01x05 - Fishing for rabbit

[bunniefuu]

(dramatic tone)

♪

(suspenseful music)

(sighs) Oh, my gosh,
please be edible.

Beautiful.

This is a huge find.

KIRAN: Come on, guys,
really hustle.

Get these plates done.

We're down to the wire here.

(groans) I'm not
gonna use it.

♪

KIRAN: Two world-class chefs,

dropped into the wilderness.

CHEF: Every second counts

in this competition.

We get one shot.

KIRAN: Their mission:
to find enough wild ingredients

to make a five-star meal.

CHEF: Found one.

It's not your ordinary day
at the grocery store.

KIRAN: And here, on the coast
of British Columbia,

the chefs will use those
ingredients to battle it out

and see whose foraged feast
reigns supreme.

CHEF: Wow, my menu changes

depending on what I find.

KIRAN: I'm Kiran Jethwa,

international chef
and restauranteur.

I've traveled the globe
to collect and cook

incredible wild foods, and here,

in this competition,

only chefs with skills in both
the wilderness and the kitchen

will prevail.

CHEF: If I mess this up,

the whole dish will suffer.

KIRAN:
This is Chefs vs. Wild.

♪

(suspenseful music)

As we drift deeper
into the colder months

of British Columbia,
the local trout and salmon

start to hunker down
towards the bottom

of the lakes and rivers,
where the water

is warmest during the winter.

The fish enter a state
of torpor,

where they become less
active and tougher to catch.

With nature's bounty dwindling,

Chef Katie and Chef Hanif

will have their work
cut out for them.

Rabbit will be
the feature ingredient

the chefs will center their
three-course meal around.

And as rabbit must
adapt to the winter,

so too must our chefs adapt
their foraging strategies

if they want to win
this competition.

♪

KATIE: I'm Katie Coss.
I'm from Oklahoma,

and I'm a chef.

I trained in ballet
for many years.

And during ballet class,
I would be dreaming

about what I was gonna cook.

And I just fell in love
with the thought of cooking.

And so I went to the Culinary
Institute of America.

I later followed
a chef as he opened up

his farm-to-table restaurant.

I became executive chef
when I was 27.

Being a female
in a kitchen, you have to

work twice as hard as the guy
standing next to you.

♪

HANIF: My name is Hanif.
I'm a chef.

My restaurant is
in San Francisco.

It's called Komaaj,

and we cook Northern Iranian food.

I really try to cook
as rustic as possible.

I forage a lot.

Here, I really want
to show how Iranians

are really good
at creating flavors

with limited ingredients.

I'm excited to see what
I can find in the wild.

♪

KIRAN: Chef Katie's
foraging area is located

on the banks
of a freshwater lake

within a temperate rainforest.

Oh, my gosh.
I'm gonna freeze to death.

(laughs)

KIRAN: The lake is home
to native trout

and kokanee salmon
in a region that

is constantly wet, producing
a ton of culinary gold.

However, the shift
towards winter

is not to Katie's advantage.

She'll need to align
with the surroundings

if she wants to
gather the ingredients

to win this competition.

- Hey.
- How are you?

- KATIE: I'm good. How are you?
- You're a chef?

- You're a survivalist?
- JASON: Absolutely.

- I'm Jason.
- I'm Katie.

- Good to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

- I brought a boat.
- Down here?

Yeah, I tied it off.
I hope it's still there.

- JASON: Can we use it?
- (laughs)

Yeah, we can use it.
I know.

- You got a fishing rod?
- I do.

Awesome.
We're gonna be set.

I'm hoping to maybe find
some mushrooms,

maybe some berries.

If I were to catch
a fish or a trout,

that would be my first course.

♪

(suspenseful music)

♪

I got wet.

KIRAN: Chef Hanif is also
near a freshwater lake,

working with identical
conditions as Katie.

The foraging abundance
of the area

is threatened by temperatures
that can drop close

to freezing during the night.

Patience and persistence
will be key to Hanif's victory,

since uncovering
the culinary treasures

will require some work.

- Hey.
- MORGAN: Hey, how are you?

- Good. How are you?
- Good. I'm Morgan.

- HANIF: Hanif.
- Hey, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.
- MORGAN: How'd you get here?

