Now, I have met a lot of great chefs Diner Drive-ins Dives.
That's outrageous. Outstanding.
I mean, stupid in flavor.
Tonight four DDD chefs,
they've been making waves with their delicious seafood for years.
Shrimp going in the fryer.
And tonight, they're frying up
a seafood feast here in Flavortown Market.
And, of course, I'll hit them
with the perfect storm of GGG game.
This is wild.
All right, I'm ready. Let's go catch some fish.
Where's your net? What happened?
Hunter, no. I said-- Listen, I said I had chefs
who I had met on the road
who are coming here to cook fish.
Oh, that makes sense.
Exactly. It's DDD seafood tonight on Guy's Grocery Games.
Hey, you got the net, go catch me a game.
So, let's meet our DDD chefs.
Now, first up we have Tony Minadakis
cooking a modern Maryland-style seafood
at Jimmy's Famous Seafood.
[Tony] Jimmy's Famous Seafood is a landmark in Baltimore.
We've been around for 49 years.
I've been working in my family restaurant since I was a teenager.
I come to Maryland, I want the bomb crab cakes.
-You delivered. -Thanks bro.
Nice job.
There's my brother.
-Long time no see, my friend. -[Tony] How you doing, brother?
Next we have Hallock Howard, the North Carolina chef
who makes coastal comfort with a twist
at the beloved local hotspot, Amos Mosquito's.
[Guy] I can't get it in my face fast enough.
That's delicious.
The day after this show aired,
we sold 100 Buzz Buzz Shrimp dishes.
We don't normally sell anywhere near that.
-[Guy] That was good. Thanks a lot. -[laughs]
Go get 'em, sister.
Next we have Darren Chadderdon,
the California chef serving a Pan-Asian seafood and sushi
at his restaurant The Rawbar.
Cuisine at Rawbar is a fusion between Japanese,
Korean, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese...
[Guy] It's not great. It's phenomenal.
[Darren] People take vacations
to Chico just to try what Guy had.
Home runner. Welcome, welcome.
And finally Josh Thoma
the land locked Minneapolis chef
who highlights coastal seafood from around the country
at his restaurant Smack Shack.
[Josh] I know we're in Minnesota
and we're land locked, but we do coastal seafood.
[whispering] Oh, that's good.
[Josh] Now we have five Smack Shacks.
A lot of that can be attributed to being on DDD.
Welcome back, brother.
[Guy] All right. Listen, I have taken a bite of your delicious seafood.
I have tried the dishes in your kitchen
and I can attest that you are fantastic seafood chefs.
And I do know a thing or two about tasting great seafood.
I am not just the Mayor of Flavortown,
-I'm the flounder-- I'm the founder! -[all laughing]
Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week.
[laughs]
Because you're in Flavortown Market,
you know this is not gonna go easy.
I've got two very twisted challenges
that will make the Squid Games...
Well, with actual squid.
[laughs]
Thank you, that's two.
The chef with the lowest score at the end of the first round
will be set adrift.
-Oh! -That's three.
And the chef with the highest combined score
at the end of both rounds
will win potentially a boatload of money.
-Oh boy. -That's four. Thank you very much.
So, for the first challenge, I want you to make the judges
a regional fish dish that is off the hook.
That's five.
[laughs]
I know you love fresh fish
and I've got a special game just for you.
-[sighs softly] -Where's my Gilligan?
Come on in here, Gilligan.
-Hello, father. -Here's my little buddy.
-[Hunter] Chefs. -[Guy] What do you got?
I've got a cooler full of fresh fish.
Don't worry. They're in there, they're in the net still.
The fish are in the net. Already in the net?
-Well, yeah. -Oh, so it really is off the hook.
-It's not even hooked. -Oh, it off the hook.
Ha! It's the catch if the day.
Why don't we have you step in front of your carts first?
So we can just get a bird's eye view.
All right. Come on up, chef. Let's pick first.
[Guy] Hold up.
All right. [grunting]
[Guy] Oh, Hunter, you're so nice at that.
[Josh] You pre-packaged it for me.
[Guy] Yeah. Tuna. Done.
Dang. I totally wanted Tuna.
[Guy] Chef, you're up.
We're not gonna have crab in here.
What are you gonna go for?
[Tony] All right. Rockfish.
-That works. -[Tony] That's from our bay.
[Guy] Perfect. Chef, you're up.
All right.
[Darren] Classic.
-[Guy] Come on. -Yes!
[Guy] Now, I'm just wondering what are we gonna get
for North Carolina.
Snipe.
-Snipe? -I'm just kidding.
-[laughs] -Halibut.
[all laughing]
So you have your fish.
Time to go shopping
for the rest of your ingredients.
No, no, no. You know what?
Forget it. I like the net look.
Smells fishy.
Bada-bap, hey!
[all laughing]
Let's have ourselves a little net-shop.
