- Uh-oh, sounds like a good night.
[Laughter]
- We walk into the Top Chef kitchen,
and we see a table with five cloches on it.
To be honest, I don't want anyone back.
- Hi, chefs.
All: Good morning.
- Nervous?
- Always. - Yes.
[Laughter]
- As you know, the eliminated chefs
have been competing in another competition,
Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen.
And now let's meet the winner, and find out
who will be joining you to fight for the title of Top Chef.
[Knuckles cracking]
Chef, please come in.
- Uh-oh.
- [Bleep].
- Oh.
- [Sighs]
- [Laughs] You called it.
I am not happy to see Bev. She's off in her own Bev land,
and I'm not buying a ticket to go there anytime soon.
- Hey, guys.
- Hey, Bev. - Welcome back.
- Winning Last Chance Kitchen was a huge honor.
- Beverly, you are the champion of Last Chance Kitchen.
[Applause] - [Squeals]
[Laughs]
- Good job, mama. - Thank you.
- How's it going?
- I belong in this competition.
This is my moment, to seize it.
- You owe me a pack of cigarettes.
[Both laugh]
- And a banana. - And a banana.
- Chefs, I gotta say, she really earned her spot back in.
If she continues to cook the way she cooked
in Last Chance Kitchen, you're in for some trouble.
A good chef knows ingredients not only by sight,
but by smell, by touch,
you're gonna need all these senses
to win this challenge.
- Chefs, please lift up the cloche in front of you.
- [Laughs]
- Do we cook this?
[Laughter]
- For your quickfire, you'll be competing
in a blindfolded pantry raid.
You have 30 minutes to cook your dish,
but you must wear that blindfold
while picking all your ingredients.
- When you've finished choosing your ingredients,
you can take your blindfold off, head back to your station
and start cooking.
- Every item in your basket must be used in your dish,
so be careful.
The winner of this quickfire will be given a choice:
An all-new Prius "V..."
- Wow.
- Or...
A guaranteed spot in the final rounds.
If you choose the car,
you'll still compete in the elimination challenge.
If you choose the spot in the final rounds,
you're automatically in,
no elimination challenge for you.
- I think it's smart to take the guaranteed spot,
but, you know, it's also that kind of feeling
that you have to live with that you should have
taken the car and won your spot.
- Everybody have the baskets?
- Your time starts now.
- [Laughs]
- I'm trying to just feel my way around things.
What feels like...
Lemons are easy, zucchini, but it's very intense,
because we have to use every ingredient that we grab.
- Oh, my God.
My whole strategy is to get where all the seafood is kept.
Oh.
The seafood, I'll be able to filet it and cook it quickly.
[Items clattering]
- [Laughs]
- You know, it's really, really hard.
Where am I?
You have an image in your mind where you are,
but it's actually not where you are.
- Go ahead. Keep going, you're in the pantry now.
- Coming through, coming through,
- Oh, Jesus, what's that?
- I'm sorry. Oh, my God.
- Who's that? - Does it matter who it is?
It's a-- it's another person.
- [Laughs]
- Who's that? - Sarah.
I decide to make a soup, because regardless of what I pick,
I can always find a way to work it into the dish.
I need to get all the ingredients
in about five minutes,
'cause I think I need that whole amount of time
to make the soup.
Then there's no way I'm losing to Beverly.
- Like, how the hell are we supposed to know
what anything is?
All the meats are in cryopak bags.
You can't touch 'em or smell 'em.
- Uh, that's me. - Sorry.
- Uh, that's cool. Ow.
Watch your head. I don't want to drop anything on your head.
- That's starting to look bad over there.
- [Laughing] I know. - That one's just--
- Oh, watch out for my basket. - Sorry.
- Chef, I'm ready to cook!
I hope I got what I thought I did.
Corn, leeks-- - Go, go, go.
- All right, I'm ready.
- Go. - Ooh, wow. Okay. Thank you.
Oh, thank God that's what it was.
- I'm here.
- I'm here? Okay. - Be careful.
- I'm sorry. It's taking me so long
to just move around, I'm afraid that there's
not enough time to cook everything.
I just have to call it.
I'm ready. - Okay.
- All right, I'm ready. - Take off your blindfold.
Go ahead. - Okay, I'm ready.
- Take off your blindfold, Ed. - Ooh.
- Less than 20 minutes on the clock.
How you doing, Beverly?
- I ended up with avocado.
I didn't realize I grabbed that, so--
my plan is to make
a crispy striped bass with pulped avocado.
I'm gonna have to make this work.
