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TED: Four chefs, three courses...
Right behind!
...only one chance to win.
Good enough.
The challenge -- create an unforgettable meal...
What the hell?
...from the mystery items hidden in these baskets...
Aww, come on!
TED: ...before time runs out.
Our distinguished panel of chefs will critique their work...
It's a poor representation of an entire culture.
Just delicious.
TED: ...and one by one,
they must face the dreaded chopping block.
Who will win the $10,000 prize...
Bring it on!
...and who will be chopped?
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
We'll be expecting these four chefs
to do some big things with small plates,
but first, let's meet them.
We welcome Chef Alex Moreno.
ALEX: I'm the executive chef of Border Grill,
a modern Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica, California.
I'm classically French trained.
My style of cooking, it's very farm-to-table, very simple.
Growing up was just me and my mom.
My mom's from Michoacán, Mexico.
On the weekends, my mom would make posole or tamales
and invite all the family over.
Family is so important to me.
You want a cookie?
Me and my wife, we have a 2-year-old daughter
that's running around and driving us crazy.
[ Chuckles ]
I'm determined to win,
and I'm gonna bring the victory back to my family.
Next, we have Chef Gemma Gray.
I'm the executive sous chef here at the Andaz West Hollywood.
I was born and raised, uh, from Spain,
and everything that I put on the plate is tapas.
One beautiful bite.
[ Speaking Spanish ]
I came to the United States
because when I told my father I want to be a chef,
they kicked me out,
so I need to prove to him that I can do it.
I'm the winner. I'm making it happen.
And then we have Chef David Viana.
DAVID: I'm the chef de cuisine at Daryl restaurant
in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
We do a lot of new American with Mediterranean influences.
My parents came from Portugal, and my dad became a pastry chef.
My dad wanted me to be a lawyer, a doctor.
One of the hardest things that I've ever had to do
was break the news that I wanted to be in the kitchen.
He was like, "what?!
You graduated college. What the heck?"
Everything I do in the kitchen is to impress my dad.
Winning "Chopped" would prove to my dad
that I made the right decision.
And finally, Chef Andres Figueroa.
I'm the executive chef of Antojeria La Popular,
a Mexican tapas restaurant in New York City.
I was born in Puerto Rico, so Latin flavors, bold flavors.
It's definitely my forte.
I want to win for my wife.
She's had to put up with me working seven days a week.
Ten thousand dollars would go to take her on a nice trip.
I'm totally laid back outside of the kitchen,
but when I'm in the kitchen, I'm definitely a competitive person
and I definitely want to win.
Welcome, chefs. Here are the rules.
There are three rounds -- appetizer, entrée, and dessert.
Each course has its own basket of mystery ingredients,
and you must use every ingredient in the basket
in some way.
Also available to you, our pantry and fridge.
Each round is timed.
When the clock runs out, our judges will critique your work
on presentation, taste, and creativity.
If your dish doesn't cut it, you will be chopped.
And now listen up,
we're asking you to do something a little different.
Inspired by the Spanish tapas tradition,
we'd like for you to create small plates.
Tapas -- I wasn't expecting it at all. [ Laughs ]
I think that I have an advantage.
TED: So, for the appetizer round,
we're looking for at least two little creations.
What? Two plates? That's insane!
But, I'm so excited.
Does that make sense?
Si.
Si?
Si.
Chefs, please open your baskets for the appetizer round,
and you must use...
Since this is a change in format,
you'll have 30 minutes for the first round
instead of our usual 20.
Clock starts now.
ALEX: The theme is tapas,
so now it's not just one plate but two plates.
That's a horse of a different color.
It's just, it's not nice. [ Laughs ]
The first thing I'm making is a nice poached shrimp.
I grab 'em, I peel 'em,
then I saw Aarón and I'm like,
"Okay, I'm gonna bring in some heat."
So I run, grab some chili de arbol,
toast it up in a pan,
and add the gazpacho to it and just puree it.
I had a rough childhood, never had a father,
and I wasn't the nicest son I could be
but my mom made me who I am.
She's the backbone.
And if I win this,
my mom's gonna start probably crying,
and she's like [Speaks Spanish] [ Laughs ]
I grew up with a big Portuguese family.
We had tapas every night.
