-Hunter, what are you doing? -I'm organizing the corn.
-What's going on? -I've been looking for you.
I told you I have some chefs I want you to meet.
I thought you said they don't like to meet.
No, Hunter, I said... Hunter, gosh.
Listen, I said they don't cook with meat.
[Hunter] Oh, so they're vegetarian?
[Guy] And I'm so excited to highlight these chefs.
-You got this, man. -That's delicious.
Whoo!
[Guy] Their dishes are flavorful,
they're filling, they're fantastic.
And you can't believe that they're meatless.
Such a meaty bite.
Now we're talking.
[Guy] We're gonna put them through the Triple G ringer.
-Come on, y'all. -That's gnarly.
Get it together, Cece.
[Guy] And we're gonna give them one of the hardest games ever.
Oh, no!
It's Meatless Marvels tonight on Triple G.
-Now organize that corn. -[Hunter] I'm getting there.
So, let's meet our meatless chefs!
Now first up, we have Pete Ghione.
The Las Vegas chef who created the first all-vegan menu
offered on the Strip.
He's ready to take a gamble on Flavortown Market.
I started the first fully vegan restaurant on the Strip.
Meatless cuisine, I wanna share the variety. I wanna share the creativity.
I'm trying to really take away the stigma
that healthy food or vegan food isn't enjoyable.
Pete Ghione.
You gotta say it with your hands.
Ghione.
Yeah, there you go, brother. There you go.
No, I overemphasized, so that's exclamation point.
Then we've got Cynthia Nevels,
the chef-owner of a fast-food southern vegan spot in Dallas, Texas,
who's on a mission to save people and the planet
one dish at a time.
[Cynthia] Southern food does not have to be unhealthy.
It's not true!
Soulgood was created to bring more healthy food options,
especially in those underserved communities.
[Guy] Come on now. Come on now.
The magic that you can create with plants and fruits is astounding.
And then there's Dylan Craver,
executive chef of two vegetarian restaurants in San Diego,
who's making plant-based food
with a punk rock style.
[Dylan] Kindred has a very huge punk and metal influence to it.
All of us that work there are ex-musicians and punks and weirdos and artists.
We win best vegetarian restaurant at Kindred pretty much every year
since we've been open.
I'd really love to win, I'll tell you that much.
-Bring it. Bring it. -Big dog, how's it going?
You know, winning would be something very fun to take home
to tell all my cooks and chefs and friends.
And finally, Reina Montenegro,
the chef-owner of a vegan Filipino restaurant in San Francisco
who makes next-level vegan renditions of cultural classics.
My restaurant's called Chef Reina,
and we specialize in turning Filipino classics into delicious vegan food.
Even my mother loves it.
They're like, "Oh! This is not meat? What?"
Looking good, feeling good. Go get 'em!
[exclaims] So proud!
What's up?
[Guy] Welcome, chefs.
I gotta tell you, this is a happy day for me.
My little sister, Morgan, was vegetarian-vegan. She went back and forth.
But I have nothing but mad respect and admiration.
I think that everybody should have more vegetables in their diet.
But you know what? The fact that you love it and you get down with it
is what makes me so happy.
You have something to prove. Meatless dishes are taking over the culinary world.
Hell yeah.
So tonight, I've asked you to come here and compete
to teach everybody, show everybody, educate everyone
why vegan and vegetarian food is so dynamite.
Okay?
The one of you that ends up with the highest total at the end of the competition
will take home a lot of vegan bacon
up to 20,000 bucks.
This is a very special episode,
so I want it to be a very special game.
And Hunter was gonna come up with it.
-I want you guys to know-- -Hey. I'm sorry.
Oh. There he is.
-Chefs, how are you? -My son, Hunter.
-Okay, so what's the game? -We have a bit of a problem.
[Guy] What's the problem?
Well, I must have missed the memo
that these chefs do not cook with meat.
So I had a whole steakhouse dinner planned.
But they don't cook with meat. And an appetizer.
So the competition tonight was steakhouse and an appetizer.
Right. That's... yeah.
And you don't think that that works? That absolutely--
-[Hunter] That works? -Can we not do steakhouse and appetizer?
-I think that's a fantastic idea! -Okay.
You're gonna shop, prepare and plate an appetizer and a steakhouse entree.
Meat-free steakhouse entree, meat-free appetizer.
And it'll be winner take all,
and the winner gets a chance to shop Flavortown Market
for up to 20,000 bucks, kid.
That's gnarly.
But you have 20 minutes from when we say the G-O word
to shop, prepare your appetizer,
and get it served to the judges.
Wow.
The remaining 40 minutes,
you get to work on your entree.
But at the end of that 40 minutes,
it'll be time to plate it up and get ready to present to the judges.
