Gorgeous.
This is beautiful.
Really pretty.
Nice.
All right.
Oh, wow.
That's nice.
Oh, you all look great.
Everybody is all dressed all nice.
Over the last six weeks, I have certainly shown that I'm the most technical chef here.
But now I got to bring the soul.
Now I got to bring the flavor.
Dorian is a brilliant chef.
She's methodical.
She knows flavor.
She has technique.
From the broth to the potatoes to the corn, like, you have it all.
Thank you so much.
I knew Dorian was gonna be here.
I'm ready to knock her out.
Chef Chris is smart, innovative, and strategic.
He's going to be tough to beat, but I'm definitely ready for the fight.
Both Chris and Dorian have won more challenges than I have.
The winner of the cook-off challenge is Chef Chris.
Congratulations.
Chef Dorian.
So I feel a little bit like the underdog going into the finale.
But over the last few weeks, I found my footing, and I am here for it all.
Hello, chefs.
Congratulations on making it to the finale.
Over the past few weeks, you three have been tested on your soul food cooking skills.
And y'all have truly delivered.
A moment like this calls for celebration.
So we have invited a few guests.
Y'all know Chef Eric Adjapong and Miss Melba Wilson.
And back again, James Beard Award-winning chef, Mr. Alexander Smalls.
Hey, everybody.
Glad to be back.
And please welcome James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year, Chef Kwame Awanchi.
And I get to eat and judge today, too.
I'm very excited to try your cooking.
There is much to celebrate, but this still is a competition.
Your finale is so big, you don't even have time for a soul starter challenge.
In this final cook-off, the three of you will prepare a four-course soul food feast for our judges.
And within the first hour, you will have to plate your first course.
You will also have to present a menu of your planned feast.
Y'all got a lot of cooking to do.
Your final cook-off challenge starts right now.
All right, judges, it's down to the final three.
You've watched them progress.
We've seen their growth.
What are you all looking for in the finale?
Well, I'm looking for presentation.
I want it to wow me when it hits the table.
But it also has to be delicious.
Definitely.
I think their four courses need to tell a story.
And I really want really sound cooking.
The $50,000 question is, what are they going to make for their first dish?
Well, I think for $50,000, you've got to make a statement.
stay the course at this point.
What got you here, what got the recognition and the attention of the judges, you keep developing that to your very, very best.
Absolutely.
Lamb chops, here we go.
I'm really excited that we have three hours because now I am able to showcase my repertoire.
I'm hoping to give the judges a soul food experience in its purest form.
When thinking about my menu, I'm thinking about the recipes my family passed down from generation to generation.
And growing up, lamb was something that we ate a lot.
My first course is going to be balsamic lamb chops with onion rings and apple slaw.
My father was a chef, so I was taught how to cut up the whole lamb.
I want to French the bone to make kind of like a lamb lollipop.
And now I get them into my marinade, which is just basically my spice blend with a little bit of cayenne, balsamic vinegar, and some oil.
OK.
I got it.
I can do this.
Roz is doing her thing today, but with the lamb chops, you got to be careful because the chance of overcooking it is so great.
So I'm wondering, you know, is that going to happen to her?
In my days of competing on various TV shows, I've never won, you know, but I'm looking to win this time and walk out of here with that 50K.
The menu that I'm coming up with has been on my mind for the last five years.
I like to call it the rib shack, bone-inspired dishes.
So my first course is harissa-rubbed hamachi collar with pickled fennel, olives, dates, and a lemon gastrique.
I get my hamachi collar rubbed with the harissa.
I'm going to grill that low and slow so that it doesn't dry out.
With my menu, I also want to take the judges on a journey.
I want to show where the origins of soul food began and how they end up.
So I'm starting with North Africa, with the olive, with the dates, and the harissa.
I'm hooking up the accompaniment to my hamachi collar.
And just getting everything together.
At this point, I want to win more than ever.
I think more than I did coming in, because I'm so close now.
I've competed before, and I've won before.
But the thing about this win, it hits differently, because I get to highlight myself, my way of cooking, and soul food.
