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TED: Four chefs, three courses...
...only one chance to win.
Good enough.
The challenge -- create an unforgettable meal...
...from the mystery items hidden in these baskets...
Aw, 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.
Four competitors think they have what it takes
to be the "Chopped" champion.
Let's meet them. First up, Chef Iain Falconer.
[ Scottish accent ] I'm Iain Falconer.
Aah!
I'm Scottish,
and I'm the head chef
at Cooper's Mill in Tarrytown, New York.
Is that enough for our pork shanks?
Back in Scotland,
we're surrounded by farmland, meat, vegetables.
It's all local, you know?
Cooper's Mill is also farm-to-table.
We do everything as local as we can.
Pick up!
My wife and I have a young son, Lachlan.
He's the absolute apple of my eye.
With the $10,000, I'm gonna bring him back to Scotland.
The other three chefs should watch out,
because there's me and the whole of Scotland behind me.
Next up, we have Chef Clara Park.
I'm Clara Park,
and I'm a freelance chef in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Whether it's catering for a wedding,
cooking at three-star restaurants
that needs kind of pinch hitter,
if it's culinarily related, I've done it.
My parents are Korean immigrants,
and they always pushed education.
And I actually started a PhD in biology,
but it just wasn't a good fit for me, and so I left.
My parents were disappointed in my decision,
but now they'll say, "Clara is a chef.
Clara wrote a cookbook."
When I win the $10,000 on "Chopped,"
it will prove to everyone
that this is what I'm meant to be doing.
And then there's Chef Steve Lohse.
I'm the chef at Lavender Lake in Brooklyn, New York.
We're doing New American bistro food,
which is comfort food with European influences.
♪ Da da da da-da ♪
I never went to culinary school,
but I definitely cooked in some unusual places.
♪ Da da da da-da ♪
I was a cook and deckhand on fishing boats in Alaska.
I once ran a deep fryer in 40-foot seas.
I'm not scared of "Chopped."
Winning "Chopped" would prove that you can get your experience
outside of the lofty New York food scene
and still compete on a New York level.
Order up!
Finally, Chef Jonathan Mailo.
I'm the chef de cuisine here at BLT Prime in New York City.
I grew up in Hawaii.
I first got into cooking when I was in high school.
I was a bit of a problem child.
And my senior year, I got busted for having drugs,
and they said, "We're gonna expel you."
My mother and the principal worked out a deal
where if I found a job, they would allow me to come back.
My aunt, who had a restaurant, told me,
"Oh, I'm gonna teach you how to cook on the line."
I was completely frazzled,
but then, at the end of the day, I was like,
"Yeah, I could do this [bleep]"
It was a drug for me.
I'm coming on "Chopped" to show my aunt,
show my mom how far I've came.
Welcome, chefs.
Here are the rules.
There are three rounds --
appetizer, entree, and dessert.
Each course comes with 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.
Chefs, please open your baskets for the appetizer round.
And you must use head-on shrimp...
pickled raisins...
roasted chickpeas...
and Romanesco cauliflower.
You get only 20 minutes, so plan accordingly.
Time starts now.
Today I need to prove to people
that even though I don't work in restaurants every night,
I'm still a strong cook.
The components of the basket are very similar to a dish
that I have made probably a thousand times.
When I was working at Redd in Napa Valley,
caramelized diver scallops over cauliflower puree
was a signature.
So I'm gonna make sautéed shrimp
over Romanesco cauliflower puree.
The shrimp are massive.
I'm going to devein it.
I'm going to sauté it up.
So, when I announced that I was leaving graduate school,
my parents' friends said, "You're a disappointment.
Your parents wasted all that money on your education."
But those same haters
are begging for a dinner invitation now.
It's validation that I'm good at what I do.
Being from Scotland, we have the sea all around us,
so we do a lot with a lot of shellfish.
I want to make poached shrimp with grilled cauliflower,
roasted chickpea, and arugula salad
with maple-and-raisin gastrique.
I'm very proud of where I'm from,
and it's very important for my son to learn about his roots.
He's got his own kilt.