One more thing. I really think cooking for an hour straight,
it's a lot of work.
Plus, and they'll be running around trying to push carts
-and that's just a lot going on there. -[Guy] That is strenuous.
I think I can help fix this problem.
-I'll be right back. -He's the man with the answer these days.
Uh-oh.
[Guy] Chefs, why don't you go ahead and step to the front of your carts?
These are the crates of produce coming in.
You're just gonna pack all the groceries you need in your one shop.
Everything you need in one shop.
Oh, by the way, we call this Crate Shop.
Fill it with whatever you want
for your meatless steakhouse entree
and for your meatless appetizer.
60 minutes to shop, prepare a plate, your steakhouse dinner.
And your steakhouse app, which is due in 20 minutes.
Any questions about any of this?
Are we having fun yet?
-We are. -[Guy] I'm having a blast.
All right. So just remember.
It's three, two, one, go, then you guys can take off.
[clock ticking]
-It's already going. -We're going? It's going.
[laughing] It's already going!
[all cheering and laughing]
They're so confused.
[Dylan] For the steakhouse vibe to come through,
and really only having 60 minutes to get something done, like,
that's a pretty crazy ask for plant-based.
And I only have a milk crate to shop with.
All righty.
When I think about a steakhouse appetizer,
the first thing in my brain was like, "Go maitake mushrooms."
Mushrooms are a little bit meaty.
Something fried, I think, would work really well.
[vocalizing]
I'm gonna make a corn and mushroom fritter.
That's good.
I get some frozen corn.
I've got 20 minutes to make this appetizer.
I don't wanna fool around with cutting corn off the cob.
What do I need?
It's gotta have a sauce, so I go get some ginger,
I've got some coconut milk, some kimchi.
I only get to shop once,
so I've got to make sure that I can use my ingredients on the second round as well.
I'm starting to think in my head now,
"Okay, like, what am I gonna do for the entree?"
My brain immediately is like, "Steak and potatoes."
I'm thinking, I'm like, "What can I make a steak out of?"
People have made cauliflower steaks before,
but I wanted to get a little bit weird on the show,
so I went and grabbed some heads of cabbage.
-How we feeling, Chef? -Good. How are you feeling?
Good, good. You got enough stuff? You got a lot of cabbage!
Yeah!
Has cabbage, likes to party, I guess.
[Dylan] I had to think about can-jarred small herbs, small vegetables,
things that would kind of fit in there around it.
Did I get cilantro? I can't remember.
I need to get to it. Call it a day.
[Reina] If I was going to a Filipino steakhouse,
then lumpia is definitely gonna be there.
It's almost a sin if you don't have lumpia in your menu.
It's basically mixed vegetables with a plant protein.
It's wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and then deep-fried.
I need beansprouts, carrots, beans.
At the same time, you're also looking ahead at what my entree is gonna be.
I think with the entree, though,
I would go with something formidable.
I think I would go with something like a... maybe an eggplant lasagna.
You'd find that at a steakhouse.
A lot of steakhouses have an Italian theme to them.
I decided to do a sizzling sisig
which is a staple in a Filipino steakhouse.
A traditional sisig is made out of pork snout and cheeks.
I'm gonna use this tofu and make it even better.
I'm gonna need garlic, onion...
Jalapenos.
I need to shop for a lot of things.
Okay.
My crate is so heavy,
and I'm running from this end to that end to this end.
[panting] Oh, my God. I'm dying right now.
And I think I'm done. Phew.
Yeah, you only get one shop! Double check yourself.
They're not shopping very fast, I'll tell you that much.
Cucumber. I need cucumbers.
-What are you thinking? -[chuckles]
[Cynthia] Okay, for the appetizer,
I'm thinking about artichoke dip.
-I like it. -Okay.
-Gotta get cranking though. -Okay.
I've created this vegan version
of a spinach artichoke dip at home that is bomb.
I grab bruschetta artichokes that were in the jar,
so I could save time, to put into the dip.
Here we go.
I need to grab the vegan cream cheese.
Jalapenos, yeah! Yeah, baby.
I'm just seriously worried about number one, tripping.
I'm worried about "Am I gonna drop this crate?
Am I gonna be able to fit everything in?"
Tortilla chips. Restaurant-style.
You only need one, Cece.
For my steakhouse dinner, the thing that came to mind was what my children love.
Chicken-fried steak.
Texas style, baby.
With a cream gravy.
So, I needed to use the soy milk.
Hey, baby.
Creamed spinach and fried potatoes.
What could be more steakhouse than that?
Gotta do your shopping in one area at one time!
They've already burnt three-and-a-half minutes, they better get moving.
[Pete] We only had one shop, so I'm thinking,
"I gotta grab everything for two courses."
