Top Chef: Just Desserts (2010) s01e07 Episode Script
Dessert Wars
Previously on Top Chef: Just Desserts.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Morgan is very aggressive, and he elbows me.
Look at my lip.
Oh, Jesus.
Yeah.
Shaq knocks you on your ass, uh, you learn not to go to the post with Shaq.
Thanks to Morgan.
I find him disgusting, actually.
Just disgusting.
Her ice cream has this strange flavor to it.
It tastes a little like glue.
And the winner is Yigit.
Thank you.
Erica, please pack your tools and go.
I love you guys.
Now six pastry Chefs remain to compete for a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival, a German-engineered, sport-injected Buick Regal, and $100,000 furnished by Godiva Chocolatier.
Who has the creativity, the skill, and the drive to win Top Chef: Just Desserts? Top Chef: Just Desserts 1x07 Dessert Wars Last night was the first time I was in the bottom three.
I'm sure everyone was happy that I was in the bottom three.
I've been in the top three five times already, so I'm not gonna cry over it.
You know, your face really doesn't change when you do that.
Shut up, Zac.
I won the last elimination challenge.
I think I've had a target on my back since the second or third day here.
We're hoping that Team Diva truly is gonna go to the top three.
Morganza.
Morning.
How are you? Now that it's three and three, it almost seems like there's factions.
Team Go Diva, I need to break them up.
Yigit is a technical master, Heather is sharp as a tack, and Zac just brings this flair.
Together, that makes it a dangerous combo.
Good morning, Chefs.
Good morning.
Now we're gonna make things just a little bit harder.
From here on in, the winner of the quickfire challenge will not receive immunity in our eliminations.
Today we're gonna test your pastry skills and your ability to stay calm under pressure.
It's a Top Chef quickfire classic.
The mise en place relay race.
Yeah.
I think that the relay is certainly the most anticipated quickfire.
I mean, it's edge-of-your-seat excitement.
You know, there's three major factors to working in a busy pastry kitchen-- organization, speed, and precision.
So I'm really excited to see how well you guys fare in this competition.
First, we're gonna divide you into two teams.
Heather, please reach under your station and pull out the cookie jar and pick a cookie to see what team you're on.
Red.
Red.
By the luck of the draw, Team Diva actually comes together.
This is kind of what we've been hoping for from the beginning.
I think we're gonna actually kick ass.
I wonder what I got.
I wonder.
Black.
Always bet on.
Tada.
Got black.
Team Diva think they're too cool for school.
I can't stand them and I want them to go home.
Okay, guys.
So for the first leg of this challenge, you're gonna mold 12 perfect tart shells.
For the second leg, you need to pipe eight perfect butter cream roses, each about the size of a silver dollar.
When I see the butter cream roses, I'm like, "yeah, I can do that.
" You know, so I'm even more excited to do this.
For the third leg, you need to separate and whip six egg whites to firm peaks.
They need to be stiff enough that you can hold 'em over your head for ten seconds without falling out.
And for the final leg, as a team, you need to stretch strudel dough over the entire length of the table, and then roll the strudel.
In the end, you should end up with something like this.
The first team that finishes wins.
Stretching the strudel dough, if you don't do it quickly enough, it will crack and tear.
It must be done with absolute perfection to be successful.
Chefs, that's not all.
To sweeten the pot, each member of the winning team will receive $3,000 furnished by Dawn Hand Renewal.
Seals moisture in.
Money is great incentive, you know? I love what I do, but if I can do something I love and make a lot of money doing it, that's even better.
You'll now have one minute to decide which person on your team is doing which task.
Butter cream roses.
Yes.
Tart.
I can do tarts or egg whites.
I'll do egg whites.
You don't roll it.
You stretch it.
Okay? I am absolutely thrilled to have my boys on my team.
I think we want to win this and we're pretty determined.
Okay, Chefs, are you ready to go? Yes.
Yes, Chef.
Your time starts now.
Go.
We're all super competitive, but to have that kind of thing where we're being timed on such quick things, it's, like, super intense, and you can't be like, "mm," nervous and shaky.
My hands never shook so much.
Team positive.
Team positive.
Son of a The difficulty in doing tart shells is everything has to be precise, so I'm just focusing on being very fast and meticulous.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Nice.
Nice.
Danielle is like a whirlwind.
She's cranking out tarts way faster than Yigit.
How many is she on? She's got ten done.
Are they nice? Move on.
Move on.
Yes! This is the last one, baby.
Let's do it.
Very nice.
Check.
Stop.
Okay, Danielle, you're good.
Go.
Check.
Stop.
Uneven dough.
Even it out.
Yes, Chef.
Go.
You're an animal.
Check.
You're good.
Thank you.
And baker our team is in the lead at the moment.
I think just because we're against Team Diva, it's just kind of making us work harder.
Get that base.
Yeah.
Good.
His are smaller.
My hand is kind of shaking a little, and I notice that Heather's really whipping through those, and I look over and hers aren't nearly as nice as mine.
I'm so nervous.
No, you're not.
Heather picks up the pace and we are Team Diva.
We're gonna kick some ass.
Oh, my God! God, it's so Stiff.
Go.
Put it down.
Nice and easy.
Call check.
Check.
Eric, stop, please.
Heather, you're good to go.
Whoo! She ends up finishing just a few seconds before and it's frustrating, because I lost the lead.
Check.
Zac, stop.
Nice flowers.
Thank you.
I start my eggs just slightly before Morgan.
But Morgan's big.
Morgan has guns.
Morgan has muscles.
And, you know, I have these.
That's six, right? Go, baby, go.
So I am just whipping like crazy.
I mean, I'm not even doing any, like, classic figure eight pattern with the whisk.
I'm just beating.
Beating, beating.
Get the air in there.
I start whipping my whites, and I can't help it, 'cause I know he's got to work his ass off to get this done.
Tap into that energy, girl.
And this is gonna be easy for me.
Morganza.
Morganza.
Morganza.
Feel the burn! Round.
Go round.
Go round.
Come on, queen diva.
Come on.
Come on.
Check.
Flip it.
So Morgan calls time first.
I really want to call time too, but I just need to make sure that my eggs are perfect, and I'm not gonna get egg on my face.
Eat it, baby.
Whipping egg whites faster than Zac.
No problem.
Check.
Check.
The second Morgan puts his bowl down, I call check again and turn mine.
There was actually four seconds between our checks, which I'm pretty happy about.
Yes! Go! Take that, muscle man! Our table was about ten feet long, and the dough is only about the size of a football, so at this point it's really gonna be about stretching everything as a team, because you're actually gonna have to pull from every angle to make sure you have just enough.
Whoa, girl, easy.
Remember, back of your hand, okay? Back of your hand.
Stroke it, baby.
Stroke it.
Stroke it out.
I think I'm the only person that's really pulled out a strudel dough in the last decade.
Come here.
Hold here, okay? And I don't use my hands upward, 'cause your fingertips have a tendency to tear holes in the dough, so I try to use the back of my hands.
You guys, let's work over here and stretch this.
Okay.
We got a tear.
Tear at the end.
Heather, help me here.
Right here.
Help me pull as I pull this.
Very gently.
Team Diva takes the slow and steady approach.
That dough is very delicate, and you have to handle it very gently.
I look over to the other team, and Morgan is just drill, drill, drill, pull, pull, yank.
That doesn't work with strudel.
That's how you destroy the dough.
Okay, okay, okay.
Easy, easy, easy.
Let's not go crazy.
Our dough is in one piece and all we're trying to do is just stretch out the edges and the other team's dough, it's not looking good.
Danielle, you're off the edge of the table again.
It's so dried.
Yup.
Yup, yup, yup.
Yup, yup.
Done.
Check.
Okay, go.
Yes! Whoo! Apples.
Let's go.
Apple.
Apple time.
Nice and gentle, guys.
Let's not lose focus.
At this point, we start filling our dough with the apple.
We're rolling it beautifully.
Pull this way.
Stick.
But with the black team, there is holes in their dough, and it actually makes it really difficult to work with.
Jesus .
One, two, go.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
I got swiss cheese down here.
Lift up.
Check.
Check.
That's it.
Mwah! We lost to Team Diva, and I don't like to lose.
For your next elimination challenge, we're gonna put your pastry Chef skills to the test in the real world.
We're putting a sweet spin on the Top Chef restaurant wars.
Yes! It's time for the first ever dessert wars.
Yes! Yeah.
All right.
I've seen restaurant wars on Top Chef before, and I know this is the challenge that people really remember.
This is my dream.
I still want to open up a shop, but it's, like, such a huge, huge undertaking.
You will work in these same teams to create the ultimate dessert shop experience.
Each one of you will be responsible for three items on the menu.
It's up to you to create your own ultimate dessert fantasy land.
But since you're pastry Chefs, you also need to include a bread item on your menu.
Chefs, you know the name of the game is competition.
You have to figure out how to make your bakery stand out.
You have to figure out how to please the customer.
It's a complete experience.
Since this is a dessert battle royale, the winning team is going home with $30,000.
Oh, my God.
