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00:00African food.
00:01It's the melting pot of deliciousness.
00:04I'm the lioness.
00:06I'm here to leave a mark.
00:07I'm locked in, baby.
00:09The African diaspora is at the core of how I cook.
00:12I ain't never come here to play.
00:14No, let's go.
00:14It's not just about the food.
00:15It's the people that kept it going.
00:17Cool.
00:18Nobody's nervous, right?
00:19Only Prince is nervous.
00:21I got ice in my veins.
00:24This is freaking fantastic, right?
00:26We have two Ethiopians on this panel.
00:29So I see you trying to play it up.
00:32Bringing that heat.
00:33All I can think about is, is it going to be done?
00:36Done, done, done.
00:40Let the game begin.
00:47This dish is one of the best things that you'll
00:50taste in your entire life.
00:51All about flavor, seasoning, and spice.
00:54It's just going to be.
00:58I'm the co-owner and chef of Addis Nole in New Orleans, Louisiana.
01:03I was born in Angola.
01:04I have an Ethiopian mother, and I live in the South.
01:06So it's all these flavors that are coming together.
01:09It's this warm, nourishing flavor of food that you won't find anywhere else in the world.
01:14That's what we do in New Orleans.
01:17My name is Prince, but I'm here to take the crown to become the king of African cuisine.
01:25People know me as the Lioness of West Africa.
01:30I am the chef and owner of Nima's Cookery Corner, located in Shreveport, Louisiana.
01:35Cassava is one of my favorite things.
01:37I am originally from a beautiful country in West Africa called Sierra Leone.
01:43I started cooking because of necessities.
01:46When the Civil War happened, I have to feed my family.
01:50Label of love.
01:52When we lost everything, cooking became my therapy.
01:56Gotta work for your fufu, baby.
01:59I am here for the win.
02:00I am here to chop you.
02:05I've never been to the continent.
02:07I am a Black girl from the Midwest.
02:09But diving into the African diaspora has completely shifted how I cook.
02:14Okay.
02:15I'm a chef from Washington, D.C.
02:17Pop in.
02:17I describe my cuisine as Afro fusion with a modern twist.
02:20With my restaurant, I was kind of the Michelin guide in less than nine months.
02:24Smells like curry.
02:26After about a year, things weren't working out, and I had to close my restaurant.
02:30It was a tough decision, but you have to make those when you're the boss.
02:33Putting myself through Chopped, I think, is the ultimate test to see if I am the chef that I believe
02:38I am.
02:41I'm feeling awesome.
02:44Let me tell you why I'm made for Chopped.
02:46I am not overly organized.
02:48I am overly chaotic.
02:53Woo!
02:53That's why I don't juggle.
02:54I am the chef, owner, and farmer of Strong Roots Nine in Brunswick, Georgia.
02:59These are some beautiful tomatoes.
03:00My style of cooking is Gullah Geechee, which is the enslaved West Africans that were left
03:06on the Sea Islands along the coast between North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida.
03:11It's collard green season, y'all.
03:13My food is inspired by my farm.
03:15It's been in our family for six generations.
03:17Whenever I'm cooking, I always try to keep my ancestors somewhere in the room with me.
03:21I'm pushing myself to win this for my ancestors.
03:24Oh, yeah.
03:24Because I know that I'm my ancestors' wildest dreams.
03:27Peek-a-boo.
03:28Chop-champ.
03:30Let's pray real quick.
03:31I like that.
03:32I like that.
03:33I like that.
03:33I like that.
03:33God, we thank you for today.
03:34Please give us the confidence, the ability to create.
03:38We no lose, bring us to a place where we're all successful.
03:43Amen.
03:44Amen.
03:45Oh, wow.
03:47Good morning.
03:48Good morning.
03:48Good morning.
03:49Let's go.
03:51Wow.
03:53Wow.
03:53We have some energy in the room.
03:55We do.
03:55Love it.
03:55Let's go.
03:56This competition is going to be a breeze for me.
03:59Let the game begin.
04:02You're all in this competition because you maintain a strong connection to your heritage
04:07through your food.
04:08The continent of Africa has had an incredible influence on the culinary landscape, and the
04:14goal here is for you to celebrate that on your plates.
04:17All right, let's go.
04:20Whew.
04:21Please open your appetizer baskets.
04:24Oh.
04:24Oh, yeah.
04:25And you've got jollof rice.
04:27They're making it easy.
04:28You gave this to me.
04:29Jollof rice from Senegal, one of the greatest, greatest dishes that come out of the continent
04:34of Africa.
04:34He said you gave this to me.
04:36Okra.
04:37Oh, yeah.
04:39Saltfish.
04:40Saltfish was a way to preserve fish when there was lots of travel.
04:44Mwah.
04:45I knew it.
04:46I knew it.
04:46And Bearberry.
04:47All right.
04:48The first round is just 20 minutes.
04:52Clock starts now.
04:54Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
04:59We have an incredible judge panel for this competition.
