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There's some real clear standouts. Shall we taste? Absolutely. Let's start with the top floor. Let's try the duck first. Like my stomach is at my feet. My first dish, my first shot at $250,000. I'm serving Chef Ramsey duck and gas treat. There's hardly anything on there. No veg. No starch. This is not a good look. Why is it so sweet? Great question, Chef. That's very strange. Every mouthful I take across these dishes. I'm planning my strategy. Got to be very koi and not give too much away to Nisha and Richard.
Some of the most important comments I'm keeping up here. Let's go for the sea bass. Skin not seared. Yeah. So, inside it's cooked beautifully. It's gorgeous. The skin is so soft. Veggies cooked well. I can spot brilliance a mile away, but I can taste it instantly. And that sea bass was cooked beautifully. That's what I need on my team. How do they cook this thing? Oh dear. Overcooked. Damn. Wow. Seven. What cook in the right mind would cook a skin nice and crispy and then dunk it in a puree?
It's almost like you're trying to hide it. Like it looks a little dark, too. Very end of season. Okay. Scallops. That is minimalistic, right? Very minimalistic. I am definitely hoping I'm selected by Chef Ramsey. He is one of my biggest inspirations for becoming a chef. Great soup. Scallop has cooked really, really nice. Yeah. I didn't watch any of you cook on the top floor, but I've definitely spotted some great potential for my team. Right. Should we move to the middle floor?
Sure. What is this? A chorizo. This is a like a corn puree. Almost like a fresh corn grits. Torreso. Not exactly a highend tough to work with. The fact that it's that dry means it was really overcooked, too. These guys are bagging on that dish. But the spice with the sweetness, it danced in my mouth. And I think this is a sleeper dish right here. Trout. Tough one. Bold whole fish cooking. I respect it. What's the puree? Zucchini brown butter puree. Oh, beautiful. There's some heat in there as well.
Oh, wow. This is interesting. All right, so we got a skirt steak with some pharaoh and Brussels and a spinach chimmy chur. Steak is stunning. That is exactly what that steak is supposed to taste like. You can tell it was cooked at the perfect time. All right. What's this? So, we got a pork steak right here. Uh-huh. It's cooked beautifully. Man, the rub's good. The steak is cooked well. It's a tricky cut.
Very well balanced. In these dishes, I'm looking for flare, restraint, but more importantly, every mouthful, I want to taste passion. Now, whoever cooked that pork steak has that flare I'm looking for. Hopefully, Richard or Naisha doesn't snatch them up. Shrimp rice. We have a shrimp and rice bowl using our boreo rice and a turmeric based curry. That's not our boreo rice. That's overcooked rice. Who the hell am I to think that I could hide my rice from Chef Ramsay? Huh? We could have done more with the rice. Seems like an afterthought. Second floor kitchen, guys. I'm sorry. I'm kind of hoping that no one realizes that there's a delicious curry there.
There are definitely things that I'm not talking a lot about that I love. This is the rib cap. Is that a chive bundle around that asparagus? The asparagus is peeled. That really capsule beautifully. Potatoes, asparagus. It's very cohesive dish. There's an elegant chili on my palette. Second dish. New York strip. As always, the essence in my mind is the cook. How did that go? Steak challenge. Oh, no. Look at that. Stunning. To me, this is perfectly cooked. Stop. So, this is a fillet minion. The Rolls-Royce cut homemade slightly under. is beautiful.
Soft, pillowy, nice riff on steak and potatoes. A ribeye. Artfully plated. The onion really wakes this dish up. It's sweet. It's spicy. That's good. And then finally, tomahawk. So, this individual decided to make the most amazing cracker, but forgot to put them on. Bummer. This would have been a huge selling point in our choice. Oh, no. I don't want to go home. Hopefully, that tomahawk was good enough. I'm just super stressed. Next up, mid floor. Try to that cook. Woo! The actual cook is absolutely perfect and a tough protein to get right. You have a nice crust on this. It's rested. But the bok choy doesn't make sense. You can't put that on raw. Whoever cooked
this, this stuff is horrible raw. Dagger in the stomach. I walked into this challenge feeling extremely confident and like what was I thinking when I grabbed that bok choy. Next one. This is the flank steak. It's cooked beautifully. It's gorgeous. Yeah. It's got this rustic charm this dish. This is someone who's cooked, I think, a lot of red meat before. The seasoning is on point. Absolutely. The one thing it needs for me is the heat. I can't taste the chili. Next one. Skirt steak. Unfortunately, inside is actually raw because it's solid mass. Very hard to swallow.
