- This season on Top Chef:
29 chefs arrived in San Antonio for the biggest showdown ever.
- Can you believe it?
- Why are you playing with a ing plastic spoon?
Get rid of that, get rid of that.
- You went there. - This is--
- You love driving the bus, hitting people.
- Let Paul do it, and let one person stay doing it.
- This is the hardest thing I've ever done.
- We love you.
- Now only two chefs remain.
- I did well in Texas.
- The person we felt hit it out of the park was Paul.
- Paul. - That'd be Paul's.
- Thank you so much.
There's been a lot of battles won,
but it's about winning the war.
- Welcome to Whistler. Welcome to British Columbia.
- Paul's the favorite to win, but I'm kind of on a roll here.
- Sarah. - Oh, my God!
This is the kind of momentum I need to win this thing.
So I would be nervous if I was him.
- You can win this. I think you will win.
- At stake for the winner,
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 9x17 ♪ Finale Original Air Date on February 29, 2012
== sync by elderman ==
You should feel very proud of yourselves.
You made it to the finale.
Only one challenge remains
for the grand prize of $125,000,
furnished by Healthy Choice,
and the title of Top Chef.
- We want you to create a four-course tasting menu
in the restaurant of your dreams.
- Okay.
- You'll be cooking at two of Vancouver's finest restaurants,
- We're really looking forward to what's coming next.
- Thank you.
- See you tomorrow for the final details.
- Good night. - Night.
- This is the goal that I had the entire competition.
I even pushed back my wedding with Jamie.
I'm ready to win this title of Top Chef.
The sous-chefs... Think it's gonna be the 29?
- No, 16. - I ing love Heather.
- Yeah. - Of course, Grayson.
- Nyesha, she's a rock star in the kitchen too.
- Yeah. You know, I'd like to see Keith.
- Dude, I love Keith.
- Malibu Chris. - Yeah.
And he's so beautiful.
- I don't even know if I can cook around him, he's so hot.
- Welcome to Vancouver. - Thank you.
- Some of you competed in this season,
and some of you just missed the final 16.
- Beverly, do you know how to open this?
- I'm not sure. I'm sorry. - No?
- What happened?
- I lost the tip on the foamer.
- Please pack your knives and go.
- Much love to y'all.
- And joining us are two of the best chefs in the country,
Barbara Lynch of No. 9 Park in Boston
and Marco Canora of Hearth in New York City.
All of you will be competing
to be one of the sous-chefs for the final two.
- Whoa.
Marco is a iconic figure,
and I have followed him for a very long time.
For the two finalists,
having the master chef on the team is super valuable.
- You'll have 45 minutes to create a dish.
Your time starts now. Good luck.
- Behind you.
- Sorry.
- How 'bout we get these burners cranking?
- I smell bacon. - Smells good.
Feels like the old days.
- Oh, yeah, my back's already sweating.
30 minutes!
- I hope they'll bring Lindsay and Beverly back
'cause they're monsters. - Yeah.
- I kind of need that. - Take it off.
- I'll just want it just a moment,
real quick, then you can have it.
The first round, nobody got the full picture of Tyler Stone.
I don't see a tailbone there. - Yeah, it's all cut up.
- There's no way that this is going to get through.
Pack up your knives, and you can go.
- Yeah, okay.
I don't care who I'm going up against.
I'm not intimidated in the slightest.
Think we're cooking for a small army.
- Yeah, man.
What's the matter, babe?
- I need butter. - There's butter.
- Where? - It's in there.
- Hey, buddy. - Hey, buddy.
- Those are pretty. - You're pretty.
- Somebody's got something in the fryer that's burning.
- Always something in the fryer that's burning.
- It's hard to write the menu. I want to do so many things.
- And you don't want to do,
like, your ten menus into four dishes.
- Absolutely not.
- I'm probably more nervous than Sarah is at this point.
Should we get going? - Absolutely.
- Throughout the competition, a big fear of mine was
to choke and not finish, but I've just got to make sure
that I stay focused and finish strong.
- Two minutes even. - You've heard that before.
- Okay.
- Grayson, you got flour on everything.
- You talking about me?
- You okay? - Yeah.
- Come on, Colin.
- All right!
- There we go.
- Here they come.
- Please welcome the final two.
- Yay!
- My biggest surprise is seeing contestants from the Alamo,
Tyler, Ashley, and Colin,
who I never thought I'd ever see again.
- Are you ready to pick your souses?
- Sure.
Barbara Lynch and Marco Canora both have James Beard awards.
This is craziness.
- In front of you are 11 dishes.
Pick your favorite four,
and those chefs will be your sous-chefs
in each of your restaurants.
Start tasting.
- I don't know why I'm shaking, but I am.
- I'm shaking too. It's not just you.