I was given a second chance. I don't want to waste it.
- If you win this thing, are you gonna take the car?
- Probably take the car. I didn't do Top Chef to be safe.
I'm making sauteed prawns with a Thai tomato salad.
The idea behind the dish is just
to make something simple but delicious.
- Hi, Ed. - Is there anything here
that you, like, wish you hadn't had?
- Pork casings.
- Pork-- [Laughter]
- Where is it? - It's--I'm--
I got it on the pot, I'm trying to boil the hell out of it,
and see if-- what I can do with it,
'cause I was not planning-- I thought it was pancetta.
- Well, you figure that one out. - [Laughing] Yeah, thanks.
I'm making a version of udon, and instead of the noodles,
I'm gonna use vegetable, but I just got to figure out
what to do with the pork casing.
I want to win the last one, go out guns a-blazing.
- I ended up grabbing bulgur wheat,
and I'm taking a risk trying to cook it
in a very short amount of time.
I also grabbed marscapone instead of creme fraiche.
[Laughs]
But I hope with the limes and with salt
I'll be able to neutralize it.
- I'm making a corn and red chili soup
with portobello mushrooms, peaches, and leeks.
I want the biggest, boldest flavor possible.
I want to make sure that I show the judges
I belong in the final four.
- Five minutes, everyone, you have five minutes left.
- Coming through!
I focused too much on my pulped avocado,
so the last five minutes I have just, like,
started to clean my fish.
I'm running out of time.
[Laughing] I can't do anything with that.
The major problem is the pork casings.
They're not gonna soften up,
but the water they've been boiling in,
it's nice, it's salty.
I'm just gonna use that as the base for my udon broth.
It would be really nice to have that car.
- 19, 18...
Oh.
- Hands up, utensils down.
- Hello. - Hi.
How does it feel to be back?
- Uh, it's awesome. It really is.
So I took some of the striped bass
with pulped avocado, lime, and jalapeno.
- This fish is a little-- - Yeah, uncooked.
- Undercooked.
- Just did a sauteed prawn with a Thai-style tomato salad.
- Is this undercooked, or just the way you like it?
- I think it's where I like it, right up to the point.
- Okay, thanks. - Thank you, Paul.
- I made you udon, basically.
Instead of noodles, I made ribbons of zucchini,
mushrooms, scallion.
I didn't know what to do with the pork casings,
and I just boiled it in water.
It surprisingly had a nice, salty kind of a--
- Mm-hmm. - Is that the base for the--?
- That was the base for the soup.
Padma takes more than one bite, which is always a good sign.
- Good job on the casings.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- I did a corn soup,
a little onion, and red chili, with a touch of lime juice,
and then I wood-roasted the mushrooms,
a little thyme and fresh peach.
- Have you done this combination of mushrooms and peaches?
- No. - Okay.
- But I'm trying to push the limit.
- [Laughs] - You sure are.
- Thank you, Sarah. - Thank you.
- I grabbed a whole fish
and cooked that in a little bit of butter and oil,
and then underneath I did bulgur wheat,
tomato sauce, and some marscapone.
- Did you have any problems in the pantry?
I ran into the wall a couple times.
- Oh. - Hopefully you didn't
metaphorically walk into a wall.
- Tom, how do you think the chefs did, overall?
- Ed, I think you probably chose the most difficult thing.
If you're not making sausage,
what do you do with pork casings?
You chose to make broth out of it,
which actually was really flavorful.
The prawn in there was perfectly cooked.
Really, really nice. - Thank you.
- Paul, you put together a nice dish,
and it had that sweetness, had that salty,
had a little bit of bitter. The prawn was,
I still think, slightly undercooked.
- Beverly, the avocado side, it was interesting,
because that's something you weren't looking for,
you ended up with an avocado.
It was the best part of the dish.
Fish was a little undercooked.
- Lindsay, the bulgur wheat was a nice touch with the tomato,
the fish was perfectly cooked,
and I loved the char on the greens.
- Thank you. - Sarah,
this is interesting, that you tried to take an ingredient
and force it into a dish.
I gotta say, this time it worked.
I think the peach was a little stronger than the corn.
That said, it was delicious. - Thank you, chef.
- Tom, please announce the winner.
- You all did a great job. This comes down to two people,
Ed and Sarah.
Whoever wins is gonna have a choice to make,
it's either a car or a guaranteed spot in the finale.
And the winner is...
- Whoever wins is gonna have a choice to make,
it's either a car or a guaranteed spot in the finale.
- Tom and Padma narrow it down between Ed and myself.