Everyone that is left has received some sort of money except for me, so I really want to win money.
The starting point for your shops is right next door.
Go take a look and good luck.
Thank you.
Two bags of lemons are missing from my stuff.
I did not take your lemons.
If that's not an accurate statement, you go ahead and correct me.
Lovely.
Wow.
So let's get to planning.
We leave the Top Chef: Just Desserts kitchen to actually go see our own dessert shops.
We have 45 minutes to menu plan as well as planning for our store's ambience, decor, and our plate ware.
Considering I've been trying to plan my own shop for about the last year, 45 minutes is such a limited amount of time.
I think if we have that display case whether we do, like, entremets and tarts and stuff like that, we can keep 'em in there.
Okay, what do you want the concept of the bakery to be? Don't get snappy with me.
No, that's--I think that's what we need to nail down.
Okay.
The first thing that I want to get out is theme.
Yes, I know it's exciting, like, to think about the space and whatnot, but, like, let's figure out what we're making first.
Fun.
I think it has to be fun.
It's an adult candy shop.
Yeah, exactly.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Oh, let's talk about-- do we want an overall theme? Yes.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Okay, so do we want to do really bakery style? I want to do it comfort.
Comfort.
I wanted to do, um, "drunken doughnut," so, like, a salted caramel doughnut with a whiskey milkshake.
Sounds good.
Morgan, can you come here and-- look.
Look here.
Look here.
Because now we're, like, all over the place.
Okay, I'll just sit here and be quiet.
No, I don't want you to be quiet.
But if we can all stay in one place then we get to see everything together.
Yes, Chef.
There's arguments about decor, that, you know, and the plates to use between Danielle and Morgan, and so basically I'm sitting, I'm waiting for them to fight it out, and then when it stops, I'll keep going.
This or this? I kind of like that.
I agree.
Done.
Thank you.
At the end of the menu plan, we are on track.
We know what all three of us are doing, and we all already have our prep lists.
So we leave and head to Albertsons to do our shopping.
Go diva.
Yes.
Balloons and bubbles.
Yeah.
We want some fun decor items-- ribbons, balloons, bubbles.
We want to put the flower arrangements in candy instead of water.
Like, we can just scatter candy everywhere.
The black team has no style, whereas we're the .
Like, we are the best people in that kitchen.
Really.
Got you a present.
Oh, thank you.
It was, like, a huge rivalry between us and Team Diva.
Oh, spices.
Spices.
Especially after losing the quickfire.
They think that they are so hot.
Let's check out.
The other team, they have a lot of produce on their carts.
So at this point, you know, they could be making anything.
I have no idea what their plan of action is, but I'm sure ours is better.
And five hours will be gone before we know it.
The dessert wars challenge is nine desserts, three from each person.
Of those nine desserts, one has to be a bread item, and two has to be a la minute.
Team Diva is on one side and team Loser is on the other side.
I love my team.
Team Diva's great.
Since we have a lot of work to get done, we're just gonna kind of take an assembly-line approach to this.
So long as we keep our head in the game, I think our technique will get us there.
I'm gonna have a lot of whites left over, guys.
Uh, save 'em, 'cause I'm sure we can use 'em.
I want to do a different texture of citrus with a Margarita sorbet with some mango foam.
Zac is gonna make the bread item, a savory fennel brioche, and Heather is creating a frozen key lime pie.
What number is this to? Do you know? I didn't do it on the sheeter.
I'm just rolling it out by hand.
Okay.
Do you want me to do yours by hand? I'm just gonna do yours by hand.
It's gonna be easier.
They're using it.
Heather is actually making the dough for all of us.
It's a huge responsibility.
She says that she doesn't feel comfortable working with the dough sheeter, and she wants to roll it by hand.
You know, she's a Chef, so I'm gonna let her do as she feels comfortable.
I hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.
I'm afraid if we do it on the sheeter it's just gonna get really warm.
And our team's first a la minute item is Danielle's ginger ale float with tangerine and raspberry sorbet.
Did you just check the cookies? Oh.
Eric's making the classic chocolate chip cookie.
Good? Yeah, very good.
Our bread item will be a warm, soft pretzel, which I'm making.
We bought four bags of-- I threw four bags of lemons to you.
Yeah, I know.
Why do we only have two bags of lemons now? They were right here.
We don't have any in the pantry? No, 'cause Yigit took 'em all already.
Well, I did not take your lemons.
For sure.
Two bags of lemons are missing from my stuff, so if that's not an accurate statement, you go ahead and correct me.
Dude, you know what? Seriously.
I grabbed a case of lemons, and I'm not gonna use every single lemon on there.
It's just a efficiency thing.
But it's not about the lemons.
I think Morgan would kind of like to see me go, because perhaps he feels like I could be good competition for him.
Morgan, there are plenty of lemons.
Next time you could just ask instead of blaming me, please.
No need for drama.
Your teammate is very stressed.
Huh? Your teammate is very stressed.
Suck .
, dude.
This is just Bull.
We're nearing the end of prep, and Morgan is starting to turn into, like, crazy person.
You know, I got to form all the pies.
Yeah.
And I've got to form all the Pretzels.
Morgan's making the pretzel dough by hand, and that takes a long time.
Three minutes! And he's used to finishing things before everyone else.
And so he's going off and--and just, like, super tense.
My day just got super harder tomorrow.
We're really hoping we can pull this off, but we need Morgan to, like, stop acting like an Hole.
And if he can't do that, we're screwed.
There's no way I'm gonna finish everything.
Time up! Come on, team.
Do we want to have a talk before we go to bed? Yeah.
It should go something like, "I'm sorry.
We're Ed.
" I'm a little worried that Morgan is going to destroy our chance to win this challenge.
I've got to knock out 90 pretzels tomorrow, man.
This is the one challenge that really means something to me, and I have enough to be worried about.
I don't want to be worried about Morgan.
I've had my worst day here yet today.
I'm sorry, guys.
Yeah, I agree.
I'm not having a good one at all.
Just take the judges' plates.
Well, I don't want him to get confused, so just shut up.
Did you just tell me to shut up? Shut up.
Get away.
Our challenge today is dessert wars.
We have two hours to complete everything and to be ready for the customers.
Hey, Eric? Yes? They're peanut butter and honey on white bread.
Even though I think Morgan is in this great mood, I'm not sure it's enough time to get it all together.
Morgan, you know Oh, I got it.
Well, we're a little in the , but you know what? Everything looks great, Heather.
I hope it tastes good.
My over-ambitious attitude is working a little bit against us, because we still have a lot of work to get done before we even start to put together our shop.
Jesus All Ing mighty.
Zac, love, is this you? What is it? Was that your bowl? Not mine.
That's awesome.
It's fine.
Just give it to me.
It's chaos.
It's just whipped cream.
Yeah, well, I'm covered in it.
Jesus.
Zac is running back and forth.
We'll have 'em bring all of them in, right? Yes, yes.
Great.
And we need to fill up the display case, and compared to the other team, we don't really have a lot of stuff, and so it's chaos in its worst form.
I'm coming.
The board, it's got to be done before time is up.
I got it.
I got it.
We need to make the milk chocolate pudding, right? No, no, no, no.
It's already done.
There's a key lime in there for the case.
Where is it? It's in the freezer.
They just need to come down.
Oh, oh.
They turned the tray.
Excellent.
You guys know where the cooler with the ice is, by chance? I didn't have time to pre-scoop this, okay? I don't even know what you're talking about.
The first ever dessert wars has begun.
Hello, everyone.
We also have all sorts of things to order a la minute.
What's the name on that? Joe.
All right.
Should be just a few minutes.
As service starts, Zac and I both take the front of the house, and Heather is in the kitchen.
There you go.
Thank you so much.
And the servers are going back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room.
One more doughnuts for the kitchen, please.
He just sent me with a doughnut.
No.
No, those are extra.
Heather is a very good pastry Chef, but she is definitely not the best person to have in the front of the house.
There is your key lime.
Hi.
How are you? How are you? Welcome to whisk me away, our little dessert shop.
For our team, I'm having the server take all the orders.
I plate everything, and then Eric, he's able to be out with the customers.
Thank you very much.
And Morgan's in the kitchen, preparing the a la minute items.
Sometimes he just says, like, really rude things and it only makes sense to have him work in the kitchen.
And if you have any questions, let me know.
Hi, Zac, hi, Yigit.
Hi, Gail.
Hey, Gail.
I'd like to introduce you to our judges for this challenge.
Our handsome head judge, Johnny Iuzzini.
Our guest judge for this round, multi-award winner, author, founder of La Brea Bakery here in Los Angeles, Nancy Silverton.
Nancy Silverton is an amazing inspiration to me.
She has a very methodical approach to baking, and I have a lot of respect for her.
And of course, returning judge, Chef Hubert Keller, Chef and owner of Fleur de Lys in San Francisco.
So tell us about Pastry Playland.
We made kind of very elegant and sophisticated desserts with an absolute kid's visual palate.
We'd like one of each, please.
Coming right up.
All right, kitchen, I need one of each.
These are for the judges.
I think it's nice to see that they actually created some extra items on top of their workload to decorate their shop.