05:02A chopped fan favorite, Marcus Samuelson.
05:06That's the one.
05:06You are joined by the host of Food Network's Wild Card Kitchen, Chef Eric Ajepong.
05:12Hey.
05:12Hey.
05:13Hey.
05:14Hey.
05:14And acclaimed executive chef Faryal Abdullahi.
05:17Welcome.
05:20The continent of Africa has been inhabited by humans longer than any other, and it has
05:24a vast influence on the way we cook today.
05:27Yeah.
05:27It's a massive continent.
05:28I grew up in Ethiopia, and we have a good representation east, west, central.
05:33Behind, behind, behind.
05:34And we're about to see today, it has influences from all over.
05:36Down behind.
05:37If you go on the east coast, south of Ethiopia, tons of Indian influences.
05:41Then countries like Mozambique and Angola, tons of Portuguese influences, for example.
05:46We have chefs from East Africa, West Africa.
05:49So yes, we want to taste amazing food.
05:51But I want to get a little bit of, like, who they are behind these meals as well.
05:56The African diaspora for me is anywhere that Africa has touched.
06:01Gullah Geechee cuisine, it's past time for us to have a place at the table.
06:06It's time to show what Gullah Geechee cuisine is all about.
06:10Hey, Chef Matthew, how do you feel about this basket?
06:13It's all the ingredients from the coast of Georgia, so I'm loving this.
06:17I am making a saltfish and jollof rice dumpling, along with sweet potato soup, because burberry
06:25and sweet potato go very well together.
06:29Okra is a huge staple in Gullah Geechee cuisine.
06:31If I could get it quick pickled, it would be a nice acidic tone to the sweetness that's in the
06:36sweet potato soup.
06:38The okra, you have to cook it down because it is so mucilaginous.
06:42Yeah.
06:43But when you do cook the okra in stews, when you use moist technique, it does bring out that slime.
06:49I would do a saltfish arancini, and then I would just slice those okra really thin and fry it and
06:56use that as a garnish.
06:57Okra can be quite tricky to cook, but I cook with okra every day.
07:01I have okra plants growing in my garden, so it's literally me and okra, like, you know, that's my homie.
07:07With the saltfish, I just want it to hit that pan and get really, really crispy on the outside.
07:14Chef Prince!
07:15Yeah!
07:15You want to know what I'm coming with?
07:16Yeah!
07:17We're starting off strong Habesha culture.
07:19We're doing some okra jollof rice Tibbs with that saltfish.
07:23Ok, so Tibbs is an Ethiopian dish with cubed beef, so he's using the okra as the protein.
07:30That must be exciting.
07:32Awazay Tibbs is this super flavorful, saucy dish with tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, and a whole bunch of berberet.
07:40You know, I love to see Ethiopian chefs like Chef Marcus and Chef Farayo, and I'm super happy to be
07:46able to cook for them.
07:47If you go into Ethiopia, we use berberet in everything.
07:51Not as spicy as people think, more like smoked paprika.
07:54I'm excited to see the West African jollof rice here on the table.
07:57Oh, we got jollof!
07:58What is in jollof rice?
08:00It's cooked down tomato, there's ginger, there's onion, you can have papanero, different spices.
08:05It's one of my favorite things to eat, period.
08:08Nima, what do you got going on?
08:09I am cooking deliciousness, a bowl full of flavors, baby!
08:13Ok!
08:13I can smell it!
08:14I didn't come here to play, I'm the lioness!
08:16The lioness, I love that!
08:18I'm making a lioness jollof bowl and okra to wait.
08:22I'm going to deep fry some okra to add that crunch to my dish.
08:27I'm also sauteing my okra with some bell peppers.
08:32A lioness jollof reflects my personality, how bold, how fierce, and I am here to win this prize.
08:39The salt fish for me is the key ingredient.
08:42In Africa, very often, people don't have access to refrigerators, so we used a lot of salt fish because we
08:48had to preserve our fish.
08:50I think I'm going to make this fish stand out by incorporating it in the dip.
08:54I want to be able to move through this round as fast as I can, and I think chips and
08:58dip is the ultimate appetizer.
09:00I'm making a jollof and salt fish dip with Bear Beret chips.
09:03So I'm whipping the jollof rice into the food processor with salt fish and Bear Beret seasoning.
09:12For my dumpling, I'm using the salt fish and jollof rice, and I'm using puff pastry dough to wrap it
09:18with.
09:18Matthew, puff pastry with eight minutes to go.
09:23I'm almost there.
09:24At first, I kind of thought it was a long time, 20 minutes, but it's not.
09:30Stuffing my dumplings, I'm going crazy trying to figure out, do I just roll it, do I fold it?
09:36I'm looking at Matthew over there, sweating, and I was like, uh-uh, time wait for no man.
09:42That is cutting against the time. That's really, really close.
09:45All I can think about is, is it going to be done?
09:55All right, chefs, you're coming up on five minutes here.
10:00My brain is going all over the place, and then all of a sudden, I realized that I got this.
