02x10 - Unhappy Customers

[bunniefuu]

Previously on "Top Chef"...

Create a seven-course dinner

inspired by the seven deadly sins.

Get the [bleep] out of my face, dude.

I think you're a piece of [bleep]

I can't stand Marcel. He's in my ear.

If he's not in my ears,
then somebody else is here.

Whatever, dude.

I don't care for the texture.

The trout envies the salmon
'cause the trout's smaller.

He should get his tooth pulled every day.

Michael, you are the winner.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and say

I'm so excited, man.

I won the quick fire,

and I win the challenge all in one shot.

Marcel, you know, you're
getting beat up for doing foams.

There's a place for them.

It's not on every single dish on your menu.

Why did you find it necessary to come out

and slam Marcel's dish?

He slammed my dish.

I thought that the
textures were definitely off.

Betty, please pack your knives and go.

Six chefs remain to fight it out

for a spot in the Top
Chef finale in Hawaii.

At stake for the winner,

a state-of-the-art Kenmore Pro Kitchen

furnished by Sears,

an editorial feature in
Food & Wine magazine,

a chance to showcase their culinary talent

at the 25th anniversary
Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

$100,000 to kick-start
their culinary career

furnished by the makers of
the GLAAD family of products

and the title of Top Chef.

♪ Theme music

♪ Theme music

♪ Theme music

♪ Theme music

♪ Theme music

It was very weird waking up this morning

without Betty in my room.

There's just six of us left.

I really want to be at the finale.

I'm just so close to it.

I can almost feel Hawaii.

[laughter]

Mikey was the first one
in winning a quickfire

and an elimination challenge.

I made Top Chef history.

I was the first one to win a whole episode,

so I'm feeling pretty good.

I got a little momentum. I want to win.

Where's Marcel?

Crying.

I think he's on my roof.

I keep myself pretty good company,

a lot better than the company
of some of my competition,

so that's why you see me up
here by myself as the outcast.

I'd like to tell you a little bit
about something I just wrote.

It's called "These People,"
for all the haters out there.

As soon as I came to the spot,

you started trying to make
me out to be something I'm not.

It's taken every ounce that I
got not to pop you in the face.

And you have no grounds to
base your accusations off of

'cause your buildings build on quicksand.

You say my food lacks
fundamentals like salt and pepper,

and I'm like, "Yo, man, whatever."

I don't even get stressed,
because I know at the end of the day

my food is [bleep] soignee.

[bleep]

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

[rock music]

Six of you still remain battling it out

for a place in the "Top
Chef" finale in Hawaii.

Our guest judge for this
round is Mike Yakura,

the executive chef of Sutra
and Aura in San Francisco.

This round is about vision and execution.

A chef must have original ideas,

but equally important is the ability

to execute those ideas effectively.

Your quick fire today is the
craft gourmet snack challenge.

You must create a delicious version

of the humblest form of culinary life...

the snack.

You can use any of the
ingredients on the table here,

as well as one of these
three craft condiments.

You've got craft mayo, you've
got the zesty Italian dressing,

and you've also got
the all-American favorite

barbecue sauce.

Everyone's a little
hesitant because it's mayo.

I like it on, like, a turkey sandwich.

You don't often use it in gourmet.

A couple keys to a really good snack...

it's ingenuity, vehicle.

How do you get that snack into your mouth?

Do you put it in between
two slices of bread?

Then the next thing is,
it just has to taste good.

You have full access to
everything in the pantry

and all the equipment
in the Kenmore kitchen.

You have 30 minutes to make us

the most amazing snack you can think of.

Get cracking.

I love mayonnaise, so I'm kind of excited.

I went to culinary school, my
parents paid tons of money,

and I came out with a
deep love of mayonnaise.

There are these really
nice lamb loin chops,

so I decided to make a
nice little curried mayonnaise

and just serve them in the form of a kebab.

Everybody loves meat on a stick.

Close, I'm in the top six.

I really want to win, but
competition's pretty fierce.

I love mayo, and I'll
eat it right out of the can.

I'm gonna make a crab and brie quesadilla

with a mayo salad.

I think I'm gonna bring this one home.

Got nine minutes, guys.

I'm making little Napoleons.

To top it off, I try to
foam the crab's zest,

the Italian dressing,
as an homage to Marcel.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Hands up, utensils down.

In all honesty, I looked
around at all the other dishes,

and I have the utmost confidence.

What do you have for us today?

I made some lamb kebabs.

I've got a little curried mayonnaise,

some Belgian endive with honey.

What's the bite in the mayo?

It's just straight-up, like,
madras curry powder.

Fantastic. - Thank you, Chef.

Hi, Claire.

I love tartars, so I did
a little steak tartare.

I actually used a little of the crab mayo.

The tartare has a
little bit of a bite to it.

Very nice. Thank you very much.

