24 in 24 Last Chef Standing S03E01

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Transcript

00:00:01You definitely have to have a certain level of crazy to do this show.

00:00:0624 chefs.

00:00:0824 challenges.

00:00:0924 hours straight.

00:00:11This is hardest competition in the world.

00:00:13I think it sounded fun a few weeks ago.

00:00:17If you've watched the first two seasons like I have, you know this is insane.

00:00:22I studied both seasons.

00:00:23I studied season one and season two.

00:00:25I think I'm ready. I know I'm ready.

00:00:28You all know the show.

00:00:30And I'm sure you all think you have the perfect game plan.

00:00:33But think again.

00:00:36Because this year, it's not the same game.

00:00:40Oh, what happened?

00:00:42Why the lights going out?

00:00:44The chef you will be cooking against is not currently in this kitchen.

00:00:49Oh.

00:00:51Participation is optional.

00:00:52Oh.

00:00:53This is not in any way, shape, or form what I thought I was walking into.

00:01:01This is what we're here for, right?

00:01:02Do or die.

00:01:04Expect the unexpected.

00:01:06Panic in my mind just came about me.

00:01:09I'm feeling really intimidated.

00:01:11We need a medic.

00:01:12I want to be able to sleep.

00:01:14I'm missing all my stuff.

00:01:16No knives!

00:01:16You have removed all of your knives.

00:01:19They're delirious with exhaustion.

00:01:21Wow!

00:01:22That stress is costly, churning.

00:01:24Big risk comes with big rewards.

00:01:26This competition is no joke.

00:01:28This is the Hunger Games.

00:01:29I had no idea it was going to be this crazy.

00:01:32This is 24 and 24.

00:01:35Last chef standing.

00:01:41Remember your two shots, everybody, right?

00:01:45We've done this now twice.

00:01:47Do you have a caffeine strategy?

00:01:49Lots.

00:01:50Let's send the chefs.

00:01:51Send the first round of chefs.

00:01:54Madre santa.

00:01:55Oh.

00:01:56Maria.

00:01:57My name is Maria Maison.

00:01:59I'm from Tucson, Arizona, and I cook Mexican cuisine.

00:02:03Maria's going to be a heavy hitter.

00:02:05Strong culinary point of view.

00:02:07Yeah.

00:02:07I've been a two times James Beer semifinalist.

00:02:10Oh, my God!

00:02:11That's real!

00:02:12I have ADHD, and I am proud to say it.

00:02:15Sort of the more chaotic my surroundings are, my brain and myself come down.

00:02:21But also, I'm nervous, because this show is known for throwing the curveballs of the size of Texas.

00:02:29I'm happy to be here with you.

00:02:31Hi, guys!

00:02:32Hi!

00:02:34My name is Molly A. I write cookbooks, I have a restaurant, and I had a show called Girl Meets

00:02:40Farm.

00:02:41I'm Zach Young, and I'm recognized as one of the country's top pastry chefs.

00:02:48Oh, look at all the beautiful squash!

00:02:50It's Molly and Dad.

00:02:52Look at how cute they are!

00:02:55Okay, it's real!

00:02:57I'm comfortable cooking on camera.

00:02:58I'm comfortable talking about food, but I haven't competed much.

00:03:03And I'm, like, totally scared.

00:03:05Can the first challenge be to make something for us to eat?

00:03:09I've been named one of the top ten pastry chefs in the U.S.

00:03:12I'm also a judge on Food Network, but I can cook, too.

00:03:18And I think that's why I'm here.

00:03:21Oh!

00:03:22Woo-hoo!

00:03:26Oh, all right, so...

00:03:28You know Joe.

00:03:29I know Joe well.

00:03:30He had a Michelin star.

00:03:32Joe is gonna be a sleeper.

00:03:35Oh, Maria!

00:03:37Joe!

00:03:39Hello!

00:03:41Hi, Molly.

00:03:42Monique.

00:03:43Nice to meet you.

00:03:44I know these guys.

00:03:45Oh, it's because you're young like them.

00:03:47Yeah.

00:03:47Look at the young swagger.

00:03:49They're of my age.

00:03:51I'm Christina Muros.

00:03:52I am a private chef, and I'm also an ICU nurse.

00:03:56So, I like stress, clearly.

00:03:58Oh, let's check this stuff out.

00:04:00I became a nurse six years ago to educate myself so I could be able to advocate for my special

00:04:07needs child.

00:04:07My daughter, Isabel, she's my best friend, and I'm here all for her.

00:04:12Look at all this.

00:04:14Can you see all the plates?

00:04:15I am Italian champion of pizza napoletana.

00:04:17My occupation is basically everything.

00:04:20Because when you own a restaurant, you need to do dishes, be a chef.

00:04:25I recognize most of the chefs from other important shows.

00:04:30This is an important opportunity for me to show to myself that I can beat them up.

00:04:36Oh, my God!

00:04:37Oh, my God!

00:04:41Ryan Malarkey, chef, restaurateur, San Diego, California, Bend, Oregon, in the house.

00:04:48How are you doing?

00:04:48I'm starstruck.

00:04:51If you're looking for someone, maybe one of the favorites coming out, he has the experience in Chops to be

00:04:57a favorite.

00:04:57He also was a judge in season two.

00:04:59But the question is gonna be for me, Esther, can he control his level of energy for 24 straight hours?

00:05:07I mean, I think everybody who has ever watched me, they know that I have a lot of energy.

00:05:11And this is no problem.

00:05:13The hours, the 24 hours, I'm not scared at all.

00:05:15Only thing that makes me nervous about this competition is that very first round.

00:05:20The first challenge is gonna be brutal.

00:05:23Look at this place.

00:05:25Wow.

00:05:26What's up?

00:05:26Hi, guys!

00:05:28What's up?

00:05:31Oh, look at this.

00:05:33Two chefs making a comeback.

00:05:35She's back, baby!

00:05:37And she's back.

00:05:38How you doing?

00:05:39Yeah, Michelle.

00:05:40Yeah, I love Michelle.

00:05:41I love this.

00:05:41I love you.

00:05:42These two came in in season one and two, thought they were gonna win the whole thing, went home in

00:05:46the first hour.

00:05:47It looks familiar, but it also looks a little different.

00:05:51I am a three times James Beard nominee.

00:05:54I am an Iron Chef winner.

00:05:57First season, I was eliminated the first round.

00:06:00I lost against Marcel, and Marcel ended up winning the whole entire season.

00:06:05So I'm back again, season three, and I'm taking this home.

00:06:10I'm gonna win this thing.

00:06:11Two very strong chefs that you and I both thought would make it far into the competition.

00:06:16Right.

00:06:16Got any tips for us?

00:06:17Yeah, go get knocked out.

00:06:19I am back, and I'm ready to go, because I have never, ever gotten knocked off in the first round.

00:06:26This time, I'm gonna do better.

00:06:28Oh, look at this.

00:06:29Ooh.

00:06:30Back in a competing arena again.

00:06:32Oh, my goodness.

00:06:33Oh, look at this.

00:06:36Shota, Leanne, Alex, these are three favorites.

00:06:40Three favorites?

00:06:41Oh, my God.

00:06:42Alex has been around.

00:06:43I have eaten at his restaurants.

00:06:45He's one of New York's most celebrated chefs.

00:06:48Yeah.

00:06:49Maybe America doesn't know, but those other 23 chefs right now are like, oh, God.

00:06:55The last culinary competition I did was Iron Chef in 2007, which I won.

00:07:02I don't compete very often.

00:07:03One, because I'm busy actively cooking and running my restaurants.

00:07:07And I also have a cute family in Brooklyn that takes up a lot of my time.

00:07:10Choosing to compete on 24 and 24, it's scary, but I think it's scary in a good way.

00:07:16Hey.

00:07:17I mean, Leanne, obviously, Leanne has been doing this for a long time at a high level.

00:07:23Mm-hmm.

00:07:23I mean, I remember her competing on Iron Chef multiple times.

00:07:26And Top Chef.

00:07:27And, oh, yeah, she did Top Chef as well.

00:07:29You know, she's been around and she's done well for a very long time.

00:07:32Shota's another one.

00:07:34Oh, Shota.

00:07:34I know you love Shota.

00:07:35I love it.

00:07:35I always saw Swap for Shota.

00:07:36He's so good.

00:07:37And he's, you know, obviously very technical chef.

00:07:40Japanese cuisine.

00:07:42I love his food.

00:07:43Yeah.

00:07:43You ready for this next 24 hours of craziness?

00:07:46I think.

00:07:47I think.

00:07:48Do you caffeinate?

00:07:49Well, I do, but I'm going to wait for a few hours.

00:07:52That's my tactic.

00:07:53Oh, that's pretty good.

00:07:54That's some pretty good zittar.

00:07:56It's really good.

00:07:56I've done Top Chef, and that takes five weeks to make.

00:07:59All right?

00:08:00Here, we're all going for 24 hours straight.

00:08:02This is crazy.

00:08:03Nobody in their right mind or wrong mind or any mind would ever work 24 hours straight.

00:08:09But here we go.

00:08:11There's the 24.

00:08:12That's it.

00:08:13These 24 chefs have no idea what's about to come.

00:08:15I haven't pulled it all nighter in a while, guys.

00:08:18Look, the chef world is small.

00:08:20We all know each other.

00:08:22I guarantee the 24 of them have picked the brains of everyone that has done this before.

00:08:27And they have studied every episode.

00:08:30They have everything we need.

00:08:31It's up to us to make good food.

00:08:32They think they know what's coming this season.

00:08:35Trust me.

00:08:36They don't.

00:08:37I don't see the speed stations.

00:08:41Oh, yeah.

00:08:42Oh, yeah, Viet.

00:08:43You're right.

00:08:44I think it's totally different.

00:08:45Me, too.

00:08:45So what we think we know, we don't know.

00:08:47We don't know.

00:08:47We've kicked each season off with a speed obstacle course.

00:08:50But that's not what's about to happen.

00:08:53Thank you, man.

00:08:56Oh, my God.

00:08:58What's happening?

00:08:59Is it, like, Squid Game?

00:09:01Well, I think something's about to happen.

00:09:03Why are the lights going out?

00:09:05What is going on right now?

00:09:06Why is it black?

00:09:08Is this the first challenge?

00:09:09Like, blind?

00:09:10Welcome to season three of 2424.

00:09:14Oh, no.

00:09:16Is it time?

00:09:16Oh, look.

00:09:17The door is open.

00:09:18Oh, my God.

00:09:19You smell everything.

00:09:20Oh, my God.

00:09:21Oh, my God.

00:09:22It's very dramatic.

00:09:23What is...

00:09:24What's happening?

00:09:26Oh, this is the break for a while, okay?

00:09:29Is there food in there?

00:09:30Yeah, yeah.

00:09:35I smell the challenge.

00:09:40Oh, guys.

00:09:42There's a letter.

00:09:43What did you find?

00:09:44There's a letter.

00:09:45Wow.

00:09:46Hello, chefs.