He's not a true Scotsman yet,
'cause he's still got to wear diapers.
To be a true Scotsman
is basically you wear nothing under your kilt,
apart from your socks and your shoes.
Behind you.
STEVE: On the fishing boat,
I learned the importance of making things taste good,
over, say, like, arty presentation,
because when you're working that *** a boat,
all you have to look forward to are your meals.
I'm thinking, "Why would they give us shrimp with heads
if we weren't supposed to use the heads?"
So I'm gonna make a pan-roasted head-on shrimp with bean puree.
I'm gonna roast the Romanesco,
because I love roasted cauliflower.
And I'm going to make a sauce with the pickled raisins.
JONATHAN: I have a lot of confidence, going into this competition
because of the experience that I have
when it comes to fine dining.
I make sure that I clean the shrimp.
I wash out all the veins.
I think I get it all out.
So, I'm doing a sautéed shrimp with a cauliflower Romanesco,
roasted chickpeas, and pickled raisin ragout.
I'll add the capers for some brininess.
I pride myself on technique.
I want to show my other competitors, like,
"Look, dude, this is how I cook."
TED: And our judges are Chef Maneet Chauhan,
Chef Aarón Sánchez, and Chef Alex Guarnaschelli.
Okay, so, for people at home who are squeamish,
who don't like tentacles and eyeballs and antennae,
what's the advantage of having the head on the shrimp?
Yeah, it's like that yummy stuff that happens once --
when you cook it, it sort of leaches out
and gives this wonderful flavor,
almost like a whisper of the ocean.
All right, folks, 10 minutes left.
CLARA: I decided to cook the raisins in brown butter.
The pickling is going to play nicely
against the richness of the cauliflower puree,
and I think it'll marry well
with the sweetness of the shrimp.
IAIN: Romanesco doesn't need a lot of cooking
to get the flavors out of it.
So I want to grill it and add it into my salad.
JONATHAN: I decided that I want to fold in spinach to the ragout,
'cause spinach is a good vehicle
to kind of like pull the ragout together.
So, growing up, my mom was a single mom.
She worked two jobs.
Canned food was, like, staple in the house.
So, when I started cooking with fresh food,
I really found a real deep appreciation for it.
But still, to this day, I love Spam.
[ Laughs ]
You know, this basket has one of my favorite ingredients.
That is the roasted chickpeas.
TED: I don't know if you've tried these yet.
And are they seasoned?
Is there any other flavor imparted to them,
Just salt.
The chickpea puree picked up a lot of salt when I tasted,
so I added chicken stock to try to balance that out.
ALEX: It always alarms me
when I see someone adding a stock
straight out of the carton.
Why would you put chicken stock in chickpeas?
I-I don't know.
I would add water, personally.
STEVE: I'm hoping, of course,
that the boxed chicken stock isn't really salty itself.
TED: 5 minutes, chefs! 5 minutes left!
STEVE: I hope it works,
because there's no time to start all over again.
STEVE: The chickpea puree is still really salty,
so I add a lot more oil,
and it's almost to where I want it to be.
I know I can definitely outcook all of the chefs on the show
because of the training that I went through
in fine-dining restaurants.
So, I just sautéed the shrimp.
Keep it very simple
so you can taste the pure flavor of the shrimp.
We cook, at home, for Lachlan a lot of simple, fresh food.
So, the salad, I make a little vinaigrette with some Sriracha.
The chickpeas, I just simply chopped up
and tossed into the salad to give it an extra dimension.
CLARA: So, with the puree,
I let it cook until the cauliflower is fork-tender,
to get, like, this really wonderful texture.
Everything matters, including presentation,
and I feel confident that
this is gonna be a really, really beautiful dish.
Okay, folks, this is your final minute.
60 seconds. Got to wrap it up.
I'm plating this gastrique separately
in, like, a little dipping bowl
so it doesn't overwhelm everything else on the plate.
The clock's going what I think is far too fast.
STEVE: I pull the shrimp out of the oven,
where I was finishing them,
and I get the bean puree on the plate.
I want to present this dish elegantly but simply.