This tapas theme just brings me back
to those days of being a family.
Boquerones are these, like, salty anchovies.
I'm seeing this Pan de Leche,
I'm like, "why not?"
They work well together, so, for my first dish,
I'm making Pan de Tomate with boquerones
and pickled shallots.
I want to win "Chopped" more than anything in this world.
This is finally the way that I can prove to my dad
that I'm just as talented as him, if not more.
It's good.
ANDRES: The first tapas I'm making
is gazpacho-based Mexican escabeche.
Escabeche is a pickled vegetable assortment.
The second tapas is simple fried head-on shrimp.
The restaurant I helped open specializes in Mexican tapas.
This is my forte.
I feel confident I can get this done.
When I was a little kid, my mom would make tapas.
She showed me how to cook tapas from the day that I was born.
[ Laughs ]
Okay.
Gazpacho is something that I love.
Gazpacho typically has, you know, bell peppers, cucumbers,
obviously tomato being the star.
It looks like Gemma's adding strawberries to her gazpacho.
GEMMA: I decide to blend it with raspberries and strawberries
and some sherry vinegar.
So, with the shrimp, I keep the head on
because in Spain, we suck the -- the heads.
If I won the $10,000,
I would go to Thailand, so I really want to win.
And our judges are Chef Amanda Freitag,
Chef Aarón Sánchez,
and, we are honored to have in our midst
Chef Michelle Bernstein,
James Beard award-winning chef from Miami,
and small plates are well within your wheel house,
wouldn't you say?
Yeah. It's my thing.
I had a tapas restaurant.
And it seems that this is how America just wants to eat now.
AARóN: And I think to create two separate elements
and celebrate the mystery-basket ingredients
is a challenging format for anybody.
AMANDA: I agree.
This has never happened in a "Chopped" kitchen before.
Behind, guys.
Having this challenge really raises the stakes here today.
And, chefs, 20 minutes left on the clock.
The boquerone is so delicious that I want to keep it simple.
I want it put on the fried Pan de Leche
so I toss it with poached purple potatoes,
a little bit of gazpacho, and I feel good.
DAVID: For my second tapa,
I'm making a head-on shrimp on a little lettuce wrap
with a gazpacho pear sauce.
This is gonna work out really well for me.
AARóN: I'm really concerned about Andres.
He seems to be moving very slow.
ANDRES: So, I have about six minutes left,
and I still need to deal with the Pan de Leche and the boquerones.
The Pan de Leche -- I'm making a simple toast
and the boquerone's super-salty,
so I just blended it with the butter.
All right, chefs, five minutes on the clock.
GEMMA: The Pan de Leche is really soft,
so I'm deciding to do picada catalana.
Picada catalana is a crumble
made with fried bread and toasted nuts.
I pick up brandy
because I want hard-liquor flavor on the shrimp.
Oh!
[ Blowing ]
I'm worried that it's going to just burn.
I'm so nervous.
My goal is just finish this round.
[ Blowing ]
[ Clock ticking ]
My heart is pounding like crazy.
I just need to put out this fire.
[ Blowing ]
All right.
Suddenly, I realize that I didn't clean the shrimp.
Oh, my God.
So, Gemma is right now deveining her shrimp.
Andale, vamanos.
Don't clean the shrimp's really bad.
It's really bad,
so I'm getting every piece, and I put it on the plate.
What's better than a crispy shrimp head?
So, I drop them in the fryer.
Shrimp heads, you just suck out the brains
and it's just good flavors. [ Laughs ]
All right, guys, 2.5 minutes, let's go. Andale.
AMANDA: You guys, until this moment,
I didn't even think about how hard the plating would be.
They have to double what we're asking the chefs to normally do,
and this is changing the game.
Oof!
ANDRES: The clock is ticking.
It is a short amount of time to make two dishes.
Behind!
My shrimp, I pull them out of the fryer,
and then, the Pan de Leche,
I brush on the boquerone butter
and then put it in the escabeche.
GEMMA: I'm running to the wine
because with tapas, you always have wine.
So, I'm making a little sangria.
Behind, coming through, watch out. Behind!
DAVID: I'm running out of time,
so I make my heirloom tomato puree
with a little bit of sugar and a little bit of salt.
