Pressure Cooker (2023) s01e02 Episode Script

1
[upbeat music playing]
"This is the House Divided challenge."
"Both teams have 60 minutes
to cook a cohesive five-course menu."
"The menu must represent
the five basic tastes."
"Sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami."
"Use this time to plan your menu."
"The challenge will start
when the next ticket prints."
- Whoo!
- [Caroline] Yeah, super nervous.
Sixty minutes to do a five-course.
You know, that's kind of insane.
[Jeana] Grab our notebooks
and team huddle.
Dining room?
Yeah. Dining room's fine.
Let me grab my book.
I'm excited for whatever's gonna come.
I'm hoping that we'll be able to work
a really cohesive, beautiful menu.
Um, but I'm a little nervous because
I know that if we go down as a team,
that you know,
I could be the one up for elimination.
Usually, a captain
will go down with their ship.
So it's all about making sure
our presentation is right.
Making sure that,
you know, our taste is balanced.
- It's sexy, you know, like, we got this.
- [Sergei] Uh-huh.
I feel like
we're gonna work together really well.
[Christan] I feel good, technique-wise,
absolutely.
And that's what we really need
to prove to them
is that we're hitting all the senses,
you know.
Cooking a five-course meal,
that's actually in my wheelhouse.
As a private chef, we do this often.
When I do five-course meals,
I normally go cold seafood,
buy some type of pasta course.
- [Lana] We don't have time.
- Buy sea protein
We have one hour.
Definitely open
to listen to ideas and suggestions.
But it's ultimately up to me to make sure
that the team is led to success.
Let's not get crazy. You know, if we're
trying to accomplish something like pasta,
like, it's not,
it's not gonna be that great.
Honestly, I'm free to make something
tonight, and we can taste it or whatever.
I'll make everything. I could care less.
[Jeana] I'm a little worried
about my team.
I think Lana and I
are really strong cooks.
I think Mike can be a good, strong cook.
I just think
he just needs to shut up a little bit.
[suspenseful music playing]
[bell chimes]
- [computer] Ticket printing.
- [whirring]
[Robbie] Oh, there it goes!
What?
[Ed sighs] Order in.
"It's time for
the House Divided challenge."
"Each team will have 60 minutes
to make their five-course menu."
"Judging your food is
a chef you're all familiar with."
"Chef Liv."
- Uh-huh.
- [exclaiming]
Liv. She's our judge?
[imitates braking sound]
"Chef Liv'll be blind-tasting
your dishes."
Oh!
"She will be judging
based on the execution
and the cohesiveness of your menu."
Nice.
[Ed] "The losing team
will face elimination."
"Your challenge starts now."
- [Sergei] Whoo-hoo!
- [Caroline] All right!
[Lana] I'm worried about the other team,
but if I spend too much time
worrying about the other team,
then my energy is misplaced.
Especially when I'm the leader.
Coming around. Coming around.
I'm feeling very positive about my team.
We're gonna put our hands together,
like we're the Powerpuff Girls
or cheerleaders or something.
We're about to be gung ho.
- [Sergei] Oh!
- [Jeana] Scoot! Scoot! Scoot!
Ha-ha-ha!
Behind.
Our team decided to skew a little Asian.
Um, all of us have some experience
with those flavors.
You see the kumquats?
So our first course is
a salty filet tartare from Jeana.
Second course, Robbie's doing
a sweet caramelized lobster.
Third course,
Caroline is making umami mushrooms.
I'm doing a sour tamarind
glazed lamb for the fourth course.
And last, Mike is making
a bitter chocolate ganache.
Nice hustle, guys. Nice hustle.
How's Team Sunshine feeling?
Team Sunshine is feeling mighty bright
about this situation, man.
The menu that we have going on is
definitely a Californian Pan-Asian style.
Bright and ready!
[Renee] First things first, we've got
our sour hamachi from Sergei.
Then rolling into the second course,
Christan is making
a nice bitter green salad.
Third course,
Ed is making umami soba noodles.
I'm working on a salty pan-seared
sea bass for the fourth course.
And the finale is from Brian.
Sweet panna cotta for dessert.
- We ready for war, man.
- [Sergei] We ready for war. I heard that.
So definitely gonna take you
on a little flavor journey.
- Show us something sexy, Brian.
- Oh, don't worry about it.
[Renee] Heard.
Everyone's so serious today.
- Hey, I got some things to prove.
- Yeah.
What do you think?
Vitamix or Robot for the avocado mousse?
- Avocado, I would do Vitamix.
- Yeah.
I'm instantly feeling
that our team is gonna be strong.
Rice wine vinegar, make that sweet.
I feel like Renee chose
all of us very specifically.
All of our kind of styles together
will be really good.
We know we're gonna,
like, kick ass and crush.
I've got all my citrus zested.
So the key is to keep that avo mousse
ice-cold and bright green.
Taste this.
- With little limes in it.
- Oh, yeah.
- You good?
- Yeah.
What do you got going on?
I am doing a salted bean aioli.