I want to take the judges on a beautiful walk through my family's favorite dishes with this menu.
My husband's name is Charles.
I have a daughter named Mia, a son DJ, or Dorian.
He's named after me.
And my first course is inspired by my son Dorian.
He's not a big beef eater.
He loves mushrooms, seafood, and he loves rice.
So I'm making a porcini mushroom risotto with a citrus crab cake.
Rice is important because we brought it here from Africa.
And it's a staple in soul food cooking.
This is my way of taking that staple to another level.
Risotto is risky because it does take time.
It could take me the whole hour to get those flavors in there and not have it to be pasty or gummy or undercooked.
But I'm up for the challenge.
Throughout this competition, Chef Dorian has really been like a solid contender.
She's shown us some solid plating.
She's shown us some different skills, innovation.
She has pulled off two challenge wins.
So she kind of knows a little bit of what she's doing.
Chef Ross.
Chef Ross, she is in her element.
She is just as calm as can be.
I'm making onion rings for my dish just to add some texture to my plate and just maybe to add some playfulness also to the dish.
I have to let them soak down in some buttermilk for a minute just so they don't have that hard, harsh bite to them, you know?
So they don't taste oniony.
I want my dish to have a fresh component and some brightness.
So I'm making an apple slaw.
I got this.
I'm also making a balsamic reduction to have a sauce to go with my lamb chop.
It adds a great balance of sweetness as well as acidity.
For my pickled fennel, I pour the hot pickle brine over top of the fennel so that it works its way in.
And then I do my lemon gastrique.
I have my lemon juice, splash of vinegar, sugar, and salt.
Color it up with a little bit of turmeric, some North African flavors, and reduce that down into its syrup.
Let's talk about this table.
Well, it's very celebratory, right?
Yes.
You know, and I love the ancestral accents.
This table transports me back to South Carolina, being in my grandparents' home, where every important moment in our family happened over food.
It's also where stories of our history were passed around over the dinner table.
It's the recipes that evoke those conversations.
What's up?
To go with my risotto, I'm making a citrus crab cake with lemon zest and chives.
They give that risotto more of a meaty taste.
It really pairs well.
And this speaks to my son.
This is everything that he loves.
We got risotto over here with a little miniature crab cake.
Risotto takes so long to cook.
It is not the wisest choice.
I think it's also difficult to pull off in a competition.
It can seize up.
You can blow out the outside of the rice and leave the center a little bit hard.
There's so many things that can go wrong.
Dorian's making a risotto, and I'm thinking, good.
In the finals, the last thing you want to be cooking is risotto.
Halfway through this cook, I'm feeling a little stressed and just a bit overwhelmed because I have to give so much care and attention to this risotto.
Attention, chefs.
As soon as I see Cartier stand up, it makes me nervous.
Can I have your attention, please?
I've got some very important news to share with you.
You may have your entire meal planned, but only two of you will have the chance to complete it.
The judges will be eliminating one of you based on this first course.
I knew it.
Oh, my goodness.
I can't believe that one of us is about to go home.
I'm freaking out.
I don't know about you guys, but I just felt the intensity of the kitchen just rise just a little bit, right?
Totally.
It got a lot hotter in here.
It's the wake-up call.
Clearly, it puts everybody on notice that this is really happening.
This is going down.
I'm taking a big risk making a risotto.
And if I don't stay focused, it could be me going home.
I'm starting to feel stressed.
I'm starting to feel frazzled.
But I want to regain focus because I want to make my full meal.
Chefs, 10 minutes left on the clock.
10 minutes left.
I think they need to start plating now.
Yeah.
Chef Chris is plating already?
Great, great.
You can definitely cut the attention with a knife.
I mean, these chefs know that after this course, one of them is going to be going home.
They are cooking for their lives.
Chef Dorian plated her risotto, took it out, and put it back in the pot.
I don't know, but it probably was undercooked.
My risotto is taking longer than I was hoping for.
I'm adding more liquid.
I just feel I want to rush it, and I can.
90 seconds.
Come on.
Push off.
Come on.
Let's start.
You need to get it on the plate.
You got this.
Get it on the plate.
