TOM: Tonight, Sara enters Last Chance Kitchen.
- SARA: Boom. - After a confusing
service in "Restaurant Wars..."
There is no connection between the first dish
and this dish at all.
The halibut dish felt puzzling
and the fish was weighted down by everything around it.
TOM: ...Sara's puzzling plates sent her packing.
I think I definitely still
have a few challenges in me.
TOM: She may be desperate for redemption
but she will have to outcook Sasha
who, after four wins, seems unstoppable.
Holy moly.
This is Last Chance Kitchen presented by BMW.
♪♪♪
SARA: Elimination from "Restaurant Wars"
was hard.
I went completely out of my comfort zone
and unfortunately, I was just put
in that leadership role.
It was a lot of people not working together as a team.
We have three minutes. We gotta clean up.
How far away are you guys?
Guys?
Both dishes really suffered from where they were
and the fact that you guys didn't really put together
a cohesive menu.
Sara, please pack your knives and go.
I am super excited to go into Last Chance Kitchen.
I came into this competition with a very strong focus
and I'm a little nervous but I'm gonna try to rise
to the occasion and see what I can pull out.
Sara!
Hi.
- Hello, Sara. - Hi.
Welcome to Last Chance Kitchen.
Thank you.
- It's nice to see you. - Yeah.
Sasha knows how to cook really delicious food
but I'm gonna have to knock her out. [laughs]
So Sara is coming to us fresh from "Restaurant Wars."
- Oh, wow. - Yup.
These chefs had to put together a chef's table
for the guest judges and the all-stars.
It was probably the best "Restaurant Wars" ever.
- Unfortunately for Sara, no. - Yup.
- I know my mistakes. - While your halibut ajoblanco
did have your signature quirkiness,
it didn't have a whole lot else going for it
and it really left the judges kind of trying to figure out
what these progression of these dishes
were supposed to be.
There is no connection between the first dish
and this dish at all.
We had raw, cooked, and raw again.
I honestly did not enjoy this dish at all.
Portland's known for being a forward-thinking city
so let's get progressive.
So for this challenge, both of you will need
to create a three-course progressive meal.
- Oh, Jesus. - Welcome.
But each of your courses will have to fit...
in here.
- All right. - Got it. Okay.
So I want each of you to create a trio
of amuse size dishes.
It's a bite-size three-course progression.
- Got it. - So I want each bite
to flow into the next.
A three-course progressive meal on spoons?
- Are you crazy? - For me there's no going back,
there's no re-tasting elements.
Everything just has to be that perfect bite.
- Easy enough. - [both laugh]
So you have 30 minutes on the clock,
three perfect bites. Your time starts now.
♪♪♪
All right.
SARA: It's really fun when you don't know
what you're gonna cook.
- [laughs] - SASHA: Yeah. Right?
- Like, just start cutting sh--. - Um, all right.
Three courses in 30 minutes is crazy.
I'll take some 'shroomies.
I know I wanna work with some proteins
and I see exactly what I want. I grab the flank steak
and I grab the scallops and then I can start
conceptualizing my dish.
What's your approach gonna be, Sara?
Make some tasty food
and try not to [bleep] it up
- like I did last time. - Yeah.
I want something super light and bright
for the first course. Because it's on a soup spoon,
why not just do soups?
Yo, where my stock at? Where my stock at?
I am gonna do
a roasted red pepper soup
with some scallions and curry paste.
And it'll be nice and bright and acidic
and hopefully get the palate ready for the next course,
even though I don't know what it is.
- AVISHAR: Twenty-five. - ♪ [bleep] my life right now ♪
- Sasha, what are you making? - So I'm gonna do
a whipped ricotta and tomato situation.
- Nice. - For the first dish,
I decide to roast some of the cherry tomatoes
and then keep some of them raw
and I'm gonna add a little sumac in there as well.
My common theme, I just throw sh-- in the wood oven.
