You are here for our guilty pleasures battle.
[Sam] The ooey, the gooey.
[Margaret] The saltiness, the funk.
[Ted] You'll find ingredients that are craveable and decadent.
[in sing-song voice] ♪ It's screaming♪
Whoo. [shrieks] Ah!
-[Justin] I am a guilty pleasure. -My man!
[Margaret] Totally, in it to sin it.
"Fat, fun and heat," that's what you could name this dish.
-Yes! -[Sam] It's so intense, man.
[Chris] It's buttery, it's spicy.
-It just gets better! -[Kelsey] Yes.
[Sam] It's like you think you know how to cook...
I'mma tell y'all right now, I ain't eating raw chicken.
-[Eddie] Thirty seconds, chefs! -Just cook.
-Nobody look there. -[Eddie groans] Ah, man, that is bad.
-Cheers to guilty pleasures. [chuckles] -[Kelsey] Yeah.
[laughing]
I'm probably the most creative chef here.
I like to have fun. I like to experiment.
And weird ingredients don't scare me.
I'm Justin Webster, executive chef and owner
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In 2023, we were nominated for Best New Restaurant in America
with the James Beard Foundation.
When I think of guilty pleasure, I think of Southern food.
I mean, it's buttery, it's salty, it's cheesy, it's good.
So, that's what I'm gonna bring to the competition.
We're James Beard nominated for comfort food,
so I think I got this in the bag.
[Bo] Indulgence is my culinary mantra.
I'm a chef owner and operator from Denver, Colorado.
[laughs]
I tend to make things completely unique
and different than anyone else.
Savory funnel cakes, chicken Parmesan mozzarella sticks.
We take guilty pleasures and we make 'em brand new,
decadent, unctuous, guilty food.
It's kind of the thing that I'm known for.
When I make it, I call it "Bokra."
Yeah.
There is a hurricane coming
called Hurricane Bo, and there's no stoppin' it.
My culinary training comes from the street,
straight from the nitty-gritty kitchens.
It's tamale time.
Hi, I'm Samantha Cruz from Miami, Florida,
the chef and owner of Conserva Cruz.
My style of cooking is old school.
I use a lot of influences from my grandmother
and my mom's style of cooking, which is very Latin influenced,
and then give it, like, a new-world twist.
My time is now because I've hustled for it.
I've worked for it from the very bottom.
Working two, three jobs, a dishwasher,
a prep cook, a line cook.
So, now is my time to shine.
Guilty pleasures? Uh, hello? That's who I am.
That's what my company does.
This is what gives Susan the limp.
[sizzling]
[Margaret] I'm from Dallas, Texas,
and I'm the chef and owner of Your Party Butlers.
We try to provide an immersive,
boutique, whimsical culinary experience,
whether it's a pop-up, or a Valentine's Day dinner.
And every single course has heart in it.
That indulgent, guilty pleasure,
it's all intertwined for me.
I just want all flavors,
all textures, all at once.
-Hey, how's it going, guys? -[Margaret] Hey, everyone.
[Ted] Hello, chefs.
-[both] Hey. -How's it going?
I hope you're ready for some indulgence.
I'm full of sin.
'Cause you are here for our guilty pleasures battle.
-That's right up my alley. -[Justin] Awesome.
I am a guilty pleasure. [laughs]
I love guilty pleasure food.
You feel a little bad about eating it,
but you still feel so good.
They're good for your soul, not your heart.
In every basket, you'll find ingredients
that are over-the-top craveable and decadent.
And in turn, we don't want you to hold back.
Make the judges meals that are
sinfully scrumptious. Got it?
-Yep. -Totally. In it to sin it.
-Got it. -Okay, your first guilty pleasure baskets are here.
Open 'em up.
Ooh, all right.
A doughnut burger.
[Justin] Doughnut burger.
[Bo] Definitely pretty guilty pleasurey food.
This is a wild thing.
Uh, low key, I kind of wanna just
eat one of these donuts. [laughs]
Canned green beans.
-[Ted] Ranch dressing. -[Margaret] Uh, you either love it or hate it.
[Ted] And chicken wings.
Twenty minutes!
[Sam] I'm feeling this is a lot.
There's a lot of stuff going on here.
[laughs]
Clock starts now.
-[Chris] All right. Here we go. Let's go. -[Eddie] Here we go.
Guilty pleasure.
I don't know about you guys,
but I feel like screaming.
-[Margaret] I'll probably be right behind you. -[Justin] Do it, do it.
[Bo] Do it.
Chris, here with you to judge this guilty pleasures battle,
our pro-football player turned food network star,
Chef Eddie Jackson.
Plus, celebrated Southern chef Kelsey Barnard Clark.
Always a pleasure to be here.
So thrilled to be back.
Judges, guilty pleasures in every basket.
What are you craving?
I don't know why my brain went to messy.
-[judges laugh] -[Eddie] Gooey, greasy...
-Crunchy. -...something that you just feel kind of terrible
-after eating, right? -[Kelsey] Yeah.
Yes. My brain goes to burgers and wings.
Burgers and wings, burgers and wings.
You say, "guilty pleasure," I say, "burgers and wings."
We're gonna do a flat and a wing for every judge.
I live and breathe guilty pleasure food.
And my entire restaurant is guilty pleasures.
I use the techniques that I learned
during my background in fine dining.
There's no pretense. There's no pageantry.
That's what we're all about, and I'm gonna bring the heat.
[Eddie] Chef Justin, what are we doing?
I'm gonna do a gochujang honey wing
with a green bean remoulade.