- I'm, like, so nervous. - I'm shaking.
- I made a Asian-inspired dish
to try and lure Paul into choosing me.
- Are you both ready?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Paul, you won the last challenge, so you'll pick first.
- Butter soup, shellfish, milk, honey, caviar.
- Wow.
- I'm really excited about having a master chef on my team.
But the challenge of dealing with a master chef
is that they're the sous-chef, and it could get awkward.
- Halibut, green lentils, and pomegranate.
I'm so happy that I have Nyesha
because she's amazing at sauce-making,
which is crucial for the team.
- Buckwheat noodles with local shellfish.
- Nice. - Nice to help you, chef.
I really want Heather.
I know her dish is the dumplings, and then I go,
"Oh, , that scallop with the raisin and the curry--
"That's a dish on her menu.
Oh, my God, is she trying to tell me that that's hers?"
Sea scallops with the raisin citrus sauce.
- Yeah.
- I'm not letting you butcher.
- I think I'll do just fine,
but I look forward to working with you.
- Welcome. - Absolutely.
- Uh-oh.
- Think I'm going to go with the lamb
with the blueberry mustard and crispy parsnip.
It's good to have Chris Crary on the team.
His food always looks pretty. He has a delicate touch.
- I'm going to go with chicken, black pepper,
buttermilk dumplings.
I'm so happy. Heather was a pastry chef.
And she can definitely run a kitchen.
- Congratulations.
- Okay, Paul, this is your last pick.
- I'm going to go with dungeness crab.
- Sarah, who's it gonna be?
- Uh, pasta carbonara with fried brussels sprouts.
Yay!
Silly, it was me, yay. - Oh.
This is restaurant wars again, girls versus boys.
- We have Tyler. - We have Tyler.
- Jeez, one guy and four women. - Oh, come on.
- Trust me, you'll be fine. - Oy.
- Both of you missed out
on one of the best chefs in the country,
who made the salmon. - Damn.
- But Marco will be joining us for dinner tomorrow night.
Thank you all for being here. - Thank you.
- Bye, chefs. Thank you.
- Paul and Sarah, you'll have six hours today
to prep and cook in your restaurants.
- Okay.
- And then you'll have an additional three hours
tomorrow before 100 guests and judges arrive.
- Whew. - We'll see you tomorrow.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
So this is what I was thinking.
- This is our last time we're going to cook,
and it has to be no drama.
Fun. - Right.
- This is me taking my German side
with my Italian side, and really making it my own.
I have to do food that is
totally outside of my comfort zone,
because if you're not going to push some limits,
then I don't deserve to be here.
- What I'm thinking-- it's gonna be
maybe a more southeast Asian twist on it.
So the way that plate's going to look--
- Can you do, like, kale and nuts?
Or, like, sesame seeds,
kind of toast the sesame seeds or--
- Right, we--yeah, we can try to do sesame seeds.
I'll try that out.
- I'm completely honored to be able to cook
with Chef Barbara Lynch.
But there's no way that I would allow a chef
to get in the way of what I set out to accomplish.
- Have you guys pickled vegetables
where you put it in the saline?
- Sous-vide them. Do a quicker version.
A little fresher. - I never sous-vide it.
- Yeah, but then you have to worry about timing the oven.
- I know, but it makes me-- - You don't have to do it.
I'm just telling you, it works great.
You'll never overcook it.
- I will never forgive myself if I went with it and I lost.
I cannot believe the balls on Tyler.
I just don't feel comfortable coming into something new
with somebody who didn't make it past the first challenge.
This is not the time to do new you don't know.
No.
- How thick do you want the wedges?
How much celery do you want me to do?
Is there a vacuum machine? I-I'll prep one--
- Just chop the celery. - So old-schoo
- Thank God we're not having to buy plants.
Wow, look at these.
Granville Market-- it's, like, actually an island
underneath this huge bridge that connects Vancouver.
It is so cool.
Tyler, did you find the pumpernickel by chance?
- I haven't yet. I haven't seen the bread.
What about chocolate? - White.
- That's the kale I was looking for. It's gorgeous.
- Would you sell us some prosciutto fat?
- Do you have white chocolate?
- With Tyler, my strategy is to give him
precise things to do.
- Sarah, they have lardo and spot prawns down here.
- Yes, nice job, Tyler!
I'm trying to make him feel like
he's part of the group and to get him to feel
like I actually give a.
Great. All right, Sarah.
- Crab. Three's plenty.
- So three's gonna be okay? - Yeah, we'll do three.
Oh, those are good.
- Think I should pick up prawns?
Or stick to the plan? - Stick to the plan.
- Don't deviate, don't deviate.
- If you want to win, just don't start making things up.
You know, be confident in what you're doing.