[laughs]
That's right. Hunter and I are gonna give you 30 minutes
to make your regional dish using the fish that you chose.
All the ingredients you want for this dish have to fit in your net.
It's just a one-stop shop.
Aye! Too far.
All four of you have to take the net.
Three of you that went first...
Actually, the two of you that went last
are gonna have to wait for the one person to go
-and get their-- -[gasps] Oh, gosh!
[speaking indistinctly]
-[Hunter] All right. -[Guy] These are DDD people,
these are ground and pound,
these are mom and pop restaurant folks.
Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.
You can't pull one over on them too easy.
Phew, not only do I have to use salmon,
but I don't get a cart.
This is what I gotta shop with.
You know how fast I could fill this up?
[Darren] Fishing net makes it really fun.
The cons of cooking with salmon is,
salmon's a pretty strong flavor.
So whatever you make with it
really needs to stand up to it.
I know I can do a lot with salmon
but it's a one shop.
So, if I don't get it on the first try, I'm stuck.
Don't need that island, ever.
I'm gonna make a pan-roasted salmon
with a Japanese inspired succotash
with a Dungeness crab miso butter...
Miso... Where's the corn? There's the corn.
We have great produce regional to California.
So I decided that I would take something from Chico
and mix it with Asian flavors.
Everything gets harder to see when you're freaking.
All these restaurants
and it's so funny how many years have gone by.
Even Rawbar was, what four years ago?
Where am I, where am I? What do I need?
[Hallock] A regional fish dish for me,
in our coastal North Carolina area,
would be shrimp and grits.
But I have to use halibut.
It's not a local fish where I come from...
Grits, grits, grits.
[Hallock] I just said, it's gonna be fish and grits.
Cream and cheese makes good grits.
I also want to make a nice pan-sauce.
Bacon, I need bacon.
I know there's not a lot of ingredients
in fish and grits
but still, it gets heavy fast.
[panting] Oh, my God, I'm out of breath.
Of course. Chefs just running aimlessly.
Man, that is sneaky.
We have some regional fishes but they're lake fishes.
Very sneaky.
Very different than ahi tuna.
Let's see.
[Josh] So, for my regional fish dish,
I'm thinking of summertime in Massachusetts.
I'm going to make grilled ahi tuna with Yukon potato puree.
[panting] Got the butter, got that.
Fennel, fennel, fennel. Here it is.
I wanna make this great fennel and anchovy salad.
With anchovy.
With... peppers that I remember my aunt making.
[Tony humming]
My fish is rockfish.
Rockfish is a striped bass.
You have a lot of it in Maryland.
Yeah, I feel, definitely,
very lucky that I got this fish.
I wanna make pan-seared rockfish
and, of course, crab.
Crab.
And of course, I'm gonna go with a Maryland meat.
-Dungeness is way better than Maryland. I'm just-- -No. No.
Dungeness is way better than blue.
He's trying to tell me that Dungeness crab is better than blue crab
but that's not, that's not how we do things in Maryland.
-I'm telling you! -Let's not get into this right now.
I'm telling you.
[Tony laughs sarcastically] This place is...
[Tony] Definitely better incorporate Old Bay into there.
Vegetable is...
[Tony] People in Maryland are proud about their seafood.
They take it serious.
So, definitely wanna make 'em proud.
Tonight I'm joined by a panel of judges
so knowledgeable about seafood,
they should be on that game show called, yeah, name that tuna.
We have restaurateur and cookbook author
and winner of Tournament of Champions II,
Chef Maneet Chauhan.
Fellow TOC champ, number three,
the driving force behind an award winning
Boston culinary empire,
Sweet T herself, Chef Tiffani Faison.
[cheering]
And Southern California culinary icon
and expert on seafood dishes
from around the world, the one and only,
Chef Jet Tila.
All right. Favorite seafood.
-The fresh scallops. The diverse scallops. -Fresh scallops, got it.
-Favorite. -I'll say black cod.
Shellfish, always.
You guys are gonna get a treat.
All these chefs are really dynamite seafood chefs.
Rendering bacon.
Hallock's halibut, simple alliteration there. So, easy to remember.
All right, Hallock, what's it gonna be?
[Hallock] I'm making fish and grits.
Fish and grits?
-[Hallock] Fish and grits. -Okay.
Are you gonna fry the fish?
No. I'm gonna saute it with a parmesan crust.
With a parmesan crust. Okay.
I dig it, I dig it.
[Hallock] Gonna season my seafood.
Halibut is a wonderful fish.
Have I ever cooked Halibut? No.
I wanted to add a little bit of texture,
so I blitzed the panko with the parmesan...
Now I can dredge my fish.
[Hallock] ...hoping to get a really nice
golden brown crust but not burn the breadcrumbs.
Is anyone else confused about Hallock's application of halibut?
No binder, no fry?
Panko needs to be surrounded by fat
not direct heat.
[Tiffani] It's just gonna burn.