And then I wanna move into,
like, very clean scallop and a sauce.
When you're trying to give somebody
a full progressive tasting experience,
you start with something light,
go into something nice and clean
and well-executed and then go
into like that luscious, delicious finish.
Twenty-three minutes left.
Ooh.
I see some scallops and caviar and
I think one of my courses will definitely be for Tom
because I know that he really enjoys caviar.
[laughs]
- SASHA: This is evil. - SARA: Yeah.
My second dish is to go
into a perfectly cooked scallop with a pesto rosso.
It's basically a pesto made with tomatoes,
chilies, preserved lemon,
parmesan, blended together.
I'm gonna cook that down a little bit
so it gets really thick.
So the scallop and the pesto rosso can sit
next to each other and look really beautiful.
- SARA: Twenty minutes. - SASHA: This is crazy.
SARA: I get inspired by traveling
such drastically different places.
Boom.
For the next course, I'm going to make a Greek
trout roe sauce with bread.
I know it's a little crazy but it's how I'm feeling today.
♪♪♪
[blender whirring]
Funny thing is when you're cooking
for a such a small amount
and you're using regular restaurant equipment,
it doesn't work out all the time.
It didn't have enough volume for that sauce
to, like, emulsify together.
So I end up having to scrap that.
I'm just gonna go with my celery root
and scallop and caviar
and just keep it super simple.
What are you working on, Sara?
- Nothing. - Nothing.
A-ha, you sound like me.
[laughs]
Uh, what's that you're putting on there?
Uh, porcini powder.
Oh, nice.
SASHA: My third course
is a flank steak.
I'm gonna cook a quick, mid-rare,
nice sear, nice slice and an onion puree.
AVISHAR: What are you working on, Sara?
I literally have no idea.
It's about 18 minutes on the clock and I realize
I haven't really planned my third course.
[laughs]
SASHA: For the last course, I have this
caramelized onion puree.
I'll almost take 'em till they get burnt
to like have that deep umami
throughout my dishes.
That one little bite needs to make an impact
and leave an impression.
Holy moly. What do we got here?
There is a really beautiful wagyu steak.
For the third course, I'm gonna do the steak.
And then I'm also going to be braising napa cabbage
down with butter and sherry vinegar
and shiitake mushrooms
and see if I can just pull it off at this point.
Delicious.
Fifteen minutes left.
Fifteen. Thank you very much.
- TOM: So what are you making? - I'm making a really big mess
right now. [laughs]
Uh, starting off with some red pepper
- curry soup... - Okay.
...and then moving into like a caviar scallop dish
and then maybe a beef mushroom
scallion situation.
- Hey, Sasha. What do you have? - Hi.
So we're gonna do a tomato sumac spiced
first bite, and then we're gonna go
into a scallop caviar.
Um, but a little, uh--
Is that a little scallop caviar?
- Yeah. And then like, - Okay.
a little onion puree and a steak.
So you're both going with scallop, caviar, steak.
- Scallop, caviar, steak? - Yeah.
- Are we really? - Yes.
- You both are. - Wow.
- Mm-hmm. - Well, here we go.
Oh, sh--. I was like, out of all the things
in the kitchen, like, we choose scallops, we choose steak.
It just seems like classic
three-course progressive meal style.
So I can understand why we're in the same
wavelength with that.
TOM: Five minutes.
I need some steak.
Time's ticking by really, really fast
and I'm worried because I don't wanna serve
- undercooked steak. - TOM: Four minutes, chefs.
Four minutes.
My whipped ricotta component just doesn't taste good.
So I'm gonna make tomatoes and goat cheese.
I want Tom to really experience
that charred flavor throughout the three courses.
AVISHAR: Three minutes.
I've cooked my wagyu steak
as much as I can cook it
before I need to pull it to rest,
otherwise it's just gonna eat super weird.
AVISHAR: Two-minute warning.
