Previously, on Top Chef Masters...
Get ready for your funeral.
Nine of the most acclaimed chefs in America
put their reputations on the line
in one culinary clash of the titans.
The chefs got a big surprise
when the Biggest Loser contestants came to visit.
Everyone is losing a tremendous amount of weight.
- 149 pounds. - No way!
Congrats. Oh, thank you.
They had to make low-calorie versions
of their favorite foods.
I could feed my family out of one plate
for about a week.
Floyd won the elimination challenge
for his magnificent version of a meatball sub.
The meatball is perfectly cooked.
It was meat that caused the carnivorous
kitchen meltdown between Suvir and Hugh.
I'm a little more than pissed off.
I would never do that. [Clicks mouth]
You did plenty.
And because his veggie burger was full of ideals
but lacking in flavor, Suvir was sent home.
Suvir, you were cooking for yourself
and not for the diner.
You must return to the kitchen and pack your knives.
Eight chefs remain,
but only one can emerge victorious
and win the grand prize of $100,000 for their charity,
furnished by Kitchenaid...
And be crowned as the winner of Top Chef Masters.
♪ Top Chef Masters 3x05 ♪ Biggest Loser Original Air Date on May 4, 2011
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
Welcome back, chefs. Thank you.
It has prices on it.
I just start squinting and looking at the table from afar,
and I see food ingredients with these bright pink signs
with the price on them.
This is gonna be interesting.
A great meal in a five-star restaurant
can be a very expensive night out.
So where can you get an amazing dish
designed and cooked by one of the best chefs
in the country for just $1?
Right here.
That's right, because this is your quickfire challenge.
That's a tiny amount of money.
You must create one appetizer,
but the total value cannot exceed $1.
$1?
What, am I gonna serve a lime with a wedge of lettuce?
I mean, I don't know what I'm gonna do for a dollar.
The winning chef gets $5,000 for their charity
plus immunity from the elimination challenge.
Your guest diners will be
Brendan Newnam and Rico Gagliano
from American public radio's
Dinner Party Download.
They're arriving in just 20 minutes,
so your time starts now.
Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
I'm picking up a bunch of ingredients from the table.
The onion is the most expensive thing on my menu.
It says 48 cents.
Should I get rid of the onion?
So I pick up some couscous, some tomatoes, and asparagus
and that puts me at 80 cents.
I know how to manage costs for food.
When I first came to the United States,
I came with 100 bucks in my pocket.
It was very hard, because nobody
would give me a job.
I almost went back to India,
but I got a job a day before I left.
- You steal my asparagus? - No, it's my asparagus.
Okay, that's 1.78.
No, no, that doesn't work.
I think you can make carrot soup fairly inexpensively.
- Making a puree? - Yeah.
All right.
I cut my carrots really, really small,
so I can cook it in a quick amount of time.
With the chicken stock and the carrot,
I'm at about 50 cents.
So the rest of my money
now goes to a lime and a shrimp.
13 minutes, everybody.
We can't really screw up any of the ingredients,
'cause if we go back for more, we're gonna go over budget.
Oh, no.
I've lost one egg. That's 18 cents.
I'm making scrambled egg now.
But good chefs should be able to cook pretty much anything
and be able to pull something out.
Famous last words.
[Laughs] [Bleep].
Oh, the couscous.
Good idea. Somebody had to do it.
You could put the best food out in the world,
but if it's over a dollar, you're done.
How much were the almonds apiece?
I'm being very careful.
I'm kind of tallying it up in my head.
I've got calamari, a cherry tomato,
four almonds, and a carrot, and I'm at 98 cents.
So I'm going with it.
97 cents!
That's my budget.
Nice.
Is there anything on the table for 3 cents?
Okay, forget it. I can't use this.
I'm making a salad out of some cherry tomatoes,
some frisee and arugula, a roll for croutons,
and some bacon.
But I don't even want to taste the bacon,
because I'm afraid I won't have enough for my appetizer.
I'm like, "please don't burn the bread."
When I plan my menu at my restaurant,
it's a relaxing experience.
When you're planning something in quickfire,
it's, like, outrageously insane.
Mary Sue, I just have one cherry tomato.
[Chuckles]
I'm gonna make a bread salad,
'cause I think, "oh, a lot of bang for your buck."
I need to shave some asparagus as thin as I can.
Try to extend the life of this, like,
two spears of asparagus that I have at 20 cents apiece,
because the numbers are adding up really quickly.
Chefs, you have five minutes remaining.
- Oh, my God. - Okay.
We're gonna sing the bacon song.
- I want your bacon. - ♪ remember your bacon ♪
♪ bacon bacon bacon ♪ I really wanted bacon, Hugh.
Squid, the cucumber, and lemon.
Looking at everything on the cutting board,
adding everything up, it's definitely a challenge.
$1.54 total.
Got to take two off.
I look over to Alex and I notice
that he also is working with calamari.
He's also a very talented chef
and we're gonna go up in this competition together
and the best man wins.
- One minute. - Oh, my God.
- It looks great. - Yeah.
Chefs, time's up.
Utensils down.
Tilapia minute?
Chicken.
