There are a lot of real deal
culinary competition shows on the Food Network.
I mean, from Triple G
to Beat Bobby Flay
to Alex Vs. America.
And of course, Hunter, Tournament of Champions.
And to win any of those shows,
you must be talented, creative
and ready for anything.
That's right. So, tonight we're inviting four of the top winners
of various Food Network competitions
to face off in a night of head-to-head culinary battle.
Make sexy food, that's what we're here to do.
[Guy] And when it's over, one chef will be crowned
the Flavortown Food Network champ.
And they'll win a guaranteed $15,000.
-Yeah, buddy. -Let's go.
-Yes! -Let's do it.
It's the Flavortown Food Network champ face-off...
Tonight, on Guy's Grocery Games.
All right, let's meet our winning Food Network chefs.
Now, first up, we have Britt Rescigno,
the executive chef of a coastal seafood restaurant,
who has taken on Chopped, Bobby Flay
and Alex Guarnaschelli.
Let's see how she does in Flavortown market.
[Britt] I'm a Chopped champion.
I beat Bobby Flay on his own turf.
-Chef Britt, you just beat Bobby Flay! -[all cheering]
-Great job. -[Britt] Thank you so much.
And now, I'm taking on Flavortown.
This is the last stop before TOC.
[whistles]
What's up, buddy?
-Chopped and Bobby? -How's it going, Chef?
-I brought it. -Gangster.
Next, we have Evan Hennessey,
chef-owner of a New England restaurant
who's won Chopped three times.
I love to compete.
I'm one step closer to becoming the ultimate Food Network champ.
[Guy] Here he comes.
-Fly it in, buddy. -Boom.
-Three times. -Let's do it.
Then, there's Chris Coleman, executive chef at an acclaimed Charlotte restaurant
who beat Bobby Flay,
tied another Iron Chef on Alex Vs. America
and is a Chopped champion.
[Chris] I'm a Food Network champ
and now, I'm ready to take on Triple G.
Looking good, feeling good.
Thanks, Chef.
And finally, Tristen Epps,
the executive chef of an Afro-Caribbean restaurant in Miami,
who won Chopped and is ready for his next big move.
[Tristen] I'm extremely competitive.
I am a Food Network champ because I won Chopped.
I've never not been to the finale of anything.
And I'm always looking to compete.
[Guy] Big man!
-Looking good, feeling good. -Absolutely.
Here we go. They're in for it.
All right, chefs.
You have shown your skills across multiple
high-stake cooking competition.
But tonight, it might be your biggest yet.
The winner will be declared
the Flavortown Food Network champ
and earn a guaranteed 15,000 bucks.
-Let's go! -[all cheering]
We're not gonna follow the usual Triple G format tonight. No.
We are gonna follow the bracket style format.
Oh.
It will be not one, but it will be two head-to-head battles
in the first round.
And the victors of those contests
will face-off in a winner take all final battle
and be declared...
our Flavortown Food Network champ.
-Nice. -[Guy] The question is...
Who goes one-on-one with who in the first round?
So, we're gonna do this real lottery style.
-[all exclaiming] -How's it going, chefs?
So Hunter, working tirelessly in the back, has taken these bingo balls
and written your names on there.
Let's spin this and find out who the first chef is.
Okay, here we go.
-Oh, that was fast. -Yikes.
All right, Chef Chris.
[Guy] Chef Chris.
Chef Chris, you are in one battle.
Let's see, who will be leading the other battle.
[Hunter] Chef Britt.
-[Guy] Chef Britt. -Let's go.
So, now, the question is...
Who is Chef Chris gonna battle?
And that's going to be...
Chef Chris versus Chef...
Tristen!
Well done. Ironically enough, you lined up this way.
That leaves...
Chef Evan and Chef Britt head-to-head.
-Let's go. -Let's go, buddy.
Okay. Only the opponent with the highest score
in each matchup will move on to the final face-off.
Okay? So, brace yourselves
for a double elimination.
Doesn't happen very often.
All right, Hunter, let's find out what
-they're gonna get cooking on. -Okay.
[Guy] We're gonna play
a Triple G OG game.
Play an order up wheel.
Fast food favorite.
Lumberjack breakfast.
Taco night. I didn't know that was actually on there.
-Diner classic! -[Hunter] Mmm-hmm.
Romantic dinner.
So, what's gonna happen,
one of you is gonna pick
when we stop
and that will be
the type of dish that you are going to prepare.
Who would like to be the winner winner pick the dinner.
-I will. -[Guy] Okay.
You got this first, just let me know when we're stopping.
Stop.
-You feel good about this? -[Hunter] Hold, please.
-Taco night. -[all cheering]
-[Guy] We like taco night. -Let's go!
-One more. -No!
-One more. -We'll go...
-Hunter, this is mean. -[Hunter] They gotta play.
