- I'm Isaac Toups. "Top Chef" season 13 finalist.
- Congratulations, Isaac. - Thank you.
[screams]
Now I'm ready to take on a new challenge
so I'm heading out to sea
where the food is delicious and the chefs
are amongst the best in the world.
Hopefully I can pick up a few new skills along the way.
Awesome!
Mofongo.
Shouldn't be hard at all. [glass shatters]
This is "Isaac Takes On" brought to you by:
Celebrity Cruises.
Since we're out on the sea, what better place
to learn a little more about fish?
I've probably eaten my weight in sushi,
but I've never prepared it.
Chef Yoshi is gonna show me how to make it.
[upbeat music]
Let's roll.
Chef Yoshi. - Hi, how are you?
- Pleasure to meet you. Isaac Toups.
I see we have a bunch of fish here.
How do you judge a good piece of fish for sushi?
- Check the color always and touch it.
- Firm. - Firm.
Then they gonna cut this way.
- Against the grain? - Mm-hmm.
Octopus cut like this. See?
- Gotcha. Lessons with sushi master Yoshi.
I know a lot of people that would pay good money for that
and I'm getting it for free.
So what are we making today?
- Cucumber roll today. - Awesome.
Sushi mat? - Yes, okay.
- So you make a ball. - Make a ball.
Okay.
- Look about right? - Yeah.
- Okay. - You need a finger like this.
- Like piano. - Yeah, like a piano.
- Wish I played piano. - Yeah, nice.
- You're too kind. - Cucumber.
- Cucumber.
I'm fascinated by the way sushi chefs can cut a cucumber
into paper-thin slices. - Don't push it.
- Don't push it? - Mm-hmm.
- Well, I think yours came out a little bit better.
Look at this. Yeah, the master at work here.
Mine, not so much. Guess who did which one.
- [laughs]
- You should do this for a living.
- Hm? Yeah. - [laughs]
- Cucumber. That's why cucumber roll.
- It's all starting to make sense now.
- Overlap. - You didn't go all the way--
- Yeah, you need the space here. - Ohh.
So about 1/4 inch. - Then one more time.
- Ohh!
♪
Cucumber. - That's it.
You grab here. - And then roll it?
- Let it...stop.
All right.
- Oh, look at that! Just like his. [grunts]
What do you say? A little head-on battle?
- You need to cut. - Huh?
Oh, I need to cut. So, about halfway.
- Maybe even. See?
- Ah, gotcha. Gotcha. - Then same height.
Everything. Not bad.
- Now I'm hungry. - [laughs] Yeah.
- I'm not sure if I'm ready to challenge you,
but I'm gonna challenge you anyway.
We're each gonna have to come up with a new roll...
- Mm-hmm. - And the captain
and the cruise director are gonna decide who wins.
- Okay. - But they're not gonna know
who this roll came from. So it's blind tasting.
- Okay. - Are you ready to go?
- Oh, yeah. - Am I ready to go?
- Okay. - I'm ready to go.
But I'm not scared. I'm too dumb to be scared.
- Okay. [both laugh]
[dramatic music]
- Okay, you're gonna do tuna? I'm gonna use yellowtail.
Since I'm clearly outmatched by Chef Yoshi,
my strategy today is to go classic.
I can do classic just as good as anybody.
So I'm going to do yellowtail.
Everyone loves yellowtail, right?
Ah. Of course I'm looking
at how Chef's doing it. - [laughs]
[upbeat music]
♪
Would you bring back for this? - Oh, yes.
- Thank you. Arigato.
- Wait, this is a challenge. He's got me doing work.
You want me to cut yours too? - Yeah.
[both laugh]
- So I have a little bit of the mountain root
with hamachi, a little bit of furikake--
Did I get that right? - Huh?
- Good. - Okay.
♪
- Hmm.
Okay. - You looking at me?
You looking at my roll? Or you looking at me?
- No, no, no, no, no. - [laughs]
Make it tight, but not make it too tight.
- Yeah. Nice. - So far so good.
Oh, he's putting on the special goggles.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
I was feeling pretty good about my dish
until I looked at Chef's over here
and he's got a freaking Michelangelo on the damn plate
with a lemon swan and some gold leaf.
♪ ♪
- I like the presentation of your roll a lot.
You even have gold on your roll, Captain.
- Do I? - I think so.
I think that's real gold.
[suspenseful music]
♪
Mm.
I can't keep my eyes off yours, Captain.
Can I take that one?
Mm.
Hello, Chefs. - Gentlemen.
Captain. - I think we both agreed
that both sushi rolls were very, very good.
- Oh, thank God. - But one did stand out,
Captain, no? - Yeah, we both agree
that this was more on the traditional side,
but still tasty and with a great texture,
but we both agreed that this plate that was served to me,
it had great technique, the taste was there,
the presentation was amazing.
This is the winning plate.
- I think Chef Yoshi perhaps might have made that one.
- You're absolutely right. [laughter]
That's taking it easy on me, apparently.
Okay, I clearly didn't win that one.
Yoshi came to win and I totally respect that.
I'm not sure when I'll be rolling sushi again,
but I'm glad I know I can.