01x06 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

[bunniefuu]

Previously on "Top Chef"...

Tomorrow, you will take
your food to the public,

and your dishes must be
designed to be sold on the street.

The person standing next
to you is your teammate.

It was Andrea and me,
and she was the person

that was voted out already once.

I'll just do a blend
and just roll it through.

Dave will sort of spin around you

and freak out a little bit.

Sweetheart. - Yeah, b*tch?

Where's the Jicama at?

We're starting to set up, and Harold goes,

"You got the jicama?"

And I'm like, "You don't have the Jicama?"

We're hosting. - We're dead.

We're working on a little
Indian-infused Spanish burrito.

My friend has immunity here.

I'm up on the chopping
block, but I feel great.

Who was responsible for the jicama?

We both were, but I've already
been at this table three times.

You made us an open-faced burrito.

I mean, that's it?

I mean, that's the
originality in all of it?

I think she had an influence.

She left it up to the patrons.

The rice was a little bland.

Well, I think that she wanted to go

with some type of organic and clean feel.

As soon as the axe dropped,
Miguel threw me under the bus.

You really left us a pretty tough decision.

Lisa, please pack your knives and go.

Now seven chefs remain to fight it out

for a place in our Las Vegas finale.

At stake for the winner, a
feature in Food & Wine magazine.

A chance to showcase their culinary talents

at the annual Food & Wine Classic.

A state-of-the-art Kenmore Elite Kitchen

provided by Sears.

$100,000 to kickstart
their culinary career.

And the title of Top Chef.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪
♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[soft music]

♪ ♪

How do you feel about Miguel
throwing you under the bus?

Like, what the [bleep] is that about?

His whole world is staked on

whether or not he's the top chef, so...

[laughs]

He's gonna do anything
to make himself look good.

I think Miguel will be the next one to go

unless he really cleans up his act.

He hasn't shown grace
toward the other chefs.

He's been very overly
competitive to his detriment.

♪ ♪

And everyone's saying
that I was attacking Andrea.

I was an attacker, Andrea.

I just simply expressed
that I couldn't rely

on anybody in this game.

What the [bleep]?

Is it Miguel?

Did he put, like, palm olive in that?

Probably.

What's going on?

It's sides are all over.

Great, everyone saw the mess I made,

and no one, no one, no
one offered to help clean.

So I guess I'll just do it then. Thank you.

I trust no one in this house.

I think everyone has their own agenda

as far as the game.

'Cause it's gonna get ugly,

and it's already starting to get ugly.

All right, kids, let's roll.

All right. - All right.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

Ha, ha, ha! Hi! - Hello.

We walked into the kitchen,

and we saw the culinary guru

of Bravo's "q*eer Eye
for the Straight Guy,"

Ted Allen.

Good morning.

I'd like to introduce
you to our guest judge

for this round, Ted Allen.

Hello.

I was so surprised.

It's Ted Allen. It's awesome.

We are at the halfway
stage in this competition.

Seven of you have made it this far.

The theme for this round is pressure.

Hasn't that been the common theme?

[laughter]

The quick-fire challenge is a simple one.

On these tables,

you'll find a variety of ingredients

priced by the ounce.

You are to create an appetizer.

You can use any ingredients you want,

but the total value cannot exceed $3.

All of the Top Chef pantry items

are available free of charge.

You will have 20 minutes to create

your appetizer.

This challenge is about the twin pressures

of time and money.

The winner of this challenge

cannot face elimination tomorrow.

Okay, guys, go. The clock is ticking.

Winning this quick-fire

would definitely make me happy,

but again, I'm with a
group of really good people,

so it's always a craft sh**t,

so I'm just gonna do the best I can do.

I wasn't really stressing it.

You kind of need to maintain your composure

if everyone else was
kind of scurrying around

and, you know, kind of going crazy.

Man, oh, man, the mood of the kitchen,

I couldn't tell because
I was too busy working.


very short amount of time.

Oh, who turned my back burner on?

That was nice.

There are people who like to see me go,

but I'm not ready to walk.

I'm ready to play harder.

I really love being
under the g*n like that.

It's when I excel.

I wanted to do three different
preparations on oysters.

I think they're great.

Almost any way that they're done

as long as they're not completely overdone.

My flavour is on my side.

If I can get my presentation on track,

I think I have a chance.

Three minutes, 24 seconds.

I made something very simple,

'cause when I go into a
restaurant and I eat appetizers,

I want something light, refreshing,

so I made a veggie slaw.

The dish I decided to do
was bacon-wrapped trevisano.

Trevisano, it's more of a stocky radicchio.

My flavours are strong and really elegant.

I'm feeling good.

In fact, I've just been really comfortable

in every quick-fire challenge,

and I've been kind of pissed
that I haven't won one yet.