And I'm already focused on the fact that I gotta make an appetizer in 20 minutes.
Vegas is built on steakhouses, traditional steakhouses.
So I wanted to take something that's a little more Italian inspired.
For my appetizer, I'm making a jackfruit crepe
with a fresh peach pico de gallo.
[Guy] Jackfruit's awesome.
Something really amazing to work with.
[Pete] I was looking for an egg replacement, so I found the vegan egg.
I want something cooked with something fresh,
and that's where I came up with the fresh peaches to go on top.
Now we work on the entree.
Steakhouse entree, I'm thinking,
"Where's the protein?"
I see the portobello mushrooms,
they're thick, they're dense, they're meaty.
I'm grabbing the heirloom tomatoes because, first of all, they look great.
There's a lot of health benefits to 'em.
And it's gonna add that fresh component to my dish.
Some potatoes.
When you think about a steakhouse,
you're thinking meat and potatoes.
Hatch chilis will work.
Okay.
I need some kind of corn component.
There are so many choices.
I can make this work.
All right, chefs! Let's go!
You've got 15 minutes to get those appetizers done.
So, here to grill all of our meat-free chefs is our panel of judges.
First we got the Food Network star
who has a whole cookbook
dedicated to making southern food vegetarian style.
The one and only, and she's a dancer, Damaris Phillips.
Award-winning food critic and owner of San Diego Magazine
who likes to veg out on the SoCal beach,
the one and only Troy Johnson.
And a man whose favorite meatless dishes include
funnel cake and caramel apples,
and the host of Carnival Eats, the one and only Noah Cappe.
-[Guy] All right. -[Damaris] Thank you for doing this episode.
I... you know how important it is to me.
I do it on behalf of my sister.
-My sister taught me so much... -[Damaris] Mmm-hmm.
...about cooking vegetarian and vegan.
When she'd come over to my house, she'd say,
"Listen, no grilled vegetable, balsamic glaze, basmati rice."
-No. -You gotta make me, like, real dishes.
Yeah.
I'm gonna do a little corn and mushroom fritter here
with some kind of strange curry.
I'm not sure yet, it might be like a kimchi curry.
So I know the first thing I gotta do is start making these fritters.
So I take the stems off my mushrooms.
I'm pulsing 'em in the food processor.
I'm mixing them with the frozen corn.
And I realize...
Oh, no. I forgot one thing.
...that I forgot the bread crumbs.
Damn!
[Damaris] These chefs, in 14 minutes, need to have appetizers on our table,
and then they have the remaining 40 minutes for their dinner.
It's absolutely off the rails in here today.
A lot going on.
Oh, no! I forgot one thing.
And I forgot the bread crumbs.
I gotta try and reverse this into something else.
You know what? I'm gonna make it happen one way or another, actually.
But then I realize there's flour in my pantry.
So I've got these mushrooms.
I get some frozen corn.
These will make some kind of cool fritter.
You know, it's actually working out.
I just make a nice, little slurry of some flour and some water.
Dredge 'em in that.
There we go. Okay.
I would love to teach people that vegan food is accessible,
it doesn't have to be difficult or expensive.
Because really anything that you can do with meat,
you can do with vegetables as well.
Pete, what are you making?
-I'm gonna make some jackfruit crepes with mushrooms. -Oh, very nice.
[Pete] I gotta make my crepe batter.
Flour, water, egg substitute.
-You do all plant-based cooking, correct? -[Pete] I do.
While the crepe batter is resting,
I'm working on my jackfruit filling
They caramelize the jackfruit a little bit.
Jackfruit is almost exactly like an artichoke.
And I've seen it done like pulled pork,
I've seen it done like chicken.
I mean, you can cover it in sauce and just completely transform it.
[Pete] I wanna win so bad because this is the time
where it just really stamps the approval on vegan cuisine.
Really tried to make a stamp on holding its place on the Vegas Strip,
and I just feel like a win today
would really solidify that whole experience.
Now we're talking.
Let me chop this up.
Chef, what are you making?
I'm making a spinach artichoke dip. That's the goal here.
My philosophy in the kitchen is to keep it simple.
The KISS method.
I add the already pre-diced garlic.
Bruschetta artichokes.
I do that so I can save time.
Spinach.
A little paprika.
In 2018, our food truck won best food truck in Dallas,
which was a tremendous award for a brand-new food truck.
And we beat out all other competition
including non-vegan food trucks.
So if I win today, I would use the funds
to be able to continue our mission to provide vegan foods to those
who may not have readily available produce and fruits
right around the corner.
People love our food. You can come and see for yourself.
All right, so they've got about 10 minutes to come up with this appetizer for you.
So Reina's making vegetable lumpia
which is a traditional Filipino appetizer.
Yeah!
It's a deep-fried, almost eggroll Filipino food.
