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00:00:00Welcome to the most exciting baking and pastry kitchen in America.
00:00:06This is the most amazing thing I ever did in my life.
00:00:0916 of the nation's most extraordinary chefs are stepping forward to showcase their vision, passion, and creativity at the highest
00:00:17level.
00:00:17This is where the magic happens.
00:00:19From flawless pastry classics to jaw-dropping, never-before-seen dessert creations.
00:00:24Gotta think outside the box here.
00:00:26Every bake brings them one step closer to the title.
00:00:29This is the innovation I was looking to see.
00:00:31And no baking skill will go unchallenged.
00:00:34Yes! There we go, baby!
00:00:37Their work will be judged by icons of the pastry world, masters who know what it takes to reach the
00:00:43top.
00:00:43Peace for the eyes. Everywhere you look, there's something going on.
00:00:47This is just perfection.
00:00:48Thanks so much.
00:00:49But only one will rise above the rest and earn the most prestigious title of all, the ultimate baking champion.
00:01:16The ultimate baking championship.
00:01:18It is literally the crumb to crumb.
00:01:21Like, this is it.
00:01:25I was a Zagat 30 Under 30 recipient.
00:01:28And I was a James Beard semi-finalist, which is the Oscars of the food world.
00:01:34This is more than what I ever imagined it would be.
00:01:36I'm excited. I'm excited.
00:01:37It's beautiful.
00:01:39There's, like, everything.
00:01:40This is the perfect environment to show off that I really know what I'm doing.
00:01:45There's a lot of very talented people.
00:01:47Just look around.
00:01:48Yeah.
00:01:48Feels like a pastry Olympics.
00:01:50The expectations are going to be so high.
00:01:54Juan might be the guy to beat.
00:01:56He's done the Wizards of Baking.
00:01:57He's won School of Chocolate before.
00:02:00You've got to defeat masters to be a master.
00:02:02People should be a little bit scared because I'm not here to play.
00:02:05I'm here to take this win home.
00:02:08Welcome, chefs!
00:02:10Here we go!
00:02:14It begins.
00:02:17Well, look around.
00:02:19You 16 pastry chefs have been invited here to showcase your skills and extraordinary talent
00:02:25in the toughest baking competition of its kind.
00:02:29Here in the Ultimate Baking Championship Kitchen,
00:02:32you'll prove that you are the masters of baking and pastry technique,
00:02:36as well as sugar and chocolate work.
00:02:39Over the next nine weeks, experts in the world of baking will judge your every dessert creation,
00:02:45and you're going to find your scores over there on the leaderboard.
00:02:51Now, if you slip to the bottom of the leaderboard, you will be eliminated.
00:02:56But if you can survive and make it to the top of the leaderboard, you will win $50,000.
00:03:03Wow.
00:03:04Our coveted gold medal.
00:03:06Beautiful.
00:03:07And the title of the Ultimate Baking Champion.
00:03:12Let's go.
00:03:14Everything you bake is crucial to surviving in this competition.
00:03:19Now, we're going to start with the basics.
00:03:21We want to see what each of you can do with taste and texture, beginning with a skills challenge.
00:03:29Ah, let's go.
00:03:31I'm ready to get started.
00:03:33First thing we need to do is to split you into two groups of eight.
00:03:38Oh, my gosh.
00:03:39Here are the chefs in the first group.
00:03:44If your name is not on the board, please make your way to the back kitchen.
00:03:47Come on.
00:03:48Music.
00:03:49Nice, nice, nice, nice.
00:03:49Nice, nice, nice.
00:03:50You guys got this.
00:03:52Chefs, you all know there are four basic tastes.
00:03:55Sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.
00:03:58In this first skills challenge, you're going to have to show your command of one taste by pairing it with
00:04:05a texture like so.
00:04:08Your dessert must feature the taste and texture pairings randomly assigned to you.
00:04:14Sweet and crunchy, Sarah and Florencia.
00:04:17Salty and sticky, Casey and Stephen.
00:04:20Sour and smooth, Robert and Adalberto.
00:04:24Bitter and toasted, Rochelle and Clement.
00:04:28Now, the judges, who you'll meet later, will give each dessert a score based on flavor, execution, and technical difficulty.
00:04:37The stakes could not be higher because at the end of this challenge, two chefs will be eliminated and leave.
00:04:45Oh, my God.
00:04:46No way.
00:04:47Wow.
00:04:48Two people are going home.
00:04:50So, 25% of the eight of us in this room, this is super scary.
00:04:56Chefs, you have 90 minutes to demonstrate your mastery of the basic tastes and textures, and that time starts now.
00:05:10Salty and sticky.
00:05:12Glitter and toasted.
00:05:14Okay.
00:05:15Let's do it.
00:05:17Sour and smooth.
00:05:18I'm going to be making a key lime pie, deconstructed, key lime curd, a passion fruit meringue, a coconut soil,
00:05:25and a mint microwave cake.
00:05:27Alberto, my parents are Cuban.
00:05:29I was born and raised in Miami.
00:05:30I'm actually from Cuba, for real.
00:05:32Cuba, Cuba, the OG.
00:05:33Cuba, Cuba.
00:05:35That Alberto, how we doing?
00:05:36Hey, Jesse, good.
00:05:37How are you?
00:05:37I'm doing amazing.
00:05:38Thank you for having us.
00:05:39You've got to make something sour and smooth.
00:05:41I'm making a date pudding cake.
00:05:43Usually, cakes have some kind of chewy texture to them.
00:05:46So I select something that is actually like pudding, so it's smooth.
00:05:51Then I'm doing passion fruit curd for sour, a mango jelly, and then a hibiscus meringue for smooth.
00:05:59Tell me about yourself and your background.
00:06:02I had an illegal bakery back in Cuba when I wasn't there.
00:06:05It's communism, right?
00:06:06So you had no right to make a private enterprise.
00:06:09Oh, wow.
00:06:10So if you want to survive, you have to start on the ground.
00:06:13I'm all about surviving the struggle.
00:06:15It allowed me to be the chef that I am today.
00:06:18This year, I was nominated, as a semi-finalist, for a James Pierre Award, and I could not be any
00:06:23more proud.
00:06:24Very few things stopped me from doing the things I want to do.
00:06:27You have an amazing background.
00:06:29I appreciate it.
00:06:30Wish you the best.
00:06:33Not bad.
00:06:34It's getting damp.
00:06:36Clement, you're making a praline?
00:06:37Yeah.
00:06:37Oh, those look beautiful.
00:06:40For my bitter and toasted, I'm making a chocolate and ganache tart with a praline toasted hazelnut and a coffee
00:06:49mascarpone cream.
00:06:51So right now, I'm just dipping my toasted hazelnut in the caramel just to make a nice decoration, some volume
00:06:57to my tart.
00:06:58My mom, it's like a...
00:06:59Ah, you know how happy I am to see you.
00:07:01It's good to see you.
00:07:02You look like you're right at home.
00:07:03Of course, you were so close to winning on Spring Baking Championship.
00:07:07The last time that we saw you competing.
00:07:09I still remember.
00:07:11On the Spring Baking Championship, I went in final, but I didn't win.
00:07:15I didn't sleep for three years.
00:07:17All right, what have you been doing?
00:07:18I've been baking, and I came back stronger with more skills, more experience.
00:07:23I'm really going to push more myself.
00:07:25This time, there's no way I lose.
00:07:27I need to go get my tart in my oven.
00:07:29Go ahead, my friend.
00:07:30Go, go, go.
00:07:33And my tart is perfectly baked.
00:07:3545 minutes.
00:07:36It's all about taste and texture.
00:07:47Rochelle, how are we doing?
00:07:48We're doing good.
00:07:49You and Clermont, you both have bitter and toasted, of course.
00:07:52He's got some experience baking on TV, as we've seen.
00:07:55You know, he's got that very French personality.
00:07:58This is very intense.
00:08:00So I'm trying to, like, lighten it up over here and be like, you know, just have fun.
00:08:04What dessert are we making?
00:08:05I am making a chocolate mousse with a liquid pecan praline center sandwiched in between chocolate
00:08:13Sasha cake with toasted marshmallow on top.
00:08:16I kind of like to do away with the rules sometimes.
00:08:19I spend time in two Michelin star kitchens working for Jose Andres, and now I run a couple
00:08:25restaurants on Capitol Hill.
00:08:27We do our own bread.
00:08:29We do desserts at all the restaurants, but I need to get these mousse in the freezer.
00:08:33Otherwise, it's going to be a very freeform mousse cake.
00:08:35Good luck, Rochelle.
00:08:38How are you doing over there, Steve?
00:08:40Kind of crazy.
00:08:41Right?
00:08:41How about you?
00:08:42The first challenge, do what you know and stick with it.
00:08:47All right, Casey.
00:08:47So you're making something salty and sticky here.
00:08:51I am.
00:08:51I'm from Chicago.
00:08:52We love ball games.
00:08:53So I'm going to use peanuts today.
00:08:55I'm going to stick to that sweet, kind of, like, sticky feeling in your teeth.
00:08:58Oh, I love that idea.
00:08:59Yeah, so I am making a chocolate peanut caramelized tart.
00:09:03I'm going to start with a chocolate crust.
00:09:05I'm going to fill that with a salted caramel, candied peanuts, a chocolate mousse, and a sticky
00:09:10fuitine tuile.
00:09:11I know you tried out to be a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.
00:09:13I did.
00:09:14Tell me about that.
00:09:14I did.
00:09:15It was a lifelong dream when I was a child.
00:09:18I danced for 20 years.
00:09:20Being up against 400 women cut down to the last 45 rooted me in the attitude that I need
00:09:26to bring to this competition.
00:09:27I got cut for weight probation.
00:09:29Like, how funny is that, though?
00:09:30Because, like, I do desserts.