My dish for a salty first course
is a beef tartare with filet mignon,
mixed with a salted black bean aioli.
It's obvious that my first cook wasn't
very good, and I'm not proud of that dish.
So this dish is really important
for me to redeem myself,
to show everybody in this house that
I'm meant to be here, and I wanna be here.
Love to see it.
Well, you're gonna see it. [chuckles]
When you're dealing with big bold flavors
like salty [chuckles]
it's really interesting to not let
those flavors overtake early on.
Taste first seasoning.
Am I getting a little bit bitter notes?
- I see.
- [sighs]
- But it's salty.
- I like it.
I think the caviar
will add some sweetness.
- It's really good.
- Okay.
- We're cool with that?
- Yeah.
[Christan] I'm doing the salad course,
which is the second course.
I'm in charge
of hitting these bitter notes,
which can be a little complex at times.
You want a bunch of char on that.
Know what I mean?
- Even both sides.
- [Christan] Yep.
Slightly bitter note on it? I like it.
Because of my heritage, I love to cook
with a lot of Southeast Asian flavors.
Bold flavors.
I was thinking, like, in your salad,
like, you need just the top, so like
My mom came to the US when she was 19
and to see her live this "American Dream,"
you know, it's really inspiring.
When I was a kid, my mom would cook,
and I'd always want to help.
And I think I was hooked,
just being in the kitchen.
- [Lana] Thirty-nine minutes, y'all.
- [Robbie] Thirty-nine minutes heard.
All right.
Sorry, guy.
My course flavor profile is sweet.
I'm making a brûléed lobster tail.
We're gonna brûlée it with a little bit
of ginger, sugar and salt
and then a corn and coconut curry sauce.
So we're adding kind of sweet
and a bitter note
to hopefully just compound
and accentuate the natural sweetness
of the lobster.
- Lobster and corn getting ready to go in.
- Heard.
[Robbie] A really important part for me
is that my dish today be way different
than the first dish that I did.
- Lobsters are in.
- Heard, lobsters are in.
I think that they saw my first dish
on the plate, and they thought,
"Oh, you know, here's the coast guy
just doing some crab cakes
and throwing them up."
"We've seen that on every hotel menu."
So it was important for me
to put a plate out that made them go,
"He really can, you know,
do this type of presentation."
Stay together, team. Stay together.
- Where's that furikake at?
- Just gave it back. It's right here.
- Right there. I just gave it back.
- Okay, thank you.
Coming around beside you.
We all have dishes that
we're working on right now.
Christan's brought over her vinaigrette.
I've been trying that.
I've tried Sergei's hamachi.
Everything seems
to be coming together really well,
and I'm really happy
about what's happening.
- Getting your parsnip purée going first?
- Yeah. First things first.
- [Sergei] Don't leave it all for last.
- Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not.
But I'm kind of feeling like
Sergei is bossing people around,
clearly wants to be fully in charge.
You wanna put your parsnips in cream
or are you gonna leave it in that broth?
No, I don't want it in that broth.
I want it out of it.
- But you're gonna put cold cream though?
- Yeah.
Boo, let's go.
Yeah. Let's go.
If this happened in the real world
[chuckles] whoo-hoo!
I would have told him to get off my line.
- Not tender yet either.
- [Renee] That's what I'm saying.
However, we are
in the middle of a challenge.
Is this the right time for arguments?
Honey child, no.
Mm-mm, no, sweetie. Mm-mm.
Salty Being someone
that runs a restaurant
and being someone that has
to always be watchful every
what everyone else is doing,
it's just my nature.
- Get this going on top of my pot.
- Yeah, get that going ASAP.
And then it needs salt.
Yes, it's a team challenge,
but you also must lead the team.
- And Renee is not, you know.
- Coming through. Coming through.
Coming through.
Coming through and I might burn you.
You want me to be the one yelling?
I got you all day.
[Renee] We don't want you yelling, boo.
Not cute.
[Jeana] How are the saltiness
of your mushrooms? Good?
- I think so. You can try.
- [Jeana] Okay.
As long as your mushrooms pop in salt,
I think you'll be okay.
- Okay. Can I try your dashi?
- Yeah, go for it.
- Where is it?
- Behind you in that pot right there.
- [Lana] Heard. Yes.
- [Caroline] That pot.
Oh, yes!
- That's good, yeah?
- Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Everyone looking good? Feeling good?
- Looking cute, feeling cute.
- Heard.
As a team leader, I like to lead people,
but I also like to lead in a way
that isn't intense,
isn't overbearing, feels like it's still
a group making most of the decisions.
But at the end of the day,
I want to make final call.
Ready over there, Mike,
if you wanna show me
what you were talking about.
You got it? When you have the lamb
on the board, come grab me, okay?
I have it right here.
[Mike] The cake is the only thing I gotta
weigh, but I got that stuff weighted.
Decide which one is the good one,
so I would take this guy out.
[Lana] Yeah, I would too.
- [Mike] See that muscle?
- [Lana] Oh, I see.
- And then what I do
- Pull it right out?
