02x08 - Alex vs Modernist

[bunniefuu]

As an Iron Chef,

I've taken down
some of the world's finest.

There isn't a chef
more competitive
than I am.

In my heart,
I can't have you win.
It's just not in my DNA.

Chefs from across the country

all want a shot
at Alex Guarnaschelli.

- I'm about to take down
an Iron Chef.
- Wow.

So each week
three of America's best chefs

will battle Alex
at the same time.

Yeah.

These chefs
have been hand selected

for their mastery
in a specific type of food

and they're all here
for one goal,

to beat Alex.

- You are going down.
- I'm coming for ya, Alex.

My name's up there
for a reason.

I know
they all want a shot at me.

Bring it on.

This is
the ultimate culinary battle.

This is Alex Vs. America.

We're rolling, rolling.
Quiet on stage.

All right, so,
tonight it's gonna be wild.

We're literally
doing something

we've never done before.

Behind me
are three of the best
modernist chefs in America.

These chefs
use cutting edge cuisine

and molecular gastronomy
to cook,

but Alex
is classically trained.

Alex has won
every competition out there

but today
she doesn't stand a chance.

I'm gonna take Alex's name
right off that map.

It's a new day.
I have no idea what's coming.

That's unnerving.

But I am a competition expert.

Whatever you throw at me,
I'm ready.

All right, chefs, welcome.

You are all here

because you guys
are at the forefront
of modernist cuisine,

and you don't need me
to tell you about
Chef Alex's reputation.

But if she does have
a culinary blind spot
this could definitely be it.

Please welcome
the one, the only,
the Iron Chef herself,

Chef Alex Guarnaschelli.

I love the idea
of watching other chefs.

I don't love the idea
of them winning.

It's never gonna
change for me.

- Well, hello, chefs.
- Hello.

- Eric.
- So, Alex, today

chefs from New Jersey,
South Carolina,
and Colorado.

Okay. I mean, big farm states.

I don't think
we're doing anything
farm heavy today.

All right,
let me ask you this.

Have you ever taken
a chemistry class
in high school?

Okay. Hmm.

My chemistry teacher
still remembers me

and not because
there was chemistry
between us.

These are
three of the best chefs

in the field of
modernist cuisine.

Oh, my God.
I'm gonna so lose today.

This is
Chef Shaun Brian.

He's perfected
his cutting edge techniques

in acclaimed kitchens
from New England
to the Virgin Islands,

and he's also the co-owner
of one of Charleston's
best restaurants.

That's a great
food community, Charleston.
- It is.

Let's meet Chef Taylor Frankel

from the great state
of Colorado.

She is the Chef de Cuisine

at one of the top
contemporary restaurants
in Colorado.

She's worked at three
Michelin Star restaurants

- under David Kinch
and Dominique Crenn.
- Oh, boy.

Last but not least,
meet Chef Chris Holland.

Hi.

He's an executive chef
from New Jersey

who uses molecular technique
in almost every dish he makes.

His place was named
one of Open Table's

top 50 restaurants
for foodies,

and, Alex,
was also a three-time
Chopped champion.

Chefs, you'll be
competing against Alex

in a two round
modernist showdown.

- If you can get through
the survival round...
- If?

And beat Alex
in the money round,

you could collectively win
up to 15k.

Take my money.

But if Alex freezes you out
like that liquid nitrogen
over there...

Then you're walking away
with nothing.

Then our two expert judges
will rank all four
of those dishes.

The chef with
the top three dishes
move on to the money round.

The chef
that comes in fourth place
will be eliminated,

even if it's your name

- in the title
of the show, Chef.
- All right.

All right, chefs,

to increase your chance
of taking out Alex
in this round,

I'm not picking the challenge.

I'm actually gonna
leave that up to you guys.

Are you ready
to make some choices?

Yeah, go ahead, Eric,
make this even worse.

The game will begin.

Okay, Chefs, your first choice

is the food that will
inspire your dish.

You have to make a dish

that tastes like
but doesn't look like

- these three options.
- What?

You have
spaghetti and meatballs,
fish and chips,

or peanut butter and jelly.

Fish and chips
is screaming at me.

There's a lot
that we can do there.

- Like what?
Like, just for SNG.
- Yeah, you know.

What kind of things?

- The lemon speaks to me.
- Yeah.

The lemon ..., the color,

or the chef behind me.

So,
what are we choosing?
- Fish and chips.

- Fish and chips.
- Fish and chips, yeah.

Unanimous.
- Definitely fish and chips,
yeah.

All right,
fish and chips it is.

Alex, you okay with that?

- You have no options
other than that.
- I, yeah.

I mean, yeah, it is
what it is at this point.

Yeah, I'm glad
you checked with me, Eric.

All good.

In modernist cuisine...

chemicals
are more than ingredients.

Tools
to transform the ordinary
to the extraordinary.

So, which of these
edible chemicals
will highlight your dish?

Is it soy lecithin,
tapioca maltodextrin,

or sodium alginate?

You can use everything,
by the way.

One of these three
has to be a feature
on the dish.