10:06Slow down.
10:14So then I put it in the pan, and I'm like, I am golden right now.
10:19Where are we, Matthew? We good?
10:21Oh, yeah. We're more than good right now.
10:23Okay, good.
10:33Winning Chops would mean a great deal. I have family in the content who would watch this.
10:38All right. I guess I'll start with my salad.
10:40So being able to win and represent all of them from my mother and my father in Angola and Ethiopia,
10:45it would be a reward for all of us.
10:47Four minutes ago, Prince has not used this rice.
10:50Oh.
10:52Plenty of time on the clock, huh?
10:54I'm deciding to highlight the jollof rice in the salad.
10:57So I get these bell peppers chopped.
10:59I grab some red wine vinegar, some olive oil.
11:01I grab some of the rice, and just get all these ingredients together.
11:08Jollof is great. Jollof is beautiful. Jollof is tasty.
11:11So I'm going to treat it as is.
11:14How do you feel about your jollof fries just being served as jollof fries?
11:17I think, like, you need a little creativity in that, though.
11:20I'm taking the salt fish out of the fryer and add some salt, pepper, and beribera.
11:26I'm leaving the okra raw because I don't have enough time to do anything else.
11:29But I'm slicing it very thin so that it's still going to retain its flavor without being slimy.
11:34And I'm adding some red onion, some fresh cilantro, lemon, and some vinegar.
11:38We are inside our final minute here.
11:40Let's go.
11:40Let's go.
11:46And Matthew is making an absolutely stunning plate.
11:49Yeah, it's so pretty.
11:50It's less than a minute left.
11:52I pop the oven open, and I see that it's perfect.
11:59Priority number one.
12:00All four basket ingredients on those plates.
12:04Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five.
12:09Five.
12:10Four.
12:11Three.
12:12Two.
12:13One.
12:14You did it!
12:15Woo!
12:17Let's go!
12:21The basket was so fun.
12:23I hate okra.
12:23Don't take my black heart.
12:25But it was fun to put into this dish.
12:26I'm looking at Danielle like, what are you doing serving chips and dip?
12:32That plate looks awful.
12:38Chefs, in the appetizer round, you had to cook with jollof rice, okra, salt fish, and bear beret.
12:45Chef Matthew, please tell us what you've made.
12:48So I made a sweet potato and coconut milk soup with a little bit of pickled okra and a dumpling
12:55made with jollof rice and salt fish.
12:57Could you tell us more about yourself, Chef?
12:59I was raised on the coast of Georgia.
13:01My family, since 1874, has been farming that land.
13:05Wow.
13:06The ocean always has spoken to me.
13:08So baklal, salt fish, I grew up eating that my whole life.
13:12I can tell immediately that you're very comfortable with that salt fish in this dumpling.
13:17It's crispy and flaky on the outside.
13:19I see some greens in here as well.
13:21To do all of that in 20 minutes is extremely impressive.
13:25With the okra, it's so beautiful, like the green against that yellow.
13:29But it gets really tricky to eat because it's on top of a soup.
13:34So I would have presented it maybe cut up a little bit.
13:37Got you, Chef.
13:38To Chef Periel's point, knife skills matter.
13:41If the okra would have been cut differently, the pickle would have gone in quicker as well.
13:46But this little johnny cake pocket here, delicious.
13:51The salt fish, beautiful.
13:52And the soup is delicious.
13:56Next up, Chef Nima.
13:58My plate is the lioness jollof bowl and okra two ways.
14:04First of all, I love the presentation of this.
14:08Thank you, Chef.
14:08And I love the fried salt cod.
14:10I thought that was fun.
14:12Really well played with the okra.
14:14You sauteed with berberre and then you fried.
14:17Okra is definitely a star in this dish.
14:19With the jollof, there's not enough manipulation.
14:23I wanted to stay true to the jollof when I tasted it.
14:26It was full of flavors.
14:27I didn't want to treat it any other way but jollof.
14:30It's your choice.
14:32But it is a competition where creativity is part of it, right?
14:36Yes, Chef.
14:37I agree.
14:38The rice could definitely use a little bit of manipulation.
14:41But the pride that you have in your food and your cooking is so prevalent and I love to see
14:46it.
14:46I love to hear it from you as well.
14:48Next up, Chef Prince.
14:50So I went ahead and did a okra, awase tibbs, seared salt fish, and jollof salad.
14:57What inspired the dish?
14:59Me.
14:59It's my DNA.
15:00That's all I know how to do is be myself on a plate.
15:03I know the basket was a layup for you.
15:05And then you made awase tibbs.
15:06You have two Ethiopians on this panel, so I see you trying to play it up.
15:12Treating the okra and stewing it in 20 minutes, bruh, that's not easy.
15:17And you did it really well.
15:19There's no, what's the word?
15:21Mucilaginous.
15:22There's no mucilaginous.
15:24And the salt fish, it's crispy on the outside and still fairly delicate on the inside.
15:29What loses me a little bit is the jollof salad.