[Mike] Make sure you get
that little side bone out,
and see, there's a thing right here too.
Then you just do every other.
I think everyone's trying
to prove themselves right now.
When you're working on a line,
you wanna try to help each other.
That's perfect.
Yes! Thank you, Mike.
You're killing it.
Killing it in the game. That's perfect.
- There you go.
- Thank you.
I appreciate you.
That's a teammate right there, y'all.
Brian, how you feeling? We got a lot
less time than we did the last challenge.
- Feeling good about your dish?
- I feel great.
[Sergei] Hell yeah.
[Brian] It's a walk in the park, baby.
- Love that. Love that.
- [Brian] Walk in the park.
Today, I'll bang out a sweet.
I'm doing a panna cotta.
It's redemption.
I definitely have something to prove,
but I did say to myself coming
into this show,
I was gonna go big or go home.
Come on, baby girl, come together.
We on ten minutes, y'all. Ten minutes.
[Christan] Brian, what do you need?
I'm almost there.
I'm good. I'm just trying
to make sure that I reduce that good,
or it's gonna seize up.
Good. Yep.
How are you guys doing
and looking and feeling?
Thank you.
Once stuff chills, I'm plating.
I am making the fifth course,
which is dessert for our bitter course.
So I am doing a Chinese five-spice ganache
that is going with a flourless
chocolate cake and then a coffee froth.
So we took bitter
and made that, uh, our dessert.
We can take sweet
and put that somewhere else on the menu.
Can I see y'all plating soon?
- How you feeling?
- Good.
Just checking in.
I looked at the panna cotta.
That's the only thing I'm worried about.
I literally, the only thing.
I, like, looked at it right now,
and I was like, "Okay."
Pray for a miracle.
All right, alternative backup plan.
What do you think?
Don't have one.
It'll be like if anything,
if it's not set, you gotta put it
into a bowl and call it a mousse.
- He said he feels good. I trust him, but
- [Renee] Right.
Your tamarind is gonna win.
A touch of sweetener because
That's why I have brown sugar here.
Brown sugar's better than white sugar.
I hate white sugar.
Yes, it is, honey. Learn now.
- [laughing]
- [Mike] Oh, stop.
Three minutes.
- You guys doing okay?
- [Jeana] Yeah.
[Sergei] Hot pan. Hot pan.
[tense music playing]
[Brian] Panna cotta.
- [Sergei] You plating yet?
- Getting there.
[Sergei] Two and a half minutes, boss.
What do you need?
[Brian] That's all I need.
[Sergei] It didn't set, huh?
[Brian] Half of it did.
And I'll cover it, don't worry.
- How are you looking on time?
- [Mike] I'm good.
[Lana] Let's start plating.
This hour goes by so freakin' fast.
Yes! Diablo!
I see a lot of people pulling plates
right now.
Hey, guys, come try out this lobster.
- [Jeana] Yeah.
- This our crème brûlée?
Needs a little more salt.
It's cool.
[Sergei] Okay, 29 seconds, 28.
Let's go, let's pump it.
Finish strong, y'all.
[Renee] All right,
Brian, we're waiting on you.
- Let's pump that sexy.
- [Brian] Oh, I'm trying.
[Renee] Shake that off, man.
- [Brian] I wish this would've set better.
- [Renee] Without question.
- [Mike] You cool with this plate-up?
- [Lana] Yes, perfect.
- [Renee] Come on.
- [Brian] Ready.
- [Lana] Is yours up? With your cups?
- [beeping]
- Yep.
- [Lana] Oh, I love it.
- [Mike] Good-looking plate, Robbie.
- [Lana] Gorgeous.
[Renee] Come on, baby.
Comin' in hot, y'all. Comin' in hot.
Comin' in hot.
- [beeping stops]
- [cheering]
Damn. We promised a panna cotta,
and we have a sauce.
All I can hope for is that the flavors
are there, and the judge is blindfolded.
Good job, guys.
- I tried.
- [Renee exclaims]
It was so disappointing to see this dish
just look like a pile of plop.
I mean, Brian, why didn't you ask us
to help you with this panna cotta?
You let us down.
Guys, guys, everything looks really good.
Proud to be on a team
with you guys! [chuckles]
I see the food that my team puts up,
and first thing
that I notice is it looks like
the kind of menu
that one person would've made,
which tells me that the menu was cohesive.
The food looks really tight,
really beautiful.
So I couldn't be more proud
to be on the team.
I think they did a great job.
I feel like I bonded
with Mike a little bit.
- [laughs]
[Mike] Oh, okay.
- I see you broth-ing.
- Oh!
I feel my team has done a good enough job
with the exception, of course,
of our, you know, sweet aspect.
Uh, however,
I am highly concerned at this point.
Their stuff looks A1.
Definitely top-notch.
So I am completely unsure
of how this is gonna swing.
- [laughing]
- [chattering]
[Ed] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Oh! What up?
- [Mike] What?
- [cheering]
- Yay!
- Whoo!
- [Ed] Look who we have here.
- Yay!
