- Welcome to Mom vs. Chef!
- [Andrew] A competition where a professional chef
and a mom cook head-to-head, preparing the
best dish possible, featuring one secret ingredient.
(swishing)
(driving rock music)
Our first competitor today is mom, Tahara Christie.
- Most people don't even know I have four kids.
They meet me, and then they're like,
"oh, my gosh, you're super fun!"
I'm like, "I know, right?"
My grandmother taught me how to cook.
There were no recipes.
She'd be like, "oh, you know, you put it in 'til it browns."
I'm a little intimidated.
'Cause, you know, I'm competing against a top chef!
But, you know what?
I'm from Oakley, California, baby.
Nothing intimidates us!
Winning Mom vs. Chef will make me the best
non-trained mom-chef in the world!
- And competing against her is
professional chef Dakota Weiss.
- I've been cooking professionally for 18 years,
and I'm the chef-partner at Estrella Restaurant,
and chef-partner at Sweetfin Poké in Santa Monica.
Growing up, my mom really inspired me
to become the chef that I am, kinda forced us
to eat organic and vegetables, and everything
out of the garden.
Cooking against a mom who actually cooks for children daily
is a little nerve-wracking.
I have to kinda dig deep into my inner child.
Winning this competition would be great, just love
for my niece and nephew to watch it,
and be really excited for Aunt Kota.
- [Andrew] Welcome Tahara, Chef Weiss.
Today, you're gonna be competing against each other,
trying to create the tastiest dish possible,
featuring one secret ingredient in 30 minutes or less.
Your dishes will be judged by the
panel of judges before you.
- My name's Elijah.
I am 10 years old, and I want to become
a pro-baseball player or soccer player.
- I'm Sydni Sepulveda.
I'm 12 years old, and when I grow up, I would love
to be an actor and singer.
- And your final judge is me.
I'm Andrew; I'm 25 years old.
And, when I grow up, I wanna be a maple syrup farmer.
I think it's time to find out what our
secret ingredient is.
Sydni, want to take the lid off for us?
- Sure.
(laughs)
- You guys know what kind of fish this is?
- No.
- Different types, I'm guessing.
- No, it's all one kind of fish.
- [Elijah] Oh, wow.
- Guys, this is salmon.
- I have a lot of experience cooking with salmon.
I've burnt plenty of pieces, but I've learned
that, if you broil it and do it quickly,
it can come out really good and tasty on the inside.
- When I eat salmon, I really like it to be
a little chewy, but not too chewy.
- I don't like the raw fish taste.
- Alright.
I've cooked a lot with salmon.
It's one of those fishes that really goes
in a lot of different cuisines.
It's so versatile; it's just a really great piece of fish.
- So, guys, you're gonna have 30 minutes
to prepare your dishes.
Your time starts now.
(beeping)
(rock and roll music)
- [Tahara] Think.
Think.
- I'm still kinda conceptualizing my dish in my head.
So, what I wanna do a play on a carpaccio,
which is thinly sliced salmon with some
nice citrus and avocado.
Thinking I wanna do a good play on, maybe,
introducing some raw fish, and then also
doing some cooked fish, as well.
- A lot of people have missed the boat when it comes
to salmon, 'cause they just think: lemon, dill,
salt-pepper. Boring!
I'm gonna make this delicious, sweet glaze
on top of it.
I wanna make, like, an egg roll and then everything
will have vegetables in it.
- I haven't really used these pre-made sauces before,
so it should be interesting.
Some fresh peanut butter.
- Kids like mustard; they like hot dogs.
Soy sauce, some butter, brown sugar.
Chow! They ain't even gonna know what hit 'em.
- [Dakota] Sounds like you got quite the plan over there.
- I don't get how they cut like that!
- [Elijah] I know they go like this. (mouth noises)
- [Dakota] Kids like sweet things, don't they?
- [Tahara] Kids love sweet, they love crunchy.
I see the carrots; I see the shredder,
and I start shredding my vegetables.
