**The Art of Scrapple: A Culinary Showdown**

In this episode of "Taste Masters," two skilled chefs, Chef Eric Aapon and Chef Stephanie, faced off in a culinary battle that tested their creativity, technique, and attention to detail. The randomizer had chosen scrapple as the main ingredient, with the added challenge of achieving a chewy texture. Both chefs knew that this was no easy feat, but they were determined to impress the judges.

Chef Eric began by explaining his strategy for cooking with scrapple. "I've had scrapp before," he said, "but I never cooked with it. Definitely eaten it and know you want that chewy texture." He emphasized the importance of adding different elements of texture to the dish to avoid monotony. To achieve this, he planned to make Scrabble Croutons by crumbling up the scrapple and letting them render in a pan until crispy.

Meanwhile, Chef Stephanie was focused on building layers of flavor in her dish. She wanted to create a sauce that would complement the chewy texture of the scrapple, while also showcasing the natural flavors of the ingredients. Her plan involved using fish sauce, tequila, and lime juice to create a bold and aromatic sauce. "I'm hoping that the judges take a bite of this dish and all of the flavors really come together," she said. "That it's bold in your face flavors that you're not going to forget."

As the competition heated up, both chefs began to plate their dishes. Chef Eric started by preparing his Rockfish, which he seasoned generously with salt and black pepper before grilling it on a cast-iron grill sandwiched between two more cast-iron griddles. He wanted to achieve a crispy skin and a golden brown crust on the fish.

Chef Stephanie, on the other hand, focused on creating a visually appealing dish that would showcase her creativity and attention to detail. She started by preparing a chewy farro with golden raisins, which she planned to serve alongside her Escape sauce made from reduced red bell pepper sauce, grilled Rockfish, and a Shel salad with scrapple croutons.

As the judges took their first bites, the tension was palpable. Both chefs had put their hearts and souls into creating dishes that would impress the panel of culinary icons. The judges were tasked with scoring the dishes based on taste, use of ingredients on the randomizer, and presentation. Only one chef could move forward to the next round, but both chefs had done an impressive job.

The judges' scores were still unknown at this point in time, however as they tasted their way through each dish and made their way back to their trailers, the outcome remained uncertain. Would Chef Eric's Rockfish prevail, or would Chef Stephanie's creative Scrapple dish take the top spot? Only time would tell.

**The Judging Process**

The judges' scoring process was done in a blind tasting, with no knowledge of who had prepared each dish. They were tasked with evaluating the dishes based on their taste, use of ingredients on the randomizer, and presentation. The judges' feedback was critical, but constructive, as they guided the contestants towards improving their craft.

As the judges deliberated, both chefs anxiously waited for the results. Chef Eric had won previous competitions against some tough opponents, but he knew that this time would be different. He had pushed himself to new heights with his Rockfish dish, and he was confident that it would pay off.

Chef Stephanie, on the other hand, was feeling the pressure. She had come close to winning before, but she knew that this time was different. The judges' feedback would be crucial in determining her fate.

**The Final Showdown**

As the minutes ticked away, the tension mounted. Would Chef Eric's Rockfish take the top spot, or would Chef Stephanie's Scrapple dish impress the judges? The outcome remained uncertain until the final scores were announced.

And then, it was over. Chef Eric and Chef Stephanie had done their best, but only one could move forward to the next round. The judges' feedback was kind, but honest, as they praised both chefs for their creativity and technique.

