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00:02I'm Padma Lakshmi and we've scoured the nation to bring together the most elite chefs and the
00:09most renowned judges into the ultimate culinary battleground. This is a test of our 10 culinary
00:16commandments. Master them and you win $1 million. Brought to you by our official cleanup partners,
00:24Don Powerwash.
00:30Last time on America's Culinary Cup. Today's culinary commandment, vegetables. I'm like not in a good place. I just underestimated
00:39time. Holy . The only vegetable on this dish is broccoli. Yes. Well done. My dessert has to be perfect.
00:46The individual components weren't saying pay attention to me. I'm sorry, Emily. You've served your final dish. Oh man, I'm
00:54relieved. Oh my God. It was freaking close.
01:08Here we go. Here we go. That floor. Oh. Oh. Oh. Beautiful. This is very cool.
01:17What happened to this place? It is not the kitchen that I left last week. Wait, peacocks. This is gorgeous.
01:27On my right, it looks like a wedding. It's flowers and gentleness and purity. And then I look to the
01:35left. It's kind of creepy over here. Oh, black roses. There's black crows, skulls with a snake coming out. Oh,
01:42I don't know why. I don't want to be on the side.
01:44I don't want to be on the side. I don't want to be on the side. I don't want to
01:45be on the side. I'm getting angry. I definitely want to know what's under the gold dome. That's forbidden. Don't
01:50touch it.
01:57Oh. Uh-oh. Oh, ho, ho, ho. Oh. Oh, ho, ho.
02:04Uh-oh. Oh, ho, ho, ho. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. Oh, ho, ho. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
02:06Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. Ho. Well, well, well. Well. You've made it for another glorious evening
02:16makes me sick. What is happening now? What is happening now?
02:21She's kind of, like, mean today.
02:24Behold, my garden of good and evil, where anything can happen.
02:31Your commandment today is...
02:37Desserts.
02:38Oh, God, again. I made dessert last week, and it did not go so well.
02:43Be gone with you.
02:47Chefs, we all know that no great meal is complete without a great dessert.
02:51We expect you to create desserts that are technically sound, well-executed, and most of all, delicious.
02:58I love a good execution.
03:02I love this Padma. I'm scared of her, but I'm also, like, in awe of her.
03:07To make great desserts, you have to be a scientist, an artist, and a storyteller all at once.
03:13Today, you'll be tasked with not one, but two desserts.
03:19Wow.
03:20Inspired by our whimsical garden of good and evil.
03:24So one dessert will be good, and one dessert will be evil.
03:31Speaking of evil, I'm feeling a little extra evil this evening.
03:37And I'm wondering who you think is most likely to win this competition, and who is least likely.
03:49So I want each of you, alone, to head to my garden confessional and cast your votes.
03:57Told you I was feeling a little evil.
03:59Well, now you, my pretty, go off there first and go cast your vote.
04:04It's not personal, I promise.
04:07It's not a popularity contest, but it kind of feels like that for a moment.
04:11It's easy to vote someone to the top, because that is an expression of confidence.
04:17Beverly.
04:18Beverly.
04:19But having to vote someone on the bottom, the last thing I want to do is hurt someone's feelings.
04:24I don't want to do this.
04:25Also, I don't quite know what's going to happen.
04:30Deanna.
04:32I definitely think when everybody thinks you're going to win, you end up forming a target on your back.
04:40I'm not loving this.
04:42Padma's definitely leaning into her evil character, because this is far from fun for any of us.
04:50Chris.
04:51Least likely to win.
04:53Beverly.
04:54Most likely to win.
04:58At this point, if you were to put money anywhere, Buddha's the most likely to win.
05:02He's not who I hope to win.
05:08That was hard.
05:10Sorry.
05:10All the votes are in.
05:13And now, the results.
05:18The chef voted most likely to win America's Culinary Cup is...
05:31Beverly.
05:42My whole life, I've been fighting to get recognition, and it's been really emotional for me.
05:52I'm just not the kind of girl that people believed in.
05:57Well, we believe in you.
05:58Yeah, we do believe in you.
06:01That means a lot to me.
06:03I've always been an underdog.
06:07Watching Beverly next to me cry and say that she's an underdog, well, it sounds like you're
06:12the biggest threat.
06:13I am doing the best dishes I've ever done, and I'm getting nowhere.
06:16It feels like I'm the underdog.
06:19And now, let's find out who was voted least likely to win America's Culinary Cup.
06:27Behold!