This is the finals, though, guys.
Come on.
Get it on the plate, guys.
Somebody's going all in the bowl, guys.
Come on.
Don't let it beat you.
We are down to the wire, literally down to the wire.
I salt and pepper one more time for the road, and I taste it, and it's absolutely perfect.
Oh, my God.
I'm so nervous for them.
You made it this far.
We believe in you.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
That is it.
Come on.
Oh, my God.
Back away from your stations.
Throughout this competition, I've won more challenges than anyone.
I've proven myself with some of the hardest ingredients.
But it's not about the past.
It's about today.
When Cartier said that the loser of round one is done for the competition, it kind of put the fire under me.
I need to come off strong as all hell with this dish because there is $50,000 at stake.
Heavenly Father, bless the hands of the chefs that have prepared the meals for us.
May you give them grace.
May you give them faith.
Most importantly, may you give them flavor.
Amen.
Let's eat.
Amen again.
Chefs, I told you in the middle of cooking that one of you will be going home after your first course.
So let's see which two chefs' first course will make us hungry for more and which chef will be heading home.
Chef Dorian, can you tell us what you've prepared?
And if you were to stay, what would your menu be?
What you have for your first course is a porcini mushroom risotto with a nice citrus crab cake.
This is something that I would make for my son.
He's not big on eating beef, so he gets that meaty taste from the mushrooms.
And he loves crab.
The rest of my menu, you'll get to meet some more of my family.
My second course is a bacon and blue deviled egg.
My third course is Chilean sea bass with lump crab meat in a herb butter sauce.
And my fourth course is a key lime dessert.
What inspired you to create this menu?
I think that we're all different in our approach to soul food.
But I put twist on it and step out of the box.
Chef Dory, that crab cake is seasoned to perfection.
And I think that the portion size of the crab cake is perfect for an appetizer.
Right.
But I would have liked half of the amount of risotto.
Yeah.
It's really, really impressive that you got somewhat even texture as far as the mouthfeel in a short amount of time.
But when you put a bunch of stock in your risotto, it has a bunch of time to soak up all that liquid.
But you also have to remember to also season it as you're cooking it.
I get, like, this, like, risotto gravy kind of, like, flavor profile going on.
Like, you use chicken stock, you use black pepper.
You know, there are things in there that kind of remind me of home.
I think it was a beautiful way to showcase where soul food could go.
For sure.
Chef Chris, your first course is up next.
Come on down.
Hi, everyone.
Hey, Chef.
What have you prepared for us today?
So the inspiration behind this menu, I like to call it the rib shack.
OK.
And what that means is that everything will either be on the bone or bone related.
So in front of you right here is a hamachi collar with some fresh dates, pickled fennel, some olives, some harissa, and lemon gastrique, very North African flavors.
If you do remain in the competition, what do you plan on making us?
I have a goat that's going to be on the bone.
I have some beef short ribs.
And then I have a chocolate dessert with a bone broth powder.
OK.
I'm enjoying the flavors.
You know, there's some pickles here, a little bit of spice, sweetness.
Thank you.
It also eats really well.
You put a little bit of drops of the fennel on top of the collar, a little bit of the dates underneath.
So any bite that I got, I got a little of everything that you had intentions for.
Beautiful.
Chef, I also want to say that I liked how the fish was the stock.
You didn't put any other starches or anything else to take away.
I agree.
But I just feel like you left it on the grill just a tad bit too long, because it is a little dry.
Just a little.
Thank you, Chef Chris.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Chef.
Chef Roz, come on down.
Tell us what you've prepared for your first horse.
Hello, everyone.
Hello, chef.
Today, you have in front of you a balsamic lamb chop.
When I was thinking of the first course, I just thought of my childhood staples.
I grew up in Washington, DC.
What pork chops are to Southern blacks is what lamb chops are to my family.
So the next course would be a grit cake with shrimp.
Third, pan trout, creamed potatoes, and collards.
And then dessert is a peach cobbler.
You sure do cook with soul, honey.
Yeah.
You do.
Thank you.
We've noticed that you do really well when you go simple and you go with what you know.
