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I have $100,000 of cold hard cash in this case.
4 chefs get $25,000 each.
If they want to leave this kitchen with any of the cash,
they have to survive three culinary challenges
and each other.
See this ice pick in my hand?
Ooh.
In a game where sabotage is not only encouraged...
Force one chef to build their own fire.
...it's for sale.
$5,000.
10 grand.
It's a game we like to call...
[ Laughs ]
..."Cutthroat Kitchen."
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
CHEF WIGINTON: My name is Chef LeeLee Wiginton.
I'm definitely used to being underestimated as a chef.
The pearls, the curls,
the Southern accent, the red lipstick.
Oh, man!
I'm here to show everyone
how a Southern belle can be cutthroat with grace.
CHEF STRATTON: I'm Chef Stratton.
I worked as a bouncer for six or seven years,
so I'm gonna try to use that same mind-set here
and intimidate my competitors.
I'm gonna stomp all over you, girl.
I'm not planning on being a nice guy today in this competition.
I'm here to win.
CHEF PHAM: My name is Chef Pham.
I've been cooking for six years now.
My parents kept trying to push me in the direction
of finding a job using a computer,
so I'm here to prove to them that I made the right choice
'cause I've always been passionate about it.
CHEF DORVIL: My name is Chef Ivan Dorvil.
I'm from Miami, Florida, born in Haiti.
As a little boy growing up,
it was a taboo for boys to go in the kitchen.
And when I come to the States, you know,
that's when I become a chef today.
I can tell you're scared.
Oh, I'm not scared.
Big things come in little packages.
Yeah? You really think you're gonna win this thing?
Little old you?
Smack that beard right off your face.
Bring it. Game on.
Hello.
Hi.
Welcome to "Cutthroat Kitchen."
Here's how the competition's gonna work.
You're gonna compete in three culinary challenges.
After each challenge, one of you will be eliminated, all right?
Now, once I reveal your challenge,
you'll have 60 seconds to shop in our general pantry.
At the end of that 60 seconds,
you're gonna have a unique opportunity
to bid on some devilish devices
that you can use to inflict pain on your competitors.
It's my favorite part of the competition --
the auction.
Each of you will begin with $25,000 of cold, hard cash.
Now, this is your money to spend throughout the competition,
but spend wisely because the last chef standing
will only walk away with the money that they have left.
Let's get started. Chefs, take your money.
Come on up. Take two bundles.
Two bundles equals $25,000.
Two bundles.
Thank you kindly.
$25,000 -- whoa!
I'm about to run out of the door, you know?
But I see too many cameras, so I didn't run out.
So I say, you know, let me stay put.
Now, for your first challenge,
you're gonna have 30 minutes to create your best patty melt.
CHEF DORVIL: To make a true patty melt,
you want a nice, crisp bread, a ground beef patty,
and you'll want the cheese
oozing out of the sides of the patty melt.
You're gonna have 60 seconds to shop in our pantry,
and that time begins...now.
CHEF WIGINTON: The pantry is the most hectic place I've ever been.
And Chef Dorvil is about one centimeter
from that last container of ground beef.
I grabbed so hard.
I made sure I had that in my basket.
Wah!
You have 30 seconds, chefs.
I grab some rye bread,
I grab yellow onions and ketchup.
Go into the cooler
and I see a nice chunk of top round in there.
I'm thinking that'll be great
and definitely set me apart from the rest of the competition.
These doors are gonna close in three...two...one.
My, but that was close.
My plan is to just get some ground beef.
And I end up with pork sausage.
And when I look at my basket, my jaw dropped.
I don't have bread.
The main thing to make a patty melt,
you have to have a ground beef, you have to have your bread.
Oh, my God.
So, now the fun part -- the auction.
So, let's see what our first item is.
[ Laughs ]
A plate of old nachos
and packages of freeze-dried meat.
Delicious.
Now, if you're the highest bidder,
you can swap one chef's cheese for the nachos
and another chef's protein for the meat pouches.