-Hey, that works! -Oh, wow.
[Justin] I don't think there's anything more guilty pleasure than a chicken wing,
so I think this is right on the money.
-All right, pulse up our veg. -[Sam] Right behind.
[Justin] I'm coming to compete for myself,
and I'm coming to put Winston-Salem on the map.
I think that we get overlooked
on the list of big North Carolina cities.
It's time that we get some recognition.
[Chris] I love a good wing, but it's gotta be extra crispy for me.
There's nothing worse than soggy chicken skin.
-[Kelsey] Yes. -[Chris] Yeah.
Absolutely ready to bring these judges some guilty pleasure food.
I used to work at a Korean fried chicken joint.
Absolutely have experience making wings.
I'm making fried chicken wings
tossed in a green beans salsa verde,
with a side of blue cheese-bacon ranch.
Wings are totally a guilty pleasure.
Eating with your hands, dunking it in ranch,
like, what's not to love?
Gonna have a little dipping sauce,
blue cheese and ranch together.
Chef Margaret, what are we doing here?
So I'm... Got my oil on, already heating up on the stove.
She's cooking her wings on the stove
because she doesn't wanna fight for the fryer, which is smart.
[Margaret] I t was actually my grandfather
who encouraged me to pursue culinary school.
He was an officer in the Air Force,
and back in the day they really treated them
to fine dining experiences.
He just really found passion for the hospitality,
and that's something that he instilled in me as a kid.
I feel like nachos is the best way to go with this
because everybody loves a good nacho.
It's a super guilty pleasure.
The ooey, the gooey, the pulling apart of all the ingredients,
the toppings kind of rolling down your face.
-Down the line. -Heard. Heard.
[Sam] For my appetizer, I'm gonna make
a chicken nacho with spicy ranch crema
and green bean pico de gallo.
Behind you, Sam. Thank you.
Chefs, 15 minutes on the clock.
[Chris] We gotta talk about this doughnut burger.
This is a really juicy burger.
-[Sam] Some of this. -[Chris] Topped with bacon, American cheese, of course.
And then, always glazed doughnuts with the doughnut burger.
Chef Sam used the onions to make a salsa.
[Sam] I'm taking the bacon and the cheese off the doughnut burger
to make my cheese sauce for my nachos.
-I don't hear any sizzle over there. -[laughs]
[Sam] Who else is sizzling? Me.
Cheese sauce is my perfume. [chuckles]
My upbringing was pretty rough.
My mom was a single mom trying to make ends meet,
and she was 23 years old with four kids.
So, I picked up a lot of slack, you know, being the oldest daughter.
I had to like, cook and clean a lot.
I had to do a lot of mothering for my younger brothers and sisters.
They made me exactly who I am today.
-Behind. -[Justin] Heard, behind.
[Bo] We are definitely not counting calories today.
We are going full fat.
Chef Bo, what you know?
[Bo] I'm gonna take the burger, add the doughnut,
add some ginger, some garlic
and make a doughnut burger XO sauce.
Tossed chicken wings,
with canned bean green goddess.
-[Kelsey] I like it. -[Bo] I'm throwing tarragon in,
I'm throwing those green beans in there with that ranch dressing.
No one says what the green in green goddess has to be. It just has to be green.
-[Eddie] Right. -[Chris] No.
[Bo] XO sauce is an Asian sauce
that's made with smoked meat and dried seafood.
I know that it's corny and everyone says it,
but I want to win for my family. I love my family.
I want them to be proud, and I want them to sit and be like, "That's my son!"
Ten minutes, y'all.
-Ten minutes. -[Justin] Heard, ten minutes.
I got chicken in the fryer, chefs.
Canned green beans, yo, I pull those things out all the time with my kids.
-I really do. -Yeah?
They're really freaking good.
-You do it with the crispy onions, right? -[Kelsey] Yes!
-[Chris] On the top? Yeah. -Yes.
[Margaret] I'm going to make a green bean salsa verde
using those canned green beans.
I taste my salsa verde.
I'm really happy with it. So I'm ready to roll.
Oh, yeah.
I know without a doubt...
Cook, Sammy, cook.
...that I will not be able to cook these chicken wings in time.
And nor will I try.
[Eddie] So, it looks like Sam took her wings off the bone.
Just getting the meat.
-What do you think about that? -[Chris] Oh.
You know, I like it because they don't have to serve us wings
-just because we gave them wings. -[Kelsey] Right.
[Chris] So, as long as she doesn't overcook it, I think it is a good move.
[Sam] It's gonna bring, like, a really nice richness to my nachos.
Like if you had a chicken that was pulled and braised
and super seasoned and treated well.
[Bo] Justin, how long you gonna need that fryer?
[Justin] Uh Chef, it should be about two more minutes.
Okay. Thank you.
I'm gonna take the chicken wings,
and because we have a short amount of time, I'd blanch them first.
So that way I'm not feeding the chefs raw meat.
[Eddie] Is Bo blanching his wings?
-[Kelsey] That's an interesting move. -[Eddie and Chris] Yeah.
-[Eddie] Huh. -Do you think he's not frying them?
[Bo] I'm poaching them. I'm still gonna fry them.
[Kelsey] I don't think I've ever done this.
[Bo] I got to get in this fryer if I can.
-[Justin] Yes. -[Bo] Okay.
-Yeah, I'm gonna consolidate, sir. -[Bo] Thank you.
All right, chefs, here we go.
You've got five minutes left.
I'mma tell y'all right now, I ain't eating raw chicken.
Down to the wire her with these chicken wings.