My anxiety or whatever I have, I didn't even know I had it.
It has just gotten the best of me, you know?
So.
I sat with this for a minute before deciding to go with me.
This is me.
Best decision you could make.
This is all really great, the frizzled onions.
I mean, coated and seasoned to perfection.
Yeah, I can just pop them.
It's like popcorn for me.
They are so deliciously done.
Thank you.
And I really love the apples.
I thought the apples brought a nice freshness.
My lamb chop, however, cooked perfectly in terms of temperature.
It was definitely a bit over charred on the top for me.
OK.
And pass that over here.
I'm going to eat that.
Because the way that you cooked it was perfect for me.
There was love put into this food.
Amen.
When someone calls up and says, I want to eat soul food, this is what they're talking about.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Ross.
Thank you, everyone.
Please give us a moment while we deliberate.
Thank you.
Keep your head up.
That was a lot to throw on us midway through the meal.
When she said, somebody's going to be eliminated, that's like a lot.
Right after that first one, yes.
I mean, for sure, that made me focus on every single piece that I was putting on the plate.
Yeah, this is, um.
Wrecking my nerves.
I felt inspired, you know, coming up with the menu.
Yeah, I really want them to be able to taste the rest of my meal.
I think that is playful.
I think that it shows each individual person that lives in my house their personality.
I just hope that we have the opportunity to get it done.
Judges.
What do you all think?
I personally love Chef Dorian's first course because it reminded me of soul food in a different way.
That risotto tasted like a pan gravy that could go over like smothered pork chop.
It was her saying she wanted to break out a tradition, but not forget where she came from.
And she was able to do that.
Now, did it need some salt?
Absolutely.
I think that that cream, adding it at the end, while she may have gotten the texture, she lost flavor.
Let's talk about Chef Raz.
Chef Raz is hitting the love.
That was smack your mama.
Good.
Her confidence was there today.
And I think that we tasted all of that on the plate.
She doesn't necessarily have the skill that, say, Chef Chris has.
But what she brings in flavor and the culinary conversation.
It makes up for it.
It really does.
However, the lamb chops for me, mine were really close to burnt on the outside.
Chef Chris, I mean, that was a really nice plate.
And I loved it.
The pops of acidity through the gastrique, the pickled fennel, the olives, just really, really well played.
I loved that dish.
And he didn't crowd the plate.
Right.
He allowed the fish to be everything.
Exactly.
Maybe it's me, but I prefer my fish cooked a little less than what he cooked it.
It ate a little dry for me.
Yeah.
OK.
We have a serious decision to make.
What chef do we want to see more of?
There's $50,000 on the line.
You think you've got your decision?
I think so.
Let's bring him back in.
Chefs, we challenge you all to create a four-course meal that's an undeniable celebration of soul food.
But one chef will be eliminated on their first course alone.
And the chef that will be leaving the competition right now is... Chef Dorian.
Your first course did not bring the soul the judges were looking for.
I'm so sorry.
You're all right.
I'm sorry.
You're all right.
I'm sorry.
Chef Doran, we'd first like to start off by telling you how amazing it was to have you here in this competition.
From week one until now here, up until the finale, you served us soulful food.
You served us thoughtful food.
You served us food that was elevated.
And you served us food that came from you.
Unfortunately today, compared to the other two first courses, it lacked so much flavor.
I understand.
You've had an extraordinary run.
It's been a pleasure.
This experience has tested me, tried and true.
But I have made lifelong friends, and the challenges made me grow.
So that's a win in itself.
Continue to hold your head high.
Continue to cook with pride.
And your time is here.
Take full grasp of it.
Thank you.
I'm extremely proud of everything that I've done.
I look back, and I watch my food gradually elevate itself.
And being able to associate those dishes with my family and with childhood experiences, and being able to replicate that type of filling onto a plate, everybody can't do that, but Chef Dorian can.
And then there were two.
I am one person away from $50,000.
So I'm just overwhelmed in a sense, but I'm very excited.
It's like I can touch it.
I can taste it.
Going into the next two hours of the cook, everything has to be perfect.
There's no room for any mistakes.