How's it going, guys?
- All right. - Not bad.
- It's great to see you. - Likewise.
- Nice to see you. - That was kind of fun.
When nobody was looking, I actually went to the table
and ate $25 worth of frisee.
[Laughter]
People are gonna be up in arms
when they come to our restaurants now.
I know. They're gonna say, "can I have that $1 dish?"
This is, like, from the fanciest dollar store
in the world. Exactly.
The diners for the quickfire
are Brendan and Rico from Dinner Party Download
on public radio, and they're funny,
they're young, they're interesting.
So do you ever do segments like this
on your radio show? We do.
We do a tasting segment called the main course
and--where we visit a food trend.
We've done everything from dirt tastings
to Korean barbecues.
- Dirt tastings? - Yeah. It wasn't great.
I'm sure the ingredients were under a dollar, though.
[Laughter]
- Shall we get started? - Sure.
So we've got a spicy carrot soup
with a lime-pickled shrimp.
- Who did that? - I did.
I'm surprised at the amount of flavor they developed.
- It's delicious. - Mine came in at 96 cents.
- Nice. - That's my number too.
96 cents. Yeah.
How much would you pay for that in a restaurant?
I could see someone hijacking me
for $15, $20 for that.
A little too much. [Laughter]
This does sort of make you rejudge the value
of everything you've ever eaten at a fancy restaurant.
You may be undermining their careers.
We might be doing something bad to our industry right here.
That's right.
Next, we've got a bacon, lettuce, and tomato salad
with a celery seed vinaigrette.
I think it's clever having a BLT in a salad form
instead of this big, sloppy sandwich.
It's really blowing my mouth out, though.
There is a lot of salt happening there for me.
- Oops. - Oh.
It's that bacon. It is really salty, you guys.
Is it salty?
All right.
This is an asparagus and bread salad
with cherry tomato and lemon vinaigrette.
The chef here has literally cut that with a razor blade.
Look at the asparagus.
Wow. I really liked that.
There's almost a buttery nature to the bread
that marries well with the lemon.
It's fantastic.
- Good job. - Thanks.
So this is a Lyonnaise salad.
We've got a poached egg with bacon, frisee, and radicchio.
I think the bitterness of the radicchio
is perfectly paired with the richness of the egg.
This is also kind of putting fast-food to shame.
If you're gonna do this for a dollar in 20 minutes,
why do we not have these restaurants all over America?
That would be a great restaurant concept, though.
The dollar store.
So our next chef has gone for some spiced squid
with some garlic, olives, and almonds.
Oh, man.
Quite good.
- Mmm. - It's a really skillful dish.
The flavors all come together well.
There's some strong spiciness.
I can't believe that's under a dollar.
If that's under a dollar, that's good value for money.
- That's true. - Don't tell my boss that.
This is grilled calamari salad
with cucumber, tomatoes, and almonds.
That's a very nice dish.
It's a little underwhelming, I think,
when you've got something this small
and you're gonna get one bite.
I'm a tight-ass and to see that much food
on a plate for a dollar, I think
they've done a damn good job.
This kind of, to me, is not that kick
of super awesome that I was looking for.
I can see that.
So here we've got a chicken paillard
with an asparagus, lemon, and brown butter.
It hits you with a little bit of lemony-ness
and then mellows out.
I thought it was quite good.
All right, last dish.
It's a fricassee of shrimp and asparagus
with beef and tomatoes.
All right. Hmm. It's excellent.
When I saw it, I thought it would be
a little more dry.
There was a lot of liquid flavor in there.
Quite heavily spiced, isn't it?
I mean, you sort of get that warmth
in your mouth straight after it.
- Right. - I liked it.
Tough decision.
- Very. - It is.
All right, you guys, let's go back to kitchen.
- Okay. - Damn.
So damn bossy, Traci. God.
I know.
Brendan, Rico, what did you think of the challenge?
Coming from public radio, we know what it's like
to work under a budget, so we felt your pain.
But it was definitely the best $8 ever spent.
We'll tell you that.
Okay, Rico, let's start
with some of your least favorites.
Who did the grilled calamari?
George.
You suffer a little bit in this one
because I'm a huge calamari fan,
and although it was actually one of the more elegant platings,
for me, I want to see calamari,
which can be very bland, like, get kicked up a notch.
Fair enough.
You're never gonna make a dish for under a dollar,
so I laughed it off. I was happy with what I put up.
It is what it is.
One of the least exciting ones for me
was the blt salad.
That was mine.
The celery salt was a little bit too salty.
On top of the bacon, a little much.
I didn't realize it. Pretty salty bacon.
What about some of your highlights?
Who did the squid? The spiced squid?
I did.
I liked the different textures going on there.
Really liked it. Great job. Thank you.
And who made the carrot soup?
Celina.
That was marvelous.
It was really, really rich.
I felt like I was getting hugged on the inside.
Thank you.
- The bread and asparagus salad? - That was me.
- Naomi. - Really excellent.
And it ended up being really rich.
The asparagus really worked beautifully with it, I thought.
Great job. Thank you.
Brendan, Rico, you obviously did have a favorite.
