Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
TED: Four chefs, three courses...
Feeling the pressure, guys.
...only one chance to win.
Let's go.
The challenge -- create an unforgettable meal
from the mystery items hidden in these baskets...
...before time runs out.
Our distinguished panel of chefs will critique their work...
That is one of the worst things I've ever put in my mouth.
Brilliant and inspired.
TED: ...and one by one,
they must face the dreaded chopping block.
Who will win the $10,000 prize,
and who will be chopped?
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
Nothing will go to waste in this special competition.
We have some extraordinary ingredients for the chefs,
but first, let's meet them.
We welcome Chef Parind Vora.
I'm the chef-owner of Restaurant Jezebel in Austin, Texas.
My style of food is modern American fine dining
with global influences.
Grab me some sesame-seed oil.
I come from a family of doctors.
I did go to medical school, but left to become a chef,
and because I never went to culinary school,
nobody told me, "This is the way you have to do it,"
and this is what allows me to do what I want.
I was voted as one of Austin's most eligible bachelors.
[ Chuckles ]
I think chefs -- I mean, we do dangerous things at times.
We cut ourselves, we have scars.
That's very sexy to me.
I'm not coming to "Chopped" to lose.
I'm gonna be the one who brought the gun to the knife fight.
Next, we have Chef Dylan Hallas.
I'm the executive chef at the Petit Ermitage hotel
in West Hollywood, California.
Right out of cooking school,
I worked at a broad number of restaurants,
some of them with one or two Michelin stars.
What sets me apart from a lot of chefs
is that I consider myself a craftsman.
What I see lacking with a lot of other chefs is that foundation
and the strict attention to detail that I have.
I am a classically trained guitarist.
It's a commitment.
If you're learning an instrument,
or if you want to be a great chef,
you have to bring a lot of discipline.
I'm gonna win "Chopped" because of my superior technique.
Then there's Chef Molly Peck.
I'm the owner and executive chef
of The Vanilla Orchid Catering in Austin, Texas.
[ Cow moos ]
I'm Texas, through and through.
I love big flavors, spices.
It hasn't always been easy with my business.
It's hard to make money being a chef,
so I've actually lived with all of my siblings
at a different time
because they wanted me to not struggle so much.
All right, guys, we're ready.
My family is such a huge support system.
This business is as much theirs as it is mine.
You like this one, too?
[ All cheering ]
I'm gonna win "Chopped" for my family.
And finally, Chef Garrett Eagleton.
My name is Garrett Eagleton. I am a chef for hire,
and I'm working as a butcher at The Meat Hook in Brooklyn.
We're going to town.
I do feel like I am part of the new revolution of chefs.
I've been traveling to learn as much as I can.
I've worked in Houston, Portland, L.A., and New York.
You're at one place for so long,
you're gonna be seeing the same things.
You're not gonna get much out of that aside from a paycheck.
Some of the food I do is kind of unexpected.
It's very seasonal, and I use a combination of things
that you wouldn't quite think to put together.
There are very few people that I've worked with
that I felt were better cooks than I was.
I am an amazing cook, actually.
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 dishes
on presentation, taste, and creativity.
If your dish doesn't cut it, you will be chopped.
And you're in for something different for this competition.
All the baskets will be stocked with items
that untrained cooks might throw away.
Skilled chefs, however,
should know exactly what to do with them.
You'll understand better what I mean
when you open these first baskets.
Go for it.
And your appetizers must include...
When I see the basket, I'm like, "What in the world?"
Only 20 minutes on the clock.
Time starts now.
Judges, this is such an exciting competition.
I think that this message is so important
'cause in this country, we throw away so much.
40% of the food that's purchased ends up in the garbage.
That's a number that I think is appalling.
MARCUS: And it's really important
to be able to make something really great
with things that somebody else wanted to throw out.
That's economy, but it's also the right thing to do
for the environment.
These types of cooking rounds can really educate people
on imaginative ways to repurpose and reuse ingredients.
It's not easy to have a restaurant
that completely utilizes every single, little bit,
but my mission in life
is to make delicious food responsibly.
With cod, I don't know if many people really scrape the bones,
but a lot of times those in bits are still useable.
