You know, some fans of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives think that I survive
on burgers, pizza and barbecue alone.
Go to commercial already, would ya?
But I've stopped at so many vegan joints
run by chefs who make food even carnivores crave.
This is a destination dish.
So, I've invited four of my favorite Triple-D vegan chefs
to Flavortown Market to compete in off the chain vegan games.
You can only shop for nine pounds in groceries.
-[Loumiry] Oh, Lord. -This is so hard.
Look at that cheese.
These folks can cook.
-Oh, hang on Hunter, what is this? -It's a vegan barbecue burger.
Oh, fantastic. What's not to love?
It's Triple-D vegan tonight on Guy's Grocery Games.
-I... I bought that for myself. -Get yourself one.
All right, so let's meet our Triple-D vegan chefs.
First up, we have Edgar Pato Delfin,
the chef, owner of Lick It Up food truck in Houston, Texas,
who specializes in vegan versions
of authentic Mexican street food.
[Guy] This is a destination dish.
Delicious, man.
There's a lot of food that's been vegan
in Mexican cuisine for years.
I'm here to prove that vegan food is more than rabbit food or vegetables.
Love the name of that place.
Next up, we have Tamearra Dyson,
the chef serving up plant-based Creole cuisine at Souley Vegan
in Oakland, California.
So Creole cuisine is traditionally very rich, very deep in flavors.
So I just, kind of, recreate it
while keeping the integrity of the flavors.
-There's no question that's a po' boy. -All right.
[Guy] Chef, how long ago was it?
Oh, about five, six, seven years.
Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve years ago?
And then there's Nick Davis, the Tennessee chef,
who makes vegan Southern comfort food at Graze Nashville.
We just had tofu fried chicken sandwich.
It's giving me goosebumps.
I wanna show people that you don't have to take the South out of Southern food
just because it's vegan.
-Nice to have you out of the honky-tonk. -Cheers.
And finally, Loumiry Sanchez,
chef, owner of El Grifo vegan restaurant in Puerto Rico.
I don't know anybody that could bite into that who would not enjoy that.
-I can't believe this. -So good.
We specialize in vegan pop food.
We serve pizzas, pasta, burgers.
And I love it.
Welcome, Chef.
Watch out for this.
I have watched you make vegan food in your joints,
and I thought now, I should invite you to my place,
and you could have some action-packed vegan cook offs.
-Sound like a deal? -Great.
We have the ripest Grocery Games that you will ever try.
The chef that scores the lowest score
in the first round will checkout.
But the chef with the highest combined score
at the end of both rounds will get a chance to shop Flavortown Market
for up to 20,000 bucks.
[Tamearra trilling]
-It's awesome, yeah. -Beautiful.
[Guy] In addition to a store full of dairy and meat substitutes,
we have a produce selection that I will tell you
is a virtual garden of vegan.
In the first round, I want you to make the judges your bestseller.
Okay?
The one that the customers can't wait to order again.
And they can't wait--
They can't wait.
Oh!
The dish that comes with a side order of Watch Your Weight.
Yeah. See, what's gonna happen is
you can only shop for nine pounds of groceries.
One time.
So, you will shop, you will weigh it out
over in the produce department,
and you cannot go back to the store.
Now, you do have pantry items inside of your kitchens.
Spices, flour, corn starch.
-Feel good about this? -Yes.
[Guy] All right. You have 30 minutes
to shop, prepare and plate your bestseller.
You've seen the show enough times.
You know it's three, two, one, go.
As soon as I do that, you guys will all go taking off, okay?
All right.
Let's do this.
-Go, he already said it. -Go!
[exclaiming]
They are so nervous.
[Pato] I only have nine pounds.
I need nine pounds to make a salsa only.
I have to make my bestseller, which is tacos alambre.
I need 50 of those.
[Pato] To make my chorizo from scratch...
Gonna do this.
...I definitely had to grab some TSP,
the texturized soy protein.
In order to marinate my chorizo, I had to grab dried peppers.
Soy milk for my crema.
Cabbage, give you that little bit of that freshness.
Vegan.
Seasoning, I grabbed my garlic powder and onion powder.
Chef, let me explain something to you.
You're so heavy right now with all this stuff.
You only have nine pounds,
-and you've already got super heavy things going on. -Okay. Okay.
-Do you need the whole half gallon of this? -[Pato] No, sir.
[Guy] So, if you could find one that's smaller,
-go with that. -[Pato] Okay.
-You're way, way, way overweight. -[Pato] Okay.
-Oh, boy. -Go get 'em.
You can only shop once, so you gotta get it right.
[Guy] It's only nine pounds, not 19, Chef.
Okay, Chef. Heard.
I'm gonna go back and grab smaller things.
This is so hard. [grunts]
I only have nine pounds to do my bestseller.
But when you want to impress, you know, the judges,
we don't have the time, nor the ingredients.