I ended up doing a
very, very, very cool dish.

It's just everything that I'm all about,

with flavours, textures,
innovative technique.

I bought, you know, some asparagus.

I bought some pears,

and I bought a piece of cheese.

I started to create one dish,

and then one dish led into another dish,

and before you know it,

I had a whole empty pasta plate.

Okay, everybody, time is up.

You want to start with Steven?
- Sure, I'll do.

Steven, can you tell us what we have here?

We have poached baby manila
clams over grilled sea beans.

Your presentation is just exquisite.

Thank you.

My style of cuisine is kind
of outside the boundaries,

taking different flavor combinations

that traditionally aren't used.

I love all my dishes.

This one in the
presentation was spectacular.

There's four components to this dish,

and then the palate cleanser salad.

The drizzle is a reduced
sherry vinegar with sugar,

so kind of each way,
you get a little sweetness.

It's kind of a lot happening,

but I think I've, across the board, um...

Mm. - Hm.

I'm sorry, across the board?

Elegant, but yet still sweet and good.

Thank you. - Thank you.

Thank you, Miguel. - Thank you very much.

Today I wanted to stick
with something very simple,

classic, big flavor,

so I have some deep-fried oysters

with a reduced lemon-garlic cream.

Nice. - Everybody loves deep-fried.

Are you trying to seduce me? - I might be.

Your presentation is
beautiful, and it is classic,

but you've given it a nice twist.

So we have bacon-wrapped travis

with a gorgonzola brulee

and just a little balsamic reduction.

A gorgonzola brulee.

So you put the cheese on.

Did you put some sugar on and burn it?

No, just use the fat in the
cheese and just torch away.

Oh. I'm very partial to food
that's made with a blowtorch.

Yeah. - And bacon.

A lot of different flavors going on.

And yet they're harmonious.

I'd love to finish it, but I
have another chef to deal with.

I saw the oysters, and instead
of just doing one preparation,

I wanted to really honor oysters.

So here we have a raw oyster

with a bit of a pomegranate minunet.

The middle one we have
is a deep-fried oyster,

and then this is a white wine
and cream poached oyster.

I like simple, I like
clean, I like elegant.

Oh, my God, I'm allergic to shellfish.

No, don't say that. [laughter]

Just kidding.

That was wonderful. - Thank you.

Whenever I make a meal,
I like to get all five flavors...

sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and pungent...

within one meal.

Wow, sweet, sour,
salty, bitter, and pungent.

Sounds like my coworkers. [laughter]

So this is a carrot salad

that I made with a honey mustard dressing.

We'll help move you. You have a nice BM.

[laughter]

It's been weeks. I'm so grateful.

Thank you.

[laughter]

Whoa, boy. - Whoo!

[upbeat music]

So what do we have here?

We've got a cumin and oregano dry rub,

kosher salt, black pepper,

then I pan-roasted it on the stovetop

and finished it with a little
bit of tangerine and honey.

As far as my styling, it's
functional and flavorful.

I guess 'cause I'm so into food,

I just kind of freak out a little bit.

How's your blood pressure?

It's actually low.

It's come down a little bit.

It's actually low.

[dramatic music]

Well, first, congratulations, everyone.

I know that's quite a challenge.

For me, the frontrunners
were Harold, Tiffany,

Leanne, and Steven.

Leanne, I appreciate very
much your presentation.

It was elegant. It was beautiful.

It was very well realized.

Steven, exquisite
presentation, wonderful flavors,

great balance.

Tiffany, I love to receive an appetizer

with choices on it.

Harold, rich, delicious,
made me think of fall.

Great seasonal work.

So to all of you, thanks.

Congratulations for getting this far.

And the winner of today's challenge is...

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Steven.

Thank you. - There you go, Steven.

I knew that my dish was the best.

Ted Allen explained it to
be extraordinary, exquisite.

It's always good to win.

Steven and I have such
a different style of cooking.

I don't feel his food.

It just doesn't feel soulful to me.

It's all about presentation,

and it was this huge plate,

and literally it had
six little clams on it.

That's not an appetizer. That's a painting.

So congratulations, Steven.

You're the only chef that
cannot be eliminated tomorrow.

Well, the next elimination challenge

will also involve high pressure.

[dramatic music]

Tomorrow night, I'm throwing a dinner party

to celebrate the launch of my new cookbook,

"The Food You Want to Eat,"

and it's a very important night for me.

You'll be cooking for eight people.

I'm inviting culinary luminaries

from the San Francisco food community,

food writers, food critics, wine people.

There are seven of you,
so I want seven courses,

but you're going to have to work together

to make this menu coherent.

We're throwing the dinner at Frisson,

which is closed for our purposes.

Everything has to be great,
or I'm going to look stupid,

and that will make me a very cranky judge.