00:09:47The first two challenges are being set up behind those doors.

00:09:51There's a cautious challenge and a bold challenge.

00:09:54When the doors open, you will get to choose which challenge you want to be a part of.

00:10:00Those who choose the cautious challenge will have a 75% chance of survival.

00:10:05Those who choose the bold challenge will have a 50% chance of survival, but with much more to be

00:10:11gained, including the biggest single round cash prize ever given in this arena.

00:10:18I'm thinking cautious after last year, I definitely do not want to get sent home first. Like, it's my goal

00:10:24to stay here.

00:10:26What will be your strategy?

00:10:27I'm just going back and forth in my mind. This is a tricky one.

00:10:31There are 12 spots in each challenge, and they're our first come first served.

00:10:35So think fast.

00:10:37Welcome to season three of 24 and 24.

00:10:55All right.

00:10:56Okay.

00:10:56Bold.

00:10:59Let's go.

00:11:00This is what it is.

00:11:01Yes.

00:11:02Hello, guys.

00:11:04They say cautious can make you wimpy.

00:11:07I think it makes us stronger.

00:11:09Not a doubt in my mind.

00:11:11I am playing it safe.

00:11:12I can pick out which of these chefs is going for the bold side.

00:11:16And it's the ones who have the boldest chef-y personalities, like Stupac, Malarkey, Leigh-Anne.

00:11:24Like, I don't want to compete against them right off the bat.

00:11:27Yeah.

00:11:28This is a competition.

00:11:30I came here to win, and you have to be bold out the gate.

00:11:34Oh, look at these faces.

00:11:37Woo!

00:11:38All right.

00:11:40You guys look fantastic.

00:11:43Michael and Esther walk in, and, you know, I can see Michael laughing at me.

00:11:46I sat next to him when I judged it last year, and I told him specifically,

00:11:50I will never do this.

00:11:52No way.

00:11:52This is too much.

00:11:54And here I am.

00:11:55Chefs, welcome.

00:11:57Season three of 24 and 24.

00:12:03There is one thing about all of you here.

00:12:06You are either insanely talented or just insane.

00:12:12Of both.

00:12:13Both.

00:12:14Maybe a little bit of both.

00:12:16One thing that we do know is you have signed up for the hardest cooking competition ever devised.

00:12:2224 chefs, 24 challenges, and 24 non-stop hours.

00:12:28Crazy.

00:12:30Whichever chef is standing in the end will walk away with $100,000.

00:12:42Winning this competition would mean the world to me, especially right now.

00:12:45You know, I'm in the process of opening a restaurant.

00:12:48I have seven kids.

00:12:49Six of them are adopted.

00:12:50You know, so I'm spending money every which way.

00:12:52You know, so to see a little come in would definitely not hurt.

00:12:55And being a Marine, I have the self-discipline to be here all 24 hours.

00:13:01Now, you all know the show.

00:13:03And I'm sure you all think you have the perfect game plan.

00:13:05But, think again.

00:13:09Because this year, it's not the same game.

00:13:14Be ready for more twists and more turns than you could possibly imagine.

00:13:22So that means to be the last chef standing, strategy is going to be more important than ever.

00:13:30As you know, each shift is designed to test a real-world skill that professional chefs like you must be

00:13:38experts at.

00:13:38This season, we're kicking things off with strategy.

00:13:47Because to be a successful chef, you're constantly making difficult decisions.

00:13:52Now, you've already made your first strategic call.

00:13:55Twelve of you decided to play cautious.

00:13:57And twelve of you decided to be bold.

00:14:00That's right.

00:14:04Now you're going to find out what that means.

00:14:06Okay.

00:14:09If you chose the cautious challenge, you need to create a one-bite dish featuring an easy-to-cook protein.

00:14:17You'll have a choice of chicken thighs, shrimp, or ground beef.

00:14:22And you have a good amount of time to cook.

00:14:25Thirty minutes.

00:14:26You'll be battling solely for survival.

00:14:29When it's over, nine of you will be continuing, and three of you will be clocking out.

00:14:38Now, if you chose the bold challenge, here's what you've gotten yourself into.

00:14:43The twelve of you will also have to make a one-bite dish.

00:14:47But your proteins will be more difficult to work with.

00:14:51Venison, quail, and frog legs.

00:14:56Dirty. Dirty.

00:14:58And you're only going to have 24 minutes to cook.

00:15:03And your odds of surviving are way worse than the cautious challenge.

00:15:07Half of you will be clocking out.

00:15:11So I got literally a 50-50 shot of staying or going.

00:15:16So right off the bat, this is incredibly stressful.

00:15:21But that big risk comes with big rewards.

00:15:26The half of you that make it through will not have to cook again this shift.

00:15:33Plus, the chef who makes the best bold dish will be the first to claim the all-important golden knife.

00:15:44The golden knife is going to give you key advantages throughout this competition that ultimately you will want.

00:15:51This time, the golden knife comes with one big advantage in the next challenge.

00:15:55It also comes with the biggest cash prize we have ever given out in one challenge.

00:16:00$12,000.

00:16:05That's great.

00:16:07Wow.

00:16:09So now that you guys know what's going on, does anybody regret where they ended up?

00:16:15I don't know.

00:16:15No.

00:16:16No regrets.

00:16:17No regrets.

00:16:18All right, to frame where we are at here, guys.

00:16:20In about 30 minutes, there's only going to be 15 of you left with that chance.

00:16:26Michael will say go, and the people on Bold will have to sit tight for six minutes until going.

00:16:33All right, everybody, take a look at the clock.

00:16:36We're going to reset the 24-hour clock to zero.

00:16:41When I say go, the clock starts, and it will not stop until this 24-hour marathon is over.

00:16:49Your 24 hours starts.

00:16:57Now.

00:17:05Oh, God, we're killing each other.

00:17:07First down, please.

00:17:12What do they have left?

00:17:15All right, so we have shrimp, ground beef, and...

00:17:18And chicken thighs.

00:17:18Chicken thighs.

00:17:19One bite.

00:17:20It's got to be very impactful.

00:17:21Mm-hmm.

00:17:28So I'm very glad that I took the cautious side, because I don't know any of those proteins.

00:17:33Going into the first cook, I want to play it safe.

00:17:36I'm looking at this first cook as a warm-up.

00:17:38I want to get to know the pantry, get to know the kitchen, and just kind of get a little

00:17:43bit of the wiggly nerves out.

00:17:44I don't frequently cook shrimp, so I'm a little bit nervous.

00:17:48But for this challenge, I was more excited about shrimp as a one-bite situation.

00:17:53I'm gonna make a challah shrimp toast.

00:17:56I got a lot of inspiration from Heritage.

00:17:59My mom is Jewish and my dad is Chinese.

00:18:02And it's pretty simple to make, but it packs a lot of flavor.

00:18:06Your hair looks really good.

00:18:09Here, okay, sorry.

00:18:10In this competition, I'd like to represent home cooks.

00:18:14I wear it as a badge of honor, and I want to bring it.

00:18:17Oh, so good to see you here.

00:18:20So good to see you.

00:18:21How's it going?

00:18:22You know, I just started my 24 hours, so...

00:18:25Is it starting slow?

00:18:26It's the Japanese in me.

00:18:27I saw your outfit today.

00:18:29I know you're gonna be, like, the silent killer.

00:18:30You know, that's kind of the whole vibe, right?

00:18:32Yeah.

00:18:33Landing with cautious, I went to the first table I saw.

00:18:37That's literally all it was.

00:18:39What are you making?

00:18:40I'm doing a good old Japanese hanbago.

00:18:43Oh, hanbago!

00:18:43And I'm doing a little wafu dressing grated daikon.

00:18:47Shiso, my style of cooking is classic Japanese with a Pacific Northwest twist.

00:18:52This competition is different than any other competition I've done.

00:18:56I'm genuinely here because I want to know if I can pull off 24 hours.

00:19:01It seems like a crazy challenge, and I like a little crazy in my life.

00:19:04When I was 18, I moved to Japan with a duffel bag to go work in a mission-star restaurant.

00:19:09I opened my first fine dining restaurant when I was 25.

00:19:12And that's how I lived my life.

00:19:14I'm making a little one-biter, but I want to make it a little bit more elevated,

00:19:17so I'm gonna add some pickled shallots and some fried shallots on top.

00:19:20Cook what you know, right?

00:19:21We shall.

00:19:22Love it.

00:19:24Allora, I'm using ground beef.

00:19:27I am Italian.

00:19:29I am Italy!

00:19:30I was Grand Champion at the Battle Italiano on Chopped.

00:19:33So my dish is a crostino mediterraneo with bolognese and arugola.

00:19:41My strategy, to win.

00:19:44I try to win.

00:19:45I have my passion inside of me like a good Italian.

00:19:49Italian chefs, they say that they are the best lovers.

00:19:53I think I should, I should ask to my wife this.

00:19:56I'm going to win 24 because if I go back home and I don't win, yesterday was my wife's birthday,

00:20:04she's gonna kick my ass out of the house.

00:20:08Amazing.

00:20:08For real.

00:20:10For real.

00:20:11For real.

00:20:14So I'm an old school New York chef.

00:20:16I'm third generation.

00:20:17What protein do you have?

00:20:19The only thing left, chicken thigh.

00:20:21Part of my strategy is not to just come out guns blazing with chicken, palm, and meatballs.

00:20:27I gotta, I gotta do a little bit of a different dance here.

00:20:30For this challenge, I'm going to Southeast Asia.

00:20:33I'm gonna do a pan roasted chicken thigh with the Thai chili lime sauce.

00:20:38Take the bone out, cook it nice and quick, crispy on the skin side.

00:20:42Rock and roll, baby.

00:20:44I'm picking cautious simply because of the percentages.

00:20:47Look at the ratio.

00:20:49There's 12 of us.

00:20:50Only three are going home.

00:20:51Six of them are going home.

00:20:53I'm no dummy.

00:20:54But I'm starting to feel stressed because this competition is much different than the rest.

00:20:59People want to call this thing difficult.

00:21:01It's not difficult.

00:21:03It's insane.

00:21:08I thought of something interesting.

00:21:09I wonder, like last year, to start where Michelle got eliminated, she made a meatball.

00:21:14She made a captain of a Greek meatball.

00:21:16Yeah, she's back there.

00:21:17I wonder if she goes back.

00:21:18I wonder, like...

00:21:19She's gonna make a meatball again.

00:21:20No, you know, like redemption.

00:21:22Because I'm going redemption round.

00:21:25I am making the same thing because I think it was a great bite.

00:21:28And I'm going right back for it.

00:21:31I chose ground beef because the dish that sent me home last year was a Greek meatball.

00:21:36A beautiful Greek meatball, by the way.

00:21:37So the dish I'm going to do this year is a Greek meatball.

00:21:41This time, it's not gonna dry out.

00:21:44The outside of the meatball is so beautifully crisp.

00:21:47But for me, I just think the inside of the meatball is a little dry.

00:21:52To me, bread and milk in a meatball helps keep it really light.