In the end, Chef Aapon's Rockfish took the top spot, but Chef Stephanie did not go home empty-handed. She had pushed herself to new heights with her Scrapple dish, and she knew that she would be back next year, hungrier than ever.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhere we go as you both know the randomizer will determine the mandatory details of your dish and we put in the Wild Card ingredient which you're going to love maybe thank at all you know what we're going to do we're just going to say 30 minutes to cook no questions asked here in the first round I'll take that someone's going to go to the Sweet 16 here we go go to protein I don't even know what I want I know what I don't want on the protein W yeah yeah yeah you like the Rockfish bell pepper I'll take it I'll take it I'll take it I'll take it cast irant crle chew chewy and Scrapple I see just a stuffed scrapple fish three of these are awesome two suck and one of you is going to go to the 16 all right Rockfish bell peppers cast iron griddle chewy scrapple scrap Apple a tradition in Pennsylvania it was basically what you took all the leftovers of the pork when you butchered one and other ingredients were added into it to kind of make it more volumous and usually pan fried and served at breakfast enjoy that Stephanie sanie so if I look at the randomizer I've got fish which just cook beautiful fish we got bell peppers maybe bring in some Mexican flavors you've got cast iron griddle that's a pretty great randomizer chewy maybe making some sort of dumpling that's going to celebrate that texture and you got scrapple I don't even know what scrapple is oh my God it's gray it's gray I mean that is a delicacy Chef I like the farro is that your chewy I love far I'm trying to get sure make sure it's done in time obviously that 30 minutes is going to be uh crucial I'm inspired by the style which is shy no one really likes to eat chewy food and to have it featured as like a prominent thing in the dish it's tough but I'm going into each competition with just like whatever you got to throw at me I'm going to make it the best that I can far golden raisins both chewy shf Chef joining me tonight are my two favorite culinary commentators we have Michelin recommended chef and culinary world's answer to AI the one and only Wild Card just mner and fame food Rider whose culinary travels have earned him frequent flavor miles get it from Flavor Town who want Sir Simon mundar the two of them will note every detail of our Chef's dishes so they can present them to our panel of Judges during the blind tasting Chef I know I bring it to every competition what is it it makes s seve it makes what s like those little Indian noodles I appreciate the totally distracting conversation Chef what are you making here I've got some Masa to make some Masa dumplings my mind is thinking that to make something chewy I could make a Masa dumpling that has this sort of spongy chewish texture then after touching the scrapple tasting it I think maybe I'll put a little scrable into this Masa dumpling so I can really bring out the scrable a couple of times in the dish what are you rolling out chef is that SC some little scrapple M scra nugets dumplings scrapp blings what we call these scrumping scrs okay I'm making Rockfish with scrapple bell pepper tomatillo regu with indya and the of dumplings with scrapple inside of them and this is going to be for a sauce yeah I'm making a sauce does that seem genius or what that smell is absolutely beautiful mixing bowls skill-wise Chef Stephanie obviously her accolades are well displayed but the TLC doesn't care about any of that and neither do I Chef what did I miss juic and peppers right now bell peppers are pretty tough to feature as like a prominent ingredient in your dish I luckily love to work with bell peppers so while my Pharaoh is in the pressure cooker I want to make sure that I'm using bell peppers in multiple ways and I think an es cabiche is a perfect example to do that is that lemon or lime CH lime juice got it es cabiche is a pickled uh vegetable sauce so I'm making a griddled rock fish with a red bell pepper escal Lee chewy FOH and golden raisins and I'm serving that with a Shel and Scrapple salad this is my third year tocc my third year in a row and I've always been eliminated second round and I'm tired of that it's time to kick it up a notch move on really see what the competition's all about Chef Stephanie and Chef Eric are cooking with a Vengeance as they grapple with seafood and Scrapple next up first time to competitor Chef Casey Thompson oh my gosh I don't know where anything is takes on one of our toughest competitors the neon Princess Warrior Chef Antonio leaso I am not going home today and later toc2 Championship B show on ready guys steps back into the ring to face East a qualifying winner Chef Nene win these BS are kind of hard will this be chef P's first step to reclaiming her title or will we see another huge upset welcome back to Tournament of Champions 5 right now Iron Chef Stephanie eard is looking to win another prestigious title along with her Iron Chef but I think Chef Eric aupang has other plans for her you see how this is coming together Chef any plan for the scrapple yet not yet okay take your time you have 21 minutes coming from the East Coast I've had scrap before never cooked with it definitely eaten it and I know chewy is the texture that we're going for for this randomizer but it's really really important that I add different elements of texture to the dish so it's not so mundane so this is why I wanted to do like a Scrabble Crouton so to speak I crumble them up and I just let them render in the pan uh until they're nice and crispy you like your scrapple well done I like my scra well done I actually prefer it that way yeah so who do you want to go up against I don't know I think both of them are very strong contenders which one would you me yeah I've defeated both of them so either one of them Flex I know Chef where are the bell peppers going to go bell peppers just kidding they're in this like sauce situation that I'm working on and then I'm going to also fry some it's about building layers of flavor so I've got a little fish sauce which I pretty much use in everything I'm going