I'm usually the mean one.
What's got... Stop with your behavior now.
Like I said, if they're going to compete, they gotta compete.
Oh, so now, you're gonna make them pick the protein.
So, they would get ground turkey,
top sirloin, chorizo,
pork tenderloin or rack of lamb.
Who didn't get to pick last time?
-You wanna pick? -I'll pick.
-Okay. -[exclaims]
Stop.
There we go. And it's going to be...
[all] Ground turkey.
-Dry as hell. -[Guy] Ground turkey.
-You gotta use ground turkey. -[Evan] Yeah.
You gotta make tacos.
And we're gonna go. Do not run us over.
-We're gonna go in three, two-- -Wait.
-Uh, hold on. -Stop.
One last thing.
There's just one last thing.
-[chuckling] Come on. -[Hunter] Hold on.
These people have futures.
-Okay, I promise... -[contestants groaning]
This may or may not be the last one. I don't know.
[Guy] How many more do you have?
This is the Whammy Wheel.
You have to use something out of the cold bar,
something out of the clearance area.
-What? -[Guy] Something out of the grab and go.
-[Chris] Love grab and go. -[Guy] Something out of the frozen section.
Something out of the hot bar.
-Hot bar. -Hey, who wants to pick?
I guess, I'll pick the last.
You want to pick?
Okay, then. Now, this... You know, what I wanna say to you on this one?
-Stop. -This is... There we go.
What do you think it is?
-[Hunter] Hot bar. -[Guy] Hot bar!
Chefs...
30 minutes to shop,
create and plate
your taco night
featuring ground turkey
and using at least one ingredient
from the hot bar.
-Hunter... -[Chris] Come on.
[Guy] We have three more carts.
I do. We can get more.
Okay. Bring out two more... No, no.
Just bring out that one more.
Go, get that one, Hunter.
All right. Make sure...
[Guy laughs]
[all clamoring]
[Britt] The pressure is on tonight.
We've all been on multiple shows, and we've all been champs.
First up, I have to go through Evan.
I have one shot to make it to that final round.
Cooking against Britt...
She's super confident, her flavors are excellent.
But I know I can take her down.
[Britt] He's a force to be reckoned with.
This man's won multiple shows.
But I'm no Food Network rookie.
Tonight, in Flavortown,
it's taco night.
Mexican crema.
There's a lot riding on this.
There's $15,000. There's bragging rights.
And there's Flavortown Food Network Champ.
I'm thinking
I'm gonna, you know, make a little smokey taco.
When I make tacos,
you gotta have a good salsa.
And my favorite salsa is salsa macha.
Which is bunch of dried chilies,
roasted onions that you char down really well.
-What's up? -[Britt chuckles softly]
I have to use something from the hot bar,
so I picked these smokey ribs.
It's gonna add that flavor and texture
into my ground turkey.
Barbecue pork.
Nice call there.
With the fact that she got the ground turkey...
I'd be going after the meatloaf in a heartbeat --
nice big piece of that meatloaf in there,
or I might ever go with both.
I mean, double dip.
Scrape some of the meat off those bones,
get some of that pork incorporated into it.
[Britt] Cilantro.
It's a double elimination,
so it's gonna be two people going home in the first round.
Talk about pressure.
[Evan] Traditionally, tacos are a Mexican dish.
But I'm not gonna go with those flavors at all.
Coming through.
And I wanna take the risk
of pulling flavors from around the world
and combining them like the judges haven't seen yet.
So, for my dish,
I'm making an umami bomb turkey taco.
Gotta have fresh herbs.
This is not a traditional taco.
So, I'm not making a traditional salsa.
Radish.
So, I'm going to grab daikon radish,
rhubarb,
onion and peppers.
Fresh, fresh.
When I get to the hot bar,
I see the roasted vegetables.
The knife work is done, the seasoning is done.
I'm gonna chop up and fold into the turkey meat.
Personally, I'm doing tacos...
I'm making -- I'm getting masa and I'm making tortillas.
I think that's gonna be --
That would be a cutting edge difference
right now between anybody else.
It's game one and I'm going head-to-head with Chef Chris.
He's a former Chopped champion.
[Chris] Tristen is awesome.
He's a really accomplished Food Network chef.
He's a stiff competition.
[Tristen] For my taco night dinner,
I'm doing a taco with a turkey and chorizo kofta.
It's essentially a Afro-Caribbean kebab without a stick.
Today, I really wanna test myself.
I wanna prove that I'm the Flavortown Food Network champ.
And add a little bit of fat to this.
I know I need to put a lot of flavor
into this turkey.
So, this chorizo will flavor it
and add some fat.
I also know I really wanna build this beautiful crema,
so I'm gonna get some cilantro for freshness
and some lime juice.
-[Guy] What are you thinking? -[Tristen] Ribs.
