- Welcome to Mom vs. Chef! - [Andrew] A competition
where a professional chef and a mom cook head-to-head, preparing the best dish possible, featuring
one secret ingredient. (swishing) (driving rock music) Our first competitor today
is mom, Tahara Christie. - Most people don't even
know I have four kids. They meet me, and then they're like, "oh, my gosh, you're super fun!" I'm like, "I know, right?" My grandmother taught me how to cook. There were no recipes. She'd be like, "oh, you know,
you put it in 'til it browns." I'm a little intimidated. 'Cause, you know, I'm
competing against a top chef! But, you know what? I'm from Oakley, California, baby. Nothing intimidates us! Winning Mom vs. Chef will make me the best non-trained mom-chef in the world! - And competing against her is professional chef Dakota Weiss. - I've been cooking
professionally for 18 years, and I'm the chef-partner
at Estrella Restaurant, and chef-partner at Sweetfin
Poké in Santa Monica. Growing up, my mom really inspired me to become the chef that
I am, kinda forced us to eat organic and
vegetables, and everything out of the garden. Cooking against a mom who
actually cooks for children daily is a little nerve-wracking. I have to kinda dig deep
into my inner child. Winning this competition
would be great, just love for my niece and nephew to watch it, and be really excited for Aunt Kota. - [Andrew] Welcome Tahara, Chef Weiss. Today, you're gonna be
competing against each other, trying to create the
tastiest dish possible, featuring one secret ingredient
in 30 minutes or less. Your dishes will be judged by the panel of judges before you. - My name's Elijah. I am 10 years old, and I want to become a pro-baseball player or soccer player. - I'm Sydni Sepulveda. I'm 12 years old, and when
I grow up, I would love to be an actor and singer. - And your final judge is me. I'm Andrew; I'm 25 years old. And, when I grow up, I wanna
be a maple syrup farmer. I think it's time to find out what our secret ingredient is. Sydni, want to take the lid off for us? - Sure. (laughs) - You guys know what kind of fish this is? - No. - Different types, I'm guessing. - No, it's all one kind of fish. - [Elijah] Oh, wow. - Guys, this is salmon. - I have a lot of experience
cooking with salmon. I've burnt plenty of
pieces, but I've learned that, if you broil it and do it quickly, it can come out really good
and tasty on the inside. - When I eat salmon,
I really like it to be a little chewy, but not too chewy. - I don't like the raw fish taste. - Alright. I've cooked a lot with salmon. It's one of those fishes that really goes in a lot of different cuisines. It's so versatile; it's just
a really great piece of fish. - So, guys, you're gonna have 30 minutes to prepare your dishes. Your time starts now. (beeping) (rock and roll music) - [Tahara] Think. Think. - I'm still kinda conceptualizing
my dish in my head. So, what I wanna do a play on a carpaccio, which is thinly sliced salmon with some nice citrus and avocado. Thinking I wanna do a good play on, maybe, introducing some raw fish, and then also doing some cooked fish, as well. - A lot of people have
missed the boat when it comes to salmon, 'cause they
just think: lemon, dill, salt-pepper. Boring! I'm gonna make this delicious, sweet glaze on top of it. I wanna make, like, an egg
roll and then everything will have vegetables in it. - I haven't really used
these pre-made sauces before, so it should be interesting. Some fresh peanut butter. - Kids like mustard; they like hot dogs. Soy sauce, some butter, brown sugar. Chow! They ain't even
gonna know what hit 'em. - [Dakota] Sounds like you
got quite the plan over there. - I don't get how they cut like that! - [Elijah] I know they go
like this. (mouth noises) - [Dakota] Kids like
sweet things, don't they? - [Tahara] Kids love
sweet, they love crunchy. I see the carrots; I see the shredder, and I start shredding my vegetables. I want to incorporate lots of
vegetables so it's healthy, but not so many that it's overpowering. - I really wanna make sure
that my salmon carpaccio is palatable. I pound it out as thin as I possibly can. Maybe this might be a nice
introduction into sushi. - I see that there's an
extra piece of meat there, and I'm like, ooh, ground beef. Kids really like ground beef. Let me just throw that in there, as well. - [Dakota] I put a
little maldon salt on it, and, kinda try to build
that part of the dish. I'm a little nervous,
you know, doing raw fish for kids is definitely a little risky. (laughs) So, I don't know
how this is gonna go. I may have gone too fancy. I dunno. - I'm so focused I forget
to cut the salmon up, because I was just so excited
to get it in the oven. While that's cooking, then
I start making my noodles. - Whoo, she's got all kinds
of things cooking over there, and I don't have anything
on the stove yet. - [Andrew] Chefs you have 15 minutes left. - 15 minutes. - [Dakota] Heard. - Fifteen minutes! - [Dakota] Now, I'm gonna pull the salmon out of the marinade and skewer them. Every kid I know, they all
love anything you can eat off of a stick. - My noodles! Oh! - She's really focused. - Delicious meal from
the momma that loves 'em. Your momma loves you, baby. As I wait for my salmon to come out, I then start preparing my
rice paper for the rolling. - [Andrew] I think she's making something a little bit spicy, guys. - Yeah, it looks spicy. I like spicy food. - I've just started
getting into spicy foods. - [Elijah] It's like a wrap. - [Andrew] A spring roll? Yeah. - [Sydni] Yeah, like a wrap, maybe? It looks really good. Hey, Elijah, let's go
check in Chef Dakota. - Okay, let's go. - I'll check on Chef Tahara. - Hey, Chef Dakota. - How's it going? - Good! - This looks good. So, what're you making? - Kinda doing a play on a
cooked and a raw salmon. - What is the sauce you're