What?
Oh.
For my bestseller, I'm going to make vegan chicken and waffle.
Because I did that at my restaurant,
and the dish became so popular and viral
that we had to keep it on the menu.
My plantains.
With cauliflower chicken.
Cauliflower steak, that's one of my favorites you use.
[Loumiry] So I grab this little vegetable milk to dredge my cauliflower.
For my chorizo, I grabbed sundried tomatoes,
the pumpkin seeds, the sunflower seeds.
With my cashews, I'm going to make the mozzarella type sauce.
And then I went to the spices.
Powdered garlic.
Hm.
So nervous.
And my heart is, like, running 200 miles per hour.
Okay. At least one of this.
Hate this.
Oh!
-Oh, whoa! -[Guy] Okay, that's nine.
I wish I could have got more cauliflower, more sweet plantains,
more spices.
I'm gonna have a nightmare tonight about it.
Hate this.
[Guy] What are you going for?
Uh, I'm gonna do a spaghetti Cajun.
I like that.
[Tamearra] The coconut milk is the base to my sauce
so I have to grab three of these.
Normally, I would get a ton of different spices and more produce.
Bell peppers to prepare this spaghetti Cajun.
Where's the mushroom?
So, I'm grabbing the dried oyster mushrooms over the fresh one
because these are gonna be much lighter
than getting a whole portobello
or even fresh oyster mushrooms.
French baguette.
Southern food is hearty.
You know, you never leave hungry.
Garlic bread, a great addition to that.
And then with the garlic bread I think I have everything.
-Okay, you ready? -Yeah.
[Hunter] Let's see what we got here.
-[Tamearra] I'm under. That's it. -[Hunter] That's it.
-You're good. -Mm-hm. Thank you.
You bet.
[Guy] Twenty-five minutes.
Let's go, chefs.
Tempeh.
Immediately, my mind goes to Nashville hot tempeh.
Not only is this dish one of my bestsellers,
it was also voted best vegan sandwich in The National Scene.
For this, I'm breading tempeh, deep frying it.
Soy milk cartons weigh a lot so I'm grabbing
these single-serve cartons for my dredge.
I grab some key spices, like dry mustard and granulated garlic.
I need pickles.
I grab pickles, even though they're heavy,
just because it's such a nice balance of vinegar and coolness.
Cabbage.
The cabbage for the coleslaw is heavy
so I'm concerned about the weight.
All right. Nick, we're kind of close here.
That just puts you a little bit over nine.
Do you need all these pickles?
[Nick] I need pickles, but...
The pickles weigh a lot.
So I'm hoping that coleslaw will cool off some of that Nashville hot heat.
-Is that good? -That's nine.
-I know nine pounds is not easy to work with. -[Nick] Yes.
-[Hunter] All right, Chef, good luck. -All right. Thank you.
-Well... -What else?
All right, folks, let's meet the panel of professionals
who are ready to weigh in on our vegan dishes.
First, we have Top Chef winner
and chef-owner of LA's vegan restaurant Ramen Hood,
-one and only Chef Ilan Hall. -Hey.
What's up, dude?
Food Network star who literally wrote the book on Southern vegetarian food,
-Damaris Phillips. -Hi.
And a chef whose way with produce
and every other ingredient she touches
has propelled her to win Tournament of Champions 4,
the amazing and one and only Chef Mei Lin.
I know all four of these chefs.
These folks can cook.
-Oh. -Pumped about this day.
We're already 22 minutes in,
and not everybody is done shopping.
-[Damaris] No, this is a hard shop. -[Mei] It's a very hard shop.
So, I also was thinking, like, "Do I have enough?
Am I grabbing the right portions?"
This is crazy.
All right, Chef, what's on the menu?
We're gonna do a spaghetti Cajun.
Um, it's basically a coconut Cajun sauce.
Okay.
[Tamearra] First thing I need to get started on is my sauce.
I hope these are gonna be okay.
It's my first time using the dehydrated oyster mushroom.
Oh, those are hard. Mm.
I'm concerned about the texture.
So I think I'll do less. I won't use the two packs.
The sauce makes this dish a bestseller
because of the levels of flavor.
So I'm using cayenne from my station
and then also coconut milk.
Here we go, babe. Come on.
Coconut just makes it rich.
It doesn't have to be complicated.
Simple ingredients, tremendous flavor.
[Pato] I'm still looking around for smaller things.
[grunts] This is the smallest one they have.
Started just, like, feeling a little overwhelmed.
I just spent, like, ten minutes
running all over the place.
[Guy] Twenty minutes.
-This is a lot. -[Pato] Okay. So--
You wanna take all the smallest thing you can get.
[Pato] Probably just two of these.
[Guy] Chef, let's go, man. You gotta get cooking.
-It's 7.45. -[Pato] Mm.
That's a lot of soya sauce.
I had to grab the soya sauce.