06:37Doesn't feel good.
06:41Chris Morgan?
06:43Apparently.
06:44How are you feeling, Chris?
06:46It's disappointing, but I've been on the bottom a couple times.
06:49I love a good bottom.
06:53Come to me.
06:55I'm just nervous.
06:56I have no idea what this means.
06:58Either I'm going home, or I'm at a disadvantage.
07:01In this challenge, your evil desserts must each include one of our forbidden ingredients,
07:12something you typically wouldn't put into a dessert.
07:19We have blue cheese, pickles, dandelion greens, mustard seeds, anchovies, my favorite, coarse radish,
07:31cured black olives, and, of course, sriracha.
07:37I wouldn't want to be one of you guys right now.
07:40The things that I definitely don't want would be pickles, blue cheese.
07:45I just hope I don't get dandelion greens.
07:48Hot sauce is a condiment.
07:49I don't use condiments in my cooking.
07:50Chris wants to get revenge.
07:54Maybe a tidbit.
07:56Since all the chefs did you dirty, voting you least likely,
07:59now's your chance.
08:02Okay.
08:04You must assign one of these ingredients to one of the chefs.
08:11Frugal.
08:12Remember, Chris, you have to cook with one of them yourself.
08:17What the ?
08:18Is it too late?
08:19Can we re-vote?
08:20I'll take the bottom.
08:22Chris is assigning pickles to Beverly.
08:24Blue cheese.
08:27Bacara.
08:30It's rough.
08:31Dandelion greens.
08:33Katie.
08:34Oh, God.
08:37Horseradish.
08:39O'Keefe.
08:40Yeah, I don't know what the hell to do with that.
08:44Diana has mustard seeds, cured black olives for Buddha, and sriracha for you, Matt.
08:52You gave yourself anchovies.
08:54I did, yeah.
08:56Just see if he's got a fever.
08:57Don't get too close to me.
08:59I think I have an immediate direction for those that I think would work, so.
09:04I love a man with a plan.
09:06Be gone with you, mere mortal.
09:07All right, all of you have your forbidden ingredients.
09:12You'll have six hours to create your desserts.
09:17Chefs, please head to your cauldrons.
09:25Cara, your time starts now.
09:31It's weird.
09:33Ha, ha.
09:38Going into this challenge, I feel like I have something to prove.
09:42I may be voted most likely to lose, but it lit a fire under my ass, you know?
09:47If everybody here thinks I'm going to go home, I'm going to prove them wrong.
09:51Chris, what's going on with all those pots, baby?
09:53Ice cream, syrups, lots of stuff.
09:56Lots of stuff, heard.
09:57Lots of stuff.
09:58Keith's a machine.
09:59He cooks with such confidence, and we've quickly formed a bond here.
10:06Let's get it, chef.
10:11I've done desserts.
10:12I just don't do it on a regular, so I'm just not 100% confident.
10:16Let's go.
10:17Let's get this one over with.
10:18Yeah.
10:23Pickles are great.
10:26I grew up on pickles.
10:27I grew up on kimchi.
10:29Every single day of my life, I had pickles in front of me.
10:33First thing I'm going to do is my evil dessert, and I'm going to make pickle granita right away.
10:37Two pounds.
10:39With potato chip panna cotta.
10:42It's potatoes, pickles, and dill.
10:46Potato chips are a forbidden food in my family.
10:48My kids, they'll just eat the whole bag.
10:50They sneak it in, though, at school.
10:57Six hours to make two desserts.
11:00Sounds like it's a lot of time, but it's going to take me a long time to execute the things
11:05that I want to execute.
11:08Here's some more cherry puree.
11:14The first thing I think of with blue cheese is a classic French dessert.
11:18It's called milfeuille.
11:20It's layers of puff pastry on layers of puff pastry mixed with pastry cream.
11:24The blue cheese would lend itself well, because it will be sweet, but not too sweet.
11:27That looks good.
11:29What is that?
11:30It's pastry cream.
11:30I got blue cheese, and, yeah, so I'm trying to think of, I'm making puff.
11:37You're making puff pastry?
11:38Puff pastry takes a tremendous amount of time and energy and precision to do correctly.
11:43You know there's puff pastry in the pantry.
11:47I know. I can't do that.
11:48It's a pastry challenge.
11:49It's a pastry challenge.
11:50I appreciate your ambition.
11:51All right, we'll leave you alone.
11:53Good luck, Karen.
11:54Good luck.
11:54Yeah, good luck.