It seems like Bo may be winging it right now.
-Oh! -Yeah, ah-hah!
We're not gonna be eating off this table.
[Bo] So, I'm getting the fryer last.
I'm still absolutely worried that it's not gonna be crispy,
because that's the one thing you really need from a chicken wing.
All right. We are looking good.
[Chris] Whatever you guys are doing, you gotta do it quickly.
-Three-and-a-half minutes is gonna evaporate very quick. -[Eddie] Let's go, chefs!
-[Eddie and Kelsey] Hurry! -[Chris] Put it down, chefs.
[Justin] I'm making a honey gochujang glaze
to toss my wings in because it's got everything.
It's got a little bit of funk from the fermentation,
a lot of spice from the gochujang,
some sweetness from the honey.
I don't think Justin has touched his doughnut burger yet.
-He just did onion. -[Chris] Onion?
[Justin] Give it a little bit of bite.
I decide I'm gonna use the onion from my doughnut burger in my glaze
because it's the one component of the doughnut burger
that I think will really work.
[Eddie] Ranch dressing, you know,
typically sour cream, buttermilk, an array of herbs.
-It's a cooling kind of a condiment, right? -[Chris] Yeah.
[Eddie] You're not a ranch dressing guy?
[Chris] With wings, I'm a blue cheese guy.
I tell you what, Chef, Margaret's wings are looking pretty good right now.
Having this spicy salsa verde like what's not to love?
[Eddie] Come on, chefs.
Let's go, Sammy.
I'm gonna make a pretty simple crema with the ranch.
I think the green goddess with the green beans and the ranch is smart.
[Chris] That's just-- that's cool, yeah.
-[Eddie] Less than 60 seconds, chefs. -[Justin] Heard.
I mean, he's just-- he's just leaning on that fryer.
[Bo] I 'm hearing the judges, but I'm trying to give my chicken
as much time as I possibly can.
It's got a little bit of color,
but it's not quite where I want it.
-Thirty seconds, chefs. -Thirty seconds, guys.
-[Justin] Heard. -[Chris] We can't eat i if you don't plate it.
The first round is winding down, chefs.
Ten, nine...
-[Eddie] All the basket ingredients. -[Ted] ...eight...
-[Ted] ...seven, six, five... -[Chris] Get it on the plate.
-Get it on the plate. Get it on the plate. -[Ted] ...four, three, two,
-one, time's up! -[Margaret] Oh, lordy.
-[Ted] step away. -[judges applauding]
That's chicken.
I'm feeling really good.
I'm not necessarily concerned about the chicken not being cooked through.
I'm more concerned that it didn't get crispy enough.
Whoo.
It's so intense, man.
It's like you think you know how to cook,
and then you get here and you're just thrown a curveball.
But from what I tasted, it seemed really, really delicious.
[Ted] Chefs, you have arrived at the chopping block.
What an appetizer basket you got.
A doughnut burger, canned green beans
ranch dressing and chicken wings.
Chef Bo, you're up first. Tell us what you made.
Today, I made for you dim sum chicken wings
with a burger and doughnut XO sauce.
And a green bean goddess.
Chef Bo, I'm definitely getting the doughnut in this dish
that gives me pops of sweetness.
And I think you did a really good job incorporating the green beans
into this green goddess.
[Chris] With the ranch dressing,
I think your concept is fun and this XO sauce, it's delicious.
I think you get the guilty pleasure vibe.
Yeah, I also really love you can taste the doughnut in the XO sauce.
So I think you did a great job.
I think the only thing I would say, just the chicken wings,
you know, I'm not sure why you poached them first.
It's nearly impossible to get that crispy breading outside
like you'd want to when you bread them hot.
Yeah, I tried to cool them in the ice bath,
but I just didn't have enough time.
The skin is just super, super soggy,
and there's just no getting around it.
Chef Margaret, what did you make?
I did fried chicken wings
tossed in a green bean salsa verde
and on the side, there's a blue cheese bacon ranch
with extra black peppercorn.
[Eddie] Chef, I love the idea behind this dish.
I mean, chicken wings in a ranch, blue cheese kind of a dipper,
I think it's spot on. The only thing I'm missing is a cold beer.
I like the flavor of the chicken wing,
the sauce that you tossed it in.
-[Margaret] Mmm-hmm. Yeah. -The salsa verde, right?
But, when I hear salsa verde,
while it's nice and bright, it's missing that heat element.
My biggest issue is with the ranch blue cheese.
Even though you have this blue cheese in here,
all I'm getting is that ranch.
I actually don't mind the bacon dip sauce.
-I got to be honest. I love blue cheese. -'Cause you like blue cheese.
And I'm a blue cheese guy with my wings.
And I like the salsa verde, although I do think
the green beans get lost a little bit.
I think your concept's great.
Much like Bo here.
You get the guilty pleasure vibe.
Good concepts, but execution,
if you move on, you gotta tighten it up a little bit.
-Heard. -Chef Justin, about your dish.
Today, I made for you a gochujang and honey glazed chicken wing
with a green bean remoulade.
With my restaurant, we are all about fat, fun, heat.
Everybody in my kitchen came from fine dining kitchens.
But we just want to use good ingredients,
good techniques and make it more approachable for everyone.
Yeah, love that.
Where did you use the doughnut burger?
So I chopped up the onions just to get a little bit
of the onion flavor in the gochujang glaze.
I think this is more in line with what we've been looking for.
We've got a nice, crispy exterior,
although it's not really adhering,
-it's kind of falling apart. -[Justin] Yeah, yeah.
