Tonight the finale of Top Chef Masters
God help me.
After weeks of competition...
[Bleep]!
Come on, you're [bleep] us up.
Only three chefs remain.
Mexican cuisine maven Mary Sue Milliken
of the Border Grille in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
This is a huge amount of money, it means a lot to me
and for Share Our Strength, to end childhood hunger.
We're not there yet. And it's criminal--we should be.
Virtuoso of French California cooking, Traci Des Jardins,
of Jardiniere of San Francisco.
It would be great to win $100,000 for La Cocina.
This money will really help
some incredible participants' dreams to come true.
And classically trained Indian artisan Floyd Cardoz,
of North End Grill in New York City.
Delicious.
My dad passed away from cancer,
and I got into a career that he didn't want me to do.
It would bring it all back together
if I'm able to give my charity
money to find a cure for cancer.
At stake, the grand prize of $100,000
for their charity of choice,
courtesy of Kitchenaid.
And the title of Top Chef Master.
♪ Top Chef Masters 3x10 ♪ Top Chef Masters Finale Original Air Date on June 15, 2011
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
We walk into the Top Chef Masters dining room,
and we see
Curtis, James, Gail, and Ruth,
and I'm perplexed.
Congratulations on making it to the finale.
We started with 12 outstanding chefs,
and now only three of you remain.
To see you guys just roll up your sleeves
week after week has really been an honor to watch.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
Your final elimination challenge will determine
which one of you wins the top prize of $100,000
and the title of Top Chef master.
The critics for this challenge
are James Oseland,
editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine.
Ruth Reichl,
former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine
and author of Garlic and Sapphires,
and Gael Greene,
who's been a critic for more than 40 years
and whose reviews can be read online
at insatiable-critic.com.
So here's your last elimination challenge.
We want you to create
a three-course meal of a lifetime.
The first course should be inspired
by your first food memory.
The next course will be the experience
that made you decide to become a chef.
And the third...
You'll find out after this knife pull.
Floyd, you can select first.
It says "James."
So I guess I have you. That's right.
Mary Sue.
[Chuckles] Ruth.
You're stuck with me.
I don't think that's a bad thing.
And Traci.
It's gotta be me, that's great.
[Giggles] Excellent.
Your third dish will be the critic's choice.
They also have a memory.
The moment that really opened their eyes
and got them passionate about food.
James?
I would be honored if you would make
the classic Indonesian dish called rendang for me.
I'm looking forward to doing that.
Rendang is normally beef
cooked in coconut milk and spices.
And I understand spice.
I'm like...Whew! You know, I got lucky.
Ruth?
One of my truly great food memories
was lemon souffle.
The most magical dish I thought I had ever tasted.
Fabulous.
Gael?
Well, it was in Vienne, France,
and it was fried duck.
And it was just extraordinary.
I'm very comfortable with French food,
it's how I was trained.
So I feel like this is a really good one for me.
You'll serve your meal to 12 guests
right here in the dining room tomorrow night.
You'll have eight hours to shop and prep.
Aside from Whole Foods,
you can go to any other specialty store
to choose your ingredients.
To help you in your final challenge,
we've invited an extra pair of hands for you.
In walks TY, my Chef de Cuisine,
and I am so happy to see him.
Now I know that I can do the kind of food I want to do.
Oh! Both: [Chuckles]
- How are you? - I'm good.
I'm so excited.
Traci, who are you standing with?
This is my chef, Morgan, who runs Jardiniere everyday.
- Mary Sue? - This is Jaime Covarrubias.
And he has been working with us since--you were 16?
- 16 years old. - Wow.
So, Floyd, who's standing with you?
I have Ty Kotz, he's been with me for nine years.
A really, really good guy, hard-working.
On his application, my sous chef wrote,
"this guy might be a keeper." And he was.
- [Chuckles] - Traci, Mary Sue, and Floyd,
please take your sous chefs and your critics
into the kitchen to find out more about their stories.
It was my honeymoon.
We sat down in this restaurant feeling very young,
and not quite fitting in.
And then came this duck, served with a bearnaise sauce.
Oh, duck's my absolute favorite thing to cook,
so I'm so excited about this.
This is kismet.
My parents took me to Paris when I was about ten.
I had never seen a souffle before,
so it was, like, this magic food.
It's, like, almost like a living thing.
And then I thought, "I want more of this."
When I was 19 years old,
I made my first trip to southeast Asia.
This one dish really transformed
everything that I thought food could be.
It was so full of spice.
Layers of flavor, really.
It blew my mind.
Rendang is a reverse braise dish.
From your gut.
It's not a dish that you cook from your mind.
It's a dish that you cook from your soul, from your gut.