You know, they have these beautiful little playful lollipops out of meringue.
It's a nice touch.
I probably would have done one thing a little different.
They have so much pastries on these racks.
I would probably-- would fill up the front.
Why didn't they fill up their display case? It looks sort of empty and sad.
There you go.
Hello.
Hello, Yigit.
These are Zac's dessert.
He made for you a fresh doughnut.
It's actually essentially a beignet filled with a wild blueberry jam and fried to order, and it's served with a lemon verbena milkshake.
Our bread for today is a fennel seed and kalamata brioche roll and it's slightly warm and it's served with a white truffle butter.
And then we actually made some caramel corn.
It's a hard crack caramel, which has slow-rendered bacon bits in it, and it's a little salt and a little savory.
Can we get a large tray, please? Each team was responsible to do two a la minute desserts and one bread dessert, and I see Zac has taken on both the bread and one of the a la minute desserts.
No, these are very nice.
Very light, right? Really brought me back to my childhood.
But I think the shake is a little less exciting than the doughnut, right? I think his brioche is terrific.
Was executed really perfectly.
Zac's bacon caramel kettle corn, I think there's a bit of inconsistency here, 'cause I have some kernels that aren't coated at all, and others that are completely drenched in bacon fat.
This is the best thing I've ever tasted though.
Is it really? Like, I want, like, pounds of it.
Well, what's wrong with that one? I don't know.
He just handed it to me.
Told me to bring it back.
Jesus .
I have no idea.
All right.
So this is my set of desserts.
This is kind of a take on a chocolate tart.
Inside, it has a very dark caramel as well as some salted peanuts folded into it.
A very nice, dark, chocolate ganache.
This I really love.
It's a Margarita sorbet.
It actually has a pure silver Tequila in it for a little kick.
And your last dessert, you can't have a bake shop without a layered cake, so it's kind of a take on a classic fraisier raspberry, strawberry, and a clear Berry and hibiscus gelee.
Great.
Thank you.
Enjoy.
Thank you very much.
The Tequila's good.
You get it? You get the Tequila? Not yet.
Yigit has shown us before he's pretty good with his textures of ice creams and sorbets, and this one's actually got a really great texture.
It's holding up well.
Very mellow.
It's actually quite delicious.
And a true classic fraisier, when he says fraisier, you should identify right away.
Here, the visual was not fraisier.
That's not a good sign.
That was pretty hard.
I must say.
The dough is so thick on the bottom.
I don't know if the caramel is just overcooked and that's not really cuttable or knife tender, but, like, that's a lot of dough.
Go ahead and try it.
The shell's a little hard, but it tastes fantastic once you're in there.
Uh, I need a garbage bag.
Why is this coming back? All right, first of all, this is too--this is too big of a .
Okay, that's not-- this is going out-- I'll--let me deal with it.
Let's get your judges' plates out right now.
Heather seems to be struggling right now.
She's really thrown off of her game.
She's not in a good place.
All right, I'm gonna give you the beauty plates first.
Just take the judges' plates.
Well, I don't want him to get confused, okay, Zac? So just shut up.
Did you just tell me to shut up? Shut up.
We're stressed out.
We're busy.
It's chaotic.
It's a mess.
So tell me what you need done and shut up.
What do you want first? Get the judge's plate out now, because if we keep the judges waiting, it looks bad for the whole situation.
And please don't ever tell me to shut up again.
Shut up.
All right.
I told you.
Shut up.
So What? Just deal with it.
So these are Heather's desserts.
A lemon cream tart.
And it has a white chocolate cream and just some fresh raspberries.
Uh, this is Heather's frozen key lime bar.
It has a Graham cracker crust which she made, with a little strawberry sauce.
And, uh, this is her take on a milk chocolate pudding cup, with a little chocolate plate garnish and fresh mango.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely, guys.
Enjoy.
I think that Yigit has a lovely presence.
How do you think he's doing as the front of the house for the pastry shop? I think Yigit has a great personality, right? Very jovial, young, fresh, coming across really well.
I think just, yeah, pleasant person.
I like the presentation of all of Heather's dessert so far.
What you don't want to see is actually the fingerprints on the dessert.
Since it was frozen, and You really see 'em now.
You really see the fingers.
Flavor of the key lime is so timid.
Whenever I hear the word citrus, I want to pucker.
What Heather did here, I think, the pudding is actually quite nice, and having the On it, it's a pleasant surprise.
I have a feeling that the dough on Heather's tart is the same dough that we saw earlier on Yigit's.
Let's take a look.
Definitely under-baked.
It's totally under-baked.
So then the judges leave pastry playland.
What can I get for you? And then come the special requests.
Can I have a pudding? Sure thing.
With--can you guys add raspberries in there? One of my friends really likes, like, rich, chocolate something? Maybe you guys can make something special for us? As these challenges come up, it's just like a restaurant.
People have crazy orders all the time, and you just have to suck it up, say yes, and just make it happen.
Do you guys have a few minutes? Yeah, sure.
We can sit around.
Let me see what I can throw together for you.
Do you have any of your, like, key lime bases? Like Graham cracker bases or anything? No, why? People are wanting specialty orders, so, um Special orders? Can I grab one of these? Yeah.
Great.
All right, ladies, here you go.
It's very rich, it's very chocolate and it's got some citrus.
Okay, so you are table 29.
You know what? Can I get a cookie, but with the vanilla caramel ice cream on the side? Okay.
Processed sugar and nuts? Let me go ask, um, my other Chefs to see what they say.
Because I know the judges are about to arrive.
I just want to go back there and say, "no, sorry, we can't do it.
" Morgan's, like, "no, I'm gonna make it.
" I don't care if the judges are coming.
We need to be beating Team Diva.
I don't work at the no factory.
The cream on this was good.
This was--I did like this.
That was actually made on the fly, which is pretty impressive.
I think the brown butter glaze banana bread.
Long line.
Wow.
Is there only one person there? Oh, no.
No, there's two people back there.
Hi.
Hi, Danielle.
How are you? Welcome to whisk me away.
The judges come in, so it was a little likeFrazzled.
So we really wanted to, you know, take that concept of things that make you happy.
You know, things like chocolate chip cookie that, you know, people that really-- you really enjoy it, and you really want to keep coming back.
Well, we'll take one of everything.
Sounds great.
Where should we sit? There is a table waiting for you.
Thanks, Danielle.
Oh, son of a bitch.
I think the look of whisk me away, the feel of that display case, all really come together.
It looks really organized, really appealing, but Danielle was a little bit low energy, you know, compared to Yigit, who, really, the second he saw us brightened up and had a lot to say.
Oh, thank you.
So I am presenting Eric's dishes.
This is a classic chocolate chip cookie.
He also did a vanilla malted cake with a chocolate butter cream.
And there's some malted candy in there.
And then a banana loaf that has a brown butter and tangerine icing on top.
Great.
Thanks, Danielle.
Thank you.
That's my favorite one.
Yeah.
That's good stuff.
Those large cakes, these layer cake, it's not my particular favorite.
It's pretty rich, right, when you eat it.
But I must say, the texture of the butter cream is really well done.
And it's always nice to see a chocolate chip cookie that's not made with pre-packaged chocolate chips.
You think perhaps it's a little too simple for Eric to have just done a basic chocolate chip cookie for the challenge of creating a dessert shop fantasy land? You know, I agree with you, Gail, and I understand what you're saying, but again, this is supposed to be a business.
You want to make sure you put things on the menu that you guarantee sell.
I think the banana loaf, you expect a little bit more browner.
I have a problem with the texture of this.
I have a feeling that the proportion of chemical leaveners is off a little bit.
There's something I like about it, though.
The flavor for me is really nice.
The banana bread was okay.
It was yummy.
Four glasses.
Four floats.
Okay, so these are my desserts.
Ah.
I did a pistachio shortcake, and there's a little lemon cream and strawberries tossed with a little tarragon.
And then I did a coffee cream pie and there's hazelnut brittle.
And then I did a float.
So I did, um, house-made ginger ale.
There's raspberry sorbet and tangerine lime sorbet.
Wow.
Oh.
You're liking it too much.
It's that good.
Ooh.
I think Danielle's ginger ale is delicious.
I know it's very light, but I don't know if I would have chosen to do sorbets over an ice cream in this case.
With the short cake, I like the fact that she used little paper brioche cups for delivery of this.
I mean, you could hold it in your hand and walk out with it.
I think it's well done.
With Danielle's coffee cream pie, I want that beautiful, unctuous, coffee profile that you'd get from a cup of coffee, and I don't get it.
Yeah, should be definitely much stronger.
I'm just not crazy about it.
Yeah, I don't know.
So now I am going to present Morgan's dishes.
So for our bread option, he made a pretzel stick, and it is served with two kinds of mustards.
Then he also made a chocolate cake that has chocolate mousse, and there's a creme brulee center with a chocolate glaze.
For the second a la minute, it's a lemon fried pie, and it's served with a salted caramel ice cream.
Great.
Enjoy.
This is amazing.
Mm-hmm.
This is to die for.