But flavor wise, you've got everything you just said.
-Fat, fun and heat. -Yeah.
-I mean, that's what you could name this dish. -Yeah.
The glaze that you have, this gochujang and honey
gives the chicken wing unbelievable balance.
The cook on the chicken wing feel nice and juicy.
And I think that the remoulade is a great compliment
with the ranch dressing.
My only knock is that the breading to chicken ratio,
I think, is a little bit off.
But it's crunchy on the outside, which is what we really need to see.
It's sticky and spicy and full of heat.
Really, if you keep playing like this,
I think that you'll knock it out of the park.
All right, Chef Justin, thank you.
Awesome. Thank you so much.
Chef Sam, what did you make?
Um, I made for you guys chicken nachos.
A different point of view than the rest of the field.
Um, yeah, I was really intimidated
with the chicken being on the bone and the time frame,
so I just immediately took it off the bone.
Do you think you're the chef to beat in this competition?
I think so. I love cooking things
that are like, overly indulgent.
A chef gets off of work, and it's like, you're not gonna go have a salad.
You're gonna go have a burger.
You're gonna go have some tacos or something.
So, I feel very attached to making these kinds of food.
[Eddie] Where is the doughnut burger?
Um, I did the onions and the tomatoes inside of the pico de gallo.
You nailed the guilty pleasure on the head.
I love nachos so much.
-[chuckles] Yeah. -This is a very successful dish.
The green beans inside of this pico, I think, is brilliant.
I love the crema as well and it has a little bit of sweetness to it.
[Chris] The one thing I'm missing,
I-I consider myself a bit of a nacho freak and I need a little heat.
But I like that you showed a different point of view.
I tell you, the star of the show here
is this pickled canned green bean.
I mean, that's really smart.
-Thank you. -Chef Sam, thank you.
All right, as you know,
only three of you will be cooking in the entree round.
Thank you, chefs.
[Margaret] Bo and I struggled a little bit,
making sure that the components that we had
were properly seasoned, properly executed.
So I'm not sure, it really could come down to any one of us.
[Bo] I'm feeling pretty good.
The judges had some complimentary things to say
and some negative things to say.
It seems that Margaret might also be on the chopping block.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Bo, you've been chopped. Judges?
Bo, you know, this was a guilty pleasures competition here,
and it lacked the crunch and the stickiness
and the things you look for in wings that you put on this plate
to make it that guilty pleasure.
And so, we had to chop you.
-Thank you, Bo. -[Eddie] Thanks you, Chef.
Good luck to you.
[Bo] You know, I'm a little disappointed for sure.
Even though I was chopped, I still had an amazing time,
and I still can't wait to see myself on TV.
Chef Sam, Chef Justin, Chef Margaret.
Your second set of indulgent ingredients is inside these.
Check them out.
-All right. -You've got fried pickles.
This is awesome.
[Ted] You also have butter flavored soda.
I've never even seen this before in my life.
Like, look at this color.
It's horrific.
I have definitely been curious and drank that before.
-[chuckles] -[Ted] French fries.
And rib eye steak.
Yeah, I'm not mad about this rib eye steak though,
that's for sure. [chuckles]
This 30 minutes will go by fast.
Clock starts now.
-[Chris] All right. -[Eddie] All right, here we go.
Yeah!
-Guilty pleasure entree. -Guilty pleasure.
Could I offer you a nice butter flavored soda?
-Let's cheers to guilty pleasures. -[Kelsey] Yeah.
-[Eddie] Hey! -[chuckles]
-[Ted] How is it? -[Kelsey] Uh-uh.
-[Ted chuckles] -Oh, man, that is bad.
-[Kelsey] It is bad. -[Ted chuckles]
Imagine a butter flavored cooking spray in a bottle.
[Kelsey] With like, a hint of gasoline, maybe?
Tempura is what my head goes straight to.
Rather than using soda water,
you can use this butter flavored soda.
[Justin] This basket's screaming burger to me.
You've got beef, you've got fries, you've got pickles.
I've made tens of thousands of burgers in my life.
It's my bread and butter, so I say, "Come on, let's do it."
[Chris] We've got these beautiful rib eyes in the basket.
Super, super rich, buttery itself.
However, we are talking about guilty pleasures.
My last meal would definitely be a super juicy, perfect burger.
I'd love to see somebody pull out the grinder,
which actually, Justin did pull out the grinder.
-[Kelsey] Okay. -Are you making a burger, Justin?
-I am. -[Chris] My man!
-[Kelsey] Yes! -[chuckles]
-There we go, my man! -Very brave.
[Eddie] That's a guilty pleasure.
[Justin] I'm making a patty melt
with beer battered french fries
and a butter soda barbecue sauce.
So, Justin is grinding the pickles into the rib eye.
-There we go. -[Eddie] The rib eye is very fatty.
So you're gonna get that nice pop of acidity inside it
-that will kind of balance it out. -[Chris] Yeah.
[Justin] I've used a lot of sodas before
as a base for barbecue sauce.
So along with the buttered soda,
I've grabbed brown sugar and ketchup.
[Margaret] Last round I was definitely told
I needed to get more bold with my flavors.
I'm not gonna screw it up this time.
-Margaret, what about you? -I'm gonna do a katsu sandwich.
-[Chris and Eddie exclaim] -[Kelsey] I love katsu. Yeah.
[Margaret] And I got a chili garlic
Napa cabbage slaw.
I used to work in a sandwich shop.
We made a katsu with a slaw, with a pickled vinaigrette.
[Eddie] Is Chef Margaret putting the pickles in the slaw?