You can't force rendang, so you have to do it slow.
Please bring on the heat. I mean, at least for me.
I can tolerate heat, like, up to here.
And it was lightly breaded, very fine crumbs,
and full of that snappy mustard flavor.
I didn't know-- how did they cook it?
It was served with a bearnaise sauce.
Wow.
Duck with a sauce bearnaise
is, I think, a little bit unusual.
I've never seen that done.
It's a bit of a puzzle. Pleasure.
Bonne chance. Merci, merci, [Speaks French]
Thank you. I'll see you.
- See you guys tomorrow then. - Yeah, definitely.
- Good luck. - Thank you.
The experience that made me wanna become a chef,
I have a really clear picture of it.
My sister invited me to Chicago. I was 16 years old.
She said, "Let's go out to dinner.
My friend's having a dinner party."
Greg Duda, who was my mentor
and who inspired me to become a chef,
he made a little shrimp cocktail in literally nanoseconds.
He just started chopping things, and he was doing all this stuff.
And I ended up working with him on and off over the years.
Sadly, he just passed away a year ago at 54.
That was very hard for me.
So this dish is in honor of him.
"That's what I wanna do. I wanna be a chef."
I remember this meal that I had when I was 16.
It was when I was trying to decide
whether I was gonna go to college or what I was gonna do.
And I was at Zola in San Francisco.
It was this little, tiny, you know, beautiful room
rather than the old, stodgy French restaurants of the '70s.
And I had a quail salad that was particularly memorable.
That's what I'm basing my dish on tomorrow.
And it was one of those "wow" experiences.
It was on that trip when I had the steamed bass.
I was 12 or 13, and my father loved food.
And he decided he wanted to take me out
for a business lunch in Bombay.
They made this incredibly flavorful white fish.
It was what really put me into that place
of wanting to cook that.
There were multiple forks and knives on the table,
and I had to look at my dad and follow his actions
because I didn't know which one to use.
But that's when I realized
that dining could be a whole ceremony.
And I'll never forget it.
So have you got a list of ingredients together?
- Yeah. - Let's try these guys.
I'm wondering if you guys carry duck.
Let's get in the car and just go.
We have until 10:00 tonight to prep our meal,
but the catch is we have to go shopping
for the ingredients we want.
Do you have oxtails, by any chance?
There's another gourmet store right by it too.
So if we can't get the oxtail there,
maybe we can call there right after.
- All right, here we go. - Let's do it.
I'm going to McCall's
'cause I think it has the best duck that's available to me.
So ducks, duck legs, quails...
So let's head out.
Wonder if we should do oxtail and short ribs, do both?
We go to the Farmers Market, and I buy oxtail.
Because I think it's very important for me
to show two different styles of rendang.
Can I get some oxtails, please? Yeah.
I have to be refined because there are
two other chefs who are really good at what they do.
As close to the bone without breaking the filet.
To compete against them, it has to show the guts,
that I'm willing to take the chance.
What kind of lobster do you have?
I got these two there,
and then I should have one back frozen,
if you don't mind it being frozen.
I don't find the lobster that I need.
Do I wanna go all the way to the fish market,
which is the other side of town?
I'll probably lose an hour of prep.
Maybe we should just stick with these
and just forget the lobster.
The shrimp looked gorgeous,
so I decide, "okay, I'll do the same idea,
but I'll do it with shrimp." Thank you. Um...
All right.
How many duck legs do you have?
I'm getting two different kinds of duck--
one that's a mulard, it's a French breed of large duck,
and the other is a Peking-style duck.
I'm hedging my bets.
I have these two different duck preparations,
and I think, "well, why not just put both of them on the plate?"
I think that'll do it. Perfect.
- Okay, here we are. - Yep.
I'm a Los Angeles native. It's a pretty rainy day,
and I know the traffic is gonna be horrendous.
Ooh, it never rains in California.
So instead of going to different markets,
we get our groceries from Whole Foods
and rush into the Lexus RX,
and we head back to the kitchen to start cooking.
- But it's on Melrose? - [Bleep], I don't know.
This L.A. traffic is driving me bonkers,
I can't deal with it.
All the dishes I'm making today
need several specialty ingredients.
Wanna see if they have basmati?
I need to go to different stores to get what I want.
We spent more time in the car than shopping.
I don't think we're gonna have enough time.
Okay. I'm sure my comrades probably wiped them out.
Whew.
Wow, I guess we're the first ones back.
Unbelievable. That's a good feeling.
Yes. Yes.
We have lost so much time--
in travel, in the traffic, in the rain.
And you know, that gives us a disadvantage,
which we don't like having.
All right, Morgan, this is my world right here.
I get back to the Top Chef Masters kitchen.
