Chopped All-Stars: Crawfish, Cucumber, Beef Tendon | Full Episode Recap | S10 E9 | Food Network

A challenge was made and accepted. Acclaimed celebrity chefs, your favorite Food Network stars, and our judges battle it out to win $50,000 for their favorite charity. This is Chopped All-Stars. We have reached the apex of culinary competition. For the first showdown of our $50,000 tournament, we have, from the hit Food Network series, Iron Chef America, four Iron Chefs here in the Chopped kitchen. Iron Chefs, we are so excited to have you here on Chopped. If you win, your prize will be one of the four spots in the All-Stars finale competition, where one celebrity chef will win $50,000 for their favorite charity. There are three rounds, appetizer, entree, and dessert. Each course has its own basket of mystery ingredients. You must use every ingredient in the basket in some way. Also available to you are pantry and fridge. Each round is timed. When the clock runs out, our judges will critique your dishes on presentation, taste, and also creativity. If your dish doesn't cut it, you will be chopped. Iron Chefs, please open your baskets. And for the appetizer course, we have crawfish. I'm from the South, so I know about boiling crawfish. Lemon cucumber, purple wax beans, and precooked beef tendon. Our clock is set at 20 minutes. That time starts now. I'm making this great lettuce wrap with crawfish, some beef tendon, lardon, with a good spicy feta yogurt on top. I think that's really gonna be fresh and light. Well, I came in kind of wanting to do a little bit, adding a little more feminine finesse to my food because I was going up with three dudes, but I want to say Michael, Mark, Jose, I took you down. Behind. I'm going to make a marinated vegetable dish with crispy beef tendon and crayfish. Winning this competition for Autism Speaks is 100% motivating me when I cook. What I'm gonna try and do here is a crawfish bisque. I throw the beef tendon in there, but I'm going against Iron Chefs here, so I'm gonna really kind of swing for the fences and see what happens. I'm gonna make a chopped, chopped salad. So I'm competing for St. Christopher's Foundation, where $5 will give a basket of food to a family. So you can imagine what $50,000 could do. I'm worried about Iron Chef Simon. He hasn't got anything on the plate yet. Yeah, Michael, come on, start plating, guys. Just like Iron Chef, it comes down to the last minute. One minute left, chefs. I feel like I'm gonna miss something. I don't want to get chopped. Sign the painting. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Time's up. Please get back. Good job. Chef Mark. You have a spicy crawfish and beef tendon bisque with a lemon cucumber and purple wax bean crostini. Next up, Iron Chef Garces. We have the chopped, chopped salad. Spicy crawfish vinaigrette with whole crawfish and beef tendon chicharrones. Next we go to Iron Chef Cora. I call this lettuce wrap crawfish and cow with spicy feta yogurt on top. And finally, Iron Chef Simon. I did a marinated crawfish with crispy tendon. So, whose dish is on the chopping block? Iron Chef Forgione, Iron Chef Cora, Iron Chef Simon, please open your baskets. And we have octopus, dandelion greens, aged gouda, and sour trahana. You have 30 minutes on the clock. Time starts now. I see octopus, and my family's from Campania, and my grandfather was a great cook. You know, he taught me how to make his sauce. So in homage to the family, I'm gonna do octopus with the classic sauce pomodoro. I'm adding lemon red wine and the cork in it because I'm sitting in a wine bottle with all of those tannins and the acidity of the wine that helps break down the octopus. I wanted to use the octopus two ways. To create a really flavorful octopus broth and have some grilled octopus as well. The aged gouda with the octopus threw me off a little bit. I don't really love cheese with seafood, but I put a little bit of the gouda in the salad just to use the ingredient. This is your 2-minute warning. Both Chef Cora and Chef Forgione would really like to take Chef Simon down. But Chef Simon, he had some trouble with his presentation in his first course. I wasn't gonna put out another sloppy plate. Judges deserve better. And 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Time's up. Please step back. Iron Chef Cora. It's a grilled octopus with a roasted tomato, and a dandelion salsa verde. Next up, Iron Chef Simon. So today we have a braised octopus with some cinnamon stick, a creamed trajano, a dandelion salad, and tart yogurt on the bottom. Final entree, Iron Chef Forgione. You're getting a grilled octopus, a sour trajano and gouda gremolata. So whose dish is on the chopping block? Iron Chef Cora, you've been chopped. Iron Chef Simon, Iron Chef Forgione, you're making it very clear here how you achieve such great heights in the culinary world. Are you ready for the final round? Let's get it on. Ready to go. Please open your baskets. And you must use plums, coconut rum, black beans, queso fresco. 30 minutes. Time starts now. I get some heavy cream with sugar, a touch of honey, and then I add the queso fresco, but it doesn't melt the way that I thought it would. It curdles, so plan B. So I'm making a queso fresco soup. I add some mascarpone, give it a buzz, strain the whole mixture, and then get it in the freezer and see what happens. I'm gonna make queso fresco and ricotta donuts over a black bean caramel. Chefs, here is your 2-minute warning. I thought this soup would be like a frozen sweet cream, but it didn't happen. Being an Iron Chef, sometimes things don't work, and, you know, you can't throw your hands up. You gotta adjust. So I'm deciding to go with a bowl that has a bigger surface area where it can kind of spread out, and I can work on presentation and kind of build it up from there. And... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Time's up. Please step back. Chef Simon. I made queso fresco donuts over black bean caramel with a brown butter and coconut rum plum sauce. Iron Chef Forgione. I did a queso fresco soup with a black bean puree. So whose dish is on the chopping block? Iron Chef Forgione, you've been chopped. And that means, Iron Chef Michael Simon, that you are the chopped champion, and that we can't wait to see you back here again to compete against three other stellar chefs in our Chopped All-Stars Grand Finale. Congratulations.