15:32I'm getting a lot of vinegar.
15:34Balance-wise, I wish it was a little bit more tempered.
15:37Thank you, Chef.
15:38Yeah.
15:38The jollof, I got a lot of acid.
15:40And, you know, we eat with our eyes first.
15:42And there's small portions of okra, big portions.
15:44The bell pepper is also cut unevenly.
15:47I agree.
15:48I agree, Chef.
15:49Finally, Chef Danielle.
15:51All right.
15:51So this is a jollof and salt fish dip with berberet chips and an okra and herb salad.
15:58You really played the game really smart.
16:02You transformed these ingredients and made them yours.
16:06I also like the way you thought through texture, right?
16:11But also the texture in the dip.
16:12That's fantastic.
16:14I want to find something to criticize.
16:19But I think you did a really good job.
16:22I might come back.
16:23Okay.
16:24I'll take that for now then.
16:26That's funny.
16:27It's really fun.
16:28It's like if queso dip and smoked fish dip had a baby.
16:33Yeah.
16:33I don't know how it worked, but somehow it did.
16:36I'd say that's most of my cooking.
16:38I just wish there was more okra on the plate.
16:42Yeah, definitely.
16:43I would have added more okra.
16:45But the chips right here with the beverage spice, absolutely genius.
16:49Really good start.
16:51Chef Danielle, thank you.
16:54I am feeling great.
16:56I see everyone as a competitor, but they can't touch me.
16:59So there's no one that I'm really worried about.
17:02I did a fantastic job binding all these different components of flavors and countries and places together.
17:08So I hope the judges feel the same way.
17:11Sadly, it is time to say goodbye now to one talented chef.
17:27So whose dish is on the chopping block?
17:41Chef Prince, you've been chopped.
17:43Judges?
17:44Chef Prince, unfortunately the knife skills of this dish weren't organized.
17:49And the treatment of the jollof rice, adding that acid, really brought the dish down.
17:53And so we have to chop you.
17:56Appreciate that.
17:57Even though I was chopped, it doesn't change the way I feel.
17:59Honestly, it makes me want to go harder.
18:01It makes me want to keep doing what I'm doing because I know I'm on the right path.
18:06Chef Matthew, Chef Nima, Chef Danielle, here is your second basket.
18:13Check it out.
18:17And you've got a goosey soup mix.
18:20A goosey is melon seeds and we grind it up and make it into a stew.
18:25Oh, jeez.
18:26What are we about to?
18:27Yucca.
18:28Not prepped.
18:29Thanks a lot, guys.
18:29Raw yucca requires a lot of time to get that texture soft.
18:33Oh, yes.
18:35Goat chops.
18:36Stoked for this.
18:37And groundnuts.
18:3930 minutes to cook this time.
18:43Clock starts now.
18:44Let's go.
18:45Let's go.
18:46Let's go.
18:47Let's go.
18:47Wow.
18:49This is a basket that looks very similar to how I grew up eating in Ghana.
18:54And I see the groundnuts, which is imperative in West African cooking.
18:59A goosey itself is a dried melon seed.
19:01But that soup mix has dried crayfish powder.
19:03Yes.
19:04There's a bunch of different seasonings.
19:05But this is not an easy basket.
19:06Not at all.
19:07You've got to get going fast.
19:09Yeah.
19:10It takes time to get that yucca soft.
19:12And then the core.
19:13You have to take that core out.
19:15Nima, what do you got going on?
19:16I'm doing a little bit of a goosey stew using my peanut to make the base of my goosey.
19:22Smart.
19:24That is like a direct after soccer practice in Ghana.
19:29And if time is in my favor, I will make some fufu.
19:31I love that.
19:32It's the first time on Chop that we've had fufu, I think.
19:35What is fufu?
19:36It's amazing.
19:37It can be a yucca.
19:38It can be a plantain.
19:39Essentially, it's steamed.
19:40It's pounded to a really, really supple, soft dumpling.
19:43And you're going to need 30 minutes for sure.
19:46My mom cooked for us every day, every meal.
19:49And in my culture, we show love through food.
19:51So when she passed away, I just wanted to follow that footsteps.
19:54And that I have been doing every day up until this time that I'm sitting in this chair.
20:03Cooking with people from the continent versus little old me from the Midwest is definitely really intimidating.
20:08But I think you have to be fearless in the kitchen.
20:10I think most recipes are happy accidents.
20:12And you won't know until you try something.
20:14Danielle.
20:15Yo.
20:15How are you?
20:16Talk to me.
20:16Yeah, I'm doing some seared goat yucca and potato mash and a groundnut dukkah.
20:21So a dukkah is a North African spice mix.
20:24Which sounds like a great topping for everything she has going on.
20:28Now that my dukkah is ready, I take my goat chops and then I'm ready to go sear it in
20:32the pan.
20:35Nima is making a stew.
20:36You would not normally use such a beautiful tender cut of meat for a stew.
20:40Meat in general is treated very different in the continent.