I think we should start with Morgan's fried pie.
Mm.
Caramel ice cream is delicious.
The pie is delicious.
And it tastes like lemon.
And it tastes like lemon.
I love a beautiful pretzel, but what's interesting to see is as I'm just feeling and touching it, I look at my hands-- I have a feeling he might have brushed them with butter.
But if I had a big pint of beer beside me, I would certainly not complain about Morgan's pretzel.
Construction of Morgan's dessert is just perfect.
I think it's the most sophisticated of any of the desserts that we've seen so far.
I also think on the whole Morgan showed us by far the most range here.
He did.
The tarragon strawberries were really good.
Thank you.
The plain yogurt with the chocolate is a really good combination.
Yeah, right? Yeah, very interesting.
This is amazing.
Thank you very much.
Bye, thank you.
I think we should go back to judges' table.
I agree.
Get some sleep, you guys.
We'll see you guys soon.
We tried really hard on this challenge, so I just hope the judges see that, because I think we are the better team.
My korean princess collect all five that tangerine sorbet is badass.
I gave this service 110% and I hope that we beat Team Diva, give me--give me some love, girl.
Thank you so much.
You were a sweetheart.
We, as a team, made some people smile.
I saw those smiles, and I feel great.
Okay.
Were you happy with the final product? I thought it was a little bit thick.
The shell was a lot thick.
You've got to be hitting the ball, like, there.
D'oh! Morgan drives me completely insane, and then I like him, then I hate him, then I like him.
You don't need to walk over there, do you? Yes, Chef.
Morgan, you're being a dick if you're gonna say, "yes, Chef.
" I'm not being a dick.
Then don't say that to me.
She's very much like a sister whom you have all this endearment for, but you're really not friends.
Stupid .
She can irritate me to no end.
Did you take 'em all, or are there any left? I don't know.
But at the same time, I'm proud of her for succeeding, you know? Chefs, today we had our first ever dessert shop wars.
There were some amazing highs, but there were also some lows.
Black team, your concept, whisk me away, were you all happy with how the experience felt? We wanted just comfort food.
We didn't want complicated food.
And I think everything came together nicely.
The effort that you put into making it a place that somebody would want to spend time in was very noticeable.
Danielle, you took on the responsibilities of service in the front of the house.
Yes.
You seemed a bit "lacksadaisial" to me, a little bit too casual.
Okay.
I'm sorry you felt that way.
I think I was just-- feeling of our place as being more of a casual Just because the food is casual doesn't mean the service should be.
There's a big difference.
Now let's talk about the desserts.
Why don't we get into that? Eric, you had a banana sour cream loaf.
Eric, I think when it came to banana cake, first the appearance, right? When it was on the table, it was literally pale and then it was not sweet.
And then when you broke it open, there were some tunnels in there that sort of spoke to me like there was some inaccuracy with the leavening.
And you're right.
I just couldn't remember the recipe and it was killing me.
Morgan, your chocolate mousse bar with creme brulee, have you made it before? Never like that.
It truly was, I think, a dessert to be proud of.
I mean, it looked like a dessert that you would find on any glossy-paged french cook book.
Thank you.
Danielle, now let's talk about the coffee cream pie.
You're probably gonna say the coffee wasn't strong enough.
That's exactly what we're gonna say.
No, I think that there's those flavors in life, whether they're coffee, chocolate, or lemon, that when you say those flavors, they have to be assertive, or don't do 'em.
Red team, how do you think pastry playland took shape today? I think, you know, we took risks, and we put together a really complex menu.
We really created a dessert experience that wasn't, like, a grab and go bakery.
I was really happy with our product and where we got to in the end.
Yigit, did you like your experience at the front of the house tonight? The first hour was so physically and emotionally and psychologically challenging, but I had a ball.
Zac, what about your specific desserts? Well, I do love the deep fryer and I do love jelly-filled doughnuts.
I think, Zac, when it came to the doughnut, really, it honestly remind me of my childhood.
Perfect consistency, the flavor.
That was perfect.
Then when you go into the milkshake, the milkshake didn't stand up to the beignet.
It was a total different caliber, right? The brioche was perfect.
Really was.
It was really a delicious brioche.
Thank you.
Wow.
Heather, let's start with your frozen key lime bar.
I don't know if it came out exactly the way I wanted it to, but overall I was happy with it.
When you were plating it, since it was actually frozen, when it reached our table, you could literally see the fingerprints.
In what form was your key lime? Juice.
For me, it was a bit weak.
I was waiting for that, like, beautiful key lime flavor to come through against that chocolate and it really just didn't.
Yigit, let's talk about your dark chocolate peanut tart.
Were you happy with the final product? I was, but I thought it was a little bit thick.
That shell wasn't a little bit thick.
The shell was a lot thick.
We were trying to eat it and I literally almost broke the plate, but it was a shame, because the ganache was sensational.
You both had sable.
Was it the same dough? It was.
I want to defend Yigit, because I was the one that made it, and I rolled it out, because of course we were sharing responsibilities.
So perhaps you're to blame a little bit.
One comment that we all noticed about your shop in terms of decor and experience was that your vitrine, your showcase, was almost empty.
We got slammed.
Like, right before you guys showed up, the doors opened, and it was, like, everyone came running through the doors, and it, you know, it looked great right before you showed up.
Who is responsible? We all take ownership.
We were a team, and this is our pastry shop.
Yeah, the display case was unfortunate, but in terms of the team, we will all rejoice in $30,000, and we'll all sink as a team.
Unfortunately, the team that loses, one person goes home.
Well, Chefs, it's really, really close.
Nancy, as our guest judge, please announce the winning team.
We all agreed that if these two shops were across the street from each other, the one shop that we would keep returning to would be Whisk me away.
Oh, my God.
Oh, come on! Congratulations.
To hear our team name was just like, "aah!" You know? "$10,000!" Oh, my God.
You stop it.
Come here.
It was an amazing moment.
We're the underdogs, but we pull out something amazing.
Oh, my God.
Congratulations, whisk me away.
You've won $30,000 furnished by Dawn Hand Renewal.
I can't believe that the other team won, especially with Danielle, because I really question her cooking ability.
You did an excellent job tonight.
You can return to the stew room.
Thank you.
Red team, as you know, one of you will go home tonight.
We're going to discuss it and we'll call you back when we've made a decision.
Thank you.
Thank you, guys.
Whisk me away.
That's us.
That name kicked ass.
I'm sorry, but I love that name.
No, it was.
It was perfect.
Team go diva is done.
It's over.
It's gone.
It's a cut.
That's a wrap.
Whoo-hoo.
We certainly learned a lot listening to our Chefs.
Now we need to decide who goes home.
Unfortunately, Zac's lemon verbena milkshake was A little bland.
Flaw was that it existed.
He didn't need it.
It didn't bother me as much as his cashew-bacon caramel corn.
It was inconsistently mixed.
The fat was too heavy on some pieces and non-existent on others.
He could have done a better job in making it.
And then there was Heather, who made the frozen key lime bar.
And I think the key lime bar, the frozen bar, I really didn't care much of it.
As we tasted it, suddenly it was something not very pleasant sticking to your palate.
And then there was her lemon tart, which I thought was beautiful, but used the same sable dough that Yigit used and both times were totally undercooked.
Classic mistake.
She didn't taste her food before she sent it out.
What about what Yigit presented for us? His fraisier really fell short.
That was the lackluster of his repertoire.
And then his tart, the pastry dough was a big problem, even though the inside was great.
All right, well, I think we've made our decision.
Let's call them out here.
This all comes down to the details.
You guys fell short on the atmosphere and the food.
Zac, you shared front of the house duties, and as a result, the blame for an empty display case.
Plus your desserts were inconsistent at best.
Heather, we had issues with each one of your desserts.
Serious issues.
At this level, those tart shells were just unacceptable.
Yigit, while you were good in service, you should have made sure your display case was full.
And your fraisier didn't meet our expectations.
Heather, your desserts just didn't measure up.
Please pack your tools and go.
No.
I think there were issues with everybody's dish.
I don't know why I was asked to leave between the three of us.
I'm sure there were other people that should have left, but, you know, I mean, shoulda, woulda, coulda.
I can leave with my head held high.
It's okay.
I'm proud of my food.
Everything I did had my signature and I was proud of what I put out.
Guys, I'm going.
No! Yeah.
Do awesome.
Thanks, Heather.
I love you.
I love you.
The only regret is that I don't get to hang out with my buds.
I love you.
I'm so honored to have been a part of their experience and their lives, for sure.
You're gonna do awesome.
You're gonna be okay.
Oh, come here.
Bye, guys.
Good luck.
Keep it up.
Keep up the spirits.
Being in this competition has definitely given me a different perspective.
It's been a great experience and I wouldn't change anything for the world.
Next time on Top Chef: Just Desserts.
There's definitely certain ingredients that I've become very addicted to.
Really? You're joking.
Oh, that's really uncool.
Now I don't know what to do.
What happened back there? Your lack of creativity was disappointing.
It actually reminded me of the frozen petit fours that cruise ships buy and take out of a box.