11:55Are you making puff pastry?
11:56Yeah.
11:57I'm jumping off the deep end.
11:58What do you think about pulling off a real puff pastry in six hours?
12:02I think that's ballsy and...
12:03It's high risk, high reward.
12:06We've been encouraging them to take risk and take chances, but...
12:08I don't know if I would take that on.
12:10What am I doing?
12:12What am I doing?
12:25It's a dessert challenge.
12:27We have to make one dessert good, one dessert evil.
12:30What do we got here?
12:31A white chocolate mousse for heaven, and then for dessert for hell, I was going to play on,
12:38like, a Baba El Rum.
12:39I'm going to bring the heat with the liquor and the horseradish.
12:42How is your dessert, Genki?
12:43Strong, would you say?
12:45We're going to all learn together.
12:46That's right.
12:47Because I can tell you, everything I'm doing right now, I have not done before.
12:52Oh.
12:52Okay.
12:53That is very risky.
12:54Yes.
12:55I told you to take risks, so there you go.
12:57Good luck.
13:04This challenge is hard because you're trying to incorporate flavor that most people would
13:08not associate with dessert.
13:10Everyone in this room thinks I'm absolutely out of my mind because I pick anchovies, but
13:15I really like my approach.
13:16I'm going to puree fish sauce with anchovies, strain it out, add that into my caramel.
13:21I'm going to get anchovies in the caramel.
13:23First time ever doing that.
13:25There is fish head.
13:26A fish head.
13:27I know I'm a little crazy, but you guys figured that out already.
13:30Yeah.
13:30Were you stabbed in the heart when you found out everyone thought you would be the least
13:34likely?
13:35Yeah, I felt terrible.
13:36Better to be underestimated and over-delivered.
13:38Yeah, because if I go home after this, it's like, okay, well, they were right.
13:41You're the one with the Michelin stars.
13:43Show them how it's done.
13:45I'll try my best.
13:50I'm doing a Black Forest inspired evil dessert with black olives.
13:54Chris gives me cured black olives.
13:56They're quite salty.
13:57I soak them in water.
13:58I rinse them out about five times to get all that salt out.
14:01I'm just canning my olives, similar to like a praline.
14:05Buddha, your wife teach you everything you know?
14:06Yeah, pretty much.
14:08I'm not afraid to say that.
14:10My wife is actually a fully qualified chef.
14:13She was the pastry sous chef at Lev Manson Park for five years.
14:17My wife did not like me at the start.
14:20She thought I was cocky.
14:21Then you just find out that my cockiness is not being cocky.
14:24It's actually someone who's just deeply passionate about their craft.
14:27My wife's the best thing that's ever happened to me.
14:31Without her, I don't get my two little angels.
14:34When we're around, you'll share more than just food.
14:37Me and Rebecca have not had a proper wedding.
14:40We got married on our day off from work.
14:43You can't really fit that shoe, but you can try, my love.
14:46She's doing it.
14:47It would be lovely to be having a wedding with all of our family together.
14:52So a million dollars would definitely help out a lot.
14:57Matt, you remember that time you trained for the Baku store and you used sriracha for that?
15:02How did it go for you?
15:03It won me gold.
15:04You're in trouble, Buddha.
15:06I'm a little inspired by our black candles.
15:08For my evil dessert, I'm going to mimic these black candles.
15:12It's a dark chocolate candlestick with mango ice cream flame.
15:16And I'm going to add the sriracha in with some of the mango.
15:20How are you feeling?
15:23I'm doing, I feel like I'm taking one step at a time.
15:27All right.
15:29For my evil dessert, I'm making a dobladita de chocolate.
15:34Doblad is to bend.
15:35So dobladita is a fold over.
15:38The inspiration behind the dobladas is the dish where my family's from in Mexico.
15:45Enchiladas Potosina.
15:46And it's a chocolate masa tortilla stuffed with chocolate cookie crumble and passion fruit pickled mustard seed salsa.
15:54And then you fold it over and sear it.
15:57It's a lot.
15:58Time is never my friend.
16:00Last week, I know I didn't have a good cook.
16:03Today is a new day.
16:04Let's start moving forward.
16:06Where did the time go?
16:12This is definitely my nemesis.
16:15For my evil dessert, Chris gives me dandelion greens.
16:19Definitely evil.
16:22I've decided to make this chocolate passion fruit custard and shape it like a snake with candied dandelion greens.
16:31Like a snake in the garden.