[ Blender whirring ]
Put that onto my toast with the boquerone.
This has to work.
There's no way I'm leaving in the first round.
TED: And, chefs, one minute left.
ALEX: God, I'm so nervous.
I've got butterflies going in my stomach.
Rapido, rapido, por favor, rapido!
30 seconds.
GEMMA: So, I'm putting everything on the plate,
everything need to be there, just right there,
just putting, just putting.
And 10, 9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Time's up, please step back.
[ Applause ]
[ Sighs ]
I look at my plate, it's a bumpy start,
but I got what it takes to go to the next round.
ANDRES: I feel confident in what I put out.
I look at Gemma's plate and I'm thinking,
"The Spaniard's already putting drinks out."
That might have been a good idea."
GEMMA: I did it. I'm okay.
I just worry that the shrimp is going to taste burnt.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
The judges are excited to taste what you've made
with boquerones, Pan de Leche, gazpacho, and head-on shrimp.
Chef Alex.
We have a shrimp with a salsa de chile de arbol
and a crispy and then fried bread
and a little boquerone salad with purple Peruvian potatoes.
I mean, I have to say, the first thing,
like, beautiful presentation.
Thank you, Chef.
I really enjoy what you did with the gazpacho.
Chile de arbol was a great addition,
but I'm a little disappointed.
There's a little bit of that vein on the back part of the shrimp.
I thought the shrimp didn't really do much for me.
There was no true flavor.
The flavor of the gazpacho kind of took over,
but this is really a clean display.
Thank you, Chef.
So why did you come to "Chopped"?
I have a 3-year-old daughter at home and, uh,
it'd be awesome to, when she grows up,
she's like "Oh, my God, that's my dad!"
We've been watching "Chopped" episodes,
and I'm like, "Dad's gonna be on there."
She's like, "Okay. Go, dad." [ Laughs ]
TED: All right, Chef Alex, thank you.
You're welcome. Thank you, chefs.
Next up -- Chef Gemma.
So, what I did was
make a strawberry and raspberry gazpacho
and picada catalana with grilled shrimp,
and I made a sangria.
AARóN: Well, I have to say,
I feel like you really have captured the essence
of the culture, because I think it really --
That says a lot about how people have a love of life in Spain.
I really appreciate the picada.
I think it's a smart usage of the bread.
The one thing that I'm having trouble with
is that I know you flambéed the shrimp a little bit,
and it burnt
and its giving that very petrol flavor to the shrimp.
MICHELLE: And the gazpacho.
It's so high in acid that it makes it really hard to sip.
Uh, I think that I was really nervous.
[ Laughs ]
You know, I like the sangria,
but it's a little sweet to match with everything else.
Thank you, Chef Gemma.
Thank you, sir.
Chef David.
DAVID: We have Pan de Tomate
which is bread with a heirloom tomato puree,
pickled shallots, and I used the boquerone.
On the other side, simply grilled head-on shrimp,
lettuce wrap and tomato gazpacho.
AARóN: Well, I have to say, I like your presentation.
It's inviting.
But having all this wet sauce on top of toasted bread
is soaking the whole thing down.
You've cooked this shrimp, like, perfectly.
It's still juicy.
However, the idea of a lettuce wrap
with large shrimp, it's kind of hard.
But I think you were really creative.
Obviously, you're thinking in a whole different region.
Where are you from originally?
My family's from Madeira.
it's a small island off the coast of Portugal.
And my dad was a pastry chef
so growing up I was always in the bakery
and I admired the heck out of him.
I really want to show him that, you know, he can be proud of me,
and that I'm kind of good at what I do.
Chef David, thank you. Last appetizer -- Chef Andres.
I've presented a escabeche
with a crostini and a boquerone butter,
and a fried head-on shrimp.
I love what you did with the boquerones.
Great idea, super-creative.
Thank you, Chef.
You've given us a big cup of escabeche vegetables,
which are a little hard to get through.
AARóN: The shrimp is wonderful.
I almost drizzled this in there, and it becomes something magical
but we wanted two different tapas,
and you, in essence, made one tapa that was separated.
Yeah, um, I kind of wanted them to work together.
So you're here for the money? For the $10,000?
Yeah, I mean, I got married last year
and we, um,
we just didn't have the money to go on a honeymoon.