I am not going to work with freeze-dried beef,
and so I will pay whatever it takes.
$3,000.
$5,000.
$6,300.
$6,300 to Chef Stratton. Do I get $6,400?
$6,400.
I don't want to bid too much money.
I'm confident in my skill level
that I can make it through whatever they throw at me.
ALTON: Going once, going twice, sold.
Madam, please bring me my money.
Now, very carefully take this tray and decide
who you're going to assign these fine foods to.
Hmm...
I'm gonna try and eliminate the one
that I'm the most threatened by first.
I think...
[ Laughs ]
Awesome.
Chef Stratton has to go.
And the cheese to...
I'm happy because I can use the nachos instead of the bread,
so therefore I'm not worried about it.
Now, let us move on to our second item.
[ Laughs ]
What the hell is that?
A bag of broken rye crackers.
Win this item, and you've got the power
to go to one of your competitors, take their bread,
and replace it with these.
How do you make a patty melt without any bread?
I do want to remind you that if you buy this item,
you do have to give it to someone.
You can't keep it for yourself,
although it is very, very tempting.
Who will give me $500?
$5,200.
$6,000.
$7,000.
Chef Stratton wants these crackers bad.
$7,600.
CHEF WIGINTON: The bidding just got too high
for me to spend too much money in the first round.
$7,700.
$7,700 bid from Chef Dorvil.
Going once for $7,700.
Going twice for $7,700.
I'm having a second thought about these broken rye crackers.
I definitely can throw it in a food processor,
grind it down to a powder, make my own bread.
Sold for $7,700 to Chef Dorvil.
Bring me my money, sir.
CHEF WIGINTON: Those rye crackers go to Chef Dorvil,
who I had just given nachos to.
Oh! My bread is going to be gone.
ALTON: Take your time
and make sure you take all their bread.
Shock, surprise.
Chef Stratton is my biggest competitor.
My strategy is to pretty much nail him in the coffin.
All right, your challenge -- put your own spin on a patty melt.
Your 30-minute cooking time begins now.
I'm gonna do a Vietnamese patty melt with a bacon jus,
and I make a little glaze out of the hoisin sauce,
Sriracha, and honey.
With all the robust flavors that I threw in there,
when you eat it, there's a huge punch in your mouth.
Chef Stratton's going down with that dried meat.
I'm not too concerned about this.
I think I can make this work.
Chef Wiginton gave me this awesome freeze-dried meat.
CHEF WIGINTON: You're welcome.
And Chef Dorvil gave me these rye crackers.
So at this point, I'm just focused
on working past having to make a burger
out of freeze-dried meat.
So I start picking out all the chunks of beef.
I throw some boiling water into the bag
to rehydrate my meat and let that sit.
So, this isn't the top round I had in mind
for my patty melt today,
but I'm gonna make it happen.
I just pray about that freeze-dried meat,
that it was worth my money.
I've got this great pancetta that I'm gonna go ahead
and fry up and use some of that fat
in cooking my patty melt.
Chef Dorvil, you do not actually possess
one traditional, classical element
of a patty melt here -- You don't have any bread,
and the only cheese you've got is what came over there.
So, how are you going to attack a patty melt
when you don't have any actual patty melt ingredients?
I don't have nothing to work with,
but I'm going to make something out of this.
Okay.
I was very nervous,
but at the end, I had no other choice
just to do what you call a deconstructed patty melt.
First thing I did, and just try to create a slaw.
I julienned the who zucchini,
and I also used the corn.
I scraped it from the cob.
ALTON: Chefs, if I could have your attention, please.
I have one final item up for sale.
Win this item, and you can force one chef
to do all of their cooking with this, a household iron.
Oh, my goodness.
An iron to cook food -- whoa!
I don't even iron my clothes at home.
What the hell am I gonna do with it in a kitchen?
Win this item and you can force one chef
to do all their cooking with this.
$10,000.
CHEF WIGINTON: I've made a few sandwiches on an iron before,
so I thought I might be able to pull off
a delicious patty melt from an iron, too.