From the hot bar, I'm actually gonna use the pork ribs
to help add a little bit more flavor
to my turkey.
What am I thinking of?
For my taco night,
I'm thinking kind of a late night.
Like, something craveable.
My mind immediately goes to a quesabirria taco.
Corn tortillas.
Which is kind of this really cool mashup of a taco,
quesadilla,
French dip kind of situation.
Oh, there's mac and cheese?
I saw the mac and cheese on the hot bar.
Thought that would be ooey and gooey and creamy
and really tasty.
Mmm, mac and cheese!
The most important part of a quesabirria taco
is the broth.
So, I grab turkey stock.
Grab some dry chilies.
A little bit of fresh oregano.
Okay!
As a Food Network champ,
I'm thinking gameplay.
And I'm thinking that I can add some ground turkey
into the broth.
It has to be amazing.
I really wanna win today.
I wanna keep adding to that Food Network champ resume that I've got.
These chefs have all battled biggest and the baddest.
I have goosebumps for them
about what they're about to face.
I mean, this is gnarly.
If you're a fan of Triple G,
you know that typically you come in and battle it out
in the first round.
Somebody goes home, three more move on to the second round.
But tonight, one and done.
Pressure is huge.
There's a lot on the line.
Twenty-four minutes!
So, here to judge these chefs
are our three Tournament of Champion champions.
A powerhouse behind a Boston restaurant empire
and the reigning TOC champ,
sweet tea herself,
-Chef Tiffani Faison. -Hey, boss.
Renowned national restaurateur
and the winner of Tournament of Champions II,
the dancing spice queen,
-Chef Maneet Chauhan. -Hey, Guy.
And finally, the chef, the woman, the legend
that launched the TOC juggernaut,
winner of the very first Tournament of Champions,
Chef Brooke Williamson.
So, what's a great taco to you?
It's not dissimilar to making a sandwich.
It's mise en place, organization, textures,
flavor and I wanna see who they are.
-Got it. -Dextrose. Add brightness.
Balance. Structure of the vessel that, you know, your tortilla
or whatever -- whatever you're eating it in.
[Guy] Twenty-three and a half minutes, chefs.
Chef Britt, what's on the menu?
I'm thinking some tacos tonight.
Okay, great idea.
[Britt] Sounds so good to me. Right?
I think I'm gonna put some turkey in there.
How do you come up with these crazy ideas?
Dude, I don't know.
-What's gonna make it different? -I got some salsa macha going.
I picked up some ribs from the hot bar
-to add smokiness. -[Guy] Okay.
[Britt] First thing I get started on is my ground turkey filling.
Gonna go in there with a little bit of cumin.
There's no room for making any mistakes this round.
Because you're going head-to-head.
I'm gonna go the smokey route.
I use the chopped rib meat
from the hot bar.
It's gotta be sexy, delicious food.
And that's what I do.
Spring onions going.
What's your game plan?
Think, right now, I'm gonna cook the ground turkey
and make a little sauce, little bit of miso.
-Add a little bit of harissa. -Nice call.
[Evan] I'm gonna start on the umami bomb taco.
So, the challenge with the turkey
is to make sure I got enough flavor and enough fat in this.
Get some demi-glace in there, get some...
All kinds of spices.
I'll make sure that my meat stand out.
Roasted vegetables.
So, I have the roasted vegetables from the hot bar,
I wanna highlight them.
So, I know that if I minced them down too far,
then they just get lost within the turkey,
so I just kinda rough chop them.
Now, we add some vegetables.
Now, we're getting... Just wanna eat this all on its own.
I'm definitely feeling the pressure.
Britt's cooking right next to me
and I know that I have to create a dish that beats hers.
Whoo! How are you feeling, Chef?
How are you feeling right now?
[Britt] Oh, man. Feeling good, man.
Blazing through these things.
These are the most pressure I have ever felt
from a taco Tuesday.
I mean, we're putting them through the turkey grinder...
hard.
What's your game plan?
So, I'm gonna do kind of a quesabirria.
Gonna throw some bacon in there.
Just gonna bump up a little bit of that fat content
for the turkey.
-And use the mac and cheese as kind of a binder. -Fantastic.
[Chris] We eat a lot of tacos in my house.
My kids love tacos.
But I wanna do something that's a little
non-traditional.
It's still a chance to kinda showcase yourself.
So, I'm seasoning this turkey with red pepper flakes,
cumin, then the chili powder.
Got a good idea what you doing?
Ground turkey, add in some of the ribs
and do kind of like a taco Arabic.
Put some Afro flavors in there,
doing like a shito salsa macha.
Sounds delicious.
Just take my ribs...
I have never used ribs in this way before.
I more kinda just wanna snack on them.
But I'm gonna rip the meat off of 'em
and add 'em right into the taco mixture.