So, tapioca maltodextrin
turns anything fatty
into a crumble or a powder.

Sodium alginate
is for spheres.

Turns anything into a sphere.

And then the soy lecithin
helps capture
and stabilize foams.

Totally going soy lecithin.

We'll rule out
the sodium alginate.

I think I can play
with either one of these two.

I'm comfortable with them all.

Soy lecithin.

Yeah, soy lecithin.
Let's do it.

A lot of people
know it's for foams,
but it's an emulsifier.

You can do
a bunch of things with it.

This is fun.
I'm gonna learn a lot.

What kind of serving vessel

is this dish
going to be plated on?

A salt block, an angled bowl,

or a glass cloche?

I don't love the bowl.

I like this because
I think it speaks the most

- to modernist cuisine
right now.
- Yes, that one.

Cloche, cloche, cloche.

This is gonna be a doozy.

All right, Chefs,
you have one more decision.

How much time
are you giving yourselves?

I'm giving you
anywhere from zero
to 60 minutes.

Now remember,
the more time
you give yourselves,

the more time you're giving
to this champion over here.

Yeah, and I'm a real
lethal weapon over here.

- 45.
- 45.

- Yeah.
- 45.

45.

Okay, I guess so.

- Chefs, the table is set.
- All right, it sure is.

- Your modernist challenge
- Yeah.

Starts now.

Ooh, modernist cuisine.
Anything that is pushing food
to the forefront.

Let's talk about
the ingredients.

Fish and chips,
the classic English dish,

fish that's been
beer battered,

Chips normally served
with a tartar sauce,
little bit of tang,

soy lecithin,
and then a glass cloche.

So, it needs to taste like
but not look like.

And that's really
the crux, right?

The fun part
of modernist cuisine.

If you win this one,
how could you ever, like,
lose any other?

You're right, but, you see,
we don't have to worry
about that now do we, Eric?

I believe in you, Chef.

I'm actually
going old school here

with a potato scaled
crusted halibut.

Fish and chips
but in an elevated way,

because I think
some modernist cooking

by far, in a way,
is fancy pants.

I think fish and chips
tastes like batter,
like fried batter.

That's what I love.

So, I build a batter
with vodka beer.

I want to fry the batter
to hark into the crunchy part
of fish and chips,

to incorporate into a dish

that doesn't look like
what it's supposed
to taste like.

No, not yet.

I mean, for me
it's really a question

of whether food
that doesn't use
a lot of these techniques

can emerge victorious,

because I barely know
how to play in this sandbox.

We are leaving the kitchen

and we are going
into the science lab
for molecular gastronomy.

Good old fish and chips.

Honestly wasn't what
I was thinking in my head

I was gonna be doing today
when I was imagining things,

but I'm taking
the tartar sauce

and making it into
pickle juice cappuccino.

That's the plan.

I'm gonna go for
a potato puree
underneath the fish

and get that fat component
back into the dish.

Key to it is, kind of,
knowing what you're gonna do
right away.

I mean, when it comes
to modernist cuisine

you're really going to get
creativity off the bat

because these guys
are dedicated to technique,

pushing things forward,
and food and flavor,

so I'm really,
really excited to see
what these guys come up with.

For me,
it's all in the tartar sauce.

The base of my dish
is gonna be rooted in

one of the best tartar sauces
you've ever had.

I'm making seared halibut

and crispy
fingerling potatoes,

and then finished
with a meyer lemon foam

to mimic the squeeze of lemon
over the top.

I definitely approach this

by pulling out
components of the dish
but then elevating them.

Alex is formidable.
She is ruthless,
she's a little frightening,

but I want to bring her spirit
out of myself

and use that
to bring her down.

I think that's
the key to success here.

So, I'm working on,
sort of, a deconstructed
fish and chips.

In the blender,
I'm making
a crispy chicharron

out of your
typical ingredients
that you find in a batter.

Soy lecithin is definitely
the easiest ingredient to use.

I'm gonna go ahead
and try to do
a little extra flex

and use as many
molecular things.

- How's it going?
- It's going good.

- This is a little
tapioca maltodextrin
- Right.

That I'm gonna vacuum seal
and sous vide

- to do, like, a chicharron.
- Got it.

The chicharron
is to mimic the...

- Outside of
the breading on the fish.
- Okay, okay.

Yeah.

This is milk powder
and butter.

Milk powder's so good

whisked into
some brown butter.

To me, that's a very
modernist flavor.

No.

Not yet.

As far as using
these specific ingredients...

This is so gross.

Not my wheel house.

And when it's
not your wheel house,
you know,

you end up
making a lot of stuff
that doesn't taste very good.

This is so gross.

Literally,
everything I'm making
is not working.

All right, I got to actually
make some food.

Oh, mandolin.

So,
I take some potatoes

and I just cut them in rounds
in a mandolin,

and I am tossing
potatoes in butter

to make them
stick to each other.

So that they
look like little scales
on top of the fish.

Wow. Having much more success

with the things where
I don't put chemicals.

Funny thing.

Stop it.