16:33But after I've blanched the dandelion greens, they're still so bitter.
16:40Blanche.
16:40Shock.
16:41Taste.
16:42Still super bitter.
16:43Blanche.
16:43Shock.
16:44Taste.
16:44Still super bitter.
16:45Nope.
16:45I'm afraid this evil ingredient is going to cost me a million dollars.
16:50They are bitter.
16:58Thinking outside the box.
16:59For my good dessert, I had to be opposite of the evil dessert.
17:02I've never actually baked this cake fresh.
17:05I think that's a nice touch.
17:07I'm going to make a black sesame tea cake.
17:11It's so warm.
17:12It kind of gives you the same satisfaction of like a warm brownie, but like with black sesame.
17:16Oh no, that's flour.
17:18What am I doing?
17:19I did get voted the most likely to win this competition.
17:22I don't know how to handle this attention right now.
17:25Do I rise to it?
17:26I feel like so much pressure.
17:28This work is focused.
17:34Chefs, it looks like you have things pretty much under control in here.
17:39The three of us are going to go to the airport to pick up our guest judge.
17:44Take care.
17:47I'm wondering who the guest judge is.
17:50My mind starts spinning.
17:51I'm definitely a little nervous as to who I'm going to be cooking for.
18:03Right now, I'm weighing out black sesame paste.
18:05I'm going to fill these dumplings with them.
18:08My good dessert is a Chinese mochi soup dumpling.
18:11It's still a dessert, but it's something that's like good for you.
18:14Keith, you ever made this dessert before?
18:15Never made it before.
18:16I love that, chap.
18:20When I cool down my syrup, I taste it and there's no horseradish.
18:24You want horseradish?
18:26Damn.
18:26If there's no horseradish, I'm definitely going home.
18:28Sometimes you got to go for it, right?
18:30Yeah, I'm like, I'm in trouble.
18:32Ugh.
18:42I cooked all the horseradish flavor out, refining the syrup, the horseradish gone.
18:49And so I've shaved the horseradish in there off heat and let it steep like tea.
18:57Yes.
18:59That was it.
19:00Now you got your horseradish syrup.
19:03Ooh.
19:05I'm worried about my dandelion greens.
19:08They are so bitter.
19:10That's better.
19:11A hint of bitter instead of a kick in your face of bitter.
19:15That's better.
19:16Okay.
19:16Now it's time to quickly blanch them in simple syrup and lay them out on the dehydrator trays.
19:21Hey, Katie, how you doing over there?
19:23I'm doing good.
19:25Oh, this is tedious.
19:35Chefs, I'd like to introduce you to Nina Metier, voted the world's best pastry chef.
19:44Not one, but two years in a row.
19:47Welcome.
19:49I'm very happy to try your creation.
19:53For my evil dessert, I'm making a classic French pastry.
19:56No pressure.
19:58All right, should we go to the dining room?
20:00Yes.
20:06Time is almost out.
20:07My puff pastry better be the way I want them to turn out.
20:09There will be no opportunity to make a second puff.
20:17Perfect.
20:17The layers are there, but any time you're serving someone a food that they're known for making, you have to
20:25be nervous.
20:29I love this.
20:34Hi, Kara.
20:35Look at that.
20:36My good dessert is tangyuan.
20:38It's made with chrysanthemum chi, and it's rice mochi filled with black sesame, which is this typical New Year's dumpling.
20:45My evil dessert is a blue cheese milfoy, and it's evil because it is decadent and rich.
20:55To make puff pastry, I know it's a lot of work, and you made it very well, so congratulations for
21:04that.
21:04And the blue cheese is very nice.
21:07I love it.
21:08The fact that you made puff pastry from scratch in six hours, that alone is something we'll be talking about
21:14throughout the competition.
21:15No complaints.
21:16Really good.
21:17Kara, if this dessert is evil, I don't want to be good because I really, I loved it.
21:22I like that you had the confidence just to put a few chunks of blue cheese in that pastry cream.
21:28Your good dessert, I love the dumpling.
21:30I love that filling and the way it meets with the mochi.
21:32I think it's delicious.
21:34Just for me, it could be ever so slightly sweeter.
21:37It's really refreshing, and I think it tells a wonderful story.
21:41For me, your dumplings were really nice, but the filling is sort of gritty, dense, black sesame.
21:49So I think to break up that denseness, maybe just a little sweeter inside.
21:55Thank you, Kara.
21:56Merci beaucoup.
21:57Well done.