That's what gives you that umami taste.
-Yup. -Pushing me over.
Forgot the mushrooms, I forgot jalapeno.
-[Guy] All right. -[Pato] I should be good there.
But I'm gonna make it work and figure it out.
Take the whole basket. Just go.
Eleven-minute shop.
I haven't seen a shop that long in a long time.
[Guy] Nineteen minutes.
We're not just talking about vegetarian vegan chefs.
We're talking about vegetarian vegan chefs
that have absolutely impressed Guy.
[Mei] I'm just really excited to see what their bestsellers
-are gonna be. -[Ilan] Yeah.
Come on, Pato.
I'm a very slow shopper in here,
and I don't think I've ever shopped for ten minutes.
[Guy] Chef, let's go, man. You gotta get cooking.
All right, my brother, what is on the menu?
-Tacos alambre. -[Guy] What is in here so far?
-[Pato] It's, uh, soy protein. -[Guy] Okay.
And you're just, like, trying to reconstitute it.
Add some mushroom vegan bouillon.
[Pato] The best way to make anything taste like meat
is with soya sauce and some vegetable stock.
Textured vegetable protein. Love it.
-What are we doing with the guajillos? -Oh, we're gonna get those.
I also have to reconstitute these peppers.
It's gonna be a sauce to make my chorizo.
Lick It Up.
We were lucky to be able to move into a brick and mortar last year.
On our first soft opening, which was great,
the next day, somebody called me,
saying that there was a fire at the kitchen.
And we lost most of our stuff.
So, if we win today, we're definitely
gonna put that into a brick and mortar and come out of those ashes.
Pretty good.
[whispering] No cutting.
I wish I could've got more sweet plantains.
How to make vegan food when you don't have all the ingredients?
It is a real challenge, people.
[Ilan] Oh, that's cool.
I think it's a really clever way of cooking plantains.
How are we doing, Chef? So, what's on the menu?
[Loumiry] Sweet plantain waffle with chicken cauliflower,
mozzarella cheese and some chorizo.
-Is this for the chorizo? -Yup. Okay.
For the chorizo, I blend my sundried tomatoes.
Blend the seeds in some spices.
Paprika, cumin.
When Guy came to my restaurant,
he loved my chorizo.
This chorizo is ridiculous.
Oh, my gosh.
Here.
See, what did I tell ya?
What's on the menu, Chef?
I'm gonna do a hot tempeh sandwich.
I've got a batter and soy milk for the wet.
-[Damaris] Tempeh is my favorite protein. -[Mei] Yeah. Same.
-It picks up flavor so well. -[Mei] Yeah.
[Nick] The Nashville hot sauce is a key part to the dish.
So, in my pantry, I am using cayenne pepper,
sugar and dry mustard.
Triple-D had a great impact on our restaurant.
People were coming in to try the dishes that he tried.
And they still come in.
Cheers.
Chefs, 12 minutes. 12 minutes left.
[Tamearra] Put my pasta in the pan
to, kind of, brown it up a little bit.
The dried mushrooms are taking a while to cook down.
You know, a lot of people when they're eating vegan dishes,
they may complain about texture
because they're used to meat.
I'm worried about it being undercooked.
Last thing I need to do is my garlic bread.
Little bit of basil, salt, garlic.
And vegan butter.
When Guy came, one of the stand-out comments that he made, which was many,
was he told me I was the real deal.
-The profile of what you're doing for vegan food... -[Tamearra] Mm-hm.
-You're the real deal. -Right on. Thank you.
Drop the mic.
All right.
-How are we looking, Chef? -I'm pretty all right.
I'm trying to make a chorizo, make some carne sala.
It's pretty hot.
Tacos alambre at Lick It Up are a little spicy.
So you need some sort of crema on the alambre tacos.
Our crema is soy milk, vinegar, fresh garlic,
and some cayenne from my pantry.
Pretty good.
Eight minutes!
[Loumiry] While my plantains are on the waffle maker,
I am going to prepare the cashew mozzarella cheese.
I add some cashews, water, lime juice.
Back when we opened the restaurant,
we couldn't find any vegan chef.
I want to expand veganism in Puerto Rico.
Mm.
Next, I start on my cauliflower.
So, if I win, I will donate the money to my vegan culinary school
because I would like to provide access
for people that don't have the money
so that will be great.
Yup.
[Damaris] I love a fried cauliflower.
Ooh, yup.
[Nick] Gonna do some coleslaw with cabbage and carrot.
While my tempeh is in the fryer,
I start working on my coleslaw.
Here we go.
Pickles are definitely a staple on Nashville hot chicken,
and I really miss having those pickles.
I'm planning on vegan ranch to cool down the heat a little bit.
It's good.
Five minutes! Five to go!
[Tamearra] Ooh, my bread is looking delicious.
Wanna make sure the sauce is right.
Delicious. Ooh, honey.
I'm plating here.