Which dish was that?
Our overall favorite was...
Naomi's bread and asparagus salad.
Awesome. Thanks.
- Congratulations. - Thanks.
- Congratulations. - Thank you.
That's awesome.
Congratulations, Naomi.
That's $5,000 for your charity,
Seed Savers Exchange, furnished by Lexus.
I was so excited to get more exposure for my charity.
It's just a relief to go into the next elimination challenge
with a little less sweat on my brow.
Brendan, Rico, thank you so much for being here.
- Thanks. - Great to meet you.
Chefs, for your next elimination challenge,
you're taking a road trip.
I can't tell you exactly where you're going,
but I can tell you you'll each be cooking
for up to 100 people.
You'll be responsible for a main dish and a side.
And one thing to remember:
Your diners won't have any utensils.
We don't know what this event's gonna be.
Is it fancy, black tie, a cocktail party?
Doing finger foods?
Maybe we're going to an amusement park
and we're gonna be standing behind a fryer
serving cotton candy.
Who knows?
I'll meet you at the location tomorrow.
See you then.
I am completely in the dark on what this could be.
I was worried it was gonna be too simple.
That scares the poop out of me.
Are we gonna just get out of the car
and they're gonna say, "and your time starts now"?
- Could be. - I'm done with speculating.
- Here's our restaurant, guys. - Well, what the heck?
Can you show me one of those pork tenderloins?
Do you have another whole side of salmon?
The challenge, there's not a lot to go on.
All I know is that we are gonna cook
for at least 100 people.
There's got to be a main course and a side
and it's got to be eaten without utensils.
Not knowing where and what and how,
it is driving me absolutely crazy.
Uh, what do I have? Okay.
Fennel, apples.
But I have walked into a party for 800 people once.
They said, "well, here's your kitchen.
Here's your staff," and there wasn't one ladle,
one skimmer, one pair of tongs.
It was overwhelming.
So worst-case scenario, I'm gonna make ceviche
with some tortilla chips.
Oops, sorry.
14 minutes, everybody!
I'm really at a loss on the side at this point.
I can't think of anything.
It's gonna come to me soon.
I've got slaws and things like that,
but the downfall of that is that you've got to eat it
with your hands.
And though I think we've all eaten slaw with our hands,
it's done in private.
Thank you.
Well, I think they're gonna be good
if we have the right way to cook 'em, you know?
Knowing that our food has to be eaten without utensils,
I'm thinking portability is really important.
So I've decided to do a burrito.
It's something you can hold in your hand
and eat without making a mess.
The loin. Back of the loin.
This is gonna be 150.
Yeah, that's fine. That's fine.
I basically have the dish already in my head.
I decide to go with pork loin
and buy some clams reflecting the dish.
Do you have any more baguette anywhere?
It's definitely a risk.
There's no utensils.
I'm thinking maybe put it together with using skewers.
It's all about executing who you are as a chef.
You know, why would I play it safe?
No. Boring.
That's my total there?
That was a fiasco.
Where are we going today?
Deep sea fishing.
- Catch and release? - Catch and cook.
I'm done with speculating.
This is really, really hard for me,
because I have no idea what equipment I have.
I'm praying that there is a grill
or some kind of saute pans that I can cook my chicken in.
I see waves, the beach, surfers.
I'm all over the map in my mind for this challenge.
I hope there's running water, though.
Being on the bottom three times doesn't feel good,
and I'm wondering how I'm gonna be able
to really step up my game and stay out of that place.
Are we gonna just get out of the car
and they're gonna say, "and your time starts now'?
It could be.
Here's our restaurant, guys.
This is where we are.
Farmer boys.
Well, what the heck?
This really is happening.
We pull into the parking lot of farmer boys.
Now it's becoming clear as to what we're doing,
and I am starting to wonder, "why did I do salmon?"
Morning, chefs. All: Morning.
Welcome to Farmer Boys Restaurant,
where everything is fresh, made to order.
Today, you'll be taking over this place
for a lunch rush for the restaurant
and the drive-through.
[Laughter]
Boy, the drive-through totally changes everything.
My dish is definitely a little bit more conducive
to eating at a table as opposed to one hand on the sandwich
and one hand on a wheel.
Now, for these diners, a la minute
means getting their food between five and seven minutes
from when they order.
And a main and the side is usually burger and fries.
But today, you're the boss.
You'll be serving your own version of fast casual.
Ha!
You will work in two shifts.
Half of you will be in the kitchen,
while the other half take and serve orders in the restaurant
and of course the drive-through window.
And then you'll swap.
Fantastic.
Good luck.
Here we go.
I have worked in fast-food restaurants.
I had a little job in a doughnut shop
and then a pizza place, so I know I can
put my food out fast enough.
I'm just worried about the prep time.
If I'm not prepped, I'll never be able to catch up
and get my rhythm going.
- Can I take it all? - Yeah.
- Do you have enough for you? - I have another one.
I decided to make the chicken frankie.
It's an Indian street food from Bombay.
You know, I'm excited about it.
Have you ever worked for a fast-food restaurant before?
- No. - No?