Going once for $10,000.
Twice for $10,000.
Sold for $10,000 to Chef Stratton.
My whole idea is to save most of the money
that I could save so to go to the second round,
and this is why I don't bet Chef Stratton on the iron.
ALTON: Take your time and gift that
to someone who you care deeply about.
CHEF STRATTON: Let's see.
Hey.
Didn't see that coming.
You gave me rye crackers, no problem.
Here's an iron. Suck on this.
Do what you can now.
ALTON: 14 minutes.
CHEF DORVIL: No stove to cook.
I just have to have an iron to cook with.
I have no other choice but to do the best I can to make this happen.
Easy win.
This guy's going down.
He forgot his bread, and he's got the iron.
He has the stale cheese.
Seems like he's making it work, though.
Or not. [ Laughs ]
So, with the patty, my idea
was to throw a little bit of Asian flair in there
with Chinese five spice powder.
I sautéed onions, garlic, and cayenne.
Cook it in bacon fat.
I need another component for my sandwich,
so I take the chicken stock
and I decide to make a jus out of it.
I threw some cloves in there, some cinnamon,
and I decided to throw my bacon scraps into the jus
to give it a little bit more of a smoky flavor.
CHEF WIGINTON: I crisped up some of this pancetta,
and I'm going to punch it right into my burger patties.
My idea is that I'm going to make a pancetta patty melt.
I didn't really have a great binding ingredient,
so I added a little bit of the cheese into the burger
hoping that it would hold it together
just a little bit better.
I've got my bread in some brown butter.
Must be nice to have bread. [ Laughs ]
Chef Dorvil gave me this bag of broken rye crackers.
So, I grab a food processor, throw all the crackers in there,
and grind them down into a powder.
So I basically have a flour now.
Throw that in a bowl, add some water,
and work it into dough.
Now I'm rolling it out. I'm gonna grill it.
I know the next thing I need to worry about
is my rehydrated meat.
And I remember that I have some eggs,
so I throw some egg yolk in there, and that works to bind
my ground meat up so I can form patties out of it.
And then I throw them on the grill.
ALTON: You all have five minutes remaining.
You look way too calm right now.
You should be.
CHEF DORVIL: I forgot to get some bread,
so what other choice do I have left?
Well, use the nachos.
Yeah.
Well, I didn't tell you you couldn't.
The beef patty was...phenomenal.
It was tasting pretty good.
It was very good.
I end up to scrape up the cheese from the nachos
and I just put a little cheese on top
of each of those deconstructed nacho patty melt I was making.
10...9...
8...7...
6...5...
4...3...
2...1.
Put it down, hands in the air
or wherever you want to put them but not on the food.
The challenge is over.
Look, here comes our judge.
Allow me to introduce our judge for today, Simon Majumdar.
Let me remind you that he's got no idea
what specific disadvantages you've had to contend with.
And guess what. He doesn't care.
All I care about it what's on the plate.
Well, let me tell you what's on the plate --
patty melt is on the plate.
Great comfort food.
Well, let's go see how they've done.
Chef, please tell Simon what you've done.
I have for you a pancetta patty melt.
I have some white bread instead of the typical rye bread
that I have toasted in some brown butter
and some cheddar cheese melted.
Chef?
Ah, thank you.
First of all, the meat is seasoned really, really well.
Ah, thank you so much.
Thank you.
CHEF STRATTON: Any cook can make a good patty melt
when they're given the right ingredients.
Had Chef Wiginton been given any auction items,
I definitely think she would have faltered.
This is a grilled rye flatbread patty melt
with Muenster cheese, sautéed onions, and mushrooms,
and a dill pickle.
CHEF MAJUMDAR: The rye bread is a little bit soft.
I want some crunch in that.
I think that's really important with a patty melt.
It is.
I like my patty melts to be good and hearty.
So, I think the meat -- while it's actually quite tasty --
Okay.
CHEF STRATTON: I wonder if he would have said that
if he knew he was eating rehydrated freeze-dried meat.