I'm a little bit stressed
because I'm still not totally sure
what my dishes are gonna be.
I need to have a good foundation
by the end of this prep day.
Okay, let's get both those ducks in right away.
[Bleep]
I am beginning to get worried,
because we are not gonna have enough time
to braise the meat.
- Where'd Floyd go? - I don't know where he went.
This traffic sucks.
So we're making the same puree for both.
- Yeah. - Did you say everything
has to be cooled down and put away?
Yeah. [Bleep]
This traffic sucks.
- The traffic was horrible. - Horrible!
- Where'd Floyd go? - I don't know where he went.
I'm thinking Floyd's gonna walk in any time.
And time's passing, he's still not back.
And I'm concerned about him.
Like, is he really gonna shoot himself in the foot today
by not getting enough prep time in the kitchen?
Should we skip the chicken stock?
- Just put it on. - Nice veg stock?
Just put it on. We can use it tomorrow.
Like that, I think is perfect.
For my first course,
I'm gonna be making a steak tartare.
I should've probably gotten all that kind.
My mom comes from a really German family.
And steak tartare is at Christmas Eve
kind of a special thing.
So as a kid I couldn't wait for Christmas to come
so I could eat that.
I think that's rather perfect.
Floyd.
Mary Sue, I hate your city.
I'm sorry! I hate the traffic too.
We finally get into the kitchen
with three hours left on the clock.
And I am really concerned right now
because for the rendang to be perfect
I need about three and a half to four hours uninterrupted,
and I'm gonna have to interrupt it halfway.
I'll be running to just catch up.
First thing I do is get the oxtail and the short ribs on
right away.
The next thing I do is open the fish.
Oh, man.
The filets are all broken up, the scales on it...
It's a total mess.
What's that?
I shouldn't have let the guy filet the fish.
Oh, [bleep] these gloves.
We have to start trimming it down.
Asked the guy to filet my fish, look what he did.
- Oy. - I am annoyed that the butchers
did such a poor job, because we have a lot to do.
And we don't have enough time.
That's a crime.
I've realized that it's not my day.
That is really funny. For the second course,
which is the dish that inspired me to become a chef,
I decided to make two shrimp appetizers that express
my mentor Greg Duda's exuberance with food.
It's boiling pretty good. Yeah.
I'm doing a hot rigatoni
with shrimp and chervil mousse,
paired with a cold crab and vegetable salad.
- You're making shrimp? - Yeah, I bought it first.
I was so surprised that you decided to copy me.
[Giggles]
The first course is inspired by my grandfather
and the smell in the kitchen.
He was from Louisiana. He was an avid cook.
And he used to drive out to the coast two hours away
to buy fresh seafood.
The dish is shrimp creole,
and it was a recipe that he used to make.
I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about myself.
I would be too, if was cooking against me.
[Chuckles] I know.
I know Mary Sue's level of experience.
I remember when I first started cooking,
she was someone that I looked up to and admired.
And now she's become a good friend.
- You using the shells? - Uh-huh.
Okay, just wanna make sure.
But there's $100,000 at stake for our charities.
And even though Mary Sue and I have been friends
for a long time, I want to win this.
Are you using green beans too?
Don't worry, they're not gonna recognize
yours from mine I'm pretty sure.
- I missed you. - I missed you too.
I felt really disconcerted being separated from you.
My first food memory is the upma,
which is a dish that we would have for tea
at 4:00 when we came home from school.
And it's semolina cooked with a little bit of stock
and diced vegetables. So it's kind of savory.
What I'm gonna do is change it a little bit,
put little bit of coconut milk and chicken stock
so it gets more flavorful, and do the roasted mushrooms,
which is a very ballsy dish to do
because it doesn't have very much happening in the dish.
And you have to have a discerning palate to get it.
You don't have a reamer, right, Trace?
No, there was one around before.
I think Floyd has it. For my third course,
I want to really help Ruth relive that souffle moment.
So I wanna serve lemon souffle, a lemon hazelnut meringue,
and some lemon ice cream.
I worked the souffle station in a restaurant in 1979.
But I feel like I don't really wanna make something
I haven't made in 30 years.
So I just make a quick batch
and put them in the oven to see how they're gonna work.
Because this is the finale.
This has to be the best food we can possibly make.
The cornmeal's too course.
Gonna put it in the coffee grinder.
Yeah?
The second course, I'm thinking I'm gonna do a duo
with sweetbreads in a mustard cream sauce
on one side of the plate,
and then quail with dried figs
on the other side of the plate.
Chef Traci, can I borrow your Japanese mandoline?
- You may. - Thank you.
In the meantime, I'm going on with prep.