00:09:32I eat desserts.
00:09:33So it was an interesting time in my life.
00:09:36But you know what?
00:09:37The discipline and everything that went into being an athlete translates over here.
00:09:40Well, let me just say, Casey, it's the Dallas Cowboys' loss.
00:09:45Booyah.
00:09:47Have you moved down to any of your sticky elements over there, Steve?
00:09:50No, not yet.
00:09:51I'm going to do a eclair.
00:09:53A praline pastry cream.
00:09:54Some salted caramel.
00:09:55And then a praline cream on top of that and garnish it off with some salted nuts.
00:10:00I'm definitely hitting the salty, adding salt to everything.
00:10:05I've been competing for over 25 years.
00:10:07You could probably call me one of the founding fathers or pioneers of baking competitions.
00:10:13Now, I teach.
00:10:14Unless I have a bad day, this competition is mine to have.
00:10:17Chefs, we got 30 minutes left.
00:10:22Oh, my God.
00:10:23I thought I'd have at least 45 minutes to get my mousse freezing.
00:10:28So in 30 minutes, it might not even set.
00:10:30All right, blast freezer.
00:10:31Be my best friend.
00:10:32I really gambled with this freezing mousse thing.
00:10:35Might be regretting it.
00:10:37This is my whole dish.
00:10:47I'm just hoping and praying that my mousse sets in the freezer.
00:10:50I have my dip ready.
00:10:51I have my plates ready, garnish, everything ready.
00:10:55I just need my mousse.
00:10:57I really gambled on making a frozen molded item that's going to be dipped and then has to
00:11:02temper.
00:11:02So hopefully that works out for me.
00:11:0625 minutes, chefs.
00:11:12Two of these eight are going home immediately.
00:11:14Let's go, baby.
00:11:15Cool.
00:11:16Get them out of here.
00:11:17Make more space for me.
00:11:18What you doing?
00:11:20I am working on my tuile right now, hoping that will be done in time.
00:11:25Sarah, you had to go sweet and crunchy.
00:11:27What did you decide to make, chef?
00:11:29I'm making an almond brown butter cake.
00:11:31It's going to be topped with a honey and mascarpone almond mousse with a crunchy caramel
00:11:35tuile on top.
00:11:38It smells delicious over here.
00:11:40I'm hoping my cooks are watching me.
00:11:41This is how you do it, you know?
00:11:43What do you do?
00:11:44You say that your chefs are watching you back home.
00:11:46I'm an executive pastry chef.
00:11:48I'm in Lake Tahoe.
00:11:49Really?
00:11:50And have you always been a chef?
00:11:52No, actually.
00:11:53I spent my life training to become a professional ballerina.
00:11:56I loved it, but couldn't keep going.
00:11:59So I fell into the life of pastry and chocolate.
00:12:02I am 27 years old and I was training my entire life to become a professional ballerina, but
00:12:06then I got injured and it was really tough.
00:12:09You know, you work your entire life for something and you finally get it and then it just slips
00:12:13right through and it's gone.
00:12:14But I got another obsession now, so we're all good.
00:12:17I've worked for some amazing, famous chefs like Amari Gishan.
00:12:20I was able to sponge up and soak all their knowledge from.
00:12:23I'm so ready for this.
00:12:27Get close.
00:12:31Do we have time to taste something?
00:12:32Yeah, give it to me.
00:12:35What do you got here?
00:12:36It's a ricotta mousse.
00:12:38Oh, it's beautiful, chef.
00:12:40Well done.
00:12:40You like it?
00:12:40Well done.
00:12:42So I'm doing ricotta and pear cake and tart.
00:12:46It's a very, very traditional cake in Italy.
00:12:48There will be a sweet pear and vanilla compote, the ricotta and pear mousse, and then very
00:12:55thin, crunchy cookie.
00:12:57Honestly, I'm nervous.
00:12:59The competition is huge.
00:13:00Ten minutes remaining now.
00:13:03Coming out of the oven.
00:13:05I wish I had more time on my eclairs.
00:13:08The eclairs look a little bit underbaked.
00:13:10I think in hindsight I could have done a different dessert.
00:13:14Look how smooth that is.
00:13:17My plate is mostly yellow and white, so I'm adding the crunchy color.
00:13:22Yes.
00:13:25A little bit worried about this crunch element.
00:13:27I didn't let my crunchy twill set overnight like I usually like to, so it's not crunchy.
00:13:33Just five minutes left, chefs.
00:13:35Okay, it's time to just get this mousse out of this freezer.
00:13:40Oh, yeah, baby.
00:13:44Yes!
00:13:45It worked.
00:13:47Thank you, pastry gods out there.
00:13:49Really needed your help today.
00:13:50I'm feeling incredible.
00:13:51I'm going to have a finished dessert.
00:13:54Bitter and toasted.
00:13:55That's all we want.
00:13:5790 seconds to go.
00:14:00We definitely want this salty element to shine through here.
00:14:04I have a compost of pears that I'm trying to keep crunchy.
00:14:09And then I have a sablΓ©.
00:14:10This is the most stressful thing I ever did in my life.
00:14:13You ain't sending me home on a key lime pie.
00:14:1830 seconds.
00:14:21What I know for sure is that I'm not going home today.
00:14:24And I'm telling you that.
00:14:26Is this real?
00:14:28Oh, no.
00:14:30Five, four, three, two, one.
00:14:36Woo!
00:14:36Good job, chef.
00:14:37Good job, everybody.
00:14:41We did it.
00:14:42First round done.
00:14:45Chefs, to judge your creations, we've enlisted a master of all baking disciplines.
00:14:50Duff Goldman.
00:14:51Woo!
00:14:53This really is the best lineup of bakers I have ever seen.
00:14:57So, my expectations are up here.
00:15:02Duff is going to be our permanent judge for the entire season.
00:15:06Your second judge will change with each discipline we test.
00:15:09Today, that role will be filled by a true legend.
00:15:13A three-time James Beard Award winner.
00:15:16Sherry Yard.
00:15:17Wow.
00:15:18Good job.
00:15:20Chefs, if you want to win this competition, you'll need to push yourself on every challenge.
00:15:24Judges, your job is to evaluate the desserts based on flavor, execution, and technical difficulty.
00:15:31For the skills challenge, you can each award up to 10 points per dessert, which means a perfect
00:15:36score would be 20.
00:15:38Let's begin with Rochelle.
00:15:41I made a dark chocolate and toasted pecan praline mousse entremet.
00:15:46In your restaurant, this is perfect.
00:15:50But surrounded by all these other desserts, I would just give it a little more.
00:15:59For me, the pecans bring a nice bitter, but it doesn't bring an exalted bitter.
00:16:04I think that maybe what might have helped is more caramelization.
00:16:08Okay.
00:16:09I love this mousse.
00:16:33I think I just want more pecans.
00:16:38Because right away, I'm anticipating the crunch and the texture that's going to go along with it.
00:16:46It is very bitter.
00:16:51The bitterness of the slightly over toasted almonds is beautiful.
00:16:56The texture of your tart shell reads toasty.
00:17:01You brought the texture with the nuts.
00:17:03You brought the texture with the caramel on the outside.
00:17:06You brought the texture with the tart shell.
00:17:08You brought the bitter everywhere.
00:17:09Well done.
00:17:10Thank you so much.
00:17:14All right, Adalberto.
00:17:15So I went with a baked pudding cake with passion fruit curd.
00:17:19The plate, it just dances.
00:17:21The colors from the mango on the side.
00:17:23You definitely have challenged yourself here.
00:17:28I really like this.
00:17:30There are like seven smooth components.
00:17:34They're all a different kind of smooth.
00:17:37I'm definitely getting the sour too.
00:17:39I think you did such an incredible job with the smooth.
00:17:41Honestly, the passion didn't have as much sour punch.
00:17:44I just wanted a little more complexity of the sours.
00:17:49All right, Robert.
00:17:50I went with the key lime pie.
00:17:51It is a beautiful presentation.
00:17:53The way you did this, it created a lot of movement, and it's actually really, really composed.
00:18:01Your key lime curd, it was sour and smooth.
00:18:04I think you just absolutely nailed it here.
00:18:06Smooth, check.
00:18:08Sour, boom.
00:18:10Cut to me getting sent home.
00:18:11No, I'm just kidding.
00:18:14All right, so Casey.
00:18:16I made chocolate peanut caramelized tart with salted fouilletine tuile.
00:18:21There's so much action.
00:18:23There's so much action.
00:18:23It's dramatic.
00:18:27It's like a roller coaster of flavors going on.
00:18:29I'm getting the stickiness with the tuile, the creaminess of the mousse, and salt pops.
00:18:36I'm like my dog when he's eating peanut butter.
00:18:41It's sticky.
00:18:42It's sticky all day long.
00:18:44Yeah, delicious.
00:18:46All right, Professor Steven.
00:18:48So we have Mea Claire with salted caramel inside with praline pastry cream.
00:18:56You know, looking at this, I would dress it up just a little bit because you have all this
00:18:59other stuff around you where people are going to be doing their fireworks.
00:19:02Okay.
00:19:08I think you had a great opportunity for more sticky because you had caramel sauce.
00:19:12Yes.
00:19:13It was there.
00:19:14It just needed more.
00:19:15I think you're a Claire.
00:19:17I would have left this in the oven for a while.
00:19:19Okay.
00:19:21Listen, nobody will accuse you of not using any salt.
00:19:25A little too salty.
00:19:31Okay, Florencia.
00:19:32I decided to deconstruct the tart of ricotta and pear.
00:19:36It looks very elegant and love the way you pipe the cream and that swirl up.
00:19:43The pear really comes through and it's beautiful, sweet and luscious and rich.
00:19:51The cookie, buttery and perfection, just not crunch enough.
