- Fresh from defeat, Sam enters
"Last Chance Kitchen."
- I plan on picking 'em off one by one.
- Can veteran chef Sam take out the champ Gerald?
- Barbecue sauce with celery? You dick.
- Or will Gerald get another win?
- Medic. - Whew!
That was intense.
- This is "Last Chance Kitchen,"
brought to you by Hidden Valley Ranch.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- It's deflating when you get eliminated,
and especially when you get eliminated on a good dish.
When I left Brooklyn, I promised my mother
I was gonna come home a winner.
You can't let your mom down, right?
- Hey, Sam. - Hey, Tom.
- Welcome to "Last Chance Kitchen."
- Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
- So you were the first veteran to go.
- I was. - Did you think you'd be here
this early? - I didn't think I was gonna
be here this early, you know? I made it to the final three
on "Top Chef" 2 and then... - Yeah.
- To be here in the first three,
it's quite the, uh, turn of events.
- Yeah, I'm surprised to see you here this early.
You may be a "Top Chef" veteran, but you're kind of a rookie
here on "Last Chance Kitchen." - Yeah, it's true.
I've never been through "Last Chance Kitchen" before.
- No, in fact, we didn't have "Last Chance Kitchen" when
you competed the first time, no. - No, we didn't.
But I heard about Kristen Kish and what she did,
so I'm gonna use her as my spirit animal throughout...
- Got it. - To carry me through.
- So you ready to meet your competition?
- I am. - Well, let's see.
[both laugh]
- How you doing? - Oh, good. How are you?
- Good.
I'm surprised to see him.
Sam is great, but I think I can beat him.
It's anybody's game depending on what the challenge is.
Whoever adapts to the challenge the best
is the guy who's gonna be left standing.
- Gerald beat Annie last week, so Annie's gonna sit in
for a little moral support.
- Oh, I thought it was like a two versus one.
I was like, "Wait a minute."
- No, no, no, no, no. - Okay.
- It's really tough to see you here,
because your dish was really good.
You didn't do anything wrong.
- Chefs, we asked you to create
a seven-course progressive meal using the radish.
And I gotta say, it is the best meal
I've ever had on "Top Chef."
- I-I second that.
Every single dish was just delicious,
and just great work.
Someone's going home for making a great dish.
Just know that you're not going home
because you didn't give it your all.
- Sam... please pack your knives and go.
- You just ran into a lot of really good dishes.
You had a radish; you didn't really get tons
of radish flavor into your dish.
So we figure, if you can't make an ingredient
like the radish stand out, I want to see what you can do
with an ingredient that, you know,
is sort of a throwaway.
For this challenge, we're gonna give you something
a little more kind of basic.
- Okay. - You know, something you'd find
on every crudités plate in America.
We want you to feature an ingredient
that's crunchy... a little watery.
Not a whole lot more to say about it.
Any guesses?
- I have a pretty good idea.
both: Celery?
- Celery it is.
You need to feature celery.
- It needs to be the star.
- It needs to be the star. That's right.
30 minutes on the clock.
Your time starts...
now.
- Go, celery!
- I'm thinking of like a potato salad,
but making celery be the star of this salad,
and elevating the presentation a little bit
and showcase this ingredient in multiple ways.
I never have used it as the star of a dish.
- Sam, what are you making?
- I'm gonna do a little bit of a cream of celery soup.
- Sounds delicious.
- So the challenge for the day is not the humble radish,
but it's the glorious celery stalk.
It's a base for a lot of stock, sauces.
It's a part of a basic mirepoix.
So to make it, like, the focal point today of the meal,
you know, it's a challenge.
- Gerald, what are you making?
- Celery salad with Alabama barbecue sauce.
I cook Alabama barbecue sauce quite often.
Use it in a lot of dips, and I'm really confident
because I know that it's gonna go really well with the celery.
- That's cheating. Barbecue sauce with celery?
- Celery... - You dick.
White barbecue sauce,
it's like the gift from the mayo gods.
When I heard that, I was like, "Dude!
Why didn't I do that?"
How much time we got, Annie?
- 20 minutes!
[dramatic music]
- You can keep that juicer out.
If you'd be so inclined, kind sir.
- Yeah. - Thank you, brother.
- Celery is one of my favorite ingredients.
I'm super jealous of you guys right now.
- Well, girl, don't be afraid. Come over here and help me.
Sh--. - I would if I could, boo.
- Hey, Sam. - Hey, Chef.
- What are you making with celery?
- So we're doing a little celery soup,
cream of coconut celery soup.
A charred celery salad right in the middle there
as a little garnish, and then a fresh celery--
raw celery vinaigrette, so kind of showcase
three different ways. - Okay, so three different--
three different celeries. - Three different celeries.
- You feeling good about this? - Feeling good, man.
- I'm gonna go over here and talk to Gerald.
Hey, Gerald. - Hey, Chef.
- What do you have? - Celery salad
with a Alabama barbecue sauce.
- Okay, what's an Alabama barbecue sauce?
- It's a white barbecue sauce... - White barbecue, yeah.
- It's like a mayonnaise vinaigrette.
- Yeah, yeah. And what are you doing
with the melon and you got some chilis here?
- Uh, melon is going to be in the salad.
Red onion will be in the salad. - Okay.
- With some celery juice, I'ma add it back to the dish
in the form of some celery Dippin' Dots.
- Dippin' Dots? - Yes, sir.
Drop that liquid that I made out of a squeeze bottle
into nitrogen... - Okay.
- To make like celery Dippin' Dots
to make my salad super cold. - Got ya, got ya, okay.