I'm making a dish of pickled cod, radicchio, herb stems,
and charred-tomato vinaigrette.
I'm bringing the pickling liquid up to a boil,
and pouring it straight over the cod
so it starts the cooking process because it's hot.
Typically, in most restaurants,
you know, fish bones are the first thing to go,
but I actually always make a broth or stock
with a fish carcass.
It's absolutely delicious.
So, what I'm making here
is a Mediterranean fish broth with vegetables.
I grab a carrot, I grab an onion, I grab a rib of celery.
A lot of fine-dining chefs, you want that perfect dice,
that perfect cut, and the rest of it,
it'll definitely go in the trash,
but I consider myself to have superior cooking technique,
so I can use 100% of the product to make something delicious.
When Ted said the theme was "wasted,"
I thought that this is incredibly smart.
Being a business owner, I look at product financially,
and using every little bit of the animal
is very important to me
when you're trying to keep the costs down.
I have worked with fish carcass before.
There's a great use for it in stocks,
but there's not enough time to make a stock,
so I'm making seared fish collar
with a southwestern Caesar salad.
I season the fish, and I put it in a hot pan.
PARIND: When I see a living thing give up its life so we can eat,
I don't want to waste it.
I show respect for the animal as a chef by using all of it.
I'm gonna make cod tartare with a dry vinaigrette on the plate.
I'm pulling in a lot of spices for this.
I don't want to make a lot of trips.
I'm a lot more knowledgeable about food and wine than most.
I only do couture dining.
It's never off the rack,
and it's not something you can get everywhere.
And, chefs, only 15 minutes left on the clock.
So, judges, the pickling brine
left over from a jar of pickles.
Certainly use it in a vinaigrette.
GEOFFREY: It's almost a vinaigrette.
All it needs is a touch of olive oil.
I'm excited about the pickle juice
because combined with the herb stems, raw garlic,
and toasted pine nuts, it would work well as a salad dressing.
$10,000 is a great chunk of money.
I'd love to be able to take my family on a vacation
because they have supported me.
I think that this would be a great gift to return to them.
The most horrifying ingredient here
is definitely the pickle juice,
but then I realize I'm going for Mediterranean flavors,
which very often includes red bell peppers.
Add a little splash of the pickling liquid,
throw it in a pot.
My next step is take the tomatoes, slice them in half,
coat them in some olive oil, sea salt,
some fresh thyme, and some garlic.
I feel pretty confident in what I'm making.
10 minutes left on the clock.
The raw flavor of overripe tomatoes is bad, sour flavor.
You really don't want to use them raw.
So, I throw them on the burner, turn it up high,
and just let them get some char on,
and then I put it in the blender with some sherry vinegar,
a little bit of salt.
And, chefs, only 5 minutes left.
Let's just talk about Parind.
He hasn't touched his fish, and we have 5 minutes left.
PARIND: I am worried because
I still need to make mayonnaise for the tartare.
I'm running out of time.
I've not started working with the fish.
I hope I don't get chopped in the first round.
[ Clock ticking ]
Parind has just started his fish with 4 minutes.
MARCUS: Wow.
PARIND: My first idea was to make cod tartare,
but I don't have enough time to make a mayonnaise or a binder,
so then I switch it to a ceviche,
which is another raw preparation.
I'm pushing against time really hard.
TED: A lot of people don't know
that herb stems are full of flavor.
Some people prefer the flavor in stems
to the flavor of the leaves.
There is so much in sort of the things that we throw away
that actually are really beautiful food.
The finishing touches I most have to do is seasoning,
making sure the food just tastes great.
I realized that I'm gonna need some sort of herbal component
to the dish just to kind of lighten it up,
and parsley stems are kind of a surprising source of flavor.
Pureeing them is a way of maximizing that flavor.
At the restaurant, we tend to make a lot of herb sauces,
so using herbs like this is very familiar to me.
I love herb stems. I like chomping on them.
When I pick a bunch of parsley, I definitely eat some stems.
[ Chuckles ]
And I like using them in salads
as a good texture component.
I've worked and lived in a lot of cities,
and it really opens your mind
to different ways of thinking about food
and how the chefs in those cities find a use for things
and cure things and make them last longer
or put things up for the winter.
