TOM COLICCHIO: Tonight the finals
of Last Chance Kitchen begins.
I'm ready to get back into the Top Chef competition.
TOM: Byron tasted victory throughout the season.
There was one restaurant
that we would go back to.
Kokoson.
Byron.
Oh, whoa.
TOM: But his dessert failed the taste test
in the Tournament of Tofu.
Byron,
please pack your knives and go.
TOM: Now he must beat Sara
to get one step closer to return.
I'm excited to beat Byron.
To get back into the competition.
- Tasty. - TOM: Not an easy feat
since Sara is enjoying a powerful winning streak.
I'm gonna go with Sara on this one.
Yes.
Sara.
Yes! [laughs]
I wanna continue these really good lucky vibes.
Watch out, Byron.
TOM: And one more thing.
I have one more trick up my sleeve.
[bleep] my life.
TOM: The final start right now.
This is Last Chance Kitchen,
Presented by BMW.
[music]
BYRON GOMEZ: The dishes that I put out
for the Tofu Challenge,
it wasn't really me.
Byron, what's your inspiration?
My inspiration is get it done, man.
I've only cooked with tofu like on this one restaurant
like eight years ago.
It wasn't as sweet as I'd like
a dessert like that to be sweet.
Byron, please pack your knives
and go.
Another type of cooking that I like to do
but it's part of being Top Chef,
you know, thinking on the fly
and execute something which takes you
out of your comfort zone.
I just wanna win it.
- AVISHAR BARUA: Whoa. - CHRIS VIAUD: Whoa.
My man.
- What's up, man? - Byron.
- TOM: Hey, Byron. - How's it going, chef?
Welcome to Last Chance Kitchen.
Thank you.
You look you're ready for business.
Let's do it.
I didn't really plan on seeing Byron.
He has a lot of good technique
and he's definitely stiff competition.
Did you expect to see Sara here?
Everyone's pretty strong,
so, I just didn't wanna make assumptions.
- Congrats, chef. - Thank you.
BYRON: Sara's a very strong chef.
When she has to think on the fly
that's when she performs best.
It's gonna be a tough one this time around.
TOM: Well, here we are at the end of the road.
The two of you have made it
through the Last Chance Kitchen Finals.
- Ooh. - Ooh. Okay.
But only one of you will earn a chance
to get back to the competition,
with a shot of the $250,000
and the title of Top Chef.
- Awesome. - Hard.
TOM: So, Byron, your Elimination Challenge,
you battled it out in a Tournament of Tofu.
- Uh-hmm. - TOM: And you came through
with some pretty good dishes
but you were just out-cooked
by your competitors.
BYRON: I've only cooked with tofu like
this one restaurant like eight years ago,
so, trying to get it on the plate.
PADMA LAKSHMI: Please put paddles up.
- Jamie. - Oh. [laughs]
PADMA: Judges.
Maria, congratulations.
TOM: Hopefully you drew some inspiration
from the location.
[laughs]
Because for this challenge
you're gonna have to bring a little bit of Japan
right here into Last Chance Kitchen.
BYRON: Woo.
TOM: Japanese cuisine is known for its refinement,
simplicity and honoring of ingredients.
Even in everyday dishes.
So, in Japanese culture
the bento box is a staple of everyday life.
You could choose anything from this table.
We've got shiso leaf,
long beans,
lemongrass, it's all there.
So for this challenge I wanna see your take
- on the bento box. - Got it.
TOM: Typically a bento box has a rice or a noodle dish.
A meat or fish component,
vegetable,
and a pickled component
and so should yours.
How often do I make Japanese style cuisine?
Never. There's a lot at stake.
I'm ready, and I'm hungry, and I'm anxious
to get back into the Top Chef competition.
TOM: There's a lot of great ingredients up there.
So, uh, don't box yourself in.
- [laughter] - BYRON: We'll try not to.
TOM: Be really creative and cook really well
because the winner of this challenge
will advance to the next part of the finale.
- Got it. - Ooh, girl.
All right.
I know better than to think
that it would be as straight forward
as just beating Byron
[laughs]
to get back into the competition.
Definitely gonna make us work for it.
A little nervous about that one.
TOM: Four different components,
thirty minutes,
one small box,
and your time starts now.
MAN: Let's get it. Go.
Ooh, there, here we go.
Oh, nice.
- SARA HAUMAN: Mine and mine. - MAN: Woo, take it all.
