Top Chef ™

Season:

Week:

Quickfire Challenge

Padma Lakshmi: "Chefs, you will have three minutes in the pantry to collect just five ingredients."

The chefs found no protein, except for cheese, and concluded that they would be serving up a vegetarian dish. At the last minute, a magnificent deck of fish and seafood was also revealed to them.

Padma Lakshmi: "The UK is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and it's surrounded by four seas, so it's no wonder it's home to some of the finest seafood in the world. And that is what you'll be cooking with in your first quickfire challenge. So you have your pantry ingredients, and you have this beautiful array of seafood.

Padma Lakshmi: "We do love a twist here on Top Chef ™. Do you guys want to know what your twist is? Take a look around at what ingredients your fellow competitors chose, because we want you to pair up in teams of two. Good luck."

How the Top Chef ™ competitors teamed up

Buddha, Sylwia

Team 1

Gabri, Luciana

Team 3

Tom, Samuel

Team 5

Dale, Sara

Team 7

Ali, Amar

Team 2

Begona, May

Team 4

Dawn, Charbel

Team 6

Victoire, Nicole

Team 8

What the Top Chef ™ contestants prepared

Pan-fried Turbot in Brown Butter with Potatoes, Leeks and Dill

Team 1

Chef Buddha: "It's a pan fried turbot with potatoes and leek and dill. We actually made our own butter from the cream and then cooked the turbot in brown butter."

Pan-roasted Sea Bass with Kimchi Emulsion and Baba Ganoush

Team 2

Chef Amar: "We made a pan roasted sea bass with a kimchi emulsion. Also roasted eggplant baba ganoush."

Scallop Aguachile with Chayote and Tomato Lobster Shot

Team 3

Chef Gabri: "We made scallop aguachile with raw chayote."

Chef Luciana: "And a shot of tomato lobster water."

Pan-seared Monkfish with a Zucchini Wrapper

Team 4

Chef May: "I made a pan-seared monkfish with a zucchini wrapper, and then Chef Begonia made a spanish style sauce.

Poached Salmon with Red Cabbage Medley

Team 5

Chef Samuel: "We made red cabbage juice, poached salmon, red cabbage puree, cabbage ash, and pickled blueberries and onions."

Grilled Mackerel with Zucchini and Sauce Vierge

Team 6

Chef Dawn: "Today we made a grilled mackerel with grilled zucchini"

Chef Charbel: "... and then on top of it, like a Sauce Vierge, but with balsamic vinegar."

Langoustine with Seafood Broth and Gremolata

Team 7

Chef Sara: "So we have Langoustines in their own sauce with Gremolata. "

Cacio e Pepe Risotto with Poached Oysters and Mint

Team 8

Chef Nicole: "We cooked risotto al dente with pesto of mint and poached oysters."

Culinary Learnings from this challenge

Cacio e Pepe

Cacio e pepe means 'cheese and pepper' in several Italian dialects. The dish contains grated pecorino romano and black pepper, together with pasta.

Sauce Vierge

Sauce Vierge is a French sauce made from olive oil, lemon juice, chopped tomato and basil. Sometimes, crushed coriander seed is also added. Served hot or cold.

Aguachile

Aguachile is a Mexican dish (north west Mexico) made of shrimp and raw fish, marinated in liquid seasoned with chiltepin peppers, lime juice, salt, cucumber and red onion. It is an adaptation of ceviche.

Home-made Butter

In Top Chelf: World All-Stars we see Chef Buddha making butter by hand, since he has no access to it from the pantry.

Hand-crafted butter is surprisingly quick and easy and to layer onto hot toast, is far fresher and tastier than even the finest shop bought butter.

Make it by pouring a pint of heavy cream into a stand mixer and whipping relentlessly until it separates, forming butter and buttermilk. Put it into a sieve, or into cheesecloth, and press all the buttermilk out, and then rinse the butter under cold water until the water runs clear, showing that you have removed all the buttermilk.

Gremolata

Gremolata is a green sauce made of chopped parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. It is a very traditional Italian accompaniment, often served with veal.

Chayote

Chayote is a type of squash originating in central Mexico and various parts of Latin America but grown all over the world.

Chayote is loaded with an array of nutrients and antioxidant compounds that provide many potential health benefits.

It is officially a fruit, but behaves more like a vegetable. Every part of it can be eaten, either raw or, like most squash, cooked.

Where did the Feta go?

In the opening episode of Season 20 of Top Chef ™ (World All-Stars), Amar and Ali teamed together to make a pan-roasted sea bass with a kimchi emulsion and baba ganoush. When the judges asked them why they teamed together, Amar said "because we both had feta cheese in our baskets!"

So, the question is, where did they put the feta cheese in their finished dish?

Kimchi Emulsion - ordinarily, a keen cook would blend kimchi with mayonnaise and lemon juice to make a wonderful kimchi sauce. It's perfectly

Blow-torching Salmon

In Top Chef ™: World All Stars, Samuel said "I don't think that poaching salmon is going to be enough, so I finish it off with a blow torch to really bring out the flavor."