I got here by the canoe
that they gave me.

That's good.
That means we're gonna get

- some fish.
- HANIF: Yeah.

MORGAN: We have a lot of work
to do.

But I started a little bit.

And I'm not sure how
much daylight we got left

there, so let's get to work.

HANIF: Yeah, let's go.

It's so hard to find ingredients
in such a place.

MORGAN: Yeah, it's gonna
be tricky.

HANIF: I have a very, very
basic plan for the menus.

I'm looking to find herbs.

I'm looking to find different
types of berries, hopefully.

But also, I'm really curious
to see if we can catch a fish.

So all depends on
what we can find.

♪

KATIE: Oh, my gosh.
Oyster mushrooms.

But look at how far they go...
all the way up.

I don't think we're gonna
be able to get any.

The oyster mushrooms up top

are this gorgeous orangish-yellow.

And I always want
what I can't have.

♪

Give them to me.

(gasps) Yay!

We have some mushrooms.

For my appetizer, now I've
decided to do

a embered oyster
mushroom soup.

It's almost like
a mushroom consommé

that I am thinking in my head,
it's just gonna be amazing.

(laughs) Oh, my God.

I live with my family now.

I moved from Tennessee
back to Oklahoma

so I could be closer to them.

Being a chef, you really
are married to your career.

And during the whole
COVID experience,

I realized how important
my family is to me.

I've taken a break
from the restaurant world

and decided to focus
on butchering,

which will be
an amazing side step.

People underestimating me has
definitely been a challenge.

But I will say that
proving them wrong

has kind of been
my bread and butter.

I want that mushroom.

Yeah!
Oh-h*-h*-h*, money.

My name is Jason Clapper.

I'm from Fort Worth, Texas.

And I'm currently
in the Air Force

working as a SERE specialist.

SERE stands for
Survival, Evasion,

Resistance, and Escape.

And what we do is instructing

Department of Defense personnel

in each of those areas.

The plan is to build
off what we have.

We're gonna
divide and conquer.

So Katie is gonna
start heading out

and scouring
the environment to try

to see what she could forage,

and then I'm going
to head out onto the lake

and try to see what fish
we could catch.

♪

MORGAN: Hey, Hanif, hold up.
Wait.

- HANIF: What?
- MORGAN: I think...

- rattlesnake plantain, I think.
- Oh, really?

MORGAN: Yeah, I think it has,
like a...

like, a spicy... might be
nice to add to the dish.

♪

Yeah, it's good,
even raw like this.

Tastes good.

Let's take some.

My plan for main dish is

pieces of rabbit meat on skewers
and brown rice with plantain

and wild onion,
which I'm pretty sure

we can find in a forest.

Me and my sister,
we lost our mom early on.

And then
the whole family decision

was us going back to Iran
and live with our grandparents.

They had these family farms.

And there, I had a chance
spending hours in nature.

So what makes me
passionate to be a chef

is connection that
I found between the food

and the nature.

Iranian cuisine has a great
impact on both East and West.

Why I'm here is
because I really

want to shine a light
on the cuisine and the technique

from that part of the world,

which has been
so underrepresented.

We're kind of on
a time constraint now.

Let's get rolling.

♪

My name is Morgan Nichol.

I'm Moose Cree Indian, so my
band is from the Moosonee area

in Northern Ontario.

Ever since I was young, I was
ice fishing with my father.

I started hunting
at a young age, as well.

No matter what I run into
in the bush,

I always figure it out.

We're gonna beat
the other team

just by our teamwork,
my fishing capabilities,

and our foraging.

(tense tone)

♪

♪

JASON: My number one task
was catching a trout today.

Bon voyage.

KATIE: Good luck.

Don't come back without trout.

I really hope
to find huckleberries

and madrone berries.

I've seen a couple of trees
off the bank of the lake.

MORGAN:
I'm so stoked to go fishing.

HANIF: Me, too.

MORGAN: All right, we're gonna
get you a trout today.

HANIF: I don't have
any fishing skills.

But I forage a lot.

Like, maybe if we
catch a fish,

then I can use part
of the fish to go with my grill

to make it more interesting.

A lot of moss.

MORGAN: Oh, like
old man's beard there.

Those are edible.