There's a lot at stake. This is, like,
the quickfire of all quickfires.
- And the winner is...
- Sarah.
- Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God!
- I haven't won a quickfire yet, and this was the one to win.
- So much for pork casings.
- Holy cow!
- Good job.
- Now Sarah, you have a big decision.
- I can't find out
what the elimination challenge is first, right?
- [Laughing] No. - No.
- I'm gonna go with the guaranteed spot.
- Congratulations, Sarah. - Thank you.
- That means you are moving on to the final round.
- Oh, my God.
- It definitely shows that the confidence is not there.
- As much as I want to compete, I need to be at the finale, so--
I don't really care what the chefs think,
and they look at me differently.
They can look at me as one of their competitors
in the final four.
- Only three more of you will join Sarah in the finals.
This elimination challenge is your last chance
to earn one of those spots.
- We brought in a few people that we feel have a small hand
at getting you this far into the competition.
- I'm thinking, "small hand," maybe my son?
That would blow my mind away.
- And here they are now.
Your mentors.
They're the ones who've had a major impact
on your culinary careers.
- Oh, no. [Laughs] - Oh, my God.
- [Squealing] Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
- [Laughs] - [Laughs]
Standing there is Michelle.
I'm like, "of course.
"Of course they would bring our mentors,
and this is going to tie in to our challenge."
- I can tell by your faces that there's no introduction needed.
I know there are some good stories here,
so I want to hear from you.
Sarah?
- My mentor is chef Tony Montano.
Tony took a big chance on a girl from Texas
and sent her to Italy, and he's made me an amazing chef,
so I think him for that every day.
- I'm gonna look at your shoes so I don't lose it, all right?
[Both laugh]
So Michelle Bernstein is my mentor.
She molded this girl from North Carolina
with train-wreck hair into the chef that I am,
and she taught me how to balance being a badass and a lady
at the same time. [Both laugh]
- Chef Sarah Stegner.
She was my first mentor when I was 16
and I had no clue what fine dining was about,
and I'm forever grateful.
Thank you for your tough love on me.
- My mentor is Chef Tyson Cole.
He's mentored me and brought me up
over the last, like, almost eight years now,
and I'm, like, [Sobs]. I'm--
sorry, couldn't finish that.
But, uh, thank you.
- My mentor is Frank Crispo. What's up, Frankie?
I was in my 20s, I didn't know
what I wanted to do in life,
I had long hair, I had an attitude,
I walked into his kitchen, and he whipped me into shape.
I mean, he taught me how to be honest, hard-working,
he taught me how to cook.
Thank you.
- You know, chefs, you're not just
representing yourself tomorrow.
You really need to impress your mentors.
- We want you to make a dish that fulfills and even exceeds
their expectations of you as a great chef.
- [Sighs]
- You have two and a half hours to prep here tonight,
here in the Top Chef kitchen.
Tomorrow you'll have an hour to cook
before service begins at the Hotel Valencia.
The winner of this elimination challenge
will take home an all-new Prius "V."
[Laughs]
Sarah, since you won the quickfire
and chose a spot in the final round,
you don't have to compete in the elimination challenge.
You can relax and celebrate with Tony.
- Yes! That's awesome!
[Both laugh]
- Sarah and Tony, enjoy your night.
Bye.
- I knew it was gonna be you. It would have been hard
without-- - Hey, how are you?
- Oh, my God.
- Let's go. - Okay, let's do it.
[Both laugh]
That's great, I'm so proud of you.
It's awesome.
- Yeah, I didn't mean to get choked up. I'm sorry.
I didn't know it was-- - What? No. Why would--
- Oh, [bleep]. - I like that, man.
It's super-exciting.
- Looks like some real tough competitors here.
- Yeah. - Don't second guess yourself.
Go through with it.
- When I think about you, Beverly,
I think about encouraging you and supporting you
to do what you do best. - Yes.
- It's your thing. - Mm-hmm.
- 'Cause I think you're so talented.
- When I thought about something, like,
the cioppino or a bouillabaisse,
and then I could do something tableside.
- But everything in that bowl better be perfectly cooked.
- I hope I make you proud tomorrow.
- You're gonna be good, you're gonna be good.
- [Laughs]
- Thank you for coming.
- [Muffled] I know you're gonna be great.
- Mmm, thank you so much. - I'm in your corner.
- I love you. - [Muffled] I love you, too.
- I miss you so much.
- You can win this. I think you will win.
- All this pressure. [Laughs]
When I first met Tyson I was 23.
He helped shape and mold what my voice is as a chef,
so I want to make my mentor proud.