The time for this challenge is almost impossible.
To make a bento box
I'm pretty sure it takes more than 30 minutes.
[music]
SARA: You're in. Hell, yeah.
I'm familiar with what simple Japanese food is
but I also want to be me
and, you know, bring my weirdness into it.
Uh, green tea, sure.
I'm going to make tea rice.
I'm making things
that are very traditional Japanese
but I know that a lot of people don't know about.
Are you making rice, girlfriend?
Yeah, I gotta make rice.
AVISHAR: I got some advice for you
make sure the rice is cooked.
[laughter]
SARA: Everyone's really scared of rice
because if you mess up you can't start over.
Last Chance Kitchen Finale, I'm gonna make rice.
What's the time my lovely people?
CHRIS: You got 26 and a half.
BYRON: My whole idea is like the very true to the origin
and keep everything very restricted
in the sense of
nothing overpowering one thing.
And when I make sushi rice with wakame,
the rice will be seasoned with the salt from the wakame.
Sara, you have any umeboshi to spare?
Yeah, you can just get one.
Look at that, she put it nice in the front for you.
BYRON: I'm also making a salmon tataki
with umeboshi glaze, string beans,
and pickled eggplant.
Byron, what are you making?
BYRON: I'm gonna make a, uh, pickled eggplant.
- CHRIS: Ooh, beautiful. - SASHA GRUMMAN: All right.
But you're gonna make four dishes, right?
[laughter]
BYRON: I make a pickling liquid.
I bring it to a boil
and cool it right away.
So this way while it's cooling
it's just soaking all this pickle flavor.
For my bento box,
I'm going to make
daikon pickles with lychee bamboo shoots
and shiso leaf.
What are you gonna do with the ume's?
SARA: I'm gonna put it in my rice.
Umeboshi rice with green tea.
Pan fried quail eggs with uni cream
and Buddha hands.
Oven roasted eggplant with sesame vinaigrette.
What is that?
SARA: This is my Japanese sesame paste.
- Nice. - Good.
SASHA: Get your radish on, girl.
SARA: I'm gonna make pickle daikon
with rice wine vinegar and mirin.
- Oh, look at that. - SASHA: Pickle party.
Tasty.
I pour the hot liquid
over my daikon bamboo shoots,
lychee, and shiso leafs.
So, it has a lot of time to infuse.
And then stick it into the blast chiller
and cool it down
because sometimes hot pickles taste weird.
TOM: Twenty minutes left, chefs.
Byron, what's your plan with the umeboshi?
Uh, I'm gonna make like a dressing.
- CHRIS: Nice. - AVISHAR: Oh, nice.
Umeboshi is a cured and dried plum.
A very rich fatty fish
as the salmon goes well
with a nice umeboshi,
fruity, salty glaze on top.
Are you familiar with a lot of these ingredients?
[laughter]
Japanese cuisine to me is about learning how to edit
and that's one thing that I struggle with
and for the first time ever cooking this bento box,
there's a lot riding in this little box.
[music]
BYRON: Blender.
AVISHAR: What you gonna do with those quail eggs?
I'm doing double cream with uni and quail egg.
AVISHAR: Oh, double cream, I love double cream.
SARA: I am planning to do fried quail eggs
with, uh, sea urchin cream.
I don't know what Tom's reactions gonna be.
I know it's gonna be delicious
but he's probably gonna think it's really weird.
- CHRIS: Whoa. - AVISHAR: Whoa, uni cream.
Byron, you got everything accounted for?
Yeah, I think so.
Next ingredient is my salmon
and I'm gonna serve it tataki style.
So I just wanna flash cook it,
but maintain it raw in the middle.
The umeboshi will give it the saltiness it needs.
And lastly are my long beans
that I went and blanched in a miso
and shrimp paste kind of sauce,
tossed with a little bit of shaved daikon.
AVISHAR: Seventeen.
Once the eggplants start leeching a bit of liquid
I tossed them into the wood fired oven
until they get really nice and tender and soft.
[music]
TOM: Chefs, 15 minutes left,
- Fifteen minutes. - Okay.
[music]
- Oh. - CHRIS: Oh, no.
SASHA: Hey.
- MAN: What's up? - SASHA: Holy [bleep].
Whoa. Come on, papi!
What the [bleep] is going on?
Welcome to Last Chance Kitchen, they're cooking.
- MARIA MAZON: Go, Sara. - AVISHAR: Welcome.