If we can find those
trees around where we are,

they might have
some fruits on them.

MORGAN: So you've never
caught a trout

- or anything before, right?
- HANIF: No, I never hunt.

I never fish.

I've hunt a lot of vegetables.

MORGAN: Hunt a lot of
vegetables, yeah.

HANIF: Yeah.

♪

KATIE: This is my first time
in this environment.

This is so different.

I mean, there's mountains.

There's snow on the mountains.

It is cold, wet.

I think that's what
part of the challenge is,

especially for
this competition.

Ah.

I don't really know
if that's the way,

but whatever.

Get out.
Sorry.

I haven't even got a bite,
so I think we'll head her in.

I don't think we're gonna catch
any fish today.

- HANIF: Go back?
- MORGAN: Yeah, I'll try

casting offshore
a bit later tonight, maybe,

- and take the boat out tomorrow.
- HANIF: OK.

MORGAN: See if we can get
better luck.

HANIF: It's not our lucky day today,

but we had a chance
to, you know,

see beautiful sceneries.

I guess maybe I
could go foraging,

you know,
to maybe find something.

My first concern
is, I haven't had

time to explore as much today.

We definitely have
to find herbs,

vegetables, berries, and also
mushrooms as an appetizer.

I really hope he catch
something because...

♪

KATIE: All my ballet training
coming into play.

(sighs) Oh, my gosh.

It looks like I found
some huckleberries,

which is super exciting.

Oh, my gosh,
I found them.

Really excited to find
huckleberries today.

I might make
a honey rye cake with it.

It's a very old-school,
Southern thing to make, which is

kind of
what I thrive off of.

♪

HANIF:
Yes. I found some mushrooms,

which I'm going to check.

Yes, I found some chanterelles.

These mushrooms will help me.

I will definitely turn that
mushroom into something

that works as a beautiful side.

But I really thought
I would be able

to find more ingredients.

Foraging in the wild
at this time of year

is harder than I expected.

(dramatic music)

♪

Call me Ishmael.

Did you catch anything?

No, I didn't catch anything.

Unfortunately, the fish
wanted nothing to do with me.

KATIE: You're gonna have
to go back out tomorrow.

I found a few ingredients today,

but I expected to find
a lot more.

Trout didn't work out
for Jason.

And I'm kind of
revamping my menu

based on what I found today.

(sighs) I guess if we
don't get trout tomorrow,

we're gonna have
to forage for some bugs.

♪

KIRAN: As the Sun dips
below the mountains,

the few precious daylight
hours of late fall

humble both Chefs
Katie and Hanif.

The number of edible
plant and mushroom options

has greatly diminished
in their areas.

Hanif has managed to find
rattlesnake plantain

and winter chanterelles
during his first day,

while Katie collected
a slightly bigger haul

of oyster mushrooms
and huckleberries.

They are both
intent on catching

fish for their cook-off.

But with only a few days
left to forage,

both teams will find out

whether dividing and conquering

is the right strategy
for this competition.

(tense music)

(wind rustling)

Everything is wet.

And Jason, the wonderful
human being that he is,

is chopping wood and trying
to maintain our fire.

Can't wait to be
back to civilization.

(light music)

♪

HANIF: Today is a very
important day for us.

Our plan is to
spend the morning...

one fishing, and one foraging.

Last night, everything
was wet and rainy.

I'm feeling tired today, honestly.

But today, we could gather
a few ingredients.

I would look for nettles.

I would look for chickweeds.

I would look for wild meat.

If I can find, I would
forage as much as possible.

♪

All right, we need
to catch at least

one fish for this menu,
for this first course.

JASON: I agree.

(grunts)

KATIE: My game plan is to forage
some sort of herb

for my entree.

The huckleberries I found are
good, but they're not enough.

I need something
else for my dessert.

And hopefully, Jason will
be able to catch something.

Otherwise, we are gonna be
eating bugs.

Although I'm open
to cooking with bugs,

they are not really my forte.

(tense music)

♪

HANIF: Technically,
the winter is here.

And it's really affect on
what we could find to forage.

Honestly, I was hoping to be
able to find more ingredients.

♪

KATIE: There's so many amazing
female chefs out there

that I have looked
up to for many years.