I go ahead and grab my pasta,
put it in the middle of the plate.
I hope you guys are praying for me behind those cameras.
Then I get my garlic bread down.
[Mei] Pato's...
-fast. Fast chef. -[Ilan] Yeah.
[Pato] Once I had my tortillas,
I started getting everything on my plate.
Texturized soy protein.
Little spicy, but it's also not overwhelming.
The crema came out great.
[Damaris] Very, very surprised by Pato's plate,
coming together very well.
Two and a half!
[Nick] The tempeh is looking good,
it's got a nice crispiness to it.
And I'm ready to start tossing it in the sauce.
Give me some heat.
[Nick] I'm gonna serve this open face
and put some coleslaw on either side of it.
[Guy] There we go, Chef.
Ninety seconds!
[Loumiry] First, my waffles, they look great, with a nice color.
Next, the mozzarella cheese.
My chicken cauliflowers are ready.
This looks good.
They look great, crispy.
I added the chorizo.
The torch.
And the last thing is the torch
so the mozzarella gets a different texture and flavor.
Five, four, three, two, one.
That's it. Stop working.
-Whoo! -Whoo!
That went by so quickly.
[Guy] Great job, you guys. Really good.
All right, my meatless chefs, let's go meet the judges.
Right this way. Follow me.
All right, judges, this is it.
Chefs had to prepare their vegan bestseller,
and they only got to use nine pounds.
Up first, Chef Tamearra.
I prepared for you, chefs, uh, spaghetti Cajun.
The garlic bread that it's served with,
I used fresh garlic, basil and vegan butter to compliment the dish.
Tamearra, you gave me an enormous plate.
It feels like you had a hundred pounds to work with.
-Thank you. -[Damaris] The way that you handled dehydrated mushrooms,
you're getting this really nice chewy chicken texture
-that I just want more. -Okay.
That coconut cream sauce, it is very, very pleasant.
-But the plate is a little sloppy. -Okay.
The spaghetti, very spice forward.
The garlic bread, so delicious.
But the feel of the spaghetti, it eats a little greasy,
-so maybe the coconut milk broke. -Mm-hm.
Everything is very, very rich on the plate.
And I've got starch on top of starch.
Feel like I'd like a little bit more freshness.
-Okay, okay. -[Guy] Thank you very much.
Up next, Chef Edgar, what did you make for us?
It is tacos alambre.
It is texturized soy protein and in-house chorizo.
[stutters] I'm gonna finish this entire plate. It's insane.
Thank you, Chef.
All of us on the table were super frightened
when you had such little time to actually cook.
This tastes like something that's taken you hours to cook.
I just feel like I'd like a salsa or a pico,
something a little bit fresh.
The portion size is excellent.
It doesn't feel like you had to work with only nine pounds.
The guajillo chilies add such a deep, rich flavor to it.
The stand-out, though, for me is the crema.
And it needed it.
Being able to build this and swipe it through is excellent.
-Thank you, Chef. -It's not a looker, but it's a eater.
[Guy] Great. Thank you very much.
Up next, Chef Loumiry, what do you have for us?
Well, for my bestselling,
I made a sweet plantain waffle.
On top, you have chicken cauliflower and also the chorizo
and a mozzarella cheese.
It's beautiful, it's delicious.
It's so cool to get the texture of crumbled chorizo from sundried tomatoes.
-Something I've never seen anybody do. -Yeah.
[Ilan] The mozzarella cheese, really fresh.
I love the cauliflower.
The char on it that you got.
Even the char from the plantain waffle, it makes it complete.
Uh, what is going on over there?
I'm just loving what is happening.
This is excellent.
You shopped really smart.
But my cauliflower needs to be cooked a little bit more.
[Guy] Okay, thank you very much.
Okay, not be outdone, Chef Nick, what do you got for us, bud?
I made Nashville hot tempeh,
plated with some Texas toast and coleslaw.
Nope, not respite from that heat.
-None. Not even a little bit, man. -Yeah, it is hot.
[Damaris] But, man, that tempeh breading soaked up
all of that hot sauce.
A little bit less heat in the coleslaw
would have been much appreciated.
-Heard that. -I have a hot chicken restaurant.
I love this plate.
The only negative that I have that it eats a little bitter.
I need a pickle.
I just... I need, like, an acid punch
to give a break to the spice.
I did have pickles in my cart. I just had to watch my weight.
So they got cut.
Yeah, that hindsight's 20/20 for sure, chefs.
-For sure. -It's not easy.
I think you guys did great.
We'll send you back to the kitchens.
We'll call you back when we have a decision.
All right, judges, whose bestseller was your least-best dish?
Chefs, time to evaluate these dishes.
Twenty points available in gameplay,
twenty points available in taste,
ten points available in plating
for a total of 50 points.
Starting out with, uh, Pato.
Eighteen out of 20 in gameplay. Nice.