And I think I can finish this dish out tomorrow.
Yeah, that's beautiful. For my second course,
which is the dish that made me be a chef,
I am making rice flake snapper
with a tomato-fennel broth, fava beans, and okra.
The hardest thing I'm doing tonight is making the broth.
Because that's very subtle,
and I want my dishes to be perfect.
But it's hard because we've lost a lot of time.
Could you watch that for me?
- Oui. - The third course
is the most difficult
because I'm not happy with the duck that I have.
I didn't have the exact ducks that I wanted.
I got two different kinds.
But I'm not sure I'm gonna do a duo on the duck course.
You're roasting the duck on the bone?
No.
What I'm going to have to try and do
is an interpretation,
and hope Gael's gonna like it.
- How is it? - Taste it.
Dang! It's just perfect.
The souffle tastes wonderful.
So I'm relaxed and confident for tomorrow.
This is a test!
I taste Mary Sue's souffle today.
It's really, really good.
I'll leave one for you too, Morgan.
Every time I was up against Mary Sue this season,
I always came in second.
She's my friend, but I just can't wait to beat her.
This is the finale.
And it would be an incredible honor and accolade to win.
I'll put these in the fridge.
But it would be even more satisfying
to win $100,000 for my charity, La Cocina.
I'm going to finish my meat tomorrow,
which is a very dangerous thing to do.
I got it. I got it.
I'm a bit worried that I may not
get the rendang cooked in time.
But at this point, I have no other options.
I have to make it work tomorrow.
Time's up. Let's go.
I'll see you tomorrow.
- Bye. - See you later.
I'm such an idiot. I don't have enough batter.
Put some egg whites in that bowl and whip them up fast.
I have just screwed up everything.
Oh, criminy, what have I done?
Where are we going?
We start driving
up into the Hollywood Hills this morning.
I'm ready to get in that kitchen and start cooking.
And we're not headed there.
What if they have another challenge for us?
Cause....I'm not doing it.
I kinda hate to think that there's one more surprise,
and we're actually gonna be cooking the finale dinner
someplace else.
Where do you think they're having us go?
[Knocking]
Surprise! Both: Wow!
I thought after all this,
you guys need someone to cook for you.
Come on. Hohow are you?
This is fabulous. [Giggles]
- Good to see you. - Hello.
We're looking forward to this.
Oh, my gosh, this is so exciting.
For once, you don't have to do the hard work.
It is such a pleasant surprise to see Curtis
in chef whites and an apron.
This could be a really sweet day.
This morning the quickfire's all on me,
so instead of me sitting down, eating your food
and judging you guys, you can judge me this morning.
Curtis is an accomplished chef.
He serves us a hamachi appetizer,
and then a gorgeous sunchoke soup.
His food was delicious.
Don't you think all the time, like,
"what would I do if I were them?
What would I make?" That gives me a headache.
You know? All: [Laughing]
It's nice to have this moment to reflect
with Floyd and Mary Sue and Curtis.
Because I'm wound up about this finale,
and it's like a big deep breath.
Congratulations.
[Glasses clink]
Put them underneath?
I think that could wait.
All I could think about is getting my rendang
back on the stove and back in the oven.
Because there's nothing worse than a braise that's not cooked.
As flat as possible,
but a little bit rippley is not a problem.
Being in this competition has been 100 times
more intense than my final test from chef school.
And I really wanna win so I can deliver
the big check to Share Our Strength.
That would be put to such good use
for our no kid hungry campaign.
Let's do the ice cream together, okay?
- 55 minutes. - You want mash picked out?
Yeah, that's for the duck course.
Gael's duck dish is certainly my biggest concern.
I'm doing an interpretation
because I think that those food memories
are about place and time, and who you're with.
When you're asked to take on a task like that
I think it's almost the impossible.
My ice cream is not freezing in that freezer.
I'm making lemon ice cream,
which I think will really speak to Ruth's lemon memories.
But I've never made it with liquid nitrogen.
I thought we had an ice cream maker here...
But apparently we don't.
Having never done it, I'm a little apprehensive
about how that's gonna all come together.
It's no big deal.
I mean, it's just Top Chef Masters.
14 1/2 minutes left.
Oh, it's beautiful.
This looks absolutely beautiful.
Hey.
- Susur, how's it going? - Good to see you again.
Good to see you again. How are you?
Good, how are you? Nice to see you.
Four minutes, 43.
Ty, do you have anymore chili?
Time is running out as I'm cooking the semolina polenta.
And I am not getting that flavor that I want.
So I'm keeping on adjusting with a little bit of heat
and a little ginger, a little bit of chilis.
And I'm thinking, "man, this is not gonna work."
- Jonathan, glad to see you. - There she is.
