♪♪♪
"Last Chance Kitchen" is back.
WOMAN: Cook, baby, cook.
TOM COLICCHIO: 15 acclaimed chefs
from all around the country have come here to Portland
to compete for the title of Top Chef.
No crying in baseball, kids.
TOM: For most, their time in the kitchen
will be cut short.
Please pack your knives and go.
TOM: But before they pack their knives for good,
they'll have one last chance to battle it out
for a spot back into the competition.
We all love a comeback story.
MAN: Ooh.
TOM: Tonight, as the first chef eliminated in Portland,
Roscoe is determined to show off his culinary chops.
ROSCOE HALL: I'm gonna show who I am
and just crush it.
TOM: His duck adobo had us crying, "Oh no."
He takes on Sasha.
Her beer and coffee dish left us
with a bitter taste.
How was your elimination challenge?
Well, I'm here, dawg, so obviously it didn't go well.
TOM: Can she prove that she's no flash in the pan?
This is "Last Chance Kitchen,"
presented by BMW.
♪♪♪
Coming to "Top Chef," I wanted to prove to myself
that I can do anything within my field.
Being the first to leave,
that's super lame.
MELISSA KING: The broth was sort of
the biggest issue for me. It was greasy.
And then it also dried out the duck.
Roscoe,
please pack your knives and go.
Today's the big day at "Last Chance Kitchen."
I'm gonna show who I am
and just let myself speak on the plate.
SASHA GRUMMAN: Being on the top of the first Quickfire
was amazing, so getting eliminated
so early in the competition really, really sucked.
That romesco sauce was too chalky.
- Just--it didn't eat well. - Yeah.
Sasha, please pack your knives and go.
My motivation for being here
is to prove to myself that I'm, you know, worth it.
I'm worth being here.
So, I'm ready to cook.
I'm ready to get back in the kitchen.
I'm a ----ing fighter.
♪♪♪
Hey, Chefs. Welcome to "Last Chance Kitchen."
- Hi. - Hello.
It's definitely true what they say,
the first cut cuts the deepest.
- Ugh. - Obviously, there's
a group of talented chefs here this season,
and it could have been anyone.
It's that little mistake that gets you sent home,
which why "Last Chance Kitchen" is so great.
One bad day in the kitchen? You get another chance.
Hopefully, your time for redemption has come,
at least for one of you.
To make it in this competition, you need skill,
talent, and a thick skin.
Kind of like these ingredients over here.
There are three types of ingredients.
You have proteins, produce, and nuts,
all having a thick skin or a hard exterior.
Each of you will choose one ingredient
from each category and create a dish
that incorporates all three items.
[whispers] Son of a bitch.
Sasha, you do Italian food mostly?
- Mostly. - Yeah, you probably
don't find jackfruit or mangosteens
- on Italian menus much. - [laughs]
- Not every day. - Not every day.
- [Sasha laughs] - No.
So, Roscoe, these days, you're spending
most of your time on barbeque.
Are these ingredients ones that
- you're used to working with? - Oh, yeah. Definitely.
Oh, yeah. No problem.
These tough skin ingredients
will not only test your skill level
but your creativity to make a balanced dish
in a short amount of time.
Sure.
In honor of our host city this season, Portland,
a town whose name was decided on a coin toss...
Oh, cute.
...we'll flip a coin
and we'll see who chooses first.
So these two guys own the kind of territory here.
One was from Boston, Massachusetts.
The other one was from Portland, Maine.
And so they flipped a coin,
and the guy from Boston didn't win.
- Yes. - Good. That's how we like it.
Roscoe, since you were the first out,
you choose, okay? - All right.
Tails.
- TOM: It's heads. - Son of a bitch.
- SASHA: Oh. - TOM: Sasha, you choose first.
Let's do oysters.
- TOM: Oyster for the protein? - SASHA: Yeah.
Roscoe, your choice?
- Clams. - TOM: Clams it is.
Sasha, your choice second.
- Pistachios. - TOM: Pistachios.
Okay. Roscoe, your choice.
- Peanuts. - TOM: Peanuts it is.
- Sasha, your choice. - Cherimoya.
TOM: Cherimoya.
- Roscoe. - [Sasha laughs]
Give me jackfruit.
TOM: Jackfruit it is. Okay.
Clams, peanut, and jackfruit.
Oyster, pistachio, and cherimoya.
- Yeah. - TOM: Interesting.
I don't think I've ever had those combinations before.
- Me neither. - [laughter]
So this is a chance at redemption for both of you.
Whoever wins this challenge gets to continue
- on "Last Chance Kitchen." - Cool.
TOM: And if you can outcook all of your opponents,
you'll earn a second chance at the title of Top Chef.
[mouths words]
TOM: You have 25 minutes on the clock.
Your time starts now.
♪♪♪
ROSCOE: Spices.
I think the most difficult aspect of this challenge
is gonna be bringing everything together
in 25 minutes.
Buttermilk?
And on top of that,
I've never put these things together before.
Oysters, pistachios, and cherimoya,
that's tough.
Oh, there you go.
The immediate game plan is to open up the cherimoya
and see what the texture is like on the inside.
I have to separate the seeds from the flesh,
and I know that's gonna take a minute.
I've worked with jackfruit before,
but I've had a cook, like, break it down for me.
It's very intimidating,
but I'm not gonna show it.
Inside, each pod has
like a mango-vibe type seed in it.
It's a fun ingredient to play with.
But, that being said,
I've never paired it with clams or a peanut.
Sasha, what are you making, bud?
I'm gonna do a cherimoya puree.
- Uh-huh. - And I'm gonna do
like a chicken-fried oyster.
- Uh-huh. - And a pistachio crumble.
Nice.
The flavor profile of cherimoya
is like almost a little honeydew melon-ish.