I'm from the South, so this is sort of

a Southern craft sandwich.

What it is, it's basically pickled peaches

that I marinated in the zesty Italian,

and then I went for a barbecue aioli

and chili tempura battered shrimp.

Interesting. What do you have here for us?

Brie and crab quesadilla,
a little mayo salad,

and then a chipotle salsa.

Chipotle. - Chipote.

Chipotle. - Perfect.

You think seafood and cheese is...

I like it. - All right, then.

All right.

Looks lovely.

So I did this big racing toast,

and then I put plain yogurt.

I toasted some almonds,

and then I put on the
top of the barbecue sauce.

Of course, the smokiness with the almonds,

finished with the honey. It's a good pair.

Thank you. - What do you have for us today?

The Napoleon has fresh
tomatoes, smoked salmon,

and I took zesty Italian dressing

and I tried to foam it,

but, you know, it didn't really hold.

It sort of dissolved.

Alain was trying to poke fun at me

with his zesty Italian foam,

but 'cause he didn't execute it,

I think he made fun of himself.

[dramatic music]

Mike, what did you think about

how all our chefs did in this challenge?

Michael, a little
heavy-handed, a little frenetic.

More plus more equals more.

And also just used the mayonnaise

as a condiment on the salad.

Alain, texture-wise,

ended up with a dry
tortilla with dry salmon

and knocking in left sauce.

Sam, I loved your dish.

I thought it was a great
play on lobster po' boy.

You used all three sauces.
I thought you really elevated

what snack food should be.

Elia, fantastic dish. Very clean.

Bright flavors. You add
a little barbecue sauce,

brought out the smokiness of it.

Marcel, lamb kebab.
Technically done very, very well.

I think that mayonnaise
heightened your dish.

Cliff, tartare was fantastic.

I thought it was ingenious
with the mayonnaise,

but very, very good dish.

In today's challenge,
there will be two winners

who will each get a special prize.

♪ ♪

So, Mike?

The first winner, brought
it all the way through

as far as fruition to the plate.

♪ ♪

Sam.

My love of mayonnaise really
came through in this challenge.

I knew someday it would help.

And our other winner?

I thought this was the
most technical dish here

as far as done well. It's Marcel.

Thank you, Chef. I kicked a*s today.

Thank you. - Thank you.

Nice job.

Congratulations, Sam and Marcel.

And now for the elimination challenge.

[dramatic music]

This round is about executing
your vision in the real world.

So we want to see you take an idea

from a concept to reality.

You'll form two teams who each take half

of an empty restaurant

and get it up and
running and ready to serve



♪ ♪

Marcel and Sam, as the
winners of the quick-fire challenge,

each of you will get to choose your team.

♪ ♪

Marcel, you get to choose first.

I'm gonna choose...

Elia.

I know that I work really well with Elia,

and I don't have to worry
about personal issues,

like if I was to have Alana on my team.

Sam? - I'm gonna go with Alana.

Mikey, I love you.

I don't want you to have to feel like

the last kid in dodgeball.

Oh, please.

I'm gonna go with Cliff.

Thank you.

I probably wanted to hit
Marcel more than five times

since I've been here, but
I'm gonna put up with him.

I'm gonna win this.

The place you'll be sharing

is in the Westfield
Promenade Shopping Center.

It's three weeks away from opening

as a new concept restaurant called YouWink.

At the moment, it's just a big empty space

with a line drawn right down the middle.

You can discuss your ideas en route

to the location in your RAV4s.

Once there, you'll have
half an hour to look around

and then half an hour to
meet with your design team.

Tomorrow, you'll shop for supplies

and spend the rest of the day
getting ready for your customers.

Each team will also be given a server.

This is gonna be a
very difficult challenge,

opening a restaurant in 24 hours.

So what are we gonna do for this?

This challenge is restaurant wars.

I can cook very fast,

or if you want me to be
in the front of the house,

I could totally do that.

Working on teams has not
been a strong suit of mine.

I'm hoping for the best
and expecting the worst.

I'll do it. - Front of the house?

Yeah. - Really?

Okay, so I have a question now.

Is it, like... - I want to do it.

I wanted to be responsible
for the front of the house.

I feel very comfortable with
smiling to people, hanging out.

Is there any specific reason

why you want to be in
the front of the house?

That's me. It's what I
do in my own restaurant.

I'm not here to fight, you know?

I'm here to compete. If
you really want to do it,

that's fine. I'll cook.

Here's what I'm thinking. Rustic Tuscan.

I'm very confident with my team.

Alon is a great cook,
and Mike, he's a good guy.

He's crude, he's outrageous.

It's called tugboats.

Let's name it after a girl.

What's your girlfriend's name?

Carolina.

Michael's wife's name is Lacey.

Sam's girlfriend is Lauren,
and my girlfriend is Carolina.