Oh, my gosh. [Laughter]
Susan, how are you? So excited you could
join us tonight. It's fantastic.
Absolutely like an acid flashback.
[Laughter]
Ladies and gents, I think the first course
is just minutes away, so we should grab our seats
and get ready. Can't wait, I'm starving.
Give me the pepper mill, please.
Grandpa sauce?
Yep, little grandpa sauce.
As the clock is ticking, it's just an amazing stress
that starts to just build in the air.
Everybody is acutely aware that this is it.
This is the final challenge.
I have to put everything I've got into it.
Yes.
To the meal ahead.
I'm so thrilled to be on this side of the kitchen
instead of that side.
It's gonna be really, really hot, guys.
Hold that straight, hold that straight,
hold that straight.
Ooh, la, la.
- Ah, here we go. - Oh, great.
You see the olives now.
Susur, are you feeling what they're feeling?
I totally get this right now.
I can feel their pain here.
You know, it's like using every ounce
of culinary wisdom that you have.
When I got kicked off, I was so exhausted.
I was looking for that second wind and it wasn't there.
- Psst! - [Whispers] Ah!
[Laughter]
- She is here. - I know, I saw that.
To see Susan out there, it's a great boost.
Susan was on Season Two of Top Chef Masters.
And here I am, following in her footsteps.
You know, I let Susan try things first.
She used to be married to my husband.
So she tried him out and then she introduced us.
That's gotta help.
Good evening, chefs.
- Hello. - Hi.
So tonight we have some very distinguished guests.
Critics, special guests, and some previous Top Chef Masters.
It's a stacked room,
but we're all looking forward to dinner.
This is the first time we're seeing who our diners are.
It's intimidating to cook for peers
who operate restaurants on the same level.
My first course is called upma polenta.
When I used to come home from school in the evening,
you had a savory snack.
It would be made with cream of wheat,
a little bit of carrots.
I added a little bit of coconut milk, a little bit of kokum,
and I got sauteed wild mushrooms with pea shoots in there.
I'm serving an Asian steak tartare.
And it's based on my first food memory
of my mom's face lighting up
when I asked for seconds and thirds
of the steak tartare at Christmas Eve.
And she knew she had an adventurous eater on her hands.
This is an homage to my grandfather.
He was from Louisiana.
We grew up eating shrimp creole.
And so this is my modernized version of his recipe.
Enjoy. Thank you, chefs.
Oh, the steak tartare.
Traci has made the most ambitious shrimp creole
you have ever eaten. Yeah.
She sort of deconstructed it,
which I think is really kind of a ballsy thing to do.
You think of Louisiana cooking, you're thinking,
you know, spicy heat from cayenne, things like that.
I'm just not getting it here.
I'm very taken with Floyd's dish.
The more attention you give it, more and more flavors
start ricocheting around in your mouth.
I don't know about this.
This is kind of very simple.
But I like the simplicity of it.
That's a very Jonathan Waxman philosophy.
Are you trying to blow people away with every dish?
No. Well, I think if I were
in the finale of Top Chef Masters,
I would try with every single dish.
I agree.
Let's taste the steak tartare.
Try not to be biased.
I will try not to be, but I'm gonna be totally.
You know, Mary Sue and I, we started working in Chicago
together 30 years ago.
Oh, my God, you must've been such little hotties.
- [Chuckles] - Crazy hotties.
She would pick me up on her bicycle,
I would get on the handlebars of her bike,
and we would ride along Lake Michigan.
We'd work all day and then go have a beer after work,
and then, like, get back on the handlebars and...
You're like the Laverne and Shirley of food.
Yeah.
I think it's a good idea to do an Asian tartare.
I just don't think she goes far enough with it.
It needs more soy, it needs more sesame.
I'm not sure why Mary Sue didn't julienne
the Asian pear a little bit finer.
I mean, I'm guessing texture.
But you know, I think I'm only gonna be able
to be the positive voice on Mary Sue's.
That's okay. That's okay.
'Cause if we don't get it right, they nail us.
This second course, it has all the things
that I remember having with my father.
And it meant a lot to me to be taken out
by my father for a meal.
And, you know, it just takes me back to that memory.
Can Susan get this plate?
'Cause it's got a big black smudge on it.
Hello again, chefs.
Tell us about your second course.
When I was 12 or 13,
I had gone out with my father for lunch.
And it was the first time in my life I sat down
and I saw forks and spoons and knives
on either side of the plate.
And that stuck with me all these years.
And I've always remembered that meal.
And that day, I ate a steamed fish.
So it's a rice flake snapper
with a fennel and tomato broth with a little bit of clams.