Seventeen out of 20 in taste.
Seven for plating for a total of 42.
-Nice work. -Thank you.
[Guy] Tamearra.
Fifteen out of 20 in gameplay,
sixteen out of 20 in taste,
seven for plating for a 38.
Nick.
Fifteen out of 20 in gameplay,
sixteen out of 20 in taste,
eight out of ten for plating for a 39.
Edging out Tamearra by one point.
Last but not least, Loumiry.
Eighteen out of 20 in gameplay.
Eighteen out of 20 in taste.
Eight for plating, for a 44! Congratulations.
Unfortunately, Tamearra...
-Damn! -...at 38, one point behind Nick,
-that is a go-home score. -All right.
Unless...
you happen to be a Triple-D alumni.
You're from NorCal, and you're an awesome vegan chef
that I want to see more out of. Nobody's going home.
Yay!
[Guy] You got some work to do.
Chefs! Back to your carts, good luck.
[Tamearra] I know I'm in last place right now.
Everybody's coming with their A-game.
I'm here to make a comeback on the second round.
Guy's a little angel today.
Chefs, this is the second and final round of Triple-D Vegan.
One of you's gonna shop Flavortown for 20,000 bucks.
-Great. -Great.
Now, second challenge,
I want you to make the judges...
I want you to make 'em a steakhouse dinner.
Ooh!
I want you to make it special.
Special.
That's right. Tonight's game,
it's Manager's Special.
Our assistant deli manager Hunter
has a two-for-one special for you in the deli section.
They combine the perfect produce for making a beefed-up dinner
with a meat-free whammy ingredient
that you are going to love.
Both items are mandatory ingredients in your dinner.
Now, we're gonna race over to the deli counter
and get these combos.
Oh, you know what I'm gonna do?
Hunter, bring out that ticket dispenser.
So you're gonna grab a ticket from the deli ticket dispenser.
And then when you do that, you're gonna--
What's this?
There was a little bit of a mix-up.
Picture looked a lot smaller.
-This is a pull ticket? -Uh-huh.
It's 30 days to return it, we're okay.
-We use-- -How many days have we had it?
Thirty-five.
Since it's Guy's Grocery Games, I got this solved.
Here's what we're gonna do.
I'm gonna let you go shopping over at the deli case
based upon your score.
So Loumiry, you're first, you have 44.
Who's second on that? Pato, 42.
Yes, sir.
Thirty-nine, thirty-eight.
-So, Hunter, to the deli case. -All right.
Chefs, 30 minutes to create a vegan steakhouse dinner
incorporating your Manager's Special.
And, um, just, three, two, one, go.
-[bell dings] -Oh!
Bye-bye. I made it easy on them.
It's what combos has Hunter made? That's what scares me.
Okay, Chef, what can I get you?
-Oh, what-- -We got cauliflower, eggplant--
We have some portobello mushrooms, red cabbage.
-The cauliflower. -The cauliflower?
-Yep. -All right, there you go.
Okay.
Cauliflower, it has the texture of meat.
Oh, my gosh.
But the mushroom jerky, uh...
Oh, my God.
Who's up next?
Okay, we got, uh...
We have portobello mushrooms, eggplant, and we have red cabbage.
-Portobello. -All right.
-There you go. Good luck. -Thank you.
With the mushroom, at least I can know how to replicate a steak.
Vegan pepperoni? Ooh.
Who's up next?
-Eggplant? All right. -Eggplant.
[Nick] I feel like I can mimic a steakhouse dinner
better with eggplant rather than red cabbage.
And vegan pork rinds?
[chuckles]
There you go! Red cabbage and seitan.
-There you go. Good luck. -Thank you.
[Tamearra] Who doesn't love cabbage, right?
Seitan is whole-wheat protein. I'm gonna work with it.
Isn't that fun?
-Nice ticket machine. -Thank you.
-I'll put that in your office. -I'm proud of myself.
[sighs] Whatever you can get. Whatever you can get.
I got the portobello mushroom and the vegan pepperoni.
Because I can turn the mushrooms into a steak.
It's a steakhouse dinner so for my sides,
I was thinking, like, Brussel sprouts.
The hardest thing for me was the vegan pepperoni.
But I remembered that pepperoni has a nice, smoky flavor to it.
So what I wanted to do is incorporate
some of that smokiness into my poblano sauce.
All right.
When I say steakhouse, I'm saying big and meaty and flavorful
but it doesn't have to be actually a steak.
It's those type of really reminiscent, almost old-school dishes.
[Nick] For my steakhouse dinner, I'm planning to make eggplant steak,
grilled asparagus and smashed potatoes.
Pork rinds.
These pork rinds are salty and crunchy.
Probably how I'm gonna use them is for texture on the eggplant.
Steak sauce.
I'm grabbing vegan steak sauce
because it's got that classic steak flavor.
All right.