It's impressive.
It shows a different level of chef that can do that.
My goal here today is to achieve that.
I'm just trying to move as fast as I can and complete the dish.
With the tomatoes, I decide
to make a really bright pico de gallo that will add texture,
and it will add a really nice color to the plate.
I'm thinking that Parind can't finish.
He's got nothing on his plate.
I don't want to do the same old, same old or what's expected.
I want to create something
a little more culinarily intensive.
I think blueberries and cod could go well together
if the blueberries are sweet enough.
How many blueberries do I need?
I'm down to the wire.
I have to get the ingredients on the plate.
TED: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6,
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Time's up. Please step back.
[ Sighs ]
I didn't get the fish on all the plates.
I'm feeling really discouraged.
I'm thinking, "I'm going to be chopped."
GARRETT: I took some wasted ingredients
and made them into something I'm very proud of.
I look at my dish, I see a tasty dish.
Chefs, you've arrived at the chopping block.
Wasted -- That's what usually becomes of pickle juice,
herb stems, overripe tomatoes, and fish carcasses.
So, what did you make
with those very special ingredients, Chef Parind?
I did a ceviche of cod with a dry vinaigrette,
and then what I did was
toss that with a little bit of blueberries.
First of all, it's a really pretty dish.
Your sense of care really came through in many levels,
but then some of it is really cooked through,
through the lemon, and some is really semi-raw.
Time does get away. [ Chuckles ]
The switching from tartare to ceviche --
This was all off-the-cuff.
Well, I mean, off-the-cuff is what "Chopped" is all about,
so it's good,
but I think a little bit more thoughtfulness of,
like, what direction to go in
and, like, make a decision and stick with it.
And you lose me completely with the blueberries.
They don't wind up bringing a juiciness
or a crispiness or a succulence.
So, in your restaurant,
you practice what you call "couture dining."
What do you mean by that?
So, my restaurant, I did a la carte,
but 20% of the clients were saying,
"Just make me something. I've been here many times.
You know what I like and don't like."
So, now I keep striving every day
to come up with new combinations,
maybe just change the perspective.
Next up -- Chef Dylan.
What I made for you today
is a Mediterranean fish broth with vegetables.
I pride myself on making stocks from everything.
I think it's a discipline
that's lost in a lot of kitchens,
and when I see bones or a waste,
I look at it as basically an opportunity.
What you've done in 20 minutes here
are bits and pieces of real, like, brilliance.
I mean, especially the pickle juice on the pepper,
which is a real smart thing to do.
Thank you.
But proportions are off a little bit.
There's a lot of tomato,
and I'm also missing just a little bit of cod
that you could've just added in in the very end
so you get some bites.
I actually really like this.
There's a clean quality to this,
but coring the tomatoes is something that I would hope for.
Next up, we have Chef Molly.
Chefs, today I made for you
a seared fish collar with a southwestern Caesar salad.
I really enjoy romaine lettuce, and I especially enjoy it
when it's wrapped in a delicious vinaigrette, which this is.
The only unfortunate thing for me is
I didn't get any fish collar.
And so, I'm looking over here
at my esteemed colleagues eating away...eating away.
It's delicious.
Thank you.
I like the fact that you kept the skin on
when you seared the fish, and you seasoned it well.
ALEX: But the tomatoes --
You're the only one that left them raw,
so that unsavory side of an overripe tomato comes out.
Yeah, I definitely had a lot of things racing in my head.
Obviously, the time got away from me.
Thank you, Chef Molly.
Hey.
So, this is my salad of pickled cod, radicchio,
herb stems, and charred tomato vinaigrette.
MARCUS: I love the texture of this dish --
really, really interesting
'cause you can taste every layer here,
and tomato usage is fantastic.
As you can see, I didn't like it.
[ Laughs ]
I think it's very smart that you gave a small portion.
However, I would double the soup,
half the garnish
because the garnish has a lot of the pickling spices in it.
They're a little overwhelming.
Here's what confuses me -- If I were in a restaurant,
I would get this dish, I would eat it, I'd say,
"How appetizing -- One appetizing appetizer,"
but does this dish taste like the ingredients in the basket?
For me, no.
TED: All right.
Chefs, please give the judges some time. Thank you.