- Mary Sue? - Gregory Duda,
he cooked a dinner for me that made me wanna become a chef.
He created a shrimp appetizer in about 30 seconds.
He would've been great on Top Chef Masters.
All: [Laughing]
And so I did a duo shrimp.
I did a rigatoni stuffed with a shrimp and chervil mousse,
and a crab and shrimp salpicon salad.
Traci, tell us about your dish.
I went on my 16th birthday to a little restaurant,
and it was the first time that I had California cuisine.
So this dish is inspired by the restaurants that I went to
in the 70's that had classic French cuisines.
So that's sort of the sweetbreads representation,
and then the quail salad is the California representation.
Enjoy, please. Thank you. Thank you, chefs.
I'm really enjoying Floyd's fish.
- A lot of the spiciness of-- - the broth, yeah.
The broth, it's just that little hint of spice.
For me, the fish is overcooked.
That's you, Gael. You like it raw.
[Laughter]
What do you think about the rice?
I'm having a hard time chewing through it.
- Me too. - Very crunchy.
Mary Sue has made this 1960s classic,
and I admire her for staying true
to the genuine aesthetic of this dish.
For me, it's a little heavy.
I love the sauce, I just think maybe
she could've drizzled it over it.
Gael, you are the sweetbread expert here.
How do you feel about Traci's sweetbreads?
You said that as if you didn't believe
I was a sweetbread expert. No, I do.
'Cause I remember that you said something about
my sweetbreads many years ago, and you were almost right.
[Laughter]
Traci's sweetbread is almost right too.
This is what I think Traci does really well.
She takes something that often is so fancy and precious
and just makes it very down to earth.
Wait, so there's 26 minutes left?
I'm so early. So I kind of jumped the gun,
I whipped the egg whites too early,
and I over-whip them. Now I don't have enough batter.
Jaime, put some egg whites in that bowl and whip them up fast.
I have just totally screwed up everything.
I'm starting to panic. Fast, Jaime.
Really fast.
I'm such an idiot.
Ideally, they have to cook 15 minutes.
It's the most nerve-wracking 15 minutes
I can remember in a long time.
Oh, criminy, what have I done?
I was trying to do an interpretation of that.
It was an odd pairing.
I realized that I'd made a mistake.
The winner of Top Chef Masters is...
The pressure's enormous.
But, God, they're one dish away from being done.
Oh, criminy, what have I done?
I have just totally screwed up everything.
I'm not gonna be able to send out 13 souffles.
I'm really flipping out.
Watch that clock. Fast, fast.
Go, go, go. It's okay.
The rendang looks really good.
I know I could've put a little more heat.
But even though James wants it really spicy,
I'm also cooking for the other people in the room.
Mary Sue, you ready for that?
- Yep. - Quick, quick, quick.
Floyd, Ty, Morgan, and Traci are all helping
place those souffles on the plate
at the very last moment.
All right! Whoo-hoo!
We did it. Mm.
- Thank God! - It's over.
- I'm so glad. - Ah.
I had to just real quick...
Ohh.
Could somebody come and hug me, please?
What about me? Yeah, come on.
[Laughing]
[Scattered laughter]
Floyd, tell us about your dish.
So I was asked to make a rendition of rendang.
I did rendang two ways. So it's oxtail and short ribs.
The short rib is done with a little bit of veal stock in it
and a little bit of wine,
whereas the oxtail is braised very, very slowly
for about almost five hours.
And in the center is tapioca pilaf
with diced potatoes and peanuts.
- Mary Sue? - I was asked to create
a lemon souffle that Ruth had
when she decided to become a critic.
I added a rhubarb compote
and a lemon hazelnut meringue cake
with a lemon ice cream. Traci.
My dish was inspired by Gael.
And it was a dish that she described as being a fried duck.
So there's actually two different duck breasts--
one that was cooked and breaded in a little bit
of flour and mustard and sauteed.
And then the other one's cooked the traditional way,
which is just pan-roasted with a bearnaise sauce.
And then there's a salad of braised leg.
Thank you, chefs.
I think Traci's done really well.
I told Traci, Gael had so much sex on her honeymoon
that that's all the fond memories she wants.
She's not worried about the food.
What do you think of your duck, Gael?
Does it bring you back? This 1961?
Well, actually, the bearnaise sauce brings me back.
This particular piece is wonderful.
Tender and full of flavor.
And this one was dry and hard to cut.
Safe to say that if you had Traci's duck dish
so many years ago that you wouldn't
become a food writer? Probably not.
I would've continued writing silly stories.
Like Cosmopolitan...
"How to not get dumped by your husband on his way up."
[Laughter]
What's not to love?
Floyd talks about how it has a nice little heat to it.