I'm back! [laughs]
[cheering]
- I'm excited to eat your food. Bye!
- [cheering]
[tense music playing]
[Liv] It's exciting to go
into this completely blind,
not know who made what dish.
It's a curveball for me,
because I don't know what
to expect out of every dish.
I think it's really important to be fair.
Take all the judging criteria into play,
like, really think about all the different
elements of everyone's dish.
[whooping]
I'm so happy to have cooked again.
It's nice to see Liv there,
and seeing that she is the guest judge
kind of lends me some ease
because I know
that she knows what good food is.
- Cheers to another one.
- [Lana] Another one.
- [Renee] Let's do it.
- [Sergei] Let's do it. Let's go!
So this is
an Asian-inspired classics menu.
First dish is filet tartare
with salted black bean aioli.
Oh, wow, that's beautiful.
Let's try
turning fancy food into finger food.
[suspenseful music playing]
Hmm.
Course one, I think presentation-wise,
this dish knocks it out of the park.
It looked beautiful.
However, when I go in to try it,
it's just not necessarily
what I'm looking for.
I think they relied a little too heavily
on the black bean
and the caviar to bring salty.
But really for me, personally,
that was hitting a lot more umami notes.
And then because that section
was so heavily seasoned,
to me, the beef tartare element actually
was lacking a little bit of seasoning.
Next dish.
Caramelized lobster
with corn and curry. Sweet.
I'm super excited about this dish.
I love lobster.
My one concern is the powdered ginger
mixed with sugar on top of the lobster.
The lobster might be a bit overdone.
Which is disappointing.
Let's try the next one.
This is mushrooms three ways
with black garlic and mushroom dashi.
This is the umami flavor profile.
It's a scary thing for someone that you
don't know well to be critiquing you,
but at the same time, that's life, right?
You put up a plate of food, and you don't
know what someone's gonna think of it.
[Liv] For me personally,
this dish was a little too on the nose.
When people think of umami,
the first thing they think of is mushroom,
and for this to be all mushroom
is just a little bit too much for me.
On to the next one.
This is tamarind glazed lamb
with kumquats and turnips.
Wow.
Wasn't expecting that.
I love that you were, like,
glazing the lamb mid-cook.
I saw that, and I was like,
"Okay, I see you."
Like, that's technique-driven for sure.
[Liv] And the last dish is
Chinese five-spice ganache.
Okay.
Wow. Really bold flavors.
I do love what a unique interpretation
of bitter this is.
The ganache is a little bit grainy.
I would have liked something
a little bit smoother,
but it wasn't unenjoyable.
It was absolutely delicious.
I liked it a lot.
All right. That was a great menu.
Time to move on to the next one..
Number one,
hamachi crudo with hibiscus ponzu
and radish sprout with crispy rice paper.
Okay.
- [Lana] How'd you feel about your cook?
- I think mine was
Like, mine was probably,
like, the tightest palate cleanser.
Get you going,
awaken all those taste buds.
[Liv] It hit that sour point.
I thought the hibiscus was
a really great way to utilize sour.
Because there was a candied Fresno
on that dish.
I thought it reminded me a little bit
of Renee's first dish.
But there's really no way of knowing.
It just kind of was reminiscent of Renee.
So the next dish is bitter green salad
with dandelion, endive
and puffed amaranth.
Proud of the dish. It looks beautiful.
It's a salad that I would actually eat.
I'm pretty sure she's like,
"Oh, wow, they stepped their game up
for this challenge." [laughs]
It's a little tart.
I am getting some bitter, but not a lot.
So on to the next one.
Soba noodles with brown butter maitake
and umami broth.
Ooh, the broth is really flavorful.
That's exciting.
What do we have here?
Charred sea bass
with black bean hoisin ginger sauce.
Ooh. That sauce is definitely salty.
The sea bass itself was just a little bit
overcooked on the actual fish,
but then the skin wasn't super crispy,
so that for me is,
like, kind of a big thing.
Alrighty, last dish.
So this is panna cotta with sesame maple,
with lemon curd.
I've never seen panna cotta
plated like this before.
I feel like I had a good dessert.
It just didn't set.
You know, it is what it is, and I'm just
hoping that all the flavors are there.
Wow.
I think that panna cotta could have
been maybe Lana or maybe Sergei,
just 'cause I thought
the flavor profile was pretty advanced.
And that's something that
I think he might lend himself to.
But it's really hard to tell.
This is gonna be really tough.
I do have a lot of thinking to do.
Team one did a really great job
of creating a cohesive menu.
You could tell they worked together,
and their execution was pretty great.
Team two has some of my favorite dishes
that I ate the entire evening.
So it's gonna be really hard to decide
which team ended up doing better
in this challenge.
[suspenseful music playing]
[chefs chattering, laughing]
Oh, you know what that means.
- Bring it in.
- [Renee] That's crazy.
[Mike] Straighten up.
- Clean up.
- Dishes.
- [Mike] I'm feeling it though.
- Not bad.
Who be putting potatoes on my station?