So we decided to combine it
all together and form La-La-Lena.

Hawaii. I smell... I smell it orchid-lays.

I see that water, man.

I hope all three of us are gonna be there.

We'll be there, dude.

Marcel's gotta go. - Marcel's gotta go.

Let's go check out our restaurant, guys.

So there's the dividing line.

Both teams are given a raw space.

Oh, [bleep] they gotta paint it and stuff?

When you get to the
space, it's in shambles.

It's totally under construction.

[whistles]

I hope our designer's good,

because the front of the
space really needs some love.

Are we sharing the kitchen?
- We're sharing the kitchen?

Yeah.

We definitely have our work cut out for us.

[whistles]

You just decided on twice.

Yes? Do it.

I find a total lack of respect.

The elimination challenge.

We have to open a restaurant.

Today we get to see the
restaurant and meet with a designer.

Hi. - Hi.

My name's Marla. - Hey, Marla.

I'm with Interior Spaces,

and I'm here to assist
you guys with your process.

To open a restaurant in real life

or to open a restaurant in Top Chef,

they're both complete insanity.

Our concept is a basic
Italian family-style restaurant.

More Tuscan, more warmer tone.

Think like 80-year-old
grandmother in the back.

So I want you guys to have plenty of space.

We create this whole idea
of a Mediterranean restaurant.

What type of cool tablecloth do you use?

I mean, that's a little diner-ish.

We don't have that.

Our restaurant's gonna look awesome.

She totally understands
what we're trying to achieve.

We're gonna call it "METI."

We're Mediterranean, obviously.

If we have any, like,
last-minute ideas or decisions,

we'll give you a call later.

You know the style, you know the theme.

Yeah, I know the theme. - Just run with it.

It's a challenge for her as well.

She has $700 to turn this concrete room

into something beautiful.

Foster Road.

[upbeat music]

We should have done, like, a cool diner in

with a burger that we did the other day.

[upbeat music]

It's not even a bad idea.
- Not a bad idea at all.

I just did some burgers
for the other chefs,

and they really loved the burger.

So I'm like, "Let's do just burgers

and just do, like, a diner place."

I can't believe we're just thinking about

changing our entire concept.

No, but just think about it.

We're just kind of
jokingly, like, taking the ball

and running with this diner concept,

and then all of a sudden,
we're just like, "Yeah."

People would say, "This
is the freaking best burger

I've had in my life."

Vision, concept, this is awesome.

By the time we get back to the lofts,

we've already completely
changed our entire concept

and agreed upon going from METI to MEC,

which is our upscale diner concept.

Hi, Christine, this is Cliff.

We have a slight curveball to throw you.

We changed the entire concept.

You're not kidding?

No, I'm not upscale diner.

Upscale diner.

I'm with you, actually.
I'm with you on that.

Awesome.

She sounds very confident with the phone,

and I am very confident,
and I think we're gonna win.

Got the vision? Like, you
know what we're talking about?

You're right there with us, or what?

Got the vision.

Run with it. Run with it.

[rock music]

Okay, just a little...
- Just gonna be, like, a little...

As we get back to the loft,

we gotta put together a restaurant,

a three-course meal, serve up to 24 people.

We make up our menu, we make up our list.

Tomorrow, we'll go knock
it out, win the challenge.

One more person gone, closer to Hawaii.

Are you good with all your stuff?

I think I got everything.

♪ ♪

We need to both go to Hawaii, right?

But only one team is gonna win tonight.

Today is elimination day in the challenge,

and I think our concept's great.

Not to be mean, but I
hope that your team loses,

and Marcel goes home.

Marcel's been having a lot of trouble

with everyone here but me.

That's not gonna make me lose today.

Marcel is part of my team,

and I want to go to the finale.

If you guys go up to the losers' block,

then you just blame everything on Marcel.

I don't wanna be in that judge's table

for a negative comment ever again, ever.

♪ ♪

We have a $500 budget at
the restaurant supply store.

I have my list of everything I need.

$500 budget at the Wild Oats.

They have their list of
everything they need.

I need some help, man.

Our menu, basically a tiny fried meatball

on a piece of toast
with some parsley pesto,

spaghetti with parsley and walnut pesto.

Our entree is roasted
pork loin with sofrito sauce,

and then our dessert is watermelon gnocchi.

Alana and I are picking up all the food,

and Mike's doing all the dishes.

Mikey.

Hey, I'm about to send you guys a picture

of the three bowls you might want to use.

♪ ♪

Yeah. - How you making out?

Well, I think we're just gonna
go with beer and root beer.

How many should we...
how many should we get?

The menu for our upscale diner

is based around signature diner dishes.

The first one is barbecue,
coffee, chicken wings.

Our second dish is tempurred vegetables.

Third dish, the best burger ever.