Dorian was on like a two, three week run where nothing that she did was wrong, you know?
And it just goes to show you that you could be on the top one day and home the next.
Your final two hours remain.
And your time starts now.
Let's go, chefs.
Let's do it, guys.
Final cut.
Push, push, push.
So guys, we are here.
This is the absolute final cook of this entire competition.
Can you believe it?
We're here.
No, I can't.
Six weeks of just some incredible cooking.
I'm proud of both of them.
I am as well.
I mean, we have two almost kind of stark challenges.
One chef takes chances and pushes the envelope.
And the other is so grounded in her family, her roots, what's familiar, and her purpose, which is to put love on a plate.
You've seen them grow, and you see that spark of emotion that made both of them deserve to be here.
Yeah, totally.
Going into this final challenge, I want to show these judges that I'm fearless.
I'm not trying to play it safe.
So for my second course, I'm taking the journey through the Caribbean.
I'm making goat ribs, sorghum and grits, and hibiscus.
So the inspiration behind this dish is once we arrived in the Caribbean during the slave trade, having some of those flavors still from Africa, but now incorporated with some of the Caribbean's flavors.
I'm marinating the goat ribs with a lot of different fragrant spices, bottle von curry, cardamom, mustard seed.
Just getting everything ready before I put it into the pressure cooker.
Last week, Chef Chris, he did the same technique with the pressure cooker and the lamb ribs, and then getting it on really high heat.
Somehow, he had managed to get a really hard sear on the outside, but it was still undercooked and tough in the meat.
Hopefully, we do not see a repeat of that today.
Can I get some grapes from you?
Sure.
Canola.
I got two of the same.
Oh, OK.
All right.
So take whatever you need.
Thank you.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Chef Roz has definitely paid the price to be in the finals.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
You know, there was a lot of growth.
But also, she listened, and she executed.
I personally just see something in Chef Roz's eyes that I can see when someone is, like, really, like, locked in.
Locked in.
Yep.
So don't sleep on the underdog.
You're absolutely right.
But when Chef Chris hits this menu, I'm really excited for this.
I am as well.
It looks very inventive.
It does.
You know, he has so much experience that this can be something that's revolutionary.
Definitely.
Chris is a very seasoned chef.
He has great technique.
And I'm very traditional, so I know that my execution has to be spot on.
When coming up with my menu, I wanted to give the judges a soul food experience.
And shrimp and grits had to be a part of that.
For my second course, I'm making Creole shrimp and grit cakes.
I have to peel all of my shrimp, so I'm rushing to get this done as quickly as possible so that I can season and sear them quickly.
So for my third course, I'm doing short ribs with a PD barbecue sauce, a boiled peanut sambal, and a roasted plum.
Behind this dish, I want to show the journey of enslaved Africans in Asia.
So I take some plums, cut them in half, rub them heavily with sugar and salt, and then I roast them over a nice little bed of dried ancho chilies.
With these plums, I'm trying to create the balance of sweet and tart.
Peanut sambal is a sort of spicy kind of condiment that you can rub onto your meat.
I'm serving it with my short ribs because I want to give somewhat of an Asian influence to the dish.
Chefs, you're 75 minutes away from $50,000.
Exactly.
With the $50,000, if I were to win, would go towards my children's education.
I have four kids, and my second oldest, she's about to start college.
So that $50,000 would certainly come in handy.
Got to get the trout.
Trout.
Winning 50K, that would mean I would see myself in a shop.
I've always wanted to own an artisan market, you know, to sell my family meals.
I don't have a brick and mortar, never have.
So this is my opportunity to have a bulk of money to see a dream come alive.
For my third course, I'm making pan trout, cream potatoes, and collards.
I'm searing tomatoes with black-eyed peas to finish off my collard greens.
Because black-eyed peas with tomatoes and collards is a classic soul food combination.
For my pan trout, I butterfly it open and season it with my all-purpose spice blend.
I feel like I'm bringing my mom with me in the kitchen again today.
I could eat my mom's trout breakfast, lunch, dinner in the middle of the night.
I love it.