♪ ♪

You will have a budget of $50 per guest.

You can spend the rest of
the day planning your menu.

Tomorrow you'll shop and
then go to the Frisson kitchen

to prep before the party.

So get busy planning that menu.

♪ ♪

I think it's gonna be interesting working

as one kitchen, because we're seven

tremendously different people.

We had to decide on who was
gonna take on which course.

None of us are pastry chefs.

It's not our strong suit, and so dessert

was gonna be a problem.

Dude, cheese... cheese
plate instead of dessert.

We're gonna get k*lled if we do that.

Oh, yeah, they'll be like,
"We know none of you

really have, like, the pastry skills here,"

and you decided to,
like, opt out and wimp out.

It would be sad to see someone go home

because they're not proficient in pastries.

Okay.

So where are we so far?

We're still deciding on
who's gonna do what.

I had a thought. - Okay.

And, uh, Stephen, it's up to you

if you want to take one for the team here.

You have immunity, and
none of us are pastry chefs.

If you took the dessert
course, no one goes home

for something that they're
not skilled at anyway.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

We're gonna turn up the heat a little bit.

Oh, my God.

Sudden death.

I just saw faces go, like...

Oh, fun ghoul.

I'm ready to pull my hair out.

I'm not happy.

Oh, man.

I did a real doozy.

Oh, sh**t.

I really had screwed up here.

Our elimination challenge
is to work as a team

and present a seven-course tasting menu

for a special group of Ted's friends

regarding the launch of his new book,

and each chef is to pick a course

and prepare for that course.

None of us are pastry chefs,

so I asked Stephen to take the pastry spot

because he had immunity,

and Tom Colicchio was standing right there.

I have full confidence
in Stephen's ability to...

Stephen, how do you feel about that?

It's no problem at all.

I'd like to start the meal or end the meal.

Ending the meal is just fine with me.

It was perfect, the way
the timing worked out,

so he really didn't have
a choice but to do it.

Looking forward to it.

Take care. I'll see you later.

I'll do the cold app.

I think that'll be nice to open it up.

Number two will be me with the soup.

Is that where you want to go with that?

Yeah, that's fine.

I could do a sesame-crusted
fish, like a light fish.

I can do, like, duck and gnocchi.

Yeah, totally.

I'll take care of meat.

I'm assigned the beef course,

and I've been dying to cook some meat.

It's all been fish and vegetables

and [bleep] microwave food.

I'm pulling my hair out.

Meat for a tasting menu.

I'm fired up.

I am on pre-dessert,

and Stephen is on dessert.

I think we are going to work
extremely well as a team.

It's gonna be great tomorrow.

Let's go, guys. - We're out of here.

Oh, no!

We got home after the challenge.

We all gathered, and we went upstairs

to do a little barbecuing.

Oh, my God, this stuff's amazing.

Good job, guys. Good job.

Nice.

We got into the house
and began to strategize.

I'll try and just get my [bleep]
done as quickly as possible

and just hand you
whatever money I have left.

Me too, 'cause I don't really need it.

Basically, get all your produce,

anything that you're gonna need,

and everybody will
just hand you their cash.

Even though I had immunity,

I still wanted to go way over
what was expected of me,

especially as not a pastry chef.

So I went on to AOL to kind
of gather some recipes together

and set myself up for success.

Everyone shopping was
responsible for their own course,

even though we were all working as a team.

I had course six,

a lovely duo of form di amber, blue cheese,

with beet sorbet.

It's fresh, right? - It is.

I'm gonna do a pan-seared John Dory fish,

'cause I love making fish.

Thank you.

Can I come back there and cut it?

Yeah, do you mind?

Everybody's on the same page.

Everybody's working like a team.

I'm cutting up foie gras.

Thank you very much.

I'm feeling good. I'm happy.

That's good. Yeah.

I'm actually excited about
setting the tone for everyone else,

and this time I don't think I
plan on relying on anybody.

Here you go, chief.

Since I had immunity and, you know,

I had really nothing to risk,

I was more than happy to
kind of overextend myself,

be the pastry chef,

and play the role of the
sommelier for this meal.

Everybody has a parent, you included.

Perfect. Thank you.

Okay.

♪ ♪

Oh, my God!

Unbelievable.

Wow.

So we arrived to Frisant.

It is an unbelievable restaurant.

We went into the kitchen,
started unloading our things.

Tom came in.

How we doing?

All right, there's gonna be a
lot of pressure in here tonight.

Ted is a little nervous about this,

so the pressure's gonna be really high,

but we're gonna turn
up the heat a little bit too.

Everybody looked around like,

"This... the kitchen's
gonna get a little hotter."

But what's really going on?

And the knife block came out.

I know you've all worked out these dishes,

but they're about to change.

There's seven numbers on the knives.

Pull a knife.