00:21:58It would mean a lot to take home a win or to make it really far.

00:22:02Because it's been with me for the last year.

00:22:07It's been noodling for a while, huh?

00:22:09Has it really been?

00:22:11Yes!

00:22:12Can I get this Vitamix out of here?

00:22:13Yes, yes, yes.

00:22:14I'm here to take home this grand prize money to help me and my family.

00:22:19We have medical expenses.

00:22:21I'm striving to create a better life for my daughter and give her everything she deserves.

00:22:26So I'm choosing cautious because I think that's the smartest strategy for the long game.

00:22:31I don't have anything to prove here by going bold right off the bat.

00:22:36What's your plan?

00:22:37Um, I thought a perfect first bite would be a shrimp tostada.

00:22:41I'm gonna do a nice avocado crema, a little bit of a fresh slaw on top.

00:22:45Just keep it simple and delicious.

00:22:48I am going to make a quick pickle.

00:22:52What you making over there?

00:22:53I am playing on Tex-Mex.

00:22:56I got a little jerk shrimp tostada with crispy plantains, avocado crema, and a quick pickle.

00:23:02Okay, sounds good.

00:23:03Lots of different flavors going on.

00:23:05It's representative of one where I come from in my heart, which is Jamaica.

00:23:09My family is Jamaican and where I'm coming from for Dallas.

00:23:14Throw a little Tex-Mex at you while I'm at it.

00:23:16I'm the executive performance chef for the Dallas Mavericks.

00:23:19I came here to represent for the sports world.

00:23:22And I'm really looking forward to showing not just the other competitors, but also the world what it is that

00:23:28we do.

00:23:29Hello, Chef.

00:23:30Hi, Chef.

00:23:31How are you?

00:23:32Good to meet you. How are you?

00:23:33Good to meet you. How's it going?

00:23:35Oh, it's going well, I hope.

00:23:37Well, I know that you're a seasoned Olympian.

00:23:39Uh-huh.

00:23:40So, a seasoned athlete.

00:23:41So, how does that play into this game right now?

00:23:44Um, I think that this is my training round.

00:23:45I do need to, you know, to find my legs.

00:23:49Yeah, find my legs.

00:23:50Competing is in my blood.

00:23:51I am a former track athlete.

00:23:54I'm an Olympian, and I am a freelance chef currently.

00:23:57Where's your protein?

00:23:59Um, my protein is shrimp.

00:24:01Coconut?

00:24:02Curry?

00:24:02Coconut curry, yeah.

00:24:05Well, best of luck.

00:24:08Any panko breadcrumbs?

00:24:10Do you have panko?

00:24:11I've always been competitive.

00:24:12It's not just competing in the kitchen.

00:24:14I'm also a competitive gamer.

00:24:15I specialize in fighting games.

00:24:17I'm not the typical person that'll walk up and try to attack you.

00:24:20I'm more of the step back, let you attack me, and I'll counter.

00:24:23I'm doing a Japanese katsu slider.

00:24:26I chose chicken for my protein.

00:24:28Uh, sliders are usually fun.

00:24:29So, a simple one-bite slider, but it's gonna have a lot of flavor.

00:24:33I'm gonna do whatever it takes to win for my family.

00:24:36My wife and I have three kids.

00:24:37The cool part about it is my son Cameron, he's actually a Food Network baby.

00:24:41Uh, the first three shows that I won, they were chopped.

00:24:44A vegan competition called It's Compliplated.

00:24:47And Cutthroat Kitchen, we used the prize money to start the process for IBF.

00:24:52So, I won to get Cameron here, and now I'm gonna win again to take care of Cameron.

00:24:56How you doing, Chef?

00:24:57Good, how you doing?

00:24:57I am doing well.

00:24:58Smells good whenever you make it over there.

00:25:00Hey, Chef.

00:25:00How's it going?

00:25:02Good, how are you?

00:25:02Smells really good here.

00:25:04Cinnamon, onions, and...

00:25:05Mustard oil, cardamom.

00:25:06We're gonna make a Bengali beef tostada.

00:25:08It's a single one-biter.

00:25:09The style of food that I make is quite unique.

00:25:12I'm from the Midwest, and as a first-generation Bengali-American, my mom's food is near and dear to me.

00:25:17I have been nominated twice for James Beard Award.

00:25:20I have beaten Bobby Flay.

00:25:21I have built two restaurants.

00:25:23I'm ready for this.

00:25:24And how do you feel about the Cautious Challenge?

00:25:26I am happy, you know?

00:25:27Yeah, you're happy?

00:25:28Being here was a big enough risk as it is, so I will play at Cautious until I get to

00:25:32the middle.

00:25:33Okay, and then you see.

00:25:34One day at a time, Chef.

00:25:35You got it.

00:25:35Or one hour at a time.

00:25:36One day at a time.

00:25:37Yeah, it's a different show.

00:25:37One day at a time.

00:25:38You got it.

00:25:39All right, Bold Chefs, about two minutes you have.

00:25:41Two minutes till you start.

00:25:43You should have something pretty formulated in your head by now.

00:25:46All right, guys.

00:25:47Come on.

00:25:50Whoo, that's fun.

00:25:51I got started in the culinary world a little bit sideways because I went to Harvard for

00:25:55my master's, and I was actually designing websites for chefs.

00:26:00And then those chefs found out that I could cook, and then other people found out that

00:26:04I could cook.

00:26:05And all of a sudden, I was trying to get people out of my house on a Sunday because I

00:26:09didn't

00:26:09know them, and they were coming over for brunch.

00:26:11It's here.

00:26:13This is the fastest sambal I've ever made in my life.

00:26:15I'm making a fried chicken bite with coconut garlic gravy and a chili lime coconut sambal

00:26:20on top.

00:26:21I'm Sri Lankan.

00:26:22I'm Southern.

00:26:23I'm going for the fried chicken on the first challenge.

00:26:26Oh, you're killing me, bro.

00:26:27Are you okay?

00:26:28I'll be all right.

00:26:29I'm always all right.

00:26:31A little bit of hoisin.

00:26:32We're just going to get a little quick marinade on the chicken.

00:26:35Being a pastry chef in a more savory competition is actually an advantage.

00:26:40Pastry is creativity within the confines of science.

00:26:44Knowing what I can and can't accomplish in a short amount of time, how to build as much

00:26:49flavor as possible without it all breaking apart.

00:26:52I'd say banh mi tostata.

00:26:54Chicken thighs, a crispy rice paper cracker, pickled veg.

00:27:00There's a lot of jitters.

00:27:01It's the first challenge of this competition.

00:27:04It's the first time in this kitchen.

00:27:06I'm so grateful.

00:27:08My body literally put me into the cautious station.

00:27:12If you were to pick cautious or bold, obviously you would be bold.

00:27:20Bold chefs, 30 seconds.

00:27:23We were watching for six minutes.

00:27:25What I'm doing is actually writing the ingredients I need, the recipe.

00:27:30I'm ready.

00:27:31Five seconds, bold chefs.

00:27:33Let's go bold.

00:27:36All right, bold chefs, go.

00:27:49Let's go.

00:27:50Woo!

00:27:51Gotta be athletic in here.

00:27:53I can't run that fast anymore.

00:27:55All right.

00:27:56I'm full of hammy.

00:28:03What made you come back to this crazy world that we live in?

00:28:07Because I haven't won one yet.

00:28:07All right.

00:28:08There you go.

00:28:09I love it.

00:28:09Keep going, baby.

00:28:1020 years in the making.

00:28:11Keep going.

00:28:12Keep going.

00:28:12I consider myself an OG competitor.

00:28:15I was on the first season of Top Chef back in 2005.

00:28:18I have been in enough of these competitions and come close, but not quite.

00:28:25Do you have venison also?

00:28:27I'm doing a venison.

00:28:28Okay.

00:28:28Yukui style, Korean style.

00:28:31Here to play, here to win.

00:28:33All right.

00:28:33Let's go, chef.

00:28:34Good luck.

00:28:35Right after high school, I moved down to New York City.

00:28:37My first chef was Marcus Samuelson.

00:28:40And then I opened up Restaurant 66 with Jean-Georges Von Richten.

00:28:45But then, like, I moved to Hawaii 10 years ago to build my first restaurant.

00:28:51It's my family.

00:28:52It's my Ohana.

00:28:53I've been around the industry for 30 years.

00:28:55It's like I need to validate to the world that, yeah, hey, it's Leanne Wong.

00:29:01And you know what?

00:29:03She has game.

00:29:05All right.

00:29:06So, you feeling bold?

00:29:07I see you got the venison-diced up?

00:29:09I did.

00:29:09What are we making?

00:29:10We're going to make a Vietnamese-inspired tartare.

00:29:13I cooked a lot of Southeast Asian food, so this naturally being this way.

00:29:16Right.

00:29:17Good connection.

00:29:18I love it.

00:29:19I grew up in a small town called Kalihi on Oahu.

00:29:22I worked at the best restaurants in Hawaii before I moved to New York City.

00:29:26It's actually insane that this is my first competition.

00:29:29And Chef Leanne Wong is cooking next to me.

00:29:33She's done a lot of competitions.

00:29:35You know, we both cook with Hawaii flavors.

00:29:37Like, it helps me push myself.

00:29:39I see, you know, where I want to go.

00:29:42So, what made you choose bold?

00:29:44Um, I don't know.

00:29:46My instincts, my guts just went there.

00:29:47This is my first competition.

00:29:49Oh, all right.

00:29:50Welcome to the world of crazy.

00:29:52Yeah, I don't know why.

00:29:53Come on.

00:29:58How's it going over there, Chef?

00:30:00Feeling very good.

00:30:01Nice.

00:30:02I love to hear it.

00:30:03I love venison.

00:30:04I love venison.

00:30:04Oh, you're a venison man.

00:30:06I do cook a lot with venison.

00:30:09Not a lot of one bite stuff, but I definitely cook a lot with venison.

00:30:13I knew 100% I was going to go with bold because I would consider myself probably one of the

00:30:18most adventurous people that you know.

00:30:21I'm a bow hunter, so I spend lots of times in the mountains.

00:30:24I love extreme sports, and I cook a lot of wild game and wrote the first nationally, internationally published Armenian

00:30:33cookbook.

00:30:34Got a bunch of awards, write-ups in the New York Times, LA Times.

00:30:37So, I got this one in the bag.

00:30:39I'm making a cumin-crusted venison crostini with pepper paste sauce and a garlic leboni.

00:30:47Chef, what do you get a chance?

00:30:48What are you making?

00:30:49I'm making a venison tartare toast.

00:30:52Really elegant with some trout roll caviar on focaccia with lots of big Asian flavors.

00:30:59You know Brian Malarkey, shenanigans, always doing too much.

00:31:04Does fortune favor the bold?

00:31:05We are going to find out.

00:31:10I'm going to win 24 and 24 because this is new age stuff, because I deserve it, right?

00:31:17Because I have earned it, I have worked hard for it, and I am playing for the right reason.