I think so, yes.
Whoo, butter flavored soda.
I know that I can work it into my slaw.
Whoo!
-French fries, I got-- -[Chris] That's your thing, right?
-That is my guilty pleasure. -[Kelsey] Yeah?
-I want them very crispy, very salty. -[Eddie] Me too.
-[Sam] Y'all hear that? -Heard.
[Sam] Guilty pleasure is when you go to a steakhouse
and you order the nice cut that you want
and you get all the fix-ins, and it has this really rich mashed potato.
I'm making a steak and potatoes
with a grilled rib eye, a little crumble from the fried pickles
and butter soda mashed potatoes.
Is Sam poaching the french fries in cream?
[Kelsey] I'm guessing she's gonna make a purée.
[Ted] Chefs, 15 minutes on the clock.
[Justin] I own a Smashburger restaurant,
so I'm really excited to make a burger for the judges.
Justin, the smash burgers are looking good.
[Justin] Thank you, thank you.
[Chris] What's gonna make your burger,
like, a super guilty pleasure burger?
I'm doing a patty melt.
-So, I am going to-- Yeah. -[judges exclaim]
-It just gets better. -[Eddie] Yes.
[Justin] I love patty melts.
It's just a nice melty grilled cheese with beef.
Beautiful.
[Chris] I'm a little bit concerned with Margaret.
She's kinda struggling to slice the steaks.
You know, you definitely want this to be thin and crispy.
[Margaret] I'm gonna use the butter flavored soda
as part of the egg dip for my katsu.
Here we go.
[Chris] She's just now getting her rib eyes in the fryer.
[Margaret] I can fit-- I can fit her in there.
She made, like, a little bit of a seasoning mix
with lots of peppercorn.
[Margaret] Let's go.
Chefs, just under 10 minutes left.
[Justin] I said it before, I'll say it again.
It's gonna go by quick.
Hustle, hustle, hustle.
I love french fries with all my heart.
Not these french fries.
So, I beer batter these fries.
You know, I need a crunchy element on that burger.
Doing a smash burger.
Beer battered fries and barbecue sauce.
Those are all guilty pleasure foods.
Oh, that's awesome.
I'm not loving this barbecue sauce on Justin's burger, y'all.
And while it's piled with fries...
-[Eddie] That's not a patty melt. -[Kelsey] No, it's not.
You got this, Margaret.
-That bread's looking good. -[Margaret] Thank you, thank you.
I'm gonna make double fried french fries for my katsu,
because when I was a kid,
we'd go to this restaurant
and they loaded french fries on top of your sandwich.
That's super indulgent. Totally guilty pleasure.
Five minutes on the clock, chefs.
[Sam] I'm taking the breading from the fried pickles
to make a truffle crumble for my steak.
Everybody loves truffles
and something really guilty pleasure.
Sam just went in the oven with three minutes to go.
Oh, my God.
[Sam] I'm realizing that these steaks might not be cooked in time.
Two and a half minutes.
Sam just pulled her steaks out and just started slicing.
[Eddie] Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Crap.
Now she's taking the steak, she sliced it raw,
she's putting the slices back on the grill.
[Ted] All right, chefs, you've got about one minute left here.
One minute to go.
[Justin] Heard, chef.
Y'all got 30 seconds.
-[Chris] Hurry. -Come on, get everything on the plate.
Get everything on the plate.
-[Ted] We need those plates to be all done in... -[Eddie] Fifteen seconds.
-[Kelsey] Oh, no. -[Ted] ...ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one.
-Time's up. -[judges applauding]
[Justin] Wow.
[Margaret] My katsu definitely looks a little on the dark side,
but I think it's gonna have the flavor punch
that they've asked for.
At the end of the day, like, we wanna see everybody do well,
but you wanna see yourself do the best. [laughs]
It's not the prettiest, but it's good.
It's creative and it's yummy.
So, I'm excited.
Chefs, for our guilty pleasures entrée round
we gave you fried pickles,
butter flavored soda, french fries
and rib eye steaks.
Chef Justin, please tell us about your main course,
I made a beer-battered patty melt,
some beer-battered french fries
and a buttered soda barbecue sauce.
I own a Smashburger restaurant
in, uh, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
We make cool, fun burgers all the time
and I saw that rib eye
and I was like, "I have to make a burger."
-Burgers are my ultimate guilty pleasure. -[Justin] Yeah.
[Eddie] I totally agree.
A burger and patty melt is definitely guilty pleasure.
The pickles are in the burger patty itself?
Yeah, they were ground up.
[Chris] The patty's got nice, crispy edges.
That's what you want in a smash burger.
The char on the outside is textbook.
And these fries are great.
They're super, super crispy.
But it is really sweet, Justin.
-Okay. -I think that barbecue sauce is very overpowering.
-Okay. -[Chris] I agree.
But for me, this is an issue of ratio.
-There's a lot of bread to the, to the actual patty. -Yeah.
[Eddie] It is a lot of butter soda barbecue sauce.
But the concept of this patty melt,
I mean, it's a guilty pleasure.
Yeah.
Next up, chef Sam.
Please tell us about your main course.
I made a basic meat and potatoes.
When I see a big steak like that,
I think you just respect the meat, you know?
You season it really well,
you char it appropriately, you cook it to temp.
[Ted] Could you tell us about your business?
So, I have a small catering company in Miami, Florida.
We've been open since 2016.
[Ted] Amazing.
[Chris] Well, I'm happy to report
that my steak is actually perfectly cooked.
Thank you.
[Kelsey] Perfectly cooked.
