Top Chef ™

Tristen: "Mackerel. I'll take all three. That was a fish that was always preserved a lot. I worked in Sweden for a little bit of time, and Canada and Scandinavia is actually almost on the same latitude. That's why some similar preservation methods can be used. So I'm going to treat the mackerel like the Swedish treat herring."

Tristen: "I'm going to char some pickles and cure some mackerel, and then do that with a couple of different cucumber variations."

Tristen: "I'm burning pickles to get that caramelization. Because I have a lighter dish, burnt pickles add another, like, dimension of flavor. The mackerel's cured really well. I just want to really get this jus lié going."

Tristen: "I'm kind of going some different textures of the pickles and then using some fresh cucumber to lighten it back up."

Presenting to Judges

Tristen: "I have a charred mackerel with a half sour celeriac vichyssoise. Underneath is a cucumber and celeriac and pickle jus lié, some pickled dulse, and then there's some burnt pickles as well."

Kristen Kish: "How did you do the burning?" 

Tristen: "On a Konro grill."