00:19:57Got it.
00:19:58That said, your overall execution of the dish was superb.
00:20:04All right, Sarah, sweet and crunchy.
00:20:07I made an almond financier with an almond mousse topped with the crunchy caramel tuile.
00:20:12It's got a lot of movement and visually a lot of different textures.
00:20:21Sarah, you're right there on all the notes with sweetness, but it lacks that crunch.
00:20:27The nuts on their own toasted are great, but it doesn't add that super crunch.
00:20:32This is the challenge.
00:20:33Okay.
00:20:34Give me something crunchy.
00:20:37Okay.
00:20:40The heart has sunken.
00:20:42I can definitely see myself going home.
00:20:48Chefs, 20 would have been a perfect score.
00:20:51Here's the chef who created the highest scoring dessert.
00:21:01Congratulations, Clemant.
00:21:03Go, baby.
00:21:04You will advance to the master challenge.
00:21:07I came for redemption.
00:21:08My plan has worked and I need to keep going in this competition.
00:21:14Now let's see who else will be joining you.
00:21:23I know two chefs are about to leave, so as I stand in front of the leaderboard, I'm panicking.
00:21:33Oh, my God.
00:21:34Adalberto, Florencia, Robert, and Casey, you'll be continuing on to the master challenge as well.
00:21:42That means, Sarah, Stephen, and Rochelle, you're at the three lowest scores, and only one of you is going to
00:21:48be moving on to the next challenge.
00:21:55It's time now to see which two chefs will be going home.
00:22:14Steven and Sarah, unfortunately, your time here has come to an end.
00:22:18What?
00:22:19Rochelle, you just made it through.
00:22:24Congratulations.
00:22:25Thanks.
00:22:26This was my first competition.
00:22:27I wanted it so badly.
00:22:28To get to the professional level of ballet takes a lot of sprained ankles, a lot of calf muscle strains,
00:22:35just like fighting.
00:22:35So I'll definitely be doing it again, and I'm going to win next time.
00:22:39Congratulations.
00:22:41You six chefs are safe for now.
00:22:45But if your name is towards the bottom of that leaderboard, you're going to have to pick up a lot
00:22:49more points in that upcoming master challenge.
00:22:52You can all head to the back kitchen.
00:22:54We'll see you very soon.
00:22:56It's going to be a cumulative score for the master's challenge, so they're going to take into account my score
00:23:02from the skills challenge.
00:23:04I'm going to really have to push myself and show them what I got.
00:23:15Welcome back, chefs.
00:23:19Two elite pastry chefs from the first group have already been eliminated.
00:23:25Are you serious?
00:23:27Oh, my gosh.
00:23:29I wasn't expecting an elimination this early in two people.
00:23:34Which means the bottom two chefs from this group will also be leaving today.
00:23:40Please direct your attention to the leaderboard, where you'll see your name next to a taste and a texture.
00:23:47Sour and sticky, huh?
00:23:49It's an interesting combination.
00:23:50I can dig the sour, but the sticky, I'm like, okay.
00:23:54Chefs, you have 90 minutes to demonstrate your mastery of the basic tastes.
00:23:59And that time starts now.
00:24:07Where are the buses?
00:24:11Pressure's on.
00:24:12Heat's on.
00:24:13It's warm in here.
00:24:14We're getting ready to go.
00:24:15All right.
00:24:18Oh, boy.
00:24:19Get ready.
00:24:20Hurricane Molly's in town.
00:24:22I will be the messiest person here, so just be ready for me.
00:24:28Well, hey, Molly.
00:24:29I'm curious what you're doing right now.
00:24:31I'm trying to blend way too little and way too big of a container, so I'm going to get a
00:24:34smaller container quick.
00:24:35Sure, go ahead.
00:24:36I'm sorry.
00:24:37What sort of salty and smooth dessert are you making?
00:24:39Miso namalaka.
00:24:40What is a miso namalaka?
00:24:42Namalaka is a fancy version of an emulsion.
00:24:46It is an incredibly smooth type of custard.
00:24:50The other part of my namalaka is a banana bread to go with it.
00:24:53What a twist.
00:24:54I know.
00:24:54You say namalaka, and I'm like, oh, my God, it's exotic.
00:24:57No one's ever going to try this before.
00:24:59And then it's like banana bread.
00:25:00Banana bread.
00:25:00It's like a little homey and a little bit of technique.
00:25:02I'm going to do a dome of namalaka in the middle.
00:25:05I will add pieces of banana bread on the sides and then a passion fruit gel, a banana jam, a
00:25:11blonde chocolate, and a little milk crumble.
00:25:13That's whole milk, not heavy cream.
00:25:15It's definitely chaos.
00:25:16It's on my station at all times.
00:25:18But chaos is where I thrive.
00:25:23I have a large family.
00:25:25Six people.
00:25:27Lots of nieces and nephews running around.
00:25:29And I work in a place that is chaos all the time.
00:25:35I work in a really big luxury hotel.
00:25:37I like the craziness of a hotel.
00:25:39You never know if one day you're making croissants, the next day you're doing a chocolate sculpture, next week you're
00:25:43making a plate of dessert.
00:25:44So today we're going to plate out a flourless praline torte.
00:25:48After that, we're going to go in with a little bit of this praline and cocoa nib crumble.
00:26:21This is our sweet cream gelato.
00:26:22Perfectly smooth.
00:26:24Perfect for my smooth element.
00:26:25Yeah.
00:26:25You're going to find a crunchy layer of chicory and coffee, chocolate sponge, and the chocolate coffee chicory mousse.
00:26:33And then my arequipe, which gives high notes of caramel with that saltiness.
00:26:38Right now I'm going to start working on my chocolate cake.
00:26:41It's a cold brew cake with a little bit of salt.
00:26:43The first thing that I think of when I have this salty and smooth was my boyfriend.
00:26:47He likes his coffee super smooth, and he always have his coffee with salt.
00:26:53Oven.
00:26:55Okay.
00:26:57How's it going, Chris?
00:26:58It's going good.
00:26:59How about you?
00:26:59I'm getting there.
00:27:01Well, Ashida, queen of flavor.
00:27:03I am the queen of flavor.
00:27:06The name queen of flavor, it started when I was on Best Baker in America.
00:27:11One of the judges there, she was like, every round you bring the flavor.
00:27:16So, I went and got it trademarked and everything, because no one else can be the queen of flavor but
00:27:22me.
00:27:22And I guess that's a good nickname for somebody that beats Bobby Flay.
00:27:27And I kicked him out of the kitchen, so I was like, you get out of here.
00:27:30Did you really?
00:27:31You skedaddle.
00:27:31Okay, well, the combination of sour and sticky.
00:27:33I decided to go with the Rocky Road, because you know it has that sticky marshmallow fluff throughout it.
00:27:38That sounds amazing.
00:27:39I'm making a sticky marshmallow cream, a chocolate buttermilk cake, peanut butter chocolate cremeux,
00:27:45candy peanuts, as well as a chocolate garnish.
00:27:48Normally, Rocky Road doesn't have a fruit component, but I need something sour.
00:27:52Okay.
00:27:53So, we're going with raspberries.
00:27:54I want to make a raspberry jam, but I really want that sour to come through.
00:27:59Well, I hope your dessert keeps you around.
00:28:01Have you figured out your sticky part, Chef Chris?
00:28:03Yeah, I'm going to do a cinnamon vanilla milk jam.
00:28:07Milk jam is where you take milk and a high concentration of sugar and cook it down.
00:28:12It's like a very thin dosa de leche, which is very sticky, so hopefully that checks the
00:28:16box of the sticky component.
00:28:17I'm going to start with an almond cake, mango curd.
00:28:19I'm going to use fresh passion fruit seeds, fresh Meyer lemon.
00:28:22I'm going to do whipped creme fresh and cinnamon vanilla milk jam.
00:28:26So, these are almond cake, and then once they come out of the oven, they're going to get
00:28:29soaked in a yuzu glaze for the sour.
00:28:33One hour remaining, Chefs!
00:28:37Okay.
00:28:38We're in the second round now of our skills challenge, but there's a different feeling
00:28:42in the kitchen right now.
00:28:43There's some nervousness.
00:28:46My hands are like shaking.
00:28:48I am too.
00:28:49I'm like, whew.
00:28:50Do you want some rum to come to nurse?
00:28:52Yeah.
00:28:54Oh, my God.
00:28:55I'm originally from the Dominican Republic.
00:28:57I'm getting inspired with Dominican flavors, and we use a lot the bitter orange.
00:29:01I have a bitter and crunchy.
00:29:04So, for my dessert, I have a chocolate hazelnut cake topped with a bitter orange jelly and a
00:29:11bittersweet dark chocolate mousse garnished on top with hazelnut crunch.
00:29:16That's the gelatin and the rum.
00:29:21So, what are you making, sister?
00:29:23I am making a eclairs.
00:29:27Okay.
00:29:27I want to make a mayor lemon curd filling topped with whipped cream, and on top of it
00:29:33is the honeycomb brittle.
00:29:34The crunchy part and the bitter comes from the honeycomb brittle.
00:29:39Growing up in the Philippines, I was very limited on how you create something, and that's
00:29:45the reason why I moved here.
00:29:46And now, they call me a pastry assassin because I have this creativity.
00:29:51I make desserts for high-end restaurants and Michelin-star restaurants.
00:29:54So, I have the experience.
00:29:56I have the knowledge.
00:29:57But, to be honest, I'm a bit nervous and intimidated.
00:30:01It is my first time to compete in a TV.
00:30:04Chefs, 30 minutes to go.
00:30:07Okay, time to test my honeycomb.
00:30:10Look at that.
00:30:15When I tasted it, it was like straight, like salt.
00:30:19I don't like my honeycomb.
00:30:22My honeycomb, I'm going to redo it.