I feel
very competitive this evening,
as I always do,

so I'm gonna give
the cooking portion of this
my all.

Do you feel like
you always are
expected to win

- but, like, it's a little bit
different today?
- No, I'm always gonna win.

She's got this.
Knows what she's doing.

There's so much
just cool cooking
happening right now.

I'm glad that we have
two highly trained chefs
to help us judge it.

Let's go meet 'em.

Chef Marcel Vigneron

has studied
molecular techniques in Spain

and has run the kitchens
for culinary icons.

He's currently
the executive chef
of The Aster in Lemon Grove.

Our other judge, Byron Gomez,

has worked his way up
through Michelin Star
kitchens,

including the esteemed
New York restaurant
Eleven Madison Park.

He currently employs
modernist techniques

as the executive chef
of 7908 Aspen.

So, we have three of the best
modernist chefs right now
trying to take down Alex.

They have to choose
a modernist ingredient.

- They chose soy lecithin.
- Okay.

Fish and chip soy lecithin.

Usually, that's a binder.

Soy lecithin's probably
the easiest, quickest one.

You just throw it in a blender
and whip it up.

But, yeah, I mean,
you can do, like,
a malt air or something.

I definitely want
to see some foam.

- Sure, yes, definitely.
- Yeah, yep.

Definitely want to see
some foam.

I'm cutting this halibut
into smaller pieces,

and putting a little bit
of agar on there.

Agar can be used
to glue food together.

This is gonna act
as my crust on the fish.

How you guys doing?

They don't wanna talk to me.
That's okay.

I'm gonna be basically making
a potato butter emulsion

with a bread-crusted halibut
and a tartar sauce cappuccino.

And this potato puree
is gonna be the chips part

of the fish and chips.

Beautiful.

For my tartar sauce
cappuccino,

after I have the finished
beurre blanc,

first thing
I am gonna thicken it
with soy lecithin.

I'm gonna make
a savory cappuccino.

Soy lecithin.

So, you can literally
make a foam out of anything.

You can use
that emersion blender
to create air pockets,

and it holds pockets itself
and creating these
really stable foams.

Time for the fun.

This is where
everybody in this,

all you camera guys
and everything

got to all cross your fingers
that this actually works.

We're looking for this,
basically, to come out
like whipped cream.

Moment of truth.

High five.

Chef Taylor, so,
how is this dish in itself
going to be modern?

Like, what are you doing
to kind of push that envelope?

- So, soy lecithin
kind of makes us go modern.
- Okay.

I'm gonna do
a meyer lemon foam as well.

Oh, yeah.

- Good stuff?
- Really good.

I have an edge
in this modernist competition

because I have
a degree in science,

and that's going to get me
to my end goal

which is to win and beat Alex.

I am collecting lemon juice
and I am blending it
with that soy lecithin.

Heating up the lecithin
helps create a reaction
that thickens it

and allows it to foam up.

I'm gonna keep my fish
super simple.

Just get a really hard sear
on one side.

For my halibut,

I'm rubbing it in
Creole Caribbean spices.

Passionfruit,
lemon zest, orange,

a little bit of kumquat,
just mix up the citrus.

Using the soy lecithin
right now to emulsify,

and then I'm also
gonna use it for a foam.

For my chips component,
I'm doing a potato foam.

Soy lecithin's
gonna make my potatoes
super light, airy.

I'm trying to use as many
modern techniques as I can

so that I can
get to that money round.

It's definitely
Wonka-esque in here.

How are you using
soy lecithin in your dish?

I haven't yet, Eric,
but I have big plans.

This is a different
interpretation of food.

It's not what I do,
but I can have
some fun with this.

I make a lemon vinaigrette,

and then I add a lot
of soy lecithin
to get it to emulsify.

- This is fine.
- This is good.

All this, like...
- I'm making a powder
right now, Eric.

- I can't talk. I'm very busy
making a powder.
- We'll talk later, shall we?

So,
I take some tartar sauce

and I add
caper juice, hot sauce,

and then I just put it in
the food processor
with the tapioca maltodextrin.

All right, you ready?

Then I turn that
mayonnaise and sauce...

Oh, maybe.

Into a tartar sauce
fat powder.

I have something to serve.

So, I have two things

that are vaguely adjacent
to the building that once
housed something

near a block
where someone made
something modernist.

Chefs, there's about
13 minutes left. 13.

Oh, look at that.
Look at that.

Vinegar powder.

You don't
eat malt vinegar with
a whole lot of other things

other than fish and chips,

so I really wanted
to work it into my dish.

Oh, yeah.

I take
my lemon lecithin mixture,

and I add it
to my whipped cream canister,

and out comes
this gorgeous lemon foam.

Yeah.
God, I love this.

I know I want to do
a quick cure on my halibut.

Right now, I'm just rolling it

to get it tighter
and more uniform.

I want my fish to tighten up,

so I'm putting it
in the blast chiller

so it's easier to cut
when I'm going to plate.

Tonight,
it feels a little bit like
I'm at the head of the class,

but I should perhaps
sit in the back

and bring an extra apple
for the teacher.