Honestly, I do feel a responsibility
that when I'm using a product,
use every cut of the meat, and use the bone,
and, you know, just find purpose in all of those things.
You really respect the animals
and the farmers and the ranchers.
A waste is one thing, but using pickle juice
is typically not something that I would save.
[ Laughter ]
Judges, were the chefs able to elevate
these usually wasted ingredients?
My favorite flavors actually came from Molly.
Yes, they were unbalanced, yes, they were sloppy,
but they were really tasty,
and I wanted to really eat what she made.
But I thought it was a little bit too sloppy,
and ultimately, you didn't get cod.
I really loved Dylan's flavors. I really did.
I mean, the cilantro, the parsley stem,
and the pickling liquid he took out
and used to pickle peppers.
That was a smart way to do it.
But with Dylan, it wasn't a complete dish.
Just with a little bit of scoop of fresh cod in there,
it would've been a wonderful, wonderful dish.
While Garrett isn't the most creative,
he obscured the distinctiveness of the basket ingredients.
I mean, what would you have said was in the basket
if you got Garrett's dish?
You would've said radicchio.
You would've said tomato only because of the visual.
I'm gonna say I disagree with you.
I tasted the pickling liquid, I tasted the cod.
In Parind's dish, there were some good flavors there.
Some really good flavors.
The theatrics of the plate are beautiful.
But when he chopped some of that cod
and leaves some of that almost whole,
you know, the whole pieces are not pickled through,
and the chopped one is almost over-cured.
Well, can you pick the one chef to chop?
Yes, we can.
All right.
PARIND: I have a lot of experience,
so I know the judges' critiques are spot-on.
I just hope that I'm gonna go through to the next round.
I do feel like what I put on the plate represented my style well,
but it's discouraging not to get it all on the plate.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
We are knocking at the door of the entrée round,
but one chef will not be let in.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Molly, you've been chopped. Judges?
Molly, my fellow judge Geoffrey, he didn't get a piece of cod,
and the fact that you used overripe tomatoes in a salsa
made the dish taste a little bit sour.
It's for those reasons we have to chop you.
Thank you so much. Thanks.
It's definitely a major bummer to get chopped, but actually,
it really wasn't the basket ingredients that tripped me up.
I mean, I did it to myself, so I've got to stand by that.
The theme of the show is wasted,
and I feel a bit of that right now.
TED: Chef Parind, Chef Dylan, Chef Garrett,
are you ready to see what items were rescued from the refuse
for the entrée round?
Can't wait.
Absolutely.
Please open up your baskets.
And you will not be wasting...
30 minutes.
Time starts now.
GARRETT: As a butcher, I'm very familiar with using meat scraps
in many different ways.
What I see here is chuck.
There's a lot of pieces that need a little work,
so I'm kind of finding the right ones to utilize for searing.
I'm gonna make chuck steak with sautéed carrots and potatoes
with a reduction of beef stock with Parmesan rinds
and then fried chickpeas with carrot tops.
If I win, I want to go to southeast Asia
because I'm hoping to get another perspective
on food and cooking.
In a third-world country, you can't throw everything away.
They make use of every single thing.
Seeing all these different ways to handle food,
it's a great learning experience.
PARIND: I feel like my chances are pretty good
against Dylan and Garrett.
Not only are they younger and don't have the experience,
they just don't have my intelligence.
I realize if I do just meat and potatoes,
then I've not elevated anything.
I have not brought my years of experience into this.
In the pantry, I see butternut squash puree,
so I'm gonna make a fried ravioli using the meat,
the butternut squash puree, and tortillas
as the outside of the ravioli.
TED: We got a four-alarm fire in Parind land.
It's all show, you know? It's all show.
And that's my point.
You have to make that they actually get some great food
and just don't become too gimmicky.
I got to go.
DYLAN: Parmesan is my favorite cheese on Earth.
I'm a big fan of using the rinds.
I use them frequently.
A lot of people think that Parmesan rind's not useable,
but you can throw Parmesan rinds in water, boil it,
and you'll extract an amazing flavor.
So, I'm making Parmesan broth and braised beef risotto
with a caraway carrot butter and crispy potatoes on top.