00:30:24Two chefs will be eliminated at the end of this skills challenge.
00:30:30The pressure is on me now.
00:30:36Redoing the honeycomb, it gives me anxiety because this is the crunchiness and the bitterness
00:30:41flavor.
00:30:42How many more minutes left?
00:30:44I don't want to know.
00:30:45Chefs, you have 20 minutes left.
00:30:50There we go.
00:30:51Okay.
00:30:54Oh, man.
00:30:54I'm really hoping this is going to be sweet and toasted, whatever it is you're making.
00:30:58It is, it is.
00:30:59Tell me about it, Julian.
00:30:59So, I'm going to make a hazelnut petit gΓ’teau.
00:31:01Those are petit gΓ’teaux.
00:31:03Yeah.
00:31:03And here they are.
00:31:04It's kind of like a fancier French word for like a cupcake almost, it looks like.
00:31:07I'm making a toasted hazelnut milk chocolate mousse with chocolate ganache in the center and
00:31:14a toasted hazelnut brownie.
00:31:16I got a lot going on.
00:31:18Stress level right now, zero to ten, what would you say?
00:31:20I would say probably like a six or seven.
00:31:23I'm not feeding a thousand people right now.
00:31:25Not yet.
00:31:26You're just going to be feeding two unbelievably talented judges that are complete masters
00:31:29in baking.
00:31:30Oh, no pressure.
00:31:31No pressure.
00:31:32All right, man.
00:31:32Good luck.
00:31:34How are you doing over there?
00:31:36I'm okay.
00:31:38I'm going to toast the sesame seeds as much as I can.
00:31:41I am a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.
00:31:44I took up trap shooting as a sport.
00:31:48Pull.
00:31:49Pull.
00:31:51It's truly similar to pastry making.
00:31:55I just have to be very quick to respond.
00:31:59I thrive in that type of environment.
00:32:01They actually call me Annie Oakley.
00:32:04I am the sharpshooter of pastry and clay.
00:32:08I decided to do a toasted sesame seed creme brulee with a toasted sesame seed sherbet cookie.
00:32:17I've made thousands of sherbet cookies.
00:32:20May the force be with us, right?
00:32:22Yeah.
00:32:26Five minutes, chefs.
00:32:28Are you serious?
00:32:29For my flavors and texture, I'm good with sticky.
00:32:33Because that's sticky.
00:32:35But I wish I would have brought more sour to the plate.
00:32:39I only have raspberry jam.
00:32:41I want to make sure I get enough sour on there.
00:32:45I really want to make this honeycomb work.
00:32:48I've got to say, the second group has had a little bit more of a difficult time, I think, as
00:32:51a whole than our first group did.
00:32:53And we've got a couple chefs right now that are really up against it.
00:32:57It did not set.
00:33:00This isn't good.
00:33:01My namalaka, it is not going to set up enough for me to pop it cleanly out of the mold.
00:33:05So now, it won't be a don't.
00:33:07Time check.
00:33:0890 seconds to go.
00:33:10Oh, boy.
00:33:11Panic and fear starts to set in.
00:33:13I just decided to do these little dollops on the plate.
00:33:16Just enough so that there's enough namalaka for each bite for the judges.
00:33:19Okay, we're going to do cake next.
00:33:24Just have to pivot, pivot, pivot.
00:33:29I have to start building this little moat around my namalaka to get it from spreading so much.
00:33:35Five, four, three, two, one.
00:33:40Time is up.
00:33:41Ooh, Lord have mercy.
00:33:44I look at my plate.
00:33:46It's missing a lot of colors.
00:33:47I don't know what happened.
00:33:48I just froze in there.
00:33:50Two more chefs are going to be going home.
00:33:53So, judges, please take into account flavor, execution, and technical difficulty.
00:33:59First up, it'll be Chef Caesar.
00:34:01Bitter and crunchy.
00:34:03What I made is a honeycomb, a mere lemon eclairs.
00:34:07There's an opportunity on this plate to be more visual.
00:34:11Just to have a little more fun or color on the plate.
00:34:15It feels like you were like, I'm going to make honeycomb, and then I'm going to make something else and
00:34:19put underneath it.
00:34:20It doesn't feel like it's part of the dish.
00:34:29I'm definitely getting the bitterness.
00:34:31Your honeycomb, you took it really far.
00:34:34That sugar is very dark.
00:34:35But it's not the bitter that I was looking for.
00:34:38I think it's just a little too much burnt sugar.
00:34:40And then your eclair has lost all of its body, you know, and it's really soft.
00:34:46So, there's an imbalance in the dish of the softness to that bitter.
00:34:52The only bitter and crunchy that comes to me truly is the honeycomb.
00:34:55Yeah, not my favorite.
00:34:58All right, Chef Arletti.
00:35:00Today, I made for you guys a orange chocolate hazelnut financier.
00:35:04I see some inconsistencies from one plate to the next, and I would have preferred to have had it cleaner.
00:35:17I heard you crunch.
00:35:19You heard that.
00:35:19I heard you crunch.
00:35:21Yeah, really crunchy.
00:35:23And I think that because your mousse is so smooth, it just accentuated that crunch.
00:35:28Really bringing the kumquat in works so well, because it heightened the chocolate,
00:35:32but then the chocolate still is bitter in a great way.
00:35:39Chef Chris.
00:35:41I made an almond cake soaked in citrus with a cinnamon and vanilla milk jam.
00:35:46I love the colors.
00:35:48It already screams to me sticky.
00:35:54This cake is phenomenal.
00:35:57Thank you very much.
00:35:58I'm getting stickiness from the milk jam on the bottom.
00:36:01I'm not getting as much sour.
00:36:04I wish you would have had more of that component, the sour for me, in there.
00:36:09Everything else is so well refined.
00:36:12We're going to move on now to Chef Lashida.
00:36:15I did a play on Rocky Road.
00:36:17You know what I love about this is that it just seems to be very non-traditional.
00:36:22It's like a salad.
00:36:27The marshmallow cream stuck to the plate, stuck to my spoon, stuck to my teeth.
00:36:32It's very sticky and it's great.
00:36:34But it's not sour at all.
00:36:38Chocolate cake is going to be the hero.
00:36:40I did like the sourness that was hidden inside the raspberries.
00:36:43Just if I didn't look for it, we wouldn't have found it, right?
00:36:47And so bringing more of that sour into the plate would have brought this together.
00:36:52Being the queen of flavor literally means I'm bringing the flavor.
00:36:56And if I do lose a flavor, that would suck.
00:37:01Hi, Chef Aurelio.
00:37:03I chose to do a creme brulee.
00:37:06I also made a shortbread cookie.
00:37:08I love creme brulee and I love it when it's a complete shard of glass.
00:37:12And I'm seeing a little bit of spotting here.
00:37:15I love that you gave us utensils.
00:37:17I just want to get in the, you know, really.
00:37:25It is brulee, which brings a toasty element.
00:37:28I'm getting toasty perfection in the cookie.
00:37:30This is a sweet dish.
00:37:32This sesame almost reads toasty as well.
00:37:37All right, Chef Julian.
00:37:38I made chocolate toasted hazelnut mousse with a brownie.
00:37:42Look at that.
00:37:43I've never seen a brownie that thin.
00:37:44I like the sheen that's on the outside of your chocolate here.
00:37:47This looks really nice.
00:37:53Sweet.
00:37:54It's like a really textural milkshake almost.
00:37:57It's just so rich and chocolatey and yummy.
00:37:59It's not reading toasty.
00:38:00Okay.
00:38:00It's one-dimensional for me, and chocolate is leading the way.
00:38:04Toasty hazelnut does not.
00:38:06Okay.
00:38:09All right, Chef Juan.
00:38:11I did the caramel macchiato style dessert.
00:38:13We have a chocolate sponge.
00:38:15Then we have a coffee mousse.
00:38:16And then in the middle, my arequipe.
00:38:19It really looks like you're looking at a liquid, say, sitting on top of a cappuccino.
00:38:24Thank you so much.
00:38:30One word.
00:38:32Luscious.
00:38:33That is the sexiest way to describe smooth.
00:38:36It's clouds of the arequipe and that luscious mousse, which brings us right to the salt.
00:38:41You salted it to perfection.
00:38:44I got no notes.
00:38:44Thank you so much.
00:38:51All right, Chef Molly.
00:38:52I went with a miso caramel na malaka with a banana cake.
00:38:57This is reckless.
00:38:59It's like you got this dam of stuff, you know, holding back this, like, flood.
00:39:05And you can see it.
00:39:06It just wants to go.
00:39:07It so badly wants to run out.
00:39:08It just wants to go.
00:39:09I love the tension.
00:39:10Good.
00:39:16Really, really good.
00:39:18It's a swirl of smoothness.
00:39:20Good.
00:39:20The way that you've used the salt in here, it's not gratuitous.
00:39:24It's wrapped up in bananas.
00:39:26It's wrapped up in na malaka.
00:39:28And it's also really smooth.
00:39:30You've really met this challenge.
00:39:32I am feeling incredibly relieved.
00:39:34It's time now to input your scores.
00:39:36I don't feel like we have the hardest one.
00:39:39I'm nervous, of course, because two people will be going home from this challenge.
00:39:53Chefs, the judges were impressed with many of your first efforts.
00:39:5720 would be a perfect score.
00:40:00So let's see which chef made the top dessert in this skills challenge.
00:40:18Congratulations, Molly.
00:40:20You'll be moving on to the master challenge.
00:40:23Let's see who else will be in the master challenge with you.
00:40:33That's Juan, Chris, Arletti, and Aurelia.
00:40:38We'll be continuing on in this competition as well.
00:40:48Julian, Lashita, Caesar, you, of course, are in the bottom three.
00:40:54If you are ranked seventh or eighth, that means you've been eliminated.