My wife, she's been putting up with
all these chef hours and stuff,
and it's just something I'd really like to do for her.
Chefs, thank you.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
That was a surprise -- tapas! [ Laughs ]
Yeah, it was like making two dishes in one.
I'm not looking forward to staring at that lid
sitting on the edge of the table.
Yeah, my heart's beating right now just thinking about it.
Yeah, just thinking about it, I'm like...
[Imitates heartbeat]
So, judges, do you think the chefs
are taking to this tapas challenge?
Yeah, I love this challenge
because you did change it up on them,
and to do more dishes is definitely harder.
The chef that I felt excelled right off the bat was Alex.
His idea of repurposing the gazpacho with chili de arbol
was beautiful.
I mean, it was a beautiful presentation.
But sadly, on Chef Alex's shrimp,
it was not cleaned properly,
so that was disappointing on my end.
Andres did a big cup of this really strong escabeche,
and then this really beautiful fried shrimp.
It makes me sad because all he had to do
was put a little bit of the escabeche on the shrimp,
and you would've really had a winner there.
He really made one plate and put it in two different bowls.
I think on David's plate, he was really creative.
His shrimp was cooked really well.
But, I think Chef David's course
also was inundated with -- with juice.
Well, it was weird, he sat one inundated
tomato juice-filled bread on top of another one with boquerones.
And then Chef Gemma's dish, I felt that the shrimp
had a very off putting flavor of burnt liquor.
But, she was the only one who took that Pan de Leche
and did something unique with it.
I just wish that the sweetness of the bread
would have counter-balanced the acid in the gazpacho.
So, judges, did our chefs take to this tapas challenge?
I think they did!
MICHELLE: Definitely.
Some better than others, but absolutely.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
DAVID: I think everyone had a strong dish.
I mean, who could tell what the judges are thinking?
ANDRES: I'm super-nervous.
I'm just thinking about what's under that cloche.
[ Clock ticking ]
[ Dramatic music playing ]
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Andres, you've been chopped. Judges?
Chef Andres, here we have a case of a particular format
that wasn't realized and executed properly.
We wanted two different tapas.
Uh, we love the escabeche.
We just felt it was lost,
and, uh, we needed to see the shrimp more integrated
into the other elements,
and for these reasons we had to chop you.
Thank you, chefs.
Thank you.
ANDRES: Tapas. It was a pretty big curve ball.
I feel like I cooked well but couldn't stick to that format
in something that's so familiar to me.
I want to take my wife on a honeymoon.
We'll figure out a way.
Chef Alex, Chef Gemma, Chef David, once again,
the judges will be expecting you to tap into your tapas playbook,
making small plates.
For the entrée, a minimum of three.
DAVID: How am I going to keep track of all these plates
and get them all on the table in 30 minutes? It's crazy.
Baskets, open!
And you must use...
Counting down from 30 minutes, entrée round starts now.
DAVID: Seafood and Portugal go hand in hand.
I grew up eating seafood my whole life.
For my first tapa,
I'm making a fideo which is a traditional Portuguese pasta
with crispy tentacles from the calamari.
I was recently divorced.
Being a chef, the hours took its toll on my personal life.
Having me fail at a marriage
justified my dad's disapproval of my profession.
It makes me even that much more fueled to impress him.
ALEX: In the second round, we've got Portugal,
we've got Mexico, we've got Spain.
It's like the World Cup of tapas,
but I'm gonna bring it home for Mexico. [ Chuckles ]
I've worked with squid many a times.
My first tapa is a little quick sauté of the calamari rings
with Serrano ham and chayote salad.
Words couldn't even explain what my daughter means to me.
I want my daughter to say, "That's my dad. He's a winner."
Chayote is a Latino squash.
It's crispy so I decide to make a salad.
With the calamari, I want to grill it
with cannellini bean stew.
When my father find out that I want to be a chef,
for 10 years, he stopped talking with me.
I want to prove to my father that he was wrong.
So, judges, what would you say is the secret
to a great tapas dish?
MICHELLE: That one perfect bite.
In Spain, they have some of the best ingredients in the world,
including the best seafood,
so they want to manipulate them as little as possible.
We're asking our chefs to prepare
three different things for the entrée round.
It's hard.