Next one. This is a top round. Yes. So, plating looks a little bit dated. Yes. Very dated. Clearly, the elevator also stops in 1984. So, whoever cooked this, I don't know if you're a social media star, a home cook, or a restaurant chef. I don't give a because that right there is cooked beautifully. There's love on that plate. The final dish. We have a short rib. This person grabbed three ingredients. Petite onion, sweet potato, and short rib. And sesame seeds as a garnish. And those sesame seeds, they look like bird seeds that bomb my granddad's cage for his parrot. Wow. My grandmother, as a Korean immigrant, would be ashamed to see any sort of sesame not toasted. They just seem like an afterthought.
There's no season on there whatsoever. I'd love to taste a little bit of uh more chili throughout this. To cook a bad steak twice, it brings shame on me. I know that my friends and family love me no matter what, but every other Texan is going to be sending me hate mail. Shall we? basement. Richard, please. Yep. I'm excited for Gordon and Aisha to taste my team's food. They may not have had the best ingredients or equipment, but I think their tastes are going to shine through. This is a flat iron steak that fell from the sky into this kitchen. Yes.
What? You dropped my hands. Did any of the vegetables fall from the ceiling? No. But thank goodness that these hatched chilies did arrive in the mid round drop. Shall we? Yes. Yeah, there's no seasoning on that meat. And the barbecue sauce is a little too sweet. Brutal. I'm really feeling like I need a drink. This chef has prepared pansier chicken, scallopini, and an impasta. Visually looks beautiful. Definite restaurant quality. Really nice to transform something as basic as a squash and elevated.
The last two cooks didn't pan out the way I wanted. So there's definitely pressure on me showing the mentors that I deserve to be here. Chicken. Okay. Like I want to win. Chicken's cooked beefy. Mhm. For me, it's lacking a little bit of salt, but gorgeous. Whoever cooked that, what a stop. The next dish, it's a lamb chop with one eggplant raviolo. Please let it be cooked. Beautiful.
Gorgeous. Oh gosh, it's a beautiful balance of sweetness and giness, but just a touch thinner on the ravioli. All right, next up, spicy shrimp capellini. This chef took the honchimei mushrooms and pureeed them right into the cream sauce. Shrimp and nails. I love the heat there. Just sort of dances across my palette. All right, next dish up here. Spaghetti and clams and then also a toasted breadcrumbs on top to sort of give textural contrast. Please let that be cooked through, baby. Being on the top level with the top ingredients, there is no excuse for you not to crank out some of the best food you possibly can.
I don't know who cooked this, but it looks like it's been cooked by a pro. What they've managed to do is cook everything to absolute utter perfection. Oh, father, son, and Casey Musgraves over here, baby. I'm just like, thank you. Definitely from the top floor, that's for sure. I'm feeling good about my team's dishes. I think everyone stepped to the plate today. Hopefully, we can find a winner on this team. We got four authentically Italian dishes here.
Right. Should we move to the middle floor? This one is a hand rolled cut upelli on a ve chop. Mushrooms stood out beautifully. Pasta is definitely a little thick for a paparell but the ve is cooked beautifully. Good job, Kenny. You're together. This person wanted to do a take on a fish stew. Looks like it could be served in an upscale Italian restaurant. The is a bit tough to get behind. Today, this individual decided to forego the protein and then the most amazing.
This is exciting. Looks vibrant. I'm getting a lot of this umami and sort of earthiness. I'm assuming that's coming from the mushrooms. That sauce is delicious. Now, this one was a take on a tagelli. No protein, fresh ricotta. Their ricotta is wonderful. It's a really nice flavor. Pasta a little bit overcooked. is a bit tooth. In an Italian challenge, I overcook my pasta. Elimination challenge, here I come. This was starting out to make an incredible pesto. We had no pine nuts. So, this individual depended on that crunch from the breadcrumbs.