- I'm thinking about the shrimp on the congee.
Slow-scrambled eggs. That--you got the rice.
I decide to get the shrimp just in case.
It doesn't matter if I have a plan
'cause I'm always looking for the best option.
- Do you have everything?
- Do we want to get the persimmons here also?
I really want persimmons for the veal cheek.
I think that it's not a common pairing.
So can I get some of these soft ones?
This is what this is about.
Do things that the judges haven't seen.
- Have a good day. - Thank you.
- Found the receipt. - Thank you.
- It's chilly here in Canada.
- Keep going, going, going. - Yeah.
- This is six pounds. - Perfect.
- Okay. - Oh, that works.
I started cooking late in the game.
After I failed out of college,
my parents were really disappointed in me.
But winning this would prove to my parents that
I can follow through and actually succeed in something.
Four, five, six.
- Whoo! That was fun, ladies.
All right, guys, let's go.
We run into Black + Blue, and I have a lot on my plate.
My head is definitely going 80,000 ways.
Is this it? - Yup, we're good.
- I know that I can't make every single thing for this meal.
- Just want to get all this stuff going,
and then I'm going to jump on those with you.
- What I can do is lead the team
to make them as if it was me making it.
We're gonna ing kill it, ladies and gents.
- Chefs, if you guys have a question,
I'm putting the master menu right here.
I'm definitely excited to be cooking at Coast.
- You wanna give me a demo on the radishes?
- Done.
My style of cooking is Japanese with an Asian influence.
Try to keep as much of the green as possible.
It concerns me a little bit that none of my chefs
know what type of food I'm doing.
Let's do this size. - Okay.
- I'm going to have to watch them closely.
- It's a little sweet. I'm gonna go add some water.
- Yeah.
- My first course is going to be chawanmushi with crab.
Chawanmushi is a steamed egg custard.
My second course is going to be grilled loup de mer
with honshimeji mushrooms.
Hey, do you guys think I should do the eggs today,
or should I do them tomorrow?
- How about we crack them today? - Yeah, crack 'em today?
- Get 'em cracked and in a bowl. - Perfect.
My third course is going to be congee
with slow-scrambled eggs, fresh uni, and fried kale.
Wow, that thing froze fast, huh?
My fourth course is coconut ice cream
with some kumquat confit and puffed wild rice.
- Delish. - You like?
- Okay, you want to save all the shells, right?
- Yes. - Great.
- My first course is a squid ink pasta
with a spot prawn tartare.
- That's a trout? - Yeah.
- This is going with the pumpernickel?
- Yes. - All right.
- Second course is a rye-bread crusted steelhead trout.
My third course is veal cheeks and sweetbreads.
- Kumquat and ice cream base are both done, Sarah.
- Yeah!
The dessert is hazelnut cake, roasted white chocolate,
and a peppermint ice cream.
I want 110 nice pieces.
It's so comforting to have my girls.
They're rocking it.
Is that the big piece or the little piece?
- Big piece.
- You guys are ing awesome.
- Are those the onions from my list or--
you want me to rinse those?
You wanna do the creme anglaise in the circulator bath?
Let it cook? - No.
- You don't have to stir it. - No.
Sorry, Tyler. - You're so old-school.
- No matter how hard I try to keep Tyler
wrangled in with the team, he's, like, in another land.
- How thick do you want the wedges?
How much celery do you want me to do?
Is there a vacuum machine?
- "How much do you want? Is this enough?
What do you think?" Just chop the celery.
- 29 minutes.
It fits, it's just--.
- I don't want to leave nothing out.
- It's good. Really good.
Sarah and I-- we've had our tiffs,
but at the end of the day, she is an amazing chef
as well as person.
I would love to help her win.
- Let's go, guys.
- Great job, you guys.
- Here's to America's next Top Chef.
- Ha, thank you.
- Hey, chefs. - How's it going, chefs?
- After the prep, Paul and I go see Tom and Emeril
to taste some Terlato wines to pair with our dishes.
- Do you have much experience with pairing?
- I like to drink.
- I have less experience than her when it comes down to it.
- I like to pair.
- Two caps, barrel select.
A more Bordeaux style.
- Think I'm gonna go with the Chardonnay.
- I think I'm gonna go with one of the cabs.
Any advice for both of us tomorrow?
- I would definitely take a snapshot of restaurant wars.
- Absolutely. I regret restaurant wars.
'Cause I should have been a team leader,
but I didn't step up till the end
'cause I didn't want to step on anybody's toes.
You think you can handle tickets?
- Sure.
- Oh,.
We forgot the mushrooms on the salmon.
Whatever. What's done is done.
Now that I'm here in Vancouver,
my strategy to make this restaurant successful is just
definitely take a strong lead right from the beginning.