- Hybrid car. - This thing is cool.
- Wow, look at this.
- This is the car to win. - Look at the headroom on this,
there's room for one more. - Floor it!
- [Laughs] - Here we are.
- Can I try a little piece of this one?
- What kind of oysters you got today?
- Oysters? I don't have any oysters.
- Oysters, they're the main component of my dish,
and there's no fresh oysters today.
Can I open one up? I'll buy 'em if--
- Yeah, go ahead. - I find these smoked oysters
in a can. I open one up, they've got nice flavor.
Perfect, I'm gonna take all of 'em.
- Go for it. - Thank you, man.
- Cilantro, scallions. Okay.
By doing a wok dish, I'm taking a chance,
but this is the soul of what I do,
I'm back and I'm going to kick ass.
I still have the paper that says,
"Beverly, you have won Top Chef Season Nine,"
and it's materializing.
Excuse me, sorry.
- Ten minutes.
- Swordfish and tuna steak.
- And you have salmon.
I feel good about cooking for Michelle.
That's what I do on a daily basis.
Do y'all have calamari or octopus?
- No. - Neither one?
But I wanted components that can be really tough to find.
This is gonna be a really difficult challenge for me.
- All right, I'm done.
- Okay, cool.
- Thank you so much, Jessica.
- We miss you incredibly.
- I hope so. - It's not the same without you.
- I was worried that you wouldn't need me anymore.
[Laughs]
Is that Tequila? - This is how it happens.
- Uh-oh. Now the juices are gonna start flowing.
- I knew all along that this would happen.
Having competed on Top Chef Masters,
I knew you had what it took.
- Salute.
- Frank's influence is obvious.
It's the love, it's the heartiness,
but I've got some touches in there, like the cilantro gel.
I think it's a nice mix of both worlds.
Not bad.
If I get eliminated because Beverly comes back
and takes my spot, I am gonna be so pissed off.
- I'm making a chilled sunchoke and dashi soup.
I think it's a big risk. It's unassuming,
but at the same time, I know the flavors that are in it.
I just hope it's not too simple for the judges.
- ♪ Say it again ♪
Can we get some theme music going?
- Coming in. Coming back.
I'm starting to second-guess what I'm doing.
I'm nervous about how many different components I have,
and I've just gotta put my head down
and get as much of it done as I can,
because what's the most important for me
is being able to make Michelle proud.
It's terrifying, 'cause if I do bad,
I might not have a job when I go back.
- Uh, we haven't seen anything like this from him at all.
[Suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- I'm running out of time to prep for our mentor dinner.
I make the oyster cream.
You want to get it just right so it's not gonna be overpowering.
I just need to make it perfect,
and put out something that Frankie would be proud of.
Nine minutes, forty seconds!
- Trying to make chicken stock in two and a half hours
is challenging, so I decide to pack it up
with all of the stuff inside of it
to maximize as much flavor as I can by tomorrow morning.
- One minute, guys!
- Catch. - Thank you. Oh!
- Oh, [bleep].
- [Laughs]
- If I can quit chasing my cooler.
- All right, guys, let's go.
- Wow, feels good to be back.
I've been like a nomad. [Laughs] Going back and forth
and making it back into the house again
is so sweet. It feels like this is where I should be.
Mwah.
- Where you guys surprised when I came back, or--?
- No.
I mean, like, did you know that there was, like,
that second chance-- - She told us the night before,
when Grayson-- - they told us last night.
- Oh. - So Beverly, what did you
and Grayson make? - Grayson made
a seared scallop.
Like, and she made snapper.
Like, literally, like, both, they said,
could potentially leave.
- I definitely had issues with Beverly,
but she's back and I've just got to beat her.
- And we were all excited,
'cause we thought we were the final four.
- Miss you. - [On phone] How's it going?
- It's going good. How's everything?
I totally miss my girlfriend, Dina.
We've been together a year and eight months.
- [On phone] Well, we got a new couch.
- How do the cats like it? She's been super-supportive.
I feel very blessed to have someone like her.
Okay, babe. - Okay, bye, honey.
- Bye, babe.
- You guys ready? - Let's go.
- We arrive at the Hotel Valencia,
and we're cooking in the Citrus restaurant.
This is our last elimination challenge
before the finals.
We're cooking a dinner that's supposed to impress our mentors.
- Hot, hot, hot.
- The last time I actually cooked for Sarah
was when I worked for her. She liked
real soulful Asian food, so that's what I'm doing.
Because I'm wok-cooking, I have to cook in small batches,
so the most important time is the last ten minutes.
