

Judge Ben Schmerler expounds on sliders. Photo: Melissa Hom


Challenge No. 5: White Castle Slider

Judge Gabrielle: It's like "Where's the beef?" except that it's "Where's the smoke?" For a split second before I bit, when the exterior of the bread was touching my tongue, I was like, "Oh, it's smoked," and then as soon as I bit into it, it went away.

Judge Ben: It inspires me to make something like this. But the smoke is too faint. This Maldon sea salt that I've been cooking with would crank it up — it imparts power and honesty to the smokiness.

Chef Josh: The smoke only permeated the bread. Maybe if we had tried the ingredients separately. If we were making the burgers ourselves, we would have used smoked paprika, smoked salt …

There are no words to express the glory of the fried slider.Photo: Melissa Hom


Judge Gabrielle: This is totally disgusting, and I want to eat the rest of it! I want to sit in front of the TV and eat these for the rest of the day in a deep depression and watch really bad reruns. I have never experienced crack, but I would compare it to that.

Judge Ben: If we had a different government, I could see this potentially being banned. There's a total imbalance — there's a lot of fat and not much flavor

Dessert Challenge: Rice Pudding

Josh Cohen dishes it out; Judge Gabrielle takes it.Photo: Melissa Hom.

Judge Gabrielle: I can finally taste the smoke! And I don't want it. Actually, what offends me about this is not the smoke, it's the texture of the rice. It's so grainy.

Judge Ben: The dominant flavors are the vanilla and the smoke.

Chef Josh: If you smoke rice pudding, it's going to be bitter. I didn't want to put a ton of sugar or sweetener — we wanted to keep the flavor. The taste of the smoke comes after the fact; you don't taste it until it hits the back of your mouth.

The rice pudding critter erupts. Judge Ben: "That'll impress your 5-year-old."Photo: Melissa Hom.


Judge Gabrielle: I just like the fact that it's warm. When I eat the batter, all I taste is corn dog and funnel cake. "Uncle!"

Judge Ben: You'd want this in smaller portions. One bite.

The Verdict
With the obvious exception of the ribs, our esteemed judges — despite having no great fondness for fried foods — generally favored ChipShop's interpretations. However, it should be said that when Biscuit's Cohen amuse-bouched a deviled egg (an item soon to be added to his menu), both judges went into paroxysms of praise.

— Daniel Maurer