- Bye. - Okay, chefs.
We'll be cracking the whip.
- I'm holding steady at this moment.
Emotionally.
- Okay. - So--
we're back in the suite
and I called my fiance Jamie
because this is an emotional roller coaster,
and he has that calming nature.
Drinking at a bar by yourself when I'm here?
Almost a full year Top Chef has been all I've thought about,
and he's supported me this whole way.
- Good night. I love you no matter what.
- Thank you. I love you too.
- All right. - Bye.
This is real deal, ladies and gents.
I have three hours to cook today for 100 people.
This is not a lot of time.
Tyler, you're gonna start peeling all those celery stalks.
My boy Tyler Stone's in dress pants and dress shoes.
What is he doing? Does he know he's gonna cook?
Cool? - Yeah.
- Great.
You don't need a ton of sauce, you know?
- Yeah.
Sarah is a natural-born leader.
She runs one of the most amazing restaurants in Chicago.
I think our team is going to take it.
- Hey, Grayson, have you given that a stir by chance?
- I got you, girl.
This ain't my first rodeo, Sarah Jane.
- First thing, guys, you know what we need?
Put up your bags.
You're on sauce. Grill.
First thing, grab the eggs, Keith, and grab the dashi.
Chris, you're going to need eggs as well.
Right when we walk in the restaurant,
I assign stations.
Keith's gonna help with the chawanmushi,
Chef Barbara Lynch is gonna do dessert.
I have Ty on fish and Chris on congee.
I just want you to kind of pull it apart gently.
These are roasted in foie fat. - Right.
- I just want them shocked in ice water to crisp them up.
Stir, stir, stir, throw the eggs in,
stir, stir, stir, done.
- Working with Paul in the kitchen is amazing.
He's got his passion, drive, wisdom,
and I'm very proud to have this opportunity.
Oh, that's how you wanna do?
- We in business.
Ah, breathe it in.
- Behind.
- Tyler, make sure that you're doing everything
as efficiently as possible.
We're going to need you to help do other things
besides just the dessert when it's done prep.
- Yeah, I know, I'm gonna be done this in five minutes.
- Okay. - All right, ladies.
Two hours!
- Wow, 45 minutes goes by quickly, doesn't it?
- Hot behind you. - Oui, chef.
You have a hot behind. Heard.
- Heard on that. - Heard on hot behind.
- Double check? - Triple check.
All hands on deck.
- Hmm.
The crab sat overnight, and it has a little odor to it.
- What happened? The crab taste all right still?
- So we have to change the game plan.
- Crab tastes all right still?
I check on the crab,
and I taste it, and it doesn't taste good.
So I've gotta go to plan "B."
Let's grab the spot prawns. - Yes, sir.
- Thank God that I've got shrimp, just backup.
You don't flinch at these kinds of problems.
When they come, they come, and you find a solution for 'em.
We'll just get them all peeled.
- How's it going? - I'm almost done.
Just trying to do it so it's more smooth, you know?
- Then do it in the mixer.
- No, mixer doesn't work well, 'cause--
- I've done it with a mixer every time.
- No, trust me, it's super smooth when you do it this way,
so you're going to have the perfect texture.
- Okay. - What in the hell?
Tyler is definitely moving at his own pace,
which I think is highly inappropriate.
So we're gonna jam out with our clams out,
and Tyler's gonna do what he does.
That's all I got.
- I'm planning on expediting from the inside of the line.
So one guy stationed here. Sounds good?
Thank you, guys.
- One hour till tasting.
- Fire in the hole.
Once the door's open, you're open.
And with service, you can't go back.
You can't take back what the guest is eating.
- Are you happy? - I want more foie fat.
- Less aggressive, more aggressive?
- It's good.
- Keith, get that station cleaned up.
- You will be the maitre d' for the night,
so you're going to be up front.
Table 30's gonna be VIP.
- That was only 6 pieces. 9,000 to go.
- We're gonna kill it, we're gonna kill it.
This is the most important service of my life.
It's time to show that you're Top Chef.
All right.
We're open. Let's go.
- Hi. - How are you?
- Good.
- Looks good.
- This is what we do, and this is how we do it.
Make it happen.
The service starts,
and I just have butterflies in my stomach.
But I'm going to use my nerves to my advantage.
You guys are badass, dude. Let's kick ass.
- Welcome to Qi, guys. - Yes.
- I like the menu. It's nice and clean.
- But yeah, there's no meat,
and there's two egg courses and two fish courses.
- Unusual choice.
- Okay, judges are in.
- Keith, I need five VIPs please.
- Heard.
- The chawanmushi looks perfect.
Texture looks good. It's nice and jiggly.
And it's exactly how it's supposed to be.
- Looking nice to you? - They look good.