I try to stay away from elaborate garnishes,
because they're frivolous.
JONATHAN: I pride myself on technique.
So, at the last moment,
I decided that I want to garnish the plate
with some fresh spinach leaves.
TED: All right, chefs, got to wrap it up.
10...9...8...
7...6...5...
4...3...2...1.
Time is up.
STEVE: Time's up, and I'm looking down at my dish,
and I think, "It looks like something I would want to eat."
But I look at my competitors' plates,
and they look a lot neater.
JONATHAN: As far as this dish, I mean, it's restaurant quality.
I look at Stephen's dish, and I think,
"It looks very, very rustic."
I wouldn't be serving that in my restaurant.
Chefs, you've arrived at the chopping block.
You opened the basket and found head-on shrimp,
pickled raisins, roasted chickpeas,
and Romanesco cauliflower.
Chef Iain?
Today I've made a poached shrimp
with grilled cauliflower, chickpea, arugula salad,
and a maple-raisin gastrique dipping sauce.
You don't sound like you're from the Bronx.
So, how long have you been in the States?
I've been here four years.
I've got a 19-month-old son.
Lachlan.
It's important for me to win
because we'd go back to Scotland for his second birthday.
MANEET: Ah, fantastic.
You know, I love the fact that you grilled the Romanesco,
because it gives a lovely charred bitterness to the salad,
but I wish you had just taken a little bit of time
to clean the shrimp.
AARóN: Yeah, you have this vein
that was basically the intestines of the shrimp.
And I think the shrimp are a little over.
But the gastrique is very well balanced.
It has a real bright acidity.
Thank you.
I think this is a very nice dish.
I love the vinegar in the sauce,
but this sort of feels, like, very separated
instead of collaborative.
Chef Iain, thank you.
No problem. Pleasure.
Next up, Chef Clara.
I made a sautéed shrimp over Romanesco cauliflower puree,
with pickled raisins and brown butter and crispy chickpeas.
I helped to open a restaurant in Napa Valley called Redd,
and one of the signature dishes there
is caramelized diver scallop over cauliflower puree,
and so this is my play on that signature dish.
I would say it's one of the most beautiful plates
I've seen sitting here.
Thank you!
However, I feel that maybe you made a dish
that you learned in a restaurant,
but I'm missing a connection to you.
I like the way that you transformed the Romanesco.
I think it's beautifully presented.
I think the shrimp is cooked perfect.
I just think I'm missing this element of excitement
that can come from herbs and some more acidity --
something of that nature.
Next up, Chef Steve.
Today I made a pan-roasted
head-on shrimp
with a rustic bean puree, roasted Romanesco,
and a pickled raisin pan jus.
AARóN: You know, it's interesting
'cause we got a lot of people that say they love rustic food,
and I think sometimes it's an excuse to be sloppy.
And I really thought that you didn't fall in that trap.
You did a great job
by leaving the integrity of the ingredients whole.
My issue with this is that, you know,
you didn't do a good job cleaning the shrimp.
ALEX: I sort of felt the same way,
but I think the cauliflower is dynamite, I got to tell you.
Great. Thank you.
It feels from the heart, and I respect that.
I think the roasted chickpeas --
it's the least successful of the transformation.
Salt was the only thing that I tasted.
I was worried about that.
Thank you.
Finally, Chef Jonathan.
So, today, you have a sautéed shrimp
with roasted cauliflower,
pickled raisins, and garbanzo bean ragout.
I think the capers were a really good move here.
AARóN: I think, by virtue of you cutting them,
you let all that brine just come out.
Sadly, they have a huge shrimp,
and I only have that much sauce.
The one thing that you also did suffer from was cleaning.
TED: Chef, how did you get started in cooking?
So, when I was, like, in high school,
I basically got kicked out for partying, doing drugs,
and everything like that.
They told me, if I want to graduate,
I needed to find a job.
Gave a phone call to my aunt, who owns a restaurant,
so she taught me how to cook on the line.
I was like, "Wow, I like this. This is pumped-up."
Okay, chefs, please step out. Thank you.