Please tell Simon about your dish.
All right, I have a Vietnamese patty melt with a bacon jus.
I grilled the baguette,
and there's some pickled onions under there.
And the meat is seasoned with some Chinese five spice,
garlic.
The jus is really great -- a lot of flavor.
But I have to say it's the meat.
It's quite chewy,
almost a little bit undercooked, a tiny bit raw in there.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Pham.
He thinks my meat's chewy and undercooked,
so this is not how I wanted things to go at all.
Chef, please tell Simon about your dish.
Chef Simon, I have for you here -- I have a patty natural
with some zucchini and fresh corn slaw.
CHEF MAJUMDAR: It's a bit of a deconstructed patty melt.
It doesn't look anything like a sandwich.
It's actually not an unappealing plate.
The meat has some really good flavor, has a nice texture.
I don't know what he did to that thing
to make it taste good,
but whatever he did, hats off to him.
CHEF MAJUMDAR: The slaw is nice and refreshing.
It's not a bad effort,
but I'm afraid the cheese is rather solidified
and actually rather unpleasant to look at.
When he said the meat was flavorful,
you know, I was very, very happy with that.
You know, there's no way
they will go to second or third round without me.
There's no way.
So, Simon, which chef will be departing the premises?
In the end, I'm gonna have to eliminate...
Chef...
Simon, which chef will be departing the premises?
In the end, I'm gonna have to eliminate...
Chef...
Dorvil.
Despite some great ideas with your dish,
I'm afraid it really didn't deliver
either the patty or the melt.
Chef Dorvil, sorry to see you go so soon, sir.
Thought you had your problems all ironed out,
but, in the end, that's just the way it goes.
Thank you very, very much for being here, sir.
Thank you.
CHEF DORVIL: Wow.
That's a bummer.
To me, losing is a way to push me to go further,
as a way to make me become stronger.
And in life, everybody has something to learn.
All right, chefs.
Your second challenge,
you're gonna need to make...
clams casino.
What is this, 1982?
It's a classic. Now, when I make it, of course,
it's, you know, baked or roasted clams
with maybe a little bacon, some herbs, some bread crumb.
But there are many, many interpretations
and I'm sure you have a favorite of your own.
Clams, bread crumbs, bacon, herbs, done.
CHEF WIGINTON: Clams aren't very popular in the South,
and I have never heard of clams casino.
I am in deep trouble.
You're only gonna have 20 minutes to prepare it.
You will, of course, have 60 full seconds to shop it,
though, which is plenty of time.
And that time begins...right now!
So, in the pantry,
I'm still in a complete state of panic.
I grab some very random spices,
some flour, some different cheeses,
some pancetta because bacon makes everything better,
and I just pray that it all comes together
somehow, some way.
ALTON: These gates close in 30 seconds.
Don't be on the wrong side of them.
[ Grunting ] Are you serious?
CHEF STRATTON: One of the first things I grab
when I get in the pantry is the butter crackers.
Part of classic clams casino
is having a nice bread-crumb topping on there.
ALTON: Five...four...
three...two...one.
I kept telling myself "Bread crumbs,
bread crumbs, bread crumbs."
The one thing I forget to grab -- bread crumbs.
ALTON: All right, chefs.
My favorite part of the competition -- the auction.
Let's have a look, shall we?
I love this. I call it "assign a tool."
[ Laughs ]
Whoever wins this auction
will be able to turn to their competitors
and have them swap out all of their knives and hand tools
and issue them either this clam shucker
or a hammer and screwdriver.
This one is mine, period.
There's no way I'm going down for this one.
Who will give me $600?
$2,000.
$2,500.
$3,100.
$3,100. Do I hear $3,200?
$3,200? $3,200?
I'm confident that I can make it through
whatever they throw at me.
$3,200.
$3,200. I've got a $3,200 bid.
How about a $3,300 bid? $3,300?
$3,300? Going once for $3,200.
Going twice for $3,200.