So I'm just get some onions, the Parmesan rinds, and the beef,
and get that into the pot immediately.
I've worked at some restaurants that have a Michelin star.
My standards are high.
I really want to show that I can go compete in an arena like this
and come out the other side.
Judges, round 2 of our special "wasted" competition,
and I think this is a great basket.
There's a lot of meat there. That's chuck.
Though that silver skin on the top -- It's tough,
it can be rubbery, it can really ruin eating it.
But these can be the most sexy hamburger,
or you can go the consommé route.
Most home cooks would never bother
to save a hunk of Parmesan rind.
I'll tell you something.
Parmesan rind -- I never, ever, ever make a tomato sauce
or Bolognese without three or four chunks in there.
Just let it simmer all day.
And people go, "What's your secret?"
and I always tell them, "A chunk of Parmesan rind."
PARIND: I add the Parmesan rind to flavor the potatoes
'cause nothing's better than cheesy potatoes.
TED: Chefs, you now have 15 on the clock.
DYLAN: Risotto is definitely an art,
and a lot of the Italian restaurants that I've worked in,
I was taught to make amazing risotto.
But the meat is really tough,
so I'm gonna hit it with some red wine.
I'm gonna need that acidity to counteract the beef.
I got way more wine than I need.
There's a little part of me
that gets a little twisted satisfaction
in getting Garrett drunk.
It might slow him down a little bit. We'll see.
These carrots, they're old.
It's not the carrot that you want to [chomps] into.
It's a perfect carrot for cooking or stocks or stews.
You also have those carrot tops.
I want to see someone maximize the usage of those carrots.
GARRETT: I want to run with the theme of the show,
so I want to utilize the entire carrot.
With carrot tops, I'm gonna toss them with the fried chickpeas
and garnish the dish with it.
TED: And, chefs, 10 minutes left.
DYLAN: We've got these limp carrots.
The first thing that I think of is a puree,
so I chop up the carrots, get them boiling,
and then throw them in the blender with some caraway seeds.
Potatoes with eyes are absolutely useable.
Potatoes are only unusable
when they get that slight green tint.
That's when the arsenic starts to build up in the potato
and they're poisonous.
And, chefs, you have just under 5 minutes.
PARIND: The meat's a little tough.
It's not acceptable.
It doesn't have the texture for filling
for my ravioli idea,
so I got to do something else, and I'm running out of time.
So, the only thing I can think of is tacos.
And so, I just fry up the tacos,
and I'll be using the carrot fronds on top.
Chefs, have to call the 2-minute warning.
GARRETT: I'm definitely feeling pressure.
This meat has to be cooked perfectly.
I'm the guy that has the butchering experience.
I'm just hoping that this came out exactly how I wanted it.
I fry up the tacos, put my beef filling in.
I'm starting to panic.
Just got to get this on the plate.
And 10, 9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Time's up. Please step back.
Time's up. I feel good about everything.
Hopefully, they'll be impressed with the meat.
DYLAN: I can see that the risotto's looking a little too thick,
but other than that, I know everything tastes great.
I'm feeling pretty confident
that I've got this one in the bag.
PARIND: I look at my dish,
and it's not necessarily highfalutin or uptown,
but it should be delicious.
[ Clock ticking ]
Chefs, we're not letting anything go to waste
in this competition.
In the exciting second basket, you found wilted carrots,
potatoes with eyes, Parmesan cheese rinds,
and meat trimmings.
Chef Dylan?
For today, I made you a red wine Parmesan and beef risotto
with a caraway carrot butter
and some crispy potatoes right on top.
So, Dylan, caraway puree -- I think it's absolutely delicious.
Butter here really comes through.
The technique of the risotto is almost perfect.
But unfortunately, you've made the critical error
of throwing the beef in there with it.
I think that your mistake was simply assuming
that cooking the piece of beef and Arborio rice
have the same cooking time.
You can't do that.
TED: Is that something you've done before?
It was not a textbook risotto by any means whatsoever,
but I like the flavor of it.
I thought the amount of richness was appropriate.
Thank you, Chef Dylan. Next up -- Chef Garrett.
Here we have chuck steak
with sautéed carrots and potatoes,
a sauce of beef broth, star anise, and Parmesan rinds,
some carrot tops and fried chickpeas on top.