[Reina] First thing I'm gonna do is saute all my vegetables.
So saute my plant protein separately.
So I combine the two,
I added some mushroom bouillon.
I add some liquid seasoning.
Because season, season, season.
We are in Flavortown after all.
All right.
Then I have to cool it down because if I put them in the wrapper immediately,
then my wrapper's gonna fall apart.
I have to run over to the blast chiller.
So pressed for time.
What are you making?
I'm making a corn and mushroom fritter,
a little kimchi curry, and then cilantro scallion.
[Guy] I like that.
Checking on the fritters.
They're staying intact, the color on 'em is looking real nice.
Now I'm ready to get started on the sauce.
Coconut milk.
I've got kimchi in there.
Turmeric, ginger.
You know, one of the big reasons
I reach for Asian ingredients a lot of the time is because they pack a lot of umami
and it's a nice, like, secret trick way
to kind of pack some more flavor into vegan food.
That's delicious.
[Pete] Next, I need to work on my peach pico de gallo.
Added the fresh basil to it.
Persian cucumber.
Flavor's gonna be really strong,
and it's gonna add that fresh component to my dish.
So I get my jackfruit filling done, my crepes are ready.
So I fill my crepes, I roll 'em,
There's not much steakhouse about the crepe,
but it's the filling that goes inside
and it's the rest of the dish and how it's composed
that makes it more of a steakhouse feel.
[Cynthia] So now that I've made the dip, I give it a taste.
So I decided I wanna play up the heat a little bit more
with the fresh jalapenos.
And the juice from the jar of jalapenos.
It's all good.
Gonna make it work.
I believe vegan spinach and artichoke dip
can be just as delicious as a traditional dairy artichoke dip.
Chefs, we've got five minutes left!
[Reina] Whoo!
[Reina] I run to the blast chiller,
grab my filling, go back to my station.
[Reina] Oh, yeah.
Start wrapping it as fast as I could.
I've been rolling lumpia since I was 8 years old.
And I only had like three minutes to fry my lumpias.
It's high pressure!
[Guy] Three minutes, chefs. Three!
[Dylan] So first thing, I got this kimchi sauce down right in the middle.
I've got my fritter.
Some herbs on top.
So I think I hit it on the head.
[Cynthia] Put my dip into the bowl.
Place the tortilla chips onto the plate.
Jalapeno.
Okay. My app's done.
[Pete] First, I've got my crepe.
Let's get this done.
And then I'm gonna top it with the peach pico de gallo.
Really refreshing.
[Guy] One minute!
[Reina] Check on my egg rolls.
I took the baskets to be near my plating station.
I need my sauce though.
Come on, y'all.
[Guy] Here we go, chefs!
Just get it on the plate.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one!
Chefs, that's it. Stop working.
[people applauding]
All right, appetizers are done.
Continue on with your entrees.
We'll be calling you up to the judges in a minute.
Oh, my God.
[Guy] 40 minutes left.
All right, appetizers are done.
Continue on with your entrees.
We'll be calling you up to the judges in a minute.
I only have 40 minutes to finish the steakhouse entree,
but I'm feeling pretty confident.
Meanwhile, they're still cooking.
They got their mains to focus on now.
Chef Cynthia, come on up.
Make the presentation to the judges.
All right, Chef, what do you have for us?
I have a spinach-artichoke jalapeno dip with warmed tortilla chips.
-Fantastic. All right. Back to your station. -Okay. Thank you.
[Cynthia] Now that I've finished me appetizer, phew,
I gotta start working on the entree.
Texas-style chicken-fried steak with gravy.
Okay.
I think that Cynthia's very, very smart to have not heated up this dish.
Typically when you think about spinach and artichoke dip, it's hot.
But vegan cream cheese doesn't do the same.
Once you heat it up, it kind of melts away
because of the amount of fat that's in there.
That's really good in the way that she tweaked it.
[Noah] You know, with her produce aisle and the introduction of that jalapeno,
I always say heat can bring a beautiful element to a dish.
[Troy] Now for me, If we're talking a steakhouse dinner,
-I would, instead of the tortilla chips I'd want bread. -[Damaris] Yep.
All right, Chef Pete, you're up!
All right.
Today, I prepared a jackfruit crepe.
So I used a little bit of vegan egg inside with some flour.
On top, you've got some nice peach pico de gallo.
-[Guy] Fantastic. Beautiful dish. -[Pete] Thank you.
-Get back to work. -Cool.
[Pete] Now that the judges are eating my appetizer,
I need to get started on my entree.
Grilled portobello mushroom with fresh heirloom tomatoes and creamed sweet peas.
That looks...
Beautiful.
-[Guy] I mean, that is... -[Damaris] It is beautiful.