I don't wanna burn it.
[Tiffani] All four of these chefs are DDD all stars.
Some of Guy's handpicked fish master favorites.
Asking them to cook a regional representation of a fish dish.
We're giving them fish that is
not necessarily, like, domain to their regions.
Not from there. So, we're asking them
to, kind of, take that fish and make it their own.
So they're having to pivot a little bit,
which is pretty normal in... kitchen.
[Josh] They're getting boiled.
In they go.
What do you got, brother?
[Josh] Tuna, I'm gonna grill it.
I'm gonna do some tuna potatoes with a little creme fraiche.
Right out of the net.
-Just like you caught 'em in the field. -There you go.
Tuna and potatoes.
Is that a Minneapolis thing?
[laughs] It's East coast dish.
These Tomatoes, I'm gonna make vinaigrette with them
with some red wine vinegar.
Got it. Well, good luck, buddy, with 22 and a half minutes.
Salt.
[Josh] One of the pros to cooking with ahi is that it doesn't take long to cook.
So I'm throwing them on at the very end.
Getting ready to do my fennel salad
and this is a dish that my aunt would make
on Cape Cod. So this is East Coast.
I'm gonna chop these white anchovies,
I'm gonna add some... pepper to the salad.
[Josh] Being on DDD was crazy.
Chumming with Guy was an incredible experience.
He talks to you, he jokes around with you,
he makes you feel comfortable.
Sponge please. [laughs]
Tastes like summer.
We got those, blister those bad boys.
What's game plan?
I'm gonna do a little miso butter pan-roasted salmon
with a Asian flair on succotash
and some tempura.
Well, that does not sound boring at all.
It sounds just like I'm in Chico.
[Darren] The first thing I get started on is my succotash.
Zucchini...
[Darren] The Asian aspect of the Rawbar's
coming into play with this regional dish.
My shito peppers are done blistering in the fryer.
Gotta go there. Use them all. Right.
It's gonna add umami.
We're gonna season everything.
Next I want to get started on my main ingredient, salmon.
Nice.
Guy came up to film DDD in Chico,
trying to help us when we were at a pretty tough time,
dealing with the fires in Paradise.
He came in and built us up.
The episode continues to bring people in our doors.
I'm honored by it.
How you doing, Tony?
-Great. How you doing? -Awesome.
What's game plan, my friend?
Seared rockfish filled in with Old Bay garlic butter.
You know Maryland, you gotta put crab on everything.
Yeah, you do. You out crab on your cereal as a kid, I believe.
[laughs] We did, we did.
Where's the veggies coming into play?
[Tony] A veggie blend.
Balance off the sweetness of the fish with a little bit of freshness on the plate.
[Guy] Carrots, asparagus...
-[Tony] Broccolini... -I dig it.
Jimmy's Famous Seafood started from my late father.
The DDD effect is live and well.
My dad would be very proud.
[Guy] We have got 10 minutes left. You got 10 to be plated.
[Hallock] My halibut is cooking...
Bacon's looking good.
Okay, my grits are about to boil.
Meeting Guy was really fantastic.
We had a good time
just goofing off a little bit in the kitchen.
You had me at tuna with, what do we have here?
Avocado emulsed in corn pico de gallo.
-That's my middle name. -That's a long middle name.
Yeah, it's what, hyphenated.
Now put a little bit of butter in there,
some cheese...
[Hallock] Next, I start my pan sauce
with lots of bacon, garlic, chicken stock, scallions...
Then, I realize...
I forgot lemons.
-[Darren] You okay, Hallock? -I forgot some ingredients. I'm upset.
But I'll use a little bit of this vinegar.
-Hopefully it'll work. -[Guy] Seven minutes. Seven to go.
How's it looking over here?
Good, Chef.
I got my salad finished.
Now, we're gonna finish this smashed potatoes.
I'm gonna add 'em to this butter, creme fraiche, salt.
I win $20,000, my daughter has been asking me
to take her to the Bahamas.
So, that's what I'm gonna do with it.
Along with her brothers.
The potatoes are lights out.
[Josh] If I overcook this tuna, I'm done.
So, once my gold tomatoes are ready,
I'm gonna put 'em in the blender, it emulsifies up nicely.
[Guy] Darren, how we doing, bud?
I think we're doing all right.
My succotash is working in the pan,
so I get back to my salmon.
[Tiffani] You know how I love salmon cooked?
I like it, kind of, cooked through
but slowly.
-[Maneet] Yes. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean? I want it to melt apart.
[Darren] Next, I start working on my tempura zucchini.
This guy's gonna get dredged.
And I get it frying.
Rockfish, that's right up my alley.
While my vegetables are cooking, I'm gonna be starting my fish.
Season both sides with some Old Bay,
wanna give it a quick toss in the flour
to make sure we get some nice texture on it in the pan.
I'm gonna use that same pan
to build my sauce.
Then I add some garlic butter.