Sold.
Bring me the $3,200.
I don't know why I stopped bidding
against Chef Pham for this.
I am still baffled by what in God's name
is clams casino
that this whole auction was just a little bit
too much for me to take into consideration.
Who's the lucky one?
You get the shucker.
All right.
Thank you.
Have fun.
CHEF WIGINTON: I'm trying to just keep a smile on my face,
trying to cover up the sheer panic in my eyes.
All right, let's see what we have as our next item.
I call this a clam swap.
[ Chuckles ]
We have here panopea generosa,
commonly known as the geoduck clam.
Delicious.
Oh, my good lord.
But, you know, kind of difficult to work with,
not typically used in clams casino 'cause
it's a little on the chewy side.
Clams casinos are supposed to be like this big.
A geoduck clam is like this big with something coming out of it.
If you win this item,
you can take all of one of your opponent's clams
and exchange them for these.
No way am I up for this.
No way.
ALTON: Who will give me $500 to start?
$6,000.
$6,100.
Everybody wants to bid now!
The geoducks will send someone home.
Who will give me $500 to start?
$5,000.
Oh, everybody wants to bid now.
I think that the geoducks will send someone home,
so I knew I had to pay for those.
$6,100.
$7,000.
ALTON: $7,000 is the current high bid.
I'm not concerned with the geoduck.
I know how to work with it,
and therefore didn't want to spend my money on it.
ALTON: Going once for $7,000.
Twice for $7,000.
Sold to Chef Wiginton for 7,000 clams.
[ Laughs ]
I will count out the change
while you decide who you're going to gift these to.
Thank you.
They're beautiful.
No problem.
I decided to give the geoduck clams to Chef Pham
as payback for the hammer and screwdriver.
I've leveled the playing field,
and now it's just time to see what happens.
All right. You've got 20 minutes
to create your best clams casino.
And that 20 minutes begins right now.
I'm gonna make my version of clams casino
with pancetta, bell pepper, and a mascarpone cream sauce.
I start my sauce.
I throw some heavy cream in a pot
and start to reduce it to help thicken it.
I toss some leek in there to add a little bit of flavor to it
and then add some mascarpone cheese.
ALTON: Chef Stratton, how's that cream treating you?
It's all right. I wish I had a whisk
so I could whisk it all together.
How's your shucker working out for you there, buddy?
Could be better.
I'm making do with what I got here.
I start to figure out how I'm gonna use the shucker
to cut everything I need to.
I'm able to cut the pancetta,
but it's not a beautiful, small dice
that I would prefer if I was using a sharp knife.
I think my shucker
is a better tool than the hammer and screwdriver
that Chef Wiginton has to deal with.
Thank you for being concerned.
So, I am doing my very best with these clams,
and I'm trying to open them
in a reasonable, professional sort of way.
And then I just can't get them open, so...
I just started smashing them with a hammer.
So, I shuck them all.
I add in my cracker crumbs, some herbs,
a little drizzle of olive oil, some salt and pepper.
I do a little bit of ricotta cheese in there.
I don't really know why.
I just thought it might taste good.
And I put them in my little pan and stuff them in the oven
and just prayed.
Chef Pham, how are those geoducks
treating you down there?
Gooey.
[ Laughs ]
I've never touched a geoduck in my life,
let alone cooked one.
I'm not sure what's edible.
I think I can take that out.
I'm gonna stick to my old plan,
just replace the clams with the larger clam.
So, I pick my geoduck,
blanch it, clean it, slice it thin,
and throw it in to bake for just a couple minutes
'cause I know if I overcook that clam
that I'm gonna be going home.
ALTON: Nine minutes, nine minutes.
CHEF STRATTON: I grab my clams
and I add my mascarpone cream sauce to it
and toss it in the oven to start baking them.
Let those cook for a few minutes, take them out,
and I start to assemble my dish.
I add the pancetta and the bell peppers,
and then I top it with the bread crumb,
and I put it underneath the salamander
to try to help crisp my bread up
to make the bread crumbs on there a little crunchier.