My first cook's job was at a Bennigan's
and I had to beg the kitchen manager
to let me be the pantry girl.
So I think my experience at Bennigan's will help me.
I'm doing a pork, garbanzo bean, and lamb wrap.
This is not a dish I've made before,
so given the equipment that I have and the time that I have,
I think I'm gonna keep with that plan.
Okay, guys, like, 15 minutes
and then we need to be set for service.
Is it still called service in fast-food?
Not sure about that.
I'm taking fast food to a different level
is what I'm doing here.
When's the last time you went through a drive-through,
fast-food and ordered pork and clams?
Even though it's a fast-food environment,
I'm still moving forward with the dish
I originally conceived and apply it
in a non-utensil-needed format.
I think it's safe to say that it's the first time
clams are touching farmer boys' kitchen.
I'm in a pretty good mood today,
'cause I have immunity.
I started in a good mood.
[Laughs] Yeah, no kidding.
I am completely in the weeds
and with very little time left.
You reformat your dish at all when you found out--
Yeah, a little bit.
So now that I've kind of digested my surroundings,
I'm thinking I do not have time for the lettuce cups.
I'm gonna turn this into a fish taco.
So wrap, taco...
- Banh mi. - I'm gonna call that a "banh."
Skirt steak quesadilla.
That's called "queso" on the ticket, okay?
It's called "queso"?
I'm gonna call it a queso when I fire your orders, okay?
People are looking at the menu, guys.
Oh, we better get out there, huh?
My shift is running front of the house first
with Floyd, George, and Traci.
And I volunteered to do the drive-through window.
Hello, can you hear me?
Naomi grabs the window 'cause she's so bubbly
and entertaining.
God, I love this headset.
Hi there. How are you?
- Hi, how are you? - Hello.
You guys have a menu? You know what you want?
I'm gonna have the salmon fish taco...
Okay.
And the skirt steak quesadilla.
I start with the cashier and George is gonna be
calling out orders to the kitchen and expediting.
Here you go. I want your side as well.
Floyd is trying to figure out the table number system
and Manning the register.
I can take your order.
Ordering one more salmon, one skirt steak.
- One skirt steak. - One banh mi.
- Banh mi. - One quesadilla.
Is that with sides, George?
I'm in the back of the house in the kitchen cooking
with Hugh, Celina, and Mary Sue.
Is that for here or to-go?
- New order. - Yes, one taco.
New order. New order.
Big line, guys.
Alex, when you get it up, give it to me, please.
A lot of guests come in, you know, right away.
The drive-through window is really busy right away.
One order of the skirt steak.
And the food's not really coming out of the kitchen.
Ah, damn it.
You owe me a salmon.
Dropped my [bleep] Damn taco.
Two all day.
George is very unclear as to what he wants.
Can you say "side" when you need sides, please?
Yes.
He's not clarifying whether
it's to-go or for here, changing up side dishes.
Do you need sides with these fish tacos, please?
- Yes. - Yes? Like, all of them?
Okay, yes.
It's a complete disaster as far as expediting
and clarity.
Okay, to-go is done.
- Are you sure? - Yes, that's the side.
Alex's taco sides.
Can I get a salmon fish taco?
Okay, well, I only have quesadilla,
banh mi here, and then this.
And I need one more thing. That's a wrap.
You're all done. Hello?
Okay, you just got to tell me when it's complete.
You only need this to finish the order.
I'm like, this is so damn ridiculous.
We're some of the best chefs in the nation
and now we're putting on a headset,
wrapping things up in paper,
putting them in a to-go container.
We're working in a fast-food environment,
and most of us are not accustomed to that.
Wrap with a side to go. Wrap with a side to go.
All right, so then keep this one back
and plate it on a dish.
- What is it? - Put it on a plate.
It's like an architect who builds
beautiful, tall, awesome buildings
can't even make a house out of lego.
Taco.
I can't read this writing.
One taco, one fritter--
Can you write it more clearly, please?
Aw, come on, man.
You're making fun of my writing?
We get slammed with guests and then the critics walk in.
I hope I survive.
Hey, I just--
I'm just using the corner.
Can't you use the dirty part?
I'm just using a little corner of it.
You wouldn't stop for this. [Horn honks]
Come on, George. You [bleep] us up.
[Whistles] Hello?
Wow, we got radio silence here
Guys, we need to catch up.
- Argh! - George, five wraps all day?
You guys got any to-go stuff ready?
The challenge is that we are responsible
for the lunch rush at Farmer Boys Restaurant.
My to-go wrap needs a side?
Yes.
We have to make both a main dish and a side
for 100 people that can be eaten without utensils.
Critics are coming up.
We want to go ahead and place our order.
I think these kind people are in front of us.
- We got to get the orders out. - Yeah, I know.
Waiting for food.
I look back in the kitchen and I can tell
that they are underwater and that there is not
gonna be any food coming out for a while.
So I decide that the best use of my time
is to bail them out.
You take that register and I'll go help them.
- Yeah. - You guys, what can I do?
Tongs, anyone?
Here in my hand.
Mary Sue is a little bit hectic today.
- Hey, I just-- - I'm just using the corner.