00:41:17Julian, you made it through.
00:41:21Caesar, Lashita, sadly, you won't be continuing on to the master challenge.
00:41:25Please say your goodbyes.
00:41:27Bye.
00:41:29Good luck, everyone.
00:41:31It was an experience, and I would never change it for anything else.
00:41:35It's not the first competition I've lost, and I know what I'm capable of doing.
00:41:40It's just this time, I didn't hit the mark.
00:41:45Congratulations, chefs.
00:41:46You'll be continuing on in the master challenge.
00:41:50But to stay in the competition, you're going to have to outbake all the surviving chefs.
00:41:59I made that top 12 spot.
00:42:02I'm amongst some of the best pastry chefs in the world.
00:42:05I'm feeling a lot of, like, anticipation nerves.
00:42:11Chefs, chefs, let's take another look at the rankings so far.
00:42:18Those of you near the bottom will need to make up a lot of ground in the master challenge,
00:42:21because it's your total score for today that will determine if you move on in this competition.
00:42:28And like before, this challenge is also a double elimination.
00:42:37What?
00:42:39All righty.
00:42:41Wasn't expecting that one.
00:42:43Double elimination.
00:42:44Oh, my God.
00:42:45Those of you at the top of the leaderboard, don't get too comfortable,
00:42:48because every chef below you is going to be upping their game trying to knock you off the board.
00:42:53This is wild to see how cutthroat this is.
00:42:56One bad bake, and it just sends you home.
00:43:00As chefs, you can't help but be inspired by your past,
00:43:04the influences that made you the bakers you are today.
00:43:07So, for your master challenge, you'll prepare a perfectly executed dessert
00:43:11that draws upon a key moment or defining event in your life.
00:43:16So, ask yourself, do you have a story to tell?
00:43:20And can you tell that story on a plate?
00:43:25Chefs, you have two hours to translate your unique personal story into a spectacular dessert.
00:43:31And that time starts...
00:43:35Now.
00:43:43Behind, behind.
00:43:44Yeah.
00:43:45More.
00:43:49The leaderboard is super scary.
00:43:51It's ridiculous.
00:43:52It's just hovering over us like an all-seeing eye.
00:43:56On the leaderboard, I'm number eight, and I want to be in that top six.
00:44:00This is high stakes.
00:44:01There's a lot of pressure.
00:44:03I am a pastry consultant.
00:44:05I own a pastry case in Chicago.
00:44:07And I'm going to be in the top six.
00:44:08It is a global consulting pastry company.
00:44:12I do the menus, media, mentoring, and I'm known for my key lime pie.
00:44:17So, I am going to be making my key lime pie, my famous pie.
00:44:22It is going to be made with a homemade graham cracker crust.
00:44:25There's a key lime custard filling, Italian meringue that's torched on top, and then a honey
00:44:31tuile to kind of emulate some coral and give it some color.
00:44:35And there's going to be piped meringue and some gold leaf on top.
00:44:38You know, it's a very bright and light dessert, and it just kind of describes who I am.
00:44:43All right.
00:44:47One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.
00:44:49On your left, on your left, on your left.
00:44:51Wait, your side, your right, sorry.
00:44:52My bad.
00:44:55Julian, it's tough, right?
00:44:57Yeah, it's a little, it's a little crazy.
00:45:00I'm just one point away from Molly.
00:45:02That leads to fire in me to continue pushing harder.
00:45:06$50,000 on the line, so of course, I want that price.
00:45:11I'm going to make a tropical and coconut fruit tart.
00:45:14I need to make it unique and also something that represents me.
00:45:18So in this dessert, I'm using Mongo Mongo.
00:45:20So Mongo Mongo is a fruit jam from Colombia.
00:45:24In my pot, I have banana, pineapple, and mango.
00:45:28So I'm going to start with a tart sablΓ©.
00:45:31Then we're going to have a crunchy coconut streusel,
00:45:34and then a cake soaked with a coconut liquid.
00:45:37And on top of that, we're going to put Mongo Mongo.
00:45:40On the top, I'm going to be piping a mascarpone cream in the shape of a flower.
00:45:44My dad is a doctor, and he was expected from us to just follow his steps.
00:45:49I went to medical school, and there was a moment that I was just like,
00:45:54this is not what I want.
00:45:56This is not what's going to make me happy.
00:45:58It took him a while to really understand it.
00:46:01But then I moved to the U.S., started studying pastry in Chicago,
00:46:06learning from the best chefs, and following my dream.
00:46:12I admire Juan so much.
00:46:13He's one of my favorite chefs to follow his work on social media and everything.
00:46:20I'm very inspired by a lot of things he does,
00:46:22so it's so nice to be in the same competition with him.
00:46:25It's crazy, it's crazy.
00:46:28Florencia.
00:46:28Oh, hello, Jesse.
00:46:29How are you?
00:46:30I'm good.
00:46:31I bet you're feeling pretty good.
00:46:32Top five on the leaderboard over there.
00:46:34That feels good, but, you know, everything can change in a second.
00:46:37They can.
00:46:37So I'm curious as to what you're making here.
00:46:40Kind of paying homage to my mom and, you know,
00:46:43the flavors that we used to have on Sundays around the house.
00:46:46I'm making Genoise, which is going to be layered with dark chocolate mousse,
00:46:51dulce de leche, and Italian cherries with some pink ribbons.
00:46:55She died a few years ago of cancer.
00:46:59She was an inspiration for sure.
00:47:02Yeah.
00:47:02Big inspiration.
00:47:04Well, I'm sure she's looking down on you now.
00:47:06So proud.
00:47:07The success you're having early on.
00:47:09And this is such a beautiful way.
00:47:10It's a beautiful way to honor her.
00:47:11Yeah.
00:47:12Yeah, for sure.
00:47:12And her memory as well.
00:47:13For sure, you know.
00:47:15Fine.
00:47:16Listen, I can tell.
00:47:17You put your heart into it.
00:47:18You can see that when you bake.
00:47:20Thank you so much.
00:47:20It's a really beautiful thing to see.
00:47:22Okay, Florencia.
00:47:23Good luck.
00:47:27Beautiful cake.
00:47:30Spongy, moist.
00:47:34I'm at the top of the leaderboard.
00:47:36And I want to stay there.
00:47:38You know, I'm going to do everything it takes.
00:47:41What are you making?
00:47:42Frazier.
00:47:43Frazier like a strawberry shortcake.
00:47:45Beautiful.
00:47:47On spring baking championships three years ago, I made this.
00:47:50Yeah.
00:47:51And I won that challenge.
00:47:53Flawless.
00:47:55So I was like, okay, this one, it's a winner cake.
00:47:58That's why I have to redo it.
00:48:00A fraisier is the favorite cake of my mom.
00:48:03And I always do this for Mother's Day, for all the mothers as well.
00:48:07So my cake looks amazing.
00:48:09I'm going to suck it right now.
00:48:11In this fraisier, I have two layers of almond sponge cake.
00:48:18In between, I have fresh strawberries.
00:48:20And then I also have a vanilla mousseline.
00:48:24Hoppala.
00:48:25It's good.
00:48:26Second layer of cake.
00:48:28Now, let's put back some cream on the top.
00:48:31And to decorate, I am piping vanilla mascarpone whipped cream.
00:48:36And then in the middle, I have like a hibiscus jelly with like a very thin layer of strawberry.
00:48:43And chocolate heart.
00:48:44That's a big love story with this cake.
00:48:47It's insane that we've already lost four.
00:48:50It's also even more insane that I'm at the bottom.
00:48:53So I got to do something to bring myself away from there.
00:48:57It's great to have a good comeback story.
00:49:00I'm going to create a s'mores dessert.
00:49:03You know, me and my kids and my wife, we go camping all the time.
00:49:06Every time we go, the first thing we get to the grocery store, they're like,
00:49:09are we getting marshmallows to do s'mores?
00:49:12For my dessert, I'm making a double sweet cake.
00:49:14We're going to have chocolate ganache in the center,
00:49:17graham cracker clusters.
00:49:19We're going to roll it up together like a roulade.
00:49:21Put some marshmallow on the outside, toast it up,
00:49:23and put some chocolate bark and chocolate mushrooms.
00:49:25So it looks like a log.
00:49:27Chocolate mushrooms.
00:49:28I am spraying the cocoa butter to give it kind of like when I flip it over,
00:49:32it's going to have like a more organic look.
00:49:35And then I'll unmold it, and then I'll have the top of my mushrooms all set.
00:49:50All right, Aurelia, I'm staring at the leaderboard right over your head.
00:49:53Don't look at it, don't look at it.
00:49:54And your one point, that's what separates you from the bottom of this leaderboard.
00:49:58I need to nail this.
00:50:00Yes.
00:50:01That's totally it.
00:50:02One of my favorite ingredients is apples.
00:50:05So I'm making a charlotte with apples.
00:50:08So I wanted to incorporate my career, which is French pastry,
00:50:12with a flavor profile that I really, really love.
00:50:15A charlotte is a sponge cake, and it's filled with a cream.
00:50:21I'm going to add some of those apples on the top.
00:50:24My plan to decorate this is to do some piping with my mousseline cream around the sides.
00:50:31I'm going to top it off with some more of the caramelized apples and a little bit of gold leaf.
00:50:37I love it.
00:50:38Can't wait to see how it goes.
00:50:41Rochelle, we are like the bottom three.
00:50:44Yeah.
00:50:44So we got to kill it with this dessert.
00:50:46Yeah.
00:50:47I'm going to do what I do, you know?
00:50:50What really makes me unique is using different ingredients in different ways.
00:50:53I'm going to make a bananas foster tort with four layers of brown butter cake.
00:51:00In between is going to be a caramelized banana buttercream.
00:51:03It smells so good.