Okay.
Since I didn't have my bread crumbs, I took my onion,
I sliced it up super thin
and just threw it in the fryer, let it crisp up,
get really nice and crunchy,
and that's gonna be my texture element.
CHEF WIGINTON: Hope everything comes together the way that I want it to.
I'm worried about just about every aspect
of this dish at this point.
I really have no idea what I've done.
I don't know if it's right. I don't know if it's wrong.
I really don't know if it's edible.
ALTON: Cook, chefs, cook.
Oh, man!
And then I start thinking,
"Well, maybe I could do an herb and pancetta salad.
So I toss the herbs in olive oil
with a little bit of salt and pepper,
and I rendered down some pancetta
and kind of stripped that, pulled it apart,
and topped the salad with that.
ALTON: 10 seconds.
Nine...eight...
seven...six...
five...four...three...
two...one.
Put it down and walk away. The challenge is over.
You've all survived a lot further
than I thought you would.
Oh, thanks for the faith.
Chefs, welcome back our eminent judge, Simon Majumdar.
Well, this challenge was the classic clams casino.
Oh, one of the great underrated classics.
I absolutely adore clams casino.
Well, let's see if you adore these clams casino. Come on.
CHEF WIGINTON: I got something on the plate.
It looked like what Alton described as clams casino.
And I'm content with that.
I have for you a clams casino
with an herb and pancetta salad.
Kind of stuck to the shell there.
A little bit. I think they needed better shucking.
Okay.
CHEF PHAM: I'm just sitting there laughing
because I know she had to use that hammer
to try to pry open those clams
and it's just all because of me.
They're a little bit anemic.
So when you look at them, it's not desperately appealing.
The clams are a little bit undercooked.
They're a tiny bit chewy.
I'd love the pancetta to have been used with the clams
because you need that saltiness.
Right.
Thank you.
Well, glad I have my exit speech planned
'cause I'm about to give it.
Chef Stratton, please tell Simon about your dish.
I have clams casino here with a mascarpone cream sauce,
crispy pancetta, and bell pepper
with chervil on top for some color.
I think I'm gonna be chewing this till Christmas, chef.
It's very tough.
It was very tough, indeed.
It has good flavor.
I think the use of the bacon was really good,
does give that little salt element.
My biggest complaint about it,
though, is this clam is very, very tough.
I'm still gonna chew that.
Unfortunately, I'm not gonna be able to finish it.
Thank you.
CHEF PHAM: I'm trying not to crack up at this point.
As long as Chef Simon's able to chew and swallow
everything on my plate --
the finals, here I come.
Please tell Simon what you've done here.
All right. I've got a geoduck clam casino.
I sliced it thin.
I have some crispy onions on there,
gremolata, and pancetta.
Well, I can honestly say
I have never seen geoduck clams casino before.
The use of the onions as a topping,
I think it's interesting.
The clam is well cooked.
These things can get very tough very quickly,
and this isn't.
I think what you've made is really delicious.
I think using this rather difficult creature to cook with
and doing it so well is actually remarkable.
Thank you.
Well, it's between me and Chef Stratton
on the elimination this time.
So I'm just hoping that the two he swallowed
were better than the one he spit out.
CHEF STRATTON: I came here to win today,
and I want nothing more than to make it to the final round
and show the world
that I'm the chef that deserves to win.
So, Simon...
who's the least successful here?
I'm gonna have to eliminate...
...Chef...
Simon, who's the least successful here?
I'm gonna have to eliminate...
...Chef Stratton.
Whoop whoop.
I'm sorry.
This is a clam dish,
and I'm afraid your clam was inedible.
All right. Thank you.
I'm sorry, Chef Stratton,
but I'm afraid I'm going to need that money back in the case.
CHEF STRATTON: Feeling kind of let down.
You know, I felt I was the best chef here.
I had the most skill and experience,
and I did think I had this game won.
Thank you.
Thank you.
To have 15 grand in my hand
and having to hand it back to Alton sucks.