That's the course that you're doing.

These great chefs, you know,

they're picking their
best, most fantastic dish

that they know how to make the best,

and here, monkey wrench thrown right in.

And I just saw faces go like, "Oh, my God."

Sudden death.

Miguel, you're up first. Pull one.

♪ ♪

You're doing the cheese course.

Who's up second?

There you go.

I'm doing three.

You're a three. That's the John Dory.

Three?

You got the scallops? Fourth?

You have the meat course.

Take it.

You are on the chocolate course.

Oh, funky.

♪ ♪

I pulled the dessert course,

and I'm ready to pull my hair out.

I am not happy.

Leanne has the gnocchi.

Steven...

You're up second.

Okay, here's the deal.

You are responsible for the
course that you are doing.

You're going to be judged on that course.

However you can help each other or not,

it's entirely up to you.

Part of being a top chef is
being able to handle the pressure,

and part of handling
pressure is being able to cook

whatever is thrown at you.

They shouldn't have a problem with this.

Good luck. Have fun.

See you later.

Harold chose the short knife.

He is going to have to execute
this chocolate pastry dessert,

and we'll see if Steven can pull it off.

He's got a chocolate pastry dessert,

and we'll see if Steven helps him.

If he does, he should be fine.

If he chooses not to,

Harold's going to be
in a little bit of trouble.

Here's the ingredients.

Here's this piece of cake.

Steven has all these
weird, ambitious ingredients.

He's got saffron, he's got black tea,

he's got five spice, he's got
chocolate-covered ginger,

and I'm just like,
"Dude, what the [bleep]?"

I don't cook like this,

but we have to use the same ingredients.

So I'm looking at him like,

"I'm gonna use this thing right here."

It's [bleep] hell.

I wasn't about to let Harold go down,

so I said, "Well, why don't we team up?"

Obviously, we were gonna be responsible

for our respective dishes,

and we worked side by side.

So I'm making a fig
compote with duck choux.

We each individually created these dishes,

thinking that we were gonna
hit a home run for Ted Allen.

Suddenly, you're introduced
to a new set of ingredients,

and we have to rely on each other's advice.

Bring the sherry to a boil with sugar,

and soak the raisins in it.

It was unfortunate that
we were swapping dishes.

Things happen in the kitchen,

and you just have to go with the...

go with the flow of things at that time.

It's a [bleep] nightmare.

What do I have ingredient-wise?

I've got John Dory.

I'm just not exuding confidence.

Time is short, so it's
something I need to do

sooner versus later,
'cause there won't be later.

You gonna lay them on the potato pancake?

I picked Miguel's dish...

a potato latke with caviar,

smoked scallops, and creme fraiche.

It was fried.

It was not something
that I would eat normally,

so I was disheartened.

I'm great at making
healthy food taste delicious.

This is not my scene.

I pulled the meat dish.

I'm very comfortable with meat.

I like cooking meat,

and I liked the ingredients
that Harold selected,

but I knew that it had
to be done perfectly.

Oh, man.

I did a real doozy.

What do you think I did, Leigh-Anne?

Ah, man.

I did a real doozy.

I confused salt for
sugar without tasting it.

Are you kidding me?

I had the cheese course,
which got passed to Miguel,

and that was a disaster.

He [bleep] up the sorbet.

He put salt instead of sugar.

I'm [bleep] the weeds.

I'm glad I'm the sixth course.

I realized right away, oh, sh**t.

I really had screwed up here.

I'm done. No, I'm done. I'm done.

I ruined the sorbet.

There's nothing I can do.

[bell dings]

Are you calm?

Oh, [bleep]

Peppers raw, carrots are bland.

Miguel, Miguel, Miguel.

Yeah, Chef, I'm having a hard time.

It was definitely not his
strongest day in the kitchen.

I'm gonna focus on you,
and I'm to hell with this dish.

I think it's just too rich.

Because I'm gonna bring it on.

This is so thick.

So we get over to Restaurant Fuson,

and we start to prep,

and the whole curveball of this challenge

was that we had to draw
knives and exchange courses.

The cooking started, and
Miguel completely flipped out.

It's gonna be a tough one.

I'm pissed, though. I'm fuming.

I had some difficulties.

I swapped sugar for
salt in the dish sorbet.

Oh, I'm so pissed you don't even know.

That was a disaster once I realized

that I wasn't gonna be able to put

one of those major components on that dish.

Stop it, dude. Stop freaking out.

No, I'm done.

No, no, you're not. You're not.

I'm gonna focus on you,
and I'm to hell with this dish.

No, no, no, Miguel.

What can we do to fix that?

Nothing. I mean, this is f*cked up already.

And I ruined the sorbet, so...

Well, you know what?

We can still make a cheese
plate the best that you can.

How we doing? - Hey, Chef.