And that extra apple

is gonna be
the flavors and techniques
that I do normally do

that I know
need to be tip top here,

because I'm lacking
in powder prowess.

That looks insane.
Beautiful sear. Look at that.

Modernist ingredients,
they're good,

but you have to cook good food
at the end of the day.

The food needs to taste good,

and I don't know
if there's anybody here

better than
this chef right here.

The theme and the crux
of modernist cuisine

is you're trying
to push the envelope forward.

I love how all these chefs

will completely
blow anybody's mind

when it comes to, like,
thinking what traditional
fish and chips are.

I'm gonna add
the crisped-up bits
of fried batter

to that tartar sauce
fat powder.

Add extra salt, extra pepper,
and extra lemon zest
to the powder

to try and keep it
a little edgy and bitter

like me.

Three minutes left, Chefs.
Three minutes.

Taylor, are you almost
done over there?

Gotta start plating soon.

A lot
of the modernity in this dish

is gonna be about
my final presentation
and how I plate it.

I want this to look like
a fine dining dish,

and that's why
I put my tartar sauce

kind of underneath
all the other components.

My halibut,
I add my crispy potatoes.

Don't forget the foam.

I have spent every day
using these techniques

and bringing them to life
as an artist.

I want to sit down
and eat this.
That's all I can say.

The first thing I want to do
is pour my cappuccino,

so I add my pickle juice,

and then on top of that
I'm going to put some
of the beurre blanc foam.

The first time
I ever won Chopped
was for molecular gastronomy.

I'm gonna use
that creative risk taking
to take her down.

Modernist cuisine,
it's about fun.

I want the fish to firm up

so I pull the fish
out of the blast chiller,

start slicing it up
so that I can go to plate.

Then it's just a little
sous vide.

Add a little bit
of different texture
on the fish.

Next, I get my potato foam
on the plate.

Once the cloche goes on,
the dish will be ready
for the

One minute left, Chefs.
One minute, one minute.

So, I start by putting
some soy lecithin vinaigrette
on the plate.

Just a little
smooshy kind of thing
with some chives.

I put my fish down

with a little bit more
of that vinaigrette underneath
for acidity,

and then a little pile
of the crumbled powder
with the crispy bits

and some fried capers.

I think these chefs
are high achievers

and so that
increases the pressure.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Well done.

It is time for you guys
to start writing down
your menu descriptions.

Give me full detail
and exactly how you want me
to present it to the judges.

All right, Chefs,
I'm gonna have to ask you guys
to kindly leave the kitchen

so you don't cross paths
with the judges.

Chef Chris
took a piece of bread,
rolled it out super thin,

- and then created
a little crust, yeah.
- Oh, I love that.

Very, very nice.

Chef Taylor. Really, really
pretty presentation I think.

- Beautiful.
- Isn't it?

What have we got? What it do?

Is that a poached egg
in the middle of it

- that you, like, break?
- I believe so, it is, yes.

Fascinating.

- I'm leaving.
- Call you back
when the judges are done.

Oh, my goodness.

- Well, that was fun.
- That's one word for it.

Byron, Marcel,
what's going on?

- How's it going?
- Good to see you guys.

I wanted to get,
like, hoverboards
for this modernist theme

but just lost it, so...

Let me tell you
what the chefs
had to work with.

They chose to make a dish

that tastes like
but doesn't look like
fish and chips,

they chose
to work with soy lecithin,

they chose
to use this glass cloche,

and they gave themselves
45 minutes.

In front of you, Chefs,
what you have is
a halibut with an herb salad,

a tartar sauce cappuccino,

pickled juice,
capers topped with
a beurre blanc foam,

a potato butter emulsion,

and they're asking that
you please sip the cappuccino

and use the sauce
for the fish.

He made a tartar sauce
cappuccino?

That looks
a little interesting,
you know what I'm saying?

So we'll see
if the judges like that.

If we're gonna
mimic the flavor
of fish and chips, right,

- I go to malt vinegar.
- Yeah.

And the caper gives me, like,
a little punch of the acid.
- Yeah.

- I was looking
for that crunchiness,
- Yeah.

That coating, you know,
in the fish and chips.

So I am getting it
with this crust,

but I'm still missing, like,
that crunchiness
of a French fry.

- It has to have some kind of
familiarity to it, right,
- Mmm-hmm.

Like the cappuccino.

Let's go ahead and move on
to the next dishes.

- I would have never chosen
less time as a chef.
- I know.

All right, judges,
what you have in front of you

is seared halibut
with a banging tartar sauce.

- A banging
- Banging tartar sauce.

Banging tartar sauce.
- All right.

Crispy malt vinegar
fingerling potatoes

finished with
a meyer lemon foam.

Taylor's dish
is really beautiful, visually.

Lot of greens
for a molecular dish.

So, the fish and chips,

I mean, they're nailing
the flavors with this.
- Yeah.

I'm getting the malt,

I'm getting the Tartar sauce.

Is that Tartar sauce banging?

It's banging.
It's pretty banging.