If I do it too early, it's gonna sit and wilt,
and if I wait too late, I risk not plating.
- I spent a lot more time cooking yesterday than today.
Today it's all assembly.
I'm working on this chilled soup.
It's all veg, but it's all
part of this bigger picture
that'll come together once I pour the soup into the bowl.
Uh, the hardest part is just 14 different steps to plate it.
- 30 minutes.
Right now I'm working on finishing my seafood broth,
and I've got to toast some couscous.
I'm making a unique interpretation
of a seafood stew.
I have one chance to make it to the final rounds.
I'm gonna fight my hardest to get there.
- I'm just grabbing some equipment, I'll be out.
- You're fine.
- Just finishing up my meats.
I've got some pork belly skin that I'm trying to crisp up
for a garnish.
I want to be in the final four. This is what I came for.
That was pretty.
There's so much stuff that we've had to go through.
Just hoping I don't psych myself out.
- It's the last meal here in Texas.
The chefs have worked so hard to get here.
We're all very thankful to have you with us,
so thank you all. Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Bev? - [Unintelligible response]
- Is it okay if I put this like right here?
- Yeah, I'm gonna plate right here.
- Okay, perfect.
- Sarah, how did you meet Beverly?
- I was the restaurant chef at the Ritz Carlton.
- Mm-hmm. - In Chicago.
What my message to her has been,
"If you're passionate about something and you believe in it,
it's gonna work for you," and I'm very proud of her.
- Two minutes lefts. Sh--nice!
I'm, like, throwing everything off here,
like, as fast as I could, but still not, like, sloppy.
Beautiful. I know they're not
gonna be impressed by how it looks,
but they're gonna be really impressed
by the ballsiness of it, and the flavor.
[Alarm sounding]
- Hi, Beverly. - Hi, how is everyone?
Well, today I've made
Gulf shrimp and barbecue pork Singapore noodles.
Some peanuts and coconut milk. I just really wanted
to show something straight from the heart.
Thank you. - Thank you.
- I love the level of heat and the flavors.
My shrimp is cooked perfect,
and I think she really did cook from the heart.
- Cooking in a wok for this many people,
it's a pretty difficult thing to do,
so she really pushed herself here,
and I think overall Beverly did a nice job.
- So Lindsay's up next, Michelle.
- I know, I'm really nervous.
I'm actually sweating. - [Laughs]
I almost feel like I'm in the kitchen there,
as well, because she is an extension of me.
I just want her to be happy.
- Sounds like you're breaking up with her.
- Would you stop? - [Laughter]
- Well, you just want her to be happy.
[Chuckles]
- I feel like emulsifying my sauce with cream
was not a good idea. I was just panicking,
and just trying to find a way to get
as much flavor as I could.
[Alarm sounding] I'm a little bit worried
that this dish isn't gonna get me into the top four.
I made a seafood "stew," and it has mussels, clams,
some local Gulf shrimp, and little bits of Atlantic cod
over some toasted Israeli couscous.
Then the broth is really intense seafood stock
that's emulsified with a little bit of cream.
- Thank you so much. - All right, thanks.
- [Whispering] Thank you.
- Michelle?
- Everything is cooked really, really beautifully.
To me, the clam and the mussel were so perfect.
I don't know why she put the cream in the pan.
- A little bit of the raw thyme flavor coming through,
it was, like, strong, it just...
Caught me at the end of my tongue.
- The fish was cooked perfectly, the shrimp were great.
Pretty good job, all things considered.
- [Groans]
- Tyson, tell us about Paul.
- He was the first person that I ever worked with, where
I would show him something and teach him,
and then he'd come back two days later
and he would have done it better than I did it.
At first I was kind of threatened.
- Uh, yeah. [Laughter]
- You know what I mean?
But then I was like, "you know, this guy is--
he's really valuable."
Like, "We need to take advantage of that."
- We need to exploit that. - I know, exactly.
- I keep on second-guessing myself.
I know that I shouldn't,
but I really want to put more stuff on it.
[Alarm sounding]
Being able to recognize
that you're dish is where it should be
takes a lot of experience,
and it takes a lot of discipline.
Who's taking the sauces?
Okay, cool. I'm gonna be with you.
[Sighs]
- [Whispering] It's beautiful. - Thank you.
- Hi-yo. - Hi-yo.
So I made a chilled sunchoke and dashi soup,
served with some summer vegetables
that have carrots, summer squash,
and a little bit of chervil,
and it's an honor to serve this whole table.
- Thank you, Paul. - Thank you.