- [Ed] Nobody had tomatoes.
- Put it here.
Put the fruit and veggie
or I'll take it.
- Put your fruits and veggies there.
- Don't know what that means.
- [Sergei] I don't know either.
- Good talk.
Is that all the dishes?
- Hey, is that all the dishes?
- [Sergei] Nah.
[Renee] All right.
[laughing]
Hey, guys.
What?
- I got, uh, some notes from Liv.
- [Jeana] No way.
- Hey, everybody!
- Tell everyone to come in.
- [Jeana] We got some notes.
- Huddle up!
What is that?
Where'd you pull that out of?
- He just found it.
- Holy smokes.
[Ed] All right, so both of our menus.
The red team first, uh, course,
filet tartare
with salted black bean aioli.
So it says, "Initially getting more
umami than salty from this dish,
and the tartare itself
was under-seasoned."
[Jeana] I'm really disappointed.
The fact that she said
it was more umami than salty. [sighs]
I mean,
that's a very confusing comment to me.
Okay, caramelized lobster
with corn and curry.
"Love this interpretation of sweet.
Every element was well-seasoned."
"Only critique is lobster was overdone.
A bit chewy."
Okay, mushrooms three ways.
"Dashi was lacking seasoning.
Got some umami, but not very creative."
Next, tamarind glazed lamb.
"Really liked this use of tamarind
and kumquat for sour."
"Nailed the brief."
"However, whole dish
could've used more salt for me."
Chinese five-spice ganache.
"Really unique interpretation of bitter."
"I think it got the point across
without being too bitter."
"Texture on ganache was quite"
- What does that say? I don't know
- "Grainy."
So she said my ganache was grainy,
but we had five people
on the station taste it,
and we all thought
it was perfectly smooth and good.
So I don't know what she's talking about,
but, um,
but you know, to each his own.
[Ed] So the yellow team.
[clicks tongue]
hamachi crudo.
"Bright from hibiscus,
well-balanced, not too sour."
"Wish there was more heat, more Fresno."
Bitter green salad.
"I got tart sour first.
Not as bitter as I would have liked."
"Would have preferred
less yogurt and more veg."
[Christan exhales]
Next is soba noodles
with brown butter maitake.
"Broth very flavorful and well-seasoned."
"Altogether a good representation
of umami."
Sea bass. "Just a touch overdone
for my preference."
"Skin not as crisp as it could be."
"Turnips a bit underdone,
parsnip purée tasty."
"As a composed bite,
better than elements were."
Wow.
Panna cotta with sesame maple,
nori powder with lemon curd, sweet.
I don't know at this point how
or who is gonna get eliminated,
but I'm hoping that I'm not back
on the chopping block,
um, just because of an unset panna cotta.
You just gotta hope for the best
and not panic.
[laughs] Panna cotta. Panic cotta.
Ah, that's funny.
"Really well-balanced,
loved the flavors and textures,
super risky doing panna cotta
in limited time."
"Would eat this again anytime."
So she really liked the flavor of that.
[Renee sighs]
- Damn, she liked that. I was worried.
- Whoo!
I was so worried.
Maybe broken panna cotta's a thing.
Maybe
[laughing] Maybe Brian
stumbled upon something.
We gotta open up this, uh,
broken panna cotta shop.
Have your people call my people.
I'm gonna tell you what, that sounds
equally balanced between both teams.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
So yeah, the one that we was worried
about the most, she liked the most.
All the flavors are there,
the panna cotta just didn't set.
[Renee] I wanna see what this looks like.
- I know. I need to reread.
- So what's next?
[Renee] Yeah. Whew.
- [bell chimes]
- [computer] Ticket printing.
Oh, wait, let me let me see this.
[whirring]
[Caroline] I'm sweating. I can't do this.
- All right.
- [Brian] Let me read it with you.
No, let me, let me
- All right. [exhaling]
- Breathe in. Breathe in.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Lana] Just read it.
Read it.
Okay.
"Chefs, the results
from the House Divided challenge are in."
"The winner is the red team, the Diablos."
[cheering]
[Sergei] Nice work.
- Good job, guys.
- Nice work, chefs.
[Ed] Congrats.
[Mike] Nice work.
So overall, with yellow team's menu,
I do think the menu could've been
a little bit more cohesive.
For me, it was pretty obvious that
so many different chefs made each dish.
The red team did a really great job
of creating a cohesive menu.
You can tell they worked together,
and their execution was pretty great.
So because of that, the red team
ended up doing better in this challenge.
[all] Thank you.
- Thank you, guys.
- Good job, guys.
- You too, guys.
- Nice work. Nice work. Nice work.
Okay. [sighs]
[Robbie] Group hug?
- Group hug! I love a group hug.
- [laughing]
Yay!
- [Caroline] Oh!
- [Lana] Diablos.
[Caroline] What is it?
- [Lana] Diablos. Diablos!
- Diablos!
[laughing]
- [bell chimes]
- [computer] Ticket printing.
[whirring]
Oh, my God, there's another one. Jesus!
