[audio logo]
"Last Chance Kitchen" is back.
Oh, Jesus!
This season is like nothing we've ever done before.
16 "Top Chef" winners and finalists
from all over the world have descended on London, England.
I won the first final in Paris.
[non-english] "Top Chef Brazil."
I won season one of "Top Chef Canada."
To battle it out for the ultimate culinary title,
"Top Chef World All-Star."
Runner up on "Top Chef Kentucky."
Finalist "Top Chef Germany."
From Poland to Brazil, from the Middle East to the US,
these are the creme de la creme of "Top Chef" competitors.
Here to prove once and for all who deserves the title.
That's beautiful, perfect, perfect, perfect.
I've never been eliminated, so I definitely have never been
part of the chef's kitchen.
If you're a winner, you've never been eliminated before.
But everyone's going to go home.
Chefs, not yet.
Come with me.
Even the best chefs can have a bad day in the kitchen.
- Hey, guys. - What's wrong?
Oh, my! - Sorry, so sorry.
And in a battle of titans, one must always fall.
There's a bottom and a top always.
That's why they get to see me here for a shot at redemption.
Any of these ingredients look familiar?
And perhaps, cook their way back into the competition.
You have 15 minutes on the clock.
Yeah, you don't have a whole lot of time to think here.
In the end, there will only be one "Top
Chef World All-Star Champion."
Just when the chefs think they're out,
we pull them back in.
This is "Last Chance Kitchen" presented by BMW,
the ultimate driving machine.
[bell ringing]
OK, I think we have our answer.
Let's get them out here.
Samuel, please pack your knives and go.
It was really tough for me to get back in the competition.
Way more difficult that what I thought.
I did a big mistake and I accept to be the first eliminated.
Dawn.
Please pack your knives and go.
I was not expecting to be eliminated this early,
and it sucks to be the first American to go home.
I'm gone too soon, and it's really not acceptable for me.
I'm feeling very good, I'm feeling very excited.
I have so many things else to show.
This is my chance, and I don't want to miss it.
I'm not sure about "Last Chance Kitchen."
I know it's a major, major push and a challenge,
but I'm up for it.
You know, I'm a competitor at heart.
So, Tom, bring it.
[pounding music]
Hey, chefs, welcome to "Last Chance Kitchen."
Tonight, "Top Chef France" winner, Samuel,
enters the first ever international "Last Chance
Kitchen."
He goes up against "Top Chef Portland's" finalist, Dawn.
One of these "Top Chef" titans will be out of the competition
for good.
I'm going to do my best for you, Tom, and for myself.
Wow!
We've got a "Top Chef Portland" finalist
and a "Top Chef France" winner!
Just goes to show you how fierce this competition
is going to be.
Here in "Last Chance Kitchen," the chefs that are eliminated
get a chance to cook back to the competition.
And three times now, that chef has
won the title of "Top Chef."
So that could be either of you.
But it's going to be harder than ever.
Samuel, the first challenge was to make
a vegetable forward dish.
You gave us a dish that focused more on the prawns,
and they weren't cleaned properly.
He didn't devein the shrimp.
I got the same thing.
Not very refined.
You got to clean it.
What happened there?
I thought I cleaned them all, and maybe I
forgot a few intestine.
Dawn, you made black bean congee
with oxtail and crispy rice.
It sounds like a great dish, but yeah,
it just never came together.
The rice did not cook all the way the day before.
I couldn't differentiate the rice in the congee.
It all was now eating crunchy.
I have used a similar rice before.
I thought it would lend itself well to congee,
but it needed a little bit more time than I had.
Yeah, yeah.
Listen, I know you're both talented,
or you would have made it here to London if you weren't.
And going home first doesn't always reflect
just how good you really are.
But this is going to be a tough journey
for anyone to get through.
Since this season, we have some of the best "Top Chef"
competitors all over the world to battle it
out back into the competition.
[audio logo]
Take a look at these ingredients.
Any of these ingredients look familiar?
They should look familiar, because these
are the main ingredients from two of your most
memorable finale dishes.
Sam, one of your finale dishes was
your miso roasted salmon with cabbage cannelloni
and Mandarin sauce.
Dawn, you made lamb tartare with tomato and celery salad,
with rice honey bread.
I did, yeah.
Bring you back fond memories?
Yes or no.
[laughs]
How long did it take you to make that dish
the first time around?
We had a five-hour prep day.
We had 10 hours.
Wow.
Do you think you could do these dishes in 30 minutes?
30 minutes?
Uh.
I want you to use these ingredients
and make something totally different.
Give us something that shows us who you are today.
Now, you still have to use lamb, and you still
have to use salmon, but you can use anything else on the table.
You have 30 minutes and your time starts now.
[fast tempo music playing]
So, Dawn, do you want to go home?
No, I'm not ready yet.
Me, too.
I'm going to do what I need to do to stay in the game.
What do you think you're making?
I'm going to use the salmon, and I'm
going to twist it with Japanese cuisine,
because this is also my cuisine.
Basically, I'm going to use it with teriyaki sauce
and Japanese mushroom.
I want the French finale with a very similar dish.
And my restaurant is one of the most famous everyone, liked it.
So I feel pretty confident.
The harder part of this challenge
definitely is the time, so I'm not going to use
the cabbage in the Mandarin.
So what are you going to do with this lamb?
I'm going to make a fondant Japanese potato.
But I'm still developing the flavor profile for the lamb.
I think we have very different cooking styles,
but I'm very happy to compete against you.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I'm thinking of making pan-roasted lamb with shito,
some tomato, and celery.