It's missing ingredients. It's naked and afraid. To me, it's underdressed and mildly uncomfortable. Oh my god. If you don't have pine nuts to make a pesto, change the plan. Yes, we're mentoring you, but understand that there's two of the floors that are absolutely on their game. There a lot of good dishes on my team, but not all of them were next level. There's one floor left to judge, and I'm hoping team Ramsay can stay out of that elimination cook. Final floor. Okay, so this chef created a lobster barfal with a ficasha breadcrumb on top.
Wow. How the freak did a lobster end on the basement floor? Lobster made it to the basement. What the hell was going on those top two floors, man? It's lobster. It's either terrible or glorious. Whoever cooked this dish. They know they're The girl that grabbed the lobster is not a jerk. She's a genius. I just proved myself in the basement with a live lobster. I'm a badass chef. We have an ostrich tenderloin. Ostrich. This looks like something I'd eat in the neighborhood. Beastro. It's got a homey sort of feel to it.
I love it. I' I'd run a mile away from ostrich. I'd run faster than a ostrich to get away from that. So, whoever picked that already tells me the bold tenacity of what they're about. I don't even know how to cook that. What temp do you aim for? is at a medium rare. Whoever cooked this is probably someone you got to watch out for, too. Here we have a Jamaican inspired chicken wing. And we have a Traviso salsa. I mean, that has to be the most elevated chicken wing in the country tonight.
Right. Absolutely. Amazing brininess and sweetness coming off the bacon in the salsa as well. Uh, Traviso, do something more with those the ones you laid down. Hit it in the pan for 30 seconds and sort of get a little bit of that bitterness out there. Next up, we have a drumstick. This person has sousied the drumsticks. I mean, for me, I'd worry less about using the circulator and more about using salt. Uh, it's sort of a Cajun inspired uh biscuits and gravy. It looks very rustic, very homely. Ooh la. Yes. Wow. That's it, right?
Yes, baby. We all know you want an extra thousand likes on any social media platform, you put an egg on it. Yeah. Oh no. Does that burn? Damn. I'm struggling with burning things. That's not something I've experienced since I was 12 years old, and it's really thrown me off my game. Here we have the Cornish game hen and fris. Wow. The actual poultry is a little bit tough. And the fris salad, it's like an afterthought.
My team is better than this. There's just not a lot of love that I see coming off of these dishes here today. All I can hope for is the other team's had a hard time themselves. Richard, middle floor. Wow. A ground turkey tostada. What a smart move. That's one of the best looking tostadas I've ever seen. For sure. Something like a quesop fresca. Full of saline. You just think that acidity. Mariah's a star and she's like a scientist who cooks delicious food, but Feta makes things better. And that one mistake might have cost us. The next chef here,
this is a bourbon and honey glazed spatchcock quail. Wow. And then this red cabbage slob. Yum. Quail's delicious. Bourbon glaze. Absolutely spot on, but elevates the quail. Smart move with the greens underneath. Really smart. Good job. This is a turkey breast and a turkey skin chicheró. Visually, that's slightly dry. Wow. Yes. A shame. That's as dry as a bone. Perfect for the desert. What a shame. Really sucks to hear that because after, you know, kind of doing well in the first two challenges and having top dish
last time, I'm worried that I may be going into elimination today. All right. This next dish is a version of the classic peeen duck breast. Whoever cooked this dish is one to watch. They've nailed the cook on that duck. Skin nice and crispy. This right here is next level. It's crazy cuz I started off so insecure about it and I really hope my dish saves us from going to elimination today. So go a right. Shall we descend down to the basement?
Yes. Brace yourselves. This was a message from heaven. Chicken oysters. I'm amazed they came down to the basement. I mean, listen, I Who doesn't love chicken nuggets and sweet and sour sauce? This chef has a very clear theme to this burger. It's a southern inspired spiced chicken burger with pimento cheese and a peach and horseradish ketchup with some fried sweet potatoes. Stunning flavors. I'm getting really beautiful charred notes coming off of this burger. Choosing chicken on that top floor with all those top flight proteins is a risky choice, but my god, it delivers.