Now, I'm going to add my chorizo
that will flavor it and add some fat to the turkey.
Some berbere, paprika.
I think the flavor of my food will stand apart from Chef Chris.
Ten minutes! Ten to go!
[Britt] Ten minutes. Heard.
[Guy] Talk to me, Chef.
-I got spring onions. -[Guy] Okay.
[Britt] Tomatoes charring up for my salsa.
-[Guy] This is all for your... -[Britt] The salsa macha.
-The salsa macha. -[Britt] This is all gonna be a part of it.
Got it.
Spicy. Ooh!
All right. Tell me what's going on over here.
Ground turkey, little demi-glace,
roasted vegetables, nice and rich, Chef.
Next, I'm gonna start on the crema.
So, I want this flavor profile to be creamy,
fatty, a little bit of a spice with some harissa.
I'm kinda making this up as I go along.
So, for the salsa, I dice the daikon
and the rhubarb.
I wanna use different ingredients
'cause I wanna be more creative than Britt.
If I can take out Britt today,
that will be first step to being the Food Network Champ.
Super bright colors.
-[Evan] You all right? -Yeah, I'm good.
My ground turkey is looking delicious.
It's looking like something I wanna put into a taco shell right now.
Next, I need to work on my birria,
which is the broth that was normally served beside quesabirria tacos.
I throw in some ancho chilies.
It adds smoke, it adds some heat.
I added some bacon into the birria.
The bacon should give it little smokey fat.
It all comes down to this, right?
This is assembling the quesabirria tacos.
I know this is a head-to-head competition with Tristen,
but I'm trying not to look in his direction.
This is one and done territory,
so I have to focus on what I'm doing.
[Guy] Five minutes!
Walk me through your salsa macha here, Chef.
I have dried shrimp, sesame seeds, almonds.
Dried chilies. Two different types.
Fresh chilies, some scallion, sesame seeds, tomatoes and onions.
-Mole-ish. -Mole-ish.
But I think more like broken.
I can't wait.
[Tristen] For my salsa macha, all my chilies
are all toasting away
in some oil, releasing kind of their flavor
and getting nice and crispy.
All right.
I'm also gonna add some dried shrimp.
That's going to be my little flair on this.
When I win Triple G , I'm gonna use that money
to fuel my own business
and really be able to show high-end Afro Caribbean cuisine.
[Guy] Three minutes! Three to go!
It's taco night, baby.
First, I put down my tortilla.
Next, I add my smokey ground turkey.
Avocado.
Salsa.
Then, the star of the show, I add my smokey salsa macha.
I love my taco.
My salsa is perfect.
I've seasoned everything really well.
It's not the prettiest taco,
but I know it's gonna be super delicious.
[Evan] So, I get the tortilla down.
It's good.
And I spoon some of the crema down on to it.
Then, I add the turkey and vegetable mixture right on top.
And then, finish with my salsa.
-How does that taste for you, Chef? -That is tasty.
Yeah, buddy. Yeah, buddy. Yeah, buddy.
[Chris] I need to get the birria, the broth,
into the little cup.
Next, I'm gonna start to make a frico.
I'm melting some of that sharp cheddar
in a pan
that I can wrap around
the finished quesabirria tacos.
I wanted there to be like crunchy cheese element.
It definitely feels like I hit the theme. You know?
I did a taco night. It's not super elevated fancy taco,
but this is like,
you know, sloppy, gooey, greasy delicious taco night.
Ninety seconds, chefs!
Ninety to go!
[Tristen] I get my tortillas down.
I get my kofta on to my tortilla.
My salsa into a little ramekin,
so that the judges can dose it out how they like.
A lot of meat inside of a taco.
[Tristen] I think I absolutely hit the theme of taco night.
This is what I would wanna eat.
This shows a little bit of culture
and it's not your run-of-the-mill taco
[Guy] Five, four,
three, two, one.
Chefs, that's it. Stop working.
-Good job, chefs. -[all applauding]
[Guy] Great job, everybody.
Wow.
All right, chefs! Time to find out
who's order up dish gets the thumbs up.
Let's take it to the judges. Right this way!
All right, judges. This is first round
of our Flavortown Food Network champ.
The chefs had to make a taco night style dish.
Let's start off with the Chef Evan and Chef Britt competition.
Chef Evan, tell us about this dish.
Tonight I want to welcome you to my house for a family taco night.
So, I used the ground turkey.
Combined that with roasted vegetables from the hot bar.
There's a crema underneath
with lime, harissa and miso.
Above that a salsa of rhubarb, daikon and dried seaweed.
The common ingredients you find in taco night.
[chuckles]
Chef Evan. Not a traditional taco by any stretch.
This is a taco that flew over many continents
and picked up ingredients along the way.
The use of ingredients...