[Guy] This crab making a debut?
[Tony] It is. The king of crabs that is.
You want me to go get to the Dungeness?
[Tony] Cream.
[Guy] Chefs, we got three minutes.
You gotta be plated in three.
[Josh] All right. Let's go.
First I'm gonna put down my smashed creme fraiche potatoes.
Then I'm gonna drizzle some sun gold vinaigrette.
Then I'm gonna put the tuna on it
and the slaw on top of that.
Hallock's grits, it looks really creamy.
[Hallock] First I plate my grits,
put my halibut on top,
next, I drizzle my pan sauce over everything.
From the salmon to the rockfish to the halibut,
everything looks so good.
[Guy] Two minutes!
[Tony] First thing I do is get my vegetable blend down,
top it off with my fish,
and then I start scooping out
the jumbo lump crab and the sauce together.
[Guy] One minute!
[Darren] My succotash is looking great.
My tempura zucchini, nice and crispy.
Add 'em to my succotash.
Let's go, chefs.
[Darren laughs]
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one,
-that's it. -[all cheering]
-Okay. -[Guy] All right, chefs,
it's time to go fishing
for some complements from the judges.
Let's take it this way. Follow me.
[Guy] Judges, this is it.
Game one of our DDD seafood,
chefs had to create a regional fish dish
using the seafood that ended up in their fishing net.
First up, Chef Hallock with halibut.
In North Carolina,
shrimp and grits is a very popular dish.
So, I drift on that, I made fish and grits.
Used the halibut, parmesan crust
and I made a broth with bacon and garlic
then I made cheddar cheese
and parmesan grits with a kick.
I was really unhappy about how you smashed that panko
versus frying it,
but you've taught me a new technique.
Perfectly yielding delicate halibut.
Bacon was slightly aggressive here
because halibut is such a mild fish.
You had enough with cheese and parmesan.
-Yeah. -You didn't need to crush me with bacon.
Although, I'm pretty happy being crushed with bacon.
-[all laughing] -So, beautiful plate overall.
I do think that the halibut needed to be seasoned a bit more aggressively.
The grits are delicious. I love the cheese in the grits
and sometimes, you know,
cheese and fish don't really match up together.
-Right. -But this is North Carolina on a plate for sure.
It is all the things I want from fish and grits.
-My mom used to make fish and grits. -Oh, great.
It wasn't like this. Don't tell my mom.
I won't. [laughs] I won't.
I'm gonna send her that tape.
-[laughing] -All right, thank you very much.
Up next, Chef Tony, rockfish. What do you have for us, bud?
Rockfish, obviously, being very regional to, to Maryland,
what I did here was I prepared it pan-seared
and then I put it in a sauce with some seafood seasoning
garlic butter, acid with a lemon, of course.
I had to bring my culture, being Greek, into it.
Crab meat, we put crab meat on everything.
We stuff chickens with it, we stuff fish with it,
we stuff oysters with it...
We stuff Guy with it.
[all laughing]
I love the nod to the regional cooking
that you did by incorporating the crab over here.
The dish overall
has a wonderful amount of acid to it
which is amazing. The citrus.
Using Old Bay and having that seafood seasoning and saying,
"This is Maryland, I'm representing Maryland," so successful.
I would've liked to have seen the crab
going a little bit later in the pan, so it really retained a little bit of,
like, that lump and the sweetness,
as opposed to, kind of, cooking out, getting a little stringy.
[Jet] So the flavor of the fish is perfect.
There's a lot going on on the plate though, man.
Like, there's a, there's a lot of vegetables.
I think the toughest thing about cooking here is editing.
And the more you edit,
the more you allow the fish to shine.
Thank you.
All right, up next, Chef Josh, ahi tuna.
What do you have for us, Chef?
Judges, today I made for you a grilled ahi tuna.
There's a little bit of potato puree under it,
blistered tomatoes,
you also have a fennel salad slaw.
Around the outside of the plate, you have one of my favorite sauces,
I could drink it,
it's a golden tomato vinaigrette.
I absolutely love the visual impact that this dish has.
I just want to dive into it.
The vinaigrette is so good,
just want to get a bottle
and put it in it and take it with me.
-Thank you. -The fennel slaw, delicious.
[Maneet] The citrus brightness works great.
The words that are coming to me when I eat this is elegant,
it's thoughtful...
You handled the tuna beautifully.
You've got about a two mm sear all the way around,
on top of that you've got a nice, kind of, grill mark.
I'm a sucker for smashed potatoes.
They're, like, a little glutinous but I don't really care.
They're not Cape Cod summer to me, if that's what you're selling.
I do think that this dish could have used a little bit of editing.
I appreciate the regional nod
of putting the potatoes over here
but I think that is one step too much.
Thank you.
[Guy] All right, not to be out done, Chef Darren, salmon.
What do you got, bud?
[Darren] I went with a pan-roasted salmon
over succotash, very Americana.