00:31:22When I win the money, I'm going to create a fund, and I'm going to give money to very talented,

00:31:27successful, motivational chefs

00:31:29to go to high schools and speak to the future generations of the greatness and what you can do with

00:31:36the culinary arts.

00:31:37And it's something that is so fulfilling.

00:31:38If you find exactly what you're looking for in life, it is not work.

00:31:42It is magic.

00:31:44I just have to get through this round because six of this group are going to be gone, right?

00:31:48Where did my venison tartare go?

00:31:50You lost your tartare?

00:31:51I don't know.

00:31:52You didn't put it in the oven, did you?

00:31:53I didn't put it in the oven.

00:31:55Oh, it's on my garlic.

00:31:56I got it.

00:31:57Woo!

00:31:57Okay, he found it.

00:31:58Woo!

00:31:58Old man, you know, the mind's going, you know, the first thing to go.

00:32:02Come on, get it together, Malarkey.

00:32:05The one no one else would take.

00:32:08Frog's legs.

00:32:08I do consider myself a rule breaker.

00:32:11If you were to look at my resume, it makes no sense whatsoever.

00:32:14I've been a pastry chef in three Michelin star restaurants.

00:32:18And I also sling tacos out of a dive bar.

00:32:22And everything in between.

00:32:24Gonna make an unusual tempura based on Mexican corn masa.

00:32:28In life, I've always taken the bold path.

00:32:30Masa tempura is something that represents me as a chef.

00:32:34It has Mexican roots, but it's also innovative.

00:32:38I belong in this competition because I love a challenge.

00:32:42I thrive on adversity.

00:32:43I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder.

00:32:45I think it's a good chip.

00:32:46I think it's a healthy chip.

00:32:47Masa tempura is done.

00:32:49Frog leg is boned and French.

00:32:52And we're gonna hope for the best.

00:32:54I'm thinking I'm gonna do a little bit of a quail curry situation.

00:32:57So I actually grew up eating a lot of quails in Pakistan.

00:33:00And so it feels like it was calling my name and that's why I picked it.

00:33:04I'm making oven roasted quail.

00:33:06Garlic and herb.

00:33:08Leavenay with pickled shallots.

00:33:11I didn't really get into the culinary space till 2020.

00:33:14I was pregnant with my first child.

00:33:17And not being able to have like nourishing broths that I grew up drinking.

00:33:21I was just making them at home.

00:33:23And like everybody else during the pandemic, I was also posting it online.

00:33:27So quickly those videos of me making food broth went viral and I started my business.

00:33:33I think it definitely went 24 and 24.

00:33:37I've had long nights.

00:33:38I've been, you know, a team of one.

00:33:41So I know what it takes to make sure that you get to the end goal.

00:33:49I feel like the frog in the baguette is as French and the duck fat and the truffle.

00:33:55If I cannot be more French than that, then I don't know.

00:33:58I grew up in Paris, France, like any Parisian.

00:34:03My love language is food.

00:34:05I just want best chef in Miami.

00:34:07I did beat Thomas Keller.

00:34:09I'm still waiting for you to call me Thomas, you know, to say like,

00:34:13congratulations, girl.

00:34:14But, you know, obviously you lost my number.

00:34:16I'm gonna do an open sandwich.

00:34:19I'm going to do an open baguette toast with garlic frog with fig and caramelized endive.

00:34:28And it's gonna be delicious.

00:34:31So right now what I have going on is, uh, started the roux.

00:34:35So I really wanted to get that roux brown, you know,

00:34:37because that's one of the key factors to a good gumbo.

00:34:40It's a nice roux.

00:34:42I was born in Chicago and grew up in Michigan.

00:34:44But I am a product of soul food.

00:34:48For this challenge, I'm gonna be making quail and andouille gumbo.

00:34:52Gumbo is a very, very bold dish to do in 24 minutes.

00:34:56I mean, the complexity of gumbo typically takes hours.

00:35:01This isn't something that a normal person would do, but I'm crazy enough to do it.

00:35:06All right, are you feeling like the Marines?

00:35:08Is this, like, is that training helping you out here?

00:35:10Oh, yeah.

00:35:11You gotta be bold to be a Marine, right?

00:35:12Absolutely.

00:35:13I don't know that I would even be here without the Marine Corps,

00:35:17you know, saying, you know what?

00:35:18Push yourself.

00:35:19And, and, you know, when you thought you pushed yourself enough,

00:35:22push yourself even more.

00:35:23That and, uh, you know what?

00:35:24I'm challenging a little bit of my, my grandma right here, so.

00:35:30How you doing, my man?

00:35:31Amazing, bro.

00:35:32I'm driving right now.

00:35:33Hopefully it all comes together, eh?

00:35:34You know what?

00:35:35The most important is having fun, no matter what.

00:35:37People may know me from, uh, the show called Below Deck.

00:35:41I am a yacht chef in Palm Beach and Miami.

00:35:44On a yacht, if you miss one ingredient, guess what?

00:35:47You're screwed.

00:35:48Because there is no way to get it.

00:35:50Oh, maybe sometime you can call a helicopter and bring some caviar.

00:35:53But, you know, honestly, some guests, I don't want to pay for that.

00:35:56So sometimes you just open the fridge in the gati and you got to do with what you have.

00:36:01This competition is going to be like being on a huge yacht and I have 24 hour to make beautiful

00:36:06meal with what we have.

00:36:07What's going on on your side?

00:36:09Venison tartare with Vietnamese flavors.

00:36:12Yes.

00:36:12So think of really big, bold, spicy, sweet, bitter, lots of herbaceousness, freshness.

00:36:19Yeah, I love that you went bold.

00:36:20You know, after what happened last time, no, no fear.

00:36:23The first season, I didn't get the opportunity to push myself, push my stamina, my endurance, and to think forward

00:36:32to this season.

00:36:33If anything, it's going to be harder and if I don't take the risks, then I probably shouldn't be here.

00:36:40How are you feeling, chef?

00:36:41Great. Amazing.

00:36:42I have some ideas.

00:36:43I mean, let me tell you something.

00:36:44I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm going to make the magic happen.

00:36:47I don't have any plan.

00:36:49I have nothing.

00:36:50I just like to improvise.

00:36:52Well, the good news is you have 12 minutes to figure it out.

00:36:55Yes, sir.

00:36:56Love and passion.

00:36:57Love and passion.

00:36:57All right.

00:36:59All right, guys.

00:37:00So this is good.

00:37:02We have some really heavy hitters on the bold side.

00:37:04Some great chefs.

00:37:06A lot of people that I think everyone at home knows.

00:37:09And some that are, like, serious hitters that maybe not everybody at home knows yet.

00:37:14Like Alex.

00:37:15I've known Alex for a long time.

00:37:17He is a superstar chef.

00:37:18He came from the pastry world.

00:37:19He worked at Cleo, Alenia, WD50, then opened his own place doing really, like, beautiful Mexican food.

00:37:27Now, he hasn't done a ton of competition.

00:37:30So let's see how he reacts to that.

00:37:32Then we have some competition veterans over here, like Brian Malarkey and Leanne.

00:37:37And I mean, so they have been around the block with this.

00:37:40So in theory, they should be used to this environment.

00:37:44But let's face it.

00:37:45There is no environment like 24.

00:37:48So I'm going to make a quail nugget with mole rojo.

00:37:54Mole, that's what I do on a daily dishes.

00:37:57I am known for my salsas through and through.

00:38:00The slogan in my restaurant is, our salsas are hotter than your wife.

00:38:03I've been yelled at because of that.

00:38:06I'm making my sauce.

00:38:09I'm complex.

00:38:10I'm difficult.

00:38:11I'm spicy.

00:38:12I'm sweet.

00:38:13I'm bitter.

00:38:14I am a mole.

00:38:15Pretty much guajillo, achiote, tomato.

00:38:22I'm a James Beard semifinalist twice.

00:38:25I can win 24 because I'm resilient and we need a Mexicana out there.

00:38:31I'm ready to be that one.

00:38:32We're making a quick mole, eh?

00:38:35Yes, we're bringing Mexico out.

00:38:38Hell yeah.

00:38:39I call myself a dancing chef.

00:38:41And I'm bringing here because I'm going to keep on singing that music in my head to keep me focused.

00:38:45One of my passions, one of the things besides cooking is what I love.

00:38:48I love dancing.

00:38:49When I'm in the kitchen, the music's definitely on.

00:38:51Like Afro beats, we might be like, yo.

00:38:54And then the house music, we're like, up, up, up, up.

00:38:57And then I might throw some Ed Sheeran in there.

00:39:00Castles over the hill.

00:39:01That is my get up song.

00:39:03So I picked a frog leg.

00:39:05Flavors, I'm going to go Italian.

00:39:07I'm going back to when I own a fruit truck.

00:39:10And I have fruit, frog legs as a special.

00:39:12Stretching in the clock out right now after this event, you know, gets my nerves going.

00:39:16But this is what we're here for, right?

00:39:18Do or die.

00:39:18Let's rock and roll.

00:39:22Oh, my God.

00:39:23Michael is starting on the coffee already.

00:39:25I think he's on his, like, sixth cup.

00:39:28Yeah?

00:39:29Why is everyone so, just leave me my coffee, me and my coffee habits alone.

00:39:34I can't get it to work, so why not matter.

00:39:36Are you actually drinking water right now?

00:39:37I've never seen that.

00:39:38I drink a ton of water.

00:39:39I have to.

00:39:40I drink so much coffee.

00:39:41I have to.

00:39:41Oh, you balance it out.

00:39:43How is the bold chefs?

00:39:45Good.

00:39:46A lot of interesting stuff.

00:39:47Yeah.

00:39:47Several different things with frog legs, which I think could be cool.

00:39:51I mean, we got some venison tartars thing that you would expect.

00:39:55Four minutes.

00:40:05That is a citrusy oil.

00:40:07Super simple.

00:40:07This is so intense.

00:40:09On our side, the bold, the bold and the badass beautiful, we're gonna lose half of our people.

00:40:15That stress is constantly churning.

00:40:17There is one single goal, and that is to win.

00:40:21So, you know I'm going all in.

00:40:23I'm all in malarkey.

00:40:24I'm not gonna lie.

00:40:25That is pretty damn good.

00:40:29Yes.

00:40:30Yeah, so it's rice paper that's been fried up.

00:40:34Why else are we here in bold, baby?

00:40:36I wanna win the big purse.

00:40:39I want the golden knife.

00:40:40I wanna be able to sleep.

00:40:42All right, you guys, we have two minutes to go.

00:40:45Two minutes to go.

00:40:47Oh, my God.

00:40:48How does this time go so fast?

00:40:50Two minutes left, baby.

00:40:51Heard?

00:40:52Oh, yeah, heard.

00:40:53One battle at a time.

00:40:54In two minutes, nine of these chefs are going home.

00:40:59Damn.

00:40:59Right.

00:41:00Let's rock and roll.

00:41:03Definitely going bold on the cautious side.

00:41:06Now, pay attention on the details.