This dish is fantastic in its respect of the ingredients,
but I especially appreciate it
because you were given a basket of waste,
and what you did was made them into a really good meal.
GEOFFREY: Garrett.
This whole potato/carrot thing is good, really good.
I mean, it tastes like someone
who knows how to cook butter and herbs
and make a rotten carrot taste good.
It tastes like food.
Yeah, that's really important.
But my beef, I had two pieces that are inedible
and three pieces that are,
like, really, really chewy and well-done.
TED: Chef, can you talk about
why you're putting yourself through this?
I do need money. [ Chuckles ]
I would like to go to southeast Asia
and have an amazing time eating food
and just seeing a lifestyle I've never seen before.
Thank you, Chef Garrett.
PARIND: So, this is
an American-Mediterranean-style taco.
I did the potatoes in oil.
Carrots, I poached off
and then fried the fronds to put inside.
I have an entire piece of rind on my plate,
and I guess the biggest problem
is that it looks kind of like a potato,
so I was about to pop this into my mouth.
But your instinct was spot-on in realizing
that the beef was too tough and cutting it up so small
and sort of making it juicy and flavorful.
But the shell here is very hard to eat,
and the potato pieces are really, really chunky and big
comparing to the meat.
Yeah, I concur. I get the disjointedness.
What would it mean for you to win?
[ Sighs ]
It would be validation
of all the blood, sweat, and tears,
making the difficult choices.
I left medical school after three years.
I mean, I really enjoyed it,
but I was thinking about food and wine
most of the time, so...
It's kind of like when you're with a beautiful woman,
but you don't love her.
This spoken from one of Austin's most eligible bachelors?
[ Chuckles ] I don't have time.
That's the only issue there.
[ Laughs ]
Chef Parind, thank you.
Chefs, bet you're wondering what could be in the dessert baskets
of our wasted foods competition,
but you'll have to make it to the final round to find out.
Thank you.
I think it's up in the air.
PARIND: I think we all did really smart moves
and then really dumb moves, you know?
So, it was kind of everything.
Ooh, I got a little beatdown, you know?
It was like, "Ugh!"
I want to go home after the next round.
I want to go home with the cash.
Yeah, that makes all of us.
So, judges, I think this competition is proof
that many of the things that often end up in the trash
can be tasty.
MARCUS: I thought, for me,
Parind made the most playful dish, you know?
It was almost like
walking into a make-your-own-taco party.
But then to add, like, big chunk of potatoes
that were just too big for me to stuff in the taco.
Yeah.
Parind talks a lot about being experienced,
but doesn't show any regard for technique.
The hunk of Parmesan rind masquerading as a potato
was inedible.
I think Garrett really honored the fact
that once you peeled and cut away the eyes of those potatoes
and cut up those carrots
and made them of a similar size and shape,
that it could actually come together and feel
as if no scraps were used at all.
The carrots were delicious, the potato was delicious,
but then everything else was tough, overcooked.
Can we talk for a minute about Dylan's risotto
'cause the meat was tough and inconsistently cooked.
The rice and the beef
is just not gonna react in the same way,
and the beef chunk then
doesn't really become soft and tender.
But Dylan achieved some deliciousness
with that carrot puree.
By enhancing it with a few simple choices from the pantry,
you would've never said these are wilted and old carrots.
DYLAN: If I had to guess who's gonna be chopped,
I would probably say Parind.
I'm feeling very confident
about my chances of going on to dessert.
I mean, there were some really stupid, novice mistakes
that I made. I hope that I go on.
I mean, I don't know at this point.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
[ Clock ticking ]
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Dylan, you've been chopped. Judges?
Dylan, we felt that your choice to make a risotto
and presume that the beef scraps and the rice
would cook at the same time
really cost you in this round very heavily.
For those reasons, we had to chop you.
Just want to say thank you for the opportunity.
Thanks.
I didn't really see that coming. I'm feeling a little shocked.
I thought for sure Parind was gonna be the one chopped.
I take perfection really seriously,
but I also know
that perfection doesn't happen in a 30-minute window.
GARRETT: I am completely surprised
that Parind didn't get chopped for the "taco" that he made.