Miso, harissa in the crema is really smart
'cause the fat kinda carries both of those ingredients.
So, you get this umami base that's cool
and then, a little bit of the harissa vibes.
I do think that you could have edited this.
Because you used so many of savory ingredients,
I want a little bit of, maybe, charred corn on it,
that pop of sweetness.
Then, there would have been that balance of flavors.
There is yumminess in this entire bite.
Thank you.
My biggest issue is that the hot bar ingredient,
I did not get minced vegetables.
I got huge chunks of roasted carrot.
I feel like, had you just been a little bit more careful
with that hot bar ingredient,
it would have read very differently.
Awesome. Thank you, Chef.
Okay. Not to be outdone in this head-to-head battle,
up next, Chef Britt.
So, chefs, at the restaurant,
we always have, like, this taco lady that comes by.
So, I wanted to, like, give a little nod to the taco lady.
I found a little bit of ground turkey in the walk-in.
I found leftover ribs from the night before.
I made a little salsa macha.
There's a smokehouse almond
to reinforce that smokiness.
There's some cotija cheese
and cilantro.
Britt, this is a delicious taco
and I love the story behind it.
The salsa macha is what makes this taco.
It is delicious. It's perfectly balanced
in terms of the heat, the smokiness.
I think the choice of tortilla is great. Right?
Like, it's a really delicious tortilla,
but the turkey is reading a little dry.
In terms of gameplay, I for sure see those ribs.
I'm not questioning whether or not they are here.
And I think that salsa macha, again,
star of the show.
I want a bowl of that to pour over the top of it.
That also adds the fat that you're missing. Right?
Had you just added more of that,
I think, the turkey would have read really differently.
Good.
[Guy] All right. Now, we have a battle between Chef Chris
and Chef Tristen.
Up first...
Chef Chris. What do you got for us?
Chefs, for you today, I made a midnight munchies quesabirria.
Cheese, three ways, throughout this taco.
So, there's some cotija,
there's a little frico on the outside.
And there's some mac and cheese from the hot bar.
Serving that alongside a fortified turkey stock
that's got bacon, dried shrimp, ancho chilies.
Just kinda dip it in there and go for it.
Chef Chris, this reads late night.
And this feels like you took some leftovers
and stuffed 'em into a taco.
With that said, there's a lot of flavor in this broth.
So, you dip, you get smokiness, you get bacon.
I don't see bacon, but I taste bacon.
[Tiffani] The thing is, you have all of Flavortown.
I want freshness
and I want this to really sing to me in a way that says,
"Yes, it's a midnight snack, but I'm also a chef."
-Does that make sense? -Heard, Chef.
-Okay, cool. But it's craveable. -Okay.
What I love about this is the textures.
Like, when you bite into it, there is that crunchiness,
there is that ooey gooey
that you get from the mac and cheese.
Which I think was a great ingredient to get from the hot bar.
-Half a taco? -Yeah. [chuckles]
-It's a snack. -[Maneet] Or a quesadilla?
[Chris] It's a late night munchie snack.
Did we ask you for a late night munchie or a snack?
-So, just keep that in mind. -Sure.
All right. Not to be outdone
in this final head-to-head battle,
Chef Tristen. What do you have for us, bud.
What I have made for you in this taco night
is a taco Arabic.
And I use, basically, kind of flavors of, like, the African diaspora.
So, what you have is a kofta of ground turkey.
Rib meat from the hot bar
and chorizo for some fat and extra spice.
And then, on side also, I made a salsa macha.
Chef Tristen, the kofta is so delicious.
I love the salsa. I think it's delicious.
I love that it rides the line somewhere between the salsa macha
and more African flavors. I think that's brilliant.
Using the ribs in here from the hot bar,
really smart.
First of all, the presentation of this is really beautiful.
Right? Like, looking at this,
it reads taco, but it reads higher end
intentional plating.
The flavor of your turkey is really delicious.
I get all of those spices that you're talking about.
You got flavor.
But in terms of tacos, it's all about proportion.
-Right? -Sure.
[Maneet] The tortilla to the filling
and that is really off.
All right, judges, thank you very much.
Chefs... We're gonna leave this up to the judges.
We'll call you back when we have a decision.
Twenty points available in gameplay,
20 points available on taste, ten points on plating.
[Guy] The old saying is, if it was easy,
everybody would be doing it.
It's difficult.
Let's check out the results.
First, let's start with Chris and Tristen.
Chef Chris, 20 points available on gameplay.
14 out of 20.
20 points available on taste.
15 out of 20.
Ten points available on plating.
Six out of ten.
For a total of 35 points.
Yeesh!
[Guy] Tristen...
16 out of 20 in gameplay,
17 out of 20 in taste,
Eight out of ten for plating for a total of 41
and the win. Congratulations.
