Top Chef

- Previously on Top Chef... - Let's go to Dallas!

, man.

Your driver's license

and proof of liability insurance.

- Well, that's gonna be an issue.

- This is your kitchen. - Wow.

John Besh is a handsome man. I'm not gonna lie.

Hi!

- You can smell the smell of money.

- We love Gummy Bear-- I have a Gummy Bear addiction.

- We don't wanna give them any food that will make them feel

self-conscious about their breath.

- Do you need both those colanders?

No, I just need that one.

- Can you take the other one out of the sink then?

I'm a little aggravated with Bev.

She's using the entire sink.

Come on, sabotage.

The winner is Paul.

Thank you.

- It was overcooked salmon and goat cheese.

It was a gimmick.

- Chuy, please pack your knives and go.

13 chefs remain, all hoping to win

a feature in Food & Wine magazine...

A showcase at the annual Food & Wine classic in Aspen...

$125,000 furnished by Healthy Choice...

To bring their culinary dreams to life...

and the title of Top Chef.

== sync by elderman ==

- I'm gonna miss that little Chu-Chu train.

Been a long day.

- This is all the guys, isn't it, right here?

- Yeah, this is it, man. - Oh,.

- There's definitely a little face-off starting to develop,

and I don't want there to be eight girls and two guys left.

You know, come on, guys.

We're gonna have to sort of rally together

to save face.

Are you scared?

Step it up, man.

Are you guys scared?

Scared of the girlies. - Scared of the girls?

- This whole boys versus girls, this versus that--

I just need to concentrate on food.

So that's all I'm really thinking about.

- We walk into the kitchen and we see Padma

and Chef Dean Fearing.

He's had a long career in the culinary scene,

and he was the original chef of Mansion on Turtle Creek.

He was classically trained,

so I think we have a tough competition ahead of us.

- Hi, chefs. - Hello.

- The Cordon Bleu kitchen will be our home base

while we're here in Dallas.

- I went to school here, so everything looks familiar to me.

But I'm also really nervous

'cause I feel like I'm in my school,

I should win this challenge, whatever it may be.

- Please meet your guest judge Dean Fearing,

the James Beard Award winner

and chef and owner of Fearing's restaurant here in Dallas.

- Welcome to Dallas. - Thank you.

- This quickfire will be testing your skills

as a saucier.

- The saucier position is the most prestigious position

on the line in a kitchen.

It's the item that gives the wow to the dish.

- If I could pick anything to do for the rest of my life,

it'd be saucier.

It's an artistry in itself.

Please draw knives.

Espagnole.

Hollandaise.

Tomates.

Hollandaise.

Espagnole.

- Bechamel. - Veloute.

Tomates.

Hollandaise.

I've been a saucier before,

and I'm also classically trained,

so sauces ain't no thang for me.

Bechamel.

Espagnole.

Bechamel.

Veloute.

- The legendary French Chef Escoffier

coined five mother sauces.

Bechamel, espagnole, hollandaise,

tomates, and veloute.

- A mother sauce is base for other sauces.

I think the easiest sauce probably is the veloute.

It's a basically a chicken stock

that's thickened with flour and butter.

So I'm feeling really good.

- Your challenge is to make a dish with a new sauce

that stems from your mother sauce.

The winner of this quickfire will receive immunity

in the next challenge.

- I have not won where immunity has been offered.

And I want immunity like... So bad it's ridiculous.

- Ready for the mother of all quickfires?

Your time start now.

Good luck. - Whoo!

Hot, hot, hot.

- The most difficult thing about this quickfire

is that you have to make a roux, which is flour and butter.

I know a lot of chefs think it's old-school,

but I think you really need to know your classics.

I'm doing some scallops...

A corn ravioli, and hollandaise.

I'm feeling saucy.

I pulled espagnole.

It's a beef sauce made from veal bones and tomato paste.

And to make this sauce my own,

I infuse it with hints of ginger and lemongrass.

I haven't cooked a mother sauce since culinary school,

so this challenge is gonna test my skill.

30 minutes, guys!

I'm making a shrimp veloute

with braised fennel, some saffron.

The main problem I'm encountering is

I don't wanna overthink the dish,

but I feel like it needs another element

and I'm trying to figure out what that is.

- They don't like this sauce, I don't know what to do.

I pulled bechamel, and it's a heavy,

flour-butter-based white sauce

which instead of just a regular cream,

I'm trying to incorporate a vegetable.

Gonna do rib eye encrusted with miso blue cheese.

My new sauce is definitely avant-garde interpretation

of the espagnole,

'cause the espagnole is a very classic French sauce.

The risk of the sauce is mine is turning out to be

a very Asian sauce.

But I feel really good about my dish.

I want this so bad.

- Five minutes, everyone. You have five minutes left.

- I'm really excited about bechamel.

It's one of my favorites.

I'm making a lemon black truffle bechamel

with brown butter scallop.

But I definitely put those scallops on way too early.

The longer it sits there, one, the colder it's getting

and two, the more, you know, carry over cooking.

I'm totally effed.

I'm getting really nervous

because I have so many elements that I need to get on the plate,

or the dish won't come together as a whole.

Is there plastic wrap, guys?

55 seconds.

God. Stop shaking.

Time's up!

Hands up. Utensils down, please.

- Thank God I'm able to get everything on the plate,

and it's exactly how I want it to be.

- Hi, Chris. - Hi, how are you?

I had veloute, so I did a butter-poached Halibut

over a little hash of mussels and andouille, mushrooms.

And what is in your veloute?

- I cooked the andouille and the mussels together,

and then infused that fat back into the veloute.

- Thank you. - Thank you very much.

So I had bechamel.

What I did was I made a cauliflower bechamel.

There's a little poached red snapper,

a little tarragon crab and fried oyster on top.

- Thank you so much. - Thank you.

I had hollandaise.

It's a charred corn hollandaise.

I also made a corn ravioli

and blueberry balsamic reduction.

- Did you use clarified butter?

- No, I like to use whole butter.

Mm.

I used, chef, espagnole.

It's quail with some pickled and roasted mushrooms.

Just a touch of garlic scapes and some roasted okra.

- And what color was your roux?

I didn't use a roux.

Maybe I should've just lied and said, "yeah, I used a roux."

- So I had tomato sauce today. I used a little pancetta.

And I used the shrimp shells in it, instead of carrot,

to sweeten it a bit.

And then I cooked a little fennel pilau

which is what it sits on.

- And what roux did you use? - No roux in that.

Mm.

Well, the true classic tomates sauce has a roux.

Oh.

I've never used a roux in my tomates

nor would I ever use a roux in my tomates.

So I was kind of taken aback by that.

- My sauce was bechamel. So I made a gruyere croquette.

It's got a apple and ginger compote

and a little Asian slaw.

- It's a crab maki roll with rib eye,

and the rib eye is crusted