I then took it to a style that fits our restaurant,
with a Dungeness crab butter.
On top, I added some tempura zucchini
and in place of beans I added blistered shitos.
This salmon is cooked perfectly.
Period. Full stop.
It yields yet it's, kind of, pink in the middle.
The problem with miso is, it's almost winey,
it has that fermented flavor
and it takes away a bit from the sweetness of the natural salmon.
There's a lot on this plate.
Tempura zucchini and red bell and chilies...
I think it diminishes the star.
You could've edited it a little bit.
-Problem I have. -[Jet] There, there you go.
I, I love the play of colors on this plate.
It's very inviting.
[Tiffani] This is really delicious
but I'm a little lost at sea as regional fish dish...
...on this one. Like, this definitely, like,
the succotash, I understand where that comes from.
I understand where tempura and miso and crab, that comes from.
This is two really good dishes.
You gotta pick which ferry you were gonna get on.
Judges, thank you very much for your insight.
Chefs, we're gonna send you back to the kitchens.
We will call you back when we have a decision.
Unfortunately, one will be set adrift to the open sea.
-[chuckles] -[Guy] And the other three will stay for more suffering.
I mean, for more competition.
Thank you very much. Great job.
[suspenseful music]
Judges, do any of these chefs deserve to get the hook?
20 points available in gameplay,
20 points available in taste, 10 points for plating.
Someone's gotta win, somebody's gotta lose.
Let's take a look. First, we'll start off with Chef Tony.
14 out of 20 in gameplay.
16 out of 20 in taste.
7 out of 10 for plating, for a 37.
Chef Hallock, 17 out of 20 gameplay.
-18 for taste. -[Hallock] Ooh.
[Guy] 8 for plating, for a 43. Whoa!
-[whoops] -[Jet] Wow. Nice job.
Score to beat is a 43. Score to get over is a 37. Darren.
15 out of 20 in gameplay.
16 out of 20 in taste.
7 for plating for a 38, edging out Tony by one point.
Josh, you have to get better than a 37, or you're going home.
15.
-16 out of 20. -[Jet] Whoa!
-[Guy] And a 7, also for a 38. -[Jet] Oh, what?
Tony, no representation of who you are and what your family does,
because there is a line out the door in Baltimore.
Great having you here.
Feeling a little down about the score.
I should've done better.
Now, I'm part of the Triple-D family and the Triple-G family.
It's the best of both worlds.
Here we are, final round.
Chef Hallock, you're in the lead with a whopping 43.
Darren and Josh are both at 38.
For your second challenge,
I want you to make the judges...
a Shellfish Spectacular.
So, instead of fishing for your seafood,
Hunter had a great idea,
he's gonna make you dig for it.
[dramatic music]
All right, you've heard of digging for clams.
Now, you're gonna be digging for cans.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is Cans in the Sand.
Hunter had buried four cans containing mysterious shellfish in the sand.
You'll each take a turn digging in the sand
until you uncover a mystery can.
Whatever is in the can that you pick out
must be featured in your Shellfish Spectacular.
-Chef Hallock, you're first. -Okay.
[Guy] So we're gonna let you be the first to dig.
Come on up. Step up, step in, and dig in the sand.
[Hallock] I'm going with this one. [laughs]
-[Guy] There we go. -Oh, tiny shrimp.
-[Guy] Oh, yes! -Oh, I was hoping for clams.
Oh, yum, yum, yum! Tiny shrimp.
Shrimp are great, but tiny shrimp in a can?
Sounds like cat food to me.
-[Guy] We've got... -Ooh.
-[Guy laughs] -Canned squid.
-[Guy whoops] -Canned squid.
Canned squid.
I've never even seen or heard of canned squid.
Can't wait.
-You can... -Can wait.
You can wait.
Smoked oysters.
I love oysters. I do not like canned oysters.
I thought it was gonna be sardines.
They're yucky.
[Guy] Tiny shrimp, smoked oysters, and canned squid. Mmm.
Now, you can use all the other fresh shellfish that you want,
but you must include that key ingredient in your dish.
Remember, you have 30 minutes to create your Shellfish Spectacular
featuring your crazy canned surprise.
You ready? I'm just gonna make it easy on ya.
-I'm gonna start at 99. 99... -[all laughing]
And three, and two, and one, go.
-[dramatic instrumental music] -That was good.
Oh, sorry.
[Guy] Shellfish Spectacular.
We have all kinds of shellfish.
Tiny shrimp in a can? How is that gonna be spectacular?
In the South, a low country boil is a fairly common dish.
I'm gonna add so many spectacular shellfish
that these canned tiny shrimp are just gonna slip right in.
Things like lobster and crab...
-Excuse me. -...we throw it all in a pot with some sausage.
Yes. Andouille.
Produce.
Potato. Corn.
I'm going to bring this dish together with a broth.
Chicken stock. Tomatoes.