For more about the recipes you've seen tonight, go to bravotv.
Com.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Morgan is very aggressive, and he elbows me.
Look at my lip.
Oh, Jesus.
Yeah.
Shaq knocks you on your ass, uh, you learn not to go to the post with Shaq.
Thanks to Morgan.
I find him disgusting, actually.
Just disgusting.
Her ice cream has this strange flavor to it.
It tastes a little like glue.
And the winner is Yigit.
Thank you.
Erica, please pack your tools and go.
I love you guys.
Now six pastry Chefs remain to compete for a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival, a German-engineered, sport-injected Buick Regal, and $100,000 furnished by Godiva Chocolatier.
Who has the creativity, the skill, and the drive to win Top Chef: Just Desserts? Top Chef: Just Desserts 1x07 Dessert Wars Last night was the first time I was in the bottom three.
I'm sure everyone was happy that I was in the bottom three.
I've been in the top three five times already, so I'm not gonna cry over it.
You know, your face really doesn't change when you do that.
Shut up, Zac.
I won the last elimination challenge.
I think I've had a target on my back since the second or third day here.
We're hoping that Team Diva truly is gonna go to the top three.
Morganza.
Morning.
How are you? Now that it's three and three, it almost seems like there's factions.
Team Go Diva, I need to break them up.
Yigit is a technical master, Heather is sharp as a tack, and Zac just brings this flair.
Together, that makes it a dangerous combo.
Good morning, Chefs.
Good morning.
Now we're gonna make things just a little bit harder.
From here on in, the winner of the quickfire challenge will not receive immunity in our eliminations.
Today we're gonna test your pastry skills and your ability to stay calm under pressure.
It's a Top Chef quickfire classic.
The mise en place relay race.
Yeah.
I think that the relay is certainly the most anticipated quickfire.
I mean, it's edge-of-your-seat excitement.
You know, there's three major factors to working in a busy pastry kitchen-- organization, speed, and precision.
So I'm really excited to see how well you guys fare in this competition.
First, we're gonna divide you into two teams.
Heather, please reach under your station and pull out the cookie jar and pick a cookie to see what team you're on.
Red.
Red.
By the luck of the draw, Team Diva actually comes together.
This is kind of what we've been hoping for from the beginning.
I think we're gonna actually kick ass.
I wonder what I got.
I wonder.
Black.
Always bet on.
Tada.
Got black.
Team Diva think they're too cool for school.
I can't stand them and I want them to go home.
Okay, guys.
So for the first leg of this challenge, you're gonna mold 12 perfect tart shells.
For the second leg, you need to pipe eight perfect butter cream roses, each about the size of a silver dollar.
When I see the butter cream roses, I'm like, "yeah, I can do that.
" You know, so I'm even more excited to do this.
For the third leg, you need to separate and whip six egg whites to firm peaks.
They need to be stiff enough that you can hold 'em over your head for ten seconds without falling out.
And for the final leg, as a team, you need to stretch strudel dough over the entire length of the table, and then roll the strudel.
In the end, you should end up with something like this.
The first team that finishes wins.
Stretching the strudel dough, if you don't do it quickly enough, it will crack and tear.
It must be done with absolute perfection to be successful.
Chefs, that's not all.
To sweeten the pot, each member of the winning team will receive $3,000 furnished by Dawn Hand Renewal.
Seals moisture in.
Money is great incentive, you know? I love what I do, but if I can do something I love and make a lot of money doing it, that's even better.
You'll now have one minute to decide which person on your team is doing which task.
Butter cream roses.
Yes.
Tart.
I can do tarts or egg whites.
I'll do egg whites.
You don't roll it.
You stretch it.
Okay? I am absolutely thrilled to have my boys on my team.
I think we want to win this and we're pretty determined.
Okay, Chefs, are you ready to go? Yes.
Yes, Chef.
Your time starts now.
Go.
We're all super competitive, but to have that kind of thing where we're being timed on such quick things, it's, like, super intense, and you can't be like, "mm," nervous and shaky.
My hands never shook so much.
Team positive.
Team positive.
Son of a The difficulty in doing tart shells is everything has to be precise, so I'm just focusing on being very fast and meticulous.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Nice.
Nice.
Danielle is like a whirlwind.
She's cranking out tarts way faster than Yigit.
How many is she on? She's got ten done.
Are they nice? Move on.
Move on.
Yes! This is the last one, baby.
Let's do it.
Very nice.
Check.
Stop.
Okay, Danielle, you're good.
Go.
Check.
Stop.
Uneven dough.
Even it out.
Yes, Chef.
Go.
You're an animal.
Check.
You're good.
Thank you.
And baker our team is in the lead at the moment.
I think just because we're against Team Diva, it's just kind of making us work harder.
Get that base.
Yeah.
Good.
His are smaller.
My hand is kind of shaking a little, and I notice that Heather's really whipping through those, and I look over and hers aren't nearly as nice as mine.
I'm so nervous.
No, you're not.
Heather picks up the pace and we are Team Diva.
We're gonna kick some ass.
Oh, my God! God, it's so Stiff.
Go.
Put it down.
Nice and easy.
Call check.
Check.
Eric, stop, please.
Heather, you're good to go.
Whoo! She ends up finishing just a few seconds before and it's frustrating, because I lost the lead.
Check.
Zac, stop.
Nice flowers.
Thank you.
I start my eggs just slightly before Morgan.
But Morgan's big.
Morgan has guns.
Morgan has muscles.
And, you know, I have these.
That's six, right? Go, baby, go.
So I am just whipping like crazy.
I mean, I'm not even doing any, like, classic figure eight pattern with the whisk.
I'm just beating.
Beating, beating.
Get the air in there.
I start whipping my whites, and I can't help it, 'cause I know he's got to work his ass off to get this done.
Tap into that energy, girl.
And this is gonna be easy for me.
Morganza.
Morganza.
Morganza.
Feel the burn! Round.
Go round.
Go round.
Come on, queen diva.
Come on.
Come on.
Check.
Flip it.
So Morgan calls time first.
I really want to call time too, but I just need to make sure that my eggs are perfect, and I'm not gonna get egg on my face.
Eat it, baby.
Whipping egg whites faster than Zac.
No problem.
Check.
Check.
The second Morgan puts his bowl down, I call check again and turn mine.
There was actually four seconds between our checks, which I'm pretty happy about.
Yes! Go! Take that, muscle man! Our table was about ten feet long, and the dough is only about the size of a football, so at this point it's really gonna be about stretching everything as a team, because you're actually gonna have to pull from every angle to make sure you have just enough.
Whoa, girl, easy.
Remember, back of your hand, okay? Back of your hand.
Stroke it, baby.
Stroke it.
Stroke it out.
I think I'm the only person that's really pulled out a strudel dough in the last decade.
Come here.
Hold here, okay? And I don't use my hands upward, 'cause your fingertips have a tendency to tear holes in the dough, so I try to use the back of my hands.
You guys, let's work over here and stretch this.
Okay.
We got a tear.
Tear at the end.
Heather, help me here.
Right here.
Help me pull as I pull this.
Very gently.
Team Diva takes the slow and steady approach.
That dough is very delicate, and you have to handle it very gently.
I look over to the other team, and Morgan is just drill, drill, drill, pull, pull, yank.
That doesn't work with strudel.
That's how you destroy the dough.
Okay, okay, okay.
Easy, easy, easy.
Let's not go crazy.
Our dough is in one piece and all we're trying to do is just stretch out the edges and the other team's dough, it's not looking good.
Danielle, you're off the edge of the table again.
It's so dried.
Yup.
Yup, yup, yup.
Yup, yup.
Done.
Check.
Okay, go.
Yes! Whoo! Apples.
Let's go.
Apple.
Apple time.
Nice and gentle, guys.
Let's not lose focus.
At this point, we start filling our dough with the apple.
We're rolling it beautifully.
Pull this way.
Stick.
But with the black team, there is holes in their dough, and it actually makes it really difficult to work with.
Jesus .
One, two, go.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
I got swiss cheese down here.
Lift up.
Check.
Check.
That's it.
Mwah! We lost to Team Diva, and I don't like to lose.
For your next elimination challenge, we're gonna put your pastry Chef skills to the test in the real world.
We're putting a sweet spin on the Top Chef restaurant wars.
Yes! It's time for the first ever dessert wars.
Yes! Yeah.
All right.
I've seen restaurant wars on Top Chef before, and I know this is the challenge that people really remember.
This is my dream.
I still want to open up a shop, but it's, like, such a huge, huge undertaking.
You will work in these same teams to create the ultimate dessert shop experience.
Each one of you will be responsible for three items on the menu.
It's up to you to create your own ultimate dessert fantasy land.
But since you're pastry Chefs, you also need to include a bread item on your menu.
Chefs, you know the name of the game is competition.
You have to figure out how to make your bakery stand out.
You have to figure out how to please the customer.
It's a complete experience.
Since this is a dessert battle royale, the winning team is going home with $30,000.
Oh, my God.
Everyone that is left has received some sort of money except for me, so I really want to win money.
The starting point for your shops is right next door.