Do you know what I think might be the hardest thing there?
Tortillas espanola
which is basically a Spanish omelette with potatoes.
What do you do to that to transform it?
And, chefs, 20 minutes left on the clock.
Coming through, coming through, coming through, coming through, coming through.
Oh, my God, I'm behind, and I've got so much left to do.
Spanish tortilla is kind of a curve ball for me.
I don't really know how I'm going to repurpose it
so I decide I'm gonna have this omelette inside of a squid.
Stuffing calamari is really a gamble.
It might not all cook through, so, I've got my fingers crossed.
This Spanish tortilla, I taste it and it's really salty.
So, I cut the saltiness with some garbanzos
and I just stuff it in the calamari,
and I put them in the oven.
And I'm gonna make chile ancho puree
to go with my stuffed calamari.
I'm kind of nervous about Gemma
because she's Spanish and she's all about tapas.
She might have the upper hand on me.
GEMMA: I'm really familiar with a Spanish omelette.
It's really cool. [ Laughs ]
I decide to fry the omelette with Serrano ham
because I want the crispiness.
Behind, coming down. Coming down.
Go, man, go, go, go.
TED: And, chefs, you're now down to 10 minutes.
Coming through!
I don't think I've ever seen competitors move this fast in here ever.
Behind.
DAVID: I'm nervous.
The clock is ticking,
and I realize my chayote is sitting there
and I haven't sliced it yet.
And I think, "Okay.
This can easily be a salad with Serrano ham."
TED: Five minutes left on the clock, chefs!
Fire on Gemma's grill.
Gemma has really, really heated her grill to a super-high heat
and now the oil's caught fire.
Oh, my God, oh, my God.
Behind you.
Go behind me, go behind.
Fire.
You can't run from the kitchen with that.
Just use salt.
I'm just freaking out because I'm so nervous.
This could really trip Gemma up.
This could throw her whole game off.
I burned my hand with the grill...
[ Sizzles ]
...but nothing is going to stop me, nothing.
I will do it, and I will do it on time.
DAVID: I go to grab my plates
and I realize my fideo needs seafood in it.
I take the tentacles of the squid,
get them in the fryer.
I have no time.
Down the line, behind, behind. Watch out.
That clock is brutal.
Three plates, 30 minutes -- it doesn't make sense.
And then I have the calamari head,
and I'm like, "what am I gonna do with this?"
So, I drop them in the fryer,
and now hopefully it just tastes great.
And two minutes left to go.
DAVID: Two minutes left and I'm worried about the stuffed calamari.
Is it perfect?
I'm just not quite sure, but I need to get it on the plate.
All right, chefs, one minute left.
Got to get it on the plate.
Let's go, let's go, let's go!
AMANDA: Alex is sweating. He is sweating.
This is the hardest challenge I've ever seen here.
I have sweat dripping in my eyes, I'm like, "Oh, God!"
I'm thinking, "what can I do to make this better?"
And I pour the lemon oil over the fried calamari.
Hot!
TED: 20 seconds.
GEMMA: On the last seconds,
I just grab the calamaris and put it on the plate.
TED: And 10, 9, 8,
7, 6, 5...
Oh, God.
...4, 3, 2, 1.
Do it!
Time's is up. Please step back.
[ Cheering ]
What about my left hand?
Uh...
Yeah.
I want to go to the end, and nothing is going to stop me.
[ Sighs ]
[ Clock ticking ]
Chefs, the second round of this tapas feast
had you making small creations with Spanish tortilla,
Serrano ham, chayote, and squid.
Chef Gemma.
What I create for you
is a grilled calamari over cannellini beans.
The second dish is a fried, eh, Spanish omelette
with Serrano ham,
and the third one is chayote salad and fresh herbs.
So, Chef, first I have to ask, are you okay?
Hand has been treated. It's okay. I can move it.
I'm happy that it's not as bad as it could be.
I couldn't believe that you were grabbing it.
Behind you!
Go behind me, go behind.
It was very scary.
But you were able to get three different tapas
that work well together.
I love the chayote salad.
Obviously, because of time and your grill,
my calamari is not cooked,
but I do appreciate your commitment and your zeal.
MICHELLE: The fried jamón with tortilla
didn't have a huge amount of creativity.