dipping the fish in? - This is a coconut-peanut
sauce, a play on a satay. - Yeah. - Thank you Chef Dakota. - Thanks! - Hey, Tahara, how's it going? - Good, good, good. Just trying to get the
last little bits in here. - I see you've been trying
a couple different ways of making your dish. - I've just spanded the whole globe. I think it's gonna be
fried, so it doesn't matter, it'll be delicious. - This doesn't exactly
look like salmon to me. - There's definitely salmon in it. Kids who don't necessarily
eat fish all the time, they can always be thrown off by meat. Let's just say I've got
many cultures going on at the same time. - I'm really looking forward to it. - Thank you. I'm normally not this messy at home. I've got a little sous
chef I gave birth to. - I am normally this messy. (laughs) - Five minutes left, chefs. - Whoo! - [Tahara] Add a little bit of this. I realize that it's time for
me to take my salmon out. It looks delicious; it's
the right type of flaky. But, realizing that I forgot to cut it up, I now have to cut the
salmon right in the middle, so it looks like a big ol' hunk
of meat on top of the plate. But, I know it's gonna be delicious, so that won't even matter. - And now, I take my peanut-coconut milk and I dress that salmon, and
it looks really beautiful. The colors are bright and I'm very happy. - I'm completely confident. I put some of the salmon
on top of that plate, and with, literally, five seconds left, (countdown starts) I throw my chives on top of the plate. And viola! - Zero! (laughs) - [Andrew] Time is up. - Tahara, please explain your dish. - I have made a brown sugar honey salmon on top of rice noodles. It's got some green onions,
it's got a little bit of ground beef. Like a beef-vegetable-carrot-empanada salmon-roll-bake thing. - This looks good! - Looks beautiful! I love how you placed the
fish on top of the pasta. The fish glaze looks really good. (crunching) - First, when I saw it, I'm like, whoa. It reminds me of going
to the seafood restaurant with my family on my birthday. - I love how you put the ground beef with the vegetables inside of it. It brought out so many
more flavors in salmon than I thought there were. You really did surprise me. - The beef texture is a
little bit rough on my gums. - Elijah, did you get a bone there? - Yep. - Oops! - It's a really unique
combination of things. I don't think it reminds me
of any specific one cuisine, but I really like it. - Thank you, Tahara, for your dish. - Chef Dakota, can you
please describe your dish? - So, what I did for you
is a play on two different kinds of salmon. The first is a carpaccio-style,
and I glazed it with some soy, sesame,
vinaigrette, a little fresh blood orange, avocado, sesame
seeds, and a Thai basil. And then, I also did a
salmon satay pop in a classic coconut-peanut sauce on top of a little sauteed shiitake and some snap peas. - I love your presentation,
but I would've liked the soy sauce to be even
on both sides 'cause I'm very particular with stuff. (laughs) - Be brave! - Wow. I can really taste the blood orange in it. - I love the avocado on
top, that really added a nice touch to it. - This dish makes me wanna
run to the beach right now. Just make a sand angel. I love it! - I definitely love the
peanut-coconut sauce. I think the soy sauce
with the sesame seeds is a little too sour for me. For now, I think I'm gonna
stick with cooked salmon. - It is really just like butter. I mean, this is how I love to eat fish. - Thank you, Chef Dakota, for your dish. - Absolutely. - This is gonna be a hard deliberation. - Mine was just kinda like spaghetti. (laughs) Meat! Work! And it did! - It did! I thought it was gorgeous. - Thank you! - What do you guys think
about Tahara's dish? - I would prefer the beef to
be a little bit less chalky. - I didn't like the
ground beef in the pasta. - Was I the only person
that got a bone in mine? - You were the only
person that got a bone. - I didn't get a bone, but I think she was just
a little rushed for time. - Honestly wanted to steal
every secret that you had. And, while I like you,
and we should have wine together some day, you're goin' down. (laughs) Just wanted you to
know; you're goin' down. - As much as I think you're fabulous, I'd be horribly embarrassed
if I lost to you, I can't go back to my kitchen
and tell all my cooks, Yeah, sorry, guys. So, yeah, I wanna win this. - Chef Dakota. - Yes. - I've had salmon a lot of ways. I've never had it as a Popsicle. - Yeah. - [Andrew] That was really cool. What a contrast! - Yeah, it went back to
when we were three or four, and we would just eat
Popsicles out on the porch. - I still eat Popsicles out on my porch. (laughs) - I do, too. - Yeah, same her. - It reminds me of when I was little. - This was a really hard decision, but -- - I think we all know who won. - Let's call the contestants back out. (playful music) - Chef Dakota, Tahara, welcome back. Thank you both for coming in today, you both cooked some amazing dishes. - Tahara, your brown
sugar-honey-salmon glaze was really amazing. - Chef Dakota, your
salmon Popsicle stood out. - The winner of Mom vs. Chef is... - Chef Dakota! (Cries out, clapping) (laughs) - Whoo-hoo! (laughs) - I can't believe I lost. Honestly, this is what this girl does, so I didn't want to hurt her too bad, so I probably held back just a little bit. - It's quite the honor. It really is, honestly. I know kids' palettes can be very finicky, cooking for my niece and
nephews, so this is good! I'm real excited to tell my sister, and my niece and nephew, this is awesome. - Thank you both for coming in, and cooking some amazing food for us. This has been Mom vs. Chef. What do you guys want for dessert? Fish Popsicle? - How 'bout we just stick with
chocolate cake or something? - Yeah, we could do chocolate cake. (dance music) - [Voiceover] Oh, yes!