To top it all off with a sweet treat,

we've got the Oreo lemon pie.

Look at that.

Hey, did you guys get the wine?

We didn't have enough
money to get the wine.

We were trying to work
out the wine glass situation,

and I call 'em, and they're
like, "We're not doing the wine."

I tell the lady, "We're not
gonna do the wine glasses."

I was like, "Oh, well, 100 bucks left over.

Got everything I need and on my list.

Too bad, so sad."

Mr. Frank has wine,
it's such a big part of life.

You know, I'm worried about wine,

and I was a little worried
that Mike might have

overlooked something just
because he had extra cash.

♪ ♪

So we get into the kitchen.

We have four hours to make it happen.

Are we gonna win? - Of course.

The Oreo says yes.

It was just so much fun to be on the line

prepping for your own
restaurant's dinner service.

♪ ♪

I took on the responsibility

of working in the front of the house.

You're prepping something,
and then you have to go outside

and make sure that the
designer is not hanging herself.

That's what we wanted to run.

I need somebody to prep
the back of these art pieces.

Okay, show me how you want to put that.

We're using those.

I started prepping. There's no team leader.

We're all just kind of working together.

Is our girl still not here yet, Ilana?

Uh, let me see.

She's not.

We haven't spoke to our designer at all

since our last meeting.

This place is named after our girlfriends

and looks like crap so
far, so kind of nervous.

Get that piece of paper right there.

Okay, 'cause it's right here.

I've worked with Clavin on other teams,

and several times during
the planning of the challenge,

he raised his voice.

You just decided on twice. Yes? Do it.

That I find, like, a total lack of respect.

All right, you guys want to come out here

and see what I'm doing?

Our designer showed
up about two hours later

than we thought, and
then when she got there,

she needed one of us to help her.

Oh, [bleep]

See, they come with instructions.

There hasn't been a lot accomplished

in the area of the front of the house.

Christine kind of took
off to get some carpet.

I begin to get really worried

when it's about 45 minutes before service

and there's still not really anything done.

[dramatic music]

[bleep]

Yeah, I never put an easel together,

and I have no clue how
to put that thing together.

I didn't have Matt probably do that.

Milan, maybe pull that bacon, huh?

What'd you say? - Maybe that bacon.

Uh, it's almost done.

We were pretty much a
man down for a long while,

so I'll come get you in 20, so
you can make a call at service.

You have to finish
this and I'll come do it.

So what do we got going on?

It's crazy trying to open
up a restaurant, you know?

What are you going for?
- I have some experience with that.

We're doing the last touches on the tables

and then putting the menus together.

Is he doing any work, or is
he just kind of hanging around?

He's just kind of loafing around.

Yeah, I figured that out.

Can I borrow him for, like, 15 minutes?

Yeah. - Okay.

[dramatic music]

That bacon's toast, dude.

Dude.

♪ ♪

Throw it out.

I was doing three things at once.

I stopped watching the bacon,
and it all completely burnt.

Sam was mad.

[bleep] I'm sorry.

The burning of the bacon
put our team behind,

so I was not pleased at all.

Hey, yo. - What's up?

I'm smelling burnt bacon.
How'd that happen?

Uh, left it on too long.

It keeps your eye on the pans, you know?

You don't want to burn it anymore.

Yeah.

What's happening, Chef? How are you?

This is the diner? - This is the diner.

Slowly but surely coming along as a diner.

You don't strike me as a diner guy.

I'm definitely not a diner guy.

We all decided to adjust our concept

based on our target market,

and we think we'll be able to
execute the vision, hopefully.

Cool. Cliff, Elia, and Marcel,

they're very proud that
they're doing a diner,

but they're doing it amused.

You know, in a diner, your
amuse is a cup of coffee.

I don't know about that part of it,

but, you know, the food
is very diner-like food.

Elan, Sam, and Michael,

they're doing an Italian restaurant.

When I was back there,
Elan burned some bacon.

And Mike seems to be
a little all over the place

as far as his preparation goes.

I think that kind of puts Sam on edge.

It's gonna be about executing
the concept at this point,

and also how they can expedite their food.

You know, at the end of the day,

you can overlook a lot of mistakes,

but the food is really great.



Restaurant's open for business.

Salty, way overdone.

This is sloppy.

It's pretty much amateur diner.

All right, restaurant's open for business.

Our prep time is up, and
the service is about to start.

The front of the house
still needed some work,

but at the same time, all
the food was totally ready,

and so, you know, you
just gotta go with the flow.



What table's that? - 10.

Thank you.

When the diners arrived, they
were able to look at both menus

and decide which restaurant
they wanted to go to.

Opening up a restaurant,
it's pretty difficult,

and I had one of Elliot's burgers,

and they're extremely
delicious, so I'm a little worried.

We're gonna go to the La La Lina,

the watermelon gnocchi.