[all applauding]
Chef Chris, this is not the last we'll see of you, Chef.
I hope not.
Obviously, there's some choices
I would go back and do differently,
but overall, I'm happy.
I'm here.
[Guy] Chef Britt, Chef Evan...
One of you will be going head-to-head against Chef Tristen.
Chef Britt, let's take a look.
14 out of 20 in gameplay,
16 out of 20 in taste,
eight out of ten for a score of 38.
Evan, gotta beat the 38, my friend.
Let's do it.
[Guy] 14 out of 20.
15 out of 20.
Need to get a nine or better in your plating.
Seven, for a score of 36. A two-point win.
Congratulations, Chef Britt.
[all applauding]
-Nice job. -[Britt] You too.
-[Evan] Nice job. -[Britt] Good job.
Chef, I think the one thing that bit you
was the hot bar.
Now that you know this,
of course you play it a little bit different in the future.
-Great having you, Chef. -Awesome. Thank you, Chef.
Really appreciate it.
[Evan] So, I lose by two points.
I'm really disappointed
'cause I really thought I was gonna keep going.
But it was a great round. I made a great dish.
So, the battle to pick a Food Network champ is gonna start.
Chef Tristen versus Chef Britt.
Chefs, back to your carts. Good luck.
All right, Hunter, what we have here
is we have the Jersey Shore
versus Miami Beach.
Both of you, respected chefs
and Chopped winners,
but only one of you can be crowned
the Flavortown Food Network champ.
So, to prove you're worthy of this win,
I want you to make something
truly impressive.
I want you to make a high-end seafood dinner,
but you must play the food pyramid.
-The classic food pyramid. -Okay?
This is gonna help us select all the details
of your high-end seafood dinner.
-Starting with fantastic whammies. -Ooh.
So, right at the bottom there, we have these fish whammies
and let's take a look at them.
The nominees are...
Shrimp chips, tuna jerky,
canned clams, squid snack,
salmon jerky, canned crab.
Mmm.
-[Hunter] I'll take 'em all. -[Guy] Right?
-Okay. Here we go. -Here we go.
-[Hunter] And... -[Guy] And... there it is.
-Squid snack. -[Hunter] Nice.
I... Definitely, when I'm snacking, I'm not thinking squid.
[Hunter] Mmm-mmm.
[Guy] Okay, squid snack it is.
What could make this competition
just that much more exciting for everybody at home?
So, let's see it, Hunter.
Oh, it's equipment.
So, you have your choice that you will have to cook
with either an oyster grill pan,
banana leaves, liquid nitrogen
or cedar plank.
-There we go. -Ready?
[Guy] Banana leaves.
-Hell yes. -[Guy] That works.
Win, win, win around here.
Okay. Last but not least.
This is going to be
the big whammy.
Hunter.
It's proteins you get to use.
You must use either king salmon or langoustines,
halibut or scallops.
All right, here we go.
-[Guy] Halibut! There you go. -Yeah.
You couldn't have this teed up any easier for you.
Halibut, banana leaves
and squid snack,
all day long.
Shop for anything else you want,
but you must feature those three pyramid items in your dish.
You have 30 minutes
to create a show stopping
high-end seafood dinner.
Before we go, do you want me to get the other pyramid out?
And bring that out here, so that we can do the rest of the game?
No, these three things are fine.
-Is that what you wanna do? -[Guy] Yeah.
Two... I mean, I don't even wanna get into that.
-Okay. -Okay. I got one more.
Go, grab it.
They were ready to go with this.
Guy wants us to cook a high-end seafood dinner.
It's what I do every day.
This is... [pops] layup.
High-end seafood is all about amazing ingredients.
We lucked out with some beautiful halibut.
It's also technique.
When you cook fish in parchment, it's called en papillote.
Like, oh, we can steam the fish into the banana leaves.
That screams high-end to me.
I'm thinking seared halibut
that's cooked in banana leaves
with a fresh corn polenta,
some roasted tomatoes.
And a fresh basil oil.
For our whammy, we got squid snacks.
I'm thinking that I can use the umami flavors of these squid snacks
to fortify my stock for my polenta.
I just have to execute everything perfectly.
[Tristen] When I hear high-end seafood dinner,
I hear caviar,
luxury ingredients.
The first thing I know that I wanna make
is banana leaf wrapped halibut
along with some grits.
So, I'm gonna grab teff for my grits.
Teff is one of the oldest grains in the world.
And I know it will work really well
within the grits and give 'em a different dimension.
I really wanna make obe ata.
It's basically a tomato and pepper curry from Nigeria.
And this is where I'm gonna use my whammy ingredient
of the dried squid snacks.
Dried fish is kind of my thing. I really like it.
[Tiffani] So, now we are down to two. We have Tristen and Britt.