40 minutes left, guys, 40 minutes.
40 minutes heard.
Chef Ross is coating her trout in maybe a cornmeal or something.
Is that cornmeal?
It looks seasoned.
It's shallow fried.
Yeah.
I'm concerned.
That's a big piece.
Why is it not cut in half?
She's cooking a lot of fish, right?
And maybe cooking unevenly.
Yeah.
And that pan is not hot.
No.
So it's just sitting in oil.
That could be soggy by the time we eat it.
Yeah.
Oh, no.
Come on, Ross, stay focused.
Not all of my trout are cooking the same way.
Different pans are heating up quicker than others.
If my trout aren't cooked perfectly, I could be eliminated for it.
Come on, come on.
I could lose this.
I need to make sure that I keep a close eye on every single trout as it's cooking.
So for the fourth course, I'm making a chocolate bone broth mousse with whipped goat cheese and chocolate rice puffs.
The inspiration behind that, again, it's the rib shack.
Using bone broth to make a dessert is certainly out in left field, but that's exactly where I need to be to win this whole thing.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Bone broth powder is like protein powder.
What it adds to the dish is a lot of nutrients.
I've made chocolate mousse hundreds of times, but never with the bone broth.
In order to win, you have to take chances.
You have to take risks.
Yes, Lord.
For my fourth course, I'm making peach cobbler.
Peach cobbler is a soul food dessert staple.
It's also a recipe that I learned while growing up from my mom.
And I mix together self-rising flour and milk and sugar, and I pour it down into the ramekins.
I go to check on my mousse.
It's looking good.
I'm garnishing it with whipped goat cheese.
It is salty enough to bring out more of the chocolate taste and chocolate rice puffs, because I want that texture.
I want that crunch.
This is the best food that I've seen.
Look at the plate.
Oh, my god.
I'm always excited to see Chef Chris's plate hit the table.
I just have to take a moment and really take in the visual beauty of his plate.
He really does take his plating to an artistry.
He does.
It's all coming down to the finish.
I know.
It's coming down to the wire.
Oh, my God.
All right, guys.
Let's go.
Be strong.
It's time to push.
Oh.
I've been in this position where it's the final seconds and the nerves start to hit.
And I think in that moment, for me, I'm the proudest because I'm so proud to have gotten to that place.
It's delicious.
We are ready.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Come on, y'all.
Yes, yes.
Chef Chris.
Wow.
Chef Roz.
Yes.
Thank you, guys.
This is it.
I managed my time properly.
I checked all my flavors two, three, four times.
Now I'm anxious to see who's going to take home that 50K.
Looking down at my place, I feel proud.
I feel like they're going to get the experience that I envisioned.
Going into the tasting, I feel confident that I could win this thing.
Chefs, this is your moment to show us why you deserve $50,000 and the title of Soul Food Champion.
Chef Roz, you were up first.
Please present us with your feast.
For the second course, we have Creole shrimp and grit cakes.
I think the most flavorful part about this dish is the stock that you used.
It's so oceanic.
It tastes like the sea, but it also tastes like flavor.
Yeah, it's a little spicy, but my shrimp wasn't properly deveined.
Yes.
But I can go past that to the flavor, which I think is outstanding.
And the grit cake is really special.
Thanks so much.
I would say this probably is the best plate of shrimp and grits I've ever had in my life.
And I've eaten a lot of shrimp and grits.
Wow.
Thank you.
All right, Chef Ross, let's see if your third course lives up to your second.
OK.
Before you is a pan trout, creamed potatoes, and collards.
It's seasoned beautifully.
The texture on the beans is right where it needs to be.
Yeah, and the kick of spice is just right.
But your trout, the portion size is big.
I think if you had cut that in half, I think it would have been perfect.
We were watching you, and we were worried for you.
However, it's definitely fried to perfection.
And the skin underneath is still nice and crispy.
Thank you.
To me, this is soul food.
That's why we're here.
It's a treat.
And it's a joy to have your cooking.
Thank you.
This food is really making me emotional.
You know, having a show like this and seeing food that I grew up eating.
When I think of the great soul food cook-off, this is great soul food.