It's all done now.
If I could go back
I'd do a thousand different things right now, you know?
Going to that first round,
like, we all got one out of the way,
so I think we're all ready for the entree round.
If we get to the next round.
Okay, judges, what did you think?
I thought that Clara's dish was stunning --
I mean, arrestingly beautiful.
But I think that Clara hid behind
someone else's idea a little bit.
AARóN: Yeah, it seemed a little safe for me.
And I think, taking back
from some of those Korean-American roots of hers
would have been very welcomed.
I almost thought that Clara was afraid, while Steve wasn't.
Yeah. Steve's dish was really connected
to what he likes to cook.
It was rustic, it was poorly presented,
and I loved it.
I thought Steve's cooking of the cauliflower
tasted like real home cooking to me.
But I think Steve had a lot of difficulty
with the roasted chickpea.
I think Jonathan took some time in presentation.
AARóN: But I just felt he should have looked
at the size of those shrimp
and realized the ratio of sauce to shrimp was off.
I thought that Iain actually was really quite the purist
in poaching his shrimp.
I just thought he overcooked them.
You know, what I really loved about Iain
was the Romanesco cauliflower.
But my biggest problem --
there was no harmony in the dish.
Okay.
STEVE: They might give me points for going rustic,
or they might decide that I'm just throwing food on the plate.
It's a fine line.
IAIN: It's hugely important for me
to prove a Scottish chef can do well in America.
One chef has not earned a place in the second round.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Iain, you've been chopped. Judges?
MANEET: Chef Iain,
it came down to things like the shrimp was overcooked.
And above all, there was no harmony in the dish.
And for these reasons, we have to chop you.
I feel a bit disappointed in myself.
It's basically it is what it is.
Thank you.
TED: Be well.
I feel completely deflated.
The hardest part about this
is just thinking I've let my son down.
But what you do is you just get over it
and keep striving to do your best.
Chef Clara, Chef Steve, Chef Jonathan,
it is time to direct your attention to the entree round.
Please open your baskets.
And the mystery ingredients you must use are baklava,
bluefish...
recaito...
and salt pearls.
The 30 minutes on our countdown clock begin ticking away...now.
JONATHAN: Based off of what I've seen today,
I'm not intimidated.
As far as Clara and Stephen go,
I mean, I'm definitely a better cook than they are.
I'm gonna make a pan-seared bluefish with romesco sauce,
and I'm gonna add some bacon...
because I think the smoke
kind of enhances the oils of the fish.
And I put dried pear in there.
[ Sizzling ]
With especially greasy fishes,
you want to always get rid of the blood line,
just because that's where
more the predominant fish flavor is.
My thing is refined foods.
I pride myself on technique.
That's why I definitely think I should win this competition.
STEVE: Jonathan is going for a more high-end approach,
whereas I'm trying to be very approachable.
I'm going to make fish and chips,
using the baklava phyllo as a crust.
I've never seen recaito before, and it tastes pickled to me.
So I'm going to make a recaito remoulade.
A remoulade is sort of a fancy French tartar sauce.
[ Whirring ]
I never went to culinary school.
I got my schooling from working at one restaurant after another,
after another,
picking up what I wanted to learn,
and then going on.
[ Sighing ] Okay.
Going into Round 2,
I keep hearing Chef Alex's words,
"I'm not really seeing you."
And I really take that to heart,
and I want to make something that's true to me --
that's true to Clara Park.
I'm excited about the basket.
I grew up eating a lot of bluefish.
My mom used to cook it a lot with soy, maybe some sesame oil.
So I'm making a soy-glazed bluefish
over a pomme puree,
with a celery salad with lemon-mirin vinaigrette.
My bluefish preparation has to shine,
because the other two chefs are fierce competitors.
So any sort of over-
or undercooking of the fish is gonna kill me.
[ Blender whirring ]
And, chefs, you're looking at 10 minutes.
And, wow, it's loud in here.
[ Blenders whirring ]
In romesco sauce, you have bread,
so I'll just take phyllo off the baklava and then throw that in.