- [shushing]
- [Sergei] Oh, my God.
Here we go. "Chef Renee."
"As the leader of the losing team,
you must now put up two members
of your team for elimination."
"Then the rest of the chefs must vote
on which of the two to send home."
That's wow!
That is absolutely gut-wrenching.
I don't like that.
I don't like that. I don't like that.
[Ed] I am very much shocked that
this shook out the way it shook out.
Chef Renee had way more things
written negatively about her dish,
but she's not putting herself up
for elimination.
That's a fact.
[Sergei sighs]
- [Caroline] You good?
- Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Come here.
- I mean, I'm not nervous, but I'm
- No, you shouldn't be. No.
I think that, for sure,
Renee will put Brian.
I don't know who the other one will be,
but I hope it's not Sergei.
He likes to pretend he's, like, tough,
and you can see that he's trying
to be, like, douchey,
but really, there's, like,
a good person in him,
so that makes me intrigued to, like,
pull the goodness out of him. [chuckles]
If I was Renee, I would go based upon
whatever Liv wrote in the book.
And honestly, like,
Liv wrote great things about my dish.
And it's black and white,
like, you can read it.
Like, I had one of the best dishes out
of all five of us.
[Renee sobbing] It's not a good feeling.
[Lana] I know.
[Renee sighs]
[exhales]
Oh, man.
[Lana] It's okay.
Wanna hug?
- [Renee] Yeah.
- Wanna hug it out?
- [Renee] I'm sorry.
- I know this is hard.
[Renee] You grow a liking
for people and stuff like that.
You know, you get to know everybody,
and then it's just like,
you have to be the one to take them out.
It's not someone else, you know.
That's what's gonna make it hard.
It has to be us doing it to each other.
And I'm sure this is gonna be something
that has to come to most of us.
You know, the stronger you are,
the more this is gonna be something that's
gonna fall into your hands, I think.
- Right.
- Just
I know, not a position
that either one of us wants to be in.
Try and take as much as
crazy as it sounds,
try and take as much emotion of it out.
- Just see who, like, didn't perform.
- Yeah.
And only you know that,
how your team performed.
[sighs] Oh, man.
All right, let me
- Do you. Do you.
- Yeah. Yeah.
[Lana] Renee's a strong leader,
and I respect that.
I rarely see another woman
that looks like me in fine dining,
and it's notably and notoriously hard
on people of color and women in general.
To see this challenge that has people
from all walks of life,
all parts of, you know, the country,
and the first two who do well
and the most strongest competitors
are women of color,
it just really shows, you know,
and is a testament to how well we can rise
even with adversity in our lives.
I'm 1,000% confident in the dish
that I put forth.
But let's be honest, in this game,
there's no such thing as a sure thing.
[Renee] Um, so,
this is definitely not an easy situation.
I'm gonna keep it short and sweet.
Um, Brian,
I'm putting you up for elimination.
And, Christan, I'll be putting you up
for elimination as well.
Um, this is hurting me
to even call your guys' name.
And I apologize now
for how this may end up.
You know, first up is Brian.
He's put up two dishes that he basically
said that he knows how to make,
he knows how to crush and kill,
and they just didn't do it for me.
- We're here to support you.
- It is what it is.
And then you've got Christan
who's played it safe.
Honestly, I didn't want it
to come across as favoritism
since we've bonded
from the very beginning, the very jump.
- [Brian] I love you.
- [Renee] We're all responsible for a dish.
And unfortunately,
this is kind of how the cookie crumbled.
[Sergei] Shake it off.
[Christan] Personally, I feel betrayed.
I just did not see that coming.
[Renee] Where you at on this?
[Ed] I'm so on the fence,
it's not even funny.
what our shortest shortcoming was.
Brian's panna cotta didn't come out.
The overall goal was
to hit all the flavors.
[Renee] Right.
[Ed] The guest decided that the fact that
it was broke was not an issue for her.
Do I go for what we wanted
or for what the guest wanted?
Christan's playing it safe,
but I know for me,
with Brian, I'm like, "Nah, son,
you're you're not gonna get around
free to disappoint."
Yeah.
So, you're right.
I'm, like, really nervous
because I could be going home, but
You don't give up, you know.
Been an underdog my whole life.
It's just you just gotta fight
and, um, get your way out of it.
Listen to me, if you were smart,
you would tell everybody to keep me on.
- Me?
- Yeah, tell your people to keep me on.
- Why?
- Everybody votes.
[Brian] Listen,
I'm telling you, if I get voted off,
I know who voted me off.
I'm telling you.
[Lana] Oh, my God, Brian.
There's a way to say things
without saying things.
And he definitely said something,
like, there was a lot of implied,
uh, meaning below that.
I don't know.
You like concrete on your feet or what?
[laughing]
[Jeana] This vote, you have to understand,
doesn't come down
to your what your dish is.
- Yeah.
- Because I can't vote on your dish.
I didn't try your dish. I can't vote
on Brian's. I didn't try his.
But what I can vote in
is how much I trust you
versus how much I trust him.