Sounds good.

I think the burger's somewhere else.

I know.

So time's up.

The guests come in.

It's just like being at work on the line,

pumping out solid plates,
everything looks good.

Is that blue cheese?

At first, I went over to the
other team's restaurant.

I was definitely worried.

Pardon me?

We chose to go to the Italian side.

It looked a little more adventurous,

and it was full, so we came over here.

Rolled with the gloves.

Can I start you off with any drinks?

We have beer or root beer floats.

Welcome to La La Lina.

What are you gonna do with that?

I'm just going right through.

I have absolutely no front
of the house experience.

Where are we going with these?

I don't think anybody else

has any front of the
house experience either,

so I decided to see how well I can do.

These are mini meatballs on crostini.

Somewhere to the third.

Good?

Where's the wine list?

The D's gonna want white.

I don't know, maybe
I'm in the mood for red.

All right.

Oh, there's a four-tup over there.

Front of the house is a huge deal.

It's a responsibility that I
took on wholeheartedly.

Okay, how is everything?

Very good.

Delicious, thank you.

Okay, round of cold beers.

Somebody, anybody?

There were a lot of things going on,

and I was focused on the
food that needs to be served.

Maybe I took on a bit too much.

Tell me everything that we're gonna serve.

Okay, and then just how
they want their burger.

How they want their burger.

What they want to drink.

Yes.

Myself, I need five.

Starting you off with a drumstick

with coffee barbecue sauce,

and then we'll also be
having a vegetable stack.

And for the main course,
it'll be a burger with prosciutto

and truffle oil inside.

Okay. - All right?

I have six now, plus seven.

Ellie and I don't know what's going on

with the front of the house.

Cliff was not expediting
well, so you don't really know

why I even chose to be
in the front of the house.

The last order, table 10?

BFB, BFB.

[upbeat music]

But I left some pieces that
have no decor or ambiance.

How's it going back there?

[upbeat music]

So how long does a wing take to cook?

Long time. - Wing.

A, single wing.

I need to know how they want the burger.

♪ ♪

Mikey, a little olive oil.

We'll poach some herbs on them
too, you know what I'm saying?

This is the linguine with
walnut-parsley pesto.

Mushrooms are salty, way overdone.

Should we get some more pork chops in?

Yeah, I thought you did.

♪ ♪

Where's my meatball?

Sam's freaking out a little bit.

When we get the cheese,
it's gonna look like this.

He's an executive chef, I'm a line cook.

I'll be a team player.

That's a good way to
survive in a team challenge.

Dude, like, sometimes the
bottom of these ovens, man,

get f*cking hard. - All right, go ahead.

Mike's a line cook, so I've
been helping Mike along the way

because I like Mike.

I'm tired of telling him
I don't do everything.

Thank you.

It's a coffee sauce.

Barley sauce, black, something.

It's sloppy. - There's no depth.

Does anybody else have mid-rare?

Yeah. - Yeah.

I need one amuse. - One amuse?

What? - Hey, I didn't even know.

♪ ♪

Wow. - Mm-hmm.

Mm, isn't that good?

It is tasty. It's fried well.

You put this next to ponzu
and dashi, it becomes Japanese.

You put tartar sauce on it,
and I guess we're a diner.

♪ ♪

Elia. - Yeah?

All you have holding right
now are two medium-rare,

one medium, and one well.

They've been sitting for,
like, four minutes now.

My burgers were waiting on the line.

Like, they're sitting there.

They're gonna be overcooked, you know,

if you don't take them out.

♪ ♪

I think that Cliff was in over his head.

He bit off more than he could chew.

I think that he thought he
could do the front of the house,

but obviously it's not his forte.

Is it the best burger ever? - Mm-mm.

The chips are nice.

My burger's just overdone. - They were.

No, that's well done. - Mm-hmm.

All right, flavor-wise, I like it.
- Mm-hmm.

It's got a nice caramel on the outside.

It's got some interesting
things inside of it.

It's delicious. - Oh, yeah.

Just give it to me now. Just give it to me.

Don't raise your voice,
Cliff. Take it easy.

Cliff definitely has a
temper in the kitchen.

He has an air of superiority
that I hadn't seen until now.

The desserts. The desserts.

♪ ♪

You know, it tastes like a crushed Oreo.

You know why? 'Cause it's a crushed Oreo?

I didn't really care for
the dessert too much.

The veggies were really good.

I think we could have left.

Watching the judge leave the restaurant,

I don't feel 100% about it.

We'll have to see what happens.

La-la-lina.

La-la-lina's actually a compilation

of all of the women in
Mike Sam and I's life.

That is so cute. - Wow.

Is this an olive pit on my table?

Is that our amuse?

No, it's not. - Oh.

Start you off with water.

We also have some Italian
orange tangerine soda.

You can run across the
street and get the beer

and you can get the beer.