You know, the great thing about plant-based food,
it grows on you.
I have to think fast.
I have the advantage.
And I picked cauliflower and mushroom jerky.
I'm thinking to make, like, a cauliflower steak.
And also a seitan barbecue steak.
And a side of mac and cheese.
Coconut milk.
I grab the coconut milk for the cheddar cheese.
Some nutritional yeast for the cheesy flavor.
Liquid smoke.
Liquid smoke to add some aroma to the seitan.
'Cause that are flavors that you get on a steakhouse.
But I don't know how to use the mushroom jerky.
-Okay, so-- -How you feeling?
I'm feeling okay.
-Okay. -Feelin' okay.
[Tamearra] First thing that comes to mind is one of our signature dishes
at Souley Vegan is our country-fried steak plate,
which is two seitan steaks,
mashed potatoes and gravy.
I was given the red cabbage so I'm gonna have to make it work.
But it's gonna be buttery and delicious.
[Guy] Twenty-four minutes!
We're looking for a steakhouse dinner.
We're expecting a fancy plate of food.
[Damaris] But vegan food, it's hard to make it steakhouse-y.
That's true.
Let me grab these potatoes.
Chef Tamearra, what's on the menu?
A fried steak that we do at the restaurant
with buttered cabbage and red potatoes.
I like it.
[Tamearra] When seitan is already packaged like this,
it's already developed its own flavor.
Tastes okay.
I'm gonna bread it and fry it...
Cayenne.
...to offset whatever flavor that it initially had.
Come on, babies.
-So she's going... Southern steakhouse. -That's smart.
-[Ilan] That's great. -[Damaris] Chicken fried steak,
-which I can get behind. -Yeah.
Chef, what are you making?
I'm making a mac and cheese with, um, cauliflower and seitan steak,
-liquid smoke. -[Guy] Okay.
[Loumiry] First, I'm gonna start my mac and cheese.
Coconut milk with nutritional yeast
for my cheesy flavor.
Smoked paprika.
Tapioca flour to give it, like, a melted cheese texture.
Cheesy.
Next, I start on my cauliflower.
-Cauliflower takes a long time to cook. -Yeah.
It's a funny story. I just wanted to... give birth naturally.
And the doctor said that I has to be... more healthy.
I stayed because vegan food provides nutrition,
the variety of flavors.
I went vegan. Might stay that way.
Chef Nick, what are you thinking?
Eggplant steak.
-[Guy] Eggplant steak. -Grilled asparagus, mashed potatoes.
I'm gonna do a steak sauce on it.
Got it.
[Mei] When it comes to an eggplant,
it can get pretty bitter because of all the seeds in there.
-[Damaris] Yeah. -I would lean into the grill for this one.
[Nick] The first thing I need to do is marinating the eggplant
with pre-made steak sauce.
The last time I had a real steak dinner was 2008.
Feels like two decades ago.
I went vegan for health reasons.
I grew up in Nashville eating lots of greasy foods.
So it feels good to be working at a vegan restaurant
and trying to provide some alternatives.
-[Damaris] Ooh. -[Mei] Oh wow.
[Ilan] They're glazed... glazed up on the grill.
[Mei] That eggplant looks delicious.
[Guy] Pato! What's on the menu, bud?
I'm gonna do mushroom steak,
deep-fried Brussels sprouts,
with a poblano sauce and do some pepperoni on the side.
-[Guy] Okay. -It's been a while since I've done like a...
mushroom steak.
I'm gonna use some of this vegetable stock to add more flavor to them.
I love that you're seeing a glaze on Pato's
portobello steaks now.
You didn't clean the gills out, chef.
[Pato] I forgot to scoop out the gills.
It is a big deal because if you don't scoop 'em out,
you may get that, like, slimy taste.
I'm a little bit nervous about Pato.
[Pato] $20,000 are on the line
to open up another brick and mortar.
I'm hoping that if I sear 'em enough,
the judges won't notice.
[Mei] The gills need to be taken out.
1000%.
[Guy] Fifteen minutes!
You got 15 to go! Halfway point.
When you're thinking of a steak,
it's not even about the flavor of the steak,
-it's the texture of the steak that everybody talks about. -[Ilan] Yeah.
[Mei] Yeah.
Miss Tamearra, how we doing?
We're doin' okay, Guy.
We have red potato mashed potatoes.
-Seitan is in the fryer. -I like it.
[Tamearra] For the red cabbage, I'm just gonna butter it up,
saute it with some onions and cayenne.
Great.
[Tamearra] The cabbage can be a little bit bitter
if you don't cook it down properly.
So we're gonna go ahead and put the lid on it.
Okay, so cabbage. And then I got my potatoes.
A lot is riding on this dish since I scored so low
in the first round.
If I win the money, I'm gonna put it towards Souley Vegan franchising.
Because I think the Souley Vegan deserves to be all over the world.
Really good.