[Guy] Vegetarian or not, that thing looks star-studded.
It's almost like an elevated pico de gallo up top.
Brings a lot of acidity to the dish.
It's nice, and bright, and fresh,
and you've got that base notes of the crepe and the jackfruit which is imitating meat.
I was hoping that the crepe was even a tiny bit thinner.
It's almost turned into a thickness of a bread.
It reads appetizer to me, it feels like a steakhouse 'cause it's very refined.
It needs salt.
Presentation is all there, but the execution maybe just fell a bit short.
-[Guy] Chef Dylan, you're up! -Okay.
-[Guy] There he is. -Hello, chefs.
So I made a corn and mushroom fritter here.
There's a little bit of kimchi curry
and then some herbs to kind of brighten everything up a little bit.
-[Guy] Fantastic. Back to your kitchen. Thank you. -Thank you very much, chefs.
So I've got my appetizer out of the way,
and now it's time to start my steakhouse entree.
A koji-rubbed cabbage steak with a couple of sauces.
[Damaris] It's a little undercooked. I'll just let you know.
I almost wish it was just soup.
That, I would lick out of the bowl.
[Troy] The a la menu curry. Like the curry on the fly.
-[Noah] Yeah. -[Troy] That's really good.
Kimchi gives it that nice, ripe acidity and flavor.
That fritter needs to be a little more brown, a little more cooked.
If it just had a bit of a crispier, kind of crunchier exterior,
I think it would have set up a really nice bite.
Doesn't eat like steakhouse.
When we get the bill,
if it's $28, then it was a steakhouse dish, and we'll know.
All right! Chef Reina, you're up!
Go, Reina!
What do you got for us?
I've got a vegetable lumpia with plant protein.
The sauce is just a liquid seasoning.
All right, back to your kitchen.
[Reina] While the judges are tasting my appetizer,
I have to get started on my sizzling sisig.
At the end of the day, I am a sucker for an egg roll.
The sauce that she put on here was liquid aminos,
which is just out of a bottle.
Topping on this would be great as sauce that actually wasn't just straight out of a jar.
It's delicious, but she did not play the game.
-It is not a steakhouse appetizer. -[Troy] No.
[Guy] 20 points available in gameplay.
20 points available in taste. 10 points for plating.
All right, chefs.
Here are the scores for your appetizer.
Chef Reina, 35 points.
Chef Cynthia, 36 points.
Whoo!
Chef Dylan, 41!
Chef Pete, congratulations. 43 points on your appetizer.
-Yeah! -[Guy] Well done.
[judges applauding]
Great job, Pete. Really well done.
I feel great right now. I don't know if it's the apps.
I'm buzzing, I think what it is really,
is that, confirmed, we've got four talented cooks here.
Absolutely.
Thirty-five minutes.
Make some roasted portobellos,
some charred corn, I got potatoes going.
Going into the entree round, I knew I was in the lead
but I knew I couldn't lose the lead
so I was really trying to concentrate on that steakhouse experience.
First thing, I'm gonna work on my mushrooms.
When I think about a steakhouse,
I'm thinking about a giant steak,
and that's what I was going for.
We're gonna make 'em the same size.
I'd personally started eating vegan back in 2019,
and that's when I realized that this is a healthy way to live.
My energy was better, was cleaner.
I felt like my brain was functioning better,
so definitely enjoyed the benefits from it.
The mushrooms, putting them on the grill,
you got those sear marks on it.
Next, I start my pea puree,
I got my peas, my garbanzo beans,
a little bit of garlic in there.
Some vegetable stock.
I get it into the blender.
I wanted to make sure that it got really nice and smooth.
I'm that much closer to the 20 grand.
For my steakhouse entree, I'm gonna make a koji-rubbed cabbage steak.
Some fried fingerling potatoes.
And Calabrian chili salsa.
Koji, koji, koji.
A little rice koji here.
Give it some flavor and get a little funky taste in.
I grab some ume.
Doing a little umeboshi.
I'm gonna rub down the steaks and this one time just before they hit the grill.
This is just like Japanese pickled plums.
Kind of a little bit of sweet and a little bit of tart
that it's gonna add to this cabbage.
Okay. So...
Next thing, I go ahead and get started on my Calabrian chili salsa.
A little bit of Castelvetrano olives.
If I win today, my wife and I are gonna use the money
to put towards the downpayment on a house.
We've got a bit of a big family.
There's five of us in total, not including animals.
So I'd love to be able to have a place of my own
where I can work on it and build it in a cool way.
Oh, that's real nice.
I'll get my potatoes going
'cause they'll take the longest.
All right.
I am making chicken-fried steak
with creamed spinach and fried potatoes.
The only thing more steakhouse than steak is potatoes.
Okay. Next.