And I hope that I'm a role model
for females in kitchens.

I want something that is gonna
push me harder than anything.

And I think being out there
and surviving

for the time that we are,
and then putting something

on a plate at the end of it,
that's a challenge.

I don't know if I'm gonna
have carrots or celery

or onions in my kitchen.

So I'm gonna try and
find everything I can

to forage and make a stock.

Nodding onions like the sun,

so I'm gonna go look
by the lake,

where there aren't
as many trees.

♪

Oh, yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

Huckleberries.

Berries, berries, berries.

I know that huckleberry
grows in this area,

but they were hard to find.

These are going to be key.

I'm gonna make a very tart
sauce with all the berries

together to bring more
tartness and sourness,

which is a very important part
of our culture in cooking.

Oh, look at this one.

I'm gonna use this for our tea.

With the items
that we foraged so far,

we have to be more creative
with the final dish.

I'm going to head back and see
if Morgan caught any fish.

♪

KATIE: Oh, look,
there's tiger lily...

maybe a few of them.

Tiger lily is just so
amazing, so beautiful.

It has this crunch
of a water chestnut

but this bitterness
of radicchio.

I might try and use
this in my stock.

When you're walking throughout
this slippery forest,

you're always just a half a hair
away from face planting.

- (boot crunching)
- Ah.

And look at what I've found...

a little bit of nodding onion.

I'm really hoping to just
highlight what I foraged.

I mean, that's really the point
of this whole competition,

is to make those shine.

And so I really want
that nodding onion

to be the star of that plate.

Jason's been out there
since sunrise, fishing.

I just really hope that he
comes back with a protein.

(suspenseful music)

KIRAN: Pushing their luck,
both chefs

have taken a risk
by foraging alone

while their partners fish,
with limited success so far.

Chef Katie has managed to find
nodding onion and tiger lily,

while Hanif located huckleberries

and licorice fern.

But as the clock winds down,
both teams will find out

whether their bounty
is abundant enough

or too meager
to win this cook-off.

(dramatic music)

♪

JASON: So I've been out here
quite a while.

But again,
this is a necessity.

And I tell you what,
I'm not coming back

till I have a fish.

♪

MORGAN: Today, you know,
we decided

to divide and conquer.

Hanif went and foraged.

I went and tried to get a fish.

I just could not pull one up.

Hey.

- How's it going?
- Good. How are you?

- I'm soaked.
- HANIF: Soaked?

Yeah, I pretty much
trolled the entire lake...

Uh-huh?

With a big spoon,
tried flashing,

everything... nothing.

HANIF: I believe that Morgan
is a great fisherman,

and he is a professional
in this way.

But maybe, the lake
was not happy with us.

MORGAN: Hey, Hanif, you know
what you should do?

Look around for that tree.

There's, like,
a fruit tree, that one

- fruit tree that's down there.
- HANIF: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I noticed
on the cliff side.

HANIF: If we can find those
trees around where we are,

they might have
some fruits on them.

MORGAN: I found a bunch up there
when I was looking around.

- Oh, really?
- MORGAN: Maybe

we'll find something there.

I'm gonna go look for another
protein source for you.

We'll figure something out
for tomorrow.

♪

(suspenseful music)

♪

KATIE: This time of year,
it's dark here for about 14

to maybe 16 hours.

I think the amount of time that
we have to forage and to look

for things is a little scary.

(suspenseful music)

♪

HANIF: I'm relying
on Morgan's instinct here.

Because I've
searched everywhere

and haven't found much.

Nice. Take these beautiful
red berries.

I mean, I've heard that
this tree came from Spain,

if I'm correct.

Just heard it in Berkeley.

Because when I
moved to Berkeley,

I found these trees
on the street.

And I was like,
"Are these fruits edible?"

And then my neighbor
was like, "Yeah."

But these are gonna
be perfect.

My style of cooking is very
much around

sour fruits and berries,

and these madrone berries
are exactly

what I need for my dessert.

Oh, they're here, yeah.

Yes, yes, yes.

These are wild onions.

These are really good.

Having these onions
to make a base of sauce,

maybe with those berries,

it's gonna be great
because then, I can have, like,

an element of a dish
fully come from the forest.

This is really good.
So good.