You should be so proud of yourself.
Thank you.
Bravo, chef.
Thanks so much.
We are ready for your fourth and final course.
OK, so this is dessert.
This is peach cobbler.
I make peach cobbler all the time for my clients, for my home, for everything.
This is perfection.
This is the food that we grew up eating.
This is the food that my heart aches for.
The crunchiness and the flavors, the sweetness of the peaches, not too sweet, you know?
But there are parts of my cobbler that's a little uneven as far as the bacon.
So just, you know, something to look out for.
Thank you, Chef Raz, for that incredible feast.
Thank you so much.
Chef Chris, come on up.
It's time for us to taste your entire feast.
This is the next course in the rib shack.
So this here is goat ribs with grits, sorghum, and hibiscus.
It tastes like the Caribbean.
It tastes like West Africa to me.
My Jamaican side is dancing right now.
Oh, right on, brother.
Right on.
This food, for me, is the expansion of the African-American narrative.
And this really speaks to who we are beyond this continent.
And for that, I'm very appreciative.
Yes, thank you very much.
The grist cake, the hibiscus is giving it such a nice coating.
A little bit of sweet, but tart.
Just lovely.
Really, really lovely.
And the sour cream syrup, a nice, a nice addition to it.
I love the vegetable set as well.
Nice little pops of pickle, and the mango is really nice.
My only gripe, it's the little fat, just the gristle on the ribs that's kind of hard to kind of get around.
Sure.
But that flavor from the goat, the flavor from the hibiscus, the sorghum, it's all working.
Right.
This is a Michelin star worthy dish.
It's excitement on a plate.
It is.
It's excitement on a plate.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef Chris.
Your second course was excellent.
Can you please present us with your third course?
All right, course three at the Rib Shack.
So this one here is beef short ribs with a peaty barbecue sauce, a boiled peanut sambal, and roasted plum.
The Rib Shack, all you need is a little bit of blues music or something going on, and you know, this is great.
The meat sure enough falls off the bone, because.
Very good.
The braise on the short rib is fantastic.
I was really hoping to get a little bit more spice, a little bit more heat.
Sure.
Yep.
But I just love that you are willing to push us beyond our comfort zone.
And that sentence was very successful.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Thank you so much for a wonderful third course.
All right, Chef Chris, tell us about your fourth and final course.
All right, this is the last one for 50 grand.
Yes, it is.
This is a chocolate bone broth ganache with whipped goat cheese and puffed chocolate rice.
I like my desserts a little salty, a little sweet, like both.
And it does have like a balance of that.
It's a little sweet, but you do get these salty notes in there that is really pleasing.
but it's almost a texture of like a syrup.
What's giving it this texture?
I think it's the bone broth.
So there's hydrocolloids in that.
Yes, yeah.
And it's a protein powder?
It's a protein powder.
So there's iota carrageenan in here that hasn't been hydrated properly.
Colloid, you know, needs a certain amount of liquid.
And then carrageenan, you know, using small amounts can help thicken things.
Yes.
But when you use normally over 0.1%, it doesn't set properly.
Right.
You know, and that's something that unfortunately probably happened here.
OK.
I have to agree with him.
If there was a cake or a tart, you know, that this rested on, it would be a lot more satisfying.
Chef Chris, what would winning mean for you?
You know, being here and winning would be the pinnacle of my career, because I'm getting held up by my peers in the culture of a food that I truly love and that's close to me.
Love it.
that prize, what would it mean if you won?
Validation to stay true to myself, my family, my roots, my African.
I'm black, straight up.
And I am proud of that.
And putting chef in front of my name doesn't mean that I have to steer from that to be accepted.
I've made a career out of serving.
Just this.
And I'm proud to do that.
We can taste it.
Our food's refined and perfect as it is.
Perfect as it is.
Amen.
One of you will be walking out of here the champ.
Either one of you are still champions in our eyes.
I mean, this is not easy what you've done.
All right, judges, we have to crown a winner.
Give us a moment while we deliberate.
Thank you.
All right, judges, both chefs represent the best that soul food has to offer.