I want to incorporate lots of vegetables so it's healthy,
but not so many that it's overpowering.
- I really wanna make sure that my salmon carpaccio
is palatable.
I pound it out as thin as I possibly can.
Maybe this might be a nice introduction into sushi.
- I see that there's an extra piece of meat there,
and I'm like, ooh, ground beef.
Kids really like ground beef.
Let me just throw that in there, as well.
- [Dakota] I put a little maldon salt on it,
and, kinda try to build that part of the dish.
I'm a little nervous, you know, doing raw fish
for kids is definitely a little risky.
(laughs) So, I don't know how this is gonna go.
I may have gone too fancy.
I dunno.
- I'm so focused I forget to cut the salmon up,
because I was just so excited to get it in the oven.
While that's cooking, then I start making my noodles.
- Whoo, she's got all kinds of things cooking over there,
and I don't have anything on the stove yet.
- [Andrew] Chefs you have 15 minutes left.
- 15 minutes.
- [Dakota] Heard.
- Fifteen minutes!
- [Dakota] Now, I'm gonna pull the salmon
out of the marinade and skewer them.
Every kid I know, they all love anything you can eat
off of a stick.
- My noodles! Oh!
- She's really focused.
- Delicious meal from the momma that loves 'em.
Your momma loves you, baby.
As I wait for my salmon to come out,
I then start preparing my rice paper for the rolling.
- [Andrew] I think she's making something
a little bit spicy, guys.
- Yeah, it looks spicy.
I like spicy food.
- I've just started getting into spicy foods.
- [Elijah] It's like a wrap.
- [Andrew] A spring roll? Yeah.
- [Sydni] Yeah, like a wrap, maybe?
It looks really good.
Hey, Elijah, let's go check in Chef Dakota.
- Okay, let's go.
- I'll check on Chef Tahara.
- Hey, Chef Dakota.
- How's it going?
- Good!
- This looks good.
So, what're you making?
- Kinda doing a play on a cooked and a raw salmon.
- What is the sauce you're dipping the fish in?
- This is a coconut-peanut sauce, a play on a satay.
- Yeah.
- Thank you Chef Dakota.
- Thanks!
- Hey, Tahara, how's it going?
- Good, good, good.
Just trying to get the last little bits in here.
- I see you've been trying a couple different ways
of making your dish.
- I've just spanded the whole globe.
I think it's gonna be fried, so it doesn't matter,
it'll be delicious.
- This doesn't exactly look like salmon to me.
- There's definitely salmon in it.
Kids who don't necessarily eat fish all the time,
they can always be thrown off by meat.
Let's just say I've got many cultures going on
at the same time.
- I'm really looking forward to it.
- Thank you.
I'm normally not this messy at home.
I've got a little sous chef I gave birth to.
- I am normally this messy.
(laughs)
- Five minutes left, chefs.
- Whoo!
- [Tahara] Add a little bit of this.
I realize that it's time for me to take my salmon out.
It looks delicious; it's the right type of flaky.
But, realizing that I forgot to cut it up,
I now have to cut the salmon right in the middle,
so it looks like a big ol' hunk of meat on top of the plate.
But, I know it's gonna be delicious,
so that won't even matter.
- And now, I take my peanut-coconut milk
and I dress that salmon, and it looks really beautiful.
The colors are bright and I'm very happy.
- I'm completely confident.
I put some of the salmon on top of that plate,
and with, literally, five seconds left,
(countdown starts)
I throw my chives on top of the plate.
And viola!
- Zero! (laughs)
- [Andrew] Time is up.
- Tahara, please explain your dish.
- I have made a brown sugar honey salmon
on top of rice noodles.
It's got some green onions, it's got a little bit
of ground beef.
Like a beef-vegetable-carrot-empanada
salmon-roll-bake thing.
- This looks good!
- Looks beautiful!
I love how you placed the fish on top of the pasta.
The fish glaze looks really good.
(crunching)
- First, when I saw it, I'm like, whoa.