00:41:0930 seconds.

00:41:1030 seconds.

00:41:15There is nothing dry about that meatball.

00:41:19Five, four, three, two, one.

00:41:23Hands up.

00:41:25You did it, chef.

00:41:27Yes.

00:41:29Ooh, that was a good one.

00:41:31That was a good one.

00:41:31Joey.

00:41:32Yes.

00:41:33Here, come here.

00:41:34Let me feed you that.

00:41:35What is it?

00:41:35A little Greek meatball, and it is not dry.

00:41:38You went with the meatball again.

00:41:39I did.

00:41:39Same dish.

00:41:39I love you.

00:41:40It's good, right?

00:41:41Delicious.

00:41:42All right, chefs.

00:41:43Those were two hotly contested battles.

00:41:47So, congratulations for getting through them.

00:41:49And now, for the not-so-fun part, we're gonna find out which nine chefs are clocking out.

00:41:59But this season, we're gonna be doing it a little bit different.

00:42:02What?

00:42:03What?

00:42:05Unlike previous seasons, this time, every tasting will be blind.

00:42:15You will not be able to speak for your dishes.

00:42:19They have to speak for themselves.

00:42:23So, please use the pen and paper at your stations to write down a short description that you wanna convey

00:42:29to the judges.

00:42:33So, cautious chefs are gonna bring your dishes up.

00:42:37Bold chefs are gonna bring your dishes to culinary.

00:42:40And then you could all head to the break room.

00:42:46Last chef in the break room.

00:42:48Close the doors behind you.

00:42:49Very good looking.

00:42:51I feel extremely confident for the first time in many, many years of competition.

00:42:55I feel relaxed, which is weird for me.

00:42:58May the cards fall in my favor or not.

00:43:01We'll see.

00:43:02It's up to the secret judge that we had no idea who he is.

00:43:06Whoo!

00:43:08Whoo!

00:43:09Way to go, everybody!

00:43:10We did it!

00:43:10Way to go, way to go.

00:43:11First one's out of the way.

00:43:12First one is out of the way.

00:43:16It's the first and only time that we are all together in.

00:43:20Don't be nervous.

00:43:21Really?

00:43:22How'd it go?

00:43:24We'll see.

00:43:26All right, chefs.

00:43:27I know you can hear me back there.

00:43:31The judge for this shift is a returning favorite.

00:43:34He is a seasoned veteran of all the most elite cooking competitions,

00:43:38both behind the stove and behind the judging table.

00:43:42Here is renowned restaurateur and culinary legend, Jet Tila.

00:43:47Whoo!

00:43:48Yeah!

00:43:50What is going on?

00:43:52Where are the chefs?

00:43:53We sent them all home.

00:43:55Yeah, we sent them home, chef.

00:43:56Chefs, if you're back there, nice to see you.

00:43:59Whoo!

00:44:01They liked it in the back.

00:44:02Yeah, I know.

00:44:03I love Jet Tila.

00:44:05It's so weird.

00:44:05But holy buckets, I have never had him judge my food.

00:44:09So I am nervous.

00:44:11Hi, chef.

00:44:11Welcome.

00:44:12Good to see you guys.

00:44:13Good to see you.

00:44:14It's weird that there's no one here.

00:44:16I can hear them, but I can't see anything.

00:44:19All right, let's go.

00:44:19This is crazy.

00:44:20It's our first season of blind tasting.

00:44:23It's gonna be wild.

00:44:24Awesome, man.

00:44:25I love that it's blind tasting.

00:44:26We have 12 dishes here right now, and these are the chefs that cooked in the cautious competition.

00:44:34Twelve chefs made one-bite dishes, and they all had to choose from shrimp, chicken thighs, or ground beef.

00:44:41And the chefs who made the three worst dishes will clock out.

00:44:45Jet, just so you are clear, the chefs are in the break room.

00:44:48Okay.

00:44:48They are watching and listening, so they will hear everything that you're saying about their dishes, even though you don't

00:44:55know who is back there.

00:44:56All right, here we go.

00:45:01Greek meatball, tzatziki, pistachio, gremolata.

00:45:06I do not want to go home. It is not time.

00:45:10It would really be nice to just last.

00:45:13I'm here for a hundred grand.

00:45:30Wow. Meatball's well-formed.

00:45:32I've got the yogurt. I've got herbaceousness there, but it needs more salt.

00:45:37Wow.

00:45:37Especially with all those Greek flavors.

00:45:40All right.

00:45:41Okay.

00:45:42All right.

00:45:42I'll say something.

00:45:44I have to get through this first round.

00:45:47I mean, I'm not leaving.

00:45:48All right.

00:45:49This one's Cristino Mediterranean with bolognese amurdo mio, lime arugula.

00:45:56Mmm.

00:45:57It's smoky.

00:45:59It's got a ton of really great flavor.

00:46:01What's really lacking here is the bread.

00:46:04I want a crisp bread, light center.

00:46:07All right. Moving on.

00:46:08Okay.

00:46:09Damba-style Bengali beef tostada cilantro mayo.

00:46:13I'm also judging you by your terrible handwriting, Chef.

00:46:20Big flavor.

00:46:21Acid.

00:46:22Umami.

00:46:23Dachostada on the bottom gives a lot of crunch.

00:46:25This is really, really nice.

00:46:29Okay.

00:46:29This is fried chicken bite with coconut garlic sauce and chili lime coconut.

00:46:36The fried chicken is light.

00:46:40It's crispy.

00:46:41The chicken is moist, but it's pretty under seasoned.

00:46:45Under?

00:46:46Okay.

00:46:48Pan-roasted chicken thigh with a Thai chili lime and cilantro citrus relish.

00:46:54It's a lot of...

00:46:56Chicken thigh is spot on.

00:46:58It's crispy.

00:46:59This sauce, man, it's kind of like this Thai yum dressing.

00:47:02Great dish.

00:47:04Technically executed very well.

00:47:06So I went a little outside the box.

00:47:08Okay?

00:47:09My strategy totally paid off.

00:47:11Jerk shrimp tostada, avocado crema, and fresh tomato.

00:47:16No, you're supposed to eat the whole thing in your mouth.

00:47:18Big Latin vibes.

00:47:20This chef did a great job of cooking the shrimp and seasoning the shrimp.

00:47:23Creaminess is great.

00:47:23I needed one more element that was starchy.

00:47:28Give you a place to go with all this acid and creaminess.

00:47:32I'll take it.

00:47:33Okay.

00:47:34All right.

00:47:35Okay.

00:47:36Plantain and shrimp dumpling, plantain crisps, coconut curry, mango relish.

00:47:45This was fun.

00:47:46The dumpling's perfect.

00:47:48Seasoned well, crisp on the outside.

00:47:49Problem with this one is it's missing acid to balance the plate out.

00:47:55I knew that too.

00:47:57Wasu hamburger.

00:48:00Honsu daikon shiso.

00:48:02Really creative way to use beef.

00:48:05Essentially, if you break it down, it's a meatball.

00:48:07But when you add touches of shiso and daikon, it lightens the dish up.

00:48:11It really elevates the style.

00:48:13It's one of the smarter dishes so far.

00:48:15Oh.

00:48:15Yeah.

00:48:18Shrimp tostada, avocado mousse, and slaw.

00:48:22This is a gorgeous bite.

00:48:24Let's see how it eats.

00:48:27Shrimp is cooked perfectly.

00:48:29It's still poppy and crispy the way shrimp should be.

00:48:31Tostada is fried perfectly.

00:48:33The slaw gives you that acid moment.

00:48:36I'm missing, like, alums.

00:48:38I'm missing scallions.

00:48:40It's just bright, bright, but it could really have been rounded up by more alums.

00:48:44Totally.

00:48:45It's so right.

00:48:48Challah shrimp toast.

00:48:50Wow.

00:48:51Yeah.

00:48:53I'm proud of my dish.

00:48:55I feel like this dish is enough to help me reach my goal.

00:48:59Really smart dish.

00:49:01Sesame seeds, challah is a richer dough, egg dough.

00:49:04The shrimp processed on there is smart.

00:49:08But the fat on the bottom needed a few more dimensions to be almost perfect.

00:49:16Okay, I'll take a sip.

00:49:18I feel like it's good enough to make it through to the next round.

00:49:21Hopefully.

00:49:21Okay.

00:49:23Japanese katsu slider, chicken katsu, umami aioli, ponzu chili slaw, puffed rice, brioche.

00:49:33I love the flavors here.

00:49:36The ponzu acid play with the creaminess and the herbaceous of the curry is pretty darn perfect.

00:49:41The problem here was the protein.

00:49:45When you say katsu, I want breaded, strong fry, crunch, nothing crunch.

00:49:53All right, last but not least, chicken banh mi tostada.

00:49:58Huh.

00:49:58All right.

00:50:00It almost looks like banh mi in Greek, like the pickles.

00:50:03You guys see the pickled veg and stuff like that?

00:50:04Jet has eaten a lot of my desserts.

00:50:08And I'm actually excited for Jet to try my food.

00:50:11My food!

00:50:12My food food.

00:50:13Delicious.

00:50:14The cook on the chicken, good sear, well seasoned.

00:50:17Now we get the freshness of the herbs.

00:50:19It really hits that expectation of the name.

00:50:24Don't love their handwriting, love this dish.

00:50:26How's that sound?

00:50:29No, no notes.

00:50:31No, no negative.

00:50:32Wow, how did I do this?

00:50:34I'm full.

00:50:37All right, Jet, you have tasted all the cautious challenge dishes.

00:50:41Yeah.

00:50:42I need you to take a second, take a beat.

00:50:44Wow.

00:50:44Think about the 12 things you ate, because now you need to choose the bottom three.

00:50:50Oh.

00:50:5130 minutes to make food this great, you should all be proud of yourselves.

00:50:54Really, really nice job.

00:50:56All right, you guys, with that side, cut the feet.

00:51:00Oh!

00:51:02What is this, the Sopranos?

00:51:04Yo.

00:51:05Ah.

00:51:06I go out for Greek meatballs, I swear.

00:51:09A lot of chefs were critiqued for their seasoning, and that wasn't one of mine.

00:51:13So I'm just hoping and praying that I don't go home.

00:51:17All right, Jet, they cannot hear us back there.

00:51:19Okay.

00:51:19Um, do you know your bottom three?

00:51:22I, I know my bottom three.

00:51:24All right, hang on to the bottom three till later.

00:51:27What?

00:51:27Because next up is the bowl challenge.

00:51:29Are you gonna read them?

00:51:30Wow, I thought I could just get it over with.

00:51:32No.

00:51:33Bold, bold in the front.

00:51:34Yeah.

00:51:35Good luck, guys.

00:51:36All right.

00:51:37Y'all have so much fun.

00:51:38Good luck, everyone.

00:51:40Everyone, everyone.

00:51:41Taking a risk.

00:51:43I like the risk.

00:51:45Also, there's 12K at stake, guys.

00:51:47That's not a small amount of money.