to De glaze with some tequila then I'm going to add in some lime throw a little bit of raisins into the sauce that's going to bring the sweetness chewy raisins Simon chewy raisins I'm hoping that the judges take a bite of this dish and all of the flavors really come together that it's bold in your face flavors that you're not going to forget but at the end of the day I just want them to take a bite and be like that was tasty thank you the judging on tocc is always done in a blind tasting by a panel of culinary icons and right now our judges are sequestered in their trailers they have no idea what's cooking or who's cooking they'll be scoring the dishes based on taste the use of the items on the randomizer and presentation one Chef will move on and the other well we'll be talking about next year 15 minutes halfway point 15 to go the bones in that Chef or no no bones I'm super familiar with Rockfish especially living in Maryland that's pretty much like the predominant fish that comes out of those waters picks up on marinades or seasoning really well so I trimmed it seasoned it really generously with some salt and some black pepper and they're going straight on the cast IR Grill I'm going to sandwich the Rockfish with another cast iron griddle just to get a really nice sear on the Rockfish I think Chef Eric aapon has done something really brilliant by uh sandwiching his fish between the two cast iron griddles that's going to keep the fish from curling up and it's also a great way to use the griddle twice Eric is a beast and he has so much knowledge of Cuisines that that I don't know that crispy skin do sh yes sir is this going on the carstein uh yeah I think there's not really a choice there right I love cooking fish I used to have a seafood restaurant when I was 27 years old and Rockfish is a good one it's nice and Meaty do you see how easily Stephanie takes the skin off her fish that's pretty hard she's been doing it for so long brilliant so I put the fish down on one side once it started to get a little bit of color I throw butter on so it almost self coats itself with butter on that bottom side and really puts a beautiful brown crust on one side how you doing Stu I have plates I just don't have things to put on them yet but I think I'm in the same boat here we go three minute can be plated he almost dropped that bow I know that they've competed and everything and I know that definitely is an iron shelf but this is just so nting for both of them first thing I do is plate the chewy farro and golden raisins and then next the Escape sauce really wanted to Showcase some of that beautiful reduced red bell pepper sauce grd Rockfish right on top of that and right next to it is the Shel salad with the scrapple croutons I don't know who the judges are but I want them to get chewy I want them to see the peppers and how many different times that was used as well and try to make it cohesive 90 second Che 90 I'm going to put down the scrapple ttio regu on the bottom then the fish my dumplings little bit of pickle golden raisins over the top everything rides on this one dish no matter what you make and how the challenge feels it's hard not to be stressed out putting your plate together 5 4 3 2 1 it thank you very much Chef Aon Chef aard great jobhere we go as you both know the randomizer will determine the mandatory details of your dish and we put in the Wild Card ingredient which you're going to love maybe thank at all you know what we're going to do we're just going to say 30 minutes to cook no questions asked here in the first round I'll take that someone's going to go to the Sweet 16 here we go go to protein I don't even know what I want I know what I don't want on the protein W yeah yeah yeah you like the Rockfish bell pepper I'll take it I'll take it I'll take it I'll take it cast irant crle chew chewy and Scrapple I see just a stuffed scrapple fish three of these are awesome two suck and one of you is going to go to the 16 all right Rockfish bell peppers cast iron griddle chewy scrapple scrap Apple a tradition in Pennsylvania it was basically what you took all the leftovers of the pork when you butchered one and other ingredients were added into it to kind of make it more volumous and usually pan fried and served at breakfast enjoy that Stephanie sanie so if I look at the randomizer I've got fish which just cook beautiful fish we got bell peppers maybe bring in some Mexican flavors you've got cast iron griddle that's a pretty great randomizer chewy maybe making some sort of dumpling that's going to celebrate that texture and you got scrapple I don't even know what scrapple is oh my God it's gray it's gray I mean that is a delicacy Chef I like the farro is that your chewy I love far I'm trying to get sure make sure it's done in time obviously that 30 minutes is going to be uh crucial I'm inspired by the style which is shy no one really likes to eat chewy food and to have it featured as like a prominent thing in the dish it's tough but I'm going into each competition with just like whatever you got to throw at me I'm going to make it the best that I can far golden raisins both chewy shf Chef joining me tonight are my two favorite culinary commentators we have Michelin recommended chef and culinary world's answer to AI the one and only Wild Card just mner and fame food Rider whose culinary travels have earned him frequent flavor miles get it from Flavor Town who want Sir Simon mundar the two of them will note every detail of our Chef's dishes so they can present them to our panel of Judges during the blind tasting Chef I know I bring it to every competition what is it it makes s seve it makes what s like those little Indian noodles I appreciate the totally distracting conversation Chef what are you making here I've got some Masa to make some Masa dumplings my mind is thinking that to make something chewy I could make a Masa dumpling that has this sort of spongy chewish texture then after touching the scrapple tasting it I think maybe I'll put a little scrable into this Masa dumpling so I can really bring out the scrable a couple of times in the dish what are you rolling out chef is that SC some little scrapple M scra nugets dumplings scrapp blings what we call these scrumping scrs okay I'm making