There's a [bleep] olive pit on the table.

Oy.

I'm so jealous of their
beer. They seem so happy.

[laughter]

I'm gonna put my bread right here.

People giving you any comments?

I wish there was beer or wine.

Sucks.

Cheers.

Service seems to be a
little better at this restaurant.

Ooh, a little surprise. - Yeah.

It's a miniature meatball
that is on top of a crostini

with a parsley walnut pesto
and sugar-roasted yellow tomato.

Thank you. - Thank you.

The meatball's good.

Meatball's better than a burger.

I was thinking that.
- All right, Mike, that's ready.

It just all went on fire.

It's pretty much amateur with Mike.

Hold on, give me a saute pan, dude.

Thank you.

This is linguine with
a parsley walnut pesto

and roasted mushrooms.

I'm just not having any fun with this.

I'm not having any
fun, they're not part of it.

Is this the best way to make a
dish that's gonna impress us?

Okay, guys.

This is the roasted pork loin

with bacon-roasted Brussels sprouts

and cream of polenta on the side.

Why is it on the side?

It's on the side because
we thought it would...

There's too much [bleep] on the plate?

Serving the judges was a little tricky.

No, we thought it would
look better on the side.

Mike, your courier was a bit rude.

And being in front of the house,

you have to take it all in stride.

The pork by itself is a little bit bland.

Get more sugar on there,
'cause it smells a little gas.

Don't make it too sweet, dude.

Sam doesn't think that I
know how to brulee a dessert.

He wants to do it a certain way.

Hey, man, take the g*n, do it, you're wet.

Let's just get this over with.

It's not that I don't trust
your brulee skill, dude.

[bleep]

Before I left Manhattan
to come to Tough Chef,

I was playing around with watermelon,

and I started cutting the shapes out

and it looked similar to a gnocchi,

and I served it with some
creamy gorgonzola cheese,

and Alana and Mike loved the idea of it.

I hope the judges feel the same way.

You go first. [laughs]

The only thing I like about it is the salt.

Because they bring out the
sweetness in the watermelon.

Like, I want a little salt right now.

From what I can see
from the kitchen window,

the judges don't seem too thrilled.

Whenever you get a chance.

Service went down pretty well.

My bigger concern was that
the people didn't like the food.

And I'm nervous, 'cause they
have comment cards to fill out.

I would have liked a little bit
more explanation about the dish.

Who do you think was the chef on crack?

Too, too harsh.

I think we got a chance to go to Hawaii.

I think so.

At the end of service, I feel
good about the food that went out,

but I'm not happy about what
happened in the front of the house,

because anybody could have
done a better job than Cliff.

We had a little team meeting, dude.

Come here, you two.
- I don't want to feel down,

'cause I really think we're gonna win.

I'm doing, like, a real restaurant.

Anyone can make a flippin' cheeseburger.

He's positive, man.

So don't f... ing get
all f... ing sad and s...

Did you think it was good?

Who goes?

That dish made me nauseous.

Coming up with a concept and executing it,

what do you think?

Yesterday, I saw a lot of
personality come out of their food,

and I thought if they could just take that

and put a lot of
personality out on that floor

with the service, with the ambiance,

but it all fell flat for me.

Well, when we first went into the diner,

I was actually sort of excited.

I thought we were gonna really get

a really high-concept diner experience.

But you didn't. - I didn't at all.

Part of the challenge
was to create a concept

in a shopping center that
people would gravitate towards.

So most of our diners today
chose the Italian restaurant.

I think they carried through with the idea,

but there were a lot of
missteps along the way.

I've had an olive pit from
whoever was eating olives

at the table before.

I actually blame the
olive pit more on the fact

that they never put anything in there

and the fact that they
never put anything down

to put the olives in. - Right.

I can't believe they had an
Italian restaurant without wine.

Wine, alcohol, would have been fantastic.

Follow through. You have an intention.

Follow through with the concept. - Exactly.

I'd like to know who chose Cliff and Ilan

to be at the front of the house.

You know, neither of them were really...

They didn't have a presence.
There was no presence on the floor.

Not at all.
- There's a lot of different things

that we can talk about here,
but, you know, head-to-head,

what do we think? The
chicken or the meatball?

Meatball. - Meatball.

Yeah.
- No question. It was actually quite good.

It was probably the best thing
we had for both restaurants.

So now we have pasta
and tempura vegetables.

I'll go down with the vegetables.

I liked it more than the
pasta dish in terms of

head-to-head, flavor for flavor.

So what do we think about the pork loin

compared with the hamburger?

My issue with the pork
is I want a complete dish.

I want a dish where the
components are making sense

with each other.
- Did you prefer the burger?

Did I prefer the burger?
No, I didn't prefer the burger.

It was not the best burger I ever had.

What did you think about the dessert?