Can't you use the dirty part?
I'm just using a little corner of it.
God, it's like five centimeters.
She's kind of like the whirling dervish,
which annoys me, because I'm trying to get the food out.
Ordering one more skirt steak.
Oh, dear.
No, no.
Enjoy your meal.
Thank you for dining with us. Good afternoon.
Well, it's a very ambitious version of fast-food,
I would say.
That's hospitality.
It all sounds pretty good.
Some things sound a little better than others.
We're gonna take one of everything.
One of everything? Okay.
Yes. Okay, we're number 98.
98.
It's a long time since I've come through a drive-through.
Here we go. Look at this.
Doesn't some of this stuff sound great?
It's not very drive-through-esque, though.
It's not what you expect, is it?
- Naomi? - Here I am.
George calls for a runner.
Floyd needs some help delivering food.
I have a fish taco.
So I take my headset off for a moment
to speak with a customer.
I'll just give you a number.
Naomi looks kind of like
she's sweating to the oldies.
I wonder how the people in the car are doing.
[Whistles] Hello?
- Nobody's home. - Nobody there.
- George, new order. - Yeah? Thank you.
[Horn honks]
I can hear outside some honking.
Well, we got radio silence here.
Hello?
Anybody home?
- Right, I'm here. - Hi.
It's very difficult to hear.
I'm so sorry.
You know what?
I think we're gonna take one of each.
No problem. We'll see you in just a moment.
There's Curtis on the other line
and my heart just sinks. Oh, my God.
I wonder how long he's been there.
- Just give me the ticket. - Table two.
Not-so-fast food.
I will be with you in one quick minute.
I'm ordering for the judges.
Gonna push this order ahead.
I thought we already ordered.
We have judges in the car and we have judges here
and they're all getting everything.
- This is to start. - There's your banh mi.
And your quesadilla.
Hi, Floyd!
I'm sorry.
- Oh, I need a... - A drink.
Frazzled him. [Laughter]
Got to take my hat off to these chefs.
They've had the opportunity to adjust their recipes,
but they couldn't go shop again,
so they had to sort of make do
with the ingredients they had
and a few things here in the fridge.
But it's a tough one. Hey, Naomi.
- Hi, Naomi. - One of everything.
You guys enjoy the rest of your day.
Thanks, Naomi.
What do we got? What have we got?
Cheers.
When I was your intern, did you think
we'd end up here together?
I did. I had a psychic flash.
We're eating fast food.
This is my first drive-through date.
So how's it going?
So far, so good.
Let's try the food.
You know, Hugh's banh mi has a nice kick.
It's big, it's a little stuffed,
and it's a little messy for a drive-through.
But I really like how he pickled the vegetables in it.
This is an interesting mix,
but not the best banh mi I've had.
Hugh's watermelon-feta salad, it totally underwhelmed me.
It's a nice, fresh contrast,
but I definitely understand what you're saying.
Super-size it.
Ordering one more quesadilla for here.
Okay.
Mary Sue's quesadilla has got that really wonderfully
flavored Mexican cheese on it.
- Yeah. - A tasty mouthful, actually.
- It's just tender. Perfect. - Good steak.
I had a fritter, please?
Mary Sue's quinoa fritters are good.
It's like a healthy hush puppy.
You're a healthy hush puppy.
- Oh! - [Chuckles]
Here's your fish.
Alex's salmon fish taco.
Well, it's not really a taco.
It's a burrito.
For me, salmon's probably my least favorite fish
to put into a taco.
I like kind of the-- little bit of the Asian accent,
but it's not a taco. This is weirdly petite.
It's like the kid's portion.
Yeah.
Alex's butternut squash.
Butternut squash fritter?
You like that? - Mm-hmm.
I can see.
Two quesadilla to go and two tacos to go.
There are a lot of quesadillas and fish tacos going out.
So maybe my first concern of, "hmm.
"I wonder if my dish is gonna be conducive
to the guests that come for the lunch rush here,"
was warranted.
Celina shouldn't call it a wrap.
She should call it an unwrap.
Look at this.
It's all over the place. An unwrap.
How am I gonna eat that with no silverware?
Oh, we need one more.
Celina's wrap is having an existential dilemma.
It's not a wrap.
It's a pancake with some stuff on top of it.
- Yeah. - Why didn't she bring out
the maple syrup with it?
Three more with this one and we're done.
Okay.
My hat goes off.
This is not easy.
They didn't know that they
were gonna be cooking in the farmer boys.
And here they are,
working within the fast-food context.
And overall, they're doing an okay job at it.
I'm looking forward to the other four though
to see what they have done.
- Yeah. - Done.
That's a wrap.
You guys gotta start cleaning up.
Now, normally when you go on a date with a guy
in a drive-through, it's over.
- Yeah. - But guess what.
- What? - We've got round two.
Let's go in. Oh, that's exciting.
That must mean, like, I'm doing okay on our date.
Yeah.
How's it going, guys? Hi.
Fancy meeting you guys at the drive-through.
What's up? What's up?
- How are you? - Nice to see you.
- Good luck. - Good to go?