00:51:49All right, everybody, turn the feed back on, please.

00:51:52Food, Melbourne.

00:51:55Half of us are going home right now.

00:51:57I'm freaking out.

00:51:59I'm not ready to go home right now.

00:52:00Should I have played the cautious route?

00:52:02Like, what did I do?

00:52:03All right, so first dish.

00:52:13All right, so, Jet, these chefs had 24 minutes.

00:52:17Ah.

00:52:18Still one bite, but a little trickier protein.

00:52:21Okay.

00:52:21Their choices were quail, venison, and frog legs.

00:52:25Oh, wow.

00:52:25All game.

00:52:26Kind of right up my alley.

00:52:28And so, unlike the cautious challenge,

00:52:31this time, you're choosing the bottom half.

00:52:33No, no, no.

00:52:35So this time, six chefs go home.

00:52:37But here's a little kicker here.

00:52:39Your last assignment is to choose the best dish out of these 12.

00:52:43Yeah.

00:52:43And that chef's not only gonna get the golden knife, but they're also going to get $12,000 cash.

00:52:50Wow.

00:52:51These chefs took the high risk.

00:52:53Yeah, right.

00:52:53They took the bigger risk, but there's more reward.

00:52:56Okay.

00:52:56All right, so first dish.

00:53:01We have a boneless quail wing and a mole rojo tossed with sesame seeds.

00:53:11Mole in 24 minutes is mostly, in my mind, impossible.

00:53:18But this is really great.

00:53:22I like that, that audible feedback.

00:53:25The spices come through, the texture, look at that.

00:53:28That's mole.

00:53:29I will say though, the quail is dry.

00:53:34All right, moving on.

00:53:36This is frog legs with lemon parsley grummelata.

00:53:42All right, very straightforward.

00:53:48Frog's legs, it's really crispy on the outside.

00:53:51It's tender.

00:53:52It's cooked absolutely perfectly.

00:53:53The seasoning, this is probably one of the best seasoning dishes, but I really wanted a sauce to pull it

00:54:01all together.

00:54:03All right, frog au cheval, a la French baguette.

00:54:07Au cheval, because I don't know.

00:54:10Sorry.

00:54:10Wow.

00:54:10It's so big.

00:54:11What's that?

00:54:13Everyone knows I carry my own dinner knife.

00:54:17Guys, I'm sorry, this is not one bite.

00:54:20This is not two bites, not four bites.

00:54:21It's kind of an appetizer.

00:54:25Oh.

00:54:26Oh my God.

00:54:28I love the accoutrement here.

00:54:31I really love the egg cooked perfectly creamy.

00:54:33I love the fig.

00:54:34The problem is, it all kind of covers the frog.

00:54:38The frog is supposed to be the star.

00:54:42Oh.

00:54:44Okay.

00:54:45Vietnamese venison tartare with noc mam, Thai chilies.

00:54:51Vietnamese herbs on a rice cracker.

00:54:53Here we go.

00:54:57The venison is well seasoned.

00:54:59It's treated well.

00:55:00The gaminess is cooked out of it.

00:55:01The noc mam bright notes of fish sauce and lime.

00:55:05Paired with the herbs of the mint, it's very precious.

00:55:08It's well thought out.

00:55:08Not the best to look at, but one of the best to eat.

00:55:12There you go.

00:55:14Ugh!

00:55:17Okay, field and stream venison tartare, trout roe, garlic, chili, shoyu, citrus aioli.

00:55:28There's so much technique and refinement here.

00:55:31It seems the chef is very accomplished.

00:55:34I do taste the venison.

00:55:35It's a nice treatment of the venison.

00:55:37Very nice dish.

00:55:41Yes, yes, yes.

00:55:42I am so confident I am in the top six of this group already.

00:55:46I think I might have a really good chance that it's $12,000.

00:55:49Cumin crusted venison crostini with pepper paste sauce and garlic labneh.

00:55:59I love all the flavors here.

00:56:02There's cumin, the spice, the salt level.

00:56:06This is where venison is balanced.

00:56:09It's the star of this dish.

00:56:11Let's go.

00:56:12It's not the most gorgeous presentation.

00:56:15I think the venison was a little haphazard.

00:56:21Another chef with nice penmanship.

00:56:23Here we go.

00:56:24Southeast Asian venison tartare, crispy rice cracker.

00:56:29I love the plate up here.

00:56:30The sauce, the creaminess.

00:56:32I don't know if it's mustard or creme fraiche or something,

00:56:34but it balances the tartare.

00:56:35There's a little bit of heat there.

00:56:37It's really, it's a precious dish.

00:56:38I like this a lot.

00:56:41But the rice flavor is weird here because it's oily.

00:56:45There's no seasoning on it.

00:56:47I should have put it together.

00:56:48All right, we have oven baked quail with garlic and herb labneh and pickled shallot.

00:56:55It's not a bite.

00:56:56This is not a bite.

00:56:58It's an adorable knife.

00:57:00Did your kids give it to you?

00:57:01That's definitely gifted by your daughter.

00:57:07I love the labneh.

00:57:09It's really the star of the show.

00:57:11But quail, the cook is inconsistent.

00:57:13It's a little on the over.

00:57:15And then the skin, I don't feel they got a nice crisp on.

00:57:22All right, next up, chef, we have a quail and andouille gumbo with grilled baguette and marinated tomatoes.

00:57:30It's the smallest gumbo I've ever seen.

00:57:33Come on.

00:57:34There you go.

00:57:37I'm digging the gumbo.

00:57:41I was doubting gumbo in 24 minutes, but that's a really well composed gumbo.

00:57:47It's got really nice seasoning, herbaceous layers.

00:57:49Really, really good.

00:57:53This one's called French bite.

00:57:56Frog legs, garlic glaze, flambé, pastis, caramelized onion, and gruyere.

00:58:05They're very well cooked.

00:58:07I didn't even try, bro.

00:58:09But I don't love the onions.

00:58:11Caramelized usually means cooked down until they're soft, tender, and super sugary.

00:58:16These are resistant.

00:58:18I mean, that's not caramelized.

00:58:19That is way undercooked.

00:58:21That's 24 minutes, bro.

00:58:23Next up, frog leg in masa tempura.

00:58:27Wow.

00:58:28With Mexican tartare sauce.

00:58:31Mmm.

00:58:33You can hear it.

00:58:33Mm-hmm. I hear it.

00:58:34You can hear it.

00:58:35That's the best cooked frog legs on the table so far.

00:58:41Tartare sauce, really smart as well.

00:58:43So, overall, really great dish.

00:58:47All right, your final dish.

00:58:49Spicy venison tartare.

00:58:52Yukae-style cucumber.

00:58:54Green apple kimchi, aioli, and fried rice.

00:58:57Yukae is normally, like, a Korean-style beef tartare.

00:59:01It's, like, sweet and savory.

00:59:02Wow.

00:59:03Sorry, that gives it away, doesn't it?

00:59:05Mmm, I should say.

00:59:08The venison's treated well.

00:59:09It's cut perfectly for this.

00:59:10Just to play on textures, right?

00:59:13The crispy rice, the apple, which gives sweetness and acidity.

00:59:17Big faux pas here is salt.

00:59:20You did not salt this enough for all the richness you have here.

00:59:24But this is a tartare that I'll be stealing in terms of technique.

00:59:30I thought I over-salted it.

00:59:32To me, lack of salt is always a slightly better faux pas than too much salt.

00:59:40I thought I over-salted it.

00:59:43Good job, guys.

00:59:44Good job, everybody.

00:59:46You got to send home half these people?

00:59:48Yes, chef.

00:59:49This is not fair.

00:59:51How do you feel?

00:59:53Oh, this is where I'm really stuck.

00:59:56I feel like it's anyone's game right now.

00:59:58You think you know?

00:59:59One, two, three.

01:00:00Oh, and there's gonna be one or two dishes where, like, I'm splitting hairs.

01:00:04This is why it's hard.

01:00:11Chefs, we'll start by revealing the results of the Cautious Challenge.

01:00:16And remember, three of you will be clocking out.

01:00:19Those of you who are safe get to keep cooking in the shift.

01:00:23But you are not going to the break room.

01:00:28According to Jet, the safe chefs are...

01:00:34Christina.

01:00:36Yes.

01:00:37Shoda.

01:00:38I am definitely a competitive person.

01:00:40The first challenge is always getting the jitters out.

01:00:43So, let's go.

01:00:45Joe, you are safe.

01:00:46Yeah, Joe.

01:00:47Lex.

01:00:49Avashar.

01:00:53Congratulations, Molly.

01:00:54You are safe.

01:00:55Nice, Molly.

01:00:57I had two goals coming into this competition.

01:00:59Cook food that I'm proud of and that represents me.

01:01:03And make it past the first round.

01:01:05So, I'm shocked and relieved.

01:01:07Dawn, you are safe.

01:01:11Zach, you are safe.

01:01:13Goal accomplished, not eliminated first.

01:01:17Sweet.

01:01:18Maybe I can take my first nap of the day.

01:01:20Holy .

01:01:21I think I'm going home.

01:01:23And that means between Michelle, Antonello, Chris and Sam, three of you will be clocking out.

01:01:33The last safe chef from the cautious challenge is...

01:01:39Michelle.

01:01:41Whoo.

01:01:45Feels really good to make it through the first challenge.

01:01:47And past the jitters of what happened last year, because I swear to God, if I lost, I would have

01:01:53fell on the floor.

01:01:54Held one of the tables and said, I'm not leaving.

01:01:58Sorry, chef.

01:01:59Chris, Antonello, Sam, it's your turn to clock out.

01:02:04Exiting the first round at any competition sucks.

01:02:08And this is the first time I've experienced it.

01:02:10I've always been a finalist.

01:02:11I've always been a winner.

01:02:12I just win.

01:02:13But sometimes losing is necessary because it will make you grow as a person.

01:02:18Thank you so much for being here, chefs.

01:02:21Great cooking.

01:02:23All right, everyone.

01:02:24For the bold chefs, this is a lot tougher.

01:02:27Because half of you are going home.

01:02:34So the first chef that is safe is...

01:02:41Chef Leanne Wong.

01:02:47I had a 50-50 shot of staying.

01:02:50I'm incredibly grateful.

01:02:51You were free to the second shift.

01:02:54Yes.

01:02:55All right, now for the part of this that I hate.

01:02:57The first chef that is clocking out is...

01:03:03Chef Monique.

01:03:08Sorry, chef.

01:03:10Sorry, chef. Great job.

01:03:13The next chef who is safe, Chef Malarkey.

01:03:20I'm just feeling good.

01:03:21And now I'm going to kind of just kind of settle in.

01:03:24And the next chef going home is Chef Anthony.

01:03:30Oh.

01:03:31Feel good, man.

01:03:35Love you guys.

01:03:36The next chef who is safe is...

01:03:40Chef Tramiel.

01:03:44Nice job, chef.

01:03:48Nice job, chef.

01:03:48The next chef clocking out is...

01:03:51Chef Mariam.