- First spoonful I took of Paul's soup,
I thought it was actually salty.
- But it was so balanced
with the completely unseasoned vegetables.
All: Mm-hmm. - It was great.
- Paul's been actually cooking
more Thai food than anything else.
We haven't seen anything like this from him at all.
- This is everything that I've teached to Paul
over the years, is a balance of flavor and not overdoing it.
I'm smiling ear-to-ear.
- Wow, that's nice.
- Edward was green as green could be,
but he had that fire inside to,
like, "I'll show you, I'll show you,"
and now he's here.
So he's really determined.
I feel like my dish is strong, it's got lots of flavor,
and hopefully it shows enough to get to the next round.
Three, two, and one.
[Alarm sounding]
- Full plate.
- Hi, everyone. - Edward.
- That's for you, Frankie.
- [Laughing] Okay. Wow. - [Laughs]
- I braised some pork belly, and I paired it
with a smoked oyster cream.
There's a little strain of crispy skin.
Uh, pickles are celery, celery leaves, plums,
and radish, and then
a little braising juice to finish it off.
Enjoy.
- Ed packed this plate with a ton of flavor.
- He went back to his roots.
He really expressed what he likes to eat
and how he likes to prepare food.
Kind of like in-your-face type of a thing.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I'm just not a big fan of this particular oyster sauce at all.
- I like the pickles.
- I like the pickles, too. - I love the pickles.
- I think he should jar and sell them,
and I would be his best customer.
- Done. - It's done.
- Well, I think this was a wonderful meal.
Each one of these plates were just so special,
and so individual, that it was nice to have as a meal together.
- You know, the chefs actually did a great job.
Little mistakes here and there, but they're nervous,
and when you're nervous, it's--you know,
things are bound to happen, but for the most part,
they all did a great job, and you all
should be proud of them.
[Applause]
- You're only as good as your last dish,
and I really hope that Michelle's not like,
"Oh, my God, Lindsay totally bombed this."
[Overlapping congratulations]
- I love you very much. - Thanks so much.
- We'll see how it goes.
- I think you've got a lot of nerve to actually just
come in here with this soup.
- I really second-guessed everything I was doing.
- [Laughs]
- Ed's gonna start crying now.
- Oh, man.
- Did you want to see me cry?
You want to see me cry?
- [Laughs] - I can't--you know what--
I'm not a crier.
- You got close yesterday.
- Yeah, I got real close yesterday.
Yesterday our mentors came out,
everyone starts crying like a frickin' schoolchild.
Paul cried, you cried, you cr-- I couldn't cry.
This challenge is really making me
more emotional than I'm showing,
but I may be crying on the inside.
[Sobbing] I don't want to go home!
- [Laughs]
- I just don't want to go.
[Laughter]
- How many plating elements did you have on your plate?
- A lot, 'cause I had fish, clams, mussels,
and the couscous.
- He-ey! - Hi, guys.
How was the kitchen? Is it nice?
- Hot. What'd you do today?
- You look more rested.
- Yeah. [Laughter]
- You look good. [Laughter]
- It is daunting... - Yeah.
- What we've done.
One exhausting challenge after another.
- Well, the thing is, you have no idea what's coming next.
- We didn't know about this "last chef standing" thing.
I can't believe they were doing that the whole time.
- Good evening.
We'd like to see all of you.
Except for you, Sarah, you have the night off.
[Laughter]
- Let's go. - Bye, guys.
- Bye. - See you later.
[Suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Not only were we impressed,
but I think your mentors were really happy
to see how well you've done in the competition,
and overall, we just got some great food.
- Paul, was it nerve-wracking, cooking for Tyson?
- Yeah, it's always nerve-wracking.
And this table, it's just like, he's among other great chefs,
and, like, I don't want to make him look bad.
That's a lot of pressure, you know?
- Number one, I think you've got a lot nerve
to actually just come in here with this soup.
- [Laughs] - I think
the flavor in that dish,
it spoke to someone who has
a lot more experience than you have.
Young chefs don't understand restraint,
they want to add more,
and you knew that enough was enough,
and I gotta say, it was a very nice bowl of soup.
- Thank you, chef. Thank you.
- I couldn't believe how every bit of that soup, Paul,
gave me more and more flavor.
It was well-prepared, thoughtful food.
- Thank you so much.
- Bev?
- I was really proud to have Chef Sarah there.
It just felt back into my element,
and I think that's what Chef Sarah was talking about,
like, just go back to where you feel comfortable.
- You know, typically, when you're doing a stir-fry dish,
you do it for, like, maybe one or two people at a time.