Morgan's tip really paid off.

I feel like I'm
back in the game.

♪

KATIE: Yeah, that's
the madrone tree.

But it is way too high to
harvest any berries off of it.

This is when I need
Jason, just like I needed

him for the oyster mushrooms.

Give them to me.

(gasps) Yay!

We have some mushrooms.

Oh, you found some
that fell.

♪

It's almost like eating
like a tiny, mealy apple.

The color is phenomenal.

I think they're
gonna look great

for my dessert course.

I'm so thrilled
that we found this.

Just need to catch a fish,
and we're good.

(suspenseful music)

♪

(chuckles)

Oh, yeah.

Termites, wood termites.

Nice.

These are big ones, too.

♪

JASON: I felt a little snag.
I wasn't sure

if I was snagged
on the bottom or what.

So he started to put up
a little bit of fight.

I'm pretty
sure that that fish

was the last one of the lake.

Caught some protein.

I was excited to take it back
to her because she needs it.

But I don't know how excited
she's gonna be

about the size of the fish.

The fishmonger has returned.

(laughs)

There's your protein,
in all its glory.

He put up a fight.

That makes me pretty happy.

I'm glad you caught that.

I thought it was a snag,
to be honest.

- KATIE: Really?
- (laughs)

I like to feel
like you've given

a little bit to this team.

Thank you. Thank you.
I like to try to be useful.

KATIE: My granddad always
used to say

good things come
in small packages.

He's a jeweler.

The reason why I wanted
to do this challenge

is because I knew
that it was gonna take

a lot of hard work
and proving

that I can come up
with an amazing few dishes

from what I found.

That's winning right there.

♪

MORGAN: Hey, Hanif.

What's up?

I was chopping wood.

Uh-huh?

And I noticed, when
I got into this thing...

HANIF: What is it?

I saw some termites
in there, actually.

- See right there?
- Oh, really?

Yeah. See 'em?

- Yeah, yeah.
- There's one right there.

HANIF: Oh, nice.

MORGAN: I'm thinking,
if there's one, there's gonna be

- more in here.
- HANIF: Oh, yeah.

I'm definitely
going to grab some.

MORGAN: Yeah, they're
everywhere.

HANIF: Morgan came up with
the idea of using termites,

which I totally respect.

Because this is the culture
that has been practiced

in many places in the world.

This experience
was physically tough.

But we, as restaurant
people, are more

resilient and competitive.

What I do as a chef
is very unique.

And I always try to show
that in every dish I make.

(dramatic music)

♪

KATIE: At this point,
I am definitely

worried about Hanif,
knowing how hard he'd worked.

But really, I'm
competing with myself.

My head is in the game.

I'm gonna do everything
I possibly can to win.

This is the hardest meal
that I've ever worked for,

to get to cook it.

Spending days in
wilderness to forage

ingredients to cook
this meal is something

I've never done before.

♪

Oh, that kitchen's sick.

JASON:
Yeah, man, it's not bad at all.

Now, we're talking.

HANIF: This is so cool.

MORGAN: And are you guys
ready to do this?

- JASON: Yeah, shall we?
- KATIE: Let's go.

HANIF: Let's go check it out.

Cooking without
electricity is something

that is very intimate.

And cooking directly with
fire is something

that I'm always looking
forward to.

So it's a dream kitchen for me.

KATIE: I have definitely
cooked in a kitchen

like this with no electricity.

It's finally my chance to step
up and win it for the team.

I'm gonna get in there,
and I'm gonna crush it.

- Hey, guys.
- How are you?

- Hey.
- KIRAN: Come in.

Nice to see you all.

Everything that you need to
make incredible food with fire

is in this kitchen.

Just your skill, wild
ingredients, and fire...

that's it.

Let me introduce
Valerie Segrest.

She is our wild edibles expert.

Hello.
It's so nice to meet you.

Your gifted
protein is rabbit.

A rabbit teaches us
about adapting.

A snowshoe hare
changes its color

from that beautiful brown
camouflage to a white disguise

in the winter.

And it's such a reminder
of what you are all

doing too, right,
changing your environment

and learning to adapt.

Your challenge is to create
a three-course culinary

masterpiece consisting
of an appetizer,

an entree, and a dessert.