You basically used what we gave you,
and you threw it into a sauté pan.
However, the beans and the peppers I love.
Next up -- Chef David.
So, I want to invite you to my family's home
for one of our big Portuguese dinners.
We have a refreshing salad with the chayote, the jamón.
In the cup, you have a fideo,
a little crunchy tentacle of calamari
and a stuffed calamari with jamón and some tortilla.
For me, the real star is this fideo mixture.
It's wonderfully seasoned,
and I love the idea of the Serrano ham with the chayote,
and I love the creativity of stuffing the squid.
What I don't like is that my squid is raw.
My squid is undercooked, as well,
but I like how you connected them all, you know, ham, squid.
The cohesion is definitely there.
MICHELLE: How'd you make the tentacles so crispy there?
It's almost like a chicharrón.
Yeah, kind of I was going for that.
It's really nice.
TED: All right, Chef David, thank you.
Thank you.
And finally, Chef Alex.
So, the first one in the spoon is a squid with Serrano ham
and a little salad of the chayote.
The one in the middle is a fried calamari head,
and the last is our, um, stuffed squid with a tortilla espanola
and a chile ancho puree on the bottom.
I like the idea that you imported some of your culture
on some of the sauce,
and all the squid is really well cooked.
So, I'm very impressed.
Thank you, Chef.
Do you normally drizzle oil over something that's fried?
Um, no, it was just a last-minute thing.
You should squeeze some lemon on it.
Yeah, mind's going so fast, it's just like "Ah!"
I also wish your fried tentacle would have been a little crispy,
but it's a really nicely thought-out dish.
Thank you, Chef.
Okay, the judges will need a minute. Thanks.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
God, that was brutal. Ugh!
Man, this is like the World Cup of tapas.
I, I think whoever wins needs to go "Goal!"
[ Laughter ]
So, judges, appropriately,
we've had lots of Spanish ingredients
in the baskets for our tapas competition here.
What do you think of the chefs' usage of the Spanish tortilla?
I think the tortilla was
the most challenging ingredient for sure.
Yeah, I mean, when you look at Gemma's fried tortilla,
it was a very simple dish.
It didn't really show much personality,
and then the squid was undercooked.
AARóN: But we all enjoyed the chayote, the herb salad.
It was citrusy.
The best thing on David's plate
were those crispy tentacles of calamari,
but then, when it came to his squids,
David put Serrano and potato into the calamari.
The problem with that is
it needs sufficient time to cook evenly,
and I don't think that David put that into account.
You know, he made that fideo and then he had that salad.
You know, he definitely rose to the challenge of tapas.
And Alex took it to the next level,
giving you a study in squid.
AARóN: I agree, and I think, you know,
we were very impressed with his technique.
But Chef Alex added lemon oil to a finished fried product,
so it made it feel even greasier.
So, do you think you can agree on the direction to go here?
Absolutely.
Yes.
We can.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
DAVID: I'm really proud of the food I put out.
I'm not thinking about going home -- not yet, not never.
I think that the mistake is already done. It's this.
On the food-wise, I'm okay, so I know that I'm going all the way.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Gemma, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Gemma, querida, you truly understood what tapas means.
However, the fried tortilla
didn't really show much creativity
and sadly, the calamari was undercooked,
and for those reasons, you've been chopped.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you, Chef.
GEMMA: I'm really happy.
I never thought when I was a little kid
that I will be sitting down here.
I just think that life is good.
[ Laughs ]
[ Dramatic music playing ]
TED: Alex, David, we'd like you to keep rolling
with the small-plates theme,
and in the dessert course, at least two.
Who's gonna take this round?
I am.
Or so he thinks.
Open these baskets up.
And we have given you...
Counting down 30 minutes beginning right now.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
DAVID: When I open up the basket, I instantly thought cake.
It's such a short amount of time to bake something,
but it's go big or go home.
So, I'm making a Marcona almond, orange, Cava yogurt cake.
So, I start my cake batter, and I taste the Cava.
It's really similar to sparkling apple cider,
and I can use that in a sweet, crisp ice cream.
I get the Cava onto the stove to reduce,
and I zest a bunch of oranges.
I get the milk and the cream in the pan.
My dad's a pastry chef,
and I want to beat him at his own game.