I put a lot of olive oil inside my romesco sauce.
I'm also putting toasted almonds and some smoked paprika.
Ultimately, I want my own place in New York City.
I want to earn my own Michelin stars,
and I want to just work for the chefs that have them.
STEVE: I don't think you need to work
at a Michelin-starred restaurant to learn how to cook.
A good chef runs a restaurant.
A good chef helps people keep their jobs.
It's not just somebody who can make a few things.
As soon as the potatoes come out,
I drop two pieces of fish in each basket.
I'm gonna let it sit there until it gets a nice golden crust,
and then I'm gonna finish it in the oven.
The restaurant where I work
was hit really hard by Hurricane Sandy,
just five months after we opened.
If I win, I would like to donate a substantial amount
to the Sandy Relief Fund.
Okay, chefs, you're now looking at 5 minutes left on the clock.
CLARA: I decide on the fly
that I'm going to add some of the baklava nut filling
to kind of like a nuttiness
and a little different dimension to the potatoes.
Then I add some of the recaito,
because I can taste some onions in it.
AARóN: What's a real challenge is this recaito.
What it is, is a puree of peppers and onions,
and it's meant to be cooked with, 'cause it's very intense.
As far as, like, visual beauty, I think that that's big.
I'm thinking I'm gonna put the romesco sauce down on the plate.
I'll have my little fricassee of mushrooms
and bacon and the pears down.
I want to show my other competitors,
like, "This is how I cook,
and if you're not gonna hang, like, you can't hang."
STEVE: Just because a plate is beautiful doesn't mean
that it, you know, was cooked perfectly.
It means it was plated well.
I'm gonna plate very simply,
and I'm either gonna get away with it or I'm not.
Okay, folks, one minute remaining -- 60 seconds.
Yes.
Time is running out, and I feel nervous,
so my hands are kind of shaking.
And I see my fish breaking, and I don't like that.
TED: This entree round is sliding away from you, chefs.
10...9...8...
7...6...5...
4...3...2...1.
Time is up. Please step back.
CLARA: Time's up.
I look at my dish, and I say, "Is it my best work?
No, but, hey, it's a decent dish."
JONATHAN: I look down.
Pretty damn content with what I did.
I'm like, "I just did my potato chips and fried fish.
Only thing you're missing is a newspaper to put it on, dude."
My dish looks exactly as I wanted it to look.
I think it's very approachable.
Chefs, we put you through another grueling round
of extemporaneous cooking,
featuring entrees made from baklava...
bluefish...recaito... and salt pearls.
Chef Clara?
Hi. For the chefs today,
I made a soy-glazed bluefish with a celery salad
with mirin-lemon vinaigrette.
What's your inspiration for this dish?
So, when I was growing up,
my mom used to make soy-glazed bluefish a lot,
and she would just cook it with potatoes and onions.
AARóN: I think you did a great job
balancing the amount of soy here.
It's well seasoned,
and it sort of complements
the inherent oiliness and ironiness of the fish.
The pomme puree, for me, is a little --
You used a blender, right?
Yeah. It's a little gummy.
ALEX: I also want to say,
this is one of the most perfectly cooked
pieces of fish I've ever eaten in this chair.
Wowzers.
AARóN: I think it's obvious that you really took
sort of our cues in the first round.
And I really feel like you imparted your personality
and your cooking style in this dish.
Oh, thank you.
So, you know, I grew up
in a traditional Korean-American household
where academics and education
were always first and foremost.
So I went to the top schools,
but I was always really unhappy.
And so I decided to just kind of leave
and put myself through culinary school,
and I haven't looked back.
TED: Thank you, Chef Clara.
Next up, Chef Steve.
I made a phyllo-crusted fish and chips
with a recaito remoulade.
I seasoned the potato chips with pearl salt.
I also used the sweetened nuts,
just as a contrast to the saltiness.
I love the fact that you did fish and chips.
And I think taking the phyllo dough,
incorporating it was a great idea.
AARóN: The chips are good, as well,
but this is not a remoulade sauce.
Remoulade is texturally different.
That's a puree.