So, this is seitan.
Little bit of barbecue to have the flavor
of the steakhouse.
Let's try this.
[Guy] Chef, how we lookin'?
-Mmm! You wanna try? -[Guy] Oh, I love this!
Mushroom jerky, the bomb.
Oh, it's spicy.
I thought that I could put it just on top
of the mac and cheese.
But I can't have like a crispy texture on top
and a creamy texture inside.
I have a high score in the first round
but I have to impress the judges.
And I am really scared because of these ingredients.
Okay.
Nine minutes!
Chef Nick, did you try these?
-I haven't tried 'em yet. That's a good call. -They're good, man.
Good bite, got nice crunch to it.
[Nick] I'm just gonna crush up these plant-based pork rinds.
Use them as just a nice garnish for the steak for some crunch.
Mashed potatoes.
A lot's riding on this dish 'cause I'm here today playing for my team.
They all work so hard so if I win today,
I'm gonna be sure to throw a big party.
Better than I thought.
[Pato] As I'm cooking my portobellos,
I put my Brussel sprouts in the fryer.
Next, I wanna start on my poblano sauce.
I put my tomatoes and onions in water.
And I add in my poblanos in there
with some mushroom base.
And get it in the blender.
Pepperoni has a nice smoky flavor to it.
So what I wanted to do is incorporate some of that smokiness
into my poblano sauce.
Five minutes!
[Nick] First thing I do is scoop out my smashed potatoes.
So I check on my eggplant, my grill marks didn't come out
quite like I wanted.
I'm a little bit worried that it's not gonna come across
as a elevated steakhouse dinner.
Then, I take my grilled asparagus and place it right in the middle.
And finally, I use my crushed plant-based pork rinds
to garnish the eggplant.
Three and a half!
[Pato] My Brussel sprouts are done, I love how they look.
My mushrooms look great.
We're selling steakhouse dinner
so I wanna slice my mushroom portobello like a steak.
[Ilan] It looks good.
[Damaris] Yeah, it looks like steak.
Two and a half minutes!
[Loumiry] I drained the pasta and put it on the pan with the mac and cheese sauce.
[Mei] That mac and cheese looks delicious, from Loumiry.
It looks like mac and cheese.
[Loumiry] I put the roasted cauliflower steaks.
And I added the seitan.
I topped the mac and cheese with mushroom jerky.
[Guy] Two minutes left!
[Tamearra] So first, I get my potatoes down.
I pull my seitan out of the fryer
and it is perfectly fried.
Cabbage tastes excellent.
After plating my dish, I thought that it needed something else.
[Guy] Ninety seconds.
What are you making there, Chef?
[Tamearra] Uh, little bit of gravy.
Making a sauce with less than two minutes left, I think is insane.
It's very ambitious.
Five, four, three,
two, one.
That's it!
Great job, chefs.
Yeah!
-Phew. -[Ilan] Nice work!
[Guy] All right, my vegan chefs,
let's find out whose steakhouse dinner has what it takes.
Let's take it to the judges, right this way.
Judges, here we are.
This is the final round.
The chefs, well, they had to make a vegan steakhouse dinner
that incorporated the Manager's Special
of vegan combos.
First up, chef Tamearra. What do you have for us?
Red cabbage and seitan bacon.
So what I did was, I deep-fried the seitan
like a chicken fried steak.
Served it with buttered cabbage
and red potato mash.
I also topped it with a wheat gravy.
Tamearra, I'm so glad Guy didn't send you home after round one.
-'Cause it is a delight to eat this plate. -Thank you.
[Damaris] The seitan ended up giving us this, like,
really impressive centerpiece of "meat"
that ate very rich and very satisfying.
The plate, it's like, reading a little bit less refined.
-Okay. -[Ilan] The breading...
so craveable, so crunchy.
Only comment I'd say is, vinegar is your friend.
Just to bring the cabbage to life.
That gravy, that honestly completed the entire dish.
The only thing that I wished it had
-was some freshness. Some herbs or something. -Okay.
-[Guy] Thank you very much. -Thank you.
Up next, Chef Nick.
Eggplant and vegan pork rinds.
Uh, I made a eggplant steak.
I cut 'em at a slight bias.
Marinated them in steak sauce.
And creamy smashed potatoes and some grilled asparagus.
And then I garnished the steak with the plant-based pork rinds.
Why are you biased about eggplant?
I'll be here all week.
Actually, I'll be here the rest of my life.
This is very steakhouse.
You're getting the massive portions of your potatoes and your asparagus.
The eggplant, the cook on it is a little bit under.
And the potatoes taste good. Just a big mound of them.
A little bit more refinement on the plating, I think, could help.
Heard that.
The crunch from grinding up
the vegan pork rinds is fantastic.
Eggplant doesn't have a ton of flavor so asparagus and potatoes
stole the show.
-So now my eggplant's like an after-thought. -Heard that.