20:44It's rarely had, right?
20:45So when you have it, it's a celebration.
20:47Whew, I see those goat chops and all I can think about is curried goat.
20:53Yucca, it's a root vegetable.
20:55It's starchy.
20:57And I'm like, this is going to take forever to cook.
21:01Only thing I can think about is, okay, maybe you can fry it.
21:04Chef Matthew, what do you have in mind?
21:07I'm going to make a nice little sauce with the goosey to go on that curried goat.
21:11And then I'm frying off some yucca chips.
21:13Nice.
21:13And I'm going to toss that in some of the groundnuts.
21:16The fact that he's using the groundnut as his seasoning for the yucca chips, pretty brilliant move.
21:21I just tasted them now.
21:22They taste just like peanuts, but they taste like more intensely flavorful peanuts.
21:27I am working on my stew.
21:30Diced tomatoes, crayfish to keep that umami, my goat chops.
21:34Then I add my groundnut sauce.
21:38That way, everything marries well together.
21:42Everything in this basket, we grow on the farm.
21:45The land's been in my family for over 150 years.
21:47I'm the sixth generation.
21:49I want there to be a 12th generation.
21:52So yeah, if I win this $10,000, it's going straight back into the farm.
21:57For my groundnut and the goosey sauce, I pour goat fat in.
22:02And then I add the goosey and groundnuts in.
22:04I start ladling in water.
22:06And then I'm going to puree it.
22:11I think I'm going to make a nice spinach and herb goosey sauce.
22:15I take the trimmings from my goat chops.
22:16I then add the goosey soup mix and some beef stock.
22:20All right, chefs, you've got less than five minutes to cook.
22:31My yucca looks ready to go.
22:33I take it and strain it and mash it up.
22:36This is such a good moment watching Nima making the fufu ball.
22:39Yeah.
22:40I mean, she's so confident making that.
22:41I feel very confident in my dish.
22:44I am going to put it in front of the judges and they're going to go.
22:48This is the best thing that I've ever tested.
22:53So I rendered the fat off of the goat chops.
22:56And then I just chopped them up and throw them right into the fryer.
23:01So they get that crackling kind of feel.
23:03Two-minute warning, chefs.
23:05Two minutes.
23:05Two minutes.
23:10I flipped the goat chops.
23:13And they're very heavily charred.
23:16The goat is seared charred really, really hard.
23:19But the inside temperature is what I hope, so I'm not nervous.
23:23My plan for the yucca is to add a little bit of butter and make it into fufu.
23:27And we have one minute on that clock.
23:29Let's go. Chef's going to go.
23:30One minute on that clock.
23:31Okay.
23:36The clock is ticking down fast.
23:39Ten.
23:40Nine.
23:41Come on, guys.
23:41Eight.
23:42Seven.
23:43Six.
23:44Five.
23:45Four.
23:46Three.
23:47Two.
23:49One.
23:50Time's up.
23:52You did it.
23:56I feel great.
23:57I just celebrated Africa.
23:59Everything that we believe in, everything that we eat.
24:04Whew.
24:04I got it on the plate.
24:05That's the main thing.
24:06That's the main thing.
24:08I love Danielle's blue plate and the way Nima did this.
24:11This just.
24:12So, yeah, I'm up against some tough competition.
24:28Chefs, another great basket for this special competition.
24:32A goosey soup mix, yucca, goat chops, and ground nuts.
24:39Chef Matthew, please tell us what you've made.
24:41I did a curry goat with a ground nut and a goosey sauce with yucca chips.
24:50If I close my eyes, I immediately transport it to Africa.
24:55100%.
24:56This dish is African.
24:57I thought the yucca chips was such a smart game play.
25:00Adding the goosey and the ground nut in there gives it texture.
25:04It makes it fun.
25:05It's interactive to play with.
25:06Really, really, really smart.
25:08I feel like the fat cap, leaving the fat cap on, sometimes could be intimidating for a Western palate.
25:15Me and my siblings, we used to fight over who gets the fat cap.
25:17Yes.
25:18You know what I mean?
25:18Right.
25:19And then you took it even a step further and you made the lardons.
25:22You know flavor, but I would have liked more sauce.
25:27Okay.
25:28I agree with Chef Farrell.
25:29I got a chop and a half left and the sauce was so good, but I got no...
25:33See my point?
25:34Yes, I do.
25:35So, once you have it, slow down and plate.
25:38Okay.
25:39Next up, Chef Danielle.
25:40So, you have a charred goat with a suya ground nut dukkah, a spinach or goosey sauce, and a pounded
25:46yucca and potato.
25:47I've never pounded yucca, so I was just swinging for the fences.
25:50There's different parts of Africa on this plate, and I really appreciate that.
25:54You took us to North Africa when you made that dukkah.
25:56Yeah, it was a really great way to use the ground and nuts, and the goat actually worked out in
26:02the end,
26:02because, you know, we eat black and blue steaks, so that's kind of what it's eating like, and it worked.
