Utzman, from his previous win

Last night’s Chopped continued the Chopped Champions madness with Taim’s Einat Admony defending her title after beating previous winner James Briscione. Joining Admony were former champions Jackie Lee, a private chef; Andre Marrero, tournant at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon; and Cody Utzman of The Brooklyn Standard and Papacitos. Judges for the episode were Geoffrey Zakarian, Chris Santos and Marc Murphy.

The appetizer round brought baskets of lavash, squab and preserved lemons. Admony was confident with the Middle Eastern ingredients, but failed to remove the feathers from her squab, which resulted in a disappointed head shake from Murphy. Utzman and Marrero pleased the judges with their birds—with Utzman presenting a five-spice-crusted breast and Marrero deep-frying his pigeon—while Lee crashed and burned for serving overcooked squab and a well-intentioned lemon-thyme sauce that Chris Santos described as “too apple-saucy.” The result? Why, a chop of course.

Entrées were a mixed bag, with ingredients like bluefish, papaya, gingersnaps and beef jerky. Both Marrero and Utzman used their jerky in place of bacon, but Admony’s treatment—rehydrating the dried meat in bourbon—was heralded as best in show. Unfortunately, her boozy beef was not enough to compensate for the mushy gingersnaps strewn throughout her otherwise flavorful papaya salad. For not paying attention to her ingredients, Admony’s dream of a Chopped victory was cut short.

For desserts, the chefs had to use butter crackers, grapefruit, feta cheese and gin—which is what our grandma used to bring home when the dementia started. The ingredients all but stumped Marrero, who put forth a brûléed grapefruit that confused the judges as to whether it was a dessert or something more savory. Despite Zakarian calling him “an artist,” Marrero was the last to go, giving Utzman his second win.—Zachary Feldman

Next week: Utzman takes on another set of champions!