King Crab and Grits with Whipped Maple Sorghum and Crab Fat Caramel 

The randomizer generated:

Protein: Live king crab; 

Produce: Fresh water chestnut; 

Equipment: Pressure cooker; 

Style: Breakfast and dinner; 

Wild card: Sticky 

Bryan drew on his mid Atlantic roots. Bryan Voltaggio: "I'm making a broth right now, doing a play on shrimp and grits. These are things that I eat in the mid Atlantic, like where I'm from. So for breakfast, I'm making crab and grits." 

Bryan Voltaggio: "The best thing I love about a shrimp and grits dish is the sauce. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make a crab body stock. I'm cooking down with coconut milk, lots of lime leaves, lots of ginger and garlic, adding some dried shrimp to it just to build some umami. I'm gonna pressure cook that to extract all that crab flavor into this stock." He built a second component off the same sugar work, serving the sticky wild card. 

Bryan Voltaggio: "Starting with sugar there, I'm gonna make some crab sauce caramel. I'm actually gonna cook sugar to the point where it caramelizes. I'm gonna add a lot of fish sauce to it. I'm gonna add the crab bodies, lots of lime juice. I'm gonna finish it with some ginger. All of that's going to build really big, bold flavors, but it's also going to add to that sticky element that I need to finish these dishes." He added pork and water chestnuts for the shellfish and grits tradition. 

Bryan Voltaggio: "I want to add another element to my crab and grits. Pork is typically a part of a shellfish and grits dish, so I really quickly julienne some applewood smoked bacon, start rendering it in the pan. Then I'm going to strain the sauce right into it, and then I'll mince the water chestnuts into a brunoise and spoon them into the sauce. That way, you get that textural element in the sauce." For a second sticky hit, he built a whipped sweetener. 

Bryan Voltaggio: "We're gonna do whipped maple for the breakfast. Whipped maple with sorghum for my crab and grits. I'm going to use a modified tapioca starch that I could actually put into the sugar, whip it in a high speed mixer, and that's going to give it a little bit of sweetness over the top and add to the sticky." 

On plating: Bryan Voltaggio: "I want egg to be on a dish. I want the judges to look down at that egg and see that right dead center of the plate that's going to scream breakfast. The first thing I'm going to do is put the crab grits right down in the center. Then the sauce is going to go around, and then I'm going to gently place the egg right over the top. Then with some of the crab sauce caramel and this quenelle of this maple whip, I'm gonna finish it with this beautiful center cut crab leg." 

Voiceover: "Chefs, in front of you, we have the breakfast of TOC Champions. That's king crab and grits. Crab head and crab fat sauce was created entirely in the pressure cooker. Then a dice of water chestnuts was floated into the sauce. A crab fat caramel was constructed. Maple syrup and sorghum were whipped. Once again, the sticky portion of the program."