00:51:05I wish there was smell-o-vision, guys.
00:51:07I'm doing a black cocoa crunch on the outside.
00:51:09I'm trying to make a chocolate flour, and then I'm going to do a bruleed banana on top.
00:51:14The way I make buttercream is a little weird.
00:51:16It's incorporating 50% butter and 50% jam or lemon curd or something like that.
00:51:21So this is a jam out of the praline banana.
00:51:25It's something I kind of created to add more intense flavor and sweetness without adding additional sugar.
00:51:33Ninety minutes left.
00:51:35Heard. Ninety minutes.
00:51:37And there goes the clock. Ninety minutes. Oh, my God.
00:51:40Okay.
00:51:42I'm pretty happy with how everything came out.
00:51:45Now I just got to put it all together.
00:51:47Should be good to go.
00:51:54Oh, my God.
00:51:58That was a disaster.
00:52:13It is crazy right now.
00:52:19I'm at the bottom of the leaderboard, so I'm feeling extra pressure.
00:52:27Let's see if we could piece this together.
00:52:32It's not ideal, but it's not the end of the world.
00:52:41It could still be rolled.
00:52:42It's still salvageable.
00:52:49Julian, what happened?
00:52:50When I went to get off the sheet pan, it was still a little bit too warm.
00:52:54And it fell apart, but I put the puzzle pieces back together.
00:52:57When I roll it, I have to make sure we roll it tight.
00:53:00Yeah, we don't have a ton of time left now.
00:53:02Yeah.
00:53:03Now we just got to make it happen.
00:53:05This is a very, very important role.
00:53:09I'm feeling a little bit rushed, stressed, but we're pushing through.
00:53:17It's all in one piece.
00:53:18We're good to go.
00:53:21In a competition like this, everyone wants to bring their A-game.
00:53:24We just saw four people eliminated right off the bat, and we're not messing around.
00:53:29I'm doing one of my first desserts that I learned how to make when I was working for my mentor.
00:53:33It's like a layered chocolate hazelnut bar.
00:53:36It starts with a layer of milk chocolate and hazelnut crunch at the bottom, followed by chocolate cake.
00:53:43On top of that, a milk chocolate and toasted hazelnut mousse, and top off the bar with a cherry jam.
00:53:49I'm making a cherry chantilly that's going to be gracing the top.
00:53:53I'm going to top it off with gold chocolate vines and some chocolate feathers.
00:53:58Beautiful, chef. Those look awesome.
00:54:01Look at you, girl.
00:54:02I know.
00:54:03Crazy.
00:54:04I'm at the top.
00:54:05The pressure's on even more than ever.
00:54:09I can't let it slip, but I also can't let it get in my head too much.
00:54:11I just need to do what I do best.
00:54:13Ah!
00:54:14It's me.
00:54:14I'm the person making the mess.
00:54:18Always.
00:54:19It's always me.
00:54:21Uh-oh.
00:54:21Oh, man.
00:54:23That's my pistachios.
00:54:25Burnt.
00:54:27I need to retoast all of my pistachios.
00:54:32I chose this dish because it's something that I'm incredibly proud of.
00:54:36I'm making a white chocolate pistachio gateau.
00:54:39A gateau is just a layered cake.
00:54:41This is a pan de gin, similar to like a pound cake, but it's like a French style pound cake.
00:54:47It comes from a region where they didn't have a ton of butter to make cake a long, long time
00:54:51ago.
00:54:51They used almond paste instead of butter as the fat, so I used pistachio instead of almond.
00:54:56My dessert will start with a pistachio pan de gin, and then white chocolate mousse, topped with an apricot gelet,
00:55:05and then it will be finished with a pistachio chantilly, raspberries, and raspberry fluid gel.
00:55:11Oh, my gosh.
00:55:12Again.
00:55:12This is crazy.
00:55:14I did it twice.
00:55:15That's me.
00:55:16For you.
00:55:18I am chaos all the time.
00:55:21It's all right.
00:55:21We're gonna get there.
00:55:26Hey, Arletti.
00:55:27I cannot wait to see what you guys are gonna be making.
00:55:30I'm trying to go back with my childhood, what I grew up with, all these wonderful fresh fruits and ingredients.
00:55:34I'm going to make a tropical tart, composed of a citrus sabli, followed by a passion fruit cremou topped with
00:55:43a mango compote, a coconut lime whipped ganache with a sponge sugar and toasted coconut.
00:55:51When I was little, I used to climb the mango trees.
00:55:54The Dominican Republic has so many different mangoes.
00:55:56Just in our backyard, we have over five different varieties.
00:56:01We had cachiman, bullita, huehuetoro.
00:56:04Did you say huehuetoro, girl?
00:56:05Huehuetoro, papi.
00:56:06That's so good.
00:56:07That's my favorite.
00:56:08Yes.
00:56:09What are you working on?
00:56:11I'm making a guava filling.
00:56:12So we're both going pretty tropical.
00:56:14Absolutely.
00:56:16So I'm making this.
00:56:17It's a napoleon, but it's not a napoleon.
00:56:19I'm making a bunch of layers in there.
00:56:21I'm actually putting layers of every single thing I ever remember that is close to me before I left Cuba.
00:56:27I'm going to have this beautiful layer of coconut mousse and then a sponge cake.
00:56:32And then I'm going to have some guava filling.
00:56:34From the top, I'm going to do a bliss puff pastry.
00:56:37A bliss puff is an expedited puff pastry.
00:56:41Basically, what you do is you make a very buttery tart dough and you create layers of air in between
00:56:47it by chilling the dough and folding it.
00:56:49That's actually the only pastry I ever did in Cuba.
00:56:53And I had to work with it at 12 o'clock at night because it was when it was cold.
00:56:57As a boy coming from Cuba, I've never thought that I would be doing the things that I'm doing today.
00:57:03And now here I am. Look at this kitchen. I mean, this is a story.
00:57:07The last 12 years, I have invested everything I have, everything, into my pastry shop.
00:57:15This is feelings and emotions. So here you go. We have our breakfast pastries over there.
00:57:20And we have our macarons over here and our beautiful desserts over there.
00:57:24We're very proud of being eclectic. We have my clothes hanging in there.
00:57:29It's like you see in Havana. That's what we do.
00:57:32We have murals painted by my brother. We're very proud of that.
00:57:36Let's go to the back. Voila.
00:57:41It's a huge space. We have our lamination over there.
00:57:45We have our desserts over there. We have our bread area making.
00:57:49And then we have our macaron area over there.
00:57:52This is the first macaron I ever tried. It's passion fruit, buttercream with pineapple filling.
00:57:58All our macarons have two fillings.
00:58:01When I win this competition, it will be a dream come true.
00:58:04And that money is going to go straight into my business.
00:58:08And my amazing team of chefs and pastry chefs that does an amazing job.
00:58:12I want to make sure that we make it, you know, out of these harsh economic times.
00:58:17Now to put my guava. That's my last layer of my mousse.
00:58:23In order for my dessert to completely set up, I have to put it in the glass chiller.
00:58:27And it has to be in there undisturbed until almost the very end of the challenge.
00:58:3330 minutes, chefs. 30 minutes.
00:58:36Okay, 30 minutes.
00:58:37Okay, okay. Let's do it.
00:58:40The mangoes are still not all the way ripe.
00:58:42I'm finding myself adding more sugar. So I'm trying to, like, compensate a little bit.
00:58:47You good? You guys good?
00:58:49Good. How are you doing?
00:58:50Yeah? Good. Just cheating around.
00:58:52This guy doesn't even break a sweat.
00:58:53I know. He's not even sweating.
00:58:55Just walking around, you know, living the dream.
00:58:58Chris, what are we trying to evoke with this and what do you make?
00:59:00Growing up, every Sunday I would go to the same donut shop.
00:59:03Would always get a blueberry lemon filled donut.
00:59:06And if I was a good kid, they would split it and then fill it with the vanilla ice cream
00:59:10as well.
00:59:10So I'm making a chiffon cake and then doing a blueberry thyme jam, lemon curd, blueberry almond clusters, some blueberry
00:59:18powder chocolate decor.
00:59:19That sounds delicious. This is not your first rodeo.
00:59:22Yeah.
00:59:23Have you ever won a competition before?
00:59:25I have not, but thanks for letting me know.
00:59:27I've made it to the semifinals or I've made it to the finals and I've always just come up a
00:59:31little bit short.
00:59:32Well, I happen to know of a competition where you could take away $50,000 in a big gold medal.
00:59:38Is that why you guys put me back here? To motivate me?
00:59:40This could be it, man. I'm excited for you.
00:59:44So I'm going to take some white chocolate, I'm going to dust some blueberry powder on it, and then I'm
00:59:50going to press it in between two acetate sheets and kind of curl them up.
00:59:53So this is going to be chocolate decor.
00:59:56So I just want to get this in this sphere here so I have some movement.
01:00:01I'm going to set this in the fridge.
01:00:06Just 15 minutes remaining now.
01:00:11All right, I'm going to just remove the circle right now.
01:00:14Hope everything looks good behind.
01:00:17Oh, put it up.
01:00:21Two more chefs will be leaving this kitchen.
01:00:25I'm fourth place right now.
01:00:26But the truth is you never know what the others are going to do.
01:00:34It's not going to work.
01:00:35Like when I unmold it, it's going to, I'm afraid it's going to run.
01:00:40This thing expanded on me and it just didn't have enough time to set.
01:00:44So now I'm not going to be able to unmold it.
01:00:48So if I take it out of here, it's going to break.
01:00:54I'm going to just transfer it whatever I can.
01:00:57I'm going to do my best to get whatever is in here in there.
01:01:06Oh, it's so sad because all the components are so good.
01:01:12I'm like really broken.
01:01:17Oh my goodness.
