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Top Moments of Chopped After Hours: Firefighters

The judges cook with the same basket ingredients from the dessert round of Chopped: Firefighter Chefs.

Episode: Firefighter Chefs
Related To:
Alex Guarnaschelli Scott Conant Amanda Freitag

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Photo By: David Lang ©2013,Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

The Heat Is On

Alex, Scott and Amanda are ready to cook with a basket that includes some fiery danger — wafer sheets, vanilla pudding cups, lemon soda and a blowtorch. As Ted explains the challenge, Amanda shakes up Scott's soda, to which Alex says, "That is great sabotage." These chefs must be getting some ideas from Cutthroat Kitchen!

Winging It

Scott gets started right away on caramelizing sugar with his blowtorch. Ted stops by to find out what he's making, but Scott replies, "I'm not 100 percent sure." He'll figure it out as he goes. But with all the running around and grabbing ingredients, Scott jokes, "I haven't worked this hard in months."

Bowled Over with Ideas and Issues

Amanda knows right away that she wants to make a lemon meringue. She comes up with the idea of baking the wafer sheets over bowls so that they take on that shape and can be filled with the curd. "I've never done this before," she exclaims to Ted, and truth be told, she does have some problems making them.

Savory and Sweet Success

Alex decides she wants a "little savory ingredient" in her dessert, so she torches a yellow pepper to char the bitter skin, which she then peels off. While she's concentrating on her pepper, her tray of coconut milk tuiles, which was accidentally left over an open flame, burns, but she is able to rescue some to decorate her dish with.

Cool Copycat

Scott is plating all the components for his dessert, including mascarpone cream, chocolate mousse and ice cream, which he made following Alex's use of the machine. She tells Ted, "I notice that Scott is also copying me now in making ice cream. He's getting sloppy seconds." But when Alex tastes it, she loves the flavor combinations.

Stacking Up the Compliments

Alex plates her wafer Napoleons, layering the diced yellow pepper and sorbet made from vanilla pudding and lemon soda. She has orange segments on the side and tops the completed dessert with her tuiles. Scott and Amanda raved about the pepper: "This is really a lesson for our chef-competitors on how to use a bell pepper," says Amanda.

Putting Out Fires

Amanda quickly whipped up a meringue to top her lemon curd in the wafer sheet bowls. While torching the meringue, she accidentally burned some of the wafers, but was able to put out the fire before too much damage was done. When tasting Amanda's dish, Scott loved the play on textures.

Incredible Transformations

After tasting all the dishes, Alex points out that "we had premade pudding and we turned it into a curd, a mousse and a sorbet." All the dishes created harmony out of the basket ingredients, to the point where you almost couldn't find them. As Scott said, "I don't see the basket ingredients really in any of these dishes....Talk about transformation."

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Catch up on previous After Hours Web-exclusive videos, then visit Food Network's Chopped page for more insider coverage of the show.

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