Look at that.
Obviously this is part of our part two twist.
TOM: Hey, chefs, I know you came in here
thinking you're gonna do the Quickfire.
But obviously that's not what you're doing.
- What are we doing? - You're watching the finale
- in Last Chance Kitchen. - MAN: Amazing.
TOM: Because whoever wins
has a chance to get back into the competition.
- Sick. - MARIA: Come on, guys.
TOM: Ten minutes left, chefs, ten minutes.
SHOTA NAKAJIMA: Did you bring some mojo
from that Japanese garden into this challenge?
Oh, my God.
That's the whole idea, there you go. See?
They have to do Japanese bento box.
They have to do, uh, rice and noodle component,
meat or fish component, and vegetable
and a pickle, all in a bento box.
That's a lot you have to do in 30 minutes.
Last Chance Kitchen actually feels a lot of fun.
Just having that energy of everyone watching,
cheering you on.
I love both of them
but I am rooting for Sara.
TOM: Byron, what are you making?
I'm making a, uh, salmon tataki.
- TOM: Okay. - Uh, then I have some rice
and I'm gonna make some seaweed.
- Okay. - BYRON: Pickled eggplant
and then I have some string beans
- with daikon. - TOM: Okay. Great.
Sara, what are you making?
Okay. I've got some pickles,
that include daikon lychee--
- Okay. - --and shiso
and then I'm doing oven roasted sesame eggplant.
- TOM: Okay. - And then I've got
roasted quail eggs with uni cream
- and fresh uni. - Okay.
I see you.
And then, uh, tea rice with umeboshi. Yeah.
- Okay. - Five minutes.
Let's go, chefs.
BYRON: Right now I'm worried about that
my rice is not done.
Because it's still a little bit crunchy.
So I run over to the sink,
hit it with a little bit more water
to let it steam.
I gotta ace this Japanese challenge.
It's my 50/50 chance,
ride or die.
TOM: Three minutes chefs, three minutes.
MAN: You guys got this.
Stop talking to me in Japanese.
[laughs]
I am just hoping
that Tom doesn't think
that I'm crazy for doing tea rice.
You maybe wouldn't necessarily see
in Japanese cooking
but that speaks more of who I am.
GABE ERALES: One minute for you, guys.
Let's go, Byron. You got it, chef.
Who's side are you on right now, Gabe?
[laughs]
BYRON: Stuck and smack.
GABE: Don't put me in that position.
- TOM: One minute. - All right.
BYRON: This beautiful bento box.
It's simple but it represents
in my opinion a very good Japanese meal.
- TOM: Ten seconds. - Go, Sara, you got it girl.
MARIA: There you go, Byron.
ALL: Five, four,
three, two, one.
MARIA: Wow.
- BYRON: That was sick. - That was fun, right?
[music]
TOM: Sara, what did you make?
So, I made some ume rice with green tea.
And then I did pan fried quail eggs
with uni cream and Buddha hands.
And then I did a oven roasted eggplants with sesame.
And then I made some daikon pickles with shiso,
lychee, and bamboo shoot.
Was it hard to come up with four dishes?
Uh, I don't know,
I just blacked out. [laughs]
TOM: Byron, what did you make?
So, I made a salmon tataki with a umeboshi glaze.
Then I have string beans with yuzu kosho.
Sushi rice with wakame.
And pickled shiso eggplant.
TOM: How did you find this challenge?
It's a cuisine I'm not really familiar with.
I should embrace it more. It was fun.
It was fun trying to conceptualize
- four different components. - TOM: Okay.
Sara, you're continuing to do weird food.
You are welcome.
- TOM: No, no. - [laughter]
In a good way, the eggplant's really good,
kind of a nutty flavor
and then you got some depth of flavor
from the roasting of the eggplant.
Pickles are nice and fresh.
The eggs actually it's odd
but in a good way,
it's pretty rich but really good.
- Okay. - Byron is much more
traditional in a way.
The flavors are clearly Japanese flavors.
Rice are beautifully cooked.
The salmon tataki,
the umeboshi glaze cut
right through the fat of the salmon.
The string beans with the use of kosho
so much flavor and really, really clean.
The eggplant was nice and creamy, really rich.
They're both really good.
[music]
TOM: One of you will earn a shot
to get back into the competition.
And one of you, your Top Chef journey is over.
[music]
The winning bento box belongs to...
[music]