21:58These two desserts kind of are the two sides of Kara, as we're coming to learn.
22:03She's got clearly like a mastery of Chinese cuisine, but then here she proves that she's got very rigorous French
22:09training somewhere in her background.
22:11All right, let's score Kara.
22:17Keith, you want a little bit of rum?
22:19Take the edge off.
22:21For my good dessert, I'm making rum cake, leaning into like my love of Jamaica and the Caribbean.
22:27My aunt is Jamaican.
22:29She introduced me to Caribbean food at a very young age.
22:32You like cheese, bubby?
22:33And my wife's Jamaican Chinese.
22:35I don't know, it feels different when you're cooking a cuisine that you have like a personal attachment to.
22:40If I win this million dollars, first thing I'm doing is flying to Jamaica with my wife and daughters immediately.
22:46Rum cake.
22:47You like it?
22:48I love it.
22:49I'm making that for 10 years.
22:51It's my jam.
22:56All the components are good to me, but I won't know if the techniques were executed properly until I put
23:04it before the judges.
23:05Cakes are too big.
23:08Should have been smaller pieces.
23:09I've never made these things before.
23:12You just never know.
23:20Hi, Keith.
23:21Hello.
23:22Tell us what you made.
23:23My dishes are called Heaven and Hell.
23:25For my good dessert, I made a white chocolate mousse with an almond crumble, basil and mint granita, and a
23:32citrus gel.
23:33Kind of playing off the colors you have today.
23:35White for your angels.
23:37Red.
23:38I don't want to call you the devil.
23:40Oh, you can call me a devil any day.
23:43And then my evil dessert, I did a baba rum cake with a horseradish lava.
24:18It's very difficult to have a baba.
24:18It's a very good idea, but I just need it a little bit more together.
24:21Okay.
24:22I agree with the chef.
24:23The problem with this dessert is the way it's been assembled.
24:25Had you put it in a bowl, it would have been much easier to get all of those flavors in
24:29one bite.
24:30Keith, you called it a mousse, but texturally as a mousse, I would want it a little bit airier, a
24:35little bit lighter.
24:35Thank you so much, Keith.
24:38Oh, just never know.
24:39And so I've stopped walking out of that room confident a long time ago.
24:44Let's go with Keith.
24:50This is going to mimic a little bit of the garden going on over there.
24:53For the good dessert, I'm making a yuzu curd, you know, being shortbread cookie that it's going to sit underneath
24:59the curd,
25:00stuffed with raspberries, and coated in white chocolate tops with tuile.
25:04So the idea is to have this kind of whimsical branches coming up from the dome.
25:10They get hardbaked just to be able to kind of, like, drip over the mold.
25:17These are breaking apart.
25:19I mean, they're fragile.
25:20Time's running out.
25:21I do another one.
25:22And then by the time I'm trying to transfer them, they're breaking apart again.
25:27The smallest error one, something that's very delicate and detail-oriented,
25:31could get me eliminated from the competition.
25:34But I was like, screw it.
25:35I need to get something out now.
25:36I need to get something out now.
25:55Jeez.
25:58Slid right out.
26:01Yeah, but listen, I saved a whole stack of plates.
26:06I can show all my service staff and be like, see how easy it is to fall down and still
26:10not break the plate?
26:12It's like I got hit by a linebacker.
26:25Lovely.
26:28Wow.
26:30I had fun with this one.
26:31Dark is usually with evil.
26:33Light is usually with good.
26:35So I really wanted to play off of those two tones.
26:38My good dessert is a yuzu curd with raspberries and a vanilla shortbread.
26:44And then my evil dessert is a dark chocolate sponge with mango ice cream.
26:50How beautiful.
26:51Is this a candle?
26:52I was inspired by everything that was on the floor today.
26:54So immediately I saw the black candles and I'm like, this is going to be a lot of fun with
26:59the dark chocolate.
27:00And then the sriracha and that spice was the secret ingredient here in the flame of the candle.
27:05I love the idea of the burning black candle.
27:09But I'm sorry you didn't put sriracha in the chocolate.
27:13That being said, I loved the ice cream.
27:15I thought the texture of the ice cream was great.
27:16The chocolate ganache and biscuits with cocoa, it's just a little bit too heavy.
27:22I would prefer like a ganache montée or something more light.
27:27The good dessert I thought was really good.
27:30I love yuzu.
27:32I love raspberry.
27:32I love lemon.
27:33I like the raspberry jelly that you put inside.