I like that I can see the grated salt pearl
on the potato chips.
I think that that was a hard basket ingredient
to even visually indicate was present in the dish.
The only thing that's uninvited here is that layer of baklava.
I was just thinking of it as a sweet element contrast
to the aioli, but you're right.
TED: Thank you, Chef Steve.
And, finally, Chef Jonathan.
So, I got pan-seared bluefish
over a romesco sauce
with mushrooms, pears, and bacon.
Wouldn't typically think of pears with fish.
Nice surprise, and like the idea of pears with bacon and fish.
There's something about that that's working there.
This just needs a big shot of lemon.
It's a little short in the acid department.
The first thing is the presentation.
It's beautiful.
But the puree is really, really oily.
I wanted to put a lot of oil in there
to kind of like bring up more fruity aspects of the puree.
Given the fact that it is an oily fish,
it just -- everything adds up...
when you have it together.
How did you use the baklava?
I pureed the phyllo part inside it,
instead of bread, for romesco.
I really like that you kind of
stayed away from the filling here,
'cause I think the pistachio
would not have done this dish a service.
I think, using the bread -- that toasty flavor --
instead was really smart.
AARóN: I do have to commend you.
In comparison to your two competitors,
you did remove the blood line.
You were very considerate and skillful
in preparing the fish for us.
Okay...we're gonna have to ask you
to wait a little bit one more time.
Just feels like they have a lot of critiquing -- you know? --
like, about the dish.
That's, like, their job.
I didn't understand that the puree was no good.
That's, like, romesco sauce,
you put a ton of oil in it, you know?
It's tricky.
I just don't want to get chopped.
TED: All right, what do you think?
Some of these bluefish didn't have me feeling blue.
Clara's had this soy and mirin,
and I was concerned it was gonna be a little too salty.
But she was able to sort of pull back.
And I thought her presentation
was stunning for the second time.
But that potato puree was an absolute failure.
It was gummy. The baklava was lost in it.
I liked Steve's dish.
I thought it was really connected
to what he likes to cook, what he likes to eat,
and I love that he really managed
to kind of highlight the salt pearls
by sprinkling that right onto the potato chips.
AARóN: But then Steve,
by taking poetic license and calling that a remoulade,
he should slow his roll,
'cause that was not a remoulade, okay?
Jonathan brought an amazing amount of creativity
to his dish.
The use of the dried pears was amazing.
But I think, with Jonathan, the romesco sauce
that he created was the downfall of that dish.
Everything was greasy.
I really didn't want to go for another bite.
All right.
CLARA: I'm kind of kicking myself for using that blender
for the potato puree,
'cause I know that that makes potatoes gummy.
So, if they're judging from a technical point of view,
I think Clara should go home for her gummy potato puree.
I mean, like, everybody knows about that.
TED: We are one chop away
from the final round of this competition.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Jonathan, you've been chopped.
Judges?
Chef Jonathan, it pains us to give you this news,
'cause we really feel that you have such skill and technique.
Your competitors lack a little bit of that technique,
but what they were able to achieve was flavor.
And we thought that that romesco sauce,
you kept adding more and more oil,
and we couldn't really taste all the individual nuances
that you were trying to create.
These are some of the reasons we're gonna chop you today.
Okay.
Little bit speechless.
I think that they just knocked me for the grease.
I think it's kind of like B.S.
I'll still get my Michelin stars.
Chef Clara, Chef Steve,
breathe deep and keep your minds zeroed in
on what you need to accomplish here,
which is to create an amazing dessert.
Can you do that?
Of course.
You bet.
Please open them up.
And your desserts must include ***-infused chocolate milk...
persimmons...
crumpets...
and cashews.
Once again, 30 minutes on the clock.
Let's start it now.
Now that I'm this close, I can visualize winning.
I can taste it.
I see the crumpet,
and I immediately want to pulse it to crumb
and make cookies out of it.
So, I'm making a crumpet-cookie sandwich
with a persimmon-apple compote and a duo of chocolate sauces.
I've really got in my head that I need to repurpose everything.