How did you sort of deal with making it for eight people?
- I had two woks that I had really hot,
and just did two batches.
I was worried about plating, getting everything on the plate.
- Yeah, it's risky for so many reasons.
You can't go back and re-season it,
you can't go back and add a little and taste,
this is just, you got to go.
- And noodles, especially in a wok, when not cooked properly,
can be greasy, can be soggy.
There was none of that, and the flavors were so clear.
- Thank you.
- Beverly and Paul,
you served our favorite dishes of the evening.
Congratulations.
- [Laughs]
Both of you will be moving on to the finals,
and one of you will win an all-new Prius "V."
The winner is...
- Paul. - [Laughs]
- [Laughing] Oh.
- You got it. [Applause]
- Thank you.
I put my heart onto the plate, the judges enjoyed everything,
and I'm in the finals.
It's perfect. Thank you so much.
This challenge was just, like,
the reason why I wanted to do Top Chef in the beginning.
It's like, this is the kind of challenge
that just gets me, like, going.
Thank you so much. - You're welcome,
and to get you going a little more,
an all-new Prius "V."
Come up here and get your keys.
- Thank you.
Out of all the challenges, this is the challenge to win,
because I made my mentor proud.
- Bev, you are also moving on to the final rounds.
Congratulations. - [Laughing] Oh!
- Great job. - It's so much sweeter,
because I was at the bottom,
and then having the ability to rise,
um, it's awesome.
- Congratulations.
You both can leave the kitchen. Thank you.
- Thank you.
[Laughs] He won.
- Congratulations. - [Sighs]
So happy. - It's great.
- I made it to the final four.
I feel, like, the most amazing feeling of joy.
Yay! [Laughs]
- It is pretty ballsy, though, to do the--
- The wok. - The wok.
- What did they say about Ed and Lindsay?
- They--we didn't talk about 'em.
They just sent us away, and now it's just them two.
- Oh, my God, I'm so worried about them.
- Lindsay and Ed, only one of you
will be moving on to the final round,
and one of you will be going home.
- At this stage in this game,
you guys need to be inordinately proud
of how far you've come and the food you've cooked.
You're here for a reason,
and you're both awesome at what you do.
- When your dish, Lindsay, came to the table,
the aroma was intoxicating.
I thought you had a beautiful balance of seafood
on that plate. - Right.
- Why did you decide to add the cream to your dish?
- Because I was afraid that it needed a little bit of fat
to bring it together,
but I think it would have been fine,
'cause I ended up doing brown butter on the fish,
and it would have come together.
- The dried herb overtones, it just kind of,
pbbt, permeated everything. - Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah, it just blanketed everything, overall.
- You had this nice, beautiful, herbaceous sort of dish,
and then all of a sudden you started eating it,
and you get these dried herbs, and it was like--
and that was a mistake.
- I knew it as I was walking it out,
so that's the worst part. [Laughs]
- The fact that you did take this dish on,
I think impressed us all.
I'll tell you, I know Michelle has
an enormous amount of respect and love for you.
- No, I know.
[Laughing] I feel like such an idiot right now.
There's no crying in fine dining, right?
- Um, but I have had so much fun,
and met some really incredible people.
Um, I'd love to move on, and if not, [sniffs]
I've accomplished so much, and I'm okay with it.
- Ed, those pickles were insanely amazing.
The plums, celery, like, so genius.
Just the oyster sauce, something was slightly off about it,
I couldn't figure out if that was the best way.
- Ed, were those canned oysters?
- They were--they were smoked, yeah, smoked, canned--
- Yeah.
- There was not a single fresh oyster to be found.
At that point, I made a split--
- So you didn't have fresh oysters at all?
- No. - That's what that was.
- So-- - and just,
there were just so many things going on on the plate.
It was just a little busy.
Do you have a great dish somewhere in that dish?
Sure. You got a great thing going on somewhere in there,
but its cons kind of jumped up to the forefront.
- Frank--um--
- [laughing] What'd he say? - Had a huge smile on his face
when he was eating your dish.
He really was proud, and he was so glad
that he was seeing you really cook from your heart.
He loved it. - Thank you.
It was just nice to be able to show him what I'm doing now,
and this competition has opened up a lot of ideas for me,
and when I'm on the bottom I learn,
uh, when I'm on the top, I'm elated,
so it's been a great experience. I would love for it to continue.
- It's been great, and I mean that.
Uh, unfortunately,
only one of you can move on.
- We'll call you back in a bit. Thank you.
- Thanks. - Thank you.
You have any bourbon in your bag?