Thank you, Lord. I'm so worried. Our next chef has made an absolute classic rendition of a burger. Whoever cooked that on your team is a professional chef. Let's get that right. So, this is sirloin pretzel bun, fried egg, a special jalapeno sauce. The potatoes are cooked amazing and a really lovely side. For me, it tastes as good as it looks. Wow, my heart is smiling. Especially after cooking an elimination round. It's the best feeling. Our next chef. This is a Greek inspired lamb burger with an oregano lemon ioli. The actual lamb's delicious. Pate is delicious. Bread is disgusting.
I would love to have seen some greens on this plate. All right, our next burger. You've heard of a smashed burger. Smashed? Where's the bun? Where's the bread? Man, that is most unappetizing burger I've seen in a long time. Let's roll. Yeah, I can't swallow that. I'll lose my third star mission. If Chef Ramsay ever spit my food out, I would just walk out and go dig my grave and lay in it. Kind of a remarkable achievement to be able to burn something and keep it raw at the same time. That is harsh. I need Mariah or Courtney's burger to win this to keep me out of elimination because I am for sure headed there if we don't win today.
Uh, right basement. I think one of the most difficult proteins on that platform. This is an ostrich burger. I mean, where'd you get calamari from? There's squid. No, they're leaks. Like, I want to do like a vegetarian calamari dish now because of that. Where were the potatoes used in this dish? I thought the fries were forgotten. They weren't. Unfortunately, the fries are on there. The burger itself, seasoned nicely in terms of salt, but lacking depth of flavor.
It's missing a condiment. I'm not getting anything to take this dish to the next level. This one was a bit of a chef's dream. This is a dry age. I'm amazed it hit the uh basement. So, we start off with a bacon jam and fried tomatoes. Look at that. Wow. Uh the cook is superb. Bingo. Oh boy. This is a porkbased burger. It has fried crispy avocado chips with a crisp from a purple potato as well and a pickled cucumber. The combination of the cucumber and the avocado. Very tasty.
The burger and the bun, not very good at all. I've seen this individual cook brilliantly in this competition. But when you have a garnish of a deep fried avocado that tastes better than a burger, we're in trouble. Period. At least the garnish tastes good. This is a turkey burger with a mango salsa. That's raw. I'm so sorry. Uh just professionally, I can't ask either of you to taste that. For me, I'm slightly pissed off because we are strong. We're super strong and we still put up raw burgers. That is an insult. First up, a English muffin French toast, pork and peach hash. This is topped with pickled blueberry and a poached egg. Wow. Pork is delicious.
Right amount of heat in there, but I'm just getting obliterated with the amount of sweetness on this dish. This overpowering sugar. And it keeps us a little spicy. Next up, bio bread pudding with blood orange. It's served with a chocolate hazelnut sauce and candied bacon. Visually, Naisha, how's that for you? A bit odd to place the egg on top of the bread pudding. Yeah, for me it's bizarre. All right, I'm going to try it all together and be brave here.
All together, your ass is going to be running faster than you bowl. I'm just so confused. Fried egg with chocolate sauce. Man, that's a tough one. That really broke my heart cuz I'm better than that. I just let myself down and I need to do better. Next up, we have chreso and a fried bread made from scratch with a strawberry salsa and sliced fresh avocado. Eggs cook beautifully. Yes, eggs are perfect. So bold to create a bread and make a bread, not just take one off the platform. Fried bread. That's delicious. That strawberry salsa, I'm here for it.
Piet is really starting to rise to the top in this competition. This dish is screaming a 10 in creativity. And honestly, my team needs it if we're going to stay out of that elimination. Let's taste this last one. Smoked salmon croissant benedict with twice cooked potatoes and a candied citrus zest. I love that this dish didn't go overboard on the sweetness. I love that little candid holidays. What a nice quirky idea. Spoils it for me is that train track of overcooked potatoes in the middle. What a shame. Middle floor. A take on a steak and eggs wrapped in a crepe.
Definitely uh large. I would definitely order this to share with my brunch buddies. The New York strip is tender, seasoned beautifully. It's like a sort of breakfast after a night after party. It just it goes on and on. Can you name that dish? It's a crepe. It's a burrito. It's a crepe burrito. This is a take on a kiche. Kiche done in 45 minutes. Virtually impossible. I love the citrus coming through, but this does not read brunch to me. It seems very compartmentalized. There's just too much sauce work going on. It's like a painters palette. This individual shot themselves in the foot by trying to be too smart for brunch.