The flavors are there.
I think improvement is

seeing how we could replicate
this and serve it more often.

Ooh! That's high praise!

All right, let's move on
to the next dish, please.

You guys seemed impressed.

I mean, it's getting better
and better and better, so...

So, the chef did ask
that the culinary team

smoke the dish.

What you have in front of you
is a quick-cured halibut

with citrus
passion fruit emulsion,

potato whip, popcorn capers,

with a sous vide farm egg,

crispy bits of breader
and a pecan smoke.

Shaun poached an egg

and put it, like,
in the middle of a plate

with raw, torched halibut,

on Mercury, and, like, Pluto.

That's what they're eating.

As far as
the cloche is concerned,

I did like the fact
they actually smoked the dish.

That smoke actually gave

a nice little flavor
to the dish.

This is a very complex,
futuristic sort of dish.

I mean, you've got the eggs,

passionfruit kicking you
in the pants with some acid

and some sweetness. Does not
remind me of fish and chips.

I'm still missing
that malt vinegar.

It just wasn't
what the challenge was.

Totally, of course.
Let's go ahead and move on

to the last dish, please.

Here it goes.

Yeah, you don't really see
a lot of passionfruit

at the pubs, unless in maybe
one of those fruity beers

or something like that,
you know?

- Oh!
- Ah.

The last
and final dish,

we have
a potato-crusted halibut

with a crispy-fried bit powder

and a lemon soy
lecithin sauce.

The only chance I stand is if
the judges are interested in

taste and a little texture

from the real cooking
that I did.

I'm living on a prayer
right now.

One of the things
that I like about this dish

is the blending
of classic and modern.

- Right?
- Mmm-hmm.

The potato-crusted fish
with the scales,

- super classic.
- Old school.

And this gives you
that roasted potato flavor...

Like a French fry with it.

...while also having
a nice application.

Really well-thought-out thing.

Just the crumb,
the crumb kinda threw me off.

I had to, like,
literally scrape it off.

When you use
Tapioca maltodextrin,

often times
what you're using it for

is to turn that fat

into, like,
a powdered-like consistency.

This isn't really
a powdery consistency.

It's too clumpy.

They could
have used more.

But the application of
the soy lecithin and the sauce

was a little bit
disappointing.

It was a broken sauce.

So now it's time to determine
the dish that's going home.

Oh, man.

All right, we're rolling.

Chefs, come on in.

Welcome back.

The judges were very, very,

very impressed
by all of your dishes.

There were
a lot of high points.

Some low points as well,
of course.

How come you looked at me
when you said "lows"?

Oh, Chef, don't internalize.

The chef
that finished first is...

the chef from
the great state of...

Colorado. Chef Taylor,
well done.

Congratulations.

- Good job.
- How do you feel?

Speechless.

- Speechless?
- Yeah.

I'm just excited
to cook again.

'Cause I know I have
a little bit of an advantage

and I can kind of choose
things based on how I cook.

So let's get to it.

All right. So, the chef
that finished second is...

from the great state
of New Jersey. Chef Chris.

Well done.

See you next round.

Either Shaun or Alex
finished fourth.

And the chef
that finishes fourth

is leaving the competition.

So, the chef
that finished fourth

and will not be cooking
in the money round is...

unfortunately,
I hate to do it,

Chef Shaun.

- I'm sorry.
- Thank you.

If this was not
a fish and chips dish,

and it was just a dish of just

making something
super creative,

you would have won,
hands down.

They just wish that

that fish and chip flavor
was more pronounced.

I've had an amazing time.
Thank you guys.

So, Alex, you look surprised.
Did you think it was you?

Yeah!

I mean, I... There's a reason
it's called Alex Vs. America.

I love to compete.

I love to win. I just do.

Quite honestly, I've never
quite been in this position.

To be so out of my element.

Well, you got one more round.

The money round.

In this round it's really
one thing you're aiming for.

Win money by having
your dish outrank Alex's.

- If Alex places first...
- We get nothing.

You're both going home
empty-handed.

All right, let's get to it.
Chef Taylor.

Very, very,
very big advantage.

What flavor do you want
these dishes to have?

Either meaty,
cheesy, or fruity.

- I'm going fruity.
- You're going fruity?

- I'm going fruity.
- Oh, man.

I was really hoping
she was gonna pick meaty.

- I was hoping
she'd pick cheesy.
- Probably why I didn't.

Probably to
your advantage, yes.

Probably part of
the reason I did it.

I really don't like fruit.

On to decision number two.

- The temperature of your dish.
- Hmm.

Are you going with hot,

are you going with cold,

or are you doing
a combination of both?

That's not what I expected.

You've been
up all night, Eric.

Cold.

- Fruity, cold. Makes sense.
- Fruity, cold.

Hot fruit isn't typically
something I do.

Okay.

I mean, I don't know.
I don't have an idea.

Okay, your last detail
is a two-for.

Oh, yes!

- Are you...
- Boom!

...making an appetizer
with 45 minutes on the clock,

or are you doing an entree

with 60 on the clock?
15-minute difference.

- Appetizer.
- Appetizer?