You must make your wild,
foraged ingredients shine.

It is absolutely what you will
be judged on in this kitchen.

And it will determine who
wins and who loses today.

Morgan and Jason,
role reversal now.

You are the sous chefs.

Let the games begin.

Come on.
The clock has started.

Good luck.

(dramatic music)

Oh, my gosh, the
adrenaline is kicking in.

This kitchen is making
me feel in my element.

Surrounded by fire,
I'm bound to succeed.

These plantains, if you can
pick, like, 7 to 10 leaves,

and just quickly wash them,
and put them somewhere

that you can use for the rice?

MORGAN: All good.

To be honest,
I don't feel 100%

because we were not
so successful on finding

herbs and berries,

but there is no other options
to just get in the kitchen

and get things done.

KATIE: You're taking a while,
but you are doing so...

JASON: I cleaned right good.

Well, I'm trying to
get a little [bleep]...

- (clears throat)
- (clears throat)

- Stuff off.
- (clears throat)

This is a family show.

(tense music)

HANIF: This is a very simple
marinade that we Iranian do

for different types of meat.

We're going to grill the
rabbit meat on hemlock skewers

and cook brown rice with some
other parts of the rabbit meat

to give it more flavor.

And we are cleaning the wild
onions that we foraged with.

We're going to sauté
these onions

and then cook it with berries.

I'm going to use
this sauce as a drizzle

on top of the cooked rabbit.

KATIE: All right.

Good. Needs more salt,
needs more time.

Mushroom broth is going.

Second course, I'm gonna
do rabbit confited with

a little bit of rabbit stock.

And then I'm gonna do
Canadian black wild rice

with tigers lily and
pickled nodding onion.

It smells like heaven
in West Virginia.

- Hey, Hanif.
- HANIF: Hey, what's up, Kiran?

KIRAN: What's in here?

MORGAN: It's a termite log.

It's to keep
the termites inside.

VALERIE: I love it.

Look at those pincers
on there.

You do not want
to swallow that.

Because if that grabbed
you in your throat,

you would really know about it.

And what you'll get
at the end, you'll get

a sort of a menthol-y taste.

And that's the acid that they
have as a defense mechanism.

And they're very rich,
very nutritious.

And if used correctly,
they're a great ingredient

in the kitchen.

So that's his job over there.

- Hello.
- KATIE: Hi.

Katie, where is
that enormous trout?

Ah, there it is.

I hear you gave it a nickname.

Yeah, Moby d*ck.

What are you gonna do
with that, by the way?

KATIE: So that's going to be
for our first course.

- Yeah.
- And I'm just gonna do,

like, a light pan sear on it

along with mushroom soup
I made with oyster mushroom,

chanterelles, and stout.

Any reason you're not
smoking or stuffing it?

- 'Cause it's just too small?
- KATIE: It's too small.

I'm definitely concerned
that it would destroy it.

OK, cool.

♪

HANIF: For my appetizer, I'll
make something between a cheese

and whey out of yogurt,
some chanterelle mushrooms,

and a piece of bread.

And we're gonna
make a termites butter

to go with the cr*cker
and the cheese.

The termites, you're gonna
crush them all, right?

Because we're going
to crush them...

- Yes, yes, yes.
- I don't need to remove

- the heads.
- No.

You just need
a full teaspoon.

OK, guys, Katie, Hanif,
two hours to go, guys.

Thank you.

KATIE:
All right, hey, come here.

- JASON: Yeah?
- All right, on the hike up

here, we saw blackberries.

I need you to go
and get those, please.

- Yeah, on that side hill?
- Yes.

Please be quick.

I really wanted blackberries.

Adding them to the huckleberry
and the madrone berry's

just gonna be bumping up
the flavor of my dessert course.

For dessert, I'm gonna
do a wildflower

honey rye cake
with a huckleberry,

blackberry, madrone compote.

HANIF:
OK, let's save these two.

For my dessert, I'm
going to make puffed rice

and jam or candied fruit.

And then this branch is going
to be on top of the dish

to get more of
a feeling of the forest.

Also on the side, we're going
to have a cider and ginger tea

with these fern roots.

Two things we need...
one is the cedar leaves.