Next, uh, fried lobster, chive biscuit, and the maple for the sweetness. Took the lobster from the drop. I was amazed that hit the second floor. Not an easy item to cook. The lobster's perfect. Love the idea of a fried lobster. That is a next level technique. I'd like to see this on one of my restaurant menus. After tasting my team's three dishes, I've got one lobster, which is incredible. New York steak wrapped in a crepe and then one deconstructed mess. But it only takes one stunning dish to save your entire team down to uh the basement. We'll start right here with an all American breakfast platter.
It's not a restaurant dish, but that's what I love about it cuz it's a perfectly cooked home brunch. A perfect balance of the savory and sweet. Exactly what brunch should be. Our next dish over here, fried chicken breast with biscuits and gravy. This chef should go in the business of biscuits with butter and jam because that's a dish on its own. That marmalade is next level. Biscuits are phenomenal. Kind of biscuit you need to take two days to sleep it off after you're eating them. The big issue I have with this dish, it is dry. Got me all excited.
You've just kicked me in the nuts. This dish is a striped sea bass that's topped with the matakei mushrooms with fried nori. I'm on the top floor this time, so I know my dish definitely needs to be perfect. This dish is exciting on my palette. Seaweed flavors come through very elegantly. Wow. Delicious. I think this is one of the strongest dishes this individual has cooked. Everything works on this dish. This competition is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. But today, I finally found my little tidbit
of confidence, and I'm going to let it grow. Not to arrogance level, but I'm going to keep letting this momentum take me forward. Next one. This was a beautifully pansier slice of halibet. Underneath that was a cola puree dotted around with that little bit of caviar. The halibet itself could have used just a little bit less cooking. I love that little pop that you get from the caviar. Next one. This is a black cod. It's set sat on a bed of beautiful sweet pea grits. Fish is cooked beautifully. Oh my
god, look at that fish and grits. That's just a classic combination. Adding peas sort of takes it to the next level. Really sort of give this sweet savoriness to this dish. Definitely next level dishes coming from the top floor. I hope the same came from the middle floor, Richard. Yes. Team Ramsay put out some tasty dishes, but team Blaze, you're going to blow them out of the water. All right, we'll start with this crispy catfish over a homemade curry sauce with crispy seaweed. I cook catfish all the time, but seafood is one of those things where you either cook it perfectly or you don't.
Catfish, how's that cooked? Am I not glistening? This is an amazing utilization of the seaweed. Way to elevate a fish that is not usually seen in this sort of light. Spot on. Absolutely delicious. The only thing I'd want to see from that it's the recipe. You did good. Today was a good day. Congratulations. That is next level. Our next dish over here is Pollock fish cake with sort of a Moroccan inspiration. Fish cakes are delicious. That sauce is absolutely stunning.
Our next dish here is a seared red snapper with charred kimchi for me. This is a Cetra caviar. This was the prime pick. Should have been picked on the, you know, on the top floor. The actual fish is tasty, but it's the combinations that have gone absolutely haywire here. We never serve the best caviar dumped on a top of a chili. That's never going to work. Definitely very briny forward. It's overpowering the rest of the dish. It's badly thought out. You know, and I know that I up. Like, why did you have to say it out loud? Why can't you just whisper?
Unfortunately, there's three people going to elimination today. And I know for sure that one of them is me. Our last dish here from the middle floor. Rendition of Cullen Skink. What? Which is a dish I'm not very familiar with. Gordon, you might be. quite honestly looks like the most bizarre colored skink on the planet cuz it's a soup traditionally something we grew up with in Scotland. Instead of a soup, what we have is a puree of the leak, the scallions, and some celery with some brown butter. Took a risk, but not seeing some great faces.