Your dessert's coming along okay?

Steve is bailing you out?

It's f*cking fine, though.

He says it's fine.

Yeah, I'm quitting. He's confident.

Miguel, Miguel, Miguel.

Yeah, Chef, I'm having a hard time.

I'm really having a hard time today, Chef.

Oh, you're doing the cheese course?

Yes, Chef. - Okay.

And what kind of cheese
do you have over there?

I believe it's Camembert, Leanne?

It's Formidaber. - Formidaber, right.

Formidaber. Clam, Camembert,
it's the same thing, right?

No, not at all.

You have an hour left, so you
should probably get back to it.

Thanks, Chef. - See you in a little bit.

When Miguel freaked out,
he was so completely frazzled.

And he needed to make
sure that something of his

was going out and was gonna be perfect.

And he said, "I'm gonna make sure

that Andrea's dish comes out great."

You know, this is his world.
This is what he wants to do.

So I'm just gonna make the little latkes,

and then he can do the rest.



I'm gonna clean, I'm
gonna plate 'em all here.

I think Miguel took way too much charge

of Andrea cooking his dish.

You know, it is a cooking competition,

and I don't think Andrea's
playing it particularly well right now.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Here we are for some, ladies.

Thank you. - Thank you.

After you. - Woo-hoo.

Now, the guests started arriving,

and we were just kind of
freaking out in the kitchen.

♪ ♪

Chardonnay.

I'm excited to see what they're gonna do.

It's all about pressure tonight.

So seven chefs, seven courses.

We should definitely talk about
your feelings about the food

as we go through the whole experience,

'cause that can only help us.

♪ ♪

Yeah, cheers to Ted. - Cheers to Ted.

Oh, you guys, thank you so much.

That's very sweet of you.

Thank you. Thanks for coming.

Tom, how do you feel about
what you saw in the kitchen?

Some of it looks great,
and some of it... we'll see.

We'll see? - We'll see what happens, yeah.

Welcome from all of us in the team here.

I'm gonna savor a bottle of champagne.

This is something that Napoleon used to do

to celebrate his battles,
and we're doing this

kind of to celebrate our
victory in the kitchen tonight.

♪ ♪

Woo-hoo!

[cheers and applause]

Nice. - Nice.

Excellent beginning.

Great way to start a meal. - Definitely.

So, Miguel, this is your course?

Well, this is Andrew's course.

Andrew's course, I'm sorry.
- Originally, it was mine, right?

Okay. - Caviar and champagne.

My wife will not judge me.

Should the latkes be warm,

or is it all right at room temperature?

The potatoes are cold, and
this doesn't... doesn't help.

It'd be nice if they could
be warm and contrast

with the cooler flavors on top.
- They could've been.

Could've been.

This looks good, huh? We
make a [bleep] good team.

Oh, yeah?
- Open a [bleep] restaurant together?

Second course was
actually Stephen's course,

which I cooked.

I knew that whatever I was making here,

Stephen would be getting credit for it,

and then we'd work
together on the desserts,

and I was fine with that.

Ready to roll. Serve your food.

Serve... serving.

I think it's a little ridiculous.

Working in teams means working in teams,

but completing the
dish that you've selected.

If this is how it is, then
I'm gonna have Leanne

make my dishes from here on out,

and I'll just serve them
to you and take the praise.

We have a roasted chan-o-rel soup

with a thyme and pewter cream.

Stephen, is this your
dish or Harold's dish?

Harold and I are working
as a team this evening.

I'm doing a dessert with him as well.

We were preparing both dishes together.

Shots! - Go, go.

Excellent.

Oh, great, great, great.

Any thoughts from your
table about this dish?

I thought it was good.

Harold and I, we were completely on point

and had everything under control.

I'm just anxious. I want
to get the food out there

- and get everyone served as quickly as
possible - so that the integrity's there.

What we have, Ted, and everyone else...

Dave, you can serve and then do it.

Okay, cool, thanks.

Are you calm? - Yeah, yeah.

This is as calm as it gets.

I've taken a John Dory and I've done a real
shallow poach in court bouillon

when we got the twist, I was like

[beep] - you know

[laughter]

I'm like, and I don't even have
any wine to drink to boot, so...

-Um.. Can Dave have a glass of wine?

Oh My God, thank you!

The pepper is raw.

The skin is on it.

The carrots are bland.

Lee Ann, you want a sip
of wine before you do it?

I got Tiffany's dish - I
wasn't happy about it

Pasta's not necessarily my strong points

So what we have are the fig stuffed gnochi

uh, with duck confit

and a leed puree

seared breast of duck
with a fig and balsamic jam

and then natural jus and watercress.

How on earth do you
stuff a fig inside of an

a piece of gnochi?

This is the best yet.