27:35And I like the little hints of meringue that you had on the outside too.
27:38Your sable is very good texture.
27:40But for me, the white chocolate is too much.
27:42Matt, I think both of your desserts are visually really stunning and you're cooking at a very high level.
27:50Thank you, Matt.
27:51Well done, chef.
27:52Good work.
27:53Good score, Matt.
27:56In the molcajete, I have here my rose petals.
28:00I'm making a mole de rosas.
28:02With Mexican food, one of my favorite desserts is a sweet tamal.
28:08I love horchata, so for my good dessert, I'm also making a horchata pudding.
28:15Please set.
28:17In this competition, I overthink everything.
28:20And all of a sudden, I realize that I am so not in a good place.
28:25One hour?
28:26One hour.
28:36What do you think?
28:38Looks good.
28:40Chris got to choose the forbidden ingredients that every other chef would use, and he took
28:46anchovies.
28:47Whoa.
28:48Hello.
28:49Hello.
28:50Hello.
28:50Tell us what you made.
28:52So for my evil dessert, I made Paradise Lost.
28:54The green pandan ice cream is supposed to represent the good, and then the anchovy fish sauce
28:59caramel underneath is kind of swallowing it up.
29:01And then I made a black sesame shortbread cookie with a little crumble underneath to
29:05represent fire and brimstone.
29:07And then my good dessert is Paradise Found.
29:10I'm my most happiest.
29:11I'm at the beach, and specifically in Jamaica.
29:13So it's passion fruit ice cream, passion fruit meringue, and then you have caramelized
29:17plantains and rum cake.
29:19Your good dessert was really good.
29:24The different crunchy bits and the creamy bits and the caramelized bits.
29:27It was great.
29:28I really love the cake.
29:29I really love the ice cream and the crumble, and I really love the plantain.
29:33But I miss the plantain in the other part of the dessert, because I like all this preparation,
29:39but it looks like three different desserts.
29:41Let's talk about your other dessert.
29:43We have all struggled with why on earth you picked anchovies.
29:49But 100% you sold me this caramel.
29:51This caramel was really delicious.
29:53Thank you, chef.
29:54I really love the burning on top.
29:57It made me in childhood when I was cooking the marshmallow.
30:01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:02I thought your caramel was really delicious.
30:05I really enjoyed it.
30:06Thank you, chef.
30:06But I did think you were crazy for picking anchovies, and I'm sticking by that.
30:10Thank you, Chris.
30:11Thank you, Chris.
30:12Thank you, chefs.
30:13Okay, let's score, Chris.
30:30Damn.
30:30Whoa.
30:32You're doing a lot.
30:34America's Culinary Cup.
30:36Ain't no joke.
30:37So right in front of you is the evil dessert.
30:39Black cherry, dark chocolate cake, black cherry sorbet.
30:42It's inspired by walking into a black forest.
30:44The butterfly is going into that evil, but as you go into it, it gets very dark, very rich.
30:50Like, it swallows you into the swamp.
30:53The forbidden ingredient is black olives.
30:55To go on the side, a black olive filled with black olive caramel.
30:59You delivered a great flavor of oil-cured olive without it being too strong.
31:03I liked it very much.
31:05I really love these olives.
31:09The only thing, I would like a little bit more freshness inside, maybe a little bit
31:14more sorbet.
31:15I almost wish you had just given me this, because this was fantastic.
31:18Okay, I'll just take this away.
31:24You didn't even need all this.
31:26That one little bite was supplied.
31:29Okay.
31:30For my good dessert, I made what I imagined heaven to be, and that's going home.
31:34I grew up in Port Douglas.
31:36It's a very tropical town by the beach.
31:39It's variations of tropical fruit with white chocolate and coconut sorbet.
31:42Buddha, how many people did you have helping you make all this?
31:44I had about five people from production, and then...
31:47The florist.
31:48Yeah, the florist.
31:49Your good dessert, it's so beautiful.
31:52Inside all the small bowl, it's so nice, so amazing, with a lot of flavor.
31:57But the outside, maybe it was a good choice for the presentation, but maybe not the good choice
32:02for the taste.
32:03I would like to have the citrus flavor in the mouth now.
32:07I think you told your story well.
32:09All these beautiful tropical flavors.
32:11I felt the beach.
32:13This is probably your best dish I've seen from you in this competition.
32:18Well done, Buddha.
32:19Thank you, Chef.
32:20I mean, that should have been like his mic drop.
32:23He's an overachiever.
32:24Mm-hmm.