You got 14 minutes left, Gerald. - Yes, Chef.
- All right. All right.
♪ ♪
So, Annie, what'd you think of that?
Celery Dippin' Dots. Did you hear that?
- I did hear that.
It could be really refreshing or freeze your tongue.
Who knows? [laughter]
I'm a little worried about his timing.
It's a lot of steps left. - Well, and he's had a problem
with timing in the past, so we'll see.
- It's exciting to see. [chuckles]
- So much celery, Sam.
So much celery. - All celery everything.
- He's making a celery soup.
I think it's pretty safe or traditional.
Sometimes when you make celery soup,
the flavor of the celery doesn't shine as much
as when you leave the celery raw.
♪ ♪
- I'm running around like a madman, definitely hauling ass.
And if Gerald can pull off celery Dippin' Dots,
I think it's ballsy,
but I'm in a good place with my dish.
- Five minutes, guys!
♪ ♪
- That looks like it's cheating too somehow.
I don't know what's going on over there, but--
- It's like that stuff you drink in the morning, Sam.
- First, you bust out barbecue sauce,
and now you're doing some Wylie stuff over there, man.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
Medic.
Can I get a Band-Aid, please?
- I hope Gerald doesn't get too tripped up,
but at the same time, there's something going on over there.
But I'm really focused on me and what I'm doing.
- Thank you.
I cut myself, which is taking time away from me.
♪ ♪
Not as many things as I wanted to have done are done.
The Dippin' Dots haven't come out
exactly like I wanted them to be.
Sh--.
- One minute, guys.
♪ ♪
- It's a pretty dish, you know?
30 minutes to put together celery flavor profiles.
It's got some Thai flavors in there, acid, good texture,
and just, again, celery three different ways,
so I'm really stoked on it.
- 30! - 30 seconds!
♪ ♪
both: Five, four, three, two, one.
- That's it. - Whew!
That was intense. - Whew!
- How you living, big dog?
- I didn't know celery would be so challenging.
- Yeah, think about a radish. - [laughs]
That looked a lot better in my brain.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
- Hey, Sam. - Hey.
So what we have here is, um,
it's a cream of celery.
There's basically a hardly cooked
little cauliflower and shaved celery
in there in the bottom.
And then on top, I used apple
to accentuate the celery flavor
a little bit more, mixed in there
with a little fried caper for crunch.
- The celery's there. I get it.
And the background flavors are nice.
What's the acid element? Is it just a--
- Well, there's a little bit of green apple,
but there's also a touch of rice vinegar.
- Got it. Happy with the dish?
- Yeah, I'm really happy with it.
The apple is a common ingredient used with celery,
so--tried to bring out the raw there.
- Looks like a Waldorf salad.
- It's kind of like a Waldorf salad, exactly.
- All right. Hey, Gerald. - Hey, Chef.
- I saw you scrambling at the end there.
Did it all make it in? - Um, yup.
Everything I wanted to get in there made it.
- Where are your Dippin' Dots?
- Uh, it turned more into a celery sorbet.
- Okay. [laughter]
- But it's Alabama barbecue sauce, celery,
melon, and serrano chili.
- What's in the sauce again? The barbecue sauce?
- It's cider, onions, paprika,
egg, walnut oil, salt, pepper.
- I mean, it's really refreshing.
It's all really crisp and light.
Okay.
♪ ♪
Taste each other's dishes, yeah.
It's good. - Capers?
- Yeah, some fried capers.
- Actually I like both dishes. - It's really good.
- Yeah. - I like both dishes too.
You know what happens now, right?
- What? - We do a full-blown dance off.
- Let's go. [laughter]
♪ ♪
- Hey, chefs, come on up.
How was that?
- Lot of fun. - Exhilarating.
- Exhilarating's a good word. - Yeah.
- You're having a hard time with that clock, huh?
- It's not a friend of mine, no.
- It's not a friend of yours, no.
I mean, Gerald, your dish was really simple,
it had some good flavor, and I liked the sauce.
I think it really added some nice texture
and flavor to the celery. I thought it was really good.
You know, Sam, your dish was really complex.
Had a lot going on for a celery dish.
You had a lot of things working.
I like the apple and celery together.
I think it's like a classic combination, it always works.
- Sure. - It was nice.
Both really strong dishes. - Thank you.
- Only one person's moving on.
♪ ♪
Sam's.
- Awesome.
[upbeat music]
Hey, man. - Gerald...
I liked the dish, man, but if you had those walnuts in there,
and if you spent a little more time maybe working out
some other garnishes as opposed to some dots
that never made it, that dish could have been a winner,
but, uh, good stuff.
- Thank you. - Yeah, so, thank you.
- Appreciate it. - Sam, figure you need that.
- Thank you. Thank you very much.
- Yeah. Gerald, you can exit the kitchen.
- Feel like I put out a good dish and Tom said it was tasty.
I wanted to keep going, I wanted to win
a couple more challenges.
I feel like I gave it 110%, so I went for it,
and I'm proud of what I've made.
- So, Sam, that's one down.
- One down. I got 11 more to go.
- Do you got 11 more in you?
- Yeah, man. I mean, I came here to do this.
- Put that jacket on, and we'll see you next week.
- Okay, cool. Thanks. See you next week.
Feel like I got my groove back.
I'm on the road to taking 'em all out one by one.
I think there's 11 left to go. It's quite the feat.
Tom said that the record wins in "Last Chance Kitchen" was six.
I gotta take that down.
11 more to go. You think I have it in me?
- Yeah, you totally got this. - Right? Just one by one.
- Kick some ass. Just-- - Bah! Yah!