It is very good.
Yeah, really good.

I tihnk I like the duck confit.
[overlapping] This, this is great.

Lee Ann and Tiffany
have a very different style.

When Lee Ann drew that
knife, Tom, did you see

whether she had a reaction?

Oh they all had some.. some reactions.

There's never a situation in a resteraunt

where you can just say oh
"I just don't know that station"

"I can't work it"

What you can do is
jump in and do your best.

This is a sirloin ala Harold

I was given Harolds dish

On the right hand side of the plate you
have a foie gras onion jam

They are first brûléed, which is a fancy
way of saying I burned the onions.

Ummm...

and then I also sweated out some onions

The dish is finished with a
foie gras bordelaise. Enjoy.

My pleasure.

The chard is delicious.

Is it?

It's a beautiful presentation.

You're gonna take that reduction
that you're making

and we're going to brush a little bit on

with a couple of bits of the cherries.

You know, there were a
lot of things that went wrong

with Miguel's dish, but in the end,

the original assignment
was to interpret this dish.

You're given a set of ingredients

and make it the way you want to make it.

So Miguel did his best.

What's the name of the cheese again?

Forme de Ember.

I still think I was able to
come up with a good product.

I played on an old concept of
a beet and blue cheese salad.

This is probably the most frustrating day.

Hey, big grade, just go out
there and present your food.

I like to present my play
on cheese and crackers

and a classic beet salad.

Here we have a classic French cheese.

I forgot the name.

Forme de Ember.

Forme de Ember, thank you very much, chef.

Beet salad with some
watercress, some pickled beets,

and Forme de Ember foam.

Mm-hmm. I like it.

Thank you.

Great, I thought.

Flaky and zesty.

You have really good
texture on the cr*cker.

I made the mistake of
trying the cheese first.

I got greedy and went for it immediately.

The beet salad was kind of
overwhelmed at that point.

And that beet salad needs to be
more served to stand up to the cheese.

Seventh course comes up, you know,

Steven's been running around before that,

handling all the wines
between every course.

I'm getting a little concerned
because he's not spending

as much time with me as I'd like.

Got these dishes.

This is designed to be
eaten from left to right,

starting off with a milk chocolate
soup infused with black tea.

Moving on to your right,

you have a white chocolate semifreddo,

and then we have a warm flourless cake.

Is this our last course?

Yeah. We've got plenty more wine, though.

[laughter]

It is so thick and rich.

So it's the first sip of
the soup, I really liked it,

and I think it's just too rich.

But I do like the cake.

A little dry, but I like it.

I think our guys really stepped up.

All right, guys, you'd like to see us all,

so let's gather around.

[applause]

Thank you.

Chefs, you've absolutely
exceeded my expectations.

The teamwork was terrific,

and you made me look good in front of these

really important smart food people,

so thank you very much.
My glass is up to you.

Cheers. Thank you.

We'll call you back for judges' table.

[applause]

[cheers and applause]

You didn't put enough
of yourself in the dish.

Clearly you weren't very confident.

It was a shame to see,
to be honest with you.

It tasted awful. I would like more time.

Your performance should
continue packing tonight.

I have one more, and it's with you.

You're a snake.

Ted, you set the bar really high for them,

so what did you think?

I thought the teamwork was incredible,

and it makes our job even more difficult.

The food was pretty uniformly good.

There were some gaffes in the presentation.

That may be where it
rises and falls for me.

I was really impressed
at the level of cooking

and how they really wanted
to just make their dishes,

even though they weren't
cooking them anymore,

as good as they could be.

I think that's just indicative
of how a kitchen works.

It's usually a team effort,
and when the chips are down,

people come together because you're there

to create the best food you can.

You know, it's hard. There
are no losers right now.

It's just something
that's just not as good.

Let's talk about that
dessert dish for a second.

I found it a little too rich,

and the flavors were a little too strong.

Harold's dessert, I didn't
have a huge problem with.

There were a lot of small things,

but the degree of
difficulty was really high.

I had a much bigger
problem with Dave's dish.

Yes.

It wasn't so much the fish,
the vegetables underneath.

My perception was that
each of those vegetables

were cooked separately
and kind of put together.

I think there could have
been more flavor out of them.

Certain things are becoming apparent.

Certain people's skills, experience

are definitely starting to
show for better or worse.

Miguel, you okay?

I'm fine.

It's the quietest I've ever heard you.

Oh, come on.

Well, I had a bad day.

Do you go home and jump for joy
when you have a bad day at work?

No.

Okay, thank you.

Well, let's bring in the top 3.

That'll be the fun part.

Yes.

Hello.

Hi, Katie.

I'd like to ask Tiffany...

Leanne...

and Steven...

to join us at the judges' table.

Oops.

Congratulations.

You all were the 3 standouts.