That's what I can vote on.
[Christan] I'm so nervous,
but sometimes it's not good
to wear your emotions on your sleeve,
because you have to have tough skin being
in this industry. You have to. [chuckles]
You know, there are some scary moments
where you feel inadequate.
There are some moments where
you're just like, "What is going on?"
But it's really how you persevere
through those hard times
and really how you shine
through those moments.
I feel like I've had a great relationship
with everyone on this.
Like, I've connected with everyone so
- I know, personally, I feel good.
- Yeah.
I'm telling Christan
I have her back, but [sighs]
- [Christan] You wanna talk?
- [Ed] Yeah, of course.
I don't know exactly what I'm gonna do,
but I know I gotta shake things up
a little bit.
I'm not the kind of gal to play games.
- That's what it's all about.
- I don't play games in my regular life.
Am I interrupting?
No, not at all.
We're just talking about in general.
Don't know how I should be able
to vote someone off
when I didn't taste their food.
It's not about food.
And the sooner
we realize that in this game,
the sooner we can start playing this game.
Yeah.
[Jeana] This is just like working in
a restaurant. We're gonna make mistakes.
So, I need to figure out
who's gonna have my back
when I make a mistake.
You have to kind of put yourself
in a position to have an alliance.
Nobody has talked to me and said,
"Jeana, if you don't vote me,
I promise to have your back."
- Jeana, I got your back.
- Same.
- [Brian] Done deal.
- Oh, my God.
- [Brian] Done deal.
- [Jeana] You know?
You know, it's just the way it is.
[scoffs] It's done! Done deal.
Sorry, Christan, Brian literally said,
"I got you, girl."
Like, he said it, I believed him.
So [sighs]
onward to getting Brian to the top.
What are we voting on?
Are we voting on the book?
- I never saw the book.
- What are you voting on?
Like [hesitates]
- Personality?
- No.
- No, not
- Okay. So what are you voting on?
Like, I may not have tasted the dishes,
but I can, like, visually taste
Taste based on execution?
Mm-hmm. Yeah,
visually taste what they taste like.
That make sense? I can see your dish,
and I can see what it tastes like.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, and I do feel like
one dish probably did taste better.
[Caroline] Mm-hmm.
In the sugary aspect,
you know what I mean?
[mutters, laughs]
[suspenseful music playing]
[inaudible]
You gotta get
uh, you gotta get in at at Caroline.
- That's the swinger?
- Yeah.
Okay, so here's my dilemma.
Do I vote on someone
not being able to execute something
that should've been executed
in the 60 minutes?
Or do I vote for someone
who I think really didn't try hard enough?
- If you swing for a fence and you miss
- Mm-hmm.
I don't know who you guys are voting for.
- [Caroline laughs]
- [Brian] Listen, I'm serious.
Based off of what's in the book
and, like, what I'm trying to do,
I definitely did better than her.
But I'm not trying to swing anybody.
I'm not trying
to tell anybody anything, but
You are trying to swing. That's okay.
- [laughing]
- That's what you're supposed to do.
- Yeah, of course.
- Yeah, it's fine. Own it. That's cool.
We're not gonna judge you for it.
I would do the same.
Yeah, what I'm trying to tell you is
I'm gonna look out for you guys if,
going forward,
if anything like this happens
to either one of you guys.
- I appreciate that.
- [Brian] So
It was a pretty clear decision
in the very beginning
that I would be choosing Brian
because this was his second time
in the bottom.
But Jeana brought up a fair point.
In this kind of game where
we're really trying to be competitive
and to challenge each other
and to challenge ourselves,
you know, Christan seemed
as though she was playing it safe.
So that made me last minute change my mind
into voting for Christan to go home.
- Was that easy for you?
- No.
Oh, okay, you did that so fast,
I was like [gasps]
[Caroline] No.
Mike. How we doing?
I'm going to vote
the way the rules say I should vote.
It's it's not an easy decision.
It's not an easy thing to do.
[exhales]
[Jeana] I can do toppings. Pepperoni?
[Sergei] Brutally honest with you,
I vote for Brian to get eliminated
because, you know, this is, at the end
of the day, a culinary competition.
This isn't just about, you know,
like, alliances and friends.
And why would you keep somebody
who, you know,
made a clear mess of a plate?
Everybody vote?
[Lana] Not yet.
[Robbie] No matter who goes home,
it sucks.
Brian is a straightforward dude
with a huge heart.
And Christan, she's young.
She's got her career ahead of her,
and I would hate to see the fact
that she went home deter her
from the greatness that she has in her.
[Renee] My choice is made already
before making my walk to the machine.
I'm gonna vote for Brian.
He's jumped up to the plate.
"Oh, I make this panna cotta
that's, you know" [speaks gibberish]
And then,
it's just like, you made panna poop.
[Jeana] Christan has no idea
what's going on here.
So I'm gonna play into that.
I wanna be her best friend.
I wanna be here for her.
Yours was, like, very well-thought-out,
very composed.
- Very composed.
- And that's what I liked.