01:03:55Good job, chef.

01:03:56The next chef who is safe...

01:03:59Chef Alex.

01:04:04Nice job, chef.

01:04:05The next chef who is clocking out is...

01:04:09Chef Olivia.

01:04:11Love you guys.

01:04:13Aw.

01:04:16This was a fun one.

01:04:19This was a fun one.

01:04:19The next chef that is safe...

01:04:23Chef Robin.

01:04:25Yes.

01:04:26Nice job, chef.

01:04:29Woo!

01:04:30Woo!

01:04:32The next chef who is clocking out is...

01:04:36Chef Maria.

01:04:39What?

01:04:44I'm shocked.

01:04:45I don't know how to take it in.

01:04:48Not yet.

01:04:52I wouldn't change anything.

01:04:55Damn.

01:04:56Maria's a heavy hitter.

01:04:57Thank you guys.

01:04:57Brutal.

01:04:58It hurts, stings.

01:05:01That's life.

01:05:02It is what it is.

01:05:03It is what it is.

01:05:03The universe has something else for me.

01:05:05I know it.

01:05:08Chef Fiette and Chef Aro.

01:05:11One of you is going to be safe, and the other, unfortunately, will be clocking out.

01:05:18The anxiety and the fear is overwhelming.

01:05:21I have to make it past round one.

01:05:24The chef who is clocking out is...

01:05:30Chef Aro.

01:05:33Good job, chef.

01:05:35Sorry, chef.

01:05:36Good job.

01:05:36Thank you guys for the opportunity.

01:05:37Good job, chef.

01:05:41Nice work, Bull.

01:05:42Woo!

01:05:44Nice job, chef.

01:05:46I'm very curious as to how two of you feel.

01:05:49Viette and Michelle, how are you feeling?

01:05:51Oh, woo!

01:05:52I feel awesome.

01:05:54A little bit of redemption right there.

01:05:56You made it.

01:05:57You made it to the second round, baby.

01:05:59You made it.

01:06:01So, to the remaining bold chefs, congratulations.

01:06:04All six of you are guaranteed a spot and shift to.

01:06:08And one of you is about to win the golden knife and $12,000.

01:06:14The top two dishes were cooked by...

01:06:19Malarkey and Alex.

01:06:21Wow.

01:06:22Nice work, chef.

01:06:23Yeah.

01:06:24Wow.

01:06:25The golden knife and $12,000.

01:06:31Goes to...

01:06:34Congratulations, chef Alex.

01:06:37$12,000 right out of the gate feels great.

01:06:40I won.

01:06:40I have the golden knife.

01:06:42I set the tone.

01:06:43Winning this is a huge relief.

01:06:44I told him, Alex, that you were a chef to watch out for.

01:06:47And congratulations on round one.

01:06:50New regime.

01:06:54Right off the bat.

01:06:56And I knew this walking into the arena.

01:06:59Alex Stupak becomes the one to beat.

01:07:03Alex, this is your first competition show, right?

01:07:06In a long time.

01:07:07In a long time.

01:07:08My last one was when you were being introduced as an Iron Chef in 2007.

01:07:12It was your first day.

01:07:14Show how old I am, chef.

01:07:162007.

01:07:17Oh, shut up.

01:07:19Congratulations, chef.

01:07:20And you guys, congratulations to all of you.

01:07:22Great job, chefs.

01:07:23As a reminder, the golden knife is a powerful tool for the chef who controls it.

01:07:29How you use a knife can be the difference between winning or losing.

01:07:34And Alex, you now have a very big choice to make.

01:07:38Oh, boy.

01:07:38But first, the other five gold chefs, congratulations.

01:07:43You can head to the break room.

01:07:44Good luck, guys.

01:07:45We will see you all in shift two.

01:07:47Good job, you guys.

01:07:48Have a nice rest.

01:07:50Chefs.

01:07:50Oh, my gosh.

01:07:52Oh, dude, that was...

01:07:54Bring it in.

01:07:54That was so easy.

01:07:55Close the doors.

01:07:56That was, like, the most intense moment that I've ever felt in, like, cooking TV, man.

01:08:03All right, good news for cautious chefs, you survived.

01:08:06Yay.

01:08:07The bad news is you are not yet in shift two.

01:08:12We have one more challenge to go.

01:08:13And you are all at risk for elimination.

01:08:18All right, Alex is the golden knife holder.

01:08:20You now get to choose two chefs from that side of the room

01:08:23and send them into a sudden-death head-to-head battle for elimination.

01:08:31Oh, head-to-head battle.

01:08:32Head to head.

01:08:34Getting the golden knife first and pitting two chefs against each other,

01:08:39I'm setting a tone of seriousness.

01:08:41I am not here to make celebrity chef friends.

01:08:43He's choosing them who goes head-to-head.

01:08:46Everyone's scared.

01:08:49I'm feeling good.

01:08:51Hello, chef.

01:08:58Alex, who are the two chefs you choose?

01:09:00Give me two names.

01:09:02Different chefs have used this golden knife differently in the past

01:09:05and did not use it strategically.

01:09:07I'm not gonna do that.

01:09:09Which two chefs do you choose to be cooking for elimination?

01:09:13I'm trying to size everyone up.

01:09:14You have chefs who do TV competitions all the time.

01:09:18So those ones make me nervous.

01:09:20Zach and Shoda.

01:09:24We chef.

01:09:26Zach and Shoda.

01:09:27Wow.

01:09:28You're vicious.

01:09:29Two powerhouses?

01:09:31Like, Alex is not sparing anyone right now.

01:09:34Alex, why did you select Zach and Shoda?

01:09:37I'm scared of both of them.

01:09:39That's a very good reason.

01:09:40So that is using the golden knife to your advantage, and there's nothing wrong with that.

01:09:44Zach is the only other pastry chef in the room other than me.

01:09:47If he goes home, that's one less person in line for the ice cream machine.

01:09:51Let's do it, chef.

01:09:53No!

01:09:54Shoda, I don't know him, but this guy is serious.

01:09:57If I make it to the end, he could be one of the people that I go against.

01:10:01Whether Zach wins or Shoda wins, someone I don't want to be here is going home.

01:10:05Oh, man.

01:10:07Okay.

01:10:09It's a brilliant strategy.

01:10:10I'm honestly flattered that it's me and terrified.

01:10:14This is like the first big battle against a giant.

01:10:19Shoda is who I would actually never want to compete against.

01:10:22I get it, Alex.

01:10:24I don't like you right now in this moment, but I respect you.

01:10:28I'll see you.

01:10:29I know Zach.

01:10:30He's a great chef, and I have a lot of competition experience under my belt.

01:10:33I have some wins, so I'm here to get it.

01:10:36Zach, Shoda, and Alex, you guys can hang out.

01:10:39Everyone else head to the break room.

01:10:43Wow.

01:10:45Yes, baby.

01:10:46All right, props team.

01:10:47Could you bring out the table?

01:10:53Okay, chefs.

01:10:54So on this table are six challenging ingredients.

01:10:57We have durian, ghost peppers, white chocolate chips, liquid smoke,

01:11:01taleggio cheese, and creme de menthe.

01:11:03You have 30 minutes to incorporate three of them prominently in a bowl.

01:11:09The way you split up the ingredients is going to be through a draft,

01:11:13which obviously is all about strategy.

01:11:20Alex, you get to choose who picks first, and then you could head back to the break room.

01:11:25Zach goes first.

01:11:26Alex, congratulations on the golden knife in your 12,000.

01:11:29You could go chill for a little bit.

01:11:31Good luck, guys.

01:11:31Thanks, Seth.

01:11:32Good luck.

01:11:33I feel a little guilty about this, but mostly I'm focused on trying to predict what curveballs are going to

01:11:38be next.

01:11:46Zach, you have first pick.

01:11:49What are you choosing?

01:11:53Taleggio.

01:11:54All right.

01:11:54My strategy here is to give myself options, to go savory or sweet with the first pick.

01:12:01I thought you were going to go with the white chocolate.

01:12:03No.

01:12:04Taleggio, it's funky.

01:12:06It does deliver umami to kind of enhance the savory dish or give some contrast to a dessert.

01:12:12Chef showed up.

01:12:13You're up.

01:12:17I've never cooked with any of these ingredients.

01:12:20Go with the liquid smoke.

01:12:22Liquid smoke?

01:12:23Whoa.

01:12:23Okay.

01:12:24It's a good one.

01:12:25But I know liquid smoke is going to be easy to incorporate into a dish to make it prominent.

01:12:30Zach, your pick.

01:12:31Ghost pepper.

01:12:32My strategy is contrast.

01:12:34You have the salty funk from the cheese and the heat from the ghost pepper.

01:12:39Chef showed up.

01:12:40I don't use any of these in Japanese cuisine.

01:12:44Oh, durian.

01:12:44I'm going to go with the durian.

01:12:45I don't know.

01:12:46It's a fruit.

01:12:47I should be able to figure out something with it.

01:12:50Come to papa.

01:12:52White chocolate chips.

01:12:54What is this?

01:12:54All right.

01:12:55That means going to mint.

01:12:56What is this?

01:12:57Take a very large gulp of it.

01:12:58Can I smell it?

01:12:59Can I smell it?

01:13:00It's turbo mint.

01:13:02Turbo mint.

01:13:03Durian.

01:13:04Liquid smoke.

01:13:05Sashimi.

01:13:05Done.

01:13:07It's weirdly minty in all the weird minty ways.

01:13:11I don't think I want it.

01:13:12We'll figure it out.

01:13:14All right, chefs.

01:13:14The good news is you could use any other ingredient in the pantry.

01:13:18Now, that being said, you can't completely bury the flavors of the ingredients you chose.

01:13:23And this battles for elimination.

01:13:29Chefs, good luck.

01:13:30Your time starts now.

01:13:33Good luck, chefs.

01:13:34Oh, my God.

01:13:35It's brutal.

01:13:36Well, well, well.

01:13:37Oh, boy.

01:13:38These are two chefs that I thought would make it very far to the competition.

01:13:41Right.

01:13:41I mean, Shoda, I love his food.

01:13:43Super talented.

01:13:44But the three ingredients I didn't want, he got all three.

01:13:48Damn you, Alex!

01:13:49How is he gonna make a composed dish?

01:13:51How do you open this up?

01:13:53This is gonna be a hard challenge.

01:13:55This is my first time cooking durian.

01:13:57This is an interesting ingredient.

01:13:58I've never worked with durian in my life.

01:14:00So, just go with it, right?

01:14:01Durian is a fruit that's got a nice stank to it, is all I can say.

01:14:06Going up against Zach, I gotta roll my sleeves up and cook something I'm really good at cooking.

01:14:10Japanese food.

01:14:11So, I'm gonna make durian soba noodle.

01:14:13The durian is gonna go into the broth base with kombu and bonito flakes.

01:14:18Let's see if that's gonna work for us.

01:14:20I'm also gonna use the durian as a chashu base with soy sauce, sugar, and a bunch of liquid smoke.