26:07Flavor-wise, you just gift it.
26:09Oh, thank you.
26:11This could be salsa verde, this could be many things, but it's yours, and it's delicious, and it's done with
26:17African sensibilities.
26:19Founding Fufu, for the first time on a competition show, is extremely brave, but the yucca has a very fibrous
26:26center, so you have to take that core out.
26:28And Chef, why would it be meaningful to you to win here?
26:30My restaurant recently had to close. It's hard economically to run a restaurant.
26:34So I want to win Chopped today to pick up my ego a little bit after the restaurant closing, so
26:40I think that this would be helpful.
26:42So you're looking at a chef that opened an African restaurant and failed.
26:47I didn't leave my house for weeks. It's the only time I thought I would quit cooking, but it was
26:52that experience to make me really understand how to open Red Rooster.
26:57This is just the beginning of your journey. You're going to crush it.
27:01You're just going to keep going and crush it.
27:04Thank you, Chef Danielle. Finally, Chef Nima.
27:06I made a goosey stew with yucca fufu, as well as goat chops. And I appreciate you guys using your
27:16hands. Thank you.
27:18Chef, what inspired this direction for you?
27:21This dish is very dear to me. I'm originally from Sierra Leone. And after we ran from the Civil War,
27:27my dad left us with $10.
27:29Then I got my first job selling shoes, and then I'll come home after I get my paycheck to cook
27:35for the entire community. So today, I just pour my heart into a bowl.
27:40It's very hard to eat a story, but actually can here.
27:48Because you actually taste all of us in one bowl, like crayfish powder with melon seed.
27:55It's not just a bunch of spices that we put together. And somebody developed this 2,000 years ago. It's
28:03really, really well done.
28:05Thank you. Thank you, Chef.
28:06I hope you're very proud of yourself.
28:08I am.
28:09Yeah.
28:10I think we have way too many conversations about how we make African food approachable, but I think it's time
28:15the rest of the world meets us where we are. And this is what you gave us.
28:18This is so effing good. Oh.
28:22It's so good. It's so good.
28:25Taking the yucca and turning that into a fufu, so flavorful. But the fibers, this is something to definitely make
28:32sure you have to take this out.
28:34But flavor, the goat chop is there, the groundnuts, using that instead of the goose, just well played. This is
28:41how you beat a basket. This is how you do it.
28:43Thank you, Chef.
28:45The only thing that makes me nervous is the amount of sauce that I put on the dish. But Vaniella
28:50and Nima both had the fiber that ran through the yucca. So I don't really think I'm going to be
28:56on the chopping block.
28:57I'm going up against some strong competitors who are connected to their food and connected to their roots. And I
29:02just want to make sure that I can stay on par and make it to the end.
29:12So whose dish is on the chopping block?
29:27Chef Matthew, you've been chopped. Judges? No problem.
29:31Chef Matthew, that sauce that you made with the goosey seeds, we did not have enough of it. So the
29:38ratio of the meat with the lack of the sauce, it was a little bit disjointed. And so we had
29:43to chop you.
29:45Understood. I did accomplish what I came here to do. My spirit isn't broken because I was able to prove
29:52that Gullah Geechee Food has a seat at the table within the African diaspora.
30:06Chef Nima, Chef Danielle, let's check out your final basket. Open it up. And you've got injera.
30:16Oh, my God. Injera. Injera is an Ethiopian flatbread. I've never seen it in a sweet application, but I think
30:23it's because it's so sour.
30:26Plantains. Amazing. Dawa Dawa. I have no idea what this is.
30:30Dawa Dawa is an umami spice. What is Dawa Dawa got to do with dessert?
30:35Dark chocolate. We like that. And dark chocolate.
30:38I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm ready to win this prize.
30:42Last half hour. Round starts now.
30:47Okay. Okay. Let's go.
30:51Well, we're down to two chefs, both of them really strong finalists. I just wonder, do you feel as if
30:57either of them has an edge?
30:58You have one chef that did well. One round and then another chef really shows what she's about in the
31:03other. This is a classic that's coming down to dessert.
31:05I love how excited Chef Danielle was when she saw the injera.
31:09This is also when we would lose the Ethiopian viewership.
31:12They're turning off the TV right now.
31:13Because we're not allowed to turn injera into desserts.
31:16Injera is very aggressively sour. Yeah.
31:19And then that Dawa Dawa is so umami.
31:21But you know what? There's a saving grace in that sweet plantain.
31:24Chef Danielle, are you good over there?
31:25Yeah, I'm feeling good. How are you feeling?
31:27I'm feeling great. Amazing.
31:28I am so excited to see plantain. I want to make cheesecake with them. I caramelize them in the pan
31:33with some sugar. And then flambay them with a little bit of rum. And then put them into the blender
31:39with mascarpone, vanilla extract, cream cheese.
31:41Oh, I'm sweating, but I'm working. And I blend in and get this gorgeous texture.
31:46Danielle definitely got a dish here. So she had caramelized plantain, mascarpone cheese, and rum. That's exciting.