When I hear "Spectacular," I know the judges are gonna want spectacular!
All right. We're good.
[Guy] You got crab, you got shrimp, oysters.
You got soft-shell crab.
The judges are looking for an extravaganza.
So what better way than to give them two different dishes?
For my Shellfish Spectacular, I'm making Thoma Ka Thai steamers,
as well as a lobster thermidor.
Tail. Sorry about that.
I grabbed all of the shellfish to go into my Thoma Ka Thai steamer.
My scallops, my prawns, my mussels, some soft-shell crab, my clams.
We got that covered.
For my Thai coconut curry broth, I grabbed coconut milk,
Thai red curry paste, lemongrass, lime leaves, fresh Thai chilies.
There's a lot in there.
Canned squid.
I, really, at this point, still haven't figured out
how I'm gonna use my canned squid.
But I'm gonna bring more than they want,
more than they could ever eat.
Here?
I used to go digging for clams all the time,
and then I pulled a mussel.
[Josh] I'm thinking of smoked cioppino.
So I'm just gonna grab a ton of seafood.
Scallops, Maine lobster, spiny lobster, mussels, clams, and head-on shrimp.
Let's go.
In order to make this cioppino base,
I'm gonna grab white wine, onion, and San Marzano tomatoes.
But canned smoked... [in slow-motion] oysters?
I'm gonna add these smoked oysters to the cioppino.
They've gotta be front and center 'cause they're a wham.
All right, let's go.
What's the one you're worried about the most,
baby shrimp, squid, or smoked oysters?
-Squid. -I am squid, personally.
I am smoked oysters.
These squid games are going to be dangerous for us.
Oh, man!
-We may not make it out of here alive. -Oh, man!
This is really interesting for all three of these chefs.
All of their canned shellfish has to chill up
and also be masked a little bit.
And they still have to, really, highlight the rest of the shellfish
that they choose to use.
Shellfish is such an exciting, like, round, right?
[singing] Back it up, back it up, back it up, canned shellfish!
[all laughing]
-Chef, what have we got? -[Darren] We're doing a curry in a hurry.
Thai steamer using coconut milk, lime leaves,
fresh galangal root, take our curry paste
and, then, lastly, some Thai chilies.
How did that squid turn out? How does it look?
[Darren] Still working on the squid.
I've never had it in my life.
-Little bit of a learning curve. -Yeah. It's good.
-Well done. -It's good.
I'll add my clams, mussels, my scallops, my shrimp.
What a way to boil.
[Guy] All right, chef, what's on the menu?
We're having an upscale low country boil.
-Okay. -[Hallock] Over and above what you normally think of
-when you think of a low country boil. -Got it.
I'm going to start my broth first, because it's gonna take time for the flavors to build.
I have onions, tomatoes, sausage, some crab meat in there.
And we're gonna deglaze with beer and stock.
[exhales] Sure would like to be drinking that beer right now. [laughs]
Let me try these tiny shrimp.
Oh, my God, those are tiny!
Can they be part of my broth?
The flavors in the reducing broth will help erase
the canned flavor of those shrimp.
This broth is what's tying all my flavors together.
Uh, I'm okay. The clock is ticking too quickly.
[Guy] All right, chef, how are you looking?
[Josh] I'm making a smoked cioppino
and a smoked saffron aioli with a crouton dredger.
Over the top. Beautiful.
The base flavors, a little seafood stock. What else we got?
[Josh] White wine.
-[Guy] Tomatoes. -[Josh] Yup.
When I think cioppino, I think spectacular,
just because of the amount of shellfish that's in it.
My clams.
Mussels, thyme, some more shellfish?
[Josh] Some lobster, head-on shrimp.
I like where this is going.
Smoked oysters, they're already cooked,
so they're going into my cioppino
and they're into the saffron aioli as well.
In a lot of our can battles, this is really classic,
do you lean into it or do you, like, hide it, essentially.
Do you let it go away and become a part of the dish,
or do you highlight it and let it shine?
All right, let's do it. It's time to add the whammy.
Smoked oysters, in they go.
And I really had to taste it now.
I have to ensure that the smoke is working in it.
Smoky cioppino.
There we go.
[Guy] 15 minutes! 15 to go!
Oh, this guy. What am I gonna do with you?
I gotta use this canned squid.
Let's see what this tastes like.
Somebody would have to be very, very hungry to use this product.
Oh, I love it.
Earthy, salty, sweet.
Think it'll lend itself pretty well to a thermidor...
...to make a nice filling for my lobster tail, my canned squid.
If I win today, the first thing I'm gonna do is throw a party for my staff.
They're the reason I'm here.
They're there keeping the restaurant going, while I'm here playing games.
Any money left over from that party is gonna
help us open up the next phase of the Rawbar.
A little heat.
I, finally, caramelize my filling
under the broiler since we don't have much time.
But I know, with gameplay...