- Final answer.
- Why?

I don't wanna say anything,
it might give some hints

of what I'm thinking
for a dish.

Chris, Alex?

- I...
- I think that makes sense.

There's no dessert.

So I'm screwed, okay?

I know you like
to make ice cream.

Well, I mean,
I wanna have a chance.

I never thought an Iron Chef

would just say
what you just said to me.

Come back here
for something normal.

- Your time starts now.
- Oh, my God.

Fruity!

So, typically when
you think of fruity,

you think of fruits, right?

Orange, apple, pineapple.

I would love to see somebody
use a tomato, an avocado.

But this needs to
be an appetizer plate

and it needs
to be cold. 45 minutes.

Instantly I look at
those tomatoes

and I see a tomato salad
in my head.

Tomato kind of harnesses
both sweet and savory worlds.

So I think blue cheese,
grapefruits, tomatoes.

It just, in my mind,
that works.

And a tomato salad is cold,

but I want something
really cold.

I wanna make
a grapefruit sorbet.

I boil some corn syrup
and sugar

with grapefruit juice,

and I added
a splash of passionfruit

just to give it a little more

fruitiness and sweetness,
actually.

Mix the sugar corn syrup mix
with the grapefruit juice.

So I just put the sorbet
in the ice cream machine.

And that buys me five minutes
to do other things.

And the fact that she made
the sorbet in like, 10 minutes

is insane, it's really crazy.

Right now I'm just gonna
render off this bacon

to use the bacon fat
for a bacon powder.

I know that smoky bacon will
go really well with pineapple,

pear, kumquat.

I do a lot of tartares.
Kinda one of
my favorite things.

You can do meat,
you can do seafood,

you can do fruit.
I'm gonna Cryovac them

and just really
impart it with flavor.

Listen, it's cool,

these modernist ingredients
and techniques

but I'm actually just
really impressed by

the knife skills.

Your knife skills are
so important and she's got it.

I'm thinking
a Vietnamese-inspired
beef tartare.

But heavy, heavy, heavy
on the citrus.

With the Wagyu fat right here

I'm gonna make a little bit
of Wagyu powder.

I basically take
every single citrus

in the kitchen
that I can grab.

I'm doing a play on a banh mi.

I'm gonna do
a little bit more.

This is the meat of my dish
so I'm gonna spend

a little extra time on it.

Don't look now but we have
two chefs making tartares.

Chef Alex is the only one

that's doing something
a little bit different,

so automatically
she's gonna stand out.

It's going down,
basement style. I love it.

29 minutes 30 seconds.

All right, settle down.

I've decided I wanna boil
some mustard seeds,

I wanna throw some scallions
on the grill

until they're literally burnt,

and I puree them
in the coffee grinder.

Charring from the grill,

we know how delicious
that taste can be.

Let's go look at
my ice cream, actually.

Looks like chef Alex is
already taking out her sorbet.

May I?

Yeah.

- Got it?
- Mmm-hmm.

- Grapefruit.
- Yes.

It's grapefruit, it's cold,
it's delicious, it's seasoned.

Chef Alex,
a beast at what she does.

I don't have anything
super complex to do,

but I've got logistically
a long way to go.

I'm making really a take
on a classic salad

with the tomatoes,
the onions, the blue cheese,

and I'm hoping that
my little touches
will elevate it.

I make a little vinaigrette
with mustard,

Banyuls vinegar, olive oil,
lemon juice, and lemon zest.

Who made that?

I love the approach of,

"Listen, I'm gonna do
this modernist stuff

but I'm gonna cook you
good food, too.

- Mmm, I try.
- I'm gonna make this
really delicious."

I'm going to liquid-nitrogen
some anchovies.

You're not playing at all.

Coming down.

I wanted the base
of my tartare to be

this small-diced Asian pear

compressed in shoyu.

I want one bite of this dish
to be herbaceous,

have balance. I want it
to be crunchy and fresh.

So I decided pineapple
and serrano will complement

this Asian pear.

So I juice the pineapple,

I boil the juice
with some agar-agar.

As soon as agar-agar
hits the cold oil,

my pineapple serrano juice

instantly turned into
a small sphere.

This is actually
working really well.

Chef Taylor,
how do you feel

about this tartare-off
between you and chef Chris?

Is he making
salami tartare?

Ooh!

Who chooses fruit, really?
Come on.

It's working for me.

We have
Wagyu beef in there,

but I'm gonna go with fruit.

My game plan is to make
a super bright,

acidic, citrussy dish.

I'm gonna start on my
vinaigrette for the tartare.

It's gonna be a nuoc cham,
but it's gonna be a nuoc cham

that is much, much more
citrussy than typical.

Like, I'm going
citrus overload on this thing.

Right now I'm infusing
the oil with some lime.

When the judges taste this,
I want them to get

the banh mi flavors,
but as a tartare.

I just want, like,
buttery croutons with a salad,

and I think
they're reminiscent, like,

milk powder and brown butter,

to me that's
a very modernist flavor.

And I like it
against the tomatoes.