They've planted their flag on the network and crushed --
whether it's Beat Bobby, whether it's Chopped ,
whether it's Alex vs America --
so we expect a lot.
This is so Triple G.
[Guy] Twenty-five minutes!
So, out of the gate, we started with four chefs.
Double elimination.
So now we're down to two.
I'm excited to see what they come up with in this round.
Halibut, squid snacks and banana leaf.
[Brooke] It's very apparent that both Britt and Tristen
understand ingredients
and how to use ingredients.
I really hope that they actually use some restraints
and just give us some really beautiful fish.
[Guy] All right, Chef Britt, what's on the menu?
I'm gonna do some fresh corn grits,
some halibut cooked in a banana leaf.
-Basil oil, roasted tomatoes. -[Guy] I like it.
Make sexy food. That's what we're here to do.
First thing I get started on
is my umami bomb stock for my polenta.
Chicken stock, fish stock
and these squid snacks.
That's a snack.
Whoever eats squid snacks,
I question you.
What are you doing with your banana leaves, bud?
Going back to the islands.
Wrapping the halibut in the banana leaves.
[Britt] Of course, Tristen knows exactly what banana leaves are.
I do not.
The challenging part about halibut is that
it's very easily overcooked.
And I have to use banana leaves.
I've never done it before.
But, it's all about adapting
and this is what I'm going to try to do.
[Guy] Chef, what's on the menu?
We're gonna do a halibut grilled in banana leaf,
so I max the pique.
And then, we're gonna do... with a caviar
and seafood sauce.
But then, I'm also gonna make an obe ata
and teff grits.
Get it, buddy.
[Tristen] The first thing I wanna do is get started on my grits.
I use polenta to make my grits.
Add a little bit of cream, some chicken stock
and then, I'm gonna add my teff to that.
Teff is one of the oldest grains in the world.
It's used in Ethiopia a lot.
I really want to be able to showcase
high-end Afro-Caribbean cuisine.
Interesting. Both chefs cooking some form of grits.
[Tristen] My grits are cooking,
so I get started on the star of the dish, my halibut.
Banana leaves really add a nice flavor.
Real like floral notes, real earthy notes.
Some smokiness from them charring on the grill.
And especially, like a halibut that can take on flavor very well.
This is the perfect protein for the perfect dish.
Chef Britt, Chef Tristen!
Fifteen minutes! Fifteen to go!
[Tiffani] Halibut is one of my favorite fish.
It's delicate. It really shows the skill of a chef.
-It is so easy to overcook halibut. -[Brooke] Yeah.
There's a lot of room to showcase error
-with halibut. -[Tiffani] Yes.
[Britt] I decided I'm gonna make a little basil oil.
It's gonna add some beautiful herbaceousness.
High-end is minimalistic to me.
Just make sure you elevate the ingredients.
Keep 'em sexy.
That's all I'm gonna do.
Now, I'm gonna work on my fresh corn polenta.
Grind up these beautiful corns. Sweet corn.
It takes about as long as instant polenta.
So, if I can have something amazing
and it takes just as long as something meh,
I'm gonna make something amazing.
I'm just going off a whim and my own knowledge.
Moment of truth. It's time to unwrap these halibut.
Let's see what it looks like.
I'm so stoked right now.
The half cook on this, which is what I was hoping for.
And then, I'm gonna finish 'em in a traditional way with some butter.
Nothing says fine dining like a lot of butter.
[Guy] Eight minutes! Eight to go!
[Tristen] I really wanna make obe ata
which is the staple of West African cuisine.
Tomato, pepper along with some squid snack.
When I win, I'm gonna use that money
to fuel my own business.
This would be my first restaurant, stepping out on my own.
I'm really excited to do it.
As that is working, I'm gonna get started on my butter sauce.
I start with lobster and clam stock.
I start reducing it with a little bit of cream.
Then, I add Dungeness crab to slowly poach in the butter sauce.
-I got a lot going on. -Yeah, you do.
[Tristen] This is high-end because I'm using
two different types of caviar.
I think there's, like, a great luxury
in the two different types of caviar.
One being kinda briny, the other one being really kinda sweet.
Chefs, this is it. The final five minutes.
You must be plated in five minutes.
[Britt] First, I put down my fresh corn grits.
I grab the halibut.
It's perfect.
Last thing I gotta do is blister up some tomatoes.
So, I throw 'em in the fryer.
It's gonna give me that texture that I'm looking for
and as long as they're seasoned,
they're gonna be perfect.
The last thing I do
is I drizzle my basil oil for garnish.
It's exactly what I wanted.
It's delicious.
This is a TOC worthy dinner.
[Guy] One minute!
[Tristen] To start my plate, I'm gonna put my teff grits down.
Followed by my obe ata.
My halibut.
It's looking great, it's nice and opaque.
It looks nice and moist.