Go take a look and good luck.
Thank you.
Two bags of lemons are missing from my stuff.
I did not take your lemons.
If that's not an accurate statement, you go ahead and correct me.
Lovely.
Wow.
So let's get to planning.
We leave the Top Chef: Just Desserts kitchen to actually go see our own dessert shops.
We have 45 minutes to menu plan as well as planning for our store's ambience, decor, and our plate ware.
Considering I've been trying to plan my own shop for about the last year, 45 minutes is such a limited amount of time.
I think if we have that display case whether we do, like, entremets and tarts and stuff like that, we can keep 'em in there.
Okay, what do you want the concept of the bakery to be? Don't get snappy with me.
No, that's--I think that's what we need to nail down.
Okay.
The first thing that I want to get out is theme.
Yes, I know it's exciting, like, to think about the space and whatnot, but, like, let's figure out what we're making first.
Fun.
I think it has to be fun.
It's an adult candy shop.
Yeah, exactly.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Oh, let's talk about-- do we want an overall theme? Yes.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Okay, so do we want to do really bakery style? I want to do it comfort.
Comfort.
I wanted to do, um, "drunken doughnut," so, like, a salted caramel doughnut with a whiskey milkshake.
Sounds good.
Morgan, can you come here and-- look.
Look here.
Look here.
Because now we're, like, all over the place.
Okay, I'll just sit here and be quiet.
No, I don't want you to be quiet.
But if we can all stay in one place then we get to see everything together.
Yes, Chef.
There's arguments about decor, that, you know, and the plates to use between Danielle and Morgan, and so basically I'm sitting, I'm waiting for them to fight it out, and then when it stops, I'll keep going.
This or this? I kind of like that.
I agree.
Done.
Thank you.
At the end of the menu plan, we are on track.
We know what all three of us are doing, and we all already have our prep lists.
So we leave and head to Albertsons to do our shopping.
Go diva.
Yes.
Balloons and bubbles.
Yeah.
We want some fun decor items-- ribbons, balloons, bubbles.
We want to put the flower arrangements in candy instead of water.
Like, we can just scatter candy everywhere.
The black team has no style, whereas we're the .
Like, we are the best people in that kitchen.
Really.
Got you a present.
Oh, thank you.
It was, like, a huge rivalry between us and Team Diva.
Oh, spices.
Spices.
Especially after losing the quickfire.
They think that they are so hot.
Let's check out.
The other team, they have a lot of produce on their carts.
So at this point, you know, they could be making anything.
I have no idea what their plan of action is, but I'm sure ours is better.
And five hours will be gone before we know it.
The dessert wars challenge is nine desserts, three from each person.
Of those nine desserts, one has to be a bread item, and two has to be a la minute.
Team Diva is on one side and team Loser is on the other side.
I love my team.
Team Diva's great.
Since we have a lot of work to get done, we're just gonna kind of take an assembly-line approach to this.
So long as we keep our head in the game, I think our technique will get us there.
I'm gonna have a lot of whites left over, guys.
Uh, save 'em, 'cause I'm sure we can use 'em.
I want to do a different texture of citrus with a Margarita sorbet with some mango foam.
Zac is gonna make the bread item, a savory fennel brioche, and Heather is creating a frozen key lime pie.
What number is this to? Do you know? I didn't do it on the sheeter.
I'm just rolling it out by hand.
Okay.
Do you want me to do yours by hand? I'm just gonna do yours by hand.
It's gonna be easier.
They're using it.
Heather is actually making the dough for all of us.
It's a huge responsibility.
She says that she doesn't feel comfortable working with the dough sheeter, and she wants to roll it by hand.
You know, she's a Chef, so I'm gonna let her do as she feels comfortable.
I hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.
I'm afraid if we do it on the sheeter it's just gonna get really warm.
And our team's first a la minute item is Danielle's ginger ale float with tangerine and raspberry sorbet.
Did you just check the cookies? Oh.
Eric's making the classic chocolate chip cookie.
Good? Yeah, very good.
Our bread item will be a warm, soft pretzel, which I'm making.
We bought four bags of-- I threw four bags of lemons to you.
Yeah, I know.
Why do we only have two bags of lemons now? They were right here.
We don't have any in the pantry? No, 'cause Yigit took 'em all already.
Well, I did not take your lemons.
For sure.
Two bags of lemons are missing from my stuff, so if that's not an accurate statement, you go ahead and correct me.
Dude, you know what? Seriously.
I grabbed a case of lemons, and I'm not gonna use every single lemon on there.
It's just a efficiency thing.
But it's not about the lemons.
I think Morgan would kind of like to see me go, because perhaps he feels like I could be good competition for him.
Morgan, there are plenty of lemons.
Next time you could just ask instead of blaming me, please.
No need for drama.
Your teammate is very stressed.
Huh? Your teammate is very stressed.
Suck .
, dude.
This is just Bull.
We're nearing the end of prep, and Morgan is starting to turn into, like, crazy person.
You know, I got to form all the pies.
Yeah.
And I've got to form all the Pretzels.
Morgan's making the pretzel dough by hand, and that takes a long time.
Three minutes! And he's used to finishing things before everyone else.
And so he's going off and--and just, like, super tense.
My day just got super harder tomorrow.
We're really hoping we can pull this off, but we need Morgan to, like, stop acting like an Hole.
And if he can't do that, we're screwed.
There's no way I'm gonna finish everything.
Time up! Come on, team.
Do we want to have a talk before we go to bed? Yeah.
It should go something like, "I'm sorry.
We're Ed.
" I'm a little worried that Morgan is going to destroy our chance to win this challenge.
I've got to knock out 90 pretzels tomorrow, man.
This is the one challenge that really means something to me, and I have enough to be worried about.
I don't want to be worried about Morgan.
I've had my worst day here yet today.
I'm sorry, guys.
Yeah, I agree.
I'm not having a good one at all.
Just take the judges' plates.
Well, I don't want him to get confused, so just shut up.
Did you just tell me to shut up? Shut up.
Get away.
Our challenge today is dessert wars.
We have two hours to complete everything and to be ready for the customers.
Hey, Eric? Yes? They're peanut butter and honey on white bread.
Even though I think Morgan is in this great mood, I'm not sure it's enough time to get it all together.
Morgan, you know Oh, I got it.
Well, we're a little in the , but you know what? Everything looks great, Heather.
I hope it tastes good.
My over-ambitious attitude is working a little bit against us, because we still have a lot of work to get done before we even start to put together our shop.
Jesus All Ing mighty.
Zac, love, is this you? What is it? Was that your bowl? Not mine.
That's awesome.
It's fine.
Just give it to me.
It's chaos.
It's just whipped cream.
Yeah, well, I'm covered in it.
Jesus.
Zac is running back and forth.
We'll have 'em bring all of them in, right? Yes, yes.
Great.
And we need to fill up the display case, and compared to the other team, we don't really have a lot of stuff, and so it's chaos in its worst form.
I'm coming.
The board, it's got to be done before time is up.
I got it.
I got it.
We need to make the milk chocolate pudding, right? No, no, no, no.
It's already done.
There's a key lime in there for the case.
Where is it? It's in the freezer.
They just need to come down.
Oh, oh.
They turned the tray.
Excellent.
You guys know where the cooler with the ice is, by chance? I didn't have time to pre-scoop this, okay? I don't even know what you're talking about.
The first ever dessert wars has begun.
Hello, everyone.
We also have all sorts of things to order a la minute.
What's the name on that? Joe.
All right.
Should be just a few minutes.
As service starts, Zac and I both take the front of the house, and Heather is in the kitchen.
There you go.
Thank you so much.
And the servers are going back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room.
One more doughnuts for the kitchen, please.
He just sent me with a doughnut.
No.
No, those are extra.
Heather is a very good pastry Chef, but she is definitely not the best person to have in the front of the house.
There is your key lime.
Hi.
How are you? How are you? Welcome to whisk me away, our little dessert shop.
For our team, I'm having the server take all the orders.
I plate everything, and then Eric, he's able to be out with the customers.
Thank you very much.
And Morgan's in the kitchen, preparing the a la minute items.
Sometimes he just says, like, really rude things and it only makes sense to have him work in the kitchen.
And if you have any questions, let me know.
Hi, Zac, hi, Yigit.
Hi, Gail.
Hey, Gail.
I'd like to introduce you to our judges for this challenge.
Our handsome head judge, Johnny Iuzzini.
Our guest judge for this round, multi-award winner, author, founder of La Brea Bakery here in Los Angeles, Nancy Silverton.
Nancy Silverton is an amazing inspiration to me.
She has a very methodical approach to baking, and I have a lot of respect for her.
And of course, returning judge, Chef Hubert Keller, Chef and owner of Fleur de Lys in San Francisco.
So tell us about Pastry Playland.
We made kind of very elegant and sophisticated desserts with an absolute kid's visual palate.
We'd like one of each, please.
Coming right up.
All right, kitchen, I need one of each.
These are for the judges.
I think it's nice to see that they actually created some extra items on top of their workload to decorate their shop.