- It was well-thought-out, well-executed.
- It was 100%.
You know, and it's not the most
honorable game as compared to some
[door opens]
[Christan] Whew! Oh!
Can I come in?
Well, you can.
- [Christan] Really? Okay.
- Yeah. How you feeling, girl?
- I'll leave. We'll have a transition.
- Transition.
Here, here. You sit down, girl.
- All right.
- How you feeling?
Yeah, shocking, uh [exhales]
now that it's on me.
[laughs] All of a sudden,
the tables have turned.
But, like, on the real,
since we're doing confessional,
I've talked to almost everybody
playing neutral ground,
going through with, like,
"I don't know what's going on."
Going to me, "I don't know what to do."
Everyone I've talked to has very much
pushed towards you as staying.
- Okay, I was like, "Get out of here."
- I'm very bad with my words.
But very much every single person
I've talked to has been like,
it was not even fair to begin with,
but execution is execution.
That's what I've gotten from everyone.
[Christan] I feel good knowing
that I did everything that I could 100%.
If I could've added more, I could've
added more, but yeah, thank you. [kisses]
- 100%. For president, right here.
- [laughs]
[scoffs]
There's this, uh, I had a
Don't. No. Oh. Oh.
Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
[tense music playing]
[Christan] I'm gonna be optimistic.
I know I deserve to stay,
and I think I will be staying.
I really think I'll be staying.
- [bell chimes]
- [computer] Ticket printing.
- She hit the eight-ball in.
- Oh, nicely done.
[printer whirs]
There's a ticket, y'all.
All right.
- Is this everybody?
- Yep.
[Sergei] Uh,
the elimination results are in.
Uh, Chef Christan.
Six votes.
[somber music playing]
Chef Brian.
Two votes.
[Christan] Wow.
Wow.
[Christan] To leave, wow.
So that's elimination results.
Wow.
[Renee] Wow.
[Lana] Wow.
- [Jeana] Wow.
- Wow.
[Christan laughs] Wow.
- [Jeana] You sure it says it like that?
- [Lana] You sure?
- [Sergei] I
- [Lana] Six to two?
I'm not lying.
- [Christan] So six votes to kick me off.
- [Sergei] Six to two.
[Jeana] I planned to do this.
[laughing] But I was shocked
when those votes came out,
and it was Christan going home.
You play that back,
that face was jaw dropped. [laughs]
That's that's like all of y'all.
[chuckles] The majority.
Wow.
- Yeah.
- [Ed exhales]
[Christan] I did not think the house
would turn the way it did.
Personally, I feel betrayed by the house.
Um, this is a competition,
and this was not based off
of eliminating the weakest person.
It's cutthroat, okay?
[laughs] It is cutthroat.
[exhales]
You all are playing the game.
Um, it really comes down to that,
you know, like
Unfortunate for me, but yeah.
Sorry to see you go.
Essentially, when it came down
to voting, like,
Brian took the bigger risk,
even though it wasn't successful.
The way I see it, if he made a panna cotta
and it wasn't successful,
and she made a salad,
and it wasn't successful,
then maybe the one who tried
to at least take a risk should stay.
Come on, girl.
[Jeana] Only two people voted
to save Christan,
and I'm supposed to be one of those two?
Now that is messing
with my "lay low" strategy. [chuckles]
Because I mean,
then I stand out like a sore thumb.
I mean, there's only two of us.
And I immediately have to go in
and just put myself in front of her,
and let her know, like, I'm there for her
and I don't know
who the asshole was that lied,
but we're gonna find him.
We're gonna make sure he goes down.
Asshole being me. [laughs]
[Christan] I mean, obviously,
like, I just told her I was like,
six people in the house,
like, that's that's everyone.
That just means a lot of people
can't be trusted, to be honest with you.
- That's what I was saying.
- Like, literally the game just shifted.
[Jeana] There are people that lied
to my face.
Keep your head on a swivel.
You know what I mean?
[Jeana] Oh!
[Renee] But that means,
like, realistically, if we both voted
[Jeana] I voted for her
- Voted against her. [chuckles]
- I voted for Brian. You know what I mean?
So that means that, literally, Serg
Oh, yeah, Serg.
Obviously, Serg could
out-cook Brian any day.
[Jeana] Why is he playing
the game like that?
He just played the game like that.
You gotta be real with me
real quick, Serg. Just be real with me.
Come on. Do it. Do it. Do it.
I didn't vote for you.
I didn't. I really didn't.
What do you mean? So how is it
I don't know, but people may be lying.
It's the name of the game.
Okay.
[Sergei] Who did you vote for?
- I voted for Brian.
- [Sergei] Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know.
Like I said, like, I'm shocked.
I, literally, like,
that was shocking to me.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Renee] Yeah, something
something ain't right.
You've got people in my face
telling me that they voted for Brian.
I know I was one of them.
Somebody is not telling the truth,
and at this point, the math ain't mathin'.
Yep, one of them is lying right now.
I'm trying to get a good read
on everybody, but one of them's lying.
Certified.
[dramatic music playing]