31:53That's exciting.
31:54Injera has a sourdough quality to it. But I'm thinking I can use it as crust for my mousse.
32:00Chef Danielle, what do you plan on doing with this injera flour butter situation?
32:04Injera is like sourdough-y. So I want to make like a sourdough pie crust.
32:08She's actually taking risks.
32:10I have no idea this is going to work.
32:11With things that are so traditional.
32:13Yeah.
32:13And it's inspiring me to watch.
32:14I'm going to get it a little bit.
32:15I love Nima's crispy injera too. Maybe that's where the Dawa Dawa's got it going.
32:20What is Dawa Dawa?
32:21So it's a fermented bean. It's very funky, sour, almost like a miso umami sort of like back note to
32:28it.
32:28Well, that having been paired with the dark chocolate, would you combine those two?
32:32Absolutely.
32:33I was at a cocoa farm in Ghana a few years ago, and I felt literally like a kid in
32:37a candy store.
32:38You think about chocolate, you think about the Swiss, you think about Hershey's, but they're getting that rich commodity from
32:42the continent of Africa.
32:44Africa, chocolate is ours. So seeing this dark chocolate, it's like Christmas came early for me. And I'm combining it
32:54with the Dawa Dawa plantains and cream, blending all of this together into a cream sauce.
33:01I'm also doing fried plantains.
33:04Chef.
33:05Yes.
33:05What's going on?
33:06I'm making some butterscotch because I used to sell this growing up in school.
33:11Nice.
33:11Growing up, as much as I've been through civil war, Ebola, I pushed through every day to make it work.
33:18I don't wait for my dreams. I chase them.
33:24After closing my restaurant, I kind of went into a dark place. I felt defeated.
33:30But cooking the food that I cooked at my restaurant on Chopped is surreal. I need this win. It would
33:35seal that, like, I definitely know what I'm doing in the kitchen.
33:39I've decided to add the Dawa Dawa to my chocolate, and then I get it going over a double boiler.
33:43I slowly mix in my heavy cream and whisking it into a ganache.
33:47Chefs, you've got ten minutes left on the clock.
33:53I'm seeing a lot of different components on Nima's dish. She has chocolate cream, she was frying injera, frying plantain.
34:00There's a lot of elements, but I'm not entirely sure how it's all going to come together.
34:05I'm creating a chocolate butterscotch because injera is a little bit sour, and I wanted to give it that sweet
34:11component.
34:14Check out my crust, and it's a little bit soft.
34:17Oh, this is the dough.
34:18Okay, she pulled it out. Okay.
34:19It's not cooked.
34:20It's feeling bready. It's very bready because of the injera, and I'm a little bit worried.
34:24We're going to have to fry it, I think.
34:26And I think, okay, maybe I can deep fry it.
34:31I put it in a deep fryer and it just completely disintegrates.
34:34Chefs, less than five minutes to go.
34:37We're not stopping.
34:38Let's go. Let's go.
34:40All right, that's not going to work either.
34:41I don't really know what I'm going to do with injera for this dish, and I know I can't leave
34:45it off.
34:46I don't want to go home for a silly mistake.
34:54This injera is just throwing me for a loop.
34:56Putting them into the fryer is causing them to disintegrate.
34:59This is not good, so I run back to my station and I pop the rest of what I have
35:03back in the oven.
35:04And I pray that it's going to come out how I need it to.
35:07We've got three minutes to go. Let's go.
35:09I check out my Dawa Dawa ganache. I want it to have a nice, smooth texture.
35:13It's a little lumpy.
35:14I think with this, it probably just wasn't tempered correctly.
35:17This dessert round is feeling like a negative domino effect. Nothing is happening how I want it to.
35:23I'm looking at Danielle over there, sweating so hard.
35:26I'm like, I don't know what this woman is doing, but I am feeling great.
35:31All right, let's go, guys. Taste, taste, taste.
35:35I check out my injera again, and it's crisping up nicely on some of the edges.
35:38It's not perfect, but it's going to be just enough to get me across the finish line.
35:42Here we go, chefs. Final seconds of the final round.
35:4610, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Time's up.
35:57You did it. You did it, ladies.
36:01Here we go, guys.
36:04I'm feeling a little beaten down after that round. Nothing really went as planned.
36:07But I'm happy with the cheesecake, so I'm hoping that the flavors push me through.
36:11Hope it tastes good.
36:13I feel very great and confident, because I let the ingredients speak for itself.
36:17And I'm super excited to hear what the judges say.
36:23Chef Danielle and Chef Nima, for the dessert round, you had to work with injera, plantains, dawa dawa, and dark
36:32chocolate.
36:34Chef Danielle, please tell us about your dessert.
36:36You have a whipped plantain custard, dawa dawa chocolate, ganache, and an injera crust.
36:44It's just so fun watching you cook and approach all the challenges you come across with such grace.
36:50As an Ethiopian, we've never utilized injera in a sweet.