It looked like a mess.
I'm feeling pretty confident going in the next round.
Garrett has a thoughtfulness that belies his age,
but I can definitely beat him.
Chef Garrett, Chef Parind, please open your baskets.
And you must use...
30 minutes for the final round.
Clock starts now.
GARRETT: For the past eight years,
I've been working towards becoming a great chef.
Winning this competition will show me
that I am doing it the right way.
I'm making brown sugar-caramelized apples
with a coffee bread sauce.
Apples are gonna bring some acidity and some crispness.
I feel like processing this final basket
is about making the flavors work together.
It doesn't have to be a soufflé or a cake or anything.
You can just put some really delicious things together
and make it a little sweeter
and a little richer than you normally would a savory dish,
and it can be dessert.
If you need any of these liquors, I got them, okay?
My strategy is to do a dessert dessert --
something kind of over-the-top.
So, I'm making crumpets and orange Devon cream
with a fool of toasted bread and sabayon.
A fool is a layered dessert. It's like a trifle.
I get the sweetened condensed milk
because it's the right thickness and reminiscent of Devon cream.
I want to win "Chopped"
because I put blood, sweat, and tears and sacrifices
into this career, and it would be nice to be acknowledged.
So, judges, this may be the toughest basket yet
in our wasted ingredients competition, wouldn't you say?
ALEX: Totally.
This is like what's left after breakfast in the garbage.
Coffee grounds are something that I would love to see
repurposed imaginatively.
My grandparents, they used coffee always twice,
you know -- first cup and second cup.
Like, completely old school.
You know, going back to the second world war
when they didn't have a lot.
GARRETT: The used coffee grinds,
I would never really think to reuse them.
But there's still a lot of flavor in them.
I think making a sauce out of them with bread in it
is a pretty good idea.
It's looking disgusting.
But once it's pureed, it's looking really good.
Chefs, 15 minutes left on the clock.
It looks like Parind is running a bar out of his station.
He's got whiskey, he's got cognac, he's got orange liqueur.
I worry that Parind is doing a little bit of the over-thinking.
Are we gonna get sort of another deconstructed taco affair again?
PARIND: I'm using the hard stuff
because I feel like towards the end,
I want to step up my game,
and it's about using things to elevate the sensory experience.
I want to do something kind of over-the-top,
so I decide that I'm gonna deep-fry the oranges.
TED: Deep-fried orange peels?!
GEOFFREY: God bless him.
That would seem, to me, to kill the one thing
in that orange peel that has value -- the oils.
It would make it bitter, really bitter.
I take the deep-fried oranges, cut them into segments,
and put it into the Devon cream.
If this goes wrong, I don't know what I'll do
because I used all the orange.
And, chefs, you are now down to 5 minutes.
The juiced orange bits are kind of a problem.
There's no juice left.
So, I cut one into strips
and candy it in some sugar and water.
It'll make a garnish for the top of the dish.
PARIND: I get my plates,
and I spread the Devon cream
on top of the crumpet.
At the same time, I put another crumpet on the bottom,
and I put the sabayon on top.
And I torch the sabayon
to kind of create a little crust on the top.
1 minute, 60 seconds.
GARRETT: At this point, I had my bread sauce made,
I have my apples caramelized.
I'm adding whipped cream and the orange zest,
but I feel this dish needs something else with it.
With apples, I just feel thyme is a great accent.
TED: Let's go, chefs! Fight to the end.
And 10, 9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Time's up. Please step back.
PARIND: Good job, brother.
GARRETT: I look down at my plate, and I think it looks great.
It's definitely me.
I looked at Parind's dish,
and I feel like he went a little too big on this one.
PARIND: What I see on my competitor's plate
is basically boring.
Dessert should be warming, and it should be delicious,
and I felt like I did all of those.
We should think twice
before throwing out the ends of bread loaves,
squeezed orange halves, used coffee grinds,
and hardened brown sugar,
and those were the ingredients for your desserts.
Chef Garrett?
Here we have apples
caramelized in brown sugar and bourbon,
candied orange zest, whipped cream, thyme,
brown-butter bread crumbs, and a coffee and bread sauce.
If I got this dish, I would think the basket ingredients
were heavy cream, apples, and thyme.