- Kind of. - That first rush is always
like a--got to get our [bleep] in order kind of...
That was not fun.
The next team gets cooking and the service flips.
- Burrito. - Burrito.
So Traci, Naomi, George, and Floyd
are now cooking. Burrito to go.
Alex, right up there. Order.
I am somehow designated to runner.
Mary Sue takes over the to-go window.
Celina wants to expedite
and Hugh is at the cash register.
One of the best chefs in America.
What do you want?
Hugh's kind of in his own little world...
- What's up? - Hello, how you doing?
- I'm shaking it. - With this attitude of like,
"I'm at the cash register and this is what I'm going to do."
Not like, "maybe I'll help run or expedite."
You want a burrito? Okay.
You will see a lovely young Alex Stratta
delivering your food.
Pretty much, "I'm at the cash register and look at me."
I'm gonna give you a magic number.
If you take that to your table,
put it up where I can see it,
and your food magically appears.
- This is a long wait. - Yeah.
Hey, guys, you're up.
George, I'm still waiting on eight things from you.
Orders are racking up and we have 12 steaks on the board
and 4 burritos and 4 frankies and 6 porks.
And now that I'm calling in more orders,
the critics order. Both: Hey.
I've got two really good-looking people up here.
Two really hungry people.
Hungry people? Good. What do you want?
- Everything. - Everything?
Got it.
Okay.
How are you?
Hi, I'm great. How are you?
Great. What can I do for you today?
Um, you know, this menu just looks so great
that I think we're gonna get two of everything.
Okay, fantastic.
Let me get you your drinks in one moment.
Order in.
Celina, the judges didn't order a frankie?
- I will let you know. - Their food will get--
I will make sure that you know who the judges are.
I understand.
Water. Kitchen's pretty backed up.
Celina's in a bit of a hole expediting.
She's holding tickets before she calls them out.
That's only gonna add to our time constraints.
Lemonade. There y'all go.
Your food will be up in just a minute.
Don't worry.
Like, how many minutes?
Like, three or four.
If we were driving, this would count
as making bad time.
Exactly.
There's James and Alan in the car
and I go immediately to the kitchen and say,
"you have to put this at the front of the line.
I need that food immediately."
- What are these? - Don't use those.
Those are slaws. I'm waiting on them.
I need lids, Naomi.
- These are not for judges? - No.
- Yes. - Come on, George.
Our stuff has been up for, like, three minutes.
- Yes, coming now. - Let's go.
I'm not enjoying being in this fast-food environment
where you need to plate things really, really fast
and serve them on plastic. It's not my cup of tea.
This is judge for here.
It's like, "we were supposed to be in San Antonio
an hour ago."
- Come on, you're [bleep] us up. - Coming now.
These guys are moving much slower.
Is it the kitchen or is it--
You said "cherry cola"? Not the first time, you didn't.
It's taking too long.
It is taking a very long time.
[Horn honks]
- George, what do you need? - Right here.
Two to go. Two George to go.
Two critics. Two critics to go.
Here. One regular.
Here's your two frankies and your two burritos.
We are a little bit late, but we got everything
just the way you wanted it.
Thanks. Thank you very much, Mary Sue.
Enjoy every bite.
Two more regular. Two more to go right behind it.
Thank you very much.
- This is the pork and clams. - Thanks.
What is this?
Oh.
George Mendes is one of the most brilliant
young chefs in America today,
but this is probably the ugliest food
I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen some ugly food.
Was this supposed to be like a brochette, a satay?
I don't know what he's doing to me.
Too much time in New York.
Not enough drive-throughs in Manhattan.
When he found out that he was in here,
he should have adapted this dish.
Two pork to go.
Do you need any more burritos?
This is Traci's chicken burrito chili verde.
The flavor of that thing was just amazing.
Oh, my God.
- Whoa. - For this--to go, please.
This is sit-down restaurant great food.
Yeah.
And yet it has all the marks of really good fast food.
You picture driving while you eat this,
and it's exactly what you want.
Right.
How many tickets do we have?
The thing that impresses me the most about Floyd's dish here
is this wrap.
It completely shows what a fresh-made wrap
could and in fact should be,
versus Celina's, which was a pancake.
Seven steak all day.
Seven steak all day?
There's absolutely nothing wrong
with Naomi's steak sandwich, but there's also nothing
so special about it.
Naomi has immunity this week.
I don't think that's a good reason
to go on autopilot with your cooking.
Those croutons are good in the salad,
but I don't even have silverware to eat them.
I don't really understand how anyone
could think that this is finger food.
I mean, even you don't look sexy
eating your Caesar salad like that,
and that really says something.
We're done?
Three steaks, the board is clear.
Should we go meet up with Curtis and Danielle?
Yeah.
For as quickly as orders came in--
I'm a little bit concerned with my performance,
because what I should have done is cooked up
10 or 15 fish tacos and just been ready to go.
I just started putting the stuff up,
and that's when I think the integrity of the dish
started suffering.
It just gives you a newfound respect
for the fast-food environment.
The service was so bad.
You sort of snubbed your nose
at the fact that you're in a fast-casual environment.
The drive-in order came.
We got slammed.