Okay! Up next,
Chef Pato, what you got for us?
For our steakhouse dinner, I chose our good, old friend, portobello mushroom.
I also got the plant-based pepperoni.
It's in the poblano sauce, with that pepperoni taste.
I also did some Brussels sprouts.
[Mei] You know, upon looking at this dish,
it was screaming, like, elevated steakhouse.
The sauce is so... over the top delicious.
I love that you sliced the portobello mushroom.
I wish the gills were taken out.
'Cause it does eat slightly slimy.
I think in the Brussel sprouts,
you probably should've cut them in half or quartered them.
It would've been texturally better.
All the leaves would've been crispy and fried.
Chopping up the vegan pepperoni
and creating little, like, sausage nuggets
inside of your sauce,
-that pairs so well with your portobello mushroom. -Thank you.
Okay, not to be outdone,
Chef Loumiry, what do you have for us?
I prepare, uh, barbecue seitan
and, uh, cauliflower steak.
Paired with some mac and cheese.
My umamis are cauliflower and mushroom jerky.
I hope you enjoy it.
Loumiry, barbecue seitan, taste absolutely delicious.
With this creamy, dreamy vegan macaroni and cheese.
The seitan, the barbecue flavor on that,
you definitely taste that smoke.
I wish that you had ground up the mushroom jerky a little bit more.
Just so it ate a lot easier.
It does eat a little bit more like a barbecue restaurant
more than a steakhouse.
I loved your first dish so much
and I'm getting lost a little bit on this one.
The barbecue seitan and the cauliflower
are from two different places.
I feel like if you would've cooked the cauliflower more, made it a bigger piece,
it would've been like one delicious, big chunk of meat.
[Guy] Okay, thank you very much.
Well, that was interesting.
We're gonna send the chefs back to the kitchens
to let the judges deliberate.
We'll call you back when we have final scores, thank you.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
[Guy] Whose vegan dish deserves to earn them a whole lot of green stuff?
Cash, I mean.
[Guy] Well, that was a very interesting round.
Right now, it's Loumiry with a two-point lead over Pato,
who has a lead over Nick and Tamearra.
But we'll start off with Pato. Let's take a look.
Twenty points available in gameplay.
Fifteen out of 20,
16 out of 20.
Plating for an 8 for a 39.
And a score of 81. Wow.
Tamearra, four points behind Pato.
Sixteen out of 20 in gameplay.
Seventeen...
and a 7 in plating for a 40
and edging right behind, gaining points but not close enough.
Nick... had a 39 in the first round.
Fifteen out of 20 in gameplay.
Seventeen out of taste.
Seven out of plating for a 39.
Also for a 78.
So, it is Loumiry's to lose,
with a two-point lead.
Twelve in gameplay.
Sixteen in taste.
Eight in plating for a 36.
And a score of 80. A one-point loss.
Pato, you're the winner!
-[Damaris] Whoa! -[Guy] Congratulations!
Thank you.
To the three of you, I'll say this.
You were some of my favorite Triple-D joints.
Oh, and you also happened to be vegan.
Hopefully, it inspires some folks to go out,
have some more vegan dishes
and also cook it at home.
It's been a pleasure to have you.
-Okay? -Thank you.
It meant a lot for me to come here and represent the vegan community.
[Loumiry] Bye!
Even though I didn't win,
this is a great experience.
Glad you rebounded on that.
[Tamearra] I love to show the world
the culture of veganism, vegan chefs.
And I'm happy I got another opportunity to do that.
Ladies and gentlemen, here he is!
-Pato, the winner of Triple-D Vegan! -[Damaris] Yeah!
[Guy] Came and visited you. We had a great visit.
And then right after the show aired, your restaurant burned.
[Pato] We were doing food trucks.
We had, um, our soft opening.
First day, the next day,
get a phone call that the kitchen's on fire.
But this win just means a lot
that the turn of events are just always hopeful.
[Guy] And now, buddy,
we're gonna go shop and make you some money.
-Oh, okay! -Congratulations.
-Thank you. -[Damaris] Yeah! Whoo.
Now, Chef, I'm gonna give you a couple of ways that you could win up to 20,000 bucks.
-Mm-hmm. -You can go on a shopping spree.
In which I give you two minutes to grab the five items
that satisfy the clues on this card.
Or... we could skip the shopping spree
and you could pick the mystery check that you can see
right behind that door
that has a number on it
ranging anywhere from
$8,000 to $17,000.
You wanna go for the check or you wanna go for the shopping?
-Check. -Check.
I wanna sit down, actually.
"I just wanna sit down."
All right, take a look at the check right here.
-[Guy] $15,999! -[judges cheering]
[Damaris] Yes!
Congratulations!
The brick and mortar's coming back. I'm so grateful for it.
$15,999!
See you next week on Guy's Grocery Games. Adios.
Whoo! Great job!