32:25Best score, Buddha.
32:31Wow.
32:32Whoa.
32:32Look at that.
32:33In the bowl, you have your good as wholesome as pie.
32:39How nice to have an old-fashioned pie.
32:42It's a liquid hazelnut tart with cherry sorbet.
32:46And what's the reduction that kind of circles the plate?
32:49Pedro Jimenez.
32:49And why is this very beautiful dessert evil?
32:53It's a serpent in the garden.
32:55A white chocolate passion fruit custard.
32:58I really think like the curveball that Chris gave you in the form of these dandelion greens
33:03are one of my favorite parts of this dish.
33:05Oh, well, great.
33:06You tamed the bitterness and turned them into something that is so enjoyable,
33:10I wish you'd given me more.
33:12Okay, yes.
33:13I never tried a liquid tart and I really loved it.
33:16The only thing, this is not cooked enough.
33:19I love the fact that he brought together like three of my favorite things.
33:22Pedro Jimenez, sherry, cherries, and hazelnuts.
33:25Thank you, Katie.
33:27Thank you very much, Chef.
33:29Michael, I really thought you were going to say
33:31some of your three favorite things are Padma, Nina, and I.
33:36I'm kind of disappointed.
33:39Wow.
33:41I recommend starting with the evil dish.
33:44This one?
33:44No, it's the white one.
33:46Oh, yay.
33:47Okay.
33:47The evil is the sour pickle granita with potato chip panna cotta,
33:54dill oil, and potato chip tuiles
33:57dusted with dill powder.
33:58In my household, potato chips are forbidden.
34:01Why?
34:02It's just bad for you.
34:03So that's why it's evil.
34:05The good is the black sesame tea cake with the black sesame ice cream,
34:09Asian pear and calamansi jam, and fresh Asian pear.
34:12Also, black sesame is supposed to be really good for you as opposed to potato chips, so that's
34:17a good thing.
34:18You know, when both these desserts came to our table, it was very easy to assume that the
34:23black sesame dessert was the evil.
34:26But I love that you flipped them.
34:28Are these actually fried potatoes?
34:30Because this is a tuile.
34:31Yeah.
34:32You need to put that in a bag and sell it.
34:34Okay.
34:35I love it.
34:36Yeah.
34:36Oh, wow.
34:37You used your forbidden ingredient to great effect.
34:40I thought it was delicious.
34:41I love the crunch of the potato chips.
34:43The dill sour pickles really came through.
34:46If there's anybody at this table that can appreciate bad ideas that really work out well,
34:54I'm your guy.
34:55Okay.
34:56It's fun.
34:57It's whimsical.
34:59This is just great, great stuff.
35:02For your good desserts, I love these fluffy biscuits.
35:06It's amazing.
35:07Maybe one of the best cakes we've had today, but as much as I love Asian pear, I am not
35:12a fan of the skin of an Asian pear.
35:14Okay.
35:14I understand what Wiley's saying, much as I hate to admit it, but I think every element
35:19was so necessary on this plate.
35:22Thank you, Beverly.
35:23Great job.
35:25It's a pleasure.
35:25Well done, chef.
35:28Wow.
35:29All right.
35:30Let's score.
35:4020 seconds.
35:41Oh, f***.
35:42Oh, my God.
35:43Like, time is running out, and I still didn't have my evil dessert on a plate.
35:48Oh, f***.
35:49I'm not going to make it.
35:50I'm out of time.
36:02One, two, three, two, one.
36:07I'm done.
36:08I didn't finish.
36:10I did not plate my evil dessert, which was the forbidden ingredient, the mustard seeds.
36:18I feel like vomiting.
36:19Oh, my God.
36:23Is something else coming?
36:29Tell us what you made.
36:31For my good dessert, I made a tamal dulce with muddled mole of rose petals with a little
36:39whipped horchata.
36:40And what happened to your evil dessert?
36:44I just didn't finish it on time.
36:46I couldn't, didn't plate it.
36:49Well, let's talk about the dish that we do have.
36:52It doesn't matter what the challenge is.
36:53You find a way to express your culture and the flavors that are most dear to you.
36:58The horchata cream that you made is absolutely delicious, but it's very easy to go a bit too
37:03bar with the flavor of rose.
37:05And for me, unfortunately, I think in this dessert, you've done that.
37:09I love Mexico.
37:10I lived there for one year, and you bring me all the flavor I love from Mexico.
37:16For me, the mole, it's very balanced.