The first turn.
Your turn didn't so much.
I was writing people's names
until you gave me those table numbers.
You were?
I don't know what to do.
I've never worked a register.
And every time a guest would place an order,
I had to turn around to the menu board
to figure out what they're ordering.
Every time a guy would ask me for a soda,
I was like, "what? Grape soda?
We have grape soda?"
I couldn't find the ice.
[Laughter]
You guys did fine in the kitchen.
Yeah, yeah, you guys did.
And you did a great job expediting.
You're not going home, so it's one of us who's going home.
You're off the hook.
I know, but, you know, still--
Chefs, the critics would like to see
Alex, George, and Celina, please.
Thank you.
- Good luck, guys. - Good luck, you guys.
Good luck, guys.
They call Alex and Celina and George out.
I kind of thought that those three
were the dishes that didn't work as much
in the parameters that were set.
And could I have really misperceived this?
Chefs, I'd like to introduce you to our critics--
James Oseland, the editor-in-chief
of Saveur magazine.
Danyelle Freeman, editor of online food magazine
Restaurant Girl.
And Alan Sytsma, editor of Grubstreet.com.
Your challenge today was to create
one main and a side dish for the drive-through lunch rush.
What was the environment like? Was it chaotic back there?
That was rough.
Do you think you have a new respect
for the efficiency and kind of the systems
that are in place at fast-food places
in terms of getting this food out?
- Yeah. - Oh, yeah.
- Yeah. - Absolutely.
The service was so bad.
What was going on back there?
He was expeditor for my service,
and I was expeditor for their service.
Just the flow is just not what we're used to.
Well, chefs, the critics decided
that your dishes were...
Their least favorites.
Celina, why do you think that is?
I'm not really sure.
I wanted to do something different,
kind of out of the box and not so meat-heavy.
It wasn't a wrap. It was unwrapped.
Just sort of a mess waiting to happen.
Celina, I thought that the garbanzo bean pancake
was a good thought, but everything was a little bland,
a little underseasoned.
I thought it had a nice zing.
I don't really know what your perception of heavy is,
but I did want to be cognizant of that
and not go overboard on the salt either, so.
The cauliflower, I found that to be
a relatively pleasing little mouthful.
I wasn't really necessarily sure
of the relationship between the cauliflower
and the so-called wrap.
I wasn't crazy about it.
George, you did the skewered pork for us with the chorizo.
And I know that originally the chorizo
was in the side dish, right?
Um, maybe there was a misunderstanding,
but it was to be the pork on a skewer with chorizo
and then the clam was part of the side dish
inside the cucumber.
- The clam was very well-cooked. - Uh-huh.
But it was very hard to eat.
So you wouldn't find it easy
to just pick up the cucumber and eat it all at once?
- Very difficult. - Very.
Do you think that what you served today
constituted fast food?
Um, maybe not so much, but I decided
to stick behind my food.
In one way, you sort of snubbed your nose
at the fact that you're in a fast-casual environment.
No, I don't think that I snubbed my nose
at the fact that I was in a fast-food environment.
Since I was using a skewer and everything
could be eaten by hand, I decided to stick to it.
Alex, you decided to serve the salmon fish taco.
How did you think it went?
For me personally, the creative process
takes more than half an hour.
So I was out of my element.
You got in the spirit of fast food with it,
but you didn't really give us a fast-food side dish.
No, it was supposed to be a breaded item.
And the next thing you know, there's five minutes left
and I'm still cutting it.
So I missed the mark there.
I thought you served us a very practical burrito.
We didn't have a mess in the car.
But it just came off as too sweet.
Yeah.
Would you please return to the kitchen
and ask some of your colleagues to join us?
Thank you, chefs.
Why do you think that we're gonna get called out?
Because we were on the team that took a long time
for the food to come out.
That surprised me.
Should be based on the food.
- Hi. - Hi, what's up?
We're still, uh-- we're waiting.
Mary Sue, Traci, and Floyd,
they'd like to see you.
The three of them come back and can kind of tell
from their faces that they did reverse the order.
So it looks like we're gonna be top-tier,
which is great.
Well, chefs, we're lucky that you weren't
being judged solely on your service
because you had some great dishes.
It really is just a pleasure to eat your food.
It really is. Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Floyd, your frankie wrap was just really genius
and I loved the chicken inside.
It was just so moist, so well-seasoned.
It was a very strong dish.
Floyd, I thought that that cool kind of healthy texture
of the slaw with the very warm sort of sensual feeling
of the frankie worked really well together.
Thank you.
Traci, one mouthful of that burrito
and I was in love.
Thank you.
Yours is so nicely contained
that if I got that at a drive-through
and I opened that up and was driving,
it was just-- it was perfect.
Exactly what you want on the road.
Thank you.
Mary Sue, I'm no stranger
to the border grill food truck.
So this challenge for you,
was it an easier one than others?
I just took a gamble.
I needed a fryer for my fritters,
so if I'd been with a bonfire on the beach,
I would be a loser.
Well, thank God you had a fryer,
because those fritters were dynamite.
Thank you.