Salmon could have been done with maybe another 2 minutes in the pan. It's just hard to eat this. Okay, Richard, should we go to the basement? First up, this sort of shingled skewer Korean barbecue, Kansas City barbecue inspired. So, KCBBQ, I so want to go to the top. I need just that little bit extra to get me out of the basement and to prove that my dish is worthy to be on top. So, this moment is everything. So innovative to retain the moisture in that pork by layering in that fresh fruit. Great idea. That pork's cooked delicious. It's got that crispy texture on the outside with that amazing caramelized barbecue flavor.
I was forced to use something and created something magical. I'm feeling on top of the world. All right, here we go. A pork t-bone with a chili rieno. I personally would have rather dropped the chili. Focused on the garnish, the stone fruit, the pork. I would have liked a little bit more seasoning on the pork, but it's cooked beautifully. The next dish, pork loin with a reverse sear. So slightly dry. Unfortunately, the pork's a little bit dry. That reverse sear is so dangerous. A reverse sear is generally for ribeye. Something that's generous in fat and there's hardly any fat in there. The hero is the pork and unfortunately that's underwhelming.
Damn. At this point of competition, mistakes are unacceptable. All right, next. Pork belly vegetable fried rice. It's zucchini, cabbage, some breadcrumbs. There's like a wet sensor. So, it just it doesn't work. If you're going to sell me on a rice dish that does not have rice in it, it better be the most impeccable fried rice. It had elements of crunchiness and crispiness, right? But this is very soft throughout. I tried to make it compact and cute and it backfired on me. What a shame. Next, Naisha. Shall we? Middle four. Here we have a pork tenderloin wantton with mushrooms and chili oil.
I'm just surprised that the stone fruit was not more prevalent in this dish. To me, the broth I would have loved to see it punched up a little bit more because, you know, the tenderloin wants some flavor. There's not a lot of flavor in it as is. I just really wanted to push making a Chinese dish today and I'm wondering if I tried to push the story a little too hard. Here we have a roast pork loin. I love the flavor of the chutney and the gravy. I wish there was more of both of those things. Chutney is magnificent. I love that chutney and it lifts that pork with the acidity and the sweetness.
Next here we have a rosta pasta. This is a nudie with a pork ragu. The flavors of the broth and everything else comes together. It's a delicious dish. It's got heart. There is a lot of skill going on in there. I am super excited. This is me on a plate. So to be able to translate that is surreal. Next up, we have a roast pork loin. Visually, to be honest, this has got cruise ship buffet vibes going on. It is cooked properly. It's just sliced too thin. It just needs body and flavor and it's lacking.
I am not inspired to enjoy this dish at all. I drafted Piet for a reason. She's got raw talent, but it's my job to make sure that I spark that inspiration in her soul. Piet needs to produce dishes that move her up in this competition, not down. Okay, so this dish right here, the chef had to use China and Morocco and did a sweet and sour pork fried couscous. So officially, it looks um rather plain. It's a shame cuz it's undercooked underneath and cooked nicely on top, but really sweet. Yes. I mean, it's really wiping out a lot of the flavors that were intended, I imagine, for this dish.
Okay, so this chef had the tough task of combining Brazil and Israel and did an achiote rubbed skirt steak with black beans, a pineapple salsa, and a tahini coconut date sauce. Yeah, visually, let's be honest, the steak's actually cut the wrong way. Oh, great. P's going home because she doesn't know how to cut a steak. I'm very worried at this point. Conceptually, great ideas. I really like the flavor of the sort of tahini coconut date sauce. Use some salt. For me, it actually tasted better than it looks. When you expose protein like that, it needs seasoning inside. But the date puree works well.
Right. Should we move to the middle floor? Yes. We have a ve schnitle. The inspiration behind this dish was Germany and Italy. This has a shaved cabbage salad with a soft palenta. Please taste good. This is the kind of dish that any professional chef with a German mom and an Italian father would be proud to put on their plate. The palentas just you want to dive into that thing and smother it all over. And the cook on the veil. It's exceptional. That is next level fusion. It tastes as good as it looks. Right. When we talk about soul and love in a dish, this is it.