Steven, the soup was delicious.

It was rich.

I loved the pancetta-wrapped chanterelle.

It was a really smooth
dish that I really enjoyed.

Tiffany, loved the foie gras
fat in the bordelaise sauce.

Two critical points...
beef was over-rested.

Onions were slightly undercooked.

But I thought it was a
very successful dish.

Leanne, you gave us so many
different components to taste,

but they were all unified.

I thought the duck was magnificent.

And the winner tonight...

is Leanne. Congratulations.

Thank you.

This is the first long
challenge that I've won.

It was in no small part due to the fact

that Tiffany had a good dish to begin with.

One thing that I think everybody
was kind of curious about

was how well did you think
things worked in the kitchen?

It was interesting, because
with the cheese dish,

I sat down with Miguel for about 5 minutes,

I went over the ingredients,
I actually gave him recipes,

and from somewhere across
the kitchen, I heard the word "salt."

He used salt instead of sugar?

Yeah.

So that's why we didn't have a sore bite.

It's like the cook's nightmare
to use salt instead of sugar.

If the three of you were
voting someone off,

based on performance in the kitchen,

is Miguel someone who you think should go?

It's a tough call, you know?

I'll step up.

Honestly, I think Miguel
flipped out a little bit,

and he got himself into a head space

that he was trying to dig
himself out of the entire time.

It was a shame to see,
to be honest with you,

because I don't think that Miguel
is at the bottom of the ladder.

I think there are people
that are weaker than him.

Who's weaker?

Andrea, Dave.

Miguel did his best, he's
very happy with what he did.

It was definitely different
from my original vision,

but I think he worked
with it, he went with it,

he made the best of what he could do.

Thank you, good night.

Congratulations again.

Hi, guys.

Came out on top today.

Good for you, good job, guys.

Judges would like to see Dave,

Miguel,

and Andrea.

Okay.

Good luck, guys.

Thank you.

Right from the get-go, I'm feeling good

because I'm fine with
being mediocre for the night.

I'm not a pastry chef.

Steven and myself
definitely teamed up well.

I thought it was a smart move to do

to, you know, keep
myself in this competition.

You are the bottom three tonight.

One of you will be going home.

Dave, I think there was
flavor in your dish, you know,

that's really important to you,

but the vegetables were lacking.

Some of them had
flavor, some of them didn't.

What was your feeling
when you got the fish dish?

When I chose it, I just
wanted to try to work with it,

and something that was
really important for me

was to really try to keep it light

and not use oils, butters, fats.

I guess kind of infused
some of Andrea's concepts

and the way she does things.

I think you were thinking so much

about trying to respect Andrea's vision

that you didn't put enough
of yourself in the dish.

Oh, [bleep]

I'm not ready to give up on her,

I'm not ready to give up on myself.

I'm very passionate about what I do,

'cause I really am talented, damn it,

and I'm pissed that I... I just keep...

I'm holding myself back,
and I would like more time

to prove that I can do
it, because I know I can't.

We appreciate that, but I
can tell you at this table here,

it is about the food.

Miguel, how do you feel about tonight?

I had a bad night from the get.

The concept of a dish
was that you start off

with a cheese and
cr*cker, which I ex*cuted,

and I thought I did okay on that.

What's the name of the cheese?

The cheese...

[laughs]

You still don't remember, huh?

No, chef.

Formedombere.

Formedombere, yes, chef.

And then it was supposed to be the sorbet,

but it tasted awful.

I confused salt for sugar.

But I don't think that that
came up in the final product.

I thought that I was able to regroup myself

and fix that up, chef.

Miguel.

Yes, chef.

Leanne and Tiffany thought you
were an absolute mess back there,

and Tiffany thought you should go home.

I disagree.

I did have a moment,
and I regrouped myself.

If I would have walked
out of the kitchen, I agree.

You know what, I would
have packed up my knives

and left right away, but I
realized that, you know what,

there was a more important
task, and it wasn't about me.

I think if they felt that
way, then evidently they feel

that I'm the biggest challenge.

That's how I see it.

Andrea, seen that dish
before, caviar, pancakes.

Did you feel you had to interpret the dish

the way Miguel set it up,

or did you feel free to
do something else with it?

No, actually, I just made the latkes.

See, and that's why you're here,

because that's all you
made was... were the latkes,

and you thought it was a poor
decision to serve them cold.

You're right.

What did you bring to that recipe

that made it something from you?

I put scallions in.

That sounds like a garnish. I mean...

Well, for some people it's a garnish,

but for me, a scallion is so much more.

It's, you know, it's
part of the allium family,

it's rich in sulfur compounds.

Your philosophy about
eating healthy is terrific,

and it's great in day-to-day eating,

but this is a competition.

You need to blow the
socks off of these people.

It needs to be whiz-bang, decadent wow.