It's now time to make patties for my chicken fried steak.
And then I open the box, and realize it's frozen!
What?
Frozen.
So, now I have to figure out how to defrost this quickly and I was running out of time.
Meanwhile this clock just keeps on ticking
because that's what a countdown does.
All right, get it together, Cece.
[Guy] 19 minutes, chefs. 19 to go.
We're giving them steakhouse, not what any of these chefs actually make.
This is very difficult.
[Guy] Okay, Chef. How are we doing?
I think I might have to redeem myself this round.
-Making sizzling sisig, which is like usually pig. -Right.
But then it's mushroom and tofu.
[Guy] How do you serve that?
-I serve it on sizzling platter. -[Guy] Got it.
First thing I do, which takes the longest,
is to fry my tofu.
We Filipinos love meat that is deep-fried,
like pork especially, that's our thing.
I throw the mushrooms into the food processor.
So that gives that chewiness the original dish has.
Filipinos, I'm not taking your culture away from you,
but I'm actually giving it back to you but in a healthier version.
I throw them in the pan with the onion, garlic, and the jalapenos.
Tofu's looking golden.
Next, mix the tofu and the mushroom together.
Now I'm gonna season it with soy sauce...
Soy.
...vinegar.
It's got a mix of saltiness and sourness.
Yes! Whoo!
[Guy] 15 minutes! 15 to go.
All right, Chef, talk to me.
I've got some grilled portobello, some fresh heirloom tomatoes.
I was really trying to capture the side dishes to go along with the steakhouse.
So, with the corn,
the mashed potatoes,
I really feel like I captured more of that experience.
My mushrooms look great, I add a little balsamic.
I season my tomatoes with a bit of salt, a bit of pepper over it.
And so I just put those in the oven,
melt that garlic on top of them,
and get them nice and soft.
Next, I need to work on these potatoes.
I wanna win so bad because I get to put money towards my campaign.
Because with my work, with cooking with cancer patients,
I've maintained relationships with people with incurable leukemia,
and it's my goal to find a cure
so that families don't have to deal with cancer.
Okay.
Check my meat.
Now that my meat is thawed, which took most of my time,
I'm going to combine my vegan patty and my vegan sausage
to create this really flavorful, meaty vegan steak patty.
A little paprika, and then I add more flour.
And I use soy milk to dredge my steak
and then put them in the pan to fry.
All right. Come on and get the spinach, Cece.
I'm gonna get my gravy going.
Chopped up some vegan sausage, I add vegan butter,
a little paprika,
and use the soy milk.
Is that almond?
-Oh, it's vanilla. -Oh.
Putting vanilla soy milk in a savory Southern gravy is not gonna work.
Gonna need a lot more salt.
Darn it!
I gotta focus and move on because it's down to the wire.
Come on and fry-- Oh, God.
[Guy] Hi, Chef, what's on the menu?
Doing a koji-rubbed cabbage steak.
Doing some fingerling potatoes,
a Calabrian chili Nduja.
You have a whole load of arsenal up that half-pant leg.
-I do. -Wow.
Next thing I get working on is kind of an Asian aji-verde-inspired
chimichurri green-sauce type deal.
A little bit of lemongrass and ginger,
a little bit of mirin.
Chef, how are things coming along?
What is this sitting here right now?
So we got tofu, mushroom--
[Reina] Bell pepper, onions, garlic, lemon.
How's that?
-Delicious. -Thank you.
-Sizzling platter, right? -[Reina] Yeah.
[Guy] Well, the thing is, for service,
you may wanna think about how you're gonna make that sizzle.
Why don't you go get a separate container to put your mixture in.
-And then you serve it-- -Okay. Like a ramekin?
Then when you serve it, yeah, instruct the judges
-to dump it into their sizzling platter. -[Reina] Perfect.
It would be so cool to win this
for embracing vegan food.
Beautiful, beautiful!
And then Filipino food, so it's like double.
It's like a double representation.
We do not do steak and potatoes, we do steak and rice.
My grand mother would turn in her grave
if she knew I was microwaving rice.
My vegetarian masters, you got five minutes! Five to be plated!
It needs white plates, right? It's a steakhouse.
[Pete] So, first, I'm gonna put my mashed potatoes,
I use my little ring mold.
Next, I put my pea puree down.
The heirloom tomatoes just look fantastic.
And then I start to layer my portobello mushrooms, my corn.
I'm trying to transport the judges to a steakhouse.
Got it.
[Guy] Four minutes to be plated and finished.
[Dylan] I throw that green sauce down on the plate,
I give it a nice, fun smack to look real cool.
Take these crispy fingerlings, and I throw 'em down on the plate.
Then I take that cabbage off the grill,
and I throw that right down on top of those potatoes, too.
