Jeremy Fogg, a pastry chef at Emeril's of New Orleans, came away Monday night from the episode of Chopped: Sweets with a $10,000 prize.
The show takes Chopped to the next level, adding a sugary twist. Fogg initially competed in January 2018, but didn't win.
The "Sweets" episode, named "Desserts on a Dime," asked the four chefs to make their own type of dessert in a series of three timed rounds, utilizing a cheap basket of off-the-wall ingredient combinations.
In the first round, with thirty minutes on the clock, the chefs were tasked with creating a fried dough dessert using sugar wafer cookies, sweet soda baked beans, McIntosh apples with "ants on a log." In total, the ingredients will cost less than $7.
31-year-old Fogg took on a baked bean and sugar wafer fritter with a peanut butter mousse. He said to the judge, "Pastry is my forté, it's my arena, it's where I really shine."
During the frozen desserts round, the four chefs were given 45 minutes to create a chilly treat from only $9 of cheese sauce in a jar; red, white and blue frozen pops; pineapple; and potato chips.
Fogg fashioned a frozen chocolate mousse bomb with basil-potato chip crunch and pineapple compote. Judge-host Scott Conant noted, "Chef, I feel like you made a $9 basket taste like 50 bucks, honestly." He was a big fan of Fogg's basil-chocolate fusion.
Down to two chefs, Fogg faced off against Saratoga, Wyoming pastry chef Gabby Sanchez. They had 45 minutes and only $4 of tomato paste, graham cracker pies, plums and whipped topping.
Fogg crafted a s'mores biscuit with marshmallow Chantilly and graham cracker pie with chocolate ganache poured over the top. Judge Samantha Seneviratne, a baker and cookbook author, explained, "It's acidic. It's sweet. It kind of has caramelized flavor that goes really nicely with those plums."
After placing first, and being declared the winner, Fogg promptly jumped into the air, noting simultaneously, "I'm so excited I could just jump in the air."