That watermelon dish made me nauseous.

It was anything but Italian.

Watermelon with reduced cream.

What did you think
about the diner's dessert?

The lemon and Oreo pie wasn't great.

Occupock?

Last week, they finally,
you know, stepped up

and did something nice, and
they're back to their old ways.

Just good enough is not gonna do it.

[upbeat music]

You know, clearly, we
didn't like the food here,

and the diner said the same
thing on their comment cards.

They leave us with a very difficult task.

You know, I really don't think
we have a winner here tonight.

♪ ♪

We'd like to see the Italian team, please.

Good luck, guys.

[sighs]

My whole team wins. There's no way.

I think that our fan was way better.

Me too.

♪ ♪

I should let you know

that we are not the winning team tonight.

Someone's going home,

but we don't know yet who that's gonna be.

I wanted to read a couple
of the comment cards

from the diners that
ate with you this evening.

"Needs to have a wine list.

One choice of red and one of white."

Someone else writes,
"These dishes just didn't work.

Watermelon and blue cheese?

Was the chef on crack?"

All of us were so amazed by these comments

because they were the exact
comments that we all said as well.

What exactly was the concept?

The concept was, like, a
rustic Italian sort of family.

Sort of is not a concept.
You need a concept.

But rustic Italian.

Whose decision was it to serve olives?

We just kind of were thinking,

put something out on the
table, and olives came up.

There was nothing for the pits,

and there was nothing to put the bread on.

You had to put it on a tablecloth.

Who went to the store
to buy all that stuff?

I went with the list we
made the night before.

How much money did you have? - $500.

Did you spend it?
- Well, I spent, like, 400.

And then we didn't need the wine glasses,

and that was, like, 75 bucks.

Why didn't you need the wine glasses?

We... - Didn't serve wine?

Didn't serve wine.
- In an Italian restaurant?

Someone made a bad
decision not to focus on wine,

but I want to get back to the supplies.

We had money left over.

I had everything on my list.

Did you think there was
something that was missing

that you didn't get?

I was just really focusing on my list.

In the action of dining and the
experience that you're having,

finding olive pits on your table,

or when you're eating an olive,

having nowhere to put it when you're done,

it becomes an issue.

Now the first course. - Who made that dish?

We all made it. - Who made the meatball?

I made the meatball.

It was good. It was the best thing we had.

I think one thing we haven't discussed yet

is front of the house.

What does it mean to
work the front of the house?

To keep everybody happy.

How about someone who's enthusiastic?
- Yes.

Do you think you'd do that?
- I think I sold the food.

I think I was proper.

I guess we were looking
for more of a welcome.

At the end of every
meal, there was a chance

to make a great last
impression, and that's dessert.

And that dish didn't
taste very good to most.

I think that's why the scores
were as low as they were.

If I was, like, a bigger-name chef,

if I was Wiley Dufresne
and Warren Battaglia

and somebody did something like that,

I think it would be huge.

I don't necessarily think that if
Wiley Dufresne made this dish,

it would have been a good dish,

because I don't think that
the actual dish worked.

We'll wait for the other team,
and then we'll make our decision.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I want to see you guys.

How did it go? - Good luck, dude.

Good luck. - Someone's either going home

from your team or our team.

♪ ♪

There isn't a winner tonight.

Someone's going home,

and it could be a chef from
your team or the other team.

♪ ♪

Whose idea was it to do a diner?

Elliot kind of, like, took
the ball and ran with it.

I thought it was gonna be
a good... a good concept,

and that's what I wanted to put out there.

We need to figure out who was responsible

for what parts of the meal.

Let's start with the chicken.

The amuse, like, singular
chicken wing was... was my idea.

And then we, you know, we decided to go

with a coffee barbecue sauce.

You're shaking your head, Clev.

It was Clev's sauce. It
was Clev's barbecue.

It just sounds like you're just taking...

No, no, I mean...
- The entire thing, which is...

No, no, no.
- Which... which could go either way.

You have to be careful for
what you're actually taking here.

No, no, no, I'm not...
I'm not, like, taking credit

for, like, the sauce by any means.

Who cooked the chicken? - Um, that was me.

Yeah. - That was me.

We're self-coaching.

We hated the chicken.

All of us. - It was raw.

Scary.
- Your customers will be out of there.

Uh, I don't know how I let that slip by.

The tempura. - Who did that?

Again, um, that was me.

Most of us enjoyed it.
We thought it was good.

It was crispy, and it was well-seasoned,

and I thought it was... it was nice.

How do you think the burger went, Ilya?

I think it went smoothly.

I found the parsley and
the onions too coarse.

It was not the best burger I ever had.

Let me read you a comment
that somebody wrote.

"Burger was more like meatloaf."

Yeah, that's kind of what we felt.

It was more like a meatloaf than a burger.