I know I gotta do more than one thing with it.
I don't wanna hide it all the way.
I dredge 'em.
What the heck, all right.
Gotta play the game.
Go real light on this one.
Let's see what this tastes like.
[tense instrumental music]
[Hallock] My broth is reducing.
All right, now I need to get my seafood ready.
I get my lobsters and prawn on the grill.
Just gonna mark these. How hot, huh?
Right in the middle.
I get my clams cooking with some white wine.
I gotta get my clams going.
Scallops on the plancha because I want to give them a nice sear.
To fully play the game, I want the judges to see my canned tiny shrimp.
I decide to fry some of the canned tiny shrimp.
Cornstarch.
So I have a lot going on in this round.
It would have been a lot easier
if I had just cooked everything together in one pot.
But it needs to be spectacular,
so I'm just trying to really go for it with all this shellfish.
[Josh] While my cioppino base in now cooking,
I'm gonna get my shellfish going.
I'm gonna sear scallops.
Whole head-on shrimp.
Now, let's get that saffron aioli going.
Everything looks good. I've got some garlic, some saffron,
little bit of white wine, and a little bit of harissa.
Add some egg yolk.
Get those, kind of, blending together.
And I also add smoked oysters.
So we'll have two different uses for 'em.
They're going into here and they're in the sauce.
[Guy] Three minutes! Three to go!
[Darren] First thing I do is put my rice noodles in my bowl.
Next, I start trying to get all the different types of shellfish
in each one of the bowls.
Get enough of that broth over the shellfish.
My key ingredient, the squid, ready to go.
All right.
My lobster thermidor is looking good.
[Guy] Two minutes, chefs! Two to go!
All right.
First, I put down my potatoes. I think they're pretty good.
Then I put down my charred corn, followed by the clams.
Okay. Ooh, don't want them to hit the thyme.
I taste the broth.
It tastes well-balanced, so I know that it's ready to plate.
Oh, sweep the broth.
Once my lobster and prawns are opaque, I know that they are ready to plate.
Broth.
Prawn.
Then, I'm garnishing with my tiny canned fried shrimp.
[Guy] One minute!
[Josh] Let's get the broth down.
Then I'm gonna add the head-on whole shrimp.
I'm gonna garnish around the outside of the scallops.
My grilled bread, right on to the side.
And I'm gonna put my aioli right on it.
[Guy] Four, three, two, one!
-That's it! -[all cheering]
-[exhales] -All right.
Chefs, I gotta tell ya, I wish I could eat all of those by myself,
but that would be shellfish.
-[all laughing] -Let's take it to the judges. Right this way.
All right, judges, here we are. Game two, Triple-D Seafood.
The chefs had to find a Can in the Sand
and use its content in their Shellfish Spectacular.
Up first, Chef Darren and canned squid. Wow!
-Mmm. -[Tiffani] Mmm.
Today, I made you two dishes.
Thoma Ka Thai steamer, a variation of a Thai coconut curry
where I've steamed mussels, clams, scallops, shrimp,
and topped it with fried canned squid.
Secondary, I made a filling for a lobster thermidor.
Chanterelle mushrooms, button mushrooms, canned squid, cream, sherry.
Cookery on this seafood is a masterclass.
I love the fact that you decided to go
with the direction of the curry,
because the sweetness of the coconut goes so beautifully
with shellfish. Delicious.
I am not a fan of the deep-fried canned squid.
It actually takes away from the beauty of the dish.
The lobster, cooked beautifully.
It just seems like I forgot to put it on the plate, so I'm giving it on the side.
The curry is great,
but there's not enough sauce to bring it all together.
Thank you.
All right, up next, Chef Josh. Smoked oysters. What do you have for us, chef?
Today, I did a smoked cioppino.
So you've got two different kinds of lobster, seared scallops, whole shrimp.
So the smoked oysters, they go into the cioppino at the very end,
to add a little bit of more rich smokiness to it.
I looked down on this plate and this is an absolute feast.
I like the smoked oysters in this.
I like the flavor that it brings to the broth.
The problem is, the smoked oysters themselves
could've been processed into enriching the broth.
It's a great ingredient, it could've been worked in better.
The sauce that you've created is delicious.
It's got all the liqueur that you get from the seafood.
But this needs acid. Like, just some lemon on the side.
This literally looks like the ocean as, like, a Rockettes show.
It's like, [singing] Seafood Spectacular!
Like, I totally get that on this dish.
Can you do that one more time for me?
-[sings] Seafood Spectacular! -[all laughing]
What? Is it not? You see it.
This is missing the anise component.
I think that would bring a lot to the sophistication and depth of this dish.
Last, but not least, Chef Hallock. Tiny shrimp. What do you have for us?
[Hallock] I made an upscale low country boil.
Sausage, corn, potato.
For my tiny shrimp, I just put it in my broth.
Then, I steamed some clams.
I grilled some larger prawns and some lobster tail.