You stand before me for the third time,
and I ask myself the same question --
Did you complete the task at hand?
I felt like I used the ingredients
of the coffee and the bread very well.
Fair enough.
You have remnants of a terrific dessert here,
but my apple's raw.
MARCUS: Garrett, texture-wise, flavor-wise,
this is a really good dessert.
But I want one more thing that sort of brings it together.
I would serve this in a fine-dining restaurant.
All right, Chef Garrett. Thank you.
Chef Parind.
So, what we have here
is crumpets and orange Devon cream
with a fool of toasted bread, mascarpone cheese,
and a sabayon gratiné.
GEOFFREY: I really like this dessert. It's very creative.
I especially like this little crumpet thing here.
It's a very smart use of the orange,
but I'm gonna need a breathalyzer test
after eating this 'cause there's so much alcohol in here.
I thought I'd play around a little bit with the alcohol,
but I wanted to do an adult dessert.
It's sweet and alcohol.
Yes.
Which is very overpowering.
It is sweet,
but I think there's a lot of imaginative things in here.
I get little bits of brown sugar
and little bits of black pepper in the cream, which I love.
All right. Thank you, chefs.
I think we're neck-and-neck.
I think it could be anybody.
It could be anyone, but I really liked my dessert.
What I did was add one too much ingredient,
Yeah.
I'd say I was winning, but there is a taco incident.
[ Both chuckling ]
I thought there was a lot of care
put into Garrett's dessert in terms of textures, you know?
GEOFFREY: But I think if he spent a little bit more time
caramelizing those apples, he would've had a real dessert.
We've all commented how we thought there was something missing.
Parind gave us
a really beautiful-looking dessert,
and I thought that he really had
some really smart ideas going on there.
But the condensed sugar is sweet,
the brown, raw sugar is sweet,
and then he adds even more sugar on top of that,
and it wasn't really balanced to me.
ALEX: And it was overly alcoholic.
I think the heart of this matter lies in the main course for me.
Parind turned that beef into something tender and juicy,
but it's placed on a greasy corn tortilla
and an entire chunk of Parmesan rind masquerading as a potato --
That didn't work.
I think in the main-course round,
Garrett really celebrated the hominess of these ingredients,
making those potatoes kind of supple,
as if they had been cooked in a stew.
The problem was the meat was tough and inconsistently cooked.
It was a very safe main course
where the carrots and the potatoes, they were good,
but there was nothing there to sort of, "Wow!"
I think Garrett's first course was borderline brilliant.
To take the tomatoes and start roasting them
to sort of get some of the funk out of them,
putting them in a blender,
and making a very quick gazpacho was good.
I loved Garrett's first course,
but it was more about the bitterness of the radicchio.
It was more about his pantry ingredients.
In Parind's case, I liked his dish,
but it sort of missed on the cod meat.
I agree with that.
He has really good ideas,
but the execution wasn't there.
So, when he's gonna do tartare or ceviche, it's neither.
Just say the word, and we'll get the chefs back out here.
We're ready.
What I put out today was all from the heart.
My level of experience is gonna win the competition.
GARRETT: Parind does have a lot of experience,
but instead of talking about how much experience I have,
I let my work speak for itself.
I am very confident I'm gonna win.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Parind, you've been chopped. Judges?
Parind, your first course, the ceviche, was under-marinated.
For the main course,
you extracted some incredible flavor out of that beef.
However, you didn't pull the dish together.
You had a soggy taco.
And for those reasons, we had to chop you.
Thank you for the opportunity.
I mean, just being here was awesome.
Thank you.
PARIND: I'm disappointed in not winning.
However, it was close.
I think true passion, true drive
is what separates the good from the great.
I'll keep striving to be great.
And that means, Chef Garrett Eagleton,
that you are the "Chopped" champion.
[ Applause ]
Whoo!
You made excellent use of usually wasted ingredients,
and for that, you win $10,000.
Amazing. Thank you.
Winning this wasted-theme show is great.
It really makes me feel
like I know how to use things in a proper way.
It's an honor to cook for all of you.
I'm looking forward to traveling to Southeast Asia.
This feels really good. I feel really good.
I've got a little bit of swagger.