Cliff, why did you decide
to be the front of the house?

I wanted the challenge.

I wanted to be out there
to set it up to assist them,

and then come back and
try to keep the pace going

as much as possible.

Did you think you did keep the pace going?

Up until you guys came in,

I thought everything was running smoother

than maybe it apparently was.

And what happened when we came in?

I am waiting for you to tell us that.

When we were waiting for our food,

you barely even spoke to us.

And given the time, we all had to wait.

That's unacceptable.

That was a glaring mistake.

You know, as far as your service

and not understanding
the service in the front,

no one was really interested
or had a smile on their face.

Cliff, do you think you should go home?

No, I don't think I should go home.

Then who goes?

Choose one of them.

Okay, I think we have enough.

We'll call you back
when we have a decision.

[phone ringing]

What'd they say?

Just when you thought it
was that bad, it gets worse.

Who's going home?

Throw out a name. What do you think?

Cliff. I think Cliff's
service lacked a lot.

I mean, he barely even acknowledged us.

Cliff's not a front-of-the-house guy.

He definitely fell short in
a lot of the service issues.

Alain, he had mentioned
that he had meatballs.

He made the sauce.

It appeared as if he had
done the bulk of the work.

What about Sam? Sam's dessert.

To me, the dish did not
work from start to finish.

I love watermelon.

I don't want it with cream and cheese.

Marcel, he did a bunch
of things wrong as well.

Who cooks fried chicken? Yes.

Who serves fried chicken?

Who didn't cook fried chicken?

He didn't seem to carry the...

do the bulk of the work, but he
also made a bunch of mistakes.

Well, he also was responsible
for the tempura dish.

It was the best dish that
we probably ate tonight.

You know, at least Ellia had an idea

and the burger, it wasn't
great, but it wasn't terrible.

She also took it upon
herself to make the dessert,

and you kind of have to
give her some credit for that.

I'm still trying to figure out
what Michael did besides shop

and, quite frankly, shortchanged the team.

And we didn't have dishes for our bottoms.

He blamed... he blamed the list.

He didn't make those crucial decisions

that would have affected
the dining experience

that we had tonight.

I get a sense that no one's trying to win,

that they're just trying to skate by.

You're not, like, jumping over the bar.

You're just kind of, like,
walking underneath it.

Mm-hmm.

I think we have an answer here.

Let's get the map.

There were mistakes made on both teams,

and that's why there's
no clear winner here.

Ellia, it was your concept.

I appreciate the fact that you took a risk.

I think you could have ex*cuted it better,

but you did take the risk.

You put yourself out
there, so I think you're safe.

You can leave the kitchen.

Thank you, chef.

Alain, your team had some issues.

You stepped up and took the risk of working

in the front of the house

when you're clearly
not a front-of-house guy.

You at least stepped up,

and it seems like you carried the weight.

So you can leave the kitchen.

Marcel.

Yes, chef.

Again, seemed to have
done the bulk of the work.

Chicken was undercooked.

However, you redeemed yourself
because we did love the tempura.

You can leave the kitchen.

All three of you are
here for various reasons.

Cliff, clearly you guys had some trouble

with the front of the house.

I think some of the things that you did

really put your team in jeopardy.

Sam, we weren't crazy about that dessert

all along we've been
talking about risk-taking.

Putting yourself out there is half of it.

You need to know what makes
a dish work and why it works.

Michael, you go to the store,

and you come back with
almost a quarter of your budget.

That's a lot of money.

And I also, I'm just getting a sense

that your teammates are carrying you.

You're not putting it out there.

We had a decision to make,
and I believe it's the right one.

[music]

Michael, please pack your bags and go.

All right.

It's been fun.

It's been fun having you.

And it's been real, man.

Take care, Michael.

I will.

Thanks a lot, guys.

Thank you all.

It's my time.

Oh, Mike.

See you guys later, man.

It's been fun, bro.

It's been a pleasure meeting you, Jared.

I don't have any regrets, man.

I had some good times,
some great experiences,

made some crazy dishes I would never make.

Almost made it all the
way to the end and [bleep]

I'm kind of like a really
humble guy, you know,

like Charlotte's Web, that pig, you know?

[laughs]

If they learn anything from me,

I hope they learn to take
just a laid-back approach.

It's cool to stay cool, you know?

[music]

Next on "Top Chef"...

This will determine who's going to Hawaii

and who's going home.

You were one step away
from going to Hawaii.

Stakes are high, really high.

I quit.

I did a big mistake.

What if you want to help out?

Nobody would help me out at all.

I'm in trouble.

It was a stupid joke.

It was an uncomfortable situation

for all parties involved.

It's unfortunate.

I want to talk to them
about their behavior.

I think you're going to
be in for quite a surprise

when you see them.

[music]

For more about the recipes seen tonight,

go to bravotv.com.

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