My goal is to go to Texture Town.
I know the nuts are gonna bring a crunch.
I know the cherimoya is gonna bring
a smooth, velvety texture.
And I can go in a crispy direction
for the oysters.
♪♪♪
SASHA: What are you doing?
ROSCOE: I'm gonna go for some
- jackfruit fritters. - Cool.
I'm going low country vibes.
I'm immersed in South Carolina-vibe cooking.
I think it's a new part of the South
that has not been expressed.
Mushrooms, potato, chowder. Sweet.
I'm making two boils.
One has Gullah seasoning.
And then for my peanuts, celery root
kind of gives you more of a heartier, savory boil
'cause peanuts need that 'cause they're beans,
so you gotta treat them like they're a bean.
♪♪♪
SASHA: How you feeling, Roscoe?
ROSCOE: This is fun.
How are you feeling? Good?
I feel good, dawg.
I'm super familiar with cracking open oysters.
I did it for a long time.
I can crack oysters quickly.
What you got going?
Like, a little miso batter.
Nice.
It's kind of just a dredge
where the oysters are gonna sit,
kind of soak up that miso flavor
until I'm ready to fry them.
- ROSCOE: 13 minutes. - SASHA: Heard.
ROSCOE: Tom walks in the room.
I just start breathing heavy.
I look at Tom, and it's like I work for him.
You want approval from your chef.
- TOM: Hey, Roscoe. - ROSCOE: Hey.
So what are you making with clams,
peanuts, and jackfruit?
I'm gonna do like jackfruit fritter...
- Oh, okay. - ...for some texture.
There'll be a light broth. Boiled peanuts,
and then clams
and a little bit of shiitake mushrooms.
All right.
Is it something you, like, thought of right away or...
- [bleep], no. - [laughter]
I got your back all the way, Chef.
Yeah. Thanks.
[laughter]
Hey, Sasha. So, uh...
oyster, pistachio, that makes sense.
- Cherimoya. Okay. - Isn't it?
- Yeah. - It all--it all--
- I guess it all works, right? - I'm vibing.
Okay. So what do you do--we got eggs.
What's going on here? Doing pasta?
Deep-frying some oysters.
So I did like a little miso batter,
and then cherimoya puree. I'm gonna roast
- some of these guys... - Okay.
- ...and crush it. - Okay.
I have no idea what Tom is thinking ever.
He has expressions,
but I have no idea what they mean,
and I'm okay with that.
- Things are happening. - [Sasha laughs]
Things are happening. This is just great.
SASHA: 11 minutes.
♪♪♪
There's a lot of flavor that you can pack into dredges.
I really wanted to play off of that oyster flavor,
and I think the miso is gonna bring,
like, a really beautiful roundness to the dish.
Get it. Get it. Get it. Get it.
Sasha is just a beast.
She's a lot of fun to cook with.
[indistinct baby talk]
[Roscoe laughs]
I would work with her in any capacity.
TOM: Chefs, five minutes left.
Five minutes, huh?
♪♪♪
When plating the dish, I feel great,
From the peanut puree,
the fried clams, jackfruit fritter,
everything just platted perfectly.
One and a half.
Roscoe is not somebody who's gonna show off,
and I respect the sh-- out of him,
but it's about not only proving to myself
but proving to Tom that I can cook.
TOM: Five, four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
Whoo-hoo!
Okay, Chefs. Bring up your dishes.
Okay. Nice.
Okay.
So, Roscoe, what did you make?
A peanut velouté
with jackfruit fritters, clams,
and shiitake mushrooms.
TOM: Mm-hmm.
You like a lot of acid in your food, huh?
- Yeah. - I can tell.
Sasha, what did you make?
I did a cherimoya and green apple puree,
chicken-fried oyster,
and then toasted pistachios on top.
♪♪♪
For ingredients that are kind of hard to work,
both of these dishes are really good.
[laughter]
I sound surprised. It's just that,
you know, sometimes you get some curveballs thrown at you,
and it's always interesting to see
what's gonna come out of it.
Hey, Roscoe, I like the consistency of it.
It's not like thick chowder.
The clams are nice and briny,
and the jackfruit always has that ability
to make everything around it taste sweeter
and brighter. And then the mushrooms
just kind of add that little bit earthiness to it.
So it's a really nice composition.
Sasha, the oysters are really nicely fried.
The puree is really bright.
You can actually taste both
the apple and the cherimoya in there.
Pistachios add nice a bit of crunch and texture.
One's outstanding.
♪♪♪
- Sasha's. - ROSCOE: Oh!
You did it.
- TOM: Yeah. - [Roscoe chuckles]
This is an outstanding dish.
This is a--it's quite surprising.
Roscoe, this is good. It really is.
I am enjoying it, but this is--this is like--
something is going on here. You should take this
and file this away and do this again
'cause this is really good.
- Sorry, Roscoe. - That's okay.
Roscoe, you can exit the kitchen.
- ROSCOE: Thank you, Chef. - Thanks.
- Congrats, Sasha. - Bye, buddy.
"Last Chance Kitchen" has opened my eyes
to so many new possibilities.
Whatever comes from this, I gotta stick to who I am.
It's a personal journey, man.
"Top Chef," Season 18. The struggle is real, bro.
[chuckles]
Okay. Sasha, is this-- is this the beginning
of a--you know, a little run?
- [laughs] - Congratulations, Sasha.
You're moving on. You're gonna need this.
- Oh. - Here you go.
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
We'll see you next week. Thanks.
Awesome. Thank you.
I feel awesome.
I made food that Tom liked and he enjoyed.
I don't know what happened to me
in the first part of the competition,
but I'm showing up now,
and trusting myself is paying off.
That fire in my belly is awake.
I'm gonna ride this wave for a while.
♪♪♪