- Hi, Paul.
I'd like to introduce you to our chefs and judges.
Chef Marco Canora from Hearth restaurant in New York City.
- Good to see you again.
- Chef Mark McEwan, head judge of Top Chef Canada.
You know Tom Colicchio, our head judge.
And Cat Cora, co-host of Bravo's new competition show
Around the World in 80 Plates.
- Good to see you again, chef.
For the first course, I have some chawanmushi.
I used edamame, pea shoots, and spot prawns.
Enjoy. - Great.
- Looks nice, texture-wise.
- It is wiggling beautifully.
It has a really, really pleasant flavor profile.
He seems to really know his ingredients.
- There's just such a delicious saltiness to it.
- Mm-hmm, the edamame in there is nice.
I'll finish whatever. You know me.
- I think it's just a really nice opener to the meal.
- Good evening.
Thank you.
- Beautiful, Grayson. Beautiful.
- Hello. - How are you?
- Welcome to Monte Verde.
- This really looks interesting, this menu.
There's a few words in here
that wouldn't necessarily be in her repertoire,
like dashi.
- To another wonderful finale.
- Cook, are you almost ready?
- I was just gonna let it cook for a second in the sauce.
- Oh, my God, so good. - yeah!
- All right, guys, I'm going on, judges' table.
Let's go quick, quick, quick.
- Hi, Sarah. - Hi.
- I'd like to introduce you to your judges.
Returning judge Emeril Lagasse.
Hugh Acheson.
Bill Terlato, CEO of Terlato Wines.
David Meyers, chef and founder of Comme Ca restaurant.
- Hi, chef. - Nice to meet you.
The first course is a squid ink tagliatelle
served with spot prawns and fresh coconut.
- Great. - Enjoy.
- Delicious.
- I was really worried about
the different regions represented.
You have the coconut, and you have the shiso,
but it is just so perfectly pulled together.
- I really like the color contrast in the pasta,
and I thought the flavors really worked well together in it.
It's delicious.
- Is this the judges'? - Going right now.
- I think I want a little more fennel.
- Okay. - All of these are judges'.
Five. Nice job, Nyesha.
Second course is a rye-crusted steelhead trout.
It's served with a caramelized fennel sauce,
pickled beets, and then gras pista,
which is whipped lardo.
- Thank you.
I love Sarah's trout. I love the crust.
A lot of fennel.
- But the beets on Sarah's dish here are just raw.
- They might not have been pickled enough.
- I like the idea of using the rye as the crust.
I think that's really cool.
- Chef, they'd like to speak to you at table 30.
- All right, I might have to go off.
- There he is. - Oh,.
- Hi, pa. Hi, ma.
I'm pretty shocked. It's Deena, my girlfriend,
my mom, and my dad.
And my dad's just beaming with a huge smile.
- Were you surprised? - Yeah, I'm surprised.
You're crying.
Why are you crying?
- It put me at ease, and it got me
fired up to win this thing.
- Aww, so cute. He cried.
- That's my dad, my mom, and my girl.
- Oh, my God. - Nice.
- Wow, really? - Yeah.
These portions are the judges' portions.
- Oui, chef. - They're good to go.
- Ooh, that looks beautiful.
- This is grilled loup de mer,
with clam dashi, picked radishes, and mushrooms.
- Lovely. - Thank you.
- Paul has a great aesthetic eye.
You know, the pink and the scores on the mushroom,
and it's just very beautiful to look at.
- The broth was really aromatic.
You had good contrast of the smokiness
and the salty from the clams.
It's hard to fault this.
- It's so nice. Anything else?
- Needs a little salt.
Congee for the judges. All these go out.
- Well, here's our third course.
- For this course, it's congee with slow-scrambled eggs,
uni, purple kale, fried green kale, and smoked albacore.
- This course is good.
It's not as interesting as the other courses.
The texture of the rice and the fish, they're very similar.
- Course, I thought the taste of albacore was amazing,
especially with that little bit of zest on it.
I would just--I don't see where it fits in the menu.
- I don't know if it was a home run,
but it was definitely a triple.
- Should we fire our sweetbreads?
- Sure. You have no idea,
I think I'm gonna throw up everywhere.
- You're okay.
- The dish that I feel like I'm taking the biggest chance
with is the third course, veal cheeks and sweetbreads.
- I don't like the polenta. It's weird to me.
I think it's, like, really chunky.
The polenta and the persimmon sauce
do not look awesome on the plate.
- It's got a good nutty texture.
- Five for the judges.
- Do not carry three plates, please, do not carry three.
This dish is a braised veal cheek
and crispy veal sweetbread.
Thank you. - Thank you, Sarah.
- That veal cheek is luscious.