You know, they have these beautiful little playful lollipops out of meringue.
It's a nice touch.
I probably would have done one thing a little different.
They have so much pastries on these racks.
I would probably-- would fill up the front.
Why didn't they fill up their display case? It looks sort of empty and sad.
There you go.
Hello.
Hello, Yigit.
These are Zac's dessert.
He made for you a fresh doughnut.
It's actually essentially a beignet filled with a wild blueberry jam and fried to order, and it's served with a lemon verbena milkshake.
Our bread for today is a fennel seed and kalamata brioche roll and it's slightly warm and it's served with a white truffle butter.
And then we actually made some caramel corn.
It's a hard crack caramel, which has slow-rendered bacon bits in it, and it's a little salt and a little savory.
Can we get a large tray, please? Each team was responsible to do two a la minute desserts and one bread dessert, and I see Zac has taken on both the bread and one of the a la minute desserts.
No, these are very nice.
Very light, right? Really brought me back to my childhood.
But I think the shake is a little less exciting than the doughnut, right? I think his brioche is terrific.
Was executed really perfectly.
Zac's bacon caramel kettle corn, I think there's a bit of inconsistency here, 'cause I have some kernels that aren't coated at all, and others that are completely drenched in bacon fat.
This is the best thing I've ever tasted though.
Is it really? Like, I want, like, pounds of it.
Well, what's wrong with that one? I don't know.
He just handed it to me.
Told me to bring it back.
Jesus .
I have no idea.
All right.
So this is my set of desserts.
This is kind of a take on a chocolate tart.
Inside, it has a very dark caramel as well as some salted peanuts folded into it.
A very nice, dark, chocolate ganache.
This I really love.
It's a Margarita sorbet.
It actually has a pure silver Tequila in it for a little kick.
And your last dessert, you can't have a bake shop without a layered cake, so it's kind of a take on a classic fraisier raspberry, strawberry, and a clear Berry and hibiscus gelee.
Great.
Thank you.
Enjoy.
Thank you very much.
The Tequila's good.
You get it? You get the Tequila? Not yet.
Yigit has shown us before he's pretty good with his textures of ice creams and sorbets, and this one's actually got a really great texture.
It's holding up well.
Very mellow.
It's actually quite delicious.
And a true classic fraisier, when he says fraisier, you should identify right away.
Here, the visual was not fraisier.
That's not a good sign.
That was pretty hard.
I must say.
The dough is so thick on the bottom.
I don't know if the caramel is just overcooked and that's not really cuttable or knife tender, but, like, that's a lot of dough.
Go ahead and try it.
The shell's a little hard, but it tastes fantastic once you're in there.
Uh, I need a garbage bag.
Why is this coming back? All right, first of all, this is too--this is too big of a .
Okay, that's not-- this is going out-- I'll--let me deal with it.
Let's get your judges' plates out right now.
Heather seems to be struggling right now.
She's really thrown off of her game.
She's not in a good place.
All right, I'm gonna give you the beauty plates first.
Just take the judges' plates.
Well, I don't want him to get confused, okay, Zac? So just shut up.
Did you just tell me to shut up? Shut up.
We're stressed out.
We're busy.
It's chaotic.
It's a mess.
So tell me what you need done and shut up.
What do you want first? Get the judge's plate out now, because if we keep the judges waiting, it looks bad for the whole situation.
And please don't ever tell me to shut up again.
Shut up.
All right.
I told you.
Shut up.
So What? Just deal with it.
So these are Heather's desserts.
A lemon cream tart.
And it has a white chocolate cream and just some fresh raspberries.
Uh, this is Heather's frozen key lime bar.
It has a Graham cracker crust which she made, with a little strawberry sauce.
And, uh, this is her take on a milk chocolate pudding cup, with a little chocolate plate garnish and fresh mango.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely, guys.
Enjoy.
I think that Yigit has a lovely presence.
How do you think he's doing as the front of the house for the pastry shop? I think Yigit has a great personality, right? Very jovial, young, fresh, coming across really well.
I think just, yeah, pleasant person.
I like the presentation of all of Heather's dessert so far.
What you don't want to see is actually the fingerprints on the dessert.
Since it was frozen, and You really see 'em now.
You really see the fingers.
Flavor of the key lime is so timid.
Whenever I hear the word citrus, I want to pucker.
What Heather did here, I think, the pudding is actually quite nice, and having the On it, it's a pleasant surprise.
I have a feeling that the dough on Heather's tart is the same dough that we saw earlier on Yigit's.
Let's take a look.
Definitely under-baked.
It's totally under-baked.
So then the judges leave pastry playland.
What can I get for you? And then come the special requests.
Can I have a pudding? Sure thing.
With--can you guys add raspberries in there? One of my friends really likes, like, rich, chocolate something? Maybe you guys can make something special for us? As these challenges come up, it's just like a restaurant.
People have crazy orders all the time, and you just have to suck it up, say yes, and just make it happen.
Do you guys have a few minutes? Yeah, sure.
We can sit around.
Let me see what I can throw together for you.
Do you have any of your, like, key lime bases? Like Graham cracker bases or anything? No, why? People are wanting specialty orders, so, um Special orders? Can I grab one of these? Yeah.
Great.
All right, ladies, here you go.
It's very rich, it's very chocolate and it's got some citrus.
Okay, so you are table 29.
You know what? Can I get a cookie, but with the vanilla caramel ice cream on the side? Okay.
Processed sugar and nuts? Let me go ask, um, my other Chefs to see what they say.
Because I know the judges are about to arrive.
I just want to go back there and say, "no, sorry, we can't do it.
" Morgan's, like, "no, I'm gonna make it.
" I don't care if the judges are coming.
We need to be beating Team Diva.
I don't work at the no factory.
The cream on this was good.
This was--I did like this.
That was actually made on the fly, which is pretty impressive.
I think the brown butter glaze banana bread.
Long line.
Wow.
Is there only one person there? Oh, no.
No, there's two people back there.
Hi.
Hi, Danielle.
How are you? Welcome to whisk me away.
The judges come in, so it was a little likeFrazzled.
So we really wanted to, you know, take that concept of things that make you happy.
You know, things like chocolate chip cookie that, you know, people that really-- you really enjoy it, and you really want to keep coming back.
Well, we'll take one of everything.
Sounds great.
Where should we sit? There is a table waiting for you.
Thanks, Danielle.
Oh, son of a bitch.
I think the look of whisk me away, the feel of that display case, all really come together.
It looks really organized, really appealing, but Danielle was a little bit low energy, you know, compared to Yigit, who, really, the second he saw us brightened up and had a lot to say.
Oh, thank you.
So I am presenting Eric's dishes.
This is a classic chocolate chip cookie.
He also did a vanilla malted cake with a chocolate butter cream.
And there's some malted candy in there.
And then a banana loaf that has a brown butter and tangerine icing on top.
Great.
Thanks, Danielle.
Thank you.
That's my favorite one.
Yeah.
That's good stuff.
Those large cakes, these layer cake, it's not my particular favorite.
It's pretty rich, right, when you eat it.
But I must say, the texture of the butter cream is really well done.
And it's always nice to see a chocolate chip cookie that's not made with pre-packaged chocolate chips.
You think perhaps it's a little too simple for Eric to have just done a basic chocolate chip cookie for the challenge of creating a dessert shop fantasy land? You know, I agree with you, Gail, and I understand what you're saying, but again, this is supposed to be a business.
You want to make sure you put things on the menu that you guarantee sell.
I think the banana loaf, you expect a little bit more browner.
I have a problem with the texture of this.
I have a feeling that the proportion of chemical leaveners is off a little bit.
There's something I like about it, though.
The flavor for me is really nice.
The banana bread was okay.
It was yummy.
Four glasses.
Four floats.
Okay, so these are my desserts.
Ah.
I did a pistachio shortcake, and there's a little lemon cream and strawberries tossed with a little tarragon.
And then I did a coffee cream pie and there's hazelnut brittle.
And then I did a float.
So I did, um, house-made ginger ale.
There's raspberry sorbet and tangerine lime sorbet.
Wow.
Oh.
You're liking it too much.
It's that good.
Ooh.
I think Danielle's ginger ale is delicious.
I know it's very light, but I don't know if I would have chosen to do sorbets over an ice cream in this case.
With the short cake, I like the fact that she used little paper brioche cups for delivery of this.
I mean, you could hold it in your hand and walk out with it.
I think it's well done.
With Danielle's coffee cream pie, I want that beautiful, unctuous, coffee profile that you'd get from a cup of coffee, and I don't get it.
Yeah, should be definitely much stronger.
I'm just not crazy about it.
Yeah, I don't know.
So now I am going to present Morgan's dishes.
So for our bread option, he made a pretzel stick, and it is served with two kinds of mustards.
Then he also made a chocolate cake that has chocolate mousse, and there's a creme brulee center with a chocolate glaze.
For the second a la minute, it's a lemon fried pie, and it's served with a salted caramel ice cream.
Great.
Enjoy.
This is amazing.
Mm-hmm.
This is to die for.
I think we should start with Morgan's fried pie.
Mm.