37:19Every time you give us ingredients that I'm totally familiar with, but you could deliver
37:23them to me in a way that I've never had before, and that's the sign of a great chef.
37:27And when I say this last thing, I mean it as the highest compliment.
37:30This is like the best Twinkie I ever had.
37:34You could see that, yeah.
37:35It was like the cream, the cake, the shape was fantastic.
37:39Horchata is one of my favorite drinks, and I love how you got it on the plate in that cream.
37:44But I'm sorry I didn't get to taste your evil dessert.
37:47Yeah.
37:48Thank you so much.
37:49Thank you so much.
37:50Thank you, Diana.
37:52All right, let's score.
37:55It's sad, but it is what it is.
37:57I'm proud of my dish.
37:58They definitely liked it, but I only did one dish.
38:02Oh, I don't know how it's going to be received, lined up to other dishes and what they're making.
38:08Like, I have no idea.
38:09If you want to just chill, I can just leave you alone.
38:20Today's commandment was our sweetest one yet.
38:23It was surprising.
38:24It was full of emotion, and I was very impressed of your work.
38:30High praise from the world's best pastry chef.
38:33And although I wish I could be good to all of you, the bottom line is the chef with the
38:38lowest score will be going home.
38:43If you see your name on this scoreboard, that means you're safe and we'll be moving on in the competition.
38:51Let's see the top six scores.
39:00Congratulations, Beverly.
39:02You finished first with 155 points out of a possible 160.
39:07You are five points away from perfection.
39:11Hallelujah.
39:12You were voted by your peers earlier today to be most likely to win America's Culinary Cup, and you just
39:19showed us why.
39:20I kind of feel like I'm going to faint.
39:22It feels really great because I think it's empowering me.
39:25I'm trying to, like, say, you know what, that voice in your head that's, like, afraid to shine, like, because
39:30something bad's going to happen to you, that is an illusion.
39:34Congratulations to all six of you.
39:37Keith and Gianna, since your names are not on the board, that means you two have the lowest scores, and
39:44one of you will be going home.
39:49The chef going home today is...
40:00...Dianna.
40:03Gianna, unfortunately, there was just no way for you to make up the difference, since you only plated one dessert.
40:09I'm so sorry, but you served your final dish.
40:13Six hours, I know, sounds like a long time, but not for me, apparently.
40:18Thank you for the opportunity, and it's been really great to be able to cook Mexican food in this platform
40:24and getting to know you guys.
40:26You know, it's been my mission for a long time to, like, dedicate my professional career to Mexican food.
40:33So, it's been great to do this in such a large platform like this.
40:37Even just, like, talking about it with all these chefs and, like, all these questions, it's been really nice.
40:45And then there were seven.
40:48Now, you're past the halfway point.
40:50Keith, how are you feeling?
40:52I don't even want to say relieved.
40:53I'm really beating myself up right now.
40:56I don't want you to beat yourself up.
40:58Well, I also don't want to be here because Gianna only had one dish, neither.
41:02I'm questioning if she had two desserts, where do I land?
41:05But also, I have to accept the fact that the competition was to put up two desserts.
41:09The commandments are going to keep coming, so get some rest.
41:12Good night.
41:13Thank you, Chef.
41:14Thank you, Chef.
41:14Great stuff, guys.
41:15Thank you so much.
41:18Good job, brother.
41:19Yep, yep.
41:20If everybody here thinks I'm going to go home, I'm going to prove them wrong.
41:23Congrats.
41:23That's it, boy.
41:24You're going to run out.
41:26Each week, I'm learning more about how to compete in this setting, and I'm only going to get better.
41:31Now we got the pastry part out, I feel.
41:34Yeah.
41:35Let's get back to cooking again.
41:40Next time on America's Culinary Cup.
41:43Today's culinary commandment is culinary science and technology.
41:48Oh, I made it through desserts, but I'm going home today.
41:52Today's a no-holds-barred, non-stop cook-off.
41:56You'll have five hours.
41:58Five hours.
41:59Is your head exploding, Buddha?
42:02Just going to be a meringue.
42:04I'm doing spherification.
42:05I'm smoking everything.
42:07Ooh.
42:07As you crack into it, you should, like, pour out.
42:10Oh, my.
42:11Ooh.
42:12When I came up with this challenge, I did not think we would be eating this.
42:1540 dishes, yeah.
42:17I'm going to throw up.
42:18Oh, I'm so full.
42:23Delicious.
42:23Delicious.
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