Having a glass or two of wine in the Chopped kitchen isn’t a rare occurrence, but during this round it’s almost a necessity. That’s because judges Amanda Freitag, Marc Murphy and Alex Guarnaschelli are taking on the appetizer basket from the Pub Food episode of Chopped. On the all-new episode of Chopped After Hours, they’re required to use house-cured bacon, deviled eggs, fish cheeks and housemade pickles in a completely original appetizer.

Amanda is not shy about admitting her love for the basket: “I look at the whole thing and I think, ‘Thank you.’ You have acid, you have fat, you have bacon, you have eggs and you have fish cheeks!” She starts off using the brine from the pickles, which she and Ted Allen both agree is underutilized at home and should be saved more often. “Amanda and I are starting an organization called Pickles without Borders,” Ted says. Alex is using the pickle brine in a vinaigrette to go alongside a frito misto — a platter of fried foods that she does not think she has enough time to finish. When Ted disagrees, Alex replies, “I appreciate the vote of confidence, my friend, but, you know, we’re only human, Ted.”

With less than half the time left, Amanda asks Ted to go choose her plates. When she tells him she loves the style of plates he chose, he responds: “Thank you. I made it in my own kiln.” While Ted and Marc take a break to chat crab cakes, Alex brings each of them a glass of wine. “Ted, I think that you two deserve a break,” she says. Even with the plating, chatting and booze, everyone manages to get a completed appetizer on the table.

Click the play button on the video above to watch the entire After Hours episode and see the dishes Amanda, Marc and Alex created.

Start a conversation with fellow fans and tell FN Dish in the comments below how you would have approached this basket: What would you make out of house-cured bacon, deviled eggs, fish cheeks and housemade pickles?

Catch up on past   Chopped After Hours   episodes by watching all of the battles online.