Nice flavors. Yet again, Floyd has
brought us this great, salt of the earth food--
but elevated it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you had had Floyd's rendang so many years ago,
would that still have lasted with you for so long?
It's hard to say.
But I really appreciate what he's cooked.
I feel the love in this dish.
Patted down, Mary Sue's souffle
was the best dish I had all night.
It was just light, tons of flavor.
The rhubarb really worked with the lemon.
Uh, it's a beautiful combination.
And then nice lemon ice cream to cool it off
and to add some richness to it.
I worked for Ruth for two years at Gourmet,
and this feels like Ruth in a way.
I think this is just heaven.
She really captured the lemon flavor.
It's not bitter, it's not overly too sweet.
Do you think if you had had this souffle
when you were younger that you would still
have such a love affair with lemon?
I would definitely have
an even greater love affair with lemon.
- Did you like everything? - I was skeptical,
but I liked everything. It was great.
- Everybody's leaving. - Everybody's leaving.
Oh, my God!
Thank you, Gael. That was great.
I've learned a lot about judging.
[Laughing]
- Morgan... - Chef?
Thank you, it's been swell.
Thank you.
Mm, couldn't do without you.
Thanks for all your help. [Both laugh]
I feel really good about the meal that I've served.
It's very technical, it's very correct.
Everything was executed according to my vision.
See you in New York. Yeah.
I'm glad that I had the opportunity to cook my food.
I totally put my memories on those plates,
because you can't cook good food
if you don't put a part of your soul in there.
And I think I did.
[Exhales] I am exhausted.
It feels like I've just climbed a mountain.
We really cooked our hearts out and we all did great work.
I would hate to have to critique this meal.
Any one of us could take home the big prize.
If I were sitting in the critics' chairs,
I would be wanting to shoot myself.
- Up we go. - You ready, bud?
- Gentlemen first. - Okay.
Oh...I can't do that.
Chefs, you served three very different
and delicious meals tonight.
And the critics have got a very tough decision in front of them.
At stake is $100,000 for one of your charities.
And one of you will become the winner of Top Chef Masters.
Mary Sue, it's really something
that your mother fed you with steak tartare.
No wonder you're a chef. [Giggles]
That texture in there was just lovely.
The seafood salad, the salpicon,
and the rigatoni...
It was an odd pairing.
I wanted to do two shrimp dishes
that were really different from each other.
They didn't really speak to each other
in a very good way.
What you did with that incredible dacquoise
made it so tangy and sharply lemony.
I put lemon segments on top of the dacquoise and...
Mary Sue, can I thank you
for giving me another eureka moment?
- [Giggles] - That lemon meringue...
It brought it all back for me.
- I'm so thrilled. - Floyd...
How do you think your meal went?
Oh...Actually, trying to recreate a memory
is very, very difficult.
I really thought that it was brave to do that upma.
To put a dish that simple
really was a chance, I think.
Thank you.
One problem that I had was with the snapper.
The puffed rice crust... Was a bit hard.
You know, normally, I do it with black bass,
so after I tasted it, I realized that I made a mistake.
I thought the rendang was delicious.
With a dish like rendang,
it's about the soul you put into the thing.
And your soul did go into that dish.
Oh, thank you.
- Traci. - Your shrimp creole--
I loved the rice cake. I thought they were fabulous.
Although I was looking for a long-cooked creole flavor,
which I didn't really find.
I think creole's one of those dishes
that is really particular to a family.
I mean, my grandfather put red wine in his.
When it comes to the quail and the sweetbreads,
to be able to cook the quail perfectly,
to get the breast nice and pink,
you really nailed it. Thank you.
Your version of Gael's food memory
didn't move me so much.
I think that food memory sort of stretched beyond
what that actual dish is.
I mean, I was trying to do an interpretation of that.
Well, one part of the duck on my plate
was just absolutely perfect.
And the other one was dry and very tough.
But the bearnaise was gorgeous.
It was really lovely. Thank you.
Chefs, James, Ruth, and Gael will ultimately decide
which one of you walks away the winner of Top Chef Masters.
So for now please take a seat in the wine room
and let them have their final deliberation.
Thank you, chefs. Thank you.
- It's been a pleasure. - Thank you.
I didn't get a clue from their comments.
They didn't like some things about each of our dishes.
- Right. - And they liked other things...
From their comments, I think you're gonna win.
I didn't get that.
All three really did phenomenal work tonight.
Yeah, and we also saw from each of them
who they really were.
And one thing that I particularly loved
was finding out about skills that certain chefs had
that I didn't necessarily know that they did have.
That's very true. I mean, look at Mary Sue.
She did an Asian steak tartare.
I would never in a million years
think that Mary Sue would do a dish like that.