This dessert's going to get me the win.
ALEX: I can make amazing desserts, but 30 minutes?
Two different desserts?
Wish we could get a little extra more time.
[ Chuckles ]
So, I grab pizza dough, 'cause I'm like, "You know what?
Let's make it into a churro."
So, I roll them into little balls
and then drop them in the fryer,
and then I'm like, "hot chocolate."
When I was growing up, my mom used to make this all the time.
So, I'm making this Mexican hot chocolate in honor of my mom.
I grab the cinnamon stick, a little bit of chile de arbol,
and then, the orange zest and cognac.
So, another beautiful basket of Spanish ingredients
for tapas round 3.
AMANDA: You know, I love that idea of tapas for dessert.
Actually, a lot of French restaurants do this.
They're all always small, which is great!
You want something sweet,
but you don't want a whole plate of it.
You're right, and then you get to taste more things.
TED: All right, chefs, 20 minutes left on the clock.
DAVID: The creme Catalan reminded me of crème brûlée,
so I thought, instantly, like, I can make a sauce out of that.
And I want to add dried cherries which is huge in our culture.
And now I got to get the ice-cream base into the machine
and it's got to set up.
Time is of the essence.
TED: All right, chefs, you're down to 15 minutes.
I love Cava.
It's sort of Spain's answer to champagne.
Hey!
AARóN: Bubbles.
Bubbles.
ALEX: This Cava, I want to do something cold with it.
David's already using the ice-cream machine,
so I'm gonna make granita.
So, I get some limes, add sugar to it,
add the Cava to it, and I throw it on a half sheet pan
and throw it in the blast chiller.
So, crossing my fingers it freezes.
Behind. Go, go, go.
Sorry.
Go, go, go. Come on.
AMANDA: So, David is primal. He's running around the kitchen.
This is a last chance for him to prove this to his family,
and Alex is like, so precise with everything.
DAVID: Alex and I are totally different.
He's very methodical, and I'm this, like,
Tasmanian devil trying to get by him at every turn.
Oh!
All right, chefs, 5 minutes on the clock.
DAVID: I want to fry some wonton skins
to add a textural component to the ice cream.
I run to the deep fryer and throw them in.
ALEX: I still have the Catalan and I'm like,
"What am I doing? What am I doing?"
You just put it in a pot, add a little bit of cream,
sugar and some strawberries, and then puree it up.
There's no time. It's just bam, bam, bam.
2.5 minutes, guys.
AARóN: 2.5, gentlemen.
I'm running to the ice cream and I'm praying, "Please be set up,"
and out comes velvety, beautiful ice cream.
ALEX: I grab the churros.
I take them out, and then, I go back to the blast chiller.
I grab the granita, I'm like, "Yes, I did it, it's frozen."
All right, chefs, one minute on the clock.
DAVID: I get my wonton chip for texture into each bowl.
I can almost see my dad's eyes hovering over me,
watching my every move.
I need to win this dessert round.
Gentlemen, vamanos.
Finish it up, guys. This is it.
10, 9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1.
Time's up. Please step back.
[ Applause ]
Whoo!
[ Laughs ] Good job, bro.
DAVID: I look at my plate.
Is my dad gonna be proud of this?
I look over at Alex's dish, and I'm pretty impressed.
It's a beautiful looking plate.
ALEX: I look at my food, and I get a big ol' smile.
I think I'm gonna win.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
[ Clock ticking ]
TED: Chef David, Chef Alex,
your marching orders for the dessert round,
staying step and step
with Catalan creme, Cava, oranges, and Marcona almonds.
Chef David, what do we have?
Uh, you have an orange, Cava and almond yogurt-buttermilk cake
along with a orange and Cava ice cream
with a Catalan sauce with dried cherries.
You've done a really beautiful job with this ice cream.
Um, I can taste the Cava. I can taste the orange.
The cake, it's got this great crispy exterior
that really plays off really well
with the creaminess of the ice cream.
The ice cream is outstanding. The texture's amazing.
Thank you.
But, this wonton.
I just don't know
if it's gelling with all the other elements.
From what I can gather from what you've said,
this round is really important
because your dad's a pastry chef.
I really, really, really wanted to nail this round
to impress my dad.