- The polenta underneath reminds me of breakfast porridge
and I want to put some cranberries
and some maple syrup on it.
- Brown butter and the cinnamon really, really work for me.
- I'm not big on the texture though.
- These look really nice.
- You want it right here? - Yeah.
Just right in a diagonal.
It's a hazelnut cake, served with candied kumquat.
It's a roasted white chocolate ganache.
Thank you.
- The white chocolate-- what an incredible surprise.
- Well, 'cause it's not really white chocolate.
She turned it into caramel. - Which is brilliant
and something I'm sure that
we're gonna have fun ripping off over the next few years.
- That's the best course.
- The chocolate's lovely. It is the best course.
- Sarah's meal was really, really spot-on.
Dessert? Over the top.
- I think, overall, incredible. I mean, really incredible.
You see strokes of genius throughout this menu.
- Let's go to Paul's restaurant.
- The first service winds down, and I am really upset
that the texture of the polenta and the buckwheat don't match.
I grab the Anolon pans.
I start to cook the persimmon down.
It's too...Chunky.
And add a touch of cream and blend it.
- How is it? It's good? - It's, like, smooth now.
I want the next judges to really get the dish.
These look really nice, Grayson.
- It's just too cold right now.
It just needs a temp burn.
The goal for the ice cream is to make sure
that it's light and fluffy.
Liquid nitrogen can freeze it and make it soft
without making it too sweet.
- Oh, there you go.
- Booyah!
Got the mangosteen on there? - Yes, yep, yep, yep, yep.
- Can I get a runner? All these to the judges.
- All right, dessert.
- For dessert, coconut ice cream with puffed wild rice,
candied kumquats, some mangosteen,
Thai chili foam, and a little bit of jasmine gelee.
Enjoy. - It's beautiful.
The foam is spicy.
- Wow, that foam is no joke right there.
- Your first mouthful is a power punch,
and the puffed rice has a nice contrast.
Beautiful. - Very delicate.
- But there's some boldness to it, yeah.
- It was a sexy meal. - Yeah.
- It was-- - it was a sexy meal.
That's a good way of putting it. - It was.
- I gotta say, Paul really knocked it out of the park.
And hopefully Sarah can do the same.
- You better be buying me something.
- I was worried, working with Barbara Lynch.
It was definitely awkward at first
for her to play the sous-chef and for me to play the chef,
but she has been a big asset on my team.
Up there.
- Oh, my God.
I'm going to lose if I serve the judges
a piece of fish with bones in it.
- You think there's a bone in it? - - Those tiny little.
- Table upstairs--they really, really, really want to see you.
- All right, guys. I'll be right back.
- You got it, you guys.
- Oh, my God! Oh, my God, I'm going to cry.
Oh! - So good to see you.
- I see my family, my fiance,
and then it was, like, over from there.
- I love you.
Oh, my God.
Mom. Aww.
I loved that feeling of seeing
my mom so proud of me.
- I love you.
- My mom raised me as a single mother.
I grew up with her having to work long hours,
lots of traveling, and really doing it just for me.
And I would not be here if it wasn't for her today.
When did y'all get in?
- Um, yesterday. - Yesterday.
- I guess--it seems like we've been here awhile
but just yesterday.
- I can't believe y'all are here.
All right. Enjoy, guys.
It was my mom, Jamie, Jamie's mom,
- and my best friend Rob. - Aww!
- Oh, man.
- Thank you.
- First course goes out to the second set of judges,
and I hope they're going to love it.
This is a tagliatelle neri. Enjoy.
- She was able to infuse coconut in a way
that is really an accomplishment.
- Yeah, mm-hmm. - You do get a richness from it.
It's actually a very, very successful dish.
- It's fabulous. - How's the meal?
- Good, awesome. - Fish?
- Oh, my God. - Pasta?
- We love the rye bread. - Perfect.
- Oh, my God.
I'm going to lose if I serve the judges
a piece of fish with bones in it.
That's, like, Culinary 101.
You think there's a bone in it?
- Those tiny little , man.
- One service is pretty close,
so I tell Keith to fire off a bunch of the chawanmushis.
And they end up being overcooked.
It's all. I got no choice now.
I can't get mad at Keith because I trained Keith,
and I can't make a new batch of chawanmushi
because I don't have any more eggs.
They're all the same.
We just got to use these. - Okay.
And I'm just thinking, ", I'm going to go down for this."
- What's up? - How's it going back there?
- Service so far has been smooth I think up until right now.
Yeah.
Well, it's good to see you.
- Thank you, thank you.
- I had such high hopes for this dish,
but the texture of this is not great.
- It had very long chives. They were kind of a tangled mess.
- And I think that the bun is overcooked as well.
- Five fish.
- Five.
- The fish is perfectly cooked. - Mm-hmm.