01:01:21This wasn't supposed to be in a love band.
01:01:24It's horrible.
01:01:25This is the biggest embarrassment.
01:01:30Oh.
01:01:34This is literally a nightmare.
01:01:43I just want to leave.
01:01:46Like seriously, I just want to walk away.
01:02:03I feel that I have to push through.
01:02:05The flavors are there.
01:02:07The textures are there.
01:02:09Just not the way I wanted to present it for sure.
01:02:13At least I have something to share.
01:02:16I'm just going to tell my story.
01:02:18And my story is about struggle.
01:02:21Just the fact that that fit in there perfectly is blowing my mind.
01:02:25But it's about making it through the struggle.
01:02:30Five minutes left, chefs.
01:02:32Get way too much exercise right now.
01:02:36These chefs, they're really stressing out.
01:02:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:02:40There are two chefs going home.
01:02:42The chefs ranked 11 and 12 at the end of this master challenge
01:02:45are the ones that are going to be leaving this kitchen.
01:02:49Stay focused, gotta stay focused.
01:02:53I feel very stressed right now.
01:02:56My mom would finish this cake in one sitting, literally.
01:03:00Chefs, you have two minutes left.
01:03:02Damn.
01:03:05Just garnishing here with a little bit of pistachio chantilly.
01:03:14I'm really focusing on the details and the technique.
01:03:23Five, four, three, two, one.
01:03:30Thank you, chefs.
01:03:34Good job, everybody.
01:03:36You can all head to the back kitchen until you're called in to present your desserts.
01:03:40Good job, good job.
01:03:42Good job.
01:03:47Mr. Goldman, Ms. Yard, you've each got 15 points to award.
01:03:52And we're going to say goodbye to the two chefs who have the lowest cumulative scores.
01:03:56Let's welcome back Chef Molly.
01:03:58Yay!
01:03:59Yay, Molly!
01:04:01Let's go, lady.
01:04:05What I made for you is a pistachio raspberry gΓ’teau.
01:04:09Chef Molly, do you think this dessert can keep you in the number one spot?
01:04:12I sure hope it can.
01:04:15I was kind of excited about your moniker of just, you know, absolute recklessness.
01:04:22And this is not reckless.
01:04:25Yeah.
01:04:26Every cut, every line is just uniform perfection.
01:04:32It looks great. Thank you so much.
01:04:34All right. It's time to give it a taste.
01:04:36Let's do it.
01:04:38It's really pretty.
01:04:40Clean.
01:04:41We'll start from the bottom up.
01:04:42Pistachio pendejine.
01:04:43On the inside is a little crunchy layer of dehydrated strawberries, pistachios, and white chocolate.
01:04:49And then on top of that is a white chocolate mousse, finished with an apricot gelΓ©e.
01:04:54And then on the very top you have pistachio chantilly, fresh raspberries, raspberry fluid gel, and then a little chocolate
01:05:00garnish.
01:05:04It's a very impressive dessert. It's very well done.
01:05:09The pendejine, I'm going to start there on the bottom.
01:05:12I really enjoyed the pistachio in there.
01:05:15Smart choice with the creams.
01:05:16Having the nuts on the top really added that texture.
01:05:20I think this pendejine, it's a little dry, but it works with this.
01:05:25It really supports all of this other stuff that is so light and luscious.
01:05:30And it's beautiful and incredibly well executed.
01:05:33A plus.
01:05:35Thank you, Molly.
01:05:37This is the work of a cold, calculating assassin.
01:05:42Right?
01:05:44I think the recklessness was a ruse.
01:05:48All right, let's welcome Chef Juan.
01:05:51I really want to get that top spot.
01:05:54There is something really specific in this dish which is called mongo mongo.
01:05:58It is a really cultural type of cooking that is only done in the coast of Colombia.
01:06:04It's very bold.
01:06:07Here we're looking at a beautifully baked crust.
01:06:11And it's not given up anything.
01:06:13I have no idea what's in there.
01:06:14I can't wait.
01:06:15Mongo mongo.
01:06:16Give it to me.
01:06:17Right?
01:06:17I'm so excited.
01:06:20Oh, wow.
01:06:22Still a mystery, right?
01:06:24I made vanilla sablΓ©, a mongo mongo compote with mascarpone mousse, and a coconut salt cake.
01:06:34I love the mongo mongo.
01:06:36While the cream is perfect.
01:06:40For me, it overpowers the dish.
01:06:45The tart shell has a perfect balance of salt to it.
01:06:49I just want more mongo mongo.
01:06:54I really enjoy the mongo mongo.
01:06:57Got a little banana.
01:06:58I got a little mango.
01:06:59And then there's just this little salt that kind of sneaks in there.
01:07:02This is delicious.
01:07:04Chef Juan, great work.
01:07:06Thank you so much.
01:07:10Chef Clement.
01:07:12This is a fraisier.
01:07:13So it's like a strawberry shortcake.
01:07:15So this is the favorite cake of my mom.
01:07:18Oh, gosh.
01:07:19It's so clean and perfect.
01:07:22I remember your fraisier.
01:07:24I remember absolutely loving it.
01:07:26Here's the rub, though.
01:07:28Is it going to be as good as your last one?
01:07:30Moment of truth, Clement.
01:07:33It has almond sponge cake on the base, vanilla mousseline.
01:07:36I did like a hibiscus, jelly, and fresh strawberries with a mascarpone cream.
01:07:44It might, it might even be better.
01:07:49Ah.
01:07:50Clement said you thought you had first place.
01:07:53It's the love that you can taste.
01:07:55The vanilla is really coming through nice.
01:07:58The strawberries are beautiful.
01:07:59Well, I do like the acidity that the hibiscus brings.
01:08:03It, it, it resists my spoon a little bit.
01:08:06A little less gelling, and I think this would be a perfect dish.
01:08:09Sounds good.
01:08:10Chef Clement.
01:08:11Thank you so much.
01:08:12Well done.
01:08:13He remembered the three years ago fraisier, and he said it tastes even better.
01:08:18So now I feel confident.
01:08:23Chef Alberto.
01:08:27I feel like I cannot breathe.
01:08:30It feels like Judgment Day.
01:08:34Adalberto, I know what you're capable of.
01:08:36When I saw you walk out with that, I gotta tell you, I was incredibly shocked.
01:08:40This is not what I intended to present to you today.
01:08:43This wasn't supposed to be in a love band.
01:08:46Um.
01:08:47Uh, listen, I, I hope it's delicious.
01:08:49Let's find out.
01:09:01I'm making for you a coconut lime mousse Napoleon made with Rome Soak Genoa.
01:09:07This is a little bit of a story about my past.
01:09:10There's all the flavors of my childhood, including guava and coconut, the puff pastry that I used to make when
01:09:15I was a kid.
01:09:16Unfortunately, your vision certainly didn't match your execution.
01:09:19Yep.
01:09:20Your decision to make blitz puff pastry was very risky.
01:09:25It's one of the hardest things to do, and time is not on your side here.
01:09:29All right.
01:09:31As far as the flavors are concerned, it actually tastes like a tropical porridge.
01:09:36Mm-hmm.
01:09:36Yeah.
01:09:37Your blitz is nice and salty.
01:09:40It's, it's not crispy enough.
01:09:42I can tell this is not what you were going for.
01:09:45Absolutely.
01:09:46Appreciate you very much.
01:09:48I'm disappointed.
01:09:50This is the end of the story.
01:09:52My dessert, it was a failure.
01:09:55Yeah.
01:09:58Yeah.
01:09:58I don't, I don't know.
01:10:00I don't know.
01:10:03Let's welcome back Chef Florencia.
01:10:08This is a representation of what my Sundays were back in Italy.
01:10:13My mom would ask me only for one dessert, chocolate mousse.
01:10:17That's all she loved, all she liked, all she wanted.
01:10:20So there is some chocolate and sugar work on top of it.
01:10:23I wanted to present some cancer awareness ribbons, because my mom lost the bottle.
01:10:29So.
01:10:30Sorry to hear that.
01:10:37This looks like it is going to be so moist and luscious, but I want the chocolate and I want
01:10:44the cake just to be a little bit more distinct.
01:10:47Absolutely.
01:10:49Let's serve it up.
01:10:51I did a almond genoise soaked with espresso liqueur and amaretto.
01:10:57And there is my mom's favorite chocolate mousse with some Italian cherries.
01:11:02There is some dulce de leche in the center and then layers of a soaked genoise with amaretto.
01:11:10Yeah.
01:11:11This is one of those multi-dimensional, fork tender, milked in your mouth, rich, and yet light as can be
01:11:21desserts.
01:11:22I'm glad. I'm very happy.
01:11:25There are so many nuances and the cream on top makes just a wonderful bite.
01:11:30Thank you so much.
01:11:32Mmm. Notes of chocolate, notes of caramel. This is delicious.
01:11:37Florencia, your mom would be very proud.
01:11:39Thank you so much.
01:11:40Nice job.
01:11:43It was bringing all these wonderful flavors together in a symphony in one bite.
01:11:49Florencia.
01:11:50What a lovely story.
01:11:51Great job. Thank you guys.
01:11:52That was good.
01:11:55All right. Let's welcome Chef Robert.
01:11:59This is an homage to my mentor. This is a chocolate bar of his that we used to do.
01:12:03It's very whimsical and very fun.
01:12:06It really is. I think the thing that really grabs me is this, like, sexy, pink, gooey stuff.
01:12:15Then on top of that, the really tight spirals of gilded chocolate.
01:12:21Please serve it up.
01:12:22I start with a cherry chantilly at the top, followed by a cherry jam, milk chocolate mousse with toasted hazelnuts,
01:12:29a chocolate cake, and then it's hazelnut and milk chocolate food and crunch at the bottom.
01:12:34I love the complexity of the dish and the etherealness of your chantilly.