Hallock, I love the idea of the upscale low country boil.
I love the broth that you have created. The liqueur is delicious.
[Jet] This is so much fun.
The play between the savoriness of the sausage, the sweetness of the corn
are perfect pairs to the sweetness of the seafood.
I think you did the right thing with the shrimp.
They weren't much to play with,
so you know what, you gave them some texture.
My issue is, I wish I had more broth.
I need every piece of seafood to swim in something and to bring it all together.
I understand kind of thinking, "All right, this round, I wanna do upscale."
I think we get a little lost when you think upscale.
There's a reason we do boils the way we do 'em.
This also needs a lot of fat.
-It needs just, like, a ton of butter in here. -Okay.
Judges, thank you. Chefs, nice job. That wasn't an easy one.
This is anybody's game. Gonna send you back to the kitchens.
We'll call you when we have the decision. Thank you.
Great job.
Well, chefs, which kitchen station cooked the best crustacean?
[all laughing]
20 points available in gameplay, 20 points available in taste,
10 points for plating.
Let's take a look here.
I got Darren and Josh in a tie for second.
Josh, 14 out of 20 in gameplay, 15 out of 20 in taste
7 for plating, for a 36, and a score of 74.
Darren's gotta beat 36, at this point.
14 out 20, also, in gameplay.
15, also, out of taste.
6 out of plating, for a 35, falling a point behind.
Hallock, you have to get better than a 32.
13 out of 20 in gameplay.
14 in taste.
6 in plating, for a 33.
-But that's still just enough. -[all cheering]
[Guy] Congratulations for a win with 76!
Darren and Josh, this was a great run.
I'm so happy I get to see you again.
But, unfortunately, we say goodbye.
-Good job. -[Hallock] Thank you.
-Good job. Good job. Really. -Thank you.
Unfortunately, I didn't win.
But this was a great experience.
[Josh] I had a spectacular time.
I would love to come back sometime and give it another shot.
Got a couple of different ways that you can win up to 20,000 bucks.
One, you could go on the seafood Shopping Spree,
in which I give you two minutes to grab ten seafood-related items.
Every item that you find and put in the cart, you're gonna get 2,000 bucks.
-You grab all ten, you win $20,000. -Okay.
Or you can pick the mystery check behind those doors
that is worth anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000.
Already got your name on it, by the way.
Are the questions easy?
[all laughing]
You know what, I think in the true spirit
-of Guy's Grocery Games... -Yes. Right.
-...I gotta go shopping. -You gotta go shopping.
-[all cheering] -I like this.
I like this a lot.
Do you wanna look at what the check was?
-Let's just see what it was. -Okay, let's see what it was.
[Guy] Let's see the check, please.
-[Jet] Oh! -[Hallock] 14.
-14,250 bucks. -Okay.
You can get more than that.
-[Tiffani] You can do more than that. -[Guy] You got this.
You will have two minutes. I'll read 'em off to ya.
As soon as you start to move the cart, your time's gonna start.
All right, here we go. The first one is
-oyster mushrooms. -Go!
-[all cheering] -She's off and running, folks.
-[upbeat rock music] -[screams]
Ooh, oyster mushrooms. Okay.
-$2,000. -Yay! Let's go, let's go, let's go!
Tartar sauce. You're looking for tartar sauce.
-[Hallock] Tartar sauce! -[all cheering]
Rum with a giant octopus on it.
Rum with a giant octopus. You got a minute and 30 seconds.
Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?
Rum with giant... Oh, I know this one.
I can't find it! Oh, my gosh!
Am I in the right section?
Mullet, mullet.
-Got it! -[all cheering]
[Tiffani] 6,000!
[whoops] $6,000.
Tempura batter mix!
Oh, that took too long.
[tense instrumental music]
Back up!
[Jet] Come on.
-Where, where, where? -53 seconds!
-[Hallock] Okay, okay, okay. What's next? -[Guy] Sardines!
Looking for sardines!
-40 seconds, go that way! -[Hallock] Oh, my gosh!
-Third left. -Let's go!
-[Jet] Come on, let's go! -[Tiffani] Come on!
Let's go! You got this!
[Jet] You got it. Come on, chef!
Got 'em. Okay, what's next?
Seafood-variety cat food!
[Hallock] Tuna!
-Tuna, tuna tuna! -Any... any seafood.
-Any seafood. -[Tiffani] Any!
Got it, got it. Okay.
Smoked salmon bites!
Go, go! Smoked salmon bites!
[Tiffani] Go, Hallock!
-Oh, no. -No, no, no, no.
[all cheering]
[Guy] Three, two, one. Stop! Stop, stop.
I'm going home with $14,000 for our staff at Amos Mosquito's,
and I just love y'all.
You bring the Triple-D chef out of the restaurant
and, in Triple-G, what happens?
They make a lot of money. We'll see you next week on Triple-G. Adios.