I really wanna show that I used the banana leaf,
so I'm gonna actually keep it in the banana leaf.
I cover that with my butter sauce
with crab and caviar.
And now, I'm going to add roasted cauliflower.
And then, I'll finish it with some sugar snap peas.
I really wish I could have plated it a little neater.
But I definitely think I achieved the goal of a high-end seafood dinner.
[Guy] Five, four, three,
two, one.
Chefs, that's it! Stop working.
-[all applauding] -[Guy] Well done.
Good job, chefs.
[Guy] All right, chefs. Let's see whose high-end dinner
earns the higher score. Let's take it to the judges.
Right this way.
All right. Judges, this is it.
Game two of Flavortown Food Network champ face-off.
This is the final round. The final head-to-head battle.
Chefs had to make a high-end seafood dinner
that featured squid snacks,
banana leaves and halibut.
Chef Britt, you're up first. Tell us about your dish.
[Britt] Well, I'm from the Jersey Shore,
so I wanted to bring a little bit of me to you guys.
We have some halibut
that has been half-cooked in banana leaf
and then, seared with butter and aromatics.
Alongside of that, I did a fresh corn polenta,
some blistered tomatoes on top.
Nothing better than tomatoes and corn,
I am such a stickler for how to cook fish,
and halibut is a really difficult piece of fish to cook properly.
This is brilliant. It's really, really good.
And I was nervous when you steamed it and then, put it in the pan.
I thought it would be over.
And it's not.
This is textbook how to cook halibut.
[Brooke] The flavor profile on this plate,
everything makes sense.
And this is exactly how I want my fresh corn grits.
There's a lot of care that went into the main point of your dish
and it's absolutely perfect.
I actually love the simplicity of the presentation.
And that is when I think about high-end seafood dinner,
it is very thoughtfully placed.
That's what I see over here.
But the squid snack,
it needs to be a little bit more pronounced.
And also the banana leaf...
Wish you had just let it char on one side
because then, the halibut would have picked up
the banana leaf flavor.
Thank you, Chef.
All right. Thank you. Not to be outdone, Chef Tristen.
All right, judges.
I really wanted to kind of celebrate
a little bit of culture.
So, what we have is a halibut grilled and charred
and steamed in banana leaf.
Over top of it, Dungeness crab and caviar,
butter sauce.
Next to it is teff grits. One of the oldest grains in the world.
And then, I have a little bit of obe ata.
Really wanted to celebrate that.
Fish and grits is huge in Miami.
So, I wanted to kind of give you that and elevate it.
I love the way you have embraced your heritage.
All of the different cuisines.
The obe ata sauce is fantastic.
It's got all of these different flavors going on over here.
I see a lot of celebration on this plate.
Your grits with the teff in it,
it brings the texture of that polenta
into something completely foreign to me
and really deliciously craveable.
The fish, to me, is overcooked.
And I think that that's unfortunate because
that -- that is a focal point of the dish.
I love the use of the banana leaf.
Using the squid snacks, I'm picking that up a little bit as well.
'Cause you used a lot of other seafood
and then that seafood quality comes through.
[blows raspberry] So much about high-end is plating
and choices.
This is not it.
I want this tighter.
I wanna see you
-in a very high-end environment on this plate. -Sure.
[Guy] Thank you very much, judges.
Chefs, this is it.
We're gonna send you back to the kitchen,
let the judges deliberate.
We'll call you back when we have a decision.
Thank you.
20 points available in gameplay.
20 points available on taste.
Ten points on plating.
All right, judges, thank you.
Let's go ahead and bring our chefs back in, please.
We asked for a high-end seafood dinner.
Time to check the scores.
Chef Tristen, out of 20...
14 out of 20.
Taste... 16.
You got a point up from your last round.
And plating... A four for a 34.
Chef Britt.
15 out of 20 at gameplay.
17 out of 20 in taste.
Seven on plating for a score of 39.
Congratulations, Chef!
[all applauding]
Tristen, as I said to your other competitors
when they left tonight,
live to cook another day.
And this is not the last we have seen of you.
-Thank you, Chef. Great to have you. -Yeah.
Thank you. Congratulations.
I was expecting this to be difficult,
but thinking it and doing it are two completely different things.
In the end, I'm a champion --
no one can take that away from me.
Well, ladies and gentlemen,
meet our Flavortown Food Network champ,
Chef Britt!
I'm feeling really emotional, man.
-[all cheering] -[Guy] Well done.
-Well done. -Thank you.
I'm waiting for, like, the other shoe to drop.
or like something to happen --
they're like, "Ha, just kidding. You lost."
But I didn't. I won.
Thank you.
[Guy] Chef, you win $15,000.
So there you go!
I'll tell you what, it's been awesome to have you.
It won't be our last time.
15,000 bucks.
We'll see you next time on Guy's Grocery Games. Adios!