01:12:39Thank you, Chef.
01:12:40Yeah, Robert, you got a lot of cool techniques here.
01:12:42Your execution was impeccable.
01:12:46All right.
01:12:47All right. Chef Robert, thank you so much.
01:12:48All right. Thank you.
01:12:51It was form and function and beauty all combined together.
01:13:03Chef Chris, good to see you again.
01:13:04Hello, hello.
01:13:04I love what's going on top. These decorations that you've made that almost look like fried taro.
01:13:10And on the sides, it's just, it's naked cake.
01:13:14I've never really seen a naked cake where I've been like, that looks great.
01:13:19Oh, my God.
01:13:21All right, let's give it a go, Chris, whenever you're ready.
01:13:23All right.
01:13:25Whoa.
01:13:26Okay.
01:13:27That is a hunk.
01:13:28It's a chiffon cake, vanilla melted ice cream mousse, a blueberry thyme compote, blueberry almond thyme crunchies, and lemon curd.
01:13:38Your cake is tender. Your mousse is pillowy and light. It's big blueberry flavor. This is delicious.
01:13:46Thank you very much.
01:13:47I didn't have that same experience, unfortunately.
01:13:50It's just a little too flat for me as far as the flavors. More lemon, more blueberry.
01:13:56All right. Chef Chris, thank you.
01:14:00It's nerve-wracking.
01:14:02I really just hope to stay at eighth place or move up in the leaderboard.
01:14:06This dessert I made for you today is a key lime pie with homemade graham cracker crust, a key lime
01:14:10filling, and torched meringue.
01:14:12I do look at the meringue and see it to be a bit weepy for me.
01:14:23I very much enjoyed the buttery richness of the crust. The weepy meringue kind of smothered everything else on the
01:14:32plate.
01:14:32I understand that this meringue isn't correct for a key lime pie. I actually kind of like it. I enjoy
01:14:40the density of it.
01:14:41But I also think that your curd on the inside is also a little bit more dense. And I think
01:14:46they go together.
01:14:47Thank you, judges.
01:14:48All right. Let's welcome Chef Arletti.
01:14:51I'm still on the bottom four out of the 12. So it's just like, oh my God, I need to
01:14:56deliver it. So this is me on a tart.
01:15:00I think it's a little messy.
01:15:03The top on the inside where the fruit is, it looks really wet.
01:15:09According to the leaderboard right now, you're fourth from the bottom.
01:15:12Yes.
01:15:13We are going to be eliminating two people from this.
01:15:16I would suggest looks-wise, I don't know how well you're going to score with presentation.
01:15:22Oh.
01:15:27I hope I don't disappoint the judges on the flavor.
01:15:29On the bottom, you have a crunchy sablee, then followed by a passion fruit cremeux to balance that out with
01:15:39mangoes and then the whipped ganache.
01:15:42Your sablee is very sandy. It's nice. I am getting that passion fruit. I'm getting that mango, too. I love
01:15:50mangoes. This mango is not ready.
01:15:52To a tropical girl, it's not the mangoes that I would have preferred, but I had already committed to the
01:15:57dessert halfway through.
01:15:59As soon as I started peeling that mango, I would have been like, nope. I would have gone and found
01:16:03something else.
01:16:05They are not holding back.
01:16:06They are getting every little thing.
01:16:09I am very, very nervous.
01:16:11It's a really great conceptual idea. It's technically just missing the mark.
01:16:18That's it.
01:16:18Chef Arletti, thank you so much.
01:16:21I'm truly disappointed.
01:16:23I'm sure they're going to tell me to go home by this point. I'm like, uh...
01:16:31All right, let's welcome Chef Aurelia.
01:16:38This is a caramelized apple, Charlotte.
01:16:42It is filled with vanilla mousseline cream, roasted apples, and a biscuit surrounding it.
01:16:49Oh, wow.
01:16:52Your presentation is very grand.
01:16:56Execution, high marks.
01:16:58Technically, not an easy thing to do.
01:17:01I love apples.
01:17:02And I love these apples.
01:17:04Your cake is really, really tender, really soft.
01:17:08It's beautiful.
01:17:09But I think flavor, I probably could have used a little something.
01:17:12Just looking for a little more razzmatazz, you know?
01:17:17Thank you, Chef.
01:17:17Thank you, Chef.
01:17:20All my nerves are here.
01:17:25Okay.
01:17:29I have to get some more points to, like, get out of the bottom, you know? I don't want to
01:17:33be sent home.
01:17:34I enjoy the celebration and the vividness of all the colors. Thank you.
01:17:39All right, let's give it a taste whenever you're ready, Chef.
01:17:45This is a Bananas Foster brown butter torte.
01:17:49Your cake is beautiful. It's rich.
01:17:52What's the cream?
01:17:53It's a buttercream.
01:17:56I have found a new way of making buttercream.
01:17:59This is too stiff. I wanted something a little more luscious.
01:18:04I don't follow the rules.
01:18:06That's me, it's what I do, so I wanted to show you that.
01:18:08Rochelle, I love that you break the rules.
01:18:10When you do, and it's executed well, you knock it out of the park.
01:18:16For me, this lacks that next level of flavor to elevate your idea.
01:18:22They are being very critical.
01:18:24Yeah.
01:18:25All right, Rochelle, thank you.
01:18:29How do you feel?
01:18:37Last place is not the place I want to be in, especially because I'm not 100% sure if I'm
01:18:42going to get enough points.
01:18:43I made a s'mores roulotte.
01:18:46I have a milk chocolate ganache with graham cracker clusters and a roasted marshmallow on top.
01:18:53The outside of it, I see all that beautiful burnt stuff and it looks great.
01:18:58But then right underneath it, raw cake.
01:19:01The red caps on the mushrooms are perfect.
01:19:04This doesn't look bad, but it could look a lot better.
01:19:19Your chocolate cake is very rich.
01:19:21It's not really blending in with that ganache that you have in there.
01:19:25Match that with the marshmallow.
01:19:28It's not yielding.
01:19:29It doesn't break.
01:19:31This dessert is, it's relentless.
01:19:33There's no goo.
01:19:35There's nothing to sort of, you know, ease it up a little bit.
01:19:38This is rough.
01:19:39This is hard to wash.
01:19:40Yeah, it's hard.
01:19:41I mean, this is a good cake, but you'd need just a little bit more liquid to kind of help
01:19:47keep things moving.
01:19:48Lube, if you will.
01:19:50A little cake lube.
01:19:52I'm nervous.
01:19:54Now the question is, how does it hold against everybody else's?
01:19:59Who are you?
01:20:00Not good.
01:20:03All right, first master challenge in the books.
01:20:05It's time to input your scores.
01:20:07Please take into consideration flavor, execution, and technical difficulty.
01:20:12You've each got 15 points to award, so 30 points on the line for each of these chefs.
01:20:27Chefs, the 12 of you have worked so hard to get to this point, but only the top 10 will
01:20:32continue on in this competition.
01:20:36Let's start by revealing the chef with the highest overall score for the day.
01:20:47Molly.
01:20:48Molly.
01:20:51Molly, the look of your raspberry pistachio ghetto was the polar opposite of reckless.
01:20:58This time we got Daredevil Molly in the bold flavors.
01:21:02Well done.
01:21:04Oh my gosh, it feels really awesome.
01:21:07So let's see who else will be joining you.
01:21:10If your name is on the board, you've made it through.
01:21:17That's Clement, Florencia, Juan, Robert, Chris, Aurelia, Casey, and Rochelle.
01:21:27Molly and Clement, you were top two in the skills challenge.
01:21:31You also nabbed the top two in the master challenge too.
01:21:35Congratulations.
01:21:37That, of course, means Julian, Adalberto, and Arletti, only one of you will continue on in this competition.
01:21:44Please step forward.
01:21:47I'm feeling very nervous.
01:21:53Let's run through your scores to find out who will stay and who will go.
01:22:13Adalberto, you will live to bake another day.
01:22:17Congratulations.
01:22:19That was tough, but I'm grateful that I get to stay.
01:22:27Thank you, Chef.
01:22:29I'll meet you, bro.
01:22:32Julian, Arletti, Duff and I were very moved by your personal stories, but both of your desserts need a little
01:22:38more refinement.
01:22:39I'm very sorry.
01:22:40Please say your goodbyes and exit the kitchen.
01:22:44Definitely not happy that I see these two great people going home.
01:22:51That's a lot for one, one episode.
01:22:54The 10 of you have earned the right to return to this kitchen.
01:22:58Is it?
01:22:59And continue your quest to become the ultimate baking champion.
01:23:04Good work this time, and good luck next time.
01:23:07I am so grateful to be able to keep telling my story.
01:23:14Oh my God, what a rollercoaster team, huh?
01:23:21This season on the Ultimate Baking Championship.
01:23:25The way that this was imagined and executed is near flawless.
01:23:29No baking skill will go unchallenged.
01:23:32Feels like a pastry olympic.
01:23:34We're going to test your command of every skill required of a baking master.
01:23:38Today, it is all about chocolate.
01:23:39You have really brought, that's elegant.
01:23:42The chefs have a daunting task.
01:23:44Sugar show pieces.
01:23:46It's getting crazy.
01:23:47It's all about mastering modern techniques.
01:23:50I brought in my best friend, liquid nitrogen.
01:23:52Oh my God.
01:23:53Show us your mastery of dough.
01:23:55This challenge is for me.
01:23:56Look at this pastry.
01:23:58This is so good.
01:24:00I have faith in us.
01:24:01Just sweating bullets.
01:24:02You've come here to test yourselves and all of your skills and put those on the line.
01:24:06My stomach just dropped.
01:24:07Yep.
01:24:08But only one of you is going to leave here today with a brand new title.
01:24:12Ultimate Baking Champion.