36:54You're like, oh, cool.
36:55It has, like, sourdough notes.
36:57I'm going to use it to make a pie crust.
36:58It's really fun.
37:00There is actually a really good idea in here.
37:03Not fully realized today.
37:04Yeah.
37:04But the sour against the sweet is fabulous.
37:08Not today, but it will be fabulous.
37:10Fair enough.
37:11This is, like, really nice brown piece right here, and that's the best bite.
37:15Okay.
37:15My hiccup is the chocolate.
37:17It's seized.
37:19Adding the dawa dawa is a nice element to it, but I just think, texturally, it could have been better.
37:25I love the plantain cheesecake.
37:29That's a really, really good bite.
37:30It's not as clear as your cooking were in the first two rounds, but it's you on a plate, and
37:35you hustle, and you're a really good cook.
37:37I come back to that every time.
37:39Finally, Chef Nima.
37:41I have made for you today West African-style plantains with dawa dawa and chocolate cream, as well as deep
37:51-fried injera.
37:53Your triumph on this plate is how you use the dawa dawa.
37:55Just really leaning into your childhood, and you were making butterscotch and all that.
38:00It really worked really well.
38:02It brings some kind of funkiness to it that you just keep eating.
38:06You said that you used to sell butterscotch?
38:09Absolutely.
38:10When you were a kid, what, candies?
38:11Yes, as candies.
38:12I used to sell that to pay transportation for school.
38:15I ate that as a kid, as well.
38:18Plantains.
38:18It's not the sweetest, like, most ripe plantains.
38:21Right.
38:21So, I wish there was a little bit more treated, more sweetness, something to it.
38:25The plantain isn't sweet enough for dessert.
38:28The injera crumble is a little bit all over the place in terms of size, but there's some goodness there.
38:35It just doesn't quite come together the way your main course or the way your appetizers came together.
38:42And that goes for both of you.
38:44Yes, absolutely.
38:45Based on all three courses, who will be the winner?
38:49Judges need to talk it through.
38:51Thank you, chefs.
38:56Oh!
38:57First of all, can we just say, what a day.
39:00Amazing.
39:01The first African chop.
39:03What?
39:03We did it.
39:04Yeah.
39:05Honestly, so, you know, when we started off, I really liked Chef Nima's appetizer.
39:08Three out of the four basket ingredients knocked it out of the park.
39:11But the jollof, she wasn't creative about it.
39:15There's not enough manipulation.
39:16Chef Danielle gave us a dip, and I thought it was super creative.
39:21Right.
39:22And it was delicious.
39:23It was really playing the chop basket in an incredible way.
39:27Right.
39:27Right.
39:28The saltiness, the better bread, you know that's gonna work.
39:31But then came the entrees, and I was like, Chef Nima said, hold on, sis.
39:37She pulled up with that goosey soup.
39:39She really gave us a very special moment.
39:41It was really, really important.
39:42It was awesome.
39:42Yeah.
39:43For Danielle, she was just battling and battling.
39:46There was some burnt goat that was, like, caramelized.
39:49Right.
39:49It worked.
39:50Yeah.
39:51And then the fufu was delicious.
39:53Absolutely.
39:54Then we got to dessert.
39:55Danielle knocked it out of the park with the injera.
39:57They just took that challenge just so differently.
40:01Yeah.
40:01Nima was almost literally taking the basket, cooking it in the pan, putting it back.
40:06But with Chef Danielle, there was no boundary for her.
40:10Okay, then.
40:11It's about that time.
40:12Do you know who has won?
40:16Ted, we know.
40:17All right.
40:24I'm feeling really good.
40:25I deserve that title because I've shown the judges how I can be innovative, how I can
40:29take risks.
40:29I'm not afraid to put it all out there on the plate.
40:32I use the ingredients that was given to me, like I'll use it in Africa, like our ancestors
40:37used to do it.
40:38So I'm super pumped and excited, and I hope I go home with the win today.
40:43So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
40:55Chef Nima, you've been chopped.
40:57Judges?
40:58Nima, entree round.
41:00That is one of the best dishes that I've ever had here at Chopped.
41:04And the appetizer round, on the creativity side, it could have been realized a little
41:08bit better.
41:09And the desserts didn't quite come together.
41:13Therefore, we have to chop you.
41:15Congratulations.
41:15Good job.
41:16Thank you so much.
41:17I feel very disappointed because I put all my heart and soul in those dishes.
41:22Thank you all.
41:23Great job.
41:23However, I'm still going to continue celebrating African cuisine in the diaspora and beyond.
41:31And that means Chef Danielle Harris, you are the Chopped Champion.
41:39You represented yourself extremely well, so you should be proud.
41:43Chef, what do you think this might do to help your career?
41:45I think it's wide open.
41:47I'm excited to see what's next, whatever it is.
41:50It feels great being able to win the competition.
41:52It's been a celebration and exploration of people who look like me.
41:56It's an honor to have won.
41:57It has been a highlight of my career.
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