MICHELLE: If he were to taste this,
he would be proud because this is really delicious.
Thank you, chefs.
All right, Chef David, thank you.
Thank you.
And finally, Chef Alex.
So, my dish is kind of a homage to my mom.
We're starting off with Mexican-style hot chocolate,
and then we're doing Italian-style churro.
On the bottom, we have a Catalan and Cava sauce,
and then to finish it off, we have a Cava and lime granita.
Why did you decide to pay homage to mom?
I love my mom. [ Laughs ]
It was just me and her growing up,
and she made me hot chocolate
or we'd be having churros on the street.
Oh, fun.
Yeah. [ Chuckles ]
I feel like you really sort of captured your background.
I love the sauce and I like the flavor of the granita,
but, um, I think these are a little too dense.
Here, I don't think it cooked properly.
I think it was a little too thick.
Thank you, Chef.
But, obviously you made the sort of tapas theme work
in the way that these are all different flavors,
but, at the same time, they go together.
This, Alex, is awesome.
I mean, I can drink this all day long.
This is very dangerous.
Okay. Thank you, chefs.
If you lose on a churro,
like, you're never gonna hear the end of it.
No. Everyone's gonna rag me at work, gonna be like, "Really?"
You don't know how they're gonna judge it, so...
Exactly.
May the best man win.
Yeah, yeah, good luck.
You're going down.
[ Laughs ]
So, judges, those two
put so much of their respective cultures
and their personalities into their dishes.
I agree. They did really well.
The challenge of making tapas was really hard.
More time in plating, more math to think about,
where the ingredients go and land.
Chef David, his ice cream was so incredible.
The texture was like silk.
But the wonton was a departure from this whole theme of tapas.
And the cake tasted good.
Made this really interesting
sort of tuily, shortbready crust.
David's dessert was much more well executed
as compared to Alex.
MICHELLE: Those churros were just lead.
You couldn't chew through them.
The other things on the plate were great.
Sauce was delicious.
I think one thing we can't overlook in Chef Alex's dessert
was the idea of this shot.
That was something that was very memorable.
It was a true tapa.
Well, I really think Chef Alex introduced himself
with his first dish,
because it was very beautifully presented,
you know, and little packages of really bold flavor.
Yeah, but Chef Alex's shrimp, it was not cleaned properly
and the Pan de Leche needed more sauce.
Yeah.
I thought Chef David's --
he really did cook the shrimp the best,
I thought, of any competitor.
Oh my, it was perfect.
But Chef David had this really soaked tomato-based sauce
sitting on top of that Pan de Leche.
On Chef David's entree, he had raw squid,
and that was really off-putting.
However, the best thing on David's plate
were those crispy tentacles that were inside of the fideo,
the noodle dish.
I loved what, you know, Chef Alex did
with the showcasing of the squid three different ways.
It was really bold, and he got really creative.
What I don't understand is that he put lemon oil
on top of a fried piece of calamari.
It's fried.
Yeah.
That was just a big mistake on Alex's plate.
All right, we have to wrap this up.
We have a decision.
[ Dramatic music playing ]
ALEX: Other than that damn churro thing,
everything was solid, delicious, and good.
Hopefully I killed it.
Go Mexico! [ Laughs ]
DAVID: Winning would mean the world to me,
and like, kind of show my dad, like,
[Whispering] "I'm better than you!"
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef David, you've been chopped. Judges?
David, it really pains me to see the dessert under the cloche
because that was your best dish.
You just had a few errors with execution.
In the first round,
the Pan con Tomate just fell apart,
and in your entrée, the squid was really undercooked.
Thank you very much, chefs.
Thank you.
DAVID: I walk away with a lot of pride,
and if I can say one thing to my dad right now,
it would be, "This was what I was born to do,
and I'm gonna beat you some day. It's gonna happen."
And that means, Chef Alex Moreno,
that you are the "Chopped" champion
and for taking tapas the furthest,
$10,000 is yours alone.
Whoo! [ Laughs ]
[ Applause ]
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I just won "Chopped."
I can't, I couldn't be happier right now.
My mom, she's going to be so excited.
My daughter's gonna be proud of me.
Super-proud!
Woo!
Pretty amazing. Pretty amazing feeling.
[ Laughs ]