-Really perfectly cooked. Nailed it. -[Sam] Thank you so much.
[Eddie] Again, guilty pleasure.
Steak and potatoes, really tasty.
Once you're getting to the steak itself,
it is cooked really well.
And I love the little pops of char.
And this crunch on top is so crunchy.
Which is very difficult to do,
especially when you're using something like fried pickles
that's already been cooked.
This butter soda french fry mash,
it almost tastes like a loaded potato.
My biggest issue in this dish, there's so much truffle.
Oh, okay.
The subtlety of the flavors that you have in this mash
overpowered by the truffle.
-What would winning Chopped mean to you? -[Sam] Would mean the world.
I'm the oldest daughter of nine kids.
-I don't know if any of you are oldest kids... -Wow.
...but they kinda look at you when parents aren't around,
like, for the answers.
And it's kind of like that throughout life.
Right now, the world is pretty tough.
And I have to step out in front of them
and show them that it's not gonna destroy them,
and hope that I can inspire them
and keep 'em on the right path.
-Thank you, Sam. -[Sam] Thank you, chefs.
Finally, chef Margaret.
I'm calling this a rib eye katsu
with a butter flavored soda,
fried pickles, napa cabbage slaw
and double fried french fries.
[Kelsey] Okay, Margaret, the direction of this,
I love katsu, it's so good.
Definitely guilty pleasure.
It's a giant piece of fried meat.
-Yeah. -[Kelsey] The bread is toasted really, really well.
I love that you grilled it.
But unfortunately, the katsu is way overcooked.
[Chris] The katsu is really dry on its own.
However, that slaw is near perfection.
It's got creaminess,
it absolutely adds a sauce to the sandwich,
that otherwise would be dry.
That slaw is, is perfection.
Using the pickles and the butter soda in the slaw,
I think, was a smart play, especially the pickles.
[Chris] The balance between the slaw and the katsu is good.
-I love katsu. I love the idea. -Yeah.
I love your thought process again.
The slaw is dynamite.
I was able to have one composed bite
of the whole thing at once.
And although I don't care for the fries,
that composed bite was great.
I wish you would've done something different with the,
the french fries themselves.
You know? But flavor wise, I like it.
[Ted] All right, chef Margaret.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
The dessert round is right around the corner,
but just for two of you.
Thank you, chefs.
[all] Thank you.
[Justin] I think that, you know,
all of us made some execution mistakes.
I don't know how to feel right now, but I'm hopeful.
[Margaret] I'm feeling much better after this round.
You know, everybody complimented the slaw.
Just a little bit worried about that overcooked rib eye.
[Ted] So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Margaret, you've been chopped. Judges?
[Eddie] Chef Margaret,
you did some really beautiful things on your plate.
The rib eye katsu was very creative.
Unfortunately, the rib eye itself was overcooked.
-And so, we had to chop you. -[Margaret] Understood.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
This was a blast. Good luck, you guys.
-Thank you. -[Ted] Good luck, chef.
[all applauding]
Well, bummed that I got chopped.
I struggled a little bit.
I just made a mistake of overcooking that rib eye.
[Ted] Chef Sam, chef Justin,
you have made it to the guilty pleasures dessert round.
Are you ready to seize this opportunity?
Ready to kill it.
Guilty pleasures, guilty as charged.
[Ted] Mmm-hmm. [chuckles softly] Sorry.
That's funny.
Let's see what's in your final basket.
Open 'em up.
-[laughs] -[chuckles] What is that?
[Ted] It's gummy hot dogs.
My first time ever seeing gummy hot dogs.
Whoever picked this one, super cute.
[Ted] You also have strawberries.
Actually, a little refreshing to see a raw ingredient.
-Cinnamon rolls. -[Ted] Cinnamon rolls.
And chocolate hazelnut spread.
Which everyone loves on everything.
It's like the new peanut butter.
Thirty minutes to go over the top
with splendid sweet creations.
Time starts now.
-[Chris] All right, here we go. -[Kelsey] Yeah.
[Eddie] Here we go, here we go!
[Ted] Judges, having a sweet treat at the end of your meal,
why do we need to feel guilty about that? I don't.
Dessert should be decadent.
It should be something that you don't really have room for,
but you can't help yourself,
which is the very definition of a guilty pleasure, right?
-[Eddie] Yeah, I agree. -[mouths] Okay.
When you talk about guilty pleasure dessert,
this is like a dessert, in my mind,
that you don't eat all the time.
[Justin] So far, I feel like I've captured
that guilty pleasure theme really well.
Coming down, chef.
I think moving into dessert round,
the sweeter, the more fun, the more doughy,
the more sugary, the better.
Awesome.
Justin, what you thinking?
I think I'm gonna go pretty simple
and do a fried hazelnut doughnut with some mascarpone,
and then a, uh, little strawberry compote.
[Chris] And are you making your own doughnut,
or are you using the cinnamon roll as your doughnut?
I'm using the cinnamon roll as a filler.
Very cool.
[Chris] In the hazelnut spread,
I love the combination of cinnamon and chocolate.
-[Kelsey] Oh, for sure. -[Chris] Always have.
[Justin] I've probably eaten 25 donut holes in one sitting,
so there's nothing more guilty than doughnuts.
How you feeling, Sam?
-I'm feeling nervous. -[Justin sighs]
Same, same.
[Eddie] I think that both chef Sam and chef Justin,
pretty neck and neck right now.
-[Kelsey] I agree. -[Chris] It's very close.
Which only means that this round is super important.
-That's true. -[Chris] Exactly. Yeah.