SASHA: When you're plating something so small,
everything needs to have a purpose.
There's no room for error.
TOM: Thirty seconds, chefs.
- Fifteen seconds. - Oh, God.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
- Time's up. - All right.
That was hard.
Chefs, bring your three-course progressive tasting bites up.
Thank you.
SARA: All right.
Nice.
Sasha, tell me about your progression
and why you chose to go in this direction.
I wanted a roasted theme throughout my dish.
So start with the roasted tomatoes also balanced
with the raw tomatoes
and then the char of the steak
as well, and the onions
I took almost to a burning point.
You're gonna start with the little spoon
and there is feta roasted tomatoes,
raw tomatoes with a sumac and lemon vinaigrette.
Then you're going into a scallop
with a pesto rosso.
And then going into the last one
is a flank steak
with a creamy caramelized onion puree
on the bottom.
Got it. Sara, how about your progression?
So I kind of wanted to do the flavors
that I really love together.
Roasted red pepper soup is pretty classic.
The scallop with celery root
is one of my favorite flavor combos.
And then I really love the contrast
between the super luxurious wagyu
and something super simple like braised cabbage.
So I'm starting you with a little roasted red pepper soup
with fish sauce and a little bit of red curry.
And then moving into a pan-roasted scallop
with celery root and caviar.
And then lastly, you have a little bit of wagyu
with butter braised cabbage
and shiitake mushrooms.
- It's a very similar meal. - Oh.
The ingredients are very similar.
The last course, they were both steak dishes.
You both chose scallops and the first courses
also were very similar. You both started off
with something highly acidic and really a good punch
of flavor to start with and then followed that theme
all the way through. I was gonna go backwards
because I think of the two steak dishes...
I liked Sasha's better.
When you cook wagyu, you gotta cook it a little more.
It was a little on the chewy side.
- Okay. - This charred onion puree
is fantastic.
Second courses, both chose scallops.
I'm gonna go with Sara on this one.
As much as I like the red puree,
it doesn't provide a good hinge
from the first to second courses.
It's like almost too aggressive.
Sara, I thought you did a great job.
The scallop is perfectly cooked. It was just a really nice bite.
Caviar, you can always use more caviar,
but it was enough to know it's there.
So it's gonna come down for the first courses.
And I thought they were really good,
but I have to say...
♪♪♪
The flavor of...
pepper curry and fish sauce was my favorite.
Yes. Woot woot!
Good job, girlfriend. That was ----ing difficult.
I did not expect coming to Last Chance Kitchen,
I would be, like, sweating 10 times more.
Last Chance Kitchen is definitely
a different animal,
but I have a lot of energy
and I am here to crush still. [laughs]
Sasha, you've been fantastic here.
- Thank you. - I love these dishes.
I thought the scallop was buried by the cheese
and stuff that was in that pepper.
- The reign is over. - I'm sorry.
- TOM: The reign is over. - [laughter]
Sasha, you can leave the kitchen.
Thanks.
There's nothing I can do.
You know, it's, like... [sniffles]
I fought the sh-- out of it
in Last Chance Kitchen and, like,
I'm so happy for that.
It's unfortunate that I was eliminated
early on in the competition.
Peace out, Cub Scouts.
But I've done really well
in Last Chance Kitchen
and I feel so grateful
to, like, have this opportunity
and be able to share it with everyone.
Sara, you're gonna-- you're gonna need this.
- Okay. - Here you go.
- Thank you, sir. I will. - Wear it well.
This is how it goes in Last Chance Kitchen.
It's fast and furious. So there's only a few more
challenges left before someone is able to enter
the competition and fight for the prize
of $250,000 and the title of Top Chef.
- Absolutely. - Keep it up.
- We'll see you next week. - See ya.
- Thanks. - Woot, woot!
I feel super good. One step closer
but I know I still have so many people to beat.
So I'm gonna just try to tackle
each challenge and defeat each person as they come.