Then I've got my Calabrian chili salsa.
[Guy] We got two minutes, chefs. Two minutes to be plated.
[Reina] I'm gonna plate up my side salad.
So for the rice, I'm gonna mold it in a ramekin,
I'm gonna turn it over so it has a really nice, cute form.
We're gonna serve this sisig in a sizzling skillet.
Very hot.
[Guy] One minute!
This is as close as it gets.
[Cynthia] I add the potatoes to the plate.
I then add my chicken-fried steak, really great crust.
Dump my cream spinach on the side. [chuckles]
It's all gonna have this vanilla soy taste to it.
So I put just a little vanilla gravy on top of my chicken-fried steak
because I wasn't quite sure if it was going to overpower the savory of the steak.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one.
Chefs, that's it. Stop working.
[Troy and Noah exclaiming]
Great job, you all.
[exhales] Ooh, Lord.
My vegetarian brothers and sisters, the steaks are high!
Let's take 'em to the judges right this way.
All right, judges, this is it.
It's our winner-take-all round of the Meatless Marvels.
Our teams had to prepare a steakhouse dinner using no meat.
Chef Reina, you're up first. What'd you make for us?
I made a very classic Filipino steakhouse dish
called sizzling sisig,
and I made mine with grilled mushrooms and tofu instead of the usual pork.
All you do is take the lemon out, pour it over into the plate.
Ooh, if you get the Damaris shoulder dance,
things are working in your favor.
It's really good.
The shiitakes are such a meaty bite, it's delightful.
The salad is nice, it's bright, it's fresh.
[Noah] It's a ton of fun.
It's fun to eat, and the flavors do come together.
The rice was cooked perfectly.
When I think sisig, I think little bits of pork belly.
And you mimicked that so well with this little mushroom-tofu rubble of joy.
-It is-- -Rubble of joy?
It looks like a rock quarry! But it's good!
Is it a steakhouse dinner? It doesn't nail it for me.
It doesn't have that big opulent refined main entree.
Up next, Chef Dylan.
Awesome. So I made the most steakhouse-y thing
I could think of in 30 seconds. It's steak and potatoes.
It is a koji-and-ume-rubbed cabbage steak,
some fingerling potatoes that are fried underneath,
Calabrian chili, and olive spread,
and a very bright green sauce.
Almost in the vein of an aji verde or chimichurri or something on the bottom.
You think steakhouse and you think char.
You think a big thing on a plate,
and that's exactly what you did with cabbage.
And it's delicious, especially when you treat it the way that you treated it.
Those sauces, fiery.
[Damaris] The potato's lovely.
It feels like a vegetarian dish that you would get at a steakhouse.
-It's just raw, and it's a rare-- -Yeah.
Black and blue?
-It's blue. That's it. -[all laughing]
Correct.
The first thing I did when I saw it,
and I don't know if you watched,
but I cut right through into the middle to take a peek 'cause the thought was,
"Is this thing at this size gonna be able to transport all that beautiful flavor
of what I'm seeing on the exterior to the inside?"
I mean, just bringing that thing down a little bit,
-you would have knocked it out of the park. -Totally.
'Cause there's depth, there's talent.
Sweet.
All right. Thank you very much.
Up next, Chef Pete.
So when I think steakhouse,
I'm thinking meat and potatoes.
Grilled portobello mushrooms, potato puree, fresh, nice heirloom tomatoes,
charred corn and pea puree.
[Troy] Those potatoes. Those are steakhouse potatoes.
Thank you.
I think you need a sauce, and I think we're missing a little bit of that fat,
a little bit of that unctuousness.
And I think a sauce would have brought it all together.
Thank you.
I like the pea puree underneath it.
It adds nice texture and elegance to the plate,
the corn has a beautiful little pop.
I think that it is clear that you have a restaurant in Vegas,
it definitely looks like a steakhouse dish.
The portabella looks like a little bitty fillet.
It needs more fat.
Okay, that's fair.
For me, especially at a steakhouse,
dining is a marathon, it's not a sprint.
Certain elements may look beautiful at the beginning,
but as I'm cutting into the dish and moving things around,
you still want that visual sensation, that experience happening.
Nice flavor and familiar,
which I think is a key component.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you.
Chef Cynthia, you're up. What do you got for us?
So I was thinking like a mom,
and I'm giving you a Texas-style steakhouse that I could afford [laughs].
So I brought to you a chicken-fried steak themed plate
with fried potatoes and creamed spinach on the side.
What is in that gravy?
Vanilla soy milk.
I actually get it. Okay.
It's giving you the warmth that you think of a nutmeg.
Mm-hmm.
When you go for soy milk, you go for vanilla or that's the thing you grabbed?
I just... [vocalizes]
-Soy milk! -[Cynthia laughs] Soy milk!