They were taking an ingredient that you don't see
that often in a fast-food environment
and completely transforming them into fast food.
Well, chefs, but only one of you
made the critics' overall favorite,
and that winning chef is...
Mary Sue.
Congratulations.
I love that reaction.
Thank you so much.
Congratulations, Mary Sue.
It's $10,000 for your charity,
Share Our Strength, furnished by Lexus.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I am so thrilled.
Feels great to win and that I wasn't at the bottom.
Thank you. I'm very excited.
That's $20,000 I've been able to raise
for Share Our Strength for No Kid Hungry.
We are working to make sure that no kid
in the United States goes hungry.
This is a dream of mine.
I want to live in a country where
every kid has the same chance to grow and learn and thrive,
and that's what we do every day.
In any context--
fast food, slow food-- what you made for us today
was fantastic food.
I'm gonna put those quinoa fritters
on our menu at the food truck.
Oh, good call.
Thank you.
You may now return to the kitchen
while the critics deliberate.
Thanks so much.
- Did you win it? - Yeah.
All right. [Cheers and applause]
Thank you.
Quesadilla won. All right.
That's really awesome.
I hate having you guys have to wait
for this crappy part.
Three dishes, none of them were fantastic.
With fast food, really what you're talking about
is direct, immediate flavors.
And Alex's taco/burrito
was not a great piece of salmon to begin with.
I wasn't crazy about the sauce.
I didn't love it.
There was so many little elements
that were distracting me, like the walnuts in it,
the grapes in it, and it was just too sweet.
Salmon's not the best fish to use for fish tacos,
but fry it and you've got a decent option.
I think he struggles to be adaptable.
We're not in our environment.
Right.
We don't know what to do.
Play it safe? Take a chance?
Alex's dish you could eat without utensils.
Now, Celina's dish on the other hand...
Oh, boy. That was a lost cause.
It was almost impossible to eat without a utensil.
The pancake underneath was too thick.
It was a flapjack.
We could have had maple syrup with that thing.
We should have had maple syrup.
And the filling was just tasteless.
I don't know what she was going for there.
I'm kind of surprised.
I tried every component.
Celina's wrap or unwrap--
well, at least you knew what was the side
and what was the main.
With George, I don't think he knew in the end what was what.
The way that George simply grilled pork loin
with more pork sausage in the form of chorizo--
that's not a dish.
There was no sauce on our pork.
There was nothing but a little sliver of chorizo
between each piece.
Everything he served was sparse.
It was so ugly in that sea
of white styrofoam, these little blobs of food.
It really--it made my heart sink.
George comes from a really fine-dining background
and I'm sure that he can pull it off in his restaurant,
but I don't know that he adapted for his environment today.
He stayed in that part of the challenge
where it was pre-fast food.
You know, I decided to just stick to my dish.
It looks like you're coming to a consensus.
- Yes. - Yeah.
Celina, George, Alex...
One of you will be going home tonight.
Alex, your salmon taco had a lot of really good things
going for it, but there were too many ingredients
and it just never really came together
in a cohesive way.
George, I really admire that you stuck to your guns
in making the dish you wanted to make,
but at the end,
you didn't really adapt to fast food.
Celina, your wrap wasn't really a wrap at all.
It was a pancake, and it was a mess to eat
in the drive-through or in the dining room.
The chef that will be leaving us tonight is...
George.
We will be making a donation to your charity, Water.
Thank you. Awesome.
You're a great chef.
You've cooked some delicious food during this competition,
but unfortunately, now I have to ask you
to return to the kitchen and pack your knives.
- Thank you. - Thank you very much.
I'm sorry to see George go.
He's a fantastic chef, and he's cooked us
some delicious dishes, but today wasn't his day.
It was just confused.
It didn't make any sense at all.
See you guys in New York. Take it easy.
Aww. You're going.
I'm going.
You know, no one likes to lose,
but I decided to take a risk.
I decided to stand behind my food.
- See you soon. - Yeah.
Thank you. Absolutely.
A competition like this will stretch
who you are as a chef.
Being on Top Chef Masters
doesn't mean that there's nothing else to learn.
I want to learn more. I want to travel more.
I want to bring more to the table.
You know, at least you went out
doing something that you would never do.
It's a roller coaster ride,
but if you're gonna come aboard and play it safe,
then what's the point?
I'm not going out a sore loser.
I'm going out happy.
Next time on Top Chef Masters...
Behind, behind, behind, blind side.
Seven minutes.
- Who's got the caviar? - I do have the caviar.
It's like a quickfire on steroids.
Hello, chefs. We are Maroon 5.
I'm all excited about meeting Maroon 5.
I'm gonna be cool with my kids.
Ow! Rock and roll.
Cooking environment is ridiculous.
It's disgusting.
[Groans] Oopsy.
Can we get a warning
when you're gonna take a turn like that?
- Whoa! - [Speaks indistinctly]
- Stopping. - Yeah.
Lovely. [Laughs]
It looks a little bit like a piece of poo-poo
that was rolled around in bird feed.
Band's breaking up.
The mashed potatoes
will be your Yoko Ono.
I didn't want a generic salad.
== sync, corrected by elderman ==