Relax, Sam.
-Sam, what you think you're gonna make? -I'm gonna make a pizza.
-Pizza. -A pizza.
[Kelsey] Okay, I like that idea.
[Eddie] Ah.
[Sam] For my dessert, I'm making a supreme dessert pizza.
Because the pizza is already a guilty pleasure,
so now you're making a sweet pizza.
So, it's a double guilty pleasure.
I hope I can get it done in time.
I'm using the strawberries cooked down as my tomato sauce.
[whispers] Oh, my God.
I like cinnamon rolls. I think they're delicious.
That canned cinnamon roll is essentially a biscuit there.
So, it could be turned into anything if you roll it into a sheet.
That's a great starting point.
I want to do something really unique and creative with these.
[Kelsey] So, she's frying pieces of cinnamon roll in the fryer.
[Sam] Deep fry them and toss them in cinnamon sugar.
I'm gonna give 'em really nice dessert sausage pieces.
Twenty minutes to go, chefs.
[Justin] Once my donut holes are ready to go,
I head over to the fryer and I drop 'em in.
If you see the size of them,
-they're big. -That is a chunk.
[Chris] They're gonna be too dark on the outside
if he's gonna get the interior cooked correctly.
[Justin] So, I'm gonna make a strawberry coulis sauce
because the doughnut is bringing a nice, sweet and fluffy flavor,
but you need something tangy and fruity to offset that.
[Chris] The gummy hot dogs, not my favorite.
But I think you like gummies, don't you?
I love gummies,
but I wouldn't say I like them on a dessert.
I don't know how I'm gonna feel about them cooking with them.
[Justin] This is a cherry flavored hot dog
inside an orange flavored bun with a zesty lemon mustard.
I decide to use the cherry part.
It's gonna add some nice color,
and I think the flavor is a little bit more comparable.
I'll let these chill for a sec.
It smells like the fair in here.
-That's what I'll tell y'all. -[Chris] It does.
[Justin] When I opened the first doughnut,
I noticed that some of the places where I had the cinnamon roll dough
is still undercooked.
[Chris] He took one out, he cut it in half,
he immediately ran back to the fryer and he dropped them.
It would be brown on the outside
before the inside even gets touched.
-Hundred percent. -[Kelsey] It's too thick.
Way too thick, way too dense.
[Chris] I would pull them out now
and then finish them in the oven.
[Ted] Fifteen minutes on the clock, chefs, halfway in.
For my white cheese aspect,
I'm making mascarpone with ricotta.
Gummy hot dogs is, like,
the most childish thing you can put in a basket.
I'm slicing them as thin as I can,
and then macerate them
to kinda break that texture down.
Has Sam touched her dough yet?
Chefs, ten minutes.
Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go.
[Sam] I feel very comfortable handling a pizza dough.
I've made tons of pizza.
Just now getting into her pizza dough. Finally, now.
[Eddie] Wow.
[Ted] You gotta roll that really thin and it's gonna fight you.
-You know, as dough always does. -[Chris] Yeah.
I'm worried about Sam.
[Kelsey] That would've been the first thing I did.
[Ted] It should've been the first thing.
[Sam] I need to get this pizza dough in the oven.
-That's gotta get in the oven, like, now. -[Eddie] Soon. Yeah.
Sam has waited to get her pizza dough in the oven.
[Eddie] Let's go, Sam.
[Sam] Everything is banking on this pizza
to come out cooked and crispy
to be able to be a vessel for my ingredients.
If not, nothing makes sense.
[Eddie] Well, the thing is with the pizza dough,
you wanna give it time to cool off
before you put your toppings.
-And she's putting, you know... -[Kelsey] Yeah.
...mascarpone or whatever's on it, it's just gonna melt.
Five minutes to go, chefs.
I'm gonna make toasted cinnamon sugar to coat my doughnut holes,
'cause I think it's a little bit more flavorful
than just powdered cinnamon.
Justin just took a bite of that donut
and he seems pleased.
[Justin] The color's not terrible.
[Eddie] Justin, how was the doughnut?
It's delicious.
-[Eddie] Oh, okay. -[Kelsey] Okay.
[Sam] The chocolate hazelnut spread,
you don't have to do much to it.
I add some white chocolate chips,
and this is gonna bring a really creamy richness
to my dessert to tie everything in.
She still needs to build this pizza.
Just cook. Just cook.
It has a little color on it.
It looks like the pizza has a little crust.
I'm not too mad about it.
This pizza is gonna be piping hot
when she puts everything on it.
[Kelsey] Oh, no, oh, no. That is so hot.
That is all set put.
[Ted] One minute on the clock, chefs.
[Justin] Oh, boy. [groans]
[Ted] Come on, chefs, you can do this.
[Eddie] Come on, thirty seconds.
Final seconds of the final round, chefs.
-[whispers] Oh, man. -[Ted] 10...
-[Chris] Come on, Sam. -[Ted] ...nine,
eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
-Time's up. -[judges cheering]
-Hell of a job. That's a hell of a job. -[Justin] Awesome.
[Justin] I'm feeling good. I'm feeling really good.
I went with something that I knew really well,
something that I actually make for a guilty pleasure at home.
So, I think it was a strong dessert basket.
[Sam] Oh, man, I want this more than anything in my life.
[chuckles] I've never wanted to win something so bad.
I have to make sure that I'm going on the right path.
And I think that this will confirm that for me.
[Ted] Chef Justin and chef Sam,
we asked you to make extra indulgent desserts
with gummy hot dogs,
strawberries, cinnamon rolls and chocolate hazelnut spread.