So I literally just dice up
some brioche croutons

and I drop them in some
really hot brown butter.

I have not worked
with a modernist chef

nor in a kitchen where
those techniques are employed.

Never mind.

It's still all about winning.

I still really wanna win.

I wanna incorporate
the Tapioca maltodextrin

which takes on any flavor
in the form of fat.

You just combine the powder
in a food processor

to create
the bacon fat powder.

But it's a really fun
component to fancy dishes.

There will be bacon
on the plate,

the flavor, the smokiness,
without anybody knowing.

All right, sweet.

We're calling up
on 18 minutes, chefs. 18.

I know I wanna
include kimchi on this dish.

It's really bright
and colorful,

but it's got
that super savory complexity.

I'm gonna do
a cucumber and mint gelee.

Give it a little bit more
molecular gastronomy.

I can then take that mixture
and put it in the blender,

creating a cucumber gelatin
oil emulsion.

Wagyu fat is like gold.

I add Tapioca maltodextrin
to it

in order to turn it
into a powder.

I'm taking
my compressed Asian pear

which is playing
as my protein,

and I'm just seasoning it.

Okay.

I'm gonna try to freeze
anchovies, onions

and apricots
in a liquid nitrogen bath.

I love the goggles.

Is this the liquid nitro?

This is
supposed to be a cold dish,

so I pour nitrogen
over the anchovies,

over the apricots, stir it,

and let it evaporate.

That's all you have to do.

Watch yourselves.

Safe to say, bucket list.

Liquid nitrogen.

Temperature, I believe,
like 320 below zero.

Absolutely freezing.

And what we're gonna do,
essentially just pour

liquid nitro
all over the berries.

Mix it around a little bit.

You can already see

all of the little individual,
like, berries

in the raspberries starting to
kind of, like, break up.

Liquid nitrogen kind of just
turns into little pellets.

Raspberry caviar! Genius.

Guess what, chefs?

You've got four minutes left
in this cook.

I start to plate
my dish by using a ring mold,

and I lay my tartare
at the bottom,

and then I start building

kind of all my other garnishes
on top.

And then I finish
with a generous amount
of the bacon powder.

So, I wanted
to give a vessel

to hold the tartare in.

I chose an endive because
part of my modernist take is

making it whimsical.

I add a pile
of the Wagyu beef powder

to the corner of the plate.

Add my cucumber mint puree.

Modernist cuisine,
it's about fun.

I put a spoonful

of the mustard
and mustard seed vinaigrette

on the center of the plate
and around the edges.

Then I sprinkle
the scallion ash

over the tomatoes
so they almost look charred.

Everything's frozen, Eric.
Frozen onions.

- Frozen anchovies.
- It's cold, all right.

It is burning my hands, yes.

I sprinkle each dish
with the anchovies,

the apricots,
and the red onions.

And then
for the finishing touch,

I sprinkle the blue cheese
over the top,

I put the grapefruit sorbet
in the center.

Five, four, three, two, one.

That's about it, chefs.

Whoo! I'm feeling fruity.

Remember, you guys
are not going to be here

to talk about your dish.

So make sure that everything
that's on that card

is exactly the way
you want it presented.

I'm gonna ask you guys
to kindly leave.

We'll bring in the judges,

and I'll call you when they
are done with their decision.

Okay, what've we got?

We have a banh mi tartare.

Come on.

Endive as the boats.

- That's brilliant.
- It's really smart.

We have another tartare.

She did a little sphere
with the pineapples.

I was gonna make that.

- See you later, Eric.
- All right, Chef.

See ya.

Whoo! So that was
a thing that happened.

I mean, Alex isn't known
for this cuisine,

but she came back
with a vengeance after

- that first round, though.
- Oh, man, yeah.

We left the door open for her
and I think she kicked it in.

Listen, I mean...

This is the first time.

What do you mean,
"When was the last time?"

What do you think, like,
"Oh, I...

I whipped up some agar caviar
last week." Never.

Byron. Marcel.

Come on down. How's it going?

- Great.
- Welcome back.

Well, thank you.

- Worked up an appetite.
- Okay.

What you have in front of you
is a banh mi tartare

with a tempered egg yolk
and a Wagyu powder

with a cucumber mint puree.

The agar was used
for the cucumber,

Tapioca maltodextrin
for the beef.

Chris did
the coolest thing

that if you put me in a room

with all this stuff
for a million years,

I still wouldn't make. I love
how he went so retro.

Wow.

You look impressed.

What's going through
your mind?

- Had me at hello, you know?
- Okay.

Thai red chili peppers, that's
the fruitiness that I get.

- Yeah.
- Which is really nice.

Get that freshness, rounds it
out with the fattiness

- of the beef fat...
- Yup.

...with maltodextrin, so it's
a really cool interpretation.

Really like this dish.

As far as
the Tapioca maltodextrin,

probably the best use

- we've seen thus far.
- Yes, correct.

- And, you know,
it's a proper powder.
- Sure.

Definitely a cold appetizer.

But, you know,
I feel like I'm just missing

that sort of, like,
fruity nature.