01:14:26So, it's got that smoky meat effect.

01:14:29Durian chashu.

01:14:31Who would've thought I would ever do anything like this?

01:14:33What do you know about Chef Zach?

01:14:36I mean, think of it this way.

01:14:38Chef Alex has been pastry chef at some of the greatest restaurants in the world.

01:14:42Right.

01:14:42And he was afraid of Zach's pastry sauce.

01:14:45Zach.

01:14:45I think I have to go in my wheelhouse and make a dessert.

01:14:48If I'm going to beat Shota, I'm going to use my expertise.

01:14:53I'm gonna do a taleggio ice cream with roasted white chocolate and ghost pepper caramel.

01:14:59Dessert is all about balance.

01:15:01You're in a constant battle with sugar.

01:15:03The way you take it on is with acid, with salt, with savory elements.

01:15:07I mean, Shota's a beast.

01:15:08If I didn't have ingredients that could work in a dessert, I would be a lot more terrified.

01:15:15I feel awful.

01:15:16I've known Zach forever.

01:15:17I hope you...

01:15:18You don't feel that awful.

01:15:19What?

01:15:20You'll be fine.

01:15:21You'll be fine.

01:15:22I better hang on to this or it's gonna bite me in the ass.

01:15:25Making ice cream right now with cheese is risky.

01:15:27You have to be careful about the fat content and also the texture.

01:15:30If there's too much fat in the ice cream, it'll get busty.

01:15:33Stay.

01:15:34That's a technical term, by the way.

01:15:35Like, I'm not saying ugly.

01:15:36Like, it is busted as in it is busted up.

01:15:39But it's also busted.

01:15:40We got an ice cream going with taleggio, which should be a little funky, cheese flavor,

01:15:47high risk, hopefully high reward.

01:15:50We'll see.

01:15:50All right.

01:15:51Ice cream is in the machine.

01:15:52All right, chefs.

01:15:53You have 15 minutes left in this competition and only 21 hours to go to see who's gonna be

01:15:59the watch chef's stand.

01:16:02How's it tasting?

01:16:03Tastes like durian.

01:16:04Is that good?

01:16:05No, it's good.

01:16:05It's good.

01:16:06It's gotta be there, but I think that's already the right balance and I don't want it to

01:16:09come out more.

01:16:09I actually pulled back on the durian quite a bit with the dashi part just because it

01:16:15was too funky already.

01:16:16I'm gonna add some vanilla clams, a lot of umami into it, so it really not masks it,

01:16:21but try to balance it out.

01:16:22You gotta really like durian.

01:16:24This is an interesting dish, not gonna lie.

01:16:26How are you feeling, bud?

01:16:27You know, ingredients all I've never worked with.

01:16:30What are you making?

01:16:31Kind of a hot noodle dish.

01:16:32Liquid smoke's gonna go in the broth.

01:16:34And then I'm gonna do a little herb salad on top.

01:16:36And instead of using mint, I'm gonna do creme dressing.

01:16:38I like it.

01:16:39I mean, there's some creative stuff going on, which I love.

01:16:42We're getting there.

01:16:43Slowly but surely.

01:16:44I'm gonna drop my noodles in right now.

01:16:47Chefs, ten minutes to go.

01:16:48Hi.

01:16:49How annoying would it be to be cooking out here when there's 13 other chefs chilling in

01:16:55the break room?

01:16:55Right.

01:16:56Apple slice?

01:16:57Sure.

01:17:00Just cutting the ghost pepper right now to add into my cream for my caramel.

01:17:05Heat with the cheese will be very nice.

01:17:08You know, a little goes a long way with the ghost pepper.

01:17:10Ghost pepper and caramel.

01:17:11Sweet, smoky, spicy.

01:17:14I came here to make it to shift eight.

01:17:16I came here to win $100,000.

01:17:18All right.

01:17:19It needs to be perfect.

01:17:21Make a little crumble.

01:17:22We have some Marcona almonds.

01:17:24I'm just gonna add this to my white chocolate.

01:17:27Great texture.

01:17:28Salty, nutty, crunchy.

01:17:30Yes.

01:17:31I can't believe that one of these two is gonna go home.

01:17:33I can't believe it either.

01:17:34All right, guys.

01:17:35You got two minutes.

01:17:36I'm here to showcase Japanese cuisine full in.

01:17:39That's my goal and that's what I'm here to represent.

01:17:41Is that enough liquid smoke?

01:17:42Let's just add a little tiny bit more.

01:17:45I pull my ice cream.

01:17:46The texture is beautiful.

01:17:49I actually like the ice cream a lot more than I thought I would.

01:17:52I mean, that's perfect for me.

01:17:53Hopefully the judges think it's perfect too.

01:17:55I think the ghost pepper balance is really excellent in here.

01:17:58Three, two, one.

01:18:02Hands up, guys.

01:18:03Great job, chefs.

01:18:05All right.

01:18:06So, Zach, Shota, you can bring your dish up front.

01:18:09I've never lost on episode one before,

01:18:12so I have that fear as I go to the judges' table.

01:18:15I feel good technically about what I made.

01:18:17The great unknown is my good friend Shota,

01:18:20who undoubtedly made something incredibly delicious in that bowl.

01:18:24Perfect.

01:18:24Thanks, guys.

01:18:25You can go to the back.

01:18:26Such a hard competition from the get-go.

01:18:28We have to do this.

01:18:30Oh, my God, you guys.

01:18:31That was a hard challenge, dude.

01:18:33I'm sorry.

01:18:34I'm sorry.

01:18:34Oh, my God.

01:18:35I'm sorry.

01:18:37Give me that knife.

01:18:38I'm sorry.

01:18:39Okay, let's get Jet out here, please.

01:18:41And also, let's turn on the feet.

01:18:45Should we peel the targets off of our backs?

01:18:48No.

01:18:48The targets, right?

01:18:49Jet, the final strategy challenge was a 30-minute showdown between two chefs.

01:18:54Okay.

01:18:55This first chef had to use liquid smoke, durian, and creme de menthe.

01:19:02Okay.

01:19:03Wow.

01:19:03That's crazy.

01:19:05This dish is durian soba.

01:19:08I'm scared to taste this.

01:19:13I love this broth.

01:19:15The broth is the star of the show here.

01:19:17But I've known durian my whole life.

01:19:20I taste almost zero durian.

01:19:22Oh, shoot.

01:19:24Liquid smoke, I think, is the most predominant flavor I'm getting in here.

01:19:28Creme de menthe, I'm not tasting much of that either.

01:19:31Damn.

01:19:32This next chef had to make a dish using telegio, ghost pepper, and white chocolate chips.

01:19:40Wow.

01:19:42Wild.

01:19:43Pomegranate swirl telegio ice cream with roasted white chocolate, Marcona almond crunch, and ghost pepper caramel.

01:19:52Wow.

01:19:56Woo!

01:19:58The telegio is absolutely present, but that funk or the fermentation, it is almost a little too present.

01:20:08Oh, come on.

01:20:09Ice cream consistency and texture is fantastic.

01:20:12It's silky.

01:20:13Caramel is delicious, but I'm struggling to find heat.

01:20:17From a 1 to 10 spice, this is a 1.5.

01:20:21These were six really tough ingredients, as you know.

01:20:23Yeah.

01:20:24Yeah.

01:20:24There's things I love about both dishes, but it comes down to the strategy of how well you use them.

01:20:28Mm-hmm.

01:20:29Versus how well does the dish taste overall.

01:20:32So, Chet, do you have a winner?

01:20:34I do.

01:20:35All right.

01:20:35Who is it?

01:20:37Cut him.

01:20:38We're gonna cut the feed.

01:20:42Put me out of my misery.

01:20:45Okay, bring out the chefs.

01:20:46Jett, I did not tell you who they were, obviously, but you're gonna know both of these chefs very well.

01:20:51Wow.

01:20:52Oh, man.

01:20:53Good luck, boys.

01:20:54Good luck, guys.

01:20:54Nice work, nice work.

01:20:55Bye, guys.

01:20:55Well, well, well.

01:20:58What's up, Uncle Jett?

01:21:01Oh, my God.

01:21:03No.

01:21:08This is a gut punch.

01:21:10Yeah.

01:21:10This hurts more.

01:21:11Shoda and Zach, Jett tasted both of your dishes as you saw from the back.

01:21:16And in the end, it came down to taste and strategic use of ingredients.

01:21:21And I am sorry to say this, but the chef that is clocking out is...

01:21:34Shoda.

01:21:34Wow.

01:21:35I'm sorry, chef.

01:21:37What?

01:21:38Holy moly.

01:21:40Whoa.

01:21:41Nope.

01:21:42Can I keep that?

01:21:42Dorian smells like a damn nightmare to me now.

01:21:45I've been where you are, chef, so let me make it very clear why.

01:21:48It came down to, I could taste more of your three ingredients than I could in the soup.

01:21:55That's it.

01:21:55They were equally delicious.

01:21:58Shoda!

01:22:01This is the earliest I've ever been out in a cooking competition.

01:22:08I'm bummed.

01:22:08I don't know what else to say.

01:22:10I'm bummed.

01:22:10I wanted to cook more.

01:22:11I had a lot more up my sleeve that I wanted to showcase.

01:22:13And I was saving till the end.

01:22:16It's really about the smallest mistakes that send you home.

01:22:22Chet, thank you so much.

01:22:24Pleasure to have you.

01:22:24Always great for having me.

01:22:25Thank you, always.

01:22:26You're the best.

01:22:27Congrats, chef.

01:22:27Thank you, chef.

01:22:28You did a great job.

01:22:29Good to see you.

01:22:30Zach, congrats.

01:22:31Congrats, Zach.

01:22:32You survived.

01:22:33Yeah.

01:22:35Whoa.

01:22:37Zach, you can head back to your station.

01:22:39As rollercoaster as this first shift was, I needed it.

01:22:44For me, this has totally reset my expectations because I'm ready to bring it.

01:22:51But if I do get the golden knife, payback is a biatch, Alex.

01:22:56Let's get the chefs back in from the break room, please.

01:22:59Let's do it.

01:23:01Oh, boy.

01:23:02Oh, wow.

01:23:04There's besties already.

01:23:05Yeah.

01:23:06You're smiling now.

01:23:07I would save the energy.

01:23:10Good job.

01:23:12Hey.

01:23:12Hey, now.

01:23:15And just like that, chefs, the first shift is over.

01:23:21Shift two starts now.

01:23:32Next time on 24 and 24, 15 chefs enter our four.

01:23:37You're all one step closer to $100,000, where the chefs will face an all-new speed shift.

01:23:44This is seven-on-seven relay race.

01:23:46Go, do it.

01:23:47Come on, buddy.

01:23:48There's no labels on these spices.

01:23:49You want me to alphabetize them.

01:23:51Panic in my mind came about me.

01:23:54And two chefs will be clocking out.

01:23:56Come on.

01:23:57I don't want to go home.

01:23:59Woo!

01:24:00Wooo!

01:24:01Woooo!

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