- OK.
- The other one is as much

blackberry as possible.

Some groves over there I saw.

- Yeah.
- And work on that.

The landscape around
the wilderness kitchen

was much better than the
landscape that we've been in.

And I saw a couple of items

that would quickly help us, probably.

So I sent Morgan for a quick,
I would say, plant hunting.

MORGAN: Cedar leaves.

So I'm picking
some for a cedar tea.

Dessert is not really
my thing that I love to do.

And it is the one thing
that I'm

most worried about,
which I will be able to make

as soon as Jason gets back.

♪

JASON: So we've got
some blackberries,

sweetest ones in the bunch.

I gotta get these back.

- That's what we got.
- KATIE: Great. I love it.

JASON: Oh, yeah.

(suspenseful music)

Hey, guys, you
have 45 minutes left.

Home stretch.

MORGAN: I got us some berries.

Beautiful.
Yeah, nice.

I'm worried about
to have the time

to cook the brown rice well.

Because normally,
brown rice need

to be soaked for a few hours,
and then cooked.

KATIE: I put the rye cake on,
and I forget about it.

[bleep]
(groans)

The last and most
important thing that I need,

I burn it.
And I just am so angry.

I'm not gonna use it.

OK, guys, you have
30 minutes left.

30 minutes.

MORGAN: That good heat, Hanif?

- HANIF: Yeah.
- MORGAN: Awesome.

HANIF: Good, good.

You don't have so much time.

KATIE: Still checking this cake.

Boy, it is rising.

Baking is an exact science.

And now, I'm doing it
with a fire and embers

that are completely inconsistent

while I'm doing 70 other things.

That's crazy you can do that.

Now, I'm working
on the cheese whey

that I just made
with cedar leaves

for the first course.

They're a very
available ingredient

we could find all over.

There's a lot of cedar.

KATIE: Oh, my God,
that's gorgeous.

- Five minutes.
- OK.

You are coming
to the end of this.

I'm definitely used to
the pressure of a kitchen,

and of someone saying, "You only
have so much time left to go.

Are you going to
make it to service?"

Let's do the butter
very slowly.

The bread is so fragile, OK?

Thank you.

(dramatic music)

One minute.

Really hustle.
Get these plates done.

MORGAN:
We're down to the wire here.

KIRAN: OK, guys, five seconds.

Four, three, two, one.

It's all over.

Well done, guys. Well done.

- Good job.
- (sighs)

KIRAN: Well done. Well done.

Good job, man.

(dramatic music)

Here we are.

You've each created three
incredible courses of food,

which we can't wait to taste.

Katie, could we please
have your appetizer?

- Absolutely.
- Let's do it.

KATIE: So here, I have an oyster
mushroom and chanterelles.

And this is a mushroom
and stout broth.

And the trout, of course...
can't forget about

the Moby d*ck rainbow trout.

♪

When it comes to trout,
smoke is the best spice.

And so that embered mushroom
really complemented

the flavor of trout.

There's a lot of really
good stuff going on here.

I love what you've done
with the mushrooms.

The trout is delicious.

I love the fact that you
kept it totally whole.

The most outstanding
thing with this dish is,

there's hardly any pantry.

It's almost like
everything in this dish

came from the forest.

And that's exactly
what we're looking for.

Thank you.

My only criticism
here is that the broth

is slightly on the salty side.

Hanif, your appetizer, please.

HANIF: In Farsi,
we call it kashk garch,

which means whey and mushroom.

Kashk... I'm not even going
to try and pronounce that.

HANIF: We foraged
the chanterelles.

And I made kind of a whey
cheese out of the yogurt

that we had.

I marinate the yogurt
with cedar leaves.

And we have a whole wheat
bread, which we brush it

- with termites butter.
- KIRAN: OK.

I think it's delicious.

I think the cheese is lovely.

I get that cedar
that's coming through.

VALERIE: And I mean,
in our culture, the leaf

is used to remind us
of, like,

the sacred fragrance
in the world.

And the way you put it
into that homemade cheese

is bright and light.

Making a cheese,
making a bread, you know,

it's very pantry-heavy.

But my criticism here
is just the termites.

I can't taste them.

- You can't taste them?
- No.

I understand.