But which chef represented the best of themselves today?
Chef Chris gave us a really interesting second offering with his goat ribs, grits and sorghum, and hibiscus.
That grits cake, oh my god.
I cut into it.
It was creamy.
The hibiscus with the sweet and tart on the outside was everything.
Yeah.
I also thought the way he cooked it was intelligent, but there ended up being a lot of gristle on that rib for me.
Yeah.
Chef Roz went the more southern, traditional route.
She took us to a place that's familiar.
And so the story, the culinary conversation played very well with the spices and textures she chose for that dish.
I thought it was fantastic.
My only criticism is that her shrimp was not cleaned properly.
It wasn't deveined.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's move on to the third course.
Chef Chris's beef short ribs did indeed fall off that bone.
The braise was perfect, but that sambal didn't hit as far as the spice.
There was a story there, which I really, really appreciated.
I'm so glad.
But it was one or two edits away from being a home run dish.
Chef Roz's pan trout with that glorious collard green and black-eyed peas.
The portion size of a trout was humongous.
But the greens, black-eyed peas, and tomatoes.
Where's the tupperware?
Because you know I'm taking some.
The dish brought me to tears.
I saw my culture represented unabashedly.
So I think it was a dope dish.
All right, the fourth and final course.
Chef Chris made chocolate bone broth ganache.
I like the combination of chocolate and the goat cheese.
Yes.
I thought that was quite daring.
But it didn't really live up to the structure of a ganache, per se.
It didn't work.
All right.
Well, I think it's pretty safe to say that we all enjoyed Chef Roz's dessert.
She put everything into that final course, and you can taste it.
I got pieces of my cobbler that were a little bit uneven as far as the baking, but it was so delicious.
I tell you, as the underdog, she threw the ace on the table.
She did?
Yeah.
All right, so judges, it comes down to this.
Do we give the win to the chefs who stepped out of the box, showed us innovative, calculated risk, or do we crown the champion, the chef that stuck with her traditional, classic ways of cooking and nailed that?
Do you all feel that you've come to a decision?
Yes, chef.
Yes.
This is for $50,000.
This is going to change someone's life.
For sure.
We're ready.
Let's do it.
All right.
Let's bring them in.
Ready?
Yep.
My heart is pounding.
The sweat is dripping.
I really want to win this.
To get this far and not win would be a blow.
I put my entire heart, mind, and soul into this experience.
And I want to win this competition so much that I can taste it.
I want it so bad.
Chefs, once again, congratulations on your accomplishments in this competition.
Thank you.
You both have risen above six other chefs.
to be standing here at this moment in the competition.
One of you is moments away from being crowned the first champion of the Great Soul Food Cook-Off.
Not to mention, you'll be walking away with a life-changing amount of money.
The winner is...
Chef Roz, congratulations.
You are the first winner of the Gray Circle.
Go, go, go.
I love it.
Congratulations.
You did it.
Congratulations.
Oh, my god.
That's so wonderful.
Congratulations to you, too, Chef.
Thank you.
And a round of applause, Chef.
First of all.
Chef Chris, you've come into this competition each week challenging yourself.
You took us on a culinary journey with tastes and flavors that we've never experienced before.
We want to thank you for presenting a new menu and, more importantly, challenging yourself.
Right on.
Thank you all.
Thank you, Chef.
For sure.
Thank you, Chef.
Congratulations.
I certainly feel that I have accomplished everything, except for winning, that I set out to do.
20 years ago, I would have never expected to see anything like this.
Never in a million years would I have ever thought that I would live to see it, let alone be a part of it.
This experience was priceless.
Chef Ross, you get to take that title home to your babies and your husband, but girl, celebrate!
I think it's only right that you come have a seat at the table.
Come on, girlfriend.
Really?
Yes.
OK.
Oh, my God.
Yes.
The first ever.
Oh, my God.
I came here to show the world that soul food is beautiful.
Soul food deserves the same respect as any other cuisine.
So I feel proud for my culture.
I feel proud for myself.
I feel proud for my family.
I'm just overjoyed.
I am the winner of the Great Soul Food Cook-Off.