- Mmm.
- You know?

Okay.

It wasn't as fruity
as the challenge would say,

but it's definitely
refreshing, herbal,

and it has
a nice, rounded taste.

Let's bring up
the next dish, please.

Now, remember,
fruity, cold appetizer.

45 minutes.

This next chef
has prepared for you

a tomato salad with
blue cheese and scallion ash,

frozen apricots,
frozen onions,

frozen anchovies,

with a grapefruit passion
sorbet and dill stems.

Blue cheese and sardines?

- I like it.
- This should be good.

I think my dish is like almost
like a home-cooked dish.

You know, like you might make
a tomato salad at home.

I don't know if you have
a drum of liquid nitrogen

and you're gonna freeze
half the ingredients.

I honestly didn't think
I was gonna like it,
but it's delicious.

You have different points
of acidity.

You know, with the tomato,

the pickling on the sardine.

And then everything
gets rounded off

with the nice texture
of the sorbet.

But also there's a creaminess
that I'm into,

which is the blue cheese.

This reminds me
of summer, actually.

Nice, okay.

Yeah, kinda want a nice glass
of rose and sitting

- on a beach front.
- Very nice.

Smart play with the tomato.

I feel like we have to
address the tomato.

- Fruit.
- Being a fruit.

Yeah, very smart play there.

And there's a lot of layers.

But it is kind of like...

I don't know
if it's like the anchovy

or what it is, but I feel like
there's just one element

that still kind of just makes
me keep on, like, guessing.

- Yeah.
- It's, like, peculiar.

You guys are still digging in.

- It's good.
- Move on to the last plate.

- I love the reactions. Wow.
- This is beautiful.

Judges, our last dish

has a white shoyu
and Asian pear tartare

with a pineapple
serrano caviar,

bacon powder,
and kimchi. Enjoy.

Taylor made
an Asian pear tartare

with compressed,
in the Cryovac machine,

which I know how to do,
but I didn't do it.

Very fruit forward.

And refreshing, and cold.

- Fruity, check. Right?
- Mmm-hmm.

They nailed it. Even just
the presentation, you looked
at it and you were like,

- "Oh, it's a fruity dish."
- Immediately.

But then it hits you with,
like, the smokiness

of the bacon fat.

It hits you with, like,
the spiciness of the serrano

and the kimchi, and it really
adds a whole complexity to it

that you don't really get
if you initially look at it.

Think the use
of Asian pear was so smart.

If I'm sitting down
and eating a meal,

- this is how I wanna start it.
- Totally.

Because it's light,
it's a salad.

I wanna keep on
coming back for more.

- It's an appetizer. Okay.
- Really, really good. Yeah.

- Delicious.
- Tastiest of the three?

- Oh, man.
- Ooh.

Damn, that's
a hard question, dude.

Let's clear the plates first.

Let me just marinate
on that one for a second.

Good luck.

Chefs, come on in.

You guys get to finally see
who's been cooking for you.

From Colorado,
this is chef Taylor.

From New Jersey,
chef Christopher.

From New York City,
chef Something-or-another.

Can't figure it out yet.

- Hi.
- Chef Alex Guarnaschelli.

Ah, there she is.

I know you are probably
familiar with these two.

Byron Gomez Chacon.

He's honed
his modernist abilities

working at
Eleven Madison Park,

which was named the best
restaurant in the world.

And this is Marcel Vigneron.

He's studied under
the father of foam,

chef Ferran Adria,

and has employed
modernist techniques

over the course
of his distinguished career.

Can you come back
when we do, like, chicken?

So, judges. Chef Taylor made

- the Asian pear
and cucumber salad.
- All right.

It was, my opinion,
the most fruit-driven dish.

I felt like it could
have used a little, like,

- just another something.
- Element? Okay.

Chef Chris made
the banh mi tartare.

The application
of the technique

was beautifully ex*cuted.

But then it reminded me of
a more savory, meaty dish

than, like, a fruit,
let's say.

That's fair.

You definitely colored

outside the lines of
the coloring book in school.

So judges, that obviously
means that Chef Alex made

the tomato salad
with the anchovies.

Really nice dish.
Complex.

Maybe a little too complex.

- But that sorbet was fire.
- Yeah.

That 45-minute online class.

All right,
so let's remember, chefs.

These judges
ranked your dishes

without knowing
who cooked what.

And the chef
that came in third...

is chef Chris from New Jersey.

I'm sorry, Chef.

It was just meaty vs. Fruity,
really, ultimately.

- Yeah. Thank you.
- Thank you, Chef.

Chef Alex, can you believe

that you're standing here?
Final two.

- No.
- Really?

No. No!

Taylor, if you win,
you're leaving with how much?

$10,000.

- $10,000.
- Ooh.

All right, the chef who's won

Modernist Cuisine is...

from the state of Colorado!
Congratulations, chef Taylor.

Well done.

I am so glad.

I am so glad you won.

I just beat Alex in two rounds
of her own game.

Whoo!

I am going to continue
on this adventure

of starting my own restaurant.

So sick. Congrats.