Chefs, congratulations on making it to the final round.
Thank you.
Winning this competition is gonna prove so much to me.
It's gonna make so many other people proud.
I'm in it to win it.
I'm gonna do everything that I can to win,
but keeping my Southern grace and charm
is very important to me in this competition.
Here's how the final round is going to work.
I'm going to reveal the challenge
and your 60-second pantry time will begin.
But this time, when the pantry doors close,
you will not be coming back for an auction.
Instead, you will cook immediately
and I will auction off items during your cooking time.
Now, in your final challenge, you're gonna have 30 minutes
to create your very best ice-cream sundae.
I make ice cream all the time.
I sell ice cream at my restaurant.
I am wild about this challenge.
You're gonna have one minute to shop,
and that time begins...now.
I know that I immediately need to go for my milk,
my cream, my eggs, my sugar.
I know that if I have those, I can make vanilla ice cream.
Then I grab some nectarines, some bourbon,
and I'm ready to start cooking.
ALTON: 30 seconds remaining. Make sure you get everything.
I want to go the sorbet route,
so I grab some fresh fruit, some milk,
heavy cream, some eggs.
I grab all the chocolate in the world
for that indulgence factor.
ALTON: Five, four, three, two, one.
Your cooking time starts now.
I know that I immediately need to get that milk
and that cream on the stove
so that I have it hot enough
to mix in with my sugar, salt, and egg yolk.
ALTON: Chefs, I've got a little item
up for auction you might be interested in.
So, whoever wins this item
will have the right to force their opponent
to forfeit all of their milk and cream in exchange
for these microscopic little coffee creamers.
I cannot have that. I can't have it.
$7,000.
$7,000 is the current high bid.
I'm know I'm gonna go with the sorbet route.
The coffee creamer, it's not gonna hurt me in the end.
So I'll just let her spend money.
I'm good. You can have it.
Sold to Chef Wiginton.
Got it.
This is your exclusive milk and cream
for the entire challenge.
And I'm going to take some money.
Thank you.
CHEF PHAM: I'm gonna do strawberry sorbet
with a mango purée.
I take the mango, coffee cream, and mascarpone cheese,
threw it in my blender, spun it,
puréed it, tasted it.
It was delicious.
And then I wanted to go with a white-chocolate ganache,
which is just chocolate and cream, basically.
And I mixed it with the coffee creamers,
and I whisk it into a nice, shiny sauce.
CHEF WIGINTON: So, I slice my nectarines.
I've got them in the bourbon,
the brown sugar, the honey, sautéeing.
I'm feeling pretty confident that I can pull this off.
Chefs, I'm sure you're wondering what this curious object is.
Well, wonder no longer.
It is my daughter's ice cream shaker from when she was like 6.
This little construction of plastic and metal
makes great frozen ice cream if you've got the time
and the endurance to shake it.
I am in a panic.
The ice cream shaker is a disaster.
And at this point, Chef Pham has more money than me.
Win this item, and your opponent
will be forced to make their ice cream exclusively
with this little culinary Death Star.
There's no way that I want that.
ALTON: $5,000.
Chef Wiginton, what do you say? $5,001?
Oh, you only got $4,600.
I guess I'm getting it.
Sold. You can give that to your opponent.
She has to make all of her ice cream in that.
Have fun rolling that around.
I know that I have to focus on this ice cream shaker.
So I just start shaking.
Chef Wiginton has to shake that ball until the last second
in hopes that it will freeze.
ALTON: 10 minutes.
10.
I'm just gonna keep shaking.
CHEF WIGINTON: I shake and I shake and I shake
until my arms are tired,
and then I get on my knees on the kitchen floor
and start rolling it around.
Come on, freeze!
Yeah.
It is going to be so satisfying
when mine is better than yours.
Uh-oh. Hopefully you finish in time.
It's not looking too good for you.
Hopefully.
I've let go of that graceful Southern belle.
It's time to fight, and I'm ready to win.