I thought it was a dream of a tartare.
It had the crunch of the Asian pear,
and just the right amount of spice.
I thought it just needed a little more oomph.
I think that her stuffed rigatoni
was so weird and wonderful. But it was, like,
the seafood salpicon, and then the rigatoni.
What are these two things doing on the same plate?
I didn't think it was Mary Sue's strongest dish
but I'll tell you what I thought was...
That dessert made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
She really took my challenge one step further.
I almost didn't get those souffles out.
I almost completely screwed them up.
I really loved Floyd's upma.
He took this, just, utterly plain Indian home dish
yet made it elegant.
The depth that it had from the coconut flavor,
and the mushrooms were cooked really beautifully.
What did you think of Floyd's tomato-fennel broth?
I thought that Floyd's broth was astonishing.
The fennel, the subtle spicing...
I loved the broth. I thought it was marvelous.
I was not too happy with the fish.
The rice on top was very thick.
I think Floyd's best dish
was his dish that he did for you, James.
I thought he did a gorgeous job on the rendang.
I was so sincerely moved
by what he put into it.
My only quibble with that dish
is that I wish that it had just been singing with spice.
I think, tonight, Traci cooked from the heart.
She really gave it everything that she had.
I liked the shrimp creole. I loved the rice cake,
but I didn't get those flavors.
God, those are fightin' words, Gael Greene.
Tracy's plate was just a gem.
It made me think of shrimp creole
in a way that I hadn't before.
I love the fact that she gave us quail.
It's, like, one of those classics of California cuisine.
I also love sweetbreads.
The thing that Traci keeps delivering on
is a mixture of textures, a mixture of flavors
that I really think is the essence of being a great chef.
The duck itself was very disappointing to me.
She turned out something that didn't have the crusty coating.
Or the mustard--I didn't taste a single taste of mustard.
I don't think anyone's ever fried a duck.
- You didn't fry it, did you? - Nope.
I can't fry a duck.
Well, it sounds like we all agree
on who is the next Top Chef Master.
Yes.
Let's bring them out.
Now, how many different challenges did we do?
Both: Nine quickfires... Ten challenges.
- Which was the hardest? - Cocktail party?
That really threw me for a loop,
because I didn't know what "amarosa" was.
Ambrosia! [Laughter]
Ambrosia.
- Then the bugs. - Yeah, the bugs.
No--oh, God! Why? Oh!
[Laughter]
My brother...that one was really, really good.
I can't believe I didn't recognize your voice.
- That was the best challenge. - That was the most fun.
What a ride.
Mary Sue...
Floyd...
Traci...
For the last ten weeks, you've served incredible food
often in very challenging circumstances.
Your talents as chefs cannot be denied.
But only one of you will leave tonight as the winner
of Top Chef Masters.
Traci, the incredible depth of your classical training
showed in everything you cooked for us tonight.
It was very impressive.
- Thank you. - Floyd...
You cooked a meal tonight that was deeply skilled
and very, very memorable.
Thank you.
Mary Sue,
I think tonight you showed what a great chef can do.
You pushed the envelope, and you gave us food
that was exciting and completely delicious.
Thank you.
It's an honor to sit in front of
three of the most talented chefs in the country.
And it's been even more fun eating your food
week after week.
The chef with the critics' favorite meal tonight
will take home $100,000 for their charity,
furnished by Kitchenaid....
And the title of Top Chef Master.
The winner of Top Chef Masters is...
Floyd.
[Laughing]
[Applause]
Oh, my God. I can't believe it.
It is great getting the win.
It's huge.
I'm shocked. [Laughter]
Winning today means a lot to me and my family
because my family has always sacrificed
our family life for me to do what I do.
Congratulations, Floyd.
That's $110,000 in total for your charity,
the Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund.
Thank you so much.
It's gonna mean so much to them.
My father had cancer and died.
So to win the $100,000 for my charity
that can help cure cancer,
it's something very special.
[Cork pops] Congratulations.
I feel very, very honored.
Your sons will be so excited.
I was really hoping to take home
the title of Top Chef Master...
But Floyd is such an amazing chef.
I'm thrilled for him.
You're such an amazing cook.
Getting this close to the title and not winning,
it's a little disappointing.
But think I've earned $30,000 for La Cocina.
And I'm very happy with that.
Floyd, we have one more special thing for you.
It's something that I'm sure
you're going to be extremely proud of.
Thank you so much.
I came here to this country 22 years ago
with 100 bucks in my pocket and a dream.
My father would be very proud of what I'm doing right now,
and I'm sure he's watching.
Here's to Floyd. Thanks for the incredible food.
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
for more information on Top Chef Masters,
visit bravotv.com.