I've pretty much heard all I need to hear.

We'll call you back in when we're ready.

Thanks. Thank you.

Hi, guys. Hello.

What's going on?

They said there were a couple of
you that felt that I should go home,

so I think I'd like to
hear from those people

why they feel I should go home.

I think you made some
really novice mistakes tonight,

like, for instance, the salt-sugar thing.

That just happens when
you let your nerves get over...

like, overtake you.

I never said that I thought it
was time for me to go home.

None of us are saying he's lying.

None of us are saying...

You're calling Tom Colicchio a liar.

No, no, I'm asking you a question.

Answer my question. Answer my question.

The answer is yes or no.

Are you threatened by me?

No, I'm not threatened by you.

You feel that?

I'm taking myself out of this conversation.

So you feel threatened, okay.

Don't get confrontational.

You want to have a conversation with me,

I'll have it with you,

but it's going to be on a very
human, professional level.

Are you kidding me?

You're the most confrontational
person in this house.

I have one w*r, and it's with you.

I'll have two eyes on you in front of me

and one eye behind me.

You're a snake.

Miguel's dish was an
unorganized dish, and it showed.

Yeah, he's unfocused
and all over the place.

Although I did really like
his shortbread cr*cker,

I thought it was very tasty,

and it went really well with the cheese.

For that aspect of the
dish, Miguel did a great job,

but the rest completely lost me.

Those ingredients should
have been able to sing,

and they didn't, and that
is because of the cook.

Simple as that.

Dave needs to get his
emotions under control.

I don't see how you can possibly
get anything accomplished

when you're freaking
out about your feelings.

We don't care about your personal problems.

It's about the food.

You know, he had a dish.

Andrea kind of, you know, had
these ingredients put together,

and it was up to him to make
that dish as flavorful as possible.

He should have thrown
that idea out the window

and sautéed the damn
thing in a stick of butter.

Bada-bing.

Let's talk about Andrea's dish.

Andrea's cold pancakes? Yeah.

She needs to care more.

She was handed a dish that
was really simple and elementary,

and if she wanted this badly enough,

she would have put some energy into it.

Really, all she did was make
the pancake, and it was cold.

The difficulty is one
of our judging points.

She opened a tin of
caviar, and she made latkes,

so compare that to what
a Tiffany or a Leanne did.

The bottom line is,
again, is she a top chef?

So we have our choice?
We have our decision?

I think we do.

♪ ♪

You are the three worst
in today's competition.

One of you will be going home.

Dave, you took a dish
that Andrea conceived,

but we didn't see enough
of yourself in there.

You're about the big, bold flavors,

and those were about
flat, sort of not their flavors.

Miguel, running around creating havoc

was not the way to conduct
yourself in a professional kitchen,

or any kitchen, for that matter.

That dish could have really sung

in the hands of someone who
knew how to play that instrument.

It could have been great, and it wasn't.

Andrea, you've been eliminated
from this competition once already.

You know, you should be pulling
out all the stops to impress us,

but you brought out, you know,

a cold potato pancake to the table tonight.

I think you know that that
dish was definitely lacking.

Andrea, please pack your knives and go.

Thank you.

I am sad to see you go. Really.

You truly have been a
real friend here. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you.

All right, y'all, packing my knives.

Oh!

But it was nice. I had a good
time hanging with all y'all.

All y'all. All y'all.

Baby, I'm so glad you got to come back.

We were all sad to see her go.

I've never met a person more
passionate about how to eat right.

I think she's going to
change a lot of lives.

Good luck, everybody. Good luck.

We're all here for different
reasons. Not everyone's here to win.

Some people are here for the impact
they make in other people's lives.

All right, good luck, y'all.
Good night. Bye. Take care.

My experience with the chefs
in the house has been fantastic.

Working in these kitchen
environments has really solidified

my desire to continue to do what I do.

You know, I'm going back to my clients,

to creating healthy
recipes, 'cause I'm great at it.

Next on "Top Chef"...

You will work together in two teams
to create a new restaurant concept.

I got put on the team
with the big thinker...

and the no-thinker.

Chunk, you didn't ask
him to scale the fish?

You didn't scale it?

Try not to lose my s... t right now.

I wouldn't cut the onions, Dave.

She has stepped up on
me for the last 24 hours.

I'm over it, I'm pissed,
I don't need that s... t,

'cause I know what I'm doing, too.

Jeffrey Chaudreau is standing
right there. It's like, "You kidding me?"

That's about as big as it gets.

The winner of tonight's
challenge will accompany me to...

What does it say on your jacket?

It says "Top Chef."

It doesn't say "Top Sous Chef," does it?

No. You've been bashing
me the last 24 hours.

It's my turn to talk.
I'm not your b*tch, b*tch.

[theme music playing]