Shito is a Ghanaian condiment of chiles and dried seafood.
It adds richness, umami, and heat to a dish,
so it's really delicious.
It's really good to have the fire just behind us.
I know.
It makes it very more easy.
Very convenient.
20 minutes?
20 minutes left only.
Wow.
What I'm worried the most, is time to plate.
Because to bring the Japanese touch,
I want to paint the plate as a Japanese garden.
A touch of Spanish vinegar to bring my wife's touch.
[sizzling]
I'm putting the tomatoes in the wood-fired oven,
because I want this wood fire taste to them.
There are not enough textural ingredients,
so I've decided to add a buttery herbed
breadcrumb topping for crunch.
All good for you, Dawn, from now?
Yeah, yeah, how about you?
Yeah.
I didn't burn anything yet.
Just 15 minutes left.
Hey, Dawn.
Hi, Chef.
How you doing?
Oh, so good. How about you?
Oh, no, I'm ready to eat, I guess.
- Yeah. - What are you making?
Pan-seared lamb with fondant yams.
Is this something you've done before, or?
I've cooked all of these things
before, maybe just not together.
Right.
I'm gonna go get a mandolin real quick.
- Hey, Sam. - Hi, Chef.
- How you doing? - Very good, thank you.
Yeah, what ware you making?
So I try to twist a bit the recipe I did,
and my cuisine is based also on the Japanese fusion.
So I'm doing a grilled salmon and different types
of mushrooms, pickles, grilled, pureed, and a little sauce
based on the teriyaki sauce.
OK.
So, it's cream.
Yeah, of course.
How could I cook without cream, you know?
Well, you say this is Japanese-based,
and they don't use a whole lot of cream in Japanese cooking.
It's my Fusion touch.
Oh, your fusion touch.
I think that to make a good puree,
you need to hide a little bit of cream in
and to have the richness and the consistency.
But there are lots of places in France
where they don't use cream.
Of course, of course, yeah, definitely.
- So are you from Normandy or? - Yeah.
- You are. - Yeah.
OK, so that's why you use cream.
Yeah, yeah, it's wonderful.
Now it makes sense, OK.
What's the temp of this oven?
Ow.
You should hear your tomatoes cooking,
popping, and blistering in there, and there was nothing.
So that's not hot.
They're kind of simmering now, which will not give
the char that I'm looking for.
That's annoying.
I decide to put the shito in the tomatoes
and make them into a sauce.
That's where the shito's going to live instead of on the lamb.
How much is that going to throw you off?
A little bit.
I'm going to do my best for you, Tom, and for myself.
I hear you.
Five minutes, Dawn.
Heard that.
Yeah, I just have to blend my puree
to have a lot of mushroom flavor concentration,
but I'm running out of time.
I really want to stay in this competition.
I have so many thing else to prove and to show to them.
Dawn, are you OK?
I mean, if the lamb cooks, I'll be fine.
If not, I won't.
And how are your tomatoes?
Tomatoes are tomato-ing.
The shito is a lot spicier than I want it to be,
so I'm trying to balance that with salt acid
and a little bit of honey.
It doesn't taste like mine, but I'm going to go with it.
One minute, Chefs, one minute.
[fast tempo music playing]
10 seconds.
3, 2, 1, time is up.
Well done.
Good job.
Chefs, bring up your dishes.
Sam, tell us what you made.
I used Japanese French fusion, so I make mushroom cream,
grilled salmon, and different declination of mushrooms,
and I make ponzu pine nuts vinaigrette.
(WHISPERING) Tom loves mushrooms.
Your style of cooking is Japanese French fusion?
Yeah. I lived in Tokyo for a while--
Uh-huh.
--before coming back to France.
Yep.
Dawn, what'd you make?
I made a pan-roasted lamb saddle with shito warmed tomato
salad and herb breadcrumbs.
Mm-hmm.
Good dishes.
But unfortunately for one of you,
your time in the "Last Chance Kitchen"
is going to come to an end.
[audio logo]
Sam, your salmon is beautifully cooked,
the sauce has a lot of mushroom flavor.
Not only different mushrooms, but different preparations.
Dawn, a lot of flavor, lamb, beautifully cooked, heat
and a sweetness coming through.
They're both good dishes.
But my least favorite dish today, Sam's.
You know, you talk about Japanese flavors,
and I'm not getting a whole lot of Japanese here at all.
There's also a lack of seasoning in the dish.
The soy is not enough to give it that salt that it needs.
OK, it's fine.
Thanks, Sam.
Congratulations.
I don't have any regret.
I just wish I could have time to express more my cuisine.
If I have the opportunity, is my dream
to open a restaurant in the US, definitely I will
also have to adapt the palate.
They like salt.
Congratulations, Dawn.
Thank you, Chef.
- One step closer. - One step closer.
Moving on to the next challenge.
This is really good.
The potato gave it a lot of texture.
It's a lot of flavor-- - Thank you.
--in a very short time. that you built up here.
- Thank you. - Nice work.
Feel pretty good to get a first win now?
It feels good to not overthink--
Yeah.
--which has been my problem in this competition.
Yeah, you don't have a whole lot of time to think here.
No, no.
And I think that is what I need.
I think you're going to need this.
Get your coat back. - Thank you.
- There you go. - Thank you.
Dawn, good luck.
It's only going to get harder from here,
but take it one at a time and we'll see you
in next "Last Chance Kitchen."
Thank you, Chef.
I embrace challenges and competition fully.
This is just one of a long road, so I'm
ready for whatever comes, and I'm
thankful for another opportunity.
[audio logo]