Entree time.
Hanif, can you bring up

your entree, please?

HANIF: So what we have here
is braised rabbit

served on skewers of hemlock,
brushed with sauce

of huckleberry
and wild onion, brown rice

cooked with plantain leaves
that we foraged.

The rice is really
flavored well.

And the rabbit's
really nicely cooked.

The sides, there's not
enough there for an entree.

We needed a little bit more.

- Sure.
- 'Cause the berries are fighting

with the onions
for their space.

Katie, your entree, please.

KATIE:
So this is my confited rabbit.

I made a rabbit stock.

And this is a Canadian
black wild rice

with pickled nodding onion
and tiger lily.

♪

- What do you think?
- I thought it was,

like, the best rabbit
I've ever had.

And the tiger lily, the way
it's traditionally prepared

here is in an earthen oven.

And so it was
a familiar flavor for me.

- Awesome.
- VALERIE: Yeah.

Either genius or accident...
don't tell us which it was.

- (laughter)
- Both, I think.

KIRAN: Oh, that's
very diplomatic.

Well done over there, Jason.

When you eat the tiger lily,
it's inherently bitter.

Sometimes, bitterness
can be your friend.

But then if you eat it
with the rest of the dish,

it balances perfectly.

You've done a very
good job, so well done.

OK, guys, last but not
least, your desserts.

Katie, can we have
your dessert, please?

KATIE: So this is my
wildflower honey rye cake

with madrone
and huckleberry compote.

There's also a few unripe
blackberries in there as well.

Madrone berries are just
this, like, burst of sunshine.

It's a reminder, especially
during this season,

that while the sunlight's
really scarce,

the sun will return.

The use of the berries,
I think you maybe went

- a step too far with the sugar.
- Mm-hmm.

Kills the berry taste.

Otherwise, it would
have been outstanding,

that berry compote.

Hanif, last but absolutely not
least, your dessert, please.

HANIF: Sure.

OK, what we have here, in Iran,
we call it (speaking Farsi),

which means fried puffed rice,

which I used wild rice,
madrone berries,

candied with sugar and honey.

And we have the whipped
yogurt with a bit of cream.

And the top is like
a branch of madrone berries.

- And then what's the tea?
- HANIF: The tea is a cedar tea

brewed with ginger
and fern roots.

Wow.

Hanif, I love this.

Again, I was a little bit
worried you're leaning

on the pantry too much.

But you haven't because
using the madrone berries

two ways here makes
this dish win.

It is delicious.

- Thank you.
- And the tea is amazing.

Like, cedar leaf tea is so
good, and so good for you.

We've got a bit of a decision
to make about this.

Whatever happens from here, you
guys can all be extremely proud.

- Good job.
- HANIF AND KATIE: Thank you.

KATIE: That is the toughest
meal that I've had to cook.

But I also took
so much more pride in it

because I was out there.

I suffered for every
ingredient

that I put on that dish.

And it made me
push even harder.

HANIF: I would appreciate
the judges to understand

what we brought
on the table

is what we could find
in the wilderness.

And sometimes, you have
to use your pantry

to come up
with the final dishes.

KIRAN: This is
a really tough challenge.

You can all be extremely
proud of yourselves

for getting here and creating
the meals that you have.

Yeah, the plates
you presented

were just
the ultimate manifestation

of the Salish bounty of
what's here on the land.

KIRAN: You fed us really well.

You showed off
your culinary skills.

But ultimately, this
is a competition.

And so we've thought
long and hard about that,

and really,
who did the best job

in transforming
and showcasing those wild,

foraged ingredients.

And so the winner
of this competition...

(suspenseful music)

- Katie.
- (laughs)

- KIRAN: Well done.
- VALERIE: All right.

We won! (laughs)

Good job.
You deserve it.

(laughing)

HANIF: I don't have
any regrets.

What I learned from this
is it's all about your mind

and your attitude towards
the situation that you're in.

I think it was just my mind
that helped me get through it.

KATIE: (laughs)

I tried to honor
all the ingredients.

And we made it happen.

Trudging through the muck
and all the little miseries,

it was all worth it.

I'm never gonna look at the
wilderness the same way again.

I feel tougher.
I feel stronger.

I feel like I can
take on anything.

♪