Caramel ice cream is delicious.
The pie is delicious.
And it tastes like lemon.
And it tastes like lemon.
I love a beautiful pretzel, but what's interesting to see is as I'm just feeling and touching it, I look at my hands-- I have a feeling he might have brushed them with butter.
But if I had a big pint of beer beside me, I would certainly not complain about Morgan's pretzel.
Construction of Morgan's dessert is just perfect.
I think it's the most sophisticated of any of the desserts that we've seen so far.
I also think on the whole Morgan showed us by far the most range here.
He did.
The tarragon strawberries were really good.
Thank you.
The plain yogurt with the chocolate is a really good combination.
Yeah, right? Yeah, very interesting.
This is amazing.
Thank you very much.
Bye, thank you.
I think we should go back to judges' table.
I agree.
Get some sleep, you guys.
We'll see you guys soon.
We tried really hard on this challenge, so I just hope the judges see that, because I think we are the better team.
My korean princess collect all five that tangerine sorbet is badass.
I gave this service 110% and I hope that we beat Team Diva, give me--give me some love, girl.
Thank you so much.
You were a sweetheart.
We, as a team, made some people smile.
I saw those smiles, and I feel great.
Okay.
Were you happy with the final product? I thought it was a little bit thick.
The shell was a lot thick.
You've got to be hitting the ball, like, there.
D'oh! Morgan drives me completely insane, and then I like him, then I hate him, then I like him.
You don't need to walk over there, do you? Yes, Chef.
Morgan, you're being a dick if you're gonna say, "yes, Chef.
" I'm not being a dick.
Then don't say that to me.
She's very much like a sister whom you have all this endearment for, but you're really not friends.
Stupid .
She can irritate me to no end.
Did you take 'em all, or are there any left? I don't know.
But at the same time, I'm proud of her for succeeding, you know? Chefs, today we had our first ever dessert shop wars.
There were some amazing highs, but there were also some lows.
Black team, your concept, whisk me away, were you all happy with how the experience felt? We wanted just comfort food.
We didn't want complicated food.
And I think everything came together nicely.
The effort that you put into making it a place that somebody would want to spend time in was very noticeable.
Danielle, you took on the responsibilities of service in the front of the house.
Yes.
You seemed a bit "lacksadaisial" to me, a little bit too casual.
Okay.
I'm sorry you felt that way.
I think I was just-- feeling of our place as being more of a casual Just because the food is casual doesn't mean the service should be.
There's a big difference.
Now let's talk about the desserts.
Why don't we get into that? Eric, you had a banana sour cream loaf.
Eric, I think when it came to banana cake, first the appearance, right? When it was on the table, it was literally pale and then it was not sweet.
And then when you broke it open, there were some tunnels in there that sort of spoke to me like there was some inaccuracy with the leavening.
And you're right.
I just couldn't remember the recipe and it was killing me.
Morgan, your chocolate mousse bar with creme brulee, have you made it before? Never like that.
It truly was, I think, a dessert to be proud of.
I mean, it looked like a dessert that you would find on any glossy-paged french cook book.
Thank you.
Danielle, now let's talk about the coffee cream pie.
You're probably gonna say the coffee wasn't strong enough.
That's exactly what we're gonna say.
No, I think that there's those flavors in life, whether they're coffee, chocolate, or lemon, that when you say those flavors, they have to be assertive, or don't do 'em.
Red team, how do you think pastry playland took shape today? I think, you know, we took risks, and we put together a really complex menu.
We really created a dessert experience that wasn't, like, a grab and go bakery.
I was really happy with our product and where we got to in the end.
Yigit, did you like your experience at the front of the house tonight? The first hour was so physically and emotionally and psychologically challenging, but I had a ball.
Zac, what about your specific desserts? Well, I do love the deep fryer and I do love jelly-filled doughnuts.
I think, Zac, when it came to the doughnut, really, it honestly remind me of my childhood.
Perfect consistency, the flavor.
That was perfect.
Then when you go into the milkshake, the milkshake didn't stand up to the beignet.
It was a total different caliber, right? The brioche was perfect.
Really was.
It was really a delicious brioche.
Thank you.
Wow.
Heather, let's start with your frozen key lime bar.
I don't know if it came out exactly the way I wanted it to, but overall I was happy with it.
When you were plating it, since it was actually frozen, when it reached our table, you could literally see the fingerprints.
In what form was your key lime? Juice.
For me, it was a bit weak.
I was waiting for that, like, beautiful key lime flavor to come through against that chocolate and it really just didn't.
Yigit, let's talk about your dark chocolate peanut tart.
Were you happy with the final product? I was, but I thought it was a little bit thick.
That shell wasn't a little bit thick.
The shell was a lot thick.
We were trying to eat it and I literally almost broke the plate, but it was a shame, because the ganache was sensational.
You both had sable.
Was it the same dough? It was.
I want to defend Yigit, because I was the one that made it, and I rolled it out, because of course we were sharing responsibilities.
So perhaps you're to blame a little bit.
One comment that we all noticed about your shop in terms of decor and experience was that your vitrine, your showcase, was almost empty.
We got slammed.
Like, right before you guys showed up, the doors opened, and it was, like, everyone came running through the doors, and it, you know, it looked great right before you showed up.
Who is responsible? We all take ownership.
We were a team, and this is our pastry shop.
Yeah, the display case was unfortunate, but in terms of the team, we will all rejoice in $30,000, and we'll all sink as a team.
Unfortunately, the team that loses, one person goes home.
Well, Chefs, it's really, really close.
Nancy, as our guest judge, please announce the winning team.
We all agreed that if these two shops were across the street from each other, the one shop that we would keep returning to would be Whisk me away.
Oh, my God.
Oh, come on! Congratulations.
To hear our team name was just like, "aah!" You know? "$10,000!" Oh, my God.
You stop it.
Come here.
It was an amazing moment.
We're the underdogs, but we pull out something amazing.
Oh, my God.
Congratulations, whisk me away.
You've won $30,000 furnished by Dawn Hand Renewal.
I can't believe that the other team won, especially with Danielle, because I really question her cooking ability.
You did an excellent job tonight.
You can return to the stew room.
Thank you.
Red team, as you know, one of you will go home tonight.
We're going to discuss it and we'll call you back when we've made a decision.
Thank you.
Thank you, guys.
Whisk me away.
That's us.
That name kicked ass.
I'm sorry, but I love that name.
No, it was.
It was perfect.
Team go diva is done.
It's over.
It's gone.
It's a cut.
That's a wrap.
Whoo-hoo.
We certainly learned a lot listening to our Chefs.
Now we need to decide who goes home.
Unfortunately, Zac's lemon verbena milkshake was A little bland.
Flaw was that it existed.
He didn't need it.
It didn't bother me as much as his cashew-bacon caramel corn.
It was inconsistently mixed.
The fat was too heavy on some pieces and non-existent on others.
He could have done a better job in making it.
And then there was Heather, who made the frozen key lime bar.
And I think the key lime bar, the frozen bar, I really didn't care much of it.
As we tasted it, suddenly it was something not very pleasant sticking to your palate.
And then there was her lemon tart, which I thought was beautiful, but used the same sable dough that Yigit used and both times were totally undercooked.
Classic mistake.
She didn't taste her food before she sent it out.
What about what Yigit presented for us? His fraisier really fell short.
That was the lackluster of his repertoire.
And then his tart, the pastry dough was a big problem, even though the inside was great.
All right, well, I think we've made our decision.
Let's call them out here.
This all comes down to the details.
You guys fell short on the atmosphere and the food.
Zac, you shared front of the house duties, and as a result, the blame for an empty display case.
Plus your desserts were inconsistent at best.
Heather, we had issues with each one of your desserts.
Serious issues.
At this level, those tart shells were just unacceptable.
Yigit, while you were good in service, you should have made sure your display case was full.
And your fraisier didn't meet our expectations.
Heather, your desserts just didn't measure up.
Please pack your tools and go.
No.
I think there were issues with everybody's dish.
I don't know why I was asked to leave between the three of us.
I'm sure there were other people that should have left, but, you know, I mean, shoulda, woulda, coulda.
I can leave with my head held high.
It's okay.
I'm proud of my food.
Everything I did had my signature and I was proud of what I put out.
Guys, I'm going.
No! Yeah.
Do awesome.
Thanks, Heather.
I love you.
I love you.
The only regret is that I don't get to hang out with my buds.
I love you.
I'm so honored to have been a part of their experience and their lives, for sure.
You're gonna do awesome.
You're gonna be okay.
Oh, come here.
Bye, guys.
Good luck.
Keep it up.
Keep up the spirits.
Being in this competition has definitely given me a different perspective.
It's been a great experience and I wouldn't change anything for the world.
Next time on Top Chef: Just Desserts.
There's definitely certain ingredients that I've become very addicted to.
Really? You're joking.
Oh, that's really uncool.
Now I don't know what to do.
What happened back there? Your lack of creativity was disappointing.
It actually reminded me of the frozen petit fours that cruise ships buy and take out of a box.
For more about the recipes you've seen tonight, go to bravotv.
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