While the flavors have to be recognizable,
the product can't be.
I'm using the ***-infused chocolate milk
to break down some dark chocolate
and white chocolate chips.
I get the persimmon macerating in sugar,
vanilla bean, a little bit of the chocolate ***.
I add some apple to it, as well.
CLARA: I think Stephen came to win.
That means I have to bring my "A" game to the dessert round.
Koreans really enjoy persimmon,
so when I see persimmons, I am beyond excited.
But these persimmons -- they're a little bit underripe,
so I decide to candy them
with some simple syrup, lemon, and fresh vanilla bean
for a candied persimmon napoleon with whipped mascarpone.
I taste the *** chocolate milk, and it's delicious.
I mean, you want to drink it.
So I decide to make this chocolate sauce
by melting the dark chocolate in the chocolate *** milk.
I think chefs, in general, kind of crumble in the dessert round,
because they don't do it, but as a freelance chef,
you can't just say, "Hey, I only do savory."
If they want a special dessert for their birthday,
you got to do it, so I got some tricks up my sleeve.
AARóN: You want to talk about, like, one of the Cadillac of nuts?
For me, cashews is one of those things.
It's super, super nutty,
but not even that but it has this exotic taste to it.
MANEET: They belong to the mango family.
It's actually called false fruit,
because there's a fruit which looks like an apple,
and the cashew is under that.
STEVE: I really like cashews.
They go great with apple.
I'm gonna make a brittle.
It's a basic caramel with the cashews tossed in it.
And I'm going to make an ice cream
with the dark chocolate sauce.
I add a little orange liqueur
because orange and chocolate go together.
And then I pour it all into the ice cream machine
and hope for the best.
ALEX: Steve is defying the laws of food chemistry
by thinking that with all that orange liqueur and ***
in his ice cream
that it's gonna freeze up and become really firm.
Okay, chefs, 10 minutes left on the clock.
CLARA: Cashews are really good because they're really meaty
and they're kind of substantial, and you can go sweet or savory.
So, I'm making a cashew brittle.
To make a proper brittle, you need baking soda
because it causes this wonderful chain reaction,
and that's releasing all this air.
What I love about cooking,
it's one of the few fields
where it's science and it's art at the same time.
STEVE: I pulled the cookies out of the oven
to see that the edges were starting to burn.
ALEX: Steve seems to be trimming
overly browned edges off those cookies.
STEVE: I trimmed the burnt edges,
and maybe they'll be all right.
Winning today would be validation
of all those years working for other people,
learning, learning, learning,
barely scraping by.
Okay, folks, 5 minutes left on the clock!
CLARA: So, everything's under control.
So I think to myself,
"Hey, maybe I can make persimmon chips."
I'm convinced that if I slice them thin enough
and stick them in the fryer that they're gonna work.
I go to check the ice cream,
and at first check, it's not ready at all.
I just go back to starting my plates.
CLARA: I run over to the fryer.
I pull the persimmon slices out,
but they come out really soggy and I can't use them.
One minute left, folks!
STEVE: I run back and I get the ice cream out.
It's definitely soft serve, and at this point,
I realize that quite a few things are going wrong.
Don't slow down, chefs. You're almost out of time now.
And...10...9...8...
7...6...
STEVE: The nut brittle is still warm,
and the ice cream immediately starts to melt,
and I think, "Uh-oh."
TED: ...3...2...1.
Time is up. Please step back.
Time's up, and my dish looks like a mess of chocolate,
and I just hope that the flavors are there.
CLARA: Just seeing the brittle in a huge chunk is killing me.
I wish I had crushed it
and kind of sprinkled it all over each layer.
TED: Clara, Chef Steve,
your final surprise ingredients were
***-infused chocolate milk,
persimmons, crumpets, and cashews.
So, what did you make with that? Steve?
I made a crumpet cookie sandwich
with a compote of persimmon and apple
and a duo of chocolate-*** sauces.
I love the compote of the apple and the persimmons.
I think putting the lemon juice and sugar
to sort of soften the underripeness of the persimmons
I thought was a real smart choice.