You're first chef, Sam, what do you have?
I made for you guys a supreme dessert pizza.
The dessert is a guilty pleasure,
and pizza is a guilty pleasure.
So, you got a two for one.
-[judges laugh] -[Eddie] Okay.
Chef Sam, I'm on this dessert pizza train with you.
I get it.
And, uh, I love it.
[Chris] I think it's super clever.
I see the pepperoni and the strawberry
and I see the sausage and the cinnamon roll.
And I see the ricotta cheese and the mascarpone and the pizza sauce.
And then you bring in that basil
-to tie it all together. -Uh-huh.
I'll tell you what's weird, that I really like about it.
I love the really big pieces of the gummy hot dogs on here.
But unfortunately, the dough is very undercooked.
[Eddie] And I also think you should have did the pizza dough first
to give it time to cool down
if you were gonna build it this way.
All of these beautiful, delicious components
melted and kinda mushed into one thing.
Your saving grace is these crunchy bits of the cinnamon roll.
It's kinda saving you a little bit.
[Ted] Judges, are you getting the chocolate hazelnut spread?
-Oh, yeah, for sure. -Yeah, for sure.
-In fact, I think the hazelnut spread... -Getting everything.
-...kinda ties everything together. -Uh-huh.
Thank you.
[Ted] Next up, chef Justin.
So, I've made a hazelnut mascarpone, a doughnut hole
tossed in toasted cinnamon sugar
with a strawberry coulis.
Justin, I love the coating on the outside of the doughnut.
It gives it a little bit of texture.
And I love this bright red coulis that you have.
And I think you did a spectacular job
of manipulating this gummy hot dog
to tie in the strawberry,
and make a rather perfect glaze here.
I got good news and bad.
-What would you like first? -Uh, bad.
-[Kelsey laughs] -Undercooked.
I got raw dough.
You can see a big chunk of my doughnut right there is under.
But I love the flavor of it.
I really love the subtle hint
of the hazelnut against the cinnamon.
I love the sauce that you made.
I think the flavors are dynamite.
[Ted] Thank you, chefs.
-Thank you so much. -Thanks, guys.
All right, judges, circling back to our theme.
Do you feel guilty?
-[laughs] -[Chris] Yeah.
I think both of these chefs gave us something
that was definitely a guilty pleasure.
They both came out really strong,
especially Justin, I think, crushed that first round.
He made that gochujang,
-chicken wing with the remoulade sauce... -[Eddie] Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[Eddie] ...that had the, the ranch dressing
and the canned green beans.
And he was the only one that really unlocked the key of,
like, keeping the chicken crispy,
-adding some heat... -Yeah.
...giving us something to wanna go back.
But then, of course, you have Sam
who had a completely different point of view
and made us nachos.
-[Eddie] I mean, come on, nachos is guilty pleasure 101. -[Kelsey] Oh, yeah.
[Eddie] And she also did something that was very smart,
taking that meat off the bone.
Like, sauteed it, getting some flavor into it.
And then taking that ranch dressing
and making, uh, a crema out of it
and then incorporating those canned green beans into the pico.
-I thought was very smart. -[Chris] Yeah.
They really separated themselves from the pack in the first round,
and then they kinda came out
-and kinda underwhelmed us in the entrée round. -[Kelsey and Eddie] Yeah.
That was a hard round.
[Eddie] Justin gave us a patty melt and we were so psyched, right?
- And then the meat to bread ratio was off. -[Eddie] Yep.
So, that could've been a slam dunk for Sam.
If she pulls back on that truffle oil, you know?
She made that kind of strange french fry match,
which actually worked out,
but then truffle oil.
-Truffle oil, yeah. -Yes.
[Eddie] But, man, when you use it
to the extent that she used it,
it's like, you can't do that.
- It just totally masked every other flavor... -[Eddie] Yeah.
-...that she worked so hard to build. -Yeah.
We want to taste everything about that simple, beautiful piece of meat.
You have one person that dunked it in truffle oil,
-the other dunked it in super sweet barbecue sauce. -[Chris] Yeah.
I will say that both of these chefs are very well matched.
And I feel like if they squared up five times,
it'd be close five times.
Okay, got it.
We have a decision.
Let's bring 'em in.
[Sam] I really, really, really want this.
I think I deserve it.
Chopped champion [laughs] right here.
[Justin] I want it really bad. I come from a little town.
So, this win would be huge
and make huge waves in my town
and really give us something to be confident about.
So, whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Justin, you've been chopped. Judges?
[Chris] Chef Justin, unfortunately,
your doughnut was undercooked.
And so we had to chop you.
Awesome. Thank you so much.
-Thank you so much. -[Chris] Good luck, chef.
[Justin] Even though I didn't win,
I had the right idea,
which is why I made it to the finals.
So, I'm still on cloud nine.
And that means, chef Sam Cruz, you are the Chopped champion
for rocking out three courses of guilty pleasures.
-You have the the pleasure of banking 10 grand. -[Chris] Way to go, chef.
-[Sam] Yay! -[judges cheering]
Let's go. Thank you. Thank you so much.
-[Chris] First smile all day. -[Kelsey] I know, right?
-First smile all day. [laughs] -[Kelsey] She's happy.
[Sam] Thank you so much.
I'm just very happy.
It feels incredible.
-[Sam] I'm a hugger. -Oh, come on, bring it in. There you go.
[Sam] I cannot wait to tell my family...
Great job, great job.
[Sam] ...and everybody I know back home
that I'm a winner, baby. [chuckles softly]