- Perfectly cooked but it's underseasoned.
- The rye crust was extraordinary.
- They couldn't have been more perfect.
- Yeah, good. - Incoming, incoming.
- Sarah's veal-- I think everything kind of had
that deep richness.
- It just needed a crunch of some kind.
Other than that, I'd be happily paying for that dish
in a restaurant.
- I rehydrated the straw mushrooms
and a little bit of the dashi. - Perfect.
- Oh, we're turning it around.
- Paul's dish is cooked perfectly.
- And I love the skin. It's so crispy.
- The broth is delicious.
- I think this is my favorite dish so far.
That's a load of uni right there.
I need these to go now.
- He's nailing richer contrast, textural contrast.
- I don't think I've ever tasted anything that has approached
what this is before.
- It looks really nice.
Tyler, you're doing great, by the way.
- I think Sarah delivered a great dessert.
- It has a bitterness to it, which I actually think helps
break up the sweetness. - Yeah.
- All right.
- So six more desserts after this and we're done.
- I think the coconut's very refreshing.
- I don't know the process of how you puff the rice,
but it almost seems like it's a little overdone.
- Thank you, guys.
- Thank you. - Thank you, sir.
- Thank you. - Congratulations.
- My pleasure. - Good job, top chefs.
- Yeah. - Good job. Good job.
- When service ends, it's really important
for my parents to be proud of me.
They've always been nothing but supportive,
and this is something that I can do to give back.
That would mean everything to me.
- Congratulations, Paul.
- Everything went right.
- It was great.
At this point, the fate's in the judges' hands.
Hopefully, they'll see that I deserve to be Top Chef.
- I think we should head to Rocky Mountaineer
'cause we have a lot to discuss.
- Bill. - See you.
♪ ♪
- Sarah and Paul, I think in nine seasons,
including All-Stars,
this is the best food we've ever seen in a finale.
Ah.
- It was exciting, so thanks.
- I feel really good standing up here
for the first time, actually.
Heh!
I feel like I poured, you know,
a big part of me into this and, um,
I tell you, I feel that, I guess, I mean, that menu--
I don't even sound confident right now.
I'm back--I'm back to nervous Paul. I'm sorry.
But, um...
Yeah, I feel that it represents a lot of me
and what I like to do and what I love.
- Sarah.
- I'm very proud that I had a mom
who was a single mother who pushed me
to be a successful woman on my own
and to know that I had to fight for that,
so it would be a huge thank-you being named Top Chef.
- You know, there are moments when you're eating a meal
and you come across a dish that is so out of the blue
yet somehow feels like
you can't believe it wasn't thought of before.
Your pasta dish, Sarah, was exactly that dish.
To put a tartare over pasta,
it really made sense.
- The fish, for me, was perfectly cooked,
and I loved the crust,
but the beet was a little bit too raw.
- How did you prepare them?
- Just let 'em basically marinate
in the cooler overnight.
- So no cooking. - No cooking.
- They were a little bitter,
but all this is splitting hairs.
- Got it.
- It was the one dish in your repertoire
that was kind of like, eh.
- The cheeks were perfectly cooked,
nicely glazed, ton of flavor.
The dashi came through on the finish.
I thought that was a big risk. I think it paid off.
The sweetbreads--I thought they were a little dry.
- The polenta didn't work for me.
- Halfway through the meal, I ended up blending it,
and it was smooth and it was perfect,
so I wish I could have had that for the first seating.
- We had very-- two very different dishes,
which is okay. - Absolutely.
- I mean, we're very glad
we were in the second seating.
- Dessert--I thought it was your dish of the night.
I thought everything married well.
I thought I saw your career in it.
It was awesome. - Thank you, chef.
I hate white chocolate.
- And I thought this was the best dessert I've probably had
in all the seasons of Top Chef.
- Nice.
Thank you.
Wow.
- Paul.
- The whole menu-- I wanted to do
something more focused on seafood,
so I started off with the chawanmushi.
I just wanted something really warm and comforting.
- I was sort of blown away by it.
It was so silky smooth, it was like glass,
and the spot prawn was still quivering.
- Barely cooked, yeah.
- Which is exactly how you want it to be.
- Thank you.
- I think universally at our table,
they were overcooked.
- I totally agree, chef.
I was definitely a little frustrated
and a little rattled
when I brought that out to you guys.
- What happened there?
- There was a certain batch
that some of them slightly overcooked.
- I wish the three over here got what we got
for the first course because it was exceptional.
- Paul, you nailed the fish. It was great.
Everything else melded really well.
The earthiness in the mushrooms was great.
The dashi was beautifully clear.
I thought it was a stellar dish.
- Thank you, chef.
- This brilliant broth lifted the whole dish
and all of the components, like, to the moon.