- Why are you crying? - I don't know.
- [Whispering] It's gonna be me, don't worry about it.
- No, either one of us.
- [Laughing] She's crying.
- Oh, my God.
- I lost my [bleep]. [Sniffs]
It was just too powerful. [Sighs]
It's not even about this [bleep],
I just didn't want to embarrass her, you know?
- You didn't, you didn't. - [Sobs]
- She just-- she just used dried herbs
instead of fresh herbs.
- Because I used the sage wrong.
- My dish, they were like, "I have no idea
how you came up with this, and what it means." [Laughs]
- [Laughs] - [Bleep], "B,"
give me some love. "B" me.
- [Sighs]
- It's really great to watch Beverly.
I mean, she was out of the competition.
She got back in through Last Chance Kitchen,
and she has her spot.
She cooked her way in, she did a great job.
- Mm-hmm. So Sarah, Paul, and Beverly have already moved on.
Now we just have to figure out who's joining them,
Ed or Lindsay.
- Both of those dishes really showed us
how much they've grown over the last several weeks,
and who they are right now, in terms of the flavors the use,
and a lot of the great technique that they used along with it.
- Right. - What I think, though,
is they over-thought, they did too much.
- Once you get to a certain point in your career,
you start doing your own thing,
and you sort of break away from your mentor.
Every chef needs to go through that,
and all of a sudden,
you have a challenge where your mentor's there,
and you're right back to where you were
a couple years ago. It's not surprising
some people break down. - Mm-hmm.
- Lindsay really pushed for Michelle.
- And I think she had a great vision
of what she wanted to do,
and then just took a number of missteps.
- She said she second-guessed herself the whole way through,
and it ended up that way on the plate.
- She knew that she'd made these mistakes,
and she didn't try to fix them
before she brought them to the table.
If I take Ed's dish and just remove that oyster sauce,
I think it would have played as an entirely different dish.
Those pickles were totally stellar,
I loved the pork crackling on top.
- The guy's great, he's just
a really busy-minded chef, though.
- I gotta say, I'm shocked to listen to him say
he goes to the market looking for fresh oysters,
and then, "Well, smoked's good enough.
Or canned, eh, we'll work with that."
It's not like someone put a gun to his head and said,
"You have to get those smoked oysters."
- Don't get fixated on the recipe.
You need to go to the store and figure out
what's great in the market, and then cook from there.
- One person does have to go home,
and I think we know who that person is.
- Yep.
[Suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- It's with difficult emotions for everybody here
that one of you will be leaving us.
- Ed,
please pack your knives and go.
- You deserve it.
[Muffled] Good luck.
- [Muffled response]
- You deserve it.
Thank you so much.
This has been an incredible experience.
It's the end of the road for me.
It's really difficult getting so close
and getting knocked out by Beverly
the last round before the finals.
It's a bad way to go.
Thank you.
- Lindsay, congratulations.
- Thank you.
I'm really excited that I made it to the final four.
It sucks that I end up on the bottom,
cooking for Michelle,
but I made it through, and I'm gonna bring it
even harder than I've done before.
- That's what I'm gonna look forward to, eventually.
- Oh. - Oh, Ed.
- I knew it was me. - All right.
- Thank you.
It's ironic that I idolize Ed so much
and I made it past him.
- See you in Kentucky. Lindsay, you did a great job.
- Thank you.
- Whether I was up or down,
the competition is what drives you as a chef,
and I loved it.
- We're gonna drink lots of bourbon.
- We'll do that. I had to come
and just see what I was made of,
and I'm glad I did, because I stacked up pretty well
against some pretty heavy hitters.
- Cheers to you guys. - Cheers.
- You four deserve to be in the finale.
I look forward to some incredible food,
and cheers. I wish you all the best of luck.
- Cheers, Ed. Both: Thanks, Ed.
- Later, Ed.
- First, to Ed. All: To Ed.
- And second, to the final four.
- The last four remaining.
- I know I could have done better.
I think I should have gotten to the finale,
but I'll carry that on with me, and I'll use that
as a force to sort of make me a better chef.
== sync by elderman ==
- Next on Top Chef...
- You're gonna get a little motion sickness.
- Oh, boy.
- Hi, chefs. Welcome to British Columbia.
- This is the most peaceful it's gonna be.
[Grunting]
- Bev, be careful with that spike.
- Oh!
[Gunshot]
- I'm doing a dish I've never done before.
- You had to work a little harder
to find the flavors.
For information on visiting Texas,
click the Texas link at bravotv.com/topchef.
- [Giggles]