It reminds me of going to the seafood restaurant
with my family on my birthday.
- I love how you put the ground beef
with the vegetables inside of it.
It brought out so many more flavors in salmon
than I thought there were.
You really did surprise me.
- The beef texture is a little bit rough on my gums.
- Elijah, did you get a bone there?
- Yep.
- Oops!
- It's a really unique combination of things.
I don't think it reminds me of any specific one cuisine,
but I really like it.
- Thank you, Tahara, for your dish.
- Chef Dakota, can you please describe your dish?
- So, what I did for you is a play on two different
kinds of salmon.
The first is a carpaccio-style, and I glazed it
with some soy, sesame, vinaigrette, a little fresh
blood orange, avocado, sesame seeds, and a Thai basil.
And then, I also did a salmon satay pop in a classic
coconut-peanut sauce on top of a little
sauteed shiitake and some snap peas.
- I love your presentation, but I would've liked
the soy sauce to be even on both sides 'cause I'm
very particular with stuff.
(laughs)
- Be brave!
- Wow.
I can really taste the blood orange in it.
- I love the avocado on top, that really added
a nice touch to it.
- This dish makes me wanna run to the beach right now.
Just make a sand angel.
I love it!
- I definitely love the peanut-coconut sauce.
I think the soy sauce with the sesame seeds
is a little too sour for me.
For now, I think I'm gonna stick with cooked salmon.
- It is really just like butter.
I mean, this is how I love to eat fish.
- Thank you, Chef Dakota, for your dish.
- Absolutely.
- This is gonna be a hard deliberation.
- Mine was just kinda like spaghetti.
(laughs)
Meat! Work! And it did!
- It did! I thought it was gorgeous.
- Thank you!
- What do you guys think about Tahara's dish?
- I would prefer the beef to be a little bit less chalky.
- I didn't like the ground beef in the pasta.
- Was I the only person that got a bone in mine?
- You were the only person that got a bone.
- I didn't get a bone,
but I think she was just a little rushed for time.
- Honestly wanted to steal every secret that you had.
And, while I like you, and we should have wine
together some day, you're goin' down.
(laughs)
Just wanted you to know; you're goin' down.
- As much as I think you're fabulous,
I'd be horribly embarrassed if I lost to you,
I can't go back to my kitchen and tell all my cooks,
Yeah, sorry, guys.
So, yeah, I wanna win this.
- Chef Dakota.
- Yes.
- I've had salmon a lot of ways.
I've never had it as a Popsicle.
- Yeah.
- [Andrew] That was really cool.
What a contrast!
- Yeah, it went back to when we were three or four,
and we would just eat Popsicles out on the porch.
- I still eat Popsicles out on my porch.
(laughs)
- I do, too.
- Yeah, same her.
- It reminds me of when I was little.
- This was a really hard decision, but --
- I think we all know who won.
- Let's call the contestants back out.
(playful music)
- Chef Dakota, Tahara, welcome back.
Thank you both for coming in today,
you both cooked some amazing dishes.
- Tahara, your brown sugar-honey-salmon glaze
was really amazing.
- Chef Dakota, your salmon Popsicle stood out.
- The winner of Mom vs. Chef is...
- Chef Dakota!
(Cries out, clapping)
(laughs)
- Whoo-hoo! (laughs)
- I can't believe I lost.
Honestly, this is what this girl does,
so I didn't want to hurt her too bad,
so I probably held back just a little bit.
- It's quite the honor.
It really is, honestly.
I know kids' palettes can be very finicky,
cooking for my niece and nephews, so this is good!
I'm real excited to tell my sister,
and my niece and nephew, this is awesome.
- Thank you both for coming in,
and cooking some amazing food for us.
This has been Mom vs. Chef.
What do you guys want for dessert?
Fish Popsicle?
- How 'bout we just stick with chocolate cake or something?
- Yeah, we could do chocolate cake.
(dance music)
- [Voiceover] Oh, yes!