Rockfish with scrapple bell pepper tomatillo regu with indya and the of dumplings with scrapple inside of them and this is going to be for a sauce yeah I'm making a sauce does that seem genius or what that smell is absolutely beautiful mixing bowls skill-wise Chef Stephanie obviously her accolades are well displayed but the TLC doesn't care about any of that and neither do I Chef what did I miss juic and peppers right now bell peppers are pretty tough to feature as like a prominent ingredient in your dish I luckily love to work with bell peppers so while my Pharaoh is in the pressure cooker I want to make sure that I'm using bell peppers in multiple ways and I think an es cabiche is a perfect example to do that is that lemon or lime CH lime juice got it es cabiche is a pickled uh vegetable sauce so I'm making a griddled rock fish with a red bell pepper escal Lee chewy FOH and golden raisins and I'm serving that with a Shel and Scrapple salad this is my third year tocc my third year in a row and I've always been eliminated second round and I'm tired of that it's time to kick it up a notch move on really see what the competition's all about Chef Stephanie and Chef Eric are cooking with a Vengeance as they grapple with seafood and Scrapple next up first time to competitor Chef Casey Thompson oh my gosh I don't know where anything is takes on one of our toughest competitors the neon Princess Warrior Chef Antonio leaso I am not going home today and later toc2 Championship B show on ready guys steps back into the ring to face East a qualifying winner Chef Nene win these BS are kind of hard will this be chef P's first step to reclaiming her title or will we see another huge upset welcome back to Tournament of Champions 5 right now Iron Chef Stephanie eard is looking to win another prestigious title along with her Iron Chef but I think Chef Eric aupang has other plans for her you see how this is coming together Chef any plan for the scrapple yet not yet okay take your time you have 21 minutes coming from the East Coast I've had scrap before never cooked with it definitely eaten it and I know chewy is the texture that we're going for for this randomizer but it's really really important that I add different elements of texture to the dish so it's not so mundane so this is why I wanted to do like a Scrabble Crouton so to speak I crumble them up and I just let them render in the pan uh until they're nice and crispy you like your scrapple well done I like my scra well done I actually prefer it that way yeah so who do you want to go up against I don't know I think both of them are very strong contenders which one would you me yeah I've defeated both of them so either one of them Flex I know Chef where are the bell peppers going to go bell peppers just kidding they're in this like sauce situation that I'm working on and then I'm going to also fry some it's about building layers of flavor so I've got a little fish sauce which I pretty much use in everything I'm going to De glaze with some tequila then I'm going to add in some lime throw a little bit of raisins into the sauce that's going to bring the sweetness chewy raisins Simon chewy raisins I'm hoping that the judges take a bite of this dish and all of the flavors really come together that it's bold in your face flavors that you're not going to forget but at the end of the day I just want them to take a bite and be like that was tasty thank you the judging on tocc is always done in a blind tasting by a panel of culinary icons and right now our judges are sequestered in their trailers they have no idea what's cooking or who's cooking they'll be scoring the dishes based on taste the use of the items on the randomizer and presentation one Chef will move on and the other well we'll be talking about next year 15 minutes halfway point 15 to go the bones in that Chef or no no bones I'm super familiar with Rockfish especially living in Maryland that's pretty much like the predominant fish that comes out of those waters picks up on marinades or seasoning really well so I trimmed it seasoned it really generously with some salt and some black pepper and they're going straight on the cast IR Grill I'm going to sandwich the Rockfish with another cast iron griddle just to get a really nice sear on the Rockfish I think Chef Eric aapon has done something really brilliant by uh sandwiching his fish between the two cast iron griddles that's going to keep the fish from curling up and it's also a great way to use the griddle twice Eric is a beast and he has so much knowledge of Cuisines that that I don't know that crispy skin do sh yes sir is this going on the carstein uh yeah I think there's not really a choice there right I love cooking fish I used to have a seafood restaurant when I was 27 years old and Rockfish is a good one it's nice and Meaty do you see how easily Stephanie takes the skin off her fish that's pretty hard she's been doing it for so long brilliant so I put the fish down on one side once it started to get a little bit of color I throw butter on so it almost self coats itself with butter on that bottom side and really puts a beautiful brown crust on one side how you doing Stu I have plates I just don't have things to put on them yet but I think I'm in the same boat here we go three minute can be plated he almost dropped that bow I know that they've competed and everything and I know that definitely is an iron shelf but this is just so nting for both of them first thing I do is plate the chewy farro and golden raisins and then next the Escape sauce really wanted to Showcase some of that beautiful reduced red bell pepper sauce grd Rockfish right on top of that and right next to it is the Shel salad with the scrapple croutons I don't know who the judges are but I want them to get chewy I want them to see the peppers and how many different times that was used as well and try to make it cohesive 90 second Che 90 I'm going to put down the scrapple ttio regu on the bottom then the fish my dumplings little bit of pickle golden raisins over the top everything rides on this one dish no matter what you make and how the challenge feels it's hard not to be stressed out putting your plate together 5 4 3 2 1 it thank you very much Chef Aon Chef aard great job\n"