Mm-hmm.
CHEF PHAM: This is the time to turn the strawberries
into a strawberry sorbet.
I made simple syrup with some sugar,
some water, mixed that together,
and then I threw it into the ice cream machine.
Sweating over there?
Can I give you a hand?
[ Laughs ]
You think you're so cute.
A lot faster than I thought.
Once I got my sorbet out of that machine,
I think everything else
from that point on out was cruise control.
Please be frozen.
I am dripping sweat, and I look over,
and Chef Pham is standing at her station watching me --
done plating, done with everything,
just hanging out.
You look like you needed a workout.
I was trying to help you out.
I can't wait to beat her.
I grab my nectarines.
The bourbon sauce turned into a perfect little caramel,
which I just drizzled on the bowl.
As long as that ice cream gets frozen and hard enough,
this round is mine.
You don't even know it's frozen yet.
You might have just cream.
She's going home. Done.
You got 25 seconds to have food on plate
and ready to present.
I can't take the stress.
As long as that ice cream gets frozen and hard enough,
this round is mine.
Ha, ha.
Sweet victory.
God, I love doing this to you.
ALTON: Five, four, three, two, one.
Put it down. Step away. Challenge is over.
Congratulations.
It is going to be so wonderful when I win over Chef Pham
after she has been taunting me.
CHEF PHAM: Her plate just looks like a mess.
I'm just hoping that she just bombs and catches on fire.
Chefs, we have Simon Majumdar, our esteemed judge, back.
Please bring your dishes up to the counter
for final tasting and judgment.
CHEF WIGINTON: I am exhausted.
I've been through a war with the ice-cream shaker.
My plate's a little messy,
but I knew that I had great-tasting food.
Chef Wiginton, please tell Simon about your dish.
I have nectarines that were sautéed in honey, bourbon,
and some brown sugar,
and then I have a bourbon caramel
with some homemade vanilla ice cream.
CHEF MAJUMDAR: Chef Wiginton,
the ice cream is a little bit more loose
than I would expect.
The star on the plate, I think, are these nectarines.
I love the little bit of bourbon.
I think the flavors are really good.
Thank you so much, Chef.
At this point, when Simon is telling Chef Wiginton
that he loves almost every component of her dish
and he loves that bourbon caramel,
I'm shaking in my boots.
This might be it for me.
Chef Pham, please tell Simon about your ice-cream sundae.
Okay, I have for you a strawberry sorbet
with a mango purée and white-chocolate ganache.
Chef, first of all, it looks like a sundae,
it looks like those layers that you need to break through,
and I like that a lot.
The white chocolate is very tough.
It's gone very solid.
It's taking a little bit to bite through it.
It's a shame because the sorbet is really delicious,
and I like the mango on top.
But I think it could have used a little bit more sugar in there.
Mine had its faults and so did Chef Pham's.
And ultimately, they were both still really good,
so I think I have a pretty good shot at winning this thing.
So, Simon, you have dined,
and now you must decide
which one of these chefs is the winner
and walks out of here with some money.
I think it's neck-and-neck. It can go either way.
I'm nervous as hell.
What I've had to do is I have to go for the dish
that really brought me the indulgence of a sundae.
And just on that basis alone, my winner has to be...
...Chef Wiginton.
Chef Wiginton, congratulations.
I'm afraid that means that Chef Pham,
I'm gonna need your money back.
Thank you.
You played well, ma'am, and you cooked solid.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
CHEF PHAM: It was much harder than I thought it was going to be.
The blonde girl with the Southern accent,
I thought she'd go out in the first round.
But she ended up taking me out in the final round,
so I guess I underestimated the Southern belle.
Chef Wiginton, golly, you earned it, lady.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Oh, my God. I just can't believe I won.
I can't believe that I won.
Yay!
I just came here and proved
that even a sweet Southern girl from Alabama
can win "Cutthroat Kitchen."
ALTON: Hungry for more "Cutthroat Kitchen"?
Go to foodnetwork.com/cutthroat.