I'm just on cloud nine. I feel like a little kid who got the biggest hug from her grandmother ever. So, here we have a chicken breast. This has a beautiful curry sauce, a cauliflower and garbanzo bean puree. The chef had ingredients from India and Vietnam. Curry is beautiful, fragrant, not too spicy. The chicken's slightly overcooked. I would have loved to see more of the sauce. That sauce was so delicious and it's unfortunate that a bit more of that didn't make it on the plate. For me, I would have loved to see a little bit more use of those fresh herbs, right? Like both of these countries share some herbs in common. I would have loved that all the flavors to come together. The competition is definitely getting hard. And I know it
seems like nitpicking, but when you're talking about $250,000 and you're talking about mentorship from three people, nitpicking is what's going to separate the top from the bottom. This chef cooked through France and Greece. This is a roasted duck sort of pave cut with a bernet sauce. The hardest part of this dish has been done perfectly. The duck is cooked beautifully, but a bernese with duck in any world is never going to work. It was very challenging even to get to this point. I advised exactly what you're saying, chef. I feel like I know what I did and I just have to own it, I guess.
Top floor. So this is predominantly Thai with a Mexican influence. There's a broth that was done in the pressure cooker noodles. The shells were grilled. This tastes like it was cooked overnight. It tastes like it was cooked on the beach. I don't care if the beach is in Thailand or if the beach is in Mexico. Uh and I love this sort of like Thai broth with this Mexican pizzole garnish with all the crunchy cabbage and tortillas. Uh it's powerful. It's It's oozing confidence. Now, butter poaching lobster, you know there's a fine mark on that, right? You've got the most dangerous protein to cook in the semi-finals. If it's cooked well,
brilliant. If it's under, over, you're in trouble. Oh my gosh, there's so much writing on the line right now. It's the hardest thing to cook. This lobster, if it's not perfect, I'm going to be brokenhearted. Oh dear. And it's cooked to utter perfection. He eaten. Lobster's nailed. Absolutely beautiful. No doubt. I think for me that could have used a little bit finishing salt. The lobster, I love that it's presented whole. The Swiss chard is kind of giving me these seaweed vibes. It's telling a story this dish.
These are pan seared scolops truffled mashed potato. On the side, it's a ridiculio lettuce. Plate choice came with an amazing truffle. ridiculous. Sounded like an odd choice, but I love how the bitterness works with the sweet scallops. Yes, the bitterness is lovely. Just a nice little pop of acid would have just really kind of taken this over the top. What I love about this is that when someone's got the confidence in the semi-final to cook a scolop, that's a bold move, man. Scolops cooked beautifully. Good job. We've got one social media chef and one home cook here, and their creativity absolutely blew me away. They ooze sophistication. top floor.
We'll start over here. Looks beautiful. Smoked spiced lamb with potato puree tomatoes and peaches. When you see a dish like this passing through the dining room, it's an eye catcher. I think it looks beautiful. My palette is pleasantly excited with the notes of tanginess that I'm getting from the brightness of the peaches. The smokiness is intriguing. So, what a change. Grill those peaches a bit more. But it's a good dish over here. Wagu beef filet minion with mashed potatoes, bacon. The extra ingredient here was a squash blossom that did not get used in the final plating.
Really? Wagu. I mean, so good you could eat it raw. Mhm. This is very bold. The seasoning on this Wagyu fillet is spot on. Really beautiful wagu cooked beautifully melts in your mouth. Is it showtime? Here's the nitpicking semi-final moment for me. If you've got squash blossoms, which are in season for a tiny window, I would serve that to elevate. Damn it. I should have done everything I could to get that squash blossom on there. That may have been the showstopper element that I needed. From the bottom floor, halibit, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, bringing some opulence from that second grab through an uni burblanc. Presentation plate was left on the platform, unfortunately. So, no pickup on the not in the plate. Chef
halabet's a real tough fish to get right. That is slightly overcooked, but sea urchin is beautiful, creamy, sweet. Knife work beautifully done. It is lacking the piece to resistance. The plate itself though for sure. Next here we have an inspiration from the forest floor, a ve chop corn turnups, rustic puree on the bottom, and chantrell mushrooms on the second drop. This dish is proud. It's like literally standing up showing off. Corn and Shantrell's classic combination. It's got the wow factor. The bones presented beautifully. This feel delicious. What would I change? You expose protein like that. Season it. And
this Shantrell here is undercooked. I am so nitpicking now. This the difference between a pair of ants testicles. But I want to get back in there cuz it's good.
