Top Chef ™

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Oscar

Top Chef, Carolinas

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Lamb Chop with Mole, Yellow Grits

Lamb Chop with Yellow Grits, Asparagus and Dehydrated Mole

Oscar during prep: 'I've never dehydrated my mom's mole, but we're gonna do it today.' A fellow chef: 'You think she's gonna say something when she finds out about that?'

Oscar: 'I love mole, and I think I can make the mole paste - I'm hoping I can get a leather out of it, I'm hoping I can get a powder out of it. I'm feeling strong about this.' He planned: 'I got some grits that I'm gonna cook off. It's gonna be a mole, grits, and lamb, and I'm gonna make another sauce so that when I pour my mole, it kind of takes a mother mole and makes a new mole as well.' Disaster struck: 'The timer had been going on for a while. I kind of lost track of it. This lamb is over. It's done.' He tried to salvage: 'I'm brushing on some mole. I'm hoping this mole is delicious enough that they don't notice that it's overcooked. At this point, I'm throwing up a Hail Mary.'

At presentation: 'Today I made a lamb chop with yellow grits, asparagus, and then I made variations of Mama's mole - some get completely dehydrated, turned into a powder, and on the side, you might see, like, a little leather. I wanted to treat that like an after-dinner snack.'

BOTTOM 3. Gail: 'Oscar played stuff too well in advance. It just solidified that. And the lamb is hammered. I'm sorry. This is so overcooked. It's ridiculous.' Tom: 'While he definitely nailed the dehydration part with the mole, the grits were totally congealed.' Tom: 'I will say, this little leather thing on the side, I love.' Kristen: 'I'm skipping all this and just going for the sweet treat.' Tom (deliberation): 'The only thing that does it for me on Oscar's is that little thing he put on the side.' Kristen: 'That little dehydrated [piece] — and that was dehydrated.' Tom: 'An overdressed salad isn't as bad as a hammered piece of lamb. He knew it was overcooked, but what do you do? Just give us mole.' Joe: 'I agree with everybody that it was overcooked. The lamb belly, I did think was rendered really well.' Tom on grits: 'There were some problems with the grits. It was like scrambled eggs.' Oscar to judges: 'No, not really [it didn't turn out as I wanted]. I mean, obviously, I'm here.'

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