You definitely have transformed the crumpets,
but I wish you had peeled the persimmons.
I like the salt in the cashew brittle.
That really comes through.
But the chocolate ice cream, ***,
orange liqueur-sauce ice cream --
there's too much alcohol in it for me.
Thank you, Chef Steve.
And, finally, Chef Clara.
So, for the chefs,
I've prepared a candied persimmon napoleon
with whipped mascarpone and cashew brittle.
Enjoy.
I have to say that you brought the best attributes
of the persimmon, for me, which are very lush and meaty.
And I think that this idea of doing this cream,
which I love -- What's in that cream?
The mascarpone and some sugar.
I think that's wonderful.
It's given it a beautiful moisture
Thank you.
But I think it still looks like a crumpet.
You know, we talk about transformation.
The crumpet and the treatment of that
is a little of a disappointment.
MANEET: Love the brittle.
Just the perfect amount of caramelization on it.
ALEX: I love the brittle, too,
but I have one big piece of brittle.
I mean, I kind of got to take a bite, eat, take a bite, eat.
All right, three plates of food from you both.
The judges have some thinking to do.
Thank you, chefs.
Thank you.
We've been talking about presentation all day,
and your presentation was really clean.
But I got dinged about the crumpet.
I didn't transform the ingredient.
So, tea and crumpets are a classic combination.
Crumpets and ***-infused chocolate milk?
What do you think?
MANEET: The transformation of the crumpets
on Clara's plate was almost nil.
On the other hand,
Steve did an amazing job transforming the crumpets.
AARóN: Steve, granted, made a full cookie with it,
but he plated it with a copious amount of that chocolate sauce
that was inundated with tons of alcohol.
It's so interesting that both Steve and Clara
decided to make a cashew brittle,
but even though Clara's cashew brittle tasted delicious,
the fact that she gave us these big chunks on the plate
wasn't user-friendly.
And then, you know,
Steve putting a little bit of the salt in the cashew --
I mean, that was just delicious.
But I think Clara was a little bit more successful
with the persimmon, to be honest.
And it was a beautiful presentation.
You have to admit,
Clara's presentation in the appetizer round
was one of the most buttoned-up, beautiful presentations
we've seen here in ages.
I agree, but Clara was not as successful
in transforming the pickled raisins
and the roasted chick peas.
And I thought she was being afraid
to put her cooking viewpoint on the plate.
And then, on the other hand, we had Steve, who was brave,
who said that, "This is my style of cooking."
Granted that the chickpea puree wasn't successful,
but it was a rustic-looking plate.
In the main-course round, Clara's fish,
to me, was perfectly cooked.
I agree, but she decided to put the potato puree in a blender.
It just gave it such a gummy texture.
I kind of liked Steve's take on the basket
in the entree round a little bit better.
It felt closer to the heart,
like something Steve wants to make.
I love that Steve took the baklava
and crusted it right on the fish.
I did not like that Steve took that filling of the baklava
and put it right underneath the fish.
Well, do you know whose name is going on that $10,000 check?
We have a winner.
CLARA: I think my cooking today showed what I'm capable of,
but it wasn't flawless.
STEVE: I feel like I should win
because I really transformed all the ingredients today.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Steve, you've been chopped. Judges?
ALEX: In the main course,
we really loved your conceptualization
of the fish and chips,
but putting that really sweet interior of the baklava
underneath the fried fish
landed you with a really sweet component
in a dish where it really didn't belong.
And for your dessert,
your ice cream melted from all the liquor inside,
and we just couldn't discern the unique flavors you developed.
For those reasons, we're not crowning you a winner today.
I proved that I could keep up
without going to culinary school,
that I could be creative and hit some marks.
And I think I did hit a lot of marks.
And that means, Chef Clara Park,
that you are the "Chopped" champion,
and $10,000 is the prize you'll be taking away.
Congratulations.
Yay! [ Chuckles ]
Thank you.
This win on "Chopped" means nothing was wasted.
I'm a better chef because of the education I have received.
And it feels good to know that, you know,
all my decisions were the right decisions.