This is like a roadside steakhouse.
The elements here surprisingly work because in your breakdown,
you were very strategic to not mention
the vanilla infusion throughout the entire dish.
But it is giving you the hint of nutmeg and the little bit of sweetness
that you find in creamed spinach.
You have the potatoes, all the flavors are there.
The steak itself is a little dry.
It needs more sauce.
It needs to be smothered. That's what it is.
There needs to be a little bit more gravy,
it needs to be cooked a little bit more.
All right, thank you very much.
Judges need to deliberate, I'm gonna send you back to the kitchens
and we'll call you back when we have a decision.
Thank you. Good job.
Whose steakhouse dinner was well-done?
20 points available in gameplay,
20 points available in taste, 10 points in plating.
[Guy] Well, I'll tell you this.
I think that you are all great ambassadors of the meatless movement.
Bad thing is I gotta send three of you home.
Pete, in the first round, a 43 and in your second round,
out of 20 points in gameplay, 14.
14 out of 20 in taste.
Plating, a 7, for a 35.
And a total of 78.
Cynthia.
13 out of 20 in gameplay.
14 out of 20 in taste.
7 out of 10 for plating for a 34, and a total of 70.
Dylan, 41 in the first round.
In your second round,
16 out of 20 in gameplay.
16 out of 20 in taste.
Plating for 8 for a 40. Wow.
An 81.
Congratulations.
Gonna take some big numbers, Reina.
15 out of 20 in gameplay.
19 out of 20 in taste! Wow!
8 out of 10 in plating for a 42.
And a very close, almost come-from-behind, 77.
And congratulations, Chef Dylan. 81.
[all cheering and applauding]
-[Guy] Well done! -Great job.
Well done.
Wow.
Pete, Cynthia, Reina, I gotta tell you,
I appreciate you being here so much.
Thank you.
[Pete] You know, I know I'm going home today,
but I get to go back to Truth & Tonic on the Strip,
and continue to be a trailblazer in that cuisine on the Strip.
-[Reina] Thank you so much. -Thank you.
[Reina] I'm really proud to be representing vegan Filipino food today.
This is huge for us. Huge.
-Come here. -[Cynthia giggling]
I did my best, but things went wrong.
I would love to come back. I got something to prove.
There's two ways you can win. One is a shopping spree.
You get two minutes to grab five items
that satisfy the clues on those cards.
You find the item, you put it in the basket, you win 4,000 bucks.
-You get all five items, you win $20,000. -Mm-hmm.
-[Guy] Pretty easy. Pretty easy to understand. -Yeah.
The other way is we can just jump right to the check that's behind the door.
You can see the shadow of it right there.
It's gonna be within $13,000 to $20,000 on the check.
[Damaris whispering] Take the check.
Uh, you know, let's make it a true daily double. Let's play the game, man.
-You play the game? -[Dylan] Yeah, let's do it.
Wow, this guy's a gangster.
-Let's do it. -Gangster! All right.
Do you wanna see what the check was? Just in case?
-Yeah, sure. Why not? -All right, let's go ahead and take a look for the check.
What's the check say?
Oh, I would have taken the check.
[Dylan] Oh, not bad.
15,950 bucks. So all you have to do is get four items on the list...
-That's great. -Four items.
[Guy] ...and you beat the check.
-Good luck, Dylan. -Let's go. Yeah.
-Hit it! -[judges cheering]
[Guy] "Also known as aubergine,
this purple produce item
is actually classified as a berry."
$4,000. Eggplant, baby!
[bell dings]
Yeah, $4,000!
[Guy] "Oil made from this fruit of a palm tree
that is often used in meat substitutes."
Oils, oils, oils.
-[Damaris] Two, two, two. -[Troy] Go back!
[Noah] He's gotta circle back.
Coconut oil? Is that close enough?
-[Guy] Yep, there you go. -[bell dings]
"This fermented bubbly tea
is said to have many health benefits."
-Where's drinks at? -[Guy] Over here.
Forty seconds.
Come on.
Oh, here it is.
-Duh. -[Guy] There you go.
[judges cheering]
"This dairy-free frozen treat
is a great vegan alternative
to ice cream."
He needs this one to beat the check.
-[Damaris] Yeah! You got it! Go! -He can pull this off!
"This member
of the parsley family
has green leaves
and edible orange roots."
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one. Stop.
[all cheering]
-[Guy] Way to go, baby! -Yeah! What's up? Whoo!
With this $20,000,
my wife and I have been trying to buy a home for some time,
so this money is certainly gonna go towards helping that.
The big vegetarian superstar from the spaceship in San Diego.
Carrot for $20,000!?
You see how you get it done in Triple G?
We'll see you next week.
Be good. Adios! Eat more vegetables.