- Thank you, chef.
- Your congee--I thought it showed great confidence
to put this long leek just sitting there.
- I wasn't quite sure how it worked in the progression
of the whole menu.
- I disagree in that way.
I thought that it had an inherent richness
that was important after the fish course,
and I thought the smoked fish
mimicked the richness of meats in that way.
- Thank you, chef.
- I really loved the dessert.
I liked it because I don't-- I don't care for sweet desserts,
and this was--it's like another savory course.
- Yeah.
- I thought the textures were great on it.
Could have been my favorite course of the night.
- Thank you, chef.
- Walk through the puffed rice.
- You just boil the wild rice
and just deep-fry it at a really high temp.
- Probably more crunch than you probably wanted.
- Whatever happens here, you both did an amazing job.
- Thank you, chef. - Thank you.
That'll be all for now.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Thank you, chefs. - Thank you, chefs.
- Wow.
- Oh, my goodness.
- The highlight of my night
was my dad, like, smiling.
It's been a while since he's been proud of me like that.
- Yeah, my mom was crying, and I just liked
that they could come into this world for a minute.
- Both these chefs did an amazing job tonight.
- Both Paul and Sarah really just peaked at the right time.
Just two very special meals.
The difficulty is that it sounds like we had
a very different first course.
- There was something about Sarah's pasta
that was really unique.
It had so much flavor,
but it also had a lot of refinement and finesse.
- Paul's custard that we had-- it was a failure.
Mine was overcooked.
- God, I just wish you guys
didn't get that custard like that.
Jeez. For me, it was almost a toss-up here.
The pasta, you know, may have a slight edge.
- I mean, to have them say such great things
about my first course is great.
That sets the tone for the whole meal.
- Sarah's fish with that rye crust
was perfectly cooked.
On the other hand, Paul's broth,
I'm still tasting it.
- Paul had flavors going on
that were complex yet separated.
Everything sung on that dish.
- Third course, I think, is the hardest to decide.
It sounds like Sarah fixed some of the parts,
but if she had just left the cheeks on their own,
she might have been better off.
- It was all very one-note. Everything was soft.
- But I gotta say, the congee-- was it really that great?
- I think it was. - You thought so?
- Yeah, I thought he nailed it.
- I liked both desserts.
However, my palate is telling me something
that I'd want again--
Sarah's dessert is doing that for me.
From the hazelnut cake to the roasted white chocolate,
it was really delicious.
- When I think back to both experiences,
Paul's dessert woke me up.
It was refreshing and juicy and sweet and spicy.
- He took a lot of risk too, to put chilis with that,
and I think it paid off.
- But I just think Sarah just had a beautiful dish.
Hazelnut cake is not an easy cake to nail like that.
- I think Tom liked your dishes better.
- Padma liked your dishes better.
- What we saw from Paul is what Paul does every day.
I think Sarah took a lot more risks.
- Overall, it think he sweated the details a little better.
- Yes.
- Those little, tiny details that make everything memorable,
I think that's what he excelled at.
The real difficulty here is that they were both so good,
you don't want to see one lose.
- Not for these meals.
- It was that good. - Yeah.
- This is it.
Nice job. - Nice job.
What's done is done.
- I don't know how it'll go.
It could go either way.
- You should just hit up that, uh, rum.
You've been eyeing it.
- Are you gonna do one with me?
- I'll do one. It's the good stuff.
There you go.
Here's-- - to the two Top Chef finalists.
- Cheers.
- Oh, jeez. Whoo!
- Sarah, Paul,
one of you will take home
the grand prize of $125,000 furnished by Healthy Choice
and the title of Top Chef.
- It's just been an absolute pleasure
watching the two of you cook all season long.
Tonight's meal was just spectacular.
Sarah, you clearly grew as a cook.
You took a lot of risks tonight,
and it really paid off.
Paul, all season long, you've just brought it,
and tonight was no different.
You just really cooked your heart out.
In the end, this was about as close as it can get,
and you both should be very, very proud.
♪ ♪
- Paul...
You are Top Chef.
- I'm Top Chef.
I am extremely happy to see my dad and my mom being there,
Deena, and everybody that I've met throughout this journey.
- I'm so happy.
- It's finally come to an end,
and the magnitude of what we've done since San Antonio,
it's so broad, I can't describe it.
I thought for a second it was gonna be me,
and it wasn't.
I think I deserved to be Top Chef,
but it wasn't my day.
- I'm sorry.
- Seeing my dad cry makes me realize
that he's really proud of me at this moment.
It feels really good.
- I'd like to propose a toast
to two great dinners and two amazing chefs...
And to our new Top